BA

I was forced to read this book for a summer assignment due on the first day of school but i did not know it would be this interesting i actually enjoyed doing my studies for french

That book was selected among africa's top twelve books in the 20 th century in february 2002.

mariaba Ba is a genius, pure and simple. Her style is breathtaking and anybody who limits himself to the english translation only is indeed missing out on a lot.

The eight immortals of Chinese myth are detailed here. There are several group tales along with some folktales focusing on each of the individual immortals. The eight immortals are of special appeal to modern audiences as they embody diverse aspects of society, then and now. There is a warrior immortal, a student immortal, a crippled immortal and an androgynous immortal ("sometimes male, sometimes female)who seems to me to be a little gay! There is also a woman immortal, and while only one woman out of eight, it was still a statement at the time to have her included in the group. There are a lot of stories of the eight included here that you are unlikely to find elsewhere, and Martin Palmer provides some background for the setting of the stores in his introduction that helps the reader better understand them in context. My only complaint is I would have liked more about their evolution as a group over the centuries. Overall a good read for people interested in Chinese folklore and positive representations of diversity in legends.

If you're interested in information on the eight immortals, you'll have to look long and hard to find more information than packed into this slim volume. Think of the immortals as being cultural figures as well known and diverse as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy (or, for Thomas the Tank engine fans, as different as Thomas, Gordon and Henry), and you'll have a sense of the role the eight immortals play in Chinese culture.

Also, the introduction has the best discussion I've seen of the difference between philisophical taoism (which is the form best known in the West) and religious or mystical taoism.

Highly recommended if you're interested in the eight immortals and/or learning more about mystical taoism.

This is the book I looking forward to read. Tony, an uncle, told me about the book and I could not wait to read it!
This is an insight of a soldier who took part in war far from home and had to do things that is not always right but as soldier he had to obey orders. It is a compelling book that I could not put down till I finished it!
A point I would like to see rectified is why Tony denied his South African background and up bringing? He was born and brought up in South Africa till he left to join WWII. We are all proud of his achievements in his adopted country but would like to see his conection with South Africa not forgotten.

Anthony Blondell became involved with the Montagnards of South Vietnam in the early 1960s when he was part of the U.S. Army Special Forces Airborne unit stationed there. Honor And Sacrifice: The Montagnards Of Ba Cat, Vietnam is Blondell's personal and compelling narrative of those times and that place within the larger context of the Viet Nam war. Honor And Sacrifice is a welcome and much appreciated contribution to American military history in general, and the growing library of Viet Nam military memoirs in particular.

I'm a management student and I have some matter's that I need to study with this book

My management accounting lecture did not disclose that cost and management accounting by Drury was the secret of his touth questions in examinations, but when my own research revealed it , the book has since been my main text over the years.

You either adopt it or not but you, cannot pause to criticise its contents and the professionalism in methodology. Academicians and professionals swallow its contents.

I have adopted it as my main text for the degree mangement accounting and decision making techniques I,m lecturing.

The book contains many important and holy stories concering the BESHT, the founder of Chassidus. Unfortunately, the translators aren't Chassids or even observant. In their attempts at a "scholarly" translation I'm afraid much of the spirituality in the tales is lost. Certainly the language is often cumbersome and the names of places and transliterations follow an odd form. Some of the footnotes are useful in identifing who the tale is speaking of for audiences that are novices, others where a topic is explained in a "scholarly" way are terrible. Still it is one of the only places to get English translations of some of these tales and so it is a good book for English speakers interested in gaining an insight into Chassidim, especially of the early days.

They do get the right idea in that one of the best ways to get a "feel" for Chassidus and Chassidim is through Chassidic stories.

Still, I think one can gain a better insight through reading some of the following books (either instead of, or in addition to "In Praise of..."):

-"Rebbes and Chassidim: What They Said-What They Meant" (I absolutely love this book, it is a small book that can easily be carried with short one or two page entries that can be easily digested on first glance yet contain much wisdom- one could finish the entire book in an hour or two on the first read or each entry could be meditated upon and studied for hours.)

"Not Just Stories: The Chassidic Spirit Through Its Classic Stories"

"Generation to Generation: Personal Recollections of a Chassidic Legacy"

"Visions of the Fathers: Pirkei Avos with an Insightful and Inspiring Commentary by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D." (a bit more advanced, this is Perkei Avos with the commentary written from a Chassidic and psychiatric perspective)

"Twerski on Spirituality "

All by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski (he is a prominant psychiatrist as well as a Chassidic rabbi who is decendent from a very important line of Chassidic rebbes- his lineage goes back to the Baal Shem Tov). There are other good books on Chassidus by him that you can't find here like "The Zeide Reb Motele" (about an extremely important Chassidic tzaddik and the great-great grandfather of Rabbi A. Twerski, M.D.). Most of his books are equally accessable to the novice or the life long Chassid.

-"The Bostoner Rebbetzin Remembers: Rebbetzin Raichel Horowitz of Boston/Har Nof recalls Jewish life in Poland, America and Israel " by Raichel Horowitz. I bet you didn't know that there was a Chassidic Dynasty that was founded in America (Boston to be exact). Here are some important stories from the Rebbe's wife (Rebbetzin is a term of respect for a rabbi's wife).

-"A Treasury Of Chassidic Tales: On The Torah" and "A Treasury of Chassidic Tales: On the Festivals" by Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin

-"On the Study of Chasidus: A Trilogy of Chasidic Essays, Some Aspects of Chabad Chasidism, on the Teachings of Chasidus, on Learning Chasidus" by Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (the previous Lubvitcher Rebbe)

-Also, look up "Breslov" for some good books on and stories from Breslov Chassidus (especially "Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom"
by Reb Nathan, and "Rabbi Nachman's Stories" by Aryeh Kaplan).

There are many more I can include but I'd like to leave this a managable size. Unfortunately, one must be careful which books on Chassidus, Chassidim and Chassidic history one picks up and many are written by those who are rather antagonistic towards Chassidim specifically and even Yiddishkeit generally and one could be influenced by their prejudices without being aware they are even there, unless you know what to look for.

Time and imagination have ramified and refined the body of tales associated with the Baal Shem Tov. Ben-Amos and Mintz have given us an authoritative translation of the first written redaction of that corpus. Here is much of the spirituality, vitality and immediacy, along with the rough edges of historical reality. The editors have done an excellent job of clarifying that reality in their introduction and the notes which accompany each tale. I believe this is a valuable text for those who would understand Hasidism and the powerful cross currents of the Haskalah which was arriving. I would recommend as well Mr. Mintz's later books, especially Tales of the Hasidim, for a scholarly treatment of modern American Hasidic folklore.

its a wake up call, it was my first book on the subject of interracial marriages I ever read, it sure widened my horizon.

Mariama Ba brings to life the true realities and complexities of interraccial marriage. She writes poignantly and beautifully. She is a master narrator, and will amaze you with her fabulous storytelling. I have read "Scarlet Song" numerous times, and wrote my senoir thesis about this book.

CITY OF MY DREAMS conveys the way of life--its textures, rhythms, smells, patterns, trials, and joys--of the poor but proud in 19th C Stockholm. It is not a historical novel in the usual sense, but a deeply contemporary reconstruction of the past by a writer who was in love with the city in which he spent his life and knew everything there was to know about it. Framed as a series of sequences that accumulate in emotional power and grip the reader ever more tightly, it is compulsively readable and deeply moving.

Although it is set in Stockholm and details Swedish life with loving care, the author's vision is so universal that the reader ultimately forgets its foreigness. The translation is sensitive to the music of the original and creates a strong English equivalent that makes it seem it was written in English to begin with--you forget you are reading a translation. You forget, in fact, that you are reading, and get lost in the story.

City of My Dreams, the first book in Per Anders Folgelström's five-volume Stockholm Series, broke the Swedish record for best sellers. A compelling storyteller known for his narrative sweep, his acute characterization and the poetic qualities of his prose, Fogelström was highly acclaimed even before he wrote the series. Ingmar Bergman made one of his earlier novels, Summer with Monika, into a film that is now a classic.

After reading his series in Swedish, Jennifer Brown Bäverstam, an accomplished translator of Swedish and French, married to a Swede, she vowed to make these books available in English. The skill of both author and translator brings into English this superb telling of the tale of Henning Nilsson and his family, a family whose origins and growth in the underclass of nineteenth century Stockholm mirrors the growth of Stockholm itself into a modern European metropolis. Beginning with the arrival in the city of fifteen-year-old Henning, barefoot and penniless, on the eve of the industrial revolution, it continues with the story of an impassioned struggle for a fully human life. Powerfully written, City of My Dreams sweeps the reader along in a historic saga of fortune, love, and acceptance of the existing order of things in a society experiencing great social and political upheaval. Clearly a masterpiece of historical realism, this novel transports the reader into the inexorable drama of another person's life. A favorite among Swedish readers of all ages, this translation is a welcome gift to English readers.

This book is beautifully illustrated and the story is an abreviated version of the origional which is nice for young children. My only complaint is that the character "Clara" is called "Marie" which is very confusing to children (and adults).

In reference to the next review, Marie and Clara are not the same character. Marie is the little girl, and Clara is her doll.

I like this book . . .
I received info in the mail concerning seminars and private classes that I could attend at his school.

He was way on the west coast- I was in Houston. I would have studied with him or took a few classes if I was close to him.

I guess I'm a little upset that I never got the chance to study with him. But . . . who knows.

Well, I guess he may be a good teacher, but at the time I was looking for a Hsing-Yi teacher, not Ba Gua. So, I'm not sure of his Ba Gua skills.

I think he's good, yeah, his book gives a little information on the techniques of Pa Kua (oops, Ba Gua), but it seems there is a lot not said in his book.

Bracy and Liu's book is a great introduction to the art of ba gua. While I have studied tai chi, I have had very little experience with ba gua, and I found that this book answered many of my questions. It is not a training manual, but provides a taste of the flavor of the practices, drills, and martial techniques of the art. The text is well written and clear, and there are many pictures to illustrate the authors' points. Its discussion of the history of ba gua was especially interesting. My only complaint with the book is that the photos used to explain some of the two person techniques are hard to follow because they switch models at different points in the sequence of illustrations.

In english bagua literature any contribution to the field is admirable, for every book serves to inspire and record great practicioners for the future. This book, however, will set a new standard for internal martial arts texts. John Bracy's Ba Gua marks a milestone in the slow growth of Ba Gua literature in the west. It is comprehensive in coverage, providing historical, structural, and practical examples of this authentic style. Along with a handful of others, this bagua book will stand as an extremely valuable requirement for every internal kung fu library. Future bagua writers will be challenged to document their art, thoroughly practicing and exploring every aspect, in an effort to meet the level of this text.

A good read if you're looking for an overview. The author gives some good stories of his stay in the orient but "combat secrets" please.Unless you're looking for something to read on a slow day, there are better books.

Bruce Kumar Frantzis is one of the few westerners who has studies martial arts for over 10 years in Asia, and then returned to teach and discuss the arts he learned candidly. This book offers a wealth of information on Chinese lineage Internal Martial Arts. The focus is upon the combat usefulness and qualities of the three traditional internal styles, namely Tai Chi Chuan (Taiji Chuan), Hsing Yi(Xingyi), and Pa Kua (Bagwa). In this volume, Frantzis does not simply describe "what Tai Chi is", he explains the principles and characteristics of each art, and goes into intricate detail concerning points specific to each of the major internal martial arts and how they can be applied. I should add here that this book will probably best serve as an aid to students of internal (or other) martial arts who are interested in theory and combat effectiveness, and have a working knowledge of how the physical techniques of the martial arts discussed are executed. There are NO instructional sequences of pictures to describe techniques in this book. If you are not familiar with the internal arts discussed, you would be best off watching a few classes, a video or two, or picking up a decent instructional manual first to get a feeling for how movement is made physically. For those already familiar, you should have no problem at all.

In one section Frantzis Describes the similarities and differences between the three main internal arts, something I have seen no other book do. This book has no sacred cows, and that I appreciate! Another feature I found attractive was the inclusion of "mini-chapters", or sidebars which included Frantzis's personal experiences, for instance, on pages 16-19 at the end of chapter 1, where he discusses travelling to Taiwan in 1968 to learn under the amazing Pa Kua master Wang Shu Jin (there are pictures of Wang). There are little sections like this throughout the book discussing certain masters of Tai Chi, Hsing Yi, Chi, Pa Kua, and others. Frantzis's style of writing is warm and personal. It is an enjoyable read, and not a chore. He is one of a few authors whose experiences remind me of Robert W. Smith and Mark Salzman, two other deserving writers on martial arts whose works I enjoy.

Many other reviewers have stated their disappointment with the lack of "step by step" instructions and "how-to" diagrams. However, I really found it fascinating! My whole goal in reading this book was to learn more about some of the principles and theories underlying the internal martial arts. I certainly gained a number of insights into how the various philosophies of taiji, xingyi, and bagua influence the ways that practitioners of these arts handle incoming forces. I could see a real improvement in my taiji and bagua training by keeping these viewpoints in mind as I practiced, and have since re-read many parts of this book and continue to learn from it. This book does not give specific examples of techniques, takedowns, pressure points, or diagrams of applications, and you will be disappointed if this is what you expect. However, if you wish to read a good overview of the general principles of these arts, and are interested in hearing about some of the masters of the internal styles, I would definitely recommend this book!