Journals Books

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."

Judith Dunlap, the mother of five, has prepared this scripture-based family resource in a format that can be adapted to almost any style, and she offers a number of how-tos in the introduction. Her overall purpose is to help parents and children of all ages remain spiritually healthy and well balanced.

The weekly program is based on the Catholic lectionary for Year C (primarily the gospel of Luke). Each session consists of a brief synopsis of the Sunday gospel, citation from the bible, reflection, and short discussion/journal segments for family and personal response. Many of the reflections grow out of the author's experiences as a mom. The gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, in which Paul speaks of the part patience plays in giving love (1 Corinthians 13:4-5), is a good example. Dunlap recalls how difficult patience was for her when her children were young. With the help of a retreat leader, she tried praying in the morning to "get through lunch," at lunch to make it to dinner, and so on. As she prayed, she became calmer and so did her entire household. She learned that "God's love is mine for the asking, and once I receive it I am free to share it with my children." The reflection is followed by a family discussion on changing habits plus a ritual to signify "turning them over" to God. The personal response involves naming a habit you've tried to overcome and planning a new way to work toward change.

As the example shows, "Bringing Home the Gospel" could easily fit into almost any family schedule, requires no special preparation, and ties in with the Sunday liturgy. Further, Dunlap provides guidance for using the journal and responses, shares "Six Traits of Strong Families" identified in a research survey, and devotes several pages to explaining the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church.

For the past few Sundays, I have been using this wonderful tool to help me make the most of my hearing of the Sunday gospel. Dunlap's book is a journal of sorts, helping parents to take the readings of Cycle C and relate lessons learned in the gospels to living out our role as parents. Each week, there is a scriptural citation, a reflection on the gospel passage, a family response passage with a suggested topic of discussion or activity, a personal response section with room to write your own reflections and a prompting question, and a section for recording memories from the past week and hopes for the upcoming week.

Every week, we arrive at Mass early to allow my husband and son who play guitar at mass to tune and warm up with the other musicians. During this quiet time, I have the opportunity to read and reflect on the Gospel passage. Dunlap's book is another great tool for helping me to learn as a wife and mother how Jesus' teachings in the gospel can make a difference in my life as I love and serve my family.

After all the debate between street lit and literary fiction (as though Chester Himes had never existed) there is finally a book that expands the horizons of post-millennium Black writing. Not content to merely represent, Bronx Biannual pushes the limits, tittering on the cutting edge of wildness. Editor Miles Marshall Lewis recruited some great writers like Adam Mansbach and Donnell Alexander for this first issue. From the afrofuturism of Greg Tate to the bugged-out '80s funk of "Sweet Thing Superhero" (which reads like a collabo between Public Enemy and Ru Paul), editor Miles Marshall Lewis has flipped the black book script. Can't wait for number two...

This first issue of Bronx Biannual features an array of writers -- talented music journalists like Michael Gonzales, veteran fiction writers like Adam Mansbach and one of hip-hop's finest, KRS-One. My favorite piece is "Nothing Can Remain Unchanged," a short story by emerging fiction writer Dana Crum. The descriptions in the story put me right there, and the psychological portrayals of the different characters made me care about them and their struggles. Though the story thoroughly depicts the inner city, it also deals with those universal themes (friendship, abandonment, change) that unite us all. As for the first issue as a whole, my only complaint is that there was so little poetry. Given the poetic nature of the best hip-hop lyrics, there should be a fair amount of poetry in any hip-hop literary journal. Hopefully, we'll get more poetry in the next issue. All in all, this first issue is a strong start. And what better title for a hip-hop lit journal than "Bronx Biannual." The Bronx gave birth to hip-hop music. The music has spread all over the world, but it all started in the Boogie Down...

VOLUME 1: ARCHEOLOGY, MIGRATION AND NOMADISM, LINGUISTICS: Map of Eastern Central Asia. INTRODUCTION: Victor H. Mair: Priorities. ARCHEOLOGY: AN Zhimin: Cultural Complexes of the Bronze Age in the Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas; Elena E. Kuzmina: Cultural Connections of the Tarim Basin People and Pastoralists of the Asian Steppes in the Bronze Age; David W. Anthony: The Opening of the Eurasian Steppe at 2000 BCE; Asko Parpola: Aryan Languages, Archeological Cultures, and Sinkiang-Where Did Proto-Iranian Come into Being and How Did It Spread?; Fredrik T. Hiebert: Central Asians on the Iranian Plateau-A Model for Indo-Iranian Expansionism; SHUI Tao: On the Relationship between the Tarim and Fergana Basins in the Bronze Age; HE Dexiu: A Brief Report on the Mummies from the Zaghunluq Site in Chärchän County; J.P. Mallory: A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia; Colin Renfrew: The Tarim Basin, Tocharian, and Indo-European Origins-A View from the West. MIGRATION AND NOMADISM: Karl Jettmar: Early Migrations in Central Asia; Natalia I. Shishlina and Fredrik T. Hiehert: The Steppe and the Sown-Interaction between Bronze Age Eurasian Nomads and Agriculturalists; Jeannine Davis-Kimball: Tribal Interaction between the Early Iron Age Nomads of the Southern Ural Steppes, Semirechive, and Xinjiang; Claudia Chang and Perry A. Tourtellotte: The Role of Agro-pastoralism in the Evolution of Steppe; Culture in the Semirechye Area of Southern Kazakhstan during the Saka/Wustun Period (600 BCE-400 CE); Tzehtley C'hiou-Peng: Western Hunan and Its Steppe Affinities. LINGUISTICS: Eric P. Hamp: Whose Were the Tocharians?-Linguistic Subgrouping and Diagnostic Idiosyncrasy; Werner Winter: Lexical Archaisms in the Tocharian Languages; Georges-Jean Pinault: Tocharian Languages and Pre-Buddhist Culture; Douglas Q. Adams: On the History and Significance of Some Tocharian B Agricultural Terms; Alexander Lubotsky: Tocharian Loan Words in Old Chinese-Chariots, Chariot Gear, and Town Building; Don Ringe, Tandy Warnow, Ann Taylor, Alexander Michailov, and Libby Levison: Computational Cladistics and the Position of Tocharian; Juha Janhunen: The Horse in East Asia-Reviewing the Linguistic Evidence; John Colarusso: Languages of the Dead; Kevin Tuite: Evidence for Prehistoric Links between the Caucasus and Central Asia-The Case of the Burushos; LIN Meicun: Qilian and Kunlun-The Earliest Tokharian Loan-words in Ancient Chinese; Penglin Wang: A Linguistic Approach to Inner Asian Ethnonyms; William S-Y. Wang: Three Windows on the Past.

VOLUME 2: GENETICS AND PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Paolo Francalacci: DNA Analysis on Ancient Desiccated Corpses from Xinjiang (China)-Further Results; Tongmao Zhao: The Uyghurs, a Mongoloid-Caucasoid Mixed Population-Genetic Evidence and Estimates of Caucasian Admixture in the Peoples Living in Northwest China; HAN Kangxin: The Physical Anthropology of the Ancient Populations of the Tarim Basin and Surrounding Areas. METALLURGY: Ke Peng: The Andronovo Bronze Artifacts Discovered in Toquztara County in Ili, Xinjiang; Jianjun Mei and Colin Shell: Copper And Bronze Metallurgy in Late Prehistoric Xinjiang; Emma C. Bunker: Cultural Diversity in the Tarim Basin Vicinity and Its Impact on Ancient Chinese Culture; Katheryn M. Linduff: The Emergence and Demise of Bronze-Prod-ucing Cultures Outside the Central Plain of China. TEXTILES: E.J.W. Barber: Bronze Age Cloth and Clothing of the Tarim Basin-The Krorän (Loulan) and Qumul (Elami) Evidence; Irene Good: Bronze Age Cloth and Clothing of the Tarim Basin-The Chärchän Evidence. GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATOLOGY: Harold C. Fleming: At the Vortex of Central Asia-Mummies as Testimony to Prehistory; Kenneth J. Hsü: Did the Xinjiang Indo-Europ-eans Leave Their Home Because of Global Cooling? HISTORY: Michael Puett: China in Early Eurasian History-A Brief Review of Recent Scholarship on the Issue; E. Bruce Brooks: Textual Evidence for 04c Sino-Bactrian Contact. MYTHOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY: Denis Sinor: The Myth of Languages and the Language of Myth; C. Scott Littleton: Were Some of the Xinjiang Mummies `Epi-Scythians'? An Excursus in Trans-Eurasian Folklore and Mythology; CHEN Chien-wen: Further Studies on the Racial, Cultural, and Ethnic Affinities of the Yuezhi; Dolkun Kamberi: Discovery of the Täklimakanian Civilization during, a Century of Tarim Archeological Exploration (ca. 1886-1996); Dru C. Gladney: Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Identity in China-Considering the Uygurs and Kazaks. CONCLUSION: Victor H. Mair: Die Sprachmöbe-An Archeolinguistic Parable. APPENDIX: Victor H. Mair and Dolkun Kamberi: Place, People, and Site Names of the Uyghur Region Pertinent to the Archeology of the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

This superb, broad collection of detailed papers on ancient Eastern Central Asia is fascinating for anyone interested in the subject. Though presented for professionals in the field, virtually every paper is intelligible to the lay person, opening new horizons for anyone interested in the history of this region. Exceptionally well-edited, with chapters covering archeology, migration and nomadism, linguistics, genetics and physical anthropology, metallurgy, textiles, geography and climatology, history, mythology and ethnology, a long overdue comprehensive treatment of this subject is finally at hand. Every contributor to the two-volume set should be pleased with this phenomenal achievement. Persons interested in many diverse topics, such as Zoroastrian studies, history of the Fergana Valley, or Tocharian linguistics, will still find many papers of interest, whether treated as separate subjects or not. Outstanding!

Brother Godfrey's Journal of the year 1269 C. 1971

Here is the prologue to this little book, now out of print;

During the Medieval period, when the Established Church reigned supreme, and weilded such power as to cause the upheavals
of the Crusades and the Inquisition, great Monasteries were set up, and Pardoners roamed the land with Papal Indulgences for
the Nobility to buy their way into Heaven.

Many of the entries included in this manuscript are actual entries in Day-journals of the period; as an example, it was
actually forbidden to accept fees for the performance of a marriage, and the penalty was censure from the local Archbishop.

These entries were not made in fun; I do not mean to excuse this work on the standpoint of humor for its own sake. If the
entries are funny, it is simply that Man is a very peculiar animal, and does some strange things with the rare and precious
tools and gifts which he is given to work with for his own developement and the developement of all sentient life.

This book was written in two days; I was in what could be called a full trance at the time; nothing similar has happened to
me since; THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN FROM MEMORY. It is not important whether everyone understand or believe this, but for those
who have eyes to see and ears to hear, heed well that warning: THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST DID NOT SURVIVE HIS DEATH.

Father, it is finished.

And this entry from the fly cover;

In the heart of the dark ages, while the plague and the Crusades ravage Europe, in a remote country sector well suited to
cultivating wine grapes, is a small but thriving monastery. Here Brother Godfrey begins his journal with the New Year's Day,
1269 A.D. entry, " Enough bread and wine to last until Spring. "

In his rollicking little book, which packs a big punch, you will travell through a monastic year with Godfrey. Let him
educate you in the seven deadly sins. Join Brother Gregory in the vinyard at the discovery of Blessed Virgin Weed. Through
Godfrey's bleary eyes, see the resulting boom in the Holy Vision trade, which brings a humble, if sometimes scandalous,
monastery out of obscurity right into the big-time of mass-appeal and the heights of medieval economic success.

Read this Journal as a fable of human folly, as of a tale of the inevitable descending octave of greed and ambition - in any
case, enjoy the author's intentional use of humor to shock and awaken something in you that might be called Conscience.

And from the back cover, here is a comment from John C. Lilly, M.D. author of " The Dyadic Cyclone ";

" E. J. Gold, Sufi, transit guide and explorer of inner domains...Joy/humor/personal energy combined with discipline,
facilitate transformation of Self/others. "

Indeed, this is a great little book to be kept around and read occasionally whenever the fancy takes you.

Any person who likes to poke fun at the Christian church will love this cute little book about the goings-on at a mideval monastery. It reads better each time and is carefully packaged to please. A MUST READ!

I was a child in Rev. Jordan's curch in Colorado Springs, when he wrote and compiled the sermons in the book. We could hardly wait to see what he would take out of his brown bag each Sunday. I was in juionr high, I think when he was convinced to put them all into a book. This is a wonderful resource for anyone doing childrens sermons. Mary Lou Anderson's ilistations are wonderfull as well, she was a lovely lady.

I was a child in Rev. Jordan's church in Colorado Springs, when he wrote and compiled the sermons in the book. We could hardly wait to see what he would take out of his brown bag each Sunday. I was in junior high school I think, when he was convinced to whrite these sermons in to a book . They are a wonderfull resource for anyone doing childrens sermon. Mary L. Anderson's ilistrations are wonderful as well, she was a lovely lady.