Allen Books

This Bible has one of the most thorough guides in helping the reader understand Hebrew culture including, weights, calendar, celebrations, and maps. I have been extremely happy with it and think anyone who buys it is and reads it is making a sound investment

This is a great study bible. I love all the references and the outline of the context. The large print is especially easy on the eyes. I especially like the NKJV.

Pat Guevara

How does one critique the inerrant word of God? Well, you do it with the most detailed blueprint available. Nelson's NKJV Study Bible, large print, is outstanding. The illustrations are abundant and colorful. The mapping is thorough and appropriately assigned to the timelines in question. The word focus is on point and informative. The language is still beautifully couched in Elizabethan English but streamlined to eliminate some of the more archaic usage. The poetic harmony of the NKJV is enhanced by the large script which supports easier, faster reading and absorbtion. And the notes; they are magnificant. How do I know; I have a Matthew Henry; a DAKE; a MacArthur and a Ryrie, all of which are excellent Study Bibles. The notes are good in all but they are over the top in the Nelson. Oh and by the way, I am well aware of the fact that the KJV is the Byzantine Text or Textus Receptus (some call it the majority text) which has received some negative press by those who prefer to hang their hat on Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus; that perhaps editorial license and interpolation was taken by some over zealous scribes some few hundred years ago and that Nestle Aland and Westcott & Hort's Text should be the scriptural searchlight for all future issues. Folks, I have a Life Application Study Bible, NLT and I love it but to all of those of us who love literary masterpeices, I ask you to consider Shakespeare in "dynamic functional equivalence". This Nelson NKJV is a fabulous product that just plain feels good everytime I pick its big old body up. Thanks Nelson!
Ralph Jinks

Unfortunately, for some surely idiotic reason, this Bible is no longer in print. It is very large and heavy, but the print, while not exactly large, is largER than the standard size Bible of this title. The binding is sewn!!!! Most unusual on a Nelson Bible, but considering the size of the book, their normal glue surely wouldn't hold. The annotations, charts, and articles are undeniably superb in that sense of the word. This is a Bible worth having, especially if you enjoy larger print, as I do. The shame about it is that you will now have to locate it on used book websites.

I had looked and looked for a good NKJV Study Bible and this one has everything I wanted and more! The price was the best and shipping was great. I would strongly recommend(sp?) this Bible.

An outrageously good book! George Allen offers us a look into the notoriously secretive world of intellence analysts. What is stunning is that just as I suspected, there was no "failure" on the part of the Intelligence Community in Vietnam. The CIA predicted,prior to US involvement, that we could not stop the spread of Communism in Vietnam. As far back as the Indochina War, intelligence analysts, like George Allen, had observed the French struggle against a Viet Minh insurgency that was determined, well-supplied, and well-led. The almost endless supply of weapons flowing in from China (and Russia?) meant that the Viet Mihn could outlast us. All this was communicated to the higher ups including "the best and the brightest". But Hubris (sound familiar?) got in the way. Good intelligence was ignored. Rosy, upbeat reports were printed by Washington to coverup a fiasco. Career obsessed generals placed too much confidence in technology and forgot about man's Darwinian capacity to adapt and thus survive. Reading this book was like reading a memoir on the Iraq War. Let's hope Iraq is not another Vietnam. However, I'm haunted by Hegel's famous line: "History shows us that people don't learn anything from History."

'There's none so blind as those who won't see,' is a proverb that has proven itself over and over in life. And in the area of critical military intelligence it is a deadly proverb. It's an excellent choice of a title for this book on the intelligence failure in Vietnam.

The problem essentially comes when the estimates of the intelligence analysts conflict with the opinions of the leadership making the decisions. And the 'problem' in this case costs the lives of soldiers.

This book is basically a personal history of the author's travels, studies, and analysis of what was going on in Vietnam. He discusses the reports he made and how the powers in charge refused to believe the evidence he had collected through first hand observation during visits to Vietnam.

In his concluding chapter he says that President Roosevelt had the best understanding and recommendations for the future by supporting self-determination rather than assisting the French in re-establishing their empire. Oh what a difference that would have made.

Fascinating reading, especially in view of the current situation in Iraq.

This is an exceptional book, absolutely required reading for the history of the Vietnam War since 1950 but also for the foreign policy decisionmaking process in general. A classic! Reinforces those who thought the war a tragic waste of human lives and resources--who opposed the war.

This is altogether an extraordinary book by an extraordinary author. It is nothing less than the history of the evolution of U.S. policy towards Vietnam from the end of WWII to the conquest of South Vietnam by the Vietnamese Communists as observed by a professional intelligence analyst. The insights this book provides are not just on U.S. involvement in Vietnam (and by extension Laos and Cambodia), but on how U.S. National Security Policy toward South East Asia was formulated over a twenty year period. The comments about the value of a systematic process of formulating national security policy by integrating military, intelligence, and policy considerations are alone worth the price of the book.

If this were all the book did it would be a remarkable achievement. But George W. Allen does considerably more than this. Allen was from the beginning of his long career (some fifty years total) first and foremost a working intelligence analyst. As such he focused on Vietnam for some 18 years and developed in that time the increasingly rare quality of detailed knowledge of his target. Reading this book should provide any attentive reader with an excellent understanding of how the process of intelligence analysis actually works when executed by a real professional.

Although a personal account, Allen's book has an authentic feel to it. This reviewer found much of his account hauntingly familiar although we never met or worked together. Certainly his inability on several occasions to perform truly all source analysis due to ill-conceived compartmentalization is quite familiar. The same is true for his encounters with senior military leaders and civilian policy makers who considered any intelligence that did support their views almost a personal affront.

The Washington D.C. area is fairly awash with former `intelligence officers' claiming to be intelligence or counter-terrorism `experts' based on often rather dubious experiences in the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). It is refreshing then when a real intelligence professional is actually willing to share his thoughts with general public. Towards the end of this book, Allen, identifies himself as a "professional intelligence analyst" which he truly was. The U.S. could use a lot more like him.

I have read a number of books on the US involvement in Vietnam, some of them quite good. This is the best, the ONE book you should read if you're limited to one book. Other recommended books are _To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Forty-Seven Americans and Southeast Asians_ by Al Santoli, and _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth.
With first-hand knowledge -- not just reading from second-hand sources or going through one general's papers -- George Allen describes what happened in Vietnam from before Dien Bien Phu through the fall of Saigon. He has detailed information on the US side, and informed accounts of what the North Vietnamese strategy was. He introduces us to the personalities and events so important to the way Vietnam happened, all in a very engaging and readable style.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book is the listing of the many times the US took action without a full examination of the complete situation. Allen writes, "In foreign affairs and national security matters, there is no substitute for thorough, conscientious, and objective analysis of all the factors bearing on a decision, of alternative courses of action, and of a weighing of the consequences -- domestic as well as foreign -- of all the options available." This was rarely done in Vietnam. Among the hasty decisions the US made were to consider the northern Vietnamese as part of a monolithic Communist threat, to aid the French in maintaining their empire, to take over the French role in Vietnam, to give the green light to the Diem coup, to not realize the problems the lack of post-Diem leadership would create, to not encourage South Vietnam to develop an effective political message and a stable appealing government, to appear to favor Thieu as a candidate (by proclaiming neutrality), by failing to build an effective intelligence system in south Vietnam, by US in-country personnel repeatedly lying to their superiors by exaggerating US success and minimizing enemy strength (thus depriving themselves of the needed resources to meet the real threat), by the false "light at the end of the tunnel" PR campaign (setting the government up for an even bigger fall when Tet '68 came), by giving South Vietnam false assurances of our post-withdrawal support, etc. etc.
These just touch the surface. Allen explains how even minor decisions like insisting ARVN units included artillery support, and not replacing ONE incompetent colonel, possibly had very significant bad effects. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Vietnam, recent American history, or politics. It should be required reading for US policy-makers.
Hopefully someday we'll have someone the caliber of George Allen tell the true story of 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq.

This book is a warm, thoughtful invitation to revisit some poets and poems that remind us of the abiding universality of this form of expression. It's also a joyful nudge to try poetry the way it's best experienced....read aloud. I especially love the entries on Eliot, Berryman, Burns and Coleridge.

I loved this product. As an English teacher in DCPS I have found my students loved being read to. Sometimes they become a little sick of me reading out loud, so having the CD accompany these fantastic poems worked out well in providing variety.

This is a wonderful book for the beginner or anyone wanting to awaken the lapsed poetry lover within. I haven't read poetry since I was in college (many years ago) and found this book an easy re-entry into the wonderful world of poetry. Everyone will have their favorite poems, but I think the ones chosen for this book are diverse and reflect a treasure of past and contemporary work. I have listened to the CD over and over again as it opens up the other dimension of poetry which has helped me fully appreciate many of the poems. John Lithgow is a wonderful host, and beckons us all to enjoy one of life's truly meaningful and mysterious joys. The brief information about each poet proceeding their poem is very helpful and there are highlighted bits of general information including further reading, links to websites etc. Warning--reading poetry can be addictive...

The most important factor in this anthology is that Lithgow is not a poet! How great is that! No name dropping, no friend of a friend, no academic postulations on the preponderances of poetry's perplexing postulations! He just loves poetry. And that frees him to choose what he likes.

The second important factor is that he provides us with audio. Poetry is an audio art as well as visual one. And it stinks to always be missing out on 1/2 of the art.

As a student a teacher of poetry I was schooled in contemporaries like Collins, Howe, Harjo, Bukowski so I always had an aversion to the masters being a lot of it was now cliche and with that annoying abab rhyme scheme. But Lithgow and company make it come alive for me. Hearing Auden read by Foster blew the doors on my poetic hinges. I think this anthology is important for anyone who loves the arts. It is not condescending or overwrought with analysis. A little history of the poet, a little nostalgia about why he like the poem, and then BAM! the poem PLUS he give you more poems by the same author after his initial pick just for exposure so you get 50 poems on the CD plus more in the book. This is the kind of book you buy everyone you know when you can't think of any really worthwhile and meaningful to give them.

It makes me want to do my own anthology poems I love. I my own quarrel is that I doubt there will be a sequel.

The Poet's Corner, compiled by John Lithgow presents an expansive collection of poetry, and is accompanied by a bonus MP3 CD featuring readings of poetry by Mr Lithgow and his friends [ Glenn Close, Morgan Freeman, Jodie Foster, Sam Waterston etc].

Though not the most comprehensive collection of poetry, it is a worthy compilation of well-known poetry written in the English language and is sure to find fans, both existing lovers of poetry and those just coming to appreciate the genre.

Each poem that is selected is accompanied by a short bio of the poet and Mr Lithgow's own explanation as to how the piece interests him or its emotional pull for him. The poems are presented by the poet [alphabetically by their last names] beginning with Matthew Arnold, and ending with William Butler Yeats. There are 50 poets in all, and the poems cover different eras, varied subjects, yet are all beguiling and unique in their ability to draw us in and affect us in different ways. Reading this compilation impacted me emotionally, engulfing me in feelings of joy, sadness and even silent contemplation. The bonus CD is another plus and together this is a wonderful and enjoyable compilation of poetry.

Many reviews have covered this more in depth than I will here. Reinventing the wheel is not my objective. As a spiritual worker, counselor, and teacher, I have to say that the Ra materials (and this means all 4 books of transcription) are basic. They create an understanding of who and what we are and where we are going. Understanding our place with respect to service to other-selves or service to self is the start of wisdom. Further, while some argue that service to self is indeed service to the whole, these writings give clear understanding of why you may wish to follow a service to other-selves path in preference to service to self. If your heart presses you to spiritual growth, start here.

I discovered this material in the early '80s about the time it was released. I was blown away then and still am. I'll never forget the feeling - something similar to having uncovered a profound and precious secret. I remain convinced that other than ACIM, this may be the ONLY channeled material out there that is what it purports to be. Much more recently, I've begun kinesiologically calibrating books, people, spiritual teachers, institutions with the method taught by Dr. David Hawkins. The Law of One books collectively calibrate (or they did with my calibration) at over 800, in fact somewhere in the neighborhood of 850 if I remember correctly. Astounding, considering that Hawkins states that less than 5% of channeled material calibrates over 455.That's about all I can say. Uh...Adonai.

This book contains very interesting information inside which I'm not sure if they are true or false.. But, it is so detailed and realistic that I want to believe it and after I read the book, I realized that it may be like the book says.. Ra Materials answer all the unknown about cosmology, from where men came, what will happen etc... Even if the book is full of false information, it is worth reading because of it's interesting theme..

The Ra material is the transcription of the taped communications between researcher Don and the entity RA, a being that is talking through Carla, often referred to as the "instrument" throughout the book (s), in a state of deep trance. The transcriptions are carried out by Jim and the three are always present during all sessions, creating a triangulation of light that allows for RA, a sixth dimensional being, that calles itself a "socialmemory complex", to come through and speak.

RA has choosen this group because of the purity of their intent and makes himself available to them for questions about the Universe, the Creator, the dimensions, Karma, the law of One and any other material that might aid people in understanding universal truths that might be helpful for mankinds evolution.

The materail is very esoteric and requires some concentration. However, it is well worth the effort, as it is enlightening, very precise, accurate and informative. The explanations around the shift in dimensions we are about to undergo on the planet, that Ra defines as the harvest, are devoid of hype and sensation. Harvest is a process that all beings and planetary bodies eventually encur, following physical/spiritual law just as eclipses do or the seasons.The science of the harvest ( ascension) is explained in depth here as is the chakra system and it's role in Soul evolution.

Also extremely interesting the explanation of the polarization of entities into Service to Self orintated entities and Service to Others orientated entities and the implications these have in the ascension process and the roles they play within the bigger picture.

A really deep read and well worth the effort. I have read all four volumes and I am about to tackle vol 5. I thoroughly recommend it.

There is a lot of channeled material out there, some good and some not so good. I think it is important to use discernment when reading channeled material, just as it is important to use discernment when reading anything, or when listening to a preacher talk.

Ultimately, the truth is inside of us, but we don't know it. So it helps to have it confirmed by `outside' sources. Sometimes we come across something that has that ring of truth in it, and we know it is appropriate for us in this point of time in out lives. Not necessarily appropriate for everyone at all times, or even for ourselves at all times, but appropriate in the now, for where we are at right now.

Thus, I have encountered many books and other sources of info that have all had varying degrees of what I consider `truth', but no one of them being THE TRUTH. (I have long ago dismissed the bible as THE truth, but consider it to have SOME truth in it, while most of it has been distorted.)

The Law of One books are the closest I have found to being THE truth. Many of the channeled works out there are cheesy, or they come across too `authoritative' ie `...in such-and-such year this WILL happen...', `...that IS the way it IS...', etc.

Ra, on the other hand, does not claim to be an authority. Rather, this entity repeatedly tells us to please use discernment and accept only that which resonates as truth within ourselves. Then proceeds to give info that totally rocks your socks off!

This stuff is deep, very deep. I have never read anything else, channeled or not, that even comes close to such high caliber! It is just completely obvious to me that the info really is coming from a higher being, cuz no way anyone could have made all this up!

OK, maybe someone could have. But this info came thru a woman in a trance, and she did not even know what she was saying until she woke up. Even very specific details are consistent throughout the text, over the course of several years of channeling.

AND, the material describes a cosmology that was ahead of its time. Certain aspects of quantum physics, for example, described in the books had not yet been discovered. So no, no one could have made this up!

When you read the material, you get a very strong sense of HIGHER KNOWLEDGE. It's just really obvious that this is NOT coming from a human source, the way most other channeled material seems to be. I had a lot of 'Aha' moments while reading it...in fact, pretty much every sentence!

But, my purpose is NOT to try to convince you. B4 the skeptics start, let me say that I am NOT trying to prove that this channeled work is authentic - if you are searching for absolute proof, then clearly this book (or any channeled work) is not for you. Better to stay in an organized religion and do as they tell you.

However, if you are a serious seeker who is not afraid to think for yourself, then I highly recommend you give these books a try. Prepare to have your mind opened!

If you're still with me, then maybe you'd like to know what the books are about. OK, for starters: the nature of life, the universe, how the pyramids were built, who the aliens are, the chakras, other dimensions, the important elements of a spiritual path, the nature of sexuality, etc. and lots of other interesting topics. But that is not what makes these books stand out - other books have tried to address these topics as well.

What makes the Law of One stand out is the explanation of `Good' vs `Evil'.

If you find the idea of a `good God' being in a constant war with the `evil Satan' oversimplistic, or if you believe that God is all-powerful and beyond good and evil, or if you have a hard time believing that God will `lose' most of the world's population to the `devil', and you are searching for a more intelligent explanation of why there is evil in the world, then these books might be for you.

Or, if you are tired of all the `doom and gloom' prophecies and would like to rekindle hope, then these books might be for you.

Be forewarned: these books are NOT light and fluffy. And whatever you believe, they will challenge you. But they will also inspire you, and give comfort.

I'd heard Robert Bartlett lecture twice at the International Alchemy Conference before I got this book, and I'm glad I didn't wait any longer. This is a concise and direct guide to alchemy, not only in the theories and history, but in the actual "how to do it" sense. A chemist by training and alchemist since he was a teenager, Bartlett gives clear examples and offers up guidelines for doing your own genuine alchemy experiments, without needing lots of fancy or expensive lab gear. Whether your alchemy interest is theoretical or practical, this is a Must Have book for your library!

There is a lot of very valuable practical information.
As an former Paracelsus college student, I highly recommend it!

I bought several noted alchemical books (spagyric, hermetic) dating back to the 16th century. After reading each intro, this book is the one I chose to start with. Because it was wrtten in 2007, it expects a modern mindset from its audience, and so makes comparisons between alchmical undertandings and modern ways of thinking. It does this without being trite.
A great read.

Although I may be a bit prejudiced, Robert is a brilliant alchemist as well as a scientist. He lives his life balanced between both worlds and has demanded that whatever he dedicates his energy to can be proven here in the physical world as well as the invisible realms.

I have been amazed by the healing effects of elixers that he has made.

I have seen the scientific records of his experiments in proving the actual physical changes that the operations of alchemy have on matter.

In his next book he presents the evidence that he has collected through the years that shows that this stuff really works!



And for those who wish to purchase the first book that is for sale here, know that there may be some gap due to problems with the publisher who has been fired. Robert is in the process of getting the book in a second edition back up on the market. Amazon may take a little while to get it on their site.



-Karen Bartlett



spirithorse322@aol.com

This second edition contains a bit more on the operations, the circulatum and has more working diagrams.

It is a true masterpiece, and will be a great addition to anyones collection!

-KB

Ritual & Sacrifice in the Corrida
For many Americans bull fighting is the one of the most misunderstood phenomena. The title of this fine book by Allen Josephs best explains bullfighting to the uninitiated Bull fighting, or toreo as Josephs correctly prefers to call it, is a ceremony of ritual and sacrifice.

The relation between man and the bull is lost deep in the fog of prehistory. Some say it was the bull not agriculture that domesticated man. The corrida is one aspect of that relationship, a sign of respect and honor to a noble enemy and friend.

The book is much more than a story of bullfighting. It is a classic saga of courage and perseverance as Cesar Rincon, a Colombian, against all odds succeeds in a foreign sometimes hostile land. From the plains of southern France, across the mountains of central Spain to the difficult rings of Andalusia, Allen takes us on a whirlwind adventure that criss-cross the breath and depth of Spain as he follows Rincon in his quest for the perfect corrida.

Josephs writes in a lyrical style more in the mode of Garcia Lorca than Hemingway.

Josephs, author of the White Wall of Spain, has an innate understanding of Spain and the Spanish which he imparts to the reader.

Read Hemingway, yes, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in that most Spanish of Spanish phenomena.

As made clear by the subtitle, this is the story of the César Rincón, arguably the best Colombian torero in history, one of the best ever to emerge from the Americas, one of the best -- without respect to origins -- performing anywhere in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is the story of César Rincón the torero (not a biography; we learn little here about César Rincón the man -- quite possibly the only aspect of the book that leaves the reader wishing for more, though we learn plenty about César's view of toreo, his personal take on its hows and whys, the nature and price of the vocation and its demands) who, in 1991, burst onto the taurine scene from nowhere (or, seemingly so -- he was so little known on the day of his first triumph in Madrid that the program listed him as Venezuelan), managing performances that saw him carried out through the Puerta Grande in Las Ventas on four consecutive appearances, a feat unequaled by anyone, before or since.

Just how good was César Rincón? The inescapable impression given by this book is that he was a taurine epiphany:

Josephs is without doubt a full-blooded Rincóncista, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is no tendentiously edited hagiography. The judgments it contains are not just his -- they're from the pens of some of the most important taurine critics of Rincón's day (Andrés de Miguel, Vicente Zabala, Norberto Carrasco, Joaquín Vidal, Michael Wigram and José Carlos Arévalo), writing with Rincon's performances still vivid from the previous days' events. Josephs gives us his eye-witness accounts whenever possible, but generously supplements them with the opinions of other commentators.

This is a stunningly successful book, unlike any taurine work published in English in decades. Without question, Josephs has given us a work that will, for years, sit comfortably alongside the best of Hemingway, the best of Conrad, the best of Fulton and Tynan -- destined to be one of the more re-read works in any taurine bibliophile's library.

Rincón was essentially unknown to Josephs in 1991, and the germ of this book took root slowly as Rincón began to stun the Spanish afición (and Josephs) with his performances during that year's Iberian temporada. The idea for the book chrystalized in the spring of 1992, in Plaza Santa Ana -- a Madrid neighborhood dripping with taurine history and activity -- during a chat with Michael Wigram. Josephs set out to follow Rincón, documenting his career trajectory, from Spain back to the Americas, back to Spain, to the Americas, over and over until the end of the 1995 season when Rincón, suffering from a resurgence of hepatitis "C," announced his retirement, intending to swap the role of torero for that of ganadero.

Written with the aid of unusual access to a torero's inner circle, this is not simply an insider's view of the taurine circuit (as might be, for example, a detailed diary kept by a torero). Josephs didn't travel as part of Rincon's entourage. But it is likely as intimate a view as anyone will soon provide. Josephs shadowed Ricón, his manager and cuadrilla for four years -- benefitting greatly from their assistance, attending every corrida he could manage, describing in great detail what he saw (how the public reacted, and how the authority and critics judged). He had access that only a personal relationship with a torero can provide -- to hotel suites before and after successful and disastrous corridas, to sorteos, to the callejon, to tientas, to family gatherings on ganaderias and in Rincon's home, to hospital/infirmary rooms, to post-corrida de-briefings with critics and ganaderos, and more.

Faenas are described in near photographic detail, both the good, the bad, and the all-too-commonly mundane. Although the degree of taurine detail may prove more-than-a-little daunting for anyone outside or new to the mundo taurino, Josephs has seized on a clever way of avoiding bad translation of taurine terms while simultaneously keeping the narrative clear of repeated explanatory asides. All terms that would not be done justice by clumsy translation into English are left in their Spanish forms, accompanied by explanatory asides only the first time they appear in the text. Supsequent appearances remain in Spanish and an index of defined appearances is provided for readers who didn't absorb the meaning of a term the first time around.

Althouh this is Rincón's saga, Josephs' eyes aren't focused on Rincón alone. Had they been, no proper assessment of Rincón would have been possible. Though bullfighting isn't a contest between matador and bull, one can't really judge a matador's mettle without seeing him alongside his peers, each trying to tease the best out of the unpredictable complexity of the animals drawn each afternoon. Fortunately, Josephs doesn't slight Rincón's rivals (most noteworthy among them, Enrique Ponce and Joselito), giving everyone their due. We're provided a very balanced view of years of performances, the good and the bad, solidly retained in the natural context. To back every judgment we're given dates and locations (no need to take Josephs' word alone for the quality of performances observered; we're everywhere pointed to sources that can confirm the observations made) and detail that could only be noticed by one steeped -- as Josephs is -- in Spanish history and geography, taurine lore and fact.

All this is done without any of the dry, ponderous, academic heaviness that made Josephs' last major work (White Wall of Spain (c) 1983) so nearly impenetrable. Here the writing often seems to dance along with the improvisational pas de deux between Rincón and his partners of the afternoon.

I can't recommend this book too highly.

There are many ways to explore and come to begin to understand the fascination that many find in the corrida. It absorbs those that have come to know the bravery exhibited through ritual that lies at the heart of the corrida. The best way to reach some understanding is the way found by Alan Josephs. Josephs tightly focuses on the life of an individual, great torero. Josephs provides an intimate and satisfying examination of Rincón. Along the way, he brings all into the spirit and essence of the corrida.

As made clear by the subtitle, this is the story of the César Rincón, arguably the best Colombian torero in history, one of the best ever to emerge from the Americas, one of the best -- without respect to origins -- performing anywhere in the second half of the twentieth century.

This is the story of César Rincón the torero (not a biography; we learn little here about César Rincón the man -- quite possibly the only aspect of the book that leaves the reader wishing for more, though we learn plenty about César's view of toreo, his personal take on its hows and whys, the nature and price of the vocation and its demands) who, in 1991, burst onto the taurine scene from nowhere (or, seemingly so -- he was so little known on the day of his first triumph in Madrid that the program listed him as Venezuelan), managing performances that saw him carried out through the Puerta Grande in Las Ventas on four consecutive appearances, a feat unequaled by anyone, before or since.

Just how good was César Rincón? The inescapable impression given by this book is that he was a taurine epiphany:

Josephs is without doubt a full-blooded Rincóncista, but Ritual and Sacrifice in the Corrida is no tendentiously edited hagiography. The judgments it contains are not just his -- they're from the pens of some of the most important taurine critics of Rincón's day (Andrés de Miguel, Vicente Zabala, Norberto Carrasco, Joaquín Vidal, Michael Wigram and José Carlos Arévalo), writing with Rincon's performances still vivid from the previous days' events. Josephs gives us his eye-witness accounts whenever possible, but generously supplements them with the opinions of other commentators.

This is a stunningly successful book, unlike any taurine work published in English in decades. Without question, Josephs has given us a work that will, for years, sit comfortably alongside the best of Hemingway, the best of Conrad, the best of Fulton and Tynan -- destined to be one of the more re-read works in any taurine bibliophile's library.

Rincón was essentially unknown to Josephs in 1991, and the germ of this book took root slowly as Rincón began to stun the Spanish afición (and Josephs) with his performances during that year's Iberian temporada. The idea for the book chrystalized in the spring of 1992, in Plaza Santa Ana -- a Madrid neighborhood dripping with taurine history and activity -- during a chat with Michael Wigram. Josephs set out to follow Rincón, documenting his career trajectory, from Spain back to the Americas, back to Spain, to the Americas, over and over until the end of the 1995 season when Rincón, suffering from a resurgence of hepatitis "C," announced his retirement, intending to swap the role of torero for that of ganadero.

Written with the aid of unusual access to a torero's inner circle, this is not simply an insider's view of the taurine circuit (as might be, for example, a detailed diary kept by a torero). Josephs didn't travel as part of Rincon's entourage. But it is likely as intimate a view as anyone will soon provide. Josephs shadowed Ricón, his manager and cuadrilla for four years -- benefitting greatly from their assistance, attending every corrida he could manage, describing in great detail what he saw (how the public reacted, and how the authority and critics judged). He had access that only a personal relationship with a torero can provide -- to hotel suites before and after successful and disastrous corridas, to sorteos, to the callejon, to tientas, to family gatherings on ganaderias and in Rincon's home, to hospital/infirmary rooms, to post-corrida de-briefings with critics and ganaderos, and more.

Faenas are described in near photographic detail, both the good, the bad, and the all-too-commonly mundane. Although the degree of taurine detail may prove more-than-a-little daunting for anyone outside or new to the mundo taurino, Josephs has seized on a clever way of avoiding bad translation of taurine terms while simultaneously keeping the narrative clear of repeated explanatory asides. All terms that would not be done justice by clumsy translation into English are left in their Spanish forms, accompanied by explanatory asides only the first time they appear in the text. Supsequent appearances remain in Spanish and an index of defined appearances is provided for readers who didn't absorb the meaning of a term the first time around.

Althouh this is Rincón's saga, Josephs' eyes aren't focused on Rincón alone. Had they been, no proper assessment of Rincón would have been possible. Though bullfighting isn't a contest between matador and bull, one can't really judge a matador's mettle without seeing him alongside his peers, each trying to tease the best out of the unpredictable complexity of the animals drawn each afternoon. Fortunately, Josephs doesn't slight Rincón's rivals (most noteworthy among them, Enrique Ponce and Joselito), giving everyone their due. We're provided a very balanced view of years of performances, the good and the bad, solidly retained in the natural context. To back every judgment we're given dates and locations (no need to take Josephs' word alone for the quality of performances observered; we're everywhere pointed to sources that can confirm the observations made) and detail that could only be noticed by one steeped -- as Josephs is -- in Spanish history and geography, taurine lore and fact.

All this is done without any of the dry, ponderous, academic heaviness that made Josephs' last major work (White Wall of Spain (c) 1983) so nearly impenetrable. Here the writing often seems to dance along with the improvisational pas de deux between Rincón and his partners of the afternoon.

I can't recommend this book too highly.

I knew the subject matter of Ritual and Sacrifice would hold some general interest, but I had no idea that the book would be so lively, so entertaining, and so damned dramatic, from Rincon's opening of the Madrid gates to the story's heartbreaking "surprise" coda. Josephs makes what was obviously a Herculean literary undertaking seem easy and natural, and the writing's terrific--fluid, confident, passionate. Equally thrilling are the hundreds of superb photos, also by the author. Aside from Hemingway's masterpiece--an inevitable but impossible comparison--this is the best book on toreo I've ever read, as well as being a provocative and engrossing cultural study.

I had to write this review before finishing Mr. Ruff's novel, Save Me, Julie Kogon. Everything in the book is true. I met Mr. Ruff at his brother's house while making a shiva call for his father, Harry. This story could be about my father and his family growing up in the chicken business in New Haven, CT. My grandparents were also Russian immigrants moving to Legion Avenue/Oak Street in the early 1900's. I knew all the streets and places mentioned. My friend's parents owned Fox's Deli where everyone ordered platters for funerals and my family used the same funeral home.
My husband can't wait for me to finish this book so he can read it. His family also grew up in New Haven and he attended the same schools as the Ruff brothers. We are going to order additional books to send to our friends that grew up in New Haven.
I am sure, my father Benny and Harry were friends, and if not friends, rivals, growing up on the same streets where you heard more Yiddish than English and life wasn't a bed of roses. We tend to remember the roses of the past and try to forget the thorns, but Mr. Ruff tells it as it was...the truth is stranger than fiction! Maybe that is why this book is a must read!

_Save Me, Julie Kogon_ is an enthralling, sprawling series of stories, told from one omniscient narrator (who clearly favors the favored son, Davey), but through the perspective of everyone who touched & was touched by the indefatigable and inimitable Harry Rabin. But in addition to Harry's story, we get the world that built such a gloriously flawed character: the story of New Haven, Connecticut. This is an unflinching tale, one that isn't afraid to show the complications of living in this "great country" (see, for example, the great scene in which Harry tells Bottmacher to look at his own history of slave, factory labor).

What falls apart for me is the dialogue. Everyone sounded the same, & I had trouble distinguishing the wise guys from the girlfriends. Perhaps Ruff is trying to do something with this N'Haven dialect, but I had trouble trusting gay male lovers who would say (& I paraphrase) "Must've been a helluva a dream. Who was she?"

Also, the end (read it to get to it) feels a bit trite. Some loose ends that don't need to appear suddenly appear.

But this is a new move for this grand historian. _Save Me, Julie Kogon_ is a great debut novel, & I hope Ruff finds more stories to tell.

This was a wonderful story of the evolution of Jewish life in New Haven, CT although it could have been any ethnic group in any American city. Author Allen Ruff meticulously describes the foibles of a "fictional family" as it worked its way from immigrant status through various stages of family life in America in the last century. The characters were beautifully brought to life through clear writing techniques that included the "street Yiddish" spoken to the "street English" that was attempted. It was a warm, humorous and wistful book laced with great detail of the characters and the place in which they lived.

I highly recommend this well written book to immigrants and non-immigrants who have a special appreciation of the evolution of family life in America.

A corpse who talks until the undertaker sews his mouth up, Harry throws his hat, pants, and all available his cash into the ring - and he's not known for his luck as we see in this fast and funny family tragicomedy, utterly convincing even to the whiskey in the coffin and attendant Marxian (Groucho, not Karl) family feuding and more tics than are in Big Ben. Ruff writes from incredible experience - he says his family no longer speaks to him even though he changed the names to protect the guilty. This end of an era romp, so near yet so far from Yale in New Haven, for all its hilarity, eventually evokes sympathy for its caught characters. Tolstoian calm after the storm, Doystoevskian obsession, Dickensian underdog characterization and Beckettian cosmic laughter - that's a lot for a short novel, but Ruff is a writer of relatively few words: he makes each one count.

For over seventy years, Harry Rabin "danced to his own tune," in New Haven's ethnic working-class streets. Stumbling at times, he followed that tune to the pain, joy, and astonishment of others.

As they prepare to bury him, Harry's three sons try to make sense of "the ol' man's" last words, "Save me, Julie, save me." To them, the phrase is a mystery. To Harry's friends, Louis, the undertaker, Gambi, the mob boss, and Jakey, onetime Red and estranged buddy, the remarks are a shared secret that captures much of Harry's lifelong dance.

Allen Ruff's first novel is a captivating multi-generational tale of love, loss, betrayal, and discovery. Ruff is a superb storyteller and what a story he tells. Save Me, Julie Kogon is a clear-eyed look at complicated human relationships. It is also a vibrant account of New Haven's gritty Legion Ave. Jewish neighborhood. Ruff writes with flair and humor about a world he knows well. He delights with rich descriptions of meals, eateries, and neighborhood life and snippets about 1950s' television and 1960s' campus life. He has an excellent ear for dialogue, a sharp eye for detail, and the skill to capture both in concise, vivid prose.

A published historian, Ruff skillfully sets the context for Harry's dance. While keeping his focus on Rabin family and its immediate world, he frames the story with the old neighborhood of chicken sellers, tenements, and bathhouses, a 1940s' fight scene that captures a changing ethnic world, and finally the post-war world with urban renewal and the third-generation's experiences.

Ruff takes stylistic chances and pulls them off. Moving fluidly between the past and present, he uses flashbacks and dream sequences to capture Harry's world and four generations of Rabin family dynamics.

Harry Rabin was a piece of work. Save Me, Julie Kogon is itself a tremendous piece of work. It's fast-paced, fun to read and insightful.

As a female aircraft mechanic myself (swing shift I might add), I found a lot of pleasure in this book. The Rosie the Riveters, in my opinion, are the the most brave, courageous women of that time. They literally paved the way for the rest of us and this book tells of that experience in a wonderfully humorous way. I laughed out loud and read some of it to my friends. The backordered parts, the war of day shift versus swing, the way men treat women like women one minute and a fellow the next (whatever suits their cause at the moment), and last, but not least, the aches and pains that come with the physical labor... all so very true. I was shocked to see how similar things are still today to what our original Rosie's went thru. My thanks and gratitude to these brave, amazing women. I would like to add that the author, Constance, wrote very well and made wonderfully witty remarks and I loved her sarcasm throughout the book. The absolute, only reason I did not give this 5 stars was that is too short!! I would have loved to read much more of their adventure. All in all, this book made an impression on me because of the way they handled their situations. It was not any easy task they faced, being pioneers in aircraft maintenance, but they laughed and made the best of it. I plan to keep this in my own tool box and when I have a particularily foul day, use it to remind me that there is indeed, a silver lining behind every cloud.

I love to read about women war workers of WW2. I have many books about the subject and this is hands down my favorite. Perfectly written. Very descriptive. Detailed. My only complaint....it's not 500 more pages! It left me wanting more...much more. If the author ever reads these comments, I want to thank her for her service during the war. Way to go!

"Slacks and Calluses" was exactly what I'd hoped it would be and then some. The honest, unvarnished depiction of daily life for young women war workers at a bomber factory. The two women recount the insane process for getting their jobs (after an interview that consisted mainly of being asked, "Are you available? Good, you're hired.") and the many stations and stamps and officials that they were required to endure. Their training in building bombers was scant - they were responsible for not terribly important parts at first, but the parts still had to go on, and the factory had to have bodies to put them there.

Co-workers were - then as now - a collection of the hard working, the working hard at hardly working, the brilliant and the stupid. Bosses were much the same, but more to be listened too. Life outside the plant - the officers who were no gentlemen for refusing to give up bus seats to these women who were building 'their' bombers, the sadistic woman ice-cream vendor who flat out refused to serve the women, the never ending attempts to wash all the dirt, aluminum dust, grease, and oil from skin and hair, and the inability to have any time for a real life outside of work.

The authors were two high school teachers, who subjects - English and Art - made them the perfect duo to write this book.

Too often books are written solely because the author wants to; this book would have been missed by the world if not written.

LOVED this book. The author is the mother of one of my book club members and she came to the club meeting after we read the book. She is even more delightful in person, if you can believe it, even 60 years later. What a gem this book is and what a delight the author continues to be.

This is a wonderful little book! Written in an easy and unpretentious style, it has merit not just for "women's studies" readers, but for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of period airplane manufacturing and indeed, the whole spirit of Homefront America in World War II. This book is both very entertaining and a real slice of "you are there" in a bygone era. Good history and good writing.

Poe, Doyle, Christie -- none of their stories is better than "The Stolen Cactus," "The Crime at the Post Office," or "Footprints." This collection of crime stories had all the twists and clever resolutions I could ask for. Unexpectedly, it also has quite a few insights into human nature and coping with reality. I read "The Man Who Couldn't Sleep" after a night of disturbing dreams and felt as if Capek were writing to me from the grave.

I found this book in the English-language section of a bookstore in Prague, during my first visit to the Czech Republic, which is a surprising and wonderful place. I didn't know the first thing about Czech culture or history before then. I didn't even know that one of Capek's contemporaries in Prague was Kafka, who was Czech, not German.

Reading Capek convinced me that Kafka was -- like Capek -- a humorist; unfortunately humanities professors in the U.S. don't get the joke. In other words, Capek is Kafkaesque and Kafka is Capekesque. Both drew quirky little images, too. That's right: Kafka drew pictures in his manuscripts. A few of Capek's illustrations are reproduced in this book, as well. (Karl Capek's brother Josef was a member of the little-known and very odd Czech Cubist Movement, a group that abhorred right angles.)

The prose in this translation is a bit ponderous, though, so I recommend that when your first open this book you temporarily abandon your requirements -- if any -- that crime fiction be terse and gritty. Remember that you're reading a translation from a Slavic language written a decade after WW I. In addition, the stories are first-person narratives, a form that is little used these days.

I'm eager to read more Capek. And it would be great if the publisher would create a Kindle version of his work.

A superb collection of stories told in a simple, yet very descriptive and captivating language, each a different nugget. Some are very funny, others reach a quiet conclusion, others make you think, but not enough to rob you of your sleep. Nice to read just a few at a time, otherwise it's hard to remember them all. Can be read completely out of sequence. Enjoy!

The fourth Earl of Chesterfield once admonished his son to "wear your learning, like your watch in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one." The stories contained in Karel Capek's "Tales From Two Pockets", unlike Chesterfield's watch, are worth taking out and reading again and again and again.

Karel Capek played a pivotal role in Czech arts, literature, and politics in the years of the first Czech Republic. He was a playwright and, with his brother, authored "RUR", the play that introduced the word robot to the world. His novel War With the Newts remains today one of the great pieces of dystopian fiction. His life and work during this period was inextricably linked with a strong belief in the newly born Czechoslovakian Republic. Capek's devout faith in democracy and his aversion to both fascism and communism was well known. His intimate socio-political relationship with Czech President Tomas Masaryk served as an inspiration to Vaclav Havel the artist who became president after the Velvet Revolution.

The 48 stories in Tales From Two Pockets first appeared in print in 1928 in a Prague newspaper. They were known as pocket tales because presumably the newspaper could be folded and placed in ones coat pocket after getting off the tram. Immensely popular the first 24 stories were published in book form as Tales from One Pocket. The remaining 24 stories were originally published as Tales From the Other Pocket. This edition, published by Catbird Press (which has done a marvelous job of publishing English editions of Czech masterpieces) and excellently translated by Norma Comrada, contain all 48 tales.

To call the first 24 stories detective stories would not do them justice. They do tend to involve a murder or a crime of some sort but Capek stands the genre on its head. They involve more than the solution of a crime. Capek tends to work around the crime to look and spin small stories that tell us a little bit more about human nature than about the crime business. Each story contains a snippet; they are too short to be an exegesis on humanity. But each snippet is worth reading and after you read one or two you can put them in your pocket and start all over again.

The second 24 stories each flow from one into another. Think of a group of people sitting around a table in a bar. One tells a story about a crime or some other foul deed. After one story is finished someone pipes in and announces, "I can top that". They stories flow seamlessly one to another. Again, no single story packs a huge `message' but cumulatively they are thought provoking and provocative. It should also be mentioned that the stories are also just fun to read. Capek was one of the first Czech authors to write in colloquial Czech. His writing style was not formalistic and stilted. He wrote the way people talked and his stories are all warmly told and engaging.

So, put these tales in your pocket and pull them out whenever you'd like to lose yourself for a little while in the world of little mysteries created by Karel Capek.

"Tales from Two Pockets" should have a special place in the minds of its readers. That's the place reserved for works which are entertaining without being trivial, consistently amusing and delightful upon re-reading, and which appear to have been written effortlessly and on the spur of the moment (this latter characterization is probably an illusion, since even a rapidly written piece by the right writer incorporates a lifetime of craftsmanship and professional skill). The stories in this collection, which combines two different but related sets of stories ("from one pocket, then the other"), were written for Capek's newspaper columns during 1928-1929. Czech readers responded enthusiastically to these stories, which started out clearly enough as detective or crime stories but soon overflowed the boundaries of that category to become something very different: reflections on the human mind and character under duress and meditations on the nature of crime, punishment, and, most especially, justice. The difficulty of judgment which is fair to both the victim and the perpetrator is a theme returned to several times, leaving the question an open one, even in the most gruesome cases, e.g., "The Ballad of Jura Cup", in which the motive is highly personal and bizarre, or "An Ordinary Murder" in which the motive is routine but the results are unsettling. Also related to this idea is the story (from the first set of 24) entitled "The last Judgment", which seems to be the prototype of the stories in a completely different collection,"Apocryphal Tales", stories that veer off in the direction of "alternate reality" parables (this may be the story which Capek himself thought of as "the turning point" within the whole collection of 48 stories).

The second set of 24 stories is a continuous round-table conversation, organized along the lines of the Decameron. One story ends, and a thematically-related one begins (or a story is based on a stray remark or characterization in the immediately preceding story), something like a baton that is passed from one relay racer to the next. Often there is a smaller story within the larger one, recruiting another member at the table as a second narrator. From the formal point of view the most interesting of these is "The Confession", in which a priest, a lawyer, and a doctor are all told the same story by the same man over several decades - he has done something terrible (his deed is never specified) and must talk about it or implode, though he feels neither contrition nor guilt nor remorse, while he has a specific desire to avoid retribution (which is why he picks men professionally and ethically bound to keep his confession a secret). It's a large and eclectic collection of narrators that Capek creates - including policemen, businessmen of various stripes, a doctor, a priest, a "jailbird", a journalist, civil servants, and men of unidentified callings. Based on their names and their vocations they are meant to be a representative sample of inter-war Czechoslovakia's polyglot mixture of ethnicities, nationalities, religions, and social strata. This is the "social undercurrent" of these stories, an idealized picture of a hybrid, pluralistic society created by an admirer and strong advocate of T. G. Masaryk and the political system of the First Republic.

The translation by Norma Comrada is excellent, colloquial and fluent. As is her Introduction, which gives the background of the stories' creation and of Capek's familiarity with the detective-story genre in the literatures of France, England and America. On a light note, the musings of the lifelong bachelor, Police Captain Bartosek, on a kidnapped child (which I think of as "Bartosek on Babies") should be required reading for new mothers and new policemen as well. And it is in his portrayal of policemen that we see the breach that separates Capek's time and place from the grimmer post-World-War-II world of Czechoslovakia. We meet Captain Havalka who sympathizes with the inner turmoil of Jura Cup, and, more than once, we see at work the squirrel-toothed Inspector Pistora, whose unprepossessing exterior houses a first-class deductive brain that rivals that of Sherlock Holmes. Then there is Detective Holub, who, when recovering the funds that the confidence-man Plichta has defrauded from widows and lonely women, allows Plichta to deduct his "operational expenses" from the restitution he makes and admires his strict system of accounting (it is Holub who says,"We like ordinary criminals, not mysteries"). You can't imagine such empathetic portraits of policemen after 1945, though P. Kohout has tried his best to endow even State-Security policemen with admirable streaks in their characters.

The stories were written during the "calm years" of the First Republic, after the difficulties of setting up a new state had been dealt with, and before the Depression and the encroaching threats of international power-politics had arrived. This allowed Capek a respite to write as he pleased without an eye looking over his own shoulder at the political excitements of the years before and the years to follow. As Comrada points out, it would be incorrect to call these works "detective stories" or even "crime stories" (in many of them there are neither crimes nor solutions). However the reader characterizes them, it should be obvious that Capek displayed a relaxed freedom of spirit as he wrote them and took a great deal of pleasure in doing so, both of which are strongly communicated to the reader.

great stories to read a few at a time, not necessarily in order. they are like a whimsical sherlock holmes with a definite eastern european bent. i had never read any Capek before and I think this has been a great start.

Normally I don't care for poetry...however, this book of poetry told a story. The story of a woman after God's own heart. The story of someone who has been broken but leaning on God's shoulders. The story of someone who mourned the lost of a loved one and wanted to began to rejoice. The story of someone who is genuinely concerned with racial reconciliation. This book is a love story with the Lord as the main character.

We live in a world where people are seeking realness and truth. Ms. Allen delivers just that!

' Forgive me' pg. 17 ...Ms. Allen leads us into God's presence, where true forgiveness/atonement awaits...such a blessed place!

Poet has an uncanny nack of being able to portray the realness of life. Covering topics not often talked about in society and often frowned upon by the prude in each of us. Thoughtful and perceptive. One experiences change after encountering this collection.

Allen's poems are refreshing and inspiring their honesty. She's clearly lived a lot in life, and come through much. Very good for my spirit to read and reflect on her thoughts.