I don't know of any artist whose work is more frequently included in slides shows and books about mind body healing, consciousness and spirituality.

Just this week, Newsweek did a cover story on neurotheology-- the study of the neurology of spiritual experiences, and two of Alex Grey's works of art were prominently featured in the magazine.

Grey paints with the detail and precision of a medical illustrator-- but one on mescaline. The images are both beautiful and shimmering with energies-- the kind of energies which connect human souls and spirits together, which connect the whole universe together.

I met Alex Grey while attending the Omega Arts week. He was teaching a course on visionary art-- expressing the sacred visually. It is to his credit that he is a popular teacher of this unique approach-- expressing the visionary and spiritual through art. It's amazing to see the great work he inspires in his students too.

Once you see this book, you'll probably need to buy more copies-- as gifts. But first, start off by buying one for yourself as a real treat.

There are several sequences of art in here. Plans are under way for the primary sequence's original works to be assembled into a kind of "temple" or special building which will house them. Grey has designed the whole building. You can learn more about it under the web site which is spelled out by his name then dot com.

With that said, back to the book at hand. Sacred Mirrors is probably the book most people who want to get an idea of Grey's art should buy first. I find it slightly more accessible than Transfigurations, and it does not demand any knowledge of Grey's previous work. For those unfamiliar with his work, he paints almost all of the systems of the body in a transparent fashion, layered on top of each other. In his paintings you will see bones, nerves, blood vessels, chakras, and auras all at once. It can be overwhelming, but careful study of the paintings can make you see ordinary processes like kissing in a whole new way. And if you keep looking deeply at his paintings, things will keep revealing themselves. He also paints deities, from Avalokiteshvara to Jesus, with loving detail. This is definitely a great coffee-table book (and so much more!) for anyone interested in how transcendental theories of energy would manifest themselves visually. Grey's book also makes delightful entertainment for any kind of trip. Overall a sound buy for almost anyone who gets that feeling, sometimes, that there may be things going on in our physical reality that we just can't percieve. Grey can see them, and he has shared them with us.

It shows the effect war can have on different people, and also really makes you think about war, peace, revolution, and even the nature of man.

This is a really good book, and even though I liked Westmark a bit better, this continues the story well. I have not yet read The Beggar Queen, but will definatly be looking for it. Also, isn't it strange that while they are a trilogy, The Kestrel is out of print, though Westmark and Beggar Queen are still in print??

Former Chief Minister Cabbarus, forced into exile in "Westmark" plots with the uncle of the King of neighbouring Regia to invade Westmark and re-establish a "proper" society. Theo wanders the country, trying to get a grip on how he feels about the thought of Mickle, the street urchin he fell in love with in "Westmark" becoming Queen... with himself intended as Prince Consort.

When the invasion begins, Mickle finds herself forced to become a military commander, and Theo finds himself among Florian's "children" again, fighting the Regians as an irregular, eventually rising to the rank of colonel among Florian's forces.

And Alexamder takes the chance -- without seeming preachy or heavy-handed -- to present us with just a bit (PG13 rating or so) of the horror of war and what it does to even good people.

Because "Colonel Kestrel", the brilliant and ruthless revolutionary/guerrilla leader is, also, the gentle Theo, who has never believed in violence as a solution to anything.

Someone has said, more or less, that Alexander is here presenting a parable on the uses and effects of violence, in causes good and not-so-good. He proposes (by example) the question "When -- if ever -- is violence justified in a 'good cause'?", and proceeds to show us (again by example) the answers to that question arrived at by various people of greater or lesser good-will.

And then he hands the reader an even hotter potato to examine than that -- he asks us to consider the after-effects of violence (even "in a good cause") on the people who have found themselves forced into it.

And it hurts -- in a good way -- to see what some people must give up so that others may still have it.

(David Drake presents a much more violent -- and most *definitely* adult -- look at much the same questions in his military SF novel "Redliners".)

In the end, everyone is forced to compromise somewhat, and all *appears* to be well.

On the other hand, this *is* the second olume of a trilogy.

There are many great characters. You'll remember Nerzhin and his wife, and wonder how things will work out for them. You'll remember Rubin, the sincere communist caught in the web of the system he believes in. You'll remember Innokenty Volodin, in trouble for doing a good deed, as innocent as his first name. When you read a mediocre book there are no characters to remember, just a predictable formulaic storyline and a group of people and events you find hard to believe. This is a rare opportunity for you to be a fly on the wall, halfway around the world, observing life in a Russian prison camp. The reason I give it only 4 stars is because I like happy endings and resolved problems. This book would make a good movie. There's plenty of room for a sequel (which hasn't been written) where we can find a satisfactory ending for some of the characters. Stalin the insane sewer rat died eventually and was denounced by Khrushchev, so maybe in time these people were allowed to live out the rest of their lives in freedom.

I believe that Solzhenitsyn is the best writer of the 20th century, or at least he's the top writer I've read so far (and I've read a lot of books). Maybe that's influenced by my early exposure, but I don't think so; I find his works just as compelling now as I did then.

The First Circle is one of his most "accessible" works (that is, you can just jump in and start reading) and probably one of his best. A very compelling story; his portraits of the various vile creatures of the Soviet government have been shown to be quite accurate, and the way the various plots intertwine and are resolved is wonderful.

The First Circle gives great insight into a culture totally foreign to most US citizens, as the book's a mixture of spy novel, guide to life in a Gulag camp, and brief introduction to Soviet society of the 1950s. A depressing place to be sure, but fascinating. Well worth reading.

A few major abiding themes run like threads throughout the book, providing unity: First, the life of the "zek," the prisoner in Stalin's camps. Second, loneliness: not just of prisoners longing for a woman or lost loved ones, or of persecuted wives trying to make lives for themselves, but ultimately of each person. Every conversation carries a different meaning for the people involved. The author "gets inside of peoples heads" in an amazing way -- from the janitor Spiridon to the "Best Friend of Counter-Intelligence Operatives," Joseph Stalin himself. Third, and on a deeper level, integrity, both artistic and moral.

Fourth, and I don't know if this was the conscious intent of the author or not, the book reminds us of the unity of Western civilization. Aside from mentions of Tolstoy, Dostoevski, Pushkin, and Lermontov, (which, I might add, also describes the company Solzhenitsyn belongs in, with honor), the book is honeycombed with references to the great thinkers and artists of European civilization -- from the ancient Greeks and the Gospels, to Dante, the Holy Grail, Bach and Beethoven. The Marxist Rubin even quotes Luther. Primarily, no doubt this is a reflection of the fact that the prisoners in the "sharashkas," the top-secret scientific work camps, were educated men, unlike, say, the hero of his shorter novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. (The contrast Solzhenitsyn draws to their well-paid Neanderthal captors is just one form of the irony that is his most distinctive and powerful stylistic weapon. But even the Neanderthals, including Stalin himself, are portrayed not as cardboard villains, but with insight and imagination.) These references also remind us that, as much as Solzhenitsyn has been accused of being a "Slavophobe," as if that were an insult, the Russian culture he loves is an integral part of Western civilization. This iconic dialogue of the ages, similiar to the works of great Chinese painters, also adds another layer of delight to the book.

The final and greatest thread that unifies this work is the idea of achieving humanity, of becoming what a person ought to be, of heroism. The prisoners are poets, eccentric, and philosophers (though there are also scoundrels, and everyone is tempted that way), beaten down by life and the forces of disolution within, trying to preserve their souls, or civilization, from the barbarians who are their masters. In describing the simple heroism of some of his characters, Solzhenitsyn achieves brilliance. In my opinion, First Circle is the greatest of his works, and one of the most powerful pieces of writing of the 20th Century, at least. And it is not about the Gulag, primarily: it is about what it means to be human, and the choices we all face.

Aside from the characters and stories, many of the scenes are wonderful (again like Tolstoy): of Rubin standing in the courtyard at night in the snow when he hears the train whistle, of the party at the prosecutor's house, of the arrest of the diplomat. If life is sometimes too strange for fiction, (and it is) there are also pieces of fiction that seem truer than life. First Circle is a marriage of style and substance made in heaven, or at least, the highest circle of hell.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

Author Alexander McCall Smith loves Africa, its traditional ways of life, and the ways that its people (at least the people of Botswana) treat one another. His No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, including THE KALAHARI TYPING SCHOOL FOR MEN are practically poetic in their praises of this traditional way of life. Mma. Ramotswe is the protagonist in these stories and the central pillar for tradition. Her detecting and the solutions to her clients problems flow from these African traditions (as interpreted by Smith) and prove heart-warming even in the midst of poverty and the AIDS crisis that has destroyed so much of Africa (AIDS is not mentioned by name in this novel but its impact is clear to see). Whether Smith's view of Africa has anything to do with the real continent is something I won't even attempt to decide, but it is certainly his view and his love for this Africa is obvious and compelling.

Smith's beautiful writing makes KALAHARI an enjoyable read that can be savored or swallowed in a gulp. The characters of Mma. Makutsi and Mma. Ramotswe are well drawn and interesting. KALAHARI is anything but a thriller, but it makes a wonderful diversion from the everyday.

In the latest book in THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY series, Precious Ramotswe, the first female private detective in Botswana, has issues: (1) a strutting, cocky new detective has opened shop in Gaborone and is threatening her business; (2) one of the children in her care has taken up a bad habit; (3) her secretary/assistant, Mma Makutsi is involved with a suspicious man; (4) Mma Makutsi has opened a sideline business, teaching men to type and (5) a client has given her an urgent, delicate assignment.

Like Jan Karon's gentle fiction, I never tire of stories about Precious, her finance, her employee, and their lives in Africa. True, there is no thrilling action (unless you count the miracle in the garage....or the death of a water pump), but there is plenty of heart and some wonderful soul in Alexander McCall Smith's stories about the first female detective in Botswana.

Read the books in order.

Enjoy!!!

Mma Ramotswe (in traditional Botswana culture, honorifics are always used; it seems rude not to do so in the review as well) has had a tough life: married to an abusive jazz musician, she loses her baby and then her beloved father. But she finds her vocation: she sets up the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and is soon attracting clients. She also acquires a fiancé, garage owner Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, two orphans, and a sidekick, Mma Makutsi, who received a grade of 97 percent on her exams at the Botswana Secretarial College. You don't have to be familiar with the first three books to follow the action in KALAHARI --- McCall Smith is careful to supply context for the first-time reader --- but I think it's better to discover them in order. Not only do you gradually develop a sense of Mma Ramotswe and her life on Zebra Drive (yep, that's the name of her street), but you also become deeply fond of Botswana (this is important since, to the average Westerner, Africa is still a "dark" --- that is, unknown --- continent). These wise, charming books leave you feeling washed clean and peaceful, with an expanded sense of humanity.

Although KALAHARI and the other books are technically mysteries, plot is not the main thing here. There are interlocking events --- a man across town opens a new detective agency; Mma Makutsi starts a typing school for men; Mma Ramotswe solves a case or two --- but there is little real tension or suspense. What keeps you reading is the wonderful writing: pure, economical, funny, utterly lacking in condescension. The evocation of Botswana is often lyrical (its quiet roads, its ubiquitous cattle). Sometimes the stories seem fable-like, as if McCall Smith is telling them around a campfire in the deep African night. This impression is reinforced by the repetition of certain phrases. Mma Ramotswe has a "tiny white van" and is "traditionally built." She believes in "the old Botswana morality" --- a phrase that covers everything from knocking and calling out "Ko Ko" before you enter someone's house to the deeper sense of courtesy and integrity that is being overwhelmed by modern life.

It is one of the many ironies of this wonderful book that Mma Ramotswe and her cohorts, despite their professed yearning for traditional values, are actually the smartest, most progressive people around. Because they are authentic and honest and guided by common sense rather than greed or pride, they make phony modernists like the proprietor of the rival Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency look like idiots (the scene in which Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi pay him a visit is priceless). Indeed, THE KALAHARI TYPING SCHOOL FOR MEN, more than the others in the series, is very much occupied with gender; it has a feminist streak a mile wide.

Consider the characters McCall Smith gives us: the entrepreneurial Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi; the imposing head of the orphan farm, Mma Potokwani, who wangles free products and services from everyone ("It would take a degree of courage that few possessed to turn [her] down"); Mma Tsolamosese, whose daughter has died of AIDS and who is caring for her doomed grandchild with dignity and compassion; and Mma Boko, who is head of a local branch of the Botswana Rural Women's Association but refuses to run for office because "all [men] do is talk about money and roads and things like that. ... We women have more important things to talk about."

With sly humor and wry tolerance, the novel captures that conspiratorial sense among women --- in any culture --- that men are not quite up to their standards (Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni being the exception, of course): "The trouble with men," muses Mma Ramotswe, "was that they went about with their eyes half closed for much of the time. ... That was why women were so good at tasks which required attention to the way people felt. Being a private detective, for example. ..." Or Mma Makutsi, commenting on the essays written by her typing-school students: "All of life seemed to be laid out before her: mothers, wives, football teams, ambitions at work, cherished motor cars; everything that men liked." And when Mma Ramotswe says her foster son is going through "a difficult patch," a friend replies dryly: "Boys do go through times like that. It can last for fifty years."

McCall Smith, it turns out, was born in what is now Zimbabwe (then called Southern Rhodesia) and taught law at the University of Botswana, but those facts alone hardly explain his astounding ability to enter the soul of a woman as well as the soul of Africa. He, like Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, must be one of the exceptions, a good man. He is certainly an imaginative and observant one. Somehow he manages to communicate the specific feel and spirit of Botswana while also creating characters that transcend the barriers of geography, culture, and gender.

McCall Smith is writing a fifth Precious Ramotswe book, according to his publisher, and has started a new series featuring another lady detective, Isabel Dalhousie (Scottish father, American mother). I can't wait.

--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman

I have found it very useful in my work when trying to understand different concepts in the financial market models. Personally, I believe the book is a helpful tool one does not want to pass up--not only for the ones involved in risk measurement, but also for those in the more general field of investment banking as myself.

Here's a very simple example of a pattern. When a room has a window with a view, the window becomes a focal point: people are attracted to the window and want to look through it. The furniture in the room creates a second focal point: everyone is attracted toward whatever point the furniture aims them at (usually the center of the room or a TV). This makes people feel uncomfortable. They want to look out the window, and toward the other focus at the same time. If you rearrange the furniture, so that its focal point becomes the window, then everyone will suddenly notice that the room is much more ``comfortable''.

I applied that pattern to my own living room, by moving the TV under the window and rearranging the furniture, and I was amazed what a difference it made! That's a very simple example, and there are literally hundreds more in this book and its sequel. Simply reading them is fascinating; it will convince you that you can make your own home into something as wonderful in its own way as the Taj Mahal--which is Alexander's whole point.

In fact, the book's main idea is much more powerful than that. It applies to almost every aspect of life, not just to architecture. When a situation makes us unhappy, it is usually because we have two conflicting goals, and we aren't balancing them properly. Alexander's idea is to identify those ``conflicting forces'', and then find a solution which brings them into harmony. It's a simple concept, but once you appreciate it you realize how deep it really is.

This is definitely one of the best books on my shelf. It has really changed the way I look at...everything.

On the other hand, if I was building a building I'd use his visualization techniques before I drew plans. But I wouldn't use this technique to actually construct a building. It would triple the cost. (The essence is to build it as you need it.)

On the other hand he explains why swiss barns look "alike" without the need for a design review committee. (Or barns in general.)

As for software, Design patterns give programmers a way to talk about problems and solutions without talking about code. Its a great idea and I use software patterns all the time. (Get the GOF book for actual software patterns.) Read this one to understand how they came onto this idea.

This book, however, literally takes the concept of living patterns to architecture, and, by extension of the act of creation, to life itself.

At the same time as being a great philosophical read, it's also a handy guide to building a house. Bonus points for the author: The book can be read in 15 minutes (reading the "detailed table of contents"), in one hour (reading only the headlines), or in the full. These modes of reading the book come from the author's emphasis of the whole over the parts, e.g. the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

I am not entirely sure that, as the author promises, i will now be able to go and build a house, without drawing a plan... but that this idealistic goal is in practice hard to attain does not make the incredibly deep insights in this book any less true or any less practical.

Like another reader said - the book changed the way i think about... everything!

Patterns as described in this book are far more refined than anything we use in computer science, and that he sees them in a much broader light. The central grandiose idea is the one of complete interconnectedness of the patterns - the whole, which is more than the sum of its parts.

Alexander's leadership skills were not all instinctual or natural. Much of his success was grounded in a strategic approach to every battle, every campaign, every conquest, which gave him and his men the conviction that they could out-think and out-perform the enemy at every turn. What makes Alexander's strategic military thinking of value to today's business leaders was that many of his actions are grounded in basic logistics. How do you bring 3,000 men with supply animals and cargo trains across the Hindu Kush mountains? By establishing forward supply bases so that the men can move without carrying supplies. How will men react if their ships are burned and they can't afford to lose in battle to the Persians? They will attack with vengeance.

It is the study of Alexander's leadership styles-his various penchants for boldness, simplicity, quickness, surprise, willingness to embrace new cultures, and a willingness to attack with force but an aversion to inflicting unnecessary pain and destruction-that is the most engaging aspect of the book. In each case, mini case studies from the present business (or military) world show how Alexander's timeless strategies have been and can be applied to gain a competitive advantage.

Finally, the book is a sweeping historical tale that covers a mere 20 years, but follows Alexander's inexorable surge from Greece to Egypt to Persia, across Afghanistan and into India. He dies of natural causes on the way back to Macedonia at the age of 32, his men weary from years away from home, but laden with riches and multicultural inheritances and leaving behind a legacy that exists to this day. Reading this book against the backdrop of current events in the Mideast, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, one longs for a world leader with the political skills of an Alexander the Great.

If you have a more casual interest in birds, you may be more happy with "A Pocket Wildlife Guide" for Costa Rica, published by Rainforests Pub.,... commonly available locally in Costa Rica. It has nice color plates of common birds, butterflys, reptiles, and mammals.

Doc Kane is the man we follow throughout the book. He is on the verge of a parole hearing that will likely lead to his release after 16 years. A new cellmate and some favors are all that stand in his way. Readers that would suggest this tale is cliché, and the questions it poses rhetorical, have not given the book a fair reading. The book is about much more than a man who faces the trials of possibly leaving prison, only to be tagged with an electronic band and monitored as closely outside of the penitentiary as he was within its walls.

The book for me was about the pervasiveness of the jail Doc Kane lives in. Whether inside a 5x9 cell, or walking the streets electronically tagged, he never regains his freedom. The Washington streets he returns to are populated by the same gangs, and the same equally fragile codes of honor that are as lethal while incarcerated or when he "freely" walks the streets. The daily prison routine is replaced by a parole officer, who has every bit as much control and power, to send him back to prison, as the guards in the penitentiary had to punish him.

Work is a condition of parole, but how high are the chances of employment when a job application is filled out? And even if a job is there how much does it differ in mindless routine from the one he left in prison? The friends of 16 years even if they too are paroled are off limits to him as a meeting would send him back inside.

And then there are his own perceived demons and they are every bit as real and problematic as any he has faced before. Virtually every diversion, which would be legal for him to enjoy, because of his parole are denied to him. The book is a great commentary on just what being let out of prison means for the vast majority of those who spend time there. This is not about a so-called, "Club Fed", where white-collar criminals worst issues are boredom and their loss of face in their former world. The latter is often not even at issue; just think about, "The Junk Bond King".

There were no small characters, no small roles in this story. Every piece a valuable connection to the puzzle. ENCORE!!!
Will be looking for more from Alexander Parsons

Even though the price is very low, the games annotated in this collection are incredible. Alekhine spent a great deal of time and care to annotate the games and to point out blunders, side lines, and highlights of each position. His annotations are clear and approachable and will appeal to the novice and master alike. Plodding through these games on an actually board is a pleasure as well.

The book is in descriptive notation instead of algebraic; if you can handle this, and you want a collection of very well-annotated games by one of the very best players of all time, then this book will fill the need beautifully.

I am a hobby type player and found the annotations far easier to understand than any other game collection. This book really helped me improve by showing that one can recover from poor moves in the opening or even middlegame miscalculations.