This is a fantastic book, not so much because it tells you how to resolve the tension between ambition and vocation, but because it accompanies you on the journey of working through these preoccupations yourself. You will not find any "5 Easy Steps to Success" here nor will find any "How to Find God's Will For Your Life." Rather you will find a philosopher who walks with us the razor's edge between our desire to get ahead in this world and our desire to live a meaningful life. Mahan is not sanctimonious in his approach to this all-too-human struggle. He does not condemn or issue platitudes. Rather, he invites the reader into a introspective, somewhat guided, tour of his or her deepest convictions regarding both "mere success" and "true success."

In a sense, Mahan's book is an extended meditation on Thomas Merton's call, "If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the the thing I want to live for."

However, this is not an "easy read." In parts, it gets a bit dense. (I found myself reading certain passages several times to get at Mahan's point.) However, I do think it would be a great book for audiences as diverse as college students who are trying to figure out what to do with themselves, mid-career executives who are struggling to move form "success to significance," as well as anyone striving to find some order in their lives as they pursue both their ambitions as well as their vocations. Heck, this is a book for all "baby boomers" who at one time felt they had been called to "change the world" in the name of "love,peace and justice" only to find themselves becoming precisely what they, at one time, detested.

The book includes a number of wonderful "practices" reminiscent of Walker Percy's "Lost in the Cosmos."

I encourage anyone who asks how to live a meaningful life in a world that forevers seeks to drain us of life to read this book.

I would give it more stars but Amazon only allows five.

I absolutely adore this book. I've grown tired of books on vocation that have a "pie in the sky" approach to living a spiritual life, as if everyday working people have the financial resources to devote themselves to a life of good deeds. Brian Mahan has a great way of bringing two worlds together---the need to pay the bills and the need to make a positive contribution to the world. Turns out you can do both!

I also like his "spiritual retreat" approach. He incorporates spiritual exercises at the end of each chapter which really help to focus attention on living a life of integrity. Finally, this is a practical and inspiring book---but a book with a humorous edge---that unites compassion and ambition in a fresh, new way.

Read this book!

I first learned about Robert Coles through my interest in Dorothy Day, the legendary co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Coles himself is a legend, albiet, a still living one. I am disappointed that Harvard Diary and its sequel, Harvard Diary II, are out of print. I stumbled across these book recently by accident. I still can't figure out the reason behind the madness of the Dewey decimil system. The library had these books in the philosophy section. But, that's just as well. Maybe someone like me will pick them up by accident and discover what a refreshing voice Coles is. Coles is a world-renowned psychiatrist (he would hate me saying this) and a prize-winning author. What stands out most about Coles is his ability to recognize the central paradox of humanity. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, even if now fatally flawed. I won't go into detail about Harvard Diary. The other reviewers have done a better job than I could do. I would recommend that you check out Phillip Yancey's book SOUL SURVIVOR which contains an outstanding sketch on Coles life and work.

Robert Coles is the kind of guy who can get away with saying "Tolstoy knew the emotions of childhood better than Freud." One would think that would be comparing apples and oranges, or some other kind of fruit, but one of Coles' beliefs is that life is one, and the borders of "social science" and human experience as narrated by the great thinkers of the past, not only ought to be transcended, but are pretty much meaningless anyway. Coles can say that because he is both a professor at Harvard University, and the author of a Pulitzer Prize - winning series on the spiritual life of children. His life consists of what he once called a "return to the Sermon on the Mount."

This book consists mostly of reflections on people Coles admires, whom he discusses in one of his classes at Harvard. Favorites he features here include people like Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Conner, George Orwell, of course Tolstoy, those who work among the poor, and the some of the poor themselves, whose comments he reports a few paragraphs at a time, and are as interesting as anything by his more famous heroes. He writes from a viewpoint that he calls "liberal," but I was glad to find that didn't seem to take anything off the orthodoxy of his Christian faith. A thoughtful and challenging, but readable, book.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

When you think of a hero, someone like King Arthur, Han Solo, or Clint Eastwood comes to mind. Yet, it is more often than not someone who you might not notice who is truly a hero. In this book, the author concisely illustrates from legend and reality the true nature of a hero, defining the qualities of perserverance, kindness, and courage, etc. that set a hero apart from the crowd. While many of the people he uses will be familiar, such as Esther, Princess Leia, Anne Frank, for example, some of the real life heroes are people that have been ignored. He presents role models for not only children, but for all people to strive and emulate in their lives. You never know when you might be called upon to be one, for as one of his examples, Princess Leia said, "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, they became heroes."

The Hero's Trail, by T.A. Barron, is a book about a series of people who, through strength, morality, and perseverance, manage to become heroes. Primarily dealing with ordinary people who turn into heroes when the time is right, it involves such people as Tiare Marie Wells, who saved the life of a ice fisherman who would've otherwise drowned and Ben MacDonald, who survived in the wild for over two months by living with a female badger. It also deals with people who overcame massive obstacles to do what they loved, such as Stephen Hawking, who overcame ALS to become one of the most renowned scientists in the world. It also details fictional characters such as Peter of Holland, who plugged a dyke with his finger and saved his entire village and Frodo, who risked everything to save his land from Sauron by destroying The One Ring.
If The Hero's Trail has a weakness, it is that it is too short. Barely a hundred pages long, it could easily be finished in a couple of hours. I would've loved to read more about heroes and for it to have involved some of my personal favorites such as Michael Jordan, who was rejected by his basketball team as a weakling. However, this shouldn't prevent you from enjoying this wonderful book.

School continues to be one of the most traumatizing/wonderful experiences of my life. This book talks about school from all angles .. highly recommended.

This collection includes some of the best poems of our time--all related to school. The pain and poignancy of school-age experiences in the classroom, on the playground, or on the athletic field, are captured in this volume with the resonance of shared life. The names of teachers--Mrs. Krikorian, Mrs. Smythe, and the rest--bring back our own teachers' faces and even their "sausage arms." Teachers themselves speak here as well, with humor, sadness, or a sense of loss about the classrooms of children they have known. This volume, with work by our best contemporary poets, is a must-read for anyone who teaches or learns or who has ever been in school.

This book contains the highlights and experiences of Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. It is a very enjoyable book. The philosophy and beliefs are brought out in a series of experiences, many of them humorous, about the unique characters, role models and lessons learned in trying to adopt an early Christian communal attitude to charity and bring it to the streets of New York City. Dorothy Day lived her beliefs intently. Over the decades it resulted in running many urban soup kitchens, Hospitality houses, a farm or two, along with publishing the Catholic Worker Newspaper and authoring this very inspiring book.. This book will make you think,

At a time when the "mainstream" media insists on appointing the Christian Coalition and other groups of their ilk as voices of the Gospel in todays world, we are reminded of how much the life, words, and witness of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker are needed. Back in print in the handsome edition, "Loaves and Fishes" tells the history of the movement founded by Day and Peter Maurin. In an era when far too many associate Christianity with indifference to Christ's poor, and the embracement of intolerant and spiteful political agendas, the voice of prophets like Day are sorely needed.

What a subtle, beautiful, thought-provoking book. Indispensible for understanding how teenage pregnancy shapes the lives of young people. Offers a poignant view of a variety of American teens facing parenthood, of different classes, different races, different religions and regions. Would be particularly valuable for high-school researchers, or as a complement to drier, more statistical or policy-oriented analyses.

The photographs are fantastic and will capture your heart and mind. The pictures communicate in a way words never could. You will feel like you know and understand these young mothers.

If the book is 1/10 as fascinating as the movie, it's a winner. A 'must see' for all parents, educators, POLITICIANS!, sociologists, mental health professionals and everyone else who cares about who we are as humans. Entertaining as well as deeply thought-provoking.

A "must have" for any true Cole Porter fan or music researcher. This collection has the all the lyrics for Cole Porter's almost-1000 songs! Of particular note is an awesome "phrase index" for looking up common phrases and quotes in order to find what song a phrase is from. It also includes copyright information for every song for those who want to quote Cole for whatever reason.

Thomas Merton lays a foundation for personal growth and transformation through fidelity to "our own truth and inner being." Merton's main focus is our desire and need to attain "a fully human and personal identity." This is a truly wonderful book for those who wish to know God.

This is an important book for "so called" documentary writers, photographers, and film makers. I say "so called" because we tend to think of documentary work as an accurate representation--literally the truth. Robert Coles pretty much shoots that idea down, showing how the background, beliefs, biases, hopes, and fears of the documentarian color the narrative. I came away believing that the word objective is not relevant here, and that it may be impossible to ever get at the truth. If I read Coles right, the documentarian may, in fact, be more akin to the literary fiction writer/photographer/film-maker, who does seem to get at the truth. This is not to say that documentary work is futile. On the contrary it can be potent, meaningful, and worthwhile. We may just have to look at it differently and face up to the fact that it reflects the person doing the documentary work as much as it does his/her subject. This is a liberating idea. And we owe a debt to Coles for proffering it. There are consequences, too. For instance, in the light of Coles' discovery, a lot of critics may owe an apology to Richard Avedon, whose photographic fiction, "In The American West," may be fine documentary work after all.