5 comments about The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic.

1. This is an eye-opening book of lives diverted or interrupted, many by mere social missteps which resulted in life-long incarceration (AKA "commitment"). The pathos is almost tangible, especially upon viewing the long-lost items harbored in dusty suitcases left behind in the state hospital attic. It reminded me of what I felt and imagined upon viewing the artifacts of passage on display at Ellis Island.
   
   The editing of this book is abyssmal. I had to resist taking pen in hand to suggest re-ordering of paragraphs and note corrections. That being said, the book is still a worthy and engrossing read.



2. This powerful book documents the lives of people who were marginalized and forgotten. The authors took the opportunity to honor, respectfully, the individuals who were locked away and treated as though they didn't matter. The case notes illustrate just how much the "professionals" refused to see beyond the diagnostic lens, to the real person facing extraordinary challenges.
   
   This is relevant today because it still happens today. Having worked as an advocate for people confined to state mental hospitals, I can testify that there is a disproportionate number of individuals of color, individuals who came from other countries, individuals whose culture and traditions differ from the accepted norm. Rather than recognizing trauma and helping survivors recover, we label people and drug them, often condemning them to a lifetime of disability. Even though we don't keep them in the hospital for the rest of their lives, many lives are wasted through overmedication, hopelessness, and learned helplessness. This constitutes institutionalization in the community. Penney and Stastny have done a great service to the people they memorialized in this book: they gave them a name and a story.



3. "The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic" is a straightforward book about an ugly part of our history. Its power, however, is that it demands that we look at the here and now. By clearly and simply reconstructing what little CAN be reconstructed of the lives of souls forgotten in a huge mental institution the authors left me with a haunting question: where are we stashing and forgetting the troubled souls of this generation? The answer is to be found in our prisons, under our bridges, in isolated board and care homes ....... and?
   
   Darby Penney and Peter Stazny, in this book, in their museum exhibition, on the "suitcases" web-site and in displays and presentations around the country, have given back something of what was taken from the individuals who were committed and consigned to the anonymity of large institutions. It is up to us to see that the "taking" ends in whatever form it occurs.



4. The book consists of a conundrum of stories, as deducted by the authors from the suitcase contents (!) and case notes of former long-term patients in a state mental health institution. The authors' agenda becomes clear after reading a few pages in this book - they do not approve of state mental health institutions, disqualify them as inhumane, and attempt to explain away the chronic and persistent mental health issues that led many patients to be admitted there in the first place as mere alternative lifestyles minimized and explained away by the treating 'traitors'. Religious delusions, for example, are termed as 'spiritual turmoil'.
   
   This is in no way a realistic picture of the mental health field. Reality is that some of our patients simply require long-term care. Period. A more reasonable take can be obtained from the new book by E.F. Torrey "The insanity offense" where a clear argument is made, backed by epidemiological data, that the closure (now lack) of long-term facilities, while well-intended by liberals - for issues of 'humanity' - and by conservatives for 'cost-considerations', has gone awry. There is in fact an unprecedented wave of mentally ill patients who now occupy our prison system, for example, or who bounce back and forth between acute hospitalizations and highly structured living situations.
   
   In essence, a very polemic ill-advised book, that fails to address the truly important issue we face: how to provide the best and most appropriate care for our most ill mental health patients. The authors strongly argue against structure, but fail to provide any alternatives whatsoever.



5. Not one review before mine gave a score of "average". Folks either really like this book or absolutely hate it. The numerous errors and typos were easy to spot. The authors quickly established that they had "an axe to grind". But in most of their observations they were talking about institutional care of the past, rather than the current system. Not to say that events upon which they report aren't still happening. I do think the authors do a reasonable job of showing that a number of the cases upon which they report did not have a "wretched" before Willard. Examples such as "She is in a [private boarding] home and refused to leave after being ordered out and used vulgar and obscene language" seems pretty weak as justification for a lifetime of institutional commitment. And it does seem clear that the culture of the time resulted in very little timely research regarding the underlying reasons behind the patient's abnormalities. I do not share the view that these folks would have been upset with their stories being told, in fact with varying degrees, those that could think coherently would have probably welcomed it.

5 comments about I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.).

1. This book is a must read for all those who are or have ever been involved in the gay club or bar culture and who enjoy witty banter and extreme circumstances. Surprisingly, given its content and focus on a twenty-something alcoholic advertising exec by day and drag queen by night and a high-end fetish prostitute, the book is incredibly insightful and well written, titalating for even the most discerning and well-read critic. It's truly a mix of fun and outlandish situations and commentary on life that is a great read.



2. This book definitely gives insight into a life few of us will ever lead; therefore a great escape. There are some dark topics which the author touches on but does not go into detail which keeps the book fairly light and really a story about relationships on a level that is relatable to all forms of relationships. I am being a book pimp and pushing it on all my friends and family. It is emotional and entertaining, an easy read. Loved it.



3. You will not want to put this book down. Look for Josh's next book which will be available in May.



4. There is really not much to say about Kilmer-Purcell's 'I Am Not Myself These Days'. Simply put, it is my favorite book, a beautiful book, a book that I have read to pieces, scribbled thoughts in, and highlighted to smithereens. This book changed my life (how cliche) and I have since passed it on to no less than 10 of my friends, all of whom have written in the margins and underlined passages that scream out to them.
   
   Read this book.



5. I guess it always amazes me when people write books about their lives and just lay it all out there for the world and their mothers to see. Mr. Kilmer-Purcell pulls a chunk of his life from when he first landed in New York and covers the good--meeting a rich guy with a nice apartment, the bad--drug and alcohol addiction, and the ugly--the crash and burn when it all crashes down, a drunk drag queen the morning after, etc. As a comparison you could say it's sort of like Augusten Burroughs book Magical Drinking as they are both advertising copy guys who drink and drug a whole lot. It's funny how that particular career seems to have generated a number of writers and also amazing how they continue to drink and drug yet never manage to be fired or lose their jobs. I did enjoy the book, he has a light breezy writing style that makes the funny and sad material compulsively readable. Being a 7 foot, in heels, drag queen named Aqua definitely portends itself to riotous happenings and there are quite a few related to good effect here. But it's his addictive compulsive relationship with his hustler crack addict boyfriend that drives the story along to it's ultimate ending. The fact that he has recovered himself enough now to be a writer and columnist for Out Magazine seems like it could be a story in itself. Somehow you want to know how he managed to clean himself up after the extreme highs and lows he went through all in years time, hopefully in the next non-fiction book he does he will cover it. I do recommend this book, not only as an enjoyable read but a handbook of what NOT to do when you first move to New York.

5 comments about Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir.

1. Great book. It inspires me to take my two little girls to games. I thoroughly enjoyed it.



2. Ms. Goodwin knows how to tell a good story. In addition to telling us about her childhood in a New York City suburb in the 1950s, she also talks about the changes America was going through in this time period: economic development and the impact on the family, the beginnings of the civil rights movement, the "end" of baseball as the American pasttime. The book is well-written and very enjoyable.



3. Most interesting for me since I am a "wait till next year" Red Sox fan. She's an excellent writer and commentator and this lives up to her standard.



4. Doris Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. She is a democrat and mostly she writes about politics. However several years back she took part in Ken Burns documentary film on baseball and portrayed her memories and love of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s and later as an adult in Massachusetts, the Boston Red Sox.
   
   This stimulated her to reflect on her childhood days as a Dodger fan and she decided to write a book about it. But as she carefully researched her memory and her past she found that it was all intertwined with her life groing up as an impresionable girl on Long Island in the 1950s. Her parents her friends and her future wriing career were all tied togehter. So this delightful book is a memoir of her childhood growing up and living and dying for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
   I am 55 years old, slightly younger than Goodwin but I too grew up in the 1950s on Long Island and can relate to many of her experiences. She discusses how she started learning about baseball and the Dodgers when her father taught her how to fill out a scorecard. In the evenings during their quiet time together she would use the scorecard like a cue to narrate the game she listened to on the radio that day. This brought the game to life for her father and created an interest in her in narration that carried on into a career of writing.
   
   The book flows marvelously and you see the world from the eyes of an impressionable grammar school girl. Goodwin is somehow able to go back and put herself back in the mind of that little naive child. We see her devotion to the Catholic church, the fear of polio in the ealry 1950s before the vaccines. I know this so well as I contracted polio in the summer of 1953 though I never got it so bad as to need an iron lung. We here of her confessions as she admitted to her priest that she wished harm on the Dodger opponents. We learn about the kids in the neighborhood, all Dodger, Giant or Yankee fans. I was a Yankee fan but my brother and all my friend that I played ball with as a kid were Dodger fans. The Dodgers were the most popular team in New York. They were the underdogs and the team for the common working man.
   
   Goodwin's first boyfriend was a boy she got to know because he was a Dodger fan and they could talk so comfortably about the Dodgers. This is a story about the Dodger players she admired; Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Don Newcombe and Carl Furillo and the Yankees and Giants that she dispised, Mays, Mantle, Martin, Berra and others. It is a story about devotion and heartbreak; Bobby Thomson's home run, the story of Mickey Owens' dropped third strike. Billy Martin's heroics is 52 and 53. But it is also the thrill of 1955 when Dodger fans finally didn't have to say wait till next year.
   
   As all this goes on we also hear about her mother's health problems and her childhood girlfriends, the beginning years of television, the Army - McCarthy hearings, the cold war, the civil defense drills and the fallout shelters, memorable events for those growing up in the 1950s.
   
   



5. As a college drop out I am not what many people might consider well read. While school was never my strong suit, and studying was an event that rarely ever happened, I did manage to read a few great books along the way. My first and best semester of college I read Wait 'til Next Year. While I am not a fan of sports and am not competitive at all, this book was beautifully written and takes the reader on a tour through the author's life, all in the language of baseball. Using the sport as a way to framework the personal story was a wise choice as it gives great metaphors and context to the tale. I suppose I also have good memories tied into the novel as well, considering that I did really well grade-wise that semester and I remember really enjoying this book when I read it at that time.

5 comments about A Drinking Life: A Memoir.

1. Oh, the places Hamill will take you in this gritty, unflinchingly honest look at a fascinating interior life. Growing up in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, complete with cockroaches, Pete slowly acquires an understanding of what it means to be an Irish-American.
   Around age 8, his father, Billy, walked him to Gallagher's, the corner saloon, where young Pete got his first introduction to the camaraderie of the neighborhood bar. There he witnessed his father's serenading of the crowd, after loosening himself up with booze.
   It was an initiation that would influence Pete for many years to come. Throughout the book, Hamill notes the persistent, persuasive messages that our society gives, that drinking is an essential social lubricant.
   Be it a wedding, a funeral, the beginning of a job, or ending of one, joining the Navy, going on leave or vacation, on and on, drinking was invited, expected, nearly demanded.
   The book provides great insights into the times. Hamill writes, "We lived to the rhythms of the war (WWII). Before the War, During the War, After the War."
   Hamill's forays into the world of art are enlightening. While taking a drawing class, he becomes enamored of a nude model, and they become involved. His loves, travels, thoughts on religion and family kept me entranced, as well as his inevitable slide into an alcohol-induced moral deterioration.
   The surprising aspect here, was Hamill's moment of clarity, when he realized he had a choice, that he could disrupt the cycle of the "Irish-curse". We cheer for him as he strives to make a sober life for himself. An interesting life, told by a great writer.



2. A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill is a reflection on his drinking past. Without sentimentality Hamill tells a hard story. He portrays a loving mother, and an alcoholic father. He chronicles his impoverished childhood, his tough coming of age, his difficult search for meaning, his newspaper career, and his regrets about the way he treated his first wife and children. As the title implies his memories are tied together by recollections of alcohol, and a drinking culture that both fascinated and repelled him. The bar was a place of refuge where Hamill could be a man. It was a place to celebrate, to commiserate, to identify with others, to escape loneliness. It was the only place he bonded with his father.
   
   But the bar and the alcohol that fueled it had an evil side. It stifled human consciousness; it dulled pain, boredom, and joy. It allowed unconsciousness in the midst of living. During the 1960's at the peak of his newspaper career he realized drink was making his hands shake when he typed, and his mind so soft he couldn't spell easy words. He quit. Drinking memories ended. Hamill's love for the writing life was more important than his love for booze.
   
   His memoir is not a cautionary tale against using alcohol, nor is it a self-serving whine against the way he was brought up. He writes like the reporter he is. Honest sentences, specificity, and recalled emotion inform his text. He presents clear snapshots of his 1940's childhood in Brooklyn. He lets the reader draw conclusions, or judgments. He presents the characters who walked across his mother's kitchen floor--his Irish father, mostly drunk, and his siblings. He gives us his friends. He moves into the 1950's with raw adolescent energy--lots of sex, lots of booze. Drinking so overpowers the narrative, that at times I felt exhausted just by reading of his drinking binges.
   
   Hamill's talent, in this memoir and in other work, is a passionate love for real life. He spreads humanity on a broad canvas without moralizing. He paints violence, gentleness, loneliness, and companionship. Real life is hard to look at. Hamill gives it to the reader like he gives it to himself. Without bitterness, with humility, with forgiveness, and with compassion.



3. In my quest for chronicles that detail the often entwined aspects of drink and journalism, I was delighted to discover Pete Hamill's candid tale, robust and surly - an account that carries the reader through his lushly-detailed memoirs that began in blue-collared Brooklyn. As the son of struggling Irish immigrants, Hamill grew up during the Depression with the enduring beliefs of the working-class neighborhood in which he lived -street-fights, low pay, loyalty to the neighborhood, and machismo drinking. His tale is rich with the nostalgia of days long past - marbles and stickball, Milton Caniff, Captain America, and the city Athletic League. He details his own lack of connectedness with an alcoholic father he longed to love and vowed not to imitate, only to fall prey to the same lure of the bottle.
   
   Hamill recounts his loss-of-innocence submission to wine at eleven, along with the internalization of the street-tough attitude that shapes his life in the ensuing years. His talent for graphics and natural ability in academics often leads him to the edge of success, only to fall victim to his own self-destruction. Dreams of becoming a cartoonist are interrupted by the reality of a Navy Yard job, yet resurrected again through art lessons from Burne Hogarth, then dulled by a desire to imitate stoic drinkers like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The romantic association of absinthe and literature appeals to Hamill, a seduction that eventually draws him to a career in journalism. He details the rocks and bumps along the way - through newspaper strikes and Mexican jail. His obvious wanderlust takes him from Barcelona to Dublin, Rome to San Juan to Washington D.C., while trying to sustain a turbulent marriage, peppered with an infinite immersion into parties and booze, and eventual divorce.
   
   In 1966, Hamill meets Shirley McLaine at a party in Rome, and he details, very briefly, the eventual celebrity life he shared with her, but shies away from giving us a paparazzi view of truly personal details. Although he denies it, he is perhaps too immersed in drink to recall the nitty gritty. In his final look inward, he describes a New Year's Eve party and his feeling "as if I were shooting the scene with a camera from across the bar...I noticed that my hand was trembling and wondered if that was in the camera shot," - his own personal play that has lasted a lifetime, one written with a bad script that he rewrites at that very moment. Kudos for him.
   
   This is not a book that shows you how to quit drinking; rather, it is a searing, vivid account of one man's recognition of his own problem with alcohol. Despite years of succumbing to the liquor that constantly dragged him into the depths of the gutter, he emerged with a brilliant tale to tell.



4. Pete Hamill"s deeply introspective memoir of his coming of age during the late 40's and 50's in working class Brooklyn is a brutally honest account of how alcohol gets integrated into certain rights of passage as people , especially men navigate the transition to adulthood.
   
   His story could be anyone's, except that Hamill writes in a gripping personal style that infuses each episode in his young life with a sense of urgency. The struggle to reconcile with a distant father never deteriorates into a sense of victimhood. I admired the fact that Hamill is able to describe his youthful feelings of anger toward his father without wallowing in them and always with a sense of someone seeking to understand and forgive.
   
   This is a great book on several levels. Hamill captures a sense of the old neighborhoods of New York that have vanished and the strong influence that a sense of place had on young people of his generation when the world was quite a bit smaller.



5. I picked this book up out of desperation for something, anything to read...and I must admit that the title clinched the deal. "A Drinking Life" - I couldn't resist. Drama, angst, highs, lows...it's all right there in the title.
   
   What I wasn't expecting was a book that depicts a time, place and way of life that has always fascinated me. One of the reasons I love "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is the vivid and at the same time, faded sepia description of a New York, and an America that I never knew. I've been to New York twice, have seen touristy parts and not so touristy parts, have been at turns delighted and appalled by its residents...and of course, in that short period of time, barely scratched the surface of this city that almost defies description. Because, of course, there are so many facets to it. New York depends on the area, the time, the circumstances. One person's New York may be a polar opposite of the next person's.
   
   Pete Hamill, in the first half of his memoir, describes the New York of Brooklyn from 1939 to 1950. In this New York, he and his Irish Catholic family struggle to better their situation. They live hand to mouth, in sometimes squalid apartments - too small for a family that keeps growing. And yet - when Hamill spends pages describing the more positive aspects of his childhood - I feel a yearning to be there. To see the far quieter and yet more greatly populated streets. I hope to hear the sounds of stickball, and radios playing jazz and swing into a summer night. I want to feel the safety and connection of a neighborhood that knows each and every member...one that shares the joy of the end of a war that they together shared the dread of.
   
   He describes D day in a New York that had been blacked out for months fearing air raids. "...without warning, the entire skyline of New York erupted into glorious light: dazzling, glittering, throbbing in triumph. And the crowds on the rooftops roared. They were roaring on roofs all over Brooklyn, on streets, on bridges, the whole city roaring for light. There it was, gigantic and brilliant, the way they said it used to be: the skyline of New York. Back again. On D day, at the command of Mayor LaGuardia. And it wasn't just the skyline. Over on the left was the Statue of Liberty, glowing green from dozens of light beams, a bright red torch held high over her head. The skyline and the statue: in all those years of the war, in all those years of my life, I had never seen either of them at night. I stood there in the roar, transfixed."
   
   He also describes his love of books, and words, and comics and the magic that happens when one is drawn into the new world of a story. When you discover a world, an existence, a universe previously unknown.
   
   "But when we lived on Thirteenth Street, the content of the comics was driving deep into me. They filled me with secret and lurid narratives, a notion of the hero, a sense of the existence of evil. They showed me the uses of the mask, insisting that heroism was possible only when you fashioned an elaborate disguise. Most important was the lesson of the magic potion. The comics taught me, and millions of other kids, that even the weakest human being could take a drink and be magically transformed into someone smarter, bigger, braver. All you needed was the right drink."
   
   And there it is, of course. The underlying thread of the book...drinking. From the earliest age, alcohol is everywhere in Hamill's life. In his neighborhood, in his home, even in his history - drinking is an accompaniment to all events, large and small.
   
   When he reads Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the passage that stands out is one where Jekyll drinks the potion and is transformed in a hideous way..."I read that passage and thought of my father." Hamill is deeply influenced by his father...hating what drinking does to him at the same time he is learning that drinking is what men do.
   
   As the book continues, some of the detail of Hamill's life is lost, certainly because (as he is first to point out) much of it was lost to him as well due to alcohol, but I also got the sense that this part of the book was rushed. It almost felt like Hamill was looking at how much had written about his early life and realizing that he'd better move things along if was ever to finish.
   
   Still - there are passages like these that sucked me right back in. "In the summer of 1950, all of us from the Neighborhood hung out in a place on Coney Island called the Oceantide. Built on the boardwalk at Bay 22, it was a block long complex with a swimming pool, lockers, a long packed bar, and a small fenced-off area where the young men danced with the young women to a bubbling Wurlitzer jukebox. Down the block was a shop called Mary's, which sold the most fabulous hero sandwiches in New York, great thick concoctions of ham and cheese and tomatoes laced with mustard or mayonnaise, along with cases of ice cold sodas."
   
   My mouth waters just thinking about it...I want to be there!
   
   Finally, towards the end, Hamill comes to the realization that he's spent his whole life trying to either be exactly like or nothing like all of the influences in his life. Nothing like his father, and yet just like his father. Exactly like the comic book artists and heroes. Exactly like and nothing like his friends from the Neighborhood. Not only his life, but his writing is an imitation or rejection of that of others.
   
   Which is summed up in the mantra he uses to quit drinking. "I will live my life, I will not perform it." There is much time and experience and emotions that he has lost - but in the end, he is able to find the strength to cut the losses.
   
   "And I loved my life, with all its hurts and injuries and failures, and the things I now saw clearly, and the things I only remembered through the golden blur of drink."

5 comments about The Man Who Swam the Amazon: 3,274 Miles on the World's Deadliest River.

1. The story of a 'fat man' with the heart of a (sea)lion who swam the Amazon is one to inspire all of us who see ourselves in our dreams as athletes. It is compelling because it is often a life and death struggle with this overwelming monster of a river. It is also full of humanity, strength, frailty and beauty as it is the story of Martin and his support team who appreciate and deeply experience the wonder of the great river, the jungle and the different people along the way.



2. From the very first page, you know you are in for the story of your life. It is overwhelming to even think of the logistics involved in this unprecedented level of accomplishment - and even more so that it was the grueling feat of a man who, in most walks of life, would be well past his atheletic prime. Author, Matthew Mohlke, brings the reader onto the expedition, the highs and the lows. And if it is Martin's intent to remind the world of the need to preserve the beauty of our forests and rivers, he has accomplished just that with his passionate and unswerving devotion to this cause. In The Man Who Swam The Amazon, the authors share the danger and the beauty; taking the reader on a page-turning adventure that no script writer could ever improve upon. Thank you Martin and your whole incredible team for sharing all 3,274 miles with us; I could have read a page for every mile.



3. What Martin Strel did is unbelievable! This story is written beautifully to chronicle the journey through the jungle, as well as unveil the different sides of a man who seems incredibly human, yet not human, at the same time. The daily, journal style arrangement of this book has an easy, exciting flow and makes it near impossible to put down. I am exctied for the documentary "Big River Man" to come out, to put a face to all of the characters of the book!.....Here's to hoping that Martin's dream of peace, clean water, and friendship will be realized.



4. This is your quintessential "page turner." Despite being fully aware of how the story ends, I found my fingers glued to the book, just dying to know what would happen next. In addition to chronicling Strel's astonishing athletic feet, Mohlke also allows the reader to voyeur his or her way onto the boat as we meet members of the crew and delve into small human dramas which unfold as they travel deeper into the deadly jungle, (I, too, can't wait for the movie.) All is written by an author who was masterfully able to marry articulacy with slang, and eloquence with wit. I loved it.



5. I followed Martin's swim via his web site from start to finish. Needless to say I couldn't wait for the book. I read it in just two sittings and found the insites into the man and his crew to be simpley amazing. Matthew wrote this as a day to day diary, just as the web site did. For those of us that will never experance the Amazon in person, it gives you the feel of the jungle and the strength and determation of this man. He has to considered one of the greatest and most unselfish people on this planet. To do this, to open the eyes of the rest of us to what is really happening with the inviornment is an accomplishment that no politican or hollywood movie could ever do. If we had Martin Strel running the governments of this world it would be a better place for all of us. Martin proves that anything is possible if you really want it. A must read for anyone who say's "I just can't do that".

5 comments about Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number Christianity.

1. With some beautiful insight on the Christian faith, Jim Palmer tells of his faith journey without the support of the church institution. This book could easily fall into the trap of church-bashing, but Palmer has more of a "that didn't work for me but it could work for others" attitude. Through his own experiences and insights, he encourages the reader to look at his/her own spiritual journey and leads towards a deeper understanding of his/her concept of God and religion.
   Anyone who appreciates the Don Miller style and depth of writing will enjoy Jim Palmer's new book. This is one of the few books I will keep and reread for many years to come. Happy reading!



2. I am likely one of a few who never read Divine Nobodies. I was lured to this book by the emphatic reviews and perspectives offered by the reviews both professional and the ones on Amazon. I was also enticed by the book McLaren claimes is by the NEW Don Miller (I pray for whatever happened to the last one).
   
   Jim offers a refreshing perspective for those tired of church. This goes for those from everything from Traditional to Mega to Emerging church. Jim redefines church for the past couple of generations that have been stifled by the institutional merchants of religion that have occupied the leadership of most churches.
   
   Jim is not peddling some new model. He is modeling however a life led by daily communion with the Spirit of God. It is a connection that is often preached, but rarely exhibited in the institutional church. Our centuries of reliance upon leadership to identify where God is at work has left us blind to the Kingdom that God is building all around us. Jim challenges us to open our eyes, remove the lens of the modern faith, and to follow the model of Christ with reckless abandonment. Stop going to a church and start behaving like a little Christ. Stop being defined by a faith that revolves around your thoughts about Christ, and redefine others perspective of those that follow Jesus by showing love. Stop trying to proselytize through confrontation, and put your arm around the shoulder of a stranger. Jim's approach to faith is a breath of fresh air. Every page and story brings a better perspective of a life lived in connection to a living God.
   
   As a warning to some, Jim does bring to the table some perspectives that are seeming Eastern at times. They may be difficult to buy. Oddly enough, I do not believe he cares if you buy them. Ponder on them and grind them out. Digging tough these deep and hugely consequential thoughts will greatly add to your faith.
   
   Now go and love.



3. I found this book to be incredibly amazing and thought provoking. I am currently reading Palmer's first book "Divine Nobodies" and i would recommend that as well. it really struck a chord with me and everyone should think about picking it up!



4. Palmer's former life as an executive pastor is a little bit fresh, making his outline of a new kind of orthopraxy both refreshingly freedom-focused and depressingly churchy in its expression. Still, Palmer is vulnerable (and cautious not to overstay his welcome) in sharing his changed perspective on Christ and Christ's message. The result is a challenge to orthodoxy that almost sings (especially his careful explication of American culture's sky-god). If you're fed up with traditional church, read this book.



5. Jim Palmer has had a fascinating spiritual journal. Though his resume includes working in pastoral ministry at Willow Creek Community Church and pioneering an emerging church in Nashville, Tennessee, Palmer has found his own faith grow wildly by stepping outside the confines of traditional religion and experiencing the fullness of God in everyday life. WIDE OPEN SPACES is the follow-up to his debut, DIVINE NOBODIES, and invites readers to look for a deeper spirituality beyond the status-quo. Palmer believes that the kingdom of God that includes love, peace and freedom is awaiting every follower of Jesus who will open his eyes and hear what God wants to do.
   
   Each chapter of WIDE OPEN SPACES takes a different snapshot of Palmer's spiritual journey and ideas. The chapter titles play on pop culture phrases and references such as "The Devil Wears Levis 501 Jeans" and "Humankind is from Mars, God is from Venus." The subtitles, though, more clearly identify the purpose of each chapter-length essay. They ask thought-provoking questions such as "Does It Matter If We Can't Do It?" "Is the Reality of Evil an Inconvenient Truth?" and "Can We Trust Our Gut?" Along the way, readers get insights into Palmer's thought process, background and life.
   
   Though well written throughout, the best chapter of the book is also the first, "My God Can Whup Your God! Is God a Belief System?" Palmer writes, "One of the most freeing discoveries these past few years in my relationship with God (and it's still sinking in) is that God is not a belief system or a fixed set of theological propositions. On the one hand, it seems patently obvious that a list of claims about God can't actually be God himself. There isn't a lockbox at the center of the universe containing a divine computer program and doctrinal code. Hopefully we've all realized that THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is fiction and that the number forty-two doesn't answer anything of ultimate significance."
   
   Despite such realizations, Palmer points out that for years Christianity was thought of as a well-defined set of propositions and practices. As a result, he spent many years treating his belief system as his savior. While important, solid doctrine is not the basis for salvation; instead, it's a relationship with Christ. Palmer shares quite transparently that for years his sense of security and comfort came from being right about God. Now he finds his security and comfort in knowing God and discovering His compassion, goodness, favor, forgiveness, beauty, truth and love. As demonstrated throughout the book, he finds it in more places than you can imagine.
   
   WIDE OPEN SPACES is a well-written book that contributes to the emerging conversation on where the church has been as well as where it is going and what that journey looks like in one little Christ-follower's life. It is recommended to people who are ready to color outside the lines of traditional faith and delve into a deeper relationship with Christ.
   
   --- Reviewed by Margaret Oines

5 comments about Window On The World (pb).

1. Though it says 2007, it's not a revised edition but has exactly the same information as the hardcover version I bought in 2002; no updates on major world events/changes, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. An excellent spiritual resource, as well as useful in teaching geography and cultures.



2. My kids are learning about geography through this book, which we read from about 3 time a week. We learn something about the people and the terrain and about Christian missionary efforts world wide. They may not see or read glimpses of specific types of people without this book and I am pretty happy about that. I think the personal stories sound artificial and they are too short to really care much for the character of each singular blurb. Also they mention a movie called "The Jesus Movie" I don't get the emphasis on the showing of that movie. It almost sounds like marketing for the movie and I guess it's going to work because I want to see what it is they are talking about. Great for other home school families that want some geography and anthropological exposure.



3. This book is life-changing. It is my 8 year old daughters favorite part of the school day, but I am learning as much, if not more, than she is from it. I am learning that the world is much larger than my city, my state, the US and even North America! There is a lot going on out there that I have been horribly blind to until now. This book is opening my eyes to the knowledge that EVERY person is a child of God and He loves and cares about each one. This book is causing me to have a new perspective of thankfulness about how fortunate my family is and daily I am reminded to be thankful for our health, our safety, our comfort and material provision, our food, clean water, all things I have taken for granted until now. We are very spoiled in this country and I think this book is an awesome tool for adults and children to foster a new way of thinking!



4. Great addition to our history studies. We tie in missionary needs to each country we study. The kids beg me to read these short entries to them. I'm learning about countries and groups I've never heard of.



5. I am using this in my Children In Action class at Church to help my children understand other cultures. It has been a great help, and really keeps their attention which is rare for most text books.

5 comments about Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain.

1. Heavier Than Heaven
   
   Kurt Cobain was a small town boy gone big. After living a hell of a childhood he finally found what he wanted. Kurt and two friends started a band. They took the name nirvana which a new state of mind. They took off on American tour. They fired their drummer Chad Channing. They recruited new drummer Dave Grohl. They got famous. Kurt killed himself by overdosing on heroin and shooting himself in the head.
   
   I can say this is one of the best books I have ever read. This book gives you every thing you need in a book. I don't care if this review is not long enough this is all I have to say.
   
   The characters are Kurt Cobain.



2. This is a great buy. The book reads smooth although the timelines are not always constant. There is only one outcome according this book and it tries to cover most sides of Kurt's life, including the bad sides. Fortunately it is not 'don't use drugs propaganda' which I see to often these days.
   
   Still there is some room for discussion because the author does some personal interpretation of facts and stories.



3. This book is a wonderful tribute to Kurt's life. Charles Cross' writing style makes you feel as though you were watching a movie. His descriptions reach points where you'd think they were best friends and the amount of detail leaves you wondering how he could know so much about someone who isn't even alive to ask anymore. Cross uses many quotes from the people in Kurt's life and fills you in from day one, starting with Kurt's parents before he was even born. I dislike the amount of names mentioned in the book however. Many characters are only name drops, which becomes confusing at times because you're not sure who is being spoken about. Other than the obsessive amount of names, the stories are fairly easy to follow. The author added some pictures about 200 pages in, from mostly Kurt's family that were very touching to look at. I thoroughly enjoy it, and do not regret buying it. I'd say it's definitely worth the money.



4. By: ANETA BASALAJ
   
   By writing this book, Charles Cross is letting the world know everything about Kurt Cobain, including details even Kurt probably didn't realize about himself. He starts from Kurt's childhood and describes his entire life all the way up to his death.
   
   Cross is a veteran music journalist, which makes him the perfect person to write about one of music's most incredible people. He used to be the editor of The Rocket, the Northwest's highly regarded entertainment and music magazine, which was also the first publication to do a cover story on Nirvana. It is obvious that Cross really knows what he is talking about in this book.
   
   Cross went through over four hundred interviews and an extensive four years of research in order to write Heavier Than Heaven. He goes into great detail, providing not only the facts, but analysis as well, which makes the reader more interested in reading and has him or her thinking throughout the book. Cross did not leave a single important event of Kurt's life out. Not only does the reader have a massive amount of knowledge about Kurt after finishing the book, he or she also gains respect for him.
   
   The obvious strength of the book is the enormous amount of information provided by Cross. This is also a weakness in the sense that readers might find themselves getting restless reading fact after fact, which is not necessarily the author's fault. Another strength of Heavier Than Heaven is the fact that the book is very chronologically accurate. The author does a very good job of not skipping around dates, especially when starting a new chapter. All in all, Heavier Than Heaven is a very well written book that any Nirvana fan should add to his or her bookshelf.



5. I think this book is a very captivating read. It gives alot of detail about Cobain's childhood, rocky adolescence, the forming of Nirvana, all the way through to his death. By the end of the book, it's pretty easy to understand why he killed himself. Alot of people are going to say that it's not true, that it's the "Courtney sanctioned" version of what happened, that Cross is making it up to cover up a murder, but this is nonsense. Overall, Courtney Love is not portrayed in an overly-flattering way, neither is Cobain portrayed in a bad light. People who say that Cross makes Love look great and Cobain look bad either have not read the book or are reading that interpretation into the book.
   
   Alot of people complain about the end, when Cross fictionalizes Cobain's last hours, but he never says that it's fact - to the contrary, Cross points out that that chapter is a fictionalization of what it might have been like. Does fiction have a place in a biography? In "Heaver Than Heaven," I say yes. It would have been a huge letdown if his death had been muddied over - even though we don't know what happened for sure.
   
   I give the book four stars because it's a very engrossing read. My understanding of Kurt Cobain increased greatly after reading this book, and I think my appreciation for Nirvana's music also deepened. It's a haunting, sometimes disturbing portrait of one of rock music's most mythical legends.

5 comments about Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.

1. For what it's worth, I love this book. It's my first choice for another point of view of the Bard. As a burgeoning Bardolator, it's wonderful to hear such an enthusiastic perspective on any and every play. The book is ambitious, erudite, and satisfying. There are, of course, occasional moments of bombast, but this is an immense book--both in scope as well as subject. The pretentious title is explained in pieces throughout every essay, though never as succinctly as "Shakespeare invented the human because..." Still, I readily and heartily recommend this book for anyone who is interested in another view of Shakespeare. It is not a simple read, but it should fit in for any well informed reader or college student. I would only recommend it to highly ambitious high school aged kids who aren't afraid of looking up words in the dictioary (e.g. proleptic).



2. I teach Shakespeare despite not having studied literature or English in college. I find several books very useful to me, this one among them. If you're reading Shakespeare for pleasure, you've almost got to use this as a companion to the plays. Bloom is a critic and commentator you should not miss, perhaps destined to be remembered in the same class as Samuel Johnson. His take on the plays is generally idiosyncratic and always thought-provoking and insightful.
   
   On the other hand, this should not be your only companion to Shakespeare. If you're only going to have one--and why would you?--I think you'd have to choose Marjorie Garber's "Shakespeare After All." I always consult that one before Bloom, because she offers a more fundamental analysis, while Bloom jumps right into his opinions. It is almost true to say that Bloom's book is as much about Bloom as it is about Shakespeare, and if that sounds critical, then for the record Bloom is one who can pull that off.
   
   If you are an undergraduate and especially if you are a high school student, you won't go wrong with Garber, though Bloom alone might lead you astray. If you can read both, great; if not, Garber. I also commend Cliffs Notes to any student who struggles with line-by-line comprehension. (I know that other teachers don't do that, and I think they're really just being snobs. Really, Shakespeare is great fun if you understand, and if not, then you've got to do something, haven't you?)
   
   Finally, if you want a deeper discussion of various issues (history, religion, interpretation, staging etc...), the Cambridge Companions are excellent.
   
   Incidently, the subtitle is misleading. Bloom's "invention" thesis is hardly the subject matter of the book. He spends maybe 3 pages on it, not doing the historical analysis such a thesis would require, but merely heaping hyperbole upon hyperbole in praise of Shakespeare. We don't read Shakespeare, Shakespeare reads us... and so on. It's simply an excuse, as if he needed one, to publish his thoughts on all of Shakespeare's plays.



3. I have to admit up front that I like reading Harold Bloom. I don't always agree with him and I often find his pronouncements on this, that and the other quite arrogant and short-sighted. On the other hand, his opinions often challenge me to consider my own and I respect his decades of grappling with the Bard and the history of Shakespearean criticism. As a fellow sufferer of Bardolatry, I feel I can sympathize with the man.
   
   And what of this book? Well, it is quite the tome. Containing analysis of each of Shakespeare's plays, it's a test of endurance. Anyone who isn't familiar with the vast majority of Shakespeare's plays would be advised, perhaps, to read the introductory essays and dip into those chapters on the plays he knows.
   
   As for myself, having read and seen most of the plays in the canon, I read the book through. In every chapter I found something valuable and I wouldn't have missed reading it for the world. When he feels a character is interesting or important--Iago, Cleopatra, Rosalind, Lear to name a few--he can wax practically poetic in his insight. The things that don't interest him he dismisses out of hand with a cutting remark or ignores entirely.
   
   Still, to be frank, reading too much of this at once can be tiresome. In large doses it is like listening to the grumblings of an old man who feels his time is past and he doesn't get the respect he deserves anymore. He hasn't seen a performance of Shakespeare he's liked in thirty or more years. He rejects all modern forms of criticism and interpretation. His obsession with Hamlet and, in particular, Falstaff, finds its way into the discussion of practically every play. I love Hamlet almost as much as Bloom but even I got tired of him as he appeared time and again. As for Falstaff: there can be no doubt he is a great character; however I think it takes a man of Bloom's age to rate him so far above many of the other Shakespearean characters.
   
   And as for Bloom's assertion that Shakespeare invented the human as we know it? Well, that may be pushing it a bit far for my taste but I take his point. The introspective nature and universality of Shakespeare's greatest characters was revolutionary. Certainly many important thinkers after him have found in Shakespeare the inspiration for ideas that have impacted our world. Our world--and most definitely our theater--would be different had Shakespeare never written. Still, would the nature of human beings be so very different? I remain unconvinced.
   
   Ah, but Bloom makes it easy to argue with him. He invites it. And I enjoy the debate. If one can ignore the provocative prose and rake for the gems, these are pages worth mining. I, for one, am glad I did.



4. Bloom is the great literary critic of our day, the master reader of our greatest literature. Shakespeare has always been for him the central figure of our literary tradition, the one who by far created the most. In his play by play analysis of Shakespeare Bloom argues that Shakespeare invented our present day conception of the human. He is the one who allowed our own inner minds to speak on the page. He is the one who created characters of flexibility and breadth beyond those we had known before. Bloom writes with inspiration as he exalts Rosalind, Falstaff, Hamlet, his major favorites and hosts of others. Bloom does what a great critic is supposed to do he gives us a far richer and greater sense of the work than we had before. He makes us eager to know it more.



5. THIS book is like having an excellent professor guiding you through the labyrinth that Shakespeare can be...and Harold Bloom blows away the doors of perception!

5 comments about The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness.

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!