Average customer rating:
- A real ho-hummer, unfortunately
- Absolute rubbish
- Is It Me?
- A pedestrian effort
- Not one of his best, but still decent.
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Obsession (Alex Delaware Novels)
Jonathan Kellerman
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Kellerman, Jonathan | ( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0345452631
Release Date: 2007-03-27 |
Book Description
With scores of millions of books in print, translation into two dozen languages, and one of the most popular heroes in contemporary fiction to his name, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman is the unequivocal “master of the psychological thriller” (People). In his newest novel Kellerman delivers a tour de force–poignant, dark, and chilling–that illuminates a shadowy world where impulse rules.
Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, she still seems older than her years–but her problems go beyond hyper-maturity. Patty Bigelow, Tanya’s aunt and adoptive mother, has made a deathbed confession of murder and urged the young woman to seek Delaware’s help. The doctor recalls Patty as a selfless E.R. nurse struggling to raise a child on her own–a woman seemingly incapable of the “terrible thing” she has admitted. But for Tanya’s peace of mind, Delaware agrees to investigate, and he enlists LAPD detective Milo Sturgis in the search for the phantom victim of a crime that may never have occurred.
Armed with only the vaguest details, psychologist and cop follow a trail twisting from L.A.’s sleaziest low-rent districts to its overblown mansions, retracing Patty and Tanya’s nomadic and increasingly puzzling life to the doorsteps of a sullen heroin addict; a randy real-estate broker; and a brilliant, enigmatic physics student. Suddenly a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets–and bodies–are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death–a legacy of evil that refuses to die.
Dramatic, action-packed, and filled with the psychological detail that only Jonathan Kellerman can provide, Obsession is a whodunit, a whydunit–and something unique: a did-it-even-happen? This is Kellerman at his heart-racing best.
Customer Reviews:
A real ho-hummer, unfortunately.......2007-09-12
About half-way through this book, I realized I didn't really care who did it. Or why. Or about any of the characters in the plot-line other than our regulars -- Alex, Milo, and Robin. I think the initial plot device, a vague deathbed confession from an unlikely murderer, was a good idea. The rest of the plot was a hot mess, involving characters discussed, but never really "present" in the book. I have loved many of Jonathan Kellerman's books, but this one didn't deliver.
Absolute rubbish.......2007-08-30
That's it. Jonathanan Kellerman I gave you one last try, and you failed. This has to be the worst book I have read by anyone in years. A convoluted nonsensical plot with so much padding the author should be in the upholstery business. At least half the book is taken up by poorly developed characters arguing about whether this or that happened, or perhaps it was that or this, or perhaps none of the above. And at the end I simply did not care who had done what to whom and why. In fact I wonder if the author felt the same way.
Thomas H Cook and Dennis Lehane, you have nothing to fear from this author. You guys rule.
Is It Me?.......2007-08-29
I always love the Alex Delaware novels, and I would never tell anybody not to read this latest entry in the series. And that is despite my ongoing complaint about Kellerman's ridiculous attention to every street in Los Angeles by name (what does this mean to a reader in Poughkeepsie?).
My problem with Obsession is that I simply could not keep the characters straight. I don't know whether this is a fault of my own as a reader, or whether, as it seemed to me, they are endless stock characters of such variety and of such little interest that I kept confusing them in my mind. It got so I had to keep turning back to make sure the gentle giant erstwhile bodyguard was who I thought he was; the sicko serial killer/would-be music impresario, who had TWO names, was indeed himself; the FBI informant, what was his name? who weaves in and out of the book in a confusing manner, and all sorts of other peripheral and confusing characters.
The main plot is easy enough, but as other reviewers have said, Why would the LAPD care? A dying nurse of stellar reputation confesses, or seems to confess, on her deathbed that she killed somebody. Her daughter, Tanya, an uptight, hard-to-like highly implausible character, wants her name cleared. Alex once treated Tanya; he wants to help. Milo, although on a much-needed and rare vacation, agrees to give up all his personal time to follow a trillion fruitless leads. Petra is always a wonderful addition to the series; she is very real. Robin doesn't bother me as much as she bothers other reviewers. I just find her annoying. And the puppy? Well I'm a dog lover, so I enjoyed her antics, figuring that in real life, the Kellermans have gotten themselves a bulldog puppy!
As stated above, I wouldn't tell anybody not to read this book, but I found it extremely confusing and the ending very lame. I like the series so much, and even with all the confusion, Kellerman is fun to read, so hence the lukewarm recommendation.
A pedestrian effort.......2007-08-29
I felt Kellerman delivered a boilerplate thriller with Obsession. The murder mystery centered around a "possible" crime uttered by a dying woman, which seems pretty flimsy but in true Alex/Milo form they kept digging and made something of it. The psychological aspect was also rather weak, as Kellerman focused this time on OCD, which didn't seem relevant to the murder mystery aspect. If it did, then I missed it, but it certainly wasn't obvious. Kellerman has always been so good at intertwining the psychological aspects with the murder mystery, but he just falls short here.
I also found most of the new characters uninteresting, and the existing ones stale.
Petra seemed tired and bored at times.
The entire Bedard family was annoying. I didn't find myself rooting for Kyle despite his good intentions and goofy parents.
Tanya generated very little sympathy, and how many college kids refer to their mother as "Mommy"?
Robin was window dressing - a few short riffs on her working at the shop, going out to eat, etc. Nothing on their evolving relationship.
Issac Gomez, who has potential, was dismissed early.
The Mario Fortuno storyline was clumsy, and could have been more interesting if fleshed out further.
The interrogation of Fisk seemed too ordered and convenient (dumb con tells all).
And finally names. Where does he come up with Mary Whitbread?
In summary, it was a boilerplate, pedestrian effort by an author I love. The whole effort seemed rushed and lacked his normal attention to detail.
Not one of his best, but still decent........2007-08-24
Jonathan Kellerman has set the bar for psychological thrillers, and he's set it high. Unfortunately, Obsession, the latest in the Alex Delaware series, falls short of his previous achievements.
While the usual elements are there -- a previous client needs help, and Delaware and his detective pal Milo Sturgis jump to the rescue -- things feel a bit stale. Everything is just a bit tepid. Their reason for becoming involved in the mystery (a dying request from Sturgis' lover's co-worker) is tenuous at best. Because there is no immediate crime to investigate, just the suspicion of one, things start off slow. And the character development seems to stagnate. Robin, Delaware's live-in love, is a mere two-dimensional place holder with no personality of her own, and nothing new about Delaware's or Sturgis' personalities is revealed.
The young girl they're interceding on behalf of is annoying and simple (does this college-aged girl REALLY call her mother "Mommy" ALL the time???). I wanted her to be guilty of something, just because she bugged me so much. Bad news when the reader is cheering for culpability on the part of the who's supposed to be protected.
All in all, a decently plotted and written mystery, but that spark of excitement and frisson of fear that accompanies most of Kellerman's books is missing.
Average customer rating:
- Might be too technical for the average listener
- any impressario, non-performer, non-musician, lacks credibility
- Music For The Brain?
- Very interesting
- Absolutely perfect marriage of music, psychology, and neurology
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This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
Daniel J. Levitin
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Theory | Theory, Composition & Performance | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Neuropsychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books
Acoustics & Sound | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
Acoustics & Sound | Physics | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0525949690 |
Book Description
A fascinating exploration of the relationship between music and the mind—and the role of melodies in shaping our lives
Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including:
• Are our musical preferences shaped in utero?
• Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music?
• What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain's response to music?
• Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?
This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession. BACKCOVER: “I know Dan to have a deep musical knowledge and strong intellect combined with a warm spirit and a big heart. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music . . . He is a fine writer and has the ability to make difficult concepts very clear.”
—STEVIE WONDER
Customer Reviews:
Might be too technical for the average listener.......2007-10-11
A background in music that goes beyond light listening is required to follow parts of this book easily. Or time and effort could be necessary for many readers. But that would take you away from listening to your favorite music unless you can read about music and listen to it at the same time.
any impressario, non-performer, non-musician, lacks credibility.......2007-10-03
For a musicican, for one trained as a musician, this is a heady intellectual book. However, it often misses the point - entirely, aesthetically, and in practical terms. For instance, a piece practiced a 1000 times, according to the author, should be peerless. Obviously, this is not true. The native talent of the performer is paramount, and, most of all, the piece may be practiced WRONGLY 1000 times, of which, as a non-performer, the author is clearly unaware. The author also almost completely ignores the influence and insight of professional classical performers. The author is an administrator and impressario of rock and probably rap bands. The author has no training in musicology, and probably never talked to a musicologist. I admire the intent, but there are no breakthroughs here in understanding, or enjoying music, and no great insights into music's magic.
Music For The Brain?.......2007-10-01
Certainly well documented and written for those in the know. It tends to be somewhat boring on some occations but you have to continue on the read to hear the music!
Very interesting.......2007-09-30
Being a musician, I was suprised at how little I actually knew about sound. The book was very interesting and well written. If you're at all curious about the phycology of sound, check out this book.
Absolutely perfect marriage of music, psychology, and neurology.......2007-09-13
This was an amazing read that I absolutely could not put down. This is exactly the book I have been waiting years for. It is written for people with a deep interest in both science and music; I believe that many "engineer/scientist by day and musician by night" types will love this book. Best of all, it does not require a deep understanding of music, psychology, or neurology (although one of Levitin's premises seems to be that we ALL have a deep understanding of music, whether we know it or not!)
Levitin starts out with a chapter or so on his background and music theory. As many reviewers have mentioned, the music theory presented here (and throughout the book) may not be new material for practicing musicians, but it does lay a good groundwork for many of the definitions and ideas that Levitin uses throughout the text.
Moving on to the rest of the book, Levitin has an interesting style that I found riveting. The book is not highly dense with ideas - it is not a textbook. It often takes several pages to come to a point. However, in these pages, Levitin is either giving historical information about how the current theories have come about, telling anecdotes related to the topic, or explaining laboratory results that have shed light on the topic.
Please do not misunderstand the intent of this book . . . it is not a thesis, a textbook, a journal article, etc. It should not be used as a primary source for information on any of the topics presented. And Levitin lays this out in the forward. This book is geared toward a much broader audience.
Book Description
A woman survives a horrific attempt on her life, only to feel like a stranger in her own home, in the electrifying new novel from New York Times-bestselling author Karen Robards.
The house is all wrong. Her clothes are all wrong. When Katharine Lawrence recovers consciousness on the kitchen floor, staggers to her feet and looks at herself in the mirror, the beautiful face staring back at her is familiar-but wrong. Despite all the evidence-her pictures are all over the apartment, the clothes in the closets are the right size, and it's her hair caught in the brush atop the dresser-everything feels wrong.
Maybe the trauma of the attempt on her life has given her some kind of amnesia. She's twenty-nine, the special assistant to the head of the National Security Agency, and she's lucky to be alive. She also knows she can trust no one.
Before she can act on her instincts and run for her life, CIA Agent Nick Huston arrives on the scene. The CIA is conducting a special investigation of Katharine's boss, and the mystified woman in her "unreal" house is the key to the operation. But the real Katharine Lawrence has been whisked away for debriefing, and this expendable lookalike, Jenna Hill, is being used until the CIA gets the information it needs. But no one counted on Jenna Hill's outrage at being used. And no one-least of all Nick-could have anticipated the heat that flares between them as the game plays on.
Customer Reviews:
Not Her Best, Not Very Believable.......2007-09-03
I'm a little disappointed in Karen Robards here. The plot is pretty convoluted and utterly unbelievable. How anyone can be brainwashed to believe she's someone else's girlfriend and worse, the boyfriend accepts her is asking too much of the reader. If you can get beyond this, the rest is classic Karen Robards and even a page turner as we get involved in the plot and how circumstances is ever going to resolve itself. The bottom line: this is good reading of an unfathomable plot.
Gripping and Suspenseful - Even if Unlikely.......2007-08-31
If you're looking for a book with a lot of action and suspense, you'll probably enjoy this one. The book starts out with a break-in and attack that was descriptively gripping enough to make me skittish afterward (honestly, I've got to stop reading these books but can't seem to help myself).
While I can't say that the plot was believable, it does keep you interested and the book really moves quickly. Altogether, I found it an enjoyable and even riveting book. Perhaps due to the amount of action within the book, the conclusion was almost anti-climatic.
The bottom line is the implausible premise of the story is overcome by the author's talent for writing suspense and action.
Putting strangers in mortal danger.......2007-08-24
Even the title makes no sense. There is no obsession in this book.
It was just was so so to me until he removes the tracking device. I thought of how to get rid of it and came up with the same idea he did, but instantly dismissed it as unconscionable to send those vicious people after innocent strangers.
He congratulated himself on his cleverness and she agreed with him.
That was it for me. They were only marginally interesting characters at best, and at that point I didn't care what happened to them, though of course I assume they prevailed. I'm still wondering about the hapless passengers in the other car.
I read the reviews and seriously doubt the reviewers even read the book. Kathy???? No one ever called or referred to her as Kathy. I always prefer the customer reviews, even though they vary widely. At least they're honest.
Beginning Good, Mid and End Awful.......2007-08-22
At first I was captured by the story but that soon fell away and I was like WHAT??? FBI agents using civilians to work undercover for the agency?
The heroine's body sustained so much traum all within a few days and the author failed to empasize the effects of that. I guess she had to make sure the sexual relationship wouldn't be affected.
Who know's this whole book was a jumble of craziness.
GOOD READ.......2007-08-21
I ENJOYED THIS BOOK. IT KEPT ME GUESSING UNTIL THE END. I WOULD HAVE ENJOYED A LITTLE MORE ROMANCE THOUGH. ALL IN ALL IT WAS A VERY GOOD BOOK.
Amazon.com
Allegories and parables have long been effective ways to impart serious bits of knowledge and wisdom without getting too pedantic, and business readers seem increasingly receptive to sensible management theory that employs this lively age-old literary technique. Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, a "leadership fable" by Patrick Lencioni, continues the trend with a solid prescription for organizational health--aiming for less politics, lower turnover, more productivity, and higher morale. Presented as a fictional tale of two technical consultants and their competing companies, the story is structured in a fashion that recalls his previous book (The Five Temptations of a CEO, whose main character and firm are even slipped into this narrative). Lencioni uses this hypothetical setting to show how his concepts might look and work in the real world. In this case, his "four disciplines at the heart of making any organization world class" are revealed and explained through the philosophy and behavior of Rich O'Connor of Telegraph Partners. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team, create organizational clarity, communicate organizational clarity, and reinforce organizational clarity through human systems. Through his tale of Telegraph and its rival Greenwich Consulting, Lencioni illustrates how these principles can be beneficially employed--and how an organization can be stymied when they're missing. The story moves quickly and is followed by a comprehensive analytical summary, which includes self-assessment tools and suggestions for putting the ideas into practice. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
In this stunning follow-up to his best-selling book, The Five Temptations of a CEO, Patrick Lencioni offers up another leadership fable that's every bit as compelling and illuminating as its predecessor. This time, Lencioni's focus is on a leader's crucial role in building a healthy organization--an often overlooked but essential element of business life that is the linchpin of sustained success. Readers are treated to a story of corporate intrigue as the frustrated head of one consulting firm faces a leadership challenge so great that it threatens to topple his company, his career, and everything he holds true about leadership itself. In the story's telling, Lencioni helps his readers understand the disarming simplicity and power of creating organizational health, and reveals four key disciplines that they can follow to achieve it.
Customer Reviews:
Obviously, not all obsessions are productive and beneficial.......2007-07-12
This is one in a series of "leadership fables" in which Patrick Lencioni shares his thoughts about the contemporary business world. His characters are fictitious human beings rather than anthropomorphic animals, such as a tortoise that wins a race against a hare or pigs that lead a revolution to overthrow a tyrant and seize control of his farm.
In this instance, Lencioni focuses on a common business problem for or challenge to leaders: How to identify "a reasonable number of issues that will have the greatest possible impact on the success of [their] organization, and then spend most [their] time thinking about, talking about, and working on those issues." Presumably Lencioni agrees with Stephen Covey (among others) that executives tend to spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. Of course, that sets a bad example for their direct reports. Viewed another way, some obsessions are productive...others are not. Extraordinary executives know the differences between the two types.
Here's the fictitious situation. Lencioni introduces CEOs of two rival firms in the Bay Area, Vince Green (Greenwich Consulting) and Rich O'Connor (Telegraph Partners) who have quite different obsessions: Green's are best revealed within the book's narrative; Green's are directly or indirectly the result what could be described as Greenwich Consulting's organizational inferiority complex insofar as Telegraph Partners is concerned. There is an early and significant development when O'Connor - struggling to cope with the pressures of trying to balance his family and his successful but demanding business - experiences what Lencioni characterizes as an "epiphany": the recognition of four basis activities ("disciplines, really") that guide and inform his leadership of Telegraph Partners thereafter. "He never certainly suspected that [his list of what become leadership obsessions] would become the blue-print of an employee's plan to destroy the firm."
Almost immediately, it becomes obvious that a new hire, Jamie Bender, "didn't seem to share the hunger and humility of his colleagues" at Telegraph Partners and that is a key point for reasons also best revealed within Lencioni's narrative. Recognizing the mistake, O'Connor must decide how to correct it. Over time, he and his colleagues become infected by what Lencioni describes as a "virus." What then happens - and does not happen - throughout the ensuing weeks allow Lencioni to dramatize both the importance of the four "obsessions of an extraordinary executive" to which the title of his book refers and the consequences when any one of them is compromised. He is a brilliant business thinker but he also possesses the skills of a master raconteur, introducing a cast of characters, conflicts between and among them, and then allowing "rising action" build to a climax (i.e. resolution) also best revealed within the narrative.
Of special interest to me is a conversation between Bender and Green when Bender explains each of the four disciplines with which O'Connor is obsessed. This conversation occurs late in the narrative and indicates that Bender understands the four disciplines and yet is unwilling and/or unable to master and then follow them. (This strikes me as an excellent example of what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton characterize as the "Knowing-Doing Gap.") Bender's explanation seems somewhat didactic to me but, nonetheless, serves as a means by which Lencioni can summarize his key points. He adds a nice dramatic touch when O'Connor appears at Green's office and there is a brief encounter between him and Bender before he and Green meet. Although they and other executives are fictitious characters, each is credible as a human being rather than as a literary device.
As is Lencioni's custom in each of the other volumes in the series of "leadership fables," he then provides an "Organizational Health: The Model" section and supplementary material (Pages 139-180) whose value-added benefits will help his reader to make effective application of the lessons learned from the experiences shared by Rich O'Connor and his colleagues at Telegraph Partners as well as from what Vince Green finally realizes about himself and about the consequences of his own obsessions.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Patrick Lencioni's other "leadership fables" as well as Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, David Maister's Practice What You Preach, Bill George's Authentic Leadership and his more recently published True North, James O'Toole's Creating the Good Life, and Michael Maccoby's Narcissistic Leaders.
Highly Effective Teaching Tool.......2006-12-27
So far I've given this book to 3 of my middle managers in an effort to explain to them what type of company I want to run. Every one of them has found Four Obsessions incredibly useful. I'd make it required reading for anyone in your business that needs help understanding the way a company should operate.
Simple and powerful - Do it and see what happens!.......2006-11-03
Lencioni writes this as a leadership fable, and at the end of it, does a section explaining the 4 disciplines in greater detail.
The fable is about 2 competing companies in the same space but of different performance. One CEO wanted to know what it is about the other company. A new hiring of the lauded company became the problem of the company and has insecurities and was not able to fit in to the company culture. But in that time, he learns what goes on in that company and after resigning, he heads for the other company and begins to tell that CEO what was going on in there.
This is an interesting fable where you can draw out lessons from it. It does show that no CEO is perfect, and many are just ordinary people who simply choose to put a focus on what needs to be done, and so he does - the 4 disciplines.
Lencioni writes that "no one but the head of an organization can make it healthy... and so... it is actually more important for leaders to focus on making their organization healthy..." I believe the principle to be true, as any living creature that is healthy will automatically grow.
The 4 disciplines are:
1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team.
2. Create organizational clarity.
3. Over-communicate organizational clarity.
4. Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems.
Lencioni's parting remarks in this book were, "First, there is nothing more important than making an organization healthy... Second, there is no substitute for discipline." Be inspired that you can make a difference as a leader wherever you are!
It was good - especially since I had to read it.......2006-07-11
I enjoyed this book. I had to read it for class, so the fact that it was prefaced with a very enjoyable story was a HUGE plus! Since I am someone actively seeking management, I found this book to be helpful with my life goals - although it seems a little simple, I am looking forward to putting this into practice!
Great Writing, Thin on Research.......2006-06-24
Easy to read, well written, a page turner. It also contains a few profound thoughts--namely the four disciplines:
1) Build and Maintain a Cohesive Leadership Team
2) Create Organizational Clarity
3) Over-Communicate Organization Clarity
4) Reinforce Organizational Clarity Through Human Systems.
The fable does a great job illustrating the meaning and application of these four disciplines. Unfortunately it stops at that. There is no appendix referencing facts, studies or collaborative evidence proving that these four obsessions really work as illustrated. (Other research based material I've read does back it up) Not including a "hardcore" chapter in this volume definitely lowers the quality of the book. But, overall I still found it an excellent book, well worth my time.
Book Description
A star writer for the New York Times Styles section captures the follies, frauds, and fanaticism that fuel the American pursuit of youth and beauty in a wickedly revealing excursion into the burgeoning business of cosmetic enhancement.
Americans are aging faster and getting fatter than any other population on the planet. At the same time, our popular notions of perfect beauty have become so strict it seems even Barbie wouldn’t have a chance of making it into the local beauty pageant.
Aging may be a natural fact of life, but for a growing number of Americans its hallmarks—wrinkles, love handles, jiggling flesh—are seen as obstacles to be conquered on the path to lasting, flawless beauty. In Beauty Junkies Alex Kuczynski, whose sly wit and fearless reporting in the Times has won her fans across the country, delivers a fresh and irresistible look at America's increasingly desperate pursuit of ultimate beauty by any means necessary.
From a group of high-maintenance New York City women who devote themselves to preserving their looks twenty-four hours a day, to a “surgery safari” in South Africa complete with “after” photographs of magically rejuvenated patients posing with wild animals, to a podiatrist's office in Manhattan where a “foot face-lift” provides women with the right fit for their $700 Jimmy Choos, Kuczynski portrays the all-American quest for self-transformation in all its extremes. In New York, lawyers become Botox junkies in an effort to remain poker-faced. In Los Angeles, women of an uncertain age nip and tuck their most private areas, so that every inch of their bodies is as taut as their lifted faces. Across the country, young women graduating from high school receive gifts of breast implants – from their parents.
As medicine and technology stretch the boundaries of biology, Kuczynski asks whether cosmetic surgery might even be part of human evolution, a kind of cosmetic survival of the fittest – or firmest? With incomparable portraits of obsessive patients and the equally obsessed doctors who cater to their dreams, Beauty Junkies examines the hype, the hope, and the questionable ethics surrounding the advent of each new miraculous technique. Lively and entertaining, thought-provoking and disturbing, Beauty Junkies is destined to be one of the most talked-about books of the season.
Customer Reviews:
Extreme Critic.......2007-09-28
The endless struggle against looking old or inadequate, the inability to accept the changing or imperfect body and face, coupled with the relentless promotion of the technology to reverse the aging process, spawned a $15 billion industry in America. This book discusses the moral, ethical and socio-economic implications of readily available services like liposuction, breast augmentation, face lifts and botox injections.
Kuczynski's reporting is by no means ground-breaking. The book is certainly not an outright condemnation of cosmetic procedures and vanity, but don't expect anything balanced or objective. Its tone is definitely negative and very much against cosmetic surgery.
After throwing a lot of stunning figures (numbers) and highlighting the extreme extent to which some American women go to make themselves look younger or more beautiful. She talks about "surgery safari"s in South Africa. This is followed by a chapter on the "rise and fall of botox". A very concise history of this "magic bullet" against aging, but it would be hard to convince the public that the cases which ended up in disaster/death are representative of the huge number of satisfied botox patients.
Next, Kuczynski goes into the history of reconstructive surgery. This branch of medicine has, over the years, shifted from rehabilitating disfigured soldiers to perfecting the faces of vain people.
The link between HMO hassles and the flourishing of cosmetic surgery industry is an interesting one. But the author goes further than that. The media fixes our notions on what is beautiful. The herd behaviour influences people to improve themselves both inside and outside. The result - nobody is plain anymore. Evolution won't take its course! The author is actually worried that women who can play the role of grandmothers are getting fewer in numbers. Then, she goes on to expose juicy details on the disunity of the medical community, the unflattering ways in which cosmetic surgeons market themselves.
Finally, we get an inkling into why the author takes her stand. She recounts a traumatic experience with a Restylane injection in her lip. Another chapter on "the fatal quest for beauty" and a very interesting experiment (and results) in which the author begs for breast augmentation funds online.
Beauty Junkies is a a very well-organised, well-reserached and well-written book. But like some of the unnecessary surgeries she mentions, I think that Kuczynski's views are a bit on the extreme side. A good read for those obsessed with cosmetic surgery, but don't forget to put matters in proper perspective.
Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty
Scary, but good read........2007-08-01
Beauty Junkies, by Alex Kuczynski, gives us the history of plastic and cosmetic surgery, the charlatans, the risks, the popularity especially in the U.S. and its ridiculous extremes. The story is told deftly, with humor and a sense of veritas: the author herself had undergone several procedures, including one that had the unintended effect of swelling her mouth to grotesque proportions (a severe response and fortunately for her, a temporary one). This last experience compelled her to wean herself from her growing obsession with cosmetic surgery and procedures.
Now, although the trend of excessive surgical change doesn't only apply to females, it's with the females that it is most prevalent and to me, most offensive: to change oneself into the porn star mold (i.e., sexual object), to reduce one's features so the result is a person indistinguishable form scores of other blandly appealing "beauties" (i.e., loss of that which makes us unique) or to chase youth as if it were the only thing worth having. It's sad that the inner selves of these people - intellect, creativity, personality, achievement - is so neglected and disparaged - in order to maintain a superficial and ultimately impermanent illusion. Ms. Kuczynski, in fact, discusses a woman for whom her appearance - and all the supporting procedures - is ALL she does with her time and money. This book is a cautionary tale, and an honest and entertaining - if disheartening - read.
Informative chit chat.......2007-05-15
This book was an eye-opener for someone not familiar with cosmetic surgery and beauty procedures. Lots of interesting information but rather rambling and lots of spin on the info.
beauty junkies.......2007-03-13
it is an overall goodbook,but one thing attracts the attention is that the author is very self centered.one cannot deny the good sides of plastic surgery or its substitutes,like botox or others in the same field.
being born not a long time ago,the author does not know how lucky all women are today to have handy so many ways to stay beautiful and young.eversince humankind exists,human beings have been looking for the magical recipes for staying young.the author was born when all these fights were elements of the past.exagerating?maybe but why be so intolerant if people feel like doing it???? intolerance is what drives to such extremes in working on yourself but it is fashionable now to be
''natural''........let us wait until she really NEEDS it badly.would she prefer then to be a junky or an old rejected hag?????
Excellent........2006-12-18
I'm not much interested in cosmetic surgery (which is not the same as plastic surgery, one of the things I learned from the book), but I am a HUGE fan of Alex Kuczynski's work so will read anything she writes. For instance, I don't like shopping, but I always read her NYT column, Critical Shopper, just for the fun of it.
As I expected, I found this a fascinating book and whizzed through it in two days. Lots of great information. As the title indicates, this isn't a guide for people who are considering cosmetic surgery, but an analysis of the industry and the trends behind it. She throws in some of her own experiences, which are just as (or perhaps more) intriguing as the reportorial sections.
Book Description
In the 1960s an American named John Harlin II changed the face of Alpine climbing. Gutsy and gorgeous -- he was known as "the blond god" -- Harlin successfully summitted some of the most treacherous mountains in Europe. But it was the north face of the Eiger that became Harlin's obsession. Living with his wife and two children in Leysin, Switzerland, he spent countless hours planning to climb, waiting to climb, and attempting to climb the massive vertical face. It was the Eiger direct -- the direttissima -- with which John Harlin was particularly obsessed. He wanted to be the first to complete it, and everyone in the Alpine world knew it.
John Harlin III was nine years old when his father made another attempt on a direct ascent of the notorious Eiger. Harlin had put together a terrific team, and, despite unending storms, he was poised for the summit dash. It was the moment he had long waited for. When Harlin's rope broke, 2,000 feet from the summit, he plummeted 4,000 feet to his death. In the shadow of tragedy, young John Harlin III came of age possessed with the very same passion for risk that drove his father. But he had also promised his mother, a beautiful and brilliant young widow, that he would not be an Alpine climber.
Harlin moved from Europe to America, and, with an insatiable sense of wanderlust, he reveled in downhill skiing and rock-climbing. For years he successfully denied the clarion call of the mountain that killed his father. But in 2005, John Harlin could resist no longer. With his nine-year-old daughter, Siena -- his very age at the time of his father's death -- and with an IMAX Theatre filmmaking crew watching, Harlin set off to slay the Eiger. This is an unforgettable story about fathers and sons, climbers and mountains, and dreamers who dare to challenge the earth.
Customer Reviews:
Living in the shadow of the mountain and one's father .......2007-04-06
An absorbing tale of adventure and exorcising personal demons. John Harlin III is an outdoorsman and mountain climber and successfully navigated climbing the face of the Eiger, where his own father had died some forty years earlier. Notwithstanding the book's subtitle, the mountain did not kill his father, a broken rope led to his father's fall.
In any event, the reader does not get the impression that the younger Harlinis obsessed by any particular Oedipal complex. We can empathize with his plight of living in the shadow of an iconic, larger-than-life mountain climber. At one point in his life, he is tormented by the question, "What have you done in life, other than be the son of a famous man?"
We may all overtly or subliminally have the challenge of surpassing the accomplishments of our fathers. John Harlin III provides a touching memoir of struggle and transcendence, freeing himself from the haunting memories of his father's unsuccessful attempt to climb a mountain that became his obsession.
A SON FACES HIS FATHER'S DEATH, OBSESSION, & HISTORY ON THE EIGER DEATH WALL.......2007-03-27
Five FATEFUL Stars!! "The EIger Obsession" is written by John Harlin III, the moutaineering son of the famous American Alpine big wall climber John Harlin II and recounts the Harlin family's involvement with life, love, death, and the world of climbing over the decades. He focuses mainly on the general climbing history of the Swiss rockface called "the Eiger" (aka "the Ogre") and the Harlin family legacy surrounding this imposing and unforgiving rockwall's routes, among others. John Harlin II, an audacious larger-than-life character, was the 28th person to die on the Eiger in an accident: by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was attempting his self-conceived "Direttissima'" (direct) route, "straight up" the center of the 6000 ft wall, with most of the climbing world aware of the attempts. Harlin joined a long line of famous climbers who were either successes like the famed Heinrich Harrer who was amongst four in the 'first to the top' group in 1938, or failures like the equally famous Toni Kurz, who with the other three members of his team dead including Hinterstoisser, was trapped by an ice storm and with a horribly frostbitten hand, he would die inches from rescuer's hands, tearing at the knotted rope that sealed his fate with his teeth. The elder Harlin fit both categories, success and failure. The stories are mesmerizing, as are the stories of the Harlin family coping with circumstance and the Eiger route attempts by the father and, decades later, the son.
Climbers all over the world, even those who have never been to Europe, can recite from memory the features of the Classic Route of the Eiger: "the Difficult Crack", "Rote Flüh" (Red Crag), the 'point of no return' "Hinterstoisser Traverse", "the White Spider", "the Death Bivouac", "the Swallow's Nest", "the Traverse of the Gods", and so on, up to the "Exit Cracks", recounted here in intense, vivid detail. Harlin tells us the stories and difficulties which drew many famous climbers to attempt the Eiger as a test of will and ability. Harlin II had already climbed the Classic Route and had been on the mountain many times, but his "Direct Route" 'upped the ante' considerably and Harlin assembled a 'crack team' that included Americans (himself and rock technician Layton Kor) and Europeans (Sir Chris Bonington and Dougal Haston) to climb it. The book details how after Harlin II perished, a combined team, cut off from retreat and having to literally finish the route to save their lives, did so while suffering greatly, and named the "John Harlin Direttissima Route" in his honor. Also how the family fared after his death over the years.
In the book, Harlin III, now a 50 year old expert climber in his own right, admits he has been obsessed by his father's death and the Eiger's 6000 foot deadly wall. "I can't go climbing without Dad's shadow hanging over me. And I love that shadow as much as it appalls me." With his own wife and daughter watching through the telescope at the world-famous Kleine Scheidegg, this book puts you on the mountain during the climb, as John Harlin III attempts to complete the Classic route and deal with it's many psychological implications. For many of us, decades after his father's death, this book finally gives closure to the John Harlin-Eiger story. Meanwhile the Eigerwand continues to lure climbers with the death toll now in the 60's at this point in time, and despite the recent availability of helicopter rescues, some of the unprepared and unlucky climbers will continue to perish. Kudos to John Harlin III for an excellent climbing and life experience book. My Highest Recommendation!! Five "White Knuckled" Stars!!
Book Description
The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover.
Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.
Download Description
"
Set in Paris and in the enchanting landscape of central Asia, this new novel by the author of the international bestsellers
The Alchemist and
Eleven Minutes follows the journey of a man obsessed with finding the wife who left him without an explanation.
The narrator of
The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges that money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who, despite her professional success and freedom from the conventional constraints of marriage, is facing an existential crisis. When she disappears along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover, the authorities question the narrator. Was Esther kidnapped, killed, or did she simply abandon a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any answers but he has plenty of questions of his own.
Then one day Mikhail, the man with whom Esther was last seen, finds the narrator and promises to take him to his wife. In his attempt to recapture a love lost, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.
A haunting and redemptive story about the dark side of obsession,
The Zahir explores its potential to both fulfill our dreams and to destroy them. It is also a thoughtful meditation on faith, celebrity, marriage -- and their relationships to freedom and creativity.
"
Customer Reviews:
Better books in the world than this one.......2007-08-21
If a zero rating were possible here, this book would warrant it. The author biographical notes indicate that Coelho has sold 56 million copies of his books. On the evidence provided between the covers of this one I can't imagine why: it's hardly artfully written and doesn't have a plausible plot. I guess millions of people around the world eat french fries; they're hardly a complex, tasty gourmet food worthy of rave reviews either. Mass consumption doesn't automatically equal 'must-have' or 'of value'.
The novel features a best-selling writer as a narrator (who incidentally whines about critics trashing his work; Mr Coelho must be feeling insecure) whose wife disappears. The narrator claims that his missing wife is his obsession, his Zahir, yet replaces her with another woman that he also claims to love, and has affairs on the side. I think the only obsession he has is with himself and his own self-importance.
Throw in an epileptic that sees visions, some hokeyness about letting love into your life in a pure energy form, a journey across the steppes, and the narrator explicitly explaining all his life revelations along the way so you don't miss the 'profound messages'; viola, you have one unconvincing story.
I hope the book reads better in the original Portuguese than it does in English. The English translation is dry reading; there's certainly no poetry in the writing, just the verses quoted before the title page.
My first one star review.......2007-08-01
God, how I hated this book! It starts out OK: a best selling but critically disliked author (the narrator of the book) and his wife become too complacent in their marriage and start taking each other for granted. The wife splits, and, after some serious soul searching, she becomes the author's "Zahir" (which means "obsession" or "great desire." The word is repeated in the book about a thousand times just to clue us in on the profundity of the concept). He then commences on a spiritual quest to get her back (which, at one of the novel's low points, includes frolicking with insightful street beggars). Less than 100 pages in, the book devolves into a silly philosophical surrealistic dissertation on the "energy of love." I swear, it almost reminded me of that dreadful early 70's musical "Godspell," except without the soundtrack. OK, I get it! We should try to love each other! Why not write a three page essay instead of this la-la land book?
To me, "The Zahir," is an author out-of-control with his self-indulgent egoism. I'm wondering if Paul Coelho believed he would start a movement based on the "energy of love," kind of how Ayn Rand started "Objectivism." Fortunately, the type was large and the chapters short -- otherwise I would never have finished the book.
Not as good as other work by Coelho........2007-07-25
Did you know that the distance between one rail track to another is exactly 4 feet and eight and a half inches? Is the distance between our relationships always such a constant?
The book is about the narrator's search for his missing wife, Esther. He seeks out Mikhail, the man who may be Esther's most recent lover and with whom she was last seen. Mikhail introduces the narrator to spiritual seekers and he embarks on a life changing journey.
The book is about love, marriage, and separation. Like other Coelho books, there is a lesson to learn. However, I did not find this book to be as good as The Alchemist or The Devil and Miss Prym, and certainly not as fast a read. However, people in relationships and those going through separation will probably relate more to the book and thus enjoy it more while picking up some useful lessons! There is no denying that Coelho is a great teacher.
An interesting fact of life he mentions is that many of us have died while living! This statement moved me, and each of us will find a different meaning in it according to how we have lived our life.
A Novel of Egotism.......2007-06-14
This is not the best I have read from Paulo Coelho, but as always I know I'm going to remember some of the profound messages it portrays. I'm still thinking about `Eleven Minutes' some two years on, and `The Alchemist' was apparently life-changing for many of the 27 million who have read it (so far). Of course the writer has his critics but I wonder if some of those are on his wavelength, or even have the capacity or desire to be. In The Zahir, a man with no name wonders why his wife of ten years has left him, and as is the case with most of Coelho's novels, a pilgrimage begins which leads the central character to question his or her purpose in life and the things that truly matter. In this novel the unnamed man is a very successful writer, which I personally found uncomfortable because I was constantly wondering if this tale was partly or even wholly autobiographical; Coelho acknowledges that at least one of the characters is based on a person with the same name and nationality, and the book itself is dedicated to the author's wife Christina - could she be, in fact, the Zahir who becomes something of an obsession in the unnamed writer's life? Personally I found this lingering doubt to be a distraction, particularly because the writer speaks somewhat arrogantly if not egotistically about his career and achievements, and I would hope that this differs from Coelho in real life.
Despite the theme of love and its eternal energy that we are indirectly urged to embrace, the central unnamed character gives the impression of a man with somewhat shallow feelings; he has been married three times or more and even in his latest marriage he concedes to occasional acts of infidelity which in my view serve to undermine his credibility as a man worthy of the woman he is married to. He finds new `love' not long after his wife's unexplained disappearance and continues to flirt, or invite sexual encounters, so I for one felt unattached to his emotional dilemma.
In spite of that, there was plenty to make me think about some of those intellectual, philosophical and spiritual issues that seem to occur in most of Coelho's work. Some of his observations border on the cynical, for example his compartmentalisations of relationships in high society or simply between a husband and a wife, the observations made have a touch of condescension about them yet maybe they are more accurate than some of us would like to think. Central to this line of thinking is that age-old question : `What is love?' and to an extent the author tries to offer his ideas of what love is and more often his opinions of the hypocrisies and denials many of us live within during our married lives. As in Eleven Minutes he dehumanises love (or at least our popular conception of it) and presents us with a picture of the love that we can find at the end of a spiritual tunnel, a painful one that we seem to have to traverse in order to find it. It's a difficult subject to approach and is bound to attract criticism but the open-minded reader will find it interesting and perhaps worth pursuing. I don't think I read anything categorically new in The Zahir but it was elegantly written and is a worthwhile read for anyone looking not so much for the meaning of life, but the purpose of it, and the things that really matter.
Not Coelho's at his best.......2007-06-11
At the beginning it seems you are up to another great Coelho's novel, but then cohesion is lost, and so are we. The story begins to hop from one theme to another,..... the structure is lost. Still, you will find the usual capsules of inspiration, but isolated.
This makes me wonder why so many people around the world loves his novels. As Coelho acknowlegdes within the novel, he manages to write some little provocative ideas, that somehow have a different meaning for each reader, but inspirational, based on our own life experiences and troubles, and voilà...!, the recipe for success lies on the readers interpratation and inspiration they get from these little capsules of philosophy you find scattered in Coelho's novels. The Zahir at least let me understood why poor novels such as The Alchemist achieved such a success among adults (even though I think is great for pre-teens).
You will be better off reading Eleven Minutes, definitively a real novel.
Book Description
Newly Revised and Updated!
Are you tormented by extremely distressing thoughts or persistent worries?
Compelled to wash your hands repeatedly?
Driven to repeat or check certain numbers, words, or actions?
If you or someone you love suffers from these symptoms, you may be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from some form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.
Once considered almost untreatable, OCD is now known to be a highly treatable disorder using behavior therapy. In this newly revised edition of
Stop Obsessing! Drs. Foa and Wilson, internationally renowned authorities on the treatment of anxiety disorders, share their scientifically based and clinically proven self-help program that has already allowed thousands of men and women with OCD to enjoy a life free from excessive worries and rituals.
You will discover:
• Step-by-step programs for both mild and severe cases of OCD
• The most effective ways to help you let go of your obsessions and gain control over your compulsions
• New charts and fill-in guides to track progress and make exercises easier
• Questionnaires for self-evaluation and in-depth understanding of your symptoms
• Expert guidance for finding the best professional help
• The latest information about medications prescribed for OCD
Customer Reviews:
Seriously.......2007-05-18
This book saved my life nine years ago. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My life is no longer ruled by anxiety. Thank you R.W. and E.F.
The best book I have read about OCD.......2007-02-06
This book has helped me a LOT with my OCD. Before I read this book, I used to spend hours obsessing over certain things, and it was really interfering with my work and social life. The techniques presented in the book are very helpful, and I am living more happier and relaxed now. If you are looking for a book that can really help you with your OCD, you need to buy this book.
Not quite perfect.......2006-01-11
This was listed as the top choice for obsessive-compulsive disorder by the Carlat Report for December 2005 in a review of self-help books in psychiatry (www.thecarlatreport.com).
It is very much a self-help book, directed at patients rather than professionals, but some of the methods recommended seem to assume that a professional is involved and it discusses the use of medication. Indecisions and mentisme are not covered but hoarding (which is seldom due to OCD)is. As with several other self-help books it is without references or statistics so that we have to take some of the claims for effectiveness on trust. The professional reputations of the authors are so high that I would be inclined to trust them, although in some of the cases described the remedy looks worse than the disease. Their recommendations for dealing with contamination fears, and also their techniques for coping with contrast ideas, might be quite distressing.
An academic quibble is that the techniques mostly seem to be plain vanilla behavior therapy, rather than cognitive. The cognitive therapy of Beck (and its avatar, the rational-emotive therapy of Ellis) involve arguing patients out of their symptoms by convincing them of the logical errors of their thinking, a futile endeavor in OCD. This book recommends the kinds of treatment that many of us have found useful empirically whatever our theoretical background.
Sigmund Freud (in one of his letters to Binswanger) discusses a case of OCD and recommends what is called in Norman Guterman's translation "counter-compulsion." (His classic paper on OCD is usually considered the 1909 "Rat Man" whom he did treat by psychoanalysis. That was published as "Der Familienroman der Neurotiker Bemerkung einen Fall von Zwangneurose" for those of you who own the Sammlung kleiner Schriften. In the Collier paperback series, edited by Philip Rieff, the "Rat Man" case is in "Three Case Histories" )
Where Foa and Wilson fall short of Freud, and of Judith Rappaport's "The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing," is in literary merit. They write clearly and understandably but this is not something that the general reader would want to read cover to cover.
Just what the doctor ordered.......2005-08-07
This book comes highly recommended by my doctor and is living up to its reputation!
Great book - highly recommended.......2005-05-08
This is an excellent book. I think it is the best self-help book on OCD. Luckily my CB therapist does these exact techniques with me in therapy so it's like this book is a hard-copy of the work I am doing. It's a great reference manual. Take this book seriously - it will help you if you follow the practices with as much patience and effort as you can. The thing that clicked for me after ready only the first few chapters of this book, is that my thoughts are obsessions! They are exagerrated, irrational, not based on reality! I never before could grasp that concept because I actually believed that my obsessions and suspicions might be real (that I was just missing something) and that somehow my mental compulsions would help me to relieve the tension and anxiety that my obsessive thoughts were causing. It's amazing... it all literally clicked. These thoughts are obsessions. They are NOT REAL!! Wow.
Book Description
In nineteenth-century Vienna, a drama of love, fate, and will is played out amid the intellectual ferment that defined the era. Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, is at the height of his career. Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest philosopher, is on the brink of suicidal despair, unable to find a cure for the headaches and other ailments that plague him.
When he agrees to treat Nietzsche with his experimental "talking cure," Breuer never expects that he too will find solace in their sessions. Only through facing his own inner demons can the gifted healer begin to help his patient. In
When Nietzsche Wept, Irvin Yalom blends fact and fiction, atmosphere and suspense, to unfold an unforgettable story about the redemptive power of friendship.
Customer Reviews:
A Fine Example of a Modern Philosophical Novel.......2007-07-15
Beautifully written, "When Nietzsche Wept" succeeds both as a novel and as a vehicle for presenting philosophical ideas. The first part of the book focuses primarily on the story itself, one that connects the lives of Freud and Nietzsche with the help of a physician who mentored a young Dr. Freud and treated a neurotic Professor Nietzsche. As this beautifully written tale continued, however, I focused more and more on Yalom's ideas -- the eternal significance of each moment of life, the paradoxical centrality of both fate and free will, and the need for even the most private among us to overcome loneliness.
Prior to reading this book, I had read nearly everything that Nietzsche wrote, and yet "When Nietzsche Wept" helped me appreciate the great philosopher even more. While much of what Yalom says about Nietzsche is obviously fictional, the fiction is realistic (for the most part), and Yalom's Nietzsche truly comes alive.
My hat goes off to Yalom for figuring out a way to write an entertaining and enlightening story that builds on his own professional experience as a practicing psychiatrist. Reading this book, you can't help but appreciate how various strands of the author's life came together to produce a compelling work of literature.
Provocative and thoughtful.......2007-06-30
this is the first novel of yalom's that i have read, and, like his field works, it does not disappoint. this book is appealing in so many ways. first, it's a great fictional read for those of us who read so many professional psychological resources. that is, it's a book that serves as an escape from textbook sort of study but stays enough in the field to maintain your attention and interest. it also encourages you to consider various personal and professional aspects. just reading about two of the greats in a hypothetical yet not too unrealistic setting is enjoyable. the book also provides an interesting--albeit somewhat exaggerated in some instances--metaphor for the therapy relationship. as a therapist, it is a reminder of how much we learn about ourselves both personally and professionally from the work we do and the people with whom we work. yalom's existentialism is certainly in the book, which is always a treat, but he also incorporates other schools of psychological thought and perspective. the book is very thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating with some interesting twists. this is a great book for a book club or other discussion, namely because it invites so many different interpretations and perspectives. my only regret is that freud's character was not more developed. that, however, could be a book unto itself.
Very enjoyable.......2007-04-07
I have recommended this book to numerous people and everyone has loved it. If you like playing with conflicting ideas and thinking about what is important in life, this is recommended.
One of the best novels of ideas that I have ever read.......2007-04-01
When Nietzsche Wept is particularly moving and insightful novel of ideas. It will appeal to anyone interested in asking themselves questions about freedom, responsibility, and change in the format of a lively story, carefully imagined.
oh, please.......2007-02-20
As a practicing psychotherapist I was appalled by this book. The characters were one dimensional, the "therapy" demonstrated was simplistic, narcissitic and arrogant, and the writing just wasn't that good.
Amazon.com
Orchidelirium is the name the Victorians gave to the flower madness that is for botanical collectors the equivalent of gold fever. Wealthy orchid fanatics of that era sent explorers (heavily armed, more to protect themselves against other orchid seekers than against hostile natives or wild animals) to unmapped territories in search of new varieties of Cattleya and Paphiopedilum. As knowledge of the family Orchidaceae grew to encompass the currently more than 60,000 species and over 100,000 hybrids, orchidelirium might have been expected to go the way of Dutch tulip mania. Yet, as journalist Susan Orlean found out, there still exists a vein of orchid madness strong enough to inspire larceny among collectors.
The Orchid Thief centers on south Florida and John Laroche, a quixotic, charismatic schemer once convicted of attempting to take endangered orchids from the Fakahatchee swamp, a state preserve. Laroche, a horticultural consultant who once ran an extensive nursery for the Seminole tribe, dreams of making a fortune for the Seminoles and himself by cloning the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii. Laroche sums up the obsession that drives him and so many others:
I really have to watch myself, especially around plants. Even now, just being here, I still get that collector feeling. You know what I mean. I'll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It's like I can't just have something--I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it.
Even Orlean--so leery of orchid fever that she immediately gives away any plant that's pressed upon her by the growers in Laroche's circle--develops a desire to see a ghost orchid blooming and makes several ultimately unsuccessful treks into the Fakahatchee. Filled with Palm Beach socialites, Native Americans, English peers, smugglers, and naturalists as improbably colorful as the tropical blossoms that inspire them, this is a lyrical, funny, addictively entertaining read. --Barrie Trinkle
Book Description
In Susan Orlean's mesmerizing true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested with rare orchids they had stolen from a wild swamp in south Florida that is filled with some of the world's most extraordinary plants and trees. Laroche had planned to clone the orchids and then sell them for a small fortune to impassioned collectors. After he was caught in the act, Laroche set off one of the oddest legal controversies in recent memory, which brought together environmentalists, Native Amer-ican activists, and devoted orchid collectors. The result is a tale that is strange, compelling, and hilarious.
New Yorker writer Susan Orlean followed Laroche through swamps and into the eccentric world of Florida's orchid collectors, a subculture of aristocrats, fanatics, and smugglers whose obsession with plants is all-consuming. Along the way, Orlean learned the history of orchid collecting, discovered an odd pattern of plant crimes in Florida, and spent time with Laroche's partners, a tribe of Seminole Indians who are still at war with the United States.
There is something fascinating or funny or truly bizarre on every page of
The Orchid Thief: the story of how the head of a famous Seminole chief came to be displayed in the front window of a local pharmacy; or how seven hundred iguanas were smuggled into Florida; or the case of the only known extraterrestrial plant crime. Ultimately, however, Susan Orlean's book is about passion itself, and the amazing lengths to which people will go to gratify it. That passion is captured with singular vision in
The Orchid Thief, a once-in-a-lifetime story by one of our most original journalists.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Orchids and those who love them.......2007-09-16
This is an interesting book about the obsessions and lengths of the people who love and collect orchids. There are ups and downs in this account.
The story is well told. The main character is John Laroche, a huckster in trouble with Florida authorities for poaching orchids from public lands. Orlean tells Laroche's story, while using it as a springboard to examine the various aspects of the obsession with orchids some people have. There are stories of orchids being stolen from growers, certain strains fetching high prices from foreign buyers, and an obsession bordering on madness in collectors of the flower. There are very few lengths to which collectors and poachers will not go to get their hands on prize orchids.
Laroche himself is a complicated figure. On one hand, he is a criminal who has always tried to come up with get rich quick schemes to avoid working. He has a broken moral compass and thinks nothing of doing things to people not accepted by society. But, Orlean also explores the backstory that made Laroche who he is. We learn of his failed marriages, bad family life, and the crummy luck he has experienced. He comes out as being a complicated character. By the end of the book, I didn't know if I should root for or against him.
The main drawback is that Orlean sometimes goes into too much detail about side issues and minor stories. These digressions take away from the general flow of the book rather than enriching it.
This is a good nonfiction book, especially for those interested in environmental matters.
Good Writing.......2007-08-21
I expected this to be more about the Orchid Thief, so I was disappointed somewhat by Ms. Orlean's sashaying into Florida history and Seminole history.
When I came to the conclusion that it was as good a book as I'd heard it to be, I was happily surprised!
I've been introduced to hydroponic orchid growing, and it was important to get a feel of the hobby/art!
FORCED TO READ IT.......2007-07-23
this book really didnt keep my interest. but i had to read it for school. so yea.
Watch "Adaptation" after you read it.......2007-07-22
Actually, watch Being John Malkovich before you read it and Adaptation (Superbit Collection) afterwards.
Adaptation deals with the problems that Charlie Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage, had adapting this book into a screenplay. It is remarkably true to the book, and Meryl Streep is wonderful as Susan Orlean.
I read the book after seeing the film, and wish I had done it in reverse order.
Like many other reviewers, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but have nothing to add to their comments.
Interesting magazine article with a lot of filler........2007-01-04
This book is interesting yet, as has already been mentioned in other reviews, it probably should have stayed a magazine article. The book, which is already printed in large font, has a lot of sections that are obvious filler to increase the page count. I could forgive these off topic filler sections if they were at least entertaining but unfortunately they are not.
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Books Index
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