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As a whole, this book is truly fascinating. In addition to shedding a sober light on the Egyptian pyramids, Mayan culture, and other Hancock favorites, the book addresses quite a few other intriguing mysteries like "Who was the Minotaur", "Who was King Arthur", "What was the Star of Bethlehem" and Stonehenge.
Each subject is approached in a rational, scientific manner, and is discussed using facts and commentary from respected sources. This book very much reflects what today's respected academic field believes. The breadth of the book is truly amazing when you consider that each subject is discussed in adequate detail to prove or disprove certain hypotheses. And finally, it is well written and easy to follow.
So for its research and ambition in addressing so many fascinating subjects, the book is a gem. For people interested in ancient history, this book will be invaluable.
As far as Hancock debunkery goes, in some areas they completely debunk him, in other areas the hypotheses and evidence they present is good and insightful, but not necessarily any more persuasive or powerful than what Hancock presents. In some areas, I still believe Hancock has it right. In the end, hypotheses are just that, and it comes down to your own beliefs.
At any rate, this book is fascinating and I couldn't put it down.
Thus, according to Ancient Mysteries, both sides have good points to make.
The entire book is filled with the pro and cons of those proposing the theories and those holding to the traditional ways of viewing history. It is the balance the authors bring to the discussion that makes the book so noteworthy. Direct quotes from key passages of the various books supporting or opposing the theories help bring home the essence of each point of view.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the theories of the past being proposed by Handcock and others as a fair view of the proposed theories (summarized of course) and their opponents attempts (often successful) to undermine them.
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It is through Olive that Basil Ransom meets Verena Tarrant, the young woman who has left her lower middle-class family to move in with and be molded by Olive. Verena has a tremendous speaking ability which caught Olive's (and the other women's (womyn's?) movement leaders') attention. But ultimately, Verena also catches Basil's attention... not for her feminist diatribes, but for her beauty and the passion of her speeches. Basil is instantly struck by Verena, and from this point onward the plot focuses as Basil attempts to seek out his love interest who is highly guarded by Olive, Verena's parents, and several others.
The dialogue between Olive and her friends with Basil Ransom, is a constant back and forth that is civil on the surface, but boiling with hostility underneath the social niceties. While Basil is always cool and focused as he tracks the object of his love, Olive Chancellor only becomes more paranoid as she sees that she is gradually losing her young charge... to a Southern Neanderthal. "The Bostonians" meanders through the first couple hundred pages with witty dialogue between the alien Basil and his new peers, but as his focus intensifies, so does the plot. James draws all this circling and stalking into a final, climactic scene that many will be cheering, but one that many modern-day feminists and their sympathizers will be cursing.
I went looking for criticism of this book and found little in Gale, but two essays from 1990s by Wendy Lesser and Alison Lurie. Lesser argues against the feminist line that the book is a misogynist polemic; she responds that Olive (the lesbian) and Basil (the Mississippian) are both complex characters, sometimes weak, sometimes strong and sympathetic. (She quotes Hardwick that James is our best female novelist because his women are powerful and interesting.) Lurie looks at the novel as more about politics than gender: James came home from Europe and found he hated America; showed the South re-conquering the North in Basil's conquest of Verena.
I disagree with Lesser: Basil is shown as naive and occasionally weak but dashing and full-hearted -- I'm sure he is an idealized self-portrait of James. Olive is honest and principled but so bleak and unhappy that her love is purely destructive. Her strength lies less in her principles (Mrs. Birdseye after all is equally principled but utterly weak) than in her vaulting ambition. She reminds me of Dixon's Thaddeus Stevens in The Klansman -- passionate, scheming, perversely principled, but essentially evil. Both come from Milton's Satan, seen as a Yankee.
Which brings me to Lurie's version. I agree with her that the novel is about politics, but disagree that he was writing against America -- I think he was just writing against Boston. The hostility the novel met at the time stemmed from his nasty portrait of the old transcendalist Elizabeth Peabody (his minor character Mrs. Birdseye); this is a less irrelevant reaction than critics portray it, since she's a stand-in for everything he despises about his own Boston roots, a hatred which drives the novel. An equally weak but even more despicable character is Verena's father, a mystical fraud whose nomadic career has certain resemblances to James's father's -- resemblances strengthened if Verena is modeled on Alice James. The Boston reform tradition is alternately weak-minded and hard-edged, and basically loveless -- a spirit of drafty wet lecturehalls. Where Basil is hot-blooded -- he feels about Mississippi a tragic love he can't bear to speak of in conversation -- Olive's New England feeling is only cold philosophy.
How real is the political alternative which Basil represents? We see much less of him than of Olive; James knew Boston but not Mississippi. But I think James like some of his peers yearned for a certain reactionary romanticism which northern intellectuals associated with the South -- a Burkean spirit of cavaliers and kings. (Basil's name means "king," and his emerging career is writing political essays said to be hundreds of years out of date.) Basil's defeat of Olive to marry Verena -- he imagines his own seizure of her from the podium of Fanuiel Hall as a political assassination, with shades of John Wilkes Booth -- is clearly a re-conquest of the North by the old South. What he offers for an American future is less Enlightenment, more Middle Ages -- less rights, more responsiblities -- less cold charity, more warm friendship.
James/ Basil reminds me of Henry Adams in the "Education." On the one hand, Adams saw the warm (mildly homoerotic) friendship of exceptional men (modeled on himself and John Hay) as a strategy for national progress. On the other, Adams developed a similarly St. Gaudensian aesthetic of the medieval -- the cathedral against the dynamo. This was the first, aesteticist reaction of the northern elite to the soullessness of postbellum America, which we forget because it was replaced by Teddy Roosevelt's more muscular alternative.
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The heroine, Isabel Archer, begins her adventures with much vitality and promise, yearning to see life and the world and not to settle prematurely into marriage and domesticity. Although James shows she's not perfect -- she's naive and somewhat conceited -- it's still pretty easy to fall in love with her. You look forward to seeing what great things her life will bring.
And then it all falls apart. After 200 pages of building her up, James marries her to a scoundrel and spends the next 300 pages suffocating her, one liberty at a time. Others have described this book as "uplifting" and spoken of Isabel's strength and courage; I honestly can't see what they could mean. I found it genuinely painful to see such a beautiful character destroyed. With all credit to James's writing skills, this book made me miserable. I couldn't wish it on anyone.
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If you're an Expanded Universe junkie, though, fret not! There are more references to the Pre-Jedi Order books than you can shake a gimer stick at. It's almost as though Luceno's editors asked him to throw these tidbits in to assuage fan worries that those books were being ignored. Believe me, those worries are no longer justified.
Hero's Trial also resolves some long-standing issues from Vector Prime (think Mara Jade) and ends on a pseudo-cliffhanger. I'm not sure I like Han's questionable familial ethics here, but I'm sure he'll redeem himself in the next book...or not. That's really the beauty of these NJO books: long character arcs where anything can, and usually does, happen.
All in all, if you dig the New Jedi Order, you'll dig Hero's Trial. It's good, swashbuckling fun for geeks of all ages.
However, for those that missed your favorite Corellian, he's back, but not exactly the same scoundrel that the princess was so coy about. This novel explores the pain of Solo's loss and a rejection and rebirth of his core beliefs. I thought the novel was a bit slow in the beginning when it came to the memorial service back on Chewie's home planet. Han's feelings were re-hashed over and over again for what seems to be filler material, and you get to feel that Han is now whining. It is understandable to a point, but I soon tired of the lengthy flashbacks. I felt his treatment to Leia and Luke was a bit out of character, but events that eventually unfold probably allow for this justification.
As the story revolves mainly around Han, he finds himself in trouble as always, and it is an entertaining read as he moves from one situation to the next. What he does discover is a situation that places him in the same shoes as his son Anakin, and for the first time really comes to terms with dealing with Anakin as he relates to Chewie's death.
A new character is introduced into this story and he seems like a perfect fit as the new partner for Han. Though he may not replace Chewie immediately, the seeds are sown for a great pairing down the line. This character is very rich in depth and was written very well. He displays a sense of humor that compliments Han's dry wit and sarcasm.
Some interesting turns take place in the New Republic government, somewhat reminiscent of the Empire as it came to power first in politics prior to its militaristic stance that the Rebellion fought against. Other notes: C-3PO contemplates his mortality. Lando is absent. Very little is dealt with the Solo children.
Finally the Vong....I feel that they (as a whole) who were described as an all powerful force to fear from the 1st few books, has suddenly became not only passive, but softened up. I was really excited about their potential as a new threat, but it looks as if they aren't so bad after all. A real shame if the initial intent of the New Jedi Order was to add shake things up and bring back some fun filled tension to a huge galaxy. Hopefully the next books will re-focus this effort. Overall, it was a good book for Han Solo fans.
Also interesting is the reappearance of Vergere, the Jedi that Obi-Wan and Anakin (Skywalker, not Solo :) were serching for in Rouge Planet. I hope more comes out of this storyline in the future. I mean, wouldn't it be great if Vergere could hook up with Luke and tell him about the Jedi of old and how his father was as a kid? Great possibilities!
James Luceno does a bang up job continuing the series and I, for one, can't wait to see what he puts Han, Droma and the gang though in the next installment.
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Harris takes the normal routine of teenage dating and attempts the impossible. Removing all temptations that come along with it.
The process seems simple enough. First, take a caveman approach with labels. Dating bad, courtship good. He presents dating as an activity teenagers are obsessed with. Going from person to person, with no long term goals in mind, and ultimately feeling empty in the end.
Courtship is presented as this holy, pure thing where the couple avoids being in any tempting environment such as being alone with each other, or getting too physical. All the while keeping marriage as being the ultimate goal.
The problem with the "courtship," mindset is that it eventually destroys more relationships than it helps. By avoiding personal time in order to reduce temptation, newlywed couples quickly realize they don't know as much about each other as they first thought. Ask any married couple and one will quickly find out that the way someone acts in public and around friends can often be quite different from the person they are when alone with them. I personally would have gone through a few divorces myself if I had taken this approach. Girls who seemed normal in public were suddenly people I didn't want to be around when alone with them.
While Harris makes a good attempt, he needs to realize a few things. The first being that temptation can never be completely removed. If teenagers want to mess around, they will. All the rules in the world won't stop that.
Second, Harris needs to realize that to a teenager, dating and courting is essentially the same in terms of the end result. Anyone who has witnessed a high school breakup knows that they were not just "dating" for fun. Even though marriage probably isn't the first thing on their minds when they start dating, they do ask themselves if a long term relationship is possible with that person.
Where this book gets dangerous is when parents read it. Let's face it. The idea of a form of dating where your child doesn't get physical in any way is very appealing to the parents of teens. As a result many churches, and expecially youth group leaders, have grasped onto this book as if it were a new revelation straight from the Bible. I've personally witnessed teenagers in relationships suddenly leave the church because they don't feel comfortable bringing their boyfriend/girlfriend there since they get glares everytime they hold hands.
While I give Harris credit for making an attempt, reality shows us that the real answer is teaching kids right versus wrong along with what's expected of them, and then trusting them. Not saying we trust them and then slapping them with a million and one rules and regulations that must be followed since we really can't trust them.
This book had a good idea. However it should be kept in the fiction section due to it's near impossible expectations for teens.
Josh does an incredible job of opening up your eyes to the bigger picture - living a life that reflects God's glory and details that in following his plan your earthly desires will be more fulfilled than you can even imagine. Of course, many of the ideas that he suggests for guarding yourself require tough choices that will turn off more than a few people - but those who are willing to offer up every area of their life to the Lord will find in this book an excellent blueprint for finding happiness and fulfmillment in every single one of your relationships.
I have never been so happy with the direction my life is taking, and it's getting easier every day. For anyone reading this review, please take heart and give this way of living a chance. The bad reviews sound like they are coming from people who do not have the conviction or will power to give up intimacy. You will meet many, many men/women like this, and they make it very hard to stick to your guns. And others make it sound like living like this makes it impossible to meet people - not true! You meet people of the same sex and become freinds, don't you? Just treat the opposite sex the same way while you are getting to know them! (Very hard, but not impossible!) And just let me say - for those who think that Joshua Harris did not have enough experience or was old enough to know what he was talking about, I believe it is God's message, through Josh, we are hearing when we read I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Please give it a chance - you will not regret it! I've gotten so many rewards already.
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Wild Jasmine made me laugh and cry as well as dream. I ! wish they could make movies of her books. Keep them coming and I look forward to the sequel of Jasmine deMarisco's adventure with Jemmie Leslie, Earl of Glenkirk..the Glenkirk Chronicles.
Kalaniku
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I don't pertain to be an expert on the topic, but I do know a fair bit about the historical events surrounding this era.
First off I did enjoy the book. It gave interesting insight into the main figures of the third crusade. (Richard and Saladin)
I have seen reviews were people lambaste the author because at times he appears to overly fawn over these two characters, but then again both had traits worth admiring.
Saladin whom had inherited the lands of Zangi and Nur'al Din, had managed to cohesively control both Egypt and Syria. An amazing feat in itself aside from the Sunni and Shi feud.
From there he was able to unite Islam and nearly expunged the Crusaders and extinguish the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Had it not been for Richard he would have completely succeeded.
For a good read this book is fine, for a history student I find this book to be lacking in that area. I also found it to be overly expensive for a relatively short novel and would have preferred that it be a hundred pages or so longer.
The authors make a relatively brief argument in favor of greater equality but it won't change anyone's mind. If you don't agree with that view now, don't waste your time with this book -- you'll hate it. The bulk of the book is devoted to an examination of programs, past and proposed, to accomplish this end. It's a book for policy wonks.
I found it somewhat dull. I guess I'm more interested in the "clash of ideas" than in the details of implementation. But two things stood out:
First, the authors point out that (false) claims of the impending "bankruptcy" of Social Security have been used to increase the Social Security tax to a level far above what is needed to pay benefits. The Social Security surplus -- over $100 billion a year -- has filled a large part of the hole in the general budget, which was created by the Reagan tax cuts. What we have done is substitute regressive Social Security taxes, which fall heaviest on the working poor, for progressive income taxes, the Reagan cuts having benefited mainly the wealthy.
Second, the authors point out that while the major social benefits programs spend relatively little on administration -- less than one percent for Social Security, for example, far less than any private pension plan -- the food stamp program costs about 12% to administer. They attribute this, and the 4% to 8% error rate, to the complexity of the eligibility rules, and suggest abolishing the means requirement, making food stamps available to all. This is not a new idea but it's a very good one -- Bill Gates would be delighted with his stamps, I'm sure. I wonder, though, after reading through descriptions of program after program, why we can't apply the same idea to the whole mess? Abolish the lot, and replace them with a guaranteed income for everyone. We could even tie it to community service -- Bill and I could then rake leaves in the park together!