This is Burning Man, Brian Doherty, Little, Brown and Co., 2004
Nirvana, Kevin Marley, Lulu.com, 2004
The SeXX Factor: Breaking the Unwritten Codes that Sabotage Personal and Professional Lives, Marilou Ryder and Judith Briles, New Horizon Press, 2003
The Four Day Weekend, George Henry Smith, Belmont Books, 1966
Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius, Gary Lachman, The Disinformation Company Ltd, 2003
Plowing My Own Furrow, Howard W. Moore, Syracuse University Press, 1993
Silver Creek, A.H. Holt, Avalon Books, 2003
Out of Season: The Johnny Luster Story, Mary E. Adams, Northern Publishing, 2003
Beyond the Bus Stop: 180 Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in School, Robert E. Weyhmuller, Jr., Heinemann, 1999
Withdrawal: A Novel, Michael Hoffman, AuthorHouse, 2003
Society at the Crossroads: Choosing the Right Road, Steven Cord, Aurora Press, 2002
How to Love the Job You Hate: Job Satisfaction for the 21st Century, Jane Boucher, Beagle Bay Books, 2004
No One Will See Me Cry, Cristina Rivera-Garza, Curbstone Press, 2003
Burn This Book, Dreamslaughter, Dreamslaughter, 2005
Burning Man is the arts/creativity/freedom/whatever festival held every September in the Nevada desert.
It started in 1980s San Francisco, in part as a reaction to Ronald Reagan’s America. A man named Larry Harvey and some friends gathered on a San Francisco nude beach to burn a wooden effigy of a man (for no especially good reason). The event was "adopted" by various California punk and arts groups, like the L.A. Cacophony Society, and soon grew too big for the nude beach. A home was found deep in the Nevada desert, miles from the nearest civilization.
It is a huge, empty, desolate place, described by one person as living inside an ashtray. The wind blows constantly, sometimes up to 100 miles an hour, and within seconds, everything and everyone is coated with the same gray dust. Permits are required from the Bureau of Land Management, the official owner of the land, and from the local county governments, not always an easy process. As the attendance at Burning Man has grown over the years, from a few hundred people to, presently, 30,000 people, changes have been needed in the organizational structure of the festival. An LLC was formed to take care of the financial recordkeeping, which, for several years in the 1990s, was loose, to say the least. An unofficial police force was formed, to peacefully resolve disputes and to supplement the actual police force, there to keep things from getting too out of hand. Actual zoning has taken place, including the laying out of streets.
At Burning Man, self-reliance is expected by all participants, which includes bringing your own water. Everyone is expected to participate in some sort of art project; spectators are discouraged. "Art" does not mean a painting that is hung on a wall, but some sort of large, interactive creation that people can touch and feel, usually involving fire.
For those with any sort of familiarity about Burning Man, this book does a fine job at getting behind the scenes. For those who have never heard of it, read this story of a truly unique American arts festival. Either way, this is very much recommended.
Nirvana, Kevin Marley, Lulu.com, 2004 A Human Soul is watching the people of Earth from Heaven, knowing that he is about to be sent there to become human. He is born as Ray Sawol of Philadelphia. Ray grows up in present-day America, about which the author has very little good to say. His parents get divorced, because of his father’s infidelity. Ray is on a constant search for enlightenment, for that undefinable "it." The difference is that Ray, even as a youngster, remembers the primordial bliss before he was born. He tries to alter his consciousness to experience not just the physical world, but also the spiritual world with which he was familiar before birth. He attends Temple University, becomes Dr. Ray Sawol, and stays at Temple as a faculty member in the Psychology Department. He marries Kristine, his college sweetheart, and they have a daughter. He is a relatively successful radio talk show host, talking about psychological matters, kind of like TV’s Dr. Frazier Crane. One day, Ray goes on a rant about how people should wake up and there is a whole separate spiritual world out there, and becomes an ex-radio talk show host. Kristine contracts, and dies from, breast cancer. While dealing with her death, Ray goes to an emotional, state of mind, sort of place called the Idea Factory. There, he spends time with Kristine’s soul, and learns to transform his consciousness. When he returns, the world is, literally, at war. The Forces of Mechanization have invaded and are attempting to wipe out those who believe in the Human Soul, once and for all. This is a real war, with lots of blood and destruction. Ray takes the few Soul Soldiers (for lack of a better term) left to the Idea Factory, and shows them how to transform their consciousness and those of others. This book takes a while to get going, but, by the end, it turns into a really good and thought-provoking story.
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The SeXX Factor: Breaking the Unwritten Codes that Sabotage Personal and Professional Lives, Marilou Ryder and Judith Briles, New Horizon Press, 2003 Based on interviews with thousands of men and women, this book explores attitudes and behaviors of women that cause men to get resentful or angry. Women therefore find themselves needlessly impeded in their daily lives. If women want to be taken seriously at work, then how is the wearing of sexy and revealing clothing to work going to help? Most men are scared of a sexual harassment lawsuit, so women need to find a way to tell male co-workers that they will not be offended by compliments on a new suit or hairstyle. Talking too much can be deadly to one’s chances for promotion. Before making an oral presentation in front of others, have a critical friend spot-check you. Be organized, don’t waste time and stick to the point. Be more goal-oriented in the language that you use. When dealing with office politics, create and maintain allies, and remember that friendship and friendliness are two very different things. If you are the victim of office sabotage, the most important thing to do is confront the saboteur. Otherwise, you are giving them a green light to continue. Do not confuse confidence with inflexibility or stubbornness; you do not have to win every time. Resist the temptation to cover your office wall with college diplomas, plaques and certificates. Have a male friend grade your handshake from "too limp" to "bonecrusher."
This is an excellent book. It doesn’t ask to women to change who they are, but to realize that there are things women do every day that drive men nuts (not in a good way). Changing those behaviors will help women to prosper in their personal and professional lives. This book belongs on the reading list of every businesswoman in America.
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The Four Day Weekend, George Henry Smith, Belmont Books, 1966 Earth of the early 21st Century has been taken over by the automobile. Cities are full of parking lots for cars, garages to store cars and streets up to 20 lanes wide for cars. Parks and other green spaces in cities are long since gone. Think of it as car worship gone wild. Charles Hyde, of Los Angeles, is one of the last of the holdouts, those who use mass transit because they are actually afraid of cars. They are built by machine, and are bigger and wider than ever, with actual blades and scythes sticking out everywhere. The newest model, El Toro, has actual horns like a bull on the front bumper. Because of this, auto-related deaths and injuries have skyrocketed over the last few years, with thousands of casualties each weekend. On the last trip of the city’s train system, before it closes due to lack of riders (because everyone is driving a car), Charles meets a man named Enders. He seems like your average crank, talking about how cars are going to wipe out humanity. That is, until the cars, run by electronic brains, really do start killing everyone. The word "slaughter" comes to mind. What makes it worse is that a four day weekend is coming, so everyone will be out and about in their cars. Charles and Enders make it to the harbor, and take a small boat to an island just off the coast. There, a famous cyberneticist has joined a colony of beatniks who refuse to believe that anything is wrong. They are convinced when they see El Toro, who has followed them from Los Angeles, come very close to adding Charles to the casualty list. They fly to Detroit on a mechanical plane piloted by an ex-military man who is convinced that the Communists are to blame. Their destination is The Great Computer, a supercomputer under the city that has been building the cars for the last 100 years. Needless to say, it is very well guarded. They manage to reach the Inner Sanctum, and find that The Great Computer is controlled by aliens who are simply speeding up what humans are already doing to each other, which is killing each other with their cars. Therefore, what is the problem? This is a really good novel, that is surprisingly thought-provoking. Think of the number of computer circuit boards in the average car. In the not-too-distant future, all cars will be built by robots. Consider the number of people killed and injured on America’s roads (tens of thousands). Read this book (it’s very much worth it), then put it all together. Hmmmmm. . .
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Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius, Gary Lachman, The Disinformation Company Ltd, 2003 Amid all the other revolutions that happened in the 1960s - sexual, social and political - another revolution took place that has been overlooked by historians. A revival of the occult affected all parts of daily life, from the Beatles’ journey into psychedelia to the movie Rosemary’s Baby to the novel Steppenwolf. There have always been those interested in the idea of secret knowledge only available to a select few, including ancient civilizations and lost races. Such interests became popular through groups like the Theosophical Society of the 1920s founded by Madame Blavatsky. A later manifestation of this interest in secret things was the near obsession with flying saucers. All the people and movements one would expect to find in such a book are here: Charles Manson, astrology, the Tarot, Jim Morrison, Timothy Leary, yogis, witchcraft, Transcendental Meditation, Brian Wilson, Anton LaVey and Aleister Crowley. Another huge influence on the mystical revolution of the 1960s was the written word. Hermann Hesse was a Nobel laureate whose novels were rediscovered in the 1960s and spread across American college campuses like wildfire. The publication of a fantasy novel by an obscure British author named Tolkien (The Hobbit) by two American publishers at the same time, because of copyright problems, caused another literary firestorm. This helped lead to the rediscovery of 1930s pulp authors like Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. Who can forget other literary heavyweights like Jack Kerouac, L. Ron (Scientology) Hubbard, Allan Ginsberg and Aldous Huxley? I very much enjoyed reading this book. It is very well researched, and does a fine job exploring an aspect of "the 60’s" that is generally forgotten. This gets two strong thumbs up.
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Plowing My Own Furrow, Howard W. Moore, Syracuse University Press, 1993 This is the autobiography of a man who grew up on a hops farm in early 20th century central New York. Coming from a close-knit family, Moore left home as a teenager to "take on" Manhattan. At age 14, he got a job with the New York Telephone Company as a night switchboard operator at one of the big hotels. The job allowed Moore plenty of time to read, and Moore took advantage of it, devouring Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, Edward Bellamy and Eugene Debs, among others. Moore had little formal education, but he made up for it on his own. Then came World War I, and while the rest of America seemed to be itching to enlist in the military, Moore came to a very different conclusion. He would not fight, nor would he take part in any military activity. The reason was not exactly repugnance at the thought of killing another human being stuck in the same trap as him. It had more to do with a deep conviction that war was futile and its use as an instrument of national policy was confessing to moral bankruptcy. For his beliefs, Moore and a group of other conscientious objectors (CO’s) were court-martialed, sentenced to long prison terms and moved from prison to prison. For a time, they were shackled to the doors of their cells, infested with rats and bedbugs, and forced to stand in one spot, for 8 hours a day. Some of the prison and military personnel tried to be decent and reasonable to the CO’s, while others seemed to delight in mistreating, and severely beating, them at every opportunity. Some of the CO’s accepted freedom in exchange for "alternate service," but not Moore. He insisted on unconditional release, which did not happen until 1920, 2 years after the war ended. His relationship with his family had permanently changed for the worse, so Moore went back to New York City, rising to senior level with the WPA. This is a gem of a book. It is very easy to read, and shows that people objected to war on moral grounds long before Vietnam. For a look at an unknown part of American history, this is very much recommended.
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Silver Creek, A.H. Holt, Avalon Books, 2003 Several years ago, John Garrett left his father’s Arizona cattle ranch, vowing never to return. Now, a neighboring ranch owner, Tim Hostetter, has been murdered, and Garrett cattle have taken over the ranch. An employee of another neighboring ranch, owned by Russ Blaine, is found murdered, and some Blaine cattle are missing. Garrett’s father, Mason, has made no secret of his desire for Blaine’s land, but murder and cattle rustling bring things to a whole new level. On his way back home, a bully in an extremely poor town picks a fight with John. He kills the bully, and is shot and injured in the getaway. He is found on Blaine land, unconscious, by Andy Blaine, who brings him to an isolated cabin, and nurses him back to health. John doesn’t think to ask, and Andy takes a while to tell him that "Andy" is short for "Andrea." John and Russ have a long talk about recent events; John offers to ask around town to see if he can find out what’s going on. The general consensus is that Mason Garrett will certainly push hard to get what he wants, but he is not capable of murder and cattle rustling. However, Garrett’s new foreman, Rafe Willis, is certainly capable of such things. John sneaks on to his father’s ranch, and finds the bunkhouse full of the Old West equivalent of street punks. Soon after, the long-expected attack is made against the Blaine ranch. Willis aims to take over Blaine’s land any way he can, including forcing Andrea into marriage. The author, a grandmother and graduate student in Florida, does a fine job from start to finish. It fells like she has spent time on a ranch and knows her way around the world of cowboys. This easy to read novel is not just for lovers of westerns.
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Out of Season: The Johnny Luster Story, Mary E. Adams, Northern Publishing, 2003 This is the story of Alaska’s last great mountainman, a man who was born two centuries too late. Luster was born in the early 1900s on a Shoshone reservation in Wyoming. From an early age, he was more interested in hunting and trapping by himself out in the wilderness than in conventional things like school and getting a job. Something of a smart aleck, he was constantly in trouble with the authorities. A stint in prison convinced him that he never wanted to go back. There were several marriages along the way; they ended when she realized that Johnny would spend several months per year hunting and trapping in the wilderness. He gained a reputation as the person to hire for those looking for a guide into the hills of Wyoming. After World War II, roads and airplanes opened up Wyoming to sportsmen and settlers. Isolated places became too full of people for Johnny, so he drove some pack horses north to the last great frontier, a place called Alaska. Getting a guide license was not an instant process, so Johnny had to start at the beginning in learning his way around Alaska. After becoming licensed, Johnny again became the person to see in the guide business. When the authorities need information on wildlife numbers or possible poaching, they talk to Johnny. He is still active today, hunting and trapping in the brutal Alaskan winter. This is a really interesting story. It provides a look at a different breed of person, more interested in nature than in cities and technology. This book is told as much as possible in Luster’s own words and is well worth reading.
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Beyond the Bus Stop: 180 Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in School, Robert E. Weyhmuller, Jr., Heinemann, 1999 When it comes to success in school, children cannot do it alone; they need the assistance of their parents. This book consists of many ways that parents can help their child thrive in school. It covers students from pre-school to high school. Areas like study skills, homework, math, reading and writing are covered. Read aloud to your child. Find books that explore your child’s interests. Buy your child an age-appropriate magazine subscription. Check out your local library. Challenge your child with mental math problems. Help your child develop common sense. Establish a homework routine. Require that your child keep a homework assignment book, and check it nightly. Don’t neglect your child’s need for help because you feel she should be able to do it alone. Teach your child to think. Help your child investigate projects for extra credit. Honor your child’s opinions. Join the PTA and attend meetings regularly. Keep lines of communications open with your children’s teacher. Allow enough time in the mornings. Know your child’s friends. Kiss or hug your child each morning. This is an excellent book. Even if the parent can do only a couple of things mentioned here, that can only help the child. For any parent of a school-age child, this is very much recommended.
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Withdrawal: A Novel, Michael Hoffman, AuthorHouse, 2003 Set in present-day Canada, somewhere near Toronto, this is the story of Len Fishman. In his mid-40s, he has returned home after 25 years of aimless wandering, mostly in Africa. He lives with his mother, in the house in which he grew up, sleeping on a couch in what used to be his room. Len discovers that Saul, his father, was an amateur philosopher who, perhaps, was not totally faithful to Len’s mother. Saul is now a patient at a local geriatric center, suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Along the way, Len runs into Ron Bloom, his old high school English teacher, now running for a seat on the municipal council. Ron arranges a mini-class reunion with Len’s classmates who have stayed in the area. Ron gets elected, and becomes an advocate for the youth of the town. His stay on the council is short; he is forced to resign because of an inappropriate relationship with a student that happened 30 years ago. Why does Len stay in town? Is it to resume his discipleship with Mr. Bloom, who encouraged him to become an English teacher (how he earned money while living overseas)? Is it to recover his past via a girl he had a crush on in grade five? Saul, his father, doesn’t recognize him anymore, and wouldn’t miss him if he left. This is another of those "quiet" stories that, by the end, turns into a really good story. It could take place almost anywhere, and be about any family.
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Society at the Crossroads: Choosing the Right Road, Steven Cord, Aurora Press, 2002 In some ways, America has never had it so good. There is more prosperity, less discrimination and great scientific advances. But, America has to deal with involuntary poverty, crime, drug use, violence in the media and falling school standards. While these problems have surface causes, the fundamental cause is a radical change in attitudes, specifically ethical relativism. It asserts that what is right and wrong depends on the person and the day of the week, that ethics is little more than personal opinion. According to the author, it cannot be proven valid, because it asserts that "no ethical standard" is an ethical standard. Also, any society which preaches that ethical standards are personal opinions has to expect social problems, since it imposes a weak restraint on people who disrupt society.
How to prove that everyone has a right to life, liberty and property (equal rights)? We should treat things as they are, as an end in itself. Since we have the right to be free to do what we should do, then we have the provable right to be free. Once that happens, we can prove everyone’s equal rights to life and property. The author also shows how this can be used to change American society for the better (it starts with totally changing the tax structure, to tax land value instead of production). Be prepared for a mental workout. The book is written for the layman; I would change that to "the layman with more than the usual amount of knowledge of ethics, and philosophy in general." It is very thought-provoking, and well worth reading.
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How to Love the Job You Hate: Job Satisfaction for the 21st Century, Jane Boucher, Beagle Bay Books, 2004 For a variety of reasons, everyone seems to hate their job these days. This book shows how to discover just what the problem may be, and how to fall back in love with your job. What sort of personality do you have? Are you a detail-person, interested in analysis and interpretation of information, who finds yourself in a people-person job? Are you a support-person, best suited for a backroom job, in a command-person position? Delegate the things you don’t like to do. Build a good relationship with your boss and co-workers. Try learning something new. Understand the temperament of your boss. Listen to, and communicate with, your co-workers. Take a hard look at yourself; consider the image you present to your co-workers. Stress is a part of daily life; learn how to reduce it, both physically and emotionally. Perhaps Mr. or Ms. Rotten Co-Worker is experiencing personal problems that are negatively affecting their ability to do their job. Also consider the sort of company that you work for. Someone who is more accustomed to a buttoned-down, structured environment might have a hard time at an internet start-up, and vice versa. There is a right way, and wrong way, to leave your job, if you have decided that quitting is your only option. The author also looks at criticism; how to give it, and receive it, along with the dreaded performance review. There is a separate section in this book just for bosses. It looks at subjects like personality clashes with employees, dealing with their needs, and how to keep them motivated. This is an excellent and eye-opening book. It is easy to read, and can certainly reduce rampant job dissatisfaction in America. Before you quit because you "hate" your job, read this book.
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No One Will See Me Cry, Cristina Rivera-Garza, Curbstone Press, 2003 Set in the turbulence of 1920s Mexico, much of this novel takes place at an insane asylum. Joaquin Buitrago is a frail man with a long-term morphine addiction. In the past, he made a name for himself photographing prostitutes. Now, he has been reduced to taking pictures of inmates at the asylum, those who have been left behind as Mexico races into the future. One day, he finds a familiar face before his lens. Matilda Burgos is a strong-willed prostitute who posed for Joaquin years ago. He asks the doctor for her file. In the meantime, they become acquainted and tell each other stories about a past they almost shared. Matilda came from a poor farming family. Her father was a vanilla bean farmer with his own substance abuse problem. As a young girl, she was sent to Mexico City, to work and live in a big house belonging to an aunt and uncle, Rosaura and Marcos. He is a big believer in work and discipline being able to smooth the rough parts of any person’s personality (like *My Fair Lady*). Matilda becomes his guinea pig. Along the way, she secretly nurses back to health, and develops romantic feeling for, a member of the political opposition. After a few years, she leaves to live on her own, and finds herself in a bordello. This is a fine piece of writing. It look at people on the edges of society, in the midst of political turmoil, and explores 1920s conceptions of sanity. The author does a very good job throughout, and this is well worth the reader’s time.
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I loved reading this book. It is the sort of book that can be picked up and read starting at any point. There is also a companion website (www.dreamslaughter.com) that deserves a visit. For many different reasons, this is very highly recommended.