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Massachusetts Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Recasting The Machine Age: Henry Ford's Village Industries

Published in Hardcover by University of Massachusetts Press (2005-08-30)

Author: Howard P. Segal

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Average review score:

A Great Read

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-06

This is the best kind of academic writing: direct, technically accurate and concise, yet intriguing, lively and infomative. Segal clearly has affection for his subject, yet does not hedge on Ford's notoriously disagreeable qualities. A clear-eyed look at a complex man and his ideals.

AMAZING

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-03

This book is fabulous! It captures this topic better than any I've ever read. It's very interesting to me, and I'm not in the least way associated with Ford. Great book and enjoyable read!!

A New Side of Henry Ford

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-11-07

Henry Ford is famous for setting up the basic concepts of mass production. And some of his factories Highland Park, River Rouge and Willow Run to name three were truly huge facilities producing huge numbers of vehicles, even aircraft. Yet at the same time he was concerned about the social aspects of the businesses.

In the early 1920's he was instrumental in Ford setting up nineteen smaller 'village industries.' Each of these industries were set up to provide some kind of easily specified component that would be used in Ford vehicles or manufacturing. These included things like voltage regulators, twist drills, manufacturing test equipment, etc.

After his death, in the late 1940's and early 1950's these nineteen was shut down, usually merged into a large factory in the newly formed parts division. This effort cannot be considered a failure. All in all, the nineteen plants were too small, too hard to manage.

Now similar outside suppliers provide such sub component manufacturing, but they are larger, and independently owned. This same concept is also followed closely in Japan where smaller independent suppliers make components for automobiles and other products.

Red Dawn at Lexington: "If They Mean to Have a War, Let It Begin Here!"

Published in Hardcover by Houghton Mifflin (Juv) (1986-04)

Author: Louis Birnbaum

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Average review score:

It reads like a Novel

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-29

I first read this book back in the late '80s in prep for a vacation to the Lexington/Conord, Ma area. I couldn't put it down. It is so well written and factual but reads like a novel. If someone is interested in the history leading up to the American Revolution this is the book to start with. It lays out all the details of the American and British sides while keeping the reader totally involved. After reading my library copy I went out and bougth a copy, that's how much I loved this story.

Red Dawn at Lexington

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-06-24

The author presents rich insights to events and characters on both sides involved in our nations struggle for independence. The amont of research the author has done is tremendous and it seems that much of the information is newly discovered. The book is full of history yet reads very well.

I had not realized before reading this book how many of our nations early heros had developed their military background and leadership ability through their experiences in the French and Indian Wars and how the military leaders on both sides had developed respect for the other because of those shared battles.

I think every American History teacher should own and read this marvelous book to supplement what is available in traditional texts.

An excellent history

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-23

I found this book to be a truly fascinating history of the beginning of the American Revolution. Don't be fooled by the title. It covers much more than just Lexington and Concord. It gives good background information on the origins of the war, and follows the conflict through the British evacuation of Boston nearly a year later. It is a very fast paced, well written book. I highly recommend it.

Requiem, Mass.: A Novel

Published in Hardcover by W. W. Norton (2008-07-21)

Author: John Dufresne

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Average review score:

GREAT READ -- DON'T MISS IT

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-04

I opened this book to three different places at random,and I laughed out loud each time. "Requiem, Mass." is hilarious and brilliant, with great emotional depth -- John Dufresne at his best!

Rebecca Emerick

Brilliant, and unsettling.

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-12

Absolutely brilliant, as we can expect from John Dufresne, and to the other two positive reviews, I might add "Me, too! Me, too!"

A previous novel of Dufresne's, Deep in the Shade of Paradise, also dealt with memory in an in-depth way, but in "Requiem", he gives us the added gift of a seed of doubt in the narrator's truthfulness, which has the effect of creating a compelling dissonance for the rest of the ride. The final chapter is a speculative conclusion, three years hence, and it is an unexpected device that serves the narrative well. Dufresne's Johnny has grown up with the notion that parallel existences are necessary to achieve happiness, and that notion serves him to the end.

John Dufresne first captivated me with "Louisiana Power & Light," leading me to seek out all of his fictional offerings, as I will continue to do for the rest of ever. Ten thumbs up. :-)

Amen

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-05

Childhood, heartbreak, mental illness, infidelity, roadtrips, hope, tragedy, dysfunction, identity, religion, physics, personal history...you name it and John Dufresne has jammed it into this wise and wistful novel about Johnny, an adolescent struggling to keep his family together. There's comedy too, sure. Readers always remark on Dufresne's sly wit, his ability to create memorable characters living in bizarre circumstances, his chronicling of dark secrets. But Dufresne's humor is more in the tradition of Saul Bellow than Don Rickles: the inevitable result of complex, deep pain -- often self-inflicted -- rather than an overt tickling of your funny bone.

And the prose! Man, can Dufresne WRITE. Every page offers rich rewards for those who love inspired, unaffected sentences. Check out this doozy of a passage from page 100:

"But I was still writing [...] in the morning, even after I'd changed pens, drunk a pot of coffee, switched ink from black to peacock blue, walked around the block, seen the sunrise, put away the Office Depot tablet and the used the Evidence-brand tablet. So I stopped writing and read an essay on Atlantic salmon by Edward Behr. The author was visiting salmon farms along the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. I came to the clause, 'we drove a few minutes along the unspoiled shore,' and I suddenly saw very clearly from his road an unmentioned whitewashed house at the top of a treeless hill overlooking a rocky, wave-tossed cove, and I realized that I had been there, and I knew what Behr did not, that the house, long abandoned by its family, had been converted to a restaurant, and I remembered the dark and rusted interior, the cozy bar, the linen tablecloths on the pine tables in the two small dining rooms, one a step higher than the other, the print of Theodore Rousseau's 'Market in Normandy' over the mantel, a crackling fire in the fireplace, the fragrance of cedar logs."

In a few brief strokes, through a balance of carefully chosen details and honest introspection, Dufresne captures everything that this book's about: frustration, storytelling, struggle, imagination, sensory engagement, memory, searching, travel, correcting, connecting, and the quest for comfort.

I can't recommend this book enough. When you're finished and have fallen in love with the narrator Johnny (and the author John), I strongly suggest you check out his wonderful short story collection "Johnny Too Bad."

Rural by Design: Maintaining Small Town Character

Published in Hardcover by Planners Press American Planning Association (1994-10)

Authors: Randall Arendt, Elizabeth A. Brabec, Vt.) Environmental Law Foundation (Montpelier, and Randall G. Arendt

List price: $86.00

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Average review score:

The best book of its type I have seen

Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 1997-02-06

This is a great book, the best ever written, I am sure, on the very important topic of helping maintain, and sometimes create livable communities in rural areas. The only handicap for owning the book is the rather huge price, $ 86.00, and not discounted by Amazon. We would like to have all our county planning commission members have a copy of the book, but can't afford to do so.

A must have if you are interested in land use planning!

Helpful Votes: 16 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 1999-07-03

The bible on proper planning. I wish more planners would read it. I am an average citizen who wanted to learn more about smarter land use plans and this book really has great ideas. It is expensive, but well worth the price. Shows how poor our current clear-cutting practices are compared to the beauty of an open space subdivision design. Buy this-you will really learn a lot!

This book is available through ...

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-23

You can still buy this book from the American Planning Association (www.planning.org) for about $60, even though Amazon, and other book stores, have it listed as "out of print."

Sacco & Vanzetti (New England Remembers)

Published in Paperback by Commonwealth Editions (2005-03-15)

Author: Eli C. Bortman

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A must read for every student of American legal history!

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-19

Many years ago as a fledging new lawyer, I read portions of the trial transcript from Sacco & Vanzetti trial. I was able to glean some of the injustice rendered in this case, but Professor Bortman's book clearly and concisely laid out the elements of a tainted legal system in Massachusetts in the 1920s. It was not until I read Professor Bortman's book that I fully understood the political elements involved at the time of the Sacco & Vanzetti trial. This book is a must read for every student of American history, especially legal history.

The lessons of the past illuminate the failings of today

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-05-26

For a short book, the story is very well paced and still manages to give it a level of 'Hollywood Court Room' drama, although in this case, the story is real. The writing is clear and unpretentious and very accessible.

The final chapter detailing the modern day reaction to the
case serves as a warning that even one of the most advanced Western democracies has a way to go in ensuring Justice For All is more than just a slogan and that, with one or two minor exceptions, the case could occur again in modern times.

Informative and well-written

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-27

Mr. Bortman has hit the nail on the head with this informative and well-written account of the famous trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. The background, trial and aftermath are treated with evenhandedness and an admirable attention to detail. Moreover, this book is easy to read yet chock full of facts, eyewitness accounts and analyses.

This quick-read will turn even one with little prior knowledge of this episode into a well-versed expert. If more historical passages were covered as well, the historical awareness of our citizenry would skyrocket.

Salem: Place, Myth, and Memory

Published in Paperback by Northeastern (2005-07-01)

Author:

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Average review score:

Multi-faceted Portrait of Salem

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-12

I have read many books on Salem and its history; I live almost next door to Salem; I was even born there for heaven's sake! I thought I knew everything important about this historic New England city.

And then I read this book! I learned new things about what I thought I already knew, and I found that there is much about Salem that has been largely ignored. Most people are familiar with the witchcraft hysteria, the China trade, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the modern witch industry. But how many of us knew that many of Salem's characteristic architectural details are derived from that China trade? Or that Salem, too, was one of the New England textile towns - one of the towns that suffered from the loss of this industry? That Salem has been an immigrant city for many years, encouraging people to come to work in its mills - until those mills close! Or that Salem is currently home to a thriving Dominican population?

I found it especially helpful to look at one place - this city of Salem - from a variety of perspectives. Now that I've read Morrson's book I think I can say that I know this town pretty well!

thought provoking

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-06

This was a rare book that shifted how I view things. I found this book to be unique in its approach to looking at the city of Salem, MA and addressing its sense of place. Although I found each chapter interesting, the whole collection together really got me thinking in new ways about how I view communities and the multiple layers that make them up.

13 Chapters of Interesting Reading

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-07-04

Having taught Salem History to children for many years I find this book fascinating. (In fact, where was this book when I needed it?)Chapter by chapter, allows the reader to actually see the development of Salem from a small colonial village to the modern day.

The details ranging from the crimes that happened in Salem during the centuries to the remaking of the place as a global city, is plotted out in such detail, that at times it reads like a novel. Pay attention to Chapter 7-detailing Hawthorne and his part in the city-as this is written with style and elegance.

A Scattered People: An American Family Moves West

Published in Paperback by Univ of Massachusetts Pr (1992-10)

Author: Gerald W. McFarland

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Compelling reading for anyone with ancestors . . . .

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-02

McFarland is a professor of American history at UMass with several volumes on 19th century political history to his credit, but here he turns his attention to a subject much closer to home: The migration of his mother's family from the east coast just after 1800 to the west coast c.1900. The various lines began in western Connecticut and in Rensselaer, New York, and in western Virginia and North Carolina, and they followed the paths trod by many thousands of frontier families (including most of my own lines), along the lower margin of the Great Lakes and down the Ohio River and across the Midwest. One branch of the family finally moved in the 1870s and `80s through Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado into northern California and then to Oregon, while another headed down through Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona into southern California. From the Atlantic to the Pacific in a century -- that is, in large part, the American story. The author is fortunate in that his ancestors were avid correspondents (and, later, photographers) so he is able to combine primary family source material with the contextual secondary sources available to all historical researchers. He also takes the opportunity to weave into this family narrative what he knows about contemporary events in the wider world, so this book is considerably more than "merely" genealogy. He also possesses a smooth and felicitous writing style and I do not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone interested in grass-roots American history or in a broader approach to family history.

My first review

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-08-22

I stumbled across this book in the library. A few pages into it I decided I just had to own it. While reading it I'm saying to myself either, "Yes, that's how it was for my ancestors!" or "Wow, I never considered the role of religion/land grant systems/whatever on the decisions my people made."

This book tells how past cultural trends, local conditions, and historical events affected ordinary people and shows clearly that in order to know the people, we have to know the history.

This is not the book of an amateur genealogist but of a professional historian -- deeply researched, well reasoned, and skillfully written. A very satisfying book.

Outstanding portrait of America from 1801 to 1901!

Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 1999-12-19

I found this book to be fascinating! If you want to see how genealogical research can produce compelling American history, this is the book to read. For example, I grew up in Los Angeles, and had no appreciation for the 1850s' bloody struggle over the extension of slavery into territories before they reached statehood until I read <>. I also didn't realize that southern Ohio (largely settled by Virginians who came overland and down the Ohio River) and northern Ohio (largely settled by New Englanders who came west via the Erie Canal and Lake Erie) had such radically different views on slavery. Before I read <>, events such as the Compromise of 1850, the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision and John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry were just bland factoids I had memorized for tests in my high-school American History class. Now I see them as the tips of a huge iceberg that tore into this country's fabric long before the greycoats shelled Fort Sumter, and could well have sunk it. This book puts the disembodied events we studied with little interest and less understanding in our American History textbooks into the context of individual families' lives. These families' struggles, their fateful decisions, their hopes for their children, their successes and their disappointments all leap from every page of this riveting study. American history will never look the same to me after this book.

Skin Deep

Published in Hardcover by Forge Books (2008-07-08)

Author: Gary Braver

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Average review score:

A new fan

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-22

I haven't read a murder/mystery for years because I would intuitively figure out who did it within a chapter or two and was disappointed. I bought several books at a local bookstore, but decided to start with Skin Deep. This book is so well written that I couldn't put it down. I read it at the beach. I read it until midnight on Saturday and then got up at 3AM on Sunday to finish it. I woke my husband up and said, "this writing is brilliant." I loved the developed characters, the interwoven story lines, and especially the unique twist at the end. Just when I thought I had figured out who did it, I would read the next chapter and revise my thinking.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Skin Deep. I was so excited about it, that my husband who never reads anything, wants to read it! I highly recommend this book and plan to read other books by this author.

A Terrific Medical Thriller

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-21

Gary Braver has written a number of novels that fall into the category of thriller, but which also explore serious questions about human nature. In EXILIR, for example,the questions involved aging (would you, if you could, stop the aging process while others -- your spouse, your children, your friends -- all grew older around you?) The result was a fast-paced thriller than made the reader pause to think about our obsession with retarding the aging process and staying young.

In SKIN DEEP, he explores a related issue -- our obsession with beauty and LOOKING young -- but has raised the "thriller" aspect of his writing up a notch. Without giving plot away, the lead detective on a murder case involving a beautiful woman has reason to believe he might be the actual killer. It's a clever device that keeps the reader guessing well into the last 50 pages -- and just when that is resolved, the story takes two or three more twists that few will see coming; certainly, I didn't. The story flows quickly -- the writing is sharp -- the dialogue seems right on. For those familiar with Boston, the references to certain universities, restaurants and landmarks are interesting (and accurate). I look forward to Gary Braver's next book.

A Perfect Thriller

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-21

I never met a book I couldn't put down - until now. Skin Deep is truly a page-turner. I started reading it on Friday night and finished it before dawn on Saturday. The writing is terrific and the dialogue is pitch-perfect. Bravo! Gary Braver has written an intelligent, challenging thriller. Barbara Silkstone

Beauty Is Only... SKIN DEEP!

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-10

There are certain expectations with every genre: with romance you expect passion; in literary novels it should be all about the characters arcs; and in sci-fi, it should all be out of this world. In a thriller, you want there to be a mystery to unravel, you want a villain so evil that s/he's almost inhuman, and you want it all at a pace that could burn out your heart. Gary Braver, my friends, has done it again, and he's hit every mark without fail. He's even hit a few marks that you'd never expect in a thriller...

Steve Markarian is troubled. He's in hot water with his job at the Boston PD, he's separated from his wife, and he's suddenly caught up in the biggest case of his career. They find a beautiful woman who appears to have accidentally killed herself during a scarfing session, but could it be more than that? The more they search, the more the clues lead them to murder, but the suspects are few. Maybe it's the college professor... or the bouncer at the strip club. Could it really be his partner? Or could it possibly be... himself? Steve spirals into darkness as he searches for the killer, and comes face-to-face with some terrifying personal demons in the process.

Dana is Steve's wife and unsatisfied with her looks. She's not as young as she used to be and, in the course of switching professions, comes to the conclusion that she needs a little help to battle the beautiful twenty-something's who will be her competition in the workforce. At the urgings of a friend, Dana books an appointment to see the best plastic surgeon in Boston, and there's no turning back. Everything seems to be going fine, until Steve starts to see connections between the steadily mounting victims and Dana, connections that have him fearing for her life.

Where Braver really stretches his legs is in a parallel storyline that takes place almost forty years in the past, the story of a boy and the strange hold his aspiring actress of a stepmother seems to hold over him. It's enthralling, it's disturbing, and it really showcases Braver's talent as a writer. If he weren't so good at writing thrillers, I'd hope to see a literary novel from him at some point...! I'd say it's worth reading the book just for these scenes, but the rest of the book is equally worth your time!

This one will have you guessing almost until the very end. The reveal of the killer's identity comes a little sooner than the regular thriller, but then there's nothing normal/ordinary about this book. Not only will the killer's identity shock you, but the REAL twist is WHY the killer is murdering these women. And, believe me when I say, you'll have to pick your jaw up from the ground.

Gary Braver's best novel to date. I don't really know how he's going to top this one, but I have no lack of faith that he will!

Someday

Published in Hardcover by Orchard (2002-06-01)

Author: Jackie French Koller

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Average review score:

Adrienne

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-05

Someday was a terrific novel.I enjoyed reading about what life was like for Celie's family and friends. I also learned about a piece of history. I learned what it was like for many people during the Depression and how they handled certain situations. Celie always knew that 'someday' was comming but she never really expected it to come so fast. The town of Enfield is being destroyed to make a resovouir for Boston. Elizabeth Wheeler is detertmined to stay right where she is. She won't allow anyone to talk her into leaving. Celie and her mother have a hard time putting up with her. When Jake, a worker from the MDWSC, meets the Wheeler family Gran starts to warm up. Celie and her mom discover that they both have a crush on him and feelings are hurt. At the end Celie realizes everything that she's been doing wrong. She tells Chubby how much she loves him and he loves her in return. Celie is lost and confused. Gran died after they had to aution off all of her belongings and now Mama is making Celie move to Chicago. Celie just wants to be with the people she knows and loves, but it's not possible. Someday finally came.

the best book I ever read

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-13

Someday by Jackie French Koller is the best book I've read so far that is good from the begining to the end it is about Celie Wheeler,her Mother,Gram and her best friend Cubby who live in Enfield during 1938 which was flooded to create a reservoir for Bosten read the book and find out what happens

SOMEDAY You should really read this book

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-16

I picked this book up at the library one day when I didn't have much time for browsing around. I saw that it had an audio version and knew that typically only the better books get made into audio. Since I had a long car ride coming up, I grabbed the audio book and checked it out.

It is WONDERFUL. I can't believe I've never heard of the author or the book before. The characters -- daughter, Mom, Grandmom are all likeable and entertaining. They each have very different desires and the back and forth as they negotiate their daily lives is very funny and very believable. I haven't finished the book yet, as it outlasted the drive, but each day as I jump in my car I can hardly wait to get back to it (don't ask why someone old enough to drive a car is listening to a tape in the juvenile section).

Ms. Koller, this book is the berries!!! (Only the author, those who have read the book, or are fairly old will quite understand the meaning of that line).

"Symposium" of Plato

Published in Hardcover by University of Massachusetts Press (1970-12)

Author: John A. Brentlinger

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Average review score:

passionately rational loving

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-27

The Symposium of Plato is a profoundly thought-provoking, entertaining and inspiring piece of philosophical writing. It is very short, yet infinitely more substantial than many longer works.

We are in Athens, 416 B.C.E. The scene is a banquet at the house of Agathon, who had the day before celebrated the victory of his tragedy. By the end of the party, seven men - and one absent but central woman - will have presented their views on the nature and meaning of Eros, or love.

There is no difficulty keeping the characters distinct in our minds. Plato has great fun contrasting the opinions - and verbal styles - of tragic poet, comic poet, politician, physician and the rest, allowing absurdities and profundities to mingle freely. Socrates is very appealing, saint-like, yet utterly down-to-earth, in his usual role of 'philosopher' - one who 'knows only that he does not know' - always in passionate search of the truth, but catching only revelatory glimpses of it.

Phaedrus gives the first speech, praising lovers' (especially homosexual) passion and loyalty, which makes them perform mighty and heroic deeds. Pausanias differentiates between virtuous, or spiritual love, and common, or bodily love. Virtuous love between men should not be primarily about sex, but about improvement and education of the soul. Eryximachus, the doctor, makes a mostly irrelevant (and boring) speech, claiming nature's contrasting elements illustrate the need to balance the healthy and unhealthy aspects of love. Aristophanes then delivers a brilliantly memorable speech, hilarious and poignant by turns, telling of how humans were once two-in-one, back to back, with two heads, four arms and four legs, with three combinations of sexes, male/male, male/female, and female/female. Their strength and speed made them threaten the gods, so Zeus cut them in half, leaving them to search forever for their other halves, and through loving attempt to regain their original oneness. Agathon then gives an over-the-top, ecstatic spech, praising love as the youngest, most graceful of the gods, saying he brought order to heaven itself, 'empties men of disaffection and fills them with affection', etc, climaxing with the suggestion we all follow in love's footsteps, 'sweetly singing in his honour'.

It is then Socrates' turn. He performs for all conversations that took place between himself when much younger and Diotima, a 'wise' woman from Mantineia, to whom he had gone for instruction in the highest truths of love. In sum, the lesson is that love is the desire for the everlasting possession of the good and beautiful, which brings happiness. We crave immortality, in order to be happy eternally. We love our offspring, artistic works, laws and institutions, because they are all attempts to achieve an immortal name. These, Diotima claims, are the 'lesser' mysteries of love.

The 'greater' proceed from the 'lesser' in ascending steps. From the love of one beautiful body the lover creates 'fair notions', then he sees all bodies are similar and equally worthy of love. From bodies he proceeds to the beauty of the virtuous mind, then the beauties of institutions and laws, climbing from there to the beauties of the sciences, until, after much growth in wisdom, he reaches the vision of all creation as beautiful. The final step is to rise to the contemplation of unchanging, eternal, absolute beauty itself. To spend your life in union with perfect beauty allows you to bring forth 'real' things, not 'images', and 'be immortal, if mortal man may'.

A drunken Alcibiades bursts in at this point, and gives a rambling, often funny, speech about his love for Socrates and how he - a very beautiful man - was spurned sexually by him. He describes Socrates' near-supernatural control of himself, totally above the effects of pain and pleasure. The book ends with Socrates' companions all falling asleep as dawn breaks (after all-night drinking) and his going about his usual day.

Throughout the Symposium, Plato makes it clear that sexual relations are not the best thing for 'lovers'; they who wish for the highest happiness must seek to grow in virtue and wisdom and become increasingly detached from earthly pleasures. This is the origin of the phrase 'Platonic love'. Women were not considered their intellectual and spiritual equals at the time, so men of sophistication had to look to each other for emotional sustenance.

What then, we may ask, can the Symposium offer human beings today who are not interested in purely mystical/intellectual living and prefer the sexual and emotional satisfactions of personal relationships?

A great deal, I believe. In his introduction Benjamin Jowett states that Plato 'is conscious that the highest and noblest things in the world are not easily severed from the sensual desires, or may even be regarded as a spiritualized form of them'. In other words, earthly pleasures and transcendent ones are inextricable. Plato used words such as 'good' and 'virtue' to describe freeing oneself from the world of the senses, by using our reason to choose correctly who - or what - to attach to as we move through life. If we choose correctly, be it friends, sexual or lifetime partners, we strengthen our sense of inner freedom, until finally we experience it at the deepest, mystical level - the profound shift in consciousness that Plato was pointing to as the highest good - which in and of itself is morally and values-neutral.

The genius of Plato is that he communicates the total commitment required to attain perfect freedom and the moral obligation of all human beings to strive for the happiness it alone can deliver.

great story, fab translation, and cool drawings!

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-02-09

This book started it all for me. It stood out in the sociology section of floor 3 at the library. They say that you can't judge a book by its cover, but often, a cover will tell you a lot about the book.

That's how it was with this one. The cover was funky, with half-finished etchings. What was written inside was even better. It was a beautiful discourse on the nature of Love. From Agathon's (it was Agathon that told of Achilles and Patroclus...wasn't it?) tale of devotion, Aristophanes' haunting fable about our "other halves" (and the interludes in between, especially the one about hiccoughs) to Socrates' speech on love "involving the mind and not the body", this is a timeless and highly accessable study.

Read it a few years ago, and have been into philosophy ever since.

Love a la Socrates

Helpful Votes: 9 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 1999-10-15

Not only should this book be the literary book-fellow to any Classics student, but an absolute must for every human being on the face of the planet. Griffins' translation is not only beautifully rendered/translated but extremely funky and contemporary. It is so applicable to our own modern interpertations of life, the universe,and everything, that you will easily forget than it was written over 2,500 years ago. In addition, the book design values are astounding. The fonts, both English and Greek, are lovely that even the reader who has never studied Greek will fall in love with the flowing lines.