L Books

Stop Smoking and Chewing Tobacco for LIFE CHANGES
David L. Johnson, Ph.D. & Carole A. Johnson, I.D.
Infinity Publishing.com, Haverford, PA (Paperback)
Copyright December, 2000, 206 pages

LIFE CHANGES by David L. Johnson, Ph.D. & Carole A. Johnson is a book
anyone addicted to tobacco will wish they had found it years ago. As a motivational speaker that stresses results, I was happy to see that Life Changes had a similar orientation. The authors use a number of powerful techniques to help a person beat tobacco addiction. Techniques and strategies that have proven to help people make personal changes with affirmations, reasonable goals, daily plans to achieve them, visualization, relaxation, and appropriately stated aversive and positive suggestions.
All of the more than 120 techniques and strategies put together form a supportive, personal framework that empowers one to focus on short-term, then life-long results.
The key principles and skills provide more ways to use setbacks, when necessary,
to learn more about ourselves and enable us to use them to bounce back quickly
with less fear of relapse.

Life Changes uses a self-instructional, self-paced approach that anyone can use,
with an emphasis on taking personal responsibility to learn the skills you need.
You can start at any point in the book, and implement the steps in the order you
feel most confident with. I love how the book relies on the reader to be imaginative
and use their creativity to apply the program to daily life and adapt the skills to
their goal of beating tobacco for life.


Life Changes is a self-instructional, self-paced program that works in proportion
to the time and attention you give to learning how to use the program skills daily.
You may have tried to beat tobacco many times, but this time buy a book to use
that builds on what you know for life changes. I highly recommend it!

Edward W. Smith
Author, Sixty Seconds To Success
ISBN 0-9754164-0-5
www.brightmoment.com

In our modern-day addictive culture, it is no small wonder that the quick-fix approaches to stopping tobacco use are so often ineffective. Typically, these approaches are reflective of the instant gratification orientation of our society. People pay big money for patches, pills, programs and purges, while expecting an intractable addiction that may have taken a lifetime to develop to just suddenly go away. For those who have come to understand that ending tobacco addiction is not like having results served like fast-food, there is a powerful option that offers a high predictability of success.

Stop Smoking and Chewing Tobacco for LIFE CHANGES, by David L. Johnson, Ph.D., and Carole A. Johnson, ID, is the definitive manual for those who truly wish to recover from their tobacco addictions. Written with candor, erudition and wit, the book takes the smoker (chewer, or dipper) by the hand and authoritatively walks him or her through a comprehensive but doable process that not only fleeces the person of a life-threatening habit - but builds in life enhancement skills that surpass any rewards they may have perceived in their tobacco use.

The 206 page quality paperback pursues a step-by-step process that begins with an orientation to the program, including a convincing review of current knowledge pertaining to the health and economic consequences of tobacco use that should strip away every last vestige of motivation for tobacco use in any sane person. We then find preparations for stopping use which cover every aspect of an individual's lifestyle that supports use and that might undermine the stopping process. Here, and throughout the book, the Johnsons have included worksheets that facilitate insight, individualized understanding of the process, and personalized application of the program to ensure success. The comprehensiveness of their approach is also found in their explanation of every strategic option that can be included in a person's individualized program, including the responsible and effective integration of nicotine-replacement products like patches, gums, inhalers, and other cessation pharmaceuticals that are less effective when used alone.

Once understanding, confidence and a sense of competence have been established in the reader, the book moves into program strategies involving exercises that include powerful hypnotic imagery to undermine attraction for tobacco products and replace destructive behaviors with life-enhancing ones. Indeed, just reading the exercises - without taping and playing them in a relaxation/induction process - is enough to sicken the reader against the use of tobacco products for life! However, it is recommended that the reader individualize the exercises, as specified, and follow through with the authors' expert instructions. Incidentally, without going into detail regarding current research, the design of the exercises - including content and strategies - reveals a sophisticated understanding on the part of the authors with regard to subconscious learning processes and the power such processes can have on behavior change.

Finally, knowledge, process, and competence are blended into a creative integration that serves to develop a lifestyle that leaves no openings for a return to tobacco-using behavior. This leaving-no-stone-unturned approach to tobacco cessation impresses me as the most comprehensive and reliable option available.

Throughout, self-defeating thinking patterns are broken down and replaced with positive, life-enhancing ones in a process that makes this book a hallmark in the annals of stop-smoking strategies: it takes a total lifestyle approach to the problem. This total lifestyle approach demonstrates the Johnsons' understanding of what is necessary to tackling tobacco addiction in the way a surgeon understands the approach to cutting away a cancer - every part of the threatening tumor (thinking/feeling/behavior) must be removed or the life-threatening condition will spring anew and attack with a vengeance.

Unlike the less predictable, quick-fix, approaches to tobacco cessation, the Johnsons' Stop Smoking and Chewing Tobacco for LIFE CHANGES offers lifestyle-oriented strategies that address the unique needs of every user in a warm and readable format that offers the best of what's out there. Unlike other approaches that require a full commitment before purchase, this book has such powerful introductory content that I would recommend it to those who are only thinking of stopping their tobacco use. At a modest $19.95 retail (US), I cannot suggest a more economic, powerfully effective, approach to stopping nicotine addiction and saving lives.

Granville Angell, EdS, LPC, NCC
Licensed Professional Counselor
Author of The God-Shaped Hole

Stop Smoking and Chewing Tobacco for Life Changes
By David & Carol Johnson
Reviewed by Billie A Williams
ISBN # 0-7414-0481-8
2001 (206 Pages)

Stop Smoking and Chewing Tobacco for Life Changes is more than just a healthy read. It is an activity book that will take you step by step through some very positive life style changes that can help you cease to use tobacco products.
With the Johnson's help you identify the problem situations where you would use tobacco. Then you develop specific plans for each situation so that you can visualize yourself dealing positively with the situation. By mentally rehearsing the plan, success is more likely. They stress that you should reward yourself when you do well, but also to not be afraid to modify your plans when necessary.
Dr Johnson addresses the principles you need to adapt to focus on your plan for action; these include Confidence, competence, commitment and creativity which he calls "4-Cing the future". Key principles in Life Changes makes it a book of crucial strategies that provide effective cessation tools with skill-based exercises, scripts, options and resources while also outlining specific activities that can you can use to target issues you define, and strategies you design to cope with the issues. Johnson then provides reinforcement of those actions through his scripts and scripts you record to personalize the program.
Dr Johnson inspires and re-enforces with his poetry and quotes from other sources. Stress relief through laughing, re-focusing, relaxation and affirmations provide a failsafe for those wishing to cease the habits of tobacco use. Johnson also touches on the use of hypnosis as an aid in his program. He defines the use of hypnosis by first defining the term as he sees it: hypnosis spontaneously occurs when we relax, focus attention, and engage in imaginative activity.
Then he walks the reader through some guided imagery that helps to focus attention on positive images. The imaginative/creativity exercises that follow involves exercises with word association, squiggles and shapes you turn into "stuff", headlines that are laughable, and other humorous one-liners.
The Johnson's never say they are the only or the best solution. They say *you* are the only solution; *you* are the best solution to cessation of tobacco use.
The back of the book is a veritable tome of resource places to further your education and find additional help. There are even worksheets to develop a maintenance program for yourself and one in the event that you slip.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a way to end the habit of tobacco use. Other uses of the program's strategies Could include weight control, stress management, and any one going through any life stresses, losses, or who has needs for more stability, resolve, and confidence.

"I was very ready to quit smoking many times in my life. When I began to read Stop Smoking and Chewing Tobacco for LIFE CHANGES, I realized I was reading something very new and different! This book appeals to anyone who needs a fresh approach to "just quitting" Through the use of LIFE CHANGES, I was able to really look at my motives and emotional needs surrounding smoking. The program put me on a path filled with information and humor which I could understand and build upon, using my own creativity. I was amazed at how enjoyable it was to participate in the planning and management of my own program. You will find everything in this book you need to know to finally end this "awful" dependency!"

I have been studying tobacco addiction and helping patients quit for over 25 years...Cessation has every thing to do with packing the brain with reasons to quit and techniques to help accomplish the goal. Each person has to decide which reasons apply personally. LIFE CHANGES is packed full of reasons to quit and exercises to help you take control of your life back from tobacco. It exposes tobacco not as a friend that settles you down and keeps weight off, but an enemy that robs you of over a decade of what should be golden years. I like this book and whole-heartedly recommend it to my patients. Congratulations to David and Carole Johnson! Through their book they will save and touch more lives than they will ever know. This book helps develop tools that, if achieved, will be far more powerful forces to combat tobacco addiction than any patch or gum could be.

What a great resource. The stories recited in the book are poignant, humorous, and best of all, real. As a director of administrative support services I'm always looking for creative ways to get a point across. Stories work; these stories and the follow-up activities and presentation tips work.

My organization faces two challenges on a daily basis. First, what is the most efficient and effective way to collect, organize, manage and disseminate mountains of information? Second, how do we continue to streamline and simplify our administrative processes to provide more value-added service to our constituents?

The resources Lori and Mary provide through this text have enabled me to communicate more effectively with my staff during our planning and design sessions. The moral of these stories help us keep focused on the expectations and perceptions of our constituent base.

It's a book to be kept on your desk and referred to many times.

I find that I hear myself telling the same stories over and over again to colleagues when trying to make a point. On the one hand, this is good for sending a consistent message. On the other hand, I get tired of hearing the same thing, and need to make my points in new ways.

As the global marketing research manager for Invista (the world's largest fibers company with consumer and b2b brands such as Lycra(r) and Stainmaster(r)), I need to convert data to meaning that helps our leadership to make decisions. That is what the stories in Stories Trainers Tell do for me. When our managers understand the opportunities that stories point out in the research, they are better able to act with confidence and communicate with clarity.

While I contributed to the book, I also use what it offers to make me a better communicator. I can communicate the meaning I see in data more effectively when I have a story to help me out.

I recommend that you check out the book for yourself to learn how you can upgrade your thinking and practice no matter what role you are in.

I am a Director of Training for a fortune 500 company. Quarterly, I look for new resources that my 40 designers and trainers can use when developing and delivering material to our employees and agents. This book was the gem I've been looking for. Story telling is the most powerful thing a trainer can give their students - because the stories last in the mind forever when the technical details disappear. This book details the how, the what, the when, the where, and the why. Recently I bought a copy for each one of my staff - and the incredible results are already coming in!!! Thanks for my best new resource of the year!

To be successful as a project management consultant, it is important to be able to influence people to move in the direction in which they need to go (not always the direction in which they would like to go). The thing about using stories to influence is that people love stories and will listen even if they are resisting other management methods. This book has wonderful, rich content and is very easy to use. The commitment of the authors to help readers succeed is demonstrated by the sayitwithastory web site and newsletter. I am very pleased this terrific resource is available. [By the way, these stories work on family members also!]

Storytelling has been used to convey history and lessons for centuries. Before newspapers came on the scene, story tellers would travel from village to village telling stories to share the news of what was happening in other communities and the world at large...at least as large as it was back then. One could argue that storytelling has become almost a lost art as our communication mode has shifted more to content, facts, polices and procedures. In the corporate world, leaders and managers-and training professionals-have attempted to communicate without really reaching people "inside," where messages can resonate with a mental or emotional picture. It's that inner connection that has the potential of changing behavior and making a difference. To make that connection, communicators need to engage people's minds and hearts to help them "get" the message.

So here's a book on the stories trainers tell. Big book, thick. Whew! That's a lot of fluffy, touchy-feely soft stuff! That first impression will disintegrate as you open this wonderful resource. Sure, there's a treasure chest of stories, mostly from experienced trainers and professional speakers who use them regularly to build the effectiveness of their work. If this book were merely a collection of all those stories, it would be a helpful reference...sort of a Chicken Soup for the Trainer's Bookshelf. Fortunately, the authors have a deeper understanding of what communicators need, so they created an incredible tool kit for trainers, speakers, executives, managers, coaches, parents-the list goes on.

Each of the stories is presented with tips on how to use it, questions to enrich the telling, key point options, and follow-up activities. The stories-short, not long-are set apart in the text by the use of helpful shading. So, now we have more value than just a catalog of stories. But, wait! There's more. The book includes an explanation of different kinds of stories, when and how they can be used, with a cross-reference to the 55 stories. Want even more value? The stories are gathered into chapters that organize the resources for easier access: Appreciating Differences, Communications and Feedback, Customer Service, Influence and Motivation, Leadership, Living Our Values, Performance and Coaching, Problem Solving, Teamwork and Collaboration, and Training Fundamentals.

Are you sensing why I'm enthusiastic about this book? We're not done! I've only told you about what's in the back of the book! "Stories Trainers Tell" begins with an invaluable section on the why and how of using stories to enhance and enrich communication. Page after page of tips and insight educates and inspires the reader, deepening understanding to raise the level of professionalism and effectiveness in communication.

The CD-ROM? Pop this tool into your computer and enjoy an MP3 format delivery of audio dramatizations of the stories in the book. Readers can now learn as listeners also, and most of the recordings are authorized for replay to audiences. Playing a recording of someone else telling a story, then facilitating the interpretation and application of what was heard offers a new dimension to the richness of communication, thought stimulation, and movement to action.

Then there's the reading list and the index. So much! You'll be captivated with a cover-to-cover read, entranced by the stories yourself. This book will sit prominently on your shelf as a primary resource for years to come. I half-apologize for the long review, but this book deserves the accolades.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking to learn good old C. And wow, look at how cheap it is! This book teaches EVERYTHING you will need to know. It even goes into a little C++ intro. But if I were you (or if I could go back) I would skip learning C all together - C++ makes C obsolete.

I love this book. Everything is made so clear and easy to understand even though the book moves at a fast pace and is very specific and thorough. If somebody told me they wanted to start learning C I'ld tell them to get a new revision of this book. The book features helpful does and don'ts that seem to read your mind and present to you the answers to your questions. 5/5 hands down. I'm going to add "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days" to my shelf because I have strong faith in SAMS. Also don't be intimidated by C and buy a book that includes "beginner" in the title because they won't be advanced enough for any inteligent human. Buy thick books and read those.

This book gives you the very best learners guide and reference book I've ever seen.

This book has captured the perfect method to teach someone the C programming language. Many beginner books are very fluffy, others much to advanced. This book explains everything you need to know in a very simple, and extremely thorough manner. An excellect purchase.

This is the defunct standard for learning C in the quickest amount of time possible.

If you have any previous programming experience you'll find that you'll learn it even quicker. I read the book in 3 days and was already writing programs equivalent to what I was doing in Pascal only 3 days prior.

Great book for getting outdoors. Taken 4 trails since the book arrived and the author described the trails perfectly. Buy the book and take a hike taday. Recommended!

Great book! Well written and accurate descriptions of the trails. Highly recommended for anyone looking to hike in the Sacramento valley - even those with kids and/or pets.

Any who would explore the valleys or mountains of California's state capital region must have TOP TRAILS SACRAMENTO: MUST-DO HIKES FOR EVERYONE in their collection. It covers opportunities both urban and rural and joins others in the 'must do' trips series, comes from a Sacramento resident and hiker, and reveals both major routes and lesser-known regions. With its trail feature charts documenting wildlife, scenic vistas and trails and its details on weekend getaways and maps, TOP TRAILS SACRAMENTO offers up key getaways for all and is a top pick for any California library, especially those closer to Sacramento.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The details in this book helped me find some hidden natural gems just an hour or so from my home in the busy suburbs, and provided much interesting historical, geological and biological background to enrich the experience. Clear directions and trail descriptions made planning and navigating much easier. The amateur photos that I took on these hikes are like postcards - mountains, hills, streams, flowers, and incredible trees. The natural beauty and grandeur that I encountered on these hikes got me through some troubled times, and provided soothing reminders that nature's beautiful rhythms still go on despite our best efforts to interfere with them. I'm giving this book as a gift to all my central CA nature-loving friends.

I've used many hiking books over the years, but Steve Evans' Top Trails Sacramento is by far the most user friendly. The book gives you good directions to each trailhead and a realisitic assessment of difficulty. Best of all, you feel like you have the author along with you, pointing out interesting tidbits and things to watch for along the way. The maps and trail directions are also easy to follow.

This very substantial (over 1242 pages) book is a treasure trove of information given all of the current attention (including Supreme Court decisions) being devoted to Gitmo detainees and issues of possible torture of alleged terroist detainees. The book consists for the most part of government memos and reports that were written to authorize and document coercive interrogation and torture in Gitmo, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraid among other locales.

Some 28 memos are included in their entirety that cover the period from Sept. 25, 2001 into 2004. A number of reports are reproduced as well, written by the Bar of the City of New York, The American Bar Ass'n, former defense secretary Schesllinger's report on DoD detention operations, some briefing papers, DoD responses to AP reports, and the Fay/Jones report on Abu Ghraib. There simply is nothing like having the original documents at your fingertips. The book also includes a list of pertinent documents that at the time of publication had not been publicly released; most if not all of these are now available on the internet (e.g., the key John Yoo March 14, 2003 memo).

There are also helpful introductions (including a short one by Anthony Lewis of the NYT); a list of interrogation techniques; recommended readings; a listing of torture related laws and conventions; biographical sketches of the key players (except David Addington for some reason); a timeline; and some cases relevant to the incidence of torture. Also included is an afterword with some additional documents which had been released just as the book was going to press. The book nicely complements any of the current volumes out on this issue, such as Goldsmith's "The Terror Presidency" (also reviewed on Amazon). An indispensable resource in this important area.

This is an excellent resource for any serious scholar or researcher dealing with the laws of war, the Iraq War or torture issues. It is a broad compilation of original source material, mostly post 9/11; with its depth (over 1200 pages), it may be too much for the casual reader (if so, try Torture and Truth, by Mark Danner), but for serious research, it is essential.

Michael J. Brady, PhD (international law)
Tucson, Arizona

Mostly a collection of memos. This book is only a record to let us know what some of the hub bub is all about. Let us not sweep this under the rug. This is a first step in our examination of what we are and what we may become if each citizen doesn't accept responsibility and act on what is rapidly becoming a standard operating proceedure. Does torture acheive better information, Or blind us to truth? The same amount of time spent in a search for evidence would give results. Evidence gained by torturing is an illusion that has caused the torturer to become a goon. Calling torture by some other name does not change its effect. Torture destroys its victims and demoralizes its perpetrators. For those who are pleased to dominate it gives dominance. Torture does not give facts because it is not physical evidence. The veracity of uncovered facts can not be observed, but must be further tested. Torture can destroy any resistance in the one tortured and give the dominator feelings of the power of god. The torturer is loosing the battle without physical evidence. Torturing only gives the feelings of power.
This book is the begining of the examination of official torture and might allow some of us to reconfirm that torture by any name is only the act of a despot and only dispoils free citizens.

THE TORTURE PAPERS contains 1,242 eye-popping pages of documents--memos, legal opinions, reports, interrogation transcripts, etc.--gathered and conveniently ordered in one handy volume. The government documents show, among other things, that what happened at Abu Ghraib was not the result of a few bad apples on the nightshift, as the Pentagon has maintained, but was a result of the Bush administration's own operational rationale (i.e., by direction of the civilians installed by Bush/Cheney at the Pentagon and Justice Department). The reasoning behind both the war and the manner in which it was conducted is all laid out in amazing detail in the official documents. They themselves have provided the "smoking gun." It's all here folks, in their own words, if you take the time to read it. Unfortunately, even Democrats in Congress don't take the time, which is shamefully obvious in the congressional hearings.

Despite the extensive documentary evidence collected in this book, the Bush administration maintains that "we don't torture." Journalists don't seem to be able to cut through to the main issue, rarely--if ever--confronting Bush with the most damning documents. Moreover, journalists pose inadequate questions that fail to clarify. Just yesterday I watched Larry King interviewing Dick Cheney. Larry King brought up the subject of torture. Cheney claimed that they don't torture. Larry pressed Cheney a little and Cheney admitted that they use certain techniques, but never said what those interrogation techniques were. That was that.

But philosophers such as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Ludwig Wittgenstein emphasize how different people mean vastly different things by the same words. Just because you share a word in common doesn't mean you're thinking the same thing by it. To sort out controversies, it's imperative that key terms be clarified. What does torture mean? To clarify the issue of whether we torture or not, journalists first need to establish what torture is. When Bush or Cheney claim that they don't use torture, the journalist must ask them what their working DEFINITION is: How do they define torture? There is probably a vast difference between what they mean by torture and what most Americans consider to be torture. The next step a journalist/interviewer must take is to ask whether specific acts constitute torture. Bush people might refuse to answer, saying that they don't comment about specific techniques, but it is in itself significant when they refuse to acknowledge that a specific technique, such as waterboarding or beatings, constitutes torture. Whenever SPECIFIC techniques are discussed, it makes them uncomfortable, which is exactly what the journalists should strive for on this topic.

It is often said that the President and his stooges have effectively "redefined" torture, or changed the law. Actually, what they did is REINTERPRET the law, which is vague in determining what torture is. As the documents in the book show, Bush's lawyers claim that only actions that result in organ failure or death constitute torture. If that is your definition, then the pulling out of fingernails is not torture. Thus, by simply reinterpreting the term, they can technically deny that they employ torture, but all the while they can be putting heads underwater and pulling out fingernails. The fact that the law can be so easily reinterpreted points to a severe shortcoming in the law itself, in how it is written (too much ambiguity). In any case, journalists must do a better job of establishing what the administration's working definitions of key terms are. If the Press simply did that, as well as use more documentary evidence (such as the plethora found in this book), so much more light, so much less confusion, obfuscation, and ambiguity, would result, taking the national dialogue up to a whole different level. Until then, we have books such as THE TOTURE PAPERS that gather the primary evidence on how the Bush administration has operated. Until the law is changed and made clearer in how it defines torture, Civil Rights lawyers will have an uphill battle fighting on this front. There's plenty of grounds for impeachment, though. It's a shame, in my opinion, that the Dems did not choose to bring Bush or Cheney to justice. Their actions NOW STAND AS PRECEDENT! But thanks to their own documents, at least history will record the amorality of the Bush administration in damning detail.

UPDATE: On 10/17/07, at a White House press conference, a journalist asked President Bush how he defined torture, a straightforward question. Bush's response? His definition, Bush said, was the same as the legal definition. Then he called on another journalist, running away from the question. Bush's answer was a clever, if cynical, dodge, since the ambiguity resides in how Bush's laywers INTERPRET the legal definition of torture. The definition of torture in the U.S. Code is intentionally vague, opening the way for the Bush administration's re-interpretation of the term. How Bush and his legal team interpret torture is found in Memo 14, "Standards of Conduct for Interrogation" (August 1, 2002), on page 172 of THE TORTURE PAPERS. 18 U.S.C, Sections 2340-2340A, states that for an act to constitute torture it must cause "severe physical or mental pain or suffering." But the law, at least this section of it, doesn't define "severe" or specify what acts do (or don't) constitute torture. The Bush people pounce on this vagueness and define "severe pain" by turning to another area of the law: statutes governing health care benefits which define what constitutes an "emergency medical condition for the purpose of providing health benefits." This area of the law defines "severe pain" as something that places the "health of the individual . . . (i) in serious jeopardy" or causes "(ii) serious impairment to bodily functions, or (iii) serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part." So they apply this definition to their interpretation of torture and conclude that for an interrogation technique to constitute torture, it "must rise to the level of death, organ failure, or the permanent impairment of a significant body function." (They go on to similarly interpret "severe mental pain or suffering.") Using this perverse definition of torture, a definition that takes "severe" to mean organ failure and/or death, interrogation techniques that have traditionally been considered torture such as the pulling out of nails or the temporary cutting off of the air supply to a person's lungs are no longer considered torture. Moreover, the memo observes that "certain acts may be cruel, inhuman, or degrading, but still not produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to fall within Section 2340A's proscription against torture." But their definition of torture sanctions virtually all that transpired at Abu Ghraib. Yet they blamed it all on just a "few bad apples." (What a demonic lie!) When Bush claims that he defines torture the way the law defines it, he leaves unsaid how he interprets the legal definition. The old adage is true: the devil lies in the details, a fact the Bush team exploits to the hilt. Instead of asking Bush how he defines torture, probably a better way is to ask Bush and his goons to clarify how they define the phrase "severe pain" in the law. The interviewer can even anticipate the answer by directly citing what I cited above.

This comprehensive and current compilation makes clear that our government has sanctioned practices not only outlawed by international conventions against torture, to which we are signatories, but which discracefully echo the techniques of tyrants through the ages. The documentation will make it impossible for Americans to claim that they didn't know what is being done in our name. This work should be required reading for every citizen as our nation confronts an official policy that claims our only defense against terrorism is our own use of teror and torture.

This surprisingly neutral book compares the enormous variety of religious beliefs throughout history, with particular attention paid to Christianity. While not an in-depth text, it will serve as an introduction to critically examining the development and spread of religion.

Christians should definitely read his chapter on Christianity; Mencken considers the 1611 King James Version to be one of the most beautiful books ever written.

While his chapter hypothesizing the origins of religion is rather speculative, any such hypothesis is bound to be - at the very least it will pique your interest in the subject. The chapter on the variety of religions is particularly interesting, as it attempts to show how the same general ideas were molded into vastly different beliefs; in particular, the section on the various conceptions of heaven(s) and hell(s) will definitely be engrossing to anyone.

Pleasant, easy to read, and thorough overview of religion from the beginning of humanity, with an emphasis on Christianity, from the position of an atheist.

From the preface: "My book is mainly factual. Its purpose is simply to get together, in handy and I hope readable form, the material data about the embryology, anatomy, and physiology of theology, with an occasional glance at its pathology....Religion was invented by man just as agriculture and the wheel were invented by man, and there is absolutely nothing in it to justify the belief that its inventors had the aid of higher powers, whether on this earth or elsewhere....There is no purpose here to shake the faithful, for I am completely free of the messianic itch..."

Chapter I "Its Nature and Origin" - Mencken describes his view of how early priests came into being in prehistoric society: "One Spring there came great rains in the valley and on their heels a flood of melting snow...One night the flood rolled into the lowermost cave, cut off the occupants, and drowned a mother and her child...The rising water to them seemed like a living thing...One fellow steps boldly forth...He goes close to the edge and bombards his enemy with stones...Growing bolder, he stalks into the water and belabors it with his club...the next morning the flood begins to recede...This first priest could accomplish something that other men were incapable of...What more natural than to give thanks?...True religion was born at that moment...He took on the aloof, philosophical air of a dermatologist contemplating a rash: he learned how to avoid making promises and yet hold the confidence of his customers... He gave some thought to the form and content of his first incantations, and thereby invented the first ritual...The gift of blarney went with the sacerdotal office, in the early days as now...the new trade of priesthood had attractions that were plainly visible to any bright and ambitious young man...When he let it be known that there were certain things, done by the people, that would gratify the gods and insure their aid, these things began to be regarded as virtuous, upright, moral. When he announced that other things were frowned upon, they straightaway became sins...The priest found himself a law-giver...Did the fires rage and the sky remain dry? Then it was because the faithful had forgotten their plain duties...It was not the priest's fault...calamities were plentiful in those days, as they are now. They remain the most potent weapons in the armamentarium of the priest...Theologians, as a class, are practical men. Immortality, as they preach it in the modern world, is but little more than a handy device for giving force and effect to their system of transcendental jurisprudence: what it amounts to is simply a threat that the contumacious will not be able to escape them by dying...I am myself a theologian of considerable gifts, and yet I can no more imagine immortality than I can imagine the Void which existed before matter took form. Neither, I suspect, can the Pope."

Chapter II "Its Evolution," continues as an academic treatise, but sprinkled liberally with condescending and clever phraseology: About creation myths: "In no department of theology is there a vaster accumulation of amusing rubbish." About afterlife: "Even in India, the very gonad of theology..." About contradictions in the Bible: "The collection of tracts called the New Testament is so full of inconsistencies and other absurdities that even children in Sunday School notice them."

Chapter III "Its Varieties" is a study of comparative religions. This is a well-done academic piece with fewer "Mencke-isms."

Chapter IV "Its Christian Form" is a beautifully written history of Christianity, highly complimentary of the Old Testament as poetry and Literature, and is the best chapter in the book. He reviews the well-accepted J, E, D, & P authorship of the Torah, with brief mention of how it was compiled. (for more info on this, read "Who Wrote the Bible," by Friedman). This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. According to the bibliography, he gets much of his factual material from James Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.

Chapter V "Its State Today," resumes "Menckeisms," such as, "The church as an organization has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions."

I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining and informative book and highly recommend it. For a different approach to the same subject, I recommend Atran's book, "In Gods We Trust."

H. L. Mencken was a rare man indeed. He was a hard headed skeptic of the theological arts, but took an intense, scholarly interest in it, and it was a boon to the universe of thoughtful men when he decided to report back to them on what he found there. The book he wrote will stand for a long while as the best of its kind--at once dispassionate and informative, with more than a little of his trademark wit thrown about with an undisguised glee. His enthusiasm for his subject bubbles out all over the place.

The book begins with an imaginary story of how religion must have gotten started among the first primitive men. It is a story well told, and reveals what Mencken imagines is at the root of men's heart much of the time--a fear of the unknown, and an understandable aspiration to master that fear by some means. Then, very early on, the con men step in to utilize the fear for their own ends--power and cash. To successfully create a job for himself, he proceeds to invent embellishments unintelligible to the poor saps, and rituals that only the initiated, such as himself, can perform.

The book continues with some comparative religion, basing most of it on what the Romans sneered at, that the Greeks made dramas about, what the Jews borrowed from the Babylonians, and what the Asiatics actually first dreamed up. He finds in all of this the roots of Christianity, and especially the stuff that Christ had never thought of, which the theologians later added for the most practical of reasons.

His account of the early church and the evolution of the bibles is gratifying in its scholarship and clarity of description. He makes the ancient theological quarrels come to life, imparting an understanding that is a valuable addition to any freethinker's equipment. Occasionally, the real Mencken peeks through, enlivening and enlightening as he goes.

The best part of the book, though, is when he shows how religion is inadequate for the job, and is in a full retreat before the onslaught of science and rational methods, leaving the truly civilized man with " a way of facing the impenetrable dark that must engulf him in the end, as it engulfs the birds of the air and the protozoa in the sea ooze....not perhaps with complete serenity, but at least with dignity, calm, a gallant spirit."

If you're used to the snappy quotables we've (all?) come to expect from Mencken and love, you may be somewhat disappointed. "Treatise..." contains more carefully fleshed out analysis and argument than his sociocultural criticism.

In this mode, without so much of the caustic wit, his writing style actually doesn't impress quite as much. But, to make up for it, his quality of argument and inventiveness is surprisingly rich. I'd always considered Mencken to be quite a philosopher, as well as a snappy come-backer. Here, he proves it: coming up with some quite brilliant hypotheticals about the origin of religion in early man, especially. And his re-telling of the concise history of Religion shows that he has a knowledge of considerable breadth. There are a few very dramatic turns of phrase here (the fun stuff), some awkward delivery, but a lot of interesting subject matter.

In this sardonic, blasphemous and sometimes ferociously cynical pamphlet, H.L. Mencken castigates the irrationality and incredibility of all religions, e.g. there are 175.000 discrepancies in the manuscripts of the Christian New Testament.
But he considers religion rightly as one of ( for him) the greatest inventions of all times, giving the clergy enormous economical (all the temples became extremely rich) and political power. For Mencken, their power comes from the fear of Hell. The God of love that they preach invariably turns out to be a God of harsh and arbitrary penalties and brutalities. Religion is not only cruel (human sacrifices), but also a source of enormous human misery: 'Is a Catholic bishop a good citizen, when he commands, on penalty of Hell, that poor and miserable women convert themselves into mere brood sows?'(p. 270)
'The priest is the most immoral of men.' (p. 271)
His major targets are Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
'Calvin was the true father of Puritanism, which is to say, of the worst obscenity of Western Civilization.' (p. 245) His God is an 'appalling monster'. (p. 272)
The Churches are well aware that science is their natural enemy. Therefore, they try to control education. They are always on the defensive (Galileo, Darwin) and they are opposed to all attempts of rational thinking. For Mencken, religious education is the same as organized ignorance.
He lambasts those who defend religion for 'practical' reasons: 'the fact that threats of Hell have their social uses is ... simply an argument against the human race!' (p. 268)
However, H.L. Mencken has a dark side: 'the democratic pestilence'. Like Plato, he was disgusted with the masses which were a source of a cancerous proliferation of demagogy. More, 'the reigning theologians heated up the mob against the enlightened minority.' (p. 255)
It shows his deep pessimism: the masses could not be educated and the mighty priests kept them in an irrational darkness.
This is an important flaw in his reasoning and it turned out to be a false prophesy. In many democratic countries, the religious right is on the defensive and is losing (lost) important battles.
This treatise is one of the most violent pamphlets I ever read: a Homerian battle of the enlightened one against the powerful caste of the priests.
A must read.

This was actually my first experience with Doris Lessing, tho I've heard of her for years. Her picture of the So. African experience was quite revealing but I got a little tired of the analysis of those who joined the communist movement. It seems that though she worked as an activist, she never really
'bought' the doctrine, to her credit. But she seems to have a need to over analyse the motives. It seems to me that most of the people were just trying to improve the social ills of the time and were taken in by the communist rhetoric. The writing was good enough to keep me reading even though I wasn't too happy with the her bohemian attitude; abandoning her children, taking successive lovers.... I respect her intellect but not her morals.
I am not inclined to look for the second installment.

Doris Lessing has led such an interesting life, and writing a diary all the time. She writes of a time completely foreign to me, living a history of the changes in Southern Afica. I find her autobiography a great read, and prefer it to her novels. Interesting and moving, and explains much about her!

This is a hard-hitting piece of autobiography. Lessing looks at her parents and their world of colonial mastery from the point of view of her younger, increasingly disenchanted self. Lessing was gathering steam in those years, to emerge as one of the prominent novelists of the post-war era. In this, the first of a two-volume autobiography, she is beginning to grow critical of her parents, colonialism, white supremacy, men - her husband in particular - and just beginning to flirt for a short time with the great experiment in group-think of the period known as Communism. She falls for it for a time, but not for long. It will take her a while, but she finally emerges along with George Orwell as the most articulate critic of this mindless, toxic form of self-imposed mental slavery. She writes of her fellow-traveling, communist-sympathizing friends as silly people, which strikes me as as good a way to think of them as any. Lessing provides, along with her political autobiography, a lovely evocation of Africa, the landscape and people, about whom she wrote as a young novelist and to whom she has continued to refer throughout her long and continuing career as a writer.

This is a candid autobiography with as main themes love, sex (good sex, as Doris Lessing calls it, is a right for everybody) and politics in South-Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) ruled by a blank minority.
It is a gripping, moving and realistic picture, wherein the author tries to find answers to personal and more general human questions: why was she so outspoken rebellious and, on the contrary, so strictly loyal to the communist movement?
Why are people fighting relentlessly each other, and on the other hand, striving for happiness?
Are the people of her generation all children of World War I? Why was her father a freemason?

This book is written like an irresistible waterfall. Not to be missed.

Under My Skin

Doris Lessing's autobiography traces her political and emotional development from her earliest childhood memories to her growing, overwhelming, disenchantment with provincial (as she saw it) small town life. "Small town" life for her was pre-WWII Salisbury in the (then) British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Salisbury was a complacent capital city of 10,000 white settlers in a country the size of Spain.
Lessing is quick to debunk the myth of the prosperous, close knit, white farming community - poverty was a real fact of life both for blacks and whites. Her most vivid childhood memories are of escaping from the family home and off into the limitless veld. The emptiness of the veld parallels her youthful emptiness and her growing convictions that the communist party represents a real hope for the world.
The book, a masterpiece of autobiographical writing, is brutally honest in parts and wilfully obscure in others. Some of her emotional mistakes are hardly glanced at (leaving her first two children, for example) but others (the joys of being part of a fast, hard drinking sect, embracing radical politics) are wonderfully engaging. Reading her thoughts you could be forgiven for thinking that the "party" was the only opposition to conservative white rule in Salisbury. This is what makes her book so appealing, her supreme skill as a novelist allowing us to enter the heady world of rushed meetings, leftist newspaper deliveries, drinks on the sports club verandah and back in time to find the cook still waiting to prepare supper. Naturally it couldn't last and Lessing is far too intelligent to think that that is all there is to life. The book ends in 1949 as she arrives in London, apprehensive and hopeful in the capital city of her parents.
This is more than a `who-did-what' from a long time ago, times and dates are (probably deliberately) rarely mentioned. It is the personalities and the ideas - most of all the ideas - sliding from youthful enthusiasm to mature realism which fuse the book with life and vitality. `Under My Skin', published in 1992, is that rare thing, a candid autobiography written by a consummate novelist with skills to spare. Doris Lessing is a national treasure.

Puedo afirmar, sin ningún temor a equivocarme, que la lectura de este libro será de gran impacto en la persona que tenga el deseo de realizar un cambio positivo en su vida y quiera encontrar felicidad. Todos andamos en búsqueda de mejores condiciones de vida para nosotros y nuestros seres queridos, sin embargo a veces nos extraviamos en el camino y solo encontramos una vida de infelicidad, enfermedad, dolor, carencias económicas, etc. Louise L. Hay, autora del libro, es un testimonio viviente de que una persona puede sanar su vida, y comparte su experiencia de sufrimiento al vivir los primeros años de su existencia en una familia desintegrada en donde no estaba presente el amor ni el respeto hacia la persona y había carencias en muchos aspectos; Enfermó de cáncer siendo muy joven pero tuvo el coraje y valor suficiente para cambiar todas esas condiciones adversas y Sanar su Vida.-

El lector de este libro se enriquecerá con valiosas ideas expuestas de una manera muy clara y logrará un cambio extraordinario en su vida si decide poner en práctica lo que se le sugiere. Usted puede vivir en prosperidad, entendiéndose por ello el gozar de salud, amor, felicidad y....dinero! Mi recomendación mas sincera para usted es que lea el libro tantas veces como sea necesario hasta que los conceptos en él descritos penetren profundamente en su subconsciente y pueda aplicarlos en forma cotidiana.-

Compre este libro para un familiar y he notado que su actitud y perspectiva sobre la vida ha cambiado positivamente.

Excelente, cuando estaba pasando por momentos muy dificiles en mi vida este libro fue de gran ayuda lo he leido dos veces y las dos veces he aprendido cosas diferentes. Lo recomiendo ampliamente para las personas que buscan mejorar como personas en sus diferentes ambitos.

Compre este libro para un ser querido, despues de leerlo yo mismo. Creo que las ideas de Louise Hay son una voz positiva que ayuda a combatir los malos y aveces dolorosos pensamientos y el estres que nos puede trastornar cuando hemos perdido fe en si-mismo.

Revela el lenguaje de nuestro cuerpo y de como pensar acerca de nosotros para sanarlo.

To help you understand what kind of a person i am and to find if you can relate to me... I was recently called obscure. I prefer to call myself unique.
I absolutely loved this book. I would have to say it is one of my top 5 favorites. I've read it over and over again, I have 2 copies... one is always in my purse (just in case I need something to read!) and I have lended the other to many friends and they have loved it as well.
I love it because it has a story to fit every mood. Hope you love it too!

I can't heap enough praise on 80 percent of the stories in this collection. They were variously beautiful, touching, haunting, riveting, warming...it makes me run out of adjectives. They covered me in short story love.

The next 15 percent were excellently written but didn't enchant.

Only 5 percent made me raise my eyebrows and mutter.

Read this book. You'll feel wiser to the human condition, when you throw a party beautiful people will start conversations with you when they see it on your bookshelf, and most importantly, you'll feel wiser to the human condition.

This is one of the best collections of contemporary American fiction. Every story is top-notch, and Wolff included a few authors I'd never heard of before (such as Braverman and Dybek, two writers whose short stories I've since sought out). I was also surprised at how this collection didn't sag at all--it was strong right to the end.

The bottom line: Wolff knows how to choose a great story. This book is a keeper.

Also recommended: The Gospel of Arnie

"The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories" speaks with the intensity of liquor and fists. It lets loose on the gut of America.

Tobias Wolff, one of America's hardest hitting fiction writers, ("The Night in Question: Stories" and "In the Garden of North American Martyrs") has hammered together one of the best collections of modern fiction--far better than any individual "Best of..." collection.

If you are drawn, like me, to the intensity and disillusionment present in American literature at the turn of the century (i.e. Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald) this book may be what you have been looking for in contemporary writers. Including such staples of the contemporary cannon as Raymond Carver, Andre Dubuse, Amy Tan, Joyce Carol Oates this book packs in the best of modern short fiction and restores the genre to its former revered status.

Tobias Wollf, himself an excellent practitioner of the short story, does not include a work of his own in this wonderful collection (save a very thoughtful introduction). This is one of the most well edited collections of contemporary short stories on the market. It may be a few years old by now, but most of the "must read" writers, as well as surprisingly good lesser-knowns are included. Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus, sadly no longer contemporary in the strict sense, live on within these pages alongside excellent new voices. Two stories that really stand out for me are John L'Heureux's "Departures," a very deep and moving narrative, and Ralph Lombreglia's "Men Under Water," a beautiful alchemy of the dreams and realities of contemporary life. The selections written by Jamaica Kincaid, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O'Brien, and Denis Johnson are so well picked, they seem to capture a bit of the authors themselves, as well as a portion of their writing. Because of these atttributes, I think the Vintage Book of Contempory Short Stories is both valuable for personal collections and for use in the classroom. It does the job that all compilations are supposed to, but seldom do, accomplish. It exemplifies the current breadth and depth of this contemporary artform.

I've used this GREAT book before my last trip to the USA. It's amazing the difference it made to my english. I had several business meetings with Americans and I understood everything, I mean everything they said. That didn't happen to me before using "Waddaya say?". I also learned to use reduced forms to improve my speed. But the most important thing is the almost magical change in my understanding. A suggestion is to follow carefully the instructions, then listen each conversation an repeat it many times. The book is also great source of expressions and uses, not just reduced forms. A must have ! Thank you Nina !!!!!

My students told me that they can finally understand spoken English. This is the best listening book for that. One student said, "It's like magic. I couldn't understand people speaking English last year, and now I can."

This is an excellent book - tape for those who want to learn how to understand American/Canadian "everyday" language.
It is very clear in the way pronunciation is explained and the practice material is fun!

It is a good book for those who never learned how to say "what do you want to do?" in a natural way. This book shows you 20 and only 20 most common short forms. The content is well organized. But it is pricey for a book that has only 68 papges. For the most part, you may do a search and find them somewhere in the internet. But then again it is a good deal for those who do not care about the price.

I've used the First Edition of Whaddaya Say for almost twenty years. Nothing I've used to teach students to understand spoken English has ever been better. I was very pleasantly surprised to use the Second Edition, which was published in 2001, and find that all of the lessons that made listening comprehension easier for my students were included along with an additional ten lessons. The fun conversations are even better, and the tapes are really great. I didn't know tests could be useful as well as funny, but there's a wonderful test at the end of the book that was a lot of fun. I want my students to know how English is really pronounced (*wanna for "want to", *hafta for "have to", *gonna for "going to + verb", etc.). When they don't know the real pronunciations, they have a really hard time understanding spoken English.

I'm amazed by one thing in particular -- although the Second Edition of Whaddaya Say has 30% more pages and there are three cassettes now instead of two, the price hasn't gone up. I don't know why the price hasn't increased, but it seems like a great bargain to get a beautifully updated bestselling listening book for the same price as the prior version!

I don't see how anyone can really learn listening comprehension without this book.