Brandon Books

A great photography book of images that provide new shape and texture ideas in my artwork. Also using it as a resource for shape exercises with my drawing students.

I try to confine my Amazon reviews to serious books about education and philosophy. When Amazon sent an email asking me to review this book (because, after all, I had bough it), I thought, no, I don't want to blur what I'm doing.

But what the heck, folks, this is a wonderful book. It's your perfect gift for smarter people. Not costly. Beautifully designed. Not a coffee table book, by the way, but sort of petite.

I'm a big believer in telling students about the very large and the very small (as people tend to think that the world they can see around them is pretty much all there is). Microcosmos is the perfect first portal into the unseen all about us. I'm also a big believer in trying to excite in people a sense of awe and wonder (as an educational tool). Microcosmos excites.

This book contains more than 200 color photographs divided into six categories: Microorganisms, Botanics, Human Body, Zoology, Minerals, and Technology.

I have the distinction of having the first printed copy...Brandon takes the confines and reverses the mirror. The only cliche is the form of the book, it is a consumable resource needing to be sold, if only, to pick the pocketed minds of former, lovers, friends, and the satchel laden God who designed Wilding for what he is: Profound.

A remarkable read, and one that has remarked an otherwise lazy posture in this former dare-devil.

This book has 60 poems that change what poetry has become. Wilding does not hold back and does not let form or structure control him. He is the moral driven version of Charles Bukowski. I have only had this book for a week and I have read it three times. This book sets the standards for what poetry really should be.

Slater's Cheese Louise saved the day in the book of the same name. Here, her successor, Missy Swiss, follows in her cheese-steps to foil a nasty cat's perfidy. Delicious puns infuse the tale so that kids and adults will both enjoy the exciting tale about what our food is doing while we're not around. It's just as cool as the other side of the refrigerator.

This nifty little book is about unlikely heroes. Children's imaginations will be tickled by a world they are familiar with, a refrigerator filled with food, and yet food with a community of characters who work together for the common good. Clever, punny and funny.

As a homeschooling mother, I am always looking for ways to bring curriculum to life. As I was preparing our study on the Middle Ages, this book literally dropped from the shelf into my grasp. Whether it was a divine appointment or not, I have found Monks and Mystics to be a great addition to my son's studies. He loves the conversational style and remembers the factual information much better than through purely textual accounts. I plan on purchasing all the books in this series as our studies progress!

This book, and its companion, Peril and Peace, is a well-written collection of narratives about important Christians. The stories are descriptive and interesting, and give you a real sense of "being there". I never studied church history as a child, and I enjoy reading these stories aloud to my 10yo son as we study history. I highly recommend this book to other homeschoolers, parents who want to help their kids learn about church history, and even adults who want an enjoyable introduction to the lives of important Christians of the past. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!

The only reason i read this book was because i knew they were trying to ban it.. but i now know why!

This is a Great Book, at it really opens your eyes, i now understand why they are trying to ban it, the goverment wants to keep every secret from us, and this book tells you some of them.... If i were you i would definately buy this book. No matter what the price it is, IT IS WORTH IT. But becareful everything that youve been taugh is wrong!

This will open your eyes.

After you finish reading this book your life will NEVER BE THE SAME

With all the people trying to get this book banned I wondered if I should read it. I am happy to say I decided to and would do it all over again. This is a very good book, anyone who is interested should definatly read it.On a scale of 1-10 I give it a 10. Thanks amazon for making this book available to the public and thank you Brandon Levon for having the courage to write this book!

Brandon Barker not only knows how to write (rara avis, these days), but, even more important, has also refined the art of entertaining the reader.
Operation Emu is a wonderfully amusing, gripping and entertaining book, and at the same time it gives plenty of food for thought about how our lives are constantly at risk of being manipulated.

This book is hilarious! The story is fantastic, and it reads like buttah. The characters are rich and the dialogue brisk. This is a great book for anyone with a zany sense of humor and a love of 1950s/1960s Science Fiction B-Movies. Parodying the movie industry, actors, government and NASA, Operation EMU is a must-read.

I have thought that if a kernel of the Jesus story was true, then it would be found in the parables. This book is a brief overview of the parables, including those from Thomas, with some explanation of why scholars consider some of them to be more likely the genuine product of a sage. There are any revealing facts in this quick read, unburdened by zealous interpretation--exactly what I wanted. This book does not try to explain the parables--that problem is left to the readers as an exercise.

I have had this real season of consuming Jesus Seminar books. R W Funk is marvelous in his frank easy-going style when going thru the parables of Jesus.

This report is one of many, which preceded the masterpiece "The five gospels" and which is wholly dedicated to the parables.

The report starts with the organistion and work method of the Jesus Seminar, an overview of the relationship between the gospels and the historic Jesus and his sayings and ends with the beautiful parables coloured according to how close or far they are to the historic Jesus. The more elaborate and theological the parables become, the more further from Jesus they have been written. I found the overview of the gospels very important: it is a very good picture of how far objective non-religious reserach has come. Besdies the four gospels, the gospel of Thomas and Hebrews are included among many others.

I do fancy this objective terretrial look at Jesus and his time, far from the majestic superman of the gospels. A Jesus that thru his parables want to give us humans an insight of what a divine conscience is, of how to be human and a good one and of course: to be a full individual, present today, NOW.

One of the parables that inspired me most what Thomas' about the woman who carried food on her head in a jar, which breaks. She doesn't know and find out when she's arrived at home. Jesus likens the divine conscience (aka kingdom of god) to this whole situation, the whole process and not only to the overflow of food, drinks etc but to this life.

This is a "must have" for anyone who has followed the story of Grace Brown and Chester Gillette......murder in the Adirondacks. These are Chester's final words as he awaited his exacution for the death of Grace in 1906. The movie, A Place in the Sun, and Theodore Dreiser's novel, An American Tragedy, are loosely based on the story. If you want the real deal, purchase Craig Brandon's...... Murder in the Adirondacks...it's the best account of the actual story....He also wrote Grace Brown's Love Letters.......compelling!! They should make a movie from these books.

In 1905, a young philanderer named Chester Gillette met Grace Brown, a farmer's daughter, at his uncle's skirt factory in Cortland, New York. The two began a clandestine relationship that they kept secret because she was socially beneath him. She became pregnant, and after heated and tearful discussions about their dilemma, they left for the Adirondacks together on July 9, 1906. Chester returned from the vacation in handcuffs after Grace's bruised body was fished from the bottom of Big Moose Lake. At the end of a widely covered trial, a jury concluded that he had done away with her rather than hamper his social ambitions by marrying her. Gillette was convicted of murder, and after unsuccessful clemency movements spearheaded by his devoted mother, died in Auburn's electric chair on March 30, 1908.

Theodore Dreiser used the Gillette case as a basis for his bestselling novel "American Tragedy", which in turn fuelled films, plays, and even an opera. Two excellent nonfiction books have also been written: Craig Brandon's "Murder in the Adirondacks" and "Adirondack Tragedy" by Joseph Brownell and Patricia Enos.

The case continues to haunt the public for two primary reasons. First, a distressed young woman and her unborn child met a terrible end. Second, a faint question mark remains over the issue of Chester Gillette's guilt. He claimed at his trial that she committed suicide by jumping out of their rowboat, and Cortland people who knew Grace said that she had suffered from epileptic seizures, raising the possiblity that she'd fallen in the water during a fit. After his death, Chester's spiritual advisors stated that "no legal mistake" had been made where his execution was concerned, which suggested that he had confessed, but no more details were divulged.

In March 2007 Chester Gillette's grandniece made public a 'prison diary' that he kept from September 18, 1907 until the morning of his execution. The journal, now published (and the subject of this review!) is an intriguing historical document. Be warned: if you're expecting to read a confession or even ruminations on the subject of Grace Brown, you'll be disappointed. Knowing that prison authorities could have access to the diary at any time, he steers away from incriminating musings and focuses instead on book reviews and fond commentary on his friends and family. It's interesting to note that Gillette does not directly assert his innocence: he complains instead that he was convicted on the basis of improper evidence. There's a subliminal message of "They got me, but they didn't play fair" as opposed to "They've condemned an innocent man."

The earliest entries are a bit shallow and self-absorbed, but as the time of execution draws near, Gillette's entries take on a more spiritual, reflective, and regretful tone. The same progression is observed in the letters to his sister Hazel and friend Bernice Ferrin that were donated along with the journal and published as an appendix.

"The Prison Diary and Letters of Chester Gillette: September 18, 1907 through March 30, 1908" contains no revelations about how Grace Brown really died, but by providing a small degree of insight into Gillette's final months, it adds a haunting new dimension to the case and its aftermath.

Brandon A. Perron has produced an unusual, perhaps even unique, book of philosophy. His aim was to produce an introduction to philosophy which was not `dry' or `confusing' and he has achieved that.

The Quest for Truth can be read from any or all of three levels. At the most basic level we have the racy adventures of the warrior hero Youngblood Hawke testing and challenging himself to greater and greater feats of derring-do all in the spirit of finding the truth about life and the triumph of good over evil. Youngblood is well equipped for his task for he has a curious and intelligent mind. He also has good looks and a personality which enables him to attract the support of other people, courage and the tenacity to achieve things, and a formidable Japanese samurai battle sword called a Katana which he effectively uses to slice evil from good.

A level up from the adventurous romp is an introduction to philosophy. Here questions such as where am I, what am I, who am I, and why am I are explored. We are helped in this task through Youngblood's adventures being interspersed and supported by quotations from philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Nietzsche etc. A full list of endnotes assist in defining the source of the quotations, and anyone with a little background in philosophy has the additional treat of trying to anticipate the source before looking it up.

And the final level in reading The Quest for Truth is the original poetry it contains. Mr Perron has interspersed his prose with apt short poems and, indeed, the final chapter of his book is entirely devoted to the poetry of Youngblood Hawke. Many of the poems articulate the passions and emotions that most humans experience in life and as such the poems are particularly striking.

Whether or not one reads The Quest for Truth solely in terms of Youngblood Hawke's adventures wielding his Katana to slice evil from good, or to use the book's philosophy to slice ignorance from truth, or both, it is a jolly good read.

What can I say? I could not put this book down. In many ways it is a guide for an intellectual rebellion against the "herd mentality." Action, adventure, a swashbuckling warrior-poet armed with the intellect of a philosopher. This is a landmark work of literature that will without question make a mark in literary circles! The manner in which Brandon Perron communicated classic philosophy through his characters is just brilliant! His character, Youngblood Hawke, actually engages in dialogue with some of the greatest thinkers of all time and he uses their actual words! Masterful to the point of profound. The author is a prolific writer with a knack for colorful prose and his poetry is thought provoking. This book is deep. If you liked the Alchemist ... you are going to love this novel. A true spiritual journey. It even has 182 footnotes! Something for everyone! Buy it, read it, study it, live it!

"The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit," by Jim Brandon (Firebird Press, 1983, first US edition. 228 page paperback) OOP.

Anyone seeking out the works of Jim Brandon knows it is a frustrating, lengthy and confusing search, indeed. There are a couple of reasons for this: The first being that Brandon's books are long, long out-of-print and are thus rather scarce. The second reason is that "Jim Brandon" was merely the author's nom de plume in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a pseudonym which he discarded long ago. His true (or current) identity is William Grimstad, a skeptical compiler of rather controversial data, who has seemingly left a bad taste in many publishers' mouths; in truth, Grimstad is doing the same thing he always did, which oftentimes includes stepping on the toes of his politically correct critics (and publishers). For these reasons, and perhaps others, you may run into a brick wall in your search for "Jim Brandon" and his works. Call it a "conspiracy," if you will--I'm sure Brandon/Grimstad would love it.

"The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit," is a 1983 companion to Brandon's 1978 book, "Weird America: A Guide to Places of Mystery in the United States." Instead of teasing the reader with his guide book of many oddities in many locations all across the country (as he did in Weird America), Brandon's "Rebirth of Pan" goes into much greater detail on weird archeological finds, etc., and proposes that the Earth itself may be alive--that maybe some/much paranormal activity can be attributed to "the American earth spirit." Essentially, he says that the ancient notion of Pan (god of Nature) may be real, and that perhaps weird archeological finds, monsters (such as Bigfoot), etc., may be "creations" due to earth stresses, intended to communicate or to teach us something--perhaps that Pan is alive? This is somewhat reminiscent of James Lovelock's "Gaia" theory, with a paranormal twist.

Not all of Brandon's arguments hold water, but they are interesting and point toward the need for further serious study. As in other Brandon works, the author addresses scientific heresies, gathers together his improbable and controversial data, and invites the reader to draw his/her own conclusions--which, in my opinion, demands much more reader participation than the "read-and-memorize" dogma of conventional education. Indeed, I applaud Jim Brandon/William Grimstad in this and his other works for challenging us to THINK, for a change.

I finally found an affordable copy. This book was well
worth it. Read it with an open mind. Brandons observations cross the barrier that most of us are raised in,i.e. the four walls and a roof theory, and that there is no boogy monster or anything under the bed. But once you look outside that box you can see a marvelous scintilating ever changing perhaps not-understandable world out there. A lot of people can't handle the idea that this might be the way the world is. Even scientists that are supposely trained to be open minded consistently ignore or skew data that doesn't fit in the grid.It doesn't surprise me that his books languish in obscurity, just as do many of the things he writes about. Find his two books if you can.