"Koi and the Kola nuts" is the perfect book for young readers. It is culturally great. It is from Liberia. It gives a great moral, and that is that if you give to people, it will come back to you several times over. Great book, and I fully recommend it!

I am currently attempting to write a dissertation on the seventeenth century Englishwoman and her 'education'. Myra Reynold's book has been an invaluable source of information and has directed me to other sources (primary and secondary) I had yet to come across. Her writing style lacks the tediousness and enjoyment-suppressing characterisitics of other historians. I found her book informative and easy and enjoyable to read. It is one of the three 'Bibles' I am constantly referring to during the course of my research.

This is a great book to have around, and to dip into as you progress through Price's works -- which is definitely worth doing. It is not meant to be read through, start to finish; I have been reading the sections devoted to certain works after reading the works themselves. Pages devoted to a given work are quite specific; a familiarity with the work is very important, almost necessary. I had hoped the book would be a bit more generic about the craft, the writers Price has read, the perils of publishing, etc.; instead, the book is comprised of straight excerpts from the notebooks of a working writer, focusing on the naming of characters, motivation, structure and so on. The design of the book allows for Price's comments on his own notes -- sometimes written much later -- to appear on the facing pages, as they do in his actual notebooks. And the pages are chock full of gems such as this: writer's block is nothing more than "the writer's failure to understand his or her creative metabolism." And the book will lead you to other Price works, among which I heartily recommned Roxanna Slade,The Promise of Rest and Price's harrowing account of surviving spinal cancer, A Whole New Life. Price has a voice that is warm and distinctive, wonderfully southern, and he is not afraid to address life's larger issues -- rare among writers today.

This business of recalling past lives sure confuses me, but I'm learning.

For starters, I'm not sure whose past life I'm recalling. I mean, maybe we can remember anyone's life from the past and take it as our own. There could be a gigantic memory pool we can draw upon for added experience. This memory pool could even exert a subliminal influence on our current lives. I don't know if my own life is all my own creation.

What I mean is, there is, believe it or not, a series of "Henry Reed" books. There's Henry Reed, Inc., Henry Reed's Babysitting Service, Henry Reed's Journey, and Henry Reed's Big Show. I haven't met any other Henry Reeds in my life, but this supposedly fictional character and I have a lot in common, much more than I have with anyone else I've ever met. I was so intrigued by these "coincidences," I once sought out the author, Keith Robertson, who lived in Hopewell, New Jersey, to find out who was copying whom. He was clearly puzzled, even disturbed, by the resemblance. Maybe his books and my life are both the result of the same story floating in the etheric memory pool.

How do you separate fiction from fact? I've had my share of past life regressions. It's usually impossible, however, for me to tell the difference between a real memory and a story that I've created. The feeling in these "memories," I've noted though, usually has a haunting mood. I can feel there's truth somewhere in these stories even if I doubt the facts. The've gradually grown in importance for me simply because their feelings have proven to have so much meaning. The question of meaning for me, then, moves away from concerns for the reality of reincarnation, or the reliability of past life memory, and turns toward making a connection with a story and learning from it.

I have settled on the term, "soul memories" for these supposedly past lives. Like myths, their emotional truth value is much greater to me than their historical factual value.

There's an excellent new book on soul memory that has helped me gain perspective. It is Life Patterns: Soul Lessons and Forgiveness (Into Time Publishers). The author is Henry Bolduc, winner of the International Hypnosis Hall of Fame 1994 award for best writer. Bolduc states emphatically, "You don't have to take a stand on past lives in order to benefit from information the unconscious provides."

Rather than emphasizing any single past life, which puts the focus on your identity status in that life, Bolduc recommends examining many past life memories as a whole for their life patterns. It is probably because he has been researching regression experiences for over thirty years that he takes this broad perspective.

His approach is akin to Edgar Cayce's dream interpretation method. Look for themes, correlate patterns, and find your lessons in the truths thus revealed. It's an effective approach and more gratifying than speculating about the the reality of past lives. There has been a similar shift, by the way, in the history of dream interpretation, moving from a focus on the origin or cause of the dream experience to a search for ways people may connect with their dream stories. Past life experiences, then, are like stories from my soul, presented to me as memories, asking for my understanding.

Bolduc presents a clear approach on how to gain understanding from soul memories. He reviews Edgar Cayce's own series of past life memories and Cayce's discussions on how souls lose and gain during a lifetime. The idea, basically, is that we are all learning, and our lessons come in the form of the consequences of our choices. Just like an automobile teaches us how to drive it by how it responds how we steer and press pedals, so life teaches us about the relative merits of anger, patience, self-aggrandizement and love by the experiences we have. When we recognize our patterns, we can change them if we choose.

We must choose forgiveness first, Bolduc explains, or else the patterns can become addictive. Forgiveness dissolves the epoxy bond that clings reaction tightly to action. Forgiveness restores the possibility of fresh choices. Although spiritual teachers all advocate forgiveness, they usually forget, including Edgar Cayce, to explain HOW TO forgive. Bolduc spells it out, step by step, including eye contact, a heart connection, and all the other details of the process of letting go. The approach elevates past life research to a growth process and makes reading Bolduc's book a healing experience.

I'm beginning to learn, finally, about how to use past life experiences constructively. One thing I've learned is to look at the positive patterns for clues for overcoming the negative ones. As my focus shifts from "past lives" to "repeating patterns," I become aware of "my way," accepting both its strengths and weakness. With stories from both regression experiences and children's books to illustrate my pattern, I can begin to make clearer choices about how I would ideally live this life, the one I have in hand. That seems to be the best light to receive from the past, wherever, or whoever, it may be.

To read Henry's essays on other interesting books in the field of consciousness, spirituality, dreams and intuition...

David K Reynolds is our foremost author on the subject of "Constructive Living", part philosophy, part Shinto-Buddhism, part psychotherapy, but 100% practical and useful in our normal daily life. David's style always amazes me and this book is no exception: In a short, affordable volume of less than 100 pages, in an afternoon's reading and for less than the cost of lunch, he asks those questions which strike right at the very heart of our troubles and changes our lives forever. This is not a book about buddhism, it's not about digging in your psychological closets, it's just plain sense insight into how we can live more constructively.

My experience as an American ex-pat moving/living/working in Greece motivated me to buy this book in hopes of learning something new or at least confirming what is real and true. That was not the case for me.

While Mr. Reynolds obviously knows Greece and her small details from experience and knowledge of the language, some information is already outdated (even though it was released only months ago) and aimed primarily and specifically toward people from the UK. So, if you are from the UK, this book is for you.

If you're not, this book still offers a wealth of information that is useful and necessary, but when tackling employment and visa/work permit issues, it will offer you nothing. And unfortunately, since this half of the title refers to working, it doesn't fulfill its promise if you are from somewhere other than the UK.

This book is also written from a man's point of view and experiences, and life and work for a woman in Greece is slightly different. (...) Overall, this is still a worthwhile and handy book.

Bill Reynolds captures the emotion that held the Boston Red Sox together that summer. From that first win on a cold April day to Tony C.'s tragic beaning, the Sox stuck like glue. In the process they created a legend that echoes in the mind of all New England sports fans. Only once in a century could a story like this unfold and only once in a century could a man retell the story with Bill Reynold's passion.

"I didn't turn into a lesbian any more than you turned straight. You are straight. I am lesbian. That's just how it is." This is how Kit explains things to her best friend, Lynn in Marilyn Reynolds, Love Rules. Love Rules is the eighth novel in Reynold's True-to-Life Series from Hamilton High. At first glance, this book may seem like a simple book on friendship and coming out as a lesbian in high school. It is all that and much, much more. It is a story of friendship, love and romance, values, prejudices of all kinds and standing up for what you believed in. Reynold's does all this while creating a gripping novel and without being the least bit preachy or boring. Love Rules is definitely true-to-life and definitely, a good read. I highly recommend it!

If you are interested in the story of Cahill and his mammoth musical instrument, the Telharmonium, you will find this book to be the most authoritative source of information on this fascinating invention and it's ignoble end. Weidenaar reconstructs the story of Cahill's invention from a myriad of documents and interviews, and truly shows the inventors vision and persistence in the face of ultimately insurmountable obstacles over a course of many years. Based on the authors Phd, this book is somewhat scholarly and many pages are taken up with appendices and bibliography. Regardless, it is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the early origins of electronic music to see how an inventor could manage to implement such a concept at the turn of the century before the advent of true electronics. I personally found it fascinating to see how a system invented before 1900 predated many modern concepts of music synthesis and distribution, and I saw similarity between the Telharmonium venture and many hi-tech startups of the modern age. Thaddeus Cahill was truly a man before his time, and Weidenaar's book provides Cahill with the recognition he has deserved for many years.

My family and I had the privilege of attending a concert and meeting Malvina in 1975-76. She was a warm, friendly lady who had a strong opinion about the plight of disenfranchised people and unhealthy conditions in the United States. She sang about anything that adversely affected folks who felt they had no voice. Although she had earned her Phd (1936), she did not forget those who, for whatever reason, could not, or were afraid to, speak for themselves. Many of her songs became popular with the noted folksingers of America. "Turn Around" was recorded by Harry Belafonte; "Little Boxes" by Pete Seeger. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Judy Collins recorded her songs. Along with the social protest songs she wrote many songs for children, one of the most poignant being "Magic Penny", a simple song about sharing love. She wrote about giggleworms, turtles, rabbits, pets, the rain, etc. Its a great album, of great music, by a great lady. I would suggest to anyone purchasing this CD to also do some research about the great lady herself.

6 March 2001