The Dying Game

Book Description

The 2005 Summer Selection is available in an exclusive three volume boxed edition that includes a special reader’s guide with an introduction by Oprah Winfrey.

Titles include:
As I Lay Dying
This novel is the harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family members–including Addie herself–the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Originally published in 1930.

The Sound and the Fury
First published in 1929, Faulkner created his “heart’s darling,” the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers–the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason.

Light in August
Light in August, a novel about hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, features some of Faulkner’s most memorable characters: guileless, dauntless Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, who is plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, mysterious drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry. Originally published in 1932.

Take a seat in Oprah’s Classroom and sign up for Faulkner 101 on www.oprah.com/bookclub.

Customer Reviews:

Great American literature.......2007-06-28

The Oprah's Book Club is a great, inexpensive way to own these literary pearls. If you do not know what you are getting into I suggest you read first Light in August, then As I Lay Dying and finally, after bracing, The Sound and the Fury. I found the second a tad too dry and dark, but that's Faulkner. The last one is a book you will eventually reread. The first reading could be helped by the many high quality institutional web sites where this masterpiece is dissected and even rearranged for ease of approach. I am witholding a star simply because I have formed the opinion that Faulkner is, to put in mildly, racially biased or at least wrote for the racially biased. I would love to hear what Oprah thinks about this aspect of Faulkner's but I do not have the time. Enjoy.

Challenging and thought-provoking.......2007-01-05

These novels are not to be read for sheer pleasure, but rather for the challenge and the depth. They are not easy to read, though *Light in August* is the easiest of the three. The prose is so difficult at times that I needed to reread again and again. I had to stop and take numerous breaks because my brain got twisted around.

I strongly suggest getting research materials from a university librray if at all possible to help navigate the stories. In the end, the depth of these novels is profound and extremely rewarding. It was only after I finished them (and read a lot of extra research articles) that I truly appreciated them. These novels are definitely amazing and a great account of southern life in the early part of the 20th century (and after the civil war), and I admire Faulkner more than I ever thought I could.

If you thought James Joyce was complex, try Faulkner!

O Oprah.......2006-08-27

AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner

I respect what he did, but I read about 15% of this one before I got bored. I don't agree with Oprah that he's difficult. I knew exactly where he was coming from and where he wanted to go. Many relevant themes and he was a damn fine wordsmith. But it's old news to this jaded old redneck. I don't know why. I realize I just dismissed an author who deserved his Pulitzers and his Nobel Prize, in a single short paragraph, but please hold back on the hate mail.

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THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner

Ditto. You hate me, don't you?

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LIGHT IN AUTUMN by William Faulkner

Ditto. Hoo boy, now you want me dead.

Quite a challenge for the average reader.......2006-07-25

Quite a challenge for the average reader.

I want to say something like, "you owe it to yourself to read these books."... and perhaps you do. I, however, don't get it. I read the insert by Opera, and all the scholars, I read As I Lay Dying, like I was supposed to, and I simply don't get the allure of Faulkner.

So reader beware. It is a challenge to read Faulkner, not because his ideas are so very profound, but because his writing style leaves me unable to care for any of his characters in any meaningful way. The dialogue is far too folksy, and though I fully realize what he is doing (presenting to us the depth of the human experience by showing us the trials and tribulations of poor folk who are just trying to make a living) I found I had no time to plod through anything more than the first 100 pages.

I realize mine is just one opinion, but think before you buy. In the reader's guide that accompanies the books, Opera suggests that you are not really a reader unless you have read Faulkner. Please take that with a grain of salt and give yourself a break... Faulkner just might not be for you.

Not for me........2006-02-22

I tried, really I did, to read these books. They were very difficult to understand. I even did an online discussion with "experts" to try to figure out what was going on, but it just didn't happen. I read "As I Lay Dying" entirely & the story behind the story told by the "experts" was okay, but did not make the read worth the time. The 2nd book, I couldn't get past the first few chapters & by the third book, I had given up. Definitely not my style.

Average customer rating:

Hysterical Fiction
Excellent Teen Novel
Great read for adults too!
Great Story
A Pleasure to be savored...for Adults as well

A Northern Light
Jennifer Donnelly
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historical Fiction | History & Historical Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0152053107

Amazon.com

It's 1906 and 16-year-old Mattie Gokey is at a crossroads in her life. She's escaped the overwhelming responsibilities of helping to run her father's brokedown farm in exchange for a paid summer job as a serving girl at a fancy hotel in the Adirondacks. She's saving as much of her salary as she can, but she's having trouble deciding how she's going to use the money at the end of the summer. Mattie's gift is for writing and she's been accepted to Barnard College in New York City, but she's held back by her sense of responsibility to her family--and by her budding romance with handsome-but-dull Royal Loomis. Royal awakens feelings in Mattie that she doesn't want to ignore, but she can't deny her passion for words and her desire to write.

At the hotel, Mattie gets caught up in the disappearance of a young couple who had gone out together in a rowboat. Mattie spoke with the young woman, Grace Brown, just before the fateful boating trip, when Grace gave her a packet of love letters and asked her to burn them. When Grace is found drowned, Mattie reads the letters and finds that she holds the key to unraveling the girl's death and her beau's mysterious disappearance. Grace Brown's story is a true one (it's the same story told in Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy and in the film adaptation, A Place in the Sun), and author Jennifer Donnelly masterfully interweaves the real-life story with Mattie's, making her seem even more real.

Mattie's frank voice reveals much about poverty, racism, and feminism at the turn of the twentieth century. She witnesses illness and death at a range far closer than most teens do today, and she's there when her best friend Minnie gives birth to twins. Mattie describes Minnie's harrowing labor with gut-wrenching clarity, and a visit with Minnie and the twins a few weeks later dispels any romance from the reality of young motherhood (and marriage). Overall, readers will get a taste of how bitter--and how sweet--ordinary life in the early 1900s could be. Despite the wide variety of troubles Mattie describes, the book never feels melodramatic, just heartbreakingly real. (14 and older) --Jennifer Lindsay

Book Description

Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder.

Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, Jennifer Donnelly's astonishing debut novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.

Includes a reader's guide and an interview with the author.

Customer Reviews:

Hysterical Fiction.......2007-08-09

The Amazon reviewer writes that "the book never feels melodramatic," and the SLJ writes that "Donnelly's characters ring true to life," and, "an outstanding choice for historical fiction fans." Perhaps the reviewers at Amazon and the SLJ are young teenagers?

A Northern Light is not a bad book, it's just not what I hoped or expected it would be, based on descriptions and reviews. First, it's a YA book through and through. Some might call it a coming of age story, but it is so chock-full of "lessons" for adolescents that it seems more like a classroom than a story. In almost every chapter, and every week, of young Mattie's life, there is an eye-opening and paradigm-expanding "experience," all of them methodically sequenced in order to help Mattie - and the young readers of this book - step into less-than-innocent adulthood. There are all the usual lessons of coming of age YA novels, such as boyfriends, girlfriends, kissing, desire, sex, and love. There are additional lessons in pregnancy, birth, postpartum depression, disease, lust, adultery, greed, and racism. And then there is a rather odd and protracted lesson in masturbation and exhibitionism.

As I said, the lessons get in the way of the story, or rather, the story is the vehicle for the lessons. I do not consider this historical fiction, as there are precious few lessons in history, and the characters do not "ring true." For example, there is one black character, Weaver. Weaver and his mother are the only two black people that Mattie has ever seen or known. Weaver's father was lynched. Weaver is Mattie's best friend and he is the smartest kid around, on track to go to a fine university on scholarship. Everyone likes Weaver, he is friends with all the white folks, he goes to the same schools, is welcomed in everyone's home, and works at the same jobs as the white kids. But Weaver brandishes physical rage against anyone who shows him any kind of disrespect. Weaver always manages to escape the consequences of his destructive behavior, because everybody, including the sheriffs and the judges, like him so much. This hardly rings true to life.

The real mystery of this story is the murder, the real-life murder of Grace Brown. At the end, I wondered why the author included it. The murder and its investigation do not play an important role in the story. For most of the story it's barely in the background. And yet, Mattie has letters from the victim showing that Grace was murdered, and even after Mattie realizes this, she goes on with her adolescent life as if she didn't know. She decides to give the letters to the sheriff only at the end, but there's no explanation as to why Mattie waited that long. I think perhaps the best parts of this book are the real-life letters that Grace Brown had written, which are included in the story as Mattie reads about one each day. Given that we know Grace's fate, the letters evoke even more empathy, and make this book worth reading, almost.

Excellent Teen Novel.......2007-08-06

This novel is probably one of the best coming-of-age novels I've ever read. It details accurately the life back in the twenteeith century, as well as giving two stories at the same time. This book is recommended to everyone out there; I know you're going to love it because I did. Excellent teen debut novel from an excellent author.

Great read for adults too!.......2007-07-27

I loved A Northern Light. Mattie is a fully drawn main character and the author paints a compelling picture of life in the Adirondacks in the early 1900s. The first chapter really draws you in.

My only (minor) complaint is that the jumping back and forth in time got a little confusing. The book starts out only about a day before the point where it ends. Almost everything in between is in the past, but it's hard at times to know for sure what is in the past, and what is real time in the chapters between the beginning and the end.

Other than that, it's a great read for older young adults and just plain adults as well!

Great Story.......2007-07-16

When I picked up this book at the half price bookstore, I did not realize it was a young adult book. The book summary on the back of the book got my attention. I read the book, and what a surprise! A very good story. I like that it tied into a true story. Makes me want to read more about the real story, An American Tragedy (Signet Classics) I loved the character development. Jennifer Donnelly is a great storyteller. There were sad moments, happy moments, laugh out loud moments and just good thinking about "life in general" moments. I really enjoyed her style of writing so much, I went and bought The Tea Rose. Once again, the prologue already got me wanting more!. I have read 80 pages of this book and I am throughly enjoying every page. I was lucky enough to find a copy of the next book, The Winter Rose which is difficult to get at the moment. Cannot wait to read it, and I understand that there will be a third book, The Wild Rose. (Triology). I highly recommend this author. Great summer reading.

A Pleasure to be savored...for Adults as well.......2007-07-03

This was a wonderful story. I loved the characters and the time period and the setting.

I loved the Mattie Gokey, our 16 year old narrator, who struggles to make choices that will shape the rest of her life. She is a bright and gifted young woman who is the eldest sister in a farming family.

The story takes place in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Where Mattie eventually goes to work at the Glenmore Hotel on Big Moose Lake serving the rich tourists in the dinning room.

She waits on a young couple there and sadly before the end of the day the woman, Grace Brown, is pulled from the lake, dead. Earlier in the day she had given Mattie a bundle of secret letters. Mattie realizes that they hold the answers to what really happened to Grace and her missing companion.

Why this was marketed as a young adult novel I don't know...I thought it was well written, rich with detailed narrative and dealt with serious issues; adultery, marriage, feminism, parenthood, racism, death and murder. There are several different story lines with conflict and tension, all realistic and realistically resolved.

I also liked the fact that the story line revolving around Grace Brown was inspired by historical facts.

I thought this was a really enjoyable read. The only criticism I can make is that I thought Jennifer Donnelly could have added more physical descriptions of the many different characters in this story. Otherwise is was just perfect.

The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches

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Encyclopedic Micro-History of College Secularization
Continuing disengagement threatens Churches' influence.

The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches
James Tunstead Burtchaell
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0802844812

Amazon.com

The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches, by James Tunstead Burtchaell, charts the history of 17 American colleges and universities that were founded by Christian denominations. Burtchaell's history shows that each school abandoned its religious roots for remarkably similar reasons. The modern conflict between Christ and culture, he argues, resulted in widespread capitulation by Christians to prevailing secular standards of knowledge. The Dying of the Light offers no advice for contemporary Christians who seek to do faith-based scholarship. "The failures of the past, so clearly patterned, so foolishly ignored, and so lethally repeated, emerge pretty clearly from these stories," he writes. "Anyone who requires further imagination to recognize and remedy them is not up to the task of trying again, and better." Burtchaell's book is lively, readable, and long (more than 800 pages). The author has done his homework so well that when he lays down his gauntlet, the reader's natural response is to rise to his challenge. --Michael Joseph Gross

Customer Reviews:

Encyclopedic Micro-History of College Secularization.......2000-06-08

"The Dying of the Light" by Fr. James Tunstead Burtchaell. This is an enormous book, some 868 pages long. Fr. Burtchaell deals with the secularization of the Christian colleges, which, as with Harvard and Yale, changed from a church-started, church-supported institution into secular, non-sectarian schools. His method is to pick one, two or three institutions in the particular denomination and deal with the history of the changes from a religious school into a secular institution. Fr. Burtchaell has a chapter for the Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics and Evangelicals. The author's irony borders on humor once in awhile, as when he wonders why the Presbyterians found it so difficult to report the number of attending Presbyterians to church boards, but now find it so easy to report to the Federal government the racial make-up of the student body, down to the last Samoan. In the preface, Fr. Burtchaell notes that the reader will probably go directly to the section dealing with his/her religious affiliation. I did, but mainly because I was working on an MA thesis on Catholic colleges in the United States. I would recommend this encyclopaedia work to any one truly interested in the recent wave of secularization of church-related colleges in the US. Many details and stories from around the nation make this an interesting micro-history....

Continuing disengagement threatens Churches' influence........1999-05-01

Antidisestablishmentarianism in contemporary Catholic religious-community sponsored colleges might well be a subliminal message in Fr. James Burtchaell's incisive disection of the historical disengagement of colleges and universities from their Christian Churhes. The biting humor and irony in Burtchaell's style counterpoints the euphemistic rationale vaunting past and current disengagement from the specific founding church's credo and etholgy. The present widespread disengagement by many Catholic colleges and uni-versities is the legacy of the historic, passive, submission of church related schools beneath whelming financial and enrollment pressures.

The Vatican might well use "The Dying of the Light" as its primer to argue the case for rescuing Catholic institutions from modern-day disengagement by means of episcopal appropriation.

In his asessment of the disengagement of seven-teen representative colleges and univer-sities, the author delved deeply into their ar-chival and historical references and posits a commonality of purpose, basically driven by economic necessity.

Is "greed" the dysphoric, but correct, syn-onym for what Burtchaell records? Is "naivete" an, assuaging, palliative for moral incom-petence? Is "hierarchic megalomania" being masked by ecclesiastical dogmatism? The answers to these questions are interpretable from Burtchaell's data. The answers are not easy. The information is complex, but the pattern is quite simple, money requires compromise. The issue becomes: is the loss worth the cost? Is the price of freedom too high? Is skewed pedantry inevitable with church involvement in education? Can academic excellence be acheived without academic freedom?

Issues seem to have been ignored during the evolution of the disengagement by the churches. Questions were left unasked, because the answers were too painful. The basic rationale, seems to have been that financial support became increas-ingly limited as ecclesiastical strictures re-duced enrollments.

The ultimate emergent question becomes, can there be intellectual probity in a religious insti-tution which limits the parameters of discussion and exploration according to a predetermined schema of dogma and morals?

Burtchaell's comprehensive, paradigmatic, exposition of the disengagement process by religious schools bodes ill for any continuance of a moral or spiritual underpinning for edu-cation in our contemporary society. An argument, inferable from "The Dying of the Light", is that State and Federal governments are restricting freedom of religion and ideas and relegating morality and knowledge to a moral and intellectual relativism under the guise of monetary benignity towards education.

Book Description

Between 1930 and 1935, William Faulkner came into full possession of the genius and creativity that made him America's greatest writer of the twentieth century. "As I Lay Dying" is a dark comedy, full of horror and compassion, of a rural Mississippi family bearing the corpse of their matriarch to burial in town. "Sanctuary," a violent novel of sex and social class that moves from Mississippi back roads to the flesh-pots of Memphis, features a sadistic gangster named Popeye and a debutante with an affinity for evil. "Light in August," a near-religious vision of the hopeful stubbornness of ordinary life, is perhaps Faulkner's most moving work. "Pylon," a tale of barnstorming aviators, examines the bonds of loyalty and desire among three men and a woman. All are presented in restored texts as part of The Library of America's new, authoritative edition of Faulker's complete works.

Customer Reviews:

Old Drunk Mellifluous.......2006-05-17

Faulkner has a savage and beautiful voice, if you can call it his voice: it's like some linguistic force comes from nowhere and overwhelms his stories and takes them to places that the novel-form never went before. His writing is wildly modern yet full of ancient, mythic resonances - the Bible, the Greeks - which creates a very large sense of time and history in his work. Events traumatize, ripple across history. At his best (As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Absalom! Absalom!), Faulkner is difficult but fascinating, worth our patient reading efforts. He invents new ways of writing for a modernizing world that needs some way to keep contact with the past and the dead, and this is both taxing and exhilarating.

Good Intro to Faulkner.......2003-09-11

I am currently reading Sound and the Fury and it is not an easy read. Fortunately, I started out with this volume and read Sanctuary. If you want to get into Faulkner this is an excellent place to start. It is a great story, shocking though it may be, and gives a good idea of what's to come if you want to delve deeper into WF. Next I read Light in August which may be one of his best. Faulkner is a genius at creating characters and then going into the details of their psyche. Every now and then he gets a little over-indulgent in his wordsmithing but always seems to bring it back home before going too far afield.

Faulkner is the green tea of literature. He's a great story teller but still a bit of an aquired taste. Once you get into his work, though, you'll definitely want more.

Some of the best from one of the South's best writers ..........2001-10-14

Faulkner is, without a doubt, one of the South's best writers, and re-reading this collection of novels after many years affirms that belief for me. He was a master of words and I wish we had more Faulkner novels to feast on. Almost no one can measure up to him!

A superb collation and an outstanding value.......2000-05-28

There is nothing quantitative in this volume that you can't get in other editions of Faulkner's work; however, the Library of America copy is to be strongly commended for the clarity of its typeface, its sturdy cloth-bound hardcover, and its designed ability to *lie flat* at each page. The only fault I could find with this volume is that it would be nice to have _The Sound and the Fury_ included in a Library of America edition as well (currently, the Modern Library edition is the best that can be done). I strongly recommend this edition to the serious reader who, familiar with Faulkner, is looking for a reference copy of these works that will not deteriorate over time (did I mention acid-free paper and a cloth bookmark?). Considering the price of each of these titles in paperback, this volume's value to the casual reader speaks for itself; you, too, are advised to invest in this worthy tome.

My Mother is a Fish.......2000-03-30

There are many great books, but I have read only two perfect ones, "As I Lay Dying" by Faulkner and Shakespeare's "King Lear." Lear's "howl" after Cordelia's death is (I think) the high point of English literature and Vardeman's internal dialoge (and chapter heading "My Mother is a Fish") is the purest form of writing expression and the high-water mark of American Literature. If you like to read, there are so many subtle threads that run through "As I Lay Dying." You'll recognize Chaucer, T.S.Eliot, and I think Shakespeare's "Lear." Like Gorky, Faulkner uses common people to expound upon universal themes like betrayal and unrequited love, but he does it better, and looks at it harder, than anyone has before or since.

Tunnel and the Light: Essential Insights on Living and Dying

Average customer rating:

Self Fulfilling prophet
A Classic Life-After-Death Book
Outstanding reading experience
Life Enhancing!
Title Note

Tunnel and the Light: Essential Insights on Living and Dying
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Death & Grief | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Grief & Bereavement | Death & Grief | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1569246904

Book Description

This is an engaging introduction to the beliefs, work, and life of psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who "declared war on the denial of death in America" (New York Times). Based on her more than 30 years experience with the dying, this book offers both challenge and hope.

Customer Reviews:

Self Fulfilling prophet.......2006-07-06

Kubler-Ross would lead us to believe that her powers of intuition--especially when it comes to the subject of death--are superior to the rest of us. Through the lectures reprinted in this book she demonstrates many things, including magnificient compassion, intellect, humor, self-awareness and strength; but her contstant claims of intuition (especially with children, who cannot communicate at an adult level even when not dying) do nothing but fulfill her own views of the dying process. And when she is wrong in some way (a patient dies sooner or later than she intuited), there is always an unverifiable emotional or psychological argument for the patient's defiance of her claims. She is not a scientist; or, at least not a very good one, and this book put me off as I struggled to deal with my dying father's situation because of her obsession with proving how clever she was.

A Classic Life-After-Death Book.......2006-02-26

The Tunnel And The Light is a collection of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's lectures on living and dying. I read this book as part of my research for my next book on life, death and life-after-death. The author is the foremost authority on the subject of dying, beginning with her first book, On Death And Dying, which took the world by storm more than thirty years ago.

I learned more from this collection of lectures-inciting both tears and laughter throughout my reading-than I learned in reading several other books on the subject. It is my conviction that we have much to gain about life when we study death, and that is never more true than in this compassionate and wisdom-filled collection of speeches.

Whether you want to learn how to deal with children in the face of a family member's death (or a child's own dying experience), better understand your own mortality and unavoidable terminal ending, or gain insight into life-after-death based on Dr. Kubler-Ross's knowledge of near-death experiences and her own mystical encounters, then this is the book for you. In the end, you won't just be more comfortable with the subject of death, but you will be more knowledgeable about life as well.

~ Bob Olson, OfSpirit.com Editor

Outstanding reading experience.......2006-02-25

The book is a transcription of lectures delivered by Ms Kubler-Ross to live audiences. Her messages are very direct, avoiding redundant references to commonplaces.
I see the book split in 2 big segments: (1)learning about natural fears and acquired fears in order to be able to master the fear of death and (2) Understanding the importance of unfinished businesses and the need to clean them for better enjoyment of life.

Life Enhancing!.......2001-08-31

This book kept me company in the darkest moment of my life. It gave me courage and wisdom to cultivate a panoramic perspective of my life. A must-read.

Title Note.......2000-01-16

Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well and Dying Consciously

Average customer rating:

Excellent Book

Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well and Dying Consciously
His Holiness the Dalai Lama , and Jeffrey, Ph.D. Hopkins
Manufacturer: Atria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Death & Grief | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Grief & Bereavement | Death & Grief | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Personal Transformation | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Dalai Lama | Buddhism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743244699

Book Description

"Everyone dies, but no one is dead," goes the Tibetan saying. It is with these words that Advice on Dying takes flight. Using a seventeenth-century poem written by a prominent scholar-practitioner, His Holiness the Dalai Lama draws from a wide range of traditions and beliefs to explore the stages we all go through when we die, which are the very same stages we experience in life when we go to sleep, faint, or reach orgasm (Shakespeare's "little death").

The stages are described so vividly that we can imagine the process of traveling deeper into the mind, on the ultimate journey of transformation. In this way, His Holiness shows us how to prepare for that time and, in doing so, how to enrich our time on earth, die without fear or upset, and influence the stage between this life and the next so that we may gain the best possible incarnation. As always, the ultimate goal is to advance along the path to enlightenment. Advice on Dying is an essential tool for attaining that eternal bliss.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book.......2006-02-15

This book is an excellent reading on the subject of life and death. I hope that when I am ready to leave this life that a loved one will read it to me as I go. It is beautiful like a warm spring morning.

Average customer rating:

Quick Read of Immense Images
Surprise, shock, but donýt degrade
Brilliantly dark humor with a focus on relationships
Lusterless Mystery Relies Solely on Shock Value

The Dying of the Light: A Mystery
Michael Dibdin
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679753109
Release Date: 1995-01-17

Book Description

One of England's most acclaimed younger mystery writers, the creator of Detective Aurelio Zen, gives us a brilliant and haunting variation on the classic drawing-room murder novel. The setting is Eventide Lodge, where the guests have gathered for tea. Colonel Weatherby is reading by the fire. Mrs. Hargreave III is whiling away her time at patience. And Miss Rosemary Travis and her friend, Dorothy, are wondering which of their housemates will be the next to die.

For even as Michael Dibdin's elderly sleuths debate clues and motives, it becomes clear that Eventide Lodge is not a genteel country inn but a place of ghastly cruelties and humiliations. A place where the logic of murder is . . .almost comforting. At once affectionate homage and audacious satire, The Dying of the Light will delight any aficionado of Patricia Highsmith, Peter Dickinson, or Ruth Rendell.

Customer Reviews:

Quick Read of Immense Images.......2001-08-06

Michael Dibdin's 'The Dying of the Light' is a short, contrived, sometimes brutal little mystery, but it shines beautifully within all the aforementioned characteristics. It is just the write length, the contrived plot is what makes it tick, and the brutality, though shocking and disdainful, sticks in your mind long after the book has been closed, leaving an indelible mark.

The novel starts out with Rosemary and Dorothy, two old ladies who are friends at what we believe to be something of a manor house, or possibly an old-fashioned hotel? At any rate, the story begins with a list of stock murder mystery suspects reminiscent of the golden-age crime capers. They are all gathered in a cozy lounge, and we believe Rosemary and Dorothy to be our sleuths. Soon, however, events unfold, and we discover that we have been tricked by the sly author, Dibdin. The awful, creeping realization of where exactly our two old ladies are, and what is transpiring there, is the first of many chilling plot twists that take place.

Many mysterious and even horrible things begin to happen once the book gets going, and our two elderly heroins *do* become sleuths (sort of), and some of the other characters peppering the book make for good adversaries. As I said earlier, it is all somewhat contrived, but as long as you just go along with it, you should have a bracing read. Some parts of novel are intense, some parts slightly comical, but *every* part is of interest.

If you have a nice, solitary evening free, draw the curtains, dim the lights, and settle-in for 'The Dying of the Light'. It is a mystery of a different kind.

Surprise, shock, but donýt degrade.......2000-08-29

The solution to this mystery, "The Dying Of The Light", is as clever as any of Mr. Dibdin's work. The matching of wits, the misdirection, and words so carefully chosen, create a wonderful adversary for the inspector. That his adversary is at least an octogenarian, creates a duel that is just that more interesting.

This story is a bit like the board game that requires the players to solve, who did what to whom, where was it done, and what was the weapon of choice. The setting is a home for the aged, and the environment is which they live could be described as one created by a satanic Dickens. This atmosphere is what I did not care for. A good mystery does not require the degradation of a character, humiliation does not shock as much as it makes the reader uncomfortable, and for me it does nothing but detract from the tale.

I have commented on many other of this Author's work, so I will not repeat the thoughts here. The resolution was excellent, the action leading to it however, barely made the book a worthy read.

Brilliantly dark humor with a focus on relationships.......1999-08-14

Dibdin is, in my opinion, what the mystery genre needs; a quality literature writer who happens to use mystery as an excuse to tell his story. His humor is deliciously dark and at times shocking. What sets him apart is his focus on relationships. The solution to the mystery is not nearly as important as how the characters interact. Dibdin deserves much more respect than we Americans have given him. Dibdin is what mystery should be. I also recommend the Aurelio Zen series for a "detective" with a distinctly melancholy personality.

Lusterless Mystery Relies Solely on Shock Value.......1996-06-25

Nothing terribly special about this book, the author relies on the fact that he can shock you with events to make you want to cringe, but not much else. What this book lacks is a real mystery, and as a result the reader is never really drawn into the story, he or she merely turns the pages to see how it all ends out. What keeps this book from receiving a rating below mediocrity, however, is it's cleverness in it's ability to shock the reader. All this book has that's terribly interesting is shocking, bu

A Dying Light in Corduba (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

'Pressing Times' for Our hero
Very Readable
On the Road Again!!
A good one in the Marcus Didius Falco series...
Falco in Search of a Plot

A Dying Light in Corduba (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)
Lindsey Davis
Manufacturer: Mysterious Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0892966645

Book Description

Nobody was poisoned at the dinner for the Society of Olive Oil Producers of Baetica, though in retrospect this was quite a surprise…

Inimitable detective Marcus Didius Falco is back with a vengeance. Muggings, occur, a man is killed and Rome’s answer to Phillip Marlowe is plunged into the fiercely competitive world of olive oil-production. Political intrigue, an exotic Spanish dancer and impending fatherhood, all add to Falco’s troubles.

Eighth in Davis’ award-winning and acclaimed Falco novels.

Customer Reviews:

'Pressing Times' for Our hero.......2006-09-28

This is the eighth novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth in Rome at the time of Vespasian. A series of books that have become hugely popular, so much so that the author is now at the forefront of historical mystery writers. It was probably a stroke of genius on her part to have novels that are extremely well researched and contain all the elements that would be and should be found in the Roman world of circa AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop. In this the eighth novel Falco and Helena Justina almost seem like long lost relations to the reader.

A dinner for the Olive Oil Producers of Baetica, goes badly wrong when one man is killed and another - Anacrites, the Emperor's spy - is seriously wounded and left for dead. Because Anacrites is to be laid up for some time, Falco is brought back into the Emperor's fold as imperial sleuth. Falco is plunged head long into the world of olive oil production and heads out to Baetica.

It soon becomes apparent to Falco that the killing was no simple murder. Falco and Helena are staying in Baetica, using the excuse of inspecting the villa and olive crops of Helena Justina's father, Camillus Verus. This case is not the only thing on Falco's mind either, impending fatherhood is creeping up on our Roman sleuth.

Very Readable.......2003-10-16

Enjoyable journey back to the Roman Empire under Vespasian. Of course, like all empires, Rome needed a police service or, in this case, a Private Eye. Marcus Didius Falco makes a good detective, private or otherwise. And the history sounds pretty plausible as well.

On the Road Again!!.......2003-03-07

This book starts out in Ancient Rome where Falco gets involved with the murder of another informer and the almost fatal injury of, all people, Anacrites - the chief of the spies who actually set him up to be killed in the last book. Faclo is commissioned to try to find out the killer and to stop some price-fixing plans that are being contemplated on olive oil - a very profitable product even in ancient Rome. His commission takes him to Roman Spain (or Corduba). The story is great fun and gives the reader a good understanding of ancient Spain and the Olive Oil industry. Falco brings his very pregnant cohort Helena with him on his journey. What would a Falco story be like without the beauteous Helena?

A good one in the Marcus Didius Falco series..........2002-10-24

I don't always go for mysteries set in ancient Roman times, but Didius is such a likeable character with a great sense of social irreverence and a healthy disrespect for the foibles of human nature. He's an informer or what we would call a private eye. The series has a long term arc of Didius' personal relationships particularly to his wife Helena Justina, his aristocratic in-laws, his own confusing family and many friends and enemies. In One Virgin Too Many, the first in the series that I read, Didius and Helena had a child and we learned that his brother-in-law, Aelianus had a romantic failure with a Spanish heiress. The thought of this detective in Andalucia (where Corduba is located) and more info on the background of the characters in One Virgin Too Many helped ensnare me. The mystery starts out with Didius attending the banquet for the society of Baetican (i.e. Spanish) Olive Oil Producers. After the banquet, which is a snarling vicious affair, Didius learns that his old enemy, the Chief Spy Anacrites who was also there, has been attacked and nearly bludgeoned to death, and another man, an informer Didius had only met that night, but rather liked, has been killed. Didius is hired by the imperial agent Laeta to find out what the heck is going on. Unfortunately all the olive oil producers have fled back to Southern Spain. Meanwhile poor Didius' girlfriend is about to give birth to their first child. Didius knows he must refuse the assignment. But Helena knows he must take it. Fortunately her father, the senator Camillus Verus happens to have some olive oil fields in Southern Spain. The couple visit the area under the pretext of checking out the family lands. But really they're there to investigate a murder and an attempted murder that occured in the imperial city itself. The plotting is complex yet followable, and Davis does an excellent job of creating, presenting and illustrating characters and relationships from differing social backgrounds and of various abilities. It's a very entertaining series, and this one particularly so because the Spanish portion of the Roman empire is so well drawn.

Falco in Search of a Plot.......2001-12-25

We've all seen detective series that gradually petered out as their authors obsessed with their characters and forgot that, first and foremost, you need a mystery to have a good book. I loved the previous Falco books, and Davis continues to have outstanding historical detail and character development, but I'm afraid that this plot isn't worthwhile. There's more excitement in Helena's pregnancy than in the breakup of a incipient olive oil cartel, and Falco doesn't seem to solve as much as blunder. Here's hoping that this effort was an aberration.

Living in the Light of Death: On the Art of Being Truly Alive

Average customer rating:

A life changing book
Death is a great teacher.
living in the light of death
Rising above physical limitations

Living in the Light of Death: On the Art of Being Truly Alive
Larry Rosenberg
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

ASIN: 1570628203
Release Date: 2001-09-18

Amazon.com

Those aches and pains, that sagging and graying--the booby trap of death is hidden in the undergrowth of the future, but how far into the future? One of the Buddha's great realizations was of the reality of aging and death. As Larry Rosenberg points out, it's not the reality that is the problem but what our minds do with it. One of America's leading meditation teachers, Rosenberg has in his repertoire a time-honored meditation practice: death meditation. In a sense, all Buddhist meditation is about facing impermanence, but death meditation is facing the ultimate impermanence. In Living in the Light of Death, Rosenberg brings forth some of his best anecdotes from his stays in foreign lands (and other painful experiences) to illustrate that aging, illness, and death can not only try us but teach us as well. To meditate on them is to initiate that teaching process. What Rosenberg has realized and tried to pass on to others is that although we cannot avoid the painful or frightening phenomena of the body, they do not have to weigh us down and can instead lend a lightheartedness to living. --Brian Bruya

Book Description

This book presents the Buddhist approach to facing the inevitable facts of growing older, getting sick, and dying. These tough realities are not given much attention by many people until midlife, when they become harder to avoid. Using a Buddhist text known as the Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection, Larry Rosenberg shows how intimacy with the realities of aging can actually be used as a means to liberation. When we become intimate with these inevitable aspects of life, he writes, we also become intimate with ourselves, with others, with the worldâindeed with all things.

Customer Reviews:

A life changing book.......2003-06-07

As a new practitioner to the Buddhist way of life, I felt that this book distilled several books/teachings I've encountered on finding happiness in the present. I heartily recommend it to anyone living - especially those living in a fast-paced society.

Death is a great teacher........2000-08-31

Larry Rosenberg, a respected meditation teacher, insightfully succeeds in bringing death to life in this meaningful new book. "The truth is," he observes, "death is not waiting for us at the end of the road, it is walking with us the whole time," from the moment we are born (p. 13). Unfortunately, readers who are uncomfortable confronting the unavoidable realities of aging, illness, and death may find this book morbid or depressing. Instead, however, Rosenberg encourages us to view death as "a great teacher . . . it teaches us how to live life" (p. 107).

"Death is here now," Rosenberg writes (p. 80). Everyone must die (p. 87). Our remaining life span is decreasing continually (p. 88). Death will come regardless of whether or not we are prepared (p. 91). Human life expectancy is uncertain (p. 93). There are many causes of death (p. 95). The human body is very fragile (p. 97). Our wealth cannot save us (p. 99). Our loved ones cannot help us (p. 101). Nor can our body help (p. 102). When viewed correctly, Rosenberg observes, these facts can become "doorways to liberation" (p. 141) that "make life more precious. They show us that every moment is a gift" (p. 97).

This book reads easily, and is filled with both interesting anecdotes and profound insights. Reading it could change your life.

G. Merritt

living in the light of death.......2000-08-23

This book is brilliant..........using death awareness as subject, the author shows us how we can actually live in freedom now, today. His clear, experiential understanding of the dharma is revealed over and over again throughout and his convicted and loving embrace of it is an amazing gift, given graciously, to us all. One of the finest dharma books ever written!

Rising above physical limitations.......2000-08-05

This book stands out from the crowded genre of authors dealing with loss, pain, and death. Most of the books I have read on the subject focus on the struggle against death and against pain, but while Larry Rosenberg certainly supports the idea that you should embrace life, he takes an honest look at what happens to people who will lose the fight--a group that, in the final analysis, includes everyone.

Rosenberg is one of the few authors I have read with the courage to address the inevitable and to show us how to embrace what we can delay, but what we cannot prevent. Using examples from a wide variety of cultures, he looks at the way in which others face death, and shows us what lessons we can learn as we approach the ends of our lives. Whether you hope to live for eight more weeks or eighty more years, Rosenberg has an important message for you.

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