Crisis

Book Description

When Dr. Craig Bowman is served with a summons for medical malpractice, he's shocked, enraged, and more than a little humiliated. A devoted physician who works continuously in the service of others, he endured grueling years of training and is now a partner in an exclusive concierge medical practice. No longer forced to see more and more patients while spending less and less time with each one just to keep his office door open, he now provides the kind of medical care he is trained to do, lavishing twenty-four-hour availability and personalized attention on his handpicked patients. And at last, he is earning a significant income, no longer burdened by falling reimbursements from insurance companies.But this idyllic practice comes to a grinding halt one sunny afternoon-and gets much, much worse.

Enter Dr. Jack Stapleton, a medical examiner in New York City and Bowman's brother-in-law: Jack's sister Alexis-now Craig's estranged wife-tearfully begs for his help as her husband's trial drags on. Jack agrees to travel to Boston to offer his forensic services and expert witness experience to Craig's beleaguered defense attorney. But when Jack's irreverent suggestion to exhume the corpse to disprove the alleged malpractice is taken seriously, he opens a Pandora's box of trouble. As Craig Bowman's life and career are put on the line, Jack is on the verge of making a most unwelcome discovery of tremendous legal and medical significance-and there are people who will do anything to keep him from learning the truth.

Customer Reviews:

Lame.......2007-09-27

No mystery. No suspense. Little medicine. Boring for a courtroom drama too. I figured out the shocking conclusion early on. Doing the autopsy will conclude the plot, so the reader must trudge through page after page of filler material: Dumb bureaucratic delay with the sole purpose of dragging out the time until autopsy. A predictable and repetitive get-me-to-the-church-on-time motif. An irrelevant and implausible set of plot diversions in the form of muggings and death threats. By the end I was skimming the long dialogue and I don't think I missed anything. I give it two stars because it's not actively offensive, just horribly dull.

A twist in the tale ... !.......2007-09-20

Somewhat of a departure for Robin Cook, "Crisis" is not so much medical thriller as it is legal thriller in a medical environment. But, whatever he chooses to write, Cook has certainly got a firm stranglehold on the ability to rivet a reader's attention from first page to last!

Craig Bowman is an affluent, successful Boston physician. That affluence is directly attributable to his controversial "concierge" practice - his patients pay a hefty up-front retainer that buys them special attention and a higher degree of direct, personal care because of their "membership" in a lower volume practice. When Patience Stanhope - a hypochondriac "problem patient" that Bowman inherited from the previous owner of the practice - dies of a heart attack, her husband sues Bowman for malpractice. As the trial progresses, Bowman's ability to function on a personal and professional level descends into a downward spiralling hole of misery. Bowman's wife begs her brother, New York medical examiner Jack Stapleton, to come to Boston to see if, as an outside observer with an eye for detail, he might spot a way out of the judgment that now seems will almost certainly go against Bowman. Stapleton's investigations point in the direction of foul play and the story accelerates as the proof must be discovered before the malpractice verdict is handed down in the courtroom of a harried judge determined to bring the trial to a rapid conclusion!

While Cook hasn't proposed any solutions, he certainly hasn't hesitated to use "Crisis" as a platform to indicate his concerns with a number of problems in the US medical and legal systems - for example, the inherent controversy of the "concierge" practice and the perception of its omission of medical care for the poor; the litigious nature of the US legal system and the devastating personal effect of a malpractice suit on a practicing physician; the basic flaws of an adversarial court system that allows legal tricks wherein the skills and personalities of the lawyers involved may overshadow the "facts" of the case; the huge diagnostic problems associated with false positive and negative outcomes in laboratory tests; and the propensity of the standard medical education to commonly produce extreme narcissistic personalities in those students that successfully persevere to graduate as medical practitioners (or perhaps it is a system designed to allow only individuals with already pronounced narcissistic tendencies to succeed?). The thinking reader won't come away with any simple ideas for resolution of these problems but the eyebrows will be raised on more than one occasion as the issues and their repercussions are showcased in a provocative thriller.

I wouldn't have hesitated to give 5 stars to "Crisis" except that I found the sub-plot of Stapleton rushing to get to his own wedding completely unnecessary. The timing of the trial provided all of the urgency necessary and, frankly, I found the threats and posturings of Stapleton's fiancée childish and irritating. The ultimatums that she issued during every conversation about the results of Stapleton's failing to appear at the altar would have been more than enough reason for me to simply call the whole thing off anyway.

But that minor quibble will be forgotten as Cook closes "Crisis" with a blockbuster unexpected twist - in the style of Jeffrey Deaver's "Twisted" or Jeffrey Archer's "A Twist in the Tale", the quirky ending is held in reserve until the final sentence of the novel . Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended!

Paul Weiss

Crisis is fun and educating reading.......2007-09-14

I haven't read Robin Cook since Coma, but this was a fine reading experience which prompted a conversation with my husband about concierge medicine and the causes for it and its dark side. I haven't been reading fiction lately so was pleasantly surprised when I chose this book and enjoyed every page of it. I did not think it was "wordy". I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes to learn something real from a work of fiction.

Crisis.......2007-09-08

I was very disappointed in 'Crisis'. It was not up to his usual style of writing. Although, there was a certain amount of suspense the characterization was not realistic and the plot labored. I was particularly disappointed in the ending. It was not in the fine style of 'Robin Cook' that I am use to. I do look forward to his next book and I hope it meets the standards of entertainment and research that I found and loved in 'Coma'.

HUH??.............2007-09-06

This book, for 90% of it, was quite readable and intriguing. The conclusion was as nonsensical as a anything I've ever read. To accept that the subject of the malpractice suit is actually a murderer flies in the face of the first 400 or so pages. Absolutely made no sense! Also, many key events/characters never explained....who invaded the home and tied up the daughters?...what happenned to Franco?.....how did Jack easily accept he was mistaken when he thought he recognized Craig in Cuba within a week of his disappearace?....what was with the very beginning of the book with the suicide/suspicious-murder of the foreign woman and her boyfriend disappearing--this was never explained and I have no idea why it was in the book at all?.....one minute Jack is questioning his upcoming marriage and it appears as though he is headed towards something romantic with the black ME, then, wham, he's married?...why was Craig's wife so nonchalant when told her hubby was a murderer?

These mass production authors are getting big heads....they think they can produce one or two good reads and then scribble another ( albeit long) nonsensical story and suck readers, like me, into buying them.

Thomas Paine : Collected Writings : Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

What a useful collection.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again
Teach Thomas Paine to all Ages
Most Important Founding Father - outstanding one-volume edition of his writings!
Timeless inspiration

Thomas Paine : Collected Writings : Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters (Library of America)
Thomas Paine
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1883011035

Book Description

Paine was the impassioned democratic voice of the Age of Revolution, and this volume brings together his best-known works--"Common Sense," "The American Crisis," "Rights of Man," "The Age of Reason," along with a selection of letters, articles and pamphlets that emphasizes Paine's American years.

Customer Reviews:

What a useful collection........2007-07-10

It's good to have all Paine's material in one handy volume. Plenty to read and think about. It's a pity he's not better known in the USA, considering his significance in the existence of the country.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.......2007-07-06

This was a required reading for a graduate humanities class. John Keane's biography succinctly showed that Tom Paine (1737-1809) was the consummate revolutionary and a daring adventurer. Not only was he an important figure in the American Revolution, but he also traveled to France in 1791 to give that revolution a push. Paine traveled from England, just in time to stoke the flames of the revolution with his pamphlet Common Sense, in January 1776. To call Common Sense a sensation in the colonies is actually a bit of an understatement. It was an unparallel sensation and monumental work of Enlightenment rhetoric that quickly fanned the flames of rebellion throughout the colonies. In four months, over 120,000 copies were printed in the colonies--over 500,000 copies by years end. No other pamphlet printed in seventeenth century America came close to its success. Most importantly, Common Sense served to get the colonial patriots to drop their fear of open rebellion, and also emboldened those delegates who favored declaring independence from Britain. The delegates now had the confidence that a large segment of the colonists would support rebellion. Similar to the Declaration of Independence, the philosophical ideas in Common Sense are primarily from the English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704). The most moving quote from the pamphlet became quite prophetic, when one considers the impact it ultimately had on the delegates in the congress, the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and on the world. "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily recommend this timeless classic to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Teach Thomas Paine to all Ages.......2006-12-03

Paine truly is the forgotten founding father. Unbelievably, I never learned about him till college--and only then through specific history classes. In addition to this volume, I suggest one of my recent discoveries: The Elementary Common Sense of Thomas Paine; the 1776 document Common Sense adapted and illustrated for ages 11 on up. It is here on Amazon. Paine, and all of our country's founding documents, should be taught to kids early on.

Most Important Founding Father - outstanding one-volume edition of his writings!.......2006-07-22

Thomas Paine was the most consistent and important of all the American Founding Fathers. He consistently spoke up in favor of liberty and freedom; for example, his opposition to the institution of slavery (which he argued was immoral and un-Christian and thought it quite contradictory to claim to be a Christian on the one hand and support slavery on the other hand) - Paine also spoke up in support of women's rights, freedom of thought, the poor, etc.

The important thing about Paine is that he practiced what he preached, as opposed to just about every other founding father (e.g., Jefferson saying all are "created equal" but owning slaves, or Adams "dismissing" his wife's assertion that they too should be included in the political process). I don't think we ought to condemn those individuals for the beliefs that they had, indeed they were products of their time period - and they are worthy of study. However, I also believe that we should praise those who were able to step out of that period and see things as they are, this is what Paine was able to do.

If you doubt Paine's importance in the history of American independence, consider the following; probably no other phamphlet brought the idea of independence to the mind of the colonists like Paine's "Common Sense" did and it was Paine's "Crisis #1" that was read to Washington's soldiers before they prepared for the biggest fight of the American Revolution. Paine's defense of the French Revolution in his "Rights of Man" sparked off a publication war that has yet to be matched and his "The Age of Reason" delineated the philosophical ideas that most of the founding fathers had with regard to religion (regardless of what the religious right would have you to believe).

Paine's mistake was not believing what most of the founding fathers believed, that the "common man and woman" was not intellectual enough to handle the arguments that he (and the others) were advocating. It was his consistency which brought about his downfall - this is a shame, because he is one of the most important thinkers to come out of the Revolutionary Period in American history.

Timeless inspiration.......2006-07-08

Thomas Paine, especially in The Age of Reason, did not put forth completely original ideas. Many of his contemporaries had the same critisms that Paine did in regard to organized religion especially Christianity. However, Thomas Paine organized such thoughts in a way that they were accessible to common men. Unfortunately his brave and inspirational work was his downfall. Closeminded and fearful citizens, like RICKITHEREADER in our modern times were frightened that perhaps Paine was tearing a hole the the fabric of their blind faith and because of this, Paines' last work, The Age of Reason, left him to die alone and impoverished. He was abandoned, even by his intellectual contemporaries, most who agreed with him but were not brave enough to voice their beliefs in the common vernacular. I was inspired by Paine who wrote, "My mind is my own church," which was not the voice of an atheist but the voice of a man who really did know the "truth" and his true path. Unlike RickitheReader, I have read both the bible and Paine with an open mind and heart. The joy of reading is the ability to let it lead you to new places. Thomas Paine would have said it better. Read this compilation and it will lead you to new places, wherever your faith is.

Armageddon Oil and the Middle East Crisis: What the Bible Says About the Future of the Middle East and the End of Western Civilization

Average customer rating:

Pre-Trib Propaganda
Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis
Remains a timely interpretation of end times prophecy
What the Bible says about the future of the Middle East

Armageddon Oil and the Middle East Crisis: What the Bible Says About the Future of the Middle East and the End of Western Civilization
John F. Walvoord
Manufacturer: Zondervan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0310539218

Customer Reviews:

Pre-Trib Propaganda.......2007-06-27

Just more pre-trib propaganda. There is not a single verse in the Bible that says the Rapture will be before the Tribulation. In fact Jesus told us the very opposite (read Matthew 24:29-31 very carefully). Revelation 20:4,5 tells us that the saints martyred in the Tribulation will be in the First Resurrection. The First Resurrection is the RAPTURE! The Rapture is obviously after the Tribulation! It's time to wake up and accept the truth. Place your trust in Jesus Christ not in fictional escapism.

Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis.......2004-07-11

The trend of reviewers when they did not like a book is to give it a low rating. Sometimes they may not like an author or the book may have been contrary to the reviewer's political or religious beliefs, but the end result is nearly always a low rating for the book. This review will break that trend. I felt this book was among the stupidest I've read, but it made me think and the author obviously felt he was writing about something worthwhile. He repeats himself so many times his book is about 40% longer than it needs to be. It wasn't until the end that I discovered a list of all the theories presented in synopsis format. Had I noticed this earlier, I could have ignored the rest of the book.

I cannot subscribe to end time prophecies and feel the inevitability of Armageddon, especially when presented in such a poorly written format, is not just around the corner. Author John Walvoord certainly knows his Bible and he was an authority among his peers, but his theory is so full of holes he ultimately discredits himself over the course of 228 pages. The key flaw is presented on page 23 where he writes that prophecies should not be adjusted to any situation, yet he does that without regard to his own warning throughout the book. Some authors write that the folklore of the Middle East is the basis for many Biblical books, yet Walvoord never mentions any such connection. He is content to proceed happily through his theories of Russia invading Israel, a Mediterranean Confederacy of ten nations (based on Daniel 7:8 which actually mentions an 11th nation but three of the original ten were pulled up by the roots 10+1-3=8, but Walvoord sticks with 10), a world dictator who brings a false peace (aren't all peaces false or temporary?), and the final Battle of Armageddon. He insists all Christians will be removed from the earth prior to Christ's second coming, but what's the point of coming back to rule with Christ if we make it to heaven?

The author is consistent with many mainstream churches who proclaim the Bible was written for modern times as well as ancient. This is obvious because if the Bible were not presented in this manner no one would care what it says and it would join the ranks of millions of dusty history books. Too many times Walvoord uses speculative words like "may" or "possibly" which leave the reader to consider "may not" or "possibly no" or any other open-ended contrary response. It isn't all Walvoord's ignorance; he just doesn't have much concrete evidence to base his claims upon. In court this is considered circumstantial evidence and while not inadmissible, it makes the case more difficult to prove. He warns against an increase in belief in supernatural, mystical, and bizarre phenomena, but what is creationism? Creationists discount evolutionists, but at least evolutionism has more concrete evidence (though evolutionism as a theory has many of its own flaws and problems).

Like I said, the theories presented are holes big enough for a semi truck to fit in, and I simply do not subscribe to the basic argument presented, but the book made me think. For this reason alone I do not give this an all around bad review. Ironically, Walvoord died prior to the second coming, as everyone else who's died to this point. Perhaps answers to his questions were revealed to him in the hereafter. Of course he may be right all along and people like me will find themselves scratching their head asking "how did that happen?"

Remains a timely interpretation of end times prophecy.......2004-01-31

John F. Walvoord's Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis remains an interesting and timely read, despite the fact that the book was originally published in 1974 and revised in 1990. Drawing heavily from the myriad of prophecies in the Bible, particularly those in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelations, Walvoord paints a vivid picture of the end of days and argues rather convincingly that the end is indeed quite near. Central to his thesis is the perpetual hotbed that is the Middle East. It is here that the final battle of Armageddon will take place, and Israel will stand at the very center of the ultimate conflict. The restoration of Israel as a nation in Palestine was the final critical piece of the puzzle that worked to set the stage for the fulfillment of the prophecies of old.

The Arab-Israeli conflict over land will be the powder keg that sets everything in motion, according to the author. The oil embargoes of the 1970s clearly impressed Walvoord in terms of the growing wealth and power in the Middle East, and he implies that the importance of oil throughout the world will shape future events quite radically. It is Europe that is most dependent on the import of oil from the Middle East, and this leads Walvoord to conclude that the ten-headed beast of Biblical prophecy will take the form of a ten-nation confederation of European, Arab, and possibly north African nations - it will be the equivalent of a new Roman empire centered around the Mediterranean, and from this group a powerful leader will emerge to somehow force a peace settlement between Israel and its neighbors. This leader will then seize power over three of the ten allied nations and go on to proclaim himself the world dictator and supreme deity. Three and a half years after securing Israel a seemingly lasting peace, the Antichrist will turn and destroy the country. By this time, armies from the north, south, and east will march on Jerusalem in an attempt to overthrow the self-proclaimed world dictator, at which point Jesus will return to Earth to punish the evil-doers and establish His millennial kingdom.

Walvoord does a very nice job explaining the terrible things that will take place on earth in the last days, particularly after the Antichrist declares himself to the world and before Jesus' triumphant return. Descriptions of all of these catastrophic punishments can all be found in the Bible, and they make for a decidedly grim period of time. Walvoord clearly espouses his conclusion that the Rapture of the church will take place before the time of tribulation on earth begins. Unlike Armageddon, the Bible provides no real clues as to when the Rapture will take place, but Walvoord's conviction that the time of tribulation is drawing nigh leads him to infer that the preceding Rapture could happen at any time. Interestingly, Walvoord theorizes that the United States will not play a central role in these events, having fallen into a state of isolation. Russia will hold even less power over the pivotal future events in the Middle East; it will try to regain its influence by attacking Israel, only to see its invading army destroyed by some supernatural force.

The subject of the end times can be rather confusing, and Walvoord does the reader a great service by providing graphs and lists of the coming events as he sees them. He also backs up his arguments well with many references to the Scriptures and the application of deductive reasoning. Certainly, though, he may not be right about everything. I personally disagree with a couple of his conclusions, and he clearly expected certain events to be in motion before the current year of 2004, but he makes a clear, cogent presentation of all his evidence. The passage of over ten years since the revised edition of the book, during which two wars have been fought in the Persian Gulf, really does nothing to invalidate any of Walvoord's main points, making this a still remarkably timely analysis of end time prophecy.

What the Bible says about the future of the Middle East.......2002-03-15

Dr. Walvoord, past President of Dallas Theological Seminary has many tremendous books. He wrote this in the 70's and updated it
in the 90's with no changes and adding current events. Some chapter titles. The Israeli-Arab Conflict, The Oil Blackmail, Watch Jerusalem, Changing Europe, The Day of World Catastrophe.
In the light of September 11, and the world events daily of the esculating violence in the Middle East, this book is a must read
for today about the end of Western civilization.

Tyrant's Test (Star Wars: The Black Fleet Crisis, Book 3)

Average customer rating:

Still angry, but at least it's over...
poorly written, but entertaining
Didn't Enjoy It At All
Good end to Bad trilogy
Great Book

Tyrant's Test (Star Wars: The Black Fleet Crisis, Book 3)
Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell
Manufacturer: Spectra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 055357275X
Release Date: 1996-12-01

Book Description

In the wake of a shattered alliance, the New Republic fights a relentless new enemy in an all-new adventure in the bestselling Star Wars saga...

Faced with an alarming image of Han as a battered hostage of the Yevetha, Chewbacca takes on an urgent mission. Meanwhile, Leia calls upon the Senate to take a stand and eliminate the Yevetha threat--even at the cost of Han's life. As a former Imperial governor takes his battle to the runaway Qella spaceship, Luke's continuing search for his mother brings him dangerously close to Nil Spaar's deadly forces. And as the Yevetha close in on the forces of the New Republic, Luke takes a desperate gamble with an invisible weapon...

Customer Reviews:

Still angry, but at least it's over..........2007-05-18

Finally! We have reached the end of this terrible series!
Luke breaks off with this girl, learning that she lied to him. What a dork! How could he allow himself to be deceived by her and drag him all over the galaxy doing nothing and then just walk away as if nothing happened? Obviously, she must have been HOT.
Lando's little ship journey finally turns out to be not as much of a waste of time as it was in the first two books. Chewie goes out to rescue Han. And the whole Yevetha plotline is neatly wrapped up and thrown away (it was that bad).
This is probably the best of the three books (not saying much). Something actually happens in the book, and it is actually quite exciting (a word not known in the previous two books). I mean, I think my heart rate went up for a brief time (no, it wasn't related to getting closer to the end of the book). The characters are still badly portrayed, but if we were looking at good portrayals, we would be reading Timothy Zahn, not this series.
As I closed this book, I was happy. Happy that there were no more books and that this terrible, terrible series was over. Happy that this author has never written a Star Wars novel since these. Not so happy that I wasted so much time on these, but beggars can't be choosers.
Oh, and by the way, read this series at your own risk!

poorly written, but entertaining.......2007-01-09

I thought this was the best after I got hooked on this trilogy- I really wish i hadn't thoguh!

Didn't Enjoy It At All.......2006-06-23

I didn't like this trilogy. This was the best one but it was still awful. Not going into the plot. Amazon does that for me but this book was boring. I hate the Lando sections. Just wasn't exciting and other than the story of Chewie and his son didn't further the characters. I don't recommend you get this book unless you've suffered through the other two in the trilogy and want to find out how it ends.

Good end to Bad trilogy.......2006-01-13

Ok, so it is finally over. For such a bad series the end was good. It makes much more sense now (not). The only thing that really made sense was the fact that Luke was searching for his mother and basically it boils down to the fact that he was lied to. He went on a wild goose chase. The author did a really bad job with all of the characters except for Chewie and Lando. Luke would never act like that and Leia (it was worse than the other two and that is saying a lot). In the first two books the author didnt do a bad job with Han, but he really was not in the much. But this time he was it quite a bit, he gets kidnapped (Han Solo kidnapped, you have got to be kidding). All and all I would say skip this series it really has no connection to the rest of the star wars universe.

Great Book.......2005-09-05

Michael P. Kube-McDowell is a superb writer. He beautifully conveys his stories and at the same time actively involving his reader in entertaining and fun ways. I would recommend this series to anyone looking for an exciting fast-paced read that will expand on a familiar theme and story line.

As for the seller, the book was in great condition and I appreciated the quick clean delivery. Thank you! ***** for you too!

The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)

Average customer rating:

Worth reading but not Cather's best
A Classic Dud
A most enjoyable reading experience
I really really really wanted to like this book
Memorable characters

The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679731806
Release Date: 1990-10-31

Book Description

A study in emotional dislocation and renewal--Professor Godfrey St. Peter, a man in his 50's, has achieved what would seem to be remarkable success. When called on to move to a more comfortable home, something in him rebels.

Download Description

The moving was over and done. Professor St. Peter was alone in the dismantled house where he had lived ever since his marriage, where he had worked out his career and brought up his two daughters. It was almost as ugly as it is possible for a house to be; square, three stories in height, painted the colour of ashes -- the front porch just too narrow for comfort, with a slanting floor and sagging steps.

Customer Reviews:

Worth reading but not Cather's best.......2007-05-19

I am a huge Willa Cather fan and have been reading her novels in the order she wrote them. I started "The Professor's House" in eager anticipation, because I just LOVED "A Lost Lady," the book that preceded it.

"The Professor's House" has many, many good elements, but ultimately I was disappointed. The last part of the book was unworthy of what had gone before. In the end, I felt as though I'd invested a lot in the Professor and that that investment had not paid off. I'm glad I read it, but think it's nowhere close to one of Cather's best.

I thought the first two section of the book were excellent. I believed almost everything about the Professor's life and his relationships. My only criticism of the beginning portion of the novel was Cather's superficial and, yes, bigoted attitude toward the Jewish son-in-law, Louie Marsellus. I didn't have a problem accepting Louie as a real person. But Cather could only see him and comment on him as "the other." One of Cather's great strengths is her understanding of how the world looks to the different characters in her novels. She may not agree with who they are and how they act, but she is usually deeply empathetic. Not so with Louie. The fact that he is a Jew is somehow taken as an explanation for everything. Even in 1925, I expect better of a writer of Cather's insight and talent. Interestingly, Louie is ultimately one of the most sympathetic and generous characters in the novel. But Cather writes as though she'd never had a close Jewish friend, or never applied her prodigious imagination to contemplate Louie's psychology and point of view.

Still, even with the problem with Louie, I thought the first book was very good. It was filled with the wonderful writing and the psychological, sociological and philosophical depth that I so admire in Cather.

I also enjoyed the second book, Tom Outland's story. I agree with an earlier reviewer that the section set in Washington, D.C. was particularly good. I was raised in Washington, and my mother's family has lived there since the 1840's. Cather just NAILED the town.

But it all came to a crashing halt in the final section, when we return to the Professor's story. Did Cather lose interest? Did she not know where to go with the Professor? This section was too short and undeveloped. The first two parts of the book deserved a more thorough and satisfying conclusion. I particularly objected to the section about how the Professor had gotten back in touch with the unthinking boy he'd been back in Kansas. Hogwash. Not credible. This guy's an intellectual. He might come to see the limits of what many academics pretentiously call "the life of the mind." But jettison it entirely for some romantic, unreal Tom Sawyer fantasy? I don't think so.

My advice: do read "The Professor's House," but don't make it your first Cather book.

A Classic Dud.......2007-03-23

Those expecting something as vivid and moving as "My Antonia" will be sorely disappointed by this book. Ms. Cather was at her worst when she wrote in imitation of earlier lady novelists such as Edith Wharton or Henry James, and the entire first half of this novel concerns the intrigues of a Midwest Brahmin family. During this part there is absolutely no plot, just tedious description and some of the most stilted dialogue ever written. The cardboard characters include the good-natured protagonist, Professor St. James, and his two daughters, one sweet (Cordelia?) and one rapacious (Goneril?). The bad daughter is lolling in luxury due to the avaricious machinations of her husband, who, naturally, is a Jew - a stereotypical Jew, the worst kind.

If that weren't bad enough, when a plot is finally introduced it concerns a preposterous device (or substance) called "the Outland vacuum" which is said to concern bulkheads and be a boon to aviation. It seems as though the novel will now hinge on the moral issue of who is entitled to the rewards for this great discovery (the Outland vacuum may also be a gas), but I suspect that at this point Ms. Cather realized that she had gone in over her head, and the novel comes to a sudden halt. The next page begins a second novel, about as bad as the first but which takes place among cowboys out West who discover a lost Indian city.

Alas, this likewise amounts to little, and we eventually return to the warmhearted professor who comes to the good-ol' American conclusion that being rich and famous is not all it's cracked up to be, and real happiness is found among the plain folk.

Y'know, people, just because something is old and ostensibly literature doesn't mean it's really great. My only worry is that schoolkids will be forced to read this - under the theory that classic fiction is "good" for them - and they will thus be alienated from reading books because they're so dull.

A most enjoyable reading experience.......2006-08-19

I've been reading some of the Cather books and have enjoyed all of them. The best part of this book is her story within a story technique. Her descriptions of the American southwest are outstanding. This book held my attention, especially as it progressed. It is not as good as "My Antonia", which to me is her all time best, but it is an excellent reading experience.

I really really really wanted to like this book.......2006-05-02

I read My Antonia and loved it so much that I consider it one of my favorite books. And, that's why I really really really wanted to like this book. But after giving it a chance for about 218 pages, I couldn't bear it any longer.

The problems I have with this book are as follows:

1) I understand the book's plot of the professor trying to find meaning in his life. That's the book I was looking for. The problem is that the Tom Outland character does not get you there and most of the text of the book is on this character.

2) Which brings me to my biggest gripe about this book, and Cather in particular. Cather cannot, to save her life, write a believable male character. Tom Outland is supposed to be an orphaned boy turned cowboy around the turn of the century, but Cather managed to make him out to be so unbelievably feminine that I found myself in wonder at how little she knows about men. She holds Outland out to be the hero of the story, the inspiration behind the Professor's motivation. That's fine, but if I'm supposed to conclude the Professor part of the story, then I have to buy Outland's character and it's just not possible. Here are some examples of Cather not being believable:

a) When she describes Tom Outland's hands through the professor's eyes, she describes them as beautiful and delicate. Worse still, she bothers to describe them in detail. Men don't do that.

b) Around page 218 when she begins Outland's tirade against Blake she makes Outland sound off like a nagging wife about how Blake shouldn't have sold the pottery etc. Men don't argue this way with friends; they don't have hissy fits - they stay quiet!

c) After the argument in (b) above, as Blake leaves the scene, she describes Outland wishing to run after him and hold him in his arms. Men just don't think like that.

d) When Outland is in Washington D.C. trying to get people to take interest in the pottery he discovered, he lets himself get ignored, disrespected, and he waits by tolerantly while being stepped on by people in positions of power. That's not a description of a turn of the century orphaned cowboy; that's a description of a turn of the century well-to-do woman of society - the only world Cather appears to know.

e) Whenever Tom Outland meets other men in his life as a cowboy, they are always really "nice and pleasant". Indeed they are overly accommodating. Huh? I could see cowboys being really respectful and accommodating to a beautiful woman of society (like Cather) but an orphaned cowboy? She just puts too much of herself in this character. I couldn't buy it.

3) Now before reviewers think my gripes are based on some sort of homophobia, let me just say that if it had been a story about men in love with each other, I would have accepted that as at least being believable. But that's not Cather's intention. Outland ends up marrying the professor's daughter. Is Cather trying to send out a bisexual message of some kind? Was the professor gay? The text just does not support any kind of homosexual message either explicitly or implicitly.

4) Cather plays out Outland to be this super human being. Indeed he is the inspiration to the Professor and all the other characters in the book. But if that's the case, why is he on the wrong side of the moral debate on the Dreyfus affair? Cather wrote this book in 1925; twenty five years after all the facts had already come out on that case and yet Cather has Outland take the side of bigots?

5) In Outland's tirade against Blake, Outland chews him out for selling ancient pottery belonging to native Indian tribes. Earlier in the book it's concluded that the tribe was decimated by outsiders. In chastising Blake, Outland declares that Blake was wrong to sell the pottery because it was not his. He says that the pottery belongs to his country, to the State etc. That's the best our hero can do? Wouldn't the right thing to do be to leave the ruins to themselves and not dig up the belongings of the decimated people - i.e. let them rest in peace?

Anyway, I was sorely disappointed. I gave The Professor's House one star more than it deserves only because My Antonia deserves six.

Memorable characters.......2006-04-22

This is the first book by Cather that I have read and I'm glad that I did. It is so beautifully written that one could feel as though they have been gently placed within the walls of the professor's house. Cather included so many characters, at times it was hard to keep up with the names and personalities. However, to take away any one of the characters would have taken away from this great read.

Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination (Blackwell Manifestos)

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A positive-themed manifesto of means to balance differing agendas into a more unified, and therefore stronger movement

Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination (Blackwell Manifestos)
Lawrence Buell
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1405124768

Book Description

This manifesto summarizes the disparate critical practices that constitute "ecocriticism. " Lawrence Buell, one of the world 's leading theorists in ecocriticism, traces the ecocritical movement back to its roots in the 1970s, through its coalescence into a recognizable entity in the early 1990s, to its diversification and proliferation today. He shows how, from an initial focus on such genres as nature writing and nature poetry, ecocriticism has come to take all of literary history and discourse as its arena; and he addresses questions currently facing the discipline, such as: Why has the interest in environmental literary and cultural studies so quickly increased? Can the nature-preservation emphasis of first-wave ecocriticism be reconciled with second-wave concerns with issues of environmental justice? What is the meaning of "place " in a globalizing world? And how do aesthetic, ethical, and political concerns interact and collide in ecocritical work? Finally, Buell looks to the future of ecocriticism, predicting that discourses of the environment will become a permanent part of literary and cultural studies.

Customer Reviews:

A positive-themed manifesto of means to balance differing agendas into a more unified, and therefore stronger movement.......2006-02-06

The Future Of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis And Literary Imagination is a scholarly summary of the distinct critical practices that constitute "ecocriticism" today. Written by one of the world's leading theorists, who traces the ecocritical movement to its roots in the 1970's and its coalescence in the 1990's, The Future Of Environmental Criticism Asks such bold questions as: Why has interest in environmental literary and cultural studies risen so rapidly in recent times? Can the emphasis upon preserving nature of earlier ecocriticism be successfully reconciled with later ecocritical issues of environmental justice? The Future Of Environmental Criticism draws from past and present reality to predict the directions in which future ecocritical movements will flow, and offers a positive-themed manifesto of means to balance differing agendas into a more unified, and therefore stronger movement.

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I have to be honest . . . I didn't get a chance to read the whole book . . .
The Fifty-Year Dash
Straight Talking
On target!
This is the book our parents' generation should have written

50 Year Dash
Bob Greene
Manufacturer: Main Street Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0385493010
Release Date: 1998-05-18

Book Description

The 50 Year Dash is a wonderful book of reflections on everything that's part of life at fifty: looking at aches and pains as a growth industry, and seeing the constant onslaught of new pain relievers as a new version of the British invasion of rock groups in the 1960s; finding that the world is no longer sufficiently quiet, and that you're the one yelling "Turn that down!"; realizing you're older than James Bond ever was; hearing yourself say, "The fruit plate looks good," and meaning it; understanding that the one thing that seems to be going away from you the fastest is that first-time feeling--first job, first house, first kiss--and knowing that the best thing you can do for yourself is to find ways to keep finding those feelings again and again.

Between now and the year 2014, seventy-seven million American men and women--most of the baby boom generation--will turn fifty. That's about ten thousand birthdays per day. The 50 Year Dash is the perfect book for every single one of them.

Customer Reviews:

I have to be honest . . . I didn't get a chance to read the whole book . . . .......2007-03-09

Before I sent it to a friend with a rapidly approaching 50th birthday.

But what I did read was exactly what I would expect from Bob Greene -- a variety of well-written, high-quality, witty stories that will be interesting to a broad segment of those approaching their 50th birthday!

A really terrific book, well worth sending to those we love and reading ourselves.

The Fifty-Year Dash.......2005-07-07

As usual, Greene lived up to his previous books with knowledge and humor. The book was receives in good condition and in a timely manner.

Straight Talking.......2003-03-07

I found this book's language to be straightforward and from the heart. It's easy reading, sort of like sitting on a couch with the author and simply sharing perceptions. Greene covers everything; he describes fleeting thoughts on the seemingly insignifigant and expands into the depths of intensity. The reader sometimes feels as if he is having a conversation with an old schoolmate. Perfect for anyone who is either approaching their mid life years or already in the midst of them.

On target!.......1999-07-05

I'm not quite there myself, but having been a Bob Greene fan since 1976's JOHNNY DEADLINE, REPORTER, I felt that I had to buy and read this one in advance of my milestone birthday. As usual, Greene is right on target with his observations.

Introspection is something that many of us avoid, but Greene is right there nudging us to take a look at our innermost feelings and reactions to a variety of different situations. At 47, I've already experienced a good many of them, and I'm grateful to find out in advance about those that may be forthcoming. As usual, Greene's writing style is like a welcome long-distance call from your oldest and best friend--you hang on every word, you anticipate the outcome of a story, and you relish each other's happiness in describing the events of everyday life.

Greene is the heartbeat of us all.

This is the book our parents' generation should have written.......1998-10-27

Bob Greene combines very special abilities: great talent to experience and observe; great talent to convey this acquired information.

This book compares the changes in our bodies when we reach age fifty (mas o menos) with what we felt when we were younger.

The cast of characters is familiar to those who read "Be True to Your School" (an expanded version of his diary in his junior/senior years of high school), and many of his columns through the years. Quite a few of his observations in this book were touched upon in earlier writings, but "Fifty Year Dash" allows him to condense these ideas into one book and be more expansive in his descriptions.

Book Description

Poet's Prose is the first scholarly work devoted exclusively to American prose poetry and has been recognized as a groundbreaking study in contemporary American poetry. Many recent American poets have been writing prose; Fredman has set out to determine why and what it means. Three central works of American poets' prose are discussed in detail: William Carlos Williams' Kora in Hell, Robert Creeley's Presences, and John Ashbery's Three Poems. In these chapters, Fredman both carefully teaches us how to read these difficult works and examines their philosophical seriousness. In a final chapter and a new epilogue, he discusses the newest trends in contemporary poetry, the "talk poems" of David Antin and the prose of the Language poets, in which poet's prose forms an important aspect of the "theoretical poetry" now being written.

Customer Reviews:

Stunning.......2001-09-24

This book was one of the most interesting books i have ever read! A deffinate best seller!

The Postmodern Novel in Latin America: Politics of Culture and the Crisis of Truth

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The Postmodern Novel in Latin America: Politics of Culture and the Crisis of Truth
Raymond Leslie Williams
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Latin American | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish & Portuguese | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Latin American | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The Post-Boom in Spanish American Fiction (Suny Series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture)

ASIN: 0312120818

Book Description

This book examines the foremost postmodern Latin American writers of the past 25 years and places the current literary scene in its proper political and cultural context. Focusing on fiction from the 1970s to the present, Williams discusses the new generation of postmodern writers.

Crisis Of The Real (Aperture Writers & Artists on Photography)

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Crisis Of The Real (Aperture Writers & Artists on Photography)
Andy Grundberg
Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Criticism & Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0893818550
Release Date: 2005-06-15

Book Description

Andy Grundberg is a former photography critic of The New York Times whose interpretations and critical views have helped shape the contemporary understanding of photography's complex roles in art and in the media. Significantly expanded to include his writings to date, this book brings into focus the major debates in photography that have arisen over the last thirty-five years.

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