Tonight is the first event for the new book, and I've spent most of the afternoon at home with curlers in my hair and cucumber circles on the eyes...
Continue »
This is a treasure--impressionistic, haunting journeys in the land between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas-Slovakia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary--towns with names in three languages or more--mountains, plains and corn fields--pubs, border crossings, Gypsies, cemeteries, buses, trains and ferries. Stasiuk seeks the edges, the eternal of his Europe. This is not linear or chronological but follows the wandering mind of the author.
Beautiful! but read with references at hand for this westerner that grew up with this area behind the "iron curtain" and mostly ignorant of its geography, history and culture.
This book started by making me cry. Benedict poignantly describes a couple holding their daughter as she dies, every parent's worst nightmare. Their child went from healthy to dying of a fast moving, virulent and mysterious illness in little more than a week. It turns out that she got it from eating a contaminated and undercooked hamburger at Jack in the Box.
Benedict takes us from the outbreak to the first arbitrated settlement of the E. coli illnesses and deaths on the west coast from Jack in the Box in the early 90's. He tells us the story through some of the people involved, mainly the plaintiffs' attorney, Bill Marley and the CEO of Jack in the Box, Bob Nugent. He includes parents, doctors, researchers, public health officials, industry consultants and attorneys.
Even though I knew the outcome, I found Benedict's story compelling.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
An amazing book. Told in the voice of a 70 year old Mauricien, who is finally coming to terms with a central year in his childhood. His two brothers die, his family moves from an agricultural camp to a town, and he makes friends with an European Jewish boy being held in a prison near his house. Appanah brings his anguish and regret home to the reader.
This is another piece WW II history that I was totally unaware of.
Wow! Tracy Kidder does it again! In the eloquent telling of one remarkable man's story, Kidder gives us insight into war trauma, ethnic violence, a country and region, the violence of poverty. And he gives us hope!
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
An interesting view of Abigail Adams based mostly on letters that she sent and received. The thread that Holton used to tie it together is how Adams controlled money in a time when married women didn't have any legal right to do so.
Thoughts:
It is amazing how much American English has changed in 250 years. Holton defines for us words that have almost come to mean the opposite today.
How heart wrenching it is to have children die.
Again the myth of the nuclear American family is destroyed as parents spend years away from their children, die and remarry and children get handed around to various relatives and friends.
During the current controversy about what religion meant to the founding fathers, Abigail's attitudes and observations are interesting.
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
itpdx has commented on (30) products.
On the Road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe by Andrzej Stasiuk
itpdx, August 23, 2011
This is a treasure--impressionistic, haunting journeys in the land between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas-Slovakia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary--towns with names in three languages or more--mountains, plains and corn fields--pubs, border crossings, Gypsies, cemeteries, buses, trains and ferries. Stasiuk seeks the edges, the eternal of his Europe. This is not linear or chronological but follows the wandering mind of the author.Beautiful! but read with references at hand for this westerner that grew up with this area behind the "iron curtain" and mostly ignorant of its geography, history and culture.
Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. Coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat by Jeff Benedict
itpdx, July 31, 2011
This book started by making me cry. Benedict poignantly describes a couple holding their daughter as she dies, every parent's worst nightmare. Their child went from healthy to dying of a fast moving, virulent and mysterious illness in little more than a week. It turns out that she got it from eating a contaminated and undercooked hamburger at Jack in the Box.Benedict takes us from the outbreak to the first arbitrated settlement of the E. coli illnesses and deaths on the west coast from Jack in the Box in the early 90's. He tells us the story through some of the people involved, mainly the plaintiffs' attorney, Bill Marley and the CEO of Jack in the Box, Bob Nugent. He includes parents, doctors, researchers, public health officials, industry consultants and attorneys.
Even though I knew the outcome, I found Benedict's story compelling.
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
The Last Brother (Lannan Translation Selection) by Nathacha Appanah
itpdx, February 14, 2011
An amazing book. Told in the voice of a 70 year old Mauricien, who is finally coming to terms with a central year in his childhood. His two brothers die, his family moves from an agricultural camp to a town, and he makes friends with an European Jewish boy being held in a prison near his house. Appanah brings his anguish and regret home to the reader.This is another piece WW II history that I was totally unaware of.
Strength in What Remains (Random House Reader's Circle) by Tracy Kidder
itpdx, January 1, 2011
Wow! Tracy Kidder does it again! In the eloquent telling of one remarkable man's story, Kidder gives us insight into war trauma, ethnic violence, a country and region, the violence of poverty. And he gives us hope!(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Abigail Adams by Woody Holton
itpdx, November 5, 2010
An interesting view of Abigail Adams based mostly on letters that she sent and received. The thread that Holton used to tie it together is how Adams controlled money in a time when married women didn't have any legal right to do so.Thoughts:
It is amazing how much American English has changed in 250 years. Holton defines for us words that have almost come to mean the opposite today.
How heart wrenching it is to have children die.
Again the myth of the nuclear American family is destroyed as parents spend years away from their children, die and remarry and children get handed around to various relatives and friends.
During the current controversy about what religion meant to the founding fathers, Abigail's attitudes and observations are interesting.
1-5 of 30next