Average customer rating:
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Wealth Well-Given: The Enterprise and Benevolence of Lord Nuffield (Biography, Letters & Diaries)
William Richard Morris Nuffield
Manufacturer: Alan Sutton Publishing, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0750906561 |
Customer Reviews:
from the cover ..........2005-11-10
Miranda Carter needs to jump-start her love life. Or make that jump sexy Colin Jacobs. Her best buddy is the perfect man, but the studious prof needs some...encouragement. Like one uninhibited night in her bedroom - lingerie, toys and all!
Colin is aching the next day, and the amnesia he's got from the bump on his head isn't helping. He and Miranda had a fantasy evening - uh, didn't they? So why can't he recall undressing such a sexy woman, or kissing every inch of her delectable body?
So he'll just have to show up for a second night, and a third...and hope that this time it will be unforgettable for both of them.
When Friends become Lovers.......2005-03-28
The old 'amnesia' line is one I usually find hard to believe, but Samantha Hunter pulls it off exceptionally well in this entertaining story. I found myself immediately drawn in by her wonderful characters. Hunter's writng flows easily, and heavier moments are balanced with touches of humor, making this a feel-good, readable story.
The developing relationship between Colin and Miranda is complemented with a lovely sub-plot in the friends-and-lovers theme between two of their friends. Like all the Blaze line, there is a strong sensual element, but for me was in the emotional journey from friend to lover that kept me turning pages till the early hours.
A definite 'keeper'.
Product Description
4 massmarket paperback Titles in Matthew Hope Series - Rumpelstiltskin - Mary Mary - Gladly the Cross-eyed Bear - Last Best Hope
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The Last of the Market Hunters
David Bakke , and
Dale Hamm
Manufacturer: Southern Illinois University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0809320762 |
Book Description
Duck hunting has changed greatly since the days of unlimited duck kills, as the limit of fifty ducks a day established in 1902 has fallen to the present three. A legitimate hunter now, Dale Hamm learned the art of market hunting—taking waterfowl out of season and selling them to restaurants—from his father during the l920s. During the l930s and l940s, he kept his family alive by market hunting. At the peak of his career, Hamm poached every private hunting club along the Illinois River from Havana to Beardstown.
After market hunting died out, Hamm became a legendary and almost respected—albeit controversial—character on the Illinois backwaters. He was eventually invited to hunt on the same clubs from which he had once been chased at the point of a shotgun. He hunted with judges, sheriffs, and the head of undercover operations for the Illinois Department of Conservation, all of whom knew of his reputation. He passed on to these hunting partners a lifetime of outdoor knowledge gained from slogging through mud, falling through ice, hunting ducks at three o’clock in the morning, dodging game wardens, and running the world’s only floating tavern.
"I always said if anyone ever cut open one of us Hamms, all they’d find was duck or fish," Hamm once said of his family. Now in his eighties, Hamm still carries a pellet from a shotgun in his chin to remind him of a shotgun blast that ricocheted off the water and into his face. Bakke notes that it is appropriate that a man who spent his life with a shotgun in his hands should carry a bit of buckshot wherever he goes.
Everyone who ever met Dale Hamm has a story about him. His own story is that of a one-of-a-kind character who, in his later years, used his considerable outdoor savvy to conserve the natural resources he once savaged. "His time and kind are gone," Bakke notes, "and there will never be another like him."
This book will be of interest to anyone who has ever been hunting—or who enjoys reading about colorful people and times that exist no more.
Product Description
8 massmarket paperback Titles in Matthew Hope Series - Rumpelstiltskin - Snow White and Rose Red - Puss in Boots - House That Jack Built - Mary Mary - There Was a Little Girl - Gladly the Cross-eyed Bear - Last Best Hope
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Jill Marie Landis Collection of 15 Romance Novels (Jade, Come Spring, Past Promises, After All, Last Chance, Day Dreamer, Just Once, Glass Beach, Blue Moon, The Orchid Hunter, Summer Moon, Magnolia Creek, Lover's Lane, Heat Wave)
Jill Marie Landis
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000ROKA4A |
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Last Summer
Evan Hunter
Manufacturer: Mayflower
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000H2ARKO |
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Last Summer
Evan Hunter
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000X1MV3A |
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Fellini: Costumes And Fashion
Ida Panicelli
Manufacturer: Charta
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Binding: Paperback
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Fellini 8 1/2
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La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
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Poiret (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)
ASIN: 8886158823
Release Date: 1996-03-02 |
Amazon.com
Federico Fellini, who died in 1993, produced some of the most opulent films the world has seen. This volume comprises a number of warm tributes to the maestro that recall his remarkable versatility, his artistic genius, and his love of life. Focusing on the extraordinary attention the director paid to costumes and makeup, the book contains scores of both black-and-white and color photographs that reveal Fellini's extraordinary eye for physical detail. Famous images from La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and City of Women are accompanied by no less impressive stills from Casanova, Roma, and Satyricon, among others. Fellini: Costumes and Fashion will appeal to those interested in a great director's extraordinary vision and to anyone interested in gawking at some of the most astonishing and audacious costumes ever designed for the movies.
Book Description
Federico Fellini, who died in 1993, produced some of the most opulent films the world has seen. This volume comprises a number of warm tributes to the maestro that recall his remarkable versatility, his artistic genius, and his love of life. Focusing on the extraordinary attention the director paid to costumes and makeup, the book contains scores of both black-and-white and color photographs that reveal Fellini's extraordinary eye for physical detail. Famous images from La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and City of Women are accompanied by no less impressive stills from Casanova, Roma, and Satyricon, among others. Fellini: Costumes and Fashion will appeal to those interested in a great director's extraordinary vision and to anyone interested in gawking at some of the most astonishing and audacious costumes ever designed for the movies.
Average customer rating:
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Elgar As I Knew Him (Oxford Paperbacks)
William H. Reed
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Elgar, Edward
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ASIN: 0192822578 |
Book Description
W. H. Reed was the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra and for many years an Elgar confidant. This reissue of his 1936 book reflects the growing interest in Elgar's music and provides a spontaneous, informal picture of every phase of his activities. Reed also provides insights into Elgar's
music through analyses of his works and forty-two full-page reproductions comprising all that is coherent in the sketches for his Third Symphony.
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Elgar as I knew him,: By William H. Reed
William H Reed
Manufacturer: V. Gollancz ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Elgar, Edward
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ASIN: B0006ANIEY |
Book Description
A guide to creating copy that connects with customersand makes the sale
Advertising and promotion professionals have long known that, while bells and whistles may grab a customer's attention, words make the sale. Yet, nearly a decade into the Web revolution, E-commerce professionals are just now waking up to the fact that the usual high-tech, graphics-heavy approach to site design is bad for business.
Net Words explores the reasons why and makes a strong case for a revolutionary new approach to copywriting tailored to the unique demands of a powerful new medium. With the help of dozens of examples of successful and unsuccessful on-line writing, author Nick Usborne shows readers how to harness the power of the written word for the Web. Readers learn how to imbue a business with a distinctive on-line "voice" and use it to forge lasting bonds with customers, increase market share, and close sales.
Download Description
In Net Words, emarketing guru Nick Usborne introduces you to a revolutionary copy-centered approach to online marketing. He explains what works and what doesn't and shows you how to create copy for websites, enewsletters, and email campaigns guaranteed to: attract customers and hold their attention differentiate your business from its competitors online dramatically increase sales from your site build customer loyalty breathe new life into your customer services Net Words offers corporate decision makers an inexpensive, proven, low-tech cure for their ecommerce blues. It is also a how-to guide for copywriters thinking about taking the leap into online marketing, as well as for Web professionals who want to increase their sites' usability and appeal.
Customer Reviews:
Must Read for Search Engine Marketers.......2007-09-25
Anyone involved in Search Engine Marketing should read this book. If more of my peers in the industry would read this book, the Web would be a better place. My only knock on the book is that it is fairly basic and would appreciate a new edition at some point.
Great Book for Any Web Copywriter.......2007-02-02
After reading a string of very poor SEO books I've been lucky to hit upon another string of some of the best business and web marketing books available. Net Words by Nick Usborne is no exception to that latter trend. This is easily one of the most fantastic books I've read when it comes to web marketing. Nick has an incredibly easy to read style of writing and offers plenty of examples providing real differences between good copy and great copy.
Great copy is what Net Words is all about. Whether you're developing copy for your website, newsletter or email campaign, Nick gives us usable concepts and ideas on how to make your copy unique, interesting and (best of all) able to convert your visitors into customers. Net Words isn't just about creating good copy, its about creating an environment through words. It's about creating an experience for your users that make them keep coming back to you for more.
I have yet to read a more important book on copywriting than this one!
Not very good........2006-10-31
You don't want to read a book about writing that is badly written. As far as I can tell, Usborne figured that since the book is offline, it should not follow the high-impact rules of writing that he would use online.
Well, online and offline writing is not THAT different! This book is turgid and useless. Other books on the market are superior.
A "must have" for anybody who does Online Copy writing .......2006-07-25
The book is very compact and well written. Nick Usborne wrote this book based on his own experiences as online copywriter. You can tell, because he provides a lot of examples of issues that are exclusively Web related and also about differences between copy writing for the "real world" and the unique challenges and subtle differences to the copy writing for the Internet. Some things that work great offline in its specific environment such as print magazine or Television don't work the same way online, because peoples behaviour and expectations are different.
People are still people, be it "offline" or "online" which makes a lot of the classic rules of copy writing as true on the Internet as they are in the real world.
This makes the book a good choice for offline copy writer who want to start writing copy for a Website, Blog or eZine as well as for Internet Marketers who want to learn the basics of Copy writing to improve the copy on their existing Websites.
Just FTI, Nick Usborne has an Email Newsletter you should sign up for. Search the Internet and I am sure you will find it.
Good for Writers, Better for Businesses.......2006-02-17
The basic premise of Net Words-how good copywriting can make a Web site more effective-is as fundamental in 2006 as it was in 2001 when the book was published. Net Words is recent enough in terms of technology to still be relevant, and author Nick Usborne, a prolific and respected copywriter, is unquestionably an authority on this topic.
Writers interested in reading this book should not assume that it is a handbook or guide to practical online writing. Writers should read the book with an understanding that they will learn some important Web marketing principles and a few theories for writing business-related online copy, but they should not expect Net Words to be an educational guide.
Many of the guidelines and tips for copywriters are most likely already known to writers with any persuasive writing or basic marketing skills. The book certainly is useful to offline writers who are unfamiliar with the Internet or the way marketing copy differs from other kinds of text.
Business owners wanting to improve Web site conversion rates and designers who would like to get a better handle on what the copywriting process involves will benefit from reading the book. Some of the chapter headings are "Allow copywriters to do great work: Copywriting online is not bad," "Only words will set you apart: Set your company apart online," "Writing newsletters: The best way to hold your customer's attention," and "Close the sale: When and how to close the sale online."
Usborne provides numerous examples of good and bad copy from actual Web sites, offering the reader a chance to visit these sites and analyze Web content. He also reviews the benefits and disadvantages of different kinds of online communication, such as newsletters, e-mail, and discussion boards.
Usborne writes with a pleasing style-humorous, honest, and straightforward. He elevates a subject that could be tech-heavy to a level comprehensible to nearly all readers. There are occasional uses of jargon that may be troublesome to some readers, and the book does have a repetitious feel toward the end.
Nevertheless, reading Net Words is an enjoyable experience that will certainly benefit those in decision-making positions of business, Web developers, and writers new to creating marketing copy.
Average customer rating:
- Fun and quick.
- Like a long talk with a friend
- Ain't that the truth!
- So when is the sequel coming out?
- An enjoyable read
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So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading
Sara Nelson
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason (LUST)
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A Passion for Books : A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Love and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books
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Book Lust Journal (LUST)
ASIN: 0425198197
Release Date: 2004-10-05 |
Book Description
Sometimes subtle, sometimes striking, the interplay between our lives and our books is the subject of this unique memoir by well-known publishing correspondent and self-described "readaholic" Sara Nelson. From Solzhenitsyn to Laura Zigman, Catherine M. to Captain Underpants, the result is a personal chronicle of insight, wit, and enough infectious enthusiasm to make a passionate reader out of anybody.
Customer Reviews:
Fun and quick........2007-05-14
I had a good time with this book. I think the author says a lot of good things about reading in general. I didn't enjoy every single chapter, but what is great about a book like this, is it is quick, and if you don't enjoy one chapter, you will enjoy another.
Like a long talk with a friend.......2007-04-15
This book is about Sara Nelson's commitment to read a book a week for a year- and then write about it. It's not necessarily a book of "reviews" as much as a review of how the book affected her life that week. It's about memories of her past, hopes and dreams for the future, and events that are currently happening in her life.
I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I couldn't put it down! (Which I didn't expect when I first started reading this book). Like others have said, it expanded my list of books to read. I feel that this book really taught me that I don't HAVE to read a certain way. I can read a book I normally wouldn't, or NOT read a book I normally would. I need to give older books a chance- and not stick so much to the mainstream fiction.
I recommend this book for anyone who needs a break from the "mainstream"; for anyone who needs to step back and re-evaluate how and why they read.
Ain't that the truth!.......2006-07-10
I will admit that I bought this book for the title alone ~~ So Many Books, So Little Time. And that is the truth. I never realized that it was a memoir because when I bought it, I was not going through any nonfiction phase at all. Now that I am, and this book hits home. Finally, there is someone else out there that haven't read McCullough's classic, "John Adams" ~~ which has been on my TBR pile since last summer when I pilfered it from my father's bookcases.
Nelson writes with wit, humor and depth as she tells her goal of reading 52 books a year, one for each week. While she didn't tell the reader much about the books she did read, she did share a lot of funny and entertaining thoughts about different books, the authors, the publishing world and life itself. She writes on how sometimes the book just pick her and how sometimes, she can't even finish a book. She raves about her favorite and she's very polite when she doesn't like something. She shares a lot of insight with the reader and while it wasn't what I expected, it was definitely a good read ~~ a fast read too as I couldn't wait to see what else she would write.
She claims to be a reader that doesn't like to read the top bestseller fiction and even takes books along with her on vacations to impress other people. At least she's honest. Thanks to her, I now have more titles to look for when I go rummaging through garage sales and rummage sales.
It is a fun read ~~ and one that every serious (meaning like her, you have four different books all throughout the house and one in the glove box of your car in case you need something to read ... and even taking four books on a trip so you won't run out of reading material!) reader should read because she/he will find her/himself in those pages. Who hasn't packed a lot of books on vacation, intending to read them only to never open up a page? Who hasn't had insomnia and would turn on the light at 3 a.m., just to read something or even stay up all night just to finish a book? This author could be writing about me! Oh wait. She's writing about herself and that is just as fun to read!
So it's true, not enough time to read all these yummy books out there but hey, this one is a great start for those who need something different to read!
7-9-06
So when is the sequel coming out?.......2006-06-12
I truly enjoyed this personal, interesting, and easily relatable account of a life lived with one's head in a book. Nelson's writing is peaceful and quiet, but compelling, and I enjoyed hearing about the ways in which her reading life intersected with her everyday life. This book doesn't have reviews so much as a flowing commentary on how whatever book she was reading impacted her, made her think, brought up old memories and feelings...
I felt like I was with a friend, for sure.
An enjoyable read.......2006-03-13
This is a fun to read, breezy memoir of Nelson's reading over the course of the year. In the year, we see her obsess over some books, while struggling mightily over others. She talks about how certain books have become beacons in her life, reminding her of times good and bad. Finally, we get to hear someone actually vocalize the obsessive-compulsive way that voracious readers approach books.
I found that Nelson had a very fun way of telling her story. Even though she was a bit intense about this undertaking, her earnestness never went overboard. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her tale, and will look for other books by her in the future.
Book Description
A classic work of military history, follows the enigmatic commander in chief of the Union forces through the last year and a half of the Civil War. It is both a revelatory portrait of Ulysses S. Grant and the dramatic story of how the war was won.
Customer Reviews:
At Last, A Winning Commander for Lincoln.......2006-01-03
"Grant Takes Command" is the second of two volumes by Bruce Catton on Grant's Civil War service and the third volume of a trilogy on Grant's military career (beginning with Lloyd Lewis's "Captain Sam Grant"). However, this volume can easily be ready by itself. Catton picks up the story in the fall of 1863 with Grant's successful raising of the siege of Chanttanooga, following which President Lincoln picks him for a third star and command of all the Union armies.
Grant is the latest in a long series of Union commanders, most of whom have been badly beaten by General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, and none of whom have been able to bring superior Northern resources effectively to bear on a slowly weakening Confederacy. In fact, as Grant takes command, the war has not yet been won and could still be lost.
Grant will be the commander that Lincoln has long sought. Lincoln's telling exchange with an aide, repeated by Catton, lays out why. Grant is the first general to take the supreme command who will work in harness with Lincoln and in full acceptance of Lincoln's constraints as President of a democracy in the midst of a civil war. Grant is prepared to take full responsibility for the conduct of the missions of the armies, and without setting up an alibi in advance for possible failure. And as it becomes apparent in the course of Catton's absolutely superb narrative, Grant understands the terrible math. Lee and his army are too proficient to be easily beaten; great persistance will be called for. Grant grasps the essential truth that Lee's army is the Confederate center of gravity, and the corallary that Lee's requirement to protect Richmond ultimately limits his ability to maneuver. Further, Grant is able to cause the Union armies to work at a common design, denying Lee the ability to reinforce Virginia by drawing on other theaters of war. The result will be a long, grinding, and exceedingly bloody campaign stretching from 1864 into 1865, as Lee's army is slowly bludgeoned to death.
Catton's narrative does not spare Grant his errors; in the 1864 campaign, Grant underestimates both Lee's abilities as a general and the difficulties of conducting campaigns on such a huge scale. Grant has to learn the job of Army commander in chief on the move; the unnecessary casualties of Cold Harbor and the repeated failures to flank Lee out of position in Virginia are proof of the learning curve. But Grant's great gift is his refusal to be deterred from his objective; he pins Lee at Petersburg and uses the Union armies of Sherman and Sheridan, among others, to destroy the Confederacy's means to make war.
"Grant Takes Command" was first published in 1960, and the details of the history of the Civil War have evolved since then. However, Catton's prose has stood the test of time. This is a truly magnificently told story on an epic scale and a highly recommended treat for the Civil War enthusiast and the casual reader alike.
Grant, The Key to Lincoln's Problem.......2003-11-27
In this superb second volume on Grant's war-time service, Bruce Catton shows how Grant devised and executed the grand strategy that ensured we'd be one country.
Beginning at Chattanooga, Catton chronicles Grant's successful battle to save a beleaguered federal army there and his selection as head of all of the armies of the Union.
The strategic plan, the overland campaign, the investiture of Petersburg and the finale with Lee at Appomattox are chronicled well.
What Catton does very well here is focus on Grant the General-in-Chief. We see how Lincoln and Grant are drawn toward each other through a shared and fundamental understanding of what it would take to win the war and the will to do it -- incredibly a trait Lincoln could find in no other General selected to head the Army of the Potomac.
The actual management of the Union's armies and efforts is given great attention. Even the Civil War devotee who knows a lot about the battles of the war will appreciate this focus on grand strategy, army management and the particular and singular attributes possessed by Grant to manage the affair to a successful conclusion.
A wonderful book, as is it's predecessor, "Grant Moves South."
Excellent history of Grant's Union Army Command.......2000-05-25
This is a well-researched account of the last two years of the Civil War (1863-1865). The harsh realities of the battles and living conditions are especially given great detail here. The final days of the war and the surrender of General Lee are extremely poignant as the author examines the tattered remains of the once invincible Army of Northern Virginia. The exchange between the victors and the vanquished at Appomattox is the highlight of the book. The author also takes pains not to overlook any of Grant's military blunders such as Cold Harbor and gives an even-handed viewpoint throughout. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the darkest days of our nation's history.
A change in focus-Grant takes the reins.......2000-02-23
A change in Focus--Grant takes the Reins
Until 1864, the Army of the Potomac had never won a campaign. Each Union attempt to capture Richmond drove south, was repulsed, withdrew to Washington, found a new general, and tried again. After his successes at Vicksburg and Chattanooga, Grant came east to a promotion, to general in charge of all Union Armies.
Grant brought a different focus, and Catton defines this superbly in this book, drawing on many of Grant's memoranda to other officers, as well as President Lincoln. Catton captures the essence of a Grant campaign: hold on to the enemy, grasp and retain the initiative, and always move your logistics aggresively forward.
Catton also tries, albeit weakley, to show that Grant was not a "pure" attritionist. He offers examples of Grant's desires to push west and sever Richmond from the Shenandoah. Catton explores the political reality of uncovering Washington to a Confederate thrust, while attacking the logistics that sustained Confederate armies, while Sherman simultaneously attacked Atlanta and its strategic railhead. Catton states that after the battle of Cold Harbor Ggrant's numerical superiority was at its lowest level, but he does not provide the hard math to support this stance. On the other hand, Catton shows well the manuever warfare used by Grant to slip away after Cold Harbor, steal a march, and get across the James River before Lee, stripped of his cavalry, could discover the move and react.
This book does a very solid job of capturing Grant's determination, his unyielding efforts to impose his will on the leaders and staff of the Army of the Potomac, and to integrate the political realities of volunteers, political appointee generals and a presidential election with the cold hard reality of constant campaigning.
A good read not just for students of the martial art, but for any leader who must address the Sisyphean task of invigorating old "we've always done it that way" people with a new ethos and drive.
Customer Reviews:
Haitian Women's Struggle.......2003-01-24
Beverly Bells Walking on Fire is extraordinary in that it brings to print first-person narratives of excruciating and harrowing violence, which are at once narratives of survival, resistance and overcoming. Bells book is effectively an edited volume of (mostly poor, mostly non-literate) Haitian womens testimonies about life in Haiti during and after the coup-etat against Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1994), framed by Bells contextualizing analysis. Entering the anthropological conversations about everyday acts of resistance generated by James C. Scott (1990) Bells central argument is that Haitian women engage in resistance, or "the negotiation of power by the weaker against the strong," in many ways that are usually overlooked, and that "the definition of resistance is expanded to include any act that keeps the margins of power from being further encroached upon, even where the protagonist cannot expand those margins." Trapped at the bottom of a system of structured inequality, "if [a woman] does no more than maintain her resources and rights in the face of attempts by other people, institutions, or systems to deny her them then she practices resistance." (p. 5)
Most of the women featured in the volume are members of one of the loosely organized coalitions of grassroots groups known as the "popular movement." Each woman, then, is engaged in some aspect of political organizing, collective action or cooperative living. A central theme in the women's narratives is that it is through collective efforts that meaning-making analysis is forged and dignity is recovered. In Bell's book, poor Haitian women come to an understanding of their situation, their victimization and themselves, that allows them to recover the selves that have been traumatized. It is this transformative process that the women in the book undergo--by speaking their stories to her comrades in collectives and, one senses, in recounting their narratives to Bell. Because of this transformation operating in most of the stories, the tone of the volume is often celebratory, even optimistic, in the face of relentlessly harsh realities.
One extraordinary story is that of Tibebe ("little baby"), presented in a section titled "Resistance as Survival." A product of the rape of her mother, a servant, by her employer's son, she is born on a street corner and never issued a birth certificate or a proper name. She is given away by her mother to be a restavek, a child slave. When her biological aunt sees her as an older child, she realizes Tibebe is a relative, and gives her the name--and the birth certificate--of her biological father's legitimate daughter, who has just died. At the end of her father's life the family abandons him in his loss of fortune and it is Tibebe who pays for his funeral. Tibebe is finally taken to a women's group, where, she says, "They made feel like I exist in society. I became a person." (p. 44) Exemplifying the problems of structural poverty, the child slave system, illiteracy and violence against women, this first-person narrative presents primary source evidence of the local and the specific within the contextualized analysis Bell brings to bear on the structural and systemic.
Bell's methods are noteworthy: she develops a process of interviewing poor members of what she loosely terms the "women's movement," travelling to women's dwelling places and recording their stories in Creole. She holds a small tape recorder and invites: "Tell me anything you want about your life, about what it's like to be a Haitian woman." ( p. xv) After transcribing and editing the interviews, Bell meets them again to read back their words, and they work together to reshape the text to their specifications. The results--oral histories, testimonies--are highly constructed and edited, but the important point here is that they are edited in collaboration with the subjects themselves. This methodology is time-intensive and problematic--from the point of view of the tradition of single authorship--but it addresses problems that have long vexed subaltern studies in that it presents stories authored and edited by poor women themselves. If each narrator performs a pattern of redemption of sorts--she was a hopeless victim but now she is a dignified human being who is oppressed yet politically aware--then perhaps that is ultimately the evidence for the book's message. It is through collective association and narrative construction (meaning making) that the oppressed and victims of violence--can regain their humanity and negotiate power.
Another truly extraordinary story is that of Alerte Belance, whose narrative is presented in a section entitled "Resistance for Political and Economic Change." A grassroots community organizer who spoke out in her poor neighborhood against the 1991 coup d'etat, Belance was kidnapped and brought to the infamous "killing field" of Titanyen, outside Port-au-Prince. Hacked in the head and arms with a machete, Belance was left for dead but managed to survive, one arm severed, face and tongue cut in half. "They killed me that night in Titanyen," begins her story. (p 104) She was attacked by members of the paramilitary group FRAPH, who were financed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to destabilize Aristide's government. (p. 13) She has since filed a lawsuit against that organization and is supported by several international human rights groups. It is Belance who is given the last word in the volume, and she extends the books argument by speaking directly to enfranchised North Americans: "You who are not victims, you should lend a hand. Because many hands make the burden light." (p. 234)
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Citation Details
Title: Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance.(Book Review)
Author: Janet E. Worrall
Publication:
The Oral History Review (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2003
Publisher: Oral History Association
Volume: 30
Issue: 1
Page: 141(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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