AS

The psychology (or psychosis?) of Berlin's genius is presented in a straightforward, non-babbling way. His complexity comes through in his ambivalence towards colleagues, with examples of generosity (an anecdote about the young Burton Lane), avuncularity (Harold Arlen), and rivalry (Richard Rodgers), all contrasted with the almost comical hostility he showed towards some "civilians," especially the scholarly types ("f***ing longhairs") who wanted to dissect him late in his career. His most famous paradox -- the fact that without being able to read music or play an instrument well or even sing decently, he was able to create works of matchless intricacy and depth -- is discussed thoroughly, although it will forever remain mysterious.

There are two dimensions I would like to have seen more fully explored. First, his relations with his original family are almost non-existent after his childhood. While this must be a reflection of reality, I was left curious about what went on between him and his sisters, nephews, and nieces. It's obvious that a major part of his assimilation was to reject all vestiges of his childhood, but it would have been nice to have more detail about encounters with those inconvenient relations. One of the few stories Bergreen includes -- about a sister dying of cancer -- is so painful that maybe he couldn't bring himself to pile on more.

Another aspect that could have been more developed was Berlin's technique. Although no one will ever be able to explain exactly why he's the greatest American songwriter, I would have liked more analysis about how he was able to achieve his unique combination of simplicity and sophistication. There is a total absence of musical examples, which might have two reasons: that publishers of musical bios tell their authors to leave notation out the same way authors of popular science books are prohibited from using equations, or that Berlin's estate forbids the quoting of even the smallest snippets of his songs. Or maybe the author isn't as much of a "longhair" as he seems to be from the precision and insight of his observations.

But even though I would have enjoyed reading more of the above, the book is totally splendid as is. The best compliment I can think of is that it does justice to one of the great artists of the 20th century.

Two words that may prove helpful in describing this volume are "unbiased" and "objective," in every positive sense of both of these terms. The trio of authors (two of whom are emeritus professors of English) have accomplished a remarkable feat in approaching the Bible on its own terms as a composite literary work. Appropriately, the volume includes surveys of the major literary traditions represented in the Scriptures: Torah, prophets, the wisdom tradition, apocalyptic literature, gospels, letters/epistles, etc. Interestingly enough, however, these brief yet erudite surveys do not comprise the majority of the final content of the book. Rather, the authors have devoted much needed attention to some of the oft-neglected history and traditions surrounding these works, i.e., canonicity, conventional ANE literary techniques, historiographical issues, Palestinian geography, and apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. Knowledge of such information is all but imperative in attempts to read the Scriptures "correctly," as much as such a thing can be done.

Well strucutred, well researched, well informed, and simply well done, this volume is an invaluable companion text to the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and it moves the reader closer to answering the all-important question of "How are these texts meant to be read?" A wonderful, comprehensive, and remarkably objective survey of the literature that comprises the collected Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

This book is also helpful for people agonizing over career choices. For every person who has wanted to major in Women's Studies or History but wondered what to do with it--here are examples of powerful people who take the study of the humanities and arts to exciting new places, from television producing, to free-lance photography, to well-respected academia.

This book also has a companion one---"Face Forward." This other volume examines African-American men, who, as a whole, are also facing a critical time in American society.

Get both---buy Both, and draw strength and power from those who have struggled before you. Okwa is a master photographer and lets the compelling narratives of these women shine. We all should do the same.

Okwu seems to have the gift of finding beautiful people with outstanding lives. The photo shots were magnificent and added a particularly captivating life to the words.

Thanks again for a true to life teaching book of amazing stories. One may use their examples of coping and harvesting energy for development of their own positive future. Truly a gift to have to read or give to someone who you love.

There are two sections to this work: how to find a mentor, and how to be a mentor. Hendricks emphasizes there are many more men seeking mentors than there are men who are willing to be mentors. He discourages actually using the title of "mentor" when establishing such a supportive relationship, for fear it will intimate one of the parties. Instead, he promotes referring to the interaction as what would occur between two friends. Hendricks also describes how to spot a mentor or a protégé, then how to avoid common pitfalls of such an arrangement.

For anyone seeking to learn from a respected male friend, or for someone seeking to invest his life-lessons of experience in a younger man, this book is simply invaluable.

Here, we have the example of keeping our friends in the light of God and this book elaborates on it. Discipleship is the key to good fruit in our life.
I am sure many of you know discipleship from the New Testament but do you realize it is as old as Time? God wanted to disciple Adam and Eve and in return, they would disciple the World. This book relates specifically to the "Men" doing the discipling.
I was pleased to see how much my life and Ministry changed after reading this book and listening to the voice of the Spirit of Truth. If you are a man in need of a closer walk, pick up a copy of this book and see if you too will be changed.