3 comments about Called by Name The Inspiring Stories of 12 Men Who Became Catholic Priests.

1. I highly recommend this book for all young men discerning their vocation to the priesthood. The vocation stories are truly inspiring and I felt humbled when I read them.



2. The stories of these priests were so inspiring, what they overcame to become the "sons" of Blessed Mother and Jesus is awesome. I loved all the stories, but Fr. Maxim Popov touched my heart the most. You won't regret ordering and reading this book.



3. 
   In the forward, Archbishop Wuerl wrote that God calls each of us and invites us to respond to that call. That's what this book is about - hearing and responding to that call. While this book is about how 12 men responded to the call to the priesthood, the messages found here are for all of us, no matter what vocation we are being called to.
   
   I really enjoyed reading these stories and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about the gift of the priesthood and who these men are that are being called. Each of these 12 stories was inspiring. Each has a unique, powerful story. I hope that the authors consider writing a sequel.

1 comments about The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman.

1. A classic in Christian engagement with the world, by a Quaker minister best known for his role in convincing others in the Society of Friends - as individuals and as a group - to withdraw from the slave trade and stop holding slaves. Woolman also contributed insights into the nature of war and conflict, wealth and simplicity, right livelihood and spiritual humility.

   This is the definitive edition - as in, this is the one that scholars and serious readers want, with a solid introduction, explanatory footnotes, and notes on which passages were changed along the way. Woolman based his Journal on personal diaries, rewriting and editing it with his Quaker audience foremost in mind. His essays apparently were aimed for a wider audience; they show his familiarity with Enlightenment trends that many Friends ignored. The essays "On Keeping Negroes" and "A Plea for the Poor" are included in this edition.

   After his death in 1772, the Journal has passed through the hands of a succession of editors, including Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, whose edition can be found on the web. From one generation to the next, Friends and others have rediscovered John Woolman and cherished his sweet reflections on human relations and Divine leading.

3 comments about Martyr of the Amazon: The Life of Sister Dorothy Stang.

1. I have heard talk about the desire to canonize Pope John Paul II. I would like to suggest that we canonize this lovely and courageous woman. She certainly radiated the love of Jesus to the very end.



2. I was impressed with the self-sacrificing attitude of Sr Dorothy. To endure so much negativism and lack of understanding or support from the Brazilian government and corporate land holders, and still keep a smile on her face and love in her heart is a strong lesson for all of us who have so little to endure. Sr. Dorothy's love for all of God's people, but, especially for those who are victimized, is uplifting. It gives me an example to try harder to be a loving, cheerful person.



3. The murder in 2005 of an American nun focused world attention on poor formers in the Amazon and their struggles with developers: for it was Sister Dorothy who helped these farmers in their struggles both spiritually and socially - and who died for her ideals, which went beyond Christian advocacy. MARTYR OF THE AMAZON: THE LIFE OF SISTER DOROTHY STANG probes her world, influences and impact and is an excellent biographical survey recommended for any spiritual library.

5 comments about An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order.

1. Reality, not hagiography. This is the best way to describe An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order, by Nancy Klein Maguire. I think it is appropriate to begin this review by stating from the start what this book is not. This is not the story of five "conventional" holy men although each one was "holy" in a particular and peculiar way. The author did not set out to inspire people to pray, to excite the faith of believers nor to draw a recruiting poster for the Carthusians - although it may indeed increase the faith of some and move them to pray more or to seek admission to this strict order--and that is always good. Nor is this book about the "technique" of contemplative prayer a la Chartreuse, nor a narrative of mystical, ecstatic events.
   
   An Infinity of Little Hours could be construed as an attempt at dispassionate, anthropological observation but without the jargon that accompanies this science. Nancy Klein Maguire has an obvious interest to find out what makes this tribe of men "tick" and how they coped with their unique circumstances during their travails at the Catholic Church's "most austere monastic order." She relied heavily on personal interviews which she coupled with her extensive research material and exceptional access to the Carthusian Charterhouse in Parksminster, England and her own observations, memories, and imagination to reconstruct for her readers the settings in which the eremitic lives of these five men took place in the early 1960's. As a child born in the mid-1960's who did not witness first hand most of the pivotal events of that decade, I find her reconstruction vivid and credible. She certainly held my attention.
   
   The five men whose monastic adventure the author narrates came from different backgrounds in Europe, Britain, Ireland, and the United States. Each one brought with them a passion, an idea, a budding vocation, and their own temperament to the task. Of the five, only one remains a Carthusian today but all of them, each in his own way and like former U.S. Marines, remain "Carthusians" to this day, forever marked by their experience.
   
   I found fascinating Klein-Maguire's description of the inner politics of the Charterhouse. She answered several pedestrian questions I had regarding the relationships forged and the conflicts that arose between men in this rarefied environment. If one is "silent" most of the time, what does one think? What does one do? How does that affect our perceptions of others? The author's findings were very illuminating: worldly concerns, the bread-and-butter issues of lay people, even those with a contemplative bent in the world, disappeared, subsumed in an environment focused on the pursuit of God. "Little things" such as singing in tune in choir, a careless gesture, a sustained, casual gaze on something or someone, a gruff answer, all acquired rich overtones often leading to misinterpretation, ill-will, factionalism and even spiritual, mental, and emotional disaster. Many vocations shipwrecked on these very human stumbling blocks.
   
   Her description of environmental stresses also caught my attention. The Charterhouse was a cold, damp place most of the year; the clothing and apparel often more a hindrance than an aid to prayer - although I freely concede that my perception is due more to my very American penchant for "improving efficiency" of all things material and spiritual and not from the just appreciation of ascetical practices in the Carthusian context. I mean, if a cell is so cold that it distracts one from prayer, why not get a more efficient wood stove and do away with the 14th century model? If manually cleaning a toilet distracts one from prayer and work, why oppose the installation of flushing toilets? Again, the author proves that when worldly concerns are removed from one's psyche, the mundane is amplified beyond size and reason in one's mind. The lesson I learned was that only those who are able to set aside even the little mundane things can succeed in their Carthusian vocation. Those who cannot will leave sooner or later; no matter how advanced they may be in the ranks of the order. Their subconscious distaste for their lives will burst forth unexpectedly, overtake them, and force them to leave. Finding that out was sobering to me, as I discover the repercussions of that insight in my own non-eremitical quest to seek the face of God.
   
   Klein-Maguire seems to lose her objectivity only once throughout An Infinity of Little Hours. That occurs Klein-Maguire described the exit of one of the five protagonists who discovered his homosexuality while in the novitiate. The reader can almost feel Klein-Maguire's condescending sigh as the senior monks counseled the novice that his same-sex attraction was akin to an "illness" and therefore not sinful by itself. She then wistfully describes how the novice embraced both an active homosexual lifestyle and Catholic faith due to his perception of "acceptance" by the post-Vatican II and even, becoming "partnered" later on, while barely acknowledging the "return of the conservative Church." As a discerning reader, I would have accepted the bare narrative of this man's life and travails without judging him at all for his life choices - and I still do that. But as a believing, orthodox Catholic I did not appreciate the author's editorializing. Her stance tells me that, as a Washington DC resident, Klein-Maguire looks to Georgetown and not to CUA (Catholic University of America) for clues about the moral teaching of the Church and the pastoral care of homosexual persons. Caveat, emptor.
   
   Yet, this disagreeable lapse in objectivity was minor compared to the whole body of the work. Klein-Maguire accomplished something I look forward to in every good literature: she made me live several lives without having to stop living my own life and learned from each one accordingly. She also moved me to deeper introspection and to discover that, although I do like solitude and quiet, I am essentially a very gregarious being who needs a constant interaction from others to crosscheck note, learn, and grow as a Catholic Christian man.
   
   The Lord has blessed me with a dear wife, a family, and spiritual preceptors who have helped me and continue to help me along the way. I need their constant contact. Despite my very secular inclinations, my admiration continues to grow for those select men and women whom the Lord have chosen to "burn themselves" in a living holocaust of prayer and sacrifice for the rest of us. Everyday I become more convinced that the destiny of the Church stands on their suffering shoulders. Blessed be God for them!
   
   And thank you Nancy Klein Maguire for this precious book. Will you be writing about the Carthusian nuns next?



2. simply excellent. Couldn't put it down until finished. profound, moving and direct. one has to admire her five subjects and others involved----and the author who told their individual and collective story.
   Jim Whalen



3. This contemplative, low-key text shone light into a realm unknown and unknowable to most people, and offered insights into the daily rituals and rhythms within this cloistered context. The men described were well-drawn, human, and treated respectfully, and each vignette offered different perspetives and angles on the experience inside the walls.
   
   I have recommended this book to friends interested in learning more about lives of meditation and solitude. I found it raised many points of comparison to the lives of Buddhist monks and nuns.



4. Reading "An Infinity of Little Hours," I was, somewhat to my surprise, drawn deeply into the ascetic world of this Carthusian monastery in England through the stories of the five men who entered in 1960. The book becomes an unlikely page turner as you wonder who among the five will be able to endure the silence, the alone-ness, the cold, and other privations in order to become closer to God, which was their motivation for joining this most austere of all religious orders.
   
   The small details and trials of contemporary monastic life, little changed from the order's founding in the 11th century, are precisely described here and form a compelling counterpoint to the men's psychic yearning for the spiritual. You might both experience the "feel" of a hairshirt yet also "hear" the sweetness of a chant well-sung. You can share the frustration of one musically trained monk with his tone-deaf brothers.
   
   Reader's tip: Keep a bookmark in the page that lists the monks' secular and religious names (it can be confusing keeping track of who is who).
   
   This book will appeal to the religious and non-religious alike who share a fascination with those whose search for God sets them apart from our materialistic and secular society. "An Infinity of Little Hours" depicts a world which few of us would or could enter but which is nevertheless as fascinating to observe as any other rarified culture.



5. This was a fantastic book! I think the other reviews described the book well. This book was absolutely amazing.

5 comments about Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses.

1. Joan of Arc was a book about a series of wars between France and England over the feud for the Crown of France. Saved by a women warrior the crown was awarded to it's proper owner, but then the military and nobility backstabbed her and accused her of being a witch. I thought the book was really interesting because of all the action and discrimination against women.



2. Joan of Arc was a book about a series of wars between France and England over the feud for the Crown of France. Saved by a women warrior the crown was awarded to it's proper owner, but then the military and nobility backstabbed her and accused her of being a witch. I thought the book was really interesting because of all the action and discrimination against women.



3. Regine Pernoud is an expert on Joan of Arc, and makes you feel almost like YOU know her too. I laughed. I cried. The telling of the story from Joan's own words and the testimony of those who knew her puts this book on the top of my list.

   I liked it better than Pernoud's book, "Joan of Arc: Her Story," but it's not quite as comprehensive. Both are excellent books, but I rate this title a little higher.

   If you really want to feel like you walked with Joan, read Mark Twain's fictional diary, "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc," told from the point of view of her childhood friend-later-scribe. One of the greatest reads of my life! A Book that really changed my perspective on a lot of things.




4. This book rocks. The author, Regine Pernoud intertwines the dialog of Joan's condemnation trial with parts of the rehabilitation trial, and offers background and discussion of the events as they happen, from the people who lived during that time, beginning from Joan's childhood until even after the rehabilitation trial. At the end of each chapter, Pernoud gives a commentary that takes certain questions about unclear aspects of Joan's life and discusses them by giving textual evidence and reasoning through them. The result is a very comprehensive, non-fiction biography of Joan that states only the facts, and any speculation is based on facts as well.
   
   I think the way Pernoud arranged the book works very well, as I couldn't put the book down. I was amazed by this because I pretty much dislike most non-fiction books. This one is so comprehensive yet incredibly interesting as well. Even though it is non-fiction, you can tell the author was very passionate about what she was writing. As a result, the reader becomes excited as well. Anybody wants to learn about the true facts of Joan's life and the time she lived in should read this book. It'll definitely make you admire her even more.



5. This is one of my favorite biographies about Saint Joan of Arc because it relies so heavily upon the actual quotes of Saint Joan and her contemporaries. Instead of writing a traditional narrative, Régine Pernoud cleverly uses Joan's own words or those of the people around her to give us her history. Tracing Joan's life from beginning to end, Pernoud relies on Joan's quotes as much as she can. She does add just enough narrative to keep the biography coherent but by using Joan's own words, we are able to get a sense of what her personality was like. As the title proclaims, this biography is really written by Saint Joan and her witnesses.

5 comments about Edmund Campion.

1. This biography of the English saint and martyr Edmund Campion won the Hawthornden Prize in 1936, and I read it because of that. It is very well-written , tho it lacks a bibliography and footnotes. Campion was executed Dec. 1, 1581, after being sentenced to "be hanged and let down alive, and your privy parts cut off, and your entrails taken out and burnt in your sight, then your head to be cut off and your body divided into four parts." It surely makes one grateful for the 8th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishmnet. This is a fast read and eminently worth reading.



2. "My charge is, of free cost to preach the Gospel, to minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reforme sinners, to confute errors-- in brief, to crie alarme spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance wherewith many my dear Countrymen are abused.
   
   I never had mind, and am strictly forbidden by our Father that sent me, to deal in any respect with matter of State or Policy of this realm, as things which appertain not to my vocation, and from which I do gladly restrain and sequester my thoughts."
   
   -- the courageous martyr and "seditious Jesuit" Edmund Campion in his famous "Brag"
   
   Kudos to the good people of Ignatius Press for introducing new generations to Waugh's masterful biography of St. Edmund Campion. The brilliant Oxford scholar was destined for any career he chose in Elizabeth's Protestant England. Instead, at a time when being Catholic meant persecution and an uncertain future, Campion chose not only conversion, but ordination as a Jesuit and near-certain death.
   
   Ignatius' new hardcover edition is superbly done, with a tight binding, attractive dust jacket, high quality paper, and a very readable font. It also includes remarks by modern Waugh aficionados like Joseph Pearce and George Weigel and a new introduction by Fr. Joseph Fessio.
   
   Readers might enjoy excerpts from Percy Hutchison's 1936 review in the New York Times:
   
   "For several years Campion, of the Jesuit order and ordained priest, had been on the Continent. Then Rome ordered him to England to give what mental and religious sustenance he could to the persecuted brethren. Though he knew that sooner or later his life would be forfeit, Campion, ten years before the defeat of the Spanish Armada, landed once again on English soil. From that moment on his days might fittingly be described as a progress toward the cross.
   
   He was a marked man. Doubtless it is true, as Evelyn Waugh adduces documentary evidence to show, that Campion was falsely convicted. He was charged with sedition; he had incited no rebellion. He was charged with treason; he had not committed treason. But he had given heart to the English of his faith by surreptitious preaching and surreptitious administrations of the sacraments. At his trial a great show of disputation of doctrine was made, but all this, according to Mr. Waugh, was camouflage."



3. Drags a bit, but it is a good read overall.



4. It is always good to read about the saints, but the writing of those who write on the saints is not always good. It is no surprise that one of the great writers of the last century such as Evelyn Waugh would turn out a great book.
   
   Edmund Campion is a biography of the Jesuit Saint Edmund Campion who was martyred in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation and the increasingly severe penal laws in England. This book was written in 1935 only five years after Waugh's conversion into the Catholic Church. It is a straightforward biography based on the best historical research available at the time. The author does not inject himself in the book in that he tries hard to stick to the historical narrative of what can actually be known and any dialogue in the book is straight from the historical record. This is in no way some syrupy hagiography that diverges from facts with flowery stories or that tries to inflate the actions of Edmund Campion. Though considering the subject this is not much needed when you look at his amazing life.
   
   The book running at a little more than 200 pages is divided into four very appropriate chapters: The Scholar, The Priest, The Hero, The Martyr. I wonder if you have to give a spoiler alert when you are talking a martyr. Evelyn Waugh provides the necessary historical background of the state of the Church and of the politics involved and you fast become involved in the biography as if you were reading a novel. Every time you read about the recusants and those in Church history who were persecuted for the faith it always gives you a greater appreciation of what most Catholics in the modern world take for granted. When we go to Mass we aren't worried that somebody is going to turn us in or that we don't need guards to warn is people are coming so that the priest can hide in the priest-hole.
   
   The first two chapters deal with his academic life and his early career as he initially leaves England because of the growing persecution of Catholics and his decision to become a priest and then a Jesuit. The biographic then moves to his returning to England. Like many saints he was not specifically making decisions that would lead him on the road to martyrdom. In fact circumstances could have left him teaching in Vienna and Prague since the Jesuits at the time had no chapters in England. But also like many saints when it became apparent that he would indeed be traveling down that road it was done with joy.
   
   As Waugh chronicles Campion's year of attending to the Catholics in England you again get caught up in the drama as he and other priests continue to minister to the flock for the good of souls. It is a measure of Campion's genius that his "Brag" that he wrote in a half-hour's time to defend himself from charges of treason was printed and reprinted across England. Or that his famous Ten Reasons would provide much annoyance to the authorities at the time. So annoying that once he was captured and tortured they brought him to a series of debates to try to counter it. Waugh does not dwell much into St. Campion's grisly martyrdom that will be familiar to those that saw Braveheart, but it is quite interesting the stories he describes by those who were converted by Campion in his last days.
   
   Highly recommended and one of those rare biographies that is indeed a page-turner.



5. A bio of the English Catholic martyr. Detailed. Not a light read, but if the era or the subject interests you, the book will not disappoint.

2 comments about Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun.

1. I am sorry to have to write what may be a slightly negative review. However, as there were no reviews when I looked at this book here on Amazon, I bought it rather blindly. So I will now let you know what I think of it.
   
   Firstly I was getting ready for a lovely life story. There are excellant life stories written, such as the life of Milarepa, and the life of Marpa. However, this book is quite different. For a start, even though it is 220 pages long, the actual Life story only takes 51 pages (a fair amount of which is empty space, so actually a good deal fewer true pages than that).
   
   Coming to the Life story then, we encounter quite a strange writing style. Here is an example of a sentance: "Some bad person took [them] away, and [I] wept a great deal."
   This makes me thing, who is Mr Schaeffer writting for? If it were a paper he was writing as a translation assignment for a university course, I could understand. But for the public? It is cryptic scholar writing, and there is surely no need for this. It serves no benefit to write in that way.
   
   Then there are occasions when the text makes no sense. Here is an example:
   "Dirt got in my mouth and my hair, and then a rock went down my mouth." What does that mean? And Mr Schaeffer puts a note. If you look up the note in the back, it says "translation tentative". There are 8 such examples.
   
   So I thought, how is it possible that he studied this text (i.e. studied under a master) and could not get to grips with the meaning? So I turned to the Acknowledgments. There he seems to imply that he did not study this text with anyone, from what I can understand. In fact, the only Tibetan person he mentions at all in the acknowledgments is the fellow who painted the picture for the book cover.
   
   It may also be worthy to note the dedication. It is very nice. Mr Schaeffer dedicates the book to his mother, father, wife and daughter. That's very nice. However let's take another example. Let's take "Repeating the Words of the Buddha", and book by Tulku Urgen Rinpoche. The dedication for that book reads "This book is dedicated to the Buddhadharma and all sentient beings. It is said that when the teachings of the Buddha flourish, there will be happiness for all beings in this life, in the bardo, and in following lives."
   
   The point seems to me to be, the former book (Himalayan Hermitess) seems to me to be a book about Buddhism, by a scholar perhaps, for students perhaps, or maybe anthropologists? The latter (Repeating the Words of the Buddha) seems to be a Buddhist book, by a Buddhist, for Buddhists.
   
   If you lie in the latter category, I highly recommend the latter book, or any by Tulku Urgen, or Chogyam Trungpa, or if you want to read something systematic, please see Reginal Ray's two volume Indestructible Truth and Sectrets of the Vajra World.
   
   If this upsets anyone I do appologise. I do wish you find what will help you.



2. 
   The beginning of this book is a bit academic, but the story of her life is a very touching and moving story. It is a valuable insight into the life of a very advanced practitioner in the late 1600s and is well worth reading.

4 comments about Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister (Library of Religious Biography Series).

1. Aimee Semple McPherson was a Pentecostal evangelist who achieved celebrity status in the 1920's. "Sister"(as she was affectionately called) also pastored Angelus Temple in Los Angeles and founded the Foursquare denomination. To begin to understand the complex McPherson one should read this definitive biography by Edith Blumhofer. Aimee, a Canadian farm girl was heavily influenced by her mother's Salvation Army activism, and to a lesser extent, her father's traditional Methodism. For example, McPherson's putting ministry ahead of family is parallel to her mother's doing the same and the Salvation Army marriage vow to not let marriage interfere with ministry. The Army background definitely influence her use of theatrics and pageantry in her ministry. Robert Semple, an evangelist, and her first husband, introduces Aimee to Pentecostalism. "Sister"'s Pentecostalism was not definitive enough for classical Pentecostalists(Some Assemblies of God ministers saying she did not insist on tongues always being the evidence of the "Baptism of the Spirit"; a view which seems to shift in agreement with classical Pentecostalists later in her ministry?). She referred to her message as "Bible Christianity" rather than Pentecostalism. One is struck by the acceptance of her by much of Protestantism, the transdenominational clergy cooperation, and her good sense of using much of Protestant hymnody to unify the different traditions attending her meetings. She seems more of a forerunner of the "Charismatic Movement"(pentecostal renewal within Protestant denominations) than a classical Pentecostalist. The most intriquing aspect of the book for me as an evangelical, is Aimee's methodology in presenting the gospel. Rather than "preaching the law" so as to convict of sin, Sister instead provides a potrait of the Beautiful Saviour, Jesus, "the same yesterday, today and forever". Perhaps McPherson finds that the prescence of God will so show the Saviour in his holiness and glory that the same goal is achieved more efficiently? Blumhofer shows Sister Aimee, as she was, warts and all. One flaming anti-Pentecostalist summarizes McPherson as "married three times, died of an overdose". To get the full story, read this book. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals tend to look over obvious faults of their heroes: Luther was foul-mouthed and anti-Semitic, William Carey and John Wesley were far from role-model husbands. Sister, like all of us is a mixture of mud and marble. For God has no perfect people to work with. Her willingnes to go into the dance hall, boxing ring or red-light district to love the unlovely reminds one of Wesley and Whitefield. Historians, Evangelicals and Pentecostals will enjoy this well-researched, sympathetic potrait of "Everybody's Sister."



2. She seems to have been heavily influenced by both azuza street crowd i.e. much of today's pentecostalism/charasmatics i.e. the toronto/brownsville blessing (a history which is fraught with charlatans and very biblically problemic) and hollywood.
   
   In studying many of her sermons what is readily apparent is the lack of any solid biblical understanding or doctrine. It was just get saved and jesus loves you. A cozy accomodation to the masses who can pretty much define that jesus they want to believe in and then follow.



3. This was a very fair biography of Aimee Semple McPherson. She told the story without being judgmental or accusatory. I liked that. It's as good as Epstein's book (which I want to read again), and is better in fact that she includes an index, where Epstein's does not, and books that don't have indexes are very difficult to reference at a later date. I liked this book very much.



4. I picked this book up off the bargin table at my local bookstore and found it a good read. It made me want to read other books in the series.
   
   Blumhofer presents a balanced view of Mcpherson neither focusing on the more sensational aspects of her life story nor selectively ignoring difficulties. This is not the typical protestant hagiography, but its presentation is generally positive. Blumhofer does a good job of sketching Aimee's influences and development, her remarkable and gregarious personality and ability as a visionary and organizer of a movement. She also presents the scandals, (marriages, handling of funds, the "kidnapping," infighting at Temple Angelus, lawsuits, etc.) in a fair way. I do not think you could come away from reading this book and think Aimee Semple Mcpherson did not have her share of faults, and issues. But you couldn't demonize her either.
   
   The biggest criticism I have of this book is a certain sloppiness in the editing. Dates contradict, grammar is strained in places. It is a shame that there was no revision with the reprinting of the book.

5 comments about Big & Rich: All Access.

1. I expected this book to be just a chronology of what I already knew about this duo - and I was pleasantly surprised that there was much I didn't know. Their diverse personalities and backgrounds certainly come out and makes the beautiful blend they do in music even that much better. I was unaware that the book existed until I opened the newest CD which was also great, and have really enjoyed reading it. Great pictures, not ones I had just seen over and over on websites. It was interesting to "meek" those who supported the union, those in the background and others in the Musik Mafia. Gread read!!



2. I just love this book, and it's not just all about the great pictures (which there are many of, including some exclusive private ones), but it's the stories behind the pictures, told by Big Kenny and John Rich from their hearts.
   
   I feel like a very uneducated fan, having never had the experience of seeing them on stage. My only dealings with Big & Rich have been through their CDs, videos and TV appearances and from my fellow Mafia Soldiers. This book really gives you alot of insight into who these guys really are and how they got to this point in their lives.
   
   You really have to read it to understand it. And I hope, in say, 10 years, there is another book to share the next decade of their lives with us as they get even bigger and better.



3. Tells a great story about how Kenny Alphin and John Rich became Big and Rich. Not only does the book tell about Kenny and John, it also talks about other members of the Muzik Mafia. Even if you are not a fan it's a great book and it makes you feel real good inside. As a fan of Big and Rich I knew I would not be disappointed and if you are a fan neither will you. Besides the great story the pictures are really awesome from younger photos to candid shots with their families. And who can resist Kenny's son Lincoln...cute as can be!!! A must have for all fans of Big and Rich be huge fans or passer by fans.



4. very good good reading about the two singers, not sure why they added the dvd with just clips , they should have had earlyer music of them, but the book was really good



5. Being a huge Big & Rich fan I had to get this book. When I got the book it was even better then I could have expected. There are detailed biographies on the entire Muzik Mafia as well as candid and personal photos that have never been seen before. This is a great way to get connected even deeper to a great band. Also I think that even if you aren't a fan you will enjoy this book and possibly become a fan.

No comments about The Souls of Purgatory: The Spiritual Diary of a Seventeenth-Century Afro-Peruvian Mystic, Ursula de Jesús (Dialogos Series).