Murder Carries A Torch proves what I've been claiming loudly for years: Anne Carroll George is one of the country's best writers, whether she bends her talents to literary novels like This One and Magic Life, or her Southern Sisters mysteries. Whatever world she decides to inhabit, you can bet she will bring that world alive for her readers.

In Murder Carries a Torch, Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are again drawn most plausibly into the most implausible circumstances, chasing a murderer through a snake-handling church in northern Alabama. The unusual religious characters are treated respectfully, the snakes are genuinely scary, Mary Alice gets a new boyfriend, and Patricia Anne is... well, the lovable and slightly acerbic Patricia Anne.

The best thing about reading all of Anne Carroll George's books is that you become part of a wonderful family universe. Visiting with Patricia Anne and Mary Alice is like joining a funny, interesting, eccentric family. George parcels out personal information much the same way you would get to know friends in real life. With each new novel, the joy of small discoveries draws you more and more easily into a warm, familiar environment.

For myself, I'm too impatient to wait for the paperback. If like me, you need your prescription of Anne Carroll George right now, add Murder Carries a Torch to your shopping cart. I guarantee you'll love this book.

Wow. When I Saw all those "5"'s given this book, I could not imagine giving it anything else but. However, this entry in the Southern Sisters series deserves it. I was somewhat disappointed in Ms. George's last mystery, but this one returns to the homespun, acerbic, and silly humor of the previous entries.
Patricia Anne and Mary Alice get involved in the disappearance of their cousin Pukey Luke's wife, Virginia. When it seems that she's run off with a snake-handling minister, the ladies find themselves kneedeep in rattlesnakes, cover-ups, and murder.
What's so nice about this book, however, is not really the whodunit aspect, but the relationships these people have with each other. The sisters are funny, and their respective hubbies or boyfriends are amusing, too. George has a way of knowing how important family and friends are; how important pets (such as Woofer and Muffin) are; and although the murderer's identity is fairly obvious early on, who cares? We have lots of fun getting there.
A real treat. So sorry to hear that Ms. George has passed away, with one more Southern Sisters mystery left. I know she's with the angels, and thank you for bringing us your talents and time!

Birmingham, Alabama's Southern Sisters are tired after just returning home from spending two weeks in Warsaw, Poland celebrating the wedding of Patricia Anne's daughter. However, their idyllic breather ends even before it begins when cousin Luke "Puke" Nelson asks for their help. Apparently, Virginia, Luke's wife of forty years, left him for a house painter, Holden "Monk" Crawford. Reluctantly Patricia Anne agrees to accompany her more enthusiast sibling Mary Alice in finding the runaway.

Mouse and Sister as Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are more commonly known trace Virginia and Monk to a remote church on Mount Chandler. However, instead of finding the runaways, the Southern Sisters find the corpses of two murdered people, neither being Monk or Virginia. As they continue their inquiries, Sister and the local Sheriff seem stuck on one another. Ultimately, they locate a dead Monk, but they still have not found the missing Virginia.

Fans of the series will fully enjoy the seventh cozy in the Southern Sisters series. MURDER CARRIES A TORCH centers more on Mouse's humorous asides with the reader about the excessive behavior of Sister than on detective work. Still, that should not surprise fans of the series, as that is the essence of all the novels.

Harriet Klausner

I read this book over the weekend. I have always liked George Anderson. I have a good feel for people and I can say without a doubt he is very genuine. You can feel the love of the souls from the hereafter reflected right through him. This book is excellent advice for all people. Bereaved or not bereaved. Quite honestly, it's probably some advice we don't want to hear or like to hear but it's what we NEED to hear. I applaud him for helping the people he as helped and for his honesty. I couldn't help thinking as I was reading the book that one day I am going to have to face a more difficult challenge then I ever had before in my life and I hope I remember to pick up this book. I'll need it.

Once or twice in a life time a book comes along that touches the soul and heart so deeply, that one can not help but to change from the "healing." Walking in the Garden of Souls" by George Anderson and Andrew Barone, is one such book. Their first book, "Lessons from the Light" was a phenomenal work and a blessing for readers. While focused on the gift of mediumship and its purpose, this new work continues where "Lessons" left off. This book provides a deep and spiritual insight into the purpose of our lives, the journey of our souls both on earth and in the hereafter. The miracle of the book is the way that it also touches the spirit to the core and provides an intense healing for those who grieve. The writing is superb and flows as a spiritual lesson in death and bereavement. Even our grieving, as the book details, is but a lesson of learning in which we will be rewarded for in the eternal and beautiful hereafter. The authors also touch on several universal and deep principles, such as "everything that ever happens to us" has Divine purpose and order behind it; and all suffering and hardships are but steps toward a great reward in the hereafter; and, that life is really a journey of the soul, which continues in the hereafter.
I have had the blessing of a private reading with Mr. Anderson a little over a year ago. To say that it changed by life forever, would be an understatement. The hour that I spent in the reading with him was the most life-changing, phenomenal experience of my life. Truly I came away a different person experiencing a deep spiritual and psychological healing of grief. To have the blessing of a reading with him is truly a life-changing event. For those who have not had the benefit of a reading with him, "Walking in the Garden of Souls" serves as a "second" best healing source from the gift of this remarkable man. This book is a real testament to the learning that he has undergone through his gift, and now, encourged by the souls in the hereafter, shares it with the world. This book far surpasses any that I have ever read related to mediumship, death, dying and bereavement. Truly, this new book by Mr. Anderson and Mr. Barone is Divinely inspired and guided. A true gift of healing from the Eternal Light.

The author comes to the topic of the afterlife from the perspective of a medium who is bringing messages from recently dead people to their loved ones. So the focus is on dealing with the grief of losing a loved one.

One of the unique issues that he deals with is that suffering, whether physical or emotional, is worth going through, because of the rewards it brings in the afterlife. I wish he went into some detail about what those rewards are.

He is also the first author I've read who makes the point that the souls want very much to communicate with us. And he brings a unique interpretation of suicide, which is the most humane and gentle interpretation I've seen.

This is a very compassionate and uplifting book. I give him credit for taking on the religious right squarely, with a right cross, by saying flat out that there is no devil. Many Americans, particularly in the south, believe strongly in the existence of the devil, and George Anderson doesn't mince words when he tells them that they are dead wrong.

There are so many books dealing with subjects of marginal interest. This one deals with what will happen to you after you die. And George Anderson definitely seems on the level.

Only if you really know your New York sports would you realize that Marty Appel's in a much more unique position to write a tell-all book about the 1970s Yankees than many other athletes. During his progression over 10 years from Yankees' fan-mail gopher during the Horace Clarke years, to PR director during the 1976 World Series, Appel had once-in-a-lifetime encounters (with the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mike Burke, Gabe Paul, George Steinbrenner and ... Oscar Gamble) every single day.

"Now Pitching...", finally out in paperback, shows Appel's origins as a Yankees fan when everyone else was rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and how he turned his love for the game into a career (when everyone else was watching the NFL). Most of the book covers the Yankees from 1968 to 1976, Appel's reign. Although many of the stories are familiar to baseball readers from what seems like 100 other books, only Appel is giving you the inside view. Nowhere else will you get such insider detail about Oscar Gamble's infamous haircut, Sparky Lyle's theme music, or George Steinbrenner's management style.

The book flags a little -- only a little -- when Appel leaves the Yankees and makes his mark in other ventures, such as team tennis and local NYC broadcasting. The most interesting part focusses on Appel's brief fish-out-of-water turn with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics organizers.

Marty Appel's been a very lucky guy -- who else gets to be friends with both Mickey Mantle and Billie Jean King? "Now Pitching for the Yankees" is several cuts above your standard baseball autobiography.

Marty Appel's New Book Proves Irresistible Reading By MAURY ALLEN of TheColumnists.com

MARTY APPEL, former publicity director of the New York Yankees, was sitting around one evening in 1999 with old Yankee pal Yogi Berra as Joe DiMaggio lay dying in Florida.

Appel was listening to Yogi talk about what a great player DiMaggio was and how much he enjoyed playing with him from 1947 through 1951. Appel mentioned Marilyn Monroe.

"I had dinner with him and Marilyn in Florida once, during spring training, " Berra said.

"You did? With Marilyn? Yogi, I have to know every detail about this. Tell me everything about that evening," Appel said.

"Well," Yogi said, "you know how when you order a shrimp cocktail they usually bring out four or five of them? That night we got eight."

Appel lays out dozens and dozens of these hilarious, intimate, warm, wonderful stories in his 16th book, the recently published, "Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Billy and George" (Total Sports Illustrated) in a most rare intimate look at baseball's most famous team from inside their sanctum.

Appel started his career with the Yankees at age 19, answering Mickey Mantle's fan mail, stayed 10 years, moved through jobs in Bowie Kuhn's office and the Atlanta Olympic Committee, opened his own PR business and stayed loyal and loving to the Yankees forever.

Now he has a chance to look back and flesh out the memories and the moments of Yankee history through the team's ugliest decade into its resurrection. Do you know the Yankees finished tenth in 1966 just before Appel arrived and he wouldn't leave until they became the Yankees again with their first World Series win in 15 years in 1977?

Appel's book is about the best thing ever written by an insider about outside the Yankee lines. It is not about home runs and strikeouts, Hall of Fame hitters and knockdown pitchers.

It is about cocky players like Willie Randolph and Thurman Munson, about cheap executives like Gabe Paul and Lee MacPhail, about goofy pitchers such as Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich and drunken bums like Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin. It is about the megalomania of George Steinbrenner and the paranoia of Billy Martin. If a 50 buck ticket gets you a good seat today behind home plate for a look at Roger Clemens at his meanest and Bernie Williams at his finest, just 25 bucks for this book will get you in the movies with Mantle.

Appel described Mantle crying at the filming of "The Last Picture Show," a Peter Bogdanovich study of life in a small Texas town.

"That reminded you of home?" Appel asked the bawling Bomber.

"Hell, we even had a village idiot like that one," said Mantle, the pride of Commerce, Oklahoma.

At 52, at the top of his writing game, Appel can still roll back the years for wonderful anecdotes about the young and the restless among even current Yankees. Willie Randolph came to the Yankees in 1976. He is the third base coach now under Joe Torre and heir apparent to the managerial job if Torre ever gives it up.

Appel describes how the kid from Brooklyn, after 30 big league games with Pittsburgh where he wore uniform number 30, wanted that number with the Yankees. Clubhouse legend Pete Sheehy, who went back in uniforms to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, offered number 34. Mel Stottlemyre had worn number 30 and had been a World Series star in 1964 and team pitching leader for a decade. It had been unused out of respect to Stottlemyre's Yankee standing.

Randolph insisted he didn't know Stottlemyre's name, that no one had the uniform now and that he wore 30 in Pittsburgh and wanted it in New York.

"Give it to him," advised Appel, as any good PR man would.

Take a look at the Yankees as they line up for their next World Series picture. Pitching coach Stottlemyre wears 34 and Randolph still hangs on to 30. Only an insider like Appel could make that kind of gossip breathe.

There was an old sportswriting legend about Ty Cobb. Jack Mann of New York's Newsday was called to write Cobb's obituary when the game's highest average hitter died in 1961.

Mann told his editor, "The only difference now is he is a dead prick."

The line stayed in my head and rose to the surface like a rescued swimmer in 1979 when Yankee catcher Thurman Munson died at age 32 in a plane crash. You could count Munson's friends among the press on one finger.

Appel was his PR man, his pal and his biographer. He wrote a damn good book about Thurman and portrayed him as a misunderstood guy. Father problems, you know. Anyway, Appel became a carrier of the Munson legend through the book and his activities with a charity started in Munson's name.

Appel moderated a memorial tribute to Munson at Yogi's Museum, August 2, 1999, the 20th anniversary of his death, caused in John Kennedy style by flying a plane he really couldn't handle.

Louder cheers are never heard in the Stadium than when Munson's Yankee time is captured on the ball park's huge screen. Appel made it happen. He made Thurman Munson into a lovable guy.

You know what? A tear usually runs down my cheek when I watch the damn thing and I hated the guy. Get inside Appel's book for a hundred laughs and just enough tears.

© 2001 by Maury Allen.

When I bought this book I thought I was in for just a number of inside stories on the Yankees. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the ups and downs of the career of Marty Appel. True, much of the book covers his years with the Yankees as their PR director during the 1970's. He was there for the years when the Yankees played in Shea Stadium in 1974 and 1975 and during the time big trades were made involving Bobby Bonds, Mickey Rivers, and Willie Randolph in addition to the signing of Catfish Hunter. He enjoyed working with George Steinbrenner but did have one particular low moment with George following the publication of a Yankee yearbook which contained photos of players with hair longer than what suited the Boss. Marty took a chance one day to ask clubhouse attendant Pete Sheehy to tell him all about the Babe and Pete provided a revealing secret in four words. After leaving the Yankees with Joe Garagiola Jr. Marty worked at a number of baseball related jobs, some of which proved to be more rewarding than others. One of those jobs was with Topps Chewing Gum, and I believe I found a mistake on pages 294-295 where Marty states that Topps began issuing trading cards in 1950 with All-American football players before they did baseball cards. The All-American football cards he refers to were issued in 1955. Topps first issue of baseball cards came in 1951 with the Topps Red Backs and Topps Blue Backs which were cards designed to be used as a baseball game. The low point was his move to Atlanta to work with the Olympic games that were going to be held there. This move proved to be a mistake, but it was a risk that he took. Interesting advice is given to young readers to never take anything for granted, be a good listener, read everything you can, and respect those you deal with. Marty Appel hit a grand slam home run with this book just as he did with an earlier effort on Michael Kelly entitled Slide, Kelly, Slide and in working with Bowie Kuhn on his book entitled Hardball. His latest effort, Now Pitching for the Yankees,is another first rate job.

I have been a Christian for 15 years and my faith has been a heavy burden for me for so long and I never understood why. Peace and joy were only words to me. I assumed that I just had not yet achieved "authentic Christianity" and that I had to work to achieve that level before I could know those things that God promises. Boy, was I off base. Bob George's book literally changed my life (and I don't use that phrase liberally or lightly). It showed me the true gospel message that I had been missing for so long. For the first time in my depressed life, God lifted the blackness and I knew what peace and rest meant. I now know more about what salvation REALLY means: true life on earth not just biding our time until we get to heaven. The Lord meets you where you are. Thank God for that AND for Bob George's book. A must read for anyone looking for rest in their faith.

This title is the second one I have read by Bob George. After reading "Faith that Pleases God" and being disappointed, I wanted to read his best-selling work. Now I understand why so many people have shown interest in this particular author.

George addresses a problem that is all too prevalent in Christian circles today: legalism. Far too many people have found salvation through faith in Christ alone, only to be enslaved by a long list of religious duties and spiritual obligations. George brings his readers back to the Scriptural basics here. He repeatedly makes the point that God saves us and KEEPS us saved through grace alone.

I recommend this book highly to all Christians, especially those believers from conservative or fundamentalist backgrounds. George proclaims God's Biblical truth about salvation and sanctification. In doing so, he sets his readers free.

... Bob George doesn't have exclusive access to the truths he illustrates in his book. A Christian doesn't have to read this book to realize the abundant life he or she has in Christ Jesus.

So why do I recommend this book so highly? Mainly because I believe that God has blessed Bob with an incredible ability to communicate spiritual messages to others. He certainly communicated those messages to me. Classic Christianity had a major impact on my life. Before reading this book, I was steeped in religion. I was brought up to believe that "God helps those who help themselves." Only later in life did I learn that the Bible never actually said that, Benjamin Franklin did. So everything I did as a Christian I did out of my own effort, trying to repay God a little for what He did for me by sending His Son to die on the cross. Oh sure, I sometimes asked God to help me when things were going a little rough, but I never considered asking anything of Him when situations were going well or my problems seemed manageable.

I certainly didn't ask for God's help when I read the Bible, and this is why I never came to the conclusions Bob did until after reading Classic Christianity. Bob consistently returns to the scriptures while making his points. He helped me to realize the importance, rather the necessity of relying upon the Holy Spirit for guidance through ALL parts of my life. Once I started to let the Holy Spirit take control of my life, I began to see the Bible from an entirely new vantage point. Everything started to make sense.

Bob's book does exactly what every Christian book should. It leads us back to our relationship with Jesus. Once there, we can receive truth right from the source of truth. Having reread most of the New Testament after reading Classic Christianity, I truly believe that the points made in Classic Christianity are valid. But don't take Bob George's word for it and certainly don't take mine. Read this book and then compare it to the Bible yourself. See if it doesn't have as big of an impact on your relationship with Jesus as it had on mine.

The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern caught my attention first, over many others in this series, because of the title. I couldn't figure out what it could possibly mean, and that intrigued me.
I finished this book in one sitting, in only a couple hours, and immediately began to search for the next in line.
This was a very good book; moving along at a pace that kept you interested in the story. The characters had a certain, less-than-deeply-developed charm, and Koko was a wonderful example of the kings of the animal kingdom, the cat.
I loved getting a look into the newspaper world, and into the world of interior design, all set many years before I was even born. And, although I did find myself chuckling a few times at the world created in the Cat Who mysteries, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.
There were only a few things I had trouble with. One, some characters that were introduced briefly in the beginning, ones that turned out to be important later, well, by the time we got back to them I couldn't remember anything about them. Basically, I found the characters that did not repeat from book to book to be very forgetable, and often times dull.
Two, the plot was rather predictable. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't have any trouble piecing together this mystery.
And three, this book was too short! I was so disappointed when I finished it in under two hours. But, there are many more in the series, and I'm sure that I will enjoy them all as much as I enjoyed this one.
So, I would definitly recommend this one as a quick, fun read.

In this, the second in 'The Cat Who...' series, Lilian Braun draws us further into the zany world of reporter Jim Qwilleran and his fearless sidekick, Koko the Siamese cat.

Jim is quite upset when the managing editor of the Daily Fluxion pulls him off his job as art writer and assigns him the special task of bringing out a weekly home decorating guide. While leading the 'Gracious Abodes' effort is a step up, it's not a step to what Qwill really wants to do - return to crime reporting.

Fortunately, Qwill connects with decorator David Lyke who manages to get Qwill and photographer Odd Bunsen into the Muggy Swamp mansion of G. Verning Tait, who has a fabulous jade collection. But Qwill's efforts seem ill-fated when, no sooner was the weekly out in print, but the Tait mansion was broken into, and the jade collection stolen. Paolo, the missing house boy is blamed, but Qwill's moustache keeps twitching, making him suspect that the theft was something else entirely.

Each issue of 'Gracious Abodes' seems similarly cursed. The robbery first, then Quill's subject for the second issue turns out to be a house of ill repute, and finally David Lyke is murdered. If Qwill hadn't become involved with Cokey, an attractive designer with an unusual approach to clothing, he would had quickly have become depressed. But he struggles on, despite the rising paranoia of his managing editor, trying to convince someone that something even fishier than theft and murder is going on.

Koko in the meantime is showing some strange behaviors. He seems to be irritated at Cokey, and has taken to eating Qwill's few wool ties. Perplexed, Qwill is driven to visit a 'psycatatrist,' who provides explanations even stranger than Koko's behavior. As you might expect, Koko has already solved the crime and is having trouble getting the message through to Qwilleran.

Will the mystery be solved? Will Qwill read the message hidden in the hairballs? This is the mystery. And will Koko recover from meeting his future roommate, Princess Yum Yum? Whatever the resolution, the reader can count on more cat hijinks in Lilian Braun's whimsical, enjoyable style.

An excellent book to relax with and escape from pressue. Qwill, a veteran newspaper reporter, finds his new job at the Daily Fluxon more stimulating than he imagined. Murder is the chief order of business. Qwill's exotic Siamese cat is the star of the book. While he pursues normal cat interests he uncovers the plot and leads Qwill to the murderer. At times his catness is used to save Qwill's life. This book can be read by discriminating mystery lovers. It is a favorite of mine because it is not over violent, nor does it discuss male/ female relations in depth.

As a classic account of Ouspensky's encounter with Gurdjieff, thence with a disguised version of the Sufi world, this book is remarkable and worth reading as reminder of the many spiritual disguises of one and the same potential self-consciousness of men of all eras, but as an indication of a spiritual path actually existing it deserves a severe caution, if not a skull and cross bones, as on a jar of poison. Beware of it, and the people who claim to exemplify it after so many years. Disappointing, but necessarily so. Try reading a similar work such as Idries Shah's The Sufis, and note the arbritrary nature of all the content (by and large) describing about the same type of predestigation of method, always the same wiseacred method in the end described plainly in Buddhist sutras on vipassana. The question of the esoteric belongs to authoritarian worlds in a state of hiding, one that is unnecessary now. Bright-eyed candidates of liberal bent for this path created from thin air from a mess of theosophical pottage might consider the reactionary nature of this sage Gurdjieff, the book's account of the trail of the Whites heading south at the onset of revolution, and the plain fact that Gurdjieff, for all his fancy occultism, was a de Maistrean sort of guy, who disapproved of the abolition of slavery, and liked a submissive relationship in disciples. The grounds of spiritual authority subtlely suggested to induce the impulse to surrender the will as one's freedom are spurious, the more so if Gurdjieff in Ouspensky's own view was not even an honest man. This work belongs to an ancient world, and is misleading because it seems to draped in the esoteric and a touch of the modern, when in fact the cosmology is a pastiche of ancient Indian Samkhya transformed in magician smoke. The verdict on a method of spirituality should be the number of its successes, and it was the Indian teacher Rajneesh who noted that this path has never produced a result, realized men. The reason is that the terms described, both as philosophy and method, are too arbritrarily exotic, and finally under suspicion of being made up and leave enthusiasts permanently frozen at the starting point. To concoct a mystery of the enneagram and call it esoteric wisdom takes a peculiar type of brazen hucksterism, since the whole notion is surely a complete fiction, not to say a put on. One of the warnings of Buddhism is, dont' get fancy, and beware of speculation. These vices of metaphysical salesmanship are grimly pervasive in this work and leave desperate seekers tying their head in knots trying to compute self-remberbering or produce an alchemy of higher hydrogens in an addlepated brain. Be ye Lamps unto yourelves, the Buddha warned. Before becoming the piece in another all too tricky play designed to stun the wary, and reveal nothing at cost, it is well to remember the warning. And it is worth remembering Ouspensky's starting point in Tertium Organon with its solid Kantian beginning and metaphysical austerity, all thrown away in this beguiling path that left its own expositor with nothing. Anyway, Gurdjieff is curiously unique, do not therefore grant this to those who claim his teaching. As for the occult demos claimed, either they are fake, and we have fraud, or they are genuine, and we have a fallen yogi indulging in left-hand path skullduggery.

Gurdjieff represents one of the most important metaphysicians of the 20th Century. His philosophy and system of development is hard to pin down. It contains austerities, rituals, magic and astrology as well as a melange of theoretical and rational teachings designed to awaken the individual from a mechanistic state that we are all unwittingly embroiled in. Ouspensky was one of Gurdjieff's foremost pupils and this book is a succinct presentation of all of Gudjieff's major teachings.

The book should be a revelation to the receptive beginner by which is meant someone not satisfied with conventional modes of knowing and understanding and above all conventional solutions to what are ultimately unconventional problems. His teachings apparently have their roots in Sufism and other magical systems but have a very close parallel to Buddhism, notably mindfulness or "Self remembrance" as a method of waking up. People familiar with esoteric methods will find much to celebrate in this book.

The book is also biographic and traces Gurdjieff and his students' departure from the old Russian Empire at the time of the revolution during the First World War. A time of crisis that adds to his teachings. The book finally marks a point of departure between G and Ouspensky.

Gurdjieff was not a great writer and his teachings are best represented by his pupils except for the specialists who could actually wade through G's own writings like Beelzebub's Tails which is rather complex and abstruse. He approved Ouspensky's primary rendition which this book represents. Whereas Ouspensky does not possibly convey the great warmth that G possessed, this book is the best starting point for a beginner compared to more modern biographic commentaries. Further interest can be added to by an excellent series of books summarising G's teachings in the form of collected talks (by his students) published by Arkarna Penguin (e.g. Meetings with remarkable men on G's formative years).

Having read just about everything written by or about Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Collin, Orage, Nicoll, and countless disciples, spin-offs, Sufis, etc., etc., and having been drawn by them into spending years in a Gurdjieff "school," and being familiar with the traditions on which the Gurdjieff approach was based, I take a lot of the "fourth way" material with a large grain of salt. The core of the "work" is a powerful methodology, but no more so than, say, vipassana, Zen, vajrayana or other solid, meditation-based tradition. There is nothing about the fourth way that is any more "esoteric" than these other traditions. The biggest difference is that Gurdjieff left behind a legacy of fraudulent teachers and cults, whereas there are many Buddhist and other groups that are reliable. Regardless, I strongly recommend In Search of the Miraculous. It's the single best book on Gurdjieff's work ever written. It's reasonably comprehensive on the important theories and methods. It's clear -- no Beelzebub's Talesian mumbo-jumbo. It includes enough of Ouspenky's personal comments and experiences to make an entertaining story, but it isn't a self-indulgent book about the author ("and then he said this to me, and then I said that to him.") I find Ouspensky's other works overly dry and intellectual, but this one is both fun and profound. (And if you happen to buy a copy that has a bookmark in it from a purported Gurdjieff "school" -- toss the bookmark.)

A few people have rejected Lilith because they have assumed that George MacDonald does not believe there is such a place as hell. A few have refered to C.S. Lewis book "The Great Divorce" in which Lewis says MacDonald was a universalist.

I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that he believed that God loves all people and his love is eternal. I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that though God's patience may end with a person it does not mean that God has stopped loving that person (a loving parent warns a child because they don't want the child to suffer, but when their patience does run out and they do finally punish the child, Do they punish because of love or hate? When they didn't punish, they didn't punish because of love, and when they do punish, they also punish because of love. This is the kind of character, the God of MacDonald possesses).

MacDonald is perhaps one of the most misunderstood characters in modern Christian history.

From what I've read of MacDonald's discriptions of hell they are far more frightening than any other picture painted by any author that I have ever read. According to MacDonald God's wrath burns because of his love and there is no escaping his love. He hates the sin because he loves the sinner. He will destroy that which destroys those he loves. And he loves everyone. Sin will not reign for ever even in Hell. God's punishment is purposeful for the person being punished according to MacDonald ("love always hopes, love always perserveres...").

Lewis' book "The Great Divorce" is excellent. However, it is a shame that Lewis has a fatal flaw in his imaginary discussion with MacDonald (in "The Great Divorce") about heaven and hell (his argument sounds good but it is misleading). In Lewis' "A grief observed" he comes closer to a true picture of the true God.

Lewis, while disagreing with MacDonald about God loving all men for all eternity, cannot escape the conviction that MacDonald was a very godly man who knew God better than he did.

One of the rules of good hermenutics (interpretation) is that the majority of verses interpret the minority of verses when there seems to be a contradiction. How many verses are there in the Bible which say God loves all people? How many verses are there which say that his love is eternal? How many verses are there which say he shows no favouritism? And how many verses are there which say that God's love ends for anyone? (None. Some people just twist a few verses to try and obtain that meaning).

Here are a few mysteries which Biblical scholars need to try and understand if they are to grasp the nature of God's love and what this means regarding heaven and hell.

I was eternally dead yet I live (while I remained as I was I was eternally dead).

All men have to die twice (a death to selfishness and a physical death, there is no escaping either death. The death to selfishness must be eternal).

A certain kind of person can not enter heaven and no one can help him in because of who s/he is (thank God he can change hearts, he can change a person so they can enter into his presence).

Unless we forgive we will not be forgiven (there are hundreds of verses which talk about our behaviour and where it will lead to).

God's love cannot be earnt, even by believing the right things.

Thank God for MacDonald, he opened my eyes up to the fact that I should not place my confidence in my imagined position with God or where I think I'm going. I put my confidence in God's eternal and unchanging love, which does not depend on what I do or believe. (How I respond to his love will determine what form his love takes, maybe I will have to be punished. But the punishment will be at the hands of one who loves me and knows that it is necessary because I wouldn't listen any other way. So the sooner I listen the better.)

Without trust and obedience to perfect righteouness, who is Jesus, there is no salvation. No where will you find MacDonald disagreeing with that statement.

There is no escaping God's love.

Don't be too quick to judge MacDonald. It is not wise to be quick to judge godly men. That is why the crucified Jesus and killed the prophets.

The real _masterpieces_ of fantasy, as opposed to the "entertaining reads," are not numerous. This is one of the masterpieces. It is not a perfect book, but it belongs in the company of the greatest, such as

The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion (Tolkien); Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, and Till We Have Faces (Lewis); The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton); A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin); The Owl Service (Garner); Titus Groan and Gormenghast (Peake)... books of that caliber.

Don't miss MacDonald's magnificent tales such as "The Day Boy and the Night Girl" and "The Golden Key."

Read MacDonald's Lilith. If you are so moved, read it in conjunction with the detailed, free study guide available at the MacDonald "Golden Key" website:

A few people have rejected Lilith because they have assumed that George MacDonald does not believe there is such a place as hell. A few have refered to C.S. Lewis book "The Great Divorce" in which Lewis says MacDonald was a universalist.

I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that he believed that God loves all people and his love is eternal. I guess you could say that MacDonald was a universalist in the sense that though God's patience may end with a person it does not mean that God has stopped loving that person (a loving parent warns a child because they don't want the child to suffer, but when their patience does run out and they do finally punish the child, Do they punish because of love or hate? When they didn't punish, they didn't punish because of love, and when they do punish, they also punish because of love. This is the kind of character, the God of MacDonald possesses).

MacDonald is perhaps one of the most misunderstood characters in modern Christian history.

From what I've read of MacDonald's discriptions of hell they are far more frightening than any other picture painted by any author that I have ever read. According to MacDonald God's wrath burns because of his love and there is no escaping his love. He hates the sin because he loves the sinner. He will destroy that which destroys those he loves. And he loves everyone. Sin will not reign for ever even in Hell. God's punishment is purposeful for the person being punished according to MacDonald ("love always hopes, love always perserveres...").

Lewis' book "The Great Divorce" is excellent. However, it is a shame that Lewis has a fatal flaw in his imaginary discussion with MacDonald (in "The Great Divorce") about heaven and hell (his argument sounds good but it is misleading). In Lewis' "A grief observed" he comes closer to a true picture of the true God.

Lewis, while disagreing with MacDonald about God loving all men for all eternity, cannot escape the conviction that MacDonald was a very godly man who knew God better than he did.

One of the rules of good hermenutics (interpretation) is that the majority of verses interpret the minority of verses when there seems to be a contradiction. How many verses are there in the Bible which say God loves all people? How many verses are there which say that his love is eternal? How many verses are there which say he shows no favouritism? And how many verses are there which say that God's love ends for anyone? (None. Some people just twist a few verses to try and obtain that meaning).

Here are a few mysteries which Biblical scholars need to try and understand if they are to grasp the nature of God's love and what this means regarding heaven and hell.

I was eternally dead yet I live (while I remained as I was I was eternally dead).

All men have to die twice (a death to selfishness and a physical death, there is no escaping either death. The death to selfishness must be eternal).

A certain kind of person can not enter heaven and no one can help him in because of who s/he is (thank God he can change hearts, he can change a person so they can enter into his presence).

Unless we forgive we will not be forgiven (there are hundreds of verses which talk about our behaviour and where it will lead to).

God's love cannot be earnt, even by believing the right things.

Thank God for MacDonald, he opened my eyes up to the fact that I should not place my confidence in my imagined position with God or where I think I'm going. I put my confidence in God's eternal and unchanging love, which does not depend on what I do or believe. (How I respond to his love will determine what form his love takes, maybe I will have to be punished. But the punishment will be at the hands of one who loves me and knows that it is necessary because I wouldn't listen any other way. So the sooner I listen the better.)

Without trust and obedience to perfect righteouness, who is Jesus, there is no salvation. No where will you find MacDonald disagreeing with that statement.

There is no escaping God's love.

Don't be too quick to judge MacDonald. It is not wise to be quick to judge godly men. That is why the crucified Jesus and killed the prophets.

There are times that I think my life was or still is hard. Well, I'm a black female who grew up in a middle-class home with two teachers as parents. College was as automatic as sleeping and eating. But, for these young men in the book "The Pact", college was as uncertain as winning the lottery. I always knew that our young black boys growing up in the inner-city had it super hard, but this book allowed me to see another side of our young brothas. They all have dreams as little kids, even though they don't see anyone in their neighborhood to emulate. Somehow, someway, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt and George Jenkins all found the determination to succeed and become doctors. Their positive story is proof that just one person can make a difference in a kid's life. Everyone needs someone to look up to; someone to follow.

We all have gifts we can share. Read this book and feel blessed that someone in your life took the time to mentor you and be there for you; not everyone has that in their lives. I am so proud of these young men! Not only are they smart and positive, but they are cute too! What a great combination! God has truly blessed them and their family.

What a refreshing book. Thanks to Tavis Smiley for recommending it on the Tom Joyner Show.

"The Pact" is an incredible book! I just finished reading the remarkable journey completed by Drs. Sam Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt. It's an easy, quick read ~250 pages.

If you're not familiar with their story, they are 3 young, African-American men from Newark that establish a pact at 17-years old to become doctors. Over the years, they run into many obstacles (peer pressure, arrest, finances, and family issues) that tend to dissuade so many young people from pursuing their dream. With the "I got your back" support of each other, mentors they encountered throughout their journey, and God they become doctors despite how many people had presumed their future would turn out.

Dr. George Jenkins, probably the most focused in the group, knew at a very young age that he wanted to be a dentist. In high school, the three friends attend a college presentation offering full scholarships to minority students interested in the medical field. Knowing that neither he nor his friends could afford college THIS OFFER would be their ONLY way to attend college...the formation of the pact.

Surprisingly, after completing college and med school, Sam and Rameck were still unsure if they wanted to be doctors. Sam saw business/management as his future and Rameck wanted to be an actor (he'll settle on being a rapper). (If I didn't know the outcome, I would have been in suspense until the bitter end waiting to learn if they became doctors.) The death of an important person in each of their lives confirmed that medically helping others is what they were meant to do in life.

If you're in the education field or work closely with children in your community this is an excellent book to pick up when you...

- feel like what can I do to get through to this person
- need a testimony that success is not by luck but achieved through faith, perseverance, and support from others
- need a roadmap to better mentor a person in need

"The Pact" is an amazing story of inspiration and motivation to get (primarily) black teens to see beyond their environment, current situation, and look ahead with a plan for tomorrow. "The Pact" also displays the need for adults to begin mentoring children before they reach their teens. The book concludes with the doctors providing the "how-to's" to make a pact work.

This book is a must read for ALL ADOLESCENT MALES!! It is a strong testimony to the power of friendship and perseverance despite circumstances. Each young man had someone in their family who directly or indirectly motivated them to persevere. They had to make some very uncomfortable choices, but were able to keep their "eyes on the prize." Affirmative Action programs continue to serve a real purpose in our society. This book has become a mandatory read in my classes. To the one who still holds to the "...because I'm Black" statement. My question to you is "How long are you going to be Black?"

This is the second book by Dickens I have read so far, but it will not be the last. "Bleak House" is long, tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive, and full of memorable characters. Dickens has written a vast story centered on the Jarndyce inheritance, and masterly manages the switches between third person omniscient narrator and first person limited narrator. His main character Esther never quite convinces me of her all-around goodness, but the novel is so well-written that I just took Esther as she was described and ran along with the story. In this book a poor boy (Jo) will be literally chased from places of refuge and thus provide Dickens with one of his most powerful ways to indict a system that was particularly cruel to children. Mr. Skimpole, pretending not to be interested in money; Mr. Jarndyce, generous and good; Richard, stupid and blind; the memorable Dedlocks, and My Lady Dedlock's secret being uncovered by the sinister Mr. Tulkinghorn; Mrs. Jellyby and her telescopic philanthropy; the Ironmaster described in Chapter 28, presenting quite a different view of industralization than that shown by Dickens in his next work, "Hard Times." Here is a veritable cosmos of people, neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, rivals, sinners, and saints, and Dickens proves himself a true master at describing their lives and the environment they dwell in. There are landmark chapters: Chapter One must be the best description of a dismal city under attack by dismal weather and tightly tied by perfectly dismal laws, where the Lord Chancellor sits eternally in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Chapter 32 has one of the eeriest scenes ever written, with suspicious smoke, greasy and reeking, as a prelude to a grisly discovery. Chapter 47 is when Jo cannot "move along" anymore. This Norton Critical is perhaps the best edition of "Bleak House" so far: the footnotes help a lot, and the two Introductions are key to understanding the Law system at the time the action takes place, plus Dickens' interest in this particular topic. To round everything off, read also the criticism of our contemporaries, as well as that of Dickens' time. "Bleak House" is a long, complex novel that opens a window for us to another world. It is never boring and, appearances to the contrary, is not bleak. Enjoy.

After years without picking up a novel by Dickens (memories of starchy classes at school), I decided to plunge into "Bleak House", a novel that had been sitting on my bookshelf for about ten years, waiting to be read. Although I found it heavy going at first, mainly because the style is so unfamiliar to modern readers, after about ten pages I was swept up and carried off, unable to put the hefty tome down until I had finished it. This book is a definite classic. The sheer scope of the tale, the wit of the satire (which could still be applied to many legal proceedings today) and the believable characters gripped me up until the magnificent conclusion. One particularly striking thing is the "cinematic" aspect of certain chapters as they switch between different angles, building up to a pitch that leaves the reader breathless. I can't recommend "Bleak House" too highly. And I won't wait so long before reading more Dickens novels.

"There is little to be satisfied in reading this book"?? I couldn't disagree more. Bleak House left a profound impression on me, and was so utterly satisfying a reading experience that I wanted it never to end. I've read it twice over the years and look forward to reading it again. Definitely my favorite novel.

I don't know what the previous reviewer's demands are when reading a novel, but mine are these: the story must create its world - whatever and wherever that world might be - and make me BELIEVE it. If the novelist cannot create that world in my mind, and convince me of its truths, they've wasted my time (style doesn't matter - it can be clean and spare like Orwell or verbose like Dickens, because any style can work in the hands of someone who knows how to use it). Many novels fail this test, but Bleak House is not one of them.

Bleak House succeeds in creating a wonderfully dark and complex spider web of a world. On the surface it's unfamiliar: Victorian London and the court of Chancery - obviously no one alive today knows that world first hand. And yet as you read it you know it to be real: the deviousness, the longing, the secrets, the bureaucracy, the overblown egos, the unfairness of it all. Wait a minute... could that be because all those things still exist today?

But it's not all doom and gloom. It also has Dickens's many shades of humor: silliness, word play, comic dialogue, preposterous characters with mocking names, and of course a constant satirical edge. It also has anger and passion and tenderness.

I will grant one thing: if you don't love reading enough to get into the flow of Dickens's sentences, you'll probably feel like the previous reviewer that "...it goes on and on, in interminable detail and description...". It's a different dance rhythm folks, but well worth getting used to. If you have to, work your way up to it. Don't start with a biggie like Bleak House, start with one of his wonderful short pieces such as A Christmas Carol.

Dickens was a gifted storyteller and Bleak House is his masterpiece. If you love to dive into a book, read and enjoy this gem!

Georges Perec loved language, and it shows. _Life_ is clearly a labor of love. There are times when maybe the descriptions ramble, and you may well find yourself into the fifth page of a description of some piece of furniture, but if you don't keep track, you'll never notice. This is a difficult book to describe simply because it is so dense. At one level, it's a logic game; at another, it's an exercise in linguistics; at another, it's simply poetry. The translator, too, deserves kudos. Although I haven't read the original, the translation, I suspect, has remained faithful to the spirit of the book. Please read this book.

If you read the first few pages of this book after seeing all the glowing reviews on Amazon, you may wonder what we are so excited about. However, you will be rewarded if you persevere. In an ice-cold literary voice, Perec systematically describes the inhabitants and contents of a Paris apartment building. His style is at first totally uninvolving, yet somehow, amazingly, his monotonous descriptions come together like the tiles of a mosaic (or, to use Perec's image, the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) to create a living, exciting picture. Even if you know nothing about the philosophical and aesthetic theories that gave this book its structure, you will find it enthralling.

The book presents a richly interwoven series of stories with complex, mind boggling intertwinings. The novel resembles a giant jigsaw puzzle with each piece bringing more insight into the one master jigsaw puzzle which is life itself.

The novel describes the life of the residents of a Paris apartment building. It is densely packed with very fine details about the people and places, making it a slow reading. Also, it behooves the reader to remember as much as possible of whatever he reads so that he can correlate the various pieces of the puzzle (i.e., the novel). Which is also a reason to read the novel again and again (probably once every year) to enjoy it thoroughly. It resembles Tolstoy's War and Peace in this regard.

In short, one can rarely expect to come across another novel like this. A must read for everyone who wants to try new things.