LOST fans, don't bother.  Choose "Watership Down" or other
	Fans of the ABC-TV show "LOST" will probably be buying "Our Mutual Friend" in droves after having seen Desmond keeping it to be the "last book [I] ever [read]".  Since I did not have to buy it, having purchased a full set of Dickens years ago, I immediately set out to read it.

What a disappointment it was!  Dickens wrote it on an installment basis publishing it in a magazine over a 19 month period.  One cannot avoid a sneaking suspicion while reading it that it is, just a bit, perhaps, 'padded'.  Any good editor could have tightened it up at least 200 pages.

Dickens' work is melodrama, but some of it is just more overwrought than is compatible with good art.  As Oscar Wilde said of 'The Old Curiosity Shop', "I simply cannot read of the death of Little Nell without laughing."  'OMF' goes quickly down to this level of bathos and remains there to the last sentence.

Even worse is the ending.  Some endings just can't help but feel contrived; and Dickens, having gotten a large number of his characters into drastic positions, pulls so many strange- colored rabbits out of his hat that the reader simply feels cheated.

All of this may seem rather harsh from someone who was willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for "The Complete Oxford Illustrated Dickens" but I assure you that my only concern is for you, gentle reader.  Unless you are possessed of adequate time to read the whole of Dickens' oeuvre or are required to read "Our Mutual Friend", I would, instead, direct you to Dickens' far superior works:  'David Copperfield', 'Oliver Twist', 'Pickwick Papers'.

If you are looking for 'LOST' reading material, I would refer you to 'Watership Down' (Excellent), 'The Stand' (by Stephen King, entertainment, not literature), 'The Dark Tower' series (by Stephen King, entertainment, not literature, and similar to 'Our Mutual Friend' possessed of a fatally flawed ending) or a review of philosophy like 'Locke, Rousseau and Hume'.

Namaste and Good Luck,
AKA Redemption Isle on TheFuselage.co


Sad Disappointment
	The title is a misrepresentation.  This is not a handbook for driving a Porsche quickly or professionally.  I bought this book because in 2 months I am going to drive my rear engined 993 on a F1 circuit.  I have no circuit experience, and cannot get any coaching or any circuit experience in the country I live in.  Since this is a rear engined car which I have little experience with I was particularly wanting some tips particular to rear engined cars.  There is nothing in the whole book which is particular to driving Porsches or rear engined cars.  The only reason I will not throw this book out is because it has some interesting 1960's and early 19970's Porsche racing pictures (poor quality black and white though).  Also to be fair there are some good racing stories. He is undoubtedly a very impressive driver having been successful at the highest levels in rallying and sports prototype endurance racing.  A better title would be "My Porsche Racing History".  If you want a book on fast driving I would highly recommend Ross Bentley's "Speed Secrets" in place of this book


A dissapointment
	When I picked up this book I had high expectations,seeing that it had received good reviews.It opened quite spectacularly as well, on a rather surreal note.But as I read on, I couldn't help wondering what the point was in this rather incoherent, rambling tale.The book seemed like a sloppy, haphazard collection of incidents that didn't make much sense or assist character development. The central character herself was unbelievable and I found it impossible to identify with her or understand her actions or even sympathise with her plights.It seems to me that the writer had tried too hard to create a hip,cutting edge story and the end product was strained and gimmicky. Some incidents were quite mirth-provoking, however,that's why I gave it two stars


Get to the point!
	This was another Pinker book I couldn't finish. If he was a taxi-driver he would take you from Brooklyn to New York via San Francisco. Sometimes even his asides have asides! Perhaps like pulp fiction writers he gets paid by the word


don't  waste your money!!
	While I very much enjoyed Miss Wearstler's first book, I found Domicilium Decoratus to be borderline obnoxious. Rather than show great decorating, the book focused mainly on close up shots of objects in her house that took up the whole page.In addition, I feel that as the viewer of the book I do not need to see fifteen entire  pages of Miss Wearstler dressed in ball gowns pretending to be domestic


Difficult Read
	I am an avid reader, and I will finish a book no matter how difficult it is, or how boring it is, and I couldn't finish this one. It was so dry - and I couldn't connect with any of the characters. I was really disappointed


I dont like this book
	I want to make a short comment here:
1) This book is quite confusing. It mixed up the real story with the make up one.
2) Saying that Ramanujun thought Goldbach Conjecture is wrong was a huge mistake. Everyone believe that Goldbach Conjecture is true. And Ramanujun is a real genius. I cannot stand this make up part


Disappointing
	The plot is good but there are about 200 pages too many.  Why a full chapter to tell us what the protagonists are thinking about the attach case, when we already know it was not in the car and we could tell them where it is? We know where the precious document is : another useless quest. People are murdered by the half dozen, the characters are outrageous, most of the time improbable, and I felt the semi-erotic swimming episode totally stupid, not to mention the girl apologizing constantly about it.
I have read much better books than that. Sorry..


There's a sucker born every minute
	This book is an excellent example of how creationists approach science: write a book with a lot of bafflegab that sounds scientific but is actually devoid of any meaningful content, and then finish up by concluding that evolution is impossible. What a bunch of baloney.

First of all, evolution, in the sense of "common descent," is not impossible. Even ID-iot superstars Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, and Jonathan Wells have admitted as much. (See a summary of their recent testimony in the Kansas biology curriculum hearings in the evolution/creationism forum at the West Virginia Gazette. (wvgazettemail) (put "/forums" after com) So any ID-iot who thinks all that bafflegab about irreducible complexity (IC) and the nonsense in this film is the death knell of evolution is simply ignorant.  Man evolved from non-human ancestors. Get over it.

Thaxton in particular ought to read that summary, since he himself was one of the witnesses and looked particularly ID-iotic.

In any case, the empirical data discussed in this book is indeed nothing but bafflegab. Talking about the allegedly empirical foundation for intelligent design makes it sound deliciously scientific, especially to poorly educated ID-iots, who generally are clueless about real science; but even if the empirical data is accurate, it's nothing but a facade, because it has nothing to do with the book's main conclusion.

For example, imagine your neighbor told you that his dog could play Beethoven concertos on the piano. Skeptical, you ask for proof. "Simple," your neighbor replies. "See, here's my dog, and there's my piano." Only a moron would accept that as "proof," and yet ID-iot Christians are more than happy to accept exactly that kind of "proof" from ID-iotic films like this.

The problem with your neighbor's "proof" is that it proves only the existence of the dog and the existence of the piano.  Neither of those issues, however, was the real cause of your skepticism, so the "proof" was entirely meaningless. The critical issue, of course, was not the mere existence of the dog and the piano, but rather the ability of the dog to play the piano, and your neighbor's "proof" was completely silent on that issue. Again, only a moron would accept evidence of mere existence as proof of piano-playing ability.

In this book, there's a lot of talk about how complex certain biological systems are.  That is nothing but meaningless bafflegab, because the mere existence of complex systems is not a disputed issue. The disputed issue is how those systems came into being, and on that issue the book's "evidence" is completely silent.

This book was designed to fool poorly educated, easily impressed ID-iots.  Judging from the five-star reviews, it seems to have succeeded.  Well, there's a sucker born every minute, and apparently a lot of them are found in evangelical churches and seminaries.  In one of the very first evolution debates, Thomas Huxley accused Bishop Wilberforce of using his intellectual and oratorical gifts to mislead and bamboozle people.  Things haven't changed much since then.

Instead of meaningful evidence, this book substitutes a God-of-the-gaps argument. "Gee, look how complex it is. It must have been created by an intelligent designer. Maybe, just maybe, it was God. Wink, wink."

God-of-the-gaps arguments are dumb. Only ignorant suckers are taken in by them. So if any of those folks who wrote five-star reviews for this book would like to buy a nice bridge in Brooklyn or a dog who can play Beethoven concertos on the piano, please give me a call.  I'll be happy to provide evidence!


Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets - Review
	An elf appearing to Harry Potter warned him not to return for a second year to the school of sorcery. The Chamber of Secrets, he said, had been opened and a  monster is lurking. Harry goes anyway and is the only one who can hear the monster, challenge it and save students who have been "petrified" by the monster. Age group interest: early teen. I wanted to see what all the rave was about. Lots of action, not much morale.

Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope, South State Street Journal


An Example of Nativist Bigotry
	A writer for the Irish Echo said this book should have been titled "The Protocols of the Elders of Erin."  It was written around the time Al Smith was running for president and appealed to the nativist, anti-Catholic prejudices of upstate New York and America at that time.  While there really were gangs in that era, most of New York's immigrants were busy building hospitals and schools like St. Vincent's, Fordham, St. John's, Manhattan and Manhattanville.  The vast majority of the city's population including its immigrants didn't riot in 1863.  In fact New York City's 200,000 soldiers and sailors, more than half of whom were immigrants, won over 100+ Medals of Honor during America's Civil War.

It's a tribute to the persistence of prejudice that this book isn't more widely recognized as the nasty practical joke that it is


Awful
	I find it very difficult to get through half of this book. I have put it down and picked it up more times than I care to mention. It is a waste of time. Awful book..


No redeeming features
	This is a very bad book. It is poorly written, the characters are caricatures in misery, and it is almost impossible to develop any empathy for them except for the older daughter, who suffers in silence after the devastating, and, to her, mysterious, death of her mother. Her father fails in both his calling to ministry and his responsiblities to protect his daughter. He is so distant that he believes what teachers tells him about his child's behavior, which is a perfectly legitimate childhood grief response, rather than the bad behavior that others choose to label her with indifference to her deep pain and confusion. He fails in his responsibilities to his parishoners by not realizing that he himself is mired in grief and needs a break. I couldn't finish this. It is drivel


disappointing :(
	I was looking forward to reading this book, first in a series. Sadly, I gave up on it about 100 pages in. I felt there was so MUCH mundane writing and hardly any dialog between not only the two main characters but between any characters at all. It just feels completely unemotional and without any sort of feeling-there is NOTHING exciting about this book. The heroine is naive, and not in a good way. I hope the others in this series are better. 1.5 stars


Mixed Review
	This book provides a good overview of blacks (slave and free) in New York. It's a very good reference (encyclopedic) book.

My main problem with it is that Leslie M. Harris, the author, relies heavily (if not entirely) on secondary sources. The book, then, is nothing more than a patchwork of various other more scholarly works. Hence, finding the actual primary source (i.e. court decision, council minutes, etc) proves extremely difficult.

I do not recommend this book for advanced students. If, however, you're interested in an easy read and don't care about sources, this is the book for you


Thank you, but no, thanks
	quot;I have received your new book against the human race, and thank you for it. Never was such cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid. One longs, in reading your book, to walk on all fours. But as I have lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel unhappily the impossibility of resuming it. Nor can I embark in search of the savages of Canada, because the maladies to which I am condemned render a European surgeon necessary to me; because war is going on in those regions; and because the example of our actions has made the savages nearly as bad as ourselves. quot; Voltaire (1755


Nothing doing
	I found stale recounting of very well-known facts about 20th century technologies and their economics, with no insights.  Since it covers the gamut from plastics to jet engines to microprocessors, and it's only 200  pages in a fairly large typeface, I wasn't expecting historical depth.  But  I was expecting at least one fresh idea.  I bought it on the strength of a  much earlier book by Nathan Rosenberg (about technology in the economy of  the 19th century).  I was disappointed.  I get the feeling the book is  intended as a brief survey for people who just came down in the last shower  -- college freshmen born in the 1980s.  I'll bet they find it kinda stodgy


One of the all-time worst books I've read..
	This book is simply horrible. Repetitive dialogue and situations. Characters that just make you groan and roll your eyes.

I've read two by this author and she's just awful. Both books used the same lines over and over again. The stories chased their tails in circles half the time. Dull, repetitive and annoying.


disappointing
	OK, i can't deny it, this book was well written. But what made me throw up is the age differance, i mean what the hell! how can Tana like someone who's 30 years older than her? that's aweful! this is what i really hate  about Dan's books, she hooks someone who's 20 with some1 who's 35. i don't  find that interesting. all i can say about full circle is that it's good  but so depressing. it made me cry( which proves that Danielle is a good  writer) don't read this book if you are not ready to get depressed


I liked her at the start, but wanted to slap Julia by the end!
	I have never actually thrown a book across the room in frustration - and I love books, so this is drastic!  Spoilers ahead - please don't read on if you haven't read the book.  I managed to (somehow) get through the first book, 'Wideacre', which I disliked - whilst I adore the rest of Gregory's novels, so this was hard for me - and grit my teeth and tried to read this book, the sequel as I'd bought it and it looked more promising.  It was 'marginally better' as one reader put it, than the first, but a very depressing and frustrating book indeed.

I was getting very angry and frustrated after the second half of the book - as many other readers have highlighted, Julia's consistent inability to stand up to Richard made it impossible for me to like her anymore.  I quite honestly wanted to slap her to wake her up from that dreamy state she was in!  Because I wanted so much for Julia to be with James - who I liked a great deal.  I was so depressed after everything went wrong and she didn't marry him... ah, because I was expecting the usually very clever Ms Gregory to surprise me and have a twist at the end and say, aha!  She does get her true love in the end and she and Ralph get rid of Richard and although it's not happily ever after she learns to grow a backbone and be the very first female heir to Wideacre.

The rape scene with Julia and Richard was very violent and far too detailed and I think it may be difficult to stomach for anyone who has ever been in an abusive situation like that, in fact, for anyone at all.  I don't want to get into the tricky area of abortion too much, but I really did feel strongly that Julia should have gone to Ralph for help when she concieved the child with Richard.  This was a child of incest and rape - and she knew in her heart there should be no heir for Wideacre - they were all simply too inbred and it needed to end somewhere for nothing was going right.  Clean slate, so to speak.  Yet she gives the child away - then in her final letter asks James to find the child?!  What?!  And I was expecting perhaps a deformed child, after all this inbreeding (I mean this child is the product of parents who are brother and sister AND grandparents who are brother and sister!!!) but she was perfect and beautiful.  I was hoping the gypsies would keep her and she'd never be found again.. but alas, the Lacey madness will live on...

The perfect end to this book would have been a nice twist.  Gregory could have made her very good point about inheritance rights and the lack of power women of Beatrice and Julia's era had by Richard being killed by Ralph, then Julia inheriting the land - baby Sarah is adopted out to the gypsies and never seen again and Julia either lives as a widow and runs the land or (this would have been lovely - I bet all the girls have sighed over James a little, didn't you?  he was a little like the handsome romantic leads in Austen's books) James forgave her - for they had both made mistakes and Julia's was not intentional nor her fault (I was practically screaming at her that it wasn't her fault - and she gets it in the end, when it's too late!) and they marry and have 'normal' children - or perhaps none, they just learn from their mistakes and respect each other, and make a fresh start for Wideacre.

There were so many allies that Julia had - she was a sweet girl and I liked her - I wish that I could have shaken her though, I got so mad.  So many people in the village offered their help - this trap she was caught in with Richard could have been avoided - ahhh... SO frustrating.  I will not be reading the third book in the series.  I shall go back to reading Gregory's more historic novels (A Constant Princess is one I haven't read yet and it sounds excellent).  I wouldn't recommend this one


Coma This Is Not
	Chromosome 6 has a great premise: what happens if medical technology accelerates to the point that scientists can create genetic doubles for people; doubles who serve as living organ reservoirs for possible future organ transplant needs-a sort of biological insurance policy? How much would people pay for this service? How far would they go to protect it? What are the moral implications?

Robin Cook comes full circle, returning to the themes of his 1970s novel, Coma. Coma is the novel that first made us aware of the dangers of corporate medicine and greed; of the subtle but relentless destruction of the long-standing relationships patients had with doctors, and the dignity those relationship once preserved. Now, a quarter century later, Robin Cook is shown to have been eerily prescient as technology has caught up to his nightmare.

Chromosome 6 is a very believable scenario of a technology designed with the best of intentions being corrupted for the sake of profit. In this novel, there is mystery and murder; medical sleuthing and exotic, international sets. There are a host of characters whose paths will intersect at some point-the set up is brilliant and we read with eager anticipation-but...this novel is so poorly written that I cannot believe it has Robin Cook's name on it. Though not high literature, Robin Cook's novels have always been tight and suspenseful, with believable characters and settings that seemed real. The characters in Chromosome 6 are as flat as road kill, the action as watered down as a glass of coke left in the sun until all of the ice has melted. Turn a page and the story just ends...what? That's it? Are you kidding? Did Robin Cook really write this? I don't think so.


lousy book with a wishful thinking
	after get shorty, e.l. might just wish shamelessly that his next book with those same chili palmer characters might hit the goldmine and pay dirt and being bought up by the dumb hollywood producers and made into another movie again, with this single-minded purpose focused, e.l. wrote this totally unnecessary sequel to get shorty. and he was right again, it was bought and made into a movie again, but pathetically, a horrible one compared to get shorty. the novel itself was also a complete failure with so many obvious evidences that e.l. indeed wrote it in a way for another movie in mind. i simply failed to find there's any interest in reading this going nowhere story. it just like reading a double imaged e.l. personified in chili palmer and lobbying so hard to make this novel into a movie, with all the bore-to-death script, dialogue readymade for hollywood to grap. how could you imagine that those winnos in los angeles, especially those who in the hiphop music biz would watch 'charlie rose' and would have known and recognized chili palmer as the producer of 'get shorty'? you think those people would faithfully turned on their tv and channel surfed to pbs to watch 'charlie rose'? and at every corner of los angeles, every table in any restaurant, almost everyone would recognize 'chili palmer'? and you have to ask yourself: since when people would recognize a behind-the-screen movie producer, even a director in person? even they stand in front of you and claim themselves they are? yeah, maybe elmore leonard would watch 'charlie rose' regularly? and you think that charlie rose would interview a notorious shylock in his show? give me a break! this book, from the 1st page to the last was an absolutely no-brainer, so shallow and so superficious! just a total unnecessary and unwanted cash-in


Dreaming Water
	Gail's writing is again wonderful in this in book, but I found the book disappointing due to a lack of closure. I felt the book led you up to a particular point in the life of the character's and then left you wondering in the end what the message was meant to be. I almost felt as if the writer wasn't brave enough enough to tell you the ending to a tragic, yet hopeful story. I can only compare this book to the Samurai's Garden since I haven't read a third book by this author yet, and I loved the Samari's Garden! So I was surprised that this book lacked closure at the end. I am not sorry that I read this book due to the fact that I enjoy the author's style of writing


An historical account
	I would not neccessarily call this book "Christian".  It is more of an historical account, Bible as literature type of book.   It does make you think about different aspects of Jesus life, but most of that is speculation or perception.    Yancey leaves the reader hopeless at the end.


good plot but bad details
	This book started out good but went downhill quickly because of poor research and virtually NO understanding of computer systems by the author. I don't mind authors skipping over technical details of computer systems to keep the plot moving, but if the author decides to provide detailed technical descriptions of encrytion codes, firewalls and hacking techniques, those details must be fairly correct. In this case, the technical details were so wildly implausible that I finally had to stop reading. The part where hackers were gradually forcing their way through a firewall to access NSA data were particularly difficult to read without becoming distracted by the absurd details. The NSA almost certainly doesn't have computers with highly classified data connected to the internet (through any combination of firewalls) but if they did, they could simply disconnect the internet connection if they were being hacked.
Besides all that that, the characters were cliched and not well developed.
This is all too bad, because the plot was interesting and I would have kept reading if the technical details were either accurate or just avoide


Germaine  Greer  -  Elitist Poppycock
	This is one of the worst books ever, don't buy it


Very disappointing!
	I am a huge Clyde Edgerton fan, and I'm sorry to say I was VERY disappointed with this book.  It just never seemed to get off the ground.  I was expecting the type of story that I fell in love with in *Raney* and *Walking Across Egypt* (both of which left me in tears, I laughed so hard). If you're looking for Listre, you're not going to find it in this book  Oh well, I guess I'll wait on his next one..


Please, Stop Putting Me To Sleep!
	I had to read this book for a diversity class. Sennett uses language and sentence construction that is overly ostentatious and difficult to understand. Inside this fat book is a very thin book trying to get out. He needed a good editor.


copying David and Jonathan`s example
	I have sent away for a book called "Lord Given Lovers:the Holy Union of David   Jonathan" as I find the subject very interesting in this day of same sex marriages, now that David has been used in this subject as married to Jonathan, in the days when the Scibes who wrote the law against such things, I would like to know why David and Jonathan were not stoned to death according to that same law, and if David did such a thing, I would believe that all the Jews then would have did so to, copying David and Jonathan`s example


Flew has rejected these arguments himself.
	It has been said time and again that experience is the best teacher.  Antony Flew, the world's number one atheist (at least with respect to the rare ability to argue his point without using ad hominem arguments) has recanted his atheism.

Philosophically, Flew was a rationalist.  Having accepted the empirical evidence of intelligent design in nature, he was able to liberate himself from the tunnel vision of rationalism and hence from the shackles of irrational atheism.

Flew himself would give this book one star.  So, I don't think it ungracious to do the same


Not for everyone
	If you are going to Walt Disney World Resort for the first time and want to keep some mystery until you actually ride the attractions, then this book may not be for you.  Some of the descriptions for the various attractions go step-by-step through them, including plot points in 3D movies and so on. The book also leaves a lot out in other areas, such as dining (little coverage), getting around Walt Disney World, and off-site hotels and dining.

For me, the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (by Bob Sehlinger) was much better at giving me the info I needed without giving away any details as to the surprises on the rides. That is, it told me what might frighten a youngster, what might bore an adult, and so on, but it didn't say specifically what would happen at every stage of any of the attractions. Just generalizations about the ride, then specific warnings for different types of people.

The only things Birnbaum offers that the Unofficial Guide doesn't are pictures and info on some of the ancillary activities such as parasailing. If you have an Internet connection, you don't need the pictures.  And as for the ancillary activities as well as nice maps, you can't beat the Passporter book on Disney World.

So, for me, the Unofficial Guide plus the Passporter yields the best trip planning library for Walt Disney World.  If you like, you can also pick up the EZ-Guide, as it also has some interesting maps and info.

As for Birnbaum's, it really doesn't have anything to offer.  I wouldn't recommend against buying it, though, except for the "let me tell you the plot and ending to the movie before you go" mentality. I hate spoilers, and wish someone had warned me before I started reading this book


Hardcore Jargon on Intersectional Group
	For decades, African-American studies scholars have left issues facing non-heterosexuals to the side.  For years, "queer" scholars have left concerns of people of color to the side.  This anthology tries to address that void.  It goes a long way in proving that black, gay academics can be just a rigorous and hardcore as white gay ones or straight black ones.  The anthology has representative numbers of men and women.  In some ways, it's a Who's Who of Black Gay Academia, including works from Cathy Cohen, Dwight McBride, and Jewelle Gomez.

Still, there is much about this book that frustrated me.  A few years ago, a study was done of black LGBTs and most respondents said they hated the term "queer," yet the academics here champion it.  Really, if "queer" is supposed to represent the four groups equally, then this book was quite lacking in its coverage of bisexuals and the transgendered.  This is surprising given famous black bisexual writers such as Alice Walker, Stuart Hall, and June Jordan.  Often "people of color" is used when only blacks are brought up; Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans barely come up in this book at all.

James Baldwin is brought up often here.  I understand that.  His writings were rigorous and often dealt with racial and sexual issues simultaneously.  Still, I kept thinking about how bell hooks once wrote that Toni Morrison gets a lot of attention when publishers won't print the works of black women that are equally as sophisticated.  James Baldwin deserves his crown in black, gay letters, but I'm concerned about him being the only one to get to wear a crown.  Several books have been printed about the many non-hetero members of the Harlem Renaissance, yet that group hardly comes up here.  James is getting a bit played out and the authors here are not helping change that tendency.

Finally, I had beef with many of the essays.  Charles Nero has great points but his essay is really two works glued together.  Can anyone really say the whiteness of New Orleans' "gay ghetto" is due to "Chasing Amy" or "Six Feet Under"?  One author could have written quickly about how he supported a gay, feminine student when that student was condemned by a masculine, heterosexual one.  Instead, he went on and on in unnecessary jargon and babble.  Kara Keeling's essay was 90% theory and 10% a discussion of Dunye's "Watermelon Woman."  Why bother to bring up the film if you're barely going to discuss it?

I wasn't really feelin' this text, but that's not to say it didn't have great aims


Good research or ...
	The Case for Marriage makes arguments supportive of Pres. Bush's policies on marriage. However, Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post (1/26/5) reports that Maggie Gallagher was paid over $40,000 by the Bush Administration to write columns and a "private" report supporting its $300 million HHS marriage initiative.

Mr. Kurtz reports that Ms. Gallagher filed a column apologizing to her readers, writing "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it." She also states she was "aware vaguely" that her work was federally funded. It must be vaguely hard to remember being paid $40,000. Bad memory, vagueness, national column: what will we say to the children?

I wonder who paid Ms. Gallagher to write this book


The Incredible So-Whatness of Being
	I was lured into reading Under the Volcano after seeing its inclusion on the Modern Library's One Hundred Best of the 20th Century and after reading a reviewer compare it to James Joyce (I am an amateur Joycean who tries to read Ulysess, Portrait of the Artist, and Dubliners at least annually).  Lowry has nothing that likens him to Joyce.  This book is leaden and tedious.  I forced myself to finish it because I hate to start a  book and not finish it.  But it was no labor of love.  It was simply a labor.


This is what happens when someone reaches beyond their capacity
	I think the Linda Howard who wrote White Lies, Sarah's Child, Duncan's Bride, MacKenzies Mountain, Diamond Bay,etc. is one of the most talented current romance writers.
 Unfortunately, when she gave up the genre romances and turned to the "big Time", her writing started to decline. She is clearly in over her head now.  What a shame she couldn't stick to a format in which she excelled and warmed the hearts of millions of readers.
  This just goes to show that one should figure out where one excels and stick to it. This is pure "Peter Principle" in action.
Too bad


This is disturbing..
	That so many people gave this book five stars really concerns me. Luckily, I bought this book used, otherwise I might be kicking myself for paying full price. Between her utterly uninspired "devotional dances" to things such as sex, wisdom, and the "Sticky One" (a term she made up for the astral body), and her constant blabber about masturbation and rubbing your juices all over everything to "anoint" it, I was unimpressed, to say the least. However, driving on a trip a friend and I got a lot of laughs out of flipping through this book. It's very, very amusing if you don't take it seriously. The thing that makes me sad is that she's just using her sexuality to sell a feel good waste of paper with absolutely no depth. There's nothing evolutionary about it, unless you consider being a wanton, idiotic freak "evolutionary". If this is what humanity is evolving into, I am frightend


Hopefully This Series Will Improve!
	Unlike Cussler's other series, I found this first story of the "Oregon Files" slow going at first and rather confusing. There are just too many things going on (no problem, I suppose, for multi-taskers!) and way too many characters to keep track of. Also, there's little to no character development even of "Mr. Chairman", Juan Cabrillo. The fact that he and his companions are mercenaries (with a penchant for good deeds that pay well) doesn't compare favorably with the NUMA heroes. However, the plots were intriguing and getting the golden budda out of the country was exciting and more like the roller coaster rides I expect from Mr. Cussler and co-writers. I look forward to the subsequent Oregon Files with high hopes.


I think contracts are not very strong tool
	I read this book and I think presented material is not practical in commercial applications. In my opinion better solution is writting tests and using aspects to integrate applications. I know this is something different from contracts, by I think contracts are to complex, hard to maintain and lacks of support for multithreaded problems.

For me another problem with contracts is problem in describing complex constraint that exists in problem domain. For example how to describe that objects must be cloned, not passed by reference or how to check that objects holded by readonly list not change their state during operations on list?

Regards,
Marci


Worst book in the series, including the prequels.
	Some may disagree, and in fact, many have asked me why I disliked this one so much; so, here is why:

- scratch 'plotting'... by this point in the story, 'plodding' is more accurate.

- caracatures over characters. A staple of the series, 2d characters; but by this point, when new characters keep getting introduced this late in the story, it becomes an annoyance, a drag and overkill.

- virtually zero gain.
the entire first half of the book is a rescue mission for a minor character and the mission, once accomplished (or not) is forgotten by the end of the book. The third fourth of the book finally starts to swing thigns back to the original LB premise of end times doom and gloom thanks to the horrific judgments; sadly, it's very boring and slow. However...

-... the book doesn't get good until the last fourth.
And that, my friends, is not good for the overall quality of this entry in the series.

By this point, it's obvious that the authors were REALLY stretching it. However, as I said, things got really good in the last few chapters and led into 'Armageddon', one of the best books in the series. How ironic.

Thumbs way down for Left Behind: The Remnant. It's sad when the best part of the book is a scene involving the antichrist sunbathing on a rooftop.


entirely inaccurate ...
	... and the maps are worthless.

Two examples of the many glaring inaccuracies contained in this book:
1) Rick claims you can pick up a bus map in any tourist information kiosk.  The following is an actual transcript of our conversation with the tourist info lady:
us: buon giorno.  do you speak english?
info lady: of course.
us: we'd like to go to Vatican city.  may we have a bus map please?
info lady: a bus map? for Roma?
us: um, yes.
info lady: no such thing exists.

2) Rick claims you can see everything you want to see in the Vatican in one morning: St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel - everything. Um, Rick? Have you ever BEEN there? Did you notice the 40,000 other people there all trying to get in to the same things? Did you notice the priceless and beautiful works of art on practically every surface?  Did it occur to you that people might, perhaps, want to stop and admire a large number of them? Light a candle? Say a prayer? Some of us, also, have to behind a crowd of 35 elderly Germans to look at Michaelangelo's Pieta, and everything else.

Methinks ol' Rick either spends an average of 15 minutes apiece on the most astonishing and pleasurable spots in Rome, or is comfortable elbowing foreign senior citizens in the ribs


Don't waste your money
	This book is not very helpful and confusing to use. A lot of the information it provides is information you can read on the food labels IF you buy those brands.


Capable but strange
	Gives many examples of Weapons, most of which are useful.
Gives no/few examples of Rings/Armours/Rods/Staffs/Shields

Doesn't really think out a lot of the bonuses, also I question a lot of the penalties one has to take to use a Legacy weapon. About the only table worth taking is 4-1, or 4-2. Sure its a minus three to your saves, and a minus 2 to your attack power, and a whole SLEW of HP. The rest of them are so painful they aren't worth taking.

Also all the caster "Tables" the ones your suppost to use if your a caster but losing caster levels and spell slots left and right doesn't make any sense. No matter what feats and wizardry skills its not worth it. Those could have been more thought out.

Also I question the fact that in some cases the lowest tables, A, D, and G. Seem to be a lot better than the B, E and H tables just from the way they interact with things. I do fully agree that the top end capability you can add to your Legacy item is quite powerful, the I table is filled with many useful things the you wish you could have picked two of them. What I wish/want was if they're was some way to trade lower level slots to get you the capacity to get two I table skills. Also some way to get either more or less slots if you take a less dangerous or more dangerous tables of the legacy grid.

The rules for weapons and fighters/barbarians/paladins/rangers. Are very well thought out and are very powerful. Yet for anyone other class they need heavy modification to be workable. In a Caster heavy campaign like the one I run and participate in its a very low value book


The only book I've wanted to throw away
	It's not that the actual story is nonsense but they guy has included so much 'fluff' that you get board waiting on a paragraph with real content.  This book was so frustrating, I really wish I had saved myself the bother of reading it


Surprisingly hyped
	This book is mostly hype. The writing is not that great. Japan must be really dying out if the country of some of the world's great literary giants can award such a prize for such weak work. However the book has erotic energy and is fresh in that way. If you are a serious reader skip this book.


its over guys
	This is a kids book. First few had my attention but since then its getting worse with each book.


Not that funny
	I keep reading and listening to his books because everyone says how good they are, but I have never found this to be so.  He always strikes me as someone who potters around never really interacting with people who then goes home and writes about it.  He seems more at home studying statistics (which he includes everywhere) and drawing his own facile conclusions from these statistics.  I always imagine him stuck in his room reading his newspaper, surfing the net and smugly summing up his brief interactions with people in the real world.  All his travel books are equally awful as he never really interacts with anyone - just comments on them later.  Still lots of people think he is grea


Disappointing
	Sorry guys, I looked forward to working on recipes from this cookbook due to the very enthusiastic reception it received from the media.  The graphics of the book are truly beautiful.  The recipes however, hmmm,  try again.  I followed a simple recipe for Apple Crisp and got a bad result.  I now go to respected standard cookbooks for my Apple Crisp recipe and the old family favorite always turns out great.  Really people, the recipes are NOT the stuff of greatness.  Graphics? Great. Photography? Great?  Recipes? You have got to be kidding


Escaping the Massive Yawn
	Imagine, just as I was getting bored with this book, through an odd act of  contingence its binding literally fell apart in my hands.  A  Loki-Eshu-hermetic encounter?  What a thankful rescue.  Rambling and  indulgent, such repetition would be better kept to a long essay rather than  a full book.  A trickster's story, indeed


The Old Feint and Switch
	So you pick up this book and read on the back cover the exciting quote about Hemingway's ghost and you're ready to drop some cash, right?  Guess what--there's zero information about the Hemingway haunting in this book!  In addition, old Ataulfo of Madrid has less words wasted on him than an asthmatic's version of Handel's Halleluja Chorus.  Instead, what's offered here is a rehash of old stories (and old theories about what ghosts could be) with insipid, comic book illustrations.  Why this is called a  quot;field guide quot; with its connotation of an exhaustive reference to every kind of manifestation of a particular phenomenon--be it birds, plants, or mushrooms--is yet another part of the mystery of why this book exists.  If you're a serious researcher of this subject, then pass this book up and seek Hem's fetch elsewhere


Filth, Rot, and Decay
	Creepiest book ever.

How can I describe it? It's like waking from fevered dreams to find yourself in a bathtub filled with molasses and blood, and flies crawling in and out of your eyes, your nose, the corners of your mouth. It is unpleasant.

I don't know, I hate to be the philistine, and I suppose it's a good thing that these books exist, for other people, but for me? I don't want to live in such ugliness


Not age appropriate
	Leaving the racism issue aside, this is not a book for small children. Even if everything turns out OK in the end, I'm not prepared to expose my children to issues of capital punishment and the drowning death of a small boy. Small children forget the ending and focus on the scary parts in between. Perhaps I'm a softie, but let's allow them to be children and not worry about being wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to death by beheading. Just because it's a classic doesn't make it appropriate reading.


Forget the racism argument....what about the drownings, executions, burnings at the stake, suffocations.....
	Racism is not the problem with this book - sure...5 Chinese brothers look alike -maybe they look alike because they are brothers, not because they are Chinese.  I bought this book because generally I love the books written in earlier times - they have a quaintness about their stories and illustrations that can transport you and your child to another time.  This book does have engaging illustrations.  What I find disturbing is the fact that this is a book for children yet:

(1)	a little boy drowns, never to be seen again
(2)	one brother is tried, arrested and sentenced to have his head cut off
(3)	the people of the village assemble in the village to witness the execution where the "executioner took his sword and struck a mighty blow"
(4)	the next brother was sentenced to be drowned and was thrown overboard from a boat
(5)	the next brother is sentenced to be burned alive - he was tied up to a stake and set fire
(6)	the next brother is sentenced to be suffocated - he's shovelled into an oven

This is no more appropriate for a child (or adult for that matter) in 1936 than it is in 2005.  Now, a lot of you are probably thinking I'm one of those mothers who just needs to get a sense of humour and lighten up.  I'm not...I love the Giving Tree, and can put naughty Eloise (and the smoking nanny) in context, as I can many other books that polarise readers.  I really wanted to like this book but trust me....if you buy it, you will have lots of uncomfortable explaining to do to a young child.  An eight year old may be able to put it in context, but there is no way you should read this to a four year old.   If you want a great book written in the 1930s, buy Ferdinand the Bull instead.  It's a fantastic book.


Disappointing
	Unfotrunately Shantaram did not grab my imagination at all.  Nor did I find it emotionally satisfying.  I realize Shataram is meant to be a kind of Bollywood story - over the top, flowery, cliched etc. but the Bollywood movies I've seen have been engaging and strangely satisfying, despite their soppyness etc.  Shantaram was not engaging because the poor writing and shallow characters spoil the story.


YAWN..........
	First I have to admit, I only read 150 pages of this book.  That was all I could possibly stand.  Life is just too short to waste on a book you don't enjoy reading.

Ballas, our main character, is a drunk and a scoundrel.  One is not sure whether they should root for or against him.  He is a vagrant, thief, and all around not so nice guy.  He steals a mysteriously beautiful gemstone, which sets into motion something........I got too bored to stick around and find out what.

  The first 150 pages are filled with Ballas being beaten within an inch of his life, coming to, healing enough to move on, only to be beaten within an inch of his life again.   ok, we get it, let's get on with the story.  I just got too bored to stay with this one folks.  Maybe it got better, but to me, if an author can't write well enough to grab and maintain my attention, their book isn't worth my time.  There are too many great books out there.  Read this one at your own risk, if you can stay awake through it, that is


Some merit, but overall flawed
	By arguing that human rights comes from some vague concept of "dignity" and "familiarity" rather than sentience and feeling, Fukuyama brings to mind the European colonists who considered Africans no more than "common beasts." His philosophy, although argued in a tone that seems reasonable, is at turns startingly narrow-minded and genetically-racist. Not reccomended: readers should look otherwheres for a more balanced and less judgemental review of biotechnology and ethics


The Elegant Gathering of White Snows
	Don't waste your money on this book. I will finish the book because it is our book club choice. The characters are shallow and  self centered. The writing is middle school quality. Kris Radish seems to have an agenda she is pushing and she was going to get it all into this book come hell or high water. No poetry and no beauty, I could care less about the women in this book. Who could possibly think life's problems could be solved by walking away from them while drinking lots of wine? I treasure my sisters and women friends but I wouldn't want to be a friend to any of these women. I would give it no stars if I could


The Power of Your Subconscious Mind - Abridged CD
	The book is AMAZING!  The CD is HORRIBLE!  Stick to reading the book yourself.  I have over 45 audio books...and this was like listen to a bad commercial.  I had to turn it off. There is no connection between the narrator and the words he is reading.  They don't even state who the narrator is!

I recommend the book to anyone.  The content is life changing


The Celts in Ireland
	Mr. Cahills book offers an interesting and controversial take on history. He is an excellent and compelling writer, but his differentiation between pre and post diaspora Israelites when discussing the Celts in several of his books is not always clear.

It was only the post-Babylonian diaspora Southern Kingdom Israelites who came to be known as Jews, around 500 BC.

It was the post-Assyrian diaspora (721 BC) of the larger ten-tribed Northern Kingdom Israelites who became what we today call the Celts. It is they who are both the Island Celts who populated Ireland, Scotland, Wales, etc., and their cousins, the Continental Celts who sacked the Roman Empire under many Celtic tribal names and who make up most of northwest Europe today.

The author could perhaps clarify this part of his presentations on European history by reviewing losttribes.net or any other modern Celtic site based on contemporary archeology.


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

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


Simple, Elegant and Wrong
	Roberts' little fable pits a wholly benign free-trade against absolute protectionism and guess which one looks better.  Based on the theories of David Ricardo, the fable assumes that every worker in the world is always treated fairly and every boss is kind and responsible.  In The Choice there are no sweat shops and no corrupt CEOs.  Fables like The Choice (or the "free-market economy" for that matter) are easy to believe because we want the world to be that simple.  That's why the book is dangerous.  The Choice has almost nothing to do with the real world, but it sounds good.  The argument is so seamless that it appears almost unassailable.  If you buy Roberts' version of Ricardo, however, you must accept Wal-Mart as the epitome of business virtue.

Roberts may be a great guy, and he certainly writes well.  Unfortunately, his book begins with a series of fallacious premises and works its way toward a conclusion that is simple, elegant, and horribly wrong


Not quite what I expected
	This book turned out to be a disappointing resource.  Although the book includes 20,001 names, many are unlikely and outlandish (Klotild, Edwige, Ghislain, Ethelbert, Birtle), making it arduous to sift through to find the  names more worthy of consideration


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


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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

where A, a highly divisible number selected in the range

   p/2  lt; A  lt; p

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

Example,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and introducing ro = 1/320 of a hekat,

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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

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

How much more twisted can it get?


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


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


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

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


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


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

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

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

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

(JH)

www.ministerturnsatheist.or


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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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


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


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


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

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


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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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