Customer Reviews:
This Book Gave Me Back My Pre-Baby Body!!!.......2007-08-28
To be honest, my body looks even better than it did in high school. I had picked this book up when I was 20 years old and pregnant (this is William's wife Jen) and I was already planning ahead to try to get a descent body back. All of the women in my family had basically let themselves go after popping out a kid, and I didn't want people thinking that I was pregnant three years after the baby had been born. I started working with this book (almost all weight training with very little cardio, maybe 2 hours of step aerobics a week) when my baby was 2 weeks old, and I followed a sensible diet (not the one in this book since I'm a veggie, but something similar). By the time I had my next doctor's appointment (6 weeks postbirth), my weight was lower than prior to pregnancy, my body looked better than when I had been in high school, and my blood pressure was the lowest that it had ever been. This book and its philosophy has given me the best body of my life (not to mention more time for myself and the kids since I don't have to do endless hours of ineffective cardio)! My husband loves my cut but not massive body and girls ten younger ask me how did I get into such great shape. After this book I moved on to the "Perfect Parts" which gives greater results, but this is definitiely the one to begin with.
OUTSTANDING...GREAT RESULTS!!!!!!!.......2007-07-05
If you follow her workout...you WILL see results in two weeks or LESS!!!!! GREAT BOOK and WORKOUT with almost no equipment!!!!!!!
Effective Program and Reference Guide.......2006-03-28
This was the first exercise-related book I ever bought. I was in college at the time, and wanted to lose about 15-20 pounds. I was able to create my own workout by using the exercises I preferred, and I ended up losing a total of 40 pounds in 10 months.
Needless to say, I was thrilled with the results, and still use this book as a reference guide.
Great results, but takes time...........2005-12-30
Like many people, I have exercised off and on throughout my adult life. This was the first weight training book I bought when I decided to get serious about fitness. Before this book, I never achieved the definition on my arms and upper body that I got with this. I do not know if it is the combination of exercises, the order, or the style, but it works for my body.
Though I vary my routine with hers and other books and videos, I always come back to hers as the one most often used.
Two complaints with this and her other books - I do not feel that her form is always correct for the lower body exercises. I have had a trainer who showed me the proper form, so I disregard hers in those cases. I also substitute exercises for ones I do not feel comfortable doing (i.e. sissy squat - killer on knees). The second are the diet tips. The book is somewhat dated, although she preaches many common-sense ideas. I feel there are more comprehensive guides out there for that.
good if you like weights.......2005-08-06
I tried both her books fat burning and bottoms up. Here are my complaints for the fat-buring workout:
afterwards my muscles became so short and inflexible.
Also, its too much too fast too soon. You should only start with 1 set with the weights.
If you like weights go on, but I'm not going to sacrifice my flexibility and range of motion.
Average customer rating:
- Fine Soldier, Dissolute Civilian
- A clinic on writing autobiography
- This is one of my favorites
- A man like and better than other men. . .
- A masterly memoir
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Burning the Days: Recollection
James Salter
Manufacturer: Vintage
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ASIN: 0394759486
Release Date: 1998-09-29 |
Amazon.com
As more and more reminiscences spill down the literary chute, it's clear that the Age of the Memoir has not yet abated. The harvest has been a mixed one, of course. For every Frank McCourt or Mary Karr or Tobias Wolff, there seem to be a dozen score-settling memoirists, many of them less interested in understanding the past than sinking a hatchet into it. Now, however, another major contribution to the genre has appeared: James Salter's Burning the Days. This splendid autobiography had its inception in 1986, when the author wrote a trial-balloon recollection for Esquire, so he can hardly be accused of faddishness. But his book differs in another way from the current crop of memoirs, which often feature a forbidding gauntlet of familial or societal travails. Salter, contrarily, has led what many would consider a charmed life. Born an upper-middle-class "city child, pale, cared for, unaware," he attended West Point, served in the Korean War as a fighter pilot, and then seemingly ejected into a postwar period of undiluted glamour. To be sure, his early novels, such as The Hunters, failed to make Salter a household word. Still, he ran with literary lions like Irwin Shaw, drifted into the film business during the 1950s, and spent the next couple of decades ping-ponging from New York to Paris to Rome to Aspen and back.
Salter puts the reader on notice from the very beginning that this will be a selective sort of recollection: "If you can think of life, for a moment, as a large house with a nursery, living and dining rooms, bedrooms, study, and so forth, all unfamiliar and bright, the chapters which follow are, in a way, like looking through the windows of this house.... At some windows you may wish to stay longer, but alas. As with any house, all within cannot be seen." What, then, are we privileged to see? Salter's airborne years account for perhaps a third of the book, and for this we should be grateful: no contemporary writer has made the experience more vivid or eerily palpable. There are brilliant evocations of New York, Rome, and Paris, some of which rival the virtuosic scene-painting in the author's A Sport and a Pastime. More to the point, there are human beings, who tend to get semi-apotheosized by the sheer elegance of Salter's prose. ("I do not worship gods but I like to know they are there," he notes in his preface--although his portrait of, say, Irwin Shaw does seem to be propped up on a private altar.)
Salter's lofty romanticism can sometimes turn to gush. These blemishes are far outweighed, however, by the general splendor of the prose, which alternates Proustian extravagance with Hemingway-inspired economy. And even when the book flirts with frivolity, there is always the undertow of loss, of leave-taking. Many of the things that Salter describes are gone. In addition, he claims to have despoiled whatever remains by the very act of writing about it: "To write of someone thoroughly is to destroy them, use them up.... Things are captured and at the same time drained of life, never to shimmer or give back light again." No doubt his assertion has a grain of truth to it, at least for the author himself. But his loss is the reader's gain: most of what Salter has captured in Burning the Days remains alive and, frequently, luminous. --James Marcus
Book Description
In this brilliant book of recollection, one of America's finest writers re-creates people, places, and events spanning some fifty years, bringing to life an entire era through one man's sensibility. Scenes of love and desire, friendship, ambition, life in foreign cities and New York, are unforgettably rendered here in the unique style for which James Salter is widely admired.
Burning the Days captures a singular life, beginning with a Manhattan boyhood and then, satisfying his father's wishes, graduation from West Point, followed by service in the Air Force as a pilot. In some of the most evocative pages ever written about flying, Salter describes the exhilaration and terror of combat as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, scenes that are balanced by haunting pages of love and a young man's passion for women.
After resigning from the Air Force, Salter begins a second life, becoming a writer in the New York of the 1960s. Soon films beckon. There are vivid portraits of actors, directors, and producers--Polanski, Robert Redford, and others. Here also, more important, are writers who were influential, some by their character, like Irwin Shaw, others because of their taste and knowledge.
Ultimately
Burning the Days is an illumination of what it is to be a man, and what it means to become a writer.
Only once in a long while--Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory or Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa--does a memoir of such extraordinary clarity and power appear. Unconventional in form,
Burning the Days is a stunning achievement by the writer The Washington Post Book World said "inhabits the same rarefied heights as Flannery O'Connor, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams and John Cheever" --a rare and unforgettable book.
Customer Reviews:
Fine Soldier, Dissolute Civilian.......2007-03-08
I really liked Salter the Soldier. When he talked about his military days he seemed to be a man of principles who was living an exciting life. Several times when reading of his life as a writer after leaving the Air Force I had to look at the book's cover to be sure I was reading about the same man. He seems to have renounced the values he held dear while in the military and set out to do his best to emulate the unprincipled, bohemian life of the artist he longed to be. Baffling.
Intresting, sometimes confusing, sometimes moving writing style. In the final analysis I'd have to say it was good though, because I read it cover to cover, putting it down only long enough to take care of the necessities of life.
A clinic on writing autobiography.......2006-05-17
I love Salter's fiction. After reading "Burning the Days", his autobiography (memoirs if your prefer), I'm not sure that I like the man - but the book review should have nothing to do with that personal opinion.
Salter's writing style is unusual. The syntax often makes one stop and reconstruct, thus stop and think. On rare occasions it's nonsensical. I particularly was annoyed with the confusion of general pronouns among mixed proper pronouns, the result being that I couldn't figure out who he was talking about. That said, his use of the language is superb. It's there in all of his work. And he's a wonderful "observer and describer" of people and things.
His life story is, of course, fascinating. Raised in privilege in NYC. West Point. Combat jet fighter pilot. Author. Director. Screeenwriter. Literary socialite. World traveler.
His singularly candid recounting of his years at West Point was excellent in quality and style. He gives West Point to us warts and all. And his internal struggles. Loathing it, living it, finally loving it.
The tales of flight are absolutely riveting. Nobody does it better. True storytelling that sometimes touches your heart, and sometimes raises your heartrate with the tension. In reading these memoirs I found that as I had suspected, his first novel, "The Hunters", was largely autobiographical. For me, this only adds to the greatness of that work.
The writing years seemed to be a little slower reading. At least for me. And I can't decide whether Salter was indulging in a little "name dropping". In any case, he travels in high company. He is loyal to and generous to his friends. Plenty of saucy tales, no vulgarity. Well done.
I do not share his love for Paris. Salter breathes it. Perhaps it rejected me, as Salter claims Rome rejected him. No matter - Salter is an accomplished individual, in a wordly way, and travels in circles far above the heads of most of us. He does not claim to be atheist, but his overtures toward God (or gods) are tenuous and ambiguous. As I wrote earlier, I'm not sure I like him - but I savour his work.
This is an unusual autobiography of rare quality. Generally, Salter presents himself as he often presents his fictional characters. If you've read any of his novels, you understand what I mean.
This autobiography is not for the People magazine crowd. It is thoughtful and broad in scope, spanning an accomplished man's life. I recommend it.
This is one of my favorites.......2005-06-20
The prose, as has already repeatedly been noted is wonderful. Much has been made of Slater's self-acknowledged unwillingness to reveal all the details. But much more is revealed in this book about Salter than the reader could ever hope for from a mass of minute details. In some crystalline passages, as clear as the view from his F-86, we see him thinking and his mediations on his own thinking and the prose turns to poetry: "Here among them, of what is one thinking? I cannot remember but probably of nothing, of flying itself, the imperishability of it, the brilliance." But he shows us the grayness as well as the dark and light of it. The struggling, the embarrassing ambition and jealousies, as well as the respect and the admirable. It is perhaps not a surprise that "Burning the Days" is so compelling -- it describes a very full and interesting life.
A man like and better than other men. . ........2005-06-01
A colleague got me reading novels again after a long period by recommending "The Hunters." Not long afterward, I was reading "Solo Faces," stunned in both cases by Salter's crystal clear prose and the wrestling with themes of personal integrity. It has taken me a while to get round to his memoir "Burning the Days," which I found myself gulping down in two days and one long night of a holiday weekend. It has been a revelation.
Salter's novels are case studies of what I'd call male mythology. The heroes of "Hunters" and "Solo Faces" seem trapped in hyper gender roles, testing always both a kind of grace under pressure and an ability to endure physical and psychological extremes. "Burning the Days" turns out to be a celebration of those values, where to be a man is to embark on a long, lonely journey of proving that one is both like and better than other men.
The book is his own story of emerging from a fairly nondescript youth in New York to the life-transforming experience of West Point and a career as a pilot, along with the getting of a kind of worldly wisdom during times spent in Europe, especially Paris. His life as a writer introduces him to literary circles in New York and abroad and an international community of filmmakers and film stars.
Through it all, Salter focuses often on the men around him who earn his respect. He marvels at the particular integrity that makes each of them admirable. He elevates each of them into a kind of pantheon, and when all is said and done, he hopes that his own life warrants him a place among them. By contrast, the women who pass through his life are remarked upon for their beauty and intelligence, but beyond that they are walk-ons in this book about men. Readers may be taken by his old-fashioned glamorizing of women, or they may take exception to it.
Brilliantly written, the book is compelling for what it sets out to do - provide a remembrance of things past that not only captures moments and people in vivid detail but bathes them in a melancholy glow - like richly detailed sepia photographs.
A masterly memoir.......2005-04-15
Near the conclusion of this outstanding memoir, James Salter writes, "It is only in books that one finds perfection, only in books that it cannot be spoiled. Art, in a sense, is life brought to a standstill, rescued from time." Salter's "Burning the Days" will rescue you, as it did me. He chooses to call it a recollection, rather than a memoir. The book discards the usual rules of autobiography, skipping back and forth in time, often giving few clues as to time and place. That allows the reader to be swept up in the luminous writing, soaring through the air with Salter the pilot or sitting beside him in Paris. Like the best memoirs -- "Refuge" by Terry Tempest Williams comes to mind -- "Burning the Days" should be required reading for those who want to write, or to live.
Average customer rating:
- Great Insight, however, do your own Research.
- Exactly as titled
- The Fat Burning Baloney
- Amazing -- And I've Only Just Begun
- The whole package
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The Fat-Burning Bible: 28 Days of Foods, Supplements, and Workouts that Help You Lose Weight
Mackie Shilstone
Manufacturer: Wiley
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ASIN: 0471794015 |
Amazon.com
Ideally, being healthy isn't just about being a certain weight: It's about having all the systems of your body performing at optimum levels for as long a time as possible. Mackie Shilstone, in his role as medical advisor to professional athletes, presents a complex plan in The Fat-Burning Bible that incorporates supplements, sleep and stress management alongside the standards of diet and exercise.
The first section of the book helps you establish your honest starting point--it's easy to be at an acceptable weight but have unacceptably high fat percentages, cholesterol or blood sugar. Establishing this point involves a fair amount of measuring and math, and includes checklists that will help you identity potential concerns like Syndrome X or thyroid problems.
Diet and nutrition follow; the section encompasses fairly complex suggestions on intake percentages as well as simple meal plans and recipes. Portion control figures highly--it's back to the old 'four ounces of skinless chicken breast' as a basic building block. A short section on supplements refers in a general way to recent research, but is more of an introduction than complete system. More time is devoted to the exercise program, but this could be more complex than a typical dieter feels ready for. Clear photos show off specific exercises, but they require regular trips to the gym or a set of dumbbells at home. The last section, which Shilstone suggests photocopying, is a day-to-day journal that allows you to check off goals and note areas for further work. It's a helpful tool, but also requires a fair amount of dedication.
Ultimately, this book seems designed for those who are already fairly fit, but are hoping to achieve a more ideal version of good health. It could be especially helpful for amateur athletes--if you're prepping for a marathon or other big event, this might be just the tool you need. Jill Lightner
Book Description
"One of the most comprehensive nutritional and exercise programs I've ever encountered. This groundbreaking work is sure to be a powerful tool in the hands of anyone wanting to lose excess body fat."
—From the Foreword by Kathy Smith
Mackie Shilstone is famous for helping world-class athletes and business titans look great and achieve peak performance. Now, he presents an all-new approach to burning fat for both women and men. Drawing on Mackie's unique nutrition and exercise programs, The Fat-Burning Bible gives you the secrets and tools to increase your metabolism, target the parts of your body that carry excess fat, and see results in just four weeks. Inside you'll find:
- 6 levels of targeted meal plans and 74 recipes featuring low-fat, low-glycemic, high-flavor foods
- Mackie's all-new gender-specific cardio, circuit, and core-training routines
- 64 step-by-step photographs illustrating the customized exercises
- Must-know information on 6 highly effective fat-burning supplements
- Real-life success stories of Mackie's clients
This is the only weight-loss bible you will ever need to burn fat, slim down, and look great!
Download Description
"One of the most comprehensive nutritional and exercise programs I¿ve ever encountered. . . . Groundbreaking."
¿from the Foreword by Kathy Smith
Mackie Shilstone is famous for helping world-class athletes and business titans take their bodies to the next level, look great, and achieve peak performance. Now, drawing on his program, which has helped thousands of ordinary women and men lose excess body fat and shed inches and pounds, Shilstone has written the definitive guide to metabolic weight loss¿the first book to offer gender-specific strategies for eating and exercising effectively. He starts by showing readers how to assess how over-fat they are and to identify their specific health problems. Then, drawing on leading-edge research, he gives them the lowdown on how hormones control metabolism¿and how his prescription of nutritional recommendations, seven highly targeted fat-burning supplements, and customized exercises can boost metabolic efficiency to the max. The book includes six levels of meal plans and 75 recipes featuring low-glycemic, high-flavor foods; Mackie¿s all-new gender-specific fat-burning, cardio, circuit, interval, and core body-training routines; and 64 step-by-step photographs illustrating Mackie¿s exercises. For any woman or man who wants to lose excess body fat and inches, balance hormones, and have a dramatically improved health profile in as little as four weeks, this book is truly a godsend.
Mackie Shilstone (New Orleans, LA) is Director of Health and Fitness for the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, the Performance Enhancement Expert for Ochsner Clinic Foundation, a special advisor to the United States Olympic Committee on Sports Nutrition, and a consultant to Major League Baseball. He has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, 20/20, 48 Hours, CNN, ESPN, and HBO and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and Sports Illustrated. Mackie¿s Health Minute is heard by listeners in many states twice a day on WWL, the second largest radio station in the country. His spot is televised weekly on the Morning Show in New Orleans. Mackie¿s other books include Maximum Energy for Life (0-471-47882-2) and Lose Your Love Handles.
Customer Reviews:
Great Insight, however, do your own Research........2007-06-02
I am a licensed Chiropractor and studied Biochemistry as an undergraduate. Much of what was detailed in this book was a helpful review for me, as well as providing some new insightful information - particularly in reference to the "reverse fat pattern phenomenon" that was mentioned early on in the book. I disagree, however, with the author's recommendation of a (40% Carbohydrate + 30% Protein) diet. I would decrease the Carbohydrate % and increase the Protein %. If someone were attempting to lose weight, I would not recommend severely restricting their carbohydrate intake - as Dr. Atkins would suggest, but to restrict it to approximately 30%. This is still less than Mackie Shilstone recommends, however. I would also recommend consuming 50% of your diet as Proteins vs. only the 30% that he suggests. I believe that an individual can do so without causing their body to enter "Ketosis" and still lose weight safely at the same time. Other than that, the book is right on. There is so much conflicting information out there that it is refreshing to find a book without all the "fatty" information and just the helpful facts.
Exactly as titled.......2006-08-08
I bought this book after seeing a few bad reviews along with all the good ones. Some critics where fair, there is a lot of things in this book that have been said before, but honestly, when was there a big revolution in getting healthy? The only new things in this category are fad diets and we all know they don't work. This book is very well written and it is not only written for the grossly overweight who have tried everything, but it is also written for people who are trying to help health issues such as high cholesterol and diabetes. Mr. Shilstone does a very good job explaining why things do and do not work rather than just saying it. All of the food recipes work well and he makes sure to make the point of not leaving large groups of foods off your diet, also everything he suggests is very satisfying food that tastes good too.
The supplements can be a bit overwhelming if you aren't used to taking lots of pills every day. As for the "9 foods that burn fat" that another reviewer pointed out don't exist, the actual title of that chapter is "foods that burn fat", the chapter number is 9, so that is just a misunderstanding. This book is more about fixing your matabolism so that you can lose fat and not lean muscle mass, if that is not your goal, or you are not willing to invest an hour a day to exercise, you will not fully benefit from this book. With that said, do not be scared by the full hour, this is not a "gym rat" type of workout, it is not designed to become a bodybuilder, it is set up to get your muscles into shape to burn excess calories.
The Fat Burning Baloney.......2005-08-03
This book offers nothing new on the weight loss or fat burning front. Simply pages and pages of regergitating whats already "out there". The book constist of 80% therories and 20% techniques. I was particularly frustrated with the section title 9 Foods That Burn Fat. I read and reread this section and it DOES NOT list ANY foods, let alone 9. The whole chapter consist of calorie counting and "suggested meal plans", no specfics as title indicates. My whole point was to learn WHICH foods I need to make sure to incorporate into my own meal plan.
The only benefit I got from this book was the excercise plans which included great photos/instructions. Buying an excercise video would be more beneficial. Overall if you are a health novice and have no idea that body fat is bad, starving your self doesnt work,etc. then this is a good buy.
Amazing -- And I've Only Just Begun.......2005-05-07
I'm not sure why Susan Hogloch would write in the review included in the book description that this approach would appeal mostly to men. I urge you other women reading this out there to disregard that comment. The chapter on supplements which boost metabolism alone is worth the price of this book. I can say that because, to date, that's the only part of the book I've had time to put into practice. Just with the addition of the supplements over the span of about 2 months, I lost 14 pounds. That weight came off in exactly the places he writes about (reverse fat gain syndrome) that often indicates a messed-up metabolism. I can only imagine what will happen once I adjust my exercise regime to his plan and start following the nutritional guidelines. I'm a believer and have been recommending the book to my friends.
The whole package.......2005-03-26
While Lose Your Love Handles, one of Shilstone's previous efforts, was a solid work, I wanted to see more specific guidance on how to work the rest of the body and incorporate his core training into a complete program.
A few years later, Shilstone delivers.
The program is extremely well-rounded, with a mix of cardio, weights, core training and intervals, plus balanced meal plans. If you're loooking for 5-minute workouts, forget it. You won't have to live in the gym (he also has a home strength training workout you can use), but you will have to invest about an hour a day, six days a week to exercise. This is definitely not a something for nothing plan, but if fat loss and getting in better shape is a priority, you can find a way to do it.
The meal plans are good. I didn't see much that appealed to my taste buds, but with a little creativity you could probably come up with some good "Mackie Meals" on your own.
Book Description
With cyberspace and the hypnotic pull of television screens keeping us seated and motionless for at least five hours a day, not to mention our passion for rich, greasy, sugar-laden foods, we of the 21st century have evolved into an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-watch society-even though survey after survey shows we know better, and despite the fact that many of us really and truly want leaner, healthier, more efficient bodies. At 45 years old and with a body fat level of just five percent, John Abdo, is proof of how simple, healthy lifestyle choices can result in a tighter and leaner body. Trainer of elite athletes such as gold-medal speed skater Bonnie Blair and three-time world power lifting champion Craig Tokarski, Abdo is the inventor of and spokesman for the fastest selling exercise equipment in America: the AB-DOer. Make Your Body a Fat-Burning Machine provides: *A detailed explanation of how an intelligently designed eating and exercise program can turbo-charge the metabolic process to create an efficient and enduring fat incerator *An easy-to-understand, nonthreatening exercise program that takes just 10 to 15 minutes at a time yet burns more fat than traditional aerobic exercise *Nutritional guidelines rather than a rigid diet *Self assessment tests to help identify needs and track progress *The 30-Day meltdown: a quick-start exercise and nutrition regimen that enables the loss of up to 25 pounds of fat in the first month *Low-fat, easy-to-prepare nutritionally balanced recipes *A troubleshooting guide for dealing with setbacks, adjustments, and time management. Finally, Make Your Body a Fat Burning Machine provides the information and support needed to incorporate this program and ideas into a permanent way of life.AUTHORBIO: John Abdo's infomercial, featuring the AB-DOer, runs on ESPN, CBS, NBC, Fox, and the Home Shopping Network. He lives in Marina Del Rey, California. Dr. Ken Dachman is the author of the Self-Help Handbook, You Can Relieve Pain, The Dachman Diet for Kids, and several other books. He lives in Northbrook, Illinois.
Customer Reviews:
not enough information.......2002-10-08
I just read through this book which took me a total of 3 hours tops.
Mr Abdo's diet seems plausible but he doesn't give you enough information as to how much food to eat.
Nov 24, 2002
I reread this book and there is more to it than I originally thought. What at first appeared to be a simplistic plain now seems alot more doable than the Paleo Diet. After re-reading Mr
Abdo's book, his diet seems more approachable and more realistic.
Customer Reviews:
A Crowd-Pleaser.......2007-02-09
Not great literature, but still, an enjoyable read for a long airplane ride. There's lots of that old Southern mystique here, well-developed characters with all their warts and contradictions, good descriptions of places, events, and people. In addition, Inman really captures the atmosphere and the mythical ideal, if not the reality, of American small town life.
An old woman has withdrawn from involvement in her town's daily doings, and finds new meaning for her life in that eternal issue of the South - a matter of racial justice. The problem she resolves is not completely credible, and the action she takes is surprisingly uninspired, yet it's just conceivable that this lack of grandeur fits with the town and the folks in question.
Great Summer Reading.......2006-08-04
I'm in love with the South and this book really gave one a feel for the every day life..... It was easy to empathize with Trout and his problems.
I have mixed feelings........2005-08-10
This novel started really slow to me. I put it down after the first chapter and it took several months to pick it back up. Once I became engrossed the story took off. The author dida good job of transitioning from past to present and weaving the two stories together. The story was pleasurable to read for the most part, but then at the end I felt rushed. The author left a few open ends that I would have liked to seen tied up.
Depth, Heart and Humor.......2005-01-26
This is one of those books that takes a place for itself in the heart. I find myself recommending it to friends even years after having read it, when they ask what my favorite books are. The reader is so drawn into the story that it becomes a genuine experience. This is a book with depth, heart and humor. Most importantly, it makes us cherish our own passing days with a little more appreciation for the beauty and value in everyday things, be they old dogs, children or the myriad details that make a life. I applaud the author, Robert Inman for this enchanting gem.
Wonderful!.......2002-06-18
This is one that you do not want it end....wonderful characters and storyline....I highly recommend this book..I hope there is a continuation of this one.....
Customer Reviews:
If only it had succeeded.......2004-10-04
Re-reading the book after many years brings up poignant reveries of what could have been if it had only succeeded. The heady optimism, the potential for a true peace, for harmony. Michael Bernet captures the human story of arab and jew, soldier and civilian during the brief days of war.
A Real Eye Opener.......2004-08-23
Most of us are too young to recall Israel's stunning Six Day War of 1967 against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Most of those who were then old enough, seem to have forgotten the details of that earthshaking event, and have been taken in by decades of Arab lies and deceit. Michael Bernet was there and recorded the events from the points of view of both Israelis and Arabs, warriors, politicians, soldiers and civilians. It was not a war of aggression by Israel but an unexpected unnecessary war that was forced on her. It was also not a war of conquest: the Israelis were hoping to speedily give back all the territory they had captured in return for a genuine peace.
What is even more surprising, at the end of the war Arab and Jew treated each other as long-lost brothers. There was genuine hope and excitement on both sides, an expectation of peaceful, productive and synergetic coexistence. That hope was dashed twelve weeks later when the Arab states met in conference and vowed never to negotiate with Israel, never to recognize the Jewish state, never to permit peace. Now, forty years later, the Islamist warmongers have won out, as we see tragically from Iraq to Afghanistan, Spain and Bali, and New York and the Pentagon.
Bernet is a brilliant writer. His book is gripping, the personal details he recounts bring the participants to life with all their fears, their courage, their hopes and the flow of their emotions.
A must reading for anyone interested in the shape and future of today's world.
A clear insight into the way it all happened.......2004-08-23
The Six Day War of 1967 was perhaps the last war of the old era, before media technology developments facilitated bringing the gory truth into our living rooms and rendered all operations seemingly transparent. Michael Bernet, with this excellent book, sheds light on what really happened to the people involved. He does this like a good documentary director, with parallel editing and surprise twists in the 'plot' of fascinating real life stories, and with his own refreshing insights.
I am eagerly waiting for Michael Bernet's new book on the psychology of the Middle East.
Looking back.......2004-08-15
I remember the excitement and optimism as a young Israeli teenager in the summer of 1967. Venturing across the "green line" to meet with people my age in Eastern Jerusalem and Ramalla. I was filled with awe at the prospect of peace and coexistence.
Jews and Arabs got together like long-lost cousins, rejoicing in the rapid end to the war, learning to understand and accept each other, seeking channels for cooperation in education, health, commerce, democratization.
This book takes me back to those optimistic euphoric days and sheds some light on the reasons why we are now at such a dead-end...
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Burning Bright: An Anthology
Patricia Hampl
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime
ASIN: 0345380290
Release Date: 1995-11-07 |
Book Description
O night, you are dark because
you do not know Him.
O day, go and learn from Him
what it means to shine.
Rumi
This extraordinary daybook of sacred poetry is for everyone, not only readers secure in their faith and those in search of it. It is a radiant, inspiring companion that invites us all to step, like Emily Dickinson, "upon the North to see this Curious Friend."
From the three great monotheistic religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--Patricia Hampl has gathered more than a hundred poems of faith, of spiritual longing, of devout disbelief. And in the spirit of Western prayer cycles she has ordered them according to the time of day: Morning, Noon, and Night.
Burning Bright includes poems by Francis of Assisi, Yehuda Amichai, William Blake, Rumi, Louise Erdrich, Rainer Maria Rilke, Maria Tsvetaeva, Sylvia Plath, Wallace Stevens, Nelly Sachs, Gharib Nawaz, Allen Ginsberg, and fifty-five others. Not only the deeply felt works of identifiably religious poets are included, but the passionate poems of poets driven by a yearning for the sacred.
In a broad reach over time and cultures, this collection moves into the very heart of faith and uncertainty. It attempts, Hampl says, "to make the day holy--or at least bearable," and we are left with the buoyancy that Yehuda Amichai describes in the last lines of the book's final poem:
Love is not the last room: there are others
after it, the whole length of the corridor
that has no end
Book Description
The nation's savviest sex educator delivers a daily dose of passionate advice for lovers.
Lou Paget's sophisticated yet sizzling approach to sexuality has made her books and workshops phenomenally popular around the world. Whereas her other books were about seduction, 365 Days of Sensational Sex is about sustaining passion in a relationship. She provides both men and women with refreshing essays on:
* Creating a sexual atmosphere in your relationship, from turning your bedroom into a sanctuary for sex to letting your partner know you find him or her irresistible and turning almost anyplace into a venue for a sexual encounter
* The link between healthy relationships and a healthy sex life
* Secrets and advice on maintaining an attitude toward sex that is open and curious and committed to passion-forever
* A collection of Lou's "classics"-her most popular techniques for hot foreplay, pleasing each other in various positions, and trying something new
* The most popular types of sexual fantasies and how to ask for one you want
* Frequently asked questions, Lou's best research, and unknown sexual tidbits
Over seventy-five instructional line drawings enhance the pages, and the book's one-a-day format makes it perfect for every couple seeking to stay energized years after the thrill of that initial seduction. A complete treat, 365 Days of Sensational Sex will inspire great lovers for the long term.
Customer Reviews:
A fun read.......2003-11-27
SOOOOO glad I purchased this book (and so is my hubby!)
Anxiously Awaited Book for Couples.......2003-11-13
I have read all of Lou Paget's books, and have waited anxiously for this release. As usual, Ms. Paget presents her ideas with taste and tact, combined with her signature sense of humor and savvy. My husband and I can't wait to try each and every one of her ideas....and keep OUR fires burning all year long!
Amazon.com
When conquering Union soldiers entered Richmond, Virginia, in the first days of April, 1865, they found a city afire, reduced to desperation, but still defiant. Virginia historian Nelson Lankford reconstructs the final hours of the Confederacy's heart in this vivid narrative, which draws on contemporary letters, diaries, and official reports that share both immediacy and a sense of awe at the terrible destruction. Just why the capital burned has long been a subject of speculation; by Lankford's account, much of the damage was due to the defenders' last-minute efforts to destroy war materiel, setting fires that soon spread. Lankford attends to other legends as well, including a reported call on Confederate general George Pickett's home by none other than Abraham Lincoln, while offering verifiable vignettes of such moments as Robert E. Lee's return to the capital and the celebrations of newly liberated slaves and Union prisoners. Lankford's narrative offers a view much different from what he calls "the warm sepia glow cast over our great national trauma by popular books and documentary films." It is a fine effort, and one that students of the Civil War should welcome. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Nelson Lankford draws upon Civil War-era diaries, letters, memoirs, and newspaper reports to vividly recapture the experiences of the men and women, both black and white, who witnessed the tumultuous fall of Richmond. In April 1865 General Robert E. Lee realized that his army must retreat from the Confederate capital and that Jefferson Davis's government must flee. As the Southern soldiers moved out they set the city on fire, leaving a blazing ruin to greet the entering Union troops. The city's fall ushered in the birth of the modern United States. Lankford's exploration of this pivotal event is at once an authoritative work of history and a stunning piece of dramatic prose.
Customer Reviews:
Scattershot and Incomplete Account.......2006-11-15
Books that rely mostly upon miscellaneous snippets of conversations and diary entries while providing only minimal context and understanding to explain an historical event, are invariably inadequate and even frustrating. The author, apparently a modern day resident of Richmond, VA, seems compelled to describe the fall of Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, and a subsequent day-long fire, occurring in about a two-week period from the end of March to April 15 of 1865, in such a manner.
Because it is elites whose actions and thoughts were usually recorded in historical times, it is the movements and views of such individuals as Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's president, various officials of the VA and Richmond governments, the military officers of both the North and South, and of some national figures such as Lincoln and Stanton that occupy most of the book. And then there are also the "man on the street" contributions. The evacuation of Richmond was only a matter of time as Union forces had it and nearby cities virtually surrounded and paralyzed by the Spring of 1865. The breakthrough of Grant at Petersburg, VA necessitated an order on Sunday, April 2, from Lee to evacuate Richmond and with it came the directive to burn the bridges crossing the James River below Richmond and all tobacco warehouses. At this point the story gets very disconnected and confusing.
The scrambling of various parties in Richmond to evacuate or otherwise deal with the coming of Union forces is covered in a scattershot manner. Despite a few maps of the area being provided, it is virtually impossible to fully grasp who is moving in what direction, in what sequence, and to what final effect. The motivation for burning the tobacco warehouses remains mostly a mystery. Surely, the threat of fire in a wooden-built city would have raised huge alarms. The author never discusses the ramifications to the people of Richmond of the fire that burned the central business district and, as well, many residences. What were the actual mechanisms for coping short-term and long?
The author provides some insight into future social divisions in the South in the contrasting reactions to the arrival of Union troops: Union sympathizers and now-freed blacks could not contain their joy while whites favoring secession looked on morosely. The visit of Lincoln, no more than a day-and-a-half after the evacuation, is interesting largely from the standpoint of how little concern he showed for his own safety, traveling up the mine-laden James River and immersing himself in crowds in Richmond. The half-baked scheme where a former US Supreme Ct justice, John Campbell, and now soon-to-be ex-Confederate official, prevailed upon Lincoln to permit the reassembling of the VA State legislature to bypass the unionist legislature was a short-lived initiative completely short-circuited by the surrender at Appomattox.
The odds and ends of an historical event are of interest, but those alone are insufficient. One suspects there are far better books on the role of Richmond in the Confederacy that provide context for the fall of the Confederacy including what happened in Richmond.
A Fast-paced Read Of Richmond's Fall.......2006-07-21
A fast-paced read, that, excuse me for using it, fulfills that trite phrase of "reads like a novel" which many writers seek to achieve. That said, the author is a responsible writer in that the book includes both footnotes and an extensive bibliography.
There are some drawbacks that I would like to piont out--Mr. Lankford breezes through the events of Five Forks, providing bare-bones detail, despite the fact that what happened there sealed the fate of Richmond. Now, I know Five Forks isn't IN Richmond, so he must limit his time to peripheral places but the drama that unfolded there needed to be expanded greatly since this book obviously strives for literarcy as well as historical merit. Including a detailed treatment of Five Forks would only add to the reader's appreciation of the direct cause of Richmond's fall. Conversely, he wastes far too much time on the failed Campbell iniative that amounted to nothing. Also, one must question his interpretation of certain sources. He quotes from a Southern officer who wrote over the loss of many of his men at Sayler's Creek, the officer states that his emotions mingled "pride with with grief" and cites such sentiments as the basis of future long-standing enmity towards Notherners. No such sentiments are expressed in the quote though, just something akin to fatherly pride mingled with great sadness over the loss of lives he held dear.
Beyond that, I don't feel that he treats Robert E. Lee fairly, especially when he calls him "delusional" for a message he dispatched that harbored some optimism over being able to continue the fight after Richmond. Mr. Lankford is practicing hindsight bias here. By this criteria, the last months of the war were all "delusional" for Lee as we can clearly see, with our wonderful 21st century eyes, that the South had no hope of winning and could thus question why he simply didn't surrender following Lincoln's 1864 reelection. First and foremost, General Lee was always a soldier doing his duty and that duty included trying to struggle on as best he could, providing some optimism when possible, against mountains of adversity.
Despite all this, this book is well-wroth reading and is a good companion to the various books on Appomattox.
A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight..........2005-05-28
Nelson Lankford does a credible job of recounting the final days of Confederate Richmond in RICHMOND BURNING. His writing is vivid, colorful, and detailed, an excellent reportage that nevertheless is short on theme.
The book suffers from too needle-fine a focus. Unlike the classic history THE FALL OF RICHMOND, RICHMOND BURNING floats disconnectedly above the Civil War landscape, barely referencing the greater historical themes of the war or the other momentous events that crowded April 1865. Lankford's Richmond in April has become Camus' plague-ridden Oran, self-contained, and somehow sequestered from the world around it. After all, why burn Richmond? The book begs a strategic answer.
Lankford, a native Richmonder, clearly loves his city. Clearly, he despises the waste of war, and has little regard for the men who chose to burn it rather than see it fall into Yankee hands. His outrage makes sense, particularly when the reader considers that the original target of the flames (the riverside tobacco warehouses near the commercial district) were of no use whatsoever militarily but that the Tredegar Iron Works (on the outskirts) were. Had the war continued, Tredegar would have added an important resource to the Union war machine. The tobacco had nil value. The burning seems so utterly capricious when seen in that light (mine, not Lankford's, who never theorizes) that Richmonders' contempt for their serpent-cold Confederate President seems well-placed. Seemingly, Richmond burned because the leadership knew the end had come, a symbolic pyre.
The fire consumed the commercial district but left 90% of the city intact. Lankford focuses on the 10%. As the banking and administrative center of the South, downtown Richmond had an importance greater than most city centers. As destructive as the fire was, it lasted only about a day and was quickly contained (largely by Yankee efforts). The riot that preceded the Northern occupation seems to have done little harm though Lankford lavishes much descriptive prose upon it.
Lankford is best at ferreting out the personal reactions of Richmonders to the loss of the Cause through prodigious use of documents and diaries. Many Richmonders had to admit, ruefully, that "The Yankees aren't so bad considering it is them" while others heaped scorn upon the "Things" that had occupied their city and controlled its economy and food supply. A surprising number of Richmonders greeted the return of the Stars and Stripes enthusiastically; many others spit and refused to swear allegiance. Still others bowed to the inevitable and became U.S. citizens again as a matter of course.
Lankford tells us that Confederate rancor "lasted for years", though he gives us little documentary evidence that it did. Beyond this one bare sentence, Lankford fails to address the issue at all. It is clear that the era of Jim Crow was a Southern reaction to Northern domination, wherein African-Americans became surrogates for festering Southern resentments (with Northern social and legal acquiescence), but this is beyond Lankford's view.
Lankford's finest moment comes when he describes Abraham Lincoln's modest but triumphal visit to the still smoking city, less than forty hours after Jefferson Davis had decamped for Danville. The unalloyed joy---there is no other word---of the freed people at seeing the Great Emancipator spills from the page. It brought tears to this reader's eyes and made this book memorable.
A suggestion: RICHMOND BURNING is best read in tandem with Jay Winik's APRIL 1865 which addresses the end of the war in a broader perspective.
A fine effort despite its shortcomings, RICHMOND BURNING definitely deserves a place on your Civil War shelf.
decent, researched, biased.......2003-09-14
This is a very niche book for the experienced civil war buff. A startling, and riveting account of the last days of Richmond as the confederacy collapsed around the citizens. Now we must remmemebr these poeple had been under siege but untill these last days many were living in a dzae, somehow hopeing to god that the war would not come to their city on the hill in their beloved Virginia. We must remmember that much fighting had been closer to Peterburg. This book gives a blow by blow account of the many people cought up in this great conflageration.
As has been noted this book is slightly biased and portrays the North as the liberators coming to subdue the viscious south, which had to be crushed into repenting for the sins of slavery. Probably this is the only negative aspect of the book.
Lankford paints himself into a corner.......2003-04-01
At the beginning of RICHMOND BURNING we see Robert E. Lee ride into town in the rain. This is pretty much the last time we get to see him. Lankford edits the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography and lives in Richmond so we can understand why he might be interested in the politics of running the city after the evacuation of the Confederate government, but a reader of popular history might be disappointed in his emphasis on minor characters, such as Major General Godfrey Weitzel, who administered the city for a time after Davis and his government left. Even the pictures leave something to be desired. There's one of Robert E. Lee standing on the porch of his rented home taken by Matthew Brady. Supposedly there's another one where Lee is shown with his nephew Fitzhugh I would've liked to've seen. No such luck.
I was momentarily absorbed when Lankford showed Jefferson Davis leaving the city on a train carrying what was left of the Confederate treasury. It would have been interesting to see how Davis was captured, but Lankford has narrowed his focus to Richmond, so that wasn't possible. Even the fire isn't much to speak of. Davis orders what's left of the Confederate pickets to set fire to the tobacco warehouses and the wind spreads the fire; the Union Army puts it out in two days.
The most intriguing part of the book is when Lincoln shows up. Lee's army has not been defeated and here he is without an escort. Lincoln further complicates matters by allowing former Supreme Court justice, John Archibald Campbell to summon the Virginia legislature to discuss seceding from the Confederacy. We get a glimpse of Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's powerful secretary of war, who puts the fritz to that notion in a hurry.
Lankford also seems to have reinvented the wheel. In his acknowledgments, he mentions Rembert Patrick's THE FALL OF RICHMOND, written only forty years ago. Although Lankford has done extensive research, there doesn't seem to a reason for another version.
Product Description
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