Book Description
“Stop all this talk about monsters, Michele. Monsters don’t exist. It’s men you should be afraid of, not monsters.”
A sweltering heat wave hits a tiny village in Southern Italy, sending the adults to seek shelter, while their children bicycle freely throughout the countryside, playing games and getting into trouble. On a dare, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano enters an old, abandoned farmhouse, where he stumbles upon a secret so terrible that he can’t tell anybody. As the truth emerges, Michele learns that the horror in the creepy old house is closer to home than he ever imagined.
A widely acclaimed international bestseller,
I’m Not Scared is a spine-tingling novel that combines a coming of age narrative with a satisfying, enthralling story of suspense.
Customer Reviews:
Great Writing.......2007-06-29
I'm Not Scared tells the story of Michele, a nine-year-old boy who lives in the tiny, dusty town of Aqua Traverse. One day while a dare from Skull, the local bully, he enters an abandoned farmhouse and makes a terrible discovery: a boy's body in a hole. The boy, he later learns, isn't dead, but is being held captive, but by whom? As he slowly learns the truth, we learn a great deal about his world and the desperate choices those around him have made.
I enjoyed the style of writing in this book--it was very spare, yet evocative. Michele's narration is spot on. I loved the way he described the hills as being alive (not at all Sound-Of-Music-esque.) And the book's ending will definitely leave you with plenty to think about!
good book--translation lacking.......2007-01-30
In general, this is a finely written mystery/coming-of-age tale as many other reviewers have noted. Unfortunately, for me at least, the translation was done in an overly-"British" English. There really is a neutral idiom that good translators can strive for and achieve and which reads well on either side of the Atlantic. Too often, both the dialog and the narrator's voice invoked a setting in the UK rather than in southern Italy.
One of a Kind Book.......2006-11-13
This is an enthralling suspense book. The story will keep you wondering how it will resolve itself. My original copy of this book was second-hand. I bought a new copy to give as a gift.
The Movie Is BETTER Than The Book!!.......2006-08-13
IMHO...Here's one of those times when the movie was much better realized and much more suspenseful than the book. The DVD is available for purchase or rent. The work is, however, original, and if one likes "coming of age" stories, this one is okay. But if you WATCH it, you won't need popcorn!
great!.......2005-10-06
the book was in exactly the condition they said it would be in and they shipped the book promptly which allowed me to receive it promptly as well... im very pleased with their services.
Book Description
This adventure about everyone's favorite mischievous white puppy is now a Scholastic Reader!It's Halloween, and puppy wants to dress up. Should he be a big black bat? Or maybe a wise wizard? How about a funny clown?As he is getting ready, a bunch of scary ghosts are at the door! Boo! Puppy is scared, until he recognizes his friends underneath the costumes. Happy Halloween!
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I'm Not Scared (My First Reader)
Kirsten Hall
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ASIN: 0516246313 |
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I'm Not Scared
Manufacturer: Books on Tape
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Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: 0736698760 |
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5 Compact Discs
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I'm Not Scared
Jan Pienkowski
Manufacturer: Egmont Childrens Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0760706808 |
Customer Reviews:
Scared's Review.......2003-12-11
This is a great book for kids, showing most of the fears the kids might have at that age, or what activities they do that others might think are scary. It also lets them know that there will be someone there for them to help them when they are scared (in this case, it's one of their dads). Making for a nice first book, this is definitely one of the best children's books that I have read so far.
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I'm Not Scared
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ASIN: 0207183643 |
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My First Reader Series School Market Edition
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I'm Not Scared (Reading Worlds - Everday World - Level 2)
J. Ford
Manufacturer: Macmillan Education Ltd
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Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-08-14
Finally, Cam (who was frozen with Bree for 170 years) got her story.
Prince Kyber, also from Banzaii, and I hoped he would get his story. Here is it.
Wonderful read, full of action. Well written with two likeable characters.
top form.......2007-05-14
It was a great conclusion to the series! Susan Grant never disappoints me!
Read the book, you'll like it!.......2005-10-02
For those of you who like sci-fi action and romance you should read "The Legend of Banzai Maguire" first. The action rips right through the book and you'll finish reading it in no time, hence that leads to "The Scarlet Empress." In this book you'll find the deeper emotions revealed between Ty and Bree and their struggles with the U.C.E., and in my humble opinion the best parts in this book (which there are many) is the interaction between Cam and Kyber, the delicate movements between the two, like Swans drawing closer each dancing around but not quite sure...yet! I love the witty dialog exchange between these two, you'll laugh because you'll swear you've had a similar conversation or you'll say to yourself "oh, good come back! I have to use that next time." I found myself feeling closer to Kyber this time around (you'll have to read the book as to why), and that's a good thing! A good writer will have enough details of each character that you as a reader will find yourself relating not so much as the experiences (maybe for some of you), but to the personal struggles one goes through. Now that's real! Take the risk and read the book, you won't be disappointed.
Cam comes to the rescue!.......2005-09-13
The 2176 series comes to an exciting close with a story both complex and emotionally satisfying. Cam 'Scarlet' Tucker has been found and removed from her cryogenic container. But the efforts to keep her hidden from those that want her for political reasons fail. Cam is captured by a disguised Prince Kyber, who is still hurting from Banzai Maguire's escape and subsequent capture by the UCE. As Kyber and Cam form an emotional bond Banzai attempts to survive the brutal tortures of the UCE regime. The revolution begins, the Voice of Freedom is revealed, and Cam comes to the patriotic rescue. Recommended.
The Scarlet Empress.......2005-01-18
This is an action-filled romance novel with loads of
suspense that you have to just keep reading and not put
the book down.Great characters that you will learn to love and
see how they go through some exciting times to accomplish their
goals.A greatlove story!
Customer Reviews:
Scarlet Empress--Doctor Who Meets MindBlowing Idiocy.......2002-02-13
Imagine throwing in the pure inventiveness of Grant Morrison, the best fanciful idiocy of the Doctor Who television series, and an army of shaved bears, and you may get an idea of the joy Paul Magrs has delivered with 'The Scarlet Empress'. It's been said almost to the point of cliche that this is a 'strange' book--and it is. It's also a delight, moving the good Doctor fully into the possibilities of the narrative imagination. This is not your generic Doctor Who--no running through corridors, no whiffy time mechanics, no playing it safe. This is a Doctor Who adventure that grabs you by the lapels and gives you a big Groucho Marx kiss. Then, when you least expect it, it can break your heart.
You've been warned. If you love Doctor Who being pushed forward, then why are you still reading this? Order, my child. Order.
Finally, an EDA that is not just a third generation rehash........2001-06-13
It's Doctor Who because it's completely unlike anything that Doctor Who has ever done before. Better than that, it's good Doctor Who because it doesn't just stop at pushing the multi-faceted envelope; it's entertaining and interesting at the same time. It even stops at a few points for some interesting self-aware passages that offer some thoughts on the nature of story-telling that were well-written enough to stop just before they became too pretentious.
It's a very complicated book, with many jumps in the narrative from different viewpoints, sometimes several within the same page. This can be a little difficult at times, but it's very rewarding overall. The perspectives from different characters and cultures are very rich and detailed, and all of them are treated with a good degree of respect.
There are one or two weak points. At some places, the plot almost disappears and these sections tend to drag a bit. There are other spots where the suspension of disbelief that was required was just a more than what I was willing to give. I can forgive one or two little coincidences, but there are some in here that are just so great that I felt they hurt the overall quality of the book.
On the whole, this is one of the best EDAs that I have read and is well worth a second read.
How do you say "over-rated"?.......2001-06-08
Pual Magrs' first foray into the Whoniverse is written very competently. In fact, I didn't notice any glaring grammatical errors. This is probably the nicest thing I'm going to say about this book.
I don't have a problem with magic realism; in fact, I absolutely adore _The Blue Angel_, Magrs' second book with Jeremy Hoad. However, this one just doesn't work. The reason why is simple; Magrs is so busy coming up with neat little ways to describe things that he forgot to include a coherent plot in the novel.
The plot loosely revolves around a quest. The Doctor and Sam meet up with a figure from the Doctor's past named Iris, a batty Time Lady who looks a little like the town librarian and seems to be quietly appropriating the Doctor's past adventures for herself. Along the way, they meet up with four terminally uninteresting characters and ramble around in a haphazard manner, fiddling around with various denziens of the planet Prospero and generally being useless. Things culminate in a showdown which completely removes any credibility from the quest. The characters wander off in seperate directions and the reader is left with the shell-shocked feeling that the author is screaming about his cleverness into the reader's ear with a megaphone.
Paul Magrs needs a co-writer to be effective; in _The Blue Angel_, various ideas are tossed at the reader all at once, only to be stitched into a coherent picture by the end. The overwhelming feeling left at the end of _The Scarlet Empress_ is, "Um, is that it?"
Too Much Shift of Focus.......2000-04-04
Frankly, this book is a trifle boring. And, not to contradict my esteemed fellow readers, but the follow up, The Blue Angel, is worse. There is entirely too much shift of focus. Too bad, really, because Iris Wildthyme could be such a great character. Her TARDIS also breaks the pattern by not being dimentionally larger on the inside than out. All in all, a poor read.
Odd but enjoyable.......2000-03-22
This is not a book for anyone who does not *really* enjoy reading, as it is as much a story *about* story-telling as it is a story in itself. Full of digressions, fillips, curlicues, dead-ends, jumps in the narrative, illogicalities, oddities, eccentrics, and just plain weirdness, it is also not for someone expecting a straight-forward adventure tale. The Doctor is as much spectator or participant, the plot is rather thin (until the end), and the prose style dense and ornate. But if you stick with it and savor it for what it is, rather than reject it for what it isn't, you will find it engrossing, delectable, unique, and unforgettable.
Book Description
The first and most successful in the Baroness’s series of books that feature Percy Blakeney, who leads a double life as an English fop and a swashbuckling rescuer of aristocrats, The Scarlet Pimpernel was the blueprint for what became known as the masked-avenger genre. As Anne Perry writes in her Introduction, the novel “has almost reached its first centenary, and it is as vivid and appealing as ever because the plotting is perfect. It is a classic example of how to construct, pace, and conclude a plot. . . . To rise on the crest of laughter without capsizing, to survive being written, rewritten, and reinterpreted by each generation, is the mark of a plot that is timeless and universal, even though it happens to be set in England and France of 1792.”
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Download Description
If you've never read The Scarlet Pimpernel, order this great book now! Move over Zorro and Superman ? here is the first costumed-hero with a secret identity, plus literature's most fiery, independent and alluring heroine.
Customer Reviews:
Delightful! .......2007-07-07
This book is a delightful read. In contrast to the sorrow and heaviness of other books on the French Revolution (including Marie Antoinette The Journey by Antonia Fraser), this book is a very different take on the tragedy. Sir Percy vies with his wife Marguerite, a brilliant French actress, in terms of acting ability. He has mastered the role of a brainless dandy to such an extent that he is the last person anyone would suspect as having the wits and wherewithal to be the Scarlet Pimpernel. Aristocrats are spared the guillotine time after time thanks to this man's ingenuity.
Shortly after Marguerite and Sir Percy marry, Marguerite tells Sir Percy of her involvement in the arrest of a certain marquis who had humiliated her brother. Marguerite does not tell her husband the whole story, including that she had no idea her words would be taken out of context and used against the marquis and that she had done everything within her influence to try to prevent the marquis's death at the guillotine. Sir Percy's attitude towards Marguerite changes: he is still the gallant he always was, but a certain coldness and reservation mark his manner. Marguerite had hoped that her husband would not need a full explanation, and that his worshipful devotion towards her would continue unabated. She is hurt by his changed opinion of her and retaliates with pointed sallies at Sir Percy's expense. She is considered one of the cleverest women in all of Europe, and she sharpens her wits by making fun of her husband, whom she wrongfully assumes is too unintelligent to take offense.
It is not until Marguerite partially confides in her husband when her brother's life is threatened that Sir Percy learns the truth of Marguerite's (unintentional) involvement in the marquis's death. Sir Percy repents his false impressions of his wife and vows that he will do everything within his ability to save Marguerite's brother. As Marguerite makes her way up the staircase after this intense communication, Sir Percy actually kisses the stairs where Marguerite had just walked! His worshipful attitude towards her is renewed, and Marguerite for her own part recognizes how much she has loved her husband all along. But is it too late for the lovers? Marguerite was forced by circumstance to reveal information about the Scarlet Pimpernel to an unrelenting French commissioner (an obsessive, Javert-like character) before realizing that the same man is her own husband.
The rest of the book is a clever game of cat and mouse, replete with a happily-ever-after ending (or rather, a happy-for-the-time-being ending, as there are more books in the Scarlet Pimpernel series).
I had seen the movie with Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour several years ago. Both the book and movie are equally wonderful, though the movie's storyline is a bit different. Anthony Andrews (whom I had a crush on as a young girl after seeing him in a TV miniseries) was beyond perfection in the title role, and of course, Jane Seymour was wonderful as Marguerite.
Swashbuckling without swords and almost without violence.......2007-06-10
"The Scarlet Pimpernel" is a swashbuckling tale of the French Revolution's reign of terror, only without any swords swashing, and open contempt for the revolutionaries.
A couragous Englishman and a band of his fellow aristocrats rescue French nobles from death at the hands of unwashed masses who shout "Librete, Egalite, Fraternite!" and murder and suppress anyone associated with the earlier regime. The Englishmen don't do this out of duty, or opposition to the brutal leaders in France, but for the sport of it, or so they claim to conceal nobler motives. The sinister Chauvelin, an agent of the French Republic is dedicated to rooting out the Scarlet Pimpernel, the leader of the band who makes fools of the Revolution.
Short, very readable, with engaging characters who have personal lives, flaws, and issues as well as heroic traits and adventures, this book is pretty darned good. Unlike most stories of late Eighteenth Century Europe, swordplay and violence in general is conspicuous by its absence. The Scarlet Pimpernel uses trickery, cunning, and audacity to outsmart the French authorities who are bent on his destruction as they try to murder the remnants of the French Aristocracy. I liked it a lot, and largely because it wouldn't get good reviews in todays media.
"The Scarlet Pimpernel" shows the virtues of monarchy, the vices of democracy, the nobility of taking personal risk to life and limb for strangers, the villiany of the will of the masses, the weakness of grim single-minded determination, and above all, the strength of laughter and a light heart. All of which constitute heresy to "real" book reviewers in academia and the media. Read it, and enjoy a perspective not normally heard, as well as an outstanding adventure story.
God Save the King!.......2007-06-02
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic novel, though it is hard to categorize. It is part romance, part adventure, part spy thriller, and part superhero fiction. All of these elements went into the pot and the resulting stew is extremely entertaining.
The book follows the adventures of Sir Percy Blakeney as he seeks to help French aristocrats escape the guillotine during the French Revolution. Since official English policy forbids this, Blakeney adopts a masked identity as the Scarlet Pimpernel to remain anonymous. The French, of course, detest this interference in their affairs and set out to trap and kill the Pimpernel at all costs. As part of his effort to deflect suspicion from himself, he plays the fool in every day life and he does it well. His own wife considers him a useless fop... and that's where the story really gets interesting.
I won't give away more of the plot, but she ends up following him into danger in an attempt to save him. This allows the most suspenseful section of the book to be told from Mrs. Blakeney's perspective. Her terror for her husband's fate is pure and adds to the tension considerably. If we saw it through the Pimpernel's eyes, it would doubtless be far more composed and nowhere near as suspenseful.
In closing, The Scarlet Pimpernel is well worth buying. It's laugh out loud funny, suspenseful, romantic, and generally quite a page-turner.
One of the best books of all time........2007-02-22
I adore this novel and the Baroness' writing style. I'll admit that I chose this version for its cover, but had always wanted to read the novel. Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. This is a great book for anyone who is a fan of historical dramas, adventure and/or romance. It's definitely a great book for both sexes and many ages!
Dual Identity equals Adventure.......2007-02-19
This book is definitely on my top five of historical fiction. Similar in content to A Tale of Two Cities, the Scarlet Pimpernell follows a man of dual identity who, for sport, travels to France during the French revolution to rescue aristocrats. The book is filled with intrigue, romance, and adventure. A must read!
Average customer rating:
- Screw Publisher's Weekly
- One of my favourite novels
- The Beauty of Maureen
- The master outdoes himself once again!
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To Sail Beyond Sunset
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
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ASIN: 0399132678 |
Customer Reviews:
Screw Publisher's Weekly.......2007-04-03
This is my favorite of all the Heinlein novels I have read. Far from being a story of debauchery and helpless characters, it is both a wonderful scifi novel and an exploration in open-mindedness. The sexual attitudes represented here are refreshing in their non-conformity, and yet completely logically reasoned out. Maureen is a wonderfully real character with flaws and aspirations to delight any reader. Our favorite scifi kitty Pixel also makes an appearence.
This is one of those books that I will read over and over again, and it will hold a place amongst my favorite scifi novels for a long time.
One of my favourite novels.......2001-05-18
This has long been one of my Favourite novels ever by RAH. Not only does it tie up all the loose ends with his previous Lazarus Long Novels, but it gives an insight into his ideas on life, love and relationships. "Mama Maureen" gives us many words to live by and I can only hope that I would be as strong as she is in similar situations. Heinlein gives such "historical" detail to his novels that you can almost believe that this is what should have actually happened - even when his history goes off in odd directions. This is a novel I go back and read over and over again.
The Beauty of Maureen.......2000-03-04
What a wonderfully refreshing view! Women around that time period are so often portrayed as prim and proper, completely dependant on their husbands for everything. Maureen is tough, practical, and intellegent. As for the writing, once again Heinlein's tone is lush and sensual (as is Maureen!) with a sense of adventure and Heinlein's ever- present political commentary. He is called the grand master of sci-fi for an excellent reason! Another success- his best ever!
The master outdoes himself once again!.......1999-11-30
This is my favorite Heinlein book of all time! Maureen's practicality and stand-for-nothing attitude are wonderfully refreshing to read in an era of vaporish heroines. At the same time, she has a remarkable blend of old-fashioned values and a tendency to thumb her nose at "Mrs. Grundy". Also, after reading "Time Enough for Love" and "Number of the Beast" it was fascinating to get another perspective on some of the same events. Maureen is a woman afer my own heart, and I will not tire of reading this book, nor can I wait until my daughter is old enough to read it!
Average customer rating:
- Super Reader
- Methuselah's mother . . . .
- Out of Ideas
- The first, but certainly not last Heinlen.
- A little skewed
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To Sail beyond the Sunset
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Ace
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ASIN: 0441748600 |
Customer Reviews:
Super Reader.......2007-08-26
The last Lazarus Long book takes a tour of the previous books, basically.
A little more tongue in cheek, this book, so definitely made it more entertaining to me.
Would you have sex with your hot time travelling immortal babe of a mother, if you could or didn't know? Good question?
That family is a bit complicated and definitely irregular as the subtitle suggests.
Methuselah's mother . . . ........2006-11-20
This is the first-person story of Maureen Johnson Smith, red-haired Missouri beauty and free spirit, and the mother of Woodrow Wilson Smith, a/k/a Lazarus Long (among many other aliases), the longest-lived member of the human species. The first three-quarters of the book isn't really "science fiction," but it's all 100% Heinlein. It's also the author's last-written work before his death in 1988 and in many ways it almost reads as if Heinlein knew that would be the case. The Johnson/Smith family is rather unusual, even for one of the early Howard families, and they're all surrogates, in one way or another, for the author's fully developed social ideas and opinions -- but every reader of Heinlein knows that will be the case. Read _Time Enough for Love_ (which its narrative line largely parallels) before you tackle this one.
Out of Ideas.......2005-12-06
Back in his day Heinlein was the greatest writer of science fiction for adolescent boys. Unfortunately, that day is long past, and Heinlein has wandered far from his strength. This book fills in some gaps from Time Enough for Love and is a rehash of much of that story from an alternate viewpoint. As was the case in Time Enough for Love, sexual coupling of old men and young girls is a recurring theme. Examples: The two female lead characters brag to one another how they had their first sexual experience at ages 12 and 14 and with men 4 times their age. The male lead goes back in time and has sex with his sister, then a young teen, and he, at this point, the oldest man in human history. To make all this go down easier, the young females are the sexual aggressors and the old men are pursued, and said to be 'tripped' if she has her way with him. There is a lot more of this 'weird sex', but I will move on. This is not really a science fiction story per se, but there are a few trappings of science fiction used to decorate the story. Most of it takes place in the first half of the 20th century in mid America. There isn't really a plot. The book is a series of anecdotes occuring in the life of this unlikely heroine, seemingly Heinlein's feminine ideal. It is obvious that the author has run out of ideas at this late point in his career. This book would not have been published if it was the work of an unknown author.
The first, but certainly not last Heinlen........2005-11-30
Prior to owning this book, I had never heard of Robert A. Heinlein. I must say (sounding perverted, unfortunately) the only thing that really drew me to this book was the cover. Upon realization later, it looked somewhat similar to the statue "Venus deMilo."
As I read the book from the start, it really captivated me how detailed everthing seemed for a futuristic civilization. It almost seemed as if RAH, himself, had been there and wanted to share with the world, everything that he had seen.
Though, mentioned in other reviews, the strong incestuous vibe the book pulls in later chapters is a slight bit of a turnoff, I feel it also adds to the story somehow. Almost as if it ties into his other books from certain pivotal points. If some of the actions had not happened, the series and heritage would not have been what it was. I do mention this as the first Heinlein book I had ever read, so I may have mixed it up somehow.
Even so, I daresay, this is a spectacular read, and should not be overlooked. That, and read the other works he has out.
Disappointed? I think not.
A little skewed.......2005-08-27
I started reading Heinlen when I was eight, and didn't know that some of the books he wrote were written for kids while others for adults until AFTER I had read both Time Enough for Love and Friday at the age of eleven. Due to this, a large chunk of my social and political views were molded in a slightly different cast as my peers as Heinlen is,as my father put it, "the only man who could ever start a cult I would join" (which would have proably horrified him). Having said that, take my review with a grain of salt.
This is proabably my LEAST favorite Future History series of books, if only because it seemed to have the least point. The rampant incest, free love, pokes at organized religion, and general snubbing of societal rules bothers me not even a little. However, unlike most of Heinlen's books, I didn't finish this one feeling like I had figured out a little more about the world I live in, or the world I want to live in. There are aspects of Mama Maureen I take to heart in my own life, but unlike TEFL which I quote at my friends ad naueseum and attempt to work into the way I live my day to day life, I finished To Sail Beyond the Sunset feeling oddly empty. While I greatly enjoy the later Heinlen's, I don't enjoy when there is an Us/Them mentalitly to them. The thing I like most about TEFL, I Will Fear No Evil, and Friday is that I can get wrapped up in the story without worrying about who wins and who loses. To Sail Beyond the Sunset attempts the same feeling without being quite as succesful.
Having said that, I would kill to have Ira Johnson in my life, be one of Mama Maureen's children, and I'm still a hoping deep down inside to get to go travelng with Dora and Laz and Lor, and of course Lazarus. I live by the Eleventh Commandment and try to emulate Maureen's definition of a lady at every chance, and parts of this book have stuck with me between readings as with every Heinlen novel I've ever read (and as of last week I have read every piece of fiction he ever put into a book). I've read this book easly twenty-five times, I'm just saying it is ABSOLUTELY NOT the first or even fifth Heinlen to read, if you didn't like TEFL stop now, and be prepared to put the pre-imprinted notions of society to the side while reading this one, and expect to be a little uncomfortable if you can't.
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TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET
Robert Heinlein
Manufacturer: Michael Joseph
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0718129504 |
Customer Reviews:
The modern native American religious conflict.......2007-08-05
I hoped to get an overview of Native Indian religion in this book but the treatment was too selective to suggest any kind of coherent Native American spiritual system - maybe this is how it is. This book is overall, a description of the negative impact of the Judaeo Christian teachings on US land and people in the context of native Americans. It is quite contemporary in style and presupposes that the reader in an American with some background knowledge of the conflicts presented - but the book has no real handle or framework - be it historical, or environmental other than a broad criticism of evangelical Christianity - that much and the ramifications therefrom are clear - a bit more depth to do with the environment or Indian religions would certainly have been useful giving the book some shape. Having read it some time ago I feel there is a missed opportunity somewhere - though it highlights native American concerns and is a useful corrective to a recent upsurge in Evangelical Christianity.
It's Like Gold.......2007-03-27
This is one of my all time favorite books. Vine Deloria Jr. tells it like it is. As a former Christian Minister who returned to his roots to tend to his people's needs he knows exactly what the differences between the two general concepts are all about.
Deloria never fails to amaze with his ability to turn the tables on the colonial intelectuals, deconstructing, analyzing and referencing them with the same cold, 'scientific' approach as they have done to his people for centuries. The only difference is that Deloria does it from a Native perspective. It is no wonder that his white critics are upset by this process. It's also amazing that they never seem to comprehend the same feelings that are held by Natives whom continually confront such cynicism as they are analyzed with equally technical and impersonal jargon.
Deloria analyzes Native religions, western religions, history, prophecy, the whole concept of space and time from western and Indian perspectives. There is no other book on the market ANYWHERE that I have ever found that puts Native philosophy into English this way. If you are not Indian forget everything you think you know about Indians, open this book with an open mind and a thick skin and you will emerge transformed and with a new understanding of society and religion all together.
neither about Christianity or native religion.......2007-03-26
This book does a great disservice to its subject for it does not understand Christianity, which it is critiquing, and it also does not understand all the diversities of native religions. If one is going to write a native American critique of Christianity they should start with at least knowing what they are critiquing and the history of that religion and its great diversity, for CHristianity is diverse. Instead this book pretends that all Christians and Jews beleive the same thing and from that starting point this is a completely useless read. Christianity has hundreds of sects and four major divisions. Is any of that highlighted here? No. THis book pretends that the native religions have a special understanding of Christianity, but how can one accept that argument if the book itself does not bother to illuminate the reader that not all Christians think alike. And why does the book subscribe beleifs to Judaism that do not exist in Judaism at all, such as sin? The author apparently never bothered to use the same tolerance of Judaism that this book demands should be given to natives. That is hypocrisy and racism in itself.
Seth J. Frantzman
I have serious issues with this book.......2006-05-26
First of all let me start off by saying that Vine Deloria is amazing as a writer, as a philosopher, and I will say as many good things about him as I can. He's brilliant! I've read many of his books and yet he never fails to impress me.
My problem with him? As much as I like him I have to say he constantly seems to discredit himself with his hatred of Christianity. Now, quite frankly, I do not blame him, look at what many did to his people.
Now, he has done nothing wrong with expressing his viewpoints but it almost goes to the extream of a blind hatred if you will. The Native Americans especially the Lakota express constantly that they teach peace and respect for all cultures.
Even though I myself have issues with the church, at some points just reading I had to step away because it truely felt like there was such an intense hatred and anger.
I would recommend this book but be prepared and mostly take what he says about Christianity (if you are a firm believer etc) with a grain of salt-it is at this moment you will have to just realize he's just nothing more than a bitter old man who remembers, is not yet trusting of the white man or his faith, and refuses to release his anger.
A stunning book!.......2005-11-29
This book deserves to be in every comparative religion course. It takes a person on the periphery of a religious culture to see what is invisible to its own people. Originally written thirty years ago, Vine Deloria, Jr.'s thought-provoking Native American perspective is equally as valid now.
One could perceive his book to be a challenge to Christianity; however, I had a vision (while reading the book) that I was standing beside a keen observer who clearly puts words to the dichotomies and paradoxes of a culture that he lived with but was not a part of--like a leaf that is carried by the river. His philosophical views are a gift that only a Native North American could share.
Deloria's ability to describe perplexing contradictions is exceptional. One I found fascinating is that Christianity adopts a historical view versus a spatial (geographical) view; however, when the United States was concerned with the spread of Communism, it attempted to establish geographical constraints to contain a philosophical threat. Something to think about.
Like Deloria I, too, am concerned that unless the dominant Christian culture begins to connect to the earth and learn what it has to share with us, at some point there will be nothing left to explain to future generation. As a traveler into the wilderness, I can say from my experiences that the land has much to teach us provided we listen and hear.
Anyone in the dominant Christian culture who is unable to set aside their own perspective could find Deloria's view offensive. Yet, if the dominant culture would entertain this perspective, there would be an immense opportunity for greater compatibility, collaboration and cohesiveness.
Armchair Interviews says: To read and reflect on any one of the many questions that Deloria poses will give rise to the obvious, "there is much to be learned from Native American religions. And Vine Deloria, Jr. is speaking his truth when he states that God is Red.
Books:
- Imagining Argentina
- In Case We're Separated: Connected Stories
- Inside the Hornet's Head: An Anthology of Jewish American Writing
- Interview with the Vampire: Anniversary edition (The vampire chronicles)
- Kissing in Manhattan
- La fiesta del chivo (Punto de Lectura)
- Las intermitencias de la muerte
- Las Vegas and Beyond
- Lives of Girls and Women: A Novel
- Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land
Books Index
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Io Non Ho Paura
