Johnson Books

Elizabeth Johnson does it again - beautifully!
This book is informative, inspirational and challenging
to all who welcome her knowledge and wisdom and all who
might become open to new perspectives.

Quest for the Living God is the kind of excellent, inspiring, illuminating writing we have come to expect from Elizabeth Johnson! A wonderful book that merits a slow, reflective read and, ideally, discussion with others.

This book was really good. There were specific chapters that gave me alot to think about.

A tour through contemporary currents in the doctrine of God which highlights the context from which each vision emerged, the theological rationale behind it, and the practical implications this vision has for everyday life. It is well worth the money and is accessible for the average interested reader.

When I discovered that Elizabeth Johnson had just written a new theology of God I knew I was in for a treat. EJ's "She Who Is" has become one of my most cherished books of theology on the nature of God and wonderfully "Quest for the Living God" is of similar high quality.

While "She Who Is" is an articulation of EJ's feminist perspective on the mystery of God and of a bit more scholarly tone, QFTLG is more popularly written presenting not only God from a feminist perspective but also from liberation, black, hispanic, interreligious, ecological and trinitarian perspectives.

In her multi-perspective approach, EJ attempts to harvest the fruit of more creative contemporary theologies that can open up our understanding of God in fresh ways that foster renewed worship, mystery and reverence. While many theologians write academically and very dryly, EJ sets before us a rich feast for not only the mind but the heart as well. She has something of the poet in her and her writing is a treat to read.

I couldn't imagine a better book to be used for a group book discussion for those of a more progressive Christian orientation. For the student, EJ also includes very helpful book recommendations at the end of each chapter for further reading.

The discussion of God, I believe, is the most pressing concern for Christians today in light of the many fundamentalist distortions highlighted in much of today's media. But more than this, the greatest privilege for God lovers of all stripes and perspectives, is to forever contemplate the limitless grandeur and majesty of our God. To that end, this book admirably succeeds in stimulating contemplative reflection and will be a source of inspiration I suspect I'll be turning to repeatedly over the years.

I read it over a period of two days and found it very hard to put down. The essays on each star were fairly short, but they gave an insight into their lives off the movie screen and out of the pages of the fan magazines. More of a "where are they now..." kind of book.

I have a touch of envy too. I would have loved to have done what David & Tom did - travelling to Hollywood in the summer to interview stars of the Hollywood golden age. I have a keen interest of what went on behind the scenes & afterwards, almost as much as the finished products themselves.

Reel To Real is an anthology of celebrity interviews featuring big names in entertainment from vaudeville to movies and TV. Various interviews take place in different years, spanning 25 years total. The Featured individuals include Harry Delmar, Fred Astaire, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, George Burns, William Shatner, Mel Blanc, Mel Brooks, and many more. Each interview has a down-to-earth tone and offers plain-terms insight into the business of bright lights and mass-media, from celebrities' reactions to government cutting of arts funding to the simple trials and tribulations of growing up and striving to make it big. An inset collection of black-and-white photographs of the interviewees rounds out this engaging slice of the stage and silver screen life.

Reel to Real is a history of 20th century entertainment. If you're a film buff and appreciate the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, the interviews in this book are for you. The Frank Capra chapter is funny and informative. Spencer Tracy's story about Hemingway is amazing. And Milton Berle talking about dressing in drag for the first time is a real hoot. I couldn't put this down!

The year was 1974 and "That's Entertainment," the compilation film of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio's most wondrous musical moments had just opened wide at theaters nationwide. For David Fantle and Tom Johnson, two St. Paul, Minnesota teenagers, it was a galvanizing experience.

When "That's Entertainment" opened, their interest in the movies and the stars that were in them was piqued. Not only did they become film buffs, but in 1978, just liberated from high school, they made their first trip to Los Angeles to interview Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and George Burns. The celebrity floodgates opened.

The pair began publishing their interviews in the Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota newspaper and have interviewed more than 200 celebrities the past 25 years for publications throughout the world.

Reel to Real: 25 years of celebrity profiles from vaudeville to movies to TV represents the authors 60 "best" interviews with such legendary names as Astaire, Kelly, Burns, James Cagney, Lucille Ball, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope, Charlton Heston and Frank Capra.

The book also features forewords by Cyd Charisse and Shirley Jones and 24-pages of rare and candid celebrity shots, most taken by the authors.

For anyone who loves candid, facinating anecdotes about the way Hollywood used to be....from the stars and directors who were there and made history, this book puts it up front.

It contains tons of information that I have never heard about before. For instance, I never knew Frank Capra gave Irving Berlin the idea for the musical "Holiday Inn" staring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. I always thought that Berlin came up with the idea himself. The Lucille Ball interview was also very cool as were many others.

The pictures really rock. I especially loved the Milton Berle gag photo where he poses with a cigar sticking out like a bucktooth beaver......and what's with songwriter Sammy Cahn posing sans shirt? Bizarre!

The interviews are often very funny and sometimes border on the irreverent, so this isn't some kitchy Hollywood cream-puff book. Yet, though it all, you can tell that Fantle and Johnson have deep admiration and respect for the clasic stars they interview.

THE RISE AND FALL OF DODGERTOWN: 60 YEARS OF BASEBALL IN VERO BEACH is a specialty item for baseball collections and Vero Beach area residents who enjoy game history. It charts the history of the Dodgers, who have been coming to Vero Beach every spring since 1948, and it tells of an entire culture and community which sprang up around the rise of 'Dodgertown'. Baseball fans will find this an engrossing history.

This book really captures the spirit of Dodgertown and the special bond that grew and splintered between the community of Vero Beach and the Dodgers there. This book is packed with pictures and stories of Dodger greats, past and present. It's a shame they had to leave it, Spring Training will never be the same. But at least it's captured in prose!

This is a fascinating story, well researched by the author and laced with historic pictures. The book is full of anecdotes that vividly evoke the sixty years of Dodgertown and much more. Fay Vincent got it right: "It's a story that deserved telling. Rody has told it--and told it well."

Clearly a labor of love, this book tells not only Dodgertown's story, but baseball's and America's. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys forays into the cultural and economic evolution of the game. While baseball's players and facilities may have undergone dramatic changes through the years, Johnson's love of the sport clearly has not. A masterful work.

Tom

P.S. I also recommend "Spring Training Handbook" which goes to similar lengths to detail baseball's history in Florida.

At exactly the stroke of midnight last night, I read the last page of Dodgertown and laid the book aside. It was a wonderful read. I was sorry it ended.

The book is a winner in so many ways. Obviously, a tremendous amount of research went into it. But at the same time, it wears its research well, never becoming a tome. Knowing virtually nothing about Vero, the Dodgers, or the history of baseball, I kept learning on each page, while growing familiar with the place, the people, and the wonderful mystique of spring training. I really felt I was there.

And so, I was saddened, I mean really moved and at times angry, during those final chapters when everything seemed to fall apart. Your own last pages indicate that you, and probably others, have philosophically come to grips with the passing of the good old days, but for a reader like me, new to it all, it's terribly difficult to let go. I kept wanting to go back to the O'Malley days. I felt personal loss in that I'll probably never be able to experience the special nature of Dodgertown. Oh, sure - another team may come in. For a while it even looked as though it might be the Orioles. But even if the Os' had moved to Vero, the camp wouldn't have been the same.

Running Xen Review

Running Xen takes a unique approach to introducing Xen to both the novice and expert virtualization user. The authors start off introducing just enough of the core concepts to give the reader an adequate basis on which the book later builds on to provide the required skills to effectively run a virtual environment. A brief explanation of Xen architecture follows with an overview of the management tools with real world examples showing actual output. I found this attention to often overlooked detail refreshing such as the use of ssh with keys and X Forwarding to securely communicate with guests impressive, instead of simply using an easier less secure method for example. The reader could choose to skip ahead if the topic was already understood but providing that level of detail is integral to the learning process in my opinion. Simply getting a Xen server up and running accomplishes nothing for the user needing to actually run and administer it after, which is where most technical books fail.

The walk through with guest disk images and creating them correctly was well appreciated instead of leaving that to the reader to hopefully figure out. All popular methods for populating guests were covered which allowed distro specific tools to be utilized instead of requiring non native methods or leaving the reader unprepared. Device virtualization was covered, but I assume as Xen is constantly evolving the information at print time regarding hiding a PCI device from Dom0 was still accurate but is now slightly different. Fortunately, all the pointers to additional reading would lead the user to finding the current procedure. Networking was covered in detail which is an often misunderstood part of Xen and a working example of a purely virtual segment using a dummy interface was shown which I found fairly useful. Guest resource management provided an understanding for topics such as the IO Scheduler and gave examples on how to tune it.

This was my second book on Xen and completely replaces the first as a much more competent reference. I highly recommend this book for anyone using Xen for its concrete basis and good reference it provides.

I'm new to virtualization, but very technical. "Running Xen" was just right for me. Great background information and rationalization mixed with solid detail. Solid in-depth intro for anyone seeking to understand virtualization in general, and Xen in particular.

The review copy I had was only 583 pages, not the 624 that the specs say this has. I bring that up because I wonder if last minute updates were added, and I mention that because that was my first thought when reading this: it's out of date.

I don't mean horribly, and I certainly don't mean so much as to make this useless. But this is a common problem in the fast moving field of open source: things can change radically in the time it takes to get a book out the door.

For example, the first thing I learned here was about a Xen LiveCD. Chapter 2 is devoted to playing with that, and it's a great idea: a non-threatening, very quick intro to Xen. Unfortunately, that's way
out of date: the LiveCD can still be found, but it's not where the book says it is because it is several versions old now.

However, I'm sure that much of this book will remain useful for some time. This isn't just technical details (though there is a lot of that); it's also advice on configuration and deployment.

As is common nowadays, the book includes a coupon to get 45 days free access to the on-line Safari version (interestingly, that doesn't have 624 pages either).

A few days ago I finally got my copy of Running Xen. I was anxious to see how the information would be presented. I can tell you I was not disappointed. I am by no means a Xen master. I have tinkered with it a few times over the past several years but as I am getting ready to use it full time in production I need as much information as I can get. The books authors include Eli Dow, and Todd Deshane who worked on Xen and the Art of Repeated Research, as well as Quantifying the Performance Isolation Properties of Virtualization Systems. [...]

If you ever worked with Xen - Open Source Virtualization Software for Linux you probably realized that despite being powerful and performing well Xen is a complex solution that requires "reading the manual".

I think that "Running Xen" book ("A Hands-On Guide to the Art of Virtualization") will be a great help. It is written by the team of people who not only know Zen inside out, but who are also major contributors to the source.

The book is a hands-on guide for most popular distributions, but what I specially like is that it gives a very good theoretical background on virtualization (architecture, benefits, over of xen hypervisor etc). The hands-on section covers hardware requirements and software requirements, including specifics for the popular distributions (OpenSUSE, Centos (RHEL) and Ubuntu as well as notes on other Domain0 distributions.

Significant attention is given to managing of the custom installed or pre-built Guest images, management of unprivileged (guest) domains, storage, device virtualization, security, network configuration, management of guest resources, saving/restoration and live migrations.

What gives confidence while reading on these hands-on tasks is the authors' familiarity with the subject. They are people who know Xen inside out and many tips and notes you encounter will save you hours of browsing of mailing lists or trials and errors.

We revamped our entire sales process and compensation package. This book was an excellent resource for us and helped us go from point A to point B relatively easily

Here is a great book for sales managers. Gets to the point, easy to read and offers great value for money. Don't bypass this for books heavy on theory and lacking practical ideas to increase your sales

In "Sales Management Power Strategies", the author makes it clear that increasing sales revenue is the responsibility of several departments working together. As you read this book you will get many ideas that you can easily implement to help your sales department succeed. Paul takes you step-by-step from hiring the right person, setting quotas and accurately forecasting results, to getting the entire company focused on revenue.

As CFO of a high tech company, I especially appreciated the practical advice, as well as the worksheets for getting top revenue performance from the company. We have already started implementing some of the ideas in this book and know we will be seeing great results.

If you're looking for a business book to add to your sales library, this should be the next book you read.

It has been said that if something is unmanaged it is uncontrolled. If sales management was truly honest, "shoot from the hip" would best describe their current sales processes. In his book, Mr. DiModica transforms time tested revenue strategies into action steps. The title says it all "building a replicable and scalable sales process." This is a great resource for any organization that is unsatisfied with their sales performance.

If you are looking to manage your sales team more effectively, then get this book. The author gives very specific details on how to manage your salespeople by metrics, develop a sales scorecard, calculate sales quotas and targets accurately, and hire the right sales staff for your company. Lots of books out there are full of fluff and generalizations, but this particular book gives techniques and strategies that work in the real world and will help increase your team's peak performance. I recommend this book to anyone seeking to build or improve their sales team.

My book club just finished this book and it was enjoyed by all of us. Personally I found the book to be engaging from the first page. The author does an excellent job of describing the hardships of life in the 1100's, drawing the reader in with vivid word pictures of the trials and triumphs of the people living during such violent times. Even more, the author does a superb job of describing the characters so that the reader really knows them, and likes them. Just like in modern times, the people of the 1100's loved and laughed, fought and died. Some had a strong moral compass and others did not. But most importantly, people then, like people now, need each other, need friends and family to support them, love them, and even chastise them when called upon. On the back of the book the author is described as saying, "She hopes this book reminds the reader that our battles were not meant to be fought alone...and that our lives were not meant to be mediocre." This book is about just that: Friends and family who go to extraordinary lengths for one another.
I understand this is the author's very first novel. I look forward with much eagerness to her future novels. I will read them all.

This book was just awesome! I couldn't put it down and really enjoyed every minute of it. The story of Gabriel and Brynn captured my full attention. It is a heart-warming story with family values demonstrating the power of good over evil. Thanks for such a brilliant story.

What a sensational book! This is a compelling story with well-developed characters and a storyline you don't want to end. The historical elements to this book provide a realistic feel and will hold the interests of all types of readers. There is something for everyone - love, family, drama and action!

I honestly could not put this down. The characters completely draw you in and the pictures the author paints are exquisite. I felt like I was there beside Gabriel and Brylieva cheering them on each step of their journey. I highly reccomend this book to any lover of adventure and romance.
Definitely a 5 star read!

The coming of age story of a young boy as he travels through to adulthood was gripping from page one. One of the most entertaining aspects of the book was the historically true background in which the story takes place. The author does a fantastic job of helping the reader examine and experience what life may really have FELT like during this fascinating time period. It is so much richer than the average romance or action book; it truly takes the reader on a ride that sticks in the mind long after the book is set down. As an entertaining way to discover this time in history, or as a beach read, I would definitely recommend this book!

Excellent! Someone who can see the whole world instead of more & more about less & less like most scientists. Cost of freight to New Zealand is excessive.

Does the historically recent thinning of the Arctic polar ice pack herald the beginning of a new ice age? What, if anything, do African summer monsoons and salinity in the Mediterranean Sea have to do with the buildup of northern ice caps and the initiation of ice ages? What causes ice ages anyway and can the cause(s) be so counterintuitive?....Secrets of the Ice Ages is a carefully considered and constructed argument in which Johnson outlines his case much as a lawyer might structure his arguments in a legal brief. It is written at a level that should appeal to anyone with an interest in climatic change and the cause(s) of ice ages.

Robert Johnson has logically written the facts to show a new ice age may be coming. Althoughh written in a scientific manner, as a layperson I found this to be a fascinating read.

Johnson makes geological predictions about our Earth-biosphere's future habitability, especially its Northern Hemisphere. Recent data showing that the Gulf Stream is only responsible for 20% of western Europe's milder-than-equal-latitude-Canada's means that his theory is even more applicable! Hold onto your copy of this well-written text, amply illustrated and diagramed, for a decade or so....One way, or the other, he'll be proved adept in Geoscience, I think.

Written by Robert G. Johnson (Adjunct Professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota) a man who has devoted himself to the professional study of ancient climate variations, Secrets Of The Ice Ages: The Role Of The Mediterranean Sea In Climate Change is a meticulous and scientific study of just how the Mediterranean Sea has influenced ice ages in the past, and how it might affect Earth's climate in the future. Exhaustive data and analysis are presented in this college-level treatise. Secrets Of The Ice Ages is very highly recommended for anyone with a keen interest in meteorology and the natural history of climate changes.

Emerson is quoted as often as any other writer or speaker. Not becausea few lines here and there are profound. Rather because he understands more about human beings and life. He is thought provoking and so deep its a joy to read the same essay several times. If people take the time to read it they will understand many things about life they can't get other places.I find it interesting we live in a period of time where civilization is far more advanced yet it appears Emerson knew many things society still doesn't get. There have probably only been a handfull of what people call Masters of life. Those people who had few equals. Without question Emerson is one of these people.If you haven't read the essay Compensation you are missing a very important classic which will speak to you like it was written today.

For the soul searching for fresh air, the ideas and information presented to the reader in this book are truly refreshing, as the essays and other writings offered in this book are truly extraordinary and have been abandoned in today's educational system. Emerson emphasizes the individual's place in the universe rather than the servile role offered by contemporary society's pump em out produce isle. Also, If the reader of this reveiw is interested in finding transcendental answers about the universe through direct experience seek out titles by an author of the name Samael Aun Weor. In his titles, he instruction for the development of one's soul is limitless and will afford the opportunity to explore the dimensions of the universe ignored by many.

Contains several writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson including Walden, Essay's 1: Art, Friendship, Self reliance Essay's 2: The Poet, Gifts, Nature, Politics, Nominalist and realist. It also contains his famous The American Scholar writing, The Trancendentalist, and the book of English Traits: Wealth, First Visit to England, Race, Manners, Charactor. Also includes info on non - conformity and several poems and society/ political protocal.

Emerson may well be the greatest man of letters America has yet produced. His vision of human nature and man's place in the universe contains as much truth today as when it was written. This selection is a solid representation of his thought and writings and can be read again and again for pleasure and for profit. Emerson is one of those rare lights that every thinking person should be exposed to. Read this or buy it for a student that you really care about.

Contains several writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson including Walden, Essay's 1: Art, Friendship, Self reliance Essay's 2: The Poet, Gifts, Nature, Politics, Nominalist and realist. It also contains his famous The American Scholar writing, The Trancendentalist, and the book of English Traits: Wealth, First Visit to England, Race, Manners, Charactor. Also includes info on non - conformity and several poems and society/ political protocal.

Meet N.

She may be your next-door neighbor or someone who lives down the block. Maybe she is a relative or just a person you happen to see when shopping at the local grocery store. N. has struggles on the rugged track of life - divorced mother, rocky finances, a relationship falling apart - but it's the shadows which lurk in the deepest regions of the soul that seem to be consuming her.

Author Diane Johnson takes the reader on a wild ride of raw emotions, quirky feelings and fears as N. tries to find love - and answers - in all the wrong places. She does a masterful job in developing N. and a wealth of supporting characters, with each one playing a believable role in a story that is rich in imagery and a plot that - like life - takes an unpredictable twist in the end.

And the consequences to shine a strong light on those shadows may be very chilling.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. It has a tete-a-tete, intimate style (characteristic of many novels written by women from the '60s to the present). You feel as though you are talking to your best friend, who is telling in an informal way a fascinating story whose events are very bizarre and--and this is what makes this book brilliant--very familiar.

The protagonist speaks in the first person. It is the voice of a middle-class American housewife of the '60s. She is thoughtful and sensitive; she is perceptive; she is mild mannered--even a little self-effacing. She is a devoted and nurturing mother of several kids. She has a warm, gentle, bemused jenny-wren-like quality, not unlike many women we have known and loved.

She is recently divorced from her husband because they were emotionally incompatible.

Here's where the story starts to veer slightly to the left of center. The protagonist, although apparently middle class, is living in a public housing development, because divorce has left her in financial straits with several children to raise. And the character seems to become more anomalous when she starts getting death threats. She gets threatening telephone calls, finds dead animals placed on her car windshield, and threatening amulets in her mailbox. This gentle, mild-mannered, self-effacing, healthy, normal, and conscientious woman is being threatened with death.

For the rest of the novel, our heroine casts about in her thoughts, memories, and fantasies, with greater and greater intensity, to think of who might want to kill her.

And as she ponders this mystery, she puts together a longer and longer list of people who might like to kill her.

At this point, we begin to see the black humor peeping out of the structure of this novel, somewhat akin to ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. Femininity, daintiness, nurturance poised against death and violence.

And this is where the novel finally becomes most radical, most improbable, most bizarre. A wry, subtle humor becomes more and more apparent, as we realize that no matter how truly sweet, how mild mannered, how gentle, how nurturing this prototypical woman is, she still has a very long list of people who would like to kill her.

Diane Johnson makes us want to know who the culprit is, and at the same time she has us laughing and nodding in recognition--that women in general have many virulent enemies--even a woman of valor and sweetness; that the most stable, sane, and healthy people have bizarre currents running underneath their lives and threatening to engulf them.

And that, along with the author's brilliant writing style, is what endeared this book to me.

Note:
This is not a review of the Romance Novel by Diane Johnson. This is a review of the 1977 School Textbook "The Shadow Knows" it is a book of Old Time Radio Scripts of the radio series The Shadow.

ISBN: 0-673-03533-6

The Shadow was on the air from 1937 until 1954 one of the longest running Mystery/ Drama series from radio's best and brightest years.

The Text book has many many episodes that do not survive other than in script form. This book is out of print so if you are a fan of the Shadow, and want to read episodes that are 'truly' lost. Find this book. It's out of print and quite hard to find but worth the effort.

I read this book when it was first published, a long time ago. I loved it then. It was funny and scary and elegantly written. I'm buying it in this incarnation because I want to reread it. I'm so glad it's available.

Diane Johnson writes with great sensitivity and skill about a divorced woman with four children, a lover, and ANGST. Her protagonist's interior monologues describe the paranoia engendered by the dislocations and unpredictability of modern life. About halfway through the novel, I found the themes too repetitious and I stopped caring. My ennui ultimately marred my appreciation for this well-written novel.

It's a good book to teach your kid that share and take turn are so much fun.

I would highly recommend any of the books in this series by Cheri Meiners. This book has been especially helpful as my 5-year-old sometimes encounters children who *don't* share well or want to take turns. These books caught my eye because the writing level is just right for pre-K and kindergarten children. Truthful without being preachy or overly wordy, the series shows children and family members from many different ethnic groups in the colorful illustrations, and each book addresses issues which are developmentally critical to this particular age group: sharing, taking turns, being afraid, listening, respecting others, helping out at home, etc. These books have given us a starting point to discuss problems at school or interacting with others, and have helped my son to have more empathy for his peers....I am hopeful that this quality will serve him well as he continues on to kindergarten and elementary school. It is exciting to hear him use ideas from this series to problem solve.

This book uses multicultural children in familiar settings to deliver the message of sharing and taking turns. It is a very good way to reinforce appropriate play skills with my preschoolers.

The products arrived in a timely manner and they were exactly what I wanted. In fact, some other people liked them so much that they wanted to order this series of books. (They were Christmas presents.)

Excellent book. Covers a variety of situations. Simple art is childlike and perfect. It holds my kids' attention and they want to read it again. Good series.