Books

Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

Average customer rating:

Compelling story
History Lesson
"I will not fail you, my love."
Politically inclined
Absolutely amazing!

Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
Queen Noor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Madam Secretary: A Memoir
Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation
Queen Noor: American-born Queen of Jordan (Signature Lives)
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

ASIN: B000HEYVM2

Book Description

Born in 1951 to a distinguished Arab-American family, Lisa Najeeb Halaby became the fourth wife of King Hussein at age 27. With her husband being not only Jordan's monarch but the spiritual leader of all Muslims, Lisa was unsure what her role would be. This moving memoir provides a timely look at one woman's story against a backdrop of 30 turbulent years: the displacement of over 1 million Palestinians by the creation of Israel, King Hussein's frustrated efforts for peace, and the effect of Saddam Hussein and the Gulf War on Jordan and the royal family. Queen Noor offers intimate new glimpses of King Hussein, Saddam Hussein, Queen Elizabeth, Arafat, and many other world leaders.

Customer Reviews:

Compelling story.......2007-06-21

Lot's of books teach you things. If read with an open mind, this book changes your perspective toward the muslim world. The book is a very easy and enjoyable read, especially for someone in the same age group as Queen Noor as she relates her experiences during these times that we have all lived through. She shows how she used the principles of peace and love, which we marched for in the 60's and early 70's, in her journey as the Queen of Jordan. Her story is inspiring and enlightening. She says her husband, the King, spent his life dedicated to those principles. For the past six years in this country we have gone through a period of demonization by the administration, and often by the media as well, of any non-christians, especially muslims. This book shows that moderate muslims are just like moderate christians and believe that their relegion teaches to relate to others with compassion and love. Just like in Christianity, the real "silent majority" is not the fundamentalists.

History Lesson.......2007-06-08

I found this to be an interesting history lesson from a very different perspective. I learned quite a lot about the history of the conflict in the Middle East. It isn't a fast read because you have to digest it as you go.

"I will not fail you, my love.".......2007-03-24

Lisa Halaby was born in 1951 to a privileged and influential Arab-American family. Upon graduation from Princeton, she worked as an architect and urban planner in several countries, including Jordan. Through her father, she met King Hussein, and after a brief courtship, married him in 1978 and became Queen Noor. She converted to Islam, learned Arabic, had four children, and worked tirelessly for the betterment of her new country. Though she disliked having her life described as a fairy tale, outwardly it certainly seemed to be one.

In her memoirs, the Queen alternates between describing the turbulent and frightening political times of the seventies and eighties, with very personal stories of her family life. She is protective and respectful of her husband, family, and country, and still paints a realistic picture of the challenges she faced adjusting to royal life. Her marriage lasted 21 years, until her beloved husband's death from cancer. She describes him as a loving and dedicated ruler and father. She comes across as an intelligent, hard-working, and articulate lady. Her story is so well-written, I could not put it down. A unique look into a fascinating "unexpected life."

Politically inclined.......2007-03-12

It seems that the entire book is trying to convey her political beliefs. I thought it would be about her life only - which sounds so interesting but there's too many politically inclined comments.

Absolutely amazing!.......2007-03-12

This book is absolutely amazing! Written so poignantly and eloquently about Queen Noor's life in the Middle East. She gives an inside look, or backstage pass, if you will, to her life. Which at times can be very mundane and funny and sad. Queen Noor is someone I would love to have lunch with I think she is so fascinating in her accomplishments as a Queen to a country that most of us don't understand. I, too, would have hesitated marrying someone that is head of a country and already has 8 kids where 4 of them still lived at home. She has handled her life with the upmost grace that I think even Grace Kelly would have been in awe of her presence. I thank her for allowing us to see a glimpse of her life and I feel honored. I have walked away with a new understanding that not all leaders of the Middle East think alike and thank goodness for that!! What a gift she has given the World!

Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown

Average customer rating:

Houston, we have a problem...
Cooper and the Saturn VIII
Al Shepard as Darth Vader? Naaaah.
The Best... And the Worst
Cooper to Earth: The King has no clothes!

Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown
Gordon Cooper , and Bruce Henderson
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey Of A Mercury Astronaut
Schirra's Space (Bluejacket Books)
Rocketman : Astronaut Pete Conrad's Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond
Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman
Deke!: An Autobiography

ASIN: 0060194162

Book Description

Gordon Cooper was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, a select group of the nation's top military test pilots who braved the frontiers of space in the days when strapping yourself to a rocket meant you would be either a hundred miles up or six feet under. Today he is undeniably a part of our nation's history as one of the four surviving Mercury Seven space pioneers. In Leap of Faith, Cooper not only reveals compellingly what went on behind the scenes of the early U.S. space program, but he also takes dead aim at the next millennium of space travel with his strong views on the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence--and even the distinct possibility that we have already had contact.

During his distinguished military flying career, Cooper was one of the best of the best at Edwards Air Force Base, where the setting of world records for speed, endurance, and altitude was an everyday occurrence. Even before joining this nation's newly formed manned space program, he understood the dangerous nature of new technologies: hanging it over the edge and pushing the envelope, then hauling it back in and doing it again tomorrow.

"Gordo" Cooper learned to fly with his father at age eight in his hometown of Shawnee, Oklahoma, and soloed by the time he was twelve. As an impressionable boy, he met overnight visitors to the Cooper household, including famous aviators like Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post, which only heightened his desire to take to the skies.

Ride with Cooper through his adventurous life in the cockpits of planes and spacecraft alike--he was the last American to go into space alone, exactly thirty-five years ago. He flew in Mercury and Gemini, and served as head of flight crew operations for both Apollo and Skylab, America's first orbiting space station. He was also backup command pilot for Apollo X and directed design input changes for the space shuttle program. He was buddies with Gus Grissom, who died in the tragic Apollo I fire at Cape Canaveral, and was close to Wernher von Braun, the German rocket scientist who was responsible for the United States beating Russia into space, and then to the Moon. Through it all, Cooper, a hero who shuns the label, speaks candidly of his defeats as well as his accomplishments. His life is a tapestry of space travel in the twentieth century.

And beyond. From a source as credible as Gordo Cooper come these claims: He innocently took revealing pictures of the mysterious Area 51 during his Gemini mission and ended up in the White House speaking about it to the president of the United States; he and other military pilots have chased unidentified aircraft in their Jets; and footage of UFOs taken by his film crew was confiscated by the government, all part of the U.S. military's long-time UFO cover-up.

Buckle yourself in and prepare for a wild ride; Leap of Faith takes you places you have never been before---and with Cooper's firm hand at the controls.

Customer Reviews:

Houston, we have a problem..........2006-09-14

Over the past few years I have rediscovered my fascination with the 1960s space race by reading several books by or about people connected with NASA back in those glory days. After reading "Leap of Faith" I have now read biographies of all the Mercury Seven astronauts. The good news is that Gordon Cooper's book is easily one of the most interesting. The bad news is that I don't exactly mean that as a compliment.

For about two thirds of this book Cooper recounts his days with NASA and here he is, pardon the expression, on solid ground. The passages feel a bit rushed and his interpretation of events differ from other viewpoints you may have read, but he's Gordon Cooper and he's earned the right to have his say.

Unfortunately, the NASA days are only part of Cooper's life story and it's the remaining one third of the book where he drives himself into the ditch. I knew from other sources that Cooper firmly believes flying saucers have visited the Earth and our government has conspired to keep the truth from us. I don't believe this myself, but again, he's Gordon Cooper and he has earned my respect. I was willing to listen to what he had to say.

A few UFO stories would have been fine, but Cooper shoots himself in the foot and destroys whatever credibility he had when he recounts his relationship with Valerie Ransone who he met in the late 70s. Ransone claimed to receive telepathic messages from space aliens and wanted to use the knowledge she was gaining to start something called the Advanced Technology Group. Of course, this group needed some funding to get itself going.

Rarely, if ever, have I read a book before where something becomes painfully obvious to the reader but of which the author remains blissfully unaware. Ransone begins to use Cooper for his name and prestige to obtain money for what is nothing more than a huge scam. Cooper never seems to catch on. His viewpoint always seems to be "It might be true, therefore it is true."

The lowest point in this silliness comes when Ransone announces that the aliens are coming to Earth to give Cooper a ride in one of their saucers. Cooper, as gullible as can be, prepares for his expectant UFO flight just as he had for any of his NASA missions. It comes as absolutely no surprise, to anyone but Cooper I guess, when shortly before the flight the aliens are forced to cancel. Apparently there was a political squabble over this proposed flight back on the homeworld. Darn the luck.

One is left to wonder if Cooper really believed all this nonsense or if he was just including it as a way to make his book stand out and sell a few more copies. Either way, it's a pretty poor way for a true American hero to act.

Cooper and the Saturn VIII.......2006-06-27

I too was first confused by Coopers reference to the Saturn VIII. After reading other books about Chris Kraft and Werner Von Braun, it dawned on me that he was referring to the Nova rocket that was on the drawing boards in the early sixties by Werner Von Braun. See the Wikipedea for more information. The Nova rocket was conceptualized before the powers that be decided on the LOR (Lunar Orbit Rendevous). Everybody, including Von Braun thought the best approach was the direct ascent, which was to land a rocket vertically and blast off from the moon and return home. The other option explored was (EOR) or Earth Orbit and Rendevous, where the componets for direct ascent were to be launched individually and assembled in earth orbit, then on to the moon. The winner, LOR, was scoffed, but through perseverance, it won out as the quickest way to get to the moon with the lightest payload. Therefore, the Nova (Coopers Saturn VIII) was never needed.

I'll admit this threw me for a while too. It was worded as if it existed. It never existed beyond the conceptual level. Wikipedia has a picture showing it having a 50' diameter first stage and 8 engines while the Saturn V had a 33' diameter first stage and 5 engines. The height would have been just 10' taller than the Saturn V. It would have been a beast at lift off.

I thought the UFO reference's a little far fetched, and I've read that the confication of film after the gemini lauch was improbable. Cooper says the film was developed right there on the recovery ship and I've heard this was never the procedure. Maybe he's right and their is a conspiracy after all!

Al Shepard as Darth Vader? Naaaah........2005-11-27

This work has produced a rather hefty array of responses from Amazon readers, many of whom are stridently opposed to Cooper's career-long pursuit of the secrets of UFO's and other mysterious new technologies, and others who see in the Mercury astronaut a hero of what now appears to be a cause losing steam. Our focus here is on the book, however. For as several reviewers have correctly observed, this is a tale of two Gordo's, one battling the unknowns of space, and the other battling the knowns of the NASA/military industrial complex.

Unfortunately, neither tale is particularly compelling. The account of the astronaut's career, coming as it did in 2000, was the tail of the dog in a string of early astronaut autobiographies as the pioneers rushed to beat the Grim Reaper with their version of events. As to the second, Cooper's extensive research and observations about UFO's are not as deliciously crazy as some would like us to believe, either. In fact, some of his conjectures about alien propulsion systems and the like are rather fascinating to the layman.

While Cooper has been a busy man since leaving NASA thirty-something years ago, it would seem that something he neglected to do is read what others around the space program were writing in those three decades, and specifically what they were writing about him. One Amazon reader in this sequence of reviews reports to having collected 150 such volumes himself. The general consensus of post-Apollo writers seems to be that Cooper's years with NASA are somewhat enigmatic. One of the original seven Mercury astronauts, he was the last one to fly, a statement of sorts about how the NASA hierarchy regarded him. [Oddly, NASA's "the best shall be first" policy in Mercury resulted in Cooper's complex and spectacularly successful Faith 7 two-day marathon, the last flight in the Mercury series.]

Cooper and Pete Conrad would fly the Gemini 5 mission in the summer of 1965 to test fuel cells, endurance and, as the author observes wryly, defecation technique. But after Gemini 5, Cooper becomes an invisible man. He was designated to the back-up crews of three future flights, the last of which, Apollo 13, he turned down as a political slight.

So why did the hero of Faith 7 fall out of favor in succeeding years? This is the question most readers today would probably bring to the book. The author himself never does soul-searching about his own role in why his space career stalled. Instead he boils his dilemma down to two words: Al Shepard. Cooper believes that Shepard, embittered by his health problems and eager to get back into rotation, used his influence with Deke Slayton, then assigning crews, to keep the Mercury hero under the radar. Cooper's distrust of Shepard appears to date back to his Faith 7 days in 1963 when he asked Wally Schirra to privately tail Shepard, then Cooper's back-up, during pre-flight training.

Cooper cites the Shepard/Slayton cabal as symptomatic of the increasing bureaucracy of NASA, the military, and the federal government. He notes, for example, his complaint in a conversation with President Lyndon Johnson that his photography from Gemini 5 had been seized and classified. Johnson coolly informed him that he, the president, had given the order. It is important for the reader to observe keenly Cooper's misadventures with government entities, for they are of one weave with his later criticisms of government cover-up in the reporting of UFO sightings and general hostility toward individuals like himself at the outer margins of technology, from this world or another.

If Cooper feels that he was blackballed by Shepard and Slayton, what can we say of astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman, Gene Cernan, and Pete Conrad, to name several whose careers thrived under the Slaton-Shepard regime? Lovell, in fact, flew four space missions [two Gemini, two Apollo] after Cooper's Gemini 5, and he is living proof that the "evil duo" was not completely adverse to the emergence of "stars" in the astronaut corps.

No, the answer to Cooper's dilemma is more personal, and probably reflects nagging doubts in NASA about Cooper's manageability and application to the growing complexity of the space business. In this Cooper was hardly alone. Nearly all of the original Mercury Seven had difficulty adjusting to a bigger astronaut corps, greater bureaucracy, public relations, politics, and the general idea of "teamwork." It is no accident that Schirra and Shepard, the two Mercury veterans to fly Apollo, each chose all rookie teams. [Walt Cunningham of Apollo 7 would refer to Schirra as "the cock of the walk."] Schirra himself found the new NASA so discomfiting that he passed on a sure moon landing assignment and retired.

Because Cooper does not really address his own career difficulties with insight, the charges of some historians that Cooper did not train or apply himself sufficiently will still be left to hang out there in the foreseeable future. This is regrettable, because Cooper, like his colleague Scotty Carpenter, was one of the true multidimensional human beings of the early space program. And I give him a great deal of credit for his respect of John Glenn and others for whom timing and luck made them national heroes.

Given Cooper's colorful space career, his subsequent employment by Disney, among others, comes as little surprise. The intrepid pilot of Faith 7 became--how can I put it?--a magnet for scientific entrepreneurs, some of remarkable brilliance, some eccentrics, and some undecipherable. Cooper apparently never lost touch with his astronaut friends, but he certainly picked up new ones along the way, including the mysterious clairvoyant and purveyor of character Valerie Ransone who seems to have preoccupied his personal and scientific attentions for a period in the 1980's. Perhaps if he had met Valerie in 1965, it would be Gordon Cooper making that giant leap for mankind.

The Best... And the Worst.......2005-10-04

Very good book as long as it deals with the space program, full of anecdotes. I learned a lot. (I have almost 150 books about the American Space Program). If you believe in UFO's then you will love all the book, if you don't you may be disappointed by some of Gordon Cooper's allegations.

Cooper to Earth: The King has no clothes!.......2005-08-28

In 'Leap of Faith,' Gordon Cooper adds his voice to the growing chorus of former military pilots and officers who have had direct experience with the alien presence, a presence the `Robertson Panel' has tried desperately to hide using the CIA's array of obedient "media assets." Though most of the old Cold Warriors fought the good fight to keep Americans ignorant about alien visitors, often right up until their deaths, quite a few have realized democracy doesn't function very well under such institutional self-deception. The lies have corrupted our government, weakened our economy, and spawned criminality in high places. If only America had a few thousand more voices like Cooper's!

This book is, of course, much more than a tale of aliens and their craft. It is the story of an adventurer who went where no one had gone before, at a time when technology was barely adequate to get him there. That took intellect and guts. But in my mind, it is Cooper's unwillingness to knuckle under to NASA's oppressive secrecy rules that makes him stand out among the astronaut corps, most of whom have kept their mouths shut about NASA's most significant discoveries.

Readers who have swallowed the official lie hook line and sinker may find it hard to accept the notion of aliens among us, but that is because they are deeply ignorant of our history. They were too young to remember when close-up `flying saucer' reports by commercial and military pilots filled the nation's newspapers. They don't recall when President Eisenhower tried to assure Americans, on the front page of the Dec. 16, 1954 'New York Times,' that the Earth was not being invaded by saucers from outer space. By 1953, the military machinery of censorship and propaganda began to torque down. Gradually, these stunning press accounts disappeared. The UFOs did not go away but press coverage did. That was good enough to fool a great many people.

To be sure, there have been many leaks since. In 1988, Maurice Chatelein, the brilliant engineer who designed the Apollo communications and data-processing system, confided in his book 'Cosmic Ancestors,' that some of the Gemini and Apollo craft had been followed by "space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin." NASA, he said, kept this information very quiet. This was confirmed by Col. Philip J. Corso in 'The Day After Roswell' (pp. 128-129). And there have been other such voices, most unheeded by America's sheep-like news media.

But you don't need to take their word for NASA's secrecy. Check out the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1203, Subpart B, which spells out the procedures for keeping sensitive NASA information Top Secret, Secret, and Restricted. Or consider that NASA plays a key role in administering the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, under which thousands of innovations have been classified for "national security" reasons.

NASA gets mighty nervous when UFO researchers get together to discuss space propulsion with its personnel, as they did in 1999. To make certain nothing classified got out, it sent Special Agent Keith Tate to monitor the event, as reported in the Oct. 8, 1999, San Francisco 'Examiner.'

As for face-to-face meetings with aliens, RAF Air Marshall Peter Horsley, an aide to Britain's Prince Philip, reported just such an experience in his 1997 autobiography, 'Sounds from a Distant Room.' Horsley also reported that British pilots, too, have had their share of aerial close encounters.

The gullible skeptics are being slowly dragged, kicking and screaming, toward the realization that they have been soundly hoodwinked by their own government. Is it so surprising that they lash out so emotionally at messengers like Gordon Cooper who bear such ego-shattering news?

Leaps of Faith: Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation

Average customer rating:

"Into the light"
Interesting and informative
A Great Addition to Skeptical Literature
Sanity
One of the best -- not just for sceptics

Leaps of Faith: Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation
Nicholas Humphrey
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
The God Delusion
The Inner Eye: Social Intelligence in Evolution

ASIN: 0387987207

Book Description

Leaps of Faith is a compelling and highly praised critique of beliefs in paranormal phenomena, miracles, and the like, written by the noted British psychologist Nicholas Humphrey. The author argues that our beliefs in the supernatural typically originate in anxiety about the future and are sustained by an entrenched belief in the duality of mind and body. More than just a debunking of supernaturalism, Leaps of Faith explores the psychology of the all-too-human tendency for wishful thinking. It explains why we hark after a fantasy world of magic and miracles - even when, arguably, we already live in the only world that offers real hope of fulfillment.

Customer Reviews:

"Into the light".......2003-12-21

The chapter title above perfectly synopsizes Humphrey's aim in writing this book. A long-time scholar of "paranormal" phenomena, he is well suited to examine and explain the foundations for belief in the irrational. A skeptical critic and insightful observer, he brings many years of experience to present this assessment of the "paranormal". He is anxious to dispel the emotional delusions of supposedly extrasensory experiences. Such events must not overwhelm reason, he argues. In this well-written and researched book, Humphrey examines how science has addressed and answered many questions over the centuries.

Religions and quasi-religions, he contends, are nurturing and explanatory medicinal packages for "orphaned minds". Seeking consolation, distressed people will cling to such weak reeds with desperate intensity. Attempts to assert rationality over many years have been repulsed or constrained by those who had easy answers to probing questions. The easy answer has always been found outside the realm of nature - the "super"-natural. While these answers are nearly universal, Humphrey focusses on Western European traditions and illusions. Of these, naturally, it is the Christ story which claims his attention.

Humphrey's handling of the Messiah phenomenon is unique. Jesus, instead of a "redeemer", is portrayed as a skillful conjurer from a young age. Using modern child prodigies as models, Humphrey suggests that Jesus, too, exhibited extraordinary talents in childhood. These need not have been "supernatural", but they certainly garnered attention. Following the example of a father-son mutually reinforcing alliance to perform "spoon-bending" feats, he suggests Jesus was the victim of a "virtuous circle" of family and friends encouraging him. While those in his home town remained skeptical, Jesus' talents in sleight-of-hand were applauded elsewhere. The acclaim grew widespread enough that even non-Christian paranormal practitioners rely on the model Jesus established. It's a compelling idea, both in accepting an historical Jesus while explaining how supposedly irrational events can gain wide-spread acceptance.

Readers are well-served by Humphrey's efforts to shunt the paranormal aside and replace it with analytical considerations of miracles, "psychic" phenomena and charlatanry. These habits are too easily ingrained into common thinking simply because they fulfill a desire to envision a future. Science, according to Humphrey, has failed to address the paranormal so as not to give it the credibility of attention. Perhaps a full-scale campaign, he contends, would dispel the myths and leave the gullible public in a more enlightened state. It would, he suggests, help dispel the disquieting view so much of the public has of science. Whether to understand the paranormal's tactics or to see why it should be fully discounted, this book is an excellent analysis of a dubious topic. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Interesting and informative.......2003-08-29

Overall a good book about why people come to believe in certain things and a good read to help sharpen your critical thinking skills.
Two criticisms however. The author's speculation on the historical Jesus while interesting is no more provable than any of the assertions by many others over the years.
More significant however is the assertion that he and many other secular humanists make that one should just enjoy the life you have and live it to the fullest. While that may sound good from the author's priviliged position as a member of the middle class in a western nation, that kind of assertion must surely sound hollow and meaningless to a starving kid in Africa.

A Great Addition to Skeptical Literature.......2001-11-19

There are now, thankfully, a number of very good books debunking paranormal beliefs (Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things, Sagan's Demon Haunted World, for example). Most provide a devasting critique of those beliefs and almost all approach belief in the paranormal in a similiar manner. Humphrey provides some new arguments and insights and hence, Leaps of Faith serves as both a great introduction to skeptical literature and as a source of new insight for people who have already sorted through most of the traditional arguments against the existence of supernatural forces in our daily life.

Humphrey's 'Argument from Unwarranted Design' turns out to be an incredible analytical tool and he uses it compellingly in a number of contexts. While most author's content themselves with trotting out the litany of scientific disproofs of the supernatural, Humphrey raises logical objections to alleged paranormal phenomena. Why should strange little phenonoma such as spoon bending bother to exist at all? How and why would they have been created in contravention to the rules of science and the dictates of normally parsimonious design? In short, Humphrey makes a strong case that the supernatural is both empirically AND logically unlikely.

One more thing, Humphrey has a very readable style. If the concepts sound complicated and off-putting, they become vivid and immediate as Humphrey gives simple examples and compelling illustrations. Wonderful to read!

Buy the book!

Sanity.......2000-12-21

What has always turned me off about debunkers and "professional skeptics" is the low, (very low), road they often take of ridicule, snobbery and an almost Evangelical Skepticism. Then there is this wonderful book by Nicholas Humphrey. Where other would-be Rationalists fail, Humphrey succeeds. He lays out for us elegantly, reasonably, sanely and with humour and compassion, the Materialist case; pointing out more succintly than anyone else I've read the flaws, not only in the logic of "Paranormalists", but many of the logical flaws "debunkers" fall into. The style of the book is relaxed and conversational, honest and straightforward and enjoyable. Sane medicine for the intellect. Highly recommended.

One of the best -- not just for sceptics.......1999-07-21

This is a very good, profound and readable book of why religion and superstition are, well, not good for you. Without hesitation the author shows that they are not just unscientific but actually anti-scientific. It may not convince the die hard "believers" but who could? The supernatural hypothesis will always win by default -- it is unbeatable, not because it is right but because one can always invoke those powers as to having done everything to confuse us. Sounds familiar ...?!

Just one warning: The book was published in Great Britain under the title *Soul Searching*. If you own this one you do not need *Leaps of Faith*, better look for *The Inner Eye*.

Average customer rating:

Lacking Depth, But Still Pretty Good

Abrupt Ending

Leap of Faith

Very good

typical Steel

Leap of Faith
Danielle Steel
Manufacturer: Corgi Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0552146390

Book Description

In her fifty-second bestselling novel, Danielle Steel weaves a compelling story of the power of lies, the misuse of trust — and of one woman's triumph over a devastating betrayal.

Marie-Ange Hawkins has the kind of childhood that most people dream of. Freedom, love, security in a beautiful old French château. But when Marie-Ange is just eleven, a tragic accident marks the end of her idyllic life. Orphaned and alone, she is sent to America, to live with her great-aunt on a farm in Iowa. Bitterly resented by the old woman, cut off from everything she has known and loved, Marie-Ange is forced to work tirelessly on the farm, dreaming only of the day she can return to her beloved Château de Marmouton.

In Marie-Ange's isolated existence, only the friendship of a local boy, Billy Parker, offers comfort and hope. But her only wish is to gain an education — and escape. Then, just after her twenty-first birthday, an unexpected visitor brings startling news and an extraordinary gift: the freedom to return to France, to Château de Marmouton.

When she arrives in France, Marie-Ange learns that the château's new owner is Comte Bernard de Beauchamp, a dashing young widower who invites her into his home, then into his heart. But their magical life together, which soon includes marriage, children, and lavish homes, slowly takes an ominous turn. A mysterious woman tells Marie-Ange a shocking story, a story so chilling she doesn't want to believe it.

Not even her dear friend Billy can help her now. He is thousands of miles away. And as the darkness gathers around her, Marie-Ange must find the faith and courage to take one, last desperate step to save her loved ones ... and herself.

Danielle Steel's powerful new novel is about being pulled into a place where nothing is what it seems. It is about being seduced and lied to and turned around, and wanting to believe the lies — until the moment comes, in one blinding instant, when survival and salvation depend on a final Leap of Faith: the only path to freedom, and life.

Customer Reviews:

Lacking Depth, But Still Pretty Good.......2007-06-13

I enjoyed listening to this audio book, as I am a Steel fan. However, it did rush and gloss over many details in the story. I wish it had been a little more in depth. Just as I was really beginning to get into it, it seemed to jump ahead in an effort to rush to the ending. I'll listen to it again in the future, but my favorite Steel novel is still The Dating Game.

Abrupt Ending.......2007-01-17

This book had a good baseline story, but the main character Marie-Ange is unrealistically naive for a girl who had such a hard life. If she really led the life portrayed in the book, she would have grown up quickly and her education would undoubtedly only added to her maturity, not made her such a naive nitwit as she is portrayed in the book. Even so, the book made okay reading until the ending, which was so very abrupt and unfinished. It just leads you to wonder, after all that--is that it????

Leap of Faith.......2006-12-26

This was my first encounter with the work of Danielle Steel. I found it to be an overall good story. In the first part of the book you get to know Marie-Ange and there's a very good description of her life and her friendship with Billy. After she inherits money, she goes back to France and gets married. Here's when the trouble begins. Her husband may not be who he appears to be... This part of the story had a great potential which it doesn't quite live up to because Marie-Ange, who seemed like a smart girl, now turns into a much too naive, almost stupid character. It made it hard to really feel sympathy for her problems, because she could have avoided so many of them. This, and a climactic sequence that was a bit too short keeps the book from getting four stars. But "Leap of Faith" is overall an enjoyable, quick read.

Very good.......2006-05-21

I thought this was one of the better Danielle Steel books I've read. I really enjoyed it.

typical Steel.......2006-01-31

I very much enjoyed this book (until the ending) --- It was fast reading as I wanted to see what was going to happen to this poor little orphan girl

This book made me realize how something can be too good to be true (or someone) and how it is vital for one to use wisdom before embarking on major decisions

Hope others will enjoy it as much as I did

Average customer rating:

A Leap of Faith
Queen of Jordan Noor
Manufacturer: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

ASIN: 075381756X

Book Description

Born into a distinguished Arab-American family, Lisa Halaby was a strongly independent young woman. After studying architecture at Princeton, her work on projects in the Middle East gave her a profound understanding both of the links between the environment and social problems, and also of the tumultuous history of the Arab nations. Then, in 1974, her life took a very different turn, when her father introduced her to the world's most eligible bachelor, King Hussein of Jordan. After a whirlwind romance, she became Noor Al Hussein, Queen of Jordan. With eloquence and honesty, Queen Noor speaks of the obstacles she faced as a young bride and of her successful struggle to create a role for herself as a humanitarian activist. She tells of her heartbreaking miscarriage and the births of her four children, along with her continuing support for King Hussein's campaign to bring peace to the Arab nations. But most of all this is a love story - an honest and engaging portrait of a truly remarkable woman and the man she married.

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Leap of Faith (Horseshoe Trilogies #7)
Lucy Daniels
Manufacturer: Volo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 078681750X

Book Description

Josie is excited that Jill Atterbury's cousin, Katrina, is visiting for the summer. When Katrina takes a bad fall trying to prove that she is the best jumper, Josie realizes that loving horses isn't just about riding, but taking care of the animal. With Faith's help, Josie must get Katrina to change her attitude and get back in the saddle.

Lara's Leap of Faith #2 (Royal Ballet School Diaries)

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very good sequel
Lara's Leap Of Faith
THIS BOOK IS SO TOTALLY COOL!! IT IS A MUST TO READ!!
wow
Lara's Leap of Faith

Lara's Leap of Faith #2 (Royal Ballet School Diaries)
Alexandra Moss
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Grace's Show of Strength (The Royal Ballet School Diaries)

ASIN: 0448435365

Book Description

Taking center stage this spring-Ellie Brown in The Royal Ballet School Diaries! With a passion for dancing and the drive to succeed, Ellie, an American girl, will stop at nothing to achieve her dream of getting accepted as a ballet student at the Royal Ballet School in London. This new series is the perfect mix of ballet, friendship, competition, and taking chances!
Dear Diary,
I made it! I was actually accepted to The Royal Ballet School's lower school. I love it, but I'm not used to dancing with an entire class of BADs-Brilliantly Awesome Dancers! I'm going to have to work if I want to keep up with the competition. And I'm not the only one-my bunkmate, Lara, has been struggling since she got here. I'd talk to her, but she definitely doesn't want my support! How can I convince her that we might need to work together if we want to stay on top?

It's Ellie's first day at the Royal Ballet School and she's feeling nervous and homesick. What if the other students don't like her? What if she's not as good as everyone else? But eventually Ellie begins to settle in at her new school, making new friends and learning the routines in her dance classes. Before long, Ellie befriends Lara. But Lara, who comes from a big family in Scotland, is struggling with a huge case of homesickness. Will Ellie be able to convince Lara to take a leap of faith and remain at the Royal Ballet School?

Customer Reviews:

very good sequel.......2006-07-17

In the second chapter of The Royal Ballet School (R.B.S.) Diaries, Ellie has made it into the R.B.S.'s Lower School. She describes all of her classes and ballet moves with superb details. She has made great friends with all of the other students, except for Lara, a fact that Ellie tries to change. Ellie shows her fantastic qualities of hard work, determination, and compassion. A wonderful lesson is mixed in with a very good ballet story. Ellie is an amazing example for any young girl, but especially ballerinas. The only negative comment I can make of the book, is that it can sometimes come off as an advertisement of the R.B.S., which is fine, but can be annoying at times.

Lara's Leap Of Faith.......2006-06-26

When Ellie arrives at the Royal Ballet School she easily becomes friends with all of the year 7 girls except for Lara. Ellie tries to get along with her but Lara doesn't welcome her offer. One day in Ballet class Ms.Wells anounces that there will be Nutcracker try-outs. Of course everyone is excited but not everyone will be selected to perform. However Lara and Ellie are two of the girls picked and are both given the same part. Lara was scheduled to perform on December 12th and Ellie was scheduled to perform on December 1st. But when Ellie finds out that she told her family that she was performing on the 12th instead of the 1st she is worried. Her mother's wedding was on the same day that she was performing. How would she ever be able to be at both events? But Lara is nice enough to switch show dates to resolve Ellie's problem. Without Lara it would have NEVER worked out.

THIS BOOK IS SO TOTALLY COOL!! IT IS A MUST TO READ!!.......2006-03-09

Reporter's Opinion: I think that that this is a great book for all girls, especially girls that are into ballet.

Summary: Ellie made it into the Royal Ballet School! She gets to do ballet everyday, but she has to do regular school work, too. She becomes really good friends with all of her dorm mates, except for Lara. At the tryouts, Ellie by accidentally bumped into Lara, and Lara thought Ellie was just trying to mess up her chances of getting into the Royal Ballet School. But soon they got it straightened out. They also got to try out for The Nutcracker. Bryony, Lara, and Ellie were chosen to be party children in it! When Ellie e-mails everybody about the great news, she typed the wrong date! She was dancing on the 1st, but she e-mailed that she was dancing on the 12th! So, when her mom called her, saying that she is getting married on the 1st and everyone bought tickets to see her on the 12th, Ellie finds herself in a big mess! She talked to Rose (the organizer,) and gets everything straightened out. She didn't even mess up once!

wow.......2005-04-12

Ellie is at RBS lower school! She loves it there. But there are two problems:
1. She is not the best in her class at RBS.
2. Lara, a roomate, hates her.
What is Ellie going to do?

Lara's Leap of Faith.......2005-01-21

This is a great book for anyone, especially dancers. I really like Moss' detail when se describes the ballet moves. I can relate to Ellie being mad at Lara, because sometimes my friends are annoying also. I am glad Lara and Ellie made up. This book really describes the Royal Ballet, I think. This is a great book for anyone, and I really liked it a lot. I hope you enjoy it.

Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith: Children's Myths in Contemporary America

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Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith: Children's Myths in Contemporary America
Cindy Dell Clark
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226107787

Book Description

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy--is there still a place for these imaginary creatures in today's skeptical society? More importantly, is it appropriate to encourage children to believe in these myths? In Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith, Cindy Dell Clark went straight to children and their parents for the answers. Using their insights, she offers fresh, new interpretations of the cultural and psychological roles these figures play in children's lives. Complete with children's vivid testimonies and colorful illustrations, this book is a revealing journey into a child's mind and world.

"A very enjoyable read, this book is a seriously researched record of children's myths, written with the observant accuracy of an anthropologist."--Nadja Reissland, Common Knowledge

"Clark posits some novel interpretations as well as intriguing glimpses for parents, teachers, and psychologists into the ways children shape our culture rather than merely being passive inheritors of it."--Booklist

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Leap of Faith
David Yonggi Cho , Paul Yonggi , and R. Whitney Manzano
Manufacturer: Bridge Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Leap of Faith: Embracing the Life God Gave You200

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Leap of Faith: Embracing the Life God Gave You200
Ellie Lofaro
Manufacturer: Cook Communications Ministries (CO)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 078144070X

Book Description

Are Christians supposed to have it so rough? It may surprise some believers that the answer is "yes!" Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. But as Ellie Lofaro shows us, there's a secret to "enduring hardships as a good soldier!" This book shows clearly how God's faithfulness can get Christians through every adversity--with their faith and trust in Him intact! Lofaro's gentle dividing of the Word and wonderful sense of humor will help readers understand the way God works in their lives during the toughest time.

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