Scroll down for information on three CDs and two books.
Go to http://cdbaby.com/all/lisablisab to hear samples of all songs on all three CDs.

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WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?
(Piece of Pie Records POP-5812)
1. What's New, Pussycat? (.mp3)
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2. Slay Me (My Young Cat) (.mp3)
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3. Cha Cha de la Gata (Kitty-Cat Cha Cha) (.mp3)
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4. Our House (.mp3)
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cdbaby.com
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What's New, Pussycat?: Tunes & Tales about Cool Cats
Executive producer, producer, vocals: Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein)
Mixing: Jim Gardiner
Mastering: George Horn at Fantasy Studios
Personnel:
Frank Martin and Ben Flint - keyboards
Chris Amberger, Troy Lampkins, and John Shifflett - electric and acoustic basses
Paul van Wageningen and Alan Hall - drums
Danny Caron - guitar
John Santos - percussion
1. What’s New, Pussycat? - swinging, seductive waltz
(Burt Bacharach and Hal David; EMI April Music, Inc., ASCAP; arr. by Scott R. Looney)
2. Slay Me (My Young Cat) - funky soul-jazz
(© Lisa Bernstein and Ben Flint; Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI, and One Truth Music, BMI)
3. Cha Cha de la Gata (Kitty-Cat Cha Cha) - playful latin Jazz
(© Wayne Wallace and Lisa Bernstein; Walaco Music, BMI, and Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI)
4. Our House - acoustic ballad version of the beloved classic
(Graham Nash; Nash Notes, BMI; arr. by Wayne Wallace)
5. Night and Day / The Cat Goddess - languorous funk-jazz re-envisioning of this magical standard
(“Night and Day” by Cole Porter; Warner Bros., Inc., ASCAP / “The Cat Goddess” © Lisa Bernstein; Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI; song and spoken word arr. by Lisa Bernstein)
6. Crazy Cat - driving, light-hearted samba
(© Lisa Bernstein and Scott R. Looney; Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI)
7. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To - sensuous bossa
(Cole Porter; Chappell and Co., ASCAP; arr. by Lisa Bernstein)
8. The Home Inside - lyrical acoustic waltz ballad
(© Lisa Bernstein and Scott R. Looney; Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI)
9. Warrior Cat - poetry-rap with swing
(© Lisa Bernstein and Scott R. Looney; Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI)
10. When Malika Sleeps - piano/vocal lullaby
(© Lisa Bernstein; Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI)
CENTER
OF THE RHYME
(Piece of Pie Records POP-3552)
1. Joe Williams Died Walking / Every Day I
Have the Blues (.mp3)
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2. Be Electric (.mp3)
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6. A Place We Knew (.mp3)
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7. Center of the Rhyme (.mp3)
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Track list
Recommended for mainstream jazz radio:
1. Joe Williams Died Walking/Every Day I Have the Blues -
original, swinging homage to Joe with his signature tune
© 2003 words and music by Lisa Bernstein (Lisa B Swingin’
Music, BMI)/© Memphis Slim (Arc Music Corporation/Fort Knox Music,
Inc./Trio Music Company, Inc., BMI)
3. Keeps Me Up All Night - playful, sexy, bluesy
© 2003 words and music by Lisa Bernstein (Lisa B Swingin’
Music, BMI)
6. A Place We Knew – lyrical love song in uptempo waltz
with driving keyboard solo
© 2003 words and music by Lisa Bernstein (Lisa B Swingin’
Music, BMI)
8. Slow – dark, shimmering waltz
© 2003 words by Lisa Bernstein, music by Bevan Manson (Lisa B
Swingin’ Music, BMI/Bevan Manson Music, BMI)
9. Let Me Know It’s You - grooving, heartfelt ballad
© 2003 words by Lisa Bernstein, music by Barbara Higbie (Lisa
B Swingin’ Music, BMI/Slow Baby Music, BMI)
10. The Bluejay Glide - a hip romantic story with a contemporary
jazz feel
© 2003 words by Lisa Bernstein, words and music by Lisa Bernstein
and Gerd Leonhard (Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI)
And, for a unique “Kind of Blue” feel:
7. Center of the Rhyme - entrancing spoken-sung tune
© 2003 words by Lisa Bernstein, music by J. Gardiner (Lisa B
Swingin’ Music, BMI/Jawiz Music, ASCAP)
For innovative, funk/pop flavors with astounding lyrics:
2. Be Electric - sensuous, rhythmic poetry-rap with a hook
© 2003 words and music by Lisa Bernstein (Lisa B Swingin’
Music, BMI)
4. What You Won’t Do for Love - cover of Bobby Caldwell’s
soul/smooth jazz hit with new poetry-rap
© words and music by Bobby Caldwell and Alfons Kettner (EMI Longitude
Music Co./The Music Force, BMI); poem-rap “My mind was filled
with movies…” © 2002 by Lisa Bernstein
5. Captured by Time - The New War - orchestral,
percussive, poignant protest against war and the relentlessness of
time
© 2003 words by Lisa Bernstein, music by Lisa Bernstein and J.
Gardiner (Lisa B Swingin’ Music, BMI/Jawiz Music, ASCAP)
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CENTER OF
THE RHYME
Personnel
Frank Martin - keyboard
J. Gardiner – keyboard and miscellaneous instruments
Mimi Fox - acoustic and electric guitar
Dave Yamasaki - acoustic and electric guitar
Bill Douglass and Chris Amberger - bass
Paul van Wageningen - drums
Michael Spiro - miscellaneous percussion
Tod Dickow - tenor sax
Daria - background vocals J. Gardiner
– producer, arranger, engineer, mix engineer, Touch-Tone Productions
Pajama Studios, Oakland, California – fabulous recording site
George Horn – mastering, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California
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CENTER OF THE RHYME
Critical response
Jazziz, 2003 "Women
In Jazz" issue:
Great pipes....talented
songwriter.
Rita Rochelle, Voice of America broadcast:
A beautifully
sensuous voice, so melodic...an excellent writer. She inspires us.
Jim Clark, KUSD-FM:
Her poetry
riffs and asides remind me of the jazz poetry of Chicago's great
Ken Nordine.
Monterey County Herald:
...up-and-coming
jazz singer Lisa B...brings a whole new take on some familiar songs
as well as quirky originals, such as her “Joe Williams Died
Walking” that opens up her latest album...And she is a terrific
lyricist, which you might expect from an accomplished poet, but
comes as a revelation nonetheless.
Jonathan Takiff, Philadelphia Daily News:
Daring, dexterous singer/songwriter/poet Lisa B catches the "Center
of the Rhyme" (Piece of Pie), an imaginative set of originals
with appeal to both traditional and contemporary jazz tastes and
even, on occasion, hip-hop hipsters.
Jackie McLean, saxophone master, educator:
“Fresh, very interesting, impressive: Lisa B is a brand-new
Somebody here. She definitely has a talent that’s all hers.
Her music is both commercial and traditional. She has her own sound—a
very nice voice. And the writing…I was lifted up by ‘Be
Electric.’ ‘A Place We Knew’ is gorgeous, with
gorgeous chord progressions…”
Ted Panken (JAZZIZ, downbeat, WKCR-FM, New York):
On “Center of the Rhyme,” singer-poet Lisa
B, like all rugged individualists of the jazz tribe, articulates
her accomplished narrative with a tonal personality entirely her
own. She spins tales of desire and obsession, formally rigorous,
filled with precise, striking images. Somehow, she finds clarity
when such fundamental opposites as male and female collide and—following
the eternal laws of dialectics—combust into a third dimension
that transcends the sum of its parts.
“When I first kissed you, I did see
stars, the pull between us was so strong,”
she speaks-sings on the title track. “I saw gravity and brilliance
in the round sky and ground, desire and sound lit me from inside,
from the center of the rhyme. And I never understood how you could
reel from this physical revelation back to the gears of your solitary
life... I cried, but I finally let go. I learned we all have our
meter and our time.”
Ms. B is by no means alone in chronicling
in song the torments and raptures of eros. What separates her from
the pack is a consistent imperative to swing and a keen understanding
of how to articulate the many paths which that third dimension can
take. A cool-eyed realist, she’s
an optimist, a survivor, sustained by a personal philosophy rooted
in blues values. Consider her description of maestro Joe Williams:
“The suavest man to sing the blues./He sang that every day
he had them/But no one was confused./From his depths of strength
and sorrow/Danced joy down to his shoes... You see, Joe had the
perspective/That style was more than shine./That from a gritty roadhouse
show/Comes truth, which is divine./That making it look easy/Means
you look death in the eye.”
In point of fact, Ms. B makes it sound easy.
Her voice is a lovely instrument, her timbre warm, her phrasing
fluid, her articulation pristine, and she possesses an emotional
range that makes lyrics sound like truth. She sings like the dickens.
It’s hard to discern her
influences. She cites the broad resources of poetry and rap; conceptually,
the Art Ensemble of Chicago; and stylists as diverse as Gil Scott-Heron,
Bonnie Raitt, and Carmen McRae.
It was Ms. McRae who remarked, “You
have to know where you’re going when you improvise.”
Lisa B does, and listeners to “Center of the Rhyme”
will gladly follow her.
ALLMUSIC.COM:
Lisa Bernstein’s...mix of spoken word poetry (think rap for
the uptown swing crowd) and passionate jazzy, high register vocalizing
is an acquired taste, to be sure, but it’s hard to resist
in the sense that you’re never sure what she’s going
to do next. Is it ruminating in words on the life, death and afterlife
of Joe Williams (over an outstanding trio swing vibe that segues
into her playful, straightforward singing on “Every Day I
Have the Blues”)? Is it
enhancing Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love”
with a whole new spoken story of a love deeper than Caldwell could
have imagined?...Or another musical poem? The easy swinging, bluesy
original “Keeps Me Up All Night”
is a snazzy romance that shows what the quirky vocalist can do with
normal, engaging material. And “A Place We Knew”
reveals a thoughtful singer of solid phrasing and a good vocabulary
of modern and traditional jazz. All the chit chat is cute, clever
and definitely something that sets her apart...
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CENTER OF THE RHYME
Selected Lyrics
Be Electric
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein
It’s the weakness.
It’s the trigger.
It’s the faultline.
The wire transmitter.
If you want to get in,
if you want to get out
Hot, cold, frozen,
electrical shout. I can’t
forget you when you vibrate
my secret name
where I curl inside the underbrush
of cells, and pain
pulses away in the sunlit
flushed communication,
the information highway
deep into my nation
I’m a system, a country,
a place to tell the truth,
a fast hot planet,
a network getting loose
and tight and loose and
tight again
I contract my losses,
expand my wins
Chorus: I’m electric. You’re electric. It’s
the secret.
Be electric. You’re electric. Hear the secret.
We rise and rise
into the space we make,
keep pushing through all the
trouble and fakes,
all the other people’s faces
and problems and needs
littering my feet
like an oak tree’s leaves
as you bore into the sap,
the syrup at the core
and you see your own face
in the mirror at my door
keep looking, brother
keep looking, lover
keep pushing, friend
keep finding, man.
Hold me, take me
show me, make me
see your face explode
in the sunrise gold,
the mirror at my throat
and the vault where I hold
onto you.
Chorus, out…
Center of the Rhyme
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein
( ) I remember my mother’s disappearing
perfume, alone in a crib in a room,
I felt my separate self for the very first time
but I understand it only now, from the center
of this rhyme. ( ) And your face
looms into view, pulling me into a cavern of kisses
remembered, and out, you’re not here, but I’m new
without you in the now, this time, in the center
of the rhyme. ( ) I can taste it
like a slice of tangerine, like the rustle in the sun
of my dress when I was ten, the sweetness
filling me from torso to legs. And I can taste it like a
black liqueur burning through the shadow of the latest
disappointing human act, step back, I shouted, taking
what was stolen, what was mine, now savoring the bittersweet
triumph at the center of the rhyme. ( )
BRIDGE
When I first kissed you, I did see stars,
the pull
was so strong I saw gravity and brilliance
in the round sky and ground, desire and sound
lit me from inside, from the center of the rhyme. ( )
And I never understood how you could reel
from this physical
revelation back to the gears of your solitary
life, such joy you had to fear, what was real
was strife. ( )
But I finally let go, I learned we all have
our meter
and our time, I can’t tell you where your own soul’s
harmony
lies, what to build or what to break unless it’s mine,
( ) but I can watch you darken and shine, and I can
enter the pleasure, take the measure, tell the story,
feel the center of the rhyme.
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Joe Williams Died Walking
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein
Joe Williams died walking
From his hospital bed to his home
He said he had to get back to the golf course
He was seeing spirits in his room
So he got out of bed and put on his clothes
And said, “Today I’ve got to roam”
Yes, Joe Williams died walking
The suavest man to sing the blues
He sang that every day he had them
But no one was confused
From his depths of strength and sorrow
Danced joy down to his shoes
You could’ve known Joe would die walking
by the
Way he moved on stage
Giving a smooth two-step as he
Held an arcing phrase
Dipping his knees to dig down deep
With shouts of pain and praise
You see, Joe had the perspective
That style was more than shine
That from a gritty roadhouse show
Comes truth which is divine
That making it look easy
Means you look death in the eye
Now Joe’s walking to heaven
And he’s singing all the way
He’s still singing he has the blues
With a big smile on his face
And a baritone like God’s voice
Saying, “Hello, Judgment Day!”
Every day…..
Captured by Time
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein
(spoken over intro: )
Captured by time
In the new war
Trapped in wartime
(verse 1: )
Every goodbye brings tears
The joy of seeing your eyes, their sparkle
In the next instant gone
Except in my mind, tasting of salt
And the tears in my throat open into this song
Holding you now in the air
Holding your sparkling eyes in sound
And yet you still disappear
(spoken chorus 1: )
Captured by time
All we have is trapped in time
I wish I could crush the capsule of time in my palm
In the silence, let the world find calm
But my hands are empty
Bereft I stand
A single strand
As everything else turns
(verse 2: )
I see all of you, my loves
Lined up for the end of the world
Orange and gold and blue and purple
I can see the tones swirl through you
And you know we will die
And you know that to live we must speak
Tell how the wires of power bind the strong to the weak
(spoken chorus 2: same chorus)
Captured by time
All we have is trapped in time
I wish I could crush the capsule of time in my palm
In the silence, let the world find calm
But my hands are empty
Bereft I stand
A single strand
As everything else turns
(verse 3: )
Hearing the guns go off
Even across the world, they crackle
In the next instant gone
Except in my mind, tasting of blood
And the tears in my throat open into this song
Holding you now in the air
Holding your sparkling eyes in sound
And yet you still disappear
(spoken chorus 3: same chorus)
Captured by time
All we have is trapped in time
I wish I could crush the capsule of time in my palm
In the silence, let the world find calm
But my hands are empty
Bereft I stand
A single strand
As everything else turns
(repeat verse 3
improv out)
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FREE
ME FOR THE JOY
(Piece of Pie Records POP-6055)
1. Free Me for the Joy (.mp3)
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2.
Virtual Kiss (.mp3)
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3.
You’re Not A Girl Anymore (.mp3)
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4.
Trane’s Ride (.mp3)
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cdbaby.com
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Track
list
1. I Remember Paradise - Lush,
samba-tinged pop about love, loss, and what lasts.
2. Summertime Song - Pulls you into the rhythm of the ocean
and the rhythm between two people. A hypnotic, funk-jazz mermaid
call.
3. You’re Not A Girl Anymore - Voices the bewilderment
of post-boomer women at contemporary culture’s pictures of what’s
female and starts to envision a new way. Haunting, rich pop-folk-jazz.
4. God of Your Heart - Up tempo pop-rock anthem in song
and speech about the god you are despite the commodified landscape.
5. Whoever Loves Is Afraid - A rhythmic ballad about a
best friend who borrows boyfriends and poetry.
6. Free Me for the Joy - Grooving pop r&b about seeing
past the shadows of old heartbreak to the joy of new love.
7. Turning It Around - When is a peach more than a peach?
Erotic, rhythmic, trance-inducing.
8. Virtual Kiss - Cool jazz-funk tale of cyberspace and
redemption from inside the office cubicle.
9. Trane’s Ride - Midtempo jazz-hiphop giving a voice to
Coltrane in “Naima,” with a new chorus.
10. God No. 2 - “My God who is the bodies of all
the men I’ve loved/the breasts I couldn’t suck enough/who is the
cat’s body...” Definitions of the divine that keep expanding
the expected.
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FREE
ME FOR THE JOY
Personnel
Bob Mocarsky – keyboard
J. Gardiner – keyboard and miscellaneous instruments
Dave Yamasaki – guitar
Curtis Ohlson and Frank Thibeaux – bass
Marcos R. Biddle – drums
John Santos – percussion
Sandy Cressman, Nikita Germaine, Sandy Griffith, Alice Peacock –
background vocals
Rock Hendricks – tenor sax
J. Gardiner – producer, arranger, engineer, Touch-Tone Productions
Dale Everingham, Vincent Wojno, J. Gardiner – mix engineers
Pajama Studios, Oakland, California – fabulous recording site
Paul Stubblebine – mastering, Hyde Street Studio D, San Francisco,
California
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FREE ME FOR THE JOY
Critical Response
“…a dramatic, drawn-out
emotional voice…should be commended for her finer songwriting
efforts.” - JAZZIZ
“…a hybrid sound of jazz-pop,
contemporary jazz and spoken word, all with a bit of underlying
swing…” - WWW.DOWNBEATJAZZ.COM
“Bay Area singer-songwriter-poet Lisa B pulls all her
talents together…Lisa B is certainly capable of bringing Joy.”
- CDNOW.COM
“...devoid of cliche and formula...thoughtful, creative lyrics.
Lisa B brings a fresh voice to today’s contemporary jazz.”
- ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM
“…memorable originals including one collaboration with
John Coltrane’s ‘Naima,’…an expressive study in symbolism…Lisa
B is creative, versatile, and offers an enjoyable set on her debut
release.” - JAZZREVIEW.COM
“…has built up a following in the urban cultural phenomenon…reveals
Lisa B’s talent for writing a powerful lyric…[a] rich, throaty
voice and lively command of the language…Lisa B is up for
the challenges of a performing career that can function within existing
parameters and cut new ones.” - JEWISH BULLETIN OF NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA; WASHINGTON D.C. JEWISH WEEK
“...Occasionally bringing poetry and light rapping to a quiet
storm/NAC foundation, Lisa B shows promise on her first full-length
album, [including]...a very dreamy ode to the saxophone master.
Other noteworthy songs range from the lush ‘I Remember Paradise’
and the haunting ‘Turning It Around’ to the Joni Mitchell-ish ‘You’re
Not A Girl Anymore’...” - GETMUSIC.COM
“…Lisa B finds a unique niche that fuses John Coltrane,
a breathy rap delivery, hip-hop beats, and a pronounced eroticism.”
- BAM MAGAZINE
“…a unique combination of catchy lyrics, jazzy vocals,
and pop melodies…poetry that makes it brilliant.” -
GUITAR SHOWCASE TIMES
“…red-hot performance poet and musician.” - POETRY
FLASH
“…Whatever she knows or
sings comes, in Whitman’s term, from the body electric.” -
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
For more complete reviews and response to FREE ME FOR THE JOY, go
to Press &
Quotes.
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go to CDs
Anorexia
(fictional
poetry,
Five Fingers Poetry), saddle-stitched
chapbook
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Frances Jaffer:
“These vivid poems present a story that needs to be told.
Brilliantly imagined, painful, intense, often strangely beautiful,
they evoke the constant hunger, the infuriated will, the unforgiving
rage of the adolescent, all remembered here as if in the present
by the woman who is emerging into health and appetite. An intense
and absorbing book.”
Stan Rice:
“…Its themes of domination, withdrawal, gorging, and
the various forms of craving that constitute life make this sequence
poem a metaphor for subjects beyond its title. One day is fine;
the next we find ourselves in a state without longing. And we spiritually
shrink. It is the accomplishment of this fascinating collection
of sixteen closely related poems that the particular narrator’s
struggle becomes our own writ small.”
Kevin Killian:
“We don’t find out the narrator’s name, ‘Lorie,’
until relatively late in the sequence…In the first poem, ‘My
Birthday,’ the narrator’s only a letter of the alphabet.
The ‘sliver of birthday cake’ she refuses to eat (while
watching everyone else gorge themselves) ‘is too thin to reveal
my whole name, just the o.’ …The eros behind these poems
is terrified by a desire for death so strong it would overwhelm
the entire being…Anorexia is the most hypersexual book you’ll
read for many years to come…Bernstein here has gone beyond
the limit, to a primitivist, non-logical set of alignments and balances…Ordinary
meals are described with a sickening detail that curdles the stomach…This
is the impossible, high loathing of Timon, of Coriolanus…The
allure of Anorexia is the perfectly even path Bernstein
takes, balancing this set of double-edged conceits without a false
step…Her book is responding, as well, to the lessons of Olson,
Wieners, Levertov, Creeley and the other projectivist verse masters.
If content is no more than an extension of form, the stripped-down,
demodulated line of Anorexia is a witty, charged experiment
both in evading and incorporating current strictures on language…The
narrator of the poems is always balancing content (say: calories….)
against form (she sees slender mannequins in a shop window….)
But I shouldn’t lose sight of the narrative here, since it’s
its most fascinating component. There’s a mother and a father
and their daughter, who move through different pictures of a crisis…Bernstein’s
heroine finally breaks the shackles of the taboos that surround
her to reinvent herself in a new form.”
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The Transparent
Body
(poems, Wesleyan University Press),
hardbound
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Frances Mayes:
“…Whatever she knows or sings comes, in Whitman’s term,
from the body electric.”
Daniel Halpern:
“Here’s a poetry set out in physical terms—often
ruthlessly so. Tied to the things of this world as they are, Ms.
Bernstein’s poems would have pleased William Carlos Williams—there
are plenty of things whose volume contains ideas. There’s
hardly a missed opportunity to approach the objects of her world
with open hands, to employ details of sensuality to invoke what
surrounds her. Here’s a book that wants to touch you.”
Booklist:
“…it is her gift that she manages, through the extreme
clarity of her images, always to engage us…A good selection
for women’s literature collections.”
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