Powell Books

Sorry -- I'm evaluating some communication books for a large organization -- and I just couldn't get past the title. How could any business person recommend this to a large group of peers...with a straight face...or expect them to take it seriously? Possibly the first rule of good communication, especially when presenting one's written advice and expertise to complete strangers...is to craft a title that actually says something.

I agree with the reviewer below - ignore the San Jose reviewer. The title describes exactly what it delivers.. Helping people show their 'real' selves. I'm a Clinical Psychologist, and I recommend this to clients who struggle with social anxiety/social phobia.. but also to any clients who are struggling with low self esteem, or social insecurity at any level.. I think it's an excellent book, written simply and clearly, with straightforward suggestions to effect change, and challenge yourself to be your true self with others..

In this book are guidelines for communication in deep personal relationship. It is written in a spirit of acceptance and treasuring the other as well as of oneself. As well as other books of this author this book too helped me a lot by personal growth. I found in them a lot of answers or confirmations of my feelings or thoughts, I felt I am not alone,... I often leaned on these ideas when feeling anguish because of rejection or misunderstandings, ...when I was hurt or afraid...it helped me to see forward and I am very thankful for that

First of all, I must warn you not to pay attention to the reviewer from San Jose... they are either brain dead or have not read the book (I'm sure it's the latter), because this book has already changed my life perspective with reading only the first few chapters. I have never said that about a book and I have hundreds in my library.

I have been a fearful person for most of my life... fearful of what others might think of me, so I put on a facade each day and try to be someone who I am not... I'm 34 years old and living a constant facade has left me with very few meaningful relationships and constant bouts of depression.

I bought this book a while back, but I never started reading it until June 8th 2004. I have been in a state of depression now for about 3 months and I have been praying and asking God to change me and to allow me to learn how to love other people instead of avoiding and being afraid of them and what they might think of me.

God has answered my prayers with this book. I have read only a few chapters and it feels like the shell inside me that I have been building for years has been cracked and the real me is beginning to emerge. What a liberating feeling. My depression and my focus on myself is diminishing at an unbelievable rate.

I have always had suspicions of others thoughts about me. I create a fantasy life of imagining what they might be thinking about me, so to avoid rejection, I keep my distance and act cool and aloof in there presence. Meanwhile I go on in my lonliness with my insides unknowingly crying out to communicate to others. In reality, my imagination of what they think about me probably doesn't even come close to what they really think.

I started reading this book only a day ago, and I can already see a monumental difference in the way I am communicating with others around me... fearless and loving are two words that I can describe my feelings toward others now... and in only one day... unbelievable! Seeing as I have always been fearful and bitter toward most other people.

This may be the most "perspective changing" or possibly "life changing" book I have ever read, that remains to be seen, but I am already ordering other books from John Powell.

If you have been lonely, depressed, afraid to speak in front of others or voice your opionion for fear of being rejected... wait no longer......

BUY THIS BOOK NOW! YOUR LIFE IS WAITING FOR YOU!

The ancient Greeks philosophy has been condensed into two words... "KNOW THYSELF". This book will help you find the real you.

Mark................ <

For the western reader, it is important to distill the essence of Vedanta, uncluttered by the numerous gods. (Will the real God please stand up?). Although I was born in India, and got exposed to many of the customs and practices derived from the Hindu philosophy, the essence of the philosophy was lost until I arrived in the United States and took a fresh look at those things. This book consolidates such understanding derived from a western lens.

The books manages make a nice sweep of the sacred hindu literature. It achieves its purpose of being an introductory guide to the hindu scriptures to the lay western reader. The descriptions of the various scriptures are short and manage to capture their essence. The scriptures and issues prominently portrayed and dealt with are according to the personal preference of the author. Owing to the range of scriptures the book covers it suffers in details. Hence, a serious reader will have to refer books which provide more specialized treatment of individual scriptures. The framework of historical classification is squarely within old western construct of the history of ancient India. That said, the presentation is less prejudiced than other purportedly scholarly works of some of her american counterparts.

This is an excellent book, especially for those of us who want to read more Hindu religious books but are unsure which to try, and which ones are about what. It is written by a university religion professor and is written for a non-Hindu audience, but it is very clearly written and provides, in addition to a treatment of all the major texts, a guide to how to read religious texts on your own. As a Hindu raised in the U.S. I have often wanted to read more about my religion but have felt unsure as to how to begin. This book has answered all my questions in this regard. I would highly reccomend picking this one up!

A thoroughly readable and inspiring book, beautifully informed by the author's obvious expertise in (and intuitive grasp of) the Hindu scriptures. I've been looking for this one for years. Thank you, Barbara Powell!

Powell tends to rank higher and higher among 20th-Century British novelists. This would seem to be the definitive life.

For any fan of the incredible series "A Dance to the Music of Time", this is a must-read. The characters portrayed in that series were based on people the author knew, and Barber has gone to great lengths to attached the original person to the character in the book.

Powell's life itself is fascinating, and Barber has done a very good job of leading the reader through it. Powell was a member of one of the most famous generations in British literature, thus, with this book, one gets a view of that group of people, as well as the environment that produced them. Powell's relationships with various members of the group make for some of the most interesting parts of the book. For example, he and Evelyn Waugh were competitors (and Waugh didn't like anyone who competed with him) and their poisonously friendly exchanges are fun to read. Powell's relationship with Malcolm Muggeridge is another problematic friendship in the book.

Barber is a good writer, and he tells the story of Powell's life clearly and well. He describes the critical events in Powell's upbringing (esp. his attendance at Eton) and points out how these events affected the person Powell became. He also explains the basis for each of Powell's novels, which, as a reader of these works, I found very interesting.

Barber does not cover Powell's marriage and his children is any but a cursory manner, and the book would likely have been better had that been more fully examined. One learns more about his relationships with his parents and brother than with his wife and children, and this gap is bothersome.

Anthony Powell was a private man from middle-class means who married a member of the nobility, and his quest for wealth dictated most of his actions. The parallels between him and Waugh are striking, but whereas Waugh was not at all a nice man, Powell shows to be a more humane and less judgmental person.

This is a good book for anyone interested in the period, and an excellent one for those who love Powell's magnum opus.

Michael Barber's immense biography is a benchmark in Anthony Powell studies, but that does not mean it is without fault. Over its length Barber becomes intimately familiar with Powell's idiosyncrasies, but he does not take into account how trying they will seem to the majority of his readers. At every turn, he is obsessed with status and with class; this bias was probably useful in composing his novels, especially the amazing tour de force that was his roman fleuve A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME, but it does not make for a very nice person perhaps.

Oh well, perhaps we ask the gods for too much if we expect a talented author to have a charming personalitu as well. And indeed Powell (pronounced "Pole" as in fishing pole) did have his charms, especially when he wanted something from you. As Barber shows us, he despised Graham Greene's writing, calling him a third-rate Joseph Conrad, who had the temerity to add "Roman Catholic propaganda" to an insipid stew, and yet he found it easier to pretend to like him to his face, even calling him "cher confrere," --until Greene's death, and then he could pour out the venom he had secreted.

Barber also discusses Powell's friendship with the doomed, damned composer Constant Lambert, who also figures in the recent Meredith Daneham biography of Margot Fonteyn (he was her lover and mentor early on). Powell satirized Lambert as one of the characters in his novel, as indeed he did everyone who he met and knew well. Daneham provides a more compassionate portrait of Lambert, Barber a colder one, following the lead of Powell, who seems to have had great satisfaction in outliving almost everyone else and then telling the world what he was not able (due to stringent libel laws) to hint at in fictional terms.

We learn the origin of nearly every character and plot point in the DANCE, and that is the great use of this biography. I can't imagine reading another biography of this dreary man, so I expect my final impression of him will be one who, like Evelyn Waugh, saw only the worst in mankind, and made money doing so.

Billy Hooten:Owlboy is that rare book that can capture the imagination and interest of even the most reluctant pre-teen boy reader. It has it all: action, adventure, strange parents, potty humor and monsters. However, it is also a book which is so well-written and does such a good job of investing you in its characters and plotlines that even the parents or teachers of the aforementioned boys can enjoy reading it with their young charges. AND it might even hold the interest of a girl or two! In all seriousness, this really is what we call a 'threshold' book, one which can be the beginning of a young reader's true joy and lifetime immersion in the world of books.

Have you ever dreamed of being a superhero? Wonder what it would be like if you got the chance to live that dream? Then you are going to love the Owlboy series!

Billy would rather read his comic books - especially Owlboy - than deal with his classmates - especially the bullies. When he learns that Owlboy's adventures may be based on real stories, and when he dons the Owlboy costume, his life changes in ways he never could have dreamed.

Where can you find walking skeletons, a talking firefly named Walter, and dust bunnies that are actually in the shape of bunnies? Nowhere other than Monstros City, a mysterious place beneath Billy's hometown of Bradbury, Massachusetts. In Monstros City, he quickly meets two allies: a tuxedo-wearing creature named Archebold and a savvy, fast-working troll named Halifax. He also encounters, among other things, Slovakian Rat-Toothed Hopping Monkey Demons, a little red female dragon named Ferdinand, a talking firefly named Walter, and dust bunnies, which are really bunny-shaped.

Between fighting evil, protecting the townspeople, riding in the Owlmobile, keeping his secret identity a secret, and devouring cloud cake, Billy manages to finish his homework and hang out with his quirky parents. He also realizes that knowledge is power - in fact, it's a superpower!

Written by Thomas E. Sniegoski and illustrated by Eric Powell, the Owlboy books are packed with adventure, action, and humor. I laughed out loud on multiple occasions. The dialogue is witty, the characters are fun, and the illustrations are eye-catching. I highly recommend this series to both kids and grown-ups.

Owlboy was just OK in my book. It started promising, but ended up being a slow moving Batman-wannabe kids book. The creatures were never scary enough to really suck you in. Some might say that that was the point, but I would say that Owlboy lacks the balance between humor and suspense.

Another thing that made this book just OK was the way-too-over-the-top Batman similarities. The Owlmobile. A Batman-esque tool belt complete with gadgets. A batman-esque lair. yada. Yada. Yada.

In many ways Owlboy insults the younger reader by forsaking some fresh ideas, and instead giving us the same-old, same-old.

Owlboy had potential, but ultimately falls flat as just another forgettable superhero book.

Just saw The Stalker last night. Possibly the best movie I've seen in my life. Tarkovsky is a master of magic/symbolism/the human condition. No wonder he was Bergman's favourite. I really look forward to reading this book.

In "Sculpting in Time" Tarkovsky says: "The literary element in a film is *smelted*; it ceases to be literature once the film has been made." Reading his screenplays, one has the sense of looking at a blueprint or a musical score. The two strongest elements of Tarkovsky's artistry--the extraordinary visuals, and the highly original conception of time--are necessarily missing.

So what is the value of this collection? For one thing, it includes the scripts of several unrealized projects, which allow you to imagine what these films might have looked like, or just to regret that they were never made. Similarly, you'll also find ideas and scenes that didn't make it into the finished films, or were altered from their original conception. The book also, in an indirect way, points out the relentlessly visual and indiosyncratic nature of AT's work. For example, reading the script of "Stalker", perhaps AT's most mesmerizing film, I thought that it could easily have been made into an episode of "Twilight Zone" by a lesser director. In other words, the plot is not the point; what makes the film a masterpiece lies beyond words and storylines. I suppose the same could be said for any great director, but with Tarkovsky I feel this even more strongly. Finally, the book also includes a fair amount of analysis and commentary. One serious omission: "Andrei Rublev" is not included, due to its length.

For these reasons, I recommend this book not to Tarkovsky neophytes, but to those who already know his films. The genius is up there on the screen; this book contains the sketches, jottings and blueprints that helped to put it there.

Unanimously hailed by the intellectual crowd as the greatest poet of modern cinema Tarkovsky's Collected Screenplays provides a blueprint into the mind of this genius. The density of his films typically filled with a cannon of symbolism and metaphors are revealed to us in a new light through his screenplays by lucid and coherent writing providing yet a distinctly new approach in understanding and appreciating his deeply felt themes on life. Without the element of time so inherent in film, the ability to rest on a thought or a remark by this incredible film-maker is what makes reading this book such a pleasure. In addition to this book I would recommend Sculpting in Time.

If you are looking for a technical guide on how to mix skin colours for all the different races of people (well most anyway) then this is the book for you. It gives you all the information you need (which paint and how much)to mix just about every shade of flesh, covering both cool and warm versions, it covers the full tonal range for each mix and shadow effects. In summery it is the most comprehensive flesh colour mixing book I have come across yet and I have got most of the more popular books on this subject. At this price it is a bargin

This is great value for a novice that needs help to mix skin colours. The text is kept to a minimum and the charts clear to understand.

This book is cool. Flip the hard pages (wipeable), and you have all ethnic colors at your fingertips. Of course you will need to adjust, but it is full of basic eye, nose, lips etc. colors and carts. Im glad I bought it.

Through carefully chosen photographs and comments of people who experienced Glen Canyon before it was inundated by Lake Powell, Inskip presents a moving portrait of sinuous sandstone channels, lush microclimates, and the favorite beaches we will never again view.

I have been working for years now on my own book about the controversy surrounding Lake Powell and Glen Canyon, and out of all the things I've read and seen, and all the people I've talked with, nothing has made the case for Glen Canyon more clearly than this book right here. If you are familiar with Lake Powell, then you know might that Gregory Butte is a tall island in the middle of Lake Powell's Last Chance Bay. But, open this amazing book and you'll see that Gregory Butte was merely a single, amazing spire surrounded by miles and miles of twisting slickrock canyons and mesas all racing and swelling toward the butte in their center. Never before was I so aware of just how much is now underwater. It's almost unbelievable. This book is beautiful, but it is also depressing and enraging for the sad truths it reveals. It will show you one of the most gorgeous places you've ever seen, and then tell you that place no longer exists, and that you can never go there. I discovered this book in the stacks at UNM, and sat on the floor for hours until I had studied every page of it. I wouldn't argue with someone that gave it five stars, but I'm giving it four solely because the book's text left a little something to be desired. Some of the quotes are quotes that have been repeated in every book ever written about Glen Canyon, and many are from a certain female folksinger that I just find annoying.
That aside, this is an amazing book. True, it idealizes Glen Canyon as a place of untouched nature--when it also had Boy Scouts that killed snakes for fun, beaches strewn with unburied human waste, and mines that indiscriminately dumped radioactive piles of uranium tailings right by the river--but there WAS still an awful lot to wax poetic about. Get this book, get this book, get this book. If you are at all interested in this subject, get this book. Buy it no matter what the cost.

Glen Canyon before Lake Powell is at once a beautiful and tragic book. It consists of a collection of photographs--mostly color--of the landscape now hidden beneath the eerie turquoise waters of Lake Powell, a vast man-made reservoir on the Colorado River near the Utah-Arizona border. Editor Eleanor Inskip has skillfully paired each photograph with quotations from those who knew Glen Canyon before the water began to rise on that fateful day in January 1963. Explorers, river runners, popular writers, archaeologists, historians, and environmentalists all find a voice in this extraordinary collection, but the work's greatest strength is nevertheless its images.

The book is neither strident nor moralizing in tone. Instead, a sense of quiet grief pervades. The photographs speak for themselves, as do the observations so eloquently captured in the accompanying quotations. In the end, the questions raised are unspoken but obvious: Who are we to decide the fate of an organism so alive and so vital as a river? What have we lost in our relentless quest for the "good life?" And can it in fact be a "good life" with the waters of the Colorado stilled? Inskip respects her readers enough to let them judge for themselves.

Admirers of Eliot Porter's famous The Place No One Knew, now out of print, will find this to be an appropriate companion volume. Very highly recommended.

This book is the second volume of the Library of America's compilation of the novels of Dawn Powell (1896 - 1965), a writer whose works have attained deserved if belated recognition. The first volume included five novels of Dawn Powell written between 1930 and 1942. This, the second, volume includes four of Powell's novels written between 1944 and 1965.

Powell's earlier novels generally are set in small-town Ohio in the early 20th Century. They have as themes what Powell saw as the conformity and frustration, sexual and otherwise, of small-town life. The main characters in these books, typically young people, long to escape to make a new life for themselves in the city. The latter novels are, for the most part, set in New York City where Powell lived most of her adult life. The novels are comic and satirical, sometimes sharply so. They reflect loss of innocence and love and, on occasion, fall into cynicism.

The first volume of the Library of America compilation included two early Ohio novels, "Dance Night' and "Come Back to Sorrento" and three novels reflecting Powell's change in style and theme and set in New York City, "Turn, Magic Wheel', "Angels on Toast", and "A Time to be Born."

The second volume opens with a novel in which Dawn Powell returned to the setting of small-town Ohio. The book, "My Home is Far Away" (1944), is a fictionalized account of Powell's early unhappy childhood. The book offers a poignant picture of the death of Powell's mother and of her father's remarriage to a cruel and jealous stepmother. There are excellent scenes of the family wandering through cramped Ohio towns and small dusty hotels and back neighborhoods. The father himself is portrayed as a travelling salesman who generally behaves carelessly and irresponsibly to his three daughters. Powell initially planned this book as the first of a trilogy. This project did not materialze.

In the next book in the collection, "The Locusts have no King"(1948), Powell returned to sharp satire and to New York City. The book is set after the conclusion of WW II and includes a memorable passage of reflection at the end on the United States atomic testing program at Bikini Atoll. The book contrasts the life of serious, scholarly writing and its difficulty with the life of superficial magazine publishing devoted to economic success and to popular culture. There is also a love story, serious to the participants, in which the main character of the book, a serious if unsuccessful scholar, becomes infatuated with a shallow, sexy blonde. This book reminded me of George Gissing's Victorian novel of the literary life, "New Grub Street" as well as of West's "Day of the Locust", which has some of the same themes and the same dark humor as does Powell's book.

Powell wrote "The Wicked Pavilion" in 1954. Unlike most of Powell's works, the book appeared on the best-seller lists for a very brief time. The book is set in New York City in the late 1940s and celebrates, if that is the word, a bar called "The Cafe Julien", located in Grenwich Village, and its patrons. The book is full of would-be artists without talent, unhappy lovers, and people on the lookout for the main chance. It is sharp, astringent satire very close to disillusion. The book is well and convincingly written.

Powell's final novel, and the last in this collection, "The Golden Spur" (1962) was nominated for the National Book Award. As does its predecessor, this novel centers around a drinking establishment which gives the book its title and its patrons. This book also is set in Grenwich Village in the 1950's and records novelistically the passing of an era. This novel, as are some of Powell's earlier works, is a coming-of-age story which tells the story of a young man who comes to New York City from Ohio to learn the identity of his father. In the process, the young man learns about himself as well. This book is impressive less for its story line than for the beautiful writing style Powell achieved in this, her last novel. The book is deliberately light in tone, and I think it ranks with Powell's best.

Dawn Powell produced a substantial body of excellent work describing the places and lives (primarily her own) with which she was familiar. The qualities of growing up, coming-of age, searching and frustration, and the loss of innocence are all well portrayed. The descriptions of New York City, in particular, are themselves irreplaceable. Those readers who enjoy the pleasure of discovering a previously little-known writer will enjoy the novels of Dawn Powell.

I jut read Wicked Pavilion and found it to be so very, very well written, funny, ironic and poignant. She is really a master and a great revealer of a certain part of American life that is hardly ever heard from - postwar NY artists & socialites. Wow! I love Dawn Powell and intend to read all her works.

An author of immense popularity, Dawn Powell (1896-1965) wrote satiric, witty, sharply written and observant fiction that went out of print following her death. Then in the early 1990s a renewed awareness of this major literary figure saw the reissuing of her work, only to have it fall back into obscurity once again. Now The Library Of America has brought her work back into print again and in a format that will insure that her fiction will continue to be available to both scholarship and the general reading public for decades to come. Volume 1: Novels 1930-1942 includes Dance Night; Come Back to Sorrento; Turn, Magic Wheel; Angels on Toast; and A Time To be Born. Volume 2: Novels 1944-1962 features My Home Is Far Away; The Locusts Have No King; The Wicked Pavilion; and The Golden Spur. Dawn Powell: Volumes 1 & 2 is a very highly recommended addition to both academic and community library literary fiction collections.

If you spend a day in the salt marsh, you'll notice an amazing, ever-changing environment. The salt marsh is home to many types of wildlife including crabs, snails, dolphins, otters, birds, fish and oysters, as well as grasses that don't die even though they are often covered with salt water.

You and your children can learn much about this dynamic habitat in A Day in the Salt Marsh. Set to rhyme, the text tells, hour by hour, what may happen as the tide rises and falls. Readers learn some animal behaviors and interesting tidbits about this ecosystem.

As a science teacher who believes strongly in the read-aloud, I see this book as an interesting class discussion starter. It provides several jumping-off points for further study. The illustrations are unique in that they show both a close-up view as well as a far off view in the same page, but it doesn't feel disjointed like it may sound. They are really quite lovely. The rhyming cadence is a touch clunky, but not unbearable and after a couple reads, an experienced read-alouder will sail right through.

Overall, this is a neat picture book on a less familiar topic. And for those who wish to learn more (or for those science teachers among us), there are additional activities at the end of the book.

Armchair Interviews says: This book will be of great use to broaden, particularly, a land-locked child's horizons.

This book accomplishes everything -- its detailed pictures of plants and animals give kids something to look for on every page, while the descriptive and easy-to-read poetic text teaches about the complex system of a salt marsh. It shows that it was written by Kevin Kurtz, someone who has the perfect background of teaching marine education to students who visited the SC Dept. of Natural Resources' Marine Resources Division and the South Carolina Aquarium, both in Charleston, SC. Anyone who loves the coast will appreciate this accurately written, yet colorfully fun, book about our beautiful salt marsh.

Why are salt marshes important? This question is posed on one of the activity pages. This beautiful books answers just that query. A salt marsh can stretch for miles with a seeming simplicity, yet this book points to the teeming symbiotic salt marsh life nearly hidden out of sight. A Day in the Salt Marsh takes the young reader hour by hour through the day, watching the changes as the tide goes in and out.

Author Kevin Kurtz has compiled a vast array, in rhyme, of fascinating information about life in the salt marsh. Illustrator Consie Powell perfectly matches the text with her triads of illustrations of every foldout page. Each one shows a different aspect of the highlighted animal or plant, such as the dolphin close up, dolphins breaking water in the distance, and the above and below water life nearby! Each section of illustration flows into the other. The book will create in young readers who live inland from coasts and the Gulf a desire to visit them someday. In the meantime, a great unit can be formed with just the information presented here. A fascinating read for children 3 - 7.

This is a great book with many good ideas. I didn't like it at first but as I read more of it I realized that the reason their method works is because it molds to your individual youth ministry. Unlike Purpose Driven Youth ministry which gives Field's layout this book helps you create your own layout that matches your Ministry perfectly. It's a must read more so than Purpose Driven.

Co-written by Chap Clark and Kara Powell of Fuller Theological Seminary, Deep Ministry in a Shallow World: Not-So-Secret Findings about Youth Ministry hits its target of providing youth workers with a resource to help them deepen their ministries. The book takes the discipline of practical theology and cloaks it in terms that will allow youth workers to put it into practice.

The authors contend that most ministries compensate for a lack of depth by implementing at least one of three flawed solutions: by doing more of the same thing, doing what worked for someone else, or by doing whatever they found in a book. These changes typically fall short because of the various variables relating to context, expectation, or surface-level change. Rather than prescribing how to do youth ministry, Clark and Powell offer a strategy for discerning what to do within a specific ministry context.

Drawing on theory taken from practical theology, four steps are offered: 1.) Evaluating where you currently are in ministry 2.) Reflecting on scripture, history, research, and experience to open up some new and creative options 3.) Examining how others address the situation you are faced with (without simply copying their program) and 4.) Deciding how you will take your ministry deeper by using insights gained in steps 1-3. Once the new strategy is implemented, you find yourself back at step one with the need to re-evaluate if you met the goals that were set out at the beginning. This practical theology loop allows for constant refinement and evaluation of a ministry. The book offers multiple examples of how one might go about using their method in areas such as mentors, mission trips, and worship.

From reading the title and the description, I expected a book that hit a little harder on the topic of overall youth ministry philosophy. Those who are looking for such a book will be disappointed. The book primarily focuses on purposeful program evaluation, and it does a good job of that. If you intend to use this book for the purpose for which it was written, you should not be disappointed. Clark and Powell should help countless ministries begin the trek out of the shallow end and towards a Deep Ministry.

Okay, I have to say that after the first couple of chapters I wasn't overly impressed. But once they started to apply the principle to each of the cases in subsequent chapters, it blew me away. I would say this is a MUST READ for those in youth ministry today, if you want to have a Deep Impact in the midst of most ministry examples out there that don't get past the shallow stage.