I wouldn't recommend this book... lacks credibility.
	In his book, The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz, embodies four principles for experiencing personal freedom in life.  He says that we should be impeccable with our words, not to take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and to always do our best. The basis for some of the agreements we make with ourselves stem from early childhood training through a series of rewards and punishments from our parents.  He calls this process "domestication" (p. 6). Ruiz says that 95% of the beliefs we hold are nothing but lies and that most of our agreements are based upon the fear of rejection.  The agreements that he gives are meant to free us from the emotional bonds that get in the way of our personal energy and to transform our lives.

While there are various nuggets of truth throughout the book, some of it goes off into the abyss where he takes a thought and carries it to what I would consider to be to be an illogical conclusion. In some instances he uses biblical scripture to support his claims; however, in looking further, he takes some of the passages from the Bible out of context.  Some of his ideas are presented as if they were new ideas, but I would think most of us by a young age, should already an understanding of these principles. Although his book has been highly rated, I hold the position that Mr. Ruiz lacks credibility and logic as a writer, therefore, losing good standing with me as a reader.

According to Ruiz, as children we are not given the opportunity to choose our own beliefs.  When we go against the rules we are punished (or rewarded for compliance). The fear of rejection leads us to agree with, or become something that we are not. In essence, we become a carbon copy of someone else, such as our parents.  He says our normal tendencies are lost and we judge other people based upon these agreements.  He boldly states, lacking statistical data to back it up, that 95% of our beliefs are based upon a lie (13).

The implication is that we are merely nothing more than a society of mindless, "domesticated" individuals, hurting ourselves, judging and victimizing other people along the way.  This kind of thinking negates the teachings associated with parenthood and the positive aspects they bring to our lives. By his interpretation, if 95% of what we believe is a lie, then 95% of what our parents taught us is also a lie.  I would disagree.  There are many people who exist today as viable, productive members of society who I'm sure would point out they too became a copy of someone else's beliefs and values.  If these role models are only filling our heads with lies and teaching us how not to be ourselves, by his interpretation, we don't need parents, teachers, or leaders. He undermines our personal paradigms and omits that as adults we do have the ability to choose a different path, which I believe is our right of passage. By his rational we lose the ability to choose our own destiny.  Instead, we become victims of it.

One of the few things we agree upon is his first agreement, be impeccable with your word; however, he misquotes the bible (John 1:1) when he says "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God."  He uses it to epitomize the use of "word" as in what one speaks (26).  Looking a little further down in that passage, it also says "The word was made flesh and dwelt among us".  This passage is not talking about a form of speech, or speaking, but rather "Jesus Christ".  Christ became flesh and dwelt among us.  In that same chapter he says that "sin begins with rejection of yourself" (31).  However, in Christianity it says that sin is a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4) and that sin is neglecting to do God's will (James 4:7).  It's not about self, but about disobeying God's ordinances. While I agree that watching what we say is something we all need to strive for, this is not a new concept.  Most children have learned by the age of 6 that if you don't have something nice to say, don't say it at all.

In his second agreement, don't take anything personally; he says that nothing people do is because of you. While this is true to some degree, he leads the reader down a path of illogical extremes when he says that even if someone took a gun and shot you in the head, it was nothing personal.  So in essence, when Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot by Amy Fisher, her expression of displeasure regarding Amy's behavior was nothing more than a fundamental form of projection because according to Ruiz "you are dealing with yourself, not me" (51).  No, realistically, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot because Amy Fisher wanted her dead. This kind of logic encourages victims to remain in dysfunctional relationships and perpetrators to continue abusing victims.  As an American, I'm glad that someone took 9/11 personally.

According to Mr. Ruiz he takes neither destructive nor constructive criticism.  It seems arrogant to place myself so far above reproach, that I would turn a deaf ear to all forms of criticism.  When my College writing professor, gave me his opinion regarding my work, if I were following the authors line of reasoning, I would believe that my professor was "trying to poison my mind and was feeding me his emotional garbage" as Mr. Ruiz suggests (49). I would rather believe that my instructor has my best interests at heart and is seeking to teach me how to become a better writer.

Another agreement is about not making assumptions in life.  He says when we make assumptions, in essence, we create unnecessary drama.  Unfortunately we live in a world where that is not entirely possible.  Assumption is a necessary part of a thought and reason; even within the scientific community a hypothesis (or assumption) is formed in order to test a theory.  In order come to school each day I must make assumptions that my instructor has a college degree, and that he or she must be reliable enough in life to make it to work everyday.

In his forth agreement, always do your best, he claims it is based upon the actions of the other three agreements, stating they will only work if you do your best.  Again, these are fundamental principles that almost any child has learned.

While Ruiz does indeed present some viable ideas, his concepts begin to unravel when he doesn't back up his statements with facts, but instead takes a basic concept and follows an illogical line of reasoning to reach his final conclusion.  I can't completely discount everything that he says, but he lost credibility with me by some of his assumptions and weak rationalizations.


WORD GAMES
	AGELESS BODY is Deepak's attempt to neutralize the word "old" as in old age.  The writer has a knack for making common words, like "body, "mind" and "self," into profound concepts.  His technique is to overlay his abstract ideas with suggestive experimental studies.  But ambiguity in interpreting these studies abound.

	If you like poetry, Deepak may be your read: "The billions of changes occurring in our cells are only the passing scenery of life; (P. 36)"  Or try to interpret this one: "The emptiness at the core of every atom is the womb of the universe; in the flicker of thought when two neurons interact there is an opportunity for a new world to be born. (P.40)"

	At times he attributes to cells and DNA a creative intelligence to direct their own construction and at other times his designer is invisible.  He would make a great spokesman for the current hocus pocus over "intelligent design."  He can't accept the growth of any cell, even a plant cell, without an intelligence involved.  He mentions and attacks evolution only one time on P. 115, asserting that the growth of a cell could never be a random process.

	Deepak ends up in the very same thought circle as every other writer who tries to explain life in scientific terms: Intelligence is a self organizing entity and every cell evolved is only intelligence having a conversation with itself.  Whether your word game tosses in the word "quantum" or not doesn't change much.  What a solipsistic thought; what a solipsistic world.  I wonder if his readers who actually experienced the oneness Deepak speaks of wouldn't, after awhile, go insane


Just what we need..........
	more hate books.  How could anyone write anything so wrong


Hate Litterature
	When I read this, I was not expecting to become a commie, but at least I was hoping for something more compelling than the pure hatred of people who have more than others and the racist concsipracy theories (especially re Jews) that the authors came up with.

I understand that people accord this book some respect because it has influcenced many people.  But that is what hate litterature does.  This book is especially powerful in its attempt to find sharp class lines to allow the "masses" to hate


Disappointing with a capital  quot;D quot;
	I'm in a good mood today, and feeling generous -- hence the two stars. Secrest learned that Rodgers could be a rotten person, that he drank and was a womanizer. She then proceeds to beat us over the head with it at great length. I didn't count the words, but it seemed like she spent more time on that then she did on Rodgers and Hammerstein -- not to mention the post-Hammerstein years. We learn nothing about how these shows came about and what happened to them beyond the most cursory; it's if her research there was limited to the notes on the cast albums. I've kept most of my theater books, except for this one. It went to the used book store


A total disappointment and very depressing
	I've always been a huge fan of Nicholas Sparks, and I couldn't wait to read Dear John. Well, there was no reason to rush. It starts out okay, but then just gets more and more depressing. The main girl character is annoying and you hope that John will find someone who deserves him, instead of just pouting over her for most the book.
I cannot wait for another Nicholas Sparks book, but only because I want to know that he hasn't lost his touch, and that this novel was just a fluck


Terrible
	If you want to be scared and paranoid through your first pregnancy, then this is the book for you. This book has no insight on anything. It is vague. It doesnt explain anything in detail. It talks about every possible thing that could go wrong but probably wont. Each chapter lists all the symptoms you might be expeiriencing, but that is as far as that goes. Its not a very good book to turn to you if you have concerns because it will just make you have more! You might as well ask your doctor because this book constantly refers you to your doctor. It has no insight or answer for anything unless you have a high-risk pregnancy


quack quack
	This guy's box is missing a few tools.Most of the stuff he quotes as fact is not supported in real life. He's full of crap. Everybody knows walking is good for you, but kevin T. starts his chapter on walking by saying that 'when you take your dog for a walk, he (or she) poops............well la-de-f_____ing-da....isn't that WHY you take your dog for a walk....because you don't want him (or her) to poop in the house. Then there's his statement that if you put your teflon pan on high heat and have a parakeet on your shoulder, the bird will keel over dead because of the poisonous gasses.......and another thing, who ever heard of an acidic body???  I think I know what planet Trudeau came from....URANU


Disappointed
	I really liked Suzanne Summers. I've read all her other books and have her tai chi exercise video. When I saw her on the Today show advertising this book I couldn't wait to get it.

She promotes the Schwarzbein Principle which states that being a vegetarian is unhealthy. Suzanne has an entire chapter dedicated to someone named Wendy who after 10 years of being a vegetarian was convinced to start eating meat again! Just because Wendy's particular diet was unhealthy, that doesn't mean that all vegetarians are unhealthy. There are meat eaters that have unhealthy diets. Look at all the Hindus in India, they're lifetime vegetarians and are healthy.

I know that soy has been a controversial subject recently, but it's the pill form of soy that is questionable, soy it it's natural form is healthy for you. How can you say that soy is bad for you when millions of East Asians eat soy as part of their daily diet? I've read countless books and research that supports the benefits of soy.

I eat a balanced vegetarian diet and get all the nutrients my body needs.  Just because one doctor doesn't believe that a vegetarian diet is healthy, doesn't make it a fact. Suzanne you've really gone too far to tell everyone to stop being a vegetarian. With that misinformation in your book, I have a hard time believing that anything else is true and fact.


A Let Down
	This novel is set in the 40's, when Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) was found murdered, her body cut in two. The characters revolve around the investigation of this incident, altnough her name is changed. The chapters go back and forth between the views of two brothers: one, an amoral cop, the other, a Catholic priest, Monsignor, businessman, whatever you want to call him.  Neither one is likable, the 40's cop jargon is incomprehensible, and the Catholic politics/building programs are boring.  However, the murder is solved and the end is neatly tied up with a bow.

If old cop stories appeal to you, you might like this, but I'm sure you could find better.  Double Indemnity, for instance, is superior


This is a great book...
	This is a great book if you have the right teacher. The book is very informative yet if you have no back ground in abnormal psych you might want to make sure the teacher for your course is capable of explaining it to you. I also recomend that you make sure your copy has a CD rom. The study guide and website are great tools too. They help a lot


don't -- just don't.
	if you have fond memories of ms steele, or no memory at all because you're new to her, please... don't read this book.

liam looks like a child with his long blond hair; he acts up because no one can control him since that's what his parents tried to do to him; he sees any "no" as a slap in the face because once again, that's what his parents did to him.

sasha looks like a cold woman with her pale skin and dark hair always pulled back; she is totally concerned about her reputation: "but what will they think of me?" and can't stand up for her needs; she refuses to lower her standards, but when liam leaves, she falls into a "morbid depression" and goes back to him.

repeat for 300 pages...

"careless," "self-indulgent," "filler" are three words i'd use to describe it


This serie is getting worse each book...
	I enjoyed the first 3 books of the Women's Murder Club. Didn't like too much the 4th (of July), but the 5th is just BAD ! What's the plot ? There is no plot ! 2 serial-killer stories try to share the pages of this not-such-a-page-turner, the 1st mystery (Car Girls) get solved mid-way throught the book and I bet plenty of readers won't remember it by the end of this painfull read... By trying to develop 2 stories, Patterson gets our interest for none. The most sad thing of all is that I used to like to Women's Murder Club members, but now they all seem so unreal, remote from anything actually likeable. And it's been the case since one of them died and another one joined the club, in the most stupid, artificial way really. Not much to save this book, it's even badly written. Don't know if Patterson thinks about writting a 6th, but don't count on me next time


One of the worst novels I have finished this year
	Maybe it is me but this novel was about as exciting as watching the grass grow.  It is the first mystery novel that I have read by a female author and I hope that it is not representative of the gender.  But, by the reviews here, all by women, I can see that Jance writes to that crowd.  Her readers seem to like being taken down the aimless boring pass of relationship drible. If you want to spend 10 pages with the main character sitting and talking about nothing in her mothers house or on her friends porch talking about their health than this book is for you.  It is amazing that Jance can start great with the murder scene and then 200 pages later start uncovering her first clue, the insulin bottle.  Jance gives no indication that Oak Vista or the stranded stranger are even remotely related to the story. Do not start this book it is absolutely a total waste of time.  If you want a good mystery read Coben, Crais, Patterson or Michael Connely


OK
	Its a good book to draw examples of idustries in different stages of technology evolution. However it is lacking in theoretical content,


Read "Blindness" and Pass on The Plague...
	Dr. Rieux, the main character of the novel, moves throughout the book in a detached surreal hopeless manner.  He goes thru the motions of "doing his job" while death surrounds him from a wide spread and accelerating plague.

I find Jose Saramago's "Blindess" to be a far superior book to The Plague.  Similar theme and concept but more descriptive and moving.  The Plague was clinical in its approach - almost bloodless.

I found this highly acclaimed book to be very difficult to re-read, often having to re-read many pages over and over.  I would pass on this book


Good, but weak for Hillerman
	I've read a lot of the books in the series, and Hillerman is one of my favorite mystery writers, but I have to say this one fell way short of his other mysteries.  My main complaint is the presence of several plot gaps and inconsistencies not characteristic of the author--his well-crafted mysteries almost always hold water, but not this one.  I whole-heartedly recommend most of Hillerman's other Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn novels, but if you want a good entrance into his captivating style and skill, this is not the book to pick up.


Watered down rehashing of Flow
	One can't be sure that this book isn't deliberately exploiting a cynical belief that most business books are so bad, that if this weren't crappy, it wouldn't sell. Even for someone who believes in Csik's theory of flow, this book is a no-win blow-out. Instead of making clear statements backed by evidence, the book's tone and presentation are mere editorializing assertions. There is no reason to read this, when his original popularization, Flow, more carefully and clearly summarizes Csikszentmihalyi's interesting research.


Absolutely biased and poor political/religious sensitivity
	Having read Clive Cussler adventures for over 10 years, i was totally disgusted with the redneck and narrow minded attitudes expressed in the book. The father, who does not stay with his son, decides to revenge his son fighting a war trying to kill people in someone else's country. That is perfectly justified!

The book mentions Hindu mercenaries who have not been seen anywhere in the world in any century much less this one. This is a direct insult to all Hindus as being one I am astonished at the insensitivity of the author. How come "Hickman" is not a "Christian" mercenary or for that matter the Corporation as they seem to be in this for the money. The justifications are ridiculous. India and Hindus of India have been terrorized, jailed, colonized and robbed by Christian and Muslims alike over the last 1000 plus years. You don't find us calling people by religion and we have all major religions in our secular country. We have grown spiritually to accept everyone, and I would like the authors to read more than a 2 page synopsis on religions before writing books. The book smacks of jingoism and is a pathetic display of the authors minimal knowledge of religions and global affairs


reading this is akin to banging your head against a wall
	The premise of this story started off smartly. I was drawn in as a reader as Case set up an unusaul plot where the protagonist is in Russia to cover a minor story only to be pushed aside while his sources of information are taken away. But from this point onwards the story becomes painfully predictable as time after time Case takes the predictable rout. Finally the story completely falls apart and it was like when you watch one of those really bad action flicks where the hero saves the day time after time and its so stupid that you get a bad headache.

I have read one other Case book I think, his "Kingdome Come" that was written under a psudo name, or maybe Case is the psudo name, I'm not sure. But what I am trying to say here is that 'Kingdome Come' was much better than 'First Horseman.' Its still a little corny, but it reads like a more contemporary Ludlum


very average
	I was really disappointed with this book.  A lot of the recipes are identical to one another, with just one ingredient - eg a different type of vegetable - substituted.  With no pictures and not much more content, I really regret buying it.


What do Stossel, O'Reilly and TBN have in common?
	Lies, half truths, spin and glitz.  Of course there is some truth sprinkled in.  Self promoting TV stars are more interested in being self promoting TV stars than truth. Theres just not enough time for both. At best it's entertainment, at worst it misleads the children.  And finally they are all biblically illiterate.  So be careful...especially with TBN.


Spooky and Delightful
	In my usual perusal of the thrift shops for 25 cent novels, i came across this interesting find summer of 2005.

from the very first page, the book had me hooked. merricat blackwood is a girl i could relate to on first degree. in her family, she's a bit of a misfit, and as  a consequence, finds herself and her older sister constance locked away in their large old house as the town freaks after the *mysterious* death of their entire family at dinner on night.

everyone hates them and wants them gone. merricat braves walking to town to buy groceries for her sister with cash from the vast amount of wealth they keep hidden in the house. the towns people sneer at merricat and ask her to leave and she, head lifted, tries bravely to remain unafraid.

it is an all together marvelous book for anyone who enjoys the cryptic events that go on behind the scenes of creepy old houses.


Check all books carefully
	My problem was that these books were missing chunks of pages!  We didn't notice it until book 4 of 6, but 80+ pages were gone!  Now, Amazon was great about replacing the set adn paying for me to return the messed-up set.  This is just a warning to check your boxed set when it gets in for missing chunks of pages!

Of course, the Harry Potter series is great, adn we love having them in paperback


Don't waste your money
	I read exactly half the book and stopped.  Based on all the criticisms of the unlikely ending, that was a good decision.  As it is there went hours of my life I won't get back!  The book is silly and laughable.  The premise sounded great - but the book is bad.  Really bad


Not good
	I thought the title was interesting so I bought this book.  Wow, what a disappointment.  This is sappy and poorly written.  How does Mitch Albom keep  getting on the best sellers list


Danielle Give  me a break
	My husband has a theory that Danielle Steel has a dart board and each circle surrounding the center is labeled either, falls in love, loses family member, has death of loved-one,fights for life of herself or loved one, loses partner,business or spouse. He feels when she is at a loss she justs throws off a dart and whatever she hits becomes the outline for her next book.
I have been a loyal fan for many many years and take his kidding with a smile and secretly pray he's not right.
This book proved me wrong and he was right all these years.
It was so obvious from the first few pages what was happening that I was certain I had read this story before somewhere. After having waited  long time to get this book from my local library I was so disappointed that it was so poorly written and so badly not thought through I couldn't even read it completely, but skipped sections to finish it, knowing what was going to happen before I got to it.


Articles = great, definitions = very poor
	You have to ask yourself, "Why did William Grimes think there was the need for another culinary dictionary?".  As you read the book, the answer comes quickly, before you're even very far into the "A's"... apparently he didn't.
I was repeatedly disappointed by the cursory, often puerile definitions which accompany most of the 2000 culinary terms Grimes presents.  The simplistic line or two of text each are accompanied by are often incomplete and sometimes down right misleading.
The introduction builds up the book as a necessary tool to help we little folk through the growing complexities of modern food buying and eating.  In a world no longer dominated by a few French terms we are led to believe that this book will bridge the gap between old-school cooking books (say, from before 1990) and the current state of culinaria.  Why then are so many of the terms defined in an out-dated, even archaic mind-set?
Take  the term "brown sugar".  This book says it is "unrefined or partially refined sugar", a definition all well and good perhaps 200 years ago.  Today brown sugar is almost always made from refined sugar with a special molasses syrup and colorings added back to it - a very different thing indeed, and Grimes should know the difference.  The are innumerable other examples available in the same vein.
Additionally, Grimes give us  "food lists" scattered periodically throughout the book but provides only sporadic support for the words used in them.  For example, there is a list of Varieties of Apples.  48 varieties are listed but when one wants more information on them it is often lacking.  Sure "Red Delicious" apples have an insipid definition in the "R" section but what about the more interesting varieties like "Sundowner", or "Lodi" apples?  No further mention of them can be found in the book.  There is also a huge list of  "Fish and Seafood" but if you are intrigued by what the "Geoduck" or "Sprat" listed might be, you're out of luck (without running to a REAL culinary dictionary).
The bright (if limited) spots in the book are the articles on food etymology and history.  There are 7 of them (reprints from other publications and various authors) that are each informative and interesting.  Grimes would have done much better to have put together a collection of these little insightful gems and left the definitions to those more inspired by the subject.
My guess is that the brevity of the definitions (leading to rampant deficiencies) was, perhaps, an attempt at simplicity but the effective "dumbing-down" of the book is insulting to anything but the most elementary reader.  I know that Grimes, a former restaurant reviewer for the New York Times, must know a lot more about food than this book makes him sound.  Grimes is listed as the "editor" of this work (along with a number of others) and it defies logic why he would allow his name used as the primary.
Unfortunately, my copy of this book is destined for "re-gifting" or a permanent place on a dusty shelf somewhere while my venerable, dog-eared Larousse Gastronomic retains it's place of honor near my desk.
Bon appetite, ex libris, and caveat emptor. DH


Interesting, but....
	While this is a well researched and thought-provoking piece of literature, I do have some critical comments to make.
Firstly, it is apparent that the author's own holocaust experiences (or more specifically, those of his family) have left him with a vested interest in how the material in this book is presented.
Secondly, there is a LOT of content to trawl through to get, in my opinion, a few pieces of interesting material.
Finally, the underlying theme or accusation that without IBM the holocaust may not have happened, or would not have been so sever, is (again in my opinion) flawed. As the book shows, IBM certainly made it much easier for the Nazis to locate and identify Jews, it would not have been impossible without IBM.

Having said all this - it was an interesting read and although overly wordy is certainly worth reading


I'm sorry but this is mostly amusing to me personally
	There are two things which tickle me about this book.  One is the sample Zack's report at the back which has a strong buy #1 rating on a -.3% return on equity stock.  The other is the section on practical use of the system.  It, of course, is for any type of investor including long term investors even though the effects that the system measures lasts only for 1 - 3 months.  And don't forget about growth investors and value investors either.  This section is so short as to be laughable.  Also notice that in the 2002 A list there were 216 stocks.  Most are going to have to buy a subset.  But what subset?  No info is provided on the performance of typical subsets for each investor class.  Perhaps an MVO addict or a Monte Carlo hack would have the answer


HIGHLY implausible plot lines
	My first Grisham novel, and it reminded me of why I seldom read fiction.  The plot has numerous barely-believable twists, the most ridiculous of which is the protagonist's attorney assisting him in eluding authorities after escaping a juvenile detention facility.  Said lawyer then drives from Memphis to New Orleans with the little delinquent in her car basically at the kid's mere suggestion.  Absurd!  No attorney in his/her right mind would do such a thing!

The "storybook ending"just prior to the boarding of the FBI Director's private jet is implausible as well as gratuitously sappy.  Also, I highly doubt that the FBI Director gets personally involved in many -- if any -- such cases.

Thankfully, I paid only 25 cents for this book in paperback form at a garage sale 2 weeks ago.  Given that it's written at about a 4th-grade reading level (and I have no children), it'll make good fireplace kindling next fall.

First Grisham = LAST Grisham


Kozol Frustrates Me . . .
	I am a teacher at an inner-city school that struggles with the same issues presented by Kozol.  That said, this is the fourth of Kozol's works that I have read, and I came away just as disappointed with "The Shame of the Nation" as I did with the rest of them.  I am so incredibly sick of him shouting from the mountaintops that there is a problem with public education.  He acts like we don't already know.  He acts like there is some unseen solution out there that should be obvious to everybody.  Instead of pointing fingers and and complaining about it, why doesn't he use his experience and know-it-all knowledge to offer real, concrete and practical solutions?  Kozol is a classic Monday-morning quarterback pointing out the flaws in what everybody else is doing - but he doesn't get his hands dirty anymore.  If he is really as educationally omnipresent as he thinks he is, the least he could do is offer some solutions.  I've made four mistakes.  I will not make a fifth.  I have 150 underpriveleged kids to teach, and I can't afford to waste my time on another volume of complaints while he points out the obvious


They killed trees for THIS?
	What a disastrously bad and unfunny novel.  The self-involved main character is pathetic and whiny, the "plot" is see-through and cliched, and the writing style is far below what can be found on any mediocre blog.

When people criticize chick lit, this is exactly the kind of book they're talking about.  It's shallow to such a shocking degree than when it tries to take itself seriously, or stretches for a literary flourish, it's absolutely cringe-worthy.  I find it hard to believe the people who've praised it here actually read the same book.

This was given to me by an acquaintance shortly after my engagement.  She said she didn't really like it but thought it would be "more my kind of thing."  Obviously not a person who knows me well.  Thankfully, it doesn't appear the author is terribly prolific, so readers don't need to worry about trying to stumble through page after page of show-offy navel-gazing.

I wouldn't say it's one of the worst books I've read, but it's certainly one of the most useless


A Disciplined Mind Without the "Disciplines"
	Prof. Gardner's book is disappointing. He tries to be all things to all people saying both that he believes in basic competencies but wants to put inquiry first. Also, his language is inflated, and lacking in philosopical specificity. For example, he believes in building up the inner world of "mental representations" [unexplained term] yet insists on "performances of understanding" [another unexplained term].

Also, he has respect for the individual learner and individual differences, yet he is concerned about the "position" or "situation" or social class dynamics in which the learning takes place. Thus, he fails to do justice either to the individual or to class, race, or gender.  The role of leadership in learning is wholly ignored; and responsibility is not explored.  In short, it is extremely difficult to pin down Prof. Gardner. It would be kind to say he is eclectic. I hope it's just not fuzzy thinking.

However, we can discern that he has a romantic obsession with beauty, truth, and goodness. Imagine -- the Holocaust is reduced to being an illustration of what goodness is or is not! His treatment of these ideas is superficial and banal. I don't like to be so judgmental, but his writing about them does not deserve a detailed analysis.

When attacking E.D. Hirsch whom he calls the main speaker for "cultural literacy," he sets up a straw man. He says that Hirsch's school of thought has an underlying belief in the Lockeian "tabula rasa." Yet, I find nothing in Hirsch's writings to indicate that he believes in a tabula rasa.

Further, is Prof. Gardner really less elitist than Hirsch as some have claimed? I have found that the Harvard elite spend their entire lives trying to achieve and learn everything, and be on top. Their lives are marked by ambition to the Nth degree; yet, he debunks time-honored and experience-honored content areas that traditionally have defined literacy at its best. Thus, I find a certain inherent dishonesty in Gardner's presentation.

Believe me, friends, I have taught students who have many ideals, Greek ideals and other ideals, but know very little, nor do they aspire to learn. If they have those ideals, and if they are facile and glib, will they be the leaders of tomorrow who are embraced by Prof. Gardner?

I find a tendency on Prof. Gardner's part to oversimplify certain issues like the Holocaust, and to overcomplicate certain others like the nature of intelligence.

The world is not waiting for the concept of intelligence to be re-written.  Am I oversimplifying when I think that there is something very awkward about saying that there is no fundamental difference in intelligence between Einstein and the custodian of my school? Is this awkwardness because I am an elitist putting down the custodian?  Is it because of lack of intelligence that I am still in the grip of a univocal definition of intelligence? I don't think so. Rather, we all know we are dependent on each other, and that everybody has some unique aptitudes or gifts they can express and be respected for, but trying to elevate this understanding to a higher level of truth or intellectual significance seems to me to be illegitimate.

Lastly, his writing style is a bit too fond of adjectives, and the book reads as a whole like It Takes A Village by Mrs. Clinton. The Disciplined Mind has a mellifluous style that presents itself as being highly sophisticated and, at the same time, as down-to-earth, with balanced common sense. Yet, ultimately, the book is boring.  As one Amazon reviewer states, Prof. Gardner is full of himself.

In this book, there is no straightforward discussion or emphasis placed on knowledge, justice, Judeo-Christian values, persistence, responsibility, or character development...words which I find essential for a true philosophy of education.


nauseating
	For decades, many male professors have made the same excuses for sexual exploitation of their students--to the fury of feminists.  To read a feminist using the same rationalizations is both nauseating and infuriating


Not much better than astrology
	While this book may give some basic ideas that are useful to keep in mind while you are trying to understand your relationships with others, in the end it is just another attempt to give people answers they want even though such answers don't exist.  I'll admit that being a first or second born might have a general effect on your personality, but just how far can we take this kind of analysis?  The author of this book goes so far to offer that by knowing your own birth order and that of your same-sex parent, he can determine the birth order of your ideal match.  My father was 3rd and I was 2nd, thus I should pair with a 4th born.  Anyone who thinks about that for five seconds should realize that it is totally bogus pseudo-science.  There are too many factors involved to be able to make such predictions.  Not every Nth born is the same, and no relationship between Nth and Mth borns can be analysed this way.  As with astrology, the only thing this book can do is unnecessarily deter you from pursuing relationships with people just because they are the wrong "sign".  Who's to say I won't get along with a 2nd born?  Rather than relying on voodoo like this, we are better off just paying attention to how we actually get along with other individuals


Mystified
	My 60s something father gave me this book. I am a 45-year-old middle-class man with a 6-year-old son using my wife's account. I don't understand for whom this book is written. It is full of painfully obvious advice such as "Don't play with your food" or "Do not throw golf clubs... in anger." Anyone raised in America (presuming that is the author's intended audience) who doesn't already understand these things and take them to heart isn't going to be interested in reading about them in a book, if they can even read. Chapter 15 deals with Staring and differences where the author admonishes: "Do not repeat racist, sexist or ethnic jokes or tolerate them in your presence." If you were not a racist you would obviously already understand and agree with this. If you are, this book isn't going to change your attitude and you would probably want to burn it. I found this book useless for any reasonably sophisticated person unless you happen to be from a third world country or another planet. If the book was intended to teach good manners to the unsophisticated, dream on! I think the author has a Professor Henry Higgins Jones. I am also concerned about my father's opinion of me, I mean "Do not expect a child to endure a lengthy shopping trip unless it is to a toy or candy store." Duh


Mariology It Ain't
	I concur with another reviewer: get Luigi Gambero's "Mary and the Fathers of the Church," and, I might add, his follow-up work, "Mary in the Middle Ages."  Read these two books alongside "Truly Our Sister. . .," then decide whether 15 or 16 centuries of organic, historically contiguous development of the Church's Marian doctrine by some of the finest minds and hearts the Church has ever produced--including Bridget of Sweden, or Johnson's glib, 21st century, feminist revisionism provides the better spiritual nourishment.

The Blessed Virgin Mary stirs us to properly love her divine Son, bringing us into the intimate recesses of the Trinitarian love itself!  Anything shy of that simply misses the point and leaves one painfully short-changed.


Horrible, horrible book.
	As someone very interested in urban exploration (especially in the subways) I wanted to check this book out upon hearing of it. After reading many of these Amazon reviews though, I opted out of a purchase, and took it out of my Bronx library instead. Thank goodness as I only wasted valuable time, and not any money.

This book is a sham. It is obviously mostly fiction. And it's boring fiction at that. The book is divided into chapters, each chapter a new "adventure."

I read the subway one first, where the "explorers" take the 6 train around the loop at the end of the line, to see the City Hall Station, which opened in 1904 (NYC's first station) and closed in 1948. The station is located on the loop of the 6 train, that makes the southbound trains go back up north after the last stop, Brooklyn Bridge. First of all, anyone can go on this "adventure." Just stay on the train at the last stop, Brooklyn Bridge, and that's it. Despite the author's attempt to make this sound risky, no conductors walk through the train to see if anyone is on (like they really care), just sit down. The author created some "European tourists" that inadvertantly stayed on the 6 after the last stop, and the author even tries to create some mystery by saying "are we on the wrong train?" Well, unless all those huge "6" signs that are lit all over the train are difficult to read, then you probably got on the correct train. The author also fails to mention that the MTA used to give public tours all the time through this station (and others like the 18th street on the 6 and more) but stopped after 9-11. This chapter was a joke.

I started reading the other chapters, and saw they were no better. I then started to breeze through the book. One thing that is very obvious - no photographs of the adventures are in the book at all. This, despite the fact that on page 67 the author states, "Josh takes out his camera and snaps away at every pipe and puddle..."  But no photos of their "adventures" are in the book. Why? Because it's fiction.

There are photos of what they are supposed to be exploring, sure, that's easy. There's even one pic of one of these clowns hopping some fence somewhere, ooo. Buit no pics of the actual "adventures." I guess "Josh" lost all those pictures when he went to CVS to have them developed.

The funny thing is, you can save yourself a lot of time by just going online and viewing pictures of these things for yourself. Especially the City Hall station, there are tons of pictures of it available from the people that were in there during the tours.

Just stay away from this sham of a book, it's really a huge waste of time


Really not much here.
	Sue Grafton has written many good books but this one is weak, weak, weak. Try 'A is for Alibi' or 'J is for Judgement'. They show off Grafton's writing talents much better


Pamuk's First Novel is a Disappointment
	Like many others in my book group, I had been looking forward to finally reading something by Pamuk. And like most of my book group, I was fairly disappointed by this short early novel from him. Originally published in Turkey in 1985, the story is prefaced by an introduction in which one Faruk Darvinoglu purports to have discovered the manuscript in a dusty archive. He then goes on to explain that parts of the story can be historically corroborated, but much of it can't. This should immediately alert the reader not to take everything in the book as it comes. Even more so if the reader knows that Darvinoglu is the protagonist of Pamuk's earlier book The House of Silence. Such intertextual tricks immediately bring to mind the works of Calvino, Borges, and their ilk.

The basic plot is very straightforward: in the mid 17th-century, a young Venetian gentleman is captured by Turkish raiders and sold into slavery to an aspiring Turkish scholar who happens to look just like him. The two men then spend the next few decades cloistered together, engaged in various psuedo-intellectual investigations of astronomy, biology, engineering, and so on. These bring them to the attention of the Sultan (based on Mehmet IV), whose patronage waxes and wanes, culminating in a lengthy attempt to construct a powerful war machine. Along the way, their claustrophobic relationship swings back and forth, and is interrupted by an outbreak of the plague, whose outcome they are tasked with predicting. The book concludes with a brief section which will challenge the reader's assumptions and calls into question everything that comes before it. Namely, are there two characters or are they just manifestations of two aspects of a single person?

This all unfolds at a glacial pace, and the two "characters" are mere ciphers. Their clashing of wills and ideas take up page after page, but the reader is always told about the conflict rather than shown it, and this makes for disengaging reading. Pamuk seems much less interested in storytelling or characters than in grand themes such as the nature of identity, the collision of cultures, and the very nature of reality. But none of these are addressed in a way that is particularly fresh or interesting. The tension between East and West is handled in a fairly superficial manner, as the Turkish master is obsessed with Western advances in science and technology, while the Sultan has a credulous appetite for tall tales and soothsayers. This all comes across as a rather ambivalent satire of the fluidity of Turkish national character. In the end, this is not a particularly good introduction to major modern writer whom many have compared to Eco, Calvino, Borges, Kafka, and Kundera. However, readers who enjoy highly ambiguous works about self-identity with unreliable narrators may find this a satisfying read


Pseudo-feminist tripe
	I fail to understand all of the hoopla about Susan Sontag. While I have only read a limited selection of her work, in these essays,  quot;Against Interpretation quot; being the ultimate example, Sontag emerges as a simple-minded, arrogant ignoramus. In her utterly unreasoned invective,  Sontag ignores (or is just unable to understand) two critical facts. First,  some works of art and theory are difficult to understand (in varying  degrees) without the help of interpretation. Sontag's flawed analysis of  the supposed ruination of the works of Kafka by interpretation demonstrates  that not only is she among this crowd, she has clearly reached new and  unheard of misguided heights. Second, Sontag ignores the fact that works of  art in other languages cannot be understood in translation without the help  of interpretation and criticism that demonstrates the extent to which  aspects of a certain culture are imbedded in the original language. This  couldn't possibly be clearer than in poetry. Weinberger's excellent   quot;Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei quot;, which adroitly considers  the subject, hadn't been released when Sontag published this essay but it  probably wouldn't have made a difference. What was she thinking? The only  good aspect of the essay (and why I give it 2 stars instead of 1 or zero)  is the fact that it has given me ample opportunity to win arguments against  individuals who are flawed in their thinking enough to enjoy Sontag's  writing


Better off reading his column in women's magazines
	I stumbled across this book by accident at my library and decided what the heck, all those millions reading Gray's franchise can't be wrong.  Plus, I've seen Gray on Larry King once, and he seemed like a nice and reasonable enough guy.  This book, though, promising in its intro to be "sexy", touched more of my comical than my sensual nerves.  Now, I am not above accepting bedroom advice where it's warranted (for instance, it is thanks to Dr. Gray that I finally made sense of that night years ago when my husband slept on the couch after a huge fight caused by my criticizing a movie we'd just went to see).  But Gray's generalizations, dumbing down of most issues and sharing his own sex life with his wife Bonnie were mostly unhelpful, and I suspect that the passages I found funny were involuntarily so.

Although I'm the first to admit that women love compliments, Gray's suggestions, as displayed in several top 10-lists of things to say (and, occasionally, what not to say) were a tidbit too repetitive (ever wonder how many combinations you can play with the phrase "your breasts are wonderful"?  Read the book!).  Almost as enlightening was the hot tip on how, while getting to the undressing part, the man should pull the woman's panties "up her crack" (a.k.a. give her a plain old wedgie--no joke).  And, don't miss the one where the Mongolian woman pulls a flag at full mast when she's in the mood and at half when she's not (or maybe it was different colors, I couldn't read clearly through my tears--no offense to the Mongolian people!).

More annoying were the recurring (and very stereotypical) assumptions that a woman always needs 10 or more times more cajoling into sex than a man (in various ways, be it foreplay, flowers or the favored seduction line hit lists), that a man always comes (and too quickly, of course), and that you need constantly innovative acrobatics in the bedroom, or your (otherwise mutually comfortable and sure-fire, I wonder?) approach will become a "turn-off".

Bottom line (no pun intended):  if you want some light and basic (!) guidance, the book is not too terrible, but if it is "advanced bedroom skills" (Gray said that!) that you're after, you're better off digging out that old Erica Jong or even any pulp.


yea you guys rule
	congrats on your first victory in eight and a half decades


Didn't like the writing style at all
	I have never read one of Johansen's books and after reading this one, I'm not likely to read another.  I usually enjoy reading pretty much any type of mystery and am not a literary critic by any means, but I just couldn't get into the story here because of the flowery and cliche-filled writing.  Exclamations such as "dear heaven" and "lord" were repeated over and over again by all characters throughout the book, which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of their conversational tone (it would suit my southern grandma, however).  As another reviewer said, the big mystery of why Daisy wouldn't leave Geneva wasn't particularly mysterious - if she really wanted Jason to leave she could have just told him.  Character development was lacking and I just didn't care that much about them.  I would have liked to hear more about Cynthia and her antics.  I did finish the book because I was curious to know what happened, but I couldn't wait for it to be over.  Sorry, but this was not my cup of tea


Sorry, Guys, I'd Have to Disagree
	I rarely stop reading a book in the middle of it, but I couldn't take any more of Look Homeward, Angel after Part I (about 1/3 of the way through).  It was long, rambling, and most of the passages did not add anything to the story, not even in the way of atmosphere.  I do not recommend this book


What A Crappy Book
	I'm thankful that I was able to get this book at the library and didn't spend $15.00 buying it.  I own The Blue Day Book by the same author and I think it's fantastic and it cheers me up right away.  He should have stopped with that book. It claims to be a witty, thought-provoking book that makes an ideal gift for anyone who's seeking their true purpose and wants to laugh along the way.  The only thing this book has going for it is the amazing animal pictures.  It did have one thought that I really liked:   quot;Some people say that life is all about acquiring knowledge.  If that's true, then why do smart people dress so badly? quot


Repetitive and redundant
	Of the thousands of books I've read in my life, and the hundreds I've actually purchased from Amazon.com, this is the first time I've felt strongly enough about a book to write any sort of review.

I kept waiting for the author to get to the point.  He rambled and meandered and didn't tell me anything new whatsoever.  He used the words "alchemy" and "alchemists" in almost every single paragraph of the book.

Skip this book - you'll get MUCH more out of the "Cosmic Trigger" series, "Quantum Psychology", or "Prometheus Rising" by R.A. Wilson.


Pleasure reading shouldn't be this painful :-0
	I bought this book 2 years ago - almost to the day...I have the receipt stuck in the book...I can only seem to force myself to get to page 50 and then I just can't stomach anymore and I put it down for 2 more years. Maybe this is a piece of art. Something to be treasured and something that should change your life. But pleasure reading shouldn't be this painful. I wish the store would take it back - but I think I've probably had it for too long


Not quite what it seems
	Nansook Hong paints a painful picture of her marriage to HyoJin Moon, but she does not own up to the full truth of her parents' machinations to get her married into the Moon family. Eyewitnesses tell of Nansook visiting the Moon household and knowing full well of HyoJin's excesses in advance of her marriage. The Hongs wanted desperately for their family to be entwined with the Moon family, and after arranging for one child to be wed to the first Moon daughter, they pushed Nansook to marry a Moon son. Though I don't know all the motives, the point is that there was an agenda behind her marriage and probably this book that Ms. Hong has not been honest about. It is only too easy to paint an unflattering portrait of Rev Moon and his wife but at least some of this is suspect, given her own deceit


Read a review article instead!
	I agree with another reviewer who said the book was unnecessarily long.  Genetic Algorithms are a great programming tool, and there are some tips and tricks that can help your programs converge faster and more accurately, but this book had a lot of redundant information.

If you are interested in using GA for solution-finding, I doubt you'll find much useful in this book beyond the first chapter or so.  Many of the examples later in the book were so specific that I couldn't see how they could be usefully generalized.  Really optimizing a GA approach for a specific problem domain takes a fair amount of tuning, and this book won't help much with that.

I think time spent surfing siteseer or other publication sites would be better spent than reading this book.


Generalized overview with little new insight
	I agree completely with the Becksted review (I also noted that it was helpful, but I meant it would have been helpful had I read it before I bought the CD).

This refers to the CD version.  I did listen all the way to the end, I kept thinking there was going to be something, but continued to be disappointed.

I found the analogizes to be strained beyond usefulness (evaluating someone's integrity by the size and shape of the wake they create... are their people waterskiing on it?)

It seems to be politically incorrect to come out in opposition to "integrity" in this day and age, but frankly this book didn't help me much.


Silliness Masking as Literature
	Yes, it was intended as a "fun" read (literature of the absurd?) and it did evoke several chuckles, especially at the first.  But as literature (read into that word what you will) it's an abysmal failure. Crammed with so many jokes, puns, outrageous and over the top dialogue and downright stupid action, one's interest is eventually diverted from the story to the catchy devices. It's a case where you can't see the forest for all the intervening trees.

I had expected a "straight" tale similar to the Alienist.  Then when I discovered it was a humorous take on the police procedural I perked up.  It was only after the 100th hyperbole and cutesy 20th century reference that I grew weary of the whole thing.  Toward the end it descended into caricature.  What's sad is that the idea was a good one - maybe the author should stick to SNL and the visual media.  In fact, the book seemed very visual, almost as if the author were transcribing a SNL skit


Go to the bookstore down the street.
	Hunt this book down.
Read "The Bet" (pp. 131-134).
Put this book down.
Leave the store satisified knowing that you have read the only  humorous story in this collection.

Sure you could read some other stories in the book, but they're so terribly unfunny that you will invariably come to hate yourself and everyone around you for being in a store that carries this dreadful book.

The only way these stories could possibly be funny is if they were somehow adapted for a series of SNL skits, in which McSweeney's unfunniness were somehow reversed by the lens of SNL's unfunniness. Come to think of it, this book is just as awful as SNL, except that you can't change the channel. You're just stuck there on the subway wishing you'd picked up that AM Metro, desperately trying the read the Wall Street Journal (or even the Daily News) over the shoulder of the person next to you. Anything - just anything -  to avoid the tears of boredom that come from reading this garbage.

So, If you like late-model SNL and you can read, you may like this. But I doubt it


Consider this!
	To anyone who has or is planning on reading this book, consider this. This book has a lot of words which feel good and can make anyone's guilty conscience ease in thinking that "your own will is god's own will." (quoted from Walsh's books) If you will it, then God wills it because he loves you and wants you to live in freedom, right? Will is a precursor to action. If there is no such this an a 'right' or 'wrong' will, then in essence there is really no such thing as a 'right' or 'wrong' action. If someone else's actions hurt you, you feel that action is wrong. But the person who hurt you certainly had his feelings for acting that way, right? It was his will, therefore he was justified and right and god's right there to back him up. The victim is suffering. Where is his god when he needs him? Was the victim correct in believing the action wrong? Was the perpetrator correct in believing his action was right? In this book, god says that WE have the authority to decide what is right or wrong. The action is both right and wrong, right? Wrong.
This is when you may want to take a look at the Bible. The Bible portrays God as a loving yet HOLY God. Holy is defined as exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. He loves us but sees a REAL AND DISTINCT right and wrong as clear as day where sometimes it appears to be a tangled mass to our limited senses. He created us and gave us a conscience which can in most cases discern a right and wrong in a situation. He gave us a free will which allows us to then choose that right or wrong. Are we always going to do the right thing? No, and He knows that. When we do wrong thing, it is unhealthy at best to believe that doing wrong is the right thing to do because we desire it. We're NOT God. We do wrong all the time and God simply wants us to acknowledge this. He wants us to exercise our FREEWILL to do right according to our conscience and what's told in His book. But he knows that even still we will do wrong when attempting in good faith to do right. And that is why in a generous act of sacrificing Love He sent His Son Jesus Christ to SHOW us the way, sacrifice Himself on the cross for our wrongs, and be there still today to forgive our wrongs when we believe in Him and in the truly amazing thing He did for us. It's a beautiful thing!
I urge you to believe that the Holy Bible is not a lie and Jesus Christ simply did the things the book said He did and is the person He claimed to be. 11 disciples took everything they said and wrote to their grave and never recanted even after much persecution. Wow!
I've been a believer in Christ for almost seven years and He's continued to worked wonders in my life. I would have been a fan of these books if God had not put me on His path.
In case you're wondering, I gave this book 2 stars because it has reinforced my faith in Christ by giving a glaring example of what God is not.
If you've read through all of this, thank you. I encourage you to write me. God bless!


Better guides available
	When I traveled in Japan with a friend, this was the book we brought with us.  Within a week we were at a foriegn language bookstore in Tokyo looking for a better one.  There are some things this guide does quite well -- it helped us out finding reasonably priced places to stay throughout the country, and the advice to get a JR pass was invaluable.

However, the book has a very negative, immature view of Japan as a country and travel in general.  It seems to be written by bitter expatriates with a fascination with gaijin bars and the sex trade.  Did I pay $1200 for plane tickets to go drink with Americans?  The authors express a bias against culturally interesting sites, ancient and modern, that borders on the anti-intellectual.  The cultural notes are dated, inaccurate, and shallow.  After a while, we began to think, "If Lonely Planet doesn't recommend it, it's probably interesting."  The maps, as many have mentioned, are almost useless.  Ironically for a series which fetishizes getting off the beaten path, it's practically useless once you get out of the main tourist areas.

There are much better guides available.  This entry has sworn me off the LP series for life.


Inaccessible prose
	Maybe it was me, but I kept wanting this book to work and it just never grabbed me and I had to put it down.  It was almost aggravating


Author needs his own soapbox
	Steer clear of this one - criticizing others for lack of original thought or a consistent viewpoint, while virtually copying their cover (not to mention riding the wave of their unique concept) illustrates the weak and timid position assumed  by this author.  Please achieve your own significance, not bashing others popular and widely accepted readership.  As Christians, we are obviously aware of varying theories on end-times.  To even slightly indicate we are not aware indicates the authors pompous platform.  So sad his approach couldn't be based on his own original work


Unbeliveable
	I was very excited about receiving this book, by the way big upps to lupo997 for getting my book to me in a timely fashion.  After reviewing the book further I realized it was like Touched by an Angel, and I don't like that show at all, but I decided to read it anyway cause it looked good.  That was a mistake, the character's were two dimensional and truly unbelieveable.  In the first story - Rainmaker - The Professor was sooo in love with Hailey he didn't care about getting killed or putting his own child's life in danger - come on now.  He would rather see his blind daughter killed for this woman he barely knows.  I didn't even read the second story, maybe I'll come back to that.  The third story was totally ridiculous as well.  Paris is so sick of Russell - he doesn't have a job, money and no ambition, yet she stays with him.  He cheats on her, she has the broads up in her house and sells them Mary Kay!!  Yet she stays with him.  He has given her an STD!!!  She stays with him!!!  She doesn't even like making love to him.  During all of this nonsense her fi-one boss is pushing up on her, and she resists.  She won't cheat on her man.  What!!!!  If you like reading fairy tales then this is the book for you.  For everyone else who likes a little believable drama in their fiction - DO NOT GET THIS BOOK!


How....?
	How some people gave this book a five star review is way beyond me.  First of all, I'd just like to mention that this nice book gives you schematic diagrams using symbols and other things without explaining them first! Secondly, if you want to understand electronics it can only be assumed that you want to understand the physics behind it! This book dedicates about a sentence to a paragraph to physics for each section.  Horrible! So basically, this INTRODUCTION to electronics doesn't do a lot of introducing you to anything! I'm on transistors right now, and I've spent days researching the physics of how they work on the Internet, and guess what? It's using schematics I don't understand, and yet again I'm going to have to do more looking on the net.  This book is not worth it.  Don't buy it! Just please, for your own sake, find another one.  Also, half the book is dedicated to projects.  That is, actually building electronic circuits! Why didn't the author just entitle this, "How to build electronic devices", then? It's beyond me! As far as explaining things are concerned, the book does very little, and assume you know more than you do.  Unfortunately I'm going to have to end up buying another electronics textbook, because this one is just horrible.  I was really wanting to learn something from this book, but it's just not happening.  For every chapter I've read on this book I've had to do research on the net, and I'm sick of it.  I'm on pg. 154, and I'm closing it.  DO NOT buy this book! I've already found a better book on amazon.com (just buy reading the Table of Contents!!!!!!!!!!) and I'm going to get it!


The worst proofed book in the universe
	This book is by far the worst proofed book I've ever read in my life. I can't believe I'm writing this as a review, because I can normally overlook a few typos. However, the typos in this book make for an almost impossible read. I can't believe I paid money for it


King officially jumps the shark
	This is perhaps the most disappointing King book I have ever read (and considering that I have read "Desperation" and "Insomnia" that is saying a lot).  The storyline was okay until the author lost me by inserting himself into the story.  I have no problem with characters from other stories popping up but for the author to become a character was over the top.  The only thing I found interesting about King as a character was the diaries that appear as the last chapter of the book.

I thought this was a blatant attempt to market his other books by having them referenced throughout the book.  I would guess that anybody that reaches Song of Susannah has read is a faithful reader of King and does not need to be reminded of all his previous works (which as of late have been bad with the exception of "The Green Mile:  Hey, Steve, if I wanted to read an infomercial I'll read my junk mail.

I cannot wait to read the last Dark Tower book so I can be put out of my misery


I guess that were the adventure end for me.
	After reading the first book *(which was catastropha) and reading the second which was really good, I thought that the series is taking off, I was mistaken, the third book is slow, and boring, you can see very well that Stephan king has no Idea what so ever where he is going to take that series

Nothing much is happening, and while the second book introduce some interesting ideas, the third book just go to the ordinary adventure that you can find (And better written as well) in dragon lance series, or other adventure books, also many ideas that were in this book already appear in many king books,

reading reviews of manuy users on the fourth book, which some say is very boring
I guess this is where the adventure end for me..


New age tripe
	Have you ever met a person where every single thing that happens to them is a spiritual awakening?  The kind of person that can't go to the bathroom without making some sort of journal entry of the new vistas they discovered?  Well that is the kind of mentality you get with this book.  You can't simply look at a sunset and be in awe of nature or God.  No you need to relate to it and make it a part of you.

I am avery spiritual person and love traveling.  I have traveled all over the world and feel complete when I do so.  Reading this book did the one thing I never thought was possible, it put me off of traveling.

Fortunately, the feeling passed quickly.  I will not make little travel shrines.  I will not take little spiritual trips across my living room.  I will not follow this persons advice.  And this book is going nowhere near my rucksack.  Sorry, I am too stoic for this book.

I would recommend people read books about the places they want to go.  Learn their culture and a little bit of their language.  Don't worry about the trip just go on it.

My passport is the only material possession I truly value.


Dissapointed
	I admit I was impressed by the table of contents of this book, and I admit I had no previous experience with the subject, but sure with the 'real life' of support services for a database company. Most of the book is devoted to review commercial software available on the market and for me, this is just enough to be dissapointed. There are better commercial magazines or even websites can provide you this information for free... Although some formulas and templates looks very interesting (that's why 2 stars), maybe should you consider a help desk book instead


Dragged down by a dead weight of an ending
	This wasn't such a bad novel, and I kind of enjoyed it.  Not great, but easy to read and the story chugs along briskly.  However, the ending really killed it for me.  It's too unnecessarily long.  Once the major conflict is resolved, the story is over and yet we must hear a treatise on what it means to be a faerie and the price paid and the virtue of love and heroism and blah blah blah.  I wish I'd just put the book down after the rain because I would've left with a feeling of at least entertainment.  But after reading on and realizing that there were no further complications, only pages of explanations, I just lost much of my enthusiasm for the book.  Would've been three stars if it'd just known when to end


Good Start - No Finish
	The author had all the elements for a good mystery/suspense except for one thing, the lack of an end or resolution to the mystery.

I find it difficult to believe the author of such noted works as Bag of Bones and The Stand would leave his readers hanging in such a manner. Fiction should be about conflict and resolution and we have the basis for the conflict. A body turns up on the beach and the only clue comes from a pack of cigarettes found on the body. We learn the man was from Colorado but very little else.

If the author had brought the story to a meaning conclusion it might well have been a classic mystery or crime thriller but unfortunately the reader is left to wonder what really happened. I would recommend a Mary Higgins Clark mystery in place of this boo


No Temperance Here
	Ms. Reichs has lost the recipe, or at least the focus and formula that has brought her success prior to Cross Bones. Although not nearly as bad as P. Cornwell's last two or three misfires, Reichs is way wide of her usual high mark here. In this offering, Temperance is out of character, out of both style and focus, and the story is just overly convoluted and circuitous; a yarn that meanders around heading every which way except toward a finished product. Even the writing is unfamiliar and not of the same voice Reichs has maintained in her many Brennan novels. Having finally given up on Cornwell, after many years, I'll hang in there for one more Temperance Brennan dig; everyone is entitled to one gong


Almost as good as Hapworth
	Robin Williams used to tell a joke about his son, saying that whenever he got angry with him his son would say 'you hit me and I'll write a book.' I'd like to tell you that there is some deeper meaning behind Peggy Salinger's memior about life with her father, but it seems to more or less boil down to that same idea. Although there are some interesting revelations about Salinger as a man, his daughter doesn't seem to appreciate that many of the problems she faced in her youth were not neccessarily unique to being the daughter of JD Salinger, they're the problems that children of divorce and children who live in rural areas face everyday. There's a lot of blame thrown around here, and not a whole lot of admitting to one's own mistakes. Although this is probably to be expected, it's still frustrating, since Margaret Salinger has more or less made a career out of trading on her father's good name, and since many of her chief complaints about her famous father are largely hypocritical. (Complaining about your father's desire for privacy but refusing to mention the name of your first husband was probably a bad idea.) I admit that her father is probably not as nice a guy as you think he would be, but this is not really a revelation, nor should it affect your feelings about his work. I wouldn't recommend reading it unless your working on a thesis of some sort


The typesetting  for this edition is awful
	Great book, of course, but for this edition Oxford used a computer to justify the  type. On every other line you encounter three or four spaces   where there should be  only one. It may not bother most readers, but I'm looking for another    publisher's edition


Skip it
	I enjoyed Andy Kessler's book about finance (Wall St Meat) but this one is just silly.  It seems to show the wisdom of the old writer's saw about sticking with something you know about.  This book is like sitting in a bar listening to a drunken bore try to impress you with all the little bits and pieces he heard at a hospital that day.   I couldn't wait to get to the end so I could throw it out


where's the story?
	I really thought I would be able to learn about the Philadelphia Project from this book, considering the title. However, the actual project doesn't make an appearence until the last chapter. The entire book focuses on ideas that may or may not have contributed to a project that may or may not have taken place.
This book was disappoiting to an extreme.


What Went Wrong With the Writing of This Book?
	In the post 9/11 world in which this book, subtitled "The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East" was published, it should not be surprising that the reader would anticipate a discussion of the factors that led up to that awful day. This, however, is not to be found in What Went Wrong?

Instead we are treated to a cerebral discussion of various and sundry esoteric minutiae. We learn, for instance, that, "A distinguishing characteristic of Western music is polyphony, by harmony or counterpoint. This begins in its simplest form with the choir, in which matched voices sing different notes in a planned sequence to produce a combined effect; then comes the keyboard instrument, matching the ten fingers of the two hands, following different routes in a common purpose; and finally, the musical ensemble, from duets and trios to the full orchestra". While this is all well and good, and may even be mildly interesting on some academic level, it is hard to understand how it plays into a discussion of "The Clash Between Islam and Modernity..." that has led to the precarious times in which we live.

Or, on another note (harmony? counterpoint?) we learn that Robinson Crusoe was translated into Arabic by Butrus al-Bustani and published in the late 1850's. Big deal!

What we don't learn anything about is the rise of militant Islamism. There is no mention of Wahhabism or how this fundamentalist Islamic movement contributed to the rejection of modernity. The Muslim Brotherhood also is not to be found in the index, nor is there a mention of Sayyid Qutb, or his writing of the incendiary manifesto, Milestones. Furthermore, there is not a single reference to al-Qaeda, though Usama bin Laden does appear, albeit seemingly as an afterthought, in what appears to be a hastily added Afterword.

So what went wrong?

Beats me..


Tough language but few verifiable facts
	In a world desperate for health solutions, the uneducated masses flock to purported cures and aids that have  not met the tests of either scientific or medical validity.  Alkaline water is one of those potholes that the unsuspecting customer encounters.

Careful research of this book and related topics finds that the real reason alkaline water is popular is that in pregnant Oriental women, it is believed that the use of alkaline water increases the probablility of a boy rather than a girl being born.  Hence the seven(7) percent utilization of this water in that part of the world.

Elsewhere, mycocardia problems with controlled animal tests using alkaline water have been known since 1996 but are suspiciously avoided by the Japanese organizations which promote alkaline water.

Common sense nutrition tells us that if one is concerned about acidic food intake, then the use of alkaline foods with alkaline fibre and neutral pH liquid is the answer.

Alkaline promoters would have you dilute your sensitive blood pH with  high alkalinity thus inducing hematological problems which may put  you in the emergency room as my medic(1985 Nobel Prize recipient) clearly points out.

You might as well drink battery acid he said, the result will be the same stress on your blood pH.  Here is a medic who is not an expert in water but in internal medicine cautioning against forced dilution of blood pH.

He continued by saying that when that much alkalinity is added to the digestive system, the very low pH which naturally occurs in the disgestive tract is neutralized and food is not metabolized properly.  The various amino acids which are essential in the metabolic process are no longer effective and food putrifies and nutrition suffers.

The alkaline promoters, including this book's author have been sniffing glue in a closed closet and are simply out of touch with  even the very basics of body chemistry and metabolic processes.

Read the book for entertainment and not for education and utility in your daily nutritional program


K is  for killer...
	Well, if anything this was a decently written story, with good dialect and character detail. However, this story felt like it was going around in circles without any indication of ever ending. Grafton seems to have an idea of where she wants to go with this story but never really gets there.

The story starts off with PI Kinsey Milhone in her office at night when she hears a knock on her door. She opens it to find Janice Kepler, mother of Lorna Kepler standing before her with the tale of her daughter's mysterious death. Not only this, but she also explains to Kinsey about how no one ever solved the murder because Lorna's body was left to decompose for ten months in her isolated cabin house. They talk for a while about the strange circumstances surrounding her daughter's death until Janice tells Kinsey about a pornographic video that was sent to her house after Lorna's death. This tape leads Kinsey on a wild goose chase of suspects in the red light district and gets her nowhere when it comes to turning over the real murderer.

	Millhone dives even further and searches through the world of Lorna's day job where she uncovers a mysterious lead about an expensive, elaborate project which is angering several people a considerable amount. Kinsey also checks up on Lorna's family members, and with the exception of Janice, all seem to have a motive to murder her Lorna.

Not being a fan of these types of novels, I decided to at least give it a chance but this story got me nowhere. By the middle of the novel I wanted to give up and skip to the end of the story, but when I got to the end I had to go back to the middle to figure out how everything ended. I stopped caring about the whole murder after so much more emphasis was placed on so much side stories and it seemed like Grafton did too. The ending left me with a strange feeling and I didn't know if the book had actually ended. All in all, it was just not the right kind of book for me but if you're a murder mystery fan, try any other of Grafton's alphabet themed novels besides this one


Thin
	I wanted to like this book, but I found it disappointingly thin.  I wouldn't go so far as the previous reviewer and dismiss it as  quot;hopeless quot;, but it's certainly superficial: Postman seems to rely on secondary sources about Enlightenment thought, rather than any deep reading of Enlightenment texts.  The idea of  quot;building a bridge to the 18th century quot; seems more like a marketing device, a fresh way of presenting some of Postman's familiar themes, than a serious proposition (He even includes a summary of his  quot;disappearance of childhood quot; argument in an appendix).  It's a shame, really, because the Enlightenment has been getting too much undeservedly bad press for far too long, and Postman is correct when he points out that we owe much of what's good and admirable about contemporary society to Enlightened thinking.  For a much more substantial survey and defence of Enlightenment thought and culture, read Roy Porter's _The Creation of the Modern World: The British Enlightenment_


could have been said in half the amount of pages
	The material is first-rate but his writing style is horrid. His five-part typology of memory doesn't make sense since he is basically repeating the same theme for each type of memory in each chapter. The underlying theme is about the destruction and shattering of the self. Very poorly written and bad organizatino of his material. There are much better and clearer books on the Holocaust! Don't bother with this one


Wow its not just me!
	I was anxious to read the reviews on this book and I am happy to find its not just me! Her words and sentences are REDUNDANT! Yes "wacky artist" was used about 50 times in the span of 2 pages! Liam picked up a poker and scared the daughter! WE KNOW! Don't tell us 100 times! This is what I think: Either Ms. Steel thinks so little of her devoted audience that she feels we need to be spoon fed the material...OR she's just writing whatever comes to mind and no one is editing. Is D. Steel so popular and successful that no one has to proof read her work? Also, is it cold stone sober? Or STONE COLD SOBER? (it should have been the latter) No editor caught that mistake?  I've been a fan of Ms. Steel's work for 21 years now and the past few year's works have been deplorable! I first excused it due to the death of her son.. But her talent never picked up again. From the Ranch onward the books are just pure fluff. If you want to read a novel and not think about what you're reading...then read her books, this one especially. If you want to read and process and fall in love with characters try Barbara Delinsky, Luanne Rice, Alison Clement, Susan Wiggs..


Not Recommended
	Having read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Levitt's Freakonomics, I picked up "Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life" looking for more of the same. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed.

I get the impression the author intended to write a Freakonomics-type book, but was only able to come up with 40 pages of material (located at the end of the book). Facing an irate publisher, he then filled in the initial 290 pages with his old Economics lecture notes. As a result, readers who have taken an elementary economics course will find much of the material repetitive, while those who have not will most likely find the material too confusing to be of any real use. (Despite the glowing accolades on the cover, the author's explanations are no better than those available in a standard textbook.)

The author also posits end-of-chapter questions for the reader to ruminate upon, but does not provide any answers. Aside from formal textbooks where such questions are intended to be assigned to students, such tactics are unconscionable. Of course, the author may be priming the pump for sales of a "Hidden Order Supplement".

A final negative point is the author's tone, which is frequently condescending towards the reader (e.g. telling the reader they would not understand the math behind a given theory, so it will not even be presented). While this may be true for a layperson reading the book, being talked down to certainly does nothing to build their confidence or cultivate their interest in the subject matter.

Overall, if you can borrow a copy from a friend or a library, the last 40 pages are worth reading. Otherwise, save your time and money.

Reviewer's background:
B.Sc. (Computing Science   Mathematics)
M.B.A. (Finance   Marketing)
Ph.D. (Finance)


Interesting Thesis, but overlooking some important points
	Mr. Friedman's book begins with an interesting thesis, defining morality and its definition within a context of economic growth.  The idea that economic growth or stagnation effects the mindsets of the people living in that time period is a logical argument that Friedman often well supports with historical facts.  However, the exceptions to his argument make me wonder if he really believes in his own thesis, or if he just felt the need to write a book.  Furthermore, for every chapter in the book, there seem to be at least one or more flawed arguments or points that, with a little thorough thought or research, don't make sense or can easily be disproven.  With these things being the case, I find Friedman's argument a little hard to buy.  The entire book seems to build up to the final chapter, which Friedman uses to make policy recommendations that would aid in economic growth; this final chapter could have stood alone from the book entirely, however, because the evidence in the book an his arguments elsewhere in the book (ie. the importance of education) do not add or support his final policy recommendations.  His policy recommendations could have easily been listed by students in an economics class as responses to the question "What should the government do to promote economic growth?"  They don't push the argument forward or indicate anything that hasn't already been suggested in the past, nor do they give suggestions as to how to go about implementing his policies.


The narrow-minded get it
	In a review remarkable for saying nothing about the book, Popop from Boston (April 9 below) alludes to some children blown up by an IRA bomb in a North of England shopping center. Popop is very broad-minded. It pains him that anyone would bad-mouth such "armed operations". They were perfectly justified, he explains, because of thousands of innocent Irish Catholics murdered at the hands of the British army.

I know why thousands of murders are important to Popop. Without them, while he might justify random bombings in his own mind, he could hardly do so in decent company. But I live in Ireland, not America, where news of these murdered thousands has not reached us. Gerry Adams never said a word about them, not wishing to be laughed out of the country. He had to make the most all these years of a dozen fellows caught in a crossfire in Derry in 1973. I guess he saved the big one for the broad-minded boyos in Boston. What of all those dollars that Popop broad-mindedly dropped in the Semtex collection box? They were not wasted. Thousands of Irish really were murdered - mostly not Catholics but all of them really dead - at the hands of the disorganization that Mr Adams always denied being a member of. To be sure, his non-henchmen failed to terrorize the Northern Irish into caving in, but his enforcer, who can barely write his own name, did get to be Minister of Education (I'm not making this up; I couldn't).

Oh, and the book is quite thought-provoking. There's a lot about Bushes, Arabs and the wrong kind of tax-cuts that went over my head. There's wit of a subtlety rarely seen since Voltaire - you can tell by the CAPITALS and !!!!. There are explanations of 9/11 to suit every taste, whichever Bush you blame. Myself, I suspect those Enrons. But Mr Moore did discover:

"THERE ... IS ... NO ... TERRORIST ... THREAT!"

He paid us a flying visit, dined with some IRA capos who were laughing up their sleeves, and found the solution to the Irish Question without breaking sweat: everybody should be nice to each other


This Book is a Poorly-written Economic Rant
	Investment Biker: 1-1/2 stars, just barely escapes the lowest possible rating.

This is a book about what a Tom Wolfe-style Master of the Universe does on holiday. It's nearly impossible to have an "adventure" when you are carrying 10(!) platinum credit cards. He got cold and wet a few times, worried about finding gas, didn't always have hotel rooms up to his standards, and had delays at some borders, yawn.

The adventure must have been resisting the urge to buy an airline ticket back to New York using one of his many Visa cards.

I rode a bicycle around the world for 19 months at about the same time Mr. Rogers was having his "adventure." I am stunned that he perceived so little in his long travels.  I don't know how someone could travel in foreign countries that extensively and end up completely unchanged by the experience.  However, this fits perfectly with his huge arrogance, which is truly the theme of the book.  He already knows it all and will tell you all about it.

Which makes one wonder:  why did he bother to leave NY City in the first place?  I guess it was a good opportunity to pose with and boink the attractive and young (naive and pliable? -- certainly lubricious) daughter of one of his clients.  And a good opportunity to pump himself up by feeling superior to all those "brown faces" he's driving through.  The arrogance, the arrogance!  Typical privileged, right-wing know-it-all.  I'd like to see him try to survive in the Peruvian highlands without all his money and fancy equipment.

This is not a travel book: Mr. Rogers uses his trip as a way to sell a long economic rant. You can save yourself a lot of time by just reading his final chapter, "Afterword." I will summarize his position: governments are bad; smart, rich guys like me are good (remember October 1929?). Many of his predictions are laughably wrong. He advocated selling the US economy short in 1993.  Look at the US stock market performance from 1993 through 2000 ...  Gosh!  Idiot!  Some reviews are touting his prescience on markets.  Hello?  How about his predictions on the biggest economy in the world?

Mr. Rogers' writing is very poor and it's loaded with cliche's. He and Tabitha are always zooming on "powerful steeds" into "gorgeous scenery", or "steep, craggy mountains" into "glitzy, glamorous hotspots" or "delightful, cozy hostels", or across "hot, empty, flat deserts" into "dumps" that are not up to American standards. He'll "describe" one of the greatest mountain chains on earth, the Andes, as "the top of the world" (p. 315) for five short sentences and then move on to more important matters like further adventures with border guards and investing.  Great writing?  Rubbish!  I think he used a computer program to come up with his "descriptions" of the places he went.

Mr. Rogers is woefully ignorant about the places he goes - and he doesn't learn anything along the way. He views the world exclusively through the keyhole of economics. Most of the "interesting facts" he mentions about theses places are just wrong. One indicative example: He describes the Moreno Glacier in Argentina as, "one of the few in the world still moving." (p. 294) I found myself laughing out loud many times at his "facts" and descriptions.

If you want to understand the distribution of goods in the world, read "Guns, Germs, and Steel," by Jared Diamond. If you want to read about a real motorcycle trip, read Ted Simon's "Jupiter's Travels," or Robert Fulton's, "One-Man Caravan."

For good travel books, try:  "Seven Years in Tibet" (Harrer), "News from Tartary" (Fleming), "Arabian Sands" (Thesiger), "Gypsy Moth Circles the World" (Chichester), "Sailing Around the World" (Slocum), "Motoring With Mohammed" (Hanson), "Full Tilt" (Murphy), "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" (Newby), or "Eastern Approaches" (MacLean) "My Life with the Eskimo" (Stefansson), "Endurance" (Lansing).  I could go on and on.  "Investment Biker" is poorly-written drivel compared to all these and so many more.

"Investment Biker," a classic? That's ridiculous.

From another review:  "Greatest Book on Finance, Business, Travels Ever"  That comment almost leaves me speechless.  Obviously written by someone who has read very few travel books indeed


Lacks detail and helpful tips
	This is not one of Lonely Planet's best guides.  There is suprisingly little information.  For example, the book mentions that there are a few companies that give day tours from Rekyavik but doesnt tell you anything about how they compare in price or services.  basically, everything in the guide and more can be found at the tourist information center in Rekyavik, which luckily is run very well.  I found this really disappointing since Iceland is very expensive and I was hoping to keep down costs (in reality this is almost impossible, even eating at the grocery store I was spending 10 dollars a meal for bread and cheese) Furthermore, Iceland is a very small country and it would have been very easy to have given a lot more details.

As with any tour book some of the info is out of date.  some of the museums and businesses were closed including the Icelandic Phallogical Museum.  It also seemed that this book was written for the high season in the summer months.  I went in March and found the information on the offseason limited and sometimes inaccurate.  I usually trust Lonely Planet but in this case I would have tried one of the other guide book companies or simply visit the tourist center when you get there.


Horrible!
	This book dragged on and on.  The ending was stupid and the plot was pathetic.  Very similiar to The Devil Wears Prada which was also bad.  Don't waste your time on this one


Stick to Romance, Sparky.
	Sparks must have had a momentary lapse of reason when he decided to take a stab at suspense by writing The Guardian. This book is awful. The storyline is weak and predictable, the dialogue is excruciatingly lame, and the characters are poorly developed and lack depth and chemistry. There is virtually no romance, which is the reason to read Sparks' books. I can't tell you how many times I rolled my eyes at the stupid things people said, the way the dog seems to be human, and the predictability of the plot. This book is so poorly written and so lame I have trouble believing Sparks wrote it. If you want a good plot with romance mixed in, read Message in a Bottle or A Walk to Remember. If you want suspense, read Mary Higgins Clark or Agatha Christie; they do a far better job with it than Sparks does.


Mostly useless
	I found the book very difficult to use and almost never had what I was looking for.  The small dictionary in the back of my eyewitness travel guide was much more useful


NOT FOR A FAMILY WITH KIDS
	The photos are beautiful, the designs are just wonderful...but if you have kids this is not real life. This is a magazine lifestyle. You could only do this if you had an unlimited budget, there are no true solutions for real families with real children and real budgets. Sure my home could be organized if I had an open checkbook and could have such fabulous built-ins, and all the baskets I could buy! Stick with the real simple magazine and leave the book for the coffee table.


Not the great American novel
	"An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser is considered one of the greatest American books ever written.  This may be the case if you can get past the first chapter.  Five times, I have tried to read this book.  To date, I am 0 for 5, having fallen asleep each time trying to read it.  If you're a bit of a lazy reader or one who doesn't want to work through a book, this is not for you.  Try Mark Twain instead


Long on drama, woefully short on credibility
	While I applaud Ms. Lawrence for educating fans on the gross injustices within the Hendrix family and for having a commendable understanding of Janie Hendrix's psychological make up that is lost even on many who are within her orbit, there are some very serious credibility problems here.

   While even the idle Hendrix fan knows Jimi was born in King County Hospital, (Now Harbor View) Lawrence states he was born at the home of a family friend.(Ouch) Jimi is quoted allegedly verbatum throughout the book but from some alledged tapes of interviews that no one has seen or heard and that Lawrence conveniently plans on destroying so 'no one can profit from them'.Meanwhile cigarette packs (yes, cigarette packs) and necklaces are being sold via ebay or to private collectors allegedly having belonged to Hendrix ,siting Ms. Lawrence as the previous owner and source of authenticity.

   At one point she aledgedly quotes Hendrix as saying:

"The LSD passed around San Francisco was a fabulous discovery for me, I'd taken acid in London but...."

     Aside from Jimi's use of the word 'fabulous' being at best incredulous, the fact that Hendrix had already tried LSD in New York in 1996 before going to England and subsequently Monterey is common knowledge among afficianados and again makes all of these alledged direct quotes questionable. Those of you who have listened to and read the hundreds of hours of interviews available through collectors, official releases and press clippings will also find some of the wording of these alledged quotes that the book, and the credibility of it's author are based on, extremely suspect. At one point Ms. Lawrence even offers an aledged quote from Hendrix's mother who passed away in 1958:

"Jimi baby" she told her son "I have to escape this"

   While quotes like this can illicit an emotional response
from the average reader,they are clearly  fictional. Throughout the book people close to Jimi are referenced but very sparsely quoted, if at all. I shared the recount of Jimi's trip to Berkeley as a small child (Pg.5) with Jimi's aunt Delores and she laughed openly and wondered aloud where people come up with these stories. This from a woman who was actually there and involved in planning said trip. While making a reference to Ernestine Benson and misstakenly referring to her husband Cornel  as "Bill" , Lawrence again allegedly quotes Hendrix in lieu of an actual interview with the Benson's who are both still living and have incredible first hand insights having lived with the Hendrix's.

  Lawrence's assertion that Hendrix committed suicide simply because his journal was left out is no less ridiculous than Jimi's adopted stepsister Janie's claim that Jimi didn't OD.  Lawrence then stops just short of gleefully giving herself credit for Monika's suicide, but the jist is clear. This book is more than a bit narcissistic with Lawrence lauding herself as much as she does her subject. While proclaiming herself to be a close confident of Hendrix' the general consensus is that she wasn't around that much, if people even know who she is at all.

  For a much more well researched and credible look into Jimi's life read Electric Gypsy or even more so , the new book Room Full Of Mirrors by Charles Cross. The Man, The Magic, The Truth, while very dramatic, is rife with glaring inaccuracies and is for the most part a novel about the author and her subject, not a biography or a reliable historical record. Unless these alledged tapes that are widely quoted throughout the entire book are made available, their legitimacy and the legitimacy of the book will forever be questioned.

Ray Rae Goldman
Archivist/Historian
James Marshall Hendrix Foundatio