The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Book Description

By the author of the bestselling Moneyball: in football, as in life, the value we place on people changes with the rules of the games they play.

The young man at the center of this extraordinary and moving story will one day be among the most highly paid athletes in the National Football League. When we first meet him, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or any of the things a child might learn in school—such as, say, how to read or write. Nor has he ever touched a football.

What changes? He takes up football, and school, after a rich, Evangelical, Republican family plucks him from the mean streets. Their love is the first great force that alters the world's perception of the boy, whom they adopt. The second force is the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist turns out to be the priceless combination of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.

Customer Reviews:

Book of the Year.......2007-10-11

I've enjoyed all of Lewis' work, but this is his best yet. It's a wonderfully complex story of football history and social commentary. It's one of those books that you shouldn't pick up late at night, because you won't be able to put it down.

Real, inspirational, and alarming.......2007-09-23

The storyline of this book is well known, so I won't review it.

I was highly entertained - the writing is excellent, the story compelling and true.

At the same time, the clear inequities in rescuing just one person from the millions in similar situations was laid bare. Even more troubling to me was the apparently delusional notions of the good Samaritan that he was driven to help the poor rather than the basketball and football teams of his high school and college. Ethical lapses were rampant - The father lied to the NCAA investigation about ignorance of details, he inflated grades with questionable correspondence courses, and generally compromised the academic standards of the high school. The mother lobbied teachers for special treatment, and they intervened with the Ole Miss administration to mitigate the potential criminal charges when Michael nearly badly injured someone just for some insulting comments, which resulted in injuries to a small child. The parent had a friend of Michael's offered scholarships so he could attend the same school, and were proud of their younger son for asking for his own personal favors from the visiting coaches during recruiting season.

The author was not immune, recounting the way the likable giant Michael dominated his high school games as though it was Hercules saving the day, when my impression was more of subverting into a cult of personality for the future pro an amateur contest in which many kids might otherwise get some recreation.

The saving grace is the author includes all the facts (so far as I can tell), and I wound up liking all the people involved despite their flaws, as well as being impressed by their accomplishments.

An enlightening and engaging book, which I highly recommend for people with at least a moderate interest in and knowledge of football.

A good story, but not very insightful.......2007-08-23

First and foremost: The Blind Side is not Moneyball for football, so if that is what you are hoping for look elsewhere.

There are two primary storylines. First, the inner-workings of modern professional football as told through the evolution of the left tackle (aka the "blind side"). Second, the lives of top high school football recruits, as told through the story of one impoverished high school student who happens to be a "freak of nature" football prospect.

I would have liked to have seen more of the first, Moneyball-esque, "inside look" storyline, and less of the second. Unfortunately for me, Lewis focuses on the second.

Great story & read!.......2007-08-11

Buy this book! I enjoyed it so much that, after reading it, I immediately went online and searched for more information about the main character and his current team. The author, Michael Lewis, also does a wonderful of job of weaving in pertinent background information about the history of the NFL passing game, and the importance of the left tackle position in football. If you're looking for a great read, look no further! Michael Oher's story is as inspiring as it gets!

Surely Michael Lewis' best storytelling to date.......2007-07-21

I've read all of Michael Lewis' books except "Coach" (as a friend recently commented, "let's leave those to Mitch Albom"). Lewis has made a career out of counter-intuition. "The Blind Side" fits well into the Lewis groove. The casual fan watches football and thinks quarterback, running back, wide receiver. But Lewis takes you through the game's evolution (with its increased reliance on precision passing) and shows you why the left tackle has become the game's second-highest-paid position. As Lewis notes, as the salaries of quarterbacks have risen, so has the cost of insurance. And, on the football field, quarterback insurance is personified by the left tackle...protector of the blind side.

As one reviewer notes here, 'The Blind Side' contains "many stories, all good." Exactly. While the incredible tale of Michael Oher consumes a good portion of the book, there are other great stories. For example, Lewis paints a brilliantly vivid picture of Lawrence Taylor's impact on the league; and I love the juxtaposition of Bill Walsh's brand of football (as personified by Joe Montana) vs. Bill Parcells' brand of football (as personified by LT).

I'm tempted to say this might be Lewis' finest work. The only reason I won't is because of the monster that is Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street, a book that people may well be referencing 50 years from now. I'm also a big fan of the under-appreciated "Trail Fever" (released as Losers: The Road to Everyplace but the White House - which I bet Lewis hated since the whole point of the book was that the so-called losers were life's real winners - in paperback). But "The Blind Side" is surely the author's best storytelling. I bet he'll agree to that.

In the Company of the Courtesan: A Novel

Average customer rating:

A Masterpiece of Accuracy
Richly Descriptive Period Piece.
Diluted Sexuality in the Company of the Courtesan?
Audio to text: Bravo!
In the Company of the Courtesan

In the Company of the Courtesan: A Novel
Sarah Dunant
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812974042
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

My lady, Fiammetta Bianchini, was plucking her eyebrows and biting color into her lips when the unthinkable happened and the Holy Roman Emperor’s army blew a hole in the wall of God’s eternal city, letting in a flood of half-starved, half-crazed troops bent on pillage and punishment.

Thus begins In the Company of the Courtesan, Sarah Dunant’s epic novel of life in Renaissance Italy. Escaping the sack of Rome in 1527, with their stomachs churning on the jewels they have swallowed, the courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf companion, Bucino, head for Venice, the shimmering city born out of water to become a miracle of east-west trade: rich and rancid, pious and profitable, beautiful and squalid.

With a mix of courage and cunning they infiltrate Venetian society. Together they make the perfect partnership: the sharp-tongued, sharp-witted dwarf, and his vibrant mistress, trained from birth to charm, entertain, and satisfy men who have the money to support her.

Yet as their fortunes rise, this perfect partnership comes under threat, from the searing passion of a lover who wants more than his allotted nights to the attentions of an admiring Turk in search of human novelties for his sultan’s court. But Fiammetta and Bucino’s greatest challenge comes from a young crippled woman, a blind healer who insinuates herself into their lives and hearts with devastating consequences for them all.

A story of desire and deception, sin and religion, loyalty and friendship, In the Company of the Courtesan paints a portrait of one of the world’s greatest cities at its most potent moment in history: It is a picture that remains vivid long after the final page.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

A Masterpiece of Accuracy.......2007-08-09

a well researched, documentary quality history, entriging, believable charcters, engaging story.

Thank you Sarah Dunant, another good read.

Richly Descriptive Period Piece........2007-07-30

This book has most everything you would want in a period piece. It contains unique richly developed characters, intrigue, humor, & a deep plot. The sights, sounds, smells, & ambiance of 16th century Venice are almost lifelike. There is a fine mingling of social mores & politics that leads to many types of betrayal that keep the reader guessing. The author tells Fiammetta's story through the eyes of Bucino, a clever dwarf who shares her lodgings. He eventually will be the main character. The story begins in 1527 with the sacking of Rome. Fiammetta, is ravaged by the invaders & flees the city with Bucino{a loyal caretaker, & sardonic, resourceful spy}, with little else but the clothes on their backs, & some swallowed jewels. They reach Fiammetta's deceased mother's home in Venice. Soon La Draga, a mysterious, blind woman comes into their lives to nurse Fiammetta back to her original health & beauty. After a long recuperation she sets out to be the highly desired Courtesan she had been back in Rome. But, clearly she has not recovered as she gets more businesslike & cold as the book advances. Her lovers & friends are well done 7 most have an impact on the general theme. The most interesting relationship in the book is between La Draga & Bucino. their relationship will eventually put Fiammetta into the background, while these two characters play out their dramatic fates. The only minor flaw is that it was a too long, had it been a bit shorter in reaching the end I would have given it 5 stars.

Diluted Sexuality in the Company of the Courtesan?.......2007-07-25

Dunant is a brilliant and poetic writer, which makes the book well worth the read. However, I agree with other reviewers that, for a book about sexuality and intrigue, it certainly lacks passion. While "The Birth of Venus" was provocative, this book was disappointingly tame. The most beautifully written passages of the book concern Bucino's thoughts and memories, and he also happens to be the only intriguing character. Fiammetta, who was supposedly so charming, certainly failed to impress. Only in the first chapter was she as mesmerizing as the author wanted her to be. The ending was rather anticlimactic, abrupt, and unsatisfying. These criticisms aside, the book was still entertaining, yet not quite as memorable as "The Birth of Venus."

Audio to text: Bravo!.......2007-07-09

I have to say the audio of this fine book is the first book I've listened to on CD, and I had a fine time of it! So much so that I bought the hardcover book and am now immersed in that. I didn't just want the abridged version. I wanted the whole cake.
--James Conroyd Martin, Author of PUSH NOT THE RIVER Push Not the River and AGAINST A CRIMSON SKY Against a Crimson Sky: A Novel

In the Company of the Courtesan.......2007-07-04

I had just read "Birth of Venus" by this author and decided to try a second one. That period of history in Italy interest me, and I think she does an outstanding job of weaving history and fiction into both novels.

Average customer rating:

Good but could have been great
Republished under different title?
Painful
Reacher's Creatures
Not as effective as his other books

Running Blind
Lee Child
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0515130974
Release Date: 2001-07-03

Amazon.com

Jack Reacher is back, dragged into what looks like a series of grisly serial murders by a team of FBI profilers who aren't totally sure he's not the killer they're looking for, but believe that even if he isn't, he's smart enough to help them find the real killer. And what they've got on the ex-MP, who's starred in three previous Lee Child thrillers (Tripwire, Die Trying, Killing Floor), is enough to ensure his grudging cooperation: phony charges stemming from Reacher's inadvertent involvement in a protection shakedown and the threat of harm to the woman he loves.

The killer's victims have only one thing in common--all of them brought sexual harassment charges against their military superiors and all resigned from the army after winning their cases. The manner, if not the cause, of their deaths is gruesomely the same: they died in their own bathtubs, covered in gallons of camouflage paint, but they didn't drown and they weren't shot, strangled, poisoned, or attacked. Even the FBI forensic specialists can't figure out why they seem to have gone willingly to their mysterious deaths. Reacher isn't sure whether the killings are an elaborate cover-up for corruption involving stolen military hardware or the work of a maniac who's smart enough to leave absolutely no clues behind. This compelling, iconic antihero dead-ends in a lot of alleys before he finally figures it out, but every one is worth exploring and the suspense doesn't let up for a second. The ending will come as a complete surprise to even the most careful reader, and as Reacher strides off into the sunset, you'll wonder what's in store for him in his next adventure. --Jane Adams

Book Description

Across the country women are being murdered by an extraordinarily clever killer who leaves no trace of evidence, no fatal wounds, no signs of struggle, and no clues to an apparent motive. All the victims have in common is one thing: they each knew Jack Reacher.

It's "spectacular" (Seattle Times) and "swift and brutal" (New York Times).

Plan to stay up long past bedtime and do some serious hyperventilating toward the end. (Kirkus Reviews)

Reacher belongs at the same table with Parker's Spenser. (Booklist)

Customer Reviews:

Good but could have been great.......2007-07-18

Ok, long time fan of Lee Child Reacher series. I only have 3 left to read (listen to). This one just too much FBI blackmailing threats without good ol' Jack finding a way, his way, to remedy the situation. Either Lee should have not had the FBI chief be SUCH a a-hole and somehow come around to give Jack props OR Lee should have had Jack emit revenge on this this guy in a way smackdown way or had him get fired/arrested. Jack rolled over way to easy on this guy and had a weak way of threating the FBI jag at the end. Otherwise, the plot was great. Keep up the normal great work, Pursuader rocked and I'm on Enemy another great writing.

Republished under different title?.......2007-07-02

I am a Jack Reacher fan and am currently finishing the tenth novel by Lee Child (The Hard Way). I was astonished to discover a Jack Reacher novel I had never heard of. But then, when I read the description of the plot, I am fairly certain that this book was re-published under the title "Running Blind" which is the fourth Reacher novel.

Painful.......2007-06-18

I have read several of the Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" novels and enjoyed them. Up until now. Child creates great characters (Reacher being preeminent) and has a talent for great individual scenes. His endings tend to be a bit clumsy, but I've forgiven that in the past for the joy of the ride. I can't do it with this one. The solution on this one, re. how the murders are committed, is so absurd that it has effectively ended my interest in the series. I figured out the probable solution early on during the book, but I kept telling myself I must be wrong as such a solution would be ridiculous. Unfortunately the ridiculous solution was the solution. I apologize for mentioning the ending without going into detail as to what it was and what specifically was wrong with it, but there's no way to do this without being a "spoiler" and I don't want to mess up the (already bad) ending for people who do choose to buy the book. If you like Lee Child, please continue to read him but know that he has done better work than this.

Reacher's Creatures.......2007-06-03

Well he may be as lazy as his friend Douglas Preston says he is but he has put out a book every year and that's got to be tough. I can't think of a bad thing to say about any of his books. I am wild about them. He has inadvertently started a cult following with readers calling themselves "Reacher's Creatures" of which I am one. I love Jack Reacher. I will admit the first one I read I kept looking back at the photo of Lee Child thinking "this man wrote this big tough guy?" He looks so mild mannered and Jack Reacher is anything but mild mannered. He was a military MP and he was one of the best. Problem is Jack can't stop. He's wonderful and he is a true hero which we don't have many of any more. These are so well written that when you realize you are coming to the end I begin to slow down so it won't end so soon. He's rough, he's tough just as he has to be. But he can't settle down. Everybody that reads these wants to at least know him. He is a real character. We want him to be our friend. Lee Child made him come alive for us. I'm anxious for more and Lee Child says we can expect at least 10 more. These are my very favorite books right now.

Not as effective as his other books.......2007-06-03

Lee Child has created an unusual hero in Jack Reacher which has provided the basis for quite a number of books now. I dimly think that the author Lee Child is British but regardless of whether he is or not his creation Reacher is designed to appeal to all of the trigger points of an American audience.

Reacher is a person who can handle himelf in a scrape. He has done time in the militiary and has been trained in the art of combat.His combat traiing involved learning about firearms. He also spends him time in manual work so that he is fit. Yet he is not only an action hero.

He has worked in the militiary police so that he has developed Sherlock Holmes skills in investigation. (Sherlock Holmes like skills because the Reacher books are not procedurals. No slow accumulation of facts and evidence. Reacher solves crimes by way of intuitive break throughs, just like old Sherlock)

Most of the books have some referance point back to the army and Child the writer is cloying in his attempts to paint the United States Army in a posative light as an organisation which is on top of its game. One can imagine the pick up truck Republican crowd who are presumably the main audience for the books beaming with pride when there is some discourse in the books about the good old US army. Very limited discussion of the downside.

Never the less the previous books have been effective enough as time fillers and a good read when one is going on a plane flight. This one however seems a little formulaic. Perhaps it is simply that I have read a few and the nuts and bolts of the construction has become clearer and makes it more difficult to suspend disbelief.

The main problem however with this book is the end. Whilst it is perhaps a bit silly to say that it does not ring true.(It is a work of escapist fiction) It is perhaps harder to take seriously than some other of the books which appear to be better constructed. Still this is all subjective no doubt.

Average customer rating:

Huffy
First Chapter Book
Two generations loved this book
Helen Keller
An Inspiration to Young Girls

Helen Keller (Scholastic Biography)
Margaret Davidson
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0590424041

Book Description

The bestselling biography of Helen Keller and how, with the commitment and lifelong friendship of Anne Sullivan, she learned to talk, read, and eventually graduate from college with honors.

Customer Reviews:

Huffy.......2006-01-14

I thank Hellen Keller is good for kids of all ages.MY favorite
part was when she hit Anny Sullivan. My mom has a sister who is blind.And she had to learn to do alot of things also.Do you know
she has a long red stick. I feelsory for my ant and Hellen keller.

First Chapter Book.......2004-06-15

This is the first chapter book I ever read. I am now 13 year olds and when I was in 1st grade I learned to read. In first grade I read this book and was hooked on reading forever after that. So thank you to the author!
This book has 95 pages in it, I remember it seemed so long then!

Two generations loved this book.......2003-06-18

My 8 year old just finished this book and was fascinated. I realized as I looked through it that I read it as a child and loved it too (as an 11 year old). My daughter is now eager to learn more about Braille and the consequences of being blind--though I had to ask her not to walk through the kitchen with her eyes closed. She loved the photos and can't wait to read about Annie Sullivan. A great book to show the triumph of the human spirit over adversity--and without pity!

Helen Keller.......2003-05-02

I didn't really like Helen Keller. My favorite part is when Helen got her diploma because she was the first blind and deaf to graduate. I don't know how you can chan it was her life.I read it because it was a asiment.

An Inspiration to Young Girls.......2002-10-22

Helen Keller is a book from my youth that I have hung onto all these years. Helen's story, beautifully told by Margaret Davidson, is an inspiration to all girls because each will face challenges at some point that will seem insurmountable. Here's a girl who had lost three senses yet learned to function in the world so well that she graduated college with honors.

Amazon.com

Richard Dawkins is not a shy man. Edward Larson's research shows that most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-face atheist in the witty British style:

I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.

The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev. William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way... it is the blind watchmaker."

Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself. For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs. You can check Dawkins's results on your own Mac or PC.

Book Description

"The best general account of evolution I have read in recent years."—E. O. Wilson. With a new introduction.

Twenty years after its original publication, The Blind Watchmaker, framed with a new introduction by the author, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the eighteenth-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte. Natural selection—the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially nonrandom process Darwin discovered—is the blind watchmaker in nature.

Customer Reviews:

Makes evolution understandable.......2007-10-02

It is some years since I read this excellent book on evolution. But I still remember it as the book that really laid out the nuts and bolts of the process and made it easy to understand at the "Ah now I see" level. I know of no better layman's guide to evolution.

"Passionate advocacy" and storytelling: 2 stars?.......2007-10-02

". . . there are wonderful stories to be told, and I love storytelling." Dawkins, tBW, chapter 2.

It must be admitted that Dawkins is an entertaining expositor, at least when he avoids repetition and a bad habit of prolonged hammering away at very simple concepts, often for pages on end, as if his assertions and arguments were more difficult to grasp than they actually are. In some instances he explains rather well, in comfortably pedestrian language, certain specific biological details, but when he tries to generalize and extend his views to larger scale philosophical perspectives, his assertions quickly disintegrate under critical scrutiny. All things considered, TBW isn't very impressive.

Dawkins states early on that he is writing from the perspective of a "passionate advocate" rather than that of a scientist proceeding along lines of argument that might be recognized as being scientific. He says that he does this because the reader can't grasp the science involved, therefore he is to invoke "wonderful stories." He frets that some will not believe him because they do not "want to believe." Dawkins wants to believe.

I find it curiously disingenuous, perhaps even insulting and intellectually evasive on Dawkins' part, that he suggests he must deal in metaphors and stories because his readers are too stupid (no, he doesn't use the word `stupid', but this is what he repeatedly describes) to understand his deep, scientific understanding of the Darwinian story. His lengthy insistence that evolution has hard-wired us to be unable to understand and appreciate echolocation in bats, is obviously wrong. In Dawkins' hands, this kind of suggestion is supposed to, in its own merit, buttress some of his arguments (see the following paragraph). A thinking person begs to differ. Many of the most brilliant and penetrating minds of modern theoretical science and mathematics, including Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, John von Neumann, and Kurt Gödel, among others, have found the Darwinian story to be non-compelling at best, and on some points glaringly wrong. Dawkins may want to dismiss them as `not wanting to believe' or as being somehow stupid, but . . .

Dawkins: "Our minds can't cope with [large numbers] . . . Our minds can't imagine a time span [greater or less than `routine' human experience]," because "it offends the economically minded human." Dawkins says "there was no need for our ancestors to cope with sizes and times outside the narrow range of everyday practicality, so our brains never evolved the capacity to imagine them." Dawkins loves this mythic defense and ducks behind it frequently, but it is a hapless argument. It is "a slander against humanity," as one philosopher of science has stated, and it is self evidently wrong. The human mind can certainly `imagine' larger numbers than we experience in "routine experience!" Consider for a mere moment the insights of a Gauss, Cantor, or Riemann; consider that even a modestly competent math student CAN not only imagine very large and very small numbers [including quantities of distance and time units], but CAN engage and manipulate these numbers accurately, often rather easily when abstracted with recognizable notations like exponents!

It is not a matter of this _kind_ of observation being inherently untrue; many physicists, including Paul Dirac, have spoken this way about quantum mechanics, for example. Indeed it is difficult to understand quantum mechanics because neither Bohr's complimentarity principle nor Heisenberg's uncertainty principle have any obvious analogs within normal human experience, let alone the way in which these two surprising qualities are entangled. But this observation is fundamentally different than Dawkins' argument that humans cannot understand imaging with non-visible frequencies or what to make of big numbers! Anyone curious person who has ever considered a sonogram or x-ray image, or seen a movie featuring submariners watching sonar screens, grasps non-visual spectrum images, and any modestly competent high school student well understands what large numbers are!

Dawkins' sluggardly argument "whistles past the graveyard" that is home to a real problem for the great Darwinian thesis: why should our abilities to examine non-commutative algebras or higher dimensional topologies or even advanced number theory [or any of the more esoteric fields of mathematics] exist at all in a Darwinian world? Certainly not for any of the rationales that Dawkins appeals to. They provide no survival or reproductive advantage within evolutionary `routine experience,' or in any other sense whatsoever. They avail "the selfish gene" nothing. They exist as a non-Darwinian/ anti-Dawkins reality.

Dawkins says that "5 per cent of an eye" would probably provide "5 per cent vision." Skepticism seems reasonable here, except perhaps for those who "want to believe." He presents many such dubious assertions, like: "living organisms exist for the benefit of DNA rather than the other way around" (ultimately--in DNA--teleology and `purpose' are alive and well!) and, "DNA molecules themselves, as physical entities, are like dewdrops" (true in a very limited and caricatured sense perhaps, but grossly misleading, to put it mildly). Presumably Dawkins would deflect criticism of some such colorful assertions by claiming them mere metaphors. Okay, but what then are the actual `truths' he is trying to demonstrate? Can they be stated precisely or directly and seem less cartoonish? Or are his readers merely too stupid for the `scientific' explanations that he is protecting them from? (With apologies to Dawkins' fans who might consider the last question a cheap shot [I do not].)

There are so many aspects of Dawkins' book that beg critical analysis, that, in the desire to keep this review short, I will have to simply point some of them out briefly before moving forward: (1.) His programmed stick figure "bio-morphs" obviously have been brought into `existence' by design, in an intelligently designed `world,' and for a specific purpose, how does this support his "without purpose" and "without design" doctrine? (2.) His `typing monkeys,' borrowed from one of his heroes, TH Huxley, is hopelessly burdened with design, purpose and intelligent contrivance--who builds the typewriters, who made the language and symbols thereof that the builder of the typewriters clearly needed as a starting point, who makes the paper (cuts and mills the trees, etc), who keeps those 99.999. . . percent of monkeys that would simply smash the typewriters away from them and keeps that rare typing monkey on task?--again, how could any of this support his "without purpose" and "without design" doctrine? He eventually (chapt 6) admits that it does not. (3.) His computer program designed to derive a sentence from Hamlet, if given the necessary letters to work with, and if specifically designed to achieve a specific result, will do so--well folks, are you beginning to see a pattern here? Design is supposed to equal no design! Dawkins' core thesis in TBW, as presented in the book's subtitle, "the evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design," fails utterly in all of his memorable and now famous arguments, no matter what points concerning natural selection one may believe he has made cleanly.

"It could happen:" Dawkins' most fundamental and foundational arguments and speculations are also his most flawed, and are appropriately employed in the center of the book, chapter six, "Origins and miracles." Here Dawkins quickly demands that an extra-cosmic designer (God) must be an "organized complexity" that evolves naturally within an infinite regress of causes. This is certainly a convenient construction, as it makes "god" quite expendable by definition, but the definition is poor quality straw. The god whose fire he steals is not the "simple unity" or the "first cause of causes" that one finds in either Abrahamic or neo-Platonic theology. His wrong argument simply defeats a wrong god. He next sketches a somewhat accurate picture of the profound difficulties of `abiogenesis'/ `autogenesis'/ `spontaneous generation' of life theories. He says that to effectively put these problems aside, we only need to imagine that these difficulties were somehow overcome--"it must have happened." The "pathway" model he chooses to champion as being plausible is due to Graham Cairns-Smith, and goes something very like this:

Carbon macromolecules, proteins and nucleic acids, necessary to all carbon-based life, that is all life that we know of, are so complex that it is hopelessly difficult to imagine them arising spontaneously in any non-living substratum. That Stanley Miller and others have synthesized amino acids is of no real help here, the gap between mere amino acids and the highly complex carbon macromolecules is too great. So let's imagine something simpler, that silicon-base lattices are "life-like" in that they are "organized" and rudimentarily "complex." Now imagine that non-directed geological and meteorological forces in some sense "select" certain silicon dust crystals such that they accumulate and form larger "organizations." Now imagine that these silicon "organizations" become something that might be described as "RNA-like" mud. Now imagine that actual RNA begins to "take over" the "RNA-like" mud. Carbon macromolecules somehow have arisen and now somehow replace silicon structures. Viola! "Life-like" "organizations" of "RNA-like" mud are now organizations of RNA and RNA organizations eventually become DNA organizations and "life-like" organizations become life. Inorganic structures somehow `commute' to carbon molecules. Mineral (silicon being the best candidate) crystal `genes' commute to carbon-based genes, RNA "takes over" "RNA-like", DNA eventually takes over. I suppose this is plausible for a `true believer' for whom the proper kind of `imagination' is sufficient, but it's not plausible in any scientific sense. The entire heart of the original problem remains intact. Where did the carbon macromolecules come from? How did RNA "appear"?

Dawkins defense of this problem is interestingly empty and invokes "a marble statue of the Virgin Mary suddenly" waving its hand at us. Here it is: "In the case of the marble statue, molecules in solid marble are continuously jostling against one another in random directions. The jostlings of the different molecules cancel one another out, so the whole hand of the statue stays still. But if, by sheer coincidence, all the molecules just happened to move in the same direction at the same moment, the hand would move. If they then all reversed direction at the same moment the hand would move back. In this way it is possible for a marble statue to wave at us. It could happen. The odds against such a coincidence are unimaginably great but they are not incalculably great. A physicist colleague has kindly calculated them for me. The number is so large that the entire age of the universe so far is too short a time to write out all the noughts! It is theoretically possible for a cow to jump over the moon with something like the same improbability. The conclusion to this part of the argument is that we can calculate our way into regions of miraculous improbability far greater than we can imagine as plausible."

All that is left to Dawkins is to again regale our inability to imagine numbers "so large that the entire age of the universe so far is too short a time to write out all the noughts!" It's the final sum of his argument--we don't have good enough imaginations! It is interesting that Dawkins doesn't recognize that this same specie of argument can more easily be employed to defend belief in a First Cause of causes (here Dawkins seems to have a contentedly parochial imagination). And of course, neither a cow jumping over the moon nor a marble statue waving at us either establishes or quantifies the plausibility of life spontaneously arising from non-life.

Although his deepest philosophical assertions fail grandly, although he is repetitive and wordy, and although he is given to belittling his readers' intelligence even while trying to educate and entertain them, the book has its moments; Dawkins certainly doesn't get EVERYTHING wrong, he IS at times entertaining, and this book isn't as bad as The Selfish Gene.

Please Read (Especially if You're Religious)!.......2007-09-29

I have a degree in English and American Literature and my minor was in History. In other words, I'm not great at science or math. But I've always been interested in some aspects of science and biology and evolution happen to be subjects I like. I'm not a complete moron when it comes to scientific subjects but I'm sure any 8th grade science geek could probably run rings around me.

Consequently, this book by Richard Dawkins is made for me. The way I understood it it was written with a general reader in mind. The book is well written and plausibly argued. And as long as you pay attention and follow the logic of the author's arguments it's not that hard to follow.

The basic premise of the book is to show how life could appear in the universe without a creator or any pre-conceived notion of design (the whole "Intelligent Design" argument now being debated across the U.S.). Dawkins obviously loves Darwin and bases his argument on cumulative evolution over billions of years (the age of the Earth [and please shut-up you stupid creationists trying to argue that the Earth is only 6,000 years old!]). Dawkins patiently explains how such a slow and random process like natural selection could evolve our life-forms over vast amounts of time. Like I said, I'm no great scientist, but the argument makes perfect sense and I still fail to see why anyone tries to argue otherwise (except, of course, for religious reasons, but those are very silly reasons).

Overall, this is a good way to try to understand evolution in more depth than the few words hopefully given to you in high school and college. There are a few parts which I found to be boring (like the taxonomy debates and different schools of thought in taxonomy) but I think this book is an important read--especially now that religious nuts are trying to dumb people down.

468 pages of evasive reasoning.......2007-09-15

Dawkins' thesis in this book is to prove that the universe is a non-sentient thing which merely exists. There is no God who creates. What order there is (e.g. life) has been produced by mutation and cumulative selection (i.e. evolution).

But one could ask, who designed evolution? How did the universe come to be? Dawkins' sidesteps these questions for 468 pages (in my edition of the book).

As an engineer, I find his whole approach disturbing because he asks us to have faith in evolution rather than in God. I write this because evolution seems to be an untestable theory. If I propose to do an experiment to evolve bacteria into human beings a Darwinist will tell me that it is impossible to do because the time required would be much, much longer than that of a single human lifespan. And Dawkins seems to be saying that even if one could do that, the result would not be a human being but maybe something resembling a human being. What is there left to do but have faith in the priests of evolution? It's not as though I can test their theory. Given this, Dawkins' obvious contempt for those who believe in God is hard to take.

Great explanation of evolution.......2007-09-13

This book is an excellent explanation of evolution. It's a little on the dry side, and people who already know quite a bit about evolution will find it slow in the beginning. It picks up, though. Dawkins starts off with simple concepts and gradually builds into the more complex understandings of evolution. He explains everything very clearly, using analogies to help visualize some of the more difficult concepts. This book does a great job of clearing up a lot of the misunderstandings of what evolution is really about and putting a beautiful concept in science into terms any lay person can understand. Dawkins makes evolution impossible to dispute once you have read his book. I think most people who try to argue with evolution could only possibly be doing so because they do not fully understand it.

Living With Blind Dogs: A Resource Book and Training Guide for the Owners of Blind and Low-Vision Dogs, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

Book for handling blind dogs
Most practical, encouraging help available to owners of blind dogs
Very helpful...
Very helpul & informative
Excellant resource!!!!!

Living With Blind Dogs: A Resource Book and Training Guide for the Owners of Blind and Low-Vision Dogs, Second Edition
Caroline D. Levin
Manufacturer: Lantern Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0967225345

Book Description

"Living With Blind Dogs," now in its second edition, is the only published resource book on this topic. It embodies helpful hints from hundreds of blind-dog owners, as well as years of ophthalmic nursing, veterinary, and dog training experiences. Both the veterinary community and dog owners alike continue to praise this text, in which Levin successfully answers the common question: "What do I do now?"

This revised edition contains all the topics covered in the first edition, such as: Dealing with feelings of loss and grief, how dogs react to blindness, conditions that cause blindness and how they progress, genetics, pack issues, training concepts, new skills, helpful hints to negotiate the house, yard, and community, toys, games, and suppliers/resources.

This revised edition also includes numerous new sections and chapters: Dogs both blind and deaf, dogs blind from birth, white canes and other devices, circling behaviors, changes in barking patterns, dealing with cats, giving eye drops, traveling and camping with a blind dog, adding another dog to the pack, dry eye syndrome, VKH, and new findings on PRA and SARD.

Customer Reviews:

Book for handling blind dogs.......2007-10-10

This book is very helpful for me in training my blind Pekingese. I've gotten several good ideas from it.

Most practical, encouraging help available to owners of blind dogs.......2007-07-21

My sweet Basset Hound Wilma developed glaucoma causing immediate blindness in one eye with the possibility of blindness in the other eye at some point. This book is full of encouragment that blind dogs can lead happy lives and really "normal" lives. It has pages and pages of practical things to do to help your dog. It is also a great resource for someone like me with a dog partially blind or beginning to lose their vision because there is a very helpful information on preparing your dog for blindness. I had felt so sad and hopeless about my dog's future until I got this book. A MUST HAVE BOOK for anyone dealing with their dog and blindness.

Very helpful..........2007-05-14

I am the owner of a 6 yr old rottweiler who has been diabetic since 2005 and has recently developed cataracts due to her illness. This book has been extremely informative to me as I assist my dog to adjusting to life without sight. It helped me to understand that with a little patience and guidance, my dog can still enjoy a quality life. Since this is probably a one-of-a-kind book, it is an invaluable source for owners of blind dogs. I highly recommend it.

Very helpul & informative.......2007-04-04

I had been approached about adopting a blind puppy. I purchased this book to figure out if I would be up for the task of dealing with a blind puppy. I found this book to be very helpful & informative. I did adopt the puppy & I was able to have the house ready for her to negotiate & map out by following the book's suggestions.

Excellant resource!!!!!.......2007-03-18

This book helped me deal with what was a very difficult transition when my dog lost his eyesight late in life!

Average customer rating:

Thriller--not a mystery or detective novel
Mystery
Good but not great: An audiobook review
Good, but with some inconsistencies
Quantity has seriously eclipsed quality

Four Blind Mice
James Patterson
Manufacturer: Vision
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0446613266
Release Date: 2003-09-29

Amazon.com

In this latest thriller from perennial bestselling author James Patterson, Washington cop Alex Cross gets involved in his partner's effort to save the life of an old Army buddy who's facing execution for a horrendous and inexplicable murder spree in North Carolina. The Army's evidence against Sergeant Ellis Cooper, a decorated Vietnam vet, is overwhelming, which isn't surprising since it's all been planted by a quartet of killers whose reason for framing the erstwhile hero isn't revealed until long after they are. The big secret is who set the murderers loose, and in true cliffhanger fashion, Patterson keeps it under wraps until the very end. Meanwhile, his usual blend of action, violence, fast pacing and uninspired-though-serviceable prose prevail, and will probably do so all the way to the top of the bestseller lists. --Jane Adams

Book Description

In this latest thriller from perennial bestselling author JamesPatterson, Washington cop Alex Cross gets involved in his partner's effort to save the lifeof an old Army buddy who's facing execution for a horrendous and inexplicablemurder spree in North Carolina. The Army's evidence against Sergeant EllisCooper, a decorated Vietnam vet, is overwhelming, which isn't surprising sinceit's all been planted by a quartet of killers whose reason for framing theerstwhile hero isn't revealed until long after they are. The big secret is whoset the murderers loose, and in true cliffhanger fashion, Patterson keeps itunder wraps until the very end. Meanwhile, his usual blend of action, violence,fast pacing and uninspired-though-serviceable prose prevail, and will probablydo so all the way to the top of the bestseller lists. --Jane Adams

Customer Reviews:

Thriller--not a mystery or detective novel.......2007-07-14

The mystery/detective novel was a rather pure form in its earlier days. The focus was not on the murder itself and the detailed agony of the victim. In fact, the crime was disposed of rather quickly. The story was how the detective, through investigation and logic, revealed the murderer. There was no sex, no outright violence and certainly no sadism.

Somewhere along the line the detective novel evolved into the "thriller," in which the theme ranged far and wide. In most novels by James Patterson there is a pervasive vein of sadism, as there is in "Four Blind Mice." Ex-rangers from the U.S. Army, men who had fought in Viet Nam, continue their killing for hire and for pleasure in America. The sadism is very detailed and has nothing to do with the plot itself. For example, there is a lengthy and gruesome description of how the rangers tortured and killed a woman suspected of being Viet Cong. Perhaps it is to show that the men were not nice fellows, but the fact that they murdered people at all should establish that.

The detectives who trail the killers are bedroom hoppers, narrated with rather specific detail. Again, the sex has nothing to do with the plot, with tracking down the killers. One has to suspect that the sex is to titilate the sort of reader who can be titilated or manipulated by this.

The actual plot is not of much interest, nor is how the criminals were caught. What sells the Patterson books is the violence, the sadism, the sex--and short chapters for those with short attention spans. And because of this, I suspect the Patterson books will not be long remembered. Readers still read Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Philo Vance, etc., and they will be doing so when the Cross books are in the dustbin.

Mystery .......2007-07-03

Alex Cross the mystery solver. Great read. Fast moving and exciting. Never go wrong with James Patterson reading

Good but not great: An audiobook review.......2007-05-04

After reading a few reviews, it sounds like the audio version actually helps the story a bit. The two narrators are both quite good, with the exception that some of the bad guys sound too much like one another.

I am glad to get back to the world of Alex Cross. I have read or heard 3 other Patterson books this year and have been sorely disappointed with two. I only liked one (Jester) and I was looking forward to getting back to comfortable ground with Alex Cross.

The strength of Patterson's Cross books is the realistic conversations - the rhythms, cadences, colloquialisms and vocabulary sound right. They sound so right that I am reminded of a personal story. Way back before Patterson's picture was plastered all over the back of every one of his books, I used to work in a used book store. The Alex Cross books started filtering in and Mrs. Rivers, the assistant manager and an elderly African-American woman (also an avid mystery/thriller reader) placed Patterson's books in the African-American authors section. She was shocked when a book came in with his face on the back. She commented that she never would have believed that a white man could have pulled that off so well. He still pulls it off.

However, the story flows in a herky-jerky manner. Sampson and Cross gleen clues from things that should not provide clues. For example, while in Raleigh, NC investigating an old ritualistic multiple murder, they hear that a single prostitute was killed. No details are provided of the prostitute's murder, but still they know it is connected. How?

Patterson is intent on moving the personal lives of Cross and Sampson forward. That is appropriate. At times, though, it felt as if that was the only part of the story he really put a lot of thought into. The rest seemed to be rather sloppily tossed in there - the connections were loose, characters are introduced than dropped.

So, my grade: B-

Good conversation. Like the characters. My suggestion: Slow down "James Patterson, Inc." and take the time to work out some of the kinks and make these books better.

Good, but with some inconsistencies.......2007-04-07

I picked this up at an airport before an international flight. I've read a few Patterson books recently. This was not quite as good as some of the others. Part of the problem might have been me reading them out of chronological order (this is another Alex Cross book). I didn't really care for the ending. There also seemed to be some technical and story inconsistencies.

Quantity has seriously eclipsed quality.......2007-01-23

While I have read numerous books by James Patterson, only a few have been part of his "Alex Cross" series. The Cross books have a mechanical, mass-produced feel to them. However, with Patterson churning out something like 5-6 books a year, that's hardly a surprise. I don't mind someone being prolific, but it's almost gotten to where he should open up a chain of drive-through windows and donate a portion of his profits to re-seeding forests. We're getting true pulp fiction of the distinctly hastily-written-and-not-well-researched variety. There isn't nearly the attention to detail in these novels as in, say, a Michael Connelly crime thriller. There were also way too many implausibilities in this book for me to take it very seriously - even as fanciful entertainment.

The "four blind mice" in this book are three Army Rangers who served together in Vietnam (and a fourth 'mouse' that is revealed at the end of the book). Upon their return, the 3 continue to kill for both profit - as contract hit men - and fun (they're deranged "good 'ol boys" who truly get their kicks from killing even when no money is involved). But the amount of killing they do - and their complete lack of caution to keep from being caught - simply defies reason. These guys would have been caught within a week by even the most dysfunctional police force in the country. And they're supposed to be "professionals"? Uh, right.

A few examples:

1. They abduct a prostitute, let her out in the woods, and then "hunt her down" for sport before killing her. Just as they are about to start their hunt after releasing her, a police cruiser stops to ask the 3 men what they are doing on the side of the road with their lights off. They give an answer that satisfies the cop and he drives off. There is NO WAY that when the prostitute's body was later found, the cop wouldn't have tied it to the 3 guys on the side of the road and launched a major manhunt.

2. Another cop later pulls them over and they shoot him. Then, one of them gets in the car and simply drives it into the bushes on the side of the road to hide it. No attempt to even wear gloves before touching the inside of the cop car or the steering wheel.

3. The men go to a house full of call-girls and kill everyone inside. Again, no attempt to conceal fingerprints on doorknobs, clothes, furniture, etc.

Professional killers are simply not this cavalier when it comes to covering their tracks. With such huge deficiencies in the details, it was awfully hard to take Mr. Patterson's fiction seriously in this book. It was like these characters had been on one continuous joy ride / killing spree for the last 20 years without getting caught. With guys this back-slapping careless? I'm sorry, it just ain't gonna happen.

To be honest, there wasn't much here in the way of either mystery or thrill. In fact, the only real mystery is where Cross's long-distance romance with Jamilla is going to eventually end up.

Will I continue to read books by this author? Yes, but I won't generally expect too much from them - especially the crime thrillers. I enjoyed his recent books more in the genre of Nicholas Sparks better. One was called "Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas" and the other "Sam's Letters to Jennifer." Because they didn't rely on much of anything requiring research or technical detail - just books about human relationships - they were far better and far more plausible reads.

Patterson has the imagination to tell some very good stories. The problem is usually in the execution, not the story itself. I'm afraid quantity is definitely eclipsing quality as he attempts to churn out a book every few months. I'm not sure what's driving him to produce books like a machine gun - he's certainly made his millions with so many bestsellers and several movies. In fact, his books have grossed over $1 billion - so you do the math. It's astronomical even if he gets only 10% of that. One would think that as he near retirement age and with all his success, he'd take the advice that Nana constantly gives to Alex Cross in this book: slow down, don't work so much, and don't be so driven. I'd certainly like him to slow down enough to write better books.

Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder

Average customer rating:

Black Eye for the Medical Profession
Great Book
Required reading for anyone who receives medical care
terrific read....uh, except for.....
SERIAL KILLER DOCTOR...!!!!

Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder
James B. Stewart
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684865637

Amazon.com

From the moment he entered medical school in the late 1970s, people around Michael Swango thought he was a little odd. But even though he expounded upon his obsessions with violent death and serial killings to anybody within earshot, almost nobody connected him to the string of deaths among patients under his care. When an investigation finally took place at the Ohio State medical center, hospital administrators sympathized with Swango--against the direct testimony of patients and nurses--and seemed more concerned with how revelations of a murderous doctor might affect their public image than with the safety of their clients. And, remarkably, even after being released from prison in Illinois, where he had been convicted of (nonfatally) poisoning several of his coworkers, Swango was able to obtain positions at hospitals in South Dakota and New York. When American authorities finally started to pursue his case, he fled the country and began plying his trade in Zimbabwe. In June 1998, after being captured during an attempt to reenter the United States, he was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison--on fraud charges related to his employment in New York.

The truly frightening aspect of Blind Eye is not the relentless chain of murders, but the ease with which Swango was able to repeatedly slip through the cracks in the medical system, simply by lying about the nature of his felony conviction. James B. Stewart methodically traces every step of Swango's career, laying out a straightforward narrative with all the suspense of a well-crafted thriller. Although attempts to "explain" Swango's behavior through psychopathology and a historical rise in the incidences of serial killing derail the ending somewhat, Blind Eye is still a must-read for true crime buffs--or anyone who enjoys good journalism. --Ron Hogan

Book Description

No one could believe the handsome young doctor might be a serial killer. Wherever he was hired -- in Ohio, Illinois, New York, South Dakota -- Michael Swango at first seemed the model physician. Then his patients began dying under suspicious circumstances.

At once a gripping read and a hard-hitting look at the inner workings of the American medical system, Blind Eye describes a professional hierarchy where doctors repeatedly accept the word of fellow physicians over that of nurses, hospital employees, and patients -- even as horrible truths begin to emerge. With the prodigious investigative reporting that has defined his Pulitzer Prize-winning career, James B. Stewart has tracked down survivors, relatives of victims, and shaken coworkers to unearth the evidence that may finally lead to Swango's conviction.

Combining meticulous research with spellbinding prose, Stewart has written a shocking chronicle of a psychopathic doctor and of the medical establishment that chose to turn a blind eye on his criminal activities.

Customer Reviews:

Black Eye for the Medical Profession.......2007-01-29

This is a fascinating story about how the medical establishment did not detect a psycopath in their midst. Even after detection, they allowed him to continue as a doctor.

Even more upsetting was the failure of the faculty of the college of medicine at Southern Illinois University to detect and fail incompetent students. These students, including Michael Swango, were allowed to continue; even after episodes of total incompetence. If these policies are common at other medical schools, it offers an explanation for the large number of substandard physicians.

Great Book.......2007-01-09

Not only was this book a great read, it also displays the significant truth about the world of medicine. This type of behavior (ignoring what's in front of you) happens everyday in medicine. All credentialing personnel should be required to read this book.

Required reading for anyone who receives medical care.......2006-11-29

I was given "Blind Eye" when I first began working at a physician monitoring program as a clinician. At the time, I was under the impression that because physicians have so much responsibility to "do no harm," they would automatically report themselves or fellow physicians if they believed they were impaired mentally, physically or emotionally. How wrong I was!

"Blind Eye" represents the epitome of how our medical system supports physicians, even when they are dangerous to themselves and others. Through a painstaking and exhaustive review of the life and career of Dr. Michael Swango, James B. Stewart illustrates how easy it was for a medical doctor to manipulate nurses, colleagues, administrators, patients, and even his own family into believing that he was a competent physician. Stewart further demonstrates how the "good old boy" system is alive and well in America, in which doctors look the other way when something seems wrong, even when evidence to the contrary is right in front of them.

If I had not read this book, knowing it is a true story, I probably would not have believed that a physician could truly get away with murder; now I am truly convinced that this is, unfortunatly, the case. "Blind Eye" should be required reading for every person who works with or sees a personal physician.

terrific read....uh, except for............2006-08-29

Stewart's coverage of the l'affaire Swango is exemplary--one of the best true crime reads in the last ten years, this one....except...except for what I've found to be a common occurrence in books of this genre, namely, in this instance, that Michael Swango, not once, not twice, but probably 20 times, is described as "handsome": what's up with that? Swango looks like a cartoon horse, and in no sense of the word "handsome" is he, well, even slightly better than subpar in the looks department. Several b/w pix here document this guy's oversized choppers, narrow head, and so on. So why is this the case? Possibly to lure name actors into vying for the lead in a filming of this, and thus make the project more attractive in order to secure a better deal? That's the only thing I can think of and, as I say, this is a common problem in the true crime genre. SO: it's a five-star read, but docked a notch because, if the author continually overstates a major fact regarding the book's main character's appearance, the reader HAS to wonder, Hey, what other liberties are taken with the truth here? Be that as it may--a tip o' the hat to Stewart for his page-turning prose. Possibly the best book I've ever read about a poisoner, including the great works covering the infamous 19th and early 20th century cases, when poison was much in vogue.

SERIAL KILLER DOCTOR...!!!!.......2006-08-21

THIS BOOK IS A GREAT POWER PACKED STORY OF HOW A SERIAL KILLER DOCTOR COULD GET AWAY WITH HIS MURDERS FOR SO LONG, AND BE COVERED UP BY THE "DOCTORS PROFESSIONAL PROTECT EACH OTHER RULES" AGAIN AND AGAIN. IT IS VERY SCARY HOW U CAN NOT EVEN TRUST A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL WHEN IN THE HOSPITAL. IT CERTAINLY WILL MAKE ME QUESTION ANYTHING I AM GIVEN OR INJECTED WITH NEXT TIME I AM IN THE HOSPITAL. A MUST READ IF U HAVE WONDERED HOW MEDICAL "ACCIDENTS" HAPPEN!!

Average customer rating:

Twenty-four delightful short stories
Is this from the same guy who gave us Wind-up Bird Chronicle?
Uneven but great nevertheless
Highly readable, moderately obnoxious.
bits of memories like gems wrapped in velvet

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Haruki Murakami
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1400044618
Release Date: 2006-08-29

Book Description

Following the best-selling triumph of Kafka on the Shore—“daringly original,” wrote Steven Moore in The Washington Post Book World, “and compulsively readable”—comes a collection that generously expresses Murakami’s mastery. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit his ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and relentlessly entertaining. As Richard Eder has written in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, “He addresses the fantastic and the natural, each with the same mix of gravity and lightness.”

Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. Whether during a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii, or in the grip of everyday life, Murakami’s characters confront grievous loss, or sexuality, or the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distances between those who ought to be the closest of all.

“While anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream,” Laura Miller wrote in The New York Times Book Review, “it’s the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves”—a feat performed anew twenty-four times in this career-spanning book.

Customer Reviews:

Twenty-four delightful short stories.......2007-09-03

This collection of short stories features quite a range of memorable characters and situations. Blind willows have a lot of pollen and tiny flies covered with it crawl inside the ear of a woman and put her asleep. A waitress about to spend her twentieth birthday in a surprising manner. A man who has the astonishing habit of going to the zoo whenever there is a typhoon. The story of a mirror capable of reflecting another self. The strange story of a disabled son and her mother holidaying on an island.
In many of these stories, narrative tension is heightened by a refusal to explain strange events; Murakami's ghosts and mysteries remain what they are. In "Nausea 1979" for example, the reader will never know whether a serial adulterer has been cursed, or whether his nausea has something to do with his predilection for deceptive seduction. Murakami never gives answers to the reader's questions, and the result is memorable if puzzling at times.
The stories in this collection have all of Murakami's characteristic strangeness, but they combine the bizarre with a tight structure. They show the author at his best; not as a cult literary figure but as a really first-rate writer of short fiction. Highly recommended.

Is this from the same guy who gave us Wind-up Bird Chronicle?.......2007-08-10

I have given up on "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman." I am half way through and I believe it's not worth any more of my time.

Let me tell you how bad it was. I took the book with me in a visit to Toronto earlier this week. I was bored out of mind at the Pearson Airport waiting for my flight. So I pulled out the book, thinking I could probably sail through the wait engrossed in Haruki Murakami's stories. After about 10 minutes, I put the book back in my carry-on thinking it is much more preferable to get bored out of mind than reading this junk.

What on earth was Murakami thinking? Do authors become so arrogant that after some fame, the readers will lap up any crap they dish out? Frankly, I am disgusted. I am not going to read another Murakami unless the reviews are really really good.

Uneven but great nevertheless.......2007-07-30

This collection of short stories contains some of Murakami best work. That there are stories from his past that were probably best left interred hardly mars the genius of this collection. A few stories, like "Poor Aunt", are laced with absurdity lacking profundity, like the silliness of a Japanese cartoon character. Yet I have to admire the author's audacity and admit that some of the charm of Murakami comes from the cultural disconnect between Western and Eastern sensibility.

What I don't want to read is Murakami mouthing words that could be more authentically articulated by Western authors. In this book Murakami remains true.

Highly readable, moderately obnoxious........2007-06-07

Haruki Murakami excels at perceiving the minor details that give any particular location its unique character; his cynical observations and dry sense of humor are often very enjoyable. Many of his stories take very mundane aspects of the modern world and skillfully turn them on their head. And he obviously loves writing about food -- its tactile qualities are perfectly suited to his style.

Unfortunately, Murakami also suffers from a malady that I have encountered from more than one Japanese writer. Oftentimes these same observations serve the purpose of an elliptical or anemic plot. The narrator is smug, condescending, and a little whiney. Along with the essential details come laundry lists of less-than-pertinent observations.

Murakami can pen a beautiful sentence such as "Tracks without trains passing over them have a mysterious silence all their own." Yet, he also writes world-class groaners: "The earth turned on its axis while the moon imperceptibly shifted the force of gravity and turned the tides." Or about an ear: "It was on the small side, but the earlobe was all puffy, like a freshly baked Madeleine."

I call him "Abe light".

bits of memories like gems wrapped in velvet.......2007-05-06

Being that Murakami Haruki's latest novel will be released to his English reading audience next week, I decided to get back into a Murakami mood by reading his most recent short story collection: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Years ago I read Murakami's first short story collection, The Elephant Vanishes, and some of the stories, such as T.V. People and The Dancing Dwarf left me quite cold, but others such as Slow Boat to China and Sleep revealed to me that Murakami is just as skilled penning short stories as he is penning novels. In fact, early in his career Murakami was more noted for his short story collections than his novels.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman consists of stories that Murakami wrote during the first twenty-five years as a writer and this book contains two of his oldest stories: New York, Mining Disaster and A "Poor Aunt" Story. His first short fiction was the previously mentioned A Slow Boat to China. The most recent stories, the last five in the book, were penned in 2005, so the reader is able to experience the shifts, the changes, and the evolutions of Murakami's stories through the years.

Being that the last four years of my life or so have been devoted to reading, researching, and writing on Murakami's literature, I might not be the most objective reader of this collection because of my familiarity with Murakami's writing style and themes. Many reviews mention how "strange" or "bewildering" the stories are, but to those of us who have read Murakami for a number of years, they come off as just pure Murakami and stories of green monsters, vampires, and man eating cats are perfectly normal next to those of romance in college.

Another thing that will be of interest to longtime Murakami readers is that included within this volume are the stories which would later evolve in longer works such as Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart. It is interesting to see how these stories would later evolve into these much longer works and how Murakami can work an idea that was originally a twenty-five page story into a six hundred page novel.

Not all of the stories in this volume are perfect gems, but there are no chunks of glass either. Each brings something different to the fore and they can easily grasp the reader's heart. I believe that "Tony Takitani," Murakami's lone short story from 1990, might be the most heartrending work by the author because of its themes of love and loss. Also, I believe that this volume would be a good introduction to new readers of Murakami, because it gives equal doses of odd and normal. However, what exactly is odd and what exactly is normal?

How to Meditate With Your Dog: An Introduction to Meditation for Dog Lovers

Average customer rating:

Great little book
From the Author (and his dog)
Excellent
How tp meditate with your dog
Meditation

How to Meditate With Your Dog: An Introduction to Meditation for Dog Lovers
James Jacobson , and Kristine Chandler Madera
Manufacturer: Maui Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Meditation | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0975263110

Book Description

From Schnauzers to Shepherds, and Dachshunds to Dobermans, dogs are natural meditators.

Meditating with you improves your dog's health and well-being, and makes his tail wag just a little bit wider. It also helps excitable dogs become calmer, aggressive dogs become more loving, and anxious dogs become zen-ishly calm.

Unsure how to start? Let your dog be your guru.

In this "tail," dog-lover and life-long meditator, James Jacobson and his dog, Maui, unleash the simple, non-dogmatic meditation method that they have been teaching and using for over a decade. Their method makes this ancient practice so doggone simple that it works with any size, age, or breed of dog.

The barest bone of it? Get quiet and focus on your spiritual connection with your dog. It's the intention behind this simple act that transforms it into a meditation practice.

Meditation isn't just great for dogs. In humans, meditation relieves stress, helps us live in the moment, and sharpens mental focus. "How to Meditate with Your Dog" shows how to do all this, while deepening the bond, and broadening the love, between you and your dog.

PRAISE FOR "How to Meditate with Your Dog: An Introduction to Meditation for Dog Lovers"

"By being so present to our lives, dogs bring us back to Presence. This little book will charm as it guides us into the mystery of dogs as spiritual companions and teachers." ~ Jean Houston, author of Mystical Dog

"This excellent book belongs in the homes of all those who recognize that dogs are angels and gifts from God." ~Alan Cohen, author of Are You as Happy as Your Dog?

"Meditating with your dog is the spiritual connection to the Human-Animal Bond experience." ~ Bash Dibra, internationally acclaimed animal behaviorist, dog trainer to the stars and author of Star Pet: How to Make Your Pet a Star

Customer Reviews:

Great little book.......2007-10-08

This is a great little book for anyone who wants to have another opportunity to bond with their dog. Even if you don't plan to meditate with your dog, the book will guide you to finding more peace in your life. Highly recommended!

From the Author (and his dog).......2007-09-16

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RRS90DV6XSNMX This video is from James Jacobson (the author) and Maui (the dog that inspired the book). How to Meditate With Your Dog: An Introduction to Meditation for Dog Lovers

Excellent.......2007-08-07

Although I haven't finished reading the book yet I am very happy with what I have read so far. Unfortunately I am very slow with reading, time is a big issue with me.

How tp meditate with your dog.......2007-05-31

The book was quite basic. I didn't think it was worth the money.

Meditation.......2007-01-10

Sorry. This was one of the silliest books I have ever seen on Meditation. I have two dogs, and I think I could explain meditation with them far better than this book does.

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