Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish

Book Description

"I had an obsession with the Amish. Plan and simple. Objectively it made no sense. I, who worked hard at being special, fell in love with a people who valued being ordinary."

So begins Sue Bender's story, the captivating and inspiring true story of a harried urban Californian moved by the beauty of a display of quilts to seek out and live with the Amish. Discovering lives shaped by unfamiliar yet comforting ideas about time, work, and community, Bender is gently coaxed to consider, "Is there another way to lead a good life?"

Her journey begins in a New York men's clothing store. There she is spellbound by the vibrant colors and stunning geometric simplicity of the Amish quilts "spoke directly to me," writes Bender. Somehow, "they went straight to my heart."

Heeding a persistent inner voice, Bender searches for Amish families willing to allow her to visit and share in there daily lives. Plain and Simple vividly recounts sojourns with two Amish families, visits during which Bender enters a world without television, telephone, electric light, or refrigerators; a world where clutter and hurry are replaced with inner quiet and calm ritual; a world where a sunny kitchen "glows" and "no distinction was made between the sacred and the everyday."

In nine interrelated chapters--as simple and elegant as a classic nine-patch Amish quilt--Bender shares the quiet power she found reflected in lives of joyful simplicity, humanity, and clarity. The fast-paced, opinionated, often frazzled Bender returns home and reworks her "crazy-quilt" life, integrating the soul-soothing qualities she has observed in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns formed by the distinctive "patches" of her own life.

Charmingly illustrated and refreshingly spare, Plain and Simple speaks to the seeker in each of us.

Customer Reviews:

Tedious Book-Tedious Author.......2007-07-18

After Sue Bender forcefully insinuates herself into an Amish home, she proceeds to criticize and judge the family. She comments on their "bad choices" - chief among them in my view is their decision to let her into their home. She is rude, condescending, preachy and shrill. She eats the family's food and then criticizes both the food and the woman who prepares it for her. She demands fabric for a "craft project" and then kvetches when her host doesn't respond. She proceeds to purchase 1/8 of a yard from 25 bolts of fabric from a polite storekeeper. I looked up halfway into this book and told my husband "God, I hate this woman". I hated this book too. The book mostly focuses on the author, not the Amish community that she invades. We learn that the author is self-absorbed and shallow with a healthy sense of entitlement. The author's fixation on the Amish "faceless" dolls is telling - they represent her void of self-awareness. More disturbing than the book is the biography listing the author as a "therapist".

We could all use a little plain and simple in our lives........2007-06-08

I bought this book because it was mentioned in another book I was reading. I have always had an interest in the Amish from an anthropological point of view and this was not a disappointment at all. Sue Bender runs across antique Amish quilts and is fascinated by their unique simple designs and bold colors. For years she has her contacts on the look out for more examples of this beautiful "art" that is so functional. Then she discovers the "faceless" dolls that Amish mothers make for their daughters. The dolls have no facial features because the Amish proscribe to the "no graven image" commandment very strictly. She was delighted with the doll sent to her by an Amish woman with whom she started a correspondence. She then decided she wanted to live among the Amish for a time. She was told they would not take her in; however, a small ad in an Amish paper elicited a response from a family willing to have her live with them for a time. So her journey began. Her impressions did not always fit with her romantic illusions of the "simple" life and she learned much. After several weeks, she goes home to digest what she has learned. Then, she decides to go back and try the experiment again with a different (very different) family. She learns even more. All stereotypes are mostly shattered as she lives with a midwife, her large family and her chiropractor sister and she leaves much richer (emotionally) than when she arrived.

I enjoyed this volume very much. It had an excellent layout and is a fast read. The impressions are honest and introspective and Ms. Bender is kind enough to wrap the most important lessons learned into a nine-patch quilt for us at the end. There are many fine ideas we can take with us at the conclusion of the story not the least of which is how much we have in common with the Amish as opposed to how different we are. It's a book I will return to again and again for insight.

Plain and Simple.......2007-02-06

I felt this was an extremely well written and moving little book, and I have recommended it to many friends. In fact, I bought copies and sent them out. It made you stop and think about your own life and how we complicate and prioritize.

Less About the Amish..........2006-06-25

This book is a very fast read but perhaps a bit misleading in its intentions. Or perhaps it's more that I felt misled about the contents. Either way, this book wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it is still a nice, quiet little book that discusses the Amish lifestyle and its effect on the author.

Sue Bender became fascinated with the Amish way of life during the 1980s and eventually found her way into the homes of two separate Amish families in order to experience more of their culture. She spends a good deal of time explaining how her journey is an analogy for the Amish quilts she admires. While the premise of the book is interesting, Bender lets us know as we read that her fascination is also a personal spiritual journey into more meaning for her own chaotic life. Expecting to find more on the day to day life of the Amish, I was let down when Bender chose to focus more on herself. However, the parts that do describe the Amish lifestyle are objective and well-done, and Bender shares her surprise at the many things the Amish actually can do within their community. Her visits do sound delightful, and she did seem to receive the peace she was looking for.

If you are hoping for a book that delves into the Amish community and allows us as outsiders to see and understand the inner workings, this book only partially does that. However, overall it's an interesting little book that is heavy on personal feeling and light on the Amish.

More about the author than the Amish........2006-05-23

Really have mixed feeling s about this book. I was expecting that it would deal with her experiences amongst the Amish, but the majority of the book in fact consists of her analyzing her experiences and how the experiences have changed her. Others have referred to this has her being "self-absorbed," but I wouldn't go so far; it's only natural that such an experience is going to cause a person to question and contemplate, and the author's intention is to express in writing what's going on in her mind. Still, it was a little too much at times, and I wasn't all that disappointed when I finished the book.

The one thing that I found curious about her experiences is the mystical justification that she gives for making the effort to live among the Amish. Such things as "hearing voices" is a time-honoured device used by cranks, crackpots and charlatans to enshroud their motivations in ambiguity, and it's left me wondering what he true intentions were with the Amish. I notice that she has since published several other books apparently of the same "spiritual" nature.

Plain And Simple - A Woman's Journey To The Amish

Average customer rating:

Plain And Simple - A Woman's Journey To The Amish
Sue; Illustrations by Bender, Sue and Bender, Richard Bender
Manufacturer: Harper-san Francisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000XBCZZY

Average customer rating:

Plain and Simple - A Woman's Journey to the Amish
Sue Bender
Manufacturer: Harper San Francisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VZB2TC

Average customer rating:

Plain And Simple - A Woman's Journey To The Amish
Sue; Illustrations by Bender, Sue and Bender, Richard Bender
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IWU13Q

Average customer rating:

Plain and Simple. A Woman's Journey to the Amish
Sue Bender
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEVVW8

Average customer rating:

Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish
Sue Bender
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF112C

Average customer rating:

Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish
Sue Bender
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF0UYC

Book Description

The author shares her hospital experiences after suicidal drug overdoses which involved emergency room activities, intensive care, and the death of a roommate. She introduces the reader to bipolar illnesses I and II and manic-depression. However depressive it may sound, she uses humor, drama, and expressive poems to entice the reader to enter her mental-health world.

Panther: The Pictorial History of the Black Panthers and the Story Behind the Film (A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook)
Average customer rating:

Surprisingly in-depth and the pictures are classic...

Panther: The Pictorial History of the Black Panthers and the Story Behind the Film (A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook)
Van Peebles Mario , Ura Y. Taylor , J. Tarika Lewis , Mario Van Peebles , and Ula Y. Taylor
Manufacturer: Newmarket Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story

ASIN: 1557042276

Book Description

The most inclusive pictorial history of the Black Panther party, with more than 150 historical photos and drawings from personal archives. Taylor is chief his-torian of the African-American Studies department at Berkeley; Lewis, the first female Black Panther. 200 illustrations, 50 in color, chronology, bibliography, index.

Customer Reviews:

Surprisingly in-depth and the pictures are classic..........2001-05-08

I purchased this book expecting largly a pictoral history and a few words dedicated to the making of the film...what I got was a surprisingly in-depth history of the BPP magnificently supplemented with many pictures! This really should be the first book a person reads to get a general history of the movement. Generally biased towards the Panther founders (...they could do no wrong in the early days of the movement), it offers a much more balanced account of the late days and subsequent downfall of the Party. The section dealing with the making of the film was interesting, but a little long-winded in describing each detail. Overall, an excellent and surprising book that I'd highly recommend.

Panther: The Illustrated History of the Black Panthers and the Story Behind the Film (A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook)

Average customer rating:

Nice Book

Panther: The Illustrated History of the Black Panthers and the Story Behind the Film (A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook)
Melvin Van Peebles , Melvin Van Peebles , Ula Y. Taylor , J. Tarika Lewis , and Van Peebles Mario
Manufacturer: Newmarket Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1557042330

Customer Reviews:

Nice Book.......2007-08-30

After seeing the movie, I decided to get the book. I really like it, good reading.

Book Description

Volume 2 contains: Aqua Marine * Bella * Blues for Salvador * Europa * I Love You Much Too Much * I'll Be Waiting * Love Is You * Move On * Open Invitation * The River * Somewhere in Heaven.

Jookin': The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture
Average customer rating:

A good book, but I want to know more about Jookin'

Jookin': The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture
Katrina Hazzard-Gordon
Manufacturer: Temple University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Dance | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Steppin' on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance (Folklore and Society)

Black Dance: From 1619 to Today

Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance

Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (Studies in Dance History) Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (Studies in Dance History)

Waltzing in the Dark: African American Vaudeville and Race Politics in the Swing Era

ASIN: 0877229562

Book Description

Katrina Hazzard-Gordon offers the first analysis of the development of the jook—an underground cultural institution created by the black working class—together with other dance arenas in African-American culture. Beginning with the effects of African slaves' middle passage experience on their traditional dances, she traces the unique and virtually autonomous dance culture that developed in the rural South. Like the blues, these secular dance forms and institutions were brought north and urbanized by migrating blacks. In northern cities, some aspects of black dance became integrated into white culture and commercialized. Focusing on ten African-American dance arenas from the period of enslavement to the mid-twentieth century, this book explores the jooks, honky-tonks, rent parties, and after-hours joints as well as the licensed membership clubs, dance halls, cabarets, and the dances of the black elite.

Jook houses emerged during the Reconstruction era and can be viewed as a cultural response to freedom. In the jook, Hazzard-Gordon explains, an immeasurable amount of core black culture including food, language, community fellowship, mate selection, music, and dance found a sanctuary of expression when no other secular institution flourished among the folk. The jook and its various derivative forms have provided both entertainment and an economic alternative (such as illegal lotteries and numbers) to people excluded from the dominant economy. Dances like the Charleston, shimmy, snake hips, funky butt, twist, and slow drag originated in the jooks; some can be traced back to Africa.

Social dancing links black Americans to their African past more strongly than any other aspect of their culture. Citing the significance of dance in the African-American psyche, this study explores the establishments that nurtured ancestral as well as communal links for African-Americans, vividly describing black dances, formal rituals, such as debutante balls, and the influence of black dance on white culture.

Customer Reviews:

A good book, but I want to know more about Jookin'.......2007-03-15

_Jookin'_ is a necessary book if you are on the trail of African American musical and dance culture. Its approach is the acceptance of the integral relationship between music and dance and life among the African peoples enslaved into the current US and its survival and continuation in Black popular dance.

There is much in her discussion of this in colonial times particularly that is useful, especially if read along with other more clearly documented texts like Emery's _Black Dance 1619 to Today_. Indeed, Hazzard-Gordon tend's to go back and forth in regard to what period she is talking about with an inconsistency that makes the historically oriented reader a bit confused and disappointed.

From the title we expect a full discussion, explanation of the life of the blues juke houses that reigned as centers of African American musical and dance creation and celebration from the post reconstruction period to the end of the agricultural Black belt south in the 1950s and 1960s.

Yet Hazzard-Gordon does not stop and dwell upon this phase, but moves forward to a concentration of popular African American entertainment venues in Cleveland, Ohio and their relationship with local politics. For those interested this is an interesting study and brings back aspects of African American life across the country that is rarely documented--urban black popular entertainment in the first half of the 20th century.
Whatever the exact differences between the story she tells of Cleveland and other cities, I am sure both in memory and need for study, this segment of the book will be interesting and rewarding to readers.

However, this segment reflects problems that the book has all along. Hazzard-Gordon feels the need to provide nearly complete explanations of political and economic factors that have impact on her subject. This is commendable. Yet, these explanations get so large that they sometimes overshadow what she really has to say about Black vernacular dance and entertainment, which is what the book is supposed to be about.

Nevertheless, this book is an important achievement as it attempts to capture the essentialness of popular dance and music to African American life and its popular outlets both underslavery and since. Unlike other authors who discuss popular and folk dance only until the development of professional Black entertainment in minstrel shows and the stage, and abandon that once art dancing emerges in the early 20th Century, her focus remains squarely on popular dance from the forced "dancing" on the slave ships to the "dancing in the street" of the urban block parties of the 1950s and 1960s.

While this reader might have wanted more about rural Juke Houses, and more about the experience of their urban descendants, her picture of the mixture of business and politics in the growth of urban clubs, bars, dance halls, after hours joints, and night clubs in Cleveland is quite useful to understand African American urban life in the first two thirds of the 20th Century.

For a broader picture of African American dance and popular music I recommend the aforementioned _Black Dance 1619 to_Today_ and _Steppin' on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance_ by Jacqui Malone.

If it Ain't Broke...Break It!: And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World
Average customer rating:

If you read one business book, make it this one!

So easy to misapply

If it ain't broke . . . BREAK IT!

Insightful!

A poor book full of cliche's

If it Ain't Broke...Break It!: And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing Business World
Robert J. Kriegel , and Louis Patler
Manufacturer: Business Plus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Motivation & Self-Improvement | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers: Developing Change-Ready People and Organizations

How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard

C-Zone: Peak Performance Under Pressure

Nonstop Networking: How to Improve Your Life, Luck, and Career (Capital Ideas for Business & Personal Development)

Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Investor

ASIN: 0446393592

Customer Reviews:

If you read one business book, make it this one!.......2002-10-14

If you read one business book this year, you won't go wrong with HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT WORKING SO
HARD by Robert J. Kriegel . . . it is packed with ideas that will help you stop working so hard--and start working better.

Kriegel, author of the equally excellent IF IT AIN'T BROKE . . . BREAK IT, contends that it is not a badge of honor to work 100 hours per week . . . rather, he points out that it's the innovators, visionaries and new-thinkers who love their work who rise to the top.

I particularly liked his 90 Percent Rule, which says that a relaxed atmosphere produces better results than a tense one . . . he then described his experiments with over 150 salespeople . . . those who made less calls had at least 20 percent better results, largely because they felt more relaxed and were able to listen better.

There were many memorable passages; among them:
* In my programs, I always ask, "How many of you get your best
ideas--barn burners, lightbulbs, the aha's--while at work?" No one ever raises their hand. "Which room in your house do you get your best ideas in?" I ask, The response is always the bathroom or bedroom. "Why is that?" "Because no on bothers me and I get time to think" is the usual response.

* Ray Evernham, with driver Jeff Gordon, used this flip-of-the-rules strategy in NASCAR racing to win the Winston Cup Championship several times. Evernham says, "If conventional wisdom say the corner is the best place to pass, we practice passing on the other end of the track, because nobody is expecting to get passed there."

* Whether it is a book or a proposal, many people have difficulty starting a writing project. That first step seems like an insurmountable hurdle. The first line seems impossible to get right.

One way to get yourself going is to begin at the end or the middle. I have started out writing my last three books with those chapters that I am most excited and clear about. I will often begin writing a chapter, not necessarily at what I think should be the beginning, but with a great story or example that I enjoy relating and that clearly illustrates the point I want to make. Once started, momentum builds and the rest
becomes much easier, whether you have to go forward of backward
of both.

So easy to misapply.......2002-07-04

More so than any other business-advise book I have come accross, this one lends itself to misinterpretation and mishandling by the well-intentioned but dim or by the unscrupulously mischievous. If you are, and know you are, an effective manager, you probably are already doing what this book "dares" you to try. ... you can safely read it and it will cause no harm... you know what to take and what to leave, how to challenge conventional wisdom and how to hedge your bets. You know instinctively most if not all of it. .... after all... most importantly, you also know no real-life situation is identical with edited examples on a book (which of course are always tailored to illustrate a point). Mediocre to self-serving nefarious managers may become equally prone to cite these pages as remedy for their own shortcomings. You want those people out.... not taking advise from Mr. Kriegel. In their hands this work becomes a cookbook for disaster. I've seen it operate at its worst.

There are better ways of spending [money] than buying this book ... including having drinks with a timid supervisor who could use your personal encouragement.

If it ain't broke . . . BREAK IT!.......2002-04-15

Robert Kriegel and Louis Patler provide an interesting look at Conventional Wisdom and how it applies to business as usual. The focus of this book is to give a business manager "permission" to challenge the status quo in order to make paradigm changes. This book can provide insights into professions outside of the business community. Educators can benefit from the numerous examples of challenges to Sacred Cows that inhibit change that could enhance the educational opportunities for all students.
This book empowers the reader to be creative in seeking solutions to everyday problems. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like a jump-start in looking outside the box make his/her workplace a more productive environment.

Insightful!.......2001-03-26

Robert J. Kriegel takes his experience in performance psychology and deftly combines it with his and Louis Patler's expertise in leadership and business. They create an enjoyable and insightful look at how unconventional wisdom can propel a business to the top, especially when mixed with the willingness to be innovative and take risks. Devoid of cliches and useless filler, this book is solid and includes plenty of quotes from other experts. Kriegel and Patler weave business case histories effortlessly into the commentary. We [...] recommend this book to anyone involved in the destiny of any kind of business, as well as to people interested in contemporary culture.

A poor book full of cliche's.......2000-06-21

This book promises unconventional wisdom, yet is full of tired cliches and old advise. Chaptures cover topics such as discovering your passion and following it, continuing to make refinements in your product even if your product is currently well accepted in the market, and listen to your customers and people outside of your industry. Then, around each chapture topic, the author provides 20 short examples or stories of the topic in action. None of the book's topics break any new ground. It's all recycled advice that's available in many other books.

Amazon.com

Picture a magical, sugar-fueled road trip with Willy Wonka behind the wheel and David Sedaris riding shotgun, complete with chocolate-stained roadmaps and the colorful confetti of spent candy wrappers flying in your cocoa powder dust. If you can imagine such a manic journey--better yet, if you can imagine being a hungry hitchhiker who's swept through America's forgotten candy meccas: Philadelphia (Peanut Chews), Sioux City (Twin Bing), Nashville (Goo Goo Cluster), Boise (Idaho Spud) and beyond--then Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, Steve Almond's impossible-to-put down portrait of regional candy makers and the author's own obsession with all-things sweet, would be your Fodor's guide to this gonzo tour.

With the aptly named Almond (don't even think of bringing up the Almond Joy bit--coconut is Almond's kryptonite), obsession is putting it mildly. Almond loves candy like no other man in America. To wit: the author has "three to seven pounds" of candy in his house at all times. And then there's the Kit Kat Darks incident; Almond has a case of the short-lived confection squirreled away in an undisclosed warehouse. "I had decided to write about candy because I assumed it would be fun and frivolous and distracting," confesses Almond. "It would allow me to reconnect to the single, untarnished pleasure of my childhood. But, of course, there are no untarnished pleasures. That is only something the admen of our time would like us to believe." Almond's bittersweet nostalgia is balanced by a fiercely independent spirit--the same underdog quality on display by the small candy makers whose entire existence (and livelihood) is forever shadowed by the Big Three: Hershey's, Mars, and Nestle.

Almond possesses an original, heartfelt, passionate voice; a writer brave enough to express sheer joy. Early on his tour he becomes entranced with that candy factory staple, the "enrober"--imagine an industrial-size version of the glaze waterfall on the production line at your local Krispy Kreme, but oozing chocolate--dubbing it "the money shot of candy production." And while he writes about candy with the sensibilities of a serious food critic (complimenting his beloved Kit Kat Dark for its "dignified sheen," "puddinglike creaminess," "coffee overtones," and "slightly cloying wafer") words like "nutmeats" and "rack fees" send him into an adolescent twitter.

...the Marathon Bar, which stormed the racks in 1974, enjoyed a meteoric rise, died young, and left a beautiful corpse. The Marathon: a rope of caramel covered in chocolate, not even a solid piece that is, half air holes, an obvious rip-off to anyone who has mastered the basic Piagetian stages, but we couldn't resist the gimmick. And then, as if we weren't bamboozled enough, there was the sleek red package, which included a ruler on the back and thereby affirmed the First Rule of Male Adolescence: If you give a teenage boy a candy bar with a ruler on the back of the package, he will measure his dick

Candyfreak is one of those endearing, quirky titles that defy swift categorization. One of those rare books that you'll want to tear right through, one you won't soon stop talking about. And eager readers beware: It's impossible to flip through ten pages of this sweet little book without reaching for a piece of chocolate. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Book Description

A self-professed candyfreak, Steve Almond set out in search of a much-loved candy from his childhood and found himself on a tour of the small candy companies that are persevering in a marketplace where big corporations dominate.

From the Twin Bing to the Idaho Spud, the Valomilk to the Abba-Zaba, and discontinued bars such as the Caravelle, Marathon, and Choco-Lite, Almond uncovers a trove of singular candy bars made by unsung heroes working in old-fashioned factories to produce something they love. And in true candyfreak fashion, Almond lusciously describes the rich tastes that he has loved since childhood and continues to crave today. Steve Almond has written a comic but ultimately bittersweet story of how he grew up on candy-and how, for better and worse, the candy industry has grown up, too.

Candyfreak is the delicious story of one man's lifelong obsession with candy and his quest to discover its origins in America.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2007-08-06

Plot: Candy lover tours several candy factories

Pros: Funny, well-written, interesting, mouth-watering

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: One of the most satisfying books I have ever read. I laughed out loud a few times. I want to try several of the candy bars he mentions that I've never heard of.

Grade: A+

Hypocrite.......2007-07-21

First, the bad stuff. The guy just rails the G.W. Bush administration. He pontificates against big business. He has diatribes against the whole cocoa industry. He decries the monstrous evil of the big three candy bar companies: Nestle, Mars, and Hershey. However, he explains that he is a candy freak and he can't help himself from buying their product. He writes about his moral quagmire several times. His friends even listed some politically correct candy bars and he still can't help himself. He is a self-absorbed, little twit. It wore on me.

The good things about the book are the guy can write and he is funny. However, the book goes on way too long. He goes to all these independent candy bar companies. It was interesting, but he also wrote about himself, which was a very boring topic. Both topics, candy bars and the author, are both inconsequential. Who really cares about the history of either subject? The people he meets were interesting. Some of the stories he tells were good. His political diatribes since he didn't even vote in the mid-term election were a little hard to take. He can't even give up any candy bar that he likes as a symbolic gesture. C. S. Lewis wrote about "Men without Chests." Almond would be a prime example.

Get me a candybar, stat!.......2007-07-01

This book was amazing and made me salivate regularly. I wanted candy more than I have wanted candy in a very long time. Almond writes about the evolution of candy bars and tours a number of candy bar factories. He does not tour any of the big three, however, because they are too secretive and denied him access. The book is basically a nostalgic look at the candy bar industry and shows that, just like in every other American industry, the little guys are being pushed out by the big guys.

One thing I learned is that candy companies have to pay grocery stores a "stocking fee" to put their candies in the register line. The fee is $20,000 or more (I don't know how often this is paid though). This should explain why we only see Hershey's and Mars products at the front of the store. No independent candy companies can afford such a large amount of money.

The book itself is amazingly well written. The author is hilarious and the book never gets too dry even when he's feeding us statistics instead of candy descriptions. I recommend it for a fun read.

UMM, pot and a candy bar .......2007-06-28

This book caused us to take a trip to our local Cracker Barrel to buy as much of the candy mentioned in the book as possible. We had Cherry Mash, Mallow Cups, ValoMilk, and SkyBar all piled into small brown paper sacks. We munched on the chocolate covered goodies as we set on the porch of the Cracker Barrel playing checkers. By far, my favorite are the ValoMilk cups. They are two slightly dark chocolate cups, perfectly ratio-ed with the vanilla flavored filling. I also enjoyed the SkyBar that offered a different filling in each piece. Every time the author toured another factory I was craving the candy that he discussed. I thought it was a great idea to have a candy bar party where you get to try all sorts of old-time candy, but I would leave out the pot. They just don't seem to go together very well.

Candy Freak.......2007-05-29

This book demonstrates all the secrets about all the different candies in the worldm and Steve Almond keeps you extremely interested. This is a book i lvoed ,and im not a big reader. I reccomend this book to anyone because you will get a kick out of it. The funny facts on how he doesnt go wone day without eating candy keeps you laughing. It is an amazing book and would be funny for adults and teenagers.

Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America

Average customer rating:

Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America
Steve Almond
Manufacturer: ALGONQUIN BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000R0HT1G

Customer Reviews:

Weak at places, interesting at others.......2000-07-31

This book is somewhat flawed in that the author dwells a little too much on the religious aspect of the wars in the former Yugoslavia. However, he is quite correct in pointing out the culpability of religious leaders among the Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims and others in fomenting mutual intolerance. Another problem is that his conclusions about how to create a lasting solution to the conflicts (massive Western intervention, basically) seem a bit naive given the record of outside involvement (from the UN to NATO). The historical analysis is also a bit weak. More interesting are the author's insights and opinions of the various Yugoslav peoples, because he speaks from the point of view of an insider, i.e. as someone born and raised in Yugoslavia. Thus, readers can get something of an idea of how the various ex-Yugoslav peoples view each other's nationalisms - because Mojzes is equally critical of all nationalisms in the former Yugoslavia. This makes "Yugoslavian Inferno" an interesting supplement to the literature on the former Yugoslavia, despite its obvious flaws.

Extract from ýBooks on Bosniaý, London 1999.......2000-03-14

A well-intentioned but seriously flawed book for the general reader, by a Yugoslav American of unusual background (his parents were both Protestant ministers in Vojvodina). Tries to spread the blame for the war as widely as possible; ends by recommending Western military intervention, against all sides, in order to effect a partition of Bosnia.

Amazon.com

This is a well-documented examination of the effects of human society on the global environment. Easterbrook's conclusion: Things are getting better, not worse. Not surprisingly, this book has generated considerable controversy in many circles of environmentalists and ecologists, and many of his arguments only apply to overly-developed nations. For example, he stumbles badly when dealing with tropical rainforests, completely ignoring the fact that clearcutting in tropical environments leads to essentially irreversible loss of soils and a sterile clay pan. But all in all, I recommend this book highly to everyone interested in the proper interpretation of long-term ecological trends. In my opinion, he is as often right as wrong, and habitual doomsday-sayers would do well to seriously consider and possibly adopt some of his positions on ecorealism.

Customer Reviews:

The Case that the Environment is getting better.......2004-02-03

Highly recommended for serious students of environmental policy. Easterbrook is one of the recognized experts - and founding thinkers - on environmental optimism. Whether you agree with him or not, this is a must-read.

great for me.......2003-12-02

I can see how those who are wrapped up in conservationism dislike this book, it shows them in a terrible light. If you think environmentalists are often histrionic and sanctimonious, you will like this book. If you think environmentalists are protecting what is truly sacred, you will find this book full of misinformed drivel.

Generally very silly and misguided.......2003-12-01

My sense from reading this book is neither that Easterbrook is a purposefully misleading, nor that he is particularly insightful. He is looking for an antitode to negativity that he seems to believe pervades the enrivonmental community.
But whether you agree with his perspective or not, the simple fact is he gets many facts completely wrong, and his arguments are logically flawed. A prime example is the arguments he makes against the need for having regulations on air quality: he points out that the air has gotten cleaner in the US over the last 30 years. Well, yes it has, but BECAUSE of the clean air act, not in spite of it.
There is no reason to be depressed about the environment, but nor is there any reason -- as Easterbrook would have us do -- to ignore it. If you want a balanced view, read the scientific literature, not the quasi-science of an naive journalist.

Finally some relief..........2003-10-18

Finally, there is a realistic view of the world. No longer does society have to feel "guilty" over all that has transpired since mankind began popluating the Mother Earth.

Every museum director in the U.S. should be forced to read Easterbook's book. Perhaps then our children will begin to realize that "man" is not the ultimate destruction machine as routinely promoted by environmentalists. Easterbrook's view is more closely aligned with the average U.S. working citizen..."let's act responsibly in our daily lives, just stop blaming me/us for the end-of-the-world crisis now rampant in the press". Only Easterbrook's widely-known and overused rant against SUV's is misplaced.(As if walking or hydrogen/electric cars will return us to the Garden of Eden).

I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to read beyond the news media's standard menu of "the end is near". While not a conclusive answer to all aspects of our world, it certainly gives a refreshing view to the "paper or plastic?" debate.

Excellent large-scale review of environmental issues........2000-10-09

Easterbrook may make a few errors and his writing style may not suit all, but I found this book to be enlightening and an excellent essay on the big picture in environmentalism today. While any single author is likely to stumble through a few issues when writing a book of this magnitude, I found the basis for his arguements in general to be sound, timely, and interesting.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Issues in Science and Technology, published by National Academy of Sciences on June 22, 1995. The length of the article is 2630 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A Moment on the Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental Optimism. (book reviews)
Author: T.H. Watkins
Publication: Issues in Science and Technology (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1995
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Volume: v11 Issue: n4 Page: p80(5)

Article Type: Book Review

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