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Nell Freudenberger knows from lucky girls. She has had a lot of luck herself in her short writing career: Her debut story was featured in The New Yorker, with a glossy full-color author photo alongside; a quick book contract ensued, on the strength of that one published story; and now comes a debut collection full of stories that are actually good. The Lucky Girls collected here are far-flung Americans, young women trying to figure out where they belong in the world. In "The Tutor," teenage Julia and her businessman father are living in Bombay; her mother has returned to the United States. Julia crams for the SATs with her tutor Zubin, smokes cigarettes, and goes to nightclubs; her father hovers at home. Freudenberger gets just right the moments when Julia and her father find themselves alone together, trying to be a family: "It was just the two of them at the table then; even with the leaves taken out and stored against the wall in the coat closet, they had to half-stand in order to pass the soup." Too, she knows the upper-class world of which she writes. In "The Orphan," Mandy's parents and brother come to visit her in Thailand, where she is working with "AIDS babies." Mandy's brother Josh appears, and Freudenberger skewers his type, neatly, in a sentence: "Josh looks like someone coming out of trench warfare in the Balkans, rather than college in Maine." But Freudenberger isn't telling easy rich-kid stories. She's forever pushing her narration. In "The Tutor," we hear from Zubin, an overeducated Indian, as well as from Julia. "The Orphan," in turn, is told by Mandy's mom, a woman bewildered by yet proud of her daughter's choice to remain in Thailand. Freudenberger's stories are cosmopolitan, expansive, and richly detailed, a beguiling combination of qualities. --Claire Dederer
Book Description
Lucky Girls is the debut collection by an author who first came to national attention with the 2001 publication of the title story in The New Yorker fiction issue.
Here are five stories, set in Southeast Asia and on the Indian subcontinent -- each on bearing the weight and substance of a short novella -- narrated by young women who find themselves, often as expatriates, face to face with the compelling circumstances of adult love. Living in unfamiliar places, according to new and often frightening rules, these characters become vulnerable in unexpected ways -- and learn, as a result, to articulate the romantic attraction to landscapes and cultures that are strange to them.
In "Lucky Girls," an American woman who has been involved in a five-year affair with a married Indian man feels bound, following his untimely death, to her memories of him, and to her adopted country. The protagonist of "Outside the Eastern Gate" returns to her childhood home in Delhi to discover a house still inhabited by the desperate and impulsive spirit of her mother who, years before, abandoned her family for a wild, dangerous journey across the Kyber Pass to Afghanistan. And, in "Letter from the Last Bastion," a teenage girl begins a correspondence with a middle-aged male novelist, who, having built his reputation writing about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, confides in her the secret truth of those experiences, and the lie that has defined his life as a man.
Lucky Girls marks the arrival of a writer of exceptional talents, one whose generosity of spirit, clarity of intellect and emotion, and skill in storytelling set her among today's most gifted and exciting young voices.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting look at American women abroad.......2007-10-06
There are no weak stories in Lucky Girls, yet a couple dazzle more than others. Each presents a look from the perspective of an American woman, in her 20s to 40s, with ties to Asia. The writing is very accessible, and also gives us access into the worlds of these five "lucky girls".
Novelist, Richard Ford, Says (and i agree).......2006-10-13
"Every story in this remarkable collection reveals the emergence of a truly prodigious talent."
At last! Rumors of talent pay off!.......2006-09-27
Nell Freudenberger is such a good writer that as soon a you begin to read what she's written you no longer think about her. That's as good as any writer can be, and I was delighted to discover her!
Skimpy........2006-08-01
My title refers not to the clothes sported by the girls in these stories -- who generally cover up so as not to offend Eastern sensibilities, be they in Vietnam, Thailand, or India -- but to the stories themselves. "Lucky Girls" won't give you much bang for your buck. These are slender little pieces in which nothing happens. Each one has a central idea: the maybe-rape, the married boyfriend, the manic-depressive mother, the tutor-tutee romance. But the ideas just sit there without getting developed. Freudenberger's heroines are generally passive in the face of fate, and their lack of initiative drains the potential for movement out of the stories. Only the last story breaks this mould. It relates the life of an aging male writer, with a clever twist at the end that makes up for (you guessed it) the female first-person narrator's passivity and lack of initiative. But strangely, I found this story the most boring of the lot. Maybe I was simply fed up with Freudenberger's detached, slangless,zingless voice by that time. Or maybe it's that the only REAL strength of this collection, and the reason it gets three stars from me instead of two or one, is Freudenberger's vivid description of her Indian and East Asian locales. You can really hear the voices of the beggars, smell the chapatis, and see the cockroaches. And the last story, set in the Midwest and New England, didn't have that.
If Freudenberger writes a novel, I'll check it out IF it's set in one of these Asian milieux she portrays so well (or so it seems to me; I've never been to India etc.). If it's set in the Midwest, or (horror of horrors) is about a writer, I'll pass.
merely "okay".......2006-01-11
This book presents an interesting dilemna--not good enough to be something memorable, but not bad enough to be a complete train wreck. The author has clearly spent time researching and revising. Although meticulous, her writing is not strong enough to carry this book without the "spark" of something like a plot, deeper insight, more humor, etc.
These stories are all about expat, young, upperclass women living in Asia. I'm amazed by how stories set in the most exotic (At least from the perspective of a middle class person living in the US) places can be described in such an uninteresting manner.
Many reviewers seem angry that this book was offered a $500,000 advance, when it of such an average, writer's workshop quality. These reviewers should remember to review novels solely on their merits, not over any bitterness or anger towards the author. For a truly interesting and well written novel about expat women, read "Interesting Women" by Andrea Lee.
Average customer rating:
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Lucky Girls
Nell Freudenberger
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0330493426 |
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Lucky Girls - Stories
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0965190862 |
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"Every story in this remarkable collection reveals the emergence of a truly prodigious talent." - Richard Ford
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Cinderella story (sorta).(Life: ask Lucky): An article from: Girls' Life
Laura Sandler
Manufacturer: Monarch Avalon, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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Management
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ASIN: B00082J4CU
Release Date: 2005-07-31 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Girls' Life, published by Monarch Avalon, Inc. on June 1, 2004. The length of the article is 791 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Cinderella story (sorta).(Life: ask Lucky)
Author: Laura Sandler
Publication:
Girls' Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2004
Publisher: Monarch Avalon, Inc.
Volume: 10
Issue: 6
Page: 32(1)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
- Blessings and Curses
- A fractured tale, beautifully rendered
- An interesting idea, deftly rendered.
- Not the best by Wolfe, but good
- A correction
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Soldier of the Mist
Gene Wolfe
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Wolfe, Gene | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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Latro in the Mist
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ASIN: 0312937342 |
Customer Reviews:
Blessings and Curses.......2007-06-12
I recently picked this book up again and re-read it after many years. I remembered enjoying it the first time round, and did so again this time. On re-reading it I am both more and less impressed by Wolfe on second reading! More, because I really enjoyed the plot, the character of Latro with his supporting characters and the way the very nature of the plot causes sudden plot breaks. Less, because in places it felt a bit too neo-pagan influenced when presenting the gods and goddesses, and he presented the gods based on reconstruction, which I felt caused them to lack a little in places where he could have used his wonderful imagination to great advantage. The deities were a golden oppurtunity for Wolfe to really excel in a way we know he can from his short stories and the New Sun books. For that reason I only give the book 4 stars, though I still think it is very enjoyable and ought to be read by anyone interested in ancient Greece, fantasy or just good novels.!
A fractured tale, beautifully rendered.......2006-02-10
Anybody who has seen the recent movie "Memento" knows the premise: the protagonist (in this case a wounded mercenary) has lost his longterm memory, and so can only remember what happens to him for one day. In both the movie and this book, he tries to compensate by writing down what he needs to know. Gene Wolfe's fine novel, however, far predates "Memento", and the world it describes, Greece in the 5th century BC, is a far more exotic and alien place.
As a piece of craft, this is a wonderful book--full of apt and elegant descriptions, sparely but deftly rendered characters, and eruptions of violence that pack surprising power. Wolfe is a writer who transcends the genre he happens to be working in, which is something of a miracle in today's pigeon-holed, dumbed-down publishing climate. My only complaint is that he perhaps takes his conceit too far, throwing in one or two too many shifts in time and place (and, in the case of one character, even gender) so that the plot remains less involving that it might have been.
All in all, this is a remarkable achievement.
An interesting idea, deftly rendered........2004-03-24
Someone said elsewhere that this felt like an exercise for Wolfe, and I know what they mean-- using a Memento-like plot (a main character who loses his memory at the end of every day) Wolfe sketches the world of ancient Greece through the eyes of a soldier named Latro.
The details are compelling-- I was uninterested in the real historical value (people should not be trying to derive history lessons from fantasy novels) but Wolfe does a good job, as usual, of creating a realistic and detailed world for Latro to inhabit.
The plot is somewhat less compelling. It is nearly a necessity of the trope that he chose that the plot becomes confusing (particularly in times when Latro couldn't write his journal) and I'm sad to say that I often didn't feel any kind of guiding line that was coherent enough to motivate me through the confusion.
Interesting for Wolfe completists or real fans of historical fiction, not a place to begin with his work otherwise.
Not the best by Wolfe, but good.......2002-07-18
This book is set in Ancient Greece, during the Persian Wars. The protagonist, Latro, is a soldier who has recieved a head wound and forgets very quickly. Therefore, he keeps a journal to tell himself who he is and what has happened to him--and that journal is this book. When I first heard about this, I was skeptical that a coherent novel could be written this way, but Wolfe makes it work without stretching believability too much.
Wolfe describes the setting effectively. In order to prevent the reader from using prior knowledge of Greek history or mythology to unfair advantage, he usually replaces the Greek proper names with the protagonist's translations (sometimes incorrect!), which are then rendered into English. This makes the reader nearly as disoriented as the characters, making the book more interesting. Some readers may be annoyed that Wolfe never stops to explain anything, but I think it's better this way, since it avoids the contrived plot devices and character behavior that are often necessary for more explicit exposition. Wolfe's characters are realistic enough, and it's interesting to watch Latro's development as a character and the ways he deals with his affliction.
Of course, I do have some complaints. The first few chapters were boring, and sometimes the plot seemed to drift, as if the author, as well as Latro, had forgotten what he was doing. This aside, Soldier of the Mist could make a good introduction to Wolfe for those who find the New Sun series intimidating. I rarely had much trouble with that longer (and better) work, but some do, and they may be glad that the worldbuilding, allusions, and descriptive language have been toned down. If you have already read and liked Wolfe, then read this. It won't change your life, but it is a solid and rewarding novel.
A correction.......2002-03-02
Another reviewer thinks that Latro is a legionaire. Tain't necessarily so. Read the book yourself, the history lessons of ancient Greece and the Romans, Latins and Etruscans you can work out at for yourself. For now, just know that the army of the Great King had conscripts from kingdoms near and far.
Book Description
This omnibus of two acclaimed novels is the story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who was fighting in Greece when he received a head injury that deprived him of his short-term memory but gave him in return the ability to see and converse with the supernatural creatures, the gods and goddesses, who invisibly inhabit the classical landscape. Latro forgets everything when he sleeps. Writing down his experiences every day and reading his journal anew each morning gives him a poignantly tenuous hold on himself, but his story's hold on readers is powerful indeed.
Customer Reviews:
Wish I could give it 6 stars.......2006-12-29
If this was not written by Gene Wolfe, who is more well known for his New Sun series, this would be some writers greatest work. If you like mythology there is no way you won't love this book. If you like Neil Gaiman than there is no way you won't love this book. If you loved the New Sun series than you will love this book. Heck, if you love great books than here is another one for you.
Of all the Gene Wolfe books, well besides the short story collections, I would recommend this book for new Gene Wolfe readers. It is a great introduction to Wolfe's style but very accesible because its based in an environment where the reader is somewhat knowledgable of.
READ THIS EVERY DAY.......2006-10-30
This is what Latro writes on the outside of his scroll to remind himself to read over his writings every morning. He has to leave himself this note because he cannot form new memories. Sound familiar? Yes, this is very much the same general idea as the film Memento from 2000, but this novel (actually a compilation of two novels, Soldier of the Mist, 1986 and Soldier of Arete, 1989) was written well before then. According to Wikipedia another book in this series, Soldier of Sidon is due out this year (2006), although I felt that the second novel, Soldier of Arete, pretty neatly ended the story.
On to the specifics. On one hand I found it really interesting, well-written, historically engaging, and a real challenge to follow a lengthy novel when the narrator isn't much help. On the other hand, the format was at times frustrating and the whole "I forget everything" got a little tiresome, especially near the beginning when most chapters were consumed by notes from Latro to himself explaining that he can't remember anything. Gene Wolfe seems to enjoy the relationship that the narrator has with the audience, as I've found his narrators are generally unusual in some way. In the New Sun books his narrator couldn't forget a single detail that he had lived through; in the Latro books the narrator can barely remember what happened a handful of hours ago, losing the rest to time, what he describes as the mist. In many ways I found myself enjoying the task of piecing together Latro's experiences into a meaningful narrative, flipping back in the novel over and over again to see if I really remembered hearing that name or that place.
This brings me to the one thing that I think really helped the Latro books be successful, which is true of Memento as well, and that is that the medium of the work inherently causes the reader to suffer the same ailment and fate as the protagonist. Wofle's writing keeps you slightly in the dark, and his method of opening each chapter with what has most recently happened, not what you just finished reading about, before moving back in time and catching up with this new present keeps you on your toes. This is why I like reading post-modern novels and novels that share many characteristics with a post-modern novel, such as this one: the effort that the reader must give to the reading and the ability and responsibility to help create the art.
Lastly, it was interesting to read what could be very loosely constructed as an historical novel. Set in ancient Greece, Wolfe does a fairly good job of helping the reader through difficult geography and cultures without giving away the game too much. He gives us many details which are likely true (I'll admit that I'm nothing close to a Grecian scholar, but what I read of Wolfe is that he likes to bleed history into his fiction) and many rough sketches of life in Greece around the turn of the calendars from BCE to CE. These details never seem to intrude on the story, only to enhance or flush out a given moment.
Overall, I would recommend this novel to others, but keep in mind that it is not a passive read. However, I found it to be pretty rewarding. Yay for Latro.
An entertaining story that nobody else could have told.......2006-04-27
`Latro In The Mist' brings together two novels by Gene Wolfe that brilliantly meld history and fantasy with a twist unique to literature. It's good to see these back in print in a form that will let you pick up both for a reasonable price.
With `Soldier of the Mist' Wolfe tells a story that would stop any other author in their tracks. `Soldier of the Mist' is the diary of Latro, a soldier of ancient Rome (maybe) who suffered a head wound on the battlefield. Every day when Latro awakens, he has a new case of amnesia. Not only does he not know who he is, but whatever he learns lasts only one day. He has found travelling companions in his search for his identity, and every morning they have him read his diary to learn who he is. Every night he makes new entries, hoping they will be useful in the coming day. The next morning he will face the world as new, knowing only what he's written and what he sees in front of him. Latro wanders ancient Greece dealing with war, politics, gods and goddesses. His lack of knowledge and prejudices let him (and you) see the world of the ancients in an entirely new light.
Latro's journey continues in `Soldier of Arete.' While not as compelling as `Mist', Latros walking tour of ancient Greece remains a fascinating view into the ancient world. Unfortunately it does not advance his story as much as one might like, and some of the promise of the end of `Soldier' is not redeemed. A third (and concluding?) volume was rumored for years; I wait anxiously to see if the recently announced `Soldier of Sidon' will bring Latro to a well-deserved recovery. But whether it does or not, the next step in his journey will be well-informed, well-told, and well worth reading.
Herodotian Fantasy.......2006-01-22
It`s not quite a fantasy or sci-fi novel. Let`s call it culturological novel. Impressed by writings of the Ancient Greek historian Herodotos (Father of the History) Wolfe re-creates internal spiritual world of the ancient people and thier vision of the world around them, there hyerophania (the revealing of the God or the pagan gods) is usual experience of everyday life.
Hero of the novels, soldier Latro, retreats with the defeated Persian army through Greece in 479 B.C. and tries to remember his past and to understand his own life. The worst mistake of all novels about the history - to place modern character in the historic environment and to describe his (or her) adventres as in cinema (a kind of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra). There`s no such a mistake. Wofe tries to re-create heroic and religious aspects of the ancient culture of the Mediterranean world.
Novel "Soldier of the Mist" is among the best novels of the Ancient Greece. It is written as poem in prose, with its own rhythm of narration. Probably Wolfe was impressed also by European Symbolist artists (Klimt etc.) and by their vision of the Antiquity.
By the way, I read this novel before "The Book of the New Sun" and "Soldier of the Mist" impressed me much more than Wolfe`s well-known novels (well, I`m a historian).
"Soldier of Arete" is a kind of "The Urth of the New Sun" here. There`s no solutions and answers to all questions and sometimes it`s hard to understand the plot and the author. And after the first novel you should wait for more... But, sorry... Let`s say: "Thank you!!!" for "The Soldier of the Mist". In 2006 was released the next novel - "Soldier of Sidon" - let`s hope - it would be better.
And you could belive me - though "Soldier of the Mist" is a kind of easy reading book - you could understand it only if you had read "History" by Herodotos.
Don`t be scared. It`s also very interesting book. As one Russian historian once said, Herodotos was not only the first historian-scientist, but also the first historical novel-writer and the first ethnologist (Herodotos described the ancestors of many modern nationalties - even the ancestors of the Slavs; he travelled on the territory of modern Ukraine).
P.S. Epigraph to "Soldier of the Mist" is taken from "History" by Herodotos, book 9, 62-65. If you would read it you would understand, why Latro lost his memory.
While you are reading these novels by Gene Wolfe - why not to listen to authentic music of Ancient Greece?
Try following CDs: Ensemble De Organographia "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks" and "Music of the Ancient Greeks" - authentic ancient music; modern music in Ancient Greek style played on reconstructed ancient instruments - "Melpomen: Ancient Greek Music" by Conrad Steinmann.
Wonderful Promise, Horrible Follow-Through.......2005-09-13
This omnibus edition collects two older novels about Latro, a mercenary soldier in Ancient Greece. Latro was injured in a battle, causing him to lose his short term memory. He begins each day without any memory of the day before. His only memories are fragments of his childhood. His only gift-or curse-- is that he can see the gods and other supernatural creatures.
Wolfe manages to spin an interesting tale, but seems incapable of finishing anything he starts. The first novel ends so abruptly I was tempted to track the author down and smack him. The second novel's ending makes me think the author got bored after page 500 and literally ran out of steam. There is a point in any novel where the action reaches a peak, and the reader is rewarded for slogging through the hundreds of pages that came before. There is a fulfillment. Wolfe apparently could not be bothered with such tedious things as conclusions. A few of the more fawning reviewers here seem to think this is a virtue. I consider it to be proof of a lazy writer.
I am sorry that I wasted my time reading this book.
Product Description
History: Fiction or Science? is the most explosive tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by solid scientific data. The book is well-illustrated, contains over 446 graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays, which never cease to amaze the reader. Eminent mathematician proves that: Jesus Christ was born in 1153 and crucified in 1186 The Old Testament refers to mediaeval events. Apocalypse was written after 1486. Does this sound uncanny? This version of events is substantiated by hard facts and logic - validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources - to a greater extent than everything you may have read and heard about history before. The dominating historical discourse in its current state was essentially crafted in the XVI century from a rather contradictory jumble of sources such as innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts whose originals had vanished in the Dark Ages and the allegedly irrefutable proof offered by late mediaeval astronomers, resting upon the power of ecclesial authorities. Nearly all of its components are blatantly untrue! For some of us, it shall possibly be quite disturbing to see the magnificent edifice of classical history to turn into an ominous simulacrum brooding over the snake pit of mediaeval politics. Twice so, in fact: the first seeing the legendary millenarian dust on the ancient marble turn into a mere layer of dirt - one that meticulous unprejudiced research can eventually remove. The second, and greater, attack of unease comes with the awareness of just how many areas of human knowledge still trust the three elephants of the consensual chronology to support them. Nothing can remedy that except for an individual chronological revolution happening in the minds of a large enough number of people.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Customer Reviews:
"There is no mercy in the Abyss, creature!" .......2004-12-24
The Glass Prison deals with a familiar part of the Realms: the lands between the Thunder Peaks and Tilverton (the wildlands on the eastern border of Cormyr).
The book sheds light on Vheod, a Cambion out of Broken Reach, a city found on the Outer Plane of the Abyss, as he copes with his evil nature and tries to overcome its inherent evil. He teams up with Melann, a human priestess of Chauntea and her warrior brother Whitlock in search of a Balor, named Chare'en, who threatens the region and possesses the key to lifting the curse that has been plaguing their family for generations.
On the positive side, the book is very well written, and the plot as a whole is excellent.
Moreover, the main hero, Vheod (Thief/Fighter/Wizard Pp144), is an interesting character.
In addition, my favorite part of the book was the Abyssal story involving the shipwright and Demogorgon, which I thought was great!
On the negative side, there are too many similarities between Vheod and Drizzt Do'Urden.
Moreover, it would have been very helpful to have had "flashbacks" from Vheod's life and past experiences in his homeworld. There are some elements of Planescape, though more were needed to get a better feel for the Abyss.
Overall, Monte Cook does a good job of conveying the sheer power of Evil, such as in the case of the Ravenwitch: "The thorns dug into his bared flesh so that the ravens' blood flowed down the vines and into his wounds." Pp197
As for Chare'en, "Chare'en was the embodiment of anathema. He was living despair, destruction, and desecration." Pp278
Hopefully, a sequel will be written shedding light as to what comes next.
Great new hero, good description.......2004-01-30
This was one of the first books in the FG setting that I have read. I found Cook's description of the Abyss and the realms of the ravenwitch to be particularly intriguing and well written. For me, the descriptions alone made the book worth reading. Cook's cambion hero was also well developed and believable.
The budding romance between he and the cleric could have been a bit better developed.
Overall a great read.
Not bad at all..........2000-03-22
This was my first AD&D book, even though I play a lot. I thought the book was actually quite good.. I don't have many bad comments about the book... The characters were very solid, as was the plot... Monte Cook is a good writer for an excellent campaign in an even cooler universe.
Great new hero!.......2000-03-08
Finally a great new hero! I'm a fond reader of dragonlance and forgotten realms books and take a special interest in the tanar'ri and the Abyss in general. That's why I loved this book. A cambion-hero is excellent! Though the writing style doesn't really match R.A. Salvatore's, the story itself is good. The parts I liked the most were the beginning, where Vheod escapes the Abyss after battling the vorrs, and the ending where Vheod defeats the Balor. This book is an excellent step to a trilogy like "the Cambion Trilogy". Already The Glass Prison shows many similarities with the books on Drizzt Do'Urden, escaping his evil homeland and adapting to the ways of Faerun. Even the skin color of Vheod is the same as Drizzt's. This, however, should not dissuade Monte Cook from giving us the full continuing story of Vheod and his pursuer Nethess(and hopefully even the Abyssal Lord Graz'zt himself!). I'm sure it'll be a hit, since the presence of a cambion in the Forgotten Realms is great!
The best book I ever read.......1999-12-02
I loved the book. Not only because Im an Adnd player but because the descriptions made me feel like I was there.
Average customer rating:
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Beyond The Glass House: The Journal of an Innocent Man, The First Year
Adam Wolfe
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1412061598
Release Date: 2006-07-06 |
Book Description
"I don't know that there is a more difficult case where a judge does more soul searching in a case where a person staunchly denies culpability and at every turn in the system pleads his innocence."
"We know that there are cases where people are punished for crimes they didn't do."
"It would just be utterly repugnant for me to think that I could send a man to prison for a crime that he did not commit."
"I don't know what's right in this case."
"I don't have that supreme confidence of just knowing something - - that we look at something and it's black and white. It isn't."
"Society would have a right to be rather unforgiving of me. And so I'm just doing the best that I can."
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Prisons of Glass
E. Wilson
Manufacturer: Arrow (A Division of Random House Group)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0413418308 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by The Register Guard on May 17, 2003. The length of the article is 642 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Pair plead to drug paraphernalia charge.(Courts)(The Eugene men, who sold glass pipes that could be used for smoking marijuana, face possible federal prison terms)
Publication:
The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: May 17, 2003
Publisher: The Register Guard
Page: b1
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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The Glass Prison (Professor Bernice Summerfield)
Jacqueline Rayner
Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1903654416 |
Book Description
Don't ever annoy the Fifth Axis. They might throw you into the Glass Prison on Deirbhile and then throw away the key. Once you're inside, there's nowhere to hide. They can see your every movement. They control you. You're going to be watched for the rest of your life, wherever you go, whoever you are. Even if you're a professor of archaeology. Even if you're a friend of the famous Irving Braxiatel, and you've written several popular coffee-table books. Even if you're pregnant, and your baby's due any day now. But, of course, they know all about your baby. And they're planning to take it away. That is, unless the loony cultists you're locked up with don't get it first.
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The Glass Prison (Vardo, Book 7)
David Wood , and
Phyllis Edwards
Manufacturer: Hodder Arnold H&S
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ASIN: 071310466X |
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Prison of glass
J. Long Field
Manufacturer: J.L. Field?
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007K501C |
Book Description
The force centers that serve as our psychic sense organs.
Customer Reviews:
Instructions for raising the Kundalini inside!!!!!!!!.......2004-11-24
I found this book in a Rishikesh (India) bookstore in 2001. I have since lost it and had to get another copy online.
In chapter 4 of the book Motoyama outlines practices for raising the Kundalini, mostly based on Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Shivananda's most important student. For this chapter the book easily earns 5 stars and the title of the *** BEST KUNDALINI BOOK AROUND ***. It is a must for anyone looking at Yoga as more than gymnastics. The book shows that the amount of Yoga you have to do to get enlightened is less than it takes to become a Yoga teacher: perhaps 6 months of serious practice can cover it.
Since the bulk of the chakra awakening practices is comprised of meditation procedures, it is advised to get serious in meditation before approaching it. Going all the way to Samadhi, the deepest "no-mind" meditative state, now takes only a few months based on a 3-week course teaching the SSY technique: www.ssy.org
[Side note:
Swami Satyananda established the famous Bihar School of Yoga, and authored the recommended "Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha", the second most popular Yoga reference manual after Iyengar's "Light on Yoga".
The Bihar School of Yoga also teaches Vedic massage, probably the best massage technique in the world today. Seek it out if you come upon it, one treatment can solve major health problems.]
Outstanding and important. IT MIGHT BE THE ONLY YOGA BOOK YOU NEED.
Demystifying the Energy centres.......2003-05-30
To me the chakras have always been one of the mystical aspects of Yoga; even after more than 20 years of Yoga practise. This book explains and effectively de-mystifies it. Why? Because the author not only shares the theories of the Chakras but also tries to substantiate it with emperical evidence - both his own as well as experimental.
Apart from explaining the different energy centers (Chakras) in the body, a series of asanas and techniques are outlined to awaken each of them. The best part of the book is the personal experience of the author. In this he explains how each of his chakras were awakened and what impact it had in his life. This (and my own experience of awakening of 2 of the centres) helped me believe in the existence of the chakras.
Significant book on an important topic........2000-08-06
Knowing about the chakras is essential for spiritual development. The chakras are energy centres within the three human bodies: the etheric physical, astral and mental. We ought to learn about these centres as their awakening and unfoldment will be part of every person's growth. (ie. There'll be a lifetime when the disciple or initiate is unable to ignore the chakras.) Chakras are doors to the higher realms, and keys to spiritual powers.
There are ancient texts from Eastern religions on this subject. Among the more modern accounts of this are three classical 20th century books: "The Serpent Power" (1918) by Arthur Avalon, "The Chakras" (1926) by CW Leadbeater and "Theories of the Chakras: Bridge to Higher Consciousness" (1981) by Hiroshi Motoyama. Motoyama's book covers the other two and presents yogic exercises as taught by Swami Satyananda. The exercises are postures (Asanas) designed to gradually and safely prepare the physical body for opening of the seven main chakras.
The chakras are all linked by energy flow lines throughout the body known as nadis. The nadis are also related to the so-called meridians, which were well known to acupuncturists for thousands of years in China. The meridians are also utilised in Shiatsu, or "Touch for Health" where pressure-points on the body are massaged or pressed. The study by Motoyama discusses the chakras':-
1. Locations in the body(or inner bodies),
2. Appearance, descriptions and symbolisms,
3. Qualities when opened or awakened.
In addition Motoyama devised electrical instruments to measure the comparative "charge" around chakras and through the nadis. This part of the book is a bit dry, however the overall text is significant.
The interesting part about the books on chakras is that each says the unfoldment of these centres is a precise science for the initiate. Understandably then, the books can only at best imply the techniques for awakening the chakras by leaving many gaps in the descriptions for the disciple to fill. Furthermore, there is always the sensible warning that wrong or premature awakening of chakras can lead to physical, emotional or mental illness or even death. Despite there being now a lot of chakra books around, I think Motoyama's account is the best starting point.
An interesting attempt at blending theories.......2000-06-12
This book attempts to reconcile the two major eastern approaches to non-western medicine, the chakra system of Indian and the meridian system of China and Japan. The author, a research in the area of TCM and a yogi, reviews different ways the chakras are described of the chakras and develops relationships between these system. He presents his own approach to opening the chakras based his observations.
Overall, this is an interesting but dry book. Anyone interested in the possiblity of the chakras and nadis existing will find it informative. It's best read in small sections.
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- Midnighters #3: Blue Noon (rpkg) (Midnighters)
- Minimalism: Origins
- MODERN BAPTISTS. A Novel.
- Mom, Can You Buy Me This?
- Muchas vidas, muchos sabios
- My Heart Laid Bare
- Nature Lessons: A Novel
- Nectar: A Novel of Temptation
- On Sarpy Creek
- One Hundred Years of Solitude: Modes of Reading (Twayne's Masterworks Studies, No. 70)
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