Biography Books

Very, very funny and well-written. Ms. Tsing-Loh does satire, irony and self-deprecation much better than she does anger. The book is hilarious up to the last two chapters which fall flat and should have been omitted and one does sense in them more than a faint whiff of sour grapes. The NPR ending is in retrospect inevitable, but buy the book and enjoy it!

In this book Sandra Tsing Loh recounts her efforts to get her daughter into a kindergarten that she (Sandra) considers to be of acceptable quality. Being a denizen of the NPR set, she expects her daughter to be in a much better school than average kids end up in even though her income doesn't support the quest, and even though she doesn't really seem to believe that money should buy educational opportunity (except for her kids).

The book is largely a series of linked stories, which is good, as Sandra is at her best as a miniaturist. In fact, the book lags a bit toward the end when she finally has her daughter in school, and narrates an extended session with her therapist. For the most part, however, this book is an amusing send up of the pretensions of wealth, fame, and the educational community, and of the fear of achieving parents toward the vast, "unwashed" mass of real children out there. Some good laughs are on offer in this book, and it will certainly appeal to fans of Sandra's earlier works.

The author has taken her comedy routine on motherhood and fleshed it out into a book length memoir (a la Lily Tomlin). Her humorous obserations on the desire to be the perfect parent for fear of failing her infants forever is so American, for those parents who can afford $20,000+ for kindergarten. She fearlessly exposes her neurotic tendencies upon the reader and one wonders how her children will make out when they are teenagers. The book flows in a stream of consciousness conversational style that the reader needs to buy into or the reader will be annoyed. Overall "Mother on Fire" is a funny book.

Once again, Sandra Tsing Loh has massaged her very specific life into themes that touch the heart, providing plenty of laughs but also a lot to think about. With witty side trips, the author takes us on an invigorating journey from the sweet exhaustion of keeping up with small children through the frantic exhaustion of trying to find a decent school, and ends up with a new sense of purpose and community. Buy it; read it aloud if you can stop laughing; buy more for your friends!

Favorite theme: "It seems there's no rite of female passage that can't be marked, in some vague way, by a little hay-strewn basket of bath items. As if to say 'Happy Graduation! Have a bath.' 'So you're thirty-seven! Have a bath.' 'Wishing you a fabulous divorce, and menopause! Rock on, sister, and ... try a bath.'" Watch how deftly this becomes a manifesto against Women as Mere Consumers.

I read all the "motherhood" books, and they're usually so serious and dry. This one is hilarious! It's like the books my mom used to read about the subject - really funny, and (I know this sounds kind of sappy) uplifting. I'm going to suggest it at my next book group meeting - we need a laugh!

Kathleen Norris is obviously a talented writer. ACEDIA AND ME certainly has some interesting and inspirational stories woven throughout. But overall, Norris uses her search for the meaning of the concept of acedia as a vehicle for relating her memoir. I found this to be a bit misleading. I had thought the issue of acedia, not Norris' memoir, would be the focus of this book. I suppose I had expected a more scholarly approach. I agree with the other reviewer who says that ACEDIA AND ME will appeal to fans of Kathleen Norris, but perhaps not the general reader.

This is a thoughtful memoir, full of incisive literary quotes from the author's wide reading. You may not be acquainted with the term acedia, but surely you are familiar with its many symptoms, offshoots, and corollaries: among them, lethargy, apathy, paralysis, depression, and alienation.

The author tells the story of her marriage, of her husband's illness and death. Each chapter is a meditation, an essay on the author's search for clarity and meaning.

Kathleen Norris is also the author of AMAZING GRACE: A VOCABULARY OF FAITH. She is at her best when defining concepts, especially religious concepts. In ACEDIA & ME: A MARRIAGE, MONKS, AND A WRITER'S LIFE, she concentrates on the concept of acedia and you will be supprised to learn how common it is. She looks at acedia as experienced, then as observed.

Of course the author discusses Andrew Solomon's excellent study, THE NOONDAY DEMON, but she says that it is common to experience acedia without being clinically depressed. There are degrees of it, she says, respectable acedia and industrial acedia.

The last section of the book is devoted to quotes touching on acedia from the wealth of our literature, Thomas Merton, Saul Bellow, Joan Didion, Ian Fleming, Walker Percy, and many, many others. I read every one of them and looked up from the book struck anew by the significance of the the author's theme.

Those interested in reading more about intellectual acedia might want to start with Colin Wilson's THE OUTSIDER; those looking to read more on spiritual acedia might enjoy David Loy's take on it in LACK AND TRANSCENDENCE: THE PROBLEM OF DEATH AND LIFE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, EXISTENTIALISM, AND BUDDHISM.

This book was not what I expected. I anticipated a memoir, one of my favorite genres. Instead the book was an unstructured mixture of sermonlike discourses and epsidodic memories.

Fans of Kathleen Norris may welcome the book. But as someone who wanted to get to know the person behind the name, I would have preferred more concrete pictures - a sense of what her life was really like, growing up as a Navy brat, marrying a poet and creating a writing career.

Norris's themes were not novel. The theme of a wife caring for a troubled husband inevitably echoes more worldly memoirs, such as those of Jill Ker Conway and Katherine Graham. Psychiatry and religion have co-existed for years. At one point Norris's internist offers her samples of an anti-depressant without a psychiatric consultation. She accepts. That small interaction says more than the many pages comparing depression and acedia.

Clearly the book was written for a very specific audience -- an audience that wants to explain contemporary phenomena through a spiritual lens. To take just one example, Norris condemns marketing, especially branding. As a professional marketer, I suspect the vast majority of consumers wear their brands far more lightly than Norris imagines. In fact, today's consumer flits from brand to brand in butterfly fashion. Contrary to her example, many consumers really don't care what brand of toothpaste they buy.

I am not among the target audience for this book. I did enjoy some of Norris's stories about her life, although I was disturbed by the absence of humor.

But I came away with the feeling that the author was herself struggling with sadness as she struggled to meet a publishing deadline. And I suspect memoir may not be Norris's forte. She writes what I would call sermons. If you like them, and you accept her orientation, this book will be for you.

I found this to be less satisfying than most of Kathleen Norris' work; it seemed to me to be a series of meditations on acedia without an overarching structure. Without the structure, it often becomes repetitive in a way that allows the reader to lose their way (the context/logic of the text).

On the other hand, this is a useful reflection on how acedia manifests in our culture - ennui as an artistic stance, consumerism, frantic schedules ... Particularly interesting is her discussion (a topic frequently returned to) of the roles of the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers and of psychiatry/psychoanalysis. Here Norris does an excellent job of bringing their wisdom to bear on our contemporary human condition - reminding me of To Love As God Loves: Conversations With the Early Church.

Also interesting and useful are the biographic elements brought into the discussion - illness as a small child, her husband's suicide attempt, her sister's cancer, her own widowhood ... Through these events one sees how she balances wholeness as supported by her religious community with wholeness as supported by the medical community.

Closing the book is a commonplace book on acedia with quotes from a diverse group of people - Seneca, Evagrius (referred to frequently in the book), John Climacus, David of Augsburg, Dante, Chaucer, Pascal, Wordsworth ...

This book was recommended to me by a business friend. I am interested in starting an internet business and operate within what Chris Anderson describe as "The Long Tail" of my business sector. Armed with the knowledge and insight from this book, I feel that I am better prepared to launch my business. The best thing about this book is that it is linked to a blog that is constantly updated as well. So, and remaining questions that I had regarding the book were either answered on Chris Anderson's blog (www.thelongtail.com) or I could ask it then and there.

This book will quickly become one of the mandatory pieces of literature for anyone wanting to operate a business or grow an idea on the internet.

This is an important book for anyone who wants to understand internet commerce or innovation in services. In addition, "The Long Tail" must be a part of the vocabulary of anyone who wants to talk intelligenly about modern business practices.

The new emphasis on marketing in the new release is a valuable addition to the original.

A current article in HBR attacks the Long Tail on empirical grounds. However, Anderson's response on his website is compelling.

The one quibble with this book is that it is superfluous -- the original essay/article combined with the website covers the issues more fully. However, that said, this book will be more valuable than 90% of the volumes that you have in your business book collection.

Chris Anderson's groundbreaking examination of the new economics that comes with the internet age (the big revenue doesn't come from the handful of blockbusters so much as from the catalogue of little titles) ironically put The Long Tail near the head of the sales curve, up at the blockbuster end. Deservedly so. Anderson presents a compelling argument, and he illustrates it through imaginative examples and through tight, colourful language. He's a clear, persuasive writer.

In this updated edition, Anderson adds a new chapter on marketing, and in my view this plugs one of the gaps that emerged with the original work. Marketing executives and agency strategists have for two years now been dropping the "long tail" phrase into their dialogue, but the new chapter will help them put the thinking into practice.

A great book just got more timely, more useful.

PS. If you're looking to get a handle on today's marketing paradigm I'd recommend this book alongside Rob Walker's excellent Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

first off i want to thank malcolm x for his thoughts on race after visiting mecca.he saw that persons of all races got together to worship and were colorblind.i will see this man in heaven he saw past racism in america to be a great christian!also i would like to give a big F to public schools in america for not teaching everything about slavery and who was involved,for example it wasn't until i went to college to major in history that i learned the truth about slavery.the white man didn't just go to africa with a big gun and round up black people as slaves,they established trade with the local tribes who traded goods with tribal leaders who had their own slaves as spoils of war and traded them with the white man as just another trade good so the tribes that traded were africans tradeing off other africans to the white's.try to find this in high school history or elementary school history,not likely.it is true that some white slave owners treated slaves horribly and i'm sure african tribes even treated some of their slaves horribly also.wrong is wrong no matter what your skin looks like!slavery is wrong!racism is wrong!!!!! ! ! "everyone" should be able to live free and should be able to worship freely and have pride in their people without being called racist! i'm guilty of being white, i love my race,does this make me a racist! no i don't think so. LOVE,RED

I read this book along time ago and still retain alot of what I learned from it. There is no beating around the bush in this from the beginning he tells of his life as it happened. He tells of an early career in crime to his time in prison and he does not attempt to sugarcoat anything. He does explain his reasoning for having done what he had done in his youth, but he does not claim to be innocent.
He did manage to find a better way to fight his enemies during his incarceration, and anyone who has ever seen any footage of Malcolm X will understand what I mean. The man was a very acticulate and confrontational speaker. He was the spark that ignited the engine of the civil rights movement in many respects. The civil rights movement began as far back as pre-civil war and was slow to develop with minor progress for each generation. Malcolm was the man brave enough to say enough and to make his voice heard over the many voices of the nation that tried to rise over him.
Here is a man that took it upon himself to correct a society that had become accepting of the crimes of their ancestors and simply ignored them. It is only a stonesthrow back in time if you think about it and yet it is painful to imagine people could be so cruel.
I recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it as it is an excellent book and is a document of the life of a man who managed to play a pivotal role in changing the way America viewed itself.

Despite the dispiriting revelation that this book was almost totally written by Alex Haley, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" remains one of my favorite books. Which is a little strange, since his well-known struggles with civil rights, the police, Black identity, and Islam have little or no relevance to my life. Sorry.

The part of this book that affects me most deeply is where Malcolm is in prison educating himself, studying on the floor of his cell in the dim night light. I can't think of another tale about the birth of an autodidact and the rewards of reading that is as uplifting and memorable as Malcolm's. I first read this book about twenty years ago, and that's the part that always sticks with me: the power of books to change your life, regardless of who you are or what you've done. And much of the rest sticks with me too, for example the poignant case of "West Indian Archie."

I would like to advise, however, that you buy this edition: Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics), rather than the Ballantine edition, as the binding on the latter has proven unreliable, to say the least. I have gone through three different copies of the Ballantine edition of Malcolm X and the binding has fallen apart on all three of them -- to the point where the covers have come completely off, even though I don't really mistreat books. It can't just be bad luck.

Malcolm X was said to have been a formidable debater, yet it's curious to me that none of his opponents ever made the obvious, unanswerable point: that whatever crimes and horrors the West can be charged with vis-à-vis the African slave trade, those of Islam have been even more extensive and blood-soaked. They go back a lot further, and continued a lot later. In fact, it was only two years previous to Malcolm's making his Hajj to Mecca (1964) that slavery was made illegal in Saudi Arabia!

Hence jettisoning Christianity and Western culture for the supposed moral high ground of Islam was, when you think about it, a dingy move on Malcolm's part. Yet it is, unfortunately, the entirety of his position.

But you'll find this book a cracking good read nonetheless.

An excellent unflinching book about Malcolm X read for my "Understanding Religious Traditions in Multicultural America" last spring. While at times unnerving to read due to its stark honesty, it was very illuminating. As a non-American, it really helped give me further insight into how powerful and tense race is of an issue in American culture. As someone born into a Muslim family, but is a closet agnostic, the perversions I felt Elijah Muhammad perpetuated made me severely uncomfortable anyway. Several parts of this book made me cry, or be wistful I could somehow have found peace in Islam as Malcolm X did.

A very good book.

Every American should read this literature. It discusses America's most obvious flaw. More importantly it demonstrates the power of transformation, tolerance of self and of others, cooperation and the importance of hope.

I bought this book because of all the rave reviews from critics and the because it was a Pulitzer finalist. I read the first one-third of the story and really enjoyed his candid writing style. I am from the Bay Area and too lost my mother at an early age, so I really related to both his accounts of Berkeley/SF life and people, as well as grieving the loss of a parent at a young age. His anger toward the insensitivity of others was frank. His urgency to protect his little brother from the realities of death and loss are memorable. His writing style is both vivid and candid, however very very detailed. At first this was interesting and kept my attention, but after the first 5 chapters or so, was a slow moving book. I found myself skipping chapters. Overall a decent read though.

The book as a whole is much better than some of the parts. Dave Eggers has written a raw, emotional memoir of the years immediately following the death of both parents. He becomes the guardian of a younger brother and is also trying to begin his own career as a writer. Eggers is witty, sarcastic, pretenious and possibly genius, but this book was not easy for me to read. Some parts were laugh out loud funny. Some were gut-wrenchingly brutal. Some were loving, poignant and sad. Then, there were parts that I felt I would never get through and it wasn't until I was finished that I really appreciated what Eggers had accomplished. Several times in telling his story, Eggers goes off on narrative tangents that don't really move the story. These border on stream of conscienciousness, but are just hard to follow, as are some sections of dialogue. (I was torn between 3 or 4 stars, because it was just hard to get through at times.)

So why does this book have such high praise? Eggers is funny and honest. This memoir succeeds in giving an clear picture of one young adult's life and his thoughts as he strives to deal with his grief, become a parent to his much younger brother and carve out a successful career as writer and publisher. Eggers was idealistic enough to think he could do just that. I found myself wanting to like this book because of what Eggers was trying to accomplish.

If you pick up this book and make it through the preface and first chapter (it may not be easy), go ahead and finish. I think you will be glad you did. Then check out Eggers work as a philanthropist and teacher-at-large. Now that deserves high praise indeed!

My good friend highly recommended this book for me to read last summer, citing Dave Eggers as his hero, and so I eagerly picked this up and delved into a story of a great sibling relationship in the wake of a tragedy.

As a 21 year old college student about to graduate, you would think that I would be obssessed with this work, completely representing my generation. And indeed, it succeeded in that. The whole living situation in the Bay Area of California was awesome, and his whole mantra of being young and free in America was great too, and the book should have ended at that. I should warn you that this is a memoir, so his ego is immensely represented as him being basically a self-absorbed Berkeley young intellectual. I could ramble on and on about this book and why I wouldn't rate it higher, but I'll just get to the point.

The first half is simply enjoyable to read with the whole relationship with his brother, dealing with the loss of parents (whom he seemingly never cared for), and with his sister being driven in law school and eventually marrying. His emotions are presented well with his relationships in this memoir, and then suddenly, as if out of the blue, Toph (his brother) is never mentioned again. The second half of the book is about his magazine and this MTV interview that never seems to end. It was so boring and meaningless. I want to read about you and your brother and your lives, not about some stupid magazine and a pretentious MTV real world interview to nowhere.

Overall, I get what he's saying, and it is a good message. Namely, family comes first but it is great to be young and free in America in your 20's, of course if only brought up by wealthy suburban Chicago parents. About 90% of America can't afford to rent his house that he did in the Berkeley hills with views of SF bay and not a job in site. It is a good book and I enjoyed it, but the Pulitzer Prize? No way.

the first 50 pages or so are promising. it seems like it is going to be a quirky, honest depiction of this young man's life after his parents die and he becomes the guardian of his young brother. and as long as he stays with that, the story is compelling. unfortunately, most of the book is full of random stories about his uninteresting life told in such a self-conciously, self centered way. every bad thing that happens to anyone he has ever met manages to be completely about him. he thinks he's infinitely more clever than the rest of the world and more entitled to attention and he acknowledges this. it's as if he thinks that by admitting his faults, the reader no longer has the right to be annoyed by them. but they do and i was. the writing is scattered and lazy and i don't know how it got published.

"Well they say its kind of frightening how this younger generation swings, You know its more than just some new sensation... At an early age he hits the streets, wind up tied with who he meets / You know its more than just an aggravation." --David Lee Roth, from Van Halen's "The Cradle Will Rock," from their seminal 1980 work "Women and Children First"

So it may be a little ridiculous starting off a literary review with some credible quasi-fiction book like Eggers, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," (heretoforeafter referred to as AHWOSG) but there is something in it that is pertinent, something I believe Eggers with his way of writing what is available to his mind at the moment, though seemingly irrelevant, would approve of. So to title your debut book, AHWOSG, borders on the absurd side of hyperboles, in the end when one is finished reading, this almost can't put down work...is not a far-off description. It's that good my friends, read on and you may be convinced.

So back to David Lee Roth waxing poetic and philosophical, which are two descriptors rarely associated with the lyrical works of Van Halen, Roth years. What AHWOSG does, less concisely mind you, is capture a voice of a generation. The book does a lot of things, but this summing up of the Gen Y, the Internet Generation, or better yet, The YouTube Generation's media savvy need for an audience on a broad scale seems to be something Eggers does most successfully, Is it a generational treatise? Perhaps not quite that, because after all, can you capture in a work of literature all the voices, feelings, experiences of a whole generation. Probably not. But as Eggers proves, you can come pretty darn close.

Just get a gander at this writing, before you go on to purchase this book (or however in your corner of the world you acquire fiction to consume), "What does it take to show you mf's, what does it freakin' take what do you want how much do you want because I am willing and I'll stand before you and I'll raise my arms and give you my chest and throat and wait, and I've been so old for so long, for you, for you, I want it fast and right through me---- Oh do it, do it, you mf's, do it do it you f's finally, finally, finally." That's the last passage from AHWOSG and it caps off a really really moving read. Those are the words from an author that really really craves an audience. And so it may be with a generation brought up on an expectation that it just isn't the "15 minutes of fame," we are all seeking and due...but the way one connects is through mass media. A mass audience validates ones existence or at the very least, helps them deal with any human pain they may be suffering in the present.

Eggers, granted, has a lot of reasons to be experiencing angst. Whereas the Gen X'ers, my generation, are thought of as largely cynical with no clear valid reason to cop that permanent attitude, Egger's generation has plently of reason to be dislocated and distraught, the music of Radiohead only one small cultural influencer, not to mention 9/11, wars, real wars, not some mamby pamby skirmishes in Grenada and The Falklands. This is the generation that could very well go down in history as the Next Great Generation, following in the footsteps of the boomers who saved the world from certain peril during War War II.

What is Eggers' AHWOSG like you may want to know? After all why would you still be reading my random stream-of-consciousness review...still? It's about loss, staggering loss. It's about coming of age prematurely when one's parents pass at age 22, leading to the taking on of guardianship for your younger high school aged brother. It's about the search for meaning in one's life through work, friends and family. It's about life, man, just read it and get back out there living it.

To go on further may dilute any type of message I'm trying to send you with this review. What I'd like to do is just to convince you to read this book. You may in some small way find yourself looking at your own life, in light to Eggers', differently. You may in some larger way get to know and understand a generation, perhaps your own, perhaps someone elses. What you won't get from AHWOSG is boredom. And in a life, the pursuit of entertainment and moreso engagement, seems a worthwhile cause, if only to enlighten and give cause to live. ...mmw

This book was absolutely fascinating! I couldn't put it down! And to think it is real life! What drama! My only prayer is that the USA still has men willing to sacrifice all to serve their country and protect us from the really bad guys!! I highly recommend Roland Haas's ENTER THE PAST TENSEEnter the Past Tense: My Secret Life as a CIA Assassin.

Another loser out to make a buck on the back of the Agency. Book is a joke, guy is a loser.

In his account about his time in Istanbul, Haas writes about the (notorious) Gulhane Hotel and the "Tent"(the Gulhane was well known among hippies and travelers to Istanbul in the late 60s as a very cheap place to stay while the Tent was a structure the hotel had on its roof that cost travelers even less to flop down for a night or two).

But the Tent no longer existed when Haas says he was in Istanbul; in late 1971 or early 1972(Haas is not very clear about this). I'm not exactly sure when the tent was taken down but I heard sometime during 1969 that it was removed as a result of a December 1968 shootout between an American drug dealer and the Turkish police. But it was definitely no longer on the hotel's roof in April 1970 when I passed through Istanbul on my way back from India.

Haas's mention of this shootout(and the drug dealer's name) and his description of the junkie inside the Tent cooking up opium in a spoon and shooting up sounded very familiar when I read it because I had included the incident about the junkie in an article I wrote about the shootout and the drug dealer that I had posted on my website from 2002 to about 2006(along with the article I also posted FBI and U.S. State Department documents about the drug dealer and the shootout which I had obtained through FOIA requests. But, during my research, I had discovered that after 1969 nothing, ever, appeared in print about the shootout that actually named the drug dealer-until my article).

Also, Haas's description of the Tent is exactly how I described it in my article: I wrote that it was made out of canvas and corrugated iron. But it was actually made out of plastic sheet and wood frame! This was pointed out to me by a reader who had also stayed there but I never bothered to correct the article while it was still posted on the internet.

Haas's publishers will be issuing his book in paperback this August. As I've raised these issues elsewhere on the web, it will be interesting to see whether the paperback edition includes a corrected description of the Tent and a revised timeframe for when Haas says he was in Istanbul.

All these people leaving this book a one star and claiming the author is a fraud poses one question for me: How do you know???

I'll use my "real name" here and want to stipulate now that I do not know the author personally nor have read the entire book yet. BUT, as a former Marine with a Secret security clearance, I'm here to say that all these non-believers are nothing more than immaturely naive if you think this thing doesn't happen. Unless of course, you work in the records division of the CIA, DIA, or another alphabet-soup agency. What are YOUR credentials to call this man a liar? An armchair historian at best? Have any of you even served in the military/government or do you meet at Starbuck's every Saturday night with all your other comrades and go over world affairs while pondering the mating habits of the humpback whale?

The bottom line is you nor I know the truth here. I would rather hear REAL reviews about how the story is other than a bunch "I know it all because I went to college and my professor told me it was this way" nonsense. Wake up and smell the roses, YOU nor I know everything the government does. One reviewer even suggests "if you want to know about the CIA then read one of 'their' books." Uh, yeah. Keep drinking the cool-aid, ma'am/sir.

Mr Haas seems to me to be a credible author with an incredible story to tell. He is retired now (as I understand it). His experiences with the CIA sound real and are sure to cause eyebrows to raise. That is the kind of country and "warfare" we have to live with in order to live "free".

This study Bible was a gift for my sister-in-law. She is very happy with it, as she had requested it. Shipment was very prompt.

Nice Bible Easy Reading Love the translation

If you are searching for a study Bible that focuses on the best modern
scholarship around concerning the texts that make up the Bible, you will
soon find out from most reviews on Amazon (as well as from other places
such as universities) the best of the more objective ones are The New
Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New
Revised Standard Version - this augmented edition with added new maps,
charts, diagrams, and updated introductions, the HarperCollins Study
Bible (just revised in 2006), and the New Interpreter's Study Bible. All
three come with the New Revised Standard Version, generally accepted by
scholars as the most accurate English translation. All come with the
Apocrypha, though the New Oxford Annotated Bible is available without
it. If you can afford it, I recommend all three.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NOAB), if compared to the HarperCollins
Study Bible, is a larger tome, mainly because of a more expansive layout
and larger font (very comfortable on the eyes), and the chunk of essay
material that is present in the back is one of the most helpful parts of
the NOAB (much more extensive than the others), though the HarperCollins
appears to have more extensive notes at the bottom of the biblical text
in tiny print. In addition to the essays in the back, the NOAB has very
good introductory essays to the major sections and individual books, as
do the other two bibles.

The NOAB is not a conservative work, and looks at the bible as
literature, from a more historical-critical viewpoint, much as the
HarperCollins bible does. The New Interpreter's (NISB) is usually
expressed to be an amalgam of the two Bibles mentioned above, and
sometimes recommended in place of the other two because of additional
material that can be found offset from the notes that goes in depth on
particular subjects of interest in the text. It is certainly the largest
of the three volumes (HarperCollins being the most compact), but the
binding of the NISB itself appears lowest in quality. The New Oxford
Annotated Bible is my overall favorite of the lot at this time, though
it lacks section headings, which are available in the others.

As with any study Bible of any persuasion, blind acceptance of the
notes, commentary, or essay material should not occur; it does not hurt
to gain the insights of the best scholarship available today, no matter
what your beliefs are about the nature of the Bible, and whether you are
in agreement or not. Valid beliefs should stand up under scrutiny; so I
say scrutinize.

The Bible commentaries are written from a decidedly liberal theological perspective. It is obvious that the authors believe the Bible is just a product of ancient myths and storytelling. They disbelieve miracles and explain away prophecy by assigning late dates for the books. Their notes are not balanced and does not really present opposing points of view or evidence to the contrary. More a work of anti-Christian / anti-Jewish propaganda than a balanced, scholarly work. Also, while it is not a bad translation, the NRSV does have some gender-neutrality inserted into it. All in all, I cannot recommend this study Bible. It reads like skeptics and non-believers wrote it. Instead, I would recommend the NIV Study Bible or NKJV Study Bible.

I just started using this in a bible study on Tobit. I found the notes to be quite readable and very informative. I know I'll get a great deal of use out of this bible.

It's an entertaining read, but I found the practical use a little lacking. He gives a few good examples and he knows how to tell a good story. The book doesn't go very deep into the decision making or anything that might be ambigous or where there might be a trade off involved. It will make you feel good to read it but if you had to summarized what you really learned and internalized you will not come away with that much.

As a ten year Navy veteran, I was riveted to this book for it's common sense approach to leadership. There are many books available today about management but damn few that focus on great leadership. That's where this book's niche is. It's a quick and very interesting read. As I was going through the book I kept thinking "why don't more leaders act this way"? The answer, unfortunately, is that to be a great leader you must set your course and then get out of your own troops way.

I loved the book and highly recommend it to anyone who wants a quick course in leadership.

It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
Excellent Read! One of the easiest books that I have read in a while. Although this was mostly his experiences, it has great insight to the qualities of a great leader. I couldn't put the book down!

ISBN: 978-0-446-19966-4
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com 5/08


Captain D. Michael Abrashoff brings his vast experience and expertise from the Benfold to business leaders. The Benfold went from "a dysfunctional guided missile destroyer to the best damn ship in the Navy."
With experience comes maturity. Abrashoff has learned that it takes teamwork to achieve success. A good leader will inspire, challenge, and demonstrate excellence in those he leads. He will cultivate truth, trust, and respect. Positive results will come from example. Abrashoff offers readers advice through stories. His methods are practical and proven successful. He presents the information in a simple easy-to-understand form. Regardless of whether it is a large or small business, persons in all positions of leadership will find It's Our Ship a priceless tool.

I am both a Pastor, as well as a Critical Care Paramedic for a hospital in a nearby city where I live. This book, "It's Your Ship", contains a MUCH NEEDED MESSAGE that should be REQUIRED READING for ALL managers, CEOs, Presidents, Pastors, Administrators, Leaders, etc. in any and all organizations no matter their size. Too many of those, who are listed above, are still trying to "micro-manage" their employees, ignore the vast resources and ideas of their employees and personnel, as well as operate out of a system that is no longer relevant for today's generations, etc. The sad part is that they are doing it either out of ignorance, stubbornness, pride, refusal to change / adapt, or just plain stupidity which is 'destroying' organizations, companies, churches, by ignoring THE BEST RESOURCES they have available. Those who they are to lead and manage.

I would HIGHLY recommend this book coupled alongside another book by Graeme Codrintgton entitled, "Mind The Gap". This book discusses the reality of generational differences (how they differ, why, etc.) in an easy to understand, well-researched manner that is both much needed and well-written book that would give anyone in leadership the foundation and principles that they need in understanding the 'WHY' they NEED to CHANGE and to APPLY those same principles that are mentioned in the book "It's Your Ship".

Sadly, those in 'leadership' who "fail to do so", will, if not already finding themselves on a 'sinking ship' in their organization, and it is only a matter of time before they destroy the very company they want to succeed; by failing to change and adapt, by failing to make the necessary changes, by failing to 'grow themselves' "outside the box" they have placed themselves in, and by ignoring the awesome resources at their disposal which is found in the very employees they are supposed to "lead" instead of "drive and walk over".

Again, this book is a very practical MUST READING for ANYONE who is in a leadership position, wants to improve their organization, grow themselves, etc. AND it could be a resource to bring about the very change needed in your organization. We could only PRAY & HOPE that in your or my situations we could have a leader who would become and embrace those principles and examples found in "It's Your Ship".

However, be warned, IF you work for a boss who 'refuses to change', listen to others, and is determined to operate in a system that is no longer relevant from 20+ years ago, you WILL become frustrated. Even so, it may open your eyes, and the eyes of those around you how things "should be" as well as perhaps "ideas" on how things need to change, perhaps can change, motivating you to be the catalyst in brining about the change, or to seeing the hopelessness of the situation you are in until a new "admiral / captain" heads up 'your ship'.

(Here is my suggestion: Leave a copy of this book for your boss. You might want to do it annonymously though. For in an abusive situation, "those that aren't the problem, who point out the problem, sadly, become the scapegoat or the problem they will focus on ignoring what the actual problem really is)

Get this book and read it today!! :o)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (The New Folger Library Shakespeare)

This is a terrific book, particularly for those who have not studied Shakespeare or who want to brush up on the play before seeing it performed. The play's text is printed on the right-hand pages, with explanations of archaic or unfamiliar words, terms, meanings, characters, etc. printed on the left-hand pages. Can't take the class? Buy this beautiful little book. I hope the New Folger Libaray publishes similar volumes for all of Shakespeare's plays.

To learn about the historical figures, events, and beliefs in Shakespeare's plays, find a new or used copy Azimov's Guide to Shakespeare. Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Works of Shakespeare. Azimov presents a lucid, interesting chapter on every play. As does Harold Bloom Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.

-- Bill Brenner

For some bizarre reason, schools push the most painfully boring works by any author. In Shakespeare's case, you get handed a copy of "The Tempest", when you could get this. The underlying theory appears to be that if a book is interesting, lively, and enjoyable, it can't be good (upon this reflection, I think Arts departments get up to the same thing, lord knows it's the NEA's theory).

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is interesting, lively, and enjoyable. On the eve of the wedding of King Thesseus and Queen Hippolyta, the young and dreadfully confused lovers Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius get caught in the middle of an old married couple's spat. The old married couple is Oberon and Titania, who have what could mildly be described as a strained marriage. Oh yes, Oberon and Titania are the king and queen of Faerie.

This is Shakespearean comedy at its best. Wordplay and physical comedy abound, and timeless aspects of human nature are shown at their most sublime and ridiculous. I loved it.

E.M. Van Court

My daughter needed this for a school assignment. It worked out well for her, good price.

I recently re-read A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM prior to attending The Colorado Shakespeare Festival's performance of this play under the summer stars here in Boulder. Shakespeare (1564-1616) produced this romantic comedy between 1595 or 1596 and published it in the First Folio in 1623. It follows the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors under the influence of fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is Shakespeare's most popular and is widely performed across the world.

It play tells three stories connected by the wedding celebration of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta. In the opening scene, Hermia rejects her father Egeus's request that she marry Demetrius. Rather than facing death or lifelong chastity as a nun, Hermia and her lover Lysander decide to elope. Hermia tells her best friend Helena of her plan. Helena, who has been recently rejected by Demetrius, tells him of Hermia's plan to elope. Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius all escape into the forest where they become romantically entangled under the influence of fairies.

Oberon (King of the Fairies), and his queen, Titania, arrive in the same forest. Oberon enlists the mischievous Puck (aka "Hobgoblin" and "Robin Goodfellow") to apply the magical juice from a flower to Titania's eyes while she is sleeping. The juice makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing he or she sees upon awakening. Oberon also instructs Puck to spread some juice on Demetrius's eyes. Instead, Puck puts the juice on Lysander's eyes, causing him to fall in love with Helena. To correct the error, Oberon then orders Puck to apply the juice to Demetrius's eyes, causing him to also fall in love with Helena, much to her confusion (now having two suitors).

Meanwhile, in a subplot, a band of "rude mechanicals" have been preparing a play in the forest about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding. Puck transforms the head of one actor, Nick Bottom, into that of an ass. When Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing, she immediately falls in love with him. Puck eventually restores Bottom's head, and lifts the spell from Lysander, but leaves Demetrius in love with Helena. The lovers conclude the night's events must have been a dream. Puck ends the play with a soliloquy.

G. Merritt

The spirit of one of Shakespeare's richest plays is lighthearted laughter. The great impressario of the proceedings is Puck who in giving the 'love potion' to the wrong person, sets up the chaos of both Demetrius and Lysander loving Helena. There are numerous networks of parallel and contrast through the work , between the worlds of the royal humans, the fairies, and the craftsmen. The motif of dreaming and imagination play a strong part in the play. And the resolution in all the couples finding themselves in love and harmony at last is a supreme happy ending.
This is one of Shakespeare's most delightful and amusing works, one of the richest comically in all the world of theater.

Greenspan is smart and gives a good picture of how the U.S. economy works(and sometimes doesn't).
Near the end of the book he talks about the regulation of markets, in particular the investment industry. He doesn't think much of regulation and says things like hedge funds perform a fundamental good in the economy. Would the country be worse off if a hundred highly leveraged hedge funds closed down tomorrow? I personally don't think so....the country may be better. Charlie Munger thinks that a lot of liquidity brings out a bad side in humans. I think this has been shown with the credit/real estate situation now.
Charlie Munger says that Greenspan overdosed on Ayn Rand. I think so too.
Other than that chapter near the end of the book, its a fairly worthwhile read.

before reading this book i never understood why so many people i consider smart think that Greendpan is extremely intelligent.
Now i do

GREAT book, and red it non stop. I was ready to read it a second time when reached the last page. Very well written, good English, amazing explanation of the FED, the US Capitalist system, and most institutions. Great Bibliography too. Loooooooooooved it.

This book is an insightful collection of thoughts and predictions from an economist of Greenspan's stature. Age of Turbulence can be separated into two distinct section. In the first, Greenspan traces his steps from a curious boy in New York through experiences in college, private sector, government and ultimately as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The rest of the book explores economic and policy issues providing Greenspan's opinions on the main problems confronting the World today and into the future. This second portion of the book is a denser read, but contains enough background to allow the casual reader to follow.

Of the whole book, I found his experiences on how government works to be very interesting and revealing. Complementing this, I also found interesting his candid perceptions on the strengths and weaknesses of the major policymakers in the last century. These were formed after working at various levels of government across multiple administrations.

I also appreciated his down to earth analysis of the trends that will shape domestic and foreign markets and how social factors play into these equations. He not only tackled issues of population aging, social security, energy , political stability, globalization and economic growth from a technocratic perspective, but also from a social and philosophical one.

Overall, I gained a lot from this book in terms of policy and economics, and also was entertained by his mix of anecdotes, opinions and analysis.

Outside of some of the economic jargon this book was very easily read. Not only was it a bit of an autobiography but also a great historical perspective of the last 50 years in America. What I enjoyed most was the enlightenment he gave on the role of politics in economic policy. A must read.