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The World's Religions, by Huston Smith, has been a standard introduction to its eponymous subject since its first publication in 1958. Smith writes humbly, forswearing judgment on the validity of world religions. His introduction asks, "How does it all sound from above? Like bedlam, or do the strains blend in strange, ethereal harmony? ... We cannot know. All we can do is try to listen carefully and with full attention to each voice in turn as it addresses the divine. Such listening defines the purpose of this book." His criteria for inclusion and analysis of religions in this book are "relevance to the modern mind" and "universality," and his interest in each religion is more concerned with its principles than its context. Therefore, he avoids cataloging the horrors and crimes of which religions have been accused, and he attempts to show each "at their best." Yet The World's Religions is no pollyannaish romp: "It is about religion alive," Huston writes. "It calls the soul to the highest adventure it can undertake, a proposed journey across the jungles, peaks, and deserts of the human spirit. The call is to confront reality." And by translating the voices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Christianity, and Judaism, among others, Smith has amplified the divine call for generations of readers. --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
Originally titled The Religions of Man, this completely revised and updated edition of Smith's masterpiece, now with an engaging new foreword, explores the essential elements and teachings of the world's predominant faiths, including:
- Hinduism,
- Buddhism,
- Confucianism,
- Taoism,
- Islam,
- Judaism,
- Christianity,
- and the native traditions of the Americas, Australia, Africa, and Oceania.
Emphasising the inner –– rather than institutional –– dimensions of these religions, Smith devotes special attention to Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and the teachings of Jesus. He convincingly conveys the unique appeal and gifts of each of the traditions and reveals their hold on the human heart and imagination.
Customer Reviews:
The World of the late fifties Religions.......2007-09-23
This is not a bad overview of some of the World's religions, but the reader should take care. Although I originally considered the book as a text for a survey course I am teaching on the subject, after reading some of the selections more closely, I was unsure that the book would work. It is well-written and interesting to read, to be sure, but smacks of a certain condescension or has a patronizing tone that came off as a little biased. I might still use the text to demonstrate a point of view, but have concerns that some of the students in the class whose own traditions were discussed by the author might take exception at how he portrays or writes about them. The book is a product of its time -- pre civil rights, pre feminist, pre alot of things. Yet, like a number of sort of "classics", it has its merits.
An excellent book for mutual understanding.......2007-08-29
What started me on reading this book was a talk with a Muslim lady. It was in 1997 at a park in California, U.S. She was a mother of two little children and so was I. We somehow slipped into a sensitive topic like religions. She was Muslim and very happy with it. When I told her I was Buddhist, she said,"Buddhism is a beautiful religion". I was so moved because it was the last remark I expected from a person of a different religious background. She had taken a class of religious study in a university, and this book was the textbook.
This book clearly shows the main ideas of world religions. It is not only good for understanding other people's religion but also helpful in understanding my religious background. I realized that religious environment of Japan is a mosaic of Hinduism, Buddism, Confucianism and Taoism on the base of Shintoism (one of the primal religions). Since around 1868, Japan has been influenced with an idea that the wolrd should become better if you really work hard together, as you see in social movements, which I think derived from Christianity.
Introduction to the World's Great Religions.......2007-07-21
This book is absolutely EXCELLENT in its coverage of the wide array of world religions. One large missing gap, however, is a discussion of African traditional/indigenous religions (such as Yoruba), and African-Caribbean religions (such as Vodun). This is a major weakness of the book. For example, in using the book for a summer World Religions course, I had to independently gather excerpts from other books and additional articles so that African-based traditional religions could be included along with the rest of the world. While the book contains numerous photographs of people of African descent practicing the various world religions, it does not contain a discussion of religions that originated with them and that are still widely practiced. It is important also for people who read the book to learn that while Western versions of Christianity, and while Islam is practiced in Africa, such religions are are re-configured by Africans and merged with various elements of traditional indigenous African religion. The Independent African Christian churches are examples of this type of integration. I think that the next edition of this book should add such a section. Perhaps a scholar such as Mbiti might be added to the group of scholars who compose the next edition.
As a college text - use with reservation.......2007-07-16
This book is often recommended as a good classic for an introduction to the world's religions. It was the first book I read on the subject many years ago when I started on my own long journey to study the world's religions. I recently used this book as a text for my college class on the world's religions but, to my dismay, my students found it most difficult reading. I have to agree with my students that Smith can be a bit wordy at times as he runs on and on in an attempt to explain complex religious concepts and values to drive the point home in ways that the western reader can relate to (was I too wordy there?). Personally, I like the book for what it offers: Smith gets right to the heart of the religions, bypassing all the superficial history, creeds and practices. He really does capture the most important essence of each religion and does so in a way that really makes each religion shine - putting its "best foot forward." And that he does try to relate these otherwise foreign ideas to the reader is the real value of this book. But the astute reader will want to beware that Smith leaves a lot unsaid: If you are looking to learn the history and practices of these religions, you'd best look elsewhere.
I recommend using Irving A. Sparks' "Reading and Writing Workbook" as a companion to Smith if you are serious about wanting to focus on the most essential points Smith is making (although my students often failed to use good critical reading skills so as to identify the most essential points in an effort to answer the questions in the Workbook).
Simplicity, Clarity and Profundity.......2007-06-13
Dr. Huston Smith's updated magnum opus provides unparalleled and valuable insight into the manifold expressions of humankind's deepest and longest-lived religious impulses. Don't expect this book (or any of Dr. Smith's books, articles or interviews) to reflect dusty and dry academic renditions of the superficial commonalities and differences betwixt and between the world's religions. Rather, revel in Dr. Smith's ability to elegantly and poetically describe the authentic profundities and differing world views in each. A life-long Methodist, born to missionary parents in China, Dr. Smith has immersed himself in these various traditions for long periods and, from experience and understanding, separates gold from institutional/cultural dross. As the world shrinks and our numbers grow it is ever more important to go beyond the implied condescension of simple tolerance towards a deeper understanding and appreciation of religious traditions and expressions that differ from our own. If you read only one "religious" book in your lifetime, make it this one. Dr. Smith is a global treasure.
Book Description
A practical, step-by-step, hands-on guide that provides a comparative analysis of the six most common methods of estimating used in the market today. It not only shows you how to price your projects accurately and confidently, but it also explains the total quality management (TQM) process and how to run your jobs (and your company) right from the bid sheet.
Customer Reviews:
Invaluable Resource for Landscape professionals.......2007-06-04
This is an invaluable resource for landscape contractors and anyone else who wishes to be successful in the landscaping business. Huston, an MBA who specializes in coaching landscaping companies of all sizes and specializations, explains the process of bidding jobs according to a pre-formulated yearly budget. His three phase bidding method is clearly explained and illustrated in numerous applications from residential landscape installation jobs, to large commercial maintenance jobs, to time and materials irrigation projects, and much more. In addition to these clear "how to" sections, it contains a wealth of information such as production rates and industry benchmarks, which will make it a valuable tool for the owner or estimator of any company throughout the company's lifetime. With this, as well as valuable explanations of company expansion scenarios and "exit strategies", I feel well equipped for success. I will never again be one of those creative types who must confess that I am "an expert in my art but I know nothing about business". Now I know a lot about both.
Average customer rating:
- Superb continuation of the Hank Thompson series
- Hard Core Noir
- Excellent Read!
- The Game Continues
- A good follow-up to Caught Stealing
|
Six Bad Things: A Novel
Charlie Huston
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Binding: Paperback
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Rain Dogs
ASIN: 0345464796
Release Date: 2005-06-28 |
Book Description
Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that the Russian mafia wants back and many, many secrets. So when a Russian backpacker shows up in town asking questions, Hank tries to play it cool. But he knows the jig is up when the backpacker mentions the money . . . and the family Hank left behind. Suddenly Hank’s in a desperate race to get to his parents in California before anyone can harm them. Along the way he’ll face Federales and Border Patrol, mafiosi and vigilantes, extortionists and drug dealers, and a couple of psychotic surf bums with an ax to grind. From the golden beaches of the Yucatán to the seedy strip clubs of Vegas, Charlie Huston opens a door to the squalid underworld of crime and corruption–and invites the reader to live it in the extreme.
Download Description
Part one
December 4–11, 2003
Four Regular Season Games Remaining
I’m sitting on the porch of a bungalow on the Yucatán Peninsula with lit cigarettes sticking out of both my ears.
I like to go swimming in the mornings. When I first came to Mexico I liked to go drinking in the mornings, but after I got over that I took up swimming and I discovered something. I have unusually narrow ear canals. Go figure. I discovered this while I was trying to sober up, paddling around in the lukewarm morning waters, and found that my ears were clogged. I tilted my head from side to side and banged on my skull, trying to dislodge the water, but no luck. I plugged my nose, clamped my mouth shut, and blew until it felt like my brain might pop out of my ass. No good. I crammed Q-tips up my ears, prodding at the blockage. That’s when things got really bad. For a few days I walked around half-deaf, feeling like my entire head was packed with waterlogged cotton. Then I went to a doctor. I have a habit of saving doctors for a last resort.
Dr. Sanchez looked in my ears and informed me of the tragic news: unusually narrow ear canals. The water was trapped deep inside and my irresponsible Q-tip use had sealed it in with earwax. He loaded a syringe the size of a beer can with warm mineral water and injected it into my ears until the pressure dislodged the massive clogs of wax and washed them into the small plastic basins I held just below my ears. He gave me drops. He told me never to stick anything in my ear other than my elbow, and laughed at his own joke. He nodded sagely and told me the solution to my problem was quite simple: When my ears became clogged, I must stick a cigarette into each one and light them. The cigarettes, that is. Then he handed me a pack of Benson & Hedges, told me they were his preferred brand for the task, and charged me a thousand pesos.
So. I am sitting on the porch of a bungalow on the Yucatán Peninsula with lit cigarettes sticking out of both my ears. The cigarettes burn and create a vacuum in my ears, sucking the moisture into the filters. I have a towel draped over each shoulder to catch the hot ash as it falls. I’ve been doing this a couple days a week for years and it always works. Of course, I do now smoke two packs of Benson & Hedges a day, but there’s a downside to everything in life.
The sun has dipped far in the sky behind my back and the reds of the sunset are reflected in the perfect blue sea before me. A soft breeze is caressing my skin and I adjust my sarong so that it can waft higher on my legs. The heat of the cigarettes has become intense. I reach up and pinch them out of my ears, careful not to squeeze so hard that the waxy fluid trapped in the filters leaks out. I dump them into an ashtray near my feet, slip the towels off my shoulders, stand up, and start walking toward the water. The beach is pretty much abandoned. A ways off to my right I can see a small group of local boys covered head to toe in sand, kicking a soccer ball around on their homemade field. In the opposite direction, the silhouette of a pair of lovers kissing. When my feet hit the wet strip of sand near the water’s edge I give my sarong a tug. It falls to the ground, leaving me naked, and I walk down into the gently lapping waves. The beach slopes away so shallowly that I can walk upright in the water for almost fifty yards before it will cover my head. I walk in the water with the sun sinking behind me, hearing the soft slap of the tiny waves quite clearly in my unclogged ears. I’ll probably have to do it all over again when I get out, twisting the cigarettes into my ears, lighting them, and waiting patiently while they burn down, but it will be worth it. I want to take one last swim today. I’m going home tomorrow and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come back here.
Machine guns wake me up in the morning,
Customer Reviews:
Superb continuation of the Hank Thompson series.......2007-09-27
When last we saw Hank In Caught Stealing: A Novel, he was on the run from the Russian gangsters chasing him in a desperate search for $4+ million. Hank ends up in Mexico, and that's where we start this book.
One thing I can definitely say about the entire Hank Thompson trilogy(which ends with A Dangerous Man: A Novel) is that is incredibly violent at the same time that it is humorous. The action here is much as it is in the first book. Hank began the trilogy as a guy who pretty much had a crappy life but who hadn't really actively set out to cause damage to anyone else (although he was involved in an accident where his best friend was killed pretty horrifically); he became a killer extraordinaire. Of course, he became that kind of man because of the loss of people he loved in the course of the first novel, but regardless--he's a killer.
In this novel, the killing continues. Boy, does it continue. Hank's whole life is defined by violence. Violence he does to others. Violence done to him. No one escapes unscathed. It's a miracle that Hank's still standing at the end of this one; by rights, he should be long dead. He's got enough people hunting him down to be on VERY borrowed time.
Strengths of this installment in the trilogy:
1) Hank himself. He's deluded, removed, always one step away from exploding in a frenzy of violence and grief. He loves people (his mom and dad, his partner in a Mexican enterprise) and his cat; he trusts few people and when he feels he's been betrayed, he does explode in lethal ways. It's amazing to me that I can actually like him at the same time that he disgusts me with his violence, with his approach to things.
2) Other characters are equally strong (his friends, his pursuers).
3) The dialogue is witty and very real. Huston has a way of meting out the words that his characters use. Some of those characters speak in fragments, clearly showing the reader the level of frustration/confusion/doubt the character is experiencing. Huston just has a gift for this. Once I got used to the way he crafted his dialogues, I really enjoyed it. It's not for everyone though; I imagine some readers will struggle the first time they get to a dialogue separated only with dashes and not with any immediately-clear indication of who's speaking.
4) The incredibly quick and almost startling action and violence.
For me, there aren't any real weaknesses that don't have to do with the protagonist himself. Hank is flawed, a bit nuts, homicidal (what made him this way isn't much of an excuse, in the end), funny, exasperating, and clearly in need of a few decades worth of therapy.
Read this series; I think you'll really enjoy it.
Hard Core Noir.......2007-09-05
The quotes splashed all over the outside of this novel were dead on. What was missing was any mention of it being the second in a series, so be warned and read "Caught Stealing" first. I wish I had.
Hank Thompson has the worst luck ever. His involvement in a bloodbath in New York has him hiding out in the Yucatan with the $4 ½ million he stole from the Russian mob. Life is good, except for the nightmares and the fact that the Miami Dolphins suck. He spends his days chatting with his new partner Pedro at their bar on the beach, otherwise whiling away the time in his bungalow, smoking cigarettes, and swimming in the Caribbean Sea at night. Then one day, a backpacker with a Russian accent shows up and hangs around, eventually mentioning the stolen millions and threatening Hank's parents. Hank's idyll on the beach is over, and it's time to go back to the States and save his parents, who have already been through enough because of him.
Of course, absolutely nothing goes right and a few new enemies come popping out of the woodwork. Not only is Hank famous with a cult following, everyone who recognizes him wants a chunk of the money. Hank is hanging around some very bad people, and he himself is no choirboy, not afraid to kill the people who get in his way, though it's not always so easily done. Readers who dislike violence should stay away, as the last portion of the book gets pretty bloody. There isn't a lot of joy to be found between its pages, either, but nobody reads noir for the happy endings.
Despite the things he's done, Hank is a likeable guy who tries to protect the innocent. It just so happens his associates, friend and foe, are a volatile lot so anyone who gets too close to Hank gets pulled right into the fray. There is some subtle humor woven in among the violence. Hank's football rants are hilarious, and I don't even like football. The story that unfolds twists and turns, and kept me gripped in its bloody fist. I had to read this powerful book slowly so as not to let it devour me in its blackness. For some real gritty, dark noir, Charlie Huston is a sure bet.
Excellent Read!.......2007-06-29
Picks up where "Caught Stealing" left off. Charlie is still trying to get out of the trouble caused by the load of cash he "happened in to." I could definitely see this made into a movie...it's that captivating. The story never leaves you bored, disinterested, or hurrying up to finish. I savored the book, beginning to end. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because of the way it ends. The ending left me with a feeling of dread and hoping I'm wrong about the third and last installment about Charlie's life.
The Game Continues.......2007-05-24
This second novel in the saga of Hank Thompson is the best of the three. Of course, the entire book is about how some bad guys relentlessly pursue Thompson for his accidentally gotten millions, when all he wants to do is protect his parents. The author is incredibly adept at springing surprise after surprise and at developing his characters -- and what characters they are! Huston is one of the most clever and appealing popular authors out there today. Looking forward to his future books with great anticipation.
A good follow-up to Caught Stealing.......2007-04-11
A few weeks ago I read Charlie Huston's book Caught Stealing. It's a Hitchcockian romp through New York City, a cheerful little tale with a jumbo body count and loads of gory details, right down to a guy who tortures a house cat. At the end of that novel (plot spoiler ahead) the main character narrator, Hank Thompson, flees to Mexico with $4.5 million of the Russian mob's money. In Six Bad Things, Hank's living on a beach in Mexico, silent partner in a bar, whiling away the days swimming in the ocean, getting tattoos, and trying to forget everyone he killed in New York City. When a Russian tourist shows up, Hank finds out you can't run or hide forever, and the fun begins.
This is one of those roller-coaster novels that starts and never really stops. Dead people, shoot-outs, fights, killer dogs, drugged-out hookers, and locales from Mexico to upstate California to Las Vegas, all figure in the story line. If there's a flaw, it's that it's the second book in what apparently is a trilogy. You really should read Caught Stealing before you read this one. I would be in favor of them re-releasing this series in a single volume. The author's style, pacing, and narrative would probably work well in this format.
All of that being said, if you've read Caught Stealing, you want this book too. If you haven't read Caught Stealing yet, go and get it, and then afterwards read this. It's definitely worth it.
Average customer rating:
- RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "AN ONSLAUGHT OF GUTTURAL VISCERAL WRITING!"
- awesome, just awesome!!!
- Charlie Huston Rocks
- Not for the faint of heart
- Hot Money
|
Caught Stealing: A Novel
Charlie Huston
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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Rain Dogs
ASIN: 0345464788
Release Date: 2005-05-31 |
Book Description
It’s three thousand miles from the green fields of glory, where Henry “call me Hank” Thompson once played California baseball, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the tenements are old, the rents are high, and the drunks are dirty. But now Hank is here, working as a bartender and taking care of a cat named Bud who is surely going to get him killed.
It begins when Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.
Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor.
All because of two cowboys, two Russian mafia men, and some of the weirdest goons ever assembled in one place. All because of Bud. All because once, in another life, in another world, the only thing Hank wanted was to take third base—without getting caught.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
It's three thousand miles from the green fields of glory, where Henry "call me Hank" Thompson once played California baseball, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the tenements are old, the rents are high, and the drunks are dirty. But now Hank is here, working as a bartender and taking care of a cat named Bud who is surely going to get him killed.
It begins when Hank's neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isn't until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesn't know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn't have it.
Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy's head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor.
All because of two cowboys, two Russian mafia men, and some of the weirdest goons ever assembled in one place. All because of Bud. All because once, in another life, in another world, the only thing Hank wanted was to take third base—without getting caught.
"Wow! Brutal, visceral, violent, edgy, and brilliant."
HARLAN COBEN, AUTHOR OF NO SECOND CHANCE
"Caught Stealing reads like The Maltese Falcon on crack. Tarantino meets Hitchcock meets Westlake meets Bukowski in a wild, relentlessly entertaining ride filled with vivid and colorful—but always believable—characters."
WALLACE STROBY, AUTHOR OF
THE BARBED-WIRE KISS
"It's hard enough for a writer to hit his mark, but Charlie Huston shreds his target with his first bullet fired. A frighteningly assured debut novel."
JOHN RIDLEY, AUTHOR OF STRAY DOGS AND THE DRIFT
Customer Reviews:
RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "AN ONSLAUGHT OF GUTTURAL VISCERAL WRITING!".......2007-10-01
There are two main areas I want to cover in this review: The first is the author's writing style, and the second is a review of the story.
Charlie Huston writes like an army machine gunner on speed, using words instead of bullets, and his gun is locked on automatic! His non-stop flurry of words, become sentences, become paragraphs, become pages, without you even realizing that time has passed and many pages have been turned. The excitement and impact of his "street-fighter's" jargon cuts to the bone in burgeoning streams of of unrelenting consciousness. WOW!!! I recommend getting your blood pressure checked after reading one of his books!
Now as far as the story goes, the main character is Henry "call me Hank" Thompson. Before Hank's life became ensconced in the bowels of New York in a deadly "cat" and mouse game of intrigue, he grew up in Northern California, and was a Little League and high school baseball player of great renown, with each of his games being watched by Major League scouts. The scuttlebutt was that Hank would skip college and go right to the pro's. But then in a regional championship game while attempting to steal third base, he had a messy collision with the third baseman, that resulted in a bone in Hank's leg sticking straight out from his calf. The pins they stuck in his fibula restricted growth in the bone, and no one even pretended he would ever play again.
From there his life took him to New York, where he wound up being a bartender with a drinking problem (That's the worst kind of bartender to be!) and things went downhill from there. Hank accepted that station in life, and felt things couldn't get any worse, until one day a neighbor was going out of town and asked him to watch his cat. That simple act of human kindness, led to the following: Hank getting beat to an inch of his life by two Russian-like musclemen, having a kidney removed, having two black cowboys kidnap him and threaten to kill him, have a red-headed Asian torture him, have crooked cops try to kill him, and much, much, more... all at a "warp-speed" machine gun like pace, that doesn't stop! I don't want to give anything else away, so if your Doctor says your blood pressure can take it... Buy the book!
awesome, just awesome!!!.......2007-09-20
I loved this book and I just finished the whole trilogy. I read them in 2 weeks. I couldn't get enough of Henry Thompson. You can't help but to love the character and feel sorry for him at the same time. Oh yeah, and there's a cat. I saw this book at the library and was instantly hooked. No, this book is not for everyone. From dirty cops to black cowboys and russians in jumpsuits. I will be buying the trilogy so I can read them as much as I want.
Charlie Huston Rocks.......2007-08-20
This was the first book I read by Charlie Huston and after I read it, I was hooked. Fantastic writing style...he writes the way I talk, so the story flows in such a way that I almost don't feel like I'm reading but that I'm actually watching the story unfold.
Not for the faint of heart.......2007-07-23
This is not the kind of book I normally read, but I picked it up based on a recommendation by Stephen King posted in the NYTimes this spring. I read it in one night. It is violent, very violent, but the evolution of Hank Thompson's character and the unexpected turns of the plot makes this book impossible to put down. And then there's the cat who clearly has more than nine lives.... In the middle of the all the mayhem and mystery I found myself wondering how is Buddy holding out -- which it turns out is one of Hank Thompson's concerns too.
Hot Money.......2007-07-11
Another novel about money causing trouble. Everyone wants the money, and it gets people killed. Some people think $4.5 million is worth killing for.
Hank is an alcoholic bartender in New York City with few prospects. He is still a Giants fan, and the story is wound aroung the end of the baseball season as the Giants struggle to come from behind.
His neighbor, Russ, had to make a sudden trip, and asked Hank to look after his cat, and that gets Hank involved in murderous activities as very rough people look for something that Russ had. Russ has been a bad boy, and tried to run away with money that had been laundered with his help. Now it has hit the fan, and Hank blunders about trying to save himself while he causes other people's deaths. It is not a good thing to know Hank.
It all comes down to who will get the money, and what will happen to the cat. Hank is getting some cuts and bruises, even losing a kidney, but he keeps on truckin.' Some events may seem unlikely, but the reader will stay interested to see what becomes of Hank, the cat, the money, Russ, and the various bad guys. The story is written in a narrative form.
The reader might also try "Walking Money" by James O. Born, and "Windfall" by James Magnuson.
Book Description
Retaining all the beloved qualities of Huston Smith's classic The Religions of Man and the current fully revised and updated The World's Religions, this stunning pictorial presentation refines the text to its wonderful essentials. In detailed, absorbing, richly illustrated, and highly readable chapters on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity and primal religions, we find refreshing and fascinating presentations of both the differences and the similarities among the worldwide religious traditions. The approach is at once classic and contemporary, retaining all the empathy, eloquence and erudition that millions of readers love about the earlier editions, while being edited and designed for a contemporary general readership. This delightful marriage of winsome text and remarkable pictures vividly brings to life the scope and vision of Huston Smith's expertise and insight.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-09-11
This book was exactly what we ordered and came in a timely manner. It was also in excellent condition.
Anyone wishing to be enlightened spiritually or culturally is in for a treat........2007-08-01
This book is a must have! Smith beautifully illustrates religions from around the globe in a respectable manner that is easily understandable to all. Anyone wishing to be enlightened spiritually or culturally is in for a treat.
An interesting introduction to the living mainstream religions of the World.......2007-07-25
I've had this book since my confirmation, but finally I had the time to read it. I've seen the highly approving quote from Smith about Guenon, so this certainly raised my interest enough to pull it out of my shelf and put it in my "to-read"-pile of books. The book is more or less evenly divided between images, art and text. My edition of the book uses very little annotations, but it didn't really bother me, since there is very little you feel the need to check out in such an introductory book.
The content of the book is quickly summarized; it's a very quick introduction to the various living religions of man, dealing quite objectively with them all, apart from the obvious holy cow of the "West"; Judaism. He appears to my biased eyes to be quite the philosemite; there is just no thing our desert friends haven't contributed to the West. He states somewhere in the book something of the nature that without them we wouldn't have any culture, religion or world-view at all, so I guess we would have to be satisfied with the tiny contributions of Mozart, Wagner, Shakespeare, Hamsun and all the other gentiles of the West.
The book was very interesting, and apart from the minor criticism I've voiced, and the fact that it is of course very shallow and bring relatively little depth (that is though, of course, the point of the book) I highly recommend it as an adequate completely basic introduction to this highly important field. As an additional bonus is all the mentioned religious art and images strewn throughout this short but effective study.
(I read a different edition)
Great reference book.......2006-11-04
This book is used as a reference for an Episcopal Church Christian Formation class. It is well written
and includes wonderful photos.
Fair and well thought out........2006-06-27
I'm about two thirds of the way through the book and I have to say that it's well ballanced and well written. The author takes great care in presenting accurate and unbiased descriptions of the world's religions. I'd recommend it for anyone trying to gain an understanding of what each of these religions represent.
Customer Reviews:
2nd volume C++ network programming architecture .......2007-09-14
The 2nd volume is a complement to the first.The 1st one talks for portable source code and wrapper classes. The second one concentrates on deisgn patterns & all issues in C++ network programming architecture .
Again i say dont reinvent the wheel , give ACE a look.
Excellent reading for any network programmer.......2003-09-17
This is an excellent reading for any network programmer. More than ACE itself the concepts covered are of a great value. I am a beginner to intermediate network programmer, but an experienced programmer otherwise, and found this to be an extremely valuable resource in terms tackling large application frameworks from the ground up. The concepts are precise upto the point but extremely easy to read and digest. Of course, the book is assuming that you know quite a bit of every thing else that is not covered here. There are quite a bit of things that are totally missing or not correct based on the OS and the advances in Posix threading. Nevertheless this is an excellent source for any network programmer.
Wonderful book!.......2003-01-15
I discovered ACE almost two years ago after a coworker told me about it. As a developer in the networking / streaming media / distributed computing space, i've all too often run into the problems that are inherent in developing this sort of software -- scalability, maintainability, not to mention all of those bugs ...
ACE makes all of that much easier, and delivers the promise of true reuseability; not just classes, but common behaviors (patterns). This book explains why ACE was needed, the problems it solves, and how to use it. Though it's highly technical, it's not boring or overly verbose -- the problems developing networked apps are presented, and the solution ACE uses as well. Doug and Steve did an amazing job with this ... highly recommended.
Good ACE overview.......2002-11-29
I have been trying to learn ACE for the past few months now. Their docs are not that great. I ran C++ doc generator on the API's and that helped alot. The book really closed the deal for me. I work with many customers that are just begining to use ACE and I recomended this book to them as well.
Read the on-line docs first.......2002-06-01
I became interested in ACE for a project I'm working on, so before spending money on a book I decided to check out all the on-line documentation, which is pretty detailed. That wasn't quite enough to get me over the learning curve, so I went and bought the book. I was disappointed though - while it was very clear and thorough, it didn't tell me much more that what I had already learned. So my advice is to save your money and stick with the on-line documentation and tutorials.
Book Description
“Among the new voices in twenty-first-century crime fiction, Charlie Huston . . . is where it’s at.”
–The Washington Post
“Huston writes dialogue so combustible it could fuel a bus and characters crazy enough to take it on the road.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Reluctant hitman Henry Thompson has fallen on hard times. His grip on life is disintegrating, his pistol hand shaking, his body pinned to his living room couch by painkillers–and his boss, Russian mobster David Dolokhov, isn’t happy about any of it. So Henry is surprised when he’s handed a new assignment: keep tabs on a minor league baseball star named Miguel Arenas.
Henry has no pity for the slugger and the wicked gambling problem that got him in trouble, but he can’t help liking the guy. After all, Henry used to be just like him: a natural-born ball player with a bright future. But hell, that was long ago. Before Henry did some guy a favor and ended up running for his life. Before his girlfriend and buddies got gunned down by someone on his tail. Before he agreed to buy his parents’ safety with a life of violence.
And when Miguel gets drafted by the Mets and is sent to the Brooklyn Cyclones, Henry must head back to New York, back to the place where all his problems began–and where Henry might find a real reason to keep living, a reason that may just cost him his life.
“Huston reminds me of all my favorite writers–Pete Dexter, Robert Stone, Crumley. If there is such a thing as compassionate noir, Charlie has found it. He’s a true marvel.”
–Ken Bruen, author of The Guards
“Charlie Huston is the real deal.”
–Peter Straub
Customer Reviews:
Disturbing but compelling thriller.......2007-07-21
Life hasn't been easy for Henry Thompson. He found and lost four million dollars belonging to a gangster chief, had to kill way too many people, and he's now alive only because the gangster thinks he can be an effective hit man. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Henry doesn't even do well at that, having trouble pulling the trigger in cold blood. As a last effort to get some use out of Henry, the mob boss assigns him the job of escourting a number one baseball draft pick through Las Vegas. That one night changes Henry's life when the baseball player demands that Henry move to New York and become his permanent bodyguard.
In New York, the mother of one of Henry's victims tracks him down, sending her ex-Russian intelligence officer nephews after him. Bodyguarding a baseball player becomes the least of Henry's problems as he struggles to stay alive in the face of threats from just about everyone he meets. When the local police are a serial killer's biggest ally, things are definitely dangerous.
Author Charlie Huston sustains a compelling dark narrative. Henry Thompson is an overweight druggie who kills without any particular moral qualms, and whose desire to protect his parents smacks more of a strange obsession than true affection. Still, he becomes a sympathetic character as he continues to slide into deeper and deeper danger. Over time, Henry's options narrow, promising paths close down, and attractive choices become ever-harder to see. Huston does an excellent job showing Henry struggling--because he must, but without hope.
A DANGEROUS MAN is a strangely powerful story. In the dark world of this story, there really aren't any blacks and whites--everything is a shade of gray, and all the shades are dark indeed.
No Mercy at all.......2007-04-22
Charlie Huston is one mean guy. He puts his main character, Hank Thompson, through about as many bad things as one person can endure, and then some, in Caught Stealing, ratcheted up the pain in Six Bad Things, and then makes it pretty much unbearable in this latest entry, A Dangerous Man.
If you haven't read the first two books, then this third one won't make a lot of sense. Hank is a would-have-been-great high school baseball prospect who gets hurt before he even gets to the minors, kills his best friend in a drunk driving accident, and then wanders to New York City with a girl who promptly dumps him there. A decade later, he's tending bar part time, living in a crappy apartment, and he gets caught up, through no fault of his own, in the chase for a large amount of money which several different criminals claim as theirs. Most of the rest of the three books involve Hank finding it, trying to hide it (and himself), losing it, and then finding it again.
This third entry has Hank working as a hit man and enforcer for a Russian mobster who is one of the people who claim the money. As long as Hank can't come up with the money, he has to kill people for David or someone will be sent to kill Hank's parents. Hank's pretty good at killing, but he's so hopped up on drugs that his usefulness is beginning to wane. As the books starts, David wants Hank to watch a "friend" of his, a baseball player who has a gambling problem and a bit of difficulty with impulse control.
These are very good novels at some levels. The author seems to know the locales well. He seems to know the seamy side of Las Vegas and New York City pretty well, and he seems to have a good grasp of character. I enjoyed this novel, and look forward to the vampire private eye series, which seems rather interesting.
An outstanding trilogy.......2007-03-29
Taken together, "Caught Stealing," Six Bad Things," and "Dangerous Man" are brilliant. They belong on the library shelf with "Borstal Boy," "Lost Souls" and "Crime and Punishment" and other classic examinations of outlaw lives. These three books resonate especially strongly now, when we are so aware of how circumstances can strong-arm even the unwilling into enslavement to violence and destruction -- child soldiers, suicide bombers, even gang members, victims of hurt and destruction in every part of the world who can only stand the violence by deadening themselves to it and have no hope of an end to it until their own lives end. People like me have virtually no framework for comprehending what such lives are like. These books show what it is like for one inhabitant of such a life.
One of the best things about these books is that they achieve a moral vision while staying within the noir formula. They are like good sonnets -- all the better for their adherence to a strict formula. Huston's writing is beautiful too. After I finished reading the last one, I heard the song "500 miles" done by the Seldom Scene, which I love. I have never heard that song quite the same way I heard it then. Quite an achievement, to illuminate that song and so many others about lost souls.
Loveable Serial Killer -- and Book.......2007-03-16
I accidentally read this finale to the Henry Thompson trilogy after reading book one, but not book two. So, there was a lot of plot I wasn't familiar with. But this effort surpassed Huston's excellent first book in the trilogy and I am thirsting to read the second book. Once you get the hang of how Huston writes -- no quotes, occasional streams of consciousness, etc. -- you settle in for a very satisfying read. Though the plot borders on being unrealistic, it isn't. Huston knows how to spin a good yarn without insulting the reader's intelligence. Thompson is an unforgettable, likeable character (despite what he does for a living). Huston's an enjoyable novelist and I'm a fervid fan.
Does It Have To Be Over?.......2007-02-26
It very rarely happens where I am sad to see a book end. The thought of no more adventures involving Hank Thompson is certainly disappointing. This third and final book in the trilogy has Hank going out like he came in: with a bang. A great story, fantastic, gripping writing that has you reading at a quicker pace out of sheere necessity.
If you haven't done so already, start with Caught Stealing and read your way forward. Then again, if you HAD read the first two books, you wouldn't need these reviews to tell you this one is a must.
Average customer rating:
- Fantastic.
- Wow Huston comes through
- Great hard-boiled vampire action
- Meet Joe Pitt, Again!
- Vampyre Noir -- subtle maneuvers
|
No Dominion: A Novel
Charlie Huston
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Already Dead: A Novel
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A Dangerous Man: A Novel
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Six Bad Things: A Novel
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Caught Stealing: A Novel
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The Shotgun Rule: A Novel
ASIN: 0345478258
Release Date: 2006-12-26 |
Book Description
Joe Pitt’s life sucks. He hasn’t had a case or a job in God knows how long and his stashes are running on empty. What stashes? The only ones that count to a guy like Joe: blood and money. The money he uses to buy blood; the blood he drinks. Hey, buddy, it’s that or your neck–you want to choose? The only way to lay his hands on both is to take a gig with the local Vampyre Clan. See, something new is on the streets, a new high, a high so strong it can send a Vampyre spazzing through Joe’s local watering hole. Till Joe sends him through a plate-glass window, that is.
So it’s time for Joe to gut up and swallow that pride and follow the leads wherever they go. It won’t be long before he’s slapping stoolies, getting sapped, and being taken for a ride above 110th Street. Someone’s pulling Joe’s strings, and now he’s riding the A train, looking to find who it is. He’s gonna cut them when he finds them–the strings and the hands that hold them.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic........2007-08-10
Not only am I waiting on pins and needles for the next book in the series, but my boyfriend, who doesn't usually read, is completely hooked. It's an easy, high action read.
Wow Huston comes through.......2007-07-25
Looking for a gritty sam spade vampire novel. Almost perfict noir. A little romance, alittle mystery, and a deeper story arch, this novel is for you.
Great hard-boiled vampire action.......2007-07-21
Down on his luck and running low on his blood stash, vampire private detective Joe Pitt decides to do what he never does--solicit business. His former mentor in The Society is willing to offer him a job--tracking down the strange drug that turns vampires into out-of-control crazies. Although The Society is dedicated to the proposition that vampires eventually come out of the closet, they don't want to rush that moment, and they certainly don't want to come out of the closet with vampires mowing down dozens of normal humans.
Pitt's investigation takes him across the vampire worlds of New York. From the south of Manhatten, where members of the Society struggle to power, to the northern end--the Hood, where African-American vampires suppress dissent and urge a bloody war against the Coalition that rules the central part of Manhattan.
Almost from the start, Pitt's life is in danger. In the vampire world. a rogue is never trusted and frequently killed. While Pitt merely wants to retain his independence, the other vampires see him as a rogue to be killed. It doesn't help that he pissed off the Coalition's leader so badly they'll do just about anything to kill him.
Pitt gradually unravels the plan, and learns that his friends in The Society have been infiltrated.
Author Charlie Huston continues his fascinating Joe Pitt series with another hard-boiled vampire story. Pitt, with a convincing blend of cynicism and desire to do the right thing makes an interesting protagonist. Huston adds some nice twists at the end, leaving Pitt frustrated and falling short of his goals.
Charlie Huston's prose is fast and engaging. NO DOMINATION is a hard book to put down. Nicely done.
Meet Joe Pitt, Again!.......2007-06-20
Joe Pitt is back and better than ever. I do think that reading "Already Dead" (the first book in the series) would be nice, but I don't think really necessary. In this latest installment, Joe is low on jobs, therefore making blood (his secret stash) thin. The story opens with Joe, a self proclaimed muscle man, encountering a "stoned" vampire, which is impossible because of what the "virus" does to the human body (normally it rids itself of things that can hurt it, which explains why Joe can drink large quantities of alcohol and not get drunk). Curious, yet stuggling with bigger issues, he is low on money and blood, and his girlfriend, Evie. Evie is HIV+ and wants Joe (who knows his blood can cure her, but make her a vampire) to donate blood.
So Joe can at least solve one problem, money for blood, he reluctantly asks his old friend, Terry for work. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the beginning of an adventure/search for the truth in what is making newly turned vampires act crazy? Joe soon discovers that it is "anathema", the blood of someone newly turned ingested by a vampire. To determine who is behind this new drug, Joe must encounter several clans within New York. Amongst them is a very old female enforcer (who lives on the "hill", attended Columbia and appears to be manufacturing the drug); a "hood" leader named DJ Grave Digga (who runs Pit Bull fights and acts like a gangsta..LOL; a barber with information (Percy); a vampire who starves himself (takes only a few sips of blood) to understand the "meaning of life"; a young "Count" (who is caught up more in the trappings of being a vampire, than really being one) and several who hate him and want him dead. So while solving a mystery, that in the end only makes sense, you wonder what will become of his girlfriend and will she learn of the truth.
As the story unravels, the issue becomes is "everything what it seems", and "who can Joe trust"? I loved this book, especially the story of his love for Evie was the most compelling. Will I tell you what happens? No, but I will tell you that I can't wait until the next one!
Vampyre Noir -- subtle maneuvers.......2007-05-14
In No Dominion, Joe Pitt has settled down a bit since Already Dead. The jobs have been few and far between but he's been doing okay -- except his stash is down to 3 pints, his girlfriend's HIV is getting worse, and she's wants to know what Joe does for a living. But that's just background as Joe's face is getting pushed through safety glass by a vamp hyped up on drugs. This is no small thing since the vyrus doesn't let vampyres get more than a light and fleeting buzz from drugs. So what's the drug that can get a vamp high? Who's making it? And where the heck are all these new vamps coming from?
No Dominion is noir squared. Joe Pitt is a vampire Sam Spade. Joe's a cynic but he can't help trying to do the right thing even when it means it might cost him everything he is. Vampyres are all about politics and territory. To learn what the new drug is and who is making it, Joe must travel out of his territory, and to do that he has to have the help of Terry, who wants to control him, and Daniel, who believes Joe should take his place when he dies. Joe is a holdout not beholden to any clan but picking up jobs and living free by Terry's whim in Terry's territory.
Pitt might not be a mover and a shaker in vampyre politics but he knows when he's being used and, even knowing, he allows it to get the job done. But in the end it just might cost him more than he's willing to pay. Huston continues to develop the character and the story unfolds allowing us to see how it works -- there are no winners here. There are those who are used and those who don't realize they are being used and those who make a choice for a better chance for others.
While you could probably pick this book up without having read Already Dead; there's a lot of backstory given in the first chapters to help out with the set up. However, the first book is excellent, so give yourself a treat.
There's no happy ending, just a visit to a place that's got to be worse than wherever you are now and that's got to make this world and this reality look better just by comparison -- and a nifty mystery to boot.
Customer Reviews:
Just awful.......2006-05-24
ACE is great, no doubt. This book is not. If I had been scanning ACE code for years and needed a reference, this book might be great, but like a kid in a foreign land, this book only confused me more than it helped. Here's why:
READS LIKE AN UNABRIDGED NOVEL. In order to understand each example, you must read the book from cover to cover. There is so much detail in ACE that there are almost no "trivial examples" and a thorough understanding is required. What if I'm not writing a high-performance server application? What if I want to work with small examples and work my way up incrementally? This book makes it difficult to do that.
EXAMPLE CODE IS CHOPPY. Each example is presented in such a way that code is provided piecemeal, along with paragraphs of explanation. This is ok, but it is very difficult to piece the examples together and write code. Also, it's not listed in the book, but the examples are online, here:
http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/examples/APG/
This link is not in the book.
THIS BOOK JUMPS EVERYWHERE. For instance, check out section 7.5, Timers. We're given a quick intro on Timers while we're kneed deep in talking about the omniscient Reactor that ACE provides. Now, section 8.5 talks briefly about timers and to reference further documentation in reference to Reactor/Proactor, which is unhelpful and unnecessary. Finally, section 10 gives great detail into using Timers. Chapter 7 should have been called Reactor.
My biggest interest was writing a client/server application in ACE. Chapter 6 started with a terrible example of socket communication, saying that Chapter 7 is a better pattern for the client/server. By the time I got done with Chapter 7, there was so much rambling of hypothetical situations that I completely forgot what I was trying to learn. The big picture is often lost.
NO API REFERENCE. Maybe it is not appropriate to put in an ACE API reference in here. I think it should be put in as an appendix. When examples are presented, the new data types come out of nowhere. What is an ACE_Time_Value, specifically? What other parameters can it provide? ACE Doxygen documents can't provide enough detail and neither can this book.
What I would love to see in a second edition:
- More descriptions of the standard types.
- Description of ACE_TMain and other OS functions.
- A better mapping of types to GOF patterns and better UML.
- An API reference, even if it is small
- Table mapping Unix/Windows/VxWorks functions to ACE functions.
- A more readible text. The code blocks could be encapsulated in gray to take it out of the text somewhat.
Also, most of the other reviews on this book shown above talk about how great ACE is for development, and I agree. However, isn't this the section where we are supposed to be commenting on the BOOK (APG) and not the TECHNOLOGY? These reviews hardly talk about the book at all!
Huston, et al, I encourage you to come out with a second edition. I still want to learn about ACE, but I need a more organized reference and clearer examples.
An issue in example code of section 7.6.3.......2006-02-08
A good book for you to get into the world of ACE.
A good book for newer of ACE.
During the first 2 month I am using ACE, this book give me great help. But later I found a little issue of the example code in section 7.6.3 which will cause spin-lock when the output socket is blocked/flow-controlled.
I post my comments to this issue below, hoping you can avoid this mistake.
You know, so many people are using this book as guide for ACE, and may copy the example code ( just as me ) in their work with ACE.
Section 7.6.3 ACE_Connector
int Client::handle_output (ACE_HANDLE)
{
ACE_Message_Block *mb;
ACE_Time_Value nowait (ACE_OS::gettimeofday ());
while (-1 != this->getq (mb, &nowait))
{
ssize_t send_cnt =
this->peer ().send (mb->rd_ptr (), mb->length ());
if (send_cnt == -1)
ACE_ERROR ((LM_ERROR,
ACE_TEXT ("(%P|%t) %p\n"),
ACE_TEXT ("send")));
else
mb->rd_ptr (static_cast
(send_cnt));
if (mb->length () > 0)
{
// Here will cause message_queue notify reactor
// And get into handle_output again immediately
// which cause spin-lock
this->ungetq (mb);
break;
}
mb->release ();
}
if (this->msg_queue ()->is_empty ())
this->reactor ()->cancel_wakeup
(this, ACE_Event_Handler::WRITE_MASK);
else
this->reactor ()->schedule_wakeup
(this, ACE_Event_Handler::WRITE_MASK);
return 0;
}
What would you do with all this power?.......2004-01-05
This book is yet another great example of how the ACE framework can save you a lifetime of development. Within this book is the knowledge and experience to excell your applications to the next level and become more productive then ever. If your code base deals with networking or even if you just need to have cross platform compatibility then this book is a must have to teach you the ways of ACE.
Tries to Decouple C++ from Specific OS details.......2003-12-04
Network programming can be very difficult, given such issues as latency and different hardware/operating systems on your net. At the very least, the latter can have different byte orderings an datatype sizes, if you write in C or C++. Now in C, by the late 1980s, such headaches caused several unix vendors (mainly Sun) to converge on supporting a key utility, rpcgen (and affiliated routines). This let you write common C code for client/server applications, and compile these on various platforms. Lo, things usually worked!
But as software projects grew in complexity, writing in procedural language like C became harder. Hence the rise of C++. Well, wouldn't it be nice to reimplement and extend rpcgen? (It had numerous limitations.) The idea was to finesse/bury OS specific details at a lower level of the code, where you could often ignore it. You can imagine ACE as filling this need. I'm not saying that this is how or why ACE was developed. But I am trying to argue from YOUR background, which I assume is C++ and C.
The book describes significantly more functionality in ACE than merely an extension of rpcgen. Even if you don't have a C++ networking application, but are writing a standalone application, ACE may be useful. It increases your chances of writing portable code. For one thing, it heavily downplays the use of OS-supplied compiler macros. In both C++ and C code that will be maintained on several platforms, this is a notorious source of bugs. Very brittle. Just having ACE subsume these issues should give a maintenance productivity gain. You won't see this immediately when coding the first version of your application. But experienced developers should see the payoff.
Plus, ACE also offers higher level design patterns. Here, I don't know how applicable they might be to your specific problems. But just having the patterns increases your coding arsenal.
... no better way to learn ACE.......2003-12-03
... than from the experts -- those who design / maintain / extend / port it, and some of those very same people were involved in the creation of this guide.
OK, we've all seen the problems with networked application development -- Windows does it differently than Solaris, which does it differently than Linux, which does it differently than VxWorks, which does it differently than Mac OSX , which does it differently than ... etc. Sockets, threads, timers, mutexes, synchronization primitives, etc. are the bane of developers who want to make their applications connect and communicate with one another in heterogeneous environments. Even the technologies that are cross-platform more or less (BSD sockets, pthreads, shared memory, etc.) are sometimes difficult to use and easy to introduce bugs with. What is a networked application developer to do?
Enter ACE -- the ADAPTIVE Communication Environment, which aims (and largely succeeds) in providing a cross-platform, pattern-based systems framework that hides the platform specifics without sacrificing speed, makes BSD sockets, threads, and system APIs object-based, and allows the same code to be used on a variety of platforms. ACE is used in many large projects around the world which needed to be highly scalable, predictable, portable and easily maintainable, all at once. Enter this book, which does an admirable job both introducing ACE and many of the design patterns it implements to the newcomer, and making some of the finer points of ACE more cogent to those of us who have been working with it for awhile. Each chapter has an introduction (which pattern we're covering now, what problems it solves, how ACE implements it), lots and lots (and lots and lots) of easy-to-read source code examples, and plenty of plain-english explanation as to how this stuff works. In my continuing ACE education, this book (as well as the C++NP books and the ACE-users list) truly helps me to understand ACE, patterns, and all that they are capable of. I am a far better developer as a result, and I cannot give this book any higher praise than that.
Book Description
Essays by internationally renowned writers of faith explore the universal significance of prayer in this inspirational volume of lush images and meditative words. More than 100 photographs taken in 50 countries chronicle the diversity of the devotional experience in all of its intimacy, mystery, rapture, and stillness. The experience of prayer is shown to connect all parts of the human family in pursuit of a greater, transcending reality. With its breathtaking beauty and affirmation of life, this volume gives readers new insights into the practices of the world’s many faiths.
Includes essays by Karen Armstrong, The Dalai Lama, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Harold Kushner, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Thomas Moore, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Kathleen Norris, Pope John Paul II, David Steindl-Rast, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Michael Wolfe, and Carol Zaleski.
Customer Reviews:
Feast of Prayers.......2007-10-03
Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer, by John Gattuso, Editor, Stone Creek Publications, 2006, Illustrated. Forward and introduction by the distinguished, Huston Smith, and religion writer and reviewer Phyllis Tickle.
Some people go to church on Sunday / Kneel and pray / Well I say God bless them / If they can go that way / But me I have to wait / Until the sun goes down / Go to my holy shack / Out on the edge of town. - Joziah Longo, singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Whatever religious tradition or individual observance resonates with you, you will find this book arresting, illuminating, informative and inspirational. The book is arranged in four sections "Every Breath a Prayer," "Praise and Supplication," "The Still, Silent Moment," and "Reaching Out." Each section contains essays on prayer from the wolds leading spiritual minds all of whom have a complex relationship with prayer and wreste with the difficult questions, which can raise more questions than they answer, such as that of unanswered prayers. C. S. Lewis and Harold Kushner observe that prayer isn't magic or a gimmick we can use to get God on our side. "What the writers in this book are saying is that prayer works, but it works on us rather than for us. Prayer doesn't change God, it changes us," observes Gattuso.
Included among the essayists in Talking to God are Karen Armstrong, The Dalai Lama, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Harold Kushner, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Thomas Moore, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Kathleen Norris, Pope John Paul II, David Steindl-Rast, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Michael Wolfe, and Carol Zaleski. There is a moving excerpt from Elie Weisel's Night, and the Navajo Blessing Way.
One hundred plus breathtaking photographs make this book a feast for the eyes, creating an album of individuals and groups from different cultures talking to God in their own ways: reciting prescribed words, meditating, singing, chanting, sacred dance, holy ritual, or simple mindfulness. Just looking at the photos is praying. When asked about forms of prayer, read or compose spontaneously, the editor replied:
Just because you're "saying prayers" doesn't mean you're actually praying. As Gandhi said, "It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart." Brother David Steindl-Rast puts it another way. He says that some people experience their most prayerful moments precisely when they are not saying prayers--when they are watering their flowers, for example, or doing some other mundane chore. That's when they truly experience the sacred. If you look at it from that point of view, then just about anything can be prayer--song, dance, meditation, whatever. Ultimately, I think, the goal is to live as though you're whole life is a prayer. To live prayerfully or, as a Buddhist might say, to live mindfully.
Through many faiths and many voices, though we pray in different ways, we speak to God with the same intentions -- to connect or communicate with the sacred. Rational thought will only get us so far. Let me end with a Jewish Blessing For Caregivers:
May the One Who blessed our ancestors be present to those who provide help for the ill and troubled among us. May they be filled with the fortitude and courage, endowed with sympathy and compassion, as they give strength to those at their side. May they fight against despair, and continue to find within themselves the will to reach out to those in need. And in their love of others, may they know the blessing of community, and the blessing of renewed faith.
Inspiring Look at Prayer Around the World........2007-05-13
This book is not only has gorgeous photography but gives you an idea of how other religions worship the Creator. It was very inspiring to know we all have similar things we do, when worshiping and praying, but we go about it in different ways. The book points out differences in a beautiful way, focusing on the positive aspect of each religions unifying factor of praying & worshiping the Creator. I would feel totallyh comfortable giving this book to anyone of any faith because there is no negativity in it regarding faiths or the peoples depicted. Its a beautiful, gorgeous book and should be treasured as I do now. It is prominently displayed on my coffee table. Kudos to the Author. Definitely a 5 star book. Worth every penny I paid for it. It will probably end up being a classic.
A beautiful compendium, compiled with respect toward all faiths and all efforts to humble oneself before the divine.......2006-09-14
Illustrated throughout with more than a hundred full-color photographs, Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer is compilation of fifteen essays discussing the topic of prayer from the point of view of many faiths. Writings from authors including the Dalai Lama, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, C. S. Lewis, Elie Wiesel, Pope John Paul II, and more allow the reader to contemplate the spirituality of opening oneself up to communication. Writings are brief, sometimes only a page, sometimes a handful of pages; Talking to God is a visual and reflective experience, rather than a lengthy academic or in-depth theological one. A beautiful compendium, compiled with respect toward all faiths and all efforts to humble oneself before the divine.
Books:
- Three Screenplays By Edward Burns
- Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, Allen Ginsberg, Winona Ryder, William Burroughs, ... Huston Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Others
- Untouchable: A Biography of Robert DeNiro
- What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
- Why Sinatra Matters
- Will There Really Be a Morning?
- With Fire and Sword
- Woody Allen on Woody Allen
- Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography
- 28 Days Later: The Aftermath
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