Mapping the Terrain of the Heart: Passion, Tenderness, and the Capacity to Love

Book Description

Charts six skills that are necessary for a stable love relationship: the capacities for erotic involvement, for merging, for idealization, for integration, for refinding, and for self-transcendence.

Customer Reviews:

Aim For Your Relationship Stars & Reach Them!.......2006-07-13

The first thing that struck me about Mapping the Terrain of the Heart was a sense of having come home to a place that really understood and clarified the beauty alongside the struggles of committed relationships. The next thing that struck me was the sense of hope and direction to be able to thrive in a relationship that has flaws as well as fortune. And finally, I was thrilled to learn how to turn anger into empathy, disappointment into clear-eyed forgiveness, and a developing love affair into a lasting committed relationship with happiness and certainty despite the anxieties that come with human love. I have been reading and re-reading and marking up and highlighting and learning from and gifting this book ever since I was given a copy. This book works! And I am convinced it is due to the writers' encouraging belief that each of us has passion, tenderness and the capacity to love, love long, love well, love brilliantly.

The Essential Book To Guide You Through Your Romantic Life........2001-10-01

In my personal quest to find romantic intimacy I have read dozens of books. This is simply the most profound, dead-on, flat-out brilliant book I have ever come across. "Mapping The Terrain of the Heart" will help you clarify if your ideals of romantic love are realistic or simply serving as a defense against finding intimacy. It will help you to understand your style of relating - whether you are a "merger hungry" or "merger wary." It will help you understand how you find "chemistry" with some people while others leave you cold. It will help you to understand why what excites you is healthy and how not to simply "find" the right relationship - but to "build" it. In an extremely readable and clear way the authors explain how psychoanalytic theory is a powerfully clarifying microscope for understanding the patterns that you may find yourself limited by. I have been re-reading this book for over ten years now and have come to think of it as my "romantic compass" for finding out if I may be heading for true north, or whether I'm lost in the desert. This book has transformed my knowledge of my self and and of those I have gotten close to.
Buy this book, it will help you to find what you're looking for.
It really will.

Help for those struggling in relationships.......1999-09-30

Mapping the Terrain is a wonderful resource for individuals who have difficulty staying in a relationship. It looks at the six capacities of loving; erotic involvement, merging, idealization, integration, refinding, and self-transcendence. This book will help you to identify the barriers to maintaining a relationship, why this happens, and what you can do about it. A great resource for individuals who fall in love but struggle to stay in love.

Best theoritical book there is in the field........1999-01-04

This is actually a reprint of Mapping the Terrain of the Heart; The Six Capacities That Guide the Journey of Love" (Item # 0201608650). Goldbart and Wallin are the authors of the original work, not editors of an anthology. This is the best description I've ever seen of the tasks to be worked on by couples in a committed relationship. Honeymoons will go sour for reasons embeded in the forming of the relationship. It is wise to know what's ahead, so you can plan for it. At least you will not be surprised by what unfolds. The basis for my opinion is extensive reading in the field and more personal experience than there is room for me to describe. The book is well written but terse; it is not an easy read.

The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives

Average customer rating:

Believing self-acceptance and God's grace
Thankfully, more of the same from Manning!
Passionately & Courageously Written
living as the people of Abba
The Tenderness of Jesus Wrapped in the Fierce Mercy of God

The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives
Brennan Manning
Manufacturer: HarperOne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0060724463
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Book Description

A Stirring Invitation to Accept God's Unfathomable Tenderness

Customer Reviews:

Believing self-acceptance and God's grace.......2005-07-09

Brennan Manning at his best: tenderly revealing the loving parental role that God is. The freedom Manning suggest from setting one's sail into parental grace, mercy, and love from God dispells the often lack of these qualities shaped by an increasingly dysfunctional family. Even the hard liner, "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind's made up" can see the radical transformation of one's life. Manning cuts across denominational, and non-denominational, dogma that is summed up in his restated theme from Luke 3:21-22, "You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you", and that we are adopted Sons into the family of God. I like Manning's one-liners through out his writing; among the best: "infinite tenderness limits rational finite thinking". Be prepared to live in trust, transparency, and compassion once you've bathed in this spiritual message.

Thankfully, more of the same from Manning!.......2003-01-31

Manning sometimes gets criticized as a "one trick pony". He is indeed a one-trick pony. I don't say it as a criticism, though, because his message is so consistently powerful. MANNING CONTINUES TO FIND KNEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE MIGHTY GRACE OF GOD TOWARD IMPOVERISHED PEOPLE. What could get old about that?

Manning has two core messages: 1) We are depraved people in need of rescue, and 2) God's grace is relentless in delivering that rescue. Since he first wrote "Ragamuffin Gospel", he has continued to explore these two themes from different angles. "Ruthless Trust" focused on the nature of true trust and our need to trust God. "The Signature of Jesus" focuses on what true discipleship looks like, the stamp of this loving God on the ragamuffin soul.

"The Wisdom of Tenderness" focuses on our need to "let go and let God", as John Wimber used to say. It is about living a life of letting God minister his love to us. The chapter titled "Fierce Mercy" is worth the price of the book alone. By the end of this chapter, when Manning wrote, "We're so poor that not even our poverty is our own," I felt as if I had *finally* grasped Manning's message (with my heart) to quit trying to earn God's grace and just let him give it to me.

I'm wired such that I'm trying to earn God's approval even when I think I'm not. Manning's message is such a breath of fresh air in our performance-based society. And its repetition in his various writings is a critical reminder of its importance. If we would be free, we must breathe this message frequently.

Passionately & Courageously Written.......2002-11-30

Passionately written, the words are aflame across the page.
His most searing and thought-provoking work to date.
Succinct statements that hits straight to the jugular and forces a reaction from the heart.

Yet, written and expressed with tenderness, compassion, not mawkishness, not soft love.

An unusual call upward to God.
An unusual revelation of what our God really is like.
A book to be read, pondered, meditated upon, reflected, and absorbed deeply.

It is a book for those who have been overfed with "Hollywood" Christianism and are now bloated with its false claims and retarded images of God and Jesus Christ.

It is a book that will warm your heart and draw you back to the flame of which you once were touched by, that of God's fiery and awesome love for you.

It is a book that will transform hearts that are ready and open for its message.

Brennan Manning fearlessly drives the stake into heartless religion, exposing its fraud and emptiness behind all its glitzy claims and glittering candy-trash.

This is a book written with courage.
A timely message for our generation.
It is not a "how-to" book emphasizing steps you have to take to experience change, but a book, that by exposing one's soul to its message without reserve, will cause a transformation.

It will shake your beliefs about a God you thought you knew.
It will rebuild a foundation of what God's love is like for you.
It will restoke, rekindle, and rebirth a fiery love for Jesus Christ.

It is not a message of Christianism and all its laws.
It is finally a message of Jesus Christ, Him and Him alone.

A must read...for all,
especially Christians.

living as the people of Abba.......2002-07-23

Brennan Manning writes: "Instead of a light volley of divine love followed by the heavy artillery of rule-keeping, Jesus' love for the unlovely must pierce the heart of every Christian."

In the "The Wisdom of Tenderness" Brennan Manning once again discusses the unfathomable love of God. By discussing the tender, pursuing love of Jesus, as well as the fierce mercy of our Abba, Manning seeks to point the way to how we should live as God's people in the twenty-first century.

Manning begins by giving the lie to the all too common, overly optimistic self-evaluation modern Christians have been giving themselves. In an era where many live by legalism instead of grace and love, it has become too easy to skew the holy "stat sheet" by moving the goal posts into a more favorable position.

Manning's main argument is that the Church at large has become so self-involved and inward, that we squabble while the world around us spiritually starves to death:

"When the primacy of love is subordinated to doctrinal correctness and orthodox exegesis, cool cordiality and polite indifference masquerade as love among theologians, biblical scholars, and faculties across the land. When absolute control and rigid obedience pose as love within the family and the local faith-community, we produce trained cowards rather than Christian persons."

What Manning suggests as solution to the horrid state of things is a return to Christians living as a people of tenderness. The example and presence of Jesus and his loving Abba are to be a model and motivation for believers:

"Because of the mysterious substitution of Christ for the Christian, each encounter with a brother or sister is a real encounter with the risen Lord, an opportunity to respond creatively to the gospel and mature in the wisdom of tenderness."

As usual, Manning's writing is top notch. He is a very talented author. More importantly, Brennan has fearlessly laid bare his soul in parts of this book. Others will no doubt find great healing and motivation in this book as a result. I know I did.

I give "The Wisdom of Tenderness" my highest recommendation.

The Tenderness of Jesus Wrapped in the Fierce Mercy of God.......2002-07-17

I am a rabid Manning fan. Unfortunately, his latest book does not quite measure up to his previous greats, such as The Ragamuffin Gospel and Ruthless Trust. In this book, the reader can feel the frustration and sorrow of Brennan Manning. Manning's convoluted critique of religion, christians, church and America borders on a tirade. Fortunately, such ramblings do not denigrate the wonderful message of a life of tenderness, gratitude, and mercy also found in the book.

The book teaches us that our lives as ragamuffins are transformed when we receive the infinite tenderness of Jesus, and give that same tenderness to others. Open your heart. Experience warm, caring and affectionate relationships. Your heart will grow tender. You will learn to live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness -- letting go of your cares and concerns and living each moment in awareness of the tender, loving and merciful God. Enjoy God's gift to the fullest. Read this book. Focus on its message of warmth and compassion.

Average customer rating:

Dangerous Book - but not in a good way.

Total straight-shooter

Brennan Manning at his best

Rev. Manning is preaching a counterfeit gospel - don't be fooled!!!!!

Great book, lousy publishing gimmick
The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus
Brennan Manning
Manufacturer: Revell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Christian Living | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Christology | Theology | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Manning, Brennan | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus

A Glimpse of Jesus : The Stranger to Self-Hatred

Ruthless Trust : The Ragamuffin's Path to God

The Wisdom of Tenderness : What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives

ASIN: 0800793390
Release Date: 2004-02-01

Book Description

Grant Borrows' life has just taken a drastic left turn. There's another man in the world wearing his face and living his life. What's more, the man he sees in the mirror is a stranger. Somehow, he's been Shifted -- his whole life fundamentally altered, in the space of a single breath. But the changes don't stop at skin-level. Inexplicably, he's able to affect objects around him by simply thinking about them. And as he soon learns, he's become the central figure in a vast web of intrigue that stretches from an underground global conspiracy to a prophecy dating back over seven thousand years, that tells of his coming. Enemies and allies find him at every turn, but one thing they all learn very quickly is that you don't want to push Grant Borrows too far... Can destiny be undone? The players are ready. The game is in motion. And the pace is Relentless. In the allegorical tradition of Tolkien and Lewis comes a powerful new myth for a new generation.

Customer Reviews:

Dangerous Book - but not in a good way........2007-06-28

I read mixed reviews for this book, so I decided to go to Barnes and Noble and see for myself what Brennan Manning really says. All I had to do is get to page three to see that Manning has fallen into the dangerous - indeed, damning - pit of cheap grace, which proudly asserts that God loves us unconditionally. God loves sinners. God is love, therefore He cannot hate. But that is an ignorant statement based on the fact that Manning does not understand that the God who is full of love is also incredibly holy, and requires all who come to Him by his grace through faith to repent. It appears that Mr. Manning has either painfully cut-and-pasted his own version of the Gospel, or either just entirely skipped over the sayings of Jesus that demand repentance and the forsaking of sin. If you want a book about how live the Christian life according to Biblical Standards, not modern ones, then buy The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer or The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee.
But whatever you do, don't get this one.

Total straight-shooter.......2007-03-03

This guy dares to speak the truth, even at the risk of offending the "church" or many in the church who want to skate by without experiencing the true person of Jesus and what he wants of us. I have never read a book so blunt, honest and profound when it comes to how Jesus loves us and wants the same kind of love to eminate from us. But, I warn, this is not a simple feel-good "God is love" kind of book; it is challenging, thought-provoking and very convicting. If you have ever been burned by the church or just feel uncomfortable about church, but still are seeking God, I highly recommend this book because it takes everything back to the basics (without being basic or overly-simplistic), which is who Jesus really is. Highly recommend to everyone!

Brennan Manning at his best.......2007-02-16

"Relentless tenderness" is a phrase worth pondering as well as "ruthless trust" is. Brennan, in his usual style and gift of love and intelligent
pondering of the Scripture has created another masterpiece to cherish.
Bask in Jesus' relentless tenderness and let your spirit soar and find the places that need to be opened to the Master's love.

Rev. Manning is preaching a counterfeit gospel - don't be fooled!!!!!.......2006-09-13

Fr. Brennan Manning is a Franciscan priest who attempted to marry without being dispensed from his vow of celibacy in 1982. He has since peddled a false gospel that is built around the idea that God's pardon is unconditional - a euphemism for saying that you can be forgiven for your sins without repenting and amending your life. This is a lie, and a defense mechanism Fr. Manning has evolved to assuage his guilty conscience. If you really want to seek the Mercy of God, I suggest you read "Divine Mercy in my soul", the diary of St. Faustina, avaulable here on Amazon.com. God's Mercy is endless, but you cannot be pardoned if you are not sorry; Fr. Manning's false gospel will do you no more spiritual good than it has done him. He needs your prayers and your pity - not your money or your reading time.

Great book, lousy publishing gimmick.......2005-08-19

Manning has never written a bad book, so this is no exception. However, I take great exception to Christian publishers' tactic of reissuing a book under a new title years later with no clue on the cover that this book has appeared before. This book was published as "Lion and Lamb" around 1986, and I didn't realize until I got home that what I was holding was a reissue. It also happened to me with John Guest's "In Search of Certainty" (original title), which was reissued as something else, and a book on contemporary Christian music. I've never seen this happen with secular books. Nevertheless, if you never read "Lion and Lamb," read this book. Manning is one of our sanest Christian writers.

Average customer rating:

My Favorite Cormier
mind-numbingly cliche
Tenderness
tenderness
Tenderness

Tenderness
Robert Cormier
Manufacturer: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Short Story Collections | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Issues | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

General | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Violence | Social Issues | Teens | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0385731337
Release Date: 2004-09-14

Book Description

EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD ERIC HAS just been released from juvenile detention for murdering his mother and stepfather. Now he’s looking for some tenderness—tenderness he finds in caressing and killing beautiful girls. Fifteen-year-old Lori has run away from home again. Emotionally naive but sexually precocious, she is also looking for tenderness—tenderness she finds in Eric. Will Lori and Eric be each other’s salvation or destruction?

“Cormier is in top form in this chilling portrait of a serial murderer. . . . Gripping.”—School Library Journal, Starred

An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults

Customer Reviews:

My Favorite Cormier.......2007-02-01

Eric Poole is eighteen years old and is being released from a juvenile prison. He's been in the prison for three years for the murder of his mother and stepfather. Most people believe his story--that he killed them because he was horribly abused. Police Lieutenant Jake Proctor does not believe this story. In fact, he suspects that Eric is a psychopath who is actually involved in the murders of two teenaged girls in addition to the murders of his mother and stepfather. Proctor is not happy Eric is being released.

Lori Cranston is a teenager with an alcoholic mother and an unstable home life. She tends to get fixated on guys, to see one and not be able to get him out of her mind until she kisses him. She is looking for someone to be kind to her.

When Lori sees on the TV news that Eric has been released from prison, she remembers a time years ago when she met him briefly and he was kind to her, and she becomes fixated on him. She needs to track him down, to kiss him and see if he will be the one to be kind to her.

When Lori does track down Eric, their lives become connected. Things may not work out the way Lori had hoped, though.

I enjoyed reading about these characters, although neither of them had an appealing personality. I absolutely loved the ending of the story; it was perfectly satisfying.

mind-numbingly cliche.......2007-01-27

I am reading Tenderness for a class on young adult literature that has been challenged as being "too edgy" for young readers. I have not read any of Cormier's other titles, but. By the end of the very first page I was bored, anxious, and dissapointed. Tenderness should be challenged as a read for young adults, not because of it's "disturbing and adult" content, but because it was written by an 83 yr old man with no idea what was going on in the minds of Gen Y teenagers, using some of the most obvious and overused cliches of all time - Oedipal teenage killer with no remorse, young troubled daughter in need of attention (drunk "beautiful" mother, abusive father roles) who "doesn't mind it" when older men look at her and touch her, getting-too-old for this cop who works on cold cases, haunted by the spector of a killer he once let go, blah blah blah. It was so out-of touch with the youth culture and mindset, so droolingly juvenile in writing style that I could barely put it down. It was like a study in What Not To Do When Writing For Teens. It should be taught to aspiring writers as an example, but never offered to teens looking to find something to relate to in this cold, unforgiving world. So, so dissapointed.

Tenderness.......2007-01-17

The only Robert Cormier book i have read before Tenderness was I Am the Cheese. I Am the Cheese is much more confusing, but Tenderness had the same type of writing that took a little extra thought to understand. I have never read a book like Tenderness before, i actually preferred not to, but now i will try the different books, and see how they turn out.

Eric Poole is a confusing character that is only understood when we look at what Lori has to say about him. I couldn't predict how things will turn out, but it did keep me wanting more.

tenderness.......2006-11-29

Robert Cormier is a great suspense writer. He kept the audience captivated and wanting more. At the end of every chapter, he left a cliff hanger, causing the reader to want to know what will happen next. Cormier used chapters to change the focus from one character to the other. Every other chapter is about Lori, but it is in first person. Then he switched to Eric, which is written in the third person perspective. There were a few chapters dedicated to the third person narrator, Lieutenant Proctor. Once Lori and Eric met, the chapters held the perspectives of both Lori and Eric with only a break in the writing to signify change in character. Cormier used italics to show Eric's thoughts since his story were told in the third person. Cormier did an excellent job showing the process in Eric's mentality as a serial killer. Cormier did not need to write about blood and guts, yet he still installed fear.

Tenderness.......2006-04-23

Cormier takes this beautiful word and turns it into something terrifying. Flashing between the viewpoints of two troubled teens, this harrowing novel reads like an assiduous character study, pulling no punches yet somehow engaging the reader's sympathy for these two memorable characters.

Troubled teens are nothing new in young adult literature, but here the protagontists are presented in such chilling detail that they don't really seem to belong to a novel marketed for children at all. Eric is a serial killer and the reader spends about half the novel seeing the world through his psycotic eyes, sometimes even rooting for him as he counts the days before his release from a juvenile detention center.

The other character, Lori, is almost as disturbing. A teen-age runaway, she is at the mercy of inexplicable fixations. She pursues them ruthlessly, with little regard to the consequences or her increasingly disjointed role in society.

In typical Cormier fashion, each of these character's actions are subject to merciless implications. Their inevitable meeting leads to an abrupt surprise ending that is throughly plausible and lingers in the memory like a nightmare. Readers will never feel the same about the word "tenderness" again.

Lion and Lamb/the Relentless Tenderness of Jesus

Average customer rating:

Fr. Brennan Manning preaches a counterfeit gospel - don't be fooled!!!!!
A Fierce and Gentle Love
A book that tells of God's great love for His people.
A Gift of God's Love
His Love...pure and simple

Lion and Lamb/the Relentless Tenderness of Jesus
Brennan Manning
Manufacturer: Chosen Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Prayer | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Devotionals | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Meditations | Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0800790839

Customer Reviews:

Fr. Brennan Manning preaches a counterfeit gospel - don't be fooled!!!!!.......2006-09-13

A Fierce and Gentle Love.......2003-04-16

This is an amzing book that has really made me question things. Why do we believe what we believe about Christ? I truly believe that if we are seeking to know Jesus Christ with all of our hearts that he will not let us harbor false images and thoughts of him. That's what this book showed me. The love that Jesus has for us is so much more than we can understand. He is so gentle with us, like a lamb, but, like a lion, he will chase us down to reveal himself to us.

A book that tells of God's great love for His people........2001-08-25

This book is a really wonderful one. It tells of Christ's great love for His people. It reminds us, that God's love will never fail us, even if others do.

A Gift of God's Love.......2001-08-14

I don't know how many copies of this book I have bought over the years. I have given away so many, I cannot begin to count. WARNING! This book will change your life!! It is as radical as Jesus original message was in His time.

Brennan Manning's way of telling the Story of God's Love is warm and personal and yet convicts some of the religious establishment priorities. This book will give you a very real perspective on how much fun and full of love God is. It will give you a sense of peace with what God would have us do.

Get more than one copy, because God will whisper to you to give copies to others.

His Love...pure and simple.......2001-02-27

"Our Life in Christ. It's not an easy thing to grasp. Maybe you understand it only by living it. And maybe Augustine was right on the money when he wrote: 'Give me someone who loves and he will understand what I am trying to say. Give me someone whose heart yearns, who feels the nostalgia of loneliness in exile, who is athirst and sighs for the fatherland eternal, give me such a one and he will understand what I am trying to say. But if I must explain myself to ice-cold indifference, he will not understand.'"

The preceding quotation is from Brennan Manning's "Lion and Lamb - the Relentless Tenderness of Jesus." Lion and Lamb is a remarkable book from a remarkable author. My copy is especially remarkable ... it was given to me as a gift by a total stranger...and I am eternally grateful for it.

I had previously read Manning's "The Ragamuffin Gospel," which is a great book in its own right. Yet "Lion and Lamb" holds a special place in my list of all-time favorite books. Few books are as packed with so much deeply freeing food for thought.

"Lion and Lamb" is all about how much Jesus loves us. Brennan uses personal illustrations from his own life and weaves them into tried and true teachings from years past to paint a picture of how much Jesus loves us. One example of how skillfully and movingly Manning extrapolates Biblical truths is found in the following excerpt:

"My brothers and sisters, Jesus is our God. He and the Father are one. He is the image of the invisible God. Our Jesus image makes all the difference. If we let the Lion of Judah run loose as Lord of our lives, He will not want us to be poor, broken, or sad. Yet He may allow it, knowing that in these conditions we are more likely to let Him make us rich, whole, and happy. If you let the real Jesus into your life, the God whose supreme desire is your happiness and fulfillment, you'll want to throw out anything that is going to stop you from reaching His Kingdom. The brutal hyperbole's about plucking out the eye, cutting off the hand or foot, become understandable in this context-and in no other. Jesus' teaching is full of wild exaggerations, for Jesus is a wild man. And He says to us, 'It has pleased My Father to give you the kingdom.'"

Book Description

Apartheid. It's about suffering, about violence. Here are ten stories and autobiographical accounts, by southern African writers of various races. Some of the writers -- Nadine Gordimer, Mark Mathabane, Doris Lessing -- are well-known; all of them deserve to be. Their stories, individually and as a group, create a moving, sometimes shockingly vivid portrait of what it feels like to grow up in a land where racism is the law."A stunning group of [ten] stories and autobiographical accounts [by such authors as Doris Lessing and Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer] which vividly evoke what it means to come of age in South Africa under apartheid. Whether a portrayal of a major event in a character's life, or a simple recounting of the small details of everyday living, each story makes a powerful impact [and] will remain in the mind of the reader. This title should be in every YA collection." —V.

1988 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)
1989 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)

Customer Reviews:

Life of Apartheid.......2007-04-26

This collection of short stories tells about the pain of living under the system of apartheid, from all points of view. Some of these stories are about black people who have to live as inferiors for their entire lives, while others are about white people who realize what kind of system this really is. No matter what side the speaker of the story is on, all of the stories tell of realization and pain and they exhibit over and over again what a bad way to live apartheid was.

I liked that each story was slightly different--some were about the rich, others about the poor, and every author had a different theme and a different purpose. I didn't feel like I was reading the same thing over and over. I tend to not like short stories, though, because they don't have the time to develop the characters to the extent I'd like. I'm always left wondering what happened to the characters after each story ends.

An eye-opening book........2006-12-02

I was forced to read this book when I was in 6th grade; a few of the stories were selected by our reading teacher, and we were to read and comment on them. Given that it was a school assignment, I was not looking forward to it. However, I ended up devouring the entire book that same night. Growing up in a suburban middle-class white neighborhood meant I had never encountered the issues of apartheid and racism that the characters in this novel endured. Needless to say, I cried while reading the majority of those stories. It really opened my eyes to a world very different from my own, where it wasn't safe to be black in a country that was predominantly black. For the last four years, I taught special education in a junior high and a high school, and I used at least one of these stories each year to give my students a different perspective, and to help teach empathy. I highly recommend this book.

A fun read!.......2003-04-06

This book was very interesting to read. It consists of stories written by different authors that are all about South Africa and its justice system. My personal favorite story in this book was called, "the toilet." Sometimes the stories dragged on and were annoying, but overall its a fun read.

This book is a Must read!.......1999-11-10

In this book the story of each person is vividly told. This book is a true tear jerker, but in a very good way. I beleive that it should be read in every classroom in the world.

Average customer rating:

Prose excellent, dialogue dreadful.
Murder & mayhem in the Canadian frontier!
Fast-moving and suspenseful
Multiple characters, multiple plot lines, well-juggled.
Not a Beach Book...

The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel
Stef Penney
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Canadian Detectives | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1416540741

Book Description

A brilliant and breathtaking debut that captivated readers and garnered critical acclaim in the United Kingdom, The Tenderness of Wolves was long-listed for the Orange Prize in fiction and won the Costa Award (formerly the Whitbread) Book of the Year.

The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered. Laurent Jammett had been a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company before an accident lamed him four years earlier. The same accident afforded him the little parcel of land in Dove River, land that the locals called unlucky due to the untimely death of the previous owner.

A local woman, Mrs. Ross, stumbles upon the crime scene and sees the tracks leading from the dead man's cabin north toward the forest and the tundra beyond. It is Mrs. Ross's knock on the door of the largest house in Caulfield that launches the investigation. Within hours she will regret that knock with a mother's love -- for soon she makes another discovery: her seventeen-year-old son Francis has disappeared and is now considered a prime suspect.

In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the crime and to the township -- Andrew Knox, Dove River's elder statesman; Thomas Sturrock, a wily American itinerant trader; Donald Moody, the clumsy young Company representative; William Parker, a half-breed Native American and trapper who was briefly detained for Jammett's murder before becoming Mrs. Ross's guide. But the question remains: do these men want to solve the crime or exploit it?

One by one, the searchers set out from Dove River following the tracks across a desolate landscape -- home to only wild animals, madmen, and fugitives -- variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, and a forgotten Native American culture before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.

In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humor into an exhilarating thriller; a panoramic historical romance; a gripping murder mystery; and, ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, an epic for the ages.

Customer Reviews:

Prose excellent, dialogue dreadful........2007-09-25

I wanted to like this book, given its interesting setting, time period and characters. Unfortunately, I found much of it to be a painful slog. Author Stef Penny is an able writer of prose, but her dialogue is stiff, boring and unvarying from character to character. I've found this to be true of many writers -- the inability to write both fluid prose and realistic dialogue -- and it's too often true for young authors and debut novels. Still, the fact that plonky dialogue is common doesn't make it any nicer to read. Overall, this novel has an interesting plot, some well-rounded characters (Mrs. Ross is complex and intriguing), and enough portentious leads to take you from one chapter to the next. It offers good, solid writing and structure, and it comes across as fresh and original. Readers less particular than I might not even notice any problem when the characters open their mouths, but for me the reading experience was ruined by just about everything that appeared between quotation marks.

Murder & mayhem in the Canadian frontier!.......2007-09-17

I like authors who treat the readers as if we have some intelligence! There are many subtleties to this story. I enjoyed moving along with the story as more details unfolded. Penney's descriptions of her characters are so articulate that we can almost read their minds, so where a plot may seem to dangle, all we have to do is think of who the character is and surmise.
I was drawn to the cover and title of this book, therefore is was a bit puzzling to me where the wolf theme related. All I could come up with was that, as with her chapter headings, there was some sarcasm to it. Wolves are very social and nurturing of their own. The humans in this story were viscious on many levels and the ones living any length of time in the snowy wilderness became barbaric, even.
The bone tablet was simply an enigma. Did it ever truly "exist"?
I liked this book from the beginning and found it more engaging as I read. A very good first novel! Brava, Stef!

Fast-moving and suspenseful.......2007-09-16

Great book - my husband started reading it and has it in his hands whenever he has a spare minute - he is not a huge fiction reader, so that is saying something. Great characterizations and gripping storyline ... Last of the Mohicans meets Hercule Poirot?

Multiple characters, multiple plot lines, well-juggled........2007-08-30

The setting of THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES is the Northwest Territory of Canada. A trapper, Laurent Jamment, has been murdered and Francis Ross a local youth who has also disappeared, is one of the main suspects. Tracks lead north into the wilderness.

Several characters head out after Francis Ross, including Donald Moody, a Hudson Bay official, and Jacob, his Indian guide. At first Moody is one of the most sympathetic characters in the book. He's not prepared for the rigors of life in the wild, plus he has sort of an inferiority complex. He's also in love with Susannah, Andrew Knox's daughter. Knox is like the mayor of Caulfield, the biggest town in the area.

The first man arrested in the murder investigation is William Parker, a half-breed voyageur, who was seen searching Laurent Jamment's cabin. When a Hudson Bay official uses torture to pry the truth out of Parker, Andrew Know releases him. Shortly thereafter Francis's mother and Parker follow the others into the wilderness.

There are dozens of characters in THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES, most of whom have their own viewpoint; however, Mrs. Ross is the only one who speaks to us in first person. There are also several plot threads. In addition to the murder plot, we have a budding romance between Mrs. Ross and Parker and a homosexual relationship between Francis and Laurent Jamment (portrayed in Francis`s memory). Then we have the Seton sisters, two sisters who disappeared several years prior to the murder, while out berry picking. Throw in the bone with mysterious markings on it that Francis took from Laurent's belongings and we have almost as many plot threads as characters.

To complicate matters more fully, Mrs. Ross has a mysterious past. At one time she was confined to an insane asylum where she was a laudanum addict. Occasionally, Stef Penney will flash back to those times.
Also, way out in the middle of the wilderness there's a fundamentalist Lutheran settlement called Himmelvanger (The Fields of Heaven) and several characters there have their own plot thread as well.

Somehow, Stef Penney is able to balance all of these different viewpoints and plot lines into a coherent narrative. My soul problem was with the ending. It fizzles to say the least. We find out who murdered Laurent Jamment, but several of the other plot lines are left hanging.

Not a Beach Book..........2007-08-29

While I thoroughly enjoyed this book once I got into it, it was a challenge to figure out what was going on. The story itself is really interesting and the setting is fabulously well-drawn, but there are so many names to remember that it is kind of tough going, at times. The first 50 pages or so are completely hard to follow, but stick with it and it will begin to gel later on. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view, and while interesting, it makes for a lot of head scratching. The names of many of the characters are similar, and we often go through 100 pages or more before a character is mentioned again. I would recommend this to the more sophisticated reader. This is not a book to be casually leafed through while sitting on the beach at Waikiki. One other thing, I can't imagine why the publishers decided to make this book a "summer release". The setting is so dark, cold, and snowy that it's difficult to even imagine what these people are feeling as we are suffocating of heat here in the Pacific Northwest in August. Overall, after a slow start, this book got under my skin and is now one of my all-time favorites. But it's not for everyone.

Average customer rating:

Otis Redding: Try a Little Tenderness
Geoff Brown
Manufacturer: Canongate Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1841950866

Book Description

Otis Redding's definitive southern soul voice resonates down the years as a thing of profound beauty and unfathomable emotional depth. His unique vocal delivery gave Motown's pop artists a run for their money, while his stage presence matched pioneering funk magus -- and fellow Georgia native -- James Brown for sheer entertainment value. Crucial to the success of the Stax label, Otis quickly rose from obscurity to mainstream crossover fame, thanks chiefly to his dizzying performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. In this, the first serious book on the soul legend, Geoff Brown talks to Stax illuminati Booker T. Jones, Isaac Hayes, and David Porter, plus many others, about Redding's tragically brief life and incredible talent.

Fierce Tenderness: A Feminist Theology of Friendship

Average customer rating:

Fierce Tenderness: A Feminist Theology of Friendship
Mary E Hunt
Manufacturer: The Crossroad Publishing Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Philosophy | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Feminist Theory | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0824511786

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books