5 comments about The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren.

1. This book is more than just a book, it is a recount of terrifying instances in several people's lives and is the scariest thing I've ever read because it is true. I really can't describe it. People who just want to be scared or are just looking for a thriller - do not buy this book, it's over your head, and I'm not exaggerating. People who are genuinely interested in the paranormal and have a desire to know the truth, whatever that may be, and who have an open mind, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It affected me in a lot of ways. I couldn't put it down. Even though I recommend it to anyone who is SERIOUS about the field of the paranormal, I kind of wish I DIDN'T know what I know now.



2. FREAKY!!!!!!!!!It took me a long time to read this book because I was too scared to read it during the night!! This is a real good book but not for young teenager's (not sure if this book would be for some young adults)! There are parts of this book that are extremely scary and you have to put the book down and walk away because you wonder how something so evil and demonic can exist. I think this book is also a good tool for reasons why NOT to get involved into the occult! These entities or demons can rip a person's life or family apart and the scariest thing is that you cannot see who or what is doing it! This book does explain signs and warnings to look for if you think something is not right! It is amazing the courage and knowledge that the Warren's have on dealing with these evil things because it is not for the easy hearted.



3. A very well-written and informative book, highly recommended for those interested in hauntings/infestations.
   I ordered this book in combination with Hostage to the Devil Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans, Interview with an Exorcist Interview With an Exorcist: An Insider's Look at the Devil, Demonic Possession, and the Path to Deliverance and An Exorcist Tells His Story An Exorcist Tells His Story. The Demonologist tells only part of the story in regards to negative paranormal activity. However, it is important to see their 'pastoral approach' to infestations, which is not addressed in the other Roman Catholic sources (which deal with severe possession). The Warrens, as devout Catholics, are not as interested in proving phenomenon as eliminating it, which they appear to be very effective at (for all the criticism of their work, I have yet to hear that they did not help the plaintiffs in their cases). In-the-know Catholics may have difficulty with some of their beliefs (the Warrens, in the book, confess a belief in reincarnation, which is against RCC dogma), but the RCC does not have a definitive statement regarding human spirits remaining in this world after death. Therefore, it is understandable that the Warrens, not having clear theological guidance in their work, might occasionally stray from sound doctrine.
   Anyway, this book is more of a novel than a handbook. In fact, there is no thorough treatment of the topic from a Christian perspective that I have been able to locate, but this book is a critical part of building a solid understanding of how these phenomena should be approached and treated.



4. Iam an Exorcist, the book was great, a lot of information, God Bless you for writing this book, let the truth be known.



5. The Demonologist WILL--no question about it--be shocking and even perhaps stomach-turning to anyone of, let's say, naïvety or too much "innocence" when it comes to spiritual matters. I, on the other hand, having just finished Malachi Martin's formidable guidebook to exorcism (Hostage to the Devil), was so well prepared that I was easily able to power through the Demonologist with nary a feeling of dread or shock, and, anyway, I humbly accept that there are forces beyond the mundane, so, again, that helps with the startling information in the Demonologist. Additionally, if you're secular and haven't encountered this information of demons before, I guess it'd help to desensitize you to the information if you're a fan of horror movies, as much of the Demonologist reads like the stuff out of one's worst nightmares!!!!
   
   This tome is but a snippet of some of the more notorious cases of demon-infestation that America's most well-known couple of demonology--Ed (now deceased since 2006) and Lorraine (probably classified better as a clairvoyant)--have tackled in their decades-long career of morbidity. It's written by the author (Brittle) in a very fluid and fast-paced manner interspersing interviews and quotes from the Warrens together with academic talk on the subject and a case-by-case walkthrough.
   
   Demonology is the study of the diabolical; the demonologist (Ed Warren) is not an exorcist but more of a scientist in that he actively compiles a case-load of evidence that actually corroborates matters of faith, i.e., the existence of evil spirits et al. In all seriousness, the Warrens are collectors of the morbid occult, and their home is a veritable stockpile/museum of all kinds of accursedly infernal objects: dolls, full-length mirrors, etc.. Additionally, they possess recordings of demoniacal voices during exorcisms; suddenly materialized objects from hauntings, and other "goodies" like "psychic photos." In the book, Ed reasons that through this stockpile of cold, hard, objective evidence, he feels confident he could go to court and scientifically prove beyond the shadow of a doubt the existence of the demonic!!!!
   
   Somewhat like a worn-out cliché, the Warrens' lifework of battling demons happened accidentally: as a young, married couple, they actually began painting haunted houses and selling the work at art shows for income. Soon, this morphed into them walking through the haunted houses and discovering that in most cases, the root of hauntings wasn't very friendly at all.
   
   The Warrens assert that most hauntings are in fact devilish; that is to say, INHUMAN SPIRITS are incurring the domestic disturbances, not merely Casper the Friendly Ghost. The Warrens are meticulous in differentiating between mere ghosts (once-human spirits) and demons (absolutely inhuman) because of a few, lethally important reasons. One, ghosts are psychically very feeble and can't hurt people or influence the environment much; demons have the power to hurt folks by their unnatural power through psychic, physical attacks, levitation, object-manifestation, oppression, and then possession!!!! Two, ghosts really have no intelligence in that they come short of interacting with people since they basically just repeat psychic-imprint actions they did during their lifetime; demons, conversely, will always use subterfuge to trick people into permitting possession of them.
   
   Some of the cases include a fretfully bizarre one that'd make for an effective horror story: the case of "Annabelle," a life-size, Raggedy Ann doll!!!! Here, the demon wasn't inside the doll, but it was deviously moving the doll around a woman's apartment to the point where it tricked her into believing it was merely the spirit of a little, lost girl. That was merely the MO of the demoniacal as the permission the woman bequeathed onto the invading demon to remain in the apartment was the foothold it needed to begin oppression. Before long, her roommate's boyfriend was actually attacked via several, long claw slashes across his chest. This case ended when an exorcism was done.
   
   Another case is more disconcerting because it involves the ignorant invitation of the demonic along with verily unnatural occurrences. The Warrens repeatedly warn that in most cases of demonic infestation, the fault belonged to ignoramuses for inviting inhuman spirits into their homes/lives via occult materials!!!! Case in point: a teen girl is actually bought--for Christmas, no less!--a book on conjuring demons by her mother! So, she recites the spells, and at first nothing happens...but this will change furiously very soon. The diabolically unnatural phenomenon increases from mere cold spots (Ed claims demons make rooms cold as their presence requires energy, meaning heat, which sucks the heat from a room) and heavy breathing in the teen-girl's bedroom to all-out disorder. After a short while, this escalates into unseen, demon hands beating on the teen-girl; birds "singing" outside her parents' window AT NIGHT; footsteps relentlessly ascending/descending stairs; radios playing and turning on/off relentlessly by themselves; furniture being thrown all over the living room; and pet dogs freakishly running BACKWARDS.
   
   In the aforementioned, the kids were exclusively the targets of the demoniacal attack insofar as the parents were largely spared this distressing phenomenon. Ed purports that this is another MO of the demonic: isolate certain family members to sow confusion, despair and infighting among the family unit. In fact, the Warrens clearly enumerate certain cautionary factors that you, the reader, can employ to determine whether you're experiencing anything infernal.
   
   You may be the victim of demoniacal oppression if:
   
   1) You feel a pervasive sense of doom OR evil all around you
   2) You experience disgusting smells
   3) You hear unexplainable moans, screams, rappings, poundings, whispering
   4) You endure mysterious changes in room temperature or ghastly visions
   5) You experience levitation, materialization, de-materialization, and teleportations of people and objects
   6) You receive strangling sensations around the neck
   7) You have your arms grabbed from behind
   8) You suffer cuts, wounds, gouges, burns or sudden illnesses
   9) You experience vulgarities mysteriously being written on your walls
   10) You endure random outbreaks of fire
   11) You have inhuman voices calling you on the phone!
   12) You see demon faces appearing on your TV!
   
   If you've experienced any of these in any cumulative pattern, it's advised you contact your local exorcist, priest or ghostbusters immediately!!!!
   
   If this sounds even the slightest bit disquieting, then chin up! This is actually but a taste of all the sordid details of the devilish that the Warrens go into in the Demonologist, and one must really read this book to get a full sense of it all.
   
   Nonetheless, some of the purports by the Warrens are so ludicrous that they stretch the bounds of plausible believability and, miserably, undercut their credibility. For instance, they allege that in exorcisms, the possessed can become hulking brutes that actually go on mini rampages, but in Malachi Martin's seminal Hostage to the Devil, not one of the possessed in any of his cases displays that chaotic power. Secondly, Ed Warren's logic at times is absolutely absurd and contradictory to common sense. In example, whenever dealing with accursed objects that demons allegedly infested, the Warrens routinely...get ready for this...take home the possessed objects!!!! Then, they allegedly display these accursed objects in Ed's study with, presumably, the infesting, inhuman spirit still attached to said object!!!! C'mon!
   
   Also, some of the Warrens' tales do seem rather tall as in unbelievable. Case in point: once, when taking home a possessed mirror that was used for summoning demons, Ed claims he and Lorraine were unrelentingly followed by a demon-truck on the freeway, that kept dumping green ooze/slime on their car!!!! This occurred in full view, apparently, of other motorists in packed traffic. Next, a demon-driven, black car planned to play "chicken" with their car as they were driving across a narrow bridge. Grossly questionable stories like that really sound falsified and hurt the Warrens' otherwise credible-sounding experience with fighting the diabolical. The inclusion of photos supposedly taken during "demoniacal activity"--which really only show trashed rooms and broken furniture--begs the question, Who staged this scene? I'm of course assuming the Warrens are telling the truth with the pictures, but there's always the hazard of deception.
   
   All told, though, the Demonologist is money well spent as it'll satisfy you on a few levels. If you're religious, then it will obviously seem profound to you. Even if you're an atheist, it will at least come across as a very scary read that will rival some of the best horror-fiction out there. If you're approaching this from a purely intellectual level, it will give you tremendous food for thought as you weigh the probability of inhuman spirits being real. The question you have to ask yourself above all else is, Am I brave enough to make it through the pages of the Demonologist? Well, are ya, buddy boy?!

5 comments about Colors of the Mountain.

1. Chen Da's bestselling COLORS OF THE MOUNTAIN is one of the more entertaining memoirs I've run across in recent years.
   
   In this volume, Chen recounts his life, growing up amid the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, through his acceptance into college. In the writing of autobiography, certain liberties are par for the course (memory is never impeccable), but I was overall rather impressed with Chen's determination, and his detailed, direct way of attempting to illuminate the day-to-day texture of life in an out-of-the-way part of China.
   
   Chen's approach is gentle - both accessible to Western audiences, and attentive in its' detailed depiction of his family's life, accomplishments, and the troubles those accomplishments brought (during the Cultural Revolution years); the occasionally mentioned poems of his grandfather were one of Chen's major motivators, and their eloquence was the model this entire memoir was constructed upon.
   
   Perhaps not the most literary, or the most historically rigid autobiography, but definitely one of the warmest.
   
   -David Alston



2. One wonders why the communist system was swept into the dustbin of history. Da Chen tells you why. Intellectuals were purged in Mao's society and people learned very little. In fact, school was not even required of everyone. Only after Mao joined Lenin in a masoleum did intelligence and ability matter much.
   Da Chen relates his early life story about his early Chinese childhood in the rural south of China. He was discriminated against because he was a son of a former landlord. Peasants lorded it over him and his family. Da Chen relates his experiences of the Cultural Revolution and how the school system was devastated by the purges and reeducation.
   Da Chen escaped this poverty by using his intelligence to shine in the reform education system after Mao's death. He received a state education in English and went on to emigrate to New York. A nice rages to riches story and the tyranny of the Communist system.



3. I read a lot of memoirs precisely for what I received from this book, inspiration. The sentence that galvanized me was this one, "I had been studying an average of fifteen hours a day for the last ten months."
   
   Other reviewers have explained Chen's story, so I won't reiterate it. But I will say that when I think about what this man accomplished in pursuit of his dream, I realize once again how easy it is to excuse our failures as a matter of fate or luck.
   
   Da Chen teaches us otherwise.



4. This review refers to the abridged audio version of this book --
   
   UGH. I am fascinated with books about China and life under Mao. However, I couldn't get through the first tape of this book, for two reasons.
   
   One was the reader, Daxing Zhang. His stilted, halting and monotone delivery made it unpleasant to listen to. He evidently is not a professional narrator and it shows. Even a great book can be ruined by a poor reader.
   
   And, believe me, this doesn't even come close to being a great book.
   The storytelling is dull and self-pitying and the language is, in turns, overblown and cliched.
   
   My biggest problem, however, was the author's attitude. Don't get me wrong: I abhor what Mao and his "cultural revolution" did in China. But it's more than a bit ironic when someone from the upper classes (the author's family were landlords and owned several buildings) complains when their property, power and status is taken away.
   
   The author's stated contempt for farm work, for instance, shows the type of elitist attitude that spurred the revolution in the first place.
   
   Never once (at least in the part of the book I managed to listen to) did Da Chen appear to have any empathy for the working classes that were oppressed under the pre-revolution days.
   
   Again, I must emphasize that I do NOT agree with the goals of or methods used by Mao's Communist regime, but nor can I generate a great deal of sympathy for once-rich whiners who feel, for the first time in their lives, the sting of poverty and disenfranchisement.



5. This book really taught me about what cultural impacts Mao Ze Dong had on the Chinese population. It was an amazing book and I suggest everybody read it.

5 comments about Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics).

1. Ernst Junger lived a long and literary life. He was born in Heidelberg in 1895 and died there 103 years later! Junger ran away from home at 14 to become a soldier in Kaiser Wilhelm's army. He wrote several novels following World War I, refused to be a Nazi member and is well known in Europe. Storm of Steel was his first and best known book.
   The first person account of trench warfare in World War I is related by Lt. Junger with descriptive prose worthy of a fine novelist. We as his readers experience all the horror, terror, fear, mud, slime, filth and death which were the soldiers daily challenges. Junger served on the Western Front from 1914-1918 miraculously surviving at least 14 wounds! Junger was a patriotic German who respected his British and French foes as men of courageous valor and courage. He impresses this reviewer as someone who considered soldiering a duty to be endured for a land he loved.
   This true story is filled with countless stories of good men killed in an instant due to a shell or poison gas. We see deep trenches filled with death, stench and rats. We feel what it was like to go over the top into the forbidding No-Man's land. The landscape drawn by Junger resembles Dante's descriptions of hell. In the wasteland of war Lt. Junger found time to listen to the birds or appreciate a beautiful sky but the majority of the book is a grim recounting of what war is like for the men who are called upon to fight and die for their nation. Junger loved his troops and grieved when they were killed. We catch the small moments of smoking a pipe, reading "Tristam Shandy", enjoying a cup of coffee and enjoying a night at the tavern with fellow soldiers. We see Junger fighting on the Somme and Flanders as he won the Iron Cross and several other military awards. Despite the medals this realist paints a sobering lurid portrait of modern war where steel metal, tank and huge artillery pieces determine the victor in battle.
   Storm of Steel is not for the squeamish but is the best first person account of combat in World War I. It is also of interest because it allows the English speaking reader to see what was going on in the German army in this holocaust which killed over ten million men in the modern cesspool of mechanized warfare.



2. At first I thought this book was going to turn out to be one of those books that were written at a different time that just couldnt have a style to keep readers this day and age interested. I was wrong. Junger has a style all his own and you will feel has if you are the one standing in his boots through all the epic battles and hardships. You can almost see the mortor shells landing around him with all the carnage that goes with them. You will feel happy when he triumphs, and sad when men are there one minute and gone forever the next. This book will only get better the further you get into and the ending I will admit put a tear to my eye, this man deserved everything he earned and more. His final battle is one you will not be able to put down. I found my self reading paragraphs two and even three times over again convincing my self that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. This book is a must have for anyone who is even mildly interested in combat novels.



3. This is an amazing book to read. Junger was a stormtrooper--the German soldiers who lead the first wave into the trenches--for something like four years. It seems extraordinary that anyone could have survived such a holocaust, let alone four years of it. There is very little in the way of emotional expression in this book, or personal or political observation. Junger devoted his writing to the material details of the battle. This book takes you right into it with unforgettable detail--the acrid smoke, the seemingly ceaseless rain of artillery. More of Jungers men seem to be felled by German artillery than the opposition. Junger describes a scene in which a battery is destroyed and a single horse survives, fleeing across the desolate landscape, "a white ghostly figure." From the very first minutes on the line, artillery remained a constant danger for these men. The book describes harrowing scenes of shootouts with snipers and machine gunners, shooting men at pointblank range with pistols. One scene describes a group of British cornered in a trench. Junger's men throw grenades into the trench. After each blast, helmets, rags of body parts, and blood flies up in the air. His unit moves forward to the edge of the smoking trench to finish the British off, only to be mowed down by British rifle fire as they prepare to fire. This is combat at its most intense! An ungorgettable read that takes you into the eye of the storm of steel. Definitely, good reading. You won't be able to put it down.



4. a straight-forward soldier's book who went through the whole war in the front lines. pleasingly free of the political whining and hand-wringing the saturates so many of the accounts written by 'our side' about this bloody and pointless conflict. the narrative touches on all aspects of the military experience of a member of the pbi (poor bloody infantry) and can serve for those on any side or army in this meat grinder of a war. i've been reading books on war for about 50 years at the clip of a couple a week and rate this book in the top three personal accounts - a truly excellent work.



5. STORM OF STEEL offers WWI from a German soldier's point of view, but Erich Maria Remarque it ain't. All told, author Ernst Junger was shot multiple times, yet would live not only to write this book (and many others) but to celebrate his 103rd birthday (attended by an unusually patient Grim Reaper-in-Waiting).
   
   On the penultimate page of this book, he writes: "Leaving out trifles such as ricochets and grazes, I was hit at least fourteen times, these being five bullets, two shell splinters, one shrapnel ball, four hand-grenade splinters and two bullet splinters, which, with entry and exit wounds, left me an even twenty scars." Like George Washington (who also was shot at, over, under, and through), someone seemed to be watching over Junger.
   
   Fans of war literature will relish this book. Junger takes the reader through the trenches of Flanders, the Somme, Cambrai, Langemarck, and many other WWI locales. His narrative is straightforward and blunt, including many details on soldiers' deaths (German AND British) with a full compliment of gory details. He seldom editorializes or pontificates, and even acts as if gas attacks are normal (well, they were -- then). The narrative has that "rubbernecker" effect going for it. The appalling body counts almost carry you forward, despite your disbelief at the complete waste of humanity. Meanwhile, Junger riffs on tests of manhood and the rush (along with the fear) that is war.
   
   Junger writes: "In war you learn your lessons, and they stay learned, but the tuition fees are high." Understatement. With examples of both mercy and bloody resolve, Junger's behavior will continue to astonish readers as they read his detailed account. Unencumbered by any attempts at high art or literary flair, STORM OF STEEL will put you there, giving you a real taste of how fleeting life was for these young men. The War had no winner and only one loser -- humanity itself -- only Junger chooses not to state as much. Instead, he trusts in his readers. Recommended for fans of history, WWI, and war literature. If you've read other works in the WWI canon, this is a worthy addition.

No comments about Jimmy Buffett Concert Handbook.

5 comments about Flyboys: A True Story of Courage.

1. Bradley hit a grand slam home run with "Flags of Our Fathers" but with "Flyboys" he ran a triple into a double. Reviewer Starzec does a fine job of detailing and addressing some of the odd commentary and analysis by Mr. Bradley that marginally taints an otherwise great book so I will not go into detail here. Bradley's writing style engages and flows easily and takes the reader on an emotional course right to the end of the book. This is a heretofore little known story but certainly an important one. This is one for the personal bookshelf. Good read.
   Steven Bustin, Author: Humble Heroes, How The USS Nashville CL43 Fought WWII
   Humble Heroes: How the USS Nashville Fought WWII



2. I purchased this book for the aviation story, but received the most unbiased history lesson about the two fighting cultures. We recommend it to all our friends and fellow history buffs.



3. Absolutely marvelous jobl! Every high school student should be required to read this book. I am about to order seven of the books to give to friends and family members. My father died after being shot down while a gunner on a B-24 bomber in March of 1944. As I read the book, I realized - even though he must have experienced some terrible minutes going to his death - how fortunate he was to not have been captured. I also spent some two plus years in Japan as a member of the occupation forces and found the Japanese people to be, like most Americans, sensitive,kind and ashamed of any military personnel and the political leaders who tolerated atrocities of any kind.
   
   Michael Dunne Healy



4. Definitely a good story of bravery, Flyboys by James Bradley, is a true story with interviews and facts about World War 2 that could change what people used to think about the war in the Pacific.
   It is a story about some Navy pilots that were sent in to attack a Japanese radio station on the island of Chichi Jima. It tells of how they were captured and treated on the island, but it is also more than stories of World War 2. It tells the history of the Japanese Empire and how they came to be the warring country that they were.
   This book delves deep into the most sinister parts of the Second World War. On one side, it describes how the Japanese treated the Chinese citizens and the American soldiers in some of the most horrific ways such as: killing, mutilating, and even eating their prisoners. Then again, this book describes how the American bombers firebombed the Japanese cities packed full of civilians.
   If I had to change something about this book, I would have written less about the trials at the end. The trials seemed to be too repetitive. The author discussed the same facts about the trial repeatedly. This seemed to drag out the trial and this part of the book lacked in interesting facts. Even though this book was choking with unnecessary facts, it was still interesting to read because of the more important details.
   I sincerely loved the amount of information in this book. Even the gruesome parts of the book add to the big picture of warfare; not just the bombs and bullets, but the emotional part of it as well. It also has some interesting comparisons such as: the chart that shows some of the Japanese cities that were bombed, which American city they were closest to in population, and how much of the city was destroyed. The whole book really makes you think what might have happened if the situation had been swapped between the Americans and Japanese.



5. Can't criticize this book strongly enough. It's viciously anti-American and very often at odds with the facts. It tries to draw moral equivalency between the US and Imperial Japan despite the enormous and obvious differences between the two. For example, the book tris to equate the American fire bombing of Japan with the horrific atrocities wantonly committed throughout Asia (particularly in China, Korea, and the PIs) by the Imperial Japanese Army and completely overlooks the obvious difference that the allied civilians who had been so brutally abused had SURRENDERED, while the Japanese civilians killed in the US air raids had not. Another striking difference was the Flyboys -at great risks to their own lives - dropped leaflets before the attacks warning the Japanese civilians to evacuate their cities or face the consequences, while the Imperial Japanese Army did just the opposite and lied to Chinese, Korean and PI civilians in order to concentrate them in a place where their exterminations could be more readily facilitated.
   The book also claims that the US bombed defenseless civilians - a flat denial of fact. In fact, the those civilians had radar to tell them of the incoming raids, a formidable array of anti-aircraft batteries, and as well as fighter protection.
   As for the claim that it was immoral to bomb Japanese cities independent of the issue of civilian casualities, and that Americans were therefore a being highly hyprocritical, it must be pointed out not only were they valid military targets, but also that their destruction would serve as a warning to future aggressors that such atrocities against US allies would breed retaliation and would not be cost free.
   Eqally outrageous is the large number of glaring historical errors the book contains. At one point the book quotes a source who remembered the smell of jet fuel on a US aircraft carrier in WWII?!!!!! FYI: The US had no operational jets in WWII. Similarly, the book quotes a supposed eyewitness to the DoLittle Raid, a British diplomat who was supposedly stationed in Tokyo at the time, despite the fact that Britian would have been at war with Japan for several months by that time.
   A far better title for this book would have been FLIGHTS OF FANCY.

5 comments about Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions.

1. Get's a little lost at times but a very fast read. Would make an interesting movie.



2. i heard from industry people that actually knew the person mentioned here, so the person does indeed exist, but the story isnt true. Lots of BS and conspirary that the author just puts in to entertain the reader...



3. This book is like Ben's others, a good read that keeps you wanting more. It is clear that the author enjoys digging deep into what these intelligent, elite Ivy Leaguers do with their connections and smarts. The book follows a Princeton grad on his deep dive into the Asian world and shows how the natives view the over-bearing visitors and how the visitors could care less about how they are perceived.
   
   Expensive motorcycles, ubiquitous sex, high dollar deals and a daily dose of living on the brink of the next big deal, keep you interested and amazed at what these young hot shots are exposed to and how they handle it.



4. Just finished this book and found it very entertaining. It is definitely not a book on how to trade. It is a very interesting story that I suspect is somewhat dramatized. Reads like a novel.
   
   I wouldn't worry about suspected minor innaccuracies. Maybe most people can't rent a car in Bermuda, but if you have $50 million I'll bet there is a way around it. As far as Ivy league schools not giving athletic scholarships that is not exactly true. It is a matter of semantics. Most people familiar with education in the Northeast understand that prep schools and Ivy league universities don't give "athletic" scholarships, but they do give "financial aid" that just happens to fall substantially upon good athletes even if their families are well off.



5. This was a quick read that gave an inside look into the industry in Asia. I found the book well-written and informative, as well as entertaining. I highly recommend.

5 comments about Daughter of the Saints: Growing Up In Polygamy.

1. This is the second book I have read about polygamy. This is completely foreign to my Protestant upbringing. I have seen people caught in a cult situation before. My neighbors when I was a young child were not allowed to celebrate Christmas, salute the flag, or celebrate any other holidays.
   I will not mention there religion. Inside their home terrible things were happening to their children. I didn't find out about it until I was a grown woman.
   
   This is the type of thing that Dorothy Solomon is talking about. She had a good mother. She was aware that the other children called them names. She knew other children had only one set of parents. Her father was married to 7 women. She believed as she was taught. She believed in polygamy. As she grows older she sees the sorrow in the women around her who are not honored by this state of affairs. Her parents had been arrested and they had to go into hiding as children. She even discusses incest in such an environment. It obviously is not a good environment for a woman to feel any equality with a man in. When more groups form a terrible thing happens to her father. The book is fascinating. A real page turner.
   She horrifies her family by joining the regular Church of the Latter Day Saints. She marries only once and has children. She is a strong person.
   Thank you for showing us a world that most will never see. You have without a doubt helped other women trapped in this situation.



2. This has been an excellent book to read. I was looking for material to inform myself better about polygamy. I found "Daughter of the Saints" and could hardly put it down until I finished. The author is so real, and has such a beautiful way of writing her feelings that it really got to me. I love the balance that comes out of all the narrative--the good and the bad. I admire the courage to tell these experiences, and to be so honest about it to us the readers. I learned a lot from this book, and really enjoyed it. It was a memoir that made me live the scenes. I found a deeper understanding for polygamy without having to read scandalous material, or a document biased completely towards the negative or positive aspects of it. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about polygamy--what better way than to read a book by someone who has lived it.



3. This is the same book as "Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing up in Polgamy" by the same author. I didn't know that and bought both of them.
   
   Ms. Solomon is telling her story here and I do recommend you read it. I found the book boring and tedious in places and found myself wanting to skip ahead to get to the "meat" of the story. However, I read every page. It's good though to read her experience in polygamy.
   
   I found myself asking questions about the underpinnings of Mormonism and it's relation to polygamy, (and in a general way the notion of religious beliefs around the world.) Reading through the writings of Joseph Smith, Mormonism's founder, I got a definite idea of what he thought about polygamy. About 50 or so years later the Mormon church, under state and federal pressure, made certain declarations regarding polygamy. In light of the several (now) books on polygamy by ex-members of various splinter groups, and with events regarding the FLDS in Texas, it does make one wonder who is following the true, revealed, laws of Mormonism. If you find this an interesting question, you may wish to read some of those original writings on your own and come to your own conclusion.



4. This is a good read on a subject that is very controversial at the moment. It gives great insight into the daily lives of polygamists and sheds light on their beliefs. The author talks about her childhood and her relationship with her numerous siblings and mothers. Her father is a huge influence on her life and it is clear he was an influential member of their religious group. This book is definitely worth reading.



5. I didn't like this book very well. It gave too much history and not enough current events. I have read the history of polygamy over & over & over and would like to read current events. There wasn't too much to read about current events in this book. If you want the history, this book's for you. She's a good writer but I've had their history crammed down by throat enough. I get it!

5 comments about Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Marriages.

1. If you've ever believed that modern relationships are more complex and unorthodox than those of the past, this magnificent book will quickly open your eyes to the truth. Katie Roiphe picks apart the tangled strands of seven couples' lives, looking for "the distilled wisdom of decades lived, of mistakes made, of love stirred by time." (p. 2) What did Katie learn?
   
   The subjects of this book spent their childhood in the repressed Victorian age. Like some who grew up in the 1950s and 60s and came to early adulthood in the Age of Aquarius, the figures in Roiphe's book lived in a new age allowing them more freedom to defy convention -- and defy they did.
   
   After a wonderfully expository opening chapter called "Marriage A La Mode," Roiphe devotes a chapter to each of her subjects. First we meet H. G. Wells and his wife Jane, whom he treated according to a Victorian ideal of fragile womanhood while carrying on a ten-year affair with Rebecca West, a thoroughly modern young writer.
   
   Roiphe explores the marriage of Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry. Their love was, by their own admission, a "child-love" that was only passionate when they were apart. Elizabeth von Arnim and Frank Russell relied on "conflict and sparring as a prelude to reconciliation." Vanessa and Clive Bell lived in an ever-shifting menage that included her former lover, and her current lover along with his (male) lover. Ottoline Morrell, who may have inspired the character of Lady Chatterley, was outraged when her husband Philip confessed that he had two pregnant mistresses. Una Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall had been a committed lesbian couple for eighteen years when Radclyffe (known to all as "John") fell in love with a Russian emigree and established what French gossip columns called a "trio lesbienne." Vera Brittain and Gordon Catlin and their children shared their homes with Vera's lifelong friend, Winifred Holtby.
   
   The lives of these people were interwoven with family, social or sexual relationships; they were observers of and commentors on each others' dramas. The author has distilled a huge amount of primary material into this fascinating book, with no judgment or editorializing. Her notes are a treasure trove for any reader who wants to explore a wider context.
   
   Roiphe's postscript takes the position that, however self-absorbed, the subjects of this book at least showed creativity and imagination in imposing their own mythologies on the drabness of daily life. She writes (p. 302), "This is storytelling in its most challenging medium: life itself."
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   Linda Bulger, 2008



2. The author does a good job of quickly relating the situations of a series of interrelated couples in early twentieth-century Britain. She manages, without judgement, to consider their marital and extra-marital relationships and pose questions about how these individuals may fit into a larger context of social changes that continue now. It's well written and moves along quickly.



3. This book is a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of seven relationships. Not just what happened but what motivated. If you're a feminist you'll need to put that aside and read as an objective bystander. It's hard to do!
   
   The author does a brilliant job of making the people and their stories come to life. I felt like I got to know these fascinating characters. I found it very difficult to put the book down. I appreciate that the author doesn't judge her characters - this relationship or action was 'good' and this was 'bad - but tries to understand and relate to the reader why the characters did what they did.
   
   We are often led to believe that previous eras were more honest, true, chaste. This book shows that that just isn't true. Each generation has to find its own way in the world.



4. This book is written in short chapters that describe the atypical marriage relationships of wealthy, well-known writers and their friends in post-Victorian England. There is a great deal of overlap in the stories about the various couples, so one person's spouse will show up as the friend, lover, or confidant in another story about a different marriage. It's all rather incestuous, and the resultant homogeneity of the milieu studied by the author paradoxically makes more mundane the seeming differences she wishes to stress.
   
   It's well to keep in mind that the time and place under study was one characterized by very rigid social roles, especially for women; still, one wonders whether a study across cultures might not have proven more meaningful. As it is, the book seems almost the story of an extended family, rather than a review of disparate marriage arrangements.



5. "Some of the hand-wringing about marriage in the twenties remains eerily relevant to today's marriages." So says Katie Roiphe, the author of this most intriguing literary biography. She explores the marriages of seven of the most luminous writers and artists of the twenties -- including H.G. Wells, Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth Von Arnim (who penned "Enchanted April".) Each vignette is centered around a moment of crisis that creates a need for a creative and unorthodox solution.
   
   Katherine Manfield develops a "child-love" with her husband, who is not able to rise to challenge of helping her through the tuberculosis that kills her at age 34. H.G. Wells "creates" his wife Jane -- even giving her a new name -- and then indulges in no-responsibility affairs with Rebecca West, among others. Ottoline Morrell gives herself over totally to nurturing rising artistes, only to be stabbed in the back by those she most befriended. And then there's Radclyffe Hall -- otherwise known as John -- who is surprisingly Victorian, despite her long-time relationship with her "wife" Una Trobridge and her lover, Evguenia Souline.
   
   As the author says: "One cannot fall into 'meagre repetitions', one cannot live automatically, one cannot simply live the way everyone else is living: one has to have the constant energy, the constant imagination, the constant refueling affection, because one is making up a life as one goes along."
   
   This book is highly recommended for everyone who is navigating a marriage and who is curious about how others handled their own, and how they confronted domesticity and long-term emotional involvement. It's particularly recommended for anyone with a literary bend; it's downright fascinating to see how those famous literary individuals from 1910 to World War II lived their lives. And, as an extra plus, it's compulsively readable and "dishy."

5 comments about Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Oprah's Book Club).

1. This was a very touching story. As some people have mentioned it is very simply written. But I believe it gets the story across even though it is written in this manner. She tells of the conditions she and her family and a family friend endured when imprisoned for 20 years. Going from a luxury jail to prison conditions that are beyond what anyone can imagine. It is not a story you read for fun but one to make you see what others go though. I am glad Malika shared hers and her familys' story with us. I will never forget this book. I would definatley recommend this book for all to read.



2. This book touch me so much i every it so much. This book inspire and enlighten me and show me a little of what goes on in other part the world and what women and people have to go through. To see the strength and desire one have to endure and survive and show that world. THis book touch my life. Good book. I love Oprah so much as she has allowed me to open a new world and that is reading i love Oprah book club and i try to read as much of Oprah book. She is my idol i worship her. I love you Oprah you are light in the dark night.



3. Meet the Oufkir family. This is the printed condensation of their amazing survival.
   
   Malika Oufikir, aided by writer Michele Fitoussi, recounts the plunge from the heights of an extremely privileged, if secluded, life, mostly lived at the Royal Moroccan court, and a life which later landed herself and her family into gaol, in 1972. A drastic change for everybody -but "drastic" is almost a diminishing adjective for what they went through-, including the two family retainers who had volunteered to share their fate. This was the result of a failed military coup against King Hassan II, led by Malika's father, General Oufkir, who was shot immediately after. Wife Fatima and their six children, aged between 19 (Malika) and 3 and a half (Abdellatif) were sent to prison. Deprivations, humiliations, isolation -even among themselves, they were not allowed to see each other for many years- lack of hygiene, food, water, medicines and contending their space with various rodents, cockroaches, scorpions, in the chilling cold or the most stifling heat, inability to see the light -they were kept in almost total darkness-. Up until the day when, 15 years later, with the resilience of the totally desperate, some of them managed to escape, Malika included. The tale of their evasion is chilling from beginning to end. But it also led to the liberation of the others left behind. Nobody could believe that the Oufkir children had reemerged from nothingness, but they managed to alert the relevant authorities, international press and word went out. They were all subsequently moved to a different location where they were still imprisoned but at least with more dignity -if one may use this term in the circumstances-. This went on for another 4 years. And then... freedom finally knocked at their door. Almost twenty years had gone by.
   
   Forget for a minute about politics, religions, different countries, traditions, beliefs. Sufferings do not bear different classifications depending on whom we are, what we do. To suffer is to suffer, anywhere on this planet, and no one is immune. But. To pay up in such dramatic way for something beyond your control is just inhuman. Malika's voice, plain yet effective, summarizes details which induce cringing sensations.
   
   Some reviewers comment on Malika's self-centeredness, sensing a certain degree of superiority, no doubt deriving, in my opinion, from the imprint of her privileged upbringing, which might have added a somewhat unsympathetic nuance to the story. Others remark that there are inconsistencies. It is true in some instances. From a personal point of view, I myself never quite understood why Malika was adopted into the royal family. It could be Moroccan customs or traditions of which I am not aware, but it was never really explained.
   But. Never mind. Let's face the facts, get to the gist. Prisoners for twenty years for something they didn't commit? Children raised into squalor and fear, without an ounce of dignity? Let us keep things into perspective and grant Malika and the others the deserved praise for enduring their adverse fate and unfathomable conditions, never letting go, organizing their great escape against all odds. Without her, who dug and bled, bled and dug for months, relentlessly, this could not have happened, and none of us would have read this book.
   
   A single, soaring voice raising above a twenty-year-long cry in the dark, reminding us that for one who manages to survive, many other faceless, nameless beings perish silently, in many different countries, for many different reasons, their weeping unheard, obliterated by enforced silence.
   Read this book and count your blessings.



4. Incredible story. I just recently returned from Morocco, and while there wondered how many such prisoners are still lingering in the country's prisons. The people of Morocco and kind and friendly, as a whole friendlier than in most countries I have visited. Not once did I hear an unkind word or saw a grumpy face on people I encountered. Absolutely lovely. With that in mind, in the story of her 20 years of imprisonment and the subsequent "Freedom" describing the return to life outside a prison system, the kindness and forgiveness she expresses are much easier to understand.



5. I thoroughly enjoyed Stolen Lives. The ordeal Malika Oufkir and her family suffered is astonishing. It really pained me to read through her true accounts of riches to less-than-rags. The Oufkirs were fortunate and strong to have survived through it all.
   
   I felt that the writing was fine. Even if it was not, the story was so powerful, I would have enjoyed it anyway. There are many books out there that are fluffy, shallow, and very well written. I prefer to read works that are deep, educational, and so powerful that they leave a lasting impression - like this book!

3 comments about Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Signet Classics).

1. I loved the book from beginning to end. If you are looking for feelings, emotion, and real point of views of the slavery era this is the book for you. It is a short right to the point emotionally filled novel that always keeps you turning pages.



2. Douglass' personal account of slavery is riveting and one would never believe that a former slave could write so well. The novel starts of explaining Douglass' beginnings and from then on each chapter recounts an important moment in his life. He relives his tortured childhood by giving an accurate and honest description of the horrors of slavery. Being constantly traded from one master to another, he tells of what he saw and experienced with each. Douglass provides real-life stories and shares with us the brutality he encountered. This heart wrenching novel leads up to tell how Frederick Douglass obtained his freedom and how he used it to benefit the many other slaves who were tortured just like he was.



3. The Narrative is another book, like Hiroshima, that ever person should read. The in-depth look into Douglass' life shows how slaves were treated during the 19th Century. It explains why the struggle for freedom that led to the American Civil War and why it was such a brutal confrontation.