No comments about Club Fed.

2 comments about The Glass Window.

1. The Glass Window by Mario Morales

   Thought provoking material. This book is a gift to all parents with teens. This book will allow teens and parents to discuss issues in their lives by drawing from the experiences described by the author. The "Glass Window" is eloquently written at a level that either a teen or a scholar could comprehend, appreciate, and gain insight. My life did not have the downfalls that the author experienced but I was still intrigued and motivated by this book. This book allows me to believe that people can change and get their life back together. Being Mexican-American I found some connection in some of the racial issues discussed in the book. Racial tensions that I felt as I was completing my bachelor's degree. Trying to find the fine line between family and society. The fine line between who I was and what I wanted to become. Trying to figure out who you are and why you became who you became. I feel this book is a must read for all parents and all young teens from all walks of life. This book is about how fears and traumas in our lives become life-changing events if they are not dealt with early. This book describes the importance of self-expression in a positive manner. Most importantly, this book deals with all the issues that people deal with in society; drugs, racial tension, survival, importance of religion, process of institutionalization, sexual predators, and the importance of expression. I highly recommend this book and give applause to the author.




2. The Glass Window, is a book of courage and triumph. The author, Mario Morales since childhood began to experience something dreadful and it began the process of stripping his soul. The pain that stayed within him and the denial caused him to go against the punches that Life tends to throw at us. I admire and respect the author because although those experiences he went through, after a Spiritual Awakening experience, he decided to re-evaluate his life and become aware of the worthiness each individual has if you just search within yourself and take the initiative to change your life around. The experiences clouded his life for several years, but than the Sunshine entered when GOD touched his soul and enlightened his precious life. I feel fortunate to have met Mr. Morales because he exemplifies the true meaning of survival, and it begins when you become aware of the significance of yourself worth and your purpose in life and when you begin to feel Blessed to be ALIVE. Changing a negative experience one to a positive one. Keep up the good work of spreading your words of wisdom, if you change one person's life than you have created a legacy and all the pain your suffered was not in vain. I know you have and will continue to make a difference Mario. GOD BLESS YOU!

No comments about Pearls, Arms and Hashish: Pages from the Life of a Red Sea Navigator (Kegan Paul Arabia Library).

No comments about The Soho Don: Gangland's Greatest Untold Story.

No comments about Little Boy Blue.

1 comments about The Spy Next Door.

1. An intriguing case: a nearly pathologically archconservative FBI agent, Opus Dei credentials and all, convicted of selling countless top level secrets to the Soviets and their successors. Why?

   First, the text was well-structured. It started in Hansen's youth, and examined his relationship with his father. The authors returned to that relationship a few times but they didn't dwell on it. Personally, I get tired of overanalysis, journalists who like to think they're Freud incarnate. I feared a few times that the book was getting into that but, the analysis was brief enough that it could be seen as speculation rather than as psychoanalysis.

   The peripheral details of the story were most interesting: the near worship of J. Edgar Hoover, as if anticipating his reincarnation years after he'd died; the uncanny details of Opus Dei (which has interested me more to the point that I plan to read lots more on that bizarre cult!); the stories of the other spies of the era, e.g., Aldrich Ames, and their relationship to that Hansen case, and the number of KGB agents stationed in the US!

   But the focus was on Bob Hansen, Opus Dei Catholic, who felt that communism was the earthly manifestation of the Prince of Darkness himself. I mean, God knows, we all have sexual fantasies. I suppose overpopulation would not be a problem if we didn't. But this guy with six kids, who went to 6:30 mass every day and was an FBI agent who argued the inerrancy of the bible, I wouldn't expect porn posting from him on the early Internet. But Hansen didn't let us down.

   I tend to shy away from texts that provide too many answers. This did not. The authors returned to the issue that it was apparently NOT money that motivated Hansen. They conclude, without being offensive about it, that much of his drive seems to have been inside, trying, for example, to show up his father who was never satisfied with Bobby's accomplishments; to show up his FBI colleagues who felt he was a snob who did little but lecture to them. When discussing one of Hansen's contracts with the Soviets, the authors suggest that he discussed money "like a flower child with a trust fund," i.e., had it been his major motive, he could have asked for much, much more, and gotten it. They implied that it must have been somewhat of a motive, as he had a flock of kids and they had college tuitions and the like to worry about. But his motives had to have been deeper than just cash.

   Oh, and the authors are not easy on the FBI. Hansen took a stripper friend of his on a trip to Hong Kong, a lifestyle contradiction that may have indicated there was something wrong. And no one even noticed. What, one of our FBI brothers? But the book ends with some of the techniques the bureau contemplated to catch potential spies before such a thing happens again. They concluded--wisely--that all the hi-tech devices, polygraphs, or psychological fantasies in the book won?t preclude such a thing. That's the price one pays to be a "free country."
   
   All I will say about the vocal performance is that it was well-done. It holds a second, though, to the story, something the US, the FBI, and probably even the KGB veterans will be pondering for a long time.

No comments about Go-Boy: Memories of a Life Behind Bars.

No comments about On the Run: The Life and Adventures of a Fugitive (Life on the Edge series).

No comments about THE OBSERVER.

No comments about An Honorable Thief.