This is an excellent book to describe all thinkable crosssections of Silicon Valley through interviews in the social science methods and through writing by prominent figures in Silicon Valley. The only drawback I found is that the book has too rich contents for a reader to read through casually. I strongly recommend this book to those serious readers who are engaged in Silicon Valley, associated with venture businesses, interested in mechanisms and histories of Silicon Valley, or interested in business models.
The book has a big reference table to illustrate how different Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are from small business owners and traditional entrepreneurs, and describes four distinct types of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. The book also enumerates ten reasons why Silicon Valley has been prosperous.
This is really a good book for a reader to learn what Silicon Valley is like.

Practically useful for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and professionals.

In this book, Miller presents a series of essays of various topics, including his friends, other artists, and Miller's social concerns. The longest piece is "Money and how it gets that way". Of course, this piece is written with subtle sarcasm throughout. Although the longest piece of the book, it doesnt stand out as the best, and in fact, doesnt seem to fit in with the rest of the essays. In the other essays, Miller demonstrates his ability to exploit what is powerful and life-affirming, laughing off all that is refined, petty, and weak. This comes out especially in the essays on fellow writers. There is an essay on Thoreau, Miller writes: "He found Walden, but Walden is everywhere if man is there". It is this sort of formula that is constant throughout both "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird" and the rest of Miller's work: There is something positive and life-affirming everywhere so long as one is alive, it is only a matter of recognizing the greatness of life itself. Although not naively bashing all forms of technology, Miller urges us in "The Hour of Man" to take the time to return the basics and discover not technology, but ourselves, our families, and our friends. As Miller explores that which affirms life, he also takes the time to present piercing criticisms directed at those who are petty, controlling, and all too caught up in the rat-race; for example, he writes: "What, moreover, can you call your own? The house you live in, the food you swallow, the clothes you wear-you neither built the house nor raised the food nor made the clothes. The same goes for your ideas. You moved into them ready-made". This passage is indicative of Miller's insistance on creation and his general emphasis on overabundance and embracing the brilliance of nature and life as opposed to trying to control it. In "Tropic of Cancer", Miller writes that he "loves everything that flows", and one gets the impression that according to Miller, everything flows. Thus, the formula in "Stand Still Like a Hummingbird" can be summed up by saying that rather than try to stop these great flows of life, we should flow with them and embrace their power. Overall, this book is enjoyable, intelligent; yet, for a book of personal philosophy, rarely preaches morality and is never sentimental.

These highly readable pieces reflect the incredible vitality and variety of interests of the writer who extended the frontiers of modern literature. If you think the New Thought movement has some Ancient Wisdom roots, you will enjoy this collection of stories and essays. If you have read, even occasionally, Henry David (Thoreau), Ralph Waldo (Emerson), Uncle Walt (Whitman), this volume is for you. Henry Miller says nothing here either more offensive or less insightful than these three Transcendentalists who lived before him.

Miller's genius for comedy is at its best in "Money and How It Gets That Way"-a tongue-in-cheek parody of "economics" provoked by a postcard from Ezra Pound which asked if he had "ever thought about money." Stand Still Like the Hummingbird provides a right and perfect metaphor for this outstanding collection, one of Henry's Miller's most luminous statements of his personal philosophy of life. Much of this book, while previously published, appeared only in foreign magazines or in small limited editions which have gone out of print.

If you're an artist (starving or successful), you'll appreciate Miller's deep concern for the role of artist in society, in "An Open Letter to All and Sundry," and in "The Angel Is My Watermark." If you're a writer (struggling to be or already published), you'll find inspiration in words like these, scattered like gemstones--generous and true-throughout these pages: "...when you are convinced that all the exits are blocked, either you take to believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird. The miracle is that the honey is always there, right under your nose, only you were too busy searching elsewhere to realize it. The worst is not death but being blind, blind to the fact that everything about life is in the nature of the miraculous." In short, there is much for many: timeless wisdom, not only for us still living "in this world," but also for us, who, like Henry Miller, have always suspected we are "not of this world."

I have been a fan of Henry Miller since the early 1960's, when to read his banned work meant trekking up to the Treasure Room of Columbia University's library and having the book delivered to your carrel, a la the research scene in Citizen Kane. When Jay Martin's bio of Henry was published in 1978 I read it immediately with great pleasure. On Henry's birth centenary in 1991 two more biographies came out, which I read, and I'm writing to say Martin's is the best. Incidentally, in June 2002 while driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a little tour, in Big Sur I passed a Henry Miller institute/library, and did a u-turn after a few seconds of realization that this was probably my last chance to pay homage. What a throwback to the '60's (which, btw, I don't think Henry was a fan of.) Anyway, I recommend the pilgrimage for all of Henry's fans.

This book easily assists the student and the scholar in a better understanding of the emergence of the hospital in history. To be enjoyed in the comfort of one's favorite armchair. The reading community can look forward with anticipation to his latest contribution, The Orphans of Byzantium.

This collection of letters were addressed to Henry's final love, Brenda Venus. Right before I read this book, I read "Letters To Hoki". Picking up "Dear, Dear Brenda", I thought 'Here we go again, with some other chick trying to scam Henry's wallet!". How wrong I was. By the end of the book, I had a tear in my eye & thanked Brenda for the kind, gentle & caring way she assisted Henry through the final days of his life. Brenda made Henry's last days marvelous ones, even though his health was failing. This collection of letters should not be missed by any of Henry Miller's devoted fans, as it will make you much more at ease knowing his state of mind around the time of his final days. Thank you, dear, dear Brenda.

It is well-known that Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller became friends after Durrell wrote a letter to Miller in Paris, praising the latter's 'Tropic of Cancer' when it was still banned both in Britain and the United States. What devolved from this sincere letter of praise is shown in this volume, a successor to the 'Durrell-Miller Letters' of thirty years ago. Of necessity more complete than its predecessor, the 'Durrell-Miller Letters: 1935-80' tells a story in its own right of the lives of two great friends, who met over a book and stayed the course for the next forty-five years.

In these pages we find Durrell, always in exile no matter where he has chosen to settle, be it England, Corfu, Cyprus, Argentinia, Yugoslavia, Egypt or France, writing to Miller, an American first abroad in Paris then returned to the United States, to New York and eventually to Big Sur, where he was to live for most of the rest of his life. Over the course of the letters a remarkable friendship blossomed, one which withstood the tests of distance and age with remarkable fortitude, and which only death eventually ended. The letters are often exuberant, coarse, and amusing; they chronicle the developing literary and personal fortunes of two remarkable men: one the author of some of the most controversial books of the twentieth century, the other author of the much-praised Alexandria Quartet, as well as countless volumes of poetry, drama, and travel writing.

Introduced and annotated by Ian MacNiven, Durrell's official biographer, and completed two years before Durrell's death in 1990, this volume is a marvellous addition to the library of any reader of either Durrell or Miller, or anyone who appreciates seeing at first hand the inner workings of rare and unique minds.

"Friends of Animals" is an incredible account of perseverence amidst great opposition! An inspiring, awesome narrative of heroic achievements, despite ridicule and resistance, beautifully written and illstrated. This book should be mandatory reading for anyone owning a pet or involved in any animal management. Exceptional reading for people of all ages!

Marty Gervais shows there are no boundaries to the imagination. He writes this poignant tale of a young French Canadian woman who works in a hotel on the border. It is there she runs into Henry Miller who is staying in the hotel. She has already read his controversial book, Tropic of Cancer. It was contraband at the time, but living in Canada, she was able to read it. This takes place around the time that Miller was writing The Air Conditioned Nightmare. Gervais makes for a mysterious and intriguing tale, as he sets up this love affair of the imagination, this woman writing letters to Miller which she will never send . . .AT the end of her life, she reads about his death in the paper, and goes to the letters. What follows is this wonderful little book. It is filled with the colour of the times, the '30s on the border. It captures Miller perfectly in that swaggering and confident manner. It captures this farm girl image in the most touching and endearing way.

Robert Ferguson has written a spectacular biography on legendary writer Henry Miller. Ferguson, unlike other Miller biographers (such as Mary Dearborne, Alfred Perles), relates the details of Miller's life & works without personal bias or an angle. Although a very tough task, Ferguson is able to distinguish reality as it happened from reality as reported by Henry Miller (which at times is filled with bald-faced lies, such as claiming to have met Emma Goldman although she was not allowed in the city when Miller claims to have met her) most of the time. While some fans of Miller will not like the work because it "spoils the mystique of a legend", others will, I'm sure, agree that this is a thorough, fair and accurate biography about a man who tried very hard to erase the tracks he made in life with all new marks created by semi-autobiographical romances. And dang good ones at that!

Edited by Lawerence Durrell, The Henry Miller Reader encapsulates some of the very best of Miller's writings. It includes sections from the Tropic books, Black Spring, and Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. I have the 1956 New Directions edition of the book, and I don't know whether it has been re-edited since that point, but any erotic, or sexual content had to be strained out for the censors. What is left is pure genius. There is a wonderful section on Alfred Perles...otherwise known as "Joey," to those familar with Miller's work. His insights on the writings of Anais Nin hold a certain poignancy in light of their twenty year relationship which both writers had to withold from their readers; Ms. Nin was married still to Hugh Guiller. I would highly recommend this book be purchased along with The Tropic of Cancer, or any other of his works.