Book Description
Lesson study is a popular professional development approach in Japan whereby teachers collaborate to study content, instruction, and how students solve problems and reach for understanding in order to improve elementary mathematics instruction and learning in the classroom.
This book is the first comprehensive look at the system and process of lesson study in Japan. It describes in detail the process of how teachers conducted lesson study--how they collaborated in order to develop a lesson, what they talked about during the process, and what they looked at in order to understand deeply how students were learning. Readers see the planning of a mathematics lesson, as well as how much content knowledge the teachers have. They observe students' problem solving strategies and learn how Japanese teachers prepare themselves to identify those strategies and facilitate the students' discussion.
Written for mathematics teachers, educational researchers, school administrators interested in teachers' professional development, and professional developers, this landmark volume provides an in-depth understanding of lesson study that can lead to positive changes in teachers' professional development and in teaching and learning in the United States.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent handbook to lesson study advocates.......2007-05-13
This book serves as an excellent handbook for those who are advocating lesson study as a practice-based professional development tool. To illustrate how the stages of lesson study can be implemented, the authors have included an authentic example to serve as a credible context.
Average customer rating:
- This is a good book..
- This author needs a therapist, not a book contract
- Honesty
- Worth a try.
- Engaging, Personal, Reflective, Sensitive... Wonderful!
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Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads
Clea Simon
Manufacturer: Wiley
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The bond between father and daughter can be one of the strongest either family member will experience in his or her lifetime. In Fatherless Women, Clea Simon, a writer for the Boston Globe, examines challenges daughters face when this relationship is severed by the death of the father. With all but one chapter focusing on women who have lost their fathers after adulthood, Fatherless Women traces the father-daughter relationship and how it manifests as a girl grows up, how it affects her, and what that relationship leaves behind when it's gone. Simon describes some of her own experiences and discusses, with an emphasis on pervasive trends, the immediate changes that can take place within one or two years after the death of a father. By delving into every aspect of a woman's life, both personal and professional, Simon covers a multitude of topics, including how women mourn in order to resolve father-daughter issues, changing mother-daughter relationships, trends of family commitment following this loss, challenges marriages face after the loss, refining needs in response to death, and how goals can change after losing a father. The book ends with "The Journey over Time," describing how bereaved daughters often incorporate elements of their fathers into their own lives and families over time. --Rhonda Langdon
Book Description
"Elegant prose ... sheds new light on the father-daughter dynamic"
-Boston magazine
Praise for Fatherless WOMEN
"If it can be said about a book on loss, Fatherless Women is a pleasure to read. Clea Simon is a warm, honest, intelligent, and trustworthy guide, not only for grieving women but for the men who support them. Simon's insights about father-daughter relationships are profound."
-Neil Chethik, author of FatherLoss
"Clea Simon deepens our understanding of the complicated emotions daughters feel about fathers, both during life and especially after death. This book will help heal rifts and set stuck energies free."
-Beth Witrogen McLeod, author of Caregiving:
The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss, and Renewal
"Unusually candid and often provocative . . . Simon's book is immensely thought-provoking about a topic that all of us will face."
-Pauline Boss, Ph.D., author of Ambiguous Loss:
Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief
There is a special bond between a father and a daughter, and when that bond is broken by death, a woman's life can change in profound and unexpected ways. Clea Simon, critically acclaimed author of Mad House, explores this crucial meeting point of grief and growth by delving into her own experience and those of other women to paint an illuminating portrait of the father-daughter relationship and its lifelong ramifications. Filled with moving stories of real women, this poignant, comforting, and insightful book paves the way for all women to make peace with the past, with the adults they have become, and to courageously face the question: what happens next?
Customer Reviews:
This is a good book.........2005-03-01
My father died almost a year ago and I bought this book in October 2004. I'm still having a hard time reading it; not because it's not easy reading, but because of the depth of emotion it conjures up as it pushes me to reflect on the relationship between me and my dad. No matter how old I get, I will always miss him and wish I could have stayed young and he could've lived forever. I think when I get to the end of this book, I will have gone through more healing through my grief. It's that kind of book..
This author needs a therapist, not a book contract.......2005-02-28
I tried to read this book after the death of my Dad due to a long battle with cancer. This author can only "help" or more accurately share stories of how dysfunctional her relationship with her father was, and how promiscuous she was, what a bad friend she was to those around her, rather than actually tell you anything about what life is like after the death of a father that you had a healthy relationship with. If you are normal and your father is normal, and you were friends with your father, this book is not for you. If you need therapy and your Dad needs therapy, here is clearly the book for you.
This book is full of sweeping generalizations to validate the author's bad decisions in the relationships in her life. It is not backed up with any research or facts of any kind. She should have bought a journal and written about the bad relationship in private rather than publish it. Please do not buy this book.
Honesty.......2004-08-06
As I began to read the introduction to this amazing book, it was as if I were dictating and Clea was simply putting the words on paper. Although our Father's were educated in different ways, the grief of a slow death is much different. My Father's illness lasted for six years and I felt like he died a million times before the actual death. Clea has taken an uncomfortable reality and placed it on a page for confirmation and viewing by all who have suffered the loss of our greatest Love as daughters. This is an amazing find!!!
Worth a try........2003-07-25
While I found it difficult to embark on reading a book on this topic (as my wound is relatively new and certainly unhealed) it was comforting to read about similar feelings and emotions women who've also lost their father are feeling. While I found many of the chapters to be irrelevant in my own personal life, I am sure many would find them helpful. In the very least, it was nice to take the time to help face my loss.
Engaging, Personal, Reflective, Sensitive... Wonderful!.......2003-03-24
... Clea Simon, truly, is a very gifted writer. I found this book to be engaging, personal, reflective, sensitive, and wonderful. I could almost put myself in her shoes as I read about her thoughts and feelings, her stories about the lives of other women in similar circumstances, and her commentaries on our sociological condition as a generation of people who are struggling to make our own, new ways out of the old paradigm of the patriarchal past, a paradigm which has certainly paid its toll on all of us.
... Nevertheless, this is not a book about politics; far from! It is a book about one woman's journey through life, specifically relating to the issues surrounding the loss of her beloved father, and how she reconciled all of her feelings concerning this loss. Along the way, she weaves a tapestry of the tales of other women who also dealt with issues surrounding their fathers, and how the loss of their fathers may have affected them in positive and / or negative ways. The inclusion of all of these other stories makes this a far richer and more interesting book than if it were only about the life of the author. In fact, I can see this book being used as a textbook in college sociology courses on family values. It is that good!
... Here is an example of one insight she shares with us, from pages 64 and 65: "Indeed, the best indication of how we will grieve and recover from our loss may not lie in how our fathers die, but in how we dealt with them living. And for those of us who were unable to make peace with our fathers during their lifetimes, our way to peace and to healing may lie in accepting this lack of resolution, accepting our own and our fathers' flaws. Even if our fathers cannot at this final crisis abandon their illusions about their role, and our relationship, we must. For only by letting go of the fantasy of the perfect daddy, and of the perfect deathbed reconciliation, can we achieve anything resembling closure." ... How intuitively profound!
... You know, I picked up this book in order to help me better understand people who are close to me who have lost their fathers at an early age, in order to be more sympathetic toward them and more considerate of their feelings and experiences. I was well rewarded, for, not only did I gain a greater understanding of the feelings of the loss of one's father from the perspective of a daughter, I also learned that many of these emotions are shared by ALL of us. Ultimately, we ALL have to one day face the inevitable loss of BOTH our parents - our fathers AND our mothers. Reading this book, somehow, makes that inevitable, one-day reality just a bit easier to accept and understand. It's a great comfort to the soul. ... BRAVO, Clea Simon! ... YOWZA! - The Aeolian Kid
Amazon.com
Part history of a species, part personal memoir, and featuring a healthy dose of wry humor, Clea Simon's The Feline Mystique shares the tale of her particular cat (Cyrus) set against a backdrop of interviews and statistics on cats throughout the world. Smoothly blending mythology with modern stories of dedicated feral cat rescuers, feline fanciers might bond with this book as tightly as they've bonded with their own wee beastie.
The focus is relentlessly female and a happy counterpoint to urban myths and ancient folk tales about lonely women and their up-to-no-good pets. Simon walks us through her initial bond with a young kitten, through the warm years of record-clawing, arm-kneading, keyboard-walking, veterinarian-terrorizing cat companionship, and leads us gently through the sadness of parting with a beloved animal. You won't find practical tips on health care or soapboxes about the problem of strays in the city--just page after page of individualized love and fascination. From Norse goddess Freya and her flying cats to references of a study done on the annual kill of an outdoors-living housecat to an interview with Barnum and Bailey's female tiger tamer, each detail helps construct a solid picture of the multifaceted relationship possible between a woman and her cat. --Jill Lightner
Book Description
This sophisticated exploration of the bond between women and their cats examines everything from the history of cats (Cleopatra) to the stereotypes of women who choose to live with cats (the 'cat lady') to the power of female images relating to cats (Catwoman). It is also a moving memoir of this award-winning author's relationship with her own cats, and will deepen any reader's understanding of the feline in her life.
Customer Reviews:
Women and Cats - a wonderful and mysterious bond.......2007-03-01
This is a great book, especially for those that would like to know WHY so many wonmen are adopted by cats! We never really own a cat, nor should we and I think women understand this, as explained in the book. Cats are part of the family and because of that, the bond it strong. This book helped me to understand why.
A Kitty Connection.......2006-04-21
This book has been very insightful for me and some of my friends (this was a great gift item!). What I found most intriguing was the reconstruction of the make-up of "The Old Cat Lady" myth. It makes sense that it was built out of confusion, disdain, and the urge to make women feel repressed.
The stories presented here are very enjoyable, and I found myself retelling them to several friends. It's nice to realize a bit of a community here.
I thought this book was going to be totally unrelated to most of the other books I've been reading lately that are about Wicca. I was pleasantly surprised to find a little blurb about Wicca in chapter 3. I am definitely glad for the positive coverage, the more informed people are about various ways of life, the less bigoted the world will be.
a fantastic book.......2005-04-23
A great book for any women who loves cats. It tells about the very apprent female and feline love affair that's gone on for thousounds of years. It's really informative and interesting. It will make you feel closer to the special feline in your life. Remarkable book.
why we connect with our kitties.......2004-07-04
This book is a valuable addition to any cat lover's shelf. Author Simon interviews women of all ages, backgrounds and professions to find out just what holds this bond with our cats in place. Much of the pleasure of reading it comes from comparing your own relationship with your cats, both past and present, with the women interviewed and the author herself.
Among the topics explored are: why are women/cats stereotyped so harshly and often similarly; why cat hoarders are so often female and why they do what they do; the mythical and historical connections between women and cats; how cats treat our significant others and what that says about how we feel about them (and how we let them treat us); letting go of our cats when it's time for them to pass on; and how our cats choose to communicate with their owners.
Great book for those who know cats.......2004-02-06
If you know your cat's looks, meows, and feelings, this book makes sure you know you aren't crazy! We can understand cats as well as they understand us. I really enjoyed The Feline Mystique. It has wonderful cat stories, as well as great information that all cat lovers need!
Book Description
Be ready for both the Step 2 & 3 USMLE exams and those demanding questions during your rotations. The new Blueprints Clinical Cases series will be the answer to all of your needs! Written by residents and faculty, this series prepares you for even the most complex cases. 50 Symptom based clinical cases provide comprehensive USMLE review Built-in thought questions help you learn to diagnose using the critical thinking process Case-based learning presents an efficient manner of cataloguing symptoms, syndromes, and diseases 200 questions replicate the computer format of the USMLE
Prepare for your future with the Blueprints Clinical Cases series!
Perfect for medical students -- physician assistants, nurse practitioners and related health professionals will also find Blueprints Clinical Cases valuable.
Customer Reviews:
Very helpful reference for NBME FM shelf exam.......2007-01-23
This book is short, concise and very helpful if you're preparing for the Family Medicine NBME shelf exam. IM, peds, ob cases are all present. It's easy to work through. Most of the clinical problems presented in this text were covered on the shelf exam, some more than once. It was a great last minute prep tool.
Amazon.com
Tales of family dysfunction have become so commonplace that a postcard witticism suggests that a conference for children of functional families would be sparsely attended. Certainly Clea Simon, whose two older siblings were gripped by schizophrenia in their teens, wouldn't be there. She lays out a bleak, affecting story of growing up in a family where the spotlight necessarily shone on the insistent dissociations of a brother she remembers as once gentle and brilliant and a sister whose screeching, violent terrors sent young Simon scrambling for safety. Cogent explanations of mental illness and slices of therapy interweave with Simon's stories and those of similarly besieged families and siblings who must dismantle huge emotional barricades in order to live fully as adults. Sometimes this mix is uneasy, such as when a professionally cool distance too swiftly replaces the white heat of painful memories.
Book Description
In classic books such as Girl, Interrupted and When Rabbit Howls, the mentally ill depict their own harrowing worlds. In Mad House we have an account of the devastating effects of mental illness on the lives of those who share their world--the healthy siblings of those afflicted. Clea Simon was shattered when her older brother, Daniel, a freshman at Harvard, began hearing voices, making it impossible for him to function. He later committed suicide. Schizophrenia next claimed her sister, Katherine, who has moved from one institution to another after refusing any help from her family. Simon, who spoke with hundreds of other siblings of the mentally ill and with experts in the field, confronts the issues healthy siblings face, from guilt (Why do I deserve to be okay?) to fear (Will illness claim me or my children next?) to anger at being neglected by parents overwhelmed by the needs of the mad child. Part memoir, part practical guide, Mad House is a compelling and compassionate book destined to help many people come to terms, as Simon has, with the unique pain of living with a sibling's mental illness.
Customer Reviews:
Astounding!.......2007-09-07
My older brother carries a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. I could easily relate to the author's family dynamics and the effect that her siblings' mental health conditions had on her family. This book combines the author's personal experiences juxtaposed with research and reports from others who have siblings diagnosed with a mental health condition.
This book also helped me better understand my own family's dysfunction, why I relate to people and situations in particular ways, and it allowed me to forgive myself for some of the ways in which I treated my brother. I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone who has a member of their family diagnosed with a mental illness or provides family therapy. Reading this book helped me to gain insights into myself and into my family. It's a must read!
madhouse.......2005-11-09
When Clea Simon was growing up, her otherwise pleasant childhood was marred by odd outbursts and eccentric frightening behavior of her older brother and sister, both of whom would be diagnosed with schizophrenia. Simon, an intelligent and resourceful young girl turned to friends, books and fantasy games to distance herself from the chaos in her home. When she became an adolescent, her brother was hospitalized for mental illness, and she put pressure on herself to be the good, high-achieving child in the family. She was accepted into Harvard and on the outside looked like a wholly successful, confident person. However, years of suppressing her fears about her siblings began to take its toll, and she decided to enter therapy in order to find out who, apart from a high-achiever, she really was. Mad House is not just her story, however, but the many others' who she interviewed and whose accounts are smoothly woven into the book. It will almost certainly reassure readers with mentally ill siblings that they aren't alone.
I cried when I read it...........2004-09-03
My brothers aren't schizophrenic, like Ms. Simon's siblings. They are autistic, however, and the impact of their condition on our family dynamic was much the same. I am the only normal one of three children, and during my life I've felt rage, grief, loneliness, and the dreaded "I-wish-they-would-die-and-free-us-from-this-illness". Because of my brothers I have problems with intimacy and my single greatest fear is that I will bear a child with autism.
The guilt that accompanies my feelings is overwhelming. Ms. Simon's book showed me that I'm not alone, that my feelings aren't illegimate, and that a sort of emotional peace can be had when there's no cure (or even effective treatment) in sight. Thank you for writing this book--I needed it more than any other book I've ever read (and that includes my cherished Bible).
From the author.......2001-09-25
Hi Folks,
I just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who've read Mad House and either posted here or contacted me. So many of you are also siblings, and I am gratified that many of you have found your experiences reflected in my book. I've tried to show, through my experiences and the dozens of you interviewed, that while our story may be one of the quieter ones in our family, it is still valid and deserving of space. Strength and health to you all!
I've used the same combination of memoir and interviews (more than 70) in my new book, "Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads" (Wiley). If any of you read that, please let me know what you think.
peace,
Clea
Maelstrom of Mental Illness .......2000-08-28
Clea is the luckiest of her siblings. Her older brother Daniel, a brilliant boy, showed signs of psychosis in early adulthood. He somehow managed to attend Harvard and upon leaving the renowned university, succumbs to his illness. He marries a woman from his halfway house and they have a daughter. The brother commits suicide and the baby remains unheard from. Clea was in college at the time of her brother's death and her parents curiously give her a false account of how her brother killed himself. That is never explained.
Clea's sister Katherine/Althea appears to be the most unstable. She, too, started showing signs of the illness in late adolescence and was barely able to fight her psychosis and finish high school. She lived from hospital to halfway house, never really finding her niche. Her erratic behavior precluded her from staying at halfway houses and in one memorable account in the book, a landlady requested that her parents come and collect her after she defecated on a mattress. She remained a "living" casualty of mental illness; at the close of the book, Clea did not even know where she was.
Clea is a strong voice, a strong advocate for the families of the mentally ill. Her poignant book is yet another reminder that mental illness is often a family illness because of the tragic impact it has on non-mentally ill members.
Product Description
Some books on Yoga will teach you a posture, how to hold a pose. Through compelling exposition, artful photography and enlivening illustrations, Inspired lives teaches how yoga and yogic principles become part of daily life. Inspired Lives presents dynamic stories in heartfelt prose that distills the essential teachings of yoga into the art of living life. The best of the first six years of ascent magazine, Inspired Lives features interviews with some of the foremost thinkers and writers about yoga and spirituality including Georg Feuerstein, bell hooks, Yann Martel, Arundhati Roy, Joan Halifax Roshi, Tenzin Palmo, Swami Radhananda, Noah Levine and David Sylvian. As well, Inspired Lives features regular ascent magazine contributors Sarah E. Truman, Lesley M. Neilson, and Sikeena Karmali, among others. With a foreward by Kausthub Desikachar and an introduction by editor, Clea McDougall, Inspired Lives presents a 'real life' portrait of art, politics, suffering and happiness, as experienced through the lens of yoga.
Customer Reviews:
Inspired Lives - a favorite!.......2006-08-12
This book is a collection from one of my favorite yoga magazines-- ascent, based out of Montreal, Canada. It's a large-format book with lots of pictures and illustrations. So like the magazine, it's beautiful. But I would be short selling this amazing book to talk only about the way it looks (I'd happily place it on my coffee table). The articles Inspired Lives features are truly intelligent and inspiring.
Some of my favorites include an interview with activist bell hooks, who takes her buddhist values into her life and work. She talks about love and healing in a very compelling, very real-world manner. Sparrow's "My visit to California" is lyrical and charming, and the comic, "Boy Priest" is delightful.
The thing that is really interesting to me about this book is the breadth and depth of the articles. People from many different traditions-- artists, musicians, nuns, swamis, poets, activists-- talking about the role of spirituality in their lives with an intelligence and sincerity that is refreshing in an age when irony is so often the response to the challenges of living in the world.
an inspiring read.......2006-08-12
I am a long-time reader of ascent magazine, so I was delighted to find this anthology of the best articles from the first six years of publication. ascent has consistently published insightful, practical and intelligent articles about how to live a spiritual life in the world, and the most outstanding of these pieces are compiled here. Over the years, spiritual luminaries such as Tenzin Palmo, Georg Feurstein and Geeta Iyengar have graced the pages of ascent magazine, as well as other cultural figures such as bell hooks, Yann Martel and Arundhati Roy.
Some of my favourite articles are reprinted here, and I find myself revisiting them over and over again. Inspired Lives is a wonderful tool for reflection and a creative action plan for how to live an life of inspiration and compassion.
Average customer rating:
- no title
- Art and love, intertwined
- Review of Clea: Book IV of "The Alexandria Quartet"
- Clea by lawrence durrell
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Clea (Alexandria Quartet)
Lawrence Durrell
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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ASIN: 0140153225 |
Customer Reviews:
no title.......2006-01-18
I am numbed, bedazzled, and incredibly sad to have finished this exquisite world Durrell has created. Must rank with "Memoirs of Hadrian" by Marguarite Yourcenar, as one of the very best things I have ever read. Spellbinding is a good word, for his words truly weave a spell within the mind. "Clea", like all the rest, was stunning. Is there something about delta cities?
Art and love, intertwined.......2001-05-03
Durrell further explores not only another love for Darley, but what art is and what it ought to be. Of course, descriptions are lush. One can almost hear hear the music of the closing festival and the beating of its drums.
Clea and Darley's relationship is embroidered over a wartime background. Durrell uses their beautiful private island experiences to echo and foreshadow the rise and fall of this relationship.
And we see how Clea develops as an artist. We are given Pursewarden's posthumous discourse on the philosophy of art. He gives is a lot to think about.
Sometimes I think that Durrell is Pursewarden, and then I wonder if he is making fun of himself in the Darley character. And in reality I find that I wish I could meet and know Durrell.
Clea is another must read.
Review of Clea: Book IV of "The Alexandria Quartet".......2000-08-10
What can one say about perfection? One does not just look at the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel as a great work of art but rather as perfection personified, merely mediated by paints and gilt. This book is exactly the same, its perfection is personified not by pigments and gold, but by ink and prose.
It is indeed rare that an artist pours their all into their work,but when it does occur, be it in the 9th Symphony of Beethoven or Kubrick's 2001, it is unilaterally hailed as a magnum opus.
Clea, in my opinion is just such a work. The way in which Durrell contrasts the blunt style of description with the uncompairable beauty of the subject matter pushes the book deeper into the sanctum sanctorum of literary perfection.
In thinking about this review, perfection seems too cold and metallic a word to be applied to such a beautiful work of art. There seems to be no word that accurately describes the flawless beauty of this book, but these are the limitations of language. Perhaps if I spoke Italian.
Clea by lawrence durrell.......1999-02-15
heey, this is CLEA. I was named after this excellent book. I've read it thrice...it's cool!! I love it!
Book Description
In 1994, Rwanda was the scene of the first acts since World War II to be legally defined as genocide. Two years later, Clea Koff, a twenty-three-year-old forensic anthropologist, left the safe confines of a lab in Berkeley, California, to serve as one of sixteen scientists chosen by the United Nations to unearth the physical evidence of the Rwandan genocide. Over the next four years, Koff’s grueling investigations took her across geography synonymous with some of the worst crimes of the twentieth century.
The Bone Woman is Koff’s unflinching, riveting account of her seven UN missions to Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Rwanda, as she shares what she saw, how it affected her, who was prosecuted based on evidence she found, and what she learned about the world. Yet even as she recounts the hellish nature of her work and the heartbreak of the survivors, she imbues her story with purpose, humanity, and a sense of justice. A tale of science in service of human rights, The Bone Woman is, even more profoundly, a story of hope and enduring moral principles.
Customer Reviews:
The Bone Supremacist.......2007-09-17
Koff's prose is fine and, at times, borders on the poetic - her descriptions of her work are well written and easily read. But that's the problem - perhaps the phrase is ubiquitous self-indulgence?
In the first few pages of her work she claims that her job is to make bones talk, and that she is restoring life to these people who have lost theirs. But instead of telling us what these bones have "said," she spends 250 pages telling us how she got them to say it.
Koff is a wonderful, articulate, and intelligible writer and, clearly, a well-trained anthropologist. The problem, however, is that she spends the majority of her book extolling these points.
[I liken her work to that of a GoodWill store clerk whose intent it is to tell you how his facility benefits the underprivileged, but instead brags about (in harrowing detail) the processes of a cashier who "rings-up" the goods that the underprivileged man is buying.]
Articulation carries little weight when it's shrouded by vanity.
Finally, the book is painfully redundant. Its superfluousness becomes obvious when the first 'chapter' moves into the second. Koff tells us the same story five times in five different locales. Don't let the half-titles fool you: Kibuye is the same as Kigali is the same as Bosnia is the same as Croatia is the same as Kosovo.
An interesting read if you're considering the field of Forensic Anthropology, otherwise the book is a self-indulgent sortie into the politics of gravedigging (my obvious condolences to anyone that this may offend).
An OK Read.......2007-02-10
This book was interesting but not one that I would recommend to a friend. If you want to learn more about forensic anthropology, this is something you may enjoy. If you want to learn more about the raw emotions that were involved with these situations, this is not the book for you. The author spends more time talking about "the break down of the team" vs the grieving mothers who protest the search for their loved ones, familiy members searching through clothes to identify bodies, etc.
She prides herself on the fact that she is always smiling, something I found a little off considering the circumstances. There are bloody handprints on the ceiling of a church where hundreds were murdered. It's OK to show some emotion.
There are so many books out there that give a great view into what took place within these countries. If that is what you are looking for, I'd move on to something else.
This is a good one to get from the library if you are interested.
A book about the hard to accept truth.......2006-12-19
I don't understand the criticism of this book. The author tells not only of the work of the forensic anthropologist in discovering the grisly truth of genocide, but also helps the reader understand the brutality of the modern era. It is a stark reminder that the Holocaust of World War II was not the only and not the most recent genocide in world history. The author brings the victims to life when describing the conditions under which they are found. Her description of their clothing, personal items and positions of death are a stark and sad reminder that her work is to restore dignity to those who were slaughtered in these atrocious acts of modern warfare. While needing to stay personally detached from the victims on a daily basis to complete her work, she also provides care and attention to detail in identifying each individual's remains. This profound respect for the victims is apparent in her writing and makes this book an important contribution to the very recent history of genocide. Pairing this reading with the book "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" by Philip Gourevitch, gives historical perspective to the troubled African nation of Rwanda. This history is so often overlooked in schools and textbooks.
The Bone Woman.......2006-06-27
This was an excellent book. Eye opening, educational and well written.
Amazing what a woman can experience and write about beginning at the young age of 23.
Disappointing but worth reading.......2005-05-31
The author had amazing and horrifying rich experiences from which to draw her truth, but it got lost amid a lot of random and irritating other bits. Nevertheless, she describes things that most of us will never have the chance to experience ourselves and we can definitely learn from, so I wholeheartedly agree with the last paragraph of the Laura Secor review printed above: "less than fully realized..." "compelling and worth reading"
Book Description
Spiky freelancer Theda Krakow has fallen on a bare patch. Changes at the newspaper have cut her regular assignments and magazine work is slim. When a call comes in asking her to profile Cool, a gifted musician who's being oddly reclusive, it's welcome relief from both Theda's man and money troubles.
But even with work at hand, there are problems: Someone is stealing show cats. And both the feline-friendly Theda and her friend Violet, who runs the local shelter, are outraged. When a kindly cat breeder is implicated in the thefts, Theda resolves to uncover the culprits. But when a murder hits close to home, the circle of suspects widens to include family, an extortionist, and more....
Theda is a great guide to the city, whether hanging out in her Cambridge neighborhood or enjoying the latest bands in the clubs, particularly Violet's brand of riot grrrl punk. She's less adept at sorting out her own heart, which largely belongs to her kitten, Musetta, but as a sleuth, she's razor-sharp.
Customer Reviews:
Music, Mystery, and cats..........2007-10-05
Cattery Row is, I believe, the second of the Theda Krakow mysteries. The mystery is convoluted and engaging, the cats run the gamut of feline personality types, the characters are fully developed individuals, the relationships realistically confused, the Boston music scene real enough to feel the bass beat and smell the beer, and the action non-stop.
Theda Krakow is a freelance journalist. She quit her job at the Boston Morning Mail, features department, in a righteous snit when the boss wanted to take one of her ideas for a column, give to someone else, and have Theda teach the person how to do the job. Now she's between jobs and worried about getting another one. Luckily, she gets a call from City Magazine about doing a follow up to their "Women of the Millennium" article to see what they're doing now. Theda would do a profile on four of the original ten women and luckily she knew two of them pretty well already. Things were beginning to look up for Theda.
As we know, that's when everything falls apart. Someone is stealing pure breed cats from area catteries while the owners are away at shows. Violet, a friend of Theda's, manages the Lillian Helmhold Home for Wayward Felines, and she's worried even though her cats are strays and of truly mixed and unknown parentage. But Rose of Rose Blossom Cattery and a past 'Millennium Woman', has Turkish Angoras and someone has called to threaten her cats if she doesn't pay. Theda later learns that Jan Coolidge (also a 'Millennium Woman') is also being blackmailed but by someone who wants to ruin Jan's music career.
Things look bleak what with blackmail, threatened cats, a missing sales receipt, Halloween coming up, Theda's boyfriend not particularly liking the same music as Theda, the ex-boyfriend showing up on the scene, missing kittens, and now a body -- a very dead body.
The writing is wonderfully tight even though the narration and dialogue give you ample opportunity to get to know these women and their problems. There's just something about a book where women interact and support each other in their choices that makes me think the world is alright after all and there is hope. I would have like to learn a bit more about the grrrl punk -- maybe have some names of groups or individuals so I could look for the CDs.
Recommended for those who like action, relationships, cats, and a diversity of characters some of whom you wouldn't mind meeting someday. And, you don't need to read the first book (Mew is for Murder) to understand this one but why not get it anyway.
Reviewed by Barb Radmore.......2007-01-25
Cattery Row is Clea Simon's second entry into the Theda Krakow Mystery series, the first being Mew is for Murder. Both are published by Poisoned Pen Press.
Theda Krakow was a reporter covering the music scene until a disagreement with her boss ended that job. So, with a dwindling bank account, a tangled relationship and aging by the day, she is pleased to get a free lance assignment to follow up on the women profiled in a previous article. She is especially happy to get an excuse to be back in touch with her old friend Cool, a best selling musician who is back in town after a long absence. She is distracted when a series of catnappings start to occur. But the catnappings become her focus when another one of the article's subjects, a cat breeder, is murdered. Theda and her cat loving friends must solve the crimes as more cats disappear and the suspects hit close to home.
This book is seems, at first glance, to be a common addition to the "cozy mystery with cats" that litters the current literature landscape. But Clea Simon has much more to offer. She has created main characters and settings that are evolved beyond the feline fanciers facade. The music setting adds a new, welcomed environment which she is able to bring to a colorful, rich focus. The world of girl bands, music clubs and the alternative Boston music , long known for producing great acts, is a different, interesting venue.
It is tempting to call this a feminist mystery due to its strong female characters; women who find love important but not all consuming, with careers they embrace and expand. They work together as friends and allies, supporting, aiding and abetting each other thorough life and future dreams. Competent female characters are a refreshing addition, cats and all. Theda and her friends, male, female and feline, are all well defined as individuals, each is given a role but not stifled into cardboard portraits.
Clea Simon has been able to combine her knowledge of journalism, music and cats into a strongly written mystery. It leaves hope that Ms Simon is hard at work writing the next entry into this series, two is not nearly enough.
Can Theda survive the tough times and help her friends?.......2007-01-04
Tough times have hit Theda Krakow, a freelance journalist. She had a blowup with Tim, an editor of The Boston Morning Mail, which means she isn't writing for them any more. Plus she's not sure about her relationship with Bill, a Boston homicide detective.
Her friends are having their own problems. Rose has received a blackmail phone call. She doesn't have the money they asked for. If she doesn't pay, they will kill her cats. Violet has had some sick kittens stolen from her shelter.
Theda gets hired to write a follow up about 4 women. Her friend Rose is one of those women. When Theda goes to interview her, she finds Rose murdered. She figures the blackmailer killed her. The police figure she was involved in the string of robberies of purebred cats.
To muddy the waters even more, her ex-boyfriend returns. Should Theda get back with him or work on her relationship with Bill?
Can Theda figure out who the killer is and what is really going on without using up her one life?
I really enjoy Theda. She's such a fun character. I love the Boston setting as well. I like this series with cats. The author really knows cats. That comes through in the way she has them interact with the humans. Yet, she doesn't feel a need to make them "talk."
I felt this was even better than her debut novel in this series. I can't wait for the next one to be published. I highly recommend this book.
Boston's Music scene with a little murder.......2006-10-10
Misplaced loyalties, misbegotten relationships, and murder all groove to a heavy underground beat in this fascinating look at the Boston music scene. Simon writes lovingly and well about cats, but the greatest character in her books is Boston and its famous rock-n-roll clubs. I loved the interesting and authentic backdrop which was worth the price of the book alone. Layered on top, though, is a tightly plotted murder mystery that cleverly dispatches a couple of old-wives cat tales.
The Cat's Meow.......2006-09-12
Cat lovers will appreciate Simon's second Theda Krakow mystery, with its information about pedigreed cats, kitten mills, and cat shows. But, this book has so much going for it even if you're not a cat lover.
Theda Krakow is confused about her career and her relationship. But, she does understand the importance of her friends and her love of music. These get her through the rough times when her freelance journalism career is slow, and her boyfriend, Bill, doesn't seem to understand her life. It's her loyalty to her friends that drags her into another mystery. When her friend Rose, a breeder of pedigreed cats, is killed, Theda refuses to believe that Rose was involved in a ring of cat thieves who stole pedigreed cats from catteries. She knows that Rose and her cats had been threatened. She also discovers that another friend, a singer, is being blackmailed. As Theda tries to clear Rose's name, and help her other friend, she's dragged further into investigations that truly belong to the cops.
Theda Krakow may be an amateur detective, but it's her friendships that drag her into the cases she works on. She's a fascinating character because of her loyalty and her own insecurities. Readers might pick up these mysteries because of the cats. They'll return to them because Theda is a wonderful, changing character.
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