Amazon.com
Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis
Book Description
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.
For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.
TO INQUIRE ABOUT SCHEDULING JEANNETTE WALLS FOR SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS PLEASE CONTACT:
Keppler Speakers
Dustin L. Jones
Associate, College & University Division
703.516.4000 (P)
703.516.4819 (F)
Customer Reviews:
The Glass Castle.......2007-10-18
This is an amazing book. The life experiences of the author and her siblings really makes you wonder how they turned out as well as they did. It also raises the question of whether the parents suffered from mental illness, were criminally neglectful of their chilren or just truly outside of the box thinkers.
Courageous But Sad.......2007-10-18
Wow...this book is just amazing, i cant believe all the stuff this woman had to go threw as a child...and I'm glad i do not have Rex & Rosemary as my parents....Truly great book and made me cry half of the time.
If I hadn't read this book I would not have thought of what its like to those who hardly eat and are with no money.
This story is amazing and took an impact on me...and I will always remember this amazingly courageous sad story...
Glass Castle.......2007-10-17
Wow... haven't we all held out for the moment we commence to build our Glass Castle? "Just as soon as".... we get the perfect plans, enough time, money, etc. FABULOUS book that was written (just like I'd like to write one!) to give us glimses into our own grandiosity, missed opportunities, fixed beliefs, and rationalizations. I saw EVERYONE in my family in this book; maybe the whole human race makes an appearance, but it definitely will come alive for anyone raised by alcoholics. Couldn't stop reading it and now can't stop talking about it.
Writing on eggshells.......2007-10-17
I read all memoirs with a grain of salt mainly because I have a terrible memory and I don't understand how people can remember things they said when they were 3 yrs old (before the digital photography age of course). As far as memoirs go, this one is very interesting and does move fast. It also poses very interesting questions about parenting because the kids turn out okay despite growing up poorer than "po," in environments I shudder to think about, and with completely self-obsessed neglectful parents. It also put a new interesting face on homelessness.
However, the author is horrible about maintaining a believable/easy to follow timeline in the first half of the book. It seems she was 3-5 yrs old for much of that time. How reliable is a 3-5 yr old's memory? There were also several places where the writing lacked transition. That just annoyed the schoolmarm in me.
My main complaint is that the author seemed to be trying not hurt anyone's feelings as she wrote. Maybe she's a better person than me, but I don't understand how she could be so free of resentment despite the upbringing she described. She tried to show every family member in a positive light up until the end. I can understand forgiving her parents for neglecting, starving, and generally abusing her and her siblings, but I'm not sure she told the whole truth about her feelings. Then again, maybe half truths are par for the course when it comes to memoir.
Overall, I did like this and would recommend it.
The Glass Castle.......2007-10-16
One of the best books I have ever read. I just could not put it down. One life event while growing up just tops another.To rise above her circumstances and make a postive life for herself is just a tribute to the strength she has within her spirit. It was so inspiring to see them make the best of themselves even thou the example they had was so poor. My hat is off to Jeanette Walls and her siblings.
Book Description
Internationally renowned motivational teacher, spiritual instructor, and popular theologian Caroline Myss has created a transcendent work of unique insight and revelation in Entering the Castle. This exciting new teaching of contemporary mysticism is also a brilliant synthesis of the psychology of consciousness and of Eastern and Western mystical traditions. Myss provides a highly original inner path to self-knowledge -- which is also the road into a spiritual knowledge of God and your own soul -- as she reveals a necessary external path, one that takes you out into the world to serve God and others as a mystic without a monastery -- without having to retreat into total silence, self-denial, or isolation.
As her main template for this extraordinary, modern spiritual journey, Myss uses the beloved, revered writings of The Interior Castle by Teresa of Ávila. Adapting Teresa's vision of the soul as a beautiful crystal castle with many floors, or mansions, and many rooms within those mansions, Myss guides us from room to room, helping us meet different aspects of our self, our soul, and our spirit -- preparing us for the ultimate encounter with God and our own divinity. Through intense practices and methods of spiritual inquiry adapted for contemporary life, she helps us to develop our personal powers of prayer, contemplation, and intuition and to ascend the seven levels of soul knowledge that build an ever stronger interior castle of our own -- a soul of strength and stamina.
As in all her books, Myss also recounts stories of profoundly moving real-life experiences -- of her own, as well as of her students and of renowned spiritual figures -- that bring home the universal truth of her insights. Presiding over the entire book and journey are the great mystics, ancient and contemporary, of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism with their inspiring lives and discerning spirits. And over all, the benevolence, truth, and gentle and tough love of Teresa of Ávila shine through.
Doubtless Myss's most deeply personal, revealing, compassionate, and transforming book yet, Entering the Castle is a comprehensive guidebook for the journey of your life -- a journey into the center of your soul. There, peace, God, and a fearless bliss wait for you to discover them...and claim them for your own.
Customer Reviews:
Carry this book with you on your spiritual journey..........2007-09-12
Carolyn Myss coined the phrase, "We are becoming mystics without monasteries", which is the essence of this wonderful book, based on St. Teresa of Avila's seven interior mansions. However, the book is not meant to be a quick read - it is a roadmap that each one of us may take into the interior place of our soul, our castle, where we can purify, blend, and distill the gold from within, so that we may shine our light out into the world. Take this along on your journey of spiritual growth and service.
Caroline Myss at her best.......2007-08-25
If you've enjoyed and benefitted from any of Caroline Myss' previous work, then definitely get a hold of this. I've always found her voice particularly reassuring and inspiring, so the CD is probably your best bet if you're like me. Entering the Castle is a fascinating modern interpretation of Teresa of Avila's most creative work. Myss's psychological and spiritual adaptation and her explanations and instructions cannot be underrated. I hesitated on this, but am glad now that I've taken the next step on the Myss journey.
Good for some.......2007-08-14
I did not care for this book, but I am giving it 3 stars because I think that it might be a valuable book for some people, especially if you are Catholic or Christian, as this really forms the basis for this book. Carolyn makes an attempt to draw in other faiths by mentioning Buddhism now and then, but she makes it clear that practices such as meditation and repeating mantras just doesn't cut it as a mystical practice. I'm sure the Buddhists & Hindus worldwide are supprised to know that they aren't *really* doing a spiritual practice. Also, if you are New Age or New Thought then you know darn well that you don't want to keep focusing on "the dark night of the soul" and all the other fearsome stuff that Myss dwells on or you're going to attract it and who wants that?
Anyway, I think there are many other ways to get closer to your God than this, but if you've already got that focus on sin, humility, surrender, redemption and such and love to journal and do lots of exercises then this might be your cup of tea.
Lost in Translation.......2007-07-29
It takes 100 pages before you enter the first mansion. Some of the material in the beginning is important, but I'm sorry, I just could not connect with the author's own personal experiences. Some of them just sounded to "new age" to me. Superficial is the word that comes to mind although I do not want to to discredit the author's experiences.
The author brings up a good point about the need for deeply spiritual people in the world. The author uses the term "monks without monasteries". It is a catchy phrase, but it confuses the purposes of different vocations. Both vocations call for personal sacrifices (a word not much used in this book), but they are directed toward different goals. The author belittles, or does not recognize the secondary function of monasteries as a conveyor belt to drive and supplement, to support and re-energize the spirituality of those working in the world. (The primary function of monasteries is beyond the book and this book review.)
It seems like the author is specifically looking for some kind of extraordinary experience of God. We all are. But St. John of the Cross and even St. Teresa of Avila herself, along with many other genuine mystics, urge not to seek, or even hope for, these kinds of *extraordinary* experiences. Although they can and do reinforce faith, they become distractions and obstacles for "the one thing necessary"--to love God for God, not for God's consolations and gifts.
There was also an alarming tone of lack of poverty of spirit throughout the book. The author waits too late to address humility in the book, and then it was a bit shallow. The author treats it almost as a drawback or turnoff to reading any further in the book. In too many places I wrote in the margin, "What about grace?" (One definition of grace, avoiding much Christian connotation, is the gift to see old things in a new way. It is a gift and not something that can be self-manufactured.) The author makes it sound like *you* yourself are responsible for working your way through all the mansions of the castle. Yes, the first couple mansions require *work* on your part, but even through these, God is still doing the *real work*. You have to show up and choose to cooperate. Yes, you have to do your homework, but only grace (energy, power, or whatever term one uses) from God will empower you to do so, not your own volition. Without sincere, deep, and total humility, St. Teresa said that it is impossible to progress through the mansions regardless of how much one wants. (Read Johannes Baptist Metz's small book, Poverty of Spirit if you really want to understand humility and realize/live true poverty of spirit.)
In a spirit of ecumenical/all-faiths dialog, the author has sacrificed the beauty and depth of St. Teresa's original, albeit Christian, metaphors and symbols. The author decides to use the word "reptiles" instead of St. Teresa's word "snakes" for evils and worldly temptations. The word "love", although loaded with connotations, seems to be used very sparingly by the author. St. Teresa's word for God, the object of her total desire and commitment, was her "Beloved". This one missing word makes entering the Interior Castle more of an abstraction or exercise of improving ones self-esteem instead of the infinitely more personal and real seeking union with God.
The questions the author asks within each mansions do assist one along the proper path as outlined by St. Teresa. One should be aware that there are many other questions (and rooms) within each mansion that have not *yet* been explored by the book. It is also important to remember that it is not a sequential, linear progression as the author notes.
The detailed imagery the author uses to describe each room and mansion may help many people, but remember the whole idea of the Interior Castle was to be a metaphor/symbol for the *real* journey. Each room and mansion is just a signpost to where you are suppose to go, to some place to visit within. Do not get attached to the signposts, to the imagery of symbols and metaphors. Since St. Teresa was an apophatic mystic, all of the words and imagery themselves will eventually have to be left behind any way in order to seek union with the God above all concepts.
If this book gives you some insight, great. But I recommend reading the original from St. Teresa. Although this author adds much helpful psychology (which is different in many ways than spirituality), too much is lost and sacrificed in the translation.
get to know yourself.......2007-07-28
this has wonderful exercises to delve into your soul. an enchanting read full of great information. a must for someone on the spiritual path!
Book Description
ENTERING THE CASTLE by Caroline Myss is a powerful 8-CD program that will give you a deeply personal, revelatory experience of your soul. What is required is that you âenter your castleâ and explore with great intent the contents of your seven mansions and their many rooms. You’ll be introduced to a new spiritual renaissance as Caroline explains the nature of mysticism and its experiences; what it means to be called into mystical service; how to discover your unique gifts, become a channel for grace, and conduct healing at a distanceâand more.
With this richly meaningful and unique audio experience, you’ll learn to express your highest potential with grace, and explore a spiritual life that is as deeply directed within as it is toward the world.
Customer Reviews:
Not for the weak.......2007-09-17
I am a follower of Carolyn Myss. Individuals must be ready for "tough love" when you listen to this one. There is no room for personal excuses here. Be ready to grow.
An Amazing Work.......2007-08-29
This is an amazing work and I will forever be grateful for her passion. It is powerful and courageous. I applaud Caroline Myss for having the courage to follow.
Entering the Castle: Exploring your mystical experience of God: CD.......2007-07-28
Just the most amazing piece of insight on the road of soul searching, healing , listening, there is so much to explore with this material that I usually spend three hours listening and trying to apply these wonderful suggestions to know my own soul! Seamus
Entering the Castle 9-CD set with Caroline Myss.......2007-07-20
I am a huge fan of Caroline Myss and typically prefer to listen to her talk rather than read her books. However, for this particular title, I wish I had purchased the book as well as the CD and may still get the book. A significant amount of the topic involves time in meditation with your interior castle and while Dr. Myss talks you through each meditation, they are typically to short to allow an experience of completion.
But I must add that the spoken material about getting to know yourself on this deep level is both illuminating and thought provoking, in this way Caroline Myss met my expectations.
CAROLINE MYSS SPEAKS FROM HER HEART AND SOUL..AN ENLIGHTENING AUDIO BOOK!.......2007-07-05
I have read and listened to MANY of Caroline Myss books and cd's and I find this is her best work yet! Before I bought this set from Amazon, I read all of the previous reviews and read that some reviewers felt that Caroline was rude or harsh. (I did not agree with some of the below poor reviews. Why? After listening to Caroline Myss on HayHouse Radio and on many of her previous CD's, I found Ms. Myss a very inpsiring and enlightening teacher. This CD set and also the book are for people that who are seeking serious spiritual enlightment and want to go on a very deep spiritual journey of the soul. After listening to many of her works, including Entering the Castle, I believe that she is very serious and dedicated to her work. Because she is so very passionate about her work, she has such deep feeling and expresses this passion in all of her lectures/CD's, including this one. For me, I love it that she is so very emphatic and direct in her delivery of her message on the CD's. That for me, is necessary for my SOUL and HIGHER SELF to listen and so that my spiritual journey is a wonderful change for the better. This teaching on these CD's are not just to listen to once and forget, they are meant to be listened to many times so you can better your soul. The Castle CD's are her best so far, and I will listen to them again for my soul's growth. Thanks Caroline!
Book Description
No career in modern American letters is at once so brilliant, varied, and controversial as that of Norman Mailer. In a span of more than six decades, Mailer has searched into subjects ranging from World War II to Ancient Egypt, from the march on the Pentagon to Marilyn Monroe, from Henry Miller and Mohammad Ali to Jesus Christ. Now, in The Castle in the Forest, his first major work of fiction in more than a decade, Mailer offers what may be his consummate literary endeavor: He has set out to explore the evil of Adolf Hitler.
The narrator, a mysterious SS man who is later revealed to be an exceptional presence, gives us young Adolf from birth, as well as Hitler’s father and mother, his sisters and brothers, and the intimate details of his childhood and adolescence.
A tapestry of unforgettable characters, The Castle in the Forest delivers its playful twists and surprises with astonishing insight into the nature of the struggle between good and evil that exists in us all. At its core is a hypothesis that propels this novel and makes it a work of stunning originality. Now, on the eve of his eighty-fourth birthday, Norman Mailer may well be saying more than he ever has before.
Customer Reviews:
Provacative; fascinating.......2007-10-10
Mailer never minces words, and his narrator D.T. doesn't either. What I found most remarkable was the strength of the story-telling as Mailer explored the nature of evil.
Beautiful language, remarkably restrained.......2007-09-09
The Castle in the Forest is a fictionalized account of the childhood of Adolf Hitler and his immediate family. I recommend this book to the interested reader on several levels. First and foremost, Mailer has a beautiful command of language. It's a joy to experience the precision of his words and majesty of his phrasings.
Second is his treatment of this controversial subject - how to "explain" the evil of Adolf Hitler? To Mailer's credit, the answer turns out to be we really don't - not cleanly anyway, and not from his early childhood. His treatment of the subject is remarkably restrained. There are no definitive events in Mailer's life of young Adolf Hitler that create a force of evil. In many ways, this could be the story of any of thousands of boys growing up in Austria at that time, leaving the reader to conjecture endlessly how this particular set of forces sowed the seed of Hitler's later evil.
Lastly is the depth of the character portrayals. Mailer clearly researched Hitler's immediate family in depth, and most readers will find themselves wanting to learn more about his mother, father and siblings to form their own conjectures about this slice of history. I found myself frequently turning to Wikipedia to read about Hitler's immediate family.
I listened to this book unabridged on audio narrated by Harris Yulin, who does a magnificent job. His commanding voice matches well with Mailer's language and the complexity of his characters.
Don't bother.......2007-08-25
I wasted a couple of evenings plowing through this simply awful book. Awful not just for the subject matter but because it is so poorly written, clumsy and ridiculous. It's Mailer's self-indulgence at its worst.
Mailer's Story is a Deep Well.......2007-08-22
Everyone seems to get hung up on the notion that THE CASTLE IN THE FOREST is a biography of Adolph Hitler, but I'm not so sure that's the case. You can't read it as history nor gulp it down as absolute truth, both of which are relative, and yet the piece exists beyond the realm of simple fiction. To me the work is a speculation, a meditation on the complexities ... the "ineluctable modalities" of humanity. So, why center the narrative on Hitler? Because, I think, for Mailer's generation and for several since, that dark personality has been--continues to be--the symbol of a vast mystery (a "Mystery of Iniquity?"), which runs like a sinister undercurrent through the nature and history of the human race. Hitler is hapless. The real voice and purpose here comes to us through Dieter (DL). Pay attention to him. There hasn't been a more telling demon since Mephistopheles; however, Dieter has more power, coming at us from our own contemporary sense of self, and he's much more revealing than Faust's creation, for he speaks to us in a modern context. Let yourself sink into the narration, settle into the narrator's tortured spirit, listen to the subtlties and nuances, which some of us may be really hearing for the first time since Eve, so to speak.
This tale is a deep well to which a reader can return often and always find something to nourish the mind and heart.
Don't Bother.......2007-08-16
Well, Norman Mailer writing a new book is normally a reason to celebrate, but this time around I wished I had missed the party all-together. The premise of the book is interesting enough, although it reads like heady science fiction or poor literature - a lover-level devil describes the upbringing of Adolf Hitler and a whole mythology associated with how God and the Devil interact with one another on earth, fighting for and jostling with one another over people's lives and control of the earth. The book is well-researched, the prose is clean and smooth, but then we get to the book itself - it's boring and over-the-top. Mailer spends so much time explaining the way angels ("Cudgels" in the book) war with devils and how they try to guide the course of history that I simply wanted to bang my head against the table. It's one thing to create a mythology, but one that is explained at such a slow pace makes the reading and digesting of it unbearable. The details and intricacies of the Hitler family are wonderful, but there is an over-sensitivity to trying to explain this particular devil's attitude and perspective that any insights into the interplay between Mailer's mythology and the actual events is lost.
When I look back on this book, I keep thinking about the strengths. Mailer structures the book around incest as well as familiar historical events that makes you woder how the book couldn't have been a success. And yet, the story simply plodded on and there was no suspension of disbelief at any point. One critic compared it to Lewis's "Screwtap Letters," but that doesn't quite cut it as the philosophical implications aren't to be taken into account here and the writing simply isn't as good.
For Mailer fans, this will be a good enough read, but for everyone else, go pick out some decent biographies of Hitler and some WWII movies and you'll be much more entertained.
Amazon.com
In the second of the "Merlin Missions"--hardback additions to Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series--plucky heroes Jack and Annie must once again must travel back in time to rescue Camelot from looming danger.
One wonders why Merlin can't handle this sort of thing himself, but then of course we wouldn't get a chance to see Jack and Annie have another seat-of-the-pants adventure, getting mixed up with shape-shifting magic, armies of birds, a puzzling gem of power, and all sorts of other trouble. With the help of their old pal Teddy (Morgan le Fay's apprentice, last seen in dog form in four earlier Tree House stories), the two "Master Librarians and Magicians of Everyday Magic" must solve the mystery behind a castle full of ghosts and a menacing army of ravens. Not surprisingly, half the trouble comes in unraveling Merlin's riddles and helping Teddy use his rhyming magic correctly.
Osborne doesn't challenge readers overmuch (including the constant restatement of plot elements, perhaps worried that kids might otherwise forget or lose interest) and many parts of the story barely convince (like Teddy's "period" dialogue, e.g., "'Tis cool indeed"), but fans of the Magic Tree House will no doubt love another installment. (Ages 6 to 9) --Paul Hughes
Book Description
The intrepid Jack and Annie are summoned once again to the fantasy realm of Camelot. There, Merlin the Magician tells them that the Stone of Destiny has been stolen. The answer to its disappearance lies within a haunted castle. With a young magician named Teddy, Jack and Annie take on the challenge in an adventure that takes them to new heights and places they couldn’t even imagine!
a Stepping Stone Book™
Customer Reviews:
Magic Treehouse Haunted Castle.......2007-10-16
We really enjoy this series- we read to our 5 & 3 year old boys
each night...just two or three chapters. They love the MT stories.
Easy reading.
Another great book.......2007-02-09
Mary Pope Osborne has done it again with this book. A great book for children.
haunted magic.......2007-01-22
I love the magic tree house series!!! I greatly enjoy reading these with my daughter!!!! Keep bringing them on.............mommytess
Haunted Castle on Halllows Eve.......2007-01-16
Book review of
Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve
If you like magical places this is the book for you. The ages are 7-11. Jack, and Annie, and teddy have to finish a mission. That they were assigned by sorcer. They have to restore a castles order.
Jack, Annie, and Teddy have to restore a castle to normal. Jack is the leader. Annie helps and takes to animals. Teddy is a young sorcer. Teddy has rims to make the magic work.
Jack, Annie, and Teddy have to work together to save the castle. Teddy comes up with a plan to get the diamond. Jack found the diamond right away and flew to the castle. They help each other to protect the diamond. These three have to work together to over come obstacle.
The story takes place in a castle, tree house, and a nest. The castle is hunted. The tree house is failed with books. It can also transport you almost any ware. The nest is failed with jewelry and rare items.
Jack and Annie have to get back. Sometimes supped up on the ledge. It was the raven king. He had Teddy in a bird cage. You will have to read it to find the rest out.
READ THIS BOOK PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2006-11-07
If you like adventure books, than read this book. This book is about three kids who go to a castle and try to help a family, while trying not to be too scared. This is a really good book for anyone to curl up and read. It also has easy text for young readers to read and understand. Maybe you will like this book if you read it too.
Book Description
Over fifteen intricate pop-ups accompany Sabuda and Reinhart's fascinating text, which guides readers through the different aspects of life in a medieval castle. Readers will learn about knighting ceremonies, battles, and feasts. The true majesty of castles is fully realized when this book is opened to reveal a stunning 3-dimensional medieval world.
Customer Reviews:
What a wonderful book it is!!!!!!.......2007-10-04
My boy is 6 and he's so interested of castles and knights.
and this pop up book is so amazing book for kids.
My kid had a shouting whenever i read the next page
i recommand this book for boy agess 6 to 12.
Another intricate and exciting adventure.......2007-10-03
My son received this book for his 4th birthday and has been enjoying it at different levels over the past year. At first, he loved looking for the knights, admiring the intricate pop-ups, and listening to parts of the text about knights and their castles.
Now that he is 5, he is enjoying the book at a different level, spending longer moments discovering the surprises each page has to offer, and listening to the text with a greater attention to detail.
Of course, many of our grown-up guests enjoy looking at all of our Sabuda and Reinhart books as well. They are great fun and a true wonder!
Castle: Medieval Days and Knights.......2007-08-16
I am simply amazed that you can buy a high quality Sabuda pop-up book for such a reasonable price. These books are too nice for children who simply cannot appreciate the work that must have gone into creating them. Each one is a piece of art -- I just love them. I am convinced that eventually they will be too expensive to produce.
Buy 2, Use 1.......2007-07-14
Fascinating Pop-up book will spark the imagination of children and adults alike. Fun facts provide a glimpse into Medieval lives and are never dry. Kyle Olman came to our school and gave our 5th graders a demonstration on creating their own pop up knight, and happens to be an extremely kind and patient teacher as well as an incredible new author/artist!
Wonderful pop-up book!.......2007-07-11
Although this is clearly a book for older children and my son is only 16 months old, he already LOVES this book! (although secretly, I think my husband possibly enjoys it even more!) We've had it for 2 months now, and he still oohs and aahs as each page is turned (the boy, not the man!). His favorite is the interactive page in the middle where pulling on the arrowed tabs bring "life" to all of the medieval workers doing their jobs. We keep the book on a high shelf out of his reach, to keep him from damaging it accidentally. He eagerly requests to see it several times a week. It's interesting to me how he's never treated the Sabuda & Reinhart pop-up books (we have 3 - "Sharks" and "Dinosaurs" are just as amazing, although very different, from this one) in the same rough manner as he does with his other "toddler" books. Somehow, he knew these books are not the same. Even at his young age, he knows he has to let Mommy or Daddy help him with the delicate pages, and he gets SO excited with all of the amazing "action"! Excellent! Wonderful gift for any child.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
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They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Average customer rating:
- if you loved the moved you'll love the book even more!
- One of my favorites
- Inspiring
- Oh, wow...
- almost the same...
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Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
Manufacturer: Eos
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The Art of Howl's Moving Castle
ASIN: 006441034X
Release Date: 2001-08-07 |
Book Description
In the land of Ingary, such things as spells, invisible cloaks, and seven-league boots were everyday things. The Witch of the Waste was another matter.
After fifty years of quiet, it was rumored that the Witch was about to terrorize the country again. So when a moving black castle, blowing dark smoke from its four thin turrets, appeared on the horizon, everyone thought it was the Witch. The castle, however, belonged to Wizard Howl, who, it was said, liked to suck the souls of young girls.
The Hatter sisters--Sophie, Lettie, and Martha--and all the other girls were warned not to venture into the streets alone. But that was only the beginning.
In this giant jigsaw puzzle of a fantasy, people and things are never quite what they seem. Destinies are intertwined, identities exchanged, lovers confused. The Witch has placed a spell on Howl. Does the clue to breaking it lie in a famous poem? And what will happen to Sophie Hatter when she enters Howl's castle?
Diana Wynne Jones's entrancing fantasy is filled with surprises at every turn, but when the final stormy duel between the Witch and the Wizard is finished, all the pieces fall magically into place.
Customer Reviews:
if you loved the moved you'll love the book even more!.......2007-10-17
I absolutely loved the movie and when i saw in the credits that it was based on this novel i immediately bought this book. I was so happy to find that this book had more story lines than the movie.
I loved that the movie had changed some small elements and i loved that story. But the book had so much more that made the story much richer and helped me to understand some of the holes in the movie plot.
As far as the story itself, i fell that this is a good alternative to the Harry Potter set of adolescent readers. It has a good moral and there aren't any super scary parts. I especially loved the relationship between Howl and Sophie. Enjoy!
One of my favorites.......2007-10-13
What a great book. I couldn't put it down. The movie follows it fairly close. It is funny, sad, happy, and has a happy ending for everyone. I just loved it.
Inspiring.......2007-09-29
Diana Wynne Jones is an amazing story teller. You will absolutely fall in love with her characters in this wonderful world of magic and wizards. If you saw Hayao Miyazaki's animated interpertation of this story, you will love the book just as much. Possibly more!
Oh, wow..........2007-09-17
I saw the movie and adored it. But then I read the book and realized just how much the movie left out....nuances, complexities of characters and emotion. The book is truly wondrous and tickles the imagination in ways you wouldn't believe. Not to be missed, especially if you enjoyed the movie. For all ages.
almost the same..........2007-09-16
I watched the movie first and was later prompted to read the novel since the movie had unanswered questions here and there. To my surprise, there are a lot of parts in the book that were not in the movie. The book did not mention a war and Sophie was more bitter. However, it did clear up any misunderstandinds from the movie which is why I bought the book in the first place.
Amazon.com
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain wants to become a writer. Trouble is, she's the daughter of a once-famous author with a severe case of writer's block. Her family--beautiful sister Rose, brooding father James, ethereal stepmother Topaz--is barely scraping by in a crumbling English castle they leased when times were good. Now there's very little furniture, hardly any food, and just a few pages of notebook paper left to write on. Bravely making the best of things, Cassandra gets hold of a journal and begins her literary apprenticeship by refusing to face the facts. She writes, "I have just remarked to Rose that our situation is really rather romantic, two girls in this strange and lonely house. She replied that she saw nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud."
Rose longs for suitors and new tea dresses while Cassandra scorns romance: "I know all about the facts of life. And I don't think much of them." But romantic isolation comes to an end both for the family and for Cassandra's heart when the wealthy, adventurous Cotton family takes over the nearby estate. Cassandra is a witty, pensive, observant heroine, just the right voice for chronicling the perilous cusp of adulthood. Some people have compared I Capture the Castle to the novels of Jane Austen, and it's just as well-plotted and witty. But the Mortmains are more bohemian--as much like the Addams Family as like any of Austen's characters. Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmations, wrote this novel in 1948. And though the story is set in the 1930s, it still feels fresh, and well deserves its reputation as a modern classic. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has "captured the castle"-- and the heart of the reader-- in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.Bonus: Reading Group Discussion Guide included in this edition
Customer Reviews:
Bittersweet and lovely .......2007-07-24
Along with the rest of the literary world, I recently rediscovered this classic after it was republished having sat in obscurity for years. And was promptly blown away. For any lovers of Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables, or even The Age of Innocence, this is a must-read. The plot is Austen's, the characters Montgomery's, and the setting and bittersweet flavor Wharton's. Written as the journal of a cynical but essentially dreamy 17-year-old, it depicts the turning point in both her life and the lives of her family, as they spiral toward decay and complete poverty, the only hope of redemption being offered by the arrival of wealthy, good-looking neighbors next door. Don't expect to find any Mr. Darcys in this book - the Cotton brothers are much more thinly sketched and truth be told despisable heroes than that famous character, but the book rides on the wistful, witty, breathtakingly clear voice and character of Cassandra Mortmain, a heroine who burns in the memory long after the book has been put down, and as such the book is more than worth reading. Doesn't quite achieve the peak of lofty classicism of other more famous books such as Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice, but a lovely story which skitters on the edges of childhood, romance, heartbreak, and growing up with grace and near-brilliance. For a book to be a true classic it must contain 1)intensely vibrant, complex, and individual characters, particularly the main one 2)a well-constructed and finely drawn plot, that brings nothing extra in and 3)that extra spark, of style or vision, that lifts a book into something that appeals on some level to all humanity. I Capture the Castle has a good dose of all three but not quite enough. On the first charge, while Cassandra herself fits the bill as nearly as a 17-year old can(unfortunately by the very nature of the age given to her she doesn't quite have the maturity or decisiveness of a woman) most of the other characters feel either over-the-top(her family) or under-drawn(Rose and the Cotton brothers). On the second, there is such a thing as too much detail, and Dodie Smith falls into that trap. On the third, she nearly, nearly reaches that level, particularly in the brilliant ending scene, but not quite; the wider emotions - hate, fear, and the deeper vision, is missing. So, in the end, while this remains a minor classic - the story of a year or so in the life of a girl - it's a brilliant and heartbreaking one. "Three more lines left. I love you."
Deserves a second, closer reading.......2007-06-06
Mortimer Adler (How to Read a Book) recommends reading a book three times to delve deeper into what an author is trying to say through their story. I just finished reading this for the first time. This really deserves a closer read now that I "get" what happens with Rose at the end. (No spoilers here).
I'd seen the movie a while ago and it didn't really do anything for me. I watched the movie again last night and still didn't like it. Sure, the movie was OK, but I don't think it really got to the heart of the story.
I feel the author is really trying to say something here that is summarized at the end during the discussion between Simon and Cassandra about her father's book. This book is a puzzle in itself on purpose. It is not just about a love story, or a child growing up. Dodie Smith is trying to say something about the creative process itself. It will take effort on the reader's part to tease out all the meaning that is layered into the story.
The Movie Was Better!.......2007-05-08
I suppose that I would have liked the book more, had I read it first instead of watching the movie first. I think this book lacked details that I look for in a good book. I did not care much for the time or place that it took place. I felt the book had a slow beginning. That was enough for my husband to quit reading it. Several of my book club members could not get past the fist sentence! As you read on, however, you find that the story gets better as it goes. There is so much drama between the two sisters in this book! It makes it really good! It has some laughs and some serious parts. There were some parts in this book that my book club members disagreed about as far as what Smith was trying to get across to the reader. Overall, I would say that it is worth a try, but I would not read it again. I would, however, watch the movie again!
Wonderful........2007-05-03
Cassandra's lovely prose far transcends her age in the book. Whimsical, fantastic, all in all a wonderful novel that will capture your imagination and render you unable to stop reading.
LOVED IT!.......2007-04-17
A great read with well-developed characters. It's one of those books where you feel a little sad once you reach the end because you've become attached to the characters. A lovely book
Average customer rating:
- Interesting, but...
- An alternate universe where people are obsessed with an alternate universe
- Americans can and will be a little fascist
- Wait... what?
- Meandering, but well worth it
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The Man in the High Castle
Philip K. Dick
Manufacturer: Vintage
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ASIN: 0679740678
Release Date: 1992-06-30 |
Book Description
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. the few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.
This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake.
Download Description
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. the few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.
This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, but..........2007-10-14
Interesting plot, in a quintessentially Dick-ian way, but the writing is awkward, and for a sci-fi novel that is more about alternate history than it is about a future society shaped by imaginary technology, his depiction of a Sino-Japanese culture is not convincing -- no explanation is given for the Japanese's fascination with the I-Ching, for example.
An alternate universe where people are obsessed with an alternate universe.......2007-10-09
I have read only a few books in my life that are so disturbing that I have trouble completing them. Usually I don't have any trouble with serious novels and great literature, because I know going in that they have an agenda, a point to make- and usually not a pleasant one. But some books come at you sideways sneaking up with humor or escapism and sinking their talons into you. Catch-22 was one such book for me, and "The Man in the High Castle" was another.
By now it's a standard science fiction device to wonder what may have happened if things had gone differently in history. In fact, there is so much alternate history that it sometimes has a special sub-section devoted to it in the bookstore. But what most of those books concentrate on is the events: Roosevelt was assassinated, so the U.S. didn't enter WWII. The South won the Civil War, so slavery was never abolished. And so on. "Castle" has some of that, certainly. But it reads differently, because it concentrates on the effect of the new world on ordinary people. And needless to say the effect is not good.
In the world that Dick describes, the Japanese and the Nazis have won the second world war and divided the globe between them. The Japanese half is administered efficiently and held within the rule of law. The Nazi half is a charnel house of criss-crossing genocides; Jews, blacks, even Italians all exterminated with varying levels of prejudice, with no end in sight or comprehensible reason.
These events are in many ways remote from the characters in the book, all of whom live on the Japanese administered West Coast, or the "free" mountain states between them and the German East. But each character has internalized, to varying degrees, the horror that the world has become. Their basic thoughts are warped, and it seems as if some of them know it but cannot quite articulate what is wrong.
There is in this world a book of alternate history, a science fiction novel, that describes what the world might have been like if Germany and Japan has lost the war. I was expecting that book to mirror history as we know it, but of course it didn't - even the alternate history was gloomy, pessimistic, and wrong. The tragedy, as one of the German characters puts it, is that even to him this story of the defeat of the Reich seems more cheerful than the reality of their victory.
This is an incredible book, but a hard read. But ultimately I'm glad I picked it up, if only because it's good to be reminded from time to time of how good we have it here in the real world.
Americans can and will be a little fascist.......2007-09-10
Not a typical Philip K Dick novel, this one is tame compared to the other mind bending exercises we go though in a typical Dick novel. "The Man" is alternate history in which Germany and Japan actually win the war. Our protagonists are often led to their decision making using the Chinese oracle , I Ching and an alternate of the alternate history `The Grasshopper lies heavy." Overlying the Japanese versus German tensions is the daily lives of ordinary citizens and how they fit within ones caste. The Jews have changed their names and are in perpetual hiding, slavery is reinstituted for blacks, the Chinese are indentured servants, and the Americans are just trying to fit in.
The salient point for me was that Americans can and will be a little fascist themselves in order to survive. Artistic freedom is squelched and Japanese art collectors are more interested in relics modeled after the American past before World War II.
There is a lot going on "The Man", its different from Philip Roth's `Plot Against America' and Richard Harris's "Fatherland" which take on more of a macro view of fascism. "The Man" is subtler in its narration and takes a smaller microcosm of society
Wait... what?.......2007-07-31
I've tried so hard to give Philip K. Dick a chance. Really, I have. I started out by reading a collection of his short stories, but after reading a story about a man who is "caught" like a fish, I realized that I wrote better stuff as a 12-year old.
So I gave "The Man in the High Castle" a chance. I'd heard it was his best, his masterpiece. Instead, it was meandering and hopelessly dull. The characters are lifeless and impossible to like. The alternative-history scenario is interesting, but not incredibly insightful or breathtaking. Oh, and did I mention nothing happens?
I'm finished with Philip K. Dick - the next time I want to read a children's book, I'll stick to Dr. Suess.
Meandering, but well worth it.......2007-06-27
While I would not consider myself familiar with Philip K. Dick's body of work as a whole, I do claim to have some experience within the alternate history canon, and particularly with World War II.
As far as that aspect of the novel is concerned, it is a very enjoyable read. The backstory explaining America's defeat is plausible to a degree not often seen in this subgenre, and if Dick's dystopian America is a little bleak, that is explained as the direct result of American 'can-do.'
The constant references to the I Ching were heavy-handed at times, and the plot never really consolidates into a coherent picture, but all in all, this is a fascinating book exploring a very different postwar world.
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- The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot
- The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living
- The Last Place on Earth (Modern Library Exploration)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11
- The Place We Call Home: Exploring the Soul's Existence after Death
- The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates (Volume 1)
- The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France
- The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West
- The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Books Index
Books Home
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