Book Description
Brigitte Gabriel lost her childhood to militant Islam. In 1975 she was ten years old and living in Southern Lebanon when militant Muslims from throughout the Middle East poured into her country and declared jihad against the Lebanese Christians. Lebanon was the only Christian influenced country in the Middle East, and the Lebanese Civil War was the first front in what has become the worldwide jihad of fundamentalist Islam against non-Muslim peoples. For seven years, Brigitte and her parents lived in an underground bomb shelter. They had no running water or electricity and very little food; at times they were reduced to boiling grass to survive.
Because They Hate is a political wake-up call told through a very personal memoir frame. Brigitte warns that the US is threatened by fundamentalist Islamic theology in the same way Lebanon was— radical Islam will stop at nothing short of domination of all non-Muslim countries. Gabriel saw this mission start in Lebanon, and she refuses to stand silently by while it happens here. Gabriel sees in the West a lack of understanding and a blatant ignorance of the ways and thinking of the Middle East. She also points out mistakes the West has made in consistently underestimating the single-mindedness with which fundamentalist Islam has pursued its goals over the past thirty years.
Fiercely articulate and passionately committed, Gabriel tells her own story as well as outlines the history, social movements, and religious divisions that have led to this critical historical conflict.
Customer Reviews:
Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America .......2007-10-07
Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America
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Incredibly Riveting and Informative.......2007-10-04
A must read for every American. For the first time, someone is brave enough to stand up and tell it like it is concerning the threat against our nation from Islamic extremists. She puts her very life on the line to get the message out to her adopted country, which she loves with all her heart. Every naturally born American citizen should be ashamed that they don't have the same devotion for this great country in which we live.
A wonderful book that shows how radicals work........2007-10-03
This book is a wonderful account by Brigitte Gabriel, of what happened to her beloved homeland. She shows the way she remembered Lebanon before it became a bed of turmoil and death. She allows the reader to not only understand how radical Muslims and groups like the PLO, Islamic Brotherhood and Hamas operate but why they do so. She explains the tactics used by Muslims groups to use the freedoms of a society to begin a take over. She shows how they used the political system and the horrific tactics used to cause distrust and dislike among the Christians in Lebanon and the Jewish people. This is a wonderful book and a wise word of warning about the deception and lies that some will tell in order to gain control. All to force Islamic laws, and their way of life on a once free people. I think everyone should read this woman's story of courage, and understand why she fears that one day the same thing could happen here in America. This is one book that will teach you, entertain you, and even show you how the Muslims work through lies and murder and even a nations own legal system to gain sole power and control. I wish every American would read this book, there is some very useful knowledge that can be gained from this book.
An important perspective.......2007-10-03
I knew nothing of the destruction of Lebanon before I read Ms. Gabriel's book, after years of seeing news reports that were so "balanced" that they glossed over the widespread Arab (and Palestinian, and perhaps Persian) desire for the eradication of Israel. Call me an ignoramus, but mainstream media was the cause, not the cure, of my ignorance.
The so very human scenes in the hospital I think point to the core of the issue with radical Islam: compassion and cultural evolution, versus centuries-old resentment and inferiority and hate.
An important book, if a bit strident for well-fed suburban Americans (a category in which I include myself). That said, a truly moving and informative read.
Real, clear and without fear analysis of the historical, current and future directions of the effect of the Islamic religion .......2007-09-29
It is a "Must to read" book for everyone (all religions). This books not only tells the story of a young Christian girl that survived Lebanon civil war, but also layout a real, clear and without fear analysis of the historical, current and future directions of the effect of the Islamic religion on the world.
Further more, Brigitte Gabriel (the author) lists preventive and recovery actions that we, the western world can take and start doing to stand against this madness.
I personally share many of the ideas in the book and I see how some western courtiers in Europe, as France, already all into the Islamic spin and I hope that USA will take the right actions to stand against the Islamic evil and tactics and win this war.
Furthermore, it become clear to me that the current foundations of every democracy must be based on one religion (which can be separated from the state), but a democratic state must characterize itself by one religion by law.
It will prevent situations of takeover of France or England by the Muslims and set the expectations of new immigrants that do not share the major fate.
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- We need this today, more than ever before.
- like being one of his students at Cambridge
- Three kinds of love and how to sanctify them with a Fourth
- Listen to Lewis
- "For news of the fully waking world you must go to my betters": But Lewis is a Great Place to Start
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The Four Loves
C.S. Lewis
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Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
ASIN: 0156329301 |
Amazon.com
The Four Loves summarizes four kinds of human love--affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God. Masterful without being magisterial, this book's wise, gentle, candid reflections on the virtues and dangers of love draw on sources from Jane Austen to St. Augustine. The chapter on charity (love of God) may be the best thing Lewis ever wrote about Christianity. Consider his reflection on Augustine's teaching that one must love only God, because only God is eternal, and all earthly love will someday pass away:
Who could conceivably begin to love God on such a prudential ground--because the security (so to speak) is better? Who could even include it among the grounds for loving? Would you choose a wife or a Friend--if it comes to that, would you choose a dog--in this spirit? One must be outside the world of love, of all loves, before one thus calculates.
His description of Christianity here is no less forceful and opinionated than in Mere Christianity or The Problem of Pain, but it is far less anxious about its reader's response--and therefore more persuasive than any of his apologetics. When he begins to describe the nature of faith, Lewis writes: "Take it as one man's reverie, almost one man's myth. If anything in it is useful to you, use it; if anything is not, never give it a second thought." --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
A candid, wise, and warmly personal book in which Lewis explores the possibilities and problems of the four basic kinds of human love- affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God. “Immensely worthwhile for its simplicity...a rare and memorable book” (Sydney J. Harris).
Customer Reviews:
We need this today, more than ever before........2007-08-23
Supposedly this is the only existing audio of the voice of C.S. Lewis. Originally, I was hoping to find audio of his famous radio talks which later became his book "Mere Christianity". Even though this wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it is phenomenal to hear the voice of C.S. Lewis. The Four Loves should be recommended reading/listening for every engaged couple. For those of us who have been married for some time, his book sheds beautiful light on what our relationships should look like.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
like being one of his students at Cambridge.......2007-07-22
One of the things I like most about college are the lectures of a really erudite professor. It's such a joy to hear someone with a dazzling array of experiences and insights speak on his subject of expertise. These 4 talks are the closest most of us will ever come to sitting in a Cambridge classroom and hearing the one and only C.S. Lewis talk and talk about a subject of intense and intimate interest to just about all of us: love. While perhaps of lesser aesthetic quality than Plato's "Symposium", it is, nonetheless, far more insightful and USEFUL (That's not to say Plato is not useful; far from it! It is precisely BECAUSE Plato is so eminently insightful and useful that I consider this to be just about the highest compliment one could pay Lewis's work, and a compliment which is richly deserved!). Lewis's unparalleled understanding of human nature; his ability to illustrate the true significance of often overlooked, seemingly trivial things; his use of disparate and always apt illustrations from literature, history, psychology, life, philosophy, and religion; the way in which the highest and the lowest are always placed in right relation in his account of things; all these hallmarks of Lewis's genius are on full display in these lectures on the four types of love: domestic affection, friendship, erotic love, and Christian charity.
In fact, Lewis's understanding that these various types of love differ not only in degree but in kind enable him to avoid many of the apparent problems of Plato's account. I would recommend that Lewis's "Four Loves" and Plato's "Symposium" be read back-to-back and then criticized in light of each other, and then reread back-to-back again. Listening to them both (there is an excellent line of dramatic readings of Plato's works by Naxos audio-books) is very helpful, for one gets something different from hearing a lecture than from just reading notes (even if they are an exact transcript of the lecture). Also, Lewis's talks differ slightly in content from the book, and the differences, while slight, are somewhat instructive.
One can truly listen with rapt interest and amazement to these talks over, and over, and over, and over, and...
Three kinds of love and how to sanctify them with a Fourth.......2007-06-24
In the introduction, Lewis discusses the differences between Gift-love and Need-love. He explains that although our Need-loves may be demanding and greedy, they are good and necessary because there is little danger that they can be made into gods. They are not near enough to God, by likeness, to be twisted like that. The highest does not exist without the lowest and a plant has roots below as well as sunlight above.
Chapter 2: Likings And Loves For The Sub-Human, is a discussion of Pleasures of Need versus Pleasures of Appreciation. The types of love explored here include patriotism and love of nature. The next chapter: Affection, deals with the humblest love as Lewis calls it. He refers to literary works like The Wind In The Willows, Tristram Shandy, Emma and others to demonstrate the good and the bad manifestations of this kind of love.
Friendship is explored in Chapter 4, again with reference to literature, including inter alia Ralph Waldo Emerson. This section includes an interesting discussion of the word "spiritual" - which is nowadays often used as substitute for "religious". Lewis reminds us that there is spiritual evil as well as spiritual good. The next chapter deals with Eros and he points out its aspects of glory and its playfullness, with reference to books like Anna Karenina and 1984, and certain passages from scripture.
The final chapter is titled Charity and includes an interesting view of a passage from the Confessions by St Augustine. Lewis notes that the Gift-loves are natural images of God whilst the Need-loves are correlatives (not opposites) of the love that God is. When God is admitted to the human heart, He transforms our Gift-love and our Need-love. Conversion is necessary for our natural loves to enter the heavenly life.
The main lesson of the book is the importance of Charity. Without it, all three of the aforementioned types of love may become distorted and even dangerous. Although this little book provides great insight, I have not found it to be as accessible as his masterpiece Mere Christianity or his comforting book titled The Problem of Pain.
Sometimes his arguments are hard to follow and his views and examples of certain types of love are coloured by the English culture of the period in which he lived, thus not always universally applicable. The book would also have been a better reference source if an index had been provided. Besides these minor comlaints, The Four Loves is still a great read that provides valuable insight into the human condition.
Listen to Lewis.......2007-06-06
If you have only read "The Four Loves," you haven't heard all that Lewis had to say on the subject. The audio version, read by Lewis himself is shorter than the print version of this book, but it includes material not in print. It takes a few minutes to get used to Lewis' voice, but soon you feel that you are sitting in a room with him as he tells stories and talks about what he has learned from his experiences of the four loves.
"For news of the fully waking world you must go to my betters": But Lewis is a Great Place to Start.......2007-05-29
C.S. Lewis's short _The Four Loves_, published near the end of the author's life in 1960, is worthy companion for a long afternoon or evening of reading and meditation. Lewis discusses in both an enlightening and light tone the four forms of love in ascending order: affection, friendship, eros, and charity. As a preliminary to this discussion, Lewis also describes likings and loves for "sub-human" (that is, loving a cup of tea or loving nature). The work is a philosophy of love that draws upon Lewis's own day-to-day observations, the writings of well-known and lesser known philosophers, and the works of artists. All of these types of love lead to an insight that these natural loves--that is, the loves that make up our daily lives--intimate a much large love, that of God for humankind. For Lewis, these natural loves are themselves not enough. Lewis describes a form of Christian love based on Jesus's own sacrifice and the unknowable mystery of God's love. This is the majesty of charity.
One basic principle of Lewis's work is the distinction between Need-love and Gift-love. The Need-love has to do, for Lewis, with "a craving to be loved," which is akin to a child's longing for the love of his parents'. Instead of disparaging this type of love as wholely selfish, Lewis describes how this type of love, while limited, is "the accurate reflection in consciousness of our actual nature." Lewis writes that "we need others physically, emotionally, intellectually; we need them if we are to know anything, even ourselves." Lewis acknowledges the human condition sympathetically. Gift-love, by contrast, has its ultimate expression in Christ's death on the cross. This is an active, selfless love. Lewis characterizes Gift-love in its ordinary expression as "that love which moves a man to work and plan and save for the future well-being of his family which he will die without sharing or seeing."
Lewis's book is filled with wise observations. The chapters on affection and friendship, which are the least religious in nature, are superb. The comments about divine love are engaging, as well. For example, in describing human beings' craving for God's help, he writes, "Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God." Here, Lewis points out that often humans turn to God or spirituality in type of deepest despair or wretchedness. Later, he quotes a line of verse, "The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be" to highlight how in need people will search for god, not out of sincerity per se, but in a desperate longing to be saved. In chapter one, Lewis draws an analogy between a traveler's journey being not always straight in path and the journey toward God. For example, a traveler who is near to a village in physical proximity, say staring down on the rooftops from a mountain crag that he can almost touch with his hands, may need to follow a path that takes him much further from town before bringing him closer to it (for instance, as the path winds slowly down the hill).
Most of Lewis's observations about love speak to all religious traditions as does, arguably, the recognition that human love longs for more than its natural forms. The final chapter "Charity" is the most explicitly Christian in worldview, and it is the most difficult to grasp. Lewis admits the possible imperfection of his own knowledge and that what he writes about are imagined experiences rather than real ones. He reflects, "Those like myself whose imagination far exceeds their obedience are subject to a just penalty; we easily imagine conditions far higher than any we have actually reached."
Lewis's _Four Loves_ brims with human insights about love. This is a short work, written in the style of a kind, wise friend sharing his thoughts on a walk or over an evening.
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- Good For A Dentist Office
- Pleasantly surprised, and touched.
- The ratings
- Such shallow self-discovery should be saved for our teen years.
- A travelogue, personal memoir and "turn your life around" credo all in one.
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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Elizabeth Gilbert
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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ASIN: 0670034711 |
Book Description
description: ìutterly consumed with dread.î) I was trying to convince myself that my feelings were customary, despite all evidence to the contraryósuch as the acquaintance Iíd run into last week whoíd just discovered that she was pregnant for the first time, after spending two years and a kingís ransom in fertility treatments. She was ecstatic. She had wanted to be a mother forever, she told me. She admitted sheíd been secretly buying baby clothes for years and hiding them under the bed, where her husband wouldnít find them. I saw the joy in her face and I recognized it. This was the exact joy my own face had radiated last spring, the day I discovered that the magazine I worked for was going to send me on assignment to New Zealand, to write an article about the search for giant squid. And I thought, ìUntil I can feel as ecstatic about having a baby as I felt about going to New Zealand to search for a giant squid, I cannot have a baby.î
I donít want to be married anymore.
In daylight hours, I refused that thought, but at night it would consume me. What a catastrophe. How could I be such a criminal jerk as to proceed this deep into a marriage, only to leave it? Weíd only just bought this house a year ago. Hadnít I wanted this nice house? Hadnít I loved it? So why was I haunting its halls every night now, howling like Medea? Wasnít I proud of all weíd accumulatedóthe prestigious home in the Hudson Valley, the apartment in Manhattan, the eight phone lines, the friends and the picnics and the parties, the weekends spent roaming the aisles of some box-shaped superstore of our choice, buying ever more appliances on credit? I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this lifeóso why did I feel like none of it resembled me? Why did I feel so overwhelmed with duty, tired of being the primary breadwinner and the housekeeper and the social coordinator and the dog-walker and the wife and the soon-to- be mother, andósomewhere in my stolen momentsóa writer ...?
I donít want to be married anymore.
My husband was sleeping in the other room, in our bed. I equal parts loved him and could not stand him. I couldnít wake him to share in my distressówhat would be the point? Heíd already been watching me fall apart for months now, watching me behave like a madwoman (we both agreed on that word), and I only exhausted him. We both knew there was something wrong with me, and heíd been losing patience with it. Weíd been fighting and crying, and we were weary in that way that only a couple whose marriage is collapsing can be weary. We had the eyes of refugees.
The many reasons I didnít want to be this manís wife anymore are too personal and too sad to share here. Much of it had to do with my problems, but a good portion of our troubles were related to his issues, as well. Thatís only natural; there are always two figures in a marriage, after allótwo votes, two opinions, two conflicting sets of decisions, desires and limitations. But I donít think itís appropriate for me to discuss his issues in my book. Nor would I ask anyone to believe that I am capable of reporting an unbiased version of our story, and therefore the chronicle of our marriageís failure will remain untold here. I also will not discuss here all the reasons why I did still want to be his wife, or all his wonderfulness, or why I loved him and why I had married him and why I was unable to imagine life without him. I wonít open any of that. Let it be sufficient to say that, on this night, he was still my lighthouse and my albatross in equal measure. The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving. I didnít want to destroy anything or anybody. I just wanted to slip quietly out the back door, without causing any fuss or consequences, and then not stop running until I reached Greenland.
This part of my story is not a happy one, I know. But I share it here because something was about to occur on that bathroom floor that would change forever the progression of my lifeóalmost like one of those crazy astronomical super-events when a planet flips over in outer space for no reason whatsoever, and its molten core shifts, relocating its poles and altering its shape radically, such that the whole mass of the planet suddenly becomes oblong instead of spherical. Something like that.
What happened was that I started to pray.
You knowólike, to God.
3 Now, this was a first for me. And since this is the first time I have introduced that loaded wordóGODóinto my book, and since this is a word which will appear many times again throughout these pages, it seems only fair that I pause here for a moment to explain exactly what I mean when I say that word, just so people can decide right away how offended they need to get.
Saving for later the argument about whether God exists at all (noóhereís a better idea: letís skip that argument completely), let me first explain why I use the word God, when I could just as easily use the words Jehovah, Allah, Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu or Zeus. Alternatively, I could call God ìThat,î which is how the ancient Sanskrit scriptures say it, and which I think comes close to the all-inclusive and unspeakable entity I have sometimes experienced. But that ìThatî feels impersonal to meóa thing, not a beingóand I myself cannot pray to a That. I need a proper name, in order to fully sense a personal attendance. For this same reason, when I pray, I do not address my prayers to The Universe, The Great Void, The Force, The Supreme Self, The Whole, The Creator, The Light, The Higher Power, or even the most poetic manifestation of Godís name, taken, I believe, from the Gnostic gospels: ìThe Shadow of the Turning.î
I have nothing against any of these terms. I feel they are all equal because they are all equally adequate and inadequate descriptions of the indescribable. But we each do need a functional name for this indescribability, and ìGodî is the name that feels the most warm to me, so thatís what I use. I should also confess that I generally refer to God as ìHim,î which doesnít bother me because, to my mind, itís just a convenient personalizing pronoun, not a precise anatomical description or a cause for revolution. Of course, I donít mind if people call God ìHer,î and I understand the urge to do so. Againóto me, these are both equal terms, equally adequate and inadequate. Though I do think the capitalization of either pronoun is a nice touch, a small politeness in the presence of the divine.
Culturally, though not theologically, Iím a Christian. I was born a Protestant of the white Anglo- Saxon persuasion. And while I do love that great teacher of peace who was called Jesus, and while I do reserve the right to ask myself in certain trying situations what indeed He would do, I canít swallow that one fixed rule of Christianity insisting that Christ is the only path to God. Strictly speaking, then, I cannot call myself a Christian. Most of the Christians I know accept my feelings on this with grace and open-mindedness. Then again, most of the Christians I know donít speak very strictly. To those who do speak (and think) strictly, all I can do here is offer my regrets for any hurt feelings and now excuse myself from their business.
Traditionally, I have responded to the transcendent mystics of all religions. I have always responded with breathless excitement to anyone who has ever said that God does not live in a dogmatic scripture or in a distant throne in the sky, but instead abides very close to us indeedó much closer than we can imagine, breathing right through our own hearts. I respond with gratitude to anyone who has ever voyaged to the center of that heart, and who has then returned to the world with a report for the rest of us that God is an experience of supreme love. In every religious tradition on earth, there have always been mystical saints and transcendents who report exactly this experience. Unfortunately many of them have ended up arrested and killed. Still, I think very highly of them.
In the end, what I have come to believe about God is simple. Itís like thisóI used to have this really great dog. She came from the pound. She was a mixture of about ten different breeds, but seemed to have inherited the finest features of them all. She was brown. When people asked me, ìWhat kind of dog is that?î I would always give the same answer: ìSheís a brown dog.î Similarly, when the question is raised, ìWhat kind of God do you believe in?î my answer is easy: ìI believe in a magnificent God.î
4 Of course, Iíve had a lot of time to formulate my opinions about divinity since that night on the bathroom floor when I spoke to God directly for the first time. In the middle of that dark November crisis, though, I was not interested in formulating my views on theology. I was interested only in saving my life. I had finally noticed that I seemed to have reached a state of hopeless and life-threatening despair, and it occurred to me that sometimes people in this state will approach God for help. I think Iíd read that in a book somewhere.
What I said to God through my gasping sobs was something like this: ìHello, God. How are you? Iím Liz. Itís nice to meet you.î
Thatís rightóI was speaking to the creator of the universe as though weíd just been introduced at a cocktail party. But we work with what we know in this life, and these are the words I always use at the beginning of a relationship. In fact, it was all I could do to stop myself from saying, ìIíve always been a big fan of your work ...î
ìIím sorry to bother you so late at night,î I continued. ìBut Iím in serious trouble. And Iím sorry I havenít ever spoken directly to you before, but I do hope I have always expressed ample gratitude for all the blessings that youíve given me in my life.î
This thought caused me to sob even harder. God waited me out. I pulled myself together enough to go on: ìI am not an expert at praying, as you know. But can you please help me? I am in desperate need of h...
Customer Reviews:
Good For A Dentist Office.......2007-10-09
Why does this book remind me of all the soul searching of celebrities going in and coming out of Rehab? I felt like I was reading the vapid travelogue of a LA Valley girl, not a New Yorker. Like it was especially written for Oprah. There's nothing new or really that insightful about the subjects or places she covers... If you're going to write about Divorce, Love and God, please tell me something new because it's covered ground - stamped down to bedrock actually. "Over-indulgent, cliched, search-for-self by well to do 30-40 something woman" is right. You would think that she might draw out the characters she meets - and they might be interesting - but they're all cute little caricatures on the blissful way to Bali. None of them are remotely real. It reads like a travel narrative that is worth picking up at the doctor's office, but not when you have so many other better books to read. Yes, I'm a man. But I worship other female authors. Karen Blixen, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein; they have minds. Are we that lost that we have read this regurgitated self love spoiled goddess hippy lore and call it original? She should really get off the meds and think about what she's writing about. Not just write down drivel so she can feel happy about herself. But then she's laughing herself all the way to the bank.
Pleasantly surprised, and touched........2007-10-08
I was almost embarrassed to read this, given the book's sappy title and its inherent "Oprahness". I ended up enjoying it immensely. I admit, too, that I was deeply jealous of Gilbert (Italy, India, Indonesia...wow!), but I came to like her for her enthusiasm and her guilelessness. Many might find her spiritual quest a bit offputting, but this book is really less about finding your soul and more about learning to love life and love yourself. It's about making your life what you want it to be, and then letting go. Anyone who has been in an unsatisfying marriage, who has dealt with depression, who has cried out her guts on a cold bathroom floor (yes, it's a scene from the book)..should read this book. If I had more courage, and money, about a decade ago, I would have done exactly what Gilbert did, because I was in a very similar place. As I read this book, I slowly grew to like the author more and more, even when it's obvious she was being used by her Balinese friend, and even when she goes to great lengths (in oh-so-politically correct terms) to justify the crass greed that her friend exhibits. Gilbert puts her heart on a platter for her readers. She can infuriate, she can be a bit too self involved, and she can sometimes give us a little too much information. But she's given us a gift here. This book will be good for those it's good for. If you are intrigued by the subject, you will probably like it.
Assuming, of course, that you are female. I think this is a chick book exclusively.
The ratings.......2007-10-08
What's interesting to me is that 74% of the reviews (that's 368 out of 495) gave this book a 4 to a 5 rating. Most were 5 ratings. I believe 495 reviews on any book is exceptional participation. I also find it interesting that those who rated this book a 1 or 2 were just 90 people or 18%. A very few of you thought it was a 3. Wow......what is amazing to me is how most if not all of the lower ratings were vapid and cruel. That's pretty sad!
I'm a dedicated student of A Course in Mircales and I do a lot of spiritual reading. I don't claim or profess to have any part of the market cornered on evolution and becoming a more authentic person, but when the truth is presented in such a way that there is no reason to doubt, regardless of our ego's motivation to automatically do so, then that is what is called striking a chord. When a chord is struck and it resonates positive, then it is working at it's highest form. When a chord is struck and it resonates negative, then it's working at it's lowest form. I believe they call the highest form security. I believe they call the lowest form judgement. We have choices to make every second of every day. I try to select the positive as often as possible. It doesn't always happen that way. I'm at times a spiritual skeptic, but when the author talks about being in the palm of Gods hand and what that moment was like, that is true spiritualism at it's most innocent. That is authentic. I believe this lady is authentic. She also never claims that her journey is the only way to achieve that level of truth and honesty. It was her journey. You don't have to travel the world to experience the same thing. She claims there are three things we each can do every day, and that is:
1. Every morning ask yourself "what do I want today?". This can be about anything.
2. Every day chant your mantra. Perhaps something that accentuates the positive about yourself to the exact spot on your personal journey and destination.
3. Every evening before turning in for the night, recall the 1 happy thing from the day.
I think this is good advice. We can all do this and it immediately brings us into a better frame of right mindedness. That's the best place to be. I'm truly sorry for those of you who thought this was a waste of time and felt the need to attack. There are better places in our minds to function that requires no attack. It's much less painful. I believe that she has a lot to teach and we can always use another good lesson.
Peace!
Such shallow self-discovery should be saved for our teen years........2007-10-08
I picked this up at an airport while traveling and opened it on the plane. I started rolling my eyes on the second page and pretty much didn't stop rolling them until I stopped reading. This is basically the author's self-indulgent and clicheed 'search for herself' that reads like every other wealthy, overindulged 30 or 40-something woman's mid life crisis.
In the beginning she leaves her husband and marriage and indulges in a quick rebound relationship that (she will tell you, with some shock) did not work! Imagine. And then she decides to find herself by traveling to three geographical locations where she will indulge in some particular part of her inner self.
Along the way, she meets cardboard cut-outs. Well, she will tell you that they are people, but they are more like a combination of character-composites and wishful thinking. The old woman on the bench in the park who dispenses wisdom and then hobbles away into the mist. The young Italian boy who - as he struggles to learn English - also dispenses wisdom beyond his years and points her further along her path. If these were written as fictional characters you wouldn't believe them. Written as real autobiographical experiences, they are cringe-makingly annoying. And there are more of these 'characters' at every turn, she would have you believe! Though for the record, I don't believe she meant them as an insult to the readers' intelligence. Maybe she thought they were metaphors.
Anyway, her journey continues beyond Italy, and when I realized I had two more countries to visit with the author's angst and shallow self-discovery and pretend real people met with the express purpose of reflecting what she would like to 'learn' (lessons that most of us will have learned far earlier in life before more interesting lessons presented themselves) - I had to give it up.
I know it's categorized as autobiographical, but there's little reality or wisdom to be found here unless it is of a 'Cosmo's Guide To Finding Yourself - see page 131 for details!!!' variety. Actually come to think of it, it may have been perfect for that medium.
A travelogue, personal memoir and "turn your life around" credo all in one........2007-10-08
In my new book "Crafting the Travel Guidebook" I talk about different categories. There is the travel memoir/essay. There is also the self-help category that includes all those manuals on how to live a better life that are shelved over in the Religion/Philosophy/Self-Help section of a bookstore. And of course there is the autobiographical memoir that covers a portion of the author's life where a transformation takes place.
And then there are combinations--what I call the "magical, mystery tour" which can include books on finding oneself through travel and also travel guides to holy or uplifting places.
Eat, Pray, Love is the perfect pairing of the literary travel memoir and the modern "I have everything but I'm still not happy so I have to find my inner salvation" book. Self-fulfillment tomes can be a bore in some hands, but luckily Elizabeth Gilbert is a very good writer. She published several magazine articles and a novel or two before she started on this journey and her ability to limn characters (even her own literary one) is evident in her work. There is also the humor and those descriptions of food!
When I saw Gilbert on Oprah I was rather shocked by her appearance. I couldn't believe that this woman with blonde-streaked hair, wearing an off-the-shoulder black cocktail dress stayed at an ashram in India and a village in Bali! Luckily they displayed background shots of the `real" Elizabeth during her voyage and you could see a fairly plain Jane with brown hair done in a simple cut, and a standard issue white blouse. I guess the TV trainers insist that anyone appearing on Oprah has to have an instant glamour makeover.
Let's face it: most of us recovering from a doomed affair or a messy divorce do not have the money or the freedom from responsibility to go off for a year of eating, drinking, practicing meditation and whatnot. So I'm a little envious. And the fact that Elizabeth can attract people and make instant friends is a trait not found in everyone. They ought to put a little label on this book: Do not attempt to try this on your own. After all, the next American woman to set sail after a nasty breakup might find that her pocketbook is stolen in Rome, that she gets food poisoning in India and is attacked by religious fanatics in Indonesia!
But this is a worthwhile journey and most anyone who has gone through a heartbreaking affair or an empty marriage will find some empathy here. Gilbert wisely forgoes any nasty details relating to her marriage. Good thing too, because this book has become such a hit, that the ex-husband might sue for libel if anything had been said against him. And when it comes to minute description of characters and culture (rather than of nature and monuments)this woman is a master. I hope she goes on to other things and is not stuck churning out postscripts to Eat,Pray,Love for the rest of her life.
Book Description
You don't have to be a genius to sound like one. Here's a collection of the most profound and provocative wit and wisdom in the English language in two lines or less. Edited by entrepreneur John M. Shanahan, who created the wildly successful Hooked on Phonics program, this wonderful book presents the best that has been thought and said on every imaginable topic.
Classified by such themes as "Truth, Lies, and Deception," "Men, Women, and Relationships," and "Passions, Virtues, and Vices," these quotes contain timeless messages for all humankind. Oscar Wilde: "A man who marries his mistress leaves a vacancy in that position." Charles de Gaulle: "The cemetery is filled with indispensable men." Abraham Lincoln: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Sophocles: "Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it."
Perfect for anyone who has ever been left speechless, this book will make you as glib as Oscar Wilde, as profound as Winston Churchill, and as wise as Aesop. Inspirational, entertaining, and thought-provoking, this is one collection that no library or bookshelf should be without.
Customer Reviews:
You've got to be kidding!.......2007-06-08
If this editor really thinks these are the most brilliant thoughts of all time, he needs to get out more. A few gems, but mostly tired truisms from the 1900's and before. Nothing much new. I found this book disappointing and boring, which is unfortunate, since it includes a CD with all of the content included. But here is some good news; if you are looking for something similar that will really inspire and entertain you a far better choice is-
"A Dancing Star: Inspirations to Guide and Heala wonderful book that was given to me by a friend 10 years ago when I became ill with a chronic disease. I still read it all the time.
I have two copies - i can't be without it!.......2006-10-18
This is an amazing quote book. I manage a large office of creative staff and I
also attend many business functions where I am often called upon to make
speeches. I use the quotes in this book when communicating with my staff and
colleagues. I like to throw in a few quotes from Mr. Shanahan's book, it never
lets me down when I need to make a point subtly and eloquently.
I find a great way to start the business day on a positive note is to
open up The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time' (in Two Lines or Less) and
read a relevant quote to my team.
I have a copy at my office and another at home.
Lots of Profound Quotations.......2006-04-26
I REALLY like reading quotations & this book is FULL of them, BUT the author, John Shanahan, has attempted his 15 minutes of fame by including his own quotations, most of which I read & said, "HUH??" because they are not up to the same quality as the others. However, it IS his book! Great read, tho!
Literature ?.......2006-03-14
As books of this type go it is about what I expected, a real novelty. I may find a few items to quote, but most are not very profound nor of great interest.
Carry right too far and it becomes wrong.......2005-11-15
As I have just finished reading the book of Baltasar Gracian "the art of worldly wisdom" which is a must on every serious readers shelf , I picked up this book to relax my mind and enjoy it.....I must admit that it is very easy read and one can finish it in a couple of days since most quotes can be found written at the back of public toilet doors. A good book overall but far from brilliant.
Pascal Hagge
Average customer rating:
- Good to know we all have the same issues
- Straight Talk About Marriage
- The Honeymoon's Over
- Great Book
- BRUTALLY HONEST
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The Honeymoon's Over: True Stories of Love, Marriage, and Divorce
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ASIN: 0446580007 |
Book Description
Isabel Rose saw red flags before her marriage, but everyonethought she'd made a perfect match. Ann Hood's relationship with herhusband had the usual bumps, until the tragic death of her young daughterforged their bond for life. When Terry McMillan went through her publicdivorce, the trauma affected everyone in her life. While Joyce Maynardcared for her dying mother, her children's babysitter took even better careof her husband. Andrea Chapin, after years of money battles with hermusician husband, realized she had to become the mogul in the family. AnnieEchols found her marriage on the rocks when an unexpected pregnancy upsether family's delicate balance. In THE HONEYMOON'S OVER, women candidlydiscuss the good times, the bad times, and what makes or breaks a marriagein essays that will resonate with readers--married, single, or divorced.
Customer Reviews:
Good to know we all have the same issues.......2007-08-01
Short stories that are well presented and represent a host of situations - so one (or more) of them should apply to everyone who's been married. Nice to help you keep perspective, lots of different writing styles. Good to read 1-2 stories at a time and process what they have to offer.
Straight Talk About Marriage.......2007-07-02
Love, marriage, divorce. For those of us who have loved or are still
loving, have been married or still married, been divorced or are going
through a divorce, we have our own love, marriage, and divorce stories
to tell. However, In The Honeymoon's Over, Chapman and Wofford-Grand
have carefully edited and compiled some of the best stories on these
three issues.
Reading each of these stories is like listening to your sisterfriend
while sipping coffee or tea. The authors are storytellers, telling
their stories in a very fluid and conversational style. Easy to read
and understand, these stories are well-written, emotional and very
revealing. You can almost feel their pain, cry their tears, and
rejoice in their decisions. After you have read these stories,
you can think about each author's perspective of love, herself,
relationships and her future. You may even think about which story
applies to you.
Although each story is distinctive in terms of the author, her story
and her writing style, the themes and the storytelling style unite
these stories into this unique book. At least one story will appeal
to every reader. The reader may be able to even identify with an
author or two. These women are sharing their stories, and
telling ours, too. I recommend reading this book.
Karen Lemmons
APOOO Bookclub
The Honeymoon's Over.......2007-05-20
This was not what I thought it would be. Although, there were some interesting stories, I was somewhat dissapointed.
Great Book.......2007-04-10
This book is very well written. Definitely speaks volumes about relationships. But be ready to have the tissues on hand. :)
BRUTALLY HONEST.......2007-03-03
I absolutely loved this book, and I am keeping it becauseI know I will read it again. As I approach my 27th wedding anniversary I feel as though I know quite a bit about what makes a marriage worth hanging on to. Nobody is married for a long time without going through major bumps in the road but many of the stories in this collection illustrate how rewarding it is to stick it out - what you end up with is so special that it is difficult to describe. Of course, not every relationship has a happy ending and I enjoyed those essays also. My personal favorite? The Electric Husband - hilarious.
P.S. Terry McMillan's rage is hurting her MUCH, MUCH more than her ex-husband - anger is human but if you don't let go of it you will be poisoned by it.
Book Description
Advance praise for Sharehouse Confidential "John Blesso is the maestro of his Fire Island orchestra, madly conducting the participants in his hedonistic social experiment. It's an entertaining punch that connects, making it surely the best beach read of summer or, better yet, the television successor to Sex and the City."
-
Graham Murphy, McSweeneys
Sharehouse Confidential: Sex, Drugs, and the Single Life Inside an Epicurean Beach House, an uproarious memoir, recounts the adventures of author John Blesso and two-dozen New York City singles living under the same communal roof.
Desperate for distraction after shelving his seven hundred-page novel, Blesso renovates a seven-bedroom beach house on Fire Island, and serves up full-throttle epicurean living. Blesso and his sharehouse members, friends and strangers alike, madly search for a soul mate-or maybe just another Saturday night escapade. He tries to observe rule number one: don't hook up with other house members. But when the late-night jacuzzi sessions start bubbling, leaving only bikini bottoms standing guard, rules are easily broken.
Achingly funny, Sharehouse Confidential charts the battle between body and soul as Blesso strives to make sense of post-9/11 America.
Customer Reviews:
Not what you're thinking...........2007-07-26
I was expecting a completely fluffy book about a bunch of jerks. What I found was excellent writing that was humorous, contemptous of the Bush white house (extra special bonus!), and dedicated to painting a picture of a group of people that love food, drink, a good laugh, and a beautiful view. Makes you want to be in the house, no matter your age...
What happens next??.......2007-06-01
This is a story in need of a sequel. Will John become the next big fish in the little pond of Kismet? What will happen when Bush leaves the White House, the drugs start fading, and now matter how old he gets the girls stay the same age? Could the main character of this book run far or fast enough to leave the summer of 2005?
This book was a good, light read. The author's voice translated onto the page in a casual way that coaxed me into immediately trusting him as a narrator, despite his rakish reputation. Trust is needed in a story with so many aspects. Blesso ties in the story lines nicely. You can tell the rhythm Blesso writes in is the rhythm he speaks in as some of the paragraphs were obviously stories honed through countless tellings long before they reached the page. On one hand I appreciated the tact he showed his friends and lovers but I would have enjoyed more emotional depth on all sides; as is, I found it hard to keep the characters straight based on their physical descriptions. Sharehouse Confidential could have been meatier, but it must have been hard to flesh out characters you only get to know over a few weekends. It was nice to hear about an American struggling with our role in the war--boiled down, this is more than just a "summer read". I would have enjoyed another 100 pages.
I'd recommend this book to my friends and I would definitely buy the sequel to find out what becomes of the hardest working man in sharehouse business.
Not your mother's beach book.......2007-04-23
While I could easily describe Sharehouse Confidential as a great beach read, I wouldn't be doing the book, or John Blesso, justice if I stopped there. True, it has the qualities of a great beach read--it's sexy, funny, and breezy. But John's candor and honesty also give this memoir a refreshingly raw feel that we rarely get with all of the glossiness that has become our culture--kind of like Kismet itself.
Buy this book and plan to read for a long stretch. You won't be able to put it down until the end--and then you'll be disappointed that it's over.
Just delicious!.......2007-04-20
A great memoir is more than the story being told - it's so much about the voice of the author, and right from the introduction, one can't help but love the sound of John Blesso's voice - smart and funny and thoughtful and sexy. The fact that he tells a great story makes this book impossible to put down unfinished.
And it is a fun read - clever and flirty and indulgent. All-weekend parties, covert hook-ups, table dancing, where the participants are real and interesting and funny and sometimes brilliant, and sometimes flawed. It's also strikingly poignant at moments - the idyllic life as an escape from scary times in a scary world. Food and drink and sex and community as counter-programming to the fear and hate. There's stuff that makes you think, and stuff that makes you laugh. He really strikes a wonderful balance, and it just makes for a highly enjoyable read.
I read this book at breakneck speed, at times literally laughing out loud (amusing to my fellow commuters, I'm sure). The included recipes at the end are an added bonus, though I barely skimmed them before turning right back to page one to read it all over again.
Like the salacious and decadent meals that title each chapter, Sharehouse Confidential is absolutely delicious.
More than a guilty pleasure.......2007-04-14
First things first...the book is a delight. I was enthralled and captivated inside of three sentences, and based on the title and subject matter, it seemed destined to be a book that I would recommend to others with the verbal headline "it's a guilty pleasure." To my surprise, while the elements that often serve as the building blocks to a guilty pleasure (they are right there in the title) are certainly in effect, this is a beautifully written memoir of a man on a journey. For those looking for an infectious romp, the hedonism is rampant and plentiful; though at it's core, the author paints an intimate and vivid picture of the path that led him to buy and maintain this summer haven. His courage, his fears, his setbacks, and his ever present willingness to wear life like a loose garment really had me rooting for him. As each page would turn (and they turn fast!), I found myself enraptured as John attempts (not always successfully) to ride the line between headmaster and housemember. Not to mention, the details of what it takes to run a house like this one gave me a newfound respect for anyone who takes on such a project. The house, the participants, and the events are described in such masterly detail; I will say this: I have been sober for ten years....I have a wife and two kids...and I still want to join John Blesso's sharehouse. Do yourself a favor....buy this book!
Book Description
In August 2003, at the age of thirty, Rory Stewart took a taxi from Jordan to Baghdad. A Farsi-speaking British diplomat who had recently completed an epic walk from Turkey to Bangladesh, he was soon appointed deputy governor of Amarah and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote, impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq. He spent the next eleven months negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and splicing together some semblance of an infrastructure for a population of millions teetering on the brink of civil war.
The Prince of the Marshes tells the story of Stewart's year. As a participant he takes us inside the occupation and beyond the Green Zone, introducing us to a colorful cast of Iraqis and revealing the complexity and fragility of a society we struggle to understand. By turns funny and harrowing, moving and incisive, it amounts to a unique portrait of heroism and the tragedy that intervention inevitably courts in the modern age.
Customer Reviews:
Important read for understanding the reality of Iraq today.......2007-10-06
If you feel it is important to understand what is happening in Iraq today, this book needs to be added to your reading list. The author's perspective, that of largely unempowered administrator of a province in Iraq, is both valuable and unique. Rather than the purely political or military viewpoint, you are given a look into the reality of the daily challenges being faced by those charged with trying to make things work on the ground... the implementers, not the policy makers or military men. The view is not a very pleasant or hopeful one.
The style of writing is sometimes dry and some may find it rather boring to read often repetitive accounts of setting up and administering programs, and dealing with constant political infighting among the factions. It can also be frustrating and tedious to read about hard working, well-intentioned people trying to accomplish things against great odds, only to see everything go for naught (again and again and again). But for me at least, it was the information and insights that were buried within the mundane details of Mr. Stewart's day to day accounts, and the reasons for the many failures that were the most revealing and added most to my understanding of what we are up against in Iraq.
My conclusion after reading the book was that the quote from Milton, "It is better to rule in hell than serve in Heaven," seems to perfectly sum up the attitude of the leaders of the various factions there. Until that attitude changes, the hope for a functioning democracy in Iraq appears to be mostly wishful thinking at best.
WHERE HAVE AL THE QAEDA GONE?.......2007-08-28
In the absence of an index, I can't easily verify whether Al Qaeda get only one solitary mention (and that as just one of a list of suspects) in all the 400-odd pages of this book. They are conspicuous by their absence throughout, and that strikes me as being one of the most significant aspects of the story. To this day I am hearing about the need to defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq, and to this day I am puzzled as to what makes that so important. If we want to find their local operatives who actually plan the bombings in America and Europe we ought to be searching in Europe; and if we want to find their main leadership we should look in Afghanistan or Pakistan. However if the Al Qaeda presence in Iraq is as insignificant as it might seem from Stewart's narrative then it adds to the sense of confusion regarding the coalition's objectives.
Stewart served for a year as Deputy Governorate Coordinator in two provinces, often being left in effective charge. He was no more than a freelance contractor, but his previous experience ensured that his job-application was gratefully snapped up by HM Foreign Office, doubtless short of volunteers from within its own ranks. He restricts his narrative to what he saw at first-hand. He took up his post in a genuine attempt to make the ostensible coalition objective of a democratic and peaceful Iraq work, and he does not analyse or evaluate that and the other supposed objectives. However his direct involvement included reporting periodically to Bremer in Baghdad, and anyone able to put 2 and 2 together in such a manner as to make 4 and not 22 can easily read between the lines. Imagine the following pronouncement from the colonel in charge of strategic planning, for instance. 'What we are hoping to do is to lay out some philosophical underpinnings of a plan...to begin a journey of discovery for building a more cohesive implementation of plans and policies in the five core areas.' A fine time to be getting round to that in April 2004, Stewart seems to say. Elsewhere he notes Bremer's MBA from Harvard and it's not hard to read into what he says his exasperation at the know-all fatuity of Bremer's 7-point plans for privatisation and such like and at the ghastly gobbledegook ('best practice gaps analysis' etc) in which language seems to function not as a vehicle for thought but as a substitute for thought.
Back at the ranch Stewart was having to confront the realities of the situation. There were, he says and I believe him, some genuine successes before and independent of Gen Petraeus. The trouble was -- few if any Iraqis believed in the successes; or if they did it was not for long. Any seeds of improvement the coalition was sowing had roots too shallow to have much hope of permanence. Stewart's own despairing conclusion comes in his last sentence - however bad the native Iraqi movers and shakers might be, local loyalties always revert to one or other of these, and foreign-imposed improvements, some of them real others just speculative and hopeful, do not stand a chance in this culture. He was trying to make order out of chaos, but they preferred the chaos. He was trying to win hearts and minds, but the minds never stayed with him for long because the various men of power and influence had their own fluid and shifting agendas and alliances, and whether anyone's heart was ever with him is anyone's guess.
It stands to elementary reason that Stewart was in no way opposed to the occupation of Iraq. He went there at all because he believed that some good could come of it. As I read his account, he sees no prospect of success for it now, although he is not explicit about whether a totally different approach might have fared better. He was battling with bureaucracy, incompetence, ignorance, infighting, grandstanding and pretence from Bremer's outfit in Baghdad, opposition to his own role from his own coalition military let alone from the populace he was trying to help, and near-ludicrous ineptitude from the Italian component of such military day in and day out. He was improvising most of the time, and while he has no illusions that his snap decisions were always or even mainly right, the real truth of the matter seems to me to have been that in most cases he didn't rightly know whether he had been right or wrong, because there was no real criterion for judging of that.
The book has been put together from such notes as the author managed to take and retain, but in conditions of such pressure some of the material depends on his memory. I have no reason to suppose that any of these are unreliable, and mental honesty is shiningly apparent throughout, not least in his candour about the minor lies he felt he had better tell from time to time. Whether his own bravery was apparent to him I can't tell, but it's apparent to me. There is much quiet tongue-in-cheek humour, and the tongue comes right out of the cheek in his account of the exploits of the Italians, who were, in the homely Lancashire phrase, as much use as a one-legged man in an arse-kicking competition. His particular angle on the events is one that we don't often see recorded, let alone recorded as well as this. It does not purport to give the wider picture, but he is free of the temptation to blow his own trumpet, and I expect future historians will derive more solid benefit from Stewart than from, say, the memoirs of Gen Franks. He stayed his year's course, he had nothing more to stay for, and he leaves me wondering what the rest of them, even the admirable Gen Petraeus, can possibly hope to achieve. There were successes before and independent of him, they put down no roots, and it looks as if lasting successes will require divine intervention rather than human generalship.
What a wonderful story.......2007-07-06
Rory Stewart is a gifted story teller. I started this book one morning to "check it out" and had a hard time putting it down. His recollections of his year in Iraq, from August 2003 to June 2004 are some of the most non-partisan, honest and heart-wretching stories I've yet to read on this war. His youthful naivete, his non-military outtakes on Iraq in parts make his story all the more readable as it could have been told by any outsider looking in.
He doesn't put the blame on one person, but on everyone, from the US, British, Italian military and the Iraqis themselves. (Although I had a feeling the British forces in Nasiriyah were disgusted with the Italians in their area...) He doesn't boast about his accomplishments like a former military officer would, and he does mention his own faults at not being aggressive enough with some local sheikhs. But it's all obvious that dealing with tribal warfare takes more than blunt negotiations or quick reaction forces. What the Coalition failed to do from the beginning was win the "hearts and minds of the Iraqis."
A civil war was looming already in 2003, with the Sadrists and Badr gang finger-pointed as the big evil doers. Three, four years later nothing much has changed in that respect.
From dealing with corrupt sheikhs, police chiefs and huligans in the streets, Rory had to get reconstruction project started and kept getting held back by dissatisfied locals wanting their share of the corrupt pie. Rory also gave out praise for some people he met then who are big players today: Generals Petraeus and Odierno.
This book is an honest portrayal of life in a war zone. From sudden, incoming mortar rounds to kidnappings and gunshots found on corpses later on. Rory held back his emotions when recalling his story, which makes this so much more interesting than the many other books that want to blame the war's failures on just Bush, the military generals, or the Iraqis. This book is not about who is to blame, but rather why success as westerners see is so hard to come by in this part of the world.
Rory shows that the Iraqi culture is not an easy culture to live with. Its people are friends one minute, and deadly archrivals the next when it comes to tribal mentality and its focus on revenge. His stories make one realize why success in Iraq for the Coalition will come slowly and at a great cost.
The easy-to-follow verbage, the laymen's terms of military tactics and the in-your-face descriptions of daily events make this book a must-read for anyone interested in Today's Iraq. This book should be translated into Arabic so that the Iraqis can read about themselves and how juvenile they come across to all non-Iraqis.
I am definitely going to keep my eyes open for any more works by Rory Stewart.
An Insightful Account of the Futile Quest for Democracy in Iraq.......2007-07-01
Rory Stewart, a 30-year old British diplomat, pulls no punches in this fascinating account of futility in south-eastern Iraq. Despite the best-laid plans of mice and men (Rory is definitely in the later category), the avarice, cunning, deceit, and outright skullduggery of the typical Iraqi leader (at least in Amara) threatens to undo every good thing that Stewart and the Coalition attempt to do in Iraq. Small wonder - a people that have been repressed for over half a century are suddenly encouraged to vote, demonstrate, choose their own police chief, etc. Rory shows quite clearly why democracy is both impossible and alive and well in post-invasion Iraq. Impossible because the CPA envisions "democracy" as a pro-Western government, while Iraqis clearly don't want women to be seen or heard (Sadrists murder a quiet but educated doctor in the streets), nor are they willing to accept the leadership of anyone not from their own tribe or clan. And yet democracy is clearly thriving as long pent-up emotions, leadership, and social norms well to the surface as every group tries to get their leader in power in order to collect the perquisites of office. In the last chapters, Rory makes a nice indictment of the utter incompetence and cowardice of the Italian military contingent that took more than 7 hours to react to Sadr mortaring as well as failure to do anything as snipers closed in on the CPA compond. With friends like these...
Stewart starts out believing in the basic good of all mankind, but after being labeled "Hitler", mortared by politicians that he helped earn a voice at the table, deserted by the same leaders that he helped install, etc. he comes to the realization that the liberal perspective just doesn't work.
Although not necessarily an indictment of the invasion of Iraq, Stewart points out the incredible challenges of putting a broken society back together after war, in particular when one culture (Western) intends to pose its values on another (Iraqi). The real winner in all this - Iran.
Upbeat and hopeless about Iraq.......2007-06-27
I love this book! If there's any book that seductively explains why our adventure in Iraq is mostly doomed, it's this one. Rory Stewart writes so well, with spot-on black, observational humor about his experiences as part of the coalition government's effort in a remote part of Iraq. It's funny, but in that rueful way that nudges the reader to understand that the issues in Iraq have much to do with us and the other outsiders, but even more to do with longstanding cutlrual rifts and rivalries. The problems were tehre before us and will remain long after we are gone. Maybe every american taxpayer could have a copy of this book?
Amazon.com
A thoughtful companion volume to the earlier Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman!. Perhaps the most intriguing parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes descriptions of science and policy colliding in the presidential commission to determine the cause of the Challenger space shuttle explosion; and the scientific sleuthing behind his famously elegant O-ring-in-ice-water demonstration. Not as rollicking as his other memoirs, but in some ways more profound.
Book Description
The best-selling sequel to "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"--funny, poignant, instructive. One of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman possessed an unquenchable thirst for adventure and an unparalleled ability to tell the stories of his life. "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" is Feynman's last literary legacy, which he prepared as he struggled with cancer. Among its many tales--some funny, others intensely moving--we meet Feynman's first wife, Arlene, who taught him of love's irreducible mystery as she lay dying in a hospital bed while he worked nearby on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. We are also given a fascinating narrative of the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger's explosion in 1986, and we relive the moment when Feynman revealed the disaster's cause by an elegant experiment: dropping a ring of rubber into a glass of cold water and pulling it out, misshapen. A New York Times bestseller.
Customer Reviews:
Must-read one.......2007-09-23
This is one of my favourite books.
Interesting life of one intelligent person with atypical sense of humour with interesting style of thinking.
Long part about physics may be boring for some kinds of people, but it still also contain a lot of interesting to read. Either way if you are absolutely out of physics you will maybe close this book on first sites of the second part.
So Much Wisdom in A Small Book .......2007-05-20
As others have noted this is the perfect companion to Reflections...... which I listened to on a long road trip. However this book needs to be read and the content savored while Reflections is more entertainment.
The Challenger investigation shines light on all that is wrong with Washington and the good people who perform despite the system. The book is worth reading if for only these chapters. These chapters are also must reading for anyone who read the 9/11 report and either believes it or completely distrusts it. Sadly the Washington insiders are masters at controlling independent panels from the Kennedy investigation to the most recent policical investigations. The term independent panel simply does not exist in DC. Sadly too many on the Challenger panel were working hard to protect that which most needed to be fixed. I believe the same truth holds true with the 9-11 investigation where the "scope" was carefully crafted to avoid potholes.
What's refreshing is Feynman's refusal to go along and also the coaching he received from the USAF general along the way.
Non technical, the book is suitable for interested readers from 10-100. Great illustration of how much positive impact can come from one great mind.
I love Feynman.......2007-05-04
Although this isn't quite the same as "Surely you Must be Joking, Mr Feynman", this is still a great read. There's a great account of his involvement in the investigation of the Challenger accident. If you liked the "Surely you Must be Joking" this one is well worth it. Feynman is such a compelling guy, that (along with Douglas Adams) when reading his books I actually get bummed out that they're not still around and contributing to society.
Further travels with Dick Feynman.......2007-05-02
What Do You Care What Other People Think? is sort of a sequel to Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman. As a whole this book is not as good as Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman. Part 1 of What Do You Care What Other People Think? is excellent and is very similar in tone and content to the earlier book in that it contains anecdotes of Feynman's youth, travels, and work at Los Alamos, and a touching account of the untimely death of his first wife Arlene. I recommend it highly (with only one qualm, see below).
Part 2 is an account of Feynman's work investigating the space shuttle Challenger disaster. This part contains some interesting material but it seemed incomplete, technical in odd ways, and I found it hard to follow--actually impossible to understand fully.
Feynman's epilogue on the value of science is simple-minded, and IMO unworthy of publication.
Let me repeat: Part 1 is fascinating and is a valuable supplement to Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman, but one thing that bothered me is Feynman's hostile attitude to philosophy. Here is a particularly annoying example: Feynman is discussing how he helped Arlene with her philosophy homework. Feynman attacks Descartes' proof for the existence of God. Feynman has Descartes' argument summarized fairly accurately and gives one of the standard refutations (offered as his own brilliant idea). All of this is sophomoric, literally, in that it is standard fare in intro to philosophy courses, but Feynman presents it as though he is this daring iconoclast, uprooting the stuffy philosophers. I quote: "Arlene understood me. She understood, when she looked at it, that no matter how impressive and important this philosophy stuff was supposed to be, it could be taken lightly--you could just think about the words, instead of worrying about the fact that Descartes said it." (p. 29)
Of course this is just what philosophers teach in intro to philosophy. This is philosophy! Take nothing for granted, question everything, "The unexamined life is not worth living" (Socrates). Feynman is a brilliant physicist and wonderful story teller, and he's had a wild life, but his attitude to philosophy is uneducated and uninformed. Feynman especially should appreciate our philosophical heritage. One of Feynman's valuable contributions is that he has been something of a gadfly in the spirit of Socrates, the founder of philosophy in the Western tradition.
Finally I find the title annoying. Of course you care what other people think, and so do I and so did Feynman. Why else would he relate his anecdotes, tell us the story of the death of Arlene, and so on? Indeed, Feynman strikes me as quite sensitive and concerned about other people and their thoughts.
Perspectives of Richard Feynman.......2007-03-29
This was my first introduction to Richard Feynman, and it left an indelible impression. The book consists of a collection of essays, ranging from his upbringing, loss of his first wife, a few anecdotes, and even an in depth look at the Challenger disaster. Among other things, Feynman is a great writer, and makes each of these subjects a captivating read. He has a brilliant mind, and an intriguing vantage point for every subject. If you ever wondered what makes some men stand out from the rest, this is a perfect book to read.
Book Description
The definitive compendium of classic and modern oratory expanded—with a new preface on what makes a speech "great."
An instant classic when it was first published a decade ago and now enriched by seventeen new speeches, Lend Me Your Ears contains more than two hundred outstanding moments of oratory. This third edition is selected, arranged, and introduced by William Safire, who honed his skills as a presidential speechwriter. He is considered by many to be America's most influential political columnist and most elegant explicator of our language. Covering speeches from Demosthenes to George W. Bush, this latest edition includes the words of Cromwell to the "Rump Parliament," Orson Welles eulogizing Darryl F. Zanuck, General George Patton exhorting his troops before D-Day, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking on Bush v. Gore. A new section incorporates speeches that were never delivered: what Kennedy was scheduled to say in Dallas; what Safire wrote for Nixon if the first moon landing met with disaster; and what Clinton originally planned to say after his grand jury testimony but swapped for a much fiercer speech.
Customer Reviews:
Lend me your ears and eyes.......2007-01-11
Over 2000 years of the best speeches imaginable. One can sit for 10 minutes or 3 hours and devour the words of history's greatest men and women. A must for every student, political scientist and would be politician.
Shame on Norton! Listen to MLK "I have a dream" while reading this book.......2006-10-02
The text they have in the first edition of this book for the "I have a dream" speech so deviates from the actual speech, it leads you to wonder two things: a) what kind of crappy editors are reviewing this stuff? and b) if the MLK speech is so screwed up, can you trust the text they provide of the older speeches that you cannot verify by listening to recordings?
This sucks. I am seriously disappointed by the editors at Norton.
A Great Resource.......2006-04-12
It is so difficult to do justice to a book about great speeches. By definition, the content should be good - even great, which is partly why this book is such a rich treasure. The other reason why Lend Me Your Ears is such a useful resource is the commentary provided by editor William Safire.
Safire opens the book with "An Introductory Address." It is a witty treatise on the elements of a great speech. The ten steps (plus a "secret eleventh")he outlines are not original, but in total provide very good guidelines for the budding speechwriter.
Safire then provides context and a brief critique for each of the speeches referenced. These speeches range from ancient Greece to today. Some of them are not great speeches, some are not by nice people, but in their own way the speeches were effective - sometimes horribly so e.g. Adolph Hitler, Lenin, Stalin.
His commentary on Hitler for instance explains very simply and lucidly why this "curse of Hitler," in Winston Churchill's words, became so compelling to many Germans. "Hitler's speeches often lacked the strength of coherence, but with slashing racism and the powerful imagery of nationalism, he was able to delight and control crowds resentful of the reminders of past defeats."
I'm not sure if the reader will ever get to all the speeches in the book, but it is a great shelf item, to pick up at will, browse, imagine you were there when Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, when Lou Gehrig bids farewell to baseball (in a beautiful short address)and when Senator Everett Dirksen extols the virtue of the Marigold. I kid you not.
Two gems I really appreciated and are little nuggets. Branch Rickey discovers the quality that makes a baseball player great (Ty Cobb), and Richard Nixon's eulogy for Senator Dirksen, which Safire admits he was partly responsible for.
For the keen student of communication and speech, this book is a treasure.
A classic work made up of classic works.......2006-02-17
Aside from the great speeches ( two hundred of them ) that constitute this volume and are its heart, there is also the informative introductory commentary of William Safire. This commentary serves not only as guide to each particular speech, but in general terms as a kind of extended essay on the art of speechmaking. And Safire makes it clear throughout that he views speechmaking as an art.
The anthology contains the great standard political speeches, Pericles, Demosthenes, Burke , Lincoln . It contains elegies and tributes, sermons , speeches of social responsibility, media speeches, speeches which mark out landmark occaisions in history.
This is a classic work which is made up of classic works. And in it is a must- have work for anyone who wishes to understand and know the art of speechmaking.
A book to be read and re-read and re-read and re-read. . . .......2005-12-27
If and when you first get this book, you'll find that it reads easily and fascinatingly from cover to cover. The real proof of the book's value, however, will come in the number of times that you pick it up off of the shelf and re-read favorite speeches. I've had my copy for several years now, and I have repeatedly referenced it whenever I needed inspiration.
No amount of general tutelage about the use of rhetoric can substitute for the instructive and emotive power of experiencing the great speeches of history. And this book includes one terrific, landmark speech, one after the other.
They come in all stripes: great political speeches, speeches of conscience and courage, and even some hilariously funny ones, among others.
A few notes on a few of the selections:
Lincoln's great speeches are here. For my money, the Second Inaugural is even more thrilling than the Gettysburg Address.
Martin Luther King's noble and inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech is here, of course, but it's worth reading time and again despite its familiarity. Everyone hears the climax of this speech repeated so frequently on video, that the balance and brilliant flow of the longer speech is sometimes forgotten. It is beautiful from start to finish, not just at the end.
I have a particular fondness for speeches of defiance and courage. Elizabeth I's speech to her troops as they prepared to face the Spanish Armada is amazing; you'll be ready to march to hell for her blindfolded after you read it. Nathan Sharansky's moving and courageous speech as he is about to be sentenced to a gulag by a Soviet court is a reminder of the power of conscience. I myself am not terribly religious, but I am thrilled by Martin Luther's speech wherein he defends his religious writings. It is a speech of courage and conviction that should inspire people of all creeds.
There is also some great hilarious stuff in here also. One speech on the Senate floor mocking the glories of a pork project in Duluth, Minnesota, will have you in stitches. And for those who are looking for the perfect put-down, look no further than the speech of William Pitt the Elder in response to an elderly member of the House of Commons: "Sir, the atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny, but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience." Slam!
Read, savor, and learn -- time and again.
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