1 comments about 'Tis.

1. A most enjoyable follow up to his childhood memoir "Angela's Ashes", Frank McCourt, in "Tis", now lets us in on life as a poor young immigrant, trying to make his way in the jungle of NYC. Being told over and over, stick with your own kind(the Irish immigrants), Frank as is his nature, does things his own way, which don't always work out to well for him.
   
   When we last left off in Angela's Ashes, Frank had just arrived, eager for a new life in America(the place of his birth). Nothing seems to be going right for him. He is naive in the ways of the world, and learning some hard lessons.Still plagued by bad eyes and teeth, he lands a job, cleaning up in a hotel.He sees the college students, with their movie star smiles and looks, and yearns to be among them. With the war in Korea going on, Frank gets drafted and right away gets himself into trouble by just holding to his beliefs. Stuck as a company clerk, he masters the skill of typing! Later he manages to get into college,even without a High School diploma, which really speaks to his tenacity, and after much hard work between school and jobs requiring much physical labor, he graduates and becomes a teacher. He also somehow manages to marry the most beautiful girl, the envy of all in his college days.
   
   So now as an adult, with the responsibilities to his family and students, he makes us laugh and cry with the most wonderful funny and poignant stories of trying to learn the rules of life in New York, of being an employee, the military, a college student, a husband, and teacher.We are introduced to some new people that have affected his life in some way. He also goes back to Ireland to visit, and we are reintroduced to some of the people who shaped his early life. His mother is still very much a part of the story, and it is hard not to get emotionally involved with their relationship.
   
   We are still treated to his refreshing style of writing, in which he lets us in on all his thoughts, and subtly pokes fun at the ways of society and the system of life. It is the tone that is different. As well it should be. In "Angela's Ashes", we saw the hardships of life through the forgiving eyes of a child. It made that book maybe just a little more special. Now the look is that of first a frustrated young man, and then a more experienced adult. There are times, you may not like what he does or says, but this is his life story, and it is honest and life affirming.
   
   I'm very much looking forward to the third book of this beautiful memoir, "Teacher Man". If you loved Angela's Ashes, you will surely want to know what has become of Frankie McCourt. He will take you on more of his life's adventures,another enthralling read,and leave you smiling.....enjoy....Laurie

No comments about Terminator 3.

5 comments about Schirra's Space (Now Hear This).

1. I long have been a huge fan of Wally Schirra. I have always adored his keen sense of humor and wit. Furthermore, his impeccable aviator and astronaut careers always made me feel awe struck. Therefore, I greatly looked forward to reading Mr. Schirra's account of his career. My main interest was to get a real insiders look into the space program - which I believe the book did successfully on some major points. Mr. Schirra's wit pleasantly shined throughout the book - this made the reading more pallatable. Regretfully, the reason for my three star rating is the fact that the book would ramble. Without a moments notice, it would jump ahead in time and backward in time. I found this fact to be very irritating as I tried to stay focused and gain as much information as I could from my reading. I thought that maybe I was being too critical, but this sore spot was evident throughout the book. By the time that I had finished the book, I felt exaspirated from the time warps. Do not get me wrong, Mr. Wally Schirra is still a brilliant man in my eyes - I just found that the book was not a good representation of the the true great man that he is. All in all, for the average reader, I feel that this book has many good bits of information - as long as you are willing to sift through the minutia of time jumps.



2. Wally Shirra doesn't lack for confidence. Then again how would a person, without the self confidence of a test pilot, strap himself to a rocket? A great insider's view of the program. However for all his confidence Shirra goes out of his way to not cast a single stone at the many people he crossed paths with through out his career. A class act. No new real information is uncovered through this book. Just a fun read.



3. Not even factually correct in some cases.. as when Wally implies that he got the LLTV training cancelled because it was dangerous. Wrong !!! It was used through Apollo 17. I own over a hundred aviation and space books, but this one I gave to Good Will after I read it.



4. As much as I was a fan of Wally Schirra during his days in the space program, or perhaps because of that, I was mildly disappointed in his autobiography. This work strikes me as typical of a number of astronaut biographies and autobiographies rushed into print over the past generation or so, rather unremarkable in literary style and adding little to the historiography of this critical era of space travel.
   
   Perhaps this should not be surprising. The author identifies himself as a technical man who throughout his military career kept his nose to the grind of precision flying and admits to little connectedness to the culture outside. No one should take up this work and expect to find Astronaut Schirra's opinion of "My Fair Lady." To the day of its publication the author through his book exudes continued pride in his association with other pilots of exceptional competence, and conversely, an avoidance of those who in his view are or were more form than substance. [Chuck Yeager, for example, will probably never grace the Schirra Thanksgiving table.] If Schirra is infected with hubris, it comes honorably.
   
   Schirra is the antithesis of the joker and clown he was sometimes depicted as in, say, "The Right Stuff." It is within the world of test flying and space exploration that the reader will best connect with Schirra: learning, for example, that Schirra had little use for the extensive battery of medical tests to which all the early astronaut candidates were subjected. He was highly critical of the early conceptualization of Project Mercury. He was among those who considered early spaceflight "Spam in a Can" and lobbied extensively for pilot control in all of the various programs in which he served. His blunt talk, however, made sense as events would prove.
   
   One can probably argue with credibility that Schirra was one of the half-dozen most competent pilots of the entire Mercury-Apollo era. His Sigma 7 flight in October, 1962, was a quantum leap for Mercury in terms of both distance and fuel economy. But his greatest contribution to the space program may have come in December, 1965, when in a four day period the author not only averted a major space catastrophe but achieved a technical breakthrough of major importance for reaching the moon.
   
   Gemini 6 was a star-crossed flight from opening day. Scheduled for October, 1965, its mission objective was rendezvous with an unmanned Agena rocket launched hours earlier. The Agena inexplicably blew up before Schirra's and Tom Stafford's craft was launched, and the mission went into temporary limbo. However, after much discussion about feasibility, Gemini 6 was rescheduled for a December launch, with its new rendezvous target being nothing less than Gemini 7, the 14-day endurance epic of Frank Borman and Jim Lovell.
   
   Gemini 7 was launched successfully early in December, and after a mere nine day turnaround of the Gemini launch pad--itself a record of sorts--the author and Stafford were ready to launch Gemini 6 in pursuit of Borman and Lovell. But in what has to be one of the more hair-raising moments of the space program, Gemini 6's launch rocket shut down a millisecond before lifting off the ground. The various disastrous scenarios were as numerous as the imagination permitted. In his own printed words Schirra is quite matter of fact about this dilemma and his now-famous choice against capsule ejection--which, incidentally, saved the rendezvous mission itself, as matters would transpire. For the historical record, Schirra sees his decision as the vindication of human pilots over computer guidance, and he seems proudest of this maneuver and the mission that followed.
   
   He is right to be proud. If Schirra's instincts served him well atop Gemini 6 on the ground, his piloting skills three days later would set the space program ahead by leaps and bounds. Gemini 6 found its target in minimum time and milked the maximum possible navigational experience from the rendezvous. Gemini 6 established that with a skilled pilot a space vehicle could pretty much go wherever needed, an indispensable technical advance for moon landing technology.
   
   Gemini 6 may have been Schirra's finest hour in the space program. It would be different after that. The fiery death of his old Mercury sidekick Gus Grissom in 1967 left Schirra as the only active member of the original seven astronauts and raised doubts in his mind about the Apollo Program in general. Apollo was exponentially more complicated than the Mercury Program for which he was chosen. Schirra has plenty to say about Apollo management, but there is a hint in his reflections that the Mercury crew [which included, at least hypothetically, Cooper, Slayton, Shepard and himself] might have been "over the hill" when Apollo took center stage. [182]
   
   Schirra's comportment before and during Apollo 7, the first of the Apollo manned flights, has been the subject of considerable conjecture. This reader's impression is that Schirra had reservations about the vehicle, but more so with the management team behind it. The author complains that he was misled about guidelines for acceptable launch time wind velocities, and once in flight, pressured to perform tasks that interfered with basic shake-down procedures. The author's head cold while in space would later take on humorous proportions in his award winning Actifed TV commercials, but at the time his general health and its impact upon flight procedure became major ground to space confrontations. But in rare candor for an astronaut, Schirra admitted the unthinkable--Apollo 7 was boring him out of his mind by mid-flight. [203]
   
   Schirra had announced his retirement before Apollo 7, and if Deke Slayton is to be believed, the author would never again have to worry about space boredom, as his crewmates Eisele and Cunningham ruefully discovered. The happy ending to this tale is Schirra's personal pride and contentment at his career's body of work and the ongoing respect he enjoyed from the top professionals in his field at the time of his book`s publication in 1988.
   
   .



5. Wally Schirra, perhaps more than all the other "Original Seven"
   Mercury astronauts, embodies all the great strengths along
   with the weaknesses of this group compared with the astronauts
   who entered the space program after them.
   It must be remembered that when the original astronauts were
   chosen in 1959, manned spaceflight was a great unknown. In particular,
   it was not known how the human body would responds to all the stresses
   caused by the massive accelerations and decelerations of the spacecraft
   in addition to the problems of prolonged "weightlessness". Thus,
   those astronauts chosen were found to be able to withstand worst-case
   scenarios for these things. Piloting skills were not as important
   because the astronaut didn't really have much control of the Mercury
   spacecraft.
   By the time Schirra flew on his Sigma 7 flight (the fifth of the series), it had been found that the psychological and physiological stresses were not that great. In addition, the flight before his, Aurora 7, by Scott Carpenter was a near disaster because he did a poor job doing what little
   piloting he could. Thus Schirra was called on to show that, indeed, with
   good piloting skills, precise maneuvers could be carried out. Using what
   Schirra called "the light stuff", Schirra proved that a skilled pilot can
   do what has to be done while conserving precious fuel.
   By the time the much more advanced two-man Gemini spacecraft came to fly, it was now necessary to carry out far more sophisticated missions, involving rendezvous, docking and EVA. Schirra in his Gemini 6 mission, along with Tom Stafford, spectacularly carried out the first rendezvous when his spacecraft met up with the already orbiting Gemini 7. Schirra was the perfect choice because he showed that the "light stuff" can
   allow complicated space operations of the type needed to land on the Moon using the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous mode within the fuel constraints that were available. He also saved his Gemini mission when the Titan II booster rocket's engines cut off seconds after ignition and Schirra's
   outstanding "feel" as a pilot told him NOT to carry out a very dangerous
   ejection, so the mission was saved to fly another day.
   Gemini training using simulations was far more complicated than those for Mercury and the veteran Mercury astronauts who flew Gemini like Schirra and Gordon Cooper found them more exhausting.
   After the Apollo 1 fire, Schirra was once again called in to save the manned spaceprogram and was assigned the first Apollo flight. By this time, as he put it in his own words, he was being "devoured" by the space program. Fellow crewman Walt Cunningham felt that Schirra really didn't want to fly the mission but he pushed himself to do it out of a feeling of responsibility to his friend and fellow Mercury astronaut Gus Grisson who perished in the fire. This flight (called Apollo 7) not only would break in a new spacecraft that was far more sophisticated than the already complex Gemini spacecraft. Whenever flying a new spacecraft, there are always uncertainties as to whether all the bugs have shaken out, and in addition, the simulation training was even more time consuming and exhausting. All these things took their toll on Schirra, and the pressures came bursting out of him during the flight when he became ill with a head cold. Schirra began berating the flight controllers which enraged Chris Kraft, the head of flight operations.
   Also, even though the mission was scheduled to last 11 days in order to
   test the ability to last the duration of a lunar landing flight, Schirra
   adamantly opposed carrying out more than a minimal number of scientific experiments. This was another legacy of the Mercury astronauts who loved flying but generally had little interest in the scientific aspects of space exploration. Thus, Walt Cunningham felt that the mission, although proving the spacecraft
   was spaceworthy, wasted a lot of time that could have been used to
   carry out more experiments and which would have alleviated their boredom
   on the last days of the mission. Schirra even objected to carrying at TV camera on board, but NASA management insisted, saying the taxpayers had the right to see what their billions of dollars were going for. In this matter, Schirra relented.
   Fortunately, as the moon landings approached, NASA began to choose astronauts who weren't as "tough" as the Original Seven, but they were better educated scientifically and technically, and they were better able to handle and understand the complex systems that made up the Apollo spacecraft, and they had more of a willingness to study geology and other scientific disciplines which Apollo's space exploration capabilites would enable space and planetary scientists to exploit.
   Like all the other astronaut autobiographies, with the notable exception
   of Mike Collins' "Carrying the Fire", this one does not really describe
   what spaceflight is really like, nor will the reader will not really learn much more about America's space program by reading this book.
   However, American owes Wally Schirra a lot. He stepped in twice when the
   space program was in crisis and his exceptional piloting skills (maybe the best of the Original Seven) put America on its path to the Moon.

5 comments about Chronicles: Volume One (Chronicles).

1. Count me as one of the skeptics who felt positive that they wouldn't like this memoir. And, please, now feel free to point out how snotty and wrong I was for feeling like that.
   
   To say Bob Dylan has written something great is not an unusual thing to do in most situations, but to say he wrote a great book, about himself no less, does seem surprising. It is surprising because of both the candidness Dylan shows in this book and the right level of self-examination that doesn't cross the line into plain ol' weirdness or didactic ramblings. What comes through is that Robert Zimmerman seems to know exactly who Bob Dylan is, and he appears to have a more measured respect for the complications of his inseparable doppelganger than any of his cultish fanbase could ever hope to have.
   
   There are two other things that really delighted me about this book. The first is how Dylan is a very accomplished writer...not just of lyrics, but of prose. From reading his vivid descriptions of something as simple as the snow falling, I realize that in another time, had his life pointed him in another direction, this guy would have been a top-notch novelist, right up there with the best. The other thing that I loved, and perhaps the thing I would most expect from him, is the non-linear approach he took to telling his story. Chapters jump around in time, and large portions, decades even, are left out of the story. With a lesser writer this would have been a real distracting way to go about business, but in Dylan's capable hands it becomes stylistic, mirroring the way the mind works, in which connections aren't always made from one moment to the next, but, rather, from one moment in time to another moment years earlier...or later.
   
   Even if you are, like me, not a major Dylan fan, I still suspect you would be hard pressed not to admire the writing here, or the manner in which the story is told like scattered scenes from a disorganized scrapbook that suddenly come to life so as to show the fleeting facets of one unknowable person. Very recommended.



2. Skipping all over the place, definitely not a chronological account of Dylan's rise, but more of a stream of consciousness series of the highlights, lowlights, or significant moments in the life of a true artist. Chronicles volume 1 is accessible and an interesting read to anyone who loves to read, the flow of words very easy. They just pull you along. I for one wasn't sure how good a writer Dylan is, but he's pretty good. I recommend this book to all Dylan fans, and anyone who likes to read a good autobiography.



3. Bob Dylan takes his prodigious talents for language and turns out one of the most remarkably honest rambles of raggle-taggle prose since Jack Kerouac. From the first few pages, describing an ambitious but reserved young man whose future role had not yet been defined, I was willing led down memory alley. The artistic subworlds of New York, with its hanger-onners and would-bes. invoke countless anecdotes about the creative lives of others. Remarkably sketched, and poignantly personal, I never felt the usual strain that often comes with more self-important memoirs. Dylan's voice remains remarkably rough and earnest, glissing between gorgeous metaphors and cowboy expletives . . . but always uniquely his own. His own assessment of his artistry, usually inferred than described in achingly obvious detail, lure the reader into a smoky area in between the lines. Simply one of the best autobiographies I've ever read . . . by no means intended only Dylan mavens, this work will readily appeal to anyone who knows that the music industry involves a lot more than what 'American Idol' has led us to believe. Here's a real damn American Idol, from what I think at least. This book packed more punches than five years worth of New Yorker short stories.



4. If you're not very familiar with Bob Dylan and want to learn more about the man this is really not the book for you. I suggest you read Clinton Heylin's tome, "Behind The Shades, Take 2" which compiles just about every known fact about Dylan from the people who have known him - an excellent book in every way. Chronicles is a different animal. I think you are more likely to appreciate it if you are a fan of Dylan's work. I'm in the process of going through it for the second time and have realized that I am enjoying it more after I have cast aside all notions of what I want the book to be. WHAT THIS BOOK IS NOT: 1. It's not a tell all biography. You won't find out much information that's not out there already. There are no intimate revelations of Bob's love affairs or anything sensational. 2. It doesn't cover Bob's whole career, just 3 brief periods. 3. It's not necessarily all true. Dylan often paints himself in the best light, as a normal guy. I have my doubts. 40 years of unabated idolatry will screw anyone up to some extent. You'll read about the pressure he's under, but don't expect specific revelations about a dysfunctional Dylan. WHAT THE BOOK IS: A fascinating discourse on specific times in Bob's life. I don't know why it was such a surprise to me but Bob is a great writer. Whatever percentage is BS I don't care; I enjoy it anyway. He has an amazing attention to detail and I was able to lose myself in descriptions of places and situations. Plus he does reveal his thoughts on songwriting and many things. When I stopped hoping for him to discuss something specific I was able to sit back and enjoy whatever he gave me. Again I shouldn't be surprised; it's always been that way with his music also. I hope he does continue this series and give us another book or two, whatever he chooses to write about. I will surely go along for the ride.



5. This is a very enjoyable and most importantly, readable book. Who would have thought Dylan could write so well, be such a good story teller in straight forward language? After spending years listening to his lyrics I have to admit that I was surprised by how well this is written. Surely songwriting and penning an autobiography are very different arts, but Dylan does it. Apparently sans the ghost writer.
   
   This book is full of the early years in NY, sleeping in other peoples places, working his way into the in-crowd, meeting his hero, Woody Guthrie. Be sure to pick up this gem as well! Bound for Glory (Penguin Modern Classics) Great stuff. He does get a little off-track with the making of a particular LP, "Oh Mercy" but works his way back round to the before time.
   
   Was he really asked to join Peter, Paul and Mary?
   We got a look at girlfriend Suzy that appeared on an album cover, very interesting.
   And between the lines you can sense the pressure of being the spokesman for a generation.

No comments about Fast and Easy Hebrew (Fast & Easy (Living Language Audio)).

5 comments about Paper Lion.

1. A very interesteng read, If you are old enough to remember all the players.



2. Back in the 1960s, writer George Plimpton began "covering" a variety of sports through participating on/with pro teams/athletes and reporting on it through books, magazine articles and TV specials.
   
   Perhaps his most famous was in the early 1960s when he was "signed" by the Detroit Lions as a 36-year-old rookie trying to make the club as a third-string quarterback. Plimpton - wearing jersey number 0 - practiced with the team for one month.
   His quarterbacking culminates with his appearance in a scrimmage where Plimpton calls a number of plays under game conditions.
   
   The book leads the reader through the highs and lows of Plimpton as a player, along with great anecdotes on the teammates and coaches.
   
   A reprint is slated for publication in September 2006. I hope the TV special on Plimpton's training camp and QB play gets dusted off during the upcoming NFL season. Anyone reading this inside that large campus in Bristol, Conn.?



3. Long before ESPN cameras and behind-the scenes television programs, George Plimpton went out on a mission to the magical world of the NFL, looking to bring back an original insight on the dream life of a professional football player. In Paper Lion, Plimpton arrives in Michigan for a month of training camp and a preseason scrimmage with the Detroit Lions, having brought a suitcase of clothes, some cleats, and a minimal trace of athletic ability. Though he was not a very skilled or successful member of the Lions, his role is an essential one for us as readers. Plimpton does a marvelous job of painting the picture of a profeesional football player with vivid details and intriguing technique, most notably simile. He details aspects of the training camp with clear references for the everyday reader. This helps explain feelings and strategies such as the Lions' kickoff coverage: " the downfield rush was straight, like a ruler sweeping crumbs off a table." (178). Plimpton also captures the emotions of the players during camp and reproduces them through simile as well: "When a player was hurt in a scrimmage, the others seemed to point their backs pointedly...as if an injury were communicable, like mumps." (194). Another example comes on page 253 when he compares the physical toll of football to "Bronco riding." These details and relatable comparisons are what help Plimpton to bring the reader into the setting and let him experience training camp as if he too were wearing shoulder-pads.
   
   While Plimpton does an excellent job of depicting the setting and emotions that go along with training camp in the NFL, at times he seemed a little too out of place. Plimpton was a writer for Sports Illustrated and thus should have a keen sense on sports and what the players go through. However, there were times in the book where he approached the situation as if he had come from another planet, rather than a different occupation. Such is the case on page 180 when he asks a running back: "do you close your eyes when you run for the middle of the line?" As a sportswriter and an intelligent person it would seem that he would know that a professional athlete would keep his eyes open and not shy away from the contact of the line in a game situation.
   
   George Plimpton's Paper Lion is a great read as well as an entertaining passageway to the world of sports. Plimpton's ability to accurate scenes and vividly detail characters makes a reader feel as though he has not so much holding a book but in fact his own personal uniform on the Detroit Lions.



4. A talented journalist joins the Detroit Lions to get get a greater insight into what it is to be a professional American football player. Some amusing moments because of his ineptitude.
   
   This was a top class team dominanting their opponents, so they wangled an agreement that if they got a big enough lead they could put George in as a last string quaterback.
   
   Top quality sportswriting work here.



5. During the summer of 1963, Plimpton became a rookie for the Detroit Lions, after joining their preseason camp as a 36-year-old rookie quarterback wannabe. He ended up sticking with the club through an intra-squad game before the paying public a month later. He traveled from the east coast to Michigan where he spent four weeks at the Lion's training camp learning how to call plays and take snaps. He ran formations, dressed in thick layers of padding and tried to tackle his opponents. He played cards with the coaches, played pranks on the players, bunked in the dormitories and debriefed in the locker room. Wearing the number zero, he finally was put in the game in a scrimmage, managing to lose yards on each play.
   Throughout his book, Plimpton describes the grueling physical aspects of this sport, and through conversations with many of his teammates, he also captures the mental training these players go through. But, because he immersed himself so deeply into this culture, Plimpton also captures a sense for who these players are. He listened to their stories, learned about their backgrounds and became one of them. This memoir sticks out for its insights into the personalities of the players and the coaches. Compared to a memoir like The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer, Plimpton sticks to his journey to make the team, rather the venturing off about his life. He's not afraid to take detours, such as explaining who Harry Wismer is and his failure as the owner of the AFL team the New York Titans. Reading this classic work of literary nonfiction today, the reader sees that Plimpton not only captured a sense for what football was like in 1963, but what the world was like back then.

5 comments about It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.

1. I picked this book with trepidity. Having read scores of biographies from succesful sportspersons, I did not expect this one to be any different. They struggle, they compete, they succeed. I started reading this purely based my wife's strongly recommended this.
   
   And it just did move me completely!
   
   
   Once I started reading, there was no looking back. This is gripping cover-covcer. I guess the cycle races are such. We get so involved in the sport. Whern Lance talks about Cancer, it is not in absurd medical terms or over-simplification. He did carry me long - thtough his journry. I could vicariusly experience being with him in the ward in Idianopolis or at the Finish line of Tour De France.
   
   A narrative style that takes the audience at a leisurely pace, keeping the reder hooked and attached to the strory.
   
   Truly inspirational. A day after I finished the book, today, I am shaving my head for a cause - cancer patients!



2. A page-turner like no other, once I started it, I couldn't stop. Without a doubt, Lance is one of kind athlete, but that's not the point. The early achievements, the cancer battle, the return to the sport - it's an amazing story of the resilience of the human spirit, both on the account of people around him, and Lance himself. It's a gem of a book and an inspirational read, it reminded me of what we are all capable off.



3. as I was mid-way through this book, there were only two thoughts going on in my mind -
   1. this guy is human/normal like us with all frailties/insecurities
   2. and gosh what extremes are humanly possible!!... the triumph of human spirit! very humbling. very inspiring.



4. Its not about the bike, in fact there are only two paragraphs in the whole book that talk about the bike. This book is about Lances diagnosis, his struggle to accept his new reality, the aftermath of living as a cancer survivor, and trying to have a baby using frozen sperm. Oh yeah, and also winning the Tour De France.
   
   I enjoyed the book because I like the "overcoming really bad odds and still becoming a champion" type of story. I do not cycle, unless you count the sporadic bikes rides with my kids. I was hoping the book would not be loaded with unrelatable stories and details about the bike, training, and the actual races, and luckily for me it wasn't.
   
   This book was a personal account of a serious athlete struck with cancer. It gets a little whiny in a few places, but I have to give him points for being honest. I am sure I would be whiny if I was struck down in my prime and had to endure the horrors of chemo and brain surgery.
   
   The writing is excellent and you can almost feel the rain hitting your face during his grueling training rides in the mountains of Europe. My legs are burning right now just thinking about sitting on a bike for 6-7 hours of non-stop riding. Wow.
   
   To me, this book left the message of be happy because it can all change fast. Enjoy what time I am given and try to forget about the small stuff. Its a great book with a great message.



5. I really valued reading this book after someone very close to me was diagnosed with the same cancer as Lance. It was informatative and emotional. Thanks to Lance for his Foundation.

5 comments about Sober .. and Staying That Way: A New Cure for Alcoholism Cassette: The Missing Link in the Cure for Alcoholism.

1. I read it cover to cover in one sitting and then passed it on to the person I had purchased it for. Then I bought another copy for someone else. I'm just trying to understand this desease and the size of this beast, and the horrible things it's done to people I care about. She got me a long ways toward that understanding. Fault it any way you want, by and large it was a good read, good life skills, good common sense. It was a good kick in the [rear] and I hope everyone I share it with gets as much out of it as I did. It may not be the only answer, but she moves you forward in the right direction, and hopefully healthier and better able to tackle this monster.



2. 12% success rate? Defined by whom? No reliable statistics exist on this point. After her own alcoholism got beyond deniability, Powter dried out and got back on the self-promotion bandwagon, her grandiosity and dangerous ignorance unchanged.

   Her advice on nutrition is just another rehash of the crazy, paranoid/conspiracy minded quackery of con artists like Adele Davis and Gary Null. Please check out Dr. Barrett's comments on these two at http://quackwatch.com

   I Ms Powter's looney advice has an 80% success rate, where is her Nobel Prize? And for that matter, where is she? Did the secret cabal of 'powerful lobbyists' assassinate her?

   Take a walk, eat real food sensibly, go to AA, take what you need, leave the rest. The "AA" described by quacks like Powter is a straw man. Real people can and do get and stay sober without lining the pockets of creeps like this woman.




3. ...like me. I read this book back a few years ago when i was looking for ways to get and stay sober. I believed this book and spent a bunch of money on the nutritional supplements and went to an MD and a medical detox. Combined, I thought it would work. It didn't. Neither did the Reiki, the naltrexone, the hypnosis, or the affirmations, etc. Finally, three and a half years later, I have tried the only thing that actually works for someone like me who has the disease of alcoholism rather than just a condition of alcohol dependence, which may be what Susan had.

   For those with alcohol dependence, but not the disease of alcoholism (there's a subtle difference in ways to tell which you have, but a huge difference in how to treat it), this method may well work. But, for those with true alcoholism, there really does need to be intervention from a higher power to overcome it. The reason AA has such a low success rate is because a person has to choose and adhere to the lifestyle, or the disease creeps back up. The very nature of the disease itself makes this choice very difficult to make and then adhere to. But, if the directions are followed, success is assured.

   However, psychology and nutritional supplementation will not cure or even bring into remission, the disease of alcoholism. Nutritional supplementation can definitely help bring the body back into decent shape after abstinence, but cure alcoholism? I really doubt it. Believe me, an alcoholic will try everything under the sun to fix their problem to avoid doing the one true thing that will actually work, the 12 steps. And, if they make it through all those scenarios alive, hopefully then they'll make it to a 12-step program. Because if you have this disease, nothing else works. If you have what looks like alcoholism but isn't (and is merely alcohol dependence), then this program may well work. Just please, please, please don't fool yourself into thinking this will work if you have the real deal.

   I just hope Susan is still sober, whether she's using the method in her book, or a 12-step program.




4. Sober.... And staying that way
   
   Just as Susan composes herself on TV, she is the same way in her writing. Over the top and a bit edgy. In my opinion there are sections of the book that could have been cut. Now why am I supporting Lady Powter's Book? Because she cuts thru the bull of treating alcoholism. She freely exercises her freedom of speech; with her own style and trademark flair.
   
   Susan Powter's attack is to actually TREAT alcoholism, as apposed to simply standing still and staying sober, calling someone in the middle of the night and constantly living one day at a time. Thru the author's eyes, you are able to see past that life threatening next drink. Incidentally, that next drink will not only bring you back to where you were when you last practiced your alcoholism, but you will find that your dis-ease has much advanced, perhaps even doubled. Dearheart, don't go there!
   
   The foundation for her argument in treating alcoholism is laid down in a concrete detailing of nutrition. For instance: consuming sugary products to ease the cravings only keeps the cravings alive and creates the "dry drunks"
   
   She brings power to the word "Surrender".
   
   If that isn't enough, the haunting way she describes the terror that alcohol brings to the body's organs will leave you feeling sick. However biter her medicine may be, her humor adds a spoon full of sugar (pun intended) to help.
   Sober...and Staying That Way : The Missing Link in The Cure for Alcoholism



5. I like the book because it can be counted among the few in the alcoholism/addiction field these days that has the perspicacity to talk about cure. And see Cured! Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts. It probably subjects one to being drawn and quartered by the professionals and 12 Steppers alike to say that you've read Powter and enjoyed the read. But here's where I'm coming from: As I began my research of the spiritual successes achieved by early A.A., the first thing I became sure of was that the early AAs who thoroughly followed the path to a relationship with God were cured and said so. When Early AAs Were Cured and Why, Third Edition. That's what the statistics showed though people today seem to think it's dangerous to book sales, treatment centers, therapy, pharmaceuticals, and celebrity programs to claim that alcoholism can be cured. But it can. I'm cured and I don't need to drink, want to drink, think of drink, or oppose drink. Life is just too great to spoil it with temptation and resultant bad behavior. As AAs like to say, Alcohol makes me break out in spots--like accidents, incarceration, odd places, just as the early AAs did. But there were cured and didn't have to live that way any longer. They were relying on the power of God.God and Alcoholism: Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st Century. "Cure" isn't the full story. And that's where Powter and Matthews Larson and a good many others come in--therapists, physicians, religious affiliations, educational institutions, and fitness experts. He who can successfully resist temptation and abstain with full knowledge of what happens when you don't resist the Adversary is he who puts on the whole armour of God. Then what? The abundant life, the whole life, the spiritual way mean certainly can and should mean a job, an education, concern for others, an understanding of what God can do for those who diligently seek Him. It also means attention to exercise, nutrition, avoidance of stress, wholesome recreation, sleep, mental stimulation, and love and service to others. It takes more than A.A. and Powter to produce all that. Fortunately, when they stay away from nonsense higher powers, AAs and others in recovery can achieve all that with God's help. Huzzah for the champions of something other than not drinking, going to meetings, whining, and focusing on self. A.A. is at its best when it points newcomers to God and service to others. I believe Powter contributes to the get well process, rather than "once condemned always condemned" stultifying life of being "in recovery" for the rest of one's life. Those of us still enthusiastically involved in A.A. are usually enthusiastically involved in trying to help the next person get straightened out--mentally, physically, and spiritually.

5 comments about His Holiness.

1. The thesis of this book is inspired by an agenda by the author. It tries to applaud him with one hand while trying to dismiss him with the other by reducing John Paul II's complex and prophetic vision to a mere out of touch authoritarian woman hater. The only thing that is worthy of comment about this book, is the depth of myopia that the authors view this most inspiring, mystic, philosopher, artist, prophet, man who is a Father to us all.



2. The Church changing her teachings regarding artificial contraception and other LIFE issues is like an engineer saying "well, its time to change that pesky law of gravity." Bernstein is more interested in his ideology than the life of Pope John Paul II. For a more balanced, scholarly, and less agenda driven biography of the Holy Father, look up George Wiegel. Don't waste your time with these hacks.



3. It is just too difficult to sort out the ideological agenda of the author from the facts. Bernstein utterly fails to understand one of the most interesting people of our time. This book has all the trappings of a serious work but when I read about the Pope I want to know what inspired the man. This tedious chronological and "investigative" work fails to provide that and thus we are left with a very boring read.



4. Among the many books written about Pope John Paul II, the book by Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi, His Holiness, stands out. That's because it's focus is on the role played by the Pope, working along with the Reagan Administration, in causing the fall of communism.
   
   This was a delicate balancing act for John Paul. As Stalin so famously pointed out about a previous pope, he had no military power, only moral and spiritual power. As they recount his first trip as Pope back to Poland
   
   "What was talking place now in Warsaw's Victory Square was a breakthrough to unknown horizons. John Paul II never uttered a word that might lead directly to a confrontation between Church and state, between the party and Christian believers, but everything he said marked the beginning of a grand turnabout for the Church -- in Poland, in Eastern Europe, in the Soviet Union, in world affairs. Through him the Church was laying claim to a new role, no longer simply asking space for itself. Through him it was demanding respect for human rights as well as for Christian values, respect for every man and woman and for the autonomy of the individual. These demands represented a direct assault on the universal pretensions of Marxist ideology, which by now had become an empty shell in the countries under Soviet influence."
   
   
   
   A campaign just by Solidarity, even aided by the Pope, may have gotten no farther than the Hungarians in 1956 or the Czechs in 1968. What was different now was that the West, especially the Reagan Administration in the US, and Margaret Thatcher's government in Great Britain, had moved away from detente and began to actively push back. John Paul II had similarly moved away from the Ostpolitik of Pope Paul VI. The book details the co-operation in intelligence between the US and the Vatican. It also provides, through Politburo minutes obtained by the authors, the futile attempts by the old men of the Kremlin, and later the unsuccessful attempts of the younger Gorbachev, to get the toothpaste back in the tube.
   
   This book, which was released in 1996, was a five year collaboration between Carl Bernstein (best-known for his work with Bob Woodward in All the President's Men and The Final Days) and Marco Politi, who is both the dean of Vatican journalists working for La Repubblica and then Il Messaggero, and a former Moscow correspondent. Countering a criticism, over how do we know what was really said at private meetings recounted in these exposé books, this book is quite detailed in its sourcing. The authors conducted, and documented, a long series of interviews with the people involved, up to and including President Reagan. The participants are quoted directly, and a Sources section at the back of the book shows who said what.
   
   The book probably would have done better focusing strictly on the East-West struggles, but it was extended to include both a short biography of John Paul II's early life, plus a critique in the latter part of the book of the theological controversies during John Paul's long reign (and there were still nine years to go after the book came out.) While I'm interested in having Carl Bernstein as a guide through some of the great political struggles of the late 20th century, I really don't need him as a theology teacher.
   
   While this isn't a new book, it is an interesting retrospective on one part of John Paul II's papacy.



5. Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi have written an excellent portrait of Karol Woytyla - both the man and the pope. The authors are objective about John Paul II's world vision, triumphs, shortcomings and place in history while being respectful at the same time.
   
   "His Holiness" is not for those enthralled by the now deceased Woytyla's charisma who may interpret critically objective discourse as being anti-Catholic. The book fairly chronicles Woytyla's clashes with feminists both inside and outside the Church, his critical view of the values of the richer, "decadent" Western nations, and his attempts to crush all who did not share his viewpoints on Church doctrine.
   
   The authors hint that Woytyla may have been reexamining his stance on the role of women and papal infallibility in the last years of his papacy. But the book was published in 1996. In it the authors note: "A principal problem facing John Paul II's papacy continues to be democracy in his own house.... (C)an a pope who championed democratic rights in Poland and all over the world continue to run the Church as an absolute monarchy?" I sincerely wish the authors will return to examine the last nine years of Woytyla's life.
   
   I have never agreed on Woytyla's policies on contraception, divorce, the role of women in the Catholic Church, homosexuals and papal infallibility. But there is no question in my mind that the man was brilliant; his achievements were monumental in upholding the dignity of the human being, in fighting for freedom, and in reconciling with the world's other great religions.
   
   And his constant, well publicized travels served a critical need. As the authors write:
   
   "His very presence in the most desolate parts of the world provided a spark of hope for people in misery. For men and women trapped in the shantytowns and barrios of the Third World, the arrival of John Paul II sometimes offered the first significant testimony to their existence as human beings, the only time in their lives when their wretched living conditions were presented to the court of public opinion in their own countries and around the world."
   
   Pope John Paul II "The Great"? Yes, without a doubt.
   
   Pope John Paul II "the saint"? I'm not so sure.

5 comments about Quiet Room.

1. Primarily Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett, but also Lori's family, Dr. Doller et al did an excellent work to open the window to the rest of us, socially acepted as "sane", to have a view into the mechanics of an actually "crazy" mind. I hadn't read a book like that for a long time, not a single sentence in this book is fluff! There is also an excellent movie in this book
   ~
   Lori, sweetheart, you are brave!!! Not only for fighting your sickness to a manageable state yourself, but also for being bravely honest to narrate your inner world despite "the voices"
   ~
   My son, also in his teens, started acting very weird and I thought he was just a spoiled brat, till my wife pointed out to me the obvious; "he wasn't OK" and he started to talk about "voices" and very similar things.
   ~
   I didn't really know what to do (he came from overseas to live with me, so I basically didn't know him). I fell like I had gone to a foreign country and would see signs I could not really comprehend. Lori helped me understand things better. I found clear answers to some very concrete questions I had myself about clinical craze
   ~
   Thank you Lori Schiller
   ~



2. Schiller writes grippingly and insightfully of her experience of schizophrenia including the "cold wet packs" of ice water soaked sheets used to restrain and calm her psychotic outbursts and her times in hospital "quiet rooms". The writing style is journalistic and factual when dealing with intense emotions and experiences. She is wonderfully descriptive in explaining the reality of her delusions and hallucinations, the experiences of pychotherapy, suicide attempts, cocaine use, psychiatric hospitals and half way houses. Eventually clozaril helped (with psychotherapy) to bring her back from the abyss of severely disabling schizophrenia. Her full diagnosis is "schizoaffective" disorder as her illness includes a bipolar disorder component. The accounts by Schiller, her family members, doctors and friends lend insight to the course of her disease especially as experienced by her family. I was particularly struck by her parents' progress from denial and resentment of both her diagnosis and her doctors to growing insight into schizophrenia and eventual recognition of the illness in their family history. While the multiple accounts make the narrative more difficult to follow they also add greatly to the story. Highly recommended!



3. This is a unique and beautiful book. Any person with interests in Psychiatry or Mental Health issues must read it. It's the first time I experienced what a schizophrenic felt first hand. A must-read!



4. This is a book that not only educates but provides the reader with a new compassion for those who deal with mental illness. Ms. Schiller presents a very complete picture of the sufferings of the mentally ill. From her writing, I gained a new perspective- including greater compassion- for those who are victims of this awful illness. I have only the highest praise for her honesty, her insight and her struggle. She is to be highly commended. A definite read.



5. This book helps see into the confused world of mental illness like no other. Wonderful & hopeful!