On-the-tape

So many people are turning to faith since September 11, looking for reassurance, trying to find answers to hard questions. This remarkable book skips the banal platitudes; instead, it gave me real, solid guidance to begin to face those hard questions and try to make sense of it all. The variety and depth of this astounding collection of essays is breathtaking. I was astonished by how many different faiths are represented. Especially moving, to me, was a New York parish priest's account of ministering to victims. We also get to eavesdrop on the Beliefnet community as they helped each other cope in the days following the attacks; the personal interactions are riveting. Only Beliefnet could have created this book. This is a gift that truly will help us all rise "from the ashes."

Picked this book up at an airport just before
my flight and was unable to put it down during
the entire flight! It is filled with healing
words, inspirational thoughts, and wisdom from
some of the greatest spiritual leaders of our
times, at a time when so many are desperately
seeking answers to questions regarding this
horrific tragedy against mankind. I strongly
recommend this book --- a must read for all of
us who care deeply about what happened to our
nation on September 11.

I stumbled across beliefnet.com a few days after September 11 and found it to be full of much of the best and most insightful writing to be found anywhere. This book, which compiles many of the articles Beliefnet has published on the tragedy, demonstrates that the spiritual issues raised in the articles Ñ justice, evil, retaliation, even the very existence of God Ñ are not just timely. They are issues we are going to have to deal with over and over again. And this book is loaded with wisdom for anyone who is attempting to deal honestly with those issues.

The authors range from traditionalist Christians to Bishop John Shelby Spong, who argues that after September 11, we have to picture God in a different way than we ever have before. The ideas range from strong supporters of military response to the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu who counsel forgiveness. One of the most interesting pieces, for me, was Karen Armstrong's essay on Islam, comparing its attitude toward violence to that of Judaism and Christianity. There has been so much nonsense published on that subject over the past month. It was wonderful to read the insights of someone who understands and respects all three faiths.

The best thing about this book is that despite the range of opinions (which guarantees that every reader is going to find many ideas they disagree with), I did not find a single essay to be without merit. Even the ones I disagreed with all said things I felt I had to think about. There is no political or spiritual posturing here, but, in every case, an open and honest discussion of issues.

This is a beautifully written and important book for anyone who cares about spiritual issues.

This is an excellent book for any one who wants to know about stock market terms and how it works. Chapters on Mutual Funds, Options, Rights.. are also very informative. A must read for anyone before starting to invest in stocks. Worth for the money.

I had no idea that there where more than one stock exchanges before reading the book. Now I know how to hedge investments using options. The book covers every aspect of the stock market that the novice should know about. I read the book in 2 days because it was written in a format that I could comprehend. I can now amaze my friends with my knowledge of stocks.

This book is written well enough to be used in a college course on the stock market. I cant say its helped me make money in the market with all the problems that have come about recently. This book will teach you enough about the technical side of stock trading, but not about managing a portfolio of stocks and mutual funds.

"Hell Rising" is another rousing, non-stop adventure and like most of the other books in this series, there are surprises aplenty. We learn what happened to Sister Fand and the Imperium Brittania after the events of "Savage Sun" and find out more about Kane's alleged "past life" as the Celtic Conan, Cuchulain.

This book mixes military sci-fi with such esoteric material as Atlantis (or an outpost) and the evil breeding experiments that went on there in prehistory. As always, the action is fast and colorful, the characterization sharp, the dialogue witty and there's even time for some romance.

The main surprise is how effortlessly Axler (in reality, Mark Ellis) pulls all of it together to make a thoroughly entertaining story. Outlanders is such a unique series I'm surprised Hollywood hasn't discovered it yet. In my opinion, it's head and shoulders over any other action/adventure series on the market today, including its sister series, Deathlands.

Don't miss this one!

HELL RISING is an epic adventure, another classic entry in a series which has already had quite a few. It has just about anything anyone would want--a larger than life villain, fast action, interesting locales, a world threatening menace and of course--sex.

But it also has poignant moments, good character development and interaction and a new take on Kane's "past life" sub-plot which has appeared occasionally.

The main draw of this book and the entire series are the characters. They're intelligent, funny, desperate and courageous and the reader will follow them anywhere. HELL RISING is highly recommended.

After being burned by the lackluster Deathlands (they must call it that because it kills so many brain cells), I was afraid to take a look at the Outlanders series. However, on the recommendation of a couple authors I respect - you know who you are - I picked up this and the next book.

And I learned immediately why you hardly ever find used Outlanders books laying all over the place.

The universe of the Outlanders is only nominally that of the Deathlands, conceived in a different set of attitudes, where three heroes fighting a geriatric Nazi suddenly becomes a thrilling unfair fight - in the favor of a Benzadrine-hopping madman, and his pet Australopithicus, Jacko.

And that's just the setup -
We have our main hero, Kane, a man of action who takes lumps and cuts and other bangs, who can do his own research, who is the reincarnation of a legendary Celt warrior, summoned to England to prevent an apocalypse from Atlantean times.

If you're looking for Man of Steel gunfights where the hero never even gets a bruise, go look elsewhere.

If you're looking for some real adventure and excitement, wit and humor and fantastic mythology plugged into a dreary and wasteful genre, made fresh and new again, YOU GOTS TA CHECK OUTLANDERS! Technically this is a "post-nuke" genre book, but only as far as you can heave the combination of Celtic Myth, Nazi cyber-genetic experiments, and teleportation technology. The "if the world ended tomorrow - every man for himself" premise has been replaced with awe, wonder and gee-whiz honest adventure and delight.

All in all, highly recommended, and it will inspire you to look up the legends of Balor and his fomori, Lyonesse, and Cuchulain, if you weren't familiar with them already.

Although the form of the Jeeves and Bertie novels is narrow and utterly without socially redeeming value, Wodehouse was an absolute genius at what he did. This novel, originally titled "Joy in the Morning", finds his astonishing technique in mid 1940's perfection. If you are interested in briefly escaping this brutal and nasty sphere for a short period you couldn't ask for a better vehicle.

Jeeves and Bertie Wooster are back in this ripping novel by P.G. Wodehouse, one of the best of the Wooster-Jeeves series. The novel takes place at Steeple Bumpleigh, a place which Bertie takes care to avoid, for the Hampshire estate invaribly brings unmitigated disaster to his life. The country house visit is peopled with such Wodehousian favorites as Lord Worpleston, Nobby Hopwood, Stilton Cheesewright, Edwin the Boy Scout, and Boko Fittleworth. The plot is, of course, pure Wodehouse, a combination of convulution and well-ordered chaos which contains no aspects of reality; it is Wodehouse's "musical comedy" world, a gentle upper-class romp over the British countryside, with fancy dress balls, English estates with its varied eccentric guests, and a mish-mash of dramatic irony. Wodehouse is pure satirical farce of the first order, told from the perspecitve of one of the most loveable, yet incompetent twits in English literature, Bertie Wooster, whose mix of understatement and hyperbole, linguistic abbreviations, weird similes and metaphors, and misplaced and misquoted literary allusions endear him to Anglophiles throughout the world. As one critic puts it, Wodehouse presents "a ray of pale English sunshine into a gray world," a quotation with which no lover of Wodehouse would ever argue. "Jeeves in the Morning" is a delight and required reading for any lover of well-written British prose.

Previous: The Code of the Woosters

Hailed by some as the best Jeeves and Bertie novel, Joy in the Morning was published in 1947, nine years after The Code of the Woosters, and finds Wodehouse at the top of his comic form. Through circumstances beyond his control, Bertie finds himself in the last place he ever wanted to be-the dreaded Steeple Bumpleigh, home to his menacing Aunt Agatha (now Lady Worplesdon) and his former fiancée Florence Craye. This novel introduces my favorite of Bertie's normally dim-witted friends, the not-so-dim-witted Boko Fittleworth, noted novelist and all-around good egg. As is the usual formula, there are romantic attachments in danger of being squelched, and Bertie in danger of having to marry a frightening female if anything goes amiss. With poor well-meaning Boko constantly doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, Florence's young brother Edwin the Boy Scout terrifying the populace with his acts of good will, and the overzealous policeman Stilton Cheesewright, Florence's latest fiancée, threatening Bertie with bodily mayhem, comedy abounds.

Next: The Mating Season

Rotella has over twenty years working with champion athletes, many of them the best golfers in the world.

What he's discovered and passed on to his clients his that golf begins and ends with confidence.

Rotella uses his advisees such as Brad Faxon to an amateur like Bill Shean to help them with this vital part of the game.

You'll learn about many of the terms you hear the expert commentaters speak of on the TV telecasts, "stay in the present," breakthrough moments, staying within yourself, trust, etc.

I disagree with some of the reviewers who say is all rehash, or else why would the best players seek this guy out? Maybe those who think it's simple stuff rehashed should be able to perform as those that feel the opposite, that they have to work on their mental game as well.

For us who do work on the mental game, consistent routine, etc., this book is a great help. Buy it, you'll like it, your golf will benefit.

"Golf is a Game of Confidence" has helped both my wife and I lower our handicaps and play the game with much more enjoyment. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to stories from different golfers of all abilities - male, female, professional or amateur - whose game of golf has been helped through consultations with or reading the advice of Robert J. Roteela. Basic training tips, such as "Staying in the Present" "Be confident with your club selection and swing" "Dedication to the short game" and "Not keeping track of your score" really do work. You'll find a lot of great advice in this book.

I just want to say that this book was very helpful in increasing my confidence in my all around game. We all have rounds where we hit the ball extremely well the front nine and blow up on the back or vice-versa. Though it doesn't really give instructions or tips, it's what you take from it that is so beneficial. I played a few days after reading just the first few chapters and what I took from it was to "stay in the present". Every time I found myself getting ahead with my score or dwelling on a poor execution, I would say to myself, "Just stay in the present" and I played one of my best rounds ever. I would very much recommend this book to anyone who has ever "blown-up" during a round.

It has a clear and simple explanation of Love from the Christian perspective that is too often clouded or forgotten through the politics of our world today. Read it for inspiration or to improve your expression of love.

I have always been told that faith is the greatest thing a Christian can have. I have read 1 Corinthians 13 many times before, put I just thought of it as poetic. I never realized it tells us plainly LOVE is greater than faith and hope. Without love our faith and our hope is worthless junk. This book is an easy read, and short, but full of insight and intelligence. It gives the reader a new perspective on the greatest thing a Christian can have; LOVE

I read this book at least once a year to keep me focused on what's important in my life. Love is the greatest, most important force in our universe. This book explains the essense of love and provides profound insights on it purpose and how we may employ it in our daily lives. Read it, learn it, and do it. Your life will be fulfilled!

The third volume of In search of Lost Time begins with the moving of Marcel's family to an apartment in a palace, next to the which Charlus lives. This is where Marcel begins to deal with the highest society: the Guermantes family, which seemed so distant to him in his child fantasies, becomes soon part of his life. He goes to parties and meetings, where he can see Mme Cambremer, duchess Orianne and her husband, Charlus, Odette, Swann, etc. The words of the narrator are as thorough as his sight, and he describes for pages and pages the dialogues and behaviours that take place during such encounters. In this volume is where we begin to find the diferent sexual tendencies that will be later explored. As Marcel keeps visiting Saint-Loup, Mr. Charlus develops an interest in Marcel, therefore he begins to play a series of odd games: Charlus will have outbursts of rage as Marcel's shallowness becomes clear to the count.
The snobism and everchanging criteria, through the which political circles consider someone as part of the group of desireable relations, are shown through the detailed depiction of the Dreyfuss affair. The fears of society are suddenly embodied in the character of this german diplomatic, who apparently is spying on the french government. But, even worse, he is a jew. The colliding opinions about this affair divide society. In the midst of this social confusion, Marcel is but a quiet witness, whose interventions seem to stop in invitations and references to other great names of society. One of his favorite activities during this parties is to find and reconstruct the family ties between the different participants. An interesting relationship develops between Marcel and Orianne and her husband, while Charlus finds this to be of bad taste. Marcel will know through these people the details surrounding Saint-Loup's romance with an "indecent" dancer. He knew something from the days he spent visiting his friends while he was in service.
By the end of this volume we get to see Swann's decadence in the high circles, while his wife, Odette, seems to gain more terrain everyday. Swann tries to mantain his contact with the Guermantes, but they are less interested in him as time goes by... and not even his revelation of being in the route of death, due to an ailment, captures their interest. Even more, they don't believe him.
Proust keeps working in describing the defyning coordenates of this world of looks and absurd, hollow judgements. The life of the court parties is ruled by worldly signs, theatrical effects and empty forms. Although the character's fantasies surrounding the name of the Guermantes crumbles after he meets them and find them to be... just humans (and not the corporeal reality behind the images he used to see with endearment in Combray); although this fact, he is more and more fascinated by their importance between the other aristocrats. His desire is renewed by the inclusion of a third party that desires to establish contact, or to hold good relations with the Guermantes. It is the game of snobism, in which fear seems to be the main tool.

In the previous two volumes of IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, we have seen the young Marcel fantasize about love (in the persons of Gilberte and Albertine) and high society (in the person of the Duchesse de Guermantes). The bulk of THE GUERMANTES WAY's 819 pages is concerned with two parties involving the glitterati of fin-de-siecle Paris.

At the party of the literary Mme de Villeparisis, Marcel gains his first admittance to the world of the nobility and gets invited to an evening of his prized Dutchess, whom he had gazed on from afar when she attended church services in Combray, amid the tombs of her ancestors. Sometimes, however, when you get your heart's desire, there is that nagging question: "Is this all there is?"

At one point in the latter party, Swann says to Marcel that "one can't have a thousand years of feudalism in one's blood with impunity." The novel ends with the Guermantes about to leave for yet a more empyrean social gathering, to which Marcel is not even sure he is invited. (As we see in the next volume, he is invited and does attend.) At the very end, the Duke puts off seeing a dying friend and begins carping about his wife's choice of shoes.

We see the beginnings of Marcel's disenchantment with the social scene. Since this volume covers such a short span of time, we do not yet see the effect of his grandmother's death on the young narrator. We leave him, stunned and confused, at the threshhold of a personal triumph that has already lost much of its luster for him.

As I re-read Proust's great series, I am struck by how much I missed the first time I read it years ago. Many reviewers are struck by the length of the scenes describing the parties, but now I find that there is so much going on, and so many undercurrents, that the interior action passes quickly. Most of the action takes place in Marcel's mind as he encounters these gods of society and their hangers-on as they duel for position in their circles.

"Thus I beheld the pair of them," muses Marcel, "divorced from that name Guermantes in which long ago I had imagined them leading an unimaginable life, now just like other men and other women...."

In "The Guermantes Way," the third volume of "In Search of Lost Time," Proust's nameless narrator has reached his teenage years and continues to observe the world around him as inspiration for his planned career in literature. His family's relocation to a new apartment building in Paris, the Hotel de Guermantes, affords him the opportunity to acquaint himself with the Faubourg Saint-Germain and what he imagines to be the fashionable, intellectual side of the city's society, personified by the Duke and Duchess de Guermantes.

The narrator's fascination with the Duchess could be described as an infatuation far surpassing that he used to have of Gilberte, the daughter of his parents' friend Charles Swann. Sickly and meek, he has trouble making a positive impression on the Duchess in his chance encounters with her, but he is persistent. He happens to have befriended her nephew Robert de Saint-Loup, a young military officer, from whom he politely requests a proper introduction by claiming a common interest in the work of a painter named Elstir. Through Robert's help, the young narrator gains admission to the high society of his dreams, which gradually destruct into the apprehension that the rich can be frivolous and boring.

As Balzac's interest was in the depiction of Paris society as a "human comedy" in all its colors and movements, Proust's palette is much more subtle and sensitive but no less broad, taking prose about as far as it can go in the description of the intimacy of all the various complex emotions. Cruelty, for example, is a simple subject, but Proust's portrayal of the nasty trick that Robert's girlfriend Rachel, a full-time actress and part-time prostitute, plays on one of her rivals, allows the narrator an inconceivably deep meditation on the ugliness of conceit. Similarly, the narrator's unreasonably lengthy account of his grandmother's stroke and subsequent death is actually a brilliant exposition on the agony of mortality.

The events of "The Guermantes Way" play against the backdrop of the Dreyfus affair, and Proust remarkably demonstrates the heavy impact this incident had on the society of the day, bringing to the surface the particular virulence of French anti-semitism, usually latent, occasionally blatant. Society is divided between pro-Dreyfus and anti-Dreyfus factions, Proust's sympathetic narrator being of the former but, like most "Dreyfusards," not too vocal about the matter. Proust uses a Jewish character, a rising dramatist named Bloch, as a token of the conflict, exhibiting him as an object of a peculiar French attitude that is less racial hatred than exotic curiosity.

Swann, himself of Jewish heritage, makes an appearance towards the end of the volume to remind the reader of his long relationship with the humble narrator. Roughly I detect an analogy, not easily sustained by the evidence presented in this review but palpable in the text nonetheless, of their friendship with that of James Joyce's Leopold Bloom, also a Jew in a hostile environment, and Stephen Dedalus. What Proust and Joyce really have in common, though, is their ability to forge bold new forms of literature that explore aspects of life never before exposed on the printed page.

Jessie Ryder and Luz Ryder Benning are two sister that could pass as twins but couldn't be more different. Jessie has returned to Texas afte 16 years of travelling abroad leading the photo journalist lifestyle. Luz has remained in Texas marrying and raising four children; three boys that she bore herself and a daughter that Jessie gave up to her sister, Lila.

When Lila was born prematurely it was never thought that she would survive. Jessie walked out of the hospital never to return once she secured her sister and brother-in-law into adopting her child. The adoption has remained a secret for the last sixteen years but Jessie is back and she wants to tell Lila the truth. Why now after 16 years of silence, why is Jessie back? Through into the mix, a hunky widowed neighbour who has taken a liking to Jessie and you have got yourself a great novel about two sisters and finding true love.

Losing her sight, Jessie Ryder returns to the home that she left fifteen years before--and to the daughter she left, adopted by her sister, Luz. Jessie has been a photographer, taking pictures of the world, rescued from her mistakes by her sister, but her sister can't rescue her from blindness. Jessie intends to see her daughter, visit her sister, and then vanish again. She doesn't count on meeting a handsome pilot with a story of his own, or on her daughter Lile's decision to sneak out of the house for a night of joy-riding. When she must leave, the pain is more than she can stand--still, Jessie leaves, it defines who she is.

Dusty Matlock lost his pregnant wife but kept her on life support until their child, a wonderful daughter, could be born. For two years, he's retreated into himself. But when the pretty photographer comes to take his pictures for an article, he feels the stirrings of desire--and love. Dusty may have lost his love, but he isn't the kind of man to swear off love for a lifetime--and what he feels for Jessie is the real thing. Of course, the onset of Jessie's blindness is a secret--will Dusty be able to survive another terrible blow?

Author Susan Wiggs turns up the emotional intensity with this gripping story. Jessie is believable and thee-dimensional as the woman who sees herself as trouble, runs from her problems, yet who has punished herself more than anyone can. Luz is interesting and an apt counterpart to Jessie's flamboyance (three tattoos?). Dusty breaks the stereotype of romance heros by being confident of his emotions and certain of what he wants. Jessie's blindness is handled sensitively and realistically as she deals with the loss of this critical sense, the loss of her career, and the realization of all that she lost by walking away from her daughter at birth.

Susan Wiggs is a wonderful author who seems to grow stronger with each novel. HOME BEFORE DARK is an important achievement. Highly Recommended.

Anything Susan Wiggs writes is wonderful, but I particularly appreciate her contemporary romances. She so deftly portrays the issues that confront her protagonists that I am compelled to consider the effect that such issues (wether commonplace or unique) might have on myself or those whom I love.

In this story Jessie Ryder, an accomplished photojournalist, returns home to her family after a fifteen year absence when she learns that she is going blind. There she must face the rebellious daughter, Lila, that she gave up to her sister, Luz, at birth and resolve the differences that have grown between herself and the sister she respects and loves. She must also confront her own demons and deal with the fate that she has been dealt.

Wiggs creates a world that is as real as your own and populates it with strong and complicated characters that you will readily embrace. The major issues such as living with the decisions we have made and with the things in life we cannot change that Wiggs addresses are so truthful and well considered that you will think about this book long after you have finished reading.

Being an adaptation by and with the great Martin Jarvis, I thought it would be absolutely excellent, as I have found his audio efforts to be always. But in his performance there is something lacking, Sir Robert Chiltern should be played with a bit more pathos. Jacqueline Bisset is formidable, and Alfred Molina also as Lord Goring.

As to being a live recording, this is a mixed blessing. This public seems to misunderstand some lines, and there are misplaced laughs, for example when Robert Chiltern says: "I did not sell myself for money. I bought success at a great price. That is all". I'm sure Wilde didn't intend this to be a joke. Chiltern is not bought, he is not changed, it is he who buys something, therefore his character, his person, is not altered. The public dismisses this important nuance and bursts into a hearty fit of laughter.

There are three o four more like that. But on the whole, this recording by L.A. Theater Works is highly enjoyable.

Wilde, in part, attempts to portray the relativity of truth, power, and character, things we often take as absolutes, while also entertaining his audience with witty dialogue and comical mishaps.

Oscar Wilde gives us here one of his best plays. He explores the political world in London and how a young ambitious but poor man can commit a crime, which is a mistake, to start his good fortune. But he builds his political career on ethical principles. Sooner or later someone will come into the picture to blackmail him into supporting an unacceptable scheme, by producing a document that could ruin his career if revealed. His past mistake may come back heavily onto him. But he resists and sticks to his moral reputation. He prefers doing what is right to yielding to some menace. He may lose though his political ambition and career and his wife's love. But love is saved by forgiveness and the man's career is also saved by the work of a real friend who recaptures the dubious document and destroys it. In other words love and an ethical career are saved by the burrying of the old mistake into oblivion. In other words love and friendship are stronger than the scheming action of a blackmailer. This is a terrible criticism of victorian society which is based more on appearances than principles and yet able to destroy a man's absolutely ethical present life with a mistake from his youth, throwing the baby along with the water of the bath. It is also a criticism of the victorian political world where you cannot have a career if you are not rich, money appearing as the only way to succeed, at least to succeed fast. But it is a hopeful play because love and friendship are beyond such considerations and only consider the best interest of men and women, in the long run and in the name of absolute purity. Better be a sinner and be forgiven when you have reformed than see a reformed sinner destroyed by the lack of forgiveness. Oscar Wilde advocates here a vision of humanity that necessitates forgiveness as the essential fuel of any rational approach. Real morality is not the everlasting guilt of a sinner without any possible reform. Real morality is the recognition that forgiveness is necessary when reform has taken place. Otherwise society would be unlivable and based on hypocrisy and the death or rejection of the best people in the name of (reformed) mistakes. One must not be that sectarian, because man can learn from his mistakes and improve along the road : one can learn how to avoid mistakes and repair those oen has committed. If condemnation is absolute, no progress is possible. A very fascinating play, a very modern play. And yet when can one be considered as reformed, when can we consider one has really corrected one's mistakes and improved ? And who can deem such elements ? The very core of political and ethical rectitude is concerned here and Oscar Wilde embraces a generous approach.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

I enjoy thrillers and murder mysteries and this one was top notch. Except for the heroes constantly going into dark places ALONE looking for the murderer. Anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows better than that. Otherwise I would have given it 5, not 4 stars. A really good, fast read about a regular guy whose life takes a horrible turn one ordinary day; when an ordinary looking man shoots him, then rapes and kills his wife. Joining forces with a seen-it-all detective, they hunt for the serial murderer who is always one step ahead of them. If you enjoy a good book, check this one out.

It is too bad this author hasn't gained nation exposure. Although his two follow up books were not as good as this one, I consider him one of the best around. Impulse is one of the best thrillers I have read. The characters are real. The path to finding the killer is logical and exciting. The writing is fluid and easy to get into. I recommend this book to anybody who is interested in a good read. I only wish Weaver could hit the big time because his writing is ten times better that the junk put out by guys like Dean Koontz and Lescort.

I picked this book up on a whim and never put it down until I was through. Simply one of the best thrllers I have ever read and it scared the heck out of me.