Why continue to be deceived?
	Hank Hanegraff is a blatant replacement theologian where the nation of Israel is concerned.  He is further from the truth where prophecy is concerned than most groups, to include pretribulationists.  Indeed, his "scholarship" is no scholarship at all; it is pure propaganda....  To see real scholarship, get Tim Cohen's materials (see below):

Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins, and others in the Pre-Trib circle, such as Ed Hindson, Tommy Ice, Chuck Missler, Zola Levitt, Thomas McCall, John Hagee, Grant Jeffrey, Marlin Maddox, Perry Stone, Texe Marrs, John Walvoord (deceased), etc., continue to put forth the same deceptions that Hal Lindsey popularized decades ago.  The notion of a pre-tribulation rapture is foreign to scripture, it is foreign to the teachings of the early Church, and it is grooming the Church for destruction through ignorance and lack of preparation for what is really coming.  These men are novices and not prophecy "experts" or "scholars" by any stretch of the imagination; they are those who tickle the ears of gullible Christians.  Why continue to be deceived?  Tim Cohen, in his excellent book, "The AntiChrist and a Cup of Tea," provides biblically sound and testable evidence to show that the coming AntiChrist is known NOW.  Not only that, the same author (Tim Cohen) has now put out the strongest presentation on the whole issue of the rapture EVER offered to the saints of God in Christ: "The REAL Rapture".  If you really want to know the truth about the timing of the coming rapture, then you need to hear Tim Cohen's "The REAL Rapture" (based on a volume in his forthcoming "Messiah, History, and the Tribulation Period" series (see Prophecy House's site for details on these items, which are also available via Amazon)


An effort too far in repetitious jargon
	I found this book to be pretentiously over complexified. The relationship between object and surface has been aptly documented by many other art historians of the late 20thC.
I think that Fred has in this case over analysed too few works by the great artist, flag to me and many of the people I have discussed it with is far too complex a work for a man like Orton to even vaguely comment on critically. He appears to my other academic associates and I to be slightly out of his depth at this level, and in future would do well to perhaps abandon the bottle of Gin which he is widely known to keep under his desk, and to consequently write something worthwhile and not liquer-induced.
Mr Orton, I am not your fan.


this book stinks!!!
	this book hardly has any conversation in it and hardly goes into detail about anything. i didn't even like the story. i would give this book a big fat ZERO if i could!!


A world of boring.  A raging sea of boring!
	2 stars for decent writing (at least a decent translation), for an intriguing start, and for the occasional appearance of a melancholy dwarf.  That's pretty much it.  Negative stars aplenty for the protagonists -- Coy and Tanger (I listened to NC on 13 endless tapes, so perhaps am misspelling their names).  The tortured metaphors they speak, think, and by which they -- and their insipid adventures -- are continually described, bore to tears.  Aside from an occasional scrape between Coy and the aforementioned dwarf or his boss, all of the action in NC clusters at the beginning (promisingly so, I'll grant) and the end (all wimper, no bang) of this novel.  As a salty seadog once said (no doubt anticipating this novel), "Ahoy matey, thar.  She blows!"


History by Conjecture
	This is a highly influential book.  Roosevelt has had many enemies growing out of his presidency.  No one has had the same negative impact on Roosevelt's name to equal Wyman's attack.  But, although Wyman, a  professional historian has well-documented his research, much of the  indictment of the Roosevelt Administration is based upon conjecture  incapable of proof.  The litmus test of his proposals was the bombing of  Auschwitz.  He asserts that the failure to bomb was due to a lack of  caring.  Thousands of Jews could have been saved.  But there is no way to  prove this.  Many Jews could also have died because bombing was inaccurate  and Jewish prisoners lived close to the crematoria.  Too much in his  charges is based on too little evidence.  Peter Novick in his book, The  Holocaust in American Life, calls Wyman's thesis a  quot;comfortable  morality tale quot; and  quot;bad history. quot;  In addition to Novick,  Henry L. Feingold, Frank W. Brecher, and William Rubinstein have written  critically about Wyman


In Way Over Her Head
	Cover Blurb:

When undercover work requires working under the covers, danger is an uninvited bedfellow...

Erin McKenzie, a newly promoted homicide detective, lands the assignment of her career when she is chosen to investigate Elizabeth Adams, the number one suspect in a slew of serial murders. Adams, elusive and devastatingly beautiful, is not only an accomplished seductress but also a lesbian.

* * *

I have just finished reading this book after struggling with it for two months and, quite frankly, it is probably the worst book I have ever taken the time to finish. The only reason I prevailed to the bitter end was I wanted to see if it truly was as bad to the last page as it was from the first--and let me tell you, it was.

Not only was this slow-paced, stilted, plodding excuse for suspence peppered with paper-thin characters who all sounded vaguely familiar, but two of the three main protagonists are thinly disguised Xeroxes of two beloved TV characters, minus the breast-plate, sword and loin-cloth skirt. I leave you to work out who I'm refering too.

This book desperately struggles with flat, stilted language that has neither voice nor colour, giving the descriptions of place and people about as much life as a body on the morgue slab awaiting autopsy. Add to that is the fact that at least 50-60 pages could easily have been cut from the length by a good Editor, thereby maybe adding a smidgen of tension to the over-worked plotline.

However, it is the three main protagonists who irritated me the most, the Author seemingly unable to decide on personality traits and character, which vacillate in a jarring way. I was left totally unsympathetic to any of them and the situations/circumstances they found themselves in.

A very unsatisfying read


Tiptoeing Around a Teen in Training
	I thought this book was a waste of my reading time.  I saw a review on the Today Show, and read several postive reviews as well, and it piqued my interest.  What I thought may be a book about how to deal with and accept the coming changes/challenges of a mother/pre-teen daughter relationship was a book about a mother seeming to tiptoe around her daughter's emotional state.  What is Sarah going to think about this, what is she going to say about that, etc.?  The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 is that I applaud the time spent Karen and Sarah spent together.  Something that should be done in all parent-child relationships.

I would like to think there are better books on this subject.


You'd think the book would be about Natalie...
	...but Lana Wood has a very autobiographical writing style. I found Wood's memoir to be incredibly gossipy. She speaks for pages upon pages about her own feelings during pivotal times in Natalie's life. Every here or there, it's nice to have an eyewitness account of what happened at certain times, but I'd rather read about the Academy Awards for which Natalie was being nominated instead of the powerful men in Hollywood with whom Lana was sleeping. There is a lot of name-dropping as well as a lack of substance in the book's context. After reading this, I read Suzanne Finstad's NATASHA and found it to be very thorough and much more detailed about both her personal and professional life. I was not a fan of this book in any respect


Very Weak And Unsupported Theory Of Happiness
	I appreciate anyone's attempts to examine the deeper nature of life and share that with the rest of us. However, I could see a hole in Csikszentmihalyi's attempt from the beginning.

"In the course of my studies I tried to understand as exactly as possible how people felt when they most enjoyed themselves, and why. My first studies involved a few hundred "experts"--artists, athletes, musicians, chess masters, and surgeons, in other words, people who seem to spend their time in precisely those activities they preferred."

I'm surely not alone in wondering why on earth one would presume the above professions are strictly happy and "optimal experience". Particularly the reference to artists and musicians, who typically have severe struggles with life, and aren't on cloud nine just because some professors might like them in a couple hundred years. That is what I felt was the very weak point of the book--a study of happiness with almost no reference to unhappiness.

It goes on to talk about ways to find flow in our ordinary life, while dodging the bullet continually about why if flow was all those great people needed, did they still encounter countless problems and unhappiness.


A bit disappointed!!!
	I must admit I usually write only positive reviews as I buy books very carefully.  This is unfortunately a wrong buy.  I like the Shabby Chic style and since she's the person to get inspiration from on this style, I immediately bought this book without hesitation.  I must say I wasn't inspired at all not even on one item and I am usually quite easily inspired by just reading a mag, browsing through ebay or simply walking around the market.  The pics are big but on flowers??  I think  I should've got the first book instead


DIY Cover Up
	I too eagerly anticipated reading this book, since I went through an apron-sewing blitz this summer. I was a bit disappointed, however. Although the photos and instructions are helpful (for seamsters more accomplished than myself), the tone of the book is reactionary, with negative statements about working mothers and a lot of nostalgia for the Ozzie and Harriet era. Although Geisel celebrates the rebirth of the domestic arts, she praises the home-as-nest (enclave of traditional domesticity) rather than the house-as-studio (a DIY workshop involving every member in open-ended acts of engagement with economy, history, and culture.) Still, there's some interesting history and some great photos


There are better choices.
	I found this book sadly lacking in substance and quality activities. Spend your money on Days of Knights and Damsels by Carlson


Miserable dictionary of doublespeak
	Not recommended for native speakers of the English language.
When trees == forests and top-level directories are instead 'naming contexts' .... The desirable format would be "This feature, which MS call 'X', is 'Y' plain english", but instead the Y feature will only ever be called X.
This is not a helpful book


a nice place to visit....
	If I had been an editor and received "Deadly Slipper",
I would have said the following:

"Dear Ms. Wan,

Your book is unacceptable for the following reasons:

1) The Setting.  One hazard of writing about the place
where you spend your summers is that you end up
writing through the eyes of a visitor rather than a
native.  Dordogne sounds delightful,and I'd certainly
like to visit it based on your descriptions of
delightful pigeon coops and sheep scattered across the
landscape, but it is disturbing that you have
cicadas singing in May.  It suggests you are only
familiar with the setting during the vacation months
when you habitually visit. To really describe a place,
I think you need to know it better.

2) The characters.  Because you spend your summers in
Dordogne, you appear to know only other wealthy
foreigners.  All your main characters are expatriates
with irritatingly bourgeois occupations.  I don't know
if you realize that all the native-born French
characters you portray are ugly, boorish, sexually
depraved, mentally defective, criminal, or terminally
quaint, and they all appear to make cheese.  Surely
this isn't a realistic portrayal of the French.

3) The Orchids.  Actually, the orchids are fine, but
the idea that orchid fanciers are maniacal and
possibly homicidal is a questionable one; most orchid
fanciers are fairly tedious.  Also, the idea that a lady
slipper mutant would spontaneously occur and allow the
orchid to live outside its native habitat is idiotic.
Anyone would tell you that a hybrid is a better bet.

4) The Dogs.  One cute dog is sufficient; two are too
much.  Puppies are inexcusable.

5) The Romance.  Most mystery writer are aware of the
hazard of including a romance in a mystery, but you
walked in innocently, unaware that your two characters
are unpleasant, self-involved and have no chemistry
(and that's not even mentioning their unspeakable
dogs).  You set a big obstacle in their path by having
one think the other is a deranged serial killer; a
great writer might be able to pull this off, but you
can't.

6) Trendoid aspects.  Epistolary novels are *so* 18th
century.  But having a NY psychiatrist profile the
serial killer by email is so LAST WEEK.  You will be
sorry you did this, sooner rather than later.

7) The Ending.  Ridiculous and melodramatic.  Georges Simenon wrote about crime with great psychological acuity.  You should read one of his books.


boring
	This book is very disappointing. The writing is terrible and rather amateurish. The writer bored me, maybe something's lost in translation from French, I don't know.  I already knew the killer the first time he was introduced in the book, although the writer tried to create red herrings which did not work. Mara sounds stupid, immature and inconsistent. Skip this book, it's not worth your time. Peter Mayle's mysteries set in France are way much better that this. At least his novels have sense of humor, suspense, very interesting characters and most important, they are very well written


Lacking
	I was extremely disappointed by this book/pamphlet, being misled by the other favorable reviews.  It is completely lacking in information.  It has 51 6"x8" pages with huge font and too many cartoons.  It successfully defines what is good and bad posture, but does not provide excercises to improve it (it simply states to "practice" good posture).  There are much much better alternatives.  I have read "Posture Alignment" and recommend that, and have heard of great reviews for "Posture, Get It Straight!"


Okay for ideas
	This book is the typical package of business ideas.  The book gets 2 stars because the few pages devoted to entrepreneurship has very little substance and the information under each idea is sparse and in many cases not helpful.  In addition, there are numerous ideas that require a tremendous amount of work.  The author does state that what may be work for one person, may be play to another.  However, this relates to doing something you enjoy or having a passion where you don't mind putting in the time or work.  The title suggests that the business ideas listed in the book will not require a great deal of time or effort, which is not the case for many of the ideas(Masonry, Restauranteur for example).

This book has some value for those that have not read similar books of this type.  Otherwise, I would take a pass on this one


It's just "Reefer Madness"
	And you shouldn't inhale.
Several reviewers have ecstatically proclaimed this book and movie to be an eye-opening, truth-revealing work, but those who are credulous enough to think they learn history through agenda-focused books and films like "Hunting" need to go back and see other "documentaries" like "Triumph Of The Will", "The Eternal Jew" or "Reefer Madness".
Let's be honest, people.
This book was written by a strongly pro-Clinton columnist and the movie was produced by well-known FOB (Friend Of Bill) Harry Thompson.  It's about as objective as the factually challenged "Fahrenheit 9/11", a work that Moore himself now calls "satire".  (By the way, I'll bet you didn't know that many Middle Easterners who have seen Moore's movie are outraged at the shallow, stereotypical and racist image he presented of their people and culture.)
The point is, whether intentional or just laziness these dime-a-dozen political books typically contain significant misrepresentations.  If you're already a member of the author's congregation, you won't care.  You'll shout "hallelujah!" and say that "Hunting" has given the world Great Truths.  But clear thinkers understand that it's foolish to uncritically accept the representations in either this book or the followup movie.


The Medicine of the Future
	Dr. Oz is an accomplished heart surgeon in the field of cardiac transplantation. He describes how he combines complementary medicine (e.g. hypnosis, reflexology, yoga, message, acupuncture. Etc) with orthodox Western medicine. There is an excellent forward by Dr Dean Ornish, and an interesting epilogue containing an overview of the complementary medicine techniques. The bulk of the book contains stories of patients Dr. Oz treated using this revolutionary way. I am a cardiologist, and I have a great interest in combining western medicine with complementary medicine, which is the reason I bought this book. However this book was a bit boring to read and was also a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, those interested in this new medicine, which I think will be the medicine of the new millennium, will want to read this book


Beautiful!
	The most gorgeous artwork in comic books. Contains the most extraordinary artwork of Alex Ross(Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman,  the Justice League, etc, even Hanna-Barbera!) A comics fan, I recieved this as a Christmas gift, and I read it again and again.
A must-have for comic book fans.


For lovers of Robicheaux
	This book is for lovers of Robicheaux.  His demons seem put to rest, redemption seems almost within his grasp - and yet the worst mayhem ever occurs within these pages.  The poetry and sense of regret for lost innocence pervade Burke's prose as always, but his anger at humanity's shortcomings is bubbling volcanically just beneath the surface.  Hurricane Katrina features as a force both of destruction and cleansing.  A bit like Robicheaux himsel


Excellent and broad survey of the development of civilization with all the punch of high quality fiction!
	This is going to be a short and sweet review because many others have commented on this book at length. I want to contribute my two cents as a concise opinion based on its value as a powerful, engaging and thought provoking story.

This book packs the punch of great fiction. It covers a broad territory from the ice age to the present with the drama of an epic. You certainly don't need to be a history major, biologist or anthropologist to be moved by the story of civilization as told by the author.

Jared Diamond places a very strong emphasis on the role of geography, environment and other factors that relate back to nature in the rise of civilizations. I think the major shortcoming of his work is that he doesn't give enough credit to social factors and their role is history.

If you don't know a lot about history or how physical factors in the environment contributed to the rise of agriculture, the need for armies, etc. You will find this fascinating reading. If you have a deep knowledge of these areas, anthropology and sociology, you may find the overly reductionistic stance annoying. However, most likely you will enjoy the well-written story if you can keep in mind that it doesn't provide the full picture.

In short, this book magnificently illuminates Jared Diamond's specific areas of interest, while downplaying or neglecting others. It provides a valuable piece of the truth and it does so in a very engaging and thoughtful manner.


A good book.
	Since I am a World's Fair "fanatic" I have read almost everything that I can on the subject. In general, this is an interesting and well researched book. The author has apparently attended most of the expositions that he writes about. However, I must point up three rather glaring errors in the book. In describing the Louisiana World Expo of 1984 he states that the unbuilt symbol tower was supposed to be "80 feet tall,just 150 feet shorter than the Eiffel Tower." Since the Eiffel Tower is actually over 900 feet tall,the New Orleans fair tower would have had to have been at least 800 feet tall.This may have been a typo which the author did not catch in time.The other error states that the US Pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair of 1958 was a "large,squat,round concrete block structure." It was indeed large and round, but not squat and not made of concrete blocks.According to the excellent book about Edward Durrell Stone, the architect of the pavilion,the outer walls consisted of large aluminum panels which were latticed in intricate designs so that the interior would be flooded with natural light. I have seen photos of the US Pavilion, and it seems a beautiful and airy structure to me. (In comparison to the Soviet Pavilion, which resembled a large refrigerator!) Thirdly, the Spokane Expo of 1974 was not the first time that the U.S.S.R. exhibited at a U.S. expo. They had a large pavilion at the New York World's Fair of 1939. All in all, however, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of World's Fairs


To the point and beautifully Illustrated
	This the one book that taught me more about how to use my SLR than the camera's manual itself. The step by step approach and the logical arrangement of chapters makes it a book that really teaches you photography. I also liked the way Mr. Frost uses two photographs to illustrate a filter. One take without the filter and then the same one with a filter.  Also explained very well is how longer lenses reduce depth of the photograph and small helful tips on increasing your depth of field.  An encompassing book, the last few chapters tell about how a slide show can be made more interesting and how to take care of your equipment.  The peppering of photos and illustrations make you want to go out and take pictures using the methods shown. A good buy and money well spent. My only gripe is that I preffered the smaller size of the previous edition as it fit easily in my kit bag


At least somebody has "got" it
	Tom Friedman is a engaging writer.  He also writes from a very personal perspective, both as to how the world has changed for him and his family, and for his friends around the world.  You get the feeling that Mr. Friedman is describing the world changing as he is watching.  What a treat and a very easy read.  Pick it up and learn about what is really going on outside the US shores


Beautifully written, heartwarming story
	This story captivated me right from the outset, as Vivian copes with age-related loss of memory. Her scenes are tenderly drawn in sensitively described and insightful detail, and she is a very realistically portrayed.

As Susannah packs up her childhood home and prepares to move Vivian into an assisted living apartment, she uncovers clues to her past concerning the mysteries of her brother's death and whereabouts of her long-lost high-school sweetheart. With just the right blend of drama, action, suspense and resolution of family issues, this enjoyable story is very uplifting and thought-provoking, providing reflections for my own midlife crisises. It is easily read within a couple of hours, and there is a subtle tie-in to the Blossom Street books, leaving the possibility that these likable characters may reappear in subsequent books in that series.


A great find during an annual summer shopping trip
	I found this novel at a bookstore on the boardwalk I visit at least once every summer.  I love going there and looking to see if I can find a book that I have never heard of, by an author I've never heard of, and buy it on a whim.  This is the novel I bought last year.  I has, unfortunately, sat on my shelf since then until tonight, because of many reasons.  Tonight, however, I picked it up and read it cover to cover.  The narrative was brilliantly told, the dialogue completely believable and the plot totally heartwrenching.  If I had made it to the end without some tears, I would believe myself made of stone!

Skip is a character many can relate to: a man unsatisfied with how his life has turned out, down about how his friends have really not been friends at all, that gets the chance to do something great by this little child.  However, it is the change she makes in those around her which are truly the BLESSINGS of the title.  Faith, a name not used lightly, restores her namesake in all those touched by her.  She ultimately gives him the chance  of making something of his life without even knowing it.  Many BLESSINGS occur in this wonderful novel, and I found myself all at once sour about how humankind can be at times, but also proud at how humankind can be at others (which is a fact, in itself, that proves how well Quindlen has spun her tale).  The fact is that just because a person has been to jail, has deadbeat friends, does not mean he is of that same stock; just because an elderly woman has become so dragged down by her own life does not mean she has no feeling left in her.  Skip, Lydia, Nadine, Meredith, Jennifer...all have many dimentions to their characters that Quindlen has spectacularly drawn


An Outstanding Resource
	I sit here with my two newly acquired volumes of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America in absolute awe!  With almost 200 contributors, almost 800 entries and nearly 400 illustrations, editor Andy Smith and Oxford University Press have done a magnificent job of putting together what is clearly the most comprehensive work on this immensely broad subject ever undertaken.  Whether you are a food professional or interested amateur, a historian, sociologist or anthropologist, a student or scholar, these volumes will no doubt become your most important resource for information related in any way to the history of food and drink in America.  The scope is astounding, spanning some five centuries and ranging from events and trends to products, from ethnic, religions and cultural influences to political and social movements in American history, and also includes dozens of biographical entries of important contributors and influences on the development of culinary life and gastronomy in America.  Despite the enormity of this work, it is refreshingly approachable, set forth alphabetically, written in clear language, translated when needed, and annotated and supplemented with bibliographical information for those wishing to explore further.  As a food professional-recipe developer, food writer and culinary educator-there is no doubt in my mind that these pages will soon be worn and this seminal work will remain among my most valued and cherished resources for as long as my interest in food and gastronomy is alive.


Eye Opening Information
	I borrowed this book on CD from the library and half way through, ordered the book so I would have it to refer to. Excellent book, highly recommended. Helps to put a realistic perspective on millionaires


Highly Satisfying Novel, Despite the Blood and Guts
	While expertly crafted, this is not a pretty novel, nor is it gentle.  The subject matter -- abduction of a child -- is somber, as are a few gruesome descriptions of death and dying.  The plot twists and turns, as befits a LeHane novel, and one way or another this complicated story finds its way to a denouement which the reader may not find satisfying. But you can usually trust Lehane to take good care of you in this, one of his finer books.  And not only are there plot twists to wrestle with, there are more than a few serious moral issues that will have you squirming or at least scratching your head.  All in all, this was a solid, enjoyable thriller.  The reader will feel his time was not wasted


The best book on money I've ever read
	Awesome. This book is worth its weight in gold for the insights and understanding it shares. With a professional background in finance, economics and a profound study of the Word of God, the author is well qualified to expose mammon for what it is, and to challenge the reader to a deeper surrender to the only real treasure worth having. Buy two and give a copy away. Can we have a new edition please


One of Koontz's better books
	Fear nothing is about Christopher Snow, whose parents die in supposedly innocent ways, but Chris soon finds out that what is seems is not really what it is, and even that his little town of Moonlight Bay is stranger, and scarier, than he thought. Chris then sets out with his friends, and his dog, to find out the truth about what's really going on.
Fear Nothing is a good plot written in typical Koontz style. Fear nothing grabs you from the beginning and holds you all the way through. It keeps you guessing and just when you think you have it figured out, it throws something new at you and makes you guess some more. Koontz creates some very likable characters and by the end of the story, you like them, and feel as if you know them.
	Fear Nothing is very descriptive, Koontz describes his locations so well you feel like you're in them, and experiencing the plot right next to the main character. I have not read the sequel, but I am anxious to do so.


Absolutely Fantastic!
	I'm not even a vegetarian , let alone a vegan, and this book offers such flavorful and simple recipes.  Some more time consuming than others but definitely worth the wait!  Unless you hate veggies, this book is a must have!  I just made the Herb Scalloped potatoes as a side dish and the author was right, it's hard to believe there's no cheese or cream! the pizza with caramelized onions, kalmata olives and tomatoes is fantastic too!. . . . .lots of yummyness


Possible Side Effects - A. Burroughs
	Very good, easy, light   funny read!  Although his best, by far, in my opinion was "Running with Scissors".  This was an enjoyable read   would recommend reading his work if you like David Sedaris, both have a similiar style


As expected . . .
	The book arrived as expected and was in great shape.  Thanks


How Many Terrorists Can Walk a TightRope?
	As I read, I kept trying to figure out whether this tale is a collection of reflections on how two religions can destroy a region and its people, whether the characters have broader agendas than their stories or whether it's just a good tale peppered with strong political images.

And, a good story it is.  How can you beat this writing?

"The pandits of Kashmir were left to rot in their slum camps, to rot while the army and the insurgency fought over the bloodied and broken valley, to dream of return, to die while dreaming of return, to die after the dream of reture died so that they could not even die dreaming of it, why was that why as that why was that why was that why was that" (p. 297)

"The beauty approached him, beckoning.  Her arm slipped around his shoulder, supple as a snake, and like a snake her leg coiled around his.  Then like a third snake her other arm and like a fourth snake her other leg until she was slithering all over him....  She had as many arms and legs as a goddess, and multilimbed and irrestible she coiled and tightened around him and, finally, with all the power she possessed, she bit.  The accidental death by king cobra snakebit of [the] General was announced ... the next morning and he was buried with full honors.... (p. 316)
" p. 31


Interesting, good info, odd storyline
	The Andromeda Strain tells the story of a bacteria growth in Piedmont, Arizona. This bacteria kills people in a matter of seconds and killed everyone in the town except for a 69 year old man and a baby. A top secret commission is formed to see how these bacteria kill people and to see how they can be stopped.

This book has the makings of a real thriller. I couldn't put the book down through the first 250 pages. However, this book had a dissipointing ending.

This book involves a lot of "cool" technology. This book could have taken place today (instead of 1969) because I could visualize a lot of the book. I found myself thinking "Awesome technology" more then I was thinking that Crichton is sure a great author. He seemed to involve a little too much foreshadowing.

This book does involve a lot of research and "up-to-date theories" for 1969, but is a little dated today. This does not take anything out of the story.

I would recommend this book because it is really interesting. Lots of research went into this book. The book is fast paced and has many modern aspects of a Crichton novel


Ruth can do better
	Still a great read, but not as good as Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples.  Foodies will love the continued insight into restaurant review protocol, but the author really shines when she remembers early food experiences with her mom, dad and other relatives and friends.  The highs are not as high, nor the lows as low in Garlic and Sapphires.  Reichl has a long way to go to lose me as a reader; that said, I hope she has a few more early memories to incorporate in her next book


excellent!!!
	very good writing done by both authors. i've always loved C.C.  now with Du Brul, the story gets even more suspenseful.  a really awsome page turner.  get this one


i love this book!
	this is most definitely my favorite book on earth! i'm so serious, this is such a cool book. it really appeals to anyone. kids could read it because there are short sentances and pictures (some tough words though...start with epiplectic??) but teens and adults (i'm sure) can also appreciate the morbid and brilliant humor of edward gorey. for anyone that thinks that $10 is too much to spend on a little book, ((you may be right in some circumstances)) but this is such a fantastic book i know i am gushing but i love it soooooooo much!!!


Quite enjoyable.
	Even though you know before you start reading that this book will have a happy ending, it is a fun read.  A well written and pleasant book.  One of the best of this falls crop.  I am already waiting for the next book in the series


Sound Advice
	I found this book to contain some really sound advice and I would suggest it for anyone that was contemplating risking their money on the ponies


The Struggle of Faith and Duty
	This was the first novel I read from Endo, and I have to confess to being hooked on it from the first. It is both interesting from a historical perspective, taking in an event that was singularly fascinating, and deeply profound from a psychological perspective. It is also a partial critique of ambition and desire in the clergy of the day.

Hasekura is a deep character, and the reader spends a bit of time with Hasekura's thoughts. This is especially so as Hasekura confronts the emaciated, dying Christ that he sees on his travels toward Rome. The possibility of faith in this "pathetic man", and the conflict that produces with his duty to Lord and ancestors, forms a a deeply emotional narrative coupled with Hasekura's desires, dreams and simple wishes. The psychological aspect of the book is very well presented and notable in its impact.

A notable part of the book is tied up with Father Velasco, whose ambition seems to know no limits. His own struggles with ambition, and the self-justifications that he employs, are a lesson worthy of remembering.

This novel is a great one, and I was hooked to the very last page. It will take you into the world of Hasekura, Velasco and their companions, as they themselves see it. It will take you into their dreams, their hopes, their fatalism, their fears and their struggles to cope with their situation. I totally, unreservedly recommend this novel. I love this novel


Go ahead, Have another one.What's one more gonna do?
	Dry is anything but what the title of this work implies.The pages drip with boozy escapades and one can almost smell and taste the liquor on Augusten Burroughs breath.A must for drinkers who would like to stop or at least reassess what the heck is going on in their lives.Almost motivational in its honest appraisal of the difficulties inherent in this addiction. The writing style is clear and refreshingly down to earth,funny, yet foreboding and diary-like in its presentation.Burroughs clearly transmits via humor and self awareness the many dimensions of this destructive addiction and the problems that can come with it, especially the limited usefulness of rehab.The story itself is pretty hip with a good look inside the mind of what we could easily call, "a hard core drinker" as he anticipates the "next one".Passages describe a variety of interpersonal dilemmas,job and sexual conundrums.Dry is also a good insightful look at how the treatees view the treaters and how quickly they can size up weaknesses and exploit them.This is a page turner but it does drag a bit in the middle, yet has a strong finish.An earlier work 'Running With Scissors' was apparently good enough for Hollywood, so take a shot with DRY.After all, when your liquor bottles occupy more living space in your place than you do, it might be time to slow down,stop and get a copy of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and a copy of Dry.  CHEERS!!


If you have hormonal imbalances, this is a great resource...
	OMG!!! I could not put this book down... I am in my upper twenties and I am going thru a bunch of these symptoms already. Yes the book is bios about natural progesterone, so what... I have not personally used progesterone cream yet, because I am waiting for my saliva test results to make sure that's what I need. But even if I don't, everything else provided in the book is amazing information. Your diet, your vitamins, your stress level, your physical activity, everything is co-related to most woman's hormonal imbalances. They even talked about a case where a woman did not want to use the natural progesterone and how by changing all of the other stuff in her life, she achieved hormone balancing. If you are suffering from hormonal imbalances, I will strongly recommend this book. I also bought other ones that I will be reading after this one. But I started with "Be Lean by Romy Seleznov", which is a story from her life and how she struggled to balance her hormones and gives all the details of what she did, then I continued with this book, and the next one I will be reading is "Natural Hormone Balance for Women" by Uzzi Reiss, which does cite this book as well.

If you think you have a hormonal imbalance, please do not rely on your doctor 100%, I am not saying that you should not believe them or rule out everything they say, but do your homework. I have been telling my doctors since I am in my TEENS that I feel I have an imbalance with my hormones and since all of the results come back fine they have been telling me that my symptoms were "normal"... WRONG!!! Now they found a tumor in my pituitary gland, which causes an imbalance... The tumor grows slowly, so I am sure that it has been there for years, but they never checked it before. Now that I am treating it, all of my "normal" symptoms are almost gone. I am still on the process of getting everything in balance. If you feel you have something wrong, even if the results of your blood work comes as normal, READ more and look for healthy ways of changing your diet, exercising more, balance your hormones, and look for second opinions and definitely have a good naturopath that you can go to. Also "Bikram Yoga", is an excellent exercise to helping you with hormonal balancing. At least that's part of what I changed.


Retro yet relevant
	Whilst the book may seem a little dated when it talks of tweed in the country and a matching silk jacket for your cocktail dress, it does contain a lot of useful information about putting together a great career wardrobe on a budget, which colours match, which accessories never date, and how to dress for evening functions of any nature.
I highly recommend it for anyone who thinks Jackie Kennedy was the epitome of chic, and who would like to know how to pull it off themselves


"I don't think it sounds like mice."
	The quirky illustrations done by the masterful Dave McKean at once contribute to the book's charm, but also lend to its dread. However, this is not a book for especially wee ones or children prone to nightmares. Some people may not appreciate Dave McKean's artwork as much as they should, because it is so different, at least to those not familiar with the Sandman graphic novel series written by Neil Gaiman in which Dave McKean did the cover art for all the books. At first glance the layout might seem confusing, even distracting, yet it somehow works here. Neil Gaiman has crafted an eerie tale that befits his style of writing. He introduces us to a charming young girl named Lucy, who suspects something is not right with her home. And though her pig-puppet seems to share her concern and understands her fear, the rest of her family do not...until it's too late. The action waxes and wanes until all seems resolved in the end, though perhaps it is not. You be the judge. This is a worthy book to read to third-graders and above, though some younger children may be able to stomach the tale without any concern. Neil Gaiman deserves praise for bringing his brand of storytelling to a younger audience, one so unfamiliar with his other work. I highly recommend this book


Make this your first investment
	If you are planning to become a landlord, buy this essential book before you purchase a rental property or hang that "For Rent" sign in front of your house.  A healthy dose of legal reality will counterbalance any easy money ideas you may have and help you decide whether the work and risk involved in being a landlord is how you would like to make money.  The legal concepts you learn may even influence which properties you buy and how you maintain them.

If you are already a landlord, keep this book at your finger tips.  The information is well organized and easy to find for quick reference.  Legal concepts are presented in plain language and illustrated with scenarios showing how the concepts might play out in real life.

The authors make dry legal topics as interesting as possible.  Add the urgency of knowing a legal misstep could land you on the wrong side of a lawsuit, and you will find yourself eagerly turning these pages


A tragic story, magnificently written
	This is the story of another tragic episode involving a Native American tribe.  That this probably happened under other circumstances, and happened to more than the Arapaho tribe, cannot be doubted.  This is another in a  series that has given us insight into tribal life and continues to  leave  us wanting more.  The characters are strong, believable, and you want the  best for all of them. The underlying plot--selling tribal babies and  telling their parents they died--is heartbreaking.  The reunion of one such  child with her father made me weep.  And Vicki's trial reconciliation with  Ben gave me hope.  This is a great work, written with deep feeling


Good Summer Read
	My husband bought this book for me and I have to say it is not a book I would normally pick up. I also have to say...I loved it! It was a very entertaining story with several plot twists along the way. I enjoyed the writing style and would highly recommend this book for taking on a relaxing trip this summer


Thrills beneath the Earth's surface
	A team of highly respected scientists is recruited and sent on the most exciting mission of their careers - they are to explore and catalog an expansive system of tunnels and caves deep below the Earth's surface in Antarctica.  They set off on their adventure only to learn that a team, like themselves, was sent on this same mission only 3 months prior and has never been heard from again.  They also learn that what makes this set of caverns so exciting and sought after is that they contain diamonds larger and more plentiful than any mankind has ever seen.  Wealth of this sort has attracted both dedicated scientists and individuals with more menacing plans in mind.  But these dangers are nothing compared to the beasts that are native to this subterranean world who are numerous and life threatening to the mission and the team.

James Rollins' debut novel sets the stage for what has become his successful career writing scientific thrillers.  He does a wonderful job of incorporating biology, archeology, geology, and other various earth sciences into an exciting and page turning novel.  Some of his subsequent novels are stronger than this first work, but Subterranean does not disappoint and definitively sets the stage for his many books to come.


Gems from among the leavings
	This rather strangely titled book is a tribute to the demand for Elizabeth Bishop's work. It is a set of pieces gleaned from some 3,500 pages in the Vassar College library collection. Not exactly random (but almost) here are 108 poems, some prose, notes she took, some sketches, some facimilies of her papers, some sketches she made, and other pieces harder to describe.

Obviously this is a book that will appeal most to people who are already Elizabeth Bishop fans. This is more of a work in process. It tells more about her as a person, it illustrates the great effort she went to get her poems just right before sending them off for publication. It shows something of the way her mind worked.

The work here is not Ms. Bishop's best. It's unfinished. Some of the shorter pieces, fragments really, make you wonder where she might have taken it.


Interesting premise
	My fav essay was about  quot;the quot; River.  Also, now when watching the evening news, the link between fire and flood makes alot of sense.  Thanks for the enlightenment


Wonderful "Wizard of Oz"
	I was a reasonably big fan of the "Wizard of Oz" when I was a kid. I'd seen the Judy Garland film, the "Return to Oz" film, my parents had taken me to a theatre production, and there used to be a cartoon series about Dorothy and her friends that I quite liked. Here in Australia, though, you don't see an awful lot of the Wizard of Oz books, and I missed out on all that as a kid. I managed to find a copy just recently of the the original story, and I really liked it. It's really a shame I couldn't find it earlier.

Dorothy is a girl who lives with her aunt and her uncle in the countryside of Kansas. In the midst of a "cyclone", Dorothy, her dog Toto, and her whole house are swept away to the Land of Oz, a beautiful but strange world full of all sorts of interesting creatures, good and bad witches, and a very famous wizard. Dorothy tries to find her way home, and on the way makes many new friends, like the Scarecrow, "Tin Woodsman" and the cowardly lion. Will she ever make it home?

It's rather different to the movie, I found. For one, the journey Dorothy and her friends go on takes many days, whereas the in the Judy Garland film it seems to all take place much shorter. The magic shoes Dorothy picks up in Oz are silver here, and not ruby red like in the film. There are also a lot of other creatures and things in the book, like the queen of the mice, the Hammerheads, and the Dainty China people. Though the world of Oz seems pretty big in the film, it feels a lot bigger to me in the book. Oz has a nice atmosphere too, I thought. It's very cosy and familiar, and kind of evokes a kind of America the way that say C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien evokes a kind of Britain, if that makes any sense. North, south, east, west... in Oz's every direction there's a new land to explore. You never know who you might meet, or how they'll do things there. I quite like how laid back everyone is in Oz. The way the Munchkins and the people of the Emerald City speak, for instance.

I enjoyed finding out things about my favorite characters too, like how the Tinman became made of tin and how the flying monkeys became slave to the wicked witch of the west, which is all described here. That reminds me, there is a little bit of fairy tale violence here, but nothing worse than you might find in "Little Red Riding Hood".

All in all, a great read, I thought. Whimsical, colourful and fun. I do hope I can get my hands on some of the follow up books. Good thing there's amazon


Book should come with box of Kleenex
	This book was wonderful.  The rich grandeur of the south is alive in this story of unimaginable dedication and love.  This book had me teared up more than a few times.

Kobe Bryant bought his wife a million dollar ring, Noah simply wrote a notebook and read from it.  Read this book and you will know why True Love cannot be bought, duplicated, or imitated with money.

philli


Helpful as a Backdrop Before Reading Paul's Epistles
	We know some things about Saul of Tarsus (later named the Apostle Paul) but a complete biography is always lacking because of sketchy and incomplete information. Most everything we know from Paul is from the Dr. Luke in the Book of Acts or Paul's epistles themselves.  II Peter Chapter 3 makes some very intriguing statements.  Peter, in some of his last earthly words before martyrdom, validates Paul's apostleship and states that some of his writings and teachings are difficult but that we should follow them.

Pollock's book is presented as documentary-style reading since Paul's complete biography is not entirely clear.  There is much the author states is inference or speculation. If you can respect that and not build doctrine and facts on where the evidence is fuzzy, I think this is an excellent book.

One example of "fuzzy" facts that Pollock considers is the age-old controversy over the authorship of the Book of Hebrews.  The author of Hebrews does not identify himself and scholars argue who wrote it.  Pollock speculates that Paul, while imprisioned in Acts Ch. 24 for two years may have had time and motivation to write the book to the people he so desparately wanted to reach.  With his imprisonment and his controversial style among the Jews, he may have left his identity anonymous so he himself would not be a stumbling block to reach his Jewish brothers.  Eternity will reveal who wrote the Book of Hebrews but it is certainly a plausible theory.

Overall, the greatest benefit in reading this book is to provide a better framework for understanding Paul as he travels among the early churches and wrote letters to them correcting the various false teachings and problems that developed.


wonderful translation
	I've been reading a chapter a day for over a yr. It's a great motivator for the day ahead. I've found this translation to be the best I've read. Other translations have been boring or too dense. This one was very powerful


Finally, a Roth novel I like!
	This is the first novel by Philip Roth that I actually like.  Portnoy's Complaint was a good hundred-page novella, spread out over a three-hundred page book; the other pages were filled with the dross of his political opinions, and his kvetching about his parents.  Operation Shylock was also too pre-occupied with pushing a political agenda (but just what agenda, we are never sure).  This is Roth's primary fault as an author - he is too didactic.  I find that I really don't care much about what Roth's political opinions are.  Ironically, this is probably one of the attributes that make him a critical darling - it shows that he thinks "deep thoughts."

The Professor of Desire is blessedly free of politics.  In it, Roth sticks with the subjects he knows best: sex and relationships.  Young David Kepesh is a sexually frustrated young student.  That changes while studying abroad in Swinging London, where he finds that what they say about Swedish girls is true.  Things take a turn for the worse after the end of his disastrous marriage finds him crushed by loneliness in New York.  With the help of a psychiatrist, Kepesh tries to discover if he will ever be able to commit to anyone or experience happiness.

The Professor of Desire finds Roth at a more mature place in his career.  Gone is the odious kvetching about his parents that polluted so much of Portnoy's Complaint; the parents in this book are treated with sympathy.  At one point, a character points out to Kepesh that there is no point in mining the workings of a Jewish family for his fiction anymore.  He is also less homophobic in this novel - but not much so.  There are still things about Roth's style that take getting used to; I don't think there's anything profound in his refusal to offset dialogue into separate paragraphs - it just makes it harder to keep track of who is speaking.  However, The Professor of Desire is a short, lyrical novel that is the best of anything I've read of his so far.


Wow... what a b*(#h
	I am nearly finished with this book - I haven't been this mesmerized by a book in forever! I would certainly recommend it


Beware of superbookdeals seller
	If you want to buy the book, go ahead, just be careful of superbookdeals, they take your money but don't deliver and don't answer emails. Caveat Emptor


One of the best books of 1997- or any other year!
	Just when you think you've got Gemmell figured out, he turns the tables on you.  Fans of Gemmell and Jon Shannow might find the book a bit slow at first, and something of a retread of previous Jerusalem Man tales, but be patient...the master has got some great surprises up his sleeve!  Readers unfamiliar with Shannow are strongly advised to go back and read the previous Stones of Power books before this one.  You won't be disappointed.  Gemmell is one of the most important fantasy writers of the late 20th century


PSYCH-K is a wonderful tool for making big, positive changes in my life.
	I have spent my life wishing that I could change things over which I seemed to have no control.  Rob explains that the reason for this is that my subconscious mind is holding on to old beliefs that are limiting me.  He goes on to tell how PSYCH-K is a safe, powerful, and simple way to change those beliefs using balances that integrate the hemispheres of the brain.  It is prayer coming true for me quickly and lastingly.  I have followed up reading the book by taking the Basic and Advanced training workshops and am using PSYCH-K to find "peace" in my life and am helping others do the same in theirs.  This book is written so that it is easy to read and very informative for someone like me who is looking for ways to improve their life


A Look at the Death Penalty
	This book is not only interesting but gives a great deal of insight into life on "death row," at least in the state of Mississippi, and the appeals process involved with stays of execution and commutation of sentences.  It touches on activities of the Ku Klux Klan. It was my impression that the author leans toward those who favor the abolition of the death penalty.  However, some sympathy is found for the victims of crime.  The story centers on Sam Cayhall who is sentenced to death after several trials over a number of years following the crime.  Sam's grandson becomes his attorney during the last months of appeal from "death row." The latter part of the book leaves one wondering whether or not there will be an execution.  Meanwhile Sam shows repentance and response to the prison's chaplain.

I found it to be one of the better John Grisham books.


Powerful, but not one of Stephen King's best.
	I just finished the book today and I will start out by saynig that this is a very good read. I will not spoil the plot if you have not read this book. Oh, and this book is NOT scary, but it really is creepy. Give it a go


6 Stars and more really - wonderful cookbook and book
	This is wonderful! It is for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and also for those who are interested in historic cooking - from prairie and colonial days which have their basis in so many of the cultures which settled America in the early days, and adapted for use there

This book is a very happy blend of the Laura Ingalls stories and the food which was eaten, interspersed with the recipes and how they would have been prepared and cooked. Of course Laura didn't include any of the actual recipes in her book and so they have gleaned from similar cookbooks and so on of the day. It has been adjusted to modern need for exact temperatures and measures.

I found this book so lovely to read through, not just browse through. The interest factor is great - learning what things were available, and how they were used - baking soda, yeasts, how the oven was used, what cooking items they would have had access too as well as some of the stuff we should know but forget - seasonal food avaialble. But it is good as a simple recipe book. It is an incredible look at times gome past

one of my best reads in the last few years, I also bought a Prairie cookbook which I would highly recommend as well - it is more of a recipe book than this one, but a lovely complementary book to it


A very balance approach!
	We would expect a well balanced approach to writing about the work of the Holy Spirit in the church by the author who also wrote "Tyranny of the Urgent" and we get it!  In this book, Charles E. Hummel, former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, first reviews the history and growth of the various Charismatic groups within both the protestant and Catholic churches.  He provides many valuable explanations of the meaning of related scriptures as well as observations of healings and prophecies that he himself has seen.  He later gives his recommendations for keeping the Holy Spirit "fire in the fireplace" of a biblical church body. I came away encouraged in my own Spiritual gifts and reminded that the more extraordinary Spirit gifts have not disappeared and that "to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.


Excellent Idea, Severe Omission
	Blanchard and Hybels and Hodges team up for an excellent perspective on leadership from a Christian point of view. While reaching out to the secular marketplace with valid concepts for servant leadership, they put together an excellent framework for leadership. The summary checklist, given on pp. 171ff., offer a helpful concise summary of the book. The glaring omission, and one that I can't believe that Hybels would make, is to clearly point out that following Jesus' style of leadership is absolutely impossible apart from first having a personal relationship with Jesus, in other words, you can't lead like Jesus if you don't have him in your life to help you. I can't believe that there wasn't at least an appendix for those who would like to pursue that issue further. I believe that the authors are posturing too much to get the secular audience to read the book. But for the Christian, it is an excellent book


My Favorite.
	This is my all time favorite book! I have never found myself going through so many different emotions while reading one book. It is definately one of Nicholas Sparks bests


Engaging look at a scary set of diseases
	Deadly feasts: tracking the secrets of a terrifying new plague by Richard Rhodes is one scary book. It tracks the discovery of prions, the mishapen proteins responsible for mad cow disease, scrapie, and Creutzfeldt Jacob disease. Following human cannibals in the jungles of New Guinea in the fifties, bovine cannibals of the British Isles in the eighties, and the bizarre history of sheep scrapie from the 17th century on, Rhodes does a great job of presenting the history and discovery of this bizarre group of diseases. I especially enjoyed the characterizations of the scientists, from the Noble Laureate who so enjoyed the New Guinea that he often regretted rejoining civiliziation, yet brought thirty natives back to the USA and helped them through school, to the hyper-competitive scientist who named the molecules even though he wasn't quite certain what they were.

But this isn't just a story of scientific discovery. As the foreboding subtitle blares, Rhodes explores some of the scarier aspects of prions. These include spontaneous formation, responsible for the known early cases of Creutzfeldt Jacob disease, trans-species infection, including mad cow disease and scrapie, the long long incubation period and lack of immune system response, and hardiness of the disease. One scary factoid: a scientist took a sample of scrapie, froze it, baked it for an hour at 360 degrees (celsius), and was able to re-infect other animals from this sample.

For all the uneasiness this book inspires, it certainly doesn't offer any answers. A condemnation of industrial agriculture, a warning that it's unknown whether vegetarians are even safe, and a caution against using bone meal for your flower garden do not make a recipe for handling this issue. To be fair, it was printed in 1997--perhaps things are under control now.


It's not too late for Bob.
	This book was very candid and well written. It shows that Bob primary goal was to build a business, and become rich and he succeed. The idea that he sold it as a media for African American pride is what got him in trouble.  Pulley shows that it was  quot;strictly business quot; Mr. Johnson need not so defensive, what he created made him rich, this book shows that wealth does not equal respect? Nevertheless he has $3 billion dollars and hopefully plenty of time to write a final chapter of which he can be prou


Excellent
	A good and clear illustrated guide to exercises with both machines and free weights. Also the best methods for each body type outlined. You even get sample workouts for people at all levels of fitness and exercise development.

The book shows exercises for each body part so you can develop your own routine and it also includes a log you can copy.

The book includes routines for seniors and weight loss. There are some 300 color photos and you'll learn how to do each exercise and what to avoid that may cause injury.

A good book for anyone at any level of fitness who needs a complete, handy guide. Being spiral bound it will go with you and you can easily use it daily.

My one complaint is that some of the routines are devoted to using machines only and many people don't belong to a gym but work out at home. For them, this creates a real problem


Excellent Book
	I use this book and/or refer someone to it almost every day in my line of work. I highly recommend it to anyone who works with color


From Beirut to Jerusalem
	Having spent the last year in the Near East, I found that reading this book gave me an incite that was most helpful to me and my collegues.  While this book was written about the Isreal-Lebanon issue during the 1970's-1980's, though it just reared its ugly head once again in the last few months, it was as I said a great help to me to understand or at least better understand the arabic way of life and culture.  With the world attention squarely on the Near East we all, weather American, European, or other cultures throughout the world, need to know and understand the Near Eastern mentality, culture, and to some extend how the Islamic Religion plays into the everyday life and politics of that area.  With this book being written by a Jewish American and with Thomas Freidman's understanding of the Near East way of thinking gives the book a credibility others could only hope for.  I recommend this book to anyone that is a student of the Near East, Politicians and Military Personnel, Religious Leaders, and anyone who wants a better understanding of the Near East in general.


A great book for all those people who still believe in true love..
	I just finished reading The Handyman's Dream, By Nick Poff. I was completely blown away! This is a great book. Its about 2 guys who meet one another in small town Indiana. After the first chapter you will want to have these fellas over for dinner. The story is very well written and has alot of innovative things in it that I havent seen in any other gay novels. I love the way the author integrates Music and songs into the story. From the Character Norma ( ed's Mother)and her quirky comebacks to the wonderful Mrs. Penfield, the novel will have you laughing and will touch a place deep inside you that few books do. This story also tells of the fears and struggles a gay couple had in the past, and one many still have today. I love the fact that its very g rated and a good read for not only gay folks but also straight folks...Anyone who believes in the power of love. I wish while growing up I would have had a book like this one to show me that there IS such a thing as good , healthy gay relationships.  I Highly recommend The Handyman's Dream.


The A-frame book I always hoped someone would write
	I've always thought someone should do a retro coffee table book on A-frames.  Someone did.  It's perfect.  The book has a great cover in cool 60s colors.  Inside is a detailed history with pictures, illustrations and everything one would ever want to know about A-frames.  Thank you Chad Randl!


Dave Barry's Genius
	Anything by Dave Barry is genius - full of insight, uncannily funny, entertaining, and thought provoking.  Dave Barry Turns 50 makes a perfect small gift for 50th birthdays (as does Dave Barry Turns 40 for those a decade younger.


Anyone who makes decisions should read this
	This is not a book about management.  It is a wonderful exploration about how and why groups of individuals can and do make better decisions than individuals.  It sets out some necessary conditions for this wisdom to be able to take place and then does some excellent analysis of why that happens.

What I got out of this book was some very important ideas about why collaborative decision making is important and how to assure that it is done well (If you want the other side Irving Janis' old classic on Groupthink is a good counterpoint.)

Unlike a lot of other big idea books this one is very literate and readable.  It is a joy to read but it also offers some very substantive ideas


Sanctuary-     By Nora Roberts
	Just LOVED this book!!!  Enjoy Nora Roberts books but this one is now at the top of my list. It is so suspenseful you can hardly wait to turn the next page to see what happens next. This mystery/love story is great and so well written. All the characters are so well developed they seem to come to life and just about jump off the page. Very enjoyable reading!!!!


A must for costumers
	If you're interested in reproducing authentic costumes, you won't find a better guide to hats and bonnets than this book.  I haven't found anything close to it.  Intended for collectors, it is full of photographs showing what women wore on their heads for the 200 year period covered.  Today a hat is usually something worn strictly to protect from inclement weather.  Until a generation or so ago, no woman felt dressed in public unless she wore some kind of hat.  It's a valuable addition to any costume library


Eye candy with excellent recipes
	To put this review into perspective for you, it is written by a serious student of cooking that has been actively studying food on their own for 25 years.  I have been focusing on Italian food for the last 10 years.  My favorite cookbook is "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute of America.

If you are a serious home cook you will love this book.

The photography in this book is nice and the food styling is beautiful. If you love to entertain and/or you want the meals you serve your family and friends to be gorgeous you will get so many ideas reading this book.

The directions for the recipes are very thorough and well written.  I believe that a serious beginner could follow these recipes without a problem.

I have tried many of the recipes in this book all to rave reviews.  I particularly enjoyed the chapter on foams. The "cream whippers" are expensive, but they are extremely fun to use.

This book does not need to be used just for small bites.  It is as simple as just making fewer portions from the same recipe.

This book is highly recommended for anyone that is serious about cooking.


This book was the best educational book i've ever read!
	Syl Sobel is my nextdoor neighbor.  This book is a wonderful resource for the whole family.  It is illustrated, has a glossary for those hard to know terms and an index!  Buy this book today!


"Frenetic" Watch
	With "Dead Watch", Sanford has delivered a political thriller that is fully worthy of mention alongside his popular police-procedural Prey series.  I share the Booklist reviewer's sentiment that Sandford has produced a D.C. intrigue reminiscent of Ross Thomas (a VERY good thing!).

My biggest beef with Dead Watch is the bland characterization of Jake Winter (though Sandford does do a good job of making Winter not be Lucas Davenport); nearly every other character has more personality-pizzazz.  Not to worry though, the Madison Bowe character and the breakneck speed of the story more than make up for that shortcoming.  If I'd been turning pages any faster, I'd have probably started a fire.


this book rocks
	this book sucks very badly! as soon as i was on the second page i threw it in the fire place!!


Flying High
	I saw the second title of this series at my local Borders bookstore, and decided to try the first title. Do not be fooled by the "Young Adult" category; this book is also appropriate for full adults looking for a good read. Though a little adolescent at times, this novel is still excellent, and I recommend it as a fun and fascinating fantasy


Mr. Lynch Shares More of His Expertise...
	When Peter S. Lynch speaks, wise investors will listen.  This book covers the famous fund manager's career at the helm of Fidelity Magellan from 1977 to '90, and post career into '92.  It's far more introspective than "One Up On Wall Street" and it was no doubt meant to be for this purpose.  For example, there isn't nearly as much fundamental principles for stock picking outlined in this book as the former.  My belief is that the reader would do best by reading "One Up On Wall Street" first and follow up with this title, as its the newer of the two, regardless.

Peter's style of writing (with John Rothchild) is no-nonsense and easy to take in.  To my knowledge three books have been published by the duo and all three have been entertaining and never dry.  The reader can comfortably take in some very important stock-picking principles from one of the greats without feeling intimidated at any point.  I think this is a sign of a well written book that covers a topic that isn't child's play (unless you like playing with money).

And although this book doesn't cover nearly as much technical information as the first, it still offers a lot of tasty tidbits for stock pickers.  I made plenty of notes while reading "Beating The Street", and I'm confident that I'll be well served by doing so.  Peter reiterates many of the guidelines he mentioned in his first best-seller, such as scrutinizing company earnings and the balance sheets, and he gives his wise opinion of picking bargain stocks that have lower P/Es than their growth rates.

Overall, this title definitely deserves four stars, and his first book deserves at least five stars.  Lynch and Rothchild have authored several investing books that will stand the test of time. You'll sleep better with your investment decisions by having these valuable classics in your collection.


A Sweet Little Story
	I purchased this book to read to my baby and it is just a sweet little tale about Mommies and their mischievious babies.  I can't wait until she is old enough to sit on my lap and really understand the story when I read it to her.  I highly recommend it


Use this with high school kids!
	Briggs has perfected the art of the wordless book, and this is a great title to use to teach older kids how to do storyboarding for video or movie-making. Compare the book to the video as a final "lesson" and students will see the intricacies of the craft. This newly reissued edition has a "sparkly" cover, and is sure to be a favorite for families with kids of all ages, as well.


witty and excellent
	this book sucks you in from page one!  it's entertaining and witty!  no need for more detail


The real story.
	This is the real story about wall street firms and the way they look at their clients. Beware that you may not like the way they look at you. It is a good wake up call for those who think their broker is always looking out for their best interests. Very entertaining with great stories. You won't want to put it down!


The possible plot
	This fiction of a plot against American Jews is very interesting. It is well written and it holds your attention. The little boy telling the story and the intricacy of politics attached to the story make this novel a book you cannot put aside. This is about an era of American history, and it is well documented. I recommend it to everyone: the older generation who lived thru it and particularly to the younger generation of people who are not familiar with this period; it teaches that history is constantly in the remake and cultural differences are still a problem in our world.


Excellent narrative of Billy Beane and his bean counter approach
	Lewis has written a fascinating study of the bean counter approach ,used by Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics to construct a team of moderately priced players chosen on the basis of ,primarily, on base percentage for everyday players and the number of groundball outs and strikeouts for selecting pitchers.
             This approach generated a number of divisional championships for Oakland in the weakest American League division,but no pennants and world championships.There are omitted variables and misspecification  problems in the sabermetrics(statistics) approach of Bill James used by Beane.First,James's system totally ignores the number of batter strikeouts.All outs are not equal.Hitting flyouts and groundball outs will many times advance the baserunner if any previous batters got on base.Hitting the ball also allows the baserunner to get on on an error.Strikeouts are thus the worst type of out.This omitted variables problem can be dealt with by simply deducting 1  to 1.25 points from the on base percentage for every strikeout over,say,100 for a regular,everyday player who gets 600 official at bats over the course of the season.The second problem is that the James system does not differentiate between walks due to the hitting skill of the batter and walks used by the pitcher to set up forceplays and double plays,especially if he is a pitcher who gets a lot of ground ball outs.Another category is needed-walks that are not followed by forceouts or double play groundouts and/or walks where the runner is able to steal second base.These walks are different from the walks given to a 40 homer player who strikes out 150+ times a year and hits .250 but has a .375 OBP.
        James's system needs to be adjusted to take into account these two factors


Great for aspiring inkers and comic fans alike
	I finally know what makes for good comic book inks after reading this book. Gary Martin comprehensively outlines all the elements of comic book inking including the various techniques, styles and methods that the pros  use. Plenty of samples from his own work and that of others. If you want to  learn how to ink comic book art or you just want to know what distinguishes  good inking from bad, I highly recommend this book. The production values,  art and cover are also very professional


Good Read
	I am a longtime Jance fan and wasn't disappointed with Dead Wrong.  Any complaints would be the overemphasis on Joanna's pregnancy with a concomitant under-emphasis on tension and suspense (great ending, though!).  Butch is effectively out of the way in this installment as he promotes his book, but  also comes across as overly self-absorbed, especially when his obnoxious parents show up and his wife is poised to deliver their child.  Jenny, too has little to add to the story.  But Joanna shines, as usual. Nice to see such a reliable, ethical, and strong female protagonist


Actually 4 1/2 stars
	Don't get me wrong this was a really good book.  And I am so close to giving it 5 stars.  It was just a little too short for me.  The story invloving the ball game was great and showed why baseball is so pure at its core.  The only thing that was lacking in the story was the story outside of the game.  You will fly through this book, it is a good story and you will feel satisfied after reading it, even after that mild short coming I mentioned.  Just my opnion, I could be wrong


Quick and easy to read
	I liked this book because it was quick and easy to read, but also had more in-depth information in the back.  Each month, there is a chart of symptoms to let you know what is important to go to the ER, call your doc, or wait 24 hours to check.  There were great decision guides that presented both sides.  I like that I know a reputable hospital stands behind the book, as well.  I have 6 pregnancy books, but this one is my favorite


Hurricanes, other killer storms   reporting on these to the public
	Background
	I read Isaac's Storm, by Erik Larson, around 1998. Recently I had occasion to thumb through it again which has prompted this review. Larson covered three killer hurricanes, two killer blizzards and one flash flood.

Galveston and related Hurricanes
	My first impression was that anyone who had read this book, about a major hurricane, would never consider riding out such a storm. Larson painted a frightening story of brick homes and brick schools being torn apart by the surging waters.
Isaac Cline was the U. S. Weather Service Chief at Galveston at this time. This book gives much detail on the Galveston storm. This hit the island in September 1900, with very little warning. Indeed it was the arrogance of the U. S. Weather Service in general, and Issac Cline, their station chief for this area, in particular, that essentially preempted any warning. "Cline was one of the 'new men', a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms." First, the U. S. Weather Service refused to pay any attention to any inputs from Cuba. The U. S. Weather Service had men stationed in Cuba who "said the storm was nothing to worry about." Cuban's "own weather observers, who had pioneered hurricane detection, disagreed." Secondly the U. S. Weather Service insisted that, any storm warning had to come from the Washington office, with absolutely no exceptions. Finally Isaac had the conviction, and public position, that no hurricane could ever hit Galveston, as they would be steered north before reaching as far west as Galveston. With such a position Cline had no motivation to try and influence headquarters.
	Larson cited two older hurricanes in his book.
* September 16, 1875 - "The storm raised an immense dome of water and shoved it through Indianola, pushing the waters of the Gulf and Matagorda Bay inland until for 20 miles the back country prairie was an open sea." This storm took 176 lives.
* August 20, 1886 - This storm completed the destruction of Indianola. So many residents were killed that the survivors abandoned the town completely.
	In 1891, "in the wake of a tropical storm that Galveston weathered handily" Cline  was asked to appraise the city's vulnerability to extreme weather. Isaac wrote: "The opinion held by some - - - that Galveston at some time will be seriously damaged by some such disturbance is simply an absurd delusion." He made this statement in spite of the fact that the maximum elevation of Galveston Island, at that time, was an almost trivial 8.7 feet above sea level. He made it also in spite of the two killer hurricanes hitting and destroying the town of Indianola, about 150 miles southwest of Galveston on Matagorda Bay.
	Cline had a "model" of Gulf hurricanes, namely that no hurricane could ever hit Galveston, as they would be steered north before reaching as far west as Galveston. His "model" of these storms was clearly fatally flawed, or politically influenced, and it resulted in 6,000 to 10,000 deaths.
	Larson suggests there was a "scent of boosterism" behind this article, and that he was writing an article that Galveston promoters would be happy to see. Could this have been a harbinger of things to come? Could Cline have been the first government weather scientist to prostitute himself by writing favorable papers on the weather for his sponsors?
	Then the storm hit. Both the U. S. Weather Service and Isaac Cline looked very arrogant before the storm, and also in defending their overall performance, after the storm.

Other extreme weather events
	Larson also covered two blizzards and one flash flood in his book in this book.
* Hail and flash flood, August 1885 - "a severe downpour near San Angelo, including hailstones the size of ostrich eggs, killed hundreds of cattle and created a flash flood with An escarpment of water that Isaac estimated to be 15 or 20 feet high."
* Blizzard, November 1888 - this surprise blizzard destroyed 150 vessels off New England, and caused the death of 450.
* Blizzard, January 1899 - "this blizzard swept much of the South. Icebergs 10 feet high flowed down the Mississippi past New Orleans." This storm even hit Galveston and piled snow on it's beaches and drove water out of the Bay into the Gulf exposing portions of the bay bottom.

Conclusion
	Isaac's Storm shows the incredoble wrath of hurricanes, 105 to 125  years ago. It also depicts the incredible spectrum of extreme weather events, also of the same vintage. All in all a most interesting and rewarding book, one that I would recommend highly.


Another winner
	Terrier will not disappoint Tamora Pierce fans!  The narration is done through first person, told as a journal.  This is particularily challenging for authors to do well as it is easy to loose the flow of the story, and difficult to account for actions the narrator hasn't seen. But Tamora has performed her usual magic, snatching up the readers' interest from the first page and holding it until the last (I even read all of the notes pages and the bio).  Readers may find it difficult to put down.  Once again it will be hard to wait for the next boo


Another awesome thriller by Grisham.
	This is the third book I have read by Grisham, and so far I have really enjoyed each one. Grisham really knows how to write a good legal thriller. This book does not have any courtroom/court-case scenes, which I really enjoy, but it still kept my attention very well. Grisham gives you just enough "inside details" to keep you guessing without actually telling you the answer. For example: at one point, the clues seemed to point to Fletcher Coal being involved in the killings, but that was way off the mark in the end. This characteristic of Grisham's writings makes for a very enjoyable read.
One of my few complaints about this book is the sudden romance between Gray and Darby. They had hardly even met before they seemed to become attracted, then it VERY quickly blossomed into an open show of affection, even though at the same time, Darby was supposedly mourning for Thomas. Even so, that is probably the main thing that seems wrong about this book, and it does not detract from the overall quality very much at all.

Overall, this is a very captivating, page-turner book that really holds your attention. I highly recommend it, as well as Grisham's other books. So far, I have found Grisham to be an awesome writer of legal thrillers. I promise that you will not be disappointed. Read and enjoy


A GREAT BOOK IF A LOVED ONE IS DYING
	I bought this book because my mother is dying and I needed to know more. Kessler has a wonderful way of delivering this knowledge.  He is thorough in imparting this knowledge and does so with total compassion for the dying and the living.  I underscored many passages in this work and especially appreciated someone telling me (chapter 8) what can I expect in the way of physical signs as mom goes through the dying process. This book is very user friendly having a very readable quality. I strongly recommend it


Humorous...if you think about it
	This collection of stories and essays by David Sedaris definitely contains a lot of variety.  Overall, I found the way the stories were dripping with sarcasm delightful.  Some stories were a bit dry, but others such as "SantaLand Diaries" and "Diary of a Smoker" had me laughing out load.  However, the best stories I found were the ones such "Season's Greetings to our Friends and Family!!!" which I had to think about before fully understanding and laughing at their humor.  I would definitely like to read more of Sedaris' works, especially those based on his real-life experiences as, overall, I found the collection of essays in this book more entertaining than the stories


Very fun!
	Guys and Dolls is a fantastic musical, and this vocal selections book is a good representation of it. Unfortunately, some songs like Marry The Man  Today, My Time Of Day, Follow The Fold and The Oldest Established have been  left out from the book, but that is the price you pay, or rather don't pay,  when you don't buy the full vocal score. However, this book will satisfy  fans of the show, complete with pictures from the original 1950 Broadway  production, the 1955 film, and the New 1992 Broadway Revival. Definately,  this book is a good buy


Left behind series picks up again after a lull
	Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Nicolae Carpathia continues his reign of terror over the world, destroying any who dare to oppose him. Followers of Carpathianism suffer one indignity after another with their water supply being turned to blood and their bodies breaking out in hideous boils and sores.

Angels of God appear to believers all over the world to encourage them and keep their faith strong. The tribulation Force continues to resist Carpathia as they prepare for what is expected to come... the ultimate desecration of the Church by the false god.

This story started to pick up again after the two previous books failed to keep this reviewer's interest, who was glad to discover that continued determination to read the whole series was worth it. There are more examples in this installment of what attracted millions to the Left Behind series.

Characters continue along the lines drawn for them by their personalities, with readers taking pleasure in experiencing the continued adventures along with the Trib Force and Tsion Ben Judah. However, be forewarned, the culmination of certain characters' individual stories will make readers sit up and shout "What the heck was that?" or "THAT is what happens to them?"

The story continues with plenty of adventure for the players and the natural progression of their faith... or lack thereof. Desecration will captivate readers enough to make them hold on to find out what will happen next.

? Kelley A. Hartsell, January 2006. All rights reserved


Marvelous Story for WWII Navy History
	The author brought more than the story of the battle to light.  He was able to give insight into the lives of the sailors and their thoughts during the battle


Another great Kinsey mystery.
	quot;I quot; is for I think you would like this book if you read it.  It was a little bit wordy at the beginnig but each page gets better than the one before.  You will be glad you got past the first few pages because it gets a lot more interesting as you go along.  And the ending of this book is really something else, it makes the whole book well worth reading.  I really liked the book and I think you will too


Absitively a Great Read
	You know that guy down the street who acts awful snake-like?  What about the cashier at Walmart who is catty?  And there are always people in our lives that could easily be one of many species of monkeys.  Neil Gaiman shows through fiction that there may be more to these strange characters in our lives than we realize.   In this novel, gods (which represent animals) roam the earth in the bodies of humans.  The main character is the clever, trouble-loving spider who interacts with other animal-gods in everyday human life.  This book, along with other science fiction books, has given me an appreciation of the creativity of the human imagination.

The strong point of this novel is the humor employed by Neil Gaiman.  On par with Douglas Adams, the author of Anasi Boys fills the pages with quirky, pop-culture laden humor.  The main character, Fat Charlie, I found much in common with.  His awkward moments with friends, family and everyone else reveal a social insecurity that many are familiar with.  The story, however, isn't anything special.  I like witches and animal-gods as much as the next guy, but the plot is uninteresting.  It is a rare book that combines wit with plot, and this is not one of those rare books.


Inspiring! and Classy!
	Wow..I LOVE this book! The recipes are creative and the presentations beautiful. I love the simplicity of each recipe, which give the warmth and richness of traditional old fashioned taste with a twist of the class  amp; sophistication of today's refined culinary experience!  Sara's food philosophy and the atmosphere she has created in her market has been my dream. I'm living it through her cookbook right now


nifty development environment
	The use of an Integrated Development Environment [IDE] for a user to learn a language in, and to then program within, is well known. Microsoft has made powerful IDEs for its languages. And the open source Eclipse can be used for Java. Along these lines, Ducasse offers his book. It teaches Smalltalk using the Squeak IDE.

The twist is that Squeak uses the visual metaphors of robots and robot factory, to convey the crucial concepts of objects/classes. As Ducasse explains, Squeak can be directed at an audience that is perhaps of high school age or even younger. So a clear visual feedback between example code and what the student sees then happen is vital, given her limited background and possibly limited attention span.

Squeak uses Smalltalk in part because that is a very minimalist language. If you come from C++, Java or C#, you may be struck by its simplicity, compared to the oodles of classes and notational intricacies of those languages. Which of course also makes it easier for a young student to learn Smalltalk or Squeak itself.

I wonder a little about the book itself, though. A motivated high school student could easily use it. But for some younger students? In that situation, it may well be that the book could be best directed at a teacher, who can then instruct from it


Title says it all
	A very straight forward book by Jim Otto. There is a price when one wants to achieve or aspire to achieve glory on the gridiron. Jim Otto is that person and he candidly tells us what he was willing to sacrifice to reach that plateau. For the Raider fan at heart, or a football fan in general, this is the book to read


Great as ever
	Skeleton Man is another success for Tony Hillerman.  The usual well-planned mystery to solve, and more about three of my favorite characters, Joe, Jim, and Bernie who appreciate the desert so much


The Creation of the Underclass
	In this fascinating collection of essays, Dr. Dalrymple proposes a compelling thesis. Over the last twenty-five years a new type of underclass has emerged in western societies, an underclass that uses the welfare system in all its forms, subsidised housing, free by-weekly pay checks, child support and free medical benefits. From a liberal political standpoint, this support for the nation's "have nots" is a compassionate gesture to take care of its own poor. One would logically assume that providing the poor with life's essentials would bring the crime rate down and provide incentive for these people to further their standing in society. In fact, as Dalrymple proposes, it has had an opposite effect: crime in his native England has skyrocketed; drug use is at an all time high and domestic violence is a wide spread common occurrence. Why? Liberal values not economics has created individuals that deny any responsibility for their own lives, it is always the rich, the government or societies institutions that is to blame, thus crime continues to rise while England's Welfare State has grown into an unwieldy Goliath.

Dalrymple has worked in numerous countries and has been an attending physician and psychiatric consultant in London's prisons for many years. Thus his thesis is not born from some abstract social theory about human behaviour. He has treated thousands of victims of domestic violence, consulted thousands of prisoners who have been incarcerated for petty crime to murder. The common thread that runs through all these cases is a pathological denial of responsibility for their own circumstances or conditions.

As Dalrymple explains:

"Like so many modern ills, the coarseness of spirit and behaviour grows out of ideas brewed up in the academy and among intellectuals - ideas that have seeped outward and are now having their practical effect on society. The relativism that has ruled the academy for many years has now come to rule the mind of the population." (P.85)

In other words, this post modern notion that there is no high and low art, no good and bad, no subtlety and crudeness, only relative perspectives; taking this further, our behaviour too is not individually determined, but society and its oppressive inequalities that make me who I am, and a biological predisposition which causes me to steal from the old lady next door, beat my wife beyond recognition and consume drugs and alcohol like there is no tomorrow. The trickling down of these academic theories, biological determinism, Marxism and the post modern theory that there are no levels of hierarchical values, only difference, has created an underclass of victims who believe they should get something for nothing and commit crime because society has created them as victims as self-determinism does not exist.

Dalrymple provides numerous real life examples from his practice working in a hospital in London. His writing style is straight forward, at times literary but never sentimental. The arguments in these essays are persuasive and push the reader to examine the underlying modern ideologies that have created and sustain a well provided for underclass of criminal "victims".


If you enjoy history and psychology together....
	This is a pretty good book.  However, I would have liked it better if the focus would have remained on the effect of Lincoln's depression on his life and that of his family rather than a psychological perspective


How not to murder your wife
	A fraudulent marine biologist, whose wife is about to expose his cover-up of phosphate pollution of the Florida Everglades, tries to kill her by throwing her overboard from a cruise ship.  Unknown to him she survives and haunts him to punish him.
It's a wonderfully comic page-turner, although the plot runs out of steam towards the end and the practical jokes played on the would-be murderer become repetitious. A few ends are left loose. It challenged comparison with the Florida novels of Elmore Leonard, such as "Maximum Bob" and "Stick" but it does not quite live up to the master. Some of the humor contrasting weird and wacky Floridians with stolid Upper Midwesterners seemed to derive from David Barry (and Euripides, Ovid and Tasso used the maiden-rescued -from-sea-monster gimmick).
I thought this was his best since "Striptease." The intervening ones have been too incoherently plotted and (although I'm a tree-hugging whale- lover myself) overloaded with environmentalist politics.  Incidentally, isn't releasing alien snake species into the wild an environmental no-no?


easy to read and entertaining - trust me
	I really don't understand all the negative reviews about this book.  I found it an easy to read pleasant mystery, with a main character in midlife turmoil I wanted to sympathize with.  J. A. Jance did an excellent job keeping the pace reasonably fast, while not losing the reader with extraneous characters.


Escellent
	In the month that I have been puting the teaching into practice,I have felt better like I haven't felt in eleven years. My weight is going down and my energy is increasing. I am getting a lot of compliments, and someone told me I look more like 31 than 51 which is my real age


Heartfelt Tale of Women in Rural China
	This is a simple, yet heartfelt and elegant tale of the lives and struggles of women in rural China of the 1920s and 1930s. The story centers on Pei, who as a young girl, is sold by her parents to work in a silk factory.  The story evolves as Pei befriends other women in the silk factory, participates in a strike for fair working conditions, reconnects with her family, loses loved ones, and escapes from advancing Japanese soldiers. The plot is succinct and the characters are interesting, varied, and believable, if perhaps lacking somewhat in psychological depth.  Socio-cultural aspects of life in 1920s-30s China are elegantly woven into the plot.  Themes of friendship, love, and courage are convincingly presented.  Overall, the book is a captivating read, and strongly recommended.


off the shelf just in time
	This thing sat on my shelf, half-read for the longest time.  Only the notice of the upcoming release this November of Pynchon's next got me motivated enough to dig into it again.  It's not that it isn't brilliant.  No one else around can dazzle you with so much wit and wonder.  The first encounter with the talking dog is as magical as anything you'll ever read.

And it's not like this is the only Pynchon novel that takes some effort to get into.  There are plenty of folks who have had to to take a couple cracks at V or Gravity's Rainbow before catching the wave.

But Mason and Dixon is a lot of work, if for no other reason than the effort it takes dealing with the mid-18th century prose style.  (Can you imagine the effort it took to produce it?)  John Barth's Sotweed Factor is  similar, and yet somehow infinitely more accessible (and highly recommended!).  Pynchon's gift for rapid exposition is not necessarily suited to the constraint on verbal glibness.  Especially in a work this voluminous.

And yet the darn thing is consistently challenging, if one has the patience and energy to put into it.  It seemed to me that the beginning and ending were the best parts, but this could very well have everything to do to the enthusiasm one brings to a new book, and the emotional satisfaction one gain's when reaching towards the conclusion.  One thing for sure, for once Pynchon truly has plotted out and delivers a conclusion worthy of the whole work, as opposed to suddenly rushing out a trap door and leaving the reader in a state of suspension (which of course is also one of the many delights of his first three novels).  This time one gets the sense that the author has a good deal of affection for his featured players.

This book is a great as you want it to be, if you're willing to work at it.  I'm just looking forward to the next one being a little more nimble.  (Meanwhile, I've got a couple months to see if I can make more of a dent into The Recognitions.