Product Description
In her highly acclaimed debut novel, the bestselling author of Shelter introduces the Hampsons, an ordinary, small-town American family profoundly affected by the extraordinary events of history. Here is a stunning chronicle that begins with the Depression and ends with the Vietnam War, revealed in the thoughts, dreams, and memories of each family member. Mitch struggles to earn a living as Jeans becomes the main breadwinner, working to coplete college and raise the family. While the couple fight to keep their marriage intact, their daughter Danner and son Billy forge a sibling bond of uncommon strength. When Billy goes off to Vietnam, Danner becomes the sole bond linking her family, whose dissolution mirrors the fractured state of America in the 1960s. Deeply felt and vividly imagined, this lyrical novel is "among the wisest of a generation to grapple with a war that maimed us all" (The Village Voice), by a master of contemporary fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A masterpiece from Appalachia

This novel, told from multiple perspectives, explores the meaning of two wars (World War II and Vietnam) as seen by two generations.Phillips writes masterfully about coming of age, sexuality, family, gender, and class.A work of impressive depth.Highly recommended.

3 1/2 stars actually
I was surprised I had never heard of this book before and I was excited to read it. It was interesting. It started out great, dragged in the middle, and then picked up thankfully toward the end.

My Favorite Book
I love this book because even now, years after the first time I read it, I remember the characters so well.It's like they were members of my own family.Jayne Anne Phillips writes beautifully of a time (1950s-60s) and a place (West Virginia) and a family.The book reminds me of growing up in ahouse where we were all in our own orbits, doing our own things, living ourown lives, and experiencing our own pain.Sad, but true.

Revealing our dreams
I've read Machine Dreams twice and I was completly moved. It is like a picture of modern America where everyone travels alone, like in a dream, and the same time is in the middle of a crowd into reality. Philip'stalended writing expresses desires and feelings of every woman and theirstruggle to remain unique. But it is not a feminist book. male charactersare very strong too. Its structure and the different narrator in eachchapter show the different kind of characters and the different aspects ofthe American society

Keep at it
I had to read Machine Dreams as part of a school course at University at first it appeared to be nothing special, who were all these characters, did I care waht this woman, was telling her daughter and who were they anyway?I read the first section, then put it away for a while. When I started toread it again it was sooo good. It does take a while to get into but it iswell worth percivering. At the end of the book I was so caugh t up with theup with the characters it was unbelivable considering my initial reactionto the book. The links in the book become obvious as you read on and thetreatment of time as none linear works well. There are central themes inthe book, such as the strenght of the women characters and the way in whichthey deal with the things that happen. I was told the book was about theVietmnam war but I don't personnaly think that this was the main point ofthe book, it is a key factor but how could it not be. After reading thebook I was left feeling very aware of the feeling I have for my friends andfamily, it is difficult not to become emotionally involved in the book.Finally - GO READ IT! (And don't give up on it.) I only gave the book 4stars because of my initial desire not to read it after the first section -This is probably more my problem than the books. ... Read more

Product Description
National Bestseller
New York Times Notable Book
Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year

Lark and Termite is a rich, wonderfully alive novel about seventeen year old Lark and her brother, Termite, living in West Virginia in the 1950s. Their mother, Lola, is absent, while their aunt, Nonie, raises them as her own, and Termite’s father, Corporal Robert Leavitt, is caught up in the early days of the Korean War. Award-winning author Jayne Anne Phillips intertwines family secrets, dreams, and ghosts in a story about the love that unites us all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (71)

Do Something Already
I must begin by saying that Lark and Termite is beautifully written, almost painfully beautiful. Jayne Anne Phillips is a master of words, and certain lines stopped me in my tracks and forced me to take notice. Here is just one example:

"He moves forward, glimpsing his jumbled past amid jagged vestiges of the present, all of it intermingled as though equally important and alive."

It was lines like this that kept me reading as long as I did, but it was also one of the reasons that I stopped.

I have never been a fan of stream of consciousness writing.For me a little of this writing goes a long way. Of course, I want to hear the character's thoughts. Of course, I love it when one idea seems connected to the other, but too much of this is overload. Lark and Termite is almost entirely stream writing, and I felt like I was reading Faulkner instead of a contemporary novel. (PS-I hate Faulkner.)

This style is beautiful, and it is difficult to write, but nothing happens. I spent 100 pages listening to this people think, and I never saw them do more than lie there and back a cake. I had very high hopes for this book, and it just left me a little bored. I know Lark and Termite was a National Book Award Finalist, but it just isn't the novel for me.

If you like this type of writing, than you should absolutely pick it up. Phillips is clearly a wonderful writer. I just need someone with a different style.

unwanted
I received this as a second time unordered item but have kept it anyway to be given as a gift. Insofar as it's literary worth I find it very good.

Did I miss something here?
I was really pumped about reading this award-winning book.With praise like "Emotionally powerful and piercing" (NY Times), "A stylistic tour de force... Pure, rapt poetry" (Wall Street Journal) , "Extraordinary, luminous" (Junot Diaz) , and "This is the alchemy of good fiction" (NY Times), my expectations were sky high and I expected to be blown away.I was not only NOT blown away, I found the book tedious, plodding, overwritten... and just plain boring.It vacillates between the story of Col Robert Leavitt, father of Termite, Lark, Termite's coming-of-age half-sister, and Termite, a profoundly brain-damaged boy.Lola (the mother who abandoned both of her children) Aunt Nonie (who raised them), Charlie, and a handful of other characters are woven into their stories, as is Lola, the mother who abandoned both of her children.

I found Col Leavitt's story interminable and repetitive. After attempting to help a young woman and her family, he is injured and forced to hide in a tunnel with the family until (SPOILER ALERT) he dies.The Col's slow trajectory towards death takes place over many chapters, though little actually happens. He wafts in and out of consciousness.At times, he imagines he is with his pregnant wife Lola, who remains vague and not very interesting character.At other times, he is aware of being pulled deeper into a tunnel and watched over by a young Korean woman, who, we are told way too many times, fixes her gaze on him and lets her hair fall over her shoulder.The Col's meandering thoughts about Lola do not provide any real depth or insight into his (or her) character. Other than being the father of Termite (whom he never even gets to know), his story is completely disconnected from the more present-day story of Lark and Termite.

Lark's story, as well as her character, are uninteresting... she dotes on her brother, she bakes him birthday cakes, she ponders and muses about Termite, Nonie, Nick and Solly Tucci, and her surroundings. She is not terribly ambitious or inspired; she has no real dreams or aspirations, other than to graduate from secretarial school.

And Termite... well, he's brain damaged.Several chapters relentlessly describe his view of the world... things just kind of swirl around him in a dreamy, meaningless way; inconsequential actions (such as the blowing on the strips of blue plastic) are described over and over again. I did not feel any connection to this boy at all... he just kind of exists.

Nonie also has a voice and story; her's turns out to be the most interesting of them all.But she is still somewhat dull, fatalistic, and uninspired.Way too late in the book, something of a plot churns up, but then so did the overly-ornate descriptions of everyone's every thought and action, which made the plot hard to follow.And anyway, by then, I just didn't care anymore.

I realize as I write this that I am being particularly harsh... I think that's because my expectations were so high, and I felt so let down.There must be some kind magic in this book -- it received such high praise and a earned coveted literary award -- but I seem to have missed it entirely.

Magical.Mystical.Magnificent!
I just finished reading "Lark & Termite" and I am simply blown away.Jayne Anne Phillips has created some of the most indelible characters ever to leap off of a page and into a reader's mind, heart and soul.Admittedly, the book is dense and slow-going in the beginning, but as the characters' personalities, secrets and relationships slowly reveal themselves, the novel becomes like quicksand, into which the reader sinks progressively quickly and from which he or she cannot extricate him or herself.I was stunned at parts and profoundly moved at others, but never felt manipulated by a story that, in less-skilled hands, could have been maudlin and manipulative.Moreover, each character was so fully realized that I felt as if I knew him or her, and each was imbued with such utter grace and humanity that I felt as if I truly loved them all, despite of, or including, their very real flaws.Jayne Anne Phillips created a unique but very real family, and makes the reader feel a part of that family."Lark & Termite" is a book I will not quickly forget, and one that I know I will read several times.

Not the great literary read promised
"Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl, But that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show. . ."Barry Manilow, Copacabana.Lola is also a cat, but other reviewers have already explored that gold mine of ham-handed literary symbolism.

This is the story of Lark and Termite, half-siblings, and their survival story in 1959 West Virginia.Intertwined is the story of Termite's father's death in Korea in 1950.I wanted to love this book and the characters.This Velveteen Rabbit just never managed to feel real.

Slog through the first chapter and its overly long paragraph structure, and certainly you will find some quite lovely language.That does not make up for the dime-store novel plot line and choppy interplay between the Korean War and West Virginia.The author does not seem to trust her readers with the deeper meanings or symbolism ensconced in her pages so she uses her pen as if it were a hammer.(See "Lola" above).Much of the writing and plot-development ended up feeling self-conscious -- pressured and high-strung -- where it should have seemingly flowed with ease.

I understand that many believe this to be the next-best and great literary triumph.It is a deeply flawed book, and I cannot recommend it for any more than an overly generous two stars.
... Read more

Product Description
The essays in this latest volume in the Oxford Readings in Feminism series answer questions about gender and feminism in politics, demonstrating how feminism challenges both the theory and practice of politics and opens up new ways of thinking about political change. Anne Phillips brings together twenty outstanding articles dealing with various aspects of feminism and politics, covering political studies, political theory, interests and representation, identities and coalitions, equality and anti-discrimination, and citizenship. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most hotly-contested debates in contemporary democracy revolves around issues of political presence, and whether the fair representation of disadvantaged groups requires their presence in elected assemblies. Representation as currently understood derives its legitimacy from a politics of ideas, which considers accountability in relation to declared policies and programs, and makes it a matter of relative indifference who articulates political preferences or beliefs. What happens to the meaning of representation and accountability when we make the gender or ethnic composition of elected assemblies an additional area of concern? In this innovative contribution to the theory of representation--which draws upon debates about gender quotas in Europe, minority voting rights in the USA, and the multi-layered politics of inclusion in Canada--the author argues that the politics of ideas is an inadequate vehicle for dealing with political exclusion. But eschewing any essentialist grounding to group identity or group interest, she also argues against either/or choice between ideas and political presence. The work then combines with contemporary explorations of deliberative democracy to establish a different balance between accountability and autonomy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent text for theorists and public alike
Phillips does a good job of raising some important and often ignored problems about representation and presence in her book. I originally read this for a feminist political theory class as a graduate student, and hope to go back and read it again. Her discussions of what representation means and looks like in contemporary US politics is excellent and brings home the problems of "representative" democracy when those elected to represent do not in fact do that, and perhaps, as many scholars have argued, never can.

An excellent read for anyone interested in feminist scholarship, social equality issues, political representation and accountability in modern politics.

Understanding contemporary challenges to democracy
English writer Anne Phillips is among the best feminist political thinkers of our time. In The Politics of Presence, she develops a major issue present in some of her previous books, notably Engendering Democracy and Democracy & Difference: the shift in democratic thought, when thepolitics of ideas (where the identity of representatives is not a concern)is challenging by a politics of presence. Since Hanna Pitkin's famousattack on what she called "descriptive representation", in the sixties,political theorists usually see the search for typical representation-thatis, the parliament as a microcosm or mirror of the whole society-as a minortask. The question was not "who" the representatives are, but "whichinterests" they defend. Enhancing their accountability was the way toimprove democracy. This view was compatible with the hegemonic liberalaffirmation of "equality before the law", regardless the individual'sidentity. And compatible, too, with Socialist analysis, both Marxist andsocial democrat, that saw political access as dependent on changes insocial and economic conditions. As Ms Phillips shows, this view waschallenged by an alternative politics of presence, which emerged with thedemands for the political inclusion of silenced or excluded groups,specially women and ethnic minorities. These groups don't judge "equalitybefore the law" is enough; and they are not willing to wait foralways-postponed structural changes. With such demands for politicalequality, they focalize on institutional mechanisms that could achieve moreimmediate change in their life's condition. Thus, political equality is nowa crucial issue in political battles. However, this approach to democratreform is not free of problems, and The Politics of Presence extensivelydiscusses such problems. A mirror legislature gives no certainty aboutprotecting minority's interests; accountability mechanisms can't bedispensed. And more, determining which social cleavages, among countlessones, deserve to be considered in order to promote fair representation is acontroversial issue. The book studies a number of cases that illustratesome of these difficulties-electoral quotas for women in Europe,race-conscious districting in the USA, and Canadian politics, emphasizingthe problems of Quebec and native population. Clearly written, full ofintelligence and passion, The Politics of Presence is a valuable book toanyone who wants to think about contemporary challenges of democracy. ... Read more

Product Description
In a West Virginia forest in 1963, a group of children at summer camp enter a foreboding Eden and experience an unexpected rite of passage. Shelter is an astonishing portrayal of an American loss of innocence as witnessed by a mysterious drifter named Parson, two young sisters, Lenny and Alma, and a feral boy called Buddy. Together they come to understand bravery and the importance of compassion.
Phillips unearths a dangerous beauty in this primeval terrain and in the hearts of her characters. Lies, secrets, erotic initiations, and the bonds of love between friends, families, and generations are transformed in a leafy wilderness undiminished by societal rules and dilemmas. Cast in Phillips’ stunning prose, with an unpredictable cast of characters and a shadowy, suspenseful narrative, Shelter is a an enduring achievement from one of the finest writers of our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Angelic book of angels and demons
This book is amazing, Philips's words ring like poetry and the variety of her vocabulary and structure when she writes from the different characters' point of view is stunning. Once you get to know the people in the book, you don't even have to read the title of the chapter to know who is talking. She writes from the perspective of Lenny and Alma, two sisters at camp, Buddy, a small boy who follows them around, and Parson who lives in a shack near the camp. Throughout the story they are beautifully linked together. I would highly recommend this book!

RICH OBSERVATION AND LUMINOUS PROSE

This searing, sometimes gothic coming-of-age story is written in luminous prose.No surprise here, for Jayne Anne Phillips has done it before in "Machine Dreams," a novel nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Lenny and her younger sister, Alma, are spending the summer at Camp Shelter, a West Virginia Girl Guides retreat.However, rather than spending their days swimming, hiking, and singing around campfires, they undergo an astonishing rite of passage.

Their idyll is interrupted by Carmody, a drunken ex-convict who abuses his young son, Buddy, and another ex-convict, Parson, a sick soul given to delusional religious visions.Through the collision of these antithetical characters, the author explores the existence of good and evil, family relationships, and generational differences.

Jayne Anne Phillips often wields a poet's pen, endowing her prose with a richness of observation and crystalline clarity of words."Shelter" is a unique literary coup.

- Gail Cooke

A Must-Read for Phillips Fans
For devotees of Phillips' writing style, this is a must-have item. This work, more than any others truly exemplifies her rather unique way with words. No other living author could render such a poetic description of urinals; it is, alas, simply too beautiful to describe. This wonderful book is less about plot and characterization than about the pure joy of indulging oneself in Phillips' marvelously arcane prose. Happily, for the devoted fan, there are quite a few copies on the market, although why anyone would even think of discarding such a marvelous work of art is a complete mystery to me.This is a truly unique author at her very best. Excelsior!

A DARK STORY...AND NOT A PRETTY ONE
It's never easy to see -- or imagine -- the innocence of children snatched away by the events in their lives, particularly when it involves adults who are so controlled by the evil they have become that they cannot see the difference between preying on children or other adults.The young people who populate Jayne Anne Phillips' novel SHELTER are living in an era when most Americans felt the perceived stability and perfection of their lives threatened for the first time -- the early 1960s.Kennedy was in the White House, and the nuclear arms race was in full swing.The Soviets had attempted to install missiles in Cuba, and the reactionary American conservatives were instilling fear into every citizen they could touch -- Communists were supposedly hiding everywhere.Children were touched by the concerns and fears of their parents -- innocence was bound to be tainted and fade soon enough, without any help from predators.

Phillips' writing is extremely effective in fleshing out her characters -- not an easy task with a cast which is, overall, so young.The adults that take part are equally well-drawn -- human, succumbing to temptations and weaknesses, one of them (no spoilers) incredibly evil.Yet even this evil character is, to some extent, understandable, given the relevant background articulated by the author.It's no excuse for the deeds committed, but it allows the reader to understand the source of the evil involved.There are surprises, too -- and this is a welcome aspect of the author's gift -- in several of the characters.We find they are capable of things we cannot imagine as we come to know them -- and that at least one is not as bad as we are tempted to believe.

The plot of the book was developed nicely, at a pace that made me tempted to read it in one sitting -- I'm glad that I took the time to give it more thorough attention.A very rewarding and entertaining read.

Good writing; bad story
This author clearly has a gift for crafting sentences, and perhaps this book fills the bill completely for some readers. For me, it didn't do the trick. I kept wishing for a character reference chart, as the characters as written were too vague to figure it out as I read. At times, I had hopes...after all, some books take a while to warm up to. But I never warmed to this story. Parts of it put me in mind of "Little Altars Everywhere," but it never got that coherent and I never came to care as much about the people populating it. ... Read more

Product Description
Her Biggest Challenge In Life...

Darian Cantrall may have been born in New Orleans, but ever since she moved to L.A., she can't imagine living anywhere else. With a dream job and a glamorous life, she has everything she wants. But when her sister Monique's battle with cancer takes a turn for the worst, Darian returns home to be there for her family and do whatever is needed of her--even if it means taking on the one thing she dreads most...

Just Might Become Her Greatest Joy.

Darian isn't cut out for motherhood or small-city life. And now it looks like she's diving right in to both. Monique left behind two small children and Darian is the only one who can raise them. Moving back home brings up all sorts of issues about the past. But when reality sets in, Darian discovers that her fast-paced glamorous L.A. life wasn't as idyllic as she thought. With help from Monique's kids and a high school sweetheart who comes back into the picture, Darian just might find the true meaning of happiness... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

4.5 Stars
I loved this story. Darian Cantrall is on the fast track with her career and the love of her life and then she gets a devastating call from her sister in New Orleans that changes her life completely. Her sister has terminal breast cancer and has only a short time to live and has 2 beautiful little girls that she will be leaving behind. Darian takes a leave of absence from her job to help care for her sister believing that her Mom will take the kids if her sister dies. Darian never had plans to have kids and her Mom has no plans to raise her grandkids. The more Darian is around her nieces, the more she loves them and decides to raise her sister's kids because her sister wants her too. After deciding this she goes L.A. to tell her fiance her plans even though he said that he doesn't want anymore children since he has one from a previous marriage. She gets an unexpected surprise when she goes to see him to plead her case and finds his other woman there and he tells that she is expecting and they are going to try and make it work. She is devastated but quits her job and moves back to New Orleans from L.A. She has help with her neices from her best friend, her Mom and her young husband and the next door neighbor. She runs into her old college boyfriend who is divorced and is raising his son and sparks fly but his Mom doesn't like her and does everything she can to keep them apart. A lot of drama takes place for Darian from his Mom and the kids long lost dad that everyone thought was killed in prison. This story will keep you on the edge of your seat and it was a great story from the beginning to the end.

Disappointing
While I thought the plot was intriguing, and could make for a great story, I was ultimately disappointed in this book. (Fortunately I had taken it out of the library!) The mix of genres - romance, thriller, etc. just resulted in too much going on, and made it too unrealistic. I also felt that the writing could use some help - there was too much switching of character perspectives, and punctuation/grammatical errors that were. I got the feeling that the book had not really been edited or checked at all before going to print. Too many random things happened that were never fully explained, and some things seemed to just trail off and serve no purpose. It made me reluctant to read anymore of this author's work.

Changes In Life
Darian Cantrall couldn't be happier; she's engaged to her soul mate, living the good life in Los Angeles, and, to top things off, has just received a well deserved promotion.However, when she receives a frantic call from her sister Monique, her world is turned upside down.Monique is dying and she needs Darian to return home to New Orleans to care for her two children.Darian's not the motherly type, in fact she and her fiancée vowed to never have children.But, after Monique passes away, she is tossed into a role she has no desire in playing.Darian's at her wits end where the children are concerned, but with the help of Brad St. James, an old boyfriend, she begins to make the best of her situation.

NO TURNING BACK is a heartfelt tale of coping with the loss of a loved one, while at the same time taking on the responsibility of raising the children left behind.Patricia Anne Phillips does a wonderful job intertwining the lives of each character depicted in this novel.Page after page, readers will feel their pain and suffering, as well as cheer them on as they struggle to find peace within.

Reviewed by Pamela Bolden
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers ... Read more

Product Description
Jayne Anne Phillips has always been a master of portraiture, both in her widely acclaimed novels and in her short fiction.The stories in Fast Lanes demonstrated the breadth of her talent in a tour de force of voices, offering elegantly rendered views into the lives of characters torn between the liberation of detachment and the desire to connect.

Three stories are collected in this edition for the first time: in "Alma," and adolescent daughter is made the confidante of her lonely mother; "Counting" traces the history of a dommed love affair; and "Callie" evokes memories of the haunting death of a child in 1920's West Virginia.Along with the original seven stories from Fast Lanes--each told in extraordinary first person narratives that have been hailed by critics as virtuoso performances--these incandescent portraits offer windows into the lives of an entire generation of Americans, demonstrating again and again why Jayne Anne Phillips remains one of our most powerful writers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Height of her powers
This, for me, still stands as Jayne Anne Phillips finest and most accomplished achievement. Ravishing use of language which never loses sight of the essential humanity of her characters. Not to play favorites, but the stories here that speak most eloquently to me are the two chapters that were excised from her novel MACHINE DREAMS and reworked -- BLUE MOON and BESS. Exquisite.

Phillips is Amazing!
As I was checking to see if Fast Lanes was still in print (I've had scored of copies over the years since it's release in hard cover and I've passed them along to friends) I was jolted (by the one HORRIBLE and misinformedAmazon reader comment) that I couldn't let that stand by itself. One, it isalmost criminal that this book is out of print.WHY??And two, from thiscollection of short stories, to her other works (Shelter, Black Tickets)Phillips is a master poet who ties together magical language, a connectionto her West Virginia roots and a her unique skill to write from a woman'sviewpoint.This collection is filled with a voice like no other and I'moff to the British version of Amazon.com to see if the Brits are a littlehipper than American pubishers.A wonderful collection!!

"FastLanes" equals fast asleep
As a tightly woven collection of thought provoking short stories, this book is a miserable failure. However, as a showcase for flaccid verbiage, trite characterization, and themes so worn as to be almost pitiably jejune,it is a success on a scale unparallelled since the publication of C. S.Lewis's "Boxen," which the author wrote between the ages of 7 to12. Since Jayne Ann Phillips is well in her forties, she cannot be grantedthe benefit of the doubt granted to Lewis. Phillips's characters wereso undeveloped as to resemble pencil sketches rather than portraits; hersex scenes were almost comical, seeming to lack any real feeling or evenanatomical knowledge; and her plots seem to alternate between contrived andderivative. One of the characters in "No Left Turn" seems to bethe prototype for "Friends'" Chandler, and her story"Daddy's Farm" bears a plot so reminiscent of "StarshipTroopers" that it borders on plagiarism. There are redeeming qualitiesMs. Phillip's magnum opus.It deals with themes such as incest andbotulism which are inherently fascinating.One only wishes that a moremasterful hand had taken up these most serious of themes.It has one finalredeeming quality, one shared with all other books, it ends...eventually... ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A subtle argument
Anne Phillips is a feminist theorist with some quite strong views (I previously read her book "Which Equalities Matter?"). In "Multiculturalism Without Culture", she wrestles with a basic contradiction. On the one hand, "culture" matters. This is the central insight of multiculturalism: people's views of themselves and their societies are filtered through culturally specific lenses, and to ignore this when making policy as to ignore people as they are. On the other hand, "culture" doesn't even exist. No culture is internally homogeneous, and no person resides in only one culture. For example, a person can participate in British culture, university culture, gay culture, Muslim culture, Pakistani culture, and sports culture in a single day. To situate such a person in a single culture obscures more than it identifies. Her ideas on how to reconcile these two insights are very sophisticated, but mercifully jargon-free. She also draws primarily on legal examples so there are lots of vivid, real-life stories (and lots of nasty murders, too!) as she tries to build a "multiculturalism without culture."

It would be ridiculous to call this a general interest book, but it should get a wider audience than history and social science grad students. Anyone interested by life in diverse societies would be well-served by the book. ... Read more

Product Description
The idea that respect for cultural diversity conflicts with gender equality is now a staple of both public and academic debate. Yet discussion of these tensions is marred by exaggerated talk of cultural difference, leading to ethnic reductionism, cultural stereotyping, and a hierarchy of traditional and modern. In this volume, Anne Phillips firmly rejects the notion that ‘culture’ might justify the oppression of women, but also queries the stereotypical binaries that have represented people from ethnocultural minorities as peculiarly resistant to gender equality.

The questions addressed include the relationship between universalism and cultural relativism, how to distinguish valid generalisation from either gender or cultural essentialism, and how to recognise women as agents rather than captives of culture. The discussions are illuminated by reference to legal cases and policy interventions, with a particular focus on forced marriage and cultural defence. ... Read more

Product Description
Democracy and democratization are now high on the political agenda, but there is growing indifference to the gap between rich and poor. Political equalities matter more than ever, while economic inequality is accepted almost as a fact of life. It is the separation between economic and political that lies at the heart of this book. ... Read more

Product Description

A saucy new edition of the perennial seller, with fresh photography and updated content, from sex guru Anne Hooper (more than 1.75 million sex books sold).

Customer Reviews (1)

Too vague
I bought this book because a friend recommended it, but I found that the tips were way too vague (some only a sentence long), so the book didn't really teach me anything new.

I do NOT recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
STEPS TO READING PROFICIENCY has a unique approach to teaching developmental reading, emphasizing the connection between reading, thinking, and writing. This approach is presented in the text by these underlying concepts: (1) print is two-way communication; (2) reading is the flip side of writing; and (3) good readers can train themselves to "follow the writer’s path" when they read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

great way to shop
I do believe this is the best way to go for school books
this was delivered to me on time and fast and in great condition
I would and have recommended to alot of people

A "must read"...if you want to be a masterful reader!
Reading has been...and will always be...my passion, and I read voraciously. Hence, I always scout for and pursue high-performance reading techniques. It is now my lifelong learning pursuit. I approach them with an open mind as my primary focus is on what works for me, with playing, exploring and experimenting as my evaluation tools.

This is one book, I must say, contains the best and most comprehensive collection of text organisational (writing) patterns I have seen so far. In a nut shell, understanding and mastering text organisational (writing) patterns at the onset after your initial preview allow you to navigate the given text at very high speeds.

In total, this book introduces eleven (11) patterns:

- enumeration pattern (listing);
- time sequence;
- example pattern;
- cause & effect pattern;
- problem & solution pattern;
- compare & contrast pattern;
- spatial pattern;
- definition pattern;
- process pattern;
- classification pattern;
- description pattern;

In any kind of reading, a quick preview is imperative. This book also introduces you to a variety of preview techniques, just like any other reading technique books.

Understanding the text organisational (writing) patterns makes your preview much more efficient and effective.

All information has shape. Just take a close look at the word INFORMATION. The root word is FORM. So, if you want to read fast, you must learn to shape or form your understanding quickly. If you can see this FORM at the onset, it becomes much more easier for you to understand how the information in the given text is organised. With this understanding, it become easier and also faster for you to pick out the key ideas or details.

The author has done an excellent job in illustrating all the eleven text organisation (writing) patterns. There are also a lot of reading exercises or practices for you to play, explore and experiment with the patterns. They are really worth the cover price for the book.

I teach kids and teens as well as adults how to read at very high speeds. In other words, I help them to survive...and thrive in...the information overload! From my own personal and professional experiences, the purpose of reading is to GATHER INFORMATION...IDEAS to be more precise. I always advise them ...using Pareto' Law...that 80% of the meaning of any given paragraph are often captured in only 20% of the words...these are the key ideas! (In fact, I have read from somewhere...an empirical study...that 4 to 11 % of any given text contains the key ideas!)

Knowing how to discern text organisational (writing) patterns in the first instance gives you the turbo boost to locate the key ideas very quickly and eventually navigate the reading texts at very high speeds.

If you combine these reading techniques with mindmapping or using graphic organisers and/or other visual tools, your ability to organise and synthesise ideas...and generating insights...from all your reading become very powerful.

So, if you want to be a masterful reader, just like me...this book is a must read! ... Read more

Product Description
Jayne Anne Phillips's reputation-making debut collection paved the way for a new generation of writers. Raved about by reviewers and embraced by the likes of Raymond Carver, Frank Conroy, Annie Dillard, and Nadine Gordimer, Black Tickets now stands as a classic.

With an uncanny ability to depict the lives of men and women who rarely register in our literature, Phillips writes stories that lay bare their suffering and joy. Here are the abused and the abandoned, the violent and the passive, the impoverished and the disenfranchised who populate the small towns and rural byways of the country. A patron of the arts reserves his fondest feeling for the one man who wants it least. A stripper, the daughter of a witch, escapes from poverty into another kind of violence. A young girl during the Depression is caught between the love of her crazy father and the no less powerful love of her sorrowful mother. These are great American stories that have earned a privileged place in our literature.
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Customer Reviews (10)

black Tickets
This product came exactly as discribed and ina timely manner. I would do bussiness again with this seller.

love/hate
I love and hate these stories, but mostly..I hate them. Maybe "hate" is putting too fine a point on it. I know Raymond Carver's wife gushed that "Black Tickets" was the "unmistakable work of early genius" but she and I must have read different books. These stories are, for the most point, pretentious and awkward. Come on--"the snowy Bible hums?" "Her breasts balloon, the sky opens inside them?" What the hell does that mean? I can't even visualize it.Kudos to Phillips for experimentation, but it doesn't work. I have to say that I do like "Lechery" and evidently so do many others, because it is heavily anthologized. "Black Tickets" is also compelling: bleak, black worlds these. Yet in the end these stories feel thin and undeveloped: abstractions rather than gritty experience.

Yes.
These stories encompass a range that is undeniable.Voices shift from young girls to young women mostly and occasionally to young men as in "El Paso."The narrative scope is tight and very intimately entwined.The landscape, family, and dynamics of character change constantly from story to story.These are gritty situations and people: displaced young women, strippers, a homeless madwoman, an orphaned child turned prostitute.

These are bottom-feeder stories-- youth without the rosy glow of hope, lackluster in faith.But despite the harrowing void in Phillips' writing, truth can be found here. These stories are full of the monsters that tear us down and that we give ourselves to as well.

The flash fiction in this collection is perhaps the most spectacular part of the book.They are quick portraits of girls and sometimes their families as in "Wedding Picture."Others take a more perilous turn as in "Under the Boardwalk," "Accidents," and "Slave."An overwhelming number of the stories are pocked with sexual deviation and marked with terror.There is something forceful about this exhumation of human depravity as if the author were excising skin and tissue and veins and clots just to show the reader the glimmer of a wet organ.

Phillips' details are mostly spot-on and daring. In one passage she compares the texture of a woman's skin to a "seeded strawberry."Phillips also has tight control of her pacing.She often writes as if cutting into the last sentence, as if the slideshow quickens and the pictures begin to move like a small home movie. However, this is not an easy collection.At times, reading her feels as if a pleasurable spot on the body is being stroked too hard, rubbed too long perhaps by even the wrong person.

This collection is original and the stories are frighteningly raw, sexually devious, and potent.She has a knack for honesty that is always bound to brutality.There are demons in these stories that perhaps will make us hope we had not woken.

"I suck you up like erasers"?????
This book hasn't aged well.There is very little plot, very little dialogue, and very few verbs.(Seriously, there are stretches of five or six "sentences" in a row with nary a verb to be seen.)There are some beautiful gems compacted into the dense prose, but for the most part Phillips crafted chewy, chunky, unwieldy sentences that don't give much pay-off for all the work you've done to decipher them.I have a Masters in literature, I have read and understood Ulysses, but I had to give up on many of the incomprehensible lines here."I suck you up like erasers"?What?
The subject matter has aged poorly, too.In 2006, I'm neither shocked nor intrigued by Phillips's thinly veiled alter-ego's confrontation with her mother over birth control.
I can see why reviewers at the time were struck by the promise and poetry of her work; the story "1934" has the most plot in the collection, and is quite lovely.But is she, as Nadine Gordimer wrote, "the best short-story writer since Eudora Welty"?
Umm, no.

Didn't much care for it.
I didn't much cre for this book. It had too much sex stuff and not really any stories to follow. I thought it would be a good book, too since other well-known authors have praised it so well. I do not see what all the fuss was about. ... Read more

Product Description
Blessing In Disguise…After twenty-five years of marriage, Ashley Lake and her husband Marcus have a lovely home in sunny California, successful careers, and a beloved grown daughter. At age fifty, Marcus is still a fine-looking man and a great provider. And except for some "female trouble" that frequently leaves her fatigued, Ashley feels attractive enough, although she could stand to lose some weight and liven up her wardrobe a bit. Maybe a little boredom and predictability have crept into the routine of her marriage lately. But after two-and-a-half decades, what does that matter?

Apparently it matters to Marcus, as Ashley discovers when she finds him packing up to leave her for a younger woman. It’s the kind of shock Ashley never could have imagined, and just the kind of crisis—to mind and body—she needs to finally start caring about what’s most important: herself. Because being left alone, feeling unloved, and in pain—literally—forces her to rediscover the strong, sexy woman she’s been all along. What lies ahead for the "new" Ashley? It’s time for her to find out... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

She Wins!
I really enjoyed this book.I really identified with Ashley in her "starting over" phase in the book.Her character showed a lot of determination despite her surroundings. Ashley discovered that with age the dream is still there and attainable.I found myself cheering for her through out the book!!

Sweet, Satisfying, and Sensuous!
The perfect marriage, fact or fiction? In author Patricia Anne Phillips' latest novel Ashley Lake has no reason to believe that after 25 years her marriage will come to a screeching end, nor does it make sense to her the excuse that hubby Marcus uses to leave. She has always done what a good wife does, and have been known to go to reasonable lengths to do what any wife would do in a comfortable and seemingly balanced marriage. Fade to Marcus and he would adamantly tell you that he is fed up and wants some added spice to this life, moreover, he wants the wife that he first married...you know, less trimming, more pizzazz and certainly more sex.

It's a fact that in any marriage time is the barometer to measure substance that will be in place to stick and stay, but when the things that got you to where you are today has suddenly gone south, is it time to look for greener pastures on the other side of the fence? NICE WIVES FINISH FIRST is the kind of love story that would pique interest and have you turning each page for redeeming value, coming full circle with just the right amount of heart to give your wife more of what got you there in the first place. Waiting for the ending result to see how they handle this real dilemma is icing on the cake. It's pure fiction (telling a good story!) when you can find a writer who can craft a different type of story where the characters are looking for more than feel good, or physical love devoid of premise for rhyme or reason.

Marcus learns as time progresses why going deeper can be the thing needed to keep her. It's about doing what's necessary for both of their behavior patterns dealing with time-honored sensibilities to come full circle. My compliments to Ms Phillips for writing something that can have others searching for hope and self-worth and they discover inner love and strength at the most trying times. A plethora of issues are examined within the context of the story from infidelity to family secrets, to misplaced integrity. I loved But what shines brightest in this tale is the display of strong friendship and familial love that carries Ashley through some of the most difficult times of her life. NICE WIVES FINISH FIRST is an enjoyable read which will take the reader on a journey of emotional experiences. The ending is like a delectable dessert - sweet yet satisfying.

Nice Wife Finishing First
I enjoyed reading this book though it was a lot of reading to get to Ashley coming into herself and dealing with Marcus.Though I was sure of what the ending would be, I was glad things worked out for Ashely and Elliott.The author had so much telling information until I noticed that Ashley informed Elliott about her childhood and her brother while he was at her house as if she had not already told him the same story earlier in his office.

I absolutely love it!
This book offered a glimmer of hope in a situation that could of been hopeless.I felt myself crossing my fingers that everything would be okay for her but in the end it was BETTER than okay.I liked this book because the characters were life like and you could find a small piece of yourself in at least one of them.Breaking up is hard to do and it can affect everyone around you but this book concentrates on staying focused at the big picture and going for your dreams.

I love it and would recommend it anytime!

Taking Charge
In Patricia Anne Phillips' latest novel, Nice Wives Finish Last, Ashley Lake thought she had the perfect marriage, but her husband Marcus Lake thought otherwise.Just days after his 50th birthday party, he tells Ashley he is not happy and wants a divorce. Ashley was the type of wife who did everything for her husband, and nothing for herself, so she was quite surprised to find out Marcus was not happy. Ashley's biggest concern was how would she be able to continue her life at age 45 and after 25 years of marriage. After coming to terms with the demise of her marriage, Ashley takes on a new persona.She decides to open her own dress making business, lose weight, get a fresh new hairstyle and new clothes.She becomes a new woman with a new attitude.

Attorney Elliot Douglas is stuck in a loveless marriage. His wife Janet has threatened to take him for everything he has if he divorces her.Elliot drowns himself in his work to forget about what he is not getting at home.When he meets Ashley, he instantly becomes smitten with her.She is on his mind constantly.Finally, Elliot finds a reason to end his misery.

Phillips had agood premise for an interesting story.However, there was too much telling versus showing and this technique made the characters appear cold and without emotions.I could not connect with any of the characters and found myself not liking any of them. Ashley's obsession with becoming a size 8 and being 45 years old was tiresome.Aunt Cora and her wig, I am sure was meant to be comic relief, but it was hard to find the humor. I also found the behavior of the characters inconsistent and unreal. The only thing that really moved me throughout the whole book was the death of Ashley's father,Daniel Lake.For those who read Something In Common, Ms Phillips first novel,HelenGraham and Robert Wilbertson make appearances in this book as well.I have read other books of women changing their lives for the better and really enjoyed them, unfortunately for me, this one fell a little short.

Jeanette
APOOO BookClub
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