I knew about the book from the Oprah show and I ordered straight after the show. It took a while because I live in the UK.

The book speaks to both parents, whether absent or otherwise. Reading through the pages, I realised how certain actions of parents can totally damage a child. Though my kids father never paid any maintenance, I did not stop him from seeing them. Most of my friends and even family thought this was foolish of me. Reading the book has therefore reinforced what I thought all along. I am so glad I bought it and I have since shared it with friends in similar situations. Mark Bryan's book even inspired me to write a song about the relationship between a father and child and how a child truly feels about the absent parent!

I first saw this book in the parenting section of the children's section of the library. The title intrigued me so I decided to skim through it. Besides his own testimony of reuniting with a son after 14 years and of helping others fathers to reunite, I realized this wasn't another book written by someone who wants you easily to do what they've never had to do.

I even skimmed through the section for mothers because I'm the single mother of a 3 year old. I didn't have my usual "Yeah, right" bitter reaction and actually felt like crying and calling my daughter's father right away to start the process.

Without the testimonials in this book, I would have accepted that her father being in her life was not only improbable, but impossible and would have lived my life accordingly. After just reading a few chapters, I really wanted to do all that I could to start a relationship between my daughter and her father. I really began to believe it could happen. After I get the book from the library, I hope to apply its principles. I'm glad all the other reviewers enjoyed it as well.

I recently heard Mark Bryan speak at the NACSDC @ the Univ. Notre Dame. I cried through his entire presentation. There are too many parallels to mention. I bought two copies of his book. One I read. One I gave to my daughter who is a single mom and in reunion (without this book) with her child's father. They now have the book, each has read some of it. They are still talking. My book will remain with me. I will be buying another copy so that I can write a letter to my childrens father. Maybe then they will find thier way back to each other. I never understood until I read about the haunting. Thank you Mark!

The Franconia, New Hampshire, farm of the American poet Robert Frost was turned into a museum and center for poetry and the arts in 1976. From that time, "The Frost Place" has been annual event wherein an emerging poet has been invited to spend the summer living in the house where Frost once lived and wrote some of his greatest poetry. The Breath Of Parted Lips: Voices From The Robert Frost Place, Volume One is a remarkable anthology of twenty-four poets, each of whom won that honor of a summer's residency and document the success of the original concept as a means of generating outstanding poetry while nurturing the poet's muse in the rooms and views that were once the inspiration of the great Robert Frost. Poem At 40: Windwashed--as if standing next to the highway,/a truck long as the century sweeping by,/all things at last bent in the same direction./An opening, as if all/the clothes my ancestors ever wore/dry on lines in my body:/wind-whipped, parallel with the ground,/some sleeves sharing a single clothespin/so that they seem to clasp hands,/seem to hold on.//And now that I can see/up the old women's dresses,/there's nothing but a filtered light./And now that their men's smoky breath/has traversed the earth,/it has nothing to do with them./And now that awkward, fat tears of rain/slap the window screen,/now that I'm naked too,/cupping my genitals, tracing with a pencil/the blue vein between my collar bone and breast,/I'll go to sleep when I'm told.

I have and still enjoy this book. This book is interesting, stick with it, it's fun to read. You can always go back for help with a subject that you don't understand. I don't know if the authors wrote a second book.

Bryan is my high school history teacher of long ago and I would say you can beleive most of the hysterically funny stories found in this book! Why, it's better than a comic book! Read it and I'll bet you can relate to many of the situations.

I know three of the medical doctors (All members of the Osler Society) who assembled these choice selections uttered and (mostly) penned by Sir William Osler . . who seems to have felt strongly on only one controversial subject = that men seldom did any worthwhile creative work after age 40 and would do well to be "chloroformed" at age 60. Sir William died at age 70. The term "Internal Medicine" was coined in German-speaking Europe during Sir William's post-graduate training years there and he established the definition of the "specialty" at Johns Hopkins. The "specialty" has now out-lived its usefulness but our reverence for the man who contributed more than any other to the art and science of patient care obviously is being passed along to many young men and women who choose to be REAL PHYSICIANS.

When one considers the incalculable number of words written about World War II, it is astonishing that no one has tackled the subject of Jewish soldiers in the Wehrmacht before now. Bryan Mark Rigg breaks this new ground in a scholarly and exhaustive manner. Impressive research (much of it eye-witness interviews), copious endnotes, and a serious style give this book the credibility demanded by readers skeptical of its premise: men of Jewish ancestry served in the German Armed Forces (including the Waffen SS) by the tens of thousands.

The book is replete with fascinating historical esoterica such as Heydrich's possible Jewish ancestry, accounts of Goring protecting high-ranking Luftwaffe Mischlinge (partial Jews), and the role many individual partial Jews played in the German war machine. It also documents in detail the sometimes bureaucratic, sometimes pragmatic way that exemptions from the Nuremburg Laws were handed out.

Throughout Hitler's Jewish Soldiers the reader is repeatedly confronted with the absurdity of Nazi racial policy, as were high-ranking Nazis themselves. By 1933 Jews had become so integrated into German society that many citizens didn't realize they had Jewish blood in their ancestral past. Nazi researchers unearthed these skeletons so effectively that many patriotic Germans and even Party members were turned into outcasts and became a target of the German government instead of having their patriotism harnessed to help an increasingly hopeless war effort. Some Nazis recognized this, leading Himmler to his famous lament "each (German) has his decent Jew". Rigg's view however, is that while many Mischlinge escaped the full weight of Nazi racial policy during the war for pragmatic reasons, they would have faced an unfortunate fate after a German victory.

Perhaps the most compelling chapter is the final one. An examination of what Mischlinge knew about the Holocaust, Rigg demonstrates that generally speaking, they didn't understand what was going on in the extermination camps. Given that some of these people had had dozens of relatives deported, in retrospect that seems astounding. However most Mischlinge were fully integrated members of secular German culture and the idea of their own society exterminating them en masse was beyond their imagination. Since one would expect Jewish Germans to know more about the holocaust than Aryan Germans, this conclusion does seem to stand in contrast to that of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners.

Hitler's Jewish Soldier's is essential to fully understanding Nazi racial policy and its practical implementation. Bryan Mark Rigg has made an impressive debut and I look forward to his next work.

The author describes and analyzes the fate of German soldiers of Jewish descent and their families during the 3. Reich. It especially looks at the conditions under which Jews and "Mischlinge" according to Nazi racial definition could stay and serve in the Wehrmacht and how the process worked that led to an exemption.

This book is in many respects a must read for everybody interested in the Holocaust. It is very well written and in my opinion a perfect blend between oral history and archival research. Therefore, it is both interesting for professional scholars and the broader public. The author's arguments are well documented by a large number of interviews with former German soldiers of Jewish descent and references to archival sources.

The author gives an exemplary account of some of these men but at the same time also analyzes the broader implications of his findings. It is in the fate of these men where some evidence can be detected about what a possible future might have looked like in terms of anti-Jewish policy and in terms of further "cleaning the Volkskoerper" if Germany had won the war. I also completely agree with Rigg's conclusion that given Hitler's personal involvement in any single exemption it is very hard to imagine that he was not in control of the general path of anti-Jewish measures including the extermination in the East. Therefore, Rigg is adding another important piece of evidence in answering the question whether Hitler personally gave the order for the extermination.

Rigg further analyzes the question what these soldiers knew about the "Final Solution". Some of them were probably the only people who potentially had knowledge from the perpetrators' and the victims' side, and they were personally affected by the persecution. He concludes that most of those men had only a vague idea or did not know anything about the extermination camps and that the unthinkable was a very powerful barrier of thought even or especially in these instances.

The book further demonstrates how much Jews had assimilated in German society and even in the military. It shows how these soldiers were torn apart between different identities but also that many were ashamed of their heritage and tried everything to get back into the mainstream of German society either to save themselves and their families but often also because they believed in the "resurrection of the German nation" and wanted to contribute. Therefore, the book is a powerful reminder that if we study history closely, we will encounter many shades of gray.

Bryan Mark Rigg has completed a scholarly work on one segment of the Holocaust and World War II which has been largely ignored by Historians and Holocaust Scholars. He has gone into territory which illustrates that Germany was far more complex than the setting which most academics have described. His research relied upon traditional archival materials as well as being richly sprinkled with the personal histories of those who were labeled as being Jewish or partly Jewish. The Nazis were not above special exemptions from the laws for those who had powerful friends and sometimes for those whom Hitler simply decided to grant an exemption. The real life Angst of those who wanted to be good Germans and who wanted to define themselves as German is a story which will be unsettling to many. However, their sacrifices frequently did not change the fate of their own families and Rigg has a decent amount of documentation to strongly suggest that Hitler at the end of the war ...along with some of the more zealous of the Nazi ideologues were going to eliminate those who were 50% and even 25% Jewish. Zimbardo in his Stanford Prison experiment noted the importance of the social setting in unlocking behavior..whereby individuals conform to the norms of the group. In this instance, significant numbers of those defined by the racial laws as inferior through their status of Jewishness ...decided for a variety of reasons to identify with the racial attitudes and the norms of the Nazis. The fact that Riggs brings out is that when some of those with mixed ancestory went to Jewish groups for assistance... they were denied ...just as many were ultimately denied an exemption by Hitler and the party. They were caught between two cultures and largely ignored by scholars and historians. One other interesting aspect was the sheltering of these military men by their own units...their comrades...this did not take place in every instance but it did take place with a high degree of frequency. This book could be read with 'I.B.M. and the Holocaust' to learn how the Nazis tracked down the ancestory of populations in Europe. Riggs has done an impresssive and scholarly job...one that will cause discomfort for traditional Holocaust Scholars and traditional historians. Highly recommended. There is a wealth of information in his notes...and his documentation of various elements and incidents is outstanding.

Professor, Dr. Peter Kassebaum

Fred Miller has written an amazingly simple book full of practical techniques to relieve the stress of our everyday lives. It's small book full of basic relaxation and focusing exercises. What he doesn't say is that within these techniques lies the possibility of finding a deeper, more profound connection with who we really are and having the peace of mind to live with others. No small feat! He demystifies the practice. Now, it's up to us to do it.

This book gets right to the point. No mysticism or religious platitudes, just simple and effective physical tools to use in quieting and relaxing your body and mind. "Three Breaths" says it all - of course there is more to support that in the book. I read "The Child Whisperer" - a parenting book by stress expert Matt Pasquinilli - a few years ago and learned how to use the "Three Breaths" technique for me and for my son. We have had much less stress since then. "How to Calm Down" can lead you to a happy and healthy life with far less stress.

of course, exciting isn't what it's about. It's about being calm, something I don't do very well. The stresses of a workday and single parenthood combine to give me a pretty hectic life. This great book really helped me chill out. I get more done and am a better parent for it. I strongly recommend this book.

Such a nice book. And so refreshing and pleasing to read. As a primary care hospitalist doc, it help shepard me through the subacute rehab unit.

Will there be a second edition?

Terrific! The Best Rehab Book ever published!

Who can ask for more?

Thank you for this wonderful book of reflection aids!

I have spent a great deal of time reviewing my memories, and have thought "shame on me" for some of the narrow minded ideas that I have held so close.

This book has helped me see arguements in my past in a new light. I have already approached and settled some things with others in close pursuit.

I intend to read portions of this book aloud to my children (3 teens), I believe that it will help them start early on the road to healthy adult relationships with family members and elders.

Thank you again,

Teresa Johnson

Mark Bryan has great communication skills, and leads the reader step-by-step by the hand to a much more loving life. Meaning, reconciliation is a key emphasis in this excellent book. It's probably one of the best relationship and family books out there. Another book that goes hand-in-hand with this one as it also has this certain unique blend of a psychological and spiritual approach, and a book that has helped me tremendously to become a more loving and forgiving person as I also learned to appreciate myself and others in a much deeper way, is Dietmar Scherf's "I Love Me: Avoiding and Overcoming Depression" which is also available at Amazon.com

I highly recommend "Codes of Love." It is evocative and beautifully written. I have used the exercises, techniques and ideas to deepen and clarify my own family relationships. The effect has been to focus my attention and empathy on the fabulously comic tragedy of my family's history from the perspective of each protagonist. I am released from the burden of their problems and I feel free to create my own life story. I look foward to my using the book in my therapy practice.

You do not need to be an artist in the sense of a gifted painter, sculptor, writer, musician, etc. to enjoy this book. We are all artists in that each of us designs, creates and shapes our own future. We make the choices that will determine where our paths will lead. The only limitations we have are those we place on ourselves.

Julia Cameron makes the journey a little smoother by helping us rid ourselves of life's negative emotions - fear, jealousy, guilt, limited beliefs, etc. While the book makes interesting and insightful reading, I think it is important to be committed to completing all the exercises for maximum benefit. The author does touch on spirituality and makes reference to God in several instances; however, whatever your own personal beliefs, the reader can easily adapt the material written here to any spiritual belief, regardless of what "Higher Power" you believe in.

Two other books which I highly recommend are "You Can Heal Your Life" by Louise L. Hay, and "What's Next: Women Redefining Their Dreams in the Prime of Life", by Rena Pederson. Both are excellent books.

I began using The Artist's Way in 1998. The artist's dates were the most difficult part of the assignments. The references to 12-step programs assume everyone knows all about those programs, but I don't. I felt excluded from the conversation. There were some aspects of the book that I was simply not comfortable with, and I never felt that I was experiencing synchronicity as described by Julia Cameron.

BUT I have developed a new interest (designing web sites) and new skills since I read The Artist's Way.

At the time I read the book and did the exercises, I thought that what I liked best were the quotes from famous people such as Einstein. They inspired and motivated me, and I began thinking of images to illustrate what the quotes meant to me. (That was more fun than writing the Morning Pages.) Since I enjoy using computers, I used a computer graphics program to create inspirational signs that I placed around my home.

I guess it pays to be open-minded; although I've finished the book, I'm still benefitting from doing the exercises. I followed up The Artist's Way with Mandala, by Judith Cornell, another ground-breaking book for me. I've developed a new career by taking small steps along a meandering path. So, what IS synchronicty?

Julia Cameron has written a book that, as a writer, I didn't think I really needed. I was a little concerned at the word "spiritual" and potential religious interpretations, but had to buy the book for school anyway, so I did.

I was delighted to find a guide that actually worked. If you get this book for no other reason than the "Morning Pages" discussed in the first pages of the book, then get it. The book resembles a sort of 12-step program. In fact it is 12 chapters long and outlines and discusses ways to help you draw from and replenish your "creative well".

The excercises are straightforward and make sense. Ms Cameron doesn't waste time wandering off on meaningless tangents. As I've mentioned, I was surprised because I didn't think my "creative well" was particularly dry. However, once I started using this book (and becoming a believer in the methods described therein), I've been overflowing with ideas.

The book is spiritual without being religious, so if you're worried about a religious excercise, fear not! I am happy to report that this is not one of these "you need to find God to help you" books at all. It's a pleasant and useful book that can and does help you look a little deeper inside yourself. You'll be quite amazed at what you find.