Clubs Books

As usual the photos in this calendar are spectacular. I like the info on holidays and cycles of the moon. I have used this form of calendar for years - keeping all personal and social info in one place. I go through and add birthdays, anniversaries, engagements to the calendar for the entire year. It helps meet deadlines for sending gifts or cards to friends and family. I also record the tasks I do in my job every day. This is very helpful in writing reviews, reports and in keeping my resume up to date. I also tape in invites, programs, tickets, etc. - resulting in a great journal. It's fun to go back over the years to 1974 when I started working and enjoy the year all over again.

This is just the perfect calendar for a person with just a few appointments per day. The photos are fantastic. I would give it full marks but some of the extra pages at the back have been eliminated. Those included pages for addresses and phone numbers. Now that information has to be put in under "Notes" which means not enough room for one's notes.

Once you become accustomed to an egagement calendar that starts very logically with Monday and finishes with the weekend, you will never go back!

I use this as my appointment book and I keep it by the phone. I get one every year and have never been disappointed with the photographs. It is a nice size to keep on my counter by the phone and it has plenty of room to write. When I am talking on the phone I enjoy looking at the beautiful photography that I can really get lost in. I think it is a good price for such a practical and beautiful item with so many amazing photographs.

Every year I purchase a new Sierra Club Engagement Calendar. One year I purchased an Audubon Society Engagement Calendar because I could not find the Sierra Club one, and although it was nice, it didn't begin to compare to the Sierra Club images. The weekly format is easy to navigate with plenty of room to write your day's scheduled activities, plus small enough to tote around with you if you please, all the while getting a great new picture to look at every week. I sometimes cut out the pictures and frame them to put on my desk.

SOUTH: THE LAST ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

Here is a list of equipment that Sir Ernest Shackleton did NOT have for his memorable Endurance expedition: GPS location finders; radio ; RADAR, SONAR; computerized navigation; professional medical care; thermal clothes; MRE'S (Meals Ready To Eat), double steel hull; air and logistical support, public relations agents; marketing proposals; lawyers.
Shacketon's crew navigated with a sextant; traversed the icecap with dog sleds instead of ski-doos, and ate canned herring, tinned meat, pemmican, biscuits and occasional seals.

What he did have was an old ship, a strong crew, an incredible work ethic, classic British stoicism and unerring sense of the right thing to do.

His book reads like a Robert Louis Stevenson or H.G. Welles story, but it is the unvarnished truth. His matter -of -fact account is brilliantly illustrated by Frank Hurley's dramatic black & white photos of The Endurance encapsulated in ice, its masts and spars dripping frozen water like the maritime apparition in Melville's "Benito Cereno."
I seriously doubt whether a modern expedition equipped with all the bells and whistles and sponsored with corporate money could duplicate what Shackleton's Endurance accomplished under the most adverse circumstances imaginable.
Because the Endurance expedition occurred in 1914-15 at the start of World World War I
Shackleton's accomplishment was largely overshadowed, and the Antarctic was all but forgotten until the `fifties and `sixties when its scientific and strategic value was rediscovered.
Now, as the Antarctic ice cap melts from global warming, one wonders at Shackleton's accomplishment.

When the Antarctic explorer ship Endurance became trapped by ice in the opening days of World War I, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his companions found themselves stranded for the winter. Months later, when the ice floe that had been their "home" became unstable as spring breakup began, the party - with their ship long since broken apart - took to their three open boats, and made their way to Elephant Island. There they set up a precarious camp, where most of the group waited while Sir Ernest and a few carefully chosen companions struck out for South Georgia. That South Atlantic island, 800 miles away, was known to have year-round British inhabitants.

Those are the bare facts of one of the great true adventures, a story told here by Sir Ernest himself. His dry writing style may take some slogging, at first, for contemporary (especially American) readers; but his wit is equally dry, and his descriptions vivid. I was especially interested to note the differences between the Shackleton party's attitudes and those of today. Not only is this a magnificent survival tale (NOT ONE of Shackleton's men died!); it's also a snapshot of how those quintessential English explorers of another era thought about the world they were discovering. For better or for worse, how times and attitudes have changed!

After more than a year of seeing pretty much nothing but ice and snow, and living in, at times, sub-zero temperatures, Sir Ernest Shackleton writes about his camp's current conditions; "Drifts four feet deep covered everything, and we had to be continually digging up our scanty stock of meat to prevent its being lost altogether... On this day, and for the next two or three also, it was impossible to do anything but get right inside one's frozen sleeping bag to try and get warm. Too cold to read or sew, we had to keep our hands well inside, and pass the time in conversation with each other." He's so matter-of-fact... no fluff here. He just tells it like it is. I love that about this book. The conditions worsen by leaps and bounds as the story continues, but I'll leave that for you to explore on your own. Anyway, the first few chapters are very informative regarding how the expedition was planned, where they were headed, how they got there, etc... for me, it started a little slow, but I understand why the writer wanted to include this information. So, then you get into the "meaty" survival stuff... and is it ever so fascinating. And for me, it's especially fascinating because it doesn't seem to be sugar-coated, as so many writers are proned to do when telling their story. In fiction, I don't mind so much the way a writer gives you every detail, written ever so eloquently, but when it comes to true stories... especially survival stories, I personally just want to hear the straight talk. A GREAT SURVIVAL STORY AND PERFECTLY WRITTEN for this reader.

What an expedition! There is a lot to be learned about leadership and survival by the adventurers on this journey. If you like men against the elements, who survive by their wits and never ever give up, this is the tale for you. A great winter read.

Shackleton was an amazing man full of true grit and true leadership. Among the many things that stand out in his story of survival is the importance of keeping a journal. Even after many supplies and equipment were left on the ice, the men were instructed to continue to carry their journals. And what if they had not? Where would be the true story that outshines most fictional adventure stories in the minds and imaginations of many, including myself?

If you want to read more about Antarctica, I suggest T.H. Baughman's "Before the Heroes Came."

Nancy Mitford is best known as an author of witty, elegant novels like The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. In the 1950s and 1960s she also produced a number of historical works, of which The Sun King is one of the best.

The Sun King is a personal biography of Louis XIV. It does not deal in great detail with the political, military, or economic issues of Louis XIV's reign but primarily focuses on his personal life and that of his family. Louis married his double first cousin Marie Therese of Spain (she being his genetic sister for all intents and purposes, the reader is amazed that his family turned out as strong and healthy as they did). He also had three major mistresses and a string of casual acquaintanceships which produced a number of illegitimate children. His numerous relations also produced a quantity of children and had many extramarital relationships.

A major part of the book deals with the construction of Versailles. Indeed the book seems almost to be a biography of the chateau. The profuse illustrations, including many photographs of the chateau and its grounds, add immeasurably to the pleasure of reading this work.

But the most compelling reason for reading The Sun King is to enjoy Mitford's elegant, witty, prose style, which is as much in evidence here as in her novels.

Here's "Lifestyles of the Obscenely Wealthy and Powerful"! I admit I'd never read much about this period of history (I'm fond of joking that my in-depth knowledge of politics and history more or less ends with Elizabeth I's death), but the bit I read at the bookstore made this book irresistible. I passed up an Alison Weir for this, but I don't regret the choice at all. It is both charming and knowledgable, with a witty, personable, almost gossipy tone.

There's a lot of information here, packaged with lots of pictures and glossy pages. It is a lovely book to look at purely on an aesthetic level. But do take the time to actually read it! Though sparse in areas, it is a rich look at the life of Louis, and at the lifestyle of a courtier of his day. The creation of Versailles is gone into in much detail, as are sexual politics and wartime attitudes. Mostly this focuses on Louis' personal life and that of his court and how Versailles came about, so there isn't much here about actual wars or about international politics. But what there is is just stupendous. I'd call this a must-have for a beginner in French history. I'm very glad I got it.

Nancy Mitford came to me by way of this book and, ignorant of the incredible talents that lie with her, her sisters and the aristocratic family into which she was born. Since then, I have devoured Nancy's fiction, her personal history and I have much more to learn. However, it is her talents as a biographer and historian, perhaps best exemplified with this book, that I believe she achieves the realization of her greatest gift; that is to send life into the dead hand of history. In "The Sun King" history comes alive as I have truly never experienced. Here is a book that takes heretofore one dimensional characters and fills their frames with humanity, giving them dimemsionality, life. She uncovers the perspective that sheds light on each characters good and bad side, turning Louis XIV, Monsieur, The King's wives, his children, in fact the whole of the court at Versailles into a vision in one's head that makes it easy to understand why the Ancien Regime in France can still provide relevance to a contemporary world that approximates it so little. Relevance and topic interest, to be sure, is the most amazing feat for a historian to achieve. Nancy Mitford with "The Sun King" stands among rarified company in such an achievement.

This book is an absolutely amazing piece of work. I was introduced to it while looking for audiobooks on ITunes. The audiobook was so enjoyable that I felt compelled to purchase the actual book to read along with it.

Mitford makes each of the historical figures come alive, and makes an opulent and enclosed society accessible to readers of any age. The work is gossipy enough to be interesting, but not to such a degree as to detract from the historical accuracy. I would recommend "The Sun King" to anyone who wishes to learn more about the age of France's greatest king and the people that surrounded him.

The only drawback is that for one to fully appreciate the book, they should have a very basic knowledge of French and European history (at least as far as names and dates are concerned). Having long been interested in history, I did not find this a problem, but I can see how one who was not familiar may find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Otherwise, this book is about as close to perfection as I've seen.

Ok, I will freely admit that this may not be considered by some to be a scholarly historical assessment. I have been interested in the reign of Louis XIV since childhood when my mother purchased for me a coffee table book of photographs of Versailles. I wondered what could possibly have taken place at such a monstrous and wonderful palace. Since then I have read at least a dozen books on the period which tend to focus on the development and impact of absolutism in 17th century Europe. But this little book is a gem because of its author. Nancy Mitford was the daughter of an English Baron and spent her life as both an academic and a socialite. Her telling of the lives that swirled around Versailles palace is authenticated by the impression one gets that she would have been completely at ease in that setting. This book was written in 1966, just 7 years before her death. Her style sounds more like gossip than history, but is generally regarded as very well-researched. I warn you that if you read this book or one of her other historical biographies, you are in danger of becoming hooked on Mitford and will probably seek out some of her other well-loved books. This was a very enjoyable book and I find myself going back to certain chapters from time to time. One of the most memorable portions is the end where she describes a ghoulish sacrilege; the looting and desecration of the tombs during the revolution. As any good book will, it fascinated me and left me wanting to know more.

This book is not too long - I read it in an hour or three. It's a typical story for Agatha Christie - a storyline that's continuously surprising and is not over until the final page. What do we get? Ten people are invited to a house on a lonely island near the English coast. They don't know each other but all show up. The link between these ten is a rather cruel one: all of them are more or less responsible for someone's death, although they weren't condemned for it. Unfortunately, the host who invited them doesn't show up and all get al little nervous. Not without reason, because what happens then, is similar to the verse of `ten little niggers': first there are ten, then nine, eight, seven, etc. One by one they fall until nobody remains. The theme of this song may sound a little racist by now, and I wonder why Agatha Christie couldn't have used another verse (like that of the ten green bottles). But this is what we get. Indeed, one by one the island visitors are murdered. Weird enough, there are exactly ten little nigger figures standing in the living room. Each time someone is killed, one of the figures is thrown out of the window by the murderer. The main persons grow more and more anxious and try to protect themselves in some way against their invisible murderer. The end of the story is an absolute surprise and can't be predicted easily, which makes the book all the more interesting. This book is a pretty read; probably you'll want to read it out in one big breath like me. Certainly recommended for those who want a quick, exciting book to read that contains the same question on every page: whodunit?

This ison of the best book written by the British queen of suspense. It has doesn't star her favourite character, Hercule POirot, nor can the reader guess who is the murderer (because Agatha made a swindle to the readers, the murderer being on of the fellows already described in the book as being murdered). THe tension is almos unbreathable!

Ten little niggers was written in the early stages of the twentieth century, and still today it must be considered one of the best whodunnit thrillers ever.

Ten people are invited by the misterious U.N. Owen to spend a weekend in a very isolated island. They don't know each other, but all of them have something in common. They commited crimes in such a way that they can't be touched by common justice.
Suddenly, the murders begin.

Agatha Christie has created in this book a story with an amazing psychological level, that has set the parameter for most of future books of such kind.

The outcome of the plot is an amazing effort of creation, and no reader can guess who is responsible for the deadly reunion, or his/her motives.

Another information: there is a movie with the same name, starring (incredible) Sylvester Stallone's brother. It's terrible, don't ever think of watching it.

One of the best books in the collection! A friend loaned me her copy and I plotted her death to own this book, but now I must find it and add it to my collection of "most favored" titles! My friend, like the book, lives on long after closing the cover.

This is an unbelieveble book of Agatha Cristie I had red many of Agatha Cristie but ý havent red so wicked book before because the book containes everything which you wanted to read in a formal book.The begining of the book is a little bit hard to understand but you feel very nervous when you read middle of the book because you dont know who is the murder and count of people always count down and you suspect a man or a woman is a murder after that that man killed.This is a book that you must read and must be in your library.

A Genie in the House of Saud: Zubis Rises (A Genie in the House of Saud)

A bit arachaic in language and cultural approach, but the narrative pictures Doughty draws are fascinating; submersion into a little known cultural and time. Great for anthropological studies.

After reading this work detailing the 1870s [mis]adventures of the legendary Charles M. Doughty, one comes to understand much better why T.E.Lawrence so admired the Bedu and mistrusted the Arab city dweller. Doughty's "travels" really amounted to being "driven" through hostile lands occupied by "fanatics," continuously handed off from one group of outlaws and thieves to another. "I found in them an implacable fanaticism," wrote Doughty. "All their life is passed in fraud and deceipt." Sacred oaths, swearing in the name of God out of mere habit, traditional mores of protecting the fellow-traveller in one's charge honored mostly in the breach. One friendly Arab acquaintance along the tortured path tells Doughty, "I hope that your life may be preserved: but they will not suffer you to dwell amongst them! You will be driven from place to place. As many among them as have travelled, are liberal; but the rest, no." Abdullah el-Kenneyny advised Doughty, "I am even now in amazement! that in such a country, you openly avow yourself to be an Englishman; but how may you pass even one day in safety. You have lived hitherto with the Bedu; but it is otherwise in the townships."

Early on, the strange language seemed humorous and distracting, but it soon grows on you. "Give me a hand" becomes "Lend me a grip of thy five." Robbed, stripped, insulted, the intrepid Doughty gives the evil-doers the back of his hand as often as he dared, many times with his hand on a revolver hidden under his robes. One bluff carried off successfully against fellow travellers, who were sworn, of course, to defend him -- "By the life of Him who created us, in what instant you show me a gun's mouth, I will lay dead your carcasses upon this earth."

Occasionally some paragraph seems to be the obvious inspiration for a like passage in Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," an exquisitely detailed description of how a camel comes to a halt and lies down being one of the most obvious examples.

A major feature of this work is the great care taken by the author to use and then explain the Arabic vocabulary for places and things unique to the Arab culture. Each and every page is peppered with these terms. There is a fine glossary, praise God, the Merciful One!

The first half of this collection of selected passages from the massive original work will give readers warm feelings for the Bedouin and sweet dreams of wandering amongst them at peace with God and nature. The second half will likely wipe out any such urge. Civilizations still clash, 130 years later. Extremists rear their ugly heads on both sides of a vast chasm. Will the next 130 years bring much fundamental change?

I must, grudgingly, give this monumental classic work of travel and adventure five stars, despite the fact that I don't really like the author. Doughty was probably not a very nice, friendly person; his life and opinions seem centered around a strict, almost fanatical and unforgiving, religiosity (he was a very fervent christian). Nevertheless, what he set out to do, he did with ample success and eficiency; and what he set out to do is not so simple as it seems at first sight,in my opinion, except for one of his main, but most superficial goals: to redeem the English language from the poverty and oversimplicity it had fallen into (Doughty believed the English language had fallen from grace since Spencer: I wonder, what would he think of it now?).

"Travels..." is an account of Doughty's two years of wandering through the Desert, in the 2nd half of the 19th century, with Hejaz and Nejd nomads. Unlike many other travellers before him (such as Sir Richard Burton), he never even tried to pretend he was a muslim, but admited to the nomads he travelled with that he was christian....and then went on, once and again for two years, to argue christianity's superiority over Islam and to explain how the fact that they were muslims excited his pity at seeing them fooled by their fraudulent Islamic beliefs. We know that traveleng in Arabia in those times was quite risky and dangerous, so it is a wonder that he was not killed by the nomads he was travelling with after they had to hear, for the hundredth time, how their faith was a fraud!!! This pious propensity, or even thirst for martyrdom (some times the provocations seem to point at that), is also quite trying for the reader.

However, if you can stomach the religious dissertations in his very special saintly style, the reading is rewarding indeed. Doughty had the (undeserved, I think with envy)luck to find the remains of the Nabataean town of Hegra, which he describes in some depth, with sketches of the tombs and copies of the inscriptions he found there. Who doesn't dream of finding the abandoned, lost, ancient town, built by a mysterious half-forgotten people? His descriptions of life with a Nomadic tribe of those times, with its unbelievable hardships, due to the famine-level subsistence usual among nomads, are an etnographic work of first rank. His report of the abuse, threats and indignities he had to suffer at the hands of the nomads because of his refusal to deny his christianity are unintentionally funny, in spite of himself.

But it is when we see that Doughty constantly compares the nomads of the desert with the Patriarchs of the Bible, and we know he can imagine himself in the company of Abraham's or Ishmael's tribes, when we learn the extent of the religious significance that this journey had for him. The ignorance and fanaticism that he finds in these nomads, he imagines in the Patriarchs of the Bible. For him Christianity, his own faith, was the light and salvation that took people out of the pitiful and primitive state these nomads live in. In fact, his journey is actually a pilgrimage to invest his religion with a significance that maybe he had been in the process of losing from sight.

And it is this, the fact that this author had set out for a journey with the intention of profoundly despising the people he was going to live with, what makes me despise him as a person, even though I see the importance of his work. Although Doughty repeats, now and then, the common, admiring expressions that were usual and fashionable to speak about the nomadic Arabs of those times -all the usal "noble savage" stuff-, we can read between lines (and later on, directly) that he thinks they are repulsive, inferior creatures. He goes to Arabia thinking he will be a superior among primitives, and he leaves Arabia, two years later, convinced that this has, indeed, been the case. In my opinion, the one who comes out the worst from the experience, is himself, although I have to thank him for recording his experiences and so, giving me the oportunity of reading between lines and learning from that.

I would like to add that this is not a complete edition of Doughty's work, which I read in the Dover two-volume edition, with an introduction by T.E.Lawrence and translations (of the Nabatean inscriptions) by Ernest Renan, and with some beautifully drawn maps.

There are few travel books that can stand up to the depredations of time - indeed, travel literature by its nature tends to be ephemeral. We may peruse the Victorian travelers, but mainly to get a sense of the exotic, from a time when it still was that way.

Fewer travel books still can claim to have had a conscious impact beyond their own genre. One thinks of Stendahl's travels in the South of France, Radishchev's journey from Petersburg to Moscow, or Stephens and Catherwood in the Yucatan. But Doughty is in a class by himself.

This remarkably eccentric man with the remarkably eccentric writing style set off into one of the last fringes of society, to a world where the art of the word was cultivated and where a man's worth was set by his speech. He is not an easy read. Yet his writing reflects the sense of a major intellect from one culture confronted by a tradition which is very old, very venerable and yet totally alien from that in which he was raised. That he sought to explain it by creating a new way of writing is perhaps not remarkable.

Many writers of the last century have been quite vocal about the debt that they owe him; one sometimes wonders if this is honored more in the breach than we would like to believe. But try him on for size, but be prepared to be patient. You will find that his style will win you over if you are.

Doughty had reflected his belief throughout his journey and I am not surprised. He decreased the Bedw traditions and tried to link it completely to the teaching of Islam. He knew from the beginning that the Bedw tradition especially in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula has nothing to do with the teaching of Islam. It was basically their culture. He did used the Bedw to serve his purpose since he wrote this book only to the western readers at that time to capture their imagination of the Arabian desert and to lay down the first step toward the colonization period that took place 30 years later.
Doughty in his book has described the Bedew life with many details that have shocked me. Since he lived with my great grandfather (Tollog) during his stay on al Harra, I was able to tell how close he was to reflect the real life of my tribe.
If we ignore his belief's reflection in his writing, we can conclude that his book is truly a masterpiece in detailing the life of one of the most isolated part of the world in 1800 century.

Fond childhood memories came to mind when reading "With the Stroke of the Pen." The story line was so beautiful I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning so I could finish it. Her descriptions of the period truly took me home to my parent's small town restaurant which included a soda fountain and where the school kids came for lunch and after school. I although I was under 6 years old at the time, I vividly remember "Senior Day" when all the graduates got a free treat. Can you imagine ice cream sodas being $.20, sundaes were $.25 and bananna splits were a real luxury costing $.35!!

This is the only book I've ever wanted to keep. It will be placed with special keepsakes for my grandchildren with the notation, "This book gives a great description what life was like when Oma was a child."

Our book club read With a Stroke of the Pen for our June meeting. We were honored to have Kimbra Leigh and her editor, Neil Wiseman, as our guests to discuss the book.. What a thrill for us..Telling her how we related to the book, as well as being able to ask questions of her, was a great experience...We highly recommend this book and are looking forward to her next novel.
The Blue Stockings Book Club

Kimbra Leigh's book strays from my preferred reading genre, but after a couple of chapters I found it very difficult to put this novel down. Perhaps that's why I so thoroughly enjoyed it, because it wasn't the same-old same-old; rather, it was a pleasent departure from my normalcy. Reading "With A Stroke of the Pen" I found myself recalling the simpler, happier days of my own [recent] youth, and I even sent an autographed copy as a gift to an ex-girlfriend who I still love as dearly now as I did when I held her close.

Hopefully we won't be kept waiting long for more from Kimbra Leigh!

I highly recommend this unique and spellbinding book to any who have loved...

I read this book in only a couple of days and when I reached the final pages nothing could have made me put it down! Truly a beautiful work by Kimbra Leigh...I'm anxiously awaiting her next novel and know for a fact that I won't be disappointed!! Thanks for everything Kim!

The book was great, I enjoyed every minute of it. I couldn't put it down, I was reading while eating dinner, washing clothes, and in between housework. It held my interest, wanting to know what was going to happen next with the storyline. I read romance novels all the time, some you start and it doesn't quite grab your interest and you put it down and maybe you will get back to it, this book as soon as I picked it up it grabbed my interest. I can't wait till her next book.

This is one of the 3 best books I've ever read. It deeply changed the way that I look at myself, society, and the world we are a part of.

This is a beautiful book -- besides the information content, the writing style is simply beautiful ... I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

This book was required reading for a graduate level somatic psychology class I participated in back in the mid-80s. I've never forgotten it. She has taken ordinary and unremarkable material and placed it next to seemingly unrelated, equally unremarkable material in such a way as to cause the reader to suddenly see both sets of material from another previously overlooked and awakening angle. She writes with an artist's or photographer's eye. For the most part, she leaves the conclusions to us...letting the dance between the two sets of information open little windows of consciousness that let in life and light. Over the last 20 years or so I have returned to it again and again. A beautiful and extraordinary book, both content and style.

In this amazing book, the author speaks in several voices, weaves the story we have been told down through time, about who and what women are.

This is truly a book to be savored, sipped at, contemplated, and pondered. The author draws from many sources, to find the voices, both of women and the voices that seek to silence and judge and catagorize women.

This is the most creative, informative and spiritual book I have ever read. I cannot reccomend it highly enough, even after all these years.

This is one of the most important books of 'eco-feminism' in existence (although I would rather call it truth than feminism). This book inspired me to be courageous with my own thoughts and to enact a spoken word piece that I had been sitting on for weeks. Thank you Susan Griffin for exposing the truths of the oppression of women. I will be reading this book again and again.
Paige Doughty

Truly unbelievable. If I could write as well as Susan Griffin, maybe then could I express how strongly I feel for this book. It is TRULY poetic. Beautiful! Its almost as if she is painting a picture in your head, tying facts about the history of social (patriarchal) views on woman and nature. It is a writing style I have never seen before, with an explosion of philosophy and poetry. I recommend this book to anybody, but it is an essential for any feminist or environmentalist... A beautiful work of art...

How does life in a non-industrial society compare to life in our own? In which society are people happier? If life in non-industrial societies compares favorably to life in our own, then why are the barrios of the third world filling up with migrants from remote villages? This book provides surprising insights into these questions. It also provokes reflections on our own society and its influence on the rest of the world. After reading a used copy I picked up for free, I bought seven copies of this book for friends and family!

This book has changed the way I looked at the issues of development, modernisation & morals. An amazing read, beautifully written and with great insights.

I have just returned from a trip to Ladakh and I could really relate to what Ms.Norberg talks about in the book.

Just a couple of side issues. It'd be good to know what exactly went wrong in Ladakh. Here are a people who for 2000 years had lived successfully by the rules of Buddhism. How & why did Buddhism fail these people in the face of global/western economic & cultural imperialism? Does the blame lie with Buddhism- it being too 'compassionate' and allowing a religion? Does the blame lie with the Ladakhis who probably were not as sincere Buddhists as they are made out to be?

After all if they really were such devout Buddhists, how come they fell to the greed that capitalism breeds?

Anyway, these are issues which could have been addressed in the book. Regardless, the book is excellent! A must read.

Rarely have I felt more dispair about the direction of what we know as civilization as I felt halfway through this book. The Ladakh people are described as happy, healthy, and self-reliant. Suddenly, the "real world" happens to them, and they come to see themselves as poor, when before they had no need of money.

The authors do a nice job of weaving a story of hope at the end but I have concern for the future of these people. It helps me understand the decision the government of Bhutan has made to isolate themselves from western-style civilization.

After reading this book, I suddenly realized the root problem of Western Civilization: We have no culture. Where there was once culture, we now have an expanding economic order threatening all life on the planet. Through its mechanism of growth and expansion, the global economy is conquering and converting life's diversity into an ecological and social monoculture of cash crops, Levis, soda pop and movie theatres. Perhaps moonscape would be a better word. Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. Our fast-paced, increasingly technological, capital-intensive, fossil fuel-centered, centralized, highly specialized, travel and commercial-oriented, often stressful society is by no means the end-all-be-all of human history. Murder, child abuse, drug abuse, theft, poverty, hunger, and every other problem that plagues the West are not products of human nature. The pathology of civilization is not natural or inevitable, and the Ladakhi are proof of this. Read this book and rediscover ancient, profound, life-affirmating alternatives to the modern humdrum. Discover another way of living, thinking and feeling. Important, necessary, engaging and masterfully written - this book was a treasure to read. Indeed, it was an awaking.

A MUST READ

The first half of *Ancient Futures* will delight and amaze you; the second half will break your heart.

In the 1970s, the Ladakhis of Little Tibet were a happy people. They had a sustainable traditional economy based on trade and cooperation - not money. One person's gain was not another person's loss. There was plenty of leisure, no hunger or poverty, very little sickness or disease, everyone was valued, there was no pollution and nothing was wasted. They got along fine with their Muslim neighbors and they kept their population stable through marriage customs based on land use. Almost every family had a celibate monk or nun. Buddhist monasteries and people had a mutually beneficial economic, social and spiritual relationship. Ladakhis are a naturally contemplative people with a great deal of spiritual awareness. "Schon chan" (one who angers easily) is about the only insult in the Ladakhi lnaguage. "Lack of pride is a virtue, for pride, born of ego, has nothing to do with self-respect among these Buddhist people." The author says that it took her two years of living among them to realize that the people were genuinely and joyfully HAPPY. Then the world beat a path to their door and all that changed - in fewer than two decades.

It's like a little piece of cultural time-lapse photography. What took western culture more than four centuries to do to the Native-Americans took only twenty years here. Ladakh has become a cautionary tale and a monument to western greed and stupidity.

Now there is poverty and unemployment, stress-related disease, women are devalued, the people are ashamed of their "backward" culture, there is little leisure but a great deal of pollution and waste as well as dispute between Muslims and Buddhists and the population had increased markedly. ("Interestingly, a number of Ladakhis have linked the rise of birth rates to the advent of modern democracy. "Power is a question of votes" is a current slogan, meaning that, in the modern sector, the larger your group, the greater your access to power. Competition for jobs and political representation within the new centralized structures is increasingly dividing Ladakhis.")

Chiildren are trained to become specialists in a technological rather than an ecological society. They no longer have time to learn the superb survival techniques of their families. Western culture is creating artificial scarsity and inducing competition.

Now I understand the mechanism better. A culture that has a heavily subsidized infrastructure invades a traditional self-sustaining culture and creates artificial "needs." So they go to the city to earn money which they never needed before, leaving their farms and women, who are immediately devalued because they're not wage earners. The people are no longer planting, irrigating, spinning wool, gathering seeds, harvesting, playing music and singing and telling stories, having seasonal parties, marriage parties or funeral watches - together.

Time has become a commodity. It has become uneconomical to grow one's own food, make one's own clothes and build one's own house. You have to pay your neighbors for the work that the whole community used to do for free.

The men are in the cities earning money and the women are producing tourist commodities with the wool they used to spin for their own use and the food they used to grow for their own families. Now they grow cash crops for strangers so they can make enough money to buy polyester clothes and walkmans and jeans for their kids and food grown hundreds of miles away and fuel trucked in from afar.

The Yak and the Dzo, uniquely suited for high altitudes of Ladakh gave rich milk but not as much as western cattle. So what did the conquering culture do? They imported cattle that can't make it at such altitudes, so more land has to be relegated to planting crops to feed the cattle, thereby upsetting the balance. And they call this progress.

Why can't we just leave people alone - especially when they're doing FINE without us?

"When one-third of the world's population consumes two-thirds of the world's resources," says Norberg-Hodge, "and then in effect turns around and tells the others to do as they do, it is little short of a hoax. Development is all too often a euphemism for exploitation, a new colonialism."

All this would be a dismal tragedy comparable to Columbus's complete genocide of the Tainos if not for a "counter development" movement generated in part by this author. Since the Ladakhis can't go back, they can at least go forward. Instead of importing expensive fossil fuels (previously they had used yak dung and kept warm) they can have solar houses and greenhouses, which have worked very well and given them one benefit that they have previously not had. That's something. Information is another plus. The people are being made aware that westerners pay more for whole grains, organic vegetables, pure water, natural fibers, and natural building materials - things these people have had for a thousand years without money. This is something so-called third-world people are generally not told about.

Once in a while a book comes along that changes one's perspective forever. *Ancient Futures* is such a book. I haven't been the same since.

One of the reviewers on this site said he ended up buy copies for his friends. So have I. This book is a must-read for every person who is concerned about the preservation of our planet and our species.

pamhan99@aol.com

Our sub six year old children enjoy Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel, so we purchased this DVD for road trips. The TV show and DVD compliment one another like you would expect.

I ordered this for my son who is 21 months old. He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and knows all the characters. The book is very short and keeps his attention long enough for us to practice counting. He loves this book.

As a homeschooling mother, I have a difficult time finding readers for my 4 year old. He is eager to learn, but there isn't much available reading at his level. Dick and Jane are horrible, but these books, featuring his favorite Disney characters are perfect. There is a great deal of repetition, and pictures that give clues to what the words say. No, at this point it isn't really "reading", but kids need this kind of book to encourage a love of reading. Otherwise they get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of phonics, and "learn" that reading is all work and no play. As it is, my little guy brings me these books every few hours, and reads them to me. He reads them to everyone he meets. He is excited to read, and even feels ready to tackle harder books.
My older son never had any of this type of book. At the age of 6, he is well advanced in phonics, and can read any word you put in front of him. However, he is intimidated by books. He doesn't enjoy reading them at all. He is catching on, as I have been introducing him to these readers however, since they are so easy, they guarantee success.

I highly recommend these to parents whose children are "ready to read" but need easier texts than most early readers (or easy readers) provide.

My son LOVES Mickey Mouse and loves this book! It's a fun counting book with great, colorful pictures!Plus they learn about locations as well.
"Are we at the beach yet? No, not yet!" Then they show pictures of the desert, a rain forest, a regular forest, Antarctica, etc. Perfect for the Disney fan!

I bought this book for my 3 year old daughter who is a fan of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse t.v. show. This book did not grip her attention in the slightest, and she has not wanted me to read it again. It is not a bad book in terms of early reading skills, but it does not follow the pattern of the t.v. show. I find "Over the River" in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Early Readers to be a better book.

This book is a magnificent addition to our book club! Reading through it I found many great ideas to implement into our group. I love the recommended reading with the reviews, and the recipes. I was especally thrilled with the ideas on how to turn the book club meetings into events that everyone really looks forward to.
I started using the book right away and it comes along now to every meeting! If you have a book group, this is a must have!

I bought this book a few years ago while browsing for book group picks at my local book store. I have to say, it has become a great source for suggestions for my book groups. While I may not actually use the grups for the meetings, a group meeting in members' homes might really wear this one out--with its recipes and themed meetings, and even tips about pet behavior!
I often just pick this one up when I need something to read myself. Indispensible.

I love books about books. I love books about book clubs. Fiction, or non-fiction. Diana got everything perfect in this Book Club Companion. I've been in a book club for 5 years. She addresses everything we've encountered except what to do when my birds want to sing through our discussion! I could not put this book down. The book reviews/suggestions are very helpful. I know this because my group has done many of the suggested titles and I have read even more of them on my own. Her handling of book group problems is candid and gracious. The questions she asked the authors were more unusual than most. Her scrapbook/keepsake suggestions are the only things at which I truly excel ~ I've been keeping a scrapbook since my group began and have just started a 2nd one because the 1st one popped its binding! What is really wonderful about this book is that I will never forget a title I'm interested in reading; all I have to do is pick this up. Thank you, Diana! I look forward to meeting you when you come to my library!

When I thumbed through this book, I discovered that many of the suggested titles were among my favorites. So I have been reading a number of books from Loevy's lists, some familiar and some unfamiliar, and I have grown to trust her suggestions. Although I belong to a book club, I am less interested in the recipes and some of the articles about book club etiquette, such as whether to have pets present at meetings or not. The entry on pros and cons of knitting during discussion brought chuckles from the knitters in my book club. They did agree that if a famous author were one of our guests, the knitting would stop!

This informative and interesting book is a great guide to many different books that most book clubs will love, especially if they have eclectic tastes. It also includes an amusing feature that lists what books were popular in book clubs in various decades past. Many books are profiled very well, and some are books that have recently come back into print.