Saint The Books

This book is the polished version of Elder B. H. Robert's autobiographical notes that he hastily dictated in his waning years. He had enough sense of history to realize that he himself was a hot historical item.

The polished version is in first person, and was obviously dictated, which is an asset. B. H. Roberts was one of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's greatest orators, apologists, and scrappers, so the autobiography has the same rhetorical punchy-ness that that makes reading this book pure eye candy.

It is written in the first person, and Elder Roberts exposes his soul as he tells of his early childhood in Dickens's England, his emigration and journey to Salt Lake City, his hardpan life in the west, and his eventual embracing of the Mormonism. This man had one wild life, from rescuing the bodies of two missionaries that had been killed by a mob in the south, to running for the House of Representatives, and being denied a seat because he was a polygamist.

I confess that reading the life of the man is only half the story. Roberts had a very keen and grabby intellect, so you need to read his philosophical and theological works in addition to studying his life. He is considered the best intellectual among the Latter-day Saints. This is a very high honor, considering that he had a bare-minimum education, and was illiterate for the first eight years of his life. He was a self-made intellectual. Why do we, who have so much, do so little?

The only drawback is that Elder Roberts relied on memory as he was dictating, so some of the dates aren't accurate. Dr. Truman G. Madsen has written the definitive, and so far the only biography of B. H. Roberts called "Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story," which is a better book, since it fills in the gaps, rounds out the edges, and gets deeper into his philosophy.

I was reading this on an airplane and told some of the stories in the book to the fellow sitting next to me. He was so interested that I just gave him the book so he could read it for himself.

This is the story of a 9 year old boy who comes to America from England with his 11 year old sister. The year is about 1867. The two of them cross the ocean, then they cross the country to the Salt Lake Valley in a covered wagon company. It is just amazing how he could survive such an ordeal. He has no shoes for most of the trip, and no coat or change of clothes. His shrit and pants are made from a policeman's coat in England. His sister gives him her slip to cover him at night and then he gives it back to her to wear in the morning. One night he climbs in a barrel to sleep. It has molasses in the bottem. He is too tired to climb our and so sleeps in it anyway. The next morning he is covered with the sticky surup. The only clothes he has are so covered with dust by the end of the day that they are no longer sticky. There are many touching stories in this book. His sister is so tender hearted that her tears drop on his feet as she picks the thorns from his bear feet each evening.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I couldn't put it down.

I just finished watching this video after reading Escape. If what is happening to the women and children (girls become sex slaves for older men, excess boys, some barely past puberty, are taken to the streets of large cities in the region and tossed into the gutter like trash) does not make you angry, you are incapable of being outraged.

These are communities where violence and rape of children are normal activities, where God's spokesmen control the lives of everyone. Where happiness and love and knowledge are despised, and the only virtue is obedience.

We, the taxpayers, are funding this horror. Yet politicians in places where this goes on do little besides pay a little lip service. This may have something to do with the fact that many politicians in the region are members of the mainstream Mormon church, which would rather ignore the cruelty carried out in the name of its Prophet.

We listen to the stories of women and children who managed to escape. We listen to state officials, a few of whom are trying to do something, but somehow very little ever gets done.

It is amazing what you can get away with in America if you are a religion. If a bowling league was little more than a scam to bilk the taxpayer to fund the rape of little girls, it would probably, even in Utah and Arizona, be shut down pretty fast. But a church? No, that isn't child rape. It's our freedom of religion. It's our family values.

Listen to some of these women talk about their struggle to get their upbringing -- I would call it brainwashing -- out of their heads, and then try to tell yourself that religion isn't mind poison. For the women and children trapped in these communities, religious faith is a leash and collar around their necks.

Finally, the real story about the polygamists in Colorado City, AZ. This new documentary, the only film to get inside the cult, features, among others, Carolyn Jessop. Carolyn's book, "Escape", just hit the NYT Bestseller list. "Banking on Heaven" reinforces the horrors Ms. Jessop so clearly describes.

"Banking on Heaven" will shock and sicken the viewer. How can it be possible to have the Taliban in our own back yard?

This is a fast-paced and cutting-edge documentary, especially in light of the prophet Warren Jeffs recent conviction for child rape.

After completing The Barnabas Way, I felt compelled to accomplish three tasks with some dispatch: to read it again, to jot the author a thank you note and to buy another copy to send along with the note, asking the author to inscribe it to my best friend.

In a time when bookshelves are crowded with variations on the "what's in it for me?" philosophy of the spiritual life, Mr. Sloan answers that question elegantly by refusing to recognize it as the appropriate question. He declines to preach or promise; instead, he points the reader to Barnabas, illuminating his hero's story with contemporary illustrations that bring him to life. In so doing, he allows us to see for ourselves the way to "an unexpected path to God."

To read this deceptively slim volume is to be reminded that "what's in it for me?" is far richer than we suppose, that it's available to all of us and that the path to it diverges from what many of us assume. Barnabas and his modern descendants put feet and hands to the revolutionary ideas about who and how God loves that Phillip Yancey makes clear in What's So Amazing About Grace.

Here's a small book which has large ideas and heart-touching content for every reader.

As Sloan writes, "The most remarkable aspect of the Barnabas Way is this: It works whether or not a person knows the right spiritual technique or the right prayers or the right answers on the Bible quiz. Even for those in the worst of life's situations, who feel like what Philip Yancey calls, "neglected saints, who learn to anticipate and enjoy God in spite of the difficulties of their lives on earth." These find true blessing because, "In their lives, the Beatitudes have become true.""

This book provides incredible insight for anyone who gives or needs encouragement.

Elder Eyring is an excellent speaker. This selection of discourses are wonderfully written and composed. He has a wonderful ability to share ideas and principles through personal stories and experiences. I highly recommend this book.

As a parent, I often feel the fear for my children who are growing up in such stormy times. This book reminds us that life can truely be wonderful as we draw upon the strength and love of our Heavenly Father.

The photographs on the daily life in St.Petersburg are exceptional in their composition and inclusion of all classes. The differences in the social classes comes alive in these photographs. Those of the workers and peasants are haunting and capture their downtrodden and meager daily existence. You can understand by studying these views of St.Petersburg that life was very different and the "haves and have-nots" are clearly evident. This a must book for those who make a study of this period an avocation and source of deep historical interest.The book must in the library of any serious historian or avid follower of pre-revoluntionary Russia. The architecture in St.Petersburg was amazing and the book captures all of the cathederals,public and private homes,bridges and market places that are no longer there.

A lavishly illustrated book, depicting the beauty the city of St. Petersburg before its bombardment by the Germans in WWII. Depicting everyday life as well as the monumental architecture of this historic city, with a brief history of this city of Peter the Great. The reader is also told which buildings survived destruction and which didn't. A must for any lovers of Russian history under the last Tsar.

This book was a gift to me from my mother for my wedding shower....I began reading it on my Hawaiian honeymoon. The book offers valuable insight to the interactions of men and women while engaged in a marriage. Through reading this piece I began to understand my husband (whom I dated for nearly 8 years prior to marriage)and his actions. Give and take is a key and Tova doesn't expect anyone to be perfect, she kindly shares her own trials and tribulations with the reader to let them know they are not alone. It's a must for anyone getting married -- all of my currently engaged friends will be receiving this one from me!!

My husband and I will be married a whole year next month! September 12th. I bought this book a couple of months ago, and it is really insiteful! It has helped me realize a lot about marriage and committment. It has great advice and it works! Especially about letting your husband be himself and have time with the buddies. Thanks TOVA.

One of the values of Professor Bushman's essays on the history of Mormons and Mormonism is that he is up front with the reader about his own views on the truth claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He does not hide his commitment to the Church and its teachings, but is simultaneously honest about the facts he reports and the facts he does not know. Reading the essays is like sitting down over dinner with an intelligent friend who relates his own understanding with integrity and lays out the reasons for his analysis. Whether or not you accept the assertions of Joseph Smith about his experiences, Bushman notes, the evidence, of the kind that historians rely on for all other facts, shows that Smith himself spoke and acted consistently with HIM actually believing in the truth of his experiences. Similarly, whether or not you accept Bushman's conclusions on various issues, it is clear that Bushman himself has come honestly to his conclusions, while recognizing your right to disagree. His writing is lucid and does not conceal facts behind glittering generalities. Where facts are unclear he does not create a fictional version to satisfy our desire to speculate. Reading these essays, one wishes that more scholars who study the New Testament were willing to be similarly frank when they tell us their assessment of that collection of texts.

Bushman has written some very good essays over the years, which are compiled in this book. Previous to reading these essays, I read his most recent book, Rough Stone Rolling. Both of these books are great. Bushman does not tell you, the reader, what to think because of the events that happened many years ago. All that he does is report the history & report it in the context of what was happening at the time & the general attitudes of the peoples of America at the time history happened. This book is good for Member and Non Member of the LDS Faith.

"Beluga: A Farewell to Whales" is definitely one book I wish the title for was not so apt. In this work Pierre Beland does an amazing job in bringing to life a remarkable animal, the beluga whale, and in particular one population of this species, those that inhabit the immense St. Lawrence estuary in Canada. He also brings to life in a sad and sometimes sickening way the plight facing these animals, cetaceans that even though legally protected in the St. Lawrence since 1979 do not seem to be showing any signs of signifcant population increase.

Beland's book in part reads like the current popular medical and forensic autopsy shows, as the author, a dedicated and highly trained biologist, seeks to determine what is killing the whales of the St. Lawrence. Ready at a moment's notice - even on holidays, the dead of winter, or in the middle of the night - to retrieve whale corpses found ashore or adrift, Beland and his colleagues probe each whale carcass for the secrets of its life and its death. With dedication and skill worthy of a criminal forensic team they uncover the truth of each whale's demise, which are often untimely as young whales or even newborns are almost as common in his lab as much more mature adults.

What Beland finds is chilling. The whales appear to be dying from pollution, a case he boldy and definitely makes in this book. Examintion of the tissues from the deceased whales reveal staggering amounts of industrial and agricultural chemcials, including polychlorobiphenyls or PCBs, DDT, dieldrin, mirex, chloradane, and more. Even though some of these chemicals haven't been used in the region for decades, their use banned, they continue to wash into the St. Lawrence, a vast river system that drains almost the whole of the Great Lakes region. Beland writes that beluga whale milk in the estuary has been found to contain as much as ten parts per million of PCBs and six parts per million of DDT; a lot considering fish containing fives times fewer PCBs are considered unfit for human consumption. Ships carrying waste with more than fifty milligrams of PCBs per kilogram (or fifty parts per million) require a special transit permit; sadly, the average male beluga roaming these waters already has that concentration of PCBs in his blubber by age nine. Without suprise, this massive concentration of pollution within the whale's bodies has lead to a host of ailments. St. Lawrence belugas boast the dubious honor of the highest incidence of cancer in any marine mammal, perhaps even a higher rate than that found in man. Beland discusses not only the cancer but also the other health problems that are affecting this population of whale's very survival.

Beland clearly is in love with the beluga, a beautiful white whale that he writes wears that "peculiar beluga smile," a feature that gives the species "the look of an enigmatic wise man or, rather, of a happy imbelice." Remarkable animals, the author spends a great deal of time discusses the biology and behavior of belugas, particularly in a very concise and fact-filled appendix. Among the most vocal of all whale species, their repertoire is more varied than that of dolphins and extremely complex. Highly social creatures, they may surpass dolphins in their potential for social communication. They also according to Beland clearly surpass dolphins in terms of their echolocation capability; in fact this ability is so sophisticated that the belugas have been held for many years by both the United States and the former Soviet Union for studies to aid in the development of sonar technology. Beland discusses this at some length, including the remarkable story of a beluga that escaped from such a facility in the Ukraine and ended up in of all places the Turkish coast, very far indeed from the species usual haunts.

The book is also valuable for its history of the interaction between the beluga whales and the people of the St. Lawrence. Hunted for centuries - from the days of the earliest European settlers and by native peoples before that - Beland discusses the use of weir fisheries to trap whales and of the odd, bizarre, and cruel war fought against the beluga between 1928 and 1939 which even involved bombing the poor whales from the air! Also discussed is the history of the beluga in captivity, covering everything from the early futile attempts involving the likes of P.T. Barnum to today's more sophisiticated modern oceanairums, which although Beland has some misgivings about them, may play a vital role in trying to save the species.

Finally the book is a good one to get for those interested in the St. Lawrence estuary itself, an impressive body of water and ecosystem in its own right. As much a sea as a river, the St. Lawrence flows downstream only half the time, it main current reversed every six hours by the tide in a never ending war between the light brown river waters flowing from the Great Lakes and the green salt water alive with seaweed and all matter of marine animals. Home to a variety of seabirds, fishes, crustaceans, molluscs, and four species of seals - many of which are more charaterstic of arctic climates and are not found as far south anywhere else in the world - even without belugas the river and its life are remarkable and need protection.

A charming, heartfelt book concerning a species not often written about. The sad toll the animal's own environment takes on it's health, and the dawning inevitability of the whale population's demise is shocking. The novel made me not only want to find out more, but it woke me up and made me want desperately to help.

Benedict's Dharma is a rare find--a book on spirituality that is lovingly burnished by practice. Benedict's Rule was above all a work for practical application; what few understand is how well the Rule translates into Eastern practice.

Rarely have I enjoyed a book as thoroughly as this one; I regretted reaching its final page, for the journey it provided was such a delight. Yet the greater truth is that this book is meant to be a passageway, pointing the way to greater spiritual understanding and greater self-knowledge. The truths it uncovers are applicable to anyone who is serious about leading an authentic spiritual life.

This book is an exceptional treasure, offering significant and practical insights on every page.

"There is fire in the Rule of Saint Benedict" (p. 121) David Steindl-Rast, OSB, writes in the Afterward to this collection of Buddhist reflections on that Rule. Written in the sixth century, Saint Benedict's Rule is a set of guidelines governing Christian monastic life. This 137-page book is the result of a two-week "Encounter" between Buddhists and Christians, in which Norman Fischer, Joseph Goldstein, Judith Simmer-Brown, and Yifa were participants. Their "fresh take" (p. xiv) on Saint Benedict's Rule is followed by a new, 80-page translation of that Rule by Patrick Henry, OSB.

The Rule was written to practice "Christ's way." Christ said, "Whoever perseveres to the very end will be saved" (p. 97). For Buddhists, Benedict's Rule is about "walking the path to spiritual awakening" (p. 105). That is, both the Rule and Buddhist dharma offer "general guidelines for an inner journey" (p. 1). Judith Simmer-Brown notes that the Rule offers us insight into living a contemplative life amidst the demands of everyday life, or "anyplace you find yourself" (p. 3). From a Buddhist perspective, Benedict's Rule is about learning to live life "so it gets into your bones, under your skin" (p. 34), and about living with "a love of true life and a longing for days of real fulfillment" (p. 36), for this was "Christ's way."

It is evident from this book that "the monastery wall is always permeable" (p. 81). Benedictine monasticism is designed to lead one to spiritual riches on the path of humility (p. 95). It is possible, we're told, to practice a contemplative life outside the monastery walls. "The world is vast and wide," Norman Fischer writes. "Why put on your robe and go to the meditation hall when the bell rings?" (p. 89). Daily practice is "the common ground" for monastics of East and West (p. 124), and in his excellent Afterward, David Steindl-Rast, OSB, concludes that "lay practitioners are running away with the monastic ball" (p. 126). "Step out into the dark night," he writes, "raise your eyes to the starry sky, and you will experience what contemplation was before it had a name" (p. 126).

We find Buddhists and Christians travelling the same "ladders and bridges" in this harmonious book. Buddhist or Christian, this book will appeal to to that monk or nun cloistered in each of us, who is interested in "a life spent seeking the truth."

G. Merritt

Benedict developed his methods of leading during the time Rome was falling apart around 450 A.D.

His approach reflects a structured system of what worked within a community/business. It is a simple, honest, easy to understand method for leading an organization. It is also an easy read.

It is thought that over 40,000 organizations have used this approach over the last 1500 years. It has passed the test of time.

Don't mistake this for a religious book. The monks were more independent entrepreneurial businessmen than elements of the church. It is clearly a book about leadership that provides the essense of what it takes to be successful.

The method can be used as a model and is as applicable today as it was 1500 years ago.

Fantastic little book on Leadership. Examines the world's oldest management system, and why it has been so successful. Great applications to the modern corporation. Perfect book for those tired of military analogies for business, or "tough-guy" leadership. Neat ideas on corporate rituals, ethical foundations, employee formation, and how to build a cohesive work group. If more modern corporations followed these "rules", we would have fewer scandals and higher profits. An easy read.