3 comments about Malachi Martin : God's Messenger.

1. Brian Doran's tribute MALACHI MARTIN: GOD'S MESSENGER, is a worthy ending to the fruitful life of this captivating man, and a splendid beginning to his prodigious legacy. For those who have just discovered the good father, here are the 'footprints' he left behind as he carried his cross along 'the road less traveled,' answering God's call wherever it led him. And what a journey it was:

   As a Vatican spy and man of action during the Cold War, he risked his life to smuggle bibles into forbidden, East Block territory. As a US Air Force Chaplain in Turkey, he brought the solace of Christianity to airmen serving far from home. As an exorcist and spiritual warrior for Christ, he endured the soul-scorching onslaughts of preternatural violence--even suffering a heart attack during one particularly difficult exorcism--to free captive souls from the spiritual death-grip of demonic possession.

   Father Martin's accomplishments are legion: archaeologist, professor at the Vatican's Pontifical Biblical Institute, successor to the Apostles, historian, best-selling author, Jesuit priest, Christian futurist, translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls, multi-linguist, Vatican diplomat, confidant and aid to three popes, and exorcist. His depth of understanding on many subjects--geopolitics included--was astonishing, as was his uncanny ability to forecast important, world events at a considerable distance out. I once heard an on-air radio interview he conducted with Southwest Radio Church predicting the death--by bullet--of Israel's Prime Minister, Yitsak Rabin--well over a year before it happened!

   Like the writings of St. Augustine--which kept the light of the Gospels alive through the Dark Ages that ensued after the collapse of Rome--so too, Fr. Martin's works have kindled the remant flickers of Traditional Catholicism--keeping the trinitarian flames of faith, hope, and love burning in the hearts of many, during the New World Order's 'New Age' of paganism, atheism, and the occult.

   'The nightmare of the world-wide collapse of Christianity'--as Fr. Vincent Miceli so aptly described it--is upon us, complete with the spiritual abyss of our very own high-tech 'Dark Age,' moral 'Ice Age,' and mass media 'Tower of Babel.' Fr. Martin believed that we were entering the Great Apostasy, as foretold by the Sacred Scriptures, and it is against this bleak backdrop that he courageously acted--while lesser mortals dared not--towering over the zeitgeist like an Old Testament prophet.




2. When I ordered these tapes, they were backordered and I waited several months to receive them. They were worth the wait, however, and I have enjoyed playing them. It is good to hear about Father Malachi Martin from the people who knew him.

   I was disappointed, however, that this turned out to be 2-1/2 cassettes instead of three. There should have been enough material to fill the second side of the third cassette.




3. Brian Doran's tribute MALACHI MARTIN: GOD'S MESSENGER, is a worthy ending to the fruitful life of this captivating man, and a splendid beginning to his prodigious legacy. For those who have just discovered the good father, here are the "footprints" he left behind as he carried his cross along "the road less traveled," answering God's call wherever it led him.
   
   And what a journey it was: As a Vatican spy and man of action during the Cold War, he risked his life to smuggle Bibles into forbidden, East Block territory. As a US Air Force Chaplain in Turkey, he brought the solace of Christianity to airmen serving far from home. As an exorcist and spiritual warrior for Christ, he endured the soul-scorching onslaughts of preternatural violence--even suffering a heart attack during one particularly difficult exorcism--to free captive souls from the spiritual death-grip of demonic possession.
   
   Father Martin's accomplishments are legion: archaeologist, professor at the Vatican's Pontifical Biblical Institute, successor to the Apostles, historian, best-selling author, Jesuit priest, Christian futurist, translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls, multi-linguist, Vatican diplomat, confidant and aid to three popes, and exorcist. His depth of understanding on many subjects--geopolitics included--was astonishing, as was his uncanny ability to forecast important, world events at a considerable distance out. I once heard an on-air radio interview he conducted with Southwest Radio Church predicting the death, by bullet, of Israel's Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin--well over a year before it happened!
   
   Like the writings of St. Augustine--which kept the light of the Gospels alive through the Dark Ages that ensued after the collapse of Rome--so too, Fr. Martin's works have kindled the remant flickers of Traditional Catholicism--keeping the trinitarian flames of faith, hope, and love burning in the hearts of many, during the New World Order's New Age of paganism, atheism, and the occult.
   
   "The nightmare of the world-wide collapse of Christianity"--as Fr. Vincent Miceli so aptly described it--is upon us, complete with the spiritual abyss of our very own high-tech Dark Age, "Moral Ice Age," and mass media Tower of Babel. Fr. Martin believed that we were entering the Great Apostasy, as foretold by the sacred Scriptures, and it is against this bleak backdrop that he courageously acted, while lesser mortals dared not, towering over the zeitgeist like an Old Testament prophet.

5 comments about Up from Slavery.

1. Up from Slavery, autobiography by Booker T. Washington, is a true classic in African-American literature. Washington opens Chapter 1: "A Slave Among Slaves" with his vivid recollections as a Negro child growing up in the South: a slave on a plantation in Virginia, a white father he never knew, illiterate and living in horrid conditions. After the emancipation of slaves, Washington's family moves to West Virginia where he labors at the salt furnace and in the coal mines. In his precious few moments of spare time, he learns to read and gains enough confidence to leave everything behind to journey to the Hampton Institute. Later, because of his success at Hampton, he is given the opportunity to start Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Tuskegee Institute is successful partly due to Washington's extensive travel to the North to solicit funds for the school. The students at Tuskegee, in addition to the day-to-day traditional class work, are expected to learn an industrious trade and to work at mastering that trade. Based on his own life experience, Washington believes that the most prudent way the Negro race will persevere is through this combination of education, hard work and service to others. He believes that the White race will come to appreciate the Negro race only if the Negro people prove their worth to society. Because of his passive stance, many, such as W.E.B. DuBois, et. al., labeled Washington as "The Great Accomodator." In other words, accommodating those who were the enslavers instead of advocating for the rights of those who were enslaved. You can get a sense of this in Washington's most notable speech, the address to the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895:
   
   "The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing."
   
   This speech brought national acclaim to Booker T. Washington and, at the time, placed him in the forefront as one of the leading authorities of his race.



2. Washington's relentlessly positive message is encouraging but at the same time too perfect for believability. The reader desires that Washington would once take off the mask of cheer that he appears to be putting over some parts of his autobiography and tell us what he really thinks.
   
   His optimism extended to the political status of African-Americans and their future integration into American society. As the constant threat of lynching and KKK-ism continued throughout most of the 20th Century, even as positive steps were made in racial integration, it appears his optimism was at best proven wrong, or at least premature. And it is easy to understand the criticism by other contemporary black leaders like W. E. B. DuBois for his easy optimism.
   
   But on the other hand, until and unless I read otherwise in a well-researched biography, perhaps Washington's optimism isn't a front or a mask to cover deep bitterness, but is true and sincere, and indeed, nothing in his story hear reads as if forced or fraudulent.
   
   I purchased this book at the small National Park bookstore at Booker T. Washington's birthplace in rural southwestern Virginia. The setting still matches the quiet and isolation that Washington describes, and lends credence to his tale of self-reliant optimism. I also purchased a National Park Service pamphlet Booker T. Washington: An Appreciation Of The Man And His Times, which makes a nice short companion to Washington's masterpiece.



3. Wow! What an amazing story! It is fascinating to read Booker T. Washington's account of a childhood in slavery followed by his rise to national prominence as the founder of the Tuskegee Institute.
   
   While some may argue that Washington was naive and overly accomodating, I was amazed at his ability to forgive and see the best in people. He did not nurse grudges or let others bring him down. Whether or not you feel that he should have spoken up more for judicial equality, you have to admit that he was a strong, dedicated man of character.
   
   Everyone: white, black, brown, or any other shade, can benefit from reading the autobiography of this great American.



4. Booker Ts story really inspires. It just shows that with positive thinking and motivation, tremendous difficulties, odds and challenges are beatable. It's a message many of us would gain from if we would just stop complaining and blaming others for our lot in life, and just get moving on up!
   
   I've reviewed the CreateSpace edition, ISBN 1438268165. It's a clear, easy to read version, well designed and the print and binding are excellent. Highly recommended!



5. i ordered Up from Slavery because I thought I needed to read it. However, I found I wanted to read it. I recommend it for all Americans. It was truely inspirational.

No comments about Clay: Memoirs of a Gardening Man.

No comments about Leon Metz Speaks on Six Gun Justice (1).

No comments about Knute Rockne: Library Edition.

3 comments about The Passions of Howard Hughes.

1. OK, I didn't read the real book. I got the abridged cassette out of the library because I thought it might be fun. Who isn't interested in learning more about the "real" Howard Hughes, he of the legendary germ phobia and foot long fingernails. His ex-wife, Terry Moore, has teamed up with Jerry Rivers,more than likely a reject from The Star or National Enquirer, to come up with a trashy expose that belongs in the annals of the truly tasteless. Do we really need to hear repeatedly about Howard's throbbing member (I'm using these words because I don't know if reviewers are allowed to use the slang vulgarities used by Moore routinely), or starlets doing things to him that Monica did to Bill behind closed White House doors. Not to mention how she describes the wiles Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn employed to keep Hughes interested. Thank God Davis is gone, and Hepburn too old to care. All of this squalor is delivered by Moore in a peppy (and loud) harangue reminiscent of a high school cheerleader. What was anyone thinking when they released this lemon? And how does Moore know enough about what went on behind closed doors to quote dialogue? Was she in Bette Davis' bathroom when the great Davis emerged from the bath like Venus on the half shell to unbuckle Hughes pants and ...? You get the idea. Save your money and cling to your own image of Howard Hughes. It has to be less demeaning than the one presented here.



2. After suffering through this book, I am questioning the credibility of the Author's claim to be married to Howard Hughes. It was not a poignant story of a wife about her husband as I thought it should have been. Instead, it was a sordid expose of his sexual conquests mixed in with his last days on this earth. Although Hughes made many problems, I felt that this book gave a low blow to our memory of the man. In addition, a question kept repeating over and over in my head?
   
   How would she know all of this stuff? She wasn't even there.



3. I liked this book. Yes, Howard Hughes did some great things and they are mentioned in the book. But he also had a human side which was also shown in the book. A real page turner and well written.

1 comments about A Checkered Past: My 20 Years As Indy 500 Chief Steward.

1. I loved this audio version of the book. I had already read the book and learned so much about the Indy 500 as a result. The audio version is special because The introduction is read by Tony George, followed by a humerous foreward by Johnny Rutherford, and a portion is read by Tom Binford. It really brings the book to life.

2 comments about Koop: The Memoirs of America's Family Doctor.

1. C. Everett Koop is a man of strong opinions and firm actions, yet who places high value in attempting to be fair in his judgments. This book of memoirs tells the story of a courageous and admirable man's career, focusing most of the text on his eight years as surgeon general. I found the book very easy to read, not tedious or pedantic, and I give it a rating of 9 instead of a 10 because I wish he would have devoted a little more space to his career in pediatric surgery (which lasted 35 years). It's good reading.



2. For anyone who is a physician, this is a wonderful book with great anecdotes. I gave a copy to my daughter, who's in med school.

5 comments about The Virgin Queen: Elizabeth I, Genius Of The Golden Age.

1. I've been a fan of Hibbert's historical works for many years and this is a solid one-volume introduction to a woman whose fascinating life almost seems made for the movies (as it frequently has been). However, specialists in Elizabeth should be aware this is definitely an introduction and does not go into the depth that authors like Alison Plowden bring to their multiple volumes. And I did find - having read a great many books on Elizabeth - that there was an indefinable quality to Hibbert's work that became slightly irksome. In the early 20th century and before, it was standard convention to write about Elizabeth's prevarication, her changes of mood and occasional bad temper, and the despair of her (all male) counselors, as a typical example of an emotional women who happened to be queen. I've even read volumes which imply that Elizabeth's reputation is largely due to her male council keeping her feminine weaknesses under control. Only in the past decades has that slightly condescending tone been dropped and Elizabeth seen for the statesman she was (albeit, still a difficult woman!) I detected the slightest hint of that condescension in Hibbert's book, particularly in his later chapters dealing with Elizabeth's agonies in deciding how to deal with Mary Queen of Scots. For that reason only, I rate it a "4" and not a "5." With that slight caveat, an excellent introduction overall.



2. This is a biography of Elizabeth I, The Virgin Queen. And that's exactly what it is. Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry the VIII is a legend, which Mr. Hibbert attempts to address. Often, this is a dry and, at times, tedious read. However, the details of Elizabeth's physical appearance, politics, and idiosyncracies are extremely interesting. The author details life with Elizabeth and her court, including both of the Queen Marys, Robert Dudley, Sirs Walter Raleigh and William Cecil and others.

   The time line is obscure - Mr. Hibbert jumps around quite a bit and it can be confusing to the reader that isn't paying exacting attention. I wouldn't recommend it to a casual reader looking for a lot of melodrama and action. But, all in all, this is a good read for those who are interested in Elizabeth I.




3. This book is a good general introduction to Queen Elizabeth. Hibbert always paints a portrait of his subject, rather than discussing every detail of the person's life. Since most biographers write too much, we should all be grateful to Hibbert. He does a great job of describing Queen Elizabeth's decisionmaking process, her interactions with her advisors, and her reluctance to marry. He also explains the religious issues that surrounded the time briefly yet thoughtfully.



4. The name "Elizabethan" invokes a vision of an era of sumptuous dress, religious strife, European conflict, and the flourishing of the dramatic arts. The Virgin Queen is a study of the ruler for whom the time is named, and her rule, which lasted for an almost-unprecedented 45 years.
   
   Hibbert takes a primarily episodic approach to Elizabeth's life, from her birth as the unwanted daughter of Henry VIII and his second, ill-fated wife, Ann Boleyn. When Henry finally produces a legitimate male heir, Elizabeth is reduced from "princess" to "lady." After her unpopular, Catholic half-sister Mary ascends to the throne and she is vaguely implicated in some plots against the new queen, Elizabeth is imprisoned despite her seeming subservience and her pleas of innocence, devotion, and loyalty.
   
   Raised away from the court by hired nobility and taught by Cambridge scholars, Elizabeth appears to be both demure and autocratic. The important point is "appears," because, while Elizabeth in her correspondence is deferential and in her appearance demure, her peers invariably see her as withdrawn, haughty, and "proud and disdainful"-traits that "much blemished the handsomeness and beauty of her person" (Sir William Sidney). Mary, not unjustifiably paranoid, does not believe in Elizabeth's humility, honesty, or loyalty. Hibbert's portrayal of Elizabeth, who craves the adoration of peers, councilors, and subjects alike, seems to support Mary's assessment.
   
   Elizabeth proves to be arrogant and autocratic, allowing no one to question either her or her rights as ruler. She is keenly aware of the importance of having the support of the populace, which she enjoys in contrast to the despised "Bloody Mary." She ignores the advice of privy council, however, when it suits her, occasionally to the detriment of her popularity.
   
   Hibbert does not explain why or how Elizabeth, kept out of the way during the reigns of her half-brother and half-sister, became so popular. This points to one of the flaws of Hibbert's episodic approach; recounting Elizabeth's life in terms of "Subjects and Suitors" (although not all of them), "Papists and Puritans," "The Queen in her Privy Chamber," "Traitors and Rebels" (again, not all of them), and so forth, veils or distorts much of the historical context of Elizabeth's development and reign. Within one chapter, she may be young at one point and in late middle age at another. With England's changing allegiances and relationships with France and Spain, it is difficult to track what is happening at a given time and why. Elizabeth's most noted accomplishment, England's defeat of the Spanish armada, is covered briefly and superficially, almost as an aside, leaving the reader with the impression that it was happenstance that no one, including Elizabeth or the privy council, had much to do with; it just happened, with little explanation.
   
   The tale of Elizabeth's suitors can be equally confusing. Hibbert describes her negotiations with Henry, Duke of Anjou (later Henry III of France), when he was 20 and, "in fact, twenty years younger than herself." A few pages later, Hibbert discusses her negotiations with his younger brother Francis when Francis is "not yet nineteen" and she is 39, yet it appears that the talks with the older brother occurred first, which would make sense. Even more confusing, the negotiations with younger brother Francis continued until she was 45 (they would be the last hopes of getting her married).
   
   Elizabeth's treatment of religious conflict is glossed over. While Mary is noted for her brutal repression of Protestants, Elizabeth, at least in this biography, is a conservative Protestant who fears and loathes radicals of any kind, Protestant or Catholic. During her reign, repression is focused primarily on the rebellious poor; she is less interested in punishing the wealthy nobility than in grabbing their riches.
   
   As portrayed by Hibbert, Elizabeth is a parsimonious, greedy, emotionally needy woman who wishes to rule absolutely but who cannot make a necessary, definitive decision, such as signing the death warrant for her conniving cousin, Mary Stuart. The privy council, led by Lord Burghley, the Earl of Leicester, and others, devote much of their efforts to manipulating this indecisive autocrat into decisions they want and to making sure that she cannot renege on them-an ironic situation for the woman who says to Burghley's son, "Little man, little man, the word must is not to be used to princes."
   
   There are several weaknesses in addition to the episodic structure. For example, the queen herself is not quoted often enough in key areas, yet Hibbert devotes one-third of a page to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem speculating about how she might have felt during her confinement in the Tower of London.
   
   Most notably, however, the book's subtitle is never explained-neither why the era is "golden" nor why the queen was the "genius" of it. While the biography makes it clear that Elizabeth had a strong personality, as did her parents, the nation's successes seem to have been the work of the privy council under the leadership of Lord Burghley and of adventurers like Sir Walter Ralegh. Elizabeth is not shown even to have played a role in, for example, nurturing the famed playwrights of the time, such as Shakespeare, Marlow, and Beaumont. The subtitle implies that Elizabeth's brilliance inspired a benign, cultured age, while the text shows a woman so cold and petty that, when her best friend and seeming lover Leicester dies, she worries only about controlling his estates and monies, and so indecisive that her own privy councilors avoid working with her whenever possible. The age itself is brutal, with the crowd "disgusted by the spectacle" of a drawing and quartering performed, against tradition, while the victims are still alive.
   
   At best, The Virgin Queen is a brief, superficial biography that leaves the reader hungry for more-more about Burghley, Leicester, Mary Stuart, and others, but not about Elizabeth herself, who somehow becomes a supporting player in her own biography.



5. Hibbert provides a factual and rivetting narrative on the life of Queen Elizabeth I, one of England's greatest rulers, and the last of England's Tudor rulers, with emphasis on her personal life, character and personality, and particular quirks.
   
   The prologue summarizes the reign of Elizabeth,especially relating to Elizabeth's mother Anne Boleyn right up to Boleyn's execution.
   
   She was brought up in various households, at different times, including that of her younger half-brother Prince, Edward the son of Jane Seymour and after King Henry's death, the household of Henry's last wife Catherine Parr.
   She was heard, in later life, only to refer to her mother twice. While she proudly referred to herself as the daughter of Henry VIII, she was never ashamed to be a Boleyn and kept a ring that contained a miniature of Anne Boleyn. she also, on occasion used her mother's symbol, the falcon, a bird of pray in which the female bird is larger than the male of the species.
   
   At the time of her mother's execution Princess Elizabeth was two years and eight months old. She was a pretty child far more closely resembling her father than her mother, with her red hair as opposed to her mother's darker colouring.
   She was soon stripped of her title of princess and declared illegitimate.
   Elizabeth who was an incredibly bright child, did not notice that her mother was gone but she did notice the change of her name. She apparently said to her governess. "how haps it governor, yesterday my Lady Princess, today but my Lady Elizabeth?"
   
   Elizabeth must have grown up under great trauma , her mother executed when she was three years old, on her father's orders, all but rejected by her father and declared 'illegitimate.'
   
   Elizabeth was well educated by her governess Kat Ashley, she was an accomplished poet and writer, she was taught several languages, spent several hours a day reading history and could play several musical instruments. She was said by her tutor to have read more Greek every day than many church prebendaries did in a whole week.
   
   At the age of 14, living in the household of the Queen Dowager Catherin Parr, Elizabeth was seduced by the Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Seymour, and the author describes something of the sexual games and romps between Elizabeth and Sir Thomas, sometimes involving Elizabeth's governess Kat Ashley. Elizabeth was only a child and certainly could not be held responsible for her involvement in this fling.
   
   She chose a moderate path being a sincere and devout believer but rejecting both the fanatic Roman Catholicism of her sister Mary and the severe Puritanism of some fierce church reformers.
   AS monarch she was to preside over an England with greater religious tolerance than it had ever enjoyed before, with both Protestants and Catholics as her chief office bearers.
   
   After the accession to her tyrannical older sister Mary, , who had hundreds of Protestants burned to death, hence earning her name 'Bloody Mary' Elizabeth, who was then nineteen, came under suspicion of involvement in treasonable plots and kept in a state of and was closely watched.
   She was for a time imprisoned in the tower of London where she wrote "Much suspected by me
   Nothing proved can be,
   Quoth Elizabeth, prisoner"
   Queen Mary's death, in 1558, was surely a great relief for both Elizabeth and the Protestants of England.
   She succeeded to the throne of an impoverished divided country, menaced b both France and Spain, and with the able assistance of William Cecil (later Lord Burghley), she overcame all her difficulties including a religious settlement, fending off England's enemies and building up England's strength including it's navy. The book describes life in Elizabeth's court, and how she gained the love and adherence of her people. Elizabeth was the greatest and the best loved of all the English monarchs. The author describes how Elizabeth was intelligent, self-willed, brave and astute, but as regards her to her marriage and her foreign and religious policies she avoided decisions as long as possible.
   
   The author describes Elizabeth's refusal to sign the warrant for the execution of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. To the privy council she asked "Can I put to death the bird that to escape the pursuit of the hawk has fled to my feet for protection. Honour and conscience forbid."
   
   Mary's constant plotting made the decision inevitable and Elizabeth was practically forced by the council finally to sign Elizabeth's execution warrant, but with great anguish and remorse.
   
   Much is described here of the Queen's court favourites who she lavished attention on, such as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, but she never allowed them to influence the nation's affairs, for she kept her own council trusting no one entirely except perhaps Lord Cecil.
   The author expertly describes how she rallied the nation to England's defence during the invasion by the Spanish Armada in 1588.
   Who can forget her rousing speech to the people of England defending her country's sovereignty:
   "I have...they shall be duly paid to you."Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general2 shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people"
   t is aforeshadow of Churchill's speech we he told Britain that "We will defend our island whatever the cost may be." Churchill: A Life
   Another great women leading a nation besieged by bloodthirsty enemies intent on her destruction was Golda Meir My Life
   The book richly and beautifuly details, how above all how Elizabeth possessed a dazzling personality that won men's devotion. She expressed this to herself when she said to her last parliament, as the author recounts, "This I count the chief glory of my crown , that I have resigned with your loves".
   
   
   It as a very smooth read that remains interesting throughout and brings colour and excitement to a very exciting time in England's history.
   
   
   
   

No comments about A Memoir of Jane Austen (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection) [UNABRIDGED].