I have found Fenelon's spiritual insights to be quite
exceptional. Though most of his works are at least two and a half centuries old, they seem so relevant to current Christians who seek spiritual guidance. It is often interesting to compare and contrast his views with those of contemporary ministries. For instance, Fenelon has conducted expositions on taking up one's cross that I think stifle the logic expressed by many of today's clergymen.

Just as C.S. Lewis espoused how forgiveness should not start with the Gestapo but with more basic contentions, Fenelon upheld that to take up one's cross does not begin with threats to physical safety or health as many twentieth-century theologians have asserted. He wrote that taking up one's cross meant the following: to live in humility and not be proud, to deny the world's wisdom and to accept God's counsel, and to never seek worldly advancement, for only by obeying God can we obtain the highest places. In essence, Fenelon has established that only by following God's advice at the expense of denying ourselves the world's delights that are not compatible with Scripture can we take up our crosses.

This book will be very helpful to anyone with a desire to strengthen their relationship with God and to know His heart in every situation. The meditations are scripturally based and well balanced. They offer comfort, encouragment and challenge for daily living. I especially appreciated the introduction which gave a synopsis of Fenelon's life and the political and social climate in which he lived. For me, it gave an additional depth to his work. It is easy to see why his writings are as relevant today as they were almost 300 years ago. I highly recommend this book for anyone who would like to grow in their familiarity with the heart of God and to see His hand in all aspects of their daily lives.

This interesting book details the end of passenger service on April 30, 1971 by the now freight-only carriers in the United States. This book is an excellent historical reference on the creation of Amtrak by the United States government in order to satisfy the complaints of both the railroads and the public. Contained in the book are a list of passenger trains remaining on private carriers the day before Amtrak began, before and after maps of the nations rail passenger network, and a timeline detailing government proceedings into the nations rail passenger system leading to the creation of Amtrak. There are many black and white photos of the last day of service on many varied railroads. Unlike many other railroad books a historical timeline is developed using news reports of govenmental proceedings and private railroad stances on passenger service in the United States. The book painfully shows just how much of the passenger system was discontinued with the creation of Amtrak leading one to wonder if it would have been better to let the nations passenger rail system die a natural death.

This book is simply essential for libraries belonging to poets, historians, pre-columbian and otherwise, -- art and otherwise, -- plain literary types . . . (why purchase some dud modern "poet" with only a few jewels in the mud when you can have an entire culture's fragments in one thin volume? -- the real poetry of this book is what isn't read, what is felt beyond, the lost worlds of the Maya, the Toltecs, the Aztecs, and so on . . . all the poems, songs, stories that didn't survive). Some of the most beautiful poems, or as they are called in a few of the selections, "flower-songs", I have ever read anywhere, and from any time, are to be found here. Yes, "I was absolutely riveted . . . ." That these selections are rendered into familiar and comfortable (to modern Western poetic sensibilities) and yet faithful to the original form is more than just a service of the anthropological-historical kind, it is a high literary success by Mr. Leon-Portilla and all those others involved in this project. There is no world like the New World, which is still New to us that have taken up the task of finally "discovering" it after all these centuries following its conquest instead of obscuring it, masking its enchanting past, -- found in histories, stories, memories become dreams, and vice versa, which escaped the conqueror's destructive hand -- in our own kind of lies and reflective interpretations like a great cultural of our own filth muddying their magical waters . . . no less atrocious a crime not just to them but to all men than the ugly graffiti of the American flag on the moon . . . if you want to go digging in the rubble for some real treasures, read this book . . . it's light, -- like gold should be, and, you know, you won't drown with it in your pocket if you take it on travels crossing waters . . . I mean that this is the real gold that the Spanish missed when they tried to annihilate not just a cultural tradition but an essence of mind, an essence of man, which we can certainly make a good go of recapturing, or at least see in the nearing distance, by reading their poetry and song . . . find this book, -- find a real "lost civilization" that isn't lost at all except by our own losing of it. Now how can you throw away an entire world?

I enjoyed "Recognizing Abuse," because it explained all forms of abuse I never knew. I experienced physical, verbal, and mental abuse in my childhood which followed in my first marriage. By coming from a abuse background, I thought it was normal when my husband physically abused me. In my second marriage, I was abusing my husband verbally. After reading the novel, it made me aware of the abuse I was doing to my present husband. The section on communication hit home for and made me aware of some changes I had to make with myself. Anyone who has been abused can learn a lot about other froms of abuse that they did not know. I would recommend the novel to anyone who is being abuse, anyone who wants to know about abuse or anyone who wants to get out of an abuse situtation. I was very honored to be mention in the novel.

Brother Lawrence can be of enormous help to those of us seeking to grow closer to Christ. For one, there is no complicated methodology behind practicing the presence of God.

As Brother Lawrence says, "Lift up your heart to Him ... the least little remembrance will always be acceptable to Him. You need not cry very loud; He is nearer to us than we are aware of."

And so, the practice of the presence of God is to simply think of him often. As Brother Lawrence says, your friend (God) is always with you. Why would you cut off conversation with God when you would not be so rude to another person.

I enjoyed this book. It takes maybe one hour to read, but I have a feeling it will have a lasting impact on my life.

What honesty and truth brother Lawrence shares. If we had him writing an advice collum today, the world would be a healed place. Living in God's presence with sincere awe brother lawrence took joy in the mundane and rejoiced in pain. He advises Christians to give their lives to God sooner and to live in His presence moment by moment, taking the silly life we have here and making it holy. It was written about brother Lawrence that, "His views were not limited by time, because he contemplated nothing but the Eternal One and had become eternal like Him." How I long for this kind of relationship. Read this one, it will change your life.

This is such a simple spiritual book that anyone who wants to know more about prayer and the Christian life should enjoy reading through it. Brother Lawrence had one basic message, which was the importance of the experience of God and His love in the depths of one's soul. His sayings in this book were placed in writing and published after his death, in a beautiful text that conveys much of Brother Lawrence's warm personality as well as the depth of his prayer life.

Brother Lawrence was not a devotional writer per se. Rather, having once been footman to the French treasurer, he became for 15 years the cook at the Paris Carmelite monastery. In this collection of his messages given to those who lived around him, he spoke of prayer through the course of a busy day, amidst the noise of a monastery kitchen. The book has much to say to the modern person who is trying to live a spiritual life in the midst of a busy career or home.

Brother Lawrence's personality shows through this work. He was described by his first biographer as a man with a "rather rough exterior" but who "made you feel that you had found a friend, to whom you could unbosom yourself wholly." His words convey this accessibility to those around him, and his true wish to share with others how better to live in a constant awareness of the presence of God throughout our daily lives.

Little said about the supposed biography. I am sure if Casey Donovan was alive he would be suing for defamation. Too many anonymous names lots of hearsay. The pics of Casey are good but thats about it. Don't bother

Confession: I started reading this book wanting to like it. Really. After all the inaccuracies that have been written and said about gay men and their (supposedly? occasionally?) promiscuous sexuality (which depends, I suppose, on who's doing the talking; to use a literary analogy, you say "bookworm", I say "well-read"), I was looking forward to an in-depth look at the development, creation and iconization of a gay porn star. What would lead an otherwise "normal" young man, in the era of the overwhelming closet, to enter, and ultimately maintain a career, in this industry? Long before it was considered somewhat fashionable to have a little bit of scandal in your past, long before the days of straight bodybuilders making a few quick bucks, most hardcore gay film performers were doing it out of desperation for the money, to avoid homelessness, or under some form of duress (e.g. runaway teens, drug users, etc.). Then along comes this boy next door, who seems to want nothing but to be a performer, and there he is, making adult films? What created this man? What created our urge to watch him, honor him, and make him an icon of liberated gay sexuality? How did all these factors come together, and ultimately help create the mega-billion dollar industry that is gay porn today?

Unfortunately, we're left hanging, unsatisfied, on most of these fronts. While the author does occasionally delve into the psyche of his subject, his family, and the public that seemed (and still seems) to adore him, these are brief glimpses. In most cases, the curtain is pulled back rather quickly, as if the author is somehow more shy about revealing the interior of this person than he is about revealing the external body he dwelt in.

Not that those looking for a quick bit of titillation will get much here, either. Better to purchase an anthology of male erotica, if what you're looking for is a bit of arousal. Here again, the author experiences a surpising chastity about his subject.

Where the author does exult, however, is in his descriptions of Cal/Casey's natural beauty, and its effect on those around him (not to mention the author himself). There is a certain degree of goddess-worship in his tone and constant, repitious descriptions of our hero's boy-next-door looks, unwavering smile, honest eyes, tight body (and so on, over and over again).

True, you can hardly blame the guy: Cal/Casey WAS good looking, seems to be awfully charming, and might not be a bad person to spend an evening with. But, like the end of an ultimately boring date, where you don't get much beyond the surface of your partner, this book, too, leaves the reader wanting more substance.

Being a big porn fan (especially 80's movies), I found this book very interreting to read. Lots a details. The short interviews of people who knew Cal/Casey are put in in an original way. With all the modeling he did, I was a little deceived there were only a few pictures of him. But I bought the book for his story, and that part was good. I can only imagine that his life was not ordinary and was one of a kind. Other porn stars must have been through hell in comparaison. You'll enjoy the reading !

The translation is awkward throughout this book, and the awkward phrasing makes the message almost unintelligible. For example, the following sentence is from the book:

"When the heart has already a tendency toward God, we can easily accustom ourselves to suspend the hasty movements of nature, and wait for the second moment when we can act through grace by listening to God." [What does this mean????]

Although I don't have the original French in front of me, Fenelon probably was saying something like: "If we have given primary place to God in our hearts, we can learn to curb our impulses and wait for the grace of God to direct our responses."

The muddled, literal translation found in this book does a disservice to Fenelon, who is a clear thinker on spiritual topics. [There is a mistake in the information given about the book: The translator is not Edmondson but another person -- according to the flyleaf of the book.]

This small volume was my first introduction to Francois Fenelon,
and it immediately won me over. The language is beautiful, the
message powerful, and the above-average binding makes it a pleasure
to read.

The 1970s were a time of sexual freedom and optimism for the gay male community in the United States. Having broken out and found a sense of identity and pride in the wake of Stonewall, gay men celebrated their sexuality, many to excess, in a brief explosion of gleeful hedonism before the scourge of AIDS swept all before it.

Roger Edmonson, having profiled an icon of this lost era, Casey Donovan, with fair success, attempts the same with another star of gay male pornography from the same period, Drew Okun, or Al Parker. This book is not up to the standard of that earlier effort, partly because, when it comes right down to it, Drew Okun led a remarkably humdrum life for a porn star. Unlike Donovan, who traveled a lot, acted on stage, and knew famous people, Okun seems to have been basically a homebody, quite content to live with his longtime companion Richard Cole (who also acted in porn films with Okun under the name Steve Taylor, a fact which Edmonson oddly forgets to note) on the California coast and run his production company, Surge Studios.

Edmonson does not help his cause by superficial writing and research. Interesting facts about Okun/Parker's life are mentioned almost in passing and never explored in depth, or even mentioned again. One would like to know more, for example, about Okun's estrangements from his elder sister and from Steve Scott, who directed some of his best films, but revelations are not forthcoming in this rather slim volume, which spends a lot of time describing Parker's films which are, for the most part, readily available and better seen for oneself anyway. Even the photographs included are disappointing. In short, this volume succeeds neither as serious biography nor as guilty pleasure.

This book is a quick knockoff, derived from the autobiographical notes Drew Okun left of his life and times, with a few interviews of friends and family thrown in. So many quotes are unattributed that I had to guess where the author got much of his material. The resulting biography is adequate to establish the basic life story of the man who became "Al Parker" (named by "Rip Colt"; almost everyone in the porn industry is pseudonymous). Drew developed a conflicted relationship with "Al," making his life story a Jekyll/Hyde affair. Drew didn't mind, as he was spaced out on marijuana nearly every waking hour of his adult life. The most interesting material is the first half, when Drew was becoming aware of himself as a gay man and establishing himself in California. The Playboy mansion episode is a hoot, although the ghost story thrown in is farfetched. Treatments of the films and videos are superficial -- little more than porn-style descriptions of each film's action. Since it's unlikely anyone else will do a full biography of Okun/Parker, this one will have to do. For gay men curious about the Parker legend, this book is not a bad place to start. The value and meaning of Drew's film career, as well as his position as an icon of gay masculinity, is territory others should tackle.

This is a good book if you're interested in the story of Al Parker, but what surprised me is it's a great portrait of gay culture in the 70s and the rise and fall of an era. Al Parker symbolized a care-free sexuality, but maintained a close relationship with his boyfriend and business partner throughout his entire life. The book can be seen as a spiritual struggle against the promiscuous and often dangerous (but somehow sexy too) world of cruising and gay culture as it exsisted before AIDS. The story is wild -- it takes you from the closets of THE PLAYBOY MANSION to the sets of Surge Studios as they shoot porn. Woodstock is covered, and a whole lot of California in the "bathhouse culture" days. Parker's story is touching, and ultimately not as depressing as you would initially think. Here is a guy who wanted to be a sex star, but never had the ego to think he really could make it as big (sorry about the pun) as he did. It's a great read! It's by the same publisher who put out the Joey Stefano biography WONDER BREAD AND ECSTASY. I'm wondering who's next in line for a bio? Ryan Idol or Jeff Stryker would be a lot of fun. But I guess we'll have to wait until their demise to get the full scoop like Roger Edmonson gives us on Al Parker.