Svetlana's Reads and Views

Title of the book: Skinfolk; A Memoir  Author: Matthew Pratt Guterl  Publisher: Liveright  Publishing Date: 2023  ISBN: 978-1-324-09171-4 Summary: Could a picturesque white house with a picket fence save the world? What if it was filled with children drawn together from around the globe? And what if, within the yard, the lines of kin and skin, of family and race, were deliberately knotted and twisted? In 1970, a wild-eyed dreamer, Bob Guterl, believed it could. Bob was determined to solve, in one stroke, the problems of overpopulation and racism. The charming, larger-than-life lawyer and his brilliant wife, Sheryl, a former homecoming queen, launched a radical experiment to raise their two biological sons alongside four children adopted from Korea, Vietnam, and the South Bronx—the so-called war zones of the American century. They moved to rural New Jersey with dreams of creating what Bob described as a new Noah’s ark, filled with “two of every race.” Whil...

    Title of the book: Israel; A simple guide to the most misunderstood country on earth  Author: Noa Tishby  Publisher: Free Press Publishing Date: 2021 ISBN: 9781982144944 Summary: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A “fascinating and very moving” (Aaron Sorkin, award-winning screenwriter of The West Wing and The Social Network ) chronological timeline spanning from Biblical times to today that explores one of the most interesting countries in the world—Israel. Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts? Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby. But “this is not your Bubbie’s history book” (Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher ). Instead, offering a fresh, 360-degree view, Tishby brings her “passion, humor, and deep intimacy” (Yossi Klein Halevi, New York Times ...

Title of the book: Vagina Obscura; an anatomical voyage  Author: Rachel E. Gross Publisher: Norton Publishing Date: 2022 ISBN: 9781324006312 Summary: A scientific journey to the center of the new female body. The Latin term for the female genitalia, pudendum, means “parts for which you should be ashamed.” Until 1651, ovaries were called female testicles. The fallopian tubes are named for a man. Named, claimed, and shamed: Welcome to the story of the female body, as penned by men. Today, a new generation of (mostly) women scientists is finally redrawing the map. With modern tools and fresh perspectives, they’re looking at the organs traditionally bound up in reproduction—the uterus, ovaries, vagina—and seeing within them a new biology of change and resilience. Through their eyes, journalist Rachel E. Gross takes readers on an anatomical odyssey to the center of this new world—a world where the uterus regrows itself, ovaries pump out fresh eggs, and the clitoris pulses bene...

  Title of the book: The Human Past Author: Christopher Scarre editor Publisher: Thames and Hudson Publishing Date: 2009 ISBN: 978-0-500-28781-1 Summary: Professor Chris Scarre has seamlessly integrated the work of an international team of archaeologists from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The result is a unique textbook that engagingly and comprehensively embraces the entire expanse of human prehistory while also offering the most up-to-date accounts of separate regions and periods by the leading specialists in these areas. There are hundreds of maps, diagrams, and photographs, many in full color, as well as timelines and boxes on key sites, methods, discoveries, and controversies For the second edition, the text has been thoroughly updated to include recent discoveries and new interpretations from around the world. The coverage of archaeology in the Middle East is expanded to include the Jiroft excavations in Iran and the Late Bronze Age in Qatna, Syria. The A...

Title of the book: A History of the Roman People Author: Allen M Ward, Fritz M Heichelheim, Cedirc A. Yeo Publisher: Prentice Hall Publishing Date: 2010 ISBN: 9780205695263 Summary: The Fifth Edition of "A History of the Roman People "continues to provide a comprehensive analytical survey of Roman history from its prehistoric roots in Italy and the wider Mediterranean world to the dissolution of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity in A.D. 600. Clearly organized and highly readable, the text's narrative of major political and military events provides a chronological and conceptual framework for the social, economic, and cultural developments of the periods covered. Major topics are treated separately so that students can easily grasp key concepts and ideas. Author Info: N/A Personal Opinion: Honestly, this textbook,  at least according to my standards, deserves 3.5 stars. Its readable, shock-full of information and seems to be highly pertinent whether studying Roman history...

Title of the book: A History of Russia  Author: George Vernadsky  Publisher: Yale University Press  Publishing Date: 1966 ISBN: 9780300002478 Summary: Generally recognized as the standard one-volume history of Russia, this monumental work describes Russia's growth from the times of the nomadic tribes to the Cold War & examines the social, religious & cultural as well as the political & economic aspects of Russian civilization. Author Info: N/A Personal Opinion: How does one rate a textbook? Personality I would rate it on diversity, inclusivity and information. Thus, I am sorry that this one will be three stars. First of all its an excellent book to understand Russia past and present (up to 1960s) , and its written in an engaging style. But- yes, there are a lot of buts- it didn't include information on women's lives, and minorities such as Jews or Muslims or even Asians are skipped over, in particular Koreans who have had a rich history when it comes to USSR (...

  Title of the book: The Unfit Heiress; The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt  Author: Audrey Clare Farley  Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Publishing Date: 2021 ISBN: 978-1-5387-5335-4 Summary: At the turn of the twentieth century, American women began to reject Victorian propriety in favor of passion and livelihood outside the home. This alarmed authorities, who feared certain "over-sexed" women could destroy civilization if allowed to reproduce and pass on their defects. Set against this backdrop, The Unfit Heiress chronicles the fight for inheritance, both genetic and monetary, between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her mother Maryon. In 1934, aided by a California eugenics law, the socialite Maryon Cooper Hewitt had her "promiscuous" daughter declared feebleminded and sterilized without her knowledge. She did this to deprive Ann of millions of dollars from her father's estate, which contained a child-bearing stipulation. When a sensat...

  Title of the book: The Treeline; The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth  Author: Ben Rawlence  Publisher: St. Martin's Press Publishing Date: 2022 ISBN: 978-1-250-27885-2 Summary: In the tradition of Elizabeth Kolbert and Barry Lopez, a powerful, poetic and deeply absorbing account of the "lung" at the top of the world. For the last fifty years, the trees of the boreal forest have been moving north. Ben Rawlence's The Treeline takes us along this critical frontier of our warming planet from Norway to Siberia, Alaska to Greenland, to meet the scientists, residents and trees confronting huge geological changes. Only the hardest species survive at these latitudes including the ice-loving Dahurian larch of Siberia, the antiseptic Spruce that purifies our atmosphere, the Downy birch conquering Scandinavia, the healing Balsam poplar that Native Americans use as a cure-all and the noble Scots Pine that lives longer when surrounded by its family. It is a journey of...

  Title of the book: Finding Normal; Sex, Love and Taboo in Our Hyperconnected World  Author: Alexa Tsoulis-Reay Publisher: St. Martin's Press Publishing Date: 2022 ISBN: 978-1-250-27919-4 Summary: Alexa Tsoulis-Reay's Finding Normal is an author's up close tour of people who are using the Internet to challenge the boundaries of what's taboo and what it means to be normal. Based on a popular series of candid interviews conducted for New York magazine’s human science column—"What It's Like"—Finding Normal explores the ways that real people are using the Internet to find community, forge connections, and create identity in ways that challenge a variety of accepted sexual norms. Ranging from the atypical to the shocking, each story in Finding Normal intimately immerses the reader in the world of a person who is grappling with a unique set of circumstances relating to sexuality. Finding Normal at once celebrates the power of our current media moment for helpin...

 Title of the book: Conquistador Voices; Francisco Pizarro and his brothers, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Hernando de Soto; The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as Recounted Largely by the Participants Author: Kevin H Siepel Publisher: Spruce Trees Press Publishing Date: 2015 ISBN: 978-0-9786466-3-9 Summary: The Spanish Conquest: What Really Happened? If your knowledge of the so-called Spanish Conquest is limited to the shallow, neatly packaged narrative you found in your schoolbooks, be assured that you can get a real grip on these events now, because this two-volume series tells the tale from the viewpoint of the people who were actually there--including, in some cases, native peoples. It reads like the written version of a modern film documentary, with newly translated 500-year-old "sound bites" stitched together by the author-narrator in such a way as to create a seamless and compelling story. In these two volumes you will find neither a defense of the conquistadors nor a ...

  Title of the book: Conquistador Voices: Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortes; The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as Recounted Largely by the Participants Author: Kevin H Siepel Publisher: Spruce Tree Press Publishing Date: 2015 ISBN: 978-0-9786466-2-2 Summary: The Spanish Conquest: What Really Happened? If your knowledge of the so-called Spanish Conquest is limited to the shallow, neatly packaged narrative you found in your schoolbooks, be assured that you can get a real grip on these events now, because this two-volume series tells the tale from the viewpoint of the people who were actually there--including, in some cases, native peoples. It reads like the written version of a modern film documentary, with newly translated 500-year-old "sound bites" stitched together by the author-narrator in such a way as to create a seamless and compelling story. In these two volumes you will find neither a defense of the conquistadors nor a politically correct polemic against them. The...

Title of the book: Don't know much about history; everything you need to know about American History but never learned Author: Kenneth C Davis Publisher: Harper Perennial  Publishing Date: 2004 ISBN:  9780060083823 Summary: Who really discovered America? What was "the shot heard 'round the world"? Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: Did he or didn't he? From the arrival of Columbus through the bizarre election of 2000 and beyond, Davis carries readers on a rollicking ride through more than 500 years of American history. In this updated edition of the classic anti-textbook, he debunks, recounts, and serves up the real story behind the myths and fallacies of American history. Author Info: (From goodreads) Kenneth C. Davis is the New York Times bestselling author of the Don't Know Much About® series of books and audios for adults and children. The first title in the series, Don't Know Much About® History became a New York Times bestseller in 1991 and remained...

  Title of the book: My Sweet Angel; The True Story of Lacey Spears, the Seemingly Perfect Mother Who Murdered Her Son in Cold Blood Author: John Glatt Publisher: St. Martin's Press Publishing Date: 2016 ISBN: 978-1-250-07113-2 Summary: Lacey Spears made international headlines in January 2015 when she was charged with the “depraved mind” murder of her five-year-old son, Garnett. Prosecutors alleged that the 27-year-old mother had poisoned him with high concentrations of salt through his stomach tube. To the outside world, Spears had seemed like the perfect mother, regularly posting dramatic updates on her son’s harrowing medical problems, but in reality, she was a text book case of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. From the time he was an infant, she deliberately made Garnett sick to elicit sympathy from medical professionals, as well as her hundreds of followers on Facebook and other social media. When a Westchester County jury found her guilty of killing Garnett in April 2015, she w...

 Title of the book: Irmas passport: one woman, two world wars, and a legacy of courage   Author: Catherine Ehrlich  Publisher: She Writes Press (SWP) Publishing Date: 2021 ISBN: 978-1-64742-305-6 Summary: Inspired to learn languages by her multi-lingual Austrian grandmother, Irma, the author seeks the wellsprings of Irma’s indomitable spirit. By delving into the late Irma’s extraordinary memoirs, shared in this book, she explores her outspoken grandparents’ influential lives at the crossroads of German and Jewish national movements. Along the way, she uncovers a deep heritage of empowered women. Golden-haired Irma grew up in Imperial Austria believing that wars and prejudice were fading. Her journey from Bohemian country girl to grande dame in New York would traverse a fascinating landscape of renowned people at pivotal moments in history, captured in her memoirs. Irma studied languages as one of the first female university students in Prague while her cousin, F...

  Title of the book: People Love Dead Jews; Reports From A Haunted Present Author: Dara Horn Publisher: Norton Publishing Date: 2021 ISBN: 978-0-393-53156-5 Summary: Renowned and beloved as a prizewinning novelist, Dara Horn has also been publishing penetrating essays since she was a teenager. Often asked by major publications to write on subjects related to Jewish culture—and increasingly in response to a recent wave of deadly antisemitic attacks—Horn was troubled to realize what all of these assignments had in common: she was being asked to write about dead Jews, never about living ones. In these essays, Horn reflects on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the mythology that Jewish family names were changed at Ellis Island, the blockbuster traveling exhibition Auschwitz, the marketing of the Jewish history of Harbin, China, and the little-known life of the "righteous Gentile" Varian Fry. Throughout, she challenges us to confront the reasons ...

  Title of the book: The Hands on French Cookbook; connect with French through simple, healthy cooking  Author: Elisabeth de Chatillon Publisher: Self published Publishing Date: 2020 ISBN: 978-0-578-68382-9 Summary: If you think French food is complicated, decadent, and heavy, think again! If you think learning and exploring another language is difficult or boring, think again! And if you think cooking French food and learning French at the same time is impossible, teacher and home cook Elisabeth de Châtillon is here to prove you wrong. It might sound too good to be true, but The Hands On French Cookbook is full of healthy, simple French recipes that you can make for friends and family while you learn not only the French language but also a little bit about French culture in a relaxed, fun, tasty way.  Author Info: (From goodreads) Elisabeth de Châtillon was born in France, has an MA in Education and Marketing, and has taught extensively in both the USA and Europe. She is...

  Title of the book: Drafted: a memoir of the 60s  Author: Heywood Gould  Publisher: Tolmitch Press  Publishing Date: 2021 ISBN: 978-1-63760-534-9 Summary: It's 1966, and young Heywood Gould, a Brooklyn boy with literary ambitions, has his dream job. He is a reporter at the ultra liberal (that's right liberal) New York Post, alongside young writers like Nora Ephron, Pete Hamill and Anthony Scaduto. New York is a newspaper town, six dailies trying to beat each other to the big story. He revels in the action and competition. It's one of the most consequential moments in American history. Gould chases stories about the civil rights struggle, the anti-war movement, riots and rat infestation and World's Fair scandals. He covers everything from toy shows to murder trials. This is the best training for an apprentice writer. Then he gets that fateful letter that begins, "Greetings." After five years of dodging, Uncle Sam has caught up with him. He's been caught in...

 Title of the book: Cold Case Story Author: Stephanie Kane Publisher: Cold Hard Press Publishing Date: 2021 ISBN/ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08TQTBB84: Summary: Cold Case Story is based on the brutal murder of a housewife in the Denver suburbs in 1973. A college student back then, Stephanie Kane was more than a witness to this terrible crime. For nearly thirty years, she remained silent. Then, in 2001, she tried to exorcise the crime by fictionalizing it in a mystery novel called Quiet Time. But instead of laying the murder to rest, Quiet Time brought it roaring back to life. Cold Case Story is about a family that fractured along the fault lines of a murder. It's about fiction colliding with a cold hard crime, and the very personal story of how it feels to ping-pong between participant and observer, novelist and witness to one's own uneasy set of facts. In the end, all are punished--even the guilty. Author Info: (From amazon) Stephanie Kane is a lawyer and award-winning author of four crime n...

Title of the book: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend; How Daring Dreams, and unyielding friendship turned ones mans blindness into an extraordinary vision for life  Author: Sanford D. Greenberg Publisher: Post Hill Press Publishing Date: 2020 ISBN: 978-1-64293-497-7 Summary: As seen on the Today Show and as featured in People Magazine! The remarkable and inspiring story of a Columbia undergrad from a poor Jewish family who, after losing his eyesight to disease during his junior year, finds the power to break through the darkness and fulfill his vision for a life of great professional success and distinguished public service. It’s a bitterly cold February in 1961, and Sandy Greenberg lies in a hospital bed in Detroit, newly blind. A junior at Columbia University from a Jewish family that struggled to stay above the poverty line, Sandy had just started to see the world open up to him. Now, instead of his plans for a bright future—Harvard Law and politics—Sandy faces a ne...

General Information: Name of Book: Places I['ve Taken My Body; Essays ISBN: 978-0-89255-513-0 Publisher: Persea Year it was published: 2020 Summary: In seventeen intimate essays, poet Molly McCully Brown explores living within and beyond the limits of a body—in her case, one shaped since birth by cerebral palsy, a permanent and often painful movement disorder.  In spite of—indeed, in response to—physical constraints, Brown leads a peripatetic life: the essays comprise a vivid travelogue set throughout the United States and Europe, ranging from the rural American South of her childhood to the cobblestoned streets of Bologna, Italy. Moving between these locales and others, Brown constellates the subjects that define her inside and out: a disabled and conspicuous body, a religious conversion, a missing twin, a life in poetry. As she does, she depicts vividly for us not only her own life but a striking array of sites and topics, among them Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and th...