John – Page 12 – Lemuria Books

Author: John (Page 12 of 19)

by David Richo

Shambhala (2002)

I would venture to say that we all have problems in the relationships we share with those we care the most about. It’s how we interact and respond to these problems that often solve the conflict or result in a disastrous outcome. Our awareness about ourselves and the understanding of our responses with the desire for adult consideration seem to work out the best results. Responses generated without forethought and heavy on emotionalism break down willingness for communication, increase drama, and lead to a disintegrating relationship.

David Richo understands that love is experienced differently by each of us. He has centered this book on the five aspects of love and how our self-esteem emerges from relationship contact with others:

1. Attention (leads to self-respect)

2. Acceptance (being a good person)

3. Appreciation (generation of self worth)

4. Affection (feeling loveable)

5. Allowed Freedom (pursuit of our deepest wishes, needs, desires, values, etc.)

David’s very helpful book explores these five As in detail, breaking down the positive and negative effects of interpreting our behavior effectively. He helps us to understand the five As and how they can improve the chances for a more positive companionship while exploring real intimacy.

David leads the reader to explain their past behavior by exploring their shadow. The result is increasing the awareness of why we make certain choices.

How to Be an Adult is not just about romantic time with your partner. It’s also about child-parent, parent-aging parent, worker-coworker, etc., basically any meaningful relationship in your life. David’s book is a major treatise for improving your knowledge of who you are, a guide on how to express truthfully and genuinely who you are, a guide for learning about and respecting boundaries.

Having a good relationship requires much work on ourselves. By being more comfortable about who we are allows us to pursue the satisfaction of our times with others more completely with more satisfaction. This is a masterly crafted tool for us to use to chisel our interactions in a way to create an artfully fulfilled life.

Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive by Dick Waterman

By John

On June 13, 2010

In Blues

Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive

Text and Photographs by Dick Waterman; Introduction by Peter Guralnick; Preface by Bonnie Raitt; Thunder’s Mouth Press (2003)

This collection is summed up best in the opening dedication: “To lovers of the blues . . . ” featured across the page from a 1968 photo of a young Buddy Guy.

Waterman’s book is a feast for the eyes on some of the most classic personalities in blues: John Hurt and Son House sharing a conversation (1964); Muddy Waters (1965); B. B. King (1966); Howlin Wolf (1965); Luther Allison and John Lee (1995); Albert King (1969); Otis Rush (1971); Big Mama Thorton (1972). And on and on, it seems as if they are all included.

Companion personal essays accompany each photo grouping with behind the photo experience commentary of Waterman’s time with the players. Looking at the photos, you realize Waterman’s fortunate exposure to this time and place. Reading about his interactions with these artists capture for the reader this glorious musical period. It’s easy to become jealous of the closeness he shared with these unique individuals.

Very rarely are we able to offer a true blues collectible in book form. Between Midnight and Day comes in a very special edition printed as 1 of 450 copies signed by the author. Also, an archival photo of B. B. King signed by Dick Waterman is laid in the folding protective box.

This book is also available in hardback and over-sized paperback.

Deep Blues by Robert Palmer

By John

On May 31, 2010

In Blues

Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History, from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago’s South Side to the World

by Robert Palmer

Viking Penguin (1981)

Browsers in our music section often say, “I want to read about the Blues, where do I start?” Always a good choice is Palmer’s Deep Blues. This little paperback is so readable and yet continuously informative – every page seems to have an unexpected folk-social history fact tucked in the text.

In 1903, the first descriptions of black music in the Delta were published in the Journal of American Folklore. From this point, Palmer describes the musical influence from Africa as it migrated into Delta culture, placing emphasis on how folk polyrhythms played such an important part in the development of Mississippi Blues (this section surely was one of my favorites, as Palmer featured interesting narratives on hand drumming).

From Dockery Plantation, to the early 1920s and 30s recordings, to Mighty Mojo Muddy From Stovall, Palmer writes a who’s who of Delta Music. With ease he explains how all the players were influenced by the music and each other, fitting in together and creating a Delta way of life. From the Delta, to Chicago in the 40s, through the Chess’n of the 50s Blues Gods – not leaving out King Biscuit Time or Memphis and all the pathways in between – Palmer clearly explains it all.

All the major players appear with jigsaw puzzle perfection explained in time, influence, and place. Palmer chronicles how major songs, bands, record labels and communities grew from the Delta blues, thus having a major impact on the world music scene.

Deep Blues has a chapter-by-chapter discography and bibliography to further guide the reader. Unfortunately, Robert Palmer passed away in 1997. A 30-year updated anniversary edition would be so interesting – a very good excuse for a reread.

Smile at Fear by Chogyam Trungpa

By John

On May 18, 2010

In Zen

Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery

by Chögyam Trungpa

edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian

Shambhala (2009)

When the stronghold of the ego is threatened, fear is one of our strongest mechanisms. A lonely ego is constantly defending itself with an aggressive attitude. By trying to understand our fear, we can use it to find ourselves, free ourselves and give up inhibitions.

The idea is simply facing the facts with honesty. By being honest with yourself, you develop a genuine gut level of truth. By discovering what’s there you can begin to see the traps and stop yourself from falling into them. Being aware that you are aware helps to relate to life constantly, directly and very simply. Emotional character and strength comes from connecting to reality.

If we weren’t struggling, we would be lazy and accepting the manufactured reality. Action with discipline, uniformity and gentleness toward ourselves helps separate our experiences from confused to wakeful. By controlling ego produced fear, we are able to see situations more clearly and are then able to deal more effectively.

Putting effort into becoming aware helps to overcome doubt. Fearlessness keeps the mind from being enclosed by the walls of the ego, giving us a more personal connection with reality.

Through genuineness and confidence, you create a psychological base to fall back on when you experience a consciousness gap. A constant process of growth gets us to the other side of fear. Fear becomes our study material casting away depression and doubt. Genuineness is actualized while consuming the jungle of ego.

Reading Trungpa helps me to grow and understand myself better. I have enjoyed all three of his books that Carolyn Rose Gimian has edited.

Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (1984)

Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala (1999)

The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine

By John

On May 5, 2010

In Psychology

The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think

by Louann Brizendine, M.D.

Broadway, March 2010

Like The Female Brain, The Male Brain traces the organic development of the brain through the stages of life. I have been looking forward to reading this book for over a year now. Comparing the two books was most interesting, and now future readers can read them back to back.

The male cell has a Y chromosome and the female does not. Eight weeks after conception, the tiny male testicles begin to produce enough testosterone to fundamentally alter its structure.

The male brain is a lean mean problem-solving machine with two and a half times the brain space devoted to sexual drive. Sexual thoughts flicker all day and night making him always ready to seize sexual opportunity. Women don’t always realize that a penis has a mind of its own.

Especially parents of both sexes will benefit from reading The Boy Brain and The Teen Boy Brain sections. Boys’ moods and drives are explained clearly as they change biologically and with age. Mating and parenthood go way back in the evolution of the male brain development. The need to protect loves ones and to reproduce drive the male towards survival.

Now that I am getting old, I especially enjoyed the section on manhood and the description of the emotional lives of men.

I agree with the author: “. . . learning the male brain can help men and women feel more intimacy, compassion and appreciation for each other. Such understanding might be the most important factor in creating a genuine balance between the sexes.”

In 2008, I was reading The Female Brain and wrote about it here. Joe also has read The Male Brain and wrote about how it has affected his role as a parent. Check out Louann’s website here.

The Art of Happiness at Work by the Dalai Lama

By John

On April 22, 2010

In Business/Economy, Zen

The Art of Happiness at Work
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and Howard C. Cutter, M.D.
Riverhead Books (2003)

After writing about Linchpin and while reading reading the Dalai Lama’s new book, The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World, I decided to reflect on this helpful book that I had read years ago.

Happiness is feeling in control over what you do everyday. Happiness is the freedom to do your work your own way and assuming that responsibility personally.

Your work is not your entitlement; it’s about earning through effort. If you are not satisfied with your labor, there is nothing wrong with quitting and finding a more rewarding job.

I especially enjoyed the Dalai Lama’s comments on work overload. When the Dalia Lama was asked about being overloaded with work, he said: “What do you mean?” Conscious employers have the responsibility to judge how much a person can responsibly be expected to do. Too much overload is a lack of respect or concern expressed toward the employee. As does lack of employee effort show lack of respect for one’s job and management. The Dalai Lama suggests training our minds to use human intelligence with reason and outlook, an analytical meditation on personal initiative.

The very purpose of making money is to provide ourselves with a means to accomplish something and not basing wealth on something artificial. The realization of interdependence and interconnectedness in the workplace encourages broader vision and more satisfaction. Avoiding destructive emotions, jealousy for example, encourages teamwork with the understanding that no event yields 100% satisfaction.

Linchpin and The Art of Happiness at Work emphasize the individual’s responsibility through effort to not be bored with your job. It’s our responsibility to decide the level of challenge that provides the greatest degree of growth and satisfaction. The emphasis on the flow of absorption through work as a creative art form results in more happiness.

Linchpin by Seth Godin

By John

On April 9, 2010

In Business/Economy

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

by Seth Godin

Portfolio (2010)

Linchpin is about what the future of work looks like. As you read the book you realize it’s already happening. There are those people around you who have decided that a new kind of work is important and are retraining themselves to do it. These are workers who want to do something that matters. I have tried to extract some of the main points Godin makes in Linchpin.

Linchpins leverage something internal and external to create a positive value. There are no longer any great jobs where someone tells you precisely what to do. Successful organizations are paying people who make a difference: A group of well-organized linchpins working in concert to create value.

A linchpin brings passion and energy to the organization, resulting in getting the job done that’s not being done. This is essential. “Not my job” is not in their vocabulary. Being pretty good is extremely easy; Just meeting expectations is not remarkable.

A linchpin has a skill, not a gift. Linchpins are made, not born, by making internal choices, not being controlled by external factors, using self-determination and hard work. Almost any job can be humanized with mindful awareness.

Linchpins solve problems that people haven’t predicted, haven’t seen and connect people who need to be connected.

Work is a chance to do art. Your art is what you do when no one else can tell you how to do it. It is the art of taking responsibility, challenging the status quo and changing people.

Emotional labor is the task of doing important work even when it’s not easy. Not willing to do emotional labor is a short term strategy.

Linchpins know the rules but break them. Successful people are successful for one simple reason. They think about failure differently. It is essential to learn directly and correctly from your mistakes.

Our system is broken. Being a linchpin is about making a difference, standing for something and earning respect and security you deserve. Work should be fun and it is not something you can fake.

Linchpin: noun: a locking pin inserted clockwise (as through the end of an axle)

The Five Things We Cannot Change by David Richo

By John

On April 5, 2010

In Psychology, Zen

One of the great rewards of working in a bookstore is the new writers you learn about from customers. My reading has always been enhanced by loyal Lemuria readers caring enough to share meaningful suggestions with me. Thanks to Eliza, a Boston pal, I embarked on a David Richo reading path.

Accepting the difficult realities of life and dropping our resistance to them is the key to liberation and discovery. Richo, a psychotherapist, states that there are five unavoidable facts, five unchanging facts that come to visit us many times over.

1. Everything changes and ends.

2. Things do not always go according to plan.

3. Life is not always fair.

4. Pain is part of life.

5. People are not loving and loyal all the time.

Richo believes our fear and struggle against these givens are the real sources of our troubles. Exploring these facts in separate chapters, Richo provides many helpful ideas on how to break down our automatic neurotic ego controls.

In part two, Richo combines Buddhist insight to give us tools for our daily work of establishing an unconditional yes to our conditional existence. Lessons for using lovingkindness and meditation to understand our feelings. As our awareness and mindfulness improve, we are able to move toward yes to who we are psychologically and spiritually.

Using Richo’s insight of shadow-work psychology, Five Things shows how we can open our lives and decrease the automatic ego controls that narrow our lives.

Readers of James Hollis should enjoy reading David Richo as well.

The Truth of Suffering by Chögyam Trungpa

By John

On March 24, 2010

In Zen

The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation

by Chögyam Trungpa

Edited by Judith L. Lief

Shambhala (2009)

The Truth of Suffering is an ideal introduction and exploration into Buddha’s teaching known as the four noble truths. These four truths are the Buddha’s lessons on suffering, its cause and its cessation. The teachings also include the way to practice in order to overcome anxiety, deception and neurosis. Trungpa explores and explains the four truths masterfully in this text.

The first noble truth is recognizing the reality of suffering and understanding the experience of suffering. Recognition is the first step to being present. After recognition, we begin to dissect the suffering experience by working on our habits and ego.

The second noble truth is understanding the origin of suffering and learning avoidance. We can learn avoidance by examining our flickering thoughts and set patterns of thought and behavior. Understanding these pattern mechanics help us to recognize what is undesirable.

The third truth is cessation of goal attainment. This leads to a gradual transcending into more awareness, a living meditation with a more mindful presence while decreasing fixation.

The fourth noble truth is the path to actualization. It is the realization that the path is yours and the result of your actions alone. Actualizing this awareness with the world leads us towards contentment.

Judith Lief wonderfully edited Trungpa’s helpful and concise presentation. It is easily understood and his teachings are originally laid out as an ideal introduction for the beginner as well as the experienced practitioner in search of deeper understanding.

The Dip by Seth Godin

By John

On March 12, 2010

In Business/Economy, Psychology

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (And When to Stick)

by Seth Godin

Portfolio (2007)

Yesterday, I was asked, “Are you going to close Lemuria?” I smiled back and simply said, “No.”

Of course, no one knows the future, but as I reflect on Godin’s The Dip, I’m reinforced by his concepts of using a big picture view of building small business. Using a big picture view, small businesses must have resources laid up ahead of time in order to deal with unsuspecting problems. This recession has produced many problems for small businesses, forcing us to question our focus and judgments.

Godin emphasizes that difficult times create difficult work. However, opportunity for more profit exists as we give our best effort to oppose a severe dip. Ask yourself, “Is this dip my greatest ally?” Remember shortcuts are not the answer. Investing time and money into something that can get better is adding value. Don’t play the game if you can’t give it your best effort. Keep in mind who decides what’s best. You do!

Now is a great time to start a new business or refortify or renew an old one. On an individual level, it is also an advantageous time to contribute one’s labor to a place with a quality vision.

Lemuria = A good bookstore? We are being tested. We hope to be authenticated by this process. As we confront this “dip” we want more of the better books in our inventory, and we are striving to be better booksellers. We want to practice good customer service (which is easier with fewer customers). Our readers are our judge and jury. You decide the success of our book-selling. Compare us to our competition as they work through their “dip,” too. Furthermore, book-selling as an industry is changing. Lemuria wants to change in light of all this and become something better in the process.

Seth’s Dip questions sticking with or moving on, striving for excellence whichever the decision.

Click here to read other blogs on Seth Godin’s books.

Author: John (Page 12 of 19)

How to Be an Adult in Relationships by David Richo

Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive by Dick Waterman

Deep Blues by Robert Palmer

Smile at Fear by Chogyam Trungpa

The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine

The Art of Happiness at Work by the Dalai Lama

Linchpin by Seth Godin

The Five Things We Cannot Change by David Richo

The Truth of Suffering by Chögyam Trungpa

The Dip by Seth Godin

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