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

The Garfield Secrecy
Published in Hardcover by Vantage Press (2002)
Author: Robert Bruce Stuart
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The Garfield Friends!
It was more then just a murder mystery, it was a deep rooted story of great friends and what they would do to keep that friendship. Stuart's ability to keep you turning the pages was wonderful. I highly recommend this book to anyone who believes that friends are priceless!

The Garfield Secrecy
Fast Paced, Exciting Action! This novel is thrilling from beginning to end! The suspense was balanced just enough to elicit the appropriate relief responses at various intervals from the reader. The good guys are easy to love; even if they drink too much and are slighty unethical. The bad guys are immediately hated to the point one wants to jump into the action and give a helping hand to the heroes.....From beginning to end the weave of fidelity between the "Garfield House" men is most refreshing; rather a novelty in this modern day and age.

I've Got a Secret!
A very entertaining read with several colorful characters. I recently read it while on vacation in only three days and would like to find more of Mr. Stuart's work. He has a real talent for pulling you into a web of intrigue wondering what will happen on the next page.


His Natural Life (The Academy Editions of Australian Literature)
Published in Paperback by University of Queensland Press (2002)
Authors: Marcus Clarke, Lurline Stuart, Michael Roe, and Elizabeth Webby
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Marcus Clarke's Penal Colony Masterpiece
This was without question one of the most gripping novels I've read in many a day. I first ran across this work in a brief mention by British travel writer/popular historian James Morris, where he thought it akin to the gulag novels of post-Stalinist Russia in subject matter and philosophical content. Add to that a wealth of striking narrative detail, immensely memorable characters (Maurice Frere, Sarah Purfoy, and particularly James North leap to mind), some truly transporting (no pun intended) and incredibly creepy passages, mind-blowing plot twists and turns, and a persistent refusal to provide too pat solutions to characters' problems... Clarke wasn't better than Dickens or Eliot, but neither of the latter could have written this book.

Clarke's masterpiece was published in 1874, after being serialized in 1870-72. Critics have lambasted a few of the less believable elements and some of the pat characterization of a number of supporting characters, but these are flaws to be found in most novels of that time (and ours). Clarke redeems himself by taking the cliches and mannerisms of the nineteenth-century English novel and using them to illuminate a whole new society, one practically mythical to the metropolitan consciousness of the Victorian Anglophone world. This work is a great counterpoint to all those English novels of the day where the hero or villain gets packed off to the antipodes and returns mysteriously changed. The main thrust of the novel, though, was the need to tell the true story of (white) Australian society's beginnings. Clarke, in telling the story of the unjustly convicted Rufus Dawes (aka Richard Devine), provides a panoramic view of early Victorian Australia, from the hellish convict settlements of Macquarie Harbor and Norfolk Island to the nascent frontier towns of Hobart and Melbourne, from the aging memories of the "First Fleeters" (the original convicts who arrived in 1788) to the controversial Eureka Stockade Uprising of 1854. The narrative frequently moves at a deliciously whirlwind pace to accomodate the exciting interaction of characters and history.

Clarke's novel is generally cited as nineteenth-century Australia's greatest and points the way towards more nuanced examinations of the colonial experience in the twentieth century (Peter Carey's JOE MAGGS, about the "off-stage" life of Dickens antihero Abel Magwitch, is apparently very much in this vein). Don't read it just for this reason, though. Please be sure to find the longer, original version, as I was fortunate enough to do. Clarke was forced to produce a revised, shortened version for the original publication, one dictated by his editors that turned the novel into a much more "conventional" Victorian literary production (and has a longer title--FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIFE). I understand a TV series was made in the mid-80s with Anthony Perkins as North. If this was the case, then it badly needs to be remade on celluloid, because I can't seem to find the series. It's a magnificent novel whose flaws, I think, are amply counterbalanced by its unexpected joys.

The horrors of the Transportation System
The well-known phrase 'for the term of his natural life' is used by Marcus Clarke to bring home the horrors of transportation and the Tasmanian penal system in the 19th century.
Richard Devine, an innocent man (under an assumed name of Rufus Dawes) convicted of a crime he did not commit, is sent for transportation and assumed killed in a shipwreck. In reality, he is heir to a vast estate (unbeknown to him) and the convolutions of the tale that evolve from this are wonderfully written; the gradual demolishing of Dawes, the unspeakable duality of Frere, the calculating guile of Sarah and the gullible innocence of Sylvia are woven together in a plot that does not end happily ever after. This I think, serves to underline the barbarism and futility of the transportation system.
Based on actual events, Clarke uses his 'hero' to illustrate the depravation and privations that prisoners (and their guards) had to endure. Graphically showing how degradation degrades and power corrupts, the narrative never dwells on gruesome details, instead it relies for effect on the imagination of the reader, which can be more terrifying.
A book that deserves a wider readership.

"His Natual Life"
It's a collation of events by various persons involved in the penal settlement of early Australia. Marcus Clarke has interwoven these events into a novel of fiction. These are stark facts; and show, as far as I've researched, very detailed. L.P. Hartely said it all,in this case.."The past is a foreign country.They do things differently there." The more you read on, the more you want to know..


Maxims
Published in Hardcover by Saint Augustine's Pr (2001)
Authors: Francois de la Rochefoucauld, Stuart D. Warner, and Stéphane Douard
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The 'Maxims' as a Classic of 'Crooked Wisdom.'
The famous Indian classic, Kautilya's 'Arthasastra,' a treatise which deals with the attainment of worldly ends, distinguishes between two kinds of wisdom - Straight and Crooked. To the former belong (to use Western examples) such works as 'The Imitation of Christ' by Thomas a Kempis, a work which teaches how, ideally, the virtuous should live, while overlooking the fact that often it would be extremely impractical and socially disastrous to live in such a way.

The second class of books, those which teach the art of 'Crooked Wisdom,' is exemplified in the East by Kautilya's 'Arthasastra' itself, and in the West by such works as Balthasar Gracian's 'The Art of Worldly Wisdom,' Francesco Guicciardini's 'Maxims and Reflections of a Renaissance Statesman' (Ricordi), and by the present collection of Maxims by La Rochefoucauld.

These books are both highly realistic and extremely practical, for they depict, not man as he is supposed to be, but man as he is with all his selfishness, stupidity, ambition, arrogance, malice, laziness and other imperfections, and they teach the art of how, not merely to survive, but even to thrive in the midst of our far from perfect fellow men and women. And, certainly in the case of La Rochefoucauld, this teaching is done with great precision and wit.

'Crooked Wisdom,' then, should not be understood as the product of a crooked mind, but as the clear-sighted wisdom one needs to survive in a world teeming with such minds, a world, as Tancock says, involved in a "sordid struggle of self-interests, a scramble for power, position, and influence in which the foulest motives and methods [are] decked with labels such as duty, honor, patriotism, and glory."

La Rochefoucauld seems to provoke two very different kinds of reaction. Fully paid up members of the rose-tinted spectacles club, are shocked and horrified by his portrait of man and society, and they tend to dislike both the man and his book.

The more realistically inclined, however, will savor his bite and wit and will readily acknowledge the self-evident truth of much if not all of what he says. The man was undoubtedly brilliant, not only in terms of the many profound insights he gave us - particularly those having to do with 'amour propre' or self-love - but also in terms of the skill with which he translated those insights into pithy and memorable maxims.

Tancock defines the maxim as the expression of "some thought about human motives or behavior in a form containing the maximum of clarity and TRUTH with the minimum of words arranged in the most striking and memorable order" (my caps). La Rochefoucauld's aim, in short, was simply to tell the truth, and to tell it for our benefit.

The maxim as a literary genre was cultivated in his milieu, and La Rochefoucauld's were polished to a high state of perfection, for they had to satisfy a critical and sophisticated audience. Seven years were devoted to refining them, during which the circle of his aristocratic friends and fellow habitues of Mmme de Sable's salon repeatedly offered advice and criticism.

The 'Maxims,' then, although the product of an individual sensibility, also become in a sense the product a collective effort, having emerged from a serious and civilized salon whose interests were psychological, literary, and linguistic. Anyone who feels inclined to dismiss them might keep this in mind.

I discovered La Rochefoucauld many years ago, and have always been a great admirer of his Maxims. Once read, they are never forgotten. They have a way of burrowing deeply into the mind, and the fact that they tend to recur in those moments when we are reflecting on life and mulling over our experiences seems to me a kind of proof of their veracity.

One that has always struck me as particularly significant is Maxim 22 : "Philosophy easily triumphs over past ills and ills to come, but present ills triumph over philosophy." Or, in the words of the Red Queen : "Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but no jam today." If such truths are not exactly cheering, this in no way detracts from their being true.

There is an enormous amount to be learned by the honest and open-minded reader from La Rochefoucauld's 'Maxims,' especially if they also have a sense of humor. But the 'Happy Days! Happy Sky!' school, whose main requirement of a writer would seem to be that he should confirm them in their beautiful illusions, would be wiser to look elsewhere for edification. La Rochefoucauld is not a writer for the faint of heart, nor for those without a sense of humor.

La Rochefoucauld is Very Important
FERDINAND-DREYFUS, Un philanthrope d'autrefois: La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, 1747-1827 (Paris, 1903). Translated to English. WJH (François-Alexandre-Frédéric).

Born at La Roche-Guyon, on 11 January, 1747; died at Paris, 27 March, 1827.

Opposed during the last years of the reign of Louis XV to the government of Maupeou, and the friend of all the reformers who surrounded Louis XVI, he owed to the influence of these economists the favour of the king. Having little liking for the military profession he devoted himself to scientific agriculture. During the rage for rural life which characterized the last years of the old regime, La Rochefoucauld made his estate at Liancourt an experimental station, whishing to improve both the soil and the peasantry. He introduced new methods of farming, founded the first model technical school in France (intended for the children of poor soldiers), and started two factories. Politically, he was a partisan of a democratic regime of which the king was to be the head, and throughout his life was faithful to this dream. Deputy for the nobility of Clermont in Beauvaisis at the States-General, he voted unhesitatingly for the "reunion of the three orders". it was he who in the night which followed the taking of the Bastille (14 July, 1789) roused Louis XVI, saying: "Sire, it is not a revolt, it is a revolution." He presided at the Constituent Assembly from 20 July to 3 August, 1789. On the night of 4 August he was one of the most enthusiastic in voting the abolition of titles of nobility and privileges. As grand master of the wardrobe he accompanied Louis XVI from Versailles to Paris on 5 and 6 October, 1789. As president of the committee of mendicancy, he made a supreme effort at the Constituent Assembly to organize public relief; he determined the extent and the limits of the rights of every citizen to assistance, determined the obligations of the State, and established a budget of State assistance which amounted annually to five millions and a half of francs, and which implied the national confiscation of hospital property, of ecclesiastical charitable property, and of the income from private foundations.

Liancourt is one of the most undiscerning representatives of the tendency which led the revolutionary state to destroy all collective forms of charity. Absolutely devoted to the person of Louis XVI as well as to the doctrines of the Revolution, he secured for himself in 1792 the lieutenancy of Normandy and Picardy, so as to prepare for the flight of the king as far as Rouen; but Louis XVI refused to place himself in the hands of constitutional deputies. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt emigrated shortly after 10 August, and resided in England until 1794, afterwards in the United States (1794-7). He took advantage of his residence in that country to write eight volumes on the United States to induce Washington to interfere in favour of Lafayette, and to gather ideas upon education and agriculture which he attempted later to apply in France. After 18 Brumaire, Napoleon authorized him to return to his Liancourt estate, which was restored to him. This former duke and peer gloried in being appointed, during the first Empire (1806), general inspector of the "Ecole des arts et métiers" at Châlons, of which his Liancourt school had been a forerunner. The book "Prisons de Philadelphie" which he composed in American and published in 1796, was meant to initiate a penitentiary reform in France at the Restoration in 1814 he begged but one favour-to be appointed prison inspector. In 1819 he became inspector of one of the twenty-eight arrondissements into which France was divided for penitentiary purposes. Louis XVIII gave him back neither the blue ribbon nor the mastership of the wardrobe, and in the House of Peers he sat with the opposition.

La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was the Franklin of the Revolution. An aristocrat by birth, a liberal in his views, in touch with all the representatives of the new commerce, he availed himself of this concurrence of circumstances to become the leader of every campaign for the people's protection and betterment; improvement of sanitary conditions in hospitals and foundling asylums, reorganization of schools according to the theories of Lancaster, whose book he had translated (Système anglais d'Instruction). He brought into use the methods of mutual instruction, and the pupils between 1816 and 1820 increased from 165,000 to 1,123,000. In 1818 he established the first savings bank and provident institution in Paris. On 19 Nov., 1821, he founded the Society of Christian Morals, over which he presided until 1825. It was at times looked upon with suspicion by the police of the Restoration. At its meetings were such men as Charles de Rémusat, Charles Coquerel, Guizot the Pedagogue, Oberlin, and Llorente, historian of the Inquisition. Broglie, Guizot, and Benjamin Constant were chairmen in turn, and Dufaure, Tocqueville, and Lamartine made there their maiden speeches. In these meetings provident institutions, rather than charitable ones, were discussed; slavery, lottery, gambling were combatted, and the matter of prison inspection was taken up. When La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt died, the Restoration would not permit the students of Châlons to carry his coffin, and the two chambers were much concerned over such extreme measures. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was a typical philanthropist, with all that this word implies of generous intentions and practical innovations; but also with a certain naïve pride, inherited from the philosophy of the eighteenth century, which led him to mistrust the charitable initiative of the Church, and to forget that the Church, the most perfect representative of the spirit of brotherhood, is still called in our modern society to win the victory for this spirit by putting it to practical uses, as she alone can.

The Truth Hurts
These maxims, though brief, speak volumes about their author and the human condition. Francois duc do La Rouchefoucauld was cursed with a double nature which led him in his career as a courtier to, as Leonard Tanner puts it in his introduction "romantic self-dedication followed by bitter disillusion." After the fighting in Paris of 1652 he retired to a quiet life of contemplation and the society of such friends as Mme de Sevigne, who's letters give us such a vibrant window upon that age. It was during the many meetings he had with these friends that the first maxims evolved, and which he would continue to compose and perfect until he death in 1680. Nothing quite like them had ever existed before in European literature, and their precision and bleak though biting wit would shape the style of French letters for centuries to come. Essential reading for the student of the school of hard knocks.


The Right Man (Harlequin American Romance, 765)
Published in Paperback by Harlequin (1999)
Author: Anne Stuart
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Thank you Anne Stuart
I really enjoyed this book. Yes, it did have time travel in it, but a lot of it was present time also. Only a part in the middle had the time travel. This book was different, but it was well worth reading. You won't be sorry if you get it.

Wonderful with a twist!
This is not your ordinary romance novel. It was so unexpected and so much fun! I have yet to read a novel quite like this one. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes to read books with a twist and a lot of adventure. I could not put it down.

A brilliant, innovative, passionate love story!
There is a saying in the romance industry that few writers take chances. New writers can't, because they don't have enough "clout," and established writers won't because they don't want to "disappoint reader expectations." Luckily for fans of Anne Stuart, right from the first in her almost 30 years of writing romance, she has flown in the face of both these dictums, having made a career of doing the unexpected. And never more so than in The Right Man.

In fiction, whether popular or literary, one of the greatest gifts a writer can have is a distinctive voice, which becomes the author's trademark and is apparent from work to work. Even more wonderful than this, though, and as rare as rubies, is a writer so talented that she can vary her voice to suit the story. Anne Stuart proves herself to be such an exceptional artist in The Right Man.

I am not a particular fan of film and novelistic noir of the late 1940s and 1950s (and therefore no expert on the subject), but from the little I have watched of that art form, it is highly recognizable. I believe it was a touch of genius for Stuart to fall into this style or "voice" for writing the segments of this time travel set in 1949. The cryptic, highly structured noir style of dialogue, in particular, sets us firmly in the late 1940s, and lends itself to a concise and deliberate pacing that, while moving the book along rapidly (essential in a short book such as this), never seems too rushed. The noir voice as used here is also so highly visual, one can easily imagine the book being made into a film, with the original dialogue carried into a script intact. (Are you listening, Lifetime? )

The use of the wedding dress, which is the major plot device of the "Gowns of White" Harlequin series this book is part of, as a magical device for time travel, while not a wholly new technique in and of itself, is quite original in its execution. My three favorite aspects are these: the way the dress, like an enchanted cape from a fairy tale, never soils or wrinkles; the way the magic brought by the dress spills over into all the other major characters' perceptions, and the way we are never quite sure if the time travel really happens or is a case of mass hypnosis (though this possibility is pleasantly mystical in and of itself).

As wonderful as the magic and the noir voice are, they do not overwhelm that which is the ultimate reason fans read romance: the love relationship. In this book, we get not one, but two great pairs of lovers. The level of sexual tension and expressed passion between each duo is incendiary, and the resolution of the internal and external conflicts, both within the protagonists individually and within the two love relationships, is believable and satisfying.

All in all, this is not only one of the best romance novels I've read in the past few years, but, in my opinion, one of the best short contemporaries I've read in almost 20 years of enjoying this genre.


Silent Power
Published in Audio Cassette by Hay House, Inc. (1997)
Author: Stuart Wilde
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Too much TALKING!
This will help you understand how YOU can keep your energy from being sapped all the time. SUCCESS.

Silent Power
An excellent book on tape. Well read and gets straight to the point without alot of excessive words! Easy to understand and makes alot of sense even though being silent for alot of us is a challenge. This book on tape adds to my journey in understanding Quantum Theory. You learn how to observe more in life which helps your understanding of others and in turn yourself. For those who don't have much time and don't have time to read, the tape is the easiest quickest way to get started to learning a skill that will help you learn, understand and improve relationships with yourself and others. An excellent book - I have ordered Stuart's 6 tape collection "Developing Your Sixth Sense" to learn other skills in situations that crop up in daily living....

Go to your video store and rent "Mind Walk" (a scientist, a politian and a poet get together and discuss Quantum Mechanics). This helped in understanding that we are all linked as one in this great big world ! Understanding brings clarity to humanity and Stuart Wilde teaches us how to take a step towards that understanding.

METAPHYSICS 101!!!!
This is the third Stuart Wilde book that I've read and I am a believer. This book is like "Metaphysics for Dummies". A lot of the material is relevant and is presented in a terse manner that you can benefit from immediately. "Silent Power" is definitely a winner. Thank you Mr. Wilde for sharing this important work in a manner that a layman will not be overwhelmed and can "get it">


Statistics for Experimenters: An Introduction to Design, Data Analysis, and Model Building
Published in Hardcover by John Wiley & Sons (22 June, 1978)
Authors: George E. P. Box, William G. Hunter, J. Stuart Hunter, and William Gordon Hunter
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Immediate usability in practice.
This is an excellently written book with clear examples of how to apply statistics to everyday experimental settings. Box delves deep enough into the underlying theory to give an engineer such as myself an appreciation for the "reality" of the mathematics, but sticks to concrete examples and putting theory into practice. Each chapter follows the previous one, but each is also reasonably self-contained. Terminology is easily clarified with a quick use of the comprehensive index.

Additionally, don't let the print date fool you... the book is timely.

classic but unconventional and practical book on design
This book was published in 1978 but as other reviewers have noted its practical methods and advice are timeless. George Box and Stu Hunter are both very famous statisticians who are also great teachers and lecturers. Bill Hunter is now deceased. All three authors have made major contributions to the design of experiments. The book is written for practitioners and in the simplest language possible. Emphasis is placed on practical designs and not optimal designs because optimal designs are very sensitive to model specification.

It does not include the robust designs of Taguchi which came later and could easily be included if the authors choose to revise it.

Still the "Bible" of practical design of experiments.
More than twenty years after its publication, this seminal work is still the undisputable "Bible" for users of statistical experimental design. The practical insights sprinkled throughout this book are invaluable especially to non-mathematical statisticians. This book will never be out-of-date!


You Can Market Your Book: All the Tools You Need to Sell Your Published Book
Published in Paperback by Acw Pr (2003)
Authors: Carmen Leal and Sally E. Stuart
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Best book for Christian writers looking to market their book
"You Can Market Your Book" is a thorough exposition of how to market your book to the Christian community. While the principles and techniques in the book are applicable to the marketing of any book, the resources listed and writing style clearly slants the focus to the Christian writer. The book covers all the standard stuff from selecting a good title to getting reviews, creating a press kit, book signings, developing a speaking platform, online promotion, and using subcontractors. Each section is well written and contains a wealth of detailed information. "You Can Market Your Book" is a highly recommended book and is simply the best marketing manual for the Christian publishing community that I have reviewed.

Approachable, practical, insightful! For all authors.
You Can Market Your Book is an easy read, but don't let that fool you. It's brimming with solid, practical ideas and real-life examples of how to promote your book. Best of all are the stories of how other authors did it. Another bonus is the inclusion of short articles by other authors which spotlight promotion, creating press releases, and how to handle those nerve-wracking interviews!

The subtitle is "All the Tools You Need to Sell Your Published Book" with a tool box on the cover. Consistent with this theme are the four helpful sections inside: 1) "Project and Site Preparation," which covers conception, design, and obtaining endorsements and reviews. 2) "Choosing the Right Tools and Materials" discusses press releases, creative promotion ideas, making your book signing an EVENT, developing a speaking platform, and online promotion. 3) "Finding the Right Subcontractors" deals with publicists, using radio, and how to market to libraries. 4) "Executing Your Plan" delivers success stories and final words of encouragement.

Author Carmen Leal expertly addresses issues for both self-published authors as well as traditionally-published authors. I am amazed at the number of resources and websites she includes in this book. Get your highlighter ready, because you'll need it to mark all the great ideas in YOU CAN MARKET YOUR BOOK!

~Kimn Swenson Gollnick, coauthor of GETTING YOUR FINANCIAL HOUSE IN ORDER (Broadman & Holman, September 2003)

Must-have resource for writers
Every author should have this book. Carmen Leal gives easy-to-follow helps to help a writer get the word out--from getting reviews to doing interviews to creating an e-zine and other web support. Even though I've written 17 books, I picked up many great ideas. Writing a book is maybe half the work for a writer; getting the word out is just as important. So, aspiring authors should get it too, so they can prepare for what's ahead.


A Rose at Midnight (An Avon Romantic Treasure)
Published in Paperback by Avon (1993)
Author: Anne Stuart
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WOW........
"A Rose at MIdnight" is not your basic romance. The story of Nicholas and Ghislaine is a darkly beautiful one that is sure to move you. I enjoyed the secondary characters of Tony and Ellen as well. I had a few complaints about how the end was somewhat thrown together, but all in all this was a great read.

CLASSIC ANNE STUART!!
With some authors I just NEED to have every book they've written and Anne Stuart is one of them. If you've read any of her books (historical or modern) you know she goes in for a dark hero who is usually more bad than good (or maybe I should say so bad he's good). At any rate, I stumbled across this earlier book and WOW!!! What a ride. It takes place right after the French Revolution and our French heroine has managed to survive but not without a load of emotional scars. She is living in England when low and behold she is presented with the opportunity to take revenge on the Englishman (our hero) she blames for all the woes she and her family suffered during the reign of terror. And we're off. . . Needless to say things don't go as she plans. Great story line, great characters who are FULLY developed and complex. Wonderful "secondary character" love story. Order this book! It is worth the extra you will have to pay for a used copy. A definite keeper to add to your Anne Stuart collection. It's 394 sexy pages of adventure, tears and pleasure!

A bodice ripper with a difference
The characters in this novel are tortured and somewhat unlovable, but they are so wounded and needy that they complement one another. Anne Stuart is such a clever and skilful writer that she is able to take a storyline that could fail miserably in someone else's hands, and write something delightful and compelling. Think of this book as a reluctant buddy novel where the hero and the heroine go on a road trip.


Shelby Foote: A Writer's Life (Willie Morris Books in Biography and Memoir)
Published in Hardcover by Univ Pr of Mississippi (Trd) (2003)
Author: C. Stuart Chapman
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Interesting and insightful
Like many others I have been a fan of Footes since I read my first Foote novel Love in a Dry Season. When I discovered The Civil War: A Narrative I was even more impressed. I thoroughly enjoyed Shelby Foote: A Writer's Life.

Like other reviewers, I especially liked the inclusion of Foote's fiction though more was read into it than probably should have. However, I think Chapman does a good job in bringing the hidden and private Foote to us. With all his foibles, Shelby Foote is destined to be remembered for generations.

If you're a fan of history then you need to read Shelby Foote: A Writer's Life.

Chapman Scores with Insightful Review into Foote, the South
Chapman's biography provides the reader with a fascinating insight into the complex mind of acclaimed author/historian Shelby Foote. Detailing the historical background and events that shaped Foote's upbringing and his ambitions as a novelist, Chapman draws clear connections between Foote's desire to reconcile his longstanding conceptions of aristocratic southern culture with the changing social and racial dynamics of the south during the civil rights era. This struggle is elucidated both within Foote's novels and in his three volume narrative of the Civil War.
This book is an absolute must read for anyone who has watched the PBS series on the Civil War or has read Foote's civil war narrative.

More than a biography
Chapman deftly combines his knowledge of literature, politics and human nature with a sensitive and balanced handling of the events and emotional currents of Foote's life. The result is a highly readable, deeply informed, and thoroughly captivating narrative. Foote, neither set upon a pedestal by Chapman nor villified for ambivalence in a time of cataclysmic change, emerges whole and, over all, well-served by the author's erudition and compassion.


Through The Dragon's Mask (1)
Published in Paperback by Eakin Press (2000)
Author: Stuart Penny
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Defeat your own dragons
The ancient Japanese knew a thing or two about defeating their enemies: first identify them, then strike without delay - allowing your enemy no advantage. Stuart Penny uses the same tactics to show how to defeat the 'dragons' that beset our daily lives. These are the fears that limit us and hold us back from living life to the full. This is a workbook - no easy answers - which challenges you to name and confront your fears (identify and defeat your dragons). The rewards are tremendous. What this book will show you is how to regain control in your life and shake off the thoughts and ideas that stop you moving forward.

Purify your heart
Tell me about where this journey is taking you. Shinjitsu is a practice abundant enough to honor a great heart and humble enough to serve a great mind. I learned by releasing the Dragon's Mask that we enter into true Service to Self and come to reflect each other in our real form: dignity. In my study of the course I now wake up to enjoy the privelege of sharing my life as value to those around me especially to my young daughter. I now possess an immense ability to trust children and am a witness to the power that imparts them in realizing their own truth as independent learners and socially responsible beings. As a parent and teacher I experienced unprecedented closeness in the new role of a trustee of their answers just as the Gunpaisha trusts me to find mine. And what answers! Leaps of insight by children arise spontaneously in a learning environment steeped in value: sending the message you too are ready to serve your teaching to all of us, "You are of value to me and the world." Care is a discipline. The discpline is that of service, that of the samauri. Welcome.

This opportunity is available to each one of us and is made easy by the guidance of the Gunpaisha. It is our right. It is our delight. It has always been and will be. In living here there are no prerequisites. Close the past and open a willing heart and the mind will follow in service.

I dare not live any other way. I thank and love my Gunapisha for my answer to "Who are you?". God bless and be an example. Good journey.

A guide to meeting life's challenges
A Path, a Way, a Do -- to be read and re-read. A book to keep ready to hand. Make notes in the margins and read again.

Note the positive change in your approach and attitude.


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