Can please somebody tell me about what is this book?
1) It is certainly not about lucid dreaming.
2) It has no practical lessons or values in shamanism or other paths.
3) It is not a travel guide to Samarkand (town where most of the action in the book is placed in).
So if your interest is within these fields, then in my opinion, invest your time/life in some other book.

Dr. Kharitidi's two autobiographies, the first being "Entering the Circle," are excellent portraits of a scientist/healer's life in a Siberian "science city" in the 1980s. She helped pioneer the development of out-of-body-inducing apparatus at a top physics institute, bravely accepted initiation into the Siberian shamanic tradition, and successfully applied aspects of it to her hospital work. "The Master of Lucid Dreams" picks up the story at that point, and chronicles her study with a psychologist/neurologist group interested in depicting centers of the human consciousness on computer monitors. She is then contacted by a representative of a healing brotherhood in Samarkand, to study their healing methodology. Ann Ree Colton's "Watch Your Dreams" is a valuable companion volume, as it discusses telepathic dream symbols used by Beings of great Light. Additionally, "The Teachers of Gurdjieff," by Rafael Lefort, parallels the wisdom teaching found in "The Master of Lucid Dreams." John G. Bennett's "Masters of Wisdom," Hasan Shushud's "Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia," Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov's "Man, Master of His Destiny," Mark L. Prophet's "Climb the Highest Mountain," and Salim Michael's "The Way of Inner Vigilance" are other books of great value for the reader interested in this area of attainment.

A Russian psychiatrist learns how to heal trauma in Asia in a title which considers why some people don't heal and stay wounded despite the best treatments medicine can offer. Kharitidi traveled to Samarkand in the heart of Central Asia to learn about the potentials of lucid dreaming and gained insights on how emotional traumas are fostered - and overcome.

Olga Masters was a strong, country Australian Mum from Pambula. She knew what it was like to do it tough sometimes. Masters' experience as an Aussie woman is obvious in this collection of her stories. Life as a woman living in the early nineteen hundreds, in an Australian country town, would not have been easy. As one of her stories comments, "the women...most looked up to were those who got their housework done early and kept their homes neat all the time." Masters lived around the period of the two World Wars, the Depression, and the Baby Boomer period. Masters herself married young, and had seven children. She didn't start writing seriously until she was 50. It is hardly surprising that when she did start writing, it was about what she knew, and it was written in the same style as her life.
Nothing amazing is explored in these stories. What is amazing is the way in which they are explored - ordinary issues like marriage, spinsterhood, friendships between women, motherhood, sisters, and life in a country town are made to be extraordinary through Masters' talent as a writer. I think that this is the strength of Collected Stories.
Her unique ability to comment on events and feelings in a very unsentimental way can be a little surprising at first, but don't be fooled - her language is loaded. In one of the stories, a wife is irritated because her husband won't get back to work. She doesn't tell him to get back to work - instead she continuously works hard around him in the kitchen while he eats; banging pots, slamming, crashing and splashing, with the occasional sarcastic comment thrown in. Eventually, her husband gets the message and leaves, and she sits down and smiles to herself. This is the sort of thing that Masters excels at. She doesn't muck around with fancy language. Instead she uses real words, to describe real life. When reading this collection, I got a very strong sense of something truly Australian, truly woman in them.
It's best to take Collected Stories in short doses. The power of the language and the agendas behind the words make for heavy reading, despite the manageable length of each story. Remember that the collection is actually made up of three books, or parts of three other books, so take it slow with plenty of time to mull over each one.
This collection is a must-read for every Australian, especially women. It is a world in which agriculture was the trade of the town. It is a world where work was the driving force in relationships. It is a world where women were the backbone of the family. It was a world where procreation was about as romantic as it got. The world Masters writes about is tough, real, and it happened. But it's also dying out. This is why Australians everywhere will benefit from reading this book - in an urbanised, manufacturing society where families and relationships fall apart much more quickly, Masters book stands as a testament to the strength and endurance of the people in her time.

Olga Masters has complied an interesting selcetion of short stories dealing with a range of issues. Her use of description is very powerful and often avoids describing step-by-step what is happening in a action sequence, instead describes the reaction from people and the effects of what has happened. This combined with her writing in third person creates an atmosphere for the reader like they are right in middle of the room watching.

Each story is told from th point of view of a middle aged woman or a little girl. The thing I like most about each story is the way they all end. It can be very fustraiting as we don't get told what will now happen but it is also very interesting. The thing I dislike most about the stories are the way they start, often in the middle of an action sequence and very confusing.

I would reccomend this book to people who enjoy reading from the point of veiw of adults aswell as children. Also for people who don't mind a selection of short stories that are set in very different times with very different characters to one another.