This book is a compilation of quotes from A COURSE IN MIRACLES. The "Course" is a three volume set of books that comprise a curriculum of self-study psychotherapy.

Interspersed with the beautiful quotes from the Course are equally beautiful black-and-white photographs of inspiring nature scenes. This book also includes a forward by Marianne Williamson, author of A RETURN TO LOVE.

The reason I give this book only four stars is because I have a personal "qualm" about taking quotes from the Course out of context. My opinion is that the Course is a completely integrated thought system, and it is a thought system that often says things that we do not want to hear (for example, the teaching that God did not make the world, but that the world was made by the ego "as an attack on God" [Workbook, p. 403]). What often results from taking passages from the Course out of context is that the true meaning is lost and the Course can be turned into a "dual" thought system, whereas it is truly a non-dual thought system.

Better watch out right here. I have read a whole bunch of books in my life, and this one can Change Your Life! Read it, mark the particular lines that speak to you, type those out and MEMORIZE them. Then repeat your list aloud every day until they become part of who you are. Then, my friend, you will be well on the way to becoming who your were designed to be. Overstated? Exaggerated? You just try it and see...

This book documents what was quite possibly the largest and finest exhibition ever devoted solely to fauve painting. This brief movement, sandwiched between the towering achievements of impressionism, post-impressionism, and cubism, is a relatively overlooked one in the history of 20th century art. Concentrating on landscape painting as the heart of the fauvist view of reality, the essays are some very fine scholarly re-appraisals of the social and economic history of fauvism. The book itself is beautiful, with a superior design and extremely high standards of photographic reproduction. My only quibble is the near-total exclusion of figure-painting from the discussion (even as a point of comparison), and the authors' focus on social history leaves little space for aesthetic issues to be discussed. The essays treat these fantastically beautiful paintings as mere documents of economic relationships, a common art-historical focus nowadays, but one which does little to educate the reader in the marvelous way of seeing represented by these images.

A lot have time was put into writing this book I can tell by the way it was written. Very good book on a hard period of art to write about.

The authors have spent years researching Will Rogers. In this book, they provide insight into the friendship of Will Rogers and Wiley Post. A friendship which ended in their untimely death when their plane crashed in Alaska. The book tells the biography of Rogers and Post. Will Rogers has been writtten about and spoken of often. However, it is hard to find articles about Wiley Post. This was what I was seeking when I read the book, as Wiley and I descended from the same Post family. The book contained articles which I'd never heard before. Very well written and interesting.

IF YOUR INTERESTS TEND TOWARD HISTORICAL FIGURES AND AVIATION, THIS IS AN INTENSELY INTERESTING BOOK. THIS IS NOT ANOTHER REHASH OF THE POST/ROGERS CRASH IN BARROW, BUT RATHER A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF ALL THE PERSONALITIES AND HISTORY BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE CRASH AS WELL AS HOW THEY ALL TIED INTO THE TRAGEDY. THE AUTHOR BUILDS A FASCINATING, FACTUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACCIDENT AND A CONVINCING CASE AS TO WHY IT HAPPENED---AND IT'S NOT WHAT THE AUTHORITIES OF THE TIME WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE.

...

"The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron" is a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human and how our humanity is, in a sense, created by the society in which we live, defined by our communications and relationships with others. In telling this story, Roger Shattuck has thoughtfully and sympathetically interwoven the factual story of the Wild Boy with the philosophical, psychological and historical background that ultimately makes this story so interesting. Thus, Shattuck explores the historical peculiarities of the Languedoc region from which the Wild Boy came (known for the poetry and song of the troubadors, as well as the Albigensian heresy), the historical forces which made him such a topic of interest (he was a boy seemingly straight from Rousseau's state of nature at a time when the French Revolution had given way to Napoleon), and the philosophical and psychological forerunners (Locke, Condillac, Rousseau) that provided the intellectual impetus for marking this "tabula rasa" of humanity. Shattuck's book also provides interesting appendices containing other published accounts of the Wild Boy of Aveyron, other cases of isolation and deprivation (including Kaspar Hauser, Peter of Hanover, The Elephant Man, and Helen Keller), and a short essay on Francois Truffaut's 1970 film, "The Wild Child," which is based upon the story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron.

While simple in the telling, "The Forbidden Experiment" is a book which poses the deepest and most enigmatic of questions, the question of what it means to be human. Read it, ponder it, learn from it.

In January, 1800, a boy of about eleven or twelve years old walked out of the woods near the village of Saint-Sernin in the Languedoc region of southern France. Except for a tattered shirt, he was naked. He had no shame or concern for his nakedness and had no ability to speak. He made only strange and apparently meaningless sounds and cries. While human in appearance, he lacked any qualities which otherwise would suggest that he was part of any human society.

The boy was captured by a villager, transported and kept for several months in an orphanage in a nearby town, and eventually transferred to Paris in June, 1800, where "The Wild Boy of Aveyron" was claimed "for science and humanity" by the newly-formed Society of Observers of Man. In Paris, the boy was given over to the Abbe Sicard, a famous educator and the head of the Institute for Deaf-Mutes. "Miracles were expected of Sicard, for some of his deaf-mute pupils had made a reputation by their intelligence and wit in answering written questions before large audiences." Sicard, however, apparently believed that he could never train the seemingly wild creature and made no efforts to do so. Instead, he left the boy to run wild at the Institute and a commission appointed by the Society of the Observers of Man subsequently declared him to be an incurable idiot.

It is at this point, however, sometime in the summer or fall of 1800, that the course of the Wild Boy's life took a different course. A twenty-five year old medical student, Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard began working at the Institute and became interested in the boy. More or less simultaneously with the declaration by the Society of the Observers of Man that the boy was an incurable idiot in November of that year, Itard was hired and given a room at the Institute for the sole purpose of working with the boy. Itard named the boy Victor and went on, over the course of the next six years and with the able assistance of a motherly figure by the name of Madame Guerin, to train the boy in accordance with principles Itard had derived from the writings of Locke and Condillac. These principles were intended to give the boy the ability to respond to other people, to train his senses, to extend his physical and social needs, to teach him to speak, and to teach him to think and reason logically. While Itard was never fully successful in achieving all of his objectives, his work was remarkably original and his observations and experiments have left the world with a fascinating picture of the Wild Boy of Aveyron.

"The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron" is a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human and how our humanity is, in a sense, created by the society in which we live, defined by our communications and relationships with others. In telling this story, Roger Shattuck has thoughtfully and sympathetically interwoven the factual story of the Wild Boy with the philosophical, psychological and historical background that ultimately makes this story so interesting. Thus, Shattuck explores the historical peculiarities of the Languedoc region from which the Wild Boy came (known for the poetry and song of the troubadors, as well as the Albigensian heresy), the historical forces which made him such a topic of interest (he was a boy seemingly straight from Rousseau's state of nature at a time when the French Revolution had given way to Napoleon), and the philosophical and psychological forerunners (Locke, Condillac, Rousseau) that provided the intellectual impetus for marking this "tabula rasa" of humanity. Shattuck's book also provides interesting appendices containing other published accounts of the Wild Boy of Aveyron, other cases of isolation and deprivation (including Kaspar Hauser, Peter of Hanover, The Elephant Man, and Helen Keller), and a short essay on Francois Truffaut's 1970 film, "The Wild Child," which is based upon the story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron.

While simple in the telling, "The Forbidden Experiment" is a book which poses the deepest and most enigmatic of questions, the question of what it means to be human. Read it, ponder it, learn from it.

Shattuck writes a beautiful, poignant account about an event that forever influenced the course of modern day psychology. Shattuck not only discusses "Victor" himself (behavior, reactions, etc.), but also discusses the recupercusions his capture, attempted treatment, and attempted enculturalization had philosophically, morally, and psychologically. This is definitely a well written, well researched, 3-dimensional book. It explores the subject on every level possible.

I can't agree that Colette is under-rated. (Not in her native France, certainly. After all, she was the first woman ever given a state funeral.) But this peculiarly intense novella does deserve as much recognition as the more widely heralded "Cheri" and "Claudine" books.

What stands in its way is a sophistication and subtlety so profoundly French that, even translated into English, the narrative sometimes seems to be in a foreign language. The nearest American literature equivalent I can think of is Henry James's "The Sacred Fount", which is also a love story explored on such a psychologically deep level that it can be hard to know what exactly is going on.

But even at her murkiest, Colette never fails to provide a spectacular mimesis of the natural world. The reader may all but recline in the flower-filled meadows, the warmth of the sun on his face cooled by fragrant breezes. Her insightful portrayal of what another writer called "the wrung loins of boyhood" can be considered a rich bonus.

Set in summer in Brittanny, Vinca and Phillipe are childhood friends who are awakening to sexuality.Phillipe has an affair with an older woman, a theme taken from Colette's own life. The affair has a lasting effect on the teenage lovers. This book is provocative, as only Colette could be on the subject of sex.

This is a great book, with vivid characters and plenty of moral complexity. It is about the affair of a very
young man with an older woman, who uses him yet at the same time reflects the emptiness of her life and her
enjoyment of control. You also get a wider view of the consequences of their affair on the delicate balance of his other
relationships, particularly with his childhood lover. And the "relations" are handled with extreme dexterity and delicacy,
never going for cheap thrills. It is packed with descriptions of sensations and thought, beautifully poetic and dense,
requiring re-reading and reflection from the reader.

Taken together, it emerges as a subtle and unusually stimulating reading experience. Collette truly was underrated.

Warmly recommended.

Maupassant wrote in the late 1800s, when Mark Twain and O. Henry were writing humorous and thoughtful short stories in the U.S. In style and quality, he is closer to the simple homilies and narrow scenery of O.Henry than the pointed wit of Twain. And like O.Henry, Maupassant died sick and dissolute in his forties. Maupassant's stories are often set in his native Normandy in northern France and populated with greedy and cunning peasants, whom Maupassant portrays alternately with affection or disdain.

The stories themselves vary enormously in quality, generally the longer ones are better. In "Boule de Suif", "Olive Grove" and "Madame Tellier's Establishment", he has the time and space to patiently and subtly develop themes that paint his characters in hues of real humanity: the prostitute manipulated, the priest with a past, the giddy hookers attending a child's first communion. The lampoon of the rah-rah small-town booster in "Madame Husson's May King" [in the 1995 edition] brings a smile - the character sounds just like someone we've all met, a provincial yokel always over-eager to talk about the glories of his backwater hometown and the "famous" people who grew up there. But the shorter stories in this collection are the weakest. Some are mere trifles that must have popped into Maupassant's head and were then transcribed with no real development. Most are wholly predictable (none of O.Henry's twists) and written in flat workaday prose. Maupassant was a good writer, he penned a few gems, but these stories are not uniformly strong.

Guy de Maupassant is one of those few authors you just love to hate. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he's French, but that's another thing entirely. He's known for his fabulous short stories that can take you from feelings of sadness to joy to downright disgust. His collections of short stories incorporated here see to do exactly that.

Maupassant is one of those authors whose stories take some time to warm up before running smoothly about. Like an old engine, you will feel some cranks here and there, but after some time, everything seems to move smoothly along. His short stories are astounding. He's known for his thought provoking outlook on the french and european culture of his time. You can at times relate to his surroundings with the wars, famine, and greed that surrounds them, an environment that resembles very much modern times. Maupassant's best work has got to be the novella Le Horla, which is not included here. His other short stories just run short from comparing to that one, but that doesn't mean they're bad nonetheless. His writing style is different than other French authors, like Dumas, who favored patriotism above all else and looked at riches before dealing with the peasants. Maupassant look at the latter and how they relate to the former. That realistic approach just shows you that in any age or life we're living in, the rich will always have it for the poor, that life is not fair and if you don't stand up for your right, things not might, but will never go your way.

In his short collection, you capture a glimpse of a literary genius, whose light faded before his time. You feel the anguish of his troubled times, and can't help but wondering that even after centuries, history still keeps repeating itself.

I first encountered Maupassant's work in my early teens, when I had to study a few of his stories for my English class. I remember my teacher saying, "there have been many great short story writers down the years, but only one real genius: Guy de Maupassant".

The great thing about his work is that it's timeless. Although most of them were written over 130 years ago, Maupassant talks of
catching "a cab" on the Champs-Elysee, pavement cafes in fashionable districts of Paris, and even cronyism in the corridors of power! As a fellow reviewer observed, all are full of wit and irony; there's something for everyone here.

And for those who think that Stephen King has the last word on horror writing: I defy anyone to name a story that is as scary as
The Horla.

This really is the world's finest display of the art of the short
story, and I would reccommend it to anyone.

An outstanding book on the subject of transpersonal psychology. This is a collection of essays from the leaders in the field. I Especially enjoyed the articles by Ken Wilber (of course) and Roger Walsh

This book is a wonderful series of essays for those of us interested in transpersonal experiences. It was very inspiring and helped me experientially get closer to transcendence. The richness in content comes from many people discussing the transpersonal experience from many different perspectives. I'd highly recommend this book. Another book on transpersonal psychology I'd recommend is "Rhythm, Relationships, and Transcendence" by Toru Sato. It is the best book that explains what transcendence really means! Both books are excellent!

I love this book and am glad to see it has passed the test of twenty years of use. I found its first incarnation as "Beyond Ego," a wonderful distillation of transpersonal psychology and consciousness research, and am happy to recommend what is now a completely rewritten, updated, and even better version to clients and friends today. I appreciate writing that makes learning easy, and the current "Paths Beyond Ego" succinctly introduces its readers to the key ideas of more than thirty five of the most influential thinkers in the field, thus saving the effort of wading through the hundreds of original texts.

Although easy to read, this is a rigorous work that integrates scientific and psychological thinking with the spiritual traditions to create a comprehensive transpersonal vision of the highest possibilities of what human beings can be. The media is full of the wonders of physical technology, while this book offers a much needed counterbalance by examining the less commonly known wonders of psychospiritual technology. One of the most interesting questions this book explores is how something non physical like spirituality can be studied with scientific rigor rather than being left adrift in the realms of arbitrary belief, superstition, and dogma.

"Paths Beyond Ego" examines some of the major ideas, practices, goals, and experiences, that underlie the spiritual traditions and the new discipline of transpersonal psychology. It does this in a non-denominational way that avoids getting lost in the beliefs and details of any particular path or religion. The editors paint a broad interdisciplinary overview of what leading researchers of consciousness are exploring today, including; personal growth, transpersonal psychotherapy, spiritual emergency, addiction, meditation, enlightenment, gurus, lucid dreaming, psychedelics, science and spirituality, ethics, philosophy, mysticism, love, near death experiences, service, and ecology.

I have used this book as an introductory text for university undergraduates, who rated it highly, as well as an introduction to transpersonal thinking for "growth oriented" therapy clients. I have also recommended it to corporate managers and trainers who wanted a quick overview of how "normal every day consciousness" can be developed by practice into much more effective "higher states of consciousness" through self awareness, self transcendence, and ultimately, enlightenment.

For those who find the gems in this collection of fifty essays engaging and want to go deeper, you will have both the "big picture" and a reading list with which to select among authors and longer works that will take you there. In this field, theory is only proven by personal application of the understanding it offers, so if you are inspired by the possibilities of inner exploration, and ready to move beyond theory into actual exercises and practices, Dr. Walsh's newest book, "Essential Spirituality," is an excellently written, user friendly, and highly recommended place to start. (Recommended by Wilber, Grof, Tart, Ram Dass, Jampolsky, Arrien, and other leaders in the field, with a forward by the Dalai Lama.)

Not what I expected from Hicks & Schultz. I have been purchasing alot of travel photo books lately due to my decided direction with my photography. This book is way less value than I expected. Lacks direction, many other book available here that are way better value and offer alot more. Tends to tell the reader what he already knows. Not up to there usual standards...Maybe of interest to the novice..any higher than that...forget it.. Dissapointing!!

I wish I had this book when I began my travel writing career. It includes most of what a beginner needs to know, without spending too much time with minor details.

I found it to be a good tool for answering hard to find answers, but the best way to learn is just by doing it.

Hicks and Shultz will be the first to admit there is no fortune to be made in travel photography. But for those of us out there who want to at least try, they have given the perfect starting point with an easy to read book offering wonderful advice and enviable photo illustrations. The authors explain in detailed chapters the tools, attitudes, business sense and intuition needed to break into the business. After reading the book, I have no doubts about my direction in travel photography. No matter what your book reading style, whether a pick up and read at leisure person or a read all at once person, the book is adapted to either. Many people will enjoy the friendly way the text is written making photo enthusiasts feel as though they are life long friends with the authors.

The translation done by Lloyd C. Parks is the best, truly rendering the flavor of Stendhal's style into English. Amazon has it - just look for ISBN 0-451-51793-8. As a French major in grad school, I was studying "The Red and the Black" in one of my French Lit courses and the instructor happened to mention that a colleague in the English Dept. had done an excellent translation of it. I was curious enough to buy it and read it so I could judge for myself. I was so impressed that the very next semester I took a 19th Century Lit course taught in English by Dr. Parks. The course included Stendhal's book (nothing like picking a book apart in two languages!) - and yes, he did use his translation of the book! ;-)

Some things never change. In the world today we're used to hearing about corporate climbers who are willing to do anything to move up in the company. Sacrifice their wife or husband, time with their children, and sometimes even their soul. All in pursuit of the American Dream, a.k.a. materialistic eden. In THE RED AND THE BLACK Stendhal shows us that things weren't much different in 1830, when the book was published in France. Julien Sorel is a young man who was cursed with a scumbag, loveless father who has no interest in his family except in what they can do for him financially. After bargaining with the local mayor of his hick town, his father negotiates Julien to be the tutor of the prestigious house of Renal. One thinks of a slave auction as his father milks the mayor for all the money he can connive out of him in return for Julien's services. Of course Julien has bigger plans, after all, his idol is the great destroyer of the aristocracy, Napoleon. Julien glances over the fact that Napoleon set up his own aristocracy. Yes, Julien is a closet revolutionary who despises the very people he has to serve or suck up to. This brings up the largest idea of the book. Namely, that to get ahead in the world, you have to be a chameleon who changes shades according to what influential man or woman's favor you are trying to curry. Kissing butt is a polite way of phrasing it. While he is being bored by the Renal's children he falls into an affair with the mayor's wife. While this might have helped his career he unfortunately falls in love. He seems to start all of his plans of advancement pretty well, but in the end he always messes it up by actually having a conscience. By showing the superficialities of love, he falls in love. One of the most ironic points in the book is when he starts studying to be a priest when in actuality, he is an atheist. Even with this against him, he shows more morality and godliness than his colleagues at the seminary. Julien is feared no matter what circle he travels in, because who better to recognize his below level rebellion than the hypocrites of every level of society. This is ultimately the horrible conflict of Julien. At what point will he be unable to retain his identity? At what point does acting like a sellout make you a sellout even in your own heart? This book is divine. I am shocked that only 4 reviews have been written about it. It is hard to know what to make of it because it is so futuristic, looking more towards the 20th century than the 19th. There is none of the crippling sentimentalism of Dickens or Eliot here. He is more comparable to Thackeray or Balzac. This is a powerful book with flashes of erotic power which I am surprised made it through the censors of his time. It looks more towards Camus but Stendhal is ten times the artist. I highly recommend reading this and will soon move on to THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. Almost forgot, Catherine Slater does a great job translating this work from French to English.

This is one of the finest novels of the 19C. It chronicles the relentless rise - and inevitable, brutal fall - of a talented and highly ambitious young man during the French restoration. You witness Julian, from his abusive childhood at a sawmill, as he gains the position of a tutor with the local gentry on the strength of his having memorised the entire Vulgate Bible, into the highest ranks of the aristocracy. All around him, there are characters in equal parts fascinating and pathetic, perhaps more interesting than he and yet eventually his victims.

The protagonist Julian is at times cold, calculating, shrewd, a fool, and very sad, desperately in need of love. But he is always realistic psychologically and cunning, if lucky and then very unlucky. Julian bursts all of the limits imposed on him and in the process indicts the society from which he sprung and gained. This is utterly spellbinding fiction, into which you can go as deeply as you wish, from simple emotional reactions and an exploration of a rigid society, to structuralist symbolism if that is your bag. I started reading this in a bout of insomnia and continued, rivetted and repelled, through the entire night.

Highest recommendation.

I'd give this 2 1/2 stars. It has a lot of very basic information in it, maybe what I'd call the FUNDAMENTALS of lighting which can be helpful. But it's pretty parsimonious with the information it provides. Since most buyers will probably be amateurs, I think the authors have short-changed the reader in areas like the meaning & effects of color temperatures or the various types of tungsten lighting & associated code keys. I don't think that's asking too much more for a book of this price (& title). The final impression I get from this book is that the authors are saving the good stuff for a next (& more costly) book.

this book has sections on everything you can imagine-- I won't get into them all here, but I will say it has an excellent, excelent first section on just equipment: what the different types of lights are, how they're used, sample photos that show the unique characteristics of that light, etc. it also goes into scrims, gobos, snoots, light meters, and allllll that other weird stuff you will need to know about as you get better at lightign. tons of sample photos make this a great reference AND learning guide.

As an advanced amateur, I find this to be one of the very best books in my collection. It has given me clear answers to more questions that formally puzzled me, and introduced me to more new techniques, than any other book. I own several other standard books on lighting and feel strongly that this title is tops in the category, and can't resist alerting others to it.

The authors discuss all sorts of lighting equipment, but also cover light meters, back-drops, reflective surfaces, and household lighting sources such as desk lamps. A final section covers a wonderful variety of projects from low-key portraits to photographing windows.

The many photographs are perfectly chosen and are subordinated to illustrating the points discussed, rather than being just a show-case for fabulous pictures, as they are in the average photography book. A clear diagram accompanies the description of each lighting approach.

The one negative Amazon.com review mentions the problem of buying equipment "slowly"... as I develop a basic set of lighting equipment, slowly, I will be glad to have this resource to guide me.