A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

Book Description

New York Times bestselling author Joan Anderson gives women practical advice and inspiration for building creative, independent, and fulfilling lives through discovering who they truly are and who they can be.

Like Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, Joan Anderson’s bestselling A Year by the Sea revealed a far larger than expected constituency, in the form of thousands of women struggling to realize their full potential. After years of focusing on the needs of others as a wife and mother, Anderson devoted a year to rediscovering herself and reinvigorating her dreams. The questions she asked herself and the insights she gained became the core of the popular weekend workshops Anderson developed to help women figure out how—after being all things to all people—they can finally become what they need to be for themselves. A Weekend to Change Your Life brings Anderson’s techniques to women everywhere, providing a step-by-step path readers can follow at their own pace.

Drawing on her own life and on the experiences of the women she meets at her workshops, Anderson shows women how to move beyond the roles they play in relationship to others and reclaim their individuality. Through illustrations and gentle instruction, she illuminates the rewards of nurturing long-neglected talents, revitalizing plans sacrificed to the demands of family life, and redefining oneself by embracing new possibilities.

Customer Reviews:

The Best of Many .......2007-05-23

I'm not a big fan of self-help books and am pretty cautious in my response to readings like this. A Weekend to Change Your Life, however is one of the true exceptions I've had the pleasure to read. The author is not preaching or in any way a know-it-all but she challenges very basic feelings and emotions in each and every person, whether we admit to them or not. And in going thru her exercises we are drawn into trying her suggestions and digging deep into our souls to see why we do so many of the things we do. The author has deep, deep respect for the uniqueness and value of every emotion and individual. She doesn't judge or ever try to criticize or downgrade. She teaches us acceptance and deeper understanding of whatever is causing our innermost private thoughts and feelings. It's truly a treasure and one that I highly recommend for every woman, no matter how old. I readily admit that one of the feelings I deal with most often is that "I'm too old; I'm 73 years old; I'd like to do this or that, but I don't have enough time left to start now, etc." Nonsense! Joan Anderson has prompted me to try, even at this ripe old age to at the very least try and to live each day left to maximum fullillment and satisfaction. !

A Weekend to Change Your Life.......2007-01-10

Joan Anderson shares her wealth of experiences to gain a different lifestyle for one's self.
The book provides many useful stages to work through that sets your life into a pathway that pleases yourself and breaking away from being a people pleaser & forgetting what one's own dreams are.
The book does this in a pleasing gentle way & it is also where many woman are after family have grown & one's life's work seems to be over but we ask what now ...
Loved A Year by The Sea by the same author.

Finding Your Authentic Self: A Fine Book For Men As Well.......2006-07-30

It is a sad reality that so many people have their identities molded by the wants and needs of others. And I think that few would dispute that this is more likely to happen to women. There are powerful social and perhaps biological reasons why this might be. But the important point is that there are millions of people who are not fulfilling their potential. And there are many men who are stuck in the same bind.

We are all combinations not just of male and female biology but also of a set of identities that together form our sense of self. There is very good evidence that the female sense of self is closely related to her relationships, while the male sense of self is usually more closely linked to achievement. Though there are clearly personal and cultural variations, the implication is that most men and most women will likely find different techniques of healing and integration to be effective for each of them.

This is a terrific book in which Joan Anderson shares some of the exercises and activities that she has developed to encourage change and growth. One of her models is based on the work of the German-born psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, who delineated eight stages of life from infancy to old age. Joan suggests listing the gains and losses from each phase in order to help us identify our personal strengths. This is a fine example of drawing strength from the natural reversals that we all experience and using them to develop resilience. She also guides us to other exercises and techniques that make very good sense, and some of which I've found very useful, despite having a Y-chromosome!

So while designed to help women, this is also a book for men who want or need to learn more about their feminine nature, and who care about the women in their lives.

This is a book that is practical, wise and compassionate.

Highly recommended.

Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life

Don't Lose Yourself to Other People.......2006-07-04

Women have had it especially hard for many centuries. Only in the last 100 years in North America have we been able to be ourselves. However, through social dictation ... women fall prey to living for others. This is a fascinating account of how to bring back one's self after many years of being lost in others' agendas.

Give this book and yourself a chance..........2006-05-17

If you are standing at your own edges, sometimes desperate--sometimes numbed, please get this book. And if you can, get A YEAR BY THE SEA first and then A WEEKEND TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

Joan Anderson is a way-shower -- one who flung herself over her edge and found her breath, her self and her way to her spark, her spirit AND her marriage. No one's story or path will unfold the same but Anderson's certainly spoke to me in a time I dearly needed to know I wasn't alone and her experience expanded my own breath and options.

Her follow-up book, "A Weekend...", offers us tools to tweak and use our unique way. It's just great to know that someone HAS gone down the path and she left the light on for those of us stumbling and rolling behind her.

I found the second half of the book more charged than the first half but that could have been me. It is a book to be highlighted, notes taken and posted, dog-eared and re-visited. Consider it a fabulous class!

Average customer rating:

Informative, authoritative overview
She makes it interesting!
An Invaluable Resource
Learn about the Bard of Avon's Plays in this Outstanding Scholary Work!
Very enjoyable but you have to concentrate

Shakespeare After All
Marjorie Garber
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0385722141
Release Date: 2005-09-20

Book Description

A brilliant and companionable tour through all thirty-eight plays, Shakespeare After All is the perfect introduction to the bard by one of the country’s foremost authorities on his life and work. Drawing on her hugely popular lecture courses at Yale and Harvard over the past thirty years, Marjorie Garber offers passionate and revealing readings of the plays in chronological sequence, from The Two Gentlemen of Verona to The Two Noble Kinsmen. Supremely readable and engaging, and complete with a comprehensive introduction to Shakespeare’s life and times and an extensive bibliography, this magisterial work is an ever-replenishing fount of insight on the most celebrated writer of all time.

Customer Reviews:

Informative, authoritative overview.......2007-09-27

Garber's book is an excellent resource for anyone seeking an overall appreciation and understanding of the Shakespeare's plays. The chapters, one per play, are not laden with the usual scholarly apparatus and jargon, but are clearly written and offer intelligent interpretations and insights into the plays. The book's value lies in its usefulness for anyone interested in Shakespeare--the seasoned scholar or the newly interested reader. Recommended.

She makes it interesting!.......2007-01-16

Gerber gives excellent analyses of Shakespeare's works. My girlfriend, a theater student, loved it. I got into it, too, and I'm not even that crazy about Shakespeare. A great gift for the "discerning theater student" in your household.

An Invaluable Resource.......2006-03-07

My husband and I are lawyers who have recently returned to reading Shakesepare, decades after college. We wanted literary criticism that was qualitative superior to the plot summary readers guide--criticism that would help us explore the imagery, themes and metaphors of the plays. Marjorie Garber is the answer to our prayers. We recommend to readers returning to Shakespeare that they purchase a paperback edition of each play with good notes to help with line specific language issues--the Arden series is the best-and then supplement/enrich the experience with Garbers insights. It is a pleasure for us to carefully read each play and then see what treasures she has mined based on her own reading and that of prior critics. We considerably prefer Garber to Bloom as a single compendium. Garber packs an enormous amount of insight into a single 30 page chapter. Shakespeare is surely worth the detail she provides. I would also suggest that you purchase the Ambrose DVD set of tapes of the great BBC plays--after you have read the plays it is wonderful to watch Jacobi et al. The DVD format enables captions which is very helful to savoring every line.

Learn about the Bard of Avon's Plays in this Outstanding Scholary Work!.......2006-01-25

William Shakespeare's immortal words will live forever. In this excellent book of criticism Professor Garber of Harvard
examines each of the 38 plays from "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" through "The Two Noble Kinsman." Her work is detailed and insightful for anyone who seeks more knowledge and understanding of Shakepeare and his plays. As we explore Shakespeare we also learn more about what it is to be human being in the world!
Garber writes about each play as she analyzes the characters and their motivation; the history of the play's production and how the play is related to other plays and characters in the Shakespearean canon. Along the way we learn the derivation of words used by the bard; what was going on in England and the world at the time the play was written and such various topics as sumptuary laws (dealing with clothing); class structure and the growth of the English language.
Shakespeare's life is covered in an insightful introduction.
Marjorie Garber must be a brilliant person to listen to in the lecture hall! I wish these insighful looks at each play would be available in tape format! Her book is a classic which should be required reading for anyone teaching Shakespeare in high school, college and adult education classes.
I was fascinated by her depth of scholarship and ability to relate Shakespeare to our day. My highest appreciation to this wonderful book on our great treasure of poetry and the art of
drama William Shakespeare!

Very enjoyable but you have to concentrate.......2005-12-08

This is a monster of a book packed full of insight into the plays of William Shakespeare. Another reviewer has criticized the way Professor Gerber tackles each play, but I think she pitches her analyses pretty spot on. As she describes a play she will stop and detour into some aspect of the cultural mores of the England of Shakespeare's day and come back. I find ( as a layman ) that is exactly what I wanted. I wasn't looking for Heavy Textual Criticism that might only be understandable to other Eng Lit Professors. This is an excellent book for the layman - if you are prepared to concentrate and forgive Professor Gerber when she does occasionally throw in a semantics term that you have never heard of - USUALLY she explains them. But not always.

Average customer rating:

Dennis Miller takes a everyday's guy view of the world
this was terrible
OKAY, So I Haven't Read The Book (but at least I admit it)
BEWARE LIBERAL SCUM ! (YOUR TIME HAS COME..)
Rants...

Still Ranting After All These Years

Manufacturer: HarperAudio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0060531002
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Book Description

If you thought Dennis Miller was done ranting, guess again. In Still Ranting After All These Years, recorded in early 2002, Miller is in fine form, commenting on everything from "War and Terrorism" to Enron; from "Obsessed Parents" to the "End of Class;" to "Truth in the Media," and so much more. Throughout, Miller is what we have come to expect from him: smart, cutting, laugh-out-loud funny, and more times than not ... right.

Customer Reviews:

Dennis Miller takes a everyday's guy view of the world.......2007-01-04

Dennis is a wonderful comedian, I laugh and find myself thinking how smart he is. He looks at life and the events in the world the way most everyday guy's would. He isn't to shy to call a spade a spade. He makes sense in most of the stuff he talks about. IF strong language offends, this might not be your cup of tea. Dennis Miller is delightfully funny, has an interesting take on the crazies of the world. Worth the price of the DVD.

this was terrible.......2006-06-15

If 0 stars was an option i would have selected it. this is the dryest, dullest delivered comedy i've ever heard. I should actually say that he had no delivery whatsoever. this was definately a waste of money.

OKAY, So I Haven't Read The Book (but at least I admit it).......2006-02-25

I find it interested how often people write "reviews" of work they've never even read or listened to. For instance, several people took the time to write a review of this CD even though they clearly wouldn't have been caught dead listening to it. People GET A LIFE!!!! Unless you've listened to this CD, keep you views about Miller's political pursuasion to yourself. This isn't the place for it! This is the place for people who have actually lilstened to the CD to tell others what they thought about it... not for you to grace us with your worldview of politics and the events of the day. Please, do us all a favor and keep it to yourself.

BEWARE LIBERAL SCUM ! (YOUR TIME HAS COME..).......2005-09-30

THANK YOU DENNIS MILLER FOR PROVIDING US REAL THINKERS WITH POLITICAL COMEDY WITH ACTUAL SUBSTANCE. WITH A SEA LITTERED WITH CRY-BABY LIBERAL COMICS (MAHER, JOHN STEWART, CROSS, ETC.)WHO APPEAL TO NOTHING BUT IGNORANT COLLEGE STUDENTS, BRAIN-DEAD HIPPIES, AND "LIMOSINE LIBERAL" YUPPIES, (NOT TO MENTION THOSE BRAINWASHED INTO THINKING SOCIALISM ACTUALLY IS A "MISUNDERSTOOD" CONCEPT..), IT'S HARD TO DISPUTE MILLER'S BRAND OF COMEDY.
IF YOU DIDN'T BOTHER TO EVEN LISTEN TO THIS ENLIGHTENIG WORK (LIKE THE IDIOT REVIEWER WHO SLAMMED THIS..)BY SOMEONE WHO TAKES AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO COMEDY, THEN GO BACK TO GETTING YOUR HALF-ASSED POLITICAL EDUCATION FROM M.T.V., AND ASK MICHAEL MOORE
OUT ON A DATE....

Rants..........2004-12-12

If you like all of the other previous "Rants", then you will like this one.

Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana 1932 (Dear America Series)

Average customer rating:

Five Stars
Zully's Review
Perhaps The Best Christmas Book I've Ever Read
The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift
Bad choice

Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana 1932 (Dear America Series)
Kathryn Lasky
Manufacturer: Scholastic Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0439219434

Amazon.com

To 11-year-old Minnie Swift, Christmas, 1932, is not going to be the time of bounty she's used to. Instead, it has become the "Time of the Dwindling." The Great Depression has changed everything: Minnie's father is working fewer and fewer hours, her hungry family eats more and more aspic and "rumor of pork" (high up on the Vomitron, a zero-to-ten scale Minnie and her brother have invented to determine the vileness of their meager dinners), and a tiny orphan girl has joined their family from Heart's Bend, Texas. Minnie finds a worthy outlet in her daily journal, in which she records the sometimes troubling, sometimes exhilarating experiences of one winter month in Indianapolis during the depression. Nothing can subdue Minnie's lively spirit, although the disappearance of her father challenges her sorely.

Kathryn Lasky's latest addition to the Dear America series is chock-full of period details: Greta Garbo's hairstyle, The Shadow radio program, Charlie Chan, Hooverville shantytowns, Buck Rogers, Amelia Earhart, and phrases like yee gads and go-to-the-dickens. Minnie is an exuberant and witty chronicler of her family life, as well as the world outside. Young readers will come away from Christmas After All with a strong image of life in the 1930s, and a sense of the resiliency and ingenuity of many Americans during that deeply troubled time. A historical note and photos follow the diary, providing background to help readers understand the era in which the fictional Minnie lived. (Ages 9 to 14) --Emilie Coulter

Customer Reviews:

Five Stars.......2007-08-08

Another wonderful addition to the Dear America Series this one is about the Great Depression told through Minnie Swift diary about how the depression is effecting her family and those around her. The changes they have to make. Like only living out of the few rooms in their house their family can keep heated. As they prepare for what Minnie expects to be a joyless Thanksgiving and Christmas her cousin Willie Faye arrives from Texas and the Dust Bowl having an even harder life then Minnie. This book goes to show how far love in a family can go.

Zully's Review.......2007-01-26

Imagine you have to live with an orphanage girl that doesn't know what an adjective is. This is what Kathryn Lasky in the book Christmas After All talks about. It's a masterpiece of love ness. The love ness of the main character, Minnie is that she helps an orphanage girl that goes to live with them.
Minnie Swift is a young girl who is in 4th grade she is 11 years old. Minnie Swift lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
One day an orphanage girl name Willie Faye got to their house she didn't know anything, so Minnie's parents put her in school and Minnie couldn't believe that they put Willie Faye in fourth grade, Minnie was so embarrassed. Minnie's fingers were tired from poking cloves into oranges.
Do people always help orphanages? Can we break our friendship with a person?
Minnie faces these issues in the book Christmas After All. Is four dollars a lot of money for you, well I don't think so, but in the book Christmas After All they think it's a lot of money. Would you use a fancy dress like a curtain? Well Minnie's sister wanted to do that, she wanted to put it in their room because they didn't have a lot of money to buy a curtain. Minnie didn't like that idea, and she didn't say anything because if she says that she doesn't like that idea lady her sister will get mad at her.
Jackie is Minnie's maid house. Jackie is kind of the color cinnamon, and Minnie wishes she could be that color of skin. In school Minnie was bored in Geography.
When they got back from school Willie Faye went to her room and start getting stuff so she could make earrings for lady that goes with her dress.
Christmas After All is a book of how people of the past help orphanage people. This book shows honesty for a lot of people. Christmas After All is for these who love a heart felt story and for those who have read this book before. For those people who help people will be a really, really good book.
I felt a good affection for this book, and you will too. " We have had Christmas after all."- Christmas After All.

Perhaps The Best Christmas Book I've Ever Read.......2006-11-22

The "Dear America" books are something I can take or leave. MY SECRET WAR was pretty good, as was WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES AGAIN (not really a Christmas book, but about the "Hello girls" in World War I), and the story of the Italian girl crossing the great plains. The Titanic book was average and the Pearl Harbor book was pretty bad. I've heard some pretty scathing criticisms about the two books involving Native American characters.

But in CHRISTMAS AFTER ALL, Kathryn Lasky has created a masterpiece within the diary format of the books.

It is the story of Minnie Swift, youngest of four sisters, her precocious genius younger brother Ozzie, and her parents during the days of the Great Depression. Dad's job is going badly and the family is reduced to shutting down rooms in their home to cut down on coal bills. They rarely have meat for supper, but eat a succession of aspics and "O'Grotons," as Minnie calls them. Then, as December begins, Willie Faye Darling comes into their lives. Willie Faye is the only daughter of cousins of Minnie's mother. Her parents, from a small town called Heart's Bend, Texas, have died after losing a battle with life in the Dust Bowl. Willie Faye is Minnie's age (11), but looks two years younger due to malnutrition and hardships. She arrives at the Swift home covered in dust and with a kitten named Tumbleweed whose nose she had to suction out morning, noon and night to keep him from smothering. Willie Faye has never seen an indoor bathroom, gone to a movie, read a Buck Rogers comic, or listened to the radio, so Minnie thinks that Willie Faye will have a lot to learn from them.

She never dreams what she--and the entire family--will learn from the fragile-looking but tough little girl from the Dust Bowl when the ravages of the Depression begin leaching away the family's security.

I have many of Lasky's other books and love them as well including PRANK, which takes place in East Boston, and her adult mysteries starring Calista Jacobs. But this story has a special magic to it, perhaps because it is based on Lasky's mother's experiences as well as her own and the characters ring true. Highly recommended.

The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift.......2006-10-30

The depression diary of Minnie Swift is about a girl trying to live during the Great Depression of 1930.It is cold, snowy, and miserable November right after Thanksgiving.Minnie and her family is trying to live through the troubles of the Great Depression. The biggest trouble is that her father lost his job and there is no more money coming into the family fortune.I really liked this book because it gives you an idea of what people faced during the Great Depression.The book reminds you of how fortunite that you have all that you need in life and that you don't have to worry about anything.

Bad choice.......2006-03-31

I did not care for this book. At first I thought it looked good because I used to find the depression interesting and I couldn't wait to tell my grandmother about I was reading about the depression. I didn't like it that much. It was very boring and Minnie writes so many entries in one day, she can't even write a full month's worth of diary entries. We all know about how hard it is during the depression and WHO CARES that she saw a bird at 11 PM or 12 AM!

We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant America After 9/11

Average customer rating:

An Easy, Yet Informative Read
We are all suspects now
Immigration, asylum and criminal policies
Immigrant Stories After 9/11

We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant America After 9/11
Tram Nguyen
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Discrimination & Racism | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0807004618

Book Description

Known as Little Pakistan, the community of Midwood, Brooklyn, has suffered a remarkable exodus in the years since 9/11. One sixth of the community-20,000 people-has left in search of liberty. In an ironic reversal of the American dream, this immigrant community now lives in fear, witnessing the unjust detainment or deportation of family members, friends, and neighbors. Tram Nguyen reveals the human cost of the domestic war on terror and examines the impact of post-9/11 policies on people targeted because of immigration status, nationality, and religion. Nguyen's evocative narrative reporting-about the families, detainees, local leaders, community advocates, and others-is from those living and suffering on the front lines. We meet Mohammad Butt, who died in detention in New Jersey, and the Saleems, who flee Queens for Canada. We even follow a self-proclaimed -citizen patroller- who monitors and detains immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border. We Are All Suspects Now, in the words of Mike Davis, takes us inside a dark world . . . where the American Dream is fast turning into a nightmare- and suggests proactive responses to stop our growing climate of xenophobia, intimidation, and discrimination.

Customer Reviews:

An Easy, Yet Informative Read.......2006-11-29

In her book, Tram Nguyen claims that there is very little room left for any infraction by someone without the legal status to be here in the US due to a post-9/11 national climate of fear and growing intolerance. She argues that there is little room left for immigrants in America to become anything more than "cardboard cutouts" simply playing a role to please their suspicious neighbors and ever more watchful government. She claims that the American political imagination has shifted so far to the right that people without status who have a certain profile must work harder and harder to earn and deserve their place in society: they must prove to everyone else why they should not be suspected, jailed, and eventually shipped away (in other words, guilty until proven innocent). Not only that, the book also discusses how recent security concerns have been used as a justification for the US government to display increased racial and cultural discrimination in areas of long-standing concern to civil rights advocates; such as housing and jobs. There are no exceptions to the argument presented, any and all immigrants, and especially communities of immigrants have been affected in the post-9/11 national security frenzy. Somalis, Haitians, Pakistanis, Mexicans, and more, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, have all been targeted by recent policies. While several scholars and others have so far explored the legal and constitutional ramifications of the war on terror, this book takes a different, ground-level, view of how these national and local policies affect the individuals, families, and communities themselves - the real effects of such policies on our neighbors. Most importantly, the author argues that with hindsight, racial and ethnic scapegoating in response to crisis is by and large viewed as unjust and inexcusable. The author asks readers: Will the war on terrorism redefine the meaning of who belongs in America?
The claim that America has been putting every immigrant and foreigner in the USA under suspicion post-9/11 is backed up in this book by several firsthand stories and conversations. Also, at the end of the book there is an appendix which is titled "2001-2004: A time line of major events and policies affecting immigrants and civil liberties", which briefly describes over 100 policies and events which have directly affected immigrants, their families, and their communities since the September 11 World Trade Center attacks. Policies and events included are Secret Proceedings, the USA Patriot Act, Military Tribunals, Indefinite Detentions, INS Restructuring, and the new Department of Homeland Security, among others. The firsthand stories alone are not enough for me to deem this book effective in its claim that all immigrants and foreigners are living a suspected and frightened existence in America. However, the time line appendix in combination with these stories does make it an effective and worthwhile portrait in my mind. This book was not made to dryly describe policy and legalities, it was written to get readers, fellow Americans, to feel sympathy and outrage at what has been going on to our immigrant neighbors. To me, I did end up fully feeling this sympathy and outrage to the fullest upon finishing the book.
The author points out alternative arguments in a few instances that the attack on immigrant civil rights is not new in the post-9/11 era, but only grossly exaggerated and magnified. She cites the war on drugs which racially profiled men and women of color in the 1980's, as well as the continued conflict over the US-Mexico border in the southwest, especially California, throughout the 1990's and today. Other evidence cited that the new post-9/11 policies are just magnified excuses for increased racial profiling and suspicion enacted by policies of the last two decades, including the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which both expanded grounds for deportation to include over fifty categories of crimes and made detention and deportation mandatory minimum sentences (both signed by Clinton in 1996). These are just a few instances painting a picture of what the author feels is wrong with the United States immigration policy and treatment in general going back much further than the crisis following September 11, and will keep going on much longer afterward.
Closing with: "What the detained and deported have to teach us is the lesson of the most disenfranchised of this state. How we treat the people nobody wants to defend, America's least wanted, tells us much about the ability of this system to uphold a free and democratic equal society", Nguyen's book was the most convincing argument I have read since 9/11 that shows me the injustices of a society living in fear of "terrorists", which I just see as a fear of different cultures. The Civil Rights Act may have been passed in the 1960's, but now it seems as if we are just a nation going back in time and breaking promises that have been made for civil liberties for all inhabitants of our country. The book has opened my eyes ever wider to the fact that old and discredited ideas about race, ethnicity, and culture are rapidly rising. The narratives and interviews pulled at my emotions, making me ask myself over and over again, "How can we treat people so inhumanely?" While the ending time line made me ask "How did these policies all get passed without any sort of a public outcry for justice?" Overall, We Are All Suspects Now has earned my respect as being a wonderful and straightforward book that can pull in and eventually open anyone's eyes (even those who normally don't like to read) to the current culture crisis which is now facing the US.

We are all suspects now.......2006-11-27

In the book We are all Suspects Now written by Tram Nguyen, she explains the untold tales of immigrant life in the United States after what happened on September 11th. People of Somali, Muslim, Arab, and South Asian decent tell their stories of detainment, deportation, and discrimination through out all areas of North America crushing their hopes and dreams of a better life for many immigrants in this country.
Nguyen begins her focus of We are all Suspects Now by explaining the happy lives most immigrants had living in the United States. She further explains that many immigrated to the U.S. fleeing poverty and harsh treatments in their homelands or for a better life. The U.S. is where they could fulfill the American dream. Many immigrants came just to work and send money back to their families across sea. Others found good jobs and a safe place to raise their families. These stories of their "dream" land continued on until September 11th. This crises threw the U.S. into a period of discrimination and racial slander not only from ordinary American citizens but also from American government. From then on immigrants lives have been changed and mainly not for the better.
Within a period of about two months after the 9/11 attacks, more than 1,200 immigrants were unfairly detained as "suspects" to the attack with no proof to even convict them. The way that Nguyen explains how these immigrants were detained was very disturbing to me because I was not aware of many of the actions taken, or situations these people were put in until after I had read his book. For example, Nguyen gives details of how they were not even told most of the time that they were being detained or even given the right to an attorney. This lead to many people just "disappearing" in the eyes of their family members and friends. Next the U.S. government took this process a step further by requiring men 16 and older to register in order to find out which immigrants had been living in the U.S. illegally with no green cards or visas.
I believe that Nguyen is an inspiring writer because of the many issues she talks about. She rises above many people by telling these immigrants stories, including people such as Mohommad Butt who have died during this struggling period in American history. Mohommad Butt was the first person to die during detainment and Nguyen recognizes that in her book by making him a hero along with other immigrants of their time. She also includes tales of immigrant leaders who rose above to guide other immigrants to do the right thing in order to prevent deportation and detainment. She even included the harsh trips to Canada when fleeing the United States and how they were sent right back after spending their lives savings to reach this "safe haven."
Nguyen uses these examples along with many others to explain the tragedies occurring to US immigrants after September 11th. She tells her story in such a way that it is almost unbelievable what happened to many of these immigrants. Nguyen not only uses facts against the US but also sympathizes somewhat for the US, giving the reader a better understanding of both sides of the story. To do this she explains that many of these immigrants that were deported had legitimate reasons to be according to United States laws. Many of them were illegal immigrants or had expired visas. Immigrants may have gotten away with this for some time, but it was against the US law so the government was in many ways just enforcing these laws in a stronger way. Nguyen only went so far with this idea because in her writing I believe people are able to understand that these situations could have been handled in a better way. Nguyen also makes us aware that many people were fleeing the borders of Mexico into the United States causing many problems with drug dealing and violence. The people living there, American or not, had to deal with these issues in a very uncomfortable manner including encounters with minutemen and small citizen made "militias" attacking not only the trespassers in their front yards, but them as well.
Nguyen is a very strong writer because of her truthfulness as shown above. In my opinion I feel like Nguyen is a very convincing and relatable writer. She uses very realistic and relevant information throughout her book, which after reading I felt like was not exaggerated or overwhelming. When I first started reading this book I thought it was going to be similar to a dull history novel, but after I started reading more into it, I began to enjoy it more and learned a great deal about the subject of United States immigrants. I thought it was mainly going to be about things I had already known about 9/11, but everything I learned was knew to me. For example, I did not know that the government was being so harsh and racist against these groups of people and was shocked by most of it. These people were just trying to support their families and strive for a better life while America was racially discriminating against them just because of their race and culture. I believe that Nguyen is trying to get this point across in her writing so more people can be aware of these situations and they do not happen again in the future.
Over all, this book was very informative and interesting to me. I learned a lot of information about immigrant life in America. I was very much appalled at the way in which the United States citizens and government handle situations after September 11th. From the stories Nguyen explained I realized that I was somewhat naive and unaware to these situations as I'm sure many others were too.

Immigration, asylum and criminal policies .......2006-06-21

WE ARE ALL SUSPECTS NOW: UNTOLD STORIES FROM IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES AFTER 9/11 is essential reading for any who would understand the changed lives of immigrants in the U.S. after the event. It gathers the personal stories of communities affected by post-9/11 tension and threats to civil liberties, examining immigration, asylum and criminal policies and how these have affected thousands of immigrants past and present. Changes to these policies reflect a shift to the right - and a shift in how immigrant communities are surveyed and managed.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Immigrant Stories After 9/11.......2006-05-09

This book is a collection of stories of prejudice, discrimination and racial profiling brought on by events and government policies after the September 11th attacks on the United States. It explains what some of these immigrants went through both before and after the attacks of September 11th. The author does a good job explaining the unjust detainment and sometimes even the deportment of immigrants around the country.
This book describes in relatively good detail, how these people were living before and after the events and policies after September 11th. It goes into detail on how most of the immigrants had a relatively good life while trying to achieve the American dream. These people had jobs and they were making enough money to live and to send to their families in their own countries. Most of them saved to bring their families to America so they could leave the poverty, war and oppression of their home countries. This all changed on September 11th 2001.
Within the next two months, the government conducted what was called the September 11th roundup. This is when they detained more than twelve hundred Muslim, Arab and South Asian men who were possible terrorist suspects. These men were not given attorneys or told why they were being detained. None of the men that were detained were found of aiding terrorism. This was just the start of the policies that made immigrants fearful that they might be deported from the country they loved back to the country they feared.
The government also had new policies like special registrations that forced men who were sixteen or older to register with the government. This lead to an extremely large number went through deportation hearings and many also were detained. This policy seemed like it was meant to get rid of the immigrants whose visas and green cards were already expired. This would mean that they would go through deportation hearings and most likely would be deported. Most people did not want to register because they knew what was going to happen but one way or another, they would be found out and most likely deported. This was also a tragic thing to happen to a family. It would mean that the man would have to leave his family who were still living in the U.S. It was made even harder because the family would often have to follow the man because they really had no choice in the matter. They would have no money if the male had to leave the country.
There were also some really awful things that were done to the detainees in the prisons. They were not allowed to make any phone calls, not even to their families. Most people were denied the use of a lawyer. They tended to set bail at a high price so the detainees would not be able to get out of jail. If they did have the money, it was hard to tell your family because you were not allowed phone calls and they also moved the detainees all over the place to different locations, sometimes even multiple locations in one day. There were some bad things that were done to the prisoners and I wish that I could say that they were done for a reason but I can't see any logical reason to do any of these things to those people.
The issue that I think is the most severe is the border patrol issue. As an American, I think that it is very alarming that people can just about come into the U.S. from Mexico unnoticed. This seems like it makes us even more susceptible to many different kinds of terrorist threats and should probably be treated as so. If all these migrants can cross the border without being caught, then why couldn't a terrorist? Although the only places where they can cross are in either mountain or desert areas where many people die just trying to have a little piece of the life that we have. In some way it makes me respect and understand just how lucky I really am and how much more worse off I could be.
There is also another part to the story of many immigrants just trying to make it in the free world. There are plenty of immigrants who were forced to seek asylum in Canada because they heard their asylum laws were not as strict as the U.S. and they did not want to register in the U.S. But the laws in Canada were about to change. The U.S. and Canada had both worked together to create similar laws to protect the border. So most of the time when the immigrants made it to the border, the Canadian government would take them right back to the United States. I don't exactly know how I am supposed to feel about this situation. I realize that all these people want is a home but the sudden rush of people trying to get asylum hearings was just not going to happen during these hard times.
This was a very intrusting and enlightening book for me to read. I feel extreme sadness and sympathy for the people who were wrongfully affected by the procedures of these policies that were implemented by the United States government after the tragedy of September 11th. Although I think that for the most part, these procedures needed to be put into effect. Something needed to be done to help prevent another tragedy from occurring, especially on our own soil. These policies are by no means perfect but they are a large stepping-stone for us to start on.

Still Pickled After All These Years: A Pickles Book (Pickles)

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Pickles
1000 and 5 stars for this book and Brian Crane
Laughing my head off
Days of laughter

Still Pickled After All These Years: A Pickles Book (Pickles)
Brian Crane
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0740743406

Book Description

As its loyal fans will gladly tell you, Pickles has been a zinger-filled, laugh-out-loud gem since it debuted in 1990. Over the last decade, it's steadily climbed in popularity, and today appears in over 400 papers worldwide. Now Andrews McMeel Publishing is releasing its first-ever collection of the strip that Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel readers voted as their overwhelming favorite comic, spanning all sexes and age groups.Still Pickled After All These Years collects recent strips from the sweet intergenerational comic that alternates point of view between an older married couple, a 30-something married couple, and a their son. The strip centers on Earl and Opal Pickles, who have been married over 50 years but inject plenty of spunk and insight into everything they do. Whether they're taking a wry but sympathetic glance at their divorced daughter Sylvia, laughing at their faithful but feckless canine, Roscoe, marveling at their dictatorial feline, Muffin, or just commenting on the little things in life, Earl and Opal's good-natured wit and dry humor is brilliantly on target.Pickles is about growing old and keeping your sense of humor but never forgetting what it's like to be a child. The strip's inaugural AMP collection, Still Pickled After All These Years, encapsulates the importance of staying close to those who bring you the most joy and reminds everyone from teens to seniors about the incalculable value of the unconditional love of pets, family, and friends.

Customer Reviews:

Pickles.......2007-10-03

Pickles are the funniest books. Is Brian Crane hiding in our home?
Is that how he knows us so well.

1000 and 5 stars for this book and Brian Crane.......2007-09-02

This Brian Crane has invaded our home, no other explanation for his hitting the nail on our heads

Laughing my head off.......2007-06-09

Brian Crane is without a doubt one of the funniest cartoonists out there today. His book "Still Pickled After All These Years: A Pickles Book" is just hilarious. You will find yourself laughing out loud while reading this book. It is amazing how easy it is to see real people...i.e., parents/grandparents in his cartoon strips. I highly recommend this book.

Days of laughter.......2006-06-30

Mr crane, with minimal penstrokes, creates a world of retired folks that captures the humerous and very real situations that we, or our friends, experience.

Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran

Average customer rating:

A Page Turner!
In the name of Iran
It is not a the whole story !
A page-turner
Great Book!

Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran
Afschineh Latifi
Manufacturer: Harper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060745339
Release Date: 2005-03-29

Customer Reviews:

A Page Turner!.......2007-01-30

I started reading this book and couldn't put it down. This is the incredibly story of the Latifi family who persevered through the revolution in Iran and their immigration to the United States.
I have spent quite some time in the Middle East and having this account of life and hardship in Iran helped me to understand the mentality and culture of women in Iran better.
I immigrated to the United States myself and even though I didn't come here under political asylum I know how hard it is to try to fit into the American culture and still hold on to your heritage. The bonds of family and the will to succeed show once more that you can achieve in this country whatever you want. You just have to have the will to do so, something that we are too quick to forget. This is a must read!

In the name of Iran.......2006-06-17

This book discusses that how Ms. Latify father was executed due to 1979 revolution in Iran. As a result, this family's life torn apart. Two elder daughters left Iran and made their way to US and eventually one became a doctor and other one became an attorney. Plus, their mother and two brothers came to US and resided in US and earned higher education.

It is not a the whole story !.......2006-05-17

I have finished this book recently and I really felt I need to say something about it! interestingly I am doughter of a teacher and colonel of the last regim too, who retired after the revolution, no problem at all. However, I do not want to say that those who were executed were all guilty. Her father had other chances too.
And sending Afshineh and her sister to Austria in that age and the aftermath of this decision just because the schools were running under the new regime, is so funny! there were and are great number of peolpe in Iran who have studied in that situation but could as well study English and music and anything if they could afford it (and it seems Latifi family well could) and go to study overseas when they finish high school. It was not like that because of the new regime there was no chance of good education. so this is basically causing the problem: Was is really that neccessary to send two girls abroad like that just for education reasons? I guess there was an urge to leave the country for this family that was beyond education.
Another thing is lots of false information like sending the 13 year boys to the military service! that rubbish. My husband who is the same age as the writer never recalls such a thing! and things like that are not exceptional in the book.
As some of the other people mention the book is good if you read it as a "fiction". Of course for those who left Iran after revolution and have no idea about living and growing in post-revolutionary Iran and become a great educated person and not neccessaily religious at the same, it might look "real", as well as non Iranians who do not know Iran very well. For me however and I think for many like me, who went to school and high school in Tehran after revoluton and grew in a family who was not that wealthy that can afford to send me overseas to study! but was very fond of good education (I was sent to the best schools available, English classes and I could go by myself overseas and study and get PhD after high school in Iran and be a successful woman)it does not seem to tell all the "real" story. it is not all of it. Do not take it as an information desk.

A page-turner.......2006-05-02

I just finished this book and loved it. If you like reading about different culture and enjoy non-fiction this is the perfect book for you. Its true, sometimes the author's admission of crying over clothes and Barbies is shocking - but I see it as admission of truth and lack of understanding. The author isn't patting herself on the back for these traits - but showing the reader how, as a child, she didn't fully comprehend the gravity of her family's situation. She was not careless and selfish individual, but a confused and frightened child.

Great Book!.......2006-04-28

I just finished reading this book and I thought it was excellent! It was very well written and a great true story! I felt that Afschinehs story was very interesting and I could see myself reading this book over again. I can't say enough good things about this book!

I'm the 82nd Airborne Division!: A History of the All American Division in World War II After Action Reports

Average customer rating:

Tells you all you want to know about the 82nd

I'm the 82nd Airborne Division!: A History of the All American Division in World War II After Action Reports
Robert P. Anzuoni
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0764323474

Book Description

"I'm the 82nd Airborne Division!" is the most comprehensive collection of combat narratives, after action reports, documents, maps, and photographs detailing the saga of one of the most famous units in the Second World War. These original documents are now published for the first time since they were created sixty years ago. The Division comes alive, as individuals and units of the 82nd tell their own stories. Maps illustrate day-by-day movements of the various regiments during campaigns. Appendices list commander, casualties, and captured equipment. Special photographic essays show helmet markings and ephemera. From designation as the U.S. Army's first airborne division in 1942 through the campaigns in Sicily, Italy, Anzio, Normandy, Holland, Belgium, and Germany all the way to the occupation of Berlin and the victory parade in New York, this is the story of the 82nd Airborne Division - The All American in World War II. A great reference for anyone interested in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II and a fitting tribute to those who served in its ranks.

Customer Reviews:

Tells you all you want to know about the 82nd.......2006-11-12

Very detailled book with all the facts included. Specially the combat reports and statistics are very good. If you really want to know the facts you have to read this book.

Average customer rating:

Love After All (Arabesque)
Celeste Norfleet
Manufacturer: Kimani Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0373830068

Book Description

Like her grifter father, Samantha Lee Taylor has a talent for deception. But long ago she decided to reject that lifestyle. Now her cunning is the only thing that's keeping her alive while sh's running from those who are pursuing her brother—who fancies himself as a big-time con artist.

Former cop Jackson Daley is out to catch the person who is blackmailing his father. When a source implicates Samantha's brother, the two team up to try and find him, but for very different reasons. Can these wary allies put aside their suspicions and avoid the real danger that lurks around them? And can they ignore the mutual attraction and passion that bubbles with every move this street-savvy pair makes?

Book Description

She was America's darling: actress, producer, star of the golden age of television. Her work on The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show garnered multiple Emmys, followed by critical acclaim for her acting on Broadway and in film. Now, in her witty, candid, heartbreaking autobiography, Mary Tyler Moore tells all, about...the Dick Van Dyke nobody knows...Elvis, her sly, seductive co-star in Change of Habit...how Carl Reiner taught her to cry while being funny...Robert Redford's confession after casting her in Ordinary People...about then-First Lady Betty Ford's inebriated debut on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and years later, her phone call that saved Mary's life.

Mary spares nothing as she recounts her traumatic childhood, two failed marriages, her own alcoholism, the tragic death of her son, and her third, happy marriage to a cardiologist eighteen years her junior. Moving, inspiring, and brutally frank, After All will touch every reader's heart and soul.

Customer Reviews:

leaves one longing for "moore".......2005-04-29

I read this book in a sitting,admittedly skimming certain parts.Although I am a big MTM fan, it whetted my appetite without satiating me...there is definitely a vague "arm's length" quality to this book noted by previous reviewers...MTM obviously suffered from a lack of connection with either of her parents as well as a lack of any kind of spiritual connection...I found the "vegetarian" chapter oddly placed and suspect readers might be more interested in how she keeps such an enviable physique.All that drinking and never a hangover,wow,what a charmed life...it was hard to picture squeaky clean Laura Petrie or Mary Richards smoking like a chimney, too.Although she states she's nothing like her TV characters, in the end the book made her seem a little one-dimensional,like a television actor.I still admire Ms Moore but I think some professional writing help would have greatly improved the quality of this work.True fans will probably enjoy it , but others should pass..

a tell all book.......2004-03-29

Mary Tyler Moore displays a great talent for writing. She holds nothing back in her book, and is brutally honest. I can't imagine a person being more honest with themselves than she is in her autobiography.
It is a great read for all MTM fans.

MARY.......2003-04-10

In "After All" Mary Tyler Moore writes openly about her
childhood,growing up in Brooklyn NY, then Hollywood.Her life
in showbusiness.Personal tragedy,loss,regrets and finally
being able to find the happiness within.You will feel her joys
and sorrows.You will laugh and you will cry.As I finished the
book this morning I felt I had lost my best friend.
Truly a remarkable book on a remarkable woman.

Superficial, yet interesting.......2000-02-20

I read every word of this book (in about half an hour) and wish the white space at the end of two or three page "chapter" was filled and then some. This is an exceedingly superficial, detached treatment of very personal, sometimes revealing stuff. Yet why do I feel MTM managed to pull it off--telling me her secrets while keeping herself at armslength. Then again, she seems to keep at armslength from herself... There is information about The Dick Van Dyke show, the The MTM Show, MTM's alcoholism, diabetes, pregnancies and marriages, the deaths of her son, sister, and brother, her audience with the pope, her visit to Israel...all these things, yet not very much. Possibly one of the most fascinating lives in modern American entertainment, and so many details left out! Maybe Ms. Levine will write another book--maybe a book about each of the highlights (or lowlights) by themself.

A Good Read.......1999-10-05

Mary has a flair for writing which makes this book more interesting that your average celeb biography. Her life is fascinating, and she spares nothing in this engrossing book.

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