I'll Pass On Carb-Loading One Hour A Day
	When you have lost weight, it's a very natural thing for others to be curious about how you lost your weight and kept it off. Whenever they have heard me tell my story, read my blog or book, or found out that I did it on the low-carb lifestyle, one question invariably has come up from time to time:

"What do you think about this low-carb diet where you can eat whatever you want for one-hour per day?"

My initial reaction to these people was usually something along the lines of this:

"That's absolutely crazy! There's no way you could ever lose weight and keep it off using this method."

I did the Atkins diet and honestly have not stayed on top of all the bazillion other low-carb diets out there. But there was something very odd about this plan that it made me look around to find out more about it.

Little did I know there was an actual book out there about this very diet so many people had been telling me about. It's called The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet and it was written by a husband/wife team Drs. Richard and Rachael Heller.

The CAD diet, as it is referred to, makes the claim (and I agree with it) that many people are addicted to carbohydrates and need to be weaned off from depending on them for sustenance. Just like a drug addict gets small concentrated doses of their preferred drug daily so they can eventually get by with less and less, that same concept is what goes into the CAD diet.

If people think the Atkins diet is restrictive, then check out what you have to do on the CAD diet:

BREAKFAST: ZERO-carb meal consisting of protein and fat.
LUNCH: ZERO-carb meal consisting of protein and fat.

You are NOT allowed to eat any bread, fruit, milk, juice, and most starchy vegetables. Absolutely NO snacking whatsoever except for black coffee or diet soda. You cannot use artificial sweeteners either.

Sound appealing, anyone? Hmmm? I suppose if that's all there was to this diet, then NOBODY would do it. But there is one more key aspect of the CAD diet that you probably will be interested in.

DINNER: Eat equal amounts of protein, vegetables and dessert of whatever you want to eat in whatever amount, but it must be eaten in a one-hour time frame. You can even enjoy a beer or glass of wine with your "reward" meal.

How's that for incentive? You basically starve all day long just so you can get to those sixty minutes at the end of your day where you can say hello to the buffet line! Who wouldn't enjoy a diet that lets you do THAT?!

Well, I'm still very skeptical about any lifestyle change that encourages you to eat the very foods that got you overweight or obese to begin with on a DAILY basis. I caught a lot of flack from my fellow low-carbers about my controversial "planned splurge" meal every 6-8 weeks during my weight loss. However, the Hellers give you a DAILY planned splurge!!! What's up with that?

We can blame this on Dr. Rachael, who stumbled upon this way of eating when she weighed 268 pounds after being on diet after diet. She became a psychologist to learn more about why people overeat (ostensibly to help herself in the process, too). She had skipped breakfast and lunch on a particular day she was fasting for a blood test and then, like most of us would, ate to her heart's content whatever she wanted for supper. The next morning she noticed she had dropped 2 pounds.

Thinking something must have gone wrong with her scale, she tried it again the next day, skipping breakfast and lunch and then eating a gargantuan dinner and once again, she lost another pound. She played around with what would eventually become The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet and went on to lose 150 pounds which she has kept off to this day.

The frequency of eating carbohydrates is the key behind the CAD diet. The Hellers believe that anyone who consumes ANY amount of carbohydrates during the day will set off all the bells and whistles in your body that you are hungry faster than if you avoided them altogether. They say that eating carbs throughout the day is like giving lots of small doses of cocaine to a cocaine addict. It will make them crave their poison even more!

That's why you basically avoid eating carbs on the CAD diet until the end of the day. This process of getting over carbohydrate addiction is a tricky one, and the Hellers think they have found a solid plan for making it work for lasting weight loss in people.

I still can't get around the fact that you don't change the poor eating habits of the people who have packed on the pounds. Sure, they basically starve themselves throughout the day before they eat their one BIG meal each day, but how is that stimulating the metabolism and preventing the biggest obstacle to weight loss success -- HUNGER!

There's no way I could do the CAD diet because I enjoy eating every 2-3 hours to keep my digestive process constantly in motion. I truly believe this is one of the things that has helped me lose the weight and keep it off. Since you cannot snack or use artificial sweeteners on the CAD diet, it would literally drive me insane even if there was that "reward" meal at the end of the day!

Wanna take a test to see if you are a carb addict? Click here to take the 10-question Carbohydrate Addict's Test. I scored a 2, which means "You do not appear to be carbohydrate addicted." No kidding, ya think?

Dr. Jonny Bowden, author of Living The Low-Carb Life, examined the CAD diet and said the diet uses some fuzzy science to make their points about why their plan works.

"While it seems pretty clear that there are both insulin and serotonin abnormalities in the obese, it's not at all clear that high levels of insulin depress levels of serotonin, as the Hellers hypothesize--in fact, the majority of the evidence points to the opposite response."

Furthermore, Dr. Bowden said he is concerned about the lack of attention on exercise as part of their weight loss program, stating "it's vital to both maintaining weight and to raising the metabolic rate."

While The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet has worked for a lot of people and I always tell people to do what works for them to lose weight and keep it off, I still have my reservations about this program. I think I'll pass on carb-loading my body for one hour a day


Silly book
	This book is just plain stupid. If it works for people and helps them lose weight I realize they will be estatic. However, it is not healthy. Each of our meals should be balanced. These people are promoting unbalanced eating. The reason so many of us are carb sensitive is because we have spent a lifetime over indulging on carbs! If one were to sit down and eat each meal with balanced food groups, including complex carbs in small amounts, we would not only lose weight in a safe manner, but we would heal our bodies from the inside out. This diet won't heal us, it is a fad. If anyone is looking to really heal their metabolism, lose weight and even heal disease, try reading "The Schwarzbein Principle" by Diana Schwarzbein, MD. That is a great book on how to heal diabetes, hypoglycemia, and many other things. It also explains how eating balanced and giving up stimulants will not only help us lose weight, but reverse aging and stop having food cravings in the first place. This book promotes eating unhealthy foods and is only about weight loss, not getting healthy.


Infamous Bridge-Burner Offers Highly Subjective Opinion On Writing
	No wonder John Gardner didn't write more fiction books.  He was far too preoccupied with what he believes makes good fiction, rather than actually writing it.  "Creative atrophy" I believe John Gardner himself would call it.  If there's ever been a better example of the "those who can't do, teach" argument, I haven't encountered it.  This is hardly the place a "Young Writer" should start.  Instead, how about reading what you like and avoiding "ignoramouses" such as John Gardner?  John Gardner is unable to accept the fact that many of the world's finest writers never made it through college, and many more didn't have the luxury of a "rigorous classical education."   The most hilarious part is where Gardner mentions that only through a line-by-line university level discussion will anybody ever be able to fully enjoy Shakespeare.  It's interesting to note how Gardner, who "taught" creative writing at the university level, fails to exhibit the critical thinking and objectivity he says one can only obtain through a college education


The Roots of Management Science
	This was originally published in 1911 and promulgates the author's task management system.  This was the beginning of the "scientific management" line of research and so is widely credited as being the first management science book.  The essay certainly provides an interesting window into an earlier time.  He also illustrates how implementation of management tools requires leadership for success.  Still, a reader shouldn't plan on taking away a great many lessons not available from other sources.  The book should appeal mainly to those specialists working in the field and to historians rather than most readers


A Simple Mind
	I know a lot of people liked this book, but it didn't work for me. The main character and his buddies run around like chickens with their heads cut off, acting as if they have committed a huge crime. The problem is, they didn't. There is no crime. I talked to several cops and a prominent defense attorney about this plot, and it makes no sense. It would make sense if someone comes after the McGuffin, early on, but no one does, not until very late in the book. So most of the story has no foundation.


Who wrote this?  Surely not Hillerman
	If Tony Hillerman wrote this novel (novella actually), I sure can't tell. I have been a Chee/Leaphorn fan for many years, but this novel is not in the same league with Hillerman's other work. It is reminiscent of a 'B' movie. Instead of building suspense, the plot is laid out all too plainly, the characters are unreal, and the Chee/Bernie romance doesn't ring true.  I am amazed that it was published


This book is only for The Apprentice Lover.
	I gave this book two stars because the book was a little boring and dragged on in some areas. The best information was in the margins and the quotes not really any of the information in the book. I have read: Carolyn, Bill, and Amy's books and I want to give this one a try.

This book is truly for The Apprentice TV lover but if you are looking for business advice this is not the book for you


Cynosure Scallions on the Mountain Look Downwards (Upon?) the Zebus   Sevens
	Really tried to like this book. Premise was grand; story bobbed and weaved; conclusion was flimsy. Discursive scientific literalizations distract   disorient. Crichton breaks the rule to never stanch the flow. I dislike the quartet of scientists who investigate the outbreak; they don't come across to the reader as likeable


Typical, Eurocentric  Stereotypes About Muslims
	I couldn't read past the second chapter.  Roberts is just perpetuating the same old stereotypes about Muslims.  It really steamed me that she used a verse of the Quran out of context for the title page of "The Bitter".  "Your wives are your fields, so go to your fields as you like" isn't meant as a justification of sexual abuse and has never been interpreted as so by real scholars of the Quran.  I'm not going to finish this book, because I'd rather not be reminded of how much I am viewed as some sort of exotic, oppressed "other" type of woman, thanks.


Pathetic
	I bought this book while rushing through an airport terminal needing something to read on the plane.  Not one of my better decisions.  Very wordy, and the dialogue is so clipped and stilted it's totally absurd -- reminds me of the way the cops talked in "Dragnet."  We are talking zero development of characters.  Perhaps Mr. Woods feels he doesn't need to give any depth to characters that he's been writing about in previous books.  Well, he's wrong.  You basically just don't care about these people.  They aren't real, and they talk weird.  Not much action either, unless you count actions like:  they got in the car; they got in the boat; they got in the plane.  You get the picture.  This is another case of a well-known author throwing something together so he can get it on the newsstand and rob you of your money.  Don't fall into his trap like I did.  There are a lot better books out there.


Is Lying a Smart "Business Decision" Like Going To Prison?
	Should Martha Rules have included any information regarding her going to prison as a "business decision"? I would have been interested in reading about the pr strategy used in this "criminal spectacle" designed to make the question of Martha/Mdiddy's innocence a moot point. Are honest business practices being pushed to the side? By normalizing, generalizing, and minimalizing Martha/Mdiddy's crimes, are we loosing our morality? How important is integrity to a leader...former CEO of a company?
Be "thoughtful


Disbelief really hard to suspend!
	Mine got unsuspended with the second boyfriend's death.

I am a great fan of Nora Roberts and really looked forward to this book.  Believe me, it is not one of her best.

I started off admiring her setting and characterization of the Hale family, but, then, this went on way too long.  It also took way too long to get to the real story. The middle of the book bogged down to the point that I had to make myself keep reading, which is very unusual for Nora Roberts.

Much of the plot was over the top unbelievable.  How many boyfriends of one person can be killed?  The 20 year mystic connection with Bo doesn't quite come off, either.

I'll certainly remain a great fan of Roberts, but no one's perfect, I guess.


What, another birthday????
	I found this book very boring. Tyler does a good job on detailing the charictors but I kept waiting for something to happen. Poor Maryam never developed into a person she was so caught up in trying to be a proper
American. I will read another of her books since she is so well thought of


This book is suspect.
	I am by no means an economist, and much less an expert on finance, but this book strikes me as a thinly veiled, unsubtle hatchet job on the efficient markets hypothesis.  I've seen much subtler discussions of the Efficient Market Hypothesis written for general audiences, enough of them so I can recognize that Lowenstein doesn't get it; he equates efficient markets with "the price that the market offers is always the intrinsic value," and not with "you can't reliably predict intrinsic value any better than market prices themselves do."  This is a crucial difference, because it is only by assuming that market efficiency is the first that his attack holds water.

The other thing that makes me very suspicious about this book is the way Lowenstein presents the character of the various people involved in the story, given what his sources are.  Reading between the lines, I just have to wonder if his description of the personality and character of the people he describes as the core folks at LTCM is much too informed by interviews with people who've had a falling out with them


Spinning for Dummies
	This is a moderately well-spun book about the "No Spin Zone." Should be called the "Know Spin Zone" since really nothing in it is objective.  O'Reilly is a case-study in the typesubjective journalism that is prevalent in the media these days and the book shows this.  In other words it's a must read for everyone with the ability to see through it.  If you can't see through O'Reilly's bias then this book is poison


Definitely not up there with Krakauer!
	One of the blurbs I read on the book jacket compared this book to Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm. No way!. Those two books were edge-of-your-seat reading experiences. This account of a kayaking expedition is just plain boring. The action doesn't start until about halfway or more into the book and even then, the cliched writing and deification of Balf's subjects make this book very hard to get through. Unless you are a serious kayaking fan, I would not recommend this book


so nazism is back
	Hey here's an idea. What if Hitler was right all along, only it is men, not jews, who are to blame for all the woes of the world. We should build a new Auschwitz and exterminate them all. Right Andrea? In my opinion, this is just as bad as any misogynist. It's ridiculous garbage like this that has set the women's liberation movement back for so long


Not nearly as compelling as "Rise to Rebellion."
	"The Glorious Cause" is the sequel to "Rise to Rebellion," and since the first novel was so good I eagerly dove into this one, but was disappointed to find it had nowhere near the same depth and quality of characterization. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 4, as compared to the 8 I would give "Rise to Rebellion."

The events recounted in "Rise to Rebellion" involving the lead up to the Revolutionary War seemed so much more detailed and interesting, with a vast array of characters that were so colorful; John Adams, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, and others. "The Glorious Cause" was not without its merits, but it seemed so much drier and less appealing, with a more narrow focus. It was far too long in some parts, to the point my attention wandered, and getting through it was a chore in some sections, unlike the preceding novel which seemed to turn its own pages. I listened to this book on audio tape during my commute, and often found myself impatiently trying to keep my focus upon the narrative while controlling my urge to fast forward to a livelier scene.

One element I felt truly slighted by was the coverage of Benedict Arnold and his defection to the British cause. I assumed this would be one of the lengthier and more rewarding sections of the book, but it zipped by fairly rapidly with little genuine immersion into the subject material.

A mark of a good book is how I feel when I have finished reading it - if I am disappointed I have reached the end of the story, then I know it was time well spent. Getting to the end of "The Glorious Cause" felt more like finishing some particularly grueling outdoor project; it was uncomfortable work, and now that I'm done I feel I can do something a bit more interesting. Because Shaara did such a good job with "Rise to Rebellion" I don't feel my lack of appeal for this book is his responsibility; perhaps the subject matter didn't complement my taste as well. I prefer interesting historial detail over tepid, droning battle descriptions, and I feel the differences between those two categories represent perfectly the differences between "Rise to Rebellion" and "The Glorious Cause.


the plot itself could make a movie on Lifetime or Oxygen
	do yourself a favor - don't waste your time with this book


Repetitive and disjointed
	Not as good as  quot;Entre Nous quot; - less fun and more acedemic. But even then it is not a well written essay. The few good salient points are repeated too often, and with not much creativity or development


Sadly disappointed
	"The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Queen's Fool" are two of the best books I've ever read--and I've read a LOT of books, especially about this period, which especially fascinates me. They were gripping to the end, and my involvement with the characters was complete--true masterpieces. So whenever a new book by Philippa Gregory comes out, I buy it, hoping to have the same experience, and lately have been sorely disappointed. "The Virgin's Lover" fell flat, and now I am trying to read this book but not finding myself engaged, must give it up. One reviewer suggested the books were being written too quickly--that is always an easy guess, however it depends on the writer. Anthony Trollope, for instance, was able to turn out amazing book after amazing book with incredible speed. That may or may not be the case with Gregory. I know, as a writer myself, that there are times when the work flows out, feeling almost as if it's channeled from another source, and times when it's harder, more mechanical. The more challenging situations are those when I'm not entirely convinced or in love with my subject. So to me, neither of these books feels as if they spring from a natural impulse. They feel forced, constructed. I'm going back to Trollope


No stars over Yosemite
	I listened to this as an audiobook.  This is the worst book I've ever listened to from Audible.  The worst.  The narration is just too, too cutesy sweet and the writing is junior high quality at best. Unfortunately, I keep hearing Emperor Franz Josef in Amadeus saying, "It has, well, too many notes."  Barr describes everything  (including clothes, hair, shoes, etc) with multiple metaphors, a plethora of adjectives, and, well, too many notes.  I kept yelling at the author to just shut up and tell the story.

I tried three times to listen to it and just wanted to scream after 10 minutes.  I've heard this woman read other books and quite liked them, but her voice and this story just don't add up to anything other than ear pain and a case of diabetes.

Where's Michael Connelly when you need him


Missed the mark
	I am a Nevada Barr fan and was unfortunately disappointed with "High Country."  The story takes place in a restaurant (boring). The characters were dull and I kept getting them confused. Anna's constant thinking of how old she feels is tiresome. I also missed Anna's sister, Molly, who is only mentioned a few times in the book.

Sorry, but I really can't recommend this book as a good read. If you want to get a feel for a real Anna Pigeon adventure, pick up "Track of the Cat" or "Liberty Falling.


WHAT A WASTE OF $$ (UNLESS YOU HAVE $75,000 TO REDO YOUR KITCHEN)
	This is the same old tired suggestions for cleaning up your clutter.  The suggestions given are to install custom made draws that double and triple pull out.  The suggestion for the pantry was to organize cans from little to big (duh) and then group like items together (duh) that's in every single organizing book published so this one is not different than any other.  Also the other suggestion was to install a pull out swinging triple door pantry system.  Oh is that affordable? If I had $75,000 to redo my kitchen I would install the fancy garbage bin that pulls out of the cabinet and the double drawer pot rack with side lid bins.  Come on, don't waste your money on this book or it's suggestions.  Very few pictures and all for the rich.  I thought Good Housekeeping was for the everyday family.  Get it at the library and then return it after you don't read it.


This Angel Fell Flat
	Hmm, quite a disappointment, especially after splurging on the hardcover edition.  Set as a kind of "Rockies Rear Window," this is one slow story.  Endless pages of crazy-making when I'd already guessed the outcome about halfway through.  Finally skipped ahead to finish the book.  I had really looked forward to Angels Fall, too :(  If you are a Roberts fan, don't spend the money on the hardcover, wait for the paperback, go to the library, or borrow from a friend.  Not worth the price.


LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS
	It was Mark Twain who popularized the aphorism of Benjamin Disraeli that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.  I kept hearing all these marvelous things about FREAKONOMICS, a book by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, so when I ran across it at 25% off, I did a stupid freakin' thing and bought it.  I thought, What the freak, I've got a pretty inquisitive mind and I'm open to seeing things differently, to discovering new viewpoints.

The doubt started early when I got the book home and I first noticed the glowing comments on the dust jacket from the likes of Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.  When all of the liberal news agencies are lining up to tell me how wondrous a certain publication is, I'm immediately going to be freakin' suspicious.  Author Malcolm Gladwell tells us on the cover, "Prepare to be dazzled."  Well, evidently Ol' Malcolm is dazzled a whole lot easier than I am.  (I won't even mention the smug mug of Stephen Dubner that taunted me from the book's dust jacket because I don't want you to get the idea that I judge a book by its cover.  Or in this case, a writer by his physiognomy.  So I won't mention that.)

If you're the kind of person who is amazed to learn that 70% of auto accidents occur within 10 miles of a driver's home, then you just MIGHT be dazzled by FREAKONOMICS.  If I tell you that the company that issues its 5-day-a-week employees only 3 uniform shirts, thinking that it is cutting costs, is probably increasing its overhead, and this fact astounds you  - if you must ask "But how?" - then yes, buy FREAKONOMICS and be dazzled.  Mostly what FREAKONOMICS offers (when its conclusions can be trusted) is just what we used to call "common sense."  But since America has been reduced to a bunch of corpulent, brain-dead zombies staring vacuously at that box of SURVIVORS, and AMERICAN IDOLS, and LOST knuckleheads, good old-fashioned common sense now appears to dazzle the dead (when you can sever them from that box and put a real book in their hands, that is).

I dove into FREAKONOMICS hoping to find my purchase worthwhile.  I got no further than page 13 when my fears were realized: everything would require second-guessing and verifying.  On that page, Smug Mug tells us (based on a single report by the Institute Of Medicine) that "drinking eight glasses of water a day has never actually been shown to do a thing for your health."  Fortunately, I read YOUR BODY'S MANY CRIES FOR WATER by Doctor F. Batmanghelidj over a decade ago so I already knew what a bunch of bunk that was.

In chapter 4, Smug Mug "proves" that legalizing abortion in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision was responsible for a national drop in the crime rate.  This represents the centerpiece of his book, both literally and ideologically.  The first thing the reader must accept is that there really has been a significant drop in crime since the early 1990s.  On page 92, the author acknowledges that the police in Atlanta were discovered to be underreporting crime in the early `90s in hopes of landing the 1996 Olympics.  Well, would police forces nationally have an incentive to underreport crime generally if it has actually dramatically increased since the `90s as predicted?  True, being honest might be means to an increased budget, but it sure would make your department appear inept and unable to maintain control.  And surely the Chamber Of Commerce and the big business interests would frown on that public perception.  Let me ask, do YOU actually feel you're less likely to be the victim of a crime now than you did in the early 1990s?  That's funny, me neither.  There's so much crime now that some of what was once reported to the police agencies goes unreported, and recently, an ex-police officer friend told me that cops can no longer engage in some of the micro-policing they were able to do in the `80s and `90s because crime is so out-of-control now.

In dismissing other possible factors responsible for the huge drop in crime (if this claim is a verity), Dubner states that increased police personnel accounts for only 10% of the drop.  Having a bit more insight into the nature of police work than does the average civilian, it's funny that I find myself even contending with the stats Smug Mug uses that actually WORK AGAINST his theory: I believe the wide-scale hiring of police officers since the early `90s could have impacted the crime rate only minimally - less than the 10% - while actually increasing the municipal coffers via traffic citations significantly.  And Dubner concludes that right-to-carry firearm laws "simply don't bring down crime."  (Be sure to read the utterly fascinating book, GUNFIGHTERS, HIGHWAYMEN   VIGILANTES by Roger D. McGrath, for a decidedly different and scholarly viewpoint!)

In dismissing all explanations for the unexpected drop in crime except legalized abortion, I didn't notice any mention of the tremendous increase in homeschooling and the proliferation of private schools since the early `90s, and I wonder if that might have some statistical bearing.  Ya think?   Yes, I think Smug Mug is selective.  He calls some abortions a "crude and drastic sort of insurance policy."  Not "immoral."  Not "sinful."  But then I didn't expect Smug Mug to call a sin a sin.

And even if Levitt and Dubner's hypothesis is correct, that abortions have lowered crime, the fact remains that not every aborted child would have eventually murdered an innocent person, but every aborted child was an innocent person murdered.  So why are we even discussing this?  I'll tell you why: because the pro-choice folks can feel a slightly shifting consensus, and now they're pulling out all the stops, trying to "statistically" convince the masses that they're safer with all those unborn potential criminals missing.  I find this repulsive!  (And there are studies indicating that those missing people have, and will continue to have, a negative economic impact on society.)

I won't even go into chapter 5, What Makes A Perfect Parent?  Suffice to say that as usual (surprise! surprise!) all the statistics Dubner employs nearly always seem to confirm the rightness of the liberal dogma on each issue.  Funny how those crunched numbers always crunch conservative beliefs.  Just know that if you're a working mother, you haven't cheated your child in the least, but if you're a dad who thinks that an occasional spanking is in order, you are "unenlightened."  If your kid is watching lots of TV, it isn't turning the "child's brain to mush."  (No word on whether or not it's turning his/her morals to mush though.)  And the studies (that we are called to pay attention to) show "that a child's character wasn't much affected whether or not he was sent to day care, whether he had one parent or two, whether his mother worked or didn't, whether he had two mommies or two daddies or one of each."  (I've often wondered what might have happened to me if my Mom, who was home most of the time, hadn't been there to hammer the dangers of drugs into my head day after day, year after year, while I was growing up in the `60s and `70s.)

I've given FREAKONOMICS two stars because I did find the section on the naming of children very interesting, as well as the story of Stetson Kennedy's fight against the "three Ks."  But if you're smarter than I am, you'll borrow this book from your library rather than paying money for it.  Economically speaking, that's just "common cents."


Vastly Over-Written and Vastly Over-Praised
	From the remarks at this site, people either love this novel or hate it. I hated it. I hated it for the reason that it represents all that is bad about MFA program writing in the last 30 years. The emphasis is entirely on STYLE. Forget story. Forget that your reader needs some reason to be reading the narrative. Just throw out and string together wonderful language and the reader will follow you anywhere. Some of this thinking goes back to Henry James, some of it goes back to Virginia Woolf who was so terrified of books with plots or dominating conceits (like H.G. Wells' THE TIME MACHINE). The first 100 pages of this novel are about a real estate deal and the people to whom Frank Bascombe is trying to sell a property. It's brilliantly written. In fact, it's so brilliantly written that I had a lot of problems seeing a former sportswriter being so introspective and articulate about his life, his loves, and the region of the country he inhabits. This book has no driving plot. In fact, it's an arbitrarily chosen conceit: what happens on July 4th in the life of one guy. It's not James Joyce's ULYSSES nor is it trying to be, but EVERY thought this man has is in this book. And none of it is related to a plot or story or any reason whatever why a person--any perso--should pick up the book.

Indeed, that seems to be the crux. I read this book because it was by Richard Ford, a man whom all of my colleagues in the mainstream fiction world revere. You must read this book, they said. So I did. And I consider it an extraordinary waste of my time. To be sure, this is a judgment call, but I'm allowed to make it. EVERY reader is allowed to make that call. But I know I'm in the minority in this. This book is supposed to be one of the greatest American novels of the last 25 years. But will it be so in another 25 years? Are novels now only to be interior monologues (which Virginia Woolf preferred and said so in her essay "Modern Fiction")?

Perhaps our values are changing. Perhaps the MFA programs in this country are correct in only cultivating style rather than story. But what it eventually evolves into is a form of narcissism, wherein the author writes at length, putting on the page all of his or her thoughts about whatever and we're supposed to . . . what? Applaud it?

I believe that the authors we'll remember will be the natural storytellers. I don't think Richard Ford is one of them. But, man, he sure can write


The Anti-Mystery Story
	This was the first Hard Case publication book that I have tried.  It won't be the last, but I was hardly impressed with King's story.

I don't so much mind having a story with no ending (I got the point even without the author's afterword that was obviously meant to propitiate his regular readers who he correctly feared would be disappointed by this latest work), but couldn't King have given more of a mystery?  That is, after all, what is expected of a crime-mystery book.  I can't believe that I was asking too much.  Instead, I was treated to 178 pages of "Welcome to Maine!"


Brainless Squared!
	The "bottom-line" on "Brainless" is that one has to be "brainless" to take time to read Coulter's writings, and even more brainless to waste the time to read an analysis of them.

Yes, it is mildly interesting to learn of Coulter contradictions (eg. bashes the elite, then takes on Harriet Miers - partly because she didn't go to an elite law school, and "I believe everything I say," vs. "Most of what I say, I say to amuse myself and amuse my friends."  And then there are the infinite number of brainless "Coulterisms" and unsupported assertions - eg. "public schools have more sex scandals per year than Catholic priests - thirty times more," "Liberals lie about the science on stem-cell research because they warm to the idea of destroying human embryos," "I've never seen people enjoying their (9/11) husbands' deaths so much."  On the other hand, Maguire really doesn't have that much to say that IS INTERESTING!

On the other hand, if you hadn't figured out already that there is someting seriously wrong with Ann Coulter - this book won't help.  Save your money and your time


Mandelbrot repeatedly claims standard models...
	...are incorrect and that his fractal models are much better. Of course if his models were worth more than the paper they're written on Mandelbrot wouldn't have to write books like this because he'd be cleaning out everyone else's wallets on the stock market. In particular, if it's true that extreme events are more unlikely than most people think then he could easily exploit this with a suitable derivative. But the fact is, Mandelbrot doesn't know anything that countless other traders don't already know. So instead Mandelbrot is forced to resort to telling people how smart he is through his books rather than actually being smart enough to make a killing on Wall Street.

But I am glad I read this book. Having seen Mandelbrot 'on tour' a few years ago I developed a strong prejudice against him. But reading this book has convinced me that my prejudice is entirely justified. He can never just state a fact. Instead he always has a to phrase it as "my work shows that..." or "I demonstrated that..." even if he makes the same claim again and again. If he can try to take credit for other people's work he'll do so. He even managed to find someone to write an introduction for the book who was prepared to refer to the Levy distribution as the Mandelbrot-Levy distribution. The most egregious example of self-aggrandisement has to be the caption to a picture of the Brooks-Metelsky-Mandelbrot set where he mentions that two mathematicians only scaled part way up his 'Everest' of this set and received Fields medals for this work - the implication of course being that Mandelbrot has actually seen the view from the summit. Disgustingly he doesn't even deign to mention the names of these mathematicians.

One time I criticised Mandelbrot publicly and someone responded by pointing out how many peer reviewed papers he had published so he can't be all bad. But in this book Mandelbrot actually reveals to us how he used his social network to work around the peer review system. Astonishing!

I think it's also worth pointing out that there are some interesting ideas in this book and so it's not completely valueless. But I found the discussion of multifractal time methods (which make up a large part of the book) to generate plausible looking but fake price charts to be a bit pointless. I work in computer graphics and use similar methods to generate random surface detail all the time, but it doesn't mean I have a deep understanding of the statistics of random surfaces. It just means I know how to fool the eye


Can you save someone's soul by insulting their intelligence?
	To cover all the problems with continuity, logic, theology, geography and plain common sense in _Left Behind_ would take a whole book.  One hardly knows where to start.

Perhaps it is too early to assess the damage that will be done to Christian religion by this trashy novel.  As such, it isn't even a decent trashy novel; instead of steamy sex scenes, we get sanctimonious sermonizing.  Worse than that, what the authors have done is to turn the powerful imagery of the Bible into a cheap comic book, ignoring its spiritual messages in favor of promoting a self-centered preoccupation with getting a ticket to heaven before it's too late.

The comic book aspect can not be overemphasized.  Even if you suspend disbelief enough to accept the rapture scenario (an idea with virtually no scriptural support), little in the characters' actions, thought processes or dialog rings true.  One gets the impression that the book was hastily thrown together by a junior high school student.  God ends up looking like the ultimate villain, demanding that you hurry up and get yourself and your friends on his side Or Else.

Whatever happened to the inspiring Christian writers of yesteryear?  Who is the present-day equivalent of C. S. Lewis, or Catherine Marshall, and why aren't they getting more attention?  These were writers who actually made you THINK.  LaHaye and Jenkins seem to believe that thinking is the last thing God wants us to be doing; they hardly miss a chance to put down anyone with any hint of intelligence or independent thought.  They show no interest in answering the sort of hard questions that surviving non-believers in such a world might ask.  One wonders if they have ever met a non-believer at all, or witnessed the aftermath of a disaster for that matter.

These days, it seems as if all the media attention is on the likes of Ann Coulter or Pat Robertson, whose mission seems to be to turn Christianity into a twisted, bigoted caricature of what it once was.  Perhaps all the great religious thinkers really have been raptured.  If _Left Behind_ is an example of the sort of writing that we can expect from Christian writers, then it is the church itself that is in danger of being left behind


doesn't have it all
	While this book contains a ton of data, don't get it if you want calorie counts on anything homemade.  If you look up french toast, for example, it only gives information on name brand items.  Much of the information in the book is available on the packaging of the products.  I suppose that if you wanted to check it before shopping, or use it before eating out, it would be helpful.  But if you want to find out the caloric content of any homemade items, you are out of luck with this book


A disappointment
	This book was selected by my book club. I had never read Anna Quindlen before.  Rise and Shine was a disappointment to me.  I kept hoping that Meghan would somehow be redeemed, but that did not happen.  She is really not very likeable.  I thought there would have been more of a dialog between the sisters concerning Leo's tradgedy.  Meghan blamed her sister in one line and then it was never brought up again.  The book left me with an empty feeling.  It was not a satisfying read


A note of dissent
	In addition to the fact that I, too, felt that I was enduring a commercial for DFA, I was annoyed by the fact that this book is nothing more than a rehash of The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need: Index Mutual Funds and Beyond - The Way Smart Money Invests Today, Swedroe's May, 1998 book. He introduces a small number of new studies and illustrations, but if you've read the first book, there's no reason to look at this one


wrong item sent
	I received a book that I didn't even order.  The one I ordered is yellow and white ( 3th edition).  THis isn't the one I ordered; therefore, I need a refund.I sent the book back and I know the seller received it on 8/19


Another not -so- helpful rant
	It is sad that this is what passes for political commentary now.  Coulter's work demonstrates exactly the potential danger for degrading society and disdain for thinking that people like Ms. Coulter piously/hypocritically rail against.  She will happily take the same formula to the bank time and again.  Why must political discussion turn to childish name calling in order to convince self-selected audiences of something they already want to believe.   Pitiful rants here.  If you are in it for fun or don't care that you are getting a skewed, sensationalist opinion, maybe you should read a few paragraphs of this in the book store.  But for something better, why not go for an intelligent book that takes an even handed, analytical approach, rather than buy into the opinions of a new breed of political analyst (on both right and left) that race to produce the most extreme charactures of any political philosophy they do not happen to agree with.


Crops, Crops and More Crops
	I had to read Jared Diamond's Pulitzer prize winning book because of the rave reviews and acclaim. The thoughts that he introduces in the book are certainly interesting and he presents us with a new way to interpret history which is certainly important. However, there is much overkill in making points about the development of each civilization - crops are the major topic with little discussion on guns, germs (more than the other 2), and steel. Of course the arguement for this focus is that the domestication of crops is how civilizations develop guns, germs and steel. I enjoyed parts of the book considerably, but you would have to have a strong interest in horticulture and botany to truely appreciate the book. I guess I was spoiled by first reading his sequel to GGS, "Collapse" - a terrific read that should be of interest to everyone -it relates our industrialization to every aspect of the environment and show historically how this has shaped history. It has major rammifications for our situation on this earth right now. -RK


Sean Hannity should be arrested
	When the truth about 911 is known he must not escape justice. He is a criminal and must be treated like one. Christian Peper


Giants standing on his shoulders
	Hal Abelson is responsible for a famous epigram, "If I haven't seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders."

This book is solidly enough written, but it's a cut-down, shallow rehash of a few justly famous functional programming textbooks.  The first is Abelson and Sussman's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs"; the second, Bird and Wadler's "Introduction to Functional Programming".

If you want to really learn deep truths about programming, go buy those two books.  If they leave you scratching your head about how to transmogrify what you learn into Perl, buy Schwartz's "Perls of Wisdom"


Biased genetic studies?
	Author La Guardia mentions how the Lemba of Africa have the Jewish gene. Fine! But when he deals (in several pages mind you)with the Falashas (also of Africa) he never mentions that genetic studies have positively shown these Jews NOT to be descended from the 12 Tribes of Israel despite the Falashas's longtime rep for possibly being a Lost Tribe of Israel which, again, has now been 100% disproven through genetic studies


Dick Morris- degenerate
	Just a reminder that this guy cheated on his wife around the same time Clinton was being pounded for his indiscretions.
Sean Hannity, early in his book "Let Freedom Ring" reminded us of how Bill Clinton tainted the office of the presidency and then not two paragraphs later noted how Morris was a good friend of his (Hannity's) and then led into negative opinions on Morris of Clinton.  Didn't bother to mention anything about Morris doing the exact same thing- and this little worm woulda lied with his palm on the Ark of the Covenant so don't give me (...) about the lame@ss lying under oath Republican punk.  (...) hyprocrite!


Typical liberal rhetoric.
	I first read passages from this book in college.  I can now see how liberal professors very much enjoy using this book to influence young minds.  Professor Zinn is a far left author.  He uses the usual lines: America generally bad, communism generally good.  Obviously Mr. Zinn has the right to write whatever he wants, and his writing style is very convincing.  However, if the reader investigates the facts, many holes become visible in his theories.  Those who agree and disagree with his writings should explore opposite viewpoints.  A good example is "Intellectual Morons : How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas by Daniel J. Flynn" which gives the reader a good profile of Mr. Zinn.


Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of  Finacce
	Poorly proof read and obfuscatingly written, this book had the potential to clarify for the many the importance of Black's contributions.  It was a frustrating read due to lack of clarity and lack of simple explanations about the significance of Black's work


Did anyone proofread this?
	I agree with the reader(s) who said this book totally contradicts itself and seems thrown-together, as if no one proofread it.  In one chapter she'll recommend something; then later on she'll tell you it's ineffective and/or dangerous!  She gives a long, long list of herbal supplements that are supposed to aid weight loss -- but she just repeats all the advertisers' claims without any comments, recommendations or opinions of her own.  Personally I think most natural/ herbal supplements are a ripoff, but if she had given any testimonials by people who've found them to work, I might consider trying them. On the whole, this book is a waste of money


Save your money
	What a complete and utter waste of time.  Its obvious how these guys got dubbed the nutroots


There's nothing new here
	There isn't anything in this book that you won't find in Warren Buffett's annual letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (available for free at the Berkshire Hathaway website).  If you've not read those letters then I suggest you get right to it - they clearly lay out Mr Buffett's approach to investing and are written in a very easy to read, humorous and homely style.

This book pulls many of the highlights from those letters together in one place and lays out some major tenets and themes that could be said to make an investment "Buffett like".

If you're not familiar with Warren Buffett and have not read his letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway - then you will likely find this to be a good introduction to Buffett.  Anybody else should probably steer clear as there isn't anything new here.


A tragedy indeed....
	"The Last River - The Tragic Race for Shangri-la".......Tragic. Yes I'd agree that this book is tragic.
Tragic that I bothered reading it.....tragic that I paid for it in order to read it.....tragic that Todd wasted his time writing it......tragic that I disliked it so much that I can be bothered writing a review.
The warning should have come upon examination of the back of the dust jacket. "Advance praise for The Last River" it reads. In retrospect this means no one is prepared to recommend the book after they have read it.
It seems that Todd had a vision of how big a book needs to be, and went to great lengths to flesh out the story to reach his goal. So much of the content has so little relevancy to the story, that you soon tire trawling through it.
This was my third Tsango experience. I do recommend the Outside documentary on the Lindgren expedition. "Hell or High Water" is not outstanding, but is worth a read, but on this book, my advise to Todd is please make this the Last River that you drag through the wringer


Random thoughts?
	This books should be called "The random thoughts of a rich old man."   It appears to me someone followed Mr. Buffet around and wrote down what ever he said then thought "how do I present this is a book?,  oh how about a random collection of dis-jointed thoughts! yea that's  it!!


On Democracy? or On Over Simplification?
	This book is great! Assuming you already have a Ph. D. in Political Science. Otherwise this book is best reserved for drop quoting, or light reference. The author shows bias towards the United States' form of  Democracy, as is to be expected in such a book. The simplistic nature makes  the reader annoyed more than informed. The childish approach is suited for  school children, but not as appropriate as other books for real analysis


Even 3 paragraphs show the inaccuracy
	Hart disputes O'Reilly's claim that the US "gives far and away more tax money for foreign coutries than anyone else....." by countering that per capita the U.S. is near the bottom of the list. O'Reilly wasn't quoted as saying "more tax money per capita".

More goofy reasoning by someone who ought to know better.


This diet made me sick!
	After two weeks on this diet plan I could bearly lift my head up.  I nearly fell asleep driving home from work nights...not to mention hardly staying awake while at work.  I thought it would be a pleasant change from the restrictions of Atkins, but I was never tired on Atkins.  I don't know if it had something to do with insulin from the sudden onslaught of carbs...or what the problem was.  All I know is I am happily following Atkins and losing much more rapidly than I did on this CAD plan.  In two weeks I lost 6 lbs. on CAD...14 on Atkins.  You figure it out


Founding Work of Modern Statism
	This book, above all others, reveals the breakdown of classical (libertarian) liberalism into the statist liberalism of today.  Although the first part of the work, being a refutation of Edmund Burke's silly  nonsense, is stellar, and is well worth reading.  Regardless, the second  part, the chapter on  quot;Ways and Means quot; in particular, is composed  of the most despicable, anti-liberty doctrines that one can find.  What  Paine basically proposed was a late 18th century form of the welfare state,  replete with progressive taxation, subsidies for child birth, and other  fine statist amenities.  Thus, as all of these things are, in his words, to  be claimed as rights, the title of this book comes to mean nothing  whatsoever.  It is indeed sad that Thomas Paine has gained such an enduring  legacy as a friend to liberty.  In truth, he is actually one of its worst  enemies, as he combines a just zeal for resistance to oppression,  revolution, and reason, he sabotages his entire political philosophy


Almost Pornographic
	I enjoy reading books of trivia and fun facts, but I didn't even make it through the first chapter before I put this book down in disgust. Almost every entry had to do with sex or male endowments. As I was flipping through the book, I found x-rated pictures and drawings that I would hate to have to explain to my children if they were to pick up this book. I never would have bought this book if I had seen it in a bookstore, and I regret throwing it in the trash before I could see if I could get my money back


Great lesson in how to dramatize and sell books..
	Anyone that knows anything about Milken knows that the guy created millions of jobs, and contributed much more to society than people like James Stewart, who often act like parasites at the expense of others.

And what about Milken's life after this whole affair? I wonder what Stewart will write about in the sequel, since Milken has taken on a life of philanthropy basically unrivaled, and certainly contributes more to this country than most. Milken's creation of a liquid market for junk bonds allowed credit risk to be redistributed throughout the capital markets, effectively creating more capital, more jobs, and more wealth creation.

Anyone up and coming in IB, or looking to inform themselves of the 80's capital movement, please at least check out some other perspectives on the era.

Note: These comments don't apply to Boesky or the arbs who were doing nothing but breaking the law. I would argue a strong distinction between Milken and most of the other characters in this book


Will Be A Collector's Item Some Day
	I recently saw this book on the bargain bin.  This book was pure garbage, by two arrogant 20-somethings in clown suits.  Basically they are saying valuations don't matter.  Since they wrote the book, it has been prooven that their philosophy, approached over the long term, produces some great damaging losses.  The book may be useful during the next bubble, which if history serves, will occur well after these clowns pass on to the big three-ring circus in the sky.  To the dungeon with these two knaves


Shockingly overrated!
	Our book club read this last month and not a single member had anything good to say about this book.  As the facilitator, I was surprise by the consensus since we usually have at least one or two members who love the monthly selection.  The writing is disjointed to the point that Ms. Krauss loses her reader.  Then when she introduces the potential that many of the chapters might just be imaginary interactions between the characters, the reader is left extremely frustrated.  I really cannot imagine how Ms. Krauss' novel has garnered so many stellar reviews


Just plain dumb
	I am having a hard time understanding why people have raved about this book.  I guess everyone is entitled to have loyal fans, but I just don't see what was great, or even good, about this story.

Two teenagers enter a school and end up killing seven people.  They are caught, they confess, and the Grandmother of one of the killers hires Spenser to prove the boy's innocense.  We are given the impression a great mystery, with possible red herrings, is about to entertain us.  Alas, it is not to be.  The kids did it, plain and simple.  Why they did it is so stupid.  The story reads as though a sixth grader has written it.  The plot is lame, and even as lame as it is, it isn't executed well at all.

The characters are boring and 2 dimensional.  The banter which takes place between the main character and others, while it seems to be trying to be witty, is just dumb and unbelievable.  I just can't say enough about how stupid this story is.  There are too many wonderful mystery authors out there writing gripping, intense works of fiction to waste your time on this one.  This is the first novel I have read by this author and will most definitely be my last


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.


Long on Verbiage, Short on Plot, and Ultimately Pointless
	The book jacket for "The Ruins" offers a can't-miss premise:  a group of post-grad American tourists at play in Mexico jump at the chance for a little adventure among Mayan ruins but find but then find themselves in unimaginable danger.  It's the stuff of great Summer thrillers ready to be taken to the beach.  But 319 pages later, the reader is left to wonder whether or not the publisher put the wrong book in the jacket.

Almost immediately, you'll notice that Smith's writing is as dense as the jungles that make the setting.  However, despite the endless stream of words, his descriptions are often threadbare.  Plus, there are no chapter breaks, which eventually pushes the pace until it feels like an assignment to continue.

Next, the characters themselves begin to fall flat.  There are only really two couples to keep track of, and yet it's difficult for the first third of the book to distinguish them.  There is little to keep you interested in what they're doing or why they might be doing it.  Smith's attempts at developing these four as characters come in fits and spurts.  This seems obviously haphazard and hurried - the author is jamming in backstory whenever needed to explain characters' actions as if he were patching leaks in a dam.  By the end of the book, the foursome seems to be as disinterested in each other as the reader is in them.

And for the readers who are hoping to discover something of interest in the setting such as Mayan mythology or archeological lore, forget it.  Aside from language barriers with the locals, there is no reason why this fantastical story couldn't have been set in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, the Saharan desert, or anywhere else.  The danger posed has nothing to do with Mexico, archeology or mythology at all.

Ah yes, the danger posed.  Well, I can't say much at all because anyone could give away the entire book with one line of explanation - that's how thin the plot is.  The numerous other reviews that fault this as a short story masquerading as a novel are exactly right.  Suffice it to say that when you do realize what the danger is (and you'll realize it well before any of the well-educated characters do), it's a real eye-roller, as if to say "I read this many pages for THIS?".

By the time the story concludes, it's more irritating than suspenseful.  The characters take so long to blithely undertake any course of action at all that you'll start rooting against them.  Eventually scenes of gore start piling up in an obvious and lazy attempt to interject some action, but even aside from being misdirected, it's too little too late.

This book could have been an adventure, a supernatural thriller, a survival tale, or a horror screenplay.  It could have even taken the high road as an examination on people's reactions to situations of extreme stress:  some take the lead, even enjoying the challenge, while others whither into a shell of hopelessness.  But none of the possibilities ever come to fruition in this disappointing effort.


A major disservice to the book
	The book THE LOST CONTINENT is an amazing captivating read.  Bryson is truly brilliant in his descriptions.  This CD totally KILLS that.  First of all the narrator reads at a mile a minute, sometimes to the point where you can't understand him.  And second, they abridged the CRAP out of it, cutting some of the most interesting commentary and actually cutting the entire SECOND HALF of the book!  While the book is amazing, this particular recording of it should be avoided at all costs


What, another birthday????
	I found this book very boring. Tyler does a good job on detailing the charictors but I kept waiting for something to happen. Poor Maryam never developed into a person she was so caught up in trying to be a proper
American. I will read another of her books since she is so well thought of


boring
	What a waste of time. This was like sitting through a very boring business course. I was never interested in turning the page. I would have liked to see more of Carly personal side and maybe some human aspect to this story.Instead I felt like a robot was telling this story.Very much of how great her business style was and very little about anything else. I forced myself to finish this. A huge diaappointment.Don't waste your money


Bones: Buried Deep
	I am a huge fan of Kathy Reichs' novels and of the TV Series, Bones. However, this book was quite a disappointment to me. I did not care for the way the author wrote dialogue -- Brennan's dialog is not that simplimatic on the TV program, and she certainly would never say, "Where at!?" The author way overused the joke where Brennan did not "know what that means."

All I could think of was how much better this novel would have been if written by Reichs herself.

I started to jot down the holes in the story but quit after a while


Poorly written
	This is a badly written, repetitive and self-serving account, largely, of the foolishness of  quot;portflio insurance. quot; That things which are  quot;just like quot; something else may not be so in reality, and that  magic fixes in the market (which after all fly in the face of the  rational-expectations/efficient-market hypotheses which often are built  into the view of the market being relied on) I guess needs to be pointed  out regularly, since hope of quick, uninformed, and painless fixes seem to  reoccur with each new wave of financial charlatans and the greed they feed  on. Jacobs does point out such problems for a particular, rather bizarre  episode, and suggests, not too coherently, that such  quot;scams quot; are  still prevalent. However, He does this in a horribly repetitive and  self-laudatory way that is not really very clearly argued


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


Real dogs need real care Not  quot;dummies quot; info
	This book is so full of misinformation that I shudder to think (since it is in the  quot;dummies quot; series), that this may be the only information that many people will read before they embark upon a very serious commitment with a dog.

 It is poorly researched, full of dogma and nonsense.

 If you have to read a  quot;quick book quot; find one written by an expert - a veterinarian, or anyone with a track record in animals. Instant info can be found on bulletin discussion boards, magazines etc


Don't waste your money...
	...you can waste your time and save your money by checking this out of your local library.

If you want to get an "inside view" of the inner workings of Wall Street during the excessive gyrations of the '80s, then read Den of Theives - that book is well written and well worth the money!

What turned me off about this book was the structure and the writing style.  The first half of the book was essentially the author relating fortuitous circumstances that were the product of Serendipity.  He was simply in the right place at the right time, had virutally no idea how he got there, felt out of place the whole time (even when he was raking in the Big Bucks in NY and London), and so now he thought he'd wwrite a book about it.  I also got the sense that he was trying to assuage some guilt from his association at Salomon Brothers.  He was there, he made a lot of money, good for him - get over it!

I was also pretty disappointed because the subject matter has A LOT more potential.  I might have actually enjoyed it - had I not read Den of Theives 7 years earlier, and already had some idea of how things took place.  But, if you can get it for $5 or less (including shipping), and you have little to no knowledge of what an investment banker's life is like (and you haven't also seen the movie Wall Street (which covers the same highlights in this book)), then it's probably worth it.

I did like the wrap up he did towards the end of the book, relating where he had heard everyone from the firm ended up...althought that seemed a little rushed..


Sophomoric and sloppy.
	I'll preface this by saying I'm a cryer.  I cry at movie previews when they simply look entertaining.  I cried all the way through Superman Returns.  I did not, however, shed one tear during Message in a Bottle.

In English class, I always learned to "show, not tell" when writing.  When that is your rule of thumb, you'll write a moving piece of literature, even if you're not completely skillful.  Sparks is the master of telling without showing.

I'm honestly baffled by all the good reviews it gets.  The story is somewhat engaging, but with no payoff.  But the work is filled with passages like (and these are from memory; if I picked up the book to look for verbatim examples I'd have to type the entire thing), "He went to the refrigerator, opened the door, and took a beer.  After opening it, he sat down on the back deck."  Or, "Though she was overweight, she moved quickly around the table."  "She got out of the shower, dried off, and put on khaki shorts and a white cotton shirt."  Have you read enough yet?

I'm new to the romance genre.  My mother-in-law recommended Sparks because -- I think she was trying to imply -- his sex scenes aren't too graphic.  They were to me, but then, I'm new to romance, and spoiled by the masterful, unequaled storytelling skill of Stephen King.

Please hold your New York Times bestsellers to a higher standard.  Let's hold on to whatever quality control we can in music, movies, and literature


Definitely not Alcott's "Little Women"
	I started reading this book expecting to like it - it's historical, related to Little Women, won the Pulitzer, doesn't feel like fluff, etc. However I had a really difficult time getting into the book.

For one, the language sounded much more pretentious than historically accurate. I've read other works from the time period she's supposed to be writing in, and rather than feeling in keeping with that era, this book felt indicitive of someone who makes full use of her thesaurus.

Also, I haven't read her other book so i didn't enter this novel with a trust for the author. Consequentally, I found that as she mentioned connections to Little Women, I became defensive. She had not proven to me that she had the right to use this work. In some of her character choices, such as one of the first encounters between March and Marmee (I'm not going to go into details so as not to spoil the scene), I believe that she made a radical departure from anything that Alcott would have written of her characters, and that Brooks really did not stay true to the original.

The first half of the book is also really dry. This could just be my personal taste, but the first half moved so slowly! The book started to pick up about half way through. Overall, the story being told and the Civil War aspects weren't bad, and could be a decent story in their own right if she'd just speed things along at the beginning.

However, I think Brooks did the book a major disservice by linking it to Little Women. I bristled every time she mentioned an individual from the book, because she was really changing their characters (other than Aunt March). The choices that Brooks' characters made were not in keeping with choices they may have made in Alcott's book.

In the afterward, Brooks discussed her research and how she actually based the March family and particularly Mr. March more on the Alcott family itself than on the characters from Little Women, even commenting how the March Family in Alcott's book isn't very interesting, and how "Nobody in real life is such a goody-goody as that Marmee." If she felt that way, then why use them as the basis for her book? Seen in that context, her earlier *huge* liberties with Marmee's character seem to just be a way to "stick it" to Alcott: "ha ha, look how much more realistic Marmee is now!


Not realistic for most people
	While I found the writing style good and the information interesting, the actual diet was unrealistic, too restrictive and lacking fun basics that make other diets tolerable. I found myself longing for spices (how bad could pepper really be?) and questioning the validity of their restriction. I couldn't stand the ground-up flax seeds in my cranberry cocktail - the texture reminded me of trying to drink mud with little bugs in it (or what I imagine that to be).

I'm not writing this to disparage anyone from trying the diet - if you can handle the restrictions and you have the self-control required, you might find this diet doable and rewarding. I tried the Fat Flush with a group from work - inspired by one woman who is able to do the flush again and again every year (she always gains the weight back). The rest of us, while successful for varying degrees of short periods, found the diet unrealistic for any long-term results - all of us gained the weight back and spurred by instant weight loss, some even picked up worse habits than they began with.

The funny thing is I found much of the health information useful or interesting, but I got rid of the book b/c sitting on my shelf it reminded  me of unrealistic goals and failure - not what I want out of a get-healthy  plan.

I'm writing this review so that others don't get sucked in by all of the positive reviews hoping for lasting results - 3 of us didn't have any


Biased genetic studies?
	Author La Guardia mentions how the Lemba of Africa have the Jewish gene. Fine! But when he deals (in several pages mind you)with the Falashas (also of Africa) he never mentions that genetic studies have positively shown these Jews NOT to be descended from the 12 Tribes of Israel despite the Falashas's longtime rep for possibly being a Lost Tribe of Israel which, again, has now been 100% disproven through genetic studies


an odd mix  but 3 stars
	As many have stated before me the book starts off with great promise for people who like historical fiction, however midway it turns into a romance novel.  I give it 3 stars for holding my attention.  A good beach read that can get you thinking (a little) about a time past.  The one star is a mistake and I cannot seem to change it.   3 ***  stars


The book is not complete and at times can be misleading
	Being a student of photojournalizm in Moscow, Russia, I looked for the most complete book on photographic composition that is available. I had studied one book on the subject by the russian author, but knowing that photography in the US is much more developed and professional I was striving to get a book by a professional photographer.

I was disappointed by the book "Photographic Composition" by Tom Grill for a number of reasons:

1. It does not cover all important compositional elements, and those that it covers are not explained in full detail. It does not explain:
- how elements with the similar shapes, similar sizes or similar tone interact with each other,
- the reverse perspective effect and its uses,
- why right and left sides of the photograph differ and why, how it can be used on practice,
- how to balance "weight" of different elements of the photograph, it touches it briefly and furthermore provides an incorrect example,
- difference between compositional center and the center of interest, how to balance them if they are in different parts of the photo (does not match each other)
- all signs of perspective, it does not say anywhere that overlapping of objects is a clear sign of perspective (trivial as it may sound, it still should be marked in any complete work, especially when the author covers other three elements)
- and much much more.

2. It does not use photographs of the best masters to illustrate the topic, neither does it show how composition works in art, which I believe is very important.

3. Most examples are in color, while most ideas on composition are best explained using B W photographs.

4. Last but not least, composition is about meaning, making a message, not just how to balance different elements within a frame. The book makes this statement, but in my opinion fails to provide poverful examples, while you can fully appreciate the power of composition only by studying powerful photos with good explanation why precisely this photo is good.

OVERALL: I believe that if you want to study composition you want to know all important considerations, not just a few and briefly explained "how-to-quickly-improve-any-photo-you-take". This books fails to provide complete approach to composition and at times can be misleading.

I'd be very grateful if you could recommend me (and other folks that look at our reviews) a more thorough book on composition, I'm sure there must be a good book in english on that subject. Thanks!

P.S. For those who can read in russian I advise a book by A. Lapin "Fotografiya kak..", which compared to the book by Tom Grill explains composition in full


All Dressed up, No Place to Go
	Although Dead Soul begins quite decently and surprisingly for Doss, who has a tin ear for dialogue, dearly loves a cardboard character, and has no sense of plot, it rapidly and unsurprisingly disintegrates into a mangle of missed opportunities.

Since most plot reveals take place off scene, you have no idea what's going on until the end where Charlie tells all. Is this supposed to create suspense? Does Doss even realize how ridiculous this is? Does he have an editor? Can the editor read English? Now these are real questions for Charlie to answer


pathetic
	The Winner and Absolute  truth made me continue reading Baldacci books.His last few books Christmas Train and Split Second were awful.Now Baldacci takes his left leaning anti american feelings and tries to shove it down our throats.That was the last money I ever spend on a Baldacci book,I even threw out his good books. Shut up Baldacci and write fiction books. Your ideas do not get through in this non fiction world


Perfect cure for insomnia
	A friend going through the same problems as I am was strongly recommended this book by her therapist and she bought it for me, as well.  I was enthusiastic to read it and at least understand these emotions.  If I could actually use the information to help myself, all the better.  I was warned that the beginning was a bit slow and hard to get through, so I struggled through it, expecting it to get easier to read.  It didn't.  It's been sitting by my bed for months with the bookmark at page 104 and I'm really sorry because I'm sure that the contents are useful and interesting, but I just can't get past that page 104.  I normally refuse to leave a book half unread, but this just has to be an exception because every time I pick it up I fall asleep within 3 or 4 pages.

I agree with some of the previous reviewers that there is way too much emphasis on the actual workings of the meetings.  I feel like I'm watching a video of it, as every minimal thing is described in incredible detail.  But I wanted to read this book to understand the views and conclusions of the group, not to become an expert on the tea breaks they had.  Also, I felt lost as the scientific tests they had previously carried out were explained in such detail, I ended up having to skim over some sections.

This may be a great resource for those who have great patience and/or a scientific background, but too much for a regular Joe like me


A wallowing, depressing and ugly book with no redeeming value whatsoever
	This is the worst, most depressing piece of fiction I have ever read.  There is no real protoganist and not one singular character worthy of admiration--and after a while, their actions just become inexplicable.  The author's soul must truly be an ugly one to have devoted so much time and energy to using his mind to generate so many casual acts of evil throughout the book.  It starts out promising but by the time you get to about halfway through the book or so you get a nagging sense that your very own soul might be sucked out of you and permanently stolen by the heart of Neil Gaiman's darkness or one of his minions.  Additionally, the characters' motivations change like the shifting sands, nothing they do makes any real sense except some inexplicable movement towards doing greater and more evil en masse like some sort of coagulating bacteria or disease.  What is so creepy about this book is the casualness of it all.  Unlike some of Stephen King's work (ie: The Stand), there is absolutely no redeeming thread here--no rallying or marshalling the troops to combat the emerging evil.  It's evil in evil vs. evil surrounded by evil.  All I can say is that this book is ugly, ugly, ugly.  At least writers like Joyce Carol Oats and Joseph Conrad's intentions when writing about such things is to effectively demonstrate the ill effects of such darkness, but to make heroes of characters one should avoid is unconscionable.  The choices the supposed protoganist makes make no sense--and you do root for  him in the very beginning but you find he is just like one of them after all.  I suspended my doubt and disbelief as long as I could but finally became so incensed by the audacity of both the literary critics and the author to pass this off as excellence, I literally stopped mid-sentence and chose to never read this author's work again.  It's a shame too because he has allied himself in other incarnations with a truly gifted artist, Dave McKean, who maybe hasn't completely gone over to the dark side like Neil has.  His association with Dave McKean is the only reason I even opened-up the book--and maybe a little because the title intrigued me.  But it's unfortunate that the industry rewards "clever" works such as Mr. Gaiman's with undue praise.  I've never so strongly disliked a book.  Have you ever found yourself getting angry because you felt robbed or duped by a book?  Well, don't believe the hype, this is the one to throw in the trash or disintegrate with X-men eyeball laserbeams before all your humanity is sucked out of you


I really wanted to like this book
	If Julia Glass had not set the bar so high with Three Junes, I would have given the book 3 stars instead of 2.  There are sentences, paragraphs, even pages of brilliance in this book, but it is as if winning the National Book Award gave Ms. Glass unconditional confidence in her writing, and character development in particular.  She seemed out of touch with the major demographics the narrative slings around.  As another reviewer wrote, the writing process seemed transparant.  Reading the book, you get the feeling that the characters are what Ms. Glass (a privileged white woman of a certain age) imagines teenagers, or New Mexicans, or black chauffeurs, or Hispanic nannies, or even gay people to be like.  She is like a tourist who voyeuristically delights in other cultures without really understanding them.  The teenagers and the Santa Fe inhabitants are the most painful examples of caricatures.  Greenie might be the most believable, and although I understood why she was falling out of love with her gloomy Alan, I wasn't sucked along with her when she falls in love with "the other Charlie".  He was only very mildly interesting and certainly not worth (even temporarily) losing your child over.  With Saga, she manages to develop her most sympathetic character, but Saga's life is left floating and unresolved at the end.  Even the brief appearance of Fenno, who I loved in Three Junes, lacked intensity and seemed gimmicky.  All and all, a very disappointing second novel.  You have to wonder, since most reviewers are pointing out all of the same problems with character, what good is her editor?


Over Rated
	I heard all of these great things about this book etc...... So I got a copy and let me tell you it was a huge let down. I can honestly say it had loads of disgusting passages that I did not find at all entertaining. The "bowel movement" chapter was totally repulsive. I found it self indulgent, he had a crappy upbringing, that does not make for a good book


Long and drawn out
	This seemed too long and too drawn out


A little bit more than who's who, but definitely not how they achieved greatness
	Simple arithmetic and you know it's stupid to expect much from a 227 content book that attempts to tell the success stories and forumlas of 55 business leaders. Definitely everyone of them deserves its own biography instead of an average 4.13 pages. So I had lowered my standard before I read it. Still I had been quite disappointed. All passages were columns published previously on IBD written by different reporters that not only the writing style but the focus on individual leaders fluctuated much between hard data/history and success formula, primarly on the former. I am sorry that I could gain little knowledge/insight (that I really wanted to learn "how" they succeeded) during the reading. I felt even worse after reading from the previous reviewer that the content had been available on the net. In short, please give this book a pass!


Wow, what a disappointment!
	"The Most Anticipated Book in the History of Poker!" exclaims a blurb on the cover.  Well, if so, I can tell you that a lot of people have been, or are going to be, VERY disappointed.  Comparing the classic Super/System from 1978 with this book is, to paraphrase Mark Twain, like comparing lightning to the lightning bug.

This book is more of a tribute to Doyle Brunson than it is "A Course in Power Poker."  Johnny Chan writes a fairly vacuous Preface in which he lauds Brunson, but doesn't say anything about how to play.  Then we have Brunson's Introduction in which he tells us mostly about the contributors to the first Super/System.  Next there is an autobiographical sketch by Brunson entitled, "My Story."  (If you want a book that gives the real flavor of Brunson's "story," get a copy of According to Doyle (1984).  It contains 47 chapters in which Brunson recalls his early days and life on the road.)

Following "My Story" is a short history of Texas Hold'em by Crandell Addington which isn't much, and then there is the first chapter that could actually be considered part of a course in power poker.  This would be 43 tips from Mike Caro cribbed from his lectures and books.  However the tips are hardly "exclusive" for SuperSystem2 as claimed.  Beginning with Caro's cute but now very familiar, "In the beginning, everything was even money," most or all of the tips have been recycled.  For example, Tip #18, page 146, "WHEN A FREQUENT BETTOR CHECKS TO YOU...don't bluff" is just about the same as Tip #10 "Seldom bluff if frequent bluffers have checked into you" found on page 137 in Caro's Fundamental Secrets of Winning Poker (1996).  In fact Caro even recycles his "exclusive" tips in this very book.  Tip #31 says that PLAYERS STARING AWAY...are almost always more dangerous than players staring at you," while Tip #40 says in part that "OPPONENTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BET OR RAISE IF THEY ARE: ...(3) staring away."

Jennifer Harman's chapter on limit hold'em is so ordinary that it's remedial.  There's not even a hint of anything new.  There are a number of books on the market that cover the same ground much more thoroughly.  I especially recommend Small Stakes Hold'em: Winning Big with Expert Play (2004) by Ed Miller, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth or anything by Sklansky.  Also her insistence on referring to hands backwards, "6-7" (e.g., on p. 252) instead of "76" is annoying and contrary to a well-established convention.

And the caricatures by Russ Braun!  They are so bland and flattering that each may have passed prior inspection by the subject's mother.  Comparing these to the witty and sharp work by Stan Hunt in the original is like comparing a cliche to something alive and vital.  Brunson doesn't even look like himself.  Here he's just a generic, smiling, dough boy kind of guy--except in the small, clever, lifelike drawing gracing page 7 which WAS drawn by Stan Hunt, copied from the first book.

Good are the chapters on Omaha and Stud Eight-or-Better.  However, although Brunson has Bobby Baldwin billed as his author of the Omaha Eight-or-Better chapter, actually it was written (as acknowledged) by Mark Gregorich.  He does a good job of introducing the game and giving some of the strategies, and I'm sure he is a fine player, but what about Bobby Baldwin?  Well, as CEO of Mirage Corporation and President of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, Bobby is far, far too busy to write the chapter himself.  So he just lent his name and his supervision.  Can you spell R-I-P-O-F-F?

Perhaps the most embarrassing part of the book is Doyle's chapter on no limit hold'em.  It is little more than a reprise of the same chapter in the first book published 28 years ago.

Also recycled is the section on "Colorful Names of Various Hold'em Hands" on pages 628 and 629.  The dated references to Raquel Welch ("38") and Broderick Crawford ("10-4") seem more than a little out of touch.  Indeed, this book is nostalgic tribute to Brunson and the great success he and the original book achieved.  And that is a shame, because this book is billed as an exciting event in the history of the publication of books on poker when in fact it is something hastily put together to flatter Brunson and, hopefully, the pocketbook of those involved.

One final thing: there is a Glossary, suitable for beginners, which is okay as it defines such things a "Deuce," "Flush," "Four of a Kind," etc., but seems a little basic for "A Course in Power Poker."  Worse though is this definition of a "Cold Deck": "A term often used to describe the deck by players who feel they're not getting enough playable or winning hands."  Players may indeed remark that "the deck is cold," but the origin of the term comes from the fact that a stacked deck used by cheaters that is switched into the game tends to be "cold" to the touch since it has not been handled since it was stacked.

Bottom line: pass


Sacre bleu!
	Someone reported all my 3 negative reviews of Daniel Silva books and got them removed! Hmm, I wonder who that could be.

I am rather annoyed at this because I spent quite a lot of time detailing why I didn't like one of the books, reasonably, I thought. Apparently, someone had decided that they did not follow the review guidelines. I used no profanities. OK, there were some spoilers, but not more than I usually read in other reviews. Not single worded, no phone numbers, no solicitations, etc. Maybe whoever it was just didn't like my negative review. Well, the last time I checked, the 1st amendment still applies in this country.

OK, so let me try to post another review of why I didn't like this book without violating any review guidelines, and I'm not going to spend 30 mins on it like last time.

I thought the book was very poorly written and very boring. I struggled through 1/3 of the book but the author could not capture my attention and I decided not to continue to the end. I've read a couple of other Daniel Silva books, but neither one of them could change my mind that he is an author that I don't like. I will not be buying any more of his books


As authentic as a daytime soap opera
	I'd heard the buzz (both pro and con) and thought I'd take an independent read. I was dismayed with this book.
James Frey has insulted anyone who has gone through a real experience with substance addiction by trivializing the truth of whatever experience he really had. One of the hardest things an addict has to grasp is the TRUTH so that he can take ownership of his actions and take the 12 steps or whatever is necessary to save his life and often the lives of loved ones tangled up in the mess with him. Lies are what enable "slips" and "enabling" and "denial" and those other catch words that describe continued misery and failure. Recovery is nearly impossible without honesty. So, can we look at this man's "memoir" and expect it to offer anything of value? It's poorly constructed, repetitive, and narcisitic. Even if Oprah hadn't exposed him, the writing takes the tone of "whoppers" like Frey's account of the drug house visit in which he "rescues" Lilly. Other reviewers and Smoking Gun have written about the fantastic episodes one by one, and I can't improve on that.
Suffice to say this mockery of misery and hope is no more real than a daytime soap opera.  Story lines in a soap may look like real life to one who is isolated from real life, the same way A Million Little Pieces might look to someone who has not been touched by real addiction. A real addict with typical delusion could be misdirected from a true course of treatment with tragic result.
I was left with the impression he thinks institutions and people who help others with substance recovery are pitifully misdirected or inept. Like a joke of some kind. I'm not laughing.


The Best Picoult So Far
	Every book by Jodi Picoult grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go. Mercy stands out from all the rest. You will not forget this book or the people in it for a long time


just so-so
	Of the 7 or so Grisham novels Ive read this one is my least favorite.

It's not a bad story at all but it's just way too long, about 150 pages longer than it needed to be.

It also just lacked credibility in many spots. Grisham is normally quite good at presenting characters and situations that are at least plausible, if not really interesting. Most of his books give the layman some insight into the workings of the law that Ive always thought were fascinating. This book, however, plods along and doesnt bring anything new to his body of work.

The other thing that really got me was the dialogue he wrote for Mark Sway, the 11year old protagonist. He sounds more like a street-wise 30year old, using words like "wonderful" and phrases that have been out of use since the 70's. I think Grisham forgot he was writing the words for a young boy and not one of his more typically older characters.

This isnt a bad book if you just want to escape for a few hours a day but most of his other ones are far more enjoyable


Why the music?
	I find some parts of Didion's book very relatable, at least when she's exploring her feelings of shock, the superstitious feelings, and the obsessive re-living of her husband's last few days and death.  But these sections become less and less frequent as the book continues, and it all seems to devolve.

But pertaining to the audiobook:  What is with the music they insist on playing in the "background" at the end of sections?  The first time it came on, I took out my earphones to see if someone in my office was inexplicably blaring piano solos.  It's weird and invasive and distracts from the reading


Everyman's Library edition is also ABRIDGED!!!!
	Beware of the Everyman's Library edition of this book (green hardcover, ribbon marker, isbn # 0-679-40564-X). Book V dealing with the revenue of the sovereign has been completely ommitted. According to the introduction, this was to limit the book to one volume and keep the price low. I wish I had known this BEFORE I ordered the book since now I have to buy a different edition in order to read Book V. What a ripoff


Dawn
	Dawn written by Elie Wiesel is a story about two men who are
meant to be killed at the same time, at dawn. David Ben Moshe is
Jewish and will be killed by the English at the same time as Elisha; a Jewish man will kill an English man John Dawson.Elisha and his friends wait all night for dawn, the book takes place with them in one room, thinking about what they have to do, they have little conversation between each other.

     I did not find the book Dawn very interesting,I found it to move very slow, because Elisha and his friends stayed in one room during the whole story, and while one man was thinking about what he should do or how he felt, the reader did not know how the other people where feeling at that time.  The part I found the most interesting was when there would
be conversation between Elisha and his friends, especially when they talked about their pasts, which was one of my favorite parts of the book, it was
interesting because there was more action happening when they when explaining their past.

     Although I found this book boring for the most part it was very descriptive and therefore I would recommend it to anyone who likes very descriptive books.


Crops, Crops and More Crops
	I had to read Jared Diamond's Pulitzer prize winning book because of the rave reviews and acclaim. The thoughts that he introduces in the book are certainly interesting and he presents us with a new way to interpret history which is certainly important. However, there is much overkill in making points about the development of each civilization - crops are the major topic with little discussion on guns, germs (more than the other 2), and steel. Of course the arguement for this focus is that the domestication of crops is how civilizations develop guns, germs and steel. I enjoyed parts of the book considerably, but you would have to have a strong interest in horticulture and botany to truely appreciate the book. I guess I was spoiled by first reading his sequel to GGS, "Collapse" - a terrific read that should be of interest to everyone -it relates our industrialization to every aspect of the environment and show historically how this has shaped history. It has major rammifications for our situation on this earth right now. -RK


A Long, Depressing Journey
	When our book club selected this novel, I was enthusiastic ~ the premise appeared to leave so much room for the development of great characters and a great story.  However, after the first chapter or so, I kept waiting for the big "wow" factor...and it never came.  I found most of the characters unsympathetic and not very well-developed.  Like other readers, I finished it out of obligation, but never gleaned any enjoyment from reading it.


Thanks but no thanks
	While I enjoy adventure stories for the casual reading they are and have read all of Cussler's, I was disturbed by a lot of the assumptions in this and other of his recent books.  This is transparently hawkish; an ultra-conservative defense of the questionable actions of the very furthest right of the political spectrum.  (One could even suspect it was commissioned or at least underwritten by these elements.)  It reflects the current culture that decrees all means justify the end - as long it benefits the right people.  Cussler's recent books portray that it's OKAY for Americans to go into other countries - with which we are not at war - and kill its citizens for some secret government agenda.  That it's OKAY for our US government to hire out "black ops" in secret because it's against our laws to do so openly.  Through the years, I've tolerated Cussler's blatant sexism, juvenile writing style, improbable exploits of cartoonish heroes.  However, he has veered into political territory that offends me but even more, terrifies me that it may be the truest part of his stories


Had trouble downloading the customized settings
	Using this book and CD-ROM depends upon being able to download the customized settings, so that the reader's PhotoShop, for example, behaves the same way as the author's PhotoShop. However, my system repeatedly hung up on that section of the download from the CD-ROM. Furthermore, this author doesn't start at a "dummies" level by defining the terms that he uses throughout the lessons, so I had trouble following along. Overall, this wasn't much help for me in my quest to learn PhotoShop from a baseline of complete ignorance


Author just uses a book to take shots at Christianity
	Horribly disappointing.

These manufactured dialogues are evidently Stephen Law's way of dealing with his personal problems with religion.

For example, in one chapter Law manipulates his "teaching" by having God contradict the Bible (the assumption being God's the author) in a dialogue with a conservative religious person. Law even sarcastically concludes the chapter by saying this dialogue is only a dream, the real God would probably respond differently.

Good idea for a book, ruined by the authors distorted logic. There are numerous ad hominen and circular reasoning errors.

The title and premise fooled me into reading it.

Mr. Law, how will you pay back the readers for wasting the time they invested in your philosphical rant against religion


the worst of them all
	Huge disappointment. Trace wasn't that good either. Having read all Scarpetta's previous storiesbut I was hoping Trace would be only bad one. However, the downhill trend seems to continue. These two books are not the usual intelligent plots Cornwell is capable of writing. Save your money, don't buy it. I completely agree with all the reviews posted so far, so I won't go into the plot -or rather lack of a real plot -details


Poor Content
	The book is manipulative and unrealistic. I felt the author was blatantly trying to persuade the reader to believe that infieldey, betrayal and lack of morals is acceptable if you have a self absorbed best friend.  Definitely one of the shallowest books I have ever read.  I bought the book as it was rated as a "best seller" , and I was stuck in an airport for hours on end. The entire plot is hideous as the "burned best friend" makes up reasons why it's accept able to betray her best friend. If I was not completely bored, I would have given up on the book after the first 20 pages.