By Carolyn Purden, Toronto Star
Moral issues, ethical concerns and spiritual matters are themes in the work of many contemporary North American writers, singers, painters and sculptors. Religious imagery and symbolism abound.
Yet how much do these themes and literary devices reflect the artists' beliefs?
This is the question posed by Douglas Todd, author of The Soul-Searcher's Guide to the Galaxy.
In Brave Souls, he questions 28 artists about their work and the philosophy and beliefs central to their lives. The eclectic group includes film director Paul Verhoeven, sculptor Bill Reid, cartoonist Lynn Johnston, Inuk singer Susan Aglukark and writer Carol Shields.
Nearly all attended worship in their youth, and a few still attend occasionally. But all are troubled by religious orthodoxy and their spiritual search is taking place outside institutional religion.
Their responses provide a range of spiritual insights that Todd groups in four sections: the atheists; the doubters; the new ancients, whose faith is rooted in organized religion, and the emerging mystics.
Some common themes emerge. Johnston speaks for several artists when she says she cannot accept Christ's divinity. "I'm starting to see other people as divine, too -- such as saints and exceptional people," she says.
Many artists echo Shields' belief in the centrality of love.
"It's your basic molecule," she comments. "Why else would we make an effort to be sort of good in the world and with one another, if it weren't for this kind of mystical connection that holds us together?"
Robertson Davies, interviewed shortly before his death, talked of his lifetime interest in the Christian heresy of Gnosticism, which led him to a belief in God's feminine aspect. Singers Susan Aglukark and Bruce Cockburn reveal they have continuing conversations with God.
Timothy Findley has felt the presence of God in the vast Arctic barrens.
Writer Laurence Gough says he experienced the presence of God while keeping a deathbed vigil. Of his stepfather's death, Gough recalls "a real sense of rustling in the air -- a sense he had risen up out of himself, of something leaving him when he died. And not just life itself. but something far more powerful than that."
Todd has skilfully culled the essence of each artist's beliefs. It all makes fascinating, and, at times, thought-provoking reading.

Douglas Todd, the highly respected Vancouver Sun journalist, has examined the spirituality of Canadian writers and artists in his important book, Brave Souls.
Remarks by Reginald Bibby, Canada's leading religion pollster, in his 2002 book, Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in Canada

This Book was soooooooooooooooo good. The religious doo daa really spoke to me. The fight scenes were buetiffully decribed with lots of detail. The bond betwen the author and Joe really stode out.

The best book on leadership I've read. Douglas Hyde, a british ex-communist leader, exposes the methodological success of Communism. He doesn't delve into Communism's ideological fallacies (although alluded to). He rather lays out communistic functions that led to it's incredible growth in such a short period of time. Throughout the book he comments on both Communist and Chritian potentials that culminates in the choice between total Communism or total Christianity. One of the most intriguing chapters is "The Story of Jim." Hyde told those in a Communist leader seminar that the Communist party could take anyone willing to be trained in leadership and make a leader. Hyde describes Jim as, 'very short, grotesquely fat, with a flabby white face, a cast in one eye and, to make matters worse, a most destressing stutter.' You'll need to read the book to see what became of Jim.

For many years Hyde was a leader of the Communist Party in Great Britain. In 1948, the Communist stalwart shocked all Britain by resigning as editor of the daily paper of the British Communist Party and leaving the Party.

        He became a Christian and wrote Dedication and Leadership as a guide to political skills for anti-communists, particularly Christians. After reading it, you will understand why communism endured for so long. Much of its success, Hyde shows, was due to its use of philosophically neutral techniques of communication, recruitment, training and organization.

I led a men's group and we studied this book throughout the semester, one chapter at a time. It was a very good choice, as it turned out, because it forced us as Christians to examine our own lives in light of what Mr. Hyde had to say about the value of various techniques.

The other reviews here are quite accurate: the book clearly demonstrates how effective Communists are at bringing in new recruits and immediately putting them to work. The value in this is that they begin to identify themselves with the movement and ask questions. Then come the study groups, which are responding to a felt need on the part of the participants.

Reading this book convicted me of my behavior and the behavior I call others to. Look at Jesus' response to people who came up and asked him if they could join him. He didn't say "Great! Bring all your stuff to be comfortable and have a great time!" He said "Drop everything in your life and follow me alone. I will ask everything of you." He wouldn't even allow someone to go to his father's funeral ("Let the dead bury their own dead.")

What is our response as Christians to new believers? So often we want to make things as easy as possible. Don't challenge them too much or they might get discouraged and fall away. Mr. Hyde gives the opposite answer: ask a great deal of new believers and you will see great fruit. Ask a little, and you deserve what you get.

Riveting, thought provoking, just flat-out entertaining. I read this book in four sittings, I just couldn't quit turning pages. Buy it for yourself, buy it for your family, buy it for your friends -- they will not be dissapointed!

Dust makes you think about the collision of traditional religious beliefs, a strong centralized government, and our own security concerns and technologies role in managing what is happening to society when these forces crash. Dust will make you wonder about how far society should go in using technology to manage ever increasing aspects of your lives. The author has made a great start on his writing career. I'm looking forward to reading more from him.

Dust is a constant ride of questions and "potential" answers. I found myself in a paradox to continue the ride or put the book down to ponder the ongoing barage of issues. It is fast paced, exciting and above all, thought provoking novel that kept me asking myself questions that I could not answer.

This book really hit a home run for me. It was easy to understand and well written for a Business Marketing book dealing with its subject. The 5 Step Framework should work for anyone needing help in planning to launch and effectively brand a website, as well as any product or service that might not be related with the Online world.

In fact, the Authors' 5 Step Framework is quite practical to apply to any type of business with any size marketing issue. The saavy Marketing Executive will be able to apply this Framework to guide them through a refined process resulting in successful execution of their projects!

My bet is that this book will result in a cult following ala G. Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" and M. Hammer's "Reengineering the Corporation"! I also think that it would benefit the college student seeking additional reading materials....because they don't teach this in Buisiness School....yet! ...Five Stars...

"From Bricks to Clicks" is an easy read that provides a straight forward framework, or process if you please, for creating an Online Brand. In my opinion, I trust that the 5 steps could easily be applied to any business whether online or not! I am flabber-gasted to think that finally in 2001 that this is the first book I have read which clearly addresses these complicated and sometimes overwhelming marketing issues that most every company faces from time to time.

The book's real world examples highlight the authors' experiences, knowledge and how they arrived (step-by-step) at excellent solutions to the problems. Implementing the defined process proves its value time&time again in the book. The 5 step framework they describe is simple and should be easy to apply to small and large projects at any size company.

I am pleased that they would share this knowledge and their 5 Steps Framework in this book. I recommend "From Bricks to Clicks" for any high-level Marketing Executive and I look forward to future books or seminars by the Authors.

This book is pleasantly different from the other brand books out there, not only because of the method, but also because it logically articulates branding on and off the web-- and integrates it with other areas of marketing. Lots of times branding is a distant cousin to marketing and corporate communications, and this book makes it all fit together. As the creator of a small business, it's useful to me but I can also see how it will help big corporate executives as well. An enjoyable read, and very useful.

For an account of Lincoln's thought (as well as Douglas') that serves to the credit of both of them, read this book. One of the finest books I have ever read, there are some chapters on Lincoln's thought that you will read time and time again. My copy of the book is marked up with great quotes where Harry Jaffa shows great insight into the tension and wonder that is the democratic thought of Abraham Lincoln, quite possibly the greatest democratic leader in history. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to know about the mind of Lincoln before the Civil War.

If you want to read one book about Lincoln's thought, this is the one to read. The first part of the book, which takes Douglas seriously and states the strongest case for him, is historically dense and may be difficult for most readers. But keep going, because the payoff will be great. There follow chapters on two of Lincoln's early speeches. Jaffa's analysis here is brilliant, though perhaps a bit far-fetched. In the final part of the book, Jaffa states the case for Lincoln against Douglas. This part is rich in its ideas, rigorous in its reasoning, and eloquent to the point of being inspirational. (By the way, if you want to read one biography of Lincoln, I'd recommend the one by Lord Charnwood. Though written almost a century ago and therefore not up to date on all the details of historical scholarship, it is judicious throughout and beautifully written.)

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Jaffa is that he wrote Goldwater's famous "moderation in the defense of freedom is no virtue" speech. If you go back and read the speech (and it is on the web, of course), it echoes both the Old Testament ("our fathers") and Lincoln. I suspect he would agree with the man who told me that Lincoln is the greatest prose stylish in the English language. As for the book, Jaffa interprets the civil war as the second, and genuine, founding of the American republic, and precisely because the principle of the Declaration, equality, was written not in ink but blood (Jaffa has his own brand of Lincolnian Christianity). Lincoln, by this reading, belongs to the "tribe of the eagle and the lion" and was neither Caesar nor Brutus but possessed the best qualities of both. To understand that part of Jaffa's interpretation, you would have to read his treatment of Shakespeare. As for the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Jaffa stages Douglas as Thrasymachus and Lincoln--surprise, surprise--as Socrates.

Set in 1854, some forty years or so after the bulk of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books, this first entry in Kilworth's"Fancy Jack" series finds the British Army in rather dire straights in the Crimea. The hero is a Sergeant in the 88th regiment (the mainly Irish Connaught Rangers aka The Devil's Own), who is an outsider in more ways than one. Born and bred a gentleman, "Fancy Jack" Crossman has done the unthinkable and renounced his upbringing and entered the army as a ranker. While in the Sharpe series, we see a lowborn orphan rise though the ranks, here we have a highborn Scotsman in much the same situation. Mostly hated by those below for his education and manners, he's also mostly hated by his superiors for being a class traitor.

Kilworth seems to be attempting to emulate Cornwell's template in presenting an unvarnished ground-level view of historical military exploits. The book is full of details on equipment, procedures, social composition of the British forces, et., plus a parade of real historical figures. However, it's not done nearly as smoothly and seamlessly as Cornwell (or George McDonald Fraser's Flashman series for that matter). Clunky prose and exposition somewhat mars the storytelling, as Fancy Jack is sent on a few secret missions behind enemy lines with a band of misfit soldiers. For example, we're told three different times that the Allied (British/French/Turkish) forces number 55,000. We're also privy to a number of scenes of high-level commanders bickering that don't have much to do with anything other than to get across the historical reading Kilworth's on the ineffectiveness of the leadership. And in case you didn't get how devastating cholera was to the army the first time it's discussed, don't worry, you'll get several more chances to absorb the information. Kilworth has apparently written a number of children's books, and often the prose reads as if it's intended for a younger audience.

But the battle scenes are plenty gory, and there are plenty of "adult themes", and a requisite love interest. All in all, it's a decent page turner, but not nearly as good as the Sharpe books. The Fancy Jack saga continues with Valley of Death, Soldiers in the Mist, and The Winter Soldiers, and perhaps in these later volumes Kilworth touch becomes more subtle.

Excellent story line, developing characters throughout the book. Douglas keeps the reader involved with the twists and turns in the same high paced, detail as Cornwell, Cussler and MacNeill. Fancy Jack Crossman is here to stay - let's hope for a complete series to come.

if you like the Richard Sharpe novels then your going to love fancy jack

Douglas McGregor's seminal works, The Human Side of Enterprise and The Professional Manager, debunked Taylorism and described a revolutionary way to manage people. He was the first to apply the findings in behavioural science to the world of business. Based on what had been learned about human behaviour, McGregor explored the implications of managing people in a different manner than tradition dictated.

Authors Gary Heil, Deborah Stephens and Warren Bennis assert that the nature of work today makes McGregor's ideas more important and relevant than ever before. This book revisits in a contemporary manner the most important question facing management today: given what we know about human nature, how should work be managed so as to unleash the vast creative potential of human beings? It applies McGregor's thinking to today's business world, proving again that the human aspect of work is crucial to organisational effectiveness. It also suggests how you can change your thinking and implement his ideas in your own business and workplace.

The authors carefully outline how to put McGregor's thinking into practice in your own business so you can devise a better performance management system, form and supervise effective management teams, build cooperation instead of internal competition, cultivate an intrinsically motivating, values-driven workplace and create a cause worthy of employee commitment.

McGregor's work is classic. This is required reading for executives.

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

This book is a real gem. The 140 pages or so of outline on McGregor's ideas is invaluable. I've read Human Side Of Enterprise, but the way the authors explain theory Y brought a lot of light to my understanding of McGregor's ideas. McGregor's ideas reach much farther than I realized, and the authors are virtuosos at explaining the real profundity in the Human Side of Enterprise. I recommend this book highly, even to those well versed in this stuff. I also learned a lot by the modern examples (like Lincoln Electric and Herman Miller) of companies which follow theory Y. Douglas McGregor does not have all the answers. But even if McGregor is not the last word on management, all future thinkers will have to grapple with the ideas and the questions (so many!) that he put forth.

Perhaps, considering a 2003 survey published in the Journal of Sex Research that concluded "heterosexuals dislike bisexuals more than gays, lesbians and most religous or enthnic groups," and that women tended to feel negative towards bisexual or gay men and women alike while men were more prone to rate bixsexual or gay men lower than they would bisexual or lesbian women. The earlier "Dual Attraction ..." coincidentally hints of similar findings, but goes significantly further than the more recent survey. Most notably, a distinction is made between the bisexual and gay male although both seem mostly to be lumped together in social and research terms. Maybe because of that, any serious study of bisexuality in particular is sparse. The bisexual male, then, is somewhat "invisible," accounting for the fact that most clinicial and social discussion and advocacy come from the bisexual female. And, consistent with the more recent study, the Indiana University sociologists behind "Dual Attraction ..." also come up with a reason that the bisexual male is apparently regarded beneath the gay male and lesbian and bisexual woman. The bisexual man, unlike the gay male, so the theory goes, is self-focused, preoccupied with sex and so sexually experienced with both genders that he feels superior to all, even the straight man. Add to that the apparent belief that bisexual men gave AIDS to the straight community, and the bisexual's social position plummets. Of course, the conclusions in "Dual Attraction ..." are pre-suppositioned on the hotly disputed Masters and Johnson opinion years earlier that sexual orientation is a choice rather than a biological pre-determinant. Even discarding that idea, however, "Dual Attraction ..." still comes out as something of a pioneering effort in acknowledging the existence and explaining the dynamics behind bisexuality. Perhaps no other published work has gone so far as this research. But is it relevant? Quite possibly, considering various surveys put between 25 percent and 75 percent the number of men in America having sex with other men.

This is, without a doubt, the BEST work I've ever seen on bisexuality. Kudos to Weinberg, Williams, and Pryor. Finally ... someone who understands.

This is, without a doubt, the BEST work I've ever seen on bisexuality. Kudos to Weinberg, Williams, and Pryor. Finally ... someone who understands.

Everglades National Park is one of the country's mostfascinating wilderness areas, and is quite possibly the best place forviewing wildlife on the entire North American continent. It's amazing that such a park can exist right next to one of our biggest and fastest-growing urban areas, and in a region that draws millions of visitors every year. The fact that it exists at all in the face of so much human pressure is a testament to the efforts of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and others, and to the influence of this book.

Still, for the most part, this book is a conventional dates-and-events human history of South Florida rather than an argument for environmental protection. The environmental theme doesn't really get going until after the Civil War, well past the middle of the book, when draining the Everglades was first proposed, and it isn't until "The Eleventh Hour," the final chapter of the original edition, that the book becomes an impassioned plea for saving the wilderness. A final chapter added in 1987 brings the story into our era, continues the catalog of degradation, and makes the key point that most of the forces that threaten the Everglades flourish outside the boundaries of the National Park.

I confess that I found the historical narrative a bit dull in places, though it's hard to imagine a more colorful cast of characters than the conquistadors, pirates, hardy Native Americans, escaped slaves, adventurers, poachers, speculators and old-time politicians who all play a part in the story. Nevertheless, "River of Grass" is still the best history of South Florida, and should be on the reading list of anyone who wants something a little more substantial than the tourist guides and coffee-table fluff that dominate the shelf of books about the region.

What a readable and fascinating history of the wonderful State of Florida! I enjoyed every minute of the story of the struggle to conquer the environment and mold it to the white man's idea of a civilized place. Sadly, I am not convinced the developers will allow the Everglades to exist much longer. I am grateful to have lived in a time when its wonders are still available to me.

That's how most of us in Florida referred to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Long honored by the state and then by the nation a few years before she died in 1998, she was a living legend in the South Florida environmental movement. Within a few miles of where I live there's a school, a park, a long section of highway and the Biscayne Nature Center, all of which are named after this grand old lady.

And grand and old she was. One of the most amazing facts about her life is the way it seems to have paralleled the recent history of the Everglades itself. Consider this. The first real encroachment of the Everglades began in 1890 when settlers started draining the area around the Kissimmee river. This was just 10 years before Douglas was born. When she wrote THE EVERGLADES: RIVER OF GRASS in 1947 she was 57 years old. The book played a huge part in creating public awareness about the vital importance of the area and was the prime impetus for the creation of the Everglades National Park. Douglas was in fact there when Harry Truman officially opened the park in late 1947. She was still around to receive an honor from president Clinton in 1993. Most incredibly she lived to see the publishing of this - the Fiftieth Anniversary edition of her best known book - dying shortly after at the age of 108! One of the salient points to note about this edition is that it offers an added chapter by another writer titled "Coming Together" which highlights some of the recent progress being made in reversing the damage done to the Everglades watershed area. Progress which can trace it's origins back decades ago to the constant cajoling and inspiration of one Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Never has the saying "Life imitates Nature" been any truer.

Douglas's original book is in keeping with the times it was written in. A natural history of the Everglades with a heavy emphasis on wildlife and the local culture, written in a simple straightforward style. This "just-the-facts" approach is used when recounting the early history of the area, giving names and dates of conquerors and explorers. The writing style occasionally feels a bit dry but these moments quickly pass as we get so caught up in reading about history by someone who was themselves a bit of living history.

I really liked this book because of its strong practical outlook. It could be titled : Some useful tricks to remember your true nature. However I would have liked some more insights. I hope I am not unfair to Douglas Harding but, reading it, I sometimes got the feeling the teaching was based on hearsay. The book is based on conversations and on workshops that he conducts and it has this kind of workshop marketing flavour sometimes. I do not agree with the assumptions that this is even shorter Short Cut. The "tricks" are helpful to remember who we are but they do not form a true teaching> It might be a shortcut but how far do you really want to go ??

This book edited by David Lang, is one of the most accesible books of Douglas Harding. It may bring you from hear - say to look - see. Highly recommanded.
Douglas and Catherine have visited me in my house here in Belgium, and they are wonderful people, indeed. I hope you can meet them one day.
You can read the preface Douglas wrote for my first book on my website, []

Jan Kersschot, author of "nobody home"

We study the ancient wisdom texts because we feel they may be able to help us understand who and what we are. But what we quickly discover is that these ancient texts, whether Zen such as Seng-ts'an's 'Hsin-hsin-ming,' or Buddhist such as the Prajnaparamita 'Heart Sutra,' or Vedantic such as the 'Ashtavakra Gita,' even when quite short, as these three are, are by no means easy to understand. One could easily spend a lifetime studying the original texts, their translations and commentaries, and still end up no wiser. Ultimately, what they demand is not so much understanding as insight. What is Brahman, or Emptiness, or Seng-ts'an's 'Not-Two'? How does one really find out?

Traditionally one approaches a Master, attends to his words, and practises meditation. Then, after prolonged meditation, insight may come. But not everyone can avail themself of a Master. Some of us have to make do with texts. And meditation can take years. And we are busy and harassed modern folks. Is there a simpler, easier, faster way of arriving at insight? Amazingly, there is. If you really want to grasp what all the great Indian and Tibetan and Chinese and Japanese Masters and Sages and Rishis have been trying to convey to their disciples down through the centuries, all you need do is read this book.

Why, after these thousands of years, it should have been left to an Englishman to discover a simple mental act, an act which anyone can perform anywhere at any time and which unlocks the mystery of 'Not-Two,' I have no idea. But after spending more than twenty years puzzling my head over Eastern texts before finally discovering Harding, I can assure you that his instructions for "reversing the arrow of attention" really do work. His are the most important books I have ever read.

Attention is a bit like a compass. The act of attention which you are bringing to bear on these words as you read them is like the compass needle. Just as the needle always points North, your attention is almost always pointing here, out here. You give no thought to this. But the answer you seek is not out here.

Make Harding your Master. Let him neatly sever your head. You will quickly find that the 'Not-Two' is not a mystery any more. For by following his simple instructions you will have become it.