Powell Books

Our unit in Iraq recently received this hilariously funny book in a "Care" package. How wonderful to be reminded of home! The dumb blonde jokes, children's funny stories, church stories hit close to home and our laughter over these little moments taken for granted in our lives makes our homesickness all the more apparent for our beloved United Staes. Each chapter represents a freedom that is lacking overseas here in this country. Chapter VII was especially enjoyed by the troops here. Thanks, Dr. Powell for this gift of home. Holidays are lonesome here, but this book let us laugh and forget our troubles for a little while.

There is nothing to compare this to on the bookshelves in the bookstores. It's definitely worth the wait ordering this book online. Thank you, doctor, for making me laugh today. I love every section, it's the best book ever. Cannot possibly wait for volume two to become available!

"Quite funny."

"Dr. Powell is blessed to be with fine folks who take the time to let others know about his good deeds and this very fine book."

Books About the South editor
Southern Living Magazine

I am a staff member for a major southern magazine. We get a mountain of mail every day... manuscripts, books for placement in our magazine. Most of what we receive as far as humor goes is not what our staff and colleagues would buy. A reader sent in this book for possible review by our magazine here in Alabama and I just had to order more copies for my friends! This is really an outstanding humorous book. I recommend it highly to everyone! The staff in our office passed this book around for days. It brightened our day, the humor we had to share in this book. Every page lead to a story that we all had to tell and laugh over. All us of definitely "needed a copy of that!" Thanks to the person who sent it in. Guaranteed to be a bestseller.

a book obviously by a great and wise man who knows the world needs more prescriptions for laughter... so do as the doctor ordered and get lots of refills-- for all your friends and family today!!!

This is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. Some of the charm it held for me may be that it describes life in towns in the North part of Ohio, and I grew up in Toledo, Ohio. Powell's narrative of events and places made me feel like I could imagine my own ancestors experiences in this part of the country. I think that the times were the times of my grandparents, and great grandparents.

The telling of the sequence of events showed the differences between daily life of the late 1800s-early 1900s and our own time in a way that changed my consciousness of those times, so near, so different, and so expository of the attitudes and personalities of my own grandparents. There is a lot of hardship, by today's standards, but it seemed to be taken as a matter of course in the times.

The personalities and foibles, concerns and coping mechanisms of the characters, at the same time, were so recognizable in the people and lives I know today. Dawn Powell's story, and Dawn Powell's way of telling her story, have stayed with me for many years after having read the book.

Dawn Powell was no whiner- and as this highly autobiographical novel attests, she had plenty of reason to complain! The story of her turn of the century Ohio childhood, is told through the viewpoint of Marcia, the gifted, plain, middle child of three motherless sisters. Despite a neglectful, absent and grandiose father, ( a child himself,) and a host of inadequate relatives, the girls are largely delighted with their world, which by modern standards is one of poverty and neglect. The book is an object lesson in attitudes and expectations that become reality.
This was an era that discouraged pity, and would have been dumbfounded by modern 'confessional' trends. The attitudes toward children, would be barbaric today. The girls remained loyal to their father, even as they grew to understand his weaknesses, and they found delight in characters that would be considered dangerous and forbidden today. Their own grandmother, refusing to attend to fire safety, managed to burn down four houses, including her own, from which weeks before the girls had just been removed. This is a story of a triumph of childhood with nothing of the tone of the adult looking back in a lament. In some ways, it is similar to "Angela's Ashes," another horrible experience of childhood, that uniquely avoids the subject of depression and rage. This even holds true for the archetypical wicked stepmother, an unrelenting, hateful woman who sadistically confiscated or forbade any object or activity of pleasure.
The most amazing part of Marcia, is this 'game' she played, when she was in the midst of an ordeal. She could reach down inside of herself and become the person who was devoid of reactions to the current stress and be completely strong and capable of enduring the trauma through to the end. It is a testimony, spoken by a child, of the human spirit, and the infinite manifestations and sources of power by which mankind survives. I will definitely read this book again, for its fresh outlook and restrained economy.

I finished reading this in one day -- that's how gripping I found it. It's literary in the way that F. Scott Fitzgerald and Willa Cather are literary -- the diction and syntax are polished, the setting is captured with precise details, but the plot comes through clearly -- and it's hard to put this down once you start to read it. This is my first Dawn Powell novel, but I intend to read all of her works after this amazing introduction.

Dawn Powell (1896 -1965) wrote novels about her youth in small town Ohio at the turn of the century and about New York City, where she spent most of her adult life. In general, Powell wrote the New York City novels, such as "Turn Magic Wheel", and "The Locusts Have no King" later in her career. They tend to be sharp satires. Her earlier Ohio novels, such as "Dance Night" and "Come Back to Sorrento", are marked, I think, by a depiction of small town life which is critical and bittersweet, as well as somewhat satirical, and by a restlessness and sense of frustration, ...

Powell worked for three years on "My Home is Far Away" which was published in 1944. She had difficulty with the book, writing and rewriting the various scenes as she tried to fictionalize her biography and turn it into a novel. The book appears in the midst of her New York novels, and it is a throwback in to her earlier books with its setting in Ohio, its focus on childhood, and its bittersweet tone. Powell intended this novel as the first of a three-part trilogy, but the other two volumes never materialized.

Most of Powell's novels seem to me distinctly autobiographical in tone and "My Home is Far away" is particularly so. It tells the story of a family, focusing on three young sisters, Lena, Marcia, and Florrie, their father Harry, their mother Daisy, and, after Daisy's death, their stepmother Idah. There are basiclly three parts to the story: the period leading to the death of Daisy, and intervening period in which the three girls are raised by their father and assorted other relatives, and a the period after their father remarries and the girls are subjected to a cruel stepmother. When they find they can no longer take the abuse, they leave home and come into their own lives.

The title of the novel, "My Home is Far Away" derives from an Irish song that the girls sing with their mother. The title well captures some of the rootlesness of the family as they move from here to there. It also evokes well the longing for a home life and for a stability which the family, and Dawn Powell, never had.

One of the problems with this book is diffentiating the characters of three young girls. On the whole, this is handled effectively. The Dawn Powell character is the middle sister, Marcia, who is plain but highly precocious. The older girl, Lena, is much more sociable and outgoing.

The family moved a great deal from one small Ohio town to another and to different places within various towns. The most effective scenes in the book for me were the pictures of many dingy, run-down hotels and small town back streets during which the girls spent much of their childhood. The father, Harry, was a travelling salesman who, for most of the book, has difficulty holding a job and spending time with his family. He professes to love his family, but doesn't provide well. He spends his time and money hanging around with his friends and, apparently, with women in various towns.

One key moment in the book occurs rather early in it when the girls' mother dies. This scene is beautifully told. Then we see Harry trying to shunt the girls off to various relatives until he finally attempts to care for them himself. The marriage to Idah brings Harry some stability, but at a terrible cost. Idah is a shrewish, jealous stepmother. The two older girls both leave home to get away from her.

This book has some slow moments, but it is a wonderful coming-of-age novel and gives a good picture of the rural midwest. It is good that Dawn Powell's novels are in print and readily accessible. It is intriguing to think how she might have proceeded in the remaining two projected volumes of her autobiographical trilogy.

I have only recently begun to hear about the little-known American author Dawn Powell, and this is the first of her novels that I have read. It is so hard to believe that Ms. Powell's work has been largely ignored for decades--she writes so beautifully, with wit and pathos in equal measures. Dawn Powell's passion for writing comes through on every page, her characters lively and real, their adventures and personalities engaging, and her descriptions of turn-of-the-century Ohio vivid. She captures the points of view and imaginations of her child protagonists (the three sisters, who are central to the story) with complete accuracy--I found myself smiling in recognition at what it was like to think like a child again. And what's more, this is largely a true story--based on Dawn Powell's own sad childhood, when she lost her mother and gained an abusive stepmother (and seemed to be mainly neglected by her ineffectual father). All in all, a moving and enthralling story--the main character reminded me of Little Women's Jo as well as Jane Eyre, at times. Highly recommended.

I am very pleased with this book. I use it quite often to read about N.C. things and places that I've always been curious about, but wasn't quite sure where to look. This book solves that problem, and having watched several interviews with Professor Powell on public television, I can obviously tell that this work is his magnum opus. It was lovingly compiled with supurb scholarly detail. For a one volume "encyclopedia," it is great. Of course its not going to be comprehensive enough for critics (despite 1237 pages), but that someone took the time to compile something like this is an achievement in and of itself. If you want to learn more about N.C. history, this is the book for you. I might add that I know the other compiler/editor, Mr. Jay Mazzocchi, and he too is a first rate mind like Prof. Powell. I recieved this book as a Christmas gift last year from he and his daughter whom I taught in an A.P. U.S. History class. I feel not only honored to have a signed copy of an outstanding N.C. history text, but have truly used it and learned new and exciting things about my home state that I did not know before.

A great book by a great historian. Not only is this an essential reference guide to all things in North Carolina, but it represents a culmination Professor Powell's career, one of North Carolina's greatest treasures. I purchased it not only because I wanted it but also as a means of honoring Professor Powell. In regard to the comment about the lack of biographies in this book, I assume that comment was made in jest. But for those not familiar with Professor Powell's previous works, he previously published (in the late 1970's and 1980's) a six volume "Dictionary of North Carolina Biographies."

Dr. William Powell, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, has published this huge book which contains everything you may ever wish to know about the history of North Carolina. It is well written and easy to use.

This book has lots of wonderful information about the Tar Heel State. I recommend the book to newcomers to our state as well as to NC natives. This would be a great resource for students in the fourth grade to use.

Encyclopedic guides to states, cities and regions are coming hot off the presses now. I was anxiously awaiting this one, but I've come away slightly disappointed. Most obvious to me at first are the serious omissions in the book: There are absolutely ZERO biographical articles in here. What happened there? There's an article for every imaginable institution of higher learning, including many long extinct, but not an entry for James K. Polk, William Tryon, James Iredell, William Styron, James Duke, Elizabeth Dole, Andy Griffith, Michael Jordan, Jesse Jackson, James Taylor, Tori Amos or Jessie Helms. Not all North Carolina natives, mind you, but all with profound impacts on the state's history. Some general entries (such as "Mealtimes") aren't immediately applicable to North Carolina at all, but are linked by a contrived peculiarity, as could be done for many other states in the country. Otherwise, this book is a nice compilation of popular topics related to North Carolina.

This book is certainly impressive in scope and not a failure by any means, but incomplete enough to justify a much improved second edition. I know that Dr. Powell is a highly respected and beloved historian in North Carolina, and I'm not trying to diminish his accomplishment. I just think he should add a good biographer to his staff.

Dare I suggest that the Encyclopedia of "Another" Carolina is a better book? Not the content, per se, but the format and editing of that book set the standard for these large volumes. Have a look.

Reviewed by Gina Holland for RebeccasReads (5/08)

"My Tour in Hell," is just like the title says. These are the memories of David Powell's tragic events, of a man who served in Vietnam, and they are not only tragic, but are also something that I would not have imagined. This man goes through some of the most traumatic events that I have ever read or heard about. While I was reading this I felt as though I was actually inside his head and going through the same horrific things that he was going through. This war caused this man to have doubts about himself, his manhood, his religion and other things that no man should have doubts about.

Though it was Powell's choice to enlist, despite the fact that he was twenty-five and married, you realize that it was because he wanted to get it over with and get on with his career. His thoughts were that he was going to go in early and fight for his country and maybe go home with honor and dignity. Not only did he leave with tragic memories but also memories that would almost ruin his life. The accounts of murders and tortures that was seen in this novel, is not only horrendous but mind-wrenching as well. Mr. David Powell, is not only a strong man, but was a strong young man and I, as a citizen of the United States, am proud of him for what he did, what he accomplished and am very grateful that he came out of the whole situation alive. How awful it must be, to watch children die, to watch children fight, to watch children be used a pawns in the game of war.

David lets us in on his own personal trauma and I for one am grateful that he chose to share his experience with us. I was not aware of the close-up tragedies that take place in wars. I've never been there, but David brought us up-close and front-center, into a very, very horrific situation, and I commend him for being strong and making his way out alive. I hope that David's life is better for him now.

"My Tour in Hell" is something that all of America must read. It shows just how much our young soldiers do for us and for their country. It makes us wonder, if those young people deserve to go through hell like David did. Luckily, David came out okay, but lost a lot of things in his life. This novel can be read by young adults and adults. The pictures would not be suitable for young children. I for one, thank you David for writing this story and sharing with us. You have made your point of showing the world, just how truly horrible war and fighting can be. Good luck in your future.

My Tour in Hell: A Marine's Battle with Combat Trauma
David W. Powell
Modern History Press (2006)
ISBN: 9781932690221

Although a history buff, the Vietnam War is one area I have avoided studying simply because I felt it could only be depressing. I was surprised and re-educated about that simple belief by David Powell's autobiography of his tour in Vietnam and how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affected his life after he returned home. "My Tour in Hell: A Marine's Battle with Combat Trauma" retells one marine's experiences on a personal and honest level that makes the reader understand the decisions made by American soldiers, often against their better wishes, and how their time serving their country was both unappreciated and misunderstood.

Most of "My Tour in Hell" is Powell detailing his tour of duty in Vietnam. I was instantly surprised that he only spent thirteen months in Vietnam--the typical length for a marine's tour of duty. I had expected the average Vietnam Veteran had spent several years as a soldier. Nevertheless, the time Powell spent and the experiences he had were enough to make anyone have PTSD. Powell faithfully and truthfully exposes his personality flaws and strengths as he recounts his experiences. The book opens with his first day in the field and the fear he felt. He then discusses various patrols and operations in which he was involved. His memory of events is excellent, and I was fascinated by his experiences several times of seeing events in slow-motion when something traumatic happened such as his watching an atrocity or realizing he was being shot. I had not known that slow-motion, so often depicted in films, was an actual human experience. I realize better now how the constant stress of potentially being attacked can cause disorientation, fear and even the sense of time nearly stopping.

Powell's experiences are all the stronger because he questioned his Christian faith during his tour. He asks himself how he can kill people, especially those not directly attacking him, and he comes to reconcile himself to shooting the enemy because they would kill him or his comrades if given the chance. At the same time, he is disgusted by his fellow soldiers' behavior, such as sharing a Viet Cong nurse whom they take turns raping before killing her. Powell discusses how difficult he found it to befriend his comrades because he feared being distracted by worrying about them, thereby putting himself at greater risk. When he breaks his own rule, he hurts all the more when his friend is killed. Powell discusses all these events without being overly emotional in his descriptions, but the pain he felt comes through perhaps stronger because of the scarcity of words.

PTSD became part of Powell's life almost from his first day in Vietnam. When he was on leave, he could not function normally in an airport from fear of the people around him. When he returns home, he finds himself unable to confront people from fear and distrust, resulting in failed marriages and frequent career changes.

The purpose of Powell's book is not only to detail his war experiences but also to explain how he was diagnosed with PTSD and how the use of Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) helped him deal with his emotions and reactions to other people. While he gives us details about his treatment, I felt the book ended a bit too quickly, and I would have liked to hear his overall conclusions about his experiences and why he decided to write his story, but I don't think any reader will doubt the importance of Powell's story and how it adds to our knowledge of what it is to suffer from PTSD.

"My Tour in Hell" also provides several useful appendices, beginning with a study guide of questions for each chapter of the book to help people reflect on Powell's experiences. In addition, the appendices include Frequently Asked Questions about PTSD (including definitions and statistics relevant not only to veterans but civilians who have undergone traumas such as natural disasters or being raped) and a glossary of Vietnam War terminology.

"My Tour in Hell" is an extremely readable and informative memoir about a Vietnam soldier's experience. I appreciate that Powell was honest and straightforward without sensationalizing the Vietnam War. Squeamish readers will not find it gory or difficult to read, and they will come away with greater understanding and appreciation of the military men and women who serve this country. When Powell returned from his tour of duty, he told his wife, "I want to have someone, anyone, hug me and say `welcome: all is forgiven.'" With "My Tour in Hell" Powell has found that forgiveness and been able to tell a story the American public has waited too long to understand.

- Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., author of The Marquette Trilogy

David Powell's book "My Tour In Hell" broke my heart. This well written account of a, may I say, sensitive young man having to find a way to deal with being thrown into a hell-ish situation. The amazing thing is that it did not break him. May this book, and David's story, be a testament for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as any other traumatic stituation, that it is worth it to travel the path towards healing.

Quynn Elizabeth, author of "Accepting the Ashes- A Daughter's Look at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder"

Echoing Mr. Vaknin's five stars, I would also assert that the images of war and PTSD, while poignant and moving, are secondary in this volume to the "way out." Far more than a mere glimpse of hope, Powell's overriding point seems to be that Traumatic Incident Reduction, in fact, does "take the war out of the soldier." That's life-saving information for those who continue to suffer the past (i.e. most of us!), military and civilian "warriors" alike.

Author David W. Powell was a U.S. Marine enlisted man who saw his share of combat in Vietnam around the same time period that I did in late 1966 - 67. He writes a moving chronicle of his experiences there and his subsequent return back to civilian life in his book "My Tour In Hell - A Marine's Battle with Combat Trauma."

The story of his life is at times, hard hitting, sad, remorseful, angry and lonely. But always hidden in the fabric of his tale, you will find hope. He may have been traumatized by battles and war and much worse - but he continues to move forward looking for his life's purpose. He doesn't give up when others may have thrown in the towel. His story is about a man who had his compassion and faith almost destroyed by events beyond his control. His reactions lead to self-destructive behaviors as he tried to self-medicate his feelings, fears and depression with booze and activity.

There is an inner spiritual hunger that Powell had, and still has, that keeps him pushing onward with his life in spite of how he was feeling, or being treated by the world around him. You can feel his heart reaching out to be "hugged" and appreciated. He seems to find rejection, lack of compassion in others and very little understanding of what he went through and was feeling. That is why his struggles for loving acceptance and for inner peace strike the reader so powerfully.

I could feel his pain and know how he felt with the homecoming reception he got when he returned. I think almost every Vietnam veteran can identify with the massive social rejection we received. That was the worse part for us young men coming home. I think we could have lived without parades but most of us did not even get loving hugs from our own families. No one wanted to listen to our stories about what happened to us. And no one ever asked how we really felt emotionally. I think Powell's book speaks not only for his own personal life experiences, but they also speak out for a generation of warriors like him. His voice needs to be heard and responded to before we lose another generation of veterans coming home from wars in the Middle East.

This book should be required reading by all those who were around in the 1960's and 1970's that they may fully understand the sacrifices that these American heroes gave so bravely of themselves. Those peace marching heroes of the "hippie generation" will never be able to walk in their shadow. These men were America's best! So on behalf of all veterans, I say to the author and the others who served, "Welcome Home!"

This book is highly recommended for those who are personally dealing with any combat trauma (PTSD) and for their families and friends so they can achieve some level of real understanding and compassion for what it means. This book is well written. The author writes in a style that makes it both easy to read and understand. He tells his story in a brutally honest manner - even when it does not shine a good light on his own actions or thoughts. His book will change lives and will bring some veterans in for help.

This book is highly recommended and is given The Military Writer's Society of America's Highest Book Rating of FIVE STARS!

This book also receives my personal endorsement. Buy it. Read it. Then share it with those who need assistance in finding their way home!

I work on a small passenger ship, and we always keep a copy of this book on the bridge for mammal sightings. The photos are great, as are the overview charts showing comparative sizes. The descriptions of behavior give people some insight into the lives of these wonderful creatures.

This book is really great as it's full of very informative and interesting facts as well lots of colour photos and every species mentioned is illustrated. Excellent.

This is the only book we use on the Monterey Peninsula to go out whale watching with. It identifies quickly and covers all the marine mammals. Perfect field guide.

This books is very informational. I have gotten a lot of information from it and the pictures are fabulous! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Marine Mammals. My daughter wants to be a Marine Biologist/Marine Mammal Trainer and this book gave her all the right information at the right time.

Audubon has certainly delivered their best in this marine life field guide! When I bought this, I expected it to be the usual good Audubon repeat of their previous field guides. I was quite impressed by the number of species inserted, and the special illustrations used along with it. There are a surprising number of families and subspecies listed also.
The whales and dolphins section is the best part of the guide, listing rare and endangered species. I don't suspect anyone has heard of the "Tucuxi" dolphin, have they? Rather than just listing commonly seen or normal species, Audubon has done extensive research on others, and has inserted dozens or more in each family section, making identification completely unmistakable. The seals and sea lions covered are no different in variety and number of listings. However, many of the seals listed are subspecies of 6 previous listings.
The binding is usual quality by Audubon publishers, making an excellent reading book, whether on a boat trip, in a car, or simply in an easy chair at home. Forget other Marine Mammal Guides, and make an extensive search for this!

I bought this book for the library where I am a reference libarian as soon as I saw it, and it is worth every cent of the purchase price.

Now I have the title on my wish list, and I have hinted strongly to certain offspring that this book would certainly make a wonderful Mother's Day present!

I purchased this book for my Sister-in-law, who is a film historian. She absolutely loved it. The artwork is fantastic....almost worth buying two copies so that you can remove and frame some pages.

This is a beautifully illustrated book if you are at all interested in old movie posters and the people who created some of them.

I was very interested in this book since my cousin, Jane Powell was one of he authors. I have to say I was very impressed and actually surprised about beautiful the book turned out. Anyone with an interest in movies will find the art of the posters interesting.

This book is a must-have for movie buffs, but I was bowled over by the beauty of the art. From the spectacular Batiste Madelena cover of Rudolph Valentino through dozens of creative renditions of original old-time movie posters, to the back cover depictions of Gloria Swanson, Norma Shearer, Walter Huston and Boris Karloff, the artistry of these unsung craftsmen is dazzling. "Now Playing" is now prominently displayed on the coffee table in our living room.

I feel every person on earth should read this book ! I never realize how we don't know how wonderful love is until I read the series of this Book "Say Yes to Love" ! For those perfectly in love, please read to further understand how your love can help the humanity. For those struggling please read, for those searching please read, for those gave up please read ~ this is among the top 5 books I read in my life ~ ! Thank you so much Yael & Doug !

"How can I express through the mediocre means of verbiage what my heart has garnered from the Messages from God? Step by loving step, the lessons provided have gently guided me to a remembrance of how to create from pure love; allowing God to live and love through me beyond the limitations of ego. These profound communications, so passionately, consistently, and selflessly provided through the Circle of Light, have kept my heart on course as it has opened into unimaginable vistas of beauty and ecstasy. Without reservation, I claim this as the most critically important information flooding the consciousness of mankind today!" Vickie Moyle aka Angelina Heart, author of The Teaching of Little Crow, Virgin, UT, USA

This book is worth the time and meditation on the principles of love and in comprehending the soulmate connection. I enjoyed reading this book.

I have been given the greatest gift that I have connected physically with my Twin Flame in this life. So I would like to share about this book from the point of view of an awakened Twin Flame.

I was a great "seeker" who was looking for the answers about the Truth and the Essence of the Human being. That's why I also entered the study of Philosophy and obtained my PhD, and also studied a lot of other Religious and Spiritual heritage. I was still left "hungry" until I met my Twin Flame. "Seeking" was not necessary anymore. We have also discarded all accessible knowledge:

* because knowledge has become experience,
* because we couldn't find any references to what is happening to us and
* because we've also felt that we don't need any other knowledge anymore then the knowledge from the Source - which is revealing itself to us always at the right time (all information is also accessible in the Cosmos - it is matter of intention and capacity of being open to receive it).

This book, Say YES to Love, God Unveils SoulMate Love and Sacred Sexuality was given to us as a gift. As I read through it I can say that it is the most precious gift I can imagine. This is the first book that confirmed our experiences, and I can say also that it is the most powerful and mystical book I have ever read. You will get so much from it by reading through because the Truth you will read has the most powerful vibration and the most pure Wisdom. For me it represents the Holy Bible of the 21st. century. The old Holy Bible was written 2000 years ago. The consciousness has changed during this time a lot and we are blessed now that we have received God's words in so direct, precise and revolutionary a way. It is a MUST for all the "seekers of Wisdom" and followers of "the Path of the Heart." It is a MUST for all Twin Flames and all that are in a process of searching for/connecting with their Twin Flame. I recommend it for reading most passionately!
Twin Flame from Slovenia

This is a beautiful book which explains what the whole soul mate/twin flame phenomenon is about. The authors say that our twin flame or soul mate is the other half of ourselves. [Both terms are used interchangeably here. There is a difference. There are several possible soul mates, but only one twin flame, as I understand it] The two of us together make up one cell of God's heart. I love this analogy, as I have always seen our souls as cells of God, too.

What is new in this book Yael Powell channels, is that when twin flames come together in a sexual way, there is an atomic energy in the cells that gets released. This atomic energy is ecstatic Love, and as we know, that is a powerful force in this Universe. Love is the glue that holds the Universe together and it has the power to totally transform our world.

Relationship has always been one of the best methods for personal growth, although it has generally been more or less challenging for the majority of souls. It forces a mirror to our inner selves, and that exposure of our shadows, flaws, and insecurities has not always been something we wished to see. As we evolve and clear ourselves we become more capable of being with the other part of ourselves, instead of being freaked out at the intimacy of being really known.

As soul mates and twin flames find each other, there will be a massive shift towards love and compassion in our world. This book contributes to this new way of being. Instead of it being highly unusual to have twin flame union, as it has generally been in the past, it will become the norm very soon.

And to my twin flame---I know you are out there. Find each other soon?!?

I have been reading the books in the Library of America series over the past four years, and Dawn Powell's Dance Night was one of my favorites. I approached Come Back to Sorrento with very positive expectations, even though I had read that a ) Dance Night was very different from most of Powell's other novels, and b) Powell herself felt Dance Night was her finest work.

I love novels about life in small, undistinguished Midwestern towns, and I certainly found this novel enjoyable and compelling if not gripping throughout. Its characters are simply drawn, to the point of almost being strange, one-dimensional caricatures. Some of the twists of the plot are unlikely in the extreme.

In this sad little town, a self-isolated, fanciful married woman and a shabby, comically odd, but (self-proclaimed) worldly and cultured high school music director meet. A profound intellectual friendship develops between them. Both supposedly had near-brushes with success in the world of culture and music, but fate (or their own personalities and shortcomings) deprived them of it, leaving them to their current boring, mundane, almost pointless lives.

The relationship between the two odd people becomes their oasis, as they feel superior to all the other townspeople, and think constantly of the past (other places and times, anything but here and now) and what could have been and also intimate vaguely about a renewed (but unlikely) future.

The woman's stolid German husband, uncommunicative to the extreme, but a "good provider", tolerates this friendship. Frequent meetings between Professor Decker and Connie Benjamin (the wife), as well as Louisa (an intellectually inclined young female teacher) occur at Connie's house. Decker and Connie become obsessed with, and highly dependent upon, each other and the intellectual fantasy world they create.

This is not a romance in the normal sense, as there is little physical involvement between the two, or desire for it (except perhaps at a highly suppressed inner level). Their relationship is touching and in a way very understandable given their artistic temperaments and the boring world that surrounds them....

Then some things occur that throw their lives and their precious relationship into jeopardy. This is really a good book, almost like a fable or a fairy tale -- so simple that it is not realistic, but the points that Powell wants to make are thus all the clearer. I rarely give 5 stars, so my 4 stars has to be taken in that context.

Only Dawn Powell could create such an intimate, sorrowful portrayal of two thwarted artists in a smug little town that doesn't recognize their intelligence. Very sad, yet gently funny as well. Dawn Powell apparently didn't think this was one of her more successful books. It always amazes me how poorly some artists judge their work for this is one of her best novels. Read it and weep.

Dawn Powell's "Come Back to Sorrento", was published in 1932 under the title "The Tenth Moon" to little notice from critics or from the public. But this poignant, mostly understated novel set in a drab midwestern town called Dell River is a gem.

The two main characters in the book are Connie Benjamin and Blaine Decker. When we meet Connie as a housewife in her mid-thirties, she is leading a life she finds sterile and barren with her husband Gus, a cobbler, and her two adolescent daughters. As a young woman, Connie had visions of a career as an opera singer, even though this ambition seemed to be based on little more than a commendation of her voice by a famous teacher. Connie also has a past in which she ran off with a young man named Tony who did acrobatics with a circus. Tony aboandoned her, and Connie lives with dreams of a singing career that perhaps could have been and with faded memories of Tony.

Blaine Decker comes to Dell River as the high school music teacher. He rents a small apartment above Gus Decker's shoe repair shop. Decker is a pianist by training (with small hands) who likewise has never had the artistic success of which he dreams. He spent his early years in Europe during which time he was a friend of a writer, Starr Donnell, who had written, as far as Decker knows, one novel. Powell hints throughout the novel at Decker's repressed homosexuality.

The novel explores the relationship that develops between Connie and Blaine. With their shared love of music and their broken, and probably illusory dreams, they feel stifled by the small town of Dell River. They share confidences with each other and at the same time quarrel severely with each other over their respective failures to pursue their dreams. The relationship is at bottom frustrating and unconsummated. It never becomes sexual.

There are wonderful pictures in this book of music and its capacity to bring meaning to life. The seriousness with which Powell discusses the pursuit of classical music in this work contrasts markedly with her picture of frivolous people and activities in her subsequent satirical New York novels. Powell also shows how music can be a means by which people evade their own selves and their own reality. There are also good depictions in the book of life in a small town, particularly those people who teach in High Schools, and of many secondary characters.

As do Powell's latter works, this book contrasts life in a small town with life in the cosmopolitian city, here represented by Paris more than by New York. But there is a certain inward focus to this book which is not shared by her latter satirical pictures of New York. The characters here are limited by Dell River and its environs, but their problems and discontents lie within themselves, in their lack of self-knowledge, and in their failed dreams. The book lacks the sharp cynicism of the latter novels but features instead reflectiveness and sadness.

Powell's writing style in this novel is rather flatter than in her subsequent works but it fits the atmosphere of Dell River that she conveys. There are several moments in the novel or lyricism and intensity.

This probably is not a novel that will ever enjoy wide readership. But it is rare and a treasure.

This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

What a haiku evokes beyond the language, a few words summon a large panorama, Dawn Powell did in this novella. With artful simplicity, the author relates a somewhat comic and somewhat cosmic fable of two lost souls that blend unrealized dreams into reality. Powell writes with the sensitivity of an empath. In the bearly visible twitch, the eye that cannot contact, the unconscious hesitations belie the character's pretense so that the secret is just between Powell and her reader. In the far less precise language of psychiatry, this is termed the "as if" self. This deceptively simple story succeeds as myth for within the doubling up of solitary dreams, their souls sweep the cosmos.

Shards of memories, are picked from the realities that defeated them and together they build a palace of dignity that not only holds at bay, their individual sufferings, but becomes wide enough to bring a muted sort of redemption to others, afflicted with similar destinies.
Through music and desire, (platonic, alone) a middle aged housewife, and a odd and tattered music teacher shake off fate and taste, if briefly, what they had been denied. Woven in the tale, is the past of childhood trauma and rejection, abandonment and 'making do,' that the odd duo become nothing less than extraordinary people who choose happiness and get it. In this it is a morality tale, par excellance.
Anyone who has ever reached out of despair with a rebound of delight, who has taken an old piece of cloth and thrown it in some transforming wrap over their head, or around their waist, as Connie does, remembers that triumph, so rare, but perfect brilliant touch. Suddenly, an old dress, has color and shape, bohemians, they are beyond the ordinary in fashion and finance.

There are no authorial statements here, Powell has her own transformative power, whereby sentences do indeed show, voluminously what she composed sparingly. Her genious for showing human instincts is beyond any of her peers. Perhaps the most stunning is her instinct for understanding that ancient animal survival rule whereby we must hide our wounds and primal sufferings or risk in discovery- annihilation. There is none of the confessional self-absorption that was the legacy of the psychoanalytic fever, that was in its American childhood at the time she wrote the novel.


Anyone who has suffered and not hurt others, is rare indeed. The sublime experience between the two does not rely on inflicting pain upon others, a far more common means of elevating conditions of esteem.
The message, if I may, is in the true artistic gift that they benefitted from, but if spoken, would have broken the spell. They saw the Touilleries in an unweeded garden, the Volga in a brown shallow river, and in the unattractive, uncultured, midwestern town, they found a quaint village to delight in.

The physical conditions of life bore down upon their paradise and yet Connie and Blaine, prevailed, looking we are told through colored pains of glass, bringing the grey, unsympathetic world into prismmatic shimmering color.

It is a love poem to the artistic process that is a gift for life as much as technique with a brush or an instrument or a sentence. This contrasts effectively with her more cynical tales of the corrupted artist and the exploited audience.

A glorious book.

dada: zurich, berlin, hanover, cologne, new yorkk, paris

This book is wonderfully informative, plus it has so many full-color reproductions--the type of terrific catalog that inspires one to stroke its pages with a sense of seduction (works in my mind!).

Coupled with Hans Richter's: "Dada, Art and Antiart" and movement's philosophy and works are clearly understood. Graphics are truly great and commentary enlighten. It might be noted this book is German published as the Max Ernst book "Life and Work". Both with numerous colored plates of the highest quality. The Dada book though excels in text.

I have always had a weakness for Dada, and within this quixotic movement a special liking for Schwitters. So I visited the Dada-exposition in the Paris Centre Pompidou last year, and there bought both the Dickerman catalogue of the American exposition, and the (French language) catalogue of the Centre Pompidou itself, which differ in many ways. The exposition was wonderful by the way, and one of the best I' ve seen in many years. Thinking that a morning would be enough to see what I wanted to see, I changed my mind, decided to take dinner in the Pompidou, and stayed for the rest of the day. The immense amount of material was stunning. And the same thing really goes for both impressive catalogues. The American (Dickerman) version (520 pages) follows Dada by way of the cities where Dada developed, and does so in a more or less chronological fashion. Essays are excellent, photomaterial looks great. It is the sort of catalogue you would expect from an exposition like this. The European catalogue, more than thousand pages, printed on very thin paper, treats subjects, artists, and everything else connected with Dada according to alfabet. It seems to me that the catalogue has just about everything that could be seen at the exposition, with exception of the films of course. Although I felt a bit silly after buying both catalogues (spending some 100 euros), I was in the end very glad that I did. Everybody who buys catalogues now and then, know how disappointing these sometimes are. Well, these aren't. They are both superb, knowledgeable. And the people who made them have done a terrific job. In the end you wind up thinking: Hey, these guys (and girls) must have loved Dada as much as I do.

IF YOU LIKE ART THIS IS THE PERFECT MEAL.
BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER AND SNACKS
I WISH I HAD ONE OF THESE BOOKS IN EVERY ONE OF MY ROOMS
OR ANYWHERE I VISIT WHERE THERE MIGHT BE FREE TIME TO LEAF THRU IT!

A pretty good little self-help book that leads us to reflect on what might be hindering us in becoming truly happy. I like the author's recognition, especially in the last chapter, of the importance of the spiritual life, especially prayer. He also has a very interesting discussion of Alcoholics Anonymous and how faith in God is important in overcoming our own psychological limitations and addictions.

Appropriate for anyone high school age or over. Full of revelations about self-image, getting free from "what other people think", learning to love and appreciate yourself, learning to trust yourself, and so much more great stuff we all need to know. You read it and say, "That's so true! How could I have been missing that all these years?!?" Get yourself in good working order and then you might be able to tackle the rest of the world...or live in it anyway, without getting beat up yourself! Easy read, in a day or over several weeks. Lots of food for thought. A life-changing book! Would be great on audio, like to listen to while in the car!

This book is an excellent one for anyone who wants to take control of their life and be truly happy. The author makes the reader think about what is really important in life and directs one to complete many activities which help you to achieve true happiness. A definite must read!!

This book gives you a great insight in what it is important in life and inspires you to take charge of your own life and happiness. It helped me during one of the most difficult periods of my life. I recommend it highly.

I am 19, and this book has opened my eyes so that I know what I want and need to make my life happy. I need to be a whole person on my own. This book is astounding. It is dissected into 10 easily understood categories and each one leaves a lasting impression. After reading this book there is no way you can forget the messages that have become so deeply ingrained in your soul.