T Books

What fun this book is! Too bad all history books are not so entertaining and informative. We might all benefit from understanding the history of the economics and culture that underpin drug trafficking in the 21st century. If history and economics were always written in such an engaging way, nobody would ever flunk out of History 101 or find it boring.

Few commodities can lay claim to such a broad of sub-categories and have had such an impact on the world, as we know it, than drugs (Courtwright 2). Few other commodities have escaped Courtwright's "Drug" definition, which is arguably one of his weaknesses, such as sugar which really need special attention (Courtwright 3, 27-30, and 166). The commodification of al the items Courtwright identifies rival maybe only petroleum in terms of their power vis-à-vis world commerce (Courtwright 42). Courtwright identifies alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco, as the "big 3" while, in contrast, he identifies opium, cannabis, and coca as the "little 3." I argue they are big and little because they have been accepted, but vilified, into mainstream consumption. Good marketing has turned these wants into needs, but that begs deeper analysis. There is a strong "kitsch" [1] element that seems to have missed the radar, and on an anecdotal none of the big 3 has missed on this. There are several good and balancing arguments for legalizing the "little 3." Legalizing the drugs is proof that the vilification of drugs works much like a language (in a Saussure "signifier" sort of way). "Drugs" as a signifier is floating; it is contingent on place and time. Drugs are seen time "bad" and in other times even seen as "good" and its very definition and even epistemological grounding changes. We can go back and forth on this with contentions on both sides, no matter what this short 500 year history of the introduction to, analysis of, and deconstruction of, drugs and its role in world development is a significant introduction.

According to Courtwright, 3 "Drugs" have made the leap into mainstream use and have the rare distinction of being labeled the "big 3" (Courtwright 7-30). Once these "drugs" caught and eventually captured the European imagination - not in any spectacular way really - but in a quotidian sort of way, the rest was left to socio-historical forces. What the last statement speaks to is coupled with day to day use and entangled with the ocean crossing commerce, these drugs became so common use that mercantilists immediately caught on to the financial possibilities. Maybe the early mercantilists were or were not aware of the habit forming aspects of the use of these psychoactive drugs. No matter what the combination of use, availability, and habit forced discourse into making these three drugs legal, then illegal, and then legal again. No such luck would befall the "little 3" (Courtwright 31-52)

The ease of access to alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco would never be equaled by opium, cannabis, and coca Courtwright argues (Courtwright 42). However, the widespread use of opium in China, I would argue speaks to the contrary. Forced into China to pay for, ironically, the more lucrative teas, opium will see widespread use (despite its outright illegality) in China and beyond (Courtwright 135-136). The history of Asian America is littered with vilification of the Chinese as hedonistic and self destructive opium users. The popular literature is littered with images of sneaky Chinese in opium dens trying to trick white women into its use (Lui 19, 29, 78, 79, and 181). The historical irony is that opium made the English one of the greatest, if not the greatest "pushers" by any definition possible (Courtwright 31-36). Robbing from Peter to pay Paul, this circularity is actually more widespread then we imagine. Courtwright argues that the "little 3" either missed the historical opportunity or incurred to many social costs that made access to and distribution of these 3 elements less lucrative hence impractical.

According to Courtwright, alcohol is the most fascinating of the three (Courtwright 9-14). I argue conversely that caffeine is arguably the most interesting for what I see as its "kitsch" factor and class dynamic. When travelling in China, I was witness to one of the more interesting modes of westernization - consumerism. Consumerism, by that I mean the way Chinese see "Western" to be. In the US, McDonalds and Starbucks are pedestrian, on many levels, but Starbucks is distinct from McDonalds in that it provides access to a particular class. Walking around with a Starbucks cup in your hands gives one access to all the "sophistication" that coffee and in particular Starbucks coffee provides. In China, even if they have to pay US prices for these consumer items it seems like it is worth the price of admission. Arguably, in India, Starbucks knockoffs are taking over this lucrative business taking over from Masala chai the same way that coffee is taking over from Oolong or Jasmine tea in China. Caffeine, I argue will outlast alcohol because it is not perceived to not have the same social stigma and societal costs imbedded in its consumption.

The consumption of tobacco is now coming under severe attack with criticism being leveled against the tobacco manufacturers vis-à-vis cigarette's addictive nature and accompanying pulmonary complications as well as work stoppage statistics (Courtwright 59, 64, 72, 125-129, 132, 168, 180, 189-190, 195, 199, and 203-206). Moreover, alcohol also is coming under fire; arguably it has been for a long time, for its attack on the liver and other social effects (Courtwright 95, 100, 180-181). Little, if anything is said about caffeine's dehydrating effect and long term dependency. Moreover, even less is said about the lengths people will go through to get coffee. Moreover, caffeine is neither seen as dangerous to the user and his/her surrounding but consumed in responsible quantities actually makes one more alert and less prone to suicide, "Caffeine, to extend the metaphor, keeps the police away. Its antidepressant properties have prevented suicides; its awakening effects have prevented nighttime driving accidents" (Courtwright 189).

Caffeine is the real "trap baited with pleasure." Being without caffeine, as is the resulting effect of its addiction, a sense of unease that people swear can only be remedied by having their first cup. Coffee/caffeine addiction is really less about seeking pleasure but more about mitigating pain (Courtwright 97-100). In this sense, I argue that caffeine is the more insidious and fascinating drug. Legalized and controlled, it is actually even encouraged and consumed in copious amounts.

Since there is no law in the books that is called "DUIC" or driving under the influence of caffeine - strong arguments are made to legalize drugs that are seen, today, to be illegal. While alcohol, more than caffeine or tobacco has already been legalized and controlled, much of the revenue that funnels into government in taxes can and is channeled to it ameliorate the societal costs (Courtwright 64, 170, 176). Tobacco companies are now being sued to fix the problems as well as provide a palliative care for cancer carrying ex and current smokers.
A serious deterrent to the legalizing of the little 3 - opium, cannabis, and coca - is that they are immediately dangerous to the user and those around them. Driving and operating machinery at work under the influence of any of these three "drugs" is immediate and deadly. However, contrary argument can be made that if these drugs were indeed legalized, such incidents would be less commonplace and its societal effects can be ameliorated by the revenues generated through regulation. The challenge remains in terms of how this will be facilitated. As stated by Courtwright, the challenge will be to find that sense of balance (Courtwright 188-190, 199-207).

The malleability of the definition and use of these drugs from illegal, to lucrative, to regulated gives credence to the notion that these definitions work like a language. Depending on the time and place the criminality of these substances is either existent or not, its use medicinal or recreational, they are abused and used in controlled situations, but never, is the use of these substances - the little 3 more specifically, can be described as static. I argue that there is room for consideration to de-criminalize these drugs and to further regulate those that are already "out there." True enough, for one who loves the smell and taste of the bitter substance called coffee my self regulation is limited to the elasticity of demand and the ebb and flow of Starbucks prices and their less than kitschy substitutes. What this proves is that this issue is complex and with so much invested in the commerce and politics of these products we will not be able to free ourselves of them without incurring considerable cost.

Miguel Llora

Endnote

[1] Kitsch - All images of smiling workers, young children in grassy fields, the contented elderly, all the sentimental propaganda, Capitalist or Communist, which takes a sentimental view of human possibility, is the raw material for kitsch. Kitsch is romanticism, hypocrisy and the avoidance of the unpleasant truth of our existence. Artists are the enemy of kitsch because they poke and expose it for what it is - illusion (Kundera 19).

Works Cited

De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Trans. R. Harris. Peru: Open Court Publishing Company, 1986.

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: HarperPerennial Publishers, 1991.

Lui, Mary Ting Yi. The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New York City. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

I'm an obscure history buff and when I saw this one it piqued my interest. This is part history, part science and part sociology and the author makes this a more interesting subject than I thought it could be. He starts off with what he calls the Big Three: Alcohol, Tobacco and Caffiene. From there he breaks it further down citing the most popular and not so popular illegal drugs. Mentioning natural stimulants that are unfamiliar to most, such as Qat, Kava and Betel and the very descriptive reasons on why they did not take to popular consumption.

Courtwright also doesn't fail to mention that, even though with best intentions, scientists around the 1800's and the turn of the century were also responsible for some of the most addictive substances. Your jaw will drop when you read who devolped heroin and what is was originally used for.

Fun, informative, and mind blowing reading.

"Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World" by David T. Courtwright (Harvard University Press, 277 pp, $24.95) is a vivid account of the global spread of psychoactive drugs over the last 500 years. The University of North Florida historian defines drugs broadly enough to include not just the usual suspects like heroin and marijuana, but also generally legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.

Courtwright's witty writing should appeal to those with a taste for black humor. The author possesses a seemingly infinite supply of vivid examples about the impact of drugs on humanity, and even upon the animal kingdom. Lions, he notes, "have learned to prey upon drunks staggering home at night from East African roadside bars."

"Forces of Habit" can help modern white-collar workers banned from smoking indoors reflect on the ferocious anti-smoking campaigns that earlier tobacco addicts endured. While American smokers are forced to risk pneumonia each winter while they puff away in the freezing doorways of office buildings, "Russian smokers suffered beatings and exile; snuff takers had their noses torn off. Chinese smokers had their heads impaled on pikes. Turkish smokers under the reign of Ahmed I endured pipe stems thrust through their noses."

Ironies abound in "Forces of Habit." Alcoholics Anonymous' co-founders, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, "both smoked heavily and died of cigarette-related illnesses." (Today, AA chapters searching for meeting places are bedeviled by the new prohibitions on indoor smoking. Reformed alcoholics often want to smoke to relieve the tension of staying on the wagon.)

But Courtwright has serious ambitions as well.

"This book," he writes, "grew out of a broader curiosity about psychoactive commerce, a ubiquitous -- and, I now believe, defining -- feature of the modern world."

This leads Courtwright to rewrite much of human history from a, well, drugocentric viewpoint. "The domestication of fire," he informs us, "made widespread drug use possible in the first place." A few eons later, "The Apollo 11 astronauts," he notes, "were drinking coffee three hours after landing on the moon."

"Forces of Habit" is thus in the grand tradition of the Monomaniacal School of History. It stands comparison to such valuable works as William McNeill's "Plagues and Peoples" and Daniel Yergin's "The Prize," which explained the history of the world in terms of germs and oil, respectively.

Courtwright's vast goals are assisted by his defining "psychoactive drug" expansively enough to include coffee and chocolate. He even tentatively discusses sugar. I'm not sure why he didn't ultimately accept sugar as "psychoactive." Those of us with little kids have certainly seen sugar's impact on brain chemistry.

One problem with his semi-sprawling approach to defining "psychoactive drugs" is that it's not clear where to draw the line. If I drink a glass of warm milk to help me fall asleep, does that make milk psychoactive? Or would it be "psychodeactive?"

When going on a family outing, I always insist that we bring along some high-calorie, high-fat foods like cheese sticks. Few things end screaming tantrums faster than cheese. And it helps mellow out my kids, too. So, is cheese a psychoactive drug, just like crack and crank?

What about sunshine? The vitamin D it produces seldom fails to cheer me up.

Is a tan also a drug?

Evidently, Courtwright defines a drug as a chemical that wasn't around for most of human evolution. He takes a Darwinian perspective on the desire for drugs.

"Humans evolved in itinerant band societies. Life in the sedentary peasant societies that succeeded them was less varied, fulfilling, egalitarian and healthful. Taking drugs to get through the daily grind (or to treat the intestinal and parasitic diseases attendant to settled life) is peculiar to civilization. ... Such practices are further clues, if any are needed, that our social circumstances are out of sync with our evolved natures."

Drugs apparently produce artificially the pleasurable brain chemistry reactions that evolution devised to reward our distant caveman ancestors for engaging in hunting and other behaviors essential to survival. Perhaps this explains the terrible alcoholism problems currently suffered by the indigenous tribes -- such as American Indians, Eskimos and Australian aborigines -- who have only recently given up the primordial hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Of course, New World Indians had their own native drugs to share with Columbus. According to Courtwright's bottomless bag of memorable quotes, the fanatically anti-smoking and anti-drinking Adolf Hitler called tobacco, "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man, vengeance for having been given hard liquor." (Perhaps, though, Hitler showed that power is the most dangerous drug of all.)

Courtwright dislikes drugs, but what he really hates is capitalism. "The peculiar, vomitorious genius of modern capitalism," he expounds, "is its ability to betray our senses with one class of products or services and then sell us another to cope with the damage so that we can go back to consuming more of what caused the problem in the first place."

Rich merchants and Western European governments generally encouraged drug commerce well into the 19th century. The relatively recent growth of temperance movements and at least partially effective government controls on drugs, Courtwright asserts, were a response to the industrial revolution changing what capitalists required from workers. Before industrialization, landlords could keep fieldworkers in debt-slavery by getting them addicted to expensive alcohol or opium. Drunken factory workers, though, would break expensive machinery.

"The growing cost of the abuse of manufactured drugs turned out to be a fundamental contradiction of capitalism," claims Courtwright. On the other hand, one could also argue that the historically high level of sobriety reigning in today's hyper-capitalistic information economy -- where caffeine is the only acceptable drug -- demonstrates that free markets can encourage self-control.

Many economists, most notably Milton Friedman, have suggested legalizing all drugs. They point out that the outlawing of drugs generates crime, just as Prohibition did.

The historian Courtwright, however, believes these economists are living in a theoretical dreamland. The "dangers of exposing people to psychoactive substances for which, it is increasingly clear, they lack evolutionary preparation" means that the "answer, whatever it may be, is not a return to a minimally regulated drug market."

I fear this is true, but I would have liked to have seen Courtwright grapple more directly with the libertarian economists' arguments. Historians love facts, but distrust logic, while economists don't like to mess up their beautiful theories with too much reality. Perhaps someday, a thinker equally at home with both the history and theory of drugs will resolve this crucial quandary. Until then, "Forces of Habit" makes a fine introduction.

This book is great fun, not least because of the author's extraordinary skill in the efficient delivery of interesting facts. The opening chapters, which detail the origins of the world's major drugs, are among the most informative I've read.

The second half of the book, while still engrossing, is a less comprehensive historic analysis of drug use and prohibition. Courtwright concentrates on economics at the expense of culture, emphasizing production and commerce rather than demand and moral opposition. Given the enormous social influences in the modern world, such as the American cultural war against 60's drug use and the pervasive use of alcohol and tobacco as social tools, the emphasis on money and power over cultural forces in the past strikes me as an incomplete analysis. It leads the author to unconvincingly argue that American prohibition and its repeal were primarily the results of economic interests (a "contradiction of capitalism"). Oddly, the same events in the Soviet Union are attributed to "popular resistance", without any comparative discussion of the two nations. Finally, the value of pleasure and the concept of individual rights are generally neglected.

In the end, my main problem with is that Courtwright doesn't give culture the excellent and amusing treatment he gives commerce. I can think of worse things to say about a book.

The Four Quartets by TS Eliot is a classic and should not be missed. It is of the type of poetry that evokes meanings from their hidden places in us through the use of word trails that are only partially logical. Our own emotions connect things, so when it is read, don't approach it with the usual straining to decipher the meaning. The ring of a gong lingers after it is struck, something of a parallel to how the poem works. Fascinating, too, is its approach to understanding the elusive sense of time, but it is couched more in the sensibilities of the East than the West.

Among all these reviews, not one comes to terms with the very title of this opus: Four Quartets. When was Eliot anything but precise in his choice of word?

The inspiration for these poems -- or reflections -- are the late string quartets of Beethoven, those numbered from 12 through 16. It is the 5-movement No.15 in A Minor,Op.132, that seems to have exerted the strongest influence, with it's famous adagio movement, which Beethoven inscribed as the thanksgiving song of a convalescent.

Actually, No.15 was the 13th in order, but the Quartets were published out of sequence, which was not uncommon in Beethoven's time. The Late Quartets progress from the classic 4-movement No.12 and add a movement to each work up to the 7-movement Op.131 in C-sharp Minor. The 16th and final quartet returns to the classic 4-movement form. There is an expansion of form concluding with a contraction and return over the course of 5 works.

Like Eliot's Four Quartets, Beethoven's Late Quartets reflect upon time and faith -- and the 'speech' is often plain: repeated phrases that appear stuck in a groove, hammered chords, cheap tunes that seem to be lifted from a band in a local inn; from long-breathed melodies that look beyond what Wagner and Mahler will eventually bring to music, to cell-like motivs not heard again till Bartok and Webern.

The 'learned' aspect of Eliot's verse can lead us astray, so that we are forever parsing the meaning of the lines. I am taken with the sounds he makes as I read the poems aloud, and the sounds he chose to convey what the poems mean are, in a sense, the essence of meaning. From the first I was struck by the sheer sound of 'time' in the context of these Quartets, which are Eliot's swan song.

I am a deeply religious Sikh living in America. The Four Quartets is to me a shining example of a man of deep understanding of God and reality. I have read this poem many times since I first read it back in college. It speaks directly to my soul. There is no passage, no phrase, which does not work for me.

I read some sections to my wife when we were first married, and she thought that it was an English translation of the Sikh holy texts.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"

There is no better explanation of Eastern religion than this. I am eternally grateful for this work.

There is a line in Section III of "The Dry Salvages" that has bothered people: "I sometimes wonder if that is what Krishna meant--" as perhaps being too overdone, or even unnecessary to the poem...but, the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna does give some insight into Eliot's comments on time and reality...when Arjuna is faced with the possibility of killing his own relatives in the opposing army, he can't handle it...Krishna then tells him that it doesn't matter....because of the immortal aspect of The Atman (man's inner spirit) which is not touched by our reality....no one really dies and so, only the doing is important:"Realize that pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, are all one and the same." And so, in relation to the poem, Time is looked at in much the same way...We have the illusion of leaving and arriving: "You are not the same people who left that station Or who will arrive at any Terminus"...it doesn't matter what you think or your regard for the fruits of your actions...the only important duty is to make the trip: "Not fare well,/but fare forward, voyagers." Being in the flow of time, living moment to moment, doing what is necessary is all....perhaps, at the quantum level, as another reviewer has suggested: normal perceptions are topsy-turvey, we're in the rabbit hole and if we can see that, then:"...the way up is the way down, the way forward is the/way back./You cannot face it steadlly, but this thing is sure,/That time is no healer:the patient is no longer here." When the insight is achieved, time disappears, all duality vanished and you are left with that still point of consciousness only seeming to act...so, what the hell?: "Fare forward." or as Krishna would put it: "That which is non-existent can never come into being and that which is can never cease to be."----Don Hildenbrand/Eugene, OR., USA

This is a tiny book, more like a pamphlet, only 58 pages long with large print and some blank pages as part of the design. But it is mighty in its impact. These "four quartets" are four of T. S. Eliot's poems meditating (among other things) on the nature of time - time past, time present, time future...If you are of my generation and have read the poems before, you might love carrying this little book around just to dip into it for a line or two, and maybe understand something you never understood before. (T. S. Eliot is not always an easy read.) If you have never read them before, I envy you!

i really love this book, but i have trouble putting together a cohesive statement as to why that's the case, so let me just fire off a few random thoughts:

1. so simple you feel like you're doing something wrong. i'm so used to a recipe having a list of ingredients and steps, so used to a recipe requiring effort, that some of the stuff in this book seems so simplistic that you figure it has to taste bad. i mean some of these recipes are like "take a chicken and bite it! the end." it's fantastic, shocking, and reminds you that good food can be extremely simple. (your foodie friends will be shocked that you're not attempting to make a five minute apple sage cream sauce with elderberry compote. the horror!)

2. the author teaches you that mastering some simple techniques are essential to making simple things taste good. for instance, have you ever tried to pan fry a steak and had it come out all grey? and then you say to yourself "well, forget this. i guess i have to light the grill and waste 30 minutes if i want a good steak"? well no, you just didn't pan fry it correctly. don't worry, he'll clarify it all for you. in about half a page.

3. man, if you're afraid of butter don't even bother! there must be at least 40 recipes in this book that consist of A) the primary ingredient (aka chicken) and B) butter. "take some butter and put it in a pan. cook XYZ in the butter. bite it."

4. learn how to make a sauce on the fly. what do you do with that plain chicken you're fixing to bite? well, made a quick sauce out of the drippings in 30 seconds, using like one ingredient, and put it on top, that's what. (see #1 above if you can't figure out why this tastes good.)

4. the author is really engaging and the book is fun to read. this isn't like a cookbook - you read it like it's a small novel. and then you re-read it, just because it's fun.

5. the entire approach is so obvious, so simple, that you feel like an idiot that you didn't know this stuff already. and even if you did know this stuff, somehow you forgot that you could operate in this manner and still make good food. i mean you can basically absorb the jist of the entire book in 30 minutes. half the time you don't even need the recipes - it's the method, the overall approach that's important. you'll understand when you read it.

this book reminded me that you don't really need a bunch of recipes, a bunch of equipment, a bunch of ingredients or a bunch of time to cook. just a few skills, a few minutes and a few pounds of butter. imagine that.

This is one of my favorites among the cookbooks I own. I love to cook, although I hate recipes. Edourad de Pomiane's approach is perfect. His writing is funny and encouraging, and he teaches you to cook rather than simply giving instructions to copy a specific recipe. His recipes are exquisitely simple yet profoundly delicious. This one book changed the way I cooked steak, gave me confidence to try sauces for the first time, and taught me the key to making perfect omelets. Buy it. You won't regret it!

Okay, so I'm probably not your kind of cook. I'm the geeky sort of guy who thinks Julia Child is a reasonable substitute for divinity, who worships the ground Chris Kimball walks on in a "Brocktoon" sort of way, who considers superstars like you and Emeril the people the Food Network employs to keep the lights on for Alton Brown. But you know, even if I'm not exactly a fan, that doesn't mean I don't respect what you do. So I have to say right now, if you've never heard of this minute masterpiece from 1930, read it, reread it, incorporate some of his stuff into your own recipes, and then lay a wreath on Pomiane's grave next time you and John are in France to shoot an episode of Tasty Travels, because this guy is your granddaddy just as much as the nice Sicilian fellow you're always talking about on the show.

I mean, look at this guy. He hits practically every French classic that can be done in ten minutes and he's got you beat on organizational technique (first thing you do when you get in the door and want to cook Pomiane-style: boil a pot of water. Doesn't matter why, you'll find a use for it.). The recipes are simple and tasty, and would do Julia, Simca and Louisette quite proud. He even provides menus to plan from, because life is more than meat and two veg. He hits a few of the classic sauces (though his "white sauce" recipe is written as a joke), features a good-sized section on vegetables, and provides a surprisingly diverse selection of meat dishes ranging from a simple steak to some surprisingly complex veal and pork dishes.

There is a sizeable and varied selection of soups (none of those annoying "stoups", fer chrissake) and some remarkably fast desserts, including a chestnut puree that the author was very proud of. A decent but concise section covers cooking techniques suitable for quick cooking, and the whole thing is topped off by a nicely informative preface by the translators describing how to handle Pomiane's recipes in a kitchen three-quarters of a century in his future. And did I mention this guy had a hell of a sense of humor, even in translation? Seriously, take a hint. Not one catch phrase anywhere, and he's still a hoot to read.

Rach, here's the deal. You're the reigning queen of convenience cooking and a kitchen superstar. Controversial, yes, but few have the luxury of near-universal love like Julia, and at the very least you've got it all over that bimbo Sandra. But you gotta give this guy props -- after all, like I said, he's your granddaddy.

Signed,
Brian from the Cape

This book should be a staple in every discerning cooks kitchen. Ten minutes or not, in the era of Rachel Ray (and I think she is lovely by the way) its nice to have a little class and soul in a "quick fix" cookbook.
Dr. de Pomiane is funny, insightful, and guiding. He not only gives you wonderful recipes to work with, he takes you by the hand and tells you just how to achieve the perfection you deserve and still have time to dwaddle over your coffee.

This is the perfect book for a beginner! It teaches you very basic techniques on cooking that everyone should know, such as how to make a sauce from burnt on meat juices. Its recipes also build on previous ones which makes memorization easier. What I loved most were the lessons on organization that will enable you to cook more efficiently.

In all, this is a great book to start anyone off as a cook. I made a sauce the other day by following the book's guidelines, rather than following a strict recipe and it turned out pretty good. The advice is great in that it gives you room to experiment without destroying your meal. In all, this is a great book to start anyone off as a cook. It's excellent!

I gave my other book away so I wanted another one. This book started me on the road to self awareness of African culture and religious dogma. Great resource to begin your search.

This is a book that sould be read, when first entering into the African spirit. This is so, because it gets you into the history that would alter your current state of beliefs at a slow pace. It helps you as a first time reader to understand how little you know and how much you have to learn!

I think that says it all. If you are a chicken at heart, this book is not for you. This books tells it like it is, and that is good. We need to know that African Americans are the kings and queens of this world. That how the white man protrays us, is his distorted view. When you want to be like someone you will many times, mock what that person is or has. Mockery is the greatest form of flattery---I read that somewhere---and it is true. Whites want to be like us so badly, they could taste it. This book tells us, what we need to do to get back in line with how the Great Spirit inteneded for us to be. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

This book was the first of Mr. Browder's that I have read and was the foundation for continuing of my education of SELF! I also have the second one in this series which really breaks down religion, civilization, and TRUE history! I don't know about anyone else, but the most I learned in school of my people is that we were naked savages until the good white man came and saved us, which is sooo far from the truth. I don't care if you think you know religion or if you think you know african history, you don't know it to this degree if you haven't read this book and also purchase his next one (Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization). If you can put this down, without a fight, then hats off to you! I read it in one day, that's how thirsty I was/am!

This book should be read by everyone of African descent. Discussed in this book are subjects such as religion, skin color, hair, the need to free your mind, the mysteries of melanin, sports and African Americans, your responsiblity to the future and many many more important topics. At the end of each essay, there are books that Mr. Browder has suggested for further reading. Read and enjoy!

This book is a gem. Not only does it motivate you to market yourself effectively and put yourself "out there", it gives you all the pertinent tools needed to do just that! It has the ability to contextualise the entire job search process, whilst inspiring you to get on with it - assess your abilities, write your resume, write a supremely convincing cover letter, and nail the interview. It is an incredibly easy read that even has the ability to re-energize you when you get the feeling that it's all going nowhere. The advice and answers to tricky questions afforded in this excellent career book are by far the most practical and useful that I have found. Rob Sullivan makes the job search process seem alot less daunting and even fun! There is much to be gained from Getting Your Foot in the Door When You Don't Have a Leg to Stand On.

I was fortunate to have met Rob Sullivan, and in a forty-five minute seminar, he filled me with enough insight to transform my Monster.com resume from generating 1 call in 6 weeks to 5 calls in 4 days! The passion, enthusiasm, and insight I experienced with him personally, fill the pages of his book, which I found to be extremely valuable in my own job search.

Rob's book is interesting, fun, succinct, and filled with wisdom. I found his book much more relevant and useful to me than "What Color is Your Parachute." I highly recommend "Getting Your Foot in the Door" instead.

What I LOVE about this book is that it's like having your best friend give you a big hug and say, "Don't worry. It's going to be alright. Here's what you need to do."

The case studies are great and really make Rob's points come to life. That, by itself, makes this book different because you can see the difference this approach makes. But don't kid yourself. It takes work. It took me a few weeks just to work through the self-assessment.

If you're looking for a quick fix, magic pill, you aren't likely to find it anywhere. You hold the key to your future. It's up to you to uncover the gold in your background. Thanks to Rob, I'm well on my way.

While this book is particularly valuable for career-changers and entry-level job hunters, I'd recommend this book to anyone.

Every time I pick up this book I am mystified as to why it hasn't found a broader audience. Yet, perhaps it's because, as Sullivan says in the intro, "you won't find shortcuts or easy answers". Unlike the narrow, often-unsatisfactory assessments that abound on the web or in career centers (interest inventories, personality typings, etc.), Sullivan's approach requires a greater level of responsibility and engagement on the part of the reader. But those willing to put in the time will find a bonanza of sound guidance to help them identify and credibly market their strengths, and hold onto their saddles while riding the interview circuit.

Solid training in advertising plus real world experience (at ad-world giant, Leo Burnett, and as a VP and Senior consultant for an executive recruiting firm) equip Sullivan with the means to define and craft the job search in marketing terms, as well as plenty of insider knowledge of interviewing techniques. Moreover, these recommendations are market-tested: Sullivan suffered through more than 80 interviews before writing the book and leveraging its methods to attain career success.

Sullivan's comparison of the job hunt to a product launch, with potential employer as consumer, orients the job seeker early on toward a realistic and research-driven self-assessment. Subsequent chapters prod the reader through the process of harvesting and quantifying details and variously combining the elements into persuasive, job-specific resumes and covers.

With well-selected quotes, honest field reports and a long, quirky bibliography, Sullivan reveals his humanity-a creative counterbalance to the book's stolid core. Scattered with gems such as the recommendation to keep a work journal of your ideas and contributions, and advice on how to handle time gaps, lateral moves and backward steps, Getting Your Foot in the Door is well-worth its modest price.

Rob's book is an easy read, and has good insights into how companies approach the recruitment process. It helped me create a very focused resume. I also liked the interview tips. A very concise and useful book.

Very well written, thought out. He covers alot of area and does it very well. Everyone should be open minded and read this book slowly.

'The Gospel According to Moses: What my Jewish Friends Taught me About Jesus' is a unique and thoughtful auto-biographical journal of Athol Dickson's ongoing studies at a Reform Jewish temple's Chever Torah (Torah Group). The beauty of Dickson's study and reflection is not that he always reaches the most correct conclusion, sometimes I don't think that he does, but that his underlying attitude about recognizing and defining questions is exemplary. The author's attitude here is suggestive of that of Origen, the great early Christian thinker and student of the Torah (what Christians call the Pentateuch or 'Books of Moses') and the Tenach (what Christians call the Old Testament). More to be feared than a question without an easy answer is indifference to the question, or a smug delusion that all answers are well in hand. Dickson says, "God may answer my questions with silence because the answer is silence. In other words, sometimes my questions themselves are answer enough. . . When the Lord offers no clear answer to my questions, it may mean I will learn greater truths by continuing to ask the questions. Sometimes questions may have many possible answers, so God declines to point to a 'correct' one. The most common examples of this phenomenon are bound up in the many paradoxes of the Scriptures. . ."

Bumbling humans that we are, Christians and Jews too often misunderstand and misrepresent each other's views. Dickson tries to avoid the oversimplifications involved in these superficial dismissals, but without surrendering his essential Christian understanding. Many commentators on the Torah are cited; on the Christian side these include the New Testament writers, Augustine, and Kierkegaard, for example. But most of the expositors cited are the Talmudic rabbis (who, of course, were Pharisees, that group of Torah students whom Christians are typically anxious to simplistically vilify wholesale). Dickson says- "As has happened so often in my time with Chever Torah, the floor of my study is littered with fallen stereotypes." (p135)
". . . again it seems that Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity are far closer than I once thought. Christianity says if I love Jesus I will obey his teaching. Judaism says if I wish to follow I will be led along the road. In both cases, faith by the grace of God leads to obedience to God. . . I am free to choose the road I wish to follow and then I am led along it, either downward by my foolish pride or upward by the grace of God." (p142)

I read this book at the same time I was reading Philip Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew." Both books are excellent and both speak to some of the weaknesses of the other. The one aspect of Dickson's study that I thought came up short was his arguments regarding the Trinity. It's a challenging subject and I have seen others approach it as Dickson has, citing Torah references to the God who is One with occasional language of plurality, but, of itself, it is a difficult argument. I believe our best understanding of the Trinity must include the insights of Augustine and Anselm. Any weaknesses aside, Dickson has written an excellent book about how one's attitudes, including cognition of one's own ignorance, are of central importance, whether attempting to resolve the mysteries and paradoxes of the Torah or the mysteries and paradoxes of the luminous Jewish rabbi, Jesus.

This was a great read. Highly recommended.

The book reads smoothly, uses comfortable language, and flows in a logical way. Dickson employs several mini-stories throughout the book to introduce and illustrate the subject matter of that chapter.

Dickson touches an area of Christianity which is desperately needed. We embrace so much of our faith without having any knowledge of its roots or foundation in Judaism. Christianity and Judaism are not synonymous. They have significant differences, and Dickson does not ignore these differences, or try to homogenize the two faiths. But they ARE similar, and Dickson does a great job of showing just how so many of the themes in Christianity overlap with those of Judaism, even if that doesn't appear to be the case at first glance. Most of Dickson's focus is not on the minutiae differences of Christianity and Judaism, but is on the larger elements of our faiths, including the differences in how we approach our faith, and how we answer the hard-to-answer questions.

Allow me to share my favorite aspect of the book. Dickson discusses, in detail, the difference in the way Christians and Jews deal with difficult questions about our faith. I grew up in the church, Dickson is correct in characterizing the way most Christians answer those questions: we often try to make them seem less difficult than they really are, and look to some pre-fabricated answer found in our "ways to answer those questions" manual. Many questions are off-limits as quasi-heretical, meaning that we often never quite satisfactorily examine the things in our faith we struggle with. By Contrast, according to Dickson, no question is off-limits for Jews, and they embrace difficulties and questions concerning their faith. I believe more Christians should react like the latter. We should be willing to ask questions--the answers in our manual may be correct, but we should be willing to go and see.

One of the things that make this book so good is its ability to make you think-it encourages you to examine what you believe. You will find yourself pondering the things you read throughout the day. I cannot agree with everything that Dickson asserts in the book, and there are some areas in which I felt he could have elaborated and discussed more thoroughly. But the book DID make me think, and it did have an effect on what I think about a couple of issues. If you read this book, and consider the things discussed in it, there is a fair chance that your view on an issue or two will be tweaked in some way too.

The book is great. The book is easy to read, and enjoyable. While I still don't necessarily agree with everything Dickson says, those things are rather minute and mostly insignificant. People interested in the subject matter should definitely read the book. I am confident that you'll enjoy the book, and that you'll be glad you bought it.

This was neat. But in saying that, it was by no means at all, a light read. Athol Dickson made you think. A great writer of fiction, he writes great stories, with a message. But when he wrote, "The Gospel According to Moses," he is to be taken very seriously. Upon joining a Chever Torah group, his faith was challenged. And his faith was ultimately strengthened. He wasn't afraid to address difficult questions.

When I read this, Dickson wasn't afraid to to discuss what a Christian believes, opposed to what a Jew might think. And he wasn't afraid to apply Torah and Bible scripture. He takes examples in The Bible like Moses and Abraham, and events in their lives. He begins by stating, "Life's most important moments are often disguised as the commonplace." In this case, in the situation that Athol Dickson knowingly put himself into, that is most certainly true. Did he expect to be challenged? Possibly. He wasn't afraid to expose the differences. Or was he? Where does Jesus fit in this? You'll know soon enough.

So, if you want a few of the topics that Dickson addresses in a nut shell, I'll give a few. In the opening chapter, Dickson talks about dealing with doubts. He'll talk about why God lets us suffer. He'll discuss finding connections between obedience and grace. And in the final chapter, he'll ask a real tough one: Are Jews going to Hell? He discusses a lot of other stuff as well. The topics are 13 chapters total. I would dare to say, give this a try. If you have tough questions, then maybe this has the answer. Will it give you satisfying results? Only you can answer that.

Is this possibly a "Jesus Freak Among the Jews" account? Quite possibly, and a little more. It was awesome.

Based on insights gained from his experience as a Christian guest in a Reform Judaism Bible study, Dickson offers his thoughts about God, scripture, and interfaith misunderstandings--such as the relationship of faith to obedience, grace to works. 'The Gospel According to Moses,' one of the most refreshing books I've read in a while, has caused me to study the Jewishness of the Christian faith, which in turn has brought new depths of understanding of and awe for God and the Bible--and more questions to contemplate and explore.

I have read this book twice and I loved it. Mowat wrote as if the tug was a living thing. It was wonderful. I actually cried at the end when Franklin came into the harbor with barely any power left and covered entirely with ice, thus ending her life. The people who captained Franklin intriqued me as well. In the book they were the only ones that really cared for her.

Farley Mowat can make the stars sing with the sheer beauty of his writing. His writing is a little old-fashioned by today's standards, (all the better) but his craftsmanship is unsurpassed. You ARE there. You feel everything his characters felt, you see what they saw. The book ends happily and I know it, but I cry through the last chapter every time I read it because his writing takes me there. One hedge: the book does start slow, but if you keep plugging away, you will be richly rewarded.

This book is an unexpectedly riveting episode-by-episode story of the Foundation Franklin, a marine salvage tug that sailed out of the ports of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the 1930s and '40s. This working ship, built in Scotland in 1916 to craftsman's standards, eventually found itself unused in a Hamburg shipyard in depression-strapped 1930 where it was identified as a possible vessel for the Canadian maritime salvage fleet. From that day to its final heart-stopping drama, the trials of this unprepossessing high seas coal-fired tugboat are recounted in all their adrenalin-filled reality in Mowat's gripping and evocative prose. Managed by callous profit-seekers, officered by experience-hardened seamen and crewed by men desperate for employment, Foundation Franklin's story is, as well, a slice of social and commercial history. The mood is workaday danger, fortitude, struggle and courage, marred by a single passing dismissive remark about "union mechanics".

I first discovered "Grey Seas Under" about 15 years ago, appropriately enough as Able Seaman on an Ocean Salvage Tug. I was immediately enthralled. Out of the many books on the sea I have read, this one remains very dear to me (not that you have to be a mariner to enjoy it). Grey Seas Under is the true story of the ocean salvage tug, FOUNDATION FRANKLIN and the brave men who battled the North Atlantic to save hundreds of ships and thousands of lives. Farley Mowat, a master srory-teller, passionately desribes the exploits of FOUNDATION FRANKLIN with geat admiration and humor. Grey Seas Under is a true masterpiece saga of the sea. I've read this book probably 6 times in the last 10 years and I'm sure to re-read it for many years to come. I cannot recommend this book enough. I also highly recommend "The Serpents Coil" also by Farley Mowat, another first-rate tale of the sea.

The ocean-going salvage tug, `Foundation Franklin' was more than a match for the worst the North Atlantic could throw at her, including Force 10 hurricanes and Nazi U-Boats. Perfect Storm, eat your heart out! Here is the real book about the great-hearted men and their staunch little ships that survived blow after blow from the Atlantic and bobbed up for more.

If the author, Farley Mowat is sometimes guilty of over-the-top prose---well, he lived and worked on the Franklin, and he loved her sturdy lines, her jaunty roll, and every rivet that held her together while she rescued ships that were Goliaths to her chubby, little Baby Huey. No work could have been more dangerous; none required a higher degree of seamanship and courage than dropping a line on a berserk, lunging, steel-hulled freighter, and then towing her through the maw of a mid-December gale, or the shoals and `sunkers' of the Newfoundland coast---something the Franklin did so many times that her crew lost memory of all but their most freakish or man-killing expeditions.

"Grey Seas Under" will give you an interesting perspective on the true maritime heroes of World War II. Farley Mowat doesn't pull any punches when he describes the tension that existed between the expert seamen on the ocean-going salvage and rescue tugs, and their relatively `amateur' counterparts on Canadian and American naval warships. Some of the funniest scenes in the book involve convoys of merchant ships under the `protection' of corvettes and destroyers. Once a U-Boat had been sighted and the merchants steamed for cover, it was up to the Franklin to rescue the ones that ran into each other or shoaled themselves. Usually, the tug had to perform her duties without any cover from the warships.

"The days the salvors (tugboat seamen) spent tethered to fat and crippled merchantmen, crawling along on a straight course at a speed of two or three knots like mechanical targets in a shooting gallery, were the kind of days that would drain the courage from the most heroic man alive...The Germans knew, that for every rescue vessel sunk there would be a score of crippled merchantmen who would never make safe port."

This is a great book about men against the sea, even though the language gets very nautical at times. Read it and you will learn all about Lloyd's Open Form, and the tricks that wrecked merchant masters play to cheat tugs out of their salvage fees. You'll learn to tell the difference between `Monkey Island' and the poop deck---and the difference between `brass monkeys' and true seamen. You'll thrill to the dangers of sunkers, beam seas, and Arctic white-outs. You'll bite through your pipe-stem, just like the Franklin's captain did during those tows when his sturdy little tug steamed back into port with barely enough coal in her bunkers to "cook a pot of beans."

Someone ought to make a movie out of "Grey Seas Under." It's got everything---romance (between man and ship, at least); life-and-death adventures; heroism; humor; and the treacherous ice, wind, and sea of what the author respectfully refers to as `the Great Western Ocean.'

I first read this book in College 20+ years ago and have re-read it several times since. Before the internet made it easier to find copies of the book, everytime I came across a copy in a used bookstore I would buy it and give it to a friend because I didn't want the book to languish on a bookshelf unappreciated. It is a fantastic novel the follows a complex southern family throughout the entire Civil War. Be sure to also read the continuation (sequel) to the novel - "Unconquered," which follows some of the family through the reconstruction period.

This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years, passed along to me by my mother. I just learned Williams is the grandnephew of General James Longstreet, which makes the story even more interesting.
The title is apt since the story deals with the bitterness of my country split in two for four agonizing years.
Williams toggles back and forth between the Currain family matters in Virginia and North Carolina and the lead up and their involvement in the Civil War. Each chapter is given a time period so the reader can read outside sources of these time periods.
When the five Currain siblings learn their long-dead father is the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, all are affected in different ways. Williams does a good job with the psychological aspect of each sibling's response and subsequent actions to this unfathomable news. Williams does an admirable job in his character profiles.
What is most interesting about this story are the elaborately detailed battle scenes. The author described these so well I was able to see the planning and execution of the "work" (battle)--north and south--in my mind's eye.
General James Longstreet plays prominently in the story and was a Currain family friend before the War. "Jeems" and his wife Louisa are a house undivided, as they give the reader a picture of what unity can accomplish.
The jubilation and angst Longstreet feels as he bears the responsiblility for the work he is given is palpable. His highs are quite high and his lows are very low. As he goes into the last work of the War and assists General Lee with preparations for surrender, we grieve with Longstreet. I wasn't expecting to cry when the surrender was made known to the barefoot and bone-weary southern soldiers.
A good long read. The author captures the easy elegance of the minority Southern wealthy and their journey to a new South four years later.
A postscript: Williams' sequel to this is "The Unconquered" which gives a greatly detailed picture of the Reconstruction, mainly in Louisiana and set in New Orleans. Another good read.

This book which I picked up after reading "Come Spring" is riveting. His detail mirrors that of Kenneth Roberts whose stories of the American Revolution are also in the same category. Living in Southern Maine, K.R. is must reading. I now add B.A.W. to that category. His book has made me more interested than ever in the Civil War and the results of politicians follies which are being duplicated today with the same amount of stupidity as in the past. I highly recommend this book,

This is the best book I have ever read. It has so much history of the Civil War and the reader will learn so much about this important time in our history. The characters are the pivot points for the telling of the South's history. Mr. Williams is really a genius in his technique. He includes political commentaries of the South from the perspective of the poor on up to the slave owners but done out of the mouths of the characters. He very concisely states the "reasons" for the war in a single paragraph stated several times and in different perspectives. He very exactly depicts the scenes and you truly can believe you are there viewing from afar and experiencing in reality the way life must have been for all the characters.

I fell in love with this book and thought that I should read Goned With the Wind afterwards. GWTW was not nearly as good. The detail and story telling was amazing. I would love to own a copy of this book.

What a candid book. I read it in one night. I volunteer in Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall. I read this aloud to the wards, 15-16 year old boys. That was last year, some are asking me when am I going to read it again. Some books about incaceration glorify the situation, but Mr. Abbott's account of an innocent childhood to a downhill spiral of abuse and survival really strikes a cord with the reader.

this is a great read. though much of it is tought to read through, the material is important and needs to be circulated!

The author of this book states that he wrote it while in solitary confinement. It's a trip into his childhood, where he came of age in California's Juvenile system. It takes place throughout his childhood years, beginning with an early stay at age 6 (along with a rape by a counselor). The rest is his teenage years spent trying to survive the brutal system of rape, violence, and sadistic counselors (also known as prison guards).

It's very chilling. I couldn't peel myself away from this book, even though it has graphic descriptions of rapes and brutal fights between gangs of boys not even old enough to shave. The fact that the author even survived that system, which incidentally took place in the 1960s, impresses me. When I was a teenager, a few friends of mine ended up in a juvenile drug rehab center at Horsham, PA, and afterwards they were extremely shaken up. It turned out later they had been raped. Not much has changed in the last 40 years.

Abbott and his companion quickly rise to the top of the ruling prison gang, which he uses to attempt several escapes. Each time, he nearly makes it. It's amazing that he goes for his parents, who are totally excluded from being able to help their boy. He forms a love relationship with his companion which he must hide in order to survive. The counselors maintain the order by daily beatdowns and shake-ups, and when it comes down to it, the boys are treated exactly like adults. The prison system makes people have to fight for their survival almost daily, or be pushed to a fate of worse than death.

It makes the reader wonder why anyone thinks that prisons can reform any person. Trapping someone in a room and punishing them for years with the most sadistic people doesn't seem like a good way to reform anyone. In the end, prison, for adults or kids, really just sweeps the problem of emotional disturbance underneath the carpet. Nowadays, a few million reside in United States prisons, the largest such population in the world (even more than China, which has 5 times the population). We're at a time when the ruling classes think it's better to completely separate millions into boxes than to even give a carrot to oppressed communities.

Dwight Abbott remains in jail today, and he says he wouldn't be there unless the Juvenile Youth Authority had twisted him as a human being to the point where the only place he could exist was in a prison. They destroyed him as a teenager at a critical point in any human being's development. Why? If you want a window into how a person can be destroyed, read this book. At the same time, if you want to see how a person can keep some amount of love and hope for a better day (away from the prison), read this book as well.

This plain autobiography is written with such directness that it is difficult to doubt the veracity of even the smallest incident. More important, it is difficult to doubt that these incidents (or similar ones) are fairly common place, not just the events of some freakish horror story.

The story is told with great specific purpose, to expose institutions so completely rotten, but one is aware that much is not being told. The author concentrates on what must be said to bear witness to what is wrong institutionally, and does not allow himself long divergences into his own feelings and ideas. The title is a bit ironic; it's about tears shed long ago, and mere personal understanding can no longer change much.

The book speaks clearly to the need for, at very least, massive alterations in the juvenile (and adult) justice system in this country, above and beyond any very small reforms made since this story occurred. Ultimately, one must question our reliance on "professionals" to do our thinking and social organizing for us. Every terrible action detailed in this book, each so obviously misguided and clearly bound to have exactly the opposite effect of it's supposed intention, is a reminder of how we as a people have turned our freedom and control over to institutions that serve only the dictates of cynical and uncaring power, and which operate directly against the interests of individuals and society in general.

Whatever tiny changes have been made in California's juvenile system must be looked at against the fact that America has few (or perhaps no) growing industries other than it's prison system, which cannibalizes the society it purports to serve, and is already a bloated hulk, claiming more far people per capita than that of any other country, two, four, or 10 times as many as any other major nation today.

I cried, You Didn't Listen was absolutely breath taking. The whole time I wanted to stop reading the horrors, but didnt stop looking at the text the entire way through the book. It placed a new perspective on a lot of things for me and I thank Abbott for such. This is a must read for anybody looking for some perspective on juvenile punishment within the Califonia Youth Authority. It is a tough one though if you have a passion for living beings, especially children.

This book has been replaced by Susan Page's more recent book "Why Talking is Not Enough," which is basically "If We're So in Love..." with a new title and expanded ideas. This book has the "5 Sacred Actions" of a spiritual partnership; the newer book has "8 Loving Actions." All the other ideas are the same. There is no need to buy both books. But definitely buy one of them, if you're interested in a marriage book that presents a different, new, and substantial way of looking at your relationship and yourself. Susan Page offers real wisdom (not a word I use lightly)!

This is the first step towards healing & improvement if you really love each other.

As a pastor, I have given away many copies of this book to people struggling in intimate relationship--and I've used it in my own marriage.

There are many classics of spiritual wisdom and many nuts-and-bolts self-help books on relationship. Susan Page brilliantly combines the two. Her gift is to translate spiritual ideals into practical, understandable, and eminently achievable goals for everyday living in spiritual partnership--the Buddha channeled by Ann Landers!

Read this book, apply its lessons, and transform yourself and your relationship.

If you are seeking to feel love in your heart but feel blocked because your partner is clueless, uncooperative, self-centered and blames you -- or for any reason "because of him/her" and you suffer because it feels like no matter how hard you try, the patch doesn't hold -- this is the book that teaches, guides and encourages you how to get back to the love, how to create powerful and healing changes, how to feel safe and connected with yourself, how to look at your partner again with loving and how to work with yourself in your own healing and strengthening. And, your partner is not required to read the book, work the suggestions or be molded by you. You reclaim your power and your energy investing in what can truly make a deeply valuable, loving, rich and life-changing difference--you work with you. I've been working these techniques for over 20 years, in marriage, and have been learning about and thriving far beyond I ever thought possible. It didn't take long for small miracles to begin AND they continue to unfold and to grow for both of us. Susan Page has offered a truly generous gift with this book for all people--currently coupled or not.

I found this book when browsing through the many relationship books and decided to give it a read on a whim. My boyfriend of 2 years and I have been struggling recently and I needed help.

This book is all the help I could want AND MORE. I feel so positive and recharged about our relationship ALREADY and I just finished reading it. I KNOW that what's in this book can help my relationship and I know it could help others. This is a MUST BUY, even if you aren't having PROBLEMS right now... The Sacred Acts will help keep you from having HORRIBLE problems in the future.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!