5 comments about Infidel.

1. What a thoughtful and inspiring book this was! Ms. Ali writes in a very engaging and direct style that makes for a hard-to-put-down biography/self-discovery book. After finishing this great book, one can only admire this woman for her courage to think for herself, change her whole way of life, and watch as her family disowned and alienated her. She was able to see Islam for what it is--a disastrously out-of-touch system set in place to suppress women, full of ridiculous mythology. Ms. Ali rightfullly shows that Islam countries are far behind Western countries in economic well being, human rights, and learning.
   
   One, I think, must also consider X-ianity during the reading of Infidel. Could there be verses telling women to be quiet in the X-tian Quran? Could there be verses in the X-tian "holy" book where god commands men to r@pe women? Could x-tianity be a silly bunch of myths, hundreds of years old (just like Islam!), that shackle its adherents from growing intellectually and morally?
   
   Infidel is a fantastic book by a true, modern-day hero. I'm so glad I read Ms. Ali's memoir, and I can't wait to see what she'll say next. Highly recommended!



2. Until it was finished, this book became a part of me--- I could not put it down. Ayaan's culture was an incomprehensible combination of love, support, backwardness, cruelty, and control. To watch her grow and develop into an independent and autonomous young lady, was to see a flower beginning to bloom. It made me thankful for having been born in the USA and for the parents I had.



3. Submission and degradation of women in the Muslim faith is certainly not a new or unrevealed topic, but this personal account by Hirsi Ali brings insight and understanding that one can not achieve through news articles and other written factual documentation. I applaud Ms. Ali for her courage to come forth and expose the errors of her former religion (which is no easy task) with the hope that the atrocities against Muslim women will eventually come to an end. Women of all faiths and nationalities should read this book and more like it to remind us that we still have a long way to go to accomplish true equality with men.



4. An incredible story by a gifted writer. One of the best books I have read in many years.



5. This book relates the heroic story of a young woman and her struggle to
   live out her life in freedom. It starts with her terror at 5 yrs. old being held down and circumcised along with her sister and brother. This episode will haunt her the rest of her life. She then struggles to get an education and stands up for what she believes women are entitled to--freedom to pick the man they want to marry and freedom to choose a career in life. Her harrowing flight to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man is vividly detailed as she struggles to reach Holland and her asylum. Her life is threatened but she holds firm to her beliefs. She also reveals the Koran and its teachings that make women second class citizens. A fascinating and fast moving book about her life and struggles in the Moslem culture and her religious journey that eventually makes her an atheist.

5 comments about Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together.

1. I thoroughly enjoyed this one - it's very thought provoking and insightful with many life lessons. I liked the way the narration went back and forth between the white man and the black man with their personal thoughts on the same situation. Very interesting and I highly recommend it for anyone.



2. I bought this book because of a recommendation by my late father's lovely 88-years-young lady friend (she recently quit tap dancing). FABULOUS read, and keep the tissues handy. This is such a wonderful, incredible story about two of the most unlikely men to ever become lifelong friends. One seems hopeless beyond repair, and spent the majority of his life working for no pay; he is black and named Denver. The other man is white, and has been lucky in life AND mostly lucky in love; he is Ron. Ron's wife is the "cook" who adds the ingredients of this friendship, and stirs it to make it happen. No one is more surprised by the results, than Ron and Denver and their entire community in Texas. This is a gift of a true story, that filled me with such pride and wonder, and gave me hope for the world. What an incredible woman Deborah Hall turned out to be!! Great book to give as a gift, especially to a friend who needs a mental boost! LOVED this story. Just an outstanding read. I especially loved the way the authors alternated the chapters they wrote.



3. This was the most captivating book I have ever read. I couldn't to go sleep until I had finished the book. A beautiful story. I think it would make a great movie.
   
   Peggy Van Hofwegen
   rpvh@alltel.net



4. Cannot speak highly enough of this book. Would put it in the Top Five of my most inspiring reads. The authors are so real with expressing their feelings both positive and negative. Ron Hall has quite the sense of humor in the midst of what continues to be his walk of pain. I am ordering at least, five copies to give to friends. This book urges its reader to step out of the box and take your eyes off yourself.



5. 
   THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL BOOKS THAT I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME. IT MAKES ME WANT TO GO OUT AND VOLUNTEER FOR FEEDING THE HOMELESS OR SOMETHING. WHAT REALLY AMAZED ME WAS THAT DENVER HAD NEVER GONE TO SCHOOL, COULDN'T READ OR WRITE, BUT HE COULD QUOTE BIBLE SCRIPTURES. THEY BOTH LEARNED FROM EACH OTHER EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE FROM SUCH DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!

No comments about Too Fat to Fish.

5 comments about Always By My Side: A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other.

1. I ordered three copies of the book for Father's Day gifts for two of my sons and my husband. According to the recipients, it was a great read. Amazon service was, as always, superb!



2. I gave this book as a Father's Day gift to my son, who lost his Dad a few years ago. We both read it. What an inspiration.



3. Like me Jim Nantz is from the Houston area, so based on that commonality I've always been a fan. This book details a professional career that's gone very right and a personal life that's posed one significant challenge. There are points where everything that is written, said, etc. has been so perfect that you just want a strong cup of black coffee to wash the sugary taste from your mouth. Then you read the challenges with his Dad and it makes you want to tip you hat to the man and hope that I would react in the same way that he's done.
   
   Great behind-the-scenes and name-dropping book that makes a good summer read.



4. I enjoyed reading Jim's book and gave it to my two sons-in-law as a Fathers Day gift



5. I am not a golfer, but Jim's book grabbed me and in many places brought tears. His relationships with his father, his family and his coworkers and friends was exemplary. The personal things he shared were great. It gave me an insight into the lives of the many people he has meet in his career. Everyone should have such lasting relationships!

5 comments about Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog.

1. This was the first book I purchased for my new Amazon Kindle - and I could hardly put it down - from the begining John Grogan draws you into Marley's world of mischief. As I finished the book, i could barely see the words for the tears in my eyes - this is a wonderful heartwaming, laugh outloud story told by a master storyteller. I highly recommend it.



2. I loved this book. It made me laugh and cry (sometimes within pages of each other). The twists and turns of the story are John Grogan and his family's everyday twists and turns. That is the beauty of the story.
   
   As we live our "ordinary" everyday lives we are creating powerful memories that shape who we are as people. When we tell of our memories they can, as in Grogan's case, shape other peoples lives as well. Marley & Me is a touching story full of beautiful memories that are worth sharing.
   
   Hurley Dog Chew Toy: Aqua Blue (Large)Eco Slumber Pet Bed (XLarge)Tux Dog Treat Chew Toy: TangerineZisc Flying Disc Dog Toy: Granny SmithEco Nap Earth Friendly Pet Bed: Burnt Orange (Large)Orbee-Tuff Ball with Rope: Blue/Green (Medium)Orbee-Tuff Ball with Rope: Glow/Orange (Medium)Hemp Eco Friendly Dog Bone Toy: Chocolate (Large)



3. I was forced to listen to the audio book version of this. If you find Grogan annoying throughout the book, wait till you have to listen to his voice (yes, he reads it).
   
   Basically, the guy writes an autobiography. And his dog Marley was evidently a part of it. I might try the same when I get a dog because there is nothing special about this story so hopefully my ordinary life can sell a bunch of books too. It's not like this dog saves the world or anything. It's also not like he's that big of a terror either. The heinous acts of Marley are for a large part quite cliche and you could probably see them all by watching an afternoon of TV (the bedroom scene comes to mind...how often have we seen that?).
   
   The author complains about how awful this dog is, but it seems like he's probably the bigger problem. The dog was not trained or disciplined but constantly spoiled from the sounds of it. They 'gave up' on obedience school.
   
   Overall, skip this one. I'm not an expert on sentimental dog books but I bet there's a better one out there.



4. This is truly a wonderful book. Although it is emotional, and I had to put it down twice because it hit me that hard, I would recommend this book to everyone. It is very well written. You will find yourself laughing out loud and crying with this book. It is a great life story - not just about his dog...



5. I find dog stories usually inspirational and a credit to their masters. This story left me flat. Retrievers need room to roam about, and they are social and friendly critters. Marley's life was not usually like that. The Grogans should have taken dog obedience classes as well as a lot of lessons in general parenting. Thank goodness I didn't put out the twenty bucks to be irritated and wanting to give the Grogans some worthwhile tips in raising an animal. A dog-owner friend gave me the book to read - she enjoyed it totally. Dogs are a big responsibility and shouldn't be brought home on a whim. For all that, Grogan is a good writer and I enjoyed his work...maybe this one shouldn't have gone public. PS - I have been a dog-owner for many years.

5 comments about Life in the Balance: A Physician's Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss with Parkinson's Disease and Dementia.

1. One of Boston's leading cardiologists shares the gut-wrenching experiences of his life as a relatively young patient with the devastating, ravaging losses of severe Parkinson's Disease and dementia. His description of his struggle in the face of ongoing adversity is a remarkable handbook for all of us who may one day be patients ourselves. He writes with openness and insight of how he copes with his degenerative illness and also family relations. Dr. Graboys' grace and courage call to mind John Gunther's book about his son, Death Be Not Proud.



2. Being a Parkinsonian myself, but without the added Lewy body dementia, I can appreciate Dr. Graboy's attempt to find a graceful way to live with his wife and children, without being too dependent on them except as his disease forces him to be. I admire his courage at telling the story, and doing it before his disease takes away that ability from him too. The book is very well written and with great honesty. I hope I can be like him when I become dependent on my wife and children in a way that really begins to affect their lives. Already, I've been the beneficiary of caring attention from both them and my friends. For my part, I am trying to remain in control as long as possible - I jog 5K every fourth day, weather permitting, and dance at all the parties where there is dancing and music (doing it well enough for people to comment). My greatest handicap is my deteriorating voice, the one thing that led me to retire from my job at the New York VA and my job as a teacher of cardiovascular pathology at NYU School of Medicine. I am just going to start voice therapy lessons. Let's hope they help me regain my voice quality, the one thing that bothers me the most. I have tried to maintain my voice so far by singing at parties - Indians do a lot of this. To my surprise, I have discovered that singing is easier to do than ordinary voice conversation. As for Dr. Graboy's book, I have only praise for it, and I wish him the best in the difficult days ahead. My advice to him: continue to be as brave and as caring as you have been so far. Your loved ones will take care of the rest.



3. Only fifteen years ago, in 1993, Dr. Tom Graboys was on top of the world. He was one of the most respected physicians in the rarified atmosphere of Boston cardiology and a member of the "dream team", convened to look into the controversial case of Reggie Lewis, the Boston Celtics star. Tom was a stalwart leader in the Lown Cardiovascular Group, named for Bernard Lown, a co-founder of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1985. Especially in the years leading up to the Nobel, Tom was active in IPPNW and in its US affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility.
   
   But Tom was more and had much more than that.
   
   He had a wonderful, accomplished and universally admired wife, Caroline. He had a brilliant mind and an athletic body. And he had a legion of patients who virtually worshiped him, as much for his humanity as for his skills as a Harvard cardiologist.
   
   Tom was known to the rest of us in Boston cardiology as a premier practitioner of non-invasive cardiology in its truest sense. He spoke and published widely on the over-use of expensive and often unnecessary invasive technologies. Even more importantly, he argued tirelessly in favor of seeing, listening to, and treating as a fellow human being the whole patient. Countless times on ward rounds, I have told residents and fellows that my friend Tom Graboys across town would have encouraged us, with evidence to support his view, "not to rush to angioplasty or coronary bypass surgery on this patient".
   
   But even I did not know everything that Peter Zheutlin and Tom himself have disclosed in this magnificent and beautifully written book. I did not know that Tom, after examining his patients, would sit with them on a couch, almost knee to knee, never with a desk interposed. I did not know that he gave each patient his home phone number. And I did not know that he always wrote out longhand some encouraging suggestions after his patient visits, never giving the patient a pre-printed sheet of instructions.
   
   In essence, Tom was in many ways the best of us at holistic cardiology care.
   
   Aided selflessly by the considerable writing skills of Peter Zheutlin, Tom recounts in this deeply personal book what he has lost in the last ten years: his cherished wife Caroline to colon cancer in 1998; his career to severe Parkinson's with Lewy body dementia in 2005; and perhaps forever, his graceful athleticism and the confidence it conveyed. Tom does not pull any punches. The Parkinson's and Lewy body dementia have ravaged his body, his mind, and sometimes his spirit.
   
   What he has retained and gained is equally important, though. While he clearly still grieves over the loss of Caroline, he is re-married to an extraordinary woman, Vicki. One surmises from this book that Vicki is essential to his physical and psychological stability, and a woman who loves and supports him despite now being married to a very different Tom than she had expected. He also has the love and strength of his adult daughters, Penelope and Sarah, their spouses, Vicki's children, and his grandchildren. And he has great friends and former patients from of old.
   
   In the last several pages of this book, Peter Zheutlin has Tom reflect on what advice Tom the skilled and compassionate physician would give to Tom the patient with a devastating illness, or to any patient facing what he has faced. The wisdom and poignancy of those pages, but also the entire book, convinced me to put this unique and unflinching story into the hands of every cardiology fellow at my own medical center. Despite having been a cardiologist for more than 35 years, I have learned from Tom's unforgettably honest story how to live and practice better.
   
   Tom freely admits throughout the book that in retrospect he has not handled every aspect of his devastating illness as well as he might have wished. But in my view, he has been as graceful a patient as he ever was a physician. Both as patient and as physician, he has also not lost his capacity to heal.
   
   Purchase this book from Amazon.com



4. For a person to clearly articulate what is going through their mind as they grapple with a debilitating mental dementia (and physical) condition is remarakable. This is what Dr. Tom Graboys does in this book with great clarity. I know that my family who is grappling with a very similar issue with one our parents found the book extremely helpful- and for that Dr. Graboys deserves our real gratitude. He is continuing to provide valuable medical help to patients and their families in a new way- through this book rather than the exam room.
   
   This book is so well written that I think people who don't have dementia related illness among their family or friends would still find the book compelling reading. Dr Graboys chance encounter with the Chief of Neurology in the parking lot is stunning.



5. Dr. Graboys pulls no punches in being real about what his life has become living with a debilitating disease. He writes not only about how this has affected him, but also the effect on his family, friends and the people that are part of his daily life. Anyone who has a loved one, be it family or friend, with a chronic disease should own and read a copy of this book - you will want to read it again. It will give you insight into the emotions and frustrations of living with a disease that currently has no cure. If this book does not touch your soul in some way, you might want to make sure you have a pulse. There is no "happy ending", but there is hope and love.

5 comments about Escape.

1. Fascinating read. Found I couldn't put it down as I learned so much about this lifestyle that I knew nothing about apart from news articles. As you read it, its hard to believe that is happening in modern day America. Recommended as a book that will fascinate yet horrify you. I commend the author for doing what she has done to give her children a better life.



2. I rarely read autobiographies or biographies, but I was perusing this at the store and read the first chapter and then decided I had to buy it.
   
   This book is a more intimate glimpse into the FLDS. I read a few other reviews and it seems like there's a lot of shock. I wasn't shocked, but when I read it, it was more like morbid curiousity. I grew up with a few LDS friends and actually have some friends in the greater Salt Lake area. Other than a few oddities in their religion, I never thought Mormons were freaks. People will find whatever strangeness they want to find in any religion. Is it a cult? By it's definition, maybe. Growing up in the San Francisco bay area, I've seen freakier things that have nothing to do with religion.
   
   My Mormon friends in Utah, will sometimes poke fun at the fundamentalists or express sadness. I get the impression that they're sort of a stain on mainstream Mormonism. It's like regular folks in Utah, know it, but don't actively seek the fundamentalists to expose them. Much like illegal immigrants here in California. We know they're there. They know they're involved in something they shouldn't be, but the legal process makes it so difficult to root them out and they hide behind laws that weren't meant to shield them.
   
   Anyhow, this is more like an intimate portrait of the woman who lived this life and how she endured it. It's the story of how she grew up brainwashed and bought into it. Then found herself an advocate against it, but she needed to plan her escape into normal society.
   
   As sad as her story is, I fear there is much more like this in the rest of the U.S. This is just one woman's story that was recently sensationalized because of the juicy parts.
   
   I did find it interesting that she was a wardrobe consultant for the show Big Love and that she ended up with a guy who was Jewish.
   
   I only hope that her life is headed in a good direction. Good read. I had trouble putting it down because it was well-written. It would have been nicer to see more photos, but it is what it is. A very sad story with a good ending.



3. what an unbelievably horrible way for a woman to have to live. they must be born with NO backbone whatsoever.
   
   those men should all be locked up where they cant hurt anyone else much less keep on reproducing themselves.
   
   what a disgrace to the feminine gendar.
   
   very readable but sickening book.



4. While Carolyn's tale is interesting, horrifying and even compelling the story suffers from poorly constructed sentences, BORING redundancies and just plain bad writing. WHERE was this woman's editor?? If it were not for the fascinating insight into this secretive society I wouldn't have been able to trudge through the whole thing. Alas, the story itself saved the book from it's writer.



5. Having lived in Arizona most of my life I have been following stories about the FLDS for years and watched as much of the story has unfolded and steps were taken to try and stop some of the corruption and abuse that occured once Warren Jeffs became prophet. Carolyn Jessop's book had me glued to it - I could not put it down and it still haunts me a bit as I have gone into the FLDS Truths website and it is eerie how they are still trying to discredit her. It is a true story and her former husband still wields incredible power over the sect and it was scary watching the women speak at the YFZ ranch after the raid. Carolyn is very brave and I hope much good will come of her stepping out of the box and coming forward with her story. I know a lot already has and I hope more follows - anyone who likes this book should watch the documentary "Banking On Heaven".

5 comments about 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy.

1. I applaud the author's commitment and I really wanted to like this book, especially after reading many glowing reviews on this website. However, what I found was a boring tale of someone's life and even the sex sounded very mundane. The author's writing, while mildly amusing with her self-depricating humor, isn't a strong suit. Her writing is not punchy and the passages are overly long and very tedious.
   
   I diligently read through the first half of the book and then found I just wasn't even interested enough to finish it. I skimmed to the end, hoping it got better, but it was just more of the same.
   
   If you want to read a funny and touching book on reconnecting with your spouse in the bedroom, try Just Do It by Douglas Brown. I would highly recommend that option over 365 Nights.



2. I picked up this book to read at the beach over the July 4th week and had no idea how much fun I would have reading it. I flew through it while vacationing with my family and another family - and enjoyed the conversation it instigated amongst the adults. Mrs. Muller has a witty, creative style that makes you feel like you are in the room with her. A great read for anyone!



3. When I mention this book to my friends they all want to read it. The pages turn themselves in this engaging story of how Charla Muller sets out to rekindle intimacy in her marriage by offering her husband sex every night for a year. Her voice is witty and honest and endearing and in many places I laughed out loud. I admire Charla's bold plan to bring romance back into her marriage, as well as her willingness to share the experience.



4. I'd give it no stars but that's not an option. Not only is the book poorly written, but there are so many contradictions that I stopped counting after the first 10 pages. If she's a Christian, sex for the sake of sex (instead of procreation) should be anathema to her. If it's on her "to do" list every day, how can it be special? Who cares that her husband still finds her attractive after 10 years of marriage? I've been married 30, and my husband still thinks I'm worth a roll in the hay, but I don't feel the need to write a book about it. Save your $11.20 for a good novel or a magazine subscription.



5. Charla Muller's insightful book was thoroughly entertaining as well as insightful! Having just seen the movie, "Sex in the City", I thought she brought up many relevant points that many of us go through when trying to balance children, a household and intimacy with our spouses. Several parts are laugh out loud funny. Thank you, Charla, for articulating what many of us struggle with and for helping us realize that we are not alone in this challenge! I encourage both wives and husbands to read this delightful book!

5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. In short, it's difficult to complain about life when getting a lesson on it from an Auschwitz survivor. It really puts things into perspective for anyone who feels lost or depressed or worthless or small. It gives depth to "if you can't change your situation, change your attitude."
   
   Frankl hits on surprisingly modern points about depression years before Prozac Nation and the transferring of therapy and medications to the mainstream--the normalization of not feeling normal. And he manages to provide a power-packed message in a tiny book; I found myself taking notes on logotherapy and Frankl's observations. And now I find myself trying to figure out how to apply his theory to my everyday frustrations. It's a good challenge.
   
   Feeling curious about the world, frustrated by your life, or lost? Take a weekend and read this book.
   
   My only gripes are the translation, which was crap in the version I read (but I'm an editor, so I get cranky about things like that) and that Frankl does paint himself as the all-answering, all-curing type who can walk into a room and fix any poor fool who's been suffering for years within minutes. I appreciate a degree of modesty. But I guess he's earned the right to feel righteous.



2. I've read this more times than I can count. The autobiographical part of the book is stirring. The details of Logotherapy wear a bit thin after many reads, just because of familiarity.
   
   I don't really relate to the idea of suffering as a life accomplishment - not because I devalue the trials of those who have no other choice, but just because I'm disconnected enough from it that I have trouble relating. I do continue to find the idea that a purpose is imposed on you rather than vice versa intriguing, although again, I'm not sure that I agree.
   
   It's a great book and everyone should at least make a lap of the biography to understand what the Holocaust looked like from an insider, particularly people like myself who have been affected by the death of loved ones.
   
   If you've never read it, it will be the best $7 you've ever spent.



3. Viktor Frankl has written an powerfull book about his years as a prisoner inside a nazi concentration camp. He worked as a psychologist and wrote on the subject of lifes meaning. The book is a powerfull testament to the will of humans to survive in dire circumstances. The book begins with the train full of prisoners rolling into the camp. At once they are stripped of all their belongings. Beginning with their clothes, and then glasses, jewlery and all other personal belongings. This is the first step in the process of dehumanizing them. So the struggle for these prisoners he writes is very much about struggling to keep the idea of yourself as a subject alive. To keep alive ones feeling of self worth was essential for survival. it was also important he writes to have the feeling that one had a spiritual center where one could retain some freedom even though one was imprisoned. Otherwise he or she will regress to feeling very small and in the end becoming a formless member of the herd, like an animal. Once this was achieved, when the personality and subjectivity had been broken and erased the person could be willed to do almost anything. The spirit only survives he writes, as long as the idea of hope does. That is why in the suffering one has to parodoxically have to try to find some meaning. If one dosent then the organism is in great danger of being annihilated. Only those who where able to somehow retain a sense of hope, that maybe somewhere someone was waiting for them, that someone who loved them was thinking about them, that god,even though it seemed impossible, saw their suffering.



4. Title says it all. The second half of the book has some really great tips & tricks for life. You shouldn't skip the first half of the book since it ties into and validates the teachings in the second half of the book.
   
   Sometimes the writing is a bit awkward and verbose (he does speak in technical terms at times), but go slow and really try to understand what he's saying. The book is a really quick read, but again take your time!
   
   For a while I really didn't understand this quote from the author: "Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time." But, after taking some time to think about it (like the time you need to read the book), it truly hit home what this quote means.
   
   I'd recommend this book to anyone!



5. Viktor Frankl, famed psychotherapist and a holocaust survivor, said: The spiritual dimension cannot be ignored, for it is what makes us human. Spirituality is at the core of who we are; it defines for us what is meaningful in life.
   Among all living things, only we humans can envision our futures and play out mental scenarios of how we will make our visions a reality.
   
   Viktor Frankl, survivor of the Holocaust, emphasized that the meaning of life is not what happens to us. It is what we do with that which happens to us.
   Viktor Frankl while interned in sub-human conditions in a Nazi concentration camp found meaning through meditating. He would overcome these horrendous and barbaric conditions by holding a mental image of him speaking to a group of International Psychiatrists at a special dinner event.
   
   His wife had been transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died. On April 27, 1945, Frankl was liberated. Among his immediate relatives, the only survivor was his sister, who had escaped by emigrating to Australia. It was due to his and others' suffering in these camps that he came to his hallmark conclusion that even in the most absurd, painful and dehumanized situation, life has potential meaning and that therefore even suffering is meaningful. Meaning cannot be invented but must be discovered.
   
   Viktor Frankl wrote "Man's Search for Meaning" after surviving the worst conditions a human can experience during his imprisonment at Auschwitz.
   Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning - the classic best seller now considered to be one of the most important contributions to psychiatry since the writing of Freud. Frankl gives a moving account of his life amid the horrors of the Nazi death camps, chronicling the harrowing experience that led to his discovery of his theory of logotherapy.
   
   Viktor Frankl, to be sure, leaves a profound legacy. He wrote many books on existentialism and Logotherapy. Throughout his life and his work, he reminds us that we all have important work to do, that whatever we do is important, and that there is meaning everywhere, all the time.
   
   Human freedom, therefore, is the freedom of responsibility. Freedom without responsibility is something arbitrary, senseless and either leaves us directionless, or can lead to irresponsible, that is, lawless, immoral and violent, self-destructive ways of living. Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn. Because boundaries between groups overlap we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men are angels and those others are devils.
   
   As far as happiness is concerned Frankl, said: Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.
   
   If you want to get better acquainted to the work of Viktor Frankl " Man's Search for Meaning" is a good place to start.
   
   Raymond Le Blanc. Auhtor.Achieving Objectives Made Easy! Practical goal setting tools & proven time management techniques

5 comments about Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.).

1. For anyone who's ever done any kind of commercial cooking this book, and it's earlier version, is a MUST read. I'm a retired line cook and I can assure all potential readers that Tony knows of what he speaks. For 'civilians', the avid home cook or the addicted restaurant patron, this clever work gives an engrossing, entertaining and sometimes scary peek behind the restaurant kitchen door. Chefs and cooks are, well, just people, but there is something special about people who want to please hundreds of anonymous diners; stay true to their own standards and achieve the respect of thier peers. As Tony says, it is one of the hardest, yet most rewarding, and crazy jobs in the 'every-day' world.
   Anthony Bourdain is one of my 'cooking gods' because he specialises in classic, time-proven dishes; he knows that all the world's great food is, basically, 'peasant' food, not the titivated, sculpted, value-added 'art works' on a large white plates -- and he's a good writer. I too write -- was once a food writer and journalist -- and I know how hard it is to combine the two jobs. This work is honest, controversial yet extremely fair in its assessments of the high-pressure world of the New York and American restaurant scene, then and now. I strongly recommend that you buy this book and then graduate to Bourdain's absolutely fantastic "Les Halles" cookbook. I use it, refer to it or just fawn over it at least three times every week. With over 25 years experience under my (large) belt, his Les Halles book 're-taught' me and gave me new inspiration to take up semi-professional cooking again, just for the pure joy of producing really special, simple, dishes. Please buy all his books; Bourdain is an honest, decent and admirable cook (I hate the term 'chef').
   (No I'm not Tony Bourdain!) Just a genuine fan who appreciates his sharing of a once 'hidden' and unsung profession.
   William Kenneth Halliwell
   Hobart, Tasmania, Australia



2. This guy rocks, and his books are as good as his tv show (No Reservations).;)



3. This is a great book, a MUST have for any chef!!! Bourdain is one of a kind.



4. I am giving this book a 5/5 because throughout the whole book, you are entertained, and want to keep reading. You find out how he makes his way through the cooking career, how he makes his way to the top. This book describes to you what goes on behind the scenes in the kitches and how crazy it can be. I recommend this book to everyone!



5. this is such an awesome book. he's one cocky guy but man is this a good well written book introducing you to the underground cooking culture and what really happens. i dont cook and i still was entertained. i read the entire thing in two sittings thats how into it i was.