5 comments about Out of Africa.

1. My favorite movie of all time. The book is not as good as the movie.



2. Out of Africa is Karen Blixen's memoir about her years in Africa, writing as Isak Dinesen. She recounts the world of Africa, specifically Kenya. It is, like the England of her friend Denys Finch-Hatton, "a world that no longer existed" even then and certainly as she left it. The memoir is a slow read, yet a book with prose in which you can luxuriate, or languish perhaps as it seems to mirror the mammoth African landscape. Reading like a pastoral novel, the narrator interested me with her myriad experiences. It presents people, cultures, landscape, and wildlife through her eyes, sometimes noble, sometimes paternal. The culture of the various tribes and religions with whom she had contact on her coffee farm became almost real, so that as I read certain moments became funny or sad or wistful. The reader comes to view animals differently, the fecundity of life struck me particularly. The different forces at work are both natural and foreign; the paradoxical nature of the presence of two churches (Roman Catholic and Church of Scotland) is sometimes presented as working for good yet other times it is in conflict. Blixen's memoir is truly literate and the importance of books and writing is evident throughout. Early in the memoir she tries to explain her wirting a book to a native. Near the end of her stay as she is selling off the furniture and other estate provisions their is a poignant moment when, as she sits on her remaining books, she comments:
   "Books in a colony play a different part in your existence from what they do in Europe; there is a whole side of your life which they alone take charge of ... you feel more grateful to them, or more indignant with them, than you will ever do in civilized countries." (p.373)
   Blixen's memoir of this "uncivilised" land is both memorable and effective in sweeping the reader away into a very different world. Definitely a worthwhile read.



3. The two-cassette abridgment was way too limiting for such a magnificent book. Also disappointing was the fact that the product was a rejected one from a public library, and the second tape was stretched and half of the second tape was not able to be heard. This product should never have been sold in this condition.



4. This was the first of many books I've read about Africa. At the time, I had a romanticized view of The Dark Continent, a naieve view.
   After doing some more research, I realize Karen Blixen's view was VERY romanticized....to the extent that many of her contemporaries thought her somewhat odd and out of touch with reality.
   If you want a lyrically told story colored with emotion...this is for you.
   If you're interested in Africa as it really was, read the many accounts extant by settlers who spent far more time, and ranged over a wider area.



5. The book, "Out of Africa," is a memoir of the Danish Baroness Karen Blixen's habitation near Nairobi in Kenya from 1914 to 1931 on a fertile 6000-acre coffee plantation, "at the foot of the Ngong Hills" (1992: 3). Blixen writes under the pen-name Isak Dinesen. Karen Blixen went to British East Africa (in a location in present-day, Kenya) to join her German husband (Baron Bror Blixen), and upon separation she stayed in Kenya to manage the farm by herself. The extent of her adventures in Africa, and to what extent she is a feminist is borne out by the book, as well as the film "Out of Africa," that is based on the book. This piece will examine such, as well as comparisons between the book and the film.
   
   Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) presents geographical detail, oftentimes comparisons and contrasts within this fertile land of the Kikuyu people that would several decades later be the crux of the Mau-Mau rebellion over whites' displacement and dispossession of natives from their land. Dinesen also compares features with those of her native Europe. Dinesen writes of the equatorial habitat, "Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequaled nobility...Up in this high air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart: Here I am where I ought to be" (1992: 4). Dinesen writes of "heavy-scented lilies," of "long-rains," "ever-changing clouds," of "hills from the farm [that} changed their character many times in the course of the day, and sometimes looked quite close and at times very far away" (1992: 4). Dinesen, in precise and elegant language displays love and fascination for the geography, the clean air, the animals, the beauty of this African environment; she becomes possessed by the place.The movie captures the large, picturesque, mysterious, and varied eastern equatorial Africa where the eland, the buffalo, and the rhino are quite common sights; the movie impressively and unanimously earned, Oscar, "Best Picture of the Year."
   
   In the end Dinesen is forced to give up her plantation, this scenario elicits a heartache and sadness. Dinesen's memoirs, years after she had left Africa could be a reflection of her nostalgic dealing with her loss of the farm as well as overall experiences in Africa. Dinesen stands out as a courageous and strong woman, one who is in the feminist direction. She lost her philandering husband, but stayed on bravely, for nearly 20 years in a foreign harsh environment, one with languages and cultures far-fetched from her own. Dinesen worked well at being appreciative of an environment that was new to her, during an era of colonialism in Africa, a time when Darwinian relegation of black Africans to the lowest of human species and elevation of whites to the upper rung was very strong. Dinesen cuts through the female traditional roles, she tries flying in planes, the goes on safari, she learns how to shoot and even shoots and kills game. She is open and welcomes countless visitors from all over the world to her home and farm. This was an age of exploration and acquisition of "Dark Africa," by Europeans and Asians. Dinesen is quite aware of her feminine strength. She rescues and adopts a wounded antelope she names Lulu; Lulu becomes a celebrity on the farm; Dinesen searches, discovers and celebrates the feminist strength in Lulu: "But Lulu was not really gentle, she had the so-called devil in her. She had, to the highest degree, the feminine trait of appearing to be exclusively on the defensive, concentrating on guarding the integrity of her being, when she was really, with the force in her, bent upon and defensive" (1992: 74). Also, "Lulu of the woods was a superior, independent being...she was in possession. If I had happened to have known a young princess in exile, and while she was still a pretender to the throne, and had met her again in her full queenly estate after she had come into her rights, our meeting would have had the same character" (1992: 78).
   
   The book displays that Karen Blixen exemplified the Europeans with the upper hand in colonial world conquest and politics. It is to be recalled that the three weapons used by Europeans to subjugate Africans were the gun, the Bible, and the anthropologist. Karen used guns to protect herself. Catholic (mostly Belgian and French), Protestant (mostly British), and Muslim (mostly Arabic) agencies vied for power in Africa. The Germans were in present-day neighboring Tanzania (German East Africa) to the south. They would be ousted during this significant, "Scramble for Africa." The book illustrates how Karen Blixen took great interest in which religious group the young natives (some of whom served her) adhered to. Many native followers, taught to kneel and pray to an invisible white Almighty god, became converted to the political/ religious groups, as they became dispossessed of their land resources. The anthropology aspect, as mentioned, involved relegation of black Africans to the lowest rungs of evolutionary mankind...the white was relegated as the superior, the master, the savior, the benevolent, the genius. The movie is great at casting Meryl Streep as the beautiful, rosy-cheeked clean, statuesque woman amidst muddy, black African paradise! The real Karen Blixen likely had more rugged looks and likely often got "down-and-dirty," than is depicted in the movie. An equatorial Africa of long and heavy rainy seasons, of continuous tropical sun, and of limited running water would not leave the Danish heroine so clean and collected.
   
   It is to be recalled that Dinesen is writing from an overly European point of view, hence, negative criticism of her will not be short. Her attitude to black Africans is racist and condescending. In the movie, Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford) rebukes her for instructing native porters to get off her belongings by "shooing," them off!. Finch-Hatton, in shock, remarks to her, "Shoo?" as if telling her, "I do not believe you addressed these people that way!" Finch-Hatton (who became Dinesen's lover) knows the native languages (Kiswahili and Kikuyu), and goes on to communicate her instructions to the porters. Black Africans are prevalently depicted in the movie as poverty-stricken servants, laborers and porters, as helpless people close to animal nature. In tune with the movie, here Dinesen writes, "They were poor people, small and underfed; they looked like a pair of badgers on my lawn...I could hardly distinguish them against the grass. They were sank in deep grief; their bereavement and their economic loss melted into one overwhelming distress" (1992: 108). Dinesen is surprised that the, "Natives," are strikingly open, adapting, welcoming and unprejudiced. Yet, as prevalent in the colonial fashion, she does not attribute this to the inner traditions and workings of indigenous African society, but from influence from foreigners including slavers! "The lack of prejudice in the Natives is a striking thing, for you expect to find dark taboos in the primitive people. It is due...to their acquaintance with a variety of races and tribes, and to the lively human intercourse that was brought upon East Africa, first by the old traders of ivory and slaves...and...by the settlers and big-game hunters" (1992: 54).
   
   Dinesen wishes the natives would understand and appreciate her more. It is always presumptuous to be confident of having fully understood a foreign culture and people; she does not seem to believe she is prejudiced and why the natives to a good extent regard her as a foreigner far different from them, and difficult to comprehend. She writes, "If I know a song of Africa,---I thought,---of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the field, and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me?" (1992: 83). At the same time, Dinesen quite often acknowledges that newcomers from Africa are from a noisy and rushed world, they do not have the patience and connectedness of native Africans. European colonialists imposed on the natives an alien system of forced dispossession and displacement and of monopoly. So much of this colonial intrusion was quite new to the prevalently communalist and family-oriented, egalitarian way of native African subsistence.
   
   Karen Blixen's marriage starts out as more of a convenience than of romance. She left Denmark to marry the German Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and start a dairy in Kenya. Bror is actually the brother of her lover. Karen is offering her fortune for companionship and adventure (and for the title of, "Baroness") much more than for enjoying the security of a man. So, from the outset, Karen's feminist inclinations are strong. The husband changes his mind about the diary, and instead invests her money in a risky venture of growing coffee. The husband is unfaithful, philandering, gives her syphilis that will disable her from having children; the marriage breaks up. Karen is left to manage the farm, she has to battle with floods and fire. Hardly anything of British big game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton's romance with Dinesen (Karen Blixen), is mentioned in the book; the movie likely borrows from other sources depicting the life of Karen Blixen. Unfortunately the English accent of Denys Finch-Hatton is not conveyed by Redford, compared to Karen's excellent outflow of a Scandinavian accent. Yet, the movie depicts their chemistry, Denys is impressed by her strength and independence, Karen's ability to tell and weave stories, they kiss, and in one scene have sex. Karen does seem to desire long-term companionship and commitment from Denys, desire for a man who will sacrifice to be with her. She stands against having a man like Denys who wants to be "free-wheeling," one who will come and go depending on need and desire, he loves the African outdoors. Finch-Hatton is mysterious, elusive and emotionally distant, but he is miscast in that in the movie: he seems to represent an all-American jock that waywardly found his way into Africa. Karen was wounded before, and this encounter with Denys is only a brief moment of ecstasy, but she bravely soldiers on, appreciating more of what is around her. Karen is indeed confident, stoic and creative in face of the odds. She did resist going on safari with Denys, but she eventually succumbed to his quite undeniable invitation. Eventually, they got closer, she broadened her horizons, she better adapted to and better accepted foreigners and their ways.
   
   In conclusion, the movie emphasizes the romantic issues and episodes in Karen Blixen's life in Africa (romance and sex sells in Hollywood), much more than the book does. The book seems to be constructed from a breadth of notes of what Blixen put together while in Africa, and weaved them into a good fairy tale. The truth is that Blixen dealt with aspects like fluctuating coffee prices, sometimes drought and heavy rains, discontented dispossessed natives, scrambles for Africa amongst several European agencies, African diseases and sometimes unsanitary conditions, wildlife from untamed neighborhoods. The movie does display the exquisite beauty of tropical Africa which Blixen did dwell on, but not on the colonial wranglings. There is lyrical beauty in Blixen's writing, and the movie does elicit an African peaceful mood through the excellent music. Blixen, in both the movie and the book is a strong and opinionated woman, yet flexible and open to ideas, people, and adventure. She is a significant precursor of modern-day feminism.

5 comments about An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963.

1. An extremely informative book. I came away from the book having only a little respect for Kennedy as a man or politician.
   
   1) He accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a book that was almost entirely ghostwritten for him.
   
   2) His daddy helped him cheat to win in elections and primaries.
   
   3) His primary accomplishment as a Senator was keeping the seat warm for the next guy.
   
   4) He, like at least one other President, lied about or withheld the truth about significant medical/physical problems.
   
   5) He appointed his brother to post of Attorney General even though RFK was completely unqualified.
   
   6) He treated his wife with blankfaced disrespect (openly philandering) in public and private.
   
   7) He was primarily responsible for the Bay of Pigs fiasco which made him look weak and emboldened Cuba and the USSR, thus leading to the Cuban Missle Crisis which he handled surprisingly well.
   
   8) He dragged his feet on Civil Rights because he was afraid of losing the support of Southern Democrats. (MLK Jr. said JFK's assassination was the best thing to happen to the Civil Rights movement)
   
   9) He freely admitted his first year as President was a miserable failure.
   
   10) He stepped up involvement in Vietnam without actually dealing with the problem. This forced Johnson and Nixon to make strategically terrible, morally insupportable and after-the-fact decisions.
   
   He was good looking and well spoken. Even his fiercest detractors admit he gave a great speech. He had a beautiful and cultured wife and adorable kids (Camelot). He was intelligent and erudite. He did his duty in WW2. As the President, he meant well but was inexperienced, naive & hopelessly out of his depth in high level cut-throat politics and completely lacking in moral courage. He did at least listen to the Civil Rights leaders and proposed bare minimum legistation. He got the space program off the ground (so to speak). He started the Peace Corp. He stared down the bombastic Khrushchev and the belligerent Castro. He encouraged Americans toward volunteerism and thinking of America 1st and themselves 2nd. All in all, a failed half-presidency with a few points of light redeemed by his martyrdom and subsequent mythology.



2. Robert Dallek is a gifted historian. He is also a complete historian, because he writes extremely well. I wonder if he has ever won the Parkman Prize, because his apparent meticulous research is consumed by the reader with such ease. Of course, because it is Dr. Dallek, I have but one complaint. In the young, Kennedy years, prior to the presidency, the biography feels intimate -- as if we were talking to someone who was right in the house growing up with him -- almost if we were like Lem Billings. But when we get to the presidency there is a bit of opinionating that oftimes goes from historian to editorializing. For example, when speaking of the Berlin Crisis, Dr. Dallek opines that it is best that JFK was running the show because RFK, being a hothead, might have gotten us involved in a nuclear exchange. Other than that minor, minor complaint, (because he is probably right on his opinionating), I think Dallek is great. So is his new title about Nixon, (and Kissinger,too.)
   
   Joe Nichols



3. Thought that the book was an adequate one volume account of the life of JFK. The author talked alot about JFK's medical problems, more than I would have liked. He could have written a chapter about the medical problems JFK had with his stomach and back and about how the Kennedy's covered up those ailments during the run for the presidency and during the presidency.
   
   But overall I thought that it was a very good book and would recommend to anyone who is reading their first Biography of Kennedy.



4. I very much enjoyed this biography of JFK. It is very well written and exactly what you want in a biography. It has a very detailed account of his entire life, from birth, through school and his travels, and on to his time as President.
   
   My only criticism is that for those of you who were not alive at the time of JFK (like me), you can get lost in many of the pages surrounding his Presidency. The author's accounts are so detailed, that I often found myself turning back in the book to refresh my memory about the many names and places that are referenced.
   
   Other than that, I highly recommend this book. The accounts of his young life (the privilege, the travels, the women) are fantastically interesting. The accounts of his many illnesses were also well done, and news to me.
   
   If you are like me and a big fan of biographies that start from the beginning and tell the whole story chronologically without leaving out a single detail, then this book is for you.



5. Well packed and arrived in a timely fashion. Everything as expected. A pleasure to do business with.

2 comments about Papa, My Father.

1. In the famous Buscaglia style, Leo writes about his childhood with humor, love, and PASSION! Its about a time gone by that perhaps we all wish we could have had. A Fathers Day tribute!



2. a fablous book wirtten with the outmost love and feeling. Leo captures the image of the Italin father perfectly. Amazing, heartwarming, perfect. A must buy!!!!!

5 comments about Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines.

1. Having worked with many addicts, this book is an accurate portrayal of where addiction leads you. The author is lucky to be alive.



2. I read David Sheff's Beautiful Boy and wept. The thought of paying money to Nic Sheff for his side of the same story is a great struggle. The problem is that if children who have not yet tried drugs hear this (and other similar) stories, what will they make of it? People who overcome their addictions fail to make the point of the horrible damage drug/alcohol abuse causes. A child will weigh the possibilities and see someone like Nic who has emerged a published author, and therefore, an addict who can function and earn a decent living. The question then becomes, "If Nic Sheff (or other addicts in the limelight) can do drugs and still have a good life, why shouldn't kids or young adults try drugs? It would be phenomenal if Nic Sheff didn't spend his earnings from this book on drugs. It would be beautiful if Nic Sheff lived the rest of his life clean and productive and happy. I wish this for his family. But I just can not know that I have given him a penny toward possible further abuse and pain inflicted on himself or the people who love him.
   
   I get that this is just a guy telling his story to anyone who may be intersted. And, I am interested. But I just can't do it.



3. What a wonderful book. Everything Nic expressed in here was so true.
   I could not stop listening to this book. It was just so good.



4. This book scared me. It scared me because of all the drugs that Nic did and how he ruined his relationship with his family, just to get high. But at the same time I liked it, because it was so descriptive, like when Nic talked about how it felt to be high. Also when Nic realized that being sober was a lot better than getting high. I also liked how the story jumped around, like the flashbacks. What I didn't like about this book was how the story just ended, it just stopped. It never talked about if he stayed sober and how what encouraged him to write the book. I also didn't like how Nic acted. He didn't like to hear what anyone else had to say, about what he was doing wrong, like when Spenser and his dad told him that his girlfriend was a bad choice for him. And I didn't like it when Nics' mom call his girlfriend's dad and told him that they had both relapsed. That was a very mean thing for her to do.
   I would recommend this book to older teenagers and most adults, because I don't think that younger teenagers would understand what Nic is saying about drugs.



5. I could not put this down after my husband handed it off to me. After mediocre memoirs, fake memoirs and memoirs about everything from ballet to dogs, I really just wanted a good old good down and dirty drug recovery memoir. This kid explains truly what it's like to feel when a drug addict is down and out, and the whole AA experience resonates all too well, along with dual-diagnosis. Read it. If you can stomach it.

No comments about Leading with My Heart.

5 comments about Babe.

1. This is a complete and thorough examination of the life and playing career of a baseball icon. The author has done a commendable job of separating the facts from the fanciful fictions that have grown up surrounding George Herman Ruth. While his home run record has been surpassed, I still think one can argue that Ruth was the greatest baseball player when one considers that in addition to his hitting abilities Ruth was an outstanding pitcher. He was shifted to the outfield when his managers determined that he could be of greater value as an everyday player rather than pitching every third or fourth day.



2. As author of the yet to be published "Babe Ruth: The Man Behind The Legend," I have read every book I can find on the subject of Babe Ruth. The more I read, the more I appreciate Creamer's exhaustive account of Ruth's playing career. This one is, by far, the best of all and I keep it with me at all times when I am in need of reference material. It is the most thorough and comprehensive. It is easy to see why this book has endured the test of time - an amazing 33 years in print. Thank you, Robert Creamer, for your truly wonderful contribution, and may you enjoy many more years in print! Sincerely, Rebecca Rau



3. Legends transcend time. The Stories get better, the adjectives get bolder, until they become passé. Ruth was the only athlete who was already at legend at age 21. There was no reason to exaggerate, and no words to describe his ferocious dominance. And the timing of his nuclear assault on history couldn't have been better planned. Fresh from the Black Sox crisis of 1919, America's greatest sport teetered on extinction. To this day, this baby faced Neanderthal had more athletic dominance over his peers than anyone in history...and more charisma than ten W.C. Fields. He changed the sport. Some say he changed the world.
   
   Home Runs were non-existent before him. Baseball runs were earned one base at a time; singles...sacrifice bunts...a sport of hard drinking pitchers, and gritty base stealers led by Cobb. After Ruth arrived, the physical dimensions had to be rearranged just to accommodate his abilities. Mammoth stadiums were built with double the capacity, replete with awe inspiring 450+ ft fences. All because of Ruth. But the parks were no match for him. He was the all-time home run champion at age 25, HR champ 13 times in 15 years, and in his 17 years as a hitter, he hit 235 home runs 450 ft. or further. By comparision, Bonds was HR champ just twice, and hit just 3, count em, 3 450ft HRs his first 15 seasons pre-roids.
   
   I've just read the new Ruth book out called The Big Bam, but afficionado's like me still choose Beamer's documentary as the voice of record. Unlike the rest, he best captures Ruth's massive power and abilities, childhood innocence, great sense of humor and rebelliousness, and rock star image. Ruth was the real deal. He was a true legend in his own time, and wore the badge humbly on his sleeve. He lit up every room he entered, and lit up every pitcher he faced. This book is a classic, like the man himself.



4. Some personalities are too big to be contained in a single book, especially one who exemplified bigness like Babe Ruth.
   
   Ruth was not much into analyzing the whys of his greatness. As retold in Robert Creamer's 1974 biography, when asked the secret of why he hit so many home runs, he replied: "Just swinging." Asked about "the psychology of the home run" by the same reporter, Babe responded: "Say, are you kidding me?"
   
   Creamer seems to feel the same way. He's not the prose version of Jack Webb exactly, but his "Babe" is heavy on facts and remarkably light on the sort of thing modern sports writers like to fill their weighty tomes up with, cultural impact and inner-self profiling. Creamer presents teasing glimpses of Babe's revelries, and some hints of who he really was beneath the legend (one close friend says "I don't think he really loved anybody"). But his focus is on Babe the baseball player, his statistical brilliance and his awesome, game-breaking power.
   
   He broke into the majors as a pitcher, developing into "the best lefthander in the game" before it became clear, in this blessed time before the advent of the designated hitter, that he could do more to win games with his bat than his arm. What followed transformed baseball from a slightly noisier and faster version of cricket into the National Pastime. Babe Ruth didn't invent the home run, but he might as well have deserved the copyright, hitting 54 homers in 1920, more than any other entire team produced except for his Yankees, red-haired stepchildren to the fabled New York Giants until Babe arrived and changed everything.
   
   Even though his career home-run record was in the process of being broken when "Babe" was published, Ruth was about so much more than that. Creamer gets at a lot of the on-field stuff, especially, like the fact he once led the American League in batting average and, as a pitcher, produced the longest stretch of earned-run-free innings for more than 40 years.
   
   The book does come across as dry at points, though, focusing on Ruth's more measurable accomplishments and ignoring the less tangible stuff. Creamer doesn't overwhelm you with a lot of flowing prose, which is a good thing, but he leaves a lot of things alone that seem fertile ground for exploration. Possibly because the last bio I read was Robert Caro's "Path To Power," it felt like Creamer was light on sourcing, but that's probably because his method of research was a lot less formal, chats at the bar with old-timers over the course of decades condensed into the iceberg we get here.
   
   What Creamer wrote, he got right, though, something I know as a fact. My grandfather covered the Yankees and was Babe's favorite ghostwriter, and my father, who saw Babe in the Yankee clubhouse, swore by Creamer as one of sportwriting's best for giving the honest, unvarnished truth. It's not a book for boys, as Creamer notes, but "Babe" will make you feel like one reading about this real-life giant who walked the earth.



5. That was written for boys & swallowed every legend whole. Robert Creamer has written quite a bit on baseball. This may be about the best biography of its time. You can't do much better than Tom Parker if you take the audio route. I've read or listened to other works by Mr. Creamer & they are consistently good. That said he has alway seemed a bit to attached to the numbers. Baseball is the most satistical of sports & I do enjoy them. Ever year there is a new on that can be applied however unofficially to players of other eras such as the Babe. One of the newest ones now in vogue is the quality start.
   Six inningss minimum with three earned runs or less is a quality start. Having said that sometimes the numbers overwhelm the story. Stats on the Babe's minor league years will be forgotten about 2 seonds after you hear them. Mr Creamer endeavors to be accurate & may knock down some of the legends, or reduce them to believable proportions. The belly-ache heard round the world & The Babe hitting three home-runs in his last game are examples of the hype at the time. Creamer gets real & lifts, in the end his biography to a more adult level. I think Mr. Creamer dwells a bit more on Babe's other appetites, as well, such as women. His various ailments, injuries & suspensions have surprisingly depressed records that could have been even greater than they eventually were. Babe's juvenile behavior in his early years & the number of people in the baseball world that he irritated by his sometimes arrogant attitude through-out his career thwarted him in the thing he wanted most: to be a big league manager. That is sad & we'd have a lot more to talk about since he lived for another 10 years after he left baseball. He died relatively young but he was & still is (despite his numbers being slowly
   eclipsed) the greatest. If you wanted a truthful biography this is is a pretty good one & its available in the audio version.

5 comments about A Man Named Dave.

1. I loved this book. I already read A child called it & The Lost Boy. I was touched by all three. However A Man named Dave brought tears to my eyes and made me very emotional. I applaud David Pelzer for sharing his life. He seems to be a re-markable man.



2. I have read the trilogy of this book and believe it to be uplifting and just truly amazing. It makes you strive to be all you can be and to treat others in the way you want to be treated. He is a true inspiration to anyone.



3. Very well written book. It is very inspiring. Once you start reading you cant put it down. This man has been through so much and triumphed.



4. this is the third sequel to a child called it! i like the part where dave pelzer's mom talks about his father dying, and asks, don't you have something for me? didn't he give you anything before he passed away? and dave says no! father didn't give me a thing! then his mom says you're lying! and slaps him and makes his nose bleed! read it if you like dave pelzer as much as me!



5. I'm glad Dave wrote this book. It made his story come full circle and now the world can read how one man can truly make a difference and move on with his life.

5 comments about The Gospel According to Jesus: A New Translation and Guide to His Essential Teachings for Believers and Unbelievers (Audio Literature/Cassettes).

1. This book is in my opinion the ultimate way for one who was raised in but has abandoned Christianity to reconcile his/her feelings about Jesus and his teachings with any guilt that may have arisen from forsaking them and with their new beliefs. Stephen Mitchell shows how even a non-believer may become quite enthralled with Jesus, and at the same time shows that he can be interpreted in more than one way--in fact one of the main thrusts of the book is to show how Gnostics and many agnostics and spiritualists (including our country's founding fathers, as has been revealed over the last decade or two!) interpreted Jesus quite differently than Christians do, taking him more as the ultimate guru and taking many things differently. For instance there are many that believe that Jesus was quite misinterpreted regarding his divinity (his referral to himself as "The Son of Man," the revelations provided by the Essenes and Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.) Many people of a variety of faiths believe Jesus was divine, but in more the way Buddha was, as someone who found the divine in himself and became it wholly, as we all might be able to do. Another point of contention that Stephen puts very eloquently is the idea that Jesus was speaking of the here and now (or a particular way of experiencing it) when he spoke of "The Kingdom of God," rather than a separate heaven completely unknowable to our living spirit. This seems quite obvious/plausible if one removes the dogma of theology from the situation. This book is ideal for: non-Christians who are spiritual or of another faith; Christians of an unusual sect or belief system (Christians that believe the other books of the Gospel but find John and Revelations unbelievable or hard to swallow/quantify/prove, for instance); or those who want to understand the spirituality and ethos of our country's founding fathers (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc.).



2. Absolutely great, simultaneously critical and spiritual. I have long seen Jesus pretty much the way Mitchell sees him. (a wise and compassionate human being with no pretensions to specialness)
   But this book is a revelation; and such "good news" for those who admire Jesus and want to follow his path as decribed in the Sermon on the mount, and the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, but who find Christology and mystification off-putting.



3. I spent a good 15 years of my life trying to make peace with Christianity. I've struggled to appreciate the avid Christians' ability to embrace the Bible as a literal transcription of God's word. I've struggled to forgive those who applied peer pressure to me as a young teen to "accept Jesus as my personal savior." I've pondered with bewilderment the idea that God would create us with inquisitive, questioning minds but then require us to engage in blind acceptance of Jesus' teachings.
   
   Finally, I was pushed over the edge by an evangelical Christian housemate who wouldn't shut up, and I picked up Mitchell's book in the hope of developing my gentle art of verbal self-defense. What an expected blessing this book has been! I was touched deeply and permanently by Mitchell's focus on forgiveness, and the many ways in which the teachings of Jesus the man are relevant to finding the Kingdom of Heaven within myself every day. Mitchell's book has helped me make peace with Christianity and Christians, and that is no small gift.



4. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking spiritual truth. Mitchell has done a wonderful job of research to find the inconsistencies in other works, including the bible. What remains are not versions of the truth written by those with a personal agenda, but the simple message of the Christ: The Kingdom is Within. Why dogmatic religions don't get this is still beyond my comprehension. Perhaps it's to keep people living in fear of suffering an eternal inferno, or to keep the religious hierarchy alive. But when the man called Jesus embodied the Christ his point was clear: don't follow me, but your own wisdom, for you have the Christ within as well.



5. I wish Mitchell began this book with more autobiographical material. He spent many years halfway around the world finding spiritual truths in Zen Buddhism. How could he not find Western Christianity a little bit lacking? I found the most perceptive insights speculate on Jesus' psychology as an "illegitimate" child. Did the local community know Joseph was not Jesus' biological father? One wonders how this might have affected Jesus. This book is not for devout traditional Christians, although more liberal Christians might enjoy it.

5 comments about A Million Little Pieces.

1. Although later found out to be a fictional piece, this book was still worth the read. This book kept me reading.



2. Regardless of how I feel about the whole controversy surrounding this book, it turned out to be a good story and I'll rate it for what it is...A work of fiction, based on a true story.
   As a story is wasn't bad - not bad at all, especially after the first couple hundred pages.
   
   For me, the beginning was so redundant that I came close to giving up on it. The first 200 pages could have easily been summed up like this...My name is James Frey and I'm a total mess. I'm 23 years old. I've been an alcoholic for the last ten years. I'm a drug Addict, and a Criminal. I'm currently in a treatment facility. I hate myself and deserve whatever physical and or mental pain and agony that comes my way. In fact, I'm such a crazy alcoholic, such a tough drug addict, such a hardened criminal, I'll take any pain you got - bring it on!
   
   The rest of the novel is a compelling story about the author's time spent in a treatment facility for drug and alcohol addiction. It is a story worth the cost of the book and the time spent reading it.
   
   As far as the hullabaloo - I knew all along that many of the facts presented in this memoir were not true; the author himself has admitted to lying. Therefore, I didn't experience that surprising feeling of betrayal when you believe something to be true, only to find out otherwise. However, when schools, universities, colleges, newspapers, etc. are so intense about not tolerating plagiarism, why do publishers, editors and most of all readers accept any lack of honesty and integrity when it come to labeling literature? Why sort literature by genre at all if we aren't going to have some standards set that we can trust? Yes, I guess it (labeling this book a memoir) really does bug me.



3. This book I read before I saw him on Oprah about the validity of his book. His writing style is amazing and will draw you into this 'story' of his life. It was very believable down to the smallest of details, while keeping your attention. It was hard to put down!
   
   He definitely has a talent for writing captivating 'stories'.
   
   Merna
   
   Pocket of Pearls: A 30-day pocket workbook to start hearing a softer voice inside of you!



4. I wrote a review years ago after I read this book.
   Still today, regardless of all the notoriety, I give thanks to James for writing this book. Unless someone has walked in the shoes of very early sobriety and recovery from drug addiction as well as alcohol abuse there can be no understanding of how powerful this book is.
   Bottom line: it saved my life and my MIND. Without this book God only knows if I would be here today 3 years later, clean and sober, to write about it.



5. I just finished this book, and I while I had heard about the controversy surrounding this book before reading it, and taking everything written with a grain of salt, this book is still incredible!!! Even if the arrest and some of the deaths in the book were not completely accurate, the descriptions of what he and other people addicted to drugs must go through HAS to be real, and thus, his book is still an amazing literary accomplishment. It truly is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It inspired me and is a book that I will probably think about for quite a while, especially those times when it feels like my life sucks. It could be worse! ;-) So, to everyone that thinks that this book is not worth a read because of all the controversy... open your world to just experience the emotions of the story and learn a little more about what "humanity" is... We all need each other and although we can only truly depend on ourself in life, without people caring about us, and people to care about, life could be very difficult. This book made me doubly appreciate the good things that I still have. This book is now one of my favorite books! Excellent read!

5 comments about Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest.

1. I have read many mountain climbing books and this is one of the best. It is such a refreshing perspective from the sherpa's eye view. A great read.



2. This book recounts the 1996 memoirs of Jamling Norga, son of Tenzing Norgay. In 1953, Tenzing Norgay was one member of the two-man team that first made it to the top of Mt. Everest. Jamling, who was born after Tenzing's historic climb, felt drawn to follow in his footsteps from the time he first understood his father's place in the world. In this book, he details the events leading to his own successful ascent up Mt. Everest. Along the way, he reflects on the lessons his father tried to teach him about ethics, culture, and life. Tenzing had once forbidden Jamling to climb the mountain, telling him that he climbed Everest so that Jamling wouldn't have to. But that's not how it works between sons and fathers--there are some lessons a son must learn solely through personal experience, and no amount of advice or urging will dissuade him from a path he is determined to take.
   
   In this book, Jamling recounts how his family lamas prognosticated a very dangerous season on Mt. Everest. As it turned out, Jamling would lose many friends on the mountain that year, all strong, experienced climbers. Although he had not been a member of the fated climbing teams that were decimated during those fateful days in May, 1996, he retells the stories of their tragic deaths as he witnessed the events unfold from the intermediate camps high on the mountain. All of these stories he tells from his unique vantage point as a Sherpa, a Buddhist, born and raised in India, and educated in the West. Thus, this book is quite different from the average climbing adventure story. It is as much a cultural adventure, a search for identity, and a tale of religious awakening with the Everest climb providing the backdrop.



3. Excellent book! The way I view it, it's 3 books in 1: a book about Tenzing's climb and personal life told by his
   son, a book about his son's 1996 climb and his life and thoughts, and a book on Sherpa's life and Buddhist
   customs. I really enjoyed reading it. The photographs include some photos of Tenzing as well.



4. Nor what I expected and rather a disappointment, this books seems to be a local writer and a son cashing in on the family name. There is little excitement or depth of character exhibited here and the work seems unlikely to be that of a man Himalayan born and bred. Who actually wrote these words ? Whose thoughts are they ? Not Sherpa thoughts I think.
   Far better is another book I have just read - Tenzing and the Sherpas of Everest by Tenzing's grandson, Tashi - an uplifting and honourable book about the Sherpas. It is simple and seems to me to truly represent the Sherpa viewpoint. This guy seems to be a true climber and talks like one. A far better book than Jamling's.



5. This book was absorbing emotionally and stimulating intellectually. It is the only book about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster written by a Sherpa, the indigenous people who work as porters and guides for commercial expeditions. I have read about five of the books written after the disaster, and wondered about the Sherpa point of view as there was surprisingly little mention of them.

   The other books only mentioned them in passing and in terms of what the Sherpas did for the expedition. Jamling Tenzig Norgay, the author, experiences this attitude. After the disaster, he and his team stay at Base Camp. He wrote, "The other Sherpas were hanging out in a depressed funk. Some of them hadn't gotten so much as a thank-you from the guided clients whom they assisted down the mountain, often after exceptional struggle. The clients simply disappeared, some without saying goodbye. We notice this kind of behavior."

   Norgay was skeptical about Buddhism at the beginning of the climb- but gradually came to believe in it. He requests and receives divinations from llamas- and uses their information as part of his decision-making. The book provides fascinating beginner's information that is accessible to someone like me who is just learning about Buddhism. He describes spirituality in a practical matter.
   

   For example, he says, "in the icefall, as in the mountains, we hope we have been imbued with enough tsin-lap to handle any situation. Tsin-lap is roughly translated as "blessing", but it really means the mental ability and strength to allow our minds to be changed in the direction of complete awareness. When we pray to the wisdom deities, to the Buddhas, we pray for tsin-lap." He talks about the fact that he and the other Sherpas who carry loads for the team hike over each trail numerous times. This improves their athletic ability and knowledge of the mountain.

   Norgay, spent over a decade in the United States and was also deeply familiar the clients who were paying to climb the mountains who were mostly from industrialized countries. The author does not idealize the Sherpas. He describes the positive parts of their culture, but also tells the reader that the main reason they are on the mountain is as a profession. It is to earn money. He explains that many of the Sherpas risked their lives for their clients during the disaster. But some expected a large award to be posted on the radio. It is not clear whether they might have saved the lives of their guide had an award been offered. Wong Chu, the sirdar responsible for logistics, kept a stick in the kitchen and "would whack miscreant Sherpas on the butt when they acted up. `You came here to do work.' he would say loudly."

   Norgay is the son of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary on the first successful attempt of the summit of Mount Everest. His story is interwoven with his father's story. And by the end of the book, you can see that the son had climbed two mountains- a real one and the metaphorical on that each of us must climb to integrate our past with our present and future.