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Book reviews for "Houston,_David" sorted by average review score:

High Country: The Solo Seeker's Guide to a Real Life
Published in Paperback by Inner Ocean Publishing (2001)
Authors: David M. Alderman and Jean Houston
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Eye Opening Journey
This journey is for all of us.
David Alderman takes you personally through " The Solo Seeker's Guide to a Real Life". Not just his but yours.
This book gives you the "ahhhhhh" to the feelings and thoughts that have constantly emerged and submerged throughout your lifetime.
If you dare to go deep within the human experience and navigate through the obstacles to reach your real life you will not be disappointed.
The information was not above my head and written with terrific storytelling and transmitted visualizations of every step of my journey. High Country was my guide and companion to opening the doors and finding my own truths.

Enthusiastically recommended for students of metaphysics
In High Country, David Alderman draws upon his background in experimental psychology, counseling, teaching, and creative journaling to explore the universal and Transcendent Laws of Nature, and how they influence, affect, and govern our lives. Alderman also draws from both eastern and western philosophies as expressed by insightful commentators ranging from Lao Tzu to Carl Jung and argues persuasively that there are many effective paths to personal enlightenment. Enthusiastically recommended for students of metaphysics and spiritual enlightenment, High Country will enable readers to ask the right kinds of questions to determine the proper path for themselves.


The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico/LA Grandeza Del Mexico Virreinal: Treasures from the Museo Franz Mayer/Tesoros Del Museo Franz Mayer
Published in Paperback by Univ of Texas Press (2002)
Authors: Hector Rivero Borrell M., Gustavo Curiel, Antonio Rubial Garcia, Juana Gutierrez Haces, David B. Warren, Hector Rivero Borrell, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, and D. Hector Rivero B. Miranda
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A MAGNIFICENTLY ILLUSTRATED BILINGUAL VOLUME
For a considerable period of time the Mexican colonial period was viewed as a wasteland in the arts, a barren stretch awaiting the arrival of the Spaniards. Recent scholarship reveals that this was not the case. In fact, just the opposite was true as is showcased in this magnificently illustrated bilingual volume.

Displayed between these pages are eye-popping decorative and fine arts from the Mexican viceregal period (1521 - 1821). Included among the collection are paintings, sculptures, furniture, ceramics, metals, textiles, featherwork, lacquer, and books.

Five informative essays by Mexican and American scholars provide a backdrop for the arts of colonial Mexico, and extensive commentaries allow further exploration of individual pieces.

"The Grandeur of Viceregal Mexico" is an extraordinary volume shedding light on a previously little known segment of art history.

- Gail Cooke


Liberty Run/Houston Run (Endworld Double)
Published in Paperback by Leisure Books (1991)
Author: David Robbins
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Possibly one of the best books I have ever set eyes upon
This book brought everything that David Robbins has to offer. You get action, laughs, and even a little bit of romance coming from an unsuspecting source ( Houston Run/Lynx ). Both Houston run and Liberty run give you yours of reading excitement.


The Soulful Divas: Personal Portraits of over a dozen divine divas from Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, & Diana Ross, to Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, & Janet Jackson
Published in Hardcover by Watson-Guptill Pubns (15 February, 1999)
Author: David Nathan
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Enjoyable to read but ultimately less than satisfying
With Soulful Divas, David Nathan - a true lover of r&B music - has compiled interviews with many of his favorite singers of the past 40 years. Some of the subjects, like that of the humorously raunchy Millie Jackson and the troubled Nina Simone, make for compelling reading. Most suffer from his endless fawning however. Take, for instance, Diana Ross. By all other accounts, Miss Ross is a difficult person, yet Nathan makes her out to be practically a saint.

Nathan's frequent access to all of the top divas exposes the modern journalist's dilemma: if he fully captures his subjects in print, warts and all, he risks alienating them and being denied interview access to them in the future. Instead, Nathan fawns all over his subjects and gets repeat interviews with high-profile women who are often leery of the press (Aretha Franklin for one). Because of his "tactics", we are able to enjoy his many interviews in one setting (this book). Too bad most of his portraits don't penetrate the surface.

The greatest book I read in months
Great book Mr. Nathan. I loved all the subjects picked in this book(I'm sorry that I don't know Doris Troy)and thought he did a fantastic job of painting a realistic portrait of the ladies using their own words and his personal experiences with them. I never knew Chaka Khan had such a turbulent past. Oh, and Esther Phillips- that temper! I laughed so hard. Diana Ross seems pretty nice (I love her) and I do love Dionne and Nina- they are such proud women. I hope the divas in the makings can successfully carry forth the diva achievements as their foremothers have done. If there is a sequel to this, Mr. Nathan, you must include Cissy Houston, Melba Moore and Donna Summer.

BEST BOOK I HAVE READ THIS DECADE
This book is a must for music lovers. I have followed the careers of every Diva in this book, my only dissapointment is that wasnt longer and included more Diva's. I especially enjoyed the one on one with Aretha, Patti, Diana, Dionne, and Glady's. I have a new R-E-S-P-E-C-T for all the Diva's. Mr. Nathan gives great insight on what sacrifices that each performer has made to become a star. He shows that its not all its crack up to be. I hope that this books shoots straight to the top. I can guarantee that you will not be dissapointed with this book. Pick up a copy and give it to friends. These Divas story need to be told to the world.


Requiem for a Glass Heart
Published in Hardcover by Doubleday (1996)
Author: David Lindsey
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Excellent spy thriller!
Just the ticket to fill my yearning for a good spy novel after seeing the movie Bourne Identity last week. I did not want this book by David Lindsey to end! It was so interesting, exciting, but in just the right amount to keep you intellectually stimulated. It was believable and so well-written I just loved reading it so much. The end was fine, I was a little confused about it, but I liked the book so much I would read something by Mr. Lindsey again in a minute. I could hardly put this book down. Irina, Krupatin, Cate, and Leo were really interesting characters as were Bontate and Wei.

The Best David Lindsey Since Mercy
I always thought that Mercy was one of the better thrillers I had ever read. I waited with baited breath for another Lindsey book up to this standard.Well, it is here in Requiem for a Glass Heart. David Lindsey has developed two leading characters, Irina and Cate, who are vibrant, intellegent, sexy and very complex. I don't usually go out of my way to read thrillers with women lead figures (sorry about this bit of sexism)but I was enthralled by international assasin Irina and FBI agent Cate and how their lives came together. The worlwide settings added to intrigue of the story as well. The worst thing that happed to me while reading Requiem for a Glass Heart was my airplane landing home on Friday night with just over thirty pages to go. I had to sit in the terminal and finish the story of Irina and Cate before driving home after a long week on the road. That is true testiment to the writing skills of Mr. Lindsey.

Better Than Ever
I have just finished reading this book in one sitting. Such was its interest that I just could not put it down. Like a good Humphrey Bogart movie once started it just kept going. I consider Mercy by same author a masterpiece of its gendre. THe only comparable author is John La Carre but I find Lindsey a far more interesting writer who tells a much better story. The aspect of the book that I liked most is Lindsey's ability to paint a large canvas; his villains are that bad and stride over continents. He always impresses me with his scolarship in both crime and art history. At his best he can develop beleivable charecters; Cate has my sympathy and interest as does her Russian counterpart Irene. Without getting into detail which is covered by other reviews this was a really good read.


An Absence of Light
Published in Hardcover by Doubleday (1994)
Author: David L. Lindsey
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Not the least bit memorable
Now that I am finished with this novel and have moved on to my next read, I am having a hard time remembering much about David Lindsey's "An Absence of Light". Being a big fan of concise writing styles, such as Michael Crichton and Greg Iles, I found Lindsey's overly descriptive style distracting, particularly since the prose was often irrelevant to the action. If you are a fan of very wordy authors, I would direct you to someone like a Pat Conroy (of Prince of Tides fame), who despite being extremely descriptive and downright wordy, does it extremely well.

I wouldn't describe it as a bad book or a horrible read, just an extremely ambivalent one.

Good work
I enbjoyed this book and felt it stimulating! I was very moved by the authors work! It rates up there as agood one....almost as good as "Going Too Far", by that great up and coming author Steven Gardner

This Book cuts like an AX!!! - Awesome
Reading this book reminds me of my childhood dreams in Ireland.


Pop Art: Us/Uk Connections, 1956-1966
Published in Paperback by Menil Foundation (1901)
Authors: David E. Brauer and Tex.) Menil Collection (Houston
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Not Just Antother Hip Coffee Table Book
Pop Art: U.S./U.K Connections 1956-1966 is a great read for those facintated with the Pop Art movement. The color plates are really good and so is the writing. It's an informative look at the parallels between the Pop Art movement in the U.S. an the U.K. The book includes the icons of the era along with some lesser known artists and works. It presents an interesting perspective suitable for both the beginner and expert art enthusiast.


The Young Man from Atlanta : Starring Shirley Knight and David Selby (Audio Theatre Series)
Published in Audio Cassette by L. A. Theatre Works (01 July, 1999)
Authors: Horton Foote, Shirley Knight, David Selby, and L.A. Theatre Works
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A Horrible Book. Not At all deserving a Pulitzer Prize.
The Book had a good Plot. The way the characters where represented where horrible. You should have gotten to know them better, the author should have spent more time on the description of the characters personalities, and details of the story then just concentrating on the plot.

A Sincere Joy to Read
Horton Foote is everything that today's culture is not -- thoughtful, sensitive, insightful. His works are rich, but can be accessed only by taking the time to listen and reflect, skills not well practiced these days (as evidenced by the dimwitted reviewer of the previous entry). If you cannot see his plays, please read them slowly and carefully (Both 'The Young Man from Atlanta' and 'The Last of the Thortons' are excellent choices) and the rewards will be tremendous.

The "old" playwright Horton Foote still master of his craft
Dramatic writers are like orchestral conductors; advancing age serves to enhance the talents of the truly gifted in their ranks. Octogenerian Horton Foote, who imprinted the visual memory of the 1960's generation with his screen adaptation of Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for "The Young Man from Atlanta". In this one-act drama, Foote embeds within a structure of six simple scenes a gentle and unsettling tale of 1950's Houston. Will Kidder is the 65 year-old man from Houston whose fortunes grew up with the city -- his prosperity always rendered in large cash sums. "Because I want the best. The biggest and the best. I always have." -- Will alerts co-worker Tom early in the first scene, unaware that he addresses his replacement at the firm he's helped build for almost four decades. Will's simple hope is that constructing the city's biggest house for his highly strung but deeply religious wife Lily Dale will help her overcome the peculiar death of their only child. Non-swimmer son Bill's short stroll into a Florida lake has bequeathed a void to the couple's life along with a young companion from Atlanta -- the never-seen title character -- whose calls Will avoids even as he forbids the grieving mother further contact with the visitor. With the opening of the second scene, Lily Dale, unaware of her husband's firing, occupies her place in their large new house, but the hoarding of her grief and the baggage of her relationship with the unseen Atlantan occupy her thoughts. She confides to her step-father Pete that she has funneled to the stranger most of seventy-five thousand dollars accumulated from Will's past Christmas gifts in gratitude for his comforting testimony about her son's religious devotion at the Atlanta boarding house where they were roommates. Also, Lily Dale -- whose very name conjures proper Southern Baptist assemblages, floral hats, and lily-covered caskets -- admits that she has responded with m! onetary pity to her son's friend's stories of life without loving family. She prays Will himself can come to accept the young man from Atlanta as an important part of her son's life. Then Will admits to her the loss of his job. Discovery that Pete's own nest egg cannot replace the money given to the stranger as outright gift (for now Will needs funding to start a new business) -- along with knowledge that the one hundred thousand dollars Will gave their son over the years is no longer accounted for -- undermines the household's tranquillity. "You've been taken for a fool, woman." Will cries on the way to his heart attack. It is the couple's groping toward "truth telling" to one another that gives impetus to the drama, even as they deal with the more mundane matters of recovering financial stability and failing health. Horton Foote's mid-century characters in "The Young Man from Atlanta" embody a "memory" of American Southern propriety that dared not openly allude to situations outside of prevailing social norms. The preservation of privacy and its refusal to examine reality from different perspectives enabled construction of a societal fortress that defied plundering, even if substantial financial and emotional resources were at stake. As long as the resources remained intact -- or seemingly so -- the Will Kidders could continue functioning as they desired, while deluding themselves into the bargain. "Will Kidder" was a perfect name for the old man from Houston.


We Remember C. S. Lewis: Essays and Memoirs by Philip Yancey, J. I.Packer, Charles Colson, George Sayer, James Houston, Don Bede Griffiths and Others
Published in Paperback by Broadman & Holman Publishers (2001)
Authors: David Graham, Philip Yancey, and Charles W. Colson
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Cotton candy
Not bad, but if you were really looking for some real knowledge of Lewis' teaching style this isn't it...it's pleasant reading, but not terribly informative. Also, it does not show the complete Lewis character. Based on sources at Oxford, the real C.S. Lewis was impersonal (even by British academic standards) with some of his students, and could be withering to those whom he felt were not terribly bright or motivated.

Like a brownie: hard to resist one last crumb!
I've always been a bit surprised and suspicious of the C. S. Lewis industry: the fact that I like reading Lewis, doesn't mean I like reading about him. (Though, if push comes to shove, I have to admit I do. Just no slobbering, please.) Fortunately this is a collection of essays by colleagues, students, and friends of Lewis who, even while writing about Lewis, have other things on their minds -- the purpose of English teaching, Oxford, redemption, even (in the gardener's case) his own bad jokes. There are even a few critical stories. Most of the essays are well written and insightful, and gave plenty of Boswell-like anecdotes not only of Lewis, but of other peculiar denizens of Oxford as well. Graham could have saved himself the occasional bone thrown to evangelicals, though, as far as I'm concerned. I really don't care how Bob Jones reconciles the work of the Holy Spirit and beer. Billy Graham and J. I. Packer didn't seem to have much to say. Also, the editor protested a bit too much about "hero worship." There's no need to apologize for this book, otherwise.

The book arrived in the mail on Friday afternoon. By Saturday afternoon I was chewing on crumbs.

To me, one of the most interest comments was the suggestion by one writer that Lewis had been influenced by the marvellous chapter "The Ethics of Elfland" in G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. I am beginning to suspect that Wilhelm Grimm was a very clever, and also successful, evangelist, and that there might be a secret link between the Seven Dwarves and Trumpkin.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man


The Color of Night
Published in Hardcover by Warner Books (1999)
Author: David Lindsey
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A good read
Lindsey has been better, but even a submaximum Lindsey is better than most others. The Color of Night is exciting, and you do become intricately involved with the characters. The plot line is intriguing but takes too long to conclude. Lindsey's writing, however, is good enough to move the reader through the slow parts. Not a one sitting book, but not one you'll never finish.

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EXCITING!!!
Harry Stroud is trying to put behind his life as an American intelligence agent, while still mourning the death of his wife, when suddenly enters Mara Song, a beautiful woman with a deadly business proposition.

After accepting Mara's propostion, Harry will be catapulted into the nightmare world he desperately is trying to escape. Then one day, Harry happens to find Mara with a video tape of his wife's final moments. As watching the tape, Harry knows who her killers are, and through a carefully orchestrated plan, Harry will make them pay...each and every one of them!

'The Color Of Night' is a novel full of action, intrigue, and tricky plot twists to keep readers up all night.

David Lindsey is among the best writers of action thrillers. His novels are always smooth, easy to read, guaranteed up-all-nighters that never disappoint. Mr. Lindsey has never been so prime for bestsellerdom as he is now, so do yourself a favor and read him, you will thoroughly entertained.

Nick Gonnella

Exquisite writing, especially if you are an artist
As both a writer and artist, I was taken with this exquisitely-drawn - and I do mean "drawn" - novel. It is like a perfectly beautiful colored drawing, sometimes black and white, in brush and inks, just like the works of art Lindsey writes about with obvious knowledge of his subject.

You just saw everything so vividly. I particularly appreciated the mouthwatering European travelog, the descriptions of scenes, restaurants, food, hotels - visited by the rich and famous.

There is a flaw in this book that keeps it from being a great, however. (Sorry if it bothers some amazon review readers, but I often give five stars to a book for having entertained me thoroughly, and this one did). It is this: every truly great book is laced with wit. Read the grimmest novels, say, by Dostoevsky, Dickens or Tolstoy, and even and even some of the best contemporary detective and mystery writers and you will be chuckling, laughing, amused. "The Color Of Night" would have benefited had Lindsey given us a few wry touches here and there. He was too dead serious, which sometimes lent it a slightly precious tone. Of course, "precious" can be hilarious, and he might have capitalized on some of his foppish characters, but I found this novel too stolid.

Another flaw: like some of the beautiful drawings one sees, the perfect, deft creations of the greatest artists, there is a coldness about the book itself. If I didn't know otherwise, I would have guessed that the author wrote the whole book with a quill pen and ink. I can see him thinking, dipping, scribing, again and again, with a dispassionate hand - and heart. Not exactly an insult, but sometimes I like a feeling (and the word 'feeling' is exactly the word I meant to use) that the work is coming from the artist's gut. Like Van Gogh, for example, who wasn't afraid to make a mess.

Nevertheless, despite these flaws, "The Color Of Night" is a fun book to read and Hollywood would be crazy not to make it into a movie. Clint Eastwood as Harry? This time, clean, of course. Harry Strand is a morally upright man, despite his years of spying and his (acceptable) thievery. I'm glad he lived to "watch" Mara cross the street.


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