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Chapters: Steven Seagal, Dave Cutler, Malcolm X, Magic Johnson, Larry Page, John Hughes, Nate Silver, Burt Reynolds, Madison Hubbell, Keiffer Hubbell, Thom Hartmann, Merv Pregulman, Ryan Miller, Muhsin Muhammad, Donald Keck, Chris Chocola, Drew Miller, Patricia Polacco, Harry G. Kipke, Al Horford, Andy Hilbert, Kent Twitchell, Spencer Abraham, Ed Farhat, Michael Kimball, Rufus T. Bush, Chris Hansen, Suzanne Malveaux, Carol Hutchins, Roz Abrams, Needlz, John Trobaugh, Matthew Lillard, Joseph H. Albers, David Cook, K. A. Laity, Tony Earl, James Casebere, Ransom E. Olds, Sid Wagner, Julie Mehretu, Andrew Beal, Winnifred Quick, Timothy Busfield, John Delaney, Dennis R. Heldman, Isaac P. Christiancy, Goran Suton, Bob Guiney, Tom Price, Sam Vincent, Maura D. Corrigan, Kevin Miller, Jef Mallett, Igor Goldkind, Tim Fedewa, Terry Date, Laurie Smith, Lawrence Kestenbaum, Matt Baker, George Teague, Doc Corbin Dart, R. W. Bradford, Kelly Miller, Corey Potter, Christopher Gilbert, Ann Barnes, Dave Porter, Robert L. Carroll, Ray Stannard Baker, Angel Kelly, Wally Pleasant, Kip Miller, Daniel Gross, Paul Hazen, Joel Bakan, Susan May Pratt, Antoine Bagwell, Lela Ivey, Alice Cook, Ricky Berry, Carl Benton Reid, Charles G. Callard, Mary Ellen Sheets, Richard Williams, Jen England, Angela Jia Kim, Rob Zatechka, Ahney Her, Sylvan Wittwer, Geraldine Doyle, Paul Rochester, Paul Gentilozzi, Claude E. Cady, John Munroe Longyear, Marcus Taylor, Charles Thomas, Ben Poquette, Carl Thomas, Rod Walters, Cary Adgate, Ryan Field, Bethany Beardslee, Henry Rogers Seager, Teal Marchande, Desmond Ferguson, Steve Maidlow, Kenneth Joseph Povish, Marianne Maddalena, Warren Babcock, Darius Moon, Lee A. Daniels, Larisa Spielberg, Leland W. Carr, Clark Manning. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 489. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=20796 ... Read more

Product Description
Originally written in the late 1930s and recently discovered, this short novel presents a saga of the paranormal, love, money, and redemption, set against the colourful backdrop of California in the 1920s.Amazon.com Review
This collaborative effort between Aldous Huxley andChristopher Isherwood, from a film project they were contracted towrite in the late 1930s, was discovered in a trunk at Huxley's estateby actress Sharon Stone, who was researching the author's work for afilm based on one of his short stories. Jacob's Hands is anovella-length film treatment for a script about a ranch hand who,after learning that he has the gift of healing, becomes disillusionedwhen he discovers that mending a broken body does not always heal atormented soul. The slim volume proves both mesmerizing and moving,and the use of the present tense lends an air of innocence and mysteryto the story, while the book's emotional undercurrents and passionsstir up deeper, troubling responses. Jacob's Hands is acomplex, disquieting modern fairy tale unlike anything else by eitherauthor, and a fascinating artifact of their Hollywood careers.--Michael Bronski ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Major talents "slumming" a bit for the movies
Saying that Huxley and Isherwood are slumming by writing a screenplay is really an unfair comparison to the Hollywood of then and the Hollywood of now. Hollywood has always produced junk, but back then they were also more likely to look for those scripts that wrote about the human condition, looking to make a picture that talked about bigger issues. The introduction and the product description on the back cover tell us that Isherwood and Huxley fled Europe for the comparative freedom of Hollywood.

"Jacob's Hands" really is more of a Twilight Zone effort than a traditional novel. It can best be described as a John Steinbeck type of simple 30 year old farmhand has the power to heal animals and most people with has hands. But, this wonderful gift has a lot of burdens, too.

The novel is clearly written for the movies. Lots of the description and scene-setting is done in that sparse style you'll see when reading scripts. Some of the characters are straight out of the stereotypes you'll see in movies from the 1930s (happy African American household servants and rich society women to name a couple).I found myself imagining a black and white movie in my head and found that it moved along remarkably well. It takes about as long to read as a movie would have to have watched the movie if it had been made. It was an enjoyable read.

Aldous Huxley and Christopher Iserwood collaboration
I discovered this while teaching Honors for three years.Our focus was to read a sampling of both Orwell and Huxley.Well, Sharon Stone "discovered" this book in the ancestral Huxley estate while filming a short story in England.At the time, I thought that this might well be her one claim to fame, but she has resurfaced as a fine actress.An amazing read and a filmscript within a book, we come across a farm couple from North Dakota who have escaped the Dust Bowl (Most of us went to Seattle or Yakima, Washington) and their farm hand/cowboy discovers that he has the power to HEAL!This goes beyond just you basic "Hot Hand", which is still popular up here, but he must then decide how to use these powers.A strong female heroine, also, and just a sad, sad and poignant book.My students, sadly, no longer believe in any sort of "Magic", so most really didn't "GET" the book!(Honors Students are awfully narrow, surprisingly!)Anyone with ANY appreciation of literature will love this short novel: it's a newly discovered masterpiece!Buy this book NOW from Amazon.com!Use it in your classes and pass it on to friends!

To Be Swallowed
The story goes that in 1997 actress Sharon Stone was reading the diaries of playwright/novelist Christopher Isherwood and discovered that Christopher has collaborated on a screenplay with novelist/essayist Aldous Huxley. She asked permission to search the estate, and in a dusty trunk was found a yellowed copy of Jacob's Hands. The best guess is that the fable had been written in the late 1930's, when (as the back jacket says), "a large sector of the intellectual community of Europe immigrated to the United States, to California in particular. What they found there was Nirvana - sunshine, freedome, mysticism, and the burgeoning movie industry." The two great thinkers met amidst this illectual Utopia and wrote this work together.

This is a short book, an easy read in an hour's time. As such, it is hard to say too much without giving it all away. Jacob is a good, honest, decent, sound, strapping young man. The kind of man that sees no ill will in others because he has none in himself. He learns as a farmhand on a California ranch that he has the power to heal. The power makes other love him, suspect him, and ultimately exploit him. He loves Sharon, the daughter of his former boss on the ranch. He meets Earl, a young millionaire with need of his healing powers. The three of them form a triangle that sort of reminds me of the ending of Ethan Frome (don't ask me why, though, since it's kind of a stretch).

The overriding theme, I believe, of the book is this question: is it more important to heal the soul or to heal the body? Are they ultimately connected or mutually exclusive? There is also some discussion of how sometimes we hold on to our illness, our weakness; we are wont to let them go. Because somehow they come to define us, and we survive more with the fear than we can live without it.

There is a brief introduction to the book by Aldous' wife, Laura Archera Huxley. It is useful in the fact that she gives some background into Aldous' thoughts on healing and the moral and religious implications of such a gift. It helps to set an informed backdrop to this interesting and thought-provoking fable.

The insights of Huxley ...
Interesting how Hollywood types embrace such spiritual ideas without commiting to one chosen path. This work starts with an incredible insight into some of Jesus' words yet speaks to healing as a natural and mystical experience. I'd think the Creator would be more included in the reasoning.
Well worth reading. Many, many thanks to Sharon Stone for recognizing the beauty of this fable and giving it new life at this end of the century.

weak plot, weaker characters
First off, let me say I enjoy most of Huxley's work.The style of this book is totally different from the usual Huxley method.I've never read anything else by Christopher Isherwood.This book starts out boring, and ends boring.That's really the sum of it.The characters are flat and extremely simple.In his early work (say, pre "Brave New World"), Huxley's characters are an embodiment of one single trait.However, they are always developed well, and their thought processes are complex while remaining within this one trait.This book has the same characterization - Jacob, for example, is moronically kind and simple (think Forrest Gump).There are also the classic evil tricksters, and so on.It's not done well at all, and I left this book with a bad taste in my mouth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A history of Seminoles football.
The Introduction in "Seminole Seasons" is written by Bobby Bowden. He tells of his long history with Florida State University dating back to the 50's before he became a college football head coach.
Coach Bowden elaborates on his close friendship with Burt Reynolds.

"Seminole Seasons" chronicles the 1993 National Championship season with Bobby Bowden's and opposing coaches and players assessment of the games.

This book is loaded with photographs of Seminole players and coaches throughout the years. Players such as: Burt Reynolds, Lee Corso (as in coach and announcer Lee Corso), Fred Biletnikof, Deion Sanders, Charlie Ward, Warrick Dunn, and Ron Simmons. The posed quasi-action photos from the 50's are as entertaining as the later action photos in my opinion.

"Seminole Seasons" is basically about the Seminoles football program and the university itself through the eyes and words of Burt Reynolds, the most famous and dedicated alum from F.S.U. There are quotes peppered throughout the book from Coach Bowden and many former players.

This book takes the reader back to the roots of the football program in 1947. You read about how it all started and the early success of the program, the first coaches, some of the mis-spoken, comical utterances of Coach Peterson are listed.

There may be more recent books written about the Seminoles football program, but for books detailing the program through the 1993 Championship season, I really like an recommend this book.

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The author of the best-selling Fall from Grace combines fictional and real-life characters in a thriller about two American agents who lock horns in Manuel Noriega's Panama. Simultaneous. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Ho Hum
This is an interesting and well-written, if predictable, book about the CIA and the DEA, and the war in Central America that was fought against the contras. The theme of the book is that the CIA, in their zeal to support their cause in Central America, helped cause the crack cocaine epidemic in the United States. While many (mostly on the left, though some conservatives have suggested this, too) seem to think that the CIA did this, the actual evidence for it is pretty thin, and mainly consists of testimony from convicted drug runners who are desperate to receive reduced sentences in return for "telling all they know" about their involvement with the CIA.

The story works as a giant flashback, with the start of the story showing the one character committing suicide when confronted with the possibility of arrest at the hands of the other, the DEA guy. We then go back to the end of the Viet Nam war, and the two characters meet, fighting over whether the CIA should be helping heroin smugglers in Southeast Asia. Then the book shifts gears, and the focus shifts to Central America, which is the main part of the book. The CIA guy, Lind, goes to Panama and winds up cultivating Manuel Noriega as an asset for the agency, using his country to smuggle arms to the Contras, launder money, and help spy on other nations hostile to the U.S. Noriega cooperates most of the time, and for a while the relationship is profitable for both sides.

But at some point Noriega gets greedy, and starts having the smugglers who are moving guns into Nicaragua also move cocaine into the United States. Lind eventually figures out that Noriega's doing this, but he and his superiors don't care: all they're interested in is the CIA's secret war in Central America. Meanwhile, Lind has gotten himself a girlfriend, a Panamanian woman who's naturally an opponent of Noriega's. The whole thing gets pretty predictable, plot-wise.

The story sort of sags in the middle. It takes it forever to get anywhere for some time, and the DEA character, Kevin Grady, doesn't appear for 100 pages or so, except once or twice briefly. The book is really more about Lind, and how's he's corrupted into aiding and abetting the drug trade in Central America.

Of course most of the stuff about the CIA's involvement in Central America is fictional, at least as far as anyone knows. The author acts like he knows all of this *did* happen, and he constantly drops names to try and make the story seem believable...everyone from George Bush to Oliver North makes at least a cameo appearance. The author really badly wants to convince you that the CIA is evil and corrupt, though I suspect he'd say they're more seduced by power than anything else. Regardless, from what I've heard the book is a bit of an exaggeration, if not an outright fabrication.

It's an interesting story, reasonably well-written, and within limits I enjoyed it. Just remember, though...it is fiction.

Black Eagles.Historical fiction.
This is an excellent book about some of the actions of the CIA and the DEA in the time period 1968 thru 1992.The characters are fictional, but the events sre fact. ... Read more

Product Description
Abridged 3 hours in length. Ty Ty Walden is a Georgia farmer who suffers a severe case of gold fever. "If youhad the fever," he tells Pluto Swint, "you wouldn't have time for nothing else.... It gets a man just like liquor does, or chasing women... ... Read more

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God's Little Acre
The item was as the seller discribed it. I would buy from this seller again. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a case study of the impact a future searchconference had on Gas Distribution and Delivery,business within the Public Service of New Jerseyutility company as told through the eyes of theparticipants involved in this study.The interventionwas a key milestone in positioning a regulatedmonopoly to a competitive,deregulated business.This historical summary of the future searchconference impact covered a ten year span of timeand created four ripples of work for theparticipants engaged in this organizational changeeffort.The first ripple demonstrated how large-scalechanage methodology can align diverse stakeholdergroups, faced with complex challenges that requirefull collaboration to to solve.The second ripple addressed the need for a newbusiness model predicated on empowerment and theneed for both efficiency and effectiveness ofexecution.The third ripple focused on the importance oforganization culture & creating a culture that wouldsupport new business model.The fourth ripple highlighted the importance ofsupervisory perception of the work and their role increating a more integrated business strategy. ... Read more

Product Description
This epic story of Captain Ahab's incredible quest for the elusive great whale is widely regarded as the Great American novel.Melville's writing of the tale is told by Ishmael through w hose insight and consciousness the narrative takes shape.His longing for the sea is his sustenance.It could have been the author's too.Melville's own sailor experience provided the detailed background on the whaling industry and spawned the success and acclaim of this literary masterpiece. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Moby Dick brought to life.
When I listened to this book on tape, it was better than a movie. The various characters were each represented by a unique voice thanks to the excellent reading of the narrator. His ability to provide accurate spoken accents and dialects for sailors and other characters was wonderful.
His reading made the more difficult passages become interesting, rather than sticking points where a reader might lose momentum and put the book aside. It truly highlighted the masterful writing of Melville.
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This whimsical tale illustrates the importance of perseverance, the wonders of friendship, and the power of imagination, as Barkley the dog and his friend Bee take a wild journey into the future and then back into the past, where they work together to save the crew of a ship that is being ambushed by a band of pirates. This book and audio combo package includes a large format, 32-page book and one cassette. ... Read more

Product Description
ISBN: 0787112828This epic story of Captain Ahab's incredible quest for the elusive great whale is widely regarded as the Great American Novel. Herman Melville's writing of the tale is told by Ishmael through whose insight and consciousness the narrative takes shape. Ishmael's longing for the sea is his sustenance. "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can... With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship." Ishmael's love of the ocean could very well have been the author's too. Melville's experiences as a sailor provided a detailed background on the whaling industry and spawned the success and acclaim of this literary masterpiece.Four audiocassettes, approximately 60 minutes each, performed by Burt Reynolds. ... Read more