Book Description
LL didn't always have a diesel body--he chiseled it the old-fashioned way, with hard work and discipline. Here he shares the secrets of his transformation in a uniquely creative, yet no-nonsense regimen--enlivened with humor and sheer force of personality--that will inspire readers to enjoy working out as never before, while building a body they never thought possible. The book offers four levels of fitness, from Bronze to Platinum, including: - a 4-week beginner's program that takes inches off the waist and boosts energy - a 5-week program for intermediates that increases strength while maintaining muscular and cardiovascular endurance - an advanced 9-week program that turns the body into a muscle-building and fat-burning machinge - complete with 6-pack abs and as much energy as LL Cool J - the hardcore 3-week fat-torching program LL used for the "Control Myself" video - a new level in ripped-to-the-bone fitness and sex appeal - a special 4-week "Diamond" program for women seeking to shape up fast for the summer or upcoming event meal plans and recipes that fuel workouts while burning fat with food
Customer Reviews:
Emphasizes Weight Lifting.......2007-08-10
This is a book to help you get into better shape. While the book covers stretching and cardio exercise to varying degrees, it clearly spends most of its exercise routines having the reader lift weights. The book intends to accomplish its goal of getting you into better shape by doing it in phases, with each one having different goals (too lengthy to go into here).
Phase one is the Bronze phase (5 weeks), then the Silver phase (5 weeks), followed by a Gold phase (9 weeks) and finally ends with the Platinum phase (3 weeks), where the goal is to get a body like LL's. An additional phase, the Diamond phase, is included just for the ladies. There's a ton of info in here on just about every fitness topic and I really liked that throughout the book, there are these "rap session" sections where LL interviews experts in the fitness field and current information is shared- this is a big plus. LL fans will also like the LL trivia that is scattered throughout the book.
One of the more interesting and informative fitness books on the market, I liked it. Also recommend Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff if you have a bad shoulder that keeps you from lifting weights.
Intersting.......2007-08-09
I wasn't sure what to expect when I purchased this book but I was not disappointed, L.L tells a story about a rapper who needs to keep in shape for a tour and that is where the diet and the work out come in.
He takes you step by step into the work out but he starts with your eating habits, he goes into your frig and cabinets "which made me laugh because some of the nasty things he describes have been in my frig a time or two" but that is what I like about his book he lets you know what you eat plays the most important part he doesn't take you straight to the gym.
He breaks down the work out into weeks and before he even takes you to the gym he deals with your eating habits the first week of the workout.
this is a must read and then put into practice book.
Can't wait for the realty show.
PROMISING AT FIRST...THEN LEAVES YOU TIRED AND OVERTRAINED.......2007-07-15
Dear reader,
For the past five years I have been a workout addict. For me it's workout or die. At the age of 14 I was tired of my brother calling me fat, so I took off into the Arizonan desert and ran every day. Since then my success rate of building a fitter body has quadrupled, as I read every fitness article I could get my hands on and was introduced to resistance training. I learned the rules of eating, how to workout and how to maximize recovery. I'm no expert, however, which is why I began buying fitness books from amazon to hear what the experts had to say. I have gained vast knowledge and experience from the high rated books I've purchased but trouble came when I ran into this book. In regards to the rules of working out, LL Cool J's book breaks them all.
At first, like anything else, the results were coming as I followed the program. (NOTE: Any kind of exercise regimen, depending on your level of fitness, in the beginning will give you results due to the body trying to adapt to something new.) The book starts off with good tips on what to eat and drink and basic principles such as: you need to get strong before you can build muscle and so forth. It is a very attractive book with vivid pictures and colorful backgrounds and good picture/descriptions of the exercises and stretches. The workout routines are very affective but then become prolonging. LL states that he doesn't like to workout for more than an hour (NOTE: The body begins burning protein [your muscle] as its energy source after 1 hour of vigorous weight training.)and he likes to get out of the gym in 45 minutes, but the workouts thrown at you, plus the cardio, get you out of there in 1:15 to 1:20 minutes.
Next, to begin with, the muscle groups selected in the workout were placed in an odd order. This is nothing I became upset about until this happened- Monday: Chest and Biceps; Tuesday: Back and Triceps-? Any person with common sense about weight lifting knows that the triceps are complimentary to the chest and the biceps to the back. This mishap caused my biceps and triceps to weaken on Monday and get completely thrashed and over trained on Tuesday. Another thing, I love pushups and bodyweight exercises, and LL incorporates them, except inevitable over training occurs with this book when you lifts weights one day, and then the next day you are doing a cardio circuit that includes pushups (and pushups sets of 30 seconds, for that matter). Bodyweight exercises are not p***y like some people think and still work your muscles.
At this point in the book, I am beat down, my muscles are torn (not literally) and you must understand that I am a person who needs to be in amazing shape. I love to climb buildings do gymnastics and free run. I do martial arts so my fitness has to be superb at all times. Let's just say I can run 8-10 miles at 75% MHR and I don't lose my breath. Anyway, I looked further into the book to see if there were any more workouts I could salvage that wouldn't over train me. I found this- Monday: Chest, Triceps, Back (Note: Back exercises work Biceps too.)and Hamstrings (Note: Can directly or indirectly work Quads.); Tuesday: Quads (Note: May have been worked by Hamstrings exercise on Monday.), Shoulders (Note: Weren't Triceps exercises on Monday? hmmm), Calves, and Abs.- You think that's bad? By the time you get to the featured PLATINUM WORKOUT you are doing this- Sunday: A weight workout is performed in the MORNING of upper body exercises with a 20 min cardio workout attached. EVENING: Consists of another 20 minute cardio workout.- So long to LL's getting out of the gym in 45 minutes.
The book is not a total loss, for you get to learn about LL's past and who his idols are and there is solid nutrition advice. Not to mention, the Abs circuits were very effective and well put. Although, I give this book a rating of 2 for trying so hard to impress consumers with the mega rapper's flashy colors, and pictures, and for failing to provide a workout regimen that follows the rules of recovery.
Thank you.
Good book for the beginning and advanced!.......2007-06-15
**Note**
Unlike some of the reviews here, this has nothing to do with an appreciation, or lack thereof, of his music or acting. It also doesn't have anything to do with his speaking or writing style (everyone has a style, whether it seems more educated, basic, or street... if you don't like his style, move on to another one, but don't deduct points for your own dislikes). It's also not about whether the information is regurgitated from someone else (if it's been repeated and was so important that everyone knows it, there wouldn't be a point to this book and you wouldn't be reading it, now would you?). This book is about the information provided about nutrition and working out.
That said, this book has a great deal of info. Cool J does an excellent job of breaking down the grocery store so that anyone can get the message (example - at the store, remember veggies on the left, meat in the back, milk on the right, don't eat what's in the middle). He includes a very detailed workout plan and includes illustrations for nearly every exercise recommended. He backs up all of his information with approvals and interviews with trained professionals. There is even a detailed section about the necessity of stretching, which isn't included in a lot of fitness guides.
Most complaints about this book have to do with the inclusion of information people already know and about this book starting too slowly. However, the people complaining need to realize that no fitness guide is the end-all complete fitness guide. Most fitness books and guides are made so that you can still adapt their guidelines to your lifestyle. That's part of the reason why they contain so many exercises and routines. If you work out all the time and have already applied his food tips, skip to the silver or gold workout. If you have never worked out before and eat six bags of doritos a day, start your new routine at page one. The information for everyone is in the book.
All that said, I do have a few complaints about the book - 1) the amount included in the platinum workout, 2) the charts, 3) the endpoint, and 4) the gym membership requirement.
1)If a person is to stick with the recommendations straight through the platinum workout, you will have to dedicate a significantly greater amount of time to it, which could possibly lead to a burnout, both physically and mentally. I'm not interested in being as buff as Cool J, and really don't have as much time to "complete" the workout. However, as stated earlier, I can continue with the silver and gold as long as I'd like and still be happy.
2) As far as the charts go... it would be nice to be able to copy or tear out the food charts or workout charts. The way they are written and organized are fairly confusing and make it more difficult to do that.
3) In addition, the workout has an endpoint. So, to me, that tells me that this book is less about a lifestyle change and more about getting results for a certain event. If you want to continue working out, the book is low on a continuation plan.
4) Finally, LL admitted that his best fitness came on the road with a personal trainer (i.e. not in a gym). However, he recommends that a person gets a membership to a gym. There is a lot to be said about the need for motivation from your surroundings. However, a gym membership is not practical for everyone. It would've been nice to have more information about getting pumped up at home, whether it's with a set of barbells and dumbbells in the basement or some other means.
Overall, this book is worth 3.5 stars, but Amazon won't let you give partial stars, and rounding down won't do this book justice... so it gets four stars instead. I'd definitely recommend that this book be on everyone's bookshelf who is interested in fitness - professionals, athletes, and people who are interested in getting fit for the first time. I'm still a bigger fan of the Abs Diet series (as a matter of fact, one of the writers of Platinum Workout is a writer for Men's Health, which is produced by the author of Abs Diet), but this book still contains a lot of great workout routines, recipes, and exercises that I can't wait to try.
Enjoyed the workout... saw results.......2007-06-12
I really enjoyed using this book. The cardio workouts are intense and the supersets get your body going... most of the workouts have you out in of the gym in less than an hour and have built in sufficient rest through out the week. This is not the perfect workout for someone who is skinny and looking to bulk up like LL. This is perfect for someone who is looking to lose some inches off thier waist and looking to build some lean muscle.
All in all, I thought this was a good purchase. The only thing I could have done without is all of the self promotion. My workout didnt really benifit from reading a timeline about all of his career accomplishments.
Amazon.com
"God, he was a smart kid..." So why did Christopher McCandless trade a bright future--a college education, material comfort, uncommon ability and charm--for death by starvation in an abandoned bus in the woods of Alaska? This is the question that Jon Krakauer's book tries to answer. While it doesn't—cannot—answer the question with certainty, Into the Wild does shed considerable light along the way. Not only about McCandless's "Alaskan odyssey," but also the forces that drive people to drop out of society and test themselves in other ways. Krakauer quotes Wallace Stegner's writing on a young man who similarly disappeared in the Utah desert in the 1930s: "At 18, in a dream, he saw himself ... wandering through the romantic waste places of the world. No man with any of the juices of boyhood in him has forgotten those dreams." Into the Wild shows that McCandless, while extreme, was hardly unique; the author makes the hermit into one of us, something McCandless himself could never pull off. By book's end, McCandless isn't merely a newspaper clipping, but a sympathetic, oddly magnetic personality. Whether he was "a courageous idealist, or a reckless idiot," you won't soon forget Christopher McCandless.
Book Description
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.
Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life. Admitting an interst that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled McCandless. Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.
When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris. He is said to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding--and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.
Customer Reviews:
The movie ought to be a dandy..........2007-10-05
While I'll say this book was a very good and very easy read...the basis of the storyline still bugs the hell out of me. How in the end this kid gets glorified with the whole "free spirit" thing is beyond me. He ventures into one of the most dangerous and unforgiving places in the world with basically some rice, a .22 caliber rifle with ammo, and some boots. What realistic outcome was this guy expecting? I would consider myself on the higher end of the "outdoorsman" scale and would never even consider setting out on a venture minus a map, any kind of emergency beacon/phone, or even an itinerary to give to someone else. This was a recipe for disaster from the get go...and anyone who ran into him shortly before the trek toward the bus knew it. This guy had some mental issues or was just plain delusional (or stoned), from the outset. This book caused me to do some serious homework on the real facts and issues at hand with Chris. I'm convinced he was either having some serious lapses in judgement due to medical reasons or he was into drugs. The fact that he gave away or squandered all of his money and assets makes me think it was in his head. The fact that he wasn't far from a hand-tram that would've gotten him by the river makes you wonder if he didn't want to get out of there...distress messages or not.
Enjoyable reading ,and great writing .......2007-10-05
I've just finished reading this book , i truly enjoyed it and was overwhelmed and touched by the charecter McCandless . I recommend this book to everyone who needs to escape the daily routine and take a trip into the wild. The writer has an eye for details .
Into the ... don't come back ..........2007-10-03
I read Into the Wild about 8 or 10 years ago after I read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, about the tragedy on Mt. Everest, and liked it so well that I went to see what else he had written and found the earlier book. I thought Into the Wild was a very good book, although maybe not as good as Into Thin Air, but ... still a very, very good book especially if you're at all attuned to the outdoors. When I saw the beginning of the movie preview a few weeks ago, I immediately!! knew what it was and said to my wife "they're going to show the bus" before it came onto the screen. She thought that I had lost it. The story will make an absolutely fantastic movie! You may or may not want to read the book first ... but if you don't, then you definitely need to read the book afterwards. Highly recommended ...
Great Read, Interesting Story.......2007-10-02
I bought this book yesterday and read it the same day. It's one of those books that not easy to put down. I stumbled across it when looking through the non-fiction bestseller list and after reading the intro pages I knew it would be something that I would like.
Everyone here has given plot summaries and whatnot so I won't go into that. I will just say that this is a very good book that is hard to put down. The main character is a very interesting lad. I personally found his story and the authors own account of his time in Alaska to be the best part of the book.
Chris certainly has his critics, but while I can't say that I admire him for what he did, I can say that what he did was very impressive. To be able to live in that land for that amount of time with virtually nothing is incredible.
After reading the book I thought of what it would be like to sleep in that old bus in the middle of no-where with no human interaction for that long and to be honest it creaped me out and kept me up a while.
If you like the outdoors and have thought about living off the land or if you just like good nonfiction books, you will like this book.
The second time.......2007-10-02
I first read "Into the Wild" when it came out in paperback in 1997. I remember not being all that impressed with the book then and did not think it deserved all the hype it got at the time. With the Sean Penn movie based on the book set to come out I decided to read the book again. My opinion of the book hasn't changed over the last ten years. I still don't see why the story caused such a sensation because Chris McCandless is such an unlikable character and his travels don't seem all that unusual to me. Krakauer tries and tries to attach some deeper meaning to the story, but I just fail to grasp it. On the positive side Krakauer is an outstanding writer and his descriptions of the landscapes and various characters in the book are excellent. I will be interested to see the movie because I don't know how they will manage to make it interesting.
Average customer rating:
- A Story of Providence
- Thomas
- Merton"s Mountain
- Coming of Age in Faith
- CD is good, but needs an unabridged version.
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The Seven Storey Mountain
Thomas Merton
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
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ASIN: 0156010860 |
Amazon.com
In 1941, a brilliant, good-looking young man decided to give up a promising literary career in New York to enter a monastery in Kentucky, from where he proceeded to become one of the most influential writers of this century. Talk about losing your life in order to find it. Thomas Merton's first book, The Seven Storey Mountain, describes his early doubts, his conversion to a Catholic faith of extreme certainty, and his decision to take life vows as a Trappist. Although his conversionary piety sometimes falls into sticky-sweet abstractions, Merton's autobiographical reflections are mostly wise, humble, and concrete. The best reason to read The Seven Storey Mountain, however, may be the one Merton provided in his introduction to its Japanese translation: "I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self. Who can tell what this may mean? I myself do not know, but if you listen, things will be said that are perhaps not written in this book. And this will be due not to me but to the One who lives and speaks in both." --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
A modern-day Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Seven Storey Mountain is one of the most influential religious works of the twentieth century. This edition contains an introduction by Merton's editor, Robert Giroux, and a note to the reader by biographer William H. Shannon. It tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man whose search for peace and faith leads him, at the age of twenty-six, to take vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders--the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. The Seven Storey Mountain has been a favorite of readers ranging from Graham Greene to Claire Booth Luce, Eldridge Cleaver, and Frank McCourt. And, in the half-century since its original publication, this timeless spiritual tome has been published in over twenty languages and has touched millions of lives.
Customer Reviews:
A Story of Providence.......2007-09-27
Few writers of spiritual books ever reach the high literary mark that Thomas Merton sets in The Seven Storey Mountain. At its core, The Seven Storey Mountain is pure memoir. Merton accounts for his life up to the time of writing when he was about 30 years old. Within this account, he places insights on spirituality, and the account on the whole offers a grand lesson on God's providence and mankind's undying need for reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.
Merton's life story unfolds with tragedy upon tragedy. His mother died from cancer when he was 5 years old, and then less than 12 years later his father died from cancer. Merton was left with a guardian and grandparents who cared for him from arm's length.
Merton's education is vast. He is as well read and learned as any writer of memoir that I have read. Unfortunately, as a teenager his education led him away from God and to an attitude of atheism or agnosticism at times. As he pursues greater education, God pursues him through authors and teachers.
Merton credits William Blake's writings and art with playing a significant role in his salvation. Merton then begins reading a book on Catholic Philosophy that also has a profound impact on his perception of God and the religion. Mostly, Merton credits the intercession of others for his salvation, "Who prayed for me? One day I shall know. But in the economy of God's love, it is through the prayers of other men that these graces are given. It was through the prayers of someone who loved God that I was one day, to be delivered out of that hell where I was already confined without knowing it." (109) Merton takes no credit for his salvation or spiritual growth. He gives all credit to the gracious work of God.
His book illustrates the journey of a young man from enlightened atheism to humble faith in God. Merton's faith and learning are complimentary not contradictory. He shows readers that true enlightenment and learning leads to the ultimate truth, and this truth gives hope not fear, assurance not doubt, and salvation not annihilation.
Merton writes to his readers of this truth he has learned that I think is the message of his book, "And yet now I tell you, you who are now what I once was, unbelievers, it is that Sacrament, and that alone, the Christ living in our midst, and sacrificed by us, and for us and with us, in the clean and perpetual Sacrifice, it is He alone Who holds our world together, and keeps us all from being poured headlong and immediately into the pit of our eternal destruction. And I tell you there is a power that goes forth from that Sacrament, a power of light and truth into the hearts of those who have heard nothing of Him and seem to be incapable of belief." (41)
As expressed in the above quote, Merton's faith is rooted in the Catholic religion. This causes some trouble to me as he exalts Mary the mother of Jesus to a place alongside her son as a mediator and advocate for people. Merton asserts Mary is as responsible for his coming to God as Jesus. At times of trouble, he prays to Mary and a litany of saints for help. He discusses praying for souls in purgatory and wiping out sins through almsgiving. In addition to few slights at Protestant religions, these items may be stumbling blocks to some readers.
Merton reveals a spiritual journey that takes him eventually to his desired home in a Trappist monastery where he, at his Director's urging, continues to write and publish while seeking God in solitude. His is a process engineered by the hand of Providence, as it led his steps and transformed his heart. I think any sincere reader who approaches Merton with an open mind and heart will find insights applicable to him or her at the current time of life.
Thomas.......2007-08-05
I bought this for a 30 year old man who is searching for meaning in his life.
Merton"s Mountain.......2007-07-29
I first read this book in high school, and it is a must for anyone interested in the Roman Catholic spiritual experience. Merton was a convert to Catholicism and later became a Trappist monk. His autobiography was published following WWII. It became a huge best seller and made him internationally famous. By contemporary standards, the book is dated in its post war innocence and preachiness, but still a fantastic read. Why does a man give up everything: sex, money, friendships, education to live as a impoverished medevil monastic. In the 1960s, Merton became a staunch anti-war activist. He died suspiciously in Asia at an international conference on meditation. Some say it was a CIA murder, others a suicide; most likely though an acciental bathtub electrocution. Read his autobiography then his other books and diaries.
Coming of Age in Faith.......2007-07-05
"The Seven Storey Mountain" is a coming of age story in much the same vein as "Catcher in the Rye' but with a tone in the complete opposite direction. A man begins his life on one continent with little knowledge of the Christian faith only to spend most of the rest of his life on another continent taking the strictest vows available in the Catholic church. Thomas Merton's unlikely story is an amazing journey.
The initial chapters of the book which involve Merton's early life tend to move a little slow. Yet when the early chapters are placed in the landscape of the time period, it gives Merton's experience a great sense of authenticity. Throughout the book, Merton is searching for something to define his life. While falling to youthful inhibitions such as alcohol and smoking, Merton lives the American college life. Yet even as he masters the English language, he feels a lack of direction. And even before he spent significant time in the Catholic faith, he felt a calling to the religious life. It was a stuggle, though anything of value is worth struggling to attain.
Gaps in this story may cause some confusion in readers. Merton chose to omit his fathering of a child which may have been wise in the social landscape into which the book was released. The paternity was only mentioned in vague terms. The way in which he mentions it seems to just imply that he was uncertain of his vocation.
Merton is a masterful storyteller and readers should find great enjoyment in this book. The chapters are fast paced and even run parallel to an American historical perspective. In the context of Merton's writings, this may be the most significant one and should be read by all those interested in Merton's writings.
CD is good, but needs an unabridged version........2007-05-22
Only commenting on the audio CD version of SSM. It needs an Unabridged version. This version has been shortened considerably. Also, there should be price consistant with the printed version. CD media is very inexpensive to produce. With an abridged version of the book, I would have expected a better price.
Customer Reviews:
Rebel Withou A Crew.......2007-09-28
This book is very good. It is encouraging and helpful to any young film maker like myself. I highly recommend it. It's worth the money.
Great read, inspiring.......2007-09-23
Tells the story of how Rodriguez got to where he is. Everyone's road is very different but this is definitely an inspiring book. Hone your skills!
Excellent!.......2007-08-14
I bought this thinking it would be more of a guide then the journal it ended up being, and I couldnt have been happier. It was an interesting and easy read that I couldnt put down! I would definitely recommend this book to any young filmmakers or anyone interested in the independent process. Rodriguez really does a great job of showing how a lot of hard work, dedication and some luck can jump start a career. I felt inspired to go out and start working on films again, but I'm still reluctant to join any medical experiments to finance it.
Interesting insight into a very talented man.......2007-08-06
A great tale, but not so well written that I could recommend on its literary quality alone. I admire Rodriguez - even more, knowing what he went through to make this film (and I'm a fan El Mariachi more than the overly-produced Once Upon a Time in Mexico). The story-telling reflects his jagged style. At the very least, it should inspire you to make a few sacrifices in favor of pursuing one of your own dreams.
Inspired and Inspiring .......2007-07-03
This was a great read! Highly recommended for anyone thinking about putting a story on film.
Customer Reviews:
Great - but could have been even better.......2007-09-27
As good as this book is, it could have been much better. Kovaly has a fascinating story to tell but too much of her story tells how this happened and then that happened without enough analysis or explanation. Kovaly lived through Hitler and Stalin and she has an amazing story to tell.
The book starts with the deportation of the Jews from Prague, where Kovaly lived, to the ghetto of Lodz in Poland. She describes the horrors and the death she encountered there. She then skips ahead to the last concentration/slave labor camp she was in before the war ended. She describes how she tells the German man who runs the factory about the extermination camps, a topic with which he seems to be utterly unfamiliar. And although the part she tells us is fascinating, she leaves out much of the story that she tells him. Finally she tells us of her escape as she is being marched away from the advancing Russian armies, her return to Prague, and her rejection by all the friends she had left behind. By far this is the best part of the book.
But this part ends sixty pages into the book and she has much more to tell us. After the war, Kovaly marries the man she always loved and he becomes a member of the Czech communist party and eventually a minister in the government. With the failures of communism, a scapegoat is needed by the government and her husband is arrested and executed as a traitor as part of the Slansky trials. As the widow of a traitor, her life in Prague is hell but she spends her every effort to care for her child and to rehabilitate her husband. Finally, in the early 1960's, reforms in Czechoslovakia led to her husband and all the others having their convictions overturned. The reforms continue until the Prague Spring of 1968 leading to the Russian invasion and the crushing of the new freedoms. At this point Kovaly flees for the West to join her son who is living in London.
The book is short at less than 200 pages and many things happen so the story moves quickly. But too much of the story tells us what happened as a way for Kovaly to avoid talking about herself. For example, by starting with the deportations, we learn nothing about Kovaly's life before the Nazis. Kovaly doesn't even tell us how old she was or what she was doing when she was rounded up. With all Kovaly has been through she has had to have built a wall to protect herself and she only shows us glimpses through that wall. But the book still remains an amazing story of the holocaust and the early communist years in Czechoslovakia. Her glimpses into how communism must always fail by its very nature from someone who was on the inside are worth reading to help us understand the 20th century. Kovaly leaves out the happy ending she finally achieved. It is a happy ending she deserves.
Under A Cruel Star & Reflections of Prague.......2006-08-07
My mother's book, in print since 1973 under various titles, the last being 'Under A Cruel Star', inspired me to write my own side of the story about my lost father, JUDr Rudolf Margolius. Now published and called 'Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th century' it fills gaps in my mother's book provided by further research and historical information, some of which was not available to her and which many readers of her book had asked us for over the years. Hopefully this companion volume provides answers to these questions. I hope you find this book interesting and would welcome your feedback.
A mother's undying love for her son; a son's undying love for his mother..........2006-07-14
When I finished reading Heda Margolius Kovaly's stunning chronicle of continuous struggle, concentration camp survival, and eventual triumph, I had to stare out my window onto the street below for a long while, watching the people.
There I was, working and residing in modern-day Prague, mingling amongst the tourists and locals, with my feet touching those very same cobblestones of a city which Ms. Margolius Kovaly horrifically describes in her heart-rending tale of human resilience, UNDER A CRUEL STAR.
The realization blew my mind. I had to catch my breath.
Not too long ago -- a mere drip in the historical bucket -- very bad people once populated this ancient city and land. They were entirely free to express their poisonous views, shouting vile epithets about so-called "pure race," the so-called "scourge" of Jews, and about the so-called "evils" its then-society faced from saboteurs, fifth-columnists unaligned with Czechoslovakia's Communist Party.
As I walk these streets, I interact and share the same space with these people, the descendants, heirs, and inheritors of a very rotten recent legacy. It's this legacy that Ms. Margolus Kovaly chillingly describes and in vivid, sordid detail in her poignant memoir, UNDER A CRUEL STAR.
Commend, I say, this mighty woman of valour for sharing with you how much pain she once had to endure. Applaud her for how much strife she had to overcome when she returned from the unspeakable indescribable conditions of the Nazi's killing factory at Auschwitz, of which much has been written in the canon. I needn't repeat it here.
Be shocked at the clarity and the precision of Heda's language, and -- trust me -- reel and wonder why it is that she even chose to return to this infernal place, this city of Prague, municipal architect of her early life's damnation. For that, Heda deserves the equivalent of a "purple heart" for her resilience and fortitude. But this is not nearly enough...
As I read Heda's story, those small insignificant stresses which descend on a given day PALE by comparison. No longer will I feel needless stress. No longer will I be affected by it.
I am describing to you the impact of this memoir. Heda's strength will permeate you.
I love this book because it pries open a vista on a period these present Czech authorities are anxious to enshroud in mystery. I hear very little discussion today of what is known as Czechoslovakia's "collaborationist past" in the modern-day "Czech Republic."
Not a single leader in this fledgling country is willing to boldly take responsibility for the actions of this successor nation's preceding governments, whose reins -- the ones they now grip tightly -- are the offshoot of very rotten roots. Today's government must own up to its legacy, one which is responsible -- among countless other atrocities and crimes -- for murdering eleven perfectly innocent men, like Rudolf Margolius, Heda's late husband and father to her author son, Ivan, in 1953's Slansky (show) Trial. I was angered when I'd read how the doctor's in Stalin's infamous "Doctor's Plot" were not hanged, while Mr. Margolius and his ten other co-accused were. It made me *very* angry, and anger I wish not to think too much about for fear of what it might result in.
Evaluating this all, you scratch your head wondering where Heda derives all her strength? From where comes her unassailable moral fortitude and her staunchness without fail?
Look, don't read this book because *I'm* telling you to. I know I review a lot of titles, and you'd normally trust me judgement because you trust me, but don't, okay?
Also don't read this book because it's stylistically-impeccable and superbly written. I'll have you know there isn't a shred of literary critique I've got for the brilliant lines filling Heda's pages.
Read this book to place your life into perspective, if it's a comfortable and cushy one. Read this book to either compare or contrast Heda's past with what you call *your* past, and finally understand how the might of the human spirit is unbreakable. Heda Margolius Kovaly is the living proof. She is the embodiment of intrepid courage. And it's high time you get to know what that is.
I wish there were more than five stars I could give.
-- ADM in Prague
(for the writings of Ivan Margolius, please see "REFLECTIONS OF PRAGUE," for more information)
extraordinary memoir in several languages.......2006-05-26
I am the English-language publisher of Ms. Kovaly's extraordinary memoir, that is now being read in major universities around the world for an eyewitness view of twentieth century totalitarianism --in this case Nazism and Stalinism -- in Central Europe. This translation has been the basis for the UK, French, German, Dutch and Japanese editions of this book. There are very few books in any language by or about Czech Jewish women. Another excellent one is my wife Helen Epstein's journalistic memoir of her maternal line of Bohemian Jews titled Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for her Mother's History, which covers the years 1800-1948 in the Czech lands.
a note from the translator of this book.......2005-05-14
As the translator from the Czech and the editor of the Plunkett Lake Press version of this book, I'd like to address the confusion about editions. Heda Kovaly first wrote this book in Czech. It was translated first by Czech philosopher Erazim Kohak who published it together with his own writing in one volume. In 1985, Heda Kovaly and I together translated and produced a new edition of her memoir. We called it Under A Cruel Star. That version was subsequently published by Penguin and then Holmes & Meier. There are also British, French, German, Dutch and Japanese translations that have been published under different titles. All have used the Plunkett Lake text.
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- Travels With Charley
- the hobo philosopher
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- Another side of John Steinbeck
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Travels with Charley in Search of America
John Steinbeck
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Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
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Tortilla Flat
ASIN: 0140053204 |
Book Description
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly commissioned art.
Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.
Customer Reviews:
Travels With Charley.......2007-09-27
A wonderful read..a glimpse of America through the eyes of Steinbeck while driving his pick-up/camper with his dog.
the hobo philosopher.......2007-09-10
Travels with Charley was one of the inspirational books that lead me to write "Hobo-ing America". I had always read travel books. Everybody from Mark Twain to George Orwell. But Travels with Charley (his dog) ranks right up there in the inspiration category for me. I had always longed to travel America but I could never afford to do it. Finally my wife Carol and I took off with about $2,400 and a van with a homemade bed in the rear and hit the road. We paid our way by picking fruits and vegetables and we stayed on the road living under bridges and equipment shelters for a number of years. Carol says that it was the best time of her life. I am still hoping that the best time hasn't come yet. Though my time is running low.
I guess that the whole point of this review is that it was books like Travels with Charley that made our adventure a reality. I still have a tattered copy of Travels with Charley on my library shelf.
"From start to finish, I found no strangers".......2007-08-06
In the autumn of 1960, author John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) felt that he was writing on the fumes of experience. That and the wanderlust that usually passes with youth still itched at age 58. He bought a camper truck he christened "Rocinante" after Don Quixote's horse and with his 10-year-old poodle named Charley he set off to find America. His route largely rimmed the 48 contiguous states: from his summer home on Long Island, he headed up to Maine, across to upstate New York and down US Route 90, out to Chicago, through the Badlands to Montana, over to Spokane, down the Oregon coast, to his native Salinas in Central California, cutting across the Mojave to Texas, onward into the Deep South and then a straight shot home to New York City.
In 1960, Steinbeck stood on a cusp of history and what he reveals, especially as regarded 47 years later, is the country coming and going on itself. He finds cities ringed by huge garbage piles created by the rise of a disposable culture that had yet to discover recycling. He uses the new highway system as well as the old back roads, encountering a country adapting to a new mobility. The people he met were timeless characters, though many were in age-old circumstances that have since passed. Despite the Pulitzer Prize, bestselling books and media coverage, he is never recognized and finds people at their most candid. His accounts on the road are episodic, some comic, some fodder for philosophical rumination. When he hits the Deep South, however, he collides with the opening salvos of the modern Civil Rights movement and tangles with racists as he watches "The Cheerleaders," the gang of middle-aged "respectable" white women obscenely haranguing a tiny black child being escorted to school. He is sickened. It is time to go home.
The insights to the human condition and what it means to be American as divulged by the journey are priceless. The beautiful thing about Steinbeck is his persistent curiosity in life outside of himself. Though he comes to realize the journey is as much internal as it is external, his inspiration was not to find himself but to connect with others. He was a most generous soul.
Vendor is 100% honest... would recommend highly.......2007-08-01
Had a problem with this low cost used copy... not as described
BUT vendor 100% honest ---
No problem FIX.. they stood 100% behind what they sell.
Tks!
Another side of John Steinbeck.......2007-07-09
Travels with Charley to me is first of all a perfect story of a man and his dog.
One of the best stories, I have ever read.
Book Description
John Steinbeck was never content to repeat himself, and his restless search for new forms and fresh subject matter is fully evident in the books of his later years. This volume collects four novels that exhibit the full range of his gift, along with a travel book that has become one of his most enduringly popular works.
In The Wayward Bus (1947), Steinbeck leads a group of ill-matched passengers representing a spectrum of social types and classes, stranded by a washed-out bridge, on a circuitous journey that exposes cruelties, self-deceptions, and unsuspected moral strengths. The tone ranges from boisterous comedy to trenchant satirical observation of postwar America. Burning Bright (1950), an allegory set against shifting backgrounds (circus, sea, farm) and revolving around the fear of sterility and the desire for self-perpetuation, marks Steinbeck's involvement with the drama in its fusion of the forms of novel and play.
Sweet Thursday (1954) marks Steinbeck's return, in a mood of sometimes frothy comedy, to the characters and milieu of his earlier Cannery Row. A love story set against the background of the local brothel, the Bear Flag, Sweet Thursday is for all its intimations of melancholy one of the most lighthearted of Steinbeck's books. It was subsequently adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein into their musical Pipe Dream. Steinbeck's final novel, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) is set in an old Long Island whaling town modeled on Sag Harbor, where he had been spending time since 1953. The book breaks new ground in its depiction of the crass commercialism of contemporary America, and its impact on a protagonist with traditionalist values who is appalled but finally tempted by the encroaching sleaziness.
Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962) was Steinbeck's last published book. A record of his experiences and observations as he drove around America in a pickup truck, accompanied by his standard poodle Charley, it is filled with engaging, often humorous description and comes to a powerful climax in an encounter with racist demonstrators in New Orleans.
Robert DeMott, co-editor, is the Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor at Ohio University and the author of Steinbeck's Typewriter, an award-winning book of critical essays. Brian Railsback, co-editor, is dean of the Honors College at Western Carolina University and the author of Parallel Expeditions: Charles Darwin and the Art of John Steinbeck.
Customer Reviews:
Fititng Conclusion to Series.......2007-04-12
This volume is up to the LOA's customary magnificient standards. This is not Steinbeck's best work (although I persist in viewing "Sweet Thursday" as under-valued), but still worth every penny.
Steinbeck fans should have this on their shelves. DeMott's previous editorial work on The Grapes of Wrath establishes him as the editor of choice for any edition, and these Library of America editions are becoming, justifiably, the "standard" texts.
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- Help in Solitude
- Merton is the man!
- Moving book about a man's love for God...
- Contemplative, Spiritual Thoughts
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Thoughts in Solitude
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The renowned Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote Thoughts in Solitude in 1953 and 1954, when his superiors allowed him extended periods of seclusion and meditation. This elegant gift book, with clean, spare type and graphics, does justice to a 20th-classic (this is its 25th printing). What has made this book such an enduring and popular work is that it recognizes how important solitude is to our morality, integrity, and ability to love. One does not have to be a monk to find solitude, notes Merton; solitude can be found in the act of contemplation and silent reflection in everyday life. Also, this is not a pious book that assumes that a relationship with the divine can be obtained only by denying our humanity and striving for saintliness. Instead, Merton asserts that connection with God can most easily be made through "respect for temperament, character, and emotion and for everything that makes us human." --Gail Hudson
Book Description
Thoughtful and eloquent, as timely (or timeless) now as when it was originally published in 1956, Thoughts in Solitude addresses the pleasure of a solitary life, as well as the necessity for quiet reflection in an age when so little is private. Thomas Merton writes: "When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when men are violently deprived of the solitude and freedom which are their due, the society in which they live becomes putrid, it festers with servility, resentment and hate."
Thoughts in Solitude stands alongside The Seven Storey Mountain as one of Merton's most uring and popular works. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, is perhaps the foremost spiritual thinker of the twentiethcentury. His diaries, social commentary, and spiritual writings continue to be widely read after his untimely death in 1968.
Customer Reviews:
Help in Solitude.......2007-06-30
As someone who is beginning a life dedicated to solitude and silence, reading this book was like having Thomas Merton beside me as a wise friend, guide and mentor, showing the way. It is not a how-to book, but a collection of exquisite short reflections, revealing the inner struggles and deep joy of one who has walked this path, and knows where the rocks are, as well as the hidden springs. "The Christian solitary does not seek solitude merely as an atmosphere, or as a setting for a special and exalted spirituality," writes Merton. "He seeks solitude as an expression of his total gift of himself to God. His solitude is not a means of getting something, but a gift of himself." This book is Merton's humble gift of himself to all of us who seek the Holy One.
As an example, this book is the source of Merton's famous prayer: "O God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will always lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
Merton is the man!.......2007-06-11
Thomas Merton has a way with words. His words are capable of opening the door for God to have His way in our hearts. Thoughts on Solitude makes the contemplative life sound both desirable and doable. Profound!
Moving book about a man's love for God..........2007-01-13
Moved by this slim volume by Thomas Merton, I found "Thoughts in Solitude" to be worth a second read three years after the initial purchase and first reading. Call this an accidental second reading, and a good accident for I had not planned on revisiting the title. To my pleasure, the book is good if not better the second time around. For I was moved by the love this man holds for God, or held, since he is now many years dead. In this book, he lives, and he is as well as a man of God who sought God, but a writer who has the writer's gift of telling us some of the journey of getting closer to God. Or as he might say, God allowing someone to get closer to Him. That is good news.
Readable, and certainly quick going but the kind of book one goes through "easily," it is a book that allows for reflection. I wondered about humility, and I wondered how in the world could something like humility be available to a layman, especially one who has neither the desire for nor the means of holding and having solitude as did Thomas Merton.
I think Thomas Merton held solitude, as one embraces something, as one would embrace God. As a man or woman comes to Christ. Intangible as that may sound, the writer brings the reader to come with him on the inner journey and the journey of desire to be with God in quiet and solitude. Not alone, but in a solitude that is like a solidarity with the Almighty. This is the having solitude that I mention. Or so I understand it by the book.
But I did not come to the book, after reading a while, to admire Thomas Merton. Of course, I do. I did not come to the book to get secrets about God, but Thomas Merton says there are secrets available to those who read the scriptures. There is both the telling and the untelling of a relationship with God that explains to the reader, through inference and through his reflections, that solitude brings people to mystery. I want to believe that there is mystery in the relationship with Christ, that in God we find and feel things (called religious experience) that are not available to us other ways. Thomas Merton writes of religious experience in this book, and he does it very well.
I'm sure you have heard that this is the second of his books that critics cite as one of his two best. The other is, "The Seven Story Mountain." I read that book as the first of his books I read. I am glad I did. Here I stop a moment to tell you I am not doing justice to his writing, for in both books he is a spiritual master. Here he writes of the spiritual life, and for me it is the beginnings of thought on considering spiritual life:
"Spiritual life is not mental life. It is not thought alone. Nor is it, of course, a life of sensation, a life of feeling--'feeling" and experiencing the things of the spirit, and the things of God.
Nor does the spiritual life exclude thought and feeling. It needs both."
I like how he explains this explanation, saying, "Everything must be elevated and transformed by the action of God, in love and faith."
The end of the book is like a prayer, and the entire book has a prayer quality to it. The chapters are short. They are like arrows of writing. There is a warmth to the writing, and an inviting quality is evident because Thomas Merton wants his reader to know what it is to love God, and to recognize this is what a man or woman may have in his or her lifetime.
As I come to the end of this review, it is important to remark that a reader can take his affection, even his passionate humility tempered in a life of solitude, and find ways of understanding and coming closer to God. I grant his is a holy life, an easy thing to say, and I want to close with this quote:
"The solitary life is a life in which we cast our care upon the Lord and delight only in the help that comes from Him. Whatever He does is our joy. We reproduce His goodness in us by our gratitude. (Or--our gratitude is the reflection of His mercy. It is what makes us like Him.)
Peter Menkin, Epiphany
Contemplative, Spiritual Thoughts.......2006-04-25
The first thing that struck me when receiving this book in the mail was its small pocket/travel size. The physical size should not fool the reader, however. Like the book itself, the pithy sentences and chapters carry weighty clout within the interior of thought.
Written by a monk, one might think the author endorses a life of physical solitude. He lets it be known however, that solitude is not so much a geographical state as it is a condition within oneself - a place of peace where silence becomes the mother of truth.
Beautifully and sometimes poetically written from a spiritual and Christian perspective, "Thoughts In Solitude" is divided into two sections: "Aspects Of The Spiritual Life" and "The Love Of Solitude." Resounding with the truth, one can find a particular familiarity within many of the Thoughts of Thomas Merton. Those who have already instinctively felt the unexpressed benefits of solitude will find even more comfort when meeting the kindred silences after reading this book.
Never Alone.......2006-04-10
Written in a monastery tool shed, this enduringly popular book is a stream-of-consciousness series of meditations on the value and meaning of solitude. For Merton, true solitude is not solipsistic but, rather, a search for the mercy of God and the foundation of genuine (i.e., loving and truthful) relationships.
Merton's writing style is personal, paradoxical, and replete with memorable aphorisms. For example:
- "Humility is a virtue, not a neurosis."
- "A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about living and begins living."
- "To be an acorn is to have a taste for being an oak tree."
By now three generations of readers have found that this little book not only teaches about solitude but helps them begin to experience it.
Book Description
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly commissioned art.
Of this initial group of six titles, The Grapes of Wrath is in a new edition with a completely revised introduction and, for the first time, detailed notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Robert DeMott.
Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.
Customer Reviews:
"I'll be there...".......2007-07-27
"Ya gotta eat..." Dad used uto say if we thanked him for taking to the local hamburger stand; he could have, just as easily, been stating the obvious theme of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. One can easily imagine Tom Joad or, more to the point, his sister Rosasharon saying it in her "sharing" scene in the closing pages of the book. I read this book, the first time, in sophomore study hall just before lunch in small town Wisconsin; largely as a result of the wretched deprivations depicted in the book, I remember rushing home, sure I would starve to death if I didn't immediately ingest the bowl of soup and sandwich my mother had waiting for me. As the Joad family move out of Dustbowl Oklahoma toward the promised land of California, the Joads must survive on fried dough and unripe fruit (from which they are warned they may "get the skitters"); Along the way they meet tragedy and, in most cases, their dreams of a better life are smashed like last year's fallen fruit...And, yet, they still hope for the best. Maybe the next Hooverville will be different, maybe the next fruit ranch; if they could only make it there. Government offered little or no help. Long before the rest of the nation hit the skids, farmers were getting the short end of the stick; they never saw any of the prosperity of the 1920's, and the Dustbowl didn't help either. But Tom Joad sees hope in numbers, "Wherever a guy is hungry, I'll be there...", he says, urging the readers to come along, to fight injustice wherever they can: a challenge as urgent today as when Tom made it in this wonderful book.
The American Epic.......2007-05-21
"The Grapes of Wrath" is one of those intimidating "great books" that everyone knows about and no one reads. The irony is that it is a book about ordinary people, and the language and plot are hardly difficult at all. The Joads, driven off their Oklahoma farm by the encroachment of industrialization, seek a better life in California - with thousands of others in the same position. The migrants are forced to compete for survival, but only by leveraging their power as a group can they ever truly triumph. The theme of individual vs. group is further emphasized by the form of the novel. Steinbeck uses alternating chapters about the Joads and "interchapters" about the migrants as a whole. Thus the book, besides being the great American epic about the Joads, is also a social and political novel that caused an enormous uproar upon its publication. This is a book that is part of the collective American conscious and should be read by everyone who wants to feel thoroughly educated.
Terrific "Fambly".......2007-04-27
If you have not read this book, what are you waiting for? Is it because it was written before you were born? (1939) Does its name scare you, as it did me, into imagining it would be about all sorts of odd things, as I did? Well don't let your preconceived notions fool you. It's a terrific novel. It is a great piece of literature that won Mr. Steinbeck a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize, and eventually, with his other contributions to literature, earned him a Nobel Prize.
What can I say about the Joads that has not already been said in the past sixty-odd years? How could I have missed knowing them earlier? I read this story, with its "country speech" and "country ways" and wanted to take them all in. I wanted to comfort them all. I didn't know what I would find at the Joads when we first meet Tom going home. Who is this Tom Joad Jr. and why was he in jail? He must have had a HORRIBLE life to end up there, he must have. Then you meet the 'fambly.' You live with the 'fambly.' You see proud Pa try so hard to be the head of the home during the Dust Bowl migration. This family, who for generations upon generations, upon generations lived off their land. The land wasn't a piece of property, it was family. It fed them, it housed them. They raised a crop to sell, so they can pay off the loans they took when times were tough before. When the rains stopped coming, and the payments to the bank stopped being made, the 'banks' came and told all these people to leave. Imagine someone coming to tell you that the land you have lived on all your life, the land of your fathers and grandfathers belonged to the banks and you had to leave right now. Imagine the dread. All your life spent in the same place, with the same neighbors, the same strong values; "Yes Sir! Yes Ma'am!" No talking back, everyone knew their place. And then the dust came, and took away everything you knew.
The Joads sell everything they own, load up a beat-up truck with the necessities (food, water, mattresses, clothes, pots, pans) and head towards the promised land of California. Along with 500,000 other displaced people. All looking for land to work; it's all they know. You get land, you work it, it's yours. They had no idea what life outside of Oklahoma was really going to be like.
There's Ma, trying so hard to keep the family strong. She's the backbone. She eventually takes charge, which, back on their farm, was unheard of. Times were changing.
Ma & Pa, 6 kids, Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle John, the Preacher Casey, and Connie, the husband of one of Ma's daughters. Thirteen people in one truck.
I wanted to bring them home, let them eat, give them a hot bath, tell them it'll be ok. I wanted to simultaneously smack the heck out of Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) and comfort her in the end; tell her she really did do good in God's eyes at that very last paragraph. I saw Ruthie grow in those 7 or 8 months into someone I did not like. She was mean, she was vindictive, she was 7. I saw humanity at its worse. Things like this really did happen in the early 1930's, after the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. These "Okies" were treated with contempt. They were kicked off their lands, treated like animals, paid meager wages or in some cases, they were paid with a loaf of bread for 16 hours of work, and it's disgusting. How would you fare? What would you be willing to do to feed your starving family?
It's a terrific book. I wish I knew how Noah fared. I wish I knew what happened to that spineless Connie. Is Tom ok? Did he take up the cause that Casey so tragically and instantaneously had taken from him? I imagine so. I imagine Tom forcing these cities who spurned them, who burned them out, who arrested them, to have to accept them; 500,000 strong. If not directly, then inspiring others to go on and on. The packing plants who throw away food, while these people sit outside the gates dying. The orange growers who sprayed kerosene on the overstock of oranges rather than give them away for free. The food thrown in rivers, with armed guards making sure no one took the food. Pigs slaughtered because they could not sell them, and hungry people staring, not understanding that there's a profit to be made.
"And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listening to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is a failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
A longer, better, agrarian, no-less-agenda-driven Jungle..........2007-04-05
Steinbeck was a red, and this book is infused with politics; but, unlike Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, The Grapes of Wrath is a fine work of literature. Not perfect, not without flaws, not as good as Zola's similarly-themed Germinal, but still a classic achievement by a truly great American author. Everyone should read it, from socialists to Shriners, and, as with any work of fiction, take it cum grano salis.
Steinbeck didn't like capitalism, because, especially during the Depression, there were many things about it not to like. His prediction that the private ownership of the means of production was soon to be over (as of 1939) hasn't been borne out...but the guy is not remembered for being a commie pantywaist, or a spectacularly-wrong prognosticator.
He was a writer, an exceptional one, and most people claim this is his best book. (I would argue that Of Mice and Men holds that distinction, but Grapes is almost five times as long...and how can a six-hundred-page book be worse'n a novella?)
Whatever you think, about politics, economics, or literature, this book is not a waste of time.
Book Description
33,000 PAGES
44 MILLION WORDS
10 BILLION YEARS OF HISTORY
1 OBSESSED MAN
Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.
To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but unconvinced.
With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child.
The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions, and a struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom.
Download Description
"33,000 pages 44 million words 10 billion years of history 1 obsessed man Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z. To fill the ever-widening gaps in his Ivy League education, A.J. Jacobs sets for himself the daunting task of reading all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His wife, Julie, tells him it's a waste of time, his friends believe he is losing his mind, and his father, a brilliant attorney who had once attempted the same feat and quit somewhere around Borneo, is encouraging but, shall we say, unconvinced. With self-deprecating wit and a disarming frankness, The Know-It-All recounts the unexpected and comically disruptive effects Operation Encyclopedia has on every part of Jacobs's life -- from his newly minted marriage to his complicated relationship with his father and the rest of his charmingly eccentric New York family to his day job as an editor at Esquire. Jacobs's project tests the outer limits of his stamina and forces him to explore the real meaning of intelligence as he endeavors to join Mensa, win a spot on Jeopardy!, and absorb 33,000 pages of learning. On his journey he stumbles upon some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and the paralyzing fear that attends his first real-life responsibility -- the impending birth of his first child. The Know-It-All is an ingenious, mightily entertaining memoir of one man's intellect, neuroses, and obsessions and a soul-searching, ultimately touching struggle between the all-consuming quest for factual knowledge and the undeniable gift of hard-won wisdom. "
Customer Reviews:
Like having your best friend read the best bits to you.......2007-09-28
Non-fiction, a memoir of the year the author read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, and the effects on his family and life. Pretty entertaining (after a slow start); in fact, much more entertaining than the unpromising premise would suggest. The author has a wry, self-deprecating, and ultimately winning sense of humor. And the excerpts from the encyclopedia were effective and amusing; they read much like someone who knows my tastes weeding out the dross and passing along only the bits of most interest to me. Worthwhile and recommended.
So akwardly funny.......2007-09-20
Thank you AJ for expressing what I have never been able to articulate...the Roman Empire like decline of my very expensive education.
Entertaining - mix of personal stories and random factoids.......2007-09-20
I'm enjoying this book so far, and I'm only to "E." It's a fun read, and I've already learned some trivia that I've felt compelled to share with others. More than anything, it's a story of a man coming to the realization, as most honors students do, that he's not the smartest man in the world and what that means in terms of his purpose in life. It certainly gets you thinking. I grew up in a nerdy family with grocery store Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias for bathroom reading, so I can totally relate to this guy.
Just finished your New Book! The Year of Living Biblically .......2007-09-04
AJ,
Since I KNOW(lol) you (and your FIL)are going to check the reviews for your new book too.
I wanted to say thank you for a really great book that is informative, fun to read and life moving. I have an advanced copy and have been reading it for the last day and a half.
This book should be in the Competitive religion section not the Humor section. In Fact I am going to put it in both places in my store.
I love your story. You say did the Bible make you a better person? At least to me you seem to have changed a lot from Month one to some time in September.
I will be Hand selling this book as soon as it hits my store in finished form. This is one of the best books of the 13 I have read this year.
Congrads on the twins.
Thanks
Dan Renfro
Barnes & Noble
2873
A Smart and Charming Page-Turner.......2007-08-14
I read The Know-It-All while studying to prepare for being a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire; I needed something to escape from all of the facts I was inhaling, but I didn't want to feel guilty for not using my time wisely. AJ Jacobs book was a perfect fit -- chock full of interesting information, yet funny and poignant, too. Besides taking the reader with him as he navigates his way through the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, there are side trips to other parts of Jacobs' life, both past and present: he and his wife's efforts to have a child; his sweet and slightly competitive relationship with his father; his pursuit of so-called 'smart' activities via Mensa, a crossword players' tournament, and his own appearance on Millionaire; scenes from his childhood in which he was convinced he was the Smartest Boy in the World.
This book is both touching and a riot, and one of the best books I've read in a long time. I couldn't put it down and I was sorry when it ended. In short, The Know-It-All is terrific!
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