Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos (A Meg Lanslow Mystery)

Book Description

What won Donna Andrews such praise and so many first-novel prizes for her Murder with Peacocks is her wit, her honest approach and in large part, her leading characterlovely, put-upon Meg Langslow. In this new book, we find Meg at the celebration of the British surrender at Yorktownselling her crafts (even wrought-iron flamingos), looking for (and dodging) a killer, and trying to keep in the good graces of her impossible future mother-in-law.

Customer Reviews:

fun as always .......2007-03-11

This entry in the Meg Lanslow series is a fun read as usual

Read the Other 2 First then Enjoy This One.......2007-02-05

This is definitely a case where you want to read the first two books before you take on this one. The family members, friends, and even pets are all well developed in those first books so that when you encounter them here you already understand their quirks and strengths.

I greatly enjoyed this book as the best one yet. The previous two books had vastly bizarre situations and a cavalcade of murders which made it hard to suspend your disbelief. On the other hand, the characters were great and three dimensional. This book puts you in a situation which is "unusual" but very believable - a reenactment of colonial America. It has the great odd characters, now well known to the audience. It also has a more realistic murder situation.

I loved the details of costume, environment and accessory in the colonial world and, as always, liked the slightly zany but believable characters that were involved. There wasn't a need to go into explicit detail with many of the characters - you'd already established a connection with them in the previous two books - but the new characters added a nice texture.

I was happy to see that Michael was no longer just a "pretty face" and that Meg was becoming more independent. Details were filled in about both characters to help explain their personalities. Michael is exposed as a preener who, aware of his good looks, likes to play them up, and to find new outlets for his acting talents. Meg is taking on weapons creation and worries about minimizing her reputation by creating kitschy pink flamingos, even though it could mean a good income.

I still was annoyed that Meg and others continually judged Michael on being a "good looking accessory" as a primary trait. It's just as bad to do that to guys as it is to girls. He also seemed, like in the previous book, to be a rather passive partner. He spends much of the book wanting to look pretty and whining about Meg not committing enough to him. He ends up being a damsel in distress.

I also was annoyed that - still- Meg seems to show no empathy or care when she finds dead bodies. In this book she even comments that she hopes it's someone she knows and likes, so that she won't be likely as a suspect. Jeez, nice thought!

Still, you can look at these as further evidence that the characters are not "shiny perfect" cardboard heroes. We know Meg has temper issues. Michael is rather spoiled, with his mom simpering when he snaps and women falling over each other for his good looks. Even with their foibles, they find a way to make their relationship work and to navigate the difficult issues of an eccentric extended family. It gives hope that the rest of us who are imperfect can still find ways to live happy lives and persue our dreams.

Recommended!

Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos.......2007-01-04

Ms. Andrews Meg Lanslow Mysteries are top-notch, entertaining and you can't put them down! Delightfully fun mystery.

Funny Cozy Mystery.......2006-09-26

Ornamental blacksmith Meg Langslow and her boyfriend Michael attend a reenactment of the siege at Yorktown. Michael is taking place in one of the battles, while Meg is selling her wares at the craft fair. But the fighting isn't confined to the battlefield and several people are arguing with entrepreneur Roger Benson, including Meg's brother Rob. When Meg goes to her booth late one night and finds Benson's body, she knows she has to act quickly to clear her brother before he is charged with murder. But will her investigation put not only she but also Michael in danger?

"Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingoes" is a great entry in Donna Andrews's humorous cozy mystery series. Andrews takes her time setting up the murder, providing the reader with plenty of suspects. There are lots of laugh out loud moments, including when Meg stumbles across Benson's body. The book is populated with plenty of eccentric characters; especially Meg's many relatives. I liked the whole reenactment background, which is a great setting for much of the humor in the book. In fact, some of the best humor comes when Meg's mother and Michael's mother try to outdo each other in their choice of costumes. The mystery is well plotted and readers will have a hard time guessing who the murderer is.

This was a nice humorous read. I recommend the whole series.

Beware the Anachronism Police.......2006-03-17

I first picked up on this series because mystery fiction has become so dire that I occasionally have an uncontrollable urge to wolf down a cozier story. Donna Andrews manages to be lighthearted, intriguing, and thoroughly modern in a genre that is often noted for its stuffiness. Meg Langslow, the often unwilling, heroine of these tales is an ornamental blacksmith. As many do, most of her income comes from craft fairs, which is one step removed from life in hell on a good day.

This time Meg and her boyfriend Michael are caught up in a period art fair that includes a reenactment of the siege of Yorktown, and, even more deadly, a chairwoman who has gone around the bend on an authenticity kick. It doesn't help that said chairwoman is also Michael's mother, which makes it impossible for Meg to end her agony with a well aimed flamingo. Someone else, however, has taken a severe dislike to a businessman with few, if any, ethics, and has used the aforementioned flamingo in extremis.

The story brings Meg, Michael, a host of family and friends, and even not so innocent bystanders to a furious boil. Everything from software piracy to yellow journalism get tossed in the pot in the name of diversion. There are few dull moments, and any reader who wants to spend a few hours discovering characters who grow increasingly eccentric as the story progresses.

I'm not going to pretend this is a deep tale with lasting values and powerful writing, but it's hardly likely to leave the reader grabbing for the anti-depressants either. Into every life some flamingos must come.

Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos (A Meg Langslow Mystery)

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Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos (A Meg Langslow Mystery)
Donna Andrews
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTR4LU

Average customer rating:

Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos (A Meg Langslow Mystery)
Donna Andrews
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTFNLS

Average customer rating:

Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos (A Meg Langslow Mystery)
Donna Andrews
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTV4KC

Customer Reviews:

Loved it!!.......1998-02-27

I've read the entire Unicorn series, and the only thing I didn't like about it was that it ended. I keep looking for more books by John Lee. I hope he writes a new series, or continues the Unicorn saga.

Average customer rating:

Unicorn Dilemma :Unicorn Saga 02
John Lee
Manufacturer: ST MARTINS PRESS *
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000Q31YCY

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The Unicorn Dilemma

Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 9992610689

Book Description

The struggle to understand the infant-parent bond ranks as one of the great quests of modern psychology, one that touches us deeply because it holds so many clues to how we become who we are. How are our personalities formed? How do our early struggles with our parents reappear in the way we relate to others as adults? Why do we repeat with our own children--seemingly against our will--the very behaviors we most disliked about our parents? In Becoming Attached, psychologist and noted journalist Robert Karen offers fresh insight into some of the most fundamental and fascinating questions of emotional life. Karen begins by tracing the history of attachment theory through the controversial work of John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst, and Mary Ainsworth, an American developmental psychologist, who together launched a revolution in child psychology. Karen tells about their personal and professional struggles, their groundbreaking discoveries, and the recent flowering of attachment theory research in universities all over the world, making it one of the century's most enduring ideas in developmental psychology. In a world of working parents and makeshift day care, the need to assess the impact of parenting styles and the bond between child and caregiver is more urgent than ever. Karen addresses such issues as: What do children need to feel that the world is a positive place and that they have value? Is day care harmful for children under one year? What experiences in infancy will enable a person to develop healthy relationships as an adult?, and he demonstrates how different approaches to mothering are associated with specific infant behaviors, such as clinginess, avoidance, or secure exploration. He shows how these patterns become ingrained and how they reveal themselves at age two, in the preschool years, in middle childhood, and in adulthood. And, with thought-provoking insights, he gives us a new understanding of how negative patterns and insecure attachment can be changed and resolved throughout a person's life. The infant is in many ways a great mystery to us. Every one of us has been one; many of us have lived with or raised them. Becoming Attached is not just a voyage of discovery in child emotional development and its pertinence to adult life but a voyage of personal discovery as well, for it is impossible to read this book without reflecting on one's own life as a child, a parent, and an intimate partner in love or marriage.

Customer Reviews:

Terriffic !.......2007-09-04

Fabulously informative book; great for the therapist, the lay person, the new parent or the adult looking to beter understand themsleves. Quite thorough and engaging. Wonderful, but serious read.

Attachment Theory in all it's glory ..........2007-08-21

What a terrific book ... all new parents should be issued a copy in birthing class!

Becoming Attached.......2007-05-29

I am becoming very attached to this book! Robert Karen PhD is a stunning writer. His prose is clear, succinct, fair, honest and a delight to read. A non-expert would enjoy it as much as an experienced psychologist. A treat all round.

Totally Different Perspective.......2006-11-26

This review probably won't do this book justice. I'm analytical, Master's Degree in Statistics kind of guy, yea, stoic. Psychology. Yea that stuff is for quacks. In graduate school I worked with enough of them trying to squeeze any interpretation out of their "data".

So I have one of those life altering experiences. I go to Iraq as a reservist, spend sixteen months away from my wife and job, come back to a wife that doesn't love me anymore and doesn't know if she can. PTSD, Generalized Anxiety, and Depression all in one. But other than the PTSD symptoms, all of the other things have constantly been in my life working mysteriously in the background.

I go to a shrink as my marriage has fallen apart and I have no one to talk to and she brings up Attachment. I have never heard of it, so the scientist in me wants to learn anything and everything before our next meeting. I next day this book and begin reading "my life away" online and in the book. Or more apropriately "reading my life back." I'm fitting into this mold that is everything I don't want to be, but am and jealous of the mold that is everything that I am not, I'm being divorced by a woman that has been hardening my mold for the last 5 years. This book altered my perspective on so many things. I identified with so many others. It gave me a framework and definitions for defense mechanisims like (passive agressiveness and sublimation), a way to look at my childhood, and although the odds are against me being Ambivalently Attached and seeking Secure Attachment, I can now somewhat accurately "self-reflect" on my life experiences.

I won't lie, reading the history was kind of drab (I read math books for a living that isn't much more exciting), but I can't say pick up this book and start with chapter 7 or something like that. The history gives you a working perspective, something like "at least that didn't happen to me" but then it starts to come into more practicable situations and you start to piece how you fit into the reading. Taking and owning what is yours and totally psychoanalyzing your friends and in my case the divorcing spouse.

The chapter that "WOW"d me the most was Chapter 26 Repetition and Change: Working Through Insecure Attachment. After I was able to piece the picture together of my life and what extent of the symptoms and other things in my life that have related to the entire book thus far. This chapter has given me some hope. Some hope of finding out who I really am and exploring my sloshing bucket of memories for what decisions I have made and what decisions I am making by trying X+Y=Z over and over again instead of tring something like B/Q=A.

This review still does not do this book justice, but I'll put it out there, but it is what it is. If you don't believe in psychobabble and are a hard "nut" to crack, read this book! I have looked down at psycholgists most of my life, like they settled on an "Easier" career because they weren't good enough for a "Real" one. Well I can honestly admit and apologize to any that I may have convinced, that I could not have been more from the truth.

I'm not going to switch careers or anything, but I now have a reference in wich to self reflect and "get a grip!"

NCMom.......2006-08-21

This book explained so much! Growing up with foster parents and no consistent parenting has made life confusing. Its been interesting to read that any adult, even the adults with the same parents from birth also have attachment issues. This is the first book I have found that explains how someone's childhood dramatically affects our ability to attach to our own children. Every parent I know wants to give their children their best and this book shows me how anyone understand ALL the sides of attachment disorder. Most of the books I have found have only explained why a child is not able to attach. What a relief to understand the whole subject.

Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love

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Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love
Robert; Robert, Karen Karen
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OK6BEK

Amazon.com

"In this sun-drenched valley, everything grows, something is always in season, and the habits of living are relaxed and celebratory." That's why Joanne Weir--the celebrated food writer, cooking teacher, chef, and popular television cooking show host--names California's wine country as the place where the things that matter most to her about cooking happen. "It's easy to live the rich life here: eating fresh foods right out of the garden and orchard, savoring artisanal cheeses and breads, drinking vintage wines. When I'm here, I feel as though I'm living in a state of grace," she writes. Joanne Weir's More Cooking in the Wine Country gives readers all the recipes, advice, and inspiration to bring that state of grace into their own kitchens--no matter where they live.

Just as she did in her celebrated first book on this topic, Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country, Weir relies heavily on the lusty and vivid flavors and simple cooking methods of the countries of the Mediterranean. The more than 150 recipes in this volume celebrate the bounty of the wine country. From Crostini with Smoked Trout and Lemon Zest to Caramelized Coconut Budino, Weir provides recipes for every course that are at once interesting in their inventiveness and comforting in their familiarity.

In keeping with the "California cuisine" mantra of using fresh, seasonal, and locally grown ingredients, Weir celebrates the seasons with ever-changing offerings. Autumn inspires a salad of Endive with Gorgonzola, Caramelized Onions, and Fig Jam that expertly balances bitter, salty, sour, and sweet. A sprightly Spring Soup of Favas, Sugar Snap Peas, and Asparagus is bright with the crisp, new flavors of spring. Stone Fruit Summer Salad highlights the most succulent produce of the season. And Beef Braised with Zinfandel and Winter Vegetables makes the most of the root vegetables and hearty herbs available this time of year.

The wine-pairing suggestions that accompany each recipe are extremely helpful, tips for how to handle such challenges as peeling fava beans or making perfect risotto are welcome, and the luscious photographs of many of the dishes are inspiring. --Robin Donovan

Book Description

"Somehow, we all must eat. we can make indifferent meals, with little connection to where the food comes from. Or we can make meals that are cooked in harmony with the earth and with the seasons, and which are a recurring source of renewal, satisfaction, and celebration. The wine country just seems to require this kind of cooking, and that is part of why I love it." -- From the Foreword

Northern California is on the same latitude as many of the countries of the Mediterranean, and award-winning chef Joanne Weir's cooking embodies the vivid flavors of that region. In this book, Weir shares 150 new recipes from the second season of her acclaimed public television series, Weir Cooking in the Wine Country, presented with all the warmth, enthusiasm, skill, and flair that has made her a household name.

Weir's style of cooking and serving changes throughout the year, celebrating the bounty of the field, the orchard, the pasture, the river, and the sea with simple, boldly flavored dishes inspired by the freshest ingredients of the season. Enhanced by more than 45 color and black-and- white photographs, this spectacular volume explores the vivid and varied tastes of California with a feast of Mediterranean dishes that are certain to delight you with their exceptional flavors.

From starters to desserts, Weir has created a bounty of delectable recipes, expertly explained. A first course of Grilled Bread with Fava Beans and Escarole or Endive with Gorgonzola, Caramelized Onions, and Fig Jam brings friends and family to the table. Creamy Fennel Soup chases the autumn chill, while Roasted Yellow Pepper, Corn, and Tomato Soup is the essence of late summer. Try the Stone Fruit Summer Salad when peaches and plums are at their juicy best, and the True Blue Salad on a cool evening. Main courses are deeply flavored: Chicken Rolled with Fontina, Prosciutto, and Sage; Braised Leg of Lamb with Artichokes, with Lemon and Garlic-Roasted Potatoes; Moroccan Spice-Dusted Salmon with Lemon Mint Yogurt. Tempting options for dessert include Double Chocolate Custard, Summer Cherry and Apricot Galette with Kirsch Cream, Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread, Polenta Shortbread, and Ginger Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Almonds. There are also suggestions for the right wine to pair with each dish.

No matter where you make your home, you can bring the pleasures of the wine country to your table.

Customer Reviews:

Sounds good, but who knows........2002-06-03

I enjoyed watching the cooking show with Joanne Weir, and was very glad to find a used copy of her book. But.... if you live in an area of the country where gourmet items or fresh herbs and other ingredients are scarce you may never be able to duplicate many of the recipes without substitutions. This is a disappointment, and of course not the fault of the book.

A must have.......2001-06-12

I started watching Ms. Weir's show on PBS during our long winters. After seeing the ease with which she prepares a meal I knew I had to have her book. Luckily I was able to immediately secure a copy and start cooking. What an adventure. My first meal was home made pasta and it was a major success. I can't wait to continue exploring this book.

Customer Reviews:

This book was good.......2000-03-28

This book was good. You should try it.

Book Description

From the authors of The Cat Made Me Buy It! and The Cat Sold It! The black cat is a versatile graphic icon, popping up often in folk art and advertising. Here are examples from throughout American history. 127 full-color photographs.

Book Description

Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940. In 1960, she won a Kennedy scholarship to study in America and earned a master's degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh and became the first woman in East Africa to earn a Ph.D.

Returning to Kenya in 1966, Wangari Maathai was shocked at the degradation of the forests and the farmland caused by deforestation. Heavy rains had washed away much of the topsoil, silt was clogging the rivers, and fertilizers were depriving the soil of nutrients. Wangari decided to solve the problem by planting trees.

Under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya, of which she was chairwoman from 1981 to 1987, she introduced the idea of planting trees through citizen foresters in 1976, and called this new organization the Green Belt Movement (GBM). She continued to develop GBM into broad-based, grassroots organization whose focus was women's groups planting of trees in order to conserve the environment and improve their quality of life. Through the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai has assisted women in planting more than 20 million trees on their farms and on schools and church compounds in Kenya and all over East Africa.

In Africa, as in many parts of the world, women are responsible for meals and collecting firewood. Increasing deforestation has not only meant increasing desertification, but it has also meant that women have had to travel further and further afield in order to collect the firewood. This in turn has led to women spending less time around the home, tending to crops, and looking after their children. By staying closer to home, earning income from sustainably harvesting the fruit and timber from trees, women not only can be more productive, they can provide stability in the home. They can also create time for education opportunities—whether for themselves or their children.

This virtuous circle of empowerment through conservation is serving as a model throughout the world, where women both individually and collectively are entrusted with money and material to invest it in ways that make a difference to their daily lives. Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement is a great example of how one person can turn around the lives of thousands, if not millions of others, by empowering others to change their situation.

Wangari's road to success was by no means easy. During the 1970s and 1980s, she came under increasing scrutiny from the government of Daniel arap Moi. She was frequently the target of vilification from the government, as well as subject to outright attacks and imprisonment. She refused to compromise her belief that the people were best trusted to look after their natural resources, as opposed to the corrupt cronies of the government, who were given whole swathes of public land, which they then despoiled.

In January 2003, Wangari Maathai was elected by an overwhelming margin to Parliament, where she is the Assistant Secretary for Environnment, Wildlife, and Natural Resources in the democratically elected Kibaki government. Even though she is now being protected by the very same soldiers who once arrested her, her voice on behalf of the environment is still strong and determined.

In The Green Belt Movement, founder Wangari Maathai tells its story: why it started, how it operates, and where it is going. She includes the philosophy behind it, its challenges and objectives, and the specific steps involved in starting a similar grassroots environmental and social justice organization. The Green Belt Movement is the inspiring story of people working at the grassroots level to improve their environment and their country. Their story offers ideas about a new and hopeful future for Africa and the rest of the world.

Customer Reviews:

nobel quality.......2007-10-11

this is a historic epistle written by the nobel prize laureate of Kenya regarding her all round approach to promoting ecological sustainability as the key to expanding social justice. An essential book to possess and share. bill bronston, MD

Absolutely fascinating work.......2005-02-07

This book took me into the grassroots level work of the newest Nobel Peace Prize winner. I was glad to get a glimpse into what the world is just recognizing as the new frontier - the hope that comes from action at the local level which makes real course changes in our world as a whole. I enjoyed the very practical outline of this movement's accomplishments and connections to the growing consciousness for earth's slow, steady salvation.

GREEN BELT MOVEMENT.......2005-02-07

I found this book to be an enlightening and educating account of the background and work of the current Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai. THE GREEN BELT MOVEMENT is currently the only volume that provides as much insight on this topic.

This book aptly illustrates the practical effect a visionary can have towards the cause of unifying and balancing the degraded social, cultural and biological environment that we inhabit, by it's ample portrayal of the life, philosophy and focus of Prof. Maathai.

I highly recommend this book.

Depressed about the environment? Read this book!!.......2005-02-05

The Green Belt Movement by Wangari Maathai is a wonderful, informative and user-friendly book that gives a good sense of the movement's history and the person behind it. Just as Maathai in her work likes to keep her hands in the dirt planting trees, in her book she cuts directly to the meat and bones of what the Green Belt Movement is about and how it functions practically on the ground.

The book illustrates both the work of the Green Belt Movement and the philosophical motivations behind it, making it a useful and applicable guide to any person or organization interested or involved in a grassroots, holistic, and sustainable approach to changing the environmental and social threads of our world.

Throughout the text Maathai's directness, integrity and humor shines through, revealing the dynamic and rich personality behind this inspirational movement.
"I assumed that all people working in public service loved the people they served, were accountable and transparent, and had integrity. That was part of the culture that had been inculcated in me by my parents and teachers. It was part of my personality, character and conscience. I have since learned that such assumptions are shared by few." This statement is vital to an understanding of who Wangari Maathai is and is one of the reasons she won the Nobel Peace Prize. She has always had great integrity and she has never been willing to compromise it.

Throughout the book there are passages that let the reader know that this person who is writing is brilliant, funny and also deeply modest. Wangari Maathai is an extraordinary person and this book provides a good sense of the hard work that went into creating the Green Belt Movement. I recommend it.

Green Belt Movement inspiring!.......2005-02-04

Wangari Maathai represents the possibility that all of us can make a difference, if we only make a commitment. THE GREEN BELT MOVEMENT is an important introduction to her work. She has inspired thousands and I am one who looks to her example - especially when we environmentalists feel despair in the current U.S. political climate.

Book Description

The first study to consider the origins and seventeenth-century significance of prints seminal in the subsequent development of naturalistic native Dutch scenery in prints and paintings.

"Throughout this fascinating and well-illustrated volume Levesque holds rightly to her stated aims and argues convincingly for a more historically sensitive account of these works."—Burlington Magazine

"This book is original, insightful scholarship of the highest quality that will prove of interest to a wide range of scholars of Dutch art, culture, and history. Professor Levesque makes a significant contribution to the debate that has developed over the last twenty years or so about the meaning of Dutch landscape in particular and Dutch realistic imagery in general."—Lawrence O. Goedde, University of Virginia

The sets of landscape etchings produced in the second decade of the seventeenth century by Claes Jansz. Visscher, Esaias van den Velde, Willem Buytewech, and Jan van de Velde drew on and contributed to a print culture that played a key role in defining "Dutch" landscape. Examination of these printed landscape series as part of a wide-ranging print culture underscores the consistent interrelationship of landscape, history, and politics. To varying degrees, the contemporaneous descriptive geographies, histories, allegorical tableaux, didactic prints, and poetic anthologies considered in this study provide parallels for the prints' serial structure, journey theme, and commemorative motifs. Moreover, as part of a wider enterprise of Dutch self-definition, they provide cultural guidelines for the interpretation of landscape in prints and paintings.

Levesque's study of the Dutch seventeenth-century experience of place is two-tiered. She addresses the journey through landscape as an interpretive framework, the spatial structure of knowledge, the benefits of travel from the point of view of humanists, and the growth of a Dutch national self-consciousness expressed through landscape. She also provides a close reading of the structure and motifs in the print series of Claes Jansz. Visscher, Esaias van den Velde, Willem Buytewech, and Jan van de Velde.

Book Description

While I advised him to be good and forgiving I was not unconscious of the beam in my own eye. It was the very knowledge of my own shortcomings that urged me to retain, if possible, some sparks of my brother's God-given nature. I had not lived fourteen years in slavery for nothing. I had felt, seen, and heard enough, to read the characters, and question the motives, of those around me.

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Customer Reviews:

A whole new perspective.......2007-08-06

In my school days I had learned of slavery, but never the true details of its true horror. As a 30 year old white woman from the north, I was pretty obilivous to slavery. I recently took an English class at my local college where the teacher had us read "Kindred", that book opened my eyes and had me wanting to learn more.

Harriot Jacobs, a.k.a. Linda Brent, book was incredible. This book is very polite in addressing unspeakable acts. Harriot tells of her heroic escape and survival. What one woman endured for her children. It amazes me that someone could live through all of this. She is a far stronger woman than I. This book is of clean language and should be read by all high school students.

I recently visited Charleston, S.C. and seen all the beautiful homes and plantations, but after reading this book it gave me a whole new persepective. We all need to learn from the past lest we should ever repeat such horrorific acts.

Her fight prefigures the defeat of slavery.......2005-04-04

Incidents is typically viewed as an outstanding example of Black feminist resistance to slavery as well as a protest against the fugitive slave laws. Yet, it can also be seen as an assessment of the forces available to eliminate slavery as a whole, part of a debate that unfolded in the years leading up to the civil war about what force could possibly overthrow slavery whose ascendancy not only over the South, but over the entire nation seemed unstoppable when this book was written.

Its history is a testament to the growth of racism among American literary "experts" and historians. While Harriet Jacobs was celebrated in her time as the author of this book and used this celebrity to advance her struggle to advance the lives of refugee slaves during the Civil War and of freed slaves after the Civil War, the racism that followed the imposition of Jim Crow Segregation and the US grab for colonies in Asia and Latin America in the late 19th and 20th Centuries led to the memory of her work being extinguished. By the 1950s and 1960s the scholarly world had come to believe this book was a fiction written by Lydia Maria Child. No one familiar with Child could think that she would do such a thing.

We owe Jean Fagan Yellin and her collaborators the honor of resurrecting Harriet Jacob's authorship and career. In a startling masterpiece of research ,Yellin's team documented the truth of everything narrated in this book. We are also enriched by Yellin's recent biography entitled Harriet Jacobs.

Besides the usual, Incidents represents a catalog of different ways to escape or lessen the impact of slavery. We have the noble faithful servent in the person of Linda Brent's mother who buys herself with the aid of white who honors her position, we have attempts to escape through the sexual favors of a white man, we have people buying their way out of slavery, we have violent and non violent escapes. We also see Linda Brent's resistence and the success of her clandestine life and later her escapes to Philiadephia, then New York, then England, as a result not only of her individual bravery, character, and devotion to her people and her family and her honor, but of the existence of resources beyond the slave and Black community that can free not only the individual slave but put an end to slavery. We also have the racism that made Jacobs feel not totally free in the North.

This is the crucial place Incidents belongs. The publications (Uncle Tom was first published as a serial in an antislavery newspaper and later published as a book) of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1850 and 1852 unleashed at the dialog opened among contemporary African American texts about how to eliminate slavery in response to Stowe's great work. Harriet Beecher Stowe had recommended the Christic experience of evangelical Christianity in Uncle Tom, Martin Delany recommended the reculturation of Blacks by a bourgeois independent state's aristocratic and cultural leadership, William Wells Brown pointed to the ship of capitalism coming the vanquish the slave ships.

Jacob's text enters this debate with an array of forces within the African American slave and free community, as well as within the Southern white community, as well as the Northern and even international community that can be used to defeat slavery. We have the slaves themselves debating, organizing, and resisting. We have freed Blacks North and South helping. We have whites in the South itself helping, if inadequately. We have supporters of women's rights and opponents of slavery among the women of the North. We have the international opponents of slavery in Britain and beyond.

Jacobs highlights not only her own incredibly courageous resistance to slavery, but to the array of forces available to fight slavery. In the weeks and months after this book was published in 1861, those same forces did in fact overthrow slavery and crush it forever more.

This is a stirring book written by an articulate and educated writer. Indeed contrary to what is said elsewhere, even narratives written or told by semiliterate African Americans who escaped slavery never contained dialect, but were written in clear standard English. Indeed, scholars have noted that where Jacobs tries to reproduce Black English spoken by unacculturated slaves, she had to fall back on the conventions of theatrical stereotypical imitations of Black English, rather than reproduce real Black English. She had been reared in a standard English environment, had escaped and lived and functioned among an even more stardard English environment, and by the time she wrote this book, almost 20 years after she had escaped from slavery, she was actually unfamiliar with real Black English!

Not only was Jacobs literate, but she was apparently very familiar with contemporary Womens or sentimental novels exemplified by Uncle Tom and Susan Warner's Wide Wide World.
Jacobs had spent much time in her bondage in Edenton, reading. Later, in Rochester New York, Jacobs ran a anti-slavery reading room associated with Frederick Douglass's North Star. For nearly a decade in New York, Jacobs worked as a house keeper and nanny for one of the most popular journalists in the country. She also knew and received support from her boss's estranbed sister, the widely popular journalist and fiction writer Sara Payson Willis Parton, known by her pen name Fannie Fern. In Ruth Hall, Parton's famous novel a roman A clef biography, Fanny Fern, there isa chacter obviously modeled after Harriet Jacobs. Jacob's maintained an extensive correspondence with some of leading activists in the womens and antislavery movements of her time in both the United States and Great Britain.

Incidents follows the styles and conventions of the sentimental novels so well that for decades many believed that it was actually a novel written by a white female sentimental author, not by a escaped slave. The Sentimental novels whose central work is to create sympathy usually signfied by the reader's tears, by the suffering, the righteousness, and ultimately the lack of physical power in a wicked world for its heroines and heroes. To that extent, they reflected the lack of social power and opportunity for liberation of 19th Century women.
Jacobs has a totally different approach, remarkable given these conventions. Susan Warner, author of the first big blockbuster novel, Wide Wide World, could make a day in the life of a 10 year old girl seem like a life of torture. Yet, Jacobs forgo the obvious, easy opportunity to dwell on Harriet Jacobs's undeniably extreme suffering hiding in an attick. Instead the book focuses on her spirit of resistance, the availability of allies, and the real possibilities for her deliverence through her own power. Rather than the isolated slave mother locked in an attic, Jacob's Linda Brent is a person who is helped in her struggle by white and black, free and slave in Edenton, helped by sailors and antislavery activists up and done the US coast and in Canada, and helped by people as far away as England. Rather than a victim who deserves our tears, Jacobs shows how there are forces to help her fight for freedom, and she wins.

If in the weeks and months in 1860 and early 1861 when this book was written the slave power seemed unstoppable. Yet, the power, the ability to act, the ability to defeat slavery shown in Jacob's book, discloses the forces and the will that would abolish slavery forever in a few brief years

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