Journals Books

The Book Club Journal is a must for anyone who belongs to a book club, is thinking about joining or organizing one, or just loves to read. It is as attractive as it is interesting, and would make a perfect gift for the holiday season.

Martha Rosen's handsome "Book Club Journal" gives wonderful ideas about how to organize a book club, invaluable suggestions about choosing books that lend themselves to excellent discussions and sources for research for discussion leaders plus an outline of how to lead that discussion. Everyone is in book clubs these days but the experience is not always as satisfying as it could be; with Ms. Rosen's book readers are likely to feel they have spent their time well--both the reading time and the discussion sessions. It is a great gift for anyone who enjoys reading...a wonderful item as a hostess gift or a stocking stuffer.

This book was an amazing compendium of the private writings of many Americans across a huge span of time. Reading each entry is delicious work: first you have to get the name, the year, an understanding of who the writer was and what the subject was. Then in your mind you go to that day and try to question things like where was the writer, were the expressions clear and true, how would this sound if this passage was actually being spoken directly to me, what did the writer look like... A wonderous packet of questions arose in my mind as I read each entry, and I tried to stretch my mind to find the truth. This is the best kind of writing, I think, for there are so many questions to ponder about it. Did the writer intend for his/her comments to be read? One never really knows, but I am grateful to the Millers for having this book published because I love to ask questions. Thank you!

This book is a collage of American diaries woven together to create an American diary. It's a work of great power.in the way each daily entry, with several different diariests, catches a sense of living in America at different times. Anyone who has kept a diary will appreciate it.

A lovely combination of a journal, beautiful illustrations, and inspirational writings. A very good buy.

Need a vacation, but can't get away? This is the book for you. Put on the tea kettle and sit back to enjoy an aesthetic journey that will delight all the senses. The poetry, quotations, and literary excerpts will transport you to the many beautiful destinations visualized in photographs, paintings and artwork. A wonderful giftbook and keepsake for all ages. A GREAT bargain!

In this book we follow Father Lee through a year spent in Rome in the seventies, teaching American students attending a Catholic University. He opens the eyes of his students, as he does his readers, to the power of art to enrich and inspire us. We follow him as he teachs his students about the works of Homer and Virgil, and we come to understand the freshness of these works written thousands of years ago. We follow him as he travels to the opera houses of Europe in pursuit of one of his passions - opera. The conversations he has with ordinary people he meets en route are powerful ruminations on theology and philosophy. A gay American couple he meets on a train, who are unable to come to terms with Church teaching on homosexuality, challenge his notions of religion and love. A performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger sparks a conversation with a German couple - innkeepers - who wrestle with Germany and the Holocaust. His thoughts on the fire bombing of Dresden I found powerful and devastating especially in view of today's world situation. His thoughts on 'that most complicated of the performing arts - opera - I found refreshing. I have known Father Lee through his wonderful books on opera, but The Book of Hours gives us a much deeper look at the world around us, and the role the arts play in that world, and in the human soul. What Father Lee reminds those of us who love the arts, is that they connect us with the divine. They draw us to what is deep inside us, and what is extraordinary outside us, for in the end the arts help us touch what is immanent and what is transcendant. A must read for those with a deep appreciation for literature, art and music.

Well known to opera lovers for his insightful commentaries during the Saturday broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, Father Owen Lee's memoir of a year teaching in Italy and travelling all over Europe to attend operas adds a remarkable depth to Father Lee's clearly multifaceted life. Combining musings about religion, faith, scholarship,music and human nature, this is a beautiful book, rich in insights and moving in many ways. Although Father Lee's faith clearly derives from his calling as a Catholic priest, his observations and insights into things spirirual and musical should not be off-putting to a person of any faith, or none at all. "I hated to turn to the last page" is quite the literary cliche, but I was genuinely sorry for this wonderful book to end. I wish there were a volume two.

This is the perfect journal for those who do not know what to write in a blank journal. The journal is full of questions like "What are your deepest dreams?" and "If there was no tomorrow, what would you do today?". The journal helps get to know yourself better. There is a hidden, special message in the journal for you to find. I'm still trying to find that special message. This journal is very creative and eye-catching with Tom Bloom's unique illustrastions. Not only can you write your thoughts in the journal, but you can sketch them as well. I recommend this book! BUY IT! It's very inspiring and very creative/unique!

This book is simply fabulous. There are dozens of books out there that try to help you examine your life, but Bill Zimmerman's is different in that asks a number of thought-provoking questions without forcing you to make grand sweeping conclusions about yourself and your life. It's entertaining and Tom Bloom's illustrations are great. You'll enjoy this book more than you could imagine.

Hey uncle mel its brandi. I heard you wrote a book so I think I have to buy it and see if good writing runs in the family. I havent seen you in years. Im married and living in florida now. I just happened to come across this looking for a law book for school so take care and tell everybody I said hello. P.S. your books better be good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really enjoyed reading this book. The suspense throughout the book kept me turning the pages- hard to put down. It brought joy as well as tears, off and on, as I read it. There were many twists but it wasn't hard to follow. This book showed the determination of a daughter, no matter what odds were against her, to keep on going, trying to make her family whole again, if it was possible. Great job, Mel Packard.

I have not read a funnier book since Bill Clinton's "My Life."

This collection of short pieces is just priceless. Each hilarious piece is a page or two long, so you can read here and there. Hilarious, sane, and educational.

I am buying this for all my friends.

Fred has topped himself with a witty vivisection of every form of modern political corretness. Fred pokes ,prods and bludgeons with a purpose, however he clearly is a man who understands that evaluating the modern condition cannot be done in a historical vacuum but must accompany honest evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of the past.

I have read quite a few books made from journals of individuals in Vietnam. Most are either dry accounts of movements or almost novelized disjointed experiences. This Book "The Bridges of Vietnam: From the Journals of a U. S. Marine Intelligence Office" Is not only chronologically organized, but also has a list of external events that took place at the same time.

With out a frame of reference it would be hard to tell if he was barging or borrowing someone else's idea of Vietnam. However in chapter Three "Internship" he covered the same territory (II Corps TZ) as I did; only he was there six months earlier. I saw his reference to the Fourth Infantry with out any reference to the armed reconnaissance First of the Tenth attached to the Fourth Infantry. I also spent some time in other locations and he does a good job of describing daily life. It looks like he left out how to do the job he does and maybe some things he did. For the most part he was dead accurate as to the people and environment of the time. He makes you feel that you are there.

This book is well worth reading and then keeping as a reference. Especially as time passed and you forget your first taste of warm "33" beer.

Fred Edwards served as an intelligence officer during the Vietnam War and visited very major ground unit from Special Forces camps and ground reconnaissance unites, to armored calvary units, and waterborne reconnaissance units. An invaluable and strongly recommended contribution to the military annals of the Viet Name conflict, Edward's The Bridges Of Vietnam: From The Journals Of A U.S. Marine Intelligence Officer is as vivid and candid memoir of the war from the perspective of a front-line intelligence officer as is available to the non-specialist general reader or military buff.

Takamura Kotaro was one of the few Japanese writers to continue publishing during the height of World War 2. He managed to do this by writing propaganda poems of the government. After the war, he found himself regretting his support for something that seemed so against his principles. This collection of poems and prose traces back his blind devotion to key moments in his childhood. Educated in France, his free form poetry smacks of French influence giving it a much lighter tone. Almost as moving as his collection of poetry about his wife, Chieko, it offers an eye opening look into one poet's remorse about his past actions.

I came across this talented poet/sculptor when I read the powerfully longing poem "To Someone [Not To Play]" p. 98 and knew that I had to have a book of his writing. I don't normally buy books and this is money well spent. I typically will borrow from the library but I had to make an exception with Takamura Kotaro! I only wish I owned a book of his and his wife's sculptures/artwork compilations!

I think e.e. cummings would have enjoyed "To Someone" a lot. I definitely find that his work is emotive, in the most creative sense imaginable. He was a Japanese sculptor, who was inspired by Auguste Rodin and worked in Paris. This book includes an incredible, insightful biography and commentary on his poems.

Chieko, his wife, suffered from schizophrenia and then later died in a sanitorium, much to his guilt. I noticed the similarities to his mother, when I read one poem [p.57 "Thinking of Mother"]. He idealized both of them, in their insecurities, martyrdom, and pure conscientiousness. His poems seemed to ask, "is a female's power wielded in ...leaving it, in leaving him?" Quite passive-aggressive.

The timeless poems, "Mountain Woods", "The Snow Has Piled White", and "Fountain of Mankind" reminded me of Robert Frost in their beautiful imagery of Mother Nature, of life as an endless experience of the seasons, both internally and externally.

"Lemon Elegy" was SO intense, you could TASTE the poem itself! The words conveyed an emotional power that could only be described as similar to the black and white, silent cinematography in "Snow Falling On Cedars". This is also one of his most famous poems and completely deserving! I will print this out and frame it, display it with a Rodin sculpture reproduction in my house, in tribute of this truly exquisite poet. Takamura Kotaro is my favorite poet of all time, after reading this wonderfully translated book that Hiroaki Sato made rich with nuance and kept authentic to the poet's character, meanings and moods. You will not regret buying this book. You will only regret not having enough copies to go around, when you want to send it out to everyone whom you share a special, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual bond with in your life.

I believe that Kotaro's experiences of guilt, grief, and frustration, even anger would be very useful for anyone whose had to cope with a chronic/debilitating illness in a family member. His wife died of TB 3 years after he had her hospitalized. Only those who have lived with schizophrenia in their families or have seen it up close in friends/loved ones can truly understand his decision and his intense guilt.

The insight this book offers is wonderful for ANYONE caught up in grief, or has experienced loss, as it is highly cathartic.

I first read this book when I was sixteen and it touched me in ways I could not explain. When I suffered through a tragedy last year Anne Lindbergh's writings helped me survive I can never thank her. But I can encourage you to read this book and experience life through her young but wise eyes

Anne Morrow Lindbergh looked to the sky long before she met Charles Augustus Lindbergh.

Cloudscapes as pastel vistas; marvelling at the wings of a gull in flight; nights lying in bed, looking straight up through a tree to the celestial panorama overhead.

A young girl's vision of her future?

In "Bring Me A Unicorn, the Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922 - 1928", we get to meet the joyful, sweet adolescent, and watch her grow into the young, mature woman, she quickly becomes.

One marvels in seeing her through her own eyes...

...eyes that are discerning: artful, considerate, contemplative, and forever searching.

Eyes that are always examining her "new" and hidden self, for some inner truth.

She reflects upon her "arrival," lacking confidence at first, before finding herself expressed within the petals of lavender flowers:

"I kept looking at the flowers in a vase near me: lavender sweet peas, fragile winged and yet so still, so perfectly poised, apart, and complete. They are self-sufficient, a world in themselves, a whole--perfect. Is that then, perfection? Is what those sweet peas had what I have, occasionally in moments like that? But flowers always have it--poise, completion, fulfillment, perfection; I only occasionally, like that moment. For that moment I and the sweet peas had an understanding."

Daughter of Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Anne was living in an upper-class world of regal elegance, and experiencing that world in style. Anne describes a dinner on board J.P. Morgan's steamer "Corsair", with the great man himself greeting her and the Morrow family at the ship's entrance.

"The joy of being there almost invisible in this sparkling world, able to watch and listen to the most brilliant, charming men in the world, and a sense of the utmost fairy-tale luxury--everything done in exciting, magnificant style, so much grander than a party of young people."

Anne then travels to Mexico City, where her father serves as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. On the eve of destiny, she ascends a staircase and turns toward the receiving line that awaits her and her family, where she sees "him" for the first time:

"I saw standing against the great stone pillar--on more red plush--a tall, slim boy in evening dress--so much slimmer, so much taller, so much more poised than I expected. A very refined face, not at all like those grinning 'Lindy' pictures--a firm mouth, clear, straight blue eyes, fair hair, and nice color. Then I went down the line very confused and overwhelmed by it all. He did not smile--just bowed and shook hands."

Awkwardness sets in, as the mature young woman disappears, and the young waif returns anew, seeking one moment, her entrance; the next, her exit; and thereafter, a direction on a parallel course with his life.

This lanky boy, over whom most fawn in adulation, is a curiousity:

"He is very, very young and was terribly shy--looked straight ahead and talked in short direct sentences which came out abruptly and clipped. You could not meet his sentences: they were statements of fact, presented with such honest directness: not trying to please, just bare simple answers and statements, not trying to help a conversation along. It was amazing--breathtaking. I could not speak. What kind of boy was this?"

This boy--already known as the "Lone Eagle"--was beyond "alone"; he was isolated and trapped.

Charles Lindbergh had withdrawn into himself.

Charles was surrounded by admirers living in the "make-believe" world of the Press, and still, had no one to talk to in his own, real world...

...no one to share with, until Anne arrives compassionately to his rescue:

"We talked of going to Xochimilco. We all wanted to go--would he go? He wanted to, but then he said he was afraid he might 'spoil our day'--a crowd would gather. It was quite pathetic, for he wanted to go. I said, 'I feel as though the nicest thing we could do for you would be to leave you alone.' He smiled so kindly but said, 'No, I'd like very much to go--very much indeed.' We were off!"

When they return, he takes them flying, and for Anne--like her sisters--the experience is as much a revelation as it is a first!

"Let me be conscious of this! Let me be conscious!"

Joy and exhilaration overtake her:

"We were high above fields, and there far, far below, was a small shadow as of a great bird tearing along the neatly marked off fields. It gave me the most tremendous shock to realize for the first time the terrific speed we were going at and that that shadow meant us--us, like a mirror! That 'bird'--it was us."

She watches him as well, observing his movements and features:

"He was so perfectly at home--all his movements mechanical. He sat easily and quietly, not rigidly, but relaxed, yet alert. One hand on the wheel--one hand! He has the most tremendous hands."

Man and machine have made their impression. She bids Charles farewell, believing she will never see him again, then watches as he departs Mexico City in his Ryan Monoplane, the "Spirit of St. Louis".

...though Anne's love for him has already begun:

"The feeling of exultant joy that there is anyone like that in the world. I shall never see him again, and he did not notice me, or would ever, but there is such a person alive, there is such a life, and I am here on this earth, in this age, to know it!"

In the months that followed Charles' famous trans-Atlantic flight, Anne was probably the only person he had met who spoke to him with any sincerity...

...and she had simply offered to leave him alone.

Weeks go by in pages, and they meet again. Her love of his world solidifys the bond between them. Enamored with her, Charles Lindbergh falls for the girl that refers to him as:

"That boy."