Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections

Book Description

A fascinating look at Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Vesuvius eruption in comparison with other historically significant volcanic eruptions, including the World Trade Center disaster.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which obliterated the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, was a disaster that resounds to this day. Now palaeontologist Charles Pellegrino presents a wealth of new knowledge about the doomed towns – and brings to vivid life the people, their last moments, and the aftermath.

The lessons learned from modern scrutiny of that ancient eruption produce disturbing echoes in the present. Dr Pellegrino, who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, shares his unique knowledge of the strange physics of volcanic 'downblast' and 'collapse column', drawing a direct link from past to present, and providing readers with a poignant glimpse into the last moments of the 'American Vesuvius'.

Customer Reviews:

An engrossing look at Vesuvius (79 AD) ... and 9-11 (2001).......2007-08-18

[Review of Hardcover edition]

This is a tremendously interesting and engrossing book, on many different levels. "GoV", contrary to what the title might lead one to suspect, is NOT just a book about Mt. Vesuvius - it's a tour de force exploration of the effect of volcanic forces on people, on civilizations, on religion(s), on species and evolution in general, on the landscape, and even on the very formation of life itself ... and the author draws upon a wide array of scientific disciplines in order to tell the tale effectively.

In similar fashion to Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe", the book opens with a bang ... or more specifically, with the origins of the universe, the formation of heavier elements in the hearts of stars, the evolution of solid matter (planets, asteroids and dark matter), the formation of volcanoes on those planets, and the role that volcanic forces play in the formation of life. From there, the author gives the reader an introductory taste of some of the possible connective threads between volcanic calamities of recent millennia, their appearances in (and possible influence on) religious accounts & beliefs, and how the tripartite aspects of creation, destruction, and preservation directly mimic the aspects of certain deities recurring throughout human history in various different religions ... a theme touched on indirectly by Fritjof Capra's Hindu-slanted poetic paradigm for viewing physical reality "The Tao of Physics".

From there, the authors pauses (in Chapter 3, "The Time Gate") to neatly tie together a broad range of different fields of human study into a single and innovatively coherent view of time. In it, the author telescopes backwards, in accelerating fashion, as he zooms further and further outwards - from recent history, through archeology (deep history), past paleontology (biological history), past geology (planetary history), and onward into astrophysics (stellar history) ... with major volcanic events as the connective thread every step of the way. A larger and more robust treatment of this material is also covered in a stand-alone novel entitled "Time Gate".

Next, the author reels the reader's time focus back in closer to home again, and delves into the heart of the book, and the author's chief love: archeology. In this case, the primary focus are the twin cities destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD: Pompeii and Herculaneum. The author treats us to a veritable smorgasbord of some of the written accounts dating near, relating to, or directly affected by the eruption:

* Historical accounts (ex: the Plinys, Democritus, Josephus, Spartacus the Gladiator, etc),
* Biblical references (ex: the Council of Nicea that originally collated, edited and winnowed down the scattered accounts of the time into "The Bible" as we know it today),
* Legal records (ex: the legal case of the ex-slave Justa who was suing to retain her freedom at the time of the eruption) recovered from the carbonized remains of a large cache of library scrolls.

Reading those accounts drives home in dramatic fashion the terrible and lasting impact Vesuvius had on both the personal lives of the people nearby, on the surrounding nations and empires, and on the bible itself ... effects that are being felt even today, in ways that we're only just now beginning to understand.

From classic archeology, the author then re-focuses closer still into the subtle nuances and intimate details offered by forensic science, and the oh-so-human stories that the latter is allowing to emerge from the archeological strata. The bones can literally speak to us now ... telling us their exact age & gender, their most likely profession and social status, their dietary habits, wounds and diseases they suffered from, and so much more ... details that truly reinforce that archeology is not just about biology or dead civilizations - it's also about individuals.

It was shortly after the author finished writing the draft of this book that history and fate played a cruel joke ... on September 11th, 2001, hijackers crashed two passenger jets into the Word Trade Center in New York City. The buildings subsequently imploded and down blasted into the Manhattan Bedrock, and massive debris clouds radiated throughout southern Manhattan, burying, damaging and destroying much in it's path. The resemblance to Pompeii and Herculaneum was uncanny ... and that brings us to Chapter 10, the final chapter of GoV, in which several archeologists (including the author) converge on NYC to study the still-fresh archeological record.

Central to Chapter 10 is the story of NYFD Ladder 4 that emerged from the archeological evidence, and subsequent attempts (by certain unscrupulous people) to censor/delay/suppress the publication of this very book for daring to tell the truth ... a truth that exposed an earlier journalistic claim (of looting) as a slanderous hoax. For the details on that matter, I refer interested readers to the author's official discussion forum, which contains a thread on that subject, with additional information by the author.

To conclude, GOV is a must-read for anyone who's interested in the sciences in general, in history (both real and biblical), and in the ongoing efforts by determined researchers to carry forward the bright torch of knowledge & truth across the dark wastelands of time, superstition, ignorance ... and sometimes across the barbed wire boundaries of 'accepted theory', through toxic pools of opportunistic lies, and through suffocating clouds of censorship.

To quote Dr. Pellegrino: "History [and Truth] will eventually have it's way ... it always does."

I enjoyed it immensely, and I was engrossed throughout, from cover to cover.

I'd also like to compliment the author for his steadfast commitment to "Keep faith with the dead", regardless of the risk to his career as a published author. I've seen some of the consequences of that decision, first hand.

Self-important Jumble.......2007-05-08

Charles Pellegrino's stream-of-consciousness ramblings about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the collapse of the Twin Towers offer excellent descriptions of just how such catastrophes play out, but little else of interest. Reading the book is an exercise in frustration; just when the author throws out juicy tidbits regarding Pompeii or Herculaneum, he veers off into discussions of conditions on Earth in 1,000,000 B.C. or Gnostic philosophy. Pellegrino clearly possesses an active, imaginative mind but, just as clearly, has difficulty focusing it on something as mundane as maintaining focus. In this manner he reminds one of Tim Robbins' baseball pitcher Nuke LaLoush in "Field of Dreams," who possessed a phenonomenal fastball but was just as apt to hit the team mascot as the strike zone. In "Ghosts of Vesuvius," Pellegrino throws a few strikes. Unfortunately, these are overshadowed by his spectacular wild pitches. Mascots, and readers, beware.

Going To and Fro In The Earth, and Up and Down.......2007-04-12

Ghosts of Vesuvius
by Charles Pellegrino.
Harper. 496 pages.

I picked up this book after listening to the author on a talk radio show. He impressed me, holding forth on the universe in a distinct Long Island accent, so I thought why not? What I got was an incredibly ambitious work that takes the reader back, literally, to the non-time before the universe was born, then barrels forward faster than the speed of light to the non-time post-omega of the universe, and then drops the reader on the edge of the pit left behind after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center after lengthy disquisitions on Pompeii, Herculaneum--the incredible forces unleashed there--and how they were repeated at various intervals of volcanism through the eons. Not content with this, Pellegrino dove-tails these dynamics with the collapse of the Twin Towers and shows how various fire fighters and rescue workers met or survived their fates through the phenomenon of "shock cocoons"--the uncanny interventions that appear in the midst of disasters and which allowed paper documents to survive the searing heat in Herculaneum as well as one fire-fighter to glide on his back for hundreds of feet through the closest equivalent to hell on earth this side of the atomic bomb. A less capacious mind would be content to call it quits after these feats of mental gymnastics, but Pellegrino plows on, Diderot-fashion, to consider, simultaneously, rustcicles, the sinking of the Titanic, the Book of Thomas, Josephus and the early Christian church, the Stoics, the history of Rome, Roman technology and hundreds of other subjects. This man Pellegrino, if he ran a pizza parlor, would most probably offer the Pellegrino Special, which would be the very embodiment of abundanza!--all conceivable toppings, plus a sprinkling of star dust--and all for a reasonable $15.95, U.S.D.! (And, by the way, it appears that the folks of Herculaneum and Pompeii actually had a pizza-like dish, as well as their own hamburgers, hotdogs and a great-tasting fish topping--facts I learned from the author in question.) In addition Pellegrino succeeds in putting a human face on these tragedies--both natural and man-made. We are taken through the last nano-seconds of the life of a beautiful Asian-European slave girl of 14--16 years of age, who was lying on her side with her mistress' baby in her arms trying to comfort it when the searing gasses from Vesuvius caused her brains to boil and explode. We stand on the deck of the Titanic watching an officer with a pistol in his hand holding off the surging crowds of desperate passengers as women and children find seats on the final life boats, the freezing water lapping around their ankles. We are taken into the private hell of a man buried with his dog under tons of volcanic dust, who managed to live for weeks after Pompeii's extinction, yet still died far from the picks and shovels of potential rescuers.

With any such massive undertaking there will be of course some problems. Even War and Peace has arid passages that one would like to tear out and feed to the swine--especially when Tolstoy the philosopher begins to lecture us about history. With the Ghosts of Vesuvius the problems involve structure and editing. Towards the end of the book Pellegrino seems to be writing under the old rule of so many cents a page. We've seen the results in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi when what begins as an excellent book is buried, in part two, under so much filler. I believe that the author simply had a space requirement that was assigned to him by his agent and by hook or crook, he managed to fill it. In addition, Mr. Pellegrino sometimes needs a fact-checker. However, having said these things, I recommend both the author and his book. Obviously the man is brilliant in the best possible sense of the word, and the book is the near-barbaric yawp of an American original.

Judith Petres Balogh.......2007-03-01

I embraced this book. It is informative, sensitive and superbly written. The paralell Mr. Pellegrino draws between the tragedies of Vesuvius and the Towers in unique, and there is so much information contained on the pages, that at times I had to slow down my reading, in order to fully absorb all the details. I read this book while in Europe, in a Hungarian translation, and it lost nothing through this process; the language is still powerful, even as translated into a language that is not related to any other modern language. As soon as I returned to the USA, I bought his other books.

Rambling........2006-10-30

If this book had a coherent topic I might have enjoyed it. It doesn't. It is supposedly about the explosion of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the social and cultural disruptions that followed. For reasons that are quite obscure the author rambles on for the first 127 pages about the origins of the universe, the origins of life, evolution, the appearance of the Big Dipper, panspermia, and more or less everything in between. Why? Who knows? Not me, and I read the book. He then prattles on about the slave revolt of Spartacus, which is at best tangentially relevant - but I guess he has a sense of humor, this chapter is called "Then listen, Josephus, for I digress"- never a truer word. The sections on Vesuvius are gripping and follow a coherent narrative line, until Pellegrino wanders off into yet another massive digression in a disjointed discussion of Gnosticism in the early church. I think the point was that the apocalyptic vision of early Christianity owed its origins to the calamitous explosion of Vesuvius, which is ingenious but he doesn't get even close to proving it, if only because nowhere are his arguments stated, it is all implication, imprecation and hand waving. We are then hurled through time to the sinking of the Titanic, an event that has nothing to do with Vesuvius, the Roman Empire, or volcanoes. The single point of comparison is the loss of life, and nothing in the Titanic chapters serves this book in any way whatsoever; pointless verbiage. Pellegrino then sets off on a gratuitous discussion of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. The only link to Vesuvius that Pellegrino could muster was the shared physics of the collapse column in both a volcanic cloud and a falling building. I'd call that a stretch. Perhaps a more valid comparison would have been to talk to survivors of the atom bombs in Japan. Surprisingly, given that the book is about a volcanic explosion, there is no discussion of volcanic events in recent times- Krakatoa, Mount St. Helens, Etna. It is not even clear from the book that Vesuvius is still active, or that the Bay of Naples has been devastated by earthquakes in living memory. This is just lazy. There are errors of fact; a message in a bottle thrown into the Atlantic seems to have washed up in Surrey, England, which is not a small feat since Surrey is a landlocked county with not an inch of shoreline (perhaps it floated up the river Thames?). Pellegrino appears to place the fall of Constantinople to around 535, which is nonsense. This is in the middle of the reign of Justinian I (527-565), who expanded the Byzantine Empire to include all the Mediterranean including Southern Spain, and who between 532 and 537 oversaw the building of the Sancta Sophia- one of the greatest churches ever constructed. These are hardly the signs of a dieing civilization. With inevitable ups and downs Constantinople remained the centre of a major Christian civilization until it fell to the Turks in 1453, whereupon it became the centre of a major Muslim civilization. Finally, the style is clumsy with the same phrase frequently repeated in the same sentence, as in, (just one example of many) "her first officer had (in a manner of speaking) given me a promise to keep and pointed me (in a manner of speaking) toward..." It could have been a good book, it isn't.

Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison (Plume)

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Get out your dictionary...
sad
Please read "Rock Wives" by Victoria Balfour!!!!
My life with Strange Days
Jim Morrison and the Renfaire

Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison (Plume)
Patricia Kennealy
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452269814

Customer Reviews:

Get out your dictionary..........2007-10-03

You'll need it! This woman, whether or not she was ever "married" to Jim Morrison, is a very good writer. She uses a lot of big words I've never even seen before, but I understood them in context, mostly. As far as the story goes, it's believeable to me. To those reviewers who have bashed her for remembering what she was wearing back then, I have to say that being roughly the same age as the author, I have a very vivid recollection of a lot of my wardrobe from those days (and it was much the same as she describes)and it was hard to forget! I was and still am a huge Doors fan, mainly Jim Morrison. I was privileged to see them in concert three times (he behaved very well in all of them) but unfortunately was never lucky or brave enough to meet any of them. I can say with certainty that if I had been a journalist who was covering rock, met and (maybe slept with and married) Jim Morrison, you can bet all you've got that I would have been writing down every single detail. The only thing that gave me pause was the sheer amount of sex she claims to have had with him on every occasion. If he'd been as drug and drink-addled as he was supposed to have been, I don't see how even once a night would have been possible, let alone the marathons she described (in very little if any detail). But, I do believe that they had a relationship of some magnitude and I was glad to read about it in her words- even though I couldn't understand a good many of them! I'm glad that she was able to move on with her life despite the devastating losses, and I would recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of Jim Morrison or even a great rock love story.

sad.......2007-08-06

I don't want to repeat what has already been said. This woman is obsessed with a fling she had with Jim Morrison many years ago. It is painfully obvious that it was a fling, not a deep relationship. She absurdly claims that it was not only a relationship, but a marriage. I don't wish to harshly criticise this lonely, sad woman, but I have a problem with her berating the deceased Pamela Courson. She trivlializes Pam's relationship with Jim, rudely insults her, and makes outrageous accusations that she caused the death of Jim. It is all done out of childish jealousy and bitterness. Kennealy is a talented writer. She should apologize for this travisty of a book and retract many of her statements. She should then move on with her life and hopefully become a productive artist again.

Please read "Rock Wives" by Victoria Balfour!!!!.......2006-03-30

Anyone questioning how readers could doubt the truthfullness of Ms. Kennealy's book really should read "Rock Wives" by Victoria Balfour. Ms. Kennealy is quoted in "Rock Wives" as saying Jim probably didn't take the handfasting very seriously. Ms. Kennealy made this statement to Ms. Balfour, on tape, in 1986. Ms. Kennealy changed her tune as the years went by. In "Strange Days" Ms. Kennealy insists the handfasting was something Jim took very seriously. She slams anyone who doubts her story. Even though she herself has changed her story.

Page 350 of "Strange Days", Patricia says of Victoria Balfour, "She seems to have had a hidden agenda all along: the bleak and stereotypical scenario that nice college-educated middle-class Catholic girls just have to pick bad boys to fall for, giving up all claim to any career or indeed personhood of their own in the process." That is Patricia's ONLY criticism of Victoria Balfour. It's interesting to note Patricia never actually names Balfour by name, but this is absolutely who she's referring to on page 350 of "Strange Days". The book that Kennealy says was written and published by a woman in 1985, is absolutely "Rock Wives" by Victoria Balfour.

Now, this is what is actually says about Patricia Kennealy's career in "Rock Wives":

Page 141 of "Rock Wives" (the very first page of Patricia's chapter!!!) notes that Patricia Kennealy was a young rock journalist for a magazine in 1969.

Page 142 (second page of Patricia's chapter!) states "Patricia Kennealy is excited. Her first book, which she describes as 'science fiction fantasy,' is about to be published, and work on her second book is already well under way. Still, she is a little worried that in the interview she might come across as sounding like her life stopped after Jim Morrison."

Patricia is then quoted directly, (page 142) as saying, 'The last thing I want is to come across like some sort of rock-era Miss Havisham, sitting in her cob-webbed room with her dusty memories and her old Fillmore programs.'

It doesn't sound to me at all that Patricia was portrayed as having no career in "Rock Wives". Read "Rock Wives" for yourself, dear readers, and you will figure out very quick just how much Patricia has changed her story over the years, in her attempts at bending history. Pay extra special attention to when Patricia says her affair with Jim began in "Rock Wives". That alone should make it obvious to "Strange Days" readers just how much Kennealy lied and exaggerated the length of her affair with Jim.

My life with Strange Days.......2006-03-29

I read and liked Kennealy's early Celtic fantasy novels before I knew anything about Jim Morrison. After seeing the Oliver Stone movie (which was, if nothing else, an impressive spectacle on the big screen), I had to wonder what, exactly, an intelligent, creative woman like Kennealy saw in such an oaf. This led me to read biographies of Morrison, to discover the music of The Doors, and to find Jim Morrison interesting in his own right.

When Strange Days first came out, I was deeply impressed by it. I read my own burgeoning relationship with the man I would marry into Kennealy's tale and felt that if only Jim and Patricia had been luckier, they might have been as happy as my partner and I. And I was (and am) interested in forms of Celtic Paganism, including Wicca, so I took that incident in the book very seriously.

Now, over ten years later, after years of happy marriage, after seeing Kennealy's novels deteriorate as she became more and more obsessed with working out her relationship with her lost love and all those other people who knew and loved him, I no longer think Jim and Patricia had an ideal relationship I should aspire to. In fact, I think she's poisoned her own creativity with her obsession with being *validated* as Morrison's true mate. But there's still one thing that really bothers me about this book: Sure, Morrison would probably have engaged in a Wiccan ceremony for a lark. (And by the way, gentle readers, while such a ceremony was not legally binding in 1970, it is now, in many states.) But what responsible Wiccan High Priestess would have allowed a drunk or stoned man to go through an important ritual? The Wiccans I have known certainly would not. If the handfasting happened, Morrison must have brought some degree of gravity to the ritual, in order for it to take place. That's not to imply that he took it with the same seriousness as Kennealy or her high priestess!

In conclusion, here are my opinions about this book: 1) It's well-written, at least; Kennealy does not abuse the English language. 2) Kennealy is a bitter woman ruled by her anger, and she would be happier if she could forgive, forget, and write about something else. 3) At this point, it's likely that no one can be 100% certain what happened between Morrison and Kennealy (or between Morrison and Pam Courson, either). 4) The people I'd most like to ask "What really happened?" are Maura and Bran, the Wiccan High Priestess and Priest.

Jim Morrison and the Renfaire.......2006-03-13

A really sad account of a woman who had a 13 month fling with Jim Morrison, a handfast and created a 30 year Arthurian myth over a few sexual encounters.

Hard to read as it's a supposed biography written as a SciFi/Fantasy romance novel. Kennealy goes off on tangents far too much: Celtic mythology; Wicca; fashions people were wearing; rants over Morrison's girlfriend Pam. Kennealy appears to be a narcissist who lives in her own fantasy world where she is some Celtic warrior princess rather than a New Yorker and writer for a pop music rag. She still carries the torch for her prince Jim Morrison, dead all these years, and regards herself as the true heir to the title of his "wife." In reality she was just another fling who was dropped after she became preggers.

I give it two stars because the fantasy life she weaves around herself is more interesting than her few sexual encounters with Jim Morrison. (She caused earthquakes!!!) This book is a wonderful study in narcissim. I found myself skimming portions of the books as I'm not into sword and sorcery fantasy.

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Strange Days

Manufacturer: Charta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8881581388
Release Date: 1998-02-02

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British photography surveyed through the eyes of 15 photographers quickly gaining international fame.

The Strange Files of Fremont Jones (Fremont Jones Mysteries)

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Totally Original
Wonderful book
Fun
One of my favorite series
Plenty of twists

The Strange Files of Fremont Jones (Fremont Jones Mysteries)
Dianne Day
Manufacturer: Crimeline
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 055356921X
Release Date: 1996-01-01

Book Description

Brave, resourceful, adventurous Fremont (née Caroline) Jones is a woman ahead of her time. Hungry for independence, she's traded in her conventional life in Boston for a career as a "type-writer" in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. But Fremont soon discovers that her clients aren't always what they appear to be, and that in doing her job she's transcribing her way into a wealth of mystery--and mortal danger....

Dashing lawyer Justin Cameron well-nigh sweeps Fremont Jones off her feet--and into a situation ripe with perilous intrigue. A client meets an untimely death that Fremant suspects is linked to the paper she typed for him, of which she can recall but one small fragment. And her attempts to disentangle reality and imagination in the gothic tales penned by Edgar Allan Partridge--whose demeanor is one of terror under the barest restraint--send her up the rocky California coast on a mission of discovery from which she may not return....

A riveting, atmospheric mix of intrigue and humor introduces a new investigator as cultivated as Sherlock Holmes and as spunky as Kinsey Millhone.

Customer Reviews:

Totally Original.......2007-05-01

I give this book 5 whoppin' stars. It's the first in the series and each sequel is equally entertaining. Loved it. Fremont is wonderful and endearing. The setting and atmosphere are exquisitely depicted. Highly recommended.

Wonderful book.......2006-11-07

I stumbled upon this book while browsing at my local university's book sale. I'm so happen I found it. What a gem! Fremont Jones is a great protaganist - spunky, daring, irreverant, intelligent, and charming.

Highly recommended!

Fun.......2006-10-23

I picked up this series while waiting for the next Laurie King - Mary Russell book. The story has a strong lead character - Fremont Jones - who leaves her stuffy home in Boston and sets up a typing business in San Francisco during the time right before the big earthquake. The books are funny and well done. Thumbs up!

One of my favorite series.......2002-10-21

Caroline Fremont Jones is a college educated Bostonian in the early years of the 20th century. Her father has recently married a woman that she dislikes. That woman has her nephew in mind for Caroline's husband. She has vowed never to marry, so when her father and Augusta are on their honeymoon, she leaves for San Fransisco. She changes her name to C. Fremont Jones and starts a typing business. Things are going well, she has a new friend, a young lawyer named Justin Cameron, an excellent landlady, Mrs O'Leary, and a mysterious neighbor, Michael Archer.

Strange things begin to happen. A mysterious stranger with a resemblence to Edgar Allan Poe, drops off a manuscript to be typed. He seems to be afraid of something or someone. His tales are very strange. Then, a leader of the Chinese community, Li Wong, asks her to type a letter for him. Shortly afterward he is murdered, and his family needs the information in the letter, which has disappeared. Justin is becoming an infatuation, which Fremont doesn't want given her vow, and Michael Archer seems to be following her. Something is very wrong and she is determined to get to the bottom of it all.

This is a very good series. The time period and the characters are all very vivid. You almost feel that you are in the San Francisco of that time. The plot and mystery have many twists and turns and the ending is satisfactory. The next book should be even better!

Plenty of twists.......2002-02-26

This was the first book by Dianne Day I read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The early 20th century makes for delightful reading. I highly recommend this book to people who shy away from mysteries. This will change your mind.

STRANGE DAYS. MY LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT JIM MORRISON.

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Strange times

STRANGE DAYS. MY LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT JIM MORRISON.
Patricia (Jim Morrison) Kennealy
Manufacturer: A Dutton Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NWU3FC

Customer Reviews:

Strange times.......2007-03-30

I-slept-with-a-rock-star stories are a dime a dozen in the rock bio world, and it takes something unusual to make the storyteller seem like anything but a groupie. Patricia Kennealy-Morrison has something all right, but her obnoxious attitude and sketchy details make it hard to regard "Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison" as much more than a curiosity.

Kennealy-Morrison was a journalist/editor working for Jazz'n'Pop magazine in the late 1960s. She was sent in to interview legendary rock bad boy Jim Morrison of the Doors, and was immediately impressed by him (the feeling was mutual, she says). They soon struck up a friendship, then became lovers while remaining on opposite sides of the United States.

Morrison and Kennealy-Morrison wed in a witch handfasting some months later, despite the fact that Morrison was still with his longtime lover Pamela Courson. Kennealy-Morrison chronicles the remainder of their increasingly volatile relationship, her abortion, Morrison's mysterious death in Paris, and the production of the distorted movie adaptation by Oliver Stone.

Never has so much been written over so little. Not very often, anyway. Morrison's brief involvement with Kennealy-Morrison is blown up into an affair to rival Guinevere and Lancelot -- and yes, that's her own comparison. What an unbiased reader sees is a rather average rock romance, full of the necessary sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. And lots and lots of Kennealy-Morrison's everyday life.

Kennealy-Morrison has a curiously self-centered view of the world: whenever anybody is less than friendly to her, they must be upset over her gender, brains, religion or relationship with Morrison. Her attitude (a bull getting ready to charge at a matador) wears thin quickly.

She heaps scorn on almost all rock'n'roll stars, on any girl who slept (or wanted to) with Jim, on any friend of Pamela Courson's, on Doors fans, on rock audiences... pretty much everybody. Special vitriol is reserved for Pam. Rather than take Morrison to task for his behavior, Kennealy-Morrison vents on the pleasant, clueless Courson.

While Kennealy-Morrison is clearly knowledgeable, she seems to use her IQ solely to set herself above the groupies. She lacks the class, wisdom and vibrance of other rock paramours like Marianne Faithfull, or the sweetness of Bebe Buell. If this book is anything to go by, her intellect is stagnant and unsophisticated, and her personality is childish (she beats a groupie for coming on to Jim). In fact, her claims that she's a strong, decisive, take-no-guff woman becomes funny when you see that she was allowing a ridiculous amount of guff from Morrison.

There's no denying that Kennealy-Morrison is a talented writer. At times her lyrical, detailed writing makes this seem almost like a novel. It's especially vibrant during scenes like Doors concerts and the famous Woodstock. But too often her words are used as arrows rather than paintbrushes.

"Strange Days: My Life With And Without Jim Morrison" is a weird read. In the end, it's hard to see it as anything but Kennealy-Morrison's side of the story, but without any wisdom brought by time and thought. This is not the place to look for the "real" Jim Morrison.

Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It

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The Tale of Laughing Gas Is No Laughing Matter
Bad start to competitive medicine and pharmaceuticals!
Ether Day-a timeless retelling of the miracle of anesthesia
The discovery of anesthesia
Ether Day review

Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It
Julie M. Fenster
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060195231

Book Description

Ether Day is the unpredictable story of America's first major scientific discovery -- the use of anesthesia -- told in an absorbing narrative that traces the dawn of modern surgery through the lives of three extraordinary men. Ironically, the "discovery" was really no discovery at all: Ether and nitrous oxide had been known for more than forty years to cause insensitivity to pain, yet, with names like "laughing gas," they were used almost solely for entertainment. Meanwhile, patients still underwent operations during which they saw, heard, and felt every cut the surgeon made. The image of a grim and grisly operating room, like the one in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, was in fact starkly accurate in portraying the conditions of surgery before anesthesia.

With hope for relief seemingly long gone, the breakthrough finally came about by means of a combination of coincidence and character, as a cunning Boston dentist crossed paths with an inventive colleague from Hartford and a brilliant Harvard-trained physician. William Morton, Horace Wells, and Charles Jackson: a con man, a dreamer, and an intellectual. Though Wells was crushed by derision when he tried to introduce anesthetics, Morton prevailed, with help from Jackson. The result was Ether Day, October 16, 1846, celebrated around the world. By that point, though, no honor was enough. Ether Day was not only the dawn of modern surgery, but the beginning of commercialized medicine as well, as Morton patented the discovery.

What followed was a battle so bitter that it sent all three men spiraling wildly out of control, at the same time that anesthetics began saving countless lives. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Ether Day is a riveting look at one of history's most remarkable untold stories.

Customer Reviews:

The Tale of Laughing Gas Is No Laughing Matter.......2007-09-11

What a fascinating read!

Years ago, I used to want to be an anesthesiologist... but then I lowered my sights to nursing school--but still with some intent of becoming an anesthetist. (anesthesiologist = doctor ; anesthetist = specially trained technician)

Eventually I decided that the medical field was NOT at all for me, yet I still have a strong interest in many things medical--including, certainly, anesthesia.

This book supports the old saying that life is stranger than fiction. The events leading to and following the discovery of the anesthetic qualities of nitrous oxide and sulfuric ether are quite boggling--one of which is the fact that people were having fun at `gas parties' and `ether frolics' for years while patients, without anesthesia, screamed in horror as a limb was amputated or a tumor cut from living, feeling tissue.

Morton, Wells, and Jackson's stories are sad ones, really... especially, in my opinion, Wells', for he seemed the best humanitarian of that lot. Morton was driven by greed, pure and simple. Jackson, perhaps something in between.

I try to pick up a nonfiction book now and then to add in with all the fiction I read, and this most recent bit of nonfiction indulgence was both fascinating and informative.

Bad start to competitive medicine and pharmaceuticals!.......2005-04-20

I spent half my time reading this book shaking my head. Even my husband asked what was wrong. It's simply incredible that even this far back in medical history, the mid-1800s, that an actual advance could cause as much trouble as it did. This story is about three men; one discovered the ability of certain chemicals to cause people to become oblivious to pain, one man found the best chemical and the right means to deliver it--but his reputation as a con artist proved to be his undoing for something he actually did right, and the last man was a doctor on the peripherary of all this who sought to claim more credit for something he had little to do with.

I thought I was cynical before, because of all the problems we are having with pharmaceutical companies placing profits above health, and physicians and researchers following suit...but apparently, this has been a problem for over a hundred and fifty years.

The major 'discoverer' of etherization as an anasthetic for surgery, Morton, actually followed through and experimented with the formulas to get the right amount to allow patients to sleep through horrific surgery such as amputation. However, Morton's previous life as a con artist and also his rush to place a patent on this technique for profit reasons, caused his discovery to backfire against him. Not only did he never receive recompense for his work in this area, even the military absconded and used his work during the Civil War. The poor man died in despair in his mid-40s, with little recognition paid until after his death.

None of the men received what they thought was their rightful due concerning ether use in surgery. One committed suicide, and the last man who was a very intelligent man ended up dying slowly in an insane asylum of most probably a stroke, that may have incapacitated his ability to speak, but not necessarily his memory or thinking abilites.

This is one of the worse case scenarios of the attempt to profit off of the pain of others. I felt remorse for all of these men and their families; yet at the same time, if they had handled it differently with less eagerness to make a profit or be the 'one' whose name was attached with etherization, maybe it would have worked out better.

Well-written and interesting book. It's amazing after 150 years we still don't understand how anasthetia (sic) works. I think it would be more helpful to designing specific methods for individuals if we did understand it more.

Karen Sadler,
Science Education

Ether Day-a timeless retelling of the miracle of anesthesia.......2005-01-15

Hearing the news from a doctor in today's era is not quite as frightening as it once was. Try imagining having a leg or other limb amputated without being put to sleep. Just the thought of it sends chills down my spine. Julie M. Fenster is able to grab your attention right when you look at her novel's title, "Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery". It makes you wonder right away how anesthesia was developed and why the men who made such an amazing, world altering discovery could be considered haunted.

The novel begins with the general story of the first time Ether was allowed to be used in a medical operation. This took place on Friday, October 16, 1846 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The surgery was to be performed on Gilbert Abbot to remove a large growth removed from his neck. The Ether treatment was to be administered by William T.G. Morton, who was a young dentist at the time. The novel then proceeds to go back further in time to where the discovery began. Throughout, the trials and tribulations of attempting to bring a new scientific advancement into the light of excessive critics. The story is told a few times from the point of view from each character involved in the discovery of Ether, each one trying to stake their claim on the fame of being the actual discoverer of such a miracle drug. With the story of each character, the story continued further on. Throughout the greedy, self-centered nature of all human beings, even those we may consider to be medical geniuses shone through in their actions. The men were willing to do anything to claim themselves as the inventors of anesthesia that they even went to such lengths as committing crimes in order to fund their discovery.

This book was also very informative in the processes it takes in order to make a scientific discovery of this magnitude. The men involved were forced to jeopardize all that they had, including their lives, and reputations as prominent figures in the medical world. They sacrificed everything that they stood for and this pressure eventually ruined their lives and led to each of their deaths.

Prior to reading this novel, I had not even an inkling of an idea as to how the medicine was discovered that made me able to bear the pain of having my appendix removed, nor had I given it much thought. With it's local ties to Mass General hospital and the operating theater that I have actually visited, this book was very enthralling. It caught my attention right from the beginning and held it up until the very end. I highly recommend this novel to the avid intellectual or even the semi-interested student, for it is full of surprises, twists, and turns that you will never see coming.

The discovery of anesthesia.......2005-01-03

Ether Day, by Julie M. Fenster, is the story of three men and the discovery of anesthesia. This book is written exactly like a story, introducing you to the characters and leading you through their lives. The way it is written kept me interested throughout the entire book.

This book starts off with a story that really caught my attention. Fenster describes a patient undergoing surgery. She describes him as being in a huge amount of pain. She then goes on to say how right down the street there is a show occurring. The people on stage are using nitrous oxide to get high and to make people laugh. Little did anyone know this nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, could have helped this patient have a painless surgery.

Surgery before Ether was very painful. Fenster describes the patients as either "whimpering, raying, mumbling, moaning, cursing, wailing," and shouting. Think about this, back before this discovery the patient could feel, see and hear everything that was happening.

Ether was first administered to a patient undergoing surgery on October 16, 1846. This patient's name was Gilbert Abbott and he was to have a large growth cut from the side of his neck. William T. G. Morton had received an invitation by a physician at Mass General to come try out his "secret compound that promised painless surgery". The surgery and many more to follow were a huge success.

William Morton was not the only man to claim to be the discoverer of this gas. This book goes into detail about the controversy of the discovery of anesthesia. There were three men that insist that they were the first to discover this painkiller; they are William Morton, Horace Wells, and Charles Jackson. Following the discovery was a battle between these three men. The end result was that each man, basically, spiraled wildly out of control.

Fenster does a good job at telling all sides of the controversy. She was able to make the reader understand what the future was like for the three men involved and what they went through. What really hit me was her vivid descriptions of surgeries before this discovery because it made me realize how important it was.

Ether Day review.......2005-01-03

Ether Day is the tragic story of "America's greatest medical discovery." It follows the long and difficult road to finding a form of anesthesia. Set in the mid 19th century, it is not simply a book of dates and facts but a creative story. Fenster brings the characters to life and creates a world of science that can be easily understood. The book flows because it is suspenseful and intriguing.

The book starts off with a sad short story that immediately grabs your attention. There is a very painful operation taking place without anesthetics, and in another building close by a phenomenon known as "laughing gas" is being demonstrated to a crowd of people. Little did they know at the time that this "laughing gas" was a form of anesthesia that could've helped the patient during the operation.

Before I read this book, I had no knowledge of how anesthetics came to be. I guess it was something I always took for granted and never questioned how life would be without it. The only complaint I have of the book are the descriptions of operations without anesthetics. However, I think those graphic descriptions were necessary to make the story more effective and meaningful. You should only skim through those parts if you have a weak stomach.

This book made me appreciate science more and it also made me realize how lucky we are. These men sacrificed their careers and reputations to find something to that would save a lot of people from pain or death. Something many people take for granted was given value and I truly appreciate the use of anesthetics now.

Blast Off Boy and Blorp: First Day on a Strange New Planet (Blast Off Boy and Blorp)

Average customer rating:

Adventures in Planet Swapping

Blast Off Boy and Blorp: First Day on a Strange New Planet (Blast Off Boy and Blorp)

Manufacturer: Hyperion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0786805781

Amazon.com

There's nothing like those first-day-of-school jitters, and when you're the new kid on the block, it's even more nerve-racking. So imagine how it would feel to be the new kid on the planet! Participants in a galactic space exchange program, Johnny Smith (a.k.a. Blast Off Boy) from Earth and Blorp Glorp from planet Meep are preparing for day 1 in their respective new elementary schools. Blast Off, visiting Meep, is simultaneously blasé and anxious. Blorp, on Earth, is so excited he keeps floating up to the ceiling. The story alternates between these two boys' points of view, describing in all-too-painful detail that new-school feeling of just plain not belonging.

In pictures and text, Yaccarino eloquently captures those alienating moments--on the school bus ("Swell, the only free seat is next to a kid with two heads. Gross."), in the classroom ("Would you tell us the square root of .769FQ87-1/2?"), and the lunchroom ("'Oh boy!' cried Blorp. 'Titanium Tetrazzini! You want some?'"). Fortunately, as is usually the case in these situations, both boys eventually begin to find their niches. This excellent story is for any child about to embark on a brand-new, kind of scary experience. Yaccarino, with his appealing retro-futuristic pictures, is the author-illustrator of many quirky picture books, including Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon!. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

Customer Reviews:

Adventures in Planet Swapping.......2000-08-24

Even before the title page, the difference between interplanetary exchange students Blast Off Boy and Blorp is clear. In this clever, early chapter story, Earthling Blast Off Boy is having a hard time coping, while his extraterrestrial counterpart is reveling in the experience of life on another planet. Faced with typical outsider obstacles, Blast Off Boy cringes while Blorp takes everything in stride. Students tackling their first day in a new environment will relate to Blast Off Boy's anxiety but hopefully take their cues from Blorp's positive attitude and willingness to roll with the punches.

The story's simplicity is enhanced by bold illustrations bound to engage the emerging reader. While Blast Off Boy is the antithesis of an action hero, his situation is fraught with peril lending suspense to the storyline. Blorp is indomitable. His enthusiasm for new experience, despite some daunting setbacks, is infectious. The juxtaposition of their situations and attitude makes for lively storytelling.

Average customer rating:
Strange Patterns of Recent American Presidents
Jr Perry Stone
Manufacturer: Voice of Evangelism
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000K7E9Q4

Product Description

The message on this special audio CD is the most intriguing of any I have produced in many years. This teaching will take you back to Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and to our 43rd president, George W. Bush, and show you the prophetic patterns of these leaders. I will also give you the pattern of Senator Kerry and what would have happened had he been elected, including a brief insight into the "zero curse." This prophetic message will demonstrate how God is still in charge of all events!

Strange Days Indeed: Memories of the Old World

Average customer rating:

Insightful look from the future at the age of the baby boomers

Strange Days Indeed: Memories of the Old World
Stuart R. Ward
Manufacturer: Desert Sage Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Perfect Paperback

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0977175413
Release Date: 2006-09-29

Product Description

A whimsical fictional memoir is sent back from an enlightened future Earth. Penned for new generations curious about our now long-gone era, Zet Quimby, 112-year-old scribe, tries making sense of two of our present time's age-old, and now-archaic habits: the compulsive and compulsory covering of our bodies and the needless exploiting, killing and devouring of fellow species.

Zet concludes both former habits stemmed from the planet's chronic and profound disconnect from living in harmony with nature.

He recalls his life in the old world before cataclysmic natural disasters and a quantum leap in interconnective awareness transformed the planet to its now-peaceful realm - one accepting the freedom to go about naked if one wants and embracing animal-free diet.

The story unfolds in San Francisco and moves to upstate California's countryside. Zet uses his life as a handy example of how far some strayed from mindful body awareness and conscious diet. He tells how he grappled for self-acceptance and inner wisdom while questioning conventional worldviews. He supplies capsule histories of the modern nudist movement and the advent of veggie diet and ponders the reasons compulsory clothes and eating of animal ever came about.

Cultural phenomena touched on include the early 1900s German nature-cure renaissance, the '60s hippie counterculture and its positive legacy, the annual World Naked Bike Ride event, England's Naked Rambler, Berkeley's Naked Guy, Spencer Tunick's astounding worldwide nude group photos, the daring global Baring Peace Project, clothing-optional mineral springs and saunas, and San Francisco's annual Bare-to-Breakers nude stroll.

While iverting and thought provoking, the work makes a case for increased body freedom and adopting animal-free diet, even as it takes merry digs at often-wonky mainstream thinking.

Blending fantasy and fictionalized autobiography with real-life lifestyle trends, the novel weaves humor, personal reflection, and naturist polemics into a crazy quilt: one of humankind's foibles and the ongoing transformation to a more life-friendly planet.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful look from the future at the age of the baby boomers.......2007-04-05

It is 2061. Zet Quimby, a 112 year old, probably naked vegan, has written his own first person account of the strange days when he was young, before the catastrophic earth changes of 2012 forced what remained of humanity to rethink how heavily it could afford to walk upon the earth. He looks back over an event horizon which ended the world as he knew it, after he and other survivors recreated a gentler society more attuned with its environment..

They now live in close connection with nature, in a clothing-optional community, understanding that the other creatures who share the earth are sentient, intelligent beings, not to be used for dinner or the raw materials for clothing.

The strange days of which he speaks are our present days and the recent past most baby boomers remember, beginning in the 1960's, when the old social structures were challenged in earnest, and began to morph into something else or simply break down.

His take on his own experience of the times and the mindless conditioning of the mainstream culture is astute, wryly humorous, and often laugh out loud funny. It is also poignant and sometimes a bit sad. His stance as an involuntary outside observer gives him the emotional distance to analyze the unexamined cultural beliefs that demand conformity and condition group behavior. It is truly an angle that was new to me, and I enjoyed looking at things through his eyes.

Most people, for example, do not go naked in public. Consequently, says Quimby, there is an unhealthy quality of "forbidden sexual fruit" that surrounds the idea of the nude human form which he himself spent years trying to overcome. His life up until the earth changes became a long search for places to drop the imprisonment of clothes--and society's conditions about them-- among kindred spirits, and much later to embrace a consciously cruelty-free diet that excluded anything obtained by exploiting animals.

His travels up and down the west coast led him to live somewhere in the high plains desert in far northern California, near Mt. Shasta. He built his own cabin from scratch and without power tools and lived "off the grid" for years where he could live without clothes - and society's demands on the subject - to his heart's content.

Author Stuart Ward has a gift for descriptive writing, and an intuition for the right word. The book's characters are well developed and sympathetic and Zet's psychological honesty and clarity as he works through his emotional and cultural baggage are endearing.

This is definitely a niche book, and will appeal mostly to those who share the same general philosophy. It is much more than "a polemic for the naturist movement," as some reviewers have said. It is really about spiritual purity and existential transparency. Shucking his clothes is only the symbol for the deeper work. His life task seems to be to identify and drop the repressive, shame-based internal conditioning that, for him, is represented by garments.

I am giving it 4 stars because Ward has a witty, intelligent, engaging writing style, and genuine insight. Chronic misuse of some words, e.g. "loosing" for "losing," "faire" for "fair" does get annoying and seem to be something the author's book doctor or critique group really should have caught. Other words are deliberately misspelled but, because he acknowledges those himself, seem acceptable.

I am not giving it 5 stars because it is also about 100 pages too top-heavy on the nudity angle, making his thoughts on the subject unnecessarily repetitive. This might be understandable, as this book grew out of a previous work on the subject.

The passages on cruelty-free diet and lifestyle are closer to a concept whose time has come and are pulled off with persuasive eloquence and compassion for all sentient life. Anyone who has felt compelled to embark on a spiritual quest should be able to relate to the greater story. There are places of the spirit that any person thinking deeper than the superficial passing show knows must be there - and that inner terrain is easily revisited - and examined with new eyes - in Quimby's company.

Average customer rating:

A lovely love story for Cure fans
Cute, in a kind of Edward Gorey way.

A Strange Day
Damon Hurd , and Tatiana Gill
Manufacturer: Alternative Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Pictures Of You

ASIN: 1891867741

Book Description

Skipping school to buy the latest Cure album, Miles arrives at the deserted Media Play parking lot waiting for the store to open. Here he meets Anna, who skipped her own classes for the same agenda. A free spirit, Anna takes it upon herself to bring introverted Miles out of his black-clad shell. A Strange Day is an original graphic novella about alienation, kindred spirits, and two Cure heads' serendipitous friendship, and the lessons they learn from each other.

Customer Reviews:

A lovely love story for Cure fans.......2005-11-26

In this book I found a very artfully written and illustrated fairy tale, which was especially poignant for me as an aging cure fan in love. It now sits comfortably on my bookshelf between other such sentimental texts. Recommended to any fan of original romantic comic works and/or the Cure.

Cute, in a kind of Edward Gorey way........2005-11-16

Damon Hurd, A Strange Day (Alternative Comics, 2005)

Damon Hurd says in his foreword to this book that he knows it's cheesy, and that it's written not for us, but for "the sixteen-year-old in [us] that fell in love at first sight." Thus, be warned.

That said, Hurd does, in fact, know what he's on about. This little tale is the story of two high-school kids who skip school to buy the new Cure album, find out it won't be going on sale until midafternoon, and spend the rest of the day (or what we see in it) falling in love. Tatiana Gill's artwork mirrors the impulsive nature of the protagonists quite nicely, if a little ham-handed at times. (Of course, there's a very fine difference between "ham-handed" and "German Expressionist" or "L'Association," so draw your own conclusions.)

A cute, and attractively-priced, little book. Cure fans will definitely want to sink their teeth into this one, as will those who got a nostalgic twinge while reading Jolene Siana's recent Go Ask Ogre. ***

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