P Books

There are two books in English based on translations of Zen Master Bankei teachings, both pusblished in 1984. "Bankei Zen" is the title of the book written by Peter Haskel who behaved both as translator and editor under the supervision of his teacher Yoshito Hakeda. Haskel assisted the reader organizing the text and adding headings here and there to paragraphs, dialogues, anecdotes, poems. Also he added technical notes highlighting biographical and historical circumstances. These headings focus the attention of readers in their efforts to find their way throughout Bankei teachings. "The unborn" is the title of the book written by Norman Waddell, just a translator. His book becomes the forest of words. One Dharma Talk after the other and, here and there, also some highly interesting biographical and historical notes. However, Waddell produced a revised version in 2000 and included only minor changes to translations to very specific paragraphs. However no mention is made to Haskel's book on the same subject and author, similar texts. Under section III, other works in the bibliography section this reference to Hakei's book is conspicuously absent. Within the community of scholars the standard is mentioning books written by other authors on the same subject and basic source. This is not the case of Prof. Waddell at Otani University in Kyoto. His approach is below standards; competitors in the field must be mentioned after what is acceptable and recommended within the scientific and academic community. Haskel's translation has been tailored to readers making their best to find out their way around a genial and easygoing Japanese Zen Master of the 17th century. Bankei is the antidote for those suffering an overdose of Dogen and Hakuin teachings and comments.

I had the good fortune to attend a number of Alan Watts' live talks in the Monterey-Big Sur area during the sixties. Some 35 years later his body of work continues to stimulate my growth and understanding. While Watts never proclaimed any one person as his teacher or guru, the 17th century Zen master Bankei (1622-1693) appears to have been a major influence.

As early as 1950 Watts specifically identifies Bankei as a resource in an article he wrote for the journal of the Buddhist Lodge in England. He quotes Bankei even more profusely in his 1957 opus The Way of Zen. Finally, in his autobiography In My Own Way, published a year before his death in 1973, Watts reveals having spent many hours studying Bankei and elevates him to a representative of "Zen at its best." He said that he referred people to Bankei's observations whenever they accused him of misinterpreting Zen.

I am delighted to find that the teachings of this Zen iconoclast par excellence are available once again in the revised edition of The Unborn: The Life and Teachings of Zen Master Bankei, translated by Norman Waddell. Highly recommended with one caveat: if your feet are firmly planted in orthodoxy, anticipate the appearance of major cracks in your foundation. A retrofit will not necessarily be an option.

A great gem of a book for any seeker. Master Bankei's teachings revolved around the principal that we are all a part of the Unborn-here and now and that once we abide in that no other knowledge or practice is really necessary. His teachings mainly point this out from many angles based on peoples questions and issues at the time. After many years of his own struggle as a seeker he came to the realization that since everything arises from the Unborn we are all Buddhas once we really abide in the Unborn, which is possible NOW without any other knowledge. He felt that seekers distanced themselves from this very direct teaching by doing too many things like working on koans or spending a lot of time reading religious Buddhist texts, all the while missing the Unborn Buddha Mind right now that is always present. It seems hard to believe but Master Bankei very profoundly and intelligently makes a great case for this teaching in this wonderful book. I strongly recommend it. It is along the lines of the teachings of Papaji,Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj and more recently Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now & Stillness Speaks).

Of all the ancient masters-Bankei seems to speak the loudest to us in modern times. The Unborn makes this clear due mostly to the wonderfully natural translation Norman Waddell has given us. Bankei had an interesting background in Chinese thought, as most youth of his day, he started out early on reading the Confucian texts. But to Bankei Yotaku, Confucianism wasn't adding up, and so he turned to Zen Buddhism. While his style is primarily that of the Rinzai, he also incorporated Soto ideology as well into his teachings.

Sadly, at Bankei's time, being a Zen priest all too often became a "rank one wears" in society, more for the aristocratic society than for the common layperson. He was a bright beacon and a simple master who spoke to the people, not just the "upper class." This book is essentially a compilation of Dharma talks between Buddhist monks and priests, and himself. People from all over China would come to hear him speak of the Unborn Buddha-mind, which he instructs is always there yet while many don't know of it. It to me speaks of cutting your roots, of realizing though you were bore by your mother, there is also a part of you that remains unborn. Every moment, from moment to moment-you are being born as the Buddha. Zen master Thich Man Giac of modern times held a ceremony in which he handed out flowers to participants. He asked them to place a red flower on their lapel if their mother is still alive, and a white one on if she is dead. Jakusho Kwong -roshi recalls Thich wore a red flower. This he found funny, because Man Giac at this time was very old. So he asked him later how is mother is still alive, and Man Giac answered, "My mother is Kannon Bosatsu." That is essence, is the unborn Buddha-mind.

I hope you enjoy this book!:)

The Unborn: The Life And Teachings Of Zen Master Bankei, 1622-1693 is here presented in a significantly revised and expanded edition containing many talks and dialogues with monks and priests not included when it was first published in 1984. Ably translated for an English speaking readership by Norman Waddell, this superbly presented compendium of illuminative Buddhist wisdom is highly recommended for personal, temple, academic, and community library Buddhist studies collections and reading lists.

What is there to say? The guy is funny. He cannot write a bad sentance or a bad book. This is a favorite of mine dealing with Uncle Fred. Let the car note be a little shy this month and enjoy a true master at his art.

I loved the Jeeves & Wooster books so I was sad when I read the last one. Then I decided to move on to other Wodehouse books and have read a few since. I have to say this is one of my favorites! It definitely compares to the hilarity of the Jeeves/Wooster books. Uncle Fred or the Fifth Earl of Ickenham is one of my favorite Wodehouse characters. He always seems to be dragging his nephew Pongo Twistleton (occasionally mentioned as a fellow Drones club member in the Wooster books) into trouble but always seems to get through it as is typical in the Wodehouse books. Anyway, it is a great read, a good laugh, and a lot of fun. On a side note, if you like Wodehouse, the dvd series of Jeeves and Wooster (starring Hugh Laurie from the tv show House) is also very funny. You will see many of your favorite Jeeves story lines in them and they are very true to Wodehouse.

Professors of literature are fond of writing that the three greatest novelists of the twentieth century are Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, and James Joyce. In this, they could hardly be more in error. The only contender for the title of the greatest novelist of the twentieth or any other century is P.G. Wodehouse, farceur supreme, or, in plain English, an extraordinarily funny writer.

Wodehouse wrote novels and stories that can be easily classified into several series: there are the Bertie and Jeeves novels and stories, the Blandings Castle novels and stories, the Mr. Mulliner stories, the Uncle Fred novels, etc. The characters from one series rarely appear in another. This novel is an exception. Uncle Fred appears at Blandings Castle, where he poses as Sir Roderick Glossop, normally seen in the Bertie and Jeeves novels (and one story); indeed, he encounters Sir Roderick while traveling to Blandings Castle. Uncle Fred, properly, Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, fifth Earl of Ickenham, is a man who "together with a juvenile waistline, . . . still retained the bright enthusiasms and the fresh, unspoiled outlook of a slightly inebriated undergraduate" at the age of sixty or so. It is he who sets in motion the events that enable young lovers to marry and his nephew Pongo to settle his gambling debts. In general, his role is that normally played by Lord Emsworth's younger brother Galahad.

Of course, any reader of Wodehouse novels knows at the start that things will turn out all right for any sundered hearts or frustrated lovers, as he knows that, any time the efficient Baxter appears, he will be discredited despite being thoroughly correct. The fun is in discovering just how it happens.

And what fun it is. Wodehouse's mastery of the English language is unrivaled. He succeeds in producing prose that not only is enjoyable in its own right but also moves events ahead at a pace that is nigh exhausting. In the Bertie and Jeeves novels and stories, it is Bertie's narration that does this. In this novel, it is the dialogue as much as the narration that moves events ahead, establishes the characters, and gives the reader immense pleasure.

This is my very favorite book, and I have been reading it about once a year for the past 15 years or so. I still laugh out loud at every reading. The very complex plot deals with Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred, who visit Blandings Castle as imposters (Sir Roderick Glossip and his secretary, to be exact) in an effort to prevent the Duke of Dunstable from stealing the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's prize pig, and to keep him from smashing the drawing room furniture with the fireplace poker. Polly Pott (daughter of private investigator Mustard Pott) is also in attendance, pretending to be Sir Roderick's daughter. The story also involves the Duke's two nephews and their romantic problems: It seems Horace Davenport has hired a private investigator (none other than Mustard Pott) to tail his fiancee Valerie (Pongo's sister) and she has called off the engagement as a result, and Ricky's jealousy of his fiancee's attention to cousin Horace has landed him in the onion soup. Money won and lost at Persian Monarchs, the slipping of mickey's into people's drinks, and a Duke who throws eggs at people who whistle The Bonny Bonny Banks of Lock Lomand outside his window add to the hilarity. Of course, Mr. Wodehouse's unique turn-of-phrase doesn't disappoint in this delightful novel. I recommend this book to anyone who seeks diversion from reality. A must-read.

A complete Wodehouse fanatic, I would have trouble giving less that five stars to anything I have read so far. Uncle Fred is a particularly good one to add to the guest room bookshelf----incredibly funny and nice light reading for a few days away from home.

Students always ask: How do you do that? Why can't I do this like you do? My answer is usually "Dedicate your life and practice, practice, practice!" This book explains it all.

Sensei Klein doesn't lie: Achieving Martial Arts excellence isn't easy--but it IS attainable. He breaks down the mental, physical and spiritual aspects of technique, then puts it all back together again to describe from experience, what technique is when the three planes become one. How a technique is properly thrown? How to achieve balance? Its all in there. By using vivid descriptions rather than pictures, Sensei Klein has created a book that students and Masters of any and all styles can learn and improve from. He breaks down fear and how to overcome it. He shows us how to clear the mind so that the body and spirit can create the speed and power necessary for even a person of small stature can defend themselves against larger adversaries. And through it all are pearls of wisdom about life mastery. "If your life isn't balanced, neither will your Karate be; if your Karate isn't balanced, neither will your life be." But read it for yourself!

This book is on my mandatory reading lists for my students from 5th kyu through yudansha. I find it the best book on explaining the "why" Sensei do what they do, think like they think, and teach like they teach. It also refocuses sensei to "remember" what it is that they are doing. This book gives insight and understanding to every martial arts practitioner on the way that it "should be" and is in traditional karate training. I applaud Mr. Klein and hope to see other books by him. Buy it.

There is linear (external) balance and non-linear (internal) balance; there's speed, power and focus, from a physical standpoint and a mental/spiritual standpoint. In years of study, one would be lucky to learn all of this in just one of these standpoints--not just because they're taught differently, but because their backgrounds are different. OR SO I THOUGHT! In this book, Sensei Klein teaches us that the internal and external are parts of each other, that one leads to another, that one can compliment another. And the result is truly LEARNING EXCELLENCE. He also discusses how teachers and Sensei can be better communicators, and how students can be better learners. The book isn't all philosophy, either: Sensei Klein gives exercises to improve ourselves physically and mentally, and it works. I am a better Sensei AND student today, for having read this book. Good job!

Rarely do we hear teachers talk about the relationship between Martial Arts and life, that balance in one is not possible without balance in the other--and that a life lived in balance, in our work, relationships and Art, is walking the path of the Sensi. This book does just that--while teaching the reader the truths about the mental, physical and spiritual aspects of Martial Arts excellence, it is almost also a "self-help" book about life. A life lived in excellence is not solely a product of practice; its practice and honor, integrity, passion, compassion, humility and confidence and self-respect. Anyone who reads this book will come away with precious tools for excelling in their Art--and if they're smart and read the book closely, they'll come away with precious tools for living a full and happy life. Here are the words of a great Master, and I recommend that anyone who took the time to read my words read the words of this Master in this book.

Sensei Klein has offered us the tools to walk the path of martial arts excellence by taking the three basic elements--mental, physical and spiritual, explaining them, then melding them into a clear conceptualization of the practical application of chi, focus and technique--so that the student becomes not a fighter, but a true master of their art. A true master is someone who is difficult to best, but while he is besting you, he is also teaching you how to become like him. Sensei Klein took great care not to cross the line of opinion into platform, which makes the book valuable to people of any style, but in reading between the lines, one can see that this is a man who walks the path of the internal warrior, and I would have liked to read his insights on the deeper aspects of internal martial arts concepts. Hopefully, he'll offer us another book where he takes us to that even higher level of excellence. Still, even if Sensei Klein does write such a book, it would best be read only if you read this book first, as this lays down the foundation we all need to walk the path of a Sensei.

Professor Richard Heitzenrater's "Wesley and the People Called Methodist" (1995) is destined to be come a Christian classic. This well-informed text (citing 100s of sources by the helpful "scientific notation" sourcing system) tells the story of 18th century Methodism. Throughout Heitzenrater fills-in many blanks not mentioned in other histories.

Heitzenrater provides a multitude of black and white pictures, maps, graphs, and charts to make his careful and convincing points. Beginning his narrative just prior to John Wesley's birth, the author moves to the high points of Wesley's life. We hear about his Oxford University days, his failed mission to Georgia, his Aldersgate conversion experience, the origins of Wesley's field preaching, the organization of the Methodist societies in London and across England, Wesley's concern for the souls and bodies of his people, the establishment of Methodism's first health clinic and school, Wesley's opinion about the ordinations of 1784, recruiting Methodist ministers, and much more. This book offers much to the reader.

The book also documents 18th century English living conditions, mortality rates, population wide ignorance, the English fear of a Franco-type revolution, Anglican unconcern for mass poverty and disease, and royal ignorance, pomp, and avarice. (Wesley remained loyal to his English king to the very end.) Heitzenrater presents the founder of Methodism from Wesley's own hand (he reviews many primary source documents penned by Mr. Wesley). From many of his sermons we learn Wesley's theologies of justification, sanctification and glorification. We are taught that, by the end, the senior English churchman rode over 100,000 miles on horseback through his long career. The book makes one feel as a witness to the English 18th century.

Heitzenrater's novelistic style makes this informative text an easy read. Its six chapters (338 paperback pages) bring 18th century England alive. It is history at its best as Heitzenrater answers many questions about the period. This book is very recommendable. Order your copy soon.

This was a well-written book that I am priveledged to have been introduced to. It is easy to read and carries one smoothly through the life of John Wesley from the rise of Methodism to the stage set for it's continued success folllwing his death in 1891. For any seminary student it is a must read. For any Methodist it is foundational to who you are as such. To any Christian it will be a blessing.

Heitzenrater's book is the best single-volume work on Wesley. He has, in an accessible prose, documented Wesley's life and the foundations of the Methodist Movement better than anyone before him. It utilizes the sources that are the foundation of the older biographies, such as Wesley's journal. More importantly, however, it effectively utilizes nontraditional sources for understanding his life. He creatively and effectively uses Wesley's theological writings, the writings of contemporaries, and conference minutes to more fully tell Wesley's story.

Heitzenrater is the Albert C. Outler Chair of Wesleyan Studies at Duke Divinity School. He is widely recognized as the foremost expert on Wesley's life. He is also the current editor of the Works of Wesley; he has taken that role since Outler's death.

Dr. Heitzenrater has written one of the very best books on the life and ministry of John Wesley and the early Methodists. This book is simply a "MUST READ" for any United Methodist or anyone else, for that matter, who is interested in the teachings and ministry of Wesley and his world-shaking Christian reform movement. Few books are must reads ... this is one of them.

This book has to be on the list of the top twenty-five books on early Methodism and the lives of early Methodist's. However, the book has a particular dryness, and if one get past the dryness of the writing, this book is a must get for anyone wanting to explore the history of early Methodist's. Heitzenrater begins with John Wesley's impact on early Methodist's to the different rises of Methodism, the impact of Calvinism on early 18th century Methodist's, and how Methodism evolved through the development of different societies, classes, camp ground meetings and conferences which helped to secure Methodism into the social and religous fabric of British life. This book is great for anyone wishing to discover the roots of Methodism, becuase of it's rich historical details. Another great addition to the book, which helped to clear up the dryness of the reading, was the authors use of visual aids (great examples), and sidenotes of John Wesley's work. This book is a great historical door to the past, and a must read for anyone wishing to discover more about, "The people called Methodist."

Whether this work perfectly parallels the expoits of the character's real lives, should not be of concern. This book is beautifully written, with a literary gem on almost every page. It is one, if not the best book I have read in 10 years. What a shame it has not gotten more attention.

I have had no interest in literary interpretations of the world until I read this book. Here I found other lives struggling with the same staleness of mathematics and logic and their implications that I could not escape. I found lives exemplifying the difficulties of pitting one's factual evidence against human assumptions. I found, that is, that my own life is not so different as it's felt.

Well done, Duffy.

I bought this book in 1988. It then got buried under tons of other books until I unearthed it this weekend. What a great find. Rich characters, engaging prose...a thoroughly satisfying read. At 500+ pages, I'll admit it's a bit overwritten, but once you get going it's difficult to put down. Ranks up there with "In the Memory of the Forest" as gripping and memorable. Go work out really hard, take a hot shower, then grab an herbal tea and melt into its pages.

Surprisingly readable, given the subject matter, and from an author who obviously loves to write. This quality seems less than apparent in many books, but Duffy, I felt, took great time and applied careful skill in making his characters emerge on the page as recognizably full-fledged people. Whether the clumsy and appealing, if fanatic and mysterious Max; Ottoline's bony limbs; Wittgenstein's trench nemesis Grundfeldt; Russell's liberated flapper DD and her dentist father from the Illinois prairies the philosopher visits in a wonderful chapter; DH Lawrence's fulminations about blood knowledge; Moore's gustatory enthusiasm when dining at Hall; or Russell's attempts to write an article for Parents' Magazine on "Are Parents Bad for Children" while trying to seduce yet another lissome lass and take care of his failing marriage, faltering children, and chaotic progressive school--this book's most engrossing.

Especially noteworthy are Duffy's depictions of trench warfare as Wittgenstein might have experienced it in WW1. I didn't expect that the relatively brief part of the philosopher's life would be so much a part of this novel. It serves, once you finish and can see the whole work completed, as the titular centerpiece and the fulcrum for so much of his subsequent reactions to the middle of the 20c. I had recently read Sebastian Barry's Booker Prize-nominated novel "A Long Long Way From Home," and while Duffy spends less than his whole novel on the hell endured on the Western Front, he gives a variety of vividly rendered scenes that match Barry at his best--no mean feat for Duffy's not a professional full-time writer, apparently, and this was his first novel. The depictions of war are simply and terrifyingly superb.

While I had difficulty even with the simplified explanations of Wittgenstein's thought, I confess, full comprehension of them may well be beyond any of us. W's own battles with his homosexuality, his family history of suicide, and his Christian ideals vs. his Jewish heritage make for engrossing material that eases the challenge of keeping up with W's ratiocinations. Duffy shows dramatically W's refusal to start a circle of fawning disciples or imitators of his notoriously challenging thought-experiments and investigations into what does and does not underly logic. Perhaps even Moore and Russell, as shown when they conduct the viva voce doctoral exam of W., cannot understand their candidate either.

The novel is not perfect; the latter chapters especially after WW2 appear rushed and the author seems winded by so much previous exertion on behalf of his complicated characters. The first section takes place around 1912; the wartime is largely early in WW1, and the latter part is around 1938 for the most part. Appended to this are detours back and forward in time that expand W's family history. It may sound cumbersome, yet it gives you enough of a context for each period to feel that you can find your way around.

Somehow over so many thousands of sentences, Duffy manages to avoid cliche, to write fresh and efficient prose, and to take the reader into a series of realms that would have seemed the least likely areas that a novelist would want to explore, let alone re-create over 500 densely printed pages. It took me most of a week's free time to read this, and it flows best when you have a few hours straight to immerse yourself in it. It's a novel that works by association, accruing patiently the rewards that pay off for the thinkers if not always their long-suffering supporting casts of lovers, relations, colleagues, and spouses.

The reason for so much reasoning gradually grows as the novel continues; you will begin to understand at least a bit how everyday life impinges upon and stimulates rarified speculation. This happens subtly, as it does in reality, and may take the space of hundreds of pages to connect, but it will cohere--for the most part, which is quite an accomplishment for a book that aspires to not only enlightenment but sophisticated entertainment. The novel does take its slow time to warm up; get beyond the first hundred pages, and know that with the middle section, part two, "The World as I Found It" will start to deepen its spell.

I certainly wasn't hampered in my enjoyment of this book by a lack of familiarity with (or, until now, interest in) twentieth-century philosophy. "The World as I Found It" taught me what makes a great fictional characters: such compassion and detail that I feel I know them as I know myself. Duffy's Wittgenstein, Russell, and Moore are forged from such different materials and live such different lives. But their struggles and motivations are painted in such rich detail that I intimately recognized the humanity in each of them. Great writing.

This book is an excellent way to determine a beginning program in terms of effort and time and a logical method how to progress without burning out. It has some questionaires, but don't be put off by the arithmetic. The charts determining your VO2 are accurate (correleated with my 1 1/2 run time) and the method of determining your first weeks target number and the increase for each week, helps you from being too lazy or pushing not hard enough. However it would have been good if the chart on the VO2 had been supplemented with a percentage(%) maximum heart rate chart, but the % heart rate and the correlated VO2 can be found on the web. In short, the point system is far superior to the Aerobic Points from the Ken Coopers books.

The biggest benefit this book gave me was a reasonable, sensible goal. Without some kind of measurable goal (in this case, meeting the minimum number of exercise points per week), you have nothing to measure yourself against and I always felt I wasn't doing enough! Now, when I've done my exercise for the week and I don't feel like getting up on Saturday morning, I just crawl back into bed! And it's working! Without changing my diet I've lost 10 pounds over the last month, just by using my stationary bicycle, hiking, and exercise videos.

This is a great book. It illustrates the fundamental theories of health and excercise in a rational straight foward way. Also all the scientific proof is written in the book for the cynics. The point system may not be a favourite for everyone but once you get the gist of the program and start analysing food labels for yourself it is really easy to add in a few more exotic foods. It is very simple to keep track of what you have eaten and how much energy you have expended without having to anlalyse everything you do during the day. One point that may be relevant to note is the ratio that foods should be consumed in. Like all books, it is biased towards the authors background. Body builders like weider and bill phillips recommend far larger meat intakes than this book. This book also focusses on having a greater complex carbohydrate intake than some newer books.

This is the closest thing to an idiot-proof fitness plan out there; trust me, I should know. Before I started using this book, I was overweight and not very fit. In school I was the kid who hated gym class and faked doctor's notes to get out of it. Over the years I had tried and failed at lots of fitness regimens. Then a friend gave me this book, saying it had worked for her. A year later I have slimmed down and I feel a lot stronger and more energetic. This may sound like a cheesy testimonial, but it's true. What's great is that the author, Dr. Richard Brown, uses the same plan with the Olympic athletes he coaches -- it is entirely customized to your level of fitness and your goals.

Under this plan, any exercise counts -- from scrubbing floors to Tae-Bo to sailing -- because you rate the effort yourself according to an easy-to-use scale (no heart-rate monitoring). The main point is to choose something you enjoy, the reasoning being that you'll be more likely to stick with it that way. I get my points mostly from walking, stationary cycling, and a strength-training video workout, but I can just as easily figure out my effort for the occasional day of hiking or swimming in the ocean. Even if you don't keep track of your points, you can still use the general principles to pace yourself. The result for me was that I didn't burn out the way I had on other plans, because I was doing exactly the right amount of exercise, and I started noticing the benefits right away. I'd like to thank the author: L.E.A.P. is quite an achievement.

The hardest part of exercise is getting started. This program really helps because it makes every little bit count. You can start by doing lite exercise and move up to more strenuous workouts. If you are already in shape and exercising regularly, you can also benefit. I found the point system fun -- kind of like taking a quiz in a magazine.

This book shows the reader the optimal process to reach well-thought-out decisions that not only pick the best possible solution to a problem or opportunity, but also rates how well the solution meets the overall criteria. This help assure that the solution will actually solve the problem, not just be the best of mediocre options. If the solution does not reach the level of comfort of the team, that it will solve the problem to the actual criteria determined, the team has the tools to reopen the process and further research, brainstorm, etc., until the criteria are met. Fabulous book, fabulous process. Any team can benefit greatly by implementing this process.

I only wish I had had this book 40 years ago when I first started in business. Tom has hit the problem with a 100% solution. I hope he follows up with more of his insight and business savy.

Tom McAuliffe is a brilliant leader in business! This book should be required reading for anyone starting out in the Business World.
As an individual who has started a *few* successful companies.
In my opinon this author's book is priceless for it's sheer knowledge it has to offer. I have consulted with this author on several occasions with much success.

Adopting and using McAuliffe's techniques, process and website tools will speed your organization's decision making process and will yield vastly improved communications throughout your business.

In my final semester of a strong MBA program, I was surprised to discover a totally new approach to management decision-making. I think it is a topic that is largely overlooked by most schools. Perhaps it is assumed that smart students will be able to make smart choices, make them quickly, and be successful bringing others to their point of view. My prior business experience would suggest that these goals are not so easy to attain. Tom McAuliffe's book, The 90% Solution, might offer a clue as to why some management teams are so much more effective than others. I think the tools offered in this book could be important to any business student who wants to succeed in the real world. Or, to paraphrase American Express, "...don't leave business school without it."

Capt. James Cook was sailing north to seek a Northwest Passage between Europe and Asia when he ran across Niihau and Kauai in January 1778. He then pushed into the Chukchi Sea and became the first explorer to enter the western end of the passage, though he did not know it.
Retreating from the following winter, he ended up getting killed in Hawaii.
Considering the activity of Europeans in the Pacific in the late 18th century, somebody was bound to reach Hawaii. But that it should have happened just then, and with just those people, must have affected the development of Hawaiian relations with the outside world.
It may be that the reconnection of Hawaii to the rest of the world was the most portentous result of the three centuries of deadly, cruel searching for the Northwest Passage.
As far back as 1632, Capt. Thomas James, hired by Bristol merchants to seek a passage, announced, "There are certainly no commercial benefits to be obtained in any of the places I visited during this voyage." He had proved that a passage, if any existed, would lie above 80 degrees N., choked with ice and unusable.
Stubborn adventurers, mostly English, kept trying anyway, and James Delgado tells their stories in "Across the Top of the World" with up-to-date archaeological discoveries and a fairly recent respect for Inuit testimony.
Delgado is head of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, where St. Roch, the first ship to make the passage in both directions, resides.
That happened during World War II, when Canada was concerned to establish its claims to the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, through which there are several "Northwest Passages," all difficult.
Arctic archaeology has boomed in the past two decades, and although explorers started carefully recording Inuit accounts as far back as the 1860s, only in the past few years have these received independent corroboration from the archaeology.
Inuit oral accounts go back, with considerable but not perfect accuracy, at least to Martin Frobisher's attempt in the 1570s.
Almost all the attempts except Cook's started in eastern Canada.
The biggest, most disastrous was Sir John Franklin's. Like many another, it ended in starvation and cannibalism. Every one of his 129 men died.
Franklin, who died in 1847, led the biggest, best supplied and most modern exploration up to that time. While scurvy and starvation were the main killers of premodern explorers (with battles with natives a distant second), Franklin had ships full of canned provisions.
Archaeologists, testing frozen bones and hair, suspect that the lead in the solder on the cans slowly deranged the Franklin group, making them incapable of making sensible decisions. Nevertheless, some of them made heroic efforts to carry large boats across miles and miles of tundra to reach open water.
Searching for Franklin became an international mania, and the last links of the passage were discovered by these adventurers.
Roald Amundsen eventually sailed through the passage, but the first commercial attempt came only in 1969, when the tanker Manhattan was sent through to see if Alaskan North Slope crude oil could be shipped out. Even though the alternative (the Alyeska pipeline) cost $10 billion, that was a better deal than using the fabled Northwest Passage.
The irony is that today cruise ships carry tourists far into the Northwest Passage, in comfort and safety.
Delgado tells these stirring tales in matter-of-fact fashion.
Most accounts of Arctic explorations tell of the mysterious fascination that keeps drawing men back even though they nearly died the first, second or third time. Nothing of this grandeur and mysticism finds its way into "Across the Top of the World."
What it does have is hundreds of excellent illustrations, both engravings from old accounts and color photographs of old maps and all sorts of archaeological discoveries.

I found this book a very interesting read. The photos were wonderful. It covers the varied expeditions on the quest for the Northwest Passage. Lots of people lost their lives and ultimately it was not, of course, a really usable shipping route.

The Franklin expedition and the various search parties is well covered. The one existing daguerotype of Franklin, which I had not seen, is included, as are the recent discoveries and theories about what happened.

At a bargain price, this is a nice gift book. Mine came without the tell tale black "bargain stripe" on the spine.

Wondrously illustrated with photographs, artwork, and maps, James Delgado's Across the Top Of The World: The Quest For The Northwest Passage tells of the courageous yet ultimately doomed search for a Northwest Passage across the North American continent. From the Frobisher party in 1547 to the first successful navigation in 1903-6, to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner that set the stage for modern exploration using icebreakers, this historical volume portrays the pain, the toll, the struggle, and the quest of man vs. nature in absolute detail. The narrative text is exhaustively researched and so detailed as to metaphorically transport the reader along with the famous journeys. Across The Top Of The World is enthusiastically recommended public library American history collections and for anyone with a keen interest in this fascinating part of American history.

The Norsemen may have been the first to attempt this passage but they were certainly not the last. Over 300 years of trials and bitter, freezing failures were to come and go before Norwegian Roald Amundsen finally conquered the passage in the early 20th century. It is not a coincidence that the only other undiscovered lands and the last of the remaining great adventures was also in a snowy, bitter climate - Shackleton's voyage to the Antarctic on the 'Endurance' was taking place at about the same time.

Disimilar to other 'popular history' books, this one does not have the same easy, flowing, narrative style but what it does differently and better than other pop histories is give details. Here you learn all that you could possibly want to know about every unfortunate mission that unsuccessfully sought the Nortwest passage. Crammed with maps, photos and illustrations it's all here. The little sidebar descriptions - mini biographies- of many of the explorers is a nice feature.

This book has the capacity to touch you intellectually and emotionally. It is a well written book on explorers and exploration. This book brings to life those searching for the Northwest Passage. Their struggles and hardships are well documented.

I loaned this book to a friend, who is somewhat of a stoic, and inquired how he liked it. He responded the book brought tears to his eyes. He was able to clearly envision the hardships these people endured. Amazingly, they willingly faced those hardships again to assist others.

This book takes you to a time when extrodinary hardships were dealt with as a fact of life.

I recieved Aeschylus: Agamemnon right on time and it was crisp and new!

First in a trilogy about the return of the Greeks after the Trojan War. Powerful stuff. Such horrors and tragedy as only the Greeks can master. Agamemnon's father killed his brother's children and set their flesh before him to eat, unknowingly. Agamemnon himself killed his own daughter as a sacrifice to the gods for success in the Trojan War, and when he comes home after ten years (which is where the action begins), his wife, Clytemnestra, stabs him to death in a plot with Aegisthus who was the son of the father who ate his children, and in the next part, Orestes, Agamemnon's son will return and kill them both. Please don't think I'm giving away plot here. Plot is not the point, the writing of it is all. To see it staged by first-rate actors must be a real thrill indeed.

It would be good to have two years of college Greek behind you before starting on Denniston and Page's AGAMEMNON, a Greek text with modern commentary. As a single-volume edition for students, this one could not be bettered: everything is explained and difficult passages are translated in the notes -- about three lines a page are difficult enough to require this treatment. And I mean difficult for everyone, the world's greatest Greek scholars included. The difficulties are very thoroughly discussed. Another reviewer here has said Denniston and Page are dogmatic; not at all: they point out where passages are unclear, disagreed about by scholars, or outright lost. Most of the choruses contain passages so distorted scholars have to guess at what was written, and (assuming their guess is right) exactly what the passages mean. Aeschylus writes a little like Shakespeare in MACBETH: very poetically and not always clearly. In spite of all this, passages, sometimes quite long, of powerful poetry leap out of the page. The play has been compared to KING LEAR and called, along with LEAR, one of the two best tragedies of all time. What's more, it makes you feel, even with Denniston and Page's constant help, that you can really understand Greek if you can understand lines from this play.

I always liked Homer and Sophocles, but I still have a preference for Aeschylus. What makes "Agamemnon" such a great story is that not only is it a story in itself, but it is only part 1 of the trilogy. (Part 2 is "Libation Bearers" and Part 3 is "The Eumenides.") Now "Agamemnon" was of course written centuries before Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida." Nevertheless, the events of "Agamemnon" take place after Shakespeare's play. If you read that play by Shakespeare, you know that it deals with the last stages of the Trojan War. In Shakespeare's play, Agamemnon is pictured as a reasonable and competent king who is frustrated at the length of the war, is repulsed by the vanity of Achilles, and shows reasonable strength in diplomacy. Onto the material at hand. The chorus is basically a group of older men who can comment on the situations, but they can't really interfere. (Kind of like the narrator in a play.) The chorus tells us that Troy has fallen and Greece is triumphant. We then meet Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra. She blames Agamemnon for the death of her child Iphigenia. So, she naturally wants to kill Agamemnon. The chorus seems to admit it was strange that the war was fought over the abduction of Helen who was a willing prisoner. Nevertheless, the chorus sides with Agamemnon when he arrives. But an Isaac Asimov proverb seems to explain this nicely: "Such a keen sense of honor is often praised by those who are safe at home." But of course, it is a different story to those who are directly involved. But of course, almost any time romance is involved, the voice and sense of reason take a vacation. Moving on, Agamemnon seems to be a good king in showing his piety in the light of victory. But there is one flaw. He has kidnapped Hector's sister Cassandra. (She was a virgin priestess to Apollo, and that would be the equivalent of kidnapping a nun for the purposes of pleasure.) Cassandra has the gift of prophecy, but because she tried to run with Apollo's gift 'without paying for it' Apollo cursed her in that no one would believe her prophecies. Showing reason, she curses Paris for starting the war with the utterly stupid kidnapping, and she tries to tell that Clytemnestra is plotting against Agamemnon, but of course no one will listen. She also tells of how Orestes will avenge his father and kill Clytemnestra (in Part 2). But back to the main plot. Clytemnestra plays the devil and uses Agamemnon's vanity against him which leads to his destruction. (How disturbing that vanity was the downfall of many men centuries ago and often still is.) In comes Clytemnestra's Aegisthus. He talks of the crimes of Agamemnon's father against his father. What happened was Aegithus's father slept with Agamemnon's father's wife. In revenge, Agamemnon's father tricked Aegithus's father into eating the flesh of his own son. The theme of revenge is further emphasized. It is of course a never ending circle. Though I do find it interesting that Aegithus finds it fit that Agamemnon suffers for the crimes of his father. (YET IT WAS AEGITHUS'S FATHER WHO STARTED IT!) So Aegithus and Clytemnestra can be together now. But of course, we know in Part 2, they will get their comeuppance. Overall, it's a great story that emphasizes the evils and the seeming eternity of revenge.

[Note: This edition is a text in ANCIENT GREEK with notes in English. It has no text in English if you are looking for one. There are many to recommend. The best translation of the Oresteia, of which this work is the first part, is in Tony Harrison's Collected Works; the worst, in my opinion at least, was written by Ted Hughes. All the rest are good.]
This is a superb edition with one caveat. At the moment, educated consensus generally holds that a line of poetry seldom has one meaning. Denniston and Page's text plus commentary of Agamemnon apparently was written before this consensus formed. Denniston and Page are feisty, dogmatic, and insistent that they are right, and are largely reacting to Fraenkel's massive text plus commentary to the same play. They take issue with Fraenkel on a number of points while acknowledging his immense erudition. I have no reservations, however, recommending this edition. It was very useful and well-thought out. I give it a high rating.

i miss you great-grandma, but i hope this makes you proud because i remember us reading it at East 13th St. with the el train railing by every two minutes, and what the light looked like playing over the wall of the backroom at three in the morning when i was sleeping over. and i love you so much, and this isn't a fitting memorial, but i was only ten. and there will be a better one for you.

This delightful and charming book is my daughter's favourite to read when I put her to bed at night. It is a shame to know that this book is out of print. We cherish it dearly. Hopefully Miss De Sena will go on to better and brighter things, with this as a wonderful stepping stone to achieve her dreams. History is made here in this tiny book!

This fanciful, charming story was written by a girl who was only 12 at the time she came up with the idea! Knowing this, it has inspired me to follow my dreams and not wait until I 'grow up.' The way Miss De Sena uses sophisticated, yet understandable language, with a colorful story, is amazing. A great read for any age, and a great inspiration!

this beautiful story was written by a young girl (only 12!) and is sure to go down as a classic in children's literature. this open-ended story is a wonderful one because the moral is that if you share your good fortune with someone else, everybody will be satisfied and happy. gotta go, bye!

This book is a great story for people of all ages to enjoy. It is about a magical babushka owned by Babu. It has many adventures in many different places. Some of the places the babushka travels to are Babu's cottage, a carpenter's home, and a boat. Bronwen DeSena, the author, is very talented and expresses her thoughts in a very colorful way. Because of this, her book is funny and easy to enjoy. Toddlers to adults can have a lot of laughs following the babushka's journeys. So buy and read this delighful book!