Showing posts with label biography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biography. Show all posts

Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows Review

Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows
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While the Donald Millers of the world have brought new vitality and honesty to writings on the Christian life, others, such as Philip Yancey and Ravi Zacharias, continue to dig deep into the intellectual side of the modern Christian's struggle. This depth makes their writings less accessible, yet so vital for many who are searching for answers.
In this gracious autobiography, Zacharias gives us doses of his trademark apologetics and wisdom, while providing a chronological view of his journey from suicidal teen to world-renowned evangelist. He offers glimpses into his cultural roots in India, along with helpful understanding of the eastern mindset. He shows restraint in his accounts of his family's issues, but he still manages to be honest with faults. He challenges his readers to move beyond their own search for fulfillment into a greater comprehension of who they are created to be.
As a missionary kid, I spent six months in India, experiencing some of the sights that Zacharias grew up around. I savored his anecdotes. This is a thoughtful, inspiring account of what God can do through those who are willing to "live, because he lives." Be patient, soak in the philosophical and theological musings, and see if you aren't nudged by the content of these pages.


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'Outside were stray animals and people, each about some pursuit. Sometimes it was a beggar at the door, sometimes a leprous hand reaching for a handout with a plea for compassion. Life with all its hurts and pains squinted at you, squatted before you, and stared you down daily. This was the street where I grew up.'Ravi Zacharias has lived an extraordinary life. He has walked with great leaders, slept in the villages and homes of the poor, and crossed continents to bring the good news of the gospel to the world.Already a man of two worlds by the time he was twenty, Ravi never dreamed that God would lead him from his birth home in India to Canada and the United States, and eventually to a platform on the world stage. For thirty-three years he has spoken all over the world. He has addressed writers of the peace accord in South Africa, the president's cabinet and parliament in Peru, and military officers at the Lenin Military Academy and the Center for Geopolitical Strategy in Moscow. He has given the keynote address at the National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, and has spoken twice at the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations in New York. Walking from East to West is Ravi's life story, a deeply personal journey into his past. Dr. Zacharias invites you back to the southern India of his early childhood, and into his troubled youth in the sophisticated capital city of Delhi. He recalls the importance of a mother's love and his difficult relationship with his father. He tells about his long search for truth in wrestling with Eastern thought and the newer ideas of Christianity, the cry for help in a dark moment when he tried to take his own life---and the dramatic turning point that led to a life lived for Christ. Zacharias recalls his early days as a new convert, what it was like to find a new life in the Western world, and the eventual birth and growth of a worldwide ministry.This is a story about an amazing man. Yet it is also everyone's story about belief---how it begins, how it grows, and the struggles associated with it. Walking from East to West is a heartfelt personal story of one man's discovery that God is the author of our destinies, no matter how dark the shadows that hide the light.

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Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Review

Where Do We Go from Here:  Chaos or Community
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Many of those who claim to admire Dr. King and quote from his I have a dream speech seem to have never read his books. This book is the best of all the books King has written and probably the least read. In it, Dr. King critiques himself for giving the then youthful leaders of the Black Power Movement too overly optimistic views of the progress of integration. He also presents the pros and cons of Black Power. He states the need for White America to do much more to improve race relations other than declaring racism to be wrong. He calls for the teaching of African-American history, and for the nation to focus more on helping the poor over military spending. This book should be mandatory reading for high school students, college students, teachers, public officials and business leaders.

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Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives Review

Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives
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Einstein's longtime secretary (1928-1955) Helen Dukas and Professor Banesh Hoffman who together had written a biography of Einstein here collect some of his correspondance, his very humane replies on a great variety of subjects.
The work is small but it does reveal Einstein's character. His humor and modesty and wisdom are everywhere in evidence. Einstein's writing often has an aphoristic quality, and there are many memorable sayings in the work.
A small sample of them follow:
" As for the search for truth ,I know from my own painful searching , with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take a reliable step, be it ever so small, towards the understanding of that which is truly significant."
"With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course, is a very common phenomenon. There is far too great a disproportion between what one is, and what others think one is, or at least what they say they think one is.But one has to take it all with good humor"
"Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science. If what is seen and experienced is portrayed in the language of logic, we are engaged in science. If it is communicated through forms whose connections are not accessible to the conscious mind but recognized intuitively as meaningful ,then we are engaged in art.Common to both is the loving devotion to that which transcends personal concern and volition."
This volume touches upon many sides of Einstein, his humanitarianism, devotion to peace, his Zionism, his sense of the beauty that is to be revealed through the objective understanding of the universe."
The book takes the form of the questions his correspondents asked ( Most often given in paraphrased form by the authors of the book) and Einstein's responses to their questions.
If I had one question to ask him it would be, " How is it that it was given to one human being in one relatively short period of time to totally transform Mankind's understanding of nature? Why do you think that you were the one given this miraculous power?


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Modesty, humor, compassion, and wisdom are the traits most evident in these personal papers, most of them never before published, from the Einstein archives. The illustrious physicist wrote as thoughtfully to an Ohio fifth-grader, distressed by her discovery that scientists classify humans as animals, as to a Colorado banker, who asked whether he believed in a personal God. Witty rhymes, and exchange about fine music with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, and expressions of his devotion to Zionism are but some of the highlights found in this rare, warm enriching book.


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A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall Review

A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall
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The description of Peter's passing is alone worth the price of this book. Catherine (wife) tells how she sat quietly by his body, draped and covered on the hospital bed, and became aware that his presence and another presence was there in the room with her, which she describes as "vivid" and "transcendent". After precisely 50 minutes, the luminous presences left the room.
You gotta read this book. His sermons are in the back. These too, are very inspiring.

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In the Preface to A Man Called Peter, Catherine Marshall tells of a dream she had after Peter Marshall's death: Peter was working in a rose garden and said playfully, "I know perfectly well what you've been doing, Catherine. You're writing a book. . . . It's all right, Kate. Go ahead and write it. Tell it all, if it will prove to people that a man can love the Lord and not be a sissy. . . ." Filled with wonderful humor, wisdom, and loving detail, the powerful story of Peter Marshall's life has touched the hearts and minds of millions of people. It is a book about love--the love between a dynamic man and his God, and the tender, romantic love between a man and the woman he married. It is also the gripping adventure of a poor Scottish immigrant who became Chaplain of the United States Senate and one of the most revered men in America. Through Peter's story and the powerful sermons and prayers included in this paperback edition, readers will discover insight into God, man, and life on earth and hereafter. They will also be encouraged by the realization that if God can do so much for a man called Peter, he can do as much for them.

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The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale Review

The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale
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The title of this review consists of words I don't use too often. But this is a masterpiece that deserved its Pulitzer Prize and then some. What makes Spiegelman's work so moving is the juxtaposition of a supposedly lighthearted form, the comic strip, with the greatest evil and suffering in human history, the Holocaust. Spiegelman's parents miraculously survived the concentration camps, being among very few survivors, getting by on luck and (in the case of Spiegelman's father) a lot of resourcefulness. This is their story, from the point of view of the father, who lost nearly all of his relatives. With the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, this work pulls no punches in describing the true horrors of the Holocaust, and Spiegelman's minimalist artwork makes the images all the more disturbing. You don't get this kind of emotion, terror, and brutal honesty in standard written accounts of the period. But underneath the direct suffering of the Holocaust, the true theme of this book is the lasting effects on the Spiegelman family, including the father's lasting agony and the mental illness shared by both Spiegelman's mother and himself, who hadn't even been born yet. The strained relationship between father and son are the true heart of this tremendous work. I haven't been this blown away by a work of literature in a very long time, if ever.

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At last!Here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker).It now appears as it was originally envisioned by the author: The Complete Maus.It is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father's story.Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive.Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in "drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust" (The New York Times).Maus is a haunting tale within a tale.Vladek's harrowing story of survival is woven into the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father.Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits.This astonishing retelling of our century's grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors.Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.

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In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad Review

In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad
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This biography of Prophet Muhammad can be called a "spiritual biography" that tells the story of a life but emphasizes decisions, revelations, and the spiritual and emotional lessons therein. Emerick's biography of the Prophet and that by Karen Armstrong are good, this is better. Incidentally, it hints at the paranoia of those in government who cancelled the author's visa while he was en route to teach at Notre Dame University. (I taught there briefly and can assure you that it is not a hot bed of radicalism.)
The position of women, place of jihad, role of law, and relations with non-Muslims are totally different than the media caricatures and also different from some Fundamentalist politicization and corruptions.
Under duress and attack we see un Islamic practices claiming to be Fundamental (the Western media is more than happy to second that claim). One needs to know that the Shari'a is partly a product, close to two centuries later, that evolved to empower scholarly elite promoting its own interests by which time patriarchal elements had also degraded practice regarding women some - although women had right of inheritance not much available in the West until the 19th and 20th centuries except for royalty.. Also, the most infamous practices predated Islam in much of the Mediterranean - the stoning of adulterers was now much harder to prove that before.
It is reading for those who have an open mind and would learn more, for those who aren't quite sure what to believe after the pervasive toxic climate of criticism. Christians and Jews are very much at a disadvantage in that Muslims know far more about their faiths naturally from reading the Qur'an than they would know without significant effort. Moses, Noah, Jesus and Mary are Prophets of Islam (Mary appears in the Qur'an more times than the Bible).
It should be reading for the many shamefully ignorant critics like Robertson, Graham, Hagee, Falwell who do not have the least basis for their declarations. Their ignorance is itself a measure of disrespect and narrowness that spreads widely among their followers. Equally it could begin to educate those who should know better and who make decisions based on fear and hate - including those who seem superficially have some knowledge when talking about "abrogation" of versus in the Qu'ran etc. Bashing Islam is a profitable cottage industry and so much easier than a small measure of understanding or empathy.
Prophet Muhammad lived ihsan (beauty appreciated and demonstrated) with charisma even before the first revelation. His role is not like that of Jesus in important ways: neither he nor his followers claimed Divinity: he had immense practical worldly family and political responsibilities that Jesus never had; he provided no redemption or way of evading personal responsibility.

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How to Write Your Own Life Story: The Classic Guide for the Nonprofessional Writer Review

How to Write Your Own Life Story: The Classic Guide for the Nonprofessional Writer
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More than seven years ago I decided to get some folks together to write our life stories. I haunted bookstores looking for the ideal book, and when I came across Lois Daniel's book, I knew it was the right one. That was her Third Edition. The updated Fourth Edition presents the same material, plus a couple of extra chapters.
The book has been ideal for our purpose. Lois Daniel's approach to writing about your life is to suggest that you write in bits and pieces, rather than starting with your birth and what I call "plowing through your life" from birth to the present day. That can be a chore for many; whereas writing about interesting incidents becomes an enjoyable challenge.
Grandma Moses, in her autobiography, wrote, "I have written my life in small sketches, a little today, a little yesterday, all the things from childhood on through the years, good ones and unpleasant ones, that is how they come out and that is how we have to take them."
That is the approach suggested by Lois Daniel. And the author makes it easy for persons who shy away because, they say, "I'm no writer." She suggests that you need not be a "writer", but merely to "write as you talk."
Our weekly class is now entering its eighth year, with 43 participants, both women and men. Since the class started, the members have purchased between 250 and 300 of her books, and, without exception, they are pleased. They find the book to be interesting, while at the same time it provides many suggestions and examples to motivate the writer.

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Writing the story of one's life sounds like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. This warmhearted, encouraging guide helps readers record the events of their lives for family and friends. Excerpts from other writers' work are included to exemplify and inspire. Provided are tips on intriguing topics to write about, foolproof tricks to jog your memory, ways to capture stories on paper without getting bogged down, ways to gather the facts at a local library or historical society, inspired excerpts from other writers, and published biographies that will delight and motivate.

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Dove Review

Dove
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Years ago, when I was growing up, I read the account of Robin Lee Graham as the young man who sailed around the world alone, and also got married along the way, in three installments of the National Geographic, circa 1965-1970. These articles so affected me that I also wanted to sail around the world. However, as I read this book it soon became apparent to me that this book is also an account of a true life love story, between Robin and Patti, both with simple values and needs, in sharp contrast to most people who are primarily concerned with money and social status. They were deep in love and would, and did, do anything for each other.
Robin alone, and later with Patti, sailed to some of the most beautiful places on Earth, I think they must have enough memories for 20 lifetimes. The writing style makes you feel that you are right there with them.
The pictures included in this book are poor black and white, but as I remember, the National Geographic articles included excellent color photographs, it would do you well to find those issues.
As for me, I never did get to sail around the world, a little thing called life intervened, the grind and all that! I did take a sailing class through a local university in the summer of '77, even got an "A" in the class, but this pales in comparison to the daring sailing of Robin Graham. Sometimes, during trips to Florida I gaze at ocean-going yachts at wharfs, and yes, the dream is still alive, thanks to Dove

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In 1965, 16-year-old Robin Lee Graham began a solo around-the-world voyage from San Pedro, California, in a 24-foot sloop. Five years and 33,000 miles later, he returned to home port with a wife and daughter and enough extraordinary experiences to fill this bestselling book, Dove.

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Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil Review

Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil
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Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil by Ron Rosenbaum. Highly recommended.
Explaining Hitler is a misleading title, for the focus is primarily on the Jewish academic community's attempts to explain Hitler-to put it in grossly oversimplified terms, this is somewhat like the prey explaining the motivations of the predator. The result is that, while Hitler remains a mystery, the academic and personal biases of the explainers are revealed. To each person's theories and comments Rosenbaum adds his own analysis, finding the flaws with precision.
Hitler explanation ranges from the deeply personal (abusive father, infection by a Jewish prostitute, mother's painful death under the care of a Jewish physician) to the inevitable influence of historical forces (post-war inflation, depression). Rosenbaum discusses the personal in depth, including Hitler's rumored Jewish ancestor and bizarre relationship with his half-niece Geli Raubal, the convolutions each theory takes, and the lack of facts or reliable information to support any of them. For example, Rosenbaum astutely points out the only real "proof" of the abusive father is Hitler's own assertion and sarcastically suggests that there is reason not to trust Hitler's word. One argument that immediately comes to mind that Rosenbaum only briefly alludes to later is that millions of people have abusive fathers, bad experiences with individual members of ethnic and other groups, and so forth, yet do not turn into war criminals responsible for the deaths of millions. In short, these theories might explain Hitler's anti-Semitism, but not the results.
What is disturbing about so many of these explanations (some of which are advocated by such noted people as Simon Wiesenthal, who favors the Jewish prostitute theory), and more sophisticated ones that appear later in the book, such as George Steiner's, is their insistence that a Jew or a group of Jews is responsible. In these theories, a Jewish ancestor, a Jewish prostitute, an Eastern Jew with a different appearance, or the Jewish "blackmail of transcendence" and "addiction to the ideal" is responsible for Hitler-implying Hitler is not responsible at all. Although the egotistical and monomaniacal Claude Lanzmann, maker of the documentary Shoah, is too self-centered and angry to clearly articulate the basis for his belief that Hitler explanation is inherently "obscene," it could be because so much "explanation" has found a way to point a finger at the Jews, directly or indirectly, while minimizing Hitler. Perhaps for that reason, Lanzmann is interested only in how the Holocaust was accomplished, not with the motivations of Hitler or his followers. The major flaw is that Lanzmann has missed the point by dictating that his rule of "There is no why" must apply to all other individuals-and the irony of that.
As Rosenbaum repeatedly points out, no explanations for Hitler are acceptable that excuse him-that look to a bad experience with a Jew rather than to, for example, the influence of anti-Semitism surrounding him in Austria and Germany. Again, however, it can be said that anti-Semitic influence has surrounded many people (as Rosenbaum notes, pre-war France was more anti-Semitic than either Austria or Germany) who have not killed, let alone killed millions.
Rosenbaum's approach is excellent, pairing individuals with complementary or opposing viewpoints, e.g., Lanzmann and Dr. Micheels, the theologian Emil Fackenheim and the atheist historian Yehuda Bauer in "The Temptation to Blame God." Even revisionist David Irving is given a chapter. Rosenbaum saves what seems to be his preference for the last chapter-Lucy Dawidowicz's belief that Hitler decided on The Final Solution as early as 1918, based on what he said and did not say over time, and on the "laughter" that is transferred from the Jewish victims to the Nazi victors. While this does not explain the origins of Hitler's evil, it pinpoints the time frame and removes the notion that he was ambivalent or experienced a sense of moral ambiguity. Dawidowicz's Hitler knows early on what he wants to do and lets insiders in on the "joke" he finds it to be. Presented in this way, Dawidowicz does seem to have come closest to the truth about Hitler. After all, how can one capable of ambivalence ultimately kill millions?
To me, one critical question is not why or how any one man became evil or chose an evil course of action, for the explanation could simply be that the capacity for evil in an individual may be higher than most of us are capable of realising or accepting. That is, everyday evil like John Wayne Gacy's is accomplished in isolation and is therefore limited in scope. The intent and the desired scope given opportunity remain unknowns. The more frightening question is why and how so many chose to follow Hitler. I do not necessarily mean the German people, per se, but the thousands of bureaucrats, managers, and soldiers who physically carried out The Final Solution, knowing exactly what this entailed and what it signified. Hitler seized the opportunity offered by the political and social situation to institutionalize his personal evil. A single man may envision and desire genocide, but it takes followers and believers to carry it out. Explaining Hitler (or Stalin or Genghis Khan) is not enough to explain the scope of this particular human evil. Without followers, there are no leaders. And without followers, millions of Jews (and Cambodians and Indians and so forth) could not have died. The evil that is so hard to face goes well beyond Hitler to a place that no one could truly wish to discover.
Diane L. Schirf, 18 January 2004.

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The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros Review

The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett and George Soros
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I am surprised that this book doesn't get the attention that it so rightly deserved. This is indeed a hidden gem! I have read dozens of investment books over the years and this book definitely belongs to my all-time top 5 must read. The writing is simply amazing with investment advices that are clear, succint and easily applicable to our own investment situations.
The book caters to a broad audience with investment advices that will prove beneficial to even the most seasoned investors. Beginners will love the book's approach detailing a step-by-step mental checklist to go through when making investment decisons. I am truly impressed by the author's careful research of coming out with 23 winning habits employed by the world's most successful investors including Warren Buffett and George Soros. I always thought that Warren is a true long-term investor and business owner whereas George is a amazing speculator taking advantages of current market conditions. Their investment philosophies must be worlds apart. Boy, was I wrong. As the author points out, they both have the same 23 winning investment habits as they go thru the same mental checklist when making investment decisions! This book is indeed a revelation.
I won't spoil the party by telling you what the 23 winning habits are. But I promise that each page is a head-turner and you will learn so much and improve your investment record up a notch for every habit that you acquired and practiced. It is one of those rare investment books that I have read cover-to-cover for a great many times and still find the urge to refer back to it. I am sure you will too!


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Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, and George Soros all started with nothing---and made billion-dollar fortunes solely by investing. But their investment strategies are so widely divergent, what could they possibly have in common?As Mark Tier demonstrates in this insightful book, the secrets that made Buffet, Icahn, and Soros the world's three richest investors are the same mental habits and strategies they all practice religiously. However, these are mental habits and strategies that fly in the face of Wall Street's conventional mindset. For example:-Buffett, Icahn, and Soros do not diversify. When they buy, they buy as much as they can.-They're not focused on the profits they expect to make. Going in, they're not investing for the money at all.-They don't believe that big profits involve big risks. In fact, they're far more focused on not losing money than making it.-Wall Street research reports? They never read them. They're not interested in what other people think. Indeed, Buffett says he only reads analyst reports when he needs a laugh.In The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros you can discover how the mental habits that guided your last investment decision stack up against those of Buffett, Icahn, and Soros. Then learn exactly how you can apply the wealth-building secrets of the world's richest investors to transform your own investment results.

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Soul on Ice Review

Soul on Ice
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Even though this was one of the most important and popular books of the 1960s, it is not discussed that much now, some thirty-five years after its initial publication. "Soul on Ice" is as much an allegorical masterpiece as it is a real description of black male (whom he refers to as Supermasculine Menials) attitudes towards prison-life, white racism (and white women in particular, who are here referred to as Ogres and the Ultrafeminines) and the Nation of Islam (Cleaver writes compellingly about his disassociation with the Nation, citing their racism--"The onus of teaching racial supremacy and hate, which is the white man's burden, is pretty hard to bear"). Cleaver's at-times amazing writing gives this book a peculiar power, and given this, it is easy to understand why the book was so popular in the late 1960s. For several reasons, though, it is easy to see why this book doesn't get as much attention as, say, James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time" [1963]. The chapter on Baldwin in "Soul on Ice," entitled "Notes on a Native Son" (a reference to one of Baldwin's early essays) is exceedingly homophobic, and other sections fairly hateful towards women (even though, in this regard, Cleaver is at times aware of his own misogyny--especially in his blushingly honest letters to one-time attorney Beverly Axelrod) and exceedingly macho. Many contemporary readers might not have the patience for this (especially given Baldwin's elevated status in the world of literature). Also, this book has lost some of its bite over the years because of excellent books written by participants in the Black Power Movement and the Black Panther Party. "Soul on Ice"--especially when compared with George Jackson's "Soledad Brother" (1971), Huey P. Newton's "Revolutionary Suicide" (1973), Amiri Baraka (1984) and Angela Y. Davis' (1974) autobiographies, and Elaine Brown's "A Taste of Power" (1992)--lacks the political vision, accuracy and believability of these other books, but it should also be credited for setting some of the standards by which these books would later have to judge themselves against, especially in regard to prison life (though Jackson's "Soledad Brother" is much more powerful in this regard). Nevertheless, "Soul on Ice" is a compelling read, and I agree with a statement that Ishmael Reed makes in the introduction that this book IS the 60s. If this memoir were a western, we could smell the sawdust on the floor.

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Sex Tips from Rock Stars: In Their Own Words Review

Sex Tips from Rock Stars: In Their Own Words
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SEX TIPS FROM ROCK STARS: IN THEIR OWN WORDS offers the first confessional book of rock stars' sexual encounters and offers a fun and revealing range of 'dos and don't' advice from these experiences. From fetishes and fantasies to sex toys, groupies, marriage, and more, this packs in a range of eye-opening experiences and is perfect for any general collection, especially those where rock star experiences are of interest.


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The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) Review

The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
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Each chapter of this book begins with a biographical narrative, followed by excerpts from myriad interviews with Campbell, organized in such a way that the interview topics follow the biographical line of the book. Jean Erdman, Stuart Brown, Phil Cousineau, Robert Bly, John Densmore and many more appear in the interviews with Campbell. The book also contains a complete timeline of Campbell's life and a list of books written or edited by Campbell.
Note that this is a collection and is not as comprehensive a biography as 'A Fire In The Mind.' But what it misses in magnitude and detail, it makes up for in presentation. The book lends itself to both the page-through and in-depth readers. It is full of photographs (some full page)and highlights many of Campbell's memorable quotes.
In a beautifully written introduction, Phil Cousineau refers to Campbell as the "ecstatic scholar", an "animateur" who was capable of evoking "the telling shiver of truth about your own life." This book re-animates Campbell's work and he is capable as ever, through the interviews on these pages, of speaking to the heart of his listeners and reawakening the mysteries of life with enthusiasm and awe.
(I do also recommend 'A Fire In The Mind,' which contains details of Campbell's life and excerpts from his personal journals that are not included in this work.)

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Ted Turner Speaks: Insights from the World's Greatest Maverick (Speak Series) Review

Ted Turner Speaks: Insights from the World's Greatest Maverick (Speak Series)
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Janet Lowe has fashioned a fine overview of Ted Turner's life and thoughts. Lowe's style offers effortless reading as the material flows eloquently throughout the book. Ted Turner Speaks is not your typical biography with details of every aspect on its subject; Lowe instead chooses to maintain brevity by focusing on the most fascinating aspects of Turner's life and the elements of his character that she believes to have been the most influential. If you are seeking to discover various captivating elements behind the life of this media titan, you will find this book worthwhile.


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As the brainchild behind the Cable News Network, Ted Turner revolutionized the television industry by introducing a 24-hour news station. Dubbed "Terrible Ted" for his apparent disregard for the rules, he turned sharp business savvy into a global communications empire that has made him one of the wealthiest-and most powerful figures in the business. This unique biography, the latest in the bestselling Speaks series, presents the different shades of this colorful personality by bringing together original Turner quotes from newscasts, interviews, and articles.Janet Lowe (Del Mar, CA) is the author of the bestselling /Ispeaks/N series, including /IWarrenBuffett Speaks, Jack Welch Speaks, Bill Gates Speaks,/N and /IOprah Winfrey Speaks./N Shehas written for /Inewsweek/N, the /ILos Angeles Times/N, and the /IChristian Science Monitor./N

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The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith Review

The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith
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I was attracted to read this book because of my familiarity with Peter Hitchens and his brother Christopher Hitchens. Both have become public intellectuals of varying degree. And both, as it turns out, have books being released this summer. I was excited when I got the opportunity to read this book, so provocatively titled "The Rage Against God."
This book is very much a testimonial (and an apologetic as well) of a man's life lived in the rapidly changing Britain (and West) of the post-WWII ear through today. Hitchens description of the Britain of his youth is accurate in the narrative of a nation that has slowly ossified and changed from what was a person living in Great Britain would have known prior to WWI. The public confidence in British institutions has greatly changed (witness the wrangling over Princess Diana's death by Queen Elizabeth II, for example) The relevance of Christian life in public life that was common-place and expected, whether at Christmas time or Easter was unquestioned.Hitchens describes how these touchstones have rapidly disappeared to the point where public pronouncements of religious faith are mocked and shunned to the extent that expression becomes an oddity. Witness the Church Of England abandoning so much of the liturgy that was known prior to WWII by almost all Brits. Today, even Biblical history is rapidly disappearing from public life.
Hitchens goes on to make three counterpoints of common lodestars of what non-believers argue as reasons for abandoning faith: religious faith causes conflict, moral relativism and atheism in nation/states. Finally, Hitchens goes on to debate the arguments of how the alternative to the "Christian" state, i.e. Marxist/Leninist states (such as the Soviet Union) are inherently and inextricably linked to the idea that a Godless state does not lead to 'excesses.' Of course, knowing the backstory of Peter and his brother, Christopher Hitchens as agnostics/atheists made this part far more compelling.
Frankly, I breezed through this book in just a few hours. Yes, it is short (clocking in at around 200 pages), but it is a very interesting and fascinating take on modern life (many of his observations seem undeniable for better or worse). Though this book may be thought of as a Christian testimonial, it is never preachy or judgmental. Rather, it is fascinating and compelling in illustrating why this particular former Trotskyite (!) was compelled to renounce his atheistic ways and find religion.
I really enjoyed this book, almost unexpectedly because I just didn't know what to expect from this book. But, I found myself thinking about my life in a different way, and indeed, it gave me a new perspective about thinking of how contemporary events are shaped.
I look forward to reading his brother's last book as a counterpoint. Indeed, in the marketplace of ideas about faith on both a personal level and on a communal level, this book is a valuable tool.

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The Upside of Fear: How One Man Broke the Cycle of Prison, Poverty, and Addiction Review

The Upside of Fear: How One Man Broke the Cycle of Prison, Poverty, and Addiction
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The Upside of Fear: How One Man Broke the Cycle of Prison, Poverty, and Addiction by Weldon Long is one of those books that looked interesting for review purposes, but I initially said no due to my horrible backlog piles of books to be read. But after about four different emails from unrelated sources on the book, I thought that perhaps someone was trying to tell me something. I received my copy and started reading it one night as I was suffering from a bit of insomnia (nothing new there!) I quickly found that I couldn't put it down, both for Long's story, and for the lessons contained within it. The book touched me on a number of levels.
In short, Long was a life-long "loser" who drank himself into over a decade of time spent behind bars. After dropping out of school in the 9th grade, he quickly became an alcoholic who was not willing to work hard at anything in life. He was always after that next get-rich-quick scheme, while drinking away most of the money that his girlfriend/wife earned at her job. This constant need for money without effort finally led him to pick up a hitchhiker and plan an armed robbery to get a quick score. That wasn't the start of his downhill slide (he was already sinking), but it *was* the accelerator that pushed him to even lower depths.
He was quickly apprehended for that crime, and was sentenced to ten years. As with most sentences, he was able to get out early while swearing to himself he was going to change for the better, in order to be a better father to his baby boy. But the patterns were already ingrained, and he went back to robbery to get his next cash infusion. He was pulled over while planning another heist, and the police found him in possession of a firearm along with tools that could be used (and would have been) for his next crime. This parole violation sent him back into the system, but he was able to dodge any responsibility for the prior crimes as they couldn't tie him to the acts. You'd think by now he'd start thinking about how to *really* change his life, but that was not to be. With his next release, he was again back to drinking, drugs, and telemarketing fraud. All this finally caught up with him, and he ended up back in jail once again, this time facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars. It was then that a transformation started to occur...
He reached out to a Higher Power and asked for help in turning things around. It was at that point that he started to understand that *he* was responsible for what had happened to him in life, and he had the choice on how to respond to his circumstances. He started to read a number of personal improvement books, taking the lessons to heart. Most importantly, he started to own up and take responsibility for his past actions. This didn't mean that all of a sudden his life got rosy. But it did give him a purpose and guiding principles to continue his personal growth and to pursue his life goals he was now focused on.
Long story short, he's now a free man, with all his crimes paid for. He's met and surpassed his goals he set for himself in prison, such as to become a good father to his son Hunter, to learn how to have a healthy relationship with a woman, to actually purchase and own a home, and to help others learn how to they too can change. He's gone from a burden on society, a person destined to live and die behind bars, to a productive member of society who is making a valuable contribution in the lives of many others who are walking the same path he was.
As I mentioned in the opening, this was a touching story. It shows that no one is beyond help or without value, and that it's possible for anyone to turn their lives around if they start to understand some basic principles of living. I was also once again reminded of the power of written goals, both short and long term. It's far too easy to make mental promises that don't have any concrete backing behind them. This is a lesson I still struggle with myself. And finally, the epilogue actually caused me to tear up a bit. The scene between Long and Hunter, reviewing the letters he wrote to him while in prison, is so very moving...
Some will probably read this and get hung up on the philosophies from people like Tony Robbins and Wayne Dyer. But the fact remains that there *is* wisdom there, and those things did transform Long's life. I would highly recommend this on both an inspirational/motivational level and on a teaching level. If you can get your young teens to read something like this, they might just hesitate a bit before making decisions that will cause them years of heartache and pain.

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Writers Digest Grand Prize Winner for Best Self-Published Book
Winner of the 2009 New York Book Festival's award in the Biography/Autobiography category
Runner-up for the 2009 Hollywood Book Festival's award in the Biography/Autobiography category
From the brutality of violent street crime to the compassion of a loving father for his son, this powerful memoir takes you from desperation to inspiration through the transformation of a drug-addled criminal into a fully realized, successful man.
The Upside of Fear exposes you to the harsh reality of a criminal life and creates a riveting portrait of true crime at its fundamental level--from buying the duct tape for an armed robbery to saving the life of a prison guard. Long recounts his harrowing journey of self-discovery and how he went from being a drunk in a jail cell to the CEO of a multimillion dollar business. Twenty years of drinking, drugging, robbing, and lying led him to more than a decade of time spent in prisons, jails, and halfway houses--and a strained relationship with a son he barely knew.
Through the revealing perspective of an eloquent criminal, you will learn how to change fear into a positive motivating force and use the mind to strengthen the will, even in the bleakest of circumstances. Long's story demonstrates that love can redeem even the most hopeless criminal, and that there can be no emotions stronger than the desire for redemption and the love of a father separated from his son by prison bars.
Praise for The Upside of Fear: ''This book comes from a magnificent person who learned the lessons of life out of profound prison experiences. Despite the harsh language, Wally Long is a true diamond in the rough who produced this inspiring and illuminating account of the path he took to freedom and prosperity.'' --Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time
''Quite a story . . . [of a] turnaround from prison to contribution!'' --Tony Robbins, bestselling author of Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within

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50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants of the Faith Review

50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants of the Faith
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This book offers fifty short biographical sketches of Christian figures of varying importance, ranging from Katherine von Bora to A.W. Tozer and had its genesis in magazine articles in Moody Monthly and The Good News Broadcaster. It combines two previous books, Living with the Giants and Victorious Christians. As a collection of short biographies it does with excellence exactly what is sets out to do--provide a mere introduction to important Christian figures. There is am emphasis on figures in some way related to Moody, but this hardly detracts from it. It's an excellent choice to read just a few pages at a time.

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Christians in the twenty-first century need encouragement and inspiration to lead lives that honor God. When faith is weak or the pressures of the world seem overwhelming, remembering the great men and women of the past can inspire us to renewed strength and purpose. Our spiritual struggles are not new, and the stories of those who have gone before us can help lead the way to our own victories.50 People Every Christian Should Know gives a glimpse into the lives of such people as Charles H. Spurgeon, G. Campbell Morgan, A. W. Tozer, Fanny Crosby, Amy Carmichael, Jonathan Edwards, James Hudson Taylor, and many more. Combining the stories of fifty of these faithful men and women, beloved author Warren W. Wiersbe offers today's readers inspiration and encouragement in life's uncertain journey.

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