Here's a link to an Onion article that answers that question... http://www.bikramyoga.com/press/press1a.htm
I meant to post this when I posted the last thing. It seems a bit apt... American Gurus: From Transcendentalism to New Age Religion by Arthur Versluis. An account of a strain of Merican religios thought and practice from Emerson to the 21st century. Bikram is mentioned only in passing, as the emphasis is on (North) American "guru" figures ( fully acknowledging that the 19th century lecture circuit that gave us Emerson and Bronson Alcott is a bit different from the current scene that gives us a range of figures ranging from fairly compassionate and helpful (Richard Alpert/Ram Dass) to abusive cult-leaders operating with no ethical constraints.
couple i've recently finished. certainly not the most gripping history book i've ever read, but pretty interesting nevertheless. didn't know much about the mongols before, now know some. success. i can see how some of the information in this could be debated, but in general it's quite good. very quick and easy read. well worth it just for the way it gets you to think about certain topics.
I'm revisiting "Nelson" (Hibbert) A childhood hero of mine and probably every kid of the day. Feisty, pushy, yet charismatic little (5' 6" is the tallest he's listed at) bugger. Popular with officers and men. Hibbert. Wrote an excellent book, a blow by blow, minute by minute account of who was doing what to whom during the battle of "Travalgar" During a visit to Windsor Castle many eons back I remembered seeing a French musket ball on a shelf. It was the one that killed Nelson. Bloody big lump of lead 3/4 inch in dia. Went into the shoulder area drove down though his body and internal organs and lodged near his arse. He lived for about 4 hours. Must have made his eyes water
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro I get the reason why so many for so long have doubted that a tanner's son from Avon could have written the works attributed to William Shakespeare. The seeming lack of understanding of courtly manners and machinations, coupled with the paucity of direct physical evidence about the man must be maddening. But the gyrations that have to be accomplished to suggest Francis Bacon, the Earl of Oxford or anyone else are equally mind-numbing. This is the best work I've found yet that explains how the various "detractors" came to their positions. I agree with none of them, but I can now see where they're coming from.
Battle of Surigao Strait - Anthony Tully This part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf was the last surface battle between capital ships in WW II, and probably the last such battle ever.
I picked up Bernard Cornwell's latest yesterday and that found me going to bed at 3AM, Wish he wouldn't do that! I've followed Cornwell from the start and I believe I've read all of his books to date. (all 57 ) Bit of a formula the way his plots ebb and flow but I've come to enjoy that. Wish I could put battle scenes together like him. Wiki:- The forces of Wessex and Mercia have united against the Danes, but instability and the threat of Viking raids still hang heavy over Britain’s kingdoms. For Aethelred, Lord of the Mercians, is dying, leaving no heir and the stage is set for rivals to fight for the throne. Uhtred of Bebbanburg, Mercia's greatest warrior, has always supported Athelflaed to be Mercia's next ruler, but will the aristocracy ever accept a woman as their leader? Even one who is Aethelred's widow and sister to the king of Wessex? As the Mercians squabble and the West Saxons try to annex their country, new enemies appear on the northern frontier. The Saxons desperately need strong leadership, but instead they are fighting for an empty throne and threatening to undo the unity and strength they have fought so hard to achieve.
Started: Fantastic and highly recommended so far. Author Roach is funny, explains things well, and manages to make something we think little about the most interesting thing anywhere. Taste, smell, saliva, swallowing, digestion, acid, organs, flatulence, excrement, urine - so much interesting detail on all of it.
speaking of food, etc, i heard on the radio the other day how they make seamless chocolate cherries. they coat the cherry with sugar and then spray a saliva-like enzyme on it and then cover it in chocolate. the enzyme liquifies the sugar... voila!
Yes Please, Amy Poehler. Not really a good book, even by the standards of the genre, which has some great ones (by the likes of Graham Chapman, Steve Martin, and more recently, John Cleese) and pretty decent ones (Mark Maron and Mindy Kaling). It seems to have been written under duress, and indeed, this post would be more apt for a "so, what library book did you just skim" thread, BUT the parts about her years in Chicago were really interesting (I saw the Upright Citizens Brigade a couple times before they moved to NY, and would occasionally talk with a couple of her Chicago colleagues who get name dropped, like Neil Flynn, most famous for playing the janitor on Scrubs and Lindsay Lohan's dad in Mean Girls, and who would hang out in our neighborhood bar and give out passes to plays he was in), and the stuff about Parks and Rec are okay, too. Though I audibly swore when she mentioned first meeting Nick Offerman in Chicago after he'd appeared in a "really cool theater's" production of A Clockwork Orange, because I have distinct memories of almost going to see that, but then not going. ********.
Grey Ghost: The Story of the Aircraft Carrier Hornet – Lee Meredith The Hornet is now a museum in Alameda, California. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.
William Dalrymple: From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East. (1998) Dalrymple is a Scottish travel writer who in this book is retracing the steps of 7th century monk John Moschos, who visited many of the major monasteries and cities of his age. Certainly if John Moschos were to come back today it is likely that he would find much more that was familiar in the practices of a modern Muslim Sufi than he would with those of, say, a contemporary American Evangelical. Yet this simple truth has been lost by our tendency to think of Christianity as a Western religion rather than the Oriental faith it actually is. Morevoer, the modern demonisation of Islam in the West, and the recent growth of Muslim fundamentalism (itself in many ways a reaction to the West's repeated humiliation of the Muslim world), have led to an atmosphere where few are aware of, or indeed wish to be aware of, the profound kinship of Christianity and Islam Some of his hosts, Muslims as well as Christians, pretty accurately predicted what, for us, are current events.
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War - Drew Gilpin Faust Quite interesting, but needed a better editor.
second murakami book i've read. i really like after dark, and thought this was quite good too. was a little bit surprised how overtly sexual some parts were. first football related book i've read in a while. got the updated version one year on. the writing isn't great and some of the content is spread out oddly and repeated a couple of times. nevertheless, i wasn't reading it for great writing. some very interesting and humorous stories, even if some of the major revelations have already been covered in the media. it really flies by as well.