"You may not pass this way again in a lifetime..."
596470
Brion Gysin's book of drugs, magic and the Desert is part fantasy, part memoir, and part guidebook. The reader may find it mystifying and confusing at first read, and it's certainly not a straightfoward story in the conventional sense. There are many twists in this fictional tale of Ulys O. Hanson of Ithaca College, not the least of which is the thinly-veiled life story of Gysin himself as he discovers and embraces the music and culture of the Sahara.

"The Process" is a book about journeys, and of becoming, with the Desert serving as Gysin's grand metaphor. The novel itself moves from west to east -- it begins with a quote from Shakespeare  and ends with an epilogue from Kashf Ul-Haqa'iq, a 13th-century Persian mystic. The story also gains centifugal force as it spins around the rituals and music of Morocco's master musicians of Jajouka. Late in the novel Gysin/Hanson speaks it plainly: "You see what I'm getting at, don't you? We are, all of us here, in an extreme situation -- between birth and death, you agree?" Seldom does a novel put the life force itself at center-stage.

The book is full of secrets (in one aspect its Gysin's own diary of actual people and events) but it is also a manual filled with answers. The novel is indeed trippy, but in the grandest sense; and like life itself "The Process" is full of marvellous confusion, contradiction and not a little pain. The promise of Othello's "round unvarnished tale," at the novel's beginning, gives way to Ul-Haqa'iq's "unveiling of realities." At journey's end, of course, there is always the question all of us will face: "Why were you in such a hurry to get here, when the Desert gets us all in the end?" Highly recommended.
4731219
This is an important work for everyone.  We walk though our lives believing we are safe, not knowing that our lives can change in seconds.  Learn from history, don't disregard the past thinking it could never happen to you..  Losing someone so close and dear to you .... someone who is so interwoven into your daily life .... knowing that for some reason you cannot understand, you were spared the same fate .... you don't "get over it"...... you learn, as Mr. Ricardi did, to cope the best you are able -- over time.  This is a story of love, friendship, "what ifs", and healing.
1693587
Well get ready to be transported out of your daily existence of picking the kids up from school. maybe going to the office, stopping for bread and milk on your way home, and preparing dinner.  This book will take you to the other side of the world where when you are 21 years old you watch your brother taken behind the building and shot along with the other young men of the community who are deemed to be of no value to the cause of ISIS.  Meanwhile you are worthy to the cause because you are young and attractive and can be used for sexual pleasure by the troops.  You are passed around like a item to be shared without respect or concern for your needs or comfort.
There is not a happily ever after to be gotten at the end of this tale.  There is no good to be contained from your suffering.  The only thing to gain is your survival and your ultimate escape, if you are that lucky.
This is a tough read.  One that will hopefully help you to count your blessings and to pray for those in this situations.
1352358
Jake Epping, Lisbon Falls, Maine, high school English teacher, is shown a door to the past. The intriguing part of Stephen King's take on time travel is that you can only go back to the exact same day. Every time you go back, you are at Tuesday September 9, 1958. If you change anything while you're in the past, you could see the effects when you return to the present day. But if you return to the past again, events are re-set. Any changes you created the first trip disappear.

So if you go in, like Jake, for the specific reason of stopping John F. Kennedy's assassination, you can never use the time portal again if you're successful, or you'll reset events. That's not necessarily a problem. What is a problem is that the assassination isn't for five years after Jake goes through. Since he isn't absolutely sure that Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter, or that he worked alone, he can't just kill Oswald out of hand. He has to investigate and he has to wait.

And he has to make a living. How about fall in love? Maybe infuriate a mob bookie. Find out that time doesn't like being changed. It will get even. All of this takes up a lot of pages. Jake doesn't even reach September 1963 until page 673. I think Stephen King is one of the best writers on the planet, but there was sometimes a lot of nothing going on. Or, even worse, it was nothing repeated.

I didn't dislike "11/22/63". But I think some editing would have helped. What I really would have liked is more explanation of the Yellow Ticket Man and his purpose. The explanation of the Ticket Men was rushed at the very end and sounded like it could have been interesting.

But, as I wrote, King in general is a great writer, effective and ungilded (no gilding of the lily). Jake describes his first trip through to 1968: "Mostly I was just plain freaked. Not mentally tottering, I thnk a human mind that's moderately well-adjusted can absorb a lot of strangeness before it actually totters, but freaked, yes."
3965671
Imagine coming "to the realization that the more you learn, the more you expand the periphery of your ignorance" . . . that happens when you're 18, according to Hugh Downs in his moving LETTER TO A GREAT GRANDSON.

Downs, who coanchored ABS's 20/20 and who hosted NBC's TODAY show for nine years, originally wrote this book as a letter to his great grandson . . . he meant it to be read at various stages of the boy's life.

It made me realize how much we can learn from our family and made me want to know more about my dad's life (hint-hint to him, if he's reading).

Downs discusses the joys, possibilities and challenges of infancy, young adulthood, middle age, old age, and everything in between . . . I particularly liked the fact that he helped me see that getting old is what we make of it, as evidenced by his own remarkable life . . . for instance, he went through the NASA space training that John Glenn did when both were 77.

There were many insightful passages; among them:

I tend to be a denier. This is not all bad. I tried to avoid the word "painful." I said my knee condition was "annoying." I did not want to believe the condition was (a) irreversible, (b) painful, (c) something that could diminish the quality of my life. The result was that, toward the last, if I walked six blocks in Manhattan, I found it "annoying" enough that I was ready to sit on the curb and wait for a cab.

The only strong feelings I have that might be linked to a religious outlook are of overwhelming gratitude at being favored with such a good life. If people who have been dealt a bad hand--people who suffer, physically or mentally, or are the victims of great tragedy--can manifest real faith, it would be pathetic if I couldn't feel something long that line, considering my fortunate

circumstances.

About ten years before you were born I interviewed a number of centenarians who participated in a University of Georgia study. They were the cream of the crop, because the study was not about disease and impairment so much as trying to find out what changes there were in healthy people that old. These people, men and women, ranged in age from 102 to 106, and like any other age group, varied widely among themselves. But they had a couple of things in common: not one of them was bitter, or hate-filled, or complaining. I wondered if that had something to do with their longevity. And while they were mentally agile, and in some cases quite sharp, none of them was

physically robust. You do not reach one hundred (or for that matter, eighty) and embark on a career as a star athlete.
4146266
I pick up this book 15 years ago, thinking that it was a novel but did not go past the first 40 pages. I just could not figure out what Mr. Bach was talking about. Now out of "coincidence" I decided to give it a second chance. What a pleasure to read. It is not one of those pompous new era books that will tell how to find yourself or to live happily ever after. On the contrary it just kindly suggest you to "think different".
It is a fact that the moment that you lived 5 seconds ago is  gone, no way to change it or take it back and the next 5 seconds are not here yet and you can not make them hurry, so in what kind of reality we really live? Where is the now? From where is it coming and where does it go? Science can only offer us theories but not certainty.
The author simply suggests to give yourself the chance to think that everything is an illusion. Maybe your life will be more fun. Maybe.
3006650
"They Cannot Stop Us, They Cannot Stop The Future".
2230025
what a story?! such simpler times and proof of our elder generation's toughness. It is also proof that as long as you keep moving when you're young, you'll keep moving when you're older. it is further evidence that there's nothing new under the sun as it was spousal abuse that made her leave and begin her walks..
871664
Worry about retirement  $!! Story suggests oldest and youngest least likely to survive a devastating catastrophic event!! Our inability to take care of ourselves!
1864708
I have heard that perhaps the hardest thing to go through is the death of one's son or daughter, and that it is just hard as when the son or daughter is an adult.  I don't have children of my own, but I'm a school teacher and am with young people a lot.  And after visiting a funeral home after the accidental death of my friend's 14 year old nephew I almost felt disoriented seeing such a young person in the casket. True, children aren't exempt from dying, but there is just something unnatural and unreal about it.  I went home to my apartment that night, went into my bedroom, shut the door, and didn't come out the rest of the evening.  I remembered thinking, "If this is hitting me hard, I would hate to think of what it's doing to his parents."

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans went through this experience three times. They lost Robin, their only child together, their adopted daughter Debbie, and then their adopted son, Sandy.

Roy always had a big heart for children with disabilities, and Dale's description of how he met little Sandy is worth the price of the whole book.  Sandy had a lot of physical problems stemming from malnutrition, abuse and other reasons.  But when Roy visited the children's home, apparently this weak, sickly little boy gave a big smile and said to him, "Howdy, Partner!"  Roy was a goner!  He knew that was the kid he wanted to adopt.

Sandy lived longer than Robin (who only lived a few years) and Debbie (who lived to early adolescence.)  He still had learning disabilities physical problems, but he managed to live a fairly normal life.  He always wanted to be a soldier, and he managed to get himself in!  How that happened is a story in itself.

However, it was at a party for a promotion that he had received -- the combination of drinks he had at the "wetting down" party -- that did him in.

As always, Dale Evans kept her faith in God for what was now the third time that she and Roy had to bury a child.

Although Dale herself is now gone, her writings stay with us -- and believe me, when Dale Evans talks about trusting God in hard times, I listen.
1388403
This is a story of an incredible young man who went through a terrible accident while skiing. He didn't let that stop him from doing all of the things that he planned to do with his life. He completed medical school and is now a physician, got married and has a family. The faith and perseverance that this man and his family have is nothing short of admirable.

My favorite quote:
One of my closest friends asked me if I ever ask, Why? I never have because I do not believe there is an answer to that question here on earth, and it would be a waste of my time and energy. That is not to say that I wouldn't want to know the why. I would love to have the answers, but I do not. Too often, people torment themselves by asking the why question. We have to accept today as it is and go on. It is a modern idea that life will not have its share of hardships. My grandparents and their grandparents expected life to have its share of difficult times. People died young, crops were destroyed days before harvest and children died of diseases that we easily cure or inoculate against these days.
1506344
It was abook that I shoiuld not of read at this time of my life. I am 93 and am trying to keep up my spirits after all the losses everyone has to endure. I have read alot traveled alot but I knew I  did not want to go to India. I do know what a none caring world we live in and I didn't need to be reminded of Man's inhumanity to man. I know how horrible Life is for most people but I guess I didn't need to read about it again,especially a book that did not give a bit of Hope!
3078428
You can never be too prepared for the what ifs. Though you think you're safe and it won't happen to you - everyone has thought that - that doesn't make it not true to happen. Keeping it within hands reach in the glove box is as far  into my car as I hope this will make it. It's nothing too awkward to sit within your hand so if you were to use it you know that it wouldn't be difficult. You have an end that will break the window and the other end that will slice the seat belt off. I actually was able to test this on a junk car - phone was bed though - and both ends work wonderfully. If you were in a pinch to need this, it would be a quick motion. Being that you're under stress, if you were to use these, you would want something that takes little effort. I did receive this at a discounted rate for my unbiased review. My opinion was not influenced by the discount that I received.
3919799
There is something to be said about a book that feels more like life than fiction, that makes you forget how long youve been sitting in that reading chair until your legs are cramping and youve got to get up and move around. Those kinds of stories grab you, take you in, invite you for a cup of coffee and never let you leave. Those of the stories that Liz & Lisa write because even after closing THE YEAR WE TURNED FORTY, I could swear I was still living inside of Gabriela, Claire, and Jessicas world.

Was it a good year for any of us? No. But I don't know if the point is to compare. Maybe we need to revise our definition of what better means.

THE YEAR WE TURNED FORTY follows three best friends who are stuck in life. At the age of fifty, they are living with regrets, mainly mistakes that they made during the year they all turned forty. When the opportunity to actually go back in time to relive their 40th year presents itself, they are apprehensive. If they go back, they might be able to fix what was broken, perhaps make their lives great again. But they soon realize that going back in time to change their lives will indirectly change the lives of those around them.

Life wasn't meant to be played like a game of chess, moving the people you love like pawns to win the game.

I loved this story so much because it gives you a little fiction and a whole lot of real life messes. It makes you question your own actions, how you live the one life you're given (unless time travel truly is real and we just aren't aware of it yet). Regardless, you begin to question what you find to be important and what just doesnt matter in the grand scheme of things. THE YEAR WE TURNED FORTY allows you to see these three best friends struggle through their lives  twice and ultimately realize that being happy doesnt mean not having regrets; it means living the life you were given in spite of the bumps in the road.

maybe the only way people could know how much they loved something was to be faced with a chance they might lose it. It didn't mean you should live in constant fear, but rather it should serve as a reminder that love should never be squandered.

In conclusion, this story is one that you need to read at least once, if not twice, in your lifetime. Everyone needs a kind of reminder that says: love the life you're given, and live it like tomorrow isn't real. Another A+ read from Liz & Lisa!
2119573
If even a shadow of this is true, the world is not safe.  Just because we can does not mean we should.  Read it.

There were two places where the wrong name was used but other wise this is a smooth read.
2267812
I will never look at oceans or mountains and the natural world the same.  Mans greatest struggles will have deeper meaning.  Even grief has new meaning.
4489366
eff Winston, 43 years old, dies suddenly of a heart attack, in October 1988.

Then he wakes up, in 1963, eighteen years old and a freshman in college.

With all his memories of his previous life intact.

He's got it all to do over again, except that this time he can do it right. He can amass all the wealth, fame, and success he missed out on the first time around.

But his death happens again, on the same date, and he has a third chance. And a fourth. What's going on? Why is this happening? And is Jeff all alone, or are there others like him?

New readers of Replay are likely to think of the 1993 Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day, but Replay precedes it by almost a decade, and Jeff Winston has to relive more than just one day, with far bigger lessons to learn than how not to be a jerk.

Over the course of the repeating cycle of the last twenty-five years of his life, Jeff explores the limits of how much control we really have of our lives and of events around us. Can he change major historical events he knows are coming? Can he build a better relationship with his wife--or a worse one? Does he need to marry the same woman at all?

It's a fascinating exploration of free will, destiny, and how to build meaning in your life.

Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.