No comments about The Wisdom of Huston Smith.

5 comments about Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (And What the Neighbors Thought).

1. A pleasure to read this book. I listen to a classical music station which includes interesting facts about the musicians' private lives. One day a guest mentioned that she knew where the host was obtaining these interesting facts. So it is a secret no longer; it's this book. Lives of the Musicians is light reading with approx. 2 pages of facts per musician, so it is not an in-depth look at their private lives; however put it on your "Fun" reading list. It is a highly amusing book and a great source of dinner conversation. Also Check out Lives of the Artists:Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neigbors Thought)



2. My daughter has been studying piano for two years and she is fascinated by the people who score the compositions she learns to play. In school she learns about a different composer each month and always wants to know more when she comes home. She also has a love for anything historical. This book was a great addition to our reference collection because it reaches her on several levels. We happened to come across it at the library and, after reading a few entries, we decided we'd like to buy it. Lots of bookstores stocked the paperback edition, but only Amazon had the hardcover in stock. This is the kind of book you really want in hardcover so that young children can more easily flip through the pages and study the humorous illustrations.
   
   The book includes entries on 20 musicians from a wide range of styles, backgrounds, and historical periods. The entries are engaging for adult readers, yet accessible for a younger audience. My daughter is six and was totally engrossed in the stories of Chopin, Mozart, Clara Schumann and others. I know we will come back to this book again and again.



3. This is a great book! My piano teacher checked it out from the library and loved it so much I had to buy her a copy! The illustrations are adorable and the bio's are so interesting. A lot of interesting stories that really give the great masters a very human quality! I love reading about the musicians that I'm currently playing! If you are into music and want to know just how human they really were this is a great book!



4. My daughter's piano teacher gave her the assignment to read about Mozart as she started her first Mozart Minuet. My daughter was 7 at the time, and although she was reading at above 3rd grade level, I was shocked to find that there was NOTHING available on the internet or in her school library that give her information on composers at HER level. I finally found "Lives of the Musicians" and have actually purchased the book. It's just that good. She is able to read about each composer (for the most part the language is about her level, although she DOES need help with some of the words), and each section is engaging enough to keep her attention.
   
   This book is a must for anyone with a child that wants or is assigned to learn about the great composers.



5. I got this book for my daughter who is a music teacher. I thought it would be a good reference and teaching tool for her.

5 comments about Confessions of a Street Addict.

1. James Cramer wrote a great autobiography. I love the show and wanted to learn more about the host. After hearing about this book, I bought it and read it without stopping. Cramer begins with his childhood and describes all the seasons of his life. His time in college, LA and at Goldman Sachs. I enjoyed reading about someone who never quits. There were many times in his life when he could have given up, but he never did. He also shows the importance of having someone in your life who always believes in you no matter what. To me, this novel shows the hard work and grit that are required to become great: whether you are lucky or not.



2. I bought this book because I saw a recommendation somewhere together with One Up on Wall Street. I had my doubts when I saw the cover (close up of the author's face) and unfortunately when I began reading my fears became true. It is one big ad of Jim Cramer. I strongly recommend against buying it however One Up on Wall Street is highly recommended.



3. Takes you right into the heart and guts of this crazy business.Makes you feel you are in the room with him.A wild and crazy ride. Re-read it immediately after completing the first read.



4. Bought this for my husband as a Christmas present. He loves watching
   this guy every evening on TV. He couldn't put it down. Great book.



5. If you ever wondered how Jim Cramer became who he is today, this book gives you the low down. Very humerous and eay to read and follow. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know Jim Cramer better.

5 comments about Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (Audio Editions).

1. This biography is not great literature. It's centered in the most complex and violent regions of our times but rarely scratches the surface. Noor's diplomacy in describing people and events - always the high road, even in the midst of deceit and betrayal - is maddeningly constant and obscures rather than reveals. So what's to like about the book? It's an extraordinary story of a young western woman who embraces the east: it's people, culture, religion and thought. It's the story of her love for King Hussein, who in a world of the powerful, is largeless powerless but for his integrity in the struggle for peace. Her perspective, is that of the Palestinian Arab. Their voice needs to be heard. This book is a thoughtful start.



2. Unfortunately the autobiography is boring and somewhat distant and impersonal. Actually, overall the writing is uninspired and quite frankly, flat. Queen Noor, obviously a beautiful, intelligent, well-educated woman uses the book as a platform for spouting some pretty blatant untruths about the modern history of the Middle East. I guess I should have expected that, but it was disappointing nonetheless. I might have gritted my teeth and gotten past her politics if the love story was interesting. But it wasn't simply because the writing was so unemotional and disconnected. As I read the book, it was as if I could hear someone speaking in a monotone voice and it was almost sleep-inducing.



3. Leap of Faith is interesting from the young all American becomes Queen standpoint. It really is amazing that a fairly regular young American woman gains the attention of the King of Jordan and becomes Queen.
   
   It is too bad she was not willing to be more real in her telling of a great story.
   
   The book ends up preaching about Queen Noor's view of the political world and quickly becomes tiresome and boring.
   
   It could have been a very exciting story given her exciting life but she had to go preach to us instead.



4. Here is a glimpse into Middle East history from someone who was there! My own family members have enjoyed reading it as much as I have; I think shall too!



5. I must admit; I didn't get very far, but this book is a self serving pack of lies by an apologist for the intransigence of the Arab world. For example, she refers to the "forced migration" of 1948 without ever mentioning that the ones doing the forcing were Arabs who promised their people that if they would get out they would "push the Jews into the sea". Nor does she mention the origin of the name "Palestinian" (hint: it is a Hebrew name).
   
   The saddest thing about the Arab world is that 1000 years ago they had the most advanced civilization on earth, and entirely due to problems of their own making they now preside over one giant hell hole.
   
   But if she came out and admitted this the Hashemite family would be in danger of losing their position of privilege in Transjordan.
   
   I would recommend that anyone who reads this book should also read "Warrior" by Ariel Sharon. At least he knows the history of Israel, Syria, and Egypt.

3 comments about Still Talking.

1. Picking up right where her previous book "Enter Talking" left off, pioneering female comic Joan Rivers is matched up with producer Edgar Rosenberg via her "Tonight Show" connections, and soon found herself married. The book not only examines the show-biz ramifications of this loving marriage/business partnership in the entertainment world, it also shows how two 'outcasts' (by Joan's definition) came to cling to one another--and blame eachother when plans and dreams fell through. Some of the minute details (such as how many times Rivers guested on Johnny Carson's show) are sketchy, but Rivers' anger over being wronged so many times by people she trusted is instantly identifable. It's also a show-biz tome of wonderful gossipy bits: Tony Bennett constantly turning up late for a Vegas gig; Shirley MacLaine throwing her weight around (well, she is a Taurus!); Elvis Costello nodding off on camera; Cher being a good pal, always there when needed. Often, Rivers drops name for no other purpose than to fill certain gaps (she keeps mentioning Bill Cosby, Ann-Margret and Woody Allen without explaining these relationships to us--were they personal, friendly, or professional only?). The book's prologue and middle section details Edgar's suicide and Rivers' numbing heartache, yet Joan is careful not to overload her prose with repetitious grief--she's remarkably poised with her pen, sharp and brittle but also a woman in need. In fact, she's far more womanly and human here than her stand-up act ever let on, and many of her stories (triumphs and tragedies) are gripping, emotional, moving, bitterly funny and vividly told. B+



2. Did we read the same book? After seeing other reviewers' comments, I feel like the kid pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. Joan Rivers' autobiography is indeed frank and full of anecdotes. but it's not all that funny. Or perceptive. Or well written. It does reveal a horribly flawed, angry, self-absorbed, insecure and ungenerous woman whose sense of pity covers only herself -- not the husband she drove to suicide, the daughter she's driven to botox addiction, or the stars she abused for very human flaws (Liz Taylor overweight looks better than plastic Joan any day).
   
   After turning the last page of this furious and nasty tome, I threw it away because I knew I'd never want to travel through memory lane again with this person. In tone, it reminds me of the mean-spirited "You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again" diatribe. Yuck! I'm not saying an autobiography should be all sweetness and light with no honesty. But there are better books out there that won't make you feel like Lysoling your brain afterward. See "Hollywood Animal" for one.



3. This book is great.It gives you a inside look into the rise and fall of Joan River's career,and how she got herself back together again after being fired from Fox, and her husband Edgar,ending his life,while she was getting plastic surgery.Its also great to read about the different Stars.Joan talks about the late Michael Landon,and how mean he was to her while she was sitting in for Johnny Carson,and her on going fight with Victoria Principal.There's alot of funny jokes,especially the Liz Taylor one's.I think Joan was the main reason Liz got herself together in the 80's,and looked better than ever.Joan also talks about her childhood,and her rise to fame. If you like Joan Rivers humor,you will enjoy "Still Talking."

No comments about The Marys in the New Testament (Kandour Biographies).

No comments about Mysteries of the Unknown: Dreams and Dreaming (Audio Adaptations of the Time Life Book Series).

5 comments about Facing the Wind: A True Story of Tragedy and Reconciliation.

1. This book was personally intersting since I was a classmate of Robert Rowe, the oldest child at South Shore HS in Brooklyn. He was very quiet but very nice and I sat next to him in math in high school. Then one day he did not come to school and there was only very brief news coverage of the fact his father killed the family. Nobody talked about it at home or at school. It wasn't like it is today when they bring in grief counselors etc. Locally, this was treated as a non-event. This was a horrible thing for us to have to find out--that his father killed him with a bat when he was in bed. How awful. The book names people I know and the psychiatrist in the book, Dr. D., treated lots of people I know so the whole book took me back in time.
   
   However, this guy should have been killed! I cannot believe he got away with this! If this would have happened today he never would have been able to get himself out the way he did. He never deserved a second chance, not after what he did. Back in the 70's life was very stressful with all sorts of financial stress on many people and the recession or whatever it was when lots of people lost their jobs. It was hard on my family as well but at least none of us killed each other



2. 
   
   
   I thought Julie Salamon did an excellent job writing this book. I felt she was very objective, so objective in fact that I kept wondering why she wrote this book. It was almost like she didn't have an opinion about Bob Rowe and what he did; murdered his entire family in cold blood. For me it made me wonder...how should we judge people and how should we punish people? And how can we ever know what another person is truly capable of or what is really in their heart? Should someone like Bob Rowe ever be released? Personally I don't think someone should be set free after serving a minimal sentence when they have murdered their entire family. This book led me to another, as books always do, called The Sociopath Next Door also very interesting.



3. "Facing the Wind" tells us of the life of Bob Rowe, an attorney with a pretty and spirited Irish wife, Mary, and three children. Their middle child, Christopher, was exposed to Rubella in the womb and was born severely handicapped, both physically and mentally. The author gives us an interesting background on these "Rubella babies" and the disabilities that resulted. The disabilities varied, but nearly all were blind. We learn about the mothers and children who knew Mary and Bob, and all were amazed at what an active role Bob took in Christopher's life, helping equally along with Mary to provide the child with as normal a life as possible.
   
   All seemed to be going well when one night, Bob decided to bludgeon his family to death with a baseball bat. First was Bobby, Jr., the eldest son, then Christopher and Jenny (their adopted daughter), and finally Mary, after he called her home from work to show her a surprise. He had her stand in the living room with her eyes closed, and then killed her, too. Afterwards, he turned the gas on in the oven and tried to kill himself by lining the door with plastic wrap, which one can assume Bob thought would help him inhale more gas.
   
   Bob is found not guilty by reason of insanity because of the stress of his job and of raising a handicapped child. He is placed in a mental institution for several years. After he gets out, he meeds Colleen, a much younger woman - she is 19, I believe, and Bob is in his late 40's. Eventually, they are married and have a daughter. Colleen is aware of his past. The second half of the book, the slower half, is about their life together and Bob trying to get reinstated to the bar.
   
   The author's writing flows nicely, and she provides letters Colleen wrote to Bob professing her love to him. She does not include any pictures, which was disappointing, but maybe Colleen Rowe asked her not to. I thought the author was very sympathetic to the Rowe side. I personally doubt his "innocence" because he came across as arrogant to me, and unremorseful. As a mother of two myself, I also doubt Colleen's stability if she thought it was a good idea to not only marry a man who bludgeoned his family to death, but to also have a child with him. Of course, you can draw your own conclusions on that.
   
   All in all, I recommend this book. It's a good read.



4. My biggest problem with this book is that the author tries to make it more socially meaningful than it is by telling it as the story of a man "overwhelmed" by the responsibilities of caring for a severely handicapped child -- hence a person we can all relate to on some level.
   
   But NOBODY in the story actually says that Bob Rowe was overwhelmed! Bob coped quite well for many years until his mother died. Then he began to have hallucinations that his mother was telling him to kill his WIFE (not his handicapped son.) As a result he was hospitalized and medicated. Unsurprisingly, the medication prevented him from functioning as a cracker-jack lawyer, as he had previously, and he began to lose jobs. He developed an obsession with his dwindling finances. Eventually he decided to stop taking his medicine. At that point, he was both out of a job and psychotic. BOB says that the precipitating cause of his murdering his family was fear that he could no longer provide for them.
   
   One of the prosecutors interviewed for this book says exactly the same thing. He says it's a "male ego" thing which is not at all uncommon in men (but very rare in women.) The man feels that he is a failure, that he can no longer take care of his family, ergo he has to kill himself, ergo he has to kill all of them too, because how could they survive without him?
   
   In all of the court proceedings NOBODY says that Bob Rowe killed his family because he was overwhelmed by caring for a handicapped child. In fact, it's pointed out that, of his three children, he killed his handicapped son LAST. Also, that he had many many occasions to kill his handicapped son in a way which would have avoid all suspicion. If the handicapped son were the big issue in his life, why kill the whole family? Why not kill the son secretly (he took the kid sailing regularly and could easily have staged a sailing accident)?
   
   I think the author is trying to manipulate the reader into feeling "there but for the Grace of God go I" (i.e., "perhaps I too would crack under similar unbearable strain") but this is just not supported by the facts -- unless the reader is concerned that they might suddenly become psychotic for no discernable reason.
   
   Among many diagnoses given to Bob Rowe was "borderline personality disorder" and this is clearly correct in that he NEVER seems to have grasped the enormity of what he did. After he "recovered" (pretty much immediately in the sense of starting to perk right up and take care of his own interests) his big sorrow was the great injustice done to HIM in that he was unfairly blamed for something he wasn't responsible for. Here's the luckiest murderer in the history of the world -- three years in a mental institution, gets out, gets a new family, is surrounded by love and forgiveness -- and we're told that he's "devastated" that he can't get his law degree back! HE'S the victim!
   
   If any one of us had a seizure disorder and we were supposed to be taking medicine for it, and the medicine was interferring with our ability to work, so we decided to stop taking the medicine, and then, while driving, we had a seizure and killed our whole family -- how would we be affected for the rest of our lives? Overwhelming despair? Guilt? Sorrow? (Or would we dedicate our lives to fighting the injustice of having our driver's license taken away?) But Bob whacks in the heads of four people with a baseball bat (fully aware of what he's doing and why -- only "psychotic" in the sense that he's making such a horrifically bad decision) and spends the rest of his life feeling sorry for himself!
   
   BTW -- unlike others, I found the BEST part of this book to be the stories about the moms with handicapped kids. Frankly, as per above, I thought this really didn't have a whole lot to do with the murders, so actually it was pretty irrelevant to the book. But it was very interersting on its own -- in a way that the story of this murderer was not.



5. i got into the 7th chapter of this book and i did'nt find it the least bit interesting what so ever.so i put it down,maybe it would have gotten better but as far as i got i was board out of my mind.

No comments about Bob Dylan: Chronicles.

5 comments about Active Side of Infinity.

1. This is the fifth Carlos Castenada book I have read. Like the others, it was a gripping read from start to finish. Casteneda was truly a gifted writer. How else do you explain his ability to write so convincingly about ethereal matters? I am, however, left with one nagging question: Was it real? If so, then we as humans are really in the dark, living as we do in our world of concepts, constructs and perceptions. If he made it all up then all I can say is, what a storyteller! One thing is certain: Reading any of Castendas books is delightful entertainment. You won't be bored for a minute!



2. Active side of infinity is one of the last books written by Castaneda and it is the book were Don Juan finally reveal what the predator is. Instead of giving unperfect summaries and explanations here is a most revealing excerpt :
   
   "I want to appeal to your analytical mind," don Juan said. "Think for a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradiction between man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behavior. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our systems of beliefs, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success and failure. They have given us covetousness, greed, and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal."
   
   "But how can they do this, don Juan?" I asked. "Do they whisper all that in our ears while we sleep?"
   
   "No, they don't do it that way. That's idiotic!" don Juan said, smiling. "They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that. In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged themselves in a stupendous maneuver - stupendous, of course, from the point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous maneuver from the point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you hear me! The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with fear of being discovered any minute now."
   
   Active side of infinity is a must read, particularly if you have already read the first books of Castaneda.



3. What a great book!. My heart started thumping in horror when it came to the point of predator and flyers. Castenada's book has his own class of unimaginable spiritual adventures , but this goes beyond all of that.



4. Carlos Castaneda was one of the most controversial writers of the twentieth century. Some in academia branded him a fraud for claiming his stories were biographical rather than fiction, while lauding him as a great novelist for exposing a mass audience to otherwise inaccessible philosophical abstractions they claimed were largely plagiarized. Each of his works is a piece of a larger puzzle, which makes it impossible to critique any one book without addressing the larger context into which it fits.
   
   
   
   His first two books, "Teachings of Don Juan" and "A Separate Reality" describe experiences induced by ingesting psychotropic hallucinogenics prepared by a Yaqui Indian shaman from Sonora, Mexico he called don Juan Matus, and accounted for his becoming a guru to a generation seeking short cuts to spiritual enlightenment, as well as his lifelong interest in the relationship between perception and reality, a theme now explored in many popular books on consciousness and quantum physics. Unfortunately, these books remain his best selling works, in spite of Castaneda refuting their importance in his later works. Readers would be best served to skip these and avoid the risk of being turned off to Castaneda and missing the more stimulating works that followed.
   
   
   
   His third and fourth works were "Journey to Ixtlan" and "Tales of Power." In Ixtlan he admits to over-estimating the value of his drug experiences, which caused him to overlook the more profound teachings of don Juan which became the focus of future writings. What emerges is a spiritual discipline dating back to the Pre-Colombian Toltec sorcerers of Latin America, culminating with don Juan's departure from our world, effectively ending Castaneda's direct affiliation.
   
   
   
   In his fifth and sixth works "Second Ring of Power" and "Eagles Gift" Castaneda suffers strange flashbacks of what seem to be memory fragments of events he is unable to fit into any logical time sequence. In his seventh and eighth works, "Fire From Within" and "Power of Silence," Castaneda succeeds in reconstructing his lost memories, which derive from teachings previously administered by don Juan while Castaneda was in a "heightened" state of awareness.
   
   
   
   In books nine and ten, "Art of Dreaming" and "Active Side of Infinity," Castaneda focuses on what he describes as inorganic predators from another dimension, some having the power to imprison humanity in "ordinary reality" so they can feed on the dark emotional energies we produce when succumbing to the negative thoughts they insert into our minds.
   
   
   
   In later years several seemingly substantiating works appeared by two of Castaneda's female apprentices, Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau. In addition, two scathing exposés were also published by two of his ex-wives. The first, "Magical Journey with Carlos Castaneda" by first wife, Margaret Runyon, offers little corroboration, since her marriage pre-dates the time when the bulk of Castaneda's adventures were claimed to have occurred. While steadfast that Castaneda was a sorcerer, she doubts the existence of don Juan, even claiming authorship of many of the concepts Castaneda ascribed to him.
   
   
   
   The second, and more credible work, is "Sorcerer's Apprentice," by well-known writer Amy Wallace, daughter of the late best selling novelist Irving Wallace. Here again, we find little corroboration since the time of the events she describes is well after the period when Castaneda's relationship with don Juan is alleged to occur. What the book does provide is a troubling look inside Castaneda's final years, a picture of descent into what seems sexual addiction and possibly madness, leaving one to wonder if Castaneda was just one cup of cool-aid short of a Jonestown.
   
   
   
   Many have asked why I put any stock whatsoever in Castaneda. A story from my autobiography, "The Vortex" may shed some light. A year before Castaneda published his first book I had an experience that would remain a mystery until Castaneda published "Power of Silence" twenty years later.
   
   
   
   For a brief time, in my youth, I became a practicing Muslim, meticulously performing the complex prayer ritual five times a day. Then one night, sitting in my car, frustrated and complaining at not being able to find the address of my next sales appointment, something inside me snapped. It was as if some part of me had disconnected from my body and assumed control, lecturing me about my lack of discipline. A profound calm settled over me, rendering me simultaneously detached and engaged. For two days my sales figures soared. It was as if no one could say no to me. On the evening of the second day I decided to put my new state of being to the acid test by visiting my parents. Their behavior was so uncharacteristically supportive I hardly recognized them. It was enough to convince me that I was now living in an altered reality. But by the following morning I had returned to "normal." So distracting had this event been that I completely forgot to perform my Muslim prayers, and in fact, never did so again.
   
   
   
   Twenty years later, in a chapter of "Power of Silence" entitled "Place of No Pity" Castaneda describes a very similar experience. In the aftermath of the event don Juan explains that humans are like televisions stuck on a channel called "self-preoccupation," lacking the energy to tune into any of the vast array of other channels available to us. To change channels, he explains, we first need to accumulate energy, by practicing rituals that are deliberate, precise and repetitious. Do this long enough and eventually our stored energy precipitates a shift to a channel where self-importance and self pity become impossible. Once this happens we connect with the force that controls the entire universe, a force don Juan called "intent," and everything can be bent to our will and even more channels can be opened, assuming we remember to keep practicing the rituals that save our energy.
   
   
   
   This one realization alone was enough to inspire me to dedicate my autobiography "To Carlos, with gratitude."
   
   
   
   Maxwell Austin van Lack, Author of The Vortex: A True Story of Passion and Karma
   



5. You have to read all the previous works to see how simple it is, otherwise you miss the profundity. He could have been a trickster at one point, but that ws long ago. Don't even dream of starting Castaneda with these later books. Take the time to ground yourself with his earlier works.