Cameron Books

I'm relieved that I didn't start reading the series with this book because the simon pulse books are actually very good. That's why I was so excited to read this one because this was the first one that came out and I assumed that it would be the best one. I was in for a surprise because althrought reading the book, I got very irritated and even skipped some pages just so I could finish the book already.

First, I had never been much of a fan of the style of writing that involves the lead character babbling to us in the first point of view. A lot of books do that in order to establish the lead character as quirky, fun, intelligent etc. In most books, it does the job alright. However, in this book, it was overdone (in my opinion) and became a major source of my irritation.

Second. The love story wasn't as well-developed. I buy these books for the ROMANCE. However, the only really romantic scene wasn't even that romantic. Instead of romance, I got mostly angst.

Third. I liked the leading man but he played a really small part in the book.

I did like the originality of the plot although the plot was pretty weak and had a lot of holes.

"Softly, almost tentatively, their lips touched. I wonder what she's feeling, I thought as I felt my own lips begin to tingle. I think that was the moment I acknowledged the truth. I had fallen, hopelessly, for Alex Crawford," (pg. 32). How NOT to Spend Your Senior Year is an absolute must-read. It combines romance, comedy, and even finds a way to mix in a thriller side. In the beginning, the reader is introduced to the murder mystery. On the happy side of things, we meet two major characters and their love at first sight experience. The story heats up with two fake deaths. Finally, the book ends with a heartfelt kiss and a new romance.
Jo O'Conner is hardly a normal teenager. All her life she has wondered why her small family (her father and she) has always moved to a new house practically every month. It does not end there either. They have moved all across the country. When she finds herself at a new school again in modern-day Seattle, Washington and meets the guy of her dreams, she knows she's into something good. Alex, a "Big Man On Campus," in just one day, shows Jo the meaning of love at first sight. The two of them connect immediately but are torn apart a few hours later. Their tale is one that captures the reader almost right after reading the first line.
Cameron Dokey wrote this book very well. She makes it easy to picture what is happening and what the characters look like. Her novel is written very realistically with real high school life and classes. How NOT to Spend Your Senior Year does not have a lot of characters to keep track of or any confusing plots or scenes. Also, other books seem to grasp the sense that love was in the air, but this one explains how it starts and what exactly keeps it alive. One thing about Cameron Dokey's writing is that she wrote the dialogue in the book in words that high schoolers would use when they were talking to other teenagers and not adult wording. How NOT to Spend Your Senior Year is similar to Niki Burnham's novels, but Cameron Dokey presents her work with greater description and feelings.
I loved every minute of reading this book and would recommend it to any teenager who likes romantic comedies. I say this because teenagers would understand high school life better than younger children and also because of the fact that this book contains slightly teenage themes. It is a quick read and is not too hard to get through. The novel never becomes boring. Overall, I would say this book deserves five out of five stars.
Cameron Dokey's How NOT to Spend Your Senior Year is a must-read romantic comedy that you have to read soon. If you do not, you are missing out on a great novel.

Josephine Claire Calloway O'Connor has spent her entire life since she was eight moving from city to city. Between third grade and senior year she was in at least two schools each year. Now she's in her second as a senior, and she's hoping that it's her last first day of school. Things start differently. Instead of blending in, she's immediately noticed by the BMOC (big man on campus). She really likes Alex, and he seems to like her. She makes friends for the first time in a long time, and she's loving her life. Then her dad announces that they have to leave. Now. As Jo learns the details of their constant moves and tries to resurrect her old life, things spin out of control. Jo struggles to right everything, while also trying to keep her old- and new- life secret. This book kept you in suspense and turning pages until the end. This is part of the Simon Romantic Comedies series, and I think it is one of the better novels.

Jo O'Connor is constantly moving, so when she finally is in a place she loves, she is not exactly excited about leaving. In one last visit to her friends, she creates quite a fiasco and spends the next couple of months trying to settle things down. This book was interesting, but even so, i found myself skimming over some sections as the dialogue got a little dull and irrelevant to the actual plot of the story. though the story was a little hard to believe at times, it was a fun read, and I enjoyed seeing how Jo was going to get out of the mess she had created.

Okay, this book wasn't all that bad. It was a bit unbelievable and fake, but overall the writing was cute and funny and the characters actually made sense. The ending was good, because I actually didn't expect Jo and Alex to... okay, I won't give away the ending. But I'm just glad it ended the way it did. But the book comes about a quarter of a way to crossing the line between "happy and well-written" and "Boring with no sense of taste." But after some of the reviews that I've read, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

This is a great book. There is nothing all that new about the grad student with a busted thesis but this book is a lot of fun. It reminded me of people I knew from college but these characters were clearly their own men and women. Nothing is wasted with Cameron's style. And the situation is more interesting than our own everyday lives but that only serves to concentrate the action. This is very believable territory and yet remarkable. I remember most of the book having read it some five years ago and I've read plenty of novels since then.

Peter Cameron is one of the finest writers working in America today. I actually haven't read this book in a couple of years, but I read it twice when it first came out. I am writing this because I was about to buy the book to send to a friend--something I've done many times--and I saw that it had a bad review, and a couple of lukewarm reviews.
Let me just say this: If you are looking for an imaginative, lyrical, exquisitely written novel, you've found it.

A beautifully realized novel. I enjoyed the eccentric but believable characters and the rich exploration of relationships. Why do we choose the people we choose? Why do we discard the people and relationships we do? Why do we fall in love or out of love? Why do people do the things they do? These are such amorphous things. It's hard to get inside someone's head, especially when that someone might seem so very different from us. Peter Cameron makes the reader examine some of these questions and think about them. He makes each character a sympathetic and genuine one. I also loved the sly humor. Regarding the reviewer who commented on the unbelievable dialogue--well, it just didn't seem so far-fetched at all to me. My only dialogue complaint was the frequent use of "it is" for "it's". It seems a bit stiff and formal to imagine english speakers regularly choosing to say "it is" in casual conversation.

My opinion is between those who thought this was wonderful, and those who thought it stunk. I thought it was a rather tepid novel, never really flared into life. I was extremely curious about the one character who sets the story in motion, but is never explained, Jules Gund. I know almost nothing about him. Is that supposed to be cute? We don't know anything about him, but look at all the changes he caused just because the main character, Omar, wants to write his biography?

Oh, well. I bought it cheaply as a remainder and it gave me something to read for four days. It wasn't really bad. It was the tepid type of book my book club and a hundred others like it read. Harmless stuff, but not literature.

Every now and then I am completely puzzled by the positive reviews a book receives. In this case, regardless of a decent plot, the writing weighs so heavily on the book that it creaks and groans in an excruciating manner. The dialogue reads as if written by a teenage exchange student. It's not simply stilted and incredible, but pretentious and insulting. If you like your books filled with heavy handed symbols (a painter who can only copy the works of masters), conversation that sounds nothing like conversation and a strained sense of pretension, then this one is for you. For those lured in by the intriguing plot, save yourself a few hours and turn elsewhere. Anywhere will do.

Beautiful and talented former Miss Louisiana, Celina Payne is thrown into an uneasy partnership with Jack Charbonnet when a mutual friend is killed. As the two slowly piece together a complex puzzle of murder and intrigue in New Orleans, the mobster's son and the former Miss Louisiana pull together to insure their friend's vision does not die with him.
Celina fears for her safety, someone is out to silence her, they think she saw something the night of the murder. Her growing feelings for Jack are mixed with distrust, she harbors a painful secret, while Jack's own tormented past, the son of a mobster and carefully balancing on the tightrope of danger if he missteps, just may keep him from Celina's arms.
Vicious gangsters linked to Jack through his parents, Celina's social-climbing ne'er-do-well parents, an ambitious and devious politician, Wilson Lamar, with his own agenda, unscrupulous evangelists, a simpering drag queen from Le Chats, they all combine in a riveting character-driven story full of very steamy love scenes.
The reader can feel the humid atmosphere of New Orleans, hear the sound of the jazz saxophone playing softly in the background, and feel the tension on every page. Fast paced action touches on mob loyalty, corrupt politicians, religious zealots, and parental manipulation. The chemistry between Jack and Celina burns up the pages.
FRENCH QUARTER is a fabulous thriller that combines adventure with steamy romance, an entertaining and suspenseful romantic thriller that offers something for everyone: murder, passion, lust, greed, organized crime, and political ambition, all skillfully blended and served up with a Cajun flair.
A+

I have read other Stella Cameron books and enjoyed them, but this one was a little too much with too many complications! The mob, rape, politics, murder mystery, journalism, etc. are just too much in this storyline. It makes interesting reading, but then the hero, Jack, has to be a storytelling father to a daughter named Amelia??? Come on! Overall, interesting reading, but her other works are better.

This is the first Stella Cameron book I have read. I was very impressed. I loved the hero, Jack, and he definitely had the sensualness of a southern Cajun man. The suspense was sustained throughout the book and I literally did nothing for a whole day until I finished reading it. And it is truly a nail biter!

Marie from Ohio

I'm a huge fan of contemporary romantic thrillers, but this book dragged from page 1! I kept finding something else to do & had to force myself to finish this. The basic plot was good, the rapport not so hot, & the 'action' jumped like an erratic phonograph needle. The mobsters were totally unrealistic. There were just way too many elements thrown together that the story lost its impact. I want the bad guys to be really bad & the good guys to have great chemistry. Nora Roberts (aka J.D. Robb), Tami Hoag, Linda Howard & Catherine Coulter's contemporaries are much better.

I bought this book because it was on the Romantic Times list of Reviewers Choice for Best Mainstream Novel. It was trash! It was a waste of money to buy and figure out my own best of the five books.

It was confusing, very boring, bad mobster that made me go Huh? Unbelievable characters that I could never understand or see on the streets. Not a good review!

I really like this book. It is EXACTLY what I seek in a design/development book. I want examples, code and explanation. Nothing more.

I've been doing this stuff for 7 years, so much of this wasn't particularly new to me, but the value is in seeing what experts think (and why) and then taking what you want from it. No cruft; just good solutions.

My only gripe is that it could be considerably longer. The book covers 7 topics really well. I'd like at least 10 more, please. I'm sure this is the most common complaint. Additionally, I could do without the fancy book layout design, but I guess it doesn't hurt.

Definite value here. It's next to my desk all the time and I use almost all of their techniques in my projects. It's disappointing that more publishers don't create this kind of book.

There are many excellent tips and workarounds offered in this book. I have been working with CSS for a few years now but as it is a moving technology, one can never be "ahead." The authors do a good job of bringing newer tips and tricks forward along with offering some useful workarounds for cross-browser issues.

The Art & Science of CSS is a good book if you looking for creative ideas or inspiration for CSS but while the book says all you need to is some familiarity with HTML, you do need to know some basic knowledge of CSS. This book would be a good addition to you web design library but only after you learn the basics of CSS from another book.

I've bought and already finished to read this book.

I'm a interface developer with a good background into CSS and XHTML; i think that this book was not written to somebody interested into the fundamentals and step-by-step of the CSS.

It's a collection of code-based insights (for each chapter, 2 or 3 progressive explanations) from the authors; it's amazing if you (like me, when i bought it) are searching for some inspirational examples, relying on standards to achieve impressive visual results.

This book also encloses some aspects of CSS 3, and how it will unequivocally improve the standards-based design, with things like multiple backgrounds, table pseudo-classes, and others, even before the integral adoption of this standard into the mainstream browsers. It put the reader one step ahead, acknowledger of the future possibilities of CSS.

I highly recommend this book. But if you are searching for something less visionary and more instructive, you'll need to search other options.

I think there are many books that cover this ground a lot better and cheaper as well. Friends of Ed actually has a couple that I would recommend before this. And most certainly Bulletproof Web Design by Cederholm.

This book is really light on details and light on content. It's not at all worth its price, and it's only covering the very basics in a small number of areas. This is definitely not one of the first books you should be looking at about CSS.

I found this book very good. I am very interested about The Ship Titanic and it's terrible fate.This book is very easy to read and explores just on how James Cameron made the movie.There are many interesting facts therein that as you watch the movie, will make it that more entertaining.(VLS)

I read this book about six months ago, and at the time I was very interested in learning whatever I could about the experiences and vision that this fine director brought to his artistic achivement "Titanic." Now, a short tme later, I can't for the life of me remember what the book had to say--and that's unusual for me, to finish a book and then not retain any clear sense of what the book had to say or what it contributed to my knowledge/understanding of a subject. The book itself is very easy to understand--simple-minded, even, in its handling of the material--yet it leaves no lasting impact on me. Far more vivid for me, as far as getting a sense of how Cameron looks at things and what "Titanic" meant for him, was "James Cameron's Titanic." That's the book to read if you want to get a feel for Cameron's emotional and working relationship to the movie.

This book is the closest thing to actually being there whilethe film was made. Parisi's exclusive access to the set and Cameronpermits an over the shoulder view describing details and nuances that went into making a movie of epic proportions. Many facets of directing are not generally known and we are made aware of the struggle and persistence to get things done. Thus we have insight into the genius of Cameron and respect for the author's ability to translate the enormity of making this masterpiece. I enjoyed being a fly on the wall thanks to Parisi's book.

If you are looking for a book on the movie Titanic that includes quotes from the stars, this is not the book for you. The author rarely quoted Leo and Kate and even put in some criticizing facts, like Leo playing video games everyday and Kate calling in sick everyday. While these may be true, she seemed biased because she turned around to praise Cameron. At times it seemed more like Cameron's biography than a book on his movie.
This author is also not an expert on Titanic. What little historical information that is included is wrong. For example, she says the Titanic hit the iceberg at 10:30 pm and sank in 2 hours and 40 minutes, at 2:20 am. It should be that the Titanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 pm and sank at 2:20 am. If she had done her research on the event as well as the movie and it's making, she would have known that.
This book is okay. I would not recommend buying it because I have read better books on the making of this great movie.

This book brought the movie into a new perspective. It made it very easy to explain certain scenes to our kids, so that they could truly understand the complexity of the movie and thus of the disaster. The actors/actresses speaking of the fear they felt on the set just trying to recreate the worst maritime disaster in history-gives us a small glimpse of what the passengers/crew faced that nite. Also, it gave us a new respect for all the hard work, long hours, difficulties that had to be overcome to delivery the greatest movie of all time to the public. Also, we get to see that James Cameron is human, he gets frustrated and upset just like everyone else, that in and of itself was reassuring, because he is so often portrayed as larger than life.

Unlike other reviewers who felt the Morning Pages Journal should offer more than just bound blank pages, I think that it serves that purpose admirably well, and has the added benefit of the quotes from The Artist's Way.
The only drawback (the reason I give a 3 rather than a 5) is that it ought to be spiral-bound: if you are writing pages as you are supposed to be (early AM, in bed) then you have to struggle to hold the pages down to write.
This is an easy fix that I hope that the publishers will finally clue in to and remedy.

A necessary part in the first faze of your continuing journey of The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Each page is filled with reminders, insights and beauty , supporting the very nature of your being.

The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal

My twenty-third and twenty-fourth copies. The first twenty-two are full and lined up in my book case. A magnificent tool for starting the day.

The "How to" of Morning Pages, divided into 12 weekly sections and thoughtfully filled with exerpts from "The Artist's Way." The Artist is offered the perfect format for writing the Morning Pages at the beginning of their journey to recovery. Large pages, generously spaced lines and "right on" spiritual support for healing the artist child within.

I have nothing against the idea of this journal, it's just frustrating to work with. As another reviewer mentioned, spiral-bound would have been a lot nicer. It is extremely difficult to write in due to the thickness and the binding. I am also left handed which never helps when trying to write in books. Instead, I bought myself a notebook that I love. It's much more pleasant to write in the morning, now. I'd save your money for something else that you would like.

Love this book. 1 of 2 Great Companion books to the Dragonriders of Pern Series

Being a huge fan of the Dragonfolk of Pern, I was very much disappointed in some of the facets of this addition to my library. First off, there is no color! How can one appreciate the nuances of the different dragons and firelizards without color renditions? Secondly, there is no map of the current weyrs, holds, and halls! How can you use this as a reference when you can't place a location with respect to another? Of course you can look in the individual books, but that defeats the purpose of a reference guide. On the other hand, the text is very good and helps explain the order and life on Pern.

I was infuriated by this "guide" to Pern. Not only is it not up to standard to the 1st edition, it's very inconsistent in its contents. The descriptions in the series books don't match those in the guide. The drawings of places, objects, animals and people don't match the descriptions in books and the previously published pictures.

. . . of both editions of this book onto a single site, so let me be clear from the outset that I am reviewing the First edition, published in 1989.

I have been a fan of the Pern universe since receiving several of the novels as gifts for Christmas in 1988. I've since read all the books; most of them more than once.

I found "The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern" to be a very good -- but not excellent companion source. Like any guide or atlas to a fictional world, every detail is not going to suit every person. The material does not cover several of the later books (though there are seeds of ideas which the alert reader will recognize again in later books.) (Hence the need for the 2nd edition).

For me, the single greatest lack in this volume was that the illustrations were all black-and-white. As detailed descriptions of heraldic devices were given -- it would have been nice to actually see them in color! Likewise with the dragons and fire-lizards!

Overall, though, I found this to be a useful and worthy effort -- especially for persons like myself who are greatly interested in "deep background" of stories.

Recommended.

This was when it was issued an excellent reference for Pern, but it has since been very dated by the publication of books such as Masterharper of Pern and Skies of Pern. And the information in it is extremely shallow compared to some of the excellent wesites that are available online. I would be delighted if Jody Lynn Nye and Annne McCaffrey would sit down and incorporate some of the work Pern fans have been doing in the interim years and make this a truly authoritative Pern reference book.

There is nothing new here (except weather reports). It's not even a particularly valuable recyling project.

The Artist's Way and Vein of Gold are much better books with useful information. I would strongly recommend both of the earlier books.

I love it. She is very advanced and interesting insights that are new from her Artist way book.

Finding Water is the third book in Julia Cameron's trilogy on the creative process which began with The Artist's Way and Walking in This World. I was stalled on a project and looked to Cameron to see what she had to say about sticking to a task once that initial flush of excitement has passed. I thought she would have the magical answers. After all, she has produced some 25 books and has multiple credits in theatre, film, and television.

Guess what. There is nothing magical. The answer is really quite ordinary. Whether you live in a New York high-rise (as Cameron does), or in the Pacific Northwest (as I do), you still have to show up at the empty page, alone, preferably every day. Cameron does the laundry, the dishes, takes the dogs for a walk and to the vet, just like the rest of us. Just because she has published many books doesn't mean she doesn't have to carry out the tasks of everyday life.

"Okay, God, you take care of the quality. I will take care of the quantity." That's the sign Cameron posts at her writing station. She offers the basic tools she has included in all of her books on writing: morning pages, artist dates and walking.

Morning pages, as you may have read in Cameron's earlier books, are three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing, done in the early morning for about half an hour. They're designed to get the kvetching out of your head and onto the page. Morning pages aren't necessarily all bad news, however. Sometimes you find in them the glimmer of a new idea. In this way, the pages become a "gentle mentor."

Artist dates can bring a sense of enchantment and connect you "to a larger and more fascinating world than our normal beaten path," Cameron says. On one artist date, she visits The American Museum of Natural History close to her Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan. You could visit an art gallery, a fabric store, a photo exhibit or see a movie in French with subtitles.

"Solvitur ambulando," St. Augustine is said to have remarked. "It is solved by walking." Cameron recommends walking to increase our creativity. That's when the "sorting process" begins. When we walk by ourselves, we "soon sense that the Divine is close at hand."

There you are: the tools. In each chapter, organized to cover twelve weeks of creative persevering, Cameron asks if you have done your morning pages, your artist date and your weekly walk. To carry the water theme throughout, in sections called Divining Rod, Cameron poses questions and prompts to help readers identify their Inner Censor (for instance) or exploring the art forms they could practice if they took the "easy does it" approach. "Remember, the Grand Canyon was carved a drop at a time." Cameron reminds us in her chapter, "Uncovering a Sense of Perspective." Having visited the Grand Canyon recently, I'd say that's a lot of drops!

Although Cameron's life may sound glamorous to those of us who don't live in New York City and who haven't published several books, it isn't. She struggles to earn a living just as we do, those of us trying to earn a living from our creativity. She has extra challenges, too: alcoholism, depression, and three breakdowns. I think she's a truly amazing woman and I applaud her for her courage and perseverance. She is a sober alcoholic who has learned to live each day very carefully, with writing, walking, praying, and contenting herself with "small amounts of progress." "All of the stratagems I have learned to apply to the artist's life come straight out of the toolkits I have acquired to maintain my sobriety," she says.

Besides using her own suggested tools, Cameron writes three pages a day on whatever project is at hand, whether it's a screenplay, a nonfiction book or a novel. After she reaches this quota, she is free to do something else, such as visit with friends or take in a movie. She wants to wear her identity as a writer as "a garment worn more loosely" and to approach writing as part of normal life. That approach she says, has "served me very well." Just as she doesn't let the laundry or the dishes pile up, she doesn't let the writing pile up either.

Cameron admits that she has found it necessary to repeat herself in this book. But what she repeats is important to our creative lives. The "small and gentle daily actions" lead to the large accomplishments. She waits at the keyboard to hear "what wants to come into being." I had to be reminded that there are really no magical answers. It is with a regular and committed practice that the magic can occur. I am grateful to have Finding Water as a companion and aim to commit to those three pages a day.

by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I agree that Ms. Cameron's current book sounds more like a cry for help than words of advice. After a life-changing experience of "The Artist's Way" for me and others, the exercises provided in "Finding Water" seem more rote and mechanical than truly enlightening. While there is some artistic merit to the book, I found it to be more of a disappointment than a true creative inspirational piece. A group of friends who formed because of "The Artist's Way" have read the book as a group and have found it to be a big disappointment.

Come on! I love Julia but she needs to mine a new field or a new subject. Her last several books have rehashed and rephrased and retaught the same tools over and over and o....

A writer needs to refocus the lens and she's been living off the laurels of AW for too long. WHERE'S THE CREATIVITY IN ALL THESE REHASHES? It starts to smack of commercialism when you dont ever plow new ground. She's just making more bucks off of the same material.

Hitler's Table Talk, 1941-1944: His Private Conversations is an invaluable resource on one of the century's most repellent-yet representative-figures. Hitler's acolyte Martin Bormann had note-takers present at some of the Fuhrer's relaxed conversations, and as a result we can listen to the unguarded reflections of the dictator when he was at the height of his power.

Contemporaries puzzled over Hitler: Did private ideological obsessions drive his lust for power-or was he a gangster who cynically exploited those crank ideologies to win power? His private comments show him to have been quite committed to his crankery, which was of the village-atheist variety. Indeed, one of the most striking aspects of this long book is how often Hitler would return to questions of religion, specifically to express his contempt for Christianity, most especially in its Catholic form. He repeatedly refers to priests as "shavelings" and mocks their rituals: "I would gladly have recourse to the shavelings, if they could help us to intercept English or Russian aircraft. But, for the present, the men who serve our anti-aircraft guns are more useful than the fellows who handle the sprinkler." More ominously, on July 4, 1942, he told his friends: "The fact that I remain silent in public over Church affairs is not in the least misunderstood by the sly foxes of the Catholic Church, and I am quite sure that a man like the Bishop von Galen knows full well that after the war I shall extract retribution to the last farthing."

If you are interested in the "published" thoughts and conversations of a man responsible for reshaping the twentieth century, then I suggest you give this book a look.

This book presents the record on what Hitler truly thought about Christ-insanity and other issues. Hitler was a Deist, not a Christian. In Mein Kampf he's playing politician to the Christians.

I'm not going to go into all the mindless moralizing and such here. I'm only going to tell you this is his uncensored thoughts and what the man was REALLY thinking. You don't get to be one of the most powerful men in the world and the leader of a country the size of Texas, taking on most of the world - almost winning in the process - by being a crazy half-wit. The man was a politial genius and Machiavellian in his approach when needs be. That's it! Beyond that you decide.

The book gives you what HE thinks without the dingbat commentaries by others which only serves to obfuscate things in the end. It gets 5 stars for that reason alone. I like unvarnished information without tampering and without pod people commentary.

It is my personal opinion that, one day, Hitler shall be remembered on the lines of Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, and Josef Stalin et al. All who were opportunistic, Machiavellian and beyond good & evil. These are the people who change things suddenly and completely, either for good or ill (usually ill at first, good later). They are the agents of chaos.

Let me ask you this. Do you think Hitler came about for no reason? How does a indigent, homeless, dreaming loser & loner come to be leader and conquerer of Europe? He was a dark horse, a nobody, less than nothing. Less than zero. Alexander was a prince but from a backward uppity locale whom the Greeks mocked incessantly (until he conquered them). Stalin a shoemaker's son who came in from the cold and rose up in power with everyone totally oblivious until it was too late. See what I mean? They are beyond our petty labels. Agents of chaos, tools of the Gods. Maybe that dude asking you for a dollar to buy a cup of Joe near the Starbucks will be your leader someday. Because there is precedence, that being the Fuhrer and Reich's Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The agent of Divine Providence? That will forevermore remain an unanswered question.

Read what the man says, think, learn, and shake out those cow webs called "thoughts" that probably and most assuredly aren't yours anyway (programming from society). Hitler, et al, were forces in human form. Nobody ever said change was pretty. And history obviously shows this.

Like I say, be cold and dispassionate towards the book. The man was brilliant and it shows. Don't judge, just read and reflect.

Mein Kampf, and to a lesser extent Hitler's Second Book, were declared obsolete and terrible by the author himself (see Hans Frank's memoirs, or Speer's, among others). For insight into Hitler's personality and thoughts, this is by very, very far the best book available. The conversations were surreptitiously recorded by a notetaker during Hitler's conversation sessions with various visitors and his staff. Some entries are verbatim, while others are summaries of Hitler's comments. Obviously Hitler said many things to many people, which means one has to be extra careful in determining what he really believed. His thinking also changed over time, and, like most people, was not always consistent, which makes the task of understanding his thought all-the-more difficult. But this book is by far the most useful source for any understanding of Hitler. The comments were in private conversations, (Hitler usually did not know Bormann was having them recorded), and they are often unguarded ruminations. Of course to those without a real interest in history, the book might seem long and tedious. Hitler had a tendency to say brilliant things one minute, and then trail off into rantings about nonsense the next, so the book is not for everyone. Anyone interested in Hitler for any reason should read this book, and anyone who hasn't read it can't have much of value to say.

Perhaps surprisingly, Hitler's diatribes against Christianity are more common in this volume than those against Jews. In fact, his scurrilous attacks are reminiscent of those of prominent infidels such as Voltaire and Paine. "What is this God who takes pleasure only in seeing men grovel before Him?" (p. 143). "While we're on this subject, let's add that, even amongst those who claim to be good Catholics, very few really believe in this humbug. Only old women, who have given up everything because life has already withdrawn from them, go regularly to church." (p. 342). "The catastrophe, for us, is that of being tied to a religion that rebels against all the joys of the senses." (p. 142). "A negro baby who has the misfortune to die before a missionary gets his clutches on him, goes to Hell!" (p. 69). "And what nonsense it is to aspire to a Heaven to which, according to the Church's own teaching, only those have entry who have made a complete failure of life on earth!" (p. 419). "What hasn't the Church discovered as a source of revenue, in the course of these fifteen hundred years?" (p. 90). "One cannot succeed in conceiving how much cruelty, ignominy and falsehood the intrusion of Christianity has spelt for this world of ours." (p. 288). "Christianity is the worst of the regressions that mankind can every have undergone..." (p. 322). "Pure Christianity--the Christianity of the catacombs--is concerned with translating the Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics." (p. 146). "Our epoch will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity." (p. 343).

Hitler even said: "Here Christianity sets the example. What could be more fanatical, more exclusive and more intolerant than this religion which bases everything on the love of the one and only God whom it reveals?" (p. 397). Look who's talking! And my, how modern that sounds!

The Fuhrer opposed the revival of Wotan (Odin, Woden) worship (p. 61). It is easy to see that Hitler was a consummate rationalist: "Religion is in perpetual conflict with the spirit of free research..." (p. 83). "But there will never be any possibility of National Socialism's setting out to ape religion by establishing a form of worship. Its one ambition must be scientifically to construct a doctrine that is nothing more than a homage to reason." (p. 39). Of course, open opposition to Christianity would have to await the end of the war (e. g., p. 411, 555).

Some modern feminists have used Hitler's presumed views on women as a weapon against those who disagree with them. Interestingly, although Hitler did oppose women in the rough-and-tumble worlds of combat and politics, he actually went far beyond kuchen kinder kirche: "It has therefore often been said that we are a party of misogynists, who regarded a women only as a machine for making children, or else as a plaything. That's far from being the case." (p. 252). He praised creative women in non-traditional roles, notably interior-decorator Frau Troost and film-maker Leni Riefenstahl. Otherwise, the Fuhrer commented: "Of primary importance were the measures we took to ensure a living wage for working women...By insisting that they receive a regular wage in accordance with their qualifications--instead of the sort of pocket-money they formerly received--we have delivered them from the doleful necessity of being dependent on an ami for their existence." (pp. 494-495).

Holocaust-uniqueness advocates have insisted that the Nazis intended to exterminate ALL Jews, first in Europe and then in the rest of the world. Hitler's comments don't support their contentions. Just two weeks before the Wannsee Conference, the Fuhrer said that the English must "settle that between themselves", adding that: "It's not our mission to settle the Jewish question in other people's countries!" (p. 185). Days after Wannsee, Hitler spoke of Jews either leaving Europe or being exterminated (p. 235), or perhaps moving to Russia (p. 260). Evidently, Hitler was still open to a Final Solution that would include the mass emigration of Europe's remaining Jews. Finally, Hitler did NOT envision a Judenrein (Jewish-free) world in the distant future. Four days after Wannsee, he wrote: "A good three hundred or four hundred years will go by before the Jews set foot again in Europe. They'll return first of all as commercial travelers..." (p. 236).

Much current thinking has attempted to blame Christianity for the Holocaust, and Hitler's endorsement of the Passion Play has been misrepresented as a blame-Jews-for-Crucifixion ploy. In actuality, Hitler's motives had been primarily racist in nature: "There one sees in Pontius Pilate a Roman racially and intellectually so superior, that he stands out like a firm, clean rock in the middle of the whole muck and mire of Jewry. The preservation of our racial purity can be assured...not only against Jewish, but also against any and every racial infection." (p. 563).

Apropos to this, Hitler opined that all successful Poles are of German descent (p. 405), yet excessively-broad attempts to re-Germanize such Poles ran the risk of contaminating German blood with Slavic blood (p. 473). Finally, Hitler didn't see the Slavs themselves as having any more inherent right to live than the Jews: "Jodl is quite right when he says that notices in the Ukrainian language `Beware of the Trains' are superfluous; what on earth does it matter if one or two more locals get run over by the trains?" (p. 589).

Into the twisted mind of der fuhrer. This work provides insight into the irrational thoughts of a mad man as he conducted a war of annhilation. Great resource for the student of World War II.

In reading Broken Child I was horrified by the abuse, saddened at the suffering of Marcia, and deeply moved that in a world where drugs are shoved at people to solve all problems, that there was a psychiatrist who gave himself selflessly and extensively to help heal a sick woman. I liked that the author saw her multiple personalities as being a further form of the life of abuse she endured. The alter egos weren't cute or charming in any way; it was mental illness and she understood it as such. Too many books on multiple personalites seem to want to make it okay to live in a fractured state. Ira Steinman, the psychiatrist, was determined to have Marcia become whole and functional.

The book is raw, and difficult to read at moments, but incredibly compelling and deeply honest. The abuse on the part of the mother, and the abandonment of all responsible adults in Marcia's life, made me weep in spots. But the book has a purpose--the long, hard road to integration. It would be a valuable tool for therapists to read. This book acurately calls multiple personality a mental illness. The interaction between patient and therapist is well portrayed. I hope her life continues toward health.

Broken Child is a story of tragic loss and pain suffered at the hand of an otherwise "should be" doting mother. The author does an indescribable job of putting her horrific experiences on paper. For anyone who's ever experienced abuse, we know this can be an extremely challenging task. Ms. Cameron does this with such precision and attention to detail that it's frightening. I found that I had to read the book in public so as to not become so engrossed in the details that I "lost" myself. Very seldom does someone come along who can so adeptly describe the very horrors of life that the rest of us would just as well forget or ignore.

This one was a decent read, no doubt about it. But the doctor who treated her wasn't very with it in terms of multiplicity. He treated the other people in her system down right disrespectfully. Sadly, he seems the norm among many therapists.

There are many stories recounting abuse by males, but not nearly as many people have come out and shared their stories about abusive mothers. Marcia Cameron shares her struggles and triumphs with courage and grace. She also talks about her difficulty in finding a therapist who was willing and, more importatly, able to help her discover the root of her adult problems. There are many, many therpists and psychiatrists who disclaim DID or completely miss the diagnosis, because it is masked with many other symptoms. Marcia Cameron brings us through her trials in therapy as well. I highly recommend this book for all professionals and DID's who are ready to read some very triggering material.

I discovered The Broken Child when I was in the 11th grade, and I started it and was shocked that this woman went through these trials with her mother. It is a autobiography about a woman who's mother was racist against her own daughter; she hated her from child birth. She would not even look at her own daughter because her mom was anti-semantic. She said this when she first saw her "That is not my child, that is a Jewish child!" Her mother abused her beyond anything I have ever heard of; she pumped a broom stick into her vagaina while screaming "Now I am going to teach how to use your Jewish c*nt!" She was locked in a closet while her father worked, and her mother abused her whenever she got the chance, but when her father was at home, she treated her like she was a princess.
While in the closet, she developed split-personalities and became these personalities when she was put in there, and she saw them as her friends. Eventually she told the truth to her father, and her father divorced her and got joint custody of her and her brothers who were not abused as her. Then her father died in a plane accident and she had to go live back with her mother. As she got older, her mother eventually died, but she left her with emotional scars and physical scars. One of her personalities named Lucy was a s*ut; she would go out every night (her personalities), and would have sex with men she just met, then she would wake up wondering where she was and discovered semen between her legs, and would cry her eyes out.
Eventually she got married, but when she was touched a certain way; she would freeze up like a statue because it remined her of the past. She had kids, but she still had the mental scars with her. She then got some help, but she discovered new memories that she never thought she had, and this made her more depressed and almost on the verge of suicide. As she got older, she then realized that she had to get over this, so she got more help and eventually got rid of the personalities and discovered her surroundings; her kids, her husband, and she found a new lease on life, and she discovered how to live life without the scars still on her mind.

I am sorry if I offended anybody, but what I said in this book is explained in this novel. This novel has changed my life forever, and it should be read with a open mind, and also it makes you think that this woman went through this, but yet she was able to come up in the world and to have a family of her own. It can be very inspirational but yet VERY sad.