Dubliners

Dubliners Review

First, a little about the Modern Library edition...

Astute scholars have toiled quite diligently here to preserve the fifteen stories which make up this work in the precise way that James Joyce himself wanted them presented. To save time it's best to just note that Joyce encountered discord in getting this work published because various influential factions found it to be "blasphemous." This outdated assessment represents the Irish Catholic View of the age which had somehow carried over from the Victorian Period. Today one might characterize these tales as very slightly irreverent, if that. In the end, this work of top British (Irish) literature eventually saw publication in 1914.

Joyce embraced certain caveats which he wanted included via the publishing process -- he used dashes to set out dialogue instead of quotation marks as he considered the latter to manifest unnecessary baggage. Honestly, I fell right in to his technique (which is how it's presented here) and discovered that this practice makes for very palatable reading. He also wanted many corrections made to the original text and as many as possible were included in this 1993 edition.

As to the stories, I savor Joyce to the highest degree because I can relate to his paradigm -- my own writing is quite like his. I am James Joyce just as Dan Quayle was JFK. Anyway, here we have fifteen fictional accounts over the course of 286 pages (the product description is incorrect). The writing is very straight-forward, with the occasional subtle nuance which escalates this compendium into the realm which we now classify as literature. At times James is as morbidly dreary as Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment (Wordsworth Classics) and at others he panders a level of acerbity which William Faulkner conveyed in As I Lay Dying (Norton Critical Edition). These are all culturally folksy tales of Dublin salt-of-the-earth residents.

Each story chiefly focuses upon members of a repressed society, the urban working Irish at the outset of the 20th Century. These people were subjugated by archaic laws, dissolute politicians, greedy employers, by one another, but most of all by the hop and grain. Alcohol was as vast a problem for the Irish as it has historically been for both Russians and Native American Indians. The ultimate consequence for all three cultures has been essentially equivalent.

The Irish poor somehow managed to live a slightly more civilized existence than the aforementioned groups but they were still enslaved to their overwhelming social burdens -- Joyce brought these actualities to life. He lifted the mundane, indeed the melancholy, to the plateau of the melodramatic without being in the least exploitive of their collective plight. His writing style, especially his vague story conclusions, best lend themselves to suit the analytic ponderer.

If you would like to begin your reading of Joyce in chewable bites rather than tearing into Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics) or Finnegans Wake (Penguin Modern Classics) then this book is precisely what you're seeking.

Highly recommended.

Dubliners Overview

THERE was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke. Night after night I had passed the house (it was vacation time) and studied the lighted square of window: and night after night I had found it lighted in the same way, faintly and evenly. If he was dead, I thought, I would see the reflection of candles on the darkened blind for I knew that two candles must be set at the head of a corpse.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 31, 2010 01:10:05

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude Review

Allow me to start off by saying that I'm one of the (apparently few) 40-year-old women on Earth who could not get through "Eat Pray Love." I've only realy done anything resembling Yoga on the Wii Fit. If anybody else had written this book, I doubt I'd read it... but Neal Pollack is painfully honest about his journey into yoga, and though he is trying to find his best self, he never loses his bite. I'd recommend this book to anyone who thinks that yoga is delegated either to wealthy soccer moms or that patchouli-smelling barefoot guy who had a vitamin store in the 70s. And to anyone who has reached, gone through, or even thought about having any kind of personal identity crisis.

In "Stretch," Pollack embarks on an early-midlife crisis after a literary reviewer makes a crass comment about his appearance. He doesn't have a "lighting bolt" turnaround; none of what he's going through is easy (emotionally or physically), but he's also upfront about the fact that his suffering is on a relative scale.

This is not a book about how someone overcame a great outside obstacle (traumatic disability, violence, force of nature), but how he took on a very personal crisis. I love that Pollack is so honest about how some teachers and methods really appealed to him, and some did not -- and that he was brave enough to try a little bit of everything he could to develop his own approaches. He reveals throughout the book how his wife both supported his search and sometimes was the voice of reason for him. And I think that the fact that he did go on this personal journey will make him a better teacher, because in sharing his own trials and tribulations, he will be more able to relate to those of others.

Witty, touching, and very down-to-earth for a book that's really about a spiritual journey, "Stretch" won't force you into studying yoga, but don't be surprised if you start downloading Michael Franti and standing a little taller after reading it.

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude Feature

• ISBN13: 9780061727696
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude Overview

The hilarious true account of an overweight, balding, skeptical guy's unexpected transformation into a healthy, blissful yoga fiend.

Neal Pollack was out of shape. The hair on his head was thinning and the hair on his face was pretentious—traits a New York Times critic gleefully pointed out while panning his second book. Combined with the predestined failure of his punk rock band, it was almost too much for Pollack to bear. He was willing to try anything to get his life back on track . . . even yoga.

While struggling to master difficult poses without kicking other yogis in the face, Pollack actually, remarkably, began to feel better, both in body and mind. Soon he found himself immersed in the "weird and circuslike" world of yoga. He participated in a 24-hour yogathon, attended yoga conferences and Asian retreats, went to yoga rock shows, started getting regular assignments for Yoga Journal magazine, and, finally, began teaching yoga classes himself.

Stretch mercilessly lampoons the bizarre, omnipresent culture of yoga, but it's also a story of profound personal transformation. Pollack started off mocking yoga. Now he's become one of its most enthusiastic proponents.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 29, 2010 19:15:07

The American Promise: A History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877

The American Promise: A History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877 Review

I bought this book for my sister, and
she loves it!
Thank GOD for helping me pick this history book
for her!!! She loves it so much, and
she has started reading it already!
It is packed with detail information!

I hope this convinces you to buy it too!
Thanks for reading!

The American Promise: A History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877 Overview

The American Promise is more teachable and memorable than any other U.S. survey text. The balanced narrative braids together political and social history so that students can discern overarching trends as well as individual stories. The voices of hundreds of Americans — from Presidents to pipefitters, and sharecroppers to suffragettes — animate the past and make concepts memorable.

The past comes alive for students through dynamic special features and a stunning and distinctive visual program. Over 775 contemporaneous illustrations — more than any competing text — draw students into the text, and more than 180 full-color maps increase students’ geographic literacy. A rich array of special features complements the narrative, offering more points of departure for assignments and discussion. Longstanding favorites include Documenting the American Promise, Historical Questions, The Promise of Technology, and Beyond America’s Borders, representing a key part of our effort to increase attention paid to the global context of American history.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 28, 2010 16:30:06

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession Review

Running time: 7 hours, 9 minutes
6 CDs
Read by Kirsten Potter


Let me start this review by saying three things:

1) I am not a Catholic (I am a Lutheran);
2) I have never left the faith in any meaningful way;
3) This is my first Anne Rice book - I've never even seen more than a tiny bit the Tom Cruise movie.

I have never had much interest in the topic of Vampires and Vampire LeStat series was literally of no interest to me. When I noticed that Rice was writing the Christ the Lord series I had the same thought that she expressed in this book - what is she going to do to mess with Jesus? So, I ignored that as well.

But, when I ran across this audiobook I suddenly grew interested and I was not disappointed.

The book is broken into three general sections: her childhood in New Orleans, her college/career/atheism and her return to Catholicism.

The childhood section is deeply descriptive, so lush that I felt like I was wandering the streets of post-World War II New Orleans with her. Her descriptions of the full and complete life she had as a young Catholic are nothing short of beautiful. As a Lutheran I am mystified by the Maryology and the prayers to saints. This is the largest of the three sections. If the book were truncated to include only this part it would still be a worthy read.

The second section is much less detailed and is the smallest of the three parts. It is interesting but I never was quite satisfied as to the explanation for her falling away from her faith. But, then again, she notes it was just one comment from one priest that finished the job of pushing her away and, in my experience, that is often what people use as the excuse for walking away - a comment or a look from someone. Rice's comments about the Hippy scene in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s are very interesting and, at times, highly amusing.

The third section is about her return to faith. It is well done and nearly as good as the first section. I suppose that Rice intentionally made the first and third chapters much more vibrant than the middle chapter since those involve her life as a believer and she emphasizes its importance by making her work much more descriptive.

Interesting comments that I noted along the way:

-Rice notes that Christmas at the mall is the only place that some encounter the "sacred" in their lives and, sad though it is, at least there is that.

-She notes that there are, for her, two kinds of Christians: Christmas Christians (celebrations and joy) and Easter Christians (perserverance and struggle for the Faith). I've never thought of it that way but it something to ponder.

-She has serious thoughts about what she should do as a follower of Christ. This is a struggle for her and, I have to say, I've had my own struggles with this very issue. It was nice to hear a fellow Christian's thoughts.

-She was asked in an interview" "How has returning to Christ actually influenced your life?"
Answer: "It demands of me that I love people."

She goes on to say: "To love my friends and to love my enemies. And the mystery was that loving my friends was sometimes harder than loving my enemies."

I laughed out loud and nearly cried at the same time at this one - so true and such a mystery of life.

This audiobook was brilliantly read by Kirsten Potter, and I am not using the term "brilliantly" lightly. She made this book her own as she read it and transported this listener with her voice. Amazing.

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession Overview

Anne Rice’s first work of nonfiction—a powerful and haunting memoir that explores her continuing spiritual transformation.
 
Anne Rice was raised in New Orleans as the devout child in a deeply religious Irish Catholic family. Here, she describes how, as she grew up, she lost her belief in God, but not her desire for a meaningful life.  She used her novels—beginning with Interview with a Vampire—to wrestle with otherworldly themes while in her own life, she experienced both loss (the death of her daughter and, later, her beloved husband, Stan Rice) and joys (the birth of her son, Christopher).  And she writes about how, finally, after years of questioning, she experienced the intense conversion and re-embracing of her faith that lie behind her most recent novels about the life of Christ.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 28, 2010 10:45:05

Orthodoxy: 20th Century (Twentieth Century Christian Classics)

Orthodoxy: 20th Century (Twentieth Century Christian Classics) Review

This book is pure brilliance. I only recently came across Chesterton as something more than a name I had heard. This is the first book by him that I have read, and I have to express awe and great pleasure with it. Chesterton has this wonderfully peculiar way of presenting a successive argument (in a light, almost flippant manner) that gains strength and cogency as it unfolds. Peppered within his arguments are statements that may often seem zany and funny at first, but that with more thought and concentration grow strikingly and reveal themselves to be potent catalysts for challenging long-held assumptions. Chesterton in this book puts old truths in new perspective. He succeeds admirably, and somewhat paradoxically, at turning conventional wisdom on its head and yet strengthening the very idea of convention in the process. We're living today in an age of waning traditional influences kind of like the one in which this book was written. But I invite skeptics of tradition and religion to give this book a try. They might find that Oliver Wendell Holmes's statement - about a mind never regaining its original dimensions once stretched by a new idea - applies to much of this book in ways they might not expect...or find comfortable.

Orthodoxy: 20th Century (Twentieth Century Christian Classics) Overview

Gilbert Keith Chesterton called himself a "pagan" at 12 and was agnostic by 16. He then developed a personal, positive philosophy that turned out to be orthodox Christianity. First published in 1908, when he was 35, this intellectual and spiritual autobiography combines simplicity with subtlety in a model apologetic for those who face the same materialism and anti-supernaturalism as the "man at war with his times".

Orthodoxy: 20th Century (Twentieth Century Christian Classics) Specifications

If G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith is, as he called it, a "slovenly autobiography," then we need more slobs in the world. This quirky, slender book describes how Chesterton came to view orthodox Catholic Christianity as the way to satisfy his personal emotional needs, in a way that would also allow him to live happily in society. Chesterton argues that people in western society need a life of "practical romance, the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome." Drawing on such figures as Fra Angelico, George Bernard Shaw, and St. Paul to make his points, Chesterton argues that submission to ecclesiastical authority is the way to achieve a good and balanced life. The whole book is written in a style that is as majestic and down-to-earth as C.S. Lewis at his best. The final chapter, called "Authority and the Adventurer," is especially persuasive. It's hard to imagine a reader who will not close the book believing, at least for the moment, that the Church will make you free. --Michael Joseph Gross

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 22, 2010 16:25:04

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron Review

One thing I learned from "The Smartest Guys in the Room" that I had missed in the daily news coverage of Enron was that Ken Lay was always a cheat. At least, he was a cheat almost from the beginning of Enron in the mid-'80s, when he connived at the looting of his own company by the traders at the small, but at the time only profitable division called Enron Oil.

Not only that, but the secret cheating was exposed to anyone disposed to look carefully, through lawsuits. If this was known to the people who did business with Lay later -- and it would have been a part of their business to know it -- it did not seem to dissuade anybody. Of course, if someone chose not to deal with a crook, that would not usually be recorded; but Lay had a remarkably wide circle of friends. We can conclude that there was no strong prejudice in the business (and government and social and gimmee) community to dealing with a thief.

"Smartest Guys" tells a complicated story in a smooth fashion (too smooth for great precision, perhaps, but otherwise it would have ended up reading like a legal brief), and it raises a question that has bugged me during all of my 35 years as a business reporter: How do large organizations become psychopathological?

McLean and Elkind lay much of the blame on No. 2 Jeff Skilling. Perhaps he was the single germ that infected the organism, although Lay was already a crook, and Lay's top aides also had decided cheating was OK, before Skilling was recruited.

We can perhaps think of Enron, as it was created by Lay, who hired a lot of cronies when he formed the business via a merger of two more or less respectable old firms, as genetically ;predisposed to the disease of theft and fraud. Did people hire on and, learning what was happening, quietly leave? There is little evidence of that, although there were a few who cried caution.

Very few.

It is practically impossible for a moral man to influence a large psychopathological organization from the inside. It will crush or eject him.

That is why -- contrary to the dingbat free market economists that Lay (a Ph.D. in economics) emulated -- outside oversight is necessary. In the case of Enron, the only outside oversight came from a sector with no skin in the game: the business press.

While journalists did not run a campaign to clean up Enron, some of them did spot the signs of disease almost as soon as the disease broke out and pointed it out. As with Bernard Madoff, few people cared.

Government regulators, auditors, rating agencies and the supposed arbiters who are said to protect capitalism -- what former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan calls counterparty surveillors -- either bellied up to the trough or looked the other way.

The most amazing failure was of Enron's board. It is easy enough to see why a man like Lou Pai would have bent his ethics (if he had ever had any, which seems doubtful). He got 0 million. The directors got money -- chump change by comparison -- plus, I suppose, prestige. You could have bought their souls at Filene's bargain basement.

A second group of watchdogs eventually -- although not as soon as the journalists -- caught on, and they had skin in. These were the short sellers.

All in all, though, Enron not only underperformed the market in the long run, it undersold even the most virulent critics of market capitalism. Lenin may have believed that capitalists were so shortsighted that they would sell the rope the hangman wanted to hang them with, but he never thought capitalists were stupid. Enron proved him too sanguine.

In any event, Enron proves as conclusively as anyone could wish that there is no such thing as general intelligence. It also proves that when Wall Street says it must have extraordinary compensation programs in order to attract the best talent, Wall Street is an ass. Enron paid the most and got the least talent.

"Smartest Guys" is a longish book, but it rackets along at a sprightly pace. Part of this is due to the lack of supporting material. The authors say they interviewed hundreds of people and thousands of documents, and I believe them; and that many of the people spoke only on a promise of concealment, and I believe that, too. This is too bad, but McLean and Elkind are professional business journalists and so entitled to a certain assumption of honesty. More than anyone at Enron, anyhow.

The only really disappointing part of the book concerns the California electricity marketing crisis. One thing I did not understand at the time was how the Enron scam could work. It was close to a corner on the market, and corners usually fail because it pays other actors to break them. Yet somehow this corner held together.

McLean and Elkind don't explain how this happened, and they say it may be that no one will ever be able to reconstruct what happened. it should make for an interesting problem for the game theorists.

The California episode came late in Enron's life. McLean and Elkind say that the fundamental miscalculation at Enron was Skilling's creation of what he called the Gas Bank, a way of trading contracts. And that within this concept, the key error was to choose mark-to-market accounting. They do an excellent job of explaining how this worked in practice. It was a version of a Ponzi scheme, using money of account, rather than actual cash, to bilk investors.

This part is clear enough. Enron, which had originally been in the business of buying and selling natural gas, created a pretend business where it gambled on pieces of paper that were labeled "natural gas production" and "natural gas delivery" but could just as easily have been labeled aces and deuces.

It was gambling, no different from little boys pitching pennies against a wall. It turned the natural gas business into a bucket shop.

I would judge that there was an even more fundamental error that supported the concept of the Gas Bank (aside from the foolish worship of free markets), and that was the failure of these smarties to understand what accounting is. Almost all the players in "Smartest Guys" were CPAs or MBAs (mostly from Harvard) or both, but not one of them was intelligent enough to understand what every community college freshman is told on the first day of accounting class: Accounting is not a set of arbitrary rules that you use to trick saps into giving you their money, it is a way to quantify how your finances are doing.

For nearly every quarter for over 50 quarters, Enron had to devise one or another doubtfully allowable accounting trick to "make the numbers." You would suppose that a really smart guy would figure out that this was a signal that his business was failing.

The crazy thing is, after Enron collapsed in 2002 (following right behind Long Term Capital Management), the smart money on Wall Street all chorused: Hey, we want some of that, and they extended the Enron model to the entire economy.

Many of the biggest players had intimate knowledge of what Enron had done, had helped Enron do it and, often enough, got burned when it ended. It turns insider trading on its head. Usually the insiders are considered, in law and in practice, to have an unfair advantage. Not these wise guys.

"The Smartest Guys in the Room" was published in mid-2003 and stops at the bankruptcy.

In an epilogue that in 2010 sounds naïve, McLean and Elkind relate what happened when some of the players were taken to the woodpile: "At is annual meeting in May, J.P. Morgan Chase issued a statement saying, `We have seen more than the usual number of serious accidents at the intersection of Wall Street and Main. And our financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan Chase, must take their share of responsibility for that.' Two months later, J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup agreed to pay a combined 6 million for 'helping to commit a fraud' on Enron's shareholders, as SEC enforcement chief Stephen Cutler told reporters. The two banks also agreed to ensure that their clients who used complex financial structures account for them in ways that investors could readily understand. Investors will have to wait until the next bull market to gauge whether anything has really changed."

They didn't have to wait long.

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron Feature

• ISBN13: 9781591840534
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron Overview

Just as Watergate was the defining political story of its time, so Enron is the biggest business story of our time. And just as All the President’s Men was the one Watergate book that gave readers the full story, with all the drama and nuance, The Smartest Guys in the Room is the one book you have to read to understand this amazing business saga.

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron Specifications

Like its subject, The Smartest Guys in the Room is ambitious, grand in scope, and ruthless in its dealings. Unlike Enron, the Texas-based energy giant that has come to represent the post-millennium collapse of 1990s go-go corporate culture, it's also ultimately successful. Penned by Fortune scribes Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, the 400-page-plus chronicle of the scandal digs deep inside the numbers while, wisely, maintaining focus on the "smart guys" deep-frying the books. The likes of paternal but disengaged CEO Ken Lay (dubbed "Kenny Boy" by George W. Bush, one of many prominent public figures with whom he rubbed shoulders), cutthroat man-behind-the-curtain Jeff Skilling, and ethically blind numbers whiz Andy Fastow vividly come to life as they make a mockery of conventional accounting practices and grow increasingly arrogant and bind to their collective hubris. They're not a likable lot, and the writers find it difficult to suppress their astonishment and revulsion with the crew who rapidly went from golden boys and girls of the financial world to pariahs when the bill finally came due. The authors' unrepressed sarcasms are more than often unnecessarily given the scope of the outrage. Enron's leading lights were or a time celebrated for their ability to concoct nearly unfathomable business schemes to hide mounting shortfalls and keeping track on their machinations can be a chore, but, by sticking hard to the story behind the fall, McLean and Elkind have reported and written the definitive account of the Enron debacle. --Steven Stolder

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 19, 2010 09:55:05

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Review

Laura Thatcher Ullrich is to be commended for taking a very long, handwritten manuscript and revealing to us the essence of Martha Ballard and the life she lived in Maine. Those who appreciate history and, in particular, the often untold stories of women in history, will get a glimpse inside the world of women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It's remarkable that Martha Ballard kept a diary and even more astounding that it didn't end up in the trash. Through Martha's eyes we see her life as a wife, mother, friend and midwife. We see the strife and disappointments, those moments of happiness as her children are married and "go to housekeeping." As was pointed out by the author, had there not been a diary, nothing would have been known about Martha Ballard or the role she played in her community. I highly recommend this book.

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Feature

• ISBN13: 9780679733768
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Overview

Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 19, 2010 02:12:05

Works of James Joyce: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Exiles & Chamber Music (mobi)

Works of James Joyce: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Exiles & Chamber Music (mobi) Review

Another excellent collection from MobileReference. I purchased a few of those and really satisfied with each one of them. The collections are inexpensive and well thought through. They have not one but several tables of contents that organize books by category, alphabetically, and by their publication time. So finding a book is really easy. Furthermore, if you want a quote, you can search the collection ebook and that searches all individual books at once.

Works of James Joyce: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Exiles & Chamber Music (mobi) Overview

This collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography.

Table of Contents

Novels:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
Ulysses (1922)

Play:
Exiles (1915)

Poetry:
Chamber Music (1907)

Short story collection:
Dubliners (1914)

Short stories:
After the Race
Araby
The Boarding House
Clay
Counterparts
The Dead
An Encounter
Eveline
Grace
Ivy Day in the Committee Room
A Little Cloud
A Mother
A Painful Case
The Sisters
Two Gallants

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 18, 2010 14:45:05

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) Review

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is one of the few books that every American should read and is also essential for anyone even remotely interested in American history, African Americans, or slavery's sad story. It is a fine piece of writing in itself and also of immense historical value - a true American classic.

The most obvious aspect is of course autobiographical. American literature has a long, prestigious autobiographical tradition, and this is one of the best entries. Douglass' account of his life is profoundly moving and immensely thought-provoking. He begins with his first memories and carries his story all the way to what was then the present. Needless to say, the inside look at slavery from a slave's perspective is the most valuable part; there are numerous such narratives, but this is surely preeminent. The story is heart-wrenching, vividly and unforgettably detailing humanity's inhumanity; we see what it was like to be a slave in regard to everything from food, clothing, and shelter to labor. Many of the incidents are almost painful to even read; actually living through them - or even being alive when such things happened - is now thankfully unimaginable. Douglass gives several examples of physical cruelty, but the most harrowing stories may well be those of psychological torture and simple denial of basic human feelings, as in the heartless breaking up of families. Such things are inherently moving, and this would be one of the most emotional works ever if it were fiction, but the stunning fact that it is not makes it all the more meaningful. The dread weight of its truth is particularly shocking when we realize that Douglass came from one of the areas where slavery was least harsh. The horrors here related are thankfully long past, but such books will always be immensely valuable as reminders of just how cruel people can be - and have been quite recently. We must never forget, lest they happen again.

Douglass in this way is more representative than individual, and he indeed took it on himself to speak for all slaves. The book was in this sense propagandistic and did its job better than anyone could have expected, laying slavery's evils bare to many who were previously unaware or unable - possibly unwilling - to believe. It was an abolitionist milestone and had a real effect in moving slavery toward its end. Yet Douglass' story is extremely interesting in itself; indeed, in many ways he was the spiritual successor of Benjamin Franklin, founder of the American autobiographical tradition. Franklin practically invented the American dream by showing how hard work and perseverance could raise one from humble beginnings to wealth, fame, and acclaim. Douglass had infinitely worse circumstances yet managed to rise far above them - not only teaching himself to read but becoming a genuine autodidact, not only escaping slavery but becoming a noted abolitionist, orator, writer, black leader, and racial authority with world fame and reverence. Few stories are more inspirational, and the work is thus on top of everything else the best kind of self-help book. Douglass unforgettably shows that it is possible to overcome even the most adverse circumstances and gives a good idea of how to do so.

One must not neglect to mention that, incredible as it is, Douglass is a premier prose stylist. Considering his circumstances, the fact that he was able to write at all is amazing; anyone would make great allowance for poor or even semi-literature writing. In fact, though, Douglass is a top-level writer; this is not only one of the very few autobiographies that is true literature but simply great writing per se. The writing is simple in the best sense; Douglass truly embodied Jonathan Swift's good style definition: "Proper words in proper places." He is admirably clear and concise. That said, he works himself up to a rhapsody when appropriate, reaching near-lyrical heights; the passage where he compares himself to the free is one of the most affecting and best-written I have seen in the hundreds or thousands of books I have read. That Douglass' Narrative has this totally unlooked for virtue in addition to all others is thoroughly impressive.

Simply put, anyone who has not read this should do so as soon as possible; few books are more important or memorable. Douglass is an American giant, and this is his enduring fame's base. No one who reads it can forget it, and that may be the highest praise of all.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) Feature

• ISBN13: 9780312257378
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) Overview

This second edition of Douglass's Narrative reprints this classic document together with speeches and letters, all in a volume designed for undergraduate students. An extensive introduction places the Narrative in its historical and literary contexts with annotations on needed background.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 18, 2010 07:34:26

Disgrace

Disgrace Review

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

A terse and gripping novel, though the tension eases off in the rather cerebral ending. And there are several enigmatic elements in the book.

Fifty-two-year old Professor David Lurie teaches the Romantic Poets at the Technical University in Cape Town. He has bedded many women in his time, and now he seduces Melanie Isaacs, one of his students. She is strangely passive in the affaire and one wonders why she ever let herself be seduced. When the story comes out, Lurie is called before a committee of enquiry. Some of its members lean over backwards to avoid dismissing him if he will give an explanation and an expression of regret; but he refuses to do more than accept what he has done, refuses to apologize for obeying his sexual urges, and so has to resign.

Disgraced, he goes to the Eastern Cape, intending to stay for a short time with his daughter Lucy, perhaps the only person whom he really loves. She runs a smallholding in a rural area, and is helped by Petrus, who is in the process of acquiring the part of her land on which he works. Lurie has not seen his daughter for about a year, and now the balance of the relationship between them is reversed. He helps a bit with her and with Petrus, and fits in with her Spartan life-style.

And then three local men turn up and,in a terrifying chapter, rape Lucy; Lurie is unable to help her and is nearly killed himself. Coetzee does not need to state specifically that the assailants were black; and it is actually quite a way into the book before we realize that Petrus, too, is black, and that the whole story is set in post-apartheid South Africa and that there are racial tensions in the area.

Does Lucy feel disgraced by what has happened to her? Does she seek to have her assailants prosecuted? Though clearly distressed, she seems as passive about what has happened as Melanie had been, though in her case we come to understand her reasons; less so perhaps why she turns down her father's urging that she should leave the area where she is so exposed to further attacks. He certainly cannot understand her, and his lack of understanding makes him feel old: "no country, this, for old men" - not for old men who do not understand the changing times, not for old men who do not understand their children, any more than it is for old men who lust after young women.

Two other themes run through the book. One is about dogs who feature heavily in the story: guard dogs; stray dogs whom nobody wants; dogs who are killed by the assailants; dogs who are brought to an animal welfare centre to be treated or, if past treatment, to be put down. Lurie helps the woman who runs the welfare centre, and takes the corpses of the dead dogs to the incinerator. Throughout the book he feels compassion for animals and sees parallels between them and humans.

The other theme, which for me has a certain longueur, is Lurie's involvement with Byron. He had taught Byron to his (understandably bored) students: his lectures focus on the analysis of words, and seem to convey little of the romantic spirit. In his relationships he is after all the most unromantic of men. What he has in common with Byron are sexual urges and that he tires of his conquests soon after he has made them. He tries to compose an opera about Byron, but he can make no headway with it until near the end: then he makes the dead Byron a ghost, and he scores the musical accompaniment not for the rich chords of the piano, but for the dry and "silly" plink-plonk of a banjo: not erotic, not elegiac, but comic. Every part of Coetzee's book is carefully thought out, and the symbolism of the passages on Byron is no doubt wider and deeper than I could understand.

A worthy winner of the 1999 Booker Prize.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 17, 2010 20:09:06

The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back

The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back Review

This is not the type of book that I would generally read. During the summer months I usually read books like The Millionaire Mind, Millionaire Next Door etc, in hopes of making my perceived meager salary stretch further and thus allowing us to live a "better life". My spouse got this book whilst we were vacationing Up North for a week. I sat down with it and within minutes I knew I had to complete it.

Kevin & Hannah Salwin (17 years old) have come up with a thought provoking tome. This book is about so very much more than donating to the less fortunate. The Salwin family, as a group in which each family member (4), gets a vote in the decision to sell their large, luxurious home and use the profits to help those less well off. As a parent and an educator I was really impressed with the family voting dynamics used in their decision. All this also takes place at the very beginning of the housing meltdown. They are unable to sell their large Atlanta home. Mr. Salwin's independent venture, a magazine startup, also crashes and burns at this juncture. They press on.

The Salwins move into a house half as big as their original digs. They interview four agencies that are set up to improve the lives of others. They choose Africa. They point out that many Africans live on less than /day. The purpose of each interview is to see which agency will deliver the most "bang for the buck". Once the agency they want to support has been chosen they decide to go to Africa to see how their money will be used. They go to Ghana.

The Salwins point out the pitfalls of just opening a wallet and considering the job finished. Much to the chagrin of many well meaning people who go on 1 week "mission trips", they also point out that these types of trips usually just foster dependence on the part of the recipients. They may make the "mission trip" volunteer feel good, but for all intents and purposes are not as effective as empowering locals and making them responsible for their own success or failure.

The Salwin's trip to Ghana to see the fruits of their efforts is interesting. Many local chiefs, it turns out, do not want to share power with female members of the tribe. One of their organization's caveats is that women will comprise 50% of the executive board. The tribe will also be responsible for maintaining the power station, milling machines, etc. The Salwins share that many times missionaries come back on an annual basis to find such machinery not used as a result of mechanical failure and have to fix it themselves. The process is, many times, repeated annually.

The Salwins point out that throwing money at a problem is not sufficient. They also advocate hands on labor and sacrifices as the best way to help others. Hannah volunteered a good amount of time at an Atlanta soup kitchen. Joseph, the son, made a video of their journey. Such hands on, site centered volunteer work, they argue, is much better than just donating to United Way or other benevolent organizations.

While not ready to embark on such a journey myself, I did enjoy reading their account of the effort. I have also decided to re-evaluate certain aspects of my life. While not nearly as well to do as the Salwins, we do live very well materially. Perhaps it is time for me to focus more on others and not so much on success measured in things and material wealth. Do I really need a newer car? A boat? Whatever. Kevin and Hannah have definitely made me look at things in a different way. I have recommended the book to friends and neighbors as well. That seems, to me, to be the mark of a truly good book. Well done, Salwins!

The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back Feature

• ISBN13: 9780547248066
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back Overview

It all started when fourteen-year old Hannah Salwen had a “eureka” moment. Seeing a homeless man in her neighborhood at the precise second a glistening Mercedes coupe pulled up, she said “You know, Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal.”

Until that day, the Salwens had been caught up like so many of us in the classic American dream—providing a good life for their children, accumulating more and more stuff, doing their part but not really feeling it. So when Hannah was stopped in her tracks by this glaring disparity, her parents knew they had to act on her urge to do something. As a family, they made the extraordinary decision to sell their Atlanta mansion, downsize to a house half its size, and give half of the sale price to a worthy charity. What began as an outlandish scheme became a remarkable journey that transported them across the globe and well out of their comfort zone. In the end they learned that they had the power to change a little corner of the world—and they found themselves changing, too.

The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back Specifications

Product Description
It all started when 14-year old Hannah Salwen, idealistic but troubled by a growing sense of injustice in the world, had a eureka moment when a homeless man in her neighborhood was juxtaposed against a glistening Mercedes coupe. "You know, Dad," she said, pointing, "If that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal."

This glaring disparity led the Salwen family of four, caught up like so many other Americans in this age of consumption and waste, to follow Hannah's urge to do something, to finally just do something. And so they embarked on an incredible journey together from which there would be no turning back. They decided to sell their Atlanta mansion, downsize to a house half its size, and give half of their profits to a worthy charity. At first it was an outlandish scheme. "What, are you crazy? No way!" Then it was a challenge. "We are TOTALLY doing this." Each week they met over dinner to discuss their plan. It would transport them across the globe and well out of their comfort zone. Along the way they would inspire so many others wrestling with the same questions: Do I give enough? How much is enough? How can I make an impact in the world? In the end the Salwens' journey would bring them closer as a family, as they discovered, together, that half could be so much more.

Warm, funny, deeply moving and wholly uplifting, The Power of Half is the story of how one family slammed the door on the status quo and threw away the key.

---

Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Author Kevin Salwen

Dear Amazon Readers,

What does "living well" mean? By traditional standards, our family was there--nice cars, expensive vacations, dream house, fancy stuff in it. It took a fourteen-year-old to make us take a second look.

That teenager, as you probably know from glancing at the book description above, is Hannah (now seventeen). As she and I waited at a stoplight just a few blocks from our home, Hannah's head swiveled between a homeless man and a pricey new car. As she wrote in her journal later: "Driving past the homeless man that one time changed my life. I felt sad, like I wanted to help him, but angry, really angry. At myself mainly. Thinking there was so much I could do for this man and for a lot of the poor people in this world considering I had so much."

Now, Hannah is not one to keep emotions to herself. She brought that anger back to our family's dinner table, challenging us to "be a family that makes a difference in the world, even if it's a small difference."

My wife, Joan, and I defended ourselves: We volunteer for Habitat and work at the food bank.

Hannah stared, unimpressed.

Joan and I described the checks we wrote to charities each December.

Hannah rolled her eyes.

Finally, Joan decided to challenge back: "What do you want to do, sell our house? Move into one half the size? Give up your room?"

That opening series of questions launched our family on an audacious project that we chronicle in The Power of Half. How we decided to sell our house. How we chose to invest the proceeds. Our travels to the places where we decided to work. Along the way, we tried to figure out how much was the right amount to give to charity, both in time and money (the average American gives 2.1 percent of income). We learned about extreme giving (50 percent, anyone?) by average people and about new programs popping up to teach kids about sharing and spending.

But if that were the whole story, I doubt we would have written this book. Joan and I began to realize that our "Half" project was transforming our family--heightening our trust in one another, empowering our kids, building a deeper connection. Because we, as the parents, shared influence and listened in a new way to our kids, our project to make the world a little better was making the chemistry between us a lot better. In other words, we had traded some stuff for togetherness--and I bet a lot of folks would take that deal.

So Hannah and I are hoping that our book can inspire you to create your own "Half" project. We don't expect you to sell your house, of course (that's nuts!), just to look at your life to determine what you have more than enough of. It could be time; it could be belongings. Depending on what issue you care about, you can brainstorm creatively what you can live with half of. (One example: If fighting drug addiction is your passion, you could give up half of the cups of caffeine-laced coffee and cola you drink.) By following the road map in the book, you can build your own project, and in turn create deeper bonds among your family, community, any group you choose. Oh, and of course make the world a little better at the same time.

That's our definition of living well now.

Kevin Salwen

(Photo © Allison Shirrefs)

---

A Q&A with Kevin and Hannah Salwen, Authors of The Power of Half

Q: What made you decide to write a book about your family's experiences? And what is meant by "the power of half"?

Hannah Salwen: After we decided to sell our home and give half the profits to a charity, we began getting questions from friends and others about how they could do something like our family did. They didn't want to sell their houses (no one is that crazy!), but they saw how our family was taking action and had become connected. So we realized that we could help people understand that this is an amazing way to improve relationships within families while making the world a little bit better.

Kevin Salwen: As to "why half"--well, the concept of "half" provides a measurable way to keep track. When we think about charity, so many of us say, "I ought to do more." But "more" is so mushy that we don't end up doing anything significant. The size of the project doesn't matter; it can be as simple as watching half the number of hours of TV each week and using the freed-up time to make a difference in others' lives (and of course your own).

Q: In these trying economic times, how can we expect people to even think about giving more?

KS: These are difficult times indeed. But The Power of Half is a book of hope and optimism. The American Dream has always been about parents wanting their children to have a better life than they did, but it usually has been measured by social standing and assets. Joan and I wanted a better life for our children too, but our American Dream focused more on their inner selves than on their assets.

The Power of Half tells the story of a family that decided it can make a difference in making the world better--even, to use Hannah's words, if it's a small difference. We love the quote by Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop: "If you think you're too small to make a difference, you've never been in bed with a mosquito." The "secret sauce" for our project is that we did it together and over a sustained period of time, unlike many volunteer or giving actions, in which individuals head in different directions or work together sporadically. That unity brought our family a heightened awareness of one another's perspectives and energized us not only to want to do more work in the world but also to understand one another better.

At this time when people need to cut back on their spending, the time invested in family becomes even more critical. The Power of Half shows how working together builds a stronger family. True happiness comes from community, and family is the most core community we have.

HS: One other thing. Doing a power-of-half project doesn't require a ton of money. We decided to sell our house because it was a sacrifice we felt we could live with. But the power of half works just as well with lower-cost or no-cost "halves." We always explain to people that they can choose the clothes in their closet, the time spent playing video games, or the price of meals eaten out. Readers can choose their own "half"--it's all about the process.

Q: Why did you choose to support Africa instead of a project closer to home?

HS: We spent a year as a family deciding exactly how and where to use our money. It was a process, by the way, in which we kids had exactly the same say as the adults--after all, we were giving up our house too. It was interesting because my brother, Joseph, wasn't exactly excited about this idea from the beginning. He became our family skeptic, and we knew that once we proved something to Joe, we really had it right.

KS: While we had been--and remain--quite active in Atlanta (we volunteer often at the food bank and Central Night Shelter, and I have been on the Atlanta Habitat board for six years), after a series of family votes we decided to do this project in Africa because
• we view the world as a single community, a place where the luck of where you're born shouldn't be the biggest determining factor in whether you receive help
• there is no safety net in rural Africa--no Head Start, no food stamps--to fill critical gaps
• we wanted our project to completely solve a problem with a group of people, and since our money goes further in Africa, we learned that we could help entire villages build their futures
• we wanted something exotic, something that would take us out of our comfort zone. It was so helpful for our kids (and for us as parents too) to be "the other" for a little while, to recognize what it feels like to be someone born without the privileges we enjoy.

Q: Any other reasons The Power of Half is particularly relevant now?

KS: These times are extraordinary for so many reasons, particularly the competing moods of fear, change, hope, stress. Parents are feeling those emotions even more strongly (and it's even more acute with divorced or single parents). With our senses heightened, so many of us are rethinking our lives. The Power of Half offers readers inspiration and new tools to bring their lives a healthier focus, all wrapped up in an entertaining family tale.

(Photo © Allison Shirrefs)

---

Photographs from the Authors of The Power of Half
(Click on images to enlarge)

The Salwen family in front of their old house	Moving day at the Salwen house	Hannah Salwen cuts the ribbon for the Hunger Project	Where "the power of half" brought the Salwen family

---

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 16, 2010 16:24:04

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith Review

I once heard Barbara Brown Taylor at a preaching conference in Atlanta, GA. She carried herself with such poise and spoke so elegantly, we were all knocked out. Every preacher I know wants to preach like Barbara Brown Taylor, and all her books are wildly popular. To top it all off, Taylor has been named as one of the "Top Ten Preachers in the English language," so her reputation is stellar.

In her book, "Leaving Church", however, Taylor has shocked us. She tells the story of how she decided to leave the pulpit for academia. She resigned her position as rector of a church and now teaches religion and philosophy at Clark College in Georgia. One of the brute facts that preachers face these days is that many pew-sitters are "leaving church" and not coming back. So it seems hard to accept that our champion preacher has herself left the church.

Taylor details the circumstances that brought her to become the rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Clarksville, Georgia. She fell in love with the building on her first visit. "Simply to stand in the presence of that building was to rest. Peace poured off the white boards and caught me in its wake."

By virtue of her preaching and her pastoral presence, the church grew rapidly, and she soon had to increase from three Sunday services to four. The demands on her time mounted and she began to feel burned out. Her old back troubles returned and she fell into depression. "I saw my tiresome perfectionism, my resentment of those who did not try as hard as me, and my huge appetite for approval."

This is a familiar story to those of us in ministry. Overwork leads to burnout which leads to physical and mental breakdown. Taylor's romantic dream of the country parson didn't come true. Looking back, she writes, "My desire to be as near to God as I could had backfired on me somehow. Drawn to care for things, I had ended up with compassion fatigue."

It ain't easy being a minister today. The conflicting demands wring you out, and if you're not careful, you end up "leaving church", like Barbara Brown Taylor. We're fortunate, though, that she left this pungent memoir of her plunge from the pulpit. She's still preaching occasionally and writing her luminous books. It's just that they'll be a little more remote from our lives now that she's not in the pulpit every Sunday with us.

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith Feature

• ISBN13: 9780060872632
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith Overview

By now I expected to be a seasoned parish minister, wearing black clergy shirts grown gray from frequent washing. I expected to love the children who hung on my legs after Sunday morning services until they grew up and had children of their own. I even expected to be buried wearing the same red vestments in which I was ordained.

Today those vestments are hanging in the sacristy of an Anglican church in Kenya, my church pension is frozen, and I am as likely to spend Sunday mornings with friendly Quakers, Presbyterians, or Congregationalists as I am with the Episcopalians who remain my closest kin. Some-times I even keep the Sabbath with a cup of steaming Assam tea on my front porch, watching towhees vie for the highest perch in the poplar tree while God watches me. These days I earn my living teaching school, not leading worship, and while I still dream of opening a small restaurant in Clarkesville or volunteering at an eye clinic in Nepal, there is no guarantee that I will not run off with the circus before I am through. This is not the life I planned, or the life I recommend to others. But it is the life that has turned out to be mine, and the central revelation in it for me -- that the call to serve God is first and last the call to be fully human -- seems important enough to witness to on paper. This book is my attempt to do that.

After nine years serving on the staff of a big urban church in Atlanta, Barbara Brown Taylor arrives in rural Clarkesville, Georgia (population 1,500), following her dream to become the pastor of her own small congregation. The adjustment from city life to country dweller is something of a shock -- Taylor is one of the only professional women in the community -- but small-town life offers many of its own unique joys. Taylor has five successful years that see significant growth in the church she serves, but ultimately she finds herself experiencing "compassion fatigue" and wonders what exactly God has called her to do. She realizes that in order to keep her faith she may have to leave.

Taylor describes a rich spiritual journey in which God has given her more questions than answers. As she becomes part of the flock instead of the shepherd, she describes her poignant and sincere struggle to regain her footing in the world without her defining collar. Taylor's realization that this may in fact be God's surprising path for her leads her to a refreshing search to find Him in new places. Leaving Church will remind even the most skeptical among us that life is about both disappointment and hope -- and ultimately, renewal.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 15, 2010 12:27:04

Denial: A Memoir of Terror

Denial: A Memoir of Terror Review

Something bad happened to an innocent girl from a very strange but high achieving family, and the interest level is maintained at a high pitch throughout. An extremely well-told blend of mystery and human drama, with a no-holds barred account of adolescent sexual trauma and its aftermath. In essence, this book falls into the "true crime" detective genre, but qualifies as literary, introspective and intelligent as well. My only complaint (which I've voiced many times in reviews of other autobiogrpahies) is the absence of personal photographs. Nonetheless, highly recommended.

Denial: A Memoir of Terror Feature

• ISBN13: 9780061626654
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Denial: A Memoir of Terror Overview

"I have listened and I have been quiet all my life. But now I will speak."

One of the world's foremost experts on terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder investigates her own unsolved adolescent sexual assault at the hands of a serial rapist, and in so doing, examines the horrors of trauma and denial.

Alone in an unlocked house in a safe neighborhood in the suburban town of Concord, Massachusetts, two good, obedient girls, Jessica Stern, fifteen, and her sister, fourteen, were raped on the night of October 1, 1973. The girls had just come back from ballet lessons and were doing their homework when a strange man armed with a gun entered their home. Afterward, when they reported the crime, the police were skeptical.

The rapist was never caught. For over thirty years, Stern denied the pain and the trauma of the assault. Following the example of her family, Stern—who lost her mother at the age of three, and whose father was a Holocaust survivor—focused on her work instead of her terror. She became a world-class expert on terrorism, a lauded academic and writer who interviewed terrorists around the globe. But while her career took off, her success hinged on her symptoms. After her ordeal she could not feel fear in normally frightening situations.

Stern believed she'd disassociated from the trauma altogether, until a devoted police lieutenant reopened the sisters' rape case and brought her back to that harrowing night more than three decades past. With the help of the lieutenant, Stern began her own investigation—bringing to bear all her skills as a researcher—to uncover the truth about the town of Concord, her family, and her own mind. The result is Denial, a candid, courageous, and ultimately hopeful look at a trauma and its aftermath.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 14, 2010 06:00:05

Churchill

Churchill Review

Johnson, the "great explainer" of modern times and expert dissector of the pretensions of modern intellectuals, has been coasting on his reputation of late. ART: A NEW HISTORY was robust (and colorful) enough, but I wasn't particularly taken with either CREATORS or HEROES. With this engaging "quick sketch" of the life of Winston Churchill, the author is back on form. Some snarky reviews to the contrary, this is not a hagiography, though it certainly gives Churchill the benefit of the doubt more often than not. Its simple goal is to explain why Churchill must be regarded as a major historical figure, regardless of what one thinks of the man and his policies.

The book divides neatly into two sections. Part one is a more or less straightforward biography which takes us up to the point at which Churchill first became Prime Minister in 1940. Johnson avoids the cliche of saddling Churchill with all the responsibility for the failure of the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16, instead focusing on other, rather less dramatic examples of Churchill's tendency for occasional lapses in judgment. Foremost among the latter is Churchill's bull-headed defense of King Edward VIII during the 1936 Abdication Crisis. This stand had severe consequences for Britain, as Churchill became so unpopular that his (increasingly heeded) warnings of the menace of a rearming Germany were tossed aside as a result.

Johnson then devotes the bulk of the remainder of the volume to an analysis of Churchill's record as a war leader. Johnson sees Churchill as the "indispensable man," the key to Britain's survival, and lays out the reasons why. These reasons are generally convincing, though I wish that even more was made of the salient fact that Churchill regarded both forms of 2oth century totalitarian tyranny -- Fascism and Communism -- as equally evil. While always willing to "jaw-jaw" to preserve peace whenever practicable, he did not fall into the trap of "pas d'ennemis a gauche (ou a droit)" that hinders a sense of moral clarity. One wonders how history would have been altered had Britain and the U.S. heeded Churchill's advice and met the Red Army as far to the East as possible.

The book's ending is its weakest point. Johnson skims over Churchill's second premiership (1951-54) with indecent haste and concludes with a list of "lessons Churchill teaches us today." The latter has the tone of a particularly uninspired business seminar, while it is telling that Johnson prefers to tell us what Churchill did not do during his second turn at the top. (A.N. Wilson's OUR TIMES treats the second Churchill government in a considerably harsher manner, and, given the state of the war-ravaged country and Churchill's own age and weariness, Wilson's treatment rings a bit truer to me.) Happily, in an afterword, Johnson is generous enough to recommend more in-depth treatments of Churchill and his times. If CHURCHILL encourages the reader to forge ahead to these other works, then it will have done its job.

Churchill Feature

• ISBN13: 9780670021055
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Churchill Overview

An acclaimed historian presents a revelatory look at the greatest statesman of the twentieth century

For eminent historian Paul Johnson, Winston Churchill remains an enigma in need of unraveling. Soldier, parliamentarian, Prime Minister, orator, painter, writer, husband, and leader-all of these facets combine to make Churchill one of the most complex and fascinating personalities in history.

In Churchill, Johnson applies a wide lens and an unconventional approach to illuminate the various phases of Churchill's career. From his adventures as a young cavalry officer in the service of the Empire to his role as an elder statesman prophesying the advent of the Cold War, Johnson shows how Churchill's immense adaptability combined with his natural pugnacity to make him a formidable leader for the better part of a century. Johnson's narration of Churchill's many triumphs and setbacks, rich with anecdote and quotation, illustrates the man's humor, resilience, courage, and eccentricity as no other biography before.

Winston Churchill's hold on contemporary readers has never slackened, and Paul Johnson's lively, concise biography will appeal to historians and general nonfiction readers alike.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 13, 2010 00:37:05

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Review

I have read the reviews of this book (always after I finish), and I think some of the criticism is merited that there is little Biblical foundation for Miller's thoughts and conclusions. However, I do not see this book as something that you should read if you need a foundational teaching.

This book is emotional; almost syrupy in places. It betrays the author as moody and the prose can be slightly arrogant at times.

I simply think that it does not matter. This is a collection of thoughts; a diary almost. It is not meant to be an apologetic Christian work (in my view). I like the cynicism he shows when talking about himself and others. I like that he is forthright about the flaws in the church subculture. I applaud him for being honest about the way he views the church and religion in general. He is critical but never brutal.

I cannot decide if he is ignorant of his tone or if he is simply trying to be transparent/vulnerable with the reader. Regardless, he comes across to me as honest. The book is fairly short, so there is no room to get bogged down. Some of the thoughts can be repetitive at times (self bad, love good; self bad, God good), but overall I thought he was funny and that the book was not overly long.

I like to know what others think especially if they are different than I am. Very simply, I liked the book and got quite a bit out of it.

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Overview

I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened. In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 11, 2010 23:43:04

Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Review

It is quite sad that Yunis discovered that extreme poverty in Bangladesh can be helped for as few as twenty seven dollars American and his work within Bangladesh should serve as a beacon of hope to others seeking to fight back against the poverty monster. I enjoyed this read very much but couldn't give it the full five stars because I didn't feel like there where enough personal success stories that illustrated the viability of micro lending to the poor. Instead Yunis explains we lent x amount of money to y person and there able to do z now. Personal testimonials would've made for a powerful statement of the Grameen Bank programs rather than just explaining from Yunis.

A second thought is if these programs have met for so much success how come they haven't been exported in mass throughout the world ? Much of the book focuses on poorer rural areas like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, even several counties in the state of Arkansas in the United States. Are these programs ineffective in urban areas because of socio-economic factors? I currently live in a city of a 150,000 thousand people that may benefit from programs that Yunis is talking about, but yet there is scant evidence of implementation within inner cities. With economies crashing throughout the world, the impoverished cannot just be assumed to live in rural areas anymore. If we are to take Yunis ideas for battling world poverty seriously, these ideas have to be increasingly applied in inner cities.

Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Feature

• ISBN13: 9781586481988
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Overview

A new edition of the New York Times Bestseller by the Nobel Peace Prize-winner.

This autobiography of Nobel Peace Prizewinner Muhammad Yunus spent ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was also a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Now repackaged in the spirit of his new book, Creating a World Without Poverty, this classic work on the birth of microfinance will contain excerpts from the new book.

Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Specifications

It began with a simple loan. After witnessing the cycle of poverty that kept many poor women enslaved to high-interest loan sharks in Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Yunus lent money to 42 women so they could purchase bamboo to make and sell stools. In a short time, the women were able to repay the loans while continuing to support themselves and their families. With that initial eye-opening success, the seeds of the Grameen Bank, and the concept of microcredit, were planted.

After earning a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Yunus returned to Bangladesh to settle into a life as a professor. But a famine in 1974 ravaged the country, leading Dr. Yunus to alter his thinking and his life profoundly: "What good were all my complex theories when people were dying of starvation on the sidewalks and porches across from my lecture hall?.... Nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me." Armed with little more than a lofty dream to end the suffering around him, he started an experimental microcredit enterprise in 1977; by 1983 the Grameen Bank was officially formed.

The idea behind the Grameen Bank is ingeniously simple: extend credit to poor people and they will help themselves. This concept strikes at the root of poverty by specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, providing small loans (usually less than 0) to those unable to obtain credit from traditional banks. At Grameen, loans are administered to groups of five people, with only two receiving their money up front. As soon as these two make a few regular payments, loans are gradually extended to the rest of the group. In this way, the program builds a sense of community as well as individual self-reliance. Most of the Grameen Bank's loans are to women, and since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent.

Banker to the Poor is an inspiring memoir of the birth of microcredit, written in a conversational tone that makes it both moving and enjoyable to read. The Grameen Bank is now a .5 billion banking enterprise in Bangladesh, while the microcredit model has spread to over 50 countries worldwide, from the U.S. to Papua New Guinea, Norway to Nepal. Ever optimistic, Yunus travels the globe spreading the belief that poverty can be eliminated: "...the poor, once economically empowered, are the most determined fighters in the battle to solve the population problem; end illiteracy; and live healthier, better lives. When policy makers finally realize that the poor are their partners, rather than bystanders or enemies, we will progress much faster that we do today." Dr. Yunus's efforts prove that hope is a global currency. --Shawn Carkonen

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 10, 2010 21:29:06

TRADITIONS of the NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS Vol.2

TRADITIONS of the NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS Vol.2 Review

TRADITIONS of the NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS Vol.2 Overview

TRADITIONS
OF THE
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS:
BEING
A SECOND AND REVISED EDITION
OF
"TALES OF AN INDIAN CAMP."
BY
JAMES ATHEARN JONES.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 09, 2010 16:35:05

Escape

Escape Review

This book descibes a life style that is hard to believe is allowed to exist in a developed world - but the radical polygamist sect that Carolyn Jessop was born into allowed men to beat their wives, abuse their children and marry wife after wife. The complete control that the cult leaders and the husbands have over the lives of their wives and children and the manner that they treat them are all justified in the quest for spiritual standing in heaven!

A brave escape and the drive to start a new life provide this author's story with a happy ending.

Not the best written book (repititious and a little too much time spent on justifing the author's actions within the strange family she belonged to ) I have read, but a story worth writing makes this a book worth reading.

Escape Feature

• ISBN13: 9780767927574
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Escape Overview

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.

When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.

Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had to her name.

Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 08, 2010 15:18:04

The Ball and the Cross

The Ball and the Cross Review

The Ball and the Cross, (1906), G. K. Chesterton's second novel, both entertains and intellectually challenges the reader. Early in the story two diametrically opposed protagonists, Evan MacIan, a devout Catholic and James Turnbull, a passionate atheist, are interrupted by the secular authorities before they are able to carryout a traditional duel by swords. They escape with their swords, but become subjects of a countrywide manhunt and the center of media attention.

Chesterton's absurd plot thinly disguises a witty, profound, and provocative religious and philosophical inquiry, one that resonates with today's readers as well as it did with readers a century ago. (I suspect that not that much has really changed. In our contemporary context non-believers still distrust sincere believers, perhaps even more so given the growth in Moslem extremism, the Arab-Jewish conflict, and Christian activism in American politics.)

The duel is continually postponed due either to the untimely appearance of police, or to unexpected encounters with an eclectic mix of characters, all apparently allegorical representations of one type or another. As the story proceeds, we readers find that the two duelists are more alike than different, as they both hold firm beliefs, in contrast to the secular world around them which has largely embraced relativism and more passive religious convictions.

I suggest that you also visit the other reader reviews as they offer nsightful and interesting perspectives. Chesterton brings out the best in a reader. His stories encourage us, even prod us, to consider and reflect upon profound issues and matters - although he does so in a witty, amusing, even whimsical context. Perhaps Chesterton is saying that religious and philosophical inquiry is simply too serious not to enjoy.

The Ball and the Cross Overview

G.K. Chesteron was born in 1874, and educated at St Paul’s School, where, despite his efforts to achieve honourable oblivion at the bottom of his class, he was singled out as a boy with distinct literary promise. He decided to follow art as a career, and studied at the Slade School, where, while ‘attending or not attending to his studies’, he met Ernest Hodder-Williams, who encouraged Chesterton in his writing. At his request he reviewed a number of books for the Bookman and found himself launched on a profession he was to follow all his life.

Probably his most famous stories are those of ‘Father Brown’, but he wrote much about every conceivable subject under or beyond the sun. The best accounts of his life are to be found in his own Autobiography, published soon after his death in 1936, and in Miss Maisie Ward’s Life of him.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 07, 2010 08:00:45