Stone Books

Alex Miller's latest novel begins like a conventional, large-format American romance. Forty-year-old Annabelle Kuen is abandoned by her academic husband when he falls for a big-breasted student. She flees their comfortable Melbourne existence for North Queensland where her family once owned a vast station. Not wanting to return to her cheatin' dog husband, Annabelle agrees to help an old friend conduct surveys for "significant remains" (evidence of past habitation) on sites proposed for mining or other developments. Of course, it isn't long before she meets up with Bo Rennie, an Aboriginal ringer from her childhood, who fondly remembers frolicking nudely with her in the waterhole when they were kids, and seems slyly confident that her return has something to do with their shared fate. The stage is set for a middle-aged "recovery romance" which might easily have found its way onto Oprah's dire Book Club list, and the real Bo and Annabelle (mentioned in Miller's dedication) onto her equally dire show. Thankfully, Miller isn't interested in telling that kind of story, but he does cheekily borrow its premise - no doubt roping in readers who wouldn't ordinarily pick up one of his books - to tell a story which is far more significant and compelling. Indeed, this is one of the better Australian novels of recent years, not only for its effortless style and engaging plot, but for the theme at its core: the vexed issue of black/white relations and their competing claims to large tracts of Australian land. The thing that distinguishes Miller's novel from most hand-wringing attempts at "reconciliation literature" is its recognition of the historical and contemporary picture in its entirety. Here, there are good whites and bad whites, good blacks and bad blacks. There is selfishness and compassion, spirituality and materialism, on both sides; just as there is the desire to reconcile, the desire to exploit, and the desire to fight the war for a thousand years more. Miller explodes the simple black/white dualism, risks the charge of racism, resists the temptation to be "politically correct" - and thereby creates characters that are recognisably human. The ruins of white settlement, he suggests at one point, are arguably just as significant as the ruins of black. This is a backhanded slap in the face to white Australians, and a well-deserved one. We tend to think only of the Aboriginal people as being "dispossessed" and we rarely think of our own culture as having ruins. But when Miller presents us with Ranna Station, destroyed in less than five generations, and compares it to the Aboriginal culture which has endured in the same place for thousands of years, white culture is the one that starts looking flimsy. At Ranna, we are the vanished race - and may one day be so across the entire land. Ultimately, though, Miller goes beyond the issue of claiming the land, and invites us to consider the land as something in itself. What I took away from this novel is that the land does not care which particular culture infuses it with its equally contingent, equally spurious meanings. Is this piece of land a spiritual playground, a farm, a mine, or the site for a dam? None of the above, actually - for all are cultural impositions. The land will endure, though we may not - black or white. Nevertheless, Miller recognises the significance that places have in both white and black hearts, and the need for each culture to respect that. As Miller shifts the argument away from a tussle over territory and onto the more difficult ground of how we are to live together, what started as a romance becomes a metaphor for race relations. The final image of Bo and Annabelle may well be Miller's vision of the way forward for black and white Australians. "They lay in the silence, not speaking, holding hands and listening. For the moment it was enough to be together in this place."

Annabelle Beck abandons Melbourne after her husband rejects her for a younger woman and returns to her family home in Northern Australia. Here she joins an old friend on a series of cultural surveys on proposed dam and mining sites.
This brings her in contact with Bo Rennie, a member of the Jangga aboriginal tribe, who remembers her from her youth on the family property. He invites her on a journey to the Jangga's ancient heartland, and to Annabelle's ultimate finding of her history and herself.
Alex Miller's exploration of those places that lie in our hearts is both uncompromising and full of understanding of the people involved
His exploration of the effects on people of environmental damage, the politics of development and native title negotiations is both entertaining and revealing.
This award winning novel is highly recommended.

In The Key to Life is...Balance, Melissa Stone beautifully and thoroughly presents the reader with many ways for them to balance all areas of their every day life. The reader is able to take the exercises, visualizations, questions, etc and realize what may be lacking within their experience and enjoyment of life, as well as the tools to change that lack into a positive renewal of energy with a refocused perspective on living in a healthy way. This is a day to day companion that will assist anyone on the path of spiritual enlightenment, personal fulfillment, and profound well being. ~Gabriella Hartwell Intuitive Relationship Life Coach, Spiritual Teacher and author of You Find Your Soul Mate When You Let Go of Searching

In the future, wellness, fulfillment and success will not be approached in separate pieces but in a holistic, integral way, encompassing body, mind and spirit. Melissa Stone offers a glimpse into the future in her book, The Key to Life Is... Balance.

Melissa Stone clearly outlines a holistic, integral approach to wellness, fulfillment and success, drawing from a wide variety of traditions and sources, encompassing all aspects of yourself. Open this book and you open the possibility of discovering a new life and new YOU. -Brian Piergrossi, Life Coach, Spiritual Teacher, Author of the book: The Big Glow: Insight, Inspiration, Peace and Passion

Not to be confused with Natsume Soseki's novel by the same title, Lafcadio Hearn's "Kokoro" is a magnificent collection of essays, vignettes, memoirs, and meditations on Japan in the 1890's. Very much a product of the mid-Meiji period, these masterfully-written little literary pieces are nonetheless timeless. Each piece is quite different from the rest, and yet almost all of them manage to start from everyday incidents or obvious observations and gradually spiral inwards to some deeply moving and startling insight into Japanese attitudes, values, and worldviews; more than once this seemingly methodless method allows Hearn to share with the reader certain common opinions and normal spiritual orientations held by average Japanese folks--the kinds of things usually taken for granted and so unarticulated, hence least amenable to documentation and scholarship (especially of the time, but even today). And Hearn does all this with an unpretentious erudition and an understated and balanced sympathy for his subject that, along with his literary flair for wonderfully clear and flowing prose, places his writings here in a category far above the rest. With him we can find none of the unintentional strains of condescension and orientalism so typical of folklore and religious anthropology, for while he's looking with the surprised gaze of the outsider with one eye, his other eye is that of the insider feeling very much at home where he is. The resulting view is visionary--but in subdued and shadowy tones.

Appendix on an Appendix: in addition to the fifteen excellent essays forming the main body of "Kokoro", there's an extensive appendix featuring Hearn's translations of three popular folk ballads: "The Ballad of Shuntoku-Maru", "The Ballad of Oguri Hangwan" and "The Ballad of O-Shichi, the Daughter of the Yaoya". These are fascinating on a number of levels. They provide a tantalizingly fleeting glimpse of plebian drama, remarkable in its very lack of remarkableness. There's a certain sociological angle, as the versions of these oral ballads collected and translated by Hearn are those recited by mountain outcastes in the area of today's Shimane Prefecture. Religiously the first two ballads are key in understanding popular attitudes concerning pilgrimage in Japan--the first demonstrating a creepy (almost voodoo) edge in Kannon faith at Kiyomizudera Temple, the second delightfully exaggerating the rejuvenating benefits of Kumano and its sacred hot springs. Meanwhile, the third ballad is a straightforwardly melodramatic retelling of a true story better known to us today in a more refined and literary version as found in the novelist Saikaku's "Five Women Who Loved Love" of 1686.

"Kokoro" is a difficult word to translate from Japanese to English. Heart, Spirit, Way of Being...it is all of these things. Rather than attempt a direct translation, Lafcadio Hearn offers a selection of stories focusing on Japanese inner life, so that by the end you will understand kokoro.

The stories follow Hearn's particular interests of Japanese folklore and the vanishing culture of which he found himself a part in post-Meji Japan. Each story is a slice of life focusing on Japanese character, morals and feelings. This is what the Japanese people care about, what they think is important, what is inside.

The selected tales are non-judgmental and non-orientalist. This is no attempt to explain or highlight the "strange" Japanese, but merely a record and an illumination, in the best sense of the term.

The collected stories:

"At a Railway Station"
"The Genius of Japanese Civilization"
"A Street Singer"
"From a Traveling Diary"
"The Nun of the Temple of Amida"
"After the War"
"Haru"
"A Glimpse of Tendencies"
"By Force of Karma"
"A Conservative"
"In the Twilight of the Gods"
"The Idea of Pre-Exsistance"
"In Cholera Time"
"Some Thoughts about Ancestor Worship"
"Kimiko"

I've read this book twice and enjoyed it each time. It is obvious Mr. Stone knows what he is talking about when it comes to modern warfare. The battle scenes are realistic and the tactics are sound. Overall this is a great read and worth every penny.

Since I've just begun reading again, I finally decided to read Kriegspiel. I'd gotten the book, I'm embarrassed to say, nearly 6 years ago. But my past experience with military style books was that they were incredibly boring. Not this book! I couldn't set it down! I felt like I was in the middle of the battles myself. I hope Todd Stone writes more books in the future. I'll be first in line to read his next one.

If you want to see photos of Lascaux, this is a great book. It is rather large, the paper is high quality, and there are photos of all parts of the cave. This is a wonderful book on cave painting. The text is only about the technicalities of the paintings and the caves. There is no speculation on meaning.

After reading the Shelter of Stone by Jean Auel (first series was the Clan of the Bear Cave), I became fascinated about pre-historic Cave Art. It helped me relate to the imagery of the cave painting better by looking at the pictures of the artwork. Beautiful full-colored photography. Good book for teaching prehistoric times and Cave Art in art classes too.

Lending Credibility is the winner of the 2003 Ed A. Hewett book prize awarded annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies for the most outstanding publication on the political economy of the former Soviet Union, East Central Europe, and/or their successor states.

The book prize committee wrote the following citation about this volume:

One of the central debates of the transition from socialism over the past decade has been the role of the International Monetary Fund. It is vilified by some as the satanic agent of globalization, and ignored by others who treated democratization as a self-contained process divorced from the messy processes under way in the region's economies.

These debates about the role of the IMF have generated a lot of heat, but not that much light. Just how much influence did the IMF really have over the economies in transition? And was that influence a help or a hindrance the process of economic transition?

Randall Stone's book, Lending Credibility, is the first systematic effort to address these questions. It is a major achievement, the result of both careful reflection on how to conceptualize and investigate the problem, and a prodigious amount of effort gathering data.

A political scientist, Stone addresses one of the standard problems in that discipline: what influence can an international organization (in this case, IMF) have on the domestic policies of member countries (in this case, transition economies). To solve this problem, he deploys a variety of analytical tools. He uses a game-theoretic model of interaction between the IMF, borrower countries, and private investors to derive their equilibrium strategies. The predictions of the model are then tested statistically using a set of monthly data for the 1990s for 26 post-Communist countries, including over 20 variables. In an unprecedented feat of thoroughness, the author complements statistical testing with detailed interviews with dozens of former officials to reconstruct the decision-making process in four of the countries under study and test his theoretical results.

Stone develops the notion of credibility as the key factor linking IMF leverage to domestic decision making. He comes to a balanced conclusion, neither demonizing nor whitewashing the IMF, but arguing that the IMF can play a pivotal and positive role by using its lending to signal support and encouragement for the adoption of effective policies by national leaders.

Quite the read: fluid, sober, well written and systematic in its approach. Pioneering the approach to this question, Randall Stone utilizes many different tools to present his argument and send his message. Not only is it sound in its argument, but also an enjoyable read. Anyone interested in real research about the impact of the IMF should consult this book.

this book is filled with personal correspondence between a pennsylvania farmer and england in the first years of America. A wonderful journey thru time . Filled with details of life and the area and the wonders of america . Written in the words and style of a lost time . From the way he writes about his wifes daily chores to the hardship tragedy and beauty of his new home you can not but feel you are truly getting letters from a friend . fabulous read

These original essay length letters composed by an intelligent and imaginative immigrant offer us a fascinating glimpse into life in early America. The letters chronicle his travels across the thirteen colonies in the years leading up to the revolution. With pathos and humour he gives us an intimate look at family life in the whaling ports of Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard. We visit with John Bertram, the celebrated botanist on his Pennsylvania farm. We are escorted through the middle colonies to Charelston for a first hand look at the opulent lifestyle of the planters. Our guide points out the absurdities he confronts while chronicling the beauty and diversity of the natural landscape. This book provides a wonderful and historic experience.

This is quite possibly the best book I've ever ran across on symbolism, period! I had thought it was out of print because I recommended it to someone several years ago and we couldn't find it. I thought I would try again because someone asked me how I got to be so good at dream divination.

I must confess, I learned all I know about dreams from this book.

Not only is it great for symbolism de-coding in dreams, but it can be used to help you read Tarot cards. Help you figure out why you keep seeing a certain animal or symbol.

I can't speak more highly of this book! Buy it, you won't be disappointed!

I found this book excellent. Many times when I awake in the morning I am compelled to look up my dream from last night before doing anything else.

I found it easy to use and straight forward. It has brought much insight into my dreams, both asleep and awake!!

Is especially helpful to one just beginning to be aware of the part that dreams and symbols play in our life

The Colorado Plateau is world famous for its geological formations, but mainly for the deep canyons and dramatic sandstone shapes into which it erodes: the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley spires, Utah arches and slot canyons. All of this results from the Colorado Plateau being the best preserved slice of sedimentary rock on Earth. But sedimentary rock also means that the Colorado Plateau is rich with smaller rock formations, with a drama within the scenic drama, a record of life evolving out of single-celled organisms into half a billion years of trilobites, forests, dinosaurs, and humans. Indeed, we owe much of the grandeur of the Grand Canyon to eons of sea creatures whose shells and quiet toil built its rock. "Life in Stone" refocuses our experience of the Colorado Plateau onto this drama of life, showing how famous landscapes tell different chapters of life's story. Monument Valley, for example, hides amphibian bones from when it was a river floodplain some 300 million years ago. This might just be a more meaningful vision of Monument Valley than the movie-induced vision of the US cavalry riding to the rescue, or a merely aesthetic vision of a pretty sunset. But this book is quite pretty with photos and maps and illustrations and charts to help us envision how the landscape changed through time, what life lived upon it, and what their fossils look like now. It helps us recognize dinosaur footprints, with which the Colorado Plateau is rich. Christa Sadler, as a respected river and hiking guide, has spent more time immersed in these landscapes than most academic geologists, so these landscapes and geological eras are far from classroom abstractions for her, and this book helps bring them to life for the rest of us.

Christa Sadler does a superb job in this well illustraded book published by the Grand Canyon Association. She covers 1.8 billion years of fossil history on the Colorado Plateau; as well as what the geologic record shows the region to have been like during this history.

I recently attended a lecture by Ms. Sadler at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (put on by the Glen Canyon Natural History Association) where she presented this history in a slide presentation and a fossil exhibit. Her enthusiasm and knowledge on the topic is evident with every word she said and motion she made on stage.

After reading this book, I finally had a complete understanding of the vast history of life in this region, as well as how the fossils record was preserved and the geology of the land that preserved them.

I highly recommend this wonderful book. I great companion to this book would be "Carving Grand Canyon" by Wayne Ranney.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

This book is filled with excellent information that is both practical and inspirational. The authors have years of experience working with psychic phenomena, and are both very effective counselors and healers. They give the reader clear instructions about how to use the activation technique, and a clear explanation of the context for its use. I highly recommend this book.

This book tackles the huge task of preparing us for the the much anticipated awakening of consciouness in 2012. The authors are very inspired, capable, and courageous in presenting this material. The book packs information into every word and is extremely clear and well written. Most spiritual questions that arise when exploring such an important premise are skillfully answered.

This step by step activation is carefully and clearly illustrated and explained. With the book it can easily be performed by anyone.

What could be more important than preparing for the greatest happening in our time which is the ascension into the fifth dimension in 2012 as Earth increases her vibratory frequency? This unique manual is the answer and one that all of us should have and read. It may be the most important book you have ever read.