Suicide Books

Pookoo is a phenomenal first novel from author D.L. Shiloh. It's a brilliantly written satirical look at our society's celebrity obsession. Quite honestly, I couldn't put it down.

Shiloh is Kurt Vonnegot for a new generation. A skilled storyteller on the level of Tom Robbins, Vonnegot, or even Ernest Hemmingway

In my opinion, this is the next big thing.

This is a book that is definitely worth your time to check it out.

In Primordial Vault, (an excerpt of which we featured last month, Malek's Santuary) author Frank Deft brings us Lt. Colonel Carl Malek, the Air Force's Top Ace pilot and a Medal of Honor recipient. He is Commander of a fighter squadron at Bettingen Air Base in West Germany. Set in the Cold War, the story centers around his relationship with the pilots of his squadron, who he controls and manipulates. Newly installed in Germany and absent their loved ones, the men allow their egos and libidos to rule with cataclysmic results.

At age 35, Carl's insecurities and suicidal family history have collided sending his world into a dangerous downhill spiral. His tendency toward abuse of women, from groping of barmaids to battery and threats, catapults him into a life and death situation, which he tries desperately to control. To make things worse, the fighter group's CO, Col. Brengard, recruits Captains Paul Oxner and Brice Trupp to keep an eye on Malek, whose sociopathic tendencies have cast a shadow of suspicion over him in the disappearance of a young German girl. Carl's paranoia and the constant scrutiny of the Provost Marshall, Captain Aaron Kroll, keep him on edge and his determination to maintain his position send him lashing out to destroy those who threaten his very existence.

Fraught with intrigue and testosterone run wild, this book will appeal to lovers of war stories and the mind games of competitive men fighting for superiority. Deft's long military background and fighter pilot experience enable him to bring extraordinary technical detail and realism to the practiced war games and dogfights that erupt between Malek and his men. The romances between some of the aviators and their German frauleins soften and fill out the otherwise male-oriented plot. Primordial Vault achieved award status in the 2001 William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition and the New Century Writer Awards contest in 2002.

This book is at the top of my favorites list for the year 2005. Being a west Texas native, this story and the images that the author portrays hit home in many ways. Mr. Lunsford tells the story in such a way that makes evident his passion for writing and for the subject matter he writes about. While parts of the book are very tragic, the author handles the subject matter very well.

Greenwood does a good job of keeping the suspense going. Enjoyed the surprise ending. I never saw it coming. As a Houstonian I liked reading about places I know.

yea this book is just awesome i loved it and i hope anyone will give it a change....

Rebellion is a stimulating read about human personal will, our "free won't." Dr. Brody considers and discusses this personal will in light of, among other things, the physics of phase transitions, synchrony, power laws, emergent networks, and exploratory systems. Thought provoking and entertaining too.

This book does an excellent job of providing both viewpoints on a number of facets of the topic. The author seems to be very careful to give both sides of the question a fair hearing. An excellent source of facts as well as analysis.

The photos and topos have been upgraded in the 3rd edition and they make it easier to find your way around. Many of the new photos are aerial shots and give excellent perspective. Much of the rest of the book is better too, with more background and better photos of climbers on the routes.

Reinhardt Grossmann wrote, 'If existence did not exist, then nothing would exist.' While this may sound like common sense, in the world of ontology and metaphysics, it is not as simple as one might think. This logical proposition, according to Grossmann, works whether one sees existence as a property or attribute, or as the 'ultimate substratum' (this phrase always reminded me of Tillich's 'ground of being' idea). This idea of Grossmann's comes at the end of the book, in the final section 'About the Nature of Existence'.

Grossmann was my first metaphysics professor, and I had a course with him the year he was putting the finishing touches on this book with the publisher. The course followed the book fairly closely, so I had the benefit both of reading the text as well as hearing Grossmann's lectures on the subject.

The first part of the book is introductory, setting the stage by exploring the nature of ontology and being, the debates between realism vs. idealism (in favour of realism), and a defense of empiricism. While Platonism serves as the root of rationalism, Grossmann's empiricism doesn't allow for universals that are unexemplified -- while he admits that he cannot prove that there are no unexemplified universals, he also states that the case in favour of such is unconvincing.

The heart of the book is the section section, on Categories. (This section is 340 of the book's 420 pages.) This Grossmann sees as a contemporary update and continuation of Aristotelian categories. Individuals as entities, properties and their natures, relations, classes, wholes, numbers, and facts are the primary divisions here. Not only does Grossmann explain the metaphysical use of such terms and topics, but also he surveys the field of ontology over the past few generations. Bradley, Russell, Frege, Brentano, Cantor, Husserl and Wittgenstein are just a few of the names drawn into the study.

The final section argues strongly about the nature of existence, that it is not just an 'empty sound' applied, but that existence is not merely a property or attribute, either. Even so, 'existence' has an undefinable side; also, there are objects of thought that do not exist, and fictional characters do not exist, according to Grossmann's structure.

This is an interesting path through metaphysics and ontology, a subject that once held centre-stage in philosophy, but is now a little off the stage in favour of other topics. Metaphysics remains a valuable study, and Grossmann's work is a good survey.

A must read for anyone interseted in the euthanasia bebate. Hendin went to the Netherlands and interviewed a number of key figures. He exposes the major problems the Dutch are having in regulating euthanasia. The paragraph below is an excellent summary of his findings:

"The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for people who are terminally ill to euthanasia for those who are chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress, from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia The Dutch government�s own commissioned research has documented that in more than one thousand cases a year, doctors actively cause or hasten death without the patient�s request."

Hendin looks at the issue from ethical, political, and practical viewpoints. He also looks at the why the U.S. could possible be the next country to legalize euthanasia.