The Heart Revolution: The Extraordinary Discovery That Finally Laid the Cholesterol Myth to Rest

Book Description

A safe, effective, and revolutionary program for lowering homocysteine levels and cutting your risk of heart disease

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Kilmer S. McCully explains what is really behind the epidemic of heart disease. For many years, clogged arteries have been inaccurately viewed as the cause, rather than a symptom, of heart disease. Now, McCully shows you how to cut your risk of heart disease by controlling the real culprit, homocysteine. Considered one of the most significant medical breakthroughs in recent years, McCully's findings have been validated by numerous large-scale studies. The Heart Revolution:

Challenges the long-held assumption that lowering cholesterol is the key to preventing heart disease
Explains how eating vitamin B-rich food can control homocysteine levels
Lays out a plan with menus for putting more B vitamins in our diet
Discusses how food processing and additives compromise our health
Explains how costly cholesterol-lowering medicines can actually harm our health

Eat Your Way to a Healthy Heart

Pork Chops with Potatoes and Onions, Veal with Wine and Mushrooms, Guacamole, Omelettes. This is not your typical diet program. Dr. McCully offers real food choices with fresh ingredients available just about everywhere. The focus is on delicious foods that will leave you satisfied. The purpose is to make sure you're getting enough of the vitamins needed to prevent heart disease—B6, B12, and folic acid, as well as essential, phytochemicals, fat-soluble vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential oils. It's easy to follow this plan as it relies on foods you want to eat with little preparation time and tons of variety.

Customer Reviews:

A MUST READ !.......2006-11-07

This book is a must read for anyone concerned about his/her cholesterol level.......especially if your medical professionals are solely focussed on lowering them as the only rational strategy for good health. Kilmer McCully does a great job of adding balance to the medical community's current enslavement to the cholesterol=heart disease theory, and in the process demonstrates again how the world of science tends to banish those whose breakthrough insights don't fit the mainstream mold. Fortunately for us all, McCully's insights about the role of inflammation in heart disease are finally being more fairly considered by the
medical establishment.

Important Information About Treatment for Heart Disease.......2005-11-30

The book logically presents information suggesting that there is a simple preventative treatment for heart disease. The author writes to the lay person, explaining the lack of information supporting the status quo - the supposedly heart-healthy low fat diet - and supporting his homocysteine hypothesis. The only short-coming of the book is in the final chapters, where the author over reaches the information presented and suggests control of homocysteine levels may be a cure all for a wide variety of conditions, including alzheimers and cancer.

Still reading.......2005-05-25

I just received my book and have yet to read more than 30 pages. So far, I find the material interesting and the arguments convincing. More than anything, I wanted to comment on the review by "a reader"...and his or her suggestion that readers would be better off skipping the book and instead seek established medical advice. Just go to quackwatch.com, well known debunker of less than scientific studies and bogus health and nutrition theories, and read how much credence they give to the same ideas espoused in this book. I would add, who better to present the medical evidence than McCully himself, who in 1969, first described the vascular pathology [of heart disease] as it relates to homocysteine levels?

Not Worth The Money.......2004-03-15

This book does a disservice for those who really want helpful information about diet.. Dr. McCully did not do himself any favors by allowing his daughter, Martha, a Fashion Magazine Beauty writer to co-author it.. just very badly written.. and it undermines his medical crediblity..

Don't waste your time or money.. if you need advice.. go to a reputable medical web site....

Heart-health without cholesterol fear -a best read!.......2004-01-03

This book gives easy, doable and simple prevention solutions to heart disease, including increasing B vitamins that lower a natural blood-vessel toxin we all -without exception- make, homocysteine.

Dr. McCully discovered the vital role of this molecule in heart disease [now with roles in over 100 diseases] but his insistence that it is NOT cholesterol or fat that cause bad arteries got him fired from and black listed and disgraced by Harvard University, in 1978 -only to be re-offered a professorship 25 years later [he graciously accepted].

Four new studies about homocysteine now appear daily and a Nobel Prize for single handedly discovering, proving and popularizing such toxic player and risk-factor in health should be in the works.. He now shares that life-long body of wisdom with the public. The good news is that ANYONE can lower his/her homocysteine with a high strength multi-B vitamin pill, the only therapy. Easy to read and well edited, this is the FIRST book you should read, and as a bonus, it will make you feel better about cholesterol.

Heh, any heart-health book with a high nutrient but high cholesterol recipe for chicken-liver spread with egg and butter deserves notice. Not only that -McCully was as right then as he is now, it is a lack of micronutrients that is so dangerous, and this includes omega-3 oil and the '"B" healthy' B vitamins.

This book is as vital for your doctor or cardiologist and buying them a copy too may be one of the smartest things you could do. Their life is a hard one with the drug-interests dominating much of the landscape. They should appreciate scientifically sound data about non-toxic non-drug nutritional prevention options, and it is here that Dr. McCully filled in much of the puzzle picture.

Book Description

The latest medical research clearly confirms that the glycemic index (GI)—an easy-to-understand ranking of foods based on their effect on blood glucose levels—is vitally important for heart health and the prevention of the Metabolic Syndrome (aka Syndrome X and insulin resistance). Slowly digested, low-GI carbohydrates like pasta, grainy breads, and cereals based on wheat bran and oats play an important role in treating and preventing heart disease—in addition to controlling blood sugar and aiding weight loss. This handy pocket guide shows readers how to choose the right amount of the right carbohydrates for reducing the risk of heart attack and for lifelong health and well-being. Included is a 7-day, low-fat, low-GI meal plan for heart health, a healthy-heart pantry checklist, and the glycemic index values, fat, and carbohydrate content for over 300 foods and drinks.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book and diet!.......2007-03-22

I followed this diet for 3 months and as a result, lowered my triglycerides from 498 to 210! It's very easy to follow and certainly has improved my health.

Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950

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Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950
Haiyan Lee
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0804754179
Release Date: 2006-12-07

Book Description

This book is an engagingly written critical genealogy of the idea of “love” in modern Chinese literature, thought, and popular culture. It examines a wide range of texts, including literary, historical, philosophical, anthropological, and popular cultural genres from the late imperial period to the beginning of the socialist era. It traces the process by which love became an all-pervasive subject of representation and discourse, as well as a common language in which modern notions of self, gender, family, sexuality, and nation were imagined and contested.

Average customer rating:

A landmark health marker long ignored.
good intro to homocysteine
Incomplete
status quo is a death sentence
Essential reading for those wishing to prevent heart disease

The Homocysteine Revolution
Kilmer S. McCully
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Heart Revolution: The Extraordinary Discovery That Finally Laid the Cholesterol Myth to Rest
C-Reactive Protein : Everthing You Need to Know About It and Why It's More Important Than Cholesterol to Your Health
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Lipitor Thief of Memory
The Inflammation Syndrome: The Complete Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Arthritis, Diabetes, Allergies, and Asthma

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RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering Device
Airborne Effervescent Health Formula, Original Orange, 10 Tablets (Pack of 3)

ASIN: 0879839759

Customer Reviews:

A landmark health marker long ignored........2007-08-13

This book is a revelation. Dr. McCully should have received a Nobel prize for this outstanding contribution to preventing one of the scourges of humanity.

good intro to homocysteine.......2007-04-21

Good book. I knew nothing about homocysteine when I started it, except that it was a marker for inflammation in the body, but I finished with a clear idea of its role in arteriosclerosis and general health. It's written from a historical point of view, both the more distant history of the first developments in understanding, and the last 30-35 years, when the author played a significant part. At first I did not like this indirect approach, wanting just the science, but it did turn out to be an interesting read and not a bad way to communicate the information. For a lay-reader, I found it stayed within the bounds of comprehensibility, but you do end up with maybe a dozen or so different biochemicals flitting in and out of the text, often with names that are slight variants on each other. But overall it's clear.

I'm surprised at the reviewer who thought there was no advice for personal health - that's the whole topic of chapter 5. I felt I got a clear picture about how to apply the information for personal health. Proponents of the paleolithic diet will find one of McCully's final conclusions about diet (to eat little meat and fish) indefensible. But that's a quibble in the book as a whole, and don't let it put you off the book if you want a good layman's introduction to homocysteine and how it relates to health.

Incomplete.......2004-07-31

For a 270 page book that focuses on only one subject, "The Homocysteine Revolution" should have included much more iformation on what a person should DO in order to have favorable Homocysteine levels -- especially when it comes to diet and other lifestyle habits.

I bought this book for my father, and he and I were very dissapointed that the book for the most part negelcted this important matter, other than advising people to take B-12, B-6, and Folic Acid supplememnts.

status quo is a death sentence.......2002-10-27

Excellent exposition of a revolution in medical science that will eventually save millions of lives. Besides, even if he is only half-rght, how tough can it be to take a few vitamins, eat your vegetables, cut down on donuts and doritos, and take a walk (preferably uphill) once in a while? Moreover, it is also an excellent and clear example of the entrenched members of a group suppressing an idea that would take away their income derived from maintaining current orthodoxy. This has always been true and always will be true. Why? After all, if you had attended college and graduate school and trained for 5 or more years beyond that, and accumulated $200k+ in debt to become qualified to perform open heart surgery (or pick whatever profession or skill you like), and to be elevated into a position of seeming god-like powers, and to be worshipped by the multitudes, and to hear the exalted "Doctor" pronounced before your name (egos please stand up!) and then someone came along with a new theory that said your patient could take 10 cents worth of vitamins every day and avoid your surgical specialty, don't you think you'd be a little resistant too? It is easy to say, well they have no integrity. But look at your own life, how many times do you resist a better idea or a change because it will mean a loss of income or prestige or might be a blow to your pride or ego? Keeping your expensive house and your porsche and your kids in private school and your wife out of divorce court is an extremely powerful incentive to maintain the status quo which is a 7-figure income for a heart surgeon. Sad but true and the most basic of human nature, preserving your own life and lifestyle. However, in this case, belief in the cholesterol theory of heart disease and that surgery is the only solution has lead to millions of deaths and untold billions in costs, money that could have been invested in many, many other worthwhile projects. So, a word to the wise: keep your eyes and minds open and look for this anti-growth phenomena behind every bit of resistance to a new idea, especially if it will impact somebodies income or fame or power or status, the pride and ego hooks that most of us hang our self-respect and self-worth on. Remember, the same powerful motivator that would keep silent a group of highly-educated, very intelligent, hard working and dedicated individuals, is the same motivator that will push a 14-year-old to murder to join a gang, simple human pride and eqo with the desire to be liked and accepted by his peers. Only a few courageous individuals in history, and Kilmer McCully can be counted among them, have been willing to throw away their careers and sometimes their lives for the sake of the highest human values - honesty and integrity and fierce dedication to truth. McCully should win the nobel prize for his work. We should also, every day, give thanks to him and that handful who have brought us this far in human history with their courageous, daring work and vision.

Essential reading for those wishing to prevent heart disease.......2002-08-17

One of the most tragic medical blunders of the past few decades is the incorrect dogma that coronary artery disease -- and resultant heart attacks -- are caused primarily by cholesterol and "artery clogging fat." Yes, arteries clogged with plaque (which contains cholesterol and fat) can result in heart attacks, but there is abundant evidence that the mere presence of cholesterol and fats in the body does not, by itself, cause arterial plaque to form. In fact, many slender people with "ideal" cholesterol levels have plaque-filled arteries which result in heart attacks. What medical dogma has overlooked until quite recently is that plaque builds up only in arteries that have been wounded in some fashion. Arterial plaque is, in essence a form of scab that forms on wounded arteries to protect us from internal hemorrhaging. What causes wounded arteries? One cause is free radicals, which can be combatted by antioxidants. But a second major cause of arterial wounding -- and arterial plaque -- was discovered by the author of this book, Dr. Kilmer McCully: elevated concentrations in the blood of a chemical called homocysteine. Homocysteine is a natural product of the metabolism af an amino acid called methionine and, therefore, our body's always contain some homocysteine. Vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid keep blood concentrations of homocysteine low enough to be safe. But deficiency of these vitamins can allow homocysteine to build up to concentrations that can wound our arteries and lead to the formation of arterial plaque -- which can eventually trigger a heart attack. Recent research has confirmed Dr. McCully's findings. If you want to understand the role of homocysteine in causing cardiovascular disease and resultant heart attacks -- and learn how to protect yourself from them -- I strongly suggest that you acquire and read this valuable book.

The New Glucose Revolution Low GI Guide to the Metabolic Syndrome and Your Heart: The Only Authoritative Guide to Using the Glycemic Index for Better Heart Health (Glucose Revolution)

Average customer rating:

I'm ordering copies for several friends and family!

The New Glucose Revolution Low GI Guide to the Metabolic Syndrome and Your Heart: The Only Authoritative Guide to Using the Glycemic Index for Better Heart Health (Glucose Revolution)
Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller , Anthony Leeds , and Kaye Foster-Powell
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nutrition | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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The New Glucose Revolution Shopper's Guide to GI Values 2007: The Authoritative Source of Glycemic Index Values for More than 500 Foods (Glucose Revolution)
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The New Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index - the Dietary Solution for Lifelong Health (Glucose Revolution)
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ASIN: 156924295X

Book Description

Written by the leading authorities on the Glycemic Index, The New Glucose Revolution Guide to the Metabolic Syndrome and Your Heart provides readers with the most up-to-date information about using the GI to reduce their risk of having a heart attack. It explains the importance of slowly digested, low-GI carbohydrates, and offers important dietary guidelines for managing blood glucose levels, controlling insulin sensitivity, and losing weight. Also included is a seven-day meal plan and the GI values for hundreds of foods and beverages.

Customer Reviews:

I'm ordering copies for several friends and family!.......2006-10-20

This book is very easy to read in spite of the rather complex subject matter. I especially am enjoying the way the authors explain just WHY metabolic syndrome is something to be worried about, and how different foods are digested differently. Some of it is shocking, which is really helping motivate me to make dietary changes.

Many concrete behavioral suggestions as well, such as "instead of eating whole wheat bread, eat whole *grain* bread," things I hadn't previously even been aware of.

After awhile I might want to get a bigger, more detailed book, but this book is a great place to start.

I ordered it along with a low-GI cookbook. I look forward to making some of those recipes this weekend.

The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution

Average customer rating:

Excellent book on NYC's role
Satisfying read for a NYC history and American Revolution buff
An outstanding history of the American Revolution
City at the Center of the Revolution
Occupied New York

The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution
Barnet Schecter
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Battle of Brooklyn 1776
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ASIN: 0142003336
Release Date: 2003-10-28

Book Description

The Battle for New York tells the story of how the city became the pivot on which the American Revolution turned: from the political and religious struggles of the 1760s and early '70s that made the city a hotbed of political action to the campaign of 1776 that turned today's five boroughs and Westchester County into a series of battlefields to the seven years of British occupation and martial law. The struggle for control of New York was by far the largest military venture of the Revolutionary War, involving almost every significant participant on both sides from General William Howe to Nathan Hale, Benedict Arnold to George Washington. Barnet Schecter brilliantly links eighteenth-century events with the city's modern landscape, illuminating the forgotten battlefield that remains in our midst.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book on NYC's role.......2007-09-09

I found this to be an excellent book about how NY city factored into the war. The text is complemented by a number of good maps. A bonus is that the author provides the current addresses of a number of important occurences so one can visit the sites. I was not aware how intent GW was on recapturing NYC later in the war, nor the city's use as a stratgeic base by the Brits late in the war.

Satisfying read for a NYC history and American Revolution buff.......2006-12-21

The "Battle For New York" is unique among most American Revolution books for obvious reasons -- it ties everything about the war together around New York and how important and strategically vital the city was to both sides of the fight.

There's not much new or revealing about the non-NYC portions of the war -- most are analyzed briefly with quick summaries and much of the same information seen in other books. Even the analysis of the Battle of Brooklyn/Long Island is similar to that of other books like "George Washington's War." But for the first time in a historical account of the War, I had a real sense of the despair in the city, the turmoil, the suffering, and the paranoia of the inhabitants and the British occupants.

Also, as a New Yorker and a big fan of the city's history, I enjoyed Schecter's frequent footnotes relating the present-day geography to the location of many events from the War. His descriptions of Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey provided me with vivid images of what the city and its surroundings looked like at the time, moreso than any book I've read to date. And Schecter goes into excellent detail in showing how the underwater geography of New York Harbor affected the mighty British (and later, French) fleet.

Schecter's "Battle For New York" does not particularly stand out amongst other works on the American Revolution, but it's definitely worth a read if you have any interest in New York and its history and geography.

An outstanding history of the American Revolution.......2006-11-30

This is the first book that really makes sense out of the land battles of the Revolutionary War. By centering the focus on NYC, the author shows how the campaigns and battles have a cohesion and rationale in the minds of all of the leaders, on both sides. His explanations of the British failures at Bennington & Saratoga, and of what happened at Brandywine & Germantown, and of the final march to Yorktown are better than I have read anywhere else. I especially appreciate his comments on the stealthy
Washington-Rochambeau trek, which so many people portray as if it was a massive, stately one-column victory parade down a fixed route all the way from New England to Virginia.

City at the Center of the Revolution.......2006-11-05

Having lived in New York City all my life I am surprised it took so long for someone to write a book on this subject. All through the Bicentennial in 1976 with Rev War re-enactments all around the city there was still nothing done on this subject until many years later. Now there are several books out that cover New York's unique place in the Revolution.

The author does a nice job of linking current locations to where they were then. For those not familier with the city today this might be confusing, but it is interesting none the less. Barnet Schacter has given us a social, political and part military history on the subject. The beginning is slow to get off the mark with the details of pre-Revolutionary politics in the city a bit hard to grasp. The various personalities involved, and their political antics makes for slow reading at first, but the reader is rewarded if he/she is persistent.

The book naturally picks up once the British fleet arrives in New York Harbor. Schacter is good at pointing out the local details of where the British landed and how they marched in Brooklyn. He is weaker on some of his battle details at times. The Battle of Long Island, or Brooklyn as it is often called gets cursory treatment. Of course there is not much to tell as the Americans mostly ran from British bayonets. The one thing that sticks out from this narrative is how the British under Howe allowed the Americans to escape from almost every encounter. From Brooklyn to White Plains Howe's leisurely campaign proceeds at a processional pace, allowing Washington to pick up the pieces each time to make another stand. The British could have easily crushed Washy several times at New York, as the city was virtually impossible to defend with the resources at hand. Why they didn't remains somewhat of a mystery, although the reasons are there. Howe was politically against the war, had no stomach for crushing the Americans whom he basically liked; and he wanted to accomplish his objectives with as little bloodshed as possible. When one considers these aspects his campaign in and around New York becomes easier to understand. Howe wanted to show the Americans the futility of their efforts and was hoping for their reconciliation with Britain. Unfortunately for Howe and co. this was wishful thinking. The British would never again have such a series of opportunities to bag Washy and the main rebel army. Henry Clinton knew this could not be done, and the account provided of his fustrations over Howe's management of the campaign is compelling.

Like most historians on the Revolution, Schacter is more a story teller than a pure military historian. He provides just enough detail to satisfy the general reader, and to frustrate the military reader! One of the points made often in the book on the battles around New York is that British casualties were higher in terms of killed and wounded than rebel. This is true, but the author leaves out the circumstances involved. In alomst all the engagements involved the Americans were fighting on the defense, often with some kind of protective cover, while the British were attacking out in the open. Its easy to see why British losses were higher in this regard. Americans fought well until their line was broken, then they ran or surrendered. This accounts for why most rebel losses were captives. I think Schacter exaggerates the losses sustained by the Britsih at Pells Point, and tends to show his pro-American bias rather blantly at times. This is understandable because most books written on the Revolution are done by American authors who always get carried away with the spirit of '76 syndrome. Where the book is strong is showing how the British capture of New York limited their strategy for the war overall. The harbor's use was limited due to a large sandbar that prevented ships from corssing at low tides.

There can be little doubt that British fixation on New York certainly contributed to their demise. Once Schacter finishes with the immediate action around the city in 1776 he provides an over-view of the war showing how New York influenced the course of the conflict. This in my opinion is one of the main strengths of the book. Readers will like some of the period detail, and the narrative is livened with many first-hand accounts from participants on both sides. The plight of the loyalists in the city makes for interesting reading as their story is often too little told. Details about how corrupt and inefficient the British occupation was provides insights into how garrisoning it was such a drag on their strategy. In the main a good book filled with many interesting details, if slightly weak on the battles in and around the city itself. Worthwhile.

Occupied New York.......2006-05-06

People, including Franklin (father and son), the Howe brothers (William and Black Dick), the DeLanceys, the Livingstons, George Washington and Lord Stirling (a soi-disant Scottish peer AND an American patriot!); and geography, Hell Gate, Sandy Hook, Flatbush and Gravesend are the stars of Barnet Schecter's masterly study of New York in the American Revolution. In this 400+ page impeccably sourced book, we also learn about the first combat submarine (the Turtle) and other fascinating details like the peace conference on Staten Island and the noble death of Nathan Hale. I especially liked the maps which combine historic details with modern landmarks which helped enormously in picturing the action.Schecter is an up and coming historian; I look forward to reading his latest work on the 1863 NYC draft riot during the Civil War.

Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution

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Should not be missed
Women Writers Rule!
Beautiful!
Never enough Beat
Excellent insight into the beat generation

Women of the Beat Generation: The Writers, Artists and Muses at the Heart of a Revolution

Manufacturer: Conari Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1573241385

Amazon.com

Female Beats wrote poetry, took drugs, went on the road, listened to jazz, and lived on the fringe just as the men did, but their accomplishments are not as widely recognized. This volume attempts to correct this oversight by profiling 40 women of the Beat generation and publishing samples of their work. Well-known poets Diane di Prima and Denise Levertov appear in the volume, along with the muses of male writers and other women who never became famous at all. As Brenda Knight notes in her introduction, counterculture women in the 1950s and 1960s faced difficult obstacles: "To be unmarried, a poet, an artist, to bear biracial children, to go on the road was doubly shocking for a woman, and social condemnation was high." The first portion of the anthology is devoted to women who were not Beats but who set the stage for the movement. Josephine Miles wrote poetry and mentored the younger Beat poets at Berkeley, while Madeline Gleason founded the San Francisco Poetry Festival. In the "Muses" section are short biographies of wives and girlfriends of famous male writers such as Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. It's widely known that William S. Burroughs shot his wife Joan Vollmer Adams Burroughs; this book fills in other details of her wild and short life. Profiles of writers such as Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, Janna McClure, and Janine Pommy Vega account for the rest of the anthology. The lives these women led are as interesting as their writing, and Women of the Beat Generation honors their determination to live outside the mainstream. --Jill Marquis

Customer Reviews:

Should not be missed.......2006-09-24

Any interested in the history of the beat era must have WOMEN OF THE BEAT GENERATION: THE WRITERS, ARTISTS AND MUSES AT THE HEART OF A REVOLUTION. Much has been written on famous beat men but comparatively little on the women who also made their mark during the time: long overdue but better late than never is an exploration of the histories of these women, from Barbara Guest and Diane DiPrima to Jan Kerouac and Anne Waldman. A literary and social history which should not be missed.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Women Writers Rule!.......2004-04-26

Yes, there were women writing as well, and doing all the other cool stuff at the time. Many of them are still writing or continued to write long after their affair with the "beat" generation. This book is a great introduction to these writers. It's very informative, has just enough of the good gossip and lots of really great writing.

Beautiful!.......2002-09-24

For a group that is now remembered as a progressive voice in the ultra-conformist wilderness of the 1950s, the Beats were a surprisingly chauvinistic bunch of guys, all too ordinary for their time. That unfortunate fact helps explain the relative obscurity of most of the women who ran with, influenced and, in some cases, loved them. (You probably know that William S. Burroughs accidentally murdered his common-law wife while playing William Tell, but do you know her name?) This wonderful volume goes a long way towards correcting that oversight. Featuring previously unpublished letters, rare pictures and - best of all - a generous sampling of creative works, it's a near-perfect survey of the Beats' female contemporaries, lovers and even a few of their precursors.

Although most of the women profiled here published at least one work in their own right at some point, many of those are not currently in print anywhere else. Additionally, some of the poems and stories here are previously unpublished, and in the case of many of the wives and lovers (referred to as "The Muses"), the works presented here are by far the most intimate look at their lives published thus far. In short, there's something here for everyone: a good starting point for newcomers to the Beats as well as a good supplementary piece for even the most serious students of women's literature.

Never enough Beat.......2002-06-16

This a good addition to the true beat fan's bookshelf. The histories of the women who took part in the beat movement and the excellent photos are worth the price alone. But you may find yourself surprised by the quality of some of the work. I ended up reading "Door Wide Open" by Joyce Johnson after finishing this book and enjoyed it immensely. The section on Denise Levertov is great as well.
The most enjoyable part of the book for me was the section on Elise Cowan. Cowan represents what Beat really is. She never produced a large, lasting amount of work, but she was a street soldier on the scene, down in the dirt, living the beat dream. Cowan was a lover to Allen Ginsberg, a friend to Joyce Johnson, a fling to Jack Kerouac, and a beautifully tragic figure of the time. If you want to dig deep in the beat and explore all of the characters, then invest in this book.

Excellent insight into the beat generation.......1999-03-24

This book is very interesting from both an historic and literary view. When I first started reading books from authors like Jack Kerouac and others, the Beat Generation seemed to be male dominated. But by reading this book one can see just how important the women really were. I recommend this book very much.

Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie: Tribal Tales from the Heart of a Cultural Revolution

Average customer rating:

My Mum would approve
A Valuable Historical Chronicle
Fabulous photos and oral histories
Near and Far from me now.
Outstanding biographical narrative of 60s counter-culture.

Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie: Tribal Tales from the Heart of a Cultural Revolution
Iris Keltz
Manufacturer: Cinco Puntos Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

New Buffalo: Journals from a Taos Commune (Counterculture)
Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture
Memoirs of an Ex-Hippie: Seven Years in the Counterculture
Voices From The Farm: Adventures in Community Living
The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond (Peace and Conflict Resolution)

ASIN: 0938317504

Book Description

From the Introduction by Edward Sanders

"Keltz has an eye for detail. Her honesty reinforces her arguments that the commune movement has something to say in 2000 and beyond. She does not shy away from the flaws, the weaknesses, and the down times of the communes just as she does not neglect the thrills, the fun, the dancing, the highs, the eros, the communal physical work and the spirit of sharing she rightly urges us to celebrate.

"The pathway to a Better World requires a lot of study, and this living book can be one of the courses."

"This is a clear and dedicated account of how we lived and who we were, written with an alert eye and a big open-hearted, humorous voice. Keltz leads us deep into a particular American landscape with beautiful prose that makes us want to follow her."-Natalie Goldberg

The '60s-the music, the clothes, political and sexual idealism-were a watershed in the way America sees itself. Hippie culture was at the very zenith of that watershed, and Taos was its beating heart, a Mecca which beckoned young pilgrims from all over the country. Iris Keltz was one of the pilgrims who went to Taos in the 60s. She stayed to become a folk historian of the tribe. She began writing her stories down and transcribing the stories of her friends, and slowly the book was born.

Iris' book has the old-time vibes of a family scrapbook, a marvelous collection of stories and oral histories from the people who lived in the communes that flourished in Taos-Morningstar, New Buffalo, Lama, Reality Construction Company, and others. Now, decades later, they talk openly about communal life, about making adobes and growing gardens, about natural childbirth and raising children, about New Age mysticism and the Native American Church, about money and food stamps, about regret and what's been learned.

Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie is full of wonderful then-and-now photographs with up-to-date biographies, newspaper articles and other memorabilia that give the reader a true sense of the passionate life of hipies during the great flowering of communes in New Mexico.

Iris Keltz got the idea for this book because her kids kept begging, "Tell us about your hippie days, Mom." She'd drag out he

Customer Reviews:

My Mum would approve.......2003-12-01

I bought this book to understand where my mum is coming from when she speaks, acts and walks five dogs down the road. I picked it up in Taos New Mexico on a pilgramage there. It is a wonderful book with lots of different views throughout in the form of interviews/essays. The pictures are great and the author even includes old menus and health posters from the time. She tells it like it is and includes the flaws of the movement as well as the beauty that was there. Buy it for the coffee table.

A Valuable Historical Chronicle.......2000-12-16

About half way through this book, I got the bright idea of listing all the people mentioned in it that I knew personally, had met, or knew of. When the number reached 50, I stopped counting. It's easier to count the people in it that I DON'T know - on the fingers of one hand. Three of my oldest and dearest friends are featured here, one pictured on the cover. So I can't be unbiased and objective about these "tribal tales from the heart of a cultural revolution." I've lived them and loved them, so for me, it's a manifesto.

It enters you into a movie of life in those days around Taos. A rainbow of different voices speak. And the voiceover of the narrator is sure and true. Most delightful to me was remembering things I'd all but forgotten - like the Oriental Blue Streaks (a band), Da Nahazli (a hip school), Old Martinez Hall (a place, and the summer solstice at New Buffalo (a happening). Here in these pages, I've found people and places I haven't thought about for a long time - Feather, Preacher, Pabla, Teddy the Juggler, Hotsy Totsy, the Stragecoach Hot Springs, the General Store, peyote meetings on the mesa, Little Joe and Henry Gomez. It all comes back in color and glory and story and song, and it's food for the heart.

"I was always on the hunt for a mythological explanation of the world," says Keltz. "We were reverting to an old form - tribalism - but in a very new way. We would not be a tribe because of lineage, race, language, or tradition. We were a rainbow of people becoming a tribe because we had a collective belief in an alternative to materialism, greed, military power and an unpopular war fought using our brothers, schoolmates and boyfriends."

Not that there weren't some down times, hard times, foolish mistakes and even dangerous blunders. The author makes that clear. We were feeling our way, making it up as we went along. It was colored funny and fun and scary and serious. We knew that the only way to change the world was to change ourselves first. And we did that. None of us who lived through those times are the same people today.

I did catch some inaccuracies - but those are all in the memories of individual voices here. None of them are egregious errors or deliberate slights or misrepresentations as those often found in other chronicles of this time. Somebody said, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there."

When you're living the life from day to day, it can seem ordinary. You chop wood and haul water, you cook oatmeal for the kids, you gather watercress and rose hips by the rio, but when you step into the world of this book, and the author does her magic for you, the patina of years transforms it into a whole round thing - like a soap bubble in the sun.

I learned a lot about what I'd missed - the hippie New Mexico oracle, "Fountain of Light" and the hippie-made Bicentennial silver and gold concha belt that was worth many thousands (but priceless really) and destined for the Bicentennial 1978 exhibit at the Smithsonian - but was stolen. I slept through all that but sure am glad to know about it now.

There's no index in this, so you can't look up any nouns, but after reading the whole thing, I think I understand why Iris didn't do an index. The story, the saga, is greater than its individual parts and greater than the sum of its parts.

Says Keltz, "We were the critical mass that could change the direction of our capitalistic society" and, "...we were unafraid of our inconsistencies, a people who embraced paradox as the slippery road to a glorious future."

Friends who have this scrapbook have told me that they skipped around, reading only about themselves and their friends, but I recommend doing as the White King advises. "Begin at the beginning; go right on until you come to the end; then stop." That way, you know what to go back to and look at again - photos, drawings, dialogue - whatever. Even if you don't know a single person, place or idea in this book, I believe the work stands on its own merits as a valuable historical chronicle. Sounds like marbles rolling, doesn't it? Rolling through this scrapbook, this album, this experience. Splendid stuff.

pamhan99@aol.com

Fabulous photos and oral histories.......2000-10-26

As a veteran of communal life in the 60's, I truly appreciate the authenticity--and pure fun--of Iris Keltz's book. The photos, articles, memoirs, and hippie artwork take you right to the spirit of the times. What a great trip!!

Near and Far from me now........2000-10-12

My heart soared when I saw the cover of this book. Yes, I was drawn to communal life in Taos back in the late sixties and early seventies. I lived with the Family. I still dream of going home to the Family. Yes, this book is true and accurate - as much as a memory can be. There is always more, like the night the Indians turned the hot springs cold. This book is wonderful archive of this time and place. Thanks Iris for helping me remember a time when belonging was more important than haveing.

Outstanding biographical narrative of 60s counter-culture........2000-09-08

Scrapbook Of A Taos Hippie is a biographical narrative of the some of the agrarian hippies of the 60's who attempted to live the Aquarian Age in Taos. The author's memoirs contain 3 years of colorful experiences. How did the dream play out? In the end, did practicality supersede idealism? What were the chief obstacles? Why was Taos important? You will be left with more questions after you arrive at the author's answers to these. Many black and white photos and topical news sources' stories decorate this album-like book. The author says she wrote it in response to her children's request to tell them about her hippie days. Scrapbook Of A Taos Hippie is more than a nostalgic look at a time and life now past. It captures the bitter poignancy of the day. It will appeal to specialized interests audiences.

Book Description

Bridging Troubled Waters is about a robust and holistic approach to resolving conflict. It begins where much of the currently accepted theory and practice in the field leaves off. Like a hand pulling back the curtain from parts of us that have been closeted away, this book reveals ways we can use more of ourselves in addressing conflict. Moving beyond the analytic and the intellectual, it situates our efforts at bridging conflict in the very places where conflict is born--relationships. From relationships come connection, meaning, and identity. It is through awareness of connection, shared meaning, and respect for identity that conflicts are transformed.

The Heart of the Internet: An Insider's View of the Origin and Promise of the On-Line Revolution

Average customer rating:

The Heart of the Internet by Vallee PhD
A very good read... a very smart man.
A compelling warning! Read this & take nothing for granted
Obligatory reading
Unusual merit

The Heart of the Internet: An Insider's View of the Origin and Promise of the On-Line Revolution
Jacques Vallee
Manufacturer: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Culture | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General & Reference | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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The Four Elements of Financial Alchemy: A New Formula for Personal Prosperity
The Network Revolution: Confessions of a Computer Scientist

ASIN: 1571743693

Customer Reviews:

The Heart of the Internet by Vallee PhD.......2005-03-31

This work describes the history of the computer and the evolution
of computer systems from the Arpanet to the Internet. The
world wide web (www)protocol was invented in Geneva Switzerland (CERN).

The Geodesia org ties together random segments for collective
decision-making. Poor communication is a considerable problem
for internet users. Current challenges deal with bandwidth allocation and entry points for a multiplicity of users. This book is perfect for a student project on the evolution of the computer. For this reason alone, it is worth the price of admission.

A very good read... a very smart man........2003-09-14

Dr. Vallee is well respected in other fields besides the computer world, but this book detailing his experience as part of the evolution and creation of what became the internet is sure to acquire a good audience of its own. The book is written partly like an autobiography, partly like a discerning review of the subject. It is a nice mix, with enough personal insight and interest to make it compelling, and enough factual detail to make it a worthy reference book on its own. As is common for this author, he has a keen insight into not just the technical and factual aspects of a subject, but the human perspectives as well, and it is this which makes the book not just another list of facts (as many about computers are), but an intriguing narrative of human history and how the present came to be--as well as what the future may hold. I highly recommend it.

A compelling warning! Read this & take nothing for granted.......2003-07-17

From Paul Saffo, Institute for the Future: Based on a deep understanding of the Internet and its origins, this book presents a compelling warning. It is a welcome antidote to both the naive utopianism of the Internet bubble and to oppressive liberty-quenching actions by global corporations and governments alike. Read this and take nothing for granted - the Internet will only remain a force for freedom if you help protect it.

Obligatory reading.......2003-07-17

From Stephens F. Millard, advisory board member, the Wharton School and the Kellogg school: Obligatory reading for anybody interested in the history, evolution and future of this epoch-making technology, whose full promise has yet to be realized. Dr. Jacques Vallee, an eminent computer scientist who was present at the creation of the Internet, brings both knowledge and understanding to this important debate.

Unusual merit.......2003-07-17

From Paul Baran, inventor of packet switching: Among the many books written about the Internet, this one has unusual merit because Jacques Vallee was there during the infancy of the network. It is fun to read his recollections as a key hands-on pioneer. His aspirations and visions, and those of his colleagues at SRI and the Institute for the Future, led to the first Network Information Center and to revolutionary ways of conducting group communications. This work made possible the large simultaneous interactions of today.

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