IPhone 3G used's review (the best to read to get introduced to the oil business) 『If you are interested in the oil business, especially how it developed over the 20th century, this is THE book to read! It has very interesting facts, covers history, anecdotes, geopolitics. I had a lot of fun when I read it more than 2 years ago. It' so well written that I would like to read it again eventually.』
(History of Oil and the Drive for Technology) 『This book is one of the best for enlightening those of the the 1970's forwrd of the preferred interests of their mothers and fathers. Ex- President Bush is heavily documented in his actions with those of the Middle Est in his attempts at acquiring a chunk of the oil industry. It highlights South America's Venezuela and its failing oil fields. It shows the world's efforts at unity for one major purpose. It defines OPEC and ARAMCO as they need to be understood. For anyone not current on world issue, this is the book to read.』
(History of Oil and the Drive for Technology) 『This book is one of the best for enlightening those of the the 1970's forwrd of the preferred interests of their mothers and fathers. Ex- President Bush is heavily documented in his actions with those of the Middle Est in his attempts at acquiring a chunk of the oil industry. It highlights South America's Venezuela and its failing oil fields. It shows the world's efforts at unity for one major purpose. It defines OPEC and ARAMCO as they need to be understood. For anyone not current on world issue, this is the book to read.』
(An excellent primer on petroleum) 『This book explains how oil affects our lives, our nation, the world's economy and political situations. Yergin's writing style is superb, and although the material is somewhat dry, he really brings events to life. This work is rare for non-fiction - it is easy reading and informative. I have just finished the book a few minutes ago, and I really feel that I have learned a great deal. My favorite section was on World War II. I have read hundreds of books on the subject, but the section in "The Prize" dedicated to the War from a petroleum standpoint is superb』
(Truly a classic text. Fascinating and enlightening.) 『Yergin's grasp of the broad view of the history of oil and its context in world history is amazing. Scholarly and yet as compelling as the best fiction, this book is a masterful work』
IPhone 3G used's review (Very Interesting for an Autobiography!) 『I found this book at a local dollar store and it turned out to be one of the best investments of a dollar. This was a great book. I love to read about other cultures and this gave me a huge insight into Czech culture three decades ago. Not only is it an interesting read, but it is told in the perspective of Dominika as a little girl into her pre-teens. It is nothing like reading a history book, and you get a very personal experience. This autobiography is heartwarming, relatable, sympathy-evoking, and even slightly whimsical. I wish this was a movie!』
(A Beautiful Story) 『When I first began reading The Twelve Little Cakes, I didn't realize that it was a true story. (I check this information along with the reviews on Amazon before buying a book, but by the time I get around to reading it I have long forgotten.) I realized that it was real when she mentioned Bohousek, her famous dog -- I remember my mom pointing him out in films when I was young. From that point on, it made the story a completely different experience for me and I was even more eager to read ahead.
There were many other similarities I shared with Dominika, but the most important one was our romantic view of Czechoslovakia as children. When we're young, we don't care about any differences. We just want to go play. I remember my mom explaining why certain neighbors didn't like each other and how everyone gossiped. The urge people had to snitch on someone for no reason and make their life miserable is something I definitely understood in this book, though I never understood it as a child (and even now, really) -- Can't we all get along?
As a Czech-American, I relate to this story very well, and perhaps this is partly responsible for my 5-star review as this story transported me back a few years and allowed me to relive some of my own cherished memories. I have spent half of my life living in each place, and my Czech childhood was quite similar to Dominika's.
The Czech Republic is a stunning place and there are so many amazing people. This book did hit the nail on the head, though, as far as the problems in Czech society.
It was an absolute pleasure to read this book. I truly admire Dominika's parents for sticking it out together and for the incredible love they shared within their family. It will warm your heart!』
(Holding my thumbs) 『I will hold my thumbs for the sequel to Twelve Little Cakes, but with talent such as this, the author hardly needs me to cross my fingers Czech-style. The spirit of the Czechs is captured by Dominika in her first English work. Her spirit is that of The Little Prince: observant, sparked with life, and wise beyond her years. Dekuji. The hours you spend with Dominika in this work will connect you with her soul, and the soul of a beautiful country full of beautiful women. It is a holiday to remember.』
(Enchanting Childhood Novel) 『I picked this book up on a whim, I admit it was right up my alley in content and it seemed like it got good reviews. I have to admit I was surprised by how much I just enjoyed the book. The perspective and stories are engaging and I found that the book ended much too soon for me- but just right for the story line.
Well worth the read.』
(Nice read) 『I recommended this book for my bookclub since it had so many 4-5 star reviews on this site. This book was a nice easy read but I would only give it 3+ stars. Most of my bookclub agreed. It has some cute and touching stories in the various chapters but doesn't get into much depth regarding actually living under a communist regime. Some of the stories seemed alittle unbelieveable.』 『Equal parts testimony to the struggles of a bygone era and a love letter to a bright-eyed childhood that no outside force could dim, this is Dominika Dery's acclaimed memoir of Communist-era Czechoslovakia.』
Kakaku：
Compass Point Books
Usually ships in 24 hours IPhone 3G used's review (The Orphan Trains) 『This is an educational introductory pamphlet - not a book. I was very disappointed expecting a book with detailed personal stories and instead received a thin pamphlet with very little info. A swipe at the surface of this very interesting bit of American history at best .I would not tell anyone to purchasing this, and am sorry I did. Very misleading.』 『Tells the story of how homeless children during the late 1800s and early 1900s were taken to new homes on trains which were known as orphan trains.』
Kakaku：
Routledge
Usually ships in 7 to 9 days 『How does rock music impact culture? According to authors B. Lee Cooper and Wayne S. Haney, it is central to the definition of society and has had a great impact on shaping American culture. In Rock Music in American Popular Culture, insightful essays and book reviews explore ways popular culture items can be used to explore American values. This fascinating book is arranged alphabetically for quick and easy reference to specific topics, but the book is equally enjoyable to read straight through.The influence of rock era music is evident throughout the text, demonstrating how various topics in the popular culture field are interconnected. Students in popular culture survey courses and American studies classes will be fascinated by these unique explorations of how family businesses, games, nursery rhymes, rock and roll legends, and other musical ventures shed light on our society and how they have shaped American values over the years.』
『Istanbul Households is a social history of marriage, the family and population in Istanbul during the turbulent period of transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Istanbul was the first Muslim city to experience a systematic decline in fertility and major changes in family life, and, as such, set the tone for many social and cultural changes in Turkey and the Muslim world. Istanbul was the major focal point for the forces of westernization of Turkish society, processes which not only transformed political and economic institutions in that country, but also had a profound and lasting impact on domestic life. This is the first systematic historical study of the family and population in Turkey or the Middle East, combining the methods and approaches of social anthropology, historical demography and social history.』
IPhone 3G used's review (An Interesting Lady) 『This out-of-print biography presents Jeanne Calment as a fiesty, headstrong supercentenarian who leaps over the boundaries of our human lifespan, at least as defined by verifiable statistics. The four authors, all scientists, unveil here a multi-year and cooly scientific study and, along the way, probe a grandame's physiology, wit and charm with alacrity and grace. That is, the book never stoops to treating Calment as an oddity or specimen. Through such delicate and respectful treatment, the soul of a remarkable woman emerges: a society grand dame who lives a structured, even sheltered, existence, and through a fiery wit and tomboy spirit stubbornly refuses to die.
There aren't many nuggets of advice on diet and lifestyle, though, so anyone seeking an exhaustive tome on the subject of longevity should look elsewhere. And although conservative in outlook, she's generally apolitical; she seems unmoved, at best, by any feminist indentity even though she rides, shoots and smokes like the boys. The emphasis here's on Calment: who she is in her essence...what makes her tick. The psychological profile as presented through multiple transcripts is both subtle and sophisticated and will, I think, interest the applied expert.
The book's an inspiration. Still, at times I found the smallish biography too sketchy and wished the authors would've provided more. The employment of Calment's own dialogue, however repetitive, does provide glimpses into a woman whose quiet melancholy, having lost everyone she loves the most, remains untrammeled by her joyous and yes indomitable spirit. She's a master of zingers and one-liners, too.
IPhone 3G used's review (Represent, Feminist Lesbian Academics!) 『Professor Duggan taught a gay studies course that I took at Brown University and she was so awesome. I read this book about two years after taking that class. I think the times that cultural studies scholars and legal scholars get together are pretty rare, so this is an excellent example of collaborative potential. This book asks and answers many questions. For example, why did most feminist historians not join anti-porn movements? The discussion on the Supreme Court's "Bowers" decision may seem dated in light of "Romer" and "Lawrence," but at the time it was pretty eye-opening. I think I may have cited it for a sociology paper. Duggan takes a swipe at Joan Scott that makes me wonder how progressive academics gossiped about it. This is a wonderful collection by two tremendous scholars and I highly recommend that many critically-conscious people peep it.』 『Sex Warsis a collection of writings by Duggan and Hunter that brings together the best of the important work they have done on sexual politics in America over the past decade.Sex Warstraces the development of this politics and its deployment in three different arenas--speech and representation, legal regulation, and scholarship.』
IPhone 3G used's review (If you want to know where you're from, take a look around...) 『Howard Jacobson is Jewish, of Lithuanian extraction and was born in Manchester. This book looks hard at Jewishness and takes us all over the world in search of what it means. I really wish he'd spent more time looking what part Manchester played in developing his sense of who he is and where he came from.
Question: There's lots of talk about Yiddish, what part did native languages play in the various countries Jews settled in?
』
(Lighten Up, Why Don't You?) 『Roots, Schmoots: Journeys Among Jews is, first of all, funny. One should not come to it expecting to read a balanced, well-researched history/sociology of Judaism, Israel or the Diaspora. Think more along the lines of taking a long, relaxed (but neurotic as all get-out) trip with a very funny man in search of something even he can't quite identify.The chapters describing his time in the US are hilarious and poignant at once. The chapters on Israel are quite well done, capturing the author's exasperated love for the nation and its people, and his often wayward search for justice. Jacobson tries to avoid sentiment at all costs, yet continually finds himself caught up short by a lump in the throat. A very good, very funny travel book. A very good, very funny story of one person's hunt for himself. Not for the compulsively or competitively serious.』
(Enlightening) 『No hatred in this book, although plenty in the remarks of two of the on-line reviewers who are like bit part players in the book itself. Jacobson is erudite, fair, modest, compassionate and compelling. He doesn't pretend to be writing an academic investigation, more a personal journey, and he has the decency to admit that it's an inconclusive one. There is, of course, no point in spending time and money on a book like this if you lack learning and humour, of if you believe that on matters of religion and identity you already have all the answers.』
(Identity crisis) 『Mr. Jacobson suffers from a deep-rooted identity crisis and his book could be of some use for anyone who is interested in this sort of behavior pattern. In terms of literary value "Roots Schoots" lacks intellectual depth. Mr. Jacobson is full of hate, prejudice, and uses irony, skepticism, and in many instances disrespect for the values imbedded in Jewish culture. He needs to solve his own dilemma first, free himself from whatever traumas he might have and then repeat his journey with a more open mind. Only then will he be able to judge "jewishness!"』
(Oh, please!) 『Where does the man get the nerve?
Can you imagine going into a country for the first time and forming an opinion of its religion, people, customs, culture and esthetics by conversations with street people, going to hangouts of the marginal in Israeli society and staying at the tackiest of hotels?
As an Israeli citizen, born and raised in New York, with a healthy dose of NY culture and esthetics, I really took umbrage - did the man really find no beautiful buildings (the new Supreme Court building is georgeous, just to name one), no lovely hotels (too bad he couldn't afford the Laromme, the Dan Pearl or the new Hilton)or pretty residential areas (like the lovely old, landscaped Talbeya)?
As for cultured people, why couldn't the man get thru the front door to interview Amos Oz, Yehuda Amichai or a dozen other cultured, pluristic, highly intelligent fellow authors?
I notice that he changed the cover of his book - good, because his face on the old one wasn't too esthetically pleasing. Maybe the negative things he felt about Israel were just manifestations of the negative things he finds about himself.
Kakaku：
Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Usually ships in 24 hours 『A cross-cultural study of opium. Keith McMahon considers the perspectives of both smokers and non-smokers from China and the Euro-West and from both sides of the issue of opium prohibition. He stages a dramatic confrontation between the Chinese opium user and the Euro-Westerner who saw in opium the image of an uncanny Asiatic menace. Opium was inextricably bound up with generalizations made about teeming Asiatic masses, nightmarish opium sots, effeminate Chinamen, and orientalized white women. In China, opium - called the Western Drug - was tied to the arrival of Christianity and Western greed. The rise of the opium demon meant the fall of the god of money, that is, Chinese money, and the irreversible trend in which Confucianism gave way to Christianity. McMahon makes the case for opium smoking as a way of life that, far from being merely wanton, was an entirely reasonable choice in times when smokers could be neither Christian nor Confucian. Opium smoking was a way of inhabiting an era in which traditional loyalties were in critical transition. The author demonstrates the current laws against drugs of addiction have their origins in this early modern conflict of cultures and not in any supposed scientific evidence that opium is so definitely worse than alcohol. The work explores early Western observations of opium smoking, the formation of arguments for and against the legalization of opium, the portrayals of opium smoking in Chinese poetry and prose, and scenes of opium-smoking interactions among male and female smokers and smokers of all social levels in 19th-century China. Also, by providing a translation of an 1878 autobiography of a Chinese addict, McMahon is able to explore the opium smoker's own observations on China and opium smoking.』
Kakaku：
Atria
Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks IPhone 3G used's review (Poetic truth-telling about motherhood) 『Reading Susan Johnson's lyrically written account of the unexpected maternal wave that swept over her in the middle of her autonomous writer's life, I was brought straight back to the shock and power of my own early motherhood. Although I never suffered the physical disabilities Johnson describes, I understood perfectly the dual nature of love and drowning that Johnson experiences. There are so many hidden aspects of womanhood - so many unofficial stories. That mix of passion and powerlessness, that learning to relinquish control and the mourning of it, are universal experiences that are not often addressed and should be. If you want to read a very beautifullly written account of a real woman's experience of motherhood written by a powerful writer, this is the book.』
(It gets better at the halfway point) 『At the age of 35, Susan Johnson realizes that she desperately wants to be a mother. At 38 she is pregnant with her first child, moving back her to homeland of Australia, and getting ready to "settle." Although deliriously happy with her new baby and new life, she realizes that something isn't quite right and is soon diagnosed with a recto-vaginal fistula, something that is practically unheard of in the Western world (although prevalent in developing countries). This memoir is Susan's story--about life as a new, first-time, older mother. Settling down with a man who isn't really the settling down type. Attempting to remain a surviving writer. And dealing with a rare medical condition that can be painful, not to mention embarrassing and humiliating.
I really did not enjoy the book at first. It wasn't until about halfway through that I really started to not only get into the book, but really even cared about her story. She doesn't really talk about the fistula until the midway point, and I guess I was just waiting for that. It's probably also important to mention that I am not really a fan of "literary memoirs" (as my sister says: it's probably really great. I did not think the first half was great). I prefer the more gritty, real writing to the pretentious, flowery writing that she has. Looking back, I can see that the first half of the book was probably fine; it just didn't really have anything to do with the reason I picked up the book in the first place. One thing I loved, though; is that Johnson has some wonderful phrases that are immensely quotable. Example: "Having children exposes you. I will know who you are when I see how you wish your children to live." And "Isn't it a form of arrogance to assume that misfortune will not personally visit you, or to allow yourself to believe the man who says his love for you is endless as space?" I really liked that she got into a bit of feminist theory and quoted/discussed Germaine Greer. I also thought she had a wonderful observation on the recent prominence of what she describes as the "earth-mother hierarchy"--where the focus on getting back to natural childbirth, home births and midwives forgets that "birth involves danger." Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot. And when I forget about the first half, I love it.』
(Not inspirational) 『This author had a tough time with motherhood, especially post partum, there is NO doubt about that. I myself had some issues with my tearing and would have been horrified if I had read this book first. But, just reading this for inspiriation alone, I found myself very bored by it. I guess I just didn't like her writing style. She drones on and on and on. I found Anne Lamont's Operating Instructions a much more engaging memoir about motherhood.』
(A well written book) 『It is interesting to read Susan write about the two pregnancies she had and the resultant complication. It is also amazing to see how she entwines her life experiences in writing and draws something back into her life, a power which she gains from the understanding,knowledge of life through the writing.
At one end if you get to know things like controlled crying technique for bablies, happy vomiters - Just as I wonder why the 'morning sickness' was never mentioned - she had to deal with many other serious problems in life like managing her career, finances.
In a very simple style, she brings home many realisations in family realtions.』 『
If I had known...what giving birth was to cost me, would I have dared to fall pregnant? Yes, yes. A thousand times, yes.
Accalaimed novelist Susan Johnson found, at age thirty-five, that her arms began to feel "empty." Soon her desire to have a baby became overwhelming. She had no inkling then what motherhood would cost her -- or give her. But as she went on to experience pregnancy and birth, and their impact on her marriage, her health, and her heart, she recorded it all in a black-and-red notebook. Here, Susan Johnson takes that raw, potentially wrenching material and creates an inspirational work of autobiography.
In a hauntingly lovely account, Johnson portrays a woman transformed by motherhood, and a writer forever changed by a widening chasm of experience. Simple acts such as getting her newborn to breastfeed prove unexpectedly difficult. The husband she adores becomes a sparring partner, their newly purchased home a disaster, her time to write nonexistent. Then, just when she believes she may be getting her life together, she becomes pregnant again.
Soon ecstasy jostles against bewilderment, rage, and despair when she develops a rare complication of childbirth. Facing major surgery, Susan calls herself "a one-woman catastrophe, a small ruined country." She is also going to bed at night planning what she will write in the morning, burning to get words on paper.
The mesmerizing narrative she created isA Better Woman,a chronicle of love and courage, by turns poetic and searingly graphic. It should be required reading for every woman hungry to give birth -- and every mother yearning to have her deepest feeling heard.』
大満足！北国のホタテ・いくら・ボタンエビがぎっしり！
