No comments about Nelly Custis: Child of Mount Vernon.

5 comments about A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell.

1. Not one for biographies I nevertheless enjoyed this one tremendously. It is quite an intimate account of Campbell's life presented in an interesting format of his personal journal entries and recollections of others inbetween the Larsens' well written flow. Who could not marvel at this man's brilliant life? The only problem with this biography is that in light of its length it loses a bit of the focus on Campbell's vision near the last few decades of his life. The many anecdotes of friends he accumulated in the 70's and 80's are nice but I would've liked to have kept more with Campbell's journal entries (if he did indeed keep up with personal writings). The last several chapters show Campbell living his life in the parasitic throes of 'new-agers', and portray them (unintentionally) as enjoying his company for their own benefit to the point where he probably was unable to get much of his own work done. Of course, who could blame people for wanting to be near the man and hear his erudition? But I would like to know more about his personal thoughts in his last years. Joseph Campbell lived a truly enchanted life and will be the teacher for the next century in more ways than one.



2. FROM THE BIG SUR AND ROBINSON JEFFERS TO THE MYSTERY WORLD OF JAMES JOYCE'S FINNIGAN'S WAKE, THE LARSENS TAKE US TO ALL THE PLACES IN MIND AND LOCATION THAT CAMPBELL FREQUENTED. HIS LONG-TIME CONNECTIONS TO GREAT NOVELISTS LIKE JOHN STEINBECK AND NEW THOUGHT THINKERS LIKE MICHAEL MURPHY OF THE ESALEN INSTITUTE REVEAL THE ECLETIC PANORAMA THAT WAS THIS GREAT, AND SOMETIMES UNDER-APPRECIATED, MAN'S PURVIEW.

   IT IS VERY SAD THAT THE PUBLISHER NO LONGER BELIEVES THAT THERE IS AN AUDIENCE FOR THE DETAILS OF THIS WONDERFUL MAN'S LIFE.




3. You state that this book is out of stock. Boarders got it for me in three days.



4. An excellent book. The contents of this book made for some of the most interesting reading I have ever done. This will be a treasured hardcover book on my shelves for the rest of my life. Campbell not only taught us during his life, but is stepping over the threshold of time to continue teaching us lessons on what life can hold for those who are willing to follow their Bliss. I have only felt this strongly about a book a dozen times in my life. As for availability, business has never had enough vision and foresight to make available what feeds ones soul. Have this book reprinted for yourself if you can't purchase it!



5. Agent Larsen and Agent Larsen produce a comprehensive database for tracking the network connections established by Matrix Meister, Joseph Campbell in upgrading the virtual reality of daily existence for current generations of citizen believers. Agents Larsen and Larsen provide a compelling and vivid account of Campbell's genius in reformatting the work of earlier master technicians such as Meisters Plato, Paul, Augustine and Eckhart, in maintaining viability of the First Principle of Matrix Management: that the self and its passions must be transcended for the attainment of ultimate bliss. In formulating this upgrade version of the First Principle, Larsen and Larsen carefully document the development of Campbell's ties with Robert Bly, John Cage, Maya Deren, Bob Dylan, Mircea Eliade, Jerry Garcia, Marija Gimbutas, Stanislav Grof, Joan Halifax, Jean Houston, Al Huang, Carl Jung, Sam Keen, Stanley Keleman, Jiddu Krishnamurti, George Lucas, Paul & Mary Mellon, Michael Murphy, Bill Moyers, Swami Nikhilananda, John Steinbeck and Alan Watts, along with institutions that include the Bollingen Foundation, Esalen, the Young President's Organization and the United States Information Service. A remarkable achievement, even Morpheus concedes, despite being largely facilitated, as Agents Larsen and Larsen record, by the estate of industrial/financial magnate Andrew Mellon. AI Central is honoring Agents Larsen and Larsen with benevolent termination. The forthcoming generation of Sentinels will be known as the Meister Campbell. A must read for all novice agents.

5 comments about Opal: A Life of Enchantment, Mystery, and Madness.

1. As a person who deeply loved the book I read 25 years ago (Opal's childhood diaries), I was entranced with all the info in Beck's book, & impressed with her research.

   But I have to say that the sloppiness of Beck's writing made me somewhat question the thoroughness of her research. What truly angered me, though, was that "Viking Press", associated with "Penguin Books", allowed a hardback book go to press with so many grammatical & syntactical errors! I often choose one book over another based on the reputation of the publisher, and until now, "Penguin Books" has represented for me the highest standard of quality.

   If you're wondering if I'm exaggerating the extent of the writing errors, I'll give you an example. But I have to tell you that this is just one dozens (I wasn't obsessed to the point of counting them) in the book. What is amazing about this sentence is that it occurs ON THE LAST PAGE OF THE BOOK, one of the first places where you'd think that the copy-readers would focus their attention! "Her greatest success may have been her work with children, many of whom who genuine learned a love of nature from her." And no, the mistakes aren't mine. It's verbatim from the book that my sister spent $24.95 for my Christmas present.




2. Ms. Beck is putting a microscope on a person that needs to be seen from one step back. You missed her essence. Rather than cast a critical gaze on Opal's writing skills, when it was written, when it was not, or if it indeed happened, Opal's story still stands, regardless of how it was created. I have read anything in print or on websites about her. Ms. Opal is truly magical and very meaningful to those of us who cherish her, regardless of how Ms. Beck formulates her "case".



3. Okay, first off I want to say: I'm not an Opalite. I've read her works and enjoy them, but the sort of new-agey and sentimental community centered around her work is not my kind of thing.
   
   Now, having said that, I'll add I'm completely fascinated by Opal Whiteley. Until I balanced my opinions of her on local folklore, neigh-sayers who pride themselves on having the real dope on things but have few hard facts, and Benjamin Hoff's biography/memoir/reprinting of her work. So I was, naturally, intrigued by Katherine Beck's book when I saw it on the shelf.
   
   Reading it, I was struck by how she often seems so antithetical towards Opal. Which forced me to confront my own biases: I wanted to believe in her. But I got over that and kept reading. The book does contain interesting facts about Opal that aren't available in other texts.
   
   There are a couple of issues I have with the writer's style, she doesn't site her sources very well and yet sometimes it reads like a newspaper article. It gets old, it all seems dispassionate.
   
   This leads to my main beef: WHY? Why'd Beck write this? Why should I read it. She's not crazy about Opal, but she's not really trying to cut her down too much. She never shows much sympathy for her mental condition or belief in her story, yet also she never really goes after Opal. There's no real point in discrediting Opal she's been discredited plenty. At no point does Beck ever tip her hand by telling you what to think. Which is good but she also doesn't give you much in the way of what she thinks, which I'd have kind of liked to hear about.
   
   So here's what I came away with as an assessment of her view: "Opal kind of had it hard, she was a little crazy but was also a fraud and a self-promoter, but you wouldn't have needed my book to figure it out. That is all thank you."
   
   I'm also a bit curious as to what the publisher wanted with the book for example: Imagine a book about George Washington that states: "After exhaustive research it turns out the general consensous is pretty much true. You could have just stuck with what you learned in school and not dropped 10 bucks on my book." That's not a book a publisher would want. Or me as a reader. Whether or not you believe her story, I feel kind it's kind of irrelevant. (I would like to note that I found evidence at UO more compelling that the book was at least in part really from when she says it was, than any evidence Beck presents against it.) But the myth is fascinating, and that's why we read about her. Not giving anything but some new facts and few vaguely antithetical lines about Opal... not really worth my money.
   
   In short if you don't like Opal Whiteley, what would you get from reading a very detailed book about her life that would get you around to about where you started? If you like her why read a book that doesn't have any sympathy for her and doesn't really challenge your views directly? It's just kind of an apathetic book, about a passionate person.
   
   Why Beck? Why?



4. Reading what others have written about the book, here and elsewhere, I wonder if we read the same book.
   
   I found the author very sympathetic to her subject, if sometimes blown away by the situations she was describing.
   
   She is very careful to include every side of a question.
   
   I,like Ms. Beck, find Opal a fascinating subject. I enjoy her (Opal's) writing. There is definitely something there.
   
   This does not prevent me from being able to separate hard evidence from wishful thinking and subjective opinion.
   
   Opal disciples write off the book and I think it is because they do not find what they want in it.
   
   There have been outrageous misrepresentations, such as one assertion that Beck implied Opal was a "harlot." She did no such thing.
   
   She wrote somewhat clinically about Opal's mental problems. This struck me as a possibly overdone objectivity. It would be impossible to read Opal's story and not be deeply touched by her difficulties. Beck is frank about the patronizing attitude of the Boston Brahmins. She does NOT claim that Opal hoarded paper and crayon in advance of perptrating a hoax; rather, she points out thay owners of actual fragments of the manuscript have refused to have them analyzed, saying in the clinch that "it didn't really matter."
   
   No one doubts that Opal's long institutionalization was a horror, or that the experimental treatments of the day were barbaric.
   
   She makes it quite clear that opal's claims to French royalty are a complete delusion. There can be no reasonable doubt of this. Yet people want to believe it, because Opal herself believed it, yet these same people acknowledge her insanity.
   
   Over time, myth and legend have a way of overtaking hard facts, and this seems to be happening here. Most people interested in the story at all are already true believers.
   
   The triumph of magical thinking still doesn'tmake it so.
   
   End of rant.



5. First let me say that while I reside in Oregon, I do not consider myself an "Opalite". I have read most of the books on her and find this woman, along with others with various personality disorders, very fascinating.
   
   In the first half of the book, I thought Ms. Beck was overly critical of her subject, always trying to disprove Opal's stories. As I read further, I discovered that Ms. Beck really did her homework, and manages to bring strong evidence against most of Opal's outlandish claims.
   
   For me, this doesn't take away from the strong appeal of her diary. I personally don't care what age Opal was when she wrote it, I find it magical and captivating just the same.
   
   I think that Opal truly believed the stories she told, it was just a part of her mental illness. I don't believe that she deliberately tried to con anybody.
   
   I would recommend this book, as it's nice to see an author hunting down the truth. I love Benjamin Hoff's book as well, but sometimes it's nice to get the "real" picture, and not just the "rose colored glasses" version.

No comments about Woman Rice Planter (Southern Classics Series).

5 comments about King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery.

1. It's a good story, and Dr. Lillehei blazed an amazing trail, but this man appeared to be a sociopath who destroyed everything and everybody he touched - except, of course, his patients. I can't believe nobody addressed this yet, or maybe they were so fascinated by the story that they missed - or dismissed - it completely. This was more than a massive ego; this guy could have been a Dr. Swango had things been just a wee bit different.
   
   I realize the book was about Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, but his brother Richard was also a transplant surgeon, as are his sons Craig and Kevin.



2. Once I picked up this book, I couldn't put it down. What a fascinating subject and such wonderful storyteller. From the mom of a "heart baby" it just amazes me how far we've come in such a short amount of time.



3. When a friend gave me this book to read, I thought I'd skim a few chapters and either get bored with the technical details or be bothered by them since I have had heart surgery for congenital heart defects myself.
   
   I thumbed though the first chapter and I was hooked! The writing demonstrates the intensity found in intense pediatric cases very well and uses that and the determination of Dr. Lillehei to move the story along at a fast clip. I finished it in about 36 hours!
   
   I had gotten to the point there I was trying to take care of myself well as an adult with congenital heart disease (treated defects), but I hadn't quite grasped the details of my own surgeries nor did I want to. After I read this book I ordered my surgical records immediately and was excited to read them! The book filled the descriptions of the surgeries with such excitement that it carried over into my own personal education about my health.
   
   I like how they told the story of Dr. Lillehei as a person who did great things, but was also human being as much as his patients - with faults of his own - but also clearly, great gifts.
   
   For more information about the long-term outcome of patients with congenital heart defects/disease and how we continue to lead the longest and healthiest lives possible for us, please visit the Adult Congenital Heart Association's website at www.achaheart.org



4. The medical history related in this book is one of the boldest and most amazing one. If it wasn't for these highly risk taking individuals, open heart surgery would not be possible today.



5. I am a patient that has had heart problems for awhile now. I just had surgery in 2006, so reading this book really helped me to understand where heart surgery all started. It brought it all home for me at the end. There is something about this surgeon that I now have a close connection to, and I didn't even realize it until the end! Those of you who have read "King of Hearts" would understand! This book has taught me a lot, but it also has a lot of great stories intertwined within. Totally worth the read!!

5 comments about Any Given Day: The Life and Times of Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux.

1. I really enjoyed this book. I'm from Kansas and she talked about areas that I'm familiar with. I felt she did a very good job telling her story about the hell she went through with her alcoholic husband while raising her many children virtually by herself. I would like the opportunity to meet this wonderful woman.



2. Jessie Lee's incredible memory and stoically poingnant style take us all back in time, beginning with her childhood which was poor in material possessions but rich in love. Through her eyes, we see not only her family history but the history of a burgeoning nation unfold. She meets life's difficulties head on, from the untimely death of her mother to a difficult marriage and single parenthood. Her words do not plead for sympathy, just straightforwardly relate her amazing life and times. This is a must read for scholars of the 20th century and for those with a bent for human interest stories. Jessie Lee's voice is one of the precious few left from her generation.



3. Jessie Lee has, in the simplest of prose, given us a glimpse into the life of an "average" woman. Her life is not filled with exotic trips or dinners with Presidents, but with the struggles of everyday life. Her rocky marriage to an alcoholic will give inspiration to many young women of today. Her memory is incredible and details abound of a life that began at the beginning of this century...this is an interesting book to read as this century comes to an end.



4. Nobody who reads this book will ever feel overworked or under appreciated, in quite the same way again. We have it so much easier today; and complain MORE !! My Mother is nearing the age of this remarkable woman, and we are hoping to get her to write her memories for us too; before they fade from her mind. She has been reluctant to start, due to the fact that she is not a professional writer. For her birthday this year, Mom is getting a copy of this book; and an audio tape, to listen to, and hopefully get inspired. My Mother has been a Nanny, earned a Master's Degree in Education, driven a Taxi and Limos for Official at United States Steel(during WW II), made bombs in a munitions plant, ridden Harley-Davison motorcycles, served as a Missionary for her church (where she met and married my Father), taught elementary school, raised two daughters, and still babysits their various off spring, while making beautiful quilts. Please God, let Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux give her the courage to tell us all about her adventurous life, too!!



5. I have mixed feelings about this book, because on one hand you can learn some neat stuff about the way things were in the early part of the XX century. On the other hand, this book would have greatly improved if an editor had removed the extra weight included in the story. I can see this being a very fascinating memoir for her family members, but once you take this to the general public, the array of names and places and the personal messages to all grandchildren at the end of the book become too much. Nonetheless, it was interesting to read about the trials and tribulations of this woman, married at 20 to an alcoholic. Why she continued having children (eight in total) after she discovered her husband was a drunk i'd never be able to comprehend. She tries to explain how she felt during those years, and at times she is successful and at times she cuts her thoughts short and does not go any further with her analyses. It's a pity because she does have some engaging, albeit sometimes bland, perspective on issues like alcohol, politics, the military, war, family, sex, etc. Don't expect big depths on this book, which by the way is a very easy and fast read.

No comments about A Fierce, Wild Joy: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Edward J. Wood, 48th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Voices Of The Civil War).

No comments about American Heroes (Magill's Choice).

1 comments about Robert E. Lee: First Soldier Of The Confederacy (Civil War Generals).

1. Robert E. Lee: First Soldier Of The Confederacy is a biography for young adults about the famous Confederate general of the American Civil War, Robert E. Lee. From his early childhood, to the education he sought at West Point Military Academy in order to spare his impoverished mother the expense of paying for his tuition, to his difficult military career and his fateful decision to serve the Confederate army, to the late years of his life, Robert E. Lee: First Soldier Of The Confederacy chronicles the facts about Lee's contribution to history. Biographer Earle Rice Jr. also offers a glimpse into Lee's personality through chosen quotes, such as Lee's admonishment to a young man who thought his time in the army was wasted: "However long you live and whatever you accomplish, you will find that the time you spent in the Confederate army was the most profitably spent portion of your life." Black-and-white as well as color photographs and illustrations add a visual touch to this faithful and highly accessible chronicle of Robert E. Lee's life.

3 comments about Rough Rider: Buckey O'Neill of Arizona.

1. Dale L. Walker's biography of O'Neill, one of the early West's most fascinating figures, is richly drawn, authoritative, and distinguished. O'Neill is best known as one of the Rough Riders of the Spanish-American War, but Walker meticulously depicts all the other facets of this legendary Arizonan. This is surely the standard work on O'Neill.



2. Although I loved the Rough Riders movie on TNT, they got the character Buckey O'Neill wrong. This book will set you straight on a forgotten hero, who did more in 38 years than most men would do in a life time. Just how far would he have gone had he not been killed at Kettle Hill? The next time that I'm on Whiskey Row, I will give a toast to William Owen O'Neill. This is a great book.



3. Buckey O'Neill was a legendary lawman, a gallant soldier, and a Democrat when being one meant fealty to the flag and country. Even in a Republican state like Arizona Buckey O'Neill is a state hero - and much revered in Prescott.
   
   This son of an Irish immigrant and Civil War Veteran risked death many times, chasing outlaws across the deserts and praries. If he hadn't recklessly strolled along the front lines facing the Spanish emplacements on San Juan Hill, O'Neill might very well had gone on to bigger and better things, including possibly being territorial governor. He was a particular favorite of Theodore Roosevelt's, who took his death very hard.
   
   Dale Walker has already written a superb book about the "Rough Riders" in the "Boys of '98" and here he sets the record on the man who is arguably Arizona's favorite son - above and beyond t Goldwater, the Earps, and perhaps even John McCain. Only the late hero Pat Tillman's life and career might be as adventurous and as legendary as O'Neill's was.