| Title | : | Powerful Prayers: Conversations on Faith, Hope, and the Human Spirit with Today's Most Provocative People |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1580630863 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781580630863 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1998 |
Recent surveys indicating fifty percent of all Americans are now praying at least once a day, and nine out of ten people in the nation's largest and most unconventional city, New York, believe in God. The current public attraction toward religion-oriented books, radio and television programs further reflects this renewed interest in spirituality.
Through his unique relationships with celebrities and political leaders, King explores the intimate prayers of such famous personalities as President Jimmy Carter, President Gerald Ford, Shimon Peres, Barbara Bush, Noah Wylie, Muhammad Ali, Steve Young, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Tommy Lasorda, Lou Holtz, Scott Hamilton, Alexander Haig, Senator John McCain, Reverend Jerry Falwell, Reverend Cecil Murray, Alan Dershowitz, Marianne Williamson, Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson, Jack Kevorkian, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, Dr. John Gray, and many others.
Powerful Prayers examines the lives that have been suddenly and permanently altered through prayer, and lives that are sustained by its everyday practice. It reveals the prayers of world leaders prior to crucial decisions, businessmen before closing a big deal, players and coaches before the big game, and generals during battle, then questions if praying to win is the same as praying for someone else to lose. It explores prayers of thanks and prayers for things, and asks if offering something in return for answered prayers is simply bargaining with God.
Powerful Prayers is fascinating, informative, insightful, and inspirational. It is a perfect blend of the secular and the spiritual--a bestseller with heart.
Powerful Prayers: Conversations on Faith, Hope, and the Human Spirit with Today's Most Provocative People Reviews
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Poor Larry King. I was prompted to read this after his passing by an article that ran as a tribute, mentioning this book as Larry's exploration of the value of prayer. Unfortunately the book is dated. Many of the celebrities he "interviews" are long gone and obscure. Their responses to his enquires about prayer are trite and shallow, and, what's worse, Larry learns nothing. He stars out being a skeptic and cynic on the meaning and value of prayer, and remains so through the end. He gains no insight as, in fact, none is provided.
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Larry King is apparently as bad of an author as he is an interviewer. I fail to see the fascination with him, or to understand his success. His interview style, like Barbara Walters, is short and choppy, machine-gun style, though not as hard hitting as he would have you believe. No flow, conversation or follow-ups. No probing or ability to really unearth underlying meaning, which is especially frustrating in a book purported to be "conversations" and to deal with spirtituality, which does not suit his interview style.
Larry seems almost proud of his own lack of spirituality, and is amused by his own simple-mindedness when it comes to matters of spirituality. I'm confused why he even wanted to take up this topic. He should have left it to Charlie Rose. -
thoughtful and makes one think.
- pretty Judaism-dominated, but isn't the world (almost in every field) greatly influenced by people of Jewish faith.
- The Jewish stories are always interesting:like "the fate of the world depending on the conduct of the 12 good men somewhere in the world" or something like that (cannot recall the exact - please advise the page no. if anybody comes across it). Wonder why this idea has not evolved into a fantasy novel by some writer out there (or has it?)
- The power of healing by prayer, positively mentioned in the book, should be updated with new studies indicating otherwise.
- I dont find there's enough interesting material to make up a book, could have been reduced to a magazine article instead. -
Interesting, but not very edifying. King is stubbornly anti-prayer. What I found interesting is how shallow the "professionals" came off sounding when they described their prayer life, how spiritual and prayerful the artists were, and how many people described themselves as "spiritual" but "non-religious," meaning the institutions of religion did not help or inform their prayer life. That just fuels my "holy discontent with the status quo." Larry's rabbi was inspiring. By the end of the book I wanted to meet him!
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Here we go, a short and sweet review:
It was ok, but nothing to write home about. The overall theme of Larry King exploring his awareness of God / faith was weakly driving the story. Each little story within the book were provided as discussions with famous, influential, or devout persons, and while somewhat interesting, didn't do anything to support the structure or proposed intention of the book. -
Good read. Interesting.
