After Silence: Rape & My Journey Back Review

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(More customer reviews)Nancy Raine's After Silence, her firsthand account of her rape and her life after the rape, is compelling, illuminating, and essential reading. Brutally honest, Nancy shares her private story of surviving and recovering from rape.
Raine helps her readers understand the severe and often lifelong psychological consequences of being victimized, the ambivalent reactions of other people to rape survivors, and the personal anguish in recovering from being raped. Raine elucidates her feelings of helplessness and terror during the rape, her treatment by the legal and medical system, other people's reactions to her rape, and her social and emotional isolation after the rape. She leads us through her coming to terms with the rape, with the new person she feels she becomes, with other people's reactions, and with her post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Through Raine's words, we watch a severely traumatized woman learn to regain control of her life and learn to trust and love again.
Raine's book raises many important questions: Why the shame of being a victim of rape? Why is the victim blamed? Why do some people still think that rape is "assault with a friendly weapon?" Why people's ambivalent reactions to rape? Why the silence?
Raine decided to end the silence about rape by bravely sharing her story with the world. Why should she be ashamed? She is the victim; she did nothing wrong. She purposely and insistently breaks the taboos about rape to try to pave the path for rape victims to speak out about this abominable and prevalent crime.
There were an estimated 9 million women raped in the United States alone between 1972 and 1991. In the United States, a woman is raped every two minutes; eighty-three percent of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime; only twenty-six percent of rapes are reported to the police. Over fifty percent of rape survivors suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which can include the reexperiencing of the attack through nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks; the avoidance of thoughts, feelings, places, and activities associated with the rape; difficulty concentrating; mood swings; and a diminished interest in former activities. These are just a few of the many terrifying and eye-opening statistics about the prevalence and seriousness of rape (in this country alone!)
Books like After Silence are necessary to combat the public's denial and apathy about the pervasiveness and seriousness of sexual crimes on women. After Silence can also help rape survivors understand that they are not alone and that their reactions to being raped are "normal." The general public should read the book so they can better understand the experience of being raped and life after rape. Hopefully the public and the legal system will learn to more supportive to rape survivors and more committed to ending (sexual) violence against women.
Reviewed by Vanessa Jackson

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Annabel: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Being born a hermaphrodite can be a very hard row to hoe. It is especially hard when you are born in remote Labrador in 1968. The nearest specialist is miles away and this is not a town that relishes diversity. Even today, in large urban areas, there is a lot of controversy about what to do about gender when an infant is born with ambiguous sex organs. Some doctors utilize blood tests to determine gender and others go by outward appearance. A true hermaphrodite is born one in 81,000 births.
When Jacinta and Treadway have a home birth, assisted by their friend Thomasina, they are shocked to see that their infant child has one testicle and a vagina. They immediately take the baby to the hospital where the doctor determines the child to be a boy. His sex is determined because his penis is large enough to call him a boy. He is named Wayne and brought up as a son. However, he has a full set of female sex organs within him and feels that he has a shadow female self that Thomasina calls Annabel. Lifelong medication shuts off the development of Wayne's female self and promotes his development as a male.
Wayne is not told that he is a hermaphrodite. He takes pills every day that he believes are for a blood disorder. His father, Treadway, tries to get Wayne to be `one of the guys' and keeps hoping Wayne will join in with other boys in their activities. However, Wayne is not like that. He likes to draw, is fascinated with bridges, and loves to sit and talk with his mother. Treadway is a trapper who is gone for most of the year and, as tension in the home builds due to Wayne's condition, he is gone more and more. It is Jacinta who is responsible for most of Wayne's rearing.
This debut novel is about Wayne's journey through life and is a treatise on gender, especially its fluidity and ambiguity. Though Wayne lives his life as a boy he is always wrestling with the feeling that there is something else there, something in him that is different from other people. Thomasina knows his secret and it is she who rushes him to the hospital when he is going through puberty because his abdomen is filled with menstrual blood. She decides that it is important for Wayne to know about himself and she breaks the silence, informing him about his uniqueness.
Wayne struggles throughout his adolescent years and finally decides to stop taking all his pills to see what his `real' body and self are like. He is met with varied responses, some accepting and some filled with hatred. He goes in for surgery to have the original surgery reversed. (When he was an infant, his vagina was sewn shut). Now he can experience the world as both male and female.
The reader lives with Wayne throughout his life until his twenties. We yearn, with him, to know more about who he truly is and how he can fit into the world. He has one dear friend from childhood, a girl named Wallis and we are with him as he yearns for her with a physical and emotional longing that is not sexual.
Kathleen Winter has written a very interesting novel about a fascinating subject. However, there is something missing in the characterizations. We never get to know what makes Treadway and Jacinta tick. They go through tremendous changes but it is as through they are left midway in their struggles and the reader is waiting for some completion, some finality in their lives. Thomasina is very well done and she is, in many ways, the star of this book. She is willing to take risks for Wayne and she is the first person to give him a girl's name - Annabel. The novel, at 461 pages is very long and would have benefited from editing that made it tighter.
I commend the author for taking on this topic. She does it sensitively and there are parts of the novel that flow beautifully with a ring of magical realism to it. Wayne is a beautiful spirit searching for himself. We root for him as he tries to overcome a life that is that is filled with secrets and lies.

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King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Review

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(More customer reviews)I first read this book when it appeared in the early '90s, when the Men's Movement was everywhere (how long ago that seems). I have come back to the book many, many times for guidance and insight, finding relevance in different portions as I have aged, changed jobs, and faced new challenges. There is a reason why this book remains in print: it's an intelligent, clear, and well-grounded examination of the primary facets of men's selves and how men can use this understanding to improve their lives. The authors discuss each of the title's four archetypes in turn, explaining both the positive and negative aspects of each one, and how each can interact with the others. A particular strength is the authors' ability to describe each archetype in a vivid, three-dimensional (yet concise) way that enables you to *see* the archetype at work in yourself and others. I would recommend this book especially for readers who may be turned off by self-help works that are either too simplistic or too mystical. And, as other reviewers have pointed out, much of it would appear to be of interest to women as well as men.

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THE BESTSELLING, WIDELY HERALDED, JUNGIAN INTRODUCTION TO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF A MATURE, AUTHENTIC, AND REVITALIZED MASCULINITY.

"The author take on the difficult task of separating man from boy by excavating 'psychological facts' from

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In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom Review

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(More customer reviews)I have experienced Jeddah as a Muslim American woman as well, and Dr. Ahmed's book finally gives a point of view that is relatable and realistic, without bashing Islam or giving a one sided interpretation.
I loved this book. I had the same experience when I first put on an abaya in Saudi Arabia. I finally felt invisible. It was worst for me because I'm very white, and a lot of guys would try to hit on me. Once, in Medina, I was followed down the street by a group of guys, and they kept saying obscenties to me in arabic. I finally walked into a store and had the shop keepr come out and yell @ them. After that, I started covering my face if i went out alone. Don't get me wrong, I am completly against covering your face, I think its so exterme, but It made things A lot easier for me when i went out alone in mecca and medina.
My favorite thing to read about in the book is probably the dynamics you had at work with all your male coworkers. Its nice to know that not all men in Saudi look down upon women, and I think my favorite male character from the hospital would have to be Haydar. I loved the support he had for Ghadah, something you rarely find in men in the middle east, especially in Saudi Arabia.
My favorite female character is definitely Dr. Maha. I love the fact that she fights for the rights of Children in Saudi arabia. Your story about the young camel rider was so sad, I can't believe stuff like that happens over there. Thats a side of Saudi I haven't heard of, and I'm glad its talked about in your book. Another favorite part in the book is about the car accident, with the guys coming from Bahrain. The way Saudi men drive is sooooo reckless, and I hate it. Its just the most selfish act ever. Saudi has the highest mortality rate for car accidents in the world, and its all because of these rich guys playing with their toys.
The sad thing I noticed when I was in jeddah was how disconnected all the kids I met are from their families. They are all being raised by housekeepers, and they have no sense of family. Instead they just shop and eat their grief away. Saudi is a HUGE consumer society. All they do is eat and shop. I felt bad for them, they just radiated this feeling of loneliness. These guys that are driving 100,000$ cars are the ones that were probably raised by a series of poor maids or as I like to call them indentured servants.
There are so many other parts I loved in the book. I loved how you gave a true interpretation of Islam, and explained the dynamics of the Saudi government. Most people think saudi is this way because of Islam, and they don't realize it has nothing to do with Islam, it has to do with a corrupt group of people who have interpreted Islam for their own benefit.
Your book really gave me hope for the future of the Saudi people, especially their youth. I was so sad when I left jeddah, because of the youth that I met. Hopefully, the people you spoke about and many more of them will help change this country, and will make it a more nurturing place for all of the youth of Saudi, because as of now, they seem to be extremely lost in materialism and are only seeking pleasure and instant gratification.

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Privilege, Power, and Difference Review

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(More customer reviews)When I first saw the title for this book, I thought it was going to be another of those books that make you feel sick and worthless once you get to the end. This couldn't have been further from the truth. Allen's book was engaging, gentle, but powerful. It was thorough in describing the impact of power and privilege in a way that can be felt and understood even by those who are not familiar with (or generally interested in) critical studies and sociology. I found this to be a text that I could engage with, but also one that I could share with those who had a hard time seeing the lines of power and how they impact all of our relationships in many different ways.
I highly recommend this book both to those who have worked with the material of oppression for a long time as well as for those who are struggling to understand what it's all about. The book is powerful and gentle at the same time - something that is very important when dealing with issues of oppression and equity.

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This brief book is a groundbreaking tool for students and non-students alike to examine systems of privilege and difference in our society. Written in an accessible, conversational style, Johnson links theory with engaging examples in ways that enable readers to see the underlying nature and consequences of privilege and their connection to it. This extraordinarily successful book has been used across the country, both inside and outside the classroom, to shed light on issues of power and privilege.

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