Robert Thurman--father of Uma, outspoken critic of George Bush's administration and one of the first Westerners to bring popularize Buddhism in America—has written what is arguably his finest book. In Infinite Life he invites readers into a fascinating new way of thinking living and meditating that might do more to save the world than any political act known to humans. In recognizing that our lives and even our moment-to-moment choices choices have eternal ramifications, we are at once free from the burden of petty pursuits yet suddenly saddled with the weight of infinite responsibility. Thurman helps students understand that carrying this weight is the only way we can free ourselves and the rest of the world form suffering. Buddhists recognize this as the path of "the bodhisattva," dedicated to the well-being of all beings. In order to help readers make this quantum shift in awareness, Thurman structure his chapters around the paramitas, or transcendent virtues: wisdom, generosity, patience, contemplation, justice (usually called "discipline"), and creativity ("diligence"). He adds a seventh virtue: art—as in the "art of infinite living." Each chapter includes a lesson on a virtue as well as meditations and life choices that support personal and global transformation. "You can try out a whole new approach to life," he promises. "Then we'll explore how can put your new ideas into practice in the world, turning your thoughts into action. We'll examine the repercussions of your personal change on society and on the fragile, opalescent planet. We'll see how personal transformation is social transformation."

He delivers his promise with political and spiritual punch. Some criticize Thurman for his outspokenness against the current Bush administration. But for those who want to use their spirituality to create political change—this book is filled with excellent meditations and lifestyle suggestions for bringing about global compassion and humanity. --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly
One day more than 40 years ago, when Thurman was a 21-year-old novice monk (the first Western Tibetan Buddhist monk), he had a physical experience that showed him how the idea of reincarnation, so vast and impossible to verify, can transform our lives right here and now. In his follow-up to Inner Revolution, the Columbia University professor describes how he was walking down a road in New Jersey, sent by his Tibetan teacher to buy milk for tea, when he suddenly experienced the lifting or release of a familiar "push-pressure" around his tail bone. "The pressure gone, I immediately saw that I had always been feeling as if I were being pushed along from behind toward my destination, not only to the grocery store on Route 9 but to my destiny in life, my future in general." Taking stock, he realized that under all of his ordinary thoughts, he had been pondering the Buddhist understanding of the "beginninglessness" of life. Here, in a guide that can be read through as daring thought experiment or delved into as a workbook, Thurman seeks to impart a sense of the inner freedom, the literal lightening up, that becomes possible as we begin to understand that we are all participants in an "infinite life." Thurman explores related transcendent virtues: wisdom, generosity, justice, patience, creativity, contemplation and making art in the service of others. He offers meditations but always returns to the larger truth that true enlightenmentâ€"true awakening to the infiniteâ€"is never an escape from life but a state of awareness and compassion for other living beings. Among the riches offered here is the insight that we do not become faceless blobs as we realize our selflessness and the infinite nature of our lives but true individualists. Liberated from a fear of death and isolation, confident that we are in a long-term relationship with life that can never be severed, we can begin to help ourselves and others to happiness. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Thurman, a preeminent Tibetan Buddhist scholar, has long championed the cause of Tibet's liberation and sought to promote Buddhism in the West, writing a number of worthy books, including Inner Revolution (1998). He is also, as his biographical materials note, the father of actress Uma Thurman as well as a "close personal friend of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama," a vague celebrity status that may have inspired the misguided pop approach of this attempt to present Buddhism as a scientific alternative to Western psychology. Thurman begins with the premise that all beings will have an infinite number of lives, and that all are interconnected. He then presents his Buddhist "psychology," and encourages the cultivation of wisdom, generosity, justice, patience, creativity, and contemplation through various meditations. Unfortunately, his attempt to reach a mass audience falls short as the book's breezy conversational tone and uneven prose distract from valid ideas. Jane Tuma
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Blinking Red Light was the debut of an explosive natural-born talent who set it off on the first page and never let up. Now, Mister Mann Frisby drives the urban thriller in a graphic new direction as three players cross tracks on the night streets of North Philly.

It goes like this: Sticks is a struggling single dad doing everything he can to dodge any slip-up that could give his ex-wife custody of their daughter. He needs money to keep that from happening. Then Sticks stumbles on a bootleg video of a rap star with a solid rep, caught on tape doing something that could ruin his career and send him to jail. Sticks's friend Kheli convinces him that it's the get-rich scam he needs. Blackmail the punk. But Kheli's got an agenda of her own, the rapper isn't in the mood to play, and the word on the street is Sticks is a dead man.

A nightmare of stunning reversals and violent twists of fate, Wifebeater is a thriller all right. Now there's no turning back.