After 9/11: A Korean Girl's Sexual Journey

Average customer rating:

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL...

A Painfully Funny and Erotic Memoir,

An interesting cultural perspective

A Brave Book

After 9/11: A Korean Girl's Sexual Journey
Younghee Cha
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1419618172
Release Date: 2005-12-21

Book Description

This book is about the journey of a 26-year-old Korean Catholic girl who came to America, pursuing her American dream. After 9/11, she faces visa and financial problems. Along the way, she encounters guilty feelings about her first love and embarks upon an erotic odyssey...by turns blissful, dangerous and bizarre. The story parallels her journey to her anti-American uncle's diary. . .written from 1985 to 1988, right before his mysterious death. ### More about this book? Here are the contents...1. Got an Oscar! 2. September 11th, 2001, 3. The Anti-American's Suicide, * My Uncle's Diary (3/3/1985) 4. The DREAM Act Is Dying, 5. Hail Wifiers, * My Uncle's Diary (4/19/1985) 6. Manhood With Tabasco Sauce, 7. Got Soju? * My Uncle's Diary (5/17/1985) 8. My Taekwondo Cost My Virginity, 9. My Best Friend Shot Me, 10. Yin & Yang Sex, * My Uncle's Diary (5/21/1986) 11. I, a North Korean Terrorist, 12. Mom Is Sorry, 13. My Vagina Smashed My Insomnia, 14. My First Period, * My Uncle's Diary (10/28/1986) 15. As a Masochist, * My Uncle's Diary (11/28/1986) 16. Dog Meat Stew, 17. Korean & American Friendship Bell, 18. Naked Yoga, 19. Losing My Legal Status, 20. Marriage For a Visa, 21. Priest's Libido, 22. As Happy As Disneyland, 23. Kimbob Becomes a Terrorist, * My Uncle's Diary (4/3/1987) 24. Bisexuality Does Not Exist, 25. Crane Dance, 26. Terminate Illegal Residents! 27. Accepting Prostitution, 28. The 4/29 L.A. Riots Named Me "Stink," 29. Kimchi Party, 30. My Past Is Coming, * My Uncle's Diary (Autumn 1987) 31. Ahn-Yong-Ha-Sae-Yo, 32. Dokdo's Gay Life, 33. The Mirror Computer Monitor, 34. "69" Live Show, * My Uncle's Diary (Christmas Eve, 1987) 35. Testicle Crusher, * My Uncle's Diary (1/24/1988) 36. A Family, 37. You Are My Destiny, * My Uncle's Diary (3/3/1988) 38. Into Tinseltown, * My Uncle's Diary (4/19/1988) 39. Heaven, * My Uncle's Diary-My Diary (5/17/1988) 40. My First Sex, * My Uncle's Diary (6/10/1988) 41. Sandwich In Tears, * My Uncle's Diary (6/29/1988) 42. Little Madonna, 43. 9/11s Are Forgiveness, 44. For Space.

Customer Reviews:

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL..........2006-02-26

I fell in love with Younghee on the very first page. I share the excitement she feels at living in Los Angeles. She gave me an insider's view of Koreatown and of her own culture. But there is nothing didactic about this story! Younghee is a woman of THIS millenium, as are her sexual attitudes and practices. She holds nothing back from us, not even her own vulnerability. It was hard for me to put the book down because I wanted to help her solve her dilemma. But she never gave up hoping that her life would come together and it did, for now! I am hoping myself that I will learn more about Younghee, what she is doing now, where has life brought her. I am hoping for another book from Younghee Cha

A Painfully Funny and Erotic Memoir,.......2006-02-02

I recommend this book, due to its powerful image of a Korean-Catholic woman's struggle against losing her American dream after 9/11. It is a journey into sexuality, into being human, and particularly into the problems of living in the USA as an immigrant (not only Korean-Americans). It includes a statement about the DREAM Act. It also asks some big questions: What happened after 9/11 to the immigrant situation? What is wrong with Arnold Schwarzenegger? Why did her uncle become anti-American? How has the Iraq War affected us all? And so on. This is a very controversial book. There are so many things to talk about. I liked her anti-American uncle's diary. It reveals what happened between her and her uncle when she was 13.

Most amazing is Chapter 43, "9/11s Are Forgiveness." This makes "9/11" a general noun for the worst disaster that could happen in one's life. I have never seen any writer put it this way. In any event, it is a brilliant merging of sexuality with politics. I laughed out loud at its rich humor, then sat silently mesmerized while absorbing its political and erotic content. Having so thoroughly enjoyed it, I believe it would be good to share this feeling with others. The moving story, dealing with her struggles, gave me a greater understanding of humanity.

An interesting cultural perspective.......2006-02-01

This is a very interesting novel about a young Korean woman and her journey as a an American immigrant in the days following 9-11. I found it most interesting to imagine her perspective as a newly arrived immigrant. Too often we Americans view 9-11 only by our own perspective, so it was interesting and refreshing to see another's point of view. The novel contains strong sexual imagery, but the author weaves this through the heroines general life experiences. The characters are engaging, and the plot has some interesting cultural and sociological aspects. I enjoyed it!

A Brave Book.......2006-01-05

Having loved it, I want to recommend this new novel. In the title you already see its ambitions, polarized themes posing the question, "How are sex and politics related?" How can eros portray the psyche of a nation divided in an aftermath of terrorism? The book seems to transcend the Leonard Cohen song, There Is a War: "...A war between the man and the woman/ a war between the black and white/ a war between the left and right..." Extending the war, the author questions who belongs in america and who doesn't. Isn't it a war between nations, within them, between ambassadors and peasants, among family members and between love partners? In a nuclear age, post-9/11, with immigrants and foreigners suspect, doesn't America need a new kind of fictional heroine?

Meet Younghee Cha, the perfect Korean hostess. She'll charm you, with deliciously described cuisine, into her ancient culture. Succulent bulgogi. To-die-for kimbob. Seductively spicy kimchi. All to complement your L.A. lifestyle. As a nightcap, try Soju, a Korean vodka, mixed with Pepsi or into drinks with names to make your Korean grandmother blush. And a transcendant Crane Dance to purify your dreams.

Meet Younghee Cha, looking for love in a city of lust. Naked yoga, M&Ms melting-not-just-in-your-mouth, an american flag condom...with so many opportunities for this free-spirited beauty, isn't it easy for her to lower her love sights and debauch herself? She glistens with contradictions. She is a Hollywood screenwriter who three years ago could barely speak english. A proper asian girl on the surface, she just might soon erupt like a volcano into who she truly is and where she is going.

Younghee risks becoming an illegal resident. Often her world is falling apart around her. But she lives in Hollywood, city of dreams that cannot stay broken for long. How will she put herself together again? How will she experience the love that is far bigger and more beautiful than her broken heart and all of its blind-end decisions? Could the key be in confronting the dark secret about her very first love?

I am a fan reviewing like an advertiser, simply because I believe so strongly in the poetry and realism of this book. I felt plainly renewed reading it. I laughed out loud at its truthful descriptions, winced at its graphic candor, and reveled in its humanity.

Again I urge introductions upon you...

Meet Younghee Cha, who is devoted to America, even when its politics can go so horribly awry. She is truly a daring fictional character, with insight into troubling contemporary issues that leaves each brimming with genuine optimism. I hope you need to read it as I did.
Steve

Average customer rating:

Poignant beginning of a beautiful series

Definitely Not Paradise

painful!!

Interesting Premise

A Romance with a Little Sci Fi Thrown in
In the Garden of Iden (The Company)
Kage Baker
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Time Travel | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Mendoza in Hollywood (The Company)

The Graveyard Game (The Company)

Sky Coyote (A Novel of the Company, Book 2)

The Life of the World to Come (The Company)

Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers

ASIN: 0765314576
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Amazon.com

In 16th-century Spain, everybody expects the Spanish Inquisition, as they have a well-known tendency to cart people off to their dungeons on trumped-up charges. What 5-year-old Mendoza, on the brink of being tortured as a Jew, is totally unprepared for is to be rescued by the Company--the ultimate bureaucracy of the 24th century--and made immortal. In return, all she has to do is travel through time on a series of assignments for the Company and collect endangered botanical specimens. The wisecracking, mildly misanthropic Mendoza wants nothing to do with historical humans, but her first assignment is to travel to England in 1553--uncomfortably close to those damn Inquisitors--with Joseph and Nefer, two other Company operatives. Their intent is to gather herb samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden, a foolish though generous country squire. (Kage Baker knows her Shakespeare: Sir Walter is the descendant of Alexander Iden, loyal subject of Henry IV, who slew the hungry rebel Jack Cade in that very garden in Kent.)

The cyborg trio poses as Doctor Ruy Lopez, his daughter Rosa (the irrepressible Mendoza, now grown), and her duenna, Doña Marguerita; Sir Walter's hospitality and discretion are bought for the promise of restored youth. (There are hilarious moments that call to mind the Coneheads, who claimed to be from France when caught doing anything peculiar.) Sir Walter's secretary, Nicholas Harpole, is immediately suspicious of and hostile towards the strange "Spanish" visitors, which prompts Mendoza to fall in love with him. Nicholas has his own badly kept secret: he's proudly Protestant at a time when Queen Mary and Philip of Spain are on a Catholicizing rampage. Mendoza knows Nicholas is probably doomed, and that as a Company operative she cannot meddle with his fate, but love makes people do desperate things. Baker surpasses even Connie Willis in humor and precision of period detail in this fresh, ingenious first novel.--Barrie Trinkle

Book Description

This is the first novel in what has become one of the most popular series in contemporary SF, now back in print from Tor. In the twenty-fourth century, the Company preserves works of art and extinct forms of life (for profit of course). It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company. One of these is Mendoza the botanist, who is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden. Her quest is jeopardized by Nicholas Harpole, who stirs unfamiliar emotions within her about her futurewith a man she will long outlive.

Customer Reviews:

Poignant beginning of a beautiful series.......2007-05-09

In this first novel of the Company series by Kage Baker, we see the inception of young Mendoza, a poor spanish children saved from the maws of Spanish Inquisition, as a temporal cyborg in the Company of Dr Zeus. Inc. We follow her in her first mission with Joseph, her inceptor, and young Latif, in England, under the sway of Her Catholic Majesty Bloody Mary Tudor. They are to visit the Garden of curiosities of Sir walter Iden to retrieve some soon to be extinct botanical and zoological specimens. At sir walter Iden's Mendoza finds her first hopeless love, a stern, roguish protestant called Nicholas Harpole. We see history unfold as the doomed love story between Mendoza and Nicholas reached its most bitter end. As dramatic as it is, this novel is historically sound, with many notations of wry humour. A great first!

Definitely Not Paradise.......2006-10-16

Mendoza, as a young girl, is clutched from the jaws of Inquisition-mad Spain. It doesn't take Mendoza long to learn that her savior is a future corporation, most simply known as the Company. The Company was founded in the 24th century. It sends operatives back in time to recruit further employees to preserve specimens of anything rare or prized.

Trained as a botanist, Mendoza's first assignment is in Kent, England, at the estate of Sir Walter Iden. Iden's garden has numerous samples of flora that simply would not survive the centuries if it were not for the efforts of the Company.

But Mendoza's first assignment leads to her first love...and with a mortal (someone who has not been altered by the Company to be immortal) nonetheless.

The conflict Baker sets up between the young immortal Mendoza and the older, mortal Nicholas Harpole provides most of the tension in Baker's story. Mendoza is genuinely in love with Harpole, but there is a large facet of her life that she must keep secret.

For the most part, I enjoyed Baker's story. I enjoy an author who is not only knowledgeable about the era/subject they are writing about, but presents their setting with wit and flourish. Despite the fact that parts of the book could get tedious with little happening that moves the plot along in a substantive way; I found the underlying story interesting enough to keep me moving through the slower parts. On the whole though, I enjoyed Iden and I look forward to picking up the sequels.

painful!!.......2006-08-03

I have to give the author credit for having a very original idea, but that's where it ended. The book is slow paced to a point where you just want to scream "get one with it!". I mean for being an immortal with such wisedom and skills, you would think that there would be clever ideas and with an attitude "I am a demi-god", but Mendoza as well as her collegues are boring and stupid.

The sci-fi part of the book did not entertain me past her leave from "The Company". As for the romance, written like a couple of teenagers in love. This book is the first in a series, the question is why are there even more??

Interesting Premise.......2006-07-28

It is 16th century Spain and a small girl is bought from her family by mysterious strangers. She is too little to even know her own name, so she is dubbed Mendoza by the people she eventually ends up with, "The Company", a mysterious organization that can time travel, and makes young humans in all periods immortal and trains them to be company agents. Mendoza is trained as a botanist, and she is assigned to recover specimens of plants which are extinct in the distant future. Sounds really interesting, right?

No, not really. Mendoza and a team of Company agents travel to England to collect samples from the famous garden of Sir Walter Iden. That's where the story hits a wall. Instead of paying attention to her job, Mendoza gets involved in her first love affair, and tells about it in a diffident, bitchy, boring way. Nothing interesting or really revealing about "The Company" happens again. I understand there are quite a few books in this series, but I have no desire to continue reading them.

A Romance with a Little Sci Fi Thrown in.......2006-04-20

I agree -- they should have had a picture of Fabio on the cover so people would know what they were getting into.

The first couple chapters were ok, after that it got really slow and painful.

If you like to turn on PBS and watch yet another slow English period drama that takes place on a declining English manor/estate, then you might enjoy this book.

Average customer rating:

In the Garden of Iden
Kage Baker
Manufacturer: MELIA PUBLISHING SER
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K71YNA

In the Garden of Iden: A Novel of the Company

Average customer rating:

In the Garden of Iden: A Novel of the Company
Kage Baker
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJBMSQ

Average customer rating:

Super Reader

we need an adult version of Oz

Farmer's Oz is a sad attempt to recover one's childhood

The Not-so-wonderful Land of Oz

Barnstormer In Oz/a
Philip Jose Farmer
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Farmer, Philip Jose | ( F ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)

Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe

ASIN: 0425062740

Customer Reviews:

Super Reader.......2007-08-07

A pilot hits a funny green cloudy thing and just like his mum, is not in Kansas anymore, even without the annoying dog.

Farmer's book, as the subtitle suggests, comes out with some pseudoscientific entertaining stuff to explain all the whackiness in oz. Adventure with witches ensues.

we need an adult version of Oz.......2003-01-13

I like all Phillip Jose Farmer stories. I also like what he did with this. The original fantasy story is too kiddie oriented. I loved the Baum originals when I was young, but now I want something more adult. I wish there would be a remake of the Wizard of Oz in film that was adjusted for adults.

Farmer's Oz is a sad attempt to recover one's childhood.......2002-08-05

As a man who writes Oz books himself with points that are slightly more adult than Baum, Thompson, Neil, or Snow I can understand Farmer's desires a bit more than most. The reverent love he displays for Glinda in this book is some of the most moving work I've seen in my reading days. However Mr. Farmer seems to rely on a disillusioned childhood as his looking glass for Oz as there is no Ozma (Blasphemy!), Jack Pumpkinhead, or other characters after the Wizard of Oz in this story and he disregards some of Baum's own corrections to his stories to hold onto the idea 'scientiffic Oz' is a better place. The moral relativism and grays in this story depresses what could have been a beautiful trek through the magical land some of the science is as surreal as Baum's magic. I enjoyed the book truly and am glad I bought it but I think I'll stick with the Famous Forty myself for my reading pleasure. The story is...depressing

The Not-so-wonderful Land of Oz.......2000-07-10

This book's subtitle unabashedly proclaims it to be "A Rationalization And Extrapolation Of The Split-Level Continuum", a bit of obfuscation which prepares us for this attempt to bring logical scientific analysis to the astounding world of Frank L. Baum's beloved Oz books. Whether such a thing should actually have been attempted is clearly a matter of taste, but it seems likely that fans of the Baum books who also enjoy science fiction will find this novel an amusing blend of wild fantasy and desperate rationalization. The hero is Hank Stover, a World War I veteran flier and barnstormer (and coincidentally, son of the legendary Dorothy), who flies his Jenny (a Curtiss JN-4H biplane) into a mysterious emerald haze and comes out in the wonderland described by his mother many years before. As might be expected, Farmer has to go to considerable lengths to explain the world of Oz, with its talking animals, sentient objects, warring witches, and diminutive inhabitants. He makes some "corrections" to the original Oz books, changes that he asserts Baum made in order to conform to the mores of the age, or the needs of the narrative, or even simple disbelief at Dorothy's eyewitness account. Even given these points, though, Farmer has to resort to some very shaky scientific assumptions, and there are many points which he simply has to call "magic", i.e., the result of a technology that is far beyond ours. Unfortunately, the biggest weakness of this novel is not the science, but the matter-of-fact way that Farmer relates this science fiction take on a classic fantasy -- with very little wonder and a minimum of enthusiasm. Instead, we get a straight-ahead action/adventure without any trace of humor or irony. By constantly trying to explain the principles behind the marvels, he robs the story of its magic (not literally, but emotionally), and by focusing on conflicts between Oz' various factions, he eliminates most of the fun as well. There's plenty of action and some interesting battle scenes, including one between two witches, and a fateful altercation between Glinda the Good and President Harding, but most of this book is pretty standard modern-meets-medieval stuff. Lacking the joy and innocent wonder of Baum's stories, this book seems destined to please readers who loved the Oz books as children, but outgrew them and turned to science fiction instead. They'd do better to re-read Baum's classics, since Farmer's Oz is not really such a wonderful place.

A barnstormer in Oz, or, A rationalization and extrapolation of the split-level continuum

Average customer rating:

A barnstormer in Oz, or, A rationalization and extrapolation of the split-level continuum
Philip Jose Farmer
Manufacturer: Phantasia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:

A Barnstormer In Oz
Philip Jose Farmer
Manufacturer: Berkley Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KIVDEY

Average customer rating:

A Barnstormer in Oz
Philip Jose Farmer
Manufacturer: Berkley Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000O697IQ

Average customer rating:

Wonderful Classic on Love and Spirituality

Vatican II for Today

Gained a Renewed Understanding of Contemplative Life

PRAYING TO BE AWARE

The presence of God in the land of the living.

Silence on Fire: Paryer of Awareness
William Shannon
Manufacturer: Crossroad General Interest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Christian Living | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Prayer | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Here On The Way To There: A Catholic Perspective On Dying And What Follows

The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation

Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton And Other Saints (Christian Classics)

Manifesting God

Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence

ASIN: 0824518489

Book Description

This book is a guided journey on the path of prayer that is built on faith that leads to a unique but accessible way of knowing.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Classic on Love and Spirituality.......2007-09-20

Reading Silence on Fire is not an academic exercise. It is akin to having an intimate conversation with an exceedingly wise, caring, and candid spiritual adviser whose profound teachings will meaningfully change our lives.
Father Shannon eloquently and patiently guides readers to deep insights concerning meditation, Awareness, Love, and God. He writes brilliantly about these subjects, with such clarity and understanding, that his warmth and Love of God literally seem to permeate the pages. This exceptional book is a timeless treasure for everyone, no matter what philosophy or religion we embrace, Western or Eastern, as the underlying message is Love and Joy for all humanity.

Be forewarned that after you read Silence on Fire, you will want to devour every book that Father Shannon has authored and, thankfully(!), he is a prolific writer.

Vatican II for Today.......2007-09-19

A reliable and excellent book. It helps the everyday person realize that deep relationship with God is everyone's call. Especially geared toward Catholics, but good for all Christians. Anyone who likes Merton should read this.

Gained a Renewed Understanding of Contemplative Life.......2003-02-05

My confessor(priest)gave me a copy after confession. I read it, got my own copy, and gave him back his. This book gave me "the philosophy" in ways no other reads ever gave me. The difficult part of writing a book on contemplative prayer and life is that you have to capture the un-capturable and write about the un-writable.

The book is sprinkled with anecdotes and stories that helped me gain insight into the philosophy and objectives (if you can say it has an objective). It contrasts Western versus Eastern thinking and how our driven culture stands in the way of living a contemplative life. This helped me drastically in my Christian walk.

PRAYING TO BE AWARE.......2001-11-08

Awareness is boundless. Awareness has no limits. Any limits of awareness that we experience are limits of our own contrivance, self-imposed boundaries that must be transcended. The content of awareness by its very nature excludes all that is not itself. Content is limitation. A given sound, for example, excludes not only silence, but all that is not sound, and all other sounds. However, it is seductively easy to view awareness in a conventional way, not only as something that is focused upon a given sound but as constituted by one's relationship to the sound. In this view, awareness itself is a category defined by its possible contents. This is tantamount to determining the limits of awareness. If we encounter a point at which our senses seem to let us down, or our mind boggles and we must retreat, we then interpret it as having reached the limits of our awareness. We experience it as an encounter with content or subject matter that cannot be grasped. What usually escapes our attention here is that awareness itself is not bounded. Once we do distinguish awareness from its objects, then the limitations of any given object or content of awareness do not in the slightest limit awareness. And if we realize that awareness is not limited by the contents of awareness, we need no longer experience the limitations of content as the limitations of awareness.

As soon as one can let go of the identification of awareness with its objects, or of the mind with its contents, boundaries vanish on every side. Instead of boundaries there is a new lightness and clarity. This is the boundless, this is emptiness, that which contains everything but is itself not anything. This is inner awareness and absolute reality. This is the pure essence of mind...This is the book's message, transcending to awareness through meditative prayer.

The presence of God in the land of the living........2001-08-21

I am a lay person, uneducated in spiritual writing, but to the sincere I can assure you that this little book will ROCK YOUR WORLD! Father Shannon uses the theme "I will walk in the presence of God in the land of the living". I had always thought that referred to the land of the Living God (i.e. someplace else- from where I am!) The author assures us that we are in the land of the living, that the desire to seek God comes from God loving us! The desire comes from God and with our assent returns to God. Fr. Shannon moves the reader gently along a path of realization from I exist because God loves me to I am a member of the Mystical body of Christ and God loves me as a son, to God is the hidden ground of love and there is a great silence in the world that burns with His love - with Himself! Jesus said"I have come to destroy the world by fire" -Fr. Shannon lifts the curtain and lets you see...The Fire!!! (FR. Shannon if you read this review -please forgive any inaccuracies - I am a fan!)

Average customer rating:

My Favorite Cookbook!

Always an answer to a what to serve question.

Beautiful, fail-safe dishes every time!

Marlene Sorosky's Year-Round Holiday Cookbook
Marlene Sorosky
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Holidays | Special Occasions | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Entertaining on The Run

Season's Greetings: Cooking and Entertaining for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's

Marlene Sorosky's Cookery for Entertaining

Easy Entertaining With Marlene Sorosky

The Dessert Lover's Cookbook

ASIN: 0060150459

Customer Reviews:

My Favorite Cookbook!.......1999-12-07

I bought this wonderful cookbook nearly 15 years ago on the recommendation of a friend. I collect cookbooks and this one is the first one I grab when planning a party or celebration. Menus for everything from a New Year's Soup Bowl party to weddings, anniversary parties, barbecues, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Graduation, and wonderful holiday dinners and buffets are all filled with scrumptious and fail-safe recipes. Each recipe gives great instructions on how far in advance it can be prepared, making entertaining a snap. I've used this book so many times that it has become tattered and dog eared. All of Sorosky's books are excellent. Please, Marlene, how about an update of this fabulous classic!

Always an answer to a what to serve question........1999-10-16

I purchased this book around 1984. It has served me well as a hostess and a guest. The step by step and do ahead hints are priceless. It is too bad it is out of print, but I always look for Sorosky (no, not Stewart) in the cook book section. This is truly doable.

Beautiful, fail-safe dishes every time!.......1998-02-18

I do a lot of entertaining throughout the year. Until I read Ms. Sorosky's book, I'd considered myself resaonably good as a cook. This book let me soar! From it I've developed annual menus for various holidays, and it's given me great dishes for special occasions -- the bridal shower, etc.. It's well-written, beautifully illustrated, and the directions, being thorough and straightforward (with explicit help for the less experienced cook), are so easy to follow. A classic in this field.

Marlene Sorosky's Cooking for Holidays and Celebrations (A Completely Revised and Updated Edition of The Year 'Round Holiday Cookbook)

Average customer rating:

Marlene Sorosky's Cooking for Holidays and Celebrations (A Completely Revised and Updated Edition of The Year 'Round Holiday Cookbook)
Marlene Sorosky
Manufacturer: HPBooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Reference | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1557881952

Marlene Sorosky's Year Round Holiday Cookbook

Average customer rating:

Marlene Sorosky's Year Round Holiday Cookbook
Sorosky Marlene
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LDB9OC

Average customer rating:

Marlene Sorosky's Year-Round Holiday Cookbook
Marlene Sorosky
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEM9J2

Book Description

The first book to catalog and illustrate American furniture that bears the signature, label, brand, impression, or ink stamp of its maker. An essential reference for all serious collectors, antiques dealers, auctioneers, and researchers. Iillustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Please let me know if my mark is included in the book.......2003-08-22

Hi RJB,

Wondering if you could tell me if the marking on my dining chairs is in the book American Cabinetmakers:Marked American Furniture.

The mark is on the corner blocks (under the seat cushion) and are pressed into the wood. The mark is "F. C." It also has the roman numerals (I), (II), (III) etc. but I've read those markings were used to match the chair with the seat cushion.

The Santa Clara Library system doesn't have the book, and I don't want to buy it unless the "F.C." mark is included.

Thanks, Jean

A Classic In American Antique Furniture.......2002-11-30

"American Cabinetmakers" catalogues marked American furniture from 1640-1940 and is an unparalleled reference book for antique collectors and dealers. The information is organized alphabetically for easy reference. Each cabinetmaker's entry contains information about his furniture markings. The marks take many forms from a name or initials scratched into wood, a hand-stamped brand in pencil, ink, paint, or chalk to elaborate labels made of paper and metal. Additional information about his life and work is often provided and there are numerous black and white photographs of furniture and cabinetmaker marks. There are over 1,600 artisans included in the book and photographs of 400 marked pieces. It's a treasure!

It's god to look beautiful pictures but nothing else........1999-04-09

In book are manny colour pictures but low qwality information. I don't recomend to bay this book.

AMERICAN CABINETMAKERS - Marked American Furniture 1640-1940

Average customer rating:

AMERICAN CABINETMAKERS - Marked American Furniture 1640-1940
William C. Ketchum
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JVCC1A

Average customer rating:
Vanessa-Ann's Cozy Crocheted Afghans (Crochet Treasury)
Vanessa-Ann Collection
Manufacturer: Oxmoor House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Crocheting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Quilts & Quilting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Textile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Vanessa-Ann's Plain & Fancy Crochet (The Crochet Treasury Series)

Country Afghans: The Vanessa-Ann Collection

Granny Squares-Nanny Squares: New Twists for Classic Crochet

Afghan Traditions

All-Time Great Afghans: 50 Projects to Crochet and Knit

ASIN: 0848710959

Average customer rating:
Cozy Crocheted Afghans
Vanessa-Ann
Manufacturer: Oxmoor House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000Q7TWV0

Book Description

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prague has once more taken its place on the world stage. Visitors flock there from around the world. With this influx has come an infusion of creativity and international influences. This new vibrance exists side-by-side with Prague's many-layered architectural and culinary history. Feast your eyes on photographs of Prague's hippest restaurants, and also enjoy a great selection of unique recipes.

Book Description

Hide in Plain Sight completes Buhle and Wagner's seminal trilogy on the Hollywood blacklist. When the blacklistees were hounded out of Hollywood, some left for television where many worked on children's shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle. A number wrote adult sitcoms such as The Donna Reed Show and M*A*S*H, while some of them ultimately returned to Hollywood and made great films like Norma Rae and Mid-night Cowboy. This is a thoughtful look at the aftermath of the horror that was the McCarthy period from two expert historians of the blacklist period.

Customer Reviews:

How Hollywood Survived Those Turbulent Years........2004-09-27

The movie studios RKO, MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and Twentieth Century Fox (all familiar to the movie-goers of the Fab Fifties) struggled for survival by focusing on large-budget blockbusters. Later Universal, United Artists, Columbia Pictures and others found life different after the Cold War mania in which writers, producers and directors (some actors) were blacklisted by McCarthy as pro-Communism in this country.

McCarthy ruined reputations and stunted careers in Hollywood in a grand style, but at what a cost -- he was the one to die early. It's a proven fact that hurting others in any way (even by neglect) hurts the tormentor more, usually in physical health. "Tough things can kill. They kill the spirit, hopes, dreams, vision and even desire (to live). Excessive pressure can make you explode or make you learn new ways to constructively vent." (Mtn. Wings #4271)

The wild McCarthyrite charges of conspiracy were as common in the Fifties as they were devastating. Some of those blacklisted by 30's radicalism had been unfairly smeared and even damaged in the McCarthy Era. The Hollywood screenwriters were infiltrated by former Communists for the congressional investigators for the FBI. It is sad that producers testified against some of their best writers and best friends.

But they continued to work on films without credit for their work at lower wages than they deserved. In fact, they contributed immensely to the creation of the 1950's Golden Age of Television, to the dramas and sitcoms. Some moved to New York and were productive on the stage.

Technology in the form of CinemaScope, camera innovations such as the zoom lens, location shooting, and color film saved the industry. The Arbitron surveys killed off some special programs. I'd forgotten about those; as we were never chosen to keep track of what we watched. Today, they are used for radio also and I took one myself in 2001 -- gave Nick Clooney lots of play time in the early hours of each morning.

These historians explain all you'd ever want to know (also some better not known) about every movie you might have seen or just heard about. There is quite a listing throughout this volume.

Some brought back pleasant memories included were the Armstrong Circle Theater, Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, Four Star Playhouse, NBC Television Theater, Alcoa Aluminum Hour, (also Alcoa/Goodyear Theater) and Ray Bradbury's Science Fiction Theater. The best drama series of this "Golden Age" was one of my favorites, TWILIGHT ZONE. Reruns are still on the tube today.

The cowboys listed were Hopalong Cassidy, Andy Devine, Roy Rogers, but not Lash LaRue (why not?) as he was great. One year he came to our Fair and silly me, just a wisp of a girl, volunteered to stand on stage while he tore a piece of paper out of my mouth with his whip. He was something!

Of course, the music shows to which I was partial and played a big part in my young life. Bing Crosby Productions used blacklisted talents in their shows, BREAKING POINT, HOGAN'S HEROES, and BEN CASEY later in 1959. The mini-studios brought out the detectives we all loved. And who could forget Loretto Young and her beautiful costumes or Dinah Shore and her downhome shows to show the world that we Southerners do know a thing or two.

This would make a good reference book for movie buffs.

Tracking Down the Artistic Contributions of the Blacklisted!.......2004-03-15

While many books, essays, television shows and movies have made us all more sensitive to the dangers of McCarthyism, most of us don't quite know what happened to those who were blacklisted after the HUAC meetings in the early 50s. Hide in Plain Sight filled that void for me, and expanded my understanding of both the event's consequences for society and of the artists involved.

The book uses a variety of methods for capturing the subsequent history of those who were blacklisted. Some chapters focus on particular forms of artistic expression, while other sections look at individual producers, directors, writers and actors. As a result, there's some redundancy . . . so the book often feels like a series of essays rather than one seamless nonfiction book. That quality, however, makes the book easier to use for those who just want to read about a single person or genre.

I was very surprised to learn that almost every adult television show that I liked during the 1950s and 1960s involved blacklisted writers. Perhaps it's just because my tastes run to history, underdogs, unusual approaches and conflict, but what was interesting about television then (and often isn't now) came from those with a strong ideological bent toward Marxist or antifascist thought. This book forms an important document in helping all Americans to understand how dialogue in our society needs to be maintained through providing free access to all media. Much great work would have been lost if these blacklisted writers, directors and performers had lost their artistic lives.

I found one aspect of the book to be tedious though. Every person was characterized by her or his political beliefs. In most cases, this was done with a simple label (antifascist, Marxist, liberal, etc.). That way of characterizing people seemed to me to make the book overly political. As a result, the book constantly displays a battle between left and right . . . and almost leaves the audience out in the process.

I did not know many of the films that were described, especially those that were done in Europe. I appreciated the care with which the films were described. In several cases, I learned important back stories about the meaning of metaphors that added to my understanding of the films.

A real strength of the book is showing how the careers of individual blacklisted people were affected. The analyses of how their subsequent works developed (especially those of Joseph Losey) were quite extensive and intriguing to think about.

The final paragraph is unusually eloquent:

"Hollywood was always about money. It still is. But at its best it was and eventually might once again be something a great deal more--a glimmering of a democratic art form returning the embrace of its vast audience with equality sncerity and the sense of a common fate."

As I finished the book, I was reminded of John Donne's famous poem. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee." As badly as individual lives were harmed by the blacklisting, our democracy and culture were harmed even more. In realizing the full depths of that loss, we are all the losers.

Gerald McBoing Boing and the radical movement!.......2003-10-24

"Hide in Plain Sight" is the latest book co-authored by Paul Buhle on the Hollywood blacklist and its impact. As is the case with the previous books, this is as much a celebration of what radicals in the entertainment accomplished as it is about the terrible loss when they were purged.

For people who came of age in the 1950s, the book is an exceptional treat. Who knew that many of our favorite television shows drew upon the talents of writers, directors and actors hounded out of the Hollywood film industry? Covering the period from 1950 to 2002, it proves dramatically that the radical politics of the 1930s never really disappeared but found ways to express itself through popular culture. The television shows and Hollywood movies of this period were just as important a link to the New Left as the folk music revival and leftwing beat poetry.

As is the case with every book in this series, the index can provide a kind of shortcut into the treats within its pages. For example, a reference to "You Are There" reveals that some of the 1953-1955 teleplays were written by Walter Bernstein, Arnold Manoff and Abraham Polonsky--3 blacklistees. Each show was pegged to a real historical event. The central drama of such shows involved heroic efforts by figures such as John Peter Zenger to stand up for democratic principles against a repressive government. Such messages were not lost on baby boomers, including myself.

While it is not too difficult in retrospect to detect the footprints of radicals in such a show, there were others that were more cleverly subversive at camouflaging their true intent. For example, the children's cartoon show "Gerald McBoing Boing" was a product of United Productions of America, which was launched by John Hubley, a New Deal era radical. Fellow UPA'er Dave Hilberman had been fingered by Walt Disney for the sin of having "spent considerable time at the Moscow Art Theater".

Not that Gerald McBoing Boing was about socialist tractors and the struggle against fascism. Instead it is about a child who speaks entirely in sound effects. The real inspiration for this cartoon was not Marxism, but the playful inventive spirit of the Hollywood left going back to Charlie Chaplin and a host of others open to surrealism.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Cineaste, published by Cineaste Publishers, Inc. on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 1551 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture.(Book Review)
Author: Ron Simon
Publication: Cineaste (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.
Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Page: 84(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books