Book Description
If, like many Americans, you believe the ongoing tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, you need to read this book. In the coming years and decades, the safety of your region, your town, your home may depend on the warnings you'll encounter on these pages. That's because the exact same conditions that created the Katrina catastrophe and destroyed New Orleans are being replicated right now along virtually every inch of U.S. coastline.
In The Ravaging Tide, Mike Tidwell, a renowned advocate for the environment and an award-winning journalist, issues a call to arms and confronts us with some unsettling facts. Consider:
- In the next seventy-five years, much of the Florida peninsula could lie under ocean water.
- So could much of Lower Manhattan, including all of the hallowed ground zero area.
- Major hurricanes like Katrina, scientists say, are becoming much more frequent and more powerful.
- Glacier National Park in Montana will have to change its name, as it is rapidly losing all of its thirty-five remaining glaciers.
- The snows atop Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, so memorably evoked in the Hemingway story, have already disappeared.
The fault, Tidwell argues, lies mostly with the U.S. government and the energy choices it has encouraged Americans to make over the decades. Those policies are now actively bringing rising seas and gigantic hurricanes -- the lethal forces that killed the Big Easy -- crashing into every coastal city in the country and indeed the world. The Bush administration's own reports and studies (some of which it has tried to suppress) explicitly predict more intense storms and up to three feet of sea-level rise by 2100 due to planetary warming. The danger is clear: Whether the land sinks three feet per century (as in New Orleans over the past 100 years) or sea levels rise three feet per century (as in the rest of the world over the next 100 years), the resulting calamity is the same.
Although Mike Tidwell sounds the clarion in The Ravaging Tide, this is ultimately an optimistic book, one that offers a clear path to a healthier and safer world for us and our descendants. He writes of trend-setting U.S. states like New York and California that are actively cutting greenhouse gases. And he heeds his own words: In one delightful personal chapter, he takes us on a tour of his suburban Washington, D.C., home and demonstrates how he and many of his neighbors have weaned themselves from the fossil-fuel lifestyle. Even when the government is slow to change, there are steps we as families can take to, yes, change the world.
Customer Reviews:
Climate Change is Real .......2007-02-21
The flooding of New Orleans resulted from a combination of effects: subsiding land, sea level increase, destruction of protecting wetlands, and of course a violent storm. Tidwell's thesis is that sea level will continue to rise and tropical storms and hurricanes will increase in intensity, all as a result of climate change. The entire East Coast of the United States will be as vulnerable as was New Orleans. Most of Miami and the rest of Florida average just a few feet above sea level. While New York City is mostly on higher ground, the author observes that the infrastructure, the subways system for example, is well below ground.
As world temperatures rise, melting or collapsing glaciers will add water to the ocean. Higher world temperatures will also mean that the water already in the ocean will expand and cause an additional rise in the sea level. Thus, land that is today at or slightly above sea level will become land that is below sea level. Certainly, whether or not storms grow more intense (this is still being debated in the scientific community), global warming will increase the level of the ocean. All of our coastal cities may go the way of New Orleans.
Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in which it stated that the Earth is warming and that most of the warming is a result of human activity. This is also the overwhelming view of the scientific community. My first encounter with the effects of global warming was a hike in the 1980s to the foot of the Paradise Glacier on Mt. Ranier to visit the ice caves. I was disappointed to find that the famous caves were mostly gone. The caves had disappeared because the glacier itself was retreating. We now know that glaciers all over the world are melting. A recent headline caught my eye; "Iceberg off New Zealand becomes tourist mecca," AP, November 21, 2006. The residents of New Zealand could look out their windows to see pieces of Antarctica floating by.
It is not clear what it will take to get our US government to take steps to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. We have already lost one major city. Will we have to see a few more go before we take action? Tidwell does a good job of presenting the need for individual and governmental action.
I also recommend "With Speed and Violence" by Fred Pearce. a book about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming.
A Great, must-read book.......2006-12-30
I loved this book so much that I've read the first chapter aloud to three appreciative people on the phone, and I'm also planning to buy a copy for every Maryland state legislator. (Let me know if you do the same in your state.)
Mike Tidwell writes beautifully. Even though I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, and heard Bill McKibbon speak, I learned plenty from The Ravaging Tide that I hadn't already heard before. Tidwell shares history, science, policy, despair (when we don't act on clean energy policy), and promise (when we do).
Yes, it may be odd, but I was walking (not driving!) down sidewalks while reading this book. I couldn't put it down, until the very last page.
Mike Tidwell is a former journalist and travel writer for the Washington Post and the National Geographic Traveler.
Not the Best Book on the Subject.......2006-12-09
When I ordered this book, I had great hopes for its contents. I was looking for a good "summer project" book that dealt with global warming and alternative energy. It was to be used by a high school environmental class.
What I wound up with was a book that dealt with both subjects, as well as with the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but it was so poorly written and biased that I would not be able to use it in a classroom setting. The writing in the book was extremely redundant; repeating the same information over and over again. I think the book could have been written without the redundancy in about half the number of pages. And, that change would have made the book much more readable and enjoyable.
In addition, the author clearly has an agenda and, while he may think he is presenting his case objectively, he falls far short. It is easy to agree, for the most part, with much of the science presented. It is his premise that falls short. I am a dedicated environmentalist, and found many of his solutions to be totally unworkable.
He describes his work with his own home to reduce his carbon footprint. One method he used was to heat his home with a corn burning stove. It sounds good, but how many Americans, who drive three blocks to a store, will put up with hauling 5 gallon buckets of corn to their stoves on a regular basis. Not many I would propose, unless they have a lot of free time. Some of his other suggestions, as well, are equally unworkable on a large scale.
Finally, I have a problem with his bashing Bush constantly. I am no fan of Bush, but he is not the sole reason that the US has done little to nothing about its carbon footprint and global warming. Bush is a part of the problem, but lets put the blame where it needs to go. Clinton did little during his term and the same can be said for the elder Bush. Also, the Congress has been woefully inept at dealing with the issue.
There are a number of books about this subject that are well written and objective. This is neither. I would suggest you save your money and buy one of the more comprehensive books available.
Hard to Believe.......2006-11-27
Sorry ... this book is neither a parable nor a polemic - it's just another eco-manipulator at work. Tidwell says that Katrina destroyed New Orleans. Of course it did not. It was the levee failures, not the surge tide, that doomed the city. This point is apparently far too subtle for Tidwell to understand, and yet it is crucial. Perhaps we need to change the world to prevent future surge tides, but we definitely need to improve the levees - and the disasterously corrupt local political atmosphere that allowed the city to drown - if we want to save New Orleans.
And of course, this is one of the many examples of Tidwell's raging hypocracy. He never asks the basic question, why save New Orleans at all? If Tidwell is right, it makes no sense to repopulate it. If the city has subsided to the point where it basically replaces the marshes it once drained in a move that accelerated the Katrina disaster, why not simply let nature take its course and allow the flooded land to become the new buffer? We are not lessening any human tragedy by helping people move right back onto the "landing strip" (Tidwell, demonstrating his utter lack of imagination, uses this metaphor a dozen times in the book) for the next Katrina.
And by the way, where was the 2006 Katrina? Tidwell virtually guarantees a cycle of doom, with each year bringing more and more devastation caused by global warming. And yet, why wasn't New Orleans swamped in 2006? Why weren't Miami and Savanah and New York destroyed too? What's that? You can't use climate changes to predict the weather? But that's virtually the entire basis for Tidwell's book.
That and, as noted above, his shameless hypocracy. Another small example (there are too many to count) - throughout the book, he cites reports by insurance companies that say the cost and impact of bad weather are increasing because of global warming. But then, when he wants to have a corn granery built in his town to make his life easier, he discovers that insurance companies won't cover the risk without a huge premium. This decision - shared, Tidwell tells us, by every company he contacted - threatens his green goodness.
What would a hypocrite do? Of course - when the insurance companies agrees with Tidwell's premise, they are right - in fact, they are unimpeachable proof of his agrument. But when they don't do what he wants, the very same paragons of truth suddenly become idiots.
If you want to know how Tidwell ultimately prevailed (by having his fellow-citizens assume the cost of the risk that he, in his eco-purity, could not possibly be expected to pay), you will have to slog through the book on your own.
Good luck. But that's not all you will live through, in all liklihood.
In just the last 30 years, we have survived so much that the eco-manipulators have claimed would kill us - global cooling, nuclear power, nuclear winter, nuclear war, nuclear waste, the loss of the ozone layer, DDT, swine flu, avian flu, the Ebola virus, "hot spot" viruses, "Frankenstein" foods, and mercury in tuna, in tooth fillings and in vaccines, to name just a few - that either global warming will be the BIG ONE, as we were assured very positively that all the others were as well, or we'll use our inventiveness and imagination to find a solution that doesn't kill us ... as Tidwell and his kind move onto the next disaster waiting to be uncovered and sold to a gullible public.
Alarming Yet Hopeful.......2006-09-20
This is a highly emotional work. Mike Tidwell predicted the disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita several years before they happened, and he is justifiably angry that his warnings were not heeded. In The Ravaging Tide Tidwell expands on his earlier work to explain why human activities such as building levees actually increased the destruction at New Orleans, and to warn that other coastal areas now face the same sort of threat.
At times Tidwell waxes somewhat repetitive, making the same point over and over again, but this stems from the overwhelming frustration he feels over public and government inaction. He also relies heavily on secondary sources such as Jared Diamond's Collapse (to which he refers repeatedly) so that those of us who have read that work feel Tidwell's own work is little more than a condensed version of other books.
Tidwell is strongest when he concentrates on explaining how so much of what we face from climate change can be alleviated or even avoided through common sense measures, such as using more energy efficient appliances or requiring energy using companies to upgrade to already existing and far more environment friendly technology. He is also at his most eloquent when condemning the fecklessness of the Bush Administration on energy policy and climate change.
Tidwell's work, like those of Jared Diamond, Tim Flannery, Eugene Linden, and Elizabeth Kolbert, should be read by everyone concerned for the future of our world.
Book Description
Charlie does not want to give up his Binky! It makes him feel warm and cozy and he doesn'st want to do without it. But Mommy doesn'st like Charlie'ss Binky. It is too hard for her to understand him when he talks with it in his mouth, it is always getting lost, and it makes eating quite a challenge. Charlie'ss Mom suggests they make a Binky box to keep the Binky in during the day. Even though it feels strange at first, Charlie learns to do without his Binky and declares he is a big boy now!
Customer Reviews:
GREAT BOOK.......2007-08-01
I bought this book and read it to my son only one time. I replaced the characters name with my son's name and he identified with it so much he hid the book and I can't find it anywhere. During the story he kept saying, "just like me Mommy." After I read it, it disapeared. I am replacing it today. I think this book will work better than Bye Bye Binky, it's more realistic.
Customer Reviews:
Is the Chinese guy the father?.......2006-06-01
I will die if Frank Hollin doesnt tell me.
Frank I emplore you.
Remeber that time in Fair Hope when.................. ehhh never mind
Laughing All the Way.......2004-07-31
In the beginning, I despised Hollon's protagonist, Barry Munday. Did I want to spend time with this sex obsessed man who doesn't like his only friend, doesn't particularly like himself, or his girlfriend, or her dog, Boner?
Well, yes, I decided. Somehow I was hooked and had to keep reading.
Happily, I discovered my disdain for Munday was a credit to Hollon's fine writing because I went from hating Barry Munday to loving him and laughing all the way.
Absolutely fabulous!.......2003-11-07
Frank Turner Hollon is brillant. I enjoy reading dark humor and this is the best I have ever read. I am going to give copies to friends for Christmas. ENJOY!!!!
Castration Has Never Been So Funny.......2003-10-17
Thirty-three year old Barry Munday is single minded in his pursuit of casual meaningless sex, but his life changes forever when an unfulfilled sexual encounter with a beautiful teenage girl meets with her angry, trumpet wheedling father in a darkened theater. Upon waking up in a hospital Barry discovers that his most prized possessions, his family jewels, have been stolen. His testicles, irreparably damaged, have been surgically removed.
Reevaluating his life, Barry realizes that work has been something to be avoided, he doesn't particularly like his best friend, and he will never have children. Things seem to go from bad to worse for Barry. He is chased out of a gay bar by a group of midget wrestlers, and his ex-girlfriend's dog has taken to defecating on his front stoop. But Barry is soon lifted from wallowing in a pit of self-despair when Ginger Farley, a woman he can't remember having sexual relations with, sues him for paternity. Ironically through the loss of his testicles Barry is transformed into more of a man than he might have otherwise become.
"Life is a Strange Place" is the fourth published novel for Frank Turner Hollon; an Alabama lawyer turned author. Layered with humor and sentimentality, Hallon skillfully weaves his sometimes goofy tale of a man with no balls who discovers there is more to the meaning of life than just planting his seed.
Beyond funny.......2003-10-16
This book is exceptional. It made me laugh, cry, and feel empathy for the characters in the six hours it took to read this book. I really don't even have the words to describe how this book made me feel. It is a very quirky, quick paced, comical book. The neuroticism of the characters make you realize that your life is exceptional. I would recommend this book to any and everyone.
Customer Reviews:
Being different and "strange" is often a requirement for success, read about it here.......2007-08-18
In this book, Cable puts forward a very interesting idea that more managers should have the courage to take seriously and perhaps even execute. The point is that managers should make a concerted effort to hire people that are "strange" rather than those that are similar to all other potential hires. His point is that conventional thinking and execution is inherently limited in the level of success that it can achieve. By strange, he does not mean "weird" or disturbed, the term is used in the sense of being capable of doing constructive and successful thinking outside the box.
Several examples of companies that have adopted such methods and are very successful are presented. One of the best is an explanation of the career of major league baseball general manager Billy Beane. Beane's position is that the standard criteria used to evaluate baseball talent are simplistic and incorrect. Since he rose to the position of general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Beane has fielded a team that ranks at the bottom in terms of salary and near the top in terms of wins. Much of his emphasis is on the "quality at-bat" where a player forces the pitcher to make extra pitches and is willing to accept a base-on-balls, even when there are runners on base.
Since this is a skill undervalued by all other teams, this has allowed Beane to acquire players for much less than other teams are willing to pay them. By molding the team in that image, he has developed a very successful team, although the Athletics have had a difficult time winning games in the playoffs. Given the current financial inequities that exist in major league baseball, this is truly a major success story that others should pay attention to.
Another example is the policy of Home Depot to hire contractors to work in the appropriate sections of the store. Therefore, when the do-it-yourself customer comes in, the person helping them is very knowledgeable and can provide the highest level of customer service. This service translates into an enormous competitive advantage over other stores and can increase sales several orders of magnitude over the extra salary expenses.
To his additional credit, Cable also is clear in stating that hiring "strange" employees is not for everyone. It requires courage to be willing to adopt a novel business or a non-traditional approach to an old one. In nearly all cases, the initial expenses are higher than in other areas and exterior observers are generally very skeptical of the new and novel ways of doing business.
I once participated in a faculty development seminar entitled, "A Whack on the Side of the Head." The purpose was to try to get us to think of new and novel ways to present our material. This book reminded me of that seminar, demonstrating that while going down a different path can be extremely challenging, it can also be very rewarding. From personal experience, those rewards are more than monetary; there is a form of satisfaction in being successfully different that is like no other. Perhaps the key to your success can be found in this book.
Good read.......2007-07-24
This book clearly articulates a strategically important concept. As the Chief Strategy Officer of a company in an industry that seldom dares to be strange, I hope that no one else in my industry reads this book. Implementing the ideas in this book will become my competitive advantage.
Yes, you really *do* want your workforce to be strange..........2007-07-14
The correct platitude often offered up by a company is that their people are their most important asset and competitive advantage. But in reality, most staff is like electricity... you can't run your company without them, and it's the entry level cost of doing business. In Change To Strange: Create a Great Organization by Building a Strange Workforce, Daniel M. Cable examines how to create a "strange" workforce that actually *is* a competitive advantage over your rivals. It all comes down to your definition of "strange"...
Contents:
Preface; Be Strange. Be Very Strange.; Shine a Flashlight into the Black Box That Exists Between Your Workforce and Beating Your Competition; Organizational Outcomes - How Do I Know I Am Winning in the Way I Want to Win?; Performance Drivers - What Must Customers Notice About Us So That We Win?; Strange Workforce Deliverables - What Our Workforce Does to Make Customers Notice and Love Us; Job Specific Strangeness - Different Deliverables from Different Jobs; Strange Workforce Architecture - What Systems Will Produce the Deliverables I Need From My Workforce?; Strange Workforce Architecture - Breaking Out From the Pack; Strange Workforce Architecture - Taking the Next Step; The Magic of Metrics - Creating and Implementing Measurement Systems;Conclusion; Index
The "strange" that Cable talks about here is a workforce that obsesses about one or two key items that make a difference to the customer. For example, Whole Foods has a workforce that is obsessive about their product and presentation. These people can tell you just about anything you want to know about what they sell, because they believe in it completely. Their hiring systems are geared around making sure that new people coming into the system share that same obsessiveness, and the group is rewarded based on how well each person does. If you're not pulling your weight or if you're not obsessed like everyone else, you'll wash out. It doesn't mean you're not a hard worker or aren't cut out for working in food retail. It just means that you're not "strange" in the way you need to be to work at Whole Foods. This differentiator often is considered crazy or uncopyable by the competition. But since the customer loves it, Whole Foods has a niche all to themselves. And their people truly *are* a competitive advantage for them.
The other issue that makes this difficult is the measuring and metrics. Getting information from your customers about the few things you want to be strange about is hard work. The numbers often aren't easily obtainable without putting some effort into it. Which is another reason competitors don't want to follow that direction, and why changing your workforce to a strange workforce isn't easy. But if you want your company to stand out and be different/strange, it's a requirement to be able to track those factors and measure your people against them. Otherwise you may end up with good solid people, but just not ones that are strange in the areas in which you want to be viewed as unique.
This book also struck me as something you can do for yourself and your skills. Perhaps you want to be known as someone with an obsessive attention to deadlines, design, or quality. You could use this same technique to find your own strange quality/qualities, figure out how to measure it, and them shape yourself into a competitive advantage over others...
While I don't expect an overwhelming majority of companies to run right out and change their HR departments to match this model, reading Change To Strange will at least open up that small window of doubt about whether you really are hiring people who are a competitive advantage for you and your company.
If you treat your employees the same as everyone else treats theirs how can your company be unique?.......2007-06-23
Companies often give a lot of lip service to the value of their employees but then go about treating and using everyone just about like every company treats and uses its employees. That is, with indifference and standardized "best" practices. Unsurprisingly, when an organization treats its people just about the same as every other company treats its employees (as inputs to be standardized and minimized), its dreams of having the company be something special, valuable, and unique are seldom to never realized.
Daniel M. Cable tells us that only a strange workforce, that is one that doesn't do things like everyone else, one that knows and has confidence in its uniqueness and specialness and in its goals and methods, can create something that is special, unique, valuable, and with a sustainable (ongoing - but adapting) advantage in the marketplace. Cable explains how and why your workforce can become something valuable and a driving force behind your success.
He starts off the book showing us how we too often treat our employees and the whole HR process as a kind of black box that just happens. We assume that if we are following the laws and standardized HR processes and avoiding being sued we are doing a good job. When we turn things around and start to view this whole concept the way the author frames it we can see that this kind of idea is indeed absurd. It is like building a process to build standardized widgets that claim no special qualities in the marketplace and then later wondering why, despite our fine leadership, those widgets fail to gain special attention in the market place or market dominance.
What I like about this book is the way Cable plays with our perceptions along the way. This is not your standard business book. He asks us questions that seem odd at first, and then we realize that is the point. Have you ever looked at the back of your hand and for some reason your perception changes and it looks a different size to you and in some ways quite different than it ever had before? That is what this book will help you achieve with your workforce. The author admits that building a "strange" workforce takes a great deal of effort and probably will take some time to achieve, but if you want to be regarded as special by your customers you have to be special. And to be strange (not normal - not typical - not ordinary) you have to have strange people working for you who have a strange sense of mission. This requires you to hire strangely, train strangely, measure performance strangely, and provide strange products and services (that is, surprisingly good and surprisingly desired products and services).
Cable provides a simple framework for this complex process and shows us how achieving this strangeness will get us noticed in the marketplace, allow us to satisfy our customers, and avoid the stagnation that often comes with initial success. The old tragic story of sticking with what works until it kills you has to go.
One of the great complaints among employees today is that they don't matter to management. Employees see through the rhetoric and that is why most companies are not only boring to work for, they are boring in the marketplace. Here is a way to turn that around and energize your company by unleashing the real power in your workforce. Of course, once you head down this path, not all your employees will go with you and there will be some significant turnover. Even good "ordinary" employees have to go. Because they provide inertia against becoming successfully strange.
So, get strange.
People are Strange...Take Advantage to One-Up the Competition.......2007-06-19
"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is probably one of the business world's most overused malapropos, in particular, within the context of a team perceived as blindly following a leader who may appear woefully misguided. The use of this phrase is understandably avoided in this book, but Daniel M. Cable, Professor of Management at the University of North Carolina, shows that such outsider perceptions may be warranted when it comes to a truly effective workforce. The concept of a "strange" workforce is one that Cable expounds upon with alacrity in his new book, as he evangelizes that this is the optimal way for a company to build and maintain a competitive advantage.
As I was reading the book in depth, I couldn't help but think that Cable was applying his principles to his own writing. He first discusses how consensus within a workforce simply reinforces mediocrity when it comes to translating a company's unique value proposition. The author provides a valid argument that workers, when left to their own devices, will perform what is expected of them, especially when management treats them the same way and uses the same benchmarks to measure performance. A ground-up approach is what he prescribes to address this fundamental lapse, and imagining the ideal world is the first of four steps. The rest of the game plan consists of identifying the gaps from the current situation, prioritizing which ones need the most attention and acting upon them.
Three key chapters are devoted to the development of a strange workforce architecture. This belies a stepwise pattern since it means a more dynamic change is needed to have workers become obsessed with delivering a company's messages and translating them to customers willing to spend money and avoid using the products and services of the competitors. Fortunately, Cable does not forego success metrics in such a drastic mindset change and spends the last chapter focused on how to measure and manage success by creating metrics based on what makes a company unique. He then explains how to use those metrics to drive clarity throughout the entire workforce. It helps considerably when he brings a real-world context to his theories with examples taken from Home Depot, Whole Foods, 3M, Lincoln Electric, Southwest Airlines and the Oakland A's among others. This is an intriguing read if more for the ideas it reveals than the action plan it presents.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent work of critique.......2003-04-15
This book is, on the one hand, a follow-up to Lawler's previous book Postmodernism Rightly Understood (PRU): several of the men profiled in that book reappear here--Francis Fukuyama, Richard Rorty, Allan Bloom, Walker Percy, to name a few. Here, on the other hand, Lawler's emphasis is on the dangers that the coming biotechnology movement poses not just for democratic society, but for human nature itself. What saves this from being a simple Luddite tract is Lawler's ability to tie in the biotechnology movement (which has already begun with cloning and, one could argue, in vitro fertilization) with a number of aspects of the liberal tradition, from Thomas Jefferson to the postmodern relativism of the last fifty years. This Lawler does rather well--his critique of the liberal tradition as embodied by, e.g., Jefferson and Rorty is well-argued enough that one finishes the book with the ill sensation that all is not well with modernity, to put it mildly.
Of course, modernity has produced many great boons for mankind; the question, however, is whether the modernist drive for unending progress or some higher principle should have primacy in our society. Lawler sketches out that latter option in this book, though not to the extent that he does in PRU. That his alternative to modernist self-improvement (or postmodernism rightly understood, in his words) involves a return to Thomism, i.e. Catholicism, will no doubt scare off many readers -- and as an unbeliever, that includes me! But, in good Thomistic fashion, Lawler argues that one need not be a Christian to appreciate the various critiques he gives of modern liberalism--though, naturally, it helps.
I have but two criticisms of Lawler's book; one is minor, the other major. 1) His writing style, like that in PRU, is a peculiar blend of hard analysis and softer rhetoric (I agree with the other reviewers who said Lawler does not scold but tease); nevertheless, it can make for a difficult reading at times. 2) As in PRU, Lawler here relies mainly on Walker Percy's work in semiotics in order to defend the dignity of human nature. Now, I've become a big fan of Percy (Aliens in America, in fact, introduced me to Percy's oeuvre), but if one wants to defend the unique nature of man against the rather significant evidence marshalled forth by modern biology in favor of man's non-uniqueness, one should rely on more than just ol' Walker from Louisiana. This is not to say that Lawler's arguments are wrong, but the defense of human uniqueness, and hence human dignity, requires a more thorough treatment than provided in this book, which is mostly political philosophy and cultural analysis. On these latter topics, however, Lawler does well.
In spite of those criticisms, I highly recommend this book, especially for liberals; if you're anything like me, it will make you take a step back from your assumptions.
Cultural Criticism at the Highest Level.......2002-09-19
This is an extraordinary book which reminds me a bit of Allan Bloom's best-seller, "The Closing of the American Mind." The book is a startlingly original reflection on the kinds of trends in American culture (high, low, and popular) that we read about every day, and about which we all have some not very well considered opinions. But like Bloom, Peter Augustine Lawler brings to these reflections a deep learning in philosophy and political theory, so that you leave the book not only with a series of remarkable insights ("I've never thought about it that way before!") but also with an understanding of the philosophical sources of our present discontents.
"Aliens in America" ranges widely--from Richard Rorty and Martin Heidegger to David Brooks's "Bobos in Paradise," from John Courtney Murray and Thomas Jefferson to the novelist Walker Percy--but perhaps Lawler's main foil is Francis Fukuyama, who after the fall of communism made famous the idea of the "End of History," and who more recently has speculated about questions of biotechnology in "Our Post-Human Future." To my mind, at least, Lawler gets the better of Fukuyama, showing how history can never come to an end, and how there can be no post-human future, because of the ineradicable human fact of self-conscious mortality. There is something genuinely profound behind the book's joshing title and sub-title.
Like Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind," "Aliens in America" will probably be understood as some kind of conservative book. But unlike Bloom, Lawler is no wailing Jeremiah, denouncing a hundred years of intellectual history and offering secular salvation only to a chosen few. Rather, Lawler's book is filled with wit and good humour and hope; and like Tocqueville, he can see with an unprejudiced eye both what is bad and what is good about modern America.
Heartily, even fervently recommended.
Not So Lost in the Cosmos.......2002-08-30
Peter Lawler is an insightful observer of the human soul. Part social theorist, part political scientist, and part psychologist, Lawler helps make sense of the moral and spiritual discontents that Americans increasingly experience today. Over and against those who would biologically transform human nature in order to rid us of all disease and discomfort, Lawler shows how (and why) we can live well in a world that, at best, ambiguously fulfills our natural desires.
A Wonderful Book!.......2002-08-29
As a long-time Walker Percy fan, I was initially attracted to this book to once again be reminded of Percy's brilliance. I was not disappointed as there is plenty of Percy. Professor Lawler has drawn upon the Moviegoer's Binx Bolling, the telescope metaphor, and more for us Percy devotees. The book provides new insights into Percy that continue to surprise me. Beyond Percy, this wonderful book draws upon classical philosophy, Aquinas, and actually makes natural law accessible to help remind us all that we are indeed "strangers in a strange land."
An early view:.......2002-08-19
According to Harvey C. Mansfield: "In this brilliant book
Peter Lawler looks steadily and not too sympathetically
at America's liberty today. He doesn't scold but teases us
for our lack of fun and our farcial attempts at self-control.
He also shows us what's good about being an alien: you
can't be either thoughtful or loving without being moody,
not to say miserable."
Book Description
What are your fantasies? And what if you could act upon them?
Strange Change will return you to that twilight time between childhood and adulthood in a fantasy about a young man who discovers he has the incredible power to become anything he can imagine himself to be. And what he wants to be is in the girls' locker room at school at shower time.
And that's just for starters. He quickly learns that, with a thought, he can get whatever he wants, and compel others to do his bidding to an astonishing degree. As a result, his parents are practically his servants, his friends as subjects to royalty. But do his powers come from heaven, or from hell? As long as he gets what he wants, does it really matter?
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful idea plodded down by corniness.......2007-05-26
Let's just say that I was one of the many reviewists here who actually got to see Nicholas Ifkovits at a book signing at Borders. After a long moment of talking to the man and offering to buy one of his books, he signed it, I paid for it, and I thought of the possibility of being one of the lucky ones who got to read an awesome book by a proclaimed awesome writer. You can tell I was excited.
It was only until I actually got down to reading it did the situation change. Rather drastically.
Yes, I do agree with the other two-three reviewists who agreed that this book was poorly executed, written, etc., and I will tell you why I agre with these certain reviewists.
Trenton Letreque is a popular, good-looking Fresman at Lakefield High School. What makes him so different from other kinds besides his popularity is his power to act upon whatever fantasies his mind can whip up. But such a thing comes at a price, for an unknown voice calling itself 'God' talks to Trenton and fills his head with revenge, murder, and all sorts of things that make you wonder if this is really God, or the Devil, or just the voice in Trenton's teenage mind. This is the basic plotline. Let me tell you the many things wrong with it.
The dialogue is really poor. I mean, really poor. It reminds me of the same cheezy dialogue I used to write when I was in Middle school, which is sad since the writer is probably twice as old as I am. Trenton only opens his mouth to moan or whine. His friends--If he's so popular how come he only has two buddies?--dialogue is a bit better, but all they ever talk about is how many times they jerked off.
Clarence and Viola and Clarence's parents also have bad dialogue and they are the most annoying characters in the book. Since when did anyone have an enganging convo about how a boy's member is mounted? And when Trenton discovers that his parents are dead and decides to live with Clarence, his parents accepted him into the fray, no questions asked? Hmmm, nothing like a good dose of cynics won't fix.
But the more important letdown of me reading this book was Trenton's almighty powers given to him by God who sure knows a lot about sex as well. The whole book is about masturbation, just to let you know, which would have been fine, but in a case like this, it sounded highly inappropriate and cheezy, worst than a High School delenquents idea of a joke. Trenton is given powers, but the only time he gets to use them are five times. Once, to look like a model in a Walmart ad (BTW, Walmart does not have supermodels in their ads; just unpaid, overworked people), then looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger, then looking like another hot girl, then becoming another hot girl, and lastly, a common housefly. Most of these transformations happen at the second-half of the book, which means you had to sit through a useless first half to get to the good stuff, which wasn't that good at all. The first-half is Trenton getting raped while being a supermodel and pondering the fate of the gang that had raped him. The second-half is more dissapointment, and I didn't see 'a budding superhero by night, devoted student by day' character as the writer suggested in the back of the book. Nor did I see Trenton's parents become his slaves other than the fact that they were really dull around their son. Really, really dissapointed and it makes you wonder what sin thy reader has comitted to deserve such a torture.
Also, it was heavily influenced on God and Hell. I personally am not a huge God fan, so my cynisim might be a little overdone here, but in a book like this, with all of the masturbation scenes and certain characters explaining how to do it, the book felt more of a lesson plan than an actual novel and the whole religion basis would have fit into it perfectly if it was done correctly. You can see it was a total waste in this novel.
And the ending? Well, let's just say it was all that the kid deserved...but the book still sucked.
Bottom Line: if you like the idea of cheezy characters with crappy dialogue, lotta masturbation, weak execution in plot, and/or looking for that one crappy book to read to waste your time you MIGHT like this book.
Badly written with little imagination.......2006-10-11
Reading some of the former reviews I was looking forward to reading a great escapist novel. Well it was not. Writing style was not good, lots of logical faults ruined what seemed in the first place a good idea. The timeline is a mess, and the ending not that good. Want to read about man becomes woman, read The Sex Gates trilogy instead.
Should be listed as Christian fiction........2006-04-18
This book felt more like Christian fiction than fantasy. Not that that is bad but it was not at all what I thought I was buying. Just not my cup of tea.
Strange Change Will Change You........2005-03-22
Incredible escapist literature, Strange Change will not soon be forgotten by anyone who reads this tightly written, breathlessly paced novel with an ending that hits like a slap in the face. What a mix of fantasy and thought-provoking philosophy! Unbelievable! Unforgettable! This author is genius as yet undiscovered by the masses he so obviously loves. At once heartwarming and chilling, you won't be able to shake this one off anytime soon. It will leave you thinking long after you've closed the cover. It will change you.
Different IS Good!.......2005-03-16
Strange Change is unlike anything I've ever read before. Readers of every genre from Tolkien to Tolstoy will be deeply moved by this absolutely brilliant contemporary fantasy about a boy with the awesome power to change the world. Unfortunately, his utterly selfish inclinations move him to change only himself, with disastrous results that will leave the reader not only richly entertained, but deep in philosophical thought.
Average customer rating:
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Mommy and Daddy Are Going on a Trip: Change Is Strange
Asher Penny
Manufacturer: Change is Strange
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General | Fiction | Explore the World | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Fiction | Parents | Family Life | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0975590219 |
Book Description
Trying to understand why in the world you'sd be left behind while Mommy and daddy are Going on a trip can be quite difficult to understand. Mommy and Daddy Are Going on a Trip explains how Charlie is not at all happy when we finds out he'ss being left behind. However, he quickly learns of all the fun things he will be doing with Grandma while his parents are away. And of course, the book has a happy ending and a sunny moral: Change is difficult, but it can be good, too.
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