Book Description
An exploration of the nature of our mind, from the inside out, by a leading neurobiologist.
Over the last twenty years, there has been growing attention in the Western world to mindfulness—paying attention to life in the present moment. Here, Daniel J. Siegel investigates the phenomenon of mindfulness as it impacts our daily lives, offering readers insight into personal relationships, emotional behavior, parenting, and work.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-08-09
This is an interesting book. I bought it because I live in Los Angeles, and there is a Mindful Awareness program at UCLA. I wanted to see what that program was all about before I joined it. [...]
which is the mindful awareness research center site (MARC)at UCLA. There you can download some mindful awareness meditations. They are pretty good in helping you get into a state of greater mindful awareness.
Could be a life changing book.......2007-07-04
This book outlines the steps one can take to develop a self observer. It is the self observer within us that allows us to become architects of our destinies. Backed up with current research on how emotional trauma or experience lays down pathways in our brains that, once identified, can be re routed if need be.
The Mindful Brain.......2007-06-14
I found the content of this book fascinating and important (5 stars) but the writing ponderous and redundant (2 stars), for the most part. It is an ambitious attempt to synthesize and interpret scientific research and the author's personal experience in an emerging field that is fraught with speculation. Perhaps because of this, the author appears to have cobbled together every study potentially relating brain function and mindfulness, weaving back and forth to make every possible connection, rather than following a few salient lines of thinking and explicating them clearly. Difficult as it was to digest some of the material (I am a practiced reader of science but had to read too many sentences too many times), I benefited personally and immediately from several of the concepts presented such as streams of awareness, parenting styles ("secure attachment"), approach mindset and mindful education, and I look forward to further research in this field. I had imagined the brain research to be further along than it is and expected more about research on meditation, so I was a tad disappointed, but this is not the author's fault. In spite of the poor presentation, there was some delightful new learning for me and I am glad to have read this.
The Foundations for a Sea Change in Psychological Health and Personal Development.......2007-05-29
A favorite book of mine is Ellen Langer's "Mindfulness." Happily still in print though it is nearly twenty years old. With it, Ellen, an eminent academic at Harvard introduced the psychological community to something that lies at the core of many religious, spiritual and contemplative practices.
This marvelous book by the co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Center is a next step. To give you a flavor of the book, let me quote from the Preface,
"Welcome to a journey into the heart of our lives. Being mindfully aware, attending to the richness of our here-and-now experiences, creates scientifically recognized enhancements in out physiology, our mental functions, and our inter-personal relationships. Being fully present in out awareness opens our lives to new possibilities of well-being.
Almost all cultures have practices that help people develop awareness of the moment. Each of the major religions of the world utilizes some method to enable individuals to focus their attention, from meditation to prayer, yoga to t'ai chi."
For Daniel Siegel, being "mindful: means being aware, of being conscientious, with kindness and care." He uses a helpful acronym: COAL, for curiosity, openness, acceptance and love.
As Daniel points out, we are in desperate need of finding a new way of being, not just in ourselves, but in our relationships, schools and in society as a whole. Professionals constantly see the terrible consequences for people who feel social isolation, dislocation and alienation. Yet until the advent of the Positive Psychology movement, academic psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry had all focused almost exclusively on the sick mind. To this day, most people working in these fields have been taught little if anything about mental health, ad even fewer are engaged in practices that can keep them healthy and resilient. It is no coincidence that people working in psychology and psychiatry have some of the highest burnout rates of any of the major professions.
The burgeoning evidence of the extraordinary plasticity of the human brain also has another side to it: if we are not mindful, if we are in unhealthy relationships, and if we are without any kind of inspiration or moral compass, our brains get wired in ways that they should not. And the earlier in life that it happens, the more difficult it is to unravel later. This is the reason why abuse in childhood can have effects that last decades.
This book is an attempt to redress the balance. The book is divided into four sections, fourteen chapters and three appendices:
PART I MIND, BRAIN, AND AWARENESS
1. A Mindful Awareness
2. Brain Basics
PART II IMMERSION IN DIRECT EXPERIENCE
3. A Week of Silence
4. Suffering and the Streams of Awareness
PART III FACETS OF THE MINDFUL BRAIN
5. Subjectivity and Science
6. Harnessing the Hub: Attention and the Wheel of Awareness
7. Jettisoning Judgments: Dissolving Top-Down Constraints
8. Internal Attunement: Mirror Neurons, Resonance, and Attention to Intention
9. Reflective Coherence: Neural Integration and Middle Prefrontal Function
10. Flexibility of Feeling: Affective Style and an Approach Mindset
11. Reflective Thinking: Imagery and the Cognitive Style of Mindful Learning
PART IV REFLECTIONS ON THE MINDFUL BRAIN
12. Educating the Mind: The Fourth ``R'' and the Wisdom of Reflection
13. Reflection in Clinical Practice: Being Present and Cultivating the Hub
14. The Mindful Brain in Psychotherapy: Promoting Neural Integration
Afterword: Reflections on Reflection
Appendix I Reflection and Mindfulness Resources
Appendix II Glossary and Terms
Appendix III Neural Notes
The book is well referenced and there is a good index.
As you will see from the chapter headings, the book is rooted in neuroscience and reviews the empirical evidence that our minds can not only control our brains, but also grow and develop them. Healthy experiences can help us cultivate our brains, our minds and our sense of well-being. What he has done in this book is to provide a theoretical foundation for the neuropsychology and consequences of mindfulness. As a neuroscientist, I thought that his models made extremely good sense. He writes well, and I do not think that what he has to say would be difficult for anyone with a high school education.
Why is this important? Because it shows that there are ways of maintaining and perhaps restoring mental health without medications or other external interventions. Of course there are times when medicines can be the only option, and literally life saving. But they are not always necessary. This brain-based approach is also very helpful for people who re already engaged in meditation, prayer or other forms of mindfulness training. It can be very helpful to know something about what is going on inside your head, without having to rely on experience alone.
Daniel shows that mindfulness is something that can easily be taught and learned, and that the consequences of using the techniques can be extraordinary, not only for ourselves, but also for our families and friends.
Though not, strictly speaking, a "how to" book on achieving mindfulness, there are ample descriptions of the keys that we need to attain it. He also provides details of some organizations that offer mindfulness training.
Very highly recommended.
The Doctor says "take a deep breath"- now you know why!.......2007-05-07
In this book a psychiatrist/medical doctor brilliantly investigates the potential of mindfulness as a holistic prescription to wellness, neuroplasticity, and the unexpected benefit of improved social relationships. Educators will benefit from reading this book and applying Dr. Siegel's "wheel of attention" in classrooms. Medical and mental health practitioners have the opportunity to offer their patients young and old new insight into an ancient tool to better physical and mental health. Anyone who has had the opportunity to hear Dr. Siegel speak will appreciate how he has put into print his personal and professional insight from cross-discipline perspectives.
Book Description
A brilliant young transplant surgeon brings moral intensity and narrative drama to the most powerful and vexing questions of medicine and the human condition.
When Pauline Chen began medical school twenty years ago, she dreamed of saving lives. What she did not count on was how much death would be a part of her work. Almost immediately, Chen found herself wrestling with medicine’s most profound paradox, that a profession premised on caring for the ill also systematically depersonalizes dying. Final Exam follows Chen over the course of her education, training, and practice as she grapples at strikingly close range with the problem of mortality, and struggles to reconcile the lessons of her training with her innate knowledge of shared humanity, and to separate her ideas about healing from her fierce desire to cure.
From her first dissection of a cadaver in gross anatomy to the moment she first puts a scalpel to a living person; from the first time she witnesses someone flatlining in the emergency room to the first time she pronounces a patient dead, Chen is struck by her own mortal fears: there was a dying friend she could not call; a young patient’s tortured death she could not forget; even the sense of shared kinship with a corpse she could not cast aside when asked to saw its pelvis in two. Gradually, as she confronts the ways in which her fears have incapacitated her, she begins to reject what she has been taught about suppressing her feelings for her patients, and she begins to carve out a new role for herself as a physician and as human being. Chen’s transfixing and beautiful rumination on how doctors negotiate the ineluctable fact of death becomes, in the end, a brilliant questioning of how we should live.
Moving and provocative, motored equally by clinical expertise and extraordinary personal grace, this is a piercing and compassionate journey into the heart of a world that is hidden and yet touches all of our lives. A superb addition to the best medical literature of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Surgeons are human too... crystal clear honesty from an accomplished professional.......2007-08-27
This book had much value for me personally. I'm not a doctor or a pre-med student. I picked this book up by chance on the "new book" shelf at our local library. We had a son who was born with a severe, rare chromosomal syndrome. He stood no chance of survival yet sincere, overly zealous surgical professionals endeavored to schedule surgery without discussion or consultation from we parents even as he struggled to stay alive on life support. My son had absolutely no prospects of surviving infancy, much less a life free of tortuous pain. What hurt the most was how we, the parents, had to stand up for our rights to allow our son the dignified and welcome relief that could come only through death. It was clear to us, as it is clear to Dr. Chen in her book, that the highly trained and zealous surgical professionals lacked the sensitivity to fully appreciate or consider the moral aspects and shamelessness of dying peacefully with dignity.
This book has moving first person accounts of what ridiculous decisions are being made when death is unavoidable and stands there to relieve those whose continued suffering is senseless. I was particularly moved by the account of the "full court press" given to a dying cancer patient who triggered the "code blue". We owe much to Dr. Chen for making public this and other events that fully expose the deficiencies in the medical community's approach to care of the terminally ill.
Dr. Chen's emotional honesty in this very personalized narrative is a great tribute to those of her profession who have struggled at being competent professionals while retaining the qualities of moral and compassionate human beings.
A remarkable book by a remarkable woman.......2007-08-25
This is a deeply engaging and moving book. To become an accomplished transplant surgeon demands many gifts, including high intelligence, perseverance, physical skill, focus. What is not required, and what Dr. Chen displays in full measure herein, is the ability to examine one's actions and feelings with the kind of introspection and depth demonstrated in "Final Exam". One also does not necessarily expect a fine surgeon to be a fine writer. Dr. Chen is a very fine writer.
Anyone interested in the psychological and philosophical issues surounding modern medicine should read this book.
Fascinating--Exquisitely Written--Full of Heartfelt Honesty.......2007-07-07
"Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality" by Pauline W. Chen is outstanding on many levels. Its purpose is to reveal what is wrong with the medical profession's attitude toward the treatment of terminally ill and dying patients. But don't expect an academic discussion; Chen makes this issue very personal. The book is a recounting of the many experiences in her own medical career--from medical student to transplant surgeon--that shaped and later changed her attitude toward care of patients at the end of life.
I had no particular reason to read this book--I am not a doctor, the parent of a doctor, or involved in any way with the medical profession. I just saw this book on the New Books shelf in my local library and checked it out. What is amazing is that I could not put this book down--I know that sounds so trite, but it's true. What grabbed me first was the wholly unexpected openness and honesty of the author. What grabbed me next was the beautiful clear prose. Here was a brilliant woman doctor telling me all about the many experiences in her medical career that shaped her current convictions about medical care at the end of life. But she was not just telling me about these medical experiences, she was turning herself inside out to reveal how she actually FELT about each experience. How many doctors have you ever heard talk to you about their feelings? This author brought me close to her heart--I felt like a sister or a dear friend.
I came away from this book with a far greater respect for physicians; especially all they have to deal with, physically and mentally, throughout their long years of training and practice. I also come away with a far greater appreciation for the human frailty of physicians, particularly when dealing with-end of-life issues. This is a profession that has to deal with far more than a normally allotted human share of agony, grief, and soul-searching.
Now what?.......2007-06-04
As an undergraduate humanities teacher, I have often observed how unimaginative pre-med students can be (as well as very bright, of course). So this sensitively written, introspective memoir is a surprise and delight. I am, as an older person now, also happy to see medical activism admitting its ultimate helplessness in the face of human mortality. After all doctors eventually lose every one of their patients, don't they? On the other hand, what has Pauline to offer us in the face of the ultimate modern terror except a tear and some time? I understand that is the best we often have these days, but it's not much. As a medievalist, I live much of my life in a world where this fragile life and this frail body are passing things to be happily cast off of as a precondition to an eternal life free of the suffering that Chen sets before us so poignantly.
I am not suggesting that the beliefs of the medieval world were correct but that our ancestors had a rich tradition of ideas, feelings and rituals with which to face this ultimate challenge to life as we know it. If the price of the modern world's enormous skill in prolonging life was dependent on overthrowing the beliefs of traditional Western culture, what have we gained but a few more years and the terror of slipping alone into eternal darkness? I hope Pauline weeps for that as well someday; if she can write another book afterwards, it may well be a masterpiece.
How a surgeon deals with death.......2007-05-30
As shocking and gory as the medical world is portrayed on television, it seldom comes close to reality, a lesson that Pauline W. Chen regurgitates in FINAL EXAM as she describes her academic (and continuing) education in the most difficult of all lessons: dealing with death.
I'm no psychologist, but sometimes I wonder if doctors go into the profession because of a God complex, where they wield such awesome power; patients defer to their wisdom and put their fates completely into their hands. Then comes the inevitable day when the physician loses her first patient, whether due to something she did or didn't do, or because nature has taken its course. It must be quite a blow to the ego.
Then the transformation occurs.
The doctor can go one of two ways. She can either steel herself against death or learn from it and become a more compassionate caregiver.
Chen, who attended Harvard University and the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, paints a compelling picture, but one that is not for the squeamish. She discusses her first interaction with a corpse as she and her fellow med students learned anatomy through dissection. The respect and "relationship" that developed is touching, as Chen realizes this former life force had a history, a family, hopes and dreams, just as she does.
Over the course of her studies and through her residency, Chen learns that her work is not parceled out as neatly as television shows such as "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy." The victims do not lie in bed neatly as doctors and nurses struggle to keep them alive. They slide around, bleed, moan and cry out.
There is no part of Chen's story that isn't saturated with sadness, even as she is learning. Every new character is destined to die. How will Chen respond? Will she reach out to the dying man and his family? Will she try to hide until the end has come and avoid it all?
For all the emotion, Chen does not come down on one side or the other on the technology that is available to keep the patient going. Indeed, most of the people she discusses have decided to go out on their own terms.
What must one feel upon being given that death sentence? How does a doctor ever get used to passing down that sentence, when nothing else can be done? "[T]he words emerge," Chen writes in a chapter titled "Sorry to inform you" "so softly that I see everyone leaning in as I speak. 'I wonder,' I hear myself saying to these people, 'if you have thought of what you want at the end of life?'"
Taking a very cynical stance, as lofty as the author's intentions are, FINAL EXAM reminds me of a line from "I'm a Loser": "Is it for her or myself that I cry?"
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
Book Description
Fly Out of CHAOS
(Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome)
Into Order--One BabyStep at a Time
With her special blend of housecleaning tips, humor, and musings about daily life, Marla Cilley, a.k.a. The FlyLady, shows you how to manage clutter and chaos and get your home--and your life--in order. Drawn from the lessons and tools used in her popular mentoring program, FlyLady helps you create doable housekeeping routines and break down overwhelming chores into manageable missions that will restore peace to your home--and your psyche. Soon you’ll be able to greet guests without fear, find your keys, locate your kids, and most of all, learn how to FLY: Finally Loving Yourself.
Customer Reviews:
Amazed.......2007-10-17
I was and still am amazed at how doing the little things suggested in this book have made my life EASIER! It isn't anything profound, but it is written in a way that is encouraging and motivating!
love it!!!!.......2007-10-11
I like her no nonsense help. I haven't even followed all her instructions yet because I'm a real hard case but even with just the begining steps my husband and family are noticeing a difference in my home already. I'm so glad I bought this book I can't wait to get her other books as well.
Fun but a little too compulsive........2007-10-04
I bought this for my daughter, to help her with her house, life, and anything else. I didn't want her to be insulted, so I read it and told her I bought it for me but thought she might like it too. It started out great, great ideas, funny, fun. But it got a little too over the edge....compulsive...neat freakish towards the end. I told my daughter to try to incorporate SOME of the Flylady's tips into her routine. She hasn't read it yet, but I'm hoping she learns something from it, because she is a very disorganized person. It seemed there were some discrepancies in the book about her life, which makes you feel she's making all of this up to make money, not to share her experience. Hopefully my daughter doesn't catch on to some of it.
Sink Reflections - Flylady - book.......2007-09-25
I loved this book and think it had great motivational ideas. Hopefully it will keep me encouraged to get organized and learn to FLY.
Boy do I need this book!!.......2007-09-13
I am starting to FLY, babysteps, but it is a beginning. It is way too fun! Can't wait to get on the live blog.
Book Description
Back by popular demand -- and newly updated by the author -- the mega-bestselling spiritual guide in which Marianne Williamson shares her reflections on A Course in Miracles and her insights on the application of love in the search for inner peace.
Williamson reveals how we each can become a miracle worker by accepting God and by the expression of love in our daily lives. Whether psychic pain is in the area of relationships, career, or health, she shows us how love is a potent force, the key to inner peace, and how by practicing love we can make our own lives more fulfilling while creating a more peaceful and loving world for our children.
Customer Reviews:
I did NOT like this book.......2007-09-28
This book was recommended by a friend. He told me he recommends this book to his friends. I ordered the book and read it. The author has written of her own personal lifes experiences: At a young age she was into a wild life-style which is not uncommon for young adults. She stated that because of her life-style, she never felt very happy or fulfilled in many ways. Then...voila! She decided to find god....something 'greater than herself' to help her out. The entire book, in my opinion, is nothing but prosyletizing.... It's certainly not a book I would even suggest to any one I know---believers or not. She wrote of her own, very personal experiences....period. That's fine, I suppose, in and of itself. But... I wouldn't even want to give the book to a stranger.....I put it in with all my paper recycling.
All Time Favorite.......2007-08-31
This book is my all time favorite! I have read it multiple times and often open it and read whatever page I open to. It is always relevant to my life, relationships and spiritual growth. Marianne Williamson is blessed with an insight, personal understanding and awareness that bring the Course in Miracles to our everyday experience.
A must read for "Miracle- Workers".......2007-08-13
"A Return to Love" is a clear and fluent spiritual love story. Marianne Williamson takes the principles from "A Course in Miracles," and makes them accessible through explanations, anecdotes, personal experiences and simple metaphors that reveal the spiritual journey, one which is quite simply a conscious journey to turn from fear and return to love. I found this book life changing. It is inspiring and motivating. I loved it.
a return to love.......2007-08-09
good book. i love the way marianne expresses herself and her experiences which helped me, again, to realize that i'm not alone and that love is all there is.
Another self proclaimed spiritual teacher........2007-08-01
An anecdotal story. When I lived in Michigan Williamson was the spiritual leader of a church I attended. Williamson would speak with insight and wisdom on numerous subjects yet was unable to merge her talk with her action. While she often commented on environmental issues she continued to drive an appalling gas guzzler, while she spoke eloquently about the poor, she also happened to live in a mansion, while she provided social political commentary, she also supported Democrats who were bought and paid for by corporations and refused to give equal time to progressive Green candidates, while she noted the disparity between rich and poor, she nevertheless wore Armani gowns and $300.00 dollar shoes. Williamson talks the talk, the problem was a annoying matter of embodiment.
I often read commentaries by Williamson on other spiritual authors books. She uses words like "awakener" and "enlighten" often to characterize these people; the problem with her characterizations says more about the blind leading the blind than it says about anything else. The word the best fits is PollyAnnish to describe her world view as she disseminates her eco-la-la love conquers all routine to the choir of disciples. Williams level of praxis seeks to insure that her photo is on the cover of most of her books followed by a stage big enough to satisfy her monumental ego.
Personally, I would rather read a spiritual book by someone who walks their talk; Williamson is not anywhere near that category of praxis. And I doubt she ever will be.
Book Description
A simple walk through Washington, D.C. began a profound journey of personal discovery and renewal for Newt Gingrich, one of America's most influential politicians and commentators. At the National Archives, the immortal words from the Declaration of Independence that we "are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights," jumped off the page and into his heart with the simple truth that from day one in our country's history, the Author of freedom was not the state nor even the Founding Fathers. Our basic human rights and freedoms were-and are-"Creator-endowed." Gingrich sounds a clarion call for us to recognize that the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that we hold so dear are inseparable from a sincere and humble acknowledgement that these gifts are only the Creator's to give. As a bonus, the book includes a "walking tour" of Washington, D.C.
Customer Reviews:
America, the Christian Nation Under God .......2007-09-26
This book was another top notch, highly informative conservative-traditionalist volume that speaks the truth that America is indeed a Christian Judeo nation at heart.
It is so vitally important for American culture to return to our moral religious values, and seek the historical truth that indeed the Founders were very spiritual people who upheld very Christian ideals in springing to life the American nation.
While Thomas Jefferson was a Deist (not an Atheist but one who believed that God had sprung the universe into life with little involvement in the affairs of man), many of the founders themselves were personally brought up in the Christian tradition. I can recall the miracle on Christmas when George Washington crossed the Delaware River to storm the Hessian base camp, or his Thanksgiving Day prayer.
One can come to the logical conclusion that the inspiration of the American idea was spawned from the both the secular notions of the Enlightenment era, and the philosophies of Christianity.
Regardless of those extremists out there who try to twist history into something that it wasn't for PC reasons or their own personal contempt for American Christian ideals, there is no United States of America with out the traditions and philosophies of Jesus Christ.
God, the Ten Commandments, & the teachings of the lord Jesus Christ will always be apart of America.
This is one fantastic book worth your time and money.
Rediscovering God in America.......2007-09-10
The book is an excellent reminder of the source of strength and wisdom that all our founders looked to as they made decisions concerning the founding of America. There is a clear discussion of the separations issue and the foolish conclusion that our leaders did not want God a part of public life. It reminds us of the importance that all leaders in the first 100 years of the country place on Christian faith.
faith is still here..........2007-07-26
Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There
America is the MOST faith based country in the world....But ???
Newt is such an interesting guy...it is worth reading to get a sense of the history of how our country's founders and there on saw faith as part of America.....buy it, if you have faith in America as well...
Outstanding.......2007-07-21
I read with interest how our founding fathers consistently built buildings with the reminders that there is a Supreme being, God, who has blessed us with this country, our constitution, and our democracy. There are so many nihilists around us that would destroy all of this. Evil does lurk in this world. A well writtent book, succinct but accurate with historical facts.
Great CD!.......2007-07-16
This CD is very helpful for anyone visiting our nation's capitol. I wish we'd had it before our visit.
Book Description
Change the entire school culture with this collaborative method of supervision.
For years, the classic supervision model has frustrated both principals and teachers by fostering superior-subordinate relationships, focusing on teacher conformity rather than growth, or producing checklist data that is irrelevant to the curriculum.
The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through offers a practical, time-saving alternative that impacts student achievement by cultivating self-reliant teachers who are continuously improving their practice.
Easy to understand and adopt, this method will answer the questions most important to principals:
- Is the work of my teachers aligned with the district curriculum?
- Are my teachers using research-based "best practices"?
- Are they choosing the instructional strategies that will promote student achievement?
Also known as the Downey Walk-through, the method presented in
The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through has been developed over a 40-year period, tested and refined in actual teaching environments, and taught internationally.
Also see:
The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through (Multimedia Kit)
Customer Reviews:
Th e Three-Minute Walk- Through.......2007-04-06
I was expecting something less technical and more user friendly. I will have to devote some time to reading this in the summer and then perhaps implement next year.
3 minute walk through easily applied-.......2007-02-21
This book was an easy read and had very practical, easy to put into practice, tips on observing classrooms. Time-saving techniques that still are quality practices.
Three Minute Classroom Walk-Through.......2005-07-28
An effective guide for pinpointing effective classroom instruction. This book also outlines specific strategies for engaging teachers in reflective dialogue that could enhance classroom instruction. A must read for administrators.
Book Description
Does America, as George W. Bush has proclaimed, have a special mission, derived from God, to bring liberty and democracy to the world? How much influence does the Christian right have over U.S. foreign policy? And how should America deal with violent Islamist extremists?
Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state and bestselling author of Madam Secretary, offers a thoughtful and often surprising look at the role of religion in shaping America's approach to the world. Drawing upon her experiences while in office and her own deepest beliefs about morality, the United States, and the present state of world affairs, a woman noted for plain speaking offers her thoughts about the most controversial topics of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Ultimate Answer.......2007-10-06
I must confess I have been following her public life since she became Secretary of State. I am her most avid reader having read her memoir six times. I ended my last reading on that book almost two weeks ago, and I finished reading the mighty and the almighty in five days last friday. To the point, I expected her second volume not to be a research work, it seems as though if I had to talk about the Middle East in school, this book would definitely be my guidance on that matter.
Now in all seriousness, I expected this book to be more about her accomplishments in government, and her sharp insights regarding recent events. This book could've just as easily be called 'The Mighty, The Almighty and Middle East Conflicts'. Do NOT get me wrong, I am all for that, I do believe the Middle East is, will and has shaped the world in every single way. Religion must be taken seriously into account as a player in world events, definitely. I am not against the content nor the topics of this book. I just wanted it to be more 'Madeleiney', if you will.
Mrs. Albright, if you are, or someone who knows you, reading this, I want you to know I expect your third book to be the ultimate answer to today's US Government Administration failures.
An Admirable Lady!.......2007-09-16
I think very highly of Madeline Albright and respect her accomplishments very much. I feel that the book is a little difficult to read though and I had a hard time sticking with it. It is however filled with lots of facts and events that make it worth the dedication.
Return to High American Ideals.......2007-08-26
This book may be directed to the "choir," as other reviewers have noted, but even the choir needs some encouragement from time to time. We've been through a rough 8 years.
I'm with her in her final comment: "I will never accept, however, that the United States is not better than we have been these past few years; nor will I stop believing (or praying) that we will recover our balance and begin again -- and soon -- to command the world's respect, and our own."
Human beings are religious animals, and we do perceive things differently. It is important to be tolerant of the beliefs of others; many of us are seeking God the best way we know how.
Politics and religion are both valid aspects of human life, but they are not the same thing.
Intelligent work about the subtleties of foreign policy wrt religion.......2007-07-17
Ms. Albright starts the book by providing background on how Americans have best handled religion in general. She gives several quotes from the founding fathers:
"George Washington disclaimed any interest in whether people were 'Mohametans, Jews or Christians of any sect, or Atheists.' His sole concern was that they should have the right to exercise freedom of worship, expression, and thought."--Page 18.
She then almost ventures into political heresy by giving a meaningful historical-political context to the Jewish-Palestinian conflict: (I had not been aware of the extent to which power elites in the world had gotten on board the Zionist mission.)
The remainder of the book is full of background about Judaism, Christianity, but especially Islam, that few are aware of--certainly not the current gang at the helm. Well worth the read, though Ms. Albright does not appreciate, or acknowledge anyway, the role of the CIA in creating the "world of terror."
...
For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]
Brian Wright
Copyright 2007
Terrific.......2007-07-08
A great book written by a knowledgeable person. I treasured it and have shared it with friends.
Book Description
This book draws provocative and stimulating conclusions about meaning and significance of Christian ministry.
Customer Reviews:
Quick Read.......2007-09-08
This is a well written personal narrative about a Harvard Professor that experiences a renewal of faith when he leaves the academic world. As he gives up that which has given him security he remembers where real security comes from.
His experiences aren't profound; however, they do offer some simple reminders about the important parts of life.
Leading in Love.......2007-08-01
True Christian leadership should be done from the raw core of Jesus's pure, pristine love.
Leadership efforts can become tainted and corrupted with relevance and arrogance, glossed over with the appearance of power and importance.
Some Christian leaders are controllers and dictators who expect obedience. But even Jesus didn't do that; He was a servant-leader.
This book doesn't preach about what you should or shouldn't do. It just indicates that leading, guiding, and teaching should come from the humbleness of Jesus's love (which has nothing to prove and there are no competitions) instead of from power, intimidations, or judgments.
I am sad for those leaders who think their popularity and importance are getting them brownie points in the Kingdom, and also for those participants in church groups who are miserable because they are expected to be a certain way.
Even though this book is small, it has a much greater impact than most drawn-out books. Just like Jesus's Love: Simple, but yet great.
Everybody should read this book, and know Jesus's Love.
extraordinary, challenging, very useful.......2007-06-05
Henri J. M. Nouwen has taught at the University of Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, he is the author of several books, and a priest. I have found In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, a very fruitful reading and a practical, challenging book. In its pages beat several values like human sensibility, sincerity, humbleness, and biblical influence. I could declare the book's theme to be the temptations and virtues that the Christian leader will deal with in the 21st Century.
In several ways, the writing deals with the new experiences and ministerial perception that Nouwen has felt in his own flesh, and that he thinks that must characterize the true Christian leader. When the author changes his residence from the academic world of Harvard to L'Arche, his social experiences, his ministry as priest, and his spiritual insight was changed too. The L'Arche community in Toronto was far different from that of the academy. Working with the mentally handicapped was the Master's teaching for the professor Nouwen. In L'Arche, Henri Nouwen didn't have anyone to impress with his book, because they couldn't read. They weren't impressed with his performance, knowledge, or social influence either. In this situation, the author confesses that he must be only who he was, a vulnerable man. The author says, "I am telling you all this because I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self." This is a message that I am sure that many of my colleagues do not want to hear. Our culture celebrates success before authenticity, greatness before insignificance. If we have nothing to offer to the World, why preach the Gospel? Well, we don't have anything from ourselves to offer, but we have Christ, His message, and hope. Isn't that enough? In my perception, the author is not pretending to cancel human participation in the kingdom of God, but to moderated it. The women and men that serve God are not the center of the message. God is.
Reading this book, I have receive new insight about the ministerial attitudes that moved a servant of God to serve and love. In these days, when we are hearing that if your church is not growing fast or using some specific strategies, maybe you aren't a minister of Christ. Other people is saying that if you are not "swimming in money", God is not blessing you, etcetera. The words of Nouwen are very important. He says, "The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus?" Another rewarding insight was about the dangerous temptations that every minister must resist and how to resist them. Based on Jesus's temptation, Nouwen refer to three of these current temptations: the temptation to be relevant, the temptation to be spectacular, and the temptation to be powerful. On the other hand, the author suggests three spiritual disciplines to win over these temptations: the discipline of contemplative prayer, the discipline of confession and forgiveness, and the discipline of theological reflection.
From my perspective all the book makes sense to me, and is a valuable source of inspiration for the minister in the 21st Century. A time when the churchman is having old temptations in new packages, the same strategies that have worked for the man Jesus Christ, will work for us today, and ever.
A Breath of Fresh Air.......2007-04-17
I greatly appreciated Henri's book and it was a breath of fresh air which make me think very deeply about my life and ministry. I am a former Roman Catholic and appreciate the thoughfulness of Nouwen.
short and easy... but a challenging read.......2007-04-07
This book is definitely a breath of fresh air in a market filled with books about Jesus being whatever you want Him to be in the mold of the world's system. It's a call to come out of the erroneous mindsets we have about leadership to embrace the humility of Christ. Servant leadership that lays down its life for the sheep. One that is not a hired hand, leading in a professional spirit. It's a short and easy... and challenging read
Book Description
Attempting to demythologize the process of dying, Nuland explores how we shall die, each of us in a way that will be unique. Through particular stories of dying--of patients, and of his own family--he examines the seven most common roads to death: old age, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's, accidents, heart disease, and strokes, revealing the facets of death's multiplicity.
"It's impossible to read
How We Die without realizing how earnestly we have avoided this most unavoidable of subjects, how we have protected ourselves by building a cultural wall of myths and lies. I don't know of any writer or scientist who has shown us the face of death as clearly, honestly and compassionately as Sherwin Nuland does here."--James Gleick
Customer Reviews:
On my second reading!.......2007-07-10
Anyone interested in physiology will love this book. Easy to read, fascinating for the lay person as well as any premed student! I've got an 88 yr. old mother and this book explained so much!
How We Live.......2007-05-24
Nuland's "How We Die" is, ostensibly, about death and the means by which the great majority of us will take our exit; toward this end, Nuland excels. Nuland also manages, however, to subtly position death's predecessor -- life -- front and center by concluding that "The dignity that we seek in dying must be found in the dignity with which we have lived our lives. Ars moriendi is ars vivendi. The art of dying is the art of living...It is not in the last weeks or days that we compose the message that will be remembered, but in all the decades that preceded them. Who has lived in dignity, dies in dignity." Nuland is a talented writer and he delivers a work that is nothing short of honest, accessible, and insightful. Highly recommended for those preoccupied with life...and death.
More than merely informative.......2007-05-07
Dr. Nuland explains the dying process in detail, without sugar coating or sentimentality, in a way that is understandable to the general reader. More importantly, he shares his reflections on this process as a human being and as a doctor. The reader comes away from the book with information and wisdom not easily gained through other means. As someone loooking to revise his living will, I found the book immensely helpful. I should add that I was particularly impressed by Dr. Nuland's humility and his avoidance of all preaching. In so doing he credits his reader with intelligence and challenges him or her to think deeply.
A Harsh Subject Put Forth Somewhat Gently.......2007-03-23
This book will put to rest any idea of a 'good death.' It gives all the details, in a non-gory fashion, of all the major causes of death in this day and age. Mr. Nuland is an eloquent man and easy to read, even for us laypersons. The technical aspects are explained in a way that anyone can understand. Give this book to someone who doesn't take care of themselves, or thinks they're still immortal. I read this book with its description of death by heart disease and decided to finally quit smoking. It took three months, but I've been smoke free for 2 weeks and strong. I'm not saying that this book will cure you of any ills you have, but it may make you think about how you treat your body and how little time we really have.
How We Die.......2007-02-07
Not an easy red for the squeamish, but a palatable review of the inevitable presented in a straightforward, mature, and responsible manner.
Book Description
Emanuel Derman was one of the first physicists to move to Wall Street, and his career paralleled the growth of quantitative trading over the past twenty years. In My Life as a Quant, he traces his transformation from ambitious young scientist to managing director and head of the renowned Quantitative Strategies group at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Derman’s tale recounts his adventures with quants, traders and other high fliers on Wall Street as he became the best-known quant in the business. He describes the struggles of research and his interactions with an assorted cast of famous scientists. He relates his impressions of some of the most creative minds on Wall Street, including Fischer Black, with whom he collaborated on the widely used Black-Derman-Toy model of interest rates. Throughout his story he reflects on the appropriate way to apply the refined methods of physics to the hurly-burly world of markets and the people that inhabit them.
Download Description
Emanuel Derman was one of the first physicists to move to Wall Street, and his career paralleled the growth of quantitative trading over the past twenty years. In My Life as a Quant, he traces his transformation from ambitious young scientist to managing director and head of the renowned Quantitative Strategies group at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Derman’s tale recounts his adventures with quants, traders and other high fliers on Wall Street as he became the best-known quant in the business. He describes the struggles of research and his interactions with an assorted cast of famous scientists. He relates his impressions of some of the most creative minds on Wall Street, including Fischer Black, with whom he collaborated on the widely used Black-Derman-Toy model of interest rates. Throughout his story he reflects on the appropriate way to apply the refined methods of physics to the hurly-burly world of markets and the people that inhabit them.
Customer Reviews:
An interesting, representative look into physics, computer science, math, and finance.......2007-08-18
This book is an easily readable and interesting look into the life of a financial engineer. Derman describes his life in relation to the history of modern physics and modern finance. He describes the route he took, from a student who wanted to research physics permanently to an enthusiastic programming newbie.
This book is sort of divided into four sections. First his early and student life. Then he ventures into the world of UNIX and computer science. As a computer programmer myself, I especially felt the joy he felt when he created a program to solve a small program that was commercialized and used by many other people. The satisfaction of small victories was quite apparent and mirrored my own life in some ways.
He then ventures into the world of finance in the mid 80s - during the boom time of financial engineering. His work from a naïve physicist to a financial wizard describes both the history of his career development and the quantitave finance itself. He ventures into new topics of finance, such as implied binomial trees and the such.
Sometimes the book does get bogged down into a little too much technical detail. I understood the finance and computer programming part perfectly because I've studied and worked in those fields, but the physics stuff was quite esoteric and I had a hard time following much of it.
All in all, it's a fun book. Nothing really spectacular, but to see the history of a new field being described, told by a pioneer, is quite fascinating.
Engaging.......2007-07-05
This is an engaging book which, I suspect, will be most interesting to those of us with more than a decade of experience in the financial technology field.
The book is appealing on many levels: the story of a physicist-turned-quant, the drama of professional life amongst the players in the fin-tech field, and the discussions of the mechanics of quantitative analysis, made accessible by Mr. Derman's plain-spoken writing style.
I don't read many books for pleasure, but I couldn't put this one down.
Shorting Sidhartha to ground.......2007-03-11
After reading Derman's Platonic idea of the origin of physics on the first two pages, I was so angry that for a while I couldn't read further. When finally I did read further, I couldn't put the book down until midnight. This autobiography of a physicist turned financial engineer is more entertaining than most novels, and is informative in a way that no other book is. Derman's description of his life and times is the chronicle of an era. This is a book that should be read by physics grad students who fantacize about working for banks or trading houses.
I remember how in 1957 we and our neighbors went out at night to watch Sputnik pass overhead as a pale, visibly moving light. This was the same year that Mercury had produced the 6 cyl. 60 h.p. outboard motor, Chevy produced its classic model, Elvis sang 'Loving You', and my youngest brother was born. Then, each morning before school, we would turn on the Today Show and often watch as a rocket from Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville) or Cape Canaveral went up a few meters, then fell over and crashed. Finally, von Braun (who'd escaped from Penemünde via Thüringen to North Tirol (where I mainly live) and then engineered his capture by the U.S. rather than the Russians or the French) eventually got it right and launched too, but not before Americans were treated to huge, Life Magazine photos of Chicago teenagers jitterbugging their lives away, and of Russian teenagers intensely studying math and physics. The US reaction to Sputnik was in part the NDEA loans that got me and a lot of other science majors through the university, and produced a very large excess supply of physics Ph.D.s by about 1970. In the seventies, academic jobs in physics in the US were so few, and the competition so great, that it was the kiss of death to take a postdoctoral fellowship in Europe. Going there put you outside the loop. One could generalize a British postdoc's experience after his arrival at Cal Tech in the following way: the US was the center of the universe in physics, and to a first approximation Europe did not exist. In the early eighties I noticed that a former physics grad student in nonlinear dynamics had been hired by a trading house. I didn't understand the significance then. Eventually, one of my later to be closest collaborators (and is Feigenbaum's only grad student to boot) worked for a year in 1990 at a Chicago trading house before coming to the University of Houston. In 1999, the same year that I heard of the Physics and finance meeting in Dublin where Gene Stanley coined the awful but effective term 'Econophysics', I read that Mitch Feigenbaum and Nigel Goldenfeld had opened a derivatives-related business in New York. Derman was one of the first physicists to go to work as a modeler on Wall Street. Derman's book, written humorously, self-deprecatingly and introspectively, yet objectively, is a chronicle of that era, a chronicle of physics and job hunting by physics grads in the post-Vietman war era, the era that began with Nixon's deregulation of the dollar (tied to gold at $35/oz. from 1935-1971, gold that Americans were not permitted to own for reasons of attempted currency stability). I'll stop here with my introduction and recommend that anyone who really wants to understand something about the world financial system read Eichengreen's `Globalizing Capital'. Here are some comments about parts of the book that I liked particularly well, or particularly disliked. The book can be read as a useful complement to `The Predictors', Liar's Poker', and `Inventing Money'.
The platonic view of the origin of mathematical laws of nature expressed on the first two pages is wrong. One can understand how a theorist with a focus on gauge theories might get on that track, but it is not true that Einstein thought that way in his early discoveries. For a better picture of why mathematics is unreasonably effective in physics, read Wigner's `Symmetries and Reflections', and read Barbour's `Absolute or Relative Motion' for the history of the discoveries.
The difference between physics (academic research) and financial engineering (on the Street) is described pretty well. In the latter, a good graphics interface is more important for business than is a good model. The description of the difference is generally true of physics and engineering per se, and is not peculiar to the financial brand.
The description of reductionism is the extreme brand believed uncritically by people like Steven Weinberg. Any correct mathematical description of nature, any isolation of cause and effect, is a form of reductionism. Attempts to understand markets empirically is a form of reductionism.
The description of Lee and Yang's quarrels is revealing (both visited the University of Houston Physics Dept. at various times in the seventies and eighties). The description of Cvitanovic rings too true! I was not aware (!?) that Feigenbaum and Libchaber (name misspelled) like Steiner's writings, although it's fairly well known that Feigenbaum reads Goethe.
Derman describes vividly how no one can get past T.D. Lee in a colloquium, then with British understatement writes that his own thesis defense, with Lee on the committee, was no problem. And his advice to students about blind alleys and perseverance is correct. The race is often won not by the quickest but rather by the one who doesn't quit in the face of adversity.
The author had a tantalizing taste early on of the life of the successful (i.e., well-connected) physicist on the conference circuit. I myself read too many biographies of German professors who took a Kur for 6 weeks on the Baltic or the North Sea.
His description of life at Oxford, and the string of postdoctoral positions is believable and hilarious. The description of the pain of having to live apart from his wife and son is painful to read, although many physicists live so.
Derman also describes what makes physicists arrogant without naming it: life in a scientific culture where the standards are set by certified geniuses. It's hard to live in the shadow of these people. One learns a certain degree of arrogance merely for survival in the culture, and that makes us hard to live with at home and in society. Advice from a bright colleague how to get along with your partner: 'grovel, grovel, grovel'. It works.
His advice about publications is absolutely right: it rarely hurts to put a collaborator's, host's or advisor's name on a paper. I contemplated publishing my thesis alone because Onsager had not really contributed to it, although he suggested the problem. Actually, I doubted that he wanted his name on such a seemingly trivial piece of work, but it turned out that he liked it and did want his name on the papers. He liked all sorts of calculations. As long as they were right ....
There is no correct analogy between economics/finance and thermodynamics, the far from equilibrium nature of markets prohibits it. Fischer Black, whom I admire enormously and have read carefully, was wrong about 'equilibrium': he swallowed the economists' notions uncritically (Derman describes Black as 'in love' with the idea of equilibrium, and one can swallow anything when one is in love). CAPM is certainly not an 'equilibrium' model, and CAPM does not lead to the Black-Scholes pde, there's an error in the 1973 paper. I prefer the Black-Scholes paper to all of Merton's useless rigmarole about utility, a nonfalsifiable notion at best, although it's true that replication is not in the Black-Scholes paper. I can't see that Merton's derivation of the backward time pde is 'more rigorous' than Black's delta-hedge condition.
Derman's description of his self-imposed exile to Bell Labs is hilarious. His loving description of UNIX is beyond me (I know how to use a word processor).
Weltanschauung is mis-spelled, there are n+1 split infinitives in the text.
Now I know where Lisa Borland's boss comes from.
The description of Fischer Black is worth the book alone, even if the rest were not good. Osborne, Black, and Mandelbrot can be counted as the ancestors of Econophysics, which differs from Financial Engineering the way that physics differs from engineering. Black was right that expected returns, seen as anticipating the future, is not an observable notion. But, then, what does Soros do when he beats the market (nonmathematically)?
Derman's description of economic theory as nonsense (my term) is absolutely correct, when applied to micro- and macro-economics texts. What one finds inside those books is useless, falsified mathematized ideology. To make matters worse, economists know that and still teach the stuff in the classroom, misleading generations of students.
All in all, this is a highly recommendable book!
An interesting career path.......2006-12-11
This book is not for those interested in learning quantitative finance. Rather, it is a memoir written by a physicist who came to finance relatively late in life.
There is some poignancy in Derman's transformation from theoretical physicist bent on a life in academia (where he hoped to make groundbreaking discoveries about elementary particles) to mid-level employee of one of the world's great financial institutions (Goldman Sachs). Although he was undoubtedly well paid for the skills he brought to the financial markets, Derman's story is tinged with sadness about the loss of an ideal.
The book is particularly valuable for the insights it provides about the inner workings of a major investment bank, and in particular about the role played by the "quants" in the development of new products and trading strategies. It also provides some perspective on the development of quantitative finance as a practical discipline; and it makes clear that quantitative skills, while important to a successful career in a major financial institution, generally take a back seat to salesmanship, practical trading skills, and internal politicking.
Those with a liking for pure mathematics will have to grin and bear Derman's critical comments about mathematical rigor and economic theory.
good source of info for those who wonder what a quant is.......2006-11-13
Mr. Derman took the reader along with his journey from theorectical physics to financial modeling. The later chapters provide simple to understand explanations of what he did at Goldman Sachs to model bond options. No knowledge of advance mathematics required. One shudders when one realizes that models are formed usually after the fact. Today trillion of dollars are traded based on imperfect models. What if ... there was a flaw in the model?
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