The Chapter & Verse Bookshop
AMERICAN IDENTITY
- Geyer, Georgie Anne. AMERICA NO MORE. Atlantic Monthly Press. September 1996. Hardcover, 352 pages.
- Veteran newspaper reporter and respected foreign policy analyst Georgie Anne Geyer writes about the national identity crisis brought about by the growing numbers of residents of the United States who do not wish to be Americans nor speak the English language.
Fueling this critical problem, according to Geyer, are a dysfunctional immigration service, fanatical "politically correct" forces that have enforced nonassimilation policies in schools and other institutions, and ignorant and misguided liberal endowments, like the Ford Foundation, which indiscriminately give financial backing to ethnic activists (like "La Raza") that are unrepresentative of minority communities. HOP!
- Miller, John J. THE UNMAKING OF AMERICANS: HOW MULTICULTURALISM HAS UNDERMINED THE ASSIMILATION ETHIC. Free Press. May 1998. 293 pages.
- Synopsis of review by Deroy Murdock (Wall Street Journal, 14 May 1998, page A20.) -- John J. Miller meticulously documents "how little the American elite has done to incorporate new immigrants into mainstream society. . . . Today's immigrants, far from defining citizenship down, are merely adapting to the plunging standards that politicians, bureaucrats, and intellectuals have set for them." They did not ask for the bilingual education industry that discourages children from learning good English and in fact have protested against it. They did not ask for ballots in foreign languages. They did not ask for gerrymandered congressional districts tailored by ethnic identity. Nor did they invent the kind of demented "cultural defense" that seeks to excuse murder, child abuse, rape, and kidnapping on the grounds of cultural differences. Miller wants an end to such misguided pandering and divisive ethnic-group politics and a return to the days when immigrants keenly wanted to be Americans, to speak good English, and to take part in American elections on American terms. To this end, he sets forth an "Americanization Manifesto" that accentuates the positive value of citizenship for all new immigrants, without reference to such superficial differences as race or ethnic background. Though he values the English language, Miller rejects "English only" laws as insulting and unnecessary. HOP!
BIOLOGY
EDWARD O. WILSON
- CONSILIENCE: THE UNITY OF KNOWLEDGE (1998).
- One of the great contemporary scientists, Edmond O.
Wilson argues in CONSILIENCE ("a jumping together")
that all branches of the study of human society -- including
economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and the
study of politics and religion -- must eventually take into
account and be informed by the scientific findings of
"serious biology and psychology."Wilson confidently asserts that only through such a general
overhaul and unification of human knowledge will
economics and the social sciences escape from their self-
engrossed intellectual dead-ends and become relevant
and useful in discussions of human society and public policy.
- NATURALIST (1995)
- Wilson's autobiography and description of the evolution
of his thought..
- THE ANTS
- This definitive scientific study by Bert Holldobler and
Edward O. Wilson received the Pulizer Prize for its clear,
readable, and eloquent prose. Full of amazing facts
about the lives of ants. A grand (big) book of 732 pages,
lavishly illustrated. Readers must be prepared to look up
scientific terms in the glossary.
- THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE (1993)
- Wilson describes the enormous impact of human activity
on the Amazon Basin and explains the need for sound
environmental policies to protect the Earth's biological
resources. Sixty full-color photos, fourteen half-tones,
thirty-eight line drawings.
- ORIGINS OF THE HUMAN MIND (1996)
- An audio casettee featuring talks by several scientists,
including Wilson.
- ON HUMAN NATURE (1988)
- Wilson asserts that human social behavior has been
subject to the same laws of evolution that apply to
human physiology. He proposes that many fundamental
human impulses -- such as an aversion to incest, altruism,
patriotism, status-seeking, and territorial expansion --
have been adaptive in an evolutionary sense.
- SOCIOBIOLOGY (1980)
- Edward O. Wilson and Sarah Landry outline the
biological basis of human social behavior.
Activate the Mechanical Monkey.
BOOK PUBLISHING
GETTING PUBLISHED
- John Boswell, THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO GETTING PUBLISHED: WHY THEY ALWAYS REJECT YOUR MANUSCRIPT AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT
- A successful agent and publisher explains what
publishers are looking for when they examine book
proposals and manuscripts. Presentation and
packaging count in making a good first impression and
making it past those who guard the gates.
- Michael Larsen, HOW TO WRITE A BOOK PROPOSAL
- Michael Laren is a literary agent who has placed
manuscripts with 100 publishers. This book walks
prospective authors through the process of
convincing a publisher that a book idea represents "a
good business proposition." There are several highly
favorable reader comments at Amazon.com.
- Elizabeth C. Lyon, NONFICTION BOOK PROPOSALS ANYBODY CAN WRITE: HOW TO GET A CONTRACT AND AN ADVANCE BEFORE WRITING YOUR BOOK
- The author has helped many writers learn the art of
writing a good nonfiction book proposal. Editors and
readers praise her work.
Activate the Mechanical Monkey.
BUDDHISM
INTRODUCTIONS TO BUDDHISM
Nancy Wilson Ross, BUDDHISM: A WAY OF LIFE AND THOUGHT
Walpola Rahula, WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT
MEDITATION
Kathleen MacDonald, HOW TO MEDITATE
BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY
Dalai Lama XIV, THE GOOD HEART: A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE ON THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS
ANCIENT BUDDHIST TEXTS
Edward Conze (Editor), BUDDHIST TEXTS THROUGH THE AGES
Edward Conze, THE DIAMOND SUTRA AND THE HEART SUTRA
Dwight Goddard (Editor), A BUDDHIST BIBLE
Tripitaka M. Hua, THE HEART OF PRAJNA PARAMITA SUTRA
BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY
David S. Kalupahana, PRINCIPLES OF BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY
HISTORY OF BUDDHISM
BUDDHA IN THE CROWN: AVALOKITESVARA IN THE BUDDHIST TRADITIONS OF SRI LANKA
TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Dalai Lama XIV, FREEDOM IN EXILE
Dalai Lama XIV, HEALING ANGER: POWER OF PATIENCE FROM A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE
Dalai Lama XIV, KINDNESS, CLARITY, AND INSIGHT
Donald S. Lopez, PRISONERS OF SHANGRI-LA: TIBETAN BUDDHISM AND THE WEST
Tarthang Tulku, GESTURE OF BALANCE
Tarthang Tulku, HIDDEN MIND OF FREEDOM
ZEN
Hakuin, Norman Waddell (Translator), ZEN WORDS FOR THE HEART: HAKUIN'S COMMENTARY ON THE HEART SUTRA
Tomio Hirai, ZEN MEDITATION AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
Nancy Wilson Ross, WORLD OF ZEN
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, ZEN BUDDHISM
Shunryu Suzuki, ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND
Thich Nhat Hanh, BREATHE! YOU ARE ALIVE: SUTRA ON THE FULL AWARENESS OF BREATHING
Thich Nhat Hanh, HEART OF UNDERSTANDING: COMMENTARIES ON THE PRAJNAPARAMITA HEART SUTRA
Philip Kapleau, THREE PILLARS OF ZEN
Sen'o Tanaka, THE TEA CEREMONY
Walpola Rahula, ZEN AND THE TAMING OF THE BULL
ZEN -- DOGEN
Dogen, Reiho Masumaga (Translator), PRIMER OF SOTO ZEN: A TRANSLATION OF DOGEN'S SHOBOGENZO ZUIMONKI
Dogen, Kazuaki Tanahashi (Editor), MOON IN A DEWDROP: WRITINGS OF ZEN MASTER DOGEN
Steven Heine, DOGEN AND THE KOAN TRADITION: A TALE OF TWO SHOBOGENZO TEXTS
Masao Abe, A STUDY OF DOGEN: HIS PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Steven Heine, THE ZEN POETRY OF DOGEN: VERSES FROM THE MOUNTAIN OF ETERNAL PEACE
Michael H. Kohn (translator), THE SHAMBHALA DICTIONARY OF BUDDHISM AND ZEN
Kakuzo Okakura, THE BOOK OF TEA
Hakuun Yasutani, Paul Jaffe (Translator), FLOWERS FALL: A COMMENTARY ON DOGEN'S GENJOKOAN
BUDDHIST YOGA
Thomas F. Cleary (Editor), BUDDHIST YOGA: A COMPREHENSIVE COURSE
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THE DALAI LAMA
- Dalai Lama XIV. ETHICS FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM. Riverhead Books. 1999. Cloth. 237 pages.
- "It seems to me that much of the unhappiness we humans endure is actually of our own making. . . . in general, those individuals whose conduct is ethically positive are happier and more satisfied than those who neglect ethics. . . . " It is essential, argues the Dali Lama, that people of all religions and none reach agreement about what constitutes positive ethical conduct. HOP!
- Dalai Lama XIV. THE GOOD HEART: A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE ON THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS. Wisdom. 1996. Cloth. 206 pages.
- This book is a record of a 1994 seminar sponsored by the World Community for Christian Meditation. The Dalai Lama agreed to lead the seminar and to provide a fresh perspective on familiar passages from the New Testament. His respectful and appreciative comments on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-10) and on Jesus' resurrection appearance to Mary (John 20:10-18) point to the deeper meaning and power of the Christian tradition, while keeping clear the distinctions between Buddhist and Christian thought.
A basic tenent of Buddhism is to respect the core teachings of other religions. Indeed the Buddha is said to have turned away one would-be disciple because he did not want the young man to abandon his old teacher, whose teachings the Buddha respected.
At the present time, one nominally Buddhist group has been disavowed by the Dalai Lama because its members actively seek to proselytize (that is, to cause non-members to convert to their practice and to turn away from Christianity, other forms of Buddhism, or other religions). -- R. W. Mann HOP!
- Lopez, Donald S. PRISONERS OF SHANGRI-LA: TIBETAN BUDDHISM AND THE WEST. University of Chicago Press. May 1998. Hardcover. 272 pages.
- Donald S. Lopez, a University of Michigan specialist in Asian Languages and Cultures, argues that Tibetan Buddhism has become a kind of Rorschach test for superstitious Westerners. According to Lopez, some Tibetan teachers in the West have affirmed outlandish New Age views about their tradition in the hope of winning more sympathy for Tibetan independence. The unfortunate result, Lopez argues, is less rather than more understanding of the Tibetan culture and religion. HOP!
GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN TRADITION
Aeschylus . . . Apollonius . . . Aquinas . . . Archimedes
Aristophanes . . . Aristotle . . . Augustine
Marcus Aurelius . . . Austen . . . Francis Bacon
Balzac . . . Barth . . . Beckett . . . Bergson . . . Berkeley
The Bible . . . Bohr . . . Boswell . . . Brecht
Calvin . . . Cather . . . Cervantes . . . Chaucer
Chekov . . . Conrad . . . Copernicus . . . Dante
Darwin . . . Descartes . . . Dewey . . . Dickens
Diderot . . . Dostoevsky . . . Einstein . . . George Eliot
T. S. Eliot . . . Engels . . . Epictetus . . . Erasmus
Euclid . . . Goethe . . . Hamilton . . . Hardy . . . Harvey
Hegel . . . Heidegger . . . Heisenberg . . . Hemingway
Herodotus . . . Hippocrates . . . Hobbes . . . Homer
Hume . . . Ibsen . . . Henry James . . . William James
Jay . . . Joyce . . . Kafka . . . Kant . . . Kepler
Keynes . . . Kierkegaard . . . Lavoisier . . . Levi-Strauss
Locke . . . Machiavelli . . . Madison . . . Mann . . . Marx
Melville . . . Pirandello . . . Planck . . . Plato . . . Plutarch
Poincare . . . Proust . . . Ptolemy . . . The Koran
Rabelais . . . Racine . . . Rousseau . . . Russell
Schroedinger . . . Shaw . . . Shakespeare . . . Adam Smith
Sophocles . . . Spinoza . . . Sterne . . . Swift
Tacitus . . . Tawney . . . Thucydides . . . Tolstoy
Tocqueville . . . Twain . . . Veblen . . . Virgil
Voltaire . . . Weber . . . Whitehead . . . Wittgenstein
Woolf
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INVESTING
- Bernstein, Peter L. AGAINST THE GODS: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF RISK. John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
- HOP!
- Renberg, Werner. ALL ABOUT BOND FUNDS: A COMPLETE GUIDE FOR TODAY'S INVESTERS. John Wiley & Sons, 1995.
- HOP!
- Bogle, John C. BOGLE ON MUTUAL FUNDS: NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR. Dell Publishing, 1994.
- HOP!
- Goldberg, Steven T. BUT WHICH MUTUAL FUNDS? HOW TO PICK THE RIGHT ONES TO ACHIEVE YOUR FINANCIAL DREAMS. Kiplinger Books & Tapes, 1998.
- HOP!
- Bogle, John C. COMMON SENSE ON MUTUAL FUNDS: NEW IMPERATIVES FOR THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR. Dell Publishing, 1999.
- HOP!
- Rowland, Mary. A COMMONSENSE GUIDE TO YOUR 401(k). Bloomberg Press, 1997.
- HOP!
- Evans, Richard E., and Burton G. Malkiel. EARN MORE (SLEEP BETTER): THE INDEX FUND SOLUTION. Simon & Schuster Trade, 1999.
- HOP!
- Downes, John, and Jordan Elliot Goodman. FINANCE AND INVESTMENT HANDBOOK. Barron's Educational Series, 1998.
- HOP!
- Fredman, Albert J., and Russ Wiles. HOW MUTUAL FUNDS WORK. Prentice Hall, 1997.
- HOP!
- Simon, W. Scott. INDEX MUTUAL FUNDS: PROFITING FROM AN INVESTMENT REVOLUTION. Namborn, 1998.
- HOP!
- Good, Walter R., and Roy W. Hermansen. INDEX YOUR WAY TO INVESTMENT SUCCESS. Prentice Hall, 1997.
- HOP!
- Madlem, Peter W. INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUTUAL FUNDS, CLOSED-END FUNDS AND REITS. AMACOM, 1999.
- HOP!
- Sindell, Kathleen. ONLINE FOR DUMMIES (second edition). IDG Books Worldwide, 1999.
- HOP!
- Quinn, Jane Bryant. MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR MONEY. Simon & Schuster Trade, 1997.
- HOP!
- Stanley, Thomas J., and William D. Danko. THE MILLIONAIRE NEXT DOOR. Simon & Schuster Trade, 1998.
- HOP!
- Tyson, Eric. MUTUAL FUNDS FOR DUMMIES (second edition). IDG Books Worldwide, 1999.
- HOP!
- Rowland, Mary. THE NEW COMMONSENSE GUIDE TO MUTUAL FUNDS. Bloomberg Press, 1998.
- HOP!
- Tobias, Andrew. THE ONLY INVESTMENT GUIDE YOU'LL EVER NEED (second edition). Harcourt Brace, 1998.
- HOP!
- Tyson, Eric. PERSONAL FINANCE FOR DUMMIES. IDG Books Worldwide, 1996.
- HOP!
- Malkiel, Burton G. A RANDOM WALK DOWN WALL STREET (seventh edition). W. W. Norton, 1999.
- HOP!
- Siegel, Jeremy J. STOCKS FOR THE LONG RUN. McGraw-Hill, 1997.
- HOP!
- Slater, Robert. THE VANGUARD EXPERIMENT: JOHN BOGLE'S QUEST TO TRANSFORM THE MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY. McGraw-Hill, 1996.
- HOP!
- Morris, Kenneth M., and Alan M Siegel. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING MONEY AND INVESTING. Simon & Schuster, 1994.
- HOP!
LITERATURE
JAMES BOSWELL
Listening to the disjointed sentences, unidiomatic
expressions, nonsequitors, irrational assertions, misuse
of words, and generally maladroit language that
characterize the thought and speech of those who pass
for educated men and women today, I find myself longing
now and then for a cleansing plunge into Boswell's rich,
expressive, witty, and vital 18th Century discourse.Our language today could be as good as Boswell's.
Not the same as, but as good as. American cowboys
used to aspire to good English usage. There is no reason
today's Senators and Ambassadors and academics
should do less. -- R. W. Mann
- BOSWELL'S LONDON JOURNAL, 1762-1763
- THE JOURNALS OF JAMES BOSWELL, 1762-1795
- THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON
- A lifelike portrait of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), one
of the greatest (and least politically correct) characters of
all time, by James Boswell, his perceptive and witty friend
and admirer. A rich human document.
- BOSWELL & JOHNSON -- A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND / THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES
- Two accounts of the same trip, by Dr. Johnson, who
hated Scotland, among other things, and Boswell, who was
a Scot.
- JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY: A MODERN SELECTION
- George Milne and E. L. McAdam present a 463-page
selection from Johnson's 2,300-page dictionery. To be
read more for verbal pleasure than lexicographical
accuracy, the DICTIONARY is loaded with pungent and
pithy comments about instances of human vanity -- even
Dr. Johnson's own. Johnson defined lexicographer
as "a writer of dictioneries; a harmless drudge." Interestingly,
Johnson set out to write a highly prescriptive dictionery but
came to adopt a more modern, descriptive approach.
- THE MAKING OF JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY 1746-1773
- A scholarly account of Dr. Johnson's devoted labors on
his DICTIONARY by Allen Reddick (Cambridge
University Press).
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