Open Books

Davies and Neil have conspired to bring together a range of professionals in the field of helping Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual clients grow and heal in a queeer positive space.

This book is for all professional helpers who have clients who do not conform to the heterosexual mold and need to be suported in their life choices/circumstances. As opposed to a number of books proporting to be for therapists working with a similar client base, Pink Therapy offers no cures or therapies for the 'affliction' of non-heterosexuality, but recognises the wonder and value of it and offers therapists and clients an understanding of the value of recognising this and building on that value to move forward in life.

A must read for all therapists & counsellors, in particular Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual therapists & counsellors and those with Bisexual, Gay or Lesbian clients.

... I am a straight graduate student in psychology who has spent the last 8 months as a volunteer with a local gay telephone switchboard. I read this book as background for a paper I am writing that attempts to defend adoption by gay/lesbian parents. It covers all the basics - homophobia and its internalization, the coming out process, GLBT relationships, parenting, aging, etc. Each is addressed as a blend of theory with case studies so that the reading is smooth, entertaining and interesting. It is written from a British perspective with an occasional colloquialism, and the appendices are not useful here in the States.

But I am so glad that I read this book. My neurology class convinced me that the etiology of homosexuality is biological. Spong convinced me that the moral condemnation of homosexuality is wrong in "Living in Sin." "Pink Therapy" helped me to feel the pain of those society has rejected, to understand how hard it must be to overcome the temptation toward self-loathing such rejection breeds, and to respect the courage of those who have dared to be what they were made.

In my evangelical past it was often said that we should "love the sinner while hating the sin." I now understand what was wrong with this statement. By presuming to judge my gay brother or my lesbian sister, I am wounding them. With God's help I will do so no longer.

Read this book with an open heart and mind. You might learn more than you ever thought you could.

A book about Christian Spirituality that goes through four editions in eighteen years and remains popular must be "touching hearts" at a deep level. "Praying Our Experiences" by Brother Joseph Schmidt, FSC is such a book. Insightful and clearly written, it avoids the temptation toward academic and theological language while at the same time being a profound presentation on prayer in the Christian tradition. Three things strike me immediately in reading the fourth edition: the expansion from ten chapters to fifteen chapters, more examples of what it means to pray one's experiences, and the author's devotion to St. Therese of Liseaux.
The thesis of the book remains the same: "Praying our experiences is the practice of reflecting on and entering honestly into our everyday experiences in order to become aware of God's Word in them and offer ourselves through them to God." (p. 35)
For this reader the chapter on "Incarnational Prayer" was most meaningful. "The reality of the Word's having become flesh and having lived among us assures us that God is at home in human experience and that our prayer is born from our human experiences." (p. 69)
My single criticism of this fourth edition is the little attention paid to the spirituality of St. John Baptist de La Salle, founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. If any saint was a practitioner of "praying our experiences" De La Salle was that saint.

Reviewed by: Brother Malachy Broderick, FSC
Washington, D.C.

Praying Our Experiences goes to the heart of prayer: connecting who I am here and now with God who creates us, loves us, and calls us to the fullness of life. At first sight so simple, Br. Joseph tells the awful truth so invitingly: each of us falls so short of our potential yet we are still loved and invited. And we need not fear to let go of our pretenses and our plans. God is within and beyond, loving us beyond our capacity, as we honestly and trustingly look into our experiences and discern next steps.

Br. Joseph offers keen insight, practical suggestions and the reassurance of mystics to open ourselves to the richness of our life experiences embraced in the loving mystery of God.

For years, any system administrator running Linux who was worth his paycheck knew that Qmail was the defacto standard for running a mail server (heck, even Yahoo uses it!). Sendmail has always been ripe with security holes and headaches -- something Qmail has went to great lengths to correct. However, the problem has always been there was no easy reference guide to Qmail. You had to be either a Linux-geek, or know someone who was, to get it installed and working correctly!

Now, thanks to O'Reilly, even us non-geeks can get our Qmail systems up and running in no time. This book covers everything you need to know in an easy-to-follow format. From installation, to making the switch from sendmail, even how to tune and setup third-party components with Qmail to help control spam, scan for viruses and run your own mailing list server.

One of the great things about this book is it, for the most part, is not dependent on any particular flavor of Linux. The author does a good job of making it generic enough that you can follow along no matter what distribution you use.

Granted, you will need to know a bit about Linux to use read and fully understand this book. It is geared towards system admistrators and not the end-user of a Qmail system. However, you don't need to be a Linux Guru to understand it -- it has just enough detail to satisfy without overwhelming.

Overall, this is the handbook for Qmail that has been long overdue -- a one-stop technical manual that puts the final touch on Qmail.

Although sendmail is installed in more Internet mail servers than any other Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) it has come under scrutiny for being a large awkward program by today's standards. More and more new MTA servers are moving to a modular program like qmail that has a multitude of smaller programs for each function instead of one huge program that does everything. This allows for greater speed and flexibility. John R. Levine's new book "qmail: Managing Unix-Based Mail Systems" examines the qmail program in depth from installation to configuration to troubleshooting. While qmail is fairly straightforward and you can achieve great results on both small and very large systems, it is a very different way of thinking if you are moving from sendmail and are already familiar with it. The author recognizes this difficulty of changing the way you think and spends a good portion of the beginning of the book detailing qmail and how it works so you understand the "qmail frame of mind". I've never setup a sendmail server and so I did not have the obstacle to overcome but I have setup and configured the postfix MTA which is also a modular type program. With that background the book was a breeze to follow along and I was even able to download a copy and configure it correctly for my system. The coverage was excellent and the installation and configuration information provided all the information I needed to get it up and running. If you are thinking of building a qmail MTA you will find "qmail: Managing Unix-Based Mail Systems" absolutely indispensable and the only reference you need to get it done right the first time.

I never realized how seriously I could be negatively impacting my health just by the way I handled my food. I've read through the book twice, and have since donated it to the bookshelves at the AIDS Support Network of San Luis Obispo County, CA. This book really should be given to each and every HIV-Positive person at no charge by their respective ASO's. Little things can truly have a great impact on our health.

This excellent guide is recipient of the Reviewer's Choice award and is well deserving of it. It details all aspects of nutrition and food safety and shows food is a great tool of preventive medicine in promoting healing of common AIDS-related illness.

becomes more widely spaced after reading this book. I've been watching the different forms the author has been using in recent writings and I've adored the beautiful starkness that is her expression. I would recommend this book if you have a love of poetry that is visual and rhythmic.

The first striking quality of Jennifer Hill Kaucher's book is the enormous sense of control and form; the poems are short, rhythmically and spatially balanced, and made with a skilled and deliberate hand. They are clearly careful works of love. The language here is somehow simultaneously terse and rich, vivid in its structure and cadence.

The content of the poems seems almost expressly aimed at challenging the form; from the first poem ("Chanting Outside of Language") to the last ("Reach"), we become acquainted with a narrator whose primary obsession is to express things that fall just beyond the capacities of the language -- she struggles to balance the physical world (coffee, shellac, houses, laundry) against the literary world (codes and forms) and ultimately longs to transcend both, to be, as in the poem "Asleep," a "traveler [who] leaves her belongings." The counterpoint of content against form leads to poems that shine. This is work that compels, mystifies, and resonates in your bones.

Just spent the last hour journaling, and find that even the simplest questions Laura Wright poses lead to rich and helpful insights. Incorporating guidance from several different spiritual disciplines, she illuminates both the necessity and the joyful promise of the reflective, responsible path in life. Her writing is elegant and crystal clear; her suggestions for meditation are a true pleasure to follow. I am sincerely grateful for the intelligence and learning Laura Wright has so generously poured into this enlightening book. I believe many will feel the same.

I strongly recommend this book.

Extremely insightful, very well written, easily understandable, and most of all - inspiring. Characteristic performance by an excellent author. This beloved author has an amazing level of Attainment in the her spiritual path, clearly is a first rate educator of the practice of journal writing, and happens to be a Yoga teacher as well. (You should see her in person! Wow!)

All this shows clearly in this text which reaches and teaches the reader on so many levels: from fundamental and solid spiritual progress, no matter the reader's religious persuasion, to totally useful methods of using journal writing as a developmental method of character and self discovery.

That last part was the core of the text for me, and it is an excellent teaching tool, successfully getting this lazy person to WANT to write in his journals and to benefit so completely from doing so. It has changed my life. I have two copies of the book along with two journals so one is always with me. No matter the problem or occasion, I am prone now to sit and write and benefit from that.

I can't say strongly enough that no matter WHO you are, you can't walk away from going through this tremendously well expounded text and not be a better, calmer, happier, more insightful person.

A deep bow to this author. Thank you for helping this one's path in life.

HikerBob of El Paso

Ok guys, this is the mother language of the HTML format. Read this book now. The insight on how to not just arrange and develop a good doc flow in any program is just the tip of the ice berg. Wait till you understand how it gives you intuitive insight in creating web sites or figuring out others sites.

Even if you do not get to program in these languages yourself you will surely be able to describe or design what you want on a story board or paper, and give this to your web designers or other doc control people.

It's a fast read and the extra plus side comes if you decide you really want to write html or other doc languages. This is the place to start.
Order it now.

If you not only want to learn SGML painlessly but also want to have a background on the subject, read this book. The author was careful to explain the important aspects of SGML in an easy to read way. When he presents the real code, you will notice how easy it is to read just because he has already explained it in an easy way. I recommend one chapter a day, every day. When you finish it, go back and read again, not in order, but specific parts that interest you.

Here is an Amazing book of poems that will make you Open Your Thoughts. There are a Great Range of thoughts and feelings in these wonderful verses. Quick thoughts that you can read during your day. Wonderful Poetry reading for those relaxing nights. You will Love these verses to help open your thoughts.

I truly enjoyed writing this book and have included the favorites from my collection. The easy writing style and short verses provide something for everyone while the thought provoking prose and poetry sets your mind adrift in a welcome distraction from everyday life.


Also By Jean Marie Rhall

Did You Buy the American Dream or Does it Own You: A realistic look at living a debt free lifestyle
Don't Get Divorced Before You Get Married: A Must Read For Anyone Planning To Marry

After you read this book, you will have a clearer picture of what Jesus was really saying, not what tradition says. See other books from Bullinger for even more surprizing twists that tradition does to the Word of God.

It is the author's contention that when dealing with the subject of what happens at death, it is important that Christians confine themselves to what the Bible has to say and not turn to tradition. Some current views have more in common with the traditions taught by the Pharisees than with the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is true of Luke 16:19-31, "The Rich Man and Lazarus". By an extensive use of both Scripture and traditional sources, Dr. Bullinger places the evidence before the reader. Christians will find this publication very helpful and informative. Some will be surprised to find just how much of an influence the traditions of the Pharisees had on early Christianity and how some of it still permeates Christian thought today. (Review by The Open Bible Trust / Grace Publications Inc.

There are many insights about evil in this book - whether it's the evil of some mass movements or the psychology of a killer the need to make the acts appealing in some way drives both in their need for powerful illusions about the nature of evil. The irrealism found in the writings of Baudelaire or Nietzsche attempt to make evil palpable to people - they try and find beauty in ugliness or make ugly things look beautiful. the almost magical use of language transforms what is empty or hideous into something that is seemingly meaningful and glorious - for the practitioner or promoter of evil the form of language is used to distract from or hide the content. this among other things unites the poet, the philosopher and the politician - the three were wizards with language and oratory - able to make what is awful and heinous seem good and needed.

the book is divided into short chapters making it easy - if sometimes disturbing - to read. the first part is about theory about evil; the second is about the practice of evil-doers; and the third is about theories of evil and love. the final part of the book has thoughts on non-violence combating evil and finds support, interestingly, in Nietzsche - the philosopher of power. non-violence in the face of evil, requires much faith and strength and will, but anyone who believes that truth (people have intrinsic worth and dignity) and goodness (real virtues like courage, honour etc...) can overcome lies (people are merely animals) and evil (morality is a fiction); and that shame and guilt are still present even in moral monsters or those around them will find the non-violent answer convincing, I think... I'm glad to have read this book - it made me reflect on questions like: what is a just war? and how is a just war fought? as well as numerous issues around the subject of evil... very much recommended...

A poet, a philosopher and a politician each understood the attraction of evil, depicting it in their respective genres; but it takes religious hermit and scholar Claire Ortiz Hill to put the three together under one cover in Roots And Flower Of Evil In Baudelaire, Nietzsche And Hitler pulling together their writings to examine and contrast philosophy with historical events in which evil is manifested. Her comparison will interest college-level students of both literature and philosophy and will provide excellent material for classroom discussion and further inquiry.