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- BETTER THAN THE AUDIO TAPES
- Classic Angeles Arrien
- The Second Half of Life
- A Balance of Letting Go and Drawing Closer
- The worst of its kind
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The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom
Angeles Arrien
Manufacturer: Sounds True
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ASIN: 1591792525 |
Book Description
This collection of teachings, reflections, and stories from around the world open us to the challenge and deeper mysteries of the "great crossing" at midlife. Working with the images, poetry, metaphors, and other forms of symbolic language from diversified cultures, Angeles Arrien introduces us to the Eight Gates if Initiation. Readers are taken step-by-step through each gate to learn more about: How to effectively cope with the natural challenges of health and an aging body, Your secret longings: how they give you direction and inspiration to begin a project that is connected with your life dream, The gate of intimacy: two dangers that can stop your crossing, Ways to balance the two distinct meanings of life: your external, quantitative and material experiences, with the internal, qualitative, sensory experiences, Retirement - from what toward what, and more.
Customer Reviews:
BETTER THAN THE AUDIO TAPES.......2007-06-13
If you're looking for a way to effectively cope with challenges to your health and body as you age, you can add this book to the list, The author takes us through looking at our secret longings and how they shape us. I especially liked the questions and assignments at the end of eacy segment. I enjoyed reading the book more than I enjoyed listening to it --- because some of the concepts are deeply profound, I needed to go back over them and this was easier done with book in hand. Pamela D. Blair, Author The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Mid-Life And Beyond
Classic Angeles Arrien.......2007-05-07
I have been a reader of Ms. Arrien's work since my first reading of "The Fourfold Way". As her other works have been, "Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom" was the perfect book at the perfect time of my life. It is full of reassurance that I am in a healthy place of consciousness and answers questions that I have been asking of my life. Thank you, Angeles, for another great work!
The Second Half of Life.......2007-01-10
Arrived in a timely manner and in perfect condition. What else could one ask for?
A Balance of Letting Go and Drawing Closer.......2006-10-15
There is nothing new in Angeles Arrien's book about the second half of life. Indeed, there isn't meant to be. Our lives at midpoint are about putting aside newness and embracing the ancient, the everlasting, the always true.
We live in an age that worships youth. Alongside this naive, if not indeed tragic pursuit to resist aging in all its aspects, we find ourselves as a society becoming ever more superficial, ever more devoted to what is external only, short on endurance, shallow in meaning. Small wonder so many of us approach midlife in a state of "crisis."
Yet there is no crisis. Arrien reminds us, by assembling in this collection of eight chapters named for eight gates, that this is not a time in our lives to resist or fear, but that it is, in fact, a time of wonder and beauty -- of the deeper and more meaningful kind. To pass through each of these "gates" is to be opened and enriched by the enlightenment of the second half of our lives. In each chapter, Arrien has brought together age-old quotes and wisdom from many different cultures, tested by time and place. Each chapter describes the gate through which we must pass, the task we must undertake to do so, the challenge, the gift we receive if we meet the challenge, reflections that help us to understand more fully this threshold, a list of practices to make this gateway a discipline.
The gates: silver (facing the new and the unknown); white picket (discovering one's true face); clay (intimacy, sensuality, sexuality); black and white (relationships and the crucible of love); rustic (creativity and service); bone (authenticity, character, and wisdom); natural (happiness, satisfaction, and peace); gold (letting go).
Each chapter guides us, gently yet firmly, toward facing what is around us as well as what is in us. The overall effect is soothing, I find, to the degree that it has helped me, approaching my own midpoint in life, see the aging process for the beauty and freedom it brings. It is a time to free oneself of the cumbersome masks one has worn in a more naive youth, to embrace wisdom and meaning rather than that which passes quickly and leaving no lasting mark. It is a time to gather all that we have learned in the first half of our lives and bring it all to fruition, entering a time of unbounded creativity, love based on truth rather than illusion, and finding a peace that will make crossing that final gold gate a time of celebration for a life well lived.
If we have lost respect for aging in our society, it is time we take it back. Arrien reminds us, by bringing back the wisdom of the ages, that age in ourselves is something to be welcomed rather than resisted. To resist it is to rob ourselves of what may well be the best time of our lives.
The worst of its kind.......2006-08-20
I found this effort weak and even irritating on several levels. I'll start general and get more specific.
First of all, the reading (and writing style) is of the worst kind of condescending pedantry. Arrien reads like she's a bored, old-style Catholic school nun lecturing a 3rd grader for being unchaste, yet coming off as self-consciously new-age at the same time. And there are fingernail-chalkboard constructions in the writing that will grate on you after five minutes. It's that horrible lecture/sermon style of paralellisms wherein the writer, in an effort to reinforce a point, starts each statement the same way and ends it differently. I'll give you an example to illustrate, I'll give you an example to explicate, I'll give you an example to show how bad this thing is, I'll give you an example to start making you frantic, I'll give you an example to cause you to drive your car into a bridge piling just to shut her up. This one construction occupies what seems to be at least 10% of the content of this thing. And she delivers each one exactly parallel, in the same tired, dogmatic lecturing style all the way through each disc. It's really irritating after about 10 minutes.
Second, and a bigger deal, Arrien claims to be an anthropologist. Her whole premise in this work, "the eight gates", is based on what she wants us to believe is a body of universal wisdom known by (all?) primitive peoples that, once understood, will open the door to enlightenment for humble westerners like you and me. Basically, it's the notion of "the noble savage", a very romantic and false construct that has never held up under any scrutiny (I accept that some indigenous societies have ways of looking at the world that make more sense to me than others). But no actual anthropologist worth paying any attention to would ever say things like "indigenous peoples believe", without naming anyone in particular and then go on to make some sweeping generalization that has no foundation in fact (none of what she says would make any sense at all to any indigenous society known to me). Her illustrations are total nonsense. I am married to an anthropologist for 22 years and know dozens of them and frequently discuss these issues. These notions are pure drivel of the "native peoples are necessarily pure, being unencumbered by the corruption of our decadent society, and therefore somehow infinitely wise" variety and, worse, just plain fabrications. It's ridiculous and laughable and an offense to anthropology, or any social science, for that matter. She should be ashamed of herself for pretending to be something she is not (I don't care if she claims to be trained in the discipline; her words speak otherwise).
The only reason that I'm giving this two stars is that she's obviously well-intended and wants to be helpful (I'm assuming). Otherwise it would get one. Don't waste your time with this one.
Book Description
The only book devoted completely to slicing today's ropes, this fully illustrated, step-by-step guide has been expanded and enhanced in this new edition and now covers wire splices, and splices in Spectra and Kevlar ropes as well as Dacron braid and traditional three-strand. The Splicing Handbook includes every splice project a boater will ever need.
Customer Reviews:
Review of "The Splicing Handbook" 2nd Ed by B. Merry.......2006-02-28
I bought the book because I wanted to splice high-tech yacht rope, especially the 12-strand braids like Amsteel. This review pertains only to splices related to such rope.
The photos are not always of the splice being described (p.84). The illustrations appear to have been cropped to fit the page, which is especially confusing for complex splices (p.88). The hollow braid splice on p.83 results in a weak splice with a bump at a vulnerable location - I believe this is a dangerous splice and that the authors have failed to grasp the workings of the Chinese Finger Puzzle principle mentioned in several places.
Conclusion: don't waste your money. Go to the web sites for Yale, Sampson, and New England Rope to get better illustrations and text for free. Also, study the test results from Layline.com on the importance of tapering the buried eye splice tail.
A good book.......2004-01-09
This is a good and inexpensive book. You'll find a lot of information about splicing, perhaps more than you will ever need.
The problem with a book is that you have to understand how the strands -- and which strands -- lie up next to each other. It's not that easy to figure out the first time around. I learned how by watching my Dad. That gave me an idea how splices are made.
Consider Amazon's software on splicing; ISBN 0970971419 if you just want to learn common splices. It's a software program for beginners to do the basic splices in front of a computer. It's more expensive, though.
The Best Damn Book in the World(about ropes anyway).......2002-07-18
Barbra Merry is a good friend of mine. Shes the one who got me started on ropes and knots and splicing etc... Anyway I have had a chance to skim through her book and read parts and excerpts from her book and it is really good. I've only known Barbra a few months but shes a really nice lady and if you ever have the chance to meet her make sure you make friends because shes the nicest lady you'll ever meet in your life. And if you ever have the chance to tie knots or learn how to splice or learn new knots I urge you to learn it because it is a great hobby and loads of fun. Thats my review about her book but its probably a review about the author.
Chris Anderson
Perfect reference book for professional splicers!.......2002-06-17
The Splicing Handbook is simply one of the best reference works for the working rope splicer and professional rigger. Barbara Merry has provided an excellent book to review rusty skills, to learn a new splice, and as a convenient compendium of splice history to settle any shipyard, boatyard, or construction site argument on how to splice a specific configuration of rope. Ms. Merry is held in high esteem for producing a book on the most difficult technique of rope work - making a proper end termination! Good for her!!
How to splice all sorts of line........1998-02-06
Brief, clear descriptions of how to splice all kinds of traditional and modern line -- braided, plaited, the works. If you're interested in splicing, this is an inexpensive way to cover a lot of ground. Good illustrations.
Book Description
In October 1940 Nazis forced all the Jews in the Polish city of Warsaw to live in the cramped squalor of a small ghetto. Despite the starvation and disease that claimed 50,000 lives per year, the Jews were not dying swiftly enough to suit Heinrich Himmler, who ordered in 1942 that the Warsaw Ghetto be dismantled and the 450,000 inhabitants be deported to the gas chambers at Treblinka. On April 19, 1943, the first day of Passover, two thousand German troops, singing confidently, marched into the ghetto to round up the remnant of remaining Jews. Suddenly, a fifteen-year-old girl tossed a grenade in their midst. Within minutes the German army had been routed. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising had begin. This is the first full-scale, step-by-step account of the climatic twenty-eight-day struggle of the poorly armed Jews against their Nazi exterminators. The Bravest Battle took more than two years to write and involved interviewing more than 500 people, including most of the surviving fighters. This moving history cannot be matched for its authenticity and drama. The Bravest Battle is a testament to the Warsaw Jews, who fought for survival with dignity and courage.
Customer Reviews:
When the going gets tough...............2006-10-07
Dan Kurzman is one of the best authors I have read on many subjects. The Bravest Battle is the only work that clearly outlines the historical struggle of the Warsaw Ghetto. The book clearly shows this struggle was NOT a revolution, and NOT a fight for freedom. The fight was to send a message to the world that Jews will fight for their dignity. Kurzman spent much time with the few survivors of the battle. He obtained first-hand accounts from the participants. If you enjoy this you will also enjoy his book Gensis 1948. This book will cure the amnesia that plagues the world in recent times about why Israel exists.
Exciting and unforgettable.......2006-03-19
I found this to be a great book about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It was well written, so I found it easy to get through the book.
I have read many books about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and one of the things I really liked about this one, was that the author writes about both the two Jewish fighting organizations. Since all the leaders of ZZW died before the war was over, there were few people left to tell their story and there a therefore very little about its members in most books. (Marian Mpfelbaum has written a book about ZZW, where he tries to put the record straight. His book is called 'Retour sur le Ghetto de Varsovie')
Dan Kurzman has interviewed two ZZW fighters and some others that knew them. All in all, Dan Kurzman has spoken to many witnesses and he has read many documents and books about the topic. He has also made use of German sources.
Yes, it is very obvious who he prefers, but when you are dealing with a story like this, who else than the Jewish fighters would you side with?
A journey not soon forgotten..........2004-09-28
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising has long fascinated me. It has long stood as a symbol of what hope can do "when all hope is lost." In all my years of reading holocaust literature, no other single event has embraced the totality of the Jewish struggle from denial to capitulation to indignation, from the depths of which rose the courage to actually fight back! In many ways, it echoes the struggle that continues today.
Dan Kurzman regails this saga in unbelievable depth, citing the most impecable sources, the survivors! His narrative breaks down each individual day and succeeds in putting the reader into each and every "sub-set" of the saga throughout the ghetto and within the nazi regime out to destroy them.
I have read many different accounts of this parcel of history, and, to date, I have not yet found a more extensive account of the events of those 28 days! From top to bottom, front to back, this is one of the greatest books I have ever read! I actually happened upon writing this review as I was purchasing it for the second time, as my first copy was not returned to me.
This emotional roller coaster will leave you breathless...I left it with bittersweet feelings of joy and pain, triumph and tragedy, resolve and fear. For I, too, live in a fascist nation, and fear the violation of my rights may become extreme. However, reflection on these 28 days of heroes among ordinary men gives me the strength to believe I could be a hero too!
The power lies within each of us! Read and learn...see ya in November!
Riveting.......2004-03-29
I was inspired to pick up this book after seeing Polanski's "The Pianist." This book is an overview of the Warsaw Uprising (the first one occurring in the Jewish Ghetto in 1943).
Through what must have been exhaustive interviews with the survivors, many of whom may no longer be alive, Kurzman meticulously provides the details of the inspiring 28-day uprising, but in such a way as to absolutely captivate the reader. There may be biases or omissions of which I am not aware, but there was enough to give me a broad background on the uprising and its context -- and to keep me riveted on the struggle.
One disappointment was the production values of the 1993 Da Capo Press edition, which is a republication of Putnam's 1976 edition. From the look of the type and photos, it appears they may have actually shot the plates for the present edition from a printed copy of the original edition! -- the photos especially are of unforgivably poor quality.
But this doesn't detract from the tale of the uprising, which is told with compassion, and absorbed me totally for the better part of the 2 days it took to finish.
The Goyim Review.......2002-03-08
Despite my many years of companionship with Jewish friends, and a few stints working at JCC youth camps, my friend's comment was one that I might have made before reading this excellently written and incisive book. Kurzman tells the story of the Jewish resisters in Warsaw during the "Grossaktion"- the final rounding up and extermination of so many Polish Jews. The stories of individual courage, sacrifice, and heroism moved me in a way I could never have foreseen. Yes this book is one-sided (as another reviewer critiqued), but how could it be otherwise? The mercilessness with which the Germans pursued their quarry will never be matched, and an empathy for their motives would almost by necessity ring false. To view the real heroes (who make difficult and sometimes flawed choices along the way that expose them as the humans they are) of this book is to be enlightened about the Jewish history and character that we so rarely have an opportunity to experience through the mainstream media. If you seek an account of the almost impossible ways that people react to extreme oppression and terror, and the incredible resourcefulness that a people are capable of, then you will do well to read this book
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Angels Eight: Normandy Air War Diary
David Clark
Manufacturer: 1st Books Library
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ASIN: 1410722414 |
Book Description
What it was like to scramble in a swarming cloud of fifty fighter aircraft battling for survival in Normandy skies? What were the names of the pilots? Read the details of US, German and British dogfights and pilots'' combat reports.
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Power English Eight: Basic Language Skills for Adults (Cambridge Adult Education)
Dorothy Rubin
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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ASIN: 0136885160 |
Book Description
Children grades K-5 experience the adventure of walking with God as their planner, forever friend, protector, life-giver, helper, provider, and more.
This flexible-format 10-week curriculum divides the classroom into 3 zones with their unique styles of learning:
• “Ton of Fun” features games and icebreakers
• “Show and Know” provides Bible teaching, drama, and music
• “Grow and Go” leads kids in discussion to apply what they’ve learned
Kit includes: Director’s Guidebook, Administrator’s Guidebook, Large Group Leader’s Guidebook, activity center Leader’s Guidebook, 2 small Leader’s Guidebooks, music CD, and drama video.
Customer Reviews:
Staying on Track.......2006-03-20
This is a well written, informative book on the biblical view of what a marriage can be if the couple is willing to work together to benefit the other. I found it challenging me to be a better spouse and to learn to live the companionship marriage. I would recommend this book to every couple who wants to enjoy their later years together.
Praise for Second Half.......2000-08-26
I read this book when it first came out some time ago and wrote a very strong recommendation for the book for the publisher to use. It's an excellent book. It's well written, flowing, and well targeted at the issues that affect couples moving into the second half of life together. If you are moving into that time of life or know someone who is, I highly recommend this book.
Scott Stanley University of Denver
The Second Half IS Better!.......2000-01-05
The Arps must have been secretly watching our home when they wrote this book. Their comments on the changes in relationships and priorities were right on the mark. My wife and I have applied several of their "challenges" and the positive difference has been very noticeable. I enjoyed the book so much, it's become the background for a popular class I teach to "empty nesters" in our church.
If your "nest" is empty now, or will be in the near future, you owe it to yourself and your marriage to read "The Second Half of Marriage". I doubt there is a better book on the subject available today.
Book Description
A simple guide to mastering the basics of fly tying.
Book Description
How does creativity thrive in the face of fascism? How can a highly artistic individual function professionally in so threatening a climate? Composers of the Nazi Era is the final book in a critically acclaimed trilogy that includes Different Drummers (OUP 1992) and The Twisted Muse (OUP 1997), which won the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize of the Canadian Historical Association. Here, historian Michael H. Kater provides a detailed study of the often interrelated careers of eight prominent German composers who lived and worked amid the dictatorship of the Third Reich, or were driven into exile by it: Werner Egk, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Carl Orff, Hans Pfitzner, Arnold Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss. Kater weighs issues of accommodation and resistance to ask whether these artists corrupted themselves in the service of a criminal regime--and if so, whether this may be discerned from their music. After chapters discussing the circumstances of each composer individually, Kater concludes with an analysis of the composers' different responses to the Nazi regime and an overview of the sociopolitical background against which they functioned. The final chapter also extends the discussion beyond the end of World War II to examine how the composers reacted to the new and fragile democracy in Germany.
Customer Reviews:
Good information, but hard to read.......2006-03-27
The book is divided into 8 chapters, one for each composer (Egk, Hindemith, Weill, Hartmann, Orff, Pfitzner, Schoenberg, and Strauss). To help with a research project, I only read the chapter on Strauss.
There is a lot of information, but it's a lot of work to read this book. The writing style is very dense, and it's not pleasurable to read. I gave the book only 3 stars because of the difficulty with the writing style. The information would have rated 4 or 5 stars.
Thinks of this as a good reference book, but not something to enjoy. If you're interested in Strauss, I would recommend two books. One is "Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma" by Michael Kennedy, music critic for the Daily Telegraph and author of many composer biographies. This book is pure pleasure, and full of very detailed information. A second book is "Richard Strauss An Intimate Portrait" by Kurt Wilhelm. This book focuses on his personal, daily life, and can be considered an illustrated biography as it contains many, many wonderful photographs.
Questions? some fascinating data on neglected composers.......2000-08-15
I don't think knowing whether a composer or an artist had deep affiliations with the Nazi regime or the Italian Fascist Party has done anything to clarify what this means today concerning the issues of race and culture,it is fairly inconsequential. Knowing all these deep,dark secrets hasn't hurt in any way the successes of Richard Wagner or Richard Strauss,or Martin Heidegger for that matter. Since the time of the War all have had glorious posthumous careers with entire cadres of devoted writers,scholars,conductors and musicians surveying and performing their work. The Wagner Ring is continuously done,so are Strauss Operas,and there are countless books on Heidegger.
So what are the issues? it seems to be idle curiosity for historical fact without explanation(as fascinating as that seems to be), but what Kater does furnish here is actually interesting profiles and historical data on some composers long neglected. The marvelously powerful "Symphonies" of Karl Amadeus Hartmann for one, to this day remain in a state of neglect,and the chapter here is the only material on his life you will find in English. There is another picture-filled book with Henze,Hartmann and Hindemith published in a series. In focusing on composers lives during the political times of the Nazi era is like looking at history wrongfully from the inside out,with a focus on an individual's life nuances without the larger perspective that created how he/she must act. Artists and composers for the most part only care about their careers and recognition, where is the next performance of their?, and as Kater frequently identifies,he reveals the dirty dealing with Nazi party hacks in order to obtain performances.
Much of the material is fairly redundant as the chapter on Richard Struass or the chapter on Kurt Weill,being Jewish we know he had no chance for successes in an Anti-Semitic country growing more racist by the day, from 1933 forward.
I think there is a danger in reviewing history from this narrow perspective of the individual,especially artists(composers) who are hardly ever power brokers within the state of culture.Frequently the ones that are jettisoned to the top have little artistic genius. First it erases the sense of historical context and the inherent danger of the times. This issue has been well discussed and documented with the "collaborationist" theories during the Nazi Era,yet I doubt if it has been answered with any degree of vigor, and we frequently overlook the fact that the situation in war times is never a "us against them"one's enemies are only revealed after the fact,there are gradations of affiliation between individuals when speaking of betrayel,corruption and greed.
It still remains an open question for us who sit here in a retrospective position, that given a situation of politically dangerous times,not necessarily times of War,which is obvious, but would we have collaborated with a Nazi party hack,when our survival,or demise was a phone call away? That will always be a question we can never answer,but Kater's book certainly makes this question all the more a reality,especially when the focus is on another's creative life.
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- Review: Eight Seconds
- Deaing with issues
- A Whole New World
- Great Book
- ok book
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Eight Seconds
Jean Ferris
Manufacturer: Puffin
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ASIN: 0142301213 |
Book Description
Rodeo camp is a tough way to spend a summer, but John is having the time of his life. No girlfriends, no moms, no sisters. Just him and the guys and the biggest bulls he's ever seen. All he has to do is stay on a bull for eight seconds. It may feel like an eternity to his aching body, but for once John feels in control of his own fate. Then he learns his new rodeo buddy Kit is gay. Shaken by the news, he tries to deal with the other guys' reactions and his own self-doubts. Suddenly, riding a bull seems easy.
"Compassionately shares the challenges of gay teens, both those comfortable with who they are, and those just discovering their true feelings, [and] explores quite eloquently what it means to really accept oneself and one's friends. One of the best novels on this theme." (Booklist, starred review)
Customer Reviews:
Review: Eight Seconds.......2004-08-27
Eight Seconds by Jean Ferris (Harcourt, Inc., 2000) tells the story of John Ritchie who lives on a working ranch near the Rocky Mountains with his parents and four sisters. He is 18 years old and feels out of place for many reasons. Besides being an only boy with so many sisters, he had to miss a year of school because of heart surgery and, so, is just finishing his junior year instead of graduating with the students who are his own age. His father shows him favoritism and has high expectations of him. His mother is inflexible and disapproves of the favoritism shown to him by his father.
John loves working with horses and takes an opportunity to attend a rodeo school during the summer. He looks forward to escaping his familiar life for six days and plans to enter the many rodeos that will be held at the upcoming county fairs. Bobby, his best friend, attends the school, too, and also, Russ, the local, big-mouthed troublemaker. John and Bobby meet Matt and Kit. Matt and Bobby opt for cow roping while John and Kit decide to learn how to ride bulls. John and Kit become fast friends, but when John returns home he learns from his older sister that Kit is gay. Throughout the rest of the summer, the boys continue to see each other at the fairs where they participate in the rodeos. John struggles with what he has learned about Kit. Russ finds out and Kit's sexual orientation becomes common knowledge and a point of contention.
The second half of the book deals with John's attempts to come to grips with this new problem in his life and how that process reveals truths and changes his existence. The story, in an unoffending manner, gives insight into a growing social issue.
Deaing with issues.......2004-05-28
John went to a rodeo school to learn to ride bulls. John learns His new best friend, Kit is gay. Now John has to deal with riding bulls and pressure from his friends and family because they think being gay is indecent . Now riding bulls is easy compared to dealing with reality. He has to deal with his own sexuality and find out what is more important to him. What his friends and family think,or his friendship with Kit.
I liked this book because I am interested in rodeo,and suggest anyone else who is interested in a rodeo drama to read this book.
A Whole New World.......2003-10-29
The world of bull riding is not anything that I'm familiar with. Growing up in the suburbs, my life was skateboarding and walking down to the U-Totem to pick up the latest Archie comic book. But one great thing about dating is that you constantly and endlessly exposed to the new. My boyfriend, a rodeo fan, picked up this book on a recent trip and devoured it, and handing it to me saying "Read this". I did, and found a beautiful, intriguing coming out tale.
John Ritchie is the main character, a normal teenage boy whose life on the ranch is seemingly idyllic. He has a family that loves him, chores to do, and a vision for his future, well as strong a vision that a teenage boy could have. His father suggests that he attend a rodeo school, which John cannot wait to attend. Going with his best friend Bobby, he meets Kit, a tall, strong cowboy with whom he feels an immediate attachment. Kit and John become friends, and spend their time at rodeo camp discussing how they've always felt different from others. Upon returning home from camp, John learns his new friend, challenging him to the core, both about his beliefs about homosexuality and his own internal struggling with it.
Ferris does something wonderful with this story. She allows John's eventual discovery of who he is to come slowly and naturally. It's both sweet and without much fanfare, but powerful enough to launch John on the rocky and uneven path of acceptance we've all walked. For anyone just coming out, this book shows that path, a small section of it, as a positive step forward.
Set in the world of rodeos, this book also serves as a primer for those of us city folk uninitiated with that world. The rodeo scenes were authentic and honest, and why anyone would want to sit on a bull for eight seconds is beyond me, but you appreciate the characters desires to do so.
Eight Seconds is a powerful, simple coming out story, with an interesting, unexpected ending, that left me thinking for days, as I'm sure it would you.
Great Book.......2003-10-15
This book was one of the most brilliant stories I ever read. It wasnt the fact that it was set in a rodeo, or that there were fights througout the story, it was the fact that this story is about the friendship between 2 gay guys that both end up in very diffrent situations. I think its an inspiring, exciting, romantic, and sad book all mixed into one.
ok book.......2002-12-20
The book Eight Seconds was a good book about some kids the for there high school graduation present they got to go to bull riding school. They went to the school and learned a lot about how to be a good bull rider. But while they were at the school they learned that one of their friends was gay. At first only one of them knew but eventually the others found out. Not everyone agreed with that kids decision on being gay. That caused a lot of problems throughout the book.
In this books there was a lot of imagery you really thought that you where there watching the kids ride the bulls. At one point one of the kids fell off a bull and the bull was running after him and you really thought that you were there watching it.
This books had some emotions that were stirred up because of the conflict of one of the kids being gay. Not all of the other kids thought that it was ok for him to be gay because of this there were some fights that started.
I think that this book would be good for kids to read who are around 8 - 12. It was a good book and there was a lot that you could get out of it. It also was interesting to lean some about bull riding.
In all I thought that this was a good book. But a lot of the book you could guess what was going to happen. Also a lot of the book had the same things happening over and over again.
Customer Reviews:
An almost unknown story of the Eastern Front in WWII.......2007-07-31
I have always been interested in the Second World War and especially the little known battles and actions of that war.
Lately; I have delved into the Italian part in this conflict and the tragic consequences to their brave soldiers.
"Few Returned", gives you a first hand glimpse of what it was like for man, pack animals and equipment, fighting and struggling to survive on the Eastern Front.
You will wonder how anyone returned from that winter retreat.
The author Eugenio Corti also gives the reader a good feel for the national differences between the Italians, Germans and Russians.
Combat is sporadic throughout the retreat, but again Corti gives you a good feel of how it was for all sides.
Good Diary on the horrors of War & Italian perserverance.......2003-04-10
This book is different from others in that it does not glorify War,it does not tend to over exaggerate what happened in battle, it does'nt even try to blow up the truth with nonsensical war heroics recounted ( like many german or British books, dare I say).
Its a straight forward recount in diary form of how onw Italian officer and his brave troops dared all to fight back the Russians, the bitter cold and the odds of making it back on foot without decent rations , heavyweapons or transportation which were rendered useless in battle or just plainly nevr had their ammo resupplied by the faster retreating better equiped self serving Nazis.
It si common for the uneducated armchair historian or plainly ignorant war hobbyist to brand the Italians as cowards, however when one delves deeper into the actualities of WW2 and gets to the events as they really happened unaltered by propaganda and rascist reporting then we really see that the Italians which were up against it from the start, put in as brave a performance as any fighting man could and beyond that in many a case.
I recommend this book to all for the honesty and open portrayal of the horrors of War and the true nature of men when faced with the harshness and desperation of survival.
Its not a novel as anyone who's half literate can plainly see, but a diary of man brave man and his troops that fought their way thru the russians, the elements and evn the Nazis cruelty to survive!
Enjoy the read! A must have for the war historian at heart.
not bad, but...........2001-06-05
.. I think that one of the "soldier view" of the whole Eastern Front history from axis side is "The Sergeant In The Snow" by Mario Rigoni Stern.
A Record - Not a Story - About Italian Troops in Russia.......2001-04-11
Above all, this book is a record of one man's experience as an Italian soldier fighting on the Eastern Front during World War II against Russia. More specifically, it is about a few horrible weeks of fighting and retreating. It is *not* a story or novel, really, but almost like an after action report. The book contains the author's feelings and some of what he saw, but you get the distinct sense while reading this book that he wrote it as a record of what he saw and did, and as an homage to his friends who never made it out of Russia, but not as an attempt to write a story. The author never really tries tying the events into a broader context or explaining the full experiences he had on the Eastern front; it is just a snap shot of a limited time frame, and only limited snapshots even within that time frame.
This book is not a blow by blow recitation of combat. While the author is clearly involved in a number of intense fights, both before and during the period covered in the book, we never really hear about it. It's almost as if he is trying NOT to make this a book about combat. If there is an engagement we hear of the troops forming up for it, a sentence or two about the fight, and then more pages about the aftermath - the wounds, the dead.
The most insightful and remarkable aspects of this book to me are: 1) the ability of the author to show us the horrors of war; 2) the brutality on both sides; and 3) how horrible the Nazis were even to their allies. I take each in turn.
1) This book makes very clear how much human suffering war brings with it. Through its dry, almost camera-like recitation of horror after horror (friends freezing to death in front of him, morter shells cutting people in two) we can almost imagine what it must be like to be walking through a combat zone strewn with bodies and wounded men and animals. We also see how war turns honorable, good men into self-interested beings centered only on survival. The author, for example, is clearly a brave, honorable, educated man and officer. We watch as his pride in being an officer and an Italian soldier slowly gives way to self-survival. We also watch as this man with deep loyalty to his unit and his friends gives way (as we all would, I'm sure) to self-interest. Fascinating.
2) Suffice it to say that the book makes clear how brutal all sides were in this war: Soviets and Nazis alike commit brutal, heartless acts.
3) The savagery and callousness of the Nazis towards their allies is stunning. While paying homage to the combat skills of the Nazis, the author shows clearly how the Nazies treated the Italians serving and dying in their cause only slightly better than their hated enemy the Soviets. For example, we read of a time when, during the retreat, the Nazis held up thousands of Italians, subjecting them to withering small arms and artillery fire from the Russians for hours, in order to clear mud off of German trucks. We see how Nazis failed to share food, information or shelter with their "allies." We see Germans shooting at wounded Italians (their allies, remember!) who dared to try and get a ride on a German vehicle.
This book is somewhat dry, somewhat repetititious, but worth a read for those wanting a sense of what the winter retreat was like for an Italian soldier serving in WW2's horribly grueling East Front.
Good subject - boring book........2000-11-14
I was excited when I came across this book. I have read every German ostfront book I could find. Had been searching in vain for first-hand accounts from axis allies(if anyone knows of any hungarian ones, let me know).
The reviews for this were good, so I bought it. Much to my dismay, it is boring. I can sum it up in one paragraph:
"We retreated over the hill. Our lines are only a days march away. It is real cold, there are wounded men everywhere. We don't have any trucks. All of our men have left their equpiment behind and are not following orders. I consider shooting one of them, but decide against it. The Germans are bad people, yet they don't panic and continually protect us with their tanks and AT guns. In the village, the germans take all the huts, we sleep outside in the hay. We are constantly worried that the Germans will leave us behind. We get over the hill, and it is another day to go.. up a hill, down a hill, sleep in village, up a hill, down a hill, sleep in village..." ad nauseum.
Nothing interesting happens whatsoever. The terrible conditions on the eastern front have been well descirbed in many other books.
The most interesting point is how much the author hates the Germans, except that he would have been long ago dead had the germans not been with them, as most of the Italians fled like cowards and wouldn't carry their equipment with them as they retreated.
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