AS

Marissa is erudite, quick, fun, funny, committed to social justice and truth, and and an acute observer of human behavior. Her friend Johnnie Cochran describes her (in the introduction!) as "a prosecutor's prosecutor. She is full of zeal for her profession and possesses an insider's knowledge of the criminal justice system." She's also devoted herself to Buddhism for over 30 years, as well as to the mastery of the culinary arts. All of these elements figure in her very unusual book.

Besides telling three compelling and hair-raising tales, Marissa shares aloud the unspoken rules of the courtroom, and offers appreciative and insightful looks into the lives of law enforcement professionals, and denizens of South Central LA and the gay demimonde of Hollywood.

As a skillful storyteller, she is compassionate without becoming maudlin, and righteous without losing her sense of humor.

I am looking forward to her next book, which I understand is under way!

Marissa has the heart of a warrior. Her stories are classic story telling with spell binding revelations of what the truth is when it comes to crimes and the criminal mind. Her attention to detail, coupled with a sense of the world of the victim, allows the reader to be a prosecutor seeking justice for the people. The criminal procedural aspects of the criminal courts are cleanly explained with no chance of misunderstanding that lawyering is still an art when done with a heart. Marissa injects the calmness of her buddhist philosophy into the psyche of the reader to allow a deeper appreciation of the law and the victim equation.

As a criminal defense attorney, I usually avoid "true accounts" written by prosecutors as they tend to be one-sided, self-serving renditions of cases that could be won by a first year law student. The usual story involves a clear cut case where the District Attorney is representing the forces of right (the good people of the State) while the defense is usually some bad dude who deserves a long vacation in Prison. Of course the good guys prevail and the prosecutor is the hero. Good and Evil, Right and Wrong are clearly defined and everybody leaves happy. Not so with Ms. Batt's book. Besides her personal disappointment at the result of one of her cases, she manages to show that all is not black and white - urban life and particularly the criminal justice system present a myriad of situations where the lines become blurred. Her cases are interesting in that there are victims - individuals who by virtue of their own life choices are often viewed as not deserving of protection by the law and the system. Besides showing the underside of life, Batt also manages to forcefully demonstrate the maxim that "no man is above the law and no man is below it."
A great read, colorful, fast paced and real...I loved it.

This is a wonderful new book by Dr.Mark Allen Young,a respected leader in the field of rehabilitation medicine. Dr Young has assimilated a great deal of information about the causes of chronic pain in women along with valuable information for the patient on how to improve these symptoms. Written in a succinct, user friendly style, I was particularly impressed with the author's evalaution of the pros and cons of alternative medicine (including nutraceutical) options for pain management.
This book should be especially beneficial for patients needing information and options, when they continue to have symptoms of pain, despite following "physician orders". The book is highly recommended.

Finding relief from pain is sometimes a desperate struggle. Often it seems that some physicians and other health care practitioners take the easy way out and will throw low level narcotic relief at you with the hope that you will just go away. Its cheap, easy, and eff... well two out of three isn't bad. At other times they will deny your pain experience, and invalidate your suffering, especially, if you are a woman. The very complexity of the pain experience is often ignored.

WOMEN AND PAIN: WHY IT HURTS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO is both amazing and helpful. The authors discuss traditional methods of pain relief and control as well as alternative methods. The explanations of both vitamin and herbal aids for pain relief and the many other methods are elegantly expressed in plain, simple language that can be understood by anyone.

WOMEN AND PAIN: WHY IT HURTS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO is a masterful work about pain relief for women for this new millennium.

Dr. Youngs new book "Women And Pain..." led me to a life which someone like me would only dream of: a life with no pain. This book is the best book I ever bought. I suffered from migrains and back pain for over 7 years and the pain vanished after about 2 1/2 weeks of trying Dr. Youngs methods, I tried almost every other method out there and this is the only one that worked!

While the recently published one-volume Essays is a worthy surrogate, nothing will beat this four volume collection. I like this volume because I enjoy the "As I Please" columns very much. Too bad that they no longer publish the book in a hardbound edition.

Since the purchaser of this volume is likely to be familiar with Orwell to some degree, I won't preach to the choir. I can't remember anything I disliked. A few details about the book, there is an index, you'll find a mix of Orwell's letters, essays on diverse topics, and As I Please weekly columns during the war years. An excerpt from that column illustrates Orwell's sobering humor (I hope the copyright people don't get me):

"When Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London, he occupied himself with writing a history of the world. He hand finished the first volume and was at work on the second when there was a scuffle between some workmen beneath the window of his cell, and one of the men was killed. In spite of diligent enquiries, and in spite of the fact that he had actually seen the thing happen, Sir Walter was never able to discover what the quarrel was about: whereupon, so it is said - and if the story is not true it certainly ought to be - he burned what he had written and abandoned his project." Now, Orwell shares this anecdote because he wants to make the point that "even as late as the last war (WWI) it was possible" to ascertain some degree of truth about what's going on in the world, for instance, casualty figures, because sources could be verified by cross-referencing. Orwell complains/observes, however, that in WWII "a Nazi and a non-Nazi version of the present war would have no resemblance to one another, and which of them finally gets into the history books will be decided not by evidential methods but on the battlefield."

You see the journalist and perennially honest (and somewhat bitter) truth-seeker here?

This is the third of four volumes of essays put out by Nonpareil Books of George Orwell's essays and edited in part by his widow Sonia Orwell. The bulk of this volume is made up of Orwell's "As I Please" column in the left wing Tribune where he was employed as editor for the later part of WWII. These are excellent insights into British life during the war era and into the political culture of the British left of which Orwell was a member.

His column's musings range from commentary on political pamphlets to the effects of the war on clothing and food. Orwell, ever the socialist, sees everything through the prism of class structure and to those who only know of his writings co-opted by the right such as "Animal Farm" and "1984" his definite left wing stance may come as a bit of a shock. He was by no means a dogmatic ideologue. The left gets the benefit of his often scathing criticisms as well as the right. Always willing to call things as he saw them, Orwell made enemies on both sides of the political spectrum.

Included in volume III as well are several letters to friends and acquaintances that are political and literary in nature rather than personal. Especially noteworthy is the first essay in the volume "The English People", a rather famous piece on culture, language and class.

I highly recommend this volume as well as the preceding volume II "My Country Left or Right". Orwell's essays are wonderful windows into the mind of one of the most important individuals of the twentieth century.

In my humble estimation Orwell was, by far, the best writer of the 20th century. Overflowing with compassion for all humanity, Orwell wrote about events happening in his life as if he were reflecting on them years later. His perception of the world was so keen and his analytical senses were so acute, we are blessed to have his best writings available to us in this 4 volume set.

Volume 3, I believe, is the best of this collection because it contains the bulk of the weekly, As I Please, that ran in the "Tribune" magazine from 1943-1945. This is some of his best freelance writing covering a whole range of topics. They capture the essence of his thoughts politically and socially. Here too you gain a view of life in WW2 Britain: rationing, blackouts, air raids, and, more importantly, how it felt to live through it.

I would reccomend you buy all 4 volumes and start at the beginning. You will not regret the experience.

Dr. Mueller, fresh out of residency in Internal Medicine, has gotten angry at the reality he is forced to confront, grabbed the bit in his teeth and galloped through a thorny course to a finish line that is amazing. Before this book, did any of us really know about the Great Health Rip-Off in the United States? Did anyone in this country realize that America is the only place on the face of this planet that really charges its citizens money for health care? This book is a must-read primer for anyone considering medicine as a career, or even for being an American citizen at this time. Let your conscience be your guide! Mueller is an absolute master at research. His documentation of the huge crisis in American Health Care, with poorer health results here for much more money, is not assailable. His conclusions for a total overhaul of the system all make sense, and are laid out point by point. This is not a book for gradeschoolers. Mueller's cumbersome treatment of statistics tends to become backswaying, especially about two-thirds of the way through the book. I had to take long breaks. But the wade-through and the wait were superbly worth while. The book is not just a report of our current woes, but also a believable plan and prophecy.

John Miles Lurie, M.D.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Mueller for having the wisdom and courage (as well as the stamina) to make the valiant effort to get the information in this book to the American people. I am a psychologist, licensed in PA, living and working in my hometown of Erie, PA. I have had some experience with the awful frustrations that have gone along with trying to provide a humanitarian service that has been inexorably forced into a format of narrow self-interest-especially the "managed" "care" so-called system. Discovering Dr. Mueller's book, I am somehow amazed that someone nearby has produced such a valuable resource. I am amazed, not about someone just coming from Jamestown (!), but to find that I am really not as alone as I thought I have been-even around here--in my intense concern about what has become of health care delivery in this country. I was also delightedly surprised that a small publishing house such as Olin Frederick is practically right up the road, producing such socially responsible works for our time. I work in affiliation with two of the major hospitals in Erie-Hamot and St. Vincent, and I am tempted to send copies of Dr. Mueller's book to the CEOs of each institution.
An emergency room physician friend of my recommended an older book--"The Social Transformation of American Medicine" by Paul Starr (BasicBooks, 1982)--that has put some perspective on the historical development of health care in the U.S., and it leaves off in the early 1980s with some fairly accurate predictions about trends in the future, which is our right now. Dr. Mueller's book is a wonderful, veritable font of very important information that brings awareness about the state of health care delivery right up to date. I know that many people are very unhappy with how health care delivery has been twisted from fulfilling need to satisfying greed. It has always mystified me that so many individuals can be so dissatisfied (to say the least), as well as clearly aware that science and technology have progressed so far beyond a frontier mentality, that more people are not declaring access to health care for all as an obvious reality and collectively making their feelings known about it. As Dr. Mueller points out in stark detail in his book, the people in many other advanced, highly developed, industrialized nations have already done so.
Of course, as Dr. Mueller also clearly shows, my mystification should be readily cleared by considering the power of not "market forces" but "marketing forces" in this country. This situation has been almost despairing for me at times, but I have been highly encouraged by knowing that people like Dr. Mueller still give a damn about the right things and making things right. I cannot remember the source, but I once heard a comment on this situation that I have never forgotten. It was derived from a concept in Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" (considered the first major treatise on the capitalist system), namely, the "invisible hand," which is a variation of the "trickle-down" theory, or that free market forces, when left to themselves, will act like an invisible hand to raise the well-being of the general public, even as some individuals immensely profit. Well, this commentator said that in the area of health care delivery, the supposedly invincible invisible hand is "all thumbs"! I have nothing wholly against the free market system itself, but I also believe that some humane balance is in order, especially in the regulation of health care delivery. As another author put it to the free market purists (who believe self-interest is all), what if your sense of Self is humanity? But even so, Dr. Mueller's book helps me understand and arms me with information to support the claim that, not only would a form of universal health care be more humane, but it would also be less expensive in the long run! So, it actually is caring and good business, too. Thank you so much, Dr. Mueller. I would like to shake your visible hand and wish you well.

Dr. Mueller's book defines a system for health care in the United States that is (a) diseased and deteriorating rapidly, (b) ranked by the World Health Organization Report 2000 as thirty-seventh in the world in "overall health system performance" but first in "health expenditure per capita," (c) ignored by most until they become ill, and (d) supported and in large measure controlled by a for-profit business in which patients' welfares and physicians have become commodities. In contrast to many publications that have addressed this important area, Dr. Mueller's book cites publications that document all of the facts that lead him to his very rational conclusions. His description of our problems and his proposed solutions are clearly presented in a fashion that is easily comprehensible to laymen who are not experts in this area. We are all beneficiaries of Dr. Mueller's scholarly, informed, incisive, critical, creative, and uninhibited thinking. As a physician who teaches in a large university medical center, I have often found physicians in my metropolitan area intimidated by the administrators of health systems and by insurance companies. Many believe that these administrators and insurance companies (a) often have an enormous conflict of interest in appearing to be more interested in dollars than in patients, (b) control a large and increasing proportion of the physicians' and patients' medical choices, and (c) spend enormous amounts of money on cosmetic public relations to cover their tracks. In my opinion as a physician, this is almost as true in the "non-profit" university medical center in which I work as in the "for-profit" centers i.e., the term "non-profit" can confuse the layman and does little to guarantee the qualities that I value as a physician and as a patient. Dr. Mueller has analyzed the problems that exist in the current system in great depth, has illustrated the injurious consequences of these problems by presenting true stories about patients, and has proposed carefully considered cures for the sickness of our system for health care. The enormous bureacracy that is currently supported by our system will spend billions of dollars to oppose Dr. Mueller's proposed solutions. Patients will benefit enormously if these corporations lose and Dr. Mueller's solutions become an important part of the cure.

I have had no interest in literary interpretations of the world until I read this book. Here I found other lives struggling with the same staleness of mathematics and logic and their implications that I could not escape. I found lives exemplifying the difficulties of pitting one's factual evidence against human assumptions. I found, that is, that my own life is not so different as it's felt.

Well done, Duffy.

I bought this book in 1988. It then got buried under tons of other books until I unearthed it this weekend. What a great find. Rich characters, engaging prose...a thoroughly satisfying read. At 500+ pages, I'll admit it's a bit overwritten, but once you get going it's difficult to put down. Ranks up there with "In the Memory of the Forest" as gripping and memorable. Go work out really hard, take a hot shower, then grab an herbal tea and melt into its pages.

I certainly wasn't hampered in my enjoyment of this book by a lack of familiarity with (or, until now, interest in) twentieth-century philosophy. "The World as I Found It" taught me what makes a great fictional characters: such compassion and detail that I feel I know them as I know myself. Duffy's Wittgenstein, Russell, and Moore are forged from such different materials and live such different lives. But their struggles and motivations are painted in such rich detail that I intimately recognized the humanity in each of them. Great writing.

This is a rich treasure trove of information about yoga in the context of an authentic tradition. I found it to be endlessly fascinating and rewarding. However, despite what some other reviewers have said, I think it may not be what many people are looking for. Here are some things one should be aware of:

1. The philosophical information is quite dense and not always accessible. While the author's English is quite good, it is not always completely "comfortable" and people may become confused. For instance, he frequently uses terms most westerners will not be familiar with (names of deities, etc.), only some of which are in the glossary. If you are looking for an accessible, down to earth philosophy that will enrich your asana practice, read T.V.K. Desikachar's "The Heart of Yoga." If you are looking for a richer, less watered down version of this information, and are willing to put up with a less clear format, then this book may be preferable.

2. This is not a good presentation of the asanas. Many asanas are described but not pictured, and in addition, there is not a lot of detailed instructional information about most of the poses. In his defense, Ramaswami says that he is only cataloguing the asanas for reference purposes and that they should be learned only under the supervision of a teacher. All of the above applies equally to the section on pranayama. The presentation of vinyasakrama is the only bridge I've seen between Desikachar's viniyoga and Pattabhi Jois's Ashtanga yoga. Basically, it involves starting all poses in samasthiti and using the sun salutation poses to connect them, but with emphasis on the slower, gentler and personally customized routines that characterize viniyoga. This content came to me as a truly wonderful gift.

So, I would recommend this book only to people who are looking for a source of thought provoking yoga philosophy and especially those who want all the information they can get about Krishnamacharya's yoga system(s). This book will greatly enrich most aspects of your practice, however, it is best to approach it as a supplemental rather than primary source of information.

Srivatsa Ramaswami studied for more than thirty years with a legendary yoga instructor and has taught yoga himself for more than twenty years. He's blended all that he's learned over the years into a program designed to be adaptable to individual needs, abilities, and ages while remaining true to the principles of traditional yoga.

Yoga for the Three Stages of Life: Developing Your Practice as an Art Form, A Physical Therapy, and a Guiding Philosophy is the result of his life's work.

He begins with personal information on how he began learning from the incomparable T. Krisnamacarya as a child, followed by descriptions of the various kinds of yoga and the philosophies underlying each. He says that his book "follows the thought progression of Patanjali, author of the Yogasutras, but it adds material gathered from my guru and from other authentic yoga texts."

Ramaswami includes the history of the development of yoga, and discusses the roles of chanting and scripture study in making yoga part of lifestyle, rather than just a routine. He also devotes large sections to the importance of proper breathing while performing the yoga postures. Correct breathing "helps one to reach and work on the deeper muscles and organs inside the body, which may not be possible otherwise." Additionally it aids in relaxation and concentration.

The remainder of the book describes the yoga postures. Each has detailed written instructions, as well as photographs. Ramaswami notes whether each posture can be safely done by those with physical ailments. He includes a chapter on yoga practices for pregnant women.

While he does include basic yoga postures and complete instructions, Ramaswami notes that his book is not for beginners, but rather for those who have been practicing for some time and/or have a knowledgeable teacher to guide them.

He says that "my goal is to portray the three aspects of yoga-as art, physical therapy, and philosophy-that are appropriate for the young, for the middle-aged, and for retirees, in that order." Readers will discover that he met this goal in Yoga for the Three Stages of Life.

Individuals ready to devote their lives to the field of yoga will find Yoga For The Three Stages Of Life an excellent introduction which blends the usual guide to postures and meditation practices with insights on adapting yoga to individual needs and different stages of life. Young and old receive appropriate discussions of yoga techniques geared to age, sex and ability.

This is the story written from the view of a 5 yr. old girl who is literally torn away from her parents where she is not old enough to understand what is happening. The story is heart rendering and a good one to start reading about the holocaust. Other books are far more compelling than this as regards what happens to people, but in the eyes of a youngster it is almost life ending for her and her friends. It seems there is another book or two awaiting to tell Ruth's parents' side of the story as well as possibly the Resistance Movement in and around the geographical area mentioned in this book.

Your Name Is Renee is an extraordinary book that captures the mind and spirit of the reader. It keeps you interested and has so much great detail that you just fall in love with the characters. I was truely amazed at how wonderful this book was. There were several reasons I found it so astonishing. There was great detail and information about the characters, events of WWII, and of the Holocaust. While you read this book you discover how hard the Jews had to work to stay unharmed and how scary it was for them for fear of being caught. You learn that everywhere they went they had to be cautious not to give themslves away as Jews. I love how you felt as if you were there. The events seemed so real. You especially felt sorry for the young children,such as Ruth (Renee was her fake French name), who had no idea what was going on, why families everywhere were being pulled away from eachother, and why her family was on a constant run. It was very emotional to learn about the Jew's struggles and ways of life during the Holocaust. Even children like Ruth had to adapt to this lifestyle and learn exactly what they should say around strangers to keep themselves safe. I got really into Your Name Is Renee, even catching myself yelling at characters for treating Ruth or another Jew cruely or taking something away from them. I mostly loved this book because I learned a lot about the Holocaust and who was involved during it. I also learned that the Jews always had to be alert no matter where they were and careful about who they trusted. Your Name Is Renee is a remarkable book full of suspicion, suspense, suffering, and support. I recommend to each and every person who likes or dislikes reading. Your Name Is Renee will astound everyone.

"Your Name is Renee" is the unforgettable story of Ruth Kapp Hartz, told from her viewpoint as a child in Nazi-occupied France in the early 1940's. It is too compelling to read in little increments...you'll want to consume it from cover to cover in one sitting. The writing style is simple and tremendously effective, never distracting from the story itself. Mrs. Hartz's story should be required reading from middle grades on up. Hats off to Stacy Cretzmeyer for giving us such a gem.

This book ought to be required reading for anyone in healthcare and sit at the bedside table in hospitals. A well written book that gives you a different perspective on illness and probably some power back to a few patients. Readers may also be interested in "Treat Your Own Knees" and "The Multifidus Back Pain Solution."

This book revolutionized the way Americans think about health and health care. Diagnosed with a life-threatening and incurable condition, Cousins checked himself out of the hospital and basically healed himself with laughter, rest and Vitamin C. A few years later, he recovered from a major heart attack on his own and wrote about that, too.

These books jump-started the whole field of mind-body medicine. Hundreds of books have followed in its tradition, including mine, The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness. Anatomy of an Illness holds up well. I just re-read it and it's still relevant.

Not everything here will apply to most readers, because Cousins was a major cultural figure with many physicians among his friends. Not everyone would have his self-confidence or his sources of support. But his ideas and his approach are more needed than ever today.

David Spero RN www.art-of-getting-well.com

As an essay, Anatomy of an Illness is engrossing. At as a work of inspiration, it is indispensible. Anyone you know who is ill, or who simply cares about his or her state of health, will gain wisdom and hope from this carefully constructed, sober, yet passionate memoir of healing.

I knew Emily for a very short time when I lived in Boston. She and my sister were friends, along with a group of people whose lives centered around a triple decker on Wendell Street.

A new book from Emily is like a long letter. I get to catch up on her life and comings and goings. I always feel sheepish about not staying in touch when I'm through with it. She writes such beautiful and thoughtful things, I think. I really need to write her back.

Reading her prose is exactly like having a conversation with her. I can hear her light, sweet voice as if I'm at a reading, and can summon her laugh in my mind's ear too.

It's impossible for me to separate my acquaintance with Emily from her work, but I will say I'm always astounded with her descriptions and way with words. She is at once erudite and approachable, and her work is always informed by both these things. Being a poet, Emily brings thoughtful cadence to her essays, and very often I will read them outloud to myself.

For those of you who don't know Emily personally, you will after you read this book, and what's more, you'll want to know her better. You'll also learn that New England watersheds are not only interesting but epic in their own way, and that stories are told in the details.

Thanks Emily. I'm doing quite well and think of you often.

[An] enchanting new book of essays.... Many personal essayists today try to capture our interest by being confessional but run the risk of revealing, like clumsy strippers, what we'd really rather not see. Hiestand has taken the more unusual risk of writing about the quotidian, and produced a tour de force. "Oooouuuweee!" as her cousin Bill would say. What a good book this is. --Boston Sunday Globe Book Review

Angela the Upside-Down Girl is about how to live creatively, see life through an artist's eye. With a subversive sense of humor and a wicked ability to pierce convention, [Hiestand] takes us on her journey to discover a meaningful sense of place in a chaotic world. Her place turns out to be North Cambridge, which she describes with the freshness and originality of Joyce in Dublin...

Angela the Upside-Down Girl reveals Emily Hiestand's exceptional talents which include an artist's eye for color and form, a cu! ltural anthropologist's ability to get people to tell their stories, and a poet's facility to express what is felt but not seen. --Cambridge Chronicle

Rich, revealing, and often hilarious... This book travels between only two places...but it travels so deeply into each place, both their pasts and their presents, that you come away from it feeling enlightened and enticed, and ready to hop on the next train heading north or south. --Hope Magazine

...and I say, also, "What a good book this is!"

-Chuck Eisenhardt

Angela the Upside-Down Girl is a revelation. Emily Hiestand is one of Robert Frost's true poets, "one upon whom nothing is lost." As she trains an eye of the rarest perception on the world we thought we knew, we discover the heart of light within ordinary and not-so-ordinary things. I marvel at her scope: her Weltyesque Aunt Nan Dean; her eloquent witness to the power of faith and community at Union Baptist Church; her love affair with automotive neon, which manages (as Emerson never could) to be both transcendental and funny; and, of course, there's Angela, whose gravity-defying grace can be seen as a figure for the whole book. But perhaps most engaging of all is the voice of our guide--Hiestand herself--the unifying principle through the book's many travels, wise, witty, shimmering in its clarity, a wonderful companion.

In this edition of "As a Man Thinketh," Marc Allen (no relation to author James Allen), neuters the male overtones by replacing all references to "man" (which I always interpreted as "humanity," not a male or female) with the more sensitive third person and he/she variations. Somehow the statement "as a man thinketh, so is he," does not translate well to "as a person thinketh, so is she or he."

Marc Allen points out that in the Buddhist tradition, a book opens with a poem. If the reader can understand the poem, he or she has grasped the meaning of the book, and need not read the entire book. Here is James Allen's opening poem:

Mind is the master power that molds and makes,
And we are mind, and evermore we take
the tool of thought,and shaping what we will,
Bring forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills.
We think in secret,and it comes to pass--
Our world is but our looking glass.

Thoreau said something similar in a shorter version where he alludes to how the mind of man can create a heaven or hell for itself.

This is the most awesome cassette. I had read the book. But this audio cassette is wonderful to listen to in the car during your commute, or in the house while cleaning etc. I listened to it every day for over a month and my life was transformed. I continue to listen to it from time time to keep me on the right track. Mr Allens voice is also soothing and powerful. The writing is poignant and beautiful. Enjoy. Your life can only get better and better.

That quote is from Denis Waitley's "The New Dynamics of Winning" but it well captures the theme of this book. This book is about the power of one's own thoughts, the thoughts that we truly hold about what is possible, who we are, at the deepest level of our beings, to make themselves come true.
The book is divided into seven chapters, "Thought and Character", "The Effect of Thought on Circumstances", "The Effect of Thought on Healthy and the Body", "Thought and Purpose", "Thought as a Factor in Achievement", "Visions and Ideals" and "Serenity". In chapter 1, Allen writes, "(you) contain within yourself that transforming and regenerative agency by which you may make yourself what you will" (pg 25). One shapes one's own character by the controlled application of thought, will and action. In chapter 2, "...the outer conditions of your life will always be found to be harmoniously related to your inner state" (pg 32). People who love themselves, attract love from others; people who believe they can be sucessful end up causing their belief to come true and being sucessful. Skipping ahead to chapter 7, he writes that serenity is the effect of "see(ing) more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, we cease to fuss and fume and worry and grieve, and remain poised, steadfast, serene" (pg 85). When we come to realize that everything we want or fear has certain causes and that to a great extent we have control over those causes, we ceased to be frazzled by external circumstances because we sense a tremendous locus of power within our ownselves to shape our lives, to be the cause of those effects we desire and to stop being the cause of those effects that cause us suffering.
A great book that probably requires some unpacking by the reader given that it is so concise. Highly recommended.