Books

Reflections of
Sammy Sosa
Damn Rare: The Memoirs of an African-American Bibliophile
The Magic of Music
Omuluabi: Ulli Beier, Yoruba Society and Culture
Marcus Garvey: The F.B.I. Investigation Files
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Joe Louis: American Folk Hero
The Martin Luther King: Jr. Day
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives Part 6
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery
W.E.B. Dubois and His Socialist Thought
Narrative of Sojourner Truth
Ring Out Freedom: The Voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement
Black Brass: Black Generals and Admirals in the Armed Forces of the U.S
Fannie Lewis
Automatic Y'All: Weaver D's Guide to the Soul
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives Part 7
Rosebudd the American Pimp
A Knock at Midnight (Peanut Press)
Life with Margaret: The Autobiography of Dr Margaret Burroughs
Distinguished African American Religious Leaders (Distinguished African American Series)
Black and Catholic in Omaha: A Case of Double Jeopardy : The First Fifty Years of St. Benedict the Moor Parish
George W Bush (Presidents and Their Decisions)
Modern Irish Autobiography : Self, Nation and Society

The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being

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The Mindful Brain
AN ENGAGING READ
The Foundations for a Sea Change in Psychological Health and Personal Development
The Doctor says "take a deep breath"- now you know why!
Unexpected insights

The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being
Daniel J. Siegel
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 039370470X

Book Description

An exploration of the nature of our mind, from the inside out, by a leading neurobiologist.

Over the last twenty years, there has been growing attention in the Western world to mindfulness—paying attention to life in the present moment. Here, Daniel J. Siegel investigates the phenomenon of mindfulness as it impacts our daily lives, offering readers insight into personal relationships, emotional behavior, parenting, and work.

Customer Reviews:

The Mindful Brain.......2007-06-14

I found the content of this book fascinating and important (5 stars) but the writing ponderous and redundant (2 stars), for the most part. It is an ambitious attempt to synthesize and interpret scientific research and the author's personal experience in an emerging field that is fraught with speculation. Perhaps because of this, the author appears to have cobbled together every study potentially relating brain function and mindfulness, weaving back and forth to make every possible connection, rather than following a few salient lines of thinking and explicating them clearly. Difficult as it was to digest some of the material (I am a practiced reader of science but had to read too many sentences too many times), I benefited personally and immediately from several of the concepts presented such as streams of awareness, parenting styles ("secure attachment"), approach mindset and mindful education, and I look forward to further research in this field. I had imagined the brain research to be further along than it is and expected more about research on meditation, so I was a tad disappointed, but this is not the author's fault. In spite of the poor presentation, there was some delightful new learning for me and I am glad to have read this.

AN ENGAGING READ.......2007-06-01

It's not often that a book engages me the way this one has. I have a deep curiousity about neuroscience and human potential and this book is answering a lot of my questions. I'm only half way through so I don't feel I can give it a full review at this time. However, if the second half is a well-written as the first, it truly deserves more than five stars. Pamela D. Blair, Author The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Mid-Life And Beyond

The Foundations for a Sea Change in Psychological Health and Personal Development.......2007-05-29

A favorite book of mine is Ellen Langer's "Mindfulness." Happily still in print though it is nearly twenty years old. With it, Ellen, an eminent academic at Harvard introduced the psychological community to something that lies at the core of many religious, spiritual and contemplative practices.

This marvelous book by the co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Center is a next step. To give you a flavor of the book, let me quote from the Preface,

"Welcome to a journey into the heart of our lives. Being mindfully aware, attending to the richness of our here-and-now experiences, creates scientifically recognized enhancements in out physiology, our mental functions, and our inter-personal relationships. Being fully present in out awareness opens our lives to new possibilities of well-being.

Almost all cultures have practices that help people develop awareness of the moment. Each of the major religions of the world utilizes some method to enable individuals to focus their attention, from meditation to prayer, yoga to t'ai chi."

For Daniel Siegel, being "mindful: means being aware, of being conscientious, with kindness and care." He uses a helpful acronym: COAL, for curiosity, openness, acceptance and love.

As Daniel points out, we are in desperate need of finding a new way of being, not just in ourselves, but in our relationships, schools and in society as a whole. Professionals constantly see the terrible consequences for people who feel social isolation, dislocation and alienation. Yet until the advent of the Positive Psychology movement, academic psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry had all focused almost exclusively on the sick mind. To this day, most people working in these fields have been taught little if anything about mental health, ad even fewer are engaged in practices that can keep them healthy and resilient. It is no coincidence that people working in psychology and psychiatry have some of the highest burnout rates of any of the major professions.

The burgeoning evidence of the extraordinary plasticity of the human brain also has another side to it: if we are not mindful, if we are in unhealthy relationships, and if we are without any kind of inspiration or moral compass, our brains get wired in ways that they should not. And the earlier in life that it happens, the more difficult it is to unravel later. This is the reason why abuse in childhood can have effects that last decades.

This book is an attempt to redress the balance. The book is divided into four sections, fourteen chapters and three appendices:
PART I MIND, BRAIN, AND AWARENESS
1. A Mindful Awareness
2. Brain Basics
PART II IMMERSION IN DIRECT EXPERIENCE
3. A Week of Silence
4. Suffering and the Streams of Awareness
PART III FACETS OF THE MINDFUL BRAIN
5. Subjectivity and Science
6. Harnessing the Hub: Attention and the Wheel of Awareness
7. Jettisoning Judgments: Dissolving Top-Down Constraints
8. Internal Attunement: Mirror Neurons, Resonance, and Attention to Intention
9. Reflective Coherence: Neural Integration and Middle Prefrontal Function
10. Flexibility of Feeling: Affective Style and an Approach Mindset
11. Reflective Thinking: Imagery and the Cognitive Style of Mindful Learning
PART IV REFLECTIONS ON THE MINDFUL BRAIN
12. Educating the Mind: The Fourth ``R'' and the Wisdom of Reflection
13. Reflection in Clinical Practice: Being Present and Cultivating the Hub
14. The Mindful Brain in Psychotherapy: Promoting Neural Integration

Afterword: Reflections on Reflection
Appendix I Reflection and Mindfulness Resources
Appendix II Glossary and Terms
Appendix III Neural Notes

The book is well referenced and there is a good index.

As you will see from the chapter headings, the book is rooted in neuroscience and reviews the empirical evidence that our minds can not only control our brains, but also grow and develop them. Healthy experiences can help us cultivate our brains, our minds and our sense of well-being. What he has done in this book is to provide a theoretical foundation for the neuropsychology and consequences of mindfulness. As a neuroscientist, I thought that his models made extremely good sense. He writes well, and I do not think that what he has to say would be difficult for anyone with a high school education.

Why is this important? Because it shows that there are ways of maintaining and perhaps restoring mental health without medications or other external interventions. Of course there are times when medicines can be the only option, and literally life saving. But they are not always necessary. This brain-based approach is also very helpful for people who re already engaged in meditation, prayer or other forms of mindfulness training. It can be very helpful to know something about what is going on inside your head, without having to rely on experience alone.

Daniel shows that mindfulness is something that can easily be taught and learned, and that the consequences of using the techniques can be extraordinary, not only for ourselves, but also for our families and friends.

Though not, strictly speaking, a "how to" book on achieving mindfulness, there are ample descriptions of the keys that we need to attain it. He also provides details of some organizations that offer mindfulness training.

Very highly recommended.

The Doctor says "take a deep breath"- now you know why!.......2007-05-07

In this book a psychiatrist/medical doctor brilliantly investigates the potential of mindfulness as a holistic prescription to wellness, neuroplasticity, and the unexpected benefit of improved social relationships. Educators will benefit from reading this book and applying Dr. Siegel's "wheel of attention" in classrooms. Medical and mental health practitioners have the opportunity to offer their patients young and old new insight into an ancient tool to better physical and mental health. Anyone who has had the opportunity to hear Dr. Siegel speak will appreciate how he has put into print his personal and professional insight from cross-discipline perspectives.

Unexpected insights.......2007-04-29

I read widely on mindfulness, meditation, neuroscience, and psychology. I didn't expect to find a book that provided so much insight into the practice of mindfulness from a neuroscience perspective. There are many useful ideas here about how to deepen and extend mindfulness practice and to sustain mindfulness over longer periods of time.

Though I'm not a therapist or educator the suggestions about how mindfulnesss can contribute in both of these fields seem very promising.

Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality

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Now what?
How a surgeon deals with death
Great book
A MUST READ FOR ALL OF US ON OUR JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE
Physician, Heal Thyself

Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
Pauline W. Chen
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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About Alice

ASIN: 0307263533
Release Date: 2007-01-09

Book Description

A brilliant young transplant surgeon brings moral intensity and narrative drama to the most powerful and vexing questions of medicine and the human condition.

When Pauline Chen began medical school twenty years ago, she dreamed of saving lives. What she did not count on was how much death would be a part of her work. Almost immediately, Chen found herself wrestling with medicine’s most profound paradox, that a profession premised on caring for the ill also systematically depersonalizes dying. Final Exam follows Chen over the course of her education, training, and practice as she grapples at strikingly close range with the problem of mortality, and struggles to reconcile the lessons of her training with her innate knowledge of shared humanity, and to separate her ideas about healing from her fierce desire to cure.

From her first dissection of a cadaver in gross anatomy to the moment she first puts a scalpel to a living person; from the first time she witnesses someone flatlining in the emergency room to the first time she pronounces a patient dead, Chen is struck by her own mortal fears: there was a dying friend she could not call; a young patient’s tortured death she could not forget; even the sense of shared kinship with a corpse she could not cast aside when asked to saw its pelvis in two. Gradually, as she confronts the ways in which her fears have incapacitated her, she begins to reject what she has been taught about suppressing her feelings for her patients, and she begins to carve out a new role for herself as a physician and as human being. Chen’s transfixing and beautiful rumination on how doctors negotiate the ineluctable fact of death becomes, in the end, a brilliant questioning of how we should live.

Moving and provocative, motored equally by clinical expertise and extraordinary personal grace, this is a piercing and compassionate journey into the heart of a world that is hidden and yet touches all of our lives. A superb addition to the best medical literature of our time.

Customer Reviews:

Now what?.......2007-06-04

As an undergraduate humanities teacher, I have often observed how unimaginative pre-med students can be (as well as very bright, of course). So this sensitively written, introspective memoir is a surprise and delight. I am, as an older person now, also happy to see medical activism admitting its ultimate helplessness in the face of human mortality. After all doctors eventually lose every one of their patients, don't they? On the other hand, what has Pauline to offer us in the face of the ultimate modern terror except a tear and some time? I understand that is the best we often have these days, but it's not much. As a medievalist, I live much of my life in a world where this fragile life and this frail body are passing things to be happily cast off of as a precondition to an eternal life free of the suffering that Chen sets before us so poignantly.
I am not suggesting that the beliefs of the medieval world were correct but that our ancestors had a rich tradition of ideas, feelings and rituals with which to face this ultimate challenge to life as we know it. If the price of the modern world's enormous skill in prolonging life was dependent on overthrowing the beliefs of traditional Western culture, what have we gained but a few more years and the terror of slipping alone into eternal darkness? I hope Pauline weeps for that as well someday; if she can write another book afterwards, it may well be a masterpiece.

How a surgeon deals with death.......2007-05-30

As shocking and gory as the medical world is portrayed on television, it seldom comes close to reality, a lesson that Pauline W. Chen regurgitates in FINAL EXAM as she describes her academic (and continuing) education in the most difficult of all lessons: dealing with death.

I'm no psychologist, but sometimes I wonder if doctors go into the profession because of a God complex, where they wield such awesome power; patients defer to their wisdom and put their fates completely into their hands. Then comes the inevitable day when the physician loses her first patient, whether due to something she did or didn't do, or because nature has taken its course. It must be quite a blow to the ego.

Then the transformation occurs.

The doctor can go one of two ways. She can either steel herself against death or learn from it and become a more compassionate caregiver.

Chen, who attended Harvard University and the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, paints a compelling picture, but one that is not for the squeamish. She discusses her first interaction with a corpse as she and her fellow med students learned anatomy through dissection. The respect and "relationship" that developed is touching, as Chen realizes this former life force had a history, a family, hopes and dreams, just as she does.

Over the course of her studies and through her residency, Chen learns that her work is not parceled out as neatly as television shows such as "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy." The victims do not lie in bed neatly as doctors and nurses struggle to keep them alive. They slide around, bleed, moan and cry out.

There is no part of Chen's story that isn't saturated with sadness, even as she is learning. Every new character is destined to die. How will Chen respond? Will she reach out to the dying man and his family? Will she try to hide until the end has come and avoid it all?

For all the emotion, Chen does not come down on one side or the other on the technology that is available to keep the patient going. Indeed, most of the people she discusses have decided to go out on their own terms.

What must one feel upon being given that death sentence? How does a doctor ever get used to passing down that sentence, when nothing else can be done? "[T]he words emerge," Chen writes in a chapter titled "Sorry to inform you" "so softly that I see everyone leaning in as I speak. 'I wonder,' I hear myself saying to these people, 'if you have thought of what you want at the end of life?'"

Taking a very cynical stance, as lofty as the author's intentions are, FINAL EXAM reminds me of a line from "I'm a Loser": "Is it for her or myself that I cry?"

--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan

Great book.......2007-05-28

It's a great book. Excellent for people going to med school or health professions.

A MUST READ FOR ALL OF US ON OUR JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE.......2007-05-28

A SENSITIVE AND ERUDITE CHRONICLE OF THE GROWTH AND HUMANITY OF A YOUNG
PHYSICAN, DR. CHEN TAKES US THROUGH HER MEDICAL TRAINING AND RELATIONSHIPS
WITH PATIENTS AND THEIR FAMILYS. IN MOVING PROSE, SHE TEACHES HERSELF, PHYSICIANS AND HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS, AND ALL OF US WHO WILL SOMEDAY FACE OUR "FINAL EXAM", HOW TO "PASS" WITH DIGNITY AND PEACE. WE CAN ONLY HOPE OUR
MEDICAL CARE WILL BE IN THE HANDS AND HEART OF SUCH A PHYSICIAN.

Physician, Heal Thyself.......2007-05-24

Towards the end of FINAL EXAM, author Pauline Chen describes harvesting organs from a brain-dead patient who bore a strong physical resemblance to herself. Soon afterward she began to write stories, mostly about her experiences with patients. When she took a creative writing class, her teacher was clearly impressed by the authentic quality of what Chen had to relate and told her, "Pauline, you have to write these stories." This book is the the completion and gathering of those stories.

FINAL EXAM is an account of Chen's evolving understanding of what she could and couldn't accomplish as a physician and surgeon. She begins with a description of her "relationship" with the cadaver she was assigned in medical school and goes on to describe a number of patients who died under her care. It is gratifying that she seemed to learn something from each experience and was able to use these experiences to strengthen her skills as a caregiver. Also important to these stories are Chen's descriptions of her relationships with her medical colleagues (including nurses, interns, and medical students) and of the bonds she was able to forge in spite of the impossible schedule and stresses that are unavoidable in that profession. Each story is powerful and moving. And each story made me think about the kind of care I want to receive (and demand) as the end of my life approaches. This is a wise and gentle book. Chen's vision and power of expression come mightily close to the poetry found in S. Nuland's masterpiece, HOW WE DIE, a work Chen is familiar with and quotes from. One can only hope that many doctors will read her reflections and absorb their important message.

Sink Reflections: Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in Chaos? The FlyLady's Simple FLYing Lessons Will Show You How to Get Your Home and Your Life in Order--and It All Starts with Shining Your Sink!

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sink reflections
Sink Reflections
Ready for My Second Copy!
If your house is fairly clean -this book is useless !
Great System

Sink Reflections: Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in Chaos? The FlyLady's Simple FLYing Lessons Will Show You How to Get Your Home and Your Life in Order--and It All Starts with Shining Your Sink!
Marla Cilley
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553382179
Release Date: 2002-10-01

Book Description

Fly Out of CHAOS
(Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome)
Into Order--One BabyStep at a Time

With her special blend of housecleaning tips, humor, and musings about daily life, Marla Cilley, a.k.a. The FlyLady, shows you how to manage clutter and chaos and get your home--and your life--in order. Drawn from the lessons and tools used in her popular mentoring program, FlyLady helps you create doable housekeeping routines and break down overwhelming chores into manageable missions that will restore peace to your home--and your psyche. Soon you’ll be able to greet guests without fear, find your keys, locate your kids, and most of all, learn how to FLY: Finally Loving Yourself.

Customer Reviews:

sink reflections.......2007-06-27

Very good book. lots of great ideas and full of inspiration.
but the quality of the book not so good. It fell apart. Its now in 3 pieces.

Sink Reflections.......2007-05-28

This book is awesome! Just what we all needed! I shared my feelings with ladies in my church and we have since started a class around this book (we have 28 women all reading it at the same time and "flying" together). We all can use this book, whether you have kids or no kids, work outside the home or work as a stay at home mom! We all have homes, these homes all get dirty, clothes get dirty, meals have to be prepared, and we sometimes want to pull our hair out trying to figure out how to DO IT ALL! Read this book and "fly" (Finally Loving Yourself!) Happy reader in Raleigh, NC!!!

Ready for My Second Copy!.......2007-05-21

I have been a member of FlyLady since early 2000. When I first found her, my home was a dump and I was severely depressed. I used Flylady to change my life. So, when this book first came out, I thought: Why Should I Buy This Book? I Don't Need It! After all, my control journal was made, blah blah blah. However, I found that this book is a compilation of the best of FlyLady -- a wonderful, portable version of FlyLady's system! Because it is a book, I don't need to be glued to the computer to benefit from Flylady - I can use my copy of the book to fill those lost moments in the day usually spent waiting for something or someone. Reading it keeps Marla's encouragements forefront in my mind, "You are not behind!" "You can do anything for 15 minutes" "Housework done incorrectly still blesses my home". Regarding format, one of the things that I like about this book is that testimonials are in boxes, which means that I can skip the ones that I am tired of or that don't interest me, allowing me to focus on the meat of the book, which is considerable. My copy is now so dog-eared that I really need to get a new one! The greatest thing about the book form is that you do not need internet access to benefit from the life strategies taught by Marla Cilley (FlyLady). The focus of this book is feeling good about your home and life, taking care of yourself and doing it all without stress or guilt. I highly recommend this book!

If your house is fairly clean -this book is useless !.......2007-05-17

I wasted my money ! There are no secrets uncovered in this book-just some plain COMMON SENSE ! You can save 10 $ if you just remember to clean you house daily ( just break it up in little areas do not try to clean it all at once), and frequently decluttering by donating stuff to SALVATION ARMY or tossing it out. That's it !!! Just admit it, most people know what needs to be done, and don't need books with different gimmicks promising miracles to help them. However, it seems that I am in the minority regarding this book. It seems that FLYLADY has almost cult like following. I can't believe some people spend this much time writing long accolades/comments . I guess this book is helpful to many women. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. Certainly, I do not want to stand in the way of anybody that can benefit from this book and having their life changed. Anyway, before purchasing -check out the website to get a better idea about her philosophy.

Great System.......2007-05-01

This is a great system for keeping your house organized and establishing routines

You can do anything for 15 minutes!

There is also a Yahoo group you can join that sends reminders about what to do that day.

Each week is focussed on a different area of the house

I loved this

Step 1 - Declutter your house 15 minutes a day
Step 2 - Start cleaning - 15 minutes

Best organizational and routine book ever (and I've tried a lot)

A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

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Where's the miracle?
Mark D. Hyde, Author of "Coloring Outside the Lines: One Gay Man's Journey to Self-Acceptance & Spiritual Awakening
Phenominal
A Course in Miracles - or a Course in Double Speak?
Pure Gold

A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"
Marianne Williamson
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060927488

Book Description

Back by popular demand -- and newly updated by the author -- the mega-bestselling spiritual guide in which Marianne Williamson shares her reflections on A Course in Miracles and her insights on the application of love in the search for inner peace.

Williamson reveals how we each can become a miracle worker by accepting God and by the expression of love in our daily lives. Whether psychic pain is in the area of relationships, career, or health, she shows us how love is a potent force, the key to inner peace, and how by practicing love we can make our own lives more fulfilling while creating a more peaceful and loving world for our children.

Customer Reviews:

Where's the miracle?.......2007-05-15

In the first part of the book, Marianne Williamson does a wonderful job of laying out problems we all face. She lays them out with examples from her own life experiences in a way everyone can relate to.

However, in the "Practice" section, her proposed solutions seem to fall utterly short of miraculous.

For example, anger is an emotion she seems to deal with exclusively throughout the book.

At one point, she suggests hitting a pillow as a a way of venting. Pretty miraculous.

In another part, she talks about the feeling of anger when she was stood up by a date, and spent the entire night calling to make sure he was okay, only to find out he'd just forgotten the date.

Understandably, she was furious, and as she saw it, she had two choices:

1. Explode at him
2. Forgive him

She said that neither of the two seemed very satisfactory to her, as she had tried them both in the past.

So she asked God for another possibility, and decided to do nothing.

Well, in the next paragraph, she launches into how she kept on repeating the phrase "I forgive you..." over and over for the next few days in order to get over her anger and negative feeelings, wheich she had a lot of.

It seems like she settled for option 2 after all, and I have to admit, none of of what I've sighted in the two examples seem very "miraculous" to me.

The Course defines miracles as something that's judged as being difficult by the world, if not impossible. There's nothing miraculous here.

Also, she says early on the that the Course was responsible for liberating her from her emotional pain. Yet, she also mentions throughout the book of her discussions and the sage advice she received from her therapists.

If the ACIM was responsible for her liberation, then what is she doing seeing therapists??

Anyway, I applaud her honesty in using her own life to illustrate the problems, but her solutions sound like something from a regular self help manual, methods that may or may not work depending on the problem and the person.

I'm not sure whether Ms. Williamson undersells or underestimates ACIM. There are also inconsistencies.

For example, she says to bring problems to the Holy Spirit; don't try to purify yourself, let Him purify you. Yet, in the "practice" section, she seems to be saying YOU need to fix the problem yourself, as in the example above with her jilted date.

It's certainly a let down, for me, going from the first to the second part of the book.

A better book on the practical application of ACIM, in my opinion is "Creating Miracles", by Carolyn Miller.

Mark D. Hyde, Author of "Coloring Outside the Lines: One Gay Man's Journey to Self-Acceptance & Spiritual Awakening.......2007-04-07

I am an avid reader and A Return to Love is one of the most moving, honest, and inspirational books of our time. I love Marianne Williamson's candidness about her own life's difficulties. She has managed to extract much wisdom, insight, and depth into what life is really all about. I quote her in my own book. One of the most powerful insights (and there are many) comes as she tells of doing a funeral for a woman who was brutally murdered. Marianne Williamson was attempting to console the woman's husband......"Michael, you will never be the same, we all know that. You have two choices: You will become harder or you will become softer. You will conclude from this that no one, including God, is ever to be trusted again, or you will allow your tears to so melt the walls that surround your heart- that you will become a man of rare depth and sensitivity." For any of us that have experienced such a tragic loss, this is the type of spirit that we should strive for.

Phenominal.......2007-03-21

Marrianne Williamson's A Return To Love Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, came to me in the spirit of the cliche, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." The book came to me at a time when I craved clarity, and when each answer brought an array of new questions. For anyone who has read A Course in Miracles will delight in Ms. Williamson's reflections. She makes light work of a very deep study. Further, this book answers questions brought to the surface with the study of all spritual realms.

A Course in Miracles - or a Course in Double Speak? .......2007-03-16

A Course in Miracles was written by a New York medical psychologist who claimed to have channeled the voice of Jesus Christ and now the world has a continuation of the New Testament. Hmmmmm.... the last time I checked the such conditions fit the DSMR-IV criterion for clinical megalomania. At least Moses took credit for his books in the Torah.

Marianne Williamson is a former jazz nightclub singer who is the mother of an illegitimate daughter who openly admits drugs and drink abuse. SShe continues to have a string of broken relationships that no matter how she applies the course doesn't seem to break the pattern. She is also someone who has had controversy in her life from financial questions in a few organizations she had been the head of. No one is perfect but beware false profits whose snare you with their feel good theology. There is such a thing as sin and it is not just missing the mark. Marianne is the High Priestess of a religion based on love with some sprinklings of double speak.

Pure Gold.......2007-03-16

Marianne Williamson, wrote this book some years ago. I continually go back to it. It is full of wonderful incites, and wisdom beyond measure.
Marianne is a great thinker and also a great lover of humanity.
Her book is a brilliant marriage between the heart and mind. The world could do with more people like this. As it is I am certain that this book has changed many lives and will continue to do so.
Even if you are not a student of A Course in Miracles, Marianne has such deep wisdom that she is able to link and unify all metaphysical and religious strands. An excellent read!

Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History

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Sins of Omission
Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History
Rediscovering God in America
Great Book!
Rediscovering God in America: Reflections of the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History

Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History
Newt Gingrich
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1591454824

Book Description

A simple walk through Washington, D.C. began a profound journey of personal discovery and renewal for Newt Gingrich, one of America's most influential politicians and commentators. At the

Customer Reviews:

Sins of Omission.......2007-06-19

Mr. Gingrich has carefully selected his quotes and photos to present a distorted view of the monuments. For instance, the book shows a statue of Moses and and an image of a Gutenberg Bible from the Library of Congress. He does not mention that the Gutenberg Bible is displayed under the feet of the false goddess of wisdom and war, Minerva, nor that it is steps away from a gold inlaid representation of the zodiac in the floor of the Great Hall. Interestingly, the Library of Congress Christmas Tree is set up each year right in the middle of this zodiac.

That's just one example. He sounds almost rapturous about the references to "the creator" from the base of the Washington Monument right up to the aluminum cap, but seems not to notice that the obelisk is an ancient pagan phallic symbol.

It is intellectually dishonest to present such a slanted view of the spiritual influences in our national monuments. It weakens the case for pointing out the legitimate Christian influences when authors insist on pretending the pagan idolatrous images aren't even there. As any parent knows, telling a little slice of the truth and omitting the parts of the story that incriminate do not qualify as telling the truth.

Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History.......2007-05-14

Speaker Gingrich has written a wonderful book that shows the role that the faith of the Founding Fathers played in the founding of our nation. Thank you for writing this book to refocus our attention on the principles which this nation was founded.

Rediscovering God in America.......2007-05-13

We bought a bundle of these books. We have given them to the fourth graders at a school. They went over so well, they were amazed of the stories of how God is at the foundation of our Country. This book should be given to all the elementry schools in the country as well as at the high school students level to read before they graduate.

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

Newt has taken some very interesting history, that all of us should really already know, and pointed out some obvious points that our lefty schools and media don't want us to remember. This book is an easy read packed with some great facts! Thanks Newt!

Rediscovering God in America: Reflections of the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History.......2007-05-13

This is one fantastic book. Everyone who lives in America and loves this country should read this book. Thank you Newt Gingrich for bring this information to light and GOD BLESS THE USA!!!!

The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through: Changing School Supervisory Practice One Teacher at a Time

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Th e Three-Minute Walk- Through
3 minute walk through easily applied-
Three Minute Classroom Walk-Through

The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through: Changing School Supervisory Practice One Teacher at a Time
Carolyn J. Downey , Betty E. Steffy , Fenwick W. English , Larry E. Frase , and William K. Poston
Manufacturer: Corwin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0761929673

Book Description

Change the entire school culture with this collaborative method of supervision.

For years, the classic supervision model has frustrated both principals and teachers by fostering superior-subordinate relationships, focusing on teacher conformity rather than growth, or producing checklist data that is irrelevant to the curriculum. The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through offers a practical, time-saving alternative that impacts student achievement by cultivating self-reliant teachers who are continuously improving their practice.

Easy to understand and adopt, this method will answer the questions most important to principals:

Is the work of my teachers aligned with the district curriculum?
Are my teachers using research-based "best practices"?
Are they choosing the instructional strategies that will promote student achievement?

Also known as the Downey Walk-through, the method presented in The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through has been developed over a 40-year period, tested and refined in actual teaching environments, and taught internationally.

Also see:
The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through (Multimedia Kit)

Customer Reviews:

Th e Three-Minute Walk- Through.......2007-04-06

I was expecting something less technical and more user friendly. I will have to devote some time to reading this in the summer and then perhaps implement next year.

3 minute walk through easily applied-.......2007-02-21

This book was an easy read and had very practical, easy to put into practice, tips on observing classrooms. Time-saving techniques that still are quality practices.

Three Minute Classroom Walk-Through.......2005-07-28

An effective guide for pinpointing effective classroom instruction. This book also outlines specific strategies for engaging teachers in reflective dialogue that could enhance classroom instruction. A must read for administrators.

The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs

Average customer rating:

Now I know
An insightful analysis for those who take a deep interest in American foreign policy
The Choir will nod, but how about others?
Easy to read book on a deep subject
Fascinating, but frustrating

The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs
Madeleine Albright
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

ASIN: 0060892587
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Book Description

Does America, as George W. Bush has proclaimed, have a special mission, derived from God, to bring liberty and democracy to the world? How much influence does the Christian right have over U.S. foreign policy? And how should America deal with violent Islamist extremists?

Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state and bestselling author of Madam Secretary, offers a thoughtful and often surprising look at the role of religion in shaping America's approach to the world. Drawing upon her experiences while in office and her own deepest beliefs about morality, the United States, and the present state of world affairs, a woman noted for plain speaking offers her thoughts about the most controversial topics of our time.

Customer Reviews:

Now I know.......2007-05-19

This is a great history of the Middle East and it's troubles (for all of us).
It's even better at giving us some ideas and hopes for solutions. We all need to think about these things and begin to change the way we act. Remember, most Arabs are not terrorists and wish to live in peace just as we do.
Read Learn Remember!

An insightful analysis for those who take a deep interest in American foreign policy.......2007-05-13

For the record and pertinency, I am a conservative centrist. I am not nor have I ever been either a Democrat or a Republican. This is the 4th in a series of books written by former SecStates, two by Mr. Baker and two by Ms. Albright. I find them all intriguing in their own way. This text, "The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs," brings into focus the realities of the world from the world's perspective, how American actions are perceived by the world, and the direction America can and must take to rebuild that which as been lost. What sets this work apart is the analysis of the relationships among people from secular, cultural, and religious perspectives as they are interwoven in various patterns around the world. It is a refreshing book which I fully expect will have increasing relevance as we make the transition from the current to the future administration. I strongly endorse Ms. Albright's most recent book for anyone who takes a deep interest in American foreign policy.

The Choir will nod, but how about others?.......2007-05-04

Madam Albright's thoughts would definitely resonate well with those who see the world as a complicated place with multiple faiths mingled in complex ideologies that some times take the wrong turns and become extreme. But how many of those who think "other" ideologies are "bad" would get this message? Will Al-Qaeda get it? Will President Bush get it? Unfortunately we have two camps in this world with "extreme" ideologies that think "my god" is better than "your god".

Unless until we realize that ideologies are so complex that people cannot be "forced" to adopt a new path, we will never make this earth a better place to live.

I'm in the choir with Madam Albright and nodding, but I doubt those who ought to be in the choir are not even reading this comment, let alone the book.

America Misunderstood: What a Second Bush Victory Meant to the Rest of the World

Easy to read book on a deep subject.......2007-05-03

In this day and age of partisanship I found this book to be a refreshing change. I've read some of the reviews and I guess when you are talking religion and politics that you will step on peoples toes. They want you to agree with them and attack the other side. I felt this book walked the line pretty well giving both sides praise and criticism. She is a Democrat after all and may give her side a sleight edge.
The first section of the book speaks mainly to diplomacy and her views as to how it should be done using examples from history. How and why we did things right and why some of the things we did went wrong. It gave me more in site into areas like Vietnam, Bosnia and Kosovo.
The real value of the book begins in the second section with her depth of understanding of foreign policy and Islamic Nations in particular. Madeleine Albright starts out by describing the history and beliefs of the Islamic faith. For those of you who haven't read anything about Islam you may be surprised how close it is to Christianity. She also covers some aspects of what is written in the Quran as well as the difference between Shiites and Sunni beliefs. She also covers how the Kurds fit in all of this. While this is a very deep subject she keeps it interesting and understandable.
To give a better understanding of the Middle-East situation she then covers the area country by country and how the Muslim faith affects each in their decision making. She also mentions the effect of the Muslim faith in Europe and the United States. The book wouldn't be complete without covering Al Qaeda and terrorism and it does a very good job explaining the problem.
If you are looking for a book with all the answers or to agree with one side or the other this isn't the one but if you want an easy to read book to give you a better understanding of some of the problems this is an excellent book.

Fascinating, but frustrating.......2007-04-08

Like her memoir, Albright shows herself to be as good of a writer as she is a statesman. She speaks the truth here about many things regarding world policy and religion as well as the missteps of the current administration. The frustrating thing about this book is that its really written to the choir. I nodded my head often - and realized that the people who should read this book never will. So read this book then loan it to someone who still doesn't get it.

In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership

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extraordinary, challenging, very useful
A Breath of Fresh Air
short and easy... but a challenging read
Power packed resource on church leadership
refreshing and continual reader!

In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership
Henri J. Nouwen
Manufacturer: Crossroad/Faith & Formation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0824512596

Book Description

This book draws provocative and stimulating conclusions about meaning and significance of Christian ministry.

Customer Reviews:

extraordinary, challenging, very useful.......2007-06-05

Henri J. M. Nouwen has taught at the University of Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, he is the author of several books, and a priest. I have found In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, a very fruitful reading and a practical, challenging book. In its pages beat several values like human sensibility, sincerity, humbleness, and biblical influence. I could declare the book's theme to be the temptations and virtues that the Christian leader will deal with in the 21st Century.

In several ways, the writing deals with the new experiences and ministerial perception that Nouwen has felt in his own flesh, and that he thinks that must characterize the true Christian leader. When the author changes his residence from the academic world of Harvard to L'Arche, his social experiences, his ministry as priest, and his spiritual insight was changed too. The L'Arche community in Toronto was far different from that of the academy. Working with the mentally handicapped was the Master's teaching for the professor Nouwen. In L'Arche, Henri Nouwen didn't have anyone to impress with his book, because they couldn't read. They weren't impressed with his performance, knowledge, or social influence either. In this situation, the author confesses that he must be only who he was, a vulnerable man. The author says, "I am telling you all this because I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self." This is a message that I am sure that many of my colleagues do not want to hear. Our culture celebrates success before authenticity, greatness before insignificance. If we have nothing to offer to the World, why preach the Gospel? Well, we don't have anything from ourselves to offer, but we have Christ, His message, and hope. Isn't that enough? In my perception, the author is not pretending to cancel human participation in the kingdom of God, but to moderated it. The women and men that serve God are not the center of the message. God is.

Reading this book, I have receive new insight about the ministerial attitudes that moved a servant of God to serve and love. In these days, when we are hearing that if your church is not growing fast or using some specific strategies, maybe you aren't a minister of Christ. Other people is saying that if you are not "swimming in money", God is not blessing you, etcetera. The words of Nouwen are very important. He says, "The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus?" Another rewarding insight was about the dangerous temptations that every minister must resist and how to resist them. Based on Jesus's temptation, Nouwen refer to three of these current temptations: the temptation to be relevant, the temptation to be spectacular, and the temptation to be powerful. On the other hand, the author suggests three spiritual disciplines to win over these temptations: the discipline of contemplative prayer, the discipline of confession and forgiveness, and the discipline of theological reflection.

From my perspective all the book makes sense to me, and is a valuable source of inspiration for the minister in the 21st Century. A time when the churchman is having old temptations in new packages, the same strategies that have worked for the man Jesus Christ, will work for us today, and ever.

A Breath of Fresh Air.......2007-04-17

I greatly appreciated Henri's book and it was a breath of fresh air which make me think very deeply about my life and ministry. I am a former Roman Catholic and appreciate the thoughfulness of Nouwen.

short and easy... but a challenging read.......2007-04-07

This book is definitely a breath of fresh air in a market filled with books about Jesus being whatever you want Him to be in the mold of the world's system. It's a call to come out of the erroneous mindsets we have about leadership to embrace the humility of Christ. Servant leadership that lays down its life for the sheep. One that is not a hired hand, leading in a professional spirit. It's a short and easy... and challenging read

Power packed resource on church leadership.......2007-02-19

Nouwen's reflections are noteworthy. As a theologian this book speaks volumes about Christ-centered leadership from a pastor's perspective. On leadership I have not read a more concise and work on the nuts and bolts of servant-leadership.

As a Christian, I am convinced that if can master the concepts in this book I can truly be a vessel that glorifies the kingdom of God. I have used this book in training seminars for my two churches and the leaders have all thanked me for the helping them develop personally and spiritually.

I highly recommend any person who wants to take their ministry to the next level read this great book on how to maximize your god-given potential.

refreshing and continual reader!.......2007-01-22

Nouwen goes right at the heart of Christian Leadership today. I have read and re-read this book a number of times --- it will become a classic within my personal library!

With personal insights that are only capable by knowing himself well enough to make statements that are right on as it relates to the temptations of leaders, Nouwen gives hope to the future of Christian Leadership!

How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter

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How We Live
More than merely informative
A Harsh Subject Put Forth Somewhat Gently
How We Die
Illegal to die of old age

How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
Sherwin B. Nuland
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679742441
Release Date: 1995-01-15

Book Description

Attempting to demythologize the process of dying, Nuland explores how we shall die, each of us in a way that will be unique. Through particular stories of dying--of patients, and of his own family--he examines the seven most common roads to death: old age, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's, accidents, heart disease, and strokes, revealing the facets of death's multiplicity.

"It's impossible to read How We Die without realizing how earnestly we have avoided this most unavoidable of subjects, how we have protected ourselves by building a cultural wall of myths and lies. I don't know of any writer or scientist who has shown us the face of death as clearly, honestly and compassionately as Sherwin Nuland does here."--James Gleick

Customer Reviews:

How We Live.......2007-05-24

Nuland's "How We Die" is, ostensibly, about death and the means by which the great majority of us will take our exit; toward this end, Nuland excels. Nuland also manages, however, to subtly position death's predecessor -- life -- front and center by concluding that "The dignity that we seek in dying must be found in the dignity with which we have lived our lives. Ars moriendi is ars vivendi. The art of dying is the art of living...It is not in the last weeks or days that we compose the message that will be remembered, but in all the decades that preceded them. Who has lived in dignity, dies in dignity." Nuland is a talented writer and he delivers a work that is nothing short of honest, accessible, and insightful. Highly recommended for those preoccupied with life...and death.

More than merely informative.......2007-05-07

Dr. Nuland explains the dying process in detail, without sugar coating or sentimentality, in a way that is understandable to the general reader. More importantly, he shares his reflections on this process as a human being and as a doctor. The reader comes away from the book with information and wisdom not easily gained through other means. As someone loooking to revise his living will, I found the book immensely helpful. I should add that I was particularly impressed by Dr. Nuland's humility and his avoidance of all preaching. In so doing he credits his reader with intelligence and challenges him or her to think deeply.

A Harsh Subject Put Forth Somewhat Gently.......2007-03-23

This book will put to rest any idea of a 'good death.' It gives all the details, in a non-gory fashion, of all the major causes of death in this day and age. Mr. Nuland is an eloquent man and easy to read, even for us laypersons. The technical aspects are explained in a way that anyone can understand. Give this book to someone who doesn't take care of themselves, or thinks they're still immortal. I read this book with its description of death by heart disease and decided to finally quit smoking. It took three months, but I've been smoke free for 2 weeks and strong. I'm not saying that this book will cure you of any ills you have, but it may make you think about how you treat your body and how little time we really have.

How We Die.......2007-02-07

Not an easy red for the squeamish, but a palatable review of the inevitable presented in a straightforward, mature, and responsible manner.

Illegal to die of old age.......2006-12-31

In his book "How We Die" Sherwin B. Nuland describes how the U.S. Government in its annual "Advance Report of Final Mortality Statistics" neatly tabulates all the deaths by cause. And nowhere in the report is "old age" listed as a cause. In fact, this attitude is echoed by the World Health Organization - it is illegal to die of old age. There are many other wonderful facts and descriptions in this book. Now that it is 12 years old, I'm not sure if the statistics need to be updated but I would guess that how we die changes very little over the years.

Nuland, a practicing surgeon, has detailed the major causes of death - from sudden heart attacks to more lingering strokes to the very lengthy dying process of Alzheimer's. He describes the physiology, the pathology of disease in its relentless attack on the human body and how, despite all the advances of medical science, the disease always wins.

The descriptions aren't pretty. Nuland pops our bubble that dying can be done with dignity. But somehow, knowing the possibilities takes away some of the fear and dread. The stories are told sensitively as one would expect from a medical practitioner who has had some years of experience but also as one would expect from a brother or son or friend. Some of the more poignant descriptions are very personal.

Now that 80% of our deaths in America occur in the hospital, we need a book like this to remind us of the reality of death and to help us cope with that reality.

My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance

Average customer rating:

Shorting Sidhartha to ground
An interesting career path
good source of info for those who wonder what a quant is
My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance
An interesting world line

My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance
Emanuel Derman
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471394203

Book Description

Emanuel Derman was one of the first physicists to move to Wall Street, and his career paralleled the growth of quantitative trading over the past twenty years. In My Life as a Quant, he traces his transformation from ambitious young scientist to managing director and head of the renowned Quantitative Strategies group at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Derman’s tale recounts his adventures with quants, traders and other high fliers on Wall Street as he became the best-known quant in the business. He describes the struggles of research and his interactions with an assorted cast of famous scientists. He relates his impressions of some of the most creative minds on Wall Street, including Fischer Black, with whom he collaborated on the widely used Black-Derman-Toy model of interest rates. Throughout his story he reflects on the appropriate way to apply the refined methods of physics to the hurly-burly world of markets and the people that inhabit them.

Download Description

Customer Reviews:

Shorting Sidhartha to ground.......2007-03-11

After reading Derman's Platonic idea of the origin of physics on the first two pages, I was so angry that for a while I couldn't read further. When finally I did read further, I couldn't put the book down until midnight. This autobiography of a physicist turned financial engineer is more entertaining than most novels, and is informative in a way that no other book is. Derman's description of his life and times is the chronicle of an era. This is a book that should be read by physics grad students who fantacize about working for banks or trading houses.

I remember how in 1957 we and our neighbors went out at night to watch Sputnik pass overhead as a pale, visibly moving light. This was the same year that Mercury had produced the 6 cyl. 60 h.p. outboard motor, Chevy produced its classic model, Elvis sang 'Loving You', and my youngest brother was born. Then, each morning before school, we would turn on the Today Show and often watch as a rocket from Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville) or Cape Canaveral went up a few meters, then fell over and crashed. Finally, von Braun (who'd escaped from Penemünde via Thüringen to North Tirol (where I mainly live) and then engineered his capture by the U.S. rather than the Russians or the French) eventually got it right and launched too, but not before Americans were treated to huge, Life Magazine photos of Chicago teenagers jitterbugging their lives away, and of Russian teenagers intensely studying math and physics. The US reaction to Sputnik was in part the NDEA loans that got me and a lot of other science majors through the university, and produced a very large excess supply of physics Ph.D.s by about 1970. In the seventies, academic jobs in physics in the US were so few, and the competition so great, that it was the kiss of death to take a postdoctoral fellowship in Europe. Going there put you outside the loop. One could generalize a British postdoc's experience after his arrival at Cal Tech in the following way: the US was the center of the universe in physics, and to a first approximation Europe did not exist. In the early eighties I noticed that a former physics grad student in nonlinear dynamics had been hired by a trading house. I didn't understand the significance then. Eventually, one of my later to be closest collaborators (and is Feigenbaum's only grad student to boot) worked for a year in 1990 at a Chicago trading house before coming to the University of Houston. In 1999, the same year that I heard of the Physics and finance meeting in Dublin where Gene Stanley coined the awful but effective term 'Econophysics', I read that Mitch Feigenbaum and Nigel Goldenfeld had opened a derivatives-related business in New York. Derman was one of the first physicists to go to work as a modeler on Wall Street. Derman's book, written humorously, self-deprecatingly and introspectively, yet objectively, is a chronicle of that era, a chronicle of physics and job hunting by physics grads in the post-Vietman war era, the era that began with Nixon's deregulation of the dollar (tied to gold at $35/oz. from 1935-1971, gold that Americans were not permitted to own for reasons of attempted currency stability). I'll stop here with my introduction and recommend that anyone who really wants to understand something about the world financial system read Eichengreen's `Globalizing Capital'. Here are some comments about parts of the book that I liked particularly well, or particularly disliked. The book can be read as a useful complement to `The Predictors', Liar's Poker', and `Inventing Money'.

The platonic view of the origin of mathematical laws of nature expressed on the first two pages is wrong. One can understand how a theorist with a focus on gauge theories might get on that track, but it is not true that Einstein thought that way in his early discoveries. For a better picture of why mathematics is unreasonably effective in physics, read Wigner's `Symmetries and Reflections', and read Barbour's `Absolute or Relative Motion' for the history of the discoveries.

The difference between physics (academic research) and financial engineering (on the Street) is described pretty well. In the latter, a good graphics interface is more important for business than is a good model. The description of the difference is generally true of physics and engineering per se, and is not peculiar to the financial brand.

The description of reductionism is the extreme brand believed uncritically by people like Steven Weinberg. Any correct mathematical description of nature, any isolation of cause and effect, is a form of reductionism. Attempts to understand markets empirically is a form of reductionism.

The description of Lee and Yang's quarrels is revealing (both visited the University of Houston Physics Dept. at various times in the seventies and eighties). The description of Cvitanovic rings too true! I was not aware (!?) that Feigenbaum and Libchaber (name misspelled) like Steiner's writings, although it's fairly well known that Feigenbaum reads Goethe.
Derman describes vividly how no one can get past T.D. Lee in a colloquium, then with British understatement writes that his own thesis defense, with Lee on the committee, was no problem. And his advice to students about blind alleys and perseverance is correct. The race is often won not by the quickest but rather by the one who doesn't quit in the face of adversity.

The author had a tantalizing taste early on of the life of the successful (i.e., well-connected) physicist on the conference circuit. I myself read too many biographies of German professors who took a Kur for 6 weeks on the Baltic or the North Sea.

His description of life at Oxford, and the string of postdoctoral positions is believable and hilarious. The description of the pain of having to live apart from his wife and son is painful to read, although many physicists live so.

Derman also describes what makes physicists arrogant without naming it: life in a scientific culture where the standards are set by certified geniuses. It's hard to live in the shadow of these people. One learns a certain degree of arrogance merely for survival in the culture, and that makes us hard to live with at home and in society. Advice from a bright colleague how to get along with your partner: 'grovel, grovel, grovel'. It works.

His advice about publications is absolutely right: it rarely hurts to put a collaborator's, host's or advisor's name on a paper. I contemplated publishing my thesis alone because Onsager had not really contributed to it, although he suggested the problem. Actually, I doubted that he wanted his name on such a seemingly trivial piece of work, but it turned out that he liked it and did want his name on the papers. He liked all sorts of calculations. As long as they were right ....

There is no correct analogy between economics/finance and thermodynamics, the far from equilibrium nature of markets prohibits it. Fischer Black, whom I admire enormously and have read carefully, was wrong about 'equilibrium': he swallowed the economists' notions uncritically (Derman describes Black as 'in love' with the idea of equilibrium, and one can swallow anything when one is in love). CAPM is certainly not an 'equilibrium' model, and CAPM does not lead to the Black-Scholes pde, there's an error in the 1973 paper. I prefer the Black-Scholes paper to all of Merton's useless rigmarole about utility, a nonfalsifiable notion at best, although it's true that replication is not in the Black-Scholes paper. I can't see that Merton's derivation of the backward time pde is 'more rigorous' than Black's delta-hedge condition.

Derman's description of his self-imposed exile to Bell Labs is hilarious. His loving description of UNIX is beyond me (I know how to use a word processor).

Weltanschauung is mis-spelled, there are n+1 split infinitives in the text.

Now I know where Lisa Borland's boss comes from.

The description of Fischer Black is worth the book alone, even if the rest were not good. Osborne, Black, and Mandelbrot can be counted as the ancestors of Econophysics, which differs from Financial Engineering the way that physics differs from engineering. Black was right that expected returns, seen as anticipating the future, is not an observable notion. But, then, what does Soros do when he beats the market (nonmathematically)?

Derman's description of economic theory as nonsense (my term) is absolutely correct, when applied to micro- and macro-economics texts. What one finds inside those books is useless, falsified mathematized ideology. To make matters worse, economists know that and still teach the stuff in the classroom, misleading generations of students.

All in all, this is a highly recommendable book!

An interesting career path.......2006-12-11

This book is not for those interested in learning quantitative finance. Rather, it is a memoir written by a physicist who came to finance relatively late in life.

There is some poignancy in Derman's transformation from theoretical physicist bent on a life in academia (where he hoped to make groundbreaking discoveries about elementary particles) to mid-level employee of one of the world's great financial institutions (Goldman Sachs). Although he was undoubtedly well paid for the skills he brought to the financial markets, Derman's story is tinged with sadness about the loss of an ideal.

The book is particularly valuable for the insights it provides about the inner workings of a major investment bank, and in particular about the role played by the "quants" in the development of new products and trading strategies. It also provides some perspective on the development of quantitative finance as a practical discipline; and it makes clear that quantitative skills, while important to a successful career in a major financial institution, generally take a back seat to salesmanship, practical trading skills, and internal politicking.

Those with a liking for pure mathematics will have to grin and bear Derman's critical comments about mathematical rigor and economic theory.

good source of info for those who wonder what a quant is.......2006-11-13

Mr. Derman took the reader along with his journey from theorectical physics to financial modeling. The later chapters provide simple to understand explanations of what he did at Goldman Sachs to model bond options. No knowledge of advance mathematics required. One shudders when one realizes that models are formed usually after the fact. Today trillion of dollars are traded based on imperfect models. What if ... there was a flaw in the model?

My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance.......2006-08-20

One needs to consider what they want out the book before buying it. If your looking for a book with market trading tactics and think this book will provide that, then my score would be a "1" Its not about how to make YOU money and its title implies that. In fact, its title is a quite honest answer to what is inside, the reflections of this Quant on his life in physics and finance. While he does not give the reader any CLEAR suggestions on how to make money in the market, he does give a good view of life as a professional in the hard sciences most of them would find it boring, the book would be a good for some super high school achiever that is contemplating or announced committment to a life as a PHd in hard science. He does do a good job of relating all the "posturing", the "idea stealing", and general BS that is the real world of both science and commerce. His descriptions of his finance modeling efforts and the difficulties does show why many big firms can go bust. But other than messing up your own trading, you have to know when a big firm had bad Quant. So, unless you can think beyond what your reading as to making money in the market and learning to make money is your goal, then pass on this book. I gave it a "3" as it is good at exposing BS. More BS exposure type books may some day help us all. But you won't find specific maket making money ideas in this book, thus no "5"

An interesting world line.......2006-08-05

It is very uncommon for scientists to be revealing of their personal lives, and even more rare for them to make written commentary on the people they have interacted with over the span of their careers or even a portion thereof. The author of this book, who began his career as a physicist and then chose to be a financial engineer, is thus a statistical outlier in this regard. His transparency has allowed the reader to gain insight not only into how it is to live, study, and work in academia, but also in the financial world. All personal life histories are subjected to random perturbations, to events and people that are unplanned and unexpected, but as this book clearly shows, with pertinacity, with determination, one can smooth out even the strongest of these perturbations, and trace out a world line that is personally satisfying and dignified.

A reader should not conclude from the title of the book that the author concentrates solely on his experiences as a "quant" on Wall Street. He also details his experiences as a graduate student at Columbia University and as such gives inspiring physics graduate students a look at life at a major research institution. For those who have been through graduate work in physics, his stories and anecdotes are very familiar, especially those that detail the personalities of some of physics professors which interestingly enough, seem to have a very small variance. It would be unfair to say that arrogance and envy are the predominant emotions among physics professors, since there has been no reliable scientific studies that would indicate this is the case, but there is such a plethora of rumors and innuendo to that conclusion that many graduate physics departments are not obtaining the students that they need. This is indeed a shame, given the inherent fascinations of both theoretical and applied physics that dissuaded young people will not get to experience.

There are more than just anecdotes in the book, for the author gives opinions on the nature of discovery in physics and the similarities and differences with discovery in computational and theoretical finance. Interestingly, he states that the discovery of physical laws was partly the result of what he calls "deep intuition" and also "pure thought." The author does not elaborate on what he means by these terms, no doubt because he does not want to engage in philosophical meanderings, but his claims would raise an eyebrow to those readers who have a strong background in the history of science. A reading of the history of discovery in physics will reveal a quite different story, namely that the present understanding and formulation of physical laws came about after many false leads and blind allies over centuries of effort. It would therefore be unfair to impute some magical sense of intuition or thought patterns to Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein. Their discoveries certainly came about as the result of "hard thinking" as the author believes, but they were also dependent on the observations, extrapolations, technological expertise, and failed hypotheses of many who came before them. Far from being step functions of history that made radical breaks with the past, these discoveries were instead an alternating sum of the work of many dedicated individuals, whose identities and institutional affiliations can be found out if one takes the time and effort.

Wall Street though was apparently impressed enough about the abilities of physicists to begin hiring them in the 1980's to do quantitative finance. Choosing physicists instead of mathematicians or engineers does make sense if one believes that physicists have both the "common sense" and mathematical expertise needed to build models of the financial markets and of various financial instruments, such as fixed income products and credit swaps. The participation of physicists in the field of financial engineering continues to this day, and it would be justified to believe that their hiring has been a wise choice, in spite of some of debacles widely reported in the press over the last two decades (most of the reporting being inaccurate and misleading if one examines the historical facts). The author does not want to call quantitative finance a "science" but he alludes to the fact that it has resulted in a few fields springing up in recent years, with "econophysics" being one of these.

The author's account of life at the physics department in Columbia in the 1960's is fascinating and has parallels in other departments throughout the United States, if not the entire world. The creativity and dynamism in these departments is to be contrasted with the envy and infighting, the latter of which can be extremely counterproductive to those students who experience it (and are afraid of speaking up against it). In particular the author spends a lot of time discussing the personality of T.D. Lee, a high-energy physicist who shared with Chen-Ning Yang a Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of parity violation in the weak interaction. When reading the author's account, one is amazed by the immaturity and childishness exhibited by T.D. Lee, especially his attempts to humiliate invited seminar speakers, all with the intent it seems of gaining attention, and not to clarify scientifically the issues at hand. It would seem as though Lee was aware that the focus he obtained when winning the Nobel is short-lived, that glory is only fleeting, and he was going to take every step, no matter how irrational, to insure that he was kept under the bright lights of theatre. Even more shocking is to read that Yang and Lee actually split up and no longer communicated with each other a short time after receiving their Nobel. It would seem that the sharing of fame is an anathema to them. But left out of the author's discussion is any mention of how Yang and Lee arrived at their ideas. Did they arise solely because of discussions between the two of them, or did they arise from ruminations with colleagues or graduate students? And in his focus on T.D. Lee the author downplays his own intellectual status and importance relative to him. There is no question that T.D. Lee has done outstanding work, but could he have also done brilliant work in financial engineering of the type that the author and many others did? One could make a strong argument, based on both practical needs and intellectual ingenuity, that the contributions to quantitative finance that the author made are vastly more important than what T.D. Lee made to physics. Derivatives trading now amounts to over 200 trillion dollars, and the financial instruments that have been developed by the author and others have assisted the financial needs of hundreds of millions of people. The intellectual horsepower required, along with the needed background in frequently difficult and abtruse mathematics, certainly ranks quantitative finance as being one of the most challenging fields to be in, right up there with physics, and in many cases surpassing it.

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