FO Books

I try each year to re-read this series of tales as a reminder of how slender that thread is between fantasy and reality.

Herein find the very same greed and calumny as you see in the daily news. Exchange the magic for technology. See the Stepsons as your average mounted patrol trying to maintain what it can.

Of course, there are the usual fantastic authors of SF/Fantasy. Of course, there is some back and forth retribution as characters are placed in new positions, perhaps against their owners' preference. And yes, there are even a few less than stellar works here. Admittedly, I'll gloss over a few to get on with the tale.

Still, whether you started collecting them in their individual paperbacks or just now finding this collection, you will not be disappointed in spending time in this universe. And it may well prepare you for the coming changes...

This series of stories are the best selection of terrifying tales and urban legends and folklore. Sadly, they no longer print them, but I recommend you order one used - no matter what the condition! The books aren't many pages, but there is a good number of stories (about a dozen, maybe more) and you will want to stop and think (and turn on the lights) after each.

The best rituals you can use with these stories are to tell them to your friends. Some are common, and others are rare tales. You can change the dates and names to make it have happened closer to home...

...if you aren't too scared!

(Reviewed by Andre.)

"Setting Up in Dubai" edition 4 is an excellent guide for setting up and doing business in Dubai. This book introduces the reader to Dubai and the UAE, discusses immigration and customs, the various institutions and ministries, the types of business structures, various employment issues that typically arise, housing and accommodation issues, health and education, transportation issues, leisure activities and finally, local customs and traditions. The enclosed CD Rom disk provides forms and directories. The forms are divided into individual forms such as an application for a drivers license, vehicle registration, license to purchase alcohol (yes, liquor purchased in a store can only be done by individuals have a license, the amount of which is based on an individual's income), and an application for a health card. The business forms included are numerous and both the individual and business forms are for the most part in both English and Arabic. The directories provide a list of accountants, activities, airlines, banks, business councils, car rentals, clinics, consulates and embassies, government, hotels, insurance, real estates agencies, recruitment consultants, restaurants, schools, serviced apartments, shopping malls and codes. These directories provide the name of the entity, telephone and fax numbers and website URLs.

In addition to the wealth of information in this book, there are a number of photographs of Dubai. The operational information will make this book an excellent quick reference guide after reading the book.

I attended a weekend retreat at Nan Tien Temple in Sydney, Australia http://www.nantien.org.au/. We were taught by the resident nuns. It was a wonderful experience of staying there and following the nuns in learning Tai Chi and meditation outside and in the main hall infront of 5 giant Buddha statues.

The exerices were developed by Dr Simin Chen, who is a lineage holder of Chang style of Tai Chi and a TCM doctor specialising in spinal health.

The book and the accompaning DVD are a wonderful compliment to the exercise. Watch Dr Chen and follow the instructions, or follow a group of wonderful nuns of Nan Tien Temple doing it gracefully outside in the courtyard.

I love it and recommend it.

If you are interested in Pure Land Buddhism you should read this book.

Every home should have this great dictionary. If you want a dictionary with all the words in the English Language and with a nice collection of useful stuff at the end, this is the dictionary to buy. It even has pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis! Not only is this an excellent home dictionary, but a valuable class reference book as well. This should be sitting on all the desks in the world (definetly including kids). It is especially useful because of the collection at the back. It includes an Atlas, Chronology, List of Presidents and Vice Presidents, Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Major Reference Works, a manual of style, Indo-European Language Chart, Bad Speller's dictionary, French, German, Italian, and Spanish Dictionaries, and a crossword puzzle dictionary. ARE YOU CONVINCED???? GET THIS DICTIONARY!!!!!!!

A very engaging book. The author has a clear passion for the game and this translates well in the book. Highly recommended.

Harold Coward offers an accessible guide to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, "the classical statement of Eastern Yoga" that are "foundational for Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhism" as well as the theology of revelation of Bharthari(p. ix).

The author references this foundational yoga writing against the issues of epistemology, philosophy of language, psychoanalysis and self psychology, and transpersonal psychology. As such, the book - effectively and laconically - extracts the modern day implications of these ancient writings and juxtaposes the psychology imbedded in yoga against the Western psychology.

The book, in its scope, - amazingly - reaches as far as the issue of neural plasticity: for example, in discussing karma as memory traces (conditioned engrams, or what Llinas would have, perhaps, called fixed actional potentials), Coward essentially examines the neural underpinnings of the Unconscious (and gives necessary credit to Freud's semi-forgotten "Scientific Project" that was the famous austrian's forray into neurology, thus predating the blurring of the boundaries between neurology and psychiatry that Ramachandran talks about).

Freudians and Jungians will be particularly pleased by this volume: Coward offers a well-researched analysis of how Freud's and Jung's psychology reflected the psychology of yoga. The depth of the detail of Coward's analysis is evident by such developed points as the discussion of Jung's disagreement with the Patanjali's position on the possibility of complete ego loss - i.e. on the possibility of complete (non-partial) ego transcendance.

Coward's coverage of how transpersonalists (Tart, Wilber) interface with yoga is a little less thorough - perhaps, because of the apparent face validity of the parallel b/w yoga and transpersonal psychology.

There's a lot to underline in this book - this is one of those books that needs wider margins if you like to read and think along and write on the margins!

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, 2008)

Once you begin to cultivate and practice Falun Dafa, many questions will pop up and you will be anxious to find out the answers. This is usual for many practitioners. In this book, Master Li answered many such questions and it's a great help for me to understand "Zhuan Falun (Spinning the Law Wheel)", the major book guiding the practitioners. I read the book from time to time during my last two year's practice.

My recent purchase of A Prayer for Owen Meany was as a gift. Having read that work many years ago, as well as many other Irving books, I believe this to be his best. It is one that I recommend consistently to family and friends, and have found agreement with that opinion in those quarters.

Most of the negative reviews here are either completely missing an interpretive point of Irving's novel or they had certain expectations that were not met upon finishing. For one reviewer, it's contrived and implausible, and for another reviewer it insults Christianity. But Christianity is hardly (what I think is) the point...while contrived and implausible are exactly what the characters fight so hard for - and against - in this fantastic novel. It's ambitious, if not somewhat tedious. But it delivers.

I've never read Irving, and I faintly recall "Simon Birch" (and now I perfectly understand why Irving didn't want to be associated with the movie). I picked up "A Prayer For Owen Meany" because, as juvenile as it sounds, I'm like the band Jimmy Eat World and their song "Goodbye Sky Harbor" is taken completely from the final scene in the novel.

I wasn't expecting much when I began, but I had to suspend my initial belief for some of the plot events. Yes, some of the scenes felt contrived. Irving comes across as rather unctuous, and sometimes even self-righteous. I was nonetheless very entertained by the events and amazed at the intricate world Irving creates.

Enough has been said about the plot. Suffice it to say that I haven't read a book that kept me (willingly) up until dawn since I was eighteen. And I haven't felt my heart literally break for a character, as well as disappointment at finishing a novel, since I was fourteen when I read "Les Miserables" for the first time.

There are things I dislike about this book. At times, the tone comes across as cynical, despondent, and dour, but is intended to be playfully rueful. I had to use a dictionary a number of times and thought at first that it was very self-appreciating of Irving. But I began to see a thematic pattern in the verbiage that was satirical and at times even clever. Also, it's possible you'll never misuse a semi-colon once you finish this book since it's used so often - but it is sometimes used to excess.

All that aside, I loved this novel enough to get on here and write my first review, even though I've used Amazon for years. The characters wrestle with determinism/predestination, faith, loneliness, guilt, forgiveness, displacement, fear and death - and in surprising ways. Most of all, it is about infidelity with others and with oneself; compromise, hypocrisy and honesty...and storytelling itself. These struggles are set against the independent backdrop of religion, war and the caustic aftertaste of the illusory, postmodern American dream. To put it another way, Irving satisfyingly accomplishes what Yann Martel merely attempts with his more arrogant, overbearing "Life of Pi."

I recommend this book with a few reservations, but I recommend that you read it slowly and with an open mind. It's not nearly as bad as the other reviewers make it out to be - at least, not for the same reasons. I believe it sets out to ask: "At what moral point does responsibility meet fidelity, and can belief reconcile delusion with doubt?" If these questions interest you, you may find a few possible answers in "A Prayer For Owen Meany." Perhaps, like myself and others, you'll even find attachment to the characters halfway through. And you may also find your heart torn apart with heartbreak for the last pages and with disappointment for having come to the end, wanting to stay and finding that - like the narrator - you'll be forever "doomed" to remember that final scene with Owen Meany...and the prayer.

This is my very favorite book of my life! It is filled with memorable characters and circumstances. Laced with humor even through trials and the Viet Nam war. If you haven't yet read this book - do yourself a favor. It is incredible and you will remember it for the rest of your life!

What more is there to say about this book? It is an incredible read and I would rate this among my favorites of all time. Owen will be with me for a long time to come. Buy this book, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Not only is this book horrifically offensive to Christianity by comparing an irritating and presumptuously arrogant dwarf to Jesus, but it is also in need of major editing. I won't bore anyone with a description of the plot, since it's one of the most lackluster stories I've ever read. This book meanders in the sections in which the narrator describes his present-day life. Also, it gives endless boring descriptions of characters that nobody cares about. It's all "telling" and no "showing". The imagery is something that a first-grader could have come up with ("the lake was wonderful," "the grass was wonderful," "the pines were wonderful," etc.)
If this book had been written by a rookie writer, it never would have been published. It's only because John Irving's name was on it that it got published. Anyone who thinks it's the best book they've ever read (as many of these reviewers do) sorely needs to get a life. A complete bore, "Owen Meany" isn't worth the wood-sludge that it was printed on.

ABSOLUTE 0/5!!!!!