Love Talk: Speak Each Other's Language Like You Never Have Before

Book Description

Couples consistently name “improved communication” as the greatest need in their relationships. Love Talk is a deep yet simple plan full of new insights that will revolutionize communication in love relationships. Includes The Love Talk Indicator, a free personalized online assessment ($30.00 value).

Customer Reviews:

What Kind of Love Talk Are We Talking About?.......2007-06-14

This book includes some very helpful grids for helping spouses ( or friends - or enemies!) to understand each other. It would have rated higher with me if it had emphasized more the attitude of a servant spirit to which God calls His people, and the distinctive commands to the wife and the husband.The Excellent Wife: A Biblical Perspective

Love Talk Book.......2006-12-22

I bought this book in hopes to find more knowledge about how to communicate better, however I soon discovered that the book coincides with a workbook. Every chapter describes scenarios/experiences that the authors went through but is followed by "please see the workbook" to find out on how to communicate better. So buy the workbook if you want to get the full use of this book as well as reap the benefits in your relationship.

On the upside the book does have some good examples of what types of communication styles there are. I hoped this is helpful.

Excellent Guide to Enriching Communication.......2005-10-15

I am still working through the book but it has been an excellent guide to improving communication skills at all levels.

Deep Wisdom Practically Explained and Applied.......2005-07-17

"Love Talk" is a very practical book that is also very deep. What a rare combination. Far too often we find deep books that are vague and impractical or how-to manuals that are shallow and unbiblical. "Love Talk," as the authors accurately label it, is "a deep yet simple plan full of new insights that will revolutionize communication in love relationships."

Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott help couples to go deep by identifying their fear factor (a catchy and helpful phrase)--a soul issue necessary to expose for soul talk by soul mates. They then help couples to go simple (but not simplistically so) by helping husbands and wives to determine their communication styles.

They also help couples to go deep by exposing the deep mystery of the male-female relationship, doing so in a way that honors the complex nature of masculinity and femininity. They then also go simple by sharing a "doable" plan for moving husband-wife communication from good to great (another catchy and encouraging phrase).

"Love Talk" offers many deep/simple tools such as the Love Talk Inidicator, the Secret to Emotional Connection, and a short course on Communication 101. Two companion his and her workbooks provide exercises and self-test to help couples apply the content and concepts contained in "Love Talk."

Reviewer: Dr. Robert W. Kellemen is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

College student.......2005-07-01

I got this book because it was required for a class taught by Les & Leslie Parrott at Seattle Pacific University. The class and book are awesome! I'm not married, but I still learned a lot of practical tips for communicating with my future wife (hopefully) and even my friends and family!

They truly taught me a lot about the importance of communication & understanding each other...then you'll reach Love Talk!

The City Of Light: The Hidden Journal of the Man Who Entered China Four Years Before Marco Polo

Average customer rating:

many indications that this is largely a 20th Century work
Ian Myles Slater on: A Remarkable Book, as Memoir or Fiction
Excellent.
Boring!
Brilliant. ...One way or another.

The City Of Light: The Hidden Journal of the Man Who Entered China Four Years Before Marco Polo
Jacob D'Ancona
Manufacturer: Citadel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1559725230

Book Description

In 1270 a scholarly Jewish merchant called Jacob d'Ancona set out on a voyage from Italy. A year later, he arrived in China at the coastal metropolis of Zaitun, the "City of Light" (now known as Quanzhou), four years before Marco Polo arrived at Xanadu in 1275. Nothing was known of this epochal journey until 1990, when David Selbourne was shown d'Ancona's account of his travels, a remarkable manuscript that had been hidden from public view for more than seven centuries. Eventually translated and edited by Selbourne and published in Great Britain in October 1997 as The City of Light, the account was praised as providing an unparalleled insight into life in the medieval world.

Controversy followed. Selbourne had pledged to the manuscript's owner that he would not reveal its whereabouts, and that raised doubts about its authenticity. As a result of U.S. sinologists' criticism of plans for American publication, the first edition was canceled.

Now, a year later, Birch Lane Press happily publishes the controversial work. Criticisms of the textual evidence of d'Ancona's account have been answered by Selbourne. Most notably, other academics--particularly and significantly, in China--have come to the support of d'Ancona's account. The work is to be published in a Chinese translation.

Vivid and insightful, this account has great historical significance. It not only describes the adventures of a medieval trader, but also comments on Chinese society and manners through the eyes of a European man of learning. The City of Light brings spectacularly to life d'Ancona's encounter with one of the world's great civilizations.

Customer Reviews:

many indications that this is largely a 20th Century work.......2004-05-27

This volume starts out as a plausable enough chronicle of a Jewish merchant from Italy who travels to China and so on, but very quickly it becomes apparent that this is just the setting for a series of philosophical debates that the merchant partakes in with other groups in the "City of Light".

It is written like no other narrative from the past I have seen and is quite long as well. Although I am no expert on that time and place, and there are none who truly are, what really makes it suspect is the fact that most of the work fails to give details of how people lived and what things were like at that time and place and instead concentrates on the dialogues that he is invited to and partakes in. And all of the matters that they discuss are those that would preoccupy the mind of a person in the late 20th Century. Which either means that people in the 13th Century had identical problems to those we have today, or that this was written by someone in the late 20th Century. He even forsees the Holocaust at one point.

There is nothing that would secure it as authentic and many indications that this is largely a 20th Century work, enough to make it well accepted as a forgery until proven otherwise (which I never expect to happen). As for what it contains and the value of its philosophical debates, it offers nothing in the way of secure arguments, unless you already accept the Jewish religious teachings as a source of unchallenged wisdom. It also was rather long without adding much. It might have been better to publish this as a modern philosophical novel, which would have permitted it to be a better novel, without attempting to mislead scholars, that can cause trouble for years. Although I realize that from a publishing standpoint, it gets more attention to claim authenticity.

Also, he (Selbourne) clips off the return journey, which might have been one of the only authentic parts in the book. I paid full price for this book when it was first published and I consider it was not worth it.

Ian Myles Slater on: A Remarkable Book, as Memoir or Fiction.......2003-10-17

I am glad to see that the (delayed) American edition of this book is now in paperback. It differs from the UK edition (which I have also reviewed) mainly by including "Remarks on The City of Light " by Wang Lianmao, in which modern Chinese scholarship is used to reply to some of the criticism directed against it by Westerners. Specialists in the history of the region find some puzzles, and probable errors made by a foreigner, but nothing to suggest a modern fraud. They seem willing to accept it as an authentic account of southern China by a foreigner, describing events shortly before the arrival of Marco Polo in the following of the Mongol (Yuan) conqueror. (Probably wisely, they do not seem to have offered an opinion on how authentic the foreigner -- an Italian Jew -- looks to them.)

Curiously, Frances Wood, whose "Did Marco Polo Go to China?" argues that the Venetian merchant stayed in western Asia, and got all his information from others, who left no record of their adventures, seems to have joined in denouncing Jacob of Ancona as a fabrication, even though this must have seemed like manna from heaven for her theory. (By the way, it seems clear to me that, despite various major and minor interpolations and deletions in the manuscript tradition, Marco Polo did travel in East Asia -- so maybe I'm gullible.)

I would add, from my own cursory research, that I have some problems with the supposedly convincing argument that the use of the term "mellah" for "Jewish Quarter" in Muslim lands is anachronistic. This argument depends on accepting one version of the etymology and history of the word. It is, however, less than completely certain; Roger Le Tourneau, in "Fez in the Age of the Marinides" (English translation 1961), reviewed the complicated evidence, and suggested that the consensus, including how long the word was in use and when and where it was adopted, might be wrong.

From a Jewish perspective, I can accept Jacob of Ancona as a plausible figure (and perhaps more typical than Selbourne, to judge from his notes, realizes). The combination of length and literary quality in a memoir seems unusual for the period, but the translator reports omitting some sections at the end, and felicitous translation can add charm without being unfaithful. Some medieval writings *are* inordinately long -- and long-winded.

Jaob's report of debates with Chinese officials leaves me wondering if both his contacts and his discussions were really on such a high level (especially with both sides using some sort of "trade speech" and translators), but self-congratulatory memoirs are not a modern invention.

On the basis of Chinese reactions, I am prepared to accept the work as authentic, although not completely reliable as a record of fact (is anything?). If it is a fraud -- and only an examination of the manuscript seems likely to prove it -- its creator would surely have been better rewarded by emulating Eco's "Name of the Rose," and publishing it as historical fiction of a high order.

Excellent........2002-04-11

OK, nobody else has seen the original, so there's no way of verifying if this is a true translation or a hoax. If it is a hoax, it's a danmed good one, written so well, with lots of research to back it up, that I for one don't care.
This is just brilliant, true or hoax, it gives a deep insight into the Jewish support network and all the opposition & prejudice that Jews had to deal with.
It knocks Marco Polo's account into a cocked hat; incisive philosophy, intimate desriptions of mediaeval life and trade are enough to grant this a place on anyone's bookshelf, true or not.

Boring!.......2001-08-03

In a word: BORING! This book would have been twice as good were it half as long. Selbourne has cut the end and would have done well to cut the middle as well. Jacob's incessant protestations of piety are tedious. He hypocritically condemns everyone around him for greed and self-interest but his own actions, though ostensibly high-minded, are also dictated almost solely by financial motives. For this reason his criticism of others rings hollow. His world view is remarkably narrow and parochial for someone so widely traveled. While he makes extensive observations of the conduct of others, there is no effort to appreciate their viewpoints. I am also skeptical of the provenance of this book. The social debates described have a very contemporary tenor and are relevant to our own times. If this were in fact an authenticated manuscript, this resonance would be remarkable. However, the provenance of the book is in dispute and much space is devoted to supporting its authenticity. The resolution of this issue must await examination of the original manuscript but in the meantime I am skeptical because the discussions seem too modern.

Brilliant. ...One way or another........2001-07-14

This is simply one of the best books I have ever read. And it is definitely, hands down, with a doubt, the single funniest book I have ever read... though it isn't actually intended to be. Until the actual Ancona manuscript itself is made available for scrutiny, we will never know for sure if this text is authentic or a stunningly brilliant, almost cruelly sharp-witted satirical hoax. If it is the latter, it is still extremely impressive, informative and entertaining. Nearly every sentence is punctuated by the author Jacob's constant use of "May God be praised" or "May God spare me", or, for those individuals and groups he really despises: "May God strike them down" or "May God shorten their lives". I just could not stop laughing! - nor could I put the book down. Mr. Selbourne, wherever you are, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, sir. One way or another you have given us an amazing piece of work. May God magnify and bless you, and may He extend your life! Amen, Amen, Amen!

Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall

Average customer rating:

Lyrical and moving
More self-indulgence
Fabulous reading
Perfection - What's it really like?
Past out of the Present

Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall
Alan Helms
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mississippi Sissy

ASIN: 0380729008

Book Description

Young, intelligent, and handsome, Alan Helms left a brutal midwestern childhood for New York City in 1955. Denied a Rhodes scholarship because of his sexual orientation, he soon became an object of desire in a gay underground scene frequented by, among many others, Noel Coward, Leonard Bernstein, and Marlene Dietrich. In this unusually vivid and sensitive account, Helms describes the business of being a sex object and its psychological and physical toll.

"Riveting."- New York Times Book Review

"Extraordinary and elegantly written. A record of a gay world that has virtually disappeared over the past twenty-five years of liberation and fifteen years of AIDS." -Boston Globe

"A beautifully written memoir. Helms sped through the celebrity-packed fast lanes, but he has learned how to stand back and get some perspective." -Los Angeles Times

"Sublimely funny, engaging, pathetic, highly literary, and painful to read. Helms seems like a gay Everyman whose quest for self-knowledge, respect, and contentment in this contemptuous world mirrors that of many other marginalized people." -Bloomsbury Review

Alan Helms is professor of literature at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Customer Reviews:

Lyrical and moving.......2007-09-10

As someone who has read a good deal of gay literature I alighted upon this book with a great deal of anticipation and was not disappointed.
I have a keen interest in many of the people mentioned by Alan Helms yet found myself becoming very interested in him. As far as dishing the dirt (who isn't interested in a bit of juicy gossip) well there's not much of it, it's very restrained. Yet I found myself grateful for the lack of it, in an age where things are stripped bare and nothing is left unsaid, it was suddenly refreshing not to be regaled with someone's intimate bedroom habits.
I found it a lyrical book, for example "the whole world focussed in the cone of light from a reading lamp as the words moved forward on the page, the fabric of knowledge rising in the expectant silence" melodious prose indeed.

Touching on the subject of name dropping - well it's hard to know what else he could do, this is a memoir of someone unknown to much of the public, but his fame for the rest of us lay in the people he associated with, not much point writing the whole book about the boy next door.

It will surprise some when I say I found it humble, certainly those for whom there are too many references to his beauty. This is deliberate, setting the scene nicely ready to turn the tables on himself and us and make us experience the despair of losing youth, beauty, body and hair (things that he has relied on so heavily) - never sparing, he acknowledges his faults, the fact that he lied, that he has stolen, that he has a dark side (haven't we all).

It is a skilfully crafted, accomplished book - the death of his mother is very moving - international boy prostitute turned professor, you couldn't make it up - I so hoped that in the end he might find true love but remembered that this is real life - not the movies.

Perhaps the only criticism was the lack of photographs; they are always helpful in drawing the reader that little bit closer.

At this point I would like to add that I am a straight, middle aged woman and realise that the subject matter of this book is not for everyone which is to be regretted as it is brave and at times, beautiful. Having finished it my one regret is that I will never meet Mr Helms.

More self-indulgence.......2007-09-07

What an exercise in self-indulgence. I am so tired of reading the writing of people who "had it all" (and can't wait to tell everyone) - led a glamorous life, extremely good-looking, a body to die for, a sex life to rival that of a rabbit, courted and wanted by everyone, etc., etc., etc...and then complain about how unhappy they were - page after page. Poor thing.

Give me your (past) life for just 15 minutes, and you would NEVER hear a peep of complaint out of me. 200+ pages of "I had it all, but woe is me" is too much.

Fabulous reading.......2005-07-13

Excellent, excellent book!!!!!!!!! I really enjoyed it SO much and was so sorry it came to an end. Let people say what they want to about him, but it was an interesting, fascinating story and I was extremely touched by it and recommend this book to all.

Perfection - What's it really like?.......2005-02-10

Finally a book that dares to discuss what being an object is like. We put people on pedestals so high that anything they do is subject to judgement. A sneeze or a burp is cause for us to re-evaluate their worth of our desire. This indepth look at what a man of intellignce went through as a object is wonderfully frank, sweet, unusual, hopefull and well worth a read. Nervous envious types should open their minds and let this experience overwelm them. Everyone can learn something from Alan Helms

Past out of the Present.......2004-03-16

I don't want to give away the ending, but most readers can tell that this memoir is about re-assessing the past - using some insight gained later in life to review and accept what was bewildering in the rush of living it. This raises it above autobiography and makes it a work of art searching for meaning. Those who thought the book an exercise in name-dropping have totally missed the point. For those readers searching for some sense out of life, this can be a valuable and moving experience. Although certainly not limited to this audience, it will have special relevance for gay men in one form of recovery or the other. You will feel as if you are reading your own story - and that is a gift. The fact that it is also beautifully written and captures a history now lost only adds value.

Once Upon An Eskimo Time: A year of Eskimo life before the white man came as told to me by my wonderful mother whose name was Nedercook

Average customer rating:

from an eskimo perspective
Life in Alaska before the arrival of the Europeans

Once Upon An Eskimo Time: A year of Eskimo life before the white man came as told to me by my wonderful mother whose name was Nedercook
Edna Wilder
Manufacturer: Alaska Northwest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0882402749

Book Description

Discover the stories of a remarkable 109-year-old Eskimo woman who grew up on the Bering Sea in northwest Alaska.

Customer Reviews:

from an eskimo perspective.......2003-08-12

This is an easy read book which i enjoyed very much. I have recommended it to many people native and non native alike. It reminded me a lot of my "outdoor adventures" growing up in Western Alaska. The way the story is written gives insight into the life of Nederkook as it was back then, with no need for a lot of explination. Are there anymore stories narrated by Nederkook? i'd like to learn more about Nederkook's history.
Edna Wilder (whats her native name by the way) has done an excellent job.

Life in Alaska before the arrival of the Europeans.......2002-09-01

The is truly a fabulous book. When her mother Nedercook broke her hip at the remarkable age of 109, Edna Wilder took the opportunity to record stories and memories from her childhood. Years later, Wilder developed her notes into book format after attending a simple magazine article writing course at the University of Alaska.

The book documents what life was like when Nedercook was about ten years old and living the traditional Eskimo lifestyle that her people lived prior to direct contact with Europeans. Her people, who lived at Stoney Point near Nome, Alaska, led a difficult life, and survival depended on the availability of a number of species of animals, not to mention the weather, which at times would disrupt the general cycle of animal availability. Such a strong dependence on these two factors is a major element of Nedercook's recollections, but has harsh as life was, it was by no means miserable. There were many things for the young Nedercook to do, and when she was not assisting her mother with chores or accompanying her father when he went out to fish, she play or more importantly--as it was her duty to perpetuate the history and legends of her people--listening to her father or mother tell stories--stories which would have been long forgotten had it not been for this book.

Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed this book and how it has increased my understanding of First Nations culture. I urge everyone to read it.

Average customer rating:

It`s a prehistoric art book.
This book is a work of art!
Cover to cover top notch art work by Zdenek Burian.

Life Before Man
Z. V. Spinar
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

It`s a prehistoric art book........2001-03-01

This book is very special,although it is old and may not continue the today`s vision of the dinosaurs (for example,the Apatosaur is living in water)it is fun to see the old visions of the prehistoric. And this edition is completley updated,with the latest facts. The text is completley different from that of the old edition. It is also fun to see the new illustrations,although those are not made by Burian himself. I am a great enthusiast of his prehistoric paintings,and I think they are very inspiring,because I like to paint own dinos in aquarelle. Over all,Life Before Man is a classic in illustrated natural history books. The only thing I miss is that some of the old paintings are gone and has been replaced by others. Life Before Man covers the history of the Earth,from a time with volcanoes to the dawn of man. So,sit down and enjoy this exciting adventure under 3000 million years!

This book is a work of art!.......1999-11-30

Burian is an excellent illustrator of prehistoric life. One of the best of the early illustrators, this catalog of his paintings rates with the best paintings of Charles R. Knight (several of these paintings occur in National Geographic's 'Our Continent'). Though the science has changed some of the depictions painted, I still HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book for those who simply love outstanding paintings of dinosaurs, trilobites, etc. living out their lives in excellent dioramas. I wouldn't part with my copy for anything.

Cover to cover top notch art work by Zdenek Burian........1998-12-06

The 233 illustrations in this book easily make the cover price seem trivial. Mr. Burian was one of the finest prehistoric illustrators ever. These paintings and drawings were previouly printed in several earlier works and combined here.

The Lives of Man: A Guide to the Human States: Before Life, In the World, and After Death

Average customer rating:

Will wake up the sleeping heart

The Lives of Man: A Guide to the Human States: Before Life, In the World, and After Death
Imam 'Abdallah Ibn Alawi al-Haddad
Manufacturer: Fons Vitae
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The Book of Assistance
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Sufi Sage of Arabia: Imam Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad (The Fons Vitae Imam al-Haddad Spiritual Masters series)

ASIN: 1887752145

Book Description

A dramatic exposition of the classical Muslim division of human life into five stages: before conception, life in the world, life in the grave, the resurrection, and heaven or hell. Extensive Qur'anic and Hadith references explain the condition of the soul at each stage.

Customer Reviews:

Will wake up the sleeping heart.......2005-02-17

This relatively short treatise of Imam 'Alawi al-Haddad is a piercing reminder of where we are and where we are going. This book is both enlightening and terrifying (in a good way). The Shaykh guides us from the time before our conception all the way to our endpoint in the fire or the garden and reminds us of what is important in each phase of our life and what our responsibilities are.

This book is not indepth in its topics, but that is not its point. If you want to study every hadith about the judgment day for example then you can do that somewhere else. A brief outline is given of every stage, both the seen and the unseen, to give a basic view of what has and is going to occur, but the focus is on the spiritual and what we can do to change our state.

If you have a heart that is not dead this book will have a positive effect on you.

Average customer rating:

Not Her Best Work
Not such a bad book, at all.
atwood at her best
everyone is crazy
Life Before Man

Life Before Man
Margaret Atwood
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Bodily Harm
Lady Oracle
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Surfacing
Dancing Girls

ASIN: 0385491107
Release Date: 1998-04-13

Book Description

Imprisoned by walls of their own construction, here are three people, each in midlife, in midcrisis, forced to make choices--after the rules have changed. Elizabeth, with her controlled sensuality, her suppressed rage, is married to the wrong man. She has just lost her latest lover to suicide. Nate, her gentle, indecisive husband, is planning to leave her for Lesje, a perennial innocent who prefers dinosaurs to men. Hanging over them all is the ghost of Elizabeth's dead lover...and the dizzying threat of three lives careening inevitably toward the same climax.

Customer Reviews:

Not Her Best Work.......2007-04-20

This book is obviously Very Important Literature, because all the characters are stricken with Very Important Literature Ennui. Everybody is unhappy, but nobody does anything, really, to become less unhappy. They mope around for 300+ pages and then are abandoned by the author, who has apparently become bored by them.

It's not that nothing happens in the book. Things do happen - lovers are taken and discarded, a marriage collapses of its own weight, lives end, lives begin - but no one really seems to learn anything from their actions, and one assumes that they are still wandering around in Atwood's dark landscape, a quarter-century after the fact, miserable with their own choices and too enervated to do anything about it.

Atwood serves her astounding skills poorly here. She continues to draw interior and exterior landscapes with breathtaking precision and folds time inward upon itself like origami, until that which was one-dimensional and flat becomes crenellated, complicated, and contorted into unexpected and graceful forms. But all this authorial sleight-of-hand cannot hide the fact that these characters are ... boring. Their petty adulteries are banal. Their wounds are virtually all self-inflicted, and Atwood never really gives the reader any hook upon which to hang an emotional involvement.

Atwood has done far superior work, and the reader who wants a sense of what she is about would be much better advised to seek out "The Handmaid's Tale" or "Catseye" or "The Blind Assassin".

Not such a bad book, at all........2006-06-07

After reading this book, I felt that Margaret Atwood was trying to get across to her readers that marriage is a vanishing way of life. This book is unlike every other book that has a fairy tale ending to it. Yes, it is true that this book is capable of arousing a depressing emotion within the reader, but it is this factor that makes the book unique. After all, it gets boring whenever you encounter a happy ending every time you approach the ending of a book. And what can you expect more from Ms. Atwood? She's just trying to portray in Life Before Man life as we know it: unfair and never perfect. What I liked about this book was Atwood's creative style of making all of the three main characters, Elizabeth, Nate and Lesje, as narrators. She carried out this process by using each chapter to present events from the perspective of each character. As a result of this, the reader is prevented from being biased towards a certain character. For instance, before reading Nate's point of view about Elizabeth's affair with Chris, I couldn't help but be bitter towards Nate for wanting to leave Elizabeth and his children. However, once I read about Nate's point of view, I couldn't help but feel bad for the man for being able to stand there and not do anything when he knew about Elizabeth's affair. In fact, he seemed pretty weak to me for not attempting to stop his wife from cheating on him. Despite my liking of this book, the only thing that I did not like is that the book had no clear ending. For instance, Atwood does not tell reader about what happens to Elizabeth, whether she is successful or not with living as a single parent. Because of this, the book had an ending that was left for many different interpretations.

atwood at her best.......2004-03-11

atwood, like the greatest of literature, is a first-rate psychologist. She is an observer of humans, a listener. Somehow she has learned more than most of us.
Life Before Man is at its best describing the relations (and lack of such) between men and women. While it may seems obvious that her writings will open the eyes of men as to how women see and feel about them, it is even more eye opening to see how women feel about each other.
The title of the book refers to the fact that women can get along without men. For this reason women, not just men, will benefit greatly from Atwood's insights.

everyone is crazy.......2003-12-15

I related to every facet of this book. Lesje's feeling of being clothed in who Nate wanted her to be. Nate's clueless caring way. Chris's imbalance and suicide. William's dark side. But mostly I related to Elizabeth's rules, the way she was careful and secretive. Put all these characters together and there I will be. Atwood writes in such an intimate way that I was drawn closely to these people and all that they had.

This story was well-told and quiet. It had a somewhat disjointed feel as the days were slightly mixed up. This is a book of secrets, and as such, I could see myself in it everywhere. Each word was unspoken in a way that I would unspeak it, and that held a certain sense of comfort. It was like the story was being told as the secrets could no longer be held in. Like it was all leaking out, and it was all just resigned to be leaking at this point. Because there were no choices left.

I felt dragged through to the end, but I believe this was intentional. Or I'd like to think that it was.

Life Before Man.......2002-07-24

I originally bought this book because of the description of Lesje's character-her obsession with dinosaurs. Throughout the book, she was my favorite of the three. Nate was nice but so soft that he could never argue with Elizabeth, who I hated because of her extremely manipulative tendencies. I thought it was interesting how she was depicted at the end, and I loved the last line of the book. Very depressing, and I didn't catch most of the symbolism the first time around, so I'll have to re-read it.

Surfacing, Life Before Man, the Handmaid's Tale

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Surfacing, Life Before Man, the Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
Manufacturer: Quality Paperback Book Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000BKSUHE

Religious Affections: How Man's Will Affects His Character Before God (Classics of Faith and Devotion)

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Religious Affections: How Man's Will Affects His Character Before God (Classics of Faith and Devotion)
Jonathan Edwards
Manufacturer: Multnomah Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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Life Before Man
Margaret Atwood
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0770417620

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