Clinton Books

If you are unfamiliar with the ecstatic religious poetry tradition - Rumi, Mirabai, ... this is not the volume to start on; read Mirabai's For Love of the Dark One first. However, if you have some familarity with the tradition, you'll find this book fascinating - this is more recent (18th century) and closer to the tribal origins of the worship of Kali/Uma/Pavarti/Gauri/Tara. These poems are popular in the sense that they have been kept alive through oral transmission rather than written manuscripts. One poem with a surprising rural flavor stands out: ".../My body is Tara's field/ in which the God of Gods/ like a good farmer / sows his seed with a great mantra. / Around this body, faith / is set like a fence / with patience for posts ..."

This book is written by a very detailed researcher, so at first it seems a lot to wade through--but the process changed my life and has transformed my work. Heartily recommended. Worth the effort.

It was imagination and healthy self-interest that drove young Jack Mahaney to leave the coal mines of Western Pennsylvania and take a train to college and freedom from what bode fair to become a short life and painful death. Imagination and a need for danger then propelled him to a stint in the Navy in World War II, in charge of a 30-man gun crew on various merchant vessels.

In Mombasa Mr Mahaney dared Masai warriors dancers to do him in. Later as an agricultural inspector he ate, drank and sometimes even slept well on luxury ocean liners . He saved California from fruit flies inadvertently smuggled from Hawaii to San Diego by U.S. Navy cooks. Even as Jack Mahaney aged and slowed a bit, he still had the energy to join U.S. missionaries in the Venezuelan Amazon where he tried in vain to teach primitive Indians how to leap beyond slash and burn agriculture and plant more nourishing crops. Later, before he retired to Western North Carolina, Jack Mahaney's last hurrah was as a volunteer in the White House, screening and pigeonholing love letters sent to then President Bill Clinton from adoring women everywhere.

Nonagenarian Jack Mahaney' writes as clearly and punchily as Ernest Hemingway. Like Robert Louis Stevenson and his 20 years younger Mountain Carolinas contemporary Lewis W. Green (OF HUMAN INTEREST), Mr Mahaney is a born "teller of tales," a sometimes caustic observer of the passing parade but more often a good humored log keeper on board The Ship of Fools. He is a late but valued arrival in that increasingly crowded "nest of singing birds" of poets, novelists and other writers living in or near Asheville, North Carolina. -OOO-

John Brummett is (was?) a journalist for one of the Arkansas papers. He covered Clinton as a governor and wrote this book to give others some perspective on the figure of Bill Clinton. This particular book was written while Clinton was serving his first year in office as president.

Does the book offer anything new? In 1993 or 1994, it did. The author discusses the different issues that arose for the Clinton presidency and gives some explanation on what happened. He then puts Clinton's handling of the issue into perspective based on what he knows of Clinton in Arkansas. By reading the book, you see that Brummett does not seem to be surprised by anything he saw that first year.

He does not cover Clinton's childhood; this book is not really a biography in that sense. It is merely an explanation of the first year in the White House. Would I recommend reading the book? Only if you were doing a research project on Clinton. This could give you some insights. Otherwise, After watching Clinton for eight years, you probably already have an idea of how Clinton handles political issues.

Warner using Clinton's past interviews and comments from her friends and colleagues, details the evolution of the first lady from teenager to college student to lawyer, mother, activist, and politician's wife. Clinton's strong personality and intellect seem to have made her a success in her own right, and appear to be crucial elements in Bill Clinton's rise to the top. I would recommend that you read the newer Revised and Updated release of this book.

Imagine you find the manuscript of a novel about the machinations that were performed to Buddy, Bill Clinton's dog. Harvard scientists installed a mechanical brain and computer chip controlled by his nipples. The dog then becomes a principal witness in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and subsequent trial of the President of the "Essential Nation of the Universe."

The book is light, fluffy and reads very fast, but it is quite funny.

Warning; for you cat lovers, Mr. Sanchez is not kind to the feline species.

So you'd think a guy bold enough to hop on his bike and go touring for up to a year at a time would have alot to say, and want to write about it. Among the mysteries of this man is that he had someone else write the book for him. Having done alot of bicycle touring myself this struck me as odd as the experience stimulates one to have much to say about it. However, he could be simply a very poor writer, and either way the result is impressive.

The book chronicles several voyages he did by bike: Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (Chile), a nordic country to South Africa, and a trans-Amazon trip. On each of these trips, there are phenomenal descriptions of run-ins with locals, some good, many not. He is chased by spear-throwing africans (really), he crosses a 35 mile swamp in Colombia by canoe, he arranges to have a cycling companion for a leg of the trip but after a falling out they race one another across the Sahara. The adventures come thick and intriguing, and this is not a work of fiction so it's difficult to believe the things he pulls off. One realizes in the course of this book that this man is truly not sane, it's one thing to say this, another to realize it's true about someone. At one point on a tour he passes within a couple hundred yards of his family home, his parents inside, and does not stop because he "had to get somewhere". Perhaps an addiction to movement, or an inability to give up adventure. You be the judge, if you can find a copy to read.

Krasna Amerika -- the title translates to "Beautiful America" after lyrics in a Czech waltz -- is an American story in every sense of the word. But it covers an entire ethnic group.

If your only knowlege of Texas Czech culture is a kolache, or a cold beer at Westfest on Labor Day, here's a book that will introduce you to one of the most important, and sometimes most overlooked, ethnic groups in the Lone Star State.

This is a colorful story of how Moravians, Bohemians and others who lived in what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia -- places where, as one immigrant said, there was "too many people and not enough land" -- made new lives for themselves in the new world. Starting about 1848, they made their way to Galveston and to Texas, even though their ties to the old country remained strong until the second world war. This unique culture, its rich language and heritage, is explained in detail.

Unlike the few paragraphs afforded to the Czechs in most Texas history books, this work will give a complete and vivid picture of a hard working, prospering people.

The title of this book comes from Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, as Donald Elliott attempts to invite us into the world of opera the way the Lambs do for the world of Shakespeare. Lamb's Tales from Great Operas takes the name literally and is illustrated with all manner of absurd and comic ink drawings of muttons performing opera, to great effect. Arrowood's illustrations are fabulous, and Elliott always explains the scene each drawing derives from. We are introduced to seventeen operas: two from the 18th century, eleven from the 19th century, and four from the 20th century. The text is unfailingly charming, and would be suitable for both lovers of opera or the curious and sympathetic uninitiated.

It's simple, see?

L = f (p, t, r)

where L is a given leader, f means "function of", p means processing, t means time, and r means response patterns. When expanded upon (which this book does over a few hundred pages), this means that virtually all leaders need to undergo similar processing. Therefore the message is essentially: "Have faith in the formula." However, implied in this is: "Have faith in God." If you can get perspective on how the formula works in a leader's life -- on how God works in a leader's life -- you won't be rocked as you might be by the things that confront you.

If this is something you would like to investigate really closely, then plunge into this thick and complex book.

I had some reservations. One is that leaders who failed seemed to get short shrift. A pity about them. They got into the "drop-out pattern". Since the book is mainly descriptive -- perhaps I should describe it as "observational science" --there would seem to be few solutions offered, other than: "Have faith in the formula." Another reservation was the notion of leadership as personal influence, rather than simply pointing others to God in one's weakness, and letting God do the rest.