Distortion of John E. Holts Public Record
	Professor Solove comments about me on page 147 are out and out lies. Search  washingtonpost.com news archives for "john and holt and and gsa" for the true story.
John Emory Holt


Her Weakest by Far
	I've read all of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon books and enjoyed every one of them until I reached Hard Truth. After writing so many intellligent, suspenseful stories, Barr has joined what seems to be an open competition among mystery writers to see who can come up with the most despicable crime. Murder's not nasty enough? How about the murder of children? Still not gruesome enough? Add incest/rape/torture...you get the picture.

Ostensibly such books are meant to give the reader insight into the minds of evil villains, but really, who cares? The kind of evil depicted in these books is not just disgusting but banal. It's like bad language in humor--in general, it's just a cover for bad writing.

In Hard Truth, Barr outdoes all of the competition for sheer nastiness, in the process leaving out the features that make her other books so enjoyable: the charm and intelligence of her main charcter, the well-reasoned defense of nature, the lush descriptions of each story's setting. I found this book neither enlightening nor remotely enjoyable. I give it two stars for an interesting but largely wasted character (a recently paralyzed ice climber), but otherwise I'm sorry I spent my time and money on it


Koffee table gloss.
	Some times it is nice to have a book that points out the obvious. You can be too close to a problem to notice the obvious. Unfortunately this book is too obvious. And it is all fluff with no substance. Wait you say. This is a design book what do you want? Code?  I really wanted design. So where is it? Between the pages that tell how to use exotic tools to do what html can? Or is it between the lines that keep emphasizing speed? Or is it that this is one big advertisement for the contributors? Oh well, it makes you look scholarly to have this book on the Koffee table


Where did JA Jance go?
	I own and have read all of JA Jance's JP Beaumont and Joanna Brady mysteries and eagerly look forward to the next episodes in these character's lives.  I picked this book up, thinking it would be on par with all the JA Jance books I've read previously.  What a crashing disappointment.  I can't care about stereotypical characters in unbelievable situations - truth be told, I kept looking at the cover to see if I'd picked up a Harlequin by mistake.  I'll probably read more Ali Reynolds books if this is indeed a new series, but I'd much rather see what happens with JP and Joanna - incidentally, I didn't think much of either of them, either, when their paths crossed some books ago.  This one gets a big "Aw, c'mon, JA, you can do much better than this!" from me.  For those who haven't read previous books and happened to have the bad luck to pick this one up as your first JAJ, get the JP Beaumonts and start at the beginning.  They are worth the time and effort


Good First Effort But Needs Improvement.
	Considering that this is virtually the first attempt (as far as I know) at a Dictionary of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, this is a good start. It is worth the price for what it does contain but it is not without glaringflaws.The title  quot;International quot; leads one to expect much more coverage of Pentecost outside of the U.S. Canada, where Pentecostal movements thrived in parallel with those in the U.S., is given very scanty treatment.Some major early Canadian apostles, such as O.J. Lovik, are skipped entirely. There is also too much opportunity given for some controversial movements to propagandize. A balanced article would necessitate an article by an unbiased observer, rather than by the leaders of those movements.Finally, there is too much credence and space given to sociological assessments of a movement that requires, above all else, keen spiritual discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff. That said, I will consult my copy often, for the great amount of useful material it does contain


Sex belongs in the bedroom NOT in the library!!!!!!!
	This book is filthy.  I had to take a shower after I read it.  Why doesn't he get a job?  Why does he have to live in France? Why doesn't he save his money instead of investing it in alcohol and hookers?  So many questions.  People just think this book deserves a place on the same shelf as say James Michenier because it was banned.  It was banned because it's a bad book


A find magazine article padded to book length
	Mr. Winchester takes an interesting subject, collects enough material to make a fine article in, say, National Geographic, and somehow pads it out to several hundred pages in length.  (Case in point, a chapter devoted to how he found an interesting fossil by the seaside while a kid, but loses it, and his journey back to the site of this failure of his to wallow in the misery of this horrible loss. Ick. Self-induldgent.  Boring.)  Worse, still, even where there is a potential for interesting and enlightening material, such as relates, say, to the subject's wife, all Mr. Winchester bothers to give us are some gossipy speculations.  I guess extensive research might have been too time consuming.  Numerous times I considered stopping reading the book because the writing was so dreadful, but the subject was just interesting enough to keep me going, hence my review of two stars.

John McPhee could have covered the actual science of geology way better than Mr. Winchester, and just about any other author could have done a better job of telling the personal story


horrible
	Bought this one for Evolution class. It is a horrible excuse for a textbook. Do not buy this book unless it is for a middle school student. If the authors think this book has been written for an advanced audience, then I would suggest that anyone interested in learning evolution not attend University of Washington


JKG thinks he funny. He's not.
	While I did find the book informative and a good supplement to Robert Sobel's The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920s, Galbraith interjects his sarcastic view of the participants in the 1920s Bull Market way too much. This makes parts of the book extremely difficult to read. While I persevered to the end, I fouynd Sobel's account as informative and much more enjoyable to read


Book shows age
	I was very disapointed by this book. After just finishing the 400+ pages book "Bull! from Maggie Mahar" which is an absolute ecxellent book about market cycles (although the more recent boom of 1982-1999), "The great Crash" was really hard to read. It totally shows its age (it was written more than 50 years ago). The language is hard to understand and some words seem weird in todays time.

But its not just the language which makes this book not enjoyable. It is not written with much entertainment value, and the book I mentioned earlier shows clearly that it is quite possible to write an very entertaining book about the stock market. It also is very superficial, it doesn't go into much detail at all. It doesn't tell any examples of real people or anything which would make the book more readable.

It lists names and companies without doing a good part of explaning why it lists them. Sometimes I was thinking to myself "Please get to your point."

That book was probably a good read in 1955 while people still could relate to most of the names he lists. But now (2004) there must be better books out there about the Crash of 1929.

I give it two stars and not one (you can't give zero stars) because it has some interesting facts. Overall I would NOT recommend this book. Try another one about this subject


very disappointing...
	I have been reading a series of autobiographical accounts of modern day warriors and had high hopes for this title.  As others have pointed out, Coughlin's ego can be suffocating at times.  This could be forgiven if it were the books only flaw.  Alas it is not.  The writing is amateurish at best and the author's overuse of adjective and hyperbole is very distracting.  The language is disjointed and unnatural as if it were written with the heavy use of a thesaurus.  Again this could be forgiven as we're reading this book for a soldier's account, not that of an English grad student.

This book offers a stark contrast in comparison with Nathaniel Fick's "One Bullet Away."  Whereas Fick seems to be an intelligent, thoughtful and humble warrior whose primary concern is the welfare of his men, Coughlin conveys himself as a shallow intellect with more concern for personal glory and satisfaction than anything else.  He is a team player when he hand picks the team and considers them worthy of his own company.

You cannot know a person from reading their writing but Coughlin's character development is very superficial.  His attempts to convey a "human side" are unbelievable and seem grossly contrived.  This is a great contrast to the character development in "One Bullet."  There is no connection between author and reader in "Shooter."  Coughlin does not develop the role players either.  In "One Bullet" you really feel the brotherhood developed among the officer, his NCOs and the enlisted men.  Additionally, Coughlin's demeaning descriptions of his support staff (non-trigger pullers) is tedious and only reinforces doubts about his team ethic.

To make matters worse the action isn't as well developed as in other titles.  The author's self-congratulatory tone and emphasis on personal exploits, with plenty of after-action chest thumping, obscures the view of battle.  He spends little time on the finer elements of sniper tradecraft, training and shooting.  This can be found elsewhere.

Overall this book was a great disappointment.  If only a fraction of Coughlin's self-acclaimed exploits are true, then he is a remarkable sniper.  He should let his accomplishments speak for themselves and not try to beat us over the head with them


Survivor in Death
	the beginning of this book was excellent, but dont be fooled, the first few chapters are the only decent part of this book.  the rest of the book is just filled with sex and the ultimate downfall is that there is no foreshadowing to the killers. what's the point of writing it if the reader cant try to figure out who the murderers were.  this was one of the worst books i have ever read, i'd call it a trashy romance novel with a hint of mystery. dont waste your time reading it


Cambridge's normal skeptical view
	Several reviews of this book, published elsewhere, stress
the contents of Rossi's analysis were more focused toward
the skeptical side of Egyptian math and construction methods.
Rossi, therefore is being fairly depicted as publishing new information within unproven paradigms.

On the math side, Rossi mentions Fibonacci's algorithm
and phi, two paradigms that clearly were not used in ancient
Egypt, though many like to suggest that they were. The
Fibonacci algorithm idea was introduced after 1891 and J.J.
Sylvester's skeptical views of the RMP's 2/nth table, are
reference point to 1202 AD and the Liber Abaci, but not
a reference point of Egypt. Egypt used more subtle ideas
like http://egyptianmath.blogspot.com and http://akhmimwoodentablet.blogspot.com .

Yet, Hultsch in 1895 clearly showed that Ahmes in 1650 BC
easily wrote out 2/p series into short and concise unit
fraction series using a very simple partitioning method
(as Ahmes wrote out n/p answers in his 'false position'
algebra problems, ie. 5/19 written out in a long awkward
series using 1/12th as the first partition, as he did for 2/19,
as describe a couple paragraphs below. Ahmes wrote 5/19

per, 5/19 - 1/12 = (60 - 19)/(12*19) = (38 + 2 + 1)/(12*19)

or, 5/19 = 1/6 + 1/12 + 1/114 + 1/228).

Clearly modern scholars (two being Robins-Shute) have often suggested that 'false supposition' was used by Ahmes, hinting
that Ahmes guessed at his answers. Ahmes never guessed! Ahmes'
answers were always exact when he worked with rational numbers.

Moderm scholars were the ones that had guessed, and missed, finding Ahmes deeper methods. Interestingly no scholar, until
very recently, has claimed to have read Ahmes' shorthand
notes. Modern scholars had sadly filled inlogical gaps left
by Ahmes with their own intellectual guesses - many of which
have been proven to be wrong (as Rossi had not learned, since
he referenced none of the controversial Eguptian fraction and weights and measures issues).

Bruins also discovered the Hultsch method in 1945, and today
the method is named the Hultsch-Bruin method. It says that

2/p = 1/A  + (2A -p)/Ap

where A, a highly divisible number selected in the range

   p/2  lt; A  lt; p

with the divisors of A uniquely added to (2A -p)
thereby solving (2A-p)/Ap.

Example,

2/19 = 1/12 + (24 -19)/(12*19)

      = 1/12 + (3 + 2)/(12*19)

      = 1/12 + 1/76 + 1/114

with the (4 + 1) alternative being discarded
since its last denominator was too large.

Rossi also mentions that Egyptian division may have followed
an inverse operation of its multiplication 'doubling' method.

Here also Rossi did not seen the simple remainder arithmetic
found in RMP #62 where 100/13 = 7 + 9/13 = 7 + 2/3 + 1/39.

Generally Ahmes and all scribes divided by this Q = quotient
and R = remainder method. The Akhmim Wooden Tablet even
shows a special method for grain and volume division where
a hekat unity 64/64 was divided by n, with n  lt; 64, as

(64/64)/n = Q/64 + R/(n*64)

Even more interesting, Ahmes also used this method to
divide 100 hekat by 70, with his final form matching
the Akhmim Wooden tablet's special use of ro = 1/320th
of a hekat, by:

(6400/64)/70 = 91/64 + 30/(70*64)

and introducing ro = 1/320 of a hekat,

             = (1 +16 + 8+ 2 + 1)/64 = (150/70)* 1/320

             = 1+ 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/32+ 1/64 + (2 + 1/7)*ro

I'll not go on and discuss Rossi' view of Egyptian
architecture being the above her standard Cambridge
skeptical comments.

Overall, many accept Rossi's view as informative,
and I do as well, in limited areas. However, on the
math side of Rossi's quick use of a Sylvester's and
other recent skeptical techniques, all disproven years ago,
shows that her Cambridge training needs to be expanded
to read the Egyptian mathematical texts. Clearly Ahmes
and his brother/sister scribes are the only experts
that should guide our understanding of Egyptian math.


Snow White became Chuky
	If you admired the young McCourt boy who survived misery and a drunken father in Angela's Ashes (A'sA), this book is sure a huge deception. The first 80 pages are a great continuation to A'SA, but suddenly the rhythm of the book stops, as if McCourt had suffered from a severe drought of ideas. The storyline becomes chaotic, changing the day-today timeline we were used to to a mixture of anecdotes that take place 5 years forward and jump back again, no order or sense whatsoever.
What's worse, nice and naive Mccourt transforms into a copy of his drunken father, constant beating up of women included. It's a huge shock (hey this story's REAL, folks!); it's as if Snow White suddenly turned into the role of the Queen.
McCourt won't be the same nice, brave and funny guy for me nevermore.


Disappointing.
	Like the other posters, I too was given this book as part of our homestudy for adopting a child from China. After reading the first chapter I found myself insulted. This book assumes all who read it are adopting because they cannot get pregnant, which is not my case. While infertility is something that should not be ignored, and I appreciate the fact that most adoption books I read address the matter, this book would have been much more respectable if it did not direct its text to the reader as a person who cannot conceive. I was so insulted that I returned the book to my social worker with these concerns


Wish I hadn't wasted my time, but saved by listening to story
	I have long had the desire to read a Grisham book, because I have heard good things.  Well, my chance came and I was sorely disappointed.  The audio cd's were on sale at a truck stop and I decided to get them for The Chamber.  The opening to the book kept me going, but by chapter three, I had already decided this, "If Sam Cayhall lives I'm going to be mad because I get furious about hate crimes, and if he dies, he had better not die a martyr or worse yet the "hero" to the story."  Sadly, I pursued curious about the ending.  I'm very glad I got the cds instead of the book, because it only took six hours to get through it.  Sure wish I had those six hours back and the money invested so I could try a diferent author.  Mayber Grisham's other books are better, but I won't be reading them


Shamefully Simplistic
	We live in a man's world. Women are raped, abused, beaten and generally regarded as objects for male gratification. This is an epidemic problem, and Christian men are just as great of offenders as the general population.

So here comes another book on male sexuality, for Christian men. The idea is good: rein in the beast. But the major defect, which sinks the book, is the self-centered nature of the remedy.

Christian men are given a toolkit to not look at booty. What we are not given is a concrete understanding of compassion. It's all self-centered. Who cares if the world is just as dangerous for our wives, daughters, and loved ones? At least I'm "sexually pure."

Surely sexual purity includes overthrowing the sexual aggression in society at large? This is a life and death situation. We will be successful according to the goals we set. It is not enough for men to stop lusting. We need to fundamentally change the sexual ethics of our society - ethics that aren't greatly concerned with women's well-being.

If you're only concerned with your own thoughts, this book could be useful. But what about the sense of security for the women in our society, who have to live with sexual aggression, cat-calls and "hey-baby"s? This book sets shamefully low standards for the church's role in reshaping society, even as it sets admirably high standards for individual men's thought-lives


Soul by Soul by Walter Johnson
	The principle question that arises from a reading of  quot;Soul by Soul quot; by Walter Johnson is why was this book written? It is touted as history, yet not only does it lack any original historical material, it  also lacks any discernable historical facts. Rather than history,   quot;Soul by Soul quot; seems to be a mean-spirited, emotional tract  designed to promote two fundamental ideas: 1. that white people living in  the antebellum South were universally loathsome, brutish and cruel and 2.  that black people living in the antebellum South were universally noble,  good and abused. To support his views, Professor Johnson strings together a  loose collection of repetitious snippets from antebellum abolitionist  literature and excerpts from gossipy litigation proceedings. His personal  contribution is represented by his miraculous ability to enter the psyche  of the book's long deceased characters and divine their true, but unspoken,  motives and thoughts. Quite a feat for any historian!      One loses count  of the number of times that the reader is treated to white people using  their  quot;probing fingers quot; in this book. Fortunately, in between  probes, the reader can be shocked by the  quot;killing fields of the lower  South, quot; the  quot;historical sexualization of black bodies, quot; the   quot;slaveholders' inevitable failure to live through the stolen bodies of  their slaves, quot; and the  quot;brutish perogatives of whiteness. quot;  This is heavy, hate-filled stuff worthy of a TV mini-series but it is out  of place in a supposedly serious history text.       I live in a former  slave quarter in New Orleans. In the antebellum period, this building and  its resident slaves were, interestingly enough, owned by a free black who  was financially ruined in 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation. As an  amateur historian, I would have thought that a book about the New Orleans  slave market would contain some pertinent historical facts about these  markets. What were their addresses? What percentage of their customers were  black? What percentage were white? How many slaves did the typical New  Orleans household have? How were they fed and clothed? What were their  working hours? These are basic questions that should have been addressed  but instead, the reader is given an emotionally charged, repetitious,  boring rehash of tired, previously published material. In short, this book,  for the most part, reads like a rambling, overly long sermon. Anyone  seeking serious scholarship on the subject of slavery would do well to look  elsewhere and should consider reading the  quot;Slave Narratives quot;  compiled by the Federal Writers Project,  quot;Time on the Cross quot; by  Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman and  quot;The Slave Trade quot; by Hugh  Thomas. The first of these is a collection of interviews of former slaves  performed by the W.P.A. in the 1930's. The latter two works contain  original historical research and both deal with the facts of slavery, not  the emotions


It's a waste of money even for beginner
	Sure this book is only for beginner or outsider of Cosulting business. But then, for the price of this book, I would rather buy a much cheaper book but with more useful information and ideas - such as Consulting for Dummies. The book is full of motherhood statements and it is more liked written by a grand mom and she called herself consultant; But come on, Consulting is a highly skillful business that require structural, systematic yet creative thinking. Overall, I think this book is a waste of money for experienced consultant. While for beginner, the reader will risk the wrong impression that it's this easy to win a consulting work - highly unlikely in a complex and competative world


Irrational hatred with authoritative sounding documentation
	Another farce to feed irrational hatred with authoritative sounding documentation... If you dig that sort of thing... there are tons out on the market...Unfortunately they don't come with disclaimers. like one would get when reading a book on the occult... People tend to go for books that support their bigoted view, and this is a fine example... it is a lucrative business in the united states to see what is en vogue and write a book of it.... It is a living. When the Da Vinci code was written it was a craze everyone had to write the idiot's guide to the code, how to interpret the code etc etc.... I am not surprised of a book like this and certainly there is no accounting for integrity or lack thereof... people write for years even for the NY times before others discover their plagiarism.... or in this case the secret agenda.... before long we will all be drafted to support capitalistic oligarchies err democracy abroad...


Better that you die than survive rape
	This book states that it's better to die than survive a rape:

"Also far-reaching is the effect of the loss of chastity. Once given or taken or stolen it can never be regained. Even in a forced contact such as rape or incest, the injured one is greatly outraged. If she has not cooperated and contributed to the foul deed, she is of course in a more favorable position. There is no condemnation where there is no voluntary participation. It is better to die in defending one's virtue than to live having lost it without a struggle." (p.196)

How much more twisted can it get?


Just very odd......
	This story should have and COULD HAVE been really good. It presents a great concept, but the story is just so poorly crafted. It is VERY sexist, the prose is stiff, and the plot is dull. I will concede that it was interesting at times; it kept me reading, but I really didn't get much out of it. I can only praise Heinlein for including the "intelligent conversation" which takes place after the press conference, where there is a great explantion on why the English language is so difficult to learn. The whole story is just very odd. Do read it though. It's a title to read if you wish to be considered "well read." Despite its faults, Valentine Michael Smith will be a character in literature that will never be forgotten, just as we will never forget Atticus from "To Kill A Mockingbird."


Three Junes -Where did They Get That Name?
	Sometime ago I read my Sunday paper and noted that "Three Junes" was listed as a popular book choice.  The title sounded interesting so I bought it.  That was 2 months ago and I am still trying to get through the paperback edition.  It is difficult to follow the timeline, to understand the characters and where they fit, and to get involved in the storyline.  I will finish the book because that's my style.  It has not been a book that I could not wait to get back to.


Enjoyed the first book, but the second book is not up to par
	Sadly this second book left me unsatisfied. For one, Wouk's misgivings in the first book were well exaggerated in the second. Of course, once one has read through the first book, its hard to stop. Yet, by the end of War and Remembrance I was thoroughly sick and annoyed by Wouk's characters. It's hard to relate to super humans, who constantly do super human feats. Most of the characters in the book come from superior stock, graduate from the top universities, have extremely good looks, and seem to harbour traits that make superman look normal and mundane.

I guess after spending endless hours reading the book I am somewhat frustrated. Perhaps you will be like me, and by the second book without pausing. But, for the sake of saving some time, I recommend you consider parting with the characters in book one. Don't make the mistake of buying book two just because book one was so good.


Fun... but long
	The book was fun but the fact that it is too long overshadowed all this fun. I got the impression it was rather written to become a movie. All I can say is that thanks to C.Bushnell for 'Sex and the City'.


Could have Been Great But No Cigar!
	I'm sorry to say, this work will not rate very highly on my scale.

The author is brilliant, not to mention right on the things he says. It's just that the writer's style is so abstract and nebulous that he's absolutely maddening to try and follow. One moment, he'll be talking about how religion evolved, and the next he jumps to an illustration that takes half a page and uses language that is so illusive you ask, "What in the world is he saying now?" I got so excited in the first chapter while things made sense, and then noticed how he drifted here and there, making good points and then totally abandoning them.

I bought this book three years ago and just recently finished reading it because I had to keep going out of my way to put it down and come back to it!! It never seemed to get better. I gleaned a few good points and enjoyed it...well...sort of, but the author is so unclear at times that it drives you nuts - and this is coming from an atheist who agrees with the philosophical position of the author!

Overall, I really cannot recommend it unless you are a VERY slow, contemplative reader who doesn't mind an unorthodox read. Other than that, the book is packed with some good info. I just wish I could have gotten to it more easily.

(JH)

www.ministerturnsatheist.or


Just what America needs.  More rabble rousing.
	Miniter takes advantage of the American ideological divide by cashing in with controversal editorials of hyperbole.   Maybe he could get together for a book with Ann Coulter


Really horrible book
	Like everyone of you, I am crazy about my toddler.  I got this book and the book of Wendy S. Masi' Toddlers Play.  The comarison: day and night. Kuffners book might have 365 activities, but it really bad organized.  I am a first time parent, so I need some help/guidance; thsi is why I baught this bbok.

There is nothing to guide me on which activity is for what age group, so I don't know if an activity is for 18 months or 24 or 12 months- ie amI challenging my toddler, am I boring him or amI providing him with the right fun activity for his age??? Some of the activities are too obvious- it seems like the author wrote down anything she could think of just to fill in 365 activities in the bookl and there is you see the author's luck of creativity and/or knowledge of the subject.  Also the descriptiosn are very brief with limited illustrations.

I really don't understand why anyone will give 5 stars to this book.  I don't care about the money I spent for the book.  I care that I ended up with something that I can not really use to provide my toddler with fun.  For that reason I strongly recommend the othe rbook (Wendy S. Masi's book).  Yes it has 100 instea dof 365 activities, but it is colorfull, easy and pleasant to read and each activity is marked by an ege indicator.  Look at the 'look inside' of both these books and you will see what I mean.

Good luck + have lost of fun with your toddler(s)!!


Steve deserves a better effort
	Without question a book is needed to address the origin and history of late night television and Steve Allen's pivitol role it. Sadly Ben Alba's "Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original "Tonight Show'', is not that book. It is, largely, a poorly edited and self-contradicting pastiche of previously published memoirs by Allen himself combined with some excellent interviews with Allen's TV contemporaries. These interviews could form the basis of an excellent book by the likes of biographers Scott Berg (Sam Goldwin) or Neal Gabler (Walter Winchle).
The opening chapter, which addresses Allen's dysfuntional up-bring, education and his early days in radio and TV sets the stage for the author's failure to create a full-blooded, well-rounded analytical portrait of Allen and his work. Alba draws here, almost exclusively and certainly uncritically, from Allen's memiors while combining these words with one quote from a childhood friend and two early reviews. Taking Allen and the reader's one independent witness at face value, Allen had a rootless, violent and unstable childhood. Given these negative conditions Alba gives  no hint of how, why or even if, Allen really remained attached to his drunken and generally unstable mother and her equally troubled extended family. The author gives us two brief stories from Allen's adulthood to demonstarte that the family ties endured. Actually, all the stories show is that Allen attended an uncle's funeral and very briefly troted his mother out once on his Sunday night show. How did this dysfunctional world of Allen's youth effect his two marriages and five sons? Why, after a childhood on the fringes of a perlious show business existance did Allen choose this same career field for himself? Alba doesn't even pose such questions about the boy's effects on the man. He just plows ahead in a haliographic haze. Throughout "Inventing..." Alba maintains this pattern of unquestioning acceptance Allen's words. No other witnesses are called, no other points of view are examined. Steve tells a story; Alba accepts it and edits it into his text. Why not read Allen straight?


A Review As Ugly As This Novel
	It truly is the best war fiction regarding WWII if you have never read ANY other fiction regarding WWII. I love war fiction and non-fiction and beside parroting the Time Magazine blurb prominently displayed in the novel I can not even come close to understanding why anyone, let alone review after review, would even come close to that stupefying conclusion. To me it is the best example of intellectual snobbery that critics like to pat themselves on the back with. Only they understand and you lesser intellects are not capable of appreciating. What it is, is a bloated, narcisstic, misogynistic waste of time.

Of course any piece of literature is subjective, but to me, this critically acclaimed work fails on every level that a novel should, regardless of genre. Unless you love James Joyce (another bad writer lorded over us by the critically elite), I think most readers expect some sort of plot development. Don't expect that here. How about engaging characters that develop and grow throughout the novel? You better pick up something else.  It seems to me the reader should at least be invested in one of the character's outcome. Far too pedestrian a thought if you "get" this art. If I can't have any of that how about writing a character that is even remotely likable? Forget it non-ivy leaguer! I was rooting for the Japanese to kill them all, so at least their "loved" ones at home would be spared of these nearly universally despicable human beings. The only thing that propelled me to finish was to get to the ending that would perhaps tie together the painful experience of reading these soldier's hateful ruminations while, oh by the way, a war was being fought around them. Nope, no big ending either. It just ends.

Yes, I have heard that the plodding ugliness and pointlessness of the entire book is to symbolize war itself. Give me a break. While this may be bad news for us common folk duped into reading it, it certainly is good news for Tom Clancy. His last two decades of literature are just misunderstood genius depicting the banality of human existence and not bad writing at all.


Cookbook to fancy
	I enjoy food but most of the recipes in this book are things I wouldn't eat in the first place


Who are these people kidding?
	Communism is one of the most evil ideologies in human history, responsible for the extermination of 100+ million people. This book (which started it all) holds at least much of the blame. Communists were and still are a threat to the free world, and communism is a slave system. Some "intellectuals" actually support the tired mantras of Marx's philosophy, whether because they are insincere or simply pedants who haven't seen enough sunlight, I don't know. In any case, if they ever step foot in the real world they would take note that communism denies private property, and is totalitarian and slave-driving (the government owns everything, including you). And the deaths caused by communism are hardly necessary to bring up. Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin (of course), etc etc...who are these people kidding


OK for general PM Concepts
	Not sure this is the book to study for the PMP. Agree that its missing the tools techniques and concepts but he made it clear up front he was not going into it. Also, the intergration knowledge area is missing. I think if he went into the format of the exam , it would really serve its purpose better.

Read this after you have read the PMBOK and another REAL PMP EXAM prep book! This is great to read the day before for leisure with no pressure


I Tried
	This book irritated me on many levels; not that the writing was poor or the plot weak. In fact, the plot, the premise, the writing were good--unfortunately the characters didn't pull it off or keep me interested because they were all kinda indifferent or unlikable.

I read somewhere the number one reason people keep reading a work of fiction--regardless of plot--is because they care about someone in the book.

In this book, I was hoping they would all drown by the end of the story...


This book is not for the novice
	This book is not for someone who just wants to pick up enough French to get them through a trip unless they have a good ear and memory.  I found "French in 10 Minutes a Day" much better as you must write what you learn in a workbook


Not impressed
	I have been a huge fan of Dean Koontz for years, ever since my mom got me to read Watchers.  But this story is just way too slow.  Just when I thought it was going to grab my attention and start off for the rollar coaster ride....it would slow way down again.  I almost put it down halfway through the book, but I kept pushing along thinking that it would get better just around the corner.  About 2/3rds of the way through it got a little bit more entertaining....but I just felt like something was missing most of the time I was reading.  I just couldn't get into the characters.  I wouldn't recommend this book to any first time Dean Koontz reader because it would most likely turn you off....don't judge his work by this novel.


"Fictional stories of scientific falshoods"...
	If you are interested in learning about the *actual* science of food, but don't want to learn any science, at least read a book by someone who *did* learn it.  There is so much grossly erroneous information in this book that he discredits himself entirely.  "Oil is more dense than water-- and that's why it can be heated to higher temperatures than 212".  As a chemist and formulator I can assure you that nearly all oil is lighter than water, and even if it weren't that's *not* the reason it has a higher boiling point.  Ever make oil   vinegar salad dressing?  Ever seen crude oil on the ocean?  How about the funk on top of old greasy dish water?  Folks, oil floats on water... and the earth is not flat.  Either this guy is a complete moron, or he is a very clever con artist.  Either way, save your money... and buy that blind Amish author's book "Semiconductor Microengineering for Dummies" instead.  It's better researched


There are better options available for readers
	I was drawn to this book by the promise of experiencing or gaining familiarity with a new part of Paris, a city I have visited often.  The book fell far short of that.  It left me disappointed and longing for what I had missed.  It was difficult to connect with or enter into the story primarily  because the author failed to portray a personal intimacy with the subject. As an example, she tells us that moving within Paris was a bigger event than imagined but the description lacked emotional depth. Where were her feelings, little experiences, failings, successes, reactions. Overall, the author proved she has knowledge but does not know how to share it.


Too Expensive
	$24.95 is way too expensive for a book that is only 100 pages.  Other than that the content in the book is good


Too Drawn Out
	Normally I don't take the time to write a review, but this book just bugged me.  When I finished I felt like I had run a marathon.  The book was just too drawn out and I felt the descriptions were long winded.  Faith was a little too unbelieveable even though she was abused and had little self esteem.  The plot was good, but moved slowly.  I am typically not drawn to Danielle Steel books and probably with good reason that I never seem to like them very much.  I am glad that this book was in a box of 30+ books that I paid $15 for at a used book store.  I would have felt like I wasted my money had I actually paid full price for it


Companion web site not there
	The companion web site mentioned in the book is not there. When I typed in that URL, I got redirected to Peachpit's advertising site of this book, but no "links", "tools", nor "examples" mentioned in the book at all!


Talk about a tornado in a trailer park...........
	Between the "Glamour Shots   Easy Sex, Different Babys' Daddys" What else is there? Oh yeah, the many scripture quotes   abortion info.  Dont forget unprotected sex with every man she dates. Dont forget letting a strange man pick your daughter up from school. Poor Amber!
This gave me insight alright, on how dysfunctional Amber Frey is.
Shame on her for using Laci's photo!
I hope that she spends her profits on much needed therapy   a Tubal Ligation!


Don't Waste Your Time
	I absolutely love Janet Evanovich and the Stephanie Plum series, so when I saw this new series of books with her name on it, I grabbed them up.  I couldn't even finish reading this book.  It was so bad.  The whole talking car concept was, frankly, just stupid.  This was like watching an episode of Knight Rider, but without David Hasselhoff.  The characters are flat, and the dialogue is stilted and contrived.  I can only believe that Charlotte Hughes did most of the writing, and why on earth would Evanovich attach her name to this?  Needless to say, I will not be reading the rest of the series.  Spend your money on something worth reading


Mr. Risen has found the legal loophole in espionage for cash:
	Don't sell it to one country on microfilm for a lot of money, sell it to everybody in hard cover for ~$20.00 a pop.   Somebody is going to have to explain to me the difference between what Risen has done here, and what the Walkers were imprisoned for.

Imagine a WWII era reporter, during the war, giving away that the Allies had broken the Kreigsmarine Enigma code in order to challenge how much money was spent doing it; or how we used false signals to test Japanese intentions in the run-up to Midway just to question whether we correctly evaluated the information; or disclosed the exact D-day landing beaches in a vain attempt to substitute their own "expert" opinion.

James Risen's product is the same thing, only with a snarkier Monday-morning-quarterback vibe.  And when hindsight is your only insight, you know you're in trouble.  It's easy to figure out who had it right on intelligence issues a few years down the line, even easier to find the "I-told-you-so heroes" eager to tell their tales of cassandrian victimization.   And that's really all State of War does.  It collects a pile of disconnected (often single-sourced and anonymous) anecdotes, and fleshes them out.  The more interesting the story, the more questionably it's sourced, and the fuller its fleshed.  In the end, it's a bloated yet vacuous work that discloses sensitive specifics in order to illustrate a few widely known and obvious generalities, those being:

      Intelligence gathering isn't perfect.
      Mistakes are often made.
      Present laws do not keep up with technology.
      (Just in case you didn't know that already)

If you're hoping for an across the board Bush slam, think twice.  There's info on botched Clinton-era operations as well (one of which transferred nuclear weapons technology to one of our favorite Mid-East regimes), but again, why?  What's worse, the specifics in the book have given terrorists valuable intelligence without giving anyone else anything usable (Unless cocktail party whining is a "use").  In the wake of this book and the politically-motivated NY Times story, the bad guys have already started altering how they do their communications.  Great news for American civilians and military members alike.

This book might have a place 10-20 years down the line.  But as it stands, during an active shooting war, a valuable, effective, and completely legal intelligence gathering tool (a tool Clinton used with "0" congressional oversight) is revealed and disabled so that James Risen can buy a boat.
Another triumph of American journalism!


TERRIBLE FOR THE PRICE!!!
	I ordered this book through a bookclub and returned it.  It was terrible!  Tanya Holland is a beautiful Black woman, but I feel has gone too far out of the way to create "innovative and different" recipes so much that they are not appealing and certainly should not be categorized as soul food.  The price is outrageous for the handful of recipes that were chosen for this cookbook.  I collect african american/soul food cookbooks among others.  If you are really into soul food cookbooks and what they really represent, your money would be better spent on "Essence Brings you Great Cooking" by Jonell Nash, "The Ebony Cookbook" by Freida DeKnight or "The Black Family Reunion Cookbook" by the The National Council of Negro Women.  If you are interested in healthier soul food try, "The New Ebony Cookbook" by Charlotte Lyons or "The Family Dinner Quilt Cookbook" by The National Council of Negro Women.  If you are interested in diverse, cultural flavors, I would recommend Vertamae Grosvenor's cookbooks or "Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons" by Jessica B. Harris.  I have collected over 50 african american soul food cookbooks.  They cover the gamut.  That is why I can give an honest opinion on Tanya Holland's book.  I just wish that she would publish an african american cookbook that the average African American can relate to.  One that would be useful to families in their everyday cooking.


Now that the DailyKOS crowd has finished posting
	I've always been a big believer in "attack the message" (if you don't agree), don't attack the messenger.  The reverse has been almost standard practice of the Left when they can't refute the truth, facts and common sense of conservatives.  Which is close to 100% of the time.

So I have to be very careful not to copy the Left when I write as a fifth generation Kansan and having lived all of my life, thus far, in the same "upper-middle class" suburb Mr. Frank seems to so despise in his first and only book.   But his book was so filled with errors, personal opinions disguised as facts and mislabeling of events, people and general culture, as to make it a book of fiction; not one of fact.

He stated himself he had every advantage presented to him early in life but he chose not to take advantage of them.  He relishes being a victim and seems to mostly be upset that he wasn't born into a poor family of migrant laborers.  Perhaps born as Ms. Condoleezza Rice?  She is certainly a good example of someone held down by evil conservatives and not permitted to excel in life (not).  Living in, and exposed to, the surroundings of his childhood, it appears to me his life's goal was to become a professional victim and a loser in life where the deck is stacked against you from birth.   He's, so far, at least succeeding in that!   Being an accomplished loser.   What a goal!

His only "accomplishment" was the writing of one book that could only be believed as fact by disciples of The DailyKOS.

Having written his fictional book of what life is NOT like in Johnson County, Kansas and how he was stopped cold at every turn of life's losing lottery, he really has nothing else to say.   Perhaps he can now survive as an invention of the Left writing the same type of fiction over and over (as he just did for the NY Times).  He must be a very unhappy person.  It seems most liberals are.  How sad.  The only real obstacle they have in life is seen in their mirror each morning.  That's it no matter how much they deny reality.

He seems like an intelligent young man who had everything going for him.  What a waste of talent.   Now, he's just another "victim" doing his best to convince everyone else they too should just give up as they can't win in life no matter how hard they try.  As I intimated, I'm sure glad Condoleezza Rice ignored people like him!  I just wish people like him were fewer in number and that more ignored their delusional vision of reality.

Checking in from Kansas, he is a "one book wonder".


totoally unrealistic for the times
	I recently read this as part of a survey of childrens' literature about the Medieval period. Let me say first, that the dialogue is completely modernized, with not even a complex word to redeem it. I know this is because the original is supposedly in dialect, but please, our children are more sophisticated than that. Adam is self-involved, careless, and annoyingly stupid. Despite it's touted 320 pages, this could have been printed in 150, and contained much the same material. The only thing that redeems this novel from being totally forgettable is the snatches of Latin and Old English ballads scattered throughout. If you want your children to have a much clearer understanding of the times, with a book focussed more on character than on plot or modern accessability, have them read Song of the Gargoyle. It's also about a boy who loses his father, and has to search for him, in the company of a dog-like being, but has ten times the depth and realism of this piece of trash. The boy is also a minstrel, of sorts, but he has more likable qualities than Adam, as well as more adventures in less pages. The ending is a happy one, but it involves a twist, which isn't at all forseeable, as theat in Adam of the Road. Please, just skip this, I don't care if it won a Newberry Award, and read Song of the Gargoyle, by Zylpha Keatly Snider


Hardly Authentic Science
	Early on the author tells how he proved to concept of "learned helplessness" through his experiments where he administered electric shocks on caged dogs until they gave up and just lay there and whimpered.

I threw the book away at that point.  This "scientist" shouldn't be rewarded for his senseless cruelty that proves nothing.  We don't support your science, Herr Doctor Seligman!

Get the book from a library if you must, but don't reward him for his "experiments."  It could have been your dog this moral idiot experimented on


EDITOR CALLED TO TASK
	My all time favorite book is Deavers THE BLUE NOWHERE and The Testament by another author.  I think this book is on the bottom of my list.  It was a combo term paper and novel.  I wonder where the editor of this book is.  Where was he/she?  It read like it was written by two different people and a poor editor combined them.

Don't worry Jeff, I'll still buy your next book...I've bought them all but please ...get a second opinion about your editor. I good editor wouldn't have let it go out in this shape.


3.64 lbs of Pure Spirtual Abuse
	John R. Barry (another Digital Communications textbook author) first introduced me to this text.  And Mr. Barry, as with many com. theory persons I've met since (GTRI in Atlanta, GA; MITRE along around the Boston area of MA; Northrup in El Segundo, CA; Intersil in Palm Bay/Melbourne, FL) actually use this book to justify their values and beliefs.  Essentially, it's their Bible.  The only problem is that the values and beliefs in Proakis, especially from an engineering perspective, are very third rate.  Trying to use this text in a classroom situation, especially with a third rate engineer as an instructor, is an utter disaster from both an economic and an engineering perspective.

John R. Barry, for example, is a very good baby-sitter and a so-so mathematician (he couldn't be otherwise as a faculty member of Georgia Tech).  But as an engineer, John R. Barry, as with the other followers of Proakis, compares very unfavorably (in fact, I don't consider Barry an engineer; I consider him a phony that should be removed from the ECE faculty of GATECH; the department's economic fortunes would be far better if he were moved into some kind of adjunct English/Mathematics Faculty or just shipped off to some research laboratory without any students to harm [i.e., vampirically mind f--k them and then kindly provide them with werewolfic deliverance (yes, I mean along the lines of the 1972 movie with Jon Voight [Angelina Jolie's Dad] and Burt Reynolds)]...any place where truth/reality aren't so important).  There are far, far better communications engineers out there than John R. Barry [infinitely better to be precise].  And what makes these others better [others meaning real engineers; John R. Barry being a make-believe "engineer"] is not mathematical ability, memorized knowledge, or even rhetorical shrewdness, but rather the difference lies in a faith of facts; something a follower of Proakis never seems to possess or even grasp the possibility.

In fact, the values and beliefs in the Proakis text seem to promulgate not only  Intellectual Abuse, but also a Spiritual sort as well. In a nation (where Steven Pinker, who like Proakis is of Harvard Fame, has noted) that has around 75% of its population esentially believing in the biblical/torah-related account of things, this kind of Spiritual abuse can be very dangerous indeed and lead to serious consequences.  Though it may not be intentional, nevertheless, the values and beliefs of Proakis's text and those of its instructors tend to be extremely spiritually abusive.  These values and these beliefs somehow set up a massive cognative dissonance with many student's own biblical/torah-related values and beliefs.  The result is almost always a broken-spirit.  From an economic perspective, this is bad. Very bad. And it should be stopped by no longer using this text or any like it.

Most of the "engineers" now being "developed" by the followers of Proakis (e.g., John R. Barry) are very analogous to Mid 20th Century Carribean medical school "doctors."  They can say, write, and use a lot of terminology making them useful for billing purposes, i.e. writing up invoices to Insurance/Government agencies.  These "engineers" like those "doctors" don't and probably never will understand the essence of their professions, though because of their training or lack thereof they really think they do.  When in fact, they are utterly clueless "professionals.


can't full the chuchu
	i used to follow politics but now i know better. clinton is a hero to poor folk in the US only bc bush is such a nazi, sorry, but clinton did more than any pres in US history to cut welfare to the moms who need it the most! i ain't no fool partisan of a richmans party and i don't like america. and yes i'm born and raised in the US, there is no democracy here, only a moneycracy!!! power to the ppl lets make a real country for the ppl, not the capitalist leech scum!!


Wrong Edition
	I am supposed to get 16th edition, instead I received 15th edition. The book was completely changed from the previuos editio


disheartened
	I came to Blowback by way of a year-long research project on  globalization. Over the past year I have read dozens of books, both scholary and popular, on this topic. Right - Left - Love America - Hate America - Multi-Cultural - Eurocentric; I've suffered through them all ( happily, there is as yet no feminist perspective on the subject ).

First let me state that Chalmers Johnson, this regrettable book notwithstanding, is not by profession the village diot. Johnson is a highly respected economic and political analyst, a man who used to be worth listening to.

What happened?  How did he come to cobble together this breathtakingly unanalytical smorgasborg? Where did the imperialist conspiracy rant come from? Johnson, where did you go?

Well, the easy answer is that he delves into complex areas of which he has no knowledge.  His take on America's military policies is ludicrous.  Anyone who questions why the U.S. Army is still in Korea after 50+ years need only point to Seoul on a map and drag his finger a couple of inches north, where he will discover NORTH KOREA. Of coures once an idealogue veers into unknown territory there is no other path left for him than that of conspiracy.  Conspiracy "theory" is all fine and good for the lazy and uneducated; it's their sanctuary; but for a scholar of Johnson's caliber to go there is incomprehensible. Unti you see what I saw.

The professional works that I read on globalization were pretty much uniform in that they addressed one or another facet of free-trade and concluded more-or-less-nothing, all in scholarly language.  For the most part the popular books were  not nominally about globalization at all, although globalization was the only thread holding the books together, and to each other. Brushing aside the fact that most of the authors of the popular group are ageing oddballs from the 60s ( you underestimate the mustard-gas-like effect of that era at your peril ),the only possible reason for these immensely angry, nonsensical books is this: no one fully understands globalization.  No one. Even when you define the thing narrowly it is a cantankerous beast, too young to tame; growing unpredictably every day like the Blob. They're frustrated, these authors.  I can't blame them, but for some reason they must have a scapegoat and the've rounded up the usual suspect, America, as in why does America impose - dominate - ignore, etc. the third world?  Silly question, really. You're at the top of the food chain, what do they expect you to do? When bad things happen you want to be sure they happen to someone else.


McJihad vs. Reality
	This book is inexplicably influential, probably due to its catchy but ultimately meaningless title. Barber fails to convincingly analyze an interesting thesis, instead delivering an exasperating 300 page-long list of every single thing on Earth that he disagrees with. Barber contends that natural human political behavior results in smaller and smaller ethnic enclaves trying to separate themselves from the larger world, while unchecked global capitalism is erasing ethnic flavor with bowdlerized mass-culture sameness. Interestingly, Barber contends that these two contrary movements are actually in an unholy alliance, using each other's excesses as excuses for their anti-democratic behavior. That is a fascinating thesis, which makes the weaknesses of this book all the more infuriating.

The first part of the book is an interminable tirade of lists within lists, of cultural trends that Barber disdains, in an avalanche of complaints that is not analytical but merely selective and arbitrary. It's all tied together with attempts at "edgy" pop culture references, made-up terminology (like the annoying "infotainment telesector"), and pseudo-intellectual quotations and namedropping. All is lumped together unconvincingly under the anemic term "McWorld," which is so vague and all-inclusive as to become meaningless. In his never-ending examples of how recent cultural trends are damaging the freedom and intelligence of the masses, Barber merely comes across as a condescending snob who thinks his own interests are superior, or a curmudgeon who thinks everything was better back in the good old days, or both. In the second part of the book, Barber proceeds to throw obtuse political science theories at various world hotspots, in which tribalism and separatism are damaging the integrity of nation-states. His umbrella term for this phenomenon is the dangerously loaded term "Jihad." Note that this book was published back in 1995, so that word was not as prevalent in Western discourse as it is now, but Barber still uses the term as a loose descriptor which is likely to offend both devout Muslims and ardent anti-Islamists.

When it comes to the specifics, many reviews here and elsewhere list out the numerous flaws in Barber's arguments, and there are so many of them that a lot of reviews are necessary for the task. You can agree or disagree with various critiques of Barber's contentions based on your own personal politics. But everyone will probably conclude that in this book's final section he does not deliver on the ironic implications of his initially intriguing thesis (embodied in the book's title), and simply forwards borrowed theories on civil society and the public sector. Overall, this book is mostly the longwinded grumblings of a nostalgic know-it-all who portentously predicts doom for every single cultural and political reality of the modern world. [~doomsdayer520~


Brainwashing propaganda but well edited
	This is a classic circle jerk book that consolidates a number of articles from educators and educational researchers who talk about the same thing, and cite each other or similar data and research.  The authors do write well, so I gave it two stars.  But it has under/overtones of the same old myths in erroneous educational ideology that is actually the malaise killing our educational system - dump more money into schools; teachers are underpaid and overworked; high stakes standardized testing is bad.  Folks might be well advised to pick up a copy of Jay P. Greene's "Educational Myths" to run a little de-tox on the stuff they read here


Academic
	This was a comprehensive collection of statistics and War Department strategy notes but it had no life. It gave no feel for the soldier, sailor or marine on the ground.  It was all acronyms and big picture strategy. If you are looking for something less academic and more readable try a different account of the battle. Since this was one of the most gruelling and bloody encounters of the war, the participants should get more ink. Here, the brass get all the attention


A Little Dry
	I found the book informative while reading it, but also a bit confusing and a little dry, best used for a college course and not for recreational reading.  (Which is no doubt why we even had it in our house, someone had  to use it and it's equally boring companion for some college course, I'm  certain of it...


Fun, But Too Many Flaws
	Sure, I had fun reading this book.  But the Amazon reviewer who termed it "highly speculative" is understating the case.  Opinion, conjecture, hearsay, and speculation too often take the place of thorough, solid documentation.  And unlike many other Amazon reviewers, I found McLellan's tone off-putting.  She alternates between patronizing her subjects (the very notion of calling them "my girls," for instance) and setting them up primarily as sources of voyeuristic thrills for the herself and the reader.  Is the book dishy and intriguing and flamboyant?  You bet.  But is the topic of lesbianism in Hollywood well-served here?  I don't think so


Short and Sweet
	Judging by the long reviews before me, it should be obvious that there is much to say about Calvin's theology.  This book doesn't say too much.  For those familiar with his theology, DON'T buy this book.  It will be a waste of your money.  For those who would like to know more about Calvin's theology, without getting caught in mid 16th century language or too deep into theology, buy this.  If you want a good in depth coverage of Calvin's theology, buy the FULL version and enjoy


Not for Most Adults
	If you just got out of prison or maybe had a spell of amnesia or if your just hitting your 20th or 21st birthday then you may learn some stuff here.

But if you got yourself online to read this review then I doubt you will find this book much help. There were a few helpful ehows for me in the book though. For example I forgot exactly how to boil an egg. And there it was in the book. A typical type of ehow.

And this book is BIG and HEAVY. with most info ridiculously simple I would say the size to useful ratio is not that desirable.

Maybe this would make an ok high school graduation gift but other than that most people should avoid this book. The ehow website is great though and its FREE!.


My faith has been shattered ...
	in the possibility that Steve Berry could ever transcend his not-so great debut, The Amber Room.  Romanov Prophecy started in the right direction, Third Secret was OK, but I think he hit his *peak* right there.

I really want authors to get better--heck, I hope to write better papers as I go along in college.  But, Steve Berry, sorry.  And for all you people out there who don't like it when people give negative reviews of a book you like, just hang on a second before you give me a big fat NO vote.

First of all, even though this is fiction, the whole Da Vinci Code genre purports to be based on fact.  Berry always writes his Note at the end to underscore this.  However, if you want the reader to accept your plot, please get some basic facts correct first.  The most annoying one for me, as, ahem, a French major, is the very dramatic chapter closer where they zip off to the "Palais des Popes."  Excuse.  Me.  "Popes"?  Just because the English word looks kind of like the French word "pape" (for pope) doesn't mean you can flippantly swap them!  Eek.  And, btw, this is a real place, so some editor somewhere should have noticed this.  Shame on you, S.B.'s editors.  OK, I'm not saying a novel must contain no anachronisms whatsoever (it IS fiction, after all), but really big, glaring mistakes of geography or history cannot be tolerated.

The other main issue I have with this book is the vehement attack on Jesus Christ and the resurrection and the Bible as a whole.  Cotton Malone, our hero, says that the Bible contains hundreds (I'm paraphrasing) glaring inconsistencies.  If I remember correctly, he says that one of the gospels (he picks on Matthew a lot) doesn't place Bethlehem as the place of Jesus' birth.  That one doesn't hold water--I checked Matthew myself.  Says so in ch. 2.  I don't mean to thump the metaphorical Bible, but who is Steve Berry to question the authenticity of the world's #1 bestseller ever?  That's quite audacious ... some would even say blasphemous--but I tread on glass.

I really can't go into the terrible character development, or lack thereof, or the wussy Knights Templar.  Yeah, they're big and bad, but Malone seems to bump them off with the greatest of ease.  Some "Knights of Christ" they are.

Well, having alienated most of you, I bid you farewell as I go in search of a more worthy book


Meh
	Jesus, talk about the little girl crying "wolf." When I picked up this book, I expected to read a truly terrifying tale about how people got sick with a horrifying disease that no one knew/knows how to deal with. What I got instead was a lot of perseverating and a lot of emotional presumption.

The book starts out promisingly, even if Preston surrenders freely to flowery prose. We're given the account of Charles Monet, one of the first documented cases of the Ebola virus. From there on, Preston gives a description of the virus, what it does, how it does it - the works. Then, he moves on to the Human Component, the cast of characters, so to speak, for the big story.

The big story is, alas, not so impressive. It's a case of an Ebola outbreak amongst a shipment of monkeys that everyone thinks is going to cause awful problems to come about, but nothing of the sort happens. Basically, people run around in bio-hazard gear, fret a lot, and monkeys die. In between, Preston manages to surpass his self-indulgence to talk about other cases of the Ebola virus, cases of people being infected, "crashing and bleeding out," cases that are a lot more interesting than a shipment of monkeys, unless you're a PETA type.

The worst thing about The Hot Zone is just how self-indulgent Preston is. He starts to novelize his subjects a few chapters into the book, which is a noble idea, but not when they don't die at the end. Basically, he's trying to make you care about these people, and all for naught. And by the time that you're supposed to be truly concerned, you actually WANT them to die, because you're tired of hearing about him describe, in active detail, what they eat in the morning, what they do in the afternoon, and how they lie in bed with their spouses at night. When you're addressing a subject as fascinating as a Level 4 virus, why are you spending time talking about Nancy Jaax's hands and karate prowess? Moreover, when you've finally gotten to the monkeys, why are you talking about what kind of monkeys they are and how they dwell in the wild? Does anyone really care?

I wish I could say that this book moved me in ways other than to reverse my peristalsis, but I can't. Preston's ornate metaphors that pepper almost every page of this book are tiresome and unnecessary; he had the chance to write a compact little thriller about an averted crisis of global proportions, but he instead chose to "get into the minds" of his subjects. And what a bore that became. There were only two redeeming aspects of this book: one was the description of the African, human Ebola victims, and the other was the description of the virus itself, although, again, both were sabotaged by Preston's inability to write.

If you want to know something about Ebola, go get An Idiot's Guide to Dangerous Diseases and Epidemics. If you're pining for the namby-pambiness of the Human Element, read The Hot Zone. Personally, I like to avoid rereading the Uncle Tom's Cabins of scientific accounting


Couldn't get past the first few chapters.......
	The author is certainly writing for a target audience.......as one other reviewer said, white, upper-middle-class, female would-be mystics. I found the stories of life on the commune mind-numbing (then again, I was born in Berkeley in 1970, so that hippie commune kumbayah stuff reminds me of eating carob when I was a kid) and the rest of what I did manage to read alienating.......zzzzzzzzzzzz.......I am not saying this is a bad book at all, just that it's focus was so narrow that it completely lost my interest. The language was so fuzzy and woo-woo that it just irritated my Gen X (for lack of a better word) postpunk sensibility. It's a shame, too, as I was really looking forward to this book and hoping it would assist me in reconciling my own struggle between feminism and spirituality. C'est la vie


Not worth the time and money.
	The book is basically a dictionary of terms in the computer graphic field.  All most the whole book contain very simple ideas and concept I knew already.

Also Lynn Pocock doesn't even do computer graphic work professionally.  I have yet to see any computer animation works by the writer.

SAVE YOUR MONEY


Discombobulation
	This was a terrible disappointment.  More of a memoir than anything about book-collecting, it was so disjointed it is hard to say what it was about or what the point was.  There seemed to be no context or fabric to the book.

There were, however, HUNDREDS of references to obscure authors, actors, film-writers, magazines and books.  There were pages at a time where I was completely lost because I had no idea about whom the author was speaking, but he wrote as if the person was well-known to the reader.

Baxter leads the reader around the world from his beginnings in Australia, thence to Britain to the US and ending in France.  Again, there is no context.  He would flip from a reference to the obscure artist, to an anecdote about himself or some bookseller or collector and then perhaps mention how he had acquired a book.

If viewed as a book about collecting books, you will not learn much.  If viewed as a memoir, there was little that was interesting about the author's life and there was precious little about his life other than acquisitions.

There were a very few nuggets about what makes a book valuable or diminishes its worth to a collector, but they were too few and far between.

If you could not tell by now, I can not see much reason to read this book.  I think Mr. Baxter flattered himself to think that either he or his collection would be of general interest


Out of date
	This book is seriously out of date for modern web design and development


Trashy like flypaper!
	I read this in Jan. of 01 and am just now transcribing my notes.  Here goes:  Trashy, but I couldn't NOT finish it.  Story of best friends who go to a summer house every August with their families.  Secret betrayals of friendship, a hidden illness, a birth and a miscarriage.  What else do you need to make a soap-opera style plot?   I give Thayer credit for her spot on descriptions of feelings one experiences after miscarriage, from envy to despair.  Bottom line: Rich people with too much money and rich people problems. It didn't stay in my short term memory very long


Wolf in Sheep Skin
	If you are a Christian, this book isn't for you. It is full of blashphemy, concluding that we must "... forgive God" and that we must love God "... even if He isnt perfect". Kusher even has the will to say that "...God would not be God..." without our love for Him. At one point he reduces God to an aminal saying that in the garden of Eden, when God said "...let US make man in OUR image" he was speking to animals and creation. Kusher explains that God created the world, and in the next paragraph that we came by evolution.

  Since when was God in need of forgiveness? Isnt it that "... God so loved the world" and it wasnt us that loved God? I have no words in describing this book. It is full of error, because it does not base it self on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All this book does is frees you from the thought that you are a sinner, and that it isnt your fault, and that actully you are a good person. Why do bad things happen to good people? Wrong question. There are no good people in the world in the first place. " for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God..." The world is in sin. The world DOES NOT HAVE GOOD PEOPLE!! Only by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ you are made righteous. I beg you in the name of Jesus Christ to stay away from this book. It hasnt helped 4 million people, but it lied to them. Kusher, please turn from your ways and come to Jesus, then will you understand the life question "WHY"


Not One of Sparks's Best
	As a long time fan of Nicholas Sparks, I was a little disappointed in this book.  The potential for it to be a great story faded when it became about these two characters and nothing more.  The entire book takes place in this little Bed and Breakfast and lacks the support of any minor characters.  There just wasn't enough going on in this book to keep my attention.

Sparks's writing is beautiful as usual, but the plot for this story just didn't impress me the way his other stuff did.  If you are looking for a great Nicholas Sparks read, try The Rescue


A complete disappointment
	It is difficult to believe that such a slow and dull book could be written about such a compelling subject.  The reviewers who have lamented the short, choppy paragraphs that irritatingly jump from one scene to another, without benefit of full explanation or connection, are correct to scorn the overall poor writing that makes up this book.  I had to read some paragraphs several times and even then didn't understand what I was reading.  It was nearly impossible to picture most of the action in my mind, as it was mostly just a jumbled collection of facts and anecdotes that rambled on and on and on.  The description of the fire itself drags on chaotically for fifty tedious pages, which incited one yawn after another.  The book lacks any sense of focus and the author uses a very poor choice of words in many instances.  For example, the narrative is littered with sentences like: "She made for the east exit..."  Okay, fine, but did she run, walk, crawl, hop, skip, jump, or fly to the east exit?  I just don't know what to picture there.  The word "made" says nothing descriptive and is therefor about the worst word that could have been chosen.  This type of problem occurs on every page of the book.  I haven't read anything else the author has written, so I hate to be so critical.  I wonder, however, why his editor didn't send his manuscript back to him with thousands of suggestions.  I felt as if I was reading a very hastily-prepared early draft.  I have read many gripping books about disasters and survival situations.  This just isn't one of them.  Compare "The Circus Fire" to "Into Thin Air," "Heart of the Sea," "Batavia's Graveyard," or "Ordeal by Hunger" and you'll understand what I mean


Tony Roberts Stinks as a rRder!
	Since I listened to this as a cd it is difficult to comment on the book as Tony Roberts performance was so bad, it was impossible to follow the story line.  He read so slowly that it seems he received a bonus if he could stretch this little book into 7 excruciating cds which he did.  In addition to the slooooow reading, his characterization were completely over the top.  Dino sounded like a moron and "Billy Bob" well like a Texas moron.  And what about Billy Bob, that cliche name eptomized the whole weak little story.

Skip this this one or prepare to suffer


Too long
	A much condensed version would have helped but still would not have been a good story.  The end was a disappointment and the middle laborious


Read this only with a wider range of Christian thinkers
	Toward the end of How Now Shall We Live, Chuck Colson states, regarding popular music and media, that a little cotton candy is permissible as part of a healthy diet. However, he warns, a diet of junk food can be fatal.

Good advice concerning pop culture-but even more applicable to this book. Yes, it contains a kernel of truth, but it ultimately is dangerous if not balanced by a heavy diet of other thinkers and theologians such as Thomas Merton, St. Francis of Assisi, Ron Sider, Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, Brother Lawrence, Philip Yancey, Wendell Berry-the list goes on. It often is guilty of oversimplifying the ideological conflicts the modern Church faces, drawing the lines down to "Christians" against the "naturalists" or "humanists," thus ignoring the wide range of threats that seek to destroy the Church.

While there is truth in Colson's writing, I believe it ultimately stems from a flawed worldview-one defined largely by comfortable middle-class American thought and militaristic nationalism, sprinkled with the politically correct amount of Christian belief. His faith seems to be overly academic, one that favors rhetoric and proof over prayer and other spiritual disciplines. Evangelism, it seems to Colson, is comprised heavily of apologetics. The secularists must be shown that they are wrong, he says. Yes, there is truth and there is time for debate, but this book seems to prefer winning debates over building bridges and relationships.

You see, I used to fear evolutionists and the proverbial round table of "secular humanists" that many conservative evangelicals love to discuss. But as I've grown, I realize that threats to the Church come more often from within than from secular culture, and they almost always have more to do with power and politics than the Enlightenment or science.


I AM GLAD I DIDN'T PAY FOR THIS BOOK!
	I borrowed this from my sister-in-law to read. It is the first Barr book I have read.  I did not like it because of several reasons.  First of all, THE VULGAR LANGUAGE was too much.   One can write a fantastic thriller without words that are in the gutter.   Second, it was so mundane for a mystery.  The writer could have made this a very interesting book with the setting being in Yellowstone National Park.
Someone needs to give me a book of Barr's to prove that she can write an interesting book using words that are common to our daily language instead of trash talk. (By that I mean words one would use in professions of integrity.)


quot;Just Enough quot; is more than enough.....
	"Just Enough" is more than enough:  A turgid, pretentious, strident, and wholly unoriginal piece of work.  Its framework neither breaks any new ground in the study of the sociology of business or organization behavior, nor is it a particularly useful addition to the realm of self-help pop-business literature. At best, this might have been a reasonable ten page article in the Harvard Business Review, but surely not enough material for 280 pages!  Better to read  quot;Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow : Discovering Your Right Livelihood, quot; by MARSHA SINETAR, and call it a day


Narcissistic Twaddle
	All I could think was, "Damn, if I had so many friends at my beck and call to talk me down off the ledge, I'd never be depressed." I don't know quite how to explain it, but I felt no empathy for him. I only ended up feeling more depressed. As a history of depression, the level of research was quite impressive.

If you read Prozac Nation and wanted to punch her out, steer clear of this one as well


Let me explain WHY I give it one star....
	Please take this to HEART....

I love Mr. Belushi's acting, he's funny and all...I have nothing against his career and respect him for making all the changes he did in his life...

BUT...I cannot say this louder then this:
NOT ALL WOMEN ARE THE SAME!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was reading this, I knew what I was to expect...so I went in with SOME knowledge.
I love a real man, I LOVE A REAL MAN!!  I am NOT your a-typical woman and I will kill or die trying to remain myself.  When ever I see book after book or hear more and more about this ..... I just fume because I will be the FIRST to admit WOMEN'S LIB DESTROYED WOMANHOOD!
BUT and I repeat BUT...NOT ALL WOMEN ARE FOR WOMEN'S LIB AND ALL THE DAMAGE CAUSED IS NOT SUPPORTED BY ALL WOMEN.
I am destroyed by people like Mr. Belushi because THEY think I am one of the group called 'all women' and am judged because I belong to this group.
His book is the most selfish book I have ever read and again, do not get me wrong about being a man, I SUPPORT IT AND CAN'T STAND a man who can't be a man....
for ME, money is NOT status, a career is NOT status and marriage does not complete me!  If you fail at making the money you want, I'll encourage you to lift your spirits and NEVER tell you what job to do...if you don't have the money to take me out or buy me anything, I don't judge the quality of who you are, I will enjoy a night in front of the dvd player with you and I'M HAPPY!  I don't ask you to call because I'm checking up on YOU, I ask you to call and let me know you're safe....I don't snoop in your stuff because I'm NOSEY, I respect your privacy because I TRUST you - give me reason to stand up and NOT take your crap and I will, but ONLY after I shower you with unconditional love and acceptance because I GIVE IT TO YOU, and if that still hasn't reached you, all I can do is then stand up for myself where my man should be protecting me.
Yes, chivalry IS the key to this girls heart, but you better have a set to back that up too!
Your friends are my friends and I love them because I love you and you love them...nothing more, but they sure do take by destroying us since they don't have the 'us' in their own lives...
I SUPPORT and WISH THERE WERE more real men out there...there are only two wants from this woman to her man 1-don't cheat on me and lie to my face, I NEED THAT SECURITY (pay attention, my security does NOT come from YOUR paycheck, it comes from your arm wrapped around me, PROTECTING me with your love) and 2- it is YOUR job to take care of us and when you can't, I am right there to get your back NOT to get in your way, NOT to diminish you, but to HELP YOU when you say you need my help.
That did not cost you your friends, did not cost a penny and it did not cost you your freedoms as a man.  I GIVE FREELY, LOVINGLY, UNCONDITIONALLY and ALWAYS not because of the notches on your bedpost, not because it cost you a dime, not because you did it MY way, not because you gave up one dang thing - I gave you every reason to WANT to give me your arm around me and your WANT to protect me.
Two things is all I need to give you an entire lifetime of love, honor, RESPECT and every ounce of my body to you...FREELY...got it???
I am halfway through the book and realized that yeah, I love one of the biggest jerks out there because of who he's become, I will love him til the day I die and will always and I mean ALWAYS give him that love, RESPECT as a man and honor him as MY man....because 'I' want to change ME to be a better woman, not because he got whipped into what I wanted him to be!
NOT ALL WOMEN FIT THE BILL OF TRUE WAMONHOOD but I sure am dang proud of myself that I strive for it


A bad choice of plot and character
	It is difficult, nay, impossible, to like a book when all the characters are obnoxious, money worshipping parasites, and that is exactly what we have in this novel.

Out of the blue a godfather appears, a deus ex machina, who offers an idealistic lawyer, Clay Carter, more wealth than he can imagine or use.  Anyone with a brain would know that there has to be a hook within the bait, a very sharp, very large hook.  With apparent ease, this naive lawyer swallows the hook and makes millions and millions of dollars before he so much as senses that he is in deep trouble.  Enthralled with the gaudy toys and women that money brings him, he immediately loses sight of reality.  What a hollow and useless individual he is, as are those he hires to assist him and those with whom he associates in his lawyer world.

Whether or not there are such individuals (Enron?) is beside the point.  They may exist, but I for one am not eager to hear their life stories.
The atmosphere in which they live is boring, as are their conversations, their lack of values, their hobbies, their sex lives, and their comeuppances.  Somehow, even in their fall, they never lose all their money and they never quite realize what hollow individuals they are.

Having read most of Mr. Grisham's other books, I expected better from him.


A Rather Plodding Morality Tale
	I like John Grisham, but THE KING OF TORTS was a slow-moving disappointment.  Grisham is obviously making an argument for tort reform in this novel, which is fine, but he ends up putting the message above the story.

Grisham devotes much of this novel to a young plaintiffs' lawyer and his new law firm dedicated to class action lawsuits.  This provides Grisham with an excuse to explain, in agonizing detail, how tort lawyers sue big companies and collect huge fees.  Grisham also produces scene after scene describing the enormous wealth of class action lawyers, and how they put their own greed above the interests of their clients.

In the end, none of this adds up to an engaging storyline.  It doesn't help that the young lawyer in this novel is a rather unlikable person that Grisham is obviously setting up for a fall.  Since I didn't care for this character, I found the storyline of THE KING OF TORTS to be largely uninvolving.

This novel is also rather preachy and heavy-handed in tone.   I personally dislike class action lawsuits, but I read novels for entertainment, not to validate my own political beliefs.   Although this book was decently written, I just didn't find the story interesting enough to recommend.

For a better version of this story, I would suggest A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr.


way too complicated
	This is a good book for serious health nuts that have the time and energy to make simple easy recipes with a million strange ingredients that you've probably never heard of. If you plan on making lots of baby food with kelp and sea weed then this is the book for you


Chased by the Light: A 90-Day Journey: 2001
	While it is true that Brandenburg is a tremendous photographer and the majority of photos are simply breathtaking.  I returned my copy because the datebook also contained disturbing photos of dead wildlife.  I'm very tender when it comes to wildlife, and while I know that death is a natural part of the life cycle, I am disturbed by dead wildlife and would never chose a book or datebook containing such pictures.  For anyone who is animal sensitive and dislikes any death photos, then this IS NOT the book for them.  Otherwise, I would recommend it


Don't recommend this book! The worst book I've ever read!
	I have nothing more to say than I've already said in my headline. Lou Dobbs' book was a big disappointment for me.


ugggh
	I've read every one of Iris Johansen's "suspense" novels and have loved most of them.  The last couple though have been so painful to get through. This one however, I don't think I can even finish.  I read where someone called these characters "cardboard," and I couldn't agree more.  The female heroine randomly throws in curse words in a cheap attempt to create tension between herself and the supposed male protagonist.  Whereas in the Eve Duncan Books and the Wind Dancer books we are drawn into the story and come to care for the characters, it is patently obvious what will happen with each of these characters - makes me think of a writing 101 class.  "Now this should happen here, and this here, and this here and boom, climax, happily every after."

I hope that Iris can get her groove back and begin writing novels worth my time.


5 stars? Really?
	Mark Rank proposes many interesting ideas that attempt redefine how we think about poverty in America.  Most of his ideas are solid, but my deepest concern is with the readers who gave this book 5 stars and used the word "interesting" to describe it.  Did they actually read it?

This book is an unending parade of boring and repeated ideas presented in different, yet equally boring ways.  I honestly beleive that this book has destroyed the thrill of musical chairs for me forever.  This book could have been written in about 150 pages instead of the 250 it actually took if he simply used his original, not to mention solid, ideas.  The nature of the book greatly weakened his overall argument.

Not only was the book dry, but it also seemed to fail to acknowledge the global system the US is a part of, and in particular, the role that immigration plays on poverty in the US.  He talks about the US and the people in it as if they were static, but we live in a very fluid world, growing more fluid everyday, and I feel that his failure to ackowledge this fact truly hurts his overall argument.


complete inability to move the story along!
	forget the tom wolfe comparison. this book is simply BORING! i'm half through reading it, but i'm still waiting for something interesting to happen. if nobody tells me that the second half is much, much better than the first, i'm going to throw it away (which i rarely do). how could i believe this excellent book review (in a swiss newspaper)


too much homoerotica
	I appreciate that there has to be some of this to cater to the various tastes out there--but this book has way too much.  I read 4 stories in a row that were either about lesbians or bisexual men.

I am going to stick to books that have more balance or emphasize hot sex between men and women.  The other stuff just doesn't do it for me.  I got bored and started turning the pages fast.  Disappointing


Trotsky: Mass Murderer and Liar
	You know, I hate to burst the bubble of devoted Trotskyites across the globe, but Trotsky was just as responsible for Stalin's rule as anyone. For Leon to blame Stalin is the height of hypocrisy. Without Lenin's apparatus of social repression and Trotsky's apparatus of military dictatorship, Stalin would never have been.
The Russian Revolution was never a win for workers. It destroyed them, some 4 million at Lenin's hands, 30 million by Stalin, and 65 million by Mao Tse-tung.

No policy or ideology that denies the soul can ever succeed. And communism does just that. By denying that which makes humans humans, it can bring only suffering


Poor excuse for a book
	I thought Keegan was a "serious" historian.  This book contains little to do with the actual war itself - you would have picked up more on how it was fought on a 2nd rate cable news channel - indeed I beleive thats where he did all his research for this poor excuse for a "serious" miltary analysis of the iraq war


not the best self-help
	The self-improvement books How to Win Friends and Influence People and Talking the Winner's Way are both way superior to this short book. Most of what you read is basically review if you've ready other similar books. And what's present doesn't pack enough substance or  quot;how to quot; to make it really worth your time. About half-way through the book, Gabor started presenting fresh ideas. The problem, however, is that it was half-way through the book. Not a bad read, but there's so much better. If you happen across it one day on the street, it won't do any harm to read it. But I can't recommend paying money for something you already know, or can get for a better deal


Entertaining But Apparently Not A Scholar
	The book is entertaining, however if you wish to read this from a scholarly point of view and you have spent ANY time studying the ancient world to any degree...you will be appauled to find that the author of this book simply added his own interpretations to events, biblical texts, and blatantly stretched (pun so intended) the truth on so much.  I'd had enough from a research point of view when this guy not onlt spelt the names of gods wrong, but hyped only childish popular perspectives that no closer resemble ancient Sumerian belief than does the golden arches as a phallic symbol.  If you take away any claim of being a historical reference, this book is good.  It's a tongue and cheek look on the penis and that is about all it does.  Totally not serious, but a giggle to be had here and there.  Some of which is at the author's expense


Great book if you are looking for "victim" status.
	When I first got diagnosed with ADD (as an adult) I believe the exact phrase "You mean I'm not lazy, crazy or stupid?" went through my mind.  FINALLY, there was an explanation.

So when I heard about a book by that name, certainly I had to check it out.  Once I did though, I was sorely disappointed.

I have ADD, yes.  Nevertheless, I've still managed to get pretty far in life in spite of the "handycap" the authors of this book seem so eager to hide under.

It's been a while since I read it, but I have the distinct recollection of finding some new example of a "You can't succeed in the world because you are 'disabled'" mentality on every page.  You can't do this, you can't do that, you've failed and you will continue to fail - just accept it.

Excuse me?  I don't know about the authors of this book, but MY ADD makes me creative and intuitive and perceptive and just generally a genuinely unique and awesome person (egomania aside).  Where is this addressed?  Where are the helpful hints for harnessing THAT kind of potential?

If they're in there, I sure didn't see them.  All I found were new little tricks for combatting the "affliction" with which I am (oh so unfortunately) beset.  Using these tricks, I can hope against hope for some semblence of a "normal" life they say.  Thanks but no thanks.  I'm doing pretty well so far, and I refuse to feel like some sort of mental cripple.

If you, and the authors are happy considering yourself as something less than the rest of the world because of the way your mind works, feel free - this is the perfect book for you.  But you can count me out.


The Bad Borin Book of Evil Tricks
	Have you ever read a book that just seemed to drag on and on?  For me, that was this book.  If you like fantasy then you might like this, because that is the genre of this book.  It is about a Jewish girl named Hannah.  She goes to a family party and hears a knock on the door.  She opens it and then sort of wakes up and she thought it was a dream.  She now has a new name, Chaya.  She now has to figure out what happened, and what she will do in this body.  It takes place in New Rochelle.  It is old times.  It doesn't give a specific time but you can infer by the clues and setting.  She doesn't know why this happened to her but she must try to fix it.
	I didn't like this book at all.  I thought it was really hard to follow.  You have to pay attention throughout the whole book.  You can never daydream or you won't know why they are calling her a new name.  This was definitely made for older adults, or people with a higher reading level.  If you are a good reader and you like to challenge yourself, try this book.  I don't recommend this book if you are younger, or just not that well of a reader.  This is for very and I mean very good and high level readers.  I would say between the ages of 25-60 might like this book.  I don't think this book was a page turner.  I wanted to put it down, instead of not wanting to put it down.  It never sparked my interest.  Her being Jewish, and the book being a fantasy, I couldn't relate to anything that happened.  This book was hard to concentrate on.  If you look up for one second, you miss most of the story, so concentrate hard.  I couldn't relate to anyone. I am not Jewish.  If you are Jewish, you might actually understand this book better than I could.  I didn't like the genre.  It was all fake and totally unrealistic.  If you like that sort of stuff, then read this book, but I don't like fantasy.  I didn't like how it was written.  It was too hard to concentrate on.  I had to reread twice to find out why they are calling her a different name.  I never found any surprised in the story.  I could guess what would happen next.  It was predictable.  None of the chapters had cliffhangers.  If just was boring and that's it.  I thought it was extremely boring.  I didn't understand anything and I would rather do my homework, than read that book.  My mind wandered a lot.  I had to read sections over and over again.  I never believed the plot one bit.  With the story being fantasy, everything is farfetched.  I think older people would enjoy this book, because they would be the only ones who could understand it.


A B movie in Paper Form
	I picked up this book at the airport as I was heading to Japan. While staying with my in laws in the country, there is no English language anything. This is all I brought so I had to finish it. But it was a struggle.

Firstly I like complex thrillers, and I liked all the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan series. Technically excellent, if with totally one dimensional characters.

This book reminds me of the original Star Trek, where everyone but the Captain is affected by the virus. The hero is always right.

Bell can write, his prose, I think is fine, but the scenarios are sometimes laughably implausible. I also agree with another reviewer here that there is an unpleasant racist overtone in some of his depictions of some of the bad guys.

Overall awful, just awful. My first and last Bell book. I will be leaving the rest of the Bell collection on the shelf


lacking in details and intimancies
	i'll be the first to admit that i'm biased based on my expectations from shaara's father's great book, the killer angels.  it is not fair to compare the two, but because reading the father's book lead me to buy this one, i thought i should mention it.  this book does not contain nearly the details and intimancies of the father's book.  it is not surprising since this one covers a much longer time frame than the battle of gettysburg, so shaara has less pages to devote to each person and battle.  but the result is a less satisfying book.  it skims rather than digs deep


Is Toni Morrison for Real?
	The reviewer below who said "More Heat Than Light" got it partly right.  This book is SO badly written you have to wonder if the author's other works were written by the same person. Not only is it sophomoric, it is gibberish.  Had its author been unknown, she would surely have had to pay for the book's publication. Incredibly bad, it may at least serve as a source of hope for struggling writers who believe that only the best works are accepted by publishers


Don't Waste Your Time
	After reading Deep South and Flashback, I was looking forward to going back and reading some of the earlier Anna Pigeon books. Liberty Falling has to be the worst of the Pigeon series. I found myself skimming over pages and skipping over the last third of the book to get to the end and hope the ending would make it worth the read. It wasn't.


Manifesto of Liberal Pseudoscience
	For someone who spends his career attacking politically-motivated science, Stephen Jay Gould does a pretty good job combining scientific research with politics in this book. Gould rambles on and on, attacking giants of modern science like Samuel Morton and Francis Galton, and never putting up any serious scientific conclusions of his own. Gould presents fabricated objections to serious research and selectively excludes studies that make a clear correlation between intelligence and brain and skull size as well as differences in brain size between the human population groups and correlations between brain size and class. Gould only ridicules the most outlandish claims of scientific racism and refuses to pick on findings that have been proven correct. For anyone who has no knowledge of biology, this book will give them a very distorted view of the entire science. Stephen Jay Gould is a paleontologist; evolutionary biology is an amateur field for him, and it would be best if he, as well as all other crypto-Marxists who wish to blend science and politics, stay out of it