Book Description

Just as Eliza is planning her next move, she's dealt an emotional triple-whammy involving her sister, her best friend, and a horrific blind date. That's when she realizes that only by taking a good look at her past -- and her tape collection -- will she ever be able to hear a different kind of song and live a different kind of life.Download Description
Where are all the real rock stars? Eliza is looking to date a rock star -- though she uses the term loosely. None of her boyfriends have been famous. Most have unbearable habits and overbearing mothers. A few only played show tunes. Still, they're intense. Pierced. Tragically stubbled. With a predilection for dressing in black. Eliza finds them deep -- in theory, anyway. But in reality, none comes close to the object of her original rock-star crush: actor/crooner Jack Wagner. When her latest catch turns out be another mama's boy, Eliza begins to realize love is nothing like her favorite '80s song.Is she ready to face the music? Just as Eliza is planning her next move, she's dealt an emotional triple-whammy involving her sister, her best friend, and a horrific blind date. That's when she realizes that only by taking a good look at her past -- and her tape collection -- will she ever be able to hear a different kind of song and live a different kind of life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (48)

Nice flashback but okay story
This was a strange book for me because it was like being on a rollercoaster. At times I loved it, and then there were times I was bored silly and falling asleep. I finished the book just because I liked the 80s references, even though the book didn't have much to do with Jack Wagner (I think that was just a way to lure people to buy the book). If you like the 80s, then this book might be worth a read. But I probably won't buy another one from this author because it just took me too long to get through this one.

Excellent book
"Getting over Jack Wagner" is one of the most refreshing books that I have read in a long time.In fact, I read it in one day because it flowed so seemlessly!I think there's a little Eliza in all of us--being preoccupied with rock stars, wearing black and living inside one's own head.I highly recommend giving this book a try.

Not for women only...
Juska's deeply pleasurable novel transcends its chick-lit trappings. Packed with hysterical pop-culture references and moments of genuine insight, it's the kind of book that will have you both nodding your head and laughing out loud. You don't need to be a child of the '80s--or a female--to appreciate such high-quality, flat-out fun writing.

My favorite book ever
This book is kind of like High Fidelity on estrogen, and that's a good thing.As a pop culture junkie, I got a kick out of all the references scattered throughout.Who doesn't remember their first rocker crush?

Juska knows how to use flashbacks to push the book forward, which is not an easy feat.Some authors tend to overuse flashbacks, stopping their story in the process.In her hands, though, it works.

This book kept me laughing throughout and turning the pages.I even read it twice. It's a great light read, but not so fluffy that you feel your IQ dropping as you read it.

One person's junk...
My mom sent me this book over the summer with a bunch of other items from home.I started to read it and fell in love with it, it was perfect for me and I related to it so well.I asked her what compelled her to buy it for me and it turns out, she got it as a white elephant gift at work.She had no idea what it was about, and just threw it in a box with a few of my old prom dresses and a copy of Seabiscut (which I will never touch).This book is retrospective, smart, sarcastic, witty and perfect for every girl who is not always as together as they seem.She tapped right into what makes me tick and I LOVE this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Original LP and a CDR copy of the source material for your convenience. SONGS:KEEP HOLDIN' ONLIGHTING UP THE NIGHTI'LL BE THERETOO YOUNGJUST TELL HERLET'S START ALL OVERIF SHE LOVES LIKE SHE LOOKSI NEVER SAID GOODBYEWITH YOUR EYESLOVE CAN TAKE US ALL THE WAY ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Perfect Quick-Read for any Langston Hughes fan or Researcher!
This book is excellent! It's a quick read that is packed with useful information, and full of interesting pictures of Mr. Hughes himself, and the classic Harlem Renaissance. It's perfect for any book report or just for pleasure. I would definitly recommend you take advantage of this book for its many great features. Though it only has 112 pgs, the print is quite small, it isn't a very small book, and it has dozens of great pictures in each chapter, + its got a time line, and gives you some great choices for further reading!
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the great Langston Hughes, whom was the ultimate afro american poet! ... Read more

Book Description
Can you name a war "reversed" by new discoveries? Imagine a history of Gettysburg whose authors had never walked the battlefields. That's what we have about The Pequot War of 1637---the first "total war" waged by the first generation of permanent American colonies.

What does New England's actual landscape reveal about these documentary records? What really happened, and what does it mean for us today? The historical artistry of renowned painter David R. Wagner creates a journey to the answers, in this the only published collection of Wagner's acclaimed works on The Pequot War. This book totals 297 pages and includes 54 b/w illustrations (a full color CD pending).

American History holds that in May 1637, a force of English colonists and Native allies marched "undetected" across southern New England and surprised the Pequot village of Missituc or Mystic. There they trapped and killed 300-700 Native men, women and children, broke the back of Pequot power, and began the American Empire proclaiming May 1 "Connecticut's Birthday."

How did the land and the actual sites of this war affect the plans of New England's Puritans, "altogether ignorant" of the country? What shrewd confidence-game did the well-intermarried Pequots, Mohegans and other tribes play as some of them "guided" the English to "victory"---full-knowing they could not tell Native tribes apart? Why were guns, armor and siege exactly the wrong ways of war in America?

MYSTIC FIASCO is the most comprehensive and detailed account of this war that hard-wired the American psyche. With its blow-by-blow contest between English captains and Native leaders, with its visual artistry and documentary research, you'll journey to an extraordinary Native victory built from know-how, cooperation and stifled laughter. You'll read history anew, for here exposed are its great works that constructed and hand down paradigms still bedeviling America in a multicultural world.297 pages, 54 Black & White Illustrations; Photos, Maps, Annotated Chronology, Index ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A very different Pequot War
Wagner, David R., and Jack Dempsey, "MYSTIC FIASCO: How the Indians Won The Pequot War." (Scituate MA: Digital Scanning 2004; ISBN 1-582-18775-4). 245pp., 7 chapters, Annotated Chronology of events, index, maps and 50 illustrations of each major participant and episode. SUMMARY: Traditional understanding of The Pequot War (by both Native and Colonial sides, including Alfred E. Cave's "The Pequot War")is not informed or qualified by the simple act of historians' ACTUALLY WALKING THE LANDSCAPE of this fundamental conflict, which hard-wired the American psyche in relation to land, "foreigners" and war itself. "MYSTIC FIASCO" is the most comprehensive, detailed and documented study of The Pequot War from its beginnings to its aftermath up through today. Document by document, place by place, it follows Captains Mason and Underhill, their untested planter-soldiers and their very uncertain Mohegan "allies," as they take up the farcically-impossible task of marching unseen across Connecticut to "surprise" Mystic Fort and Village. In the facts, what you discover is an astonishing Native American victory built upon intimate knowledge of the landscape, of intertribal relationships, and of New World combat. For the Colonists, in their own words, had no idea how to actually locate or approach their targets; no idea how to tell a "Pequot" from any other of their intimate tribal cousins of Native New England; and no idea that their Mohegan "allies" were thoroughly intermarried and working with enemy-Pequots (for example, the Mohegan leader Uncas was a brother-in-law of Mamoho, the Sachem of Mystic). Instead, the Pequots and Mohegans used these blindspots to guide the English into a trap, used the evacuated Mystic Village as a decoy-target, and then drove Mason's and Underhill's men into the Atlantic Ocean miles from their intended destination. The only eyewitness-accounts come from those two captains, and the land and Native realities give the lie to their every claim. Because of the Christian colonies' willful refusals to listen and learn, they denied themselves any means of ever knowing for certain what effects their appalling violence was having on the peoples they had determined to "remove" in order to take their wealth. As some of the Pequots migrated to other tribal homelands, as more of them melted into other local, ethnically-fluid Native groups, this Colonial anxiety---or rather, this for-once correct perception!---drove their hopeless, inept and unsuccessful extermination-campaign in the aftermath of Mystic. (For one example, what English colonist could possibly verify that a certain scalp of hair had belonged to Pequot Sachem Sassacus? No colonist ever saw Sassacus---in fact the English had to rely on "Native reports" for every thing they thought they knew.) In this book you'll watch unexamined fantasies turn with time, "traditional scholarship" and education into holy fact: the growth of a tradition based on exactly the same ignorance of the land, Native Americans, and war, that still bedevils American foreign policy. You can see full-color versions of David Wagner's groundbreaking illustrations, an overview and a SAMPLE CHAPTER of "Mystic Fiasco" at the authors' website called ancientgreece-earlyamerica (dotcom).

Mystic Fiasco is history from a new perspective
The authors of this book have traveled in person to the Mystic site and examined carefully what has been written in old historical documents.David Wagner is a knowledgeable archaeologist and Jack Dempsey is one of the most intellectual persons of integrity that I have ever met.When they combine their talents to research history, one cannot easily dismiss their findings.History comes alive for the reader.Mysteries of Mystic????


Jack and David have proven to themselves that what is recorded never could have happened as recorded.This does not mean, however, that the holocaust never happened - at least, to my mind.The holocaust is consistent with the ethnic cleansing practiced against all First Nations across these continents.If it did not happen at Mystic as described in the documents the authors studied, it did happen at other sites.The authors recognize that what was written down as history was what the European immigrants wanted to happen.

I wrote the poem which the authors have used as a CODA for this book.They could not have used my poem had they not viewed the ethnocentricity of the European immigrants as accurate historical fact.The book only goes to show how erroneous historical documents can be, so it should be studied by anyone interested in a new perspective of early American history.

Dr. Dempsey is a PhD and a professor, with tremendous knowledge of the early American history which entrenched itself on this continent in the area where he currently resides. Dr. Dempsey is a man of integrity, who has done extensive research among Native Americans, past and present, and who deeply respects the traditional values of all First Nations. With an understanding of human nature and satirical wit, Dr. Dempsey presents a new look at an old historical event. ... Read more

Book Description
Soul Survivors gives voice to the women and children who stayed in Cambodia after the genocide (1975-1979), when nearly two million people died from execution, starvation, or disease. It also includes the stories of two refugees who came to the US as orphans, returning as young adults to help their country. These engaging personal narratives reveal that hope and kindness survived the darkest period of Cambodia's recent history.

Sixty-four photographs draw the reader into contemporary Cambodia to witness the survivors' courageous work to rebuild their lives, families, and culture in one of the poorest nations of the world. Soul Survivors includes a chronology of Cambodian history, a map, and an index. Additional chapters describe the Khmer Rouge, the role of the US, the landmine situation, and the Buddhist peace movement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

"Soul Survivors" -A Truly Inspirational Work
"Soul Survivors" brought the horror of the Cambodian genocide to me in a way that the modern media never has.In a world where the news numbs society to mass murder and political unrest, "Soul Survivors" left me unable to remain numb to these atrocities.The book focuses on personal stories from a wide range of survivors of the genocide - stories that are essential to gaining a true understanding of how genocide affects a nation and culture.When I closed the book, I was filled with the kind of restless compassion that only comes from truly learning about the pain of another people and culture."Soul Survivors" was an inspirational book and really made me want to change the world - something that every great book should do.

Moving and Inspirational
The stories are very inspiring, the photos are great, and the book itself is well done from the cover on.

A work of courage and compassion
This book offered me a chance to face a devastating period of human history with courage, compassion, and determination to make the world a better place. It tells the story of women and children who endured the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s and managed to rebuild their lives afterward. It includes the stories of two refugees who came to the United States as orphans, returning as young adults to help their country. In a series of personal narratives, the author lets these survivors tell their own stories in their own words, and there are accompanying photographs that give a wonderful added glimpse at their lives. Wagner also provides some brief but helpful political context for the suffering in Cambodia. Living as we are in a time of so much hatred and conflict and fear, Soul Survivors reaffirms the futility of violence and helped remind me of the possibility of redemption and reconciliation. ... Read more