Alex To Books

I frequently look for positive ways to talk about my son's special needs with his sister. She sometimes has a tough time accepting his differences. "Way to Go, Alex" is a great way to open the conversation about trying to do our best, and being proud of what we can achieve. This story helps my daughter understand that feelings of frustration can be turned around to a more positive approach to the challenges she faces having a brother with learning and physical disabilities. The story accurately depicts how difficult it is for a child to understand and cope with a sibling's disabilities. It is a wonderful introduction to Special Olympics. I hope many parents share the story with their children and discuss how important an encouraging, supportive, and accepting community is for people of all abilities.

The Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca and three companions survived eight years (1528-1536) among the Indians of North America and made the first overland crossing of the continent. Cabeza de Vaca's route across the U.S and Mexico has been the subject of many impassioned scholarly examinations. Alex and Margery Krieger's is one of the best.

The book consists of a forward, an updated version of Alex Krieger's 1955 dissertation on Cabeza de Vaca's route, an afterword, and translations of the two accounts of the journey, one by CDV himself and the second by a 16th century historian. Thus, in this one not-overly-formidable tome is the complete story of Cabeza de Vaca.

The controversy about CDV is whether he followed a northern route primarily through Texas or a southern route primarily through Mexico in his wanderings from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of California. Sorry Texas! Krieger persuades me that the evidence in favor of the Mexican route is overwhelming.

CDV's narrative is important because it is among the first -- and sometimes the only -- description of Indian societies in Florida, Texas, and Mexico. Most of his time was spent among the primitive hunting-gathering Coahuiltecan Indians of the Texas and Mexican coast. These people have disappeared from history with hardly a trace, destroyed by disease and Spanish conquest. Another interesting and important part of the narrative is CDVs account of Spanish slave-hunters in northern Mexico. We have very few accounts of the North American Indians before their cultures and societies were destroyed by Europeans. Cabeza de Vaca's is one of the most important and informative.

Smallchief

Read this book! I love it and all of the children I have read it to think it's the coolest. Beyond that, it teaches some really basic but crucial life values, like respect, commitment, honesty, gentleness and trust. Even those who are not into karate yet will love the story; the illustrations are adorable, and often humerous. Also, I really appreciated the included pamphlet on ADHD and the benefits of karate on children who have challenges with attention deficit. The website is cool too. Check it out at janetsan.com.

An awesome book, read it at a time when i was very poorly (ME for 5yrs aged 24), this book gave me hope and inspired me when i needed it the most. I would recommend this book to anyone suffering from ME as a powerful and wonderful insight into how recovery is possible.

Thanks,

Simon.

Janet Hannah, a Toronto native who earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry and physiology from Rutgers and now works at the University of Jerusalem as a biochemist, has published her first Alex Kertesz mystery. It is not surprising that the action takes place in a biochemistry lab, and the reader is treated to an inside peak into that environment.

Set at the University of Jerusalem, Hannah's The Wish To Kill features Alex Kertesz, who is unfortunate enough to find the body of Professor Ilan Falk, all around academic bad guy with a lot of power. It seems that Falk lit a cigar in his own lab, which is naturally against all the safety rules. But was it murder or suicide?

Alex is handsome, brilliant, self-deprecating, and is stuck in a loveless marriage for the sake of his son, Daniel, whom he adores. Much of the story is given over to passages of heartbreaking nonchalance and apathy between Alex and his self-centered artistic wife Varda. Alex nearly lost his life rescuing a wounded soldier and spent weeks in the hospital alone fighting for life before Varda saw fit to pay him a visit:

"Oh!" she had said. "Are you all right? I hope they're taking good care of you." And had proceeded to tell him all about her trip. He hadn't had the strength to pay attention but it didn't matter, because he wasn't required to say anything. He decided that when he regained more energy it would strike him as funny, but in the meantime he had hoped she wouldn't come again."

Hannah cleverly weaves layers of common issues we all face into her story. The murder is almost de-emphasized as Alex picks his way through the brambles of the human condition. He falls in love with Shosh, who thinks she murdered Falk with bad thoughts. Alex ponders the possibilities of mind control. Varda flits in and out of the story in an infuriating way, and Alex slowly sees himself as her victim.

In the meantime, everyone's first choice as Falk's murder, a venomous man named Elisha tries to murder Alex. Alex is one step ahead of him, and when he confronts him, Elisha falls into his own trap and is electrocuted. Was Elisha the murderer? Hannah isn't telling until the end.

-- Shelly Glodowski, Reviewer

This book is clearly the best one that Alex Ayres has written and compiled. My brother gave me this book in December 1993, and it has been with me ever since then. The bibliography listing is first rate as well, since they list the authors in alphabetical order. This way, the reader can track down a book that is related so that they can check it out.

Make no mistake, this book is jam-packed with more than 2,000 quotations from the Cowboy Philosopher. Readers will definitely get their mileage worth with this book--plenty of quotations to read, a timeline of events, and an excellent bibliography listing (3 pages long), with a total of 43 books listed, and 8 pages of additional subject references for the quotations that are listed in each category. 5 of the books in the bibliography are from Bryan/Frances Sterling

This is not a bad assortment of quotations from a multi-talented cowboy from Claremore--however, the book overlooked one main event: 4 years after the plane crash in Alaska, a statue was unveiled in the nation's capitol (Washington D.C.), on June 6, 1939. The statue is located next to the entrance of Statuary Hall.

The quotation that I really liked was the one on dogs. (as in "I love dogs", "He does nothing for political reasons"). In this book, I came across lots of quotations and even uncovered a book in the bibliography section that I plan to check out this weekend.

I can clearly see exactly why that if it hadn't been for the Cowboy Philosopher, there would have been no way that Americans would have been able to get through the New Deal/Depression 30s without a good laugh--and to look on the bright side for a silver lining during the New Deal/Depression era. A solid accomplishment for a multi-talented cowboy that made the transition from Wild West Shows to Vaudeville to the Ziefgield Follies--and then, eventually, film (71 films in a 17 year career)--from 1918-35.

As I have said before, check this book out--it's a book worth looking into from Alex Ayres with the spotlight on the Cowboy Philosopher. Worth reading--and worth checking out from Amazon.com online.

From cover to cover, you get an excellent introduction, more than 2,000 quotations, a bibliogrpahy, and additional subject references in addition to a chronology of events. This book is clearly worth the wait--and it's worth checking out!

Ogburn is the O in the very creative BBDO advertising firm. His anecdotes leads you to engage your brain in some very creative thinking. Although his checklists don't just pop out of the book, they are there for your use. We only use our brain power about ten percent. You can really boost your brain power with Ogburn's Your Creative Power

There is no other single text like it. I encourage all of my students [all adult professionals] to buy and apply this text.

This is a great book for any fan of Lord of the Rings. It has wonderful illustrations, maps, and easy to read pages. The only problem is that it is a bit heavy, otherwise everything is fabulous!

The three volume set shipped included two copies of "The Two Towers" and no copt of "The Fellowship of the Ring". Having dealt with amazon customer support before it was easier just to have their mother buy the absent copy at Wal-mart.

What can I say other than it is an awesome book, I could not put it down

I first received *The Lord of the Rings* as part of a boxed set, complete with *The Hobbit,* for Christmas in 1985. I also received a boxed set of the first four *Dune* books. I was 13 and in 8th grade.

Like many 13-year olds, I loved *The Hobbit* but I thought *The Lord of the Rings* was simply awful. For one thing, the plot was not immediately obvious to me. (Keep in mind that at the time my enjoyment reading primarily comprised Doctor Who novelizations and Choose Your Own Adventure books.) Instead of the short chapters of plot and dialogue to which I was accustomed, Tolkien provided page after page of exposition, describing the local color and history with any "action" provided almost as an afterthought. And then there is what may have been the biggest problem of all with *The Lord of the Rings,* the scores of strangely named characters and places, some of whom are central to the story and others of whom are purely peripheral and which is which is unclear. I mean, sheesh, who names their two main villains Sauron and Saruman, names that differ by only one syllable?

It should be here noted that while I loved reading at age 13, I was also not the best reader. Memories of reading what I managed to of the trilogy consist mainly of reading a single page over and over and over again just to follow the main thread of the story. Somehow I managed to finish *The Fellowship of the Ring* and made it a few dozen pages into *The Two Towers* before I threw up my hands and abandoned Tolkien to the realm of "authors I think are overrated." I still have a vague recollection of giving a a pretty worthless presentation on the first book in front of Mrs. Fox's English class, the same class I was in when the Challenger exploded. (I also have an even vaguer memory of reviewing some disposable piece of genre SF called Dushau (Dushau Trilogy, No 1), but that's another story.) In short, I never thought I would ever read this book again, and considered all those folks who worshiped Tolkien to be little short of fools.

Fast-forward sixteen years. It's Christmas time in Champaign, and I'm attending *The Two Towers* with my coworkers, mainly because the bosses gave us cinema tickets for the holidays. As the movie begins to unfold, I remember those few dozen pages that I read at 13, and I slowly begin the journey of reappraising Tolkien. While I agree with those who urge reading the book as well as simply seeing the movie, I think that in this case I could not have done the former if I had not done the latter. Peter Jackson's trilogy allowed me to familiarize myself with the overall story arch (something that was hard for me to do from within the perspective of the novel, at least at first) and also helped me to handle the enormous cast of strangely named characters. (Finally Saruman and Sauron were decidedly distinct characters in my mind's eye, and the logic behind their naming, based as it is on Tolkien's invented languages, became more apparent.) So in fall of 2007 I finally decided to give the damned book another chance, mooched the one-volume "trilogy" (apparently Tolkien always considered it one big novel) through BookMooch, chose it over the New Testament for 2008's "big book" (sorry Mom), and devoured it in January, 2008.

In short, I loved it, particularly the exposition and the bizarre names for characters and places. Strange, huh, how the passage of time will do that to one's sensibilities? The very features of the novel that I found off-putting in 1985, I found absolutely ingenious in 2008. The names and locations in *The Lord of the Rings* all figure into a much-vaster cosmology and narrative history, and this becomes more apparent when the reader peruses the voluminous appendices. All the details that seemed arbitrary and distracting from "the action" were in fact anything but arbitrary, deriving as they did from a comprehensive mythology (of a world that did not exist until Tolkien wrote it into existence!). Take for example the appendix on the "translation" of the text explaining why Tolkien chose English words like "elf" and "dwarf" and "halfling" to "translate" the "original" Elvish words. Apart from the implication that there is really an original manuscript written in Elvish, this appendix also implies that the "elves" in this story aren't really elves, the "dwarves" aren't really dwarves, etc., but that these are the closest analogs that the translator could find in fantastic literature.

That these 1,000+ pages, with all their hyper-detailed exposition, are merely the tip of the iceberg of Tolkien's invented world, makes the novel all the more amazing. This really is a masterpiece of storytelling and myth-making. I can understand now why so many people love this book. I think I'm now one of them.

I recently purchased the single volume illustrated version of the Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Illustrated Edition). This is probably only for the (at least) semi-fanatical Tolkien fan.

I had owned a set of soft cover individual books (all four: Hobbit, Fellowship, Two Towers, Return) that were published in 1964 (before I was born), and they had, unfortunately, deteriorated, both from age and rough use (read in the bathtub, at the park just before a rain shower, jammed in a briefcase to be read at lunch, etc.) I thought about simply buying the new individual paperbacks, but researched and found this illustrated version, published in 1991, on the 100th anniversary of Tolkien's birth.

The bad news: this thing is massive! Holding one giant volume and actually reading it presents some problems.

That being said, this is THE version of the story, presented as Tolkien intended it: "One book to rule them all" to paraphrase the master. The size of the book emphasizes that this is the definitive work of twentieth-century fantasy. The red sash bookmark is classy. The illustrations are nice, and add an excellent counter-point to the words. To again paraphrase Tolkien's critique of his own work, "I only wish there were more [illustrations]." (Of course, there are plenty of books out there with a great deal of artwork, enough to satisfy just about everyone.)

In the end, this is like buying your mixed drinks in a bar, and insisting on top shelf alcohol. A real devotee can appreciate the difference, but to the average person is it really worth the extra money? As a bit of a Tolkien fanatic (I have read the story about fifteen times in the last thirty years), the $40+ bucks was worth it, even though I could have purchased a whole new set of the four in paperback for at least $10 less.

For each potential buyer, take the advice of Galadriel and look inside yourself. If you don't get that reference, this is probably not for you. If you do, and are nodding your head as you read this, call now and have your credit card ready!

Chuck Hinton

I read this book along time ago and still retain alot of what I learned from it. There is no beating around the bush in this from the beginning he tells of his life as it happened. He tells of an early career in crime to his time in prison and he does not attempt to sugarcoat anything. He does explain his reasoning for having done what he had done in his youth, but he does not claim to be innocent.
He did manage to find a better way to fight his enemies during his incarceration, and anyone who has ever seen any footage of Malcolm X will understand what I mean. The man was a very acticulate and confrontational speaker. He was the spark that ignited the engine of the civil rights movement in many respects. The civil rights movement began as far back as pre-civil war and was slow to develop with minor progress for each generation. Malcolm was the man brave enough to say enough and to make his voice heard over the many voices of the nation that tried to rise over him.
Here is a man that took it upon himself to correct a society that had become accepting of the crimes of their ancestors and simply ignored them. It is only a stonesthrow back in time if you think about it and yet it is painful to imagine people could be so cruel.
I recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it as it is an excellent book and is a document of the life of a man who managed to play a pivotal role in changing the way America viewed itself.

Despite the dispiriting revelation that this book was almost totally written by Alex Haley, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" remains one of my favorite books. Which is a little strange, since his well-known struggles with civil rights, the police, Black identity, and Islam have little or no relevance to my life. Sorry.

The part of this book that affects me most deeply is where Malcolm is in prison educating himself, studying on the floor of his cell in the dim night light. I can't think of another tale about the birth of an autodidact and the rewards of reading that is as uplifting and memorable as Malcolm's. I first read this book about twenty years ago, and that's the part that always sticks with me: the power of books to change your life, regardless of who you are or what you've done. And much of the rest sticks with me too, for example the poignant case of "West Indian Archie."

I would like to advise, however, that you buy this edition: Autobiography of Malcolm X (Penguin Modern Classics), rather than the Ballantine edition, as the binding on the latter has proven unreliable, to say the least. I have gone through three different copies of the Ballantine edition of Malcolm X and the binding has fallen apart on all three of them -- to the point where the covers have come completely off, even though I don't really mistreat books. It can't just be bad luck.

Malcolm X was said to have been a formidable debater, yet it's curious to me that none of his opponents ever made the obvious, unanswerable point: that whatever crimes and horrors the West can be charged with vis-à-vis the African slave trade, those of Islam have been even more extensive and blood-soaked. They go back a lot further, and continued a lot later. In fact, it was only two years previous to Malcolm's making his Hajj to Mecca (1964) that slavery was made illegal in Saudi Arabia!

Hence jettisoning Christianity and Western culture for the supposed moral high ground of Islam was, when you think about it, a dingy move on Malcolm's part. Yet it is, unfortunately, the entirety of his position.

But you'll find this book a cracking good read nonetheless.

An excellent unflinching book about Malcolm X read for my "Understanding Religious Traditions in Multicultural America" last spring. While at times unnerving to read due to its stark honesty, it was very illuminating. As a non-American, it really helped give me further insight into how powerful and tense race is of an issue in American culture. As someone born into a Muslim family, but is a closet agnostic, the perversions I felt Elijah Muhammad perpetuated made me severely uncomfortable anyway. Several parts of this book made me cry, or be wistful I could somehow have found peace in Islam as Malcolm X did.

A very good book.

Every American should read this literature. It discusses America's most obvious flaw. More importantly it demonstrates the power of transformation, tolerance of self and of others, cooperation and the importance of hope.

Even though i didnt enjoy being referred to as a white blue eyed devil every other paragraph. This book made me think and challenged me to treat my fellow man better. After reading about malcolms childhood and how he grew up i can now understand his bitterness and why he fought so hard for equality. I now see why time magazine voted it one of the best books of the century.