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- Simple Path
- A simple path anyone can travel
- Dave from Carlsbad
- Inspiring
- A good reminder
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Simple Path
Mother Teresa
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Similar Items:
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Mother Teresa: In My Own Words
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No Greater Love
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The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living
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Meditations from a Simple Path
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Everything Starts from Prayer: Mother Teresa's Meditations on Spiritual Life for People
ASIN: 0345397452
Release Date: 1995-10-31 |
Book Description
Known around the globe for her indefatigable work on behalf of the poor, the sick, and the dying, Mother Teresa has devoted her life to giving hope to the hopeless in more than one hundred and twenty countries. She inspires us all to find a way to translate our spiritual beliefs into action in the world. How has one woman accomplished so much? And what are the guiding principles that have enabled this humble nun to so profoundly effect the lives of millions?
Now, in her own words, Mother Teresa shares the thoughts and experiences that have led her to do her extraordinary charitable work. A candid look at her everyday life--at the very simplicity and self-sacrifice that give her the strength to move mountains--A Simple Path gives voice to the remarkable spirit who has dedicated her life to the poorest among us.
Just as important as her beliefs are how they are put into action in the world, and A Simple Path also tells the story of the founding of the Missionaries of Charity, their purpose and practice, and the results of their tireless work. Through faith, surrender, and prayer, the missionaries live to serve others; they have improved the lives of countless souls and given dignity to the dying. Their mission has also produced a ripple effect, spreading human compassion to communities where there is need.
Through these examples, as well as the uplifting words and guiding prayers of Mother Teresa and those who work with her, everyone can learn how to walk the simple path that Mother Teresa has laid out for us, to help create a truly kinder world for the future.
A Simple Path is a unique spiritual guide for Catholics and non-Catholics alike: full of wisdom and hope from the one person who has given us the greatest model of love in action in our time.
Customer Reviews:
Simple Path.......2007-09-24
Most excellent writing. Use the steps in my daily spiritual life. Have used the book for workshops/meetings/sermons...she is a true spiritual guide! I often give this book to a number of friends. Mother Teresa truly exemplifies the life of Our Savior!
A simple path anyone can travel.......2007-08-04
I am a devotee of Mother Teresa. I am not catholic. But I have been intrigued and drawn to her compassion, her mission and her determination. I have watched her move in the hightest political circles without compromising her mission and her message. This book has removed the rhetoric of all religions and exposed the essence of being a "Christ"ian.
The message is truly Simple. Our entrapments are what get in our way but she shows us ways to lighten our load and take the simple path.
This book is for anyone who wants to enrich their spiritual life and celebrate in action the words of their faith, regardless of your faith base.
Dave from Carlsbad.......2007-01-15
Mother Teresa's mission and how she answered her calling shine through this as a great example for us to follow. What is revealed in this book is how we can each follow the simple path to peace in our own lives. Not having to sell all we possess and serve the poorest of the poor as she did, but in our own lives with those we meet. A few of the writings, including The Simple Path, are so moving to me, that I bought many copies of this book to give to others. What better gift could we offer someone than a path to peace? Hope you find it too.
Inspiring.......2004-06-17
I bought this book about 6 years ago. It's one of those books that you pick up and cannot put down. I was totally enthralled with it from the first few pages and every chapter became more and more inspiring. I was not a Christian when I read this book, so it's not just for believers. Rather it is a book for those who long for something more in their lfe, to walk in a deeper yet more 'simple' way. All of the chapters such as the ones on prayer, love, faith etc touched me deeply and even though it's been several years since I read it, I would read it again most definately. I lent it to someone and have never been given it back. I may just have to buy it again! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
A good reminder.......2004-06-01
This book is a good reminder of how to love. Many of us discuss, debate and guess at what real love looks like. This book reminds us that love can range from serving to just holding someone who is living their last days. This book often wisely suggests that we could preach less and serve more. Inspiring.
Book Description
Miracles and passion abound in this mesmerizing novelhailed everywhere as a masterworkthe story of a remarkable young womans sudden sainthood in the revolutionary-era Mexico of the late 19th century.
Customer Reviews:
A rich tapestry of a story with flat characters.......2007-10-17
Urrea is a virtuoso in the use of descriptive language. His story brings to life a rich tapestry of life in the Mexico of Porfirio Diaz. The book oscillates between the rational outlook of Tomas, patron of the estate on which the story is set and the world of magical realism which Teresita, his daughter and the protagonist of the novel, inhabits. Magical realism in Latin American literature can sometimes border on being inaccessible to readers of different cultures, but here it is essential to the storyline and effectively draws the reader into the world of the local people. Unfortunately, the characters in the book are decidedly flat. Despite the marvelous descriptions of the physical world in the novel, Urrea fails to portray the inner lives of his characters in a convincing way. This leads to key junctures in the plot becoming almost uninterpretable. We are left wondering what has motivated the sudden decision by the promiscuous Tomas, who has previously been completely heedless of the fate of the children he has fathered, to adopt one of them while rejecting another. The reader's surprise at this turn of events becomes astonishment when later in the book that same son who was rejected is suddenly given charge of the estate. Many of the events of the book take the reader by surprise because of a lack of character development. Nevertheless, the story is an enjoyable read, and a fascinating window into the world of 19th Century Mexico.
Great book.......2007-09-20
Like many have said in their reviews so far, the story was very hard to start, especially for myself. I generally read from a different genre of fiction, and my wife told me that it was a must read. It took me a while to actually get into the story, and once I did, I could not put it down. Give it a chance, and you will not be sorry.
Fascinating........2007-09-18
Great book. Mythical and quite Latin in its writing, with lots of fantasy, but very grounded in some "rational" characters versus "magical" ones. Beautiful prose.
I Couldn't Finish It.......2007-09-10
I picked up The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea and I put it back down again after 100 pages. I just could NOT get into this book. I could not care about the characters. It should be easy to care about Thersea/Terista, but I couldn't do it. Obviously, I am in the minority of reviewers. This book has received so many good reviews that I can't help but think maybe it is me. Maybe I was not in the right mood to read this book, regardless, this is one of the very few books I have refused to continue reading.
The book seems to have a good story, but it is the writer's style that annoyed me to the point of putting it down. If the book is praised for its descriptiveness than apparently being descriptive is only about writing ten different ways to say the same thing. I could not feel the words to this book. I did not know what the characters felt. I knew that Treista was beat and thrown to spend the night with the pigs, but I did not know how the mud felt against her skin, what the temperature was like outside. What parts of her body hurt? How she felt about her aunt? These are the things I want to know when I read a book, these are the descriptions that carry me into a book and out of my living room/metra train. This is why I couldn't finish the book. With more showing than telling I never felt like I knew any of the characters and even worse, after 100 pages, I didn't care to know them.
Fabulous!.......2007-08-11
Great book! It has everything a great book could possibly include. Loved every minute. It dragged a bit at the end but generally was a wonderful reading experience. I miss this book.
Amazon.com
Sexy, modern, and unabashedly consumer-oriented, Art Deco was a new kind of style, flourishing at a time of rapid technological change and social upheaval. Lacking the philosophical basis of other European design movements, Deco borrowed motifs from numerous sources--Japan, Africa, ancient Egyptian and Mayan cultures, avant-garde European art--simply to create novel visual effects. Art Deco 1910-1939 surveys the sources and development of the popular style with more than 400 color illustrations and 40 chapters by numerous design specialists. The authors track Deco around the globe, from Paris to the United States—-where it got its biggest boost from mass production—-to Northern and Central Europe, Latin America, Japan, India, and New Zealand. The book's broad focus encompasses industrial artifacts (the Hindenburg blimp, the Burlington Zephyr locomotive), as well as architecture, furniture, accessories, fashion, jewelry, typography and poster design. Despite the existence of other prominent artistic movements during the 1920s and '30s, the authors tend to hang the Deco label on virtually any object that portrays the effects of technology or employs color, luxury materials or artificial light in striking ways. It does seem a stretch to include Man Ray's photographs, Sonia Delaunay's textiles and the movie King Kong in the Deco pantheon. But the great strength of Art Deco 1910-1939 is that it reveals the social context of Deco, not just its pretty face. The book accompanies an exhibition (organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto through January 4, 2004; subsequent venues are San Francisco and Boston. —Cathy Curtis
Book Description
Sexy, modern, and unabashedly consumer-oriented, Art Deco was a new kind of style, flourishing at a time of rapid technological change and social upheaval. Lacking the philosophical basis of other European design movements, Deco borrowed motifs from numerous sources--Japan, Africa, ancient Egyptian and Mayan cultures, avant-garde European art--simply to create novel visual effects. Art Deco 1910-1939 surveys the sources and development of the popular style with more than 400 color illustrations and 40 chapters by numerous design specialists. The authors track Deco around the globe, from Paris to the United States#151;-where it got its biggest boost from mass production#151;-to Northern and Central Europe, Latin America, Japan, India, and New Zealand. The book's broad focus encompasses industrial artifacts (the Hindenburg blimp, the Burlington Zephyr locomotive), as well as architecture, furniture, accessories, fashion, jewelry, typography and poster design. Despite the existence of other prominent artistic movements during the 1920s and '30s, the authors tend to hang the Deco label on virtually any object that portrays the effects of technology or employs color, luxury materials or artificial light in striking ways. It does seem a stretch to include Man Ray's photographs, Sonia Delaunay's textiles and the movie King Kong in the Deco pantheon. But the great strength of Art Deco 1910-1939 is that it reveals the social context of Deco, not just its pretty face. The book accompanies an exhibition (organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto through January 4, 2004; subsequent venues are San Francisco and Boston. #151;Cathy Curtis
Customer Reviews:
Very good transaction.......2007-01-12
No problem.
Long shipping, the book arrived some days after christmas.
Olivier
Excellent - Good scope and global reach........2006-08-10
Bought it - read it - refer to it as a source and to unashameably copy.
Niggles;
1) No art deco gardens. Is this an ommission or was this branch of human endeavour eschewed by the industrial age?
2) Illustrations of pieces sometimes miss listing the media and all are missing the size.
The greatest book on Art Deco!.......2003-09-12
This book is an absolute triumph. First, it is positively gorgeous - the images just leap off the pages. Second, the essays are more in-depth, engaging, and informative than any other book I've found on the subject. This book discusses every facet of Art Deco as well: it explores the origins at the Paris Exhibition in 1925, goes through the influence in East Asia, Latin America, and South Africa, not to mention Europe. A great chapter on Deco in Hollywood; also explores all of the sources, iconography - and all of this on top of covering every aspect of the movement - ceramics, jewelry, fashion, architecture, glass, photography, graphic design, bookbindings, travel and transport, and so so much more - with stunning visuals. A fantastic read, a great resource, a beautiful work, and an absolute MUST for anyone interested in the subject! Well worth the money, and a fantastic addition to any library. Highly recommended!
The first and last word on Deco........2003-09-07
A sumptuous coffee-table book of this exuberant art style and I think it could well become the standard book on the subject. The forty essays are divided into four sections, Sources and Iconography, 1925 Paris Exhibition, Spread of Deco and finally Deco World, and I liked the way, especially in Sources and Iconography, that the authors explain how various art styles were moulded into deco art which culminated in the very influential 1925 Paris show.
I thought the last two sections were a fascinating coverage of how Art Deco spread around the world, mainly as architecture and fashion, though in Europe also as a fine art style. In North America, it influenced a huge range of commercial products. Perhaps this was the only art form that was truly democratic in that it was available (as streamlining) to be seen or bought on any Main Street across the Nation.
The design and printing are excellent. Many of the photos, especially color, are presented whole page, the rest are all well sized, and they all have captions. The back of the book has a very comprehensive bibliography, fortunately listed as relating to each chapter rather than just an alphabetical list, the index is divided into two, Names and Subject. I was very impressed with this attention to detail and with the excellent text, images and production surely `Art Deco 1910-1939' will be read for many years to come.
***FOR A LOOK INSIDE click 'customer images' under the cover.
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A Century of Ballads, 1810-1910
Harold Simpson
Manufacturer: Library Reprints
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0722262191 |
Amazon.com
Mark Twain grew up with America. Born in 1835, he reached adulthood as the country was expanding and threatening to splinter all at once. Along with his towering talent and personality, his timing and instinct for finding the action allowed him to play a major role in pushing the boundaries of American culture and mythology by creating a new approach to literature. "Breaching the ranks of New England literary culture was Clemens's most important achievement (short of his actual works), and a signal liberating event in the country's imaginative history," writes Ron Powers in this dazzling biography. Not only did he observe and chronicle this cultural shift, he participated in it, allowing him to report "from the yeasty perspective of the common man." While still Sam Clemens, he worked as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River and experienced the Wild West of the Nevada Territory as a miner, land prospector, and newspaperman. Later, while still the people's champion, he married into wealth and ran with the moneyed class of the Gilded Age--until his money ran out--and toured the world meeting with the famous and powerful at every stop. He was, as Powers puts it, "the nation's first rock star." But Twain was more than just a writer and Powers strives to cover all sides of this complex man. Employing an approach he calls "interpretive portraiture," he explores Twain's personal relations, temperament, religious skepticism, and psychology as closely as his written work. He discusses Twain's zeal for life along with his "chronic insecurity," and describes how this eternally optimistic and forward-looking man was prone to spells of nihilism and despair. Powers is a talented and lively writer clearly up to the task of covering this American legend, and his book vividly and thoroughly explains why Twain was "the representative figure of his nation and his century." --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries. Yet somehow, beneath the vast flowing river of literature that he left behind -- books, sketches, speeches, not to mention the thousands of letters to his friends and his remarkable entries in private journals -- the man who became Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, has receded from view, leaving us with only faint and often trivialized remnants of his towering personality.
In Mark Twain, Ron Powers consummates years of thought and research with a tour de force on the life of our culture's founding father, re-creating the 19th century's vital landscapes and tumultuous events while restoring the human being at their center. He offers Sam Clemens as he lived, breathed, and wrote -- drawing heavily on the preserved viewpoints of the people who knew him best (especially the great William Dean Howells, his most admiring friend and literary co-conspirator), and on the annals of the American 19th century that he helped shape. Powers's prose rivals Mark Twain's own in its blend of humor, telling detail, and flights of lyricism. With the assistance of the Mark Twain Project at Berkeley, he has been able to draw on thousands of letters and notebook entries, many only recently discovered.
It is hard to imagine a life that encompassed more of its times. Sam Clemens left his frontier boyhood in Missouri for a life on the Mississippi during the golden age of steamboats. He skirted the western theater of the Civil War before taking off for an uproarious drunken newspaper career in the Nevada of the Wild West. As his fame as a humorist and lecturer spread around the country, he took the East Coast by storm, witnessing the extremes of wealth and poverty of New York City and the Gilded Age (which he named). He traveled to Europe on the first American pleasure cruise and revitalized the prim genre of travel writing. He wooed and won his lifelong devoted wife, yet quietly pined for the girl who was his first crush and whom he would re-encounter many decades later. He invented and invested in get-rich-quick schemes. He became the toast of Europe and a celebrity who toured the globe. His comments on everything he saw, many published here for the first time, are priceless.
The man who emerges in Powers's brilliant telling is both the magnetic, acerbic, and hilarious Mark Twain of myth and a devoted friend, husband, and father; a whirlwind of optimism and restless energy; and above all, a wide-eared and wide-eyed observer who absorbed every sight and sound, and poured it into his characters, plots, jokes, businesses, and life. Mark Twain left us our greatest voice. Samuel Clemens left us one of our most full and American of lives.
"No one understands the complicated American the world knows as Mark Twain better than Ron Powers. Finally, we have scholarship and writing worthy of the man. Powers's prose is insightful, elegant, and gets to the center of Twain's life, humor, tragedy, and outrage."
Ken Burns
Download Description
"Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries. Yet somehow, beneath the vast flowing river of literature that he left behind -- books, sketches, speeches, not to mention the thousands of letters to his friends and his remarkable entries in private journals -- the man who became Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, has receded from view, leaving us with only faint and often trivialized remnants of his towering personality. In Mark Twain, Ron Powers consummates years of thought and research with a tour de force on the life of our culture's founding father, re-creating the 19th century's vital landscapes and tumultuous events while restoring the human being at their center. He offers Sam Clemens as he lived, breathed, and wrote -- drawing heavily on the preserved viewpoints of the people who knew him best (especially the great William Dean Howells, his most admiring friend and literary co-conspirator), and on the annals of the American 19th century that he helped shape. Powers's prose rivals Mark Twain's own in its blend of humor, telling detail, and flights of lyricism. With the assistance of the Mark Twain Project at Berkeley, he has been able to draw on thousands of letters and notebook entries, many only recently discovered. It is hard to imagine a life that encompassed more of its times. Sam Clemens left his frontier boyhood in Missouri for a life on the Mississippi during the golden age of steamboats. He skirted the western theater of the Civil War before taking off for an uproarious drunken newspaper career in the Nevada of the Wild West. As his fame as a humorist and lecturer spread around the country, he took the East Coast by storm, witnessing the extremes of wealth and poverty of New York City and the Gilded Age (which he named). He traveled to Europe on the first American pleasure cruise and revitalized the prim genre of travel writing. He wooed and won his lifelong devoted wife, yet quietly pined for the girl who was his first crush and whom he would re-encounter many decades later. He invented and invested in get-rich-quick schemes. He became the toast of Europe and a celebrity who toured the globe. His comments on everything he saw, many published here for the first time, are priceless. The man who emerges in Powers's brilliant telling is both the magnetic, acerbic, and hilarious Mark Twain of myth and a devoted friend, husband, and father; a whirlwind of optimism and restless energy; and above all, a wide-eared and wide-eyed observer who absorbed every sight and sound, and poured it into his characters, plots, jokes, businesses, and life. Mark Twain left us our greatest voice. Samuel Clemens left us one of our most full and American of lives. "
Customer Reviews:
Absolutely marvelous book!.......2006-12-28
Powers gives us a terrific chronology, densely packed information, charming and insightful prose, plenty of great Twain quotes and anecdotes, empathy for the tragedies of Twain's life and twitting of his oddities when called for. I found it quite remarkable that the book could be so factual and also so readable. There's an excellent index, solid background references, and many laugh-out-loud moments. Adding to the pleasaure of this reading experience are some delightful and - new to me - photographs. Strongly recommend this outstanding biography.
A Full, Rich Life.......2006-10-29
This thorough and well-written biography of a gifted indivudual leaves one with the feeling of having known Mark Twain, Samuel Clemmens, personally. The book offers two additional values: One is getting a glinpse of what life was like during the late 19th century. The other is what it meant to experience the Civil War from a state so far removed from the action that the war seemed to be going on in another country.
Great account of a remarkable American life.......2006-10-08
An interesting biography of Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemens, a journalist and a writer.
Although he had no formal education, Mark Twain was arguably the best English language writer since Shakespeare, with his greatest contribution to the American literature being the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain traveled around the world, and had a great sense of humanity
He was a patriot who loved his country and the 19th century. But he condemned his American society for its hypocrisy. He was anti-colonial and anti-imperialist. He condemned the US for the invasion of Cuba and the Philippines, and the annexation of its neighbor, Mexico.
3.5, Round Up to 4 Stars........2006-10-01
You don't need to be incredibly familiar with Mark Twain's novels to follow this biography. In an apparently un-Twain-like linear fashion, Powers discusses the sources of Sam Clemens' stories while describing the formative years of his life. He then references these early experiences in later chapters when discussing the motivation behind each of Twain's works. He goes into great detail about the writing process, how manuscripts can begin vigorously, be set aside for a decade, then finished when enough inspiration has accumulated or enough memories have congealed to round out the story.
I don't think I've ever read a biography of an author. But Sam Clemens' lead a hectic life outside of literature. Powers covers everything from Clemens' boyhood adventures to his myopic business ventures, from his glory days as a Mississippi steamboat pilot to his failure as a Nevadan silver miner. Once his personal life is fleshed out and his acquaintances are described, it's easier to see how the writing of Mark Twain became the copyrighted American voice of the late 19th century.
My only serious complaint about this biography is the vocabulary. How many times can you drop the word "absquatulated" in a book and not sound pompous?
Simply THE best Mark Twain biography.......2006-09-16
Mr. Powers leaves every other Mark Twain biographer in the dust. This work is not only beautifully detailed and researched; it is a constantly engaging 'page turner.' Beyond all that Mr. Power's own gift as a writer is extraordinary...his words literally leap from the page. One of the best reads I have had in a long time.
Book Description
The prize-winning biographer Robert D. Richardson has written a masterly and utterly moving portrait of James' pivotal member of the Metaphysical Club, author of The Varieties of Religious Experience, eldest sibling in the singular James family. William James, ten years in the making, draws on a vast number of unpublished letters, journals, and family records. Richardson paints extraordinary scenes from what James himself called the "buzzing blooming confusion" of his life, beginning with childhood, as he struggled to achieve amid the domestic chaos and intellectual brilliance of Father, brother Henry, and sister Alice. Through impassioned scholarship, Richardson illuminates James's hugely influential works: the "Varieties", "Principles of Psychology", "Talks to Teachers", and "Pragmatism".
Customer Reviews:
For A Popular Audience, Too.......2007-10-08
I need not repeat the summaries set forth below by other reviewers, since these explain both Richardson's method -- to tell the life story through the work -- and the essentials of James' theories. What I will say is that, even if you have no background in philosophy or psychology, you should read this brilliant, passionate biography. James wrote for a popular as well as a professional audience; he was open and curious to all experience, and wished to be inclusive rather than exclusive in disseminating his ideas. Richardson is clear and succinct in explaining James theories -- often in the man's own, crisp, evocative language and clarifying analogies. Moreover, the concepts that James developed have in many cases become part of our popular vocabulary, including through organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which Richardson reports took inspiration from James' Gifford lectures, published in the U.S. as "The Varieties of Religious Experience."
I had not read James for many years but, since reading this biography, have purchased a collection of his writings and am re-reading many of his works. You will come away from "In the Maelstrom of American Modernism" with a better understanding of both American values and ideals, and the history of U.S. higher education. Most importantly, however, you will come away with enormous admiration for the radiant personality that was William James, or as Richardson exclaims (using italics, not caps) at the end of this great work, for "the SPIRIT the man." When I finished reading, I not only wanted to read William James; I was sorry that I had not known him or had him as a teacher. That's how good this book is -- for every reader.
Excellent for Scholars, Less Interest for Other Readers.......2007-08-07
This book will resonate perfectly with scholars trained in philosophy and psychology. Biographer Richardson traces William James' evolving thought patterns with a thoroughness no writer could exceed. For the average reader, though, I suggest the book will have value mostly because of the interesting lives of William James and his novelist brother Henry.
Certainly I had been unaware of William's lifelong health problems. Too, the book provides fascinating tidbits about his courtship with his eventual wife Alice. Note his highly formal writing style in a love letter to her: "My duty is to win your hand if I can. . .What I beg of you now is that you should let me know categorically whether any absolute irrevocable obstacle already exist to that consummation."
Another highlight for me--William James' rejection of "copied religion." He has no use for the person whose "religion has been made for him by others, communicated to him by tradition, determined to fixed forms by imitation and retained by habit." James noted that "the founders of every church owed their power originally to the fact of their direct personal communion with the divine."
I enjoyed the book as a life story well told.
The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!
HENRY JAMES'S OLDER BROTHER........2007-06-10
I read often on Henry James and through that have always gathered some tangential information concerning his older brother, William.
When I saw this book at our local library could not pass up the opportunity to read a full biography of William James. The desire to do so reaped rewards of insight into not only William but the entire James family. Though William and Henry were separated in many ways as individuals, they were also connected in many ways. Henry felt great loss with William's passing, and William asked Alice to be with Henry when his time came. Henry when near death felt the closeness of William at Lamb House, Rye.
No matter what drives your desire to read this book, much biographical and empirical information will be gained, and William James now has a swell biography all his own which I can place on the my shelves next to all the Henry James material.
Recommended.
Semper Fi.
What a Terrific Biography!.......2007-03-20
Robert Richardson has written a masterful biography. It is hard to imagine how it could be improved upon and it deserves recognition as the essential study of America's best known philosopher. There are still a few young people feeling their way through life who remind me of the youthful William James. W.J. really did not amount to much til he was past 40. His youth was a confusing matrix of indecision, false starts and immobilizing depression. How apt that James did not disparage the popular self-help writers of his day. (One of his endearing traits was his willingness to listen to rivals, opponents and crackpots.) I think Richardson's biography will make a terrific self-help book for young Jamesian types.
Richardson calls his book an intellectual biography. By that, he means to show how James's life can be understood through his work. He specifically states in the prologue it is not to be interpreted the other way round. Clearly, James's life was affected by his own thought and writing. After he achieved recognition, he was able to more effectively control his daemons, rise above his seasonal existential crises and come to embody the actualized voice of American philosophy. However, the James epistomology is pre-Freudian. He never acknowledged that the unconscious could conduct its own guerrilla attacks on life and definitively shape experience. His early life seems especially laden with familial burdens that threatened to marginalize his life and reputation. In fact, James's all consuming adoption of empirical interpretations may have been a reaction to his father's over-idealized religious tracts. Philosophically, W.J. turned out about 180 degrees removed from his dear old dad. Richardson remains mum on whether James ever acknowledged the role of polarity. More than anything however, the author demonstrates how James's writing was influenced by his own history- i.e. he turned his own experience into philosophy.
It is reasonable to expect a biography to touch upon every important theme in his subject's published works. James spent two thirds of his life awaiting his genius, so we don't hear about his formal philosophy til late in the book. I am no authority on the James canon, but I think everything I ever read by him or about him was addressed by Richardson. I am content that the intellectual issues were sufficiently aired. Of course, W.J.'s prose was not highly systemitized. (Outlines are for idealist philosophers.) Indeed it is to his enduring worth that all his tracts were infused with rhetorical panache. Richardson notes that Rebecca West observed that "one of the James brothers grew up to write fiction as though it were philosophy, and the other to write philosophy as though it were fiction." R.R. does a great job of limning the loving/distant relationship between William and Henry. In fact, all his friendships are given prominence, and my curiosity has been stirred over several lesser known colleagues. In conclusion, this is the most satisfying biography I've read in a long time. It will be enjoyed by all manner of psychologists, philosophers and intellectual historians.
superb biography.......2007-03-13
This is an excellent, very well documented biography of one of America's most interesting intellectuals. Through detailed quotations from personal letters, careful exploration of James's physical and domestic environment, and meticulous exploration of what James read and who he talked with, Richardson gives us the kind of familiarity with James and his ideas that might have come from knowing James personally. One of the best books I've read in the past couple of years.
Amazon.com
If you're already familiar with Finn and Sawyer, perhaps this collection of fragments, short stories, and essays--assembled posthumously some few decades ago now, but still fresh--will enhance your sense of Twain's true range. A particular favorite: his essay "The Damned Human Race," wherein he proves, rather convincingly, that an anaconda snake is a higher form of life than an English Earl.
Book Description
"I have told you nothing about man that is not true." You must pardon me if I repeat that remark now and then in these letters; I want you to take seriously the things I am telling you, and I feel that if I were in your place and you in mine, I should need that reminder from time to time, to keep my credulity from flagging.
In Letters from the Earth, Twain presents himself as the Father of History -- reviewing and interpreting events from the Garden of Eden through the Fall and the Flood, translating the papers of Adam and his descendants through the generations. First published fifty years after his death, this eclectic collection is vintage Twain: sharp, witty, imaginative, complex, and wildly funny.
Customer Reviews:
I'm picturing Mark Twain saying, "Hot young blossoms".......2007-10-03
I picked this up solely for the first story, Letters from the Earth, but I ended up reading through the entire book and find I have a new appreciation for Twain's humor and satire. Letters was very entertaining, although the religiously inclined may not find it funny at all. However, I'm not, and I did! Some other portions worth a read include Eve's autobiography (revealing!), an amusing critique of James Fenimore Cooper's writing style, a parody of an etiquette manual, and The Damned Human Race, which demonstrates the 'descent' of man. Twain died in 1910, and this collection of essays and short stories was not published until 1962.
Oh, and Mark Twain referring to "hot young blossoms" amused me to no end. :)
Hilarious.......2007-08-29
I haven't enjoyed a book this much, or laughed this much in a long time.
A Christian endorses "Letters from Earth".......2007-04-28
I am a person who goes to church every Sunday; I like to think that I take my Christian faith seriously; so it may seem ironic that I would give five stars to a book that Mark Twain wrote as a humorous defense of athiesm. "Letters from Earth" is, after all, an attack on Christianity.
Actually, Twain brings out a lot a lot of good points as to some hypocrisies that most Christians and Christian organizations would like to ignore. While reading this book, did not convert me to athiesm. it did open my mind to a more ecumenical and balanced approach.
Of course, the book is also very well written. Mark Twain was one of our greatest American writers and thinkers.
Also see :"How to Talk Dirty and Influence People" by Lenny Bruce.
Letters from the Earth Mark Twain.......2007-03-09
I am truly thrilled with the book, a truly great satirical work. Highly humorus. I purchased a paperback and a 1st Edition of the book thru Amazon and I am happy with both purchases. Thanks
All Time Favourite.......2005-11-29
If you're in the mood for some great humor from the devil himself, this and C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters are 2 of my favourite books of all time... these can't be missed, for agnostics, atheists, christians, and bokonons alike. A perfect pair for a rainy afternoon!
Book Description
Traveling the world for eight decades, mountaineer, explorer, cartographer, and aerial photographer Bradford Washburn has documented the landscape from the Grand Canyon to the Alps, from Mount McKinley to Mount Everest. Genius has inspired him to pioneer photographic techniques that capture the most remote and inaccessible points on earth under conditions worthy of a stunt man. Genius has also transformed his photos-conceived for a purely functional purpose-into works of expressive art. Now the career of America's most celebrated mountain photographer is presented for the first time in book form.
In Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photography, one hundred large-format mountain photographs, selected from more than 10,000 images, take the reader through Washburn's lifetime of accomplishments. Aerial images of high mountains, looking more like bold relief maps, are captured in extreme raking light. There are picture essays of early Alaskan expeditions-striking modern still lifes of supply caches and camp conditions-plus portraits of team members and colorful characters and situations encountered along the way. Additional aerial photographs reveal, in breathtaking clarity, the workings of the earth, continuously transformed by upheavals and erosions, and the slow march and retreat of glaciers.
Customer Reviews:
Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photography.......2007-04-03
I was looking for something different. The photographs are beautiful but they are mostly not of the mountain in which I was interested.
Bradford Washburn: Mountain Photography.......2005-10-17
TERRIBLE COPY - FALLING APART - PAID VERY HIGH PRICE AND WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE QUALITY OF THE BOOK. WHEN PURCHASED IT SAID IT WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.
Picture the mountains in all their glory..........2003-01-15
This book is a marvelous record of mountain exploration and photography with photos that span a period of almost 70 years. This small collection representing much less than 1% of Washburn's photographs is a remarkable record of photography rivaling Ansel Adams or Vittorio Sella. Although the photos were originally taken to support his geological or surveying research or to provide guide shots for climbers, Washburn soon realized that he had a knack for taking photographs as art that were as good as any being produced by other photographers.
This book may be a disappointment for those who want expedition photographs as few of the photographs include people. Indeed, having a few more pictures of people would have warranted five stars. Yet, many of the pictures are aerial photographs so the lack of people in many is not surprising. What makes it ultimately worthwhile is the crispness of the pictures, the attention to details on the ridges and valleys of the mountains, the patterns revealed in the flow of glaciers, and so on.
One other point of interest is that this book was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2000 Banff Mountain Book Festival -- the only pure photography book to win that award.
A slight disappointment.......2001-07-29
After the exhiliration generated by Washburn's classic book on Denali, this one left me slightly disappointed. There are many exquisite photographs and a few truly great ones, such as the famous picture of climbers on the Doldenhorn (in the Bernese Alps). But on the whole there are just a little bit too many pictures of abstract geological features. These reveal a more scholarly side of Washburn's art: interesting to round out our view on this great artist, but less captivating than the epic mountain pictures. Also, there is an appendix with a detailed account of Washburn's career, with many little inset pictures of people he worked with (Barbara Washburn being the most prominent amongst them). I would have liked to see many more of these pictures and at a size more amenable to detailed study. A final point of criticism on this book concerns the interview with Washburn by the editor: it is very revealing but way too short! I would have guessed that Decaneas would have been able to extract much more material from all the conversations he has had with Washburn in the final years of his life. So, it's a nice book to have in the library, but Decaneas missed an opportunity to put together an absolute classic. Pity.
Museum quality visual images.......2001-03-16
Bradford Washburn roamed the globe for eighty years as a mountaineer, explorer, cartographer, and aerial photographer. In Bradford Washington: Mountain Photography, Tony Decaneas as assembled one hundred full-size landscape mountain photographs from the more than ten thousand images that Bradford made during his lifetime of photographic accomplishments. From the Grand Canyon to the Alps, from Mount McKinley to Mount Everest, these black and white landscape photos of mountain peaks and picture portraits of team members and colorful characters that are each of them museum quality visual images showcasing Bradford's photography as having risen to the level of fine art.
Book Description
This landmark exhibition catalog surveys the entire career of one of the last great painters of high modernism, Franz Kline. It features over 70 major works, including paintings, drawings, sketches, and documentary material. The works included have been selected from collections from around the world with the intent of showing all of Kline's achievements, from the early figurative oil paintings of the late 1930s and 1940s to his breakthroughs in Abstract Expressionism seen in a selection of his large-scale black-and-white works. This volume traces Kline's art from its beginnings to his last painting in 1961, just a few months before the artist's death.
Kline, along with Pollock and Motherwell, was at the center of Abstract Expressionism and "action painting" in the America. This volume demonstrates in the monumental canvases, as well as in his many small-scale sketches made on paper, newspaper, and even telephone book pages, how Kline embraces gesture, experience, and emotion with direct and raw energy.
Customer Reviews:
The quintessential Ab Ex painter.......2007-04-06
A thoroughly documented catalogue with beautiful reproductions that manage to give a fair idea of the power of Kline's paintings. The size effect is lacking of course, but you do get to see a lot of nuances in the different types of blacks; you even get to distinguish the brushstrokes (rare through mere reproductions). A book worth the investment.
excellent book.......2005-10-17
Franz Kline is a painting master and this book is a definitive and complete representation. Like many abstract painters, Kline's process and spirit is as fascinating as his final works. This book shows many wonderful aspects to Kline's creative approach and (as expected) many images of his fine work. The book is thorough and inspring. I highly recommend it.
Customer Reviews:
Still the best on Zapata.......2006-12-28
Womack's timeless dissertation on Zapata is still the authority on one of the most interesting men of the Mexican Revolution. Zapata never wanted power for himself and fought for the peasants of Morelos. His desire for land reform is exposed here as well as his strategy and life. It is an excellent biography and presents a small facet of the revolution. If you have not read anything on the revolution this is not the book to start with. It assumes that you have a working knowledge of the revolution and does an excellent job of conveying the information of Zapata's ideals.
The Ideal Hero.......2006-09-24
John Womack's historical account of the Mexican Revolution truly focuses on General Emiliano Zapata and his home state of Morelos. If you're looking for a broad account of the Mexican Revolution that really includes Pancho Villa's struggle and the interventions of the U.S. government, this is not the book you are looking for. But Womack does provide one of the most notable accounts of the Revolution, and nowhere else will you get this level of insight into Zapata's character and struggle.
Zapata quickly rose from his position as chief of the peasants in a village seeking agrarian reform to the leader of a state-wide movement. His single-minded dedication to the cause of justice in land-rights made him a hero to the people. However, what Womack misses in his account of the decade-long revolution in Morelos is the hellishness of war. The oppressive governments of the time, from Diaz to Huerta, were not the only one's whose armies attacked civilians and burned their homes, displacing whole villages. There was an element of banditry even among the Zapatistas. And by glossing over the moral struggles and compromises of the war, Womack does his hero a disservice; the reader does not see the difficulty Zapata faces in making moral sacrifices for the greater cause of the Revolution.
Womack's depiction of the Revolution is idealized, but despite the gloss put on certain parts, it is accurate. If you are looking for a book rich in historical fact, this is the book for you; just keep in mind that even the best historians may have a blind spot.
Excellent research tool and a wonderful story.......2004-09-19
This is an excellent tool for any researcher or student of the Mexican Revolution and Emiliano Zapata. Mr. Womack's volume is by far the best English language book on Zapata that I have ever read. It is absorbing and accurate. A perfect blend of historical data and fine storytelling.
The Tumult Of Revolution.......2004-03-23
Without doubt the finest english language account available about the agrarian reform hero Emiliano Zapata;
Womack brillantly describes the social and economic conditions that caused the Mexican revolution. His depiction of the central character Zapata is eloquent and a worthy homage to the champion of Mexico's poor and indigenous.
I was particularly impressed by the level of the author's research into the political and economic background of the period. A magnificent book that places you right in the middle of the turmoil that gripped central and southern Mexico.
Recommended to all scholars of the Mexican revolution.
Excellent Book.......2003-05-17
I am not an authority on the life of Emiliano Zapata and realize his life was and is entangled in much myth. Nevertheless, I feel his life is worth reading about and there is no better strat than with Womack's account (or perhaps Samuel Brunk's). Great book written about a Mexican legend.
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- State in Society: Studying How States and Societies Transform and Constitute One Another (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
- Stoats & Weasels Polecats & Martens (British Natural History)
- Tesla: Man Out of Time
- The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
- The Biology of cytoplasmic microtubules (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences ; v. 253)
- The Book of Irish Families, Great & Small (Third Edition, Expanded)
- The Castle in the Forest: A Novel
- The Cure for All Cancers: Including over 100 Case Histories of Persons Cured
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