George

Very concise and interesting history of how Tommy James came up. The book is well written and well organized. There are a couple of shortcomings; For one I do wish there was more about what was happening on the general scene. Tommy does refer to a couple of competitors in the early 60s but thats about it. Secondly, he definitely holds back and seems reluctant to include anything controversial about other characters on the scene. Prime example is Morris Levy who made millions on Tommy's music while depriving him his due. My impression is Tommy is a nice guy who remained level headed and unspoiled by his success. That is what came across to me reading his account.

Al Kooper's story is one of various chapters that seem to defy a theme. His early career is an amazing tale of unlikely success. The underdog - right place, right time, hits the big time with Dylan during a session that must have been a surreal experience. At that point I sensed this was a guy who would make the very most of his skills. While I enjoyed parts, too often this reads like a mediocre book report (“what I did last millennium”).

In the end I couldn't help but feel some sympathy for a guy who was immersed in the music business; the plastic, hyper materialistic land of - at best, very conditional - at its worst, phony friendships and convenient, shaky alliances. I'd say one couldn't help but be bitter, but I did also feel used, because its clear Al wrote this book partly to do some subtle settling of scores. The second half of this book especially, feels like a series of diary entries by a scarred and insecure individual who is presenting his side of the story regarding a series of engagements/endeavors that didn't quite work out.

It is worthwhile reading about his early experiences of starting the Blues Project, BS&T, working with Dylan and the Stones. But even those are too thin and there's a lot in there about Al's views, feelings and memories but not quite enough observation of the rich characters around him. Very few of us are story-tellers, Al is not the exception, and when it comes to books like this, the art of storytelling is essential.

To be honest I got about 85% through but couldn't finish it just now. I wouldn't use the word “boring” but there is a point where it starts feeling very monotonous. I guess if you're one to gush at an inside look at the Lives of the [sometimes] Rich & Famous, you might enjoy it all the way through. But for me there was way too much minutiae regarding a series of transactions. Come to think of it, that might be the best way to describe my feeling about this book: too transactional and self conscious. Sorry Al, and sorry to some of the more sensitive people who read these reviews.

I started by saying the book - i.e. his life story, lacked a theme, but I have to believe there is a theme in there somewhere, and it's just a matter of the author puling himself up a few thousand feet for the sake of perspective.

In the end I'm still a fan of his music and think he's probably a decent guy, but I have to say I liked him better before reading this. Love the title though!

I was somewhat disappointed to find that 75% of the book's content was made up of letters Johnny wrote to Vivian before their divorce, mostly while they were happily married. Overall it was very interesting and enlightening getting Vivian's perspective and experience in her life with Johnny Cash. Ironically, the read helped me understand both sides much more. Vivian was very much in love with Johnny and because she just couldn't move on after the split, she had a really difficult time and much pain in her latter part of her life. Very sad. It's obvious she was a good soul but I think Cash needed something more in his partner - not sure what exactly...more dynamic, sophisticated or intelligent...maybe one of those. He seemed to find that in June Carter, who I'd always had a high opinion of until reading this book.

Fascinating perspective of an eyewitness to history. This book is unique among others of its type in that it is very well written, and the author is able to maintain objectivity in spite of having been both a victim and a witness to brutal subjugation and war crimes as a child.

As an adult, the author has broken out of the psychological grip of emotions that trap most people with such a traumatic past. The child has become a man of the world driven by an intellectual curiosity about the human struggle and the multitude of 20th Century experiences from various parts of the globe.

Add to all that the fact that he is very well versed in the art of story-telling and you have all the ingredients for stellar reading experience.

Higher Consciousness is yet one more really powerful and - for me, indispensable resource created by Tara Springett. As is her way, Tara first lays the foundation for this teaching by reporting on her state of being and how exactly she arrived at it. Next she provides some invaluable perspective that I was able to use to appropriately process the forthcoming technique.

Also very characteristically of her, she provides some practical and very relatable examples in the form of case studies. I found these really helpful in helping me prepare for the subsequent teachings.

The instruction is clear and concise. The author does a great job of anticipating questions and/or points of resistance. She reinforces key points and solutions to issues that have arisen from her own experiences and those of her students.

After I finished reading Higher Consciousness Healing and had some practice, I planned out how to focus my efforts. Incredibly I felt as though I had a level of proficiency I would expect after completing a 2 - 3 day workshop! For me that was a real surprise because I'm generally an experiential learner. But this book is structured and organized in a way that enabled me to process and internalize the teaching. As a result I proceeded with total confidence - as if I had worked with Tara directly rather than reading her book.

In the end the teachings in this book worked for me! In the process the practice has enabled me to connect with my inner being at a deeper, more profound level than I'd ever experienced.

I highly recommend this book to absolutely everyone - and have already raved to a couple of my close friends about it!

This book is worth its weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. I had searched far and wide in an effort to understand the experiences I was having beginning in 2013. I only wish I had this book at the time. Tara Springett is able to do for me something that no one else could: she gives a practical and straight forward explanation of the Kundalini Awakening phenomenon and provides effective techniques for dealing with the challenges that result from the experience.

After an exhaustive, 2-year search I was fortunate enough to find Tara in 2015. She not only helped me understand what I was experiencing, she also taught me a set of practices that led to a realization that I had been transformed. She showed me that the condition I had thought was a curse and a burden was actually a divine and unparalleled blessing! Reading this book brought that transformational experience back for me – because it contains those invaluable teachings that changed my life!

I also found that the author describes new developments and conditions that I've experienced but had never read about until now and that I had not attributed to kundalini awakening. This gives me an opportunity to better observe and work with the energy in new and different ways!

This book is a must-have for anyone who is experiencing kundalini symptoms. Tara Springett has a unique talent in breaking down and describing this phenomena in very simple and easily digestible terms. To me it seems she has an intimate understanding of kundalini energy and is able to teach others how to harness and cultivate it.

Disjointed at times but very funny account of a fledgeling band's struggles to break through in the music business. This is a must-read for anyone who lived through the late 20th Century in Boston. Not for people who need dots connected and a sense of completion. It is just as advertised, a journal recorded by a rocker while heavily inebriated pretty much the whole time.

This is a fascinating account of the adventures of a young U.S. intelligence officer in Italy during the last year of WWII.

There are a number of factors that make this book special. Tomkins is an excellent writer, highly intelligent, politically savvy and mature well beyond his 25 years. With his fluency in Italian and insider knowledge of the city of Rome and local norms and customs, he is able to give us an authentic slice of life experience from the Nazi-occupied city.

Italy's political landscape at the time is diverse and complex. Tomkins shares his struggles, thought process and strategies as he is quickly able - after a rough start, to establish an information gathering network that provides the allies with vital insights on Nazi strongpoints and movements.

He is mostly fortunate in his choice of work colleagues from the italian underground. He describes a diverse range of characters from a variety of occupations from urban police, political ambassadors, vatican officials, doctors, tailors and domestic help.

On the political front Tompkins gives us a first-hand account as he rubs shoulders with fascists roaming the streets and pose a double threat with the threat of violence while some are Nazi collaborators who might turn one in to the SS.

Tompkins is left leaning politically and gives us an open and honest account of how the allies, once they took the city of Rome, eventually shunned socialists and others on the left who fought with them as part of the underground and instead favored the same people on the right that collaborated with the enemy.

With all that going on Tomkins still manages to have fun as he and his gang throw frequent parties to “maintain cover” as care free, high society youths. And at one point has a close call when he ends up partying with a high-level German officer.

There's nothing else I've seen like this book. It's genuinely one of a kind.

Wow! This is a mind blower. Castenada's work has always been a major life influence to me and still is. But after reading this book, I'm no longer regretting not having met him. This book presents an outstanding record of what it was like to be in the inner circle. Amy does a great job reporting her experience and really succeeds in creating a comprehensive view of Castenada's world. Although many questions remain in my mind, I found more answers reading this than I had expected. I think any fan of Castenada's work would find this book fascinating.

One word of caution though, while this work will grab your interest right away, it comes as a result of Amy's admittance into the inner circle, and the honeymoon period doesn't last long. What then begins is a very emotionally abusive relationship that continues for the rest of this story. Carlos is the source of it and the primary offender but his inner circle witches contribute significantly. It gets grueling, and I often wondered why & how Amy could put up with it. While there is an explanation - an obvious one regarding the type of personality that is susceptible to a cult - I still found it difficult aspect of the story. But there is plenty more to the story that held my interest.

I was even pleasantly surprised by the ending - and it's possible I'm being naive - as Amy seemed to be in a good place and had made the most of her experience.

I'd highly recommend this book to any fan of Castenada's work.

This book was given to me by a friend with similar taste and interests, but i still had an impression that it would be a seedy, sordid tell-all of substandard quality. As it turned out it was the complete opposite. Alice Denham is a masterful writer who has lived an extraordinary life and has a knack for story telling.

She tells an amazing story throughout, but I most enjoyed the the first third of the book in which she described how, as a young adult she broke with her parents and made a bold decision to move to New York City and making a go of it as a professional writer. She goes on to give a fascinating account of New York City in the late 40s and early 50s, when Norman Mailer was sowing his oats and co-founded the Village Voice

Her subsequent experiences with years of hard work, modeling by day and writing by night show her dedication to her calling, energy and discipline with which she broke through to get herself a book deal by the 1970s.

Denham is a great power of example for young writers everywhere. Not only because she has an intriguing and inspirational story to tell, but more so because of how she tells it. Denham is completely honest, straightforward and unabashed in the telling. She knows who she is and represents herself with a grace and dignity that show she knows herself well and has transcended the norms and mores imposed during her upbringing and of the 50s era. That's truly a lesson for us all

I really enjoyed this one. The plot was interesting and engaging. The story unfolds ultimately to express a particular wisdom in simplicity exhibited in regard to alien life that is encountered.

The story has a couple of flaws that dampened my experience. The most prevalent of these flaws unfortunately involve the believability of the main character.

That character and his spouse seem a happy couple at the outset but they're separated when he's assigned work on a distant planet. A series of (email) exchanges throughout the story are integral to the ensuing plot. Her messages initially convey some ups and downs, but eventually we learn that life on Earth is becoming tenuous at best.

Meanwhile the protagonist is of a very different mindset. Removed from the chaos on the home planet, he develops a regard and fascination for the alien life and becomes engrossed in his work.

These exchanges between the couple, were often rich and well done. They reflect their shifting emotions and some of the nuances of their relationship. Eventually he is so fascinated by his new friends that he struggles to maintain empathy and relate to his partner's experience. The author effectively convey the complexity of his struggles and the character is brought to life in his sense of compassion and desire to establish relationships with newfound, exotic friends. What becomes apparent is that along with his devotion to his mission there's a distinct naïveté in his relationships with his human cohorts.

And herein lies the problem. There is a distinct disconnect between the protagonist's past and current self. His backstory is he was once a duplicitous, clever and resourceful drug addict who eventually cleaned up his act after meeting his wife. He then found God and became a minister, an entirely plausible scenario.

But I found it difficult to believe that one with such a past can become so naive as he was, to his detriment. As the story unfolds, the guy seems to be a 'babe in the woods' in his dealings with co-workers.

I also had trouble with some aspects of his faith. I can allow for blind faith to a certain extent, but I have a problem when an otherwise relatable character uses prayer as the anecdote and remedy for all of life's troubles.

If you're looking for the type of sci-fi with plausible, visionary applications of technology, this isn't that. This is more of a study of human behavior, the complexities of a husband-wife relationship and the challenges that come with tumultuous changes that life sometimes brings.

There is plenty in this story that makes it worthwhile. Including many of the secondary characters, the work environment and culture that is created on that distant place.

this is a worthwhile read that I highly recommend!

For me, this book was very difficult to stay with for about the first 100 pages. In fact, I put it aside one night but something pulled me back to it the very next day, and I am so glad it did (though I will have to read it again)!

It turned out to be one of the best I've ever read - one that will stay with me in a very positive way.

So to clarify, the reason for my difficulty initially was that Kazantzakis sets the scene by introducing a seemingly vast array of colorful characters - it felt to me like too many, but as it turned out they were essential to the story. That's because this gem turns out to be a time capsule. A taste of day to day life on the island of Crete in the 1890s.

At the time Crete was ruled by a fading Ottoman Empire. So the story includes both Greek and Turkish neighborhoods and social circles - and both clergy and lay people. Kazantzakis no doubt draws on his childhood experiences, and the story unfolds in some ways, as if seen through the eyes of a Greek child. We see Greek resistance fighters rise out of Crete's soil. These are men who show up as very human, with a variety of foibles and shortcomings, who in peacetime are farmers, goat herders, merchants, etc.

Turks also presented in an even-keeled and objective manner. I found the dynamics and interaction between the two groups, who were assigned differing degrees of rights & privilege, quite complex and interesting.

Being familiar with Greek culture and the variance between city and village life, I really appreciated the author's attention to detail and appreciation of the values, mores and characteristics of prior generations. This in fact was the most powerful aspect of this novel in my mind.

The scenes in which a centenarian patriarch of a family sorts out his affairs and prepares himself for death was truly intriguing to me. Aside from the fact that the narrative reaches back into the 18th century, it's especially poignant due to the nature of the Greek people under the Ottomans. Resistance fighters organized under “Captains”, men who were most charismatic and able, who were born to lead and who inspired others to follow. In addition to this, there's the age-old natural affinity for sea faring.

This all culminates in a summit involving four captains and resistance heroes who muse on the meaning of their lives and call on each other to declare their take-aways in a sequence as powerful as any I've ever read.

I will re-read this book at least once and I know more complexities will surface for me. It is truly an under appreciated classic....

This was a very entertaining story that I thoroughly enjoyed. The central character, Tommy is off-the-dial strange and mysterious. He's apparently developed a number of bizarre methods for dealing with some of his personal issues. While his behavior borders on paranoia and seems to tenacious about his privacy, he's going full out after his dream of being a famous actor. The fact that the author, Greg is a young, straight-laced guy with the similar aspirations (which is how they met) makes him the perfect straight man for Tommy. The wide range of mysteries about Tommy along with his unpredictable behavior work well in holding your interest. Unfortunately not all those mysteries are resolved in the end.

Tommy is an emotional and dynamic guy who is primarily led by his id and seems to have no qualms about it. He can be boorish and wildly insensitive. It's often not possible to detect his motives, but all in all he comes off as a likable character.



I watched both movies

Definitely worth a read,

I was surprised by some of the negative reviews here but after some reflection, I guess I might have reacted that way when I was younger - maybe even worse, since I read only the Cliff Notes. But years later, I found in Moby Dick a fascinating first-hand account of mid-19th Century life (It's fiction, I know, but Melville wrote using his personal experiences.) From the streets of New Bedford to Nantucket to the Seven Seas, this is an intimate account that puts the reader in the experience.

Melville excels at bringing his characters to life with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies, making them fully three dimensional in their humanity with both sincerity and humor.

There's also a powerful spiritual undercurrent that weaves throughout the story involving prophecy, human potential and symbolism that makes this book a great classic.

I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. But if you're on the fence about reading it, I recommend reading another work by Melville first: Bartleby the Scrivener is i think, more relatable to the 21st Century reader and a good way to ease into Melville's world.

I thought this book was well-written, and the story is well presented and told. But what most stands out is the statement it makes about certain aspects of our way of life and our attitude toward certain other sentient beings. I don't want to disclose spoilers, so I'll leave it there. It's surely worth a read.

I came to the book after seeing the movie from 2013, which leaves much open to interpretation. In the end I thought the story told in the book is not done justice by the movie. But I do think the movie stands on its own. While it's very well done, the book's plot is not held up and in the end it may as well be a completely different story. I do wonder how the author, Michel Faber feels about it.

I enjoyed “Wolf Hall” and looked forward to this one. Unfortunately what was merely a minor irritant for me in WH, the author's continuous and indiscriminate use of the pronoun “he”, turned into major problem. It may be that “Bring Up The Bodies” is no more confusing than WH. It is written in the same style after all. Several times I reread parts of both novels and had to stop to do some analysis to make sure I was clear on who the “HE” was in various places. Halfway through Wolf Hall I decided it was no longer worth the effort. I didn't care anymore.

I think what made it worse was seeing the author had made a minor concession to the rabble by adding the protagonists name in some places to the effect “He, Cromwell...”. Not only did this barely make any difference in a seemingly endless sea of “He's”, but to me, the knowledge that the author was aware of the issue and could not bring herself to simply insert the male characters names instead of wearing out the pronoun really aggravated the HEll out of me!

Even while I'm complaining about the author's hang-up, it did bring out a hang up of my own. My mind kept rolling through the same thoughts over and over: how does someone with the talent, vision and insight to create such a novel foolishly compromise their work with a needless attachment to an odd quirk like that? I believe I've seen such use of the pronoun “he” used in a style of Irish matron in spoken mode, and it's mildly irritating in that case as well, but not so confusing. It does not belong in the written form. Hillary, please get over it!