Francis Books

As a law professor, I thought I knew everything about schadenfreude, but then I read John Portmann's fascinating book, and it made me think about the terrible things that happen to people who deserve to have even worse things happen to them in a completely new light. Why is it that we feel such satisfaction at the misfortunes of others? Portmann explains, in a wonderfully lucid and elegant style, the differences among the various senses in which we view the bad things that might happen, ranging from comedy through true tragedy. This book is a real crossover between scholarship and a delightful read.

The real title of this study might have been something much less appealing, like, Schadenfreude: It's Meaning, Experience and Social Ramification. Or, The Anatomy of Schadenfreude. That would have seriously limited its appeal to the average reader perhaps. (So it's just as well that the title parallels the recently very popular, but not so good, book called When Bad Things Happen to Good People.)
But, the fact is, that really is the content of the book, and fascinating and delightful it is. The prose style is crystal and orderly, almost like a serious dissertation that went through a top-notch editor (although there is a typo here and there, but who's counting?).
This emotion that has no proper English name is dissected not only in a variety of ways, but also at a variety of angles, revealing unexpected relationships between this pecadillo and our construct of justice. For example, Do we take pleasure in the justice that is served when one who "deserves" it gets his/her comeuppance? Or is it that we take pleasure in the knowledge that we were lucky enough to have been spared the same nasty spill of fate? Is Schadenfreude the same thing as malice? What about the element of anticipation? Even if we may not consciously wish any person any harm, but still find it somewhat pleasurable to discover that so-and-so was laid-off or demoted, are we guilty? Why is that some tiny little part of us "dies" when our friends succeed, and do better than we do?
How is Schadenfreude different from envy, malice, jealousy, and resentment?
Questions such as these and many more are carefully examined by cross-referencing Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and modern scholars of ethics, including John Rawls. Complex theme but Portman is a gentleman scholar, goes out of his way (albeit effortlessly) to make clear all his references.

Why do we (sometimes) delight in the suffering of our fellow humans? Should we fell ashamed of schadenfreude and other "outlaw emotions," as the author calls them? John Portmann has produced an elegant and readable meditation on the significance of the pleasure we take in the spectacle afforded by the misfortures of others. Portmann carefully distinguishes schadenfreude from garden variety malice in the course of his examination of what great philosophers and the world's major religions have to tell us about the subject. Throughout the book, the author comes across as brilliant and compassionate, but never dull or stuffy, even when he argues (in the conclusion) that the satisfactions of mercy can be every bit as great as those of revenge. When Bad Things Happen to Other People is an important contribution to the growing literature on human emotions.

About the Author: There is a fairly long history of Dr. Mackey's life and career already on this site. My own knowledge of Francis Mackey is more personal. He is a resident of the same retirement community in which my mother lives. I met Dr. Mackey at the retirement community. I know him as an extraordinarily caring and compassionate physician. Although retired, Francis is always available to offer his caring support to all. This book arose out of Dr. Mackey's own battles with colon cancer and is his gift to all of us - women and men who have been diagnosed with colon cancer, their wives, children, and friends.

Who Should Read this Book: This is a book for men and women over 50 and their families and friends. In my view, medical students, nurses, and physicians should also read it.

What You'll Learn: About the Normal and Not-So-Normal Colon - The book begins with a description of the normal colon, along with a helpful diagram. Dr. Mackey then goes on to explain the importance of polyps, the "culprit" in colon cancer. In easy-to-understand language, Dr. Mackey explains the various kinds of polyps, where they are likely to be located in the colon, and the various tests to reveal polyps. Later in the book, Dr. Mackey makes a strong case for the use of a colonoscopy. Currently, many health insurance plans don't cover colonoscopies, finding them too expensive. The book argues persuasively that the failure to cover colonoscopies not only results in unnecessary deaths but also costs all of us more over the long run. In chapters 5-8, Dr. Mackey recounts his own experience with surgery and chemotherapy. These very personal chapters contain invaluable information for those fighting colon cancer. Here we learn about the importance of personal hygiene, dealing with depression, fighting pain, the need for exercise, checking your medications, the use of complementary medicines, prayer, etc.

Reviewer's Summary: Why Die of Colon Cancer? is a well-researched and clearly written book. Those of us who follow Dr. Mackey's advice will no doubt live free of colon cancer. For many of us who have health insurance that will not cover a colonoscopy and who do not have the personal means to pay for the test, this book is a call-to-action.

Why Die of Colon Cancer? by Francis G. Mackey, M. D., describes, in laymen's' terms, how one can virtually "immunize" oneself and one's loved ones against colon cancer, the second-largest form of cancer-killer that claims 60,000 lives a year. As such, this book is literally a "gift of life." The key: getting a colonoscopy, a painless procedure, every 7 to 10 years (upon reaching 35 if there's a history of colon cancer in one's family, or other risk factors; or, starting at age 40-50 if not).

Written in an engaging, straightforward, highly readable, and conversational tone- and a quick read (the main body is 80 pages)-Why Die? is one of the most important books to read this year for every adult who is 30 and over.

Why Die of Colon Cancer? is important and timely because it debunks as inadequate, misleading, and a waste of time and money the four other unpleasant colon-cancer diagnostic procedures that still remain widely recommended: the digital rectal examination, the fecal occult blood test, the sigmoidoscopy, and the barium-enema x-ray. Read this book, and you'll be armed with all the facts you'll need to talk your doctor out of these hugely flawed and dreaded procedures! As one who has had an uncomfortable and useless sigmoidoscopy and a painless and reliable colonscopy, I guarantee this knowledge is worth the price of the book alone!

The book (a) describes the colonoscopy, the procedure you should ask -- no, insist-- of your doctor; (b) persuades you or a loved one to get a colonoscopy, if you or (s)he is reluctant to get it; and (c) relates first-hand testimony by a very knowledgeable, insightful and compassionate doctor-patient-author of the consequences of colon cancer and how to cope with them. It is an excellent resource for those who have been struck by this terrible disease, and includes 33 pages of a glossary and appendices with reviews of helpful books and web sites.

Executives, doctors, and regulators of the health care delivery and health insurance fields will find Why Die? invaluable. It makes the medical AND dollars-and-cents case for the broad adoption of colonscopy screening by all health maintenance and care organizations. It also makes a great hand-out to patients who need colonscopies but are resisting recommendations.

Dr. Mackey wanted to make sure his last act of medical careÐ this book, a gift of life for us allÐ was published before he died of colon cancer. Please accept his gift. No one need die of this disease as he did March 17, 2001.

Dr. Mackey offers a wealth of practical, informed, and first-hand advice on how to avoid a basically avoidable disease - colon cancer. From his own experiences and medical knowledge, he talks sensitively, but persuasively about the power each of us has to take charge of our lives. If nothing else, I learned two things: One, that a colonoscopy is far more preferable in the proper course of prevention of colon cancer than a Sigmoid by itself (or even in combination with anything else). And two, in today's time-pressed and dollars-pressed medical environment, it is extremely important for each of us to ask questions of our medical professionals and to learn as much as possible about the diseases they diagnose in us and the efficacy of the various options that exist to combat them. But most importantly, the best way to combat cancer or most any other disease is education, communication, and prevention.

Why praise God? is a refreshing attempt to marry religious devotions to modern thoughts on cosmology. With broad strokes, the author combines modern scientific concepts to 'old-fashioned' piety. Many will particularly like the prayerful reflections at the end of each chapter. The author sweeps the reader up and takes him on a journey from the Big Bang to the end of his own worldly tenure and peers beyond for a glimpse of the other side from which none has ever returned.

A most commendable book.
It is indeed a very interesting and well written book

Paul Pang CSSR

What strikes me very much is that the author very eloquently express those questions many of us have deep within about life and God but are unable to convey. And he goes on to provide some very convincing and uplifting responses to those questions. A must read for anyone who wants (and is brave enough)to ponder on the meaning of our lives, beyond our careers, material acquisition and 21st century lifestyle.

Well-written and well-researched thriller that can't be put down. Keeps you breathless from beginning to end.

A fast-paced adventure novel of intrigue, action, and suspense. Your interest is held high right through to the end!

Set in Norway in the early 1960's, `Wolf Winter' is a mystery thriller that keeps you turning the page to find out what happens next.
Against the backdrop of the Cold War, it centers on well arctic explorer, Halvard Starheim, the beautiful widow of his best friend Jan Johansen, Ragna, and the villainous leftwing playboy-journalist Rolf Berg.

Someone is betraying Norway to the Soviets, and has been responsible for the death of several of Hal's friends? We explore the icy tundra of northern Norway, the politics of the Cold War, and interpersonal relationships, in this thrilling novel, which is impossible to put down.
You will be compelled to always ask `What is going to happen now?' `What will he do? , what will she do?'.

Written in 1979 and revised recently in 1996, Douglas and Isherwood's classic breaks through our own love/hate relationship with consumption and the biased interpretations of history and the present to look in a reasoned fashion at the patterns with which all people choose to buy things and the affiliations we create using these things. Lamenting the fact that economics has restricted itself by limiting human tastes to a black-box phenomenon, Douglas (a renowned, now retired, anthropologist) rips open the box and finds many convincing arguments for the uses of goods as a means of communication in all societies.

Additionally, they discuss previous and current ideas about why people save, or don't consume, and provide excellent comparative analyses between societies in Great Britain, blacks and whites in the US, the Nuer of the Sudan, and Zimbabwe's Lele people. What the reader comes away with is a deeper understanding of how people use consumption, both consciously and unconsciously, to provide information about themselves, send messages to others, and try to control the flow of culture and information to best benefit themselves and their interests.

The writing, which I have the impression was mostly written by Douglas since I'm familiar with her style from other books, feels a bit cerebral but is extremely lucid and will keep you on your toes with novel interpretations of familiar cultural phenomena.

In this book, a renowned structural anthropologist collaborates with an economist to propose an explanation for one of the great mysteries of economics: where do "preferences" come from? Much of neoclassical economics rests on the assumption that, once we know the basic desires and tastes for a given population, we can then understand how people make rational decisions about how to acquire them and how to allocate their resources. The actual preferences themselves, however, are a black box. Douglas & Isherwood tackle this problem, evaluating several theories of "rational" economic actors from cross-cultural and systems theoretical perspectives. Their answer is that many of these mysteries are not so mysterious after all: we have good reasons for valuing the things we value, and many of the apparently frivolous fads and fashions are in fact life-and-death matters. "Good taste" is an index of social connections, of reproductive fitness, of one's ability to mobilize resources -- and in a society increasingly dependent on information and services rather than physical products, the race to remain on the cutting edge becomes like traveling with the Red Queen, faster and faster just to stay in place. Along the way, Douglas throws out a number of gems which are incidental to her argument, including a proposal for why women's work is always and everywhere valued less than men's. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in what anthropologists can tell us about the deep logics of behavior in the consumer society.

This is one of the early anthropological critiques of neo-classical economics. Many of the ideas expounded here are now being seriously pondered by economists who are attempting to find ways around them. Douglas,who is arguably the best known British anthropologist of her generation, has a particular insight into the way economist think - possibly because her husband is an economist. This makes her uniquely qualifed to provide us with an anthropology of consumption, that does not dismiss economists, as much as show how much they miss by not understanding the cultural dimensions of consumption.

in volume 4 the age of apocalypse comes to an end in the issue xmen omega. however for some reason there are more issues included afterwards that really have little to do with AoA. the AoA series is great but i think these collections could have been better. they could have left out some of the stuff in volume one and all the stuff after xmen omega in volume 4 and made it into three volumes.

What can I say? I'm a big fan of alternative realities in the Marvel universe...

This novel does an excellent job finishing up the story. It gives all of the finishing details needed to find out how it all ends.

I stumbled on F. Van Wyck Mason by accident on Amazon.com. I thought that anyone who wrote over 60 novels must have been a good writer, and I was right! All of his books are well written and keep the readers interest. But the "Young Titan" is in a class by itself. I don't know how it has been overlooked as a great piece of historical American Literature. The characters are vividly portrayed as are the scenes. Mason brings this era of colonial history to life again in this novel. Any reader who enjoys early American historical fiction should not miss this. A truly Great piece of writing!

F. Van Wyck Mason's book, "The Young Titan", ranks right up there with Edison Marshall, Kenneth Roberts, John Jennings, and Dale Van Every's historical fiction for his skill in portraying early New England life prior to and during the American Revolution. I actually learned more about the history of that period from their books than I ever did in high school, or from the text books. These books are especially interesting for those of us who live where so much of the history behind these stories actually took place.

As I searched through the books of historical fiction, I came across this old favorite. Set during the French & Indian War, or the War of the Austrian Succession as it was known in Europe, this book vivdly illustrates the differences between the Old and the New World. The seeds of rebellion are firmly planted among the colonials on both sides of the conflict. Great characters, royal spies and savage Indians led by Europeans gone native, drive the story as the English drive the French from North America. There are no lame skirmishes led by incompetent American Colonels ... just lots of intrigue and adventure culminating in the Battle of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, the French stronghold guarding the St. Lawrence river, the gateway to Quebec. This book is part Last of the Mohicans, part Northwest Passage, but with a contemporary pace. Anyone who loves American History and adventure stories will love this. Its really unfortunate that it's out-of-print. Hopefully, some publisher will rediscover this so a whole new generation can enjoy it.

The second updated edition of the classic 101 Ethical Dilemmas provides both high school and college-level audiences an engaging discussion offering eleven new ethical dilemmas for consideration. The examples offer a range of dilemmas from a variety of fields, from business and legal conflicts to medical worlds, and consider issues of justice, ethics, and good practice. An important and easy, lively introduction to the field of ethics will prove solid classroom debate material and accessible to a range of newcomers to the topic, and lay readers.

The only time I ever decided to write a piece of fan mail it was to the author of a philosophy book. There. Now you know the full depth of my sadness, but I know you will accept me as I am.

The book was 101 Philosophy Problems by Martin Cohen. It was full of such puzzles as if an object can only ever be in one place at one time, how anything can be moving? Or if you replace every component of a ship piece by piece, at what point does it become a different ship?

At the end you got all Cohen's own thoughts on the questions, always thought-provoking, funny and iconoclastic about the whole business of philosophy.. Apart from anything, it's the most perfect toilet-reading I know.

The brilliant thing about it was that, while so many other philosophy books make your brian shut down after 3 pages , leaving you feeling baffled and stupid Cohen simply got you thinking for yourself. He made it all so lucid, comprehensible and fun, you felt all the other philosophy writers must be charlatans, blinding yo with gobbledegook to make themselves feel clever.

Another great value of the book is that Cohen is committed to the ancient but now somewhat eccentric idea that philosophy should not just be abstract conundrums but should equip us to live better lives.

101 Ethical Dilemmas is the natural sequel to that wonderful book, and as the title suggests it focuses more specifically on ... well, work ti tout for yourself.

Many of the issues Cohen invites us to grapple with here are pressing concerns in modern life. He deals with civil disorder against evil corporations, internet shopping, designer babies, job applications, 'collateral' damage', war against tyrants, cinematic sex, CCTV surveillance, US state terrorism, the abolition of poverty and the wisdom of George W. Bush.

In amid this are al the nuts-and-bolts issues. Can the end justify the means? Is it right to lie when the truth will hurt? Do we only behave decently because of social restraints? Do we judge right and wrong with our feelings or reason? Why, if at all, should humans be treated from other animals? Are good intentions more important than good results?

Cohen also casts an ethically critical eye over the parables of Jesus, as well as the teachings of Buddha and various Church fathers.

This book is rather harder work than its beloved predecessor. As if making a concerted effort to educate as well as inspire us, Cohen includes many passages from the great philosophers. Consequently, this second 101 is twice as long as the first.

Sometimes he weaves the quotations into dialogue, or, for example turns a long extract from Descartes into a lecture given while he dissects a live chimpanzee. Creative, certainly, but it can actually make the philosophy all the harder to follow.

Likewise the playfulness of Cohen's questions can sometimes leave you wondering what he's actually getting at.

Above all though, its great to have some of this stuff. It's entertainment that trains you to think more intelligently about discerning right and wrong and about how you choose to act. God knows, in 2003 we need that.

If you're interested, get the first book first (unless you have a particular reason to prefer 'ethics' to 'philosophy') There'll be plenty of time to graduate to the other one when you're smitten, and write fan mail.

I never did write that letter, in the end. But then neither has the book ever left my toilet side.

Feeling down? Pick up this book! Depressed? Read a few pages at random. Down in the dumps? Read a few more pages and commit at least one of the many nuggets of wisdom contained within to memory. You will see the world with fresh eyes, you will feel uplifted; tolerance for your own sorry self and your sorry fellow humans will return, even if you previously felt there was no hope. Normally I would cross the street and board a bus to avoid a book like this, but a friend turned me on to it during a time when I felt about as disenfrancised and fed up with people as I ever want to feel. It's an antidote to the Darwinian, Machiavellian, dog-eat-dog horror of modern Western culture. It takes courage to be loving -- reading this book will help restore your sense of courage and faith in humanity.

Dr. Onderdonk provides a compilation of quotes (including some new english translations of Tolstoy's work) that is incomperable to anything in existence. He draws from east and west, religion and appearently secular sources. Wonderfull book own - not the kind you sit down and read straight through.

There are other herbals you can read leisurely in the back yard, while sipping home-grown herbal iced teas; this is a rugged little book to take with you to the bulk herbs bin or mail-order house, to round out your outdoors first-aid kit. Written by a well-grounded and well-versed EMT, this is also the book to pack into your first aid kit, with excellent on-the-spot "what do I do now" advice.
Highest regard, whether you want to be ready for anything that happens at a summer outdoors festival, camping trip, or in your own back yard.

I have friends who've been fortunate enough to stave off anything from heatstroke & dehydration to anaphylactic shock (from insect sting) thanks to this book.

It's NOT an herbal. There's not much for theory here -- and that's its strength, which sets it apart from everything else. The topic is pretty much confined to what you need to do, and the handful of items you ought to be carrying with you.

No long discourses to plow through, which just might save your life in an emergency. Whether you're into rafting or cycling, or NASCAR events, "20 Herbs" could be the best few dollars you've ever spent, and should be the first thing you pack when you leave the house.