Bookz.

Bookz By Or About The Homeless.

By Uncle Monty At Istanbul.

Writeovers By Alex Albion.

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There are a number of charities donating books for

the homeless to read. The problem, however, is

while such is all fine and dandy the priority for most

 homeless people is, of course, to find daily food and

nightly shelter and to hopefully get off the streets.

 Another problem is that some homeless are illiterate

 and ill-educated to read anything least of all

erudite books on this or that.

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Then we have those homeless folkz who write

 bookz about their street experience and societal

encounter of being homeless and marginalized

as rejected humanbeingz by the national culture

 at large. Most such authors think that they have

something profound or original to say in their

 bookz. Some even think they'll become rich

and famous as homeless authors. On the

whole, however, such authors are full of crap

 like The Big Issue's pigface author Anthony

John Bird, who still insists on flogging his bookz

 as an ex-homeless and ex-criminal guy under

 the guise of his self-serving autobiography and

 success methods. You won't find his bookz

listed in this piece called "Bookz By Or About

The Homeless." I see no reason to promote

 his crap, anyway.

=.=

Aside from him and his prickhead brother Peter

 Bird, I herein present a brief selection of

 homeless authors and their worthy books.

Plus, I've added a few comments from such

authors or book reviewers themselves

for you to read:

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Bones of the Homeless.

By Judy Joy Jones.

http://www.bonesofthehomeless.com/bookbyjudyjones.htm

.

Fly Away Home.

By Eve Bunting, Ronald Himler (Illustrator).

Paperback 32pp. Reissue  Ed.  (March )

Clarion Books. ISBN: 0395664152.

.

Anyplace but Here: Young, Alone, & Homeless

- What to Do.  By Ellen Switzer.

Atheneum; ISBN: 0689316941.

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Lives Turned Upside Down:  Homeless Children in

Their Own Words and Photographs. By Jim Hubbard.

Simon & Schuster (Juv); ISBN: 068980649.

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New Book: “Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders:

Homeless in San Francisco." By Theresa Gowan.

Book Overview & Review By Ezra Rosser.

"A powerful ethnographic account of life on the streets in

 San Francisco. When homelessness reemerged in American

 cities during the 1980s at levels not seen since the Great

Depression, it initially provoked shock and outrage. Within

a few years, however, what had been perceived as a

national crisis came to be seen as a nuisance, with early

sympathies for the plight of the homeless giving way to

compassion fatigue and then condemnation. Debates

around the problem of homelessness—often set in terms

 of sin, sickness, and the failure of the social system—have

come to profoundly shape how homeless people survive

and make sense of their plights. In Hobos, Hustlers, and

 Backsliders, Teresa Gowan vividly depicts the lives

of homeless men in San Francisco and analyzes the

influence of the homelessness industry on the streets,

 in the shelters, and on public policy.

.

"Gowan shows some of the diverse ways that men on

 the street in San Francisco struggle for survival, autonomy,

and self-respect. Living for weeks at a time among homeless

 men—working side-by-side with them as they collected

cans, bottles, and scrap metal; helping them set up camp;

watching and listening as they panhandled and hawked

 newspapers; and accompanying them into soup kitchens,

jails, welfare offices, and shelters—Gowan immersed

herself in their routines, their personal stories, and their

perspectives on life on the streets. She observes a wide

 range of survival techniques, from the illicit to the indust-

rious, from drug dealing to dumpster diving. She also dis-

covered that prevailing discussions about homelessness

and its causes—homelessness as pathology, homelessness

 as moral failure, and homelessness as systemic failure—

powerfully affect how homeless people see themselves

 and their ability to change their situation.

.

"Drawing on five years of fieldwork, this powerful ethno-

graphy of men living on the streets of the most liberal city

in America, Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders, makes

 clear that the way we talk about issues of extreme

poverty has real consequences for how we address

 this problem—and for the homeless themselves.

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Stop Homelessness.

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE HOMELESS GONE?

Making and Unmaking of a Crisis. By Anthony Marcus.

For a decade, from 1983 to 1993, homelessness was a

major concern in the United States. In 1994, this public

concern suddenly disappeared, without any significant

reduction in the number of people without proper housing.

By examining the making and unmaking of a homeless

 crisis, this book explores how public understandings

 of what constitutes a social crisis are shaped.

.

Drawing on five years of ethnographic research in New

York City with African Americans and Latinos living in

 poverty, Where Have All the Homeless Gone? reveals that

 the homeless “crisis” was driven as much by political mis-

representations of poverty, race, and social difference, as

 the housing, unemployment, and healthcare problems that

caused homelessness and continue to plague American cities.

.

Anthony Marcus is an urban anthropologist from New York

 City, currently a senior lecturer in International Development at

 the University of Melbourne in Australia. He has done research

 in New York, Havana, Mexico City, and Nairobi and published

 extensively in anthropology and American history.

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What I Learned While Being Homeless.

http://www.squidoo.com/Homeless-Experiences

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I hope some of these listed bookz by or about

the homeless will be of interest to those who are

themselves homeless and to those who are not

and on whatever side of the pond you happen

to be on, although bookz by Americans on

or about the homeless seem to be far more

abundant than by those by the British.  There

is a commonality of homeless experience for

folkz who are homeless no matter where in

the world they are. The only difference is the

scenery, so to speak, and the prevailing culture

 in which the homeless person finds himself or

 herself in. Otherwise, the reality of being

 homeless is no different from one person to

 the next, other than the personal nature of the

 particular person blighted by homelessness.

=.=

As for me - an ex-homeless person and a so-

called debadged Big Issue vendor by the stinking

Bird brothers of The Big Issue and also an English 

old age pensioner and avid blogger that I am - I'm

still on my double holidayz with the last leg of my

 1,800-mile trip via the Belgrade-Istanbul

E-x-p-r-e-s-s almost at an end. before heading back

 to homebase. Next week I shall resume my regular

 weekly blog feature here at allabouttthebigissue.

=.=

Take care for now, Uncle Monty at Istanbul.

+Vigil of Our Lady of Fatima, 2011.

...

Lead Image. By Uncle Monty.

The lead story image above was sent to me by

one of my American blog readers that shows the

Florida baseball attack on one of three homeless

 people that resulted in one of them dying from

 such a vicious and unprovoked attack with

deadly baseball bats earlier last month in the

USofA.  Now before you jump to any sort of

conclusion that such only happens inside America,

remember what happened to the that one Big Issue

vendor at Brighton who was killed after being

 physically attacked by three young and violent

English yobz over a stupid fag!!! Big Issue vendors

 in the UK are alwayz vunerable to such random or

deliberable attacks from either their own kind or

home-grown yobz on the streets. The Big Issue

deliberately provides no insurance to protect its

vendors nor offers any practical help for those

attacked, except to give some pathetic and

belated words of fake solidarity from the ever

greedy Bird Brothers expressing condescending

words of affected sorrow to such victims on the

streets. So, if you're a Big Issue vendor and get

attacked or killed or badly hurt, don't worry pal

 you're just a badge number and little more as far

as the Big Issue gang at London's Vauxhall HQ

 is concerned.  Their only concern is always

 making money, money, and more money off

the backs of their exploited homeless. So to

hell then with the safety and care of Big Issue

vendors for such is the real impersonal attitude

and closed mindset of the vile and greedy

Bird gang - period!

=.=

Feedback & Comments

allaboutthebigissue@britain.com

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Top Ten Bookz On Homelessness.

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Ten-Homeless-Books/lm/R2SFCE15C9HVDI

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Supreme Jihadist. By Uncle Monty.

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2011/05/supreme-jihadist.html

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