Wrestling with God Review

Wrestling with God
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I am an atheist. For the past year I have attended bible study at Journey, the church founded by Rick Diamond after he left Riverbend Church and after he wrote this book. One might think that I'm biased, and I am to a degree, pulled in one direction by my atheism and in the opposite direction by my respect and admiration for Rick, whose whole mission in life is Love. I'm not even sure what Love is, but I'm hanging out at bible study, listening attentively, hoping that I'll learn.
So it is with mixed feelings that I read this book, cover to cover in just a few short sittings. It's not a long book, 172 pages, easy and fun to read and sometimes funny. But there are plenty of passages that really make you question your life. As an atheist, one might rightly say that I have no purpose, or at least haven't discovered it yet. As an atheist, I'm not sure that "Purpose" really exists apart from the wishes of our own egos. And I'm not sure that Rick's book really answers the question of what our purpose should be. But, in fairness, that's not what Wrestling With God was trying to accomplish, in my opinion.
The concept of "desert" is very big in this book. Wrestling With God uses the struggles of biblical characters (Jesus, Moses, Jacob, and others), characters from pop culture and literature (Luke Skywalker, Hamlet, etc), and real people, to teach us about how the desert can cleanse our spirit. The desert is a metaphor for struggle. It's a place where we are alone, where we don't want to be, but yet are there because of circumstance (foreclosure, cancer diagnosis, loss of a loved one). The desert is where Jesus fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, and where He is tempted. Luke Skywalker is tempted by the dark side of the force. Even though I am an atheist, I very much believe in the struggles of life. Maybe I'm missing something by not believing in God and the divinity of Jesus, and that's why I'm attending bible study and reading books such as this one.
The desert forces you to strip down to your bare nature, to find what is most important to you and to tear all the rest away. Your survival sometimes depends on it, both your physical and spiritual survival. I've been in the desert a couple of times in my life, and it is at those times that I turn to books such as Wrestling With God, and to people such as Rick Diamond, to help me survive. This book has helped me see that I need to start to focus on what's most important in my life and, most importantly, to find a purpose, a purpose that will help lead me out of the desert.
I recommend this book to believers and non-believers alike.

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WRESTLING WITH GODYou're hungry to know God. You want to encounter Him. You can feel it in your bones that there's more to life, but everywhere you've looked to fill the void you feel has left you empty still: Culture. Career. Things. Even church. Your soul's stomach continues to growl. This book will satisfy that hunger. Wrestling With God is raw. It's about getting outside the confines of dogmatic religion and encountering something real. It is a guidebook into the rich journey of surrender and exploration that can lead to a deep trust in a radically loving ­ but never tame ­ God. Warning: This book will mess you up. But that's a good thing. The end of religion is the beginning of relationship.

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The Coach: Creating Partnerships for a Competitive Edge Review

The Coach: Creating Partnerships for a Competitive Edge
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Short - easy to read and filled with concrete "how-to" information on a collaborative process for facilitating change in someone's performance. The author's 8-step model is based on 20 years research into the "best practices" of successful business performance managers. Very common sense and practical.

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The Coach is the first reasearch based book written on the topic of Coaching.
This book is about the coaching process and the skills, behaviors, courage, and values leaders need in order to evoke employee committment and motivation. This is a "how-to" book with a lot of specifics on what to say and how to handle different coaching situations. The authors provide a unique close-up account of a true-to-like manager who discovers the obstacles and challenges of helping an employee ove a difficult time. This leader ultimately discovers the keys to coaching success and averts a careet-threatening disaster.
Many books on leadership focus on general theories, while others treat the topic of coaching in a shallow and oversimplified view. From thirty years of research and observations, Steven J. Stowell, Ph.D. has collected data that provides a rich and deep understanding of this topic.

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Northern Dancer: The Legend and His Legacy (Mainstream Sport) Review

Northern Dancer: The Legend and His Legacy (Mainstream Sport)
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This book is very well written and informative. As well as the life-story of this remarkable animal it provides an insight into the history and workings of the racing industry. At times it brought a tear to my eye! I have a Northern Dancer horse and I look at him with a new dimension of knowledge.

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When Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby in the spring of 1964, Canadians poured into the streets to celebrate. Northern Dancer had not only waltzed off with North America's most cherished racing trophy, he had also run the Derby faster than any horse in history. The mayor of Toronto awarded him the key to the city, the country's sportswriters voted him Athlete of the Year, and he was deluged with fan mail. Yet the excitement generated by this remarkable animal had only just begun. The story of Northern Dancer is the stuff of legend. He was a little horse, dismissed time and again because of his size, and to many he appeared to be the antithesis of streamlined, thoroughbred elegance. Today, however, his descendants dominate racing the world over, and Northern Dancer is recognized as the greatest thoroughbred sire in modern history. To discover what made Northern Dancer so extraordinary, journalist Muriel Lennox takes us on a ride into the sport of kings and queens.

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The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business Review

The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business
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The war for eyeballs and attention can only grow fiercer over the next few years. In the Information Economy we all suffer from overload and the need to multitask through the day. Tom Davenport and John Beck makes the case that in the future we will need to `attention manage' as a metric. They ask whether `we are the first society with ADD' (attention deficit disorder), and they list symptoms of organizational ADD.
As mentioned in the editorial review the Attention Economy is littered with anecdotal pull-outs and "overheard" comments; as well as random factoids such as that the Sunday edition of the New York Times contains more written factual information than was available to reader in the 15th century. Though these factoids are intriguing they can be distracting as they are not always connected to the main body of material. But in some ways they exemplify the attention problem as you are often drawn to reading them.
The main body of the book is devoted to looking at tactics for companies to achieve and manage attention both on an internal basis and with their customers and partners. Softer issues such as personal time management are looked at in the context of the wider picture and have implications for both people and organizations. I found the book however to be missing a `model' or framework that companies could really use. Aside from having an in-depth awareness of the issue, I am unsure what I would do/have done differently after reading it.
The book is well written and engaging, and the authors present an excellent perspective on this most-precious resource.

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The Rough Guide to Amsterdam (Rough Guide Amsterdam) Review

The Rough Guide to Amsterdam (Rough Guide Amsterdam)
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I just got back from two weeks in the Netherlands on my own, one week of which I spent in Amsterdam. I carried this book with me as I went and consulted it a lot. It helped me decide which coffeeshops to visit, pointing me away from high-neon blaring tourist traps to fun little places like Rusland and the Grey Area. It helped me find restaurants. I liked the neighborhood-by-neighborhood maps. And I loved the glossary of Dutch food terms! The history of Amsterdam in this book felt vibrant and alive, unlike the bowdlerized version given in the Lonely Planet guide. (Compare the descriptions of the Lieverdje and the Provos to see what the LP guide leaves out.) Good guidebook. Thumbs up!

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"The Rough Guide to Amsterdam" is the essential travel guide with clear maps and coverage of the unforgettable attractions of this compact and instantly likeable city. From the Anne Frankhuis to the Reijksmuseum, the Rough Guide will steer you via outstanding art galleries, elegant canal-side architecture and all the unmissable city sites. The guide provides comprehensive coverage of the best restaurants, stylish bars, intimate cafes, vibrant markets and hottest nightlife in Amsterdam for all budgets. "The Rough Guide to Amsterdam" includes a chapter devoted to day-trips featuring places you can comfortably get to and back from in a day including Haarlem, Alkmaar and Edam. Explore all corners of the city with authoritative background on evrything from the city's canal houses to the art of the Golden Age, relying on the clearest maps of any guide and practical language tips. Whether you're sipping a beer in an old cafe, or dodging the trams on Dam Square, this guide is indispensable. Make the most of your holiday with "The Rough Guide to Amsterdam".

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Search Engine Optimization Review

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Search Engine Optimization
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At the behest of one of my colleagues, I begrudgingly borrowed this book in preparation to optimize my website. I have an aversion to books in the IDIOTS and DUMMIES series and generally opt for more dignified book titles. However, as I got into this book, I was delighted to discover the breathtakingly simple and well organized presentation style of Michael Miller. I easily grasped the key concepts in the book without my eyes growing crossed. This book was BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN. I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who needs to learn about SEO, PPC, and other web management metrics. I will be on the look out for more books from this author.

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Rev up the search engines. The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Search Engine Optimization is a comprehensive, easy-to-use overview of how search engines work, and addresses techniques for basic website optimization, including analysis and ongoing maintenance of a site's optimization, and how search engine marketing fits within a company's overall online marketing plan. *More than 90% of all online users employ search engines to find what they are looking for on the Internet *A study from IMT Strategies demonstrates that a company's presence on relevant search engines is the most important medium for maintaining high brand awareness-more important than print media, radio, or TV commercials

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Career Counseling: Contexts, Processes, and Techniques Review

Career Counseling: Contexts, Processes, and Techniques
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The book is dated but not out of date. Well written and to the point, it is an excellent introduction and overview as to how people learn. While some of the writing is in the peer review format, enough is in understandable English as to make the book worth reading and keeping as a reference

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The Law of Attraction in Action: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Transforming Your Life (No Matter Where You're StartingFrom) Review

The Law of Attraction in Action: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Transforming Your Life (No Matter Where You're StartingFrom)
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I have read 100's of very poor books on the Laws of Attraction in the last few years. I started reading books about goal setting, mind control and success principles in 1985. I have used what I learnt from my extensive reading, coupled with academic qualifications, business and psychology experience, to create a consulting company, teaching seminars to corporations in strategic thinking, marketing, goal setting and business development. I also use the principles to help individuals, by guiding them as a Life Coach, teaching people cognitive methods to help goal set and enhance their lives beyond what they could do on their own. As such, I read as many books as I can on a variety of subjects to enhance my knowledge. I can honestly say, that with all that experience, this book will help everyone who reads it to set better goals and achieve more in their lives, than they would think possible. It is a GREAT BOOK.
As the Laws of Attraction have come into vogue, through films like The Secret, a large number of books have been published with LOA in their title. I have read virtually every one of them and have found many get lost in the voodoo principles that think you can sit, think happy positive thoughts, visualise wealth and as if by magic and serendipity, vast fortunes will miraculously come your way. A whole generation of people have gotten frustrated, when this does not happen for them and they do not understand why the LOA seems not to work for them.
This book answers so many questions, regarding the LOA and why it can fail in so many ways, with so many people. It addresses many issues in its 212 pages. It looks at State, Intention and Action steps. It addresses old negative mental programming and if you download the workbook, will guide you through all the work you will need to do to get into the right state to allow the LOA to work.
Unlike so many other LOA books, this one puts so much emphasis on your own role in your own success. It uses every strategy you could want, from Kaizen to the Sedona Method (A Brilliant Method to get rid of Emotional Negativity) to EFT to get the Laws working for you by releasing past negativity. The workbook helps set new goals and new empowering beliefs that will propel you forward for greater success.
This really is a GREAT BOOK........BUT 212 pages could have been cut down. The first half of the book looks at State, Intention and Inspired Action. It is tedious and so full of utter waffle and waffle and waffle. I speed read and so ignored so much of the self absorbed waffle. The second half is better and it is obvious someone got a grip on the writing style.
If you can ignore the waffle in the first half, this is a great book for anyone who wishes to succeed in life and business with strategies that will help everyone achieve so much more from their lives.

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An engaging, accessible guide to personal empowerment.The phenomenal success of The Secret points to the great hunger for answers, hope, and change. But what if books like that seem a little too "out there" for you? Enter Deanna Davis, whose down-to-earth approach stems from her own change of heart (it happened at the Olive Garden). In this fun, quirky, and decidedly straightforward guide, Deanna shares the science, strategy, and stories of how to create your ideal life using a universal key to success called the Law of Attraction, whether you seek health, wealth, happiness, success, or anything else, large or small. The book blends cutting-edge research, practical techniques, and a conversational, light, funny tone to make the information both meaningful and memorable. Like a talk by your favorite college professor, it provides brilliant concepts in a downto- earth manner—an uncommon blend of wisdom, creativity, inspiration, and practical strategies that work.

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The Garden Path: The Miseducation of a City Review

The Garden Path: The Miseducation of a City
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The Garden Path: The Mis-education of a City by Andre Perry is a must read for anyone interested in exploring the true purpose and meaning of education. Set in New Orleans Louisiana, the story introduces us to a cast of characters that share critical commonalities as well as stark and drastic differences. A professor, new to the job and new to New Orleans but still determined to plant seeds of optimistic change in the school system; a cluster of students with lots of potential, lots of problems, and difficult lives; and a backdrop of political players, community members, teachers, and an infamous and powerful storm. These characters bring to the story different backgrounds and divergent perspectives. However, they all literally share common ground. Their stories illustrate how difficult and yet important it is to create a new vision for education.
The book tackles school reform, but its story is bigger than school reform. This novel speaks to the value of innovation in education. The book tackles the challenging realities of living and learning in post-Katrina New Orleans, but the story's relevance expands beyond the New Orleans state lines. This is a story about change. And changing the educational experiences of both students and teachers is a national issue. This is a story about the burdensome task of leading an effort to transform organizations, minds, and lives. It shines a spotlight on the physical, emotional, and psychological toll that the school system exerts on everyone involved in it. But ultimately, this is a story about wholeness. Perry paints a full and vibrant portrait of the educational experience--both within and outside of schools; both including and moving beyond educators and administrators; and both involving and challenging institutionally based knowledge. It is a story about education as a practice of freedom and the ways in which students, parents, teachers, and administrators all fight to experience the authentic beauty of this vital human right.
As a creative work, the book is a compelling piece of historical fiction. Its narrative lens offers rich characters and deep emotion as well as fresh and interesting writing. But the true gem of Perry's literary offering is the way in which he seamlessly weaves in the real, street-level experiences of educational reform. Based on his extensive career helping to rebuild the educational infrastructure of New Orleans, he includes the real opinions, obstacles, arguments, failures, triumphs, hopes and expectations faced by education reformists from all walks of life. The Garden Path: The Mis-education of a City is the true story of those that dared to get into the ring and wrestle with the educational process on a wet and slippery foundation.

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Idealistic professor Dr. Isaac Boyd quickly ascends to the forefront of the post-Katrina charter school movement, which unsympathetically takes control of failing schools from the hands of local community leaders. Tensions rise as out-of-town reformers and local community members compete for resources and authority. While adult battles reach a fever pitch, high school students Loren Wise and Katura Price set their own paths to improve schooling for New Orleans.

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The Optimism Advantage: 50 Simple Truths to Transform Your Attitudes and Actions into Results Review

The Optimism Advantage: 50 Simple Truths to Transform Your Attitudes and Actions into Results
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I have read and loved a couple other books by this Author. I mean I really liked them so when I saw this new work I snapped it up. I'm very disappointed. I can't say it is an awful book obviously other people on here love it. But what I found was chapter after chapter of the same message packaged in a different way. When it said 50 Simple Truths to Transform Your Attitudes and Actions into Results, that is what I expected. To me I found a few simple truths and no actions for results. But then again I'm not big on optimism or pessimism per se, I think being a positive realist works best. Just not for me.

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Sharpen your skills and shape attitudes to achieve high levels of success personally and professionally

The Optimism Advantage offers tangible, proven techniques for turning life's obstacles into opportunities with confidence and competence. Today's economy offers plenty of reasons to feel powerless and frustrated. But why would you, when it offers just as many reasons to be optimistic, resourceful, and persistent? After all, adversity is everywhere...but it's how you handle adversity that makes the difference in your personal and professional life.
Each chapter provides new ways to sharpen your own skills and help others to face ever-present organizational and personal challenges with the kind of positive attitude that leads to resilience and results.
Presents important truths for maintaining your sanity and effectiveness during times of economic or organizational turmoil
Shows you how to turn yourself into a valuable, recyclable asset, rather than a disposable "employee"
Author Terry Paulson is a preeminent expert on the human side of optimism and a powerful, renowned professional speaker

The Optimism Advantage offers much needed relief, hope, and practical tools for everyone who feels trapped and powerless in the face of current economic conditions.

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Writings on an Ethical Life Review

Writings on an Ethical Life
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Peter Singer is a master of taking an idea to its logical conclusion, and sometimes farther. He is controversial because he is willing to examine some of our most basic and cherished beliefs, and find the contradictions in the values which inform our everyday lives. While it is not comfortable to be so challenged, reading Singer with as open a mind as possible will help you clarify your own ethics, whether you subscribe to his or not.
Singer is not a monster, and though some of his ideas are disturbingly cold and mechanical, the majority of his ideas, and his philosophy as a whole, are deeply humane. To understand this, you must read him. Not agree with him, but read him.
How dull our lives would be if we were only exposed to comfortable ideas which reinforced our own beliefs. My beliefs have become clearer and stronger because of Singer's challenges, and I am grateful to his writings for helping me think less hypocritically about the world. I've still got leather shoes, and I still value a newborn human more than a newborn rodent, but I am also much more aware of how I spend my money and about what the choices I make in life really mean. This book is a well-edited survey of Singer's thoughts and ideas, his challenges and critiques, his justifications and juxtapositions, his philosophies.

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Frommer's Poland (Frommer's Complete Guides) Review

Frommer's Poland (Frommer's Complete Guides)
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Terrific "fact-oriented" book. Really good at telling the reader what-things cost (hotel/meals etc) and all the must-see places not only in Warsaw but the entire country.

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With the stunningly beautiful architecture of Krakow, the cultural attractions of Warsaw, the somber Holocaust museums, spectacular hiking in the Tatra Mountains, and the seaside resorts of the Baltic Coast, Poland offers a range of attractions to suit every traveler's tastes. Frommer's Poland provides detailed maps, thoroughly researched reviews of reputable accommodations, dining recommendations, and suggested itineraries that allow readers to tailor a vacation uniquely suited to their needs, all written with Frommer's trusted insider perspective and outspoken opinions.

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Stadia, Fourth Edition: A Design and Development Guide Review

Stadia, Fourth Edition: A Design and Development Guide
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If you're looking for a book with architectural drawings such as floor plans, sections or elevation i believe it's not the best book for you.
This book mainly contains lots of information and diagrams about stadiums and it's standards which is very helpful for any architectural studies.. it's a very rich book for those who want to know more about stadium design but i recommend having beside it another book with more architectural drawings to give you the whole picture.

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In this completely updated and redesigned edition of the essential and long-established Stadia, the authors offer their unrivalled expertise to all professionals who commission, plan, design, and manage high-quality sports venues.This fourth edition features over twenty case studies of recent projects in Europe, America, Australia, China and Japan, and the technical sections contain substantial new information on master planning and designing for the disabled.In addition to a wide array of international information sources, the authors were able to draw on the experience of the design firm that delivered the 1999 Cardiff Millennium stadium, the 2000 Sydney Olympic stadium, the 2002 Reliant stadium in Houston, the 2005 Nanjing Sports Park, the new grandstand for Ascot Racecourse, and the recently completed Wembley stadium.* Written by the internationally recognized global leaders in sport architecture, HOK. * Includes the very latest projects in a wealth of international case studies * Covers all technical aspects on designing new stadia as well as altering existing buildings

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From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century Review

From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century
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This almost everything, (but not) pop culture book, is really very good, almost great.
It has classic TV shows, movies, top 40 music, Fads,
commercials, classic toy's, classic candy bars, great Icons, comics, and much more, popular and not very popular, about stuff from the 1950's to 1990's.
Babyboomers should have fun browsing in this book, but younger and older should like this book also.
The biggest problem with this book, is putting it down.
A book with, The Beatles, Jonny Quest, Coca Cola, Captain Kangaroo, Gilligan's Island, Hot Wheels, Barbie, Mini Skirts, The Flintstones, and much much more in one book can't be all bad.
Almost everything? almost, and almost everybody, should have fun reading this book.


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More than 150 million Americans were born after the post-World War II years. Almost all of them know, remember, and hold dear to their hearts the numerous memories that stretch From ABBA to Zoom.Take a walk . . . down memory lane, you Boomers and Gen Xers! From ABBA to Zoom is sure to grab anyone born in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, or '80s. Whether you grew up watching The Huckleberry Hound Show, Johnny Quest, or Sesame Street, this cultural encyclopedia is sure to draw you into a nostalgic and fun-filled read that you just can't put down.American pop culture aficionado David Mansour spent 18 years accumulating an extensive collection of dolls, lunch boxes, board games, TV memorabilia, and other items from the 1960s through the '90s. That fascination, along with his lifelong lists--from "best toys" to "all-time coolest singers"--were the genesis for this wide-ranging volume of Boomer and Generation X treasures.Readers will relish the mere mention of some of their greatest childhood and adolescent connections, then rush to learn the well-researched details behind those icons. Farrah Fawcett's feathered hair, James Bond movies, Lost in Space, Woodstock--it's all here! In page after page, more than 3,000 references arranged alphabetically make this a true trip through the Boom Times. Totally groovy!

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Hustling to beat deadline: The best of Arizona Daily Star sports columnist Greg Hansen Review

Hustling to beat deadline: The best of Arizona Daily Star sports columnist Greg Hansen
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For native Tucsonans, "Hustling to beat the deadline" will bring back lots of fond memories. For a novice snowbird like me, Greg Hansen's collection of columns from the Arizona Daily Star is a great way to acquaint oneself with Tucson and its passion for sports--high school, college, and pro. As a mom, I find myself drawn to the columns in which Hansen talks about his three sons and how he vicariously lived some of those growing up moments all over again. These are the most self-revelatory writings, where we get to know this journalist as a family man, too. Well done!

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Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States Review

Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States
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The cover of this book is a bit of a tease. What lies within is not a breezy bit of titillation, but a footnote-rich book about comparative law. It's not a fast read -- quite the opposite (unless your sensibility has been warped by the grotesque literary standards of American legal scholarship, in which case this book reads like a romance novel). In case you're wondering, the "sex" chapter takes up only about 15% of the main text, and includes the relatively humdrum topic of divorce. So cool down.
Within the parameters the author has chosen for the book -- a comparison of Japanese and US attitudes towards what constitutes a scandal, what types of social and legal redress (group discipline, defamation law, etc.) are avaliable against an allegation of a scandal, how protagonists are punished (or not), and how to apologize -- it is terrific. The emphasis is on Japan, with US mainly as a foil to highlight the Japanese point of view. And that point of view can be quite surprising for a Westerner. E.g., West compares the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal with a 1989 scandal involving then-Prime Minister Uno Sousuke and a mistress. The public turned against Uno, who was forced to resign. But it wasn't because he had an affair. Rather, the trouble came after the mistress revealved that Uno gave her only $3,000/month support (much of which he consumed by eating meals at her house most nights) -- Uno was too cheap.
The book describes literally dozens of scandals involving corporations, entertainers, athletes, politicians and ordinary citizens. The emphasis is on the past 20 years or so (Heisei Emperor's era); in fact many of the scandals are from 2000-2005. An impressive feature of the book is that West actually interviewed many of the scandal protagonists or their friends or colleagues, as well as Japanese journalists. You'll learn a lot about the infrastructure of the Japanese media, including talent agencies and press clubs, and the book provides many serious insights into the nature and extent of press freedom in Japan. But while the author tries to maintain an entertaining tone throughout, this is pretty much impossible in those parts of the book that describe US or Japanese law rather than facts of actual cases. And although most of his cultural observations are pretty acute, occasionally they're slightly off. E.g., he glosses 'enka' as "Japanese folk song", but in modern times it's more like very commercial country music on a stock theme (such as hey bartender, or I miss dear old mom, or I'm glad I'm a fisherman), punctuated with cheesy electric guitar riffs. The author also makes a religious cult or two sound more benign than they really are.
Here are a couple of caveats that might limit the appeal of this book to a wide readership, and that might help you to calibrate my review: First, most of the first couple of chapters focuses on law, so it may take more than 100 pages before the mood lightens somewhat for the average reader. I'm a lawyer myself, and even for me some patches in these chapters were a bit of a slog. Second, although you can learn a lot about Japanese society from the book, you may be overwhelmed with detail if you don't already know anything about it. If you've never browsed even for a couple of minutes in a Japanese newsstand or never channel-surfed Japanese TV, you will need a very powerful imagination to follow the action in this book. There are tons of knowledgeable references to Japanese TV show formats, actors, actresses and MCs, to different categories of magazines and to such institutions as "gurabia" (gravure) models, as well as to various business and political scandals that were headline news in the past 5 years. I've been visiting Japan often during the past 10+ years, and now live there much of the time, but even I had to run to a search engine to look up photos of entertainers whose names were meaningless to me. If you're relatively new to Japan, prepare either for information overload or for a lot of online research into pop culture and recent history. But if you have some familiarity with the Japanese scene, and if you believe that even a book with footnotes can be fun, then this book is a great choice.

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A leader of a global superpower is betrayed by his mistress, who makes public the sordid details of their secret affair. His wife stands by as he denies the charges. Debates over definitions of moral leadership ensue. Sound familiar? If you guessed Clinton and Lewinsky, try again. This incident involved former Japanese prime minister Sosuke Uno and a geisha. In Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle, Mark D. West organizes the seemingly random worlds of Japanese and American scandal—from corporate fraud to baseball cheaters, political corruption to celebrity sexcapades—to explore well-ingrained similarities and contrasts in law and society. In Japan and the United States, legal and organizational rules tell us what kind of behavior is considered scandalous. When Japanese and American scandal stories differ, those rules—rules that define what's public and what's private, rules that protect injuries to dignity and honor, and rules about sex, to name a few—often help explain the differences. In the cases of Clinton and Uno, the rules help explain why the media didn't cover Uno's affair, why Uno's wife apologized on her husband's behalf, and why Uno—and not Clinton—resigned. Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle offers a novel approach to viewing the phenomenon of scandal—one that will be applauded by anyone who has obsessed over (or ridiculed) these public episodes.

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Inquiry-Based English Instruction : Engaging Students in Life and Literature Review

Inquiry-Based English Instruction : Engaging Students in Life and Literature
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I recommend this book to teachers hoping to energize their literature or writing classes by positioning all students as creative, ambitious researchers capable of critiquing or even transforming worlds outside the classroom. When I discovered it two months ago, it struck me as just the resource I needed for revitalizing my college survey of multicultural literature for freshman and sophomores, a course which sometimes engaged and sometimes bored students. I have since redesigned materials for the course, using Beach and Myers' idea that to fully understand literature-or our own lives-we must think of individual people (whether characters in a story, authors of those stories, or ourselves and others in the real world) as part of larger systems or "social worlds," acting to protect and continue those systems or to challenge and change them. The book clearly delineates the components of social worlds and is full of sample activities and assignments; with these, I have revised my own discussion questions, presentation assignments and writing prompts. I have also shown Chapter 8, "School and Sports Worlds," to several high school teachers, who now plan to assign the ethnographic inquiry projects outlined there rather than assigning traditional research papers. This is a practical, accessible, entirely useable book.

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This valuable resource offers an alternative framework for middle and secondary school English instruction. The authors provide concrete strategies for engaging students in critical inquiry projects about the social worlds they inhabit or about those portrayed in literature and the media, their peer, school, family, romance, community, workplace, and virtual worlds.

You will find numerous examples of middle and high school students using various literacy tools (language, genres, narratives, signs, multimedia, and drama) to study, represent, critique, and transform these worlds. Rather than simply studying about literacy practices, this new framework shows how students learn best through active participation driven by a need to critically examine and promote changes in their social worlds.


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