Books

Average customer rating:

Wow!!
Her Best Book to Date
Amazing
Unrealistic at times
can we avoid the tragedy?

Nineteen Minutes: A Novel
Jodi Picoult
Manufacturer: Atria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Double Bind: A Novel
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Body Surfing: A Novel
Whitethorn Woods
Harvesting the Heart: A Novel

ASIN: 0743496728
Release Date: 2007-03-05

Amazon.com

Best known for tackling controversial issues through richly told fictional accounts, Jodi Picoult's 14th novel, Nineteen Minutes, deals with the truth and consequences of a smalltown high-school shooting. Set in Sterling, New Hampshire, Picoult offers reads a glimpse of what would cause a 17-year-old to wake up one day, load his backpack with four guns, and kill nine students and one teacher in the span of nineteen minutes. As with any Picoult novel, the answers are never black and white, and it is her exceptional ability to blur the lines between right and wrong that make this author such a captivating storyteller.

On Peter Houghton's first day of kindergarten, he watched helplessly as an older boy ripped his lunch box out of his hands and threw it out the window. From that day on, his life was a series of humiliations, from having his pants pulled down in the cafeteria, to being called a freak at every turn. But can endless bullying justify murder? As Picoult attempts to answer this question, she shows us all sides of the equation, from the ruthless jock who loses his ability to speak after being shot in the head, to the mother who both blames and pities herself for producing what most would call a monster. Surrounding Peter's story is that of Josie Cornier, a former friend whose acceptance into the popular crowd hangs on a string that makes it impossible for her to reconcile her beliefs with her actions.

At times, Nineteen Minutes can seem tediously stereotypical-- jocks versus nerds, parent versus child, teacher versus student. Part of Picoult's gift is showing us the subtleties of these common dynamics, and the startling effects they often have on the moral landscape. As Peter's mother says at the end of this spellbinding novel, "Everyone would remember Peter for nineteen minutes of his life, but what about the other nine million?" --Gisele Toueg

Book Description

In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it.

In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.

Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

Nineteen Minutes is New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel yet. Told with the straightforward style for which she has become known, it asks simple questions that have no easy

answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who -- if anyone -- has the right to judge someone else?

Customer Reviews:

Wow!!.......2007-07-01

Jodi Picoult is my FAVORITE author. I can't wait to read her next book! This one was EXCELLENT. It is a MUST READ!!!!!!!!!!!

Her Best Book to Date.......2007-07-01

I found this to be Jodi's best novel ever. I cared so deeply about each character--I wanted to know the outcome, yet didn't want it to end. Do not miss this one!

Amazing.......2007-07-01

I an only 16 but a huge Jodi Picoult fan. I loved Nineteen minutes, although not quite as much as My Sister's Keeper, which is my favorite book ever, It was still great. I'd read it just for the end, which is spectacularly surprising, the only words i could say were Oh My God for several minutes. Although it's slightly unrealistic, it's still a good story and a wonderfully sad read.

Unrealistic at times.......2007-06-30

The book was gripping in some parts. It could have used some tighter editing. At times the narrative lacked crispness and clarity. The judge not immediately recusing herself was unrealistic. Although I saw the twist coming because of all of the not so subtle hints, it wasn't reasonable given the personality and background of the character. The older brother's wasn't developed as well as I would have liked. All in all an average read. Not a book I'd recommend.

can we avoid the tragedy?.......2007-06-28

This is the second book that I have read by Jodi Picoult (the first one was "My sister's keeper"). She is one of the writers taking on a real life troubles onto the paper. She brings out the "taboo" subjects into the readers view. She leads us behind the scenes of the dramatic character's mind. This one is so close to all of us in US, with recent shootings in public places, "the safer harbors" for children - schools. "Nineteen minutes" is a story about two teenagers who used to be friends....but somewhere along their short lives they departed, yet connected in the most catastrophic situation. She tries to bring the reality of a troubled life that has lead to the overwhelming disaster. She let me be unbiased and more understanding of the situation.....no excuses but perhaps a broader perspective on "murderer's" mind. The question arises...."Can we prevent those situations?", if we know what they can be caused by.....

Average customer rating:

Excellent
Amazing insight into the Muslim culture
Fascinating Story Of One Woman's Courage And Acheivement
A serial liar
An amazing new view for all women

Infidel
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Islam | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion
While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within
Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America

ASIN: 0743289684

Book Description

In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.

One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission.

Infidel is the eagerly awaited story of the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. With a gimlet eye and measured, often ironic, voice, Hirsi Ali recounts the evolution of her beliefs, her ironclad will, and her extraordinary resolve to fight injustice done in the name of religion. Raised in a strict Muslim family and extended clan, Hirsi Ali survived civil war, female mutilation, brutal beatings, adolescence as a devout believer during the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and life in four troubled, unstable countries largely ruled by despots. In her early twenties, she escaped from a forced marriage and sought asylum in the Netherlands, where she earned a college degree in political science, tried to help her tragically depressed sister adjust to the West, and fought for the rights of Muslim immigrant women and the reform of Islam as a member of Parliament. Even though she is under constant threat -- demonized by reactionary Islamists and politicians, disowned by her father, and expelled from her family and clan -- she refuses to be silenced.

Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-07-01

Infidel is a well-written account of the author's experiences growing up as a Muslim. The reader experiences life in Africa and Europe through her eyes.

In addition, she reveals that the Western "expert" opinions that terrorists are a minority fringe is just a fantasy. In school and in her community, she was taught that Jews and Christians were heathens.

So it's informative and engrossing. I couldn't put it down.

Amazing insight into the Muslim culture.......2007-06-27

Brave woman, incredible story and great insight into the third world culture in Islamic countries. Ayaan's book is very timely, with the war in Iraq and Afganistan and understanding the clash of our culture with theirs. I applaud Ayaan for her amazing courage to step away from all she was brought up with. She deserves all the support we can give her and I hope she finds happiness and peace in this country.

Fascinating Story Of One Woman's Courage And Acheivement.......2007-06-21

I knew nothing of Ayaan Hirsi Ali when I purchased this book, but I'd heard some of the "buzz" regarding this book and decided to read it. I had read and heard snipets of information regarding the lives of Moslem women is Islamic countries, but this was the first time I'd read one woman's story and I was engrossed from the beginning.

Granted, some of what Ms. Ali lived through as a child had more to do with tribalism than Islam, but it is fascinating that Islam allows for this and accepts this. Ms. Ali's story is not perfect - I don't think she purports to be perfect - but it is her story and she has allowed all of us to share in it. As she re-lives her childhood, her immigration to Europe, and eventual assimilation into the West, she brings the reader along to share in her joys, her sadness, her frustrations, and her accomplishments. Her story is one of achieving and attempting to become to the fullest the human being she was meant to be. A wonderful book of courage and accomplishment!

A serial liar.......2007-06-21

Too bad her interview on The BBC was not included with her book. It exposed her as the serial liar, illegal alien in The Netherlands that she is/was. As an avowed atheist, she can only speak for herself and not Islam. Her "tales" while horrific are the product of a backwards culture, and a patriarchal society. Her story is no different from that of any woman, in any religion. In short, woman get crapped on all the time. Is it fair? H*ll no, but is her story anymore worthy than any Christian or Jewish woman simply because she claims to be a Muslim? Nope.

An amazing new view for all women.......2007-06-19

This book is incredibly interesting and as contemporary to us, a great point of view in our history and common point of views that cah be dangerous for our miopic society.

I hope her battle can help or Western world to cope with Islamic people and not close our eyes in front of immigration and integration problems.

Katia

Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny

Average customer rating:

Good tactics
Take responsibility for your money, for YOUR life
Excellent book
Excellent book! There are other great books too...
A concerned husband

Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny
Suze Orman
Manufacturer: Spiegel & Grau
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Motivational | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Money Management for Women | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Success | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying
The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke
Suze Orman Will & Trust Kit
Suze Orman's Insurance Kit: Evaluate Your Personal Insurance Policies On-Line - Instantly!
The Secret

ASIN: 0385519311
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Amazon.com

Money maven Suze Orman's latest book, Women & Money addresses the complicated (and often dysfunctional) relationship women have with personal finance. Orman's direct, non-condescending style is perfect for this subject matter--she begins with the premise that "Women can invest, save, and handle debt as well and skillfully as any man" and then tackles the important question--"So why don't they?" Designed to educate and inspire, Women & Money also offers a "Save Yourself Plan," a five-month program that "delivers genuine long-term financial security." Want to know more? Watch a video message from Suze below, and take a gander at the first chapter of Women & Money--you'll be "controlling your destiny" in no time. --Daphne Durham

An Exclusive Video Message from Suze Orman

Watch the video

Read the First Chapter of Women & Money

For Women Only

I never thought I'd write a book about money just for women. I never thought it was necessary. So then why am I doing just that in my eighth book? And why now? Let me explain. All my previous books were written with the belief that gender is not a factor on any level in mastering the nuts and bolts of smart financial management. Women can invest, save, and handle debt just as well and skillfully as any man. I still believe that--why would anyone think differently? So imagine my surprise when I learned that some of the people closest to me in my life were in the dark about their own finances. Clueless. Or, in some cases, willfully resisting doing what they knew needed to be done. I'm talking about smart, competent, accomplished women who present a face to the world that is pure confidence and capability. Do you mean to tell me that I, Suze Orman, who make my living solving the financial problems of total strangers, couldn't spot the trouble brewing so close to home? I don't think I'm blind; I just think that these women became very, very good at hiding their troubles from me.Why not? They had years of practice hiding them from themselves.

Read more from Chapter 1...

Book Description

Why is it that women, who are so competent in all other areas of their lives, cannot find the same competence when it comes to matters of money?

Suze Orman investigates the complicated, dysfunctional relationship women have with money in this groundbreaking new book. With her signature mix of insight, compassion, and soul-deep recognition, she equips women with the financial knowledge and emotional awareness to overcome the blocks that have kept them from making more out of the money they make. At the center of the book is The Save Yourself Plan—a streamlined, five-month program that delivers genuine long-term financial security. But what’s at stake is far bigger than money itself: It’s about every woman’s sense of who she is and what she deserves, and why it all begins with the decision to save yourself.

Join the Movement to Save Yourself with this Unprecedented Offer to Readers of Women & Money:

Suze Orman believes that having an account of your own is the cornerstone of long-term financial security, and so she has begun a national movement called Save Yourself to turn this wish—that every woman have an account in her own name—into a reality. She is joined in this crusade by the financial brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, which has come up with an extraordinary offer for readers of WOMEN & MONEY. Follow Suze’s Save Yourself Plan and open an account in your name with TD Ameritrade. Commit to an automatic deposit of at least $50 per month for twelve consecutive months, and TD Ameritrade will provide the incentive in the form of a $100 deposit into your account in the thirteenth month. In other words, you save $600 or more over the course of a year, and TD Ameritrade will reward that effort with a $100 bonus. Learn more inside the book or at www.saveyourself.com.

Offer valid for one new TD AMERITRADE account (non-retirement) opened between 2/27/07 and 3/31/08, and funded by 12 monthly consecutive automatic electronic deposits of $50 or more. First $50 must be deposited within 30 days of opening account. To be eligible, you must be a U.S. resident aged 18 or older. See www.saveyourself.com for obligations and limitations and to accept this offer. This is not an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where TD AMERITRADE is not authorized to do business. Random House, Inc., does not endorse, is not associated with, and has no responsibility for the TD AMERITRADE offer. TD AMERITRADE, Random House, Inc., and Suze Orman are separate and not affiliated, and each of them is not responsible for the services and information provided by the other(s). TD AMERITRADE, Inc., member NASD/SIPC.

Customer Reviews:

Good tactics.......2007-07-01

I will start off by saying that I do not care for Suze Orman, I don't know why but she just rubs me the wrong way, or maybe it's anyone associated with the Oprah machine. With that said I will acknowledge that this is a very good book with practical advice and tips. I'm terrible with money but am eager to learn.

Take responsibility for your money, for YOUR life.......2007-06-30

I absolutely love this book. Suze Orman helped give me a healthy relationship with money that I never had. I always believed that other people. like financial advisors, would be better off taking care of my money than I would. Ms. orman taught me a new approach and guided me, step by step, through the maze of mutual funds, stocks and interest rates. I not only learned what they are but how to be responsible and take care of my money and myself!

Another book that I absolutely feel can shift your relationship with money as well as family, friends and love is "How to Create a Magical Relationship" by Ariel and Shya Kane. I have learned from this book that your past does not define who you are today. It is possible to reinvestigate decisions that you made about yourself (my story of how I can not be responsible for my own money) and transform how you apply them to your life now.

I highly recommend these books for an amazing discovery into the seeing of your own power for your life.

Excellent book .......2007-06-27

Suze touched on real life issues and how you can deal with them. What i like best is that she always reiterate that it is never too late to start handling your'e financies.

Excellent book! There are other great books too..........2007-06-21

Excellent book! Another GREAT book that helped me tremendously was the one at www.financial-planning-book.com. I wish amazon sold the book from there. It was called Best Financial Planning Book and was the absolute best book on financial planning that I've ever read. Hope that helps someone.

A concerned husband.......2007-06-13

Very well done for women. Covering a topic that they should really understand better.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 8)

Average customer rating:

A Delightful Mystery
Smith is starting to Coast
Another Great Book
Series is still remarkable; characters endearing
Another Ma Ramatsche winner.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 8)
Alexander Mccall Smith
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency)
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
The Right Attitude to Rain (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries)
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)

ASIN: 0375422730
Release Date: 2007-04-17

Book Description

In the life of Precious Ramotswe–a woman duly proud of her fine traditional build–there is rarely a dull moment, and in the latest installment in the universally beloved No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series there is much happening on Zebra Drive and Tlokweng Road. Mma Ramotswe is experiencing staffing difficulties. First Mr. J.L.B. Mate-koni asks to be put in charge of a case involving an errant husband. But can a man investigate such matters as successfully as the number one lady detective can? Then she has a minor falling-out with her assistant, Mma Makutsi, who decides to leave the agency, taking the 97 percent she received on her typing final from the Botswana Secretarial College with her.

Along the way, Mma Ramotswe is asked to investigate a couple of tricky cases. Will she be able to explain an unexpected series of deaths at the hospital in Mochudi? And what about the missing office supplies at a local printing company? These are the types of questions that she is uniquely well suited to answer.

In the end, whatever happens, Mma Ramotswe knows she can count on Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, who stands for all that is solid and true in a shifting world. And there is always her love for Botswana, a country of which she is justifiably proud.

Customer Reviews:

A Delightful Mystery.......2007-06-22

This new addition to "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" is a delightful tale about Precious Ramotswe and her beloved country, Botswana. Again in this story, she has several stange cases to solve. She also has problems with her staff, Mma Makutsi, who decides to leave the agency after a bit of a disagreement between them. And Mma Ramotswe's husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, a fine auto mechanic, wants a change, and asks to handle a case of an errant husband. Although the No. 1 lady detective fears that a man cannot solve the case as satifactorily as a woman could, she allows him to take it on. All ends happily over a cup of bush tea. I like the kindness of the characters, and their pleasant attitudes toward difficulties.

Smith is starting to Coast.......2007-06-21

I am a big fan of this series and got this latest installment as soon as I could. It is the weakest of the series. I think Smith got lazy. Sure, you love the characters, but the tales are simply not up to his previous installments, not nearly as layered or workmanlike. I am disappointed he chose to grind out a paycheck this time.

Another Great Book.......2007-06-14

I so enjoy Alexnder McCall Smith's books abot Mma Ramotsowe. I feel like I know her and all her cohorts. This is another great book in the series. It's a book that makes you feel as if all's right with the world. I traveled to Cameroon, Africa last year. His books prepared me for so much of what I saw and reading them refreshes my memory. Thank you, Mr. Smith

Series is still remarkable; characters endearing.......2007-06-12

For me there is no other author like Alexander McCall Smith. He can string words and thoughts together like no other and his characters are real and endearing (or infuriating as in the case of Charlie the apprentice). One of the subplots in Good Husband is Charlie's business venture as he sets off to start the No. 1 Ladies' Taxi Service in a revamped Mercedes from Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors.You might imagine how that turns out. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni tries his hand at detective work and Mma Makutsi decides she needs to leave the detective agency and find new employment in another field.

Along with the above circumstances, other challenges present themselves to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Mma Botumile, a most rude, arrogant, and unpleasant woman who believes her husband is being unfaithful to her; disappearing supplies from the print shop of Teenie; and three suspicious deaths at a hospital in Mochudi. Precious Ramotswe takes on the hospital deaths, Grace Makutsi the print shop thiefs, and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni follows the unfaithful husband.

These scenarios, along with more African lure, and a brief, but engaging visit with the orphanage home owner, Mma Potokwane, create another wonderful story that will stand the test of time. I have started reading this series to my elderly mother who is now almost blind from macro degeneration and can no longer read for herself. She thoroughly enjoys them.

Another winner for AMS.

Carolyn Rowe Hill

Another Ma Ramatsche winner........2007-06-12

Reading The Good Husband of Zebra Drive was sort of like getting a letter from relatives--I've read the whole series, and the characters all seem like people we've known for a long time. A recent trip to South Africa reinforced the cultural feeling. I much prefer this series to others by McCall Smith.

Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin'

Average customer rating:

Hey Y'all!
Another Paula Deen book I just love
Easy Read
my review of Paula Deen
Jill from Philly

Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin'
Paula Deen , and Sherry Suib Cohen
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Cookbooks | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Deen Bros. Cookbook
Paula Deen Celebrates!: Best Dishes and Best Wishes for the Best Times of Your Life
Everyday Pasta
Uncle Bubba's Savannah Seafood: More than 100 Down-Home Southern Recipes for Good Food and Good Times
Paula Deen's 2008 Calendar

ASIN: 0743292855
Release Date: 2007-04-03

Book Description

Do you know the real Paula Deen? You may think you know the butter-loving, finger-licking, joke-cracking queen of melt-in-your-mouth Southern cuisine. You may have even visited The Lady & Sons to taste for yourself the down-home delicacies that made her famous and even heard some version of her Cinderella story (a single mom with two teenage sons started a brown-bag lunch business with $200 and wound up with a thriving restaurant, a fairy-tale second marriage, and wildly popular television shows), but you have never heard the intimate details of her often bumpy road to fame and fortune.

Courageously honest, downright inspiring, and just a little bit saucy, Paula shares the highs and lows of her life in the inimitable charming and irreverent style that you know from her television shows and personal appearances. She talks about long childhood summers spent in a bathing suit and roller skates and hard years living in the back of her father's gas station; a buzzing high school social life of sleepovers, parties, cheerleading, and boys; and a difficult marriage. The death of her beloved parents precipitated a debilitating agoraphobia that crippled her for years. But even when the going got tough, Paula never lost the good grace and sense of humor that would eventually help carry her to success and stardom. Of course, you can't get by on charm alone: as Paula has learned, you need plenty of willpower, hard work, and, above all, the love and support of family and friends to finance, sustain, and run a successful restaurant.

In each chapter, Paula shares new recipes: there's serious comfort food like her momma's Chocolate-Dippy Doughnuts, Courage Chili for when you know life's going to get tough, Sexy Oxtails for seducing that special someone, and the recipe for her new mother-in-law's Banana Nut Delight Cake that Paula finally got just right. And you'll love the never-before-seen photos of her family.

In this memoir, Paula Deen speaks as frankly and intimately as few women in the public eye have ever dared. Whether she's telling tales of good times or bad, her story is proof that the old-fashioned American dream is alive and kicking, and there still is such a thing as a real-life happy ending.

Customer Reviews:

Hey Y'all!.......2007-07-01

I purchased this book for my mom for Mother's Day and she loved the gift! She has shared it with her girlfriends and I'm next in line to read it. Mom highly recommends it!

Another Paula Deen book I just love.......2007-06-27

Although this book doesn't have the amount of recipes in most of Paula Deen's books it is an interesting read about her life and how she became the cook everyone loves - hard work and determination plus a love of cooking have brought her into our homes. If you love Paula Deen you will enjoy this book but if you are looking for a selection of Paula Deen recipes try one of The Lady and Sons books.

Easy Read.......2007-06-27

If you are interested in Paula Deen, this book appears to be an honest, though slightly arrogant profile. It is an easy read and enlightening.

my review of Paula Deen.......2007-06-26

I found this book to be riveting. Paula allows herself to be completely open and honest about things in her life. She doesn't mince words or put on airs. What a lovely change in reading.

Jill from Philly.......2007-06-18

Paula Deen is a true Southern Lady. She is full of grace, goodness and humor. I loved her book! It's honest, warm and funny. Thank you, Paula Deen, for telling us your tale. You've made the world a brighter place by cooking up oxtails and fried chicken and more importantly..... by just being you....because it ain't all about the cookin'.
I went to The Lady and Sons, when it was still just a "local" favorite. I was passing through town and a local artist told me to go and eat Paula's fried chicken. Well, I'm Lebanese and I'm not an "expert" on Southern food. But being a passionate cook myself, I can tell when something is made with love. I came home to Philly raving about the Southern food at The Lady and Sons. Everything Paula does is a true reflection of who she is as a human being. Everything is just so darn good!

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Average customer rating:

Excellent
deep and delicious and fun
I knew it!
A Bead Counted in Gratitude
Couldn't put it down!

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Elizabeth Gilbert
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Travel | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Water for Elephants: A Novel
The Glass Castle : A Memoir (Alex Awards (Awards))
Suite Francaise

ASIN: 0143038419

Book Description

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls “Anne Lamott's hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-07-02

I read this book in 1-day which is highly unusual for me! Finding one's self in fallout of loss and life change can be hugely challenging; however, it has never been easier to hear about than through the lens Elizabeth Gilbert's experience. I am relieved to find a writer who can probe and explore the physiology of change without leaving their guts and all the un-necessary, often all too boring and redundant details all over the dining room table, or living room floor for that matter. Gilbert is quick, colorful, current, highly entertaining, lucid and thorough as she resolves some very big life questions. If you want to see someone make sense of change, AND move on, read this book. ON the other hand, if you need to experience someone dissecting their depression endlessly, and beating a dead horse you may not be ready for this.

deep and delicious and fun.......2007-06-29

This book is deep, delicious, and fun. It chronicles a woman's journey after her divorce. The divorce is not described in detail, but is clearly a protracted, difficult event. The author goes to Italy, where she learns Italian for the sheer joy of it, and eats as much gelato and other excellent food as she can. She goes on to India, where she meditates, though she had resisted this practice before and felt like she wasn't good at it. Then on to Indonesia, where she finds balance. This book is so well written. There are wonderful practices that the author undertakes (e.g., writing in a journal while very upset and then writing back to herself for comfort, having a ceremony alone in which she lets go of her former marriage and imagines herself being forgiven, and viewing Depression as a real life visitor who sneaks in but can also leave). Sometimes people find memoirs to be narcissistic or self-indulgent. This one is not. The author pokes fun at herself and is very real, human, and intensely likeable for all her imperfections. I recommend this book highly, what a pleasure to read.

I knew it!.......2007-06-29

I bought this book when it first came out and I knew it was going to be on the Best Seller's List! I should be a book critic! I loved this book and love this author.

A Bead Counted in Gratitude.......2007-06-28

As a guy, my mind simply would've never noticed this book for me to pick it up. The title and presentation, with exception to the prayer beads, simply don't call out to the masculine spirit. It took one of my beautiful friends of the feminine persuasion to place this book in my hands.

As a hitchhiker thru many lands, my wanderlust delighted and splashed in the puddles of scenic descriptions and friendly faces that fill this book. Many memories resurfaced, particularly in India, and future plans were altered to taste in a bit of the lovely author's experience.

As a holyman, I love watching myself and others be dragged, kicking and screaming, by our divine guidance to a more healthy, holy self. From the very introduction, I could feel the presence of the divine that had already entered this woman, and dug in for a good read that rarely let me down.

As a lover, who was once under a vow of celibacy, I could empathize with Elizabeth's pain in a place where passion and sex ruled, but know well the internal fortitude and strength this builds. The internal strife of this choice was one of my favorite aspects of her growth.

As a writer, had I only one sentence in which to sum up this book, I would state: "One woman's journey, out of breakdown back to wholeness, across Italy, India and Indonesia." Amazingly, this just happens to be a good part of what the title states, and it is obvious from the very start that her journey was more success than failure.

As a walking advertising campaign for everything I love, I have found that I can turn anyone onto this book simply by handing it to them with the words "pick a paragraph... any paragraph." I have yet to have anyone simply shrug off what they randomly read.

To Elizabeth Gilbert: "My love and gratitude for every word. See you later alligator."

Couldn't put it down!.......2007-06-28

Best book I've read in a long time. Actually used a highlighter in this one to mark particular groups of words that just resonated with me. A soulful, well-written book. I didn't want it to end.

Average customer rating:

A harsh judgement perhaps.
WOW
UNBELIEVABLE!
Almost there..................
Amazing Story of Human Resilience

The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Television Performers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Family & Childhood | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Art Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Water for Elephants: A Novel
The Year of Magical Thinking
Night (Oprah's Book Club)

ASIN: 074324754X

Amazon.com

Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis

Book Description

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing -- a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar, but loyal, family. Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without an ounce of self-pity.

Customer Reviews:

A harsh judgement perhaps........2007-07-01

The story starts out as a compelling peek at a dysfunctional family. It soon degenerates into a narrative of poor decisions, repetitive mistakes, and cycles of poverty. This would be interesting if some of the characters actually grew. But no - the adult children in the tale actually aid and abet their parents' unhealthy and criminal behavior (with the possible exception of the son, Brian.) Despite Ms. Wall's (and siblings') prosperity and rise out of destitution, they continue to enable bad behavior in their parents, all under the guise of love.

This was a confusing and preposterous saga of family life run amok. Ms. Walls did not have the good sense to feel embarrassed by her complicity in her parents' downfall.

WOW.......2007-07-01

Couldn't put it down.. for such a dysfunctonal family it is amazing how well the chldren turned out

UNBELIEVABLE!.......2007-06-30

I couldn't put this book down. As soon as I thought she'd gotten to the most outrageous thing these parents of hers could have done, they went and outdid themselves again! I'm amazed that Ms. Walls isn't in 24/7 psychotherapy after her upbringing! (Maybe she is!)

Almost there.........................2007-06-30

I feel compelled to write even though I haven't finished the book! I have been reading 100 pages per night and will probably suffer from withdrawl
at the end. I saw Jeanette Wall on one of the Primetime shows when her book came out and made a mental note..........The other day someone handed the book to me and said you must read it. Today I was even reading the 600 reviews posted! It was like eating peanuts; just one more review. Then I googled Welch, West Va. and you can see an overview of the town. Back to the story. It seemed like early on in school and beyond everyone around them was poor and somewhat neglected thus they did not
stand out as much. As they got older they were probably on the lowest rung. I am wondering what Rex might have achieved with his brilliance if
he had a decent upbringing and drinking didn't get in his way. They say behind every great man there is a woman. He didn[t have a great woman.
I think Rose Mary was always a little wonky as her mother didn't seem that out to lunch. A little mental health might have helped both of them.
A different time a different place. Now back to my chores so I can finish the book tonight and read the rest of the reviews. Since I grew
up in NYC I will never look at a homeless woman the same way again. Each one has a story to tell. Didn't one of Grace Kelley's bridesmaids become a homeless woman. So it can happen to anyone. One of my daughters said many people are one paycheck away from homlessness. So beware and be thankful for whatever we have.

Amazing Story of Human Resilience.......2007-06-29

As a parent and grandparent, one always worries they are doing the right thing, providing the right thing, having a good enough home, and being a good parent (grandparent). I will worry a lot less after reading this book. The story is often hard to read just because of all the horrible things the children go through, but it is also a story of a child's ability to surviveand even thrive. I work with children and I will never look at a child in "poor" conditions again the same. EXCELLENT book to read.

Average customer rating:

Great read and reference guide when you lose your way...
Thoughts on Grace (Eventually)
Lamott Just Gets Better
Where's the Grace and the Faith?
I always love her books but............

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
Anne Lamott
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Religious | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Personal Transformation | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

ASIN: 1594489424
Release Date: 2007-03-20

Amazon.com

Through Anne Lamott's many books (including six novels, her bestselling parenting memoir, Operating Instructions, and her popular guide to writing, Bird by Bird) the subject she keeps returning to is her faith, her deeply personal--"erratic," she says--journey in Christianity. Her latest book, Grace (Eventually), is her third collection of her "thoughts on faith," and she took the time to answer a few of our questions.

Questions for Anne Lamott

Amazon.com: This is your third book on faith. How has your perspective changed since you wrote your first one?

Lamott: I wrote my first book on faith when Bill Clinton was president, and I was in a much better mood. I wrote Plan B during the run-up to war in Iraq, and the ensuing catastrophe, so I was very angry, but trying to reconcile that pain and hostility to Jesus's insistence that we are made of love, to love, and be loved, to forgive and be forgiven. Some days went better than others. Also, my son Sam was in his early teens, and that was a LOT easier than when he turned 16 and 17, his ages when I was writing the pieces in Grace (Eventually).

In general, I think Grace (Eventually) is a less angry book. I like how I'm aging, except that my back hurts more often, my knees crack like twigs when I squat, and my memory fails more frequently, in more public and therefore humiliating ways. But I think I complain less. As my best friend said when she was dying, and I was obsessing about my butt, "You just don't have that kind of time."

Amazon.com: What does grace mean for you? How can we better communicate it to each other?

Lamott: Grace is that extra bit of help when you think you are really doomed; also, not coincidentally, when you have finally run out of good ideas on how to proceed, and on how better to control the people or circumstances that are frustrating or defeating you. I experience Grace as a cool ribbon of fresh air when I feel spiritually claustrophobic. Sometimes I experience it as water-wings, something holding me up when I am afraid that I'm going down, or the tide is carrying me away. I know that Grace meets us whereever we are, but does not leave us where it found us. Sometimes it is so small--a couple of seconds relief here, several extra inches there. I wish it were big and obvious, like sky-writing. Oh, well. Grace is not something I DO, or can chase down; but it is something I can receive, when I stop trying to be in charge.

We communicate grace to one another by holding space for people when they are hurt or terrified, instead of trying to fix them, or manage their emotions for them. We offer ourselves as silent companionship, or gentle listening when someone feels very alone. We get people glasses of water when they are thirsty.

Amazon.com: Many of the essays in Grace (Eventually) first appeared in Salon, the online magazine, and that's the way that many readers first found you. How do you see the Internet changing the way people read and write?

Lamott: The Internet makes everything so immediate and spontaneous, which I totally love--UNLESS it has to do with the immediacy of people's negative response to me. Several of the Salon pieces in Grace--for instance, the story about the horrible fight with my son, and the piece about turning the other cheek while being ripped off by The Carpet Guy--generated a couple hundred letters, many of them extremely hostile. Perhaps "spewy" would be a better description. I also sometimes get knee-jerk responses to my mentions of Jesus in my Salon pieces that seem to lump me in the same tradition as Jerry Falwell. But for the most part, I love the populism and egalitarian nature of the Internet: everyone counts the same.

Amazon.com: What stories do people tell you, when they've read your books or know you are a writer?

Lamott: People tell me how relieved they are that I try to tell the truth about how hard it can be to be a mother, or a daughter, or an American in these times. They tell me stories about how awful their own teenagers can be, or how awful they themselves behaved towards their kids or parents; how hard it was to finally be able to adore their mothers, or to forgive their fathers. They tell me their sobriety dates. They whisper to me that they are Christians, too.

Also, they ask if I am able to read their manuscripts, and the name of my agent, and my e-mail address. They ask if we are going to survive the current political difficulties--and I promise them we are. They ask how old my son is now--17 and a half--and how he is doing, which is fantastically, after some of the hard months I wrote about in Grace.

Amazon.com:What lessons do you think you can pass on to others: to your readers, to your son? What lessons does it seem like people have to learn for themselves?

Lamott: All I have to offer is my own truth, my own experience, strength and hope. I can pass on the tool of a God Box, and how for 20 years I have been putting tiny notes in mine and promising God I will keep my sticky fingers off the controls until I hear God's wisdom: sometimes I get an answer because the phone rings, or the mail comes, but at any rate, during every single terrible problem and tragedy, I have been given enough guidance and stamina and even humor to bear up, and be transformed, for the good. I always tell Sam that if you want to make God laugh, tell Her your plans. I tell Sam that if he listens to his best thinking, he will suffer: and to listen to his heart instead, to listen in the silence, and to seek wise counsel.

Amazon.com: You've written nearly a dozen books (including an incredibly popular guide to writing): does writing get any easier? Does it get harder?

Lamott: In a very important way, writing gets easier, because I've been doing it full time now for thirty-plus years, and just as you would get better and better if you practiced your scales on a piano, I've gotten better, and can try harder and harder pieces. But writing is always hard. It does not come naturally to me at all. I sit down at the same time every day, which lets my subconscious realize it's time to get to work. I give myself very short assignments, and let myself write really terrible first drafts. But I grapple with the exact same problems every writer does, which is having equal proportions of self-loathing and grandiosity. I sort of live by the Nike ads: Just Do It. So I sit down. I show up. I do it by pre-arrangement with myself, because I know I'll feel sad and terrible if I shirk on that days writing. I do it as a debt of honor, to myself, and to whatever it is that has given me this gift of being able to tell stories, and to make people laugh. Laughter is carbonated holiness. Other people's good writing is medicine for me, and I hope mine is too, for my readers.

Book Description

The sharp, funny, and heartfelt follow-up to her bestselling Plan B, Anne Lamott's newest collection is a personal exploration of the faith and grace all around us.

In Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, Lamott examines the ways we're caught in life's most daunting predicaments: love, mothering, work, politics, and maybe toughest of all, evolving from who we are to who we were meant to be. This is a complicated process for most of us, and Lamott turns her wit and honesty inward to describe her own intimate, bumpy, and unconventional road to grace and faith.

"I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra kinds of things," she writes in one of her essays, "that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace's arrival. But no, it's clog and slog and scootch, on the floor, in silence, in the dark."

Whether she's writing about her unsuccessful efforts to get her money back from an obstinate carpet salesman, grappling with the tectonic shifts in her relationship with her son as he matures, trying to maintain her faith and humor during politically challenging times, or helping a close friend die with dignity, Lamott seeks out both the divinity and the humanity in herself and everything around her. Throughout these essays, she writes of her struggle to find the essence of her faith, which she uncovers in the unlikeliest places. By turns insightful and hilarious, pointed and poignant, Grace (Eventually) is Anne Lamott at her perceptive and irreverent best.

Customer Reviews:

Great read and reference guide when you lose your way..........2007-06-30

I truly loved this book! I read with a pencil in hand underlining different passages that spoke to me. Also a great reference guide when you catch yourself moving off course. I have already gone back to this book several times.

Thoughts on Grace (Eventually).......2007-06-27

This is the third book by Anne Lamott that I've read. She confesses parts of her life that most of us want to keep secret. She does this with frankness and humility. And as always, she makes me laugh. We can travel with her on her spiritual quest and appreciate her insights.
An enjoyable read.

Lamott Just Gets Better.......2007-06-27

I have read everything Anne Lamott has written. Grace (Eventually) is a splendid group of mature, thoughtful essays on life and faith. She is accessible and often perplexing. Yet she is nearly always delightful. Lamott just gets better and better.

Where's the Grace and the Faith?.......2007-06-26

I really don't understand Anne Lamott's appeal. I'll grant that she is a talented writer but clearly this, in an of itself, cannot explain it. I suppose a good bit of her appeal probably stems from her gut-honest authenticity, her willingness to say exactly what she's thinking all the time. She's profound, she's profane, she's shocking and people seem to love her for it.

Her latest nonfiction book (she has also authored several novels) is entitled Grace (Eventually) and it is a series of essays. As such it is somewhat disjointed with incomprehensible section names and odd chapter titles. There is little cohesion. If there are common themes they revolve around some kind of faith in Jesus, the trials of being a single parent, the difficulties that come with life, and an overwhelming hatred of George W. Bush (along with various members of his administration) and everything he has done as President. I haven't done a word count, but I suspect the name Bush appears significantly more times than the name God (unless, perhaps, we also count the times she uses God's name in a profane way; that would even things up some.). The essays recount episode after episode where Lamott was depressed or angry or belligerent or foul-mouthed or, in many cases, all of the above. It's exactly as depressing as it sounds.

This excerpt, drawn from the beginning of a chapter, is quite typical of the book's content:

I woke up in a bleak place on Sunday. It was not the place of ashes, like the morning after the 2004 Presidential election, but there was no comfort anywhere. It was miserably hot, and the news couldn't be worse--a new crop of mutilations in Iraq, with 2,500 U.S. soldiers now dead, and a North Korean ICBM apparently pointed at the West Coast. Two of my dearest friends had terrible diseases. There was a nasty separation going on in our family, and a small distraught child. Also, my son had not obeyed his curfew and we had had words at two a.m.

...

In the face of all this, I did the most astonishing thing a person can do: I got out of bed. At least I could still walk. A better person would think, Thank you, Jesus. But I thought, God do my feet hurt. God, am I getting old. Then I had some coffee, to level the playing field of me and my mind, as it had had several cups while I slept, and now if felt like talking.

Then I headed to church.

And it was not good.

Lamott has proven to have wide appeal, writing for Salon, the Los Angeles Times and a variety of other periodicals. It should be exciting to see a professed Christian writing for what is clearly a largely secular audience. Sadly, though, the spiritual insights shared by Lamott are more shocking or embarrassing than exciting and inspiring. Here is a smattering of what the reader will discover:

* On Jesus: "You've got to wonder what Jesus was live at seventeen. They don't even talk about it in the Bible, he was apparently so awful."
* On abortion: "I wanted to express calmly and eloquently, that people who are pro-choice understand that there are two lives involved in an abortion--one born (the pregnant woman) and one not (the fetus)--and that the born person must be allowed to decide what is right: whether or not to bring a pregnancy to term and launch another life into circulation." "Then I said that a woman's right to choose was nobody else's goddamn business. That got their attention." "We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society."
* On euthanasia: "Mel was somewhat surprised that as a Christian I so staunchly agreed with him about assisted suicide: I believe that life is a kind of Earth School, so even though assisted suicide means you're getting out early, before the term ends, you're going to be leaving anyway, so who says it isn't okay to take an incomplete in the course?" In the chapter "At Death's Window" she eloquently describes assisting her friend in taking his own life by overdosing on barbiturates.

As we've come to expect from Lamott, there is a handful (or two) of uses of profanity spread throughout the book (using the name of God casually, several uses of language of the four-letter variety, and so on). Of course the book is not without its interesting insights. Readers will be able to identify with many of the difficulties Lamott has faced. They will laugh at some of her reactions to the situations she has encountered; they will roll their eyes at the same things that frustrate her. There are some notable quotes like this one: "A good marriage is supposed to be one where each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal." But when it comes to spiritual content that is distinctly biblical and profoundly Christian, well, there is not much at all. Lamott seems to embrace a very wide faith that extends far beyond the bounds of Scripture. She celebrates things the Bible forbids and hates things the Bible commands us to love. Her self-loathing is so prominent it is easy to wonder if it isn't simply narcissism weakly disguised. In fact, with a fair bit of faith talk, but very little that is distinctly Christian, I suppose it is not difficult to understand why this book has wide appeal outside the church. I hope Christian readers are discerning enough to ensure it has little appeal within.

I always love her books but...................2007-06-21

I always enjoy reading Anne Lamott and this book was going along swell. She has an easy, casual manner that makes it feel like you're having a best-friend discussion sitting at the kitchen counter. But in this book I got SO tired of her blaming EVERYTHING that's wrong in the world on George Bush. It's like we were all basking around here on Heaven-On-Earth until Mr. Meanie screwed it all up. Her writing seems so smart and sensitive yet her political comments were so stupid. Not the most enjoyable read for me.

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

Average customer rating:

Must read for men
Inspiring, and life changing!
mothers day
Some insights, but too many generalizations
Mixed thoughts

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul
John Eldredge , and Stasi Eldredge
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul
Captivating: A Guided Journal: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive
The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

ASIN: 0785264698

Book Description

Every little girl has dreams of being swept up into a great adventure, of being the beautiful princess. Sadly, when women grow up, they are often swept up into a life filled merely with duty and demands. Many Christian women are tired, struggling under the weight of the pressure to be a "good servant," a nurturing caregiver, or a capable home manager.

What Wild at Heart did for men, Captivating is doing for women. Setting their hearts free. This groundbreaking book shows readers the glorious design of women before the fall, describes how the feminine heart can be restored, and casts a vision for the power, freedom, and beauty of a woman released to be all she was meant to be. By revealing the core desires every woman shares-to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a grand adventure, and to unveil beauty-John and Stasi Eldredge invite women to recover their feminine hearts, created in the image of an intimate and passionate God. Further, they encourage men to discover the secret of a woman's soul and to delight in the beauty and strength women were created to offer.

Customer Reviews:

Must read for men.......2007-06-27

I think every man ought to read this and get a glimpse of what goes on in a woman's heart - it will take them to a different level spiritually. Captivating was very enlightening, liberating, empowering, humbling and captivating - a wonderful journey in a woman's soul. I've read it twice and give it as gifts to my friends.

Inspiring, and life changing!.......2007-06-24

This is an amazing book. It totally caught my attention, and has much to say. Its well worth the money, and if you're interested in really learning about the way God CREATED a woman's heart, and the damage that the world - ultimately, sin and evil has done to women......... AND how God desires to restore each and every one of us, - IF we ask, and allow Him to......you really must take the time to read this book.

mothers day.......2007-06-23

i also bought his book to give to my daughter for mother's day. I amhoping she reads it. I actually gave it to my son inlaw to read first then she read it.

Some insights, but too many generalizations.......2007-06-22

John and Stasi Eldredge have discovered some interesting things about human desires. These kept me going as I read the book. However, I disagreed with other statements that were so dogmatically made.

For example, I found that I only have two of the three desires that supposedly are universal to all women. I also have one (maybe two) of the desires that are universal to all men. What does that say about me as a woman?

Having said all that, I did benefit from the book. It was good to realize that most women do have many of the same suppressed dreams and desires that I do. It was also comforting to acknowledge that God has a plan to develop me as a person by using the struggles and even the things which have brought me shame in the past.

I am glad that I read this book and I would recommend it to others, but would suggest that you use some discernment when you read it

Mixed thoughts.......2007-06-21

First off, I really wanted to like this book. My mother raved about how wonderful it was and gave me a copy of my own, telling me how it brought her to tears and moved her. I dove into it, thinking I would find beautiful truths to nurture my soul.

However, I came away pretty disappointed.

First off, the good things - the book captured me in explaining ways in which women are image-bearers of God. I did gain some insight from this. However, the negative in this book shadows the positive.

Many other reviewers have spelled out the sloppy theology in this book, so I won't elaborate too much on that here. However, the biggest complaint I had with this book is the way in which it treats women who don't base their lives on a man's approval. Stasi and John talk a lot about women who want to be seen as beautiful, women who want to be romanced; and while those desires are all fine, they simply don't define every single woman. This book forms a one-size-fits-all mold for femininity, and then calls that mold "Biblical femininity," leaving single, unglamorous, less-than-romantic women like myself to wonder, "Do I just not measure up?"

Thankfully, John and Stasi don't make the mold - Christ does. He recognizes that each women is a unique individual with unique desires. I think this book would have been much better had it simply been a tale of Stati's journey to discover the kind of woman God wanted HER to be, rather than trying to fit her specific experiences to all women.

For a more theologically sound, less rigid look at God's design of/plan for women, I highly recommend Jonalyn Fincher's "Ruby Slippers," also published by Zondervan. I trust and agree with many of Zondervan's publications - but sadly, this one really missed the mark.

Average customer rating:

great story
Great Book
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
A lovely journey into the China of the 1800's
Captivating

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
Lisa See
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Friendship | Women's Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Water for Elephants: A Novel
The Glass Castle : A Memoir (Alex Awards (Awards))
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Suite Francaise
A Thousand Splendid Suns

ASIN: 0812968069
Release Date: 2006-02-21

Book Description

In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Download Description

Lisa See is the author of Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee), The Interior, and Dragon Bones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

great story.......2007-06-30

Books about Oriental women always fascinate me -- especially when they are as well written as this one. Perhaps it is the great difference in culture that pulls you into books like this one or perhaps it is the ease in which you can relate to the suffering and abuse of women in other cultures and times. For whatever reason, women have always gained strength from their friendships and shared experiences and the story of these two friends from very different backgrounds who bond with each other's shared suffering is touching and at the same time entertaining.

Great Book.......2007-06-30

I absolutely adored this book. Set against the backdrop of nineteenth century China, Lisa See takes you on a journey through the lives of two amazing women. The rich history and descriptions really make the story come alive. I found myself carrying the book in my purse so I could read it during my spare moments throughout the day. I would highly reccomend it... enjoy!

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.......2007-06-30

This is the July selection chosen by the Book Group I am in. I wanted to have a copy to read on the plane trip to visit families in Colorado. (One of our daughters-in-law was born in Hong Kong and I am interested in learning more about Chinese history and customs.) The story is told by one Chinese woman, her life from early childhood to her eighties. Back then footbinding of young girls was the custom, and girls' activities revolved around preparation for their future wedding and joining the family of their arranged-for husband. For a little girl, another Chinese girl who shares the same birth year is chosen to become lifetime good friends, sharing hopes, dreams, sorrows and happiness. The narrator is Lily. Her lifelong friend is Snow Flower, and they share secret messages by writing on a fan that is passed back and forth from one house to the other. Many customs of yore are described in this book.

A lovely journey into the China of the 1800's.......2007-06-27

This story of friendship was fascinating and moving. The secret language of the women of China was something that no one could take away from them and their stories and experiences could be shared with others. The lessons to be learned are numerous. I really loved reading this book and hated the story to end. It was told beautifully.

Captivating.......2007-06-27

The story was fascinating. I have to say it was great place to visit-read about-but I wouldn't want to have lived there. Three cheers for liberation and the abandonment of foot-binding.

I most enjoyed the camaderie of the women.

Books:

Books