C Books

This is one book which I can't find adequate words to describe. Still I would give it 10 stars if I could. Dr. Biela presents the works and thoughts of the great Catholic mystics (St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Faustina Kowalska, etc.) in language that a 21st century reader can grasp. In addition he takes key New Testament passages with Jesus' words and elaborates on them so vividly that readers can easily recognize situations in our daily lives where those words are applicable. Not a day goes by where something I have read in these books does not come to mind.

Needless to say Dr Biela's series of books has given me a radically different perspective as to what closeness to God means, and how God acts in our lives. Basically, we are nothing and God in us is and does everything. We come to this realization by removing the blinders in our lives which impede us from seeing this truth. Events which appear adverse to us can in fact be God's instrument to remove obstacles that separate us from Him. More than ever I seek to recognize how everything I do and everything that happens to me is God's action.

I could try to go on but, again, no words of mine "suffice". Read it and prepare to be overwhelmed.

When I first saw the cover of this book I had to step back and let it sink in - how was GOD in the event of the tragic 9/11? The book does not go into the events of 9/11, but the book spelled out for me how the only true reliance is GOD and everything else, everybody else, will fall short of my deepest desires for unconditional love. This book, in a very succinct way, shows the distinction between the Creator and His creatures/creations. I found it extremely inspiring and hopeful.It has really helped me to see things in a new way - even such tremendously tragic things as 9/11.

This book is the beginning of a deep conversion in my life. I am guessing I am not the only one. If you care about your soul, I recommend this book. All Christians will be able to come to a deeper knowledge of faith through this book!

This book along with the Families of Nazareth Movement have changed my life! My life, and my spiritual journey, were at a stand still until I started reading this book, and faith sharing with the Families of Nazareth Movement. I can see that God is in everything that happens in my life, and more importantly, I regonize my sinfulness and am aware of God's abundant Mercy. This fact is so important because it keeps me from entering, or staying in despair. When things are going wrong I know that God is present in even the worst situations. If I accept the graces God can use all situations as a tool toward my sanctification. All three of the books are a must read for anyone who wants to go deeper on the journey toward union with God.

God Alone Suffices is a book that everyone longing to deepen his/her relationship with God will want to read. The author "contextualizes" the "eternal" spirituality of John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Therese of Lisieux, making their teachings accessible to all who live in the 21st century. Our human tendency to create "illusory reliances" (material, psychological and spiritual), the ways in which we experience their breakdown in our lives, and steps that we can take to move toward making God our sole reliance are analyzed by the author in a readable but profound manner. A radical understanding of sin which reaches to the very depths of our being is maintained throughout, even as the author successfully encourages us never to lose hope. This book is a must for everyone!!

While the 17th century witnessed the failure of the libertarian Levellor revolution, the 18th century can be said to embody its partial victory in the form of the American Revolution. The radical libertarian nature of the Yankee revolutionaires has only recently been acknowledged by historians. Bailyn's volume broke new ground when it was published in 1967 by showing the Radical Whig foundations of the American Revolution. He says "attitudes and ideas that would constitute the Revolutionary ideology was present a half-century before there was an actual Revolution".

The two most widely read polemical Radical Whig authors were Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard. By means of their anti-clerical and anti-military essays, known collectively as "The Indpendent Whig" and "Cato's Letters", they kept alive the Radical Whig traditions of natural rights, suspicion of the ever-encroaching nature of state power, and justified rebellion. Gordon and Trenchard were able to transmit these revolutionary ideas in popular form to the American colonies.

Bailyn says "Everywhere groups seeking justification for concerted opposition to constituted governments turned to these writers [Trenchard and Gordon]". He adds "By 1728, in fact, 'Cato's Letters' had already been fused with Locke, Coke, Pufendorf, and Grotius".

Another important connecting link was Thomas Hollis. Bailyn says "that extraordinary one-man propaganda machine in the cause of liberty, the indefatigable Thomas Hollis" distributed libertarian tracts in England and British America, and subsidized the publication of American revolutionary pamphlets, as well as reprinting the classics of the 17th century Whig tradition such as Sidney and Locke. He was instrumental in supplying radical libertarian literature to libraries in France, Switzerland, Italy, and to Harvard University.

Radical Whig libertarianism comprises a coherent body of principles that are held together and given meaning by two fundamental moral principles. The first being the right of the individual to own justly acquired property; the second being the right of the individual not to be aggressed against.

The individual is defined by his physical uniqueness and so has the potential to develop into a mature and responsible acting individual. The individual's uniqueness forms the basic element of all social interaction and is the source of the division of labor and the exchange process. Similarly, privacy is the result of recognizing the dignity, worth, and sanctity of every individual. Only by permitting the individual to enjoy his or her property unmolested, within the protected sphere defined by the self-ownership principle and the derivative right to own property in other physical objects, can there be true privacy and protection of the private side of human life.

Tolerance results from the recognition that all individuals are potentially morally perfectable. As long as no property rights are violated, then all consenting, peaceful activity must be legally protected. Tolerance is vital because it allows each and every individual to exercise moral autonomy. Only by being free to choose between different courses of action can the individual learn from past mistakes and so strive for moral perfection and self-fulfillment.

It is a consequence of the ownership of one's body and the moral autonomy that springs from this ownership that no one can act on any individual's behalf unless expressly and formally delegated to do so. This means that individuals have to begin claiming their rights of self-determination, the right to withdraw or secede from any political organization that is not to their liking, and the right to resist political intervention in their social and economic activities. Bailyn says "Such ideas, based on extreme solicitude for the individual and an equal hostility to government, were expressed in a spirit of foreboding and fear for the future".

In 1765, Charles Carroll of Carrollton said, "corruption . . . will produce the same effects . . but that fatal time seems to be at a great distance. The present generation at least, . . . will enjoy the blessings and the sweets of liberty". Bailyn says "Suspicion . . . of an active conspiracy of power against liberty . . . rose in the consciousness of a large segment of the American population before any of the famous political events of the struggle with England took place".

Bailyn cites the Report of Speech in the House of Lords, 1770: "Lord Chancellor Camden . . . accused the ministry . . . of having formed a conspiracy against the liberties of their country". Bailyn also cites the Boston Town Meeting to its Assembly Representatives, 1770: "A series of occurrences, many recent events, . . . afford great reason to believe that a deep-laid and desparate plan of imperial despotism has been laid, and partly executed, for the extinction of all civil liberty . . . The august and once revered fortress of English freedom - the admirable work of ages - the British Constitution seems fast tottering into fatal and inevitable ruin. The dreadful catastrophe threatens universal havoc, and presents an awful warning to hazard all if, peradventure, we in these distant confines of the earth may prevent".

Colonists such as radicals Thomas Paine and Richard Price added to these fears. Paine is best noted for his popular tract, "Common Sense"(1776), which attacked monarchical government and urged immediate declaration of independence from the Crown and the formation of a Republic, as well as for his passionate defense of the French Revolution in his "Rights of Man"(1792). Richard Price, a Dissenter and self-styled "Honest Whig", defended natural rights, justice, and the right of a people to rebel against oppression in his "Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty . . . and the Justice of War in America", also publishe in 1776.

Bailyn says "the colonists' ideas and words counted too, and not merely because they repeated as ideology the familiar utopian phrases of the Enlightment and of English libertarianism. What they were saying by 1776 was familiar . . . ; yet it was different." He says "The radicalism the Americans conveyed to the world in 1776 was a transformed as well as a transforming force", namely "to make federalism a logical as well as a practical system of government".

Proponents of liberty were mistrusted as well. Bailyn says "denunciations of the work of seditious factions seeking private aims masked by professions of loyalty, which abound in the writings of officials and of die-hard Tories".

It is significant that Bailyn seems only to touch lightly upon the views of the Tories - predecessors of today's neocons. He draws heavily from the radicals. This cozy accomodation and convenient oversightedness is also suspicious. It is an approach that is commonplace concerning the American Revolution. State public schools do not teach the Tories' views, rather their aim is to justify the present organization of American society.

More questions arise from reading Bailyn's work. Why did the Radical Whig revolution in England fail to attract the ruling elite and beneficiaries of monopoly profits resulting from the political system? And why did their counterparts in the American colonies embrace Radical Whig ideology?

My guess is that, when examined closely, the American Revolution fails to live up to its libertarian origins. My particular concern is with the Declaration of Independence - the supposed listing of reasons for the revolt. The facts indicate that the goals of most of the signers of the Declaration were quite different from their rhetoric. They sought freedom from Britain, it is true - the freedom to govern the lives of Americans THEMSELVES. This is obvious, not only from the words of the Founding Fathers, but from their actions as well.

In short, a valuable collection of primary sources. It should be read alongside Raoul Berger's "The Founders' Design" and Cecelia Kenyon's "Men of Little Faith".

Bernard Bailyn's seminal Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is the starting point to understanding the central theme of American political thought -- the struggle of Liberty versus Power.

In particular, it demonstrates the crucial role Cato's Letters played in shaping the minds of our Founders in formenting our American Revolution.

Read Murray N. Rothbard's four volume history of Colonial America, Conceived In Liberty, as a magnificent follow up to Bailyn's beginning.

Research on a previous project provided Bernard Bailyn an intellectual treasure trove of over 400 pamphlets, written between 1763 and 1776, from which he crafted his Bancroft and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992). This work, first published in 1967, remains a standard volume for students of early American studies at all university levels. Bailyn crafted a pointed examination of thoughts of American colonial leaders that culminated into the Revolution. Not only is his analysis wide-ranging, but it explores the depth and fallaciousness of eighteenth-century American revolutionary rationale with force and clarity.

Bailyn lays out the basic argument in the book's sixth sentence: "The ideology of the Revolution, derived from many sources, was dominated by a peculiar strand of British political thought" (v). Around this central thought, Bailyn details the convergence of thought that formed the colonists' case for a break from the British empire; he explains the change over time in American thinking on long-held political views; he highlights contemporary issues, i.e. chattel slavery and established religion, that gained argumentative force from the colonials' complaints against the British Parliament; and he illustrates the difficulties that Revolutionary thinking posed for participants of the Constitutional Convention who sought to replace British authority with a central American government.

The first part of the book describes the vehicle, voice, and ideological basis of the Revolution. The leaders of the Revolution propagated their thoughts through newspapers, broadsides, and almanacs. The primary writing form of the Revolution, however, was the pamphlet, which allowed polemicists of all different vocations to broaden the political debate. The American revolutionary pamphlets, though a "distinctive literature of the Revolution," had roots in seventeenth-century American sermon publishing and early eighteenth-century English polemical pamphleteering techniques.

The Revolutionary crisis did not originate during the crisis period from 1763 to 1776. Elements of the discourse had been long present in the colonies, but the post-1763 turmoil fused the ideas into "a comprehensive view, unique in its moral and intellectual appeal" (22). Bailyn nods to the intellectual influences on colonial leaders from quotations of classical writers, a rather superficial knowledge of the Enlightenment, citations of English common law, and the covenant theology of New England Puritanism. One of Bailyn's significant contributions to the present thinking on eighteenth-century American revolutionary thought is his understanding that "the ultimate origins of the this distinctive ideological strain lay in the radical social and political thought of the English Civil War and of the Commonwealth period" (34). He identifies early eighteenth-century English radical writers, such as John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, as shaping the mind of the American Revolutionary generation more than any other single group.

Change in America did not begin to happen only with the Revolution; it began a century before and progressed slowly. Bailyn constructs an intellectual chronology of Revolutionary thought that consists of three phases, beginning with the years of Anglo-American struggle before 1776, the execution of state constitutions from 1776 through the 1780s, and the crafting and ratifying of a national constitution. The final section of the book exquisitely displays the difficulties encountered by participants at the Constitution Convention to form a federal system of government in the wake of the force of argument put forth at the Continental Congress against the encroaching powers of a central government. Bailyn's discussions of imperium in imperio bookend with sheer mastery his understanding of the entangling intellectual obstacles which American colonists laboriously yet successfully maneuvered to produce the Revolution and the Constitution.

Throughout the Revolutionary period corruption served as the greatest threat to liberty, and, according the federalist view, a constitution establishing a government endowed with the separation of powers would ensure the existence of virtue, the necessary attribute for the sustenance of liberty within a republic. One area of frustration throughout the book is the use of terms like "corruption" and "virtue" that portrays an almost given denotation of such enigmatic expressions.

A true gem within the book is Bailyn's demonstration that the colonial leaders could not contain revolutionary fervor. Opponents of chattel slavery in America and proponents of religious disestablishment used the American leaders' own arguments for freedom from the British Parliament and taxation without representation to assail the continuation of the slave trade and ecclesiastical taxation against religious dissenters.

Bailyn's The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution is nothing less than a most persuasive, brilliantly crafted work that will influence the way Americans think about the Revolution for years to come.

Bernard Bailyn's Ideological Origins of the American Revolution is a centerpiece in much, if not all, of contemporary historians' viewpoints and methodologies for understanding the philosophical constructs and ideological underpinnings of the American Revolution. It was, according to Bailyn and many learned historians, after this writing first appeared in 1967, a revolution of ideas. What Bailyn did was to read prodigious amounts of writings of the time, mostly in the form of pamphlets and synthesize the thoughts that were being discussed and written about at the time. Essentially, he put the revolution of ideas into the context of the time. That was, some forty years ago, revolutionary within of itself.

Many of today's more serious readers of the period have read much of Bailyn and Gordon Wood indirectly, if not directly reading their own work. Both have been that influential in the field. The "disappointment" in this book is caused by Bailyn's own success, ironically enough. It was his work, along with select others, who began to pay attention to history within its own context - that is what was occurring in life and politics at the time rather than a chronological and linear view of the time. More of an interdisciplinary viewpoint and, as such, more accessible to the reader. Since the time of its first publication, many others have emulated its style (a good idea) but made its rather seismic effects at the time, feel much less so today. Effectively so much hype over the years (deserved then and de rigor today) makes for more than a bit of a letdown for today's readers. That said, those truly interested in the ideas, the philosophies, and their interpretations and misinterpretations of the day are well served reading Bailyn. Others should approach the read with caution as it is fairly dense but filled with moments of sheer academic brilliance.

This is a book that all students of the American Revolution should be forced to read. Without understanding Bailyn's argument, that the "conspiracy against liberty" was the main reason why America decided to break away from the British Empire, a student will be forever lost in trying to understand the roots of the American Revolution. Almost all of the books on the outbreak of the American Revolution have had to take Bailyn's argument into consideration; so, if you're interested in the study of the American Revolution, then this book is an imperative read. Read T.H. Breen's "The Marketplace of Revolution" after this book, and you'll have a decent grasp of the roots of the American Revolution.

CCS es un autor que simplemente no es bueno escribiendo una buena narrativa, las historias son de lo comun y no trata de evolucionar, lastima que el opus dei tiene una calidad muy baja al seleccionar libros que imprimir.
JOVENES!! no se dejen engañar con esta semi literatura pretenciosa , no les dejara nada, existen mejores cosas en el mundo, lean a rulfo,marquez, cortazar, kerouac, ginsberg, mishima, mistral, allende, lean el mundo no lean esto, veran como su vacio se llena con vida y cultura.
su mente se los agradecera.

La Fuerza de Sheccid es sin duda uno de los mejores libros que he leido. Carlos C. Sanchez es un gran author. La Fuuerza de Sheccid me enseño a valoran a mis amistades y a mi familia. En este libro se encuentran los valores que debemos tener si queremos ser honestos. Nunca pense que yo misma fuera un hipocrita hasta que lei este libro. La Fuerza de Sheccid tambien nos enseña las pervenciones que exsinten en este mundo y como todos nunca pensamos en como deternerlas. Este libro es sin duda uno de los mejores libros para adolecentes. Este libro me hiso habrir los ojos y entender a mi novio en ese momento. Me hiso realizar que el no era lo que yo queria que el fuera. Que yo como Carlos, estaba seganda por el amor. Gracias Carlos, todos tus libros han cambiado muchas vidas!!! Incluyendo la mia. A todos les recomiendo que lean todos los libros de Carlos Cuauthemoc Sanchez. Son Geniales!!!!

En donde quiera que me paro recomiendo este libro. No acostumbro leer pero verdaderamente este libro me ha hecho reflexionar sobre miles de cosas las cuales voy a poner en practica. Este libro no solo me ha hecho ver la vida de otra manera, si no que tambien me ha dado la opportunidad de ver de otra manera las personas con problemas con la ayuda de Dios. Verdaderamente es como dice la portada de la edicion que tengo "Libros que transforman vidas" este libro es magnifico y hasta he puesto quotes del libro en la portada de mi agenda. LEANLO!

La Fuerza de Sheccid es un libro que verdadera mente me impacto y que no pude para de leer. Da un perfecto ejemplo de como es el ser humano al conocer el amor. Les recomiendo este libro y se que les va a gustar

Yo no soy muy amigo de la lectura, y mucho para la epoca que me regalaron este libro (tenia 15 años entonces), me lo dieron por mi cumpleaños y al otro dia lo comenze a leer y no pude parar, lo termine ese mismo dia, es hermoso, poetico, y me senti muy identificado, me abrio los ojos ante muchas cosas, y me hizo mas fuerte... Es una de esas cosas que CAMBIA TU VIDA PARA SIEMPRE.
Si estas indeciso en comprarlo o no, COMPRALO te aseguro que no te vas a arrepentir...

Carlos, gracias por traer tanta felicidad y sabiduria a mi vida.

I learned about this book while reading another book, "Prime Obsession" and it awoke my curiosity mainly for two reasons: because it was a interesting subject, an apology for being a mathematician, trying to explain the purpose and usufulness of mathematics, and because I wanted to know more about Hardy's life, since I knew a few things about the nice story of this mathematician and Ramanujan. This is a brief book, there is a foreword that serve as a brief biography before enjoying Hardy thoughts, which by the way really grab your attention, even you learn a few lessons of simple mathematics proofs that try to show the beauty of it. I consider this book valuable for everyone.

Hardy was a giant among early 20th century mathematicians. It is difficult to overstate his importance. He was one of the first to show that mathematics is as much art as science without having to have interpretation (such as Dunham's "Journey Through Genius...").

This is what makes this book so poignant. Hardy realizes that he no longer is Hardy. In today's mathematics world that may not have been the case given the immediate communications possible between humans which may have kept him going. However, it may have been that he was suffering from the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's - it is difficult to tell given his admissions of not being up to the task - regardless, this book is overwhelmingly sad.

Anyone who cares about math should read this and thank Hardy for his contributions - plus they should have a copy of "A Course in Pure Mathematics".

This short book has long been one of my favorites. Hardy's philosophical musings may depress some but they ring so very true. Hardy is quite honest about life, art, mathematics, and his failing abilities. For example, his statement, that a very small minority of us are really good at what we do may sound depressing today. But the fact is true.

I can recall when words such as super, excellent, awesome etc. were used judiciously and very rarely to describe truly significant achievement. Today, doing one's job, albeit poorly, is described as excellent.

What I most like about Hardy's book is it's honesty and respect for the reader. A suggestion. Read the book proper BEFORE wading through C.P. Snow's forward. After about the second read tackle the forward.

A must have.

One of the most scholarly books that has been written in the 20th century, G.H. Hardy's thrilling memoir tells a story that other people are too afraid to discuss. Hardy's depressing transition from mathematical genius to near vegetable is a telling example of the archtypical fear of cerebral atrophy that resides among even the most resilient and foolhardy among us. This concise "novel" reads fluidly and especailly so for when written by a mathematician and serves to enlighten the world of the multi-talented nature of a world class mathematician. All in all this book is a rare find and should be read by people of all ages: whether a young aspiring mathematician or an old decrepit intellectual.

As Hardy himself makes clear in the beginning, he would never have written such a book if his mathematical powers had not failed him in old age. I do feel like this book is more an apology for not being a mathematician anymore than for having been one. As for all true loves, the time for judging and summings things up comes only when the joyful days of passion are over. I was hoping this book would give me an inspired first person view of what is higher mathematics and what is like to be a real mathematician. I found that it is not a good book for that, it doesn' t even try it. What it accomplishes instead is giving a precise, objective, cruel, marhematically clear picture of the drive, the ambition, the passion for excellence in any activity, be it a sport or a science that makes the life of the ones who dedicate their life to it so more pure and meaningful. It also poses some tough, fundamental questions regarding how much of your life one can dedicate to one single "abstract" passion without having to go trough some really bitter times and regrets in old age. My personal answer is that what really counts, in the end, is how much you loved and, what was sorely missing in Hardy's life, how much you express that love. But for some people, gifted and cursed at the same time, that is still not enough.

Considering I paid over $15 for the sequel, and would hardly have done that for ANY book. This is a series that is begging to be finished, but not only that, would make the current movie fare blush were it to make the big screen. Incredible work and in a class all by itself. Mr. Perry.

A friend loaned me these a long time ago. I had forgotten the title, until a bit of isfdb query writing and some browsing taking a guess at the year found it again. Awesome, over the top super powered fantasy action. If you like the girly David Eddings heroes are more scared of the shrewish tongues of their girlfriends than the Dark Demon Lord, than this is very likely not for you.

It is dangerous to be a good guy. Very dangerous. Demon Lords (and Lordesses) are BAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.

Based around Celtic mythology I highly recommend these two books as a blast. A pity he never finished the series, maybe one day?

Just a quick call to Mr. Perry to please finish this absolutely amazing series. I have been reading sci-fi/fantasy for about 25 years now, and would be hard pressed to come up with a title that surpasses the Morigu series. So if you ever read this stuff Mr. Perry, i am sure i am not alone in praying that we get to finish your great fantasy series.

Fast paced with twists and turns. This is a terrific fantasy book and the sequel to Desecration. The only problem is that the series will never be finished. Mr. Perry went on to other things after the books did not do well enough for the publisher to continue. It would be nice to have completion, but their are not enough fans to warrant it.

Very good story hope to read more some day.
Every time i come across these on my shelf it is hard to not pick them up. Hope you can get the next books out soon! :)

An easy read. plenty of useful, practical(as the title implies) information, especially for the uninitiated.It covers a lot of territory broadly. A good overview of the Music business for beginners.

I found this book very helpful. It broke down the material step by step and gave great examples. I think anybody entering into any aspect of the music industry should read this book!

Really easy to read, gives a fantastic broad view over the music industry. The author writes it like it is and he gives us information straight and clear, gives practical advice and the book is FUN to read. Buy it or regret it forever!!

A very important work for musicians written by someone who hates to see people get screwed. This book reads easy and is comprehensive.

Well, I read this book cover to cover. It's a definite must read for the serious musician who wants to learn about the music business and how it works. The music business is pretty confusing but this book is written in a way that is completely understandable. It has a lot of information such as music publishing, legal topics, and agreements. It also has Q&A sections from Henry Rollins, Fred Croshal (Maverick Records) and Neil Gillis (VP of A&R at Warner/Chappel Music). Bobby Borg was my instructor and I know he knows his stuff. The music industry is an arcane language, but this book makes everything easy to understand. Everyone in our class was happy to be able to study of off such a book. Buy it! it's worth it.

A must to complete the set. For some reason, I bought volume 2 first. As an aficiando of Mary Oliver, I am very happy to have both volumes now.

I love Mary Oliver's poetry - it always puts me into a better frame of mind, and makes me slow down and breathe. Her poetry is so lyrical and evocative, I am transported straight to the wonderful natural world, and am able to view my struggles and petty difficulties through a calming and peaceful lens. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys poetry, and to anyone who hasn't yet fallen in love with poetry - Mary Oliver is one of the best poets ever, in my opinion!

This is a collection of her poems, old and new. She is an outstanding poet, and one cannot do better than have her book of poems by your bedside, to read before going to sleep or when you awake in the night, or first thing in the morning.

The Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Mary Oliver, finishes her poem,"What Have I Learned So Far" with the line, 'Be ignited, or be gone.'To me, this conveys the passion she brings to life and poetry. What comes through clearly in her poems is her reverence for nature.
New and Selected Poems, Volume Two, is a moving collection of her past works combined with many new poems. There is a Zen isness that permeates her work.Haiku like parsimony with no embellishment. Nature does not need anything extra. For example, writing about what she saw after a storm -
And this detail: the body of a duck, a golden-eye; and beside
it one black-backed gull. In the body of the duck, among the breast
feathers, a hole perhaps an inch across; the color within the hole
a shouting red. And bend it as you might, nothing was to blame:
storms must toss, and the great black-backed gawker must eat, and
so on. It was merely a moment.
I recently saw Mary Oliver at the 92nd Street 'Y' in New York City where she was reading from this collection. See her if you can. She reads as she writes, with dignity and with passion and wisdom. This is an extraordinary collection of poems.

I have about 5 of her poetry books. I feel that her poetry has gotten more and more beautiful over time, and believe that this collection is better than Volume 1. Mary Oliver is definitely my favorite poet - much of her writing is about a thirst for growth and spirituality, and finding peace in nature and love (friendships and relationships). I have given this book to a number of friends, who are also touched by her gift of expressing the unexpressable. Some of my favorite poems in this book: the Percy series (her dog), Why I Wake Early, and The Whistler.

My other favorite book of Mary Oliver poems is her most recent one: "Thirst". It deals with grief at the lost of her long-time partner and is quite beautiful. For those looking for a really good book of poems in general, I *definitely* recommend "Good Poems," compiled by Garrison Keillor; and "Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Redemption" compiled by Roger Housden. Enjoy!

Michael Mould deserves serious kudos from the world of used booksellers. This book is extremely thorough and gives fantastic nuts and bolts advice. Mike is both rational and encouraging--he avoids the hype of "start-ups" which allows his book to be genuine and open-minded. His "day in the life" anticipates the "basic" questions and his lists of services and weblinks are very helpful. I also highly recommend buying copies that come with the CD "Bookkeeping for Booksellers". That Mike shares all the work he has done is generosity on a karmic scale. Not only is the book helpful, but Mike has created and inspired a large and collaborative community of booksellers through his work. Thanks, Mike, for pointing the way.

This book is incredibly detailed and honest. It goes into the practical nuts and bolts of a small book-selling business: taxes, bookshelves, packing, inventory, cleaning the books, customer relations and basic business math.

It doesn't provide any quick-and-easy answers to getting new inventory -- the bottom line is that no matter what you do, it requires legwork, but the book really goes into detail about what legwork needs to be done.

By the way, the book is preview-able on books.google.com, where you can read maybe 25-50% of it. Still, it's definitely worth the purchase if you're interested in this business.

Michael Mould covers every detail for those who are interested in online bookselling (as a hobby or a business). I keep this book on my desk and refer to it frequently. Personally, I found the photographs on packaging and shipping to be very interesting (and vital, considering some of his own USPS experiences and insights). He even provides an informative "A Day in the Business" section detailing his own daily bookselling procedures. Very helpful. I have yet to see another bookselling guide to offer such detailed information or step-by-step illustration.

I probably purchased every book on selling books online. The book by Michael E. Mould, if purchased first, would have saved me a lot of money and frustration. He has answered every question I could have asked about selling books online in a concise easy to understand format. I have used many of his suggestions from scheduling my time to pricing and grading my inventory and much more in-between. His impressions of where to sell my books was useful since I was already signed up with Amazon but had not begun to sell anything. He gave me the confidence to know I had made the right decision in choosing Amazon. His knowledge of the proper tools and procedures for saving me from wasting a lot of time has been very helpful.
I am a senior citizen and the less I have to handle the inventory the better. That's one of the best suggestions I took away from the book. Thank you, Mr. Mould
Ila J.

A very practical book for those wanting to start an online bookselling
business. Details from A-Z on how to establish yourself as an online bookseller with great resource info and tips and how to avoid pitfalls.
I would have liked to have seen more info in the way of what types of books to buy (categories of books) that might sell well. There are a few remarks about which ones to try to avoid, but not enough on which types to look for. Otherwise a very detailed and useful book.

Bad

A. The narrative pace is just awful. I don't know what it is about this book I almost didn't make it past the first 40 pages because the begining moves so slowly.
B. The idiotic "conspiracy theory" idea regarding the Texas Revolution. Someday right minded people everywhere will be able to laugh conspiracy nuts right off the street.
Good

The book has a great deal of information regarding the beginnings of an organized abolitionist movement in this country. Garrison was the focal point for this when the movement started to move beyond isolated groups of idealists and Quakers and started to be taken seriously as a genuine force for social change.

Overall-Once you get into the book it is amazing, but you have to be in the right mood to do so.

Now a book that shows two sides of slavery that all white people were not all for slavery .Like Dr.martin luther king was saying that slavery was not about black against white ,but justice againt injustice.Because if all men and women are not free then we are all in chains.Books like this one has giving us a balance look at one of america darkest sides. But men like Garrison showed us that their were men and women that were a light of hope that all men are created equal . And being a black man I must say thank you to all the blackmen and women and white men and women of the past for fighting a fight that many of us still fight for today .And that is for an opportunity to live as we were when God created us in the beginnig as, a human being thank you.

This is the last and probably the best book completed by the late Henry Mayer.

Mayer admired Garrison, the most important leader of the abolitionist movement. In this book, he succeeds in renovating the reputation of a great reformer and activist who has often been neglected or written off as a crank.

Garrison and the abolitionists were originally hardly more popular in the North than in the South. They were seen as disrupting the Union and were regarded with suspicion for their pro-black beliefs - public opinion in the North was only marginally less racist than in Dixie. Garrison's courage and consistent refusal to trim his convictions for popular acceptance led to a career with an outsized share of controversy, oppobrium, and in several cases physical danger.

Some reviewers have felt the book is too long, and it is hefty. But the length is necessary for Mayer to give a full portrait, which shows not only the man, but also the era he lived in. In particular, Mayer writes extensively about abolitionism as a movement. Abolitionists, and Garrison himself, struggled with many problems - whether to compromise by supporting politicians whose platforms called for less than full abolition, evolving from a paternalist movement of mostly privileged whites to a movement in which free blacks and escaped slaves could play a meaningful role, and reconciling the pacifist leanings of many to their role in a war against slaveholders - that will be of interest to contemporary political activists. Mayer also shows how, after abolition was accomplished, former abolitionists seeking new causes worked for other advances, including the first stirrings of the women's suffrage movement.

Let's just get the obvious criticisms out of they way. First, the author pretty much flat out states that The Civil War was fought only because of slavery--and in the preface! Yawn. Will I ever be able to find a Northerner who can write a book that examines both sides of the conflict? I mean southern writers do it all the time. The second problem is the assertion that the Texas Revolution was some kind of government conspiracy--from Pres. Jackson on down to Sam Houston--to perpetuate slavery and continue manifest destiny. While I'm sure some men fought for those reasons, this moronic conspiracy theory about secret government shenanigans has no basis whatsoever. In fact, I would recommend the wonderful biography, Sam Houston, by James Haley. It expertly destroys that awful line of thinking that has somehow survived all these years.

But, being from Texas, I tend to be sensitive to such things. For most people it won't matter.

I still highley recommend All On Fire, though. It is very well written and researched. But most of all, it is the only real biography on Garrison worth reading. And say what you want about the author's biases, he can't muddle the fact that Garrison was one of this country's great patriots, willing to stand up to anyone to free his fellow man. He dedicated his entire life to this noble cause--and except for a few references in some Civil War books--is largely forgotten. What a shame.

William Lloyd Garrison was a man ahead of his time. Not by years or even decades, but centuries. In the 1830s he was an outspoken proponent of not just the abolition of slavery (many advocated various ways to deal with the South's "peculiar institution"), but called for the immediate abolition of slavery with complete and full civil rights for African-Americans. He dreamed of a time when a black woman might succeed a black man as Secretary of State a decade before the Supreme Court ruled that blacks were something less than human in the infamous Dredd Scott decision. He was also an early advocate of women's rights, labor reform, temperance and civil disobedience, as well as an outspoken critic of organized religion (Garrison was what we might today call a fundamentalist "born again Christian" who recognized no formal church other than Christ's teachings).

Given Garrison's role as founding father of the abolitionist movement, his passion for the cause, longevity in leadership and terminal impact on the greatest political issue of the nineteenth century it is puzzling that he has left such an obscure historical legacy. As author Herbert Mayer notes, Martin Luther King Jr. cited Gandhi, Thoreau and the Gospel as his inspiration and motivation in the Civil Rights movement with no reference to the man whose peaceful agitation did more to eradicate bondage than any other -- and who in turn may very well have been Thoreau's inspiration in writing "Civil Disobedience."

So why the obscurity? Mayer's biography does little to address this paradox. In fact, his book makes Garrison's general absence from the mainstream of American history all the more tenebrous. The man that emerges from the pages of "All on Fire" is a moral giant, a crusader in the purest and best sense of the word, who risked -- indeed, welcomed -- verbal and physical abuse, a life of indigence and scorn, all in pursuit of a truly noble cause. Garrison grew up in New England and never traveled further south than Baltimore until after the Civil War, yet he dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery with an intensity and zeal that surpassed dissident southern whites (such as the Grimke sisters) and even some blacks that had escaped from bondage themselves. Because of his central role in establishing and leading the cause, "All on Fire" is, as the full title suggests, as much a history of the entire abolitionist movement as it is a biography of its leading agitator.

However, a close reading of "All on Fire" also reveals a hidden side of William Lloyd Garrison that Mayer, unfortunately, never fully explores: a man of extreme ambition, vanity, and conceit. Garrison fought tenaciously to keep himself at the front-and-center of the moral movement he came to regard as his own. One senses that the fame and notoriety he gained by his agitation came to mean quite a lot to him. In this sense, Garrison reminds one of a contemporary political gadfly increasingly enamored of his high-profile image: Michael Moore. Perhaps Garrison's attraction to celebrity never fully outweighed his commitment to the ultimate prize of freeing three million humans from bondage, but it certainly meant more than the pious Christian in him would have liked to admit -- and certainly more than biographer Mayer is willing to concede. Again and again throughout the narrative Garrison experiences a painful and personal falling out with some of his closest friends and coadjutors: Frederick Douglas, Wendell Phillips, the Tappan brothers, etc. And time after time Mayer attributes the rift to simple misunderstandings or the result of the stress and pressure of the times. That Garrison might have been something less than the Galahad on ante-bellum America is left unexplored.

Nevertheless, for anyone with a desire to know more about America and especially to learn about a man that was once one of the most controversial and well-known figures of his century, only to sink to near anonymity, this National Book Award finalist can be highly recommended.

this is the best and most easily understood bio of St Augustine, I love it.

This is an excellent scholarly biography of Augustine of Hippo. Peter Brown gives a thorough and balanced treatment of all of the important aspects of Augustine's life, thought, and historical context. I personally used this book as my set textbook for an independent study course I took on St. Augustine when I was attending university.

Brown does a very good job of summarizing important philosophical and theological concepts that are central to understanding Augustine's significance to the history of Christianity.

However, despite my very positive appraisal of this book, I feel that this might not be the best choice for people making their first entry into Augustine.

Augustine's is a severe and forbidding character. His intellectually rigorous reasoning on(and harsh views of) salvation and grace made him an inspiration to Calvin and the Puritans. But gloomy though his view of human nature might be, Augustine was intense and passionate, a theologian and philosopher with a poet's sensitivity to natural beauty and the use of language. This books puts the reader in Augustine's mind and life: there is the young man dedicated to an idealistic pursuit of truth,surrounded by admiring friends and family; later, his imposition of that truth on the all-too-human structure of the early Christian church will be fraught with challenge. Augustine knew Rome and Roman Africa in their glory days; he died as Africa fell to Vandal invaders who would impose a century of brutal rule. Peter Brown brings the tumultuous period in which Augustine lived fully and comprehensively alive; he makes us one with a brilliant, uncompromising, surprisingly compassionate human being.

This a revised edition of a very good biography of St Augustine of Hippo. Although I am in the mist of reading this bio I find the writing inviting and histology very well done.

Peter Brown's AUGUSTINE of HIPPO is epic study of the adventure...the spiritual-intellectual ODYSSEY...that is Life of Aurelius Augustine,Saint and uber-Father of the Christian Church in the West. Brown's peerless biography details(36chapters;437pp)a life of towering intellectual genius from birth in AD 354 in Thagaste,Province of Northern Africa SPQR ;until his death as Bishop of Hippo in AD 430.His education is sweepingly arrayed ~beginning in Carthage as orator and magister;his thorough indoctrination in Manichaeism; his meeting with St.Ambrose and immersion in philosophy of Platonist...the birth & death of his brilliant son,Adeodatus,"gift of God"..;the everlasting presence/influence of his mother,Monica; the epiphany cited in THE CONFESSIONS,"to take and read(Biblical exhortations of St. Paul)"followed by his Conversion/Baptism and quick-fire Ordination as Roman Catholic priest;and almost-instant elevation to Bishop. This prelude is followed by Augustine's unsurpassed career as The West's first & premier existential-psychologist:THOU HAS MADE US FOR THYSELF LORD; AND OUR HEARTS ARE FOREVER RESTLESS UNTIL THEY REST IN THEE; and ironic humorist~LORD MAKE ME PURE...BUT NOT TODAY. As well as arch-foe of anti-Catholic heresy~Donatism; Pelagianism;and the Occult(with which he was expertly familiar having been 10 year Initiate therein).

Augustine's CITY of GOD is not only the first consummate philosophy of History (surpassing Herodotus "then";and Hegel/Spengler & even Marx "now" in effect on history. CITY of GOD shaped the LOGOS,world-view of Western Man for 1000 years/entire MIDDLE AGES(ca~AD 476-AD 1517).Austine wrote catechisms ENCHIRIDION);treatises on Free Will;predestination;and is formulator of the Christian concept of ORIGINAL SIN.Augustinian theology l comprises(ironically)most fundamental notions of Protestant Reformers. Catholic Church champion St.Thomas Aquinas is -as-indebted to him as to Aristotle in framing THE SUMMA THEOLOGICA.


Peter Brown's new St.AUGUSTINE of HIPPO is not so much revision but carefully written...in modus of Augustine..reflection on what he had once written.There is brief preface.There is extensively documented epilogue comprised as New Evidence;& New Directions(pp441-520).There is expanded bibliography & index.The 1967 edition is 463pp;the new is 538pp.
Any student of Augustine knows that with him "more is More. Whether 75pp mas is MORE, the reader will of course determine.Brown's book is the classic,unlikely to be surpassed,study of a genius in the service of God,SERVUS DEI. Any serious student of theology,philosophy;or history of Ideas must confront St.Augustine of Hippo.This profound, mythology-like masterwork is not the opus to start with.But when you're ready "to TAKE & READ",it is matchless story-telling that is worthy of the unique,perhaps most remarkable,QUEST for God & Truth that a great and gifted man ever committed his life toward. (777 stars)