New York Books

Airwaves is O'Shaughnessy at hist best! From Mario Cuomo to Nelson Rockefeller, Airwaves gives a unique insight into some of the most fascinating figures of the Empire State and beyond. The candid conversations shed new light on the personal aspects of these rich characters who have helped shaped the state. O'Shaughnessy puts his guests at ease with a flair born from years of interviews and radio editorials that made the legendary broadcaster who he is today.

return we us now to those days of yesteryear..

The book is implemental to the collections of book lovers everywhere. I'm the same age as the author and I have not even half the amount of stories he has to tell. And, I don't even have half the amount of hair. WOW! What a book!

Nobody captures the essence of society's colorful characters like O'Shaughnessy. His perspectives on freedom of speech and The First Amendment are inspirational.

William O'Shaughnessy is everything we love about the Irish. He's irreverent, colorful, warm, and kind. This collection of radio editorials would be worth far more than its price if you were to receive only pages 61-64 for your money. (Think of the other 387 excellent pages as coming "at no extra charge.")

I was conducting a seminar in Manhattan for the great Joe Riley when I was introduced to Bill. I gave him a copy of my latest book and he gave me a copy of his, this (just released) Airwaves. I wasn't expecting much... but then I'm an idiot.

William O'Shaughnessy beggared America by limiting his radio commentary to Westchester County, New York. He should have been a network anchor.

Even though the book has a somewhat regional "New York" flavor, (I'm from Texas,) I liked it.

Bill! Write us another one!

a difficult book to read, stylistically speaking. the sentences are awkward, and 300 pages later i couldn't adapt to the point that they smoothed out. chapters 2-5, roughly 100 pages, seemed particularly viscous. i went through the entire book without feeling that i really knew what the author meant by the term "daimonic." there's a footnote from the intro that gives a hint, another hint on page 65, but after going through it a third time the best i can do is work backward from terms from freud and jung. diamond provides reasonably informative and entertaining overviews of noted theorists and brief biographies of creative artists. the most welcome line of the book for me was a quote from rollo may: "the task of the therapist is to conjure up the devils rather than put them to sleep." no devils, and few other readers, will be particularly stirred up by the book, i'm afraid, but i give it a four for the revelation that western thinkers have arrived at "confrontation therapy" mere thousands of years after the orient (a zen master shoved his non-swimming student into a deep pond. as the student thrashed, the master calmly asked, "at this moment, what is your original mind?").

Diamond redeems anger in much the same way that May redeemed Anxiety over 50-years ago. A student of May's, Diamond shows an excellent grasp of both May's work and the broader context of exisential and depth psychology. Particularly helpful is Diamond's ability to apply the concept of the daimon to psychopathology and the psychological disorders. This provides for a penetrating analysis of pathology from an existential perspective along with a new approach to the etiology of these disorders.

In this single volume, Diamond shows himself to be one of the leaders in contemporary existential thought. This book should be a must read for contemporary students and practitioners of depth psychology.

A good orientation, thorough review of the development of existential/depth psychology, with a refreshing, updated point of view. Immediate, practical applications for some of today's most pressing isssues. Good for an educated public as well as for mental health professionals. -- Bruce F. Pither, Ph.D., President, American Mental Health Alliance of California

I am writing to express my deep appreciation of Dr. Diamond's book Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic. I am a Grandmother and a lay person, and yet I can understand and relate to every word written. This book should be read by every single mental health professional. It is so relevant and important. We plan to tell everyone we know about this book. We believe that this book and Diamond's insight are right on target, and would like to thank him for his courage and conviction in writing this book. Dr. Diamond should be applauded by every member of his profession.

I am a clinical psychologist, and in my list of favorite books, I write this:

Diamond writes: "The volatile emotions of anger and rage have been broadly `demonized,' vilified, maligned, and rejected as purely pathological, negative impulses with no real redeeming qualities. As a result, most `respectable' Americans habitually suppress, repress, or deny their anger-inadvertently rendering it doubly dangerous." He also clarifies, while developing the ideas of Rollo May, how we therapists collude with our clients and culture, thus depriving ourselves of the value and resources of this normal dimension of our being. He integrates psychoanalytic, Jungian, and existential theory under a new rubric of Existential Depth Psychology. As May states, our job is often "not to still the daimons but to wake them."

In addition, I think this is an important, engaging, and well-written work that I wish all my colleagues would read.

This is the best translation of Taoist sexual practices available. The translation formatting is excellent. If you have any degree of previous exposure to Chinese language and Taoist concepts this is not a spring board to further knowledge, it is a rosetta stone. Not an ounce of this text is watered down, like so many of the other books on this subject. Further, the full inclusion of herbal formulas in this text are incredibly vital to understanding the true value of huang di's teachings from su nu.

Best of all ... there are no pictures.

A fine text by a true scholar.

Here is the largest collection of historical Chinese texts on Taoist sexuality in English, excellently translated and footnoted. A must have reference work for the serious, advanced student.

This is not an introductory text, and I think a beginner would be hard pressed to understand and practice many of the techniques in the book.

I'm just a beginner on this subject,I started with some photocopies on the subject(nothing special)and found them not very elucidatory. I wanted to know more!...then I bought this book,although I haven't read it all,from the pages I read, I felt I could comprehend easier what was being said.It explained certain doubts that came accross from the other texts I read.

I think(from the little insight I have)that this book is perfect to understand the subject, if one already knows something about Taoist ancient sexual practices.

This book collects nearly two dozen classical writings on the use of sexual energy in achieving health and long life. It's a distinctly non-Western tradition, but presents a unified, interlocking set of ideas.

The largest part of this lore corresponds to Western alchemy. It uses many of the same metaphors, such as mercury, lead, and the crucible, and much of the same elliptical language. In a few places, the metaphors or code-words are so obscure that translators disagree wildly on their meanings, and even on whether the meanings can be reconstructed correctly. Other parts of the writings draw on mystical Taoism, Buddhism, and the same vital energies that explain acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. Not surprisingly, much of the tradition is aimed at male readers, with relatively little concern for the women. Despite the over-all male orientation, the last few selections do address women, with needs that sometimes match and sometimes differ from the men's. Even the men's writings address the importance of the woman's excitement, though, and describe the outwardly visible signs of its many stages.

However it is phrased or whoever it is addressed to, this set of practices is based on summoning and channeling sexual energy. Many of the authors use the "paired way" of coition to raise that power. Others use solo exercises in self-stimulation for the same purpose. This seems especially common in the women's texts, possibly because placing her needs before the man's would have been culturally unacceptable. The emphasis is on yogic self-discipline rather than exotic poses. Still, one author does offer a list of couplings with poetic names such Mandarin Ducks United (a pose I enjoy very much, because of range of additional caresses it makes possible). I recommend this book very highly to students of Asian thought and to anyone else who wants to see different perspectives on the practice and power of human sexuality.

//wiredweird

This is a work of scholorship and not simply a book about the ancient Chinese view of sex. It's very complete and contains both usuful material for moderns and very interesting historical material regarding alchemy, Qi Gong and Chinese medicine as they relate to sex.

What I love about this book is that it's not a 'genre' book-- it's about so many different kinds of people that you can hardly hold it all in your head-- whoa, I'm reading about two old Jewish ladies one minute, and somehow it's vitally connected to hot anonymous sex in Central Park, and also to opera singers spending their whole lives on an off-chance dream, and vicious successful writers (the more successful, the more vicious, it seems....), and oh yes, romantic types just as hopelesly optimistic --- what dreams are worth pursuing, I guess is the question. And isn't that what everyone wonders, always?
It's innovative and witty, too, by the way. My heart is full, and I'm inspired to go out and live my life more courageously and with more love. If that's a dopey thing to say, I'm sorry, but that's what the book makes me feel.

I forgot to eat and drink and maybe breathe while I was reading this book-- it's the book I've been writing in my head all these years, as my own life has unfolded. It's always so strange to see in somebody else's words your own life described, but that's what it was like to read this novel by a really wonderful writer I just discovered. How did he know THAT about me! Finally someone has described THAT impossible-to-describe moment, when the sun is setting, and your whole life seems to make sense for a moment, and then it's gone and life's a big confusion again....
I'm so moved by this book. It seems so full of love, is the thing, despite the fact that it's so clear-sighted and unafraid to say that even those we love, even ourselves (especially ourselves) are flawed, flawed, flawed-- and yet always, always deserving of love. I'm so sick of the smooth, cynical, heartless styles, that are so superior to everyone and everything. This universe is eloquent, beautiful, and yet always human and humble.
The other thing I love about AURA is that it's--imaginative! It's funny! It makes you smile and laugh, with its inventive plot and struggling characters. I teach, and I'm definitely going to teach this in my contemporary lit class.

Without reiterating the plot I have four things to say about this book.

1. For me, this book was not a page-turner but one that I wanted to read slowly and savor each moment, marvel at the unfolding of every character, and reflect on those times when some epiphany in the book crossed over to call forth or merge with similar times in my own life.

2. The non-linear plot is a wonderful literary devise, even though it sometimes makes it difficult to know exactly where you are in the unfolding of the story-which makes it feel even more true to life.

3. The characters are uniquely and relentlessly consistent in their development, which is what makes them so believable and engaging.

4. There is a subtle underlying darkness to the novel, because it is so honest in dealing with the failed hopes and imperfections that exist in each of the characters, reminding the reader that we are also imperfect creatures. The good news is that we do not have to be perfect to appreciate and even enjoy each day that is given to us.

I think Gary Glickman is a literary genius just waiting to be discovered. His writing is beautiful, simple, but deep, and allows us to see the depths of every character beneath their carefully constructed façades. There are many levels to this book, and a great deal of subtle social commentary. I was in New York in the 70's and this book so totally captures that time. It's like a painting, beautifully crafted, sometimes disturbing, but always fascinating... Definitely a great read.

I read the other review here and thought I just had to respond. I never heard of Gary Glickman before I read "Aura"-- I was just looking for a vacation book that would grab my attention and keep it. But I loved this novel. I always wondered what it would have been like to live in New York, and risk everything to "make it", and take the risk of hanging out with ruthless, talented people.....now it feels like I know.
But there's more going on in this novel than just what "happens"-- that's why I loved it so much. Every moment-- a thousand private moments people have that you just think, "I could never describe this, all these connections, all this gorgeous life happening all around me"-- that's what this novel describes, over and over again. It's hard to imagine how the writer remembered so much, so vividly, or even how he managed to create so many of those private, mystical moments. Like just looking across a courtyard, and seeing your sister's kitchen window, when you're an old woman. Or falling in love, or succeeding in your dreams and realizing that -- woops!-- love and connection and heart are worth more than any of the gold.
If I have any quibble with the book it's that ambition and privilege do seem to win in the end. If you're lucky in the beginning, you win: the privileged kids become the privileged and powerful adults. ... just like life, I guess. Darn!
Anyway, this book (I'll say it) changed my life. I'm buying it for my friends, all of us just out of school, and big with our own dreams.

Bua's work is amazing. I truly enjoyed his work as well as his story. I highly recommend this book.

I put this book in the must have catagory. I have followed Justin bua's art the last few years and have found this book a great source of info on his methods and background info on his work. I have a book by ernie barns and I put this one right up with his. This book is a must have for any Bua fan or fan of black or urban art.

Justin Bua is not just a talented artist but he is prolific as well. His stylistic caricatures and illustrations with there amplified perspectives and edgy stylings bring the urban street scene to life in a poignant and entertaining way. He presents a diary of his life on the streets. He shows a cast of characters that resonate with energy and rhythm created by his skills at applying line, color and texture. Awesome! Justin Bua is a poet with a paint brush!

If you like Justin Bua...you'll love this book.The artwork is beautiful and he provides a detailed outline of his life,his inspiration, and his direction for each of his pieces... The layout is beautiful, the design is lovely, and the art is brilliantly Bua. It's a great book to share with others too.

I bought this book as part of research for a 15 min adaptation of a play Marisol (Jose Rivera) for my drama class. Bua's artwork is stunningly beautiful, with a great portrayal of a city that brings so much awe, culture and mystery...NYC (where marisol is staged).
his telling a story through art is an amazing feat, the colors are great and a few really nice quotes about progression in any artform is in need of skills, as the book states:

As one of my teachers Glenn Vilppu put it: "if you think of all the possible visual elements that you must learn as keys on a piano, the more keys you have, the wider the range of possibilities you can enjoy. Of course, you can make music with just a few keys, but that should be based on choice, not limitations."

Eloquent in his words and thoughts (and his teachers words for that matter), and passionate about his artform, i found the book a great story into the heart of new york.

This beautifully written reminiscence of growing up in Brooklyn captures neighborhood life in the 20s in Brooklyn and goes beyond, containing all the elements of childhood dormant in our minds and inherent in our experiences growing up in cities around America. Life was simpler --Bernice Carton brings the beauty of that life vividly to the page and helps us reenter a world that is well worth recapturing.

Bernice Carton's Beyond The Brooklyn Bridge gives today's reader a slice-of-life look at growing up in another, more simple era. From the street games kids played to the medicinal remedies we no longer use to parental guidance of a kind we no longer experience, Bridge takes the reader on a journey back in time. Written in a thoughtful, evocative style, Carton's book is a delight to any reader - no matter where they grew up. I recommend it highly to the young and not-so-young alike. Carton's fictionalized account of growing up on a specific block, on a specific street in a much-loved part of America is a treat for the imagination. It's a book that makes you comfortable - like cookies and warm milk.

I am a Californian who has lived in Brooklyn Heights since 1991. Beyond the Brooklyn Bridge is a delightful story about a Brooklyn that was here long before I arrived. The characters in the book are the kind of kids with whom I would love to have played. The Mothers are to sort of lovely people one would like to have gotten to know. I recommend the book for those who are new to New York and to people all of the country who would like a view of Brooklyn past.

Reading her book made me feel I knew her. Certainly, she took me by the hand and led me down Memory Lane and it was fun all the way. I haven't heard anyone say "Holy Cow" for long time. I loved the part about the empty lot because a house burnt down. The kids on my block in New Kensington Pennsylvania had an empty lot, too. There, we had roast "mickies", too. We didn't call them that, but we loved eating them. Cindery black though they were, and usually raw in the middle. Open streetcars. Penny Candy. I had to laugh out loud when I read about ice cream plopping out on the sidewalk to "Good-bye, Charlie!" It's been a long time since I heard that, and "Hot diggety dog!" I was surprised to learn that Brooklyn kids used the same expressions that we did in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, where I grew up in the 1920's. I guess I didn't expect the use of language to be the same everywhere. This book gave me so much pleasure!

Entranced by this wonderful compendium of nostalgic reminiscences - written in a lively, irresistible style - I have given the book as a gift on every occasion that calls for one. Without fail, recipients tell me that not only did they thoroughly enjoy the trip down memory lane, but, in turn, "lent" the book to friends and relatives, who, in turn, have "lent" it to others... In each case I receive lengthy letters, e-mails or telephone calls of thanks from people wishing to add their own personal memories to Bernice Carton's remarkable store of nostalgia...This includes readers in locations as disparate as Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Canada, Australia, England and France. Not just Brooklyn! (I have recently learned through the grapevine that this book now even numbers among the possessions of exiled Prince Michael of Rumania himself, a gentleman whose presence graces the pages of this work)!...What a wonderful springboard for hours of delightful conversation! It has proven itself to be the gift of the century... Everyone tells me they are eagerly awaiting the sequel - tales of Ms. Carton's adolescence in Brooklyn...

Blown Sideways Through chronicles Claudia Shear's search for the true job, and the 64 jobs she had to enjoy/endure so far) before she she found the job (or career) that was right for her. Brunch chef at Fire Island, nude model,proofreader, receptionist at an brothel; Shear always spins a good story, and amuses us with life's wierdness. This is also a truthful look at the life many of us live. We have jobs, not careers, working where we can to make the money we need to live our lives. Shear makes no apology for the meandering work path she has chosen. There is dignity and humor in her retelling of seemingly menial jobs (some of them were pretty horrid). I think her rant of the observed rudeness of a donut store patron, and the pevelent attitude of "looking down" on service industry people is a must read for every person. Funny, insightful and honest, this is a book that deserves a reprint.

Claudia takes us on her journey... and in doing so makes a name for herself. This is a well written and thoughtful book. A one woman show! A standup and take notice comedy!

I had imagined that every working adult would like a copy of this book. I've so-far owned two copies, both of which were lent out and never returned. I imagine that somebody out there (well, two actually) must have liked it as much as I do and I'm not mad at them, as the third time I went for a copy I found the book on tape, read by the author.

I realise that it is now hard to find with no new printing in sight, but if you ever do spot a copy somewhere, you need it. If you went to university and ended up flipping burgers, buy it. If you've ever found yourself in a strange place after having lied your way into employment and about to do something you're having second thoughts about, buy it. If you're just entering the work force for the first or sixty fourth time, buy it!

When I look back at the multitude of menial jobs I've worked in my life, I see that I could easily write a book about them, but Ms. Shear has beaten me to the punch! If I didn't know better, I would think I had written this book!She, like me, has worked a variety of jobs that run the gamut. If you've just up and quit your job, read this book. If you're shlepping away at a menial ball-and-chain, read this book. If you're floating from one occupation to another in the hope of finding the perfect career, read this book. If you've been working at the same company for 20 years and have no intention of ever leaving, read this book. If you're a CEO pulling in a six-digit salary, read this book. If you're independently wealthy and don't have to work, read this book.Regardless of which of the above statements applies to you, you will come away a more enriched person for having read BSTL.

As Ms. Shear says, "Everyone has a story that would stop... your... heart." I caught her show late late one evening on NPR as I was getting ready to do another speech to hopefully inspire some young people to leave Job Corps and do good with their life - I was burnt out and uninspired myself and just listening to what she had to say - nevermind watching her magnificent presence on the small screen - brought me back up. It took me years to find this book in a library; and I'm glad to be able to buy another copy - maybe another 10 copies to give to people I know need it. Anyone who has ever felt beat down by their work and their lives melded into an amazing wash of effort to keep one nostril above the waves; anyone who has ever felt walked on by the world will be inspired by this wonderful woman's story.

The Bobbed-Haired Bandit is about a pair of poor newlyweds, Celia and Ed Cooney, who turned to armed robbery to better their lot, sriking terror in the hearts of Brooklyn grocers in 1924. The competitive New York City tabloid press turned the girl desperado into a media darling, an anti-heroine for the age - Jesse James, in a flapper dress.

The authors - both of whom are historians and "scholars of the media" - stumbled across the story by accident:

"Digging through yellowed clippings in a scrapbook at the New York State Library in Albany, we came across a criminal with an intriguing moniker: the Bobbed Haired Bandit. With so much type set on her behalf, she was hard to miss. There were hundreds of articles about her, none of them all true."

But these two fellows knew a good story when they saw one, and like me they have a fine appreciation for the rich vernacular of old journalism. They don't write headlines like these any more.

NEW GIRL BANDIT, A BLONDE,

HELPS KIDNAP TRUCKLOAD OF

SUGAR: TWITS CHAUFFEUR

***

BEWARE THE BOBS

***

DEPREDATIONS BY GIRL ROBBER

AND MAN COMPANION ROUSE

POLICE OFFICIALS TO ACTION

***

FORGET SEX - SHOOT !

Now tell me the last time you saw a word like "depredation" in a headline. Or "twit" as a verb. I love it!

Now back to the story. So this young lady and her man go on a tear, robbing store after store, making the police "look like brass monkeys almost every time the sun went down," in the lady's own words. The journalists of New York gave her the front page day after day, while the crimes of other, more ordinary folk were "passed over unnoticed" (Brooklyn Eagle). The lady robber became a blank canvas, and journalists threw lots of ink on her.

The authors did something interesting with all these old clippings, using newspaper articles from elsewhere in the same papers to explore other themes in the life of the city at the time, from the impact of Prohibition, the changing roles of women, on down to the weather reports to flesh out the full story of the "naughty scamp," to try to explain why she became the media phenomenon she was.

Then, like the Younger Brothers before them, the Cooneys attempted a poorly planned daylight robbery, and it was their downfall. Though they tried to flee, they were caught and returned to New York for a triumphant homecoming.

It turns out the journalists liked her story a lot more before she had a name. Before she had a poor childhood. Before the truth of what she was negated a lot of the coverage of her crime spree. In an extraordinary editorial, the influential newspaperman Water Lippmann had this to say about Cecilia Cooney:

"For some months now we have been vastly entertained by the bobbed-haired bandit. Knowing nothing about her, we created a perfect story standardized according to the rules laid down by the movies and the short story magazines. The story had, as the press agents say, everything. It had a flapper and a bandit who baffled the police; it had sex and money, crime and mystery. And then yesterday we read in the probation officer's report the story of Cecilia Cooney's life. It was not the least bit entertaining...."



Even after she was caught, and, along with her husband, sentenced to prison, Mrs. Cooney continued to be a blank slate on which various parties wrote rants. But these biographers don't let the story spin off into a sidebar. The last couple of chapters tell the rest of the tale of the bandit and companion, and by that point, she's visible as a flesh and blood person through the headlines, a heart and mind in addition to a journalism phenomenon. As the authors remark --

"Reading these stories... not only tells us how certain individuals and specific events were understood at the time but also reveals how the past is remembered and reminds us how history is made... "the record" of the past is documented mostly by the commercial mass media, which subject the events to a filtering of fact and fancy based on standards of popularity and profitability. For what mattered most to the newspapers of New York City in the Twenties is the same thing that ... [matters to] book publishers of today: telling, and selling, a good story."

And ain't that a final truth.

Celia Cooney, most celebrated as the "Bobbed-Haired Bandit" of the Twenties, comes vividly to life in this scholarly yet entertaining exploration of her brief life of crime and celebrity, with emphasis on the celebrity. Both Celia's own recognition of her fame and the multifaceted interpretations of it by police, press, and the public make for fascinating reading. Her duel persona as the aspiring flapper and expectant mother who joins her husband on holdups to make ends meet makes for one of the more compelling crime stories of the Jazz Age. Her later life, concealing her criminal past while raising her sons who knew nothing of it, presents a striking contrast to the young lady bandit who publicly gloried in her exploits. The photos are equally intriguing and belie the image of the dangerous gunwoman, especially when tiny, harmless-looking Celia is standing alongside husband Ed. And there are plenty of absolutely classic old crime cartoons from New York newspapers. Alternately funny, shocking, touching, and harrowing, this is one of the best historical crime books I've read in a while.

The Bobbed Haired Bandit by Stephen Duncombe and Andrew Mattson tells the story of Celia and Ed Cooney in 1920s New York. Newlyweds and newly pregnant, Ed and Celia decide to rob some convenience stores to try and make a better life for themselves. Because Celia has bobbed hair, flapper style, the story of their robberies quickly grab the attention of the newspapers and soon the police. The Cooneys find that the stolen money doesn't last long and after a succession of several small hold-ups, flee to Florida only to be captured shortly after the death of their newborn daughter. The authors spend a great deal of time in the beginning of the book discussing the sociological implications of Celia's celebrity, but they can't seem to decide on what exactly the public's obsession with her meant. Much ink is also given to the personal histories of the cops chasing them, but they detract from the real story of Celia. Perhaps one of the most captivating details is that Celia's sons didn't find out about their mother until she had passed away. Celia Cooney was a woman of mystery to the papers in the 1920s and remained one in her life, even to her family. Now there's a story.

The 1920s was a decade when few major metropolitan newspapers didn't have National Enquirer style headlines every day. Renegade women were a fixture in these potboiler stories: Katherine Malm, a.k.a. the "Tiger Woman" and lethal flapper Wanda Stopa titillated Chicagoans, and in New York, a tough little laundress named Celia Cooney was determined to burst through the economic barrier between the Haves and the Have-Nots.

Stephen Duncombe and Andrew Mattson have written the type of book I love: an intelligent re-examination of a now-forgotten media sensation. Celia Cooney and her husband, Ed, embarked on a brazen robbery spree after money worries galvanized them out of anxiety and into action. That's the simplified version. Seen from a broader perspective, the Cooneys' crimes provided an impetus for politicians and the public to argue their views on touchy political and social issues, such as consumerism, attitudes toward the poor, and women's liberation. While telling the story of Ed and Celia Cooney, Duncombe and Mattson also expose the ambivalent feelings that the New York public of the 1920s had toward social progress and change.

The authors did an especially good job of capturing Celia's spunky personality, and showing how it kept her spirits up from her degraded childhood right into her feisty old age. Well done.

This book is a historically accurate, compassionate and insightful look at a fascinating couple who committed robberies in 1923-24. She was pregnant and fashionable and he was the mastermind. Together, they set both the Police Department and the population of NYC on their ears. They were fast, gutsy and a little desperate.

The real story to me is one of triumph over adversity. Not only did "the Bandit" overcome a tragic childhood to become a strong, compassionate, fiercely loyal and independent woman, but she became a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen after her jail time. After her husband's death, she raised two boys on her own through the Depression and World War 2. She is a wonderful example of how it is possible to move past our negative histories and ethical blunders.

I should know - she was my grandmother.

Eliade researched for this book, while staying with Surendranath Dasgupta in India, who was the formost scholar of indian philosophy and thelogy at his time. Eliade meticulously analyzed the indian scriptures and commentaries on sankhya and yoga and presents yoga as a huge, complex and precise system of practice and philosphy with the goal of kaivalyam (libration). This book is a lighthouse in the present time of publishing as much as the printing press can print.

This book is required reading for anyone determined to arrive at a realistic understanding of yoga and Hinduism. It illuminates the central doctrines and history of the thought, as well as providing the understanding for a multitude of sanscrit words which anyone committed to further study will find invaluable. For most, this book may be the pinnacle of their yogic study; for others, a great stepping stone.

Eliade is the greatest of the modern interpreters of myth and religious practice, and Shamanism, along with his Yoga: Immorality and Freedom, are his two most brilliant works. If you love the study of comparative religion any myth, you'll love this book. Bear in mind that these books are about what people believe and how they think about those beliefs. Eliade is a scholar, not a pseudo-mystic, so expect brilliant analysis and insights, not a how-to book on New Age levitation, hepatoscopy, and Oomantia (divination using egg whites!).

I have the Bollingen paperback third printing of the Second Edition of 1969. I have little doubt that they used the plates from that hardcover edition, so the text is identical. The edition of 1970 currently available is the same as the one I have except for a new cover. The original was in French, published in Paris in 1954. This edition is professionally translated by William R. Trask.

Eliade was a nearly legendary scholar of indefatigable energy, and so it is not surprising that this is the definitive single volume academic work on yoga in English (that I am aware of). George Feuerstein's coffee table sized The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice (1998) is a different sort of book, covering yoga from a more practical point of view, and is accessible to a general public. Eliade's book is aimed directly and just about exclusively at academicians. Furthermore, while Feuerstein is a practitioner as well as a scholar, Eliade makes no pretense of first hand experience. As he relates in the Forward, he is interested in the discovery and interpretation of yoga by the West. He wants to explain that in detail. His is a "comparatively full exposition of the theory and practices of yoga...[a] history of its forms, and...its place in Indian spirituality..." (p. xx) The qualifying "comparatively" is a bit of modesty on the part of Eliade. This book really is a "full exposition" (insofar as that is possible) including the ideas, symbolism and methods of yoga "as they are expressed in tantrism, in alchemy, in folklore, in the aboriginal devotion of India." (p. xxii)

The text, which includes lengthy chapters such as, "Yoga and Brahmanism," "Yoga Techniques in Buddhism," "Yoga and Tantrism," "Yoga and Alchemy," etc. runs for 362 dense pages. Sixty-six pages of notes follow, and then a most extensive and valuable bibliography. The Index itself is 47 pages long and concludes with a by-line(!), "Index by Bart Winer," which is only right considering the text was written and set before the age of computers.

This is not a book for practitioners of yoga but a book for students and scholars of the literature of yoga. It is a challenge to read and appreciate and only really accessible to those with some experience with the literature. There is probably no serious yoga book written in the past quarter century that fails to cite it.

This book was my first introduction to yoga in the late 1960's, when the author taught at the University of Chicago and I did graduate work in South Asian Studies. Many decades later, after yoga teacher's training, studies in Carl Jung's archetypal psychology, alchemy and dreamwork I still find it a valuable reference book. It's a good introduction for anyone interested in following the development of yoga theory and practice in India: the major traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and even aboriginal cultures. Eliade's discussion of the art and practice of Tantric ritual is still among the best I've seen; it clarifies an otherwise confusing topic for the Western reader. A classic not only for yoga teachers' libraries and academics, but recommended for anyone with an interest in what yoga's really about, and where it orginated.

What I remember about this book are its beginning and end. What it means to me is that, I suppose, whatever happens in the world, 'la-il Allah el il Allah', which is what one of the characters says in the beginning and the end. It means, 'there is no God but God'. (Allah is the Arabic name of God.) Profound acceptance.

....as an antidote to material insanity....one of those "vade mecums" to have always in your backpack as you are traveling the world...I found this in a used bookstore in the original "quokka" edition, misplaced it and found it AGAIN in another store in the same out of print edition....have never seen it in any other store since...the author leaves you with the impression of true devotion, that as an "outsider" he has fully surrendered to and mastered the Sufi tradition; in fact it is one of the few fictional works I have read to give off the "perfume of devotion"...this, my friends, is the real McCoy.
For the spiritually aware, to be ordered without delay.

If you feel lonely and desperate among the 'madding crowd'of the 'modern world' you shouldn't miss that masterpiece. (By the way: May I make a transcriptional correction regarding Herman Greenstein's review: More appropriate transcription of the quotation can be 'La ilahe ill'Allah' which approximately means 'There is no deity but Allah'...)

I read the Turkish translation of The Book of Strangers twenty years ago. It was translated by the prominent poet Ýsmet Ozel and it was a great chance for the Turkish readers.It was an exciting experience for the westernised Turkish intelligentia to read this marvellous story of spritual as well as cultural oddysey written by a westerner. I think it would be as much interesting for all eastern and middle eastern readers living in the western countries or studying in American/British/German/French universities.

I came across this book entirely by chance, and only picked it up because the back cover claimed that it was the "Sufi Siddhartha." Being already interested in Sufism, my curiosity was piqued. And once having read it, I felt compelled to read it again and again. This is no mere introduction to either Sufism or Islam in a purely intellectual sense, as is so common in Western books on the subject. Still less is it a "novel" intended to amuse. Rather, it is an allegory of one postmodern, Westernized individual's journey into the Islamic Tradition. As such, I found it to be just as powerful as some of the classic allegories and poems written by the great Sufi masters of the medieval period. The plot is very simple: the story is narrated by a young man who works in a University library at some point in the near future. He is appointed to head the library after the disappearance of its former keeper. In this time, libraries are no longer merely buildings which house books, but they have been reduced to processing stations in which computers select and digest materials for scholars and students in such a manner that nothing will distract them from their area of specialization. However, the narrator becomes curious, and begins trying to solve the mystery of the previous librarian's disappearance. He soon comes across the missing man's journal, which contains the story of his growing dissatisfaction with modern life and his interest in ancient mystical writings as a more genuine form of knowledge. Finally, not content to merely read about the mystics of old, the vanished librarian ends his journal by confessing that he is journeying to the "desert lands" in search of living mystics from whom he can learn. The narrator very soon decides to travel in his footsteps, and departs for an unnamed location (most likely North Africa) to see what he can find out. The rest of the story details his gradual journey, first into Islam, and then into Sufism (Islam's mystical heart), after which he changes irrevocably. The book is interesting not so much for its plot but, as in any good allegory, for the record of a man's thoughts as he undergoes an inner transformation.

While I have read many books on Islam and Sufism, I have not encountered another work quite like this one. Most books on Islam intended for Westerners pander to modern beliefs and prejudices, treating it either as a relic of the past requiring modernization or as a threatening political force. This book treats Islam not as an intellectual or historical abstraction, but rather details the thoughts of a man, initially utterly submerged in the lies and half-truths upon which modern Western society is based, as he abandons his prejudices and comes into contact with the genuine reality offered by spirituality.

A brief, biographical note on the author is warranted. Ian Dallas was a Scotsman who travelled to Morocco during the 1960s and became involved with the Shadhili Sufi Order of the highly respected Shaykh Al-'Arabi Ad-Darqawi. After reverting to Islam and studying with the Shaykh for several years (the same period during which he wrote "The Book of Strangers"), the Shaykh appointed Ian Dallas as his successor. To this day, Dallas continues to lead his Order as Shaykh Abdalqadir, and has written many books on the subject of Islam under this name (although he has written a few other works under his original name). Thus, Dallas was uniquely qualified to write this book as a record of how a Westerner can come to understand Islam from within, rather than as an outsider. As such, it is a unique bridge between the modern world of deceit and the timeless, Traditional world of the spirit. If you have any interest at all in Islam, Sufism or any spiritual Tradition as something to be experienced rather than as a mere intellectual abstraction, I highly recommend this book for you.