The Civil War Letters of Joseph K. Taylor of the Thirty-Seventh Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Studies in American History)

Book Description

This book is the deep and touching account of the author who lost both of her parents unexpectedly to cancer within one year of each other. It displays the courage and insight of a spiritual woman who gives up most of her personal life and returns to her Midwest childhood farm roots to be with her mother during her last year of life. In her determination to overcome societal stigmas about death, Suzane is confronted with viewing the dying process in a new way. As she journeys into the depths of human family emotions, this heartfelt story reveals how she discovered the beauty of life through the mystery of dying. This inspirational memoir offers the reader a refreshing and captivating look into death as a sacred event.

Customer Reviews:

Trusting Every Moment.......2001-03-19

This is a book about life, about love, about trust. One of the key points for me is when Suzane Piela's mother, a farmer's wife whose husband has recently passed away and who is now herself diagnosed with cancer, asks her daughter to come home. She asks Suzane to come home, not merely to care for her, but so that she may learn more about her daughter's spirituality, a spirituality that seems so very different from her own midwest teaches, a spirituality that sustains and nourishes her daughter, a spirituality that seems to appeal to her for some reason. How many mothers, afterall, have asked their daughters to teach them about life and God? Edna Piela, as well as her husband John, are obviously strong, good people. The experience of Suzane and her ill parents begins a healing and new birth for them all. The experience of Suzane and her mother, both as individuals and together as family, is beautiful even in their moments of frustration as they evolve to new understandings about "the beauty of life through the mystery of dying." The book is touching, humorous, inspiring, and instructive. And, in more ways than one, readers are also treated to the wonders of the everlasting nature of life as the author, family, and friends enjoy fond greetings from those whom they've loved but obviously not lost.

A Blessing........2000-10-23

Ms. Piela's book is filled with compassion, sincerity, warmth and lessons to be learned for the living and dying. A must to add to your reading list.

The Mystique of Dying.......2000-02-03

Many of us have experienced caregiving and the death of loved ones. Ms Piela takes us on this path again through her account of caring for both terminally ill parents. She gives us insights and understanding that are comforting and yet realistic. The book held my interest. I eventually felt that I was almost a member of the author's family. I cared what happened to them.

A wonderful book that touched my heart!.......1999-11-09

This is a wonderful story about a woman's efforts to bring comfort, understanding and love to her mother and father as they both cope with cancer and dying. Although potential readers might perceive the subject to be depressing, this book is not a downer, but rather a compansionate look at how to create a sacred and fulfilling event for both parents and children as they face living with a life threating disease. I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in spiritual growth and self discovery.

Honest, personal and very touching.......1999-10-26

One of the sentences that touched me deeply, and believe me there are many, was that "we cradle babies into life, why not be cradled out of life." Said by Suzane Piela, the author, as she goes back to her family farm to take care of her mother, ill with cancer. I highly recommend this book, as it is full of compassion, love, wisdom and is also a wonderful read. There is so much more to understand about life and thanks to this book, we do.

Amazon.com

Alex Beam's Gracefully Insane is a knowledgeable historical portrait of New England's McLean Hospital, until recently the mental institution equivalent of the Plaza Hotel. Fenceless and unguarded, McLean's grounds were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted. Amenities included tennis courts, a golf course, room service, and a riding stable. As one director said, "If you don't know where you are, then you're in the right place." Its patients have included James Taylor, Robert Lowell, and Ray Charles. It also looms large in The Bell Jar and Girl, Interrupted, written by former patients Sylvia Plath and Susanna Kaysen. Beam weaves patients' and employees' stories with an informal review of mental health treatments through the years, including lobotomies, insulin-induced comas, ice-water baths, and a ghastly device called the "coercion chair." Gracefully Insane is amiable, lively, and honest. Its many anecdotes (derived from patient records, journals, and interviews) are by turns poignant, humorous, and unsettling. --H. O'Billovitch

Book Description

The Boston Globe #1 bestseller and Book Sense 76 pick: A "candid and engrossing" history of "the Harvard of mental institutions," and of the evolution of psychiatric treatment.

McLean Hospital is one of the most famous, most elite, and once most luxurious mental institutions in America. Its "alumni" include Sylvia Plath, John Forbes Nash, Ray Charles and Susanna Kaysen. James Taylor found inspiration for a song or two there; Frederic Law Olmsted first designed the grounds and later signed in as a patient. In its "golden age," McLean provided as gracious and gentle an environment for the treatment of mental illness as one could imagine. But the golden age is over, and a downsized, downscale McLean is struggling to stay afloat.

Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam's Gracefully Insane is an entertaining and strangely poignant biography of McLean from its founding in 1817 through today. The story of McLean is also the story of the hopes and failures of psychology and psychotherapy; of the evolution of attitudes about mental illness; and of the economic pressures that are making McLean--and other institutions like it--relics of a bygone age.

This is fascinating reading for the many readers interested in either the literature of madness--from The Bell Jar to Girl, Interrupted to A Beautiful Mind--or in the history of its treatment.

Customer Reviews:

Crazy with Class.......2005-07-03

Alex Beam's Gracefully Insane is written with a twofold purpose in mind. On the one hand, Beam introduces readers to the rolling hills and well-appointed grounds of a MacLean, psychiatric hospital of the rich and famous; its residents often referred to the hospital as a university, to themselves as alumni. On the other hand, through the lens of Maclean one sees the evolution of the history of psychiatric practice in America. Here, for the most part, MacClean was neither better nor worse than most. If it was fashionable to dunk patients in vats of cold water or harness them into gyrating chairs, such practices could be found. About the only fashion that could not be accomodated is that practiced today: where the emphasis is on the efficacy of pharmacological medicine. With the end of the extended observation stay, this bastion of outliers gradually loses its psychiatric niche. Still, Gracefully Insane is worth a leisurely read, if only to glimpse Ray Charles, Sylvia Plath, James Taylor and the other members of its distinguished alumni.

Not as page turning as I thought it would be........2005-06-16

I was bored in some parts, it was interesting in other parts. And sometimes it was almost scattered, I didn't find most of it that well put together. And towards the end, it was hard for me to stay involved.

Other then that, it talks about shock treatment, insulin therapy. The famous people who stayed there, who WANTED to stay there. And the doctors behind the scenes.

Overall I give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

Rich in Anecdotal History.......2004-07-07

Beam's "Gracefully Insane" is rich in anecdotal history, but poor in other areas. Makes for a light, enjoyable read, but Beam rarely teases out the interesting insights that arise from his excellent access to the inner workings of America's "Premier" mental hospital.

This book will make you think about the (troubled) history of psychiatry/ treatment of mental illness, and Beam's portrait of this institution caused me to shed no tears for the fall of this fabled refuge for blue blooded loons.

Reading interviews with "graduates", its hard not to question the assumptions that underlied McLean's very reasons for existence. Few of the individuals profiled within seem like they were ever a "danger to self or others". Indeed, when a rash of suicides hit McLean a couple of decades ago, the staff were singularly unprepared to cope. Perhaps this is because the "inmates" were not as bad off as one might suppose?

Makes an interesting companion piece for Goffman's "Asylums".

Fails to paint a picture of McLean, Insanity, or Psychiatry.......2003-12-26

This book promises to depict the way in which caring of the mentally ill has changed over the last 150 years. I wish the author had kept his promise. Back when McLean was called the Boston Lunatic Asylum, life was a little different for the average schizophrenic patient. And the idea of tracing the development of psychiatry by way of a history of McLean is a great idea. Unfortunately, what we get instead is hodge-podge of Boston Brahmin gossip, architectural history, psychiatric theory, and mundane factoids. I was expecting anecdote, but I wanted revealing anecdote. For instance, Beam writes about all the McLean patients who had received lobotomies. But he never delves into how lobotomized patients acted or how they might have felt about the procedure. I would love to have known why old-time psychiatrists thought hydrotherapy was useful for depressed patients. Beam mentions hydrotherapy, but really doesn't do any more than skim the surface. I guess I wish the author had been someone with some background in mental health. As an aside, I thought it was interesting that the subtitle of the paperback ("Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital") is different from that of the hardcover version ("The Rise and Fall of America's Premier Mental Hospital"). I remember when the book first came out that McLean administrators were unhappy with the hardcover title since it suggested that McLean was on the decline. Why would Beam have changed the name? I tend to think that the reasons had to do with selling more copies of his book rather than with any change of opinion on his part. If that is the case, then Beam is more than just a superficial writer, he is also a sell-out.

Esoterica for a niche market.......2003-06-04

GRACEFULLY INSANE is advertised as a narrative description of life inside McLean Hospital, "America's premier mental hospital". More accurately, perhaps, the volume is a superficial history of psychiatric care in the United States, or at least as practiced in the Boston area, using McLean as a backdrop.

Mental health care has come a long way from less enlightened times when, according to author Alex Beam, terrorizing patients into wellness was considered effective:

"One German asylum lowered patients into a dungeon filled with snakes." (My mother, a psychiatrist, once told me about a patient of hers who saw pink snakes on the ceiling. Hmmm, I wonder where Mom did her residency.)

The narrative is at its best when describing the evolution of 19th and 20th century methods of therapy: cold water dunking, bath treatments (hot air, electric light, vapor, salt, sitz, loofah), insulin coma, electroshock, metrazole shock, lobotomy, Freudian analysis, and psychopharmacology. Unfortunately, the author fleshes out the text by describing the experiences of specifically named individuals undergoing such cures, usually at McLean. It was then that my eyes began to glaze over and GRACEFULLY INSANE becomes almost a work of local interest since most of the inmates came from Boston's social upper crust, which regarded the hospital as a handy dumping ground for mentally challenged and inconvenient family members.

I was briefly re-invigorated when a 1948 sex scandal involving McLean's psychiatrist-in-chief and a nurse got the pair prosecuted on a Morals Charge (Oh, puhleeze!). And later in the 60s and 70s, when the badly behaved teenage children of the local gentry, relegated to the institution by clueless parents for too much drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll, upset the traditionally genteel environment.

While mildly entertaining and reasonably informative, GRACEFULLY INSANE came across as too much of a niche market product, appealing perhaps mostly to mental health professionals, residents of Boston and its environs, and fans of certain famous and terminally dysfunctional (i.e. suicidal) poets of New England heritage. I don't fall into any of these categories, though I'm now sufficiently interested to purchase THE BELL JAR and MOUNT MISERY, the former by Sylvia Plath based on her sojourn at McLean, and the latter by Dr. Stephen Bergman (pen name Samuel Shem) based on his medical residency there.

I'll give GRACEFULLY INSANE to my Mom. She can remember the Good Ol' Days of electroshock fondly.

Average customer rating:
Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital
Alex Beam
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7531G

Average customer rating:

I returned this item because the recipes did not represent anything very new to me.

More of a cookbook, less about zen

yummy!

Excellent recipes; the Zen link is tenuous

Zen Cooking

A Taste of Heaven and Earth: A Zen Approach to Cooking and Eating with 150 Satisfying Vegetarian Recipes
Bettina Vitell
Manufacturer: Morrow Cookbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Reference | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Healthy | Special Diet | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Vegetables & Vegetarian | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Natural Foods | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Zen | Buddhism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

3 Bowls : Vegetarian Recipes from an American Zen Buddhist Monastery

The Zen Monastery Cookbook: Stories and Recipes from a Zen Kitchen

In Buddha's Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Meditation Center

Tassajara Cooking

One Bowl: A Guide to Eating for Body and Spirit

ASIN: 0060969342

Book Description

For Bettina Vitell the simple art of cooking holds the seeds to a deeper, more life-enriching experience. It is a way to become more aware of ourselves and the world around us, to think clearly and to delight in even the most basic daily activities of our lives.

The dishes in A Taste of Heaven and Earth reflect this Zen philosophy. Bettina Vitell's uncomplicated recipes produce sophisticated, creative meals without ever losing site of her goal of preparing low-dairy vegetarian food. Tastes from both East and West merge with delicious results: here kale and tofu adorn pizza, and udon noodles are dressed with pesto. There are recipes for soup stock and tomato sauce, as well as cashew ginger sauce and apricot lime chutney. The homey breakfast and dessert sections provide recipes for muffins and crisps; and sections on pizza, sushi, curries, and Mexican-inspired foods expand the traditional range of vegetarian cooking.

A Taste of Heaven and Earth explores beyond the reaches of traditional cook-books by offering contemplative essays and ink drawings that heighten the cook's sensory experience in the kitchen. They provide questions and stories that help readers realize the simplicity and beauty inherent in preparing and eating good food.

Customer Reviews:

I returned this item because the recipes did not represent anything very new to me. .......2005-08-03

I returned this item because the recipes did not represent anything very new to me. Others may find it very interesting.

More of a cookbook, less about zen.......2004-09-24

I was looking for more then just recipes as content. It's ok for what I paid for it (1 buck from the zshops)

yummy!.......2003-01-04

As a vegetarian who loves to cook, I have lots of veg or veg-friendly cookbooks, but this one is my absolute favorite. I trust it completely-- every recipe is delicious. My favorites include the light quiche-like vegetable tarts (I started with the tomato and chard tart recipe, but then branched out into mushrooms, broccoli, leeks, etc, as my mood strikes) and the broccoli salad with chili lime basil dressing. The simple stir-fry tofu made for this salad is the absolute best tofu I've ever had-- the only trouble with it is how hard it is to refrain from eating it so that enough ends up in the salad!

Excellent recipes; the Zen link is tenuous.......2001-08-10

A "Zen" approach to cooking? The book features an essay by Eido Shimano roshi, and the author is informed by her experiences cooking for the sangha at Dai Bosatsu monastery, but this book stands most prominently as a fine vegetarian cookbook, light on dairy ingredients and hard-to-find items. The recipes are clear, uncomplicated, and my own "success" rate with them has been very high.

The book's sections are organized into breakfast ideas, an excellent chapter of soup recipes (check out the minty lentil soup - a lentil soup primavera?!?), mexican ideas, pizzas!, great salad ideas, and desserts. Crepes and polenta are also introduced to the beginner or near-beginner.

Zen Cooking.......2000-09-09

Excellent book easy to use and read, Food is excellent

Average customer rating:

Its the best

Good crazy quilting resource

Crazy Quilting

nice book

a taste of everything!

The Magic of Crazy Quilting: A Complete Resource for Embellished Quilting
J. Marsha Michler
Manufacturer: Krause Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Needlework | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Quilts & Quilting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Crazy Quilt Handbook, Revised 2nd Edition

Crazy Quilts by Machine

Motifs for Crazy Quilting: Techniques for Embroidering and Embellishing Crazy Quilts

An Encyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches and Motifs (4178)

Elegant Stitches: An Illustrated Stitch Guide and Source Book of Inspiration

ASIN: 0873497244

Book Description

This complete resource for embellished quilting provides techniques for patchwork, applique, and embroidery. Contains a history of the craft as well as material information, a technique encyclopedia, and an inspirational gallery of photos.

Customer Reviews:

Its the best.......2007-08-11

In my opinion this is the BEST book out on making Crazy Quilts. I have four others but this is my favorite. You'll love it.

Good crazy quilting resource.......2007-05-13

Good comprehensive book on crazy quilting -- from basic construction of crazy quilt blocks to stitch diagrams and materials suggestions. Also includes drawings of how stitches would be used in crazy quilt blocks.

Crazy Quilting.......2007-04-11

I found this book very helpful in deciding what stitches to embellish my crazy quilt. I thought the books drawings made it easier to visualize how the stitches would look on my pieces. I am new to Crazy quilting and just did'nt know where to start. The book solves that dilemma with useful diagrams and helpful information. This is a most for all serious quilters. My work is getting raves and it is so easy!!! Buy the book, you won't be sorry.

nice book.......2007-01-10

This book is very useful, there are alot of great ideas in this book.

a taste of everything!.......2006-05-25

this book has a taste of everything, see what gets your attention. From hand embroidery to marble dying of fabric. I've read this book with almost everything getting my interest.
the only bad part about the book, not enought examples for some of the hand embroidery sections. Other than that, I'll keep going back to this book again and again.

thank's
bonnie for mich

Book Description

There are many wonderful and creative ways to decorate custom garments and home accessories, and this book features four of the most popular: stenciling, stamping, painting and embossing. The techniques are spelled out in detail, with step-by-step instructions. 50 drawings and 200 color photos are also included.

Customer Reviews:

Definitely for beginners.......2005-07-27

The book is well written and has great illustrations and especially good information on products for the beginner. It really shows how much fun textile surface design can be however I must stress that if you have done much work with surface design at all, this book will not be very challenging. It is a great book for beginners!.

Great Ideas and Instructions.......2002-09-20

What a lot of great ideas in this book. The instructions were easy to follow, and the designs were so beautiful. I am just a beginner with designing for my home, but with this book I know I can do it. Thanks for the wonderful book.

Average customer rating:

The Art of Stencil Embossing..

The Art of Stencil Embossing
Janet Wilson
Manufacturer: Search Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Stenciling | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 085532841X

Book Description

From simple embossing on paper to intaglio techniques and embossing on metal, this guide reveals all the techniques for easy and fun projects with clear, step-by-step instructions and innovative ideas.

Customer Reviews:

The Art of Stencil Embossing.........2001-03-05

This small instruction book (48 pages) is packed with information and color photos to show the detail work involved in embossing paper. The author includes information about tools and materials required and beginning as well as advanced techniques for creating beautiful works of embossed art. While there are not a large number of books on this topic, this one is certainly the best I've seen and read. Janet Wilson shows how to combine stencils to create truly original pictures, as well as suggestions for creating frames of embossed images, adding decorative borders, and using fancy papers. Even more impressive are her instructions for embossing on dark colored paper (embossing is usually done on white paper). More advanced techniques include the use of embellishments or embossing on metal. Not only is this an exceptional book for any stencil embossing afficianado, this is an inspiring choice for beginners. If you already stencil emboss, you must own this book! If you've never tried this relaxing hobby, this book will inspire you to try your hand at creating works of elegant beauty. I can't praise this book enough--it's the one I've searched for, and now finally found.

Book Description

Wonderfully intimate biography by Beethoven's pupil, secretary and factotum. Extensively annotated by Beethoven scholar Donald MacArdle, it not only offers Schindler's personal view of the composer's music, personality, deafness, irascible behavior, etc.— but incorporates 100 years of subsequent research. Revised 3rd edition. Editor's Notes. Introduction. Includes 7 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

As close as it gets.......2007-07-26

I feel like I'm a fly on the wall in Beethovens apartment...well, one of his many apartments. Can't get any closer than this too someone who lived that many years ago. I also find it hard to believe that a man like Rossini would spend two years in the same city as Beethoven and not meet him. I'm willing to bet that the moment Rossini stepped from his carriage in the city of music he grabbed the first passerby and said "Where do I find Beethoven?"

great book.......2007-05-14

I have enjoyed this book very much. It written by someone that knew Beethoven ,and it offers you a lot of information about Beethoven's life, it is accurate. When there are two differents versions of the same event, the authors explains and describe them.
A very objective book and enjoyable.

Great.......2006-08-30

Great book

Strange that the first reviewer says that the meeting between Beethoven and Rossini never took place. Rossini and Beethoven would have disagreed! They met in the spring of 1822 when Rossini was in Vienna for the premiere of his opera Zelmira. Rossini has left an account of the meeting

Beethoven as Schindler Knew Him.......2000-08-01

Schindler met Beethoven in 1814, when Beethoven was 44 and the author was an impressionable 19 year old. Schindler became an almost constant companion of the composer, and was witness to a number of fascinating occurrences that no other biographer, such as Ries, had access to. Schindler gives us examples of Beethoven's strongly emotional nature, in such a way that I felt I could have recognized the composer should I have passed by him on abusy street. Inclusion of this information is what made this biography most appealing to me. One of my favourite sections is an appendix entitled "Beethoven's Daily Routine" which describes, among other things, how Beethoven would count out 60 beans for his cup of coffee.

However, Schindler is not a transparent witness. Rather, he feels compelled to "protect" Beethoven from "his many enemies", for whom there is no historical basis. A sense of Schindler acting as guardian comes through strongly in the writing. The most striking example of this attitude is Schindler's description of the meeting between Beethoven and Rossini, a meeting which historically never took place!

Fortunately, this excellent Dover edition is thoroughly annotated - there are as many editor's notes as there are pages in the text! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a contemporary account of the life of the great composer, and who would enjoy witnessing the profound effect that he had on at least one of his associates.

Average customer rating:
Beethoven as I knew him,: A biography (The Norton library)
Anton Schindler
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Beethoven, Ludwig van | Composers | Classical | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Beethoven, Ludwig | ( B ) | People, A-Z | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0393006387

Average customer rating:
Beethoven As I Knew Him: A Biography
Anton Felix Schindler
Manufacturer: University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1399635840

Book Description

Was Jesus the founder of Christianity or a teacher of Judaism? When he argued the latter based on the New Testament, Abraham Geiger ignited an intense debate that began in nineteenth-century Germany but continues to this day.

Geiger, a pioneer of Reform Judaism and a founder of Jewish studies, developed a Jewish version of Christian origins. He contended that Jesus was a member of the Pharisees, a progressive and liberalizing group within first-century Judaism, and that he taught nothing new or original. This argument enraged German Protestant theologians, some of whom produced a tragic counterargument based on racial theory.

In this fascinating book, Susannah Heschel traces the genesis of Geiger's argument and examines the reaction to it within Christian theology. She concludes that Geiger initiated an intellectual revolt by the colonized against the colonizer, an attempt not to assimilate into Christianity by adopting Jesus as a Jew, but to overthrow Christian intellectual hegemony by claiming that Christianity—and all of Western civilization—was the product of Judaism.

Customer Reviews:

Lucid and accessible research. Recommended........1998-04-09

Geiger is without doubt one of the most lucid commentators on Liberal Judaism. Heschel has done an excellent appraisal of his work and this book is destined to become a standard text for the critique of Geiger. Geiger's work now has to be seen in the light of the wonderful and more revelatory "The Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth..." by Richard G Patton which delivers the HUman Being of Christ in the same context as Geiger but without kowtowing to the early Christian politics. I hope Heschel has more works to offer because I found this work truly informative and easily accessible.

ABRAHAM GEIGER AND THE JEWISH JESUS.(Review): An article from: Theological Studies

Average customer rating:

ABRAHAM GEIGER AND THE JEWISH JESUS.(Review): An article from: Theological Studies
Anthony J. Saldarini
Manufacturer: Theological Studies, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Theological Studies, published by Theological Studies, Inc. on June 1, 1999. The length of the article is 676 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ABRAHAM GEIGER AND THE JEWISH JESUS.(Review)
Author: Anthony J. Saldarini
Publication: Theological Studies (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1999
Publisher: Theological Studies, Inc.
Volume: 60 Issue: 2 Page: 355

Article Type: Book Review

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