Sight Unseen (Warner Forever)

Customer Reviews:

Excellcent.......2007-06-25

Great quick read book. I wish there was more. It would probably make a great movie. Worth reading.

As Close to a Perfect 5stars as possible.......2007-04-13

After her award winning series as CJ Barry, Samantha Graves had established herself as an excellent Romance author. With Sight Unseen she has raised the bar and changed the rules of the romance genre. To lable this book simply a Romance title, would be a grave injustice, Sight Unseen goes much deeper than that.

The adventure begins as Samantha takes the reader to the bottom of the ocean, to retrieve a medallion that was worn by 'King Pacal Votan the Great'. Raven Callahan is a modern day treasure hunter of sorts, with a special gift that allows her to authenticate the items, with a simple touch. She and her sister, Jillian receive information from inanimate objects. The stronger the emotion of the person that owned or touched the object, the more intensely it is felt by Raven. Working for API, she recovers priceless pieces for private collectors, as well as, museums that have been lost or stolen.

Dax Maddox is rugged and attractive, with loneliness and haunting anger in his eyes. Once a respected detective in Miami, he now had only one goal - to catch a killer! The night, Nick, his rookie partner was murdered, he had been imprisoned in a world filled only with shades of gray. He left the force to pursue a cop killer, to exact revenge and get justice for Nick. Which lead him to the art auction, at 'Matador's Auction House, in Miami. Bringing him face to face with the Vassalo painting and the beautiful woman he knew was a thief.

The chemistry between these two characters, Raven and Dax, is palpable. From the moment he forces her into a closet at the auction, to the swirling intensity of their first kiss, the reader is swept up into the story, like a leaf in a tornado! The author develops each as an individual, while continuing to bring them together, moving toward a confrontation with a killer and explosive intimacy. Both of which will leave the reader breathless and wanting more!

Samantha Graves has delivered an action packed, suspense thriller, filled with three dimensional characters that are intelligent and sexy. The various plot elements are effortlessly woven into the fabric of the lead, as well as, the supporting characters. This title has everything a reader could ask for; suspense - that keeps you guessing, action - that will keep you thinking, passion - that will make you breathless, combined with enough twists and turns to construct a moutain trail. What more could a reader ask for? Well, a sequel, of course!

Don't let "Sight Unseen" remain unseen by you!

refreshing paranormal romantic suspense thriller .......2007-04-07

Raven Callahan has a unique job description of legalized thief as she recovers stolen art for the Antiquities Preservation Institute (API) to return to the lawful owner. API management including Raven's immediate supervisor "Bigs" Bigley recognize that she is the best recovery agent in their firm. What they do not know is why she is so superior to the rest. She has psychometric skills sothat when she touches something her five senses receive images, sounds and feelings.

A killing maniac has kidnapped her current partner Walter; threatening to kill him if Raven fails to steal Vassalo's self portrait from Matador's Auction House in Miami. However, also at the auction house is former cop David "Dax" Maddox who recognizes Raven. He is on a vendetta since he left the force following the murder of his police partner, which he blames himself for; he needs to destroy the killer. Reluctantly tied to a mad man's death threats, Dax and Raven must team up, but neither trusts the other as a thief and a cop, even a legal thief and a former cop, see the world from different perspectives.

This is a refreshing paranormal romantic suspense thriller in spite of combining two overly used recent themes that of the art thief with that of the psychic. Though Raven's skills are more obvious and legit in some ways she will remind the audience of Blanche in Hitchcock's Family Plot. Dax adds to the investigation as he has his own agenda and as a cop distrusts burglars even those allegedly legit. Fans of psychic romantic investigative thrillers will want to read the brisk, unique and fun SIGHT UNSEEN in one sitting.

Harriet Klausner

An fabulous new direction for author Samantha Graves (aka CJ Barry).......2007-03-30

Sight Unseen represents a new direction for author Samantha Graves who also writes futuristc romance under the name C.J. Barry.

The book is listed as a romantic suspense but it has a paranormal twist! As her first foray into comtemporary romance this book was a home-run! The plot is excellent - and believable, which can be hard to do when the heroine has a psychic power. The suspense is gripping... and the romantic connection between the hero/heroine was very well done! The perfect balance of attraction and wary interest.

Since there is no description on this listing here's the blurb from the back cover:

CLUES ONLY THIS PSYCHIC CAN SEE
Can an art theif earn an honest living? Raven Callahan does, with the help of a rare psychic power that lets her read the emotions locked inside ancient objects. But when her partner is kidnapped and Raven is forced to steal a priceless masterpiece to save heim, ESP takes a backseat to quick wits, steely nerves, and the lethal skills she needs to survive.

A KILLER ONLY HTIS COP CAN CATCH
Ex-cop Dax Maddox made just one mistake on th ejob, but it took a young rookie's life and cost Dax his ability to see color. Now stalking a killer brings Raven into his life - and floods his gray world with vivid and conflicting emotions: anger and lust, suspicion and awe. Are the criminals they seek one and the same? If so, Dax and Raven's growing need for each other could inspire a madman's terrifying scheme for the ultimate revenge...

Average customer rating:

very good mystery thriller, definitely worth reading
An American in Jersey
Tedious and improbable
great thriller from a genre grandmaster
a good book, worth a read

Sight Unseen
Robert Goddard
Manufacturer: Delta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

British Detectives | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0440242800
Release Date: 2006-12-26

Book Description

Another classic mystery from the “master of the clever twist.”

On a summer’s day in 1981, a two-year-old girl, Tamsin Hall, was abducted during a picnic at the famous prehistoric site of Avebury in Wiltshire. Her seven-year-old sister Miranda was knocked down and killed by the abductor’s van. The girls were in the care of their nanny, Sally Wilkinson.

One of the witnesses to this tragic event was David Umber, a Ph.D student who was waiting at the village pub to keep an appointment with a man called Griffith who claimed he could help Umber with his researches into the letters of “Junius,” the pseudonymous eighteenth century polemicist who was his Ph.D subject. But Griffin failed to show up, and Umber never heard from him again. The two-year-old, Tamsin Hall, was never seen again either. The Hall family fell apart under the strain. Sally Wilkinson, the nanny, wound up living with Umber, whom she had met at the inquiry. But she never recovered from the incident, suffered increasingly from depression, and eventually committed suicide.

In the spring of 2004, retired Chief Inspector George Sharp receives a letter signed “Junius” reproaching him for botching the 1981 investigation. Sharp confronts Umber, whose explanation for being at the scene of the tragedy has always seemed dubious. Obliged to accept Umber’s denial of authorship of the letter, he nonetheless forces him to join in a search for the real culprit — and hence the long-concealed truth about what happened 23 years previously. It is a quest that both will later regret having embarked upon. Too late they come to understand that some mysteries are better left unsolved.

Customer Reviews:

very good mystery thriller, definitely worth reading.......2007-08-31

One of the better Robert Goddard books. Innovative and very well constructed plot that holds the reader's interest. Well written, atlhough sometimes a bit too detailed on some historical or geographical details. Worth your time if you're looking for some quality entertainment literature.

An American in Jersey.......2007-02-12

"Sight Unseen" needs a road map to explain the complicated geography. And a telephone book of the characters. And a chronological outline of the events. Maybe then, with those aids, the reader can try to figure out the ephemeral characters, the shadowy motives, and the arch enemy who never really appears except to provide the deus ex machina at the end. Reading this novel is analogous to working a jigsaw puzzle. The problem is, there's no pretty, complete, satisfying picture to reward you for the work you've done.

Tedious and improbable.......2007-02-08

Well, I am glad I didn't buy this book, but instead checked it out of the library. It is the last Robert Goddard book that I will read. Tediously detailed and highly improbable plot. Save your time and skip this one.

great thriller from a genre grandmaster.......2006-12-31

In the summer of 1981 near the Avebury Neolithic henge circle, a woman walks with three children; a nine or ten years old boy and a seven years old girl are slightly ahead of the adult and the third child is a toddler. Suddenly a man grabs the infant whose sister reacts instantly and gives chase while the nanny stares in revulsion. The kidnapper jumps into a van, runs over his seven years old pursuer, and flees with his catch.

Historian David Umber witnessed the horror over twenty-five years ago in which Tamsin Hall was abducted and her older sister Miranda killed. David eventually married the stunned nanny but his wife never moved on from the shock that initially bound them until she finally committed suicide filled with guilt that she was negligent in her diligence.

Retired Wiltshire Chief Inspector Sharp informs David he received an anonymous letter with clues to what happened on that fatal day in '81. The letter focuses on the true identity of an eighteenth century political meddler known as Junius, who happens to be the subject of Umber's Ph.D. research. David begins to reconsider his wife's suicide and wonders if someone murdered her to further bury the truth. The historian and the former cop team up to follow the new leads to hopefully uncover a murderous kidnapper.

If not the best, Robert Goddard has to be one of the top five suspense writers today. With exhilarating works like BORROWED TIME, HAND IN GLOVE, and now SIGHT UNSEEN, Mr. Goddard consistently entertains with exciting tales that are plausible and gripping. His current thriller will hook the audience from the opening 1981 sequence and throughout until the final present day confrontation; thus another great thriller from a genre grandmaster.

Harriet Klausner

a good book, worth a read.......2006-09-03

nice and suspenseful. a little unusual and you don't quite know where it will go next. definately worth picking up if you're int the genre.

Average customer rating:

Collection by one of America's best contemporary playwrights

Sight Unseen and Other Plays
Donald Margulies
Manufacturer: Theatre Communications Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1559361034

Amazon.com

Margulies's plays explore individuals' needs to be part of a group, usually a family, a religion, or both. Sometimes these are bitingly funny, as in the parodical Loman Family Picnic, about a young man who escapes his unhappy family life by imagining a musical of Death of a Salesman. Sometimes the plays are surreal, as in the Twilight Zonish What's Wrong With This Picture? about a dead wife and mother who is resurrected by her family's intense need--and then must convince them to let her rest in peace. The best in this collection is the title play. An artist finds himself in a crisis of identity when a German TV interviewer starts probing him about the supposed "Jewish" elements in his work. This volume, which also includes Found a Peanut and The Model Apartment, covers the upward curve of Margulies's career from the journeyman stage through off-Broadway successes to his first Broadway play.

Customer Reviews:

Collection by one of America's best contemporary playwrights.......1999-12-15

Donald Margulies is one of the best playwrights currently at work in the American theater. His view of, particularly, middle class family life is elevated above the ordinary by Margulies' ability to observe his characters' struggles with the sharpest of eyes, while making his audience see and sympathize with the different points of view. His plays exploring the life of the artist also resonate. Margulies' earlier plays play with surrealism and comedy, while in the more recent plays he has used his knack for shuffling time and place to illuminate what appear to be ordinary lives. The Model Apartment is a remarkable play that dares to explore the fallout of the Holocaust through a lens of comedy, with powerful results. I look forward to a next volume of collected works of this extraordinary playwright.

Sight Unseen: Science, UFO Invisibility and Transgenic Beings

Average customer rating:

This Book Won Me Over
An Amazing and Startling Read
Expert schmexpert
Sadly necessary
Great insight with new cases

Sight Unseen: Science, UFO Invisibility and Transgenic Beings
Budd Hopkins , and Carol Rainey
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

UFOs | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Unexplained Mysteries | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

UFOs | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0743412192

Book Description

New York Times bestselling author and pioneering UFO abduction investigator Budd Hopkins explores the connection between the unexplained phenomena of UFOs, the cutting edge of science here on Earth -- and the alien presence already on Earth.

Featuring never-before-reported case investigations and first-person accounts, SIGHT UNSEEN probes a pattern of landmark abduction events which may point to an alien experiment already at work, including:

Two noncommissioned officers are abducted from a busy military airfield in broad daylight with no prior warning -- leading to the theory that UFOs have the ability to become invisible.
Elaborately staged abductions carried out by beings that appeared to be human -- but who possessed extrasensory abilities and a stunted range of emotions.
A five-year-old girl who was taken to a nighttime playground -- where she encountered twelve nearly identical, quasi-human children.

These startling revelations are accompanied by discussions of recent scientific advances that could make such phenomena possible, including stealth technology, cloning, and the science of transgenics that could allow the creation of an alien/human life hybrid. Combining compelling UFO research with bizarre, new scientific discoveries, the authors build a strong and disturbing case that these otherworldly events are frighteningly real.

Download Description

The New York Times bestselling author of Witnessed, Intruders, and Missing Time -- three groundbreaking books on the UFO phenomenon -- returns with astonishing evidence that other-worldly beings are a very real -- and growing -- part of our lives. In Sight Unseen, Budd Hopkins and coauthor Carol Rainey show how fascinating discoveries in modern science support the plausibility of the UFO phenomenon. Featuring sixteen never-before-published cases, Sight Unseen probes two newly uncovered patterns in alien abduction: cases of UFO "invisibility" and reports of genetically altered alien beings who interact with humans during their routine lives. The "invisibility" accounts detailed by Hopkins include numerous daylight abductions in densely populated urban areas -- all apparently unseen and accomplished through a technology of invisibility. Two air force non-coms are snatched from the tarmac of a busy military airfield. An Australian family is levitated up into a hovering craft while the father remains paralyzed on the ground with a camera to his eye. The resulting evidence on film is discussed in terms of our own scientific advances. In the second series of cases, abductees report encounters with beings who appear human but apparently possess paranormal powers and stunted emotional ranges.Three young women, unknown to each other, are mysteriously summoned to "job interviews." In ordinary office settings, they encounter human-looking beings who lead them into baffling UFO abduction experiences. A Wisconsin farmer meets "Damoe," a man with odd behavior who closely resembles his son. Damoe eventually reveals himself as an accomplice of UFO occupants in a startling abduction of the farmer and his wife. Five-year-old Jen is abducted at night to a nearby playground. There she must teach the techniques and skills of "play" to twelve seemingly identical, quasi-human children.

Customer Reviews:

This Book Won Me Over.......2007-05-13

I've had a fascination with the concept of UFO's and related subject matter for much of my adult life. I'd come to the conclusion that people's overwhelming need for attention should be factored into the final analysis of many ostensible sightings and close encounters. Also, despite 50 years worth of tantalizing testimony and circumstantial evidence, "proof" remains elusive. Therefore, I began this book with a jaundiced eye, ready to chalk it up to mere new-age prattle, and I came away from it somewhat convinced. This book is well written and the "testimony," of people under hypnosis seems credible. Either Budd Hopkins and his wife are masters of deception or we need to seriously consider that a phenomena exists which is both terrifying and mysterious. By the way, I found this book in the New Age section of my local bookstore. It's a shame that well-written books such as this, which are no less scientific in their approach than more mainstream titles, need to be relegated to the "fringe" section. For science to be effective it has to be all-inclusive not the province of haughty purveyors of reason. In many respects, "science," is always the last to know.

An Amazing and Startling Read.......2006-12-01

Sight Unseen presents some of the most fascinating information on the UFO phenomenon to date. This book is well-written and well-researched, and it offers several plausible theories with a genuine and passionate desire to uncover the truth. Not only do Hopkins and Rainey make good use of abductee testimony, but they also combine what the experiencers have seen, felt, and heard with real life scientific data. Simply remarkable.

As I read this study of UFOs and their passengers, I couldn't help but to ask myself why such wonderfully advanced creatures would traverse tremendous distances just to examine human beings. Why would they bother involving themselves with us when there are much more delightful and complex things in this universe? I suppose it does make sense after all, however. We, as humans, are the highest form of life on Earth and yet we expend vast resources to understand lower forms of life. And I believe all of us at one time or another have dreamed about encountering life from other worlds, even if it was mere bacteria. We are astounded by this amazing engine, this stunningly beautiful gift that is life. Who would not choose to reach out for it?

I believe the authors of this book did a superb job of expressing this confusing, contradictory subject. Although I remain skeptical of witness testimony and hypnotic regression, I certainly do admit that some convincing arguments are made here. Definitely, definitely worth a read if you can keep your mind open.

Expert schmexpert.......2006-10-12

Another book about alien abduction written by Budd Hopkins, this one with Carol Rainey, who also happens to be his wife. And I must say; Mrs. Hopkins is the one contributing the most, perhaps only, interesting sections in the book. The contributions from her husband, on the other hand, are mostly transcriptions of testimonies by alleged abductees under hypnosis, and unless you're a diehard believer in the extraterrestrial hypothesis and alien abductions you won't find many reasons to believe in these testimonies. Simply because hypnosis hasn't been proven to be one hundred percent accurate when it comes to finding the truth. So a skeptic will become even more skeptical when he learns that the testimony has been given under hypnosis, while a believer will ignore this fact and simply have his belief strengthened in how hundreds of thousands of people are taken each year by sinister aliens with large eyes and the ability to walk through solid walls.

The book is written in a very certain way. First Budd, in his role as an "expert" in abductions, deals with a special section of the story, for instance that alien spacecraft sometimes appear invisible or how people have started levitating during an abduction. Then Carol takes over, as a technology expert, and tries her best to remove some of the "magic" in these amazing stories. One of the purposes of the book is namely to, by using contemporary scientific breakthroughs and theories, rationalize those things that at first sight appear fully "impossible". The marvelous technology of the extraterrestrials, a technology that sometimes come close to being magical, isn't really that marvelous at all. Actually, it's only a matter of time before we can do the very same things the aliens do.

Sights Unseen is marketed as non-fiction. But Budd is no scientist. Carol, on the other hand, has some interesting things to say about modern science and especially "transgenic beings", or beings half extraterrestrial and half Homo sapiens. But even Carol is very, very influenced by the belief in extraterrestrial visitors.

But Budd is even worse. For instance, he has no problem claiming that family photograph given to him by a patient, which actually doesn't show any family at all but only an empty beach, is good "evidence" for alien abduction, since he was told by the witness, while under hypnosis, that the entire family was abducted just when the picture was taken and thus became "invisible" and "disappeared". However, he fails to explain how something invisible can be considered good evidence. And furthermore, he apparently doesn't become suspicious when people contact him after having read his books and report more or less the same stories.

So if you're a believer you're very likely to appreciate this book immensely. But if you're a skeptic, or if you simply know how to use your common sense, then don't bother reading it.

Sadly necessary.......2006-02-04

In a perfect world, we would not yet be entertaining the question, "how did extraterrestrials get here," since we have yet to establish a general consensus that they are here. Sadly, when the evidence is presented, many otherwise reasonable people find it necessary to respond that extraterrestrials couldn't possibly be here, and couldn't possibly do the things they are alleged to do-- hardly a scientific attitude-- and therefore UFOs must be swamp gas, mass hysteria, hallucinations, sleep paralysis, lies, conspiracy, weather balloons, or the planet Venus. So the cart is put before the horse: We have to discuss how they could be here and do what they do before we can even entertain whether or not they're here and, if so, what they're doing.

Worse, we waste a lot of time speculating why extraterrestrials would behave as witnesses describe, as if not knowing their motives permits us to dismiss the idea that they exist. I wish the final answer were "we have no idea why. First, let's establish 'if' and 'what.'"

But it isn't. "We don't know how or why extraterrestrials would do what they reportedly do; therefore, they don't exist." This flawed logic flies surprisingly well with the general public (and examples can be found among the reviews here), and so books like this are necessary to offer some plausible "hows" and "whys."

Carol's part in the book is to entertain such conjectures. Her speculations are the sort that should occur to any reasonably bright person who is interested in both science and UFO phenomena-- in other words, anyone who has any business dismissing UFO reports on scientific grounds. But again, it's an imperfect world. For me, Carol's contribution felt mostly superfluous and the delivery corny, but for the level of thinker who assumes that science rules out the truth of all UFO reports, I think it's appropriate.

Budd's contribution is, as usual, gripping, even if you think he and his sources are making it all up. I find his style clear, coherent, witty, and even insightful. The subject matter is admittedly outlandish, and it's tempting to approach it armored in irony and sarcasm. "Hey, I'm readin' the crazy UFO guy!" Sure, that's fun. But it's not just one crazy UFO guy. To summarily dismiss UFO phenomena as laughable, you basically have to call all the witnesses a bunch of crazies and liars. Keep in mind that this list includes not only ordinary, otherwise sane individuals, but on-duty police officers, RAF aircraft spotters, pilots and their flight crews, security personnel at military bases where nuclear weapons are housed, and governments of NATO powers, among many others.

With this in mind, Budd doesn't seem quite so crazy.

Some have decided that Budd must be implanting suggestions in his hypnotic subjects, making them imagine "memories" that conform to Budd's idea of UFO abductions, but I have never seen anyone offer a single reason to think so, other than the fact that it's theoreticaly possible. Indeed, Budd provides transcripts of his hypnotic sessions in this book and elsewhere; so you'd think that if hypnotic suggestion were responsible for these abduction reports, we'd have plenty of examples of Budd leading the witnesses. I haven't noticed any, and the critics have so far failed to supply any. In fact, I'd say Budd goes to pains to avoid leading his subjects and takes measures to test the credibility of their recall. Furthermore, his witnesses report their abduction experiences before undergoing hypnosis, and many never do undergo hypnosis. They report these experiences, and then some undergo hypnosis to aid recall, not the other way around. Therefore, I fail to see how hypnotic suggestion could be the primary culprit, unless the effect is said to precede the cause.

Again, it shouldn't be necessary to make these points, but such is the level of public discourse on UFOs. So this book addresses a real need, and it's a page turner, too.

Great insight with new cases.......2005-08-10

This book is an extremely interesting book with many never before published cases and focuses on area of ufology that many have raised questions but haven't answered: "how do UFO's abduct people from public areas without being seen and leave no trace?". Mr. Hopkins and his wife both back up cases they present with new advances in the field of science and it is obvious they are trying to conduct as scientific a method to their research as possible. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because before they bring up any case, they reiterate 10,000 times how the witness is credible and reliable and so forth. It got pretty monotonous and it did not give any more credibility to their research. However, with that said, I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this book to any UFO enthusiasts because it talks about issues which most books just glance over.

Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture

Average customer rating:

Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture
Martin A. Berger
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0520244591

Book Description

Sight Unseen explores how racial identity guides the interpretation of the visual world. Through a nimble analysis of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century paintings, photographs, museums, and early motion pictures, Martin A. Berger illustrates how a shared investment in whiteness invisibly guides what Americans of European descent see, what they accept as true, and, ultimately, what legal, social, and economic policies they enact.
Carefully reconstructing the racial and philosophical contexts of selected artworks that contain no narrative links to race, the author exposes the effects of racial thinking on our interpretation of the visual world. Bucolic genre paintings of white farmers, pristine landscape photographs of the western frontier, monumental civic architecture, and early action films provide case studies for investigating how European-American sight became inextricably bound to the racial values of American society. Berger shows how artworks are more significant for confirming internalized beliefs on race, than they are for selling us on racial values we do not yet own. A significant contribution to the growing field of whiteness studies, this accessible, provocative, and compelling book exposes how something as apparently natural as sight is conditioned by the racial values of society.

Average customer rating:

Almost, but not quite
Sight Unseen- Insight and Issues
A New Consciousness
A Book Sighted People should read to Understand Blindness
LOOKS Good!!

Sight Unseen
Georgina Kleege
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Medical | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Special Needs | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Disability | Specialties | Law | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0300076800

Book Description

This elegantly written book offers an unexpected and unprecedented perspective on blindness and sight. Georgina Kleege describes first-hand the daily experience of visual impairment and how it has affected not only her view of the world but also the world`s view of her. She considers a wide range of issues that affect the blind, including stereotypes in fiction and film, education, and social status.

Customer Reviews:

Almost, but not quite.......2006-04-13

I have recently finished this disaster of a novel for a college honors course "Disability through Autobiography." While attempting to read this book, my frustration took over and in a couple of instances, resulted in the book being thrown across the room. Much of the book seems a criticism of those that are not blind as well as the depictions of the blind by those who are not blind, namely authors and Hollywood directors. I can think of a much better topic for a book than nit-picking at random quotes in movies, books, and social groups. Kleege seems to only show the ability for a blind person to criticize those who are not blind and may not completely understand what blindness is. Although I have taken many courses that focus intensely on accepting those with disablilities in society, I find it very difficult to accept severe cynicism no matter what disability the author may have.

Sight Unseen- Insight and Issues.......2006-03-26

Like many people who have read this book, I am legally blind. It was recommended to me by a friend who has very good vision. Comparing notes with her was particularly educational. The perspectives of a sighted person and a blind person on the text turn out to be not all that different.

This book has incredible ups and downs. First- the ups.
Kleege's description of what a blind person sees is incredible, perhaps the best I have ever read. People who haven't had to worry about it are under such misconceptions. A lot of people think that if you can see- kind of- that what you see is a blur. Even the cover of this book appears to tell us the same thing, but that's far from true for everyone.

The author makes the point that the designation of what constitutes legal blindness really was a pretty random decision. Who says 20/20 is normal? How many people do you know who use some kind of correction? Given that, how normal can it possibly be? Also, just because someone is legally blind, they may use their vision so efficiently that you don't know until they tell you that there's anything different about them. Ms. Kleege reports this experience in her own life. Conversely, someone who is legally blind may not use their vision at all. Also, her descriptions of the process of making sense of visual information is well done and should help to explain to people who don't know exactly how sight works, how different it can be for various people.

My favorite of the points made by this book, however, has got to be that the fact that you can see something, doesn't mean you're not blind; doesn't make it not a good idea to learn Braille. Many of us with some useable sight were refused this tool as children. Frankly, if you can't read print at all without pain, this encourages illiteracy. Kleege is spreading the word that Braille is NOT a foreign language- it's just another way to percieve the alphabet that we already know. She raises the question of whether audio books constitute reading in the same way that reading print or Braille do. (given that it stimulates different parts of your brain, I'd argue no, although like Kleege, I think it's a useful tool at times.)

Now for the downs.
Kleege can be really disparaging of sighted people. There are subtle and less subtle digs and jabs all over the book. She puts words into the mouths of passing strangers, extending a real encounter into a possible outcome, making assumptions about what the sighted person would have said if she'd said something different, herself. Honestly not every sighted person is a complete jerk, or ignorant about how sight works. She asserts that a mother will stop a child from staring at a blind person because if you don't look at something unpleasant, it will go away. No, mothers do that because it's very rude to stare! My sighted friend was really offended by the middle of the book and actually exclaimed "well, so sorry I can SEE!"

Her take on Oedipus' blindness, I thought, was overly dramatic. Kleege regards it as symbolic castration, setting the stage for the way people percieve blindness to this day. Frankly, Oedipus wasn't Freudian until Freud. If Oedipus had meant to castrate himself, given that this is a classical story and they didn't mince words- he would have.

I also thought some of her arguments with modern cinema were perhaps a bit harsh. Not that really bad stereotypes don't exist. Movies like "Jennifer 8", portraying blind people as needful of institutionalisation and completely helpless when confronted by a sighted crazy, are a real problem. The blind aren't the only people stereotyped in Hollywood, though. One could argue that the heroine was helpless as much because she was a woman in a horror movie as that she was blind. Also, wasn't the protagonist in "Scent of a Woman" more stereotypically bachelorish than blind? True, a lot of movies were clearly directed by people who have never met a blind person. however, the unmoving stare empolyed by many film directors to typify the blind, which Kleege finds so offensive- exists. If one has been blind since birth, one sometimes lacks body language, never having observed it. If one lacks eyes, why blink to moisten them? Sometimes one forgets.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book, even though I periodically wanted to yell "OH, come ON! Get over it!" I'd reccommend it to the blind who have not found anyone with whom to relate, lately, or the sighted who want to understand.

And one more thing- anyone who gets embarrassed because they just said "Hey, look at this!" to a blind person. . . It's ok. We do it too.

A New Consciousness.......2002-03-26

Georgina Kleege, the blind author of _Sight Unseen_, speaks of her book as a kind of coming out narrative where she stops staging a sighted identity and accepts her blindness. Kleege describes her amazing experience dealing with blindness beginning at age 11 and details the ways she has adapted to living in a sighted world. Pretending to be sighted when you are blind poses an incredible challenge, but Kleege explains how the benefits outweigh any effort it takes to conceal blindness due to such a heavy stigma associated with the disability. However, even as she denied her blindness to others, Kleege has never viewed her disability as a punishment or cause for despair. It has not stopped her from becoming the successful writer and professor that she is, nor has it held her back from the activities she loves.
Kleege opens our minds to her world, and describes with vivid imagery what and how she sees. Her condition causes a block to her central vision, but allows her to distinguish between colors and make use of her peripheral vision. Kleege makes her readers aware of a great many fallacies surrounding blindness, and gives numerous examples of how movies and literature concerning blindness often perpetuate negative stereotypes. Her readers accompany her to an art museum, back in time when she was sighted, and to France where she found inspiration from Louis Braille's accomplishments.
The amazingly adapted author also invites her readers to try and imagine making use of their eyes the way she does on a daily basis. Her descriptions of viewing art and reading print evoked in my imagination a longing to temporarily share in her experience. I would have expected, however, the once sighted author to better understand the fear that sighted people have associated with blindness. The transition to permanent blindness is a great deal harder than just closing your eyes to simulate the disability. Kleege speaks only on behalf of her own blindness, and effectively captures the attention of her audience in helping them face and appreciate how a rich life without sight is possible.

A Book Sighted People should read to Understand Blindness.......2002-02-22

I have just read this book (BTW for the reader who wanted it in audio format- check out NLS (National Library Service- or your state Library for the Blind) as this is how I read this book). I can relate to what the author goes through- as I'm also legally blind. However, unlike the author I was never fully sighted so I appreciate her compairson to being "sighted" as opposed to beling blind.

Like the author I do have some useable vision and employ the same sort of adaptive devices she does. I believe this book could educate people that being blind does not mean you see nothing -- only 10% of people who are blind see nothing at all. There are varing degrees of blindness, and I think the author does an excellent job of conveaying this to her readers.

LOOKS Good!!.......2002-02-12

Yes, this book LOOKS good! But HOW can my husband READ it when he is B-L-I-N-D? Does the author want only to appeal (SELL TO) the majority of the world which is sighted? Blind people NEED books like these but they MUST be A-U-D-I-O.

Average customer rating:

Good Book
Impersonal Narrator
not one of Kaye Gibbon's best
limited portrayal of manic depression
Who is Hattie Barnes??

Sights Unseen
Kaye Gibbons
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Domestic Life | Women's Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Mothers & Children | Women's Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0399139869

Book Description

The acclaimed author of ELLEN FOSTER and the brilliant New York Times bestseller CHARMS FOR THE EASY LIFE, Kaye Gibbons paints intimate family portraits in lyrical prose, using as her palette the rich, vibrant colors of the American South. SIGHTS UNSEEN is the author at her most passionate and heartfelt best -- an unforgettable tale of unconditional love, and of a family's desperate search for normalcy in the midst of madness. It is a novel of rare poignancy, wit and evocative power -- the story of tragic, emotionally devastated Maggie, "the Barnes woman with all the problems, and daughter Hattie, a child struggling to rind a place for herself in her damaged mother's heart.

Customer Reviews:

Good Book.......2006-11-28

This book is the story of Hattie. Her mother has a severe mental illness. Hattie cannot bond with her mother, nor can she feel normal love and affection. I feel that the mother's character was not developed enough in the book, but maybe that was intentional, because the mother's character was suppose to be distant. That's why I gave it 3 stars instead of 4 - because I felt I should have gotten to know the mother a little better.

Impersonal Narrator.......2006-09-24

I am Bipolar. I bought this book for my son, who is now 34. His comments, as far as the impersonal narration were these. His way of dealing with growing up with my crazy roller coaster ride, in a situation where I was emotionally unavailable to him, although I was right there, was to detach. And become emotionally unavailable himself. Which persists to this day. He admits that he forms no really close attachments to anyone. Our relationship is one of of walking on egg shells and after 20 years of fairly stable behavior, he still doesn't trust me. He says he goes in and out of believing this was something beyond my control. We get some great laughs out of my antics in the days of old but..... Obviously this book inspired some good conversation. We both know that if I made the "choice" to stop my medication that'd be it for him. Maybe this is too much information. Bottom line - we both think this is a great book and some detachment from Hattie may be true to form.

not one of Kaye Gibbon's best.......2006-05-21

This short novel wasn't one of Kaye Gibbon's best. Hattie is the daughter and essentially the narrator of her own life with her mother who suffers from severe bouts of mania and depression. The underlying theme is Hattie is searching for a mother figure she never experiences. My gripe is that Gibbon's never really brings out her emotion of this great loss and it makes the story slightly loose and mediocre. I think that it had the substance of truly being a terrific novel but it doesn't deliver that underneath sense of loss and fright this girl has during her childhood years with her mother.Too bad , I am a fan of most of Kaye Gibbon's fiction but this one felt contrived.

limited portrayal of manic depression.......2005-07-10

Sights Unseen is the story of a woman with manic depression and her battle back to health, told from the viewpoint of her loving, but baffled young daughter.

Because it is told from the perspective of a young child, we are limited in what manic depression feels like, although there are a few succinct descriptions.

Where it errs is after the mother is well, and her continuing wellness is presented as a "choice." Even with medication and therapy, people with mental illness can relapse, and to present it as such an easy and permanent victory does those who suffer from mental illness a disservice. Manic depression is simply not something one can "decide" to recover from and stay well.

Who is Hattie Barnes??.......2005-03-11

SIGHTS UNSEEN, a short novel by Kaye Gibbons, tells the story of a woman named Maggie Barnes with bipolar disorder, told through her daughter, Hattie's, eyes. Hattie, writing from the perspective of the woman she's become, relates the events that happened to her mother, specifically those events that took place during Hattie's twelfth year, in 1963, when Maggie, between bouts of sex-crazed mania and suicidal depression, ran into a woman with a car and was sent to Duke for electroconvulsive shock therapy that was meant "cure" her.

The strength of the novel is in Kaye Gibbons' sensitivity to the severity of manic depression and what it's like for someone who has to live with bouts of extreme joy and severe sadness. However, if you're looking for some kind of insight from Hattie in this novel, you won't find it. Hattie is a completely impersonal narrator; it's easy to forget that she is Maggie's daughter. She seems so disconnected from the story and the events that are happening. The reader gets no insight into Hattie's hopes or fears--we don't know how she feels about growing up without a reliable mother; it's almost as if Gibbons deliberately skirts Hattie's feelings in order to talk more about her mother's antics. There is a brief suggestion that Hattie desperately desires her mother's attention, but it is not fully developed, and is therefore unbelievable.

The novel has potential--but, because of Hattie's failure as a narrator, it falls short of the goal Gibbons probably imagined it would attain.

Average customer rating:

Sight Unseen
Donald Margulies
Manufacturer: Dramatist's Play Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0822213176

Book Description

Donald Margulies studied visual arts at the Pratt Institute before transferring to State University of New York to pursue a degree in playwriting. During the early 80's he collaborated with Joseph Papp, and his first Off-Broadway play, Found a Peanut, was produced at the Public Theatre. In 1992, Sight Unseen won an Obie for Best New American Play. Some of this other plays include The Loman Family Picnic, Pitching to the Star, Zimmer, Luna Par and Dinner With Friends which won Mr. Margulies a 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He had previously been nominated for a Pulitzer for Collected Stories. Starring: Anna Gunn, Adam Arkin, Jordan Baker, and Randy Ogelsby

Sight Unseen: An Exploration of Conscious and Unconscious Vision

Average customer rating:

Sight Unseen: An Exploration of Conscious and Unconscious Vision
Melvyn A. Goodale , and A. David Milner
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Neuropsychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Physiological Aspects | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Cognitive Psychology | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Medicine | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 019856807X

Book Description

Vision, more than any other sense, dominates our mental life. Our visual experience is so rich and so detailed, that we can hardly distinguish that experience from the world itself. Even when we just think about the world and don't look at it directly, we can't help but imagine what it looks like. We think of 'seeing' as being an exclusively conscious activity - we direct our eyes, we choose what we look at, we register what we are seeing. The research described in this book has radically altered this attitude towards vision. The odyssey begins and ends with the story of a young woman (here called 'Dee') apparently blind to the shapes of things in her visual world due to a devastating brain accident. As their investigations unfolded, Milner and Goodale found that Dee wasn't in fact 'form-blind' at all - she could register the shapes of objects unconsciously, though she didn't at first realise it. Taking us on a journey into the unconscious brain, the two scientists who made this discovery tell the amazing story of their work, and the surprising conclusions about the normal brain's hidden capacities they were forced to reach. Written to be accessible to students and popular science readers, this book is a fascinating illustration of how the study of a damaged brain can reveal much about the human condition.

Feminist Discourse and Spanish Cinema: Sight Unseen (Oxford Hispanic Studies)

Average customer rating:

Feminist Discourse and Spanish Cinema: Sight Unseen (Oxford Hispanic Studies)
Susan Martin-Marquez
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Direction & Production | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Feminist Theory | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 019815979X

Book Description

Feminist Discourse and Spanish Cinema provides the first detailed consideration of women directors working before the Civil War and during Franco's dictatorship, and is the first to explore the impact of feminism on filmmaking in Spain. Part I focuses on three directors, Rosario Pi, Ana Mariscal, and Pilar Miro, whose careers span the history of sound cinema in Spain. The book highlights their struggle to achieve agency within the male-dominated film industry, and draws upon extensive archival research as well as in-depth textual analysis to reveal their negotiation with questions of authorship, female subjectivity and national cinema. Part II explores six films by women and men directorsDSthree each from the Francoist and post-Franco periodsDSthat foreground a number of issues of fundamental importance to feminism, from the indoctrination and 'performance' of gender, to the fraught effort to reconcile power with sexual pleasure. The Afterword treats the remarkable recent boom in women directors and traces the shift in their work towards the exploration of multiple forms of difference.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books