10-K Books

Although this is the fourth volume of the new edition of WJ's correspondence, in a way it is really the first, and would be a good place for a reader desiring a more intimate acquaintance with William James and his world to start. Volumes 1-3 were devoted to the letters to and from his equally famous novelist brother -- an appealing idea and one probably calculated to increase interest and sales, but perhaps questionable on more fundamental grounds. Be that as it may, as a reading experience Volume 4 can scarcely be recommended too highly. William James is probably one of the most lovable letter writers ever to set pen to paper. In these letters every sentence comes alive and breathes.

James possessed to a high degree qualities of attention, powers of observation, and an adorable desire to render experience vividly. It is a cliche to say that "a world comes alive" in pages like these, but that is the feeling I have when, for example, I read a letter written from Dresden to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on May 15, 1868: "Wendell of my entrails! At the momentous point where the last sheet ends I was interrupted by the buxom maid calling me to tea and through various causes have not got back till now. As I sit by the open window waiting for my bkfst. and look out on the line of Droschkies drawn up on the side of the dohna Platz, and see the coachmen, red faced, red collared, & blue coated with varnished hats, sitting in a variety of indolent attitudes upon their boxes, one of them looking in upon me and probably wondering what the devil I am, When I see the big sky with a monstrous white cloud battening and bulging up from behind the houses into the blue, with a uniform coppery film drawn over cloud & blue which makes one anticipate a soaking day, when I see the houses opposite with their balconies & windows filled with flowers & greenery -- ha! on the topmost balcony of one stands a maiden, black jaketted, red petticoated, fair and slim under the striped awning leaning her elbow on the rail and her peach like chin upon her rosy finger tips -- Of whom thinkest thou, maiden, up there aloft? here, *here!* beats that human heart for wh. in the drunkenness of the morning hour thy being vaguely longs, & tremulously, but recklessly and wickedly posits elsewhere, over those distant housetops which thou regardest..."

This jocular yet earnest mood is perhaps the most pervasive one in these letters. Yet we also get glimpses into the deep and suicidal depressions he fought during his early years. Several of the letters in this volume blossom into fascinating six- or seven-page ruminations on some of the deepest questions of philosophy and religion, for these are the years in which James, "swamped in an empirical philosophy," won through to a view of the world that found room for consciousness, will, and spirit. It is in his letters to (and from) Holmes, the physician Henry Bowditch, and his bosom friend Tom Ward that we feel most intensely James's mind and heart grappling with the ideas he cares most deeply about.

But James is not always mulling over deep principles. At eighteen years of age he briefly considered becoming a painter, and began studies to that end, so it is in his character to be fully alive to surface details of the scene about him. A commentary on cultural and political matters full of interesting judgments runs though these letters. Readers will also come to feel they know well every member of the James family. WJ's letters to his sister Alice are especially remarkable.

Though my initial reaction to the policy of extremely restrained annotation practiced by the editorial team was one of frustration, in the end I came to appreciate the free hand it gives us to reread letters more carefully and to feel ourselves into the wonderful and mysterious crannies of the inner life of a great human being. To this end, I recommend deferring the introduction by Giles Gunn until after they have concluded the letters. Professor Gunn (of UC Santa Barbara) has interesting and pertinent things to say -- especially about James's relation to his father, the Swedenborgian theologian Henry James, Sr., on whose work Gunn has written -- but there is nothing there that cannot wait until readers have first immersed themselves in the primary texts.

The volumes of this series are beautiful in their craftsmanship, and it is an aesthetic as well as intellectual delight to manipulate and peruse them. This volume would make an excellent gift for a bright high school senior or college freshman, since the problems of youth and of finding a vocation hold a special place here -- for anyone struggling with a chronic or debilitating illness (James is plagued with back and eye problems through most of these years) -- or indeed, for anyone who reads!

An excellent novel about the powerful love between a Polish boy and a German soldier during WWII. It really hits on the readers ideas about homosexuals and what rights they should have. Very well written. Appropriate for age 15 and up.

"He used to say jail, like everybody else. A joke, a casual word. Nothing to do with Him. Now that word seemed sharp and hard and full of pain." This book is called Do Not Pass Go by Kirkpatrick Hill.

Deet is a 13-year-old boy whose father is arrested for drugs that he used to stay awake for his two jobs. Deet is very shocked to hear this news. Now mom is forced to work her old job at the diner. Her and Deet sets up a monthly budget to live by. Deet now has to take care of his two younger siblings and also cook dinner. Now Deet has to grow up quickly if their plan is going to work. Deet also has to juggle his schoolwork with this new plan. Deet has been regularly going to the jail to visit his father, after school is finished. He has learned that jail is not such a horrible place as they show it in the movies. This is a fictional novel. I would recommend this book for any middle school student. Want to know how Deet juggles everything. You're just going to have to read the book and find out.

This was an amazing book! The authors do a wonderful job of formatting a book for the beginning learner to understand! I highly recommend it!

This book is great for somebody entering the fields of food or agriculture, or who is beginning to study these topics. The articles are all written by different authors, some from the media, some from NGO's, some from trade groups, academia, government, business, etc. It presents two sides of the debate on the most widely-discussed, "hottest" topics in agriculture today, e.g. subsidies, price supports, genetically modified foods, factory farming, food stamps, etc., in a "Crossfire" format. Regardless of your own views on these topics, seeing the other side's view is always important. The only problem is that the articles are not very long, usually just a few pages. Obviously that makes the discussions somewhat limited and superficial. But nevertheless, there are plenty of references and anyone wanting more information can easily get it. For the purposes I described above, this book is perfect.

This is a wonderful geometry text and very reasonable. We are a homeschool family and this is perfect for us.

This book translated from the original Swedish will bring you to tears. It's the story of Linna an outsider in her school she is a tall, awkward, miserable, loner who's parents are divorced and just happens to be 16 years old. Then she meets Pia who is just as tall but does not lack self-confidence. Linnea and Pia become best friends. The spend hours and hours together talking about everything, God, boys, parents, politics just about everything.

The story recounts the 120 days that the two know each other. For now Pia is dead, and it is a suicide. Linnea's world has collapse and it is worse then before she ad a close friend, for now she has tasted friendship and lost it and her loneliness and isolation is worse then before.

Most of the story takes place in Linnea's grandmother's closet. She is suffering and her Grandmother tells her to talk to God to recount the story of her friendship. So she is in the closet telling herself the story of the 120 days that she knew Pia.

Readers will relate to Linnea's introspective ramblings, and be drawn to a story that is very emotionally engaging. This is a great resource for teens who have lost someone, and will help in the grieving process. It will help them learn how to cope with loss.

This is one of this little known treasures.

Jimmie Butts is a dear friend and a superior nurse practitioner who views her patients as whole human beings, not just as ailments to be treated. She is also a humor therapists who helps critically-ill patients and driven, over-worked medical staff to loosen up and "get a life."

_Health Care in the Trenches_ focuses on Ms. Jimmie's 7 years doing a series of short-term placements in places as diverse as Bethel, Alaska, a cancer center in Boston, remote flood-prone areas of North Carolina, Native-American areas of Oklahoma, to name a few.

In trying circumstances, Jimmie has provided care to people with chronic illnesses and with critical injuries. Learning about people's work, life-styles, and recreations has helped her to reach out to whole persons, not to the illness apart from the lifestyle. Interspersed with her varied job assignments, she battled breast and thyroid cancer.

I am very happy to endorse this book, and I recommend it highly.
Better yet, I hope the readers will have an opportunity to hear Jimmie present a humor or motivational workshop that is more substance than hokum.

SMO, AKA Sally, age 56

In a fantasy world Katjin is a fifteen years old guy who travels the country with his Apa, his father. But suddenly Apa needs to go in the Higlands, a place not safe for a boy like Katjin, no more a child but not yet a man. So Katjin remains with his grandparents, and it's not bad, until the day he finds a lost boy, Mikael. Mik is clearly a stranger and a runaway; somehow he manages to reach the territory where Kat's people have their camp and he sings the ailing song to Kat, a song who grants him protection. Mik is now Kat's responsibility, even more when, trying to claim a blood bond, they are literally stuck together.

I was uncertain when I decided to read this one. Fantasy is not up my alley, usually since, sorry to the genre's lovers, the stories are always very long and slow, and if you are not fond for the setting, you get lost in all the details. Heart Sense instead starts from the first with a very easy and smooth style; 200 pages of book flows without problem in few time and the world it builds, even if original, it's not boring.

Kat and Mik have obviously a relationship that, in the future, could be of sexual nature, but in this moment, Kat at fifteen and Mik at sixteen years old, can only recognize the symptoms of desire and be conscious that something is awaiting for them. Even if Kat is the younger, he is the first to acknowledge his desire for Mik, maybe since he has just started to admit that he is more interesting in guys than in girls. Mik instead needs to come to term with this relationship, above all since he is an Heart Sense and human contacts make him sick; and so he needs to learn to be at comfort with having a human body near him, and after that, with the fact that the human body is a male.

The story of Kat and Mik is an adventure, a coming of age journey, but not yet toward romance. In this book they learn that they need to be together, probably in the future (another book?) they will learn that being together means also something else.

Again my compliments to the author for having manage to write a book very easy to read and entertaining without being too complex.

The book in my oppinion is well organized and easily understood by someone like me who has had no or very little experience with internet searching concerning anything, let alone healthcare. I'm not nor ever have I been much of a reader so for me to keep reading a book its got to be informative and entertining and this book has kept my interest.truly Jeane