And the winner is...

It's time to announce the winner of Life Inside the "Thin" Cage by Constance Rhodes. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants in the order I received them, the winner is:


Vera


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always buy a copy of this excellent book from your favorite bookstore.

Death Squads or Self-Defense Forces? by Julie Mazzei

Death Squads or Self-Defense Forces? How Paramilitary Groups Emerge and Challenge Democracy in Latin America by Julie Mazzei Trade Paperback: 260 pages Publisher: University of North Carolina Press First Released: 2009

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Back Cover Description:
In an era when the global community is confronted with challenges posed by violent nonstate organizations--from FARC in Colombia to the Taliban in Afghanistan--our understanding of the nature and emergence of these groups takes on heightened importance. Julie Mazzei's timely study offers a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics that facilitate the organization and mobilization of one of the most virulent types of these organizations, paramilitary groups (PMGs).

Mazzei reconstructs in rich historical context the organization of PMGs in Colombia, El Salvador, and Mexico, identifying the variables that together create a triad of factors enabling paramilitary emergence: ambivalent state officials, powerful military personnel, and privileged members of the economic elite. Nations embroiled in domestic conflicts often find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place when global demands for human rights contradict internal expectations and demands for political stability. Mazzei elucidates the importance of such circumstances in the emergence of PMGs, exploring the roles played by interests and policies at both the domestic and international levels. By offering an explanatory model of paramilitary emergence, Mazzei provides a framework to facilitate more effective policy making aimed at mitigating and undermining the political potency of these dangerous forces.


Review:
The title is a bit misleading since this book isn't about whether armed citizen groups are valid forms of self-protection or not. The subtitle contains the true topic: How Paramilitary Groups Emerge and Challenge Democracy in Latin America.

The book was very well-researched, and the author completely convinced me of her points. She used the Chiapas region in Mexico; Colombia; and El Salvador as the focus of her book. She focused on the big picture over a sweep of years and so her book had a rather clinical-sounding view of the conditions that spawn paramilitary groups, how they are organized and supported, and (when applicable) how they were disbanded.

The introduction discussed the various past models that have been proposed for the emergence of PMGs, why those models aren't good ones, and what her model is. Chapters 1 & 2 covered the Chiapas region in Mexico: the history (mainly the politics with a lesser focus on the economy structure) and power structure of the area and how that lead to PMGs emerging. She then discussed evidence for how the PMGs were organized, supplied, and supported.

Chapters 3 & 4 covered the same factors for Colombia, but also discussed the attempt to disband the PMGs. I enjoyed this section the most because a human aspect was added by quoting various interviews with PMG leaders. They briefly discussed why they started a PMG and their view of the purpose of PMGs.

Chapters 5 & 6 covered the El Salvador political history, the support structure for the PMGs, and how they were successfully disbanded. The author actually went to visit this country, and so brief snippets of her impressions were included along with some brief interviews that mainly discussed why various people from various sides thought the disbanding of the PMGs worked so well here.

The conclusion summarized what she thought could be learned from her research.

Overall, it was a well-written book, but it's a bit more focused on politics and had fewer interviews with locals than I expected. However, for someone who wants to know more about Latin American politics and/or under what conditions paramilitary groups emerge and are sustained, this is an excellent book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Introduction
In October 1987, Juan Bautista was driving through Puerto Araujo, Colombia, transporting merchandise from the border with Venezuela. He was traveling with sixteen of his coworkers along a route dotted by military checkpoints. At the checkpoint in Puerto Araujo, a lieutenant made note of the fact that the men were carrying a "considerable quantity of contraband merchandise" but allowed them to pass. Shortly thereafter, Juan and the sixteen others were stopped by a group known as the Asociacion Campesina de Ganaderos y Agricultores del Magdalena Media (the Association of Rural Ranchers and Farmers of Magdalena Medio, ACDEGAM), a group of citizens who had organized to protect their communities against the Colombian guerrillas. The self-declared "self-defense patrol" had been watching Bautista and his friends for some time; the men had refused to pay the ACDEGAM "protection taxes" and were suspected of supplying guerrillas with some of the goods they transported. When they were detained by the ACDEGAM on 6 October, the seventeen men were taken to the ranch of the ACDEGAM's leader, Henry Perez. There they were murdered and dismembered, and their remains disposed of in the Ermitano stream (IACHR 2004:43).


Read chapter one.

Book Quotes: Helping Streetwalkers

From A Passion for the Impossible by Miriam Huffman Rockness (page 91):

It is one of the paradoxical aspects of Victorian society that in this era when the family was almost deified, prostitution was practiced blatantly. For some of the women it was perhaps their preferred form of trade; but for many young girls, stranded in the city without skills or means of employment, it was a tragic recourse. Whether they were victims of folly or circumstance, Lilias's heart was moved with compassion for these "lost sheep" so profoundly in need of a loving shepherd. At a time when it was unacceptable for a young woman to be out alone in the city, Lilias fearlessly traversed the streets to rescue these streetwalkers, many of whom haunted the neighborhood of Victoria Station. She brought them back to the hostel for a good night's sleep and for training in an employable skill, and she introduced them to the Good Shepherd.

Friends remember the lengths to which she went to help these girls, planning and providing for them, but often simply listening and offering a word of counsel. On one occasion, a friend recalls her staying up all night with a "half-crazed girl" to save her from taking her own life.

Giveaway: Life Inside the "Thin" Cage

I've decided to do a giveaway for my copy of Life Inside the "Thin" Cage by Constance Rhodes. It's a used copy, and a well-used copy at that. To learn more about the book, you can read my review.

One copy is being given away. This giveaway is for USA and Canada residents only.


To enter the giveaway:

1) you can twitter me saying "Hi @genrereviewer Please enter me to win LIFE INSIDE THE "THIN" CAGE by Constance Rhodes."

OR

2) You can leave a comment to this post asking to be entered. Please leave some way for me to contact you if you win.

The winner will be randomly selected. I'll announce the winner at noon (Central Time) on March 18, 2010 on this blog. If you entered using twitter, I'll send you a @ or DM telling you of your win and asking where to send the book. If you entered using the blog comments, you'll need to leave your e-mail address or check back to see if you won so you can e-mail me your shipping address.

I hope everyone has fun with this!

Life Inside the "Thin" Cage by Constance Rhodes

Life Inside the "Thin" Cage by Constance Rhodes Trade Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Shaw Books First Released: 2003 FINDINGbalance website

Source: Bought from Half.com.

Back Cover Description (slightly modified):
"I don't have an eating disorder. I just watch what I eat..."

For millions of women, "watching" what we eat has become an outright obsession. Frustrated by the unrealistic standards of beauty presented by today’s media, many women have become trapped in a never-ending pattern of chronic dieting. Daily, they endure destructive self-talk such as “I can’t eat that or I’ll get fat” or “If I could just lose a few more pounds everything would be better.”

Chronic dieters may be any shape or size but they have one thing in common: They are often left to suffer alone with an undiagnosed “sub-clinical” eating disorder. Such sub-clinical disorders include eating habits that are unusual, even unhealthy, but do not fit the technical classifications of anorexia or bulimia. Because sub-clinical disorders are largely unrecognized, we may refuse to admit to our friends--and even to ourselves--that there is any problem at all.

*Do you categorize some foods as "safe" and others as "off-limits"?

*Do you believe that if you were to gain weight then people would no longer like you?

*Are you tired of worrying about weight, dieting, and food all the time?

If this sounds like you, discover a new road to emotional, physical, and spiritual health--and freedom--that lies beyond Life Inside the "Thin" Cage. Readers will find personal stories, insights into their secret patterns and habits, reassurance that they are not alone, checklists, self-tests, and, best of all, a new road to emotional, physical, mental and spiritual freedom.


Review:
Life Inside the "Thin" Cage is a well-written and helpful book for women and men who are dissatisfied with their bodies (specifically those who "feel fat").

I don't think I've ever done a diet in my life. I simply try to eat a moderate amount and eat a large variety of foods. However, I read a different book that briefly touched on eating disorders (including sub-clinical ones) which included the "I just watch what I eat" quote from this book as well as a recommendation for it. Since I'd say "I just watch what I eat," too, I began to wonder what the difference was between me and someone with a problem, so I got this book.

I agree that it's excellent. It reinforced my contentment with how I look, and I suspect it would be very helpful for anyone who struggles with "feeling fat," who's stuck in a constant cycle of dieting, and/or who has set rules when it comes to eating.

The book had five parts. Part One explained what was meant by "chronic dieting" and "disordered eating." It explored some motivations for chronic dieting as well as self-tests and questions to help the reader identify if they have a problem. She also listed the signs of health problems caused by disordered eating.

Part Two explored the factors that lead to chronic dieting and disordered eating. Part Three explained what keeps people trapped in chronic dieting and helps the reader to identify things that trigger the desire to diet. Part Four gave the reader truths to replace the lies that trap them in disordered eating habits. Part Five gave steps to help the reader break free from chronic dieting and disordered eating.

Throughout the book, author openly shared her struggles with chronic dieting and also shared stories from many others. She also included medical information about disordered eating. The author occasionally referred to God and sometimes included a sample prayer at the end of a chapter, but God wasn't the focus of her suggestions (as in, this wasn't a "Christian book.")

The book was easy to understand, encouraging, and practical. Overall, I'd highly recommend it to anyone dealing with "I feel fat" and eating issues.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
"I don't have an eating disorder. I just watch what I eat..." These were the words I repeated time and again to anyone who suggested that I was overly concerned with weight and dieting. After all, I reasoned, isn't it normal to take pride in maintaining a slim figure?

In Western society today, it is culturally acceptable and even expected that women who want to be successful and respected will be on a never-ending diet. At every turn, we face images of smiling, beautiful, thin people. We can't walk through a shopping mall without realizing that unless we go to extreme measures, we're just not going to be able to stack up against the ideal of beauty that we see hanging in store windows. Even if we don't leave home, an innocent evening in front of the television supplies multiple reminders of the standards we consistently fail to meet.

So we have learned how to force our often rebellious bodies into the crippling corset of conformity. We have exercised, skipped meals, switched to low-fat or no-fat foods, or gradually decreased our overall intake of calories to a point that ensures continued weight loss. As time has gone by, some of us have learned the art of replacing a burger and fries with a Diet Coke and a fruit plate, while others live from diet to diet--a never-ending cycle of feast, famine, elation, and self-loathing.

Even if we are successful at losing a few pounds, it seems we only find new things to dislike about the size and shape of our body. "If I could be just one size smaller," we lament, "then everything would be better."

And so the vicious cycle continues, sapping us of time, energy, satisfaction, and self-esteem. Without realizing it, we've become trapped in the "cage" we so lovingly call "thin"--endlessly striving to meet an ideal that seems like the answer to our discontent.

Read the rest of the first chapter.

Book Quotes: Copying Buddhist works in Tibet

From The Culture of the Book in Tibet by Kurtis R. Schaeffer (pages 23-24):

[Note: Büton Rinchendrup was the great fourteenth-century scholar of Shalu monastery in west-central Tibet and oversaw or influenced much of the book-making at the time. In this quote, he's thought to be writing to the editors engaged in copying the Tengyur, part of the Tibetan Buddhist cannon.]

Büton advises the editors that "Since an understanding of the word and the meaning are dependent upon one another, when some doubt arises, understand the meaning from the word by looking at [the word] analytically, and the [correct] graph will be understood from the meaning." In other words, the text should make sense, and if it does not the editor is encouraged to emend it in accordance with his reasoned understanding of what the text should say. The act of editing was for Büton an act of personal interpretation, at least in part. This method no doubt led to many problems, and not a few anonymous editors have been accused of fabricating meanings in their efforts at conjectural emendation. Indeed, one of the most serious charges against authors and editors alike is that the texts they produce are self-made (rang bzo) and therefore not in accordance with tradition. Büton's positive assessment of conjectural emendation constitutes a significant difference between him and many later editors, who considered it to be a major source of textural error.

I was surprised to learn that the exact replication of the Buddhist cannon was rare throughout the 14-18th centuries and that changing the text was acceptable to one degree or another. That's very different than the exact, careful replication--down to the smallest mark--by the Israelite scribes copying the Hebrew scriptures!

Flawless by Scott Andrew Selby, Greg Campbell

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Scott Andrew Selby & Greg Campbell Hardback: 336 pages Publisher: Union Square Press First Released: 2010

Source: Received as a free copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Publisher Wesbite (slightly modified):
On February 15, 2003, a group of thieves broke into an allegedly theft-proof vault in the international diamond capital of Antwerp, Belgium and made off with over $108 million dollars worth of diamonds and other valuables. They did so without tripping an alarm or injuring a single guard in the process.

Although the crime was perfect, the getaway was not. The police zeroed in on a band of professional thieves fronted by Leonardo Notarbartolo, a dapper Italian who had rented an office in the Diamond Center and clandestinely cased its vault for over two years.

The “who” of the crime had been answered, but the “how” remained largely a mystery. Enter Scott Andrew Selby, a Harvard Law grad and diamond expert, and Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, who undertook a global goose chase to uncover the true story behind the daring heist. Tracking the threads of the story throughout Europe—from Belgium to Italy, in seedy cafés and sleek diamond offices—the authors sorted through an array of conflicting details, divergent opinions and incongruous theories to put together the puzzle of what actually happened that Valentine’s Day weekend.

This real-life Ocean’s Eleven—a combination of diamond history, journalistic reportage, and riveting true-crime story—provides a thrilling in-depth study detailing the better-than-fiction heist of the century.


Review:
Flawless is an exciting and interesting true crime book. I love the eye-catching cover--the diamonds on the cover are iridescent.

The first part of the book set up the crime: who the criminals were, what their personalities were like, and the previous crimes they'd committed. It also explained the technology the criminals had to overcome, and a bit about how diamonds are processed (from digging them from the ground to selling the finished stones in the Diamond District) and how they've been stolen during these stages in the past.

Everything came together very nicely in the second part as the authors described the actual theft and investigation. Because of the initial information, it was clear what a breathtakingly bold crime was committed. Even knowing the general outcome, my heart was pounding due to the suspense in these scenes. Very well written. They also described the difficulty of trying the criminals, who had gone over the border to another country, and the fallout for everyone (the thieves, those who lost items, the building security, etc.).

The book contained a general map of the layout of the Diamond District and of the Diamond Center so that the descriptions were easy to follow. Overall, I'd highly recommend this well-written book to those interested in true crime and detective stories--especially to readers with an interest in diamonds.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Prologue
The white-tiled floor of the vault was littered with diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, gold, and silver. Empty velvet-lined jewelry cases, cardboard cigar boxes, and tin-clasped metal containers lay amid sparkling gemstones of every imaginable cut, color, clarity, and carat. There were ancient heirlooms, gilded bond notes, a Rolex watch, and a brick of solid gold heavy enough to stub toes. Loose stones rolled and bounced like marbles as the detectives picked through the debris, their low gasps and whistles of amazement echoing softly in the bright underground chamber. Detective Patrick Peys thought that if he were to shovel it all up, pour it into any one of the empty and discarded containers scattered about, he would have enough wealth to finance a decadent retirement not only for himself but also for the five other detectives in his unit of specialized diamond-crime investigators.

Like everyone else who descended to the bottom floor of the Antwerp Diamond Center that day--Monday, February 17, 2003--Peys needed some time to process the enormity of what he saw. He was no stranger to audacious crimes committed--or at least attempted--in Antwerp's high-security Diamond District, but he'd never seen anything like this.

By almost any measure, the safe room two floors underground was as impenetrable a fortress as any to be found in the tightly protected Diamond District....

....Peys looked down at the piles of wealth and debris scattered across the floor. What was rolling under his feet--those gems and jewels, those scattered and discarded riches, the individual treasures of the building's tenants who had stored them in the vault under the reasonable assumption that they would be safer here than in any bank--were the items the thieves had left behind. They had robbed and ransacked more than they could carry.