Brown Books


Books-Under-Review-->Reference-->Biography-->B-->Brown-->78
Related Subjects:
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250
Brown Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Brown
Three Lives to Live: A Novel
Published in Hardcover by Little Brown & Co (Juv) (1992-05)
Author: Anne Lindbergh
List price: $14.95
New price: $124.91
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $16.00

Average review score:

Suspenseful!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-04
My favorite aspect from the novel is the setting. It is a great setting because you can picture what the people are wearing and what they're doing This book is fantastic. It is mysterious. Once you read the first chapter you won't let the book down. It is a good book is about a girl named Garet and her grandma Gratkins, but there's a girl who comes through a mysterious chute. Could that be Garet's sister or is it Gratkins? You'll have to read the book and find out. I recommend this book to other kids because it is a mysterious book and it has action in it. This book is great; you should read it.

You'll never put it down!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-02-29
I choose this book because I needed to do a report. At first it was a little confusing, but when I got farther in the book I couldn't put it down! This is a must read for everyone! You'll never guess what happens to Garet!

Three Lives to Live
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-05
This is wonderful book written by Anne Lindbergh (the daughter of Charles Lindbergh)about a girl, Garet Atkins (age 13) and a mysterious laundry chute. Garet lives with her grandmother Gratkins (short for grandmother atkins) when suddenly a third person enters their lives. Daisy Atkins, a strange girl wearing an old fashioned peach-colored party dress falls into Garet's basement and into her life. This story is a autobiography that Garet is writing for her 7th grade english teacher. Daisy's true identity is never explained to Garet and she is determined to figure out just who this prettier, smarter, more polite, "twin" is.

Highly entertaining
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-07-04
I first read this book in third grade and have loved it ever since. It's cute, mysterious, and humorous. The narrative is frank engaging, and full of energy. The main character is someone you can identify with, as she's a normal middle school student whose life as been totally messed up. It's worth buying and reading.

Be fifty years ahead of your time!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-12-04
It is a great pity that Anne Lindbergh has been forgotten so soon after her death; she was one of the few writers who carried on the wonderful tradition of children's literature that started with E. Nesbit. Lindbergh writes the kind of children's fantasy that doesn't involve elves, dragons, or even wizards. In her books, ordinary children (or teens) stumble across something magical and make the best possible use of it. The magical something, in this case a laundry chute that transports you (or replicates you - it's complicated) fifty years ahead of your time, is not always fully explained. Why a laundry chute should be a time stutter, or why a height chart should allow everyone who is 5'5" to travel to the future, is left unclear, and in Lindbergh's fiction that works.

The basic plot of Three Lives to Live is this: Garet Atkins is an orphan, living very happily with her grandmother Gratkins, who is also her best friend. Then one day, when Garet is peacefully reading in the basement sink, a girl her own age comes flying out of the laundry chute, wearing an old-fashioned peach-colored party dress. To Garet's surprised resentment, Gratkins knows the girl's name (Daisy), takes her in and insists on enrolling her at Garet's school as Garet's twin sister. Garet documents all this, including her increasing jealousy of the pretty, popular, and opportunistic Daisy, in the autobiography she is writing for her English class. As as result, Garet spends a lot of time struggling with Mrs. Magorian, her well-meaning, incompetent teacher, who patently doesn't believe a word of the autobiography. These scenes will induce flashbacks in anyone who has ever had a truly terrible middle-school English teacher. When Garet writes a hilarious conversation between herself and Daisy using only "said" and "asked" as verbs, Mrs. Magorian insists that she rewrite it. She gives Garet, as examples, a list of verbs starting with "beg, bellow, blubber, blurt," and Garet duly sticks them into the dialogue at random. This is funny even for younger children; as read by older children it becomes very pointed satire. The entire book is like this - perfect for many different ages, and worth re-reading as an adult.

Brown
Trace Your Roots with DNA: Use Your DNA to Complete Your Family Tree
Published in Paperback by Rodale Books (2004-10-27)
Authors: Megan Smolenyak and Ann Turner
List price: $16.95
New price: $6.78
Used price: $5.99

Average review score:

TRACE YOUR ROOTS WITH DNA
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-23
FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN GENEALOGY, THE BOOK BY MEGAN SMOLENYAK TITLED TRACE YOUR ROOTS WITH DNA IS MOST INFORMATIVE. IT IS WELL WRITTEN AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR EITHER THE BEGINNING OR PROFESSIONAL GENEALOGIST.

Megan Smolenyak "Trace Your Roots with DNA" - reviewed
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-05
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - her real name - provides an excellent introduction of what DNA can and can not do in Genetic Genealogy.

Anyone starting their "Roots" research effort is advised to buy this book. It will help you save money by allowing DNA to focus on your line and not someone elses. Read the book for more details!

Trace Your Roots with DNA
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-19
Excellent book for the beginner who wants to understand DNA Testing and how to use it for Genealogy.

This is a "Must Have" addition to your DNA library...
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-03
As a DNA-surname research group administrator, I tend to buy every book, VHS, or DVD I can find regarding the use of DNA research in support of traditional genealogy.

Of the 12-15 books I have purchased so far, Megan Smolenyak's touchstone reference work continues to be the one I reach for when I have a question myself.

Easily read and understood, this book makes complex concepts readily accessible with clear illustrations, definitions, real-world examples, and authoritative references when needed. I am not naturally science-minded, but as a good researcher, I want to be able to use every tool in the box. This is my go-to book for that purpose.

Buy as many DNA books and tapes as you want, but your DNA library will not be complete without this classic introduction to the concepts involved in genetic genealogy.

I highly recommend it!

CHT in Virginia

Excellent contribution in a new subject of growing importance
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-07
Even a decade ago, "genetic genealogy" barely existed as an almost science-fictional idea. Now, it's one of the most debated topics in our field and thousands of family researchers are involved in projects to identify ancestors through DNA analysis. (I'm in two projects now, myself.) It's a rather complicated subject, though, and for those (like me) who barely scraped through high school biology, the more books for beginners, the better. Smolenyak is a well-known genealogist and lead researcher for the PBS Ancestors series and Turner has become one of the principal popularizers of genetic genealogy on the Internet. The important point is that both have been pursuing family research since the days of manual typewriters and paper library catalogs, and that's the perspective from which they approach the discussion. They explain very clearly why DNA analysis can tell you only who your ancestors *aren't*, not necessarily who they *are*, and the strategic differences between researching your father's and your mother's lineage. They lay out the options and limitations among uncovering ethnic origins (what about that Indian great-grandmother?), global origins (Eastern European? or Scandinavian?), "deep maternal" ancestry (the "daughters of Eve" thing), and even African tribal origins. How do you set up a family or surname research project, attract participants, ensure their trust, and analyze and publish the results? And what do all those numbers in the lab report mean? This is very much a practical book and I strongly recommend it, perhaps in conjunction with Thomas H. Shawker's _Unlocking Your Genetic Heritage_ (2004).

Brown
Truckers (Bromeliad Trilogy)
Published in Audio Cassette by Transworld Publishers (1993-09-01)
Author: Terry Pratchett
List price: $16.99
New price: $13.24
Used price: $27.63

Average review score:

Pratchett at his best
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-16
This is the first book in Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy, and it gets the series started well. It is about a group of nomes who live in a department store--but they have lived there so long that they have forgotten there is a world outside. The only problem is that the store will be demolished in 21 days. It's up to a group of just 8 outside nomes to convince thousands of stubborn people to leave a place they think is the entire universe, then hijack a truck and leave. This book has a perfect blend of humor, mystery, and plot, but the in my opinion the greatest element is the characters. The seemingly emotionless yet somehow smug spaceship computer known only as the Thing provides a touch of science in a world whose inhabitants don't even know what the word "thousand" means. Dorcas del Icatessen, the mad scientist of the nomes, who has complete control over the store elevator system. Angalo de Haberdasheri, who is fanatic about the possibility of life outside the store and has a pet rat named Bobo, and finally Grannie Morkie, the annoyingly apocalyptic nome elder. The final scene, in which hundreds of nomes wielding levers, pullies, and wires manages to hijack a truck and drive it on a chaotic romp through the city, might be one of the cleverest and funniest scenes in the history of fiction. One of the greatest quotes: "Give me a big enough lever, and a firm enough place to stand, and I could move the Store." The next two books in the trilogy are even greater, and do a good job of developing the already marvelous characters.

Very nice and noncondescending writing for younger readers
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-18
Pratchett is best known for his off-the-world Discworld yarns, but he also has produced a number of highly engaging, wryly funny, and thoroughly humane novels for younger readers. This one, the first of the "Bromeliad" trilogy, introduces the "nomes," four-inch-high people (well, humanoids) who live on highway medians and under the floors of buildings. They live fast (ten years is a very advanced age for a nome) and humans strike them as slow and stupid. Masklin, in escaping danger in the back of a truck with the last remnants of his tribe, finds himself in the Store -- "Arnold Bros. (est. 1905)" -- where there are thousands of nomes. These are divided into contending tribes by store departments, live a good life in the Food Hall, and worship Arnold Bros. And then he becomes aware that the store is about to be demolished. The strength of the story is Masklin's struggle to convince everyone else of the danger when most of them don't even believe in the existence of Outside, and then to organize an exodus by stealing a truck and learning to operate it. (Think lots of long levers, pulleys, and bits of string.) But the nomes turn out not to be "little people" at all. The nomes' interpretation of the signs they see will give you thoughtful pause, as will their unthinking belief in a nome-centered God in the sky. Or on the top floor. Pratchett fans will enjoy this, regardless of their age.

A fun romp!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-07-27
These books (Truckers, Diggers, and Wings) are a fun romp! Well thought out, well told, with a liberal dose of humor. If you have read any of Terry Pratchett's "Disc World" books, you'll love this light hearted series....

A Fabulous and Hillarious Adventure
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-02
Truckers is the first book of the Bromeliad trilogy (followed by Diggers and Wings).

Masklin and his family are the last ten nomes of their warren, devastated by cold, predators and hunger. Desperately, they set out on a last chance journey and climb up on one of the lorries of the humans.

What they'll soon discover is that this lorry has lead them to the Store of Arnold Bros (est. 1905), the home of thousands of other little nomes who, having never left the Store, think of the Outside as of nothing more than just another fairy tale. The coming of Masklin will be a great upheaval in their quiet lives. And as they learn that the Store is to be demolished, they make plans for their escape.

Although Truckers was originally written for a young audience, it's an enthralling adventure but also a story about understanding other people's ways and helping each other, and no doubt grown-ups will love it too. Because Terry Pratchett's unique sense of humour is lurking round every corner, especially when nomes try to interpret our human world... and what's more to make sense of it!

"Truckers" away
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-19
Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad trilogy is a mix of childlike fantasy and offbeat SF. While the opening book, "Truckers" lags in places and takes quite some time to really get moving, it's imaginative and very funny. Certainly it's a good place to start off with Pratchett's fiction.

Masklin and the other nomes are tiny people who scavenge on the streets, and now there are only a handful of them left. In an act of desperation, they climb into a lorry and ride to... The Store. Also known as Arnold Bros (est. 1905), where a complex civilization of nomes (about two thousand) live in semi-peace and prosperity. They either are dazzled by the idea of "Outside," or insist that the whole world is in Arnold Bros (est. 1905).

Seemingly, everything is fine for Masklin and his friends, especially when the mysterious Thing (a black box that is a spaceship's flight computer) comes to life and tells them more about their history. But suddenly their world is disrupted by the news of "All Things Must Go -- Final Sales." Now the nomes must escape the Store and find yet another place to live.

Tiny people living in a department store? Who are from another planet? That is something that could have bombed easily and hideously. But it doesn't, at least not in "Truckers." Clever plot elements like the sign-based religion (they take "everything under one roof" seriously!) and the department-based clans (Stationari, Corsetri) keep this unlikely plot afloat.

While "Truckers" is a self-contained story in itself, it has plenty of loose threads (mostly involving the Thing and the origins of the nomes) at the end, for the second and third books of the trilogy. The writing has Pratchett's usual sparseness and wit; the only problem is that it takes forever for the nomes to do anything. At least it's a fun slow ride. The wacky truck drive near the end is one of the best parts of the book.

Masklin and his nome band (especially the indefatigable, vaguely frightening Granny) serve as a good window into the nome civilization, since they're learning about it too. The better-off nomes are a bit snottier but eager to explore the Outside. But the Thing steals the show; despite being just a computer, it has a better idea than the nomes what is going on.

"Truckers" will delight fans of Pratchett, but you don't need to be a fan already to enjoy this story. While the plot takes awhile to go anywhere, the quirky characters and wonderful worldbuilding make it worthwhile.

Brown
The Unfair Advantage
Published in Paperback by Bentley Publishers (2000-09)
Authors: Mark Donohue and Paul Van Valkenburgh
List price: $24.95
New price: $16.05
Used price: $14.49

Average review score:

Very informative and entertaining
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-24
If you are a fan of Mark Donohue, or a racing fan from the era of the CanAm series, I believe you will enjoy this biography. It has enlightened me to the complications and hardships in preparing and maintaining a proper race care. There is much insight into the business side off the sport as well, and demonstrates Roger Penske's determination and acuity in running a top flight team.

A real insight to Trans-Am racing
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-26
I saw this book last weekend at a Vintage Race being held ther by HSR-West and figured it would be a great collectos item. But it is a lot more than that; it is a real insight to the trials and tribulations of racing and race car development. Donohue comes out as a very humble driver and he is not afraid to admit his mistakes and that of the team. This is a book that you don;t to put down but you also don;t want to be finished with it. I did see Mark Donohue at one of the Riverside Trans-Ams in 1968. I was always wondering what really happened at the end of the 69 season to make Penske swith to that AMC junk and now I know.. Do not miss this book.

One of the great racing tomes
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-29
This book is easily one of the best narratives about racing I've ever come across. It is a personal and honest account of the late Mark Donahue's racing career from his impromptu start to the zenith of his career in Formula 1, Indy Racing, and Can Am to his retirement.

Anyone who races or aspires to race will delight in his firsthand recollections of his racing exploits and his perspective on one of the great programs in motorsport history (the Can Am Porsche 917).

Highly recommended.

Changes your life
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-09-23
Donohue's apparent candidness and ability to give about the right amount of technical detail without getting boring weaves you through a history of this period of racing when a few guys could do all the race prep. They lived a hard life on the road. Donohue divorced. A rare look from an engineer driver's point of view and the sometimes austere and lonely life of racing. Roger Penske was his team owner and is commented on from Donohue's point of view. Somehow this book changes you as a person as you seem to experience Donohue's racing life though an un-glossed writing style. This style is part of the secret of the books greatness. Though it was likely edited by someone it was NOT "normalized" to be a standard bland coffee table book. Instead it remains in character to the situations and people involved. A rare look into someone else's professional life. Highly recommended.

A Must-Own Classic
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-29
There are very few motorsports books extant that can be called true classics or world-changers. This is one of them, and it's one of the best on top of that. Mark Donahue was an extrordinary individual, not only a blindingly fast driver, but also a talented, disciplined, and most importantly, curious engineer.

To have the virtues of both top-level driver and top-level engineer embodied in the same person is a very rare combination. To have been present - indeed, to be one of the driving forces behind - a revolution within a sport and an industry is even rarer. To have this person write about his experiences while busy changing the world is precious beyond price.

To put it simply, you cannot be a student of the profession of motor racing without reading this book.

I offer this as evidence: while I am by no means an autograph hound, I do, from time to time, have occasion to encounter people within the motorsports family whom I admire enough to want to collect an autograph from. I use my copy of The Unfair Advantage as my autograph storage device. Putting this book in front of people like Jackie Stewart, Carroll Shelby, and Carroll Smith results in a shock of recognition, followed by praise for the author. What greater endorsement could you want?

Brown
Van Halen: A Visual History: 1978 - 1984
Published in Hardcover by Chronicle Books (2007-11-12)
Author: Neil Zlozower
List price: $35.00
New price: $14.00
Used price: $6.99

Average review score:

This is where its at!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-06
No ifs ands or buts about it. This is the best VH book to date. Given their recent tour there were actually two books about the band released this past year. This was one. The other was EVERYBODY WANTS SOME. Friends and fellow fans there is simply no comparison. Van Halen: A Visual History 78-85 by Zlozower is the ultimate in pictures and commentary. Zloz was shooting, hanging and partying with Dave, Eddie and the rest of the gang back when the author of that other book was still wetting their huggies. If you could only buy one VH book this would be it. Why waste your money on cut-and-paste tripe pieced together by an outsider with no ties whatsoever to the band and their crew when instead you can own what will surely be considered the best VH book ever presented to us by a world class photographer who was practically the fifth member of the band during their run with DLR. This is the best book out there, at least until the band decides to tell the story in their own words. There aren't enough stars to rate this so just do yourselves a favor and grab one!

The Full Bug for Van Halen fans!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-02
The reviews of this book do not do justice to this book. The pictures alone are spectacular. Neil Zlozower took nearly every famous and infamous picture of Van Halen during the DLR years. They are all here along with a plethora of never seen before photos of the band and quotes and anecdotes from a broad spectrum of the music industry ranging from Jimmy Page to Slash. The book itself is well done also, the cover beneath the dust jacket has a nice glossy finish on it and the pages themselves are nicely bound, sewn in instead of just glued in so that the book can be laid flat when open without damaging the binding. This book is a must for any true Van Halen fan or collector.

FANTASTIC...GIMMIE MORE
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-08
WOW, WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO GO BACK IN TIME W/ THE VAN HALEN BOYS...ESPECIALLY DAVE, CUZ W/O HIM THERE IS NO VAN HALEN!!!!! IF YOU LOVE VAN HALEN, YOU NUST MUST MUST BUY THIS BOOK!!!!

A MUST for the true VH fan
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-27
I remember hearing the first track of VH 1 when it was released,
bringing with it chills up the spine and jaw dropped.
This book brings you in a time warp to witness rock history, and
realize - in case you didn't - that Van Halen dropped a bomb on
the music scene. Not only a revolutionary guitar god, but songs
and live performances that rose light years beyond what was coming out
of the U.S.A. at the time. The kind we won't see again, either.

The photos, by a master of R&R photography, look like they were taken
yesterday. Crisp, clear and a great mix of group shots and live. The
backstage pics of Eddie preparing his axe arsenal, for example, are priceless; Alex behind one of his monster drum kits.

And yes, it appropriately culminates with 1984 - got a problem with that?




Where have all the good times gone?
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-22
Felt like I was back in high school, as I flipped through this book about the Rock God's -- Van Halen. Finally a Van Halen book worth looking at. Beautiful book about the Greatest Rock Band and Guitarist of all time.

Brown
A Visual Dictionary of Architecture
Published in Paperback by Wiley (1996-11-28)
Author: Francis D. K. Ching
List price: $49.95
New price: $27.74
Used price: $26.96

Average review score:

Easy understand dictionary for architectural student
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-16
Vision is better than a thousand words. This graphic book makes you very easy to understand the architectural vocabulary. Not only good for student but also good for architectural practicer.

Most USEFUL Book on Architecture EVER!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-25
My husband bought this book for me when I decided to go back to school to study architecture, and it has turned out to be sooooo helpful. I have used it in every course I've taken; it makes studying for tests so much easier. It has a fabulous index so you can find what you are looking for right away, and the illustrations and page layouts are great. This book is a must for any architecture student. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

Easy to use and read and understand
Helpful Votes: 22 out of 24 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-14
Somewhere near the very beginning of my lecturing career, I showed a slide onscreen and was trying to point out a unique feature of a home. Gesturing toward the screen I said, "that thingie over the window..."

I was mortified. What a dreadful mistake for a "professional" lecturer to make!! Since I planned to give many more lectures, I came home and bought this book from Amazon.

When the parcel arrived, I quickly opened it and was delighted to find the easy-to-read drawings. Ching makes the most complex architectural graphics easy to see and understand. Using this book, I gave myself a crash course on "basic architectural terms" and since then, I've given 200 lectures and never used the word "THINGIE" again!!

Rose
author, California's Kit Homes
and "The Houses That Sears Built"

The Visual Dictionary of Architecture
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-30
As with other materials by Francis D.K.Ching, the illustrations are not only clear and precise but aesthetically pleasing. It is a pleasure to read through the material for a comprehensive understanding of architectural concepts, presented in an historical perspective which clarifies the how and why of modern day building technology. The Visual Dictionary of Architecture
is an invaluable reference for the student and architectural practicioner as well.

Ching's books are great!
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-27
This book is really good for architecture students. I do not use the book every day, but when I need it, it proves very usefull. All books from this author that I purchased are really good so far. This one has a lot of details drawings which are great.

Brown
Wake Up Now
Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill (2007-12-17)
Author: Stephan Bodian
List price: $22.95
New price: $12.49
Used price: $12.84

Average review score:

An absolute must for a contemplative.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-04
An incredible book for spiritual/meditative practice. It answered so many questions and tied up so many loose ends, with clarity and gentle guidance. An absolute must read for a contemplative, especially if you're practicing solo.

This is the book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-30
Having been a big fan of Adyashanti and Peter Fenner (Radiant Mind), I found this book by Stephan Bodian to be very easy to understand and follow. If you are on the path and exploring non-dualist practise, this book is a must! After putting into practise some of the suggestions in this book, I have felt a quantum change in my meditation practice. Highly recommend!

A must read!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-01
Stephan is a gifted writer that has managed to distill the essence of the spiritual 'pathless' path into this single book. He covers what happenes both before realization and after and sheds light on several false beliefs surrounding spiritual practice, covers what realization really is, offers numerous practical tips that do not over engage the mind, and much more. It is a wonderfully practical book as well as offering the theory in practical terms. And most importantly, the reader feels the vast consciousness with which the book was written in every sentence and the more we read, we begin to realize the book it helping to put us with that same consciousness within us. A valuable book for those on any spiritual path.

Wonderfully Clear and True
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-30
In Wake Up Now, Stephan Bodian presents a wonderfully clear and true explanation of awakening and offers many exercises to facilitate the experience of one's true self. I highly recommend this book for those who are awakening or who have awakened and who want to understand that process better--because, as Stephan explains, for most people, awakening isn't an endpoint but is followed by a continual deepening and unwinding of conditioning. Stephan is a trustworthy guide in this and knows what he is talking about.

Gina Lake, author of Radical Happiness: A Guide to Awakening

WORDS THAT OPENED EYES I DIDN'T KNOW I HAD
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-08
Like many people, I have often felt "stuck" in ego, with its painful patterns of reactivity. I still feel this way, but now with a significant difference. The following excerpt had a strange effect on me, as if without knowing it I'd always had a pair of eyes inside me that remained closed. When I read these words, the eyes opened. "The ego is not your enemy, it's a dedicated general in what it perceives to be the battle called life...You could say that the ego is the screenwriter, director, producer, and star in the movie called Life, but none of it has anything to do with you. When you step out of the film into the clear light of reality...the love that you are ultimately embraces the ego as a devoted servant that has mistakenly assumed the role of master. In reality, it's just a function or mechanism without any substantial or abiding reality." While I've read many books, this is the first amazon review I've written, as I feel this book stands out in the sometimes confusing spiritual marketplace of today. To me, it's worth its weight in gold.

Brown
William Trevor: The Collected Stories
Published in Paperback by Penguin (Non-Classics) (1993-12-01)
Author: William Trevor
List price: $30.00
New price: $14.59
Used price: $9.75
Collectible price: $30.00

Average review score:

The Master
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-22
Just ordered this and awaiting it anxiously. I have just finished two later collections The Hill Bachelors and Cheating at Canasta (the title story in the latter is heartbreaking and just a perfect piece of writing). I also immediatley ran out and bought After Rain and A Bit on the Side. I had overlooked Trevor for years. I now fully acknowledge that in doing so; I deserve to be tried for crimes against humanity! Being from Ireland and living here, I also live with the constant knowledge that Trevor is a god and part of the literary furniture. Somehow, strangely, I just took him for granted and never read him. I had also wrongly assumed that Trevor belonged to that somewhat stuffy Irish "big house novel" literary tradition (if one can call it that). By chance, I picked up The Hill Bachelors and have found literary salvation! He is utterly brilliant and consistently so. 12 collections and counting. Nearly every collection consists of 12 stories, each about 20/22 pages long, divided in to 5 or 6 scenes. His structure is so simple and within it he performs miracles, over and over again. It is also wonderful how his stories alternate between a story set in Ireland and a story set in England, the country that he has lived in since his 30s. I adore short stories and all the great North American and Irish writers in the genre: Hemingway, Carver, Wolff, Munro, Joyce and McGahern. But I think Trevor is now my literary hero - plus he's a first rate gentleman (not always so with literary geniuses). Although now 80 let's hope for a new collection from the master in about 2010 and God help him, maybe more after that.

A Book for the Ages
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-14
If you enjoy consummate skill in the written word you will treasure this book. It is the most beautifully crafted collection of short stories I have ever encountered. The characters are powerful, endearing, heartbreaking, loving, loathsome, self centered, generous, and sometimes frightening - the scope of this work is breathtaking. It is unfortunate that a book perfect for "dipping into" is so large and heavy - a reissue in rice paper would halve both (The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918 has 1166 pages and fits quite comfortably in a coat pocket!) William Trevor is a genius - if you buy his book you will not be disappointed. Dr Peter J Kirby.

Masterful and dazzling, with an astonishing variety
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2005-06-14
It took me a couple of months to make my way through these 85 stories and it was definitely worth the time I spent with them. Trevor's prose is always simple and clear, yet his range of characters and plots is astonishing because of their superbly captured detail and variety. Most of these stories deal with Irish and English characters, and many swirl around the realities or possibilities of extramarital affairs. "In Isfahan," one of Trevor's best stories, a married middle-aged man carries on an impromptu affair with a young woman he meets while in Iran; in "Lovers of Their Time," another top-notch story, a married man carries on a long-term affair with a shop girl by meeting her in a hotel's second-floor public bathroom. Trevor is also quite adept of presenting the romantic yearnings of women. In "The Ballroom of Romance," a country girl's dreams and consequences are highlighted in her trips to the local dance hall; in "Afternoon Dancing," a middle-aged married woman dallies with the idea of an affair with her dance partner after the death of her close friend. Like Chekhov, to whom Trevor is often compared, this writer also has an admirable sense of comedy. "Mulvhill's Memorial" finds an unlikely pornographic set-up within an office; "The Trinity" has a couple booking a vacation to Venice and ending up in Switzerland. Accidents spiral out of control in "The Penthouse Apartment," and in "A Complicated Nature," a man is forced to help his upstairs neighbor when her suitor unexpectedly dies. Another one of the best stories of this collection is "Broken Homes," where an elderly woman suffers the indignities of having her kitchen painted by a team of indifferent youths. Other first-rate stories include "The Smoke Trees of San Pietro," where a boy's sickness propels his mother into an affair, and "Death in Jerusalem" where a mother dies while on vacation.

The Master's Collection
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2002-11-03
Someone else here refers to the problems of 'star' hyperbole. He's right. The five stars Trevor deserves must be especially large and dazzling.
He goes wrong, just a little, once in a while. So did every truly great writer we know. Most of the time he opens a door on the world of two or three people, and shows us the universe in the process. He is a breathtaking artist. Witness 'Another Christmas' - in a dingy living room and armed with no one but an aging Irish couple, he brings home the Troubles in Ireland in epic, heartbreaking scope. And 'Torridge'...a girl said to me when this story first appeared in The New Yorker that it was like Beethoven's Fifth; you can't imagine it not having been around before. It's that good.
Readers! You can do no better than to get to know what this man can do with a pen.

real good
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-21
Had never heard of the guy - got it at a bookstore because it had 1200 pages (I needed a lot to read) and because it was written by an old guy (well, he's old now, at least - well- wrinkled but kind looking). So far I'm about a third of the way through it, but like everyone else has said, this book is great. Some writers get lazy and write the same story over and over. Not this guy - every character, every situation is unique. For people who like movies, read the one about Istafan and compare it to "Lost in Translation". The story about the swingers party is indescribably great also, just in the way he describes a man kissing a woman's hair or them barely dancing at all.

Brown
WomenHeart's All Heart Family Cookbook
Published in Hardcover by Rodale Books (2007-12-26)
Authors: Kathy Kastan, Suzanne Banfield, Members of WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, and Wendy Leonard
List price: $29.95
New price: $11.98
Used price: $14.99

Average review score:

Excellent cookbook!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-18
Anyone dealing with heart disease, either themselves or a family member would benefit greatly from the information in this cookbook. The information is well laid out in a very easy to understand format and the recipes are easy and 'doable'.

My new farovite cookbook
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-14
WomenHeart's All Heart Family Cookbook

After my husband had triple pass surgery I wanted to start cooking "heart healthy", so I purchased this cookbook...and I am so glad I did. I use it everyday and have not found a recipe that isn't delicious and easy. I highly recommend it to everyone!

I love this cookbook!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-02
This cookbook contains so much good information about heart healthy foods-I learned a lot! And the recipes are wonderful. You will love this book whether you are trying to eat healthy, lose weight, or just enjoy a good meal. I plan to buy copies for Mother's Day and holiday gifts.

Fabulous Food Information and cookbook
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-21
A friend gave me this book and it is just fabulous. The receipes are wonderful - love the Tandoori Chicken and Cilantro Broiled Chicken Breasts, Flourless Choc. Cake, Rich Tomato Soup and Beef Tenderloin with Port Cranberry Sauce, ---BUT--- it is the precise, clear, beautifully written and presented discussion of the 40 heart healthy foods that brings me to open this book several times a week. It is just such a valuable source of nutritional information. This book is not just for those who have heart disease (I, thank goodness, do not), but for every person who is alive in the 21st century and trying to eat a healthy diet.

Very impressed with information
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-21
Both of my parents have undergone bypass surgery within the past 8 months. It has been very intimidating to read all the information of how to prevent heart disease, especially having to relay the information to my parents. I came across this book last week and love it. Coming from a family that loves to ask questions this book has a lot of answers. I love that the first part of this book thoroughly explains heart disease, prevention, and how certain foods can be beneficial to your heart. It was also a great idea to list the recipes (w/ page numbers) at the end of each 'Heart Healthy Food' description. This book is well organized and makes cooking their recipes along with other heart healthy recipes more attainable.

Brown
Wrestling at the Chase: The Inside Story of Sam Muchnick and the Legends of Professional Wrestling
Published in Paperback by Ecw Press (2005-06-06)
Author: Larry Matysik
List price: $18.95
New price: $11.75
Used price: $11.07

Average review score:

Great book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-27
Sam Muchnick was my uncle, and I grew up with "Wrestling at the Chase" and the Kiel Auditorium bouts, yet this book taught me so much about my uncle's work and interesting facts about the era and the wrestlers I watched. Well-written, and a real page-turner. Wonderful!!!

Bruiser Brody and more
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-19
Sam Muchnick was without a doubt one of the best promoters ever! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and really loved all the stories. From Dick Murdoch describing Kevin Von Erich's debut and saying he wanted to rip off his head to talking about the various announcers. It is easy to forget that Joe Garagiola used to announce wrestling and even easier to forget that his brother did for several years. I grew up in the northeast which all you got to see over there was WWWF and you could only read about the NWA and Muchnick territory in wrestling magazines. This is a must for anyone who grew up watching wrestling in the 60's and 70's.

Totally awesome book on St. Louis wrestling!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-03
This is an awesome book for any casual fan or pro wrestling historian on pro wrestling in St. Louis during the height of the National Wrestling Alliance's power. I really enjoyed the stories about Sam Muchnick and Bruiser Brody (King Kong Brody in St. Louis). I really want to get the Brody biography when it comes out in 2007. Totally worth purchasing!

A Trip Down Memory Lane
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-01
I grew up watching "Wrestling at the Chase" as a kid- Sunday morning meant time in front of the TV watching King Kong Brody, Flair, Race and all the other wrestling greats. This book gives unbelievable insight into the world of wrestling throughout the past several decades- A good read with some great stories!!

Paints a great picture of an era gone by
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-31
Larry Matysik's book offers great insight into the St. Louis wrestling scence in a well written, organized book (which is not always the case with pro wrestling books). Larry was a sports reporter, and it shines through in his writing. Having grown up with the Mid-Atlantic territory in Virginia, I had never witnessed Wrestling at the Chase, nor was I aware of its importance in the NWA. Reading Larry's book and seeing his DVD's changed all that. There were a lot of familiar faces (Flair, Brody, Von Raschke), and some new (Crusher Blackwell, a young Ted Dibiase before he moved on to the UWF and WWF, Bulldog Bob Brown). It's a real treat to read his anecdotes then watch them on video. If you're a fan of the old NWA, this book is well worth your while to pick up. ECW Press has churned out some great wrestling books in the last year or two, including The Greatest Tag-Teams, Terry Funk's autobiography, and Harley Race's autobiography. This one is near the top of the heap. Highly recommended for fans of late 70's and 80's NWA wrestling, as well as those curious about wrestling history.

Larry Matysik is now at work on a King Kong (Bruiser) Brody biography which should be out this year.


Books-Under-Review-->Reference-->Biography-->B-->Brown-->78
Related Subjects:
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250