Book Description
Come meet the four Melendy kids—Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver! Randy and Oliver Melendy awake one morning full of gloom. Their brothers and sisters are away, the house seems forlorn and empty, and even Cuffy, their adored housekeeper, can't pick up their spirits. Will they have to face a long and lonely winter? But a surprise message in the mailbox starts a trail of excitement and adventure that takes them through the cold season. When summer comes around, the children have found fourteen messages in all, and the end of the search brings them a rich reward. Here is the fourth in Elizabeth Enright's classic children's series telling the tales of a long and glorious summer in the country with the resourceful, endearing Melendy bunch!
Customer Reviews:
Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze.......2006-02-13
This was one of our daughter's favorite books when we read it to her as a child. She is now twenty and in college and it resides on a shelf with other best book-friends from her childhood, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit and The Trilogy, The Castle in the Attic,etc.(comfort reads now) This book is full of fun and innocence and safe mystery. It depicts a happy, intelligent family who live a peaceful yet interesting life.
A good ending.......2004-07-14
I very much enjoyed all of Enright's books--both the Melendy series and the Gone-Away books. When I found out that she had three sons, I longed to get them together and ask, "OK, which of you is Rush, which of you is Julian, which of you is Oliver?"
I would echo the reviewer who says that the Melendy books would make a great TV mini-series, excpet that (having seen what TV did to some other classic children's books) I'd be afraid that they'd try to modernize them and mess them up. While the Gone-Away books could, perhaps, survive (they are far less time-bound), the Melendy books are tied very specifically to a particular time/place, and attempts to update would ruin them.
A GREAT FAMILY READ-ALOUD CHOICE.......2004-01-27
One day I saw my daughter curled up with a book. "What are you reading?" I inquired. She flashed the well-loved cover of my childhood copy of Spiderweb for Two. "I was feeling Melendyish today," she explained. "Melendyish" is the perfect word to describe that sensation experienced by die-hard fans of Elizabeth Enright's four Melendy stories when nothing else will do but to curl up with one of her books and visit the beloved Melendy family once again. When I was a child the four Melendy children sometimes seemed more like real, three-dimensional people than some actual living, breathing kids I knew. Spiderweb for Two was the first Melendy book I read and it inspired me to create many mind-boggling clue hunts for my brother and my friends. The treasure hunts that figure prominently in the way my children and I celebrate holidays today can probably be traced back to those Melendyish moments of my childhood when I read this book over and over and over. (I can still recite some of the story's mysterious clues from memory!) I would suggest that you read the Melendy books in order: The Saturdays, The Four Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, Tatsinda (a fairy tale that is mentioned but not told in Then There Were Five) and finally Spiderweb For Two. Just be sure you don't stop before you get to Spiderweb for Two! Your whole family will enjoy it! If you want more funny, creative, warm and cozy family stories like these, try The Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, and New Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit.
The end (alas) of my favorite childhood books.......2002-09-02
"Spiderweb for Two" is the last book in the series about the Melendy family and it's my least favorite of the four, simply because there are not enough Melendys in it. When the book opens, one year after the end of the third book, the three oldest children are off to boarding school and Randy and Oliver are facing a lonely, boring winter by themselves, until a mysterious letter written on blue paper arrives in the mail, containing the first clue to what will be a year-long treasure hunt. The clues are funny and entertaining, and the adventures Randy and Oliver get into, going from one clue to the next, are enjoyable. But we miss the presence of Mona, Rush and Mark except during the brief period they are home from school for the Christmas holidays, and the adults in the family, Father, Cuffy and Willie, aren't quite enough to take up the slack.
One thing about "Spiderweb" that sets it apart from the first three books is the lack of a time frame. Enright wrote the first three during World War II and the war is at the center of the family's lives and is present in each book; the children are busy presenting a show and working after school to buy war bonds and going on scrap metal drives during the summer holiday. The first three books take place from the later winter and early spring of 1942, through the end of the summer of 1943. But although "Spiderweb" runs from October of 1944 to June of 1945, the war is never even referred to in the book. Even V-E Day in May of 1945 which would have been celebrated all over town, isn't mentioned. Perhaps this is because Enright wrote "Spiderweb" ten years after she wrote the third book and many of her readers hadn't been born during the war; but still, some mention of the events would have given the book a dimension that is present in the first three but lacking in this one.
When I turned the last page of "Spiderweb" after reading it as a child, I was devastated to realize that there would be no more Melendy books. But Enright had the right idea; the next year would have seen Randy herself going off to boarding school and leaving Oliver rattling around the Four Story Mistake by his lonesome. A depressing prospect indeed. Enright knew where to end it.
An Enright Mystery That Shouldn't Be Missed.......2002-01-31
This book is the fourth, and last book, in the series about the Melendy children. This particular book is about Oliver and Randy Melendy. Their siblings (Mona, Rush, and Mark) have just gone off to boarding school, and Randy and Oliver are bored. One day, a letter comes in the mail for them! They open it, and inside there is a poem written on a piece of paper. It is the beginning of a treasure hunt. All through the year they search for the clues that the poems talk about.
In this book, sometimes you can tell what is going to happen next and figure out the clues yourself, and sometimes you can not. This book was mysterious like when they got the first clue, but I would suggest that you read the first book before you read this one. It is called The Saturdays.
One of my favorite characters is Miss Bishop because she is nice, tells stories, and never goes to the store. She does not go to the store because she eats wild things and grows things in her garden. She is nice because she helps Oliver when he gets lost.
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- A life of self-examination
- Lack of Emotional Commitment, It's Not Just The Men
- A Life Never Lived
- In the Web
- A lovely moment in a career of distinction
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Spiderweb: A Novel
Penelope Lively
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0060929723 |
Amazon.com
The author of 16 previous works of fiction, Penelope Lively almost invariably lives up to her name. She knows, in other words, how to animate a comedy of manners--how to bring its participants to eccentric and intriguing life. Take Stella Brentwood, the 65-year-old anthropologist at the center of Spiderweb. This lifelong student of human behavior is the sort of mouthpiece most authors would die for: who better to record our foibles and self-destructive follies? Yet Stella is also a career outsider who's never stood still long enough to get her bearings: "In her trade, you travelled most fruitfully if you travelled alone. And it helped if you were footloose and singularly unfettered by personal possessions."
Now, however, Stella is ready for retirement. And once she takes the plunge, buying a cottage in rural Somerset, her detachment receives a few superficial dents. For one thing, her friendships--with a neighboring widower and a retired female archaeologist--come to at least a low boil (perhaps a mild simmer would be a better phrase). For another, the English countryside does exercise its intermittent charms: "A small ancient-looking chapel of perfect simplicity perched above a hedgebank that sparkled with flowers. Sometimes it was difficult to take this landscape seriously--to remember that it had evolved from centuries of agricultural endeavour and blithe environmental disregard." But by arresting her habit of perpetual motion, Stella also has time to review her past--both her professional excursions to Egypt and Malta and the Orkney Islands, and her accident-prone personal life.
There isn't, please note, a warm-and-fuzzy denouement, in which the protagonist learns to reach out and touch: she's English, for God's sake. Yet her story has the power to move us. For Stella is not only independent but self-aware, which can be a very mixed blessing. "I am no longer in business," she muses toward the end of Spiderweb. "I am a part of the landscape like everyone else. And some of us are more tenuously placed within that landscape than others." In the end, even this meticulous transient is headed in the same direction as her fellows. --Bob Brandeis
Book Description
At age sixty-five, retired anthropologist Stella Brentwood buys a cottage in Somerset, England, and slowly acquires neighbors, a dog, and a professional curiosity about the country village where she intends to settle and put down roots for the first time. She has spent her life studying communities of people--their families, social structures, how they welcome outsiders into their midst-remaining an observer, privileged to share in their intimate life but not obliged, and finally unwilling to tie herself closely to any lover, friend, or social group. In Somerset, Stella once again finds an opportunity to become part of the web of relationships that make for human society, as well as a chance at true friendship and love. How will independent-minded Stella, Lays reluctant to make an emotional commitment, respond? Written in exquisitely nuanced prose, Spiderweb is a captivating and deeply moving novel, a brilliant vision of our modern experience.
Customer Reviews:
A life of self-examination.......2006-04-04
This is the first novel by Penelope Lively that I've read, and it has convinced me to seek out others. We all grew up, imbibing in school Plato's maxim that "the unexamined life is not worth living". The protagonist of this novel, Stella, is a professional anthropologist, and carries her habits of observing and identifying patterns into her own life. She examines her friendships, her life, the onset of retirement, the need for roots, the need for human contact. A lot to mull over! Reading a few of her paragraphs [one, using over how to it feels to be excited over the process of learning; a second, over elastic friendships, spanning periods of separation interspersed with short periods of shared experiences] made me feel that I had found a kindred soul.
Although mentally I can appreciate the role of the Hiscox family in the novel [Stella has few close contacts/relationships, and seems to function well; we see, however, the disfunction of that situation in the Hiscox boys], I found their story, interspered among Stella's thoughts, very jarring and interrupted the flow of Stella's almost stream-of-conscious musings.
A very readable novel, but provocative in that it causes us to reflect on what we hold dear and why. Highly recommended.
Lack of Emotional Commitment, It's Not Just The Men.......2004-08-14
"Ancestry and happenstance divide the population of West Country, today-people who have always been there and people who came there fortuitously. For these last, fortune can serve up some strange conjunctions." Thus the story of Stella Brentwood begins in "Spiderweb" by the marvelous author, Penelope Lively.
Stella Brentwood, unmarried, sixty-five and newly retired has bought a home in Kingston Fleury. She has been a vagabond her entire life- her profession as a field anthropologist has led her all over the world. She has lived and worked in tents, mud huts and what have you. She had a rich and varied life, but she was never able to make an emotional commitment. The one man she truly loved, Dan Mitchell, married another. They had visited the area of her new home and memories are starting to play out her entire life. We are introduced to her best friend and college roommate, Nadine. Nadine married, had children, and died of cancer. It is Nadine's husband, Richard, who finds the home for Stella.
Stella moves in, gardens, purchases a dog and then becomes acquainted with her neighbors. They are an unusual bunch- some are friendly, most are not. The Hiscox's and their boys are a sad group- mother is angry and abusive to the boys, dad is silent and angry and abusive to the boys. The boys are angry and violent, and we never get to really know them. Their part of this novel is somehow out of place, because it tends to overpower Stella's story, but at the same time, it is their actions that develop an emotional reaction in Stella.
The act of retiring has given Stella time to reflect upon her life. The lost loves and friendships. She regains two friends who want more from her than she can give. We replay Stella's life as seen by her memories of her friends. Stella is smart, but she does not have much insight into her emotional life. She does, however, realize that love and sex are sometimes two different things. She has only once experienced them together, and she let this man go. She does not appear to have regrets, but it is difficult to know. The novel ends abruptly, and this is quite off setting. We don't quite understand why Stella seizes this moment to move on, but in the end Stella cannot deal effectively with her emotional life. She is an organized, professional woman who can only live her life through her work. The spider webs that develop are torn in small places, and there are too many holes to patch together- Stella Brentwood's life?
A book to be recommended. prisrob
A Life Never Lived.......2003-02-16
Stella is a retired field anthropologist, past middle age, who makes the clinical decision that, at her time of life, it is time to finally put down roots. Never married (although certainly not without her lovers), chidless, and used to the nomadic life of a cultural observer, Stella thinks she will retire to the countryside, settle in a cottage, and maybe even acquire a dog--another stab at planting herself in a firm location.
Accordingly, she moves to a pleasant village recommended by Richard, the widower of Stella's lifelong (but rarely seen) friend Nadine. She acquires the requisite dog--which embarrasses her with its canine devotion--and sets about forming a life for herself in the same detached role of observer that she has used among tribespeople in New Guinea.
What Stella cannot see, and what therefore forms the ultimate sadness of her life, is that the village seethes with emotions of all kinds, from sexual to violent. Many of these emotions are directed at her. But Stella, as the author subtly but brilliantly points out in a series of flashbacks, has never really been a participant in her own life. Hence, she fails to see or experience reality--until it rears up and metaphorically attacks her. And by then, it's too late.
A deep, disturbing book, "Spiderweb" is a quick read--a fascinating character study that leaves the reader thinking long after the last page is read. And it poses an interesting question: Is it better to live a full life with all its messiness and emotional baggage? Or is it better to keep oneself always separate--thereby truly experiencing none of the depths of pain or joy?
Stella, in the end, can do neither.
In the Web.......2002-06-19
Another fascinating novel from the award-winning Penelope Lively.
Stella is a 65-year-old social anthropologist, who specialized in studying lineage and kinship groups all over the world. She's now retired, and, on the basis of a long-past visit and the recommendation of friends, has bought a cottage in a small village in Devon, in the west of Britain. Almost without realizing it, she begins absorbing the complex inter-personal relationships of the area--who's married to whom, which items are bought and where they're bought, who's a native, who's a weekender, who's retired...She fixes up her cottage, she acquires a dog, she takes long walks, she visits with friends, she writes a long-delayed article on the role of gender in her chosen field---and she remembers. Much of the action of the book takes place in the past, from university days through her professional career and two major love-affairs. The past informs the present in ways which are both commentary and explanation, as well as being told in beautiful language. Nicely-done. A quick read, but certainly not fluff.
A lovely moment in a career of distinction.......2000-12-04
Penelope Lively's "Spiderweb" may not be the author's finest hour, but it is a lovely moment in a career that includes a Booker Prize, for "Moon Tiger," in 1987, and a host of other finely crafted novels. By comparison, "Spiderweb" may seem a bit insubstantial (it runs to a scant 218 pages), but in the event, it makes its brief quite handily. Lively's premise seems to be that there are two types of people in the world, those who crave human contact, and those who don't. Stella Brentwood, Lively's protagonist, is emphatically a member of the latter. Having retired at age 65 from a career in anthropology, Stella does the unthinkable and "settles down" in a small West England village, where her attempts at domesticity include adopting a "spaniel-type" dog, which she names Bracken, in a sort of afterthought, as well as inheriting the affections of her late best friend's husband, Richard. But when her dysfunctional neighbors' sons shoot Bracken, in a senseless act of brutality, and both Richard and her friend Judith, who is on the rebound from a Lesbian relationship, attempt to intrude on Stella's hermitage, she disentangles herself from the soap opera of West Country life, and her "character detached" cottage is once again for sale. In spare, economic prose, Lively brings her characters and the West Country to life. At one point in the novel, Stella muses that her career in anthropology reduces to a sort of intellectual parasitism. The novel reader is an intellectual parasite who should delight in this reflection on retirement, incipient old age, and the spiderweb of human relationships.
Amazon.com
Few crime novelists come to their craft with more impressive credentials than Susan Berman, who grew up in a Mafia family, became a topnotch newspaper and magazine journalist, and made her fictional debut with the well-received Fly Away Home. Her second novel is equally exciting and obviously drawn from the same deep well of personal experience transformed into art. Elizabeth Manganaro's mother supposedly committed suicide when Elizabeth was nine; her daughter never believed it, and 26 years later the recently-widowed Elizabeth finds that her doubts were justified. She also finds that the truth can be very dangerous.
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Spiderwebs to Skyscrapers: The Science of Structure (Experiment!)
David Darling
Manufacturer: Dillon Pr
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Binding: Library Binding
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Structures (Designs in Science)
ASIN: 0875184782 |
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Spiderwebs and Silk: Tracing Evolution from Molecules to Genes to Phenotypes
Catherine L. Craig
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0195129164 |
Book Description
This book links the molecular evolution of silk proteins to the evolution and behavioral ecology of web-spinning spiders and other arthropods. Craig's book draws together studies from biochemistry through molecular genetics, cellular physiology, ecology, and behavior to present an integrated understanding of an interesting biological system at the molecular and organizational levels.
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Dewdrops on Spiderwebs: Connections Made Visible
Susan Classen
Manufacturer: Herald Press
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ASIN: 0836190661 |
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- Great anthropomorphic adventure!
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Claw and the Spiderweb
Reddix
Manufacturer: Chariot Family Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0891917098 |
Customer Reviews:
Great anthropomorphic adventure!.......2002-05-15
The Claw and the Spiderweb tells the story of a despondent hero, the cat Sir Pontipaws of Meadow-Wood, and his fight against the vicious Lord Claw, a bear ruler who has become evil from power. After his friend Sir Adkins the owl is captured while traveling to Claw's kingdom, Pontipaws sets off to rescue him. With the help of a small spider, Webberly, a white owl named Lady Snowdrop, and a brave beaver, they manage to infiltrate the castle and rescue Adkins. But it is only with the help of the Great White Eagle, a legend no one thought was real, that they together are truely able to defeat Lord Claw. The novel is very well written and Reddix really has you worrying for her characters. Pontipaws, too, is an appealing protagionist, but unlike you would expect a hero to be, he has flaws, which also helps to make him believeable. If anthropomorphic fantasy is your thing, be sure to read this novel! ^_^
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- An interesting variation
- a high school student
- Read this book third, not first, for your own good.
- If you love Harry Potter, you'll love Alissa Meson!
- Lovely and orginal
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Forgotten Truth
Dawn Cook
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Lost Truth
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ASIN: 0441011179
Release Date: 2003-11-25 |
Book Description
When a shapeshifting student is transported back four centuries, she is in danger of being permanently changed into her dragon form, with no memory of her human life-or love.
Customer Reviews:
An interesting variation.......2005-09-19
Forgotten Truth, the third book in the Truth series, has little to do with the first two books in the series. The plot that dominated those two books was resolved at the end of the second book, and Hidden Truth has the characters pick up with their lives and then throws unrelated challenges at them. It is really more of a sequel than part of a compact series that follows one main plotline throughout.
In Forgotten Truth, Alissa, the main character of the Truth novels, is transported back in time approximately four hundred years to a time when the keep is thriving instead of abandoned. There, she meets Masters she has only heard about and encounters a much younger version of Lodesh, the not-quite-ghost she awakened in the second book.
Though it does not really continue the plot of First Truth and Hidden Truth, Forgotten Truth is still engaging and something that fans of the previous two novels will likely enjoy. Here, the reader gets to see Alissa mature some and become more confident in her abilities as both human and raku. Readers are also introduced to many new characters that they will, in a way already be familiar with from the first two books as Alissa meets the students, Keepers, and Masters of the past.
Cook does an admirable job weaving the plot, focusing mostly on Alissa and what she is learning and doing as she attempts both to find her way back to her time, but also giving time to Strell, Useless, and Lodesh as they try to figure out what happened to Alissa and how to get her back. The jumps from one time to another are never jarring, and they never leave the reader wondering too much, though they do leave some immediate things unresolved to keep interest. It is a difficult balance to maintain, and Cook does it well.
The returning characters in Forgotten Truth have mostly reached the point where they're rather stagnant and there is little development for any of them other than Alissa. They still have the depth that they had achieved in the prior novels, but they do not change much during the course of this one. However, there are several new characters introduced, and they are all also delightfully well-rounded, dynamic characters who are a lot of fun to get to know. It is the characters that Alissa meets in the past that keeps the book from becoming simply another "Lost in the wrong time" book.
Though the general plot has certainly been done before, Cook manages to keep it fresh and interesting through the characters and by tying all the events that Alissa experiences back into the stories and events from the previous two books. It isn't so much what happens that keeps it interesting, but more what the reader gets to see and who the reader gets to meet.
In many ways, Forgotten Truth is better and more exciting than certainly First Truth and to some extent Hidden Truth. Anyone who enjoyed the first two books in the series will like this one and newcomers to the series won't find themselves quite as lost as they would starting with the second book, though they will miss a lot of what is being referred to.
a high school student.......2005-02-27
This was an excellent book! I couldn't put it down and ended up finishing it in one day. Definitely the best book in the series so far, I can't wait to read the next one.
Read this book third, not first, for your own good........2004-11-27
This book was a very detailed, well written book. However, I bought it on impulse at a bargain bookstore before I even knew there were books preceeding it, so for a while I was kind of lost. I understood the main plot, because they go over it slowly. I am looking foward to reading the first two and any others in the series. I liked the ending, even though it was abrupt, because I know there will be anothre one after that.
This is a really good book, Dawn Cook's characters seem real, and you just want to keep reading. However, make sure you read the first two first, you won't be totally lost, but it'll take a while to understand the plot.
If you love Harry Potter, you'll love Alissa Meson!.......2004-08-19
The series First Truth, Hidden Truth and Forgotten Truth are adventure books. If you like Harry Potter books, you'll love the writing of Dawn Cook. Alissa Meson takes us on her journey from being a simple foothills girl to magic, mystery and love. I just can't put these books down!
Lovely and orginal.......2004-07-29
How disappointed I was to finish this book and realize I would have to wait for the next. I picked up the first in the series after reading the reviews and recommendations through amazon.com and have no regrets.
In this third installment, Alissa, our main character, is still struggling with flying lessons as a ruku and is practicing her skills as a master. Unfortunately, during one practice of tripping the lines, she is transported back hundreds of years in time. Back to when the castle was teaming with people. She meets new friends and interesting new characters, but also one old friend.
She tries despirately to get back especially when she realizes she is loosing control to Beast and soon realizes if she does not figure a way home, she could become Beast permentely.
What I like the most of Cook's book is her witty characters. I laughed aloud several times from their antics. Especially in the end. Just remember this: "meat" and "I only need one night," and think of me. I'm smiling again just thinking about it.
Book Description
This classic companion to The World's Religions articulates the remarkable unity that underlies the world's religious traditions
Customer Reviews:
Decent but distracted..........2007-04-23
Overall, interesting read. However, Smith's attempts to utilize knowledge from quantum mechanics, evolutionary theory, and complex metaphysical claims seems hurried and constrained given the fact that the book is just under 150 pages. It is unclear how much actual knowledge Smith actual has of such areas but his inclusion of them is too long to be considered brief reference and too short to be considered persuasive. I found his metaphysical views and knowledge of a wide variety of religions to be refreshing and interesting, his criticism of what he calls "scientism" was thought provoking, and his attempt at tackling this issue was respectable. However, I did feel his main thesis was to break down the belief in any horizontal progress at all and to do that he felt he needed to collapse the pillar of evolution; he failed on both accounts. He seems to myopically filter out any positive description of how medicine has generated huge positives for society, how society is much more egalitarian, etc., and instead chooses to focus in how more traditional hunter cultures only worked for six hours a day and that somehow makes them the Golden Era of humanity. His work would have had a lot more force if he would have acknowledged the positives that science and empiricism can have and used more historical/cultural examples of how the idea of progress is misguided. For a look into what Smith was getting at Dawson's Progress and Religion is a better text. First half of the book was intriguing and well worth the read, but after that it seemed to be too hurried and loose to award any significant benefit.
An Enjoyable Read.......2006-06-02
While Forgotten Truth may be a highly personal reflection on the world's reliigons by a man who may know more about them than anybody else alive, it still touches on themes that can be found, if not specifically, then at least generally in historical world religions. The book reflects Smith's specific philosophical interests, as its main thesis is based on the old Greek idea of a chain of being stretching from matter to spirit, but this framework can at least approximate the viewpoints of other religions and religious philosophies the world over.
While the book decries the perceived elevation of science to a standard of values and ultimately the only legitimate way to acquire knowledge about reality, it has a genuinely positive view of science as a way to gain knowledge about the material world and a glimpse of that which is "beyond the material." At the same time, I worry that Smith has too much faith in the research of psychedelics to back up the formulations of the primordial tradition. Even in the 1970's this faith was unwarranted.
Overall, I appreciate that Smith has offered us a glimpse into his personal philosophy and that he argues that traditional religious worldviews have a more integral, fluid, and trans-historical vision of reality than the modern worldviews with their basis in notions of historical progress, the hope offered by advancements in science and technology, and the pervasive attitude that the physical universe and life on this earth are the only reality that we will ever know, even if Smith's argument sounds highly Neoplatonic and so non-universal at times.
Therefore I recommend this book, even though I am not sure it really uncovers the common vision of the world's religions as much as it interprets these religions in light of a Western, highly Platonic worldview. Still, it is a commendable presentation of the primordial tradition.
If you are seeking meaning in your life, read this book!.......2006-04-07
This is a great little book for people that are searching for meaning in a modern world. It looks at the common core of the world's wisdom traditions in a very thoughtful and sometimes even poetic way. It is not really a comprehensive, academic exploration of the world's wisdom traditions, but rather a summary with personal reflections from a man who studied religions all of his life.
The power of this little book is revealed in the language that the author uses to express his points so beautifully. It sheds light on the interiority of the universe in a way that the average person can relate to. In other words, it's not written like a philosophical treatise.
There are some criticisms below that indicate that this book is dated. There is some truth to that if what you are looking for is the most up-to-date, factual and well-referenced book on the subject. However, if you are new to this area, you will find an enjoyable, educational, fascinating and thought provoking journey into the very heart of the world's religions.
Because of the nature of the subject matter, Huston Smith is sharing a lot of his own personal viewpoints. However, as someone who has been exploring this territory for his entire 80+ year life with a best seller on world religions under his belt, he is a quite a credible tour guide in this subject. That is not to say there aren't shortcomings to the book, but he writes from his heart and years of experience, which to me is well worth listening to.
I like Huston Smith's reflections on the shortcomings of science and I think most people will find them good food for thought. Science holds such a place of prominence in our culture that alternatives to the modern and post-modern worldviews are not often entertained. This book certainly raises the right questions in the area, but some of the criticism about not touching on quantum physics, living system theory, etc. is warranted. This would have given the book more punch in these chapters.
I still give Huston Smith a 5 for his power to use words that touch the heart and provoke responses from people's depths. It is very difficult to write a book that is all things to all people, but for its length, this is a wonderful read and introduction to the perrenial philosophy.
Thought Provoking .......2005-08-05
Huston Smith probes deep into the ideas that underlie all religion. He does not solely restrict himself to the 'major' religions, but rather examines the frame work, the ideas on which all religion and spirituality rest. He even allows himself to delve into science as he ventures to show how some recent (when the book was written) scientific evidence only furthers the case that there is 'Something' else to this universe than our simple existence. The questions that he seeks to answer through the frameowrk he develops in the early chapters, and in my opinion answers as well as any human can, are: Who is 'God'; Who are 'we'; What is our relationship with 'God'; And what does this relationship imply for our earthly life.
This book is not written for the beginner, but if you are bold enough to take it on it will bring your understanding of religion to an entirely new level.
A Suprisingly Subversive Little Book.......2005-07-30
Huston Smith doesn't seem like the type to write a subversive book. A highly respected academic and scholar of religion, Smith comes off, in his other works, as the soul of moderation (and by all accounts, he is). Here we see a different side of Dr. Smith, however- for 167 all-too-brief pages, he takes the gloves off.
In "Forgotten Truth", Smith goes on the warpath. His target? All the "sacred cows" of modernity. Neo-Darwinism? Smash. Materialist ontology? Bash. Progress? Crash. In their place, Smith creates a syncretic view of spiritual realities throughout history, and their basic structure- the psychic plane of the shamanistic "spirit world", the celestial realm of angels and archetypes, all the way up to absolute spirit- the Godhead, Sunyata, Brahma. Contesting modernity's "reign of quantity", Smith insists on the superiority of hierarchies of quality.
Smith isn't always entirely convincing, but he does present a daring critique of materialism and neo-darwinism. The appendix, on Stan Grof's LSD research, is also a worthwhile addition.
Book Description
Can the Lord come back before the elect are saved? This and many other questions are answered in Anderson's thought-provoking study.
Customer Reviews:
Forgotten Truths.......2001-01-11
In following with Sir Anderson other works, when reading this book it becomes quite clear why this is the same man from Scottland Yard who caught Jack the Ripper. Clearly his heart for knowledge is shown in his indepth look into the Bible and God's wisdom for our lives. The truths explained are quite applicable for our society so filled with malfescience.
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Reincarnation A Study of Forgotten Truth
E. D. Walker
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Reincarnation | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0766129292 |
Book Description
Theosophical text on reincarnation. Contents: Introduction; What is reincarnation? Western evidences of reincarnation; Objections to reincarnation; Western prose writers upon reincarnation; Poetry of reincarnation in Western literature; Reincarnation among the ancients; Reincarnation in the Bible; Reincarnation in early Christendom; Reincarnation in the East today; Eastern poets upon reincarnation; Esoteric oriental reincarnation; Transmigration through animals; What then of death, heaven, and hell? Karma, the companion truth of reincarnation; Conclusion; Appendix (with bibliography).
Average customer rating:
- The truth is finally unfolding
- NOBLE TRUTH
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The Black American Handbook for Survival through the 21st Century. Volume 1: The Forgotten Truth Behind Racism in America
RaDine Amen-ra
Manufacturer: Quantum Leap Spiritual Life Center Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books | 19th Century | 20th Century | 21st Century | African Americans | Civil War | Colonial Period | General | Revolution & Founding | State & Local
African-American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Native American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Genealogy | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0970545509 |
Book Description
This book dispels all the myths that have been portrayed as the truth for decades. This book explains and documents the actual heritage of the people who were enslaved in the Americias, the racial identity of the American Indians, what the English term of Indian represents, and why sytematic discrimination and insitutionlized racism is still being enforced aganist Black Americans today?
Customer Reviews:
The truth is finally unfolding.......2006-02-03
This book is an amazing, eye opening book. This book pioneered a new area of research!
A large amount of so called black Americans have stories of American Indian mothers or grandmothers. These stories are largely ignored by black American families who see themselves as not being American Indian but African. The only link they have to being African is that an ancestor was labeled negro at one point in their history. This book points out that the world "Negro" only refers to dark-skinned people, it does NOT refer to any country of origin.
If you start doing your research you find that between 1492 and 1651 a large number of Indian slaves were taken. If you do even more research you find that any Indian captured "against the united states" was sent to the Caribbean, the same place that slaves were being shipped to the new world!! (a side note: very few, if any, africans landed directly onto North America, all africans landed in the Carribean first, then were shipped out to SOUTH America) Kidnapped/Captured Indians would leave their land Indian, take a boat ride to the Carribean and then Show up in their land as a Negro slave! Entire peoples were being labeled "colored" or negro like the Appalachians and Nanticoke! And lets not forget the one-drop rule....so if you looked too dark, you were labeled a Negro, plain and simple, but all eastern woodland Indians (the first to be seen by a european) were dark-skinned, and would be hence labeled colored or Negro by the one-drop rule!
As for the other reviewer, you are either Amerindian or African. If you are African, then call up your home country in that continent and ask them to pay for your relocation to your homeland and give you full citizenship to your rightful homeland (not residency) as Israel does for their displaced. For those of us who have no political or land connection to africa, we are American Indian and poud of it.
Other Books to Read:
-Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples
-The Olmecs
-The MoundBuilders
Get reading! Get Writing!
NOBLE TRUTH.......2004-05-16
NOBLE TRUTH THIS BOOK OPENS YOUR EYES TO WHAT I NEW IN MY HEART.
I AM AFRICAN YET I KNOW MY PEOPLE ARE ORIGINAL TO THIS LAND.
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Careless Hands: The Forgotten Truth of Gary Sprake (Sport (Tempus))
Stuart Sprake , and
Tim Johnson
Manufacturer: Tempus Publishing, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Soccer | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Football (American) | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Soccer | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0752436902 |
Book Description
Throughout his career and life Gary Sprake, the Leeds United and Welsh International goalkeeper, has been a controversial figure. Gary is best known for his five or six mistakes, even though he played over 500 games at the top level. To ridicule Sprake was an effective way to ridicule Leeds United. However, this prevalent public image is not a viewpoint shared by other contemporaries and opponents who argue Gary was in fact one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation. Written by his nephew Stuart, with Gary's full commitment, this book explores the reasons why Gary has been much maligned, and looks at the controversy of bribery and corruption.
Average customer rating:
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A Forgotten Truth
D.M.A. Leggett , and
M.G. Payne
Manufacturer: Pilgrim Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0946259143 |
Average customer rating:
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Forgotten Truth
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 006090576X |
Books:
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- Summer of Betrayal: A Novel
- Teaching Children to Read: Putting the Pieces Together (4th Edition)
- The Best Short Stories of Theodore Dreiser
- The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
- The Dead Hour: A Novel
- The Ex Factor: A Novel
- The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother's Wartime Courage
- The Fruit of Stone
- The Hamptons: Life Behind the Hedges
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