Sweet Poison: How The World's Most Popular Artificial Sweetener is Killing Us-My Story, Janet Starr Hull,New Horizon Press, 1999
New Asian Emperors: The Overseas Chinese, Their Strengths and Competitive Advantages, George T. Haley, Usha C.V. Haley and Chin Tiong Tan, Butterworth-Heineman, 1998
Web of Darkness, Marion Zimmer Bradley,Baen Books, 1983
Behind The Red Mist, Ho Anh Thai,Curbstone Press, 1998
Nine Visions: A Book of Fantasies, Andrea LaSonde Melrose (ed.),The Seabury Press, 1983
Against The Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food, Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey,Common Courage Press, 1998
Free The Children, Craig Kielburger and Kevin Major, HarperCollins, 1998
House of the Winds, Mia Yun,Interlink Books, 1998
The Godmother's Web, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Ace Books, 1998
Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman,Ace Books, 1997
Everyday Sexism in the Third Millennium, Carol Ronai, Barbara Zsembik and Joe Feagin (ed.),Routledge, 1997
Hollywood Rat Race, Ed Wood, Jr,Four Walls Eight Windows Press, 1998
The Falling Woman, Pat Murphy,Tor Books, 1986
Crossing, Manuel Luis Martinez,Bilingual Press, 1998
They Used to Call Me Snow White. . .But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor, Regina Barreca,Penguin, 1991
Reason Enough to Hope: America and the World of the 21st Century, Philip Morrison and Kosta Tsipis,The MIT Press, 1998
The Winter of Our Discontent, John Steinbeck,Bantam, 1961
New Asian Emperors: The Overseas Chinese, Their Strengths and Competitive Advantages, George T. Haley, Usha C.V. Haley and Chin Tiong Tan, Butterworth-Heineman, 1998
Web of Darkness, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Baen Books, 1983
Behind The Red Mist, Ho Anh Thai, Curbstone Press, 1998
Nine Visions: A Book of Fantasies, Andrea LaSonde Melrose (ed.), The Seabury Press, 1983
Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food, Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey, Common Courage Press, 1998
Free the Children, Craig Kielburger and Kevin Major, HarperCollins, 1998
House of the Winds, Mia Yun, Interlink Books, 1998
The Godmother's Web, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Ace Books, 1998
Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman, Ace Books, 1997
Everyday Sexism in the Third Millenium, Carol Ronai, Barbara Zsembik, Joe Feagin (ed.), Routledge, 1997
Hollywood Rat Race, Ed Wood, Jr, Four Walls Eight Windows Press, 1998
The Falling Woman, Pat Murphy, Tor Books, 1986
Crossing, Manuel Luis Martinez, Bilingual Press, 1998
They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor, Regina Barreca, Penguin, 1991
Reason Enough to Hope: America and the World of the 21st Century, Philip Morrison and Kosta Tsipis, The MIT Press, 1998
In international business, specifically in Southeast Asia, the Chinese seem to be the dominant players. They own, or have an interest in, everything from construction to hotels to media. The major lists of the richest people in the world contain many Chinese names. This book looks at the reasons for their success.
Confucianism prefers conciliation and compromise to confrontation. Under traditional Chinese law, merchants were forbidden to "show off" by wearing fine clothes or jewelry in public; they also had to walk everywhere, concepts that are still important today. An important part of Chinese business is the network; it can be based on family, dialect or the part of China that the members are from. It builds trust, helps build customer satisafction and speeds decision making.
Overseas Chinese are known for speed of decision-making (they don't wait for Western-style business analysis), control of information (through networks and informal talking with friends) and guanxi (concepts of trust). They can also be blindsided by unforeseen events, and away from their home turf there is less intimate knowledge of the local market. Also, an Overseas Chinese company can only grow as far as the limits of the family, another important part of Chinese culture.
This is a very specialized book, but also a very good book. For anyone doing business in Asia, this book is must reading.
Domaris and deoris are sisters and priestesses of the Temple of Light. Deoris, the younger, doesn't just fall in love with the sorcerer Riveda, she abandons everything to follow him. He is well-known and esteemed in the Temple, but, in secret, he is a practitioner of the dark areas of sorcery. Deoris gives herself to him, body and soul. When the Temple finds out just how far she and Riveda have gone to the dark side, he is convicted of blasphemy and killed. Deoris almost joins him, along with her unborn baby, which may or may not be Riveda's, if not for the intervention of Domaris.
Domaris loses her unborn child, and her spirit. Deoris almost dies in childbirth, and is told her child didn't survive (not true). The two have gone so far beyond just "breaking the rules" of the Temple that the only choice is permanent exile for Domaris. Deoris joins her years later, with Domaris' two children, in a place called Atlantis.
This strong, well-done tale of two sisters is another very reliable novel from Bradley. She knows how to make the story just strange enough for anyone, and to keep the reader involved to the end.
This is a group of contemporary stories from Vietnam, a country not normally heard from in the fiction world. One story is about an Indian man (several stories are set in India) who promised his dead mother that he would never leave her alone. He falls for a british woman who brings him back to England as the family cook. Not wanting to break his promise to his mother, he digs her up and carries her bones in a knapsack. Another story is about a Vietnamese party official who turns into a goat while watching a porno film. To create a tourist attraction for his poor village, a man asks the director of the local factory for a million rupees to build a great temple. Not willing to take no for an answer, the man chooses a spot on the road that the director must travel twice a day, and stands on one leg, all day, every day, in search of that million rupees. An Indian woman is a nursing student, until her family says that it's time to get married. Her family barely manages to pay the huge dowry demanded by the groom's family, but the groom seems worth the trouble. The woman, named Neelam, and her mother-in-law don't get along at all. One day, Neelam is severely burned in an act of bride violence. She is sent back to her home village, though no one recognizes her. Whenever a woman in the village gives birth to a girl, Neelam is there to quietly take the child away and dispose of it.
This is an excellent group of tales about a different (to most Americans) part of the world and different culture. They are serious and whimsical, very well done and very much worth reading.
This is a group of religious fantasy stories. They aren't meant to be tales of any specific religion, more like part spirituality and part Touched By An Angel.
A young man, son of a Baron, is about to inherit his father's position and title. He is very much not interested; all he wants is to become a priest. Guardian angles can come in different shapes and sizes. What would happen if we not only lost faith in the world beyond this one, but lost faith in this world as well? One of the miracles of Jesus is seen from the point of view of the person who is healed. What is it like to be a guardian angel? A wife and mother takes up meditation and is able to travel to a world of light, where she spends more and more of her time.
These stories are pretty good. One doesn't have to be strongly religious to enjoy this book; these stories are meant for anybody. For those who think that there isn't enough spirituality/religion in contemporary fantasy, check this out.
Biotechnology is the new "risk-free" solution to the world's food problems, at least according to companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemical. The authors of this book say Not Exactly.
If the purpose of genetic engineering of food was to increase productivity per acre, then it would be not so bad. So far, that has not happened. The only reason for the existence of Roundup Ready soybeans is to increase tolerance to Monsanto's Roundup pesticide, thereby forcing it on farmers. In some cases, productivity over regular soybeans actually decreases. Monsanto has also bought several of the major seed producing companies, further limiting the choices for farmers. Genetic diversity of soybeans is also negatively affected. If large areas of farmland are planted with, genetically, the same plant, what happens when a pesticide-resistant disease or bug comes along? This doesn't include the possible long term effects on the soil and on human health. Up to now, the purpose of genetic engineering has been to increase corporate profits, not help the world's poor.
This book does explore a lot more than just Monsanto and soybeans. The authors have created a very readable look at how genetic engineering is no longer of concern just to scientists, but to everyone. Highly recommended.
This is the true story of an average 12-year-old from suburban Toronto (Kielburger), who, one day, reads a newspaper story about a boy from Pakistan who was murdered for escaping from, and speaking out against, child labor.
That day, Craig asked his schoolmates for help researching child labor. Finding that children were not exactly a priority among the major human rights organizations, they founded Free the Children. They started small, speaking to students at other schools and holding tag sales to raise money. National and international exposure soon followed.
At some point, it was necessary to witness child labor in South Asia, up close and personal. With a human rights worker named Alam as his guide, Craig spent seven weeks traveling from Pakistan to Thailand. He met a little girl separating used syringes with her bare hands. He met a boy working at a brick maker who didn't know the meaning of the word school. He saw the Bangkok sex trade in children.
For adults who think that young people are too immature to amke a difference in the world around them, or for young people who want to make a difference in the world around them, read this book. It is excellent.
This connected group of stories chronicles the relationship between a mother and daughter in 1960s Korea, a land and time deeply influenced by the Japanese occupation and the Korean War.
The father is a sort of traveling salesman, always with some new job title, away for long periods of time. The house always felt cold and emoty when coming home from school, because Mother worked long hours at a garment factory. But the house always warmed right up when she arrived. There were bus trips to visit relatives in far away villages, both alone and with mother. During her older sister's teen years, there was considerable family pressure to get married (to the right person). In reaction, Sister and a friend run away from home by bus and find themselves in the wrong section of the city of Pusan. Grandmother converted to Christianity years before, and always tried to convert the rest of the family. When Mother was dying of liver disease, Grandmother prayed over her constantly, believing that the illness was caused by Mother's lack of faith.
This book does a very good job of mixing dreams, myth and reality. The writing is lyrical, pure and evocative, and this one is well worth reading.
Cindy Ellis is the type of person always willing to help a friend, so she thinks nothing of traveling to Arizona to train a horse at riding trails in the desert. It also helps her get away from the pressure of being lover and employee of Ray Kinkaid, also known as Raydir Quantrill, famous rock musician.
Alone in the desert, Cindy runs into an old Indian woman who she thinks is an elderly mental patient who wandered away from her caretaker. She soon learns differently. The woman, known to everyone as Grandma, takes Cindy on a journey through life as a present-day Native American. Cindy sees firsthand the less-than-happy relations between the Navajo and Hopi peoples, mostly over land ownership. She sees differing conceptions of right and wrong. Cindy sees lots of pain and heartache, and lots of love, too.
Having been a nurse on the Hopi reservation, Scarborough certainly knows her way around the world of Native Americans. This is a very realistic novel, with several Indian myths and stories included. Well worth the reader's time.
This science fiction novel takes place in the middle of the next century. The Ngumi War has raged for the previous eight years, with Atlanta and San Diego having been destroyed by tactical nuclear weapons. Think of it as the First World against the Third World. The war is fought by soldierboys, indestructible war machines whose human controllers are actually hundreds of miles away. Julian Class is one of them, and he begins to think, because of what he has seen and done during the war, that killing himself is not such a bad idea.
He and his lover, Amelia Harding, have discovered a scientific process that could recreate the Big Bang and destroy everything. But there is a group of religious fanatics in high government positions who want the project to go ahead, thinking that God wants it to happen.
Also revealed is a process where being jacked into a soldierboy for just a few days longer than usual totally, and permanently, removes a person's violent, warlike tendencies.
This is a great novel. It has emotion, it has good characters, it has alternatives to war, and it has lots of blood. It is also highly recommended.
Sexism in America is dead, or close enough to dead so that women can stop complaining, right? Very wrong, according to the contributors to this volume.
Black lesbians are made to feel like they're committing racial genocide if they are not with a black man having black children. It gets even worse if their partner is not black. Federal alws against sexual harassment at work don't protect part time workers or independent contractors like real estate agents. Also considered is the use of violence to enforce a family ideal of male dominance and subordination of the female. At what point does normal, everyday rudeness become sexual harassment? Black women are under a sort of double jeopardy, having to experience sexism and racism. What was supposed to be a place for women to discuss sexual harassment on the Internet was hijacked by men on more than one occasion. Included is sexual harassment among Asian-American women and growing up biracial.
This is a very good book. It is a well-written interesting and very topical book for everyone.
Known as the director of such films as Plan 9 From Outer Space, Ed Wood, Jr, spent most of the 1960s writing this how-to on the acting biz. To local beauty contest winners or college drama stars who think that Hollywood is the logical next step, Wood's advice can be summed up in two words: Stay Home.
The first step in entering Hollywood is to get an agent, which, by itself, is not easy. Without one, your chances of getting past the studio receptionist are in negative numbers; with an agent, your chances are better, but not by much.
In all things, whether it's agents, producers or getting a screen test (another requirement to be seen by the right people), be double and triple sure that the person you are dealing with is reputable. Too many people are in this simply to separate you from your money.
Speaking of money, how do you survive between acting jobs in an expensive town like Hollywood?
Wood also explores such subjects as writing, the casting couch, making cheap movies and the porn movie biz.
This is a short book, but Wood packs in a lot. For anyone who has read too many movie magazines, and thinks that Hollywood isn't such a tough nut to crack, read this book first.
Elizabeth Butler is the leader of an archaeological dig on the site of an ancient Mayan city in the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. She basically ran away from home years before, leaving a husband and young daughter, because she was very uncomfortable with the domestic life. One day, Diane, her daughter, shows up at the site to try and connect with the mother she never knew, and to tell Elizabeth of the death of her ex-husband. Because of Elizabeth's inexperience as a mother, the relationship between the women is strained.
Meantime, Elizabeth has the ability to see shadows, or ghosts, of the people who lived there centuries before. She is actually able to converse with one of them, a Mayan priestess whose skeleton Elizabeth Elizabeth finds in a crypt.
The Mayan calendar consists of several cycles at the same time. The very bad part of the calendar is approaching; to appease the Mayan gods, a human sacrifice is expected from Elizabeth.
This is an excellent novel. It is a very good mixture of myth and reality, of ancient and present-day culture, with a bit of fantasy and horror included. Here is a brilliant piece of writing.
Sixteen-year-old Luis, restless and haunted by his father's death, leaves his Mexican village and heads north to make his fortune in America. He meets up with an unscrupulous coyote, who locks him and a dozen other men in a boxcar, with the promise of jobs in Texas.
Based on a true story, as the days become endless, and the water disappears in the heat, the men sink into delirium, madness and death. Luis befriends an old man named Berto, who is convinced that the devil himself has come to get him, because of a terrible secret in his past. Looking around at the situation in the boxcar, Luis thinks that Berto may not be kidding. As the other men die, Pablo, a ruthless leader determined to survive at all costs, seems to get stronger.
This is a very good, but quiet, psychological sort of novel. It does a fine job of showing why a person would undertake such a trip, and shows what can happen when people are trapped in an enclosed space. Well worth reading.
All their lives, women are taught to giggle or laugh at a man's joke, even when they don't think it's funny. A very bad thing to say about a girl is that she can't take a joke, even if it involves abuse or insults. Good Girls are those who do what they're told, and don't support revolutionary causes like equal rights for women. Wanting to go to college, or to medical school after college, was, until recently, considered "showing off", something else that Good Girls never do. Good Girls don't draw attention to themselves.
On the other hand, there are men who laugh at women's jokes when they understand them, or who allow women to laugh when they want to, not when they should laugh. One of the reason slapstick humor, like the Three Stooges, appeal to women far less than men is that women are more likely to console than laugh at anyone considered a victim.
This excellent, and very thought-provoking, book also looks at how to deal with aggressive humor, differences in how the sexes appreciate sexual humor, and politics and women's humor. It does a very good job combining academics and the real world. Well worth reading.
Written by a couple of MIT scientists with great experience in arms control issues, this is a look at a global approach to the issues of global security and development in the next century.
The US needs to rethink its policy of being able to fight two major wars at the same time. Against whom? The US has, by far, the world's largest defense budget. Some say the world is a dangerous place; a major reason is the fact that the US is the world's biggest arms dealer.
The authors propose something called Common Security, where multinational troops would enter a war zone with the authorization to fight back. These would be more than just peacekeepers, the major countries would contribute soldiers and weapons, and this would happen only after more moderate approaches like diplomacy and trade sanctions had failed.
Common Development would change the system of aid and technology transfers to poorer countires, raising their standard of living, while keeping First World standards at approximately present levels.
This will not be quick or easy to implement. The authors have written a very interesting and plausible look at how to reduce the gap in quality of life between the US and the rest of the world. It's highly recommended.