Book Description
Pssst . . . I've got something to tell you. I'm not just another book of poetry. I'm full of voices you've never heard before. Turtles, snowflakes, even washing machines speak up in these poems that are just shouting to be read! So what are you waiting for? Check me out!
Amazon.com
Are you sick of turning your underwear pink and finding freshly washed tissue bits all over your new jeans? Perhaps it's time to investigate the deeper mysteries of the laundry room. There's more to clean clothes than soap and water, and Linda Cobb is willing to get down to the nitty-gritty in her simple, straightforward Talking Dirty Laundry with the Queen of Clean. No question is too small for the Queen--she tackles everything from stinky shoes to starched collars.
Each short chapter concerns a specific topic, starting with the care and cleaning of the washing and drying machines themselves. Who knew the washer needed regular cleaning? A short section on line drying is included here as well; never again will you ponder the proper way to hang hand-washed slacks. Most of the chapters are devoted to various types of special problems, such as colors that ran, stain and odor removal, and cleaning large items like bedspreads and lampshades. Explanations for when to dry-clean and how to make your own spot cleaners using household items like club soda, cream of tartar, and denture-cleaning tablets are also included, alongside ironing techniques and the definitive way of color sorting. Particularly helpful are the A-to-Z guides to fabric care and stain removal at the end of the book. Each type of fabric--from delicates like chiffon and velvet to rugged corduroy and denim--has a preferred treatment and certain chemicals that it just can't handle. Talking Dirty Laundry will give you optimal cleaning results--whether you got chocolate on your khakis or wine on your wool, you'll have the problem solved before you can say, "Shout it out!" --Jill Lightner
Book Description
DOWN WITH LAUNDRY DRUDGERY! LET THE
QUEEN OF CLEAN® MAKE WASH DAY LOADS OF FUN!
Once upon a time, in a world fraught with shrinking jeans, dry-cleaning debacles, and endangered delicates, laundry was a dreaded chore. Then one happy day, the Queen of Clean® put an end to the vicious washand-dry cycle -- with her all-new collection of ingenious tips and natural solutions for stress-free washing, ironing, sorting, and stain-busting!
Let the Queen show you how to:
- sort laundry like a pro
- remove spots, stains, scorch marks, and odors
- soften hard water-and save clothes from a dull, gray fate
- make your own fabric softener sheets in a snap
- say good-bye to pink socks, with a foolproof colorfastness test
- line-dry clothes without hanger lumps or clothespin marks
- decipher those fabric care symbols on clothing tags
- get the scoop on home dry-cleaning kits
- discover the secrets to lint-free drying-and quick fixes for when tissues, crayons, and other foreign bodies take a spin in the dryer
The Queen provides a complete stain removal guide -- and ransacks your cupboard for amazing, inexpensive spot removers including
lemon juice • meat tenderizer • WD-40 • lubricant • salt • shaving cream...and more!
Whether you turn around family-sized wash loads seven days a week, air your dirty laundry at the local laundromat, or are among the seriously "laundry challenged," consult the Queen for no-nonsense advice -- and fabulous results!
Download Description
Best of the Best. The woman who taught the no-hassle way to clean house now is focusing her considerable energies on the laundry room, using the same no-nonsense tips and hints approach, and getting the same fabulous results.
Customer Reviews:
EXCELLENT.......2003-03-20
This explains how to do laundry so easily! Get stains out, ect. This book has helped my laundry doing greatly within the past month!
A Recommendation for Kelly Kline from Coplay, PA.......2002-08-29
Hi Kelly: You wrote that this book didn't have a solution for GRASS STAINS, so I thought of you when I saw Linda Cobb's other book called "A Queen for All Seasons: A Year of Tips, Tricks, and Picks for a Cleaner House and a More Organized Life!"
In this book it states the following: (Just ONE of the things in this book.)
Spring: Garden the natural way...allergy-proof your home...banish GRASS STAINS...color your Easter eggs....
SO....I thought you might like to get this book to help with some of those grass stains we all know kids are very good at getting ground into clothes. You didn't have your email address so I could write you......so I hope you see this recommendation.
Wonderful book!.......2002-05-18
I found so much useful information in this book! I really enjoy it and use it often. I appreciate the fact that most of her cleaning solutions are non-toxic as I have a 2 year old at home.
I found that baking soda WILL unclog a drain (combined with a few other things) :) In fact baking soda by itself will clean quite a bit of your home.
Helpful.......2002-04-07
This book offers helpful tidbits. One should always take precautions before doing a lot of this tips at home. Not everything is for everybody. If you have children with allergies or smaller children, you should take more precautions. The book is helpful, but some things in this book is basic common sense.
Disappointing.......2001-11-16
I saw this book on Oprah. If she recommends it, it must be good, right? Wrong. The book doesn't deliver what it promises. Common stains are not always included. I assume that Oprah recommended it because (of course) she doesn't do her own laundry and would have no way of judging the quality of this kind of book for those of us who do not have hired help.
Book Description
Sofie Metropolis is a struggling, young private investigator in working-class Astoria, Queens. Chasing cheating spouses and finding lost pets may not be glamorous, but its better than waiting tables at her fathers or uncles dueling Greek restaurants. A recent cheating spouse case ended with a bangliterallywhen Sofie shot her client, who was trying to murder his wife. Now shes hot on the trail of a missing Greek dry cleaner who may have been laundering money for the mob. The mafiathat is, the darkly handsome Tony DiPiazzawarns her off and propositions her at the same time. Sofies personal and professional entanglements with DiPiazza have Jake Porter acting worried. A mysterious Australian, Porter has the knack of turning up when Sofies about to get killed and disappearing before she can thank him, um, properly. But Sofie barely notices Jakes concern, or the fact that hes hanging around a lot more than usual. Shes too busy spending her nights tracking a runaway ferret and her days avoiding the mob, trying to find Uncle Tolly, and figuring out if her very traditional Greek father is having an affair.
Customer Reviews:
Greek American Detective In Astoria.......2007-08-14
After reading the first book, "Sophie Metropolis", in what is now a three book series, "Dirty Laundry" adds to the great satirical picture painted of the later immigrants (after WW II) Greek Americans living out their lives in Astoria, Long Island. Sophie is a private investigator who works on missing dog cases, adulterous spouses, and even murders. Her ethnic life is woven seamlessly into her PI activities and the Greek subculture is really a second facet of the book. It is hilarious and farcial; one would not term it the usual mystery investigation and solution. These books are good and entertaining. What else could you ask for? If you are Greek American anywhere in the USA, you will recognize your world in Sophie's. If not, welcome to one of the funnier aspects of this group.
Another Sophie HIT.......2007-07-08
In the spirit of Stephanie Plum, Sophie Metropolis gives another wonderful read.
Dirty Laundry was entertaining and kept me enthralled to the end!
getting better, but.......a Greek girl's review on Sophie...........2007-06-24
OK I give you that this book is better than the debut book.
What caught in my throat on page 1 was Sophie talking about going to Church, or not going to Church, and she (or the authors) called our Sunday service a MASS. noooooooooooooooooo. Our service is The Divine Liturgy. Why a Greek husband-wife writing team would make such a mistake, or it was the fault of editor who didn't know better, I don't know - This series is supposed to give the reader more insight to being a Greek kid in an American world, so the info needs to be correct. Some folks still think we worship in temples to the gods...
So you can guess I was bracing myself for any other culturally incorrect things to pop up in this book. There weren't more, thankfully.
The story deals with a Greek laundry owner who disappears and Sophie is asked to find him. She gets over her head in things, but thanks to sexy Porter, she is ok. All's well that ends well...WELL Sophie meets a nice man she thinks is her sister's suiter, and she sees what a gentleman he is...and I had another Stephanie Plum moment...is this going to be Joe to Porter's Ranger?? OY. and that's not Greek.
But I have to say all in all, I like Sophie and yes I have the hardback of the 3rd installment. Do I feel passionately about this series?? Yes.
As a Greek-American I can relate to things (like My Big Fat Greek Wedding) - it may be on the side of slapstick and exaggeration, but fundamentally somewhere there is fact. Stop with the Plum like coincidences - Carringtons, get Greek facts straight if you're writing about a Greek girl - she has all of us Greek girls rooting for her - and the recipes are good too. Still can't stand frappes - yuk
Better than the First.......2007-02-02
Okay, so the sequel to Sofie Metropolis is much better. At least the editor seems to be earning her paycheck this time. 'Thomas the Toad' ex husband is only mentioned thirty times as opposed to a hundred.
The plot is stronger and I enjoyed Sofie's attempts to serve court papers to the cross-dressing bloke in the pink nightgown. People breaking into her apartment, car troubles, dog troubles, studly man around at the drop of a hat, a funeral home, maniacal granny, dysfunctional folks - all blatantly cribbed from Stefanie Plum...not so much.
S. Plum Lighter.......2006-11-26
It appears that a new category, indeed, three new categories have been added to the circle of cozy mysteries in addition to such dear old favorites as the English country village, the English country house, the plucky widow/divorcee soldiering on, the plucky widow/divorcee soldiering on with kids, the wannabe reporter, the intrepid small businesswoman, the gourmet cook/caterer (recipes included), the cat-centered mystery, the dog-centered mystery, the ... well, you know the rest. The new categories are, of course,
1. - Stephanie Plum Light,
2. - Stephanie Plum Lighter, and
3. - Stephanie Plum Lightest.
All things considered, I believe this series about a Greek-American PI should be rated as Stephanie Plum Lighter. Naturally, if PI Metropolis' personal automobiles acquire the habit of blowing up in book after book, that rating would promptly be upgraded to Stephanie Plum Light.
Those who have read the Amazon reviews for the first book of the series, "Sofie Metropolis," may remember that helpful readers provided lists of similarities between that book (and as we now see the series as a whole) and the Plum Saga. I shall now endeavor to list the differences between the Metropolis books and the Plum Saga:
1. - Sofie Metropolis' name is not Stephanie Plum.
The Metropolis books are hardly original but they are not bad. They are lightly amusing and an easy read (a widely-used a term that I normally regard as the kiss of death, but not necessarily so in this case.) They will serve as an adequate stopgap for readers badly Jonesing for a Plum-fix before the next authentic tale of Stephanie's misadventures appears.
A TRIFLING QUESTION: When Ms. Metropolis' elders use her true name, they call her "Sofia." Shouldn't that be "Sophia"?
Average customer rating:
- man oh man...............
- Birch Fan 4 Life
|
Dirty Laundry (Nexus)
Penny Birch
Manufacturer: Virgin Nexus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
Adult Fiction
| Erotica
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Erotica
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Adult Fiction
| Erotica
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Erotica
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Indiscretions of Isabelle (Nexus)
-
In Disgrace (Nexus)
-
Peach (Nexus)
-
Nurse's Orders (Nexus)
-
Tie and Tease (A Nexus Classic)
ASIN: 0352336803
Release Date: 2006-01-24 |
Book Description
Natasha is feeling deprived of kinky sex. Unfortunately, She walks straight into the flabby embrace of the awful Monty Hartle, whose main joy in life is the humiliation of women. Before long, Natasha finds that she can't handle the filthy Monty, and that what her therapist, Gabrielle, really wants is not work-related at all! A powerful, believable story of submission and domination, drawn from Penny's own experiences.
Customer Reviews:
man oh man......................2004-11-11
man oh man this is some book! i couldn't put it down and the females here are soooooooooo hot!! i couldn't get enough of Dirty Laundry......... man oh man oh man oh man.........
Birch Fan 4 Life.......2003-12-03
Her writing just keeps getting better and better. One of the best erotic writers of our time.
Amazon.com
The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics collects the two issues of Dirty Laundry Comics as well as other comics that were collaborations between Robert Crumb and his wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb. Against the backdrop of the wild 1970s, the Crumbs appear as themselves in autobiographical vignettes. They wander through various situations ranging from the banal (Aline complaining that she doesn't draw as well as Robert) to the extreme (Robert shoving Aline's face into a pool of vomit). While both of these artists share an almost unrelenting frankness, they each have unique personalities and art styles.
Amazon.com
What family doesn't have secrets? The Dirty Laundry collection, edited by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (author of Ash), explores this universal fact of life via 11 original short stories penned by acclaimed young adult writers. Graham Salisbury shines with "Something Like ... Love," his story about a Hawaiian boy who befriends a Caribbean man of mystery and in the process learns a little about what matters in life. In "Popeye the Sailor," Chris Crutcher uses the cycle of child abuse to reveal that secrets tend to rear their hideous heads--no matter how firmly they are pushed aside. M.E. Kerr artfully explores the haunting of a teenage girl by her dead adoptive brother in "I Will Not Think of Maine," and in "Passport," Laurie Halse Anderson takes an amusing look at a young person torn between divorced parents and struggling to create a reality all his own. Diverse as they are, the stories share the quality of compelling, solid writing, as well as the message that no matter how normal or perfect a family appears, secrets are sure to lurk just beneath the surface. --Brangien Davis
Customer Reviews:
Unhappy Secrets.......2004-05-05
"Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets" is a well compiled and, for the most part, well written anthology of stories. Each revolves around a long-concealed secret, and most are entertaining, though the overall tone of the book does tend to lean toward the morbid - or at least unpleasant.
The book was edited by author Lisa Rowe Frautino, who also penned its well-written but sometimes very disturbing story, "FRESh PAINt". A couple other stories of note are "The Secret of Life, According to Aunt Gladys" by Bruce Coville ("Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher"), "I Will Not Think of Maine" by M.E. Kerr, and "Rice Pudding Days" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.
To sum up: I personally am not a fan of unhappy stories, especially so many in one place, but this is still a high-quality book which makes for interesting and often mysterious reading. Still, I would not recommend it to anyone under 14 or so -- for a younger person looking for a short story anthology, I would recommend "13: Thirteen stories that celebrate the agony and ecstasy of being thirteen" (which incidentally also features an entertaining story by the aforementioned Coville).
1/2 good, 1/2 not.......2004-02-07
This book is put into lots and lots of short stories. I love many of the authors that contributed stories. Some of the stories were very good, such as:
"The Secret of Life, According to Aunt Gladys" by Bruce Coville
"Waiting for Sebastian" by Richard Peck
"Passport" by Laurie Halse Anderson
These were the ones I would have liked for them to be real books. But not an amazing book in a whole. If you're into the whole family traditions, family secrets thing, then I might recommend it. And also if you'd just read the good stories (above), then go for this book, but this one isn't a winner.
~Atalanta
Durty Laundy, edited by Lisa Rowe Fraustino.......2001-11-28
This book is full of fictional short stories. All there short stories had the same overall topic, dirty laundry of the family's past, present, and future. This book explains how not every family is perfect, and has someing shamful to hide from the rest of the world. This was a good book, some stories more engaging than others. Overall, I think this book lacked in interesting deatail, but included creative ideas for each story. I would recamend this anyone to read this book that needs a laugh, but more encouragement to the teenage readers.
Dirty Laundry, but Decent Literature.......2001-07-15
I wasn't overly impressed with this collection of short stories. The first story "The Secret Life, According to Aunt Gladys" by Bruce Coville started the book off in a great place (although the book sleeve ruined an early shock) especially with its haunting last line. Then the stories of Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Dian Curtis Regan, Anna Grossnickle Hines, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Richard Peck all suffered from predictability and a been-there-read-that mentality. The stories were okay, and some even better than that, but reading one after the other was just too much.
The next story, although entertaining, was too science fiction for me. Yes, "I Will Not Think of Maine" by M.E. Kerr dealt with a family secret, but you have to beleive in the supernatural to fully except the story. Currently, I'm reading for reality. I'm looking for stories that can be used to help some of the kids that I'm working for. This story is not one of them.
Then came a diamond in the rough. "FRESh PAINt" by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (the editor) was a awesome and moving story. I can't beleive that none of the other reviewers to this date (July 14, 2001) have mentioned it. This short story was one of the longest in the book (and I hate LONG SHORT stories) but I flew through it. "FRESh PAINt" has a strong mystery, a strong family secrets, and a painful moment that brought me to tears. Anyone who has read the story knows what I am talking about.
The rest of the stories also were pretty good and seem to be favorites of other reviewers. "Passport" bt Laurie Halse Anderson has a creative and sharp-tongued style that made it a joy to read. "Something Like... Love" by Graham Salisbury was a nice story, but its family secret was probably the weakest of the collection. "Popeye the Sailor" by Chris Crutcher was definitely the correct story to end the book with. Its conclusion seems to put an okay book to rest. The style of the story (it opens as a play before turning to narrative) is gripping. The story shocks you into beleiving and it ends before we know everything, but we know enough. It's a wonderful story.
Overall, the book is decent. The long stretch of predictablity to supernatural from Campbell Bartoletti's "Rice Pudding Days" to Kerr's "I Will Not Think of Maine" makes the book hard to finish, but with Rowe Fraustino and Crutcher, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I enjoyed almost every story tremendously.......1999-11-07
As a grad school student who had to read a book on controversy in literature for class, I stumbled across this book in the library and was more than pleasantly surprised. The stories are sometimes touching, sometimes humorous and very different from one another. I think this book helps people understand that no family is truly "normal". I especially liked "Rice Pudding Days", "Passport" and "Popeye the Sailor"
Customer Reviews:
The Queen Rocks!!.......2007-09-02
This book is priceless! I got sap on my car, so I found on the internet to clean it with alcohol, which helped with the sap, but it left a residue behind. After looking on the internet again to clean THAT, I remembered my book, which I bought years ago while still living at home. I flipped open the book and under the "Cleaning Products You Should Never Be Without", Ms. Cobb said to use a paste of baking soda and water. I did just that and sprayed white vinegar after I was done (my mom told me to use that). TA-DA!!! A clean windshield again!! All Hail The Queen Of Clean!!
Superb Cleaning Hints.......2007-08-23
Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean, is the most helpful book I've ever owned. She has answers to everything...couldn't live without my copy!!!
Book Description
In her award-winning Charlotte Justice novels, Paula L. Woods has created a rare blend of mystery, suspense, and an unflinching social critique of urban, multiethnic America. Featuring an African American homicide detective in the LAPD’s elite Robbery-Homicide Division, this new Charlotte Justice novel is a sizzling story of murder, politics, families, and betrayal in the uneasy melting pot of Los Angeles, where everyone has their own. . . .
DIRTY LAUNDRY
For Charlotte and her team, the case begins when a woman’s body is found in L.A.’s Koreatown district, where a series of robberies and murders has already put besieged merchants on edge. Now the spectacle of a bright, successful young Korean woman found bludgeoned and bound in an alley is stirring fears, passions, and city politics. In the hours after Vicki Park’s murder, Charlotte Justice must contend with a complex crime scene and a beleaguered community’s hostility toward the police.
Interestingly enough, Vicki (like Charlotte) lived and worked in two different worlds: her close-knit Korean community and the wider political world where she served as a special aide to handsome, media-savvy Mike Santos, whose is vying to become L.A.’s first Latino mayor. With twenty-four candidates running to replace a long-standing African American incumbent, the mayor’s race is shaping up as a wild brawl, full of dirty tricks and innuendo. Is Vicki’s murder connected to the campaign or is the answer to be found in the ethnic enclave that nurtured Vicki–and that may now be hiding her killer?
While Charlotte searches for answers, she must also navigate the perils of life in the LAPD, which complicates her personal life, namely her budding relationship with Aubrey Scott, an emergency-room physician. Justifying her relentless hunt for Vicki’s killer as part of her mission as a homicide detective, Charlotte must face the possibility that her motivation may also be to ease the pain she feels over the violent death of her husband and young daughter years before–a possibility that is challenged in unexpected ways.
A powerful story about families and the secrets they keep, Dirty Laundry is a fast-paced, deeply human thriller that builds to a powerful climax. Featuring one of the great female characters in detective fiction today, this book is a fascinating portrait of Los Angeles from the streets of Koreatown to the power corridors of City Hall. Dirty Laundry is Paula Woods’s richest, most rewarding novel to date.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
In her award-winning Charlotte Justice novels, Paula L. Woods has created a rare blend of mystery, suspense, and an unflinching social critique of urban, multiethnic America. Featuring an African American homicide detective in the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division, this new Charlotte Justice novel is a sizzling story of murder, politics, families, and betrayal in the uneasy melting pot of Los Angeles, where everyone has their own... Dirty Laundry
For Charlotte and her team, the case begins when a woman's body is found in L.A.'s Koreatown district, where a series of robberies and murders has already put besieged merchants on edge. Now the spectacle of a bright, successful young Korean woman found bludgeoned and bound in an alley is stirring fears, passions, and city politics. In the hours after Vicki Park's murder, Charlotte Justice must contend with a complex crime scene and a beleaguered community's hostility toward the police.
Interestingly enough, Vicki (like Charlotte) lived and worked in two different worlds: her close-knit Korean community and the wider political world where she served as a special aide to handsome, media-savvy Mike Santos, whose is vying to become L.A.'s first Latino mayor. With twenty-four candidates running to replace a long-standing African American incumbent, the mayor's race is shaping up as a wild brawl, full of dirty tricks and innuendo. Is Vicki's murder connected to the campaign or is the answer to be found in the ethnic enclave that nurtured Vicki -- and that may now be hiding her killer?
While Charlotte searches for answers, she must also navigate the perils of life in the LAPD, which complicates her personal life, namely her budding relationship with Aubrey Scott, an emergency-room physician. Justifying her relentless hunt for Vicki's killer as part of her mission as a homicide detective, Charlotte must face the possibility that her motivation may also be to ease the pain she feels over the violent death of her husband and young daughter years before -- a possibility that is challenged in unexpected ways.
A powerful story about families and the secrets they keep, Dirty Laundry is a fast-paced, deeply human thriller that builds to a powerful climax. Featuring one of the great female characters in detective fiction today, this book is a fascinating portrait of Los Angeles from the streets of Koreatown to the power corridors of City Hall. Dirty Laundry is Paula Woods's richest, most rewarding novel to date.
Customer Reviews:
Learn to sing, "I love LA" and sit on the edge of your chair..........2006-07-07
Paula Woods takes us to the space of an affluent black professional woman connected viscerally to the multicultural essence of Los Angeles. She's been there, done that, although not on the LAPD. That choice, made after extensive consultations with members of the force, is edgy for a black woman who actually saw the Watts riots and the mini riots that followed the Rodney King incident up close and personal. Who are these LAPD people and are they at all on my side? Charlotte is one of them, but she has to deal with that question frequently. Not just racial but sexual harassment comes into play, not to mention inter-racial distrust and strife and all manner of sexual deviance and surprise: politics. It's LA. But what I love about this book, and all of her work, is her ear for the LA ethnic interactions, her sure touch in throwing people of different groups together and letting them sort out their differences. Her writing rings true, and plenty of other writers placing detectives in LA just can't do it right. Write on, Paula Woods!
Those Who Live in Glass Houses Should Not Have Dirty Laundry.......2003-11-16
Paula Woods has brought back the sharp-edged, tough-talking detective, Charlotte Justice, in her latest mystery, Dirty Laundry. As always, readers can expect a supporting cast of a diverse group of detectives from all walks and cultures of the greater Los Angeles area on duty, getting the job done and putting their own twist on the murder case involved. When Vicki Park, a Korean-American woman is found dead behind a Laundromat it becomes symbolic of the dirty laundry that is thrown around throughout the novel. The murder is immediately counted as a celebrity murder as Vicki is an assistant to the Latino candidate for mayor, Mike Santos, a charismatic guy, who has some dirty laundry of his own. This is a year after the Rodney King riots in 1992 and relationships between Koreans and the Black and Latino residents of the neighborhoods where they have businesses are tenuous, to say the least. They also feel they have not been supported by the police department and the city, in general.
Charlotte is at the best place in her life as she approaches her fortieth birthday-in fact she has never been better. After the devastating, violent deaths of her husband and baby daughter fourteen years prior, she has finally found happiness with a great man, Aubrey and has made peace with her manipulative mother, who is a snob. In fact, Charlotte calls the family home where her upper-class African American family congregates, the Nut House. As a detective in the highly regarded Homicide and Robbery division, she has gone through more than her share of drama in the department. She comes into the Park murder after a particularly rough year when she brought accusations against her former superior while she was required to appear before a police commission for questionable conduct while on duty.
It is known nationally that the Los Angeles Police Department has their share of problems with countless cases of victims' abuse and corruption amongst their personnel. Woods does an effective job of demonstrating the nuances of a city under a microscope without over dramatizing the details or pointing fingers at any one issue or group. Additionally, this author does an excellent job, as in her previous novels, of giving readers a view of Los Angeles (also her home) history interwoven throughout the narrative. When Woods was here in Oakland for her book signing, she said she wanted to weave a multicultural tale that would depict the diversity of the city. In doing so she also manages to create realistic three-dimensional African American characters from different walks of life. Her characters, including the protagonist, are flawed and Woods delves deep into the psyche of these people as if they are real people. The first fifty or so pages moved a little slowly but picked up momentum and made for an evenly-paced, satisfying read. I look forward to meeting up with Detective Charlotte Justice in her next assignment.
Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub
A Gritty, Haunting and Intriguing Work.......2003-07-26
Police work involves quite a bit more than fighting crime. There is, and always has been, a political and cultural element to it, as well as the tide of different ethnicities that ebb and flow into and out of a city. This is hardly a recent development; Irish police resented the influx of Italian officers into the New York City and Chicago police ranks during and after the turn of the 20th century; the New Orleans Police Department for years roiled with the uneasy mixing of Italian and French South Louisiana officers, who in turn, had to adjust to the inevitable but overdue influx of black officers into the ranks.
The race of the officers is not the only factor that affects a police department, however. Nor is the size of the city the department patrols. There is a municipality within spitting distance of my residency that has made national headlines by virtue of the fact that it exists solely to support its police department, which writes traffic tickets by the handful, in order to support its police department, which writes traffic tickets by the handful, in order to...well, you get the idea.
Most police procedural novels lead the reader painstakingly through the evidence-gathering process, and while they may touch on the internal and external politics of the department, that touch is light and almost incidental. That is not the case with the Charlotte Justice novels.
Justice is a black homicide detective in the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division. Her creator, Charlotte Woods, has carved out a series in which Justice and her supporting characters are constantly evolving, making mistakes, paying for them, and moving on. The crimes that are investigated usually take place off the page, though the violence that is transmitted through the crime scene description to the reader is certainly graphic enough. Woods's major accomplishment, however, is to nicely balance her description of the crime-solving procedure against the backdrop of the political and social factors that affect how, and in some cases whether, the crime is investigated and the wrongdoer apprehended.
DIRTY LAUNDRY, the latest of Woods's Charlotte Justice novels, begins with the grisly discovery of a murder in a transient area of Koreatown. The victim is quickly determined to be Vicki Park, an up-and-coming political assistant to mayoral candidate Mike Santos. There is no lack of suspects, from Park's fiancée to members of Santos's campaign staff to, surprisingly enough, members of the Los Angeles Police Department. Park, it seems, was a bit of a maverick, a Korean working on the campaign of a Hispanic mayoral candidate and, as it turns out, did not approve of some of his campaign tactics. Yet, there were other mayoral candidates who also did not approve of his work.
Justice finds that her investigation is hamstrung by opportunists in the police department, political realities (she can investigate candidates, but not too closely) and even, to some extent, her personal life. It is almost a foregone conclusion that solving Park's murder will have some effect on the mayoral campaign. When the identity of the murderer is revealed, it should not be a surprise, but it is a very big one.
DIRTY LAUNDRY even contains echoes of some of Raymond Chandler's best work, in the sense that Woods, like Chandler, utilizes her well-crafted storylines as a vehicle for commenting on the culture of Los Angeles. Reading Woods is like walking down the sidewalk of a neighborhood that you would, at best, only drive through, if you knew that it existed at all. The difference is that, once you take one of Woods's tours, you will keep coming back.
Given the fresh publicity that accompanies the publishing of DIRTY LAUNDRY, Woods can begin getting the attention her work needs and so greatly deserves. DIRTY LAUNDRY is a gritty, haunting work that is intriguing the first time through and that will no doubt stand up to repetitive readings.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Paula Woods is Graphic! Gritty! and GREAT!.......2003-07-05
With the city still reeling from the aftershock of the Rodney King riots, the mean streets of Los Angeles have gotten a lot meaner and more treacherous as African-American detective Charlotte Justice of the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide division returns to active duty after serving out a four-month suspension following a previous investigation which had ended tragically. Three weeks away from a potentially explosive...multi-candidate...mayoral primary, LA is a powder keg of racial/political tensions that's ready to blow at the slightest provocation. When Charlotte and her new partners, black lesbian Billie Truesdale and white 'newbie-Tec' Roger Middleton, catch their first case as a team (the cold-blooded killing of a politically-well-connected Korean-American woman whose dead body has been found bound, gagged and dumped in a Koreatown alley), it could well prove to be the high-profile spark that will destroy LAPD's last remaing shreds of credibility and set the city ablaze. Savvy, stunning Vicki Park had been working as a campaign strategist for charismatic, former news-anchor Mike Santos who is running hard and well-ahead of the pack in his campaign to become LA's first Mexican-American mayor. Apparently dissatisfied with the role which she's being asked to play in his race, has Vicki's discontent caused her murder? Charlotte's investigation becomes further complicated by another death...that of a Korean detective who has been serving as her link with the community: was it an accident or was he set up? and she needs every bit of her hard-won street smarts, detective skills and self-control to work her way through a maze of false clues, misleading information and an old-boys' Department network that would like nothing better than to see her lose her badge permanently. Inevitably, as she starts to zero in on the how's and why's of Vicki's murder, the stakes rise, and the final confrontation between Charlotte and a traitorous killer/cop had me glued to the pages until I could safely breathe again.
That's actually the best criteria that I have to praise Paula L. Woods as a fresh, unique and utterly absorbing new voice on the police procedural scene! This lady can WRITE! I came to Charlotte Justice cold, and was excited to the point where I stopped reading after only a couple of chapters (hard to do!) in order to seek out her two previous adventures first. Yes, this novel will absolutely stand-alone, but I quickly realized that if I really wanted to be able to savor its nuances...especially those having to do with the black community: its family values and focus which are so integral to Ms. Woods' plotting...obtaining additional background material from "Inner City Blues" and "Stormy Weather" could and did make an enormous difference in my enjoyment of "Dirty Laundry". I was especially enthralled and impressed by Ms. Woods' 'take' on Chalotte's experiences in dealing with the barbed-wire, racist/sexist climate in LAPD. This novel rang with the fervor of I'll-tell-it-like-it-is-let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may! authenticity, and I can tell you this: whatever she chooses to write in the future, I plan to be right there with her.
An excellent police procedural.......2003-07-03
Eleven months after the Rodney King Riots, Los Angeles remains fragmented along racial lines and the LAPD is still reeling from the fact that four of their own are going to be on trial. Some members of the community are trying to heal the troubled city by campaigning for the mayoral candidate that they believe will work to unite the racially divided city. Korean-American Vicki Park believes that Latino candidate Mike Santos is the person for the job and works as a campaign strategist on his election team until someone kills her.
African-American LAPD homicide detective Charlotte Justice, a black woman who can pass for white, knows how racially and sexually prejudiced the department is against blacks and women. She is assigned to find out who killed Vicki Park and dumped her burned body in a back alley in Koreantown. Aware of what a political hot potato she is dealing with and just coming off a suspension because she killed a dirty cop, Charlotte must once again deal with dirty police officers and multiple suspects who had ample reason to want the victim dead.
In March 1993, Los Angeles is a city in pain especially the Korean community who lost some loved ones and much of their local shops due to rioters. The police department is still run by the white good old boys, leaving minorities and women losing the fight against an entrenched system that has been in place for decades. DIRTY LAUNDRY is an excellent police procedural that gives a step by step play of a homicide investigation against one heck of a realistic backdrop.
Harriet Klausner
Average customer rating:
- The Truth about Living in a Zen Monastery
- Gritty, Real, Useful
- an intimate look at buddhist monastic life in the U.S.
- First rate book on zen and "real life".
|
Dirty Laundry: 100 Days in a Zen Monastery
Robert Winson , and
Miriam Sagan
Manufacturer: New World Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Religious
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Buddhism
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Zen
| Buddhism
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Zen Philosophy
| Buddhism
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Spirituality
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1577311051 |
Book Description
The poetry, reflections, rants, and dreams in this curious documentation of the authors' winter at a Zen monastery explore the influence of the dharma in human relationships. Their candid record offers insight into the challenges - spiritual and otherwise - of raising a family, sustaining a marriage, and participating in an eccentric spiritual community in Colorado.
Customer Reviews:
The Truth about Living in a Zen Monastery.......2004-05-08
Miriam Sagan and Robert Winson's book is a very small slice of the truth told in a crafty and interesting way through the convention of simultaneous diary entries. It's the description of 100 days in Crestone Zen Monastery in Colorado, but it is also a synopsis of how dysfunctional a group of human beings can become when they allow a sociopath zen "teacher",like Richard Baker, to run their lives. To me this is just more of the same "zen neurosis" spread by Mr. Baker and his corrupt followers put down on paper for everyone to see.
I know many of the principals in this book, and their descriptions by Winson and Sagan are scarily accurate.(Sadly Robert died not a long after this 100 day retreat.) But don't fret, dear reader, you too can experience such humiliating and dehumanizing treatment...just head to your local Soto Zen Center under the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. And not to worry. They're everywhere!
Gritty, Real, Useful.......2000-08-09
"Dirty Laundry" is a journal in two voices -- as such, it is full of the details of daily life: cooking, lovemaking, childraising, cleaning, fighting, moodiness. It's not so much a "Zen book" as it is a book about the possibility that what we do every day is worthy of reflection and learning. Robert Winson, who died in his mid-30s before the book was published, was clearly a passionate, sparky, sexy, earnest, empathetic, witty guy. . . . Reading "Dirty Laundry" makes you a little more awake to the brief life we share.
an intimate look at buddhist monastic life in the U.S........2000-07-26
Dirty Laundry, like all good spiritual memoirs, has that "peeping through the keyhole" quality that makes the reader feel he is getting inside information on a taboo or guarded topic. As per the title, Dirty Laundry has it all: marital problems, abbot/junior initiate sexual relationships, jealousy and intrigue in the monastery, financial problems, even the raising of a young child part-time at the monastary, part-time at home. Dirty Laundry's best quality is its ability to make Buddhist practice, even monastic practice, seem possible, if not practical. For all who have considered a retreat or even a longer period of monastic practice, Dirty Laundry shows what it might be like: the possible problems, possible solutions, etc. In this respect, it's a valuable book, as it is for taking the cover off the secrecy of domestic Buddhist practice.
However, while Dirty Laundry does a decent job of showing us the underbelly of monastic life, the book offers very little detail on the good stuff: practice, zazen, ritual, even the physical appearance of the monastary. This is probably due to the fact that the book is actually a journal kept in tandem by ordained monk Robert Winson and his lay wife, Miriam Sagan. Fully one-half the entries have little to do with Buddhism at all, except as an outsider's observation of how it fits into her life (or doesn't, as the case may be).
The squabbles and seemingly un-enlightened behavior that goes on can be infuriating to those who take their Buddhism a little more seriously, but Dirty Laundry is quick and easy to read and for its ease of digestion, offers some insight to the problems facing domestic monastic practice.
First rate book on zen and "real life"........1998-07-07
Robert Winson and Miriam Sagan writes alternating chapters in this engrossing book. Robert is going to spend 100 days in a zen monastery in New Mexico. Miriam stays at home with their daughter. This book describes vividly their lives inbetween visits and their weekend meetings at the monastery. The book also has much to say on the inner life of a monastery and on the role of the resident zen master : Richard Baker roshi. It's a relief to read autobiographical writings on zen that is not written from an academic, male, 60-ies only perspective. I've read several of them and this book beats them all!
The authors were involved in Santa Fe punk-groups "The Poetry Devils" and "Bichos". Robert Winson died in 1995.
Product Description
A humorous look at the everyday adventures of being a stay-at-home mom, based on the parenting column by Jennifer Adkins that has appeared weekly for over 3 years in the Huntington, WV Herald-Dispatch. Highlighted with funny quotations from famous parents and the author's own family photos, the book is light on advice and heavy on the camaraderie of shared experience that all moms enjoy. Short chapters allow even the busiest mom to catch a few minutes of "mommy time" to restore her sense of humor and her sanity.
Customer Reviews:
Couldn't put it down. Loved it........2007-05-11
Jennifer puts "mommying" in an humorous light. I read the whole book in one sitting and just laughed out loud, because I thought she was talking about me at times. Just knowing other moms go through the same things that I do on a regular basis really makes me feel normal and, just maybe, I'm a pretty good mom after all by just rolling with the changes and seeing the humor in it all. Thanks Jennifer. :o)
Books:
- Double Take: FBI Thriller
- Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery (Echo Falls)
- Dreams, "Evolution" and Value Fulfillment, Vol. 2: A Seth Book
- Enter Jeeves: 15 Early Stories (Hilarious Stories)
- Essential Biochemistry
- Five Minutes to Orgasm Every Time You Make Love: Female Orgasm Made Simple
- Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, Book 2)
- Friends in High Places
- Getting a Life: Strategies for Simple Living Based on the Revolutionary Program for Financial Freedom, "Your Money or Your Life"
- Gorilla Doctors:Saving Endangered Great Apes (Scientists in the Field Series)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences
- Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Qu
- Cinemas of the Black Diaspora: Diversity, Dependence, and Oppositionality
- CCEL Classics CD: works by Saint Augustine, John Calvin, John Donne, Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawr
- DVD Demystified Third Edition
- Game Over
- Complete Book Of Fruits & Vegetables
- International Credit and Collections: A Guide to Extending Credit Worldwide
- Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work
- Exchange Rate Forecasting: Techniques and Applications
A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems
A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms (Ala Notable Children's Books. Middle Readers)
Up North at the Cabin
Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape
Fold Me a Poem
