A Remarkable Mother
Author: Jimmy Carter
Bessie Lillian Gordy Carter was a registered nurse, physicians' assistant, pecan grower, university housemother, nursing home manager, Peace Corps Volunteer, and renowned public speaker and raconteur. She ignored the restrictive mores and prejudices of the racially segregated South of the Great Depression years, and was an avid lifelong supporter of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers because she happened to attend the first major league baseball game in which Jackie Robinson, from Cairo, Georgia, ever played.
"Miz Lillie" was a favored guest on television talk shows, including those of Johnny Carson and Walter Cronkite, usually able to "steal the microphone" from her hosts.
Carter writes: "My mother was often gone from home when I was a boy, serving as a nurse on private duty in her patients' homes. She was supposed to receive six dollars for her twenty hours of service, but knew in advance that most of her families would never be able to pay. Since she came home around midnight to bathe and change into a fresh uniform, we children would sometimes miss seeing her for more than a week at a time. She would not forget, however, to leave written instructions on the front room table that prescribed our multiple chores."
President Carter loved his parents deeply and he particularly ascribes to his mother, the inspiration for his life's work.
The Washington Post - Carolyn See
…although this little book may have been timed for Mother's Day, it's far from the sentimental tribute one might expect…In her personal journey from farm wife to public figure, Lillian Carter (who died in 1983) was part of a larger sea change in American life: from a mostly rural society to an expansive, prosperous, confident player on the world stage. This is an unexpectedly engrossing family chronicle.
Publishers Weekly
Former president Carter (author of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid as well as many inspirational books) now offers readers the story of his extraordinary mother, Lillian Carter (1898-1983). After laying out some family history, he comes to Lillian's teen years, when she trained as a nurse at the onset of World War I. Health conditions in rural Georgia, especially later, during the Depression, were so dire that nurses were often diagnosticians as well as caregivers. Nursing also brought Lillian close to the black community, building personal bonds that paved the way for later political alliances. After her husband died, Lillian moved from wife and mother to full-fledged "matriarch," and later volunteered for the Peace Corps and worked in India. Being able to help such needy people was intensely satisfying, although she never got preachy about it. She'd write home, for example, that the Indian doctor she worked with was so "damned good you can't imagine him going to the bathroom." Modern readers who assume that church-going Southern Baptists don't swear, drink or work to promote birth control will find Lillian an eye-opener. She played an unofficial though vital role as the Carter administration's goodwill ambassador around the world-she almost persuaded our government to let Muhammad Ali bargain with Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for our hostages taken in 1979. Carter offers wonderful stories about a great woman. B&w photos throughout. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Pam Kingsbury - Library Journal
Former U.S. President, Nobel prize winner, and New York Times best-selling author (Our Endangered Values) Carter has written-and here reads-a lovely, humorous, and moving homage to his mother, "Miss Lillian," crediting her for instilling in him his lifelong sense of duty, commitment, and faith as well as acknowledging her generous, forward-thinking, and collaborative-minded sensibility. Carter's reading is heartfelt and earnest, and his affection for everyone in his family, particularly his mother, is palpable, making it difficult to imagine encountering the contents of the story in any other format. [Includes a bonus CD from the original audio series "Sunday Mornings in Plains: Bible Study with Jimmy Carter"; the S. & S. hc was "recommended for all libraries," LJ4/1/08.-Ed.]
Kirkus Reviews
Former president Carter (Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope, 2007, etc.) affectionately remembers his mother, the redoubtable Miss Lillian. When he was governor of Georgia, Carter visited her at the family home in Plains. "Mama," he confided, "I've decided to run for president." "President of what?" she wanted to know. On reflection, she admitted, "Well I was pleased. I figured that if he was elected president, someone would open a good restaurant in Plains." Blunt without malice and disarmingly unfettered, Lillian Carter was a powerful force, remembered here by her son with not only fondness, but great respect for her role as an agent for good. She shared whatever fortune she had without making a big deal of it; knew a bum when she saw one (Joseph McCarthy, for instance, and not the tramps who knocked on her farmhouse door during the Depression); and "just ignored the pervasive restraints of racial segregation." When her husband died in 1953, the author noted that she "seemed to be searching for whatever was provocative, adventurous, challenging, and gratifying." Thus she spent eight years as a housemother to a rowdy Auburn University frat, lent her nursing talents to the Peace Corps for two years in a small village in India and became her son's goodwill ambassador. While she tirelessly campaigned for her son and served as the face of his administration on countless occasions, mostly state funerals, she also took care of herself, tuning out the world when her chosen soap opera aired and enjoying a strong toddy in the late afternoon. The author isn't shy to note that Miss Lillian could be high maintenance-"She was quite harsh in her criticism when any ofus failed to make a regular pilgrimage to pay our respects"-but Carter makes it clear that she passed on her unvarnished decency and sense of fair play to her son. A low-key, well-balanced tribute. Agent: Lynn Nesbit/Janklow & Nesbit
Books about: Death by Chocolate or Fondue
Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine
Author: Marion Nestl
Marion Nestle, acclaimed author of Food Politics, now tells the gripping story of how, in early 2007, a few telephone calls about sick cats set off the largest recall of consumer products in U.S. history and an international crisis over the safety of imported goods ranging from food to toothpaste, tires, and toys. Nestle follows the trail of tainted pet food ingredients back to their source in China and along the supply chain to their introduction into feed for pigs, chickens, and fish in the United States, Canada, and other countries throughout the world. What begins as a problem "merely" for cats and dogs soon becomes an issue of tremendous concern to everyone. Nestle uncovers unexpected connections among the food supplies for pets, farm animals, and people and identifies glaring gaps in the global oversight of food safety.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
For author and public health professor Nestle (Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health), the March 2007 pet food recall was the canary in the coal mine that would lead to a blitz of questions regarding the safety of imported food and goods. Begging comparison with Sinclair's The Jungle, Nestle begins with a real-life whodunit, tracing an outbreak of kidney failure deaths among cats and then dogs. A major pet food manufacturer had recently switched wheat gluten suppliers, paying 20 to 30 percent less to a broker importing from China (natch). Soon, it's revealed that two Chinese suppliers were passing off cheaper, toxic additives as gluten. As Nestle demonstrates, it's the tip of the iceberg; unraveling the links among "food safety, health policy, international trade, and the relationship of corporations to government," Nestle examines continuing food scandals, as well as the Chinese toy scare. Nestle finds most fault with the FDA; "still operating under food and drug laws passed in 1906 and modified in 1938," it's a systematically underfunded organization with an ever-increasing mandate and ever-shrinking powers of oversight. Though informative, this quick, clarifying read might easily make you sick to your stomach.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1
1 A Recall to Break All Records 9
2 A Brief Historical Digression 15
3 The Sequence of Events 27
4 What Is Menu Foods? 42
5 Menu's Muddled Response: What, When, and Where 50
6 The Cat and Dog Body Count 55
7 A Toxic False Alarm: Aminopterin 61
8 At Last the Culprit: Melamine 63
9 Melamine: A Source of Dietary Nitrogen 69
10 Melamine: A Fraudulent Adulterant, But Puzzling 77
11 How Much Melamine Was in the Pet Food? 81
12 Mystery Solved: Cyanuric Acid 83
13 The China Connection 88
14 More Melamine: Rice and Corn "Proteins" 97
15 More Melamine Eaters: Farm Animals and People 105
16 The FDA's Response 114
17 Repercussion #1: China's Food Safety System 123
18 Repercussion #2: The China Backlash 133
19 Repercussion #3: The FDA in Crisis 143
20 Repercussion #4: Pet Food Politics 156
App The Melamine Recalls List 175
Notes 181
List of Tables and Figures 205
Acknowledgments 207
Index 209
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