Biographies & Memoirs Books - Page 13

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert M. Pirsig

List Price: $35.00 By: William Morrow & Company Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $1.42

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 528 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Self-Absorbed, Self-Pitying Rubbish 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 16 people found this review helpful.

I agree with many of the other one-star reviews, this is actually the worst book I have ever read, out of thousands read, in my entire life. The worst book designation goes to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance because it is extremely, extremely, over-rated. I found it to be one of the most self-absorbed, self-pitying, whining complaints I had ever been exposed to - and I know about those, because I'm a former junior high school teacher.

Not only did it not contain any philosophical insights whatsoever, the book is just plain boring and badly written. The only book I have ever thrown in the garbage can - it's just rubbish, and that's where it belongs. I'm sure the author is a fine human being. I just think he wrote a very, very, bad book. Please don't waste your time on this book.

Editorial Review:

One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear -- of growth, discovery, and acceptance -- that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

Jeremy Scahill

By: Serpent's Tail Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $6.45

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 247 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Can you say "Witch Hunt"? 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book doesn't even pretend to be objective. Scahill obviously has a serious hate-on for all private military contractors (Blackwater especially). This is the "in" thing right now. It's cool to hate on these guys, and Scahill's looking to make his mark as the coolest. So what if his research, while thorough, is biased and guided by his own axe to grind? Blackwater employees wouldn't even have given this guy the time of day, and Blackwater's CEO flat-out refused an interview with him. I'm sure it's because they saw through him and knew he was only there for a witch hunt. I'm not saying don't read this book. What I'm saying is look at more than just his viewpoint. I doubt that this guy's ever been in a combat zone, but he wants to critique every move made by those who work in them. I'd recommend you read Robert Young Pelton's book "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror". He actually rode along with Blackwater employees and got an interview with the CEO. He's as close as you'll come to an objective viewpoint.

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Test

List Price: $12.50 By: The Artist's Way (A Spiritual Path to Higher Creat Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $14.76

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 281 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

brilliant! a great guide book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Julia Cameron's book was the reason I've been able to create plays, acting jobs! I can only say this: IT WORKS! I'm living proof! For anyone who is blocked, these tools used over years creates a strong powerful base upon which to create work!The Green Room

This book is the best friend you can ever have 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Just get it.

The first chapter as I remember was a little bit boring for me and when I start complaining to my friend, she told me :"Just read it."
And that was the best advice she ever gave me.
I gained a lot of self-confidence as an artist and person, came to conclusion in a lot of things that bothered me for a long time, it truly gave me a peace of mind.

So, for you, my friend:"Just ge-e-et it".

The Artist's Way 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is my second copy of this book. I've worn one out already. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. It is life altering!

A must read for anyone interested in being more creative, just being creative or living life to the fullest 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I can't even explain how much change I've made in my life since reading this book. Julia Cameron says things that every artist wants to hear. The main things I've taken from this book are Morning Pages, Artist Dates and going on walks - those three simple things have totally centered me. I wasn't even necessarily diligent with all the other worksheets.

Even if you don't care to increase your creativity, it will help anyone to live life!

Editorial Review:

NOW AVAILABLE _ Digitally remastered, and on CD for the first time

Read by the author

Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life

Kathleen Norris

Amazon Price: $16.26 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Riverhead Hardcover Amazon Marketplace: 71 new & used starting at $12.69

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Kathleen Norris’s masterpiece: a personal and moving memoir that resurrects the ancient term acedia, or soul-weariness, and brilliantly explores its relevancy to the modern individual and culture.

Kathleen Norris had written several much loved books, yet she couldn’t drag herself out of bed in the morning, couldn’t summon the energy for daily tasks. Even as she struggled, Norris recognized her familiar battle with acedia. She had discovered the word in an early Church text when she was in her thirties. Having endured times of deep soul-weariness since she was a teenager, she immediately recognized that this passage described her affliction: sinking into a state of being unable to care. Fascinated by this “noonday demon,” so familiar to those in the early and medieval Church, Norris read intensively and knew she must restore this forgotten but utterly relevant and important concept to the modern world’s vernacular.

Like Norris’s bestselling The Cloister Walk, Acedia & me is part memoir and part meditation. As in her bestselling Amazing Grace, here Norris explicates and demystifies a spiritual concept, exploring acedia through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition. Unlike her earlier books, this one features a poignant narrative throughout of Norris’s and her husband’s bouts with acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Moreover, her analysis of acedia reveals its burden not just on individuals but on whole societies— and that the “restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair that we struggle with today are the ancient demon of acedia in modern dress.”

An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norris’s own experience, Acedia & me is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important.

Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer

Fred Kaplan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For Abraham Lincoln, whether he was composing love letters, speeches, or legal arguments, words mattered. In Lincoln, acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan explores the life of America's sixteenth president through his use of language as a vehicle both to express complex ideas and feelings and as an instrument of persuasion and empowerment. Like the other great canonical writers of American literature—a status he is gradually attaining—Lincoln had a literary career that is inseparable from his life story. An admirer and avid reader of Burns, Byron, Shakespeare, and the Old Testament, Lincoln was the most literary of our presidents. His views on love, liberty, and human nature were shaped by his reading and knowledge of literature.

Since Lincoln, no president has written his own words and addressed his audience with equal and enduring effectiveness. Kaplan focuses on the elements that shaped Lincoln's mental and imaginative world; how his writings molded his identity, relationships, and career; and how they simultaneously generated both the distinctive political figure he became and the public discourse of the nation. This unique account of Lincoln's life and career highlights the shortcomings of the modern presidency, reminding us, through Lincoln's legacy and appreciation for language, that the careful and honest use of words is a necessity for successful democracy.

Illuminating and engrossing, Lincoln brilliantly chronicles Abraham Lincoln's genius with language.

INNOCENT MAN

JOHN GRISHAM

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 550 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The scapegoats 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

It's becoming a well known fact in the US - there are two different justice systems, one for those who can afford the best defense, the other for those who cannot. The indigent can be, and often are, treated to a paltry parody of trial and sentencing. Nowhere have I encountered a better example of this than in John Grisham's account of the railroading of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz in the Oklahoma murder case of Debra Carter. Grisham recounts the outrageous details of the case, in which every standard of evidence, from the sloppy work of the local police to the misconduct of attorneys and judges, was blatantly mocked. The trials were both travesties of perjury and corruption, based upon the testimony of snitches and legal system cronies.

Whether or not Ron Williamson was a nice person or a sane one, whether or not he had the potential for violence, he and Dennis Fritz did not commit this murder. The authorities destroyed the lives of two men and their families, while failing to prosecute the true culprit, who was always prominent in the picture, and indeed provided false testimony. Readers can usually ignore "must read" recommendations, but with respect to The Innocent Man, it is "a book that no American can afford to miss." The system of justice upon which our country is based is in danger.

If Not Now, When?: Duty and Sacrifice in America's Time of Need

Colonel Jack Jacobs (retired), Douglas Century

Amazon Price: $16.32 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Hardcover Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $14.60

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Refreshing candor by a career military man 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Col Jacobs writes with humor & honesty about his life & military experience. It amazes me that leaders seem to learn so little or anything at all from the past. This book should be given to the cadets in the military academies & made required reading.

Editorial Review:

A Medal of Honor recipient looks back at his own service—and ahead to America’s future.

Jack Jacobs was acting as an advisor to the South Vietnamese when he and his men came under devastating attack. Severely wounded, 1st Lt. Jacobs took command and withdrew the unit, returning again and again to the site of the attack to rescue more men, saving the lives of a U.S. advisor and thirteen Allied soldiers. Col. Jacobs received the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor.

Here, with candor, humor, and quiet modesty, Col. Jack Jacobs tells his stirring story of heroism, honor, and the personal code by which he has lived his life, and expounds with blunt honesty and insight his views on our contemporary world, and the nature and necessity of sacrifice.

If Not Now, When? is a compelling account of a unique life at both war and peace, and the all-too-often unexamined role of the citizenry in the service and defense of the Republic.

1984 (Signet Classics)

George Orwell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1363 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Warning, A Prediction...A Terrifying Truth 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

First off, this book is incredible. At 13 years old, I didn't understand every aspect of it, but in a whole, everything made perfect, clear sense.
I'm very interested in socialist governments(no, I don't like communist views; I'm a die-hard patriot at 13!), and I consider myself well-informed on up-to-date politics and such. And so, upon reading this book which was recommended to me by one of my teachers, I was horrified at the resemblances that Oceania and the direction our government is headed shared. The foresight of Orwell was shocking, and he kept the book very interesting.
But a good portion of the middle was....awkward. Like, mature-content awkward (most teachers gave me girl-are-you-crazy? looks when they saw I was reading it. Later, I realized why). I almost didn't finish the book, but knowing its importance to my knowledge, I finished it. I definitely do not recommend it to anyone my age....-shudders-
But its imperative that we as Americans read it. Remembering the mistakes of the past (and, in this case, the future) is imperative to keeping our nation a democracy. If we heed most of Orwell's warnings, we will be better equipped to save the future, and in doing so saving the past.

Editorial Review:

Published in 1949, Ninety Eighty-Four is Orwell's terrifing vision of a totalitarian future. Its hero, Winston Smith, is a worker at the Ministry of Truth, where he falsifies records for the party. Secretly subversive, he and his colleague Julia try to free themselves from political slavery but the price of freedom is betrayal. 6 cassettes.

Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination

Lamar Waldron, Thom Hartmann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent companion volume to "Ultimate Sacrifice" ! 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 32 people found this review helpful.

Simply put, if you liked "Ultimate Sacrifice" (and many people did), you will love this well written book by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann. This volume acts as an important addendum to their previous tome, with much new material, as well as a perspective post 11/22/63 (JFK, MLK, RFK). Taking over 20 years to write and research, and clocking in at over 800 pages, the effort shows in a big way. Get this one asap!

Editorial Review:

John F. Kennedy's assassination launched a frantic search to find his killers. It also launched a flurry of covert actions by Lyndon Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, and other top officials to hide the fact that in November 1963 the United States was on the brink of invading Cuba, as part of a JFK-authorized coup. The coup plan's exposure could have led to a nuclear confrontation with Russia, but the cover-up prevented a full investigation into Kennedy's assassination, a legacy of secrecy that would impact American politics and foreign policy for the next 45 years. It also allowed two men who confessed their roles in JFK's murder to be involved in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, in 1968. Exclusive interviews and newly declassified files from the National Archives document in chilling detail how three mob bosses were able to prevent the truth from coming to light – until now.