Celebrate Recovery puts anonymous recovery materials back where they came from, the Bible. God provides the strength to overcome hurts, habits and hang-ups that keep people from being all they were intended to be. Not just for addictions, but a recovery program for the wounded soul. I recomend it for churches, prisons and any other place where real recovery is desired. It is now being used in New Mexico prisons.

This comic is just great. It is a series of vignettes with a different artist/style to each one and each has great artwork, writing and dark sensibilities. Wow Bob wow!

You can almost hear the water hitting the rocks of the Caney Fork River as you look at the photography of Howard Baker and John Netherton. The seasons may change but the canyon walls stand guard over this beautiful 10000 wilderness area on the Cumberland Plateau near Chattanooga, Tenn. Profits from the sale of the book go to the Bridgestone/Firestone Centenial Trust for maintenance of the area.

As a teacher and sports fan, I found myself unable to put this book down. The book recounts the life of John Baker, an elementary teacher and track star, who was stricken with cancer at a young age. His stuggle to deal with the disease and continue his career, is an inspiration. In addition, you get to know his family and friends and how he helps them accept his disease. Reading this book will inspire you to not take what you have for granted and live for the moment!

This is the first of four books in the Celebrate Recovery cirricuulum. It is filled with insightful and useful references to scripture and other valuable resources in recovery. Rick Baker has put the credit for the source of recovery back where it belongs, in the loving, gentle hands of The one, true God.

This is the most interesting and easily read book I have ever come across dealing with issues of economic and political development. Thai politics and economics are complex and confusing. This book makes sense of the conflicting strains in Thailand and will enable even a novice to makes sense of of information from Thai newspapers. Fascinating for anyone interested in global economics or Thai culture.

A very good read. I'm not quite down with it, but a great book. There's no self-hype here by Couch. The authors do a great job taking a story of "small town boy makes good" into a story all of us can relate to in one way or another. I've been a Tim Couch fan ever since he came to Cleveland, and you'll enjoy reading about how he gets there. A definite must-read.

Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987) brought Tibetan Buddhism to our country as the founder of the Boulder Shambhala Center and Naropa University. In the Foreward to this new edition of his book, Trungpa Rinpoche's student, Pema Chodron (WHEN THINGS FALL APART, THE PLACES THAT SCARE YOU) writes: "When I took to heart the teachings presented here, a curious change slowly began to take place. I became far more open to the pain of myself and others; far more open to laughing and crying; far more able to love and accept and see my interconnectedness with all beings. As the years go by, I gradually become more and more at home in the world with its inevitable ups and downs."

In his 179-page book, Trungpa teaches us how to know ourselves through meditation. "Meditation in the beginning is not an attempt to achieve happiness," he tells us, "nor is it an attempt to achieve mental calm or peace, though they could be by-products of meditation. Meditation should not be regarded as a vacation from irritation" (p. 46). While we may believe we are free to pursue our dreams, achieve our goals, and satisy our desires, Trungpa shows us how we are instead enslaved to our habitual patterns and negative emotions such as self-absorption (pp. 23-28), paranoia (pp. 28-29), passion (pp. 29-32), stupidity (pp. 32-35), povery (pp. 35-37) and anger (pp. 37-40). "We must be willing to be completely ordinary people," he observes, "which means accepting ourselves as we are without trying to become greater, purer, more spiritual, more insightful. If we can accept our imperfections as they are, quite ordinarily, then we can use them as part of the path. But if we try to get rid of our imperfections, then they will be enemies, obstacles on the road to our 'self-improvement'" (p. 44). And in this highly-recommended book, Trungpa teaches us how to cut through the barriers separating us from the rest of the world.

G. Merritt

This is the sequel to "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism". Are you gay? Are you a crossdresser? Do you cheat on your taxes? Did you hit one of your children? The point of Trungpa's teaching seems to hammer agin and again at the main human condition. That we are afraid of being human. We are "embarassed" at being human. One woman was reported as having choked to death in a restuarant. Why? Because she was too embarrassed to cough! Through his behavior and his teachings, Trungpa kept hammering this message home at his students. "The Myth of Freedom" takes us from the beginning of the Hinayana Journey (in the Tibetan sense, not to put down Theravada Buddhism which is also called 'Hinayana') all the way to the Vajrayana teachings where there is direct transmission from the Spiritual Guide. Trungpa goes through the technicalities, but you must remember that these are lectures to his students. I shared the same block as Trungpa. He was giving a lecture in LA in December 1980. I was too embarrassed to go inside. I might stammer when I met him. I might "goof up" (as he called it). Maybe I would say something "stupid". I was embarrased. I was embarrassed until his teachings sank in. Then I began to loosen up. Unfortanately, I went back to my "cocoon", as he called it. I've read this book three times. You will love it! Just don't balk when you read other books on Tibetan Buddhism where there are very many rules. The message of Trungpa was "Stop being embarrased about yourself!". And he showed this example by indulging in the worst behavior imaginable. But, yes, you can sneeze in front of a group of people. You can leave your zipper down accidentally if you are a male. Or don't put on a bra if you are a female and then find that you clearly "see" through while you give a lecture! According to Trungpa, it this embarrassment which he referred to as "negative negativity". He pounces on this concept throughout this book and his others. Negativity is alright in itself. I get angry. But then I am embarrassed for BEING angry. So I gulp it down or explode. If we accept the basic negativity, feel it, then this is negativity. But if we shame ourselves for having it - then this manufactures even more anger or Negative Negativity. Which can eventually result in being a mass murderer. Everything is being projected outside on the world. You are not "eating your past" so to speak. This is the message of the book. BUY IY! And buy "Spiritual Materialism". Thannk you (mispelling intentional).

Incisive teachings by one of the most influential Tibetan Buddhist teachers in the West. A central theme: giving up our hopes that meditation will bring us bliss or tranquility or make us better or wiser people or otherwise serve our ego's purposes, and realizing the liberation that is right here within our pain and confusion and neurosis. Trungpa's "Cutting through Spiritual Materialism" seems to be more widely known and more often recommended, but I like "The Myth of Freedom" even better, and I think it's a more suitable book for folks who are new to meditation. (Also recommended: "The Wisdom of No Escape" by Trungpa's student Pema Chödrön.)

In light the number of stars I have given this book, I feel I should start off be stating that there is tremendous merit in this work. The authors do a superb job of pointing out the root causes of warfare, and why it is naïve to expect that armed conflict has gone by the wayside. They then go on to point out the challenges to American global preeminence, and what needs to be done to assure it.

Specifically they look to precision-guided munitions as the key weapons of future combat, and space as its primary battleground. They make compelling arguments for each, particularly regarding the obsolescence of the primary weapons of today's Pax Americana: the tank, the strategic bomber, and the aircraft carrier. Furthermore, the completely debunk the myth of nuclear supremacy on the modern battlefield.

The problems with this book that I alluded to are twofold. First, the editing is appalling; there are numerous typos and misprints (for example, referring to a torpedo that can travel at 400 knots). While the knowledgeable reader can usually infer what the authors' intent is, editorial errors always make for a frustrating reading experience.

The second concern cuts to the heart of the book. While the authors do a superb job of defining the future battlefield, they offer very little in terms of how we get there from where we currently stand. The weapons systems they describe will almost certainly come to pass, but they neither make suggestions as to the allocation of R&D dollars, nor offer any sense of what research should receive priority. In the absence of such commentary, their bold assertions frequently seem more like dogma than scholarship. Moreover, they ignore potential doctrinal changes that might extend the service life of current weapons systems while increasing their effectiveness.

At its best, 'The Future of War' is a visionary look into the future of armed conflict. The authors correctly grasp the dawning senility of the weapons currently deployed, and paint a bold picture of what the future battlefield will look like. Unfortunately, while brilliantly describing the future, they completely ignore the near to middle term. As a result, 'The Future of War' while well worth reading, can only be treated as half of an equation. One must read the works of authors like Leonhard and MacGregor to truly appreciate the shape of the modern battlefield.

This book is more than the grocery store's blase` litany of new gizmos that has Tom Clancy's name slapped on it. So if you are intersted in a book that natters about specific weapons systems ad nauseum, you are better off shopping there or else watching the Discovery Channel. The Friedmans' book is useful because it sees technology as more than a collection of shiny and expensive toys that make loud noises; although utterly essential and often defining our ability to achieve our ends, technology is always a pillar within a grander scheme.

The value in this book is its capability to trace a concept historically, and provide us with a valuable and critical perspective of our strategic strength. Consequently we are able to analyze something transcending the, "Our ship is better than their ship," manner of thought.

So a framework of strategic thought, within which technological capability relative to others is essential for analysis, gives us insight into future needs. Whether their conclusions are valid are certainly open to debate; the approach, however, is certainly valuable.

Like, 'The Coming War With Japan,' this book is able to use multiple levels of understanding to present their arguments.......... the importance of the Friedmans' work is growing everyday. Worth the read.

This book directs one's attention to the discussion the way we have thought about war will no longer be as relevant in the future. The notion of "weapons reaching and obsolete status" points to a central thesis in the book--that America will remain the preponderant military and technical power of the 21st century. This of course may be a comforting piece of information for policy shapers and makers, and business peoples. But is it really ? Such dominance by one nation is bound to lead to the shifting of the balance of power among nations unless the movement toward internationalization proves to be successful. However, aspiring powers and emerging nations that wish to be freed from this American dominance may -- and there seems to be information to support this -- seek weapons of mass destruction to counter US global hegemony.

This book made a clearly argued case for American Dominance, but it does not help us to see the political/moral future. But within its parameters, its an "eye-opener."

I admit to approaching the reading of "The Grapes of Wrath" with some preconceived negative notions. Having it be a "required" read was also not encouraging. However, about 100 pages into the story, I became captivated by the Joad family---particularly Tom, a man of great moral integrity, and the strong-willed but loving Ma Joad who provides the family's source of strength and courage in the face of overwhelming adversity. While some parts may make you flinch in horror, others will make you sad to realize these events really happened in the land of plenty.

"The Grapes of Wrath" is an engrossing tale of one Oklahoma family seeking not their fame and fortune, but just the hope of putting a few scraps of food on the table. Join them in their clunker of a truck as all 12 of them pile in to make the long and arduous drive west to California in the hopes of finding work picking fruit. They lose family members along the way, some by death and some by choice, but they learn a lot about friendship and taking care of not only their loved ones but also the strangers who find themselves in the same dire straits as the Joads are in. Steinbeck's descriptions of the hunger, the hardship, the futile search for work, the disappointments, the hostile environment the migrants faced in California, all make for an eye-opening read. This is a great source of information on how it was for one group of people during the Depression.

It may not be one of the great novels of the twentieth century, its characters are often overly-sentimental, and its theme is relatively simple, but it is a landmark of literature for the way it portrays the Depression in the western United States. This book has been proven to be an accurate portrayal of the victims of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.

Steinbeck alternates plot-driven chapters that feature the story of the Joads with chapters that focus on the large-scale problems of the economic history of California and the psychology of groups of migrants and of the landowners. These large-scale chapters provide background information and a broad world view that gives weight to the Joads' struggle, while the story of the Joads gives the large-scale chapters a sympathetic human face.

Whether you love or hate the book, you will probably never forget this story of one family's valiant fight to survive while the world around them collapses and disintegrates.

The novel was made into an excellent film in 1940 which starred a very young Henry Fonda as Tom Joad.

When I was first assigned to read John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath in English class, the first thing that I noticed was how huge it was. Over 600 pages! I was afraid it would be a story that wandered all over the place and didn't really have a point. Even after I had begun reading, it seemed that this assumption was correct since all book seemed to be doing was telling a very detailed and slow-moving story about a family in Oklahoma. However, as I continued reading, I began to realize that the very way the book portrays the life of these people so realistically and what the reader learns from their situation is itself the point of the book. The Grapes of Wrath is the story of the Joad family, an Oklahoma family of tenant farmers during the Great Depression who are kicked out of their homes because they cannot make a profit on their crops. As more and more farmers are kicked off their land to be replaced by men on tractors, over 300,000 people migrate west to California in hopes of earning a living picking fruit, cotton, etc... for owners with larger farms. Hardship follows them during the long trip to California. Even once they get there, they're divided against themselves as they compete for work so they can just feed their families. Throughout the book the family encounters opposition from all sorts of people, including land owning farmers who must pay extremely low wages in order to make a profit, cops who cause more trouble than good, locals who are afraid of the massive influx of people, and a government that seems unable to help. In the end it's sheer will that gives them the strength to continue to fight as the Depression relentlessly tries to break the people's determination and the family bonds. The Grapes of Wrath gives a very realistic view of the Great Depression and tells it from viewpoints you don't see from just reading about it in a history textbook. The book is divided into narrative chapters that tell the story of the Joads, and, every other chapter, the inter chapters that give information about the situation in a style that's part documentary, part editorial. Throughout the book, especially during the inter chapters, Steinbeck uses symbolism to convey ideas. In particular, there are many allusions to the Bible, including the title. Due to its realistic portrayal of the life of the migrants, the book has also come under considerable controversy for its profanity and sex, since those things were parts of the lives of these people. Also, Steinbeck uses the inter chapters both to make people aware of the problems and to give suggestions for how to deal with them, and many of his beliefs could be seen as Communistic. I have really found The Grapes of Wrath to be a difficult book to rate. On the one hand, it's a slow-moving book that contains a whole lot of talk that people who aren't really into reading books for fun will likely find boring, and it's just too long to hold some people's interest. On the other hand, however, the character interaction is very realistic and human, being based on actual migrants Steinbeck knew. Because of this, we get to feel like we really know the people in the book. The seemingly excessive length of the book is actually needed to give us a real understanding of how these people lived their lives. When the characters get into intense situations that threaten the physical and psychological well-being of the family both as a group of individuals and as a single unit, the book reaches hights of drama and emotional intensity that is almost never matched today in movies, books, video games, music, or any of our other forms of art. I often found myself just sitting there thinking about what I'd just read for a while after I finished with the required reading for the day. There's not really space within this 1,000 word limit to fully discuss my thoughts on this book, but what I can say is that it will draw you into the world of the migrants in the 1930's and show you plainly and truthfully just what it was like. I can understand the opinion of people who hate this book because it's all a matter of taste, and some people just would not be able to forgive the many parts they consider agonizingly boring. Although I give this book four stars overall, there are parts of it that I'd give 10 stars if I could. I highly recommend this powerful book to anyone.

I must have read Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" a half dozen times since I first picked it up as a high school student. The story of the ongoing hope and determination of the displaced migrants, pitted against the disdainful land-owners, highlights a 20th century conflict between traditional values of inherent virtue and the interests of business, economic efficiency, and the profit-seeking wealthy. The first few times I read this story, I saw only a tract that promotes centralized state authority and socialist constructs as a solution to injustice and poverty, as also appears in Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". In my later years, however, I have seen Steinbeck's prophecy against the hypocrisy of those who would call themselves "Christian" and "righteous", then ignore the essential tenets of their faith to serve their own interests, the minute they've left church on Sunday. The book continues to speak to our own age, when the well-to-do in the "winner-take-all" competition of the modern marketplace find it all too convenient to neglect the poor that remain. Although history has since proven the value of a free-market economy, its "winners" are just as human as its "losers", and cannot in good conscience brush them aside, discounting them as products of their own failings.