Benedict Books

This account of Catholics enduring persecution in Elizabethan England is filled with true events, only the central characters being fictional. I found the terror thru which the protagonists lived to be chilling, and the ending is unforgettable. While the book was published in 1912 it still resonates with anyone who opposes religious persecution, and inspires admiration for the heroic men who sought to serve the Catholics being subjected to the religious intolerance of Queen Elizabeth and her minions. A rewarding reading experience.

I originally gave this a rating of 3 stars because I had it confused with another book by the same author and thought somethign was missing from this edition. My apologies! It is a good book all on its own, about a sad period in Christendom when Protestants and Catholics were LITERALLY at each other's throats. These days we're pretty much satisfied with ripping each other's entrails out in virtual reality - those days they did it for real!!

The Key of `C' is a drama set in a background of the classical music world and its intrigues, moving between Sydney, Australia and England.
Claudia, a musicologist, and Colin Gutterson, a renowned conductor, have sustained twenty-two years of stormy marriage whilst pursuing their separate careers. The marriage survives separation and infidelities only because of their apathy and the love of their two sons.
Claudia discovers fragments of a manuscript containing compositions similar to medieval motets attributed to `Roy Henry' in the `Old Hall' manuscript, a valuable and controversial collection of late 14th and early 15th century polyphonous music. She claims that `Roy Henry' is Henry V and is accused of fraud by a leading music critic from one of England's most respected journals and Colin is accused of collaboration. Faced with ruin, they both have to rescue their reputations and their marriage.

This novel focuses on the dilemma of family loyalty versus careers of the two protgonists in this compelling and bitter-sweet story about a musicologist married to a renowned maestro who have sustained twenty-two years of stormy marriage that has only survived because of their love of their sons and apathy to do anything about it. The wife discovers fragments of a manuscript containing medieval motets similar to those in the "Old Hall" manuscript, a valuable and controversial colletion of medieval music. She claims they have been written by Henry V and is accused of fraud by a leading English music critic. Her husband is accused of collaboration. Both facing ruin, they have to resuce their reputations and their marriage. This is a well researched story and the result is a controversial look at the classical music world with its fragile heroes and hidden jealousies.

As a historian of anthropology, I looked forward to reading this book. The relationship between Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead has been subject to much speculation. No scholar has seriously analyzed the impact the relationship had on the two women in question or American anthropology in general. While several biographies are available about Benedict and Mead, none delve deeply into the relationship they shared throughout their lives. Having finished the text in question, I am torn. For, as a historical analysis of Benedict and Mead the text is superficial. The author, Hilary Lapsley, a New Zealand psychologist who teaches women's studies, has a tendency to skate above the surface and does not delve deeply enough into the respective controversies Benedict and Mead became embroiled in during their careers.

This critique however is rather specialized. For the vast majority of readers unfamiliar with the intricacies of the history of American anthropology will be impressed by a sympathetic portrait of two of the most influential women in anthropology to date. The fact that Benedict and Mead were lovers is now well known and their "friendship" is contextualized within women's studies, feminist psychology, and lesbian studies. The author, herself a lesbian, adds great insight into the nature of their relationship for she points out it was not condcuted in isolation. It is her examination of Benedict's and Mead's "friendship cirlces" that I found particularly insightful. By friendship the author is refering to the twentieth century version of what Carol Smith-Rosenberg called "the female world of love and ritual". The author also does not dwell too much on the sexual aspect of their relationship, a trap that might have sold more books but infringed on the dignity of Benedict and Mead.

In short, Lapsley's book is not a biography in any sense but a particularly personal portrait of two women, friends and lovers throughout their lives. As such, she sheds new light on their work and lives for both those interested in the history of anthropology and those with a general interest in Benedict and Mead.

I found this book extraordinary good reading. It reviews their lives during childhood and moves thru both Mead's and Benedict's lives until Benedict's death in 1948. The last chapter does provide information about what happened to the leading players in the lives of both women in later years. I found it much easier to read than Howard's book, which is completely different, with lots of stories about Mead but very difficult to follow chronologically. The author's background in psychology is evident and I recommend the book highly.

good book to size pipe for liquid, doesnt have anything for gases that I found. Little bit of sheet metal though.

First found out about this book while I was studying for my Journeyman Plumbers license exam.Found it at the library and was so impressed I ordered it from the publisher. Contains very much usefull information.Explains all about simple and compound offsets. Contains all the formulas you will need for performing plumbing tradework.I have the fourth addition and still consider it one of my best resources. I recommend it to anyone who is studying for their Journeyman or Master Plumbers exams or for anyone who would like to learn the professional way of performing tradework.

But seriously folks, this is the MOTHER of nuclear chemical engineering novelas! If you plan on reading this book be prepared to BUCKLE UP because you're going for a RIDE. A ride to Nuclear Chemical Engineering LAND! Huzzah! What have we here? Some atoms? Some CHEMICALS? Prehaps this CHEMICAL SOUP ISN'T SO BAD AFTER ALL! BOKKO!

But seriously folks, this is the MOTHER of nuclear chemical engineering novelas! If you plan on reading this book be prepared to BUCKLE UP because you're going for a RIDE. A ride to Nuclear Chemical Engineering LAND! Huzzah! What have we here? Some atoms? Some CHEMICALS? Prehaps this CHEMICAL SOUP ISN'T SO BAD AFTER ALL! BOKKO!

I really enjoyed this book as a girl--of course I was nuts about any horse book... Does anyone remember a book about a Pony of the Americas called "Fabulous," or a sequel to "Pagan" called "Bandoleer?"

This book, written almost forty years ago, is a wonderful story about a boy, his family and, of course his horse, Pagan. Set in a rural area of Montana, this easy to read book follows a boy's adventures with his horse. Through these adventures the reader finds a young man wrestling with issues that haunt adolesents even today in an urban environment. Through a heart warming tale the book illustrates the value of strong family and community ties. It serves as a reminder of how hard work and a strong community together can develop a productive young man. One of the best. A must read for all those who endorse those strengths that make America great.

The Anchor volume "The Rationalists" is a very handy one-volume compilation of the central texts of 17th Century Continental philosophy. Included are Descartes' "Discourse on Method" and "Meditations," Spinoza's "Ethics," and Leibnitz's "Discourse on Metaphysics" and the "Monadology." The only really famous text excluded here is Spinoza's "De Emendatione," but the inexpensive Prometheus Books paperback of the "Ethics" includes that. This handsome, portable paperback allows one to explore the development of Rationalist thinking chronologically from Descartes to Leibnitz without suffering the bloody-chunks omissions imposed by most undergrad philosophy texts. And the absence of scholarly commentary thankfully allows the reader to immerse herself fully in the preoccupations of these thinkers without constant hectoring about how they "failed"; instead, each of these multifaceted thinkers can prod the reader on their own terms. This is a wonderful volume not only for the philosopher or student of philosophy, but for theologians, historians, and even artists-- these three have much to say that is still pertinent for any reflective person.

The contents of this book relates to the long debate between rationalism and empiricism. For a book on empiricism, see Dunn, John with J.O. Urmson, and A.J.Ayer (1992) "The British Empiricists;" New York: Oxford University Press. Kant tried to solve this debate with his Critique of Pure Reasoning. But, Kant failed.

The debate came to an end when a number of linguists discovered (in the 1920s) that 'empirical data are primarily symbolic.' This discovery says that facts are not theory neutral. So, even police facts must be challenged to be sure that police theories of a crime agree with the crime facts. The same is true about a newspaper or TV report.

This book on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz does not discuss the nature of rationalism and how it fits in the development of knowledge. I also found this book to be short on the thoughts of Leibniz, who challenged Newton's physical world. I recommend that readers expand their knowledge of Leibniz's work by seeking other sources of information. Including Leibniz's monadology in this book was important because his monads are becoming important in the current developments of modern creation theories.

When this collection of fiction appeared it had nothing to do with other 80s writing, such as minimalism or magic realism. Ms. Benedict's hard-scrabble characters (most of whom have a spiritual insight in the story) remind me a lot of Flannery O'Connor's, except Benedict forgoes a Catholic explanation of these insights. Some of these stories have the generality, and power, of myth. A few of the pieces are slight or repetitive, and the same words crop up over and over. The final story of the collection is flawless.

I first read SHINY OBJECTS in around 1983. Dianne was a teacher of mine at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. I loved it. The stories are unique, and original with a gentle, wonderful breeze of a voice. Her narratives are unusual and deep, expressing invaluable and poetic images and insights into childlike perceptions and even grotesque realities. It haunts me and I still find myself in quiet moments 17 years later, aware of it inside me. Dianne write me: rudy@kdsi.net please.

I used this little book as part of an engagement gift basket and it was a big hit.

There is a reason why this book is such a bargain, it's a minature pocket book. Its cute as a gift or a little something extra but it is not designed for helping you write your vows. The information is more about vows and not how to write them. It is small but sweet.

For most of my life, I knew Dirk Benedict as the guy starring in two of the more prominent TV series of my youth - BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE A-TEAM. Like a lot of people, I have a tendency to associate the personality of an actor with that of the role(s) he plays, and I assumed DB was a cigar-chewing, featherheaded adrenaline-junkie interested mainly in chasing women. Two years ago, however, I bought his book CONFESSIONS OF A KAMIKAZE COWBOY, and I discovered that he is a cigar-chewing, deep-thinking adrenaline-junkie interested in changing the world...when he isn't chasing women.

Long story short, Benedict grew up in rural Montana on a diet of beef and...other kinds of beef. In later life, he suffered acute health problems, including prostatic cancer, which gradually chivvied him into a different way of eating, drinking and looking at the world. He's since become a kind of spokesperson for an alternative philosophy of life, and COWBOY is a sort-of Bible of that philosophy. Its central theme, however, is how the food choices we make effect not only our physical but our emotional and spiritual health as well. ("Someone," he wrote in its introduction. "Needs to do for brown rice and bancha tea what John Wayne did for red meat and whiskey.") AND THEN WE WENT FISHING is a related but very different type of book, in a way far more personal than COWBOY was. Like COWBOY, it has a clear-cut message garnered from autobiographical experience; unlike COWBOY it is not about changing the world. It is about changing oneself by letting go of pain, regret and grief and learning the lessons of one's own past experience. It's about, to paraphrase Poe (the singer, not the writer) "One more look at the ghost, before I make it leave."

FISHING is two books in one. In the first story, Dirk and his then-wife Toni are preparing for the at-home birth of their first child, a disaster-plagued affair which is half-comedy, half-nightmare: the midwife deserts them for a Chuck Norris benefit, the assistant is interested only in raiding the fridge and napping, the last-resort doctor is out of town, and an anonymous functionary at the nearest hospital (50 miles away) does his best to make matters worse. The second story takes place 25 years earlier, with Dirk an 18 year old kid who seemingly has it all: good looks, athletic talent, hot girlfriend, bright future. Unforunately, he also has crippling emotional pain, brought on by the death of his father at the hands of his brother following a nasty domestic argument. The shooting, which Dirk witnessed, effected him in many different ways, but most deeply by giving him a crippling fear of fatherhood. And as he comes closer to becoming a father himself, he realizes just how effectively he has deferred the pain of his dad's death, and how dangerous that deferrment will be if he doesn't discover the lesson buried under his emotional denials. The birth of his son proves to be the opportunity he has long awaited: the chance to lay his father's ghost to rest, and to shed the tears he held back for a quarter of a century.

AND THEN WE WENT FISHING is not the book KAMIKAZE COWBOY was, but it was not meant to be. It is an intensely personal story of choices and consequences -
"fate, fatherhood, and forgiveness" - mingled with wit, sarcasm and irony (the fact that medical-establishment-hating Benedict had to deliver his kid via a regular doctor is a subject he approaches with no small amount of chagrin). Those looking for a sequel to COWBOY, or a memior about DB's acting career, will be disappointed, but those looking for inspiration will find their money well spent.