Book Description
An exhilarating meditation on nature and its seasons-a personal narrative highlighting one year's exploration on foot in the author's own neighborhood in Tinker Creek, Virginia. In the summer, Dillard stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and examines it under a microscope. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays -King of the Meadow' with a field of grasshoppers.
Customer Reviews:
What was promised.......2007-08-20
Took about a week to get book, but knew this, arrived in great shape. Happy customer , would buy again.
Resonance with nature and with readers.......2007-08-17
The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek has a LOT to say. It has nearly as many frills as the natural world it describes--and all of them lovely--thanks to Annie Dillard's poetic style. She moves effortlessly from the most informal to the most elevated language, a feat I've rarely seen. Just as importantly, there is a bedrock of deep thought beneath Dillard's unique prose.
Readers will enjoy this book no matter their level of comprehension, but in all likelihood, no one will understand Dillard's every nuance and message. She may or may not realize that her own writing mimicks the intricacy of nature, and with its emotional ups and downs seems to describe the change of seasons that she discusses in many of her chapters. Dillard not only thinks wisely about nature, but she also begins to resonate with it on an unconscious level. She is not merely a distanced observer, but she allows herself to truly be PRESENT, and to let her surroundings act on her. Between her conscious statements are hidden transformations.
I'll get personal, because I think each reader's experience will be different: This book made me long to understand what she understood, and to do what she had done. My experience with this book was one of need: I felt the strong urge to mimic her foray into the nearby outdoors, and not to imitate her further, but to find equally individual conclusions for myself.
Read this book if you want to think.......2007-06-01
When I started this book for my 7th grade Humanities class, I didn't really know what to expect. I started it a week later than my classmates, and kept hearing conflicting opinions. It was really long, it was fairly short, it was hard to pay attention to and hard to understand, it sucked you in and made sure you got the message. Now that I've read it, I've come to agree with the last opinion. For me, Tinker Creek was like looking through someone else's eyes at the world. Once I started reading, it was hard to stop.
The only problem I think is that it jumps around a lot, and even though some trains of thought she follows up on later in the book, most are left hanging when you wanted to know more about them. However, I still thought it was a great book, if a tad heavy on metaphors.
a review by a 7th grader.......2007-06-01
I found this book very confusing, but interesting. She (the author) is a very descriptive writer, but it is hard to decipher her meaning through the complexity. She rarely talks about other people, but instead she talks about her own experiences. If you can get past the way it is written, it holds interesting concepts.
"When I was quite young, I fondly imagined that all forighn languages were codes for English" is the start of one of her curious topics. If this book only had one word in it it would be the word "nature." That is what the book is built around ant the topic it never leaves. If you are a determined reader and love the natural world, this is definitely the book for you.
i read this for a school assignment, so i am probably not old enough to understand it completely
Unique and Scientific.......2007-04-18
I had just finished Walden and I was hoping Pilgrim At Tinker Creek would be a little easier reading. It was and I liked the book very much. It reminded me of Mary Oliver's Blue Pastures with the descriptions of the natural world. The flow of the book was better than Blue Pastures as Dillard's book seems to tell a story about her home and surroundings. She writes about how people interact with nature and how humans try to make nature fit into their ways of life. This is illustrated by the story of the town people trying to get rid of the starling population.
You can tell the author loves nature by all of her vivid descriptions. Some of them like the frog having the life sucked out of him are graphic enough that parents of young children might want to censor the book. Dillard views nature as it really is. She epitomizes the survival of the fittest; there is no sugar coating on what she sees and describes. I especially liked the descriptions of the spiders that she let live in her house just so she could observe them and how they contributed to nature's processes.
Dillard's book would be an excellent book for parents to expose their children since most children today do not see nature unless it is on a video game. The book lends great insight on the outdoors from the brilliance of a summer storm to the coming to life of Tinker Creek in the spring. Dillard's knowledge of biology is well illustrated as she describes many of life processes from the creation of atoms to the death of a gold fish.
The reader can walk side by side with Dillard as she contemplates life and its complexities. I can guarantee that once you have read this book you will not look at a walk in the woods in the same way ever again. Dillard takes a long hard look at what is out there and makes you realize that life is not always exactly as it seems.
Book Description
"Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators" is Atwood Publishing's latest title and one of your greates resources for distance education. It will help you build an online community and fuel online dialogue to create relationships between interactants. It will also provide you with a wide repertoire of strategies for sharpening your course's content and ways to fend off and avoid technological problems and roadblocks that you will invariably face during your class.
Customer Reviews:
A fantastic help for online course moderators........2001-05-23
This book was an amazing resource for me. After seeing what Collison, Haavind, Tinker, and Elbaum do with online moderation, I recognized dozens of great strategies to add to my facilitation arsenal. Highly recommend it!
Excellent.......2001-04-03
I wish it had been a text for one of my classes. Had to discover it later. Well...a worthwhile discovery. It doesn't get 5 stars only because I hardly ever give anything 5. Probably 4.75.
Average customer rating:
- It Earns its Perch on the Short List
- really enjoyed it
- Quite A Nursery Ryme
- One of the best realistic spy novels ever
- "If you make your enemy look stupid, you lose the justification for taking him on."
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John le Carre
Manufacturer: Scribner
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Smiley's People
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The Honourable Schoolboy
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The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
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A Perfect Spy
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The Looking Glass War
ASIN: 0743457900
Release Date: 2002-10-01 |
Book Description
John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge and have earned him -- and his hero, British Secret Service agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim.
A modern masterpiece in which le Carré expertly creates a total vision of a secret world, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy begins George Smiley's chess match of wills and wits with Karla, his Soviet counterpart.
It is now beyond doubt that a mole, implanted decades ago by Moscow Centre, has burrowed his way into the highest echelons of British Intelligence. His treachery has already blown some of its most vital operations and its best networks. It is clear that the double agent is one of its own kind. But which one? George Smiley is assigned to identify him. And once identified, the traitor must be destroyed.
Customer Reviews:
It Earns its Perch on the Short List.......2007-02-09
Upon publication in April, 1974, John Le Carre's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was acclaimed a masterpiece of the cold war spy genre, and short listed -- along with several other Le Carre works-- for greatest spy story of them all. Firstly, there was Le Carre's immense, first-hand, front-line spying experience. His lean, mean writing. The plot, dealing with Britain's MI5 international spy agency; it's a marvel of clarity and complexity. The irresistible narrative force. Another of the author's great set piece openings, plus a few more.
As to the characters, there's the long-suffering George Smiley, his beautiful offstage wife Lady Ann. The inscrutable Bill Haydon: at one point, late in the narrative, Smiley does actually think of him as that Russian doll: one doll within another, within another. The implacable opponent, Russia's Karla, head of KGB, MI5's opposite number. Smiley's confrontation with him, in a 1950's Indian prison, sears itself into the brain. The whole MI5 gang: control, Percy Alleline, Ricky Tarr, Roy Bland, Peter Guillam, Inspector Mendel, Oliver Lacon, Toby Esterhase, Connie Sachs, Jerry Westerby, and, most importantly, Jim Prideaux, the loyal man most severely injured by a Czechoslovakian cock-up. Finally, Bill Roach, richest boy at the school where Prideaux now teaches, emotionally resonant,fat, miserable, and devoted to Prideaux.
A dying control (head of organization) believes there's a mole-- that is, a long-term counterspy placed within a spying organization-- it's a term Le Carre actually invented, and the world now uses-- in MI5. In control's effort to smoke out the mole, so-called Gerald, the chief sets in motion an ill-advised Czechoslovak operation, with disastrous results. So at control's death, Percy Alleline, one of the boys, benefiting from an all-around wizard source, takes over the organization and gets his knighthood. But the mole's still flashing his presence. So who is it: in control's immortal words, taken from a British children's rhyme-- tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, or Smiley, whom we learn is beggarman? (Oddly enough, this famous formulation, the book's title, is not introduced until late.) The minister in charge sets Smiley to find out.
Coming back to this book after many years, thing I find most striking is that there's a dimension beyond tight writing, knowing spycraft, masterful plot and characters: feeling. Smiley, close to finally unraveling the betrayal, confronts Esterhase, chief of the lamplighters: the tradecraft men. "It is the perfect fix; you see that, don't you Toby, really? Assuming it is a fix. It makes everyone wrong who's right: Connie Sachs, Jerry Westerby...Jim Prideaux...even control. Silences the doubters before they've even spoken out...The permutations are infinite, once you've brought off the basic lie....Take it to its logical conclusion, and Gerald would have us strangling our own children in their beds."
Smiley is angry, as is his creator, and that will influence the outcome of the final great set-piece, the book's conclusion. It earns its perch on the short list.
really enjoyed it.......2007-02-07
Le Carre has this reputation for complexity that can be off-putting, but I found this novel to be an approachable, exciting, and hard-to-put-down story. It boils down to a variation on the detective novel, but instead of a "who done it" it's a "who is it" mystery. We follow the primary investigator as he tracks down leads and puts 2 and 2 together until he gets his man. I was up way too late a few nights in a row, reading until I was too tired to keep my eyes open. Simply put, if you enjoy both espionage "genre fiction" and literature as well, then Le Carre is for you. As for complexity, TTSS is more complex than novels by Tom Clancy or Ian Fleming to be sure, but it's not Tolstoy or Dostoevsky either.
Quite A Nursery Ryme.......2007-01-21
A very complicated story with a protagonist that is unmatched in spy fiction. First and perhaps the strongest in a trilogy of Smiley vs. Karla books. A great read by a great author.
One of the best realistic spy novels ever.......2007-01-06
The best aspect of this book is that it is realistic and thrilling at the same time. If you read nonfiction cold war espionage stories, you find that stuff like this actually did happen. Le Carre gives you a look at the actual workings of spycraft and the techniques that were used during the cold war.
The book is written from the perspective of several different people in turns, but never from the perspective of the antagonists, so the author doesn't give away what the other side is doing until the protagonists themselves find out. Even though it is a third-person narrative approach, it mainly sticks with a couple characters (Guillam and Smiley), and the author doesn't actually reveal the thoughts of any characters except Guillam and Smiley.
Even though I also gave Absolute Friends 5 stars, this book is a little bit better, mainly because in Tinker Tailor the solutions to all the puzzles (or most of them anyway) are satisfactorily revealed in the end, and the ending is not excessivley clever, which is a weakness of many thriller novels (including Absolute Friends and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold).
Be warned, however: the story is complicated, and Le Carre does not explain everything for you. You are expected to make a lot of inferences. It can be fun to have to work at understanding what is going on, but if you are the type of person who doesn't like to have to turn back the pages frequently to try to make sense of the story, this may not be for you. It is the kind of book you have to read slowly. There are so many characters to keep track of that you might even need to take some notes, especially if you are going to put the book down for a while before coming back to it. Never fear, however: your hard work will not be in vain. The puzzles are actually worth the effort.
One thing that was sometimes unnecessarily frustrating was Le Carre's use of terminology that would be familiar to spies (and to devoted fans of espionage literature) but which is not known to most lay-people--especially those who are not British. For the most part, you can figure out what these terms mean from the context, but it would have been nice to have a glossary of British spy jargon or something.
Suggestions for other books:
If you want a more modern espionage/mystery novel, try The Prisoner of Guantanamo by Fesperman, which has the same high quality and realism as le Carre's books.
Barry Eisler is good if you are looking for an author who leans slightly more towards action and thrills, but not so much that it is unbelievable. (although they may be slightly less realistic, his books are still quite plausible).
"If you make your enemy look stupid, you lose the justification for taking him on.".......2006-12-15
Following in the tradition of Graham Greene, who wrote spy novels contemporaneous with his own, John LeCarre uses his experience in the foreign service and MI6 to add realism to his tales of espionage. Green, however, remained a friend of traitor Kim Philby and continued to send his novels to Philby after Philby defected to Russia. LeCarre was betrayed by Philby to Russian agents, and his career was ended. This betrayal gives added realism to his novels, which show real disillusionment with the system and, sometimes, with its agents and officials.
Written in 1974, this novel draws on the real life of "LeCarre" (real name David Cornwell) and many of his associates who were unmasked by Philby and the "Cambridge Five." Here LeCarre creates a vivid and morally probing story in which his hero, George Smiley, is called out of his enforced retirement to unmask a Soviet "mole" high in the British secret service, referred to as "the circus." Five men (as in the real betrayal) have been suspected of aiding the Soviets. Drawing on his friendships with some of the agents who were dismissed when he was, Smiley investigates the security leaks which have led to humiliation for British intelligence and real danger for some of its agents. As he tries to identify the mole, he receives peripheral help from Sir Oliver Lacon of the British Foreign Office.
Written in formal and polished prose, the novel is full of Cold War complexities. Karla, the legendary head of Soviet intelligence, continues to control a small group of Soviet "defectors" and "disillusioned" Communists, whom the British mistakenly regard as double agents providing them with secret information. At the same time, British Control (who is never identified by name) is trying to uncover the Soviet mole (nicknamed "Gerald") within their own agency. Jim Prideaux, who appears in several Smiley novels, is working on this operation in Czechoslovakia when he is betrayed and almost killed, his entire operation shut down, and many of his agents executed by the Russians.
Smiley's investigations are decidedly prosaic, not the exciting shoot-'em-ups of James Bond novels. Slogging through mountains of paperwork, interviewing reluctant former agents, and doing his own legwork, Smiley works at unmasking Gerald the hard way. The complexity of his character (and of the other characters here) make up for the relative lack of dramatic action and highlight LeCarre's skill at creating intriguing characters who see the "grays" in an otherwise black-and-white world. His dialogue is quick-paced, often witty, and revelatory of subtle character traits, adding to the depth of the portraits and to the intricacies of the world of spy/counterspy. n Mary Whipple
Book Description
A stunning collection of Annie Dillard's most popular books in one volume.
Customer Reviews:
American classics. Read them........2002-04-15
That's about it. Everyone who loves books knows about Annie Dillard. She's probably going to rank up there with Thoreau. That's a comparison I'll bet--though I haven't checked--must be a cliche by now, in comments on Dillard, and if so I'd further suspect that the author herself would be tired of it. Still, that's probably handy as a rough indication of which literary landscape is her natural habitat. If you really enjoy reading--real reading, where verbal skill, style, and breadth of imagination count as much as the subject matter--then you owe it to yourself to be acquainted with this work.
Classic Dillard.......2001-09-06
If you don't know Annie Dillard, this is a good place to start. She has a wonderful writing voice, and constantly says things both surprising and true. After reading the entire collection, which is essentially three very different memoirs, I feel I know her very well - and yet, I know almost nothing about her.
Nature in a Different View.......2000-04-23
After reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, you will never look at nature the same way again. Her details are never ending and are so unique you feel like you are sitting in a field listening to her talk about her experiences. Her sense of care is much more deep than most people. Many citizens are uninterested about your life, but Dillard is over excited about these adventures. She is very honest throughout the book, and really justifies her thoughts well. Her feelings about religion are also a large part of the book. She believes in God, but wonders sometimes what he really does mean. Doesn't everyone do that? Her details are never-ending in that they explain everything from every dusty corner to things that you never would think about, or want to hear: "I scraped away the smooth snow. Hand fashioned of red clay, and now frozen, the bump was about six inches high and eighteen inches across. The slope, such as it was, was gentle; tread marks stitched to the clay."
This example from page 50, first full paragraph, is a wonderful illustration of how thorough she is in her writing. Instead of saying the bump was small and sloping, she decides to write with more action and feeling in the sentences. This helps the reader feel like she is actually there and enjoying the nature around her. Her interest in creatures seems to be unlimited . I have never seen anyone so interested in the concern of insects. The following passage shows this unending love of creatures: "Under the ice the bluegills and carp are still alive; this far south the ice never stays on the water long enough that fish metabolize all the oxygen and die. Farther north, fish sometimes die in this way and float up to the ice, which thickens around their bodies and holds them fast, open-eyed, until the thaw."
This section from page 48, first full paragraph, demonstrates care in that she knows so much information about fish and their habitats. This illustrates care and concern for so many in not just fish in general, but animals as a whole. So many times people ask us why, but we never really do have an answer, but it seems not to be the case for Dillard. She can justify anything with a credible answer. This passage shows her talent in answering questions to her full capability: "Is our birthright and heritage to be, like Jacob's cattle on which the life of a nation was founded, "ring-streaked, speckled and spotted" not with the spangling marks of a grace like beauty rained down from eternity, but with the blotched assaults and quarryings of time?"
This passage from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, page 242, continued paragraph, is an example of her justification. Even though she may have the story's background confused from the Bible, she does relate to "Jacob's cattle" several times. This gives the book strength and depth in that she knows her information. Religion is a big factor throughout the book. Dillard states what she thinks is equitable. Many of her statements speak that she is a believer, but she does ask what He means several times. Page 90, third paragraph, shows a great deal of Dillard's feelings: "I have never understood why so many mystics of all creeds experience the presence of God on mountaintops. Aren't they afraid of being blown away? God said to Moses on Sinai that even the priests, who have access to the Lord must hallow themselves, for fear that the Lord may break out against them. This is the fear. It often feels best to lay low, inconspicuous, instead of waving your spirit around from high places like a lightning rod. For if God is in one sense the igniter, a fireball that spins over the ground of continents, God is also in another sense the destroyer, lightening, blind power, impartial as the atmosphere. Or God is one 'G.' You get a comforting sense, in a curved hollow place, of being vulnerable to only a relatively narrow column of God as air."
The passage is extremely strong throughout and makes the reader reread the section. It is very deep and thoughtful. Dillard seems to have a awfully strong interest in the power of God. This subject and nature really brings about energy for the audience that is unusual in most authors. Annie Dillard writes exceptionally strong in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. She mentions exceedingly sturdy statements, which justify her thoughts, but she is concerned and caring for the things around her. Her details throughout help make readers more involved in the book. They feel like they lived with her during the past five years. Religion has a large impact on Dillard's view of nature. She feels that very day should be appreciated and welcomed.
Unparalleled imagery and use of language.......1999-08-13
For those who believe a declarative sentence in the Hemingway style is the nadir of literary style, Annie is not for you. For those who believe elegance of language enhances the reading experience, Annie is a joy and a treasure. Her images and allusions are the rich stuff of observation and imagination, poured straight and undiluted on the page. I'm sure she would say that this makes the act of writing sound far too easy (read "Writing Life" for a lucid rebuttal to any such misapprehension); I'm insanely glad that she endures the agonies of a writer to bring gifts like these remarkable books to us. Thank you, Annie.
Dillard's images smell of nature........1999-01-06
Dillard's polyphony of images creates a roundness and depth unfathomed by most modern nature writers. Overlapping images brings breath to observation. Her's are not images of nature upon the dissection table, but nature alive and exuding itself. Her observations pierce the bone and marrow of nature revealing the transcendence and sacrament that is man's experience with nature. Her writings give off the scent of true experience, true life and true thought. Dillard is quite possibly the premiere essayist of our period.
Average customer rating:
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Developing Power: How Women Transformed International Development
Manufacturer: Feminist Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1558614850 |
Book Description
In these compelling testimonies, a distinguished group of 27 pioneering women from 12 countries tell how they fought to ensure that the unprecedented political and economic changes in the developing world would benefit women as well as men. At this crucial historical moment, when women in Afghanistan and Iraq are being excluded from "rebuilding" plans in the wake of U.S. wars abroad, Developing Power offers both instruction and inspiration.
Arvonne S. Fraser has been coordinator of the Office of Women in Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is currently senior fellow emerita of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
Irene Tinker was a founder of the Wellesley Center for Research on Women, the International Center for Research on Women, and the Equity Policy Center.
Customer Reviews:
Doing good, doing well.......2005-07-11
This book is a compendium of 27 women's brief and enchanting autobiographies. As pioneers, they broke glass ceilings in some of the most entrenched international bureaucracies, supporting and expanding the role of women in developing countries. Read it as history of women in development, as personal development of gutsy women, or for understanding how creative responses to implacable problems help all of humanity by supporting women.
Average customer rating:
- Outstanding Resource for Helping Children
- An enormously important book.
- I will unreservedly recommend the book to all.
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Through The Eyes Of A Child: EMDR with Children (Norton Professional Books)
Robert H. Tinker
Manufacturer: NORTON & COMPANY
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Small Wonders: Healing Childhood Trauma with EMDR
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Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Second Edition: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures
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Integrating Play Therapy and Emdr with Children
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EMDR: The Breakthrough "Eye Movement" Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma
ASIN: 0393702871 |
Book Description
The first book to explore the use of this revolutionary new therapy with children and adolescents. EMDR has helped thousands of adults haunted by traumatic events. But what about children? This comprehensive book demystifies eye movement desensitization reprocessing with children, from the first session with the parents to later sessions with children at all developmental stages. Myriad cases illustrate the use of EMDR with various traumas, symptoms, and diagnoses. With its compelling, frank style, this book will appeal to all who are curious about this exciting new therapy.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding Resource for Helping Children.......2007-05-17
Children are different and any clinician who works with children in trauma will want to encorporate the tools and techniques in this book, written by giants in EMDR treatment in designing treatment planning. Used in conjunction with the standard protocols, and proper training, the treatment modifications suggested in this work will enhance the competency of clinicians who work with children in distress.
An enormously important book........1999-08-02
Physical abuse. Sexual abuse. Chronic neglect. Domestic violence. Auto accidents. School shootings. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of ways for children to be traumatized. Just as unfortunately, research into children's trauma and the development of treatment methods often lag behaind adult counterparts. Filling a major gap in the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) literature, veteran therapists Robert Tinker and Sandra Wilson are making available, in compellingly readable form, the techniques they have used successfully with children from Oklahoma City to Rwanda. Geared equally to the child clinician interested in adding this powerful modality and to the experienced EMDR practtioner, "Through the Eyes of a Child" cuts through the mystery to illuminate the method. "It's like you took a magic wand, and said 'Bing! You can live now!" --The mother of a six-year-old who had been severely sexually abused when she was 18 months old. Clinical examples and session transcripts demonstrate EMDR at work with children and teenagers who have experienced a range of acute and ongoing traumas, from molestation by a sibling to the suicide of a parent, from near-death in a lightning storm to the emotional upheaval of a bitter custody battle. (Additional cases show its efficacy in dealing with problems that may not necessarily be trauma-related, among them ADHD, simple phobias, attachment disorder, and learning disabilities.) Tinker and Wilson make important comparisons between pediatric and adult applications of the method at the diagnostic and assessment levels, and modify the treatment protocol to fit youngsters at various stages of development. The standard eye movements, for example, are inappropriate for most children under age five, but they respond well to other forms of left-right stimulation. To keep therapeutic goals clearly in sight, direct, concerte language is usually preferable to the metaphoric language commonly accompanying desensitization. The authors are acutely aware of some EMDR therapists' reservations about working with children, and they have included plenty of guidelines so that readers can accuaratly guage young clients' reactions, minimize the possibility of dissociation, and--most importantly--avoid retraumatization. (One rule that can't be overemphasized: establish a "safe place" that can be returned to when necessary.) Clinical and legal caveats, suggestions for combining EMDR with other forms of therapy, and ideas for involving parents are included as well. With clients this young, significant results often come at an accelerated pace. This can be surprising to clinicians used to conducting adult-length sessions, but as one seven-year-old described the effect of EMDR on his nightmares, "[They] just cleared out of my brain."
I will unreservedly recommend the book to all........1999-03-21
Despite the child focus, I believe this book is essential reading for all who either use or intend to use EMDR, especially with children. Due to the inevitable developmental influence of much of adult trauma it is an important reference text for all to consider. Any criticism is perhaps only because the general standard is so high that one expects this work to be the fountain of all knowledge when in essence it is a brilliant text about EMDR with children containing a wealth of knowledge. The book is blended like a fine, smooth malt whisky. It has a unique combination of evidence based fact, neurobiological overview, exellent clinical case description, instruction and anecdote based on many years of skilled experience with a rare style that makes it extremely palatable, with continued satisfaction when you resample it. The hallmarks of true expertise were met by the authors' conversion of complexity to simplicity with minimal loss of data. Tinker & Wilson are a rare hybrid of 'gifted researcher and compassionate, effective clinician' who have given generously of their time to fellow professionals and patients. I will unreservedly recommend the book to all.
Customer Reviews:
The BEST book on Native/Christian contrast I've read.......2007-06-12
I've read a ton of book on Native/Christian comparisons and contrasts, but this was by far the most stimulating and well-reasoned of them all. The ideology is reasonable and the research is dead-on, and the authors represent tribal traditions with insight and clarity, even from perspectives outside their own tribal affiliations.
I was particularly interested in Tink's treatment of the Trickster ideology in Native cultures. As an Ojibway, I'm familiar with the works of Gerald Vizenor and commented to my wife (reading aloud to me on a road trip), "Oh yeah, Vizenor talks about stuff like this!" And Lo! and behold, but a paragraph later Tink references Vizenor while explaining the significance of Trickster characters in the development and maintenance of tribal mores. The recognition of Trickster stories in the Bible is something easily missed by Amer-European Christians, and yet for Indigenous people they are very apparent; I had even personally noted the Trickster story in the Jesus/Syro-Phoenician Woman account and then Tink alludes to it as well.
I found their treatment of things like land, panentheism, the roles of men and women, sexuality, and concepts of sin and salvation to be intriguing, and I have long preached a very Indigenist world view to Christians who often fail to recognize that such a world view is at the heart of, not contrary to, the systems of Native *and* Biblical premises, if one knows how to read or listen.
I wish I could spend an evening with Kidwell and Tink, just eating dinner and talking long into the night. I find their collaborative ideas to be fascinating and needed.
An exercise in understanding Native American theology.......2001-05-23
In A Native American Theology, Clara Kidwell, Homer Noley, and George Tinker effective collaborate to present an original exercise in understanding Native American theology. While observing traditional categories of Christian systematic theology, there is a reimaging consistent with Native American experience, values, and world view. The authors also introduce new categories from native thought-worlds such as the Trickster (eraser of boundaries, symbol of ambiguity), and Land. Highly recommended reading for Native American studies, multicultural studies, and comparative religion, A Native American Theology concludes with the authors addresses contemporary Native American issues including racism, poverty, stereotyping, cultural appropriation, and religious freedom.
Book Description
When Jack Taylor blew town at the end of The Guards his alcoholism was a distant memory and sober dreams of a new life in London were shining in his eyes. In the opening pages of The Killing of the Tinkers, Jack's back in Galway a year later with a new leather jacket on his back, a pack of smokes in his pocket, a few grams of coke in his waistband, and a pint of Guinness on his mind. So much for new beginnings.Before long he's sunk into his old patterns, lifting his head from the bar only every few days, appraising his surroundings for mere minutes and then descending deep into the alcoholic, drug-induced fugue he prefers to the real world. But a big gypsy walks into the bar one day during a moment of Jack's clarity and changes all that with a simple request. Jack knows the look in this man's eyes, a look of hopelessness mixed with resolve topped off with a quietly simmering rage; he's seen it in the mirror. Recognizing a kindred soul, Jack agrees to help him, knowing but not admitting that getting involved is going to lead to more bad than good. But in Jack Taylor's world bad and good are part and parcel of the same lost cause, and besides, no one ever accused Jack of having good sense. Ken Bruen wowed critics and readers alike when he introduced Jack Taylor in The Guards; he'll blow them away with The Killing of the Tinkers, a novel of gritty brilliance that cements Bruen's place among the greats of modern crime fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Black, bleak, and beautiful.......2007-04-09
I don't hail from Middle Earth, as one of the previous reviewers, nor do I even care to vacation there, but I am a fan of both noir and quality writing. Ergo, I think this is one terrific book. The great thing about noir (well, all novels really) is that plots do not necessarily need to be complex to be gripping. It is the characters, especially the protagonist, who need to be complex. And, oh, my, is Jack Taylor one complex, messed-up, messed-about dude. Oddly, his drug use did not put me off, as such action often does with fictional characters (and is only one reason why I detest O'Brian's Stephen Maturin character). Rather, it really brought home to me what a sad mess Jack is, what crutches he is willing to limp around on rather than seek and practice medical/psychological help, and how he is a willing assistant to the creation and maintenance of the darkness in which he dwells...and pulls others down alongside him.
I had not read any of the Jack Taylor books prior to this one (and I'll be prompt about remedying that!) but I have read the Brant books by Ken Bruen, and I was delighted to see Brant make a lengthy appearance here, albeit under the name of Keegan. I hope Jack returns to London, I'd love to see him operating on Brant's turf. Jack has more conscience than Brant/Keegan, which may make him more likeable, but also leaves him more vulnerable. Bruen gives us a nicely dark, twisty ending, and left me wondering whether maybe Jack had less conscience than I thought.
One last note, on the lit and music cited or referenced in the book: If you don't like these, and don't understand why they permeate the book, then you have my pity. They don't require explanation, but rather exploration. And if you explore, then I don't pity you, I understand you.
Killing of the Tinkers writtern for men of a certain age.......2006-08-26
I saw an interesting interview of Ken Bruen on television. Mr. Bruen seemed fascinating and has an unusual life story. Although, I am not a fan of crime, murder, or forensics mysteries; I resolved to read one of Ken Bruen's books with high hopes.
A male friend of mine had just read Killing of the Tinkers (did not think much of the book) and was only too happy to send it to me.
From the beginning Ken Bruen's prose is the most sparsely written affair I have ever encountered. There seem to be sentences that are not sentences. We are needing some more character development and less holier-than-thou highfalutin quoting from books, poems and songs of a certain era. Ken preaches to us about literary and artistic items as if we have not been educated. The book has 256 pages but this could probably be condensed to about 120 pages or less. Reason is, Bruen's use of dialog; so 15 sentences of quotations from the characters would use up a page of the book. It is easy to read but then so is a grocery list.
I am troubled by a lot of things in this book but the worst of these is the main character, Jack Taylor, is supposed to be an ex-policeman but he continually makes really stupid mistakes that a police officer would never make. I suppose some would chalk that up to his being a drunk and a drug addict but my Dad was a cop and no matter how messed up you get you do not do a lot of the things Jack Taylor does: like being seen at a large funeral with some Gypsies who have hired him to find a murderer(totally blows any cover he might have wished to have). Then after he is is severely beaten by some gang at his home, he stays in a bar drinking and lets his woman take a cab alone back to the home without checking on her.
I find that Bruen skirts around the juicier details we might wish to read and instead gives us some far flung quote from some other person's book, poem, or song. Very nice work to let someone else do your writing.
Then there is the whole swan thing. What is that? The editor told him he needed something more in the book to fatten it up a bit, I suppose, because it is just plopped down in the middle of the book for no reason.
There is just too much wrong with this book. I am sure Ken Bruen is a smart man but I think he can do better. This book is cleverly contrived to appeal to a segment of the male population between 45 and 60's, who do not have much time to read.
Reading Bruen is Addictive.......2005-12-08
The second novel in Bruen's series about the down-and-out Jack Taylor, ex-cop, sometime private detective, fulltime alcoholic, reading addict--with the new addition of coke to his arsenal-- practically starts where THE GUARDS left off without much of a break. It's almost as if you were reading a continuation of the previous novel. Taylor is hired this time to find the killers of a group of tinkers; his second assignment is to catch whoever is decapitating the swans in Galway.
Taylor's world view is as bleak as December weather. His friends Cathy and Jeff have a child born with Down's syndrome, an example of sorrow gone to seed. I would be over his constant bout with the bottle if he weren't so literate about it all. He's read everybody: Dylan Thomas, Anne Sexton, Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, Harry Crews, Raymond Chandler. The list goes on and on. He says "my life and certainly my sanity had fled to reading through a thousand dark days." Taylor hates his mother, is not very successful in love and is often makes very bad judgments in his attempts to solve the tinker murders. He sometimes waxes eloquent, however, and you become besotted with him. A suit he got from Vincent de Paul wasn't purchased with him in mind. And his description of Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down" as the ultimate "alky anthem" is worth the price of the book.
The ending will blow you away!
Suffers only by comparison to its prequel.......2005-06-20
While "The Guards" debuted Jack Taylor and gave us the first of his Galway-based investigations, this sequel bogs down in the first sixty pages rehashing the previous work's highlights, thus vitiating the new story of a considerable amount of its own dynamism. On its own, "Killing" advances Jack's saga, nimbly expanding some of his (and my) favourite minor characters from take one: unctuous Fr Malachy, the wry "sentry" at the bar stool, and porcine Supt. Clancy. The welcome new additions of blustery Keegan and menacing Fred offset the rather flat Jeff & Catherine match this time around. The minor characters' shared understatement and maudlin sourness establishes neatly and laconically their inimitable Irishness. This is not to say Bruen falls into cliche, quite the contrary.
What suffers after pitting this newcomer against Jack's first case are too many similarities. I cannot divulge specifics as they spoil the plot, but there were repetitions in suspects, crimes, and investigatory procedures (often involving tossing money at Jack's contacts and having them suss out, off the pages, key evidence for Jack to bring to his paying customer) that made much of this novel rather feel casually spun off rather than intricately plotted. Now, some indirection, given the purported motivation of finding out about the "tinkers" deaths despite the "clans" propensity for secrecy makes the comparative lack of detail about this subculture acceptable. But, even more than in "The Guards," the sense of lives lost behind the list of the four murdered travellers that Jack must try to solve appears too evanescent. One powerful vignette of a travellers' camp destroyed by hostile elements among the settled folks recalls real events at Rahoon that occurred in past decades. Still, the whole "tinker" element remains largely overshadowed by more immediate skulduggery for most of the story--even the decapitation of swans!
I was also let down by the puzzling Kiki, who seems to come and go with little reason except as a reason to define metaphysics and provide the obliquely prepared for motivation for her walking out on Jack in one pub scene. Laura, notably, seems not to deserve the fate she meets, and why Jack's attitude towards her is such may be blamed on his coke habit, for little logic can be culled from his actions towards her, given her demonstrative loyalty to him. Since Bruen via Jack's tender perspective is wise to the gentle-yet-cutting manner of Irish women when it comes to Mrs. Bailey, why this perspicacity fails to transfer to the island's younger and impressively willing women confused me as well as Jack's major antagonist this time around.
If I had read this and "The Guards" had never surfaced, it'd gain a higher rating, and my three stars do not diminish Bruen's passion and care for his city and its denizens. I care along with the author and his fictional creations about the scenes he narrates. But with even the same Merton quote repeating again in this sequel (although I was pleased to find Beckett twice!), I feel Bruen's coasting rather than accelerating.
Darker than you think........2005-04-13
I think that "The Guards" was a better novel than this one but even more so "Blitz" and "The White Trilogy," about whom Keegan makes frequent reference, were better.
The addictions of Jack Taylor make the reader uncomfortable, far more than say an angry Harry Bosch or an "under the rock" novel by James Crumley. But then again, Ken Bruen intends that result.
I felt a little uncomfortable with the continued references to George Pelecanos. Possibly this is because "Tinkers" is structured so similarly. What with the continued references to sports, albeit Irish sports, and rock 'n roll, it feels like a Pelecanos novel.
But if it's structured that way, it makes Pelecanos sound like a Nancy Drew mystery writer. Jack is dark, exceeded in this reviewer's recollection only by the aformentioned Crumley.
Notwithstanding any of that, it's brilliant writing and recommended for both Bruen and mystery fans generally. Larry Scantlebury. 4 stars.
Average customer rating:
- Infinitely rereadable
- Wonderful Read
- don't be deceived by comparisons to Buffy
- The Magical Mystery Tour is Coming to Take You Away
- Magical, Mystical Pittsburgh??
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Tinker (Baen Fantasy)
Wen Spencer
Manufacturer: Baen
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0743498712 |
Book Description
Inventor, girl genius Tinker lives in a near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves. She runs her salvage business, pays her taxes, and tries to keep the local ambient level of magic down with gadgets of her own design. When a pack of wargs chase an Elven noble into her scrap yard, life as she knows it takes a serious detour. Tinker finds herself taking on the Elven court, the NSA, the Elven Interdimensional Agency, technology smugglers and a college-minded Xenobiologist as she tries to stay focused on what's really important - her first date. Armed with an intelligence the size of a planet, steel-toed boots, and a junkyard dog attitude, Tinker is ready to kick butt to get her first kiss.
Customer Reviews:
Infinitely rereadable.......2007-07-23
I just read Tinker for the fourth time. I enjoyed just as much this time as I did the first. There is always some new thing to discover each time I read the book. Tinker is a very likable character and I love the fact that she is so intelligent. It's fun to have a character who is cute, energetic, and yes, actually can do rocket science (or at least gate science). The romance is fun but doesn't bog down the rest of the story. I highly recommend this book.
Wonderful Read.......2007-05-02
I enjoyed the female heroine in this work of fiction. She is resourceful and confident even when frustrated by others reliance on her...a pure braniac. She is not the most physical heroine we have gotten used to reading about in recent urban fantasy works, but that's because she doesn't pretend to be physically compatible with those she is aligned against. This work made me think because I wanted to understand the workings of the character's mind, but it doesn't force you to think through complicated processes to understand how situations impact the overall story.
There is a scene of rape/bestiality in the book, but the context was such that it underscores the cruelty of the adversary contending with Tinker. It doesn't add much to the storyline, true, since it wasn't significant enough that I recalled it until reminded by another reviewer. But it is also not graphic enough to cause too much distraction.
There is some Mary-Sueism to contend with, but we're not talking about a harem. We are also not talking about a heroine who is interested in developing a boy-toy following. This is a well thought out work that is even better than any of Laurell K. Hamilton's earlier works (which is saying a whole lot).
Overall an extremely good read and so much fun.
don't be deceived by comparisons to Buffy.......2007-04-30
... although the main character, Tinker, is (occasionally) resourceful and occasionally so stupid it makes you wince (handing weapons over to enemies, totally trusting despite warnings etc.), there is a fairly graphic gangrape/bestial rape sequence quite near the end of the book, totally gratuitous and unnecessary to the plot. Readers who enjoy books that have empowered female characters, or who simply are not entertained by graphic rape scenes, will want to avoid this book.
The Magical Mystery Tour is Coming to Take You Away.......2007-03-28
I read purely for enjoyment, escape, fantasy. This book was a breath of fresh plot. Well, maybe the human-envies-elves bit has been done, but not like this. Being in a group of families whose kids are ready for college at age 12, I found the young protagonist, Tink, to be a strong female role model. The seduction of Tink by the elf - necessary (according to the story) to transform Tink into an immortal elf - is a bit awkward for younger readers, but overall this book is driven by character development and lots of action. I had a great time!
Magical, Mystical Pittsburgh??.......2007-01-02
I'm not sure why, but urban fantasy has been a rich field for heroines, whether they raise the dead, fight for or against the elves, or hold vampires at bay. I have to say this is the first time that someone has moved Pittsburgh into Faerie in order to manage a plot. Not quite all the way into Faerie though - it still returns on a regular basis. Tinker's lighter side dwells on the practical complexities of residents who have one foot in each world and few rights in either. It's not easy living somewhere that magic ebbs and flows and almost everything must be imported from the mundane world.
Tinker is the heroine in question, of course. She runs a salvage business that is half technology and half magic and sometimes entirely haphazard. She's not a swordswoman, but a bit of a girl genius whose brain is coveted by various governments, but who really just wants to live a semi-ordinary life with just a dab of romance. Things grow quickly out of control when Windwoff, an elf lord, dashes into her yard an inch ahead of some magical beasts and Tinker manages to rescue him. Getting Windwolf put back together turns into a monumental task, and Tinker brooks no opposition. Suddenly our little trash girl is dodging a slew of agents and politicians while being drawn steadily into a romance that seems impossible at best.
Hats off to Tinker, who is not about to be overwhelmed by the schemes of those with half her mind. Her strategy is to keep up a pace of escalating crises. That way no one really understands what is happening, much to the reader's enjoyment. The book cover my promise you the Tinker is the next Buffy, but the truth is that Tinker is uniquely her own character. It's hard not to like her and her friends, and I'm looking forward to Wen Spencer's unavoidable sequel with Tinker's continued efforts to save Pittsburgh from itself.
Customer Reviews:
Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03
The end of the series about the ambiguous shapeshifter Raven Darkholme, and her dangerous games. There are a few shorter stories here, of the more self-contained variety.
An interesting series that unfortunately didn't continue, and probably should have been a MAX title to get to its full potential. Bisexual shapeshifting spy/assassin/villain/mothers are not your standard sort of Spider-Man type adventure characters.
wow.......2004-11-13
collects #7-13. another winner. as i said in my review of mystique tpb #1, this series easily beats the anything the core writers are doing these days; and i'm happy to say that tpb #2 is even better. the first arc has mystique trying to avert a potential worldwide epidemic and introduces a new villain that for lack of better words is "totally cool"; definitely way more original than what most other writers are coming up with. then there's a short two-parter w/ forge as the two track down a kidnapped mutant, and then a one shot where mystique is sent to brazil. vaughan's writing continues to be fresh, and his characterization of mystique is a bit more well rounded here. it'll be interesting to see if he can keep this up into the next arc. michael ryan's artwork is great, and although manuel garcia's artwork for two issues pales in comparison it's still good. i'm seriously going to have to get another copy of this to lend to my friends.
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