There’s hardly any time at all left now until the Beijing 2008 Olympics - and there is no doubt that the Beijing Games are going to perhaps be the most controversial every staged. But will they be the “best Games ever”? Traditionally, it seems every Games is better than the last, at least according to the closing speach from the President of the International Olympic Committee
With so much excitment, interest and controversy over these Olympic Games, I thought it would be worth finding out more about previous Games and the history of the Olympics in general, so came across The Complete Book of the Olympics by David Wallechinsky & Jaime Loucky. Ah, the complete Book - this seemed like the perfect place to start my “Olympics readiness”!!
I will be honest and say that I haven’t yet finished reading the book, not all of it anyway - it is not really the kind of book you are going to sit and read cover to cover - but it’s kind of an ideal companion to have with you on sofa as you while away the hours of the Olympics! If there is a false start in the 100 metres, you might find a spare moment to look up an interesting Olympic fact, or if the Beach Volleyball is rained off, or cancelled due to malicious sea Algae or pollution, you could do your research into just when Beach Volleyball got into the Olympics for the first time! This book is huge - at 1200 pages to call it Encyclopedic would not be an overstatement, and that’s essentially part of what it is. I say partly because it is much more than a dry Encyclopdia filled with dry and unexciting facts; it is more a hybrid, a mix between encyclopedia and anecdote, substantiated fact and speculative lore, sharp analysis and lovingly told story. This tome will definitely be sitting on my coffee table throughout the Olympics so I can check on interesting factoids (the book provides a complete statistical record from 1896, from medals won to times, distances or scores recorded by the top eight competitors in all events, whether they be Olympic regulars such as the marathon or long-discontinued competitions such as Olympic croquet or even the tug of war!) and perhaps spend a bit of time reading some of the more expansive and unusual information - such as the story of a long-forgotten boy who was plucked from the streets of Paris to act as cox for two Dutch oarsmen in the paired-oar event in 1900 and, after steering them to victory and a Gold Medal, returned to obscurity, his name unknown to this day!
The time difference doesn’t look so bad - not as bad as the Sydney Olympics at any rate, with everything happening in the middle of my night - although I did stay up for some of it! In any case, I will be interested to see if the venues are built on time, and if China actually does manage to do something about the dreadful pollution.
It would be horrible to bring politics into my book review blog, but I will just say it is unfortunate that Beijing was even awarded the Olympics with its human rights record and its terrible behaviour in Tibet, as well as its dreadful unchecked contribution to global pollution problems. However one must hope that with the spotlight on them, this can at least be some kind of start to reform - and in the meantime, The Complete Book of The Olympics goes to show that this is by no means the first controversial staging of the Games!
The Complete Book of the Olympics - essential reading during the 17 days of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008
I’ve said it before, many times - and I’ll say it again - the phrase “this book could change your life” is VERY MUCH over used in Publishers’ press releases and on book cover blurbs, but but here is a book claiming not only to change your life, but to do it in a mere 7 days! But then, this is Paul McKenna, a very successful person indeed, so let’s find out what kind of weight we should lend these bold claims!
In a world where people have been in therapy for many years, and are still no nearer a cure, or at least not appearing to be, it might at first seem totally and completely absurd for Paul McKenna to claim either he or you or anything you can change your life in 7 days. Then again, people thought the world was flat for 1000’s of years, it didn’t mean that a rounded earth was an impossibility - it just meant that the correct information/approach hadn’t come along yet! Those who have been reading this book reviews blog for a while now, will know that I have dipped into a fair number of self help books and also indulged in the odd hynosis self help recording too! When a new friend of mine told me she had been trained in hypnosis and NLP by Paul McKenna personally in London, it inspired me to try out a few Paul McKenna books, as she seemed very positive about Paul and his work. And despite all the self help books I have read - there are still times when I need help, even if it’s just a little boost, so I thought it would interesting to read Paul McKenna’s Change Your Life in Seven Days and see what it could offer me! I should note that I did read the book just like a book at first; however it contains plenty of active exercises which you need to work through if you are hoping for that big change - just reading is not enough, you have got to help yourself! However, now I have got an overview of the book, I am going to go back and work through the exercises, as I do believe there is some mileage in what McKenna has to offer.
Firstly, if you’re looking for an easy read, and not mountains of text to wade through, and also look for good value in a purchase, then this could be well be a factor consider, as you not only get the book, but also a FREE mind programming CD (although I am not too keen on the marketing of it as FREE in capitals - you are in effect buying a book and CD!). So you get a book and a “mind programming” CD. Paul Mckenna makes much of the idea that you can re-program your brain, using the image of “installing” new software. This is not as revolutionary or crazy as it may sound - advertisers spend billions of pounds/dollars seeking to re-programme people’s minds, and it works very well - or they wouldn’t continue to invest so much in advertising programs! How refreshing it could be, then, to spend a little time re-programming your own mind in order to some of the results YOU want!
If you have not read any of Paul McKenna’s serious books before, you might still retain the rather less serious image of him as a TV personality and comedy stage hypnotist - he is in fact a highly educated (with a doctorate) person and has spent many years researching into what makes people tick, and how to make them tick better - covering fields such as hypnosis and NLP (neuro linguistic programming). He draws much of the advice contained in Change Your Life in Seven Days from his knowledge of NLP. If you’re not familiar with NLP, it is basically a system of psychotherapy which, instead of looking into what’s wrong with people, actually looks at what works well and seeks to replicate this. So for example, McKenna has studied the behaviour patterns of 100’s of successful and confident people in order to find out just what makes them successful and confident, and he brings this knowledge to his self development systems. There is more information about NLP on the net, try this WIKI NLP entry for a little taster. In any case, although Neuro Linguistic Programming is a relatively new concept, it does seem to have a huge number of benefits, one of which is it can work very quickly where other forms of psychological conditioning can take years!
So, Change Your Life In Seven Days uses McKenna’s knowledge of NLP, the power of suggestion, and other knowledge and research he has picked up during his illustrious career (there is much more to him than the stage hypnotism he is so well known for - he has trained 1000’s of people in NLP and hypnosis techniques and helped many rich and famous people through fears, phobias and addictions). It should be noted that unlike some of his other titles, he does not say “I can change your life in 7 days”, instead the title is more of an istruction that “YOU are going to change your own life, and indeed this is the format the book takes.
It is structured to be easily manageable, to be read in 7 chunks over the week. Depending on your lifestyle, you may or may not be able to read it in the 7 days, but there is nothing magic about the 7 days - you will not suddenly “fail” if you go over. Of course the title is a bit misleading, book titles so often are. You MAY find your life instantly and irrevocably changed once day 7 ticks over (indeed I have read books in a day which have profoundly changed some aspect of me or my life) - but this is a very bold claim/aim, and is not really what the book intends to do, I think. 7 days is a good benchmark to aim for though for actually reading the book - and I would say if you are fairly new to self help concepts, then if you spend 7 days reading, and really getting into the techniques described in the book, then it will be a 7 days that sees you at the start of a journey which, if you take on the challenges and persevere, really will be the start of a life changing experience that will take you forward to new heights, new challanges, and levels you never would have thought possible before.
Self Help books ought always to come with caveats, however - and it would be irresponsible of me if I didn’t mention a few negatives. By and large the reviews on Amazon are very positive, with 5 stars from the majority of independent reviewers - but this doesn’t mean that the negative reviewers don’t have valid points. One serious point is that many NLP enthusiasts claim that their techniques work for everyone, and this is a claim McKenna makes early in the book. To claim that one particular system will work for everyone is actually quite silly - even pharmeceutical mega companies recognise that pills they pump millions of research dollars into, may only end up working for 50% or less of patients. I don’t think the claim is dangerous in anyway - but there are people in our society who suffer significantly from mental illness, and help for them needs to come from a professional, rather and a self help source. Another criticism that could be levelled, is that McKenna makes a lot of use of quotes and examples of famous people who have endured adversity only to go on to be big successes - the idea being that you have to fail 100 times in order to get the 1 success that will take you places. Of course you have all the people who not only failed the first 100 times but also the 500th as well - while it is true that you make your own luck, we are not all going to wind up millionaires by adopting an optimistic frame of mind! And there are no doubt people who do everything right, and who still fail miserably… But of course this would have no place in any self help book whose purpose was to make you live more positively! But I just thought I would thrown in a cynical paragraph, as I’m sure it crosses most people’s minds when they come across self help books with bold claims!
All that said, having read through the book, I do believe it has some very valid and very significant information, laid out in a simple and accessible format, which, if followed through and practised enthusiastically, coupled with the mind-programming CD, will lead to very significant, even profound changes in people who use the techniques. Change Your Life in Seven Days is a brilliant book for most people stuck in rut, who want to work with accessible NLP and self hypnosis to make improvements in their lives. The real message of the book is actually the opposite to what is suggested in the title (and this is probably a clever bit of suggestion deliberately thrown in there by Dr McKenna!) - Changing your life in 7 days is a grandiose, even absurd claim - but it is by following the often very tiny steps in the book, changing our behaviour in what would at first seem not very significant ways, that major and profound changes CAN ultimately be achieved in the way we live, work and run our lives
I had not heard of Karen Rose or read any of her books before Count To Ten, but was in the bookstore one day idly browsing, and couldn’t make up my mind on choice of reading matter for the weekend - and I wanted something I could get my teeth into. So looking through the thriller paperbacks, I saw a selection of books by Karen Rose that seemed to dwarf their neighbours on the shelf, so I picked on up and took a look, and it happened to be Count To Ten! With almost 700 pages, I figured I was getting my money’s worth, if you calculated by word count at least! So avoid if you don’t like substantial reading matter!
It turns out I had a bit of readers’ serendipity going on, as Count To Ten is in fact Karen Rose’s UK debut - although she has been popular in the US for some time now, and I can see why. In Count To Ten, a murder-arsonist is stalking Chicago, with a series of murders and fires that at first don’t seem to make sense - maybe the fires are to cover up crimes? Then it turns out that the victims are actually being burned alive, to sate some apparently crazy bloodlust. As the story unfolds, however, motive becomes apparent through a web of past history. In charge of the investigation is Reed Solliday, of the Chicago Fire Department (it is interesting to have the main investigator a fire chief rather than a cop, although Solliday does team up with Mia Mitchell of the Chicago Police Department - and could there be a romantic interest there too?).
In all this was a great read, with plenty of back story and twists and turns with the characters, including a glimpse into Solliday’s tortured personal life and its eventual resolution. If I had one complaint it would be that the villain is portrayed in quite a villainous way, when in fact he turns out to be a pretty damaged individual - then again, perhaps Rose is making the point, as argued through Solliday, that people make choices - and being damaged doesn’t give you the right to choose to damage or kill others!
Enjoyed this book, and kept me going through a long weekend, so I look forward to more Karen Rose books soon!
The phrase “this book could change your life” is much over used in Publishers’ press releases and on jacket blurbs, but there are books that do change lives - not in all cases in the spectacular fashion that some books may claim, but in more gentle, subtle ways. Peace is Every Step is such a gentle book, and certainly the Buddhist perspective from which it is written is one that has improved, changed, even saved a good few lives!
In the rush of modern life, particularly in the West, and now in the fast becoming Westernized eastern nations, human beings have largely forgotten how to live in the moment and to access the peace that can be found in each moment - we tend to dwell on the past, or our minds rush headlong into the future, making plans that might or might come to fruition, reacting to things that might happen or might never happen, trying to avoid things we don’t want to happen - or if we can’t avoid them, we at least try to avoid thinking about them! Modern life itself is unstable, unpredictable, and is full of unsatisfactoriness which makes us suffer - stress, anger, need, hate, greed, seem to persist long after we have solved most of the practical problems that living in the world presents. In this book, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Master, monk, peace activist and poet, shows us how we can make use of the situations and circumstances that normally leave us feeling stressed, antagonised and negative. Through the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, we can learn to live and find joy and peace in each moment, and grow from the manure, as it were, of our problems and negativity.
Although it is written by a Buddhist monk, and essentially draws on the Buddhist principle of mindfulness, Peace is Every Step does not attempt to draw the reader into Buddhism, but concentrates on helping readers live in the moment and be happier people - both for their own sakes and the sake of others. In deceptively simple language, Thich Nhat Hanh describes mindfulness techniques for dealing with anger and the like, as well as every day situations that might normally have us stressed - the ringing of a telephone, for example, is a reminder to breathe and come back to ourselves, if only for a moment; washing the dishes is an opportunity to revel in the sensations of warm water and to living fully in the moment.
We crave so much what is outside ourselves, he says - but we can enjoy a view of the sky from pretty much anywhere, and can return to the simply beauty of ourselves by using conscious breathing wherever we are - finding the meditative peace that we may or may not also find on the meditation cushion.
All in all this book was a breath of fresh air at a difficult time in my life, and the exercises and outlook certainly helped me. It’s the kind of book I will read again before passing on so somebody else can benefit. Thich Nhat Hanh has written other books which I will be looking at, as this book was very easy to read, and did not get heavy or lecturing despite having a very profound, albeit very simple, message to offer.
If you read my last couple of Koontz reviews you’ll know I was pretty disappointed with The husband, but felt some of the spark returning when I read The Good Guy. So it was that I bought Darkest Evening of the Year on release date, and despite a busy schedule made the time to read the first few chapters, feeling strangely that this book was going to pack the punch that had been lacking in Koont’z previous two offerings.
I’m happy to say I was not wrong! The Darkest Evening of the Year sees Dean Koontz back on form as far as I am concerned, with a spooky and mysterious novel that I was happy to lose myself in over a few nights (I used to read such books over 1 or 2 sittings, but circumstances are different at the moment!). In any case, I was hooked on the plotline, and was pulled forward into the narrative, wanting to know what happened next, and somewhat seduced by Koontz’s sharp, crystal-crafted prose (whatever criticisms are levelled at Koontz, his descriptive powers are second to none)
So, what is the story about? Central character, with a mysterious past, Amy Redwing, dedicates her life to saving endangered Golden Retrievers, and has founded an organisation for just this purpose. Even among dog lovers, she’s a legend for the risks she’ll take to save an animal. One night she ends up at a home where an abusive drunk is doing his thing with wife and daughter, and offers him a large sum for the dog, as the wife and kid are getting out of there - in fact Amy puts herself at considerable risk, but there appears to be an immediate and uncanny bond between this new dog, Christened Nickie, and Amy.
But these happy dog rescuing events are thrown into doubt by some sinister and eerie incidents. An ominous stranger is following Amy, and her home is invaded and robbed of certain items - it appears Amy’s mysterious past may be catching up with her, and her boyfriend Brian has secrets of his own too. As the story progresses, the mystery unravels chapter by chapter, and it was this rush of wanting me to find out what was behind it all that kept me turning the pages.
This novel has a lot of stuff going on, twisted plotlines, shocking events - random murder, sexual perversion, child torture and infanticide; but somehow the characters of Amy and Nickie the Goldren retriever offer some kind of redemption. I will not be forgetting the supremely evil but beautiful Moon Girl in a hurry, one of the baddest girls I’ve come across in a book for a while, and the cold and merciless Harrow also makes the blood run cold. There’s also a strange hybrid character in the form of Billy Pilgrim, who despite being a cold blooded cyncial killer, also appears eminently likeable in a lot of ways, and I love one bit where Koontz, highly aware of plenty of recent criticism on the boards and book reviews sites, muses through the character on some of the benefits of not having become a writer, which was the killer’s initial ambition
The novel does suffer slightly, I feel from an ending that seems rather rushed, and the introduction of deus ex machina may detract from its success to an extent (then again it is nice to see the supernatural element return to Koontz, where it belongs) but like they say, it’s the journey, not the destination that matters, and Dean Koontz’s The Darkest Evening of the Year took me on a narrative ride that I haven’t enjoyed so much in ages.
Just one word of warning, if you don’t like dogs, and have a gripe against dog lovers, this may not quite be the book for you!
I look forward to the next in the Odd Thomas Series, Odd Hours, to be released this summer!
If you read my review of Dean Koontz’s The Husband, you’ll know I was pretty disappointed with that offering in the canon of Koontz latest works. Nevertheless, I still felt a frisson of excitement when I picked up the latest Koontz books (I will be reviewing the Darkest Evening of the Year no sooner than I have read it!) and settled down the read The Good Guy with a mixture of hope, trepidation and anticipation!
I am glad to say that The Good Guy by Dean Koontz is a far superior offering to The Husband, although I will stop short of saying that it’s Koontz back to his imimitable best (the guy has written some 90 novels, so he can perhaps be forgiven if they are not all up to magnum opus standards!). In any case, this was a book I really did enjoy reading, and if it doesn’t go back to Koontz’s creepy suspense roots entirely, it is steered in that direction by a pretty nasty and creepy antagonist in the form of killer for hire Krait.
The premise of the novel is a simple enough one of mistaken identity. Tim Carrier, a simple enough on the surface stone mason, is enjoying a quiet beer after work, when a stranger enters the bar and mistakes him for a killer for hire, giving him an envelope stuffed with cash and a photo of the victim, a woman named Linda Paquette. Perturbed, Tim tries to abort this mission by waiting for the real hitman to show up, and telling him the deal’s off - which buys him some time to get to the intended victim, and warn her. What ensues is a thrilling cat and mouse chase, with the dangerous and crazy contract killer determined not only to kill Linda and Tim, and end their blossoming relationship, but also to make them suffer.
I did enjoy reading The Good Guy (which seems to be a new Koontz sub genre, the good, quiet man with a simple life but a secretly exciting or dangerous past) and the prose was a pleasure to sit through, clean and crisp. The characters were interesting and not too simple, and Krait, the cold blooded, creepy, insanely civilised and yet death hungry killer, was a dark joy to experience. If you can forgive one or two substantial holes and some slightly frayed loose ends (one wonders how these get past the publishers’ editors, as they are spotted right away by amazon reviewers and everybody who reads the books), then this is a good old cat and mouse chase type thriller that will occupy a good chunk of your reading time
Michael Palmer’s Miracle Cure is just one of several Michael Palmer books I’ve read lately, so I have a stack of reviews to add to this blog! This medical thriller is among the best Palmer books I have read so far, although they are all fantastic, and I eagerly await a few spare hours to read the latest releases!
The story of Miracle Cure is told, in third person narrative, largely from the point of view of its central character, Dr Brain Holbrook, a cardiologist who is on his way back from alcholism and addiction to prescription painkillers. Given a second chance, Holbrook starts work at Boston’s most prestigious heart unit - rapidly gaining even more Kudos for its involvement in drug testing for the new cardiovascular miracle cure, Vasclear, a substance the reportedly reverses arterial plaque and virtually eliminates heart attack risk within weeks. Holbrook is especially keen since his father has already had one bypass operation, and is deteriorating.
Holbrook is not in a position to risk his new job, afterall, it may be his one and only chance to still be a doctor. But he cannot help but notice when Vasclear patients begin to die - and not always from natural causes. Holbrook appears to be on to something sinister, and his suspicions are confirmed when first come the warnings, and then the threats, leading him to discover the sinister truth behind Vasclear…
I really enjoyed escaping into this long novel, and spent a couple of pleasant afternoons sunk into the story. Holbrook is a very believable character, certainly not two dimensional like many fictional character, with his own problems and foibles. The story is at times tragic, but always exciting, with plenty of twists and turns to keep even the most seasoned thriller reader guessing!
Peace, quiet, calm - it’s a commodity in this tumultuous, stressful world that seems ever harder to come by! Looking for it “out there” seems ultimately mistaken, so when I saw this Glenn Harrold self hypnosis Audio book, entitled, “Creating Inner Peace and Calm”, I knew I had to give it a go, as I have bought a number of other Glenn Harrold recordings in the past and have been very impressed with the results! So I now play this hypnosis recording regularly with a view to getting close to the peace that can be found within!
The CD is split into around 59 minutes, with two separate hypnotic tracks of approximately equal length, although one is slightly longer than the other. Both tracks make use of background music and subliminal effects, but the music is never obtrusive or the kind that is “relaxing” in an forceful kind of way, but rather integrated into the words and narrative that Harrold skilfully delivers. I find it very useful to play it at night, but sometimes if I can find half an hour during the day, it really does give me an oasis of calm which gives me lingering effects for some time - although as with most things, the strength of the effects will vary from person to person.
Harrold’s voice takes you through a hypnotic journey, beginning with some breathing exercises that gently relax the body, and then you are taken deeper and deeper inside so that the hypnotic suggestion can work on your mind in a very relaxed state (indeed all hypnosis really is, is a very relaxed, focused state which enables things to get through to your subconscious workings better). I had been very anxious lately due to family bereavement and illness, but found I managed to relax to this recording, and felt very positive when Glenn Harrold brought me back up - although the effects have now worn off somewhat, these CD’s are best used regularly to give the subliminal messages a chance to sink in and do their work at an unconscious level - so as soon as I have finished this article, I am going to lie down and play the first session again!
In some ways Michael Crichton’s Next mixes genres in a way that Jurassic Park never did, unless you found that novel as funny as this one is! A mixture of scientific thriller and comedy satire, Next takes a glimpse into the very near future (or is it already the present?) into the post-cloning world, where Dolly the sheep is a mere step along the way to a more bizarre and surreal world than we might care to imagine - a world where the legal, moral and spiritual implications of genetic engineering and scientific progress take on confusing, annoying and at times sinister shades! For in this world, genes are patented, and you will have a legal battle on your hands if you claim your genes as your own personal property! I will never forget the bizarre thoughts of the genetically modified parrot Gerrard - and who could forget Dave, the part human, part Chimpanzee hybrid who gets adopted by his creator’s family, and tries to pass as a (severely deformed) human child…
A very good read, although some may find the lack of action and the humour a little hard going compared to other Michael Crichton novels. However, while Jurassic park is probably some way off in the real future, Next, as the title suggests, might be looking into a world of terrifying ramifications that is only round the corner!
Happiness - everyone is searching for it, but how do we know that so few find it, truly? Probably by the continuous flow of self help books that reach the bestseller lists - achieve happiness through diet, image, riches, friends, travel, hypnosis, etc etc. Still more we look at the addictions around us and see people trying to gain happiness through drink, drugs, sex, power… The list goes on. In a world of truly happy human beings, there would perhaps be less conflict, less trouble. It is probably a tragedy in some ways that the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness, co-authored with Howard C. Cutler, has sold so many copies and spawned a series of such books! For it speaks of so many who come searching, who have not yet found deep, lasting happiness, who still search for it and perhaps pick up this book. Then again, those who read the book cannot fail to have their lives touched in subtle ways, helping not only them, but having knock on effects on others they encounter. One thing is certain - there is suffering (and that is one of the Buddha’s 4 Noble Truths) - but the fact that there is suffering also means an end to suffering, and in its place happiness, some kind of liberation.
The Art of Happiness is subtitled “A Handbook For Living” - but don’t expect 10 practical tips for getting through your day or for dealing with road rage! The authors, rather, take us through an organic journey of discussions and observations, experiences and considerations, giving rather a general direction which we may or may not choose to follow. As with much of Buddhism, there is no right or wrong, merely the observation that certain actions lead to suffering and some do not. As probably the most famous Buddhist in the world, and an accomplised and learned man, the Dalai Lama could hide his message in lots of esoteric language and rituals; he is instead very human, bringing some of his Buddhist ideals and principles to us in very human and very accessible ways. In reading the book we gather the general guiding principles that lead away from suffering and towards our true purpose and birthright - the striving for, the right to be happy.
