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Book reviews for "Mountfield,_Stuart" sorted by average review score:

Children's Letters to God
Published in Hardcover by Workman Publishing (1991)
Author: Stuart E. Hample
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Fervent wishes, confessions, confidences, praise, and thanks
The mustered letters in this book are wonderful. In fact, they are a great delight. This is what we need to see in today's children. All of them touched my heart with laughter but not just that. The questions, innocence, and wiseness of the children (all under ten) are dominant. It shows for once that children may know better than their elders (sometimes). Particularly one letter stays in my mind:

Dear God,
I wish that there wasn't no such thing of sin. I wish that there was not no such thing of war.
Tim M. age 9

If only it were that simple. It makes one wish to never grow up. "Children's Letters to God" is splendid and is an inspiring gift for anyone who has had the pleasure of being in the presence of a child's smile.

Laughter through honesty
This book had me laughing out load on a bus to the point people must have thought I was crazy. The questions these children ask are truly the most cleaver and honest thoughts that seemingly only a child can think of! It will bring back your childhood and allow you to feel the pure wonder and discovery of your youth! A MUST READ...and a wonderful gift!

This is a must read for everyone.
This is a MUST READ for everyone who wants to tap into the pristine wonder of children. I always include this book as part of a baby shower gift for someone who is having her first child to let her know about the priceless joy they are about to experience. I can't think of any other book that forecasts that joy so accurately.


DES Stories : Faces and Voices of People Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol
Published in Paperback by Visual Studies Workshop Press (15 June, 2001)
Authors: Margaret Lee Braun, Nancy M. Stuart, and Theo Colborn
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DES - alive and well
If you thought DES was a thing of the past - guess again. DES is alive and well. All you have to do is look into the faces staring up from the pages of this book and listen to the personal stories of the people exposed to this drug to know you are in the presence of a powerful force. No, I'm not referring to DES, although its impact is profound. I am referring to the miraculous ability of the human spirit to survive and transcend experiences most can only imagine. I know. I'm one of the survivors.

While you will not find my story contained within the pages of this book, I am there. I am a DES daughter, a cancer survivor. I am also a psychotherapist specializing in health psychology. Through my work, I hear a lot of stories, but few compare to those associated with the widespread medical mistake of DES.

Despite the scope of the problems created by this drug, those of us who live with the aftermath are in danger of being forgotten, or at least overlooked. Upon seeing a new physician recently, he said, "I was told in medical school that we wouldn't be seeing any more people exposed to DES." I informed him that I certainly hoped he wouldn't see any new cases of DES exposure, but there were plenty of us still walking around to tell the tale of DES and of our experiences with it. This book does precisely that - tell the tale.

Many thanks to Margaret Lee Braun and Nancy Stuart for a well-written and graphically poignant book. It is tasteful, respectful, and a much needed reminder that we are still here.

We are prevailers! ...very brave human beings.
HI folks - thought those of you who have not read "DES Stories" would enjoy these little excerpts re how I felt and others felt when they read it, and a bit of why Margaret wrote it. Please tell me what YOU think:

My response:
Reading this brought back to mind my experience reading your book. The first friend who gave it to me, a male, left it on my doorstep on November 6th last year, my 39th birthday, as a surprise little gift.

I remember being hugely excited as I unwrapped its package and I remember thinking that it was 21 years before on that same date when I found out I had cancer for the first time, on my 18th birthday.
(A nurse from the clinic at Balboa Hospital had come by and left her card with my roommate, reminding her that I must see the doctor again and why - she had left 2 previous messages the week before that I did not return, because it was my first day on the job at the Bank where I was then on that date, a full-fledged employee, instead of an intern. And I had not called back because I was busy preparing for that day and thought it was about more volunteer work, anyway.)

Anyway, what a gift. The first thing I usually do when I get home is run to the bathroom... I remember reading practically the entire book right there on the porcelain goddess.
(I had part of my bladder resected when the cancer spread the 1st go-round. It's fine now - all that delicious balloon stretching that I adored so much (yea, right!) had done a good job...I still drink a LOT of fluids.)

I know one woman who had cervical, vaginal and ovarian cancer and along with the clear cell adenocarcinoma they found choriocarcinoma when she had ovarian cancer. She had her cervix, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, lymph nodes and spleen completely removed. She has had 1/3rd of her bladder removed and reconstructed, 19 inches of her intestine and part of her omentum removed and my vagina reconstructed two times. She had 7 surgeries, external and internal radiation therapy and 4 separate mutli-round sessions of chemotherapy - all encompassing eight years of her life (18yrs old-almost 21 and 30yrs-37).
Today, she still has two tumors in her lumbar vertebrae - one the diameter of a quarter and the other a dime.
BUT - she is healthier than most anyone she knows! (Can you guess who "She" is?)

I remember the tears rolling down my face and rejoicing at the same time, that now the world would know it's true, it's still true and it still will be true and true anew for many yet to come, unfortunately. But now, it was in writing and not just in medical journals or my own doctor's handwriting. There were documented "others" and I was not alone. I, and my DES sisters were validated. And, if any MD dared mention to me that it was a long time ago and nothing of consequence today, I would have something in hand to proudly show him or her before I quietly walked out of their office forever.

The feeling of AWE that sticks with me today continues to amaze me. I brought it to a family picnic around Thanksgiving time last year to give to my mother who was visiting from out of town, and my oldest brother picked it up and read the whole thing right there. My mother picked it up and began reading it very shortly thereafter and even asked me questions! My boyfriend read the entire book the night I gave it to him to read.

What continues to strike me is how this book appears to magnetize the reader, pulls them in and keeps them there all the way through. I've never come across that before or seen someone else experience that either.

Why is that? I believe it's because the book is so subtle. From the colors on the cover to the pictures on the pages, the message within speaks loudly, yet softly of a quiet strength, of endurance. The details are not of morbid skeleton bones found in a closet or of gross deformities or fantastic miracles. Depicting man, woman, child - they successfully link all humankind. Which, combined in this wonderful book, induce the quiet force, revealing the present triumphs of real-life people. "DES Stories" chronicles each individual's rising to the purpose, of finding the answers with mastery of oneself and of circumstance.

It is a peaceful, very special honor to have something in common with these very brave human beings. They are prevailers. We are prevailers! For we are NOT victims, which is what the word 'survivor' connotes to me. We have overcome and become stronger and yes, better.
Love, Suzette

Get this Book to Feel Empowered
A beautiful book for anyone you know touched by DES-women, men, family, friends, lawyers, and physicians. DES exposed people deserve acknowledgement and information about the drug they were exposed to before they were born. DES Stories does this while also bearing witness to the massive disruption of people's lives, which chemical exposure and drug breakthrough can cause. Get this book to feel empowered. It helps speak the truth.


Between the Worlds: Witchcraft and the Tree of Life: A Program of Spiritual Development (Llewellyn's Modern Witchcraft Series)
Published in Paperback by Llewellyn Publications (1995)
Author: Stuart Myers
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I am looking to republish this title
"Between the Worlds" was a labor of love for me. I wrote it to share with others my own interpretation of the Tree of Life, and wove into it an intricate fabric of my own personal, Goddess-centered Qabalah. Unfortunately, Llewellyn Publications allowed this text to go out of print, and because they had no plans to republish it for years, I took the rights to the work back.

Daily, I receive dozens of emails from other wiccans asking when, or if, I will bring this book back into print. To date, I do not have a publisher for this volume.

...I would love to bring an expanded, revised edition of this work back into print. As many reviewers have noted, it is ground-breaking,and is perhaps the first new interpretation of this ancient science since the days of Isaac Luria.

Blessings to all:
B Stuart Myers.

No better book on the subject exists
I will keep this review brief and to the point. This book is fabulous. The magick in it works. As an exercise in expansion of a Witch's conciousness, this text is unparalleled. I don't care what you have to do to obtain this book -- you must get it.

A wonderful book that has gone out of print
It is a shame that this book had to go out of print. In many ways, this book picks up where Ellen Cannon Reeds "Witch's Kabbalah" leaves off. The Tree of Life is given a Goddess centered spin that makes perfect sense if you think about it. The discussion of the four worlds is tied together with the Middle Pillar exercise, whuch is the best way to illustrate the concept. Best of all, this book contains practices which will lead up to actual Pathworkings. The book is difficult (probably the reason for its low sales) but worth pursuing if you want to tie your Craft to the Kabbalah. Look around; if you really need the book, it will find you.


Drop Us a Line... Sucker!: The Prank Letters of James and Stuart Wade
Published in Paperback by Carroll & Graf (1995)
Authors: James C. Wade and Stuart Wade
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One of the funniest books I've ever read
This is easily in the top three funniest books I've ever read(and I've read alot.) The imagination behind the Wade brother'sletters themselves is incredible. And clearly their targets just don't get it. Please, Wade brothers, do this again!

A Satirical Trojan Horse!!!
The authors do a masterful job of exposing the humorless self-importance of the subjects of their correspondence. The discerning reader will detect a strain of melancholy and futility running throughout the mirthless, dehumanized responses to the authors' inquiries. Bravo, Brothers Wade!

Simply GREAT !
For those with a good sense of humor ... this is a must read !! I knew the book just a little before Mr. James Wade came to my school. Then he was my professor in a great management course. You can't imagine how fun and professional this great person is. The book gives perfectly the image of how "Woody" is creative ! Do not miss this hilarious peace of work !!


Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero
Published in Library Binding by MindRaising Press (31 October, 2002)
Author: Stuart Holmes Coleman
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a book to cherish
I am grateful to the author for giving us Eddie Would Go. Not only is it an enduring and haunting telling of an extraordinary hero, but also an insightful account of Hawaiian way of life, of aloha, spirit and pride. Anyone who desires to learn more about the Hawaiian people and their feelings throughout the renaissance years will appreciate the author's in-depth interviewing.
It's also a fascinating look into the world of legendary surfing.
Eddie Would Go is an unforgettable story -- a story you'll be proud to know.

An Important Book
What can a high-school dropout, hooked on surfing, raised by a poor family in a remote cemetery out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean have to say to me? This is what I was thinking as I started "Eddie Would Go." In fact, for the first 100 pages of Coleman's book I continued to ask myself the same question.

But the more I read about Eddie Aikau and the more I got to know him, the more my respect grew. In a way, Coleman kind of sets you up. He lures you into Eddie's humble life only to help you better understand his greatness -- his purely selfless heroism.

Not only is "Eddie Would Go" one of the better biographies I've read, it flows along with profound undercurrents. Many of them are quickly grasped - poverty, altruism, struggles with cultural inferiority. Others are more subtle and lingering - the complexity of racism and the Buddhist concept of "dukkha."

Unforgettable, important book.

A fascinating biography from a very gifted writer
How's this for a myth? A handsome young man grows up on a beautiful island, living close to nature. He finds a slab of spear-like board and discovers he can use it to challenge waves bigger than anyone thought could be tamed. He rides them flawlessly as they thunder and crash around him. Even his daily life is extraordinary: He patrols beaches to save those who venture out too far --- and no one dies, ever, on his watch. Then comes a mythic opportunity to recreate an ancient voyage. Soon after the double-hulled canoe sails, however, it runs into trouble. Our hero volunteers to swim 12 miles across choppy water to get help for his mates. He sets off --- and is never seen again.

But this is no myth. It's the life story of Eddie Aikau, the 32-year-old Hawaiian waterman who died in l978 trying to save his shipmates (who, as it happened, were all rescued a few hours after he started swimming for shore). And what a story! Start with a kid as handsome as Jason Scott Lee, as athletic as Duke Kahanamoku and as soulful as Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. He loves the water so much he drops out of school at 16. At 21, when he's not much known as a surfer, he shows up at Waimea Bay and triumphs over 40-foot waves. Suddenly he is in the Pantheon of big-wave surfers. And stays there until his death.

It was inevitable there would be a book about Eddie. And that it would be called EDDIE WOULD GO --- the phrase other watermen used to describe Aikau's unrelenting willingness to leap into deadly surf to save swimmers in trouble. What was not inevitable? That EDDIE WOULD GO would be written by someone as gifted as Stuart Coleman. A writer, teacher and surfer, he strikes just the right balance between Eddie's life on land and his heroics on the water. He tells a double story well: courage and integrity on the water, a spiritual quest on land, as Aikau pondered what it meant to be a Hawaiian in a rapidly changing world.

Forty foot-high waves. Normally brave surfers standing on shore. And one surfer --- Eddie Aikau --- smiling as he and his board become one with the water. It's an image that will warm you on cold winter nights. And, in summer, make you just a bit more respectful of kids on surfboards, dreaming of glory.

--- Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth


Wisdom from a Rainforest: The Spiritual Journey of an Anthropologist
Published in Hardcover by University of Georgia Press (1999)
Author: Stuart A. Schlegel
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good choice for anthropology students
This is a very good, readable book. It depicts a culture in which helping others was the normal--not the charitable--thing to do. The mindset of the Teduray people of the Philippine rainforest, with whom the author Stuart Schlegel lived for years, is a world view that, sadly, seems almost unbelievable for people who are indoctrinated into a capitalistic system. It's like a splash of cold water in the face. Wouldn't it be nice for every Anthropology 101 student in the U.S. to experience this book, if for no other reason at all simply to face the fact that there are human mindsets possible that are not ruled by money, greed, scarcity, and conspicuous consumption?

self help for the planet
The people you will meet in this book are cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian, and truly democratic. They also live in harmony with the earth. There have been many books about tribal people, gathering- hunting societies, like the Bambuti of the Congo rain forest, the Kung Bushmen, the Inuit, Native Americans. Most of these people have values similar to those of the Forest Teduray. Gathering - hunting societies have to be cooperative because its the only way they can survive. There are no hierarchies for the same reason, and women are always at least equal to men because in most such economies they provide 70- 80% of the food Nevertheless the Forest Teduray are a special kind of people for a number of reasons. They are semi agricultural, and they live in villages rather than small bands, and these villages are connected to each other in a very loose, unstructured federation. And yet they have not only maintained the basic core values of traditional gatherer- hunting peoples, but have developed and refined them into a way of life that not only works perfectly for them, but actually seems possible for our own society. It is a bit of a stretch, I admit, and the historical record is hardly encouraging. It does appear that nation states must always develop male dominated hierarchical and violent, aggressive societies. But there is no compelling reason to believe that this is necessary. The Teduray think it is "no way to live". Just imagine living in a Teduray world: a global human society living in harmony with everyone else, and with the planet. As difficult as it will surely be to get there, it's got to be worth trying. I never saw a better manual for how to live this way than Wisdom from a Rain Forest. The Teduray really know how to live, and they know how to talk about it. I think the world needs this book, and I wish everyone would read it. There are always many books on the best seller lists about how to fix your own personal inner life, to provide soup for your soul or something. But maybe we can't do any of that by ourselves. Maybe we need to work together to build a healthy society. A way to live the Teduray would call "just right". Many times you may hear people say "this book changed my life". I have always believed this is not really possible, that no book can ever really do that. This book changed my life.

A challenge to those searching for wisdom.
Searching for wisdom today usually brings to mind countless books on how to get ahead, or rich, or thin, or powerful. Schlegel has not written a how-to book for modern success, but the story of his own discernment of the difference between wisdom and knowledge.

Although Schlegel went to the Philipine island of Mendanao for an intellectual purpose, a study to complete his doctoral dissertation on the Teduray tribe, he found himself impressed with a style of life and social interaction that most westerners would call primitive. Schlegel saw not only the value and benefit of the Teduray lifestyle, he found his own life influenced by these people in positive ways.

The tribe is now extiinct, wiped out as the result of political conflict, but the wisdom of its ways has not been lost, it lives on in Schlegel's depiction in this book, providing wisdom to those who search for it in unpredictable places.


Amok Fifth Dispatch: Sourcebook for the Extremes of Information
Published in Paperback by Amok Pr (24 August, 1999)
Author: Stuart Swezey
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Wonderful sourcebook
What I find most refreshing about the Amok Catalog is that they place no moral judgement on the books they feature. Right-wing and left-wing diatribes find space along David Cassidy autobiographies and Lypsinka coloring books. This catalog features many fascinating and knowledgeable essays. Since their mail-order system is no longer, it's suggested that the reader use this book as a source for extremes in art, knowledge and arcana.

truly bizarre
Wow, these guys put together some amazing collections.

If you are looking for the truly bizarre, look no further than Amok. They consistently compile some of the strangest, most intriguing articles and essays on the planet.

Freedom of expression is always pushed to the outer limits with these works. Long live freedom.

the Book
I have spent many evenings at home on the couch, pouring over this magnificent sourcebook of "extreme" publications. If you're interested in Xuxa, self-trepanning, MK Ultra, Stanislav Szukalski or Orgone Accumulators-this may be your bible.


Faust I & II (Goethe : The Collected Works, Vol 2)
Published in Paperback by Princeton Univ Pr (05 July, 1994)
Authors: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe and Stuart Atkins
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goethe is a master of influence
there is little wonder why authors like Nabokov, Bely, Bulgakov etc. have used this book as a foundation for many of their most famous books. faust is simply exquisite.

Open the first page and embark into the world of Goethe, there is little wonder why faust took fifty years to complete. Be warned, though, that once delved into, the external world will appear mundane and worthless. Faust is a must read for anyone who is willing to devote the necessary time to completely understand the element of absurdity (as according to camus). read and find out if a fifty year vacation with the devil is worth your soul. A MUST BUY NOW!

Highly usable translation of Goethe's masterpiece....
....and a tale so archetypal, so Frankensteinian and relevant to the concerns of our Faustian culture, that if you read it and don't feel uplifted, bedazzled, and troubled, then you probably don't get it.

The greatest book ever written
Nothing could ever surpass this book in scope or beauty. This book asks the question: is life worth living? is it worth it to strive? or is the suicidal nihilism of Mephistopheles the only product having attained a great amount of experience? Part I is brilliant and romantic. The Gretchen tragedy is, in my mind, greater than Romeo and Juliet. Part II is classical. Though much more obscure in its references, it too manages to achieve great beauty and import. And all this not in the original language. Read this book.


The Gallup 14
Published in Hardcover by University of New Mexico Press (2000)
Author: Gary L. Stuart
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History Comes Alive
Excellent read! Combines a fascinating event (riot, murder, union vs. management, communism, immigration) with a fresh and very readable style. The characters, some real and some fictitious, are brought to life very well (the best being Bobcat)and the turmoil of the times comes across quite strongly. Is justice served in the end? That will be up to the individual reader to decide, and that decision will wait until the novel is finished. If you are into the culture and history of the southwest, you won't want to miss this one.

Personal book review
A must read for anyone interested in the social and cultural evolution of the southwest in the 1930's. A fresh writing style from this first time author. Five star kudos and a big thumbs up.

Gallup story well told
Having lived in Gallup for 20 years, and working with Gary through the State Bar of Arizona where he is a frequent speaker and writer, this book held a dual interest for me. What a page turner! The courtroom scenes are especially well told. He captures the historical incident with amazing detail and clarity, and feeling that only someone close to the legal profession and Gallup, New Mexico could obtain.


Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903
Published in Paperback by Yale Univ Pr (1984)
Author: Stuart Creighton Miller
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America's first Vietnam. We won this one.
Benevolent Assimilation is McKinley's phrase for the civilizing mission of America in the Philippines. Miller makes a good case that the Filipinos neither needed civilizing or Christianizing since they had both. What America really wanted was a colonial empire to establish itself as a great power. McKinley did not know what he wanted, but people made him believe in the civilizing mission of the U.S. government.
What Miller demonstrates in this book is that the Philippines wanted independence and not American government. The revolt which followed the Spanish American War was long and devastated the islands. Thousands lost their lives, and American troops showed no mercy in putting down the revolt. The revolt lasted for over three years, and cost the U.S. much in men and treasure.
America won, but lost seventy years later in Vietnam.

Suberb history of a forgotten war
An excellent telling of a period that most Americans and Filipinos know little or nothing about. With America's new ownership of the Philippines, we were drawn into a second conflict once the Spanish were routed. The insurrectionist movement against America brought about a bloody and savage war that cost tens of thousands of lives. The third phase was the attempt to subdue the Moros, some of the toughest and most fearless warriors on the planet. The troops involved thought they would only be fighting Spanish regulars and then sent home. Rather, many spent years fighting in jungles and swamps against a clever and determined foe, and many were then shipped off to fight the Boxer's in China in 1900, only to be returned to battle the often fiendish inhabitants of places like Sibago Island, Jolo and Samar. A classic account and ranks with "Muddy Glory" and "Little Brown Brother" to name but a couple. There isn't much written about this conflict, but the information is out there. These lessons should have taught America about getting involved in smaller nations affairs.

The lesson that should have kept us out of Vietnam.
Stuart Miller's book is an excellent study in the political turmoil and subterfuges involved in the transition of America into an imperialist power. The book is not really a military history; the military aspects are secondary to Miller's coverage of how Americans justified, reacted to, and lied about our subjugation of the Philippines. It is a very sobering history of the river of lies poured out by the military, especially General Otis, and the administration of William McKinley. This is also a study in racism; how allegedly "superior" Anglo-Saxons needed to "civilize" and "Christianize" the Filipinos, many of whom were Catholic. Overall, this book is a good primer about a shocking and somewhat vile episode in American history. High School history teachers in particular should read this book and include it in their lessons about the outcome of our "splendid little war" with Spain. It is a sad truth that as a result of this conflict, America did not seem to learn anything about the nature of guerilla warfare with a people fighting to be free of foreign control. Our failure to profit from this episode helped propel us into another such quagmire in Vietnam, a nation not too far from the site of our earlier fiasco in the Philippines.


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