Shaw Books

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a true story of love and loss. It is hard to believe a man wrote this story. Lucy Crown makes a terrible mistake that alters her entire life. Somehow she finds the strenght to deal with her pain. You can feel Lucy Crown. This is one of the few books I have read many times. Excellent summer reading

More than anything else, this book was Irwin Shaw's attempt at revealing the fragility of the goodness of good people, and for exploring the futility of making the distinction. One of the best books I have read. Definitely recommended.

In 1964, the Israeli intellignece group, the Mossad, kidnaps Jewish businessman, Arthur Goldman from his New York City apartment and accuses him of heinous war crimes. During the trial that follows, this man will offer a defense that will shock you, provoke you, and force you, the reader, to become the judge of him, his actions, and yourself. Originally staged in NYC in the '60's, the play was revised in New York City at the Cocteau Theater in 1998. This is a testament to the timeless nature of the drama. Historical references to the Pope's edict, concentration camps, and ethnic cleansing are repeated in recent history. Interesting metaphors are employed in the use of certain music references and references to certain paintings. The reference to Poussin's "Arcadia" bring to mind the scholarly interpretation of the painting "Here too (in paradise), is death." Arcadia is paradise neglected and fallen into ruins. The full title is "Et in Arcadia," which is actually meant as a riddle. Since there is no verb, the reader is meant to infer the meaning. So too is the main character, Arthur Goldman, a riddle, leaving the reader to guess at his true nature. Ultimately the reader is shocked by a surprise twist ending in the script, which reveals Arthur Goldman to be someone wholly different from whom he himself was pretending to be. Often performed with the audience being the jury of the trial, the audience is then forced to make a life or death decision about this man, unwittingly being lead to make the wrong conclusions. The play is a well crafted, dark drama. The gruesome talk of Nazi atrocities, with our main character admitting to shooting a person in the nape of the neck, allowed me to truly hate our main character, and yet to be also fully surprised by the climatic twist. If you're into the dark and gritty, buy this play.

Being a fan of Robert Shaw from his acting career, I decided to pick up The Man in the Glass Booth. Robert Shaw's story takes place twenty years after the holocaust. In this story the reader finds a successful Jewish real-estate man, Arthur Goldman, who is chauffered around by a rabbi named Charlie Cohen. Cohen serves as a type of assistant to Goldman and constantly listens to his sometimes incoherent speeches and thoughts as he babbles on through the first part of the book. A majority of this book is dialogue. (I read that there is a play based on this book. This I must see)
During the dramatic second part of the book, Arthur Goldman is discovered wearing an S.S. uniform by an unsuspecting Charlie Cohen and is soon taken to Israel with war crime charges. This leads the reader, who becomes a juror, to wonder just who Arthur Goldman really is.
During the trial, Arthur Goldman gives an intense testimony of days in the concentration camp that is guaranteed to keep the reader's attention. It is at this trial that Goldman is put in a glass booth to testify, and his testimony is both shocking and unforgettable.
This book is highly intense and worth reading. Mr. Shaw is multi-talented as an actor and author, and this book deserves much merit.

This book offers a wealth on insight into the difficulties faced by adults with ADHD. The author, who has ADHD herself, gives a series of bite-sized suggestions, all of which add up to an excellent program for self-help. As a person who has a child with ADHD and works with adults with ADHD, I found this book to be informative, well-written and well worth reading. The suggestions in the book are simple, yet innovative and they come from the author's own personal experience and knowledge of this disorder. I would highly recommend this book to adults with ADHD, spouses of those with ADHD and anyone else who would like to help an adult with ADHD to gain a greater sense of control and accomplishment over his or her life.

Diagnosed with ADD or another LD problem? Buy this book.

Plenty has been written on LD in recent years, especially with the explosion of media coverage on ADD. Ignored by the publishers are practical, get-down-to-business how-to-live-with-LD books. Elaine McEwan has put together a collection of strategies to live with LD, ways of making life work.

Anyone stumbling through broken relationships, lost employment, and a confused personal life due to ADD or LD will find McEwan's step-by-step methods right on the mark.

As you read it, you might, as I did, want to think, "Of course, I know that." You might. I don't think she is putting forth any extraordinary ideas. She is, however, emphasizing the discipline of actually applying them.

She covers time management, "getting along with those you love," "getting a job and keeping it," "The ABCs of Living Fully: The Spiritual Connection" plus several encouraging chapters on realizing ADD is not as tragic as it might feel. She provides ways of living life with ADD, providing hope for anyone with a litter of failures behind them.

This book... another of Harold Shaw Publishers line of educational books, is easy to read, written by an expert in education who knows ADD from her own life. Her introduction, "I really do understand" is heartwarming. Smile when you nod, "Hehehe... yep... that's how it is," as she reflects on her struggles to do only one thing at a time or leave a party gracefully, etc.

I fully recommend this book.

Anthony Trendl

I am a huge Marilyn Monroe fan.I own tons of her books and I think this one has the most beautiful photos in it.Sam Shaw has taken many lovely pictures of Marilyn, and this book shows a lot of them.This book also has a wonderful text.I would defenitly recomend this book to every Marilyn fan.

Unusual book, lot's of photographs, some candieds, some from Marilyn's movie sets. Pictures are all black and white. It has many images you will not see anywhere else. Also a beautiful text by Norman Rosten, Marilyn's poet friend. Get this book! Lot's of pictures during her Arthur Miller phase. '

This is a unique book about Marilyn Monroe from her most private and pensive moments to her on-screen persona. I found that the candid photos of Monroe on the set of the "Seven Year Itch" were most memorable. Honestly speaking, and my partiality towards this legendary screen icon will bear witness, it is very difficult for me to not enjoy viewing Miss Monroe and her beauty found in virtually every page of this book. Sam Shaw was in my opinion, in the same category/class as Milton H. Greene, Richard Avedon, and many more gifted photographers who were able to capture Monroe's uncanny - off-screen candor and beauty. This is one book that anyone who is interested in seeing Monroe during her period "Seven-Year-Itch" through the latter stages of her "short-lived" career should have. I truly enjoy reading and seeing this beautifully illustrated book.

This is a unique book about Marilyn Monroe from her most private and pensive moments to her on-screen persona. I found that the candid photos of Monroe on the set of the "Seven Year Itch" were most memorable. Honestly speaking, and my partiality towards this legendary screen icon will bear witness, it is very difficult for me to not enjoy viewing Miss Monroe and her beauty found in virtually every page of this book. Sam Shaw was in my opinion, in the same category/class as Milton H. Greene, Richard Avedon, and many more gifted photographers who were able to capture Monroe's uncanny - off-screen candor and beauty. This is one book that anyone who is interested in seeing Monroe during her period "Seven-Year-Itch" through the latter stages of her "short-lived" career should have. I truly enjoy reading and seeing this beautifully illustrated book.

Shaw's well-crafted work provides a rich background of American Catholic laity in action over time, as well as a blueprint to follow in discerning the call of today's Catholic laity. This is a must-read for anyone involved in the pastoral workings of any Amerian parish. Parish libraries should included this in their inventory.

Russell Shaw gives us the insight that we can only get from a maverick--but without the maverick's chip-on-the-shoulder attitude. I'll never look at the the hierarchy of the Church the same way again.

Shaw first introduces a key distinction: Ministries are essentially departments within the hierarchy, controlled by the parish or diocese. Apostolates are lay associations--out in the world--that are formed (guided) by the clergy.

Vatican II, he points out, called for apostolates, but for various reasons what we got was the rapid growth of lay ministries; basically, the Church just hired laity and created a new bureacracy, parallel to the clergy. And all at the expense of the Vatican II goal of having well-formed lay people bringing the faith out into their world.

This short book does a terrific job of analyzing what's missing in the present state of the Church, without being at all negative on the great work done by many current ministries. In passing it outlines key movements among Church intellectuals that led to the present state of affairs. Mr. Shaw wraps things up with insightful comments on the all-important spiritual dimension of apostolate service.

An important--perhaps even an essential--first step in gaining a more mature understanding of how to serve the Church in the New Evangelization.

I couldn't get through more than 2 pages of this book at a time, because my eyes kept swelling with tears. I purchased this book as a gift for my adult daughter, and hope that she passes it on to hers someday.

A POSITIVE WAY TO SHARE A FEW CHARISHED LOVING MOMENTS WITH YOUR MOM/DAUGHTER IN OUR BUSY WORLD. THE PHOTOGRAPHS WILL TOUCH ALL MOTHERS HEART'S AND THE TEXT WILL EXPLAIN TO A DAUGHER'S HEART THE FEELING WORDS CAN NOT DO JUSTICE FOR. IT SHOWS AND TELLS THE DEPTH OF LOVE THAT PARENTS FEEL FOR THEIR DAUGHTERS, BUT FOCUSES ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MOTHHERS AND DAUTHERS. THIS ALSO MAKES A BEAUTIFUL GIFT OF THE HEART TO PASS ON TO THE NEXT GENERATION.

I truly enjoyed this account of the relationship between a man and his Golden Labrador, Harley. It is a short, 58 page, series of anectdotes that serve to express a special relationship between man and dog. This would be an ideal read for young dog lovers or by a parent to a child. It contains many pictures and is written in common language. The last chapter describes Harley's final day and is a sad yet touching end to a delightful read.

This story keeps your attention from beginning to end. It has realistic and colorful illustrations of Harley, and color photographs of Harley with his family, friends, animals, including his girlfriend, Princess, which are important additions in telling his story. Harley loved and trusted his master and was happy just to be with his family, Stephen and Patty. It seems as each obsticle occurred, Stephen and Patty would find a way to make Harley happy. Harley had a full rich life tagging along with them to the farm, going fishing, swimming, and even going to the Dump. This book would be a good reference book for someone who wants to know how to care for a pet. Stephen explains how he trained Harley without ever being mean to him. When you read his words, you can feel the love he has for his best friend, "Harley."

sex, love, drugs, hate, passion, demonic spirits, demons and death. this book has it all.

This is a great work by Jonathan Shaw. A compelling book who's gritty characters are so bravely detailed that i couldn't put it down and by the end I was drastically affected and found myself re-reading and replaying moments in my head. This is a must read, which will usher in a new and welcomed trend in fiction.

This book is a wonderful compilation of many different poems. This is one of the only Christian poets I have ever read that I am able to enjoy (modern especially). She is honest and allows her own journey to pour into her writing with amazing depictions of the emotions she was feeling. We are in debt to Madeleine and lose out on her passing.

When my best friend, Jenn, moved to Manhattan she commenced with church shopping. She searched the island looking for the congregation that seemed best suited to her theological leanings and preference for worship style. Nice people were also a big plus. She landed at All Angels Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side, despite the fact that she hadn't fancied herself Anglican in the past. It's a great parish, and I'd like to think that the fact that I'd become involved in the Anglican church not long before she departed for Manhattan might have nudged her to check this one out. I would like to think that, but it would be wrong. Because I know the real reason Jenn is at All Angels --- Madeleine L'Engle.

Out on the church shopping circuit, rumor had it that the famed author was a long-time parishioner at All Angels and that fellow congregants often visited her since she didn't get out as much as in her younger days. The thought of whiling away hours chatting with L'Engle was more excitement than Jenn, book lover that she is, could bear. She took up residence in an All Angels pew (well, chair, they don't really have pews) post haste. In the years that followed she became an active member of the congregation, made friends, got confirmed, met her future husband, taught Sunday School, and got married --- all at All Angels. And she has Madeleine L'Engle to thank for all of that, despite the fact that she still has yet to meet the woman.

Such is the power of L'Engle. Trust me, if you'd read her work and had the potential opportunity to spend lazy afternoons in her company, you'd make your decisions on church membership accordingly as well.

Thankfully, the truth of the matter is that you don't have to trust me. L'Engle is nothing if not prolific with over fifty books --- fiction, nonfiction, and poetry --- to her credit. Her latest release is a collection of almost 200 poems, including 18 that have never been published before, and is an excellent starting place to acquaint or re-acquaint oneself with this potent literary force.

THE ORDERING OF LOVE is a magnum opus of sorts, spanning more than 30 years, from the mid '60s to the late '90s, and it includes everything from unbridled free verse to disciplined sonnets --- all of which tread the well-worn ground of love, faith, and suffering. In her introduction to the book, friend and fellow writer Luci Shaw notes "a good poem is layered, does not reveal itself all at once, in one reading." And, indeed, the understanding of these poems develops so much on subsequent readings that the words themselves seem to be ever-changing. One of my favorites is "The Birth of Love":

To learn to love
is to be stripped of all love
until you are wholly without love
because
until you have gone
naked and afraid
into this cold dark place
where all love is taken from you
you will not know
that you are wholly within love.

In poems like "Fire by Fire" one gets the distinct sense for L'Engle as an "everywoman" who writes about life as it happens and has a gift for seeing the whole spectrum of human experience in the seemingly mundane.

My son goes down in the orchard to incinerate
Burning the day's trash, the accumulation
Of old letters, empty toilet-paper rolls, a paper plate,
Marketing lists, discarded manuscript, on occasion
Used cartons of bird seed, dog biscuit. The fire
Rises and sinks; he stirs the ashes till the flames expire.

Burn, too, old sins, bedraggled virtues, tarnished
Dreams, remembered unrealities, the gross
Should-haves, would-haves, the unvarnished
Errors of the day, burn, burn the loss
Of intentions, recurring failures, turn
Them all to ash. Incinerate the dross. Burn. Burn.

L'Engle also has a very specific talent for turning the stories of Christianity on their heads and making us look at them in new ways. Her poem "Mrs. Noah Speaking" presents a perspective on the flood that we don't often hear but that sounds quite familiar. "The Ram: Caught in the Bush" tells the story of Abraham's almost sacrifice of Isaac from the point of view of the one who would actually go under the knife, conjuring up the image of Christ in the process.

If they ever do meet, I think Jenn and Madeleine L'Engle will get along quite well. Jenn has a knack for endearing herself to somewhat ornery souls and I suspect L'Engle is one, based on her work and the interviews I've read with her. Regardless, she has done her work in Jenn's life merely by living in the space of the written page. Even though Jenn hasn't stopped by at L'Engle's with fresh bagels from Zabar's, she has learned from L'Engle much about life --- the sometimes painful conundrum of faith, the ache of loss, the bliss of love, the assumption of small truths into the Big Truth of redemption --- on afternoons spent with her printed pages. And from a life as a member of All Angels, which she can thank L'Engle for as well.

--- Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel