Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution

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Interesting Perspective

Stoned Apes

Great Book

AMAZING BOOK!

An in depth look into Mr. McKenna's view of the mind of modern man.

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution
Terence Mckenna
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Substance Abuse | Recovery | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
McKenna, Terence | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0553371304
Release Date: 1993-01-01

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Perspective.......2007-09-21

I can't give 5 stars to this book because I know the history of Terence McKenna and his drug use. That said the book does pose interesting answers to age old questions.

"What was the fruit in the garden of Eden?"

"Why did our brains grow larger in ratio to our body weight than any animals in a relatively short amount of time?"

"Why is caffeine an acceptable drug to use daily? Should it be?"

I think people who read this should know it's an opinion given with historical facts to make his opinion seem like scientific and historical fact.

For instance he references what drugs were in use in certain cultures at what times then equates their overall temperament in historical events to the widespread use of those drugs. His claims may or may not have merit, we'll never know but it is an opinion none the less.

That said it is a very interesting read that is hard to put down. Attention keeping, he has one of a kind theories on lesser known early civilizations that could use a second look.

I was sorry to hear his library and personal notes burned up in a fire in early 2007, adding just more mystery to this one of a kind author.

Stoned Apes.......2007-07-31

I seriously was astounded by this book. Great historical knowledge on all sorts of drug and plant use from primates to Bush administration. McKenna really goes in depth about the evolution of language and consciousness. His theory that primates found psilocybin containing mushrooms growing in cow dung in the grasslands of Africa. Is represented quite well. He believes we may have literally "eaten our way to a higher conscious". McKenna really makes the war on drugs look like an absolute joke. He is subtly condescending of close minded politics yet brilliant and charming in informing readers of the power and potential of consciousness expanding drugs if taken properly.

Great Book.......2007-05-13

This book is very good if you are into evolution, shamanism, and the human life. I recommend everyone should read this book. You might get a new insight about life.

AMAZING BOOK!.......2007-02-04

I enjoyed this book and every single last bit of information with it! The information in here I highly agree with and realize is something that we as a nation need to start being a part of. We have learned from the 60's, but it was still a wonderful time. We can take that and modernize it, maybe even improve on some things. But first-we need to end the war on drugs. Overall-this book was great, I highly recommend it, one will learn so much.

An in depth look into Mr. McKenna's view of the mind of modern man........2007-01-11

I really did enjoy the honest and straightforward approach of Mr. McKenna's writing on the subject.

Food of the Gods: the Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge a Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution

Average customer rating:

Food of the Gods: the Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge a Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution
Terence Mckenna
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7990M

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Food of the Gods: The Search for The Original Tree of Knowledge; a Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution
Terence McKenna
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBC33O

Customer Reviews:

Virtual Reality.......2006-01-24

Tom Clancy's Virtual Vandals is a great book in an exciting series with lots of action in this future based military story. This book is about Matt Hunter, the main character, with his friends David Grey and Leif Anderson which are teenaged kids who can figure out computers better than their adult counterparts. Matt Hunter and his friends go to a baseball game when the vandals come and light the stadium up with their virtual proxy's Tommy guns. It takes Matt many clues to figure out all their identities when he uncovers the mastermind behind it all.
This book's got it all action, drama, suspense and pieces of comedy here and there. The Theme is Don't give up to me because the characters keep going even after they think it's hopeless. This book should be read from ages 10 and up.
Read it for yourself it's a great book that you are going to love.

Top Notch Book .......2006-01-22

Tom Clancy's book, Virtual Vandals, is one of the best. Matt Hunter is a young Net Force Explorer. When he and his friends, some in holo form, attend a virtual baseball game in Carmen Yards in the year 2025, they find themselves under fire! A group of 1930's gangster style holo's has appeared and are shooting at the holo's with virtual Tommy guns! This book is amazing. I found myself staying up late into the early hours of the mourning just to read Tom Clancy's Virtual Vandals. I really couldn't put it down! This book is a must read.

A good read for young science-fiction fans.......2005-07-21

Matt Hunter, an enthusiastic Net Force Explorer, and his friends are sitting in the stadium of Camden Yards watching a holographic baseball game. There are only a few people who are physically present at Camden Yards, because most spectators have bought a virtual seat and are watching the game from their home, while at the same time being represented as holographic images at the stadium. Suddenly four virtual viewers stand up from their seats and start firing at the audience with machine guns. One of Matt's friends is hit by a holographic bullet and struggles for his life. Matt starts to wonder how it is possible that people can get hurt by virtual bullets. With the help of the Net Force Explorer team he starts his investigations and soon reveals something that is much bigger than what that vandal's prank might seem at first sight.

Virtual Vandals is a decent and well-written science-fiction story that will definitely serve as an enjoyable read for many youngsters. The main theme is virtual reality, but as opposed to another Net Force book titled The Deadliest Game, this time the storyline is not entirely submerged into a virtual world. Typically of a virtual world is that everything can happen and nothing needs to be explainable. The authors have not stepped into this trap and have kept the suspense into the 'real' world, which is in my opinion the better choice. The story contains a few twists that might not all be as convincing, but they keep up the pace so that Virtual Vandals can be called a real page-turner.

Interesting YA Novel for Computer Geniuses.......2004-03-17

The year is 2025, and computers rule the world. Which is why the Net Force was formed. To protect the United States of America from all online criminal activity. But there is also a group of teenage computer geniuses who sometimes know more than adults, who are known as the Net Force Explorers.

While watching a holographic "old-timers" baseball game, Net Force Explorer Matt Hunter, and several of his Net Force Explorer friends are filled with excitement at seeing the legendary Babe Ruth come up to bat, but while doing his well-known routine of pointing to the stands, a group of four people dressed in outfits from the 30's, stand up and open fire on the entire stadium with Tommy guns. Everyone knows that virtual bullets can kill you, and Matt and his Net Force Explorer friends know that this group of vandals must be stopped. But the stadium shoot-out is just the beginning. Now Matt and his friends are worried that perhaps even the legenday Net Force Explorers will be unable to stop them next time.

I found that the first installment of TOM CLANCY'S NET FORCE was both intriguing and interesting. The fact that VITUAL VANDALS takes place in the year 2025 will gain fans from the futuristic and science fiction fans, and all of the talk about the Internet and computers will intrigue the so-called computer geniuses of the world. The characters are intelligent, and computer-savvy, who embark on numerous adventures throughout the novel, and will have the reader rooting for them from the very first page until the very last page. A must-have.

Erika Sorocco

Virtual Vandals is a great book!!!.......2003-12-19

Virtual Vandals is a great book! This book is a great thrill ride that will keep you an the edge of your seat. Virtural Vandals has plenty of mystery that will keep you guessing with its twists and turns. Your main character through this ride is Matt Hunter. He lives in a world where our present day computers are obsolete. Your computer can send you zipping through cyber space with a single voice command. The book starts off with our main character Matt and his friends watching a virtual baseball game when some people in the croud start ripping rounds and spraying everything with bullets. After this incident Matt sets of in search for the virtual vandals that had hurt his friend Leif.If you enjoyed my review I would strongly recomend this book.

Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers: Virtual Vandals

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Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers: Virtual Vandals
Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
Manufacturer: Headline
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0747260710

6 Titles By Tom Clancy Net Force YA Series : The Deadliest Game Virtual Vandals Cyberspy One Is the Loneliest Number The Ultimate Escape Shadow of Honor

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6 Titles By Tom Clancy Net Force YA Series : The Deadliest Game Virtual Vandals Cyberspy One Is the Loneliest Number The Ultimate Escape Shadow of Honor
Tom Clancy , and Steve Pieczenik
Manufacturer: Berkley Jam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000O3DJWE

Product Description

Six mmpb books. 6 Titles By Tom Clancy Net Force YA Series : The Deadliest Game Virtual Vandals Cyberspy One Is the Loneliest Number The Ultimate Escape Shadow of Honor.

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Virtual Vandals
Tom and Pieczenik, Steve Clancy
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GRL86M

Book Description

From 1933 to 1934, Jorge Luis Borges, the master of fiction whose work would change the literary world, published a series of "falsifications and distortions" in the Buenos Aires newspaper Critica. These "falsifications" used as their starting point the lives of real villains and desperados. Borges then elaborated using all of the anecdotes and myths about these historical characters, creating what amounted to "nonfictional fictions." The entire series was then published in book form as A Universal History of Infamy. Now Rhys Hughes, a Welshman of some infamy himself, has summoned his vast storytelling powers to create A New Universal History of Infamy, with all-new historical characters as the focus of his nonfiction fictions. Come along on a wild ride with unsavory types of every description. Entertaining and erudite at the same time, Hughes' book also includes some of the literary parodies Borges himself delighted in creating. With an introduction by noted critic John Clute and an afterword by Michael Simanoff.

Book Description

This report is on the use of oxygen in a way that is both simple and effective for the prevention of aging and improving your health. EWOT (pronounced ee-watt) stands for Exercise With Oxygen Therapy. This method of prolonging your life is so simple that it's hard to believe it could work, but it does and you can do it at home at a minimal cost. When your cells don't get enough oxygen, they degenerate and die and so you degenerate and die. It's as simple as that.

Customer Reviews:

Stop aging or slow the process.......2006-10-03

Some useful information, but nothing you can't get for free on the internet. Book is only 45 pages long and doesn't justify price. I've read a lot of articles by this author, and usually respect his writings and opinions, but am very disappointed in this case.

Interesting short read and lots of good info.......2006-07-01

I have been using oxygen peroxide for quite a few years, not IV therapy or internally, but for ear infections, chronic sinuses, bathing ocassionally, gargling etc. and I can tell you that it does work. As a sufferer of chronic ear and sinus infections 10 yrs. plus after using the peroxide for these they have subsided. NO more antibiotics and no more chronic sinus issues! Maybe I will write a book telling you how effective it actually worked for me. HA! Not really, but I can't say enough about it's effectiveness.
It is not be the only book or source of information on peroxide out there, many websites are giving lots of info on the use of this but for an interesting read I would recommend it. I just wish I could find a practioner in my area! = )

Stop Aging or slow the Process using EWOT.......2005-08-10

This book was very interesting and very easy to read. As far as following his suggestion, it would be a little difficult. But it has put me on the right track and I feel that is what an "info" book should do...make you think about how to make their advise work.

Average customer rating:

It's Hot Out Today, a Dessert from the Icebox Sounds Good

Icebox Desserts: 100 Cool Recipes for Icebox Cakes, Pies, Parfaits, Mousses, Puddings, and More
Lauren Chattman
Manufacturer: Harvard Common Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Sewing, Craft & Hobby (12890711) | Refinements | Home & Garden | Color (color_map) | Material (material_browse) | Pattern (pattern_browse-bin) | Theme (theme_browse-bin) | Use (feature_browse-bin)
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Product Features:

Icebox Desserts by Lauren Chattman

HARVARD COMMON PRESS

ASIN: 155832271X

Product Description

Icebox Desserts shows you how easy it is to prepare a wide variety of sweet treats that require no baking and little cooking and often involve just a quick assembly of ingredients. Put everything together then pop the dessert into your refrigerator or freezer for a few hours before serving. It's that easy! Features 100 cool recipes for icebox cakes, pies, parfaits, mousses, and puddings, including:

White Chocolate Tapioca Pudding

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Ice Cream Pops

Peach-Almond Icebox Cupcakes

Raspberry Sorbet Truffles

Chestnut Mousse Charlotte with Chocolate-Orange Sauce

Lime-Coconut Panna Cotta

Chocolate Caramel Nut Squares

Grasshopper Pie

168 pages with full color illustrations

Customer Reviews:

It's Hot Out Today, a Dessert from the Icebox Sounds Good.......2005-06-16

With the temperature the way it is today, anything from the icebox seems better than things that comes from the oven. Then when I started looking at the pictures of thing made with puddings, ice cream, cookies, cakes, pies, tarts, oh dear!

The basic rules here are: minimal cooking (sometimes a stovetop for a few minutes), easy to find ingredients (is there anywhere in the country, even the world, where you can't find Oreo cookies?), chocolate (mandatory, unfortunately addictive -- do you suppose the druggie cops will find out about this one?), some liqueurs (and wines and spirits, especially things like Grand Marnier), fresh fruits, frozen pound cake. etc.

The fun of cookbooks is taking their recipes and adjusting them to your own likes. Two days from now I'm taking the dessert to a dinner. Her Chestnut Mouse Charlotte with Chocolate-Orange Sauce looks to me like it will convert well into Pecan Mouse Charlotte with Chocolate-Orange Sauce and a layer of Coconut on top of everything else. Hmmmm! Maybe a little Grand Marnier on top of that.

Want to come join us?

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United States Coinage: A Study By Type
Ron Guth , and Jeff Garrett
Manufacturer: Whitman Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Coins & Medals | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0794817823

Book Description

The colorful tin decorations seen throughout the American southwest and in Mexico are the inspiration for exciting these tin craft projects you can make yourself. In TIN CRAFT, author Fern-Rae Abraham introduces the marvels of this economical and satisfying pastime. Taking advantage of the wonderful colors and shiny surfaces of easily available commercial tin cans, the author gives detailed instructions for projects with patterns for you to trace, cut out, and solder into delicate sprays of daisies, exotic lilies, birds to hold up festive swags, and sparkling holiday angels. This informative craft book is fully illustrated by the author and complete with lists of necessary tools and materials for each project. So venture off to your local grocery store, purchase a six-pack of soda pop, return home, empty the soda pop in the kitchen sink and begin your lifelong obsession with TIN CRAFT! Have fun and be sure not to cut yourself.

Customer Reviews:

Tin Craft: A Workbook.......2006-02-20

Good book, well written, and has a lot of practical information one can use. I will be using much of what I read in my craftwork. I would buy it again, but I have one now.

basic tin can craft introduction.......2005-06-14

while the professional Editorial Review / Book Description indicates otherwise ("venture off to your local grocery store, purchase a six-pack of soda pop, return home, empty the soda pop in the kitchen sink and begin your lifelong obsession") this book has no hints about how to make those cool, colorful crafts that we've seen in import stores using "wonderful colors and shiny surfaces of easily available commercial cans", again quoting the professional book review.

if you really need this, a book with such basic instructions, you will also need an adult to help you open the cans, flatten them, and curl the ends.

what a disappointment!

This is a great book for all tin lovers.......1999-09-02

Its the best tin can book in the whole world and I love it with my hole heart. This book helped me to make different arts out of tin even thought I am a poor crafts person! Its a must have!!!!

Average customer rating:
How to Build a House With an Architect
John Milnes Baker
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Design & Construction | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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American House Styles: A Concise Guide

ASIN: 0060962518

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How to Build a House with an Architect
John Milnes AIA Baker
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OERMDU

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How To Build A House With An Architect, Revised and Expanded
John Milnes Baker
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEO3GY

Amazon.com

Soprano Astrid Varnay's career began in fairy-tale fashion. She made her operatic debut (at the Met) as a last-minute replacement for a huge star, Lotte Lehmann. Varnay was 23, and the role was Sieglinde in Die Walküre, opposite one of the greatest of all tenors, Lauritz Melchior. Though the attendant fanfare was drowned by events--Pearl Harbor was attacked the next day--she went on to a long and admired career.

If you're looking for bitchy gossip, this memoir will disappoint you. Varnay has an old-fashioned courtliness to her, and she has unfailingly glowing things to say about her colleagues--most of them. Rudolf Bing and Herbert von Karajan are pointed exceptions. Conflicts with the "austere Viennese martinet" Bing led to Varnay's absence from the Met for nearly 20 years. As the focus of her career shifted to Germany, she left New York and settled in Munich. (Though often thought to be Scandinavian--she was born in Sweden, to Hungarian parents--Varnay grew up in the United States.)

As much an actress as a singer, Varnay was praised for her powerful characterizations. She felt a kinship with Wieland Wagner, in many of whose productions she appeared at Bayreuth during the 1950s and '60s, and whose pursuit of dramatic truth mirrored her own. Varnay describes her method of probing a character, offering insights into each of her major roles. Her career had three phases: principal dramatic-soprano parts (Wagner's Brünnhilde and Isolde, Beethoven's Leonore, Strauss's Elektra); character roles, frequently with a villainous tinge (Klytamnestra, Herodias); and finally--stretching into her late 70s--cameo appearances as maids or grandmothers.

Varnay's chatty narrative includes plenty of anecdotes about colleagues like Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson. She amusingly tells of near-disasters onstage: the Tristan who falls asleep while she's singing the Liebestod, the blackout in the middle of a performance, the listing tree that the singers have to hold up by taking turns leaning against it. Although Varnay is enough of a diva to report carefully on all her accolades, she comes across as an unpretentious working woman with a delight in the wonderful artists she has collaborated with. The only complaint with the book: not enough pictures. --David Olivenbaum

Book Description

For Astrid Varnay, opera was the family business. The daughter of coloratura soprano Maria Javor and dramatic tenor Alexander Varnay, she literally grew up backstage at the opera. Vocally and musically trained by her mother and mentor (and later husband) Hermann Weigert, she was just twenty-three years old when she made her unofficial debut at the Metropolitan Opera as a last-minute replacement for the suddenly ill Lotte Lehmann. Varnay's critically acclaimed performance as Sieglinde in Die Walkuere catapulted her into the limelight.

Varnay reflects on her remarkable life in opera, discussing her signature roles and performances, vocal preparation and technique, interpretive acting style, and her seamless transition from leading soprano to character roles, including her switch from Elektra to Klytemnaestra in Strauss's Elektra.

Her engaging and witty memoir is filled with frank, often critical, observations about many of the most significant vocal artists, conductors, and directors of the twentieth century. She describes her lifelong friendship with operatic idol Kirsten Flagstad, the years at the Met and conflicts with Rudolf Bing, her appearances at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, and her artistic rift with Herbert von Karajan.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating and Funny!.......2007-02-12

Astrid Varnay, who died in 2006, just months after her very close friend and colleague Birgit Nillson, is enjoying a well-deserved renaissance, with the release of the Testament early stereo recordings of the Ring from Bayreuth in 1955. From her Met debut at the age of 23 as a last-minute replacement for an ill Lotte Lehmann as Siegelinde in Die Walkure, on the day BEFORE Pearl Harbor, through her primary career as the premier Wagnerian dramatic soprano of the 1950s, to her second career as a mezzo-soprano singing character roles into the 1990s, Astrid Varnay is one of the great opera artists of the 20th century.
Born in Stockholm to Hungarian parents, raised in New York City, and moving to Munich after being widowed in her late 30s, Varnay had an absolutely fascinating career that she relates with humor and verve. Indeed, many stories are just hysterical, such as a Dallas Tristan und Isolde, where Varnay, tenor Max Lorenz (as Tristan), and mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom (as Bragaine), took turns holding up a collapsing fake tree! Although never mean-spirited, Varnay paints amusing and sometimes sharp pictures of many of opera's greatest names. (She, along with many in the opera world, saves some of her sharpest points for Met manager Rudolf Bing.)
This should be in any opera fan's collection of opera books.

I hated to see it end.......2006-02-01

I'm not especially interested in biographies of performers. Especially not autobiographies - these tend to be long lists of how wonderful the subject/author is/was and a bit of score settling to liven things up.
Varnay is not above score settling (in her genteel way, she eviscerates Rudolf Bing and she details her feud and glorious reconciliation with Karajan - a Salzburg Elektra that everyone should hear), but her narrative is quite gracious and restrained overall.
It's also engrossing to read. Although Varnay spends a little more time than perhaps she needed telling us what a hard worker and consummate professional she was and is, her actual thinking about the operas and characters she was involved in is fascinating stuff and a valuable guide for singers and perhaps actors as well.
Following her around the world to different opera houses and watching how things work (or, all too often, don't work) is engrossing and her comments on professional colleagues - always judicious - are usually quite on the mark.
There are only a few videos available showing Varnay's art (which is too bad) and not many more sound-only recordings (which is even worse). If you look, you can find her as Brunnhilde in Act III of Die Walkure (EMI with Karajan - they were getting along then) and a complete Gotterdammerung (Testament with Knappertsbusch)both from the 1951 Bayreuth festival; a couple of Ortruds from Bayreuth Lohengrins; a Senta from Bayreuth conducted by Knappertsbusch (Music & Arts); and the Salzburg Elektra with Karajan (Orfeo). There are also a couple of complete Rings available on private or semi-private labels and, allegedly, the 1955 Keilberth Ring due out on Testament. No Italian repertoire, alas, no Kundry, double alas, and no complete Tristan that I know of, triple alas.
My only complaint about this book, aside from that it wasn't twice as long, is that Varnay is and was so much a person of the theatre that it's hard to find the real person underneath. This is very much a narrative of the role of Astrid Varnay, great and hard-working opera star. Astrid Varnay the person is waiting backstage for the performance to be over, which is probably where she was for most of her life.
Still, it's a great treat to spend a couple of hours with a charming, intelligent, literate, kind, and witty companion who has so much good stuff to tell you. It's only afterward that you wonder whether there was a person behind all that dazzle who was sometimes frightened, lonely, introspective, or grateful and happy over little human things. I hope that person writes a companion volume someday. I bet she'd be wonderful to get to know as well...

Five Stars for operatic legend Astrid Varney's memoir.......2004-04-17

Astrid Varney was born in Stockholm to two Hungarian opera singers. As a child she lived in South America prior to the family's immigration to New York.
Varney was trained as a singer by her talented mother and an older teacher whom she later married. Varney premiered with the Metropolitan Opera on Dec. 6, 1941 as Sieglinde in Wagner's
monumental "Walkure.' Since thay day Miss Varnay has traveled the world singing in great opera palaces and in regional companies.
Her comments on the life of a classical singer; various colleagues in the field and the various locales her craft has taken her to make for fascinating backstage reading for all of us who are opera buffs.
This biography is well written laced with humor and honesty.
I knew little about Varney prior to reading this book but am glad I made her acqaintance.
Bravissimo to this down to earth diva dedicated to her art!

What a fabulous book for opera lovers.......2001-07-26

I have read this book over and over. Astrid Varnay has so much to offer readers who love opera. It is a great book to read through, but there are parts that take a couple of readings for a trained musician to understand. Her intelligence is evident in every word and so is her humanity. She is most knowledgeable about the works of Wagner and Strauss, so those interested in lighter opera may not be as well served, but her concepts are important for all opera singers. This book is quite honest and those who want some "dirt" on old singers, conductors and impressarios will be well-served. Go for it.

Engrossing musical memoir.......2001-03-23

In the pantheon of twentieth-century Wagnerian sopranos, Astrid Varnay ranks very high, though she is woefully underrepresented on available recordings today. Through the efforts of friends and supporters, detailed in the preface, her autobiography has been made available in English, and music and opera fans everywhere should be grateful.

Varnay's story, told calmly but with frequent flashes of wit, begins with the tale of how her parents, both opera singers, met, married, and made their careers in Europe before coming to the U.S. and settling in New York. Young Violet Varnay, as she was dubbed by a teacher who could not cope with her Hungarian name Ibolyka (little violet), worked as a secretary, waited in the Met standing room line and quietly prepared herself for an operatic career. She prepared so well with her coach and eventual husband, Hermann Weigert, in fact, that her resume was met with astonished laughter at her eventual Met audition. The powers that be were quickly won over upon actually hearing her, and her stage career began at the Met in 1941 as a last-minute replacement for Lotte Lehmann in Die Walkure. Before retiring in the late 90s, after a career spanning more than five decades, her voice and dramatic presence would take her to Bayreuth and all of the great opera houses of the world.

It is of course difficult to say how much of the structure of the book stems from the singer herself, and how much from her co-author, Donald Arthur; but one of the attractions of this memoir is the skillful mix of narrative, anecdote and self-analysis of Varnay's numerous roles. She draws portraits of her husband, family and colleagues that leap vividly from the page, without ever descending to mere bitchiness, though she does allow herself some jabs at Herbert von Karajan and Rudolf Bing. The ultimate impression is of a strong, self-aware but not overweeningly arrogant personality--someone one would like to meet and talk to in person. One is touched by her inexhaustible eagerness to perform, and her capacity for discovering insights into roles usually dismissed as worthy only of comprimaria singers. She is also not above laughing at herself, and includes some amusingly informal photographs. Highly recommended.

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