Book Description
1961: For most black Americans, these were times of hope. For former P.I. Easy Rawlins, Los Angeles's mean streets were never meaner...or more deadly. Ordinarily, Easy would have thrown the two bills in the sleazy shamus' face -- the white man who wanted him to find the notorious Black Betty, an ebony siren whose talent for all things rich and male took her from Houston's Fifth Ward to Beverly Hills. There was too much Easy wasn't being told, but he couldn't resist the prospect of seeing Betty again, even if it killed him....
Customer Reviews:
Mosley is a literary treasure. This could be his finest........2005-10-16
Mosley's Easy Rawlins series of crime novels are collectively a great read. Novel by novel Mosley takes us from the optimistic, sunny post-war LA toward a bleaker, jaded experience - so by the time we get to Black Betty in the early 1960s, Rawlins has worked for 15 hard year trying to better his family, and yet still he keeps getting dragged back into his past - this time to earn a couple of hundred dollars to find the whereabouts of a housemaid whom he once knew as Black Betty.
This time the tension is ratcheted up a notch because of the risk to Rawlins' family of adopted kids, and because of the return of his violent friend Mouse, just out of jail and eager to blow the heads off the people who put him there.
But where Mosley scores is in his faithful recall of the events of the early 1960s - there is mounting Black Anger, the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening and the news bulletins feature a fiery Martin Luther King and...later in the novel, the death of JFK. I've seen many noverls where history is wheeled in to lend gravitas to the narrative, but nobody does it better than Mosley. Seen from the tired, indignant viewpoint of Ezekiel Rawlins, our modern history weighs heavily. I loved this novel and this next summer I'm going to re-read the Rawlins series once more. Five stars? Not enough. Mosley is a literary treasure and Black Betty rates as one of his finest.
Dead Heat.......2003-05-25
Raymond Chandler made the definitive statement about L.A.'s Santa Ana Winds at the beginning of his short story "Red Wind." In Easy Rawlins' L.A., the hot, dry winds that fill the lungs with cactus dust and make the skin peel around the fingernails never seem to stop.
Easy is in search of an erotic dream woman from his childhood who is being sought by one of those rich white families who have more skeletons than clothes in their closets. Around the same time, the very dangerous Raymond "Mouse" Alexander is released from the pen; and Easy's attempt to make a killing in the real estate market run up against a brick wall.
There are plot threads aplenty, and enough characters to fill a passenger liner. Mosley is too good a writer to leave any threads untied, but I do get lost at times with some of the characters. One bad dude is not heard from for a hundred pages when he commits a particularly heinous murder at the very end. "Oh, yeah, wasn't he the guy that ...?" Sometimes, I would have welcomed the list of characters, complete with nicknames, that occasionally accompanies an 800-page Russian novel.
What makes this a minor complaint is that Mosley has such a great sense of place and so much feeling for his characters. We don't meet the character he calls "Black Betty" until the end of the novel, but we keep seeing vignettes from Easy's past that keep building up the suspense, and any expectations are more than fulfilled by an ending that is bloodier than the last act of Hamlet.
A Book Drenched In History.......2003-01-10
Walter Mosley doesn't just write mysteries. He creates a historical landscape peopled with vibrant and authentic characters who like most of us are flawed and lacking in some way. "Black Betty" is Mosley at his best. The mystery is enthralling and many layered, the atmosphere electric, and the villains exquisitely evil.
The time is 1961 the era of Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and the beginning of The Civil rights movement. Easy Rawlings is raising two adopted children on his own, and his secret real-estate empire is sinking. He has no idea how to solve his financial problems until a sleazy private eye Saul Lynx approaches him with a job. Lynx offers Easy $200 to track down a former acquaintance of his, Elizabeth Eady, aka Black Betty. Betty a beautiful and sensual woman has vanished from her wealthy employer's home in Beverly Hills.
Easy's search for Betty will uncover a trail of chaos and murder. To make matters worse, Easy's psychopathic best friend Mouse is also out of prison determined to find and execute the man who betrayed him. However, this book is much more than a murder mystery; it is a journey into the heart of racial bigotry and the paradox that is the human race. The language is vibrant and moving:
On the bus there were mainly old people and young mothers and teenagers coming in late to school. Most of them were black people. Dark-skinned with generous features. Women with eyes so deep that most men can never know them. Women like Betty who'd lost too much to be silly or kind. And there were the children, like Spider and Terry T once were, with futures so bleak it could make you cry just to hear them laugh. Because behind the music of their laughing you knew there was the rattle of chains. Chains we wore for no crime; chains we wore for so long that they melded with our bones. We all carry them but nobody can see it-not even most of us. All the way home I thought about freedom coming for us at last. But what about all those centuries in chains? Where do they go when you get free?
This is not merely a fast paced and gripping mystery but a powerful story of one of the saddest aspects of American life. Mosley does not preach nor condemn, he merely presents us with a historically accurate account of an era in which this mystery story unfolds. I highly recommend this story.
The finest of the Easy Rawlins stories?.......2002-04-10
I don't generally like crime fiction. There's a sentence to alienate most of the people reading this review! However for some writers - the great ones - the genre they write in is irrelevent. It cannot be denied that Mosley is a great writer, who has shown equal facility in tough but politically and socially literate crime writing and also in witty and wise post-modern science-fiction.
Black Betty is a fine demonstration of his craft. His particular skill is in weaving the world into his tales. The mystery is well-constructed and satisfyingly tangled, featuring multiple murders, corruption and racial and class divisions. However the central plot is framed both by the atmosphere of early 1960s America with the rise of the civil rights movement confronting old prejudices, and by the dense web of family and social life within the families of ordinary, mainly (but not entirely) black, working class Americans.
In theory Easy Rawlins' role in the investigations in which he is involved is limited to where white men fear to tread - the black community. However the networks of corruption and deceit he uncovers inevitably take him outside this world, in this case into the bizarre and emtionally-stunted world of white land-owners and their complicated relationships with their black and latino servants, as well as a corrupt and racist police force and legal system.
Easy is also personally involved - Elizabeth Eady AKA Black Betty - the woman whose disappearance he is hired to investigate was a teenage crush of his, a woman who inspires obsession in many, which turns out to be her tragedy. At the same time, Easy has to contend with several other difficulties: the release of his psychotic - but often useful - friend, Mouse, from prison, bristling with anger and the need to revenge himself on the man who sent him down; the ongoing silence of his eldest adopted child Jesus, who has chosen not to speak as a result of the trauma and abuse from which Easy rescued him; the suspicious collapse of the real estate businesses in which he has invested his occasional earnings; and various other ongoing personal and social difficulties. Easy Rawlins has a well described and believable, if unconventional, family and a life beyond the crimes he is occasionally employed to solve. He is a fascinating character who has grown with successive novels; full of desire and anger but compassionate, wise and often painfully self-aware.
I would rate Black Betty as the best of the Easy Rawlins tales. What is particularly great about it is Easy's story of personal survival and compromise in an unfair world where a black man cannot sit back and enjoy what he has without someone trying to destroy it. Easy does get to the bottom of things, but it is at immense cost to all those involved including himself, and in the case of Mouse - well, as those who know the character will be aware that there is very little in the world that will stop him doing what he has set his mind on.
This is ultimately a tale cut about with sadness and rage, and a mighty fine and and jolting read it is too.
A Multi-layered Mystery.......2000-10-24
After reading (or rereading) many of the classic detective novels in the past few months, I have come to two conclusions. First, I read way too many detective novels. Secondly (and more importantly), in all truly great hardboiled detective stories, the actual mystery is secondary. Granted, a labyrinth plot that keeps one guessing is always a plus. But all the true greats of crime fiction (Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy et al.) have realized early one what has taken me some time to understand: It is not the plot, it is the world the story occurs in that is important. The finest mystery plot in the world means nothing if the reader does not believe the world presented actually exists, at least on the page.
I state this merely as a preamble to my main topic, the novel BLACK BETTY, by Walter Mosley. It is a good mystery. It has intrigue, deception, betrayal, racism, and murder. It is complex enough to demand a second visit. But, more important than the plot, Mosley has created the world of 1950's Los Angeles in such vivid and believable detail that you'd read the novel even if it were a mere travelogue.
BLACK BETTY marks the fourth appearance of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, an unwilling investigator who is more concerned with providing his children with a good home than he is with solving a case. It is to this end that he accepts an offer of two hundred dollars to track down Elizabeth Eady, a sultress from his past who has gone missing. As Easy once again delves into the lives of others, he visits worlds he wishes to escape from, and worlds he wishes to join. He also realizes that there is no real difference between them.
Easy ranks up with Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade as one of the finest literary detectives. He is tough, resourceful, intelligent, and oddly eloquent. It's also good to see the return of Mouse, Easy's childhood friend/nightmare. Mouse is a killer, and is all the more terrifying for his believability. Like all of Mosley's characters, you get the impression that they have lives beyond the page, that they do not exist merely as foils for Easy.
But that is true of Easy's entire world. In a few simple, elegent sentences, Mosley can describe a character more vividly than most authors can do with pages of exposition. Their manners of speech, their beliefs, their dreams. Mosley can size up an individual like almost no one else can. Even minor characters, such as Ortiz and Jackson Blue, linger in the memory far longer than many lead characters of other novels.
Mosley's Easy stories, despite their being lumped into the sometimes simpleminded detective genre, are always more than they appear. Mosley embues his writings with a palpable sense of rage. The common, almost routine racism that Easy encounters every day gives the stories a compelling weight that his literary predecessor's sometimes lacked. It is a viewpoint that could overwhelm the story, but Mosley is far too skilled to let it happen. Even as Easy muses about Martin Luther King and "the young Irish president", he understands the difference between political rhetoric and day-to-day reality. Easy's world may be fictional on the surface, but it exists, and continues to exist all around us.
BLACK BETTY is a tremendous detective novel that works on many levels. It is a fine example of the detective genre. It is a perfectly realized world unto itself. It is an indictment of how little we have advanced in the past fifty years.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Despite being a naval officer, Honor Harrington is now playing the role
of a Baroness, basically, on the planet of Grayson. After the death of
her boyfriend in the previous book, she is working on the ground.
Yet another conflict looms, and she is commissioned as an admiral for the fleet of her current planet of residence.
Honor Harrington vol. 5 - Honor becomes an admiral in the Grayson navy.......2007-07-22
"Flag in Exile" is the fifth book in a wonderful space opera series set some three thousand years in the future and featuring David Weber's best fictional heroine, "Honor Harrington."
These books are best read in sequence and I strongly recommend that you start with "On Basilisk Station" which is the first one.
The Honor Harrington stories are replete with parallels to the time of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In particular, the Royal Manticoran Navy in which the heroine is a captain is clearly based on the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson. (In this book she finds herself seconded to serve as an admiral in the navy of Manticore's ally, Grayson.)
The technology of space travel and naval warfare in the Honor Harrington stories has been written so as to impose tactical and strategic constraints on space navy officers similar to those which the technology of fighting sail imposed on wet navy officers two hundred years ago. Similarly the galactic situation in the novels contains many similarities to the strategic and political situation in European history in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
This seems to be quite deliberate: many thinly veiled (and amusing) hints in the books indicate that they are to some extent a tribute to C.S. Forester, while the main heroine of the books, Honor Harrington, appears to owe more than just her initials to C.S. Forester's character "Horatio Hornblower."
In the earlier book, "The Short Victorious War", Honor's home nation of Manticore, and their allies, were attacked by the People's Republic of Haven or "Peeps" - an agressive superpower which has been gradually conquering the small nations on its borders in bitesize chunks.
Following a coup in the People's Republic after their first round of attacks were not successful, Haven is now run by a "Committee of Public Safety" headed by one Rob S. Pierre, which has imposed a reign of terror. However, the new Peep government is just as committed to the war as the old one was.
Weber clearly means the reader to understand that Haven represents Revolutionary France. Early in this book, the Grayson High Admiral prsents a report to his head of state which concludes that "this is going to be a long, long war unless one side or the other completely screws up" and "this war isn't about territory any more. It's become a war for survival; someone - either the Kingdom of Manticore and its allies, including us, or the People's Republic of Haven - is going down this time, Your Grace. For good."
At the start of this book, Honor Harrington has been relieved of command of HMS Nike and put on half-pay after the fighting two controversial duels. So she has returned to Grayson where she is now a "steadholder" e.g. one of the most powerful people on the planet.
Up to this point in the series, Weber has appeared to show disdain and even contempt for politicians, but now that his heroine has become one, she has to think through the decisions she takes from that very different perspective. From this book onwards in the series, the way that political needs affect military objectives begins to be considered in a far more realistic and less oversimplified way.
However, Grayson doesn't just need Honor as a political leader: they desperately need her naval experience, so they ask her to take command of a squadron of superdreadnaughts.
More traditionalist elements on Grayson are horrified at the idea of a female steadholder, so Honor has to deal with some very nasty tactics, including a horrible act of terorism. Honor has to defend against enemies both within and without.
There is an author's note in my copy (September 1995) explaining that the original manuscript was completed in October 1994. Between the time it was finished and the novel's publication came the Oaklahoma bombing, an act Weber describes as "even more despicable than my fictional villains." He adds "That we cannot allow those actus to go unpunished or extend to those who commit them any shred of respect, whatever the "cause" which motivated them, is a lesson the civilised human community must teach itself."
At the time of writing there are thirteen full length novels and four short story collections in the "Honorverse" as the fictional galaxy in which these stories are set is sometimes known. The main series which tells the story of Honor Harrington herself currently runs to eleven novels; in order these are
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonour
Flag in Exile
Honor among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs
The four collections of short stories set in the same universe, not all of which feature Honor Harrington herself, are
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Worlds of Honor III: Changer of Worlds
Worlds of Honor IV: The Service of the Sword
The two spin-off novels are "Crown of Slaves" (with Eric Flint) which is a story of espionage and intrigue featuring a number of characters first introduced in earlier Honor Harrington novels or "Honorverse" short story collections, and "The Shadow of Saganami" which is a kind of "next generation" novel featuring a number of younger officers in the navies of Manticore and her ally Grayson.
For amusement, if you want to try to look for the parallels to nations and individuals from the French revolutionary period and the Hornblower books, one possible translation would be:
People's Republic of Haven = France
Star Kingdom of Manticore = Great Britain
Gryphon = Scotland
Grayson = Portugal
Prime Minister Alan Summervale = Pitt the Younger
Hamish Alexander, later Earl White Haven = Admiral Edward Pellew
Honor Harrington = Horatio Hornblower
Alistair McKeon = William Bush
Crown loyalists and Centrists = Tory supporters of Pitt
Conservative Association = isolationist/hardline High Tories
New Kiev Liberals = Whig Oligarchists
Progressives and traditional liberals = Whig radicals
Legislaturist former rulers of Haven = Bourbon monarchy and French nobles
Rob S. Pierre = Robespierre
Committee of Public Safety = Committee of Public Safety
Anderman Empire = Kingdom of Prussia
Silesia = Poland
Solarian republic = United States of America
Wall of Battle = Line of Battle
Ship of the Wall = Ship of the Line
Battleship = "4th rate" sailing warship (in each case too small to form part of the main force in a fleet action, but powerful enough to defeat anything else smaller than a ship of the line/wall.)
Battlecruiser = frigate (5th rate)
Cruisers and destroyers = 6th rate and smaller warships
Honor In Exile.......2007-06-12
Fifth book of the Honor Harrington Series. If you like stories that last longer than one book, you will like this series. In book five, Honor has retired to her new holding on planet Grayson where her presence is challenged by certain upholders of the male status quo. How she establishes herself there in the face of adversity is the theme of this book. It is the other half of the life she is making. The first half is, of course, her identity as an officer in the Manticore Navy. These two themes interweave throughout the series and produce a drama of war and peace, social change, politics, and personal challenge that is absorbing and interesting. Weber's characters are out of this world, too. Put all that together and you have one terrific story and many pleasant hours of reading.
Good series.......2006-09-22
I truly enjoy this entire series. I have unfortunately had to read a few books out of order but I love everyone I read.
An the Adventure Continues.......2006-02-26
I am huge fan of David Weber. This is the 3rd copy of this book that I have bought as I re-read the series often enough paperbacks eventually start to fall apart in my hands. #5 keeps up the high octane pace and give a reader a different cultural point of view in the Honorverse.
Customer Reviews:
Charades on Desolation Row.......2006-11-21
When I visited Romania for a month in 1979, I saw a beautiful green land of geese and flowering apple trees, ghostly old Transylvanian hill towns where each charmingly-warped house had eyes. Ham, cheese, mamaliga (polenta) and tsuica marked my days and the warm reception by Romanian friends gave me memories forever. But even then, before the Dracula-Leader went totally bonkers, Romania bore Orwellian overtones. Charades ruled the roost. Bookstores sold stuff that nobody wanted to read. Shoe stores sold footwear that nobody wanted to buy. The news wasn't new. "Friendship with all countries" meant that everyone was suspect. The gypsies lived in junkyards on real desolation rows. Pollution covered the territory of a `people's republic'. How glad I was that I had not been born Romanian. When, over ten years later, the "Romanian Revolution" occurred, I was both glad (Dracula had met his silver bullet) and horrified, when I heard that perhaps 60,000 people had been killed.
Andrei Codrescu, a Romanian exile in the USA, felt a great burst of hope. His country would get out from under at last. He rushed, full of memories and dreams, back to Romania with an National Public Radio team. THE HOLE IN THE FLAG is the poetic, humorous, well-paced memoir of what he found, how he'd left it, with bits on adjusting in America, his old classmates, and his family. At first the reader shares all the stories, the rumors, the excitement, the sounds of battle. Later, in cooler times, Codrescu, like the rest of the world (or those who paid attention), realized that he'd been had. The charades had not stopped. Romania had gone through yet another one. Was it a revolution ? How many had actually died and who had killed them ? Who were the new leaders ? How did the leader die ? What was Russia's role in all this ? When I returned to Romania in 1996, my friends, now deeply disillusioned, raised all these questions and supplied a few depressing answers. With both eyes open and equipped by Romanian life with a large supply of cynicism, Codrescu re-writes the story of the "Revolution" in the latter half of his book. This is top reporting, top writing. Only a poet could write about Ceausescu's Romania and the state of mind it created, because words might fail anyone else. I could easily give the book five stars for writing, but have given it four because, sadly, it is dated now. Perhaps readers will not find the events so relevant, but as a look at human nature, it will never go out of style. I doubt if Bob Dylan had ever seen or thought about Romania, but to quote him is to sum up the feeling you'll get from THE HOLE IN THE FLAG.
"Now at midnight, all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do.
They they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene,
Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping from Desolation Row."
*with one minor change
Highly recommended.......2006-01-08
A most entertaining, witty, colorful, yet intelligent, articulate, and realistic account of the 1989 Romanian Anti-Communist Revolution. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the sligthest interest in the topic.
The Hole in the Flag--Trevor Landers.......2003-02-08
It was about 2.25 am in the morning when I finished Codresacu's riveting memoir The Hole in the Flag which I found poignant, fey, hopeful and insightful. Sometimes I read a book which demands that it be devoured voraciously and this book falls into that category.
For me, the Romanian revolution is still a cause of some mystification, but it is clear that it was more orchestration than spontaneous uprising. The current controversy with Mircea Dinescu and the debate over the availability of Securitate files, many of which have been pilfered and doctored no doubt. I found my discussions with locals in 2001interesting but wondered whether the divisiveness was a smoke screen yet again. Codrescu's is a reflective and analytical look at Romania just after the Revolution, and his own struggle to comprehend and make sense of the maelstrom that followed is one of the strengths of the work. At turns, banal, burlesque, and brilliant the book is skilfully written and will appeal as much to the general reader as it does to the Romanianists. I heartily recommend this book.
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FLAG IN EXILE
DAVID WEBER
Manufacturer: BAEN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S9SLW2 |
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On Basilisk Station/Flag in Exile
David Weber
Manufacturer: Baen Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 Weber, David | ( W ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
High Tech | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0671859447 |
Book Description
What if there is a You that has never seen the light of day, has never got to say, "Hey, what about me?"
What if there is a You that you have never even met and certainly never permitted to just be, without fear of judgment or condemnation?
What if you live your life on the sidelines in constant fear of failing to please those who forever seem to stand in judgment of you and your life?
What if you discovered that you had settled for what life has served up instead of what you really wanted and needed?
What if you really think and feel things you have never allowed to come out, and certainly never acted on?
What if your marriage is not at all what you really emotionally want and need, but you silently stay the course anyway, selling out your hope to be happy?
What if you are allowing days to turn into weeks and weeks to turn into months and months to turn into years, all adding up to a lifetime of being what some nameless, faceless world has assigned you to be?
If any of these "What ifs" are true in your life, then we need to talk, and through these pages, we will. First, I have some bad news, and I have some good news. The bad news is you are making the choices that have put you in this life circumstance; the good news is you are making the choices that have put you in this life circumstance. Now is the time to make the biggest choice of your life. Through Self Matters, I will help you do just that.
-- Phil McGraw
Download Description
Your life has a root core that, once understood, unlocks a powerful force to create your life the way it was meant to be, the way you want and need it to be.
Key questions and an amazingly clear "map" are now at your fingertips to begin your journey to "Live by Design." These are questions that, with the help of this book, you can answer and bring into action-oriented focus:
- What are the ten most defining moments of your life?
- What are the seven most critical choices you have made to put you on your current path?
- Who are the five most pivotal people in your world and how have they shaped you?
Identifying and working with these key elements are at the heart of Dr. Phillip C. McGraw's latest work, Self Matters, and soon they will be at the heart of your own new work: you.
Through his books, McGraw has changed the lives of millions. In introducing the world to his matter-of-fact, tell-it-like-it-is philosophy of life, Dr. Phil, as he is known to his legions of fans, has put an end to the "everyone's a victim" attitude that had taken hold of our culture. Published in over twenty-five countries, and with millions of books sold, his two number one bestsellers, Life Strategies and Relationship Rescue, forced readers to take a serious look at the excuses they had so long been clinging to as to why they were not happy, not successful, and not enjoying their one chance at living.
Now, Dr. Phil takes those lessons a great leap further and explores one of the most challenging questions facing us all: When you look in the mirror, who is truly hiding beneath that face? Instead of taking a surface look at the way we live our lives, Dr. Phil demystifies how your self-concept came to be and gives a nuts-and-bolts approach to creating a new plan for living and, in turn, for discovering the real you.
In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Phil challenges you to find your "authentic self" -- that person you once were before life took its toll. It is you at your greatest, most fulfilled, most real moment. It is the person you have always wanted to be, but were too distracted, busy, or scared to become. Instead, you have created a "fictional self" -- taking on the identity of who you believe you are supposed be, the person people tell you you are. The incongruence between these two selves is what leads you to feel that your life is incomplete, unbalanced, and altogether more difficult than it really should be.
The good news is it no longer needs to be that way. By using the plan set forth in Self Matters, Dr. Phil helps you to demystify your self-concept and learn how to reclaim your authentic self. In evaluating your life by only the facts, you can learn to think beyond the excuses and fears that have masked the person you have always wanted to be.
Self Matters is one of the most forward-thinking works on self-concept and self-esteem ever published. For the first time, an author tells it how it is and, in the process, teaches us all how to live the lives we have always wanted but prevented ourselves from living. We get only one chance in this world, and now, Dr. Phil shows all how to make the most of it.
Customer Reviews:
EVERYONE should read!.......2007-10-06
This is a wonderful book! Just gives us so many new ways to look inside ourselves and actually stop and think about who we are.Loaded with self discovery about ones self.So sorry I did not read this till I was sixty!A GREAT gift item for someone who looks for deeper understandings and might not to think to purchase for themselves.
endless repetition - could've been cut in half.......2007-08-26
The exercises and tests in the book were of some help, they helped me realize a few things about my life, myself and my current behavior. However, I found it very repetitive and too obvious, at times. It's extremely simplified, almost so much that it gives the impression of having been "dumbed down" for the general public to grasp. The book could've used more depth and elaboration, in my opinion. I felt that most things he suggested were behaviors I already practiced on a day to day basis. I couldn't relate much to it, although it made some good points and reaffirmed me in my ways.
RECOMMEND IT TO MY THERAPY CLIENTS.......2007-03-18
This book is so well-written and easy to understand and implement that I recommend it often to even my most difficult clients. The man knows what he's talking about! Thanks, Dr. Phil for writing such a useful, inspirational book. Pamela D. Blair, Ph.D., Author, The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Midlife and Beyond The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Mid-Life And Beyond
Capitalizing on his fame.......2007-03-18
TV is the proper forum for Dr. Phil's platitudes. The self-induced strife of the show's guests are entertaining, and makes the viewer want to slap a little sense into them. Dr. Phil steps in a does just that, vicariously applying the slaps, and we feel thankful to him.
Beneath Dr. Phil's oozing earnestness and rectitude there is nothing profound, original, or particulary instructive. All the material in this book could be compressed into a few solid pages. The rest is fluff, most of the form; "When you follow my advice, you will be happy/succeed/fix your marraige/lose weight". He continues in this fashion, rarely specifically stating anything that might qualify as advice.
Robbins, Dyer, Mandido, Carnegie, et. al. have more to say and say it better.
i learned a lot!.......2007-03-09
I truly reccommend this if you are trying to learn why thing is life are not working for you!
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Eres Importante (Self Matters): Construye tu vida desde el interior (Creating Your Life from the Inside Out)
Dr. Phil McGraw
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Self Matters: Creating Your Life from the Inside Out
ASIN: 0743282299 |
Book Description
Imagina que existe dentro de ti otro rostro que nunca ha visto la luz del día, que nunca ha podido decir: "Oye, ¿y qué conmigo?"...
I
magina que ni siquiera conoces esa otra faceta y que nunca has dejado que se exprese por miedo a ser juzgado y condenado...
I
magina que vives con miedo de fallarle a quienes generalmente te juzgan por tu manera de ser y por la forma en que vives...
I
magina que descubres que te has conformado con lo que se te ha presentado en la vida, en lugar de buscar aquello que realmente necesitas...
Imagina que realmente piensas y sientes cosas que nunca te habías permitido y que, de hecho, nunca te has atrevido a experimentar...
Imagina que tu matrimonio no es lo que emocionalmente deseas y necesitas, pero silenciosamente continuas con el mismo curso, renunciando a tu esperanza de ser feliz...
Imagina que esás dejando que los días se conviertan en semanas y las semanas en meses y los meses en años, y el tiempo se va sumando, convirtiéndote en una persona gris...
Si cualquiera de estos escenarios son una realidad en tu vida, entonces tenemos que hablar, y a lo largo de estas páginas lo haremos. Tengo malas noticias para ti y otras muy buenas. Las malas son que tú tomas las decisiones que te han puesto en las circunstancias actuales de tu vida; las buenas, que tú tomas las decisiones que te han puesto en tus circunstancias actuales de tu vida. Ahora es el momento de tomar la decision más grande. Eres importante te ayudará a hacerlo.
-- Phil McGraw
Customer Reviews:
Great slow cooker recipes, not your everyday boring stuff.......2007-05-12
Spice up your slow cooker with these great Southwest recipes.
Slow cooking, great eating.......2007-03-26
Slow cooking is such a practical way of preparing meals with the busy lives everyone leads. Southwest Slow Cooking by Tammy Biber and Theresa Howell presents 101 recipes that allow the 'cook' to pop the ingredients into the slow cooker and forget it until it's ready to eat--or the aroma gets to you.
The authors include some staples to keep on hand so you don't have to run to the store so often. Note: Those of us who live in the Southwest always keep chiles on hand. It's a rule. Also included in the cookbook are slow cooking tips and techniques that will improve your cooking experience. The "no-peeking" rule is the most difficult for me.
The contents include recipes for appetizers, soups, stews and chilis, meat entrees, vegetarian entrees, side dishes, breads and desserts.
I'd never considered preparing appetizers in the slow cooker, but had to try the Red, Yellow, & Green Rajas con Queso and Roasted Red Pepper & Garlic Tostinis. Delicious!
The Southwest Chicken & Rice is flavor-full and uses ingredients most kitchens have on hand (remember the chili rule). For comfort food with a zing, try the Mexican Meatloaf. My favorite is Brian's Southwest-Style Pot Roast. This is down-home food at its best.
And it wouldn't be southwest cooking if you didn't have a recipe for Corn Bread Casserole or Green Chile Corn Bread. Mouth watering goodness.
But who knew you could make a cake in the slow cooker. Try the Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and swoon.
Armchair Interviews says: Southwest Slow Cooking is easy, fast and just plain good.
Not the book I hoped it was going to be . . ........2007-02-10
Like a lot of people, I use my slow cooker regularly because it means I don't have to spend a lot of time in the evening, after work, cooking from scratch. You let something spend the day cooking by itself and when you come home, it takes only a few minutes to make a salad or a side dish and then you can get down to eating. And because I'm an afficionado of Tex-Mex and New Mexican food, this nicely illustrated volume caught my eye. Well, there are a number of interesting recipes here, but very few of them were designed with slow-cooking in mind. The authors seem mostly to have taken standard dishes, like Chicken & Chile Enchiladas and Pork Adobada, and substituted a crockpot for a stove top pot. That is, after you remove the contents of the crockpot, you still often have a fair amount of work to do. That's not why I use a slow cooker. I also have to wonder why they think simply tossing in some chipotle powder makes spareribs (or whatever) "southwestern." So it's not a bad book, but neither is it what the title seems to advertise.
Delicious and inspiring.......2007-01-19
I'm relatively new to slow cooking, but this book has entirely won me over. I love the idea of starting dinner before I leave for work in the morning and eating it as soon as I come home, with either no additional work required, or in some cases, a few extra simple steps. My husband and I love the flavor of southwest cooking, and this book covers many of our favorite recipes, including Chicken Fajitas (yes, you can make them in a slow cooker too!), Tortilla Soup, and Chile Verde (a green chile stew). I'm looking forward to trying many more of the recipes, which are healthy and easy to make.
An Exciting and Unique Slow Cooker Cookbook.......2006-04-16
This cookbook has plenty of beautiful pictures to capture the cook's interest. Its strongest quality is the narrow focus on Southwestern cuisine--a welcome deviation from the ususal canned soup and chicken crock pot cookbooks. There are many flavorful, restaurant quality recipes which are clear and easy to follow. Many recipes in this book do not require browning of meat before adding it to the slow cooker. This is a plus if you want a collection of recipes that involve dumping items in the crock before running off to work. And if you host football parties and the like, some of these dishes would just be perfect for a manly, meat-loving crowd. I would describe the recipes as flavorful and not overly spicy (though if you want to kick up the heat, you can do so). I am able to make these dishes in a standard 4 quart crockpot. A few of them I think you could make in the cute little 1 1/2quart crockpots. The ingredients are not difficult to find in my grocery store. I now keep canned habanaro chilies and green chilies in my pantry. To the extent you are called upon to roast particular types of peppers, you can save prep time the next time around by roasting several peppers and freezing them. I like to plate these dishes on large serving platters, spread out grandly with a salad and a few blue corn tortilla chips, just like a fine restaurant meal.
Books:
- Blood at the Root (An Inspector Banks Mystery)
- Blue Valor
- Bright Orange for the Shroud
- Bring Me That Horizon: (Welcome Book)
- Buck Fever: A Blanco County, Texas, Novel (Blanco County, Texas, Novels)
- Catch as Cat Can
- Chains of Folly (Five Star Mystery Series)
- Close to Home: A Novel of Suspense
- Cold Hit (A Shane Scully Novel)
- Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
Books Index
Books Home
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White Butterfly
A Red Death : Featuring an Original Easy Rawlins Short Story "Silver Lining"
A Little Yellow Dog : Featuring an Original Easy Rawlins Short Story "Gray-Eyed Death"
Gone Fishin': Featuring an Original Easy Rawlins Short Story "Smoke" (Easy Rawlins Mysteries)
Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins Mysteries)
