It must be remembered that the average deserved rating of a computer hintbook these days is about negative 2; worse than useless. This guide must be considered against that rather forgiving set of expectations.

The quality of the enemy and equipment briefing is very high, as is the walkthrough. My only quarrel with the walkthrough is the difficulty of visualization with regard to the maps. For US$20, you'd think it wouldn't be too hard to draw a couple of stupid arrows.

Another black mark is that this is one of the *most* obvious examples of PC game manual blackmail. "We'll just put in a thin, lame manual with the game, then sign up for Prima to do the manual we should have included, and we'll take a percentage of all the royalties. That's easier than selling the game for what it costs us to produce a respectable manual." We all know it's how things are, but we don't have to like it. Of the above, only the US$20 expense involved in the hintbook is factored into the final rating.

Recommended for the value of its information, but a lot of what's here should have been in the manual and is not.

Half-Life is a huge game (H-L players already know that!).Dis-orientation is likely to happen and does happen unless you have this guide. Prima has done it once more! The walkthroughts are accurate and easy (or so) to follow even for the novice player of such games . Advanced players though should only use it only when the going gets tough .After all what mostly this book achieves is that it is a non player-level dependent guide.

I beat "Half Life" before even opening this book, but I still found it to contain plenty of useful information and tips even for the experienced gamer. If you're getting this book for the walkthrough only, then you'd probably be better off not purchasing it. You can find many detailed walkthroughs online (albeit not quite as detailed as the one found here, but still detailed enough to understand.) On the other hand, if you want to pick up a few new tricks to beat enemies, or load yourself with information on the weapons, beasts, levels, and tactics than this book is definitely for you. The walkthrough itself was very good, although, as I said before, not worth the price of the book. It includes clear pictures and precise details about where to go, what to shot, what to do, and how to do it. Other sections include information on all items you can pick up, and all enemies you will face. There is also a "tips and tricks" section of the book for the game, explaining various tactics that are useful for different situations. Near the back of the book, as well, there is a chapter dedicated to tactics for multiplayer games. Even though I haven't tried playing online or over a network yet, the advice seemed to be quite sound and reasonable.

I enjoyed the book immensely, and it's a definite must for any serious "Half-Life" player.

Nabokov, in his Lectures on Russian Literature, suggested that Dostoevsky be knocked off the canon of Russian writers, especially in favor of Turgenev, whom Dostoevsky hated. The reason was that Nabokov was against the "novel of ideas" because, he would say, it managed to achieve neither.

Demons is, of Dostoevsky's novels, the most ideological, yet still it is masterfully pulled off. Let it be known, however, that at times, the plot suffers at the expense of ideology, just as one has to expect, BUT THE IDEAS!

This book, although in my opinion it has the nuance of neither, is a perfect bridge between Notes From the Underground and The Brothers Karamazov. The intelligentsia, you suspect, are trying to build the positivistic paradise that the Underground man railed against, but as the novel progresses, you realize that the idealist vision has already been lost by Stepan Trofimovich, that all that remains is his desire to feel alive, even if that means inflicting every sort of pain. This is the same type of monster that Ivan warns against, and identifies himself with--if he were to act--in the Grand Inquisitor.

Also, please note, I tried once to read it in an older translation, and gave up somewhere in the 100s. This one I plunged through with little trouble.

Dostoevsky's tackling political novel is given new life in this fresh translation. This work has been unilaterally been praised for capturing Dostoevsky's power and subtlety. This story is about the political and philosophical ideas that swept Russia in the second half of the 19th century. These demons, then, are ideas, that legion of -isms that came to Russia from the West: idealism, rationalism, empiricism, materialism, utilitarianism, positivism, socialism, anarchism, nihilism, and, underlying them all, atheism.'' Dostoevsky, taking as his starting point the political chaos around him at the time, constructs an elaborate morality tale in which the people of a provincial town turn against one another because they are convinced of the infallibility of their ideas. Stepan Trofimovich, an affable thinker who does little to turn his liberal ideas into action, creates a monster in his student, Nikolai Stavrogin, who takes his spiritual father's teaching to heart, joining a circle of other nihilists who will justify any and all violent excesses for the sake of their ideas. Stavrogin aims for a systematic corrupting of society and all its principles so that out of the resulting destruction he may raise the banner of rebellion. A chilling foreshadowing of Stalinist years. This is a work of art in literature!

Dostoevsky, as the great historian of Russia Richard Pipes notes, hated Socialism and Socialists more than all else under the sun. This is a continuation of his bombardment of collectivists and utopianists that began with "Notes from Underground" and continued with "Crime and Punishment." Dostoevsky, a Christian and a Russian patriot (in the best -- Roger Scrutonian -- sense of the word) -- rejected anything and everything that would make men and women into mere social ciphers, cogs in the machine of history, into "means" rather than "ends" (to use the terminology of Kant).

Dostoevsky's primary inspiration for this novel came from an absolutely horrid novel by one Nikolai Cherneshevsky called "Chto Eto", or "What is to be Done?" An early bit of Russian utopianism, it was a precursor of the vicious theories Lenin/Stalin would deploy to "drag" Russia into the 20th century (indeed it was Lenin's favorite novel). The fact that some 66 million would be killed on the grand march to utopia was irrelevant (as the lunatic Shigalyov states in Dostoevsky's novel, "from unlimited freedom, I ended with unlimited despotism. . ." the solution] to the problems of mankind is to grant absolutely freedom to one-tenth and turn the remaining nine-tenths into a herd).

This echoes, of course, the magisterial "dialogue" between Christ and the Grand Inquisitor on the nature of human freedom in The Brothers Karamazov. But this novel is relevant for more than its attack on socialism and communism -- both of which, outside of Cuba, China, and a couple of bookstores in New York City and maybe California -- have collapsed precisely because they could do no more than create misery and murder. What makes The Demons -- indeed, the entire Dostoevsky corpus -- particularly relevant in this first decade of the 21st century is his take on the Russian intelligentsia/liberals of the 1840s -- a group characterized by out and out hatred for their country, which created the conditions for the rise of nihilism, terrorism, and bolshevism in the 1860s-1890s. Those 1840s intellectuals, like the "intelligentsia" of today's America, adopted a "blame Russia first" attitude toward all internal and external problems -- glorying in Russia's humiliations, and cursing her victories. It's not a far leap from Dostoevsky's Stepan Verkhovensky to the likes of Lapham, Vidal, and Moore. The real threat to one's community, Dostoevsky argues, is not the farmer or the factory worker who attends church, votes Republican, and drinks his beer in a tavern, whose sons and daughters march to war because they believe it their duty to the country that bore and sustained them, but those who, cloaking themselves in the false-prophet mantle of "dissent," spit and sneer at the foundations of community, or what Russians would call sobernost -- the things that makes Russia Russia, the things that make America America. Dostoevsky's work is both warning and antidote. It's no wonder he was banned by Lenin; one doubts he is discussed around the smart parties of Manhattan today.

I am relatively new to the world of web design and had never seen Dreamweaver before, let alone known how to use it. I am only halfway through the book right now but I feel safe saying that it is an excellent book. It is well laid out and full of information including notes, tips, warnings, and other tidbits to keep you wanting more. I really enjoy this book and am already looking into getting other "Bible" books if they are near as good as this one. The only reason I gave the book 4 stars is that I haven't read any other books on Dreamweaver and I am new to the program. But if you are anything like me, it's definately deserving of 5 stars! Hope you enjoy it.

I have to give some kudos to the author before I present my review. I have a great deal of admiration for Joseph Lowery. At a time when computer book authors seem to be more consumed with churning out books that rarely go beyond the manuals that come with the programs, Joe is truly dedicated to what he writes about. Since publishing the first Dreamweaver Bible in 1998, he has been a constant contibutor to the Dreamweaver community. And through his Dreamweaver Bibles I have learned a great deal about this wonderful program. Thank you Joe!

Now for the review:

After spending the last two years making my copy of Dreamweaver 2 Bible dog-eared, I was expecting that Joe would merely update the book to include the new features of Dreamweaver 3, but he has gone much further and - except for a few minor details - written a new Bible. Like the previous versions, this book does an excellent job explaining Dreamweaver basics and shows how to extend Dreamweaver through behaviors, commands, and objects. But where this book excels is teaching experienced users advanced topics like how to create custom behaviors, behaviors, commands and how to get the most out of Dreamweaver's JavaScript API extensions and C-level libraries. If you are new to Dreamweaver, you might want to start with another book, like Dreamweaver for Dummies, which does a good job covering the basics. If you are casual Dreamweaver user and want to take your skills up a few notches, this is the only book to buy, and if you are a professional web designer, this book is a must have.

For The Pros: If you have ever read a Lowery Bible (DW or Fireworks), you probably should have already added this version of the DW Bible to your shopping cart. If you intend to use DW for web development, I would suggest doing the same.

For Novices Only: First get a quickstart guide. I like Peachpit's Visual Quickstart Guide (VQS) series. It is easy to read and does what it says- bar none. Easy and quick to read, not too techie, and gets you comfortable using the tool.

However, DW is an incredible and powerful tool that requires a little more knowlege (OK for some tools- alot) to leverage its power in your favor. Therefore, I would strongly suggest a reference book as well (OK- if you worked for me- I would demand it). And as far as they go, it don't get any better'n this. Mr. Lowery has written all the DW and FW Bible series and there is a reason why: He does it very well. Also DW and FW are made to work together, so it is important to learn them together.

P.S. If you bought DW3, I hope you bought the DW3/ FW3 combo- well worth the little extra $$. I was a die hard Photoshop fan- Fireworks showed me the error of my ways. I strongly suggest the same series for Fireworks as well (VQS and Bible).

Good Luck and Enjoy! ;~)

All of my life I have been passionate about traveling. The Way of the Traveler opened my eyes as to how I can truly make my traveling adventures a deeply sacred and transformative journey. The metaphor of the hero's journey is weaved through out the book which adds a cross cultural and archetypal richness that allows one to transcend time and space. Dispenza offers invaluable insights for making even a business trip a powerful ritual of self discovery. Seasoned travelers as well as the armchair traveler will find this gem of a book a breath of fresh air. I highly recommend this book!

This extraordinary book is a guide for the thoughtful traveler, but I found it a guide for life, as well. I have read it through now three times, and I still am finding remarkable insights in the writing. The arc of the book is the structure of 'the hero's journey,' a beautifully conceived way of looking at not only traveling out into the world, but also within, as the author continually reminds us. This is highly-charged spiritual material, exquisitely written and lyrically set out. I recommend it for travelers who are truly interested in enriching their spiritual lives as they travel either 'out there' or 'in here' -- or both.

The book is stunning.

Some books have uncanny timing and appear in one's life at exactly the right moment. For me, The Way of the Traveler is such a book. I have no travel plans; I am not preparing for a trip to Macchu Pichu or any other lovely and remote destination. Instead, my journeys are inward, to places I have never been. For example, who knows how to travel the road with a dying friend? And then comes The Way of Traveler with its comforting advice and wonderful ideas for letting go of fear, and making each journey one of awareness. I could struggle, or I could make these encounters healing and strengthening. After reading The Way of the Traveler, I like to think I have chosen the latter. This is a beautiful little book: to look at, to hold, and above all, to take heart from. I sincerely recommend it.

In reading The Emotional Brain I was reminded vividly why I never went very far in any field that required a concentrated attention to minutia. I just don't have the patience for it. The book is a good one, but you really do need to want to learn about most of the primary experimentation that has gone into creating a theory of mind and consciousness. If the outcome of experiments conducted on the brains and behaviors of rats, cats and monkeys is your thing, this is the book for you. If you are even a little impatient and want to "cut to the chase," I'd give it a miss and spend the money on Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter. I chose to read The Emotional Brain because I felt it would teach me a little more about the subject--which it did--and because I thought it was "good for me" to follow up on the details of the subject matter I had found in Carter's book. More readable books like Mapping the Mind can easily lead the unwary down a garden path unless one is well prepared. LeDoux provides that kind of preparedness. It is more in the nature of a textbook than a popular presentation of mind and consciousness.

My only criticism of the textual content is of LeDoux's statement (p. 259), apparently based on observations by Wolpe, that hyperventilation during a panic attack "increases the carbon dioxide in the lungs and blood and results in a variety of unpleasant bodily sensations...." Indeed hyperventilation can and does produce unpleasant bodily sensations. If sustained long enough it can actually cause the subject to faint--and therefore stop the hyperventilation unless it arises from a metabolic condition. It does so, however, by decreasing the blood CO2 and producing an alkalosis.

Ledoux outlines contemporary research related to emotionality from a neuroscientific perspective, yet retains a sense of humanity by exploring the psychological implications of current findings. Evolutionary biology plays a strong role in The Emotional Brain, such that emotional drives, such as fear, are inherited from our prehistoric ancestors, that conscious emotional experience can be reinterpreted as higher-order forms of survival instinct. Exploring anatomical areas in the brain related to emotional experience, such as the amygdala, and how projections from these areas to cortical regions influences behavior, suggest a physiological explanation for temperamental style. Even if you are not studying psychology or neurology, you will find that the contents of this book apply to everyday life and how we interpret emotional experience in general. Thus, I commend this book's scope and its ability to unlock imaginative flights, which will ultimately inspire me to design new research methods to approach unsolved problems.

Joseph LeDoux reminds us that the human being is, first and foremost, an EMOTIONAL animal! And that much of what happens in human physiology happens BELOW the surface of the thinking process! In reading The Emotional Brain, the reader is reminded that 'intellectual' awareness is clearly not the be-all, end-all of human behavior, and that we are guided by our brain's instinctive, intuitive (emotional) perception of events, way before our 'analytical' interpretation enters the scene! This book is a wonderful study in human adaptive behavior, and why we need to devote more attention to 'instinct' and 'intuition' at the paleoencephalon level of brain function.
I found this book to be quite accessible, even to the lay person. LeDoux writes with humor and, although detailed, he brings the information into focus with everyday examples that make the reading interesting. Should be required reading for all clinicians, especially Music Therapists!

Brazil has certainly captured the imagination of most people around the world mainly because of its biological diversity, the carnival in Rio, and its soccer superstars. In fact, people tend to glamorize the country and its people, thinking of the sensuality and docility of Brazilians, the nice rhythyms of 'bossa nova' and 'samba', and the colorful tropical setting. There is, however, a strong, violent undercurrent in Brazilian culture, and Page's book exposes all the sources and manifestations of these in a clear way. There is violence against nature (as the despoiling of the Amazon forest and the sad case of Cubatao show); there is violence against homeless children in the streets; there is violence against women in order to 'save the honor'; there is violence against the poor in the 'favelas', mostly by neglect and drug trafficking... One wonders, by the end of the book, how Brazilians have been able to strive thus far and how they'll be able to cope with the serious challenges posed by overpopulation and poverty, among other things.

Page does a good job at trying to explain what is Brazilian by delving into the history of the country. The colonial past certainly branded the country, with its strong slavery component (slavery was abolished only in 1888 in Brazil) and almost medieval social stratification of masters and slaves or, later, peons. Page contends that many of the attitudes and dynamics generated by these have perdured, in one way or another, to this day, even in big cities. Also, Page emphasizes the influence of the many immigrant groups (Portuguese, Japanese, Italians, and Germans)and religions (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and 'candomble' and 'umbanda') in marking the country. It is, indeed, so rich a tapestry of influences, that one sometimes feels somewhat lost in trying to grasp what is truly Brazilian.

I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in this fascinating country. Page is sometimes condescending in his exposition, but he is always interesting and provides good food for thought and discussion.

Joseph Page's "The Brazilians" is a very enjoyable portrait of modern-day Brazil, quite possibly the best book on the country in English. Anyone traveling to Brazil for business or pleasure should read it. The book's jacket describes Page as a law professor at Georgetown, and with a lawyer's thoroughness and balance, Page explores the characteristics that make Brazil special -- the warmth, spontaneity and sensuality of the people, their unique blend of African, European and indigenous heritage, the music, soccer, Carnival, telenovelas -- without overlooking the country's often overwhelming problems, such as crushing poverty, environmental degradation, a boom-and-bust economy, violence and corruption.

Although Page presents a comprehensive view of Brazil, he unfortunately neglects two topics that should be part of any portrait of the country. The first is its much-maligned capital, Brasília, which gets hardly a mention in this book. Brasília's founding in the late 1950's, its rapid growth and its decline into a moth-eaten, sun-baked museum of outmoded architectural ideas could have filled an entire chapter. For an engaging and upbeat view of Brasília -- more positive than anything I've ever heard from the Brazilians themselves, all of whom seem to loathe their capital -- check out Alex Shoumatoff's "The Capital of Hope."

Page also doesn't say much about Brazilian food and drink, which is too bad, because from the moquecas of Pernambuco to the huge steaks of the South to the fish of the Amazon, Brazilian cuisine is a delight. A cup of Brazil's strong coffee accompanied by pão de queijo, a kind of popover laced with cheese, makes a breakfast fit for an emperor. Brazilian beer is just right for a hot afternoon, its wines are underrated, and the caipirinha -- a refreshing concoction of cachaça (a spirit distilled from sugarcane), crushed limes and sugar -- is surely one of the best cocktails in the Western world. Brazilian food and drink deserve wider recognition outside Brazil, but they don't seem to get any here.

These minor complaints aside, Page has written a superb book. If you read only one book on Brazil, read this one.

Being a Brazilian myself, reading this book was like revisiting a very well known place, with the help of a different and outstanding "tourist guide". I could see my country, its history, its past and its present through highly qualified and sensitive eyes. Page's book is a brilliant analysis for a complex society. He gets exactly what is it that makes us Brazilians: diversity, multiplicity of influences, variety, lack of clear limits, lack of clear boundaries. I think Brazil is unpredictable, difficult to catch, even for people that have lived there all their lives. Page got the main traits, the most important aspects of Brazilian personality, the features that really make us Brazilians. Of course, one does not agree with everything that is written in the book. And, as a Brazilian, it is not easy to read the chapter about "the culture of brutality", for example. Also the author has some kind of "bias", probably related to the places where he lived in Brazil, towards Rio or Pernambuco (I am from Bahia, I can't help complaining...! If you read the book, you'll understand). But when my friends from other countries - usually curious and amazed about what they hear and see on the news - ask me what Brazil is, I have no doubts about where to send them to find an answer...

I happened to mention to a few colleagues the other day that I was reading Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror". This drew blank looks. I amplified somewhat, referencing Stalin, Yeshov, Molotov. More blank looks.

I grew up in a cold war household. My father was a something of a rarity, he was a right wing journalist who travelled widely in Russia bringing back a story which, in the 60s and 70s, was largely ignored by the media and everyone else. He knew then what we all know now, that Russian communism was rotten to the core and was a house of cards teetering on abject collapse. Alas, but that house took decades to come down and so condemned a further generation or two to lives of quiet and unrelieved desperation and hopelessness.

What does our society know of this? A society that, in the case of America, can be convulsed with paroxysms of despair when a few thousand people died in a single tragic incident -- genuinely convinced that something without precedent has happened. The most common formulation we hear of this, is the common reference to September 11th as "the day our world changed". For heaven's sake -- there is now a Jenny Craig television advertisement in which a formerly fat person testifies that September 11th changed her world such that she decided to lose wait. Ye Gods.

But what exactly is it that changed? History, as my high school history teacher used to say, tailgates. Conquest tells us that Stalin and Molotov, during a "typical day at the office", would sign liquidation orders for THOUSANDS of innocent people by simply putting their signatures together with the word "liquidate" at the bottom of a sheaf of papers that contained the names. And then they would head for the cinema, a solid day's work done. All that appears to have changed is that moderns have forgotten the nightmares of yesterday. Each fresh outrage is treated as something unique, something personal, something without precedent. "The Great Terror" is an effective antidote to this type of thinking.

"The Great Terror" is a book that was available in the late sixties. It was, like my father, largely ignored. I had school chums who were Marxists. Teachers as well. They either denied the facts or more often, accepted what had happened on the principle that it was necessary to "break a few eggs to make an omelette". And so the regime which was to be responsible for murdering tens of millions of its own citizens, on a scale and in a cold blooded manner that rivals and even surpasses the more famous Hitlerian Holocaust, is ignored or forgotten.

In 1990, communism collapsed. My father, am embittered old cold warrior by then, took little pleasure from having been proven right. Conquest, however, took the opportunity to revise and expand his monumental book. Virtually everything he had written about was confirmed by the glasnost revelations - as he takes pains to demonstrate.

It is true that many of those who died in the execution cellars or the death camps deserved their fate. But the vast majority were innocent wives children, peasants teachers workers and writers. It is estimated that "every other family in the USSR had one of its members in jail". Stalin's purges gave rise to the unthinkable. A slave labour economy. Want to know why they beat us to space or how they got the Bomb so quickly? Well, among other things, they stole virtually all of our secrets and the had slave labour. On the theft of the West's secrets another must read is David Holloway's "Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939-1956".

Conquest writes quite well - he is also an accomplished poet. But the book is also something of a catalogue of horrors and he writes in what is at times a dismayingly dispassionate manner. He is somewhat relentless. As fact piles upon fact, outrage upon outrage we are led to say with each turn of the page, "Dear God in heaven, what fresh hell is this". But the horror is NOT lost on Conquest and he stands, almost alone, as our witness to those terrible times. If not in the pages of this book, then where will we learn the names of those who perished so many years ago. Virtually no one under the age of 40 really understands what went on.

Conquest's book needs to be read by all of us. And in particular those who think that the suicide attack on the WTC was something new; an event that "changed our world". Because it wasn't. ...

When I read the first edition of this book back during the Cold War, it was difficult to believe the quality of scholarship and research effort that Conquest demonstrated throughout this book, written while the KGB was still running amok. What most general histories dismissed with a few sentences or paragraphs as "millions died or were imprisoned", Conquest gave us the names, the chronology, and the results of Stalin's paranoid Reign of Terror. Now that the archives have become more accessible, Conquest is able to update his work and further illuminate this darkest period of Russian (and perhaps world) history. ANYTHING written by Conquest is worth reading if you want to understand the workings of 20th century Soviet politics and society.

Robert Conquest's The Great Terror, a Reassessment, is they definitive English language work on Stalin's purges. The book has had some criticism from the far left, but Conquest has been largely vindicated by the now open Soviet archives.
This book is largely dispassionate. Conquest resists the urge to excessively moralize. Instead, he treats his subject matter in largely chronological order, with a few diversions for background. The result is a detailed catalog of the horrors of the purges. The text relies on excerpts from the trail transcripts, and these are absolutely chilling taken in context of the result. Each trial is worse than the other. In fact, to some extent the trials are worse because of the sheer routine the purges degenerated intoforced confessions, self-betrayals, they all became commonplace. Society turned against itself, until you were not considered a responsible citizen unless you denounced somebody; turning on your neighbors, friends, even relatives became a method of insuring personal security and survival. This book is 'must' reading for anybody who wants to understand Stalinism and this period of the Soviet Union. The lessons learned should never be forgotten...

Joseph Campbell, the foremost authority on mythology, shows us that symbolism is the key to understanding and experiencing religious mystery. Along the way he criticizes the clergy for not enlightening followers to this fact, and more significantly he shares his own interpretation of many Judeo-Christian symbols. I especially enjoyed the last chapter titled "Question Period." It is a collection of Campbell's responses to various questions taken after many of his lectures over the years. He seems to shine in this type of forum and demonstrates a depth of knowledge and a clarity that sometimes gets buried in the preceding chapters. The Appendix is a reprint of "Earthrise - The Dawning of a New Spiritual Awareness," which was a Campbell interview that appeared Easter 1979 in the New York Times Magazine. Chapter notes, a bibliography, and an index are also included in this wonderful little book.

This is a wonderful taste of the large, unpublished work of Campbell yet to be shared. I would recommend this book to those who want a good introduction to Campbell's work. Hopefully it will inspire them to read more about mythology and deepen their knowledge. This book is concerned mainly with mythos (meaning) versus logos (symbol) and how many people get caught up in symbols, thus missing the meaning (the mistake most fundamentalists are trapped in). As always with Campbell, his explanations are so eloquent and educated that one cannot help but want more. The only complaint I have about this book is its size--only 100 pages of Campbell's writing (mostly from lectures and notes). It certainly could have been expanded to twice that with very little effort. However, for those used to Campbell's written work, they will be pleasantly surprised how different his lecturing is.
One mistake the editor, and many a reviewer, make is to try and say that Campbell focuses on the Judeo-Christian aspect of symbol abuse. If one were to read all of Campbell's work, they would find this to be quite wrong. Campbell is not so shallow. His concern is mythology, all of it, world-round. In fact, the majority of his work focuses on primitive mythology. He certainly spoke and expounded on the Judeo-Christian aspect much in his lecturing, but this is mostly because that is what his audience was interested in, especially the new-agers who desperately clung to Campbell in the last decades of his life.
But I encourage those interested to dig deeper than this book into Campbell's work where can be found a rich, scholarly depth and breadth of mythos/logos study.

"Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion," Joseph Campbell observes in this first volume of his Collected Works. "And religion may, in a sense, be understood as a popular misunderstanding of mythology" (p. 8). Campbell abandoned the Roman Catholic Church at age 25 when, as a student of mythology, "he felt the Church was teaching a literal and concrete faith that could not sustain an adult" (p. xvii). At his death in 1987, he left a significant body of unpublished work: uncollected articles, letters, diaries, notes, as well as recorded lectures (p. ix). This new volume is derived from that material and may be read as "an extended lecture" on finding new meaning in the metaphors of the Judeo-Christian tradition (p. xvi). Campbell examines the biblical myths, "not to dismiss them as unbelievable but to lay open once again their living and nourishing core" (p. xv).

"If we listen and look carefully," Campbell believed, "we discover ourselves in the literature, rites and symbols of others, even though at first they seem distorted and alien to us. Thou art that, Campbell would judge, citing the underlying spiritual intuition of his life and work" (pp. xii-xiii). Campbell makes a compelling argument in this book that the language of religion is metaphorical (p. 19), and that religious symbols "point past themselves to the ultimate truth which must be told: that life does not have any one absolutely fixed meaning" (pp. 8-9). He encourages us to search out the "deeper, vital meanings of symbols whose surfaces are so familiar that they have become static and brittle" (p. 43). For instance, the Virgin Birth may be viewed as a rebirth of spirit that everyone can experience, and the Promised Land may be viewed as the geography of the heart anyone can enter (p. xvii). The Kingdom of God is spread upon the earth, Campbell says, only men do not see it (p. 19). When they realize that, the end of the world as they know it has arrived (p. 83).

This book covers some familiar territory, which will provide readers new to Joseph Campbell with a good introduction to his work. Mythology, he writes, serves four functions. Myths awaken us to the mysteries of the universe (pp. 2, 24). They present us with a consistent image of the order of the cosmos (p. 3). Myths validate and support a specific moral order (p. 5), and they carry us through the passages and crises of life (p. 5). He encourages us to find our own paths through the forest, and to reach for the transcendent by studying poetry (p. 92). One must "search out one's own values and assume responsibility for one's own order of action and not simply follow orders handed down by some period past" (p. 30). "The heart," he tells us, "is the beginning of humanity" (p. 99).

Revisiting Campbell's ideas through this book reminded me how reading his HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES (1949) and POWER OF MYTH (1988) were life changing experiences for me. My only real criticism of this book is that at just over 100 pages, it is too short. But as an inauguration to the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, it should not be missed.

G. Merritt

I bought this book on recommendation from my physio in London-I assume that there is no difference between the UK and US editions. I've been suffering from severe lower back pain and, after 8 weeks of working with the book,have found that the change has been fantastic. The exercises are clear and well laid out and having "watchpoints" to make sure you work safely is a good idea. Pilates is obviously very complex and, two months in, I am still learning, but I found the book to be a great introduction. My only criticism is that some of the photos are not very well reproduced, but this is more than overcome by the clear way in which everything is talked about and presented.

A year and a half ago I started getting extremely painful muscle spasms in my low right back, although I was very into physical fitness in what I thought was a well rounded way - as in different aerobic workouts and flexibility work, on an almost daily basis and weights work 3xweekly. Chiropractic helped, but swimming did nothing - this workout did. The explanation of the navel to spine makes you understand how it's totally different to pulling in the tummy the way we all do - stiffening up our whole torso. The hip rolls alone are miraculous for low back pain! I also used the now out of print The Pilates Way, and have now bought The Way Forward (all by the same author) (I also have 3 of their videos but prefer the detailed print instructions). All excellent - if done properly - very gentle but very effective and quite tough.

To the Australian reviewer who found this too @different@ to what he calls the full Pilates method - well, as Brooke Siler confirms in her excellent book The Pilates Body, Pilates' students travelled off all over the world and all developed their own variants, some more therapeutic then others. This is the case with Lynn Thomson's book. It is made to help people with back, neck and postural problems. Lots of isolations where you work on mobilising hips, shoulders, even the feet!, while stabilising the whole body and thereby strengthening it also. I would recommend using this and her other books for quite a while - in my case, a year - before perhaps moving on to B Siler's book, thus ensuring a good stable base for the latter's somewhat tougher and more dynamic method which usually has the whole body in motion although always on the mat.

Last but not least, it's graceful - you end up feeling like a dancer, it instills grace and good posture, whereas some of my past workouts left me feeling like a boxer or something! AND it is such good therapy for the mind, so relaxing - all the concentration leaves you feeling mentally refreshed!

God - I sound like one of these born again types - but really, if I can convert a few people into this method and know that someone, somewhere, is suffering less because of this review, I've done my good deed for the day.

To sum up, I guess I shall probably stick to some form or other of Pilates for the rest of my life - it covers the toning and the flexibility, add in a few brisk walks a week for the cardio and you're set!

Knowing that Pilates exercises had the potential to help stabilize my bad back and trick hip, I bought Body Control after finding Brooke Siler's book initially too difficult to follow. Body Control is easy to understand and get started immediately without further instruction, and an entertaining, engagingly funny read.
The foot exercises are great. I wish I could post "before" and "after" photos of my feet so you see for yourself the magical changes that can take place. I used to have painful, flat, bunion-mangled feet. With flattened arches, my knees had rotated inward, setting me up for injury and chronic leg pain. With the exercises in this book, I literally built arches into my foot. As my gait changed, the bunions grew smaller, my toes unfurled and my knees unlocked. The pain left me, and in its stead, I now have the skills to walk like a goddess.
Thank you, Lynne Robinson, for writing this book! May it help you, dear reader of this review, as well!

Just when I thought the only Faulkner book I would ever remotely understand was his Sanctuary---along comes the serendipitous discovery of Light in August. It is a relatively straightforward journey into the lives of yet another cast of tragic Southern characters; a dark, mythic voyage into the subterannean caverns of their souls...or something like that. Faulkner truly does an impressive job of mining the psychological depths of his characters, often through the technique for which he's famous---Stream of Consciousness. If you've stumbled over Faulkner's difficult style in novels like As I Lay Dying and Intruders in the dust then this book, along with Sanctuary, is an excellent starting point. Grab a strong cup of coffee, make sure your reading light is bright, and good luck.

Nothing is ever simple in a Faulkner book. However plainly the people talk, however straightforward that the situations seem, there are layers and layers of things to dig through to find the ultimate truth, if indeed there is any. I've already read Sound and the Fury and as glorious as that book was, this novel absolutely captivated me. It's Faulkner's way with words, he's not flashy like some contemporary authors, preferring to slowly wind his way into your consciousness with his gift of writing. It's only as you read, maybe as you peruse a passage for the second time do you see the little details that you missed the first time out, the choice of a word here, the flow of a paragraph. And his characters, all beautifully drawn, with flaws and cracks and everything, but even the farthest gone of his lowlives has some pearl of wisdom to impart, his pillars all have dark secrets. In short they're just like his, if we lived in the South at the turn of the century. Faulkner captures it all, weaving his characters together with the skill of a master, no seams showing, everything seeming to happen naturally. Even when the story detours to tell someone's backstory, it seems to come at the perfect moment. If I sound a bit fawning, that's because this book deserves it, nothing puts together the picture of a time better than this, and as an aspiring writer I am in sincere awe of Faulkner's ability to reflect even the more complex of emotions with a word or a sentence. He has to be read to be believed and it definitely must be experienced. Just immerse yourself in a time and place thought long gone, that still lurks in the corners of people's thoughts and the traditions that never die.

Faulkner again proved himself a master of American literature with his tragic story of Joe Christmas, a truly unlucky and unloved fellow whose life of rejection has led him to make some truly unwise choices. Crafted in Faulkner's signature intellectual, sometimes verbose, style, this novel is an important examination of some major flaws in the typical American character. We all identify with the characters in this book.