Book Description
A world-renowned child psychiatrist offers a groundbreaking new perspective on how stress and violence affect children's brains--and how they can be helped to heal
What happens when a young brain is traumatized? How does terror, abuse, or disaster affect a child's mind--and how can that mind recover?
Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has helped children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, murder witnesses, kidnapped teenagers, and victims of family violence. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, he tells their stories of trauma and transformation through the lens of science, revealing the brain's astonishing capacity for healing. Deftly combining unforgettable case histories with his own compassionate, insightful strategies for rehabilitation, Perry explains what exactly happens to the brain when a child is exposed to extreme stress-and reveals the unexpected measures that can be taken to ease a child's pain and help him grow into a healthy adult. Through the stories of children who recover-physically, mentally, and emotionally-from the most devastating circumstances, Perry shows how simple things like surroundings, affection, language, and touch can deeply impact the developing brain, for better or for worse.
In this deeply informed and moving book, Bruce Perry dramatically demonstrates that only when we understand the science of the mind can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.
Customer Reviews:
Food for thought.......2007-09-02
The book lives up to its fascinating title. Perry has worked for years with traumatized and neglected children and his take on dealing with them is based on research showing how the brain develops and the impact of neglect and abuse on it. In other words, if a child is abused or neglected in the first year of life (approximately), physical changes take place in the brain or rather, neurological connections that should be made, are not. (This is a vast simplification.) So as a child gets older and begins exhibiting antisocial behaviors that land him or her in special classes or even mental hospitals, it is not because he or she prefers to act this way but because the child's brain is unable to function in a way that enables him or her to become socialized. Perry, having done a great deal of research on this subject himself, spits in the eye of a lot of "accepted" practices when it comes to children's mental health. I'm always interested to read views that oppose the generally accepted norms. My daughter loaned me this book which she is reading as part of her Ph.D. program in pre- and postnatal psychology. It certainly fits right in with her assertion that we need to pay much more attention to what is happening in the first year of life (and before), not only because the child's personality is being formed, but because his brain is as well (and perhaps this is the same thing). The stories in this book are heart wrenching, but Perry does show that there are ways to help or at the very least, understand.
Refreshing new ideas .......2007-07-24
As a counseling student focusing on child therapy, I was very glad I stumbled across this book in the local library. Perry explores the role of brain structure in childhood disorders. While he focuses primarily on trauma (such as how PTSD in children mimics ODD and ADHD), I believe that other applications can be made. This is novel to hear in a world of tired exclusive arguments pro or con genetics, brain chemistry, and environment. Perry combines a few of these ideas to give the mental health worker a more comprehensive look at mental illness and trauma.The case stories are heartbreaking and compelling. A worthwhile read if you are going into the mental health (or even teaching) field, and interesting even if you are not.
I feel blessed to have found this book. .......2007-07-11
My husband and I are about to adopt our first child. We are adopting through DHS. All children who are adopted through DHS have been through trauma. We have been taking classes when our teacher recommended this book. I went out and bought it and read it and it was so insightful to what we may be dealing with. I feel so blessed to have this information about the brain and how children may act out in times they feel out of control. I truly believe that EVERY foster/adoptive parent should read this book. It was amazing and I will probably read it again. I can't stop talking about it. I am just blown away and very thankful for this book.
Everyone should read this book!.......2007-07-05
I couldn't put this book down. I learned so much that I can apply to myself as well as my kids. I have two adopted children who came from severe early childhood neglect and abuse, so this book is invaluable to me. The only problem is that it has left me thirsty for more from Dr. Perry!
Truly remarkable.......2007-06-27
The stories in this book are heart-wrenching, but to people who've dealt with traumatized children the scenarios and the aftermath are familiar. What is truly remarkable about Dr. Perry's work is that he uses each case he describes as an opportunity to explain how the developing brain is affected by trauma and how healing can be informed by this knowledge. Unlike many other books in this genre, this is no "great therapist cures poor abused children" book. Dr. Perry is modest about his own contributions, and rightly emphasizes the role that parents, extended family, and community must play in helping to heal traumatized kids as well is preventing trauma from occurring in the first place.
As the parent of a child with PTSD, I've read extensively on the subject. I'd really have liked it if Dr. Perry could have included a recipe for cure in the book, but of course that's just my wishful thinking, not a realistic hope. What he does give for parents who are looking for help is guidelines and guidance for finding the right kind of help, not just from therapy but from the larger world. What I learned from this book will definitely contribute to my ongoing work to help my daughter find her way out of the nightmare that her past put her in.
Book Description
In 1997 Mark Salzman, bestselling author
Iron and Silk and
Lying Awake, paid a reluctant visit to a writing class at L.A.’s Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for violent teenage offenders, many of them charged with murder. What he found so moved and astonished him that he began to teach there regularly. In voices of indelible emotional presence, the boys write about what led them to crime and about the lives that stretch ahead of them behind bars. We see them coming to terms with their crime-ridden pasts and searching for a reason to believe in their future selves. Insightful, comic, honest and tragic,
True Notebooks is an object lesson in the redemptive power of writing.
Customer Reviews:
No Expletives Deleted.......2007-08-10
True Notebooks is an insightful account of Salzman's volunteer experience as a writing instructor for juvenile offenders. It soon becomes apparent that he is as skillful as a teacher (although his instruction methodology for his students is not revealed) as he is a writer. The penetrating essays of his students are riveted with emotions of anxiety, guilt, revenge, remorse and love. Neither Salzman nor his students make excuses for their actions, but they too are challenged with their search for an explanation of their criminal behavior. The nature of the beast is self-analyzed, then exorcised through the newfound elixir of writing.
Interestingly, the spoken language of the inmates is loaded with expletives; every response has one. Yet, expletives do not appear in their written essays!
Salzman writes with such straight-forward, digestable language; it is hard to accept his revealing admission that he struggles greatly as a writer. His struggle is rewarded in the final product.
Those who can . . . TEACH .......2007-04-17
This a fascinating and wonderful story. This book taught me countless lessons on the actions of youth and how all along and deep down they are still kids.
Bleech.......2007-04-09
Sorry Mark, I loved all your other works, but this one was boring and thoroughly uninspired.
So Inspiring Despite the Formula.......2007-02-02
Even though many will say that this is another formula story about a teacher reaching out to a group of underpriviledged students, it was so inspiring to a future English teacher to read about how even juvenile delinquents could express their deeper emotions so vividly through writing. I listened to a talk by Mark Salzman at a Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society convention in Portland, Oregon, in April 2006. He was a very extroverted person with a lot of engaging personality, and it shows through in this book. I recommend it to anyone interested in teaching, writing, or just great non-fiction in general.
Unfair Judgements.......2007-01-16
When I first received the details to the project in my English class about reading a nonfiction book and then writing a book review, I thought I was going to dread reading the book. However, once I started reading, I realized how wrong my judgment had been. True Notebooks has taught me a lot about life and how to appreciate what I have. The boys in this story have no personal belongings acquirable to them and have limited visiting hours with friends and family, and sometimes don't have the option of having visitors. Just being able to survive in their horrible conditions should show how strong, both mentally and physically, these boys are.
True Notebooks is the true story of Mark Salzman's first years teaching a writing class at Central. To his surprise, his students write about how their lives have spiraled out of control, their regrets, hopes for a new future, and understanding themselves. While these classes were productive, every time one of the students was sentenced and sent to a different facility, it was a reminder of the harsh reality that he wouldn't have his students forever. Remaining positive, he concludes that "a little good has got to be better than no good at all." Mark Salzman does not get paid to teach, but does it because he believes he can make a difference in his student's lives. Mixed emotions can be felt throughout the book, from shocked to cheerful to heartrending.
The biggest misconception about these kids is that they don't have feelings, that they are just screw-ups who don't deserve to be out on the streets. They've made some bad decisions, which have in turn cost them their freedom. However, they feel happy, sad, depressed, angry, heartbroken, hopeless, and worthless at times just like anyone else does. The best example of this is during the concert when Mark played his cello. `The kids were bored, as I had feared. The rustling grew in intensity, but something about it didn't sound quite right. It wasn't the quiet sound of fidgeting and wasn't the quiet sound of whispering either. I glanced at the audience and saw a roomful of boys with tears running down their faces.' Mark can be related to Atticus Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird in that he stands up for what he believes is right and does what other would not usually do.
I will admit that I was judgmental towards juvenile delinquents, basically anyone who was in jail. I realized that someone locked up behind bars isn't a Martian from outer space, but that they are a person too. These kids have basically ruined their lives, but is that a basis to say that they are a horrible person? I would highly recommend this book to all high school students who have ever felt worthless or not good enough. It teaches that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to and believe in, which I think is a major doubt in every high school student's mind.
Book Description
A world-renowned child psychiatrist takes us inside his pioneering work with trauma victims to offer a groundbreaking new perspective on how stress and violence affect children's brains--and how they can be helped to heal.
Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, witnesses, children raised in closets and cages, and victims of family violence. Here he tells their stories of trauma and transformation.
Customer Reviews:
Bland.......2006-06-26
The book is an easy read but the connnections that the author makes are very tennuous. He talks about coincidences in life but the stories he writes about are vague and far-fetched. The style of writing is not all that creative so the book does not offer very much.
I fell asleep while reading this book. Coincidence? You be the judge........2006-03-28
This short little book is a collection of two-to-four page stories about coincidences Auster has experienced or heard about. It sounded kind of intriguing when I first read about it, but in reality, I found this book kind of, well, I guess the best word for it would be the most simple one: just plain ol' dumb. Had it been written by anyone but Auster, a well-known and highly esteemed author, I can't imagine it ever having been published. Because, honestly, these stories are just laughably lame. For example, there's one that essentially goes like this: one day, I lost a dime. A few hours later, I was walking down the street and, gasp!, there was a dime on the sidewalk! And here's another one: one day my wife and I were really, really hungry, and the next thing we knew, a friend came and took us out to dinner! Whoaaaa! How exciting! How curious! How philosophically intriguing! How . . . utterly inane!
If there was supposed to be a point to this collection of stories, some kind of deeper meaning to it all, I sure didn't get it. It either went way, WAY over my head, or else. . . borrrrrrrring! But go ahead -- give it a try yourself. And then you can let me know which one you think is the bigger idiot -- me or the guy who told Auster he'd love to publish this brilliant, insightful book. I know which one my money's on: one, two, three, NOT IT!
The rescue of coincidence.......2005-04-18
This is going to sound really odd, almost like I am aping one the stories in the Mr. Auster's book, but I have to tell it, because it really is true and I think it bespeaks the delight of this small book. The night I read this book, I was helping my friend, Therese, with a short film she was shooting. The final scene in the film centered around a dinner party the main character throws, bringing together a number of ex-lovers.
Like most New Yorkers, Therese's apartment could barely handle eating dinner, much less filming the eating of dinner. So we were filming at Therese's friend Leah's apartment, a jaw-droppingly big loft. I'd never met Leah, or the several other people recruited for the shoot. This I suppose lent an air of authenticity to the awkwardness of having ex-lovers at a dinner party.
All through the dinner, Leah, our host, appeared mildly distracted, her laughter always coming a moment too late. Her boyfriend, with whom she lived was away in Mexico and I simply assumed that she missed him.
On the subway up to the dinner, I read the first forty pages of the "Red Notebook". Like all of Mr. Auster's books it reads marvelously well. The plainness of his prose masks how quickly he draws you into his world of coincidences and meta-fictions. As I set the book down when I arrived, I mentioned how wonderful the little stories it contained were.
When I arrived at dinner, after first being struck by the size of the apartment, I was taken aback by Leah's cat, Felix. Even at first glance, you could tell Felix was no ordinary house cat, she was too long and slightly too tall. After innocently reaching my fingers down, offering my scent to Felix, Leah warned, "Oh, I wouldn't pet her, she's not really friendly." Nevertheless, Felix licked my fingers and walked away. Both Therese and Leah commented on how unusually friendly the cat had just been. For a moment I swelled with the odd pride of being judged by a fickle animal and found acceptable.
Leah explained that Felix was a leopard cat, some odd breed concocted no doubt to exoticize the common house cat.
After the shoot, after cleaning up, after most of the guests had left, Therese and Leah retreated into another room to fetch a pirated DVD Therese wished to borrow. I was alone. Felix he sat perched on the top of bookshelf, staring down at me. I stared back. Finally, I reached up to offer my fingers once again to the cat. Silently she swiped at them, catching her claws on the skin just between the knuckles of my pointer and index finger. A light scratch, just barely enough to break the skin and let leak a spot of blood. I looked at the burgeoning red line and then stared back at the cat. The pride of acceptance vanished, replaced by something closer to mutual respect. I didn't mention the swipe to either Therese or Leah.
On the way home, I finished the "The Red Notebook." Mr. Auster's books read quickly. And the short ones, like this read even more quickly. But for a day or two they coat the world with an odd sense of pattern. Suddenly every event has purpose, if not clear meaning.
I never saw Leah again. But her cat stayed in my mind, perched on that bookshelf staring down at me.
Six months later, I came across a listing on the Internet. A beautiful leopard cat looking for a new home. Before I realized what I was doing, I called the number. The man, Carlos, told me the cat was still available. Later that day when he dropped the cat by, he said that he and his girlfriend were having a baby and they wanted to take no chances with allergies. He wouldn't tell me the cats name, saying he simply called her gato. I would have to find the right name for her.
As Carlos was leaving, he glanced at my bookshelf in that instinctual act of sizing people up. He stopped in the A's and pointed to "The Red Notebook". "I love this book. We're actually naming our child Siri after one of the characters he mentions. My wife bought it on someones recommendation at a dinner party the day after she found out she was pregnant."
I told Carlos that I too enjoyed the book; that while I found the quality of the anecdotes wildly uneven, certain ones struck a chord; that I thought some of the stories skirt around cliche, but that skirting is the brilliance of the Paul Auster project: to rescue coincidence from its damnation as clumsy plot device and elevate to the status of plot itself.
I also told him how much a I loved the some of Auster's observations, particularly the insightful realization, "that I know nothing, that the world I live in will go on escaping me forever."
I call the cat Felix.
Auster's 'Believe It Or Not'.......2004-03-13
In "The Red Notebook" Auster does something that is both whimsical and tremendously captivating. Most readers remember when they first read Charles Dickens and found his 'Deus Ex Machina' technique and his coincidences just too ridiculous to believe they actually happen in real life. However, they do. Everyone has some incredible coincidences that are basically one in a million chances, but just happen to take place.
Auster seems to have noted these incidents through his entire life, and then compiled them in this book. The coincidences are extraordinary, but not things that are impossible, just things that are extremely improbable. Auster enhances his style, by the use of "Kafkaesque" elements. His use of initial names is something that Kafka did all the time. And his ironic twists are also in the vein of Kafka, but instead of being novelistic, they are real and true stories.
The book is sure to captivate virtually any reader, and its conciseness both in writing and in length makes it an easily absorbed and quickly read piece of literature.
Great book, very short and interesting.......2002-12-15
I've never read Paul Auster before, but my wife made me read this slim little volume and thought it was enchanting. Perfect size for a stocking-stuffer for that literary-type person in your family.
Book Description
René Descartes (1596–1650) is one of the towering and central figures in Western philosophy and mathematics. His apothegm “Cogito, ergo sum” marked the birth of the mind-body problem, while his creation of so-called Cartesian coordinates have made our physical and intellectual conquest of physical space possible.
But Descartes had a mysterious and mystical side, as well. Almost certainly a member of the occult brotherhood of the Rosicrucians, he kept a secret notebook, now lost, most of which was written in code. After Descartes’s death, Gottfried Leibniz, inventor of calculus and one of the greatest mathematicians in history, moved to Paris in search of this notebook—and eventually found it in the possession of Claude Clerselier, a friend of Descartes. Leibniz called on Clerselier and was allowed to copy only a couple of pages—which, though written in code, he amazingly deciphered there on the spot. Leibniz’s hastily scribbled notes are all we have today of Descartes’s notebook, which has disappeared.
Why did Descartes keep a secret notebook, and what were its contents? The answers to these questions lead Amir Aczel and the reader on an exciting, swashbuckling journey, and offer a fascinating look at one of the great figures of Western culture.
Customer Reviews:
Aczel's worst.......2007-04-18
I've enjoyed several other Aczel works: Fermat's Last Theorem, God's Equation, Mystery of the Aleph, and I struggled mightily to get through this one, but it's just too dull. Blah, blah, blah, then this clown wrote to that one and said meaningless things; blah, blah, blah, these phrases from this ancient manuscript appeared in this person's letters, proving he was influenced by it. Blech.
Academic Dishonesty.......2006-10-27
It's no surprise that this book wasn't published by an academic press, because no peer review process could possibly have permitted Aczel so completely to misrepresent the contents of Descartes' `secret notebook.' When he purports to be describing the theorem Descartes discovered, Aczel is actually describing work that was done by Euler more than a century later.
One of the `Featured Reviewers' at this site says Aczel "has a talent for explaining mathematical ideas and formulas that might seem daunting to the lay reader." But how can the `lay reader,' including this reviewer, assess how good well he's explaining the material unless he is already familiar with it? Otherwise, an `expert' like Aczel can fabricate his story, the `lay reader' will never be the wiser.
In about 1750 Euler proved that if you count up the number V of vertices of a convex polyhedron, the number E of edges and the number F of faces, then V - E + F is always equal to 2. This is the theorem Aczel attributes to Descartes in the last 2 chapters of his book, a book which is otherwise just a rehash of old biographies of Descartes.
What Descartes actually proved is this: take the same convex polyhedron, calculate the angle deficiency at each vertex and sum these up - the answer is always 8 right angles (720 degrees). What's an angle deficiency? It's the sum of all the plane angles that meet at a given vertex, subtracted from 360. Let's take the octahedron as an example: at each of its vertices, four equilateral triangles meet. So the angle deficiency is [360 - (60 + 60 + 60 + 60)], which is 120 degrees. Since an octahedron has 6 identical vertices, the sum of the angle deficiencies is 6x120 = 720 degrees, or 8 right angles. The octahedron is only one particular case; this works equally well for any convex solid figure. Try it yourself for a cube, where 8x90 = 720.
Well, these two theorems are certainly very different results, but in the late 1800s, after Descartes notebook was re-discovered, people realized that you could deduce Euler's theorem from Descartes theorem. As a result, in the early 20th century some French chauvinists renamed Euler's formula for Descartes.
There is no evidence that Euler ever saw Descartes notebook, although Aczel fabricates a `fact' to make it seem like he did. There is no evidence that Euler ever visited Hanover.
Now the real facts would make a really good story for a popular math book. A real master of the genre, like William Dunham, Simon Singh or Eli Maor, would explain both Descartes' theorem and Euler's theorem to their audience and then demonstrate the logical equivalence of the two.
Aczel is apparently incapable of doing this, or at least was unwilling to do the real work that it would involve. Instead, he describes Euler's theorem where he claims to be describing Descartes' notebook. Specifically, he claims that Descartes counted the edges of a polyhedron, which he most certainly did not. Euler was the first person ever to consider the edge of a polyhedron as an item of mathematical interest, so that he actually had to coin a Latin word (acies) for it.
As is well documented in other reviews: (1) most of this book is a re-hash of various biographies of Descartes and 90% of it has nothing to do with `secret notebook,' and (2) it is absolutely loaded with factual errors about mathematics and the history of mathematics.
What's much worse is the tiny portion that does cover the notebook itself is an amazingly inaccurate and even dishonest misrepresentation of what Descartes really did. Shame, shame, shame.
It depends on what you are looking for...and it's probably not here.......2006-06-22
When one reads a book titled "Descartes's Secret Notebook," one expects a few things: a) information about Descartes, b) information about the secret notebook. But Aczel does a slipshod job of presenting both to us.
First, information about Descartes. What biographical information we can find within this book we can find on the internet in greater abundance and depth. I see no reason to buy this book if a) there are many points of inaccuracy with regard to facts in this book, b) what can be found here can already be found on the net.
Second, the secret notebook. We expect to see the links between Rosicrucian teachings and Descartes's notebook, but what we find is the links between Descartes' life and Rosicrucian teachings, and that between Leibniz's beliefs and Descartes' notebook. So Aczel does not offer us what he promises when he claims a connection between the notebook and Rosicrucian teachings.
Besides, why should I buy this book when it is a poor summary of a 1987 article by Pierre Costabel? Aczel should be ashamed.
And if the Wikiproduct report at the bottom of this page is true (and evidence suggests that this is so), then Aczel should be as ashamed of his lack of integrity as he should be at his lack of scholarship.
Philosopher Cavalier.......2006-06-05
"Descartes' Secret Notebook" reminds us -- if we need a reminder -- as to how and why politics and religion play such a deterministic role in the history of knowledge. Although I agree with those who say that the book does not deliver on its promise to unveil the deepest and darkest secrets of Descartes' notebook, the fact that a complete copy of his notebook is no longer available to us, or so it would seem, fascinates me.
Perhaps the Inquisition is to blame, or the hostile theological climate of Protestant Holland, or just the geopolitical tumult of the seventeenth century. But chance, fate, or whatever, seemed to conspire against Descartes' true legacy the moment he died. The French Ambassador to Sweden, Pierre Chanut, practically tossed his corpse onto the rubbish heap. And though Queen Cristina of Sweden certainly meant well, she seems to have lost custody of the situation once her famous tutor died.
The fate of Descartes' skull is a case in point. His bodily remains were buried in an obscure graveyard in Stockholm, with no head, only to be shipped hither and yonder in later times. Today his skull is "part of a tasteless museum display about the development of the human skull" at the Museum of Man in Paris.
Sad though this may be, if ever there was a "philosopher cavalier" it was Rene' Descartes. Always fashionably dressed and wearing his sword, he seems to have been very charismatic -- a natural celebrity -- which he became in actual fact after the publication of his "Discourse on the Method." And in spite of all the misfortunes of his bodily remains and the disappearance of his secret notebook he is still the "founder of modern philosophy" as well as the inventor of coordinate geometry. Which is not a bad legacy for a man who tried to hide the true nature of his intellectual activities.
As the book makes clear, the life of Descartes is a lesson to all those who value freedom and knowledge and would be loath to see it disappear. His curiosity may have led him to explore alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Copernican theory, and no telling what else. We simply don't know. All we know is that the quest for knowledge, in the broadest sense, often threatens the very foundations of the existing world order. And this may never change. Once certain doctrines are set in stone by the powers that be: "He that troubleth his own ground shall inherit the wind." Proverbs 11:29 KJV.
It Depends on what you are looking for....Great Basic History of Descarte.......2006-05-18
I'm a Mechanical Engineer with enough Mathematics and Philosophy study in my past to have a basic understanding of Descartes. I went into the book with no knowledge of Aczel, the secret notebook, or of the details of Descartes life. With that said I found the book to be great. I walked away understanding much more of Descartes' life and studies. I feel the secret notebook was addressed fairly well through out hinting that it existed through Descartes' fear of publishing. We know the secret notebook is lost to time and very little of it is known, so I'm not sure that we can expect the detail that some reviewers are demanding. All in all I liked it. Fine, if you are a mathematics or Descartes scholar you will not learn much here. But for 99.9% of the population, you will learn of a great Mathematician and Philosopher. Thanks Aczel.
Customer Reviews:
Human Frailty Written at Its Best.......2006-05-19
A non-fiction book that entails the quandaries faced by troubled youths in a juvenile hall would make other personal problems in this world seem utterly diminutive. Mr. Salzman writes with confidence from memory about his experiences as a writing teacher volunteer at Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. His subtle sense of humor adorns his recollections of his friendships with his writing students, which makes the book easy to finish (each chapter is quite short too). These children are full of anger and remorse. They have committed serious crimes but the fact remains that most of them are merely kids without hope and guidance from families or friends. Being tried as adults, a lot of them end up receiving the maximum sentence - life in prison. It doesn't matter if they have repented or if they have straightened out their acts or if they have learned a valuable lesson from their biggest mistake in life - they are still murderers, assaulters, and gang members. Mr. Salzman's writing is their stories in their own words. It is also the author's feelings and justifications about his volunteering experience. Throughout the book, tears may be the result of heartbreaking incidents or comical occurrences. There is also the nagging question - what about the victims? It is up to the reader to consider.
Customer Reviews:
Miraculous Writings.......2002-01-04
This book is only the beginning of a series of 11 volumes written over 17 years! Vassula Ryden was approached by her Guardian Angel one day for the eventual purpose of being taught by God Himself (just as He tells us in scriptures "my children will be taught by Me") to write a 'Prophetic Call' to ALL humanity for peace, love, repentance and reconciliation...very much in the way the 'Old Testament'prophets wrote to warn people of their sinful nature and evil in the world and how they needed to repent and live a holier life to reduce evil in the world, when they were approached by God. Vassula is NOT a theologan or a philosopher and never had formal training on ANY religion, so it is quite impossible for her to know ALL of the spiritual matters in which she writes, which proves she is authentic as she does NOT speak of her own authority. These messages are a great treasure Jesus has been saving for "Our Times." It is evident that this charism has PROFOUNDLY changed her life as being a simple housewife with 2 children, she, like many of us, was far from God, living her own elaborate life... has made approx 750 trips all around the world from Shri Lanka to California (travels through charity) to speak in places we could hardly imagine, to share God's Love for us, FREE OF CHARGE, she does not receive nor ask for any money, but asks that we learn to give charity from our hearts to others, in fact proceeds from the sale of tapes and books and any donations go to fund the 11 homes for the poor that this ministry has founded as well as offset any publishing costs generously donated by those who labor for LOVE to print and issue the books to those who cannot afford to buy them, for this pleases God. God's Word should be FREE to all and NOT sold for profit(remember Jesus in the Temple and His anger at those who explioted)! We are in the End of Times and He is trying to break through our deafness to save us before these times of Mercy come to an end (and they will). These messages have many different themes (one is Christian Unity) and contain many prophecies about things that have happened already as well as things yet to come about, such as the fall of communism (prophecied 4 years before) to the The World Trade Center (prophecied 10 years ago to the EXACT DAY SEPT 11, 1991) to the rise of the Antichrist and to the TRIUMPHANT VICTORY of Jesus! These messages tell us nothing new from scriptures and in fact it is encouraged that you READ SCRIPTURES when reading True Life in God. There are many prayer groups established around the world and these messages have been published in 38 languages! ....
....
A book worth reading and rereading all over again!.......2000-04-28
The book "My Angel Daniel" chronicles the life of Vassula Ryden who like the rest of us has forgotten God. Then one day, her hand was slowly guided and her angel introduced himself to her through writing. Thus begins Vassula's account of her relationship with her Angel Daniel, God and Jesus, her transformation and purification and finally God's message to us that we are NEVER alone. His message that His love for us is unconditional and His fervent wish for mankind to repent and to go back to Him. I was so inspired by Vassula because like her I lost my faith. I wandered for almost a year, becoming agnostic and feeling angry that God has forgotten me. I read all kinds of spiritual books but none has made the same impact as reading Vassula's account. The book made me go back to my faith and it made me see that God is never silent, hidden and uncaring. He is love and His desire for us is to trust Him that He has everything planned out for us. This book, by all means, deserve every bit of the five stars.
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Jack Fitzgerald's Notebook
Jack Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: Creative Book Publishing
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- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amazing Sex, Third Edition
- The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: 20th Aniversary Edition
- The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot
- The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World
- The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers
- The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe
- The Life of Olaudah Equiano (Dover Thrift Editions)
- The Life of Samuel Johnson (Penguin Classics)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Guide to Fly Fishing Knots: A Basic Streamside Guide for Fly Fishing Knots, Tippets, and Leader Form
- Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992
- Non-Disclosure and Confidential Agreements Line by Line: A Detailed Look at NDA's, How to Change The
- Multinational Enterprise and Economic Analysis
- The ART of Risk Management
- What's Love Got to Do With It
- The Customer Service Training Tool Kit : 60 Training Activities for Customer Service Trainers
- Quantitative Risk Analysis: A Guide to Monte Carlo Simulation Modelling
- Public Key Infrastructure: Building Trusted Applications and Web Services
- Cactuses of Big Bend National Park
The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing Social Brain
Trauma Through a Child's Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing
The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being
The Connected Child: Bring hope and healing to your adoptive family
Parenting From the Inside Out
