The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 ReviewAfter decades of producing fiction that was rejected by mainstream readership and reviewers for being self-centered, exotic in prose, filled with psychological theory, and coterie in style, Anais finally found acceptance by integrating all of the above in this published version of her diary. Timing is everything, I suppose. The world of the 1930s-50s simply was not ready for her. The Aquarian generation of the 1960s was. When originally published this volume did not have a number in the title because no one thought it would sell enough to warrant a second volume. To the surprise of many, it would become the first in seven volumes - and then over 20 years later the unexpurgated versions of her diaries would be published, revealing that Anais was at the time having an affair with Henry Miller. Eventually this material would be fashioned into the movie "Henry and June" (which I highly recommend). It would also pave the way for the re-issue of many of Anais Nin's long since out-of-print earlier fiction.
Anais Nin began a letter to her father, on the ship that carried her, her mother and brothers, away from him, away from Europe and to New York City. The letter was never sent (her mother did not think it appropriate), but instead developed into a diary she would continue to keep for decades. In this volume we meet Anais Nin living just outside of Paris with her husband, banker Hugh Guiler (who is barely visible in the diary, a point of contention for many who did not know that this was at his request). She has just published her study of DH Lawrence and is about to meet Henry Miller and his fascinating wife June (Nin's descriptions of June are among the most beautiful portions of her work). Her father soon reenters her life. This is a very exciting time in her life!
But what have I listed above? Nothing but a pile of facts. Facts are often boring, and seldom poetic - two accusations rarely leveled against Anais Nin. It was only after submerging myself in the history of this volume that I came to realize this: the linear history of this diary does not really matter; the accusations that Anais Nin lied about her life are immaterial. Anais Nin had a beautiful way with words and she was a master of crafting an image, of creating a persona. She was not truly the person she portrays in this volume, which she edited with Gunther Stuhlmann. But this is a beautiful and unique piece of literature that paved the way for many future artists, particularly female writers (Alice Walker has praised her work as profoundly liberating, and I can't help but think Maya Angelou took a cue from Anais Nin's concept of the continuous autobiographical novel). I have come to believe that it is not the possibility that she lied about her life that has upset so many people (some of whom refer to this as a "liary"), but that a woman should have such control over her own portrayal all the while defying so many of society's conventions.
Anais Nin may not have truly been the woman she portrays in this or future volumes, but it is the woman she wanted to believe she was - wanted the world to believe she was. I find that quite revealing, as revealing as any diary should be.
Andrew OlivoThe Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 Overview

Want to learn more information about The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters ReviewJessica Valenti is a part of the feminist blogger elite, and for good reason. The blog that she was part of establishing, Feministing.com, gets a lot of traffic and is well-known among internet savvy, young, hip feminists. Full disclosure: I read Feministing on a somewhat regular basis. Having read Valenti's writing on the blog - which tends to be oversimplified and, quite frankly, bratty - I was hoping her analysis in book form would show at least a tad more depth. Unfortunately for Valenti, there's a downside to fame; it opens you up for public criticism.
If Full Frontal Feminism is supposed to be the spark that ignites young women to identify as feminists and hop on the movement train, then women are in deep trouble. Valenti writes like a feminist version of Ann Coulter, and let's face it, Ann Coulter is hardly known for her intelligence. Flamboyant and egotistical, much of Valenti's commentary is trite, at best. She makes sweeping generalizations ("When you're a feminist, day to day life is better. You make better decisions. You have better sex."), repeatedly calls her opponents juvenile names [...], confuses "truth" with "opinion," and has apparently done very little actual research to prove her claims, as there is little to no citation of her assertions. At times, she doesn't feel the need to make an assertion at all, responding to the opposition with a facile yet grandiose "Puke," a deliberately ironic "Yeah" or a pithy and useless "Terrifying", as though she has made her case. And despite hackneyed attempts every now and again to mention other marginalized groups, the truth is that this book overwhelmingly reflects the viewpoint of its white, middle class, (primarily, if not entirely) heterosexual, entitled, American, liberal feminist writer.
Valenti doesn't give her readers credit that they can do the thing she most wants them to do: think, analyze, and be critical. This is apparent in the fallacious style by which she presents her perspectives. My personal favorite - taken straight from the right wing, talk radio instruction manual - is when Valenti uses the "straw man," a common misleading bait-and-switch tactic, to "prove" her point (e.g., contending that anti-abortion advocates simply hate sex). A close second is when she uses the most extreme cases as though they weren't the exception to the rule (e.g., making the case for all women to have access to Emergency Contraception because rape victims should have access to it).
Perhaps Valenti believes that young women won't be moved unless they're completely scared to death. Fear is a powerful motivator, but it belittles the audience in the process. Oh, and did I mention that she uses the book as a forum to talk public trash about petty tiffs she's had with other bloggers? If fear doesn't sell you on feminism, apparently Valenti believes taking her side in some inane, personal dispute will.
Full Frontal Feminism is written in sound bytes, each chapter being comprised of smaller (usually) page-long explanations of a given issue: sex education vs. abstinence only, virginity pledges, expensive weddings, unattainable beauty standards, and other typical feminist fare. Apparently, the television has taken its toll (or so Valenti thinks) on the public because there is no sense of organization or logic to the structure of the book. And solutions? Those must have been left for someone else to tackle because you won't find them here, at least not outside of the standard volunteer, give money, and vote.
Now I know I've pretty much run this book into the ground, but I do want to say that I get what Valenti is trying to do here. And it's a really smart idea. She wants to reach out to young women who don't yet identify as feminists and let them know that it's okay, cool even, to be down with the F-word. She wants to tell them that they already believe in feminist ideals and have benefited from the women's movement. She wants to encourage them to continue in that tradition and kick some misogynist ass. That's a really honorable goal that, unfortunately, was a victim of poor execution.
If you're truly looking to find out why feminism matters, you'd be better served to flip to the booklist in the back of Full Frontal Feminism and read some of the titles listed there - including Colonize This!, Listen Up: Voices from the Next Generation, To Be Real, and The Fire This Time - because cool packaging is really great, but if there's nothing of substance inside then what you are selling is just the packaging.
Written by Mandy Van DevenFull Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters Overview

Want to learn more information about Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism ReviewIf you are new to the scene and want to become familiar with the majority of the techniques that you may wish to try then this book is an excellent guide. To begin, it walks through the terminology, the basic mental and emotional elements in SM play, an overview of "scene" and how S&M relationships can be negotiated. Once the book has prepared you with the basic elements of how to enjoy S&M play, it moves into actual techniques: a safety overview, waxing, bondage, flogging, spanking and humiliation. It finishes with a discussion of how to build, transport and hide your dungeon "toys".
Even if you are an experienced scene player, it is unlikely that you are conversant with every possible type of play, so this book serves as a helpful reminder of the basic techniques. While it does not cover the more extreme types of play - water sports, blood sports or mummification, it is comprehensive in it's coverage of the most standard types of play.
Although this book is written by a hetero male dominant and a female submissive, the words of wisdom contained are applicable to everyone. I personally found that having both partner's perspective was very helpful when trying to construct my own session.
If you are looking to get into S&M, this book is a great start to begin play at home. Miss's Abernathy's Concise Guide to Slave Training is an excellent next step. And once you are feeling confident in your private relationship, SM 101 by Jay Wiseman will give you enough credibility to feel comfortable in visiting "public" scene events.Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism Overview

Want to learn more information about Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.) ReviewIt's New York city in the mid-1990s and our author is an advertising agent by day and a wild drag queen with fish-filled breasts at night. He performs nightly as his Aquadisiac alter-ego, staying out until the wee hours of the morning fueled by vodka, and crams in work the next day before starting all over again. Fortunately, no one can smell the vodka coming out of his pores. Much of his time is spent reconstructing the night before, figuring out where he is waking up, and trying to remember who he talked to and what he did the night before. His advertising campaigns come in brilliant bursts of last-minute energy.
Then comes Jack, the gay male escort who sweeps Josh's life into a semblance of order. Jack loves Aqua and Josh loves Jack. Mid-way through the book, the reader will realize that all the over-the-top orgies, Jack's S&M clients, the drug use, and the rampant alcohol abuse are just fluff around a true love story. Sure, it's titillating to get a glimpse inside alternate lifestyles, but this is truly the story of two misfits who complete eachother. This is a book that will teach you how a drag queen hides his private parts (an entire chapter is devoted to the deconstruction of the male and invention of the female persona), give you every detail about the process of preparing crack in a NY penthouse kitchen, show you the true friendship that develops between Josh and one of Jack's CEO clients who spends weekends tied up on the penthouse floor, and crush your heart with the agony of loving someone who is addicted to drugs. Josh, with his 10-plus vodka-a-day habit, seems like the messed up one in the beginning, but it is Jack who succumbs to addiction, leaving Josh to helplessly look on.
So we have sex, drugs, and club music, mixed up with a love story that got me in the gut by the end of the book...what more could you need? Josh tops this all off with a hilarious and over-the-top narrative voice. When depressed, he fantasizes about being in a Lifetime movie, so he drinks vodka in bed and walks around the apartment alone making declarations about a marriage, mortgage, or the kids. When he lies for a co-worker, he changes his story half a dozen times to make it more "realistic," nevermind that the facts are completely different. He's not an alcoholic, he's a social catalyst, someone who gets paid to illustrate the chemical process of drinking to other partygoers. When he wakes up to a crack-high Jack standing over him with a knife, Josh complains that he just got the expensive knife for Christmas. Jack changes his mind about the murder-suicide he had planned, and Josh goes back to sleep, reminding him to put the knife back in the rack so it doesn't rust.
As over-the-top as this narrative is, it is in no way implausible (I need to make this statement because James Frey wrote a cover blurb). The story of Jack's present to Josh for his first New York Christmas will touch even the most hardened reader. Truly, this book is Josh's tribute to a man he loved for one unforgettable year in New York city. If you enjoy this, try the darker tale of Ron Nyswaner`s love for a male escort in the book Blue Days, Black Nights.
I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.) Overview

Want to learn more information about I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

How to Become an Alpha Male: Attract Women and Become Successful at Seduction Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy How to Become an Alpha Male: Attract Women and Become Successful at Seduction? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on How to Become an Alpha Male: Attract Women and Become Successful at Seduction. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

How to Become an Alpha Male: Attract Women and Become Successful at Seduction ReviewThis is a book with a lot of hype surrounding it. I finally gave in and bought it to see what the fuss is about. Now, I was reluctant because I've been heavily into the seduction community for a few years now, and so at this point I've kind of got the attitude that there's nothing new under the sun.
So, having said that, I already knew most of the material in the book. But it did offer a great refresher in a lot of areas. Now, you may wonder why then I gave it a full 5 stars. It's because I expect to know 95% of the material in any given dating, psychology, or sex guide I come across. It's the 5% that makes it worthwhile.
What I liked about this book was how straightforward it is and how complete it is. In fact, it's not an exaggeration to say that this is the ONLY dating book a guy needs. Now, this is not an ultra-advanced level book, as I just indicated. I would say it's for newbies and mid level guys. While I've been heavily into the game for a few years now and am pretty advanced myself (at least, I don't have trouble getting girls), there were a few valuable things I learned from this book that made it worth the cost.
For example, John's material on body language is VERY thorough and taught me a few new things. Also, while other books stop when you and the girl make love for the first time, John breaks some new ground in the seduction community with the guide to relationships he has in the final chapter.
There were also a few other nuggets in the book that I picked up, which will help me take my game to a higher level.
Another thing I should mention was how well-written this book is. Unlike most other seduction and dating books ebooks that are amateurish, I can tell that John Alexander, like Neil Strauss and Mike Pilinski, is an accomplished writer in his own right.
Overall, John's book deals mostly with inner game. Your success with women comes from having a solid mindset and self-confidence. Once you have your internals in order, you no longer need a long set of techniques.
My recommendation is as follows:
- If you've never had success with women before, buy the book. It's a MUST OWN. As I said, it covers everything. If you apply the knowledge you'll gain from this book, you'll definitely get laid.
- If you've had some success with women, this book will still help you. As I said, it is thorough.
- If you're a pick up artist or Don Juan, you'll already know 95% of the material in this book. But if increasing your knowledge by 5% is worth 50 bucks to you, then you'll get way more than your money's worth.How to Become an Alpha Male: Attract Women and Become Successful at Seduction Overview

Want to learn more information about How to Become an Alpha Male: Attract Women and Become Successful at Seduction?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...