Thomas Books

As a die hard Patrick O'Brian fan and an amateur history buff this book was intriguing to me. It is very well written and presents the life story of an amazing British Navy hero not well known today.

David Cordingly does a superb job presenting the real life exploits of Cochrane, which incredibly are every bit as extraordinary as the fictional exploits of Captain Jack Aubrey in the Patrick O'Brian Master and Commander series.

I highly recommend it.

A great story and a great read about a great commander by my new favorite author, Thank You, Sir. I am going to order "Billy Ruffian".

I am not an O'Brian fan but I do love C.S. Forester. This gripping true life narrative was an easy read and was more exciting than the fiction that used Cochrane as an inspirtation. This unfortunate tragic hero's life is told in gripping detail from his self-claimed sabotage as a naval officer to his failed career as a reformist politician in the Napoleanic Era of England. The scientific advances both in military and civilian pursuits are also touched on as scientific curioisty and their failure to commercially take advantage of their discoveries seemed to have run in Cochrane's family. For those who love those fictious sea tales of both O'Brian and Forester, this is the real thing.

Many readers will come to David Cordingly's The Real Master and Commander from a desire as fans of Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester to learn more about the remarkable man whose life provided the raw material for the tales of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower. Make no mistake, however, Cordingly's excellent historical biography deserves to be read on its own merits.

Lord Thomas Cochrane executed such stunningly audacious feats - successfully attacking much larger ships with his small sloop Speedy, leading an attack of fireships on the French fleet at Basque Roads, and helping Chile and Brazil establish their independence - that one might cry `what pitiful stuff' if one read it in a work of historical fiction. But it really happened.

Cochrane was a flawed man who could not restrain himself from reckless attacks on powerful forces in the navy and the government generally. When he found himself entangled in an infamous stock exchange fraud (the leaders spread false rumors that Napoleon had died and then sold their shares when the market predictably spiked), he discovered that powerful men were only too happy to see him convicted and drummed out of the navy. Cordingly judiciously sifts the evidence of Cochrane's guilt or innocence from our vantage point nearly 200 years later.

In addition to his naval feats Cochrane also fought for reform causes as a member of parliament. His intemperate tactics and language did him little good. Of course, he was quite right in insisting that either the electoral system would be reformed from within or reformed with a vengeance from without.

After several years in the `wilderness', Cochrane sailed to South America and successfully aided the rebellion against Spain and Portugal. He eventually wore out his welcome there as well, in part due to fights over prize money. From there he went to the Greek Fiasco, as Cordingly aptly names it. He spent his remaining years fighting with some success to restore honor to his name. A sad dwindling away for this remarkable man.

A must read for fans of Age of Sail historical fiction and an excellent histroical biography.

I think I am correct in saying that I have read all of the biographies of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, published in the last few decades, and I would rate this volume as the being the best of all, giving good coverage of all phases of Cochrane's long naval and political careers. Unlike some authors, Cordingly is careful to match Cochrane's own accounts of his activities against other primary sources, and to give equal balance to Cochrane's activities in the wars for South American independence with those during the Napoleonic Wars.

Cochrane was an extraordinary man, his genuine history perhaps more amazing than any of the fiction inspired by his real-world activities, this is a biography that does him justice, lauding his good qualities and achievements without hiding his flaws and failures.

From the moment the author introduced Tara Bartlett, I felt I knew this character. Following Tara in her search for her biological parents, the perils of her job as a game specialist, and her travels, was exciting and interesting. When Whitman Bull Chief enters her life, sparks fly! I loved everything about this book: the characters, the setting, the events. I also really liked the message in the book: respect and understanding of other cultures. This heroine is an excellent role model for all young women, and especially for Native American women. Great job, author!

This is a modern (contemporary) love story of an Indian woman and the man who wants to share her life. It introduces the reader to Indian customs and traditions and does so with dignity and interest. I was fascinated - I hated to have the story end!

Terra Bartlett's journey to find her biological parents, and her journey to find herself before she can commit to the love of her life, is told with sensitivity and charm. The author either lived the Crow Indian culture or researched carefully. Whichever it is, I appreciated learning more about this group of Native Americans. Their culture, and their home in Montana, sounds wonderful!

Terra Bartlet works for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and is a Native American woman. The description of elk collaring, deer tracking and Terra's other duties fascinated me. The romance with Whitman Bull Chief is almost secondary to the story, but contains the warmth and wholesome sensuality of Ms. Olsen's first novel, Big Sky Dreams. This was another excellent offering from this author.

Adopted as a child by white parents, Crow Indian Terra Bartlett is raised in a white world. When she meets the man of her dreams, however, he is a Crow Indian. With sensuous description and smoldering chemistry, they fall in love. But until Terra can trace her "roots" to the reservation, she cannot commit to Whitman Bull Chief. I cried when she went back to the reservation and met---but that would be telling! I LOVED this book!!

First person narrative of the Boer War written just one year after the end of the war. Gives unusual insight into the life of a Boer commando during this conflict with the mighty British army.

Excellent primary source for research papers on the Boer War! I highly reccommend it!

Written in a matter of fact style, the simple experiences of a young man at war are piled one upon the other with no guile and in a straightforward manner. What emerges is one of the greatest stories of war of all time. This stands alongside Dispatches and Black Hawk Down but is perhaps even more remarkable as it was written by a young man at war, not a professional writer or journalist.

Written by a teenager, albeit, a resourceful, fit, intelligent son of a farmer and distinguished South African, it recounts in considerable detail the honourable soldiering on horseback and mule of young Deneys Reitz. His many encounters with the enemy; the harsh weather, difficult landscape, starvation and disease on a guerilla operation that lasted over two years, is testament in part to luck, but also to his survival skills, marksmanship, courage and tenacity. A great read which should be read with some advantage in conjunction with The Boer War by Thomas Pakenham.

Commando is the first and best known of the Deneys Reitz trilogy. It autobiographically tells the story of his part in the Boer War. He started as the sixteen year old son of a prominent Boer politician and ended with him joining Jan Smutts on his raid on Port Elizabeth. This is a story of guerrilla warfare based on minimal resources, for instance they used to visit the abandoned camp sites of British Columns just to pick up ammunition that the Tommies had dropped. They then used this to attack the very soldiers who had dropped it.

However, at the end of the Boer War Reitz was unable to accept British rule and went into exile and this is where the second volume, Trekking On starts. After a disastrous effort at hauling freight by ox cart in Madagascar which nearly cost him is life, Reitz is persuaded by Smutts to return to South Africa where he regains his health and enters local politics. At the outbreak of W.W.II Reitz joins the South African Army and takes part in the putting down of the Maritz rebellion and the campaigns in East Africa. Once the Germans are defeated in Africa he travels to England and , having decided firmly which side he would prefer to be on, joins the British Army as a private. Following a chance meeting with Smutts in London he experiences a dizzying rise in rank and ends the war, after seeing much action as the Colonel of a famous Scottish regiment.

The final book in the trilogy, No Outspan, covers Reitz's life in South African politics between the wars and concludes with him as Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa sitting on an advisory panel to Winston Churchill. in London. During this time he is visited by an Englishman who returned to him the Mauser rifle he took from him when Reitz became his prisoner during the Boer War. The last time I heard this rifle is still in the possession of Reitz's son and is regularly shot by him.

The Trilogy has been published by Wolfe Publishing as a one volume set in recent years and if you see a copy for sale, grab it!

Common sense was at the right place at the right time, written by the right person. It created an inflection point that changed the world!

Most major changes in life are cause by events called inflection points. An inflection point is an event that changes how you view the world, who you are, or your life in general.

Think 9-11. People in the United States felt safer before that day. After 9-11 we realized our vulnerability to terrorists. There are many inflection points in our history.

Tomas Paine's Common Sense created a major inflection point in history!

In early 1776 Thomas Paine published a 46 page pamphlet called Common Sense. It helped inspire the writing of the Declaration of Independence and motivated a nation to start a revolution.

The book was written for the common man and was estimated to have sold 120,000 copies within three months of publication and 500,000 copies within a year. It is worth noting that this was in the United States when there were only 3 million people--and many couldn't read!

John Adams and others had been arguing for the United States to become an independent nation. The release of Paine's Common Sense was the inflection point that caused the nation to become independent.

Thomas Paine used his Critical Thinking skills to determine that the time was right to inspire the people to take action. He argued convincingly that the young nation had to make a choice for independence now--not later. Paine explained that within fifty years the personal interests of individuals who would acquire status and money by then would resist such a change. And, the colonies would be more established and would resist such a change.

"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." ~Thomas Paine


The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

This book was originally written as a pamphlet in 1776. It was crucial in advancing the thought and spirit of the American Revolution to the masses. I found this book to be amazing in how forward thinking the author was. Declaring "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind". He spends the first part of the book logically explaining that Monarchy is wrong and having heirs to a throne is ridiculous. He uses the bible as part of his argument that kings and kingdoms are man made and the origin is corrupt so they should be done away with. He goes on to explain how a fair practice of representation in government could take place in the colonies after independance. He writes that America had no logical need to submit to Great Britain's dominion any longer and that after the treatment America received, she had every right to independance. Paine predicts that America would emerge as a powerful nation with its natural resources and location. He says that the pride of kings results in wars. He states that in a monarchy the King is law, in a democracy Law is king. This book is a wonderful trip into logic and reason concerning Americas independance, I enjoyed it. Thomas Paine's vision of America came true, and you can read that vision in this book.

If you want to know the truth about how the U.S. began, and why, read this work. It is very different than what we hear from Washington DC and through the media. Don't read if you prefer keeping your head in the sand. Not for sissies.

"Men read by way of revenge."

A forerunner of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Common Sense should properly be regarded (at least in a historical, though not a legal, sense) as one of the founding documents of this nation.

Paine makes the case for independence in strong moral terms, clearly based on the Enlightenment political theories of John Locke. The list he gives of the Crown's abuses should already be familiar to the reader from the Declaration (Jefferson did not give sufficient credit to Paine for his obvious influence on that document), though Paine's recounting is somewhat more detailed, as he could treat the topic at greater length in his pamphlet.

Paine also offers suggestions in some detail about a Constitutional Congress and the drafting of such a document, and based on the course of subsequent events it seems that the other Founders took Paine's suggestions to heart.

And of course, few other books in history (and particularly non-fiction works, since art can have a power that plain argument does not) have so effectively rallied public opinion.

Read this book. You will be surprised, even if your expectations were already high, and you will certainly be inspired.

This was a required reading for a graduate humanities class. John Keane's biography succinctly showed that Tom Paine (1737-1809) was the consummate revolutionary and a daring adventurer. Not only was he an important figure in the American Revolution, but he also traveled to France in 1791 to give that revolution a push. Paine traveled from England, just in time to stoke the flames of the revolution with his pamphlet Common Sense, in January 1776. To call Common Sense a sensation in the colonies is actually a bit of an understatement. It was an unparallel sensation and monumental work of Enlightenment rhetoric that quickly fanned the flames of rebellion throughout the colonies. In four months, over 120,000 copies were printed in the colonies--over 500,000 copies by years end. No other pamphlet printed in seventeenth century America came close to its success. Most importantly, Common Sense served to get the colonial patriots to drop their fear of open rebellion, and also emboldened those delegates who favored declaring independence from Britain. The delegates now had the confidence that a large segment of the colonists would support rebellion. Similar to the Declaration of Independence, the philosophical ideas in Common Sense are primarily from the English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704). The most moving quote from the pamphlet became quite prophetic, when one considers the impact it ultimately had on the delegates in the congress, the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and on the world. "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily recommend this timeless classic to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Competing for the Future is a must read for leaders over 35 and aspiring individuals under 35. The digital revolution requires clear understanding by every leader in modern society; including those who would guide nations, businesses, and institutions dedicated to education and social services. Older individuals, including those of us in our 60's, will better grasp today's global challenges by accepting the revolutionary changes created by the intellectual horsepower that invented and applied digital technologies, enabling globalization. The "digital" genie is best managed with knowledge, business savvy and a longer-term view of return on investments.

Competing for the Future shows how a handful of U.S. inventions launched the digital revolution, and traces how digital technology has sparked economic growth and improved human life around the world.

Henry Kressel and Thomas Lento reveal how digital technology has sparked the globalization of commerce and enabled the rapid industrialization of previously underdeveloped countries, particularly in Asia.

They warn that the U.S. risks losing its competitive edge - and the basis of U.S. prosperity - by outsourcing - at least more recently - much of the production to the developing countries. The book shows the close link between invention and production, and notes that if you don't produce what you invent, you eventually lose the resources and knowledge to invent it.

Ultimately, Competing for the Future argues, the U.S. must encourage the manufacturing of high-tech products if it is to continue to be an important source of technological and economic progress. The message is just as pertinent to other countries that are allowing their manufacturing prowess to decline.

Readers come away with a basic grasp of the technology, an appreciation of the mechanisms created to finance its commercialization, an understanding of how technical skills have spread around the world, and a sense of what is required for a country to maintain its status as a technological and economic leader.

Once in a while, watershed events are understood in the midst of the very event itself - and those willing to engage in a serious assessment of the challenges can help change the course of history. The United States can avoid mortgaging its future, but only if those in positions of leadership right the ship by rethinking the definition of success in the current era. Delayed gratification - in taking profits - is but one step. So too must educators guide intellectually curious students to refine their minds with the rigors of math and science alongside interpersonal and cultural skills. If the road to hell was paved with good intentions, then most certainly the road to ruin is created by greed, laziness and ignorance. Competing for the Future is a wake-up call - and should be required reading for every student who enters a college or university - regardless of career objective. Competing for the Future is the primer for being a responsible citizen in Twenty-First Century America.

He was in on the development of the first transistor and has been involved in the development of new discoveries and products ever since. What he says about discovery, development and marketing is more than "must reading" for the technocrat or policy analyst; it's a new hornbook for anyone touched by technology. If you want to understand where modern technology has been and where it's going, start here.

Despite the technical nature of the subject, this book is easy to read and understand. Kressel's ghost writer, Thomas Lento, has used simple sentences and kicked deep technical matter into appendices, to keep the narrative going. The text scans in places, and illustrations illuminate.

If you want a quick Ph.d. course in technology, its diffusion, and its implications for national economic and social policy, as well understanding what key tech companies have done and are doing, start here. Even an English major can understand it; I did.

Dr. Henry Kressel's "Competing for the Future" is a must-read for anyone responsible on any level for technological innovation. Here, captured in one book, is the innovation roadmap as only Dr. Kressel with his wealth of experience and obvious keen intellect could construct. The book transcends industries as it exposes the illusive innovative process critical to creating not only the next generation, but new generations, of products based on technology leaps.

The innovation process is complex, and in a technology driven organiztion, it must be endemic, shared across all functions. "Competing for the Future" helps us understand that dynamic through powerful examples over the years. As such, it's an inspiring and exhilerating read for cross funtional teams and technology leaders across the entire spectrum of industry. Dr. Kressel started out in electronics and my backround has been in pharmaceutical research, but the principles are the same and that's what makes Dr. Kressel's book such a valuable read.

In Competing for the Future, Dr. Henry Kressel takes us through a fascinating journey, from the invention of a few basic digital technologies to the birth and growth of the digital age.

As a starting point, Dr. kressel introduces us to semiconductor technologies and devices. It takes an exceptional mastery of the field to summarize the physical basis of digital electronics in a few key concepts, and Dr. Kressel, a physicist by training, manages that feat. He goes beyond the technologies themselves and expands on the history of their development; how and why they came about. With this foundation in place, Dr. Kressel takes us to the next leg of the journey, namely how these new electronics enabled the development of new computing, networking and communications systems.

How did these revolutionary technologies turn into new industries? This is the subject of the second half of the book, in which the author discusses the industrialization and globalization of R&D, the development of new manufacturing processes and finally, venture capital financing of product launches and company build-ups.

Competing for the Future exposes the complexity of the overall innovation process. Dr. Kressel writes with the wisdom, insight and experience of someone who not only took part in, but was very successful at, all the steps of that process. His experiences as a physicist, manufacturing manager, leader of an R&D organization and venture capitalist, give him a very clear overall picture and a unique ability to show how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

Competing for the Future provides a timely and comprehensive analysis of the innovation process, and of the various forces shaping the digital age.

"Competing for the Future" is a thought provoking journey through digital electronics starting with the transistor and laser, proceeding through computers, fiber optics and the internet, and ending with a prescription for the future prosperity of the United States that includes technology innovation, risk capital and advanced manufacturing. It is fascinating as Dr. Kressel examines the interactions between the technological innovations themselves, the source of the R&D as it moved from US industrial labs to world-wide start-ups, the funding of the R&D as it evolved in parallel, the tight coupling between R&D and advanced manufacturing, and the role of governments.

Dr. Kressel provides a unique perspective because he is walking this road. He helped create the digital electronics age while he was at RCA Labs with his pioneering work in lasers. After a successful career there, he moved to Warburg Pincus where he funded many of today's successful digital electronics startups. His hands-on experience and lively anecdotes bring the book to life.

This book is "required reading" for anyone who wants to understand the future of hi-tech innovation and what that future might hold for the United States and for the world.

Leave it to Bernhard to come up with the ultimate writer's irony: failing to write the first sentence of his masterpiece, even after the most meticulous planning (as you'll see when you read the book), and naturally failing to write the book he intended, the writer ends up with a 150-page masterpiece about...failing to write the first sentence of his masterpiece.

I've read all of Bernhard's novels, and I always recommend this one to people unfamiliar with him. I've read it twice; it's short enough to be read in an afternoon, and the effect after reading it is, "I have to read this again!"

I like his other novels for other reasons, and will even concede that Concrete is probably his most masterful work that must have required immense concentration, but Concrete and Woodcutters are about his best for plain old grousing. His comments about his sister are particularly stinging, to say the least.

Reading Concrete, you feel that there is a kind of stillness of air that's hard to describe.

It's too bad that this book has apparently gone out of print again. Definitely check this one out if you see it somewhere.

Thomas Bernhard's "Concrete" is a concentrated, excessive and disturbing stream-of-consciousness monologue by Rudolf, a reclusive, wealthy Viennese music critic who lives alone in a large country house. Rudolf suffers from sarcoidosis, a disease not described in the narrative, which is characterized by inflammation of the lymph nodes, lungs, liver, eyes, skin, and other tissues. Physically miserable and obsessively fearful of death, he also is a man paralyzed by his misanthropic, conflicted, exhaustingly relentless thoughts. Trapped in his own mind, Rudolf is a literary creation directly descended from Dostoyevsky, Kafka and Beckett.

Rudolf has been working for ten years on a biography of Mendelssohn, yet has failed to write even the first line of his work. "I had been planning it for ten years and had repeatedly failed to bring it to fruition, but now had resolved to begin writing it on the twenty-seventh of January at precisely four o'clock in the morning, after the departure of my sister." It is an intention to begin writing that recurs again and again throughout Rudolf's narrative, an intention to begin writing at a specific time in a specific location after the completion of specific preparatory tasks. And in each instance, Rudolf fails to begin, a sign of procrastination bred by obsession or of extreme writer's block or of extreme mental imbalance.

When Rudolf's sister leaves the house, he still cannot begin to write. Despite her departure, her aura remains: "Although she had gone, I still felt the presence of my sister in every part of the house. It would be impossible to imagine a person more hostile to anything intellectual than my sister. The very thought of her robs me of my capacity for any intellectual activity, and she has always stifled at birth any intellectual projects I have had . . . There's no defense against a person like my sister, who is at once so strong and so anti-intellectual; she comes and annihilates whatever has taken shape in one's mind as a result of exerting, indeed of over-exerting one's memory for months on end, whatever it is, even the most trifling sketch on the most trifling subject."

This theme, Rudolf's hatred for his older, worldly sister, runs throughout his narrative, the sister becoming one among many reasons (or excuses) for Rudolf's intellectual paralysis, his inability to write, even his inability to function in day-to-day life.

But it is not merely his sister that Rudolf despises. He also despises Vienna, the city where he once lived (and where his sister continues to live). "Vienna has become a proletarian city through and through, for which no decent person can have anything but scorn and contempt."

A complete recluse, his mental world bordering on solipsistic isolation, Rudolf no longer has any interest in social life of any kind. "To think that I once not only loved parties," he reflects, "but actually gave them and was capable of enjoying them!" Now he sees no reason or need for the company of others, for the people Rudolf spent years trying to "put right" but who only regarded him as a "fool" for his efforts. As Rudolf thinks, in a long, discursive interior response to his sister's claim that his desolate, morgue-like house, "is crying out for society":

"There comes a time when we actually think about these people, and then suddenly we hate them, and so we get rid of them, or they get rid of us; because we see them so clearly all at once, we have to withdraw from their company or they from ours. For years I believed that I couldn't be alone, that I needed all these people, but in fact I don't: I've got on perfectly well without them."

Rudolf is isolated in his own mind, a man who cannot accept the imperfections of others and of the world, but also cannot accept his own imperfections. And it is perhaps this, more than anything else, which explains his inability to get along in the world, his inability even to write the first sentence of his Mendelssohn biography. "Once, twenty-five years ago, I managed to complete something on Webern in Vienna, but as soon as I completed it I burned it, because it hadn't turned out properly." As Rudolf says, near the end of his short, but exhausting, narrative:

"I've actually been observing myself for years, if not for decades; my life now consists of self-observation and self-contemplation, which naturally leads to self-condemnation, self-rejection and self-mockery. For years I have lived in this state of self-condemnation, self-abnegation and self-mockery, in which ultimately I always have to take refuge in order to save myself."

"Concrete" leaves the reader exhausted from Rudolf's excessive and relentless narrative, giving truth to the remarkable power of Bernhard's literary imagination and narrative voice. It is a stunning literary achievement, perhaps the best work of one of Austria's greatest twentieth century authors.

"But naturally we do need someone, otherwise we inevitably become what I have become: tiresome, unbearable, sick - impossible, in the profoundest sense of the word. I always believed that I could get on with my intellectual work if only I were completely alone, with no one else around. This proved to be mistaken, but it is equally mistaken to say that we actually need someone. We need someone for our work, and we also need no one. Sometimes we need someone, sometimes no one, and sometimes we need someone and no one. In the last few days I have once more become aware of this totally absurd fact: we never know at any time whether we need someone or no one, or whether we need someone and at the same time no one, and because we never know what we really need we are unhappy, and hence unable to start on our intellectual work when we wish and when it seems right.
...
On the one hand we overrate other people, on the other we underrate them; and we constantly overrate and underrate ourselves; when we ought to overrate ourselves we underrate ourselves, and in the same way we underrate ourselves when we ought to overrate ourselves. And above all we always overrate whatever we plan to do, for, if the truth were known, every intellectual work, like every other work, is grossly overrated, and there is no intellectual work in this generally overrated world which could not be dispensed with, just as there is no person, and hence no intellect, which cannot be dispensed with in this world: everything could be dispensed with if only we had the strength and the courage."

"..., and even Schopenhauer was ruled in the end not by his head, but by his dog. This fact is more depressing than any other. Fundamentally it was not Schopenhauer's head that determined his thought, but Schopenhauer's dog. It was not the head that hated Schopenhauer's world, but Schopenhauer's dog. I don't have to be demented to assert that Schopenhauer had a dog on his shoulders and not a head."

"...my life now consists only of self-observation and self-contemplation, which naturally leads to self-condemnation, self-rejection and self-mockery. For years I have lived in this state of self-condemnation, self-abnegation and self-mockery, in which ultimately I always have to take refuge in order to save myself."

"It actually makes us ill if we always demand the highest standards, the most extraordinary, when all we find are the lowest, the most superficial, the most ordinary. It doesn't get us anywhere, except in the grave. We see decline where we expect improvement, we see hopelessness where we still have hope; that's out mistake, our misfortune. We always demand everything, when in the nature of things we should demand little, and that depresses us. We want to achieve everything, and we achieve nothing. And naturally we make the highest, the very highest demands of ourselves, completely leaving out of account human nature, which is after all not made to meet the highest demands. The world spirit, as it were, overestimates the human spirit."

etc., etc. ...

Thomas Bernhard's "Concrete" is a concentrated, excessive and disturbing stream-of-consciousness monologue by Rudolf, a reclusive, wealthy Viennese music critic who lives alone in a large country house. Rudolf suffers from sarcoidosis, a disease not described in the narrative, which is characterized by inflammation of the lymph nodes, lungs, liver, eyes, skin, and other tissues. Physically miserable and obsessively fearful of death, he also is a man paralyzed by his misanthropic, conflicted, exhaustingly relentless thoughts. Trapped in his own mind, Rudolf is a literary creation directly descended from Dostoyevsky, Kafka and Beckett.

Rudolf has been working for ten years on a biography of Mendelssohn, yet has failed to write even the first line of his work. "I had been planning it for ten years and had repeatedly failed to bring it to fruition, but now had resolved to begin writing it on the twenty-seventh of January at precisely four o'clock in the morning, after the departure of my sister." It is an intention to begin writing that recurs again and again throughout Rudolf's narrative, an intention to begin writing at a specific time in a specific location after the completion of specific preparatory tasks. And in each instance, Rudolf fails to begin, a sign of procrastination bred by obsession or of extreme writer's block or of extreme mental imbalance.

When Rudolf's sister leaves the house, he still cannot begin to write. Despite her departure, her aura remains: "Although she had gone, I still felt the presence of my sister in every part of the house. It would be impossible to imagine a person more hostile to anything intellectual than my sister. The very thought of her robs me of my capacity for any intellectual activity, and she has always stifled at birth any intellectual projects I have had . . . There's no defense against a person like my sister, who is at once so strong and so anti-intellectual; she comes and annihilates whatever has taken shape in one's mind as a result of exerting, indeed of over-exerting one's memory for months on end, whatever it is, even the most trifling sketch on the most trifling subject."

This theme, Rudolf's hatred for his older, worldly sister, runs throughout his narrative, the sister becoming one among many reasons (or excuses) for Rudolf's intellectual paralysis, his inability to write, even his inability to function in day-to-day life.

But it is not merely his sister that Rudolf despises. He also despises Vienna, the city where he once lived (and where his sister continues to live). "Vienna has become a proletarian city through and through, for which no decent person can have anything but scorn and contempt."

A complete recluse, his mental world bordering on solipsistic isolation, Rudolf no longer has any interest in social life of any kind. "To think that I once not only loved parties," he reflects, "but actually gave them and was capable of enjoying them!" Now he sees no reason or need for the company of others, for the people Rudolf spent years trying to "put right" but who only regarded him as a "fool" for his efforts. As Rudolf thinks, in a long, discursive interior response to his sister's claim that his desolate, morgue-like house, "is crying out for society":

"There comes a time when we actually think about these people, and then suddenly we hate them, and so we get rid of them, or they get rid of us; because we see them so clearly all at once, we have to withdraw from their company or they from ours. For years I believed that I couldn't be alone, that I needed all these people, but in fact I don't: I've got on perfectly well without them."

Rudolf is isolated in his own mind, a man who cannot accept the imperfections of others and of the world, but also cannot accept his own imperfections. And it is perhaps this, more than anything else, which explains his inability to get along in the world, his inability even to write the first sentence of his Mendelssohn biography. "Once, twenty-five years ago, I managed to complete something on Webern in Vienna, but as soon as I completed it I burned it, because it hadn't turned out properly." As Rudolf says, near the end of his short, but exhausting, narrative:

"I've actually been observing myself for years, if not for decades; my life now consists of self-observation and self-contemplation, which naturally leads to self-condemnation, self-rejection and self-mockery. For years I have lived in this state of self-condemnation, self-abnegation and self-mockery, in which ultimately I always have to take refuge in order to save myself."

"Concrete" leaves the reader exhausted from Rudolf's excessive and relentless narrative, giving truth to the remarkable power of Bernhard's literary imagination and narrative voice. It is a stunning literary achievement, perhaps the best work of one of Austria's greatest twentieth century authors.

A terminally ill writer has spent the last ten years trying to write the FIRST SENTENCE of his masterpiece, and, failing that, spends this book-length monologue venting his outrage at everything and everyone--including himself--he holds responsible for his plight. This is one of the best examples of the stream of consciousness technique I've ever come across; despite the absence of chapters or paragraph breaks, the prose is extremely readable. It's a bitterly funny book (the rant about how domesticated dogs are destroying the world is the most hilarious thing I've read in some time), but it's the genuinely unsettling finale that puts this book into the top tier of modern novels. An absolutely first-rate book; don't let Bernhard's reputation as a difficult "experimental" writer scare you away from it.

When I read Daddy, Will You Dance with Me? written by Sandra Schoger Foster, I cried like a baby. My father danced with me at every special event and I relived our special ties. He passed away four months before and as I read the book, I danced with him again ... in my heart.

Karen Rice

"Daddy Will You Dance With Me?" touches reader's hearts with its message of father/daughter love and bonding coming full circle. Grown men have been known to cry while reading it. It speaks to the heart.
Marilyn Woody

"Daddy, Will You Dance With Me?" is an utter delight. Charmingly written to help fathers and daughters connect from babyhood on to the later stages of life, this lovely book is a perfect gift for both daughters and fathers to pass along. With sweet illustrations and text guaranteed to make all fathers and daughters want to have a relationship as sweet as this one, "Daddy, Will You Dance With Me?" is a definite buy.

I highly recommend it.

Deanne Davis

This is a great book for a very sentimental Dad of a little girl (no matter what age of his little girl).

Reviewed by GeorgeAnne Smith for Reader Views (6/06)

This little gem of a book, "Daddy Will You Dance With Me?," was one of the most delightful, sentimental, and heartwarming books I've read in quite some time. Short in length, but long on message, the author, Sandra Schoger Foster, not only relates, but shows the reader just how special the relationship can be between a girl and her father.

Sandra begins the story when this precious girl was just a young child, and continues through adolescence, on to adulthood. Through a few pleasant twists and turns, we watch the bond between father and daughter grow ever stronger over the years. Without giving away any secrets to the story middle or ending, I'll just mention that this sweet saga survives into the next generation.

Beautifully written and illustrated with talent and attention to detail, "Daddy, Will You Dance With Me?," will make a lovely gift to your father, or a wonderfully appropriate keepsake for anyone you know who wishes to create memories with their own fathers. My father passed on four years ago, but when I read this book, memories flooded back to me of my special relationship with him. Whether a gift for Father's Day, birthdays, or stocking stuffer, make sure to put this book on your shopping list for that special someone. I guarantee it will put a smile on their faces when they read it; I know it did mine.

Alison Anderson is among the finest literary stylists writing today, writing a carefully crafted lyrical prose which reminds me of Patrick O'Brian's best work in his Aubrey/Maturin saga. Her graceful writing is a poetic throwback to Jane Austen, with much Joycean self reflection thrown in, reminding me too of Andrea Barrett's elegant fictional prose on science and nature. I was quite taken with "Darwin's Wink" as I read through the opening pages, keeping a keen interest in the affairs of the two protagonists, Fran and Christian. To her credit, Anderson has fashioned a tale that I wish didn't end, but yet it did, with ample realism and poetic prose.

Fran is a fortyish American behavioral ecologist and ornithologist who has found sanctuary on Egret Island, a tiny island near its much larger neighbor, Mauritus, trying to save a rare bird from extinction. She also finds herself coping with the unexpected death of her assistant and lover, Salish, a Hindu Mauritian. Salish's replacement, Chris, a former Swiss Red Cross worker, has lost the love of his life, Nermina, a Muslim Bosnian Red Cross worker, he met while both were working in war-torn Bosnia in the mid 1990s. Unexpectedly, they find themselves drawn to each other while contending unknowingly with Mauritians opposed to their conservation work, and who were ultimately responsible for Salish's death.

Starts quiet and sort of stays that way which belies the strength of its voice and story which rings loud and clear -- the power, trauma, guilt and loss as each are worked upon. The tiny Maritian island in this book is a stripped down, bare essentials cosmos. Some will say it's a love story but it's no more nor less than a survival story, and that's beautifully sufficient and gorgeously written (though not over-written). Will be moving on, just as quickly as my feet can scurry to my local, to Anderson's earlier novel Hidden Latitudes. She seems to have a thing for Island novels; works for me!

I really loved this book !
While you get gripped into the suspense which has the two main characters strive to keep alive an endangered species of birds on an island near Mauritius working against an unknown enemy and learn slowly about their secrets wounds in a well constructed story that takes you back and forth between past - the war in Bosnia during which Christian was working for the red cross and lost his girlfriend- and present - the island where Fran suffered her own loss, you really dive into the serenity of this island and the beautiful and lyrical use of words by the writer. It is punctuated with pertinent and philosophical comments about life, survival and relationship.
You will not want to leave Fran and Christian when you reach the last page.

This is a lovely, unusual novel. The writing is lush, the setting and characters complex, and the protagonist's work important. The ending seems quite realistic. For anyone, especially one who cares for endangered species and is drawn to the mystery of islands, this novel should hold one's interest straight through. Beautiful and imaginative.

Off the coast of Mauritius is a coral reef, Egret Island, twenty-five hectares of tropical vegetation. Following the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British, even the egrets vanish from this beleaguered place. Fran, a trained naturalist, comes to Egret Island via an independent foundation, her mission to return the island to its pre-human state, replacing plant and animal life, "the exotic with the endemic", restoring the natural habitat and possibly saving the mourner bird from extinction. The fiftyish woman is joined by a younger man, Christian, a Swiss by birth. Deeply scarred by his experiences with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Bosnia, Christian is seeking refuge from the harsh reality of war, "a bloody game of bullies and warlords, a slaughter."

Fran carries her own heartbreak, a love affair with Satish, a younger Tamil immigrant from India who knew the island well, his death still a potent grief. Christian's arrival has awakened Fran's feelings, his romance with a local girl a reminder that Satish is gone, as if Fran's relationship was only an island tale. Socially unacceptable, Fran and Satish's love was something they chose, accepting the challenges of such an affair. At this point in her life, Fran has crossed an invisible line, accepted solitude as a way of life, made stronger within the boundaries of self. Fran finds comfort in her position, having never mastered flirtatious games, removed from island society, safe from the entanglements that expose her vulnerabilities. Watching Christian in Satish's place, Fran hopes that their daily routines will offer this man an opportunity to recover, to regain his balance in the world. Drawn closer by the defining experiences of their lives, Fran and Christian share their stories. Writing in her journal, Fran realizes that anything can be changed in nature, an act of God, Darwin's wink: "What will I do now... my ordered little world is only an illusion of order, thwarted by biology."

Fran is a complex person, having weighed her loneliness and made peace with it, yet allowing herself to embrace Satish, and later, Christian. The years have given her a natural wisdom and compassion, withholding her own needs so that those of others can be met. She offers Christian the freedom to make choices without resorting to trickery or dishonesty. Even Christian realizes that this place and this woman are temporary, a brief respite before he reenters a brutal world with unfinished obligations. Yet Christian is acutely aware of Fran's strength, her unconditional acceptance of what life offers, even if happiness only comes in small measures. Anderson evokes a time and place made real and tactile by the species clinging to life and the wounded humans reaching to each other for comfort. The characters inhabit the novel, Fran, Christian, Asmita, the devious Razel, the lost Nermina and the ghost of Satish. Here passion blooms without interference, but the world waits; this temporary solace belongs to the moment, where old wrongs may be made right, nature tilted gently into balance, Fran and Christian planting the seeds of the future. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Comments from using the electronic version of the book at books24x7.com.

I read the entire book for use on a capstone project I'm working on. This book hammered home many of the exact concepts I believed were present, but couldn't prove. I work in IT for a multi-billion / year company. Many of the issues Tom describes are the exact issues we've either gone through or are currently struggling with.

Key concepts for me:
1) IT cannot be responsible for data quality, but they are definately involved.
2) Data quality is a multi-facted management issue.
3) Quality has to be defined by the each organization. (i.e. what's good enough for company A may be substandard for company B.)

I also noticed the website address listed in the book is obsolete and has been replaced with this:
http://books.elsevier.com/companions/1555582516/?country=United+States

Have actually improved performance results by implementing many of the techniques found in the Field Guide (tips have helped me in a number of places and ways). An easy read. Practical, applicable and actionable.

This is an excellent everyday guide to data quality. Easy to read and filled with tips and techniques for starting and improving a data quality program. The field guide format makes it a great reference book.

Good practical advice for improving data quality. Covers the most common data quality problems. Well written. Some other sources to look at online:


http://www.dmreview.com
http://www.datalever.com

I like this book quite a bit because although it's not a huge doorstop of a tome in terms of length, it's quite complete and thorough. Some data quality books cover management aspects, some the technical aspects, and some take other angles. This book takes a look at all of the different angles on data quality and sums them up into a very nice package.

One of the things I liked about it is the section on social aspects of data quality, since so many technical people I work with have a great idea but aren't able to implement it for lack of understanding of the social aspects of working on data quality projects. Another is a part where Redman goes through the process of how data quality is tracked over time, to see if things are improving, and the way that he draws a distinction between records that are "perfect", and records that are "usable", which points out some differences that are important. There is even a very relevant section on data quality problems in the US elections of 2000.

The nice thing about this field guide is that it should have everything an organization needs to do some serious data quality work (including even middle management roles and responsibilities). I think it's a very solid book that would be a great addition to data manager's and other tech manager's libraries.

I love all the books by John Eldredge. This one is no exception. The things that he talks about are real in a practical sense, things that matter to our hearts and things that we struggle with. It doesn't read like a big theology book but very hands on. It talks about what to do with your desires and how to handle them.

John Eldredge says in the book that we live in the life of desires - who we are are identified by our desires. Our desires are inherently good. But our desires also need to be checked against by the truth because there are false desires too, that are not from God.

Our desires reside in our soul - they live in a place "where our souls are flourished in an atmosphere rich in love and meaning, security and significance, intimacy and adventure."(p.72) We desire these things.

John spends a lot of chapters speaking about the agony of desires - desires that are not met and yet to be fulfilled. One thing I like about him saying this is that in waiting our soul will be extended. As agonizing as it is to wait, it really feels like a good dose of medicine to take.

What are our desires? It varies. You have your heart desires and I have mine. But John gave plenty of examples: a single person wanting to get married. A married person wanting to save his marriage. While reach your heart desire may not be easy, he encourages us not to be disheartened by this prolonged waiting. But he did warn against dropping out of the journey of desire and carrying on your life while leaving your heart desires behind. Then what road will you take?

He also warns against substituting false desires with your true desires. Pleasure is the word for false desire. TV, shopping, advertisers, food, etc. These things anesthetize our pain. "If the evil one cannot get us to kill our hearts and bury our desire, then he is delighted to seduce our desire into a trap." (p. 84) Don't give in. Stay with the pain!

John has talked about a lot other stuff that I can't include them all in here. Read the book. But what I get the most out of the book is this: if you think you have found your heart desire on earth, don't set up camp and call it home because we will never be home until we go to heaven. Life is a journey and a battle. Guard your desires! Keep them alive!

Whew! That God created me with deep desires that are signpost to guide me to become the man He wants me to be..... that is freeing. So many of us have been taught that all our desires are "of the flesh" and fall short
of true holiness. This book released me from all that into the joy of
walking in God's approval as His beloved.

John Eldridge at his best. This book reads like "Purpose Driven Life", but with more emphasis on the heart, instead of the mind. Excellent reminder of God's love, instead of His plan.

Eldredge always touches me with his writing, he has a way of presenting what's in scripture and using it as a backdrop to anecdotal stories thus making stuff I kind of know already become more alive. I feel closer to God and I feel more like wanting to serve God when I read his works.

In Desire, Eldredge presents us with the fact that we all desire things, relationships, sex, food, etc., in life. We all live with desire and if desire is stuffed, shoved away, then usually we'll end up seeking out illegitimate ways to meet our needs for pleasure and pain avoidance.

By allowing our God given desires to drive us to the places God has for us, in other words, for living in such a ways as to allow the desires of our hearts (what God has built into us) to guide us with the hand of the Spirit to those places God intended us to go, then we will live lives filled with both joy and fulfillment even in the midst of hard times and pain.

This isn't some cheer leading rah-rah book, nor is it some kind of "name it and claim" type of instruction. This book is about what we already know (that we want stuff out of life) and that Jesus said he came to give us life, and to give it to us in the fullest sense of what that means. That life eludes most of us, even the best of Christians.

I strongly recommend this book.

I have been enjoying all of John Eldredge's books. He really hits home with me. I recommend his books to everyone I know.