3 comments about Revelaciones / Revelations: Mis amargas experiencias con Gloria Trevi, Sergio Andrade Y Mary Boquitas / My bitter experiences with Gloria Trevi, Sergio Andrade and Mary Boquitas.

1. No lo he leído ni lo pienso hacer, menos aún perder el dinero en semejante estupidez. Y ojo que no defiendo a la tal Gloria que no es más que una cómplice y coautora de varios horribles delitos!! Por favor, lean algo más productivo y dejemos que sea la justicia la que se encargue de castigar a estos criminales. Ojalá tanta exposición en los medios sirva para que los padres se dejen de ingenuidades y ni si quiera piensen en la posibilidad de dejar a ir a sus hijos (as) con el primer vividor que aparezca.
   Aunque claro, cuando se vive con malos salarios y aparece una "soñada oportunidad" para que tu querubincita salga del anonimato y se convierta en estrella, que puede esperar que decidan gentes sencillas, que no saben nada de la basura que hay en el medio artístico! Cuántos pobres padres habrán caído en este tipo de problemas por tratar de cumplirle el sueño a sus hijas en un país como México, donde todos quisieran ser estrellas de Televisa!



2. It's imposible to read this book without feeling so many different things... you get nervous, scared, annoying, disgusting, excited... in fact I don't know who is telling more lyes or (somehting?!?) true in this story. But something is really sure... no one is saint here. Gloria has her faults, the girls like Karina too... but this is a really incredible story to think about and I think inlude to be studied by psiquiatras. It's certain that Sergio Andrade is the biggest monster here. But so intelligent. So crazy history...



3. I think this books really express what the author was thru and it make to the people who read it to feel all the pain and also make us to hate them more (gloria and her band) because I really belive to this girl

5 comments about A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

1. With a prodigious breadth and fearless depth, she takes the segue to a high art. Anything can be the occasion for connection. Any sentence can break your mind or heart wide open. Her most personal, and my personal favorite. Reading this book makes me feel alive.



2. The first question is, what is a field guide to getting lost? Field guides help us with finding, not losing or getting lost. We use them to classify the unfamiliar and figure out what surrounds us. They reassure us that the bewildering array of natural phenomena has an underlying order. Solnit's title suggests we might also want our schemas to break down. Can we catalogue the various ways of getting lost as we might catalogue songbirds? The paradox feels whimsical, mocking, alluring. Like the title, the tone of the book will hover between the urge to know and the urge not to know, between rationality and mystery.
   
   In the middle of the first chapter, Solnit gives us a manifesto: "Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how to get lost brings you to destruction." "Lost," for her, means we lack a narrative for what we are experiencing. Getting lost is a kind of Zen rebirth because "to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty." Getting lost also has connotations of spiritual longing. Solnit titles every other chapter "The Blue of Distance." Blue "represents the spirit, the sky, and water, the immaterial and the remote, so that however tactile ansd close-up it is, it is always about distance and disembodiment." Voila the tone of the book--grand, abstract, sensual, yearning and inexorably aloof.
   
   With a topic like the beauty of longing and loss, it is surprising how rarely Solnit lapses into cliché. Her prose is as smooth and bare as polished stone. It creates the feeling of waking from a dream and encountering the world, dazed and receptive. If Thoreau is the most cerebral of the philosopher-poets and Whitman the most sensual, Rebecca Solnit belongs at the midpoint. She does not allow herself academic verbal tics, or excess verbiage, but neither does she shy away from the syntactical complexity of acadmic writing. She integrates lyric sensuality and philosophizing as if these modes belong together, as if western civilization had never tried to separate mind and body. I admire her poise and authority a little as I admire Susan Sontag's. Solnit's is a supremely self-possessed voice, which may be the same thing as a voice that has abandoned the antic whining of the self. She draws deeply on experience, yet she resists the confessional mode.
   
   You might say that Solnit offers an optimistic way to confront the globalized, alienated world of the twenty-first century, a sort of "If God gives you lemons, make lemonade," or "If God gets you lost, revel in it." You could argue that she offers a sophisticated alternative to the self-help genre, though I imagine Solnit would look down on self-help. She likes slipperiness and paradox too much. Still, she is interested in finding a way forward for the soul, and I, for one, am glad because my little soul is often bewildered.
   
   I think Solnit dances between lostness and foundness. She notes that "nomads have fixed circuits and stable relationships to places," and her own wandering through the west is ritualized, repetitive. She doesn't need to go to Antarctica; she gets lost in America. Her home territory is simply vast and ambitious, her spirals broad. Still, in order to lose herself time after time, she has to find herself in between.



3. Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide To Getting Lost discusses experience and getting lost in the everyday, examining how people move from cities to wilderness, how they search for sense of self in an uncertain life, and how her own explorations in the world have changed her life. At once an autobiography and introspective examination, A Field Guide To Getting Lost surveys connections, ancestry, history, and modern culture in a personal odyssey of exploration.



4. A mesmerizing book that is three separate tales told at the same time. At times humorous and sometimes it made me want to cry, this story was hard to put down. I would highly recommend it.



5. Solnit's book is as the title suggests--a discursive reflectoin on the many nuances of the idea of 'getting lost.' You find out that 'lost' is from the Norse meaning 'the dispersal of armies,' and that early Renaissance painters use blue to designate distance, that children are better (i.e., less likely to die) at getting lost because they don't rationalize the way adults do--all in just a few pages where the insight garnered is both spun out by the author, but left to the reader to stop and pursue in his/her own reflections. Of the twenty or so books of all genres which I've read in the last few weeks--and of those I will read in the next several I suspect--this book incarnates why I read: erudite, entertaining, entrancing. Solnit's book reaches out toward Wordsworth, Dillard, Thoreau--and the Clash, Plato, Robert Hass. The voice and perspective, though, are her own. The essays here can not be read in great, long gulps; switching metaphors, there is hearty sustenance here--you take in only so much, and you are sated with good things which you must digest before moving on. Side note: whoever edited the book did a disservice--occasional glaring errors, such as 'form' being spelled out 'from' and 'good' repeated a second time in a context where the repetition makes no sense (and when you know the author would have easily used another expression to capture the nuance intended over against using something as clunky as redundancy of such a limited word).

No comments about Mother Teresa: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series).

5 comments about A WASP Among Eagles: A Woman Military Test Pilot in World War II.

1. Parts of this book were better than others. I think I liked the personal aspect of Ann Carl's life more than the adventures in flight. I just felt her book contained too many details and aeronautical jargon that would not hold a great deal of interest to those of us that have little or no knowledge of aviation. Having said that, though, I believe I will read some other books on these amazing and brave women known as the
   WASP'S.



2. I enjoyed reading the story of Ann Baumgartner Carl, an aviatrix that challenged the bigotry and mysoginy of the 1940s United States in order to serve her country. The book, as it was, was interesting and enjoyable. Its problem is that it is too short and sometimes only brushes subjects that a reader may wish to know more about. I would have liked in particular to learn more about the personalities of a few people described in the book and who played important roles in the aviation career of the author. This book is still a good bet however to pass some quiet time at home or during a trip.



3. Ann Carl's book tells what most male pilots know.
   That is that the laws of physics apply equally to both genders.
   During WW II special women took the challenge during special
   times. Prior to WW II special women, such as Aline Rhonie
   Hofheimer of Warren, NJ. tested various Luscombe models after
   investing in the company. But during WW II the rigors
   of testing became extreme. I think that no child can
   say that they had a good education without knowing about these women who gave not excuses only their all. When you look at
   all of the superficial celebrities in Hollywood.. all of them
   would not add up to one of these women pilot of WW II.



4. Ann Carl was a female military test pilot in World War II. A Wasp Among Eagles is her story of her experiences and adventures. She first learned to fly in 1940 and in 1943 found herself assigned to Wright Field. She underscores how women, because of the wartime shortages and pressures, were vital in performing jobs that were once the exclusive domain of men. A Wasp Among Eagles is an impressive, informative, first-hand, insider's account and an invaluable contribution to military studies, and highly recommended reading for women's twentieth-century history studies as well.



5. Ann Carl was a female military test pilot in World War II. A Wasp Among Eagles is her story of her experiences and adventures. She first learned to fly in 1940 and in 1943 found herself assigned to Wright Field. She underscores how women, because of the wartime shortages and pressures, were vital in performing jobs that were once the exclusive domain of men. A Wasp Among Eagles is an impressive, informative, first-hand, insider's account and an invaluable contribution to military studies, and highly recommended reading for women's twentieth-century history studies as well.

5 comments about Dressing Diana.

1. I really enjoyed learning about Diana and how her taste in clothes evolved and improved. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how she had clothes re-worked and how many times she wore the same outfit - or an outfit without a portion of the outfit (i.e. the Elvis dress - without the jacket), and dresses, etc. reworked to update or change the look of it - making it new again. The impression I believe the public was left with was that she never wore anything more than once which was not true. She learned well and knew what she needed to fulfill what task she would wear the outfit to. She was adept at working her wardrobe around where she would be traveling to..... no one missed the attention she made to detail and loved her for it..... she will always be well remembered by the publich who loved and still love her.



2. I LOVED this book for it's beautiful color fashion photos of the Princess Diana. In particular, I really enjoyed that there were many head to toe photos of many of her most famous outfits. There was also was a nice section on her hat makers as well as Jimmy Choo and some of the shoes he made for her. This book has many photos showing her shoes which is something I really enjoy seeing as part of her outfit. She was very coordinated with her shoes and her hats which was pointed out in this book. It also had many nice close-ups of the materials used in her outfits, which brought out details that I had never seen before, in some smaller pictures in other books. Overall, if you enjoyed the fashions of Princess Diana, I think that you are going to LOVE this book. To me it is a "must have".



3. I have a vast collection of Princess Diana memorabilia. My collection of Diana books is quite enormous, and sometimes I lose track of the books I own, but this book is one in my collection that ALWAYS comes to mind first! It is one of the most well done books I have seen. The photos are fabulous, and the design of the book is very cleverly done. It shows Diana in her most famous outfits categorized on each page by colour.(Her red gowns, her blue gowns etc.). If your a Di collector, this book is a must for your coffee table.



4. This book will attract two kinds of individual: those who loved Diana and those who love fashion. Everyone would agree that Diana was one of the most stylish women of our day, and this photographic visit to her clothes closet is a wonderful opportunity to browse and maybe dream a little.



5. this is the best pictur biography the princess could have asked for

5 comments about The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule.

1. This is not an adventure, travelogue or history, but at one time or other it is all three or some combination of the three. In the 4th century BCE Greek explorer Pytheas claimed to found "Thule" (pronounced Two-Lay), a land 'where the sun goes to sleep and the ocean turns viscous'. He did so by sailing northeast from Scotland for six days. From his account, since lost, it was a land of short winter days and long nights, came an entire mythology of a magical, northern realm hidden beyond the edges of civilization.
   
   Kavenna's book is a recollection of anecdotes and brief historical explanation of the search for the Mythical Thule from the time of Pytheas up to the present. She travels to the most logical places such as the Shetland Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Estonia (don't ask just read) and Svarlbard (aka Spitzbergen). What is strange is that she passes on the Faroe Islands who sit in a perfect spot. Interspersed throughout the book are poems that relate to Thule.
   
   She does a grand detour and ends up in Germany, discussing the origin of the National Socialist (Nazi) under the name of the "Thule Society". They were the first group in post WWI Germany to avow that the ancient Germanic tribes (Aryan) came from "Thule" and that this group was the most 'pure' of all Germans. Some of the founding members of The National Socialist Party (which later merged with the German Workers Party to become the National Socialist German Workers Party, i.e. Nazi Party) were claimed as having been participants in this group.
   
   Mostly, we learn that the 'North' is in trouble and that there is a major affect on the snow- and icescape by global warming. Especially poignant is her description of the way the Greenland Inuit have descended into a life of boredom, welfare, paternalism and alcoholism at the hands of the Danes. Her visit to Iceland is more of a travelogue and seems to miss the affect of alcoholism and drugs on that culture.
   
   The book is really a voyage of discovery for Kavenna, and this is like a diary from which we are invited to read...some of it reminds me of the writings of Jack Kerouac in that it steam-of-thought and run on. It's an interesting read.



2. I'll admit I was resistant to this book at first - I guess I expected a more scholarly, weighty approach, rather than Kavenna's very personal picaresque - but she won me over quickly with her elegant, lyric prose, her disarming, understated persona, and her expert blending of travel narrative and history of ideas, literature and exploration. She begins by visiting all the places that have been considered possible locations of Thule, the Shetland Islands, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, advancing northward, capturing what she sees as she smoothly explicates what other travelers have said about those places as Thule, and also examining the turbulent history of Arctic exploration at large.
   
   To me, the strongest section of the book is when Kavenna grapples with the most hateful mannifestation of the Thule ideal - its expropriation by the Nazis as pristine mythico-historical homeland where snow white Aryan purity reigned. The Thule Society was one of many esoteric/political organizations that flourished in Europe, and one of the handful that served as an early focus and gathering place for what was to become the Nazi party. This confluence of modernist and fascist elements is as troubling as it is seemingly inevitable, and Kavenna approaches this treacherous territory with the proper measure of fascination and abhorrence.
   
   Although Kavenna is very astute in her explication of the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun's big botch, his championing of the Germans, her brief precis of his work is the one place where I found The Ice Museum demonstrably off the mark:
   
   "He became nostalgic and impatient; he lurched away from the city, writing nothing but rustic romances laced with sentimentality, tales of robust hunting men of few words, clumsy in elegant company, chasing the daughters of the local merchants through the vibrant forests. They lived in huts like mine, they wore big boots, they knew nothing of manners and conventions; they were tormented brutes, aware that society judged them. They were good a whittling wood, and occasionally sheer frustration at their failure to ensnare a local beauty led them to a melodramatic act. One of the rustic hut-dwellers shot himself in the foot one morning because the beautiful daughter of the local businessman wouldn't talk to him."
   
   It's hard to believe that Kavenna is old enough to have actually read the books and then forgotten so much about them. Anyone who has looked at Pan, the book she references, knows that it was in fact an early work and that its protagonist/narrator Lieutenant Glahn is no child of the land but, obviously an ex-army officer, which indicates social status, an extremely educated and articulate gentleman who chooses to live in a hut out of love of nature and a rejection of human society. And to say he shoots himself in the foot because Edvarda won't talk to him is criminal reductionism. Even August the old wandering protagonist of several of Hamsun's later works, although he does work odd jobs and pine over various beautiful daughters, is not an inarticulate brute, but an drop out from civilization, intent on living a life without ambition. There are a few books like Growth of the Soil which revolve around plain folk without the addition of a neurotic dreamer but they are very few, and Hamsun never loses the complexity of his vision.
   
   I only wish she had at least glanced at Hamsun again before she wrote those words, but the "brute" idea fits so neatly with her arguments about the lure of fascism that she no doubt wanted it to be true. The other sad thing is that so few people are familiar with Hamsun that no editor called her on it before publication and so few people will know that it is utter bunk.
   
   BUT otherwise I enjoyed the book. I worried as I neared the end because, like most picaresques, there's no natural ending that isn't an anti-climax. Unlike William Broad's The Oracle, Kavenna isn't going to "solve the mystery." But she accomplishes closure elegantly, describing her visit to the island of Svalbard, a place nobody thought was Thule, but which is icy and cold enough to be truly Thulean. Here she finds scientists charting the climate changes which have already meant great changes to the arctic regions and may yet be the end of Thule, if not all of mankind.
   
   Throughout Kavenna is able to give a provocative depth to her breezy travel narrative, and I highly recommend it as an entertaining, informative read - perfect for the coming winter.



3. In the fourth century BC, the Greek merchant and explorer Pytheas (~380-~310 BC) traveled north through the North Sea, and finally ended up at a distant island, which he called Thule. Thule lies far to the north, on the edge of the Arctic ice, where the sun never set during midsummer. Many centuries later, Joanna Kavenna, a native of London, found herself dreaming of an untouched northern landscape, glittering in its perpetual ice. And so, she set out to find Thule...this is the story of her search.
   
   In this interesting book, the author does a good job of combining two different stories into one narrative. First and foremost, it is the story of Ms. Kavenna's visits to the northern lands that could have been Thule - the Shetland Islands, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Svalbard. Secondly, this is the story of the idea of Thule, from Pytheas's history and its ancient detractors, through the Romantics, the Victorians and even the Nazis.
   
   Overall, I found this to be quite an interesting book. The author is not an archaeologist, so you will not find any startling information on the ancient north. And she is also not an environmentalist, so while the tale of pollution of the north is described, it is far from being an important part of the book. Instead, what you have is the story of Thule, Thule as it was dreamed of in the past, and Thule as it exists today.



4. To the ancients Thule was considered a lost icy Eden of strange beauty, fueling the imagination of poets, explorers and now writer Joanna Kavenna, whose journey in search of the legendary Thule is documented in THE ICE MUSEUM: IN SEARCH OF THE LOST LAND OF THULE. Kavenna's journey brought her in touch with others under the same spell, from past evidence of prior seekers to contemporaries. Her journey also uncovered a host of frozen relics of the cold war - and it reads with all the 'you are there' drama of a diary and an investigative research piece. Any interested in true adventure will find her odyssey hard to put down.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. This book is kind of cool. It's quite a bizarre book, and I wasn't sure when I started. But it's really moving in the end. It starts in Scotland and then moves around the North, traveling up to Iceland, Norway, Spitzbergen and Greneland. The bits about Greenland are just amazing - the author really describes it all so you feel you;re looking at a series of pictures. I thought the story she tells is very tragic indeed, about the wrecking of the north, the way it was destroyed in wars, by nuclear accidents, mass tourism, and now global warming. There aren't enough books about global warming that really take you to the places and show you what we stand to lose. I was left feeling very sad and as if we have left things too late. But at the end she says, don't give up, we have to keep on going, and there are people who are trying, adn there's a history of dreams. Like, we mustn't stop dreaming just because everything is getting so dark and shattered. It's such a good, unusual book. Highly recommended

5 comments about The Prison Angel: Mother Antonia's Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail.

1. I read this book in several sittings which is unusual for me. I just couldn't stop and wanted to read some more of this fascinating story. It is a feel good story for the modern ages. If you are reading this you probably know about the former Beverly Hillls mom , twice divorced who was unable to receive Holy Communion from the Catholic Church, circumvented any road blocks and began her service for mankind(the most down and out of low people in La Mesa prison near Tijuana)and our Lord at age fifty. She produced her own habit and eventually was recognized by an official order. She has worked amongst the biggest drug dealers of Mexico, the murderer of Presidential candidate Colosio, the bloodiest of assasins and the peons who are just to poor to live in society and seek refuge in jail(now that is desperate)and the mentally ill. A prison in Mexico is unlike an American prison. Torture is common. She got involded in prison reform as well as changing men. Mother Antonia is unafraid of the toughest and meanest because she is a righteous woman and all who encounter her love and admire her. She lives in prison. She lives the same way the prisoners do. She walks and talks to the hardest of hard core. She gives them hope and transforrms many of their lives through the miracle of faith. This is an inspirational story that will leave you pondering your own existence; it is truly an amazing story that all should read as it will make you feel better about mankind. She is truly a living saint. Oh yes, there is a large print edition of this book available for the visually handicapped. God bless Sister Antonio and all who she touches.



2. This is a very inspirational book and helps people see how they can still be useful as they get older.



3. The Prison Angel is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. Mother Antonia is so amazing that one would question the truth of her story if it weren't for the consistent witness and corroboration provided by all those who come into contact with her. She loves and ministers to everyone without distinction. This is a great book for teaching the golden rule.



4. Mother Antonia is an inspiration for us to see all people as fellow humans with similar needs - to be cared for, loved, and accepted. I appreciate that she paved the way to be valuable at an "older" age, and she welcomes women in their later years as valuable and able to serve others. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and passed it around among many friends.



5. This book touches your soul and uplifts your spirits. You would dare to judge another person after reading this book about a woman who could forgive and love the "unlovable." Very touching

2 comments about America's Child: A Woman's Journey Through the Radical Sixties.

1. Susan Sherman gives us a unique, beautifully written, deeply introspective and analytical memoir of the Sixties. She evokes what it was like for a lesbian with Left politics and a radical Leftist who loved women to navigate the often painful territory bridging both nations of the heart. She demonstrates how closely culture and politics were woven then--and are today. From Berkeley to New York and then to revolutionary Cuba and back, Sherman's narrative does what many memoirs aren't able to achieve: she remembers how it looked, smelled, felt, was--while at the same time employing some retrospective analysis. This is a beautiful book, and a must read for anyone interested in what our lives were like back then.



2. Sherman was not a child of the Sixties, but a voyager through them. A daughter of first-generation, working-class immigrants in Philadelphia, she did not have the sense of entitlements, keen political sense (which has since dulled considerably from what it was among the Sixties generation), and spirit of wild and sometimes reckless rebelliousness and abandon which characterized the mostly college-student members of the Sixties. She does not see the Sixties as a defining moment, but rather as part of "a historical continuum of struggle and cultural regeneration" of which the civil-rights advances of the previous decade of the Fifties, the labor movement of the mid 1900s, and the first meeting of the NAACP in 1909 were a part. "The Sixties was not an isolated era." Yet Sherman's interests, talents, and ambitions drew her to individuals, locations, and situations which typified the counterculture for which the 1960s are remembered.
   
   At Berkeley, she met and was heavily influenced by Diane Wakowski and La Monte Young, a musician the noted poet and writer was living with. Wakowski gave inspiration and focus to Sherman's artistic bent. And it was as a student at Berkeley that the author first experimented with drugs, realized her lesbianism, and out of literary curiosity and proximity as much as sympathies began to pay attention to progressive politics; which political stripe at the time led to demonstrations and confrontations, and in some cases radicalism. After Berkeley, Sherman wrote plays which were performed and also poems and essays. Lesbianism became natural to her. She lived in New York and traveled to Mexico City and Cuba. She writes about her friendships, experiences, and observations in loosely-connected segments and chapters. She's not analytic, though sometimes explanatory. Nor is she deeply introspective, though she regularly looks inward to examine momentary feelings or responses. The thread running through the material covering 1958 to 1971 is Sherman's interests and career as a writer. These are the main sources of her friendships, etc. Her revisit of the Sixties in the relaxed style of mostly fond, uncritical, though not blinkered recall will revive similar times for ones of the Sixties generation and for those who are not, give a picture of what the lives of many were like apart from the oft-replayed media imagery.

4 comments about Alive at the Village Vanguard: My Life In and Out of Jazz Time.

1. Alive at the Village Vanguard: My Life In and Out of Jazz Time captures the life of jazz artist Lorraine Gordon, who knew virtually all the big names of jazz. She was not only a business woman and mother, but owned the most famous jazz club in the world, the Village Vanguard: this is the story of the rise of that club, her encounters with Miles Davis, Monk, and more, and vignettes of their personalities and encounters. Black and white photos blend with music history and cultural insights to make for a lively survey of the Village scene and the artists who made up the jazz world. A 'must' for any avid jazz fan who relishes a 'you are there' experiential survey.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. Very interesting and informative. An honest woman, dedicated to jazz and jazz musicians.



3. Lorraine Gordon has led an interesting life and one well worth reporting. She does an admirable job in this autobiography. If, however, one seeks information about jazz events that occurred at her club in any sort of detail, one needs to look elsewhere.



4. This book is a wonderful read for any jazz fan! It goes through the life of Larraine Gordon and has some wonderful insights as to why the Village Vanguard is what it is! It's an easy read and I highly recommend this book!

5 comments about Confessions (The World's Classics).

1. This book is a very powerful, memorable spiritual autobiography and Augustine tells his story like none other. He is transparent and honest at every turn, holding nothing back. He tells of his faith struggles, his sins and his temptations very candidly. The story of his conversion is truly beautiful and will stay with you. He has written in such a way that you truly see the hand of God at work in his life. A phenomenal read that will stay with you. Highly recommended.



2. Augustine is one of these characthers from antiquity who illustrates that humanity is always an everywhere the same - we share the same form, namely the soul and we thirst always and everywhere for the same thing, namely the infinite, which is God. Augustine is poetic in his treatment of God, he addresses him as a bride to her husband. Let him speak for himself:
   
   "Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
   
   His own struggle is the struggle of every man and woman to find God. And, yet, not only was Augustine the master of the inner life, he was a great philosopher - witness the chapter on time, which is wonderful. Miss not also his shared ecstatic vision with his mother, Monica.
   
   This is a great work - but, there are bits that are not easy (his exegesis of Genesis, for example) but persevere, its worth it!.



3. Saint Augustine is spiritual, philosophical and always profound.
   Warning: Likely to blow your mind.



4. Augustine's confessions are confessions to God, and thus, prayer. Augustine bares his soul--his doubt, fear, guilt, as well as his joy, peace, and love. All this is addressed to God as prayer. Like the Psalms, these prayers are shockingly intimate--you can't read these properly from a comfortable distance.
   
   I am grateful to Augustine for sharing his personal relationship with God in a way that leads me closer, too.



5. As a non-believer, some of the more entertaining bits were Augustine pining that he wishes he'd been made a eunuch as a boy, and describing at length the sensual dreams that aroused and tormented after he gave up his lecherous ways and escaped the lesser torment of marriage.
   
   Interesting historically as a document of how Platonism was explicitly wedded with Christianity, but some of the theology is a bit strained, i.e., his exposition of Genesis chapter one in which he attempts to explain how God created everything outside of time and without any effort, and yet this took six days and he rested on the seventh. His attempts to solve the problem of evil also do more to confuse the issue than to clarify it, but that is to be expected.
   
   But it is definitely far better in terms of both literary style and quality of thought than the efforts of today's believers, and it is worth reading for anyone interested in intellectual or religious history.