Product Description
On investigative visits to nursing homes across the nation, Beth Baker has witnessed profound changes. Culture change leaders are tearing up everything -- the floor plans, the flow charts, the schedules, the lousy menus, the attitudes, the rules -- and starting from scratch.They are creating extraordinary places where people live in dignity and greet the day with contentment, assisted by employees who feel valued and appreciated. Perhaps most surprising, these homes prove that a high quality of life does not have to cost more. Some of the best homes in the nation serve primarily low-income people who are on Medicaid.In this new book, Baker tell the story of a better way to live in old age. Although each home is different, they share common values:respecting individual choices; empowering staff; fostering a strong community of elders, staff, family members, and volunteers; redesigning buildings from a hospital model to a home (where pets and children are part of everyday life); and honoring people when they die.Her visits to more than two dozen facilities include those associatd with the Eden Alternative, Green House, Kendal, and the Pioneer Network. Whether these transformational homes become the norm or the domain of a lucky few is the question that faces the next generation of elders, the baby boomers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great resource for what's possible in nursing homes
I've been doing research on nursing home models that are nurturing and affordable, and - as a real estate developer - also financially feasible for the owner/operator.This book is an excellent summary of many of the current ideas in a very readable format.It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in nursing homes - for people you care about and from a business perspective.

A fantastic book
Anyone who works with our elders and is looking to begin (or continue) their journey towards person directed care needs to read this book!I found it very easy to read, yet full of good, useful and inspiring information.I am sure I will be rabbit ear-ing this book to death!!

Old Age in a New Age
I couldn't put down "Old Age in a New Age" until I finished!Beth Baker has written the best book I have read yet (for the ordinary reader who is not part of the medical, nursing institution).This difficult and challenging subject we call "long term care" is hard to understand with its many complexities.I have been reading many books over a period of time and I am amazed at the clarity with which Baker shows the problems even while weaving together the human stories.She keeps the reader engaged and gives us hope.An exceptional writer and journalist, she has provided a book that is easy to read about a difficult and complex subject. But a subject that cannot be ignored even if we want to.The probability is increasing that a nursing home will be the last home for us or our loved ones.We ignore the statistics, hoping, praying we never will reside in a nursing home.In the best sense of the word Baker's book will challenge, it can't help but do that--and hopefully get us to be part of the change we want and need--and for the sake of all future "nursing home residents" we should be grateful to Baker for providing such a signficant book. Ithink Baker's book can be a tool for change in the nursing home near you.Buy it, read it and pass it on to others so we don't find ourselves one day in a dreadful nursing home.I am going to buy this book in bulk and give it to as many people as I can get to read it...That's how significant a read I think it is!
(Rev. Dr.)Judith O'Neill

Thanks to this book, I find myself feeling hopeful
Notwithstanding my low tolerance for any movement that uses the word "transformative" I still found the book an amazing read.

The book is a readable mix of anecdotal and hard data, knowledgeably presented with compassion and humor. Baker is respectful of the residents and the professionals who care for them, without becoming sentimental or preachy. None of which would persuade me this movement has any real chance of actually transforming the hospital model of nursing homes, especially given my experience with how large systems manage to subvert even the best intended and most well-conceived attempts at reform.

What saves the whole thing, for me anyway, is the realization that Baker is addressing my self-involved generation with a message keyed to our own enlightened self-interest. Unless I want to end up as a drooling urine-soaked "slumper" parked in a wheelchair in some dim hallway near the nurse's station, I better get cracking. Perhaps I'm reading too much beneath her overt cheerfulness about the many successfully transformed homes she discovered. But she managed to scare and encourage me at the same time.

I put the book down with a profound respect for those professionals, residents, and families who are inventing something to replace the broken model. Thanks to this book, I find myself feeling hopeful that our generation will not only insist that we do better, but also that there is a model out there of what that better picture can be.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone who has ever visited a friend or family member in a nursing home, everyone who has ever had to help make such decisions for loved ones, and everyone determined to make their own final years self-reliant, stimulating, and worth living.

It's About Time
Movements occur when people push government and institutions out of the way of progress. "Old Age in a New Age" documents a movement that is currently gathering steam across the nation without marches, protests or boycotts.
It gives me a incredible amount of hope that the bleak future of long term care I envisioned is no longer certain after all.
This book is the product of a few dreamers who act, and make real change happen dispite crusty skepticism and entrenched misunderstanding of what "care" means. Heros walk among us, changing the whole world for thousands of nursing home residents.
It will take a long time for me to digest the implications of this important book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (18)

Eye-Opening
An eye-opening book. Bartels makes 2 major points:

- Partisan politics make a significant difference in income growth and income distribution. This is contrary to economic reductionism and some popular belief, i.e., that the economy will do what it does regardless of who we elect as president. The story is not good for Republicans and conservatives, but this is not an ideological argument -- it's statistical analysis.

- There is no statistical evidence to claim that elected representatives (Democratic or Republican) pay any direct attention to the views of the lower third of income earners in their constituencies. That lower third shares a consistently diminishing portion of income growth and has no discernible share in political decisions made by their elected representatives (in Congress).

Along the way, Bartels offers an alternative answer to the "What's the Matter with Kansas?" question -- Thomas Frank's book -- why voters (at least before the last election) vote for Republican candidates who do not appear to represent their best economic interests. Franks had said that, with those voters, "cultural value" issues (abortion, school prayer, etc.) had over-ridden economic interests. Bartels, again through statistical analysis, finds that those voters are actually voting their economic interests, but through a "myopic" lens -- voters' behaviors reflect election year economic performance to the exclusion of other years. Republican presidential candidates benefit from disproportionate economic growth during election years, while not paying the price of low or even negative growth and increasing inequality over the full course of their administrations. Democrats, despite producing higher overall income growth across all income segments and lower inequality, suffer from relatively poor growth during election years.

Don't get this on a Kindle
While I think that the premise and argument of this book is accurate, I have found the Kindle edition practically unreadable. The author relies on lots of tables, which are unreadable even when zoomed. Other tables in the text bleed off the right edge of the screen. Sloppy conversion to Kindle!

I had to stop
I had to stop reading this "fact heavy" book. The one year lag (the foundation to the author's position) is a classic example of confusing a statistical relationship with causation. I decided to give the author the benefit of the doubt early in my reading and plowed on.....but it just got worse. In the end, this textbook comes across as another that speaks to the ignorance of the voting public - vote Republican and lose income growth. Maybe the solution is to only let academics vote?

Important book on how US politics works
Basically this book, Unequal Democracy, tackles a huge and very important topic; economic inequality in the U.S. has gone up sharply in recent decades, yet the political system has failed to respond in effective ways to this problem. Indeed, many policies have made inequality worse, such as letting the real value of the minimum wage (after inflation) dramatically drop, and passing huge tax cuts the benefits of which disprorptionately go to the top one per cent income bracket. Bartels reasonably enough asks how this can happen in a democratic society. His answers are not definitive, but they certainly are thought-provoking and the product of careful research. He emphasizes that voters mostly vote on economic issues, but they clearly don't do so very thoughtfully.He argues that they respond automatically, a bit like Pavlov's dogs, to the state of the economy in an election year, rather than looking at the overall record of the two parties on economic issues. He also makes the reasonable point that there's little sign that the opinions of much of the public (especially the poorest one third) have much impact on politicians at all; the political system is clearly more responsive, as one might expect, to the interests of the wealthy. A disturbing reality, but Bartels makes a strong case for it.
One weakness to the book is that Bartels utterly rejects Tom Frank's view in "What's the Matter with Kansas?" that voters are distracted from economic policy by social and religious issues (abortion, evolution, etc.), emotionally stirring if often symbolic issues that encourage voters to ignore their economic self-interest by voting for Republicans. Against Frank's view, Bartels claims that voters mostly still vote on economic grounds, and that poor voters (those in the bottom third) still mostly vote Democratic, though he has to acknowledge, as everyone knows, that the Democrats have lost enormous ground among white southerners.This part of the book is under-theorized andnot completely convincing; after all, the economic part of his case suggests that a huge majority of the population get little from electing Republican politicians, yet they win plenty of elections. It's hard to believe that social issues have no impact whatsoever on Republican success; why would canny and cynical people like Karl Rove keep urging Republicans to play up these social issues if they didn't help Republicans at the polls?
This significant caveat aside, this book needs to be read and widely discussed: finding a way to get our politics to address the reality of our economic problems in a just way is one of the defining issues of our time. If you care about a just society, two words: read it.

Politics Matters
This very interesting book is an exploration of the nature of American politics and its relationship to inequality in the USA.Bartels summarizes a great deal of his own work and considerable other work on these topics.Bartels begins by demonstrating the marked increase in economic inequality characteristic of the last three decades.He then goes on to present reasonable evidence that a major determinant of rising inequality is who controls the Federal government, particularly the White House.Under Democratic Presidents, overall growth tends to be higher overall and particularly higher for the lower class and middle class; under Republican administrations, upper class, especially very wealthy individuals, tend to be very strongly favored.Bartels explores the basis for these effects, which he finds to be rooted in a combination of tax policy and macroenomic policies favored by the different parties. Given the marked difference in the consequences of electing Democratic and Republican presidents for the considerable majority of Americans, why have Republican Presidential candidates been so successful in the past 3 decades?Bartels effectively attacks the notion that "cultural issues" like abortion access are key to Republican success.He presents data attesting to the salience of class based economic issues.Republican success is particularly surprising in view of data Bartels presents indicating that Americans as a group generally express somewhat egalitarian sentiments.

The answer to this question is that a combination of factors tend to favor Republican candidates.What Bartels refers to as voter myopia is a major factor.While Presidential elections function as referenda on economic management, voters focus on economic performance in the election year, not on the whole prior Presidential term.In the past 30 years, this has tended to favor Republican candidates.This is partly luck, though for the case of the 1972 election, it is believed that Fed Chairman Arthur Burns manipulated interest rates to assist Richard Nixon. The apparently irrational tendency of voters to judge economic performance by the relative success of the upper class also assists Republicans, as does the fact that affluent, more Republican, voters tend to provide more financial resources for campaigns.

These vagaries of voting behavior are examples of how our political system fails to translate public sentiment into actual policy. Bartels provides 3 further examples of such failures.Tax cuts, the estate tax, and failure to keep the minimum wage current with inflation all represent situations in which public policy does not reflect well established public opinion.Bartels has some useful discussions of prior literature addressing these kinds of failures of our political system.Bartels also presents data arguing, at least for the US Senate, that the opinions of lower class voters have little impact on policy formation.The ultimate conclusion is that we have less a democracy than a form of oligarchy, and one slanted heavily towards the affluent.

This is generally a well written and well argued book.It is, however, a bit uncomfortably in between a purely scholarly monograph and a truly popular book.Its excellent that Bartels present so much of his analysis and data, but there is no methodological explanations.Given that he apparently wanted to reach a fairly wide audience, a methodological appendix describing his datasets and methods would have been useful, including limits of methods. Multivariate linear regression seems to have been a major tool and an important limitation is that this is essentially a correlational method.Bartels' analyses seem reasonable and generally convincing but some are arguable.At one point, he argues for the importance of ideology in voter interpretation of economic inequality, suggesting that both well informed liberal and conservative voters are biased by their ideological convictions.Given the data presented on inequality, its equally plausible that well informed liberal voters are actually more objective about the present state of affairs than well informed conservative voters.

A final corollary of Bartels' work is that the behavior of elites matter tremendously.This is perhaps where the combination of self-interest and ideology divorced from reality can have its most destructive effects. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

The BEST book in debunking the B.S. that is "free trade"
This book is just terrific in explaining the social cycles that are present in the world, and how he forecasts events so accurately. This book is a must have along with The Myth of Free Trade, and Greenspan's Fraud.

This will shock you as to how corrupt our political system is, along with our pathetic business climate in this country and a worthless media.

Must Read
Dr. Batra has presented a historical and cyclical review of what has caused our current economic problems. The book uses charts and statistical data to make clear points about the corporations and economists who have deceived the masses into accepting policies that benefit the power elite at the cost of the 3 billion people who live below or a paycheck away from the poverty line. Ravi Batra has a clear well documented point of view. Truth matters. Reading this book will give you a wide angle perspective on the many factors that have produced the housing bubble and economic chaos that is the result. Mr. Batra also provides wise remedies. Perhaps you'll buy an activist hand book, roll up your sleeves and become a peaceful warrior. I hope so.

For the thoughtful
Full of wisdom that our government leaders would do well to be aware of. Any responsible, concerned citizen should take it upon him or herself to learn from this excellent book or from other sources, the information Mr. Batra presents on the subject vital to the future of our country.

The New Golden Age
Ravi Batra did an excellent job of going back and bringing me along to date on the overall economic and governmental cycles. After reading this book there was an Ah Ha moment!
Patterns began to fall into place. It is a book that I will re-read several times as there is a good bit of information presented.

I read it too late!
I bought this book while I was visiting SMU for unrelated reasons in August 2007. I started reading it in Jan 2008. Too late!!! Already 1/2 of the predictions by Professor Batra, written before 2006 [published in 2006], had already taken place: the bust of the housing real estate boom, the growth of the oil/energy boom, the beginning crashes of the market, the early fall of the dollar. I quickly signed on again to Weiss Research's Safe Money Report and other services; they think along same lines. Professor Batra is very conservative when advising how to ride this out; more so than Mr. Weiss. As the year 2008 went on, the rest of his predictions turned true, including that in 2008 or 2012 the USA would elect either a women or a minority for President!! (a prediction from before 2006!!) Will anyone listen to his solution on how to solve the trade imbalance with China and keep Chinese investment in US T-Bills and Bonds worth the paper they are printed on? So far, I've heard/read nothing along those lines. Might it be akin to using the IMF's potential trading bills called SDRs ("Special Drawing Rights")? No new SDRs had been created since 1981; and only some 21.4 billion (US$ value=31.9 billion) existed until Obama at the London G-20 meeting joined the other assembled Heads of State in agreeing to issue, through the IMF, another US$250 billion worth for lending! That's a 9-fold or so increase in SDR paper money issued by the IMF this year after a 28-year zero-growth of that currency.

My main wonder is what Prof. Ravi Batra is thinking now? Is Barack Obama the harbinger of The New Golden Age? Or is he just the catalyst of change as was Gorbachev in the Russian Empire, aka the Soviet Union?

More importantly is: Does anyone in Washington listen to, or even better read [I've heard Prof. speak online and he's not a moving speaker, but is a moving writer and intellectual], Professor Batra? Has Barack Obama read this book in which he himself plays a huge role? Have Prof. Batra and President Obama met yet???

Somebody!! Get them together! Make sure they meet! And make sure the brilliant, well-read, and athletically "warrior-type" Barack Obama has read this book!! Somebody, Make Sure!! ... Read more

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In his latest book, former senior computer systems designer and bestselling author Gregg Braden merges these ancient and modern world views into a powerful new model of time. Marrying the modern laws of fractal patterns to the ancient concept of cycles, he demonstrates how everything from the war and peace between nations to our most joyous relationships and personal crises are the returning patterns of our past. As each pattern returns, it carries the same conditions of previous cycles—fractal patterns that can be known, measured and predicted!

        What makes this model so important today is that the returning cycles also carry a window of opportunity—a choice point—that allows us to choose a new outcome for the cycle. Braden suggests that if we can see time from this perspective, the patterns will show us what’s in store for the future, and perhaps how to avoid the mistakes of our past.

        After presenting the case histories that confirm the accuracy of fractal time calculations, the author crosses the traditional boundaries of science and spirituality to answer the question that must be asked: What does fractal time tell us about 2012, and beyond? Because the cycles repeat, the seed for 2012 has already happened and the pattern already exists! In a narrative format of easy-to-read science and true-life accounts, Fractal Time shows us what we can expect as we close the Great World Age described by the Mayan Calendar, and the secret to our moment in history.

Customer Reviews (74)

gregg braden should write science fiction, he is a fraud
again gregg braden is making a lot of money selling crap.
he is not a scientist, but rather a technologist. his theories are all scientifically wrong. scientists don't even bother with him .They work their butts off trying to get to the truth of things, and then this clown grasps a little tiny bit of what they say and goes on to write his fiction.
Russian scientists found out that the DNA molecule is magnetic, and this clown tells us that we can perform miracles becuase of that!!! like Jesus.yah! right It is like telling us that we can cure people holding a magnet in our hands. Gregg it it is high time that you stop the crap coming out of your head!!! and leave us alone

The Soul of a Woman's Vision
I have read many of Braden's books and seen him in person at workshops. This book reduces the fears that have been created regarding 2012. I loved his veiw point that the earth's location in space can trigger cycles of spiritual growth and what a window of opportunies opens up for us to enlarge our spiritual growth process.He promotes the power of personal choice better than any other author and proves mathematically how we can change the outcomes of our lives. We now have the power to change our future. The Soul of a WomanThank you Gregg!

Create your own windows of opportunity
Well-known bestselling author Gregg Braden merges his scientific background as a former computer scientist with his beliefs and research. Fractal Time explains his method of using events in the past to predict similar conditions in the future. The universe is not random, but operates in recognizable patterns. With the mystical December 21, 2012 date looming ever closer, Braden explains the Mayan calendar and that this upcoming date is merely the end of a cycle which is 5,125 years long. He presents traditions and predictions from indigenous cultures around the globe and across history, and they all point to this cycle end-date. Braden asserts that life on Earth presents windows of opportunities based on these fractal patterns. People can then exercise their free will and either go with the flow or consciously change the patterns.

-- Alice R. Berntson, New Connexion Journal
[...]

Interesting information about 2012
All Gregg Braden's books bear upon the larger scheme of things, esoteric messages encoded in ancient times, planetary themes such as the Shift, etc etc. This book is no exception.

It is divulged that we are rapidly approaching the end of a 5,125-year cycle of time, the end of a world age. This began in 3114 B.C. and will culminate in December 21, 2012.

Moreover, this cycle constitutes the last fifth of an even greater cycle (or world) describing "the precession of the equinoxes - our 25,625-year journey through the 12 constellations of the zodiac".

The date December 21, 2112 signifies the alignment of our Earth and the entire solar system with the "galaxy's equator" and "the heart of the Milky Way".

Braden defines "fractals" as "simple, self-similar, and repeating patterns" and it is his thesis that everything that happens in our universe occurs in repeating cycles.

This applies both to momentous world events and events in our personal lives. The appendices contain a simple method to calculate the reoccurrence of personal events or rather the reoccurrence of similar conditions in our lives to a particular seed event.

The momentous date in 2012 is not to be regarded as "the end of the world". What is occurring is not actually an event but an unfolding process. Just as life crises although seemingly horrendous actually present wonderful opportunities for growth, 2012 may prove to be the year where a global crisis forces mankind to transform to a new level of being, where we learn to allow heart-based decisions instead of those based on cold reason to take precedence.

Fractal Time
Greg Braden is an insightful person, his studies about the Universe and his ability to put his wisdom and knowledge into words that are easily assimilated by the reader is a masterful ability in itself. I am a fan of Braden's writing and thinking and am eager to learn as much as I can about the Mayan calendar and the cycles/patterns of the Universe. Braden has helps in putting the upcoming 2012 date in perspective. Fractal Time is one of the most important books for this time. ... Read more

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An illustrated celebration of organically grown food and the land and people who produce it; a photographic journey over five continents that investigates traditions thousands of years old. It invites us to turn back to the land, to appreciate time-honoured growing techniques, to take food less for granted and to enjoy it more. Farmer and photographer Michael Ableman long ago rejected the mechanized agriculture standard on modern farms. He turned to cultures and individuals who grow food in ways that sustain their communities and care for the land. Over a period of seven years he visited farmers in southern China, the Peruvian Andes, central Africa, Sicily, the American Southwest and further afield, looking for clues to environment-friendly and healthful cultivation. He toured the vast tracts of America's factory farms, and he found hundreds of "new" farmers and gardeners. And he chronicled his findings in this text, with evocative colour plates that record agricultural methods and enshrine a cornucopia of natural foodstuffs. A treasury of information and inspiration, "From the Good Earth" is for everyone who enjoys good food, gardening and the bounty of the earth.Michael Ableman runs Fairview Gardens Farm in Goleta, Califomia, which yields over 100 varieties of organic produce and serves as an educational and community centre. ... Read more

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The New Age of Feminine Drawing demonstrates clearly how and why illustration in fashion has made an amazing comeback. Having virtually reached saturation point, photography is no longer the all-powerful medium of creativity, and has once again given way to the age old art of drawing. The drawings featured in this exciting new title represent many different styles and a broad cross section of artists. All works featured have one thing in common: they possess a uniquely feminine power of seduction. Categories covered include magazine covers, posters, cosmetic advertisements, lifestyle advertisements and entertainment products. Artists featured include Akari Inogouchi, Annika Wester, Carine Brancowitz, Cecilia Carlstedt, Cedric Rivrain, Christina K. Coco, Elisa Johns, Laura Laine, Lotie, Maren Esdar, Jarno Kettunen and more. ... Read more

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National Geographic Adventure has published the best work by today’s finest writers, and this tenth anniversary anthology assembles an elite corps of authors that includes Sebastian Junger, Peter Matthiessen, Philip Caputo, and two dozen others. These reporters have voyaged to the ends of the earth to bring back the decade’s most thrilling, eccentric, and extraordinary tales. But the pieces collected here do more than paint a portrait of the world’s most extreme and fascinating environments—they also explore important questions about adventure in the 21st century.

These stories rocket readers across the roof of the world on the new high-speed railway in Tibet, describe the tension between Indian farmers and the sacred elephants besieging their villages, and introduce them to a shaman whom some believe can cure the most serious depressions. We meet the great Afghan warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud—said to have been the finest guerrilla fighter since Ho Chi Minh—encounter a yeti with legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner, and much more.

This is a wide-ranging collection for every road warrior and adventurer—armchair or otherwise—culled from the much acclaimed journal that in its first ten years has won millions of devoted readers and garnered more than a dozen prestigious prizes for excellence in journalism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fantastic
Wonderful and inspirational book! If you love adventures and are passionate about saving the world you will love these stories!

Vivid, outstanding adventures highly recommended for any general lending library
Sports, recreation and travel libraries alike will find this collection of 25 of the best stories from the first ten years of Adventure Magazine features some extraordinary journeys. From hitchhiking across the Sahara and trekking with the last of Siberian nomads to kayaking the Grand Canyon, these are vivid, outstanding adventures highly recommended for any general lending library. ... Read more

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Journey through the splendor and the excesses of the Gilded Age

"Every aspect of life in the Gilded Age took on deeper, transcendent meaning intended to prove the greatness of America: residences beautified their surroundings; works of art uplifted and were shared with the public; clothing exhibited evidence of breeding; jewelry testified to cultured taste and wealth; dinners demonstrated sophisticated palates; and balls rivaled those of European courts in their refinement. The message was unmistakable: the United States had arrived culturally, and Caroline Astor and her circle were intent on leading the nation to unimagined heights of glory."
—From A Season of Splendor

Take a dazzling journey through the Gilded Age, the period from roughly the 1870s to 1914, when bluebloods from older, established families met the nouveau riche headlong—railway barons, steel magnates, and Wall Street speculators—and forged an uneasy and glittering new society in New York City. The best of the best were Caroline Astor's 400 families, and she shaped and ruled this high society with steel.

A Season of Splendor is a panoramic sweep across this sumptuous landscape, presenting the families, the wealth, the balls, the clothing, and the mansions in vivid detail—as well as the shocking end of the era with the sinking of the Titanic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Very detailed view of the Gilded Age
Because New York City's Gilded Age is one of my favorite interests, I wanted to add this book to my collection.I enjoyed reading it; however, I agree with the previous reviewers.It is an excellent source for those who are being introduced to this period.It is extremely detailed.However, I found myself skimming over many of the chapters such as "Clothing", "Jewelry" and "Transportation".They do contain a wealth of minutiae.For fans of the Gilded Age who have read much about it and are unsure whether they want to add another book to their collection, I would advise them not to buy it.My only disappointment with the book was that it did not contain more pictures from the period.Nonetheless, I am glad I bought it.

A Season of Splendor:The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age New York
Interesting to learn about the period and very well written but way too detailed and plodding.Obviously it was laborious for my book club members who liked what they had read so far but I was the only one who finished it in time.

A few pictures would paint 10,000 words.
As others have said, it's a well written book with plenty of useful and interesting information.However, there is a noticeable lack of photos and pictures which can make wading through long written descriptions somewhat tedious.This is especially so in chapters that scream out for illustrations, eg, Jewelry.

HAD TO BUY BOOK FROM BORDERS
VENDOR (BEACHBUMS) WAS NON RESPOSIVE TO EMAIL INQUIRIES.HAD TO BUY BOOK FROM BORDERS BOOKS STORE.VENDOR REFUSED TO REFUND CHARGE.I HAD TO CALL THE CREDIT CARD AND COMPLAIN.
BUYER BEWARE.THIS VENDOR IS A ZERO.WIFE LOVED THE BOOK.

A Season of Splendor:The Court of Mrs. Astor
This interesting read tells of a time around the early 1900's when New York was becoming the glittering social mecca of America.New York was the very center of finance, business, and culture.Caroline Astor used her family's name and her husband's millions to help forge the Gilded Age society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Opened my mind!
This was my first experience with Dominique Barbier and the French approach to dressage.His presentation of the French theory of lightness and harmony opened my mind.It changed my rigid approach and my horses have been very grateful.From this book I learned that lightness can be achieved without force.His instructions for work in-hand were clear and easy to duplicate on my own.Diagrams and explanations were clear and technical enough without being complicated.I felt this book was easy to read and understand, was presented in a progressive format and just oozed with a sensitivity and a passion for the horse that is not found in similar books.This book is a must read for any serious dressage rider, instructor or trainer. ... Read more

Product Description
Ten years ago when Charles Colson's top-selling Against the Night appeared, he described the demise of Western culture as the "new dark ages." The book describes in particular the ominous shadows that have engulfed politics, family life and education. Today as we face the new millennium, the book is still pertinent, as the darkness has not lifted. It seems in many ways to have thickened. Against the Night, however, is not pessimistic. It gives Christians hope that as we regain our vision of living in God's kingdom and being God's people, we will be a light in the darkness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

received package torn and book damaged
I have always found you to be dependable and rapid in processing my orders. This problem may have not particularly been your fault, however,the post office labled the torn package "Received Damaged." The package looked like it had automobile tire tracks on it. The book was torn as well. The reason I did not do anything about it was that it was ia used book and didn't cost much. It was going to be a gift which of course I did not give. Since you asked for a review, I felt you really wanted to know.

Most marked up book (next to the Bible)
I have read this book twice, once when it came out in 1989, and once about 1998. I would mention that between the two readings, I lost my 1989 edition. However it was so marked up, it was hard to read the material for all the markings interposed. The 1998 copy I read mostly on an airplane (and marked it up again!).

In 1989, I thought it had the most substance of any 'problem and solution' book I had ever read. Colson was trying to be a 'watchman on the wall', and was warning us on what lay ahead if our nation, and the nation's people (us), did not change our ways. The first half was diagnostic and prophetic (the problem), the second half was restorative and remedial (the solution).

By 1998, America, its people and its Christians were well down the road of what Colson was fearing. And now in 2009, we have arrived and have found ourselves in the middle of a giant mess. I'm going to reread it again, and see if the solutions might possibly still be valid. Highly recommended!

Insightful Analysis
While the barbarians who pillaged the Roman empire could be identified by their physical appearance, today's barbarians have no such distinguishing marks. The warfare is mental and spiritual. It is an insidiuous mindset that is at work destroying individuals, families, communities, churches, universities, and nations. In essence that mindset could be summarized as "selfish materialism," i.e., the assumption that one lives for oneself and this life is all there is to existence.

The tentacles of this monster extend to every area of modern life, including the church. Colson gives convincing examples in presenting his case. Christians of previous generations knew they were living for something greater than "self." That reality is not so apparent anymore. One has to cultivate it.

In the concluding section, he argues that Christians must fight the good fight regardless of the outcome. Being in the world, but not of the world, Christians of earlier generations preserved culture, not because that was their primary goal, but as a side-effect of seeking to obey God. He concludes the same is expected of this generation.

Does not live up to expectations
Colson has a good theme for this book but has so much unnecessary information that the reading is tedious. This is the "updated" version .... too bad it didn't get better editorial work.It had potential.

Good motivational text everybody/Christian needs to hear!
I've always enjoyed Chuck Colson's writings.The style is easy to read and clear, like you would be having a conversation with the author.When he was with President Nixon's Cabinet, he was going the way of all politians - POWER. But some humbling time in jail gave him time to think about the important things in life.Family, God, and his spiritual condition.He turned his life around and changed the way he was headed by receiving Jesus Christ as Savior, Lord, and Life.Making a new committment to serve Jesus and others, especially fellow prisoners.His work with justice, jails, and Jesus are very well acknowledged now. (search: colson, prison fellowship) In his book Against the Night, you are shown what the darkness looks like and how to compare it to the Light.Quickly you are given practical examples and stories of how insignificant people, in the world's eyes, made a change in their life and the lives of others by caring about what was happening around them, to others, and shown that a little caring followed by a little action can make big changes for the betterment of all of us. I would recommend this book highly to anyone and to everyone who wants to come Against the Night. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a comprehensive guide to the great sweep of Bible history from the Creation to the establishment of the New Heavens and the New Earth in the perfect and eternal ages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Need to have
An excellent series of books a MUST have for all christians to read and understand

Agreat 'chart style' overview of God's plan for mankind.
Having been a pastor for about 20 years,I have found this particular book to be of immense help in clarifying important concepts concerning God'soverall dealings with mankind,and subsequentresults. Too often, believersare filled with'apparently' unconnected sections of biblicalhistory,but have failed to grasp their importin the complete scheme of 'God'sPlan'.The chart- style of this book helps to visually grasp'whole'concepts such as, 'early civilization development',the geneology ofJesus,the historyof 'the children of Israel',the history and future ofthe 'church'. A great bible study tool! ... Read more

Product Description
Martin Gardner confronts new trends in pseudo-science and the paranormal: from the much-publicised past-life exploits of Shirley MacLaine to the latest in perpetual-motion machines, from "prime-time preachers" to the "channelling mania" of the past few years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

PARANORMAL BELIEFS EXPOSED
Martin Gardner
The New Age:
Notes of a Fringe Watcher

(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988)

A collection of articles, many of which first appeared
in The Skeptical Inquirer. Probing, well-researched, and very critical.
Some themes examined: channeling and Shirley MacLaine;
magicians passing as psychics; UFOs; fringe science;
fundamentalists and Biblical beliefs such as creationism;
perpetual motion machines; spiritualists; & Scientology.

Find other debunking books by searching the Internet for:
"OCCULTISM AND SCIENCE".

James Leonard Park, skeptic.

Martin Gardner at his low point
Martin Gardner has written many fine short articles, and combined them as books.I have enjoyed several of them, but this is Martin at his low point- Not an inspiring read...

The magic touch
In the second half of the 20th century, there was no more tireless campaigner against bumfoozlement than Martin Gardner.
In the world of skeptics, Gardner was best known for bringing magic into the realm of rationalism. He was a science writer who did the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American for many years, a philosopher and an amateur magician.
For years he preached that any experiment that claimed to test for psychic powers should be observed by a magician, because only a professional trickster can catch another trickster. This was not an original idea with Gardner -- Houdini had a standing challenge against "real" mediums, which no one ever beat -- but a generation passed between Houdini's death and Gardner's revival of this crucial rule.
During that generation, many claims that "scientific experiments" had proved the existence of "psi" powers passed almost unchallenged into the public consciousness.
The great vindication of Gardner's skepticism came in the fiasco of the James McDonnell bequest.
The aviation millionaire left $500,000 for research to demonstrate psi activity. Skeptics from the Gardner circle recruited an Iowa teenager, gave him a few lessons in magic and turned him loose on the "researchers."
After a long search, the psi team announced it had discovered one, and only one, person that stood up to their most rigorous tests.
You guessed. The Iowa boy.
The counterattack of the organized skeptics has been so successful that even psi believers now limit their "proofs" to awkward statistical samplings that show psi "adepts" merely scoring "better than chance would predict."
In many cases, "better than chance would predict" is still less than 50 percent correct, so that even if psi could be proven to exist that way, so what?
The skeptics have branched out from criticizing psi to all sorts of "fringe" beliefs, like UFOs, cryptobiology (Bigfoot, yetis, Nessie), quackery, dowsing, astrology, reincarnation, perpetual motion, creationism, Freudianism, spoon bending, channeling. lost continents -- the list is almost endless. Gardner assessed them all, many in columns collected in this book.
Living on the fringe is harmless for most people. They often act foolishly in public and they pay money for worthless junk and advice, but so do skeptics sometimes. Unfortunately, a few give their lives for their beliefs.
Gullible diabetics are told to give up their insulin in favor of Chinese herbs, and they die. Psychic surgeons in the Philippines and Brazil and chiropractors in the United States steer people away from rational treatment that could help them, sometimes with fatal results.
It is unlikely that the rationalists will ever outnumber the irrationalists. Gardner put up a good fight, but he was outnumbered.

A collection, not an overview
I reserved this book at my local public library, based on its title, which is somewhat inaccurate. The book is, as other reviewers have noted, a collection of magazine articles and book reviews, with some added comments at the end of each, rather than a historical overview of the New Age phenomenon. Gardner does richly deserve credit for his fairness in including replies from people who disagreed strongly with him. Still, much of the book is dated, describing people and phenomena it was important to challenge at the time of writing but now faded from the public eye; I skipped or skimmed many parts. I find Michael Shermer's book Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time more comprehensive; though it too is largely a collection of articles, they are longer and generally go deeper; Shermer has expanded many of them well beyond what he originally published in periodicals.

In spite of my criticisms, I find much of Gardner's book interesting -- the most useful parts for me were his devastating exzmination of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, and the book reviews, as a guide to further reading.

Outdated and repetitive, but still valuable and solid
This collection of essays, gathering articles written for a variety of publications (but mostly for "The Skeptical Inquirer"), covers a number of subjects: creationism, UFOlogy, television evangelists, a few borderline scientific claims, and especially spiritualism and psychic research. Gardner is brilliant, and his writing is compelling, extremely witty, and easy to understand. In many ways, it should be required reading for anyone interested in "fringe" movements, but readers should understand that, as a whole, the book has some shortcomings inherent in these sorts of collections.

Some of the articles in "The New Age" provide convincing refutations of the topic under discussion, while other essays preach to the converted. Occasionally, he hits a bull's-eye: his essay on certain televangelists, written after the revelations about the Bakkers and before Swaggart's fall from grace, provides much information that is incriminating enough to push fence-sitting readers onto the greener side of skepticism. Other articles are valuable purely for historical reasons, such as his survey of perpetual motion machines. All too often, though, it feels like Gardner is shooting ducks in a very small barrel: easy targets, but bordering on the pathetic. One might argue that these articles are necessary because so many people believe in such garbage, but I can't imagine, for example, that his mocking summaries on the preposterous metaphysics expounded by Shirley MacLaine would convince anyone gullible enough to believe her in the first place. His chapters on the actress rarely offer direct refutation of her outlandish claims or point out their many contradictions.

The second deficiency is far more serious. Like many writers who collect their essays, Gardner has opted for reprinting the essays as they were written rather than rewriting them into a coherent and fluid whole. (His concession to the reader is to publish an afterword to each essay that reprints responses and updates information.) The problem with this unenterprising approach is twofold: since many of the essays were written on related or similar topics for disparate audiences, there is a lot of repetition, and the book bounces back and forth among subjects with no sense of direction. As a result, we read no less than four times, in nearly the same prose, about physicist John Taylor's testing of Uri Geller's "spoon-bending" trick, twice about Robert Browning's skepticism towards D. D. Home's seances, and so on. Likewise, instead of one chapter on Shirley MacLaine, we get two (three if you count the chapter on channeling), repeating much of the same information and placed in different parts of the book.

The final problem with the book is no fault of Gardner's: many of the essays are simply outdated--particularly those on borderline physics (such as superstring theory and the unsupported claims of Thomas Gold and Halton C. Arp, whose fifteen minutes are pretty much up). In fact, in 1996 Gardner published a sequel, "Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic," which I'm now eager to read.

Even though I've highlighted the negative aspects of this work, Gardner's analysis is trenchant and authoritative. Reading these essays made me realize that we need a "debunker's almanac"--an annual collection keeping up with the latest scams. In the meantime, I've ordered a subscription to "The Skeptical Inquirer." ... Read more

Product Description

Post–Civil War New York City is the battleground of the American dream. In this era of free love, emerging rights of women, and brutal sexual repression, Freydeh, a spirited young Jewish immigrant, toils at different jobs to earn passage to America for her family. Learning that her younger sister is adrift somewhere in the city, she begins a determined search that carries her from tenement to brothel to prison—as her story interweaves with those of some of the epoch's most notorious figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Susan B. Anthony; sexual freedom activist Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president; and Anthony Comstock, founder of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, whose censorship laws are still on the books.

Customer Reviews (17)

A Fascinating Piece of American History
This fascinating, well-written historical novel is a real page-turner, while introducing us to a number of real historical figures as well as to some well-crafted fictional characters. It deals with women's lives and the struggle for women's rights around the American Civil War era, taking place largely in New York.
I bought it for my daughter-in-law because I had enjoyed it so much. She found it very informative and a great read.

Backwards!!
I struggled thru the first half of this novel.Kept telling myself it would get better.It didn't.After being introduced to a religious zealot that I had absolutely no interest in (actually started skipping his chapters) and Victoria Woodhull (portrayed as a scam artist and early day hippie,) I hit part two and finally called it quits.Why? Not only was I not enjoying or getting a feel for any of its characters (the exception being the Russian immigrant Freydeh.She alone has kept this novel from being one star) but the novel is chronologically backwards like Star Wars. Part two goes back 16 years all of a sudden. It jumps to 1862 and then to 1847 and back up a bit to 1854 so not only do you have to keep track of who is who, but also what year they are in.If I have to draw a timeline, I am not going to enjoy the story.

Excellent read - entertainment and education
I loved this book. The first chapter was very average, but after that I was hooked! I thought the way you identified with the way some think, and trying to achieve (Elizabeth and Freydeh) and then would get pi**ed off by others (Anthony). Anthony was just one character I couldn't handel, its hard to believe people can think like that, so black and white while themseleves acting in the grey (e.g. the "research" he did with "indecient" material - anatomy books, erotica and girly shows, while preching that the world was going to the dogs because women were working and getting an education). I was dissapointed with Victorias final story - she just seemed to go into a world where she hid the woman she was, with all the strength and free thoughts. I'm still realing over the age of consent being 10....it totally blows my mind. It was good to see how far womens rights have come, but to me highlighted areas where things are still far behind and that to some members of society those "womens" rights were the cause of all the bad in the current world - I have met too many Anthonys

I learnt a lot!
This is an extremely interesting book, aswell as being well written. I learnt so much from this novel about the Women's Civil Right's Movement in the US, and also about key figures in this movement. Piercy has done well in keeping the characters as close to the real person as possible. Characters in this novel are wonderfully complex, and I found many of them so intriguing that I researched them afterwards.
A really good historical novel.

(4.5 stars) Why don't they teach this in school?
The more I read historical fiction the more convinced I am that the educational system in America is completely inadequate (and I went to a supposedly college prep school!) "Sex Wars" by Marge Percy is a particularly good example of that failure. There is so much in this novel about women's history that should not be forgotten-especially now. There is information in this book that should be taught to everyone so that we can keep from backsliding into a nation where once again women are treated as children, with no control over their own bodies, legal matters, property, freedom or children.

"Sex Wars" is really four stories is one, though they all intertwine and weave a larger message of the battle that women faced for equality in the last quarter of the 19th century. Though the back of the book claims that the novel mainly follows Freydeh, a young Jewish woman searching for her sister in New York City and along the way she meets some of the largest influences of the age, in reality it is divided up between her and three others. The first suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhull sexual freethinker and the first woman to run for president, and Anthony Comstock founder of the society for the suppression of Vice; they all have a voice in this book.

In truth the novel does follow Freydeh as she searches for her sister, but also as she begins to adopt street children to care for and begins a burgeoning condom making business so that she can make enough money to feed, cloth and house herself and her adopted children, as well as sending money back to her home country for her family to immigrate on. But it also follows Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as they fight with abolitionists to get equal time for their cause and with proper ladies who aren't ready to truly fight-not just talk politely- for equality. And Victoria Woodhull, who grew up in a family of con men but pulled herself out using her smarts and the conviction that she was meant to be a great leader some day but was constantly in scandal because of her family, belief in spiritualism and her practice of free love. And last but certainly not least is Anthony Comstock whose rampant censorship seems to be based on true fear of women and young people's corruption, which sees as leading to death.

Told in expansive, highly descriptive third person, this is a novel that truly is about the sex wars. Every person in this book is fighting in their way-sometimes simply by insisting on making a living independent of men-for equality or dominance. And not only are they fighting over the ideals of the day but against thousands of years of oppression and inequality. It's a mighty task.

This book was a revelation to me. It is crammed full of facts that they just don't teach you in school (such as: a married woman couldn't sign legal documents but a single one could, women could not testify in court because it was considered indecent, anatomical books were considered to be pornography) as well as the accounts of just some of the numerous men and women who worked their whole lives to create a better world where all are equal. In every way it is an inspiring book and I am glad to have read it.

However it's also a slow starter and a bit hard to get really absorbed in because of the constantly shifting perspective. For about the first one hundred seventy five pages I wasn't sure if this was a book I could finish, but after that it became impossible to put down.

This is a book everyone should read. If only to see how far we all have come in the last hundred and thirty years and what we could possibly loose.

Four point five stars. I look forward to reading more of this author's work!.
... Read more

Product Description
Written by two leading international exponents of critical pedagogy, this book is a pioneering attempt to create a Marxist humanist and feminist pedagogy for the new century. Critical pedagogy is discussed as an important revolutionary act in bringing about a socialist future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Call for Action
Written by two collaborative leaders in the field of critical pedagogy, Pedagogy and Praxis in the Age of Empire: Towards a New Humanism furthers attempts to make the pedagogical more politically informed. The authors' deep personal engagement with the discourse of critical pedagogy creates a work that addresses the ever-shifting realities of the field and schooling itself. Grassroots constituencies have the power to contest curriculum and policies and grassroots education movements are needed across the world. In their visits with radical teachers and scholars in the United States, Canada, and many other parts of the world, the authors have found that capitalism, education, and technology go hand-in-hand. In this book, critical pedagogy is well-argued as a vehicle of great consequence in the construction of a socialist future.

Invigorating!!
Critical, committed, and creative, the emotional and intellectual impact of Peter McLaren and Nathalia Jaramillo's new book is both disorienting and powerful. The collection of essays and the accompanying authors' photo travelogue illuminate the vital struggle for critical educators today in the face of neo-liberal globalization. McLaren and Jaramillo suggest that while critical educators continue to attack standardized testing, pedagogical authoritarianism, rote learning, and the silencing of student voices, they have not overwhelmingly challenged the formal structure of the capitalist system, combating the privatization and businessification of schooling. The task of critical educators today is to work with students to build revolutionary consciousness, never abandoning a vision for the radical transformation of society.

Well Done!
This is an intelligent, passionate and eloquent book. A great resource for understanding marxist humanist philosophy and its relation to educational praxis. It keeps you engaged while challenging previously held thought. Wonderfully thought-provoking. Well Done!

A teacher in the Beautiful Struggle
This is a fabulous book that impassions the heart, inspires the soul and challenges the mind. The authors make explicit the connection between neo liberalism, race, class, religion and critical pedagogy. This book is important because it gives us a blueprint for changing the world through the hearts and minds of students and teachers to build a better world. I love the photos it really humanizes the authors. This is a must read for those who want to do more than perpetuate the status quo through education.

Critically Mapping Educational Futures
In a time of educational decay, McLaren and Jaramillo's latest book is an eloquent yet incisive effort that offers an unparalleled voice of clarity and hope to critical educators across the globe. Charting the continuing rise of neo-liberal approaches in education, the authors of Pedagogy and Praxis in the Age of Empire provide readers a panoramic view of global capitalism that helps situate projects for educational liberation in the United States within the larger struggle against rampant imperialism, permanent war, and forms of racial and gender oppression. Ranging from the Bush administration's xenophobic response to hurricane Katrina, the imperial occupation of Iraq, corporate media's oligarchic manipulation of public knowledge, and the Right's evangelical political project readers will be able to more accurately map and understand current educational policy such as NCLB within the framework of a broader historical and political context. Particularly timely is McLaren and Jaramillo's analysis of neo-liberal citizenship. As they convincingly point out, the distortion of what democratic citizenship is in the neo-liberal era of public schooling is one of the paramount challenges facing the project of critical pedagogy today. As a pioneer in the field of critical pedagogy McLaren's teaming with co-author Jaramillo, an emerging and powerful new voice from within the educational Left, combines into a powerful blend of critical perspectives that is highly relevant to the contemporary moment of educational crisis. In addition to the incisive analyses, and theoretical clarity, this book is also an aesthetic pleasure, giving a unique visual narrative of the authors' lived political engagement along with the written. This book is sure to be widely discussed and admired within educational theory as well as with educators and scholars across diverse disciplines. ... Read more

Product Description
<p>After your casebook, <b><i>Casenote Legal Briefs</i></b> will be your most important reference source for the entire semester. It is the <b>most popular legal briefs series available</b>, with over 140 titles, and is relied on by thousands of students for its expert case summaries, comprehensive analysis of concurrences and dissents, as well as of the majority opinion in the briefs.</p><p><b>Casenotes Features:</b></p><ul><li>Keyed to specific casebooks by title/author</li><li>Most current briefs available</li><li>Redesigned for greater student accessibility</li><li>Sample brief with element descriptions called out</li><li>Redesigned chapter opener provides rule of law and page number for each brief</li><li>Quick Course Outline chart included with major titles</li><li>Revised glossary in dictionary format</li></ul><p></p><p></p><p></p> ... Read more

Product Description
Buddhist beliefs impact the world. Its teachings are found in todays media, entertainment, education, government and other places where Christians interact. How can Christians defend their faith in ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Agressive Religious Intolerance
An attempt by a practitioner of one religion to convert people of another.Any religious discussion that begins with the perspective of I am right and you are wrong is never a good idea, the idea that a person that is opposed to a faith can teach about it accurately is preposterous.

Wonderful!!
This is a well documented book, detailing the historical foundation for their Tibetan Buddhist beliefs. Highly recommended.

A Compelling Read on Buddhism
Even for a person who has limited knowledge of Buddhism, one would find Tsering's writing style and arrangement of the book a very compelling read.It is a fascinating compilation of history, from the ancient times to the present, with stories and clear explanations of the tenets and background of Buddhism.In addition, the author skillfully compares and contrasts Buddhism and Christianity, and gives us a real sense of the people who live in Middle Asia.

Roger Converse, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship ... Read more

Product Description
Recounts the sensational 1896 murder trial of Mary Alice Livingston, who was accused of murdering her mother with an arsenic-laced pail of clam chowder and faced the possibility of becoming the first woman to be executed in New York's new-fangled electric chair. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Fascinating true crime about a Gilded Age poisoner
Arsenic and Clam Chowder by James D. Livingston is a fascinating look at murder in Gilded Age New York. Mary Alice Livingston (a distant cousin of the author) was arrested in 1895 for sending her ten-year-old daughter Grace to deliver an pail of arsenic laced clam chowder to her mother Evelina Bliss in order to gain access to her inheritance. As Evelina suffered a grotesque and painful death, she informed the doctor that she was poisoned by a relative for money. The ensuing investigation andtrial would put capital punishment for women and reasonable doubt on trial for the world to see, while competing newspapers the World and Journalwrote eloquent stories about her four illegitimate children from three different fathers. The author lays the case against Mary Alice well and captures the heightened tensions in New York City that surrounded the trial. These were the days that were filled with "trials of the century" when female poisoners haunted Victorian imaginations. I love true crime books based in this period, and this book is thoroughly enjoyable and interesting. The author finishes up with a discussion on how reasonable doubt affected this trial and how it works today. My only quibble would be that in one of the pictures included in the center of the book, the author gives away the outcome of the trial. That's a small complaint however. The images included truly help the reader to see the main characters more clearly, and the historical details he adds also bring this era to life. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Arsenic and Clam Chowder
In the summer of 1895, on a labor day weekend and in Manhattan, NY where Evelina lived at 397 St. Nicholas Ave. in a upper Manhattan apartment on the fifth floor. Evelina was fifty-three and the stairs had started to be too much for her. She lived her with her younger daughter Florence and a son Henry.


This book is about the murder of Evelina Bliss, where they had fond arsenic in her blood after her death. She had been to visit her daughter, Mary Ellen Livingston, and then came home, Later Mary Ellen sent her daughter and a friend with a pail of clam chowder to Evelina which she ate for her dinner.

The murder was based on the clam chowder and the daughter who was arrested. This complete book is the trial of Mary Alice Livingston, the life of her mother Evelina Bliss.


My Thoughts:
This book had a great start but unless you are really into the lawyers and trials it is a hard read. The author did a great job of writing the book and the telling of the story.


This book was sent to me by James D. Livingston the author andPump Up Your Book for Review.

Lots of detailed history throughout the book
"Arsenic and Clam Chowder" recounts the life of Mary Alice Livingston. Born into a prestigious family, she is accused of murdering her mother, Evelina Bliss, for her inheritance. Mary Alice was a women obsessed with having money; she had been in and out of the courts before, trying to extort money from the fathers of her children. Never married, she had 3 children and a forth on the way. This was the problem between her and her mother. Women did not just have illegitimate children at that time. While this plot sounds like something out of a television crime story, this is actually based on a true event that took place in the year 1895-96.

The author, James Livingston, a descendant of the accused, utilized information handed down through the years by the family. Mary had her daughter and a friend take a pail of poisoned clam chowder to her mother. The main theme throughout the plot is: did Mary Alice Livingston poison her mother? The trial is quite interesting. Once the conclusion is reached and all evidence is produced, it leaves the reader wondering, did she or didn't she.

There is a lot of detailed history throughout the book, newspaper wars, the advent of skyscrapers, the automobile, police corruption and much more. This all relates to the gilded age that Mary was raised in. If you are a reader who likes the true crime genre especially of that age then I feel you will find this book quite interesting; not only for the murder trial but the history of that time.

Definitely an Intriguing MUST read!
Wow! What a book! Definitely one that I would be interested in reading again. James Livingston really dug deep into history and into the facts on this murder and put them all together into one FANTASTIC read!

Livingston tells the story behind this murder. A murder in the 1800's, to me, is just intriguing. Intriguing because when I think of the 1800's, I think of peace and a time that I would LOVE to be a part of. Not a time where someone who, with 4 children out of wedlock and living across the hall from her stepfather at a hotel, decides to take the life of her own mother, by sending her clam chowder laced with Arsenic. I found this novel to be VERY mysterious with it's twist and turns of trying to determine this one thing: did Mary Alice Livingston, a woman who baited men with her children, whom never really loved her children, KILL her mother with poison?

The style that Livingston uses to write this novel, makes it read more like a fictional novel than a true crime novel. I really liked that, however, I think he could have used a bit less of the headlines. Those did get a little boring for me. But, once I got past all those, and really got a good dose of the crime and the mystery behind it all, I was hooked! I felt like I was a part of that gilded era and helping to convict Mary Alice. I mean, come on. WHO in their RIGHT mind would do that to their 50 something mother?!

I loved how Livingston added the details of the changing times and how the investigation took place. The evidence gathered against Mary Alice was intriguing. I also loved how this book showed that just because you come from a prominently wealthy family, doesn't always mean that you are a good family. Every family has their problems, but this family CERTAINLY had just a few more than most people during that time. This book really opens up my eyes to a different era in time and gets me thinking that history, while one of my favorite things to learn about and read about, it has some details to it that isn't all that different! Crime happened then just as it does now and I enjoyed reading about how the trial went and the outcome of the crime.

Is this a book that I recommend? Most definitely! Especially if you are into the true crime TV shows and movies. This is a perfect addition to your shelves! Four stars and two thumbs up to a great author!

*This book was provided for review by PUYB*

Arsenic and Clam Chowder
I could not put this book down.This is better than an Agatha Christie.PDJames step aside.And this murder mystery is TRUE.The gilded age setting was fascinating as were the newspaper wars of the era.
There is something very Henry James about the distressed female heroine of the story-- what options does a single mother have?
The plot is twisting and will puzzle the most seasoned mystery buff.....cannot recommend this book enough.A great holiday gift!! ... Read more