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Sarah's Secrets (Intrigue S.)
Incriminating Passion (Silhouette Intrigue S.)

PLAYING WITH THE ENEMY: A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams

Average customer rating:

Not just for Baseball fans or War buffs!!
A Home Run!
A True Story that Seems More like a Movie Plot ...
A WINNER ON SO MANY LEVELS
Every Bat is Unique

PLAYING WITH THE ENEMY: A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams
Gary Moore
Manufacturer: Savas Beatie
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1932714243

Book Description

Foreword by baseball legend Jim Morris, former Major League pitcher with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

It was true in the 1940s, and it is still true today: if you have talent, someone will notice. In Gene Moore's case, that someone was the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Gene Moore was a farm boy living with his family in Sesser, Illinois, a town so small even map makers ignored it. As a teenager, when he wasn't in school or helping his Pop on the farm, slopping the hogs and doing other chores with his older brother Ward and five sisters, Gene was playing baseball with the guys on the town team. Some were twice his age. The older fellows didn't mind having the Moore kid on their team because he could hit the ball farther than anyone else, he was the best catcher anyone had ever seen, he could throw men out from his knees, and not a ball ever got past him. Gene was 15 years old.

Word quickly spread across the United States about the country boy who could hit the ball a country mile. The Dodgers wanted to take a look at this farm kid, barely old enough to shave and still awaiting his first kiss, but brash enough to call the pitches from behind the plate and motion to the infielders and outfielders as to how they should position themselves for certain hitters.

Headed for baseball stardom with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Gene's destiny was interrupted by Pearl Harbor. After playing ball for the Navy in the Azores and North Africa, Gene and his team were sent to the States for a special-and top secret-mission: guarding German sailors captured from U-505. Unable to field a team, Gene convinced his commander to allow him to teach the enemy how to play baseball while he and his teammates waited for the war to end so they could be called up into the Major Leagues. But Gene's future changed irrevocably in Louisiana. His life . . . and maybe our national pastime . . . was forever altered.

Inspired by true events, Playing with the Enemy is the riveting story of a depression-era youth and his brush with destiny. Author Gary Moore, Gene's son, did not learn of his father's remarkable odyssey through World War II and the hardships of minor league baseball until the day before Gene's death. Confronted with evidence of a possible career in baseball, Gene finally broke his decades of silence and spent the next several hours relieving himself of the heavy burden he had been carrying. The stunning news sent the author on his own odyssey as he researched his father's life and interviewed dozens of people.

The astonishing story of Gene Moore's life in and out of baseball is an exciting and often heart-wrenching saga that will capture the heart of every red- blooded American who can still smell the fresh-cut summer grass or remember how it felt to tie on the cleats while dreaming of making it to the big leagues. Jammed with memorable characters from an extraordinary time in our country's history, Playing with the Enemy is a story that will be read and reread for generations to come. And it is one you will never forget.

About the Author: Gary W. Moore is the president and managing partner of Covenant Air and Water, LLC, a motivational speaker, and an accomplished musician. Gene Moore was his father. Gary lives in Bourbonnais, Illinois.

Customer Reviews:

Not just for Baseball fans or War buffs!!.......2007-06-25

I have never read a baseball book and I have never read a war book (and I should add that I've never written a book review either!). I only started reading this book as practically an obligation because my father grew up in Sesser, Illinois. I was really not looking forward to it all that much because I didn't want to read about baseball or war.

But I kept the book open, almost non-stop, because it is a great read. This book really touched my heart. It is a great story and I could not put it down.

Obviously baseball fans and war buffs will love this book too. But my main point in writing this review is to tell everyone else out there who usually sticks with fiction like me, that you really should read this book. I promise you will not be bored! And if you've ever had a time in your life when you thought "what if...", I promise this book will touch your heart.

Gary Moore has exceeded expectations of a first-time writer and he did a great service by writing this book.

Once you read it, you'll be sharing it with your friends and family, too, even if you don't know anyone from Sesser, Illinois.

A Home Run! .......2007-06-03

My book club choose this book because Gary is a local author. All members agreed that this book is a wonderful family story about a young man and his dream to play major league baseball. The book is appropriate and inspiring for all ages. The book reminded me of Frank Capra movies and a Norman Rockwell painting all rolled into one. This would make a wonderful Father's Day gift!

A True Story that Seems More like a Movie Plot ..........2007-05-07

For those who don't believe what they see in the movies ... sometimes a true story can be as full of coincidence, theme and moral as anything Hollywood has ever produced. Such a story is PLAYING WITH THE ENEMY, a moving account of the life of a man who should have been a world-famous baseball player -- but ended up doing something very different because of one moment that changed his destiny forever.

Written by his son Gary with love and admiration, the story follows Gene Moore from his teen years when he's first signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers through World War II, to a most unconventional baseball lineup, and back home where a crippling injury destroyed his chance to be the baseball star he expected to be.

The book is a beautiful tribute to a man who loved the game more than anything in the world, yet has to learn some painful lessons about his place in it, and ultimately learns it from the most unexpected source possible: The German sailor he once guarded and taught to play baseball, who returns to find him and show him what his real destiny is.

Though there's actually surprisingly little about the action at the heart of the title -- Gene's time spent training and playing with the German sailors -- the book as a whole is a remarkable story. Gene himself, and his family, friends and teammates, are alive in this book and stay with you long after you close it.

It doesn't surprise me that the book is on its way to movie production -- if ever a story was fashioned for motion pictures, it was this one.

A WINNER ON SO MANY LEVELS.......2007-04-27

Received this book as a Christmas gift from my daughter. I did not get to read it right away, However for a book to read on a long flight my wife read it first.When she landed she was so enthused about the book she said "I am not a WWII buff or a fanatic about baseball in general but YOU HAVE TO READ THIS WHEN I RETURN" Fortunately I had jury duty on her return with the book and in two days I was clutching this book like the The Holy Grail
I wanted it to begin again. Having had a baseball dad with a very heroic WWII past, the story hit me on so many levels I was teary eyed by page 24 .What was so ironic is I kept relating to the relationship that I also had with my dad , a man of humble mystery and his own reluctance to think or talk anymore about "what if..? He was stopped also in his passion to play major league baseball but lacked the higher skills needed and then WWII arrived and he was off to Anzio , Normandy and Africa where he too witnessed the exibition baseball games in person. I had to immediatly correspond with the author which Gary so graciuosly did reply .Then the irony started to occur we are nearly neighbors 15 minutes apart and have crossed paths over 20 years of business ventures and travels several times. I knew his father but for business not baseball or war stories.
Gary is a very gifted writer to say the least and the story, the charactors, the times ,the events are an amazing interaction of historical events. Definately left me wanting more.

Every Bat is Unique.......2007-04-26

Gene Moore had it right, every bat is unique, like no other. And this book is like no other I have read. If you don't believe in time travel, just crack the cover, and you will be transported to a simpler time. This book should delight rural America, war history buffs and baseball fans alike. But the real story inside the story is all about our collective journey in life. You can learn a lot about life in this book. I covered this one in record time, only stopping to eat and sleep. Gary nailed this one for sure, you will not be disappointed; you'll probably be motivated to live better - in many ways.

Average customer rating:

Fascinating and Heartbreaking
Gigantic Genius Gone Goofy
A book that makes you think...
The only perfect life is one lived in seclusion.
Interesting read, here is where to find more...

Prodigy
Amy Wallace
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accidental Genius
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

ASIN: 0525244042

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating and Heartbreaking.......2006-02-02

I'm doing research on child prodigies for my newest book. The whole area of intellegence has always intrigued me, so this is painless research. More than that, this book, and the man it's about, William Sidis, is fascinating. And heartbreaking.

According to this book, William Sidis' IQ was estimated at 300. He was simply brilliant, going through gradeschool in three months and high school in 6 weeks. He took the entrance exam to Harvard at age nine and passed, but wasn't allowed entrance until age 11. And because of his gift he was hounded & ridiculed by the media from a young age until he basically went underground as an adult, hiding his genuis. It's very sad and will make you ashamed of what we sometimes do to one another. In this case, a great intellect and all his possible achievements were lost.

A fascinating, fascinating book.

Gigantic Genius Gone Goofy.......2004-11-13

You will become ga ga admiring the staggeringly stupendous intellect of super-precocious child prodigy William James Sidis in this excellent biography. He was an academic mega-genius whose social ineptitude in society is profoundly disturbing.
Sidis was named in honor of the famous Harvard University philosopher/psychologist William James. The last name of William James Sidis was a palindrome: it could be spelled the same forward as well as backwards. Similarly and ironically his mind was palindromic: in the realm of cerebralization and intellectual thought there may have been no greater a prodigious potential in the history of the world ( rivaling Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Plato, Socrates, etc. ). Tragically, the mind-boggling potential of Sidis was predominantly unfulfilled. Palindromic Sidis was a radical of socially aberrant behavior. He was a prodigy in reverse who revolted from the extravagant expectations thrust upon him. Consequently Sidis went from "great expectations" to "great expectorations". He was socially spit upon, chastised and shunned as an adult for his eccentrically bizarre behabior. He was the Ultima Thule of lost talent performing such menial jobs as being a janitor. He was a contradiction of intellectual and behavioral dyslexia. He was analogous to computer overload: akin to HAL in the classic sci-fi film "2001: A Space Odyssey": super spaced out and gone awry. When one is an extreme case of extreme cases they may very well beome a social basket case.
I can deeply empathize with William James Sidis because I have resided in the socially isolated stratosphere of extreme intellectual genius my entire life. I have been descibed as being "too brilliant for my own good". Intense social introversion and extreme hypersensitivity do not mutually commingle with the ultra-psychological stress imposed upon a genius when other individuals are too demanding, too scornful, too mocking and too unsympathetically impersonal.

A book that makes you think..........2002-06-02

This is definitely a good read.

Although I have just barely finished reading half of the book, I felt compelled to say something about it.

Sometimes it just pains my heart to see how the society, in a sense, failed the genius. It comes natural for "normal" people (people with such genes tend to have an edge in survival perspective in terms of natural selection) to deride and hurt (sometimes on purpose, sometimes unwittingly) a person who is superior in non-social matters but lacks adequate development in social matters. William James Sidis clearly fell victim in this category.

Also, this biography tells us that intelligence needs to be accompanied by wisdom to fulfill its due expectations.

Clearly W J Sidis is very intelligent (intelligent in some specific areas like maths and languages); but he does not seem to be very wise in a broader, higher sense; that is, his intelligence helps him see "trees" in a much clearer way than his fellow beings, but lack of wisdom fails him in seeing the "forest/wood", i.e. the BIG PICTURE. His own version of a constitution in a fictitious "perfect" (in his eyes) society (Hesperia), notwithstanding sophisticated in logical rules and bearing some other merits in terms of form, is naive and myopic in content.

In a way, he is very stubborn to have such notions as "The word art means very little to me" and "why will people waste so much energy on statuary, painting, drawing, etching and the like" (p. 109 of the book). Frankly, I fail to note similar traits in other accomplished prodigies like Stuart Mill, Wiener, Russell and Einstein. -- Lack of appreciation (and even contempt) for other forms of achievements in humanity will sooner or later limit a prodigy's success in one way or another because it denotes an unbalanced development among numerous dimensions of human nature.

As of the root of the Sidis "tragedy" (saying tragedy might be overstated), clearly the way his parents raised him contributed largely to the outcome. And the inappropriate amount of attention had been directed to him since his very early childhood, a fatal error in comparison to the shrewd way John Stuart Mill was brought up by his father...

I might have more to say when I finish the book.

The only perfect life is one lived in seclusion........2001-12-28

This is the second time that I've been drawn to this unique book. Having just enough in common with Billy Sidis (membership in two high IQ societies and extreme introversion) I can recognise the "ring of truth" to this account. I know from first hand experience how this society, especially the public schools, go out of their way to haze and torture the gifted and the "different"- no matter how hard one tries to keep a low profile. Indeed, Sidis's motto, "The only perfect life is one lived in seclusion" is also my own, learned from hard experience.

As for William James Sidis himself, here was a person who lectured on 4th dimensional mathematics at Harvard at the age of 11. It was said that he probably spoke every language of mankind- and actually invented entirely new languages of his own. He wrote the first book on cosmology that ever theorised the existance of black holes. He was the first to see the correlation of the 11 year sunspot cycle on both climate and human behavior. He wrote some of the first "alternative histories" of the United States (rejecting official proganda.) He had absolute contempt for capitalism and corporations (he seems to have been incapable of telling lies or exploiting other people.) He recognised the fundamental contribution of Native Americans to mainstream American culture long before anyone else. He was absolutely convinced not only that extraterestrial intelligence existed, but that it had to exist. He wrote seriously of Atlantis while "serious" scholars scoffed at the idea. He totally rejected formal theology and religion- while having no doubt that a higher power existed...

One of the chapters of this book is entitled "Sidis an Avatar?" While William Sidis himself would have automatically and violently rejected such a claim, I personally wonder if it might have not been close to the truth....

Interesting read, here is where to find more..........1999-12-13

I've read this book once and I always enjoy leafing through it. However, I am always saddened that so much that Mr. Sidis did was lost (for example his science fiction story). A group of us individuals have started compiling information on him and are in the process of getting his "The Animate and th Inanimate" online for all to peruse. One and all are invited to email to get more information. Good day. [Thanks also to the reviewer below for the recommendation for the book "Accidental Genius"]

Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess

Average customer rating:

Chess is Life
Young Fischer
A Book For All Chess Players - Good Read
superb ! excpet couple of chapters
Pretty Good Book

Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess
Fred Waitzkin
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Searching for Bobby Fischer
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Accessories:

Chessmaster 7000

ASIN: 0140230386

Amazon.com

Searching for Bobby Fischer is the story of Fred Waitzkin and his son Josh, from the moment six-year-old Josh first sits down at a chessboard until he competes for the national championship. Drawn into the insular, international network of chess, they must also navigate the difficult waters of their own relationship. All the while, Waitzkin wonders about and searches for the elusive Bobby Fischer, whose myth still dominates the chess world and profoundly affects Waitzkin's dreams for his son.

Customer Reviews:

Chess is Life.......2006-01-13

Searching for Bobby Fischer is a skillfully woven set of vignettes that tell two stories, really. One, of course, is the story of his and his son Josh's discovery of the boy's precocious chess talent, the other the story of the chess environment in the US and the effect of Bobby Fischer's legacy on US chess.

Reading the other reviews I find it hard to understand what some people complain about in the book. For instance, the Russian trip had great importance, both as a contrast to the chess community in the US, and because it was a formative event in the life of the main subject of the book. How do you just leave something like that out?

The actual "search" near the end of the book is truly a beautiful, bittersweet interlude that serves to put under the glaring light of truth the amorphous, romanticized legend of Bobby Fischer. It's a dirty, confusing little search that goes nowhere, and is a telling metaphor for the life course of the once legendary champion.

One important comparison to the movie is the recounting of the Nationals that Josh finally wins. While what they put in the movie was exciting, to me it was nothing like the vibrant, tense denoument in the book. The come from behind save Josh pulled out in real life is the stuff of little legends all on its own.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, front to back, poignant, with the ring of truth on every page. I can't recommend enough to both chess players and non-players alike.

Young Fischer.......2006-01-09

Ever since the elusive disappearance of chess genius Bobby Fischer, who beat Russian Boris Spassky in 1972 for the world championship, the only American to do so, parents all over the United States have wondered if their little sons and daughters would someday have the potential to be the next Fischer. Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin is the true story of Fred and his son Josh. In New York City, the only place for serious chess players in the US, Josh discovered chess one day in Washington Square Park. Soon after he began playing he was pronounced a prodigy and taken under the wing of one of the best chess teachers in the country, Bruce Pandolfini. Fred is infatuated with his son's potential and gets drawn into the crazy and obsessive world of chess. The book chronicles the years from when Josh begins playing until he wins the national championship. Along the way Fred travels to Moscow to watch the long awaited match of Karpov and Kasparov, two chess titans, and opposite sides of the same coin. Fred realizes the truth of what being a professional player means and how hard it is the US. He's confused about his longing for Josh to be a great player and how he obsesses so much over it. Deep down he knows Josh is not as good as Fischer, and even if he was how can you compete with these Russian players who are exposed to the game forty to fifty hours a week? Throughout this journey Fred discovers both the glory and failure in being a chess parent of a talented player, and shares his worries, fears, and hopes for his son. I highly recommend this groundbreaking story.

This book captures all the feelings and emotions of being the parent of a precocious child. On one hand, you want them to live a well-rounded life. But on the other hand, your thoughts drift to untold glory and tournaments to be won. You want the child to study and work hard and it's easy to get caught up in immediate results. Then you worry your kid's not having fun or you've pushed them too hard. Especially for chess, a parent has to wonder, why do I care so much about my child's gift, I've seen professional chess players and the dreadful lives they lead. Even the very best players cope with miserable conditions. Unlike a tennis prodigy, for a chess player there's no pot of gold at the end. But week after week these parents take their brilliant kids to tournaments and spend a weekend holed up in a stuffy hotel. They cannot understand their feelings or why they do this, but what if their son or daughter is the next Bobby Fischer?

Searching for Bobby Fischer is not only about chess. It describes the delicate relation between Fred and his son. At first, Josh is a genius. He can do no wrong and wins everything. Kids tremble when they play him. At the nationals, he'll be ranked number one. He is unstoppable. And then Josh loses at the nationals to a little kid with a much lower rating. He crushes Josh in less than twenty minutes. Fred and Bruce cannot understand what went wrong. Fred is confused and wonders why he pushes his son so hard. For six months Josh doesn't want to play and Fred fears this is the end. He feels awful about liking his son more when he wins and thinking how boring Josh's life would be without chess. Soon Fred and Bruce realize what needs to be done and the following year Josh wins the national championship. Fred starts to begin understanding the feelings he has about Josh and chess.

The chapters about Moscow and world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov are fascinating. Karpov is loved by the Soviet Union and has many powerful political connections. Kasparov is more the rebel, outspoken against Karpov and the government. Half of the battle for the title is political and psychological. Rumors that Karpov would poison Kasparov at any cost abound. It is well known in a previous match Karpov employed a hypnotist to sit in the third row and during the game hypnotize his opponent. Kasparov argues bitterly against Karpov having his team of seconds and trainers offer him drinks during the game. He says the drink could contain a message, such as they found a winning line and he should adjourn the game (in those days adjournments for very long games were allowed, meaning the game would be stopped and continued in a few hours), or a long struggle was ahead and he shouldn't drink anything to make him crash. Also, people say Karpov would regularly bribe Kasparov's seconds and trainers to give his team their opening secrets or just rob Kasparov of a critical trainer. Due to his smaller team, instead of preparing Kasparov would have to get on the phone to block Karpov's latest move. Just for the record, Kasparov won the match after six brutal months.

Searching for Bobby Fischer is a fast and thoughtful read. Fred movingly conveys his hopes and dreams for his son, and opens a world up that many people didn't even know existed. A truly good book.

A.M.

A Book For All Chess Players - Good Read.......2005-08-24

This book has the championship chess presence like "The Queen's Gambit" by Tevis and the scholastic excitement of "The Chess Team" by Sawaski - The others are fiction, but what sets this book (SFBF) apart is that it is a real story. However, the title is a hair misleading. This book really has nothing at all to do with the real Bobby Fischer (Former World Chess Champion) - but rather about chess prodigy and future chess grandmaster Josh Waitzkin.

The book itself is very much different from the movie and although the movie was very well done and one of my favorites of all time, the book is outstanding and should be read even if you watched the movie. If you play chess or like to teach chess, this book is highly useful for experience. The whole work just flows nicely and you get excited for Josh on his trials and tribulations. It is a quality book, with interesting experiences and I highly recommend it to all.

superb ! excpet couple of chapters.......2005-07-15

superb book!

postives:

1. insights into everything it covers
chess world, inights into a chess parent
2. smooth reading
3. the suspense in the last chapter itself is worth 5 starts
4. honest expressions about his feelings and his ideas
about others
5. the expression of the dilemma within him (or any chess
parent) on where this is headed.

negative:

1. couple of chapters seemed boring (irrelevant) at times,
but that could be me looking to get ahead with story
of him and his prodigal son.

Pretty Good Book.......2005-06-17

I read this book, and I think the movie is better. This book is about the father of a young boy named Josh Waitzkin, who is a chess prodigy. I think the main problem in this book is that it doesn't talk about Josh as much as it should. Also, I think there were just a few inappropriate things that didn't need to be written. Its a pretty good book.

Note on Josh Waitzkin

It's sad that Josh Waitzlin quit chess. I think he quit because everyone thought he was going to be the next bobby fischer, and deep down he knew he wasn't. He was an International Master at age 16 while Bobby Fischer was a Grandmaster at age 16. The even more sad thing was in a newspaper article, he said he would never quit because he would never want to think about what he could have been. Also, in his book Josh Waitzkin's attacking chess, he wrote that when a prodigy grows up, they may hit a wall. Some people may say he never had it, some may say he never will. But the prodigy should keep going. Anyway, he quit at a ration in the low 2400's.

Baby Prodigy: A Guide to Raising a Smarter, Happier Baby

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FANTASTIC BOOK
A Must Read For All Parents

Baby Prodigy: A Guide to Raising a Smarter, Happier Baby
Barbara Candiano-Marcus
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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How to Have a Smarter Baby: The Infant Stimulation Program For Enhancing Your Baby's Natural Development
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philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 0345477650
Release Date: 2005-04-26

Book Description

ENHANCE YOUR BABY’S POTENTIAL!

Winner of thirteen national awards, the Baby Prodigy Company’s DVDs and CDs have opened up an exciting new world for babies to explore. Now the creator of this landmark series presents a simple, straightforward guide no parent should be without. This fascinating book shows how stimulation affects the intelligence and happiness of your baby. It provides a program of activities that will enrich your infant’s sensory awareness–hearing, seeing, touching, feeling, and tasting–in order to jumpstart amazing brain growth during the critical first three years of life.

Discover:
• sanity-saving tips for sleepless nights, fussy days, colic, and more
• bonding and soothing techniques to use during your baby’s first three weeks of life
• easy, pleasurable activities to promote development in very young infants
• milestones to look for as your child grows–from birth through toddlerhood
• creative ways to stimulate curiosity, attention span, memory, and nervous system advancement
• the ideal books and toys that will inspire learning and retention
• baby talk: what your baby is trying to say, and how to talk to your baby at every stage of development

Customer Reviews:

FANTASTIC BOOK.......2006-05-17

I bought this book because we have all of the Baby Prodigy Products. My wife is expecting our second child this summer. Even though we have already been through the newborn stage once, I have to say that I have learned so much from this book that I didn't know for our first child. My wife and I really enjoyed it. It is easy and fast to read and the writer has a sense of humor too. I loved all of the stories in the beginning of each chapter. I think all of the educational games in the book will help us stimulate our baby and help her develop at a much faster rate than our first child. It is definitely a must have for new parents, second time parents, grandparents, etc. Everyone can do the stimulating activities that this book provides. Great for caregivers and daycares too. Our daughter was also coliky and now I have some great tips if our newborn has it. We have so many pregancy and child development books but this by far is the BEST. It is the Best fourteen dollars we ever ever spent.

GOOD WORK! Hope to see a toddler book too.

A Must Read For All Parents.......2006-04-18

My sister recommended this book to me. I think it is a must have for all parents, first time or not. It is full of valuable advice and insight. I now purchase the book for all my baby showers, and I would recommend it to anyone!

Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies

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Ghosties, Ghoulies and Things That Go Bump in the Night

Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies
Andrew Joynes
Manufacturer: Boydell Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1843832690

Book Description

Strongly recommended. M R JAMES NEWSLETTER Stories of restless spirits returning from the afterlife are as old as storytelling. In medieval Europe ghosts, nightstalkers and unearthly visitors from parallel worlds had been in circulation since before the coming of Christianity. Here is a collection of ghostly encounters from medieval romances, monastic chronicles, sagas and heroic poetry. These tales bore a peculiar freight of spooks and spirituality which can still make the hair stand on end. Look at the story of Richard Rowntree's stillborn child, glimpsed by his father tangled in swaddling clothes on the road to Santiago, or the sly habits of water sprites resting as golden rings on the surface of the river, just out of reach. Writer and broadcaster Andrew Joynes brings together a vivid selection of these tales, with a thoughtful commentary that puts them in context and lays bare the layers of meaning in them.

Customer Reviews:

Ghosties, Ghoulies and Things That Go Bump in the Night.......2004-02-12

If you like ghost stories, you'll love the anthology MEDIEVAL GHOST STORIES compiled and edited by Andrew Joynes. Joynes compiled European tales that range from the 8th to the 14th centuries. The book is divided into four sections. Part One is Miracula and the Monastic Vision of Ghosts. Part Two is Mirabilia and Ghosts in Court Writing. Part Three is entitled Revenants, Prodigies and the Restless Dead. Part Four is Ghosts in Medieval Vernacular Literature. Each section has an overall introduction and each author or literary text also has information before it. The information links the stories from widely different periods together and shows that these tales, although quite different from the modern ghost story, are its literary ancestors.
I enjoyed all the stories, but find that I was quite fond of the stories regarding the Wild Hunt, The Tale of King Herla and Bisclavret by Marie de France.
If you are interested in the mindset of Middle Ages or enjoy legends and tales of the supernatural, you will definitely enjoy this lovely anthology. A selected bibliography and index are included.

Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy

Average customer rating:

Aaron Burr Has a Starring Role in His Daughter's Biography
Enlightening!
A huge disappointment!
I Couldn't Put It Down
The Scare History of Prominent Females and their Males

Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy
Richard N. Cote
Manufacturer: Corinthian Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Aaron Burr : Conspiracy to Treason

ASIN: 1929175310

Book Description

Theodosia Burr Alston was a brilliant, independent, highly-educated and freethinking woman in an age which valued none of those traits in females. She was born June 21, 1783 in Albany, New York, the daughter of prominent attorney Aaron Burr (1756-1836) and his wife, the former Mrs. Theodosia Prevost (d. 1794), a widow. Young Theodosia spent most of her unmarried life in New York City with her charismatic, influential father, who had distinguished himself as an officer in the Revolutionary War. There he served under Col. Benedict Arnold and became a member of General George Washington's inner circle. After her mother died when Theodosia was eleven, she became her father's closest confidante and the mistress of Richmond Hill, his New York country estate. A child prodigy whose education was designed by her adoring and demanding father, Theodosia spoke Latin, French, German, and read Greek by the age of twelve.

For Aaron Burr, providing his little girl with an extraordinary education was a lifelong obsession. But Burr's desire to rear a superior woman-child went far beyond mere education. By the time she could walk, Burr had envisioned an incredible goal for her and crafted a master plan to achieve it. Every waking breath of her day was directed by her father to shape Theodosia into something new, radical, and monumental. He was not interested in turning out just a smart, pretty girl; a father's pride; or a husband's delight. Burr was no petty theorist. He was a passionate, egotistical visionary on scale that made the gods cringe. With his vision and his daughter's talent, Burr intended to push the envelope of mortal achievement to its absolute limit. Burr's goal was to sculpt Theodosia into a model for the woman of the future: a female Aaron Burr. She was not trained to serve hearth, home, or plantation. From her first breath of life, she was groomed and educated to take her intended station in life: nothing less than president, queen... or empress. From her birth into New York's high society, her childhood among the leaders of the new nation, her marriage to Joseph Alston, a Southern slaveholding aristocrat, to her mysterious death at sea at the age of twenty-nine, this is the true story of Theodosia Burr Alston. From the letters she exchanged with her father, Aaron Burr, and her husband, Joseph Alston, and from the accounts of those who knew her personally, emerges a powerful portrait of a true American prodigy.

Customer Reviews:

Aaron Burr Has a Starring Role in His Daughter's Biography.......2007-03-30

I first heard about Theodosia Burr while visiting Charleston, SC, earlier this year. The tour guide mentioned she was Aaron Burr's daughter, a woman educated like a man and raised to be future Empress of Mexico, who disappeared at sea and was rumored to be stolen away by pirates. I was fascinated and determined to learn more. When I looked up Theodosia on Amazon, Richard N. Cote's book came up. I bought it immediately.

I was not disappointed. The biography "Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy" by Richard N. Cote was a fun ride through history. While the book could use more editing, the story itself was intriguing. A Revolutionary War hero and infamous duelist, Aaron Burr raised his only child to be female version of himself: a sophisticated, intelligent, free-thinking prodigy who socialized with French nobility, Native American Chiefs, and quite a few famous Americans, including President George Washington and Dolly Madison.

What I discovered reading this, however, was that Theodosia herself did not interest me as much as her father. In fact, something about her turned me off. I found myself skimming sections about her to learn more about her charismatic father, Aaron Burr, whose mercurial career in politics and wild scheme to conquer Mexico made for a much more interesting story.

All in all, "Theodosia" was a great book in terms of history. I learned quite a bit about our Founding Fathers and what life was like after the War in the newly formed US. I also enjoyed satisfying my curiosity about Theodosia's education and death, as it is an interesting footnote in history. But more importantly to me, I was pleased to learn so much about Aaron Burr, the third Vice President of the US. He is the true hero of this book.

Enlightening!.......2004-05-16

I entirely disagree with the reader below me. (Everyone owned slaves back then, except for, notably, Alexander Hamilton, who hated slavery, and yes, he wasn't the only one. But still, the focus of the book was Theodosia, not Aaron.)

I came across Theodosia while I was watching the PBS Home Video "The Duel" (which I recommend if you are interested in Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, the duel itself, or politics in that time period). I wanted to know more about her and purchased this book. I'm glad I did! This biography seems more like a novel because of the incredible, fast-paced journey it leads you on into the past. I especially liked the last few chapters, when the author explored Theodosia's possible fates and the "mystery of the Nag's Head portrait." This whole book never had a boring moment, so if you are interested in this great yet unknown woman or her infamous father, read this book ASAP!

A huge disappointment!.......2004-05-08

I hate to rain on the parade of all these glowing reviews, but this book is a product of shoddy, lazy, amateurish research. A full 59% of the footnotes are based on secondary sources, & a full 25% of those are from one source alone which the author himself admits is unreliable. The section on Aaron Burr's mother is based on a "source" well-known for decades to be [untrue]. The discussion of Burr as a "slave-owner" is totally misleading, based on assumptions for which there is no evidence, & completely overlooks Burr's well known anti-slavery record. I could go on & on, but you get the picture. The book is full of factual errors, misleading assumptions, & faulty logic. Theodosia Burr Alston needs a good biography, but this isn't it.

I Couldn't Put It Down.......2004-04-16

What an in depth and at times riveting account of Theodosia, the beautiful and very gifted daughter of Vice President and scheming traitor, Aaron Burr. This is a story that has been told before but never brilliantly as in Mr. Cote's sweeping tale. The author brings to life the romantic and tragic heroine, Theodosia, so vividly that the reader truly feels her joys and pain. From her privileged upbringing by a father who was a brilliant but flawed man to her marriage into South Carolina's wealthiest family and eventually to her mysterious death at age 28, this is a story that carries us through the ballrooms and political intrigue of the 18th and early 19th Century. Theodosia, the most well educated woman of her time, was destined by her ambitious father to be empress of Mexico in a scheme both treasonous and ultimately ruinous. Theodosia vanished at sea in 1812 leaving behind a haunting portrait that washed up on a North Carolina beach and a story so intriguing that it lingers in the heart and mind long after the book is finished.

The Scare History of Prominent Females and their Males.......2004-01-14

There is little doubt that Vice President Aaron Burr was the single, most important person in the world to this young, and impressionable young woman: and why not? He was, after all, her father, the person most likely to offer her his best nurturing protection, validate her worth, and interpret the world as he would like her to see it, educating her for what he perceived it to be, in its complexity as well as its simplicity. As his most unconditional admirer, she apparently did the same for him, and as his trusted confidant, the author spectacularly preserves and presents their special relationship of father and daughter with reasonable success despite the number of rumors, accusations, and hype that usually accompanies infamous figures in history, allowing us to appreciate the complexities of political environments, personal relations, and complex events in a very readable and eloquent fashion, in today's conjecture of thought and reason as best he can from a 200 year old antique history. An insightful account of a very colorful period of American history. While certain presumptions may well be far fetched, certainly the inquiry is a valuable contribution to what can only be called one of the very few accounts of the importance of females in the lives of historical figures.

Average customer rating:

good book

Prodigy Hustler
BJ Chambers , and Erica Coleman
Manufacturer: Billy Boy Enterprises
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Perfect Paperback

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ASIN: 0979015200
Release Date: 2007-02-15

Product Description

Billy Joe Chambers, of the notorious Chambers Brothers presents Prodigy Hustler. Prodigy Hustler allows readers to follow Chambers along his journey to the top of the Detroit cocaine game. Chambers gives detailed accounts of life struggles and experiences as he traveled from his hometown, Marianna, Arkansas to the streets of Detroit where he became known as a member of the Chambers Gang , Detroit s largest drug organization. Chambers was recently featured in BET s American Gangster series. Prodigy Hustler is now available for readers enjoyment. I realize that there are many stories about the Chambers Brothers but Prodigy Hustler is the only true story available.

Customer Reviews:

good book.......2007-03-27

this book is one mans story of his rise and fall of the drug game. It was pretty good reading. If you grew up on the eastside of Detroit i strongly recommend that you read this book, you never know who you might know.

Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript

Average customer rating:

Great approach to an under-read poem
Ian Myles Slater on: Much Ado About Monsters
Pride and Prodigies; a Cellar of Scholarly Wisdom

Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript
Andy Orchard
Manufacturer: University of Toronto Press
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A Beowulf Handbook

ASIN: 0802085830

Book Description

Monsters and the monstrous, whether from the remote pagan past or the new world of Christian Latin learning, haunted the Anglo-Saxon imagination in a variety of ways. In this series of detailed studies, Andy Orchard demonstrates the changing range of Anglo-Saxon attitudes towards the monstrous by reconsidering the monsters of Beowulf against the background of early medieval and patristic teratology and with reference to specific Anglo-Saxon texts.

The immediate manuscript context of the monsters in Beowulf is analysed, shedding light on the poet's treatment of the theme of the monstrous and its integration into his work, and a series of parallel discussions consider a range of medieval treatments of the same theme in a variety of analogous texts (all provided with translation), in Latin, Old English, Middle Irish, and Old Icelandic.

The twin themes of pride and prodigies are suggested by tracing changing attitudes towards the concept of pride and establishing a close link between the proud pagan warriors depicted in Christian tradition and the monsters they fight, and with whom they become increasingly identified.

An appendix contains new editions and translations (some for the first time in English) of the Liber Monstrorum, The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, and The Wonders of the East.

Originally published in 1995 by Boydell & Brewer.

Customer Reviews:

Great approach to an under-read poem.......2007-02-07

There is increasing interest in the 21st century with "Beowulf," that old Old English poem -- largely, I think, because it can be read as a parable for the United States and its War on Terrorism. Orchard's book offers a way of seeing the poem that reveals the work's contemporary nature. It helps make the U.S. v. Terrorism parable more visible. In short, Orchard's book and the poem itself are well worth a fresh read if you haven't taken a look at "Beowulf" since high school or college.

Ian Myles Slater on: Much Ado About Monsters.......2004-12-31

Andy Orchard's volume, "Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the 'Beowulf'-Manuscript," concludes with careful editions of Latin and Old English texts, and modern English translations. It opens with a superb introductory discussion, which is effectively a short book in itself, and probably could have stood alone with some expansion. (But then we wouldn't have the full texts and their translations.)

Taken as a whole, it fills a void in "Beowulf" studies. Since it took a long time to fill, I am relieved to report that it was worth the wait. And the comparatively reasonable price of the paperback edition -- reasonable given that is on Old English literature, a subject of limited interest, and published by a University press -- is more good news.

In addition, the volume is of some importance to the growing interest in medieval ideas about strange people, creatures, and places, and the part they played in concepts about the physical world, and what they revealed about the Will of God. And it contributes to other branchs of medieval studies, as well; even to our knowledge of the image of Alexander the Great. (Yes indeed, the Middle Ages had the equivalent of a "Hollywood Version" ... .)

So, what exactly does it contain, and why is it important? The monsters in the "Beowulf" manuscript would be just Grendel, Grendel's Mother, and the Dragon, and maybe some of the sea-creatures Beowulf fought, right? Actually, no.

"Beowulf" survives in a unique eleventh-century manuscript, officially designated Cotton Vitellius A.xv. That means that the seventeenth-century collector Sir Robert Cotton kept it on the top shelf of a bookcase marked with a bust of the Emperor Vitellius, and that it was item number fifteen on that shelf, after he had it bound with a group of four unrelated (except for being English) texts from the twelfth century. The original, shorter, form is known, after the earlier collector who wrote his name on the first surviving leaf, as the Nowell Codex.

It was recognized by scholars fairly early on that the original codex contained five works. (Any others were lost, with parts of two of the survivors, before it was rebound, in addition to the damage sustained in an eighteenth-century fire.) These five are: "The Passion of St. Christopher," an account of a legendary giant / Christian holy man; "The Wonders of the East" and "The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle," translations of two Latin accounts of strange creatures encountered in the Orient by Alexander the Great; and, following "Beowulf" itself, "Judith," an Old English verse adaptation of a story from the Apocrypha in the Vulgate Bible, unfortunately incomplete. (For those unfamiliar with the story, it features a heroine who has to deal with a heathen invader, whose behavior, at least, is monstrous. Like David -- or Beowulf -- she comes back with a trophy to prove her story.)

"Beowulf" has been receiving attention for almost two centuries now; "Judith" came to scholars' attention even earlier, in a collection of Anglo-Saxon Biblical translations and paraphrases, edited by Edward Thwaite, and published way back in 1698.

But the prose texts, Christian (but not Biblical) or semi-classical, instead of Germanic, have been treated as embarrassing stepchildren (if not worse); although some received individual editions, drawing on other manuscripts when possible, their main treatment *as a group* was a barely-usable volume from the Early Texts Society, edited by Stanley Rypins, "Three Old English Prose Texts" (EETS Original Series No. 161, 1924). It was published about a dozen years before Tolkien insisted on putting the monsters in "Beowulf" at the center of the study of the poem. (And when I say barely-usable, I mean that I tried hard to work with it. Rypins seemed very good at reporting the state of some texts which appear to have confused the scribes who had copied them. Yes, it was *supposed* to be a "diplomatic edition" -- but some diplomatic editions offer more help than others.) Orchard elsewhere described it as "less than satisfactory."

It was almost thirty years after Rypins' edition before Kenneth Sisam published the observation that the Nowell Codex seems to have been a collection of stories about monsters and heroes, and that the selection of texts may not have been random, but represented how "Beowulf" was seen in the late tenth or early eleventh century. And that this possibility deserved attention from critics.

The sort of thing that only a genius of Aristotelian proportions -- or possibly a child -- would think to mention. Completely obvious, naturally, *once* it has been brought to your attention.

Critical consideration of the issue soon followed; although the source materials remained hard to find, with editions scattered, and often imperfectly edited for use in Beowulfian studies. The fact that these were translations from Latin texts with their own confusing histories only compounded the problem.

In the meantime, it had been noticed long before that Beowulf's own King Hygelac appeared, in a garbled form, in a Latin collection, the "Liber Monstrorum." (Yes, Harry Potter fans, an actual "Book of Monsters.") This work, in its turn, seemed to have its own, complex, relationship with the Alexander-texts in the Nowell Codex. And, after Sisam's observation, its separate circulation suggested that the Nowell Codex would not have been a unique example of interest in strange and bizarre (or just very large) inhabitants of lands far and near.

And the "Wonders of the East" itself turns out to have a complicated history, the original version apparently having been presented to medieval readers as a communication to a Roman Emperor, Hadrian or Trajan, and not originally part of the Alexander Cycle at all, although dependent on it. But it had been drawn in (or drawn back in); what, if anything, did that say about the role of Alexander in medieval thought?

And there are lots of other questions. But systematic treatments of what the texts meant for Anglo-Saxons, especially the versions in their own language, have been frustratingly hard to find. (That something interesting was going on was evident. "Wonders" contains examples of the word *waelcyrige* -- now familiar in the Norse-derived form of "valkyries" [valkyrjar] -- in actual use by an Anglo-Saxon scribe, even if the referents are semi-classical, not Germanic.)

As studies and translations of individual texts have appeared over the years, some information has become available to the "common reader." The Old English "Wonders of the East" is translated in Michael Swanton's "Anglo-Saxon Prose." Latin versions of "Wonders" and "The Letter of Alexander" are translated, with much else, in Richard Stoneman's "Legends of Alexander the Great." (Both books were published in the Everyman series, and both, apparently, are out of print. Stoneman's translation of "The Greek Alexander Romance," a more distantly related work, is still available from Penguin, as is Ken Dowden's version of it in B.P. Reardon's "Collected Ancient Greek Novels.")

In "Pride and Prodigies" Andy Orchard has brought together critically edited Latin and Old English texts of "The Wonders of the East" and "The Letter of Alexander," with modern English translations of the Old English, and a Latin text, with translation, of the "Liber Monstrorum." In the substantial introductory section, Orchard considers how the Old English versions are adaptations of the Latin sources, and the possible relationship of these adaptations to the ideas at work in "Beowulf," and whether this sheds any light on well-known parallel incidents in Icelandic literature. The "Liber Monstrorum," a sort of grab-bag of anecdotes from a great variety of sources, many classical, is sorted through for similar insights. Connections are made with continental literatures, and Celtic (mainly Irish) traditions, as well. This is very good, if perhaps a little over-rich for some readers. (I thought I knew the material reasonably well, but I went to my shelves for saga translations, and "Beowulf and Its Analogues" -- it turned out that Orchard was, of course, much, much more reliable than my memories, but I wasn't wasting my time.)

"The Passion of St. Christopher" is part of a tradition of "Lives of the Saints," and offers a different set of problems, and, understandably, the text is not included in an already well-stuffed volume; and the discussion of it is subordinated to the other works. But a text, translation, and study of this work, as part of the "Lives" literature, the Christopher tradition, and in terms of beliefs about monsters, also would be welcome.

Pride and Prodigies; a Cellar of Scholarly Wisdom.......2000-04-01

As a PhD Candidate in Old English, I have found Andy Orchard's text, Pride and Prodigies, to be invaluable in my own studies. Orchard offers the foremost translations in the field of Old English and Latin texts, like "The Wonders of the East." These texts are used to elucidate the question of monstrosity in the Beowulf manuscript, first raised by J.R.R. Tolkien. Though it is difficult to come to any consensus about these monsters, Orchard charts the progression of the manuscript, not fearing to consider the validity of the theme on a continuum.

Orchard's scholarship is incredibly rich and detailed. The array of external primary and secondary sources he uses to understand the "monsters" in these particular texts is impressive. Orchard implements everything from Old Norse, to Celtic, to Latin to ground the 5 works of the Beowulf manuscript in a tradition steeped with monsters.

Average customer rating:

Prodigy...?
Slow Beginning, Good Second half
Worth a read
Brlliantly written--give us more
Much better than "The Rule of Four"

Prodigy
Dave Kalstein
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312340966
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Book Description

In the year 2036, the worlds most elite prep school is the Stansbury School. The students, better known as specimens, are screened at a young age and then given twelve years of the finest educationand developmental drug regimenavailable. Stansbury graduatesphysically and mentallyare in a class all by themselves. When a string of alumni are murdered, school officialslooking to avoid a public relations disasterdecide to keep the police in the dark. They discreetly ask the schools valedictorian to solve the mystery, but he discovers a massive conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the Stansbury administration and the United States government.

Customer Reviews:

Prodigy...?.......2006-11-11

This book was so good until it was about 2/3 done. That's when it started to drag and drone about the horrible deed done to one of the not-so-main characters. It made this book less than wonderful and kept taking away from the two main characters. It also didn't help that every other character that I thought was a good guy turned out to be truly terrible.

Slow Beginning, Good Second half.......2006-09-19

PRODIGY took such a long while to develop, I almost gave up on it about 1/3 of the way thru - but it is just at that point that the book starts to contain some decent action and become interesting. It is clear that some editor understood this, and had the writer put an action scene (which really belongs in a later part of the book) right at the beginning of the book - otherwise, this book would have been even easier to give up on, very early on.

The author does a good job of describing a near-future USA, where a specific school has been given almost carte-blanche to teach/develop the next Einsteins, which an over-populated world needs even more than ever... while the school definately succeeds in developing geniuses - it also succeeds in developing a lot of other "screwed up individuals" - and when the school is up for a $1 trillion dollar grant from the US Govt., there are those that would stop at nothing - even murder - to make sure it happes.

Besides the slow opening, the author was also able to sneak in some political propaganda, which would probably have been best to have been left out... for example, his obvious position regarding open immigration.

Worth a read.......2006-08-09

Prodigy is an solid, impressive novel. Kalstein's prose is stylish yet efficient and his characters are richly drawn and sympathetic. Kalstein takes his time early on, but it pays off: Our glimpses of the characters' lives strengthen our connection to them and ensure that we care about their fate, and Kalstein's attention to detail in establishing the story's elaborate future history lends the setting an extra level of versimilitude. And once the plot gathers steam, it's hard to put the book down.

Occasionally, the story's fictional world strains credulity, but not where you'd think. The audacious broad strokes, in which Kalstein extrapolates the politics of this new world, ring true. It's the smaller details that sometimes stick out. Is it just a coincidence that all the main characters' favorite literature and music hails from the "late 20th century"? Each time a reference to Kenneth Lonergan or The Strokes or a classic Shelby appears, it's hard to escape the feeling that the author is name-checking his own favorites. And the surprisingly outlandish laser-syringe feeding system, while facilitating an excellent set piece, also seems to create a forgivable yet significant plot hole.

In spite of these nitpicks, however, Prodigy remains an engaging read with vivid characters and an entertaining rollercoaster plot, as well as powerful moments of genuine emotional weight.

Brlliantly written--give us more.......2006-04-11

Far more than an entertainment with its elements of mystery,sci-fi, suspense, and action, this is a novel about real people and their feelings. Kalstein has constructed an artificial reality, highly convincing in detail, peopled just like the people you and I remember. I eagerly await his next effort.

"Somehow, watching her go, he already knew that it would be a long time before he and Camelia ever got back to this place they discovered in the atrium, just a guy and a girl talking, getting to know each other like they were regular kids. His conditioned, Harvard-bound brain told him to act like it was no big thing. His orphan's heart told him it was the only thing."

Much better than "The Rule of Four".......2006-01-18

The description of this book in the liner gave me the impression that this book was intended to be a science-fiction retread of "The Rule of Four": part thriller, part touching coming-of-age drama. "Prodigy" succeeds at both halves better than did "The Rule of Four."

The best thing this book has going for it is Stansbury Academy itself. While a few plot details go over the top, it is easy to see how Stansbury could have developed in exactly the way Kalstein suggests.

But perhaps more importantly, this book also takes a somewhat satiric view--primarily in the side-plots and backstories--at the pressures society puts on its children to become prodigies, and the price those children pay as a result. In this regard, the scenes regarding Stansbury's valedictorian are particularly brutal. On the other hand, Kalstein also knows that there *are* some real-life prodigies to celebrate; the scene about a star athlete at Stansbury stands out in that regard.

This is a book I would recommend to just about anyone.

Nature's Gambit: Child Prodigies and the Development of Human Potential (Education and Psychology of the Gifted Series)

Average customer rating:

"Six Male Child Prodigies (perhaps) + An Author in 4th Dimension"
Fascinating!
Interpreting Human Anomalies
nature's gambit

Nature's Gambit: Child Prodigies and the Development of Human Potential (Education and Psychology of the Gifted Series)
David Henry Feldman , and Lynn T. Goldsmith
Manufacturer: Teachers College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807731439

Customer Reviews:

"Six Male Child Prodigies (perhaps) + An Author in 4th Dimension".......2005-12-02

"Nature's Gambit", David Feldman & Lynn Goldsmith, NY, Basic Books, Inc., 1986 ISBN 0-465-04861-7, HC, 251 pg. plus 8 pg. Notes & 8 pg. Index, 9 1/2" x 6 1/2".

With one prior book on cognitive development, Feldman's literary style seems to lack substance, is wordy, apologetic yet pompous & curiously exposes a surreal gambit. In Preface he bespeaks Gruber of Harvard "had once again recognized a deeper theme in my work ..." And, "prodigies had either been ignored entirely...or interpreted as freaks of nature -- exceptions...described but not explained" & he (author) wants "prodigy phenomenon"...recognized as a lawful example of development rather than...anomaly." He believes there is "a dimension to human evolution that is different from evolution in cats or pansies" & his study may teach us "how we might better choreograph our uniquely human dance." As, perhaps, a humble Literary First, Acknowledgements begin: "Although this book bears the name of a single author..." we find cover & title page imprinted "with Lynn T. Goldsmith." (We are told it is his wife).

The 12 Chaps. divided into 3 Parts cover his search, observations & sagacity on 6 prodigies & their gurus & some analyses of cultural encounters & assimilation issues with cohorts, siblings, parents & mentors. He expounds on the term "co-incidence...the major organizing theme...to capture...many sets of forces in development & expression of human potential" which require guidance. The 6 children in study are all boys, the author apologizing thrice for this happening. How "one is Italian" & "one is distinctly Scottish" is far, far beyond me, as is his expose that "Only one...is Jewish, which surprized me" (he fails to reveal if there should me more or none). The 6 prodigies are: Nils (9- music), Franklin (8-chess), Richy (8-chess), Billy (6-math/gen.), Adam (3 1/2- music/Omni), & Randy (6-writer) he observed on occasions over a 10-year period -- & also gleaned reports from one or both parents, sibs & teachers. He confides: "individual potential for prodigious achievement itself is obviously a critical precondition" for a prodigy -- a Pearl of Wisdom? Apologetically, "my wife, Lynn, wanted to be a ballerina, only to learn that her feet were not designed for standing on pointe" but tenders no personal disqualification as stud material. We do learn ages for prodigy domains is, in music (3-4), chess (5-6), math (10-12) & visual arts c. 15-25 & a neologism for multiple domains as "Omnibus prodigy."

Author notes mentor-masters oft use recapitulationistic teachings & "notion of reincarnation is simply an extreme form...of common practice." He decrees: "The reality of occasional deadly typhoons no doubt contributed to the Oriental notion of karma..." Author proffers: "If little Albert (Einstein) had been a girl, I think we would never have heard of her." (If my daughter Jennifer heard this she'd make him apologize).

Part III, Chap. 9 gets weird: "Nonbiological factors may also contribute to the transgeneration transmission of talent and... help explain... talent... tinged... with the unnatural & mystical ...perhaps astrology holds some lessons... although one must remain skeptical of the explanatory power behind astrological accounts... a delicate interplay of forces..."

He discusses zombies, metaphysical, prebirth memories, strong psychic aura, etc. & concludes: "as scientifically risky as it may be to propose broader forces than those of the Darwinian or neo-Darwinian sort, it seems necessary to do so if prodigy is to be comprehended."

Overall, the book falls short of yielding any new information on lives & times of child prodigies -- but exposes an author's prejudices & insecurities to the rest of the world.

Fascinating!.......2003-06-06

Anyone who has any interest in the phenomenon of child prodigies will find this book a fascinating read. It traces the early development of 6 children who are prodigies (able to work competitively at the adult level) in some field. Of the 6, the fields the children excel in are as follows: 2 are in chess, 1 is a writer, 1 a musician, 1 in mathematics, 1 is extremely gifted overall (one of the highest IQs recorded). The author explains why prodigies are more often found in some fields, such as music or chess, than others (such as writing- the writing prodigy was the only 1 of the 6 children studied who was not working at an adult professional level). The author delves into the "coincidences" of time, place, technology and parenting that allow these prodigies to develop. He draws on other examples of prodigies outside of his own 6 subjects. Among these is a severely handicapped youth who, through the dedication of his adoptive parents, was eventually discovered to have savant ability in music. Some may argue that one or the other child in the study may not be a true prodigy, but they are all interesting children to read about, and the author certainly makes some excellent observations on the development of human potential. I found this book hard to put down.

Interpreting Human Anomalies.......2002-05-01

While "it remains true that the prodigy cries out for explanation," Feldman displays an array of insights which demonstrate that (as he approvingly quotes Richard Feynman): "The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that's the most interesting, the part that doesn't go according to what you expected." By drawing together the interplay, the reciprocal threadings, of physical, psychological, and cultural cultural levels in the development of prodigies, Feldman contends that the "end game" of our evolutionary process is to create conditions which maximally deploy the rich potential expressed in human history. Such an end game thus has survival value to our species by increasing the range of human skills and capacities in meaningfully specific ways. As Feldman states, "Prodigies are masterpieces of timing, individuals who manage to find a fully resonant domain very early in their individual life games." This book sensitively portrays, in a nested cluster of apt metaphors, how such a matching of individual and domain occurs. Any given society provides a fecund bed for very specific types of prodigies to flower. Certain times favor particular forms of talent, yet our prodigies often defy predictability and retain "an element of mystery and uncanniness." And, ironically, for all the efflorescence of talent, the development of a prodigy is intrinsically a fragile event. Feldman's penetrating look at such precocity provides a deeper understanding of its preconditions, structure, and outcomes. And all this is presented in the context of human evolution as psychophysiological-cultural reality. A wonderful, provocative book. Pour a cup of java or tea, and prepare to ponder.

nature's gambit.......2002-03-27

Child prodigy which defined in this book as God giving specific gift to achieve some specific task, is indeed nonexistence. The only thing I see in this book is six highly intelligent kids who had been guided to develope some specific skill such as music or chess by their parents and/or their master teachers. The author is a researcher who starts with a wrong assumption, bend his research mathod whenever he likes and at the end, has no courage to admit that his research is misguided and his research subject does not even exist.

The only thing that any parent of gift children can learn from this book is: let your children be, support them but don't push them. The worst thing any parent can do is to behieve like Adam's mother in this book.

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