Subtitle: How to Understand Crazy American Culture, People, Government, Business, Language and More
By Lance Johnson
Author's Web Site
Amazon Paperback: http://Amzn.to/ForeignersAmericaUS
Reviewed by Leora Skolkin Smith originally for Amazon
As the daughter of a foreign-born mother who had to struggle to assimilate into American culture, reading Lance Johnson's book was an occasion for me to rejoice. Literate but accessible and undidactic, it defines American icons and expressions while providing brass tacks definitions and down-to-earth suggestions.
It's sometimes hard for Americans to realize that our culture needs to be demystified and made available to others without stress and/or giving them a feeling of remaining a perpetual outsider. Lance Johnson invites everyone to enjoy and penetrate some of the unique American mysteries we take for granted. A spectacular, important book and a toolbox full of relevant resources for all.
As the daughter of a foreign-born mother who had to struggle to assimilate into American culture, reading Lance Johnson's book was an occasion for me to rejoice. Literate but accessible and undidactic, it defines American icons and expressions while providing brass tacks definitions and down-to-earth suggestions.
It's sometimes hard for Americans to realize that our culture needs to be demystified and made available to others without stress and/or giving them a feeling of remaining a perpetual outsider. Lance Johnson invites everyone to enjoy and penetrate some of the unique American mysteries we take for granted. A spectacular, important book and a toolbox full of relevant resources for all.
About the Reviewer:
Leora Skolkin-Smith’s first published novel,
EDGES was edited and published by the late Grace Paley for Ms. Paley's own
imprint at Glad Day books. EDGES was nominated for the 2006 PEN/Faulkner Award
by Grace Paley. Recently, her novels were selected by Princeton University as
part of a series on women writers whose background is from the Middle East and
whose work is personal, reflecting the current diaspora. The Princeton Series
in funded by The National Endowment of the Humanities and called: "The
Fertile Crescent Moon Series."
THE
FRAGILE MISTRESS, a feature film based on EDGES, is currently in
pre-production, scheduled to begin shooting on location in Jerusalem, Jordan,
and New York, produced by Triboro Pictures, directed by Michael Gunther. http://www.thefragilemistress.com
Articles
by Leora Skolkin-Smith have appeared in The Washington Post, Psychology Today,
The National Book Critic’s Circle, “Critical Mass”, “Readysteadybook.com”, the
Quarterly Review and others. Learn more about her at http://leoraskolkinsmith.com
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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :
4 comments:
thank you, dear Carolyn! Lance's book well deserves the attention!
Thanks Leora and Carolyn. Hope this is of help to those foreigners who need help understanding "crazy America" as some call it. The big book is also available as four smaller books for those who think they don't need the big guy: America's Heritage, Culture, Business, and Language. They can do a search on amazon.com for "what foreigners need to know" and they will all pop up. Lance.
Thanks for coming by, Lance. My favorite smaller book is the one on language--esepcially the part on accent reduction. It's so hard to readjust speaking habits once they are ingrained.
Best,
Carolyn
Hi Carolyn,
I just sent you a friend request on facebook. We "met" just a few minutes ago via Leora Skolkin-Smith. Where have you and your incredible site been all my life? I'm serious. Words and books and writing are sacred to me. I hate the absurd but so commonly used five star rating system as well as the reviews of late that are either nothing more than a regurgitation of a book's plot or a bunch of words written by cheerleaders at endless half-times. I also believe that some books can't and shouldn't be rated or reviewed. One example being "Stones From The River" by Ursula Hegi. I think that there are no words in any language that exists today that could do Hegi or her once in a lifetime book justice. I feel much the same about Leora's "Hystera" and "The Fragile Mistress" - Just writing and thinking about this has my eyes welling up with tears. I just sent you a friend request. Where have you and your incredible site been all my life? I'm serious. Words and books and writing are sacred to me. I hate the absurd but so commonly used five star rating system as well as the reviews of late that are either nothing more than a regurgitation of a book's plot or a bunch of words written by cheerleaders at endless half-times. I also believe that some books can't and shouldn't be rated or reviewed. One example being "Stones From The River" by Ursula Hegi. I think that there are no words in any language that exists today that could do Hegi or her once in a lifetime book justice. I feel much the same about Leora's "Hystera" and "The Fragile Mistress" - Just writing and thinking about this has my eyes welling up with tears.
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