When my publisher asked me what I wanted to have in the way of a book on Reiki. I replied "Practical, beautiful and in full color" I got my wish! I hope that you will enjoy seeing and reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it and holding it in my hands. Thank you Reiki for giving me back possibility and magic in my life. Thank you readers for caring about what is written. I personally recommend the section on treating specific illness with Reiki. Most of my students find this very useful. The color photographs of the hand positions are a real plus.

With the enormous influence that Flannery O'Connor's works have had on students, scholars and other writers, this volume is a welcome addition to O'Connor scholarship. The teaching role of Edmondson's discussions of O'Connor's perspectives on good and evil and of her views of the intervention of God's grace in the affairs of humankind, are especially insightful. His views on the pervasiveness of humankind's descent into nihilism are very thought-provoking. Readers of this book--just like readers of Flannery O'Connor's works--may find themselves affected by the content far more than they might imagine.

Another book in a wonderful series. I have moved mountians to get my fingers on all of these books. If I had known Amazon.com had them, I wouldn't have needed to bribe my English friends to get them for me.

From the moment you begin reading Riptide, you enter the mind of Laurel Greer and don't want to leave. Laurel's inner world is a familiar place for women, yet a strange escape into a very troubled existence. This is a stream-of-consciousness journey through the mind's landscape as Laurel herself drives through Utah hoping to leave it and its traumas behind.

The writing is sensitive, colorful and vivid, the insights provocative and original, contemporary without being trendy or self-conscious. This is remarkable when you consider that the author is writing in her 70s.

While telling a very personal story, Laurel also engages larger issues in her own, Mormon culture--religous belief, traditional values, loss of faith, and child abuse. Laurel probes disillusionment and devastation created by child abuse, while searching for some kind of inner resolution.

Author Marion Smith is a grandmother born and raised in Salt Lake City, yet her book takes us on a tour of the darker side of the female Mormon psyche. Riptide explores the wrenching urges lurking inside of a woman's pain. The narrative follows a woman's feelings of desperation and her attempts to resolve it.

Riptide is unique. It honestly excavates the complex layers of child sexual abuse and its real effects on lives; but unlike other abuse memoirs, it examines that struggle within a mother, rather than from the victim's perspective. More intriguing, this story is written in an authentic female voice that confesses the darker side of Mormon culture, as well as woman's own darker nature. Truly a groundbreaking book.

Above all, Riptide is a redemptive work. Laurel confesses inner feelings and reactions to the evil in life--her own anger, hatred and desire to destroy that which has destroyed her. In this way, she finds redemption as only one can--by knowing and integrating her own dark side. In this process, Laurel does the very thing that an abuser cannot do for himself, that is, confess the darkness within. Thus, she performs a redemptive act for her own abuser.

This book would be interesting to anyone who has ever wrestled with the frustrations of living in a conservative culture.

My father John Neff of Staunton, VA was Secy. of the Young Democrats of America in 1939/40. He and Mendel met there and were best friends until Mendel died in 1970. The politics and history in this book are fascinating and true.

This past summer I visited Sorrento for the first time. Aftr a morning walk and gawking at the poetic beauty of the place and the sapphire sea I found myself on the Francis Marion Crawford corso. An American name,who was this man that an avenue should be named after him? The concierge back at my hotel obliged my question: Crawford was an American novelist,the most popular at the turn of the century. He bought a villa on a bluff of the Sorrentine coast with a magnificent view of the bay and Vesuvius, and below a small fjord for mooring of his yacht.He lived sumptuously with a retinue of servants and a full crew to man his yacht.Every summer he sailed to an isolated 14th Century watchtower in the Gulf of Policastro where he wrote his novels alone except for the crew who were shipboard.The natives dubbed him the Prince of Sorrento,he was a handsome man and gifted.The concierge on his off hours showed me the Villa Crawford which is now a home for a teaching sisterhood.Crawford was a national and international celebrity and admired romantically by his women readers.He is buried in a lovely cemetery at SantAgnello di Sorrento.To come upon this novel about Crawford doubled my vacation pleasure. How surely the novelist Mr. Palescandolo has caught the elan of this writer and the beauty of his chosen abode.Like Hedwige,the heroine,I am eager to revisit the Villa Crawford.I am now reading one of Crawford's novel: To Leeward. I realize, while reading this novel,that Mr. Palescandolo has written a Crawfordian novel to celebrate Crawford himself.For me it was a stunning and elightful coincidence.

If you love a happy ending, if you love to feel like you have lived part of another person's life, if you love human drama, this is a book to read. I have shared this series with many people now.

The secret garden. The little village of Shared Ground, hidden away in the mountains of Tennessee, was an enchanted place, where ancient knowledge was preserved in a centries-old tradition.

Beck MacDomhall was one of Shared Ground's chosen ones. He had taken his special gifts to a wider world of wealth and power-but now his people had called him home.

Catronia Muir, the lovely bearer of their urgent summons, had powers very nearly the equal of Beck's own. And as Shared Ground and its gentle ways worked their magic on Beck's weary spirit, so did Cat weave her way into his very dreams. But his place was elsewhere, and hers was here. How could there ever be shared ground for them?

This was one of the first books that managed to tap into the emotions I felt after my baby died. Marion Cohen has captured both her own pain and the pain of every other mother whose baby died before or shortly after bith. It makes me cry every time I read it but they are healing tears and I am greatful for them.

Professor Lucas has written a well researched analysis of the burning of Columbia, South
Carolina by the Federal army. There were strategic military reasons for Sherman's march
through central South Carolina. Columbia "was an important war manufacturing
center--one of the few still in Confederate hands--providing munitions, equipment, and
uniforms....central South Carolina contained the last Confederate sources of food
untouched by war." Governor Magrath pointed out to Jefferson Davis that the borders of
South Carolina were Richmond's second line of defense which was confirmed when
Richmond fell less than two months after Columbia surrendered.

The author outlines the wartime conditions in Columbia noting that both the civilian and
military authorities were tardy in realizing the obvious danger to the city and even slower
to act. Finally the author writes "The missing ingredient with the Confederate camp....was
a belief in the possibility of success. The defeatism of Beauregard's leadership was
abundantly clear...."

Chapter 2 gives a succinct account of the evacuation of Columbia noting that inspite of
the desperate condition of the Confederate armies, the large arsenals and war supplies in
Columbia were not evacuated. The cotton in storage was moved into the streets with
orders for it to be burned which contributed to the later fires. Columbia Mayor Goodwyn
surrendered the city while scores of bewildered Columbians, in an ill-conceived attempt to
placate a dreaded conqueror, began distributing alcoholic beverages to the soldiers. This
precipitated an insurmountable problem.

A balanced account of the burning of Columbia is given. The most damaging fire began
about eight p.m.on February 17th, was of inexplicable origin and was not extinguished for
six or seven hours when the wind abated. With drunken men roaming the streets, rioting
and acts of personal violence were bound to occur. Confusion reigned and most control
over the city was lost . The extent of the damage following the fire is reviewed. About
one-third of Columbia was destroyed with the business community virtually wiped out and
265 residences burned.

Regarding who burned Columbia, the conclusions were (and still are) along partisan lines.
South Carolinians charged Sherman as "morally responsible for the burning of Columbia".
Union officers and troops felt that while the events in Columbia were regrettable they
were the results of acts of war. Sherman entered South Carolina to disrupt the state's
transportation system and bring an end to the war by destroying Southern morale.
However, Professor Lucas notes "The failure of Sherman's psychological warfare, a new
kind of war which Southern civilians did not understand, was that the hatred generated
during the invasion did not terminate with the war's end."

The post war criticisms of and charges against Sherman and the Union army are reviewed.
The author notes that the Confederates as they evacuated the city began the looting and
plundering then the entering Federal troops seized what was left. The unanswered
question of incendiarism, the most disputed issue, is complicated by a lack of reliable
eyewitness accounts.
In summary, Sherman failed to take timely and sufficient action to control both the fires
and the riots. However, the author notes that the failure of Confederate leadership in the
defense of South Carolina and the evacuation of the city played a major role in creating a
situation which resulted in the destruction of the city. In addition no preparations were
made by Beauregard, Hampton or the city fathers for the official surrender of the city
when a formal declaration of Columbia as an open city may have produced positive
results.

In conclusion, Professor Lucas writes that the burning of Columbia was a great tragedy
for South Carolina and the Union stating "....when the Union Army left Columbia on
February 20, 1865, it left behind bitter hatred. Many citizens had lost everything they
possessed, while others had gone through the catastrophe relatively unscathed. All,
however, suffered psychologically. They had promised to give their "all" in defense of
South Carolina and the Confederacy; it was painfully apparent that few had done so. Long
before Columbia was captured, Columbians had given up."