Essays Books

This is a well told, touching story. Krabacher's style of writing is fluent and fast-paced. I appreciate her honesty about her own sorrows and mistakes. This is not a guilt-laden book designed to make the reader drop everything and fly to Haiti. In fact, the author says what she does isn't for everyone, but believes God prepared her for this ministry from the time she was a child. I've read at least 20 books in the last six months and couldn't tell you much about any of them, but this one is worth remembering and passing on to a friend.

"Angels of a Lower Flight," by Susie Scott Krabacher
I found this book to be a candid look at the life of a woman who overcame child abuse and life as a Playboy Bunny only to emerge as a saving force in Haiti. The story reveals the harsh realities of life in Port Au Prince, from gang life to corruption and the superstitions that lead thousands of parents to abandon their less than perfect children.

Susie Scott Krabacher landed in Haiti during its most turbulent political turnover in 1994 and began a mission to save children abandoned in hospital wards - children who had not yet been disposed of or sold for body parts or voodoo rituals.

It is a must read for all who are interested in Haitian culture and understanding it from the eyes of a Alabama woman from the Unite States.
Although heartbreaking at times, this story is purely one of triumph and courage.

One can only conclude that she is doing God's work - and that only God could have prepared her for this unique and unselfish role.

I never write reviews. This was a wonderful book. I really know how to pray for Haiti now. Susan writes so well. I couldn't put this book down! I read it in a couple days. We hope to eventually adopt form haiti, or at least to give money to great organzations there. Enjoy!

Susan Scott Krabacher's abusive childhood and stubborn growth into an international caregiver is an inspiring tale about the power of selfless living. Although I felt she occasionally lapsed for too long into stories of her childhood and days spent with Playboy, the narrative redeems itself in stories of the abject poor she ultimately helped by turning her pain into motivation. We could all learn from her story.

Susie Scott Krabacher's book was an excellent read. It's a great autobiography on her life and gives alot of insight of the problems and issues of Haiti. A must read.

Ayn Rand is one of the foremost communicators of our time. Her ability to communicate complex issues cogently, logically and passionately means that, decades later, her works are still being sited as `the text' to read, in politics, philosophy or morality. Clarity, integration and style are thoroughly discussed. The advice given here applies to all non-fiction writing (see also her book on fiction writing The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers) and it's not the usual recycled blurb. Rand's method of thinking, led to her method of writing and style. This book lets you into some of those secrets and allows anybody to improve their writing skills.

I was rather impressed with what Rand had to say about writing and style. As the authoress of the second-most influential book ("Atlas Shrugged"), she has a lot to say on the matter. And, as always, you cannot stop a bandersnatch.

There are some preliminaries. First, as with all of her writings, this book's ideas are outgrowths of her philosophy of Objectivism. For Rand aficionados, you know that it keeps cropping up with everything that she writes. So if you either agree with her, or are willing to plow around it, then get this book.

Second, this book is really edited selections from a longer seminar she had on writing. If the discussion seems out of joint at times, it is due to the selecting/editing process. To help round out here ideas, I suggest reading "The Art of Writing Fiction" and "The Romanic Manifesto," all of which were extracted from this same meeting.

Rand is one of the finest systematic thinkers ever, and this book shows it. She is able to take something apart, separate, correlate, and analyze the parts, and then put it back together again.

By being so analytical, she gets the writing process right. The first five chapters are really the basting cap essential in explosive writing. Writing can be simplified by preparation, organization, and thinking, which is the message of these chapters.

Chapters 5 through 8 cover the more traditional nuts and bolts of writing. Chapter 5, on creating an outline, is the key link between thinking and writing. She is right when suggesting that everyone writing nonfiction should use an outline. It organizes both the mind and the writing. I was glad that the editors included some sample outlines of Rand's writing, to watch how the process proceeds from outline to full article.

I think out of all of the chapters, "Writing the Draft" was the most helpful. The editor subtitled it "The primacy of the subconscious." This highlights Rand's point that writing is really something that comes spontaneously form a disciplined mind. Furthermore, the chapter contains several subsections on "The Squirms," helpful mulling, euthanizing pet sentences, and handling interruptions.

This last point cannot be emphasized too much: writing is a job, and it takes concentration. Rand likens it to heating a blast furnace--you work up to a high temperature, and that temperature must be maintained for weeks to get the desired results. While writing "Atlas Shrugged," she had to sequester herself for thirteen years.

I have a similar experience while writing. People visibly see you clacking on the computer, but what they do not see is the amount of focus inside your head, invisible to your eyes. So they want you to answer the phone, run this errand, baby-sit, chat, paint a house, watch some idiotizing program on TV, or come in on your day off because so-and-so called in sick so they could stay home watching some idiotizing program on TV. You need to be as harsh with writing as you would with your bill-paying job. Indeed, a good writer sees writing AS A SECOND JOB!

The last chapters are a potpourri of topics that did not fit in either "The Romantic Manifesto" or "The Art of Fiction." They are helpful for what they are, but seem a bit out of place and curt. They serve as surveys to the topics.

The only critique I have would be rearranging the chapters. Move chapter 12 ("Acquiring Ideas For Writing") up between chapters 1 and 2, since the thinking process--the process of reverie and listening to the unconscious percolate--precedes the choice of a subject and theme. I would also move chapter 11 ("Selecting a title") to go after chapter 7 ("Editing"), and moved chapter 8 ("Style") between the chapters on writing the draft and editing. Since this book was edited posthumously, this organizational error is not hers.

Here is my ideal order:

1. Preliminary remarks
2. Acquiring Ideas for Writing
3. Choosing a Subject and Theme
4. Judging one's Audience
5. Applying Philosophy
6. Creating an Outline
7. Writing the Draft
8. Style
9. Editing
10. Selecting a Title
11. Book Reviews
12. Writing a Book
Appendix: Outlines

For a second or third reading, it may be helpful to use this order, since it follows the process of thinking-writing-rewriting.

*

I have put this book in my mix of style guides, and will read it along with Strunk and White, Trimble's "Writing With Style," The Chicago Manual, and "The Little, Brown Handbook."

(I would rate it five stars, but the disordered chapter organization talked me out of it.)

This book offers guidance on a variety of topics and problems that a writer of non-fiction, whether articles or books, might encounter. The advice is never formulaic, but rather gives the reader methods by which to improve his own writing process and style. Highly recommended.

It starts slow and plods along for a few chapters but eventually Rand strikes a resonant chord and the writing comes to life. Ayn Rand will get your mind 'right' about writing and get your mental tool-box organized, to handle odd-jobs or the magnum-opus.

As with so much of Ayn Rand's writing, she takes on an issue (in this case, nonfiction writing) that seems hopelessly complex, and then explains it with such clarity that you're left wondering what all the confusion was about in the first place. If you're stuck in your writing, even if you've never read anything by Rand before, this book is priceless.

It is unbelievable for someone 40 or under to realize that these pictures were not seen as "homoerotic" at the time. The author has put together a great collection of photos here.

And the Menz are HOT!

Without a doubt this book will touch the memories and hearts of everyone who pauses to slowly peruse these casual photographs of men at sea in World War II. Without the overtones of trying to make a statement about the camaraderie that accompanies men off at war, these photographs simply follow a healthy group of sailors resting on board ship, working at their tasks, bonding in the bunk rooms and in play on the decks and the foc'sle. There is an obvious physical relationship that is transmitted in the gentlest ways, further proof that men together find the emotional and physical support so needed in the time of isolation from the world.

It is to Evan Bachner's credit that he shares this truly sensitive body of work with the public at a time when we all need to understand not only the plight of the men away at war today, but of the common threads of pansexuality that have never been a threat but only a solace in a world infected with prejudice. Grady Harp, December 2004

This is a beautiful book which gives a look into the lives of the men of WWII. This is NOT a homoerotic book, these are NOT homoerotic photographs. This is how men were before we became afraid to show affection, before we had to be afraid of every move we made. These are basically boys who grew up on farms and in cities all over America who found themselves on ships in the South Pacific. If your father didn't bring home pictures like this from WWII or if they have become lost, here is a good opportunity to see how life was like on the ships, for America's Greatest Generation.
Heyward Foster III DPM

I picked up this book because my dad and my grandfather served in the US Navy in WW II. I didn't see them or their ships in this book but wow! There are some beautiful photos here! Crisp black and white prints, impressive use of light, some clever composition... and so many strong young men, muscled and slender.

There is a sensuousness to many of the pictures that reminded me of Mapplethorpe's work, although none of them show full frontal nudity. As a collection the photos appear a bit homoerotic, although individually many of the images are fine art. The book is more about excellent photography and gorgeous young men than it is about wartime.

As an historical reenactor, and daughter of a WWII Navy veteran, I am constantly on the outlook for books and information on the lesser known ideas and culture surrounding WWII. This book was a real eye opener! While the author is open about his sexuality and the pictures were no doubt hand picked with a certain agenda, they show a world of innocence that was unconcerned with homophobic ideas of how a man should or should not act. Being together for long periods of time in uncertain circumstances, deep friendships definitely form. Your buddy could be the one to save your life during an attack, or you might loose him in a split second from a torpedo. As a woman, I can imagine the close friendships that would form today under similar circumstances among women, and I imagine men during that time were not held back by all the macho ideas of today. A beautiful book with striking photography, this stands as an important contribution to understanding our father's and grandfather's lives during WWII.

I enjoyed reading it and learned some interesting things but I've also gotten lots of mileage out of using it as a business or thank you gift.

This book should be read by all parents/adults. Educate your children on how to keep germ free and be consistant with that teaching. Many illnesses/deaths can be avoided by following the simple steps given in this book.

This book is chock full of great tips. It's breezy and informative style is definitely geared for those who love trivia and for the compulsive worrier! It's attractively packaged and fits into a stocking.

BE SAFE is a safe gift that I am giving to all my loved ones. It is a humorous approach to many of the kinds of problems that you want to save them from without being preachy.

This book is brimming with tons of useful and eye-opening tips that channel the hypochondriac in everyone. The author has done an exhaustive amount of research on the hazards of our day to day choices--many of which I have never even thought twice about. The mini packaging makes it an adorable and handy gift.

A perfect blend of of travel journal and salute to public golf. Anyone with a high handicap, who has played with bare-chested strangers with even higher handicaps, on crowded bald fairways with bumpy greens, will appreciate this book.

When I read the description on the jacket I thought, "No way will this work. He's going to tell us about the 60 rounds he shot, stroke by stroke, such as.... and on the seventh, a tough par five, I got out my trusty three wood etc., etc., etc." It is that but it is more. Slack shares with us the feeling of what it is like to stand at the first tee of a course you have never played on a beautiful spring morning in New England. He introduces us to the people he meets on the course, from the potato farmers of Maine to the Florida "snowbirds" who flew South to escape the Northern winters. Did the book work? I'm getting my clubs ready to try a West Coast version.

Great book on golf. Gives a great look at courses up and down the east coast. There was, however, too much on the history of the towns instead of more on the history of the course and more on the actual rounds he was playing. Was "On The Road" for the golfing enthusiast.

Blue Fairways is thoroughly enjoyable. Slack's sense of humor, coupled with his self-deprecating writing style, make this a must read -- golfer or not. I laughed out loud and also cringed as he described some less-than-stellar golf moments. For those of us who do golf, who couldn't identify with The Look of Pity? Non-golfers will enjoy the way Slack captures what most of us will never have a chance to witness first hand -- the essence of what remains of small towns and hospitality as they teeter on the brink of chain restaurants and cynicism.

If you've ever topped a drive off the first tee or missed a three-footer on 18 while trying record your career low round, you'll be able to identify with Charles Slack's golf game. When it comes to writing, though, he's scratch. One brief example will suffice. Describing the contrast between the front and back nines at the Ponce De Leon course in St. Augustine Florida, he says, "The back nine plunges into the jungle with the suddenness of a Disney ride, into a lush, dark, secretive world of mangrove swamps and ponds curving tantalizingly like lost lagoons. Moving from the ninght to the tenth holes is like putting down a volume of P.G. Wodehouse and picking up Heart of Darkness, all in one morning."

The book is filled with wonderful insights like that one and reminds us on nearly every page of the real reasons why golfers love this sometimes maddening, often magical, game. For those of us who never will have the pleasure of sharing a round with Charles Slack, this book is a delightful substitute.

This book is full of short stories by veteranns about veterans. I must recommend this book for anyone that has any affiliation to a veteran, simply the best, short stores from all wars and conflicts that will cause you to swell up with love and pride. This is a quick read and a must read, it certainly gave me pride to have worn the uniform. Mike - Des Moines, Iowa

If you never really appreciated a veteran, you definitely will after reading this book. This book has so many wonderful true stories about American veterans. Some of us never realize what they have to go through. I loved the whole book - it's hard for me to say which stories were my favorites.

A truly wonderful book with numerous short tales about veterans.
Perhaps I am prejudiced, being a retired USN radioman. These
stories will uplift your spirits tremendously. Reading of the
selfless actions of veterans throughout our nations history may
add a new dimension to your life. What impressed me besides the
shear joy of reading these stories is that each and every one
was new to me. I suggest you keep some tissues nearby, this book
will truly tug on your emotions. I've sent this book to 3 others
so far. There's a huge series of Chicken Soup books. They all seem
to be written with the same care as this one.


UPDATE:

At the start of 2007 I had one of those V8 moments and decided to start a mission for myself. It would be pretty
easy. Simply it is to hand out a copy of this marvelous book to any veterans I might run across. Just a simple
"thank you for your service" gift. I carry three in my car's glove box. I usually order 10 at a time here. So far I've handed out 50 copies. I really get into this! I was beside a guy in a truck at a red light with a VietNam decal on the bumper. I yelled over and asked if it was his. When he nodded yes I asked him to pull over I wanted to give him something. He pulled into an animal vet parking lot. Give him one, he had been in the USAF. I typed up a short note and staple them inside the cover telling a little about my service and what my mission was. Now that I have blown my own horn way too much I would like to toss out an idea. How about doing a similar thing where you live? You meet the greatest folks and feel super when you've handed another one out.

Best Regards

This book was sent to me from a dear friend and I love this book so much. I think all Veterans will love it and heck anyone should. It is a book I will cherish always!

This book was given to me by a good friend. He thought I, as a Vietnam vet, would identify with some of the stories. It is one of the absolutely most enjoyable books I have ever read. I even slowed down my usual reading speed to savor the stories . Each day, in the sunshine of my patio, I read two or three stories. Every story got my full attention. I even found one story about a man I knew in the army. I adamently recommend this book to any veteran.

Here is another cult book.

It consists of discourses in response to narrow mind-sets of such as middle-class women in Los Angeles between 1920 and 1952, before color TV and things like that.

Some parts could be worth chewing on.

This book, along with the two other volumes in the trilogy, should be on the shelf of every student of Eastern Wisdom, no matter what their tradition or lack thereof.

It is one of the outstanding features of Paramahansa Yogananda's life and teachings that He did not believe in or create any cults.
When reading His talks and writings one is first of all struck
but the non-judgmental and compassionate heart of this great Yogi/saint/savior.
There is always an area of cooperation demanded in any teacher-pupil realationship or it will not function properly. And those who worked loyally and sincerely with this Master gained great spiritual growth, and every other good thing that the Master represented.
The training was such that one can see the great differences in all disciples trained by him, they are never copies of, but had their individual potentials beautifully enhanced.

The master's life shows us what Jesus Christ was really like and the means to become as they are.

In cults one must loose individuality, creativity, & personal possessions are all given to the evangelist cult founder.
In The tradition of yoga that Yogananda perpetuated, dealings with others were fair and reasonable, he taught not as an overlord but by example and compassion.
Which one experiences just reading his inspiring spiritual expressions of love and life and the way.

The results speak for themselves. One will gain a much better perspective of Yogananda by reading his work or history in many other books, rather than from the incomplete reviews of those who did not get to know him very well.

This particular book, anybody of any religion and background can read it. I think that it unites everybody on Earth no matter who you are. After reading this book my viewpoints totally changed in a positive way. I take things in easier way. Up to this day i am still using the book, especially in difficult moments. I would strongly recommend it to everybody.

This is a must buy. It will not disappoint you if you are looking for answers in your quest for the Truth! It shines the light on the path to God and convinces one for undertaking the supreme journey. It is my favorite book.

Lydia Hiby is a phenomenon. This book about her experiences and process is fascinating. As we have had past and current clients (cats) in our family, this book answers questions that we just never got around to asking...and then some. If you are cynic, this probably won't change you mind (though it should). Highly recommended.

I have used Lydia's communicating services in helping my cats through behaviorial problems and even the death of a cat. I was anxious to read her book and when it arrived in the mail and I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. The stories are heartwarming and inspirational to all who love animals. I strongly recommend this book to every animal lover, who like myself, wishes to talk to animals.

What an awakening Ms Hiby's book provided me. She can help us all regain some basics from our earliest childhood. There's a whole world of communication and thought going on among the animals, and we miss most of it because we've grown up parroting what we were told..."they can't talk", "we don't really hear them". Well, fortunatly for me, Lydia Hiby in her simple, honest, and loving book, has reopened my mind and 'ears'. I DO remember talking with dogs and cats and cows and ducks and pigs when I was a little girl on my folks' farm. It was just part of life. That WAS my first language. Then I went to elementary school and all my focus was shifted to humans and what I now consider my second language...English. So, as I read her book and absorbed each additional example of the compassion, and understanding that the non-human creatures have of our limited and egocentric species, I remembered. The very simple awareness that reopens this 'hidden world' for us was pointed out by this lovely book, and generously shared by this talented author and communicator. I'm thankful and enriched.

I got this book as a gift from a friend who had Lydia do a reading on her horse. I have always been facinated with anyone who can talk to the animals and was thrilled to find a section where I could learn how to do it! I had previously purchased "how to" video tapes and was very dissappointed to find that they had no instructional value and were just testimonials about the communicator. This book was a facinating read and a great guideline! My dog and I are most grateful!

This book is written from the heart! The experiences are insightful and moving. It opens the mind to the potential within us to deepen our bond not only with our own companions, but with all animals on this planet. The techniques outlined are the building blocks to develop the "communicator" inside us all. Lydia and her book have opened a new world for me. She has dedicated her life to her gift and has inspired me to follow in her footsteps. Everyone has their own talent and path and none of us is perfect. It is through our humanity that we learn and grow every day. This book has made a monumental difference in my life and has taught me that all is possible if you come from a loving place in your heart!

Perfect introduction to Diane Arbus' work, fairly large format, good quality prints, and including an unusual approach to her biography.

this book as good, as good is phptographer Diane Arbus, good hard cover, good printed, and its not just an album, it contains lot of interesting information worth to discovery, I truely recomend this book for everyone who likes "real" things

Diane Arbus' works reflect for me, the tragic echoes of an artist's disconnected soul in search of kinship. I believe her subjects reflected this inner state in its polarity - from the curiously delightful to the stark nakedness of oddity. "What do i see when i look in the mirror? I search for you, to document your being, your existence, your very breath because you rebel for me, against all that they say is conventional, permissable and normal. i record your pneuma and the beauty of your unorthodoxy."
Be delighted to own this book if you truly appreciate art and the soul that creates it. You won't be disappointed.

I had the great fortune to see Revelations in person when the show was at the MET in NYC in 2004. There is nothing like seeing actual prints in person but this gorgous book is the next best thing. The paper stock is top notch as is the binding. I proudly display this book on my coffee table for family and friends to enjoy.

The legacy of dead artists is always in the hands of others. As Doon Arbus, Diane's daughter, laments, some go way to far in "analyzing" the work of her mother. (For a particularly abominable and repulsive example of this, see Anthony Lee and John Stultz's "Diane Arbus: Family Albums".)

This gigantic Arbus exhibition was mounted by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It features 200 Arbus photos, spanning her entire work and more than 300 auxillary images of her notebooks, darkroom and so on.

There are several short, informative and informed essays (unlike the aforementioned "Family Albums).

The production is gorgeous.

What is unfortunate about Arbus' work is that it is rarely explained in detail. People see Arbus' work and conclude that she really saw these weird people in the wild, so to speak. The reality is shown in fair detail here. For example, Arbus' absolute classic "Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park" is shown with a contact sheet making it clear that Arbus took the one image that showed this little boy in a freakish pose. The other 11 images show a normal young boy playing. But Arbus wanted her subjects to appear as if they were trying out for a freak show. That was her point. That's why, for example, Arbus photographed "Dominatrix embracing her client" instead of a family picnic with everyone smiling for the camera.

Arbus - and this exhibition demonstrates the point - used electronic flash and high contrast to make her subjects appear weird. Weird was Arbus' metier. You can see this again in the contact sheet from which her freakish "Boy at a parade" is taken. Arbus does not print the sprightly looking woman holding a "Support Our Boys" sign and an American flag. No, she prints the pimply faced, self-concious boy wearing a plastic straw hat, a bow tie and carrying an American flag. She prints it because the harsh strobe makes the uncomfortable boy look like a freak.

Arbus was fascinated by the unsual, including twins and triplets. She suffered from various psychological problems, possibly alcoholism and drug addiction and killed herself.

She left behind a magnificient body of work, one that too often (again, see the awful "Family Albums") is subjected to academic balderdash.

In "Dane Arbus: Revelations", Arbus the person, Arbus the photographer is presented in splendid detail. It's a marvelous work.

Jerry

This is definitely one of the best books that I have read within years. I've read it a few times now and some passages - on the paintings of Chesley Bonestell (the Caspar David Friedrich of alien landscapes), which match the serenity and sublime poetics of those paintings, on Alexei Leonov's and Ed White's first spacewalks, on the lift off of the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket (gives me tears in my eyes, the same as if I see it on DVD), on Percival Lowell, on the fantasy worlds of Astounding Science Fiction and Startling Stories, to mention only a few - are so great! They give you a kind of experience which normally only good poetry can give you. I read these passages again and again, they are aesthetically addictive! It is impossible to convey the sublime poetic quality of Wachhorst's prose. Really, every sentence in this book is a gem by itself. There is no other book, not even the books of Carl Sagan, that convey that sense of wonder (what the old Greeks called thaumazein) that propels us human beings toward space travel so intensely as this book does. It's not only poetry of course, it's also a very informative book (Wachhorst is a historian), but this book teaches you how important the mastery of language is to get a message through. It is also a very philosophical book, not in the analytical sense but more in an existentialist way. You'll learn a lot about the meaning of human transcendence while reading Wachhorst's reflections and meditations on our ultimately incomprehensible and utterly absurd condition as lonely intelligences stuck on a small piece of rock somewhere in the infinite vastness of the cosmos. We are, Wachhorst writes at some point, 'the ballroom innocents of Spaceship Earth - frail seed of life itself, afloat for an instant on the surface of forever'. This wonderful, exceptionally well written book is a must read for everyone, not only space enthousiasts. I dare to say that it is essential reading. How great that this book exists!!!

"The Dream of Spaceflight" is a charming little collection of essays on the past and future of spaceflight and space exploration. More lyrical than substantial, "Dream of Spaceflight" is designed more to stimulate that place in the imagination that initially made man reach for the stars and seems to have been stymied recently as spaceflight has now become a glorified courier service instead of pioneering endeavor that it was intended to be. Why is it that it only took us eight years from the first astronaut orbiting the Earth to reach the Moon, but almost 30 years since the last moonflight, we barely reach beyond our own atmosphere anymore? Author Wyn Wachorst wonders this and seeks to have readers ponder the same questions and re-ignite their desire to reach beyond the bounds of Earth.

Certainly not a fast read, "The Dream of Spaceflight" tells the story of scientific pioneers like Johannes Kepler and Werner von Braun, as well as the brave men of the Apollo program. It remembers the imagination of past explorers while seeking to provoke the desires of the future explorers. This collection of essays may prove quite valuable in the future of our dreams.

Not what I expected. This is a philosophical rather than a technical book. It is very well written and quite enjoyable.
It has an engaging literary style.

I have been a space buff ever since I got my first telescope for Christmas, 1968, and got to use it on Christmas eve 1968 and looked at the crater filled moon as Apollo 8 orbited the moon, what magic, a time long gone. So I can relate to Wyn Wachhorst as he narrates this journey through our coming of age in the cosmos, from Kepler, Goddard, and others, to the present, always writing in symbolic and poetic style, neat to say the least.

I particularly loved the chapter "Abandon In Place", anyone well versed in space lore will instantly know what that term means, but in this chapter Wachhorst laments in great detail the lack of vision people in our society exhibit, and it's causes. Ask yourself this: how many people do you know, personally, that appreciate anything beyond normal everyday occurances, beyond the mundane, beyond the simple utility of everyday life and what is on television tonight, and if you are like me you will be able to think of perhaps one or two people only. This is a topic that Wachhorst discusses extensively and he writes that we need to have a sense of wonder, and the need to explore, and the craving for personal transcendence at the leading edge of evolution, in order to thrive as a species.

In this book you will read about the lives of several visionary people, and I think the tribute to Carl Sagan was the best anyone could ever write about another person. This volume is a jewel that is rarely encountered in the literary world, a joy to read.

Wyn Wachhorst has written some beautiful essays with the core theme of spaceflight and has collected them in his book The Dream Of Spaceflight. The essays aren't perfect. Wachhorst often takes disparate insights from others and tries to connect them, when leaving them to contrast with each other would have been fine. He is critical of the postmodern [which is fine by me], but he often uses terms in fuzzy and metaphorical ways reminiscent of many postmodern authors. But ultimately the purpose of any good essay is to get the reader to think and Wachhorst succeeded with this reader admirably. The deep and wonderful insights in the essays [e.g. The whole person must have both the humility to nurture the Earth and the pride to go to Mars.] come often enough to recommend the book with a four star rating.