Book Description
LOVE COMES SOFTLY, the first series from the pen of Janette Oke, follows the lives of one family through three generations-beginning with a hated""marriage of convenience,""through hardships common to life on the prairie in an earlier time, leading at last to an abiding love. These eight stories reflect the enduring hope of Christian love and faith despite adversity and hardship. More than 6.5 million copies of the books in the series have been sold. Books 5-8 are in this box set.
Customer Reviews:
Love Comes Softly review.......2007-09-30
This series is awesome. They are so easy to read that you just flow. The only complaint is skipping in the years but you could not begin to read all of the years i guess. Very hard to put down once you start reading.
Love Comes Softly Pack.......2007-07-25
I enjoyed reading these books for content and because they were very easy to read. They were written in a comprehensive language that allowed the reader to flow quickly through its content.
Love Comes Softly Books 1-4.......2007-05-07
Good strong moral values are taught in this series. Easy reading gives you an idea of what it was like to live in the 1800's including travel, homelife, and strong work ethics. It takes you back to a slower pace of life. These books are worth reading.
Refreshing!!!.......2007-05-07
I bought all the movies and all the books for my Mom (83) and she absolutly loves them, she read all 8 books in about a week, said she "just couldnt put them down"!! Highly reccomended!!
Heartwarming and soulful!.......2007-05-06
The Love Comes Sotfly books are wonderful! The characters jump out at you and come alive. They are much better than the Hallmark movies, and it was fun to read the differences and follow the lives of Clark, Marty and their children through the pages. Read the Prairie Legacy also by Janette Oak, they continue the story of Clark and Marty. What a wonderful set of books, I really reccommend them, especially if you like sequels and want to know the rest of the story.
Book Description
Myron Magnet's The Dream and the Nightmare argues that the radical transformation of American culture that took place in the 1960s brought today's underclass-overwhelmingly urban, dismayingly minority-into existence. Lifestyle experimentation among the white middle class produced often catastrophic changes in attitudes toward marriage and parenting, the work ethic and dependency in those at the bottom of the social ladder, and closed down their exits to the middle class.
Customer Reviews:
Waking Up to the Realities.......2007-10-01
THE DREAM AND THE NIGHTMARE is an exceptionally important book. President George W. Bush specifically referred to it as one of the most influential books he has read and made it the cornerstone of his compassionate conservativism. In the book, Myron Magnet of the Manhattan Institute attempts to answer one of the true riddles of our time: In a society of such opportunity, why is there an underclass that seems totally entrenched in failure and that seems incapable of finding its way into the respectable mainstream of American life?
For those in the middle class, this really is a puzzle. The answers seem so obvious. Get a job; gain work experience in order to climb the ladder; do not expect something for nothing; be selective about who you have sex with and use those precautions necessary to minimize unwanted pregnancies; when you do have kids, read to them and oversee their upbringing so that they can properly interact with others; and if you do take drugs, well, just make it the occasional joint, don't get all crazy there. The answer Magnet reaches has less to do with policy and more to do with philosophy. THE DREAM AND THE NIGHTMARE is a manifesto to the concept that ideas have consequences.
Magnet points to the significant paradigm shift of the 1960s, in which many elites thought it was progressive, even compassionate, to denigrate traditional notions of morality and the American way of life. Shifting the concept from personal responsibility among the poor to the idea that the poor are victims of society entitled to handouts, racial separation among blacks, sexual liberation, permissiveness regarding drug use, and other attitudes that demonstrated an oppositional mindset to the traditional notions of how to get ahead filtered down from the upper classes who espoused them to the lower classes who adopted them.
The results have been disastrous. As Magnet points out, many members of the upper class knew that there was a limit to how far they could go before jeapardizing themselves. And even for those who did go over the edge, there was usually some safety net among one's family and social structure that softened the blow. Yet when these same ideas were adopted by those at the lower end of the ladder, without the socialization which might have provided an internal barrier to holding back before the edge and without the external social structure to soften the landing, the results were something else indeed. The destruction of the two-parent family, rampant drug use and its attendant violence, laziness and a 'I deserve something to be handed to me' attitude have combined to stop the advance of a large section of our society in its tracks.
Magnet's theory explains not only how the underclass was created but also why so many factors of urban life seemed to erode at the same time. Specific policies may have an effect on this or that issue. But significant changes in a people's philosophy, the zeitgeist in which they live and breathe, will have a far wider impact. That is what we now see and it is a deeply disturbing sight for those of us who are witness to the results.
Unfortunately, the biggest impediment to change is also philosophical. It is all but impossible for someone to even discuss these issues without those on the political Left howling about racism, blaming the victim, blah, blah, blah. And the underclass itself is now so violent and disfunctional that it is nothing short of flat-out dangerous to address its members directly. Even then, the members of the underclass are so enveloped in their thinking that it is like talking to a brick wall. It is so bad that telling it straight is simply interpreted as racism or naivity about what life on the street is really like. The underclass displays that most damaging of traits - an imperviousness to negative yet accurate feedback. The road ahead looks dark indeed.
The welfare mess.......2007-05-21
Myron Magnet's book is an excellent example of why 1960s leftists should be having second thoughts. In a nutshell, he argues that the mindset and the values of the sixties are largely responsible for America's urban underclass. The sixties counterculture and the sexual revolution both put in place a set of values and beliefs that for many turned poverty into a way of life.
The liberations promoted by the counter-culturalists - sexual, personal, political, economic - did not liberate. Instead, they enslaved people. Says Magnet, the no-fault way in which the counter-culturalist conducted his personal life was "mirrored by his no-fault social policy, all rights and entitlements without responsibilities".
These counterculture values had a very real bearing on the issue of poverty. The traditional values that either prevented poverty or helped one escape from poverty - thrift, hard work, responsibility, deferral of gratification, sobriety - were eschewed. In their place were enshrined the values of hedonism, sensualism and selfishness. These values can only entrap, not liberate. As Irving Kristol put it, "It's hard to rise above poverty if society keeps deriding the human qualities that allow you to escape from it."
Take the sexual revolution for example. The reshaped values of the sexual revolution were directly responsible for the breakdown of families, for easy divorce, for illegitimacy, for sole-parent households. Not that these problems didn't exist before the onset of the sexual revolution, but they were certainly exacerbated and compounded by it.
The new culture, as Magnet explains, "permitted, even celebrated, behavior that, when poor people practice it, will imprison them inextricably in poverty. It's hard to persuade ghetto fifteen-year-olds not to get pregnant, for instance, when the entire culture, from rock music to upscale perfume commercials to highbrow books, is intoxicated with the joy of what before AIDS was called `recreational' sex."
Moreover, the new culture "held the poor back from advancement by robbing them of responsibility for their fate and thus further squelching their initiative and energy. Instead of telling them to take wholehearted advantage of opportunities that were rapidly opening, the new culture told the Have-Nots that they were victims of an unjust society and, if they were black, that they were entitled to restitution, including advancement on the basis of racial preference rather than mere personal striving and merit."
Viewing poverty primarily in terms of a poverty of values is not a new thesis: Other social commentators, like George Gilder and Thomas Sowell, have argued this thesis. Moreover, earlier commentators like Max Weber have pointed out the connection between values and socio-economic development. Historical examples can be cited. For example, many historians now agree that the spread of Methodism in England in the 18th Century helped spare England the bloody revolutions taking place around it. John Wesley's preaching imbued the English people with a conservative orderliness that helped to avert revolutionary violence and upheaval.
Magnet's book confirms the thesis that the major operatives in a society are not just economic ones. Moral, religious and cultural values even more strongly determine how a society will fare - politically and economically. The question of crime also must be seen in terms of values. The use of force and threat - police, courts, prisons - is one way to restrain aggression and crime. However, "The most powerful curb isn't force at all: it is the internal inhibition that society builds into each person's character, the inner voice".
Instead of worrying about lenient sentencing or cumbersome legal procedures - as important as they are - of more value is ensuring that "inner barriers to violence and aggression are strongly in place. This is a cultural matter, a matter of how people bring up their children, a matter of the messages that get passed from the community to the parents and thence to the children.
The object is both to transmit the necessary prohibitions against aggression to each individual and to win each individual's inner, positive assent to the social endeavor."
And that of course is what is not happening in black urban America. Sixty-eight per cent of all black children are born without a father at home. Thus it is much harder for positive values to be transmitted. But the tragedy of broken black families is perpetuated by counterculture values: love'em and leave'em is the natural expression of the sexual revolution, and the economic reinforcement of illegitimacy is the logical outcome of welfarism. As Charles Murray noted, a welfare mother's child "provides her with the economic insurance that a husband used to represent."
Thus counterculture values reinforce and perpetuate the crime, poverty and despair of the ghetto. The poverty of values that emanated from the 1960s counterculture have left their mark. And welfarism simply ingrained the problems. Best of intentions, we have learned, unfortunately are not enough. Reformist zeal needs to be backed up by hard thinking and common sense. Simply throwing money at a problem will usually not suffice. The less politically tangible route of changing values and belief systems is generally more effective.
Victims of the 1960s' liberal fantasies.......2006-07-13
I was particularly interested in the sections on the 'homeless'. I spent some five years working in this field. As with Dalrympole's Life at the Bottom, and Bartholomew's The Welfare State We're In, Magnet applies a for too long dismissed common sense viewpoint. For too long the chattering classes have gotten away with arguing that social issues such as homelessness are the result of poverty, class, gender and race discrimination -(yawn!). The reality, as Magnet concurs, is a breakdown in Christian values (there is no alternative to the ten commandments),the family, and morality. Sadly, the resultant social policies stemming from the muddleheaded, liberal mindset of the 1960s has left in their wake, 'sink estate' victims. They have been the unwitting fall out from the failed experimental social fantasies of the 1960s' academics. The authors of these policies can escape along with their Chardonnay drinking cronnies to the comfort of their rural havens, but not so the many lives that their alternate social ideas broke. The homeless sections in Magnet's book complement Daibhidh Macadhaimh's Unlocking Carol's Smile (Trafford Publishing. isbn 141205550-4) a gripping novel set in the world of social exclusion. It is written from the writer's experience working in this field and tells it like it is. The emotional and social conflict involving the two central characters challenges a particular taboo within care in the community services: they develop an unlikely relationship. The book could sit comfortably on a social science shelf, not least because of its contrary ideological approach to the subject of the causes of social exclusion.
Beware of simple (and simple-witted) answers to complex questions.......2006-06-17
This would have been an interesting and original view of the problem of persistent poverty in the U.S. had it been published, oh, about thirty or thirty-five years ago. As it is, it grossly oversimplifies a complex problem, and worse, plays to the cherished superstitions of neoconservative intellectuals and their `lumpen' readers alike. It will probably come as a great surprise to the author, but I doubt poor black, Hispanic, and hell, even poor white kids have ever even heard of Norman Mailer, much less studied his essays in school. It may also have escaped the author's attention that inflation whittled the value of payments from programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children down to a fraction of 1960's levels, even factoring in occasional cost-of-living increases-which had all but ceased starting in the 1980's. Finally, under the impetus of a conservative Congress, the Clinton administration undertook reform of "welfare" in 1996 which included drastically tightening eligibility requirements, placing strict time limits on receipt of benefits, and actively directing recipients into jobs. Yet poverty seems to persist despite the implementation of conservative nostrums and even more amazingly, despite a near-full employment economy at the end of the 1990's. In other words, trying to blame everything on kids who grew their hair long in the 1960's, and vapid socialites hobnobbing with Bobby Seale at Leonard Bernstein's soirees forty years ago is not only not right-it isn't even wrong
Meanwhile, since the Nixon administration we have conducted a "War on Drugs" that has stuffed prisons full to bursting with (mostly low level) drug dealers and users-nearly all of them minorities--but accomplished very little else. Although crime rates have in fact dropped to historically low levels, this seems to have little if any correlation with incarceration rates, which have been relentlessly rising since the 1970's. This decrease in crime, by the way, confounded neoconservative predictions at the beginning of the 1990's that crime-allegedly inspired by our evil culture-would continue spiraling upwards without letup. Similar decreases occurred in out-of-wedlock births, but as an old saying goes, "A lady's reputation seldom improves." Especially when she is a member of a racial minority, I might add. It would seem that the underclass owes very little to the 1960's counterculture, although Encounter Books-once a source of urbane and intelligent works-would probably not have taken Mr. Magnet's manuscript had he concluded as much.
Neoconservatives, it turns out, are as rigidly locked into a mindless party line as the 1960's leftists they criticize. For example, black social scientists such as Glen Loury and William Julius Wilson were clutched to neoconservative bosoms when their research found that blacks suffered relatively little racial discrimination in hiring compared to past decades. They were dropped like hot potatoes however when their continued investigations showed that minority unemployment had a lot more to do with factors such as the virtual disappearance of even low-skilled work from most urban areas, and the lack of transportation to exurban areas where most job growth was. Kind of makes blaming the 1969 Woodstock festival look silly, to say the least.
There is no doubt that there is something that was once called "the culture of poverty" that inculcates some of the poor with self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. This was already old hat by the time "London Labor and London Poor" was published during the Victorian age. Presumably, the Victorian poor did not become or remain so because of Janet Jackson displaying her bosom on television a century later.
There are innumerable other criticisms to be made of this book starting with its confusion of drug-taking behavior among the poor (which tends to seek oblivion from hopelessness) with middle-class drug taking behavior (which is usually risk-seeking or thrill-seeking), but a complete enumeration of its mistakes, misconceptions, and half-truths would take an essay nearly as long as the book itself. Suffice it to say that instead of being random, the errors all seem to point in a certain political direction. Readers may conclude what they will about the author's presumed good faith from this. Those looking for `just-so-stories' to confirm their darkest prejudices towards racial minorities and justify doing nothing will certainly find what they seek in this book. Those looking for nuanced discussions aimed at trying to solve problems instead of finding scapegoats will have to look elsewhere.
This is a landmark work for the ages...and to you who object..........2005-07-30
This book is one of the most articulate explanations for post-1960s socio-economic trends and the damage the cultural movement left in its wake. TO THOSE NEGATIVE REVIEWERS: I wonder if any of you even read the book. The depth at which Magnet covers the connection between the ideological shift of the "haves" and failed social policies is extensive. This book is not a party-based flag waver. It is an unbias, multi-dimensional study that should give any open-minded person something to ponder. It's time to realize that the "haves" in this country aren't just big conservative blood-thirsty corporations, but that the privileged in this country often reside in the secular entertainment industry and the halls of congress itself. If you don't read this book, just know this: we live in the most privileged society ever to exist in history, even with our shortcomings, and people can only find true compassion, and create true change, if they choose to see the real problems and destructive social codes facing our communities.
Average customer rating:
- WELL HERE IT IS
- Finaly, a financial book that makes sense!
- Finaly, a financial book that makes sense!
- The best financial book ever!
- Funding Your Dreams Generation to Gernation
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Funding Your Dreams Generation to Generation : Intergenerational Financial Planning to Ensure Your Family's Health, Wealth, and Personal Values
Carol Akright CFP
Manufacturer: Dearborn Trade
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ASIN: 0793137136 |
Book Description
Money is one of the most stressful issues that most families face. With each generation living longer, and the wealthiest generation about to pass along their inheritance, it is imperative that money be handled thoughtfully to help meet the needs of all—grandparents, Baby Boomers, and the youngest family members.
Using the unique step-by-step advice shared in Funding Your Dreams Generation to Generation, veteran financial expert Carol Akright shows how families can achieve their most cherished dreams—be it for funding college education, making long-term care affordable, or traveling together to share experiences and adventures as an extended family.
With the skill of an experienced financial planner and the insights of a family counselor, Akright brings the issues to the table, and helps families turn money into a dynamic force for accomplishing good. Calling it Intergenerational Financial Planning, Akright offers practical strategies to:
*draw families closer by sharing their deepest dreams, while working together to actualize those dreams
*commit to funding the dreams of all of the generations using wise financial planning
*share financial values, create family "emotional capital," and teach fundamental financial skills to the younger generations
*resolve money conflicts while meeting the needs of elders, children and those in between
Customer Reviews:
WELL HERE IT IS.......2001-08-03
ALL YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT PLANING ESTATE PLANNING. IF YOU GOT THOSE LITTLE ONES AT HOME AND YOU WANT TO LEARN THE JOY OF GIVING. THIS IS THE BOOK. IT HELPS YOU LEAD YOUR FAMILY DOWN THE PATHOF WEATH AND CLOSENESS. THIS THE BOOK.
Finaly, a financial book that makes sense!.......2001-06-23
Through the years I have visited the financial section of book stores, somethimes purchasing a publication that looks interesting, only to find that I would need a degree in finance to understand it. What a pleasure to find "Funding Your Dreams". A book that is written so that one can understand its concepts without all the 5 dollar words that send me to the dictionary every other sentence! Carol writes with knowledge, compassion and understanding of the lay readers needs. Most of all she gives sound, solid advice with suggestions for practical application. I wish I had had this book twenty years ago but it's never to late to start. This book is a must read for everyone, regardless of monetary assets. I also appreciate the balance that Carol presents to the reader. Yes we need to save, yes we need to plan for our children, our aging parents, and our own retirement, but we can also need to give ourselves permission to set aside some funds for our own enjoyment. Carol obviously has a zest for life and her energy comes through in her writing. This book should be on the coffee table of every home, and should be read by every generation that lives with that coffee table! This book would make a wonderful gift for young couples ( or graduates) starting out as well as those of us in the baby boomer generation. Thanks Carol, for writing words that I have needed to read for years!
Finaly, a financial book that makes sense!.......2001-06-23
Through the years I have visited the financial section of book stores, somethimes purchasing a publication that looks interesting, only to find that I would need a degree in finance to understand it. What a pleasure to find "Funding Your Dreams". A book that is written so that one can understand its concepts without all the 5 dollar words that send me to the dictionary every other sentence! Carol writes with knowledge, compassion and understanding of the lay readers needs. Most of all she gives sound, solid advice with suggestions for practical application. I wish I had had this book twenty years ago but it's never to late to start. This book is a must read for everyone, regardless of monetary assets. I also appreciate the balance that Carol presents to the reader. Yes we need to save, yes we need to plan for our children, our aging parents, and our own retirement, but we can also need to give ourselves permission to set aside some funds for our own enjoyment. Carol obviously has a zest for life and her energy comes through in her writing. This book should be on the coffee table of every home, and should be read by every generation that lives with that coffee table! This book would make a wonderful gift for young couples ( or graduates) starting out as well as those of us in the baby boomer generation. Thanks Carol, for writing words that I have needed to read for years!
The best financial book ever!.......2001-05-31
This is the first book that really made a difference for me financially! My family and I have met several times to discuss and plan our dreams and funds. We have been able to brainstorm and come up with ideas financially for each family member, with two of their dreams already accomplished. Even my nine year old is happy (he got an increase in allowance) and is telling all his friends to have their parents get the book!
I loved how the author "speaks directly to you" rather than just giving financial information. I hightly recommend this unique book that is simply put, direct, and actually affects changes in your financial status! It's a must for single parents like me!
Funding Your Dreams Generation to Gernation.......2001-05-20
Carole touches on important and weighty subjects, yet presents them to the reader in a friendly, accessible, easy to understand style. From the very beginning we think of her as `Carole' rather than Ms Akright, feeling that we are not facing a stranger, but, instead, listening to someone we know who cares about our problems. Not only does the book convey great generosity of spirit, but it also offers practical information that can benefit any family. The book is devoted to showing that dreams can indeed come true, and helps the reader understand `that money can and should be used as a family resource' that can help with dream fulfillment. Carole covers the dreams and needs of each generation, including basic issues such as retirement, long-term care, children's education, even meeting the bills. But she does not forget the vacations, adventures, life styles, purchases that one might also dream of. As she says, `You have the right to go after what you want in life.' According to Carole, inter-generational dream funding leads to a greater closeness of families, a greater sharing of values, and offers more emotional support, ideas and energy, as well as larger financial resources to call upon. This is a book to read, think about, and then perhaps read again in order to learn how to make dreams come true.
Book Description
He was the oldest and the responsibility of the family was passed down to him when he was but 18 as his father had grown too weak. Caught up in his family's quest for the Seven Sun's and his loyalty to the people in his life, he learned quickly how expendable certain things and people were to his cause, including Samantha. Thirteen years old, ready to spread her wings, she was welcomed into a family she never knew existed. She learned first to respect Richard as her older cousin with only her best intentions at heart; however, as she grew older she began to find out just how deep the family secrets ran. The Tetragrammaton was more than it seemed, and Richard was more than he seemed. After that night of first betrayal, everything has been different and continues to change. You never know what will happen next. even when you think you do.
Customer Reviews:
Gave me tingles in church again ;).......2007-07-11
My priest was recanting during mass a couple of months ago, about how the great divide in the church isn't Catholic versus Protestant or Baptist, etc but the great divide is those who truly believe in the Supernatural and those who don't. This book had me feeling the tingles on my arms again at mass last week. You might think this book has nothing to do with the church, but for me, it's got me believing again. Can you imagine all the things possile if you truly believed like the characters in this book do ;)
I've found Shalex Beckwith, the only thing I've found by her is Gods or Monsters a neat title considering her family, the Clan, who are descendants from the Drakon race, may be good or may be evil, and one young woman's journey to find out the truth, to find the lost Gospel of Light. They have "mental" abilities or powers that they are born with, but without practice won't mature. Blending into modern society, those that remember, those that teach their children, those that practice can do what they believe in. Some can throw a person across the room, or located another Drakon with their mind, even talk to each other with their minds, melt snow with the heat of their hand or foot, for example.
It makes an interesting background for the twists in this love story. They even attend mass! The twist is they also have a rituals passed down through generations to match each one of the Seven Sacraments! They have to attend confession and have the soul cleansed! There are great examples between the church and witchcraft (but not witchcraft) and were all the misunderstandings probably came from. The church might say this is someone trying to paganize religion, but hey I'm Catholic and I celebrate Jesus' birth as well as Santa Claus with my children, does that make me a pagan all of a sudden? NO it doesn't and neither do I think these characters are pagan either. They simply acknowledge what their ancestors did, such as you might participate in Thanksgiving dinner, Santa Claus and the Easter bunny, while keeping faithful to the church. Maybe if the Church welcomed differences instead of being so quick as to reject them as heretics, maybe so many people wouldn't have dried up!
Though this author is fresh out of the duck pond, mind you. There may be an error here or there, but I quite enjoyed the actual story. I hope the author does a revision, because a story like this that can potentially link "the supernatural" part of the church that people have forgotten, back, is potentially life changing! This book has really made me think...
Not bad at all ;).......2007-06-11
Well I don't know anything about the Merovingian people or the law of attraction, but this was a pretty good book.
I enjoyed reading about the main character, Samantha, who seems to have as many conflicts growing into adulthood as I did, though her's are of a more magikal nature ;) I like that this is written from Samantha's point of view. I have not read a book like this before, and it was neat to be in her shoe's. To feel her heart break as she had to choose between devotion to her family and the one true love of her life. It was refreshing to relize that not everybody has the answers or that you don't have to have the answers, just be true to you. By the end of the story, I was left hoping, begging almost for Samantha to be able to just be true to herself and !&*^% everyone else.
~~~~~Just Buy It~~~~~.......2007-05-23
Anyone interested in the Merovingian Kings, the Dragon Bloodlines, or the Gospel of Judas will appreciate this heritage story told as a paranormal drama. It is also written in first person feminine... so if you are a guy, you may not be able to handle it ;) The thoughts of the main character flucuated between first person as the character and as the narrator, I personally like this style of writing. It reminds me of Quinten Tarantino.
The grammer's not terrible but you do notice an error here or there. If you are not troubled by it, you will love this book!!!
More grammatical errors than storyline.......2007-05-13
While this is a fairly good story line, I can't get past all the grammatical errors in this book. The person that edited this story should be fired. I think I am up to almost 15 pages where there is at least one very noticeable error on a page, if not more. One or two I can understand but this many is just a joke.
*****Enchanting and Spellbinding*****.......2007-04-29
Shalex Beckwith truly commits herself to this enthralling fantasy of the Dragon bloodlines whose family origins date back to the time of Jesus -mind you not Jesus himself ' Talents are passed down through bloodline and strengthened through practice as children are taught from puberty, and in rare cases birth, to manifest the energy from within oneself into the extraordinary powers that each family member possesses. Two of the family bloodlines are out of the picture at this time, with the other three families: the Clan 'Red', the Council 'Blue', and the Class 'Gold', running against each other and time as they search for lost artifacts from what seems to have once been a unified culture in the past. Taught in secrecy, these people have blended into society and continue to honor and defend his or her family quests with or without consequence. It would seem that once you are an accepted member, not just of the family, but have initiated into what once was and still is... that you are in for life.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating journey.......2007-08-31
This is a marvelous book about one of the least-known of the great explorers.
As Corey Sandler says, very little is known about Henry Hudson except for the period included within the five years of his four voyages. And much of what is on the record is based on the testimony of the mutineers who were out to save their own necks.
Instead, what the author has done is write a fascinating biography of the PLACES Hudson explored: Svalbard near the north pole, Novaya Zemlya above Russia, the Hudson River, and northern Canada including Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay, and James Bay.
He uses the logs and journals of Hudson and some of his crew to put things in context, and then tells us the stories of some of the most amazing places on the planet.
This is a most unusual book, a great read. And it delivers exactly what it promises: "The Tragic Legacy of the New World's Least Understood Explorer." Every page brought a new perspective on history for me. I highly recommend this book.
Know what you're in for.......2007-08-29
If you're considering buying this book you should know what you're in for. If you're expecting a biography of Henry Hudson you'll be disappointed. There is very little on Hudson in this book. What you get is a high-level overview of what Hudson is thought to have done and a whole lot of ramble on Corey Sandler's experiences visiting the places Hudson visited.
There's not a whole lot that's known about Hudson. What there is comes from a few brief surviving documents. You get the text from those documents word-for-word with little if any interpretation from the author. That's the real disappointment of this book. If I wanted to read the text of the original documents I'd look them up myself online. What I wanted was expert interpretation and the telling of the story that these documents seem to describe.
Sandler writes from Nantucket, an island he shares with the great historian Nathaniel Philbrick. But where Philbrick excels at taking scant information and turning it into a fascinating story, Sandler dumps the source information on the page and then rambles on about his own experiences in visiting the same places 400 years later. Unfortunately, it's just not very interesting. Thought you'd learn about Hudson's trip up the river that bears his name? You're going to get a little of that and then a whole lot of information on General Electric, PCBs, the environmental movement, and Pete Seeger.
An earlier reviewer characterized this book as being 1/3 history. I'd put it more at 1/10th. By the end of the book you'll know little about Hudson, but all about Sandler's political views, summer camp experiences, family, feelings, travel preferences, and a whole lot of other personal detail. If that's what you're looking to read about, you'll love it. But if you read the title and thought you were instead going to read a biography of Henry Hudson, you'll be disappointed.
Great book!.......2007-08-01
I am going to give this 5 stars. I'll list why in a second just let me tell you a few of my issues. First Sandler doesn't seem to interview that many people concerning the Clearwater Sloop, the Hudson River Keeper or the many, many other environmental organizations dedicated to keep the Hudson clean. He also brushes over the Storm King case. Sandler does not mention the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
Ok now that's out of the way let me explain a bit why this book is excellent.
First of all its one-third history, one-third travelogue and one-third PSA for keeping all the places Henry Hudson visited clean. The history part is fairly typical in that we don't know much about Hudson; he may have been a bad captain nothing that new or exciting. But overall it's still interesting and a good introduction for those unfamiliar with Hudson.
Then comes the travelogue sections. These are really interesting mostly because of all the unique people the author met on his travels. In reading the book the former director of Clearwater, Andy Mele, comes off as a pretty genuine guy. He's not a crazy tree hugging hippe but just a regular guy that wants to do some good. Most of the environmentalist people come off this way. Some people may not like this but honestly try spending a night near the Hudson...smell that? Yeah, that's the river. I did enjoy Sandle's search for Hudson's monuments and as he mentions in the introduction the most obvious ones are the Hudson River and New York City.
The best parts are the sections that are basically the PSAs about environmentalism. There are numerous digs at GE for dumping PCBs and our society in general. Having lived for four years about 100 yards from the Hudson I must say it's easily one of the greatest sights in the world. But its also one of the biggest dumps too. I think it's terrible that the river is so polluted that you can't go for a swim or eat a fish from there. I had a picnic with my girlfriend one day in Hyde Park right on the river and it was pretty easy to spot all the trash washed up on the shore. Ok enough gushing as Sandler does a much better job explaining this then I do.
In conclusion just read the book. It's excellent.
Book Description
Behind the walls of the fabled abbey, Cathlin O'Neill is forced to confront deepest sorrow and boundless love as she and Dominic Montserrat, haunted by his own shadowed past, race against time to solve a centuries-old mystery…and free the ancient fire that burns anew between them.
The search for a rare painting drew Kacey Mallory to Draycott Abbey—the lure of untold passion holds her there. Could enigmatic Lord Nicholas be the key to her past…and the promise of her future?
Customer Reviews:
Great Ghosts.......2007-07-27
I had these stories when they first came out and donated them to the library. When this pair showed up I had to have them back for my own library. I was not disappointed when I reread them. Wish the entire Draycott group would be printed in this pairs format! I would recollect them all.
A classic.......2007-06-11
Bridge of Dreams. In 1794, the fifth Earl of Ashton Gabriel Montserrat disappeared soon after he was accused of killing his fiancé Geneva Russell. Five generations of earls later, Dominic Montserrat finds Gabriel's remains along with a case of rare Sauternes wine inside a recently discovered secret room in Draycott Abbey. To inherit the wine, Gabriel must spend a week with Geneva's descendent Cathlin O'Neill at Draycott Abbey. Neither is prepared for the attraction between them nor the tragic nightmares starring their star-crossed ancestors that haunt them.
Enchantment. In 1991 Kacey Mallory comes to Draycott Abbey searching for a valuable missing rare painting. There she meets the current earl Lord Nicholas who she is attracted to and he seems to reciprocate her deepest feelings. However, she also wonders why he is her costar in her dreams and nightmares because they feel so real as if they are memories not fantasies.
This is a reprint of two Christina Skye's delightfully haunting Draycott Abbey tales. If you have not read them or have back in the 1990s, these pass the test of time as they remain some of the better romantic fantasies available.
Harriet Klausner
This is a re-issue.......2007-06-07
I'm giving this one star to the publisher and to Amazon. I detest re-issued books and usually check the copyright and Library of Congress dates on books. Since this was an internet purchase, I was not able to confirm this is a new book rather than an older one being republished. The Amazon blurb doesn't indicate a re-issued book, nor did the publisher's description.
I enjoy Ms. Skye's books, but Draycott Legacy is a re-issue of two previously published books which I purchased and read when they were new. I didn't research "Enchantment" and "Bridge of Dreams", or I would have realized this.
Micki
Book Description
Imagine that murdered primatologist Dr. Dian Fossey of Gorillas in the Mist fame were alive today and able to reflect upon her death as well as her legacy. This is the impetus behind author Georgianne Nienaber's compelling work, Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey. At the beginning of Gorilla Dreams, Fossey attends her own funeral and watches her murdered gorillas interacting with the graveside bystanders. She establishes a new relationship with the slain gorilla Digit, who acts as her guide after death as she carefully reviews her life, its challenges, successes, hardships, and the ultimate closure of her murder. Although Fossey's death is officially unsolved, recently released documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as testimony from the International War Crimes Tribunal proceedings, offer new suspects, motives, and opportunities. Every fact about Fossey's life is meticulously annotated. However, the setting of her conversations with the murdered gorillas is obviously fictional, yet steeped in African tradition. Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey is a biographical interpretation of the famed primatologist's life that honors the African belief that the dead live on in spiritual form.
Download Description
Imagine that murdered primatologist Dr. Dian Fossey of Gorillas in the Mist fame were alive today and able to reflect upon her death as well as her legacy. This is the impetus behind author Georgianne Nienaber's compelling work, Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey. At the beginning of Gorilla Dreams, Fossey attends her own funeral and watches her murdered gorillas interacting with the graveside bystanders. She establishes a new relationship with the slain gorilla Digit, who acts as her guide after death as she carefully reviews her life, its challenges, successes, hardships, and the ultimate closure of her murder. Although Fossey's death is officially unsolved, recently released documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as testimony from the International War Crimes Tribunal proceedings, offer new suspects, motives, and opportunities. Every fact about Fossey's life is meticulously annotated. However, the setting of her conversations with the murdered gorillas is obviously fictional, yet steeped in African tradition. Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey is a biographical interpretation of the famed primatologist's life that honors the African belief that the dead live on in spiritual form.
Customer Reviews:
Written with a passion inspired by Dian Fossey.......2007-01-21
As a fellow Minnesota writer, I have greatly enjoyed Georgianne Nienaber's riveting account of Dian Fossey's life and African-style review of her life and work. "Gorilla Dreams" has allowed me to see into the heart and soul of this great advocate and active conservationist, to share her struggles on a personal level, to review mistakes and angry moments and reasons for different reactions to things others so easily looked away and pretended to ignore.
Stale biographies often simply give us the benchmarks of a person's achievements, or list the academic successes and failures, never really exploring why the person did what they did, how they felt, or if they were particularly passionate and what drove such passions. While I've not yet read the biographies or watched the motion picture or even read "Gorillas in the Mist," by Ms. Fossey, herself, Georgianne Nienaber's deeply moving account of Fossey's life makes me want to do so, just to see what everyone else said about her battle to stop poaching and the dangerous effects (such as spreading the ebola virus) caused by tourism and too much interaction with the mountain gorilla clans.
As other reviewers have noted, Georgianne Nienaber's book develops along the path of discussions with her favorite mountain gorilla, Digit. My favorite passage from the book, showing the keen insights Dian Fossey developed in her work, seen from this post-life perspective, is at the end of chapter three - which really touched my heart. I can think of no better way of describing this passage than simply sharing it with others who might consider reading this wonderful, gripping biographical novel.
I encourage you to take the time to read this one-of-a-kind jewel of American literature which I feel represents the best writing by a current Minnesota novelist. I believe that Georgianne Nienaber was greatly impassioned by Dian Fossey's writings, struggles and sacrifices -- and that it takes such passion to understand Dian Fossey's passion and why saving the mountain gorilla meant so much to Dian and now also Georgianne.
Here is my favorite passage from "Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey," beginning with Dian speaking to Digit:
"Oh, Digit, can you ever forgive me?"
"There is no need for the gorillas to forgive, Dian. We accept our existence without questioning."
"But he [Mweza] suffered too much!"
"He was cared for with loving tenderness when his mother carried him across the chasm to this side. The gorillas who had gone before protected Mweza. He tried to rally to make you feel better but was willing and eager to join the others. It was time for him to leave you."
"Describe for me how the gorillas view death."
"You had no time to observe, because you were always directing your staff to remove the bodies for your research."
This was certainly true. Whether a gorilla had been killed by the poachers, or had died in its sleep in its nights nest, we would always remove the body and carry it back to camp on a leaf-strewn litter for a complete necropsy.
"I have seen members of your group come back repeatedly to sniff the location or nest where a group member died. Is this your form of grieving, Digit?"
"Dear Nyiramacyibili [translated: `the woman who lives alone on the mountain']. We have wanted to show you. You have not observed the most surprising part. Why would we grieve? Things unfold as they should as far as the gorillas are concerned. We sing [47] over the body."
Digit took my hand and lifted me with strength and grace, indicating that I should climb upon his back. Together we bounded through the forest, across the grasslands and back to Karisoke. Along the way, he thrilled me with great leaps through the branches of the Hagenia trees, which were dripping with moss, vines, and succulents.
As we approached the camp at dusk, an astonishing whisper drifted across the treetops and remained suspended in the mist-laden air. The whisper swelled into an opus of harmonic purity that seemed to flow from the gates of heaven itself. I had be willing for so long to give hell its due, but the sound I heard could only have come from the throats of celestial beings. The resonance was so pure in its quality, that I held my hands over my ears, unable to assimilate the holiness of it all. I buried my face in Digit's fur, afraid to look.
Unexpectedly, the arms of the great silverback, Uncle Bert, tenderly pried me from my sanctuary. Bert carried me in his arms as a parent would carry an infant to the source of the sounds.
I opened my eyes to see all of the residents of the gorilla graveyard harmonizing over the grave of Dr. Dian Fossey.
[47] is a source reference to "Gorillas in the Mist," Appendix B, p. 256
Fact and Fantasy Collide - Dian and Digit in the Afterlife.......2006-05-02
This fictional story of Dian Fossey and Digit, her beloved and most favorite gorilla, was touching and footnoted often when the author could verify facts. This gave a reality to the book. It was very emotional, as Dian comes to realize that she was accepted by the gorillas, whom she considered her "family". The frequent referrals to the head wound she received at her death was a jarring connection to her physical end. It startled me every time. The author seems to sympathize with Fossey's physical issues in the mountains, where it was difficult to breathe. She suffered from advanced emphysema and had great difficulty going up into the hills to see her gorillas. The staff would tell her when they were near. Dian's poor relationship and mistreatment of poachers were detrimental to her work in the Virungas. She tries to come to terms with that, the isolation of the site, her possible mental illness and even her unhappy love affairs. These issues were carefully footnoted by the author whenever possible. A prior reading of "Gorillas in the Mist" by Dian Fossey is a must to assist the reader in knowing what she and Digit are talking about! All in all, a sensitive pro-Fossey look at the life and work of this great researcher in a lonely, hostile environment. I loved it!
Inside the mind of a conservation heroine........2006-03-23
I found Ms Nienaber's book to fill a much needed void.
I have been a keen advocate for gorillas and conservation of these creatures for many years, I have therefore become very familar with the work of Dian Fossey through my own readings and research.While Gorillas in the Mist answered many of my questions it approaches the observation of the Mountain Gorilla from a very detached objective perspective, Ms Nienaber's book manages successfully to bring the human element into Dian Fossey's work, showing the pain, selflessness, dedication and unrelenting determination that was needed to ensure the survival of Gorilla gorilla beringei.
Individuals have attempted to re-write history through their own literature and teachings which may leave one wondering as to the validity of the work achieved by Dian Fossey, Ms Nienaber through thousands of hours of meticulous research from archives of Dian Fossey's own writings leaves us wondering no more, Ms Nienaber successfully acts as a medium and shows us that the dead do have a voice.
After reading Gorilla Dreams one is left without question knowing that it is indeed Dian Fossey who is the true saviour of one of the worlds most magnificent creatures.
Customer Reviews:
TUMBLEWEEDS IS A GREAT READ!!!.......2003-01-17
Tumbleweeds is a great read, the story of a ranch in Texas and a woman who marries and moves there. The drama that takes place between the men and the women on the Circle Z ranch includes the birth of grandbabies for Mother Allena and the stories of the women her sons marry. Particularly, the book focuses on Mary Lou Mackey and her marriage to Tom Langdon. She leaves Kansas to live with her new husband and share his life in Texas among his family members. All four novels in the book flow right into each other, so the book is almost like one novel - a good thing if you enjoy reading Barbour Inspirational Romances as much as I do! You won't regret finding this little known book - the characters are memorable and created with passion. Have a great time reading it! - Deborah Smith Embree in Nashville...
Customer Reviews:
Treasures of the heart � Highly recommended.......2001-09-02
Kyle Herriotýs grandmother used to tell him that one day heýd find his treasure ý now heýs coming to understand that his grandmother was referring to treasures of the heart. But the Windoms and the Herroits are enemies, and Kyle certainly canýt be attracted to Megan. Even as Kyle feels his morality, his need to hurry before life passes him by, he still tries to deny his growing attraction for his neighbor andenemy.
Their grandfathers had been enemies. Kyleýs not so sure what his fatherýs relationship was with her mother Bunny. He doesnýt suspect his father of infidelity, but there was something between them the day they died, together on the sailboat. At eleven, heýd seen them just before they set out, never to return. Nevertheless, a lot of secrecy had gone into the case. His mother believed she had been cheated upon. Meganýs grandfather had been a proud old man determined to squelch gossip. Now they are working together, delving into the murky depths of the water and the past to bring to light the truth of the day they each lost a parent.
Megan has no memories from before her motherýs funeral. Doctors say itýs not uncommon for trauma to interfere with memory, but she still longs to know whatýs been left in the mist of the past. Nightmares serve as a constant reminder of the loss of her mother in the mysterious accident. And to now desire the enemy seems like a betrayal of her family and all she holds dear.
Carefully portrayed tumultuous feelings, torn between loyalty to family and needs of the heart, lend Laurie Paigeýs WHEN I DREAM OF YOU deep characterizations. As these wounded people find their way toward redemption, the challenges they face draw them together in an abiding love. Unable to deny their feelings, the past, or themselves, they learn lessons of self-acceptance and forgiveness, making WHEN I DREAM OF YOU a touching tale. An excellent conclusion to a terrific series, WHEN I DREAM OF YOU is highly recommended.
Amazon.com
If you loved "2001: A Space Odyssey," you'll be delighted by this book that asks "How realistic was HAL?" Contributions by various scientists include essays on supercomputer design with regard to speech synthesis, common sense reasoning, emotions, lip reading and even playing chess. As the authors explore what is science fantasy and what is technological fact, they also look at how HAL influenced technological development in the past 30 years. The final chapter, called "When HAL Kills, Who's to Blame?" deals with the ethical aspects of building intelligent machines.
Book Description
I became operational... in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997.
Inspired by HAL's self-proclaimed birth date, HAL's Legacy reflects upon science fiction's most famous computer and explores the relationship between science fantasy and technological fact. The informative, nontechnical chapters written especially for this book describe many of the areas of computer science critical to the design of intelligent machines, discuss whether scientists in the 1960s were accurate about the prospects for advancement in their fields, and look at how HAL has influenced scientific research.
Contributions by leading scientists look at the technologies that would be critical if we were, as Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick imagined thirty years ago, to try and build HAL in 1997: supercomputers, fault-tolerance and reliability, planning, artificial intelligence, lipreading, speech recognition and synthesis, commonsense reasoning, the ability to recognize and display emotion, and human-machine interaction. A separate chapter by philosopher Daniel Dennett considers the ethical implications of intelligent machines.
Customer Reviews:
High Noise To Signal Ration.......2005-05-25
I guess every geek would have watched the movie "2001: The Space Odyssey" when the year 2001 arrived and asked a question what's missing? Why we still don't have anything even close to HAL? This book tries to answer the question by giving you essays written by experts in specific areas of computing. I found some of the chapters getting really boring, especially those tiring to speculate how HAL would have worked instead of reporting current state of affair. The book is not the kind which will make you sit and keep reading it. The noise to signal ratio after about 100 pages was high enough for me to get distracted and pick something else.
HAL is obnoxious, funny and very interesting........2002-05-28
I always enjoyed HAL's obnoxious
selfconfidence. His insistence that
- No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information.
That they are foolproof and incapable
of error -
is funny, absurd, very human, proud and down right crazy.
But at the same time intriguing.
The book look at the issues and technologies
that would be critical if we were to build HAL.
And the book let us in on some of HAL's secrets.
In the process it just all becomes even more intriguing.
An excellent book for anyone
interested in artificial intelligence, cognition
and Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction.
A must have book!
-Simon
Gradually, HAL is coming...........2002-03-26
There are few films that have had the influence of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is difficult to say how many A.I. researchers were inspired to go into the field by the viewing of the film, but this book is good evidence that research in A.I. has undergone a sort of "public benchmarking" via a comparison with HAL, the arch computer-villan in the movie, and whose name is now ubiquitous in debates on robotics and artificial intelligence. This excellent book is a summary of just how far A.I. has come, as compared to the abilities of HAL. All of the authors acknowledge that the present level of A.I. is not what it is in HAL, but that progress is being made, in spite of, as one author remarked, the fact that A.I. is one of the most profoundly difficult problems in science.
Marvin Minsky is interviewed in the book, and he believes it is the problem of knowledge representation that has slowed down the progress in A.I. Too much time has been spent on chess programs and character recognition, and not on fundamentals, Minsky argues. Minsky also believes that emotions are absolutely essential in intelligent problem solving, and this is interesting in light of recent work on computational models of emotion.
The large physical size of HAL is compared with present sizes of computers in the article of David Kuck. But, the author argues, the human brain is also much smaller than HAL, but such a marvelous computing machine has yet to be emulated by even the best of present-day supercomputers. Size does not matter in matters of intelligence.
The article on error correction by R. Iyer is particularly insightful, for he argues, quite correctly, that making mistakes is a characteristic of true intelligence. HAL's brag that it is "incapable of error" is a sign of stupidity, rather than intelligence. False leads, uncompleted strategies and goals, and inconsistent reasoning are all part of genuine problem-solving.
M.S. Campbell discusses the efforts in machine chess, with Deep Blue of course being the focal point. Comparisons of how HAL plays chess compared to Deep Blue illustrate Campbell's belief that a mere combinatorial approach to playing chess should not be considered an intelligent one. HAL is intelligent because it plays intelligence like a human does, but Deep Blue does not. Campbell also gives an interesting historical summary of computer chess. He cites that example of a "fortress" position as one that chess computers have severe difficulty with.
The ability of computers to speak, and not sound "machine-like" is the subject of the article by J.P. Olive. His discussion gives the reader both an historical and technical overview of the difficulties involved in computer speech. And yes, the song "Daisy, Daisy" is real, and was the first song ever sung by a computer.
R. Kurzweil gives an optimistic overview of computer speech recognition. He details the "lessons" one needs to perform speech recognition and repeats his well-known desire to "reverse-engineer" the human brain, once the computational ability becomes available.
R.C. Schank discusses why he thinks A.I. must be able to understand more than just words, if natural language processing is to become a reality. And, interestingly, he believes that intelligence and problem solving are not necessarily the same thing and gives the reader insight into the difficulties involved in language acquisition by a computer.
This book was first printed in 1997, but given the recent news of a common sense reasoning computer developed by the company that D.B. Lenat heads, his article is particularly interesting. The ability of computers to exercise common sense is considered a fundamental requirement for machine intelligence, and Lenat outlines "3 easy steps" for the building of a HAL-like computer. It remains to be seen whether Lenat has indeed achieved this.
The ability of HAL to recognize images is discussed in the article by A. Rosenfeld. In light of the recent need for face recognition software for security enhancement, this discussion is particularly interesting. Rosenfeld details just what is difficult and what is easy to do in this area.
The capability of a computer to perform speechreading is the topic of D.Stork's article. Noting that speech has both auditory and visual aspects, Stork argues that HAL's ability to perform speechreading is far advanced in comparison to the real computers of today. He discusses interestingly, some of the tools used in current research on speechreading, such as hidden Markov models and neural networks.
The article of D. Norman addresses the human factors involved in living with intelligent machines. Norman contends that 2001 is too optimistic a projection of the future, and, in addition, that its technology is too large and bulky to be of much use to humans.
Computational models of emotion have been a subject of intense interest of late, and R. Picard addresses the issue of emotion and computers in his article. The discussion is fascinating, and Picard clearly believes that emotional states can be recoginized and mimicked by a computer. "Emotional" intelligence is something that must be part of any notion of artificial intelligence.
The ability of HAL to manipulate circumstances and trick the crew members is addressed in D.Wilkin's article. The ability to plan is based on common sense issues, and this is no where near being realized, he argues.
D.Stork interviews Stephen Wolfram in another article, and the reader learns of Wolfram's opinions on A.I. and related issues. Wolfram believes that its the nature of intelligence that must be understood to develop thinking machines, and not just processing power.
When thinking machines are built, legal issues of responsibility will naturally arise. D. Dennett addresses this in the last article of the book. Dennet puts HALs behavior in the context of what a human might do when faced with the mission priorities given to him. Turning off HAL was justified, but so was HALs response to it.
Oh! This is AI...a must have book.......2002-01-07
This book is an ART and amazing. You can learn and know what
really Artificial Intelligence means and you feel happy, relaxed
and enjoyable in reading each chapter.
If you don't want to waste time to read lots of technical
words to understand AI, this book is the only and best choice.
Every chapter will give you concise and clear information, and
also is interesting.
An excellent book for anyone who
is interested in mind, thought, robot, cognition, AI or
just like the Sci-Fi wrote by Clarke.
This is a book for professional AI programmer and
for anyone who just want to know what is Artificial Intelligence.
HAL is based on real research..........2001-07-07
I have only one word for this book: COOL! For science-fiction aficionados everywhere, HAL's Legacy is a review, in 1997 when HAL was supposed to be created, the state of the technology (artificial intelligence, natural language processing, speech processing, etc.) from premier Sci-Fi writer Arthur C. Clarke and leading computer scientists in the area of AI (and other areas) like Marvin Minsky. Are we there yet? Is HAL really possible? It includes deep analysis of specific scenes in the movie and tying it in with the different premises presented in the articles/chapters in the book.
This is one book absolute die-hard sci-fi fans should have, especially if you are working in the high tech sector.
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