Average customer rating:
- A Classic
- One of the Best Overall Defenses of Christianity
- Inspiring
- Incredible Perspectives
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Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis
Manufacturer: HarperOne
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The Screwtape Letters
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The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
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ASIN: 0060652926
Release Date: 2001-02-05 |
Book Description
A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief that has become one of the most popular introductions to Christianity and one of the most popular of Lewis’s books. Uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.
Customer Reviews:
A Classic.......2007-09-28
This book needs no introduction. Originally published more than 60 years ago during World War II, Mere Christianity remains relevant on every level today. C.S. Lewis provides not only a strong and well-reasoned defense of the Christian faith, but gives the reader plenty of wise advice on leading the Christian life. This is a book that should be read and re-read.
One of the Best Overall Defenses of Christianity.......2007-09-19
C.S. Lewis' masterpiece "Mere Christianity," which was adapted from a series of radio talks he gave in the 1940s, is both a convincing case for the truth of Christianity and an important reminder of its importance in our own lives. Preferring to forgo denominational debates and dogmatism, Lewis instead offers a case for the basic, essential tenets of the Christian faith.
Lewis accomplishes so much in this valuable book. To start off, Lewis establishes the existence of God via a convincing presentation of the Morality Argument. He argues that humans all have a basic moral code which we know that we should follow but which we know we fail to follow. God, argues Lewis, provides the explanation for this prescriptive moral law that we find ourselves obliged to obey. Near the end of the book, Lewis delves into the more difficult topics of theology including the nature of the Trinity and God's relationship to time. He handles these difficult topics remarkably well with his engaging style of writing.
But more than providing a convincing case for the truth of God's existence and Christianity, Lewis also provides a very powerful explanation of morality. He discusses moral issues that are relevant both for people in general and for Christians in particular. These chapters about morality are simply excellent. Even though they aren't apologetic in nature, I found Lewis' exposition of morality very useful and so persuasive that I think it will have a positive impact on my own life. Near the end of the book, Lewis gives a very convicting argument for the importance of taking Christianity seriously.
Mere Christianity is easy to read, and Lewis' style of providing simple analogies makes complicated topics intelligible and interesting. It may not be a heavily referenced or scholarly tome about Christian apologetics, but it is a convincing, clear, and simple defense of mere Christianity and of Christ's importance in our lives. Overall, "Mere Christianity" is a fantastic book that everyone, believer or unbeliever, should read.
Inspiring.......2007-09-10
I listened to this book on cd which I have found is a great way to get insirational advice everyday and further myself as a person. I loved C.S Lewis's Mere Christianity. It gives a educated view into why he believes in God and more specifically the Christian God. He is a great writer and the book is very intellegent. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
Incredible Perspectives.......2007-09-10
This book was a suggested read by a "non-Christian" friend of mine that thought I should give it to everyone I was trying to disciple. Wow...what a read. Not only did this book strengthen my faith, but for a borderline unbeliever to suggest I read it was unbelieveable. C.S. Lewis knocked it out of the park! This book is perfect for every person not sure if God is real and if His name is Jesus. This will be an annual read for me, reminding me to think way outside the little box I have created about God. Awesome Book
Life-changing.......2007-09-04
Read this at 20 - made more sense at 30. I like the second half especially. The insights were helpful to me.
Customer Reviews:
Analysis of Pop Culture with Mostly Accessible Essays.......2006-02-19
Signs of Life focuses on the way we are shaped by the media and advertising with nine chapters that cover "Consuming Passions," "The Signs of Advertising," "Video Dreams," "The Culture of American Film," "Culture and Contradiction in the U.S.A.," "Gender Codes," "Constructing Race," "Popular Spaces," and "American Icons." Many of the essayists, like David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, Thomas Frank, Eric Schlosser, Franine Prose, Gregg Easterbrook, Malcolm Gladwell, and Michael Eric Dyson are best-selling authors whose essays or book excerpts are published in popular magazines. Signs of Life is well served by these writers who, unlike some of the lesser known writers, don't indulge in heavy didactic, academic prose. Some might not like the book for giving too much space to overly didactic writers. For example, there is Fred Davis' essay about the cultural signs and contradictions of blue jeans, which is so steeped in academic speak and is so absorbed by its tiny topic that it seems a pardoy of scholarly writing. Read for example: "Paralleling the de-democratization of the jean, by the 1970s strong currents toward is eroticization were also evident." Or "Of all of the modifications wrought upon it, the phenomenon of designer jeans speaks most directly to the garment's encoding of status ambivalences. The very act of affixing a well-known designer's label . . . to the back side of a pair of jeans has to be interpreted . . . along Veblenian lines, as an instance of conspicuous consumption; in effect, a muting of the underlying rough-hewn proletarian connotation of the garment throug the introduction of a prominent status marker." This is tough going, especially freshmen college students who are not familiar with this type of heavy-handed writing. This essay selection should be further criticized because I don't think students should be encouraged to believe that Fred Davis' heavy-handed writing style represents a worthy model.
In spite of some of the book's excesses, teachers and students alike should appreciate Signs of Life for three reasons: 1) Integrating the aforementioned popular authors into the chapters about popular culture, 2) Providing excellent essay assignments at the end of each essay under the heading "Reading the Signs." With a half dozen strong essay options per essay, the students have over 50 assignment options for chapter. 3) The introduction has three excellent model essays that show the students how to write A-level expositions. The models are based on "The Personal Experience Essay," "Critical Reading of a Film," and "The Open-Ended Analytic Assignment." Each model shows how to integrate outside quotes, paraphrases, and summary into the writer's own voice and how to document outside sources in the text and at the end of the manuscript with an MLA style "Works Cited" page.
It appears that Signs of Life Fifth Edition is moving away from the academic lucubrations of scholarly authors and embracing more accessible writers, like those previously mentioned. This is a positive evolution for the fifth edition and hopefully points to less overly-done academic writing in future editions.
What the media is up to...........2005-09-22
There is a statement that is familiar amongst our society, especially those of us that are more liberal, and that is "to not always trust what the media offers as valid or true." This textbook is an attempt to characterize the ways that media manipulate or tangle the truth, and even goes as far as offering an explanation as to why they do it. Now this is where objectivity within a learning text can be lost because to offer opinion about why the media does such things is treacherously difficult to do without biasing a left or right view. Yet the book does offer many illuminating details about the workings of this incredibly powerful economic and political tool, and more importantly, it offers the reader tools for combating or deciphering the clouded messages it gives.
I believe that this is a book that must be read by every human being (not to mention our pets who more and more become economic targets) so as to arm himself or herself against the incessant onslaught of "buy me! Buy me!" and "I can make you better because God knows you weren't made right!" However, the book loses power in being a textbook because some fluidity is lost, and it can be at times rather bland.
Nonetheless, it is a great tool to have and a tool that has now more recently become important to the human in his newest, superficial society.
Amazon.com
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory.
Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor:
Emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." … I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." ... I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever.
When you get to the end of this splendorous book, when you suddenly realize that after hundreds of pages you have only a few more left to turn over, you'll experience a quick pang of regret knowing that your time with Cal is coming to a close, and you may even resist finishing it--putting it aside for an hour or two, or maybe overnight--just so that this wondrous, magical novel might never end. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Book Description
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license...records my first name simply as Cal."
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
Download Description
Spanning across eight decades--and one unusually awkward adolescence - Jeffrey Eugenides' long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire.
Customer Reviews:
Ruined my summer.......2007-09-18
I guess a Pulitzer Prize and being on Oprah's Book List does not make for a good book. I spent my entire summer trying to get through this book. Fianlly on Saturday, September 15th at 10:38 am, I finished.
I was not drawned into any of the characters, found that the narrative was all over the place, found that the descriptions were overwhelming and as far as being controversial, I don't even think that the author really touched on the subject but skirted the issue.
I was very disappointed!!!
Middlesex an awsome read.......2007-09-18
Middlesex was certainly a book that I could NOT put down after I began reading. First of all it is a very well writen book. It began stating the birth(s) of Cal and took you through her life. You could feel how she felt. Starting in Greece and ending on Middlesex, was a wonderful journey for the reader. I loved the writing so much of Eugenides, that I ordered his previously written book,(Virgin Suicides) and am waiting for his latest book to be printed. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
E Morikis
Excellent writing on controversial topic.......2007-09-13
This might be the best written book I've ever read. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who has trouble reading about modern sexual issues, however.
Una Mariavillosa Saga Familiar!.......2007-08-02
Este novela esta en el Club de Libros de Opprah. Y se gano el premio Pulitzer de Ficcion de 2003. Narra la saga familiar de un una familia de Asia Menor que llega a los Estados Unidos en busca de un mejor futuro.
La historia es narrada por un hombre que, siendo hermafrodita, vivio su juventud como una mujer hasta que su desarrollo sexual le indico lo contrario. Pero esto, como dijo Opprah en su programa, no debe hacer que nos alejemos del libro.
Es una maravillosa narracion en que vemos tres generaciones de una familia vistos con unos ojos sin prejuicios y limpios. Una saga familiar que nos envuelve y una vez que comienzas a leer no puedes parar.
Completely Unique--Breaks New Ground.......2007-07-20
"Middlesex" by Jefferey Eugenides is as unique as its protagonist, Cal/Calliope Stephanides, a hermaphrodite born a female, yet destined at puberty to express his underlying male nature.
It is easy to see why this book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2003. At once a sweeping rollicking comic epic family saga, this novel breaks new ground by successfully hybridizing different literary styles and throwing aside conventions of proper storytelling voice and construction. The novel is told primarily in first person. How else could Eugenides tell the tale of this endearing heroine/hero without resorting to awkward use of pronouns? But then comes the real breakthrough. How does the author take us into the minds of the supporting characters when the novel is narrated in first person? Eugenides solves this by making his narrator creatively omniscient. The reader is consciously aware at all times that it is Cal/Callie, the protagonist, that is stepping into the minds of his/her ancestors and immediate family to reveal their hidden feelings as she/he tells their tales in third person. It works! The storytelling comes alive on two levels: we better understand the motivations of the third-person characters, and we learn to treasure our creative, endearing, fully human storytelling protagonist. As a bonus, this construction often leaves the door wide open for outrageous comedy, and Eugenides makes full use of it.
The book mixes literary styles, too. It starts out almost like a fairy tale--a tragicomic Greek epic--with chorus, no less! Much of the next part of the novel is written in a 19th-century style. Finally, the novel transforms into a modern psychological coming-of-age tale. As the literary style transforms over the course of the novel, we progress from the stories of Cal/Callie's Greek ancestors through to the present day. Along the way, we are treated to a courageous Greek-American immigrant family saga as well as the story of Detroit from the Prohibition through to the present day. The story of Detroit is so vividly told that the city almost becomes a third character. In particular, we are brought into the alien worlds of early Ford assembly-line factory work, bootlegging prohibition gin-running and speakeasies, the birth of the Nation of Islam, the 1967 race riots, the rise of franchising wealth, and white flight to rich suburbs including sending children to private schools to avoid racial desegregation. All is so vividly recreated that the reader in transported.
At the heart of the novel is, of course, poor confused sweet child Callie/Cal. The story of her/his gradual awakening to sexual awareness, self-acceptance, and identity is profoundly touching, tastfully rendered, and ultimately very believable.
I loved this book. I did not want it to end; even after almost 600 pages, I wanted more.
Book Description
Mrs. Cowman's classic devotional will inspire fresh hope, confidence, and a deep awareness of God's presence in your life are presented in one volume for morning or evening devotional reading.
Customer Reviews:
GMA Robin Robert's Favorite thing. Now mine........2007-05-25
We shared this with all our kids. This book in a great way to start your day, second only to the Good Book. A really good feeling book.
Living Water--Streams in the Desert.......2007-05-18
As a desert dweller, I know how important water is. Here, we never travel without a bottle of water, even to the grocery store. Christ said He came to give us living water--that is what this book does. It quenches the thirst of the soul--that inward longing we all have for more than what can be found in our material lives.
Over the years, I have read many daily devotionals. Streams in the Desert is without a doubt the most unique, and the most encouraging. First published in 1925, this book is a fountain of wisdom and encouragement. While the language might seem a bit old-fashioned to some, it is not a deterrent to the subject matter. The book is Bible-based, and quotes are from individuals, sermons, poems, stories, hymns, and of course, the Bible itself.
All of us deal with hardship in our lives--for me it is cancer. I use this book in tandem with my daily Bible reading and prayer.
Streams in the Desert comforts; it speaks to suffering, encourages faith, and would be an excellent gift for anyone who is going through difficult times.
Or for anyone who is thirsty for that living water.
Peace in a storm.......2007-04-03
This is one devotional you must have as you journey through life. Mrs Charles Cowman reminds the faithful follower of Christ that storms and trials that beset one actually come to make one more like Jesus.
In it there is refreshment for the soul who cannot seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel, as well as encouragement that the Master has it all planned out for His Glory.
Above all else it tells the age old story - trials are not new, only recycled and are common to man.
In this devotional, each new passage gives one testimony that cheers the soul, that all is well, that all will be well.
Streams.......2007-03-23
I enjoy this book but sometimes I have a hard time understanding what some of the people are saying. I am using it in my prayer time. Thank you!
In this day and age, uplifting is good!.......2007-03-21
I don't have alot of time in the day to just sit down and read something...but this is something that I hope will be passed down generation to generation as a "treasure". I do have a couple of minutes each morning to read a quick uplifting thought to keep my spirit happy for the day and give me something to think about...and hopefully pass on to others. This book should be a staple in every home.
Average customer rating:
- A mind is a terrible thing to waste....
- Pretty good
- just not that impressed
- Just what I was looking for.
- OK but not full of new things
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Mind Performance Hacks: Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain (Hacks)
Ron Hale-Evans
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0596101538 |
Book Description
You're smart. This book can make you smarter. Mind Performance Hacks provides real-life tips and tools for overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book, you'll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally, safely, and productively. Grounded in current research and theory, but offering practical solutions you can apply immediately, Mind Performance Hacks is filled with life hacks that teach you to:
- Use mnemonic tricks to remember numbers, names, dates, and other flotsam you need to recall
- Put down your calculator and perform complex math in your head, with your fingers, or on the back of a napkin
- Spark your creativity with innovative brainstorming methods
- Use effective systems to capture new ideas before they get away
- Communicate in creative new ways-even using artificial languages
- Make better decisions by foreseeing problems and finding surprising solutions
- Improve your mental fitness with cool tricks and games
While the hugely successful Mind Hacks showed you how your brain works, Mind Performance Hacks shows you how to make it work better.
Customer Reviews:
A mind is a terrible thing to waste...........2007-08-11
So buy this book and make the most use of it!
Just think of this book as kind of martial arts program for your brain. Each chapter (and there's 22 in all) stands out on its own and discusses a particular area you can improve on, such as memory, creativity, math, communication, and so on. It's an easy read and since each chapter stands out by itself, you can jump around and go to the areas that interest you the most. A great book with a lot of clever and PRACTICAL ideas, I give it 5 stars easy. Also liked The Sixty-Second Motivator to improve one's motivation.
Pretty good.......2007-05-22
The book is filled with plenty of hacks, although some of them were somewhat useless and uninteresting to me.
The memory hacks are pretty decent, but they don't go into enough detail on how to actually learn to use them. If you figure them out they work incredibly well, though. Some of the fast-math hacks were pretty helpful as well. One of my tops, however, was the hack that shows you how to calculate the weekday of any given day.
Good buy, good as a reference book just to learn something new if you ever need to.
just not that impressed.......2007-03-30
I bought this book sort of on a whim, hoping it might be a real gem. I've read some of the Hacks but not all of them. To me, they seem to skirt around the edges of usefulness, implementability, and impact. The strongest points seem like things I've heard elsewhere. I'm going to go back to the book based on all the positive reviews here, but I'm skeptical.
Just what I was looking for. .......2007-01-14
Focus on getting your mind expanding/growing. A great and highly useful set of tools, perspectives on maximizing your mental abilties. Wonderfully written, precise, Although I have been a software developer for 27 years, the Perls scripts are not essential for the non-developer type. Great for those of us heading into the 60+ years bracket. Got to be worth the bucks. Lots of great hacks. Buy it.
OK but not full of new things.......2007-01-08
It was OK and mostly worth the money but it was not full of new things for me. The hype on this book made me expect more out of this than I received.
Book Description
With The Measure of Our Days, Dr. Jerome Groopman established himself as an eloquent new voice in the literature of medicine. In these eight moving portraits, he offers us a compelling look at what is to be learned when life itself can no longer be taken for granted.
These stories are diverse--from Kirk, an aggressive venture capitalist determined to play the odds with controversial chemotherapy treatments; to Elizabeth, an imperious dowager humbled by a rare blood disease; to Elliott, who triumphs over leukemia and creates for himself a definition of success--but each, in the words of Maggie Scarf, "transmute the misery of terrible suffering into a marvelous celebration of the sweetness of human life." Far from medical case studies, these are spiritual journeys of questioning and self-awareness, embarked on by the physician as well as the patient.
Customer Reviews:
Touching and thought-provoking.......2007-07-07
As a nurse who has worked in Oncology, I have found this book very interesting and thought-provoking. It brought back many memories of patients and similar situations. Could anyone ask for a physician any more compassionate than Dr. Groopman? Something for all in the medical field to strive for.
The most touching book on relationships between a good doctor and his patients..........2007-04-14
I don't remember why or where I bought this book. I think it came highly recommended to me, as I have worked in HIV research and bioethics for the disabled for years, not as a job, but because it is what I care about. I think I accidently put this book up to sell, thinking it was another book on these same issues I had read years ago. When I got it out to send to another reader, I realized I hadn't read it. I can read quite fast when necessary and after the first few pages in this book, I realized I did not want to send it until I had read the whole thing. So I read it in one evening, and I am so glad I did.
After just undergoing a horrendous couple of years with my own personal physician who threw medication at me in hopes something would help (and he just made things worse), I needed to be reminded there are outstanding and wonderful physicians out there still who see their work not as a way to make money but a way to make a living and provide for their families while still doing the most they can for humanity. I'd read Groopman's work before. He is a very prolific writer, as well as a physician and researcher into HIV and cancer. I don't know how he does it. The man must not sleep ever, and that also earns my admiration. His patients are not easy ones. They are the more difficult ones, and he see his job as being to give them the most time he can possibly squeeze out of their conditions. And that time he gives them, he makes them as comfortable as possible and as able to continue their life's work...this is what is meant by providing people with chronic illness and even illness whose end result is death with a quality of life equal to that, or better than that, than the life they had lived before. Why? Because they know their time is limited, and they seek to fill their remaining time with the most they can stuff into it. EAch of these individuals have different ideas of what constitutes a meaningful life, and each of them learn something from Groopman during their time under his care, and their stories not only taught Groopman something, but in this book they teach the reader something.
I'd always been one of those people who didn't want to undergo chemotherapy for a cancer that would end in death anyhow. But now I understand from Groopman why you would prolong your time here, as long as it could be done in such a way as to achieve my goals and those for my family and friends, and give something back to others as I have always wanted to do (but often had to put to the side while I raised my family).
This is one of the most compassionate books I have ever read. I hate to send it away but at the same time, I want others to read it. It teaches us to put into practice our religious beliefs rather than just spout them. It isn't enough to say 'this is what I believe.' Groopman teaches us that we can put our religious beliefs into daily practice and do the most good by doing that. I would definitely recommend this book as required reading for all students in all medical fields, even research...as we too often lose sight of the very human faces that we are researching for. By putting a human face on these usually unseen people it forces us to work harder and with more focus on moral behavior, whether as researchers, or as medical personnel in daily contact with those who are suffering. Our job is not to judge, but rather to alleviate suffering... Groopman is an outstanding example to all of us, and I hope to incorporate his teachings in my own life and my own work...
Karen L. Sadler
Departing into darkness.......2006-06-27
If Sherwin Nuland hadn't already written "The Way We Die," Jerome Groopman could easily have used the title for this book. Dr. Groopman specializes in cancer, blood-disease, and AIDs patients, so he is very familiar with the way we die. His emphasis in this book is more on the spiritual aspect of dying, although there is also plenty of physical agony and degradation in "The Measure of Our Days."
If I had to sum up the book's theme, it would be: patients who love and are loved struggle hardest to live, sometimes way beyond the point where physicians have given up on them. When they finally do die, their deaths are more fulfilling (easier? better?) than those who die with full wallets and empty hearts.
That sounds kind of hokey, like "Love Story" as written by a doctor, but Dr. Groopman handles the theme very effectively. He's even slightly more optimistic than in his book "Second Opinions," although no one in "The Measure of Our Days" dies as romantically as Ali McGraw. Just the opposite. Most of Dr. Groopman's patients in this book die after extensive chemotherapy, surgery, and physical therapy--the whole painful and nauseous armamentarium of modern medicine (If it hasn't yet struck you how closely physicians resemble the monks of the Spanish Inquisition, you've probably never undergone chemotherapy. Both wield their instruments for our own good).
"The Measure of Our Days" speaks like a modern day Koheleth (Ecclesiastes):
"A man may have a hundred children and live a long life; but however many his days may be, if he does not get satisfaction from the good things of life..., then I maintain that the still-born child is in better case than he. Its coming is an empty thing, it departs into darkness, and in darkness its name is hidden..."
Change 'get satisfaction from the good things of life' to 'love' and I believe you will understand Dr. Groopman's measure of our days.
inspiring tales of truth and human dignity.......2006-05-10
An excellent book of choice for anyone looking to find meaning in the field of health care, who feels swept away by torrents of robotic practices of academic medicine and scientific prejudices.
The Measure of our Compassion through the measure of our days.......2005-12-05
It takes a special person to care for others. Compassion for people comes in different ways and Groopman finds an excellent way to blend both: medicine the way we know it and kind and considerate way to offer care and hope.
This book is a great reading for anyone.
Highly recommended!
Book Description
This book presents a unique opportunity to read many original source materials written by authors representing diverse points of view and a broad spectrum of history in the field of education. It offers a personal philosophical perspective on the work of teaching; the function of schools in our society; and the relationships between education and productivity. Unlike most introductions to the profession, the issues raised in this book bring readers face-to-face with themselves and with the challenging dilemmas they will confront as teachers. It provides exceptional coverage of community and the changing social, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic landscape of our society and its impact on schools, children, and teaching. In addition, the book answers the following questions: What are the relationships between culture, society, and education?, What are the dynamics of daily life in schools as institutions in particular organizational and community contexts?, In what ways are gender, language, culture, race, social class, and the relationship between school and work important to education?, and What orientations and strategies can teachers adopt that will enable them to become more transformative educators? For individuals contemplating a career in teaching.
Customer Reviews:
Awesome anthology of essays!.......2007-07-05
Sometimes a little recondite, this book is an awesome report on the disparities between socioeconomic educational experiences. The essays that showed the dichotomy beween the lower and upper economic classes really made me reflect on my own education and its impact on my current economic living situation. It is a profound resource for teachers who strive to understand the expectations and education stratified through American educational institutions.
Amazon.com
A wild, often horrifying, novel about freaks, geeks and other aberrancies of the human condition who travel together (a whole family of them) as a circus. It's a solipsistic funhouse world that makes "normal" people seem bland and pitiful. Arturo the Aqua-Boy, who has flippers and an enormous need to be loved. A museum of sacred monsters that didn't make it. An endearing "little beetle" of a heroine. Sort of like Tod Browning's Freaks crossed with David Lynch and John Irving and perhaps George Eliot -- the latter for the power of the emotions evoked.
Book Description
Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out–with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes–to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family’s most precious–and dangerous–asset.
As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry,
Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.
Customer Reviews:
Geek Love.......2007-10-01
I greatly enjoyed this story. If you like books like Fight Club, you will too. I have a feeling that this is the sort of book that you either love it or hate it. It was a little slow to begin with but I stuck with it to the end and was glad that I did because overall it is worth the read. I liked it so much that I purchased another copy to be shipped to my brother in Florida. This story was surprisingly and refreshingly different. I would advise parents to read it before allowing their teenagers to due to the fact that there is some adult content. I would rate it a P-13 borderline R but some readers may feel differently so don't take my word for it, go read it yourself! I will be looking for more books by Katherine Dunn!
strangely odd , but just as lovely even odder.......2007-06-30
Read this book years ago, and I read it fast not being able to put the book down for a day and half. I had to finish it, and hating that it came to an end. This book has stayed with me for some reason that I can't name. Don't think you are going to read a book about the life of circus folks, you are going into depths that can frightened you and make you throw you head back and laugh all at the same time
A PERFECT DESIGN.......2007-06-22
Okay, if you are on Amazon to look for a new book to read, and decide to read the reviews first, than listen up. Read the "synopsis", see what it's about? Yeah, it's not a novel about Nerds who fall in love; it's a fantastical novel about a family that is designed to be full of horror, wonderment, shock and awe, literally. If you cannot stomach reading descriptions of deformities, or people who are cult followers to the nth degree, or talk of injuries to both body and soul and mind, than do not buy this. If you do, than soon you will be on here reviewing this and saying "it was disgusting, and horrific, and I didn't get it" This book isn't for the faint of heart, or the simpleton who just wants quick read before settling into beddy-bye for the night. You must be able to wrap your head around profound, well written, scarring literature. If you choose this for a readers circle, or book club, make sure that everyone has an open mind, you don't want to choose this and than have a bunch of people look at you like you grew fins and a hunchback.
We all have handicaps, physical or mental. I know that I can personally blame my parents for the struggle and afflictions I have had in my life, they might not have designed me that way, but they sure as heck didn't think before they acted. I fell in love with this book because I fell in love with the sublime mystery of It all, I couldn't wait to see how it unfolded, and how it came to be that Oly was on her own looking after both her daughter and her mother, and neither knew who she was. I will forever treasure this book.
And I'd figured I'd come to the end of being amazed........2007-06-05
"And I'd figured I'd come to the end of being amazed. Run out of it, like you'd run out of sugar. But when I saw you lovely girls I thought to myself, maybe there's more to life yet."
An astonishing, grotesque, sharp-tongued, and lovingly written family memoir and the most entertaining work of fiction I've read in years. Reduced to archetypes, it's the story of a family struggling with its own hubris (a la the Magnificent Ambersons or Royal Tenenbaums) and a meandering reflection on small-town America -- an unsentimental road-trip comedy dotted with soft drawls, murder, prostitution, tigers, telekinesis, a cult of amputees, and lots of security guards. Think Willie Nelson and the Quay brothers collaborating in the milieu of HBO's Carnivale, and you have a rough idea of the premise and aesthetic of the novel.
Though it's thoroughly entertaining, the flaws are stark: at about the two-thirds mark, Dunn steers the storytelling away from a first-person recollection to 'journalist's notes,' a decision which, depending on how you frame it, drags down the pace considerably or is a judicious bit of editing that compresses the formidable challenge of exposition and actually speeds the action. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it's there and it gives Dunn the opportunity to drop in a few smart epigraphs that would otherwise have been non sequiturs. Some characters are painstakingly and hilariously dressed but given few lines; while I hoped that some of them would have more presence in the story arc, I know that if my obituary is to be published, I want Dunn to write it.
Something else to keep in mind as you read this book: a majority of the action happens between characters who are children, at most adolescents, in the 20th century. While in the 21st century, I might no longer look upon carnivals or freaks or even acts of extreme sadism in awe, Geek Love reminded me of the thrill of audacity, and that achievement on its own is amazing to me.
One "Freaky" Book.......2007-06-05
This is a tough book to review because it is definitely weird - but not so twisted that you should pass it up. I don't go out of my way looking for books this strange, but I did enjoy it. You would have to know a person pretty well to know whether they would like it or not. It kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out where it could possibly go after starting with such a bizarre premise.
Amazon.com
Part melodrama and part parable, Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life (a la A Christmas Carol). Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs.
Albom takes a big risk with the novel; such a story can easily veer into the saccharine and preachy, and this one does in moments. But, for the most part, Albom's telling remains poignant and is occasionally profound. Even with its flaws, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a small, pure, and simple book that will find good company on a shelf next to It's A Wonderful Life. --Patrick O'Kelley
Book Description
Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his 'meaningless' life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: 'Why was I here?'
Customer Reviews:
Existential Food for Thought.......2007-09-30
This tiny book is huge in provoking thoughts about life after death. It provides the reader with another theory of the after-life, the author's. According to Albom, five people whose lives we have touched, meet us in their very own heaven, endowing us with answers and experiences. It is a moving, thought- provoking, and uplifting book.
I would have enjoyed it more if the characters had been more finely developed. But in this little book, there wasn't enough time.
always a great read.......2007-09-29
I love this book. This was the second time I read it and it was better than I remember.
A Parable More Applicable To Life Than Death.......2007-09-08
I have read and liked Mitch Albom's other works, especially the brilliant "Tuesdays With Morrie." I was given this book as a gift, and was a less sure about it because I am not generally fond of fiction, especially spiritually-based fiction. I shouldn't have been concerned: Albom delivers as usual.
The book concerns the life, and more to the point, the death of a man who had lived an ordinary life, and who finds himself entering heaven as Albom envisions it. While I certainly don't agree with or endorse Albom's specific spiritual or religious views, the point of the book isn't really about the specifics of heaven or life after death, but rather it is a reflective parable which focuses the reader on the relationships and situations of genuine importance in life.
The book follows Eddie, an elderly widower, as he meets five people who played key roles in his life on earth, even though their roles were rarely what they first seem to be. I was most impressed with the two lives which intersected Eddie's in wartime, the Captain who was his commanding officer in World War Two, and Tala, a little girl whose life most dramatically intersected with Eddie's in a defining moment of his life. I read the book in one sitting, and while I was captivated by the entire book, the encounter with Tala was one of the most emotionally charged passages I have ever read, and is in and of itself a good enough reason to recommend the book.
This book is easy for intellectual snobs to dismiss with an elitist sniff, but I think that's an inappropriate response. The book, while not conforming to the specific religious beliefs of many (including myself), is a great reminder of the importance and value of relationships in this life, and teaches readers to never take people, especially friends and family, for granted. With that in mind, I can say that the book is generally excellent, and has moments of utter inspirational brilliance. I recommend the book highly.
5 Stars for 5 People.......2007-08-24
I would recommend this book for anyone. It is a smooth good read. Not at all what I thought when it was recommended to me. You will enjoy this book.
Delightful.......2007-08-23
I read this book in one day. As 'Eddie' catches glimpses of his life and some of the people and events that took place, you will be tempted to look back on your own life. There are so many lessons to be learned about yourself as you read about Eddies life and death. This is not a book to keep in your collection; it is a book to pass on because everyone you love deserves to read it.
Average customer rating:
- Good start, fair finish
- ENJOYED IT IMMENSELY
- I Read This Book Some Years Ago...
- Sad, Redeeming, True
- Amazing - moving
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Breath, Eyes, Memory (Oprah's Book Club)
Edwidge Danticat
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Farming of Bones
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Krik? Krak!
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A Virtuous Woman (Oprah's Book Club)
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ASIN: 037570504X
Release Date: 1998-05-18 |
Amazon.com
Oprah Book Club® Selection, May 1998: "I come from a place where breath, eyes and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. Where women return to their children as butterflies or as tears in the eyes of the statues that their daughters pray to." The place is Haiti and the speaker is Sophie, the heroine of Edwidge Danticat's novel, "Breath, Eyes, Memory." Like her protagonist, Danticat is also Haitian; like her, she was raised in Haiti by an aunt until she came to the United States at age 12. Indeed, in her short stories, Danticat has often drawn on her background to fund her fiction, and she continues to do so in her debut novel.
The story begins in Haiti, on Mother's Day, when young Sophie discovers that she is about to leave the only home she has ever known with her Tante Atie in Croix-des-Rosets, Haiti, to go live with her mother in New York City. These early chapters in Haiti are lovely, subtly evoking the tender, painful relationship between the motherless child and the childless woman who feels honor bound to guard the natural mother's rights to the girl's affections above her own. Presented with a Mother's Day card, Tante Atie responds: "'It is for a mother, your mother.' She motioned me away with a wave of her hand. 'When it is Aunt's Day, you can make me one.'" Danticat also uses these pages to limn a vibrant portrait of life in Haiti from the cups of ginger tea and baskets of cassava bread served at community potlucks to the folk tales of a "people in Guinea who carry the sky on their heads."
With Sophie's transition from a fairly happy existence with her aunt and grandmother in rural Haiti to life in New York with a mother she has never seen, Danticat's roots as a short-story writer become more evident; "Breath, Eyes, Memory" begins to read more like a collection of connected stories than a seamlessly evolved novel. In a couple of short chapters, Sophie arrives in New York, meets her mother, makes the acquaintance of her mother's new boyfriend, Marc, and discovers that she was the product of a rape when her mother was a teenager in Haiti. The novel then jumps several years ahead to Sophie's graduation from high school and her infatuation with an older man who lives next door. Unfortunately, this is also the point in the novel where Danticat begins to lay her themes on with a trowel instead of a brush: Sophie's mother becomes obsessed with protecting her daughter's virginity, going so far as to administer physical "tests" on a regular basis--testing which leads eventually to a rift in their relationship and to Sophie's struggle with her own sexuality. Soon the litany of victimization is flying thick and fast: female genital mutilation, incest, rape, frigidity, breast cancer, and abortion are the issues that arise in the final third of the novel, eventually drowning both fine writing and perceptive characterization under a deluge of angst.
Still, there is much to admire about "Breath, Eyes, Memory," and if at times the plot becomes overheated, Danticat's lyrical, vivid prose offers some real delight. If nothing else, this novel is sure to entice readers to look for Danticat's short stories--and possibly to sample other fiction from the West Indies as well. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
At an astonishingly young age, Edwidge Danticat has become one of our most celebrated new novelists, a writer who evokes the wonder, terror, and heartache of her native Haiti--and the enduring strength of Haiti's women--with a vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people's suffering and courage.
At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti--to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence, in a novel that bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.
Customer Reviews:
Good start, fair finish.......2007-07-13
"Breath, Eyes, Memory".....first part was very good. Second part not so good. The rest went downhill.
I thought the story would focus more on Sophie's childhood. If that were the case, maybe I would have understood her and the relationship with her Mother better. Maybe I would have cared about the characters.
ENJOYED IT IMMENSELY.......2007-01-25
This book tells of a girl named Sophie who is raised in Haiti by her aunt Tante Atie, and later goes to New York to spend time with her mother. It is a very moving story and it tells about the culture of Haiti. It tells of Sophie growing up and some parts are sad but I really enjoyed this book, and read it in one day. I would read it again. I donated this one to a local supermarket for Juvenille Diabetes Research and it was gone within the hour. I hope that the next person enjoyed it as much as I did. This book was well-written, moving, and easy to read and understand.
I Read This Book Some Years Ago..........2006-11-25
and while I dont remember every point of the story, I DO remember the emotion that I was flooded with in every chapter. Especially towards the end. This was a very good book and very well worth reading.
Sad, Redeeming, True.......2006-10-01
This first novel adapts a simple, understated tone that is almost too sparse in places and also verges on highly emotional purple prose. But the content delivered is highly charged, narrated by Sophie, the common thread through which is woven the lives of four generations of Haitian women: Sophie's colorful and ancient grandmother, who spends her time in a small village in Haiti preparing for her glorious funeral and telling stories, Sophie's mother and aunt, who suffer from ghosts and irrevocable violence done them, Sophie, who we learn has been traumatized by her mother, and Sophie's baby, Brigitte, who represents the untouched hope of the future. The struggles and lives of these women, except for Brigitte, are permeated with real emotion, heartache, and sorrow, originating with cultural traditions and the violence men have done them, and then self-perpetuated. This is a very interesting portrait, not just of Haiti, but of the lives of damaged people, among which we just about all can count ourselves a part.
Other titles readers of this book might find of interest are "Beasts of No Nation," by Uzodinma Iweala, which portrays the desperate life of a child warrior in an unnamed African country, and "The Comedians," by Graham Greene, which presents Duvalier's Haiti and the horror of the Macoutes, who also haunt this book.
Amazing - moving.......2006-09-13
I am in the midst of reading all of Danticat's work, and this is by far my favorite (so far). I can't remember the last time I cried so hard from a book - it is incredibly moving.
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