Aftershocks

Book Description

Jessie Wainwright, the daughter of a prominent San Francisco physician, intends to become a doctor herself, despite her father's disapproval. Her dream is nearly lost when a chance encounter reveals a shocking secret--and Jessie sets off in search of answers, temporarily abandoning her goals.

Determined to confirm her dark suspicions, Jessie combs the streets of Chinatown. She ultimately witnesses the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and the plight of Chinese immigrants relegated to the nightmare of refugee camps in its wake. With the help of trusted friends, old and new, Jessie discovers the strength to stand up to her domineering father and to break through the racial boundaries of the times. In this powerful story of family, love, and history, Jessie also finds the courage to set out on a daring path that sets her apart from other young women of her generation.

Customer Reviews:

Readers ages 12 and older will find this a moving story .......2006-08-20

Readers ages 12 and older will find this a moving story of Jessie, daughter of a prominent San Francisco physician whose determination to become a doctor against all odds goes against even her father's wishes. Her discovery of a shameful family secret happens against the backdrop of the great earthquake of 1906: both events will change her world and her dreams in this vivid story of early San Francisco and a young girl's determination.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Dr. Jessie..........2006-08-01

Jessie Wainwright is a stubborn, rebellious, opinionated, courageous, and undeniably likeable character. The novel, Aftershocks, by William Lavender begins in 1903, our heroine is introduced early-on as a trouble-maker. Her family, wealthy and prestigious in San Francisco, cannot understand why this fourteen year old girl would ever want to bother with an education and medical school when she could easily make a good match and become a doting wife and mother. But Jessie's goals in life will not be dictated by her father, although she will outwardly submit for the sake of family unity. Thus begins one of the first themes of the book: discrimination against women, particularly women in the workplace.

The second theme of the novel is discrimination against the Chinese. While most wealthy families employed a "house boy" that was Chinese, they were very much looked down upon and viewed as dishonest and inferior. Ching Lee, the Wainwright's houseboy, brings his niece Mei to work as a maid in the household. She is instantly befriended by Jessie, and since she is a quick learner, she is respected by the other members of the family. Eager is one word to describe Mei. She is eager to please...and eager to become an American. Naively eager in some circumstances.

When Jessie's mother becomes ill, Mei moves into the attic room. Ching Lee is against this from the start--he knows no good could come from it--but the family insists. Mei loves living there, and she becomes more familiar with the family--in some cases way too familiar with the family. One night, Jessie hears noises coming from the attic room. Strange noises to her hear and lots of laughter...instantly suspicious of her older brother who has been flirting with Mei...she is shocked to see her father come stumbling out of the attic. Months later, Mei leaves the household along with Ching Lee without a word to anyone--but Jessie fears the true reason is that Mei has learned she is pregnant. Her search for Mei and Lee continues, until she accidentally stumbles into an opium house and is arrested. To say her parents were horrified would be an understatement, she is threatened with boarding school if she disobeys again.

1906. The San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires make the perfect plot device for moving this story forward and bringing everyone's secrets out into the open. Seeing Chinatown destroyed, Jessie can no longer avoid the obvious...she wants...she needs to find out what happened to her half-sister. In the chaos, she is able to slip in and out of the house and visit the refugee camps where the Chinese are staying...and it is here where the story really begins to unfold.

Aftershocks is a great read. Complex storylines, multiple climaxes and resolutions...and ultimately a very happy ending. Definitely recommend to lovers of historical fiction.

Outstanding historical fiction for teens.......2006-07-06

The great San Francisco quake of 1906 may be the most physically earthshattering event in this sweeping, well-told historical novel. But a family secret involving power, harassment, deceit and racism both shakes up young Jessie Wrainwright's life and gives her focus and determination. It leads her to Chinatown (and later, the earthquake refugee camps) to look for Lee, the immigrant she loved who helped raise her, who left the Wainwright mansion suddenly with his niece Mei, and never returned.

Jessie has many friends and makes more, whom she will need in order to rescue Mei's daughter from being sent to a cattle ranch or orphanage after the earthquake. And in spite of her father's many objections, she doggedly pursues her dream of a career in medicine.

This is a big, juicy novel that will keep readers turning pages well past their bedtimes.

(A version of this review appeared in the Palo Alto Weekly.)

AFTERSHOCKS--both interesting and exciting.......2006-04-06

I don't usually like books about anything historical but this one is an exception. I really liked the character of Jessie, and the way she handled herself not only with her domineering father but also during the horrible San Francisco earthquake when she had to search the ruined city for her Chinese friends. Highly recommended!!

Aftershocks is one of the BEST books ever!.......2006-03-05

My Grandfather, William Lavender wrote this book and i got to read it early! I was very impressed that my grandfather wrote it! It was AMAZING! I would recommend this book ages 12 and up! Even though my grandfather wrote it it it is not for boys only, my aunt and grandmother helped a lot! It belongs on the best seller list!

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Natural History of the Lavenders
Baron Fred. De Gingins-Lassaraz
Manufacturer: The New England Unit of The Herb Society of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MAQ2HS

Average customer rating:

Natural history of the lavenders,
Frederic de Gingins-La-Sarra
Manufacturer: [New England Unit of the Herb Society of America]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Fort Vancouver: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Washington (National Park Service Handbook)

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Fort Vancouver: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Washington (National Park Service Handbook)
Archie Satterfield , and David Lavender
Manufacturer: National Park Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

This colorful brochure describes Fort Vancouver, which served as a trading post on the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. Includes a history of the area, focusing on the major personalities of the time.

Book Description

At the close of the 20th C., the formal end of a period strongly influenced by Winston S. Churchill as well as other political giants such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse-Tung, and FDR, scholars continued to discuss and evaluate Churchill and will continue to do so into the 21st C. Many claim he was a Renaissance man who blended an unusual genius for action, writing, art, politics, and statesmanship, while others would excoriate him for his weaknesses. Aimed at a general audience of academics and armchair historians, this bibliography briefly describes and evaluates a wide selection of books in English by and about Winston S. Churchill. It includes books published since the late 1890s and is limited to works that are readily available. It excludes such items as theses and dissertations, government documents, manuscripts, and papers, and hard-to-locate ephemeral items such as pamphlets and public program notes, although a number of the titles covered are anthologies of these ephemeral materials. The titles covered provide countless leads for those wishing to pursue their research further. This book provides a good beginning.

Customer Reviews:

nice price.......2001-11-29

i 've owned this book together with the vol 2 for some years now ,and at this price it's a must-have for any collector. it is pretty general in it's aproach, but aren't many collections? can the experts write some more of them ?( there's a real demand for 'em ! )

Photos features primarily the lowest quality of lighters.......1998-06-30

This book appears to be a catalog of cigarette lighters that are widely available. It appears quality was not a consideration in the selection of these lighters (mostly japanese and low quality junk from the 50's-60's). These are, by and large not the items that have turned lighter collecting in to the popular hobby it is today. The saving grace of this book is the fact that it also includes about 70 pages of old catalog reprints showing some of the higher quality lighters available from the 20's-30's. It would have been nice to see some actual photographs of these lighters instead of the black and white and color drawings used in these vintage ads. However, these ads save the book, if not for these ads, the lighters photographed for this book would make it a good guide for what not to avoid in lighter collecting.

Customer Reviews:

And then he found a book that fit JUST RIGHT!.......2002-02-10

We used to have a vegetable graden. We had several. Each time we'd start out with the best intentions. Our kids would pick out about a hundred seed packets. I would do the digging. We would plant enough to feed a small island nation. Then things would dissolve. Nobody had time to water and weed and thin and very soon we had another lovely weed patch that I would mow over. For the last couple of years my wife and I started buying folowring plants and putting them, helter skelter in a corner of the front yard. As I watched the first real snow fall of the season come down last week (finally!) I got to wondering what we were going to do with that corner this year. A quick trip to a local book emporium to sample the wares led to discovering this absolute gem. I had made do with Cocket's Vistory Garden and Square Foot Gardening for years. So what made me buy this one? Aside from straightforward prose, incredible photos, and well rendered advice - the section titled "Improvisong tools and equipment". Finally, an author that understood that all those Martha Stewart-ish perfect tool lists just depressed me. I don't have several acres of land and unlimited credit at Smith & Hawkens. Get this: "The biggest investment you may need to make is in a spade and a fork - try to buy second-hand if your budget is tight." She goes on to explain many uses for recyclable plastic containers in your garden and how to get cheap pots and potting soil. If you want to create a beutiful natural garden without spending a fortune, make an investment in this book and get off to a great start.

Plants for Free: How to Create a Great Garden for Next-to-Nothing

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Plants for Free: How to Create a Great Garden for Next-to-Nothing

Manufacturer: Time Life Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0737030208

Customer Reviews:

Possibly the most fascinating star biography ever written.......2004-11-19

Grandmother Louisa Lane was a fabulous person: actress, theater manager, and she held the family together. Once her husband and her sister went on a long, long tour. Then they presented her the baby they "adopted". Louisa was a good sport: she presented them the baby she "adopted". Her daughter Georgie, who married matinee-idol Maurice Barrymore died of tuberculosis when their children Lionel, Ethel and John were very young. Maurice suffered the consequences of syphillis and spent his last years in an asylum.

Lionel was the one with the long MGM career. His Macbeth flopped but he won an oscar in Hollywood. He shocked his family when he left his first wife to marry his brother's ex-mistress. She was wasteful, domineering - but he worshipped her. He was also very secretive: Was he morphine-addicted? involved in John Gilbert's downfall in order to please Louis B. Mayer? Why did he die penniless?

Ethel Barrymore could have become Mrs. Winston Churchill, but she married Russel Colt instead. He was an accomplished wife-beater. She deserved the name "First Lady of the stage" for the length of her career. She financed a big house with many servants and when she reached middle-age and lost her figure she had a problem. She drowned her sorrows in the bottle, but later cured herself and won an oscar for "None but the lonely heart". She too died impoverished.

John nursed his beloved grandmother all alone when she died. His father's mental illness traumatized him. Not that he needed more problems: his stepmother seduced him when he was a teenager and his subsequent alcohol-addiction ruined his life. He had the potential to become America's greatest actor - attractive, charming, well-bred, quick-witted, immensely gifted - and he succeeded - on stage: Justice, Peter Ibbetson, Redemption, the Jest, Richard III and his epoch-making, incestuous Hamlet (Michael Morrison describes these performances in detail in his excellent book: John Barrymore, Shakespearean actor).

John was also unbelievalbly self-destructive: He fell in love with the wrong women. His first wife, a society lady cuckolded him. His second one, a strong-willed, vindictive poetess, misused their daughter in order to hurt him (Diana was allowed to visit her father only when chaperoned by her stepfather!).

He seemed at the height of his career when he left the stage for Hollywood but his downfall had already begun: drinking was considered "manly" then, but his frequent stays in detoxication centers prove how much he suffered under his addiction. He and Dolores Costello (Drew Barrymore is their granddaughter) became Hollywood's dream couple but his film career is uneven: He wasted his talent on insipid scripts, the Hollywood smart set resented his brilliance, his producers resented his mocking performances and he squandered his fortune at a breathtaking rate. Everybody fleeced him...

"Counsellor at Law" (1933) and "Twentieth Century" (1934) were his last hurrahs. Then he could no longer remember his lines: Korsakoff's syndrome - loss of short-term memory. His marriage exploded under dramatic circumstances and he fled to India out of fear that his wife might commit him to a mental institution.

During his stay at a New York hospital, Elaine, a 19 years old aspiring actress visited him. He moved in her one-bedroom apartment where she lived with her parents. They enjoyed the fashionable restaurants. And the publicity! The interest of the yellow press was insatiable. Despite his provocative manners John remained moral at the core: he accepted the most humiliating roles in order to pay his taxes & alimony. Elaine wanted to work on stage with him so they went on tour with "My dear children" (1939-40)- a monstrous hit. Critics wept. Some colleagues tried to help him, others turned their back on him. His last films show a broken man, humiliated by his co-stars in order to squeeze some laughs out of a sadistic audience. His death was surrounded by family wars - then his creditors pounced upon his belongings.

642 pages on which not one word is wasted. Thorough investigation. Margot Peters offers not just a biography but the psychograph of her peerless protagonists. This is not a scandal-mongering book: she writes with deep sympathy even when she describes the most hair-raising events. This is the most touching and absorbing star biography I read in my entire life. Read it, and read also John Kobler: "Damned in Paradise - the life of John Barrymore" - you won't be disappointed.

Book Description

Fascinating edition of the travels of two young sprigs of the French aristocracy in search of the secrets of British commercial, industrial and agricultural primacy reaches its climax in this delicious volume... a notable contribution to the topographical and social history of Britain on the eve of the French revolution. COUNTRY LIFE (Richard Ollard) The most satisfying book I read in 2002... Connoisseurs of 18th-century travel books will be enraptured by this diary of a visit to Scotland by a young man from the great French family of Rochefoucauld and his Polish tutor... The diary has been translated, edited and annotated by our leading regional historian, and provides an enormous amount of fascinating detail about Scotland in the first phase of the Industrial Revolution. SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (Paul Johnson) In Norman Scarfe's two earlier books of their travels, Francois and Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld, with their companion, Maximilien Lazowski, have earned their place among the most perceptive and lively commentators on late 18th-century Britain.In this third book, Alexandre and Lazowski tackle a tougher itinerary, seeing for themselves Improved farming from the Fens to the Moray Firth and back via Armagh, Dublin and North Wales, with deviations into Improved industry and trade, as at Rotherham and Paisley; Improved hospitals (notably Dr Hunter's at York); and more picturesque sights such as Fountains Abbey, Edinburgh, the fifty-foot Foyers Fall near Inverness, the Boyne valley and Llansannan. In Edinburgh they dined with Adam Smith. In the infertile Highlands, they were moved by the Highlanders, only lately permitted back into their plaids and kilts: 'all their customs at stake, they faced being a former people'. Through Scarfe's well-attuned translation, we see these French adventurers for ourselves: the variable hospitality of the inns ('every magnificence' in Edinburgh; 'a dreadful inn' - with compensations - at Old Meldrum); and the terrifying treachery of Loch Etive. NORMAN SCARFE's two previous volumes of La Rochefoucauld travels are A Frenchman's Year in Suffolk and Innocent Espionage, 1785.

To the Highlands in 1786; the Inquisitive Journey of a Young French Aristocrat.

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To the Highlands in 1786; the Inquisitive Journey of a Young French Aristocrat.
Norman Scarfe
Manufacturer: Boydell & Brewer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N6B2JO

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