SkyCor.net » Books

Brains or a Heart?

skycor — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 03:22:23 +0000

A conversation between the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow in L. Frank Baum’s book, “The Wizard of Oz”:

The Tin Woodman said, “But, after all, brains are not the best things in the world.”

“Have you any?” inquired the Scarecrow.

“No, my head is quite empty.” Answered the Woodman; “but once I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart.”

Alexander Selkirk: The Real Robinson Crusoe

skycor — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:02:08 +0000

I came across an article talking about Alexander Selkirk and found it quite fascinating. According to what I read, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor in the later 1600′s to early 1700′s, is the real-life person that the Robinson Crusoe stories are based on.

Staute of Alexander Selkirk

As I learned a bit more about Mr. Selkirk, I found an eBook on Google that was published in 1829. The book is entitled, “The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk; containing The Real Incidents Upon Which the Romance of Robinson Crusoe is Founded”.

Cool, huh?

John Archibald Dortmunder

skycor — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:47:44 +0000

John Archibald Dortmunder is a fictitious character who is a career criminal, created by Donald E. Westlake. I was first introduced to John when I read the book “Bank Shot” in 1972 and just loved it. But I had never read any of the other books that Mr. Westlake published until just a few months ago. It was then that I thought about “Bank Shot” again (did you know that a movie was made of that book starring George C. Scott?). So I did a little research and found that Mr. Westlake has written 14 novels and 11 short stories in the Dortmunder series. So I’ve started reading all of them, beginning with “The Hot Rock” and then re-reading “Bank Shot”. I enjoyed “Bank Shot” at least as much, if not more, than I did the first time around! These books are a kick! Every one of them is very funny!

Here is a list of the Dortmunder novels:

The Hot Rock (1970)☆
Bank Shot (1972)☆
Jimmy the Kid (1974)
Nobody’s Perfect (1977)☆
Why Me? (1983)
Good Behavior (1985)☆
Drowned Hopes (1990)☆
Don’t Ask (1993)☆
What’s the Worst That Could Happen? (1996)☆
Bad News (2001)☆
The Road to Ruin (2004)☆
Thieves’ Dozen – The Dortmunder Stories (2004)☆
Watch Your Back! (2005)☆
What’s So Funny? (2007)☆
Get Real (2009)☆

HOWEVER, I need some help! I haven’t been able to find copies of the following titles and am hoping that someone has a copy that they would let me borrow to read:

Jimmy the Kid (1974)
Why Me? (1983)

In addition to the Dortmunder series of books, Mr. Westlake has also published the following comic crime novels:

The Fugitive Pigeon (1965)
The Busy Body (1966)
The Spy in the Ointment (1966)
God Save the Mark (1967)
Who Stole Sassi Manoon? (1968)
Somebody Owes Me Money (1969)
Cops and Robbers (1972)
Help I Am Being Held Prisoner (1974)
Two Much (1975)
Dancing Aztecs (1976)
Enough (1977)
Castle In The Air (1980)
High Adventure (1985)
Trust Me On This (1988)
Baby, Would I lie? (1994)
Smoke (1995)

I haven’t read any of these, yet. But you can be sure I will!

Susanna’s celebration

skycor — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:55:18 +0000

Congratulations, Susanna on your “National Indie Excellence” award in the memoir category for your book “What Peace There May Be“! And thanks to you, Aaron and Susan for allowing us to celebrate with you!

Susanna, Aaron, Susan, Steven, Lisa

Byron Katie

skycor — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:17:49 +0000

In 1986, Byron Katie discovered four simple questions and a turn-around that helped her learn to be at peace. She realized that all suffering is caused by believing our thoughts, and the only way to relieve the suffering is to question our thoughts. She calls these four questions and the turn-around “the work” or “self-inquiry”.

The questions are:
1) Is it true?
2) Can you absolutely know that it is true?
3) How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
4) Who would you be without the thought?

She then has you turn the concept you are questioning around.

Bryon Katie has written several books on the subject and we HIGHLY recommend them!

Here are three of the books:

Loving What Is: This book tells the story of how Katie discovered the work. It also teaches the process of how to do the work and gives examples of people doing the work with Katie.

Who Would You Be Without Your Story: A collection of 15 examples of people doing the work with Katie.

A Thousand Names For Joy: This is a radically different book than the first two we’ve described here. It doesn’t focus on the work as much as it explores the freedom that comes from doing the work. Katie’s husband, Stephen Mitchell published his own translation of the famous “Tao Te Ching” and as he was reading it to Katie, she took concepts from it and elaborated on her view of it. If you love the Tao Te Ching, you’ll really love this book!

Local Authors at the King’s English

skycor — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:41:03 +0000

At the “Local Author Showcase”, held at the King’s English Bookstore on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, Lisa and I had the opportunity to meet six local authors and hear them share a little bit about their book(s). Here are the authors that were there and the books they were discussing:

Susanna Barlow, “What Peace There May Be“; Ryan Shattuck, “Revolutions for Fun and Profit“; Charles Amonett, “Visible Darkness, Hidden Light“; Bonn Turkington, “Velwythe“; Steven Bates, “The Fortuitous Redemption of Mordekiah Liebovitch“; Lisa Mangum, “The Hourglass Door”

I was impressed with all six of the authors and their different approaches to life and writing.

I was also quite pleased with an answer that Bonn Turkington gave to the question, “how did you find the time to write while doing all the other things that living requires, like working?” His response, in a nutshell, was, “I made it a habit.” He elaborated a little bit by saying that everyone has activities during the day that are either non-essential or are being done in an inefficient way. By tightening those things up and making writing a habit, it is easy to write while doing the other things that life requires.

What Peace There May Be Book Trailer

skycor — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:40:02 +0000

SusannaBarlow.com

Project Gutenberg

skycor — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:24:31 +0000

I recently came across this site where books in the public domain can be downloaded:

Project Gutenberg

Richard Feynman and Microsoft’s Tuva Project

skycor — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:48:50 +0000

Bill Gates and Microsoft have put the Tuva Project together and its something that I really like. In the Tuva Project is a collection of videos on science, taken from “The Messenger” lectures by Dr. Richard Feynman. Here’s an introduction from Microsoft’s website:

The Messenger lectures include severn videos of Dr. Richard Feynman speaking on physics at Cornell University in 1964. His signature speaking style, humor, and clarity is enhanced by Project Tuva’s interactive annotatations and full transcripts.

Check it out!

What Peace There May Be

skycor — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:06:09 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Susanna Barlow, author of “What Peace There May Be”, and to read her book. And what a wonderful book! Susanna expressed her story with verbal water colors; she painted with a poetic style that allowed me to imagine what she experienced without having to know all of the details. And even though Susanna wrote about abuses she endured, I felt nothing but love and healing coming from her words. I am of the belief that no one is born into a perfect family and I am grateful to Susanna’s example of love, resolve, strength and forgiveness. What a beautiful display of how a person can choose to respond to circumstances and rise above them! I was truly enriched for having experienced this book! Thank you for sharing your story!