Book Description
Even the smartest women play dumb when it comes to relationships. They make the same mistakes over and over again; they fall for the same kind of guys; and they cry to the same friends when, inevitably, the relationship goes sour. Bestselling authors Steven Carter and Julia Sokol have written the book for every woman who would like to be smarter when it comes to affairs of the heart--Men Like Women Who Like Themselves.
With the candor, compassion, and expert advice that marked their bestseller What Smart Women Know, Carter and Sokol provide the essential insights all women need to know in order to forge healthy, committed relationships. Based on the simple but powerful notion that a lasting relationship means putting yourself first, that true love can only spring from self-love, Men Like Women Who Like Themselves is a trove of relationship wisdom for today's woman.
Customer Reviews:
Complete waste of time.......2004-09-09
"Men Like Women...." consists of one frightfully banal cliche after another, surrounded by acres of white space. Go read the cards in the "Friendship" section of the nearest Hallmark store - the insights you'll gain will be just as profound as anything you could get from this book, and you won't be out any money.
Huge disappointment.......2004-07-30
After reading "Men Who Can't Love" (which, by the way, is brilliant!), I was excited to pick up another piece by these authors. Unfortunately I was more than disappointed. I should have seen a red flag when I saw the title, so I have no one to blame but myself. Any woman who decides to "like herself" just so that a man can like her is sadly mistaken (you like yourself for yourself, not anybody else!). Generalizations such as "a balding man is a better catch than a hottie" are... simply put, ignorant. Theory that a lengthy first phone conversation indicates problems in the relationship going forward is ridiculous. Half way through the book, I came to conclusion that it was written for teenagers - a couple of valid points surrounded by a whole lot of common sense rambling. Women who want to improve their self-esteem should look elsewhere. And finally, who in the world thinks about babies on the first date???
Pretty good, could be be better.......2003-03-15
I did enjoy this book, though I only head half of it. It is written in such a way that the first half deals with you when you're not in a relationship and the second half deals with you when you're already in one. I had trouble connecting with it though. Some things were very true -- they were common sense. I was looking for help on how to deal with my lack of self-worth to help me find the right guy; I did not find it here.
But I must emphasize, the book is still great :)
Great Advice.......2003-01-10
This a powerful book. I found it to be more influential than most relationship books. Though I was a bit uncomfortable at first with the untraditional layout - the information is not organized into respective chapters and seems to flow from one subject to another continuously - it was that very conversational style that seemed to drive the authors' points home in a most profound way. Some of those points were:
-To get to the end you must start from the beginning; think about connecting with men before you start thinking about marriage/babies
-everyone makes mistakes, so give men a chance
-husband's usually don't resemble magazine models
-abuse is abuse
-behaviors and conversations to avoid on dates
The tone of the book was more practical than spiritual. The authors do not present "following your heart" and "soul mates" as precepts. For a read along those lines I would recommend mystical relationship books by Deepak Chopra.
This book was also quick and easy read without being too wordy and conceptual; great if you're a busy person.
Changed My Life.......2002-11-07
This book is so simply written, yet very powerful. It gave me the confidence and courage to break off an abusive relationship and start a new! I highly reccomend it to any woman who has low self-esteem. This book will change your life!
Average customer rating:
|
Every Young Man, God's Man Workbook: Pursuing Confidence, Courage, and Commitment (The Every Man Series)
Stephen Arterburn ,
Kenny Luck , and
Mike Yorkey
Manufacturer: WaterBrook Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Christian Living
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Christian Living
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Every Young Man, God's Man: Confident, Courageous, and Completely His (The Every Man Series)
-
Every Young Man's Battle: Strategies for Victory in the Real World of Sexual Temptation
-
Every Young Man's Battle Workbook: Practical Help in the Fight for Sexual Purity (Everyman: Sexual Integrity)
-
Every Young Woman's Battle: Guarding Your Mind, Heart, and Body in a Sex-Saturated World (The Every Man Series)
-
Every Man, God's Man: Every Man's Guide to...Courageous Faith and Daily Integrity (The Every Man Series)
ASIN: 1578569842
Release Date: 2005-04-19 |
Book Description
The workbook that helps you live out your faith in this wild and crazy world.
If you want God to change your life, watch out! The workbook in your hands is spiritual dynamite.
Inside you’ll find eight sessions (or twelve if your group wants more) to help you or a group of guys tackle the top spiritual battles you face today. And you’ll find powerful, practical, biblical strategies to win–God’s way–in each area you’re wrestling with. Like:
• Acceptance
• Identity
• Sex
• Choices
• Friendships
• Dating
• Pressure
• Authority
• Wild Behavior
• Parents
• Getting Caught
• And lots more.
The questions and interactive elements in this workbook will equip you not only with knowledge, but power–God’s power–to take spiritual responsibility as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Amazon.com
"To study the lingo of the con is inevitably to study the con itself," writes Luc Sante in his foreword to this classic work of urban anthropology, originally published in 1940. "A term such as cackle-bladder or shut-out cannot be properly described without giving a full account of its use, and such an account cannot be illustrated by stick figures." Thus The Big Con is filled with richly detailed anecdotes populated by characters with names like Devil's Island Eddie, the Honey Grove Kid, the Hashhouse Kid, and Limehouse Chappie ("distinguished British con man working both sides of the Atlantic and the steamship lines between, all with equal ease"). David Maurer spent years talking to con men about their profession, learning about each and every step of the three big cons (the wire, the rag, and the payoff). From putting the mark up to putting in the fix, Maurer guides readers through the fleecing--pretty soon you'll be forgetting the book's scientific value and reading for sheer entertainment. (A cackle-bladder, by the way, is a fake murder used to scare the victim off after his money's been taken. As for the shut-out, well, that you'll have to learn on your own.) --Ron Hogan
Customer Reviews:
A Fascinating Romp.......2007-08-06
For anyone who watched "The Sting" or BBC's "Hustle" and found themselves fascinated, this is absolutely the book for you. Maurer's "The Big Con" is at once a history and an apt analysis of con artists and their trade, but is never dry or boring. It is clear from the work that Maurer spent a great deal of time with his subjects and the work is not lacking for detail. However, more fascinating even than Maurer's explanations and elucidations of the various elements of the con artist's trade are his examinations of their psyches - not dashing, devil-may-care rogues, Maurer shows his subjects to be flesh-and-blood individuals with their own virtues and vices, personal triumphs and personal demons. The book also includes a glossary of slang which is very interesting as well. If you ever watched "The Sting" and wondered "Is this for real?" or are just a fan of a good old-fashioned yarn, "The Big Con" is a worthy buy. Enjoy.
Interesting, but terribly out-dated.......2005-01-05
With original publication in 1940, this book brings to life only the "basics" of the con, important to know, yet, in this modern era of so many new embellishments, woefully inadequate.More specifically: the "legalization" of all sorts of con games is becoming a threat to every business person and consumer. This trend is totally missed.A much better book for the hi-tech era is Les Henderson's, Crimes of Persuasion: Schemes, Scams, Frauds. It is a virtual encyclopedia of the Modern Con.
A reader.......2002-12-30
"The Big Con" is an excellent read from several perspectives. It is extremely well written. The pages fly by, which is saying something considering that it is non-fiction. As a 40's period piece, it is a must read for any fan of the crime/detective genre. Lastly, for anyone interested in the "confidence game" or related artforms, it is an esstential primer that considers the con at its most developed level. If the text has any weakness, it is that it leaves one with a craving for more details on the "short con." This may be forgiven because the point of the book is to examine the "big con," but as the author often notes, the masters of the big con nearly always get their start with the short con.
They Deserved One Another.......2002-07-04
The only thing more astounding than the degree of thought, care, judgment and energy these con men dedicated to their dishonest trade is the fall-on-the-floor-laughing GULLIBILITY of some of the victims (marks) they ripped off. Given the plain old greed that propelled most of the victims into the traps they pretty much set for themselves, they absolutely deserved to be skinned as thoroughly as they were.
The stories in this book are eminently enjoyable, and they really make you wonder what sort of big con games are flourishing across the USA even as we speak.
Textbook for the Mission Impossible TV Show.......2000-08-14
Producer and Director Bruce Geller stated that this book was the textbook he used for creating his 1960's television show Mission: Impossible.
Book Description
Male, female, deft, fraudulent, constantly shifting: which of the `masquerade' of passengers on the Mississippi steamboat Fidele is `the confidence man'? The central motif of Melville's last and most `modern' novel can be seen as a symbol of American cultural history.
Customer Reviews:
An American Classic on the Nature of Trust.......2006-10-04
Why read a book from 1857 which flopped so badly as commercial literature that Melville stopped writing and ended his career as a customs official? Because this book masterfully explores the entire nature of trust, confidence and cons. Though the setting is a riverboat on the Mississippi River just before the U.S. exploded into Civil War, its insights cross cultural boundaries.
This is not an easy book to read for several reasons. First, it is undoubtedly one of the first "post-modern" novels which breaks from traditional narrative storytelling. ( Another example: Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground.) The Confidence-Man is a collection of 45 conversations between various people on the riverboat--beggars, absurdly dressed frontiersmen, sickly misers, shysters, patent medicine hucksters, veterans (of the Mexican-American War) and the "hero" in the latter part of the book, the Cosmopolitan.
In typical Melville fashion, you also get asides--directly to the reader, in several cases, as if Melville felt the need to address issues of fiction outside the actual form of his novel. The lack of structure, action and conclusion make this a post-modern type book, but if you read each conversation as a separate story, then it starts to make more sense.
For what ties the book together is not a story but a theme: the nature of trust and confidence. In a very sly way, Melville shows how a variety of cons are worked, as the absolutely distrustful are slowly but surely convinced to do exactly what they vowed not to do: buy the "herbal" patent medicine, buy shares in a bogus stock venture, or donate cash to a suspect "charity."
In other chapters, it seems like the con artist is either stopped in his tracks or is conned himself. Since the book is mostly conversations, we are left to our own conclusions; there is no authorial voice wrapping up each chapter with a neatly stated ending. This elliptical structure conveys the ambiguous nature of trust; we don't want to be taken, but confidence is also necessary for any business to be transacted. To trust no one is to be entirely isolated.
Melville also raises the question: is it always a bad thing to be conned? The sickly man seems to be improved by his purchase of the worthless herbal remedy, and the donor conned out of his cash for the bogus charity also seems to feel better about himself and life. The ornery frontiersman who's been conned by lazy helpers softens up enough to trust the smooth-talking employment agency owner. Is that a terrible thing, to trust despite a history of being burned?
The ambuiguous nature of the bonds of trust is also explored. We think the Cosmopolitan is a con-man, but when he convinces a fellow passenger to part with a heavy sum, he returns it, just to prove a point. Is that a continuance of the con, or is he actually trustworthy?
The book is also an exploration of a peculiarly American task: sorting out who to trust in a multicultural non-traditional society of highly diverse and highly mobile citizens. In a traditional society, things operate in rote ways; young people follow in their parents' traditional roles, money is made and lent according to unchanging standards, and faith/tradition guides transactions such as marriage and business along well-worn pathways.
But in America, none of this structure is available. Even in Melville's day, America was a polyglot culture on the move; you had to decide who to trust based on their dress, manner and speech/pitch. The con, of course, works on precisely this necessity to rely on one's senses and rationality rather than a traditional network of trusted people and methods. So the con man dresses well and has a good story, and an answer for every doubt.
The second reason why Melville is hard to read is his long, leisurely, clause upon clause sentences. But the book is also peppered with his sly humor, which sneaks up on you... well, just like a good con.
not what you would expect.......2006-05-03
Just because you're a big Melville fan doesn't necessarily mean you will enjoy this book. Towards the end of his life, Melville's books increasingly lose traditional narrative form. The Confidence Man is the height of this break down. There is something of a story, but it is a thin one that mostly just serves to allow the characters to philosophize with one another at will.
If you're favorite part of Melville's novels are the stories he tells, this book probably isn't for you. However, if you love the tangents he tends to go off on, buy this now: this book is just one long tangent.
Ah, sweet charity........2006-04-10
What is it that makes us trust someone we don't even know?
Melville's novel constantly asks this question of the reader as we follow the progressive duping of passengers aboard the Fidele. By doing so, the novel actually functions to question our methods of representation; do we trust someone based on the clothes they wear? What they say? By showing the limits of these kinds of representational efforts it seems as though Melville may also be forcing us as readers to question our perspective of what we read. Should we inherently trust the narrator as reliable, or is it possible that we can also be duped, even being "outside" of the text?
It is, however, a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.
have confidence.......2006-04-07
Hardly any action, absurd labyrinthine plot, hilarious mis-pronunciation of the word 'herbs'. I want to convey just how uncanny it is that a book can be both a disturbing vortex of meaninglessness AND a jolly good read AT THE SAME TIME. I don't want to sound pretentious, but there's no way around it: Melville's final and supremely unpopular novel pushes the conceptual boundaries of the traditional novel genre, the act of writing itself, and indeed the very idea of representation. What is at stake here is the foundation of Western thought and self-fashioning. Meanwhile, following along with the ruses and rhymes of the trickster con-man (or con-men) and the sly narrator makes for a very amusing trip.
I just hope nobody ever tries to make a movie out of this.
PS make sure you get the oxford classics edition because the introduction essay is especially good; it points out all sorts of interesting stuff about the novel's composition and resonances with American culture and intellectual history in a lucid and enlightening way.
What is he really saying?.......2003-12-28
The book was fascinating, but not nearly so much as the different opinions about the book and its meaning.
And so here is my theory: The Confidence Man is not a shape-shifter. In fact, there is no character in the book we could call the Confidence Man. The con is within ourselves, an intrinsic part of our natures. We are not conned we con ourselves. Perhaps best illustrated in the part where Melville talks about writing.
In the end, how do you choose the outcome? You will take a walk in the dark, whether it be with faith or fear.
Average customer rating:
- It ain't all Moby Dick
- The Lonesome Latter Years
|
Herman Melville : Pierre, Israel Potter, The Piazza Tales, The Confidence-Man, Tales, Billy Budd (Library of America)
Herman Melville
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Melville, Herman
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
19th Century
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
United States
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Melville, Herman
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Hardcover
| Melville, Herman
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Action & Adventure
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Sea Adventures
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Herman Melville : Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick (Library of America)
-
Herman Melville : Typee, Omoo, Mardi (Library of America)
-
Nathaniel Hawthorne : Tales and Sketches (Library of America)
-
Nathaniel Hawthorne : Collected Novels: Fanshawe, The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun (Library of America)
-
Edgar Allan Poe : Poetry and Tales (Library of America)
ASIN: 0940450240 |
Book Description
Herman Melville's dark and brilliant late works contain some of his most powerful writing. After "Moby-Dick" he turned from the high seas to record his keen, bleak vision of life at home in America. "Pierre," "Israel Potter," and "The Confidence-Man," satirical dissections of moral breakdown and social hypocrisy, anticipate modernist fiction with their black humor and formal experimentation. With them here are "The Piazza Tales"--including "Bartelby the Scrivener," "The Encantadas," and "Benito Cereno"--and the haunting, posthumously published masterpiece, "Billy Budd, Sailor." Rounding out this third volume of Melville's complete prose in the Library of America are many pieces rarely collected, including magazine stories, comic sketches, and reviews of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Francis Parkman, and James Fenimore Cooper.
Customer Reviews:
It ain't all Moby Dick.......2002-03-16
If you think that you can't read classic American Literature because it's all so big and intimidating (i.e., Moby Dick) think again. Some of the short stories in this collection of Melville's "other" work are incredibly well-written insights into human nature. (As is Moby Dick, but I digress).
Billy Budd's encounter with "justice," Bartleby's statement that he would "prefer not", Benito Cerino's exploration of slavery-- these tales are not to be missed. You should read this book as a starter, then move on to the BIG OLD white whale.
The Lonesome Latter Years.......2001-05-12
Darkly humorous, cynical, horrific and melancholy, Melville's later works are the capstone to the author's deepening discontent with his America. The vision here can be frustrating: Melville conjures up the most painful, soul-searching mysteries, and then refuses to knot them up with tidy solutions. Instead, Melville deepens the moral ambiguity that seeped through the skin of the transitional Moby Dick in full-length works like Pierre and Billy Budd, Sailor. And the shorter works--among them The Piazza Tales, Benito Cereno, and Bartleby the Scrivener--are imbued with such a longing for any kind of graspable meaning, that their readers, like their characters, find themselves in a ponderous state of shock. The human condition, Melville seems to say, is one of isolation, cast adrift, searching alone for a truth that is, and always will be, inscrutable.
Average customer rating:
- Ignore older sour-grape review by author Sandra Brown
- It's not me...
- Great book
- Relationship Bible for Women
- Philosophy of Wellness
|
The Manipulative Man: Identify His Behavior, Counter the Abuse, Regain Control
Dorothy Mccoy
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Domestic Violence
| Abuse & Self Defense
| Mental Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Interpersonal Relations
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Love & Romance
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Marriage
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Men
| Gender Studies
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Dysfunctional Relationships
| Family Relationships
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
How to Spot a Dangerous Man Before You Get Involved: Describes 8 Types of Dangerous Men, Gives Defense Strategies and a Red Alert Checklist for Each, and Includes Stories of Successes and Failures
-
Emotional Unavailability : Recognizing It, Understanding It, and Avoiding Its Trap
-
How to Spot a Dangerous Man Workbook: A Survival Guide for Women
-
101 Lies Men Tell Women -- And Why Women Believe Them
-
Red Flags: How to Know When You're Dating a Loser
ASIN: 1593376235 |
Book Description
Conventional wisdom says that women are the manipulative ones-but tell that to the thousands of desperate women suffering at the hands of a manipulative man. Men can be just as sneaky, passive-aggressive, needy, underhanded, whiny, guilt-inducing, and emotionally demanding as women are accused of being-and more so! As any woman in love with a manipulative man can tell you, it's not easy to get past his charm and your guilt to a place where you can see your relationship for what it is-out of balance, extraordinarily stressful, emotionally exhausting, and potentially dangerous. The Manipulative Man is a groundbreaking prescription for dealing with the manipulative men in your life by using:
Tests to help women determine if they are involved with mama's boys, narcissists, sociopaths, or even psychopaths
Techniques for defining and setting boundaries with their men
Tools to help women improve their relationships with manipulative men
In The Manipulative Man, acclaimed psychotherapist Dr. Dorothy McCoy shows readers how to identify the type of manipulative man they're involved with, deal with the issues his behavior provokes, and, ultimately, salvage the relationship-or move on.
Customer Reviews:
Ignore older sour-grape review by author Sandra Brown.......2007-06-04
Please read this book for yourself as the author is writing her second book on this subject in seven years.
Sandra Brown is a later published author who has posted negative feedback, that I think should be deleted by Amazon because it is harrassment and slanderous.
I refer to the older, untrue, adolscent claim by Brown that "... McCoy copied my book..."
What Brown wrote about McCoy's book shows Brown is far from a professional. Why can't Sandra Brown see that her 'feedback' reveals the same ego-centrical, narcisstic personality traits and characteristcs that form the core personality of dangerous men in McCoy and Brown's own book. Moreover, Brown neglects to mention this author's earlier writings and contributions to the social problem of dangerous men, and has no context.
The real truth is that any trained MSW, psychologist, psychiatrist or other mental health professional should easliy be able to identify this type of personality and guide clients to a healthier emotional life; and more true is that people should be free to select from a variety of books on a subject and read the author whose writing style is memorable. It appears that Sandra Brown MA is not much smarter than a bag of rocks and she has shown it with her posting. Every good writer is either an instinctive or compulsive self-editor, but Sandra Brown' posting shows poor judgement and lack of character. I have written all this in the hope that she see the light on how she presents herself to the public.
People rate Brown's online articles with only average effectiveness.
[..]
Possibly Brown, you are most effective in the prison system, counseling the men you write about.
Your public nastyness to another woman author, in the same field lacks integrity and shows immaturity. Amazon should not have let you start a nasty war with another author disguised as feedback.
It's not me..........2006-12-27
This book is a must read for anyone who has found themself in a relationship and second guessed their own sanity. I found myself glued to each chapter, seeing red-flags and finding answers to questions that I would not dare ask anyone. This is a great reference book to be picked up again and again.
The insight gained is invaluable.
The author's style is sprinkled with humor, and the reader is anxious to delve deeper into the human psyche. Once started, you cannot put it down.
Great advice for dealing with Emotional Vampires.
Great book.......2006-12-19
Manipulation doesn't have a gender, so when I read the Manipulative Man I thought of many men and women who would fit the "case" characters in the book. I just wish I had known how to recognize them at the times I was dealing with them and thinking that "I" was the one who was going crazy. I guess that was my first clue. The descriptions in this book make it easy to stop a manipulative person. It is good to know there are things that I can do to protect myself from these high maintenance people. I look at people from a slightly different perspective now. It really is a very readable and insightful book.
Relationship Bible for Women.......2006-12-13
Every woman on planet should have this book it is really powerful!
Philosophy of Wellness.......2006-11-01
Susan Brown, I wish you had talked to me and read my other books before you posted your unwarranted comments. Please notice I also wrote From Shyness to Social Butterfly, in 2001. The suggestions I gave then are the same suggestions I gave in The Manipulative Man. My book, The Ultimate Book of Personality Tests, was published in 2005. If you read it you will see that I use many of the same tests and make some of the same observations.
I have never seen your book. The quote I used from your book came from a Google search. In the academic tradition, I quote many authors (both books and articles).
I did not choose the format or the focus of the content for the Manipulative Man. It was written in the tradition of another book (read the back cover of The Manipulative Man) at the request of the Publisher.
I wrote my first book, a workbook, in 2001 on stress management. It is now a police related workbook called Losing Our Officers to Anger, Stress and Suicide: A Wellness Solution. I have presented on it at three international conferences. It also follows my philosophy for wellness: eat nutritious foods, get plenty of rest, exercise regularly, stay connected to people, know what you can control (and what you cannot), be aware of your cognitions and how they affect your emotions, cherish your sense of humor, value the unique person you are, use cooperation and conflict resolution in relationships, believe behaviors rather than words, be able to recognize unhealthy (and often incongruent) behaviors and don't needlessly upset yourself.
Susan, please read my other books, then we will talk. No doubt, you made an honest mistake. I wish you continued success with your books.
Average customer rating:
- Stanley
- Individuality, Ingenuity, Forgiveness... Stanley Has It All!
|
Stanley (I Can Read Book 1)
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Fiction
| Dinosaurs
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Humorous
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| I Can Read Books
| Early Reader
| Series
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Level 1 (Paperback)
| I Can Read Books
| Early Reader
| Series
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Fiction
| Dinosaurs
| Animals
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Humorous
| Literature
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| I Can Read Books
| Early Reader
| Series
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Level 1 (Paperback)
| I Can Read Books
| Early Reader
| Series
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Oliver (I Can Read Book 1)
-
Grizzwold (I Can Read Book 1)
-
Chester (I Can Read Book 1)
-
Sammy the Seal (I Can Read Book 1)
-
The Horse in Harry's Room (Level 1)
ASIN: 0064440109 |
Book Description
Because Stanley does not act like his fellow cavemen, they chase him away. But then Stanley invents the house'and becomes a hero'in this thought-provoking, funny story about an early nonconformist.
Customer Reviews:
Stanley.......2007-07-10
My three-year old nephew recently brought home this book back from his pre-school. Stanley is a caveman who is different from the rest of his community. He does not like living in a cave, likes planting and flowers, is courteous to people and kind to animals. The book teaches kids the values of individuality, tolerance, kindness and common courtesy, stuff which might not quite be all too comprehensible to a toddler yet. I plan to read him this book again in a month or two though.
Individuality, Ingenuity, Forgiveness... Stanley Has It All!.......1999-04-23
This is the first book I ever remember reading and it's cute messages have stuck with me all these years. Stanley wasn't like the other cavemen, he liked flowers, didn't like sleeping in cold damp caves and so he did something about it! It's a sweet little story about the merits of being your own person and following through with your ideas and forgiving those people who take a while to come around.
Book Description
The text of The Confidence-Man reprinted here is again that of the first American edition (1857), slightly corrected. The Second Edition features significantly expanded explanatory annotations, particularly of biblical allusions.
"
Contemporary Reviews" includes nineteen commentaries on The Confidence-Man, eight of them new to the Second Edition. Better understood today are the concerted attacks on Melville by, especially, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Methodist reviewers.
A new section, "
Biographical Overviews," embodies the transformation of knowledge about Melville's life that has occurred over the last three decades. This section provides a wide range of readings of Melville's life by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dennis Marnon, and Hershel Parker, among others.
"
Sources, Backgrounds, and Criticism" is thematically organized to inform readers about movements and social developments central to Melville's America and to this novel, including utopias, cults, cure-alls, Transcendentalism, Indian hating, the Bible, and popular literature.
A Selected Bibliography is also included.
About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the
Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.
Customer Reviews:
Vote of no confidence.......2007-06-29
This, the last Herman Melville novel published during the author's lifetime, is not his best work. It's a great theme -- how confidence is necessary for personal success and a thriving market economy yet subject to abuse -- that could have been dealt with much more succintly. The book could have been 15 to 20 chapters instead of the 45 that it is (although most of the chapters are short). Melville also punishes the readers with many dependent clauses. The great man could certainly have used an editor here.
But it's still Melville thus "The Confidence Man" inevitably sparkles at times. But the suggested time scale makes the book highly improbable. There's no way a single man could pull off so many cons on a single boat trip down the Mississippi River. Had "The Confidence Man" done his "business" during several trips over several years then that would have been credible. But 30-something cons during a single voyage without being detected by the ship's crew? No sale.
Had Melville made things shorter and more believable with a postscript added as to what the Civil War did to American optimism then the book may have become a classic.
For a lesser author "The Confidence Man" would have been a great achievement. But for Melville it pales beside "Moby Dick" and "Billy Budd."
The politically astute may notice Melville mentions Cape Girardeau, Missouri, hometown of "conservative" commentator Rush Limbaugh, the greatest Republican Party confidence man of the post-WW II era. Nice foreshadowing, Herman!
A Classic Exploration of Trust and the Con.......2006-10-04
Why read a book from 1857 which flopped so badly as commercial literature that Melville stopped writing and ended his career as a customs official? Because this book masterfully explores the entire nature of trust, confidence and cons. Though the setting is a riverboat on the Mississippi River just before the U.S. exploded into Civil War, its insights cross cultural boundaries.
This is not an easy book to read for several reasons. First, it is undoubtedly one of the first "post-modern" novels which breaks from traditional narrative storytelling. ( Another example: Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground.) The Confidence-Man is a collection of 45 conversations between various people on the riverboat--beggars, absurdly dressed frontiersmen, sickly misers, shysters, patent medicine hucksters, veterans (of the Mexican-American War) and the "hero" in the latter part of the book, the Cosmopolitan.
In typical Melville fashion, you also get asides--directly to the reader, in several cases, as if Melville felt the need to address issues of fiction outside the actual form of his novel. The lack of structure, action and conclusion make this a post-modern type book, but if you read each conversation as a separate story, then it starts to make more sense.
For what ties the book together is not a story but a theme: the nature of trust and confidence. In a very sly way, Melville shows how a variety of cons are worked, as the absolutely distrustful are slowly but surely convinced to do exactly what they vowed not to do: buy the "herbal" patent medicine, buy shares in a bogus stock venture, or donate cash to a suspect "charity."
In other chapters, it seems like the con artist is either stopped in his tracks or is conned himself. Since the book is mostly conversations, we are left to our own conclusions; there is no authorial voice wrapping up each chapter with a neatly stated ending. This elliptical structure conveys the ambiguous nature of trust; we don't want to be taken, but confidence is also necessary for any business to be transacted. To trust no one is to be entirely isolated.
Melville also raises the question: is it always a bad thing to be conned? The sickly man seems to be improved by his purchase of the worthless herbal remedy, and the donor conned out of his cash for the bogus charity also seems to feel better about himself and life. The ornery frontiersman who's been conned by lazy helpers softens up enough to trust the smooth-talking employment agency owner. Is that a terrible thing, to trust despite a history of being burned?
The ambuiguous nature of the bonds of trust is also explored. We think the Cosmopolitan is a con-man, but when he convinces a fellow passenger to part with a heavy sum, he returns it, just to prove a point. Is that a continuance of the con, or is he actually trustworthy?
The book is also an exploration of a peculiarly American task: sorting out who to trust in a multicultural non-traditional society of highly diverse and highly mobile citizens. In a traditional society, things operate in rote ways; young people follow in their parents' traditional roles, money is made and lent according to unchanging standards, and faith/tradition guides transactions such as marriage and business along well-worn pathways.
But in America, none of this structure is available. Even in Melville's day, America was a polyglot culture on the move; you had to decide who to trust based on their dress, manner and speech/pitch. The con, of course, works on precisely this necessity to rely on one's senses and rationality rather than a traditional network of trusted people and methods. So the con man dresses well and has a good story, and an answer for every doubt.
The second reason why Melville is hard to read is his long, leisurely, clause upon clause sentences. But the book is also peppered with his sly humor, which sneaks up on you... well, just like a good con.
A book and edition which redefine "fabulous".......2006-04-20
As Melvillians will know (and as new readers will discover), this is an astoundingly modern work in the guise of an 'older' style. Re-reading it in this new edition is especially rewarding: abundant and illuminating notes, essays, and reviews in a beautifully produced book make for a very rich reading experience -- I got much more out of this reading than from earlier encounters with other editions. Highly recommended.
The Confidence Game: From All Angles.......2006-01-26
"The Confidence Man" was Melville's last novel. Like all his novels except "Moby Dick" it was a commercial failure. It is purported to be Melville's personal favorite of his own creation.
Melville takes a very special position in this book. He is an active author who directly interacts with the reader. The book is especially intricate and disguised. Melville tried to show the `Confidence Game' from all angles. He illustrates those performing the game, those who are victims of the game, and those who are just side players in the game.
In a brilliant fashion, Melville creates his text in such a way so as to leave the reader wondering just who is the player and who is the victim. He recognizes that his uniquely obtuse style in this book is particularly nebulous to the reader. In a technique that is rarely used by any author, Melville directly addresses the reader in two chapters. His words help the reader reach the conclusions that are elucidated.
In the book, Melville seems to try to explain the essence of the Game; in a very interesting manner. He seems to be saying that `All people are seeking confidence. They are either seeking self-confidence, or they are seeking the confidence of others, or they are preying on other people's confidence.' With this basic premise, Melville shows how the Game is executed and how manipulative it can be. There is no lack of the psychological in this book. Melville writes almost exclusively about the mental machinations that are utilized to play the Game effectively.
The book is highly recommended to those who are interested in the workings of the human mind and how those operations can be persuasive and even dangerous. It is a true classic in every sense of the word. It should not be overlooked.
Book Description
Recounts the enchanted career of the con man extraordinaire Felix Krull--a man unhampered by the moral precepts that govern the conduct of ordinary people.
Customer Reviews:
A Cautionary Tale For The Pseudo-Intellectual.......2007-08-30
THE CONFESSIONS OF FELIX KRULL CONFIDENCE MAN is Tomas Mann's last work, and reportedly the first part of a longer, fictitious autobiography that Mann was never to finish.
Felix Krull, the narrator, begins his story by recalling his upper middle class childhood, and recounting the loss of his family's fortune, which leads to a series of memorable adventures in Europe.
The book breezily entertains episode after episode until one long dreary stretch of drudgery near the end when Krull details a trip through a science museum in Lisbon. However, his tedious lapse into pedantry has a purpose. It finally separates Krull from any scintilla of Judeo/Christian moral constraint, allowing him, without conscience, to pursue his predatory ways.
Interesting how when I first read this book at age 20, I identified with Krull, cheering his every conquest and deception; but now, a generation later, I regret that Mann never finished the second part of this book in which the amoral Krull gets his comeuppance. Krull tantalizingly refers to his arrest, but alas, we never learn the details. We can only hope that Mann was going to put Krull away for a long, long time.
Krull's is a cautionary tale for today's arrogant, self-absorbed amoral pseudo-intellectual. He keeps telling us how smart he is, and how much above the common crowd he lives. Then he shows us how easily he can deceive others -- his mother, his uncle, his boss, and strangers who put their faith in him. He deceives without conscience, whether he steals jewelry or a young woman's virginity.
The particularly striking thing Krull reveals about his con man methods is his confession that he has the ability to learn just enough of any subject to deceive a person into thinking he is an expert. Krull is so taken with this ability, he even cons himself into believing he is an intellectual when he is, in fact, finally, a tedious pseudo-intellectual bore.
A Portrait of Narcissism.......2006-09-12
Finishing this novel left me wishing Mann had lived long enough to give us the second volume. I found his depiction of Krull to be an exquisite-- and hilarious-- exploration of narcissism from the narcissist's point of view. How delicious! The astounding egotism the protagnoist shows is a promise that he would have many adventures and his hints about jail time suggest that he over-stepped his bounds at least one time too many. How unfortunate for us readers that Mann died before he could complete the story. The situations at the end of this volume suggests the author got to about the halfway mark of where he wanted to go in the tale of this self-absorbed youth.
The fact that Mann was working at the end of his life was amazing enough. That he could so convincingly convey the inner life of an adolescent was, for me, proof of a talent that had dazzled me in *The Magic Mountain.* Comedy is a very difficult genre to work in effectively. The hints of the comic that were found in *Mountain* are in full effect in *Krull.* I'm eager to learn about Mann himself, given the titanic ability in evidence here.
Mann in a humorous vein.......2003-11-23
This picaresque novel of adventure by the writer of such ponderous masterpieces as _The Magic Mountain_ is one of my favorite books.
Many readers who come to it after _Buddenbrooks_ or "Tonio Kroeger" note the parallels Mann felt existed between the artist and the confidence man. In Tonio Kroeger, the eponymous central character has an encounter in his home town where he's mistaken briefly for a con man. In the earlier story, it's an incident full of irony. In _Felix Krull_, Mann turns that theme on its head and plays it as a burlesque and shows us the artist seen through the fun-house mirror of the artist-equals-con man metaphor.
A number of the themes of Mann's earlier novels are taken up here in humorous and ironic form, e.g., the rise of the artist through the decay of a respectable family (a theme in _Buddenbrooks_) is transmogrified into Krull's lineage from a good-but-dissolute family; in consequence, their respectability is more apparent than real, and as much an illusion as Felix Krull's career of deceit.
It may be that Mann intends that Felix Krull symbolically represents decay beneath his disguise (like the actor Mueller-Rose in the story), but the reader doesn't *feel* this is true. Krull might be the healthiest character in Mann's work, full of that zest for life that so wearied the bourgeois manque' Tonio Kroeger in Italy. Felix Krull isn't a "manque'" anything; a consummate actor on the stage of life, he is simply whatever or whomever he wants to be.
The elegance and suavity of the writing, captured well by the Lindley translation, are both a pleasure to read, and an analogue for the well-oiled confidence skills of the first person narrator. It's helpful to remember that we are being told "true confessions" by a man who has made his way in life by taking people in.
Another feature of the work, not often commented on, is the element of parody. Mann wrote the book with one eye, as it were, on the great German picaresque novel by Hans von Grimmelshausen, _Simplicius Simplicissimus_. Krull's travails, talents, and successes are at times a humorous transposition of those in Grimmelshausen's famous work. (Grimmelshausen's book is worth seeking out in its own right.)
And then, there's the Goethe reference: the artful, confessional style was intended (or so Mann claimed in an interview) as a parody of Goethe's style in _Dichtung und Wahrheit_. Mann had much to say about Goethe during his career, much of it freighted with a lot of seriousness (e.g., see his essay on "Goethe and Tolstoy"), but proves here he could regard his great predecessor with more than a little irony.
Because the book was started back in 1910, and reflects on a period 20 or more years earlier, it's a historical time capsule of sorts. This might annoy some readers; for others, it grants the work a certain period charm.
Finally, we should remember that the work is incomplete. This was intended to be the first part of a full-dress fictional memoir. Had he lived longer, Mann might have written 2 more volumes. The result is that the book is a bright fragment rather than a fully realized work of art. We're left to imagine what the remainder of Felix Krull's adventures might have been like. In an interview in 1955, Mann remarked that Krull would have a matrimonial adventure, as well as a prison sojourn and a retirement in England.
A pity we can never see the completed work, and cannot know with certainty how Krull's career would develop. I, for one, am happy with what Mann was able to bequeath us. I feel almost as if he left me a legacy.
Delightful!.......2003-10-22
This is a wonderfully eloquent autobiography of a wonderfully arrogant young man. It's so artful and creative, you'd think it was nonfiction. I highly recommend it.
The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is because toward the end, I found it got kind of boring when I thought it was about to get really interesting. It also ends abruptly, demanding a sequel, which there is not. But I won't spoil it by giving anything away.
For a good read, read Felix Krull!
A much lighter side to Thomas Mann.......2003-04-22
In this, the last of Thomas Mann's novels, we see him relaxing, letting his hair down, so to speak. Gone are the philosophical debates of Magic Mountain, the complicated musical discussions of Doctor Faustus, and even the attitude toward decline and decay from Buddenbrooks. This is a book about Felix Krull, a young man who learns early on that life is what he wants it to be. He becomes a `confidence man,' someone who changes his name frequently and acts in a `role' of an identity not his own.
The intriguing thing about Krull is that he is every bit the artist. He is an actor through and through, so good at his trade that he actually becomes (even in his own mind) the character he is portraying. The only difference is that his stage is the world at large. Throughout Felix's early years he deceives various people, steals from a couple of them, takes advantage of others. But Felix is not your typical conman. He seems not to want to hurt anyone, and often goes out of his way to be fair to people. The schemes he does pull he does not consider to be necessarily wrong--in fact, he sees himself acting in an acceptable way. His justification for this is that he is made of `finer clay' than other people.
In Felix we see many of Mann's other characters--Hans Castorp (in his education at the museum in Lisbon), Tonio Kroger (in his musings on the price and toll of being an artist), even Christian or Hanno Buddenbrook in a sense (what they may have been under other circumstances, without familial pressure). Certainly, anyone familiar with Mann's works will notice that most of the themes of this book are familiar, and have been used in other works as well. There really is nothing groundbreaking in Felix Krull--it is rather an enjoyable novel, especially for fans of Mann, that is easy to read and has some good insights in it. It is not his best work, but it is certainly worth the time to read it.
Books:
- Metamorphoses (Oxford World's Classics)
- Money for Nothing
- Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles
- Mr. Pusskins: A Love Story
- Murder by Moonlight and Other Mysteries: New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volumes 19-24 (New Adventures of Shelock Holmes)
- Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (Aimee Leduc Investigation)
- Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: GET OUT THE SHOVEL -- WHY EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG
- Oh! where are Bloody Mary's earrings?: A mystery story at the Court of Queen Victoria
- One Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Oxford Story Collections)
- One to One: The Art of Conferring with Young Writers
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Practical Business Ethics
- Machine-Stitched Cathedral Windows: Updating an Old Favorite
- Event Planning Made Easy
- Functional Ultrastructure: An Atlas of Tissue Biology and Pathology
- How to DJ Right: The Art and Science of Playing Records
- House of Lim, The: A Study of a Chinese Family
- Inside Passage: Living With Killer Whales, Bald Eagles, and Kwakiutl Indians
- The Art of Construction: Projects and Principles for Beginning Engineers and Architects
- Computer Accounting with Peachtree for Microsoft Windows Release 5.0 Package
- Expense Analysis: Condominiums, Cooperatives & Planned Unit Developments 1998
What Smart Women Know: 10 Year Anniversary Edition of The National Bestseller
He's Scared, She's Scared: Understanding the Hidden Fears That Sabotage Your Relationships
Getting to Commitment: Overcoming the 8 Greatest Obstacles to Lasting Connection (And Finding the Courage to Love)
Men Who Can't Love: How to Recognize a Commitmentphobic Man Before He Breaks Your Heart
Radical Honesty, The New Revised Edition: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth
![The confidence-man: his masquerade;: An authoritative text, backgrounds and sources, reviews, criticism [and] an annotated bibliography (A Norton critical edition)](http://www.germanelectronics88.com/noimage.gif)