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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

SAVE YOUR MONEY


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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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


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

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


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


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

Skip this this one or prepare to suffer


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


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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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

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


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

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

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


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


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

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


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

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


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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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


Like Shadow of the Wind (good) with chuckles (bad)
	I'm at page 116 right now.  The writing is lovely, the specifics dense, and the sense of place rich.  If the author tries to create suspense one more time by having the father say, "I just can't go on with this story!" I'm going to throw the book at the wall.  Also, so many embarrassing little holes.  If I were a librarian I would say, "So Dracula's checked out.  Go to a bookstore.  Every bookstore in the country has a copy."  And if I were the cat, I would know I was a goner the second I appeared as indeed he does within a paragraph(you need to plant the gun in an early scene if you're going to fire it).  Lastly, it seems like Dracula would be so much more efficient if he just killed the main characters rather than killing everyone around them.  Unless "Dracula" is related to our heroine--that would be good.  Will read a bit more. . .


Confusing but better than nothing
	Overall I found this guide pretty confusing, but I guess it is better than nothing.  There are better choices, and some may want to consider auto-formatting software such as Eazypaper and others.


MEDIOCRE
	I read this book, it was okay but the story flashed back to much, and I couldn't folow all of it but I read all of it anyway. I wouldn't recommend it. TOO SLOW MOVING, and BORING because of the flashbacks. The movie was the same way


Another Awful Book
	Let me start by saying that I would have given this book zero stars if I could.  The reviews I've read are all true.  This book is boring, extremely repetitive and a waste of time.  The only reason I finished it was because I paid for it.

I truly believe that Danielle Steel has lost her gift of writing.  She has not published a good book in a long time.  I also think that she's lost her editor, because to me, a good editor wouldn't let books like this be printed.

This story pretty much follows stories she's done before except it's told from the guy's point of view.  There's the rich guy, Charlie, who can't seem to find the "perfect" girl to marry.  He finds a flaw with every one he dates.  He lost his parents at a young age, his sister left school to raise him, and just before he graduated college, she died of a brain tumor.  So of course he's afraid that anyone he gets close to will die or leave him.

Then there's rich Adam, whose wife left him and took their two children with her.  It was a bitter divorce, so he has no desire to ever marry again.  He dates girls half his age and never stays with one long.  His parents blame him for the divorce.  Every time he visits them, his mother let's him know what a huge disappointment he is to the family.

The last of the trio is Gary, a struggling artist.  He has no desire to ever marry or date.

The three men spend the month of August each year on Charlie's yacht, partying and going on and on about how they don't want commitments.  Well of course, each one meets someone, they start to date, they argue, they break up, they have their epiphany and everyone lives happily ever after.  Same old story.

Danielle Steel should stop writing.  You can't tell me she doesn't have enough money to live on.  I for one will not read any more of her books, even a paperback, and I won't even bother renting them from the library.  I won't waste my time having to check the book out and worrying about getting it back on time.  There are better authors available and I'm going to read them


The Gothic aspects did not work for me.
	This is the second Nevada Barr that I have read. I picked it up on the strength of Deep South, which I thought was really terrific. It was frustrating that nearly all of what I liked about Deep South was missing from Flashback.

Flashback is structured with interwoven narratives which involve both the real-life murder and a civil war mystery related to Anna Pigeon's own family. The civil war story (told through letters and dream-like sequences) is clearly intended to add a note of gothic mystery to the story. Some may like the flavor that this element provides, but for me it dilutes the elements of the writing that I most enjoy. I really liked the crisp realism of Deep South, and felt that the style put it a cut above most books in the genre. Flashback, on the other hand, felt painfully contrived. The plot line with the letters was extremely unrealistic and (to my mind) unnecessary.

If you like historical mysteries with a gothic flavor more than you like realism in a detective novel, then you will probably be significantly less bothered than I was by Flashback. Barr at least made a clear choice with her approach to the book. Judging from the reviews, not everyone had a negative reaction to the interwoven plot lines.

I will go ahead and pick up a third Barr book, because I did like Deep South so much. It was disappointing to have not had my high hopes realized with my second outing, but hope that it can be redeemed with a third.


where is the quality control
	design of book is very poor--pictures totally unclear and print is crowded making it impossible to focus on the story.  The translations are not bad but there is no effort to organize the material and put it in contex


Basic Stuff
	I was not impressed with this book.  It is just basic stuff.  I would have expected a more sophisticated analyis of financials from this publisher


disappointed
	I expected information about design, but this is just a self serving "I am good at what I do" book. I am sure he is good but there is little or no information about how to actually desigh furniture. No proportions, no instruction except make your mistakes on paper by sketching first. A waste of good money.


Astoundingly Poor
	If an author sets out to write a collection of short stories about adultery, you'd think they'd have a lo say about it, right? Well, Ford certainly expends plenty of words, but the net impact of them is next to nothing by the end of this incredibly feeble navel-gazing group of stories. Mind-numbingly similar in tone and temperament, the ten stories center of upper and upper-middle class white, middle-aged, married professionals who seem to have drifted into infidelity. Story after story plods cautiously along, poking at the consequences of adultery in a very mild way, with leaden dialogue and a lot of empty moodiness. Adultery is treated almost as a kind of bland rite-of-passage for a disconnected male. Marital infidelity can happen in so many ways for so many reasons, and yet Ford seems interested in only a very limited field of it. I have no idea what his personal background or situation is, but it's a collection you read and leave wishing the author had worked out their issues in therapy or something. If he wasn't such a literary bigshot, there's no way this would have been published-it strikes the same note over and over and over, and isn't provocative, insightful, or even interesting. PS. If you were planning on the audio version, don't. Ford is a terrible reader, sounding like someone reading the telephone book aloud as punishment


A Terrifying True Story...A Completely Mediocre Read
	If HZ's sensationalist title gives you pause, you're on to something.  The "story" Preston narrates is, indeed, terrifying.  It is a story about disease, politics, epidemiology, history, geography...  So much could have been made of this story (and so much has been, by far more capable writers).  Preston, it seems, is only capable of going for the jugular.  HZ shows no evidence of research (it lacks even a trace of a bibliography), and attests little more than a rudimentary grasp, on the part of its author, of the history, epidemiology, or politics of Ebola (no more than one might glean from any half decent article on the topic).  From its opening page stroll through the air-lock doors of a bio-containment research lab, to its closing page 'death-defying' romp through Kitum Cave (how very brave of you, RP!), HZ is in full pandering-for-the-cameras mode.  If this book was not a thinly veiled Hollywood screenplay, I'll eat my proverbial hat.  Even this might have been tolerable were Preston a remotely thoughtful observer or a marginally adept writer.  HZ is all cliches and lazy reporting.  It is an embarassment


Very Disappointing ... There're better books out there for Co-dependency
	Most of the information is very "theoritical" and "limited" -- author focus mainly on her own analysis of her mother and her relationship with her.  ...  In a nutshell, the message is that a dysfunctional mother'll pass her emotioanal issues to her daughter(s), and in turn, the daughter(s) may pass that onto her offspring(s).  ...


How to Ignore Genocide
	The official censes of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s showed well over five million Christians living in the provinces of what are now modern Turkey.  Western specialists who helped the Turks conduct their censes stated that the Turks purposely undercounted the Christians and overcounted the Turks.  So, there were many more than just five million Christians.  There are now approximately only a hundred thousand Christians in Modern Turkey.  The question that the author pointedly neglects to address is what happened to the difference between over five million in the early 1900s and only a hundred thousand people today.  We know that over a million surviving Greeks were expelled in the exhange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923.  Again, what happened to the huge difference of 4-5 million people?  To the 1.5 million massacred Armenians, must be added three quarters to a million Assyriac Christians (Aramaic-speaking Arab Christians) and as many as two million Greeks (almost 30 percent of the Greek people).  The author does not touch on the large numbers of Christians who were enslaved by Turks or forced to convert to Islam to avoid massacre which explains the large number Greek-speaking "Turks" around Trebizon on the Black Sea.

It is not as if there is not vast contemporary accounts of neutral and Western observers of this enormous genocide and ethnic cleansing of the original, pre-Turkish populations of Anatolia.  I can only conclude that the author had such an inborn bias in favor of Turkey as to ignore a slaugher that approaches the Jewish holocaust of WWII.  Avoiding this subject amounts to holocaust denial.

The Christian genocide was the first great genocide of the 20th century and Hitler's model for the Jewish genocide. The massacre of the Greek and Armenian population of Smyrna (now Izmir) ranks with the Rape of Nanking in sheer horror and scale, but the author skips over it in a rush to avoid any detail of the crime or assign any blame except to the Greeks and Armenians by repeating the discredited canard that they set fire to their own city.

The author's treatment of the Christian genocide reminds me of the comments to me of a Turkish officer at a NATO conference which were to the effect that there had been no Armenian genocide (the Turkish Government official line) but, in any case, that they had deserved it.  The author seems to have taken her treatment of the subject from the Turkish Government as well


The title of the book tells all.
	Pick up any dictatorial king from the past world and read any writing about him by one of his blind followers, whose very existence and relevance is due to that king. What you will get from that kind of writing? Noonan was a speechwriter Reagan administration. Sound familiar? Noonan does not get how ordinary citizens used to live under the rule of kings and how they felt about kings. Probably she does not care. Americans are lucky that they never had any king. Noonan fails to provide any inside information how Reagan dealt with many difficult things of his presidency - AIDS, Iran-Contra, welfare, deficits, funding mujahideens, cozy relationship with Saddam. Instead she tried to portray his 8 years like a Disney feelgood fairytale - good ruler, happy citizens..."happily lived ever after". Basically, this book contains just glorification of a person who is viewed as king by the writer.  Her admiration took away her basic ability of criticism and desire to provide any information that readers don't know already. This is a writing isolated from the reality of 80's (which is nothing new in human civilizations). Secondly, she fails to understand that Reagan was just an elected politician and many have contributions on whatever achieved in his 8 years of presidency - including average hard-working Americans. But she gives ALL the credits to Reagan, except all the negative things, like Iran-Contra. In the world of democracy this book deserved to be in trash - a perfect place for the kings, characters of kings and the writings about them


Extremely Disappointed, couldn't even finish it.
	My grandmother and my mother have read Danielle Steele for years, but I must admit I'd never picked one up. I was always more for historical romances. But I wanted something different, had heard good things about her, so while at the library, decided to give her a try. I have to say I'm extremely disappointed. Granted, I'm a fellow writer (a very picky reader by nature), and an unpublished one to boot, but the writing could've been better in my opinion. The first five pages are all backstory of Paris's marriage (no action, no excitement, told very "history lesson-ish") and what could have been an extremely powerful scene between Paris and her husband (the inciting incident in the first chapter) left me wondering, "So what?". Twenty five pages in, I could care less about these people. I honestly expected more from a bestselling author.


why is it dragging on and on and on?
	i wonder if im reading the same book the others are reading. i'm on page 101 right now and it took me about 4 days to get this far. (i've gone through 3 clique books in a day, so it's not like i'm a slow reader) the book is just so boring. its like ive read all of this cr@p before! so far sam had a graduation party at her dad's yacht, we hear about 2 new characters from a rival school who happen to be enemies of sam and her group and conveniently enough the two schools do something together, i forget what but it looks like it will be the opportunity for sam to get her revenge for getting poop smeared on her white jeans a few years back (eye-roll). anna is incapable of taking care of herself at a time of crisis (her car gets rear ended by some cliche white trash woman) so her dad's 'dont judge a book by the cover cliche' tatooed but hot new intern comes to rescue her, omg romance! (another eye roll) ben is being a troll my guess is hes cheating on her, but seriously reading that chapter where they go on this really uncomfortable date just made me want to scream at the book! it was so annoying.

the only thing keeping me reading right now is the cammie storyline, i want her to confront her dad and find out what happened to her mom.

right now im giving the book 2 stars, after i finish the book (if i ever do) ill come back and edit this. if anyone wants to take me out of my misery and tell me what happened to cammies mom, be my guest! lol

***EDIT*** it got a lot better after page 101, the Sam plot got developed (a bit overdone, tacky and stalkerish, i mean a life size cut out? a 100 cell phones? come on, what a waste of money. she could have donated all that $$$ to some charity in peru and impressed her guy a lot more. the cammie story is getting juicier, and parker may have a bona fide crush on sam. i still think ben is a creep. well i guess i wont spoiler everything lol. i'm still not done yet. ill continue this after i finish.

***FINAL EDIT*** after a good middle, the book took a nosedive.  the story of cammie's mother was horribly disappointing. i officially HATE ben now and im getting more and more sick of anna for even being into him. what kind of guy tries to make a girl feel weird and uptight for thinking that sex between two people should be special??? that just really turned me off. the girl who wins a contest by wearing nothing but body paint to the party?? okay, this is a book that 12 year olds read, did we seriously need to hear that? the best way to get liked is to get naked?

sigh... the two stars rating stands. sorry


Disappointing
	After having read and loved Howard Pyle's 1968 Classic Press
edition of "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" I was quite
disappointed with "The Story of King Arthur and His Knights".
Whereas Pyle brilliantly brought his characters to life in "Robin
Hood", the characters of "King Arthur" seem flat and lifeless
by comparison.  The King Arthur stories read like little more
than a description of events; one doesn't really get a feeling
of being there while things are happening as in "Robin Hood."
The dialogue seems much more realistic in "Robin Hood", but I
think there's more to it.  The writing style in "King Arthur"
I'd characterize as prosaic---in sharp contrast to the charming, poetic style of writing in "Robin Hood."


boring
	so very boring... i gave up halfway in. i usually hate to leave books unfinished but i felt like it was a waste of my time. my sister liked it though.


Give it a rest Alan!
	As I've said before NATIONAL HYPNOSIS!!! Liberals want to dupe the masses into believing that modern Conservatism and Lberalism are different ideologies (they both come from Hegel and Machiavelli the philosophies that gave birth to Communism and Facism).


PollyAnnaEducation
	Mr Wong is making a good living selling his book and working the lecture circut.  Some good ideas but a lot of impractical stuff included.  The reality of the classroom and the ineffectiveness of school administration make working under such ideal circumstances unrealistic.  Work in 5 classes of 40-50 kids each day who can't read (many are moved up so they can be with their friends) and such touchy feely programs quickly fall aside.


revised review
	These are revised remarks since my comments about "Prediabetes" and "Stop Diabetes" being the same book.  I got them both and felt somewhat duped.

Gretchen did contact me to explain the Prediabetes is a second edition of Stop Diabetes.  I wish it said that on the cover.

The book(s) info about stopping the progression of diabetes is great, so I do recommend either of these books.  It is well written in a style that's easy to understand.  Just don't get both books; they're essentially identical


I read this book why?
	I have to admit that my wife read this book first and said it was slow.  She didn't say how slow though.  But rather than take her word for it (why should I?  After all, she's my wife) I bothered to pick it up and read it.  How I wish I had listened to her and left it in the box of stuff for the rummage sale.  I cannot stand Baldacci's juvenile charactor dialog, but finish it I did though most of it I could have read through closed eyes and not missed anything.  I'll stick with my Nelson DeMille from here on if I want literary junk food


A Profusion of Details: Lacking Significance
	This book is so densely packed with miniscule details and examples that the information's significance becomes blurred, if not obsolete.  The authors show they are very knowledgable on the subject, but they fail to analyze the information they present.  The reader is left to interpret the meaning of details and ponder why they are included.  The authors also use repetitive examples that become tiring and ineffective.  The only minutely important information is presented in the topic sentences of each paragraph, and the book can be reasonably well understood just by reading the introductory sentences.  While this book could be a treasure house for someone researching the relationship between manors and their respective villages, the average reader's attention is never captured.  Students, beware!  Before embarking on an excruciatingly dull explaination of medieval village life, reconsider your other options of reading material. (One option is another book by these authors that has gotten better reveiws.


101 Ways to Massively Increase the Value of Your Real Estate without Spending Much Money
	Attention: Seasoned RealEstate investers don't waste your time purchasing this book. Ideal for amatuer investors who want to add more value to their piece of real estate.


Snore is Right
	I found this book to be a vaguely interesting dissertation on what the SHAM (Self-Help Actualization Motivational) Movement is, and maybe even on why it is, but no help whatsoever in giving me any tools for argument against it.  I thought, sucked in by the interesting cover suggesting brain-washing in such a humorous way, that the author might have a sense of humor herself and I'd find her book absorbing intellectually and on other levels as well.

I would read a page or a paragraph or two, close the book, and nod off.

This is such a fascinating area, it could be the basis for a really fascinating book, but "Self-Help, Inc..." left me feeling I needed to go to a self-help group to deal with the density of the verbage.  It would not appeal most to the people most in need of reading it  -  the victims of SHAM


Don't support this writer by buying this piece of trash
	A friend recommended this book which I unfortunately bought.  I feel sorry for people who think that this is "writing."  The author not only contradicts herself but the writing is shallow and lacks any depth.  If you want to feel good, buy yourself a bottle of wine, not this book


Willy Loman This Guy Ain'y
	This play explores the same old turf as "Death of a Salesman", but it does so with much less satisfaction and much less character development.  Eddie is no Willy Loman, though, and the play suffers immediately from a lack of a central, driving force like Willy.  Parts of the play seem borrowed from Tennessee Williams, and they don't seem to work in this context.  There is some business about the romance of the Old World Italy versus the New World of Opportunity on the docks of New York, and it is the only topic that is at all explored well, if still unsatisfactorily.  Eddie's dreams are represented in his pretty niece, Catherine; and unlike Willy Loman's uncle, she is still an attainable dream. That makes Eddie's life seem all the more petty, in comparison to Willy's: he longs wearily not after what he could have had, but after what he can never have, as he is already married.  The death scene at the end of the play also seems like a forced, tacked on ending, and Alfieri's entire presence is a more or less unsuccessful stage gimmick.  There are better plays by Miller, and many better plays by others


White Males Only
	Before purchasing Made in Detroit I read the reader reviews.  The reviews were so mixed that I decided against buying the book and checked it out of the library instead.  As it turns out I made the best decision.  All I can say is `thank you fellow reviewers'; this book was definitely not worth the purchase price.  My statement has nothing to do with the author's writing skills, he is a skilled writer.  It has everything to do with his lack of insight.  That Paul Clemens could live in a city and have such a skewed view of it is downright scary.  I read the book, waiting for Paul to have a revelation that would help him put the pieces of his life together and make peace with them.  But after 241 pages he was no more enlightened than he was on page one.  Blacks are caricatures whose sole role in life is to make Paul's life hard.  Women are peripheral characters who are barely given a voice.  He finds a way to put down and demean everyone who is not a white male in his book.

If you are a white male who harbors secret racist feelings you will enjoy this book and it will validate your feelings.  If you are anyone else your reaction will no doubt range from mild boredom to outrage.  As I read this book I felt sadness, a profound sense of dismay and had some of my worse fears confirmed.  (There are white folks who actually still think like this.)  My hope is that the light comes on for Paul, he is still young.  If it does maybe he will share his insights with us.


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

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

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


One-sided and angry...
	This book reads like the blog of some angry person who ignores evidence to the contrary and embraces anything that agrees with him.  It was very hard to take seriously


Worse than painful!!
	I've enjoyed Johansen's books for years, but this one was awful...I'm beginning to wonder if she's using a ghost writer.  Totally ridiculous plot, trite dialogue...I lost count of the times she used the phrase "Sophie said through her teeth..."  I was beginning to wish someone was PULLING my teeth rather than having to read this book.  Johansen is capable of SO MUCH BETTER than this!  I'm praying she isn't falling into the Nora Roberts/Danielle Steel/James Patterson habit of churning out the same old tired fodder just to meet a publisher's deadline


One of Koontz's Worst
	This is truly a disappointing book.  It starts incredibly slowly and I found it very hard to become interested in the plot.  Another disappointment is Koontz's recycling of elements from other novels: (1) plucky, highly intelligent disabled girl (the young female protagonist in "The Hideaway" had almost identical deformities and personality), (2) devoted, super-powered canine companions, (3) bad guys driving around in ultra pimped-out RVs, and (4) evil bioethicists.

The Leilani character is patently ridiculous.  She conveniently has a genius IQ, but that does not make the absurdly adult manner in which she speaks any more believable.  I found it so disconcerting as to detract from the plot.  Koontz clearly has trouble writing for children, and this book is no exception.  Almost all the children featured in his books are either autistic/MR or genius wunderkinds; the latter, however, does not justify his habit of making smart children talk like genius adults.  Dean heaps the hardships on poor Leilani, with all the subtlety of an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.  In case you miss the anvils, you are supposed to really, really like her and fear for her safety.

I don't know how or where Dean Koontz learned about bioethics, but he has a terribly misguided view of the field, taking an extreme sect of it to represent the main viewpoint of the field.  Further, he states multiple times that these eugenic bioethics principles are being taught to medical students at major universities (who will have to pay for their involvement with evil bioethics) -- as a medical student, I can assure you that this is patently untrue.  That Koontz could be so off-base on a topic that directly relates to the central motive is disconcerting and makes an already weak book even harder to swallow.

The final issue is Koontz's near-deification of dogs, particularly Golden Retrievers, which is a common motif in his more recent works.  It is ridiculous and unintentionally funny to an almost painful degree.  His obsession with dogs and their mystical powers borders on the psychotic (and I like dogs).  This novel probably features the most egregious example of Koontz's tendency to create overly sappy, sugary-sweet endings.

Dean Koontz has written many books better than this one.  Spend your money on one of his stronger efforts


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.


Not for fans of TR
	As an admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, I was very disappointed in Mr. Brands' book. It appeared to me that Mr. Brands' intent was to analyze the life of this great man strictly from his critic's point of view. While any good biography worth its salt should present a balanced view of the man, Mr. Brands appears to go out of his way to find fault in almost all of TR's actions. TR was by no means a perfect man, however, history has proven him to be one of our greatest presidents. One gets the sense after reading this dreadfully long and depressing account of TR that Mr. Brands'truly disliked his subject


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


Fell well short of my expectations...
	When I started reading this book, I was hopeful that it would be an insightful commentary on the ridiculous nature of politically-correct word choice.  Unfortunately, I did not find it to be particularly clever or funny.  On some level, it seems like the PC craze has subsided since the mid-90's when the book was written, and it just doesn't read as the brilliant critique that I expected.  We've now heard so many silly descriptions followed by the suffix "challenged" that it just isn't funny anymore.  I suppose that this book worked much better when it was written, but it hasn't aged well over the ten years since


Nonsense redefined
	I must admit I was skeptical when I first opened this book based on previous knowledge I had of MPD.  This book made me that much more skeptical.  In most cases of MPD or DID as it is now more commonly referred to the problem arises through the suggestive power of the therapist.  This case is different though.  On page 67 of the paperback copy I got, Ms Chase describes Stanley(her name for Phillips) as wondering how it is that the personalities could seemingly communicate with each other while at the same time not being aware of each other.  Her answer that she or as she claims her "troops" give is that it is through the use of "thought transference" which was known to the ancient Greeks as she tells us later on.  I almost burst out laughing when I read that.  She also contradicts her claim that the alters don't know of each other later when she has one of them discussing the alters Rabbit and Sister Mary Catherine at the same time.  Another way this happens is how they often refer to themselves as 'we'.  Many of the alters sound as though they came from books or movies.  The abuse that she claims occurred while living with her stepfather is rather graphic.  Her claims really belong in the same realm as those who claim past life memories, ufo sightings, satanic ritual abuse, and second sight.  I think she is not credible in the least.  There is not one fact given to support her claims of past abuse and it would be interesting for someone to write a book looking into her claims to see if there is anything that would substantiate them.  She does let us know in the book that she is very creative, artistic, intelligent, and apparently well read.  I think this has a lot to do with her claims of multiple personalities.  The book itself is long, boring, anti-climatic even with the final confrontation with the stepfather which occurs at the end.  She also seems to be claiming in the book some pscyhic abilities.  Don't waste your money on this book, unless you have to read it for a class as I did.


Blah Blah Blah
	This book just rambles on and on and never seems to end.  I don't think I have ever been so disappointed in a book.  Since I started to read it, I feel like I have to finish it.  I am just praying for that day to come soon.  I have to skip over entire paragraphs just to get through a chapter.  It is overwhelming proof that hippies should NEVER write books


Ballz.
	this book blew my ballz.  it was possibly the worst book i have ever read in my entire life.  although i am usually sleepless in seattle, i found myself falling asleep each time i tried to read it.  i advise no one to ever read this godforsaken book


OK - but you didn't tell the whole story
	I was there, as were several of my fellow Sitka Fire Department EMT's and State Troopers from the Sitka Academy.  The 6 of us, along with two parajumpers from the Canadian Armed Services were flown through the typhoon winds, on a helicopter, out to the Williamsburgh where we spent the next 33 hours attending to the rescued passengers - literally giving them the clothes off our backs and keeping them calmed.  We knew there was a doctor onboard, from Anchorage, but we literally never met or saw him - I'm sure he did good work in the little clinic he had set up - but that is where he stayed.  The real story was out in the rest of the ship that weekend.  But I was disappointed to see that Mr. Jeffers failed to fully research this book - the role the Sitka rescue teams played (both on the Williamsburgh and trying to assess/fight the fire on the Prinsendam) was totally overlooked - despite the fact that there is a lot of documentation available that tells our story - which was the human side   had some quite amusing moments in the face of this event.  I was so looking forward to this book and then to find out he left a large part of the story out, was very sad.  At least we all have our commendations from both the Coast Guard commendant and the Canadian armed services - they knew we were there!   Too bad Mr. Jeffers didn't due diligence.


Highly overrated
	Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Not recommended.

In his 1960 introduction to Tropic of Cancer, Karl Shapiro said, "I call Henry Miller the greatest living author because I think he is," ". . . as a spiritual example he stands among the great men of our age," and ". . . he [Orwell] predicts that Miller will set the pace and attitude for the novelist of the future. This has not happened yet, but I agree that it must." Shapiro does not support any of these points in his essay, and nothing about Tropic of Cancer supports them, either.

Tropic of Cancer consists of 318 pages recounting Miller's experience as an American expatriate in Paris and expounding his personal philosophy, often in ways that are rambling and painfully nonsensical. Miller's stories about his friends are tedious, pointless, and catty; like Miller, they seem to have been talentless hacks whose belief in their own artistic abilities makes them artists and writers, as though believing is being. Miller writes, "A year ago, six months ago, I thought I was an artist. I no longer think about it, I am"--which is the type of arrogant pretentiousness he mocks in virtually all of his acquaintances.

When they are not creating, or talking about philosophy or creating, Miller and his circle seem to spend nearly every moment picking up women (and disease). They rarely use a neutral term such as "woman" when there are so many obscene, demeaning words with which to objectify the gender. The women that Miller and friends find are invariably portrayed as stupid, drunken, irrational, loose, sly, deceptive, and good primarily for one function, which Miller turns into a squalid, cold, joyless act. In spite of all the vice and the "living," no one seems to be having fun, and some characters, notably Fillmore, find themselves nearly trapped into the bourgeoisie life.

Miller expresses contempt for the machine, the industrial age, and money--although he schemes to keep 2,800 francs from Fillmore's mistress and revels in having so much in his pocket. Often hungry, Miller obsesses about food and relies on his friends to support him. When he describes his Indian friend Kepi as ". . . a scrounger, a sort of human tick who fastens himself to the hide of even the poorest compatriot," he could be talking about himself as he bitterly complains about those of his friends who are stingy with money, accommodations, food, and wine.

Miller's logic about the working world is facile; he writes, "If you want bread, you've got to get in harness, get in lockstep." On the surface, this is true, but it never seems to occur to him that, if you want bread, someone must cultivate, raise, and harvest the wheat and produce the other components; someone must transform these components into bread; and someone must deliver it to the shops and cafes. In other words, if most people weren't in "lock step," Miller could choose to starve or set himself to produce bread, joining the world in harness. He makes his choice clear, then whines about it. He may despise those who support him, whether they are friends or workers, but that is perhaps because he, a misanthrope who finds fault with everyone but himself, needs the very people he denigrates (including "the grocer, the baker, the shoemaker, the butcher, etc.--all imbecilic-looking clodhoppers"), a reliance which he resents. He hates the machine and the machine mind, but offers no alternatives.

Seemingly incapable of sincere feeling, Miller finds human emotion amusing. When a friend says, "A boy can break your heart . . . He's so damned beautiful! And so cruel!" Miller writes, "We had to laugh at this. It sounded preposterous. But Collins was in earnest." When an acquaintance to whom he owes money dies, he writes, "At any rate, he was killed in an automobile accident shortly after my arrival, a circumstance which left me twenty-three francs to the good."

Shapiro claims that Miller is a poet, but his attempts at poetic and philosophic ramblings often make little if any sense. Speaking of buildings and statues, Miller says, " . . . they must be saturated with my anguish," the kind of bad metaphor in which he frequently indulges. He describes artists such as himself as the "inhuman ones." "I am inhuman! I say it with a mad, hallucinated grin, and I will keep on saying it though it rain crocodiles. Behind my words are all those grinning, leering, skulking skulls, some dead and grinning a long time, some grinning as if they had lockjaw, some grinning with the grimace of a grin, the foretaste and aftermath of what is always going on." Whenever these attempts at poetic philosophy appeared, rambling on for pages, I found myself yearning for a return to his insipid stories about prostitutes, disease, friends, and hunger.

Tropic of Cancer is perhaps the worst book I have ever read (and I did promise myself that I would read Tropic of Capricorn). Shapiro says, "There are not many of these emancipated beings left in our world [emancipated from what? --DLS], these clowns and clairvoyants, celebrants of the soul and of the flesh and of the still-remaining promise of America." If Miller, with his whining, his criticism, his holier-than-everyone attitude, his "art," his two-dimensional view of people, and his obsession with excrement, is the "greatest" of these souls, may I never meet the least.

Note: If there were a 0 stars option, Tropic of Cancer would have earned it


I would have put 0 stars
	This book was a complete waste.  It was boring to read and hard to follow.  I finished the book just see how it ended and hoping to clear up the confusion.  I never should have read past the first chapter.  Read Pop Goes the Weasle, or Lake House by Patterson.  Just not this book.  It is hard to believe it is written by the same author


Wish I could get my money back...
	As a strong proponent of attachment parenting and a rather radical unschooler, this book was a BIG disappointment!!! I bought this book after reading the reviews and wish I hadn't paid more than $1 for it. While the title "The Unprocessed Child" accurately describes Laurie's upbringing, this book shouldn't be grouped with other unschooling literature. The author, while cherishing the close bond she has with her daughter, reminds me of the mother in "Love You Forever" who sneaks across town and climbs into her grown son's room at night to spend time with him--sweet but a bit creepy. The fact that she admits that she even went to college at the same time as her daughter so she could spend more time with Laurie pretty much says it all. The mother clearly has her own issues that I hope she allows herself to work through and heal from now that she's not spending 24/7 with her only child. We have been unschooling each of our four children since birth --challenging temperments and all--and I feel very privileged to spend so much time with them as they discover how exciting it is to decode and discover the world around them. If you want to read a GOOD book about unschooling without unsupported platitudes and preaching in almost every chapter, I would recommend "Homeschooling our Children, Unschooling Ourselves". Those authors offer more balance and eloquence than Ms. Fitzenreiter.


Not bad, but not really good eithier...
	This was my first reading of Jamaica Kincaid. She has a short, concise style, which made me often feel like I was reading poetry. However, I felt that it also had some downsides, like stifling character growth. In Lucy, the title character comes to America to be an nanny for a rich couple with four young daughters. Lucy watches as their marriage crumbles and tries to avoid turning into her own mother, who for some reason she hates. I wish we knew a bit more about Lucy, like why she hated her homeland so much. It was  an alright quick read, but had it been longer, I doubted it would have held my attention


Bias Was Off-Putting
	Dr. Northrup provides women with practical information about their bodies, stages of life and medical procedures.  However, I was appalled by her bias against Western cultural heritage and Christianity.  Her views on those topics were extremely unbalanced, with no acknowledgement of their positive contributions to culture and women.  As a Catholic whose best teachers were strong-minded, compassionate religious sisters, I felt offended by her slur against nuns.  I am aware that not everyone feels the same way about their religious upbringing, but I would expect an academic to strive for some balance in their research.


Black House
	Ive read mixed reviews on this book and though i had to make my own mind up. I first bought the book, 120pages later i realised that i had no clue what was going on, so i bought the audiobook (5 hours later i was still thinking what the hell is going on).
Now im stephen kings No1 fan and have loved the majority of his work, the talisman for me was a fantastic bolt on to the dark tower quest. So naturally i thought this would be the same.
The book is one of the slowest drawn out books ive ever came accross, not a patch on previous work. I forced myself through the book expecting more, and im sorry to say this one doesnt deliver on any horror, excitment etc, do yourself a favour, get a tin of paint and watch it dry - more happens in that and at a much quicker pace than it does in this book.
This book is for die hard fans only... but even diehards will find this a chore


Not for experienced runners
	The book is interesting, and well written. It contains little unique or scarcely known or understood information. Novice runners might like it and get more from it than experienced runners.


Not sure of ownership, but sure of his bad theology
	I have a book of Ross' by the same title, but the cover is different (remake?) but most of my problems with his theology come from his advocation of the "big bang theory" which has numerous scientific problems (quantized redshifts to name one) and serious theological implications.  If the big bang were true, then there were animals before man. Animals that lived and died.  The Bible says that man's sin is the reason why we die and suffer.  If death was around before sin ("For the wages of sin is death") then what good would Jesus' death on the cross have been


Knew it was bad after three pages
	I'm sorry, but I expect more out of a book. Beginning on page one the character development was infantile and the writing sophomoric. After reading beautiful books such as Cold Mountain and Brideshead Revisited, to mention just two, I found that this book started off so poorly and was so amateurish that I knew it would be a plot-driven monstrosity that wouldn't be worth the read. At page four I was fed up with the author's style and slammed the book shut


Not what it appears
	I was excited to see the book with recipes for the "14 Super Foods" after reading Steven Pratt's book, but was very disappointed.  Yes, the recipes do use the "14 Super Foods", but also use such ingredients as shortening, Cheez Whiz, and yellow cake mix - hardly healthy!  If you are interested in eating good, healthy meals made with the "14 Super Foods", don't buy this book


full of lies, propaganda, and hate
	This year, 60% of college entries will be female.  Look at this spring's honor role listings.  Last year, 78% of honor role members in my community were female.  Schools are fails boys - not girls.

If you wish to waste your time on a politically correct diatribe that is full of anecdotal and subjective pap, then get this book.  If you want to really improve the quality of education, there are thousands of reads better than this