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Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

David Sedaris

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim David Sedaris By: Little, Brown
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 314 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This book is a truly enjoyable read. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you like the dry wit of David Sedaris you will love this book. Even if you don't know who he is, once you have read the first page you will probably love this book.

Seeing the world through the author's eyes for a while helps us to remember the little absurdities we experience every day and, somehow, cherish them for a moment rather than let them drive us stark, raving, looney.

Thank you Mr. Sedaris, for reminding us to treasure even the stranger moments that make up the life of a human being.

Dress Your Family in Cords or enim 5 out of 5 stars.
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This book is hysterical! Probably one of his best works if not the best.If you like Sedaris at all then you must read this (even though it's not his latest). It's even funny a second time around, the semi biographical short stories don't get dated.

I guess a lot of people think he's funny... I think he's disturbing! 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book has been on my stack of "to read" books for ages, and I finally got around to it. He's quirky and sarcastic, but overall I found the essays depressing and disturbing. I didn't find him or his family all that interesting. When he moved toward the more outwardly comedic, he also became more crude. It's certainly not at all flattering to his family or others who find their way into his stories. I'm sorry I bought it - wish I'd just borrowed it from the library!

The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality

Jerome R. Corsi

The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality Jerome R. Corsi Amazon Price: $18.48
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 673 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the Publisher:

In this thoroughly researched and documented book, the #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry explains why the extreme leftism of an Obama presidency would leave the United States weakened, diminished and divided, why Obama must be defeated—and how he can be.

THE OBAMA NATION Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality

Barack Obama stepped onto the national political stage when the then-Illinois State senator addressed the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Soon after Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, author Jerome Corsi began researching Obama's personal and political background.

Scrupulously sourced with more than 600 footnotes, THE OBAMA NATION is the result of that research. By tracing Obama's career and influences from his early years in Hawaii and Indonesia, the beginnings of his political career in Chicago, his voting record in the Illinois legislature, his religious training and his adoption of Christianity through to his recent involvement in Kenyan politics, his political advisors and fundraising associates and his meteoric campaign for president, Jerome Corsi shows that an Obama presidency would, in his words, be “a repeat of the failed extremist politics that have characterized and plagued Democratic Party politics since the late 1960s.”

In this stunning and comprehensive new book, the reader will learn about: -Obama's extensive connections with Islam and radical politics, from his father and step-father's Islamic backgrounds, to his Communist and socialist mentors in Hawaii and Chicago, to his long-term and close associations with former Weather Underground heroes William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn—associations much closer than heretofore revealed by the press
-Barack and Michelle's 20-year-long religious affiliation with the black-liberation theology of former Trinity United Church of Christ Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose sermons have always been steeped in a rage first expressed by Franz Fanon , Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X, a rage that Corsi shows has deep meaning for Obama
-Obama's continuing connections with Kenya, the homeland of his father, through his support for the candidacy of Raila Odinga, the radical socialist presidential contender who came to power amid Islamist violence and church burnings
-Obama's involvement in the slum-landlord empire of the Chicago political fixer Tony Rezko, who helped to bankroll Obama's initial campaigns and to purchase of Barack and Michelle's dream-home property.
-the background and techniques of the Obama campaign's cult of personality, including the derivation of the words “hope” and change”
-Obama's far-left domestic policy, his controversial votes on abortion, his history of opposition to the Second Amendment, his determination to raise capital-gains taxes, his impractical plan to achieve universal health care, and his radical plan to tax Americans to fund a global-poverty-reduction program
-Obama's naïve, anti-war, anti-nuclear foreign-policy, predicated on the reduction of the military, the eradication of nuclear weapons and an overconfidence in the power of his personality, as if belief in change alone could somehow transform international politics, achieve nuclear-weapons disarmament and withdrawal from Iraq without adverse consequences, for us, for the Iraqis or for Israel.

Meticulously researched and documented, THE OBAMA NATION is the definitive source for information on why and how Barack Obama must be defeated—not by invective and general attacks, but by detailed arguments that are well-researched and fact-based.

Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)

Bill Bryson

Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives) Bill Bryson Amazon Price: $11.16
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

If there be nothing new * 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.


It's a hard thing to produce a groundbreaking book about Shakespeare, and Bill Bryson makes no claim to it. This small book is part of Harper Collins' Eminent Lives series; their website describes Eminent Lives as "brief biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures." That said, SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS STAGE is an entertaining and informative little package.

Bryson catalogues the few facts known about Shakespeare's personal life and whereabouts, and some of the arcana -- word and line counts, for example, and how many plays were prepared by which typesetters, and all the different ways Shakespeare spelled his surname on legal documents. These facts have a certain WOW factor of their own, but mostly demonstrate the thoroughness with which the available information has been mined by hordes of Shakespeare scholars. Bryson devotes a chapter to theories that someone else wrote the plays, and debunks them. Again there are many facts presented in a wry and entertaining way; Bryson does that very well. A reader knowing little about 16th and early 17th century England would learn some interesting things from this little book, which is probably well crafted for its target audience of "survey readers."

There was less analysis of the plays than I expected; I found this a disappointment and took off a star for it.

The audio presentation finished with an interview of Bryson, in which he stated that he's not present in this book as he is in most of his writing; he kept himself out of it. That's true to the extent that he's not playing for humor, but it's clearly in his style: a bit like interesting vacation photos artfully arranged in an album and not for one second trying to integrate themselves into a video. He achieves what he sets out to do but if you're not crazy about his levity, this book may not appeal to you; I enjoyed it. The author reads this audio version, as he usually does, and his Midwestern/British fusion may not be what you care for. In that case, choose the print version.

* Subject line is from Sonnet LIX:

If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child!
...

Linda Bulger, 2008

Editorial Review:

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Nathaniel Philbrick

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War Nathaniel Philbrick Amazon Price: $21.86
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 278 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Hard to stay interested 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

To me the book concentrated much more on the various Indian tribes and not enough on the passengers of the Mayflower. If you are interested in the History of New England Indian tribes this book is for you.

Riveting Historical Novel of America's Early History 4 out of 5 stars.
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Mayflower, a historical novel by Nathaniel Philbrick, documents a time of American history that is often hidden behind myth, legend and political correctness.

Mayflower first tells the story of the earliest Pilgrims to come to the New World and then lays out the history of the English-Indian wars fought by the Pilgrims' descendants. Philbrick's description of the early Americans is as compelling as it is accurate - fairly portraying the early settlers and their quest for survival and then for settlement.

I appreciated Mayflower for its evenhanded portrayal of the early Pilgrims and the Native Americans they befriended. In a day of increasing political correctness, most Americans tend to one of two extremes when thinking about the Pilgrims. Some mythologize and glorify the Pilgrims and their motives. Others demonize them for disrupting the "peaceful" life of the American Indians.

The truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. Philbrick does not shy away from the religiosity of the early settlers. Neither does he shy away from the deceptive craftiness of some of the later Indians. He criticizes the actions of Pilgrims and Indians alike, weaving into his narrative fascinating stories of unity, betrayal, and community.

Most American history focuses on the 1700's and the quest for American independence. Mayflower goes back even further, telling the story of the American forefathers' ancestors and the early American settlements. What is perhaps most fascinating about Philbrick's account is how the debates over religion and national identity in the U.S. today were already present on the Mayflower. From the beginning, the Pilgrims included religious and non-religious in their midst - and the debate over what kind of society should emerge was just as controversial then as now.

Pick up Mayflower. Read the story of courage, community, and war. Learn about the earliest Americans. Trust me - you won't be able to put the book down.

Editorial Review:

The startling story of the Plymouth Colony, from the flight to religious freedom to the war that ravaged New England, from the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea.

Abridged CDs - 5 CDs, 6 hours

There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters

Claire Berlinski

There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters Claire Berlinski Amazon Price: $18.45
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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Great Britain in the 1970s appeared to be in terminal decline—ungovernable, an economic train wreck, and rapidly headed for global irrelevance. Three decades later, it is the richest and most influential country in Europe, and Margaret Thatcher is the reason. The preternaturally determined Thatcher rose from nothing, seized control of Britain’s Conservative party, and took a sledgehammer to the nation’s postwar socialist consensus. She proved that socialism could be reversed, inspiring a global free-market revolution. Simultaneously exploiting every politically useful aspect of her femininity and defying every conventional expectation of women in power, Thatcher crushed her enemies with a calculated ruthlessness that stunned the British public and without doubt caused immense collateral damage.

Ultimately, however, Claire Berlinski agrees with Thatcher: There was no alternative. Berlinski explains what Thatcher did, why it matters, and how she got away with it in this vivid and immensely readable portrait of one of the towering figures of the twentieth century.

Force of Nature: Mind, Body, Soul (And, of Course, Surfing)

Laird Hamilton

Force of Nature: Mind, Body, Soul (And, of Course, Surfing) Laird Hamilton Amazon Price: $18.45
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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:


Laird Hamilton has been hailed as the world's greatest big-wave surfer. His first book, Force of Nature, allows readers a rare glimpse inside the unique philosophy that has created his circumstances, and not the other way around. After all, this is a man whose biological father abandoned him shortly after he was born; whose first job was working on a pig far; who dropped out of school in eleventh grade. And then the career decision: surfer. Though earning enough to pay the rent as any kind of surfer is next to impossible, Hamilton has ended up in the place we all desire to be: doing exactly what he loves, becoming the world's best in the process, making a great living, being surrounded by nature and family, radiating peak health and fitness, and succeeding by any definition of the word.How did he get there? And more importantly, how can the rest of us join him?Force of Nature is a detailed map to that destination, with Laird Hamilton as the reader's guide. It's not about chasing trophies or accolades or cash. It's about quality over quantitysoul and being true to your physical, mental, and spiritual roots. Not only is it possible to thrive in the modern world without adopting its harmful habits, it's essential. And not only has Hamilton mastered this balance, he makes a compelling and articulate case that anyone who wants to can do the same.This book is a deeply authoritative and cutting-edge guide to peak fitness in mind, body, sould, and surfing. It comes directly from the source and his inner circle, which includes those at the vanguard of sports, training, nutrition, and more. Former pro volleyball player Gabrielle Reece; surf legend Dave Kalama; fitness gurus Paul Chek, T.R. Goodman, and Don Wildman; and Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis all contribute their knowledge. Readers will get an all-access pass into an elite world filled with definitive and provocative ideas.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

Alan Greenspan

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World Alan Greenspan Amazon Price: $11.02
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 271 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Tadd Wood's Review of Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World 5 out of 5 stars.
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Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R20DIAJDJEAJ0E Tadd Wood's review was made as part of a critical review assignment for the Fall 2008 Honors Colloquium on Creative Destruction at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, taught by Art Diamond. (The course syllabus stated that part of the critical review assignment consisted of the making of a video recording of the review, and the posting of the review to Amazon.)

Editorial Review:

The Age Of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan’s incomparable reckoning with the contemporary financial world, channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. Following the arc of his remarkable life’s journey through his more than eighteen-year tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board to the present, in the second half of The Age of Turbulence Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour d’horizon of the global economy. The distillation of a life’s worth of wisdom and insight into an elegant expression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand as Alan Greenspan’s personal and intellectual legacy.

Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons

Tim Russert

Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons Tim Russert Amazon Price: $11.16
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Total reviews: 111 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

What does it really mean to be a good father? What did your father tell you, that has stayed with you throughout your life? Was there a lesson from him, a story, or a moment that helped to make you who you are? Is there a special memory that makes you smile when you least expect it?

After the publication of Tim Russert’s number one New York Times bestseller about his father, Big Russ & Me, he received an avalanche of letters from daughters and sons who wanted to tell him about their own fathers, most of whom were not superdads or heroes but ordinary men who were remembered and cherished for some of their best moments–of advice, tenderness, strength, honor, discipline, and occasional eccentricity.

Most of these daughters and sons were eager to express the gratitude they had carried with them through the years. Others wanted to share lessons and memories and, most important, pass them down to their own children.

This book is for all fathers, young or old, who can learn from the men in these pages how to get it right, and to understand that sometimes it is the little gestures that can make the big difference for your child. For some in this book, the appreciation came later than they would have liked. But as Wisdom of Our Fathers reminds us, it is never too late to embrace it.

From the father who coached his daughter in sports (and life), attending every meet, game, performance, and tournament, to the daughter who, after a fifteen-year estrangement, learned to make peace with her difficult father just before he died, to the son who came, at last, to appreciate the silent way his father could show affection, Wisdom of Our Fathers shares rewarding lessons, immeasurable gifts, and lasting values.

Heartfelt, humorous, engaging, irresistibly readable, and bound to bring back memories of unforgettable moments with our own fathers, Tim Russert’s new book is not only a fitting companion to his own marvelous memoir, but also a celebration of the positive qualities passed down from generation to generation.


From the Hardcover edition.

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession

Anne Rice

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession Anne Rice Amazon Price: $16.32
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Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 2005, Anne Rice startled her readers with her novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and by revealing that, after years as an atheist, she had returned to her Catholic faith.

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
followed.

And now, in her powerful and haunting memoir, Rice tells the story of the spiritual transformation that produced a complete change in her literary goals.

She begins with her girlhood in New Orleans as the devout child in a deeply religious Irish Catholic family. She describes how, as she grew up, she lost her belief in God, but not her desire for a meaningful life.

She writes about her years in radical Berkeley, where her career as a novelist began with the publication of Interview with the Vampire, soon to be followed by more novels about otherworldly beings, about the realms of good and evil, love and alienation, pageantry and ritual, each reflecting aspects of her often agonizing moral quest.

She writes about loss and tragedy (her mother’s drinking; the death of her daughter and, later, her beloved husband, Stan Rice); about new joys; about the birth of her son, Christopher; about the family’s return in 1988 to the city of New Orleans, the city that inspired so much of her work. She tells how after an adult lifetime of questioning, she experienced the intense conversion and consecration to Christ that lie behind her most recent novels.

For her readers old and new, this book explores her continuing interior pilgrimage.

Jesus of Nazareth

Joseph Ratzinger

Jesus of Nazareth Joseph Ratzinger By: Doubleday
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Total reviews: 154 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Outstanding brightness 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Benedict XVI is a great theologian. Those who had the honor and happiness to approach also know he is a man of great goodness. What wealth Benedict XVI us with this book so clear, deep, humble knowledge on the topic of Christianity in the person of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

As a passionate in religious readings, I was conquered by scientific rigor used by Cardinal Ratzinger, including "Here's what our God" and the encyclical "God is love: Encyclical on Christian love." "Jesus of Nazareth" goes even further in this necessary accompaniment of the Christian in his love of God.

Outstanding work.

Scholarly, philosophic, passionate look at the real Jesus 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

There has been a great deal written on the "real" Jesus in recent years. We have had the "Jesus Project" in which a team of scholars has edited the Gospels, to throw out the parts they consider not "real" Jesus. We have had a wide variety of other scholars use various methods of modern scholarly research to cut through what they consider to be the fog of the centuries, to show us who the person Jesus really was. Interestingly, they pretty much all conclude that Jesus was really a modern thinker, whose conclusions pretty much agreed with those of the writer. In other words, we have seen many writers try to take advantage of the prestige of Jesus' name to advance their own modern agendas.

In this book, Joseph Ratzinger tries to give us back the real Jesus. Ratzinger is, of course, one of the world's foremost scholars and theologians. He is very familiar with, and respectful of, modern scholarship. He is also, of course, the current Pope, although he makes it clear that this book is not written as an act of papal authority, but as a personal search for the truth.

His basic conclusion is that the Gospels present Jesus accurately, and that Jesus was the Son of God and the savior of the world. This bald conclusion makes him sound like a fundamentalist, which he is not. He is a man of deep faith, which, of course, one would expect from the Pope.

So, it is not news that the Pope is an ardent believer in Jesus. What is news is the very passionate, simple yet dense way that Ratzinger expounds his case. He does not just tell us that Jesus is the Son of God. He tells us why he says that, how Jesus and His mission are founded in the entire Bible, and what it means to say that he is Son of God. Ratzinger does not simply affirm the faith, he explains it. He makes it a living thing.

Ratzinger's prior big book, of a generation ago, was Introduction to Christianity. It remains a wonderful book. I feel that it is somewhat mis-titled, however. It is not so much an introduction to the religion of Jesus, as it is a sustained argument, to a predominantly secular world, why it should take the idea of God seriously. I feel it is less a specifically Christian book, and more a general case for religion.

This book is a very specifically Christian book. It does not express hostility to other religions, which, of course, we know that the Pope does not feel. It simply is not very concerned about other religions, except for Judiasm, which is discussed at length because it is the religion from which Jesus emerged. This book is totally focused on the Christian view. If you want a one-volume introduction to, and summary of, what Catholics believe, and why they believe it, this is the book you want. It is absolutely magnificent.

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