Berry Books

Investigative reporter and award-winning playwright Jason Berry presents Last of the Red Hot Poppas, a mystery novel following the consequences when the Governor of Louisiana is suddenly found dead. In search of the murder motive, a young attorney must navigate the tangled skein of local politics, following a trail that leads to diverse and dangerous locales ranging from a brothel in the swamps to Angola Prison to an isolated mortuary and amidst a dramatic capitol funeral. At the center of the intrigue are a cabal of ruthless oil brokers who heedlessly poison the land with their toxins, in this modern-day parable of greed and ruthlessness. Utterly absorbing from cover to cover.

You can smell the sweet rot of political corruption in Berry's novel like the stench of a bad oyster or a flooded New Orleans cemetery. This novel revolves around a dead man, but it couldn't be more alive if it got up and danced. Take a writer with a history of great political nonfiction and turn him loose on a novel and you have a gritty, spicy gumbo of a book, full of enough politics to satisfy a jonesing junkie along with all the suspense, sex, and colorful characters any lover of a good read could want. Underneath it all runs a dark current of moral and spiritual questioning that will leave you haunted.

In the wake of all the books about Katrina's devastation, this new novel about Louisiana is better than a breath of fresh air. It's pure oxygen. No, it's laughing gas. The dialogue of the state's spectacularly corrupt politicians is so perfect, I think the author is channelling them. And the depictions of the hard-hustling music promoters, the back-woods evangelists, and the poor folk victimized by the government's environmental racism make you feel like you've been zapped smack into the bayou state. Couldn't stop turning the pages or put the book down. A great, rollicking read.

What a captivating book. Mysticism, fantasy, spiritualism and a great story combine to make this book completely and utterly unputdownable!! With Kit Berry at the helm, enter the magical world of Stonewylde - an old-fashioned self-sufficient community set in modern day Dorset - and experience a way of life that combines ancient pagan rites and customs, with 21st-century living.

Sylive is 14 years old and lives in a block of flats with her young mum. Sylvie is very poorly and sufferes from every allergy, intolerance, and illness possible. She's spent a lot of time in hospitals and they don't seem to know what to do for her, or how to help her get better. That is, until Sylvie meets a doctor at the hospital who comes from Stonewylde and suggests that she try and arrange a visit there for Sylvie to see if the change of scene and environment helps her to feel any better...

Slyvie soons flourishes in the natural organic environment of Stonewylde and before long is full of vitality and energy that she has never experienced before, so she and her mum decide to stay. Stonewylde seems like a perfect place full of happiness and beauty, but something niggles away at Sylvie when she befriends a boy from the village, Yul - a boy she's not supposed to have anything to do with because he is a lowly commoner and she is supposed to be residing with the better educated people from the "hall", under strict orders from the Magus (or king). From here Sylvie discovers a darkness at Stonewylde which she and Yul come to battle against together, each of them discovering magical powers in themselves they never knew they possessed.

This is a magical and captivating story of friendship and endurance, and discovery. Beautifully written, I was hooked right from the first page and couldn't put it down until I'd finished (at 3am!). The sequels are every bit as good too!

A brilliant book that is a joy to read. The warmth, love and caring between hero and heroine reflect the nature of our souls and who we really are whilst the Villagers and their way of life create a yearning for something missing and unrecognised in the way we now live our lives. The Hallfolk and Magus represent and epitomise our egocentric lifestyles whilst hero and heroine, Yul and Sylvie, represent our soul yearnings, aching to be heard and to win over against the noise, emptiness and turmoil of our ego's. An excellent read that didn't have to resort to in-yer-face killing, blood, gore and sex to grab the reader from the first page to the last. This book is the epitome of great storytelling and puts the soul back into mainstream writing. If only Hollywood could do the same with film-making.

The marketing verbiage for this book, the first in a series of five planned novels in the Stonewylde series (two others have already been published), states: "Not thriller, nor fantasy, nor romance. Yet all of these and so much more."

Although seasoned readers and reviewers learn to not spend too much thought or energy on short, powerful statements designed to spark interest and excitement, in this case, the cross-genre aspects of this book make it both noteworthy and worth a read. Berry has rendered the boundaries of several genres invisible, pulling elements from each to build her vivid world, and still manages to present a tight, well-crafted story. At 304 pages, Magus of Stonewylde is a quick, page-turning read.

Stonewylde is a fascinating place--a closed community in England, where the fair-haired, fair-eyed Hallfolk are supported by the working-class, peasant Villagers. Structured around the eight pagan festivals that mark the cycles of the year, Stonewylde seems to offer a remedy to the fast-paced, impersonal, material world. It is a place of great power and healing, full of wizards and shamans. A place where sexual intercourse is a path to the Goddess. A place where the Ancient Ways are alive and somewhat well.

If much of this sounds familiar, from both page and screen, keep reading--Berry brings plenty that is fresh and new to the table. Stonewylde is a garden teeming with Evil. Among her beautiful rock formations, ceremonial fields, and deep woods are dark energies and a past of twisted secrets. Berry teases us, as a good author does, with bits of information and history that will guarantee we come back to visit Stonewylde in the subsequent books.

I found myself deeply interested in the characters, even going so far as to scribble expletives and less than flattering monikers for some of the less likable ones in the margins.

Be prepared to be pissed off (and I mean that as a selling point of the book)--the teenagers are vacillating, ego-maniacal, and as quick to tease and scheme as any teenagers I've ever met on the page (they're very realistic)... and the "adults" are something to behold--those who should Protect inflict the greatest Hurt and their actions are often shockingly ignorant and cruel. I found myself pushing other things back so I could read "a few more pages" to find out just when those actions would be paid back in kind. I know of no better compliment than that.

Berry really does have a knack for creating multidimensional and moving characters. She has succeeded with the simple formula so many writers fail to make work--she has done her research to create a well-painted environment easy to enter and explore; she has populated it with characters that jump off the page with their humanness, for good and for bad--often in the same character; and she has energized it all with the key themes that resonate most with readers--Love, Power, Violence, Secrecy, and Destiny.

Magus of Stonewylde has wide appeal--for those still lamenting the end of the Harry Potter series, this is a magical world populated with the types of quirky teens and scheming adults that made those books such a success; for those who are interested in or practitioners of pagan/wiccan rites, this is a place custom-made for you to visit; and for those who just plain love a good story, with excellent pace and plenty of blood-rising action, you can't do much better.

I look forward to exploring more of Stonewylde--Kit Berry is an author that will no doubt be enjoying a continual increase in readership and accolades.

I own Berry and Linoff's first two books on data mining (Data Mining Techniques and Mastering Data Mining); they're the best, and this book lives up to their standards. All three are great for not just teaching the technical stuff, but how and when to apply it to solve problems I really face at my company.

We're just starting to look at mining the clickstream, and this is the first book I've found that cuts through the hype and really comes clean on what works and doesn't work. Good, solid techincal information, but better is their coverage of business issues. I love all of the detailed cases. Great job!

I found this book to be most helpful and thorough, I was immediately inspired to practice these useful tips and easy to intuit instructions.

I continue to use it for reference as a resource manual. I highly encourage anyone just getting interested in the concept of data mining, anyone in sales, marketing, public relations, and analytics to start with this book first. After reading this book you will have a strong foundation into data mining applications and a vivid sense of direction on how to make it work for you personally!!!!

The parallels to CBS are right on. The US government is being controlled by god-fearing men and a supreme court with their own god. What about my god? What ever happened to the separation of church and state? A must read!!!

This novel is an eye opener of our superficial "godverment".I found it incredibly compelling to take a walk through the author's mind as he unveils such ruthlessness and hypocracy! A must read,to know the truth and have the truth set you free of doubts,confusion and disappointments!

"Minutemen News" is the most perceptive political (and television) satire I have read in years. Like George Orwell in "1984", Berry invents his own language to warn about the hypocrisy of a bureaucratic "godvernment", and a lapdog media. Some of the terms he uses include "liberty harassment" and "libertyism", bias against people who believe in and practice free will. But the best part of the novel is Berry's running joke of a "He said/She said" U.S. Senate Confirmation Hearing, where Supreme Court Nominee "David Chang" is accused of "double-entendre harassment" by his former employee, "Nikki Darling".

Forty years ago, I was a 21 year old lieutenant leading a platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. I was responsible for the lives of these brave men.

Among the 152 soldiers featured in 'My Gift to You', one name is especially significant to me: Specialist Four Guy Franklin Brooks, who was assigned to me as my radio operator 'RTO'. The job of RTO was a skillful and hazardous voluntary assignment. Guy possessed the technical knowledge required of an RTO, and shouldered the extra weight of the radio willingly. The distinctive silhouette of the radio also made the RTO 'stand out' among the rest of the troops and ,therefore, a prime target. Guy was well aware of this additional peril. This 19-year-old soldier was an exemplary trooper and was always at my side when I needed him.

On February 2, 1968, Guy undertook his final mission. That day found our platoon pinned down by an entrenched enemy. As I tried to bring the unit on line facing the enemy fire, the radio malfunctioned. Guy made the decision to relay my orders on down the line verbally. In doing so, he left the safety of his position, crossed into open ground, and was immediately struck down by enemy fire. Despite the best efforts of our platoon medic, Guy died within a few minutes.

The fierce battles of the 1968 Communist TET Offensive claimed the lives of many 3-506 paratroopers.. My platoon lost two additional members--Sergeant Keith William Rowell and Specialist Four Marshall Nelson.

The history set forth in 'My Gift to You' is a factual account of one unit's participation in the war told through the stories of those that gave their lives. The book should be particularly meaningful to anyone planning to visit the Vietnam Memorial, for it provides a context and a personal history to some of the names inscribed there.

The men featured in 'My Gift to You' represent a small percentage of the lives lost in this war, but they are greatly deserving of respect and remembrance for their dedication to duty and the bravery they displayed. They each had a life, a loving family, and a young face that is permanently etched in the minds of those of us left to remember.

Thank you Jerry for remembering!

I served in Vietnam with the 3/506th, the battalion that is the focus of this book. I wonder if there's ever been a book listing all the KIA's of a battalion with personal information about those listed. It brings these young men to life. They are no longer just a statistic.

When I came home from the war I remember picking up the New York Daily News one morning and seeing on the frontpage a story about the murder of a young woman. There was her photo and inside the paper several columns about who she was and how she died and how her relatives felt. In the same newspaper there was a small column, just a box, on the third page or so, with a tally of the men killed in Vietnam that week. I don't recall the exact number but it was around 200. The paper was reporting a weekly statistic that readers were too familiar with and thus didn't warrant much space. But, it made me pause. I thought of the guys that were killed in my company, faces I could still see, and knew that the week they died their deaths were reported as a statisic like that week's 200 or so dead. I didn't get too angry about all this, I know how newspapers work, and I was sure the hometown newspaper of the dead soldiers would write a small column about them. Yet, because I just returned from where these soldiers had died, it changed my perspective. It was more personal now. I couldn't help thinking the reporting wasn't right. Things were not balanced.

What "My Gift to You" does is put the stories of those young men on the frontpage. And like the girl who was killed, you learn who these young men were before they enlisted or were drafted, how they died, and the fond remembrances of their family and friends. The last thing, especially the family reaction to the notification of their loved one's death which are included in many citations, is what makes this book special.
Eddie Blanco

Though this is not the right book for everybody, it is still a truly a great book. I guess I should say up front that I served in 3/506th, and that Jerry Berry is my friend. Having said that, it means that I also know the truth of many of the stories related in the book, and to my knowledge, they all happened.
If you are seriously interested in the way people actually fought the Viet Nam war, if you are interested in the history of the greatest American combat division, the 101st Airborne Division, or if accurate descriptions of courage under fire are what you want to know about then, read this book. It will tell you this, and much more, in lucid, factually-accurate prose.
Every library should have a copy so that their readers can see this most difficult war from the vantage point of those that fought it. There are no axes ground in this book except that the valor of those that fought the war has often been overlooked in a search for more ammunition for more arguments about the war. The battle of Tet '68 was the largest infantry battle ever fought by the U. S. military. There were both more troops engaged, over 1.5 million; vs. about 1.1 million in the Battle of the Bulge, another famous 101st Airborne battle, and it lasted longer. We, the Unites States armed forces, particularly the Marines and the Army won both of those battles after taking some hard hits in the beginning. (I know there were no Marines at the Bulge, but there were a lot in Viet Nam including my brother.) How many American know that we won the battle of Tet '68? How many Americans know that there were more Marine causalities in Viet Nam than in all of World War II? There is a real argument to make that the Viet Nam War is America's most talked about, but least understood war.
While the book emphasizes the involvement of the 3/506th, in truth the stories told are very close to that of every infantryman in this war. The story shown at the end of the movie Full Metal Jacket is substantially the same as the story of the death of Private Daniels on February 3, 1968. Daniels was airborne, Full Metal Jacket dealt with the Marines. This is the way it happened. This is the infantry at work.

© Sacred Web Publishing, from Sacred Web, Volume 21, July 2008
Reviewed by M. Ali Lakhani, Editor of Sacred Web

This anthology is a companion volume to Blessed are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings about Love, Compassion & Forgiveness, Gathered and Introduced by Wendell Berry (USA, 2005, Shoemaker & Hoard), which served as a timely reminder to those practitioners of the Christian faith, and others, intent on warring for vengeance in the name of religion, that the essence of the Christic message was to place faith, love and stewardship above hubris, aggression and self-interest, and was to privilege compassion over self-righteousness.

In the dominant cultures of the West, it has been impressionistically easier for the public mind to regard Christianity as a religion of compassion and love, than for it to regard Islam in these same terms. There are various reasons for this, of which three predominate: first, Islam's emphasis on the certitude of unitary faith (stressing knowledge and metaphysical Truth of the Qur'an and the Sunnah) in contrast to Christianity's emphasis on love and sacrifice (stressing the salvific Presence of Christ); second, ignorance about Islam, which has been exacerbated by misportrayals about the Holy Prophet of Islam and the content of the Qu'ranic message; and third, abuses of Islam by "Muslims", that have been carried out in its name, particularly in recent years, and which have led to a false impression about the aggressive and barbaric nature of its faith. These impressionistic views of the faith of Islam are inaccurate and there is a growing number of people, both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, who have been trying to present sound metaphysical explanations, scriptural texts, and political and historical facts and interpretations, to correct this tide of ignorance regarding Islam, that has swept over the dominant cultures of the West in recent times. This anthology can be viewed as a modest contribution in this vein.

In his Introduction, Dr. Shah-Kazemi anticipates that an objection to his selection of verses might be made on the basis that it reflects a one-sided view of Islam, ignoring the wrathful aspects of the Qur'anic message and unduly emphasizing its compassionate aspects. He counters this by noting that in our times "(t)he wrathful, severe side of Islamic teachings has been presented in a unilateral matter, so that, on an apparently Koranic foundation, a theology of hate has been formulated that serves as a façade behind which a blatantly un-Islamic political ideology can operate." This book is an attempt to counter this predominant view of Islam by demonstrating through its scripture its peaceful, loving and compassionate side.

In his Foreward, Wendell Berry, the American poet, essayist and conservationist, remarks on the useful distinction between "those who appoint themselves as agents of divine anger, and those who understand themselves as called to be agents of divine mercy", the former allowing themselves the prerogative of self-righteous condemnation of others, in contrast to the latter who take upon themselves the burden and mystery of divine mercy by holding discourse with others. The choice between these approaches appears equally open to us in any scriptural interpretation, but as Dr. Shah-Kazemi demonstrates to us through his translations and his commentary of passages from the Holy Qur'an, it is the approach of compassionate discourse that is intrinsic to the scripture, and often made express in the text, and therefore incumbent upon all true Muslims.

Indeed, as Dr. Shah-Kazemi emphasizes in his Introduction and elsewhere in the anthology, mercy is the very substance and nature of God, and therefore of our own theomorphic nature. Its qualities of love and compassionate detachment inhere within us, ontologically, within the core of our very being. We are embraced by these qualities ("My Mercy encompasses all things"--7:156), which bind us "as a single soul" (31:28). The Qur'an is therefore a reminder and a calling to humankind to reflect this compassionate nature. In this connection, Dr. Shah-Kazemi observes:

On the human plane, "compassion"--the capacity to feel and be with (com) the other in their "suffering" (passio)--expresses not just human sentiment but also its spiritual presentiment; compassion arises first and foremost out of one's innate sense of interconnected oneness of all human beings...And this unity of humanity is itself a reflection of the oneness of God.

The Qur'anic message of unity incorporates within it the principle of compassion because unity implies the intimacy of union. Though God is, from the merely human perspective, transcendent, thereby placing stress on his qualities of rigor and severity, the essential calling of humanity is to be restored to and reintegrated with its spiritual patrimony and ontological substance. This calling is itself a mercy, a means by which we may enter into the nearness and presence of the divine. By identifying this presence with our substantial and theomorphic nature, God is experienced by us intimately, as immanent, compassionate and loving. How does this intimacy square with the wrathful attributes of God? Dr. Shah-Kazemi explains:

In the mystical tradition of Islam it is said that the "Anger of God" is nothing but the extrinsic consequence of the lack of the soul's receptivity to the mercy that eternally radiates from the very nature of being.

It is therefore incumbent upon each believing Muslim to respond to his or her innately compassionate nature. Remarking on the hadith that "My Mercy takes precedence over My Anger", Dr. Shah-Kazemi states:

If God describes His Anger as being subordinate to His Mercy, the same principial priority must obtain within the human soul.

In this regard, it becomes clear that all human virtues are merely reflections of the divine qualities in which they are rooted, so that goodness and mercy derive from God alone. By contrast, all evils and their consequences (other than as commuted or forgiven by the bountiful grace of God) derive from our own imperfections, from our inability to reflect our loving nature. ("Whatever good comes to you is from God, and whatever evil comes to you is from your own soul"--4:79)

The task of each human soul is therefore to strive to reflect the beautiful qualities that inhere within its spiritual nature. The Arabic root "hsn", found in the key Islamic concept of ihsan (virtue, goodness), is the root of the term husn (beauty), signifying through sacred etymology the metaphysical connection between one's inner (beautifully loving) nature and its outward manifestation (as acts or forms of beauty).

The message of compassionate and loving mercy is also essential to a proper understanding of revelation within Islam. The Holy Prophet of Islam is sent "as a mercy for all the worlds" (21:107) and "as an illuminating lamp" (33:46), while the Holy Qur'an itself is "a manifest light" (4:174), illumining no less than the compassionate substance of the cosmos. The signs of this divine light of compassion are found both around and within us: "And in the earth are signs for those whose faith is profound--and in yourselves: can you not see?" (51:20-21) . According to a sacred hadith ("I was a hidden treasure, and I loved to be known, so I created the world"), the very genesis of creation is love, while the sacred etymology of the terms al-Rahman and al-Rahim, the Names of Mercy, is rooted in the word rahm, meaning "womb", denoting that creation is embraced and sustained by, as it were, a maternally-caring deity. Repeatedly, the Qur'an reminds us that the things of this earth are signs for us to ponder, signs that evidence the super-abundant grace of God. The divine messengers are also signs of God's loving nature, that He has not abandoned us without guidance, and the Holy Prophet in Islam also serves as an exemplar of graciousness and compassion, a model of mercy, an archetype of the perfect man, al-insan al-kamil.

Significantly, given that the times we live in are fraught with religious discord and ignorance, the essential message of the Qur'anic ethos is one of peace, love, and compassion. Religious pluralism, which is sorely needed in our times, is an important theme of the Qur'anic revelation, and this theme is premised on the Qur'anic view that Truth is one, though its articulations are many. The Qur'an itself is merely the last in a series of messages to humankind. As Dr. Shah-Kazemi notes:

The formal religion of Islam is conceived as the final articulation of the "primordial religion" (din al-fitra). Which manifests at the core of every divine revelation; it is in this light that the following words addressed to the Prophet should be understood: "Naught was said to you but what was said to the Messengers who came before you" (41:43).

In this context, the very inevitability of diversity is an expression of our metaphysical connectedness to the Source of this diversity, and revelation, as divine-self disclosure, is itself "an expression of pure mercy" and "a compassionate means of reaching out to humanity in terms that are intelligible to people of all ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds." Dr. Shah-Kazemi elaborates as follows:

If God's Mercy "encompasses all things," so too must His revealed guidance embrace all peoples: "And for every community there is a messenger" (10:47).

Parallel to this message of religious pluralism--itself an expression of mercy--is an elaboration of an ethos of peace and compassion. True striving (signified by the much maligned and abused term, jihad) relates to the soul's struggle to respond to and to make manifest in virtuous deeds the latent beauty of its inherently loving spiritual nature. And the super-abundant grace and mercy of God does not exclude from His favors those who practice other religions than Islam. All souls, whatever their formal creed, who submit (recall here that the term islam is a synonym for submission) their entire being to God and are virtuous, are favored with Paradise (see, for example, 2:62 and 2:111-112).

In keeping with this pluralistic ethos, the believer is enjoined to abjure aggression, to use aggression defensively and proportionately, but above all, to return evil with good and to be virtuous (muhsinin, which Dr. Shah-Kazemi translates as "those who radiate through beautiful virtue"). What clearly emerges from the scripture is the primacy given to mercy. Indeed, in a key passage, it is revealed that God "has prescribed mercy for Himself" (6:12). Regarding this remarkable revelation, the translator comments:

...this image of writing a law for oneself can be seen as a graphic metaphor for expressing the metaphysical truth that mercy is, as it were, "inscribed" or embedded in the very nature of ultimate reality.

This quintessential quality of mercy, then, not only accounts for the very fact of creation, but permeates the whole of the created orders which are sustained by it as though by a compassionate womb. The eschatological significance of the metaphor of God's prescription of mercy for Himself is that our innate better nature will ultimately judge our own imperfections, will compassionately administer the appropriate remedy to purify our souls of their imperfections, and will, by the overflowing grace of mercy that is inscribed within our spiritual nature, grant mercy to our souls. But it is incumbent on us, as creatures, to strive to merit such mercy, through acts of loving-kindness and virtue that reflect our inherent good nature.

There is much to treasure in this slim but weighty volume. The selected passages from the Qur'an are printed on the right page, while a commentary by Dr. Shah-Kazemi accompanies his translations on the facing page. This format makes the text very easy to read. One hopes that there will be other volumes commissioned, relating to other faith traditions, to continue this valuable series.

Profound, yet eminently readable and accessible. This book should be in every school, church, synagogue and mosque.

This is an excellent book if you're looking for an intelligent, readable argument in favor of Islam as a non-terrorist religion. The author is a practicing Muslim and a scholar who is informed by his own experience of what Islam really is about. His introduction presents a calm voice in the present-day maelstom of misinformation confronting Westerners about the nature of what is truly a peaceful religion. He finds no need to put a spin on the facts to point out the difference between what extremist crazies use to dupe the ignorant into acts of terrorism and what the Quran really teaches. Anyone who wants to know what Islam is all about need only read this book, with its excellent introduction and its wealth of Quranic references, to get a clear picture of the religion. When I hear people like Bill Maher characterize Islam as a violent religion, I only wish they would take the short time needed to read this book.

Spain fascinates me for some of the same reasons that intrigued Richard Wright when he wrote this book a few years before his untimely death. Wright ascertains that Spain is a contradiction,a holy nation that does ungodly acts, a superpower from the past trying to find its way in the modern world. Wright's main issue is exploring religion, namely Roman Catholism but along the way divulges his insights into a society plagued by it's past and present which at the time(1954)was still under Franco's influence. One of the more interesting aspects of this book is his discovery of a little book all young women must read and memorize. It turns out to be a sort of indoctrination to being "Spanish." Take an excerpt from Chapter 1, "Spain is a historical unit with a specific role to play in the world." This role is tied to religion and the conversion of all, by any means neccessary as exemplified with the conquest of the Americas; the gold and riches were just a by product of the divine nature of the conquest, a sort of earthly reward. Further on in the book destiny is defined as "all men in a common movement for salvation." In essence the belief is that Spain although no longer a superpower will be fundamental in the salvation of the world.Wright reads chapters of the book throughout his travels and shares them with the reader. Some of the Falangist concepts about Imperial Spain and how it pertains to the current state of affairs is amazing in it's ethnocentrism. The ideas from the Falangist book are worth reading this book for alone. Along his travels Wright sees the contradictions everywhere, racism, sexism and exploitation of women is rampant but sex sells, for it's price. So much for the high morality. One section is entitled " Sex , Flamenco and Prostitutuion" in which he explores this part of Spain that goes against the teachings of the church. Wright tries to live the life as regular people do and see it through their eyes. He buys a poor family a ticket to the bullfights and learns more lessons and observations on Spanish life. I found this book hard to put down and read it over a few brief settings while listening to Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" as interpreted by Miles Davis on "Sketches of Spain". The material is fascinating and makes you think about many things especially if you happen to have Spanish heritage in your veins somewhere. Highly insightful and worth reading for the perspective of an outsider. Recommended reading from high school to adult although it might offend some Catholics.

I'm a fan of Wright's but had not heard of this book. It's one of those you start reading and it just fascinates you so you can't put it down. Part travelogue, part social critique, this work of Wright's is refreshing because we see it through the eyes of someone who hasn't be educated or socialized out of believing what he sees. I've always felt that in some places Catholicism is practed in a cult-like way. Wright shows how much power the Church had and what the results were.

This book had, says the introduction, been out of print for many years before being briefly republished several years ago. If anyone is able to purchase or obtain this work, they will find it an insightful view into a Spain still largely unknown by and officially protected from America and much of Europe. It was written in the mid-fifties after Wright had taken three journeys to that country. His argument is that Spain is still pagan: a primitive land untouched by the outside world for better or worse. On one hand, the Spanish practice an almost superstitious, certainly paternalist Catholicism which straightjackets women and suspects the few Spaniards daring to practice Protestantism. More positively, Wright finds, Spaniards have no race consciousness derived from outside sources. Wright notes that though obviously of African background, he was not discriminated against in terms of accomodation, dining, or socializing. He talks with a variety of Spaniards. Many question the Franco regime; are anticlerical and sceptical of Spanish values and history. Wright's descriptions of the often intimidating landscape, of bullfights and the celebration of Holy Week in Seville, are excellent. He maintains a basic criticism of the domination of the Church throughout.This brought adverse reaction when the work originally appeared, during an ultra-conservative era when religion was considered a bastion against communism. Wright 's sympathies for Spanish women, be they housewives, prospective brides or prostitutes, is farseeing. He understands the stereotypes women are subject to, especially in such a traditional society.Wright, an ex-communist, still had nostalgic feelings for the fledgling Spanish Republic. The Civil War is a subject only mentioned in confidence to him, so then recent was that struggle. For anyone wishing a broad-minded, well-written portrayal of a country that has fascinated many writers, "Pagan Spain" would be very worthwhile.

I've read (or at least flipped through) a number of business planning books and what I like best about Tim Berry's book (the best I've read so far) is that it turns business planning from a pain in the neck "do I have to do this" event into a "wow - I know I can do this and I want to do this and in fact I love to do this" process.

The hallmark of the book is that business plans are NOT a one time event nor do you have to do one, in some particular standard way. But it is a plan, a guide a road map. Tim takes your hand and not only guides you but gives you plenty of resources and practical advice (like the shortest lesson in Excel I've ever seen) to make your business plan a success.

If you have NEVER started a business The Plan As You Go Business Plan is a must read. If you are already in a business the book is a must read to keep you in business. And if by chance you have started a second successful business this book will probably ensure you do even better with your newest venture.

One thing...Tim makes finances not a drudgery but something you'll come to appreciate the importance of.

Ramon Ray, Editor & Technology Evangelist, Smallbiztechnology.com

The biggest obstacle most of us face in become successful is in closing the gap between "knowing" and "doing." When it comes to starting and/or running a successful business most entrepreneurs know they should have a business plan, but statistics show very few take the time to actually write one. And truth be told, unless you are making a formal presentation of your business plan you probably don't need a complete business plan. However, you do need to plan, keep planning, evaluate, and adjust as your business grows.

That is what makes Tim Berry's The Plan As You Go Business Plan a solid read for an entrepreneur. By breaking the creation of a business plan down into 1) Heart - a business's core strategy, 2) Flesh & Bones - action plans and basic financial numbers, and 3) Dressing and Growing - bring the plan up to a full document suitable to present to potential investors, the reader is able to use the sections of the book that are most relevant to the business's current situation. As your business continues to grow, The Plan As You Go Business Plan will serve as a fantastic reference manual to make sure you are thinking about those aspects of the business necessary for growth.

Tim Berry's encouraging and uplifting writing style will give you the motivation to start, but more importantly, he will provide the insight and direction to make sure something gets done. By breaking down business speak and MBA gobbledygook and explaining important business concepts into easy to understand terminology, Mr. Berry simplifies what can be for some an overwhelming process and demystifies the business planning process for all.

In my current role as a Duct Tape Marketing coach and in my former role as a CPA, I see business owners who struggle because they don't have a plan. I also see folks who create a plan because they "have to", but then they never use it - it goes on a shelf and collects dust. I've always maintained that the value from having a written plan comes from 1) going through the process and 2) using it on a regular basis to evaluate how your business is going and making adjustments as needed.

In The Plan-as-You-Go Business Plan, Tim Berry makes these points much more eloquently than I ever could. Tim argues that the planning process (along with regular reviews) is so important that business owners just need to get started somewhere, anywhere, and continue to build your plan as your needs change. This is 180 degrees different from the classical "big bang" approach to business planning where we work for months at a time developing a huge document before we ever get started working on the business.

The author has organized the book to support his "plan as you go" approach. It is designed so you can jump around and use the section of the book that you need at any given time. The first section of the book "Attitude Adjustment" contains the background information you need to know and learn to adjust to this idea of business planning as a process in your business rather than an event or milestone to be forgotten once completed.

In "The Heart of the Plan", you work on your business identity, target market, your offering(s) and your strategic focus. When I post on my blog about having a marketing plan, this is the stuff I'm talking about.

"Flesh and Bones" is the section that talks about creating action plans, budgets, milestones, and metrics.

I really like that "Dressing and Growing" is the second to the last chapter of the book because it re-emphasizes the idea that you should do the planning for yourself first, and then when others want to see the plan (your bank), you add the dressing that they need to what you have already done. Again, this is 180 degrees different from how most businesses use their business plans.

The last section talks about the process of planning. This includes reviewing, revising, and managing the plan. I think my favorite piece of Tim's advice from this book is his recommendation that the first thing you do when creating your plan is to schedule the review dates - before you even begin writing. I just think this sets exactly the right tone for part your plan should play in your business.

This book is a must have for anyone who owns a business or plans to start a business someday.

Admission: Had this book not been in a Barnes & Noble discount bin I probably would not have purchased it. Had I not, I would have missed a tome that in the words of those MasterCard gurus is `priceless.'

I had expected to use it as a reference, one where I could dip in and out of. Instead, I have read almost every one of the 96 speeches in this excellent work. Gottheimer has set the book out in chronological order, covering not just African-American civil rights, but also Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, the suffragette movement, gays and lesbians.
Rather than taking it in this chronological order, I chose to read it by subject so I read all black civil rights speeches as one block. It has been an eye-opening, hugely instructive history lesson. And that highlights one of the wonders of this book.

It is not just a book of speeches. It is a history book. One of the many lessons I learned: While Martin Luther King can credibly lay claim to being the greatest orator of the civil rights movement, he most assuredly was not the only great speaker.

The anger, the power, the pain, the passion of many black speakers flows aggressively and often poignantly through these pages. Never before, had I appreciated so well, the suffering of the "negro" community, a suffering was not just physical, but also mental. The evil of slavery for many was greater because the family unit was regularly broken up and abused, with the young black girl often never more than a sex slave for her white master.

I never knew:
That the first African American Governor, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback took office, even if in a pro tempore role in December 1872 for the state of Louisiana.
That the Civil Rights act of 1875 granted all citizens, regardless of color, full access to public facilities and accommodation. Mind you it appears the Jim Crow South did not know it either!
That the introduction of the sex discrimination amendment into the 1964 Civil Rights Act happened only because Congressman Howard Smith introduced it, believing that this amendment would scupper the whole Civil Rights bill. Gosh, who would have thought politicians could be so devious?

I have often thought that much of Jesse Jackson's speechmaking is clich?d but some of his phrasing and imagery when he spoke at the 1984 Democratic National Convention is absolutely superb.

"My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised."

Or

"America is not like a blanket - one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt - many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt."

Gottheimer does not present Jackson's speech to the 1988 Democratic Convention where he used similar imagery. Good communicators know what works and as Martin Luther King showed often, are not afraid to repeat strong phrases in many different speeches. In '88, Jackson said,
"America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmama could not afford a blanket, she didn't complain and we did not freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth -- patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack -- only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with. But they didn't stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture. Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt."

One of the compelling aspects of the book is how history's so called "second-class citizens" - Blacks, Women, Chinese-Americans, Gays, Hispanics were able to overcome similar prejudice to build better futures for themselves. No one should believe that complete success has been achieved.

Bill Clinton's speech to African-American ministers at the Church of God of Christ, in Memphis in 1993 rebukes their community for in a sense swapping one form of tyranny for another. He imagined what Dr. Martin Luther King might say if he were to return. King might have said "I did not live and die to see 13-year-old boys get automatic weapons and gun down 9-year-olds just for the kick of it. I did not live and die to see young people destroy their own lives with drugs and then build fortunes destroying the lives of others. That is not what I came here to do."

Gottheimer (who was a Clinton speechwriter) indicated that Clinton did this speech almost extemporaneously, relying on some hand written notes. If so, kudos to a great communicator who by the way writes the foreword to Ripples of Hope. Kudos also to Gottheimer for putting this great edition together. I am boring people telling them how good it is.

This compilation is much more than just a desk reference for quotes ? it?s a thoroughly readable history of the civil rights movement in its leaders' own words. Ripples of Hope is a trove filled with speeches whose famous lines we?ve all heard but probably never bothered to read in their entirety, as well as several speeches that have been restored from relative obscurity. It elevates the speech from an archive to a new form ? an accessible, living source meant to be read, reflected upon, and drawn from as a source of motivation.

This book fills a stunning gap -- I've never seen another collection dedicated to the civil rights speeches that have played such a crucial role in American history. It includes all the famous speeches (I Have a Dream, etc.), but it also covers activists most of us haven't heard of, from movements most civil rights histories ignore. Each speech is accompanied by an introduction with just enough information to set the scene and put the speech in the context of its own and the other movements, but not so much that it gets in the way of the speeches themselves. Anyone who cares about how America's many peoples live together -- and how we wish they would -- must have this book on their shelf.

The book Snake is the biography of Ken Stabler the Oakland Raiders renegade quarterback of the 1970's. The book was very interesting and was very detailed. I recommend reading this book if you are a football fan. Also if you are an Oakland Raiders fan this book is for you. If you do not vulgar language or talks of sex, drugs and rock and roll you should not read this book. The book had many strong points, which include very detailed recolations of games and wild nights. My overall opinion of the book is that was very interesting and if you have a weak stomach this book is not from you. Snake is a book for football lovers and if you liked this book check "I'm the Assassin" by Jack Tatum another renegade from the Oakland Raiders in the 1970's. Go Raiders.

This had to be one of the funniest behind the scenes sports books ever. Shocking tales of hot-tub orgies, drunken spree's, and other general hedonism highlight page after page. And there is some football, too.

What were considered rumors about the wild lifestyles of the Oakland Raiders are actually truths according to one of the leaders, Kenny Stabler. Drinking, honky-tonking, reading the playbook by the jukebox light, womanizing and oh yes - football are some of the sideshows in this book. This is not only about the "Snake" but also about the other characters from the Oakland Raiders during their heyday.