A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche Review

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(More customer reviews)A Saint in Seattle is a fascinating book that I did not want to lay aside. The early chapters are devoted to Dhezhung Rinpoche's childhood and early adulthood, and are a wonderful depiction of what intensive spiritual training was like for a gifted lama in early twentieth century Tibet. The brief biographies of his primary teachers are also great to read--both informative and inspiring.
The later chapters focus upon Dhezung Rinpoche's life and teaching activities outside Tibet, primarily in the United States. As one of the very first Tibetan lamas to reside in the United States in the early 1960s, he experienced first hand and helped nurture the gradual spiritual maturing of western students until his death nearly four decades later. This part of the book is filled with anecdotes about dharma in the west--some amusing and some inspiring--that include descriptions of several other famous Tibetan lamas and many Western students. As one of his earlier students, I enjoyed reading about many westerners I have known but had never read about in a publication before who helped to shape Buddhism in the west.
The author, Dr. David Jackson, demonstrates a scholar's attention to detail and accuracy throughout the book that I appreciated. He portrays Dhezhung Rinpoche's many-faceted personality through numerous anecdotes, capturing his great kindness and wisdom, sense of humor, unflagging patience and persistence, seemingly boundless energy, intense focus on meditation throughout all aspects of daily life, amazing breadth of knowledge, and profound humility.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in integrating spiritual practice into everyday life, particularly but not exclusively through the Tibetan Buddhist path. A Saint in Seattle provides spiritual inspiration and a tremendous wealth of information about Tibetan Buddhism as practiced traditionally in Tibet and as transmitted to and practiced by westerners. It is also a wonderfully captivating story of a great spiritual teacher and of the dramatically changing history of Tibetan Buddhism as it migrated west in the 20th century.

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In 1960, the Tibetan lama Dezhung Rinpoche (1906-87) arrived in Seattle after being forced into exile from his native land by the Communist Chinese. Already a revered master of the teachings of all Tibetan Buddhist schools, he would eventually become a teacher of some of Western Buddhism's most notable scholars. This inspiring and unlikely biography of a modern Buddha is fully annotated, and includes photographs.

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Vital Leglocks: 65 leglocks for jujitsu, judo, sambo and mixed martial arts Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has very good photos with commentary. If you already have a background then this will be even more insightful. Steve has put together a masters level of information for you here.

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Learn to apply 65 essential leglocks for jujitsu, judo, sambo and mixed martial arts. Coach Steve Scott teaches you the keys to successfully applying lower body submission techniques and getting your opponent to tap out. Vital leglocks is divided into the three major categories of lower body submission skills: ankle and foot locks, knee locks and hip/upper leglocks.Learn to successfully use ankle locks, toe holds, heel hooks, knee locks and bars and knee cranks in a variety of grappling situations, including as counters to common holds. In addition to learning how to set-up and apply fundamental leglocks, Coach Scott shows you how to defend against common lower body attacks, master the concept of leg wrestling, actively control the match and use leglocks strategically to get the win. Leglocks in Vital Leglocks include: Straight Ankle Lock, Gator Roll Ankle Lock, North-South Ankle Lock, Scissors Ankle Lock, Standing Heel Hook, Saylor Heel Hook, Rolling Heel Hook, Ankle Crush Toehold, Bent Knee Lock, Strraight Knee Lock, Cross-body Knee Lock, Rolling Knee Lock, Outside Knee Jam, Double Leg Knee Jam, Bent Knee Crank, Banana Split ,Boston Crab, Grapevine

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Rifts World Book 12: Psyscape (Rifts Worldbook Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a must have book fo rany Rifts adventure that uses Psyonics. There is a vast amount of material to use, but unfortunaly, a few reprints too.

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Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life Review

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(More customer reviews)Dave Kindred's THE MORNING MIRACLE doesn't compare with Gay Talese's THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER, and isn't even the best book on the Washington Post (Katharine Graham's PERSONAL HISTORY), but it is a first-rate account of a venerable institution struggling to survive in the 21st century. The heroes are Post writers Dana Priest, Annie Hull, Anthony Shadid, Sally Jenkins and Gene Weingarten, individuals who see journalism more as a calling than a career. Walter Pincus is the old truth-telling prophet. Len Downie is revered as the near perfect editor. Ben Bradlee is almost made to walk on water. And yet, despite such talent, the Post is losing money on newsprint and the direction forward is murky, so much so that one Post writer suggests Kindred's title should be DYING WITH DIGNITY.
As Kindred focuses the story on the period of time between 2005-2008, the staff knows that beloved publisher, Don Graham, will do anything to keep the print side of the paper afloat. But, in seeing his personal (a divorce settlement) and professional (age) life slipping away, he believes that the only hope is to turn to youth for leadership, particularly niece Katharine Weymouth. Understanding the business side of the Post, and more aware of the importance of its online future, Weymouth is the logical successor. But, Kindred is not placated with the choice. He finds her oblivious to the decline of the quality of the Post as the staff shrinks through forced buyouts. And, worse still, he knows that she has no ear for words, no sense of the history of print. She quotes Metro Columnist Marc Fisher as putting forth the Post's objective in a tidy fashion when he writes it is "to speak truth to power, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Kindred's scorching reaction, "The words were written by Finley Peter Dunne almost a century ago. Old news to people who know newspapers." But, such tough talk belies the reality that without Weymouth's bottom line agressiveness, the Post might fold altogether like the Seatlle Post-Intelligencer or the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. Kindred grudgingly knows that the Post must adapt or die.
Weingarten turns out to be Kindred's sage. He pinpoints the critical difference between reading a newspaper and something online. With a newspaper, you never read what you think you will. You see different headlines and pictures and end up reading somethng you otherwise would have bypassed. Online, you pick out what you read. You confirm what you already know and you never expand.
Weingarten also provides the most laugh out loud moments in the book, such as when making a graduation speech to journalism majors and telling them that the business is changing so radically that it is hard to tell what future journalists will look like. Weingarten exclaims, "I mean literally. For all we know, they might have gills and three buttocks. That's how fast things are changing. But rest assured that, however dizzying the rate of change, when what's at stake is the sacred art of truth-telling, there is always one constant. One thing that will always be the same: Your editor is going to be an idiot."
In the end, Kindred concludes that the Post will no longer be the paper of excellence that the Grahams, Bradlee and Downie created anymore than today's world can be the same as the world of a generation past. But, he does take comfort that there will always be journalists who love to get the story right and won't rest until they do.
For those who love words, and print, and might even still walk out into their driveway every morning to pick up the Post, this is a great book to read.

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The Skilled Helper: A Problem Management and Opportunity Development Approach to Helping Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is wonderful. It was assigned reading for a course I voluntarily took to improve my professional consulting skills. The book is full of valuable information that is easy to read yet full of depth. With some practice I have made this a regular part of my life, and my relationships both personally and professionaly have improved for it. I think everyone should read this book!

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Internationally recognized for its successful problem-management and opportunity development approach to effective helping, Egan's text emphasizes the collaborative nature of the therapist-client relationship and uses a practical, three-stage model that drives client problem-managing and opportunity-developing action. Egan masterfully leads readers step-by-step through the counseling process, while giving them a feeling for the complexity inherent in any helping relationship. As readers begin to understand the various steps of the helping model, they are able to improve their competence and confidence measurably. In this new eighth edition, Egan has built upon the strengths of the last edition in which he presented a "positive psychology", solution-focused theme by adding new discussions on evidence-based practice, research, and philosophical perspectives around how helpers know what they know.

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Tertullian: Apology and De Spectaculis. Minucius Felix: Octavius (Loeb Classical Library No. 250) (English and Latin Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Latin text of the Apologeticum is the rather elderly 1851 Oehler text; the text of De Spectaculis is that from the serviceable 1890 Vienna edition (CSEL 20). The translation by T.R.Glover is very readable. There are a small number of critical notes at the foot of the Latin, although not a critical apparatus by any means, and a useful preface. Glover draws attention to the difficult problem of the dual Latin text and possible two editions of the Apologeticum. A modern bibliography is on the fly-leaf.
The Apologeticum is Tertullian's most important work, and this is a sterling translation of it. While the edition is now somewhat aged (from the 20's, I would guess), it still is one of the best introductions to Tertullian.
De Spectaculis is a rare work by Tertullian, preserved only in a single manuscript, and this edition makes it readily available.
The volume is completed with a Latin text and pleasant English translation of the Octavius of Minucius Felix. This last work deserves to be better known than it is. Preserved by the slenderest of threads, the little book describes three friends walking along the beach at Ostia, and then holding a Ciceronian debate about the truth or falsehood of the Christians.
Note that, as with all the older editions, a portion of the Latin of the Octavius which is obscene is left untranslated.

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The African Q. Septimus Florens Tertullianus (ca. 150–222 CE), the great Christian writer, was born a soldier's son at Carthage, educated in Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and medicine, studied law and became a pleader, remaining a clever and often tortuous arguer. At Rome he became a learned and militant Christian. After a visit to churches in Greece (and Asia Minor?) he returned to Carthage and in his writings there founded a Christian Latin language and literature, toiling to fuse enthusiasm with reason; to unite the demands of the Bible with the practice of the Church; and to continue to vindicate the Church's possession of the true doctrine in the face of unbelievers, Jews, Gnostics, and others. In some of his many works he defended Christianity, in others he attacked heretical people and beliefs; in others he dealt with morals. In this volume we present Apologeticus and De Spectaculis.

Of Minucius, an early Christian writer of unknown date, we have only Octavius, a vigorous and readable debate between an unbeliever and a Christian friend of Minucius, Octavius Ianuarius, a lawyer sitting on the seashore at Ostia. Minucius himself acts as presiding judge. Octavius wins the argument. The whole work presents a picture of social and religious conditions in Rome, apparently about the end of the second century.

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Roller Derby: The History and All-Girl Revival of the Greatest Sport on Wheels Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a roller derby referee, "Willy Callit," having gotten my start with the Lonestar Rollergirls of Texas, the league that began the modern roller derby revival. I am currently an independent roller derby referee in the Pacific Northwest.
Ms. Mabe and Speck press have produced a beautifully photographed and well researched book on the origins of derby through the modern (mostly) flat track revival. This book is the one a skater should hand her family when asked, "Roller derby? Why on earth do you want to do that?"
That said, it's essentially a coffee table book, scaled down. Those actually involved in the sport will be disappointed in its relatively simplistic treatment of material. A particular peeve of mine is that many of the skaters in the photos, many of whom are personal friends, are not adequately identified in either the text or captions. Although not really relevant to a book of this scope I'm disappointed that the skaters did not get more recognition beyond "Strong Rollergirl."
But of course, this is clearly not what the book is trying to be. This book is for the individual who attends one or two bouts, or has friends who attend on a casual basis, and wants to know more. It's for those who have vague recollection of sitting in front of the Philco black and white set on weekends watching the mixed-gender old schoolers tear it up and want to find out what happened to the sport in the intervening forty years or so. It's for those otherwise unfamiliar who want to get a feel for what the sport of Derby is about, as well as a little bit of eye candy along the way.
As such, it works well and I consider it an excellent addition to my collection. But I will not likely be re-reading it, more likely I will be loaning it to those benighted individuals among my cronies and co-workers who simply don't get what all of the derby fuss is about. For that purpose, I'd rate it top notch.

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“Thrill-seeking women leading double lives—accountant by day, hell on wheels by night—will find a great introduction to derby history here, from its early days to the ’70s RollerJam heights to its new punk-queer aesthetic in the modern revival. There are also player vignettes, rule breakdowns, definitions of derby slang and lots of pictures to accompany Mabe’s semi-fanatical text.”—CurveScores of American women are leading double lives. By day they are librarians, financial analysts, bartenders, teachers, and even mothers; by night their athletic alter egos assume their authority with monikers such as Helen Wheels, Dirty Britches, Anna Mosity, and Assaultin’ Pepa. They lace up their skates, slide into racy racing uniforms, and adorn a full set of protective gear. One of America’s greatest sports is back—roller derby. In Roller Derby, readers will encounter roller derby in its various incarnations, from the original Depression-era games through the days of Roller Jam to its current revival. What started as a dance-a-thon-style test of endurance has evolved into a unique sport that exemplifies point-scoring, body-checking, speed, blood, punches, and miles and miles of personality and style. Punctuated throughout the book are derby vignettes: stories from old-school and new-school girls, the process of selecting a derby name and style, the artistic element to logos and uniforms, so-gruesome-you-just-have-to-look injuries, what’s legal during a bout and—more importantly—what’s not, and much more. Encircling the story of roller derby are vintage promo paraphernalia and histori-cal photographs, as well as stunning, full-color and black-and-white, modern-day shots of the women, the bouts, and the sport.

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