Ok. I already feel odd writing a review of this book. The anticipated audience is incredibly narrow and if you found this review, you probably know what you are looking for. However, I think this is one of the greatest books. As a law student who is planning on specializing in ERISA, this book has been an invaluable resource to me. It is the first place I turn when I have an ERISA question to research. It won't provide all the answers but puts a very complex statute into perspective. It would also benefit the non-lawyer who might be involved in benefits.

This is the story of Eugene. The story is actually a good guideline of life's most valuable lessons: don't steal, don't cheat, work hard. It is a story that every parent should read and share the meaning of each lesson with their children.

Excellent book for people new to the United States. Faster read than similar books like Culture Shock and to the point. Offers information on a variety of topics that is very easy to understand and put into practice.

This book is fantastic. With intimate knowledge of Santa Barbara these short stories will guide you through experiences of Chumash Indians, early inhabitants, and the current local natives. If you love Santa Barbara or want to visit it in spirit - I highly recommend this book and the first collection called Santa Barbara Stories.

In 1971, Barbara Dean and a dozen other people, some of whom she did not even know, purchaced a ranch on the Eel River in N. California and started an intentional community. None had any experience in country living; all wanted to find an alternative to urban American life. This book is an honest, straightforward, thoughtful and often funny account of their experiment in semi-communal living. Dean focuses primarily on the interactions of the people with the place and each other and how she and the others were changed by the experience.

Many people approach the idea of intentional communities with a sort of starry-eyed idealism: this book is quaranteed to bring you down to earth. Through their mistakes and ignorance as well as their good intentions and commitment, the members of the community learn how truly difficult community life is.

I highly recommend this book to anyone thinking of starting or joining an intentional communty, it will give you a needed dose of reality...and of hope.

....intro to Jung's work, with some interesting biographical info sprinkled here and there throughout these essays.

If I might raise two objections: describing Jung's spectrum model of mind, where the "red" end represents instinct and the "violet" end the archetypal psyche, Hannah says it is from the violet end that the "new consciousness" is to be formed. This sounds to me like the Christianistic bias toward spirit and against embodiment that Jung beat up on so often in his writings and seminars.

Speaking of Jung, Hannah mentions his rudeness and irritability toward her, then justifies it by saying it did her some kind of individuative good. This common Jungian excuse for being mean to people needs to be shelved in favor of taking personal responsibility for one's bad temper; in a fit of idealization, too many followers have passed off Jung's as though it were some sort of profound emanation from the unconscious. For more on this dynamic read up on Anna Freud's description of the defense known as "identification with the aggressor."

While most of the material is standard Jung and none of it is particularly deep or detailed, it's clearly written and to be recommended as a very basic introduction to classic Jungian thought.

Barbara Hannah (1891-1986) was active during the "golden years" of Jungian psychology. The Inner Journey is a compendium of the best of her writings, a legacy to future generations showcasing Hannah's insightful mind, compassionate heart, original thinking, psychological integrity, and abiding faith in the healing power of the unconscious. The essays include: Some Glimpses of the Individuation Process in Jung Himself; On Active Imagination; Regression or Renewal in Later Life; Ego and Shadow; The Religious Function of the Animus in the Book of Tobit; and The Problem of Contact with Animus. The Inner Journey will introduce an influential Jungian psychologist to a new generation of students and researchers. Also highly recommended are two of her earlier works: Jung, His Life And Work: A Biographical Memoir (1976); and Encounters With The Soul: Active Imagination As Developed By C. G. Jung (1981).

The author of the magnificent books, 'The Bean Trees', and 'Pigs in Heaven', leaves her protagonists Turtle and her mother in the Southwest and puts us in Africa, the Congo, Kilanga, in 1959. This stunning book is the tale of the family (of girls) of a Baptist preacher who moves them to a Congolese village to convert the heathens. The story is told through the voices of the girls: Rachel, Leah, Ruth May, Adah, Rebecca, and their mother, Orleanna Price. Their father's ignorance and somewhat violent tendencies, the sheer poverty and simpleness of the village, and the vast differences in their lives for these girls from Georgia are expressed by all of them. Their personalities, their strengths, their needs and their confusion are evident by their every word and their complex thoughts. Kingsolver, who is a brilliant writer anyway, brings a fascinating perspective to her imaginary family in the Poisonwood Bible - as she, the daughter of public health care workers who spent time in the Congo when she was very young, "waited thirty years for the wisdom and maturity to write this book." A powerful story, an excellent read.

Few novels moved me so much as this book did. I cried and laughed, laughed and cried for this vivid epic. Set in a far obscure Congo village Kilango about 40 years ago, this story read so vivid and true. I wept for all six protagonists, for their fate and adherence. Especially Adah and Leah. Kingsolver's power of describing the inner conflict of gifted children was incomparable. Every so-called gifted educationist should scrutnize the life story and the way of thinking of Leah and Adah (although this twin were mere fictional!)

In my viewpoints the best part of this epic lay on the first two-thirds. With weaving scenes, african aroma, gorgeous language witty, and different viewpoints,those chapters shone with bright sparkle. Almost every section made me gasp. While from their Exodus this splendid sound seemed fade a little. The pace and rhythm was too fast. After all,to tell 25 years of stories of 3 different women in less 100 pages was not a easy task. Often I found myself forgot "how old are Leah(or any other) now",and I must calculate once more. That's because the previous adolescent images of these girls stamped on the reader so deep and firm, they were too vivid to grow up. And sometimes I feel a bit annoying there were too much polictical preachment in these pages. But on the last 50 pages the splendid and gorgeous flame flamed again. The close sections were very beautiful and moving.

This is truly a remarkable fiction. Wholeheartedly recommended.

Having lived in South Africa for 21 years and in Georgia, USA for 29 years Barbara Kingsolver's book "The Poisonwood Bible" hit a nerve. Barbara descriptions of life in Kilanga, Congo 40 years ago is astounding and brought back fond memories of my travels in villages in Mozambique, Zululand and the Transkei. The serene-looking faces, quick laughter and bare chested elegance of the village people fascinated me more than the tensed-faced, harried, self-conscious city folk I knew. Barbara's exquisite writing made me feel, see and sense Africa all over again. Each of the Price family members represented parts of me and helped me to understand myself better. Nathan's religious fanaticism, Orleanna's loyalty, Ruth Mae's innocence, Rachael's self-centeredness and the thoughtful keen-eyed observations of Adah and Leah, the twins. They were the true seekers of wisdom and truth. Barbara's comment about the USA and Western Europe's involvement in the bloodshed and devastation of Africa is shocking. The possible link between the CIA and Patrice Lumumba's death; the United States support of Joseph Mobutu's dictatorship and abuse of funds; Mobutu spending $20 million to bring two American boxers to Zaire so quote "all the world will respect the name Zaire" when his people were dying of starvation and disease; the Export-Import Bank loaning the Congo more than a billion dollars for a bogus power line so they can be assured a permanent debt and be repaid in cobalt and diamonds. I had not idea and feel outraged. Through the characters of the Fowles, Anatole, Leah, Adah and Orleanna, the author shows how the people who get off the treadmill of further, faster and more to return to nature and simplicity seem not only to survive but thrive.