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Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant Review

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(More customer reviews)Most of us have heard of John Brown and his unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry. But how many of us have heard of Mary Ellen Pleasant? Mary Ellen Pleasant was a civil rights leader before there was an official movement, yet she is often omitted from history books. In FREE ENTERPRISE Michelle Cliff uses a mixture of historical fact and fiction to create a complex tale that highlights the life of this often overlooked phenomenal woman.
The book takes place in the mid 1800's and focuses on the lives of Mary Ellen Pleasant, a wealthy hotelier from California, and Annie Christmas, a young Jamaican who left her home to make a life in the United States. In addition, special attention is paid to the relationship the two women shared and their involvement in the abolitionist movement. The story is not told in a linear fashion; instead the author takes readers back and forth in time. In addition, the story is told from through the voices of several different characters in a series of vignettes. The result is a complex and richly detailed story told with a strong literary flair.
I thoroughly enjoyed FREE ENTERPRISE; it is a thought-provoking and enjoyable tale. It is a weighty read, and requires full attention and thought. As Michelle Cliff alternates from time to time, place to place, and voice to voice, she provides intricate details that when woven together result in a powerful tale. I particularly loved the fact that all of the major characters in the book were women, and that the author depicted them as strong, intelligent and well-rounded, especially considering the time period in which the story took place. FREE ENTERPRISE is a well-written, literary read with strong female characters, and a pleasant mixture of history and creativity. This is the kind of book you could read several times and each time take something new away; definitely a story to savor.
Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

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Tempted by Fate (The Guardians of Destiny) Review

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(More customer reviews)Tempted by Fate the third book in Kate Perry's Guardian series was mind candy, not a story that's going to stick with me forever, but it was really enjoyable while I was gobbling it down.
Willow - the Guardian of the mystical scroll of wood and endowed with all the powers that brings - is closing in on the man she has sought for years, the 'bad man' who murdered her mother. But even as she seems close to finally gaining her revenge, the man throws obstacles in her way - or rather dead bodies. As a suspect in the murders, the mysterious blond haired beauty is now on Homicide Detective Ricardo Ramirez's radar, and suddenly Rick and his black and white wordview is going to have to make room for shades of gray - because the even though Willow is not as tough as she plays it with Rick, she's definitely no angel.
I really liked both of the leads. The by-the-book Rick who has appeared throughout the series, now takes over as leading man. It is interesting to see how Rick deviates from the straight and narrow and how his ethics are tested by the woman he should arrest, but who he can't seem to resist. And the fascination is mutual for Willow even though her attraction to Rick threatens her well being as well as offering a very real potential of a life in prison. Rick and Willow have great chemistry together and 'who they are' means that they both seem so wrong for each other, so it is satisfying to watch them try to unsuccessfully to fight their visceral attraction to each other.
Even though the story would work pretty well as a stand-alone it was fun to see the other Guardians (and significant others) from the previous books in supporting roles, and I also really like several of the new side characters as well - Rick's wise and somewhat magical grandmother is great as is Willow's tech savvy business partner.
So if you are looking for a steamy read with a hot cop falling for a bad girl - who is understatedly more kick butt than many a urban fantasy leading lady, and in no way as bad as she pretends to be - Tempted by Fate may appeal to you too.

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Willow Tarata is a Guardian who trusts no one. She hunts those who prey on the vulnerable. And she's driven by a vengeful goal-find the man who murdered her mother. Yet suddenly Willow's quarry now has her on the run . . . straight into the sights of San Francisco's most dangerous detective. Three bizarre murders have Inspector Rick Ramirez baffled-and determined to uncover the truth. But to catch the real killer, he needs the help of his prime suspect, Willow Tarata, even though this fierce and sexy blonde is challenging his professional cool. And now, unless they believe in each other and trust their deepest instincts, a relentless evil will end both Willow's and Rick's life-and claim this Guardian's extraordinary powers forever . . . (2010)

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I Married An Earthling: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Alvin Orloff (redactor extraordinaire of the must-read memoir The Unsinkable Bambi Lake) has crafted a surprisingly nutritive bon-bon with this spiffy book. Framed via the interlocking journal entries of two hyper-intelligent misfits (one on Earth, one not), I Married An Earthling! critiques cultural norms like ignorance, violence and predictable sit-coms with a marvelous outlook I'll call "Ethical Camp." Not content to curse the darkness, Orloff instead lights a brave lava-lamp, inspiring all of us queer-at-heart folk with visions of other worlds where Aesthetics triumph. All this and a nerd love-story too. What more could you want?

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In this rollicking send-up of traditional science fiction, an Earth Studies professor from the planet Zeeron decides to increase his university status by visiting Earth accompanied by Veeba 22, a chic hairdresser of the highest social order. What happens when they are mistaken for evil villains instead of fabulous celebrities? How do they escape to San Francisco, where they blend in surprisingly well? All hell breaks loose when they cross paths with the adolescent agony of Chester Julian, a gay Goth Holden Caulfield with acne. Part Jacqueline Susann romantasy, part cheesy Lost in Space episode, this gay comedy will delight any fan of pop culture literature.

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120 Charles Street, The Village: Journals and Writings, 1949-1950 Review

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(More customer reviews)In every age and culture, young, idealistic artists have wrestled passionately with themselves, their work, and the society that spawned them, fiercely dedicated to making a better world. Greenwich Village had its heyday as a hotbed of culture and revolution, and this volume of daily journal entries by Holly Beye gives us a tactile, gritty, moving portrait of one year in that singular strata of Village life.
The four volumes of Holly's journals that make up this book, covering October 1949 to October 1950, were lost for over fifty years. When she found them, she writes, "I sat back in my chair, overwhelmed with emotion. I could hardly believe what I had been reading." Now in her eighties, she had come face-to-face with herself as a bright, earnest, spunky 27-28 year old. It's easy (especially if you can look back on your twenties) to identify with Holly, a writer, and her painter-printmaker husband David Ruff, living in a dilapidated $30/month basement apartment. They are pennies from destitution at every turn. Yet they remain hopeful: surely, just next week her stories or his prints will sell and they will be rescued. Against a backdrop of Cold War, Korean "Police Action," and McCarthyism, and with the White Horse Tavern as their anchor, Beye and Ruff and their spirited gaggle of creative pacifist friends live anything but a safe, consumerist American dream. Among their closest friends who make regular appearances are the influential writer/artist Kenneth Patchen and his wife Miriam, plus Jonathan Williams, later to be among the most important publishers of the avant-garde. The journals end with Holly and David's exodus from NYC, heading for "sunnier skies" in San Francisco.
The journal form reveals life as it really is: day by day, the sublime and the mundane are equal. Along with Beye's astute, deeply-felt explorations of the creative process and the aims of art, we learn each day's weather, meals, pleasures and discomforts. Both the constant battle with poverty and the rousing tumult of social life among the hordes of NYC are persistent themes that Beye captures in lively, economic, unself-conscious prose. The entries abound with the kind of concrete detail that speaks truth; passages often left me full of a mixture of excitement, inspiration, camaraderie, and sadness.
Since moving to Woodstock, NY in 1955, Holly has stayed politically and artistically active. She helped found the Kingston, NY chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality and participated in demonstrations. She won writing awards and saw her plays produced in NYC, San Francisco, and Woodstock. She directed numerous performances of two actor's troupes, the Heads and Holly's Comets. Suffering a serious accident in 2004 which left her unable to walk, Holly now lives in a nursing home, where she writes, works on The Tibetan Center newsletter, and leads a meditation group for residents.
In more than half a century, life has changed dramatically in so many details, but the fundamental truths of human existence have altered very little. Lives lived with honesty and courage, like Holly Beye's, are an example to us all.

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Cultural Writing. Biography and Memoir. An historical document...interview with poet Kenneth Patchen (PM Newspaper 1946) and four volumes of Holly Beye's journals from 1949-1950 in Greenwich Village. "It was a powerful, absorbing, hopeful, productive time, pregnant with promise. And it was, therefore, despite the hardship, a happy time. We are fortunate these lively, perceptive journals survived, along with their writer"--Betty Ballentine.

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Building a Home Within: Meeting the Emotional Needs of Children and Youth in Foster Care Review

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(More customer reviews)As a therapist who works with foster children, I have searched high and low for books geared toward treating this population and was disheartened by the dearth of information. I was pleased, therefore, to crack open this book, which is a collaborative effort of several therapists involved with the Children's Psychotherapy Project. The CPP assigns a volunteer therapist to one foster child, "for as long as it takes," with the idea that one consistent adult in a foster child's life can make an important difference.
The book begins with an overview of CPP, and moves into an attachment/ psychoanalytic/object-relations-based understanding of the psychological issues of children in foster care. This is an excellent overview and can provide a helpful "translation" of often frustrating behaviors that would be particularly helpful for therapists who are new to this population. Explained from a relational point of view with an eye toward the impact of trauma/ loss, "crazy" behaviors begin to make more sense. It also looks at how therapists work in the context of the larger system, in conjunction with foster parents, birth parents, social workers, and adoption agencies.
What I'd hoped to find, but didn't, were session dialogues between client and therapist. Probably a personal preference on my part, but in professional books I find such play-by-play incredibly helpful in seeing the nitty gritty details of the therapy described. Nonetheless, the book does offer some fairly detailed overviews of long-term treatment with several different children. One thing I dearly loved, that is too often missing from professional books on therapy, is an open willingness of the therapists to explore their own reactions to clients, positive and negative, as well as to examine missteps they made in the course of treatment. How reassuring for therapists to have our own humanity normalized. The book has a lovely focus on taking time for reflection, rather than the immediate action that is often demanded by the foster care system. It allowed me to look at the work I do in a different, deeper, and more thoughtful way. It is unfailingly hopeful while acknowledging the realities and limitations involved in this work.

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Everyday Murders Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is page turner. Full of gruesome, everyday murder cases told from the point of view of the author, former Manhattan and San Francisco prosecutor Hugh Levine. Levine writes with intricate detail of six unfortunately commonplace murder prosecutions, but, like Melville in Moby Dick, Levine adds a myriad of fascinating facts and figures about the crime itself, its underlying causes and psychology. One of my favorite books of the year.

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What compels man to murder? Former prosecutor Hugh Anthony Levine enables the reader to sit with him at the prosecution s table as he represents the People of the State of New York or the People of the State of California in the trials of some everyday murders which encapsulate raw emotions often impelling man to kill greed, lust, fear, hatred, as well as mere folly. Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out wrote playwright John Webster in 1623, and our fascination with murder and murder trials has continued unabated to the present. Murder is, after all, the most dramatically unlawful thing a person can do to another. Illuminating not the O.J. Simpson-, Scott Peterson-, Claus von BÃƒÂ¼low-type cases which capture wide attention but those tried every week across America, often in courtrooms with no one in the audience, Everyday Murders in its gripping true stories brings up in full color killers who: inflicted too many stab wounds to count; killed as entertainment for their friends; wielded unusual weapons; killed multiple victims in the course of attempting suicide; were identified by a heroic victim who spoke from the grave; revealing the extraordinary drama inherent in even an ordinary murder.

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Cold Serial Murder (Beach Reading) Review

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(More customer reviews)When Tim Snow's Aunt Ruth comes to visit him in San Francisco, she is expecting to relax and reconnect with her nephew, as well as her favorite City by the Bay. On the first day of her visit, Tim discovers the bloody body of his former lover, Jason, and a co-worker at Art's, a restaurant and bar in the Castro. It turns out to be the first of several stabbings, including another one from Tim's circle of acquaintances, apparently the work of a serial killer on which the police have no leads. One of the murders ironically provides an opportunity for Aunt Ruth to consider relocating to San Francisco permanently, but she is more worried about keeping Tim and his friends safe from harm. Can Tim's untrained psychic abilities provide a lead, or are Aunt Ruth's gut feelings about one of his neighbors the better judge of a likely suspect?
In this second of his "Beach Reading" series of light thrillers, Abramson further develops the likeable and relatable characters he introduced in that enjoyable first book (same name as the series), and again provides a story that perfectly captures the cohesive spirit of the Castro community. While mystery purists may prefer a few more "red herrings" to complicate the solving of the crime, the author obviously intends for the series to entertain rather than challenge, and it succeeds wonderfully on that level. A clang from a streetcar, and five golden stars out of five!

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Tim Snow expected to show his visiting Aunt Ruth the wonders of San Francisco, but never expected one of the sights of the city would be the body of his ex-lover. A killer is on the loose in the Castro district. Meanwhile, Tim's cadre of quirky friends and neighbors makes life all the more interesting with their drama of weddings and lost (and found) loves. Cold Serial Murder continues the story of one of the Castro's most adorable characters. Can Tim and his Aunt uncover who the killer is before it's too late?

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