"Heartsongs" is not a very long book, but it is a book that will touch your heart. Mattie Stepanek was only eleven years old when he wrote "Heartsongs", and he has endured much pain and grief in his short life. He has seen three of his siblings pass away from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and he suffers from the same condition. Echoes of Mattie's pain can be found in some of his poems, but they are mainly dominated by a sense of love for everything in the universe and a deep desire for world peace. Mattie wants to be a peacemaker, and his poems are filled with peace and childhood wonder. Sometimes the deepest wisdom comes from children, and that is very true about this beautiful book of poems. This book leaves you with the thought that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; and in the heart of hearts.

I love this book. I've known Mattie ever since he was a little kindergarten guy,and I was his school counselor. I've always been a fan! I know children who admire Mattie's poetry, as well as adults. When Mattie was in the hospital last spring, his friends at his old school, Mattaponi Elementary in Upper Marlboro, Maryland prayed for him, and wrote him get well letters. They wrote, "Mattie, we miss you and we miss your poetry." Mattie's poems, and Jeni's faith and inspirations have touched so many people. One of those persons is me! Thank you, Mattie. And thank you, Jeni, for this precious gift of Mattie. You are both my heroes!

Mattie is an inspiration and the true peacemaker he aspires to be. I am so moved by the natural gift that he has been blessed with. While reading this collection of 20 poems, you have to keep reminding yourself that this was written when he was just 5 years old. Awesome!The life experience that this young man has had, rings through loud and clear in this collection of feelings. Children will love this book, and adults will be moved. Thank you to VSP books for giving us the gift of Mattie! Can't wait for more!

You cannot believe the excitement that gripped me when I heard that another Flashman Paper was coming out. I snapped up a hardback copy as soon as it bacame available. Fraser/Flashman contantly name-drops throughout the Flashman papers with the result that there are numourous future episodes keenly awaited by all Flashman devotees (Zulu & Civil wars to name but two). This batch of three stories were written as well as ever, fast paced, great character build-ups and thoroughly enjoyable adventure yarns. It seems harsh to criticise but this volume pales in comparison to its magnificent predecessors hence the low score. If I had not read the others it would have fared better. As metioned above they were, as ever, fantastic tales, it was especially nice to catch up with the Bismarck and Von Starnberg characters a la Royal Flash. I agree with another reviewer that the last story of the three did leave a slightly bad taste in my mouth I won't give anything away. The last two stories being the weakest of the entire Flashman series. In conclusion whatever anyone tells you if you've read the other Flashman books you will read and enjoy this one too. If you are a Flashman virgin (you won't be for long) definitley try to read them in their proper order leaving this effort until last. I just hope it's not the last.

Having read the 'Tiger' episode when it was first published in the 'Daily Express' in Britain in the 70's (just prior to 'Flashman In The Great Game' coming out) I, like most other reviewers, was a little disappointed that it was three short stories and the not the Zulu odyssey I had hoped for. Nevertheless, it was good to see the story back in print again (I love the way Sherlock Holmes is involved) and I enjoyed the Tranby Croft tale - it was good to see Flash in a story which reflected on his slightly less colourful experiences, as opposed to battles and charges. I would have to say that I don't think we'll see a Zulu book now, although I would love it if GMF proved me wrong. All in all the book was different but still excellent - and I have already re-read it twice. The weakest story for me was 'Road To Charing Cross' - it seemed to me like GMF wanted to have Rudi Von Starnberg back and this was the only way. Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed every page, as I do with all Flashmans, and its style was a bit like my own personal favourite - Flashman & the Redskins - which is also really two distinct stories.

It is marvelous, begad, to be able to explore a batch of new papers written by that cowardly and toad-eating poltroon, Sir Harry Flashman. The three packets of memoirs, edited and annotated by the indomitable George MacDonald Fraser, contain a few surprises that significantly alter our view of Flashie. We discover, for example, that he is drinking more heavily as he gets older, although incipient alcoholism does not evidently prevent him from writing clearly and dramatically, as his harrowing account of the Zulu massacre and his escape at Sandhlwana shows. He has gained in cynicism and maintains a heightened sense of misogyny, but age and the ravages of time and crises has somewhat slowed him down. The book is vintage Flashie. The first packet of memoirs, entitled "The Road to Charing Cross," documents Sir Harry's trip on the maiden trip of the Orient Express. Betrayed by Princess Kralta - alas, will he ever learn to stay away from conniving women? - he has an almost fatal confrontation with a second-generation villain, Rupert Willen von Starnberg, the son of a villain who almost destroyed him in The Royal Flash papers in 1848 when Flashie was twenty-six. At any rate, Sir Harry is into Austrian debauchery and toadyism in this novel, gets mixed up with a plot to assassinate Emperor Franz Josef. The second set of papers, "The Subtleties of Baccarat," shows the deceitful and slimy Flashman "shoving a man down the drain," (as he puts it) by false innuendo and outright betrayal. In the past, Sir Harry has confessed to dreadful deeds (pushing women out of sleighs on the Russian tundra, selling a mistress into slavery, and having an innocent man executed to conceal his own toadying and cowardice); but here Flashman leads the arrogant Sir William Gordon-Cumming into disgrace. The papers also reveal a new and significant characteristic of Elspeth's personality, which surprises even Sir Harry. "After fifty years," says Flashman, "[Elspeth] knew no more of my true character than I, apparently, did of hers." Interestingly enough, Flashie at seventy years old has slowed down a bit, but has not lost his touch for initiating "scandal, disgrace, and general bedevilment." The final memoir is fascinating; Flashman meets Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in 1894, as he becomes involved in Conan Doyle's story, "The Adventure of the Empty House." Flashie hilariously reveals to the world that Sherlock Holmes was also a fraud, an arrogant intellectual that could get all things wrong. This story is again vintage Flashman. One must also say a few words about the "editor" and "annotator" of these tales, George MacDonald Fraser. He continues to go back into the fascinating history of Victorian times, conjuring up massacres, scandals, political lunacy, and hypocrisy, placing Sir Harry Flashman in the center of things. God knows where Flashie will appear next. Flashman was alive during the time of Jack the Ripper, during the Karamazov murder and Anna Karen's suicide, and Scott's Antarctica disaster in 1911. It is possible that he had a hand in these too.

Bat 6 is an annual softball game played by two teams from small towns in Oregon. The Bat 6 game has been going on since 1899, and all of the girls are determined to win this year's Bat 6 game. The two teams names are Barlow Creek and Bear Creek Ridge. Bear Creek Ridge has won more games than Barlow, and that makes the girls on Barlow even more determined to win this year.
The author chose a very complex way of writing this book. In some parts of the book, you can barely understand what she is trying to say. The narrator changes a lot and that's what makes it even more confusing. I like what she chose to do because you get to hear thoughts from different characters about what is going on in the book. Various characters help tell this amazing, complex story. This book gives a lot of detail and makes you think a lot. It is good for kids eight and older because it might be hard for little children to understand, but I would definitely recommend reading this book.
All the girls on each team are different, just like me and you. There is one girl in particular. This girl's name is Shazam. Her father was killed in World War Two, during the Pearl Harbor attack. She hates all Japanese people now. She thinks all of them are evil and they are out to get her. Shazam joins the Barlow team and definitely stands out from the other players.
Bear Creek Ridge gets a new player too. Her name is Aki and she's Japanese. She can throw left and right and can hit very well. She becomes one of the best players on the team, but the other girls don't mind. They are all kind to one another and they are open to all people.
The Bat 6 game comes so soon. This is the day all of the girls have been waiting for all of their lives. The game is going well; the teams are both doing very well. Everyone is nervous. Towards the end of the game, something happens that will change the girls' lives forever and will go down in Bat 6 history. Something that no one is expecting. A terrible event, maybe the worst the girls had ever seen, something that damaged a person for a long time, maybe even for life.

Bat 6 takes place in two small towns in Oregon. There is a softball game between two schools Barlow Road Grade School and Bear Creek Ridge Grade School.They both have found a new phenomenal player.One is Shirley(Shazam)and the other is Aki Mikami.Shirley lost her father in the of Pearl Harbor and shows her hate for the Japanese.Aki had been sent to a camp where the Americans sent Japanese.They had both come back in time for the Bat 6(the softball game every sixth grade girl is looking forward to).Something really important happens in the game...but you have to read to find out.

The 50th annual sixth-grade girls softball rivalry between two little Oregon towns has everyone involved. The story is told in little vignettes by the 21 girls who make up the two teams for this year's teams. The arrival of a new girl and the reappearance of another change the expected lineups for the 1949 game. Aki Mikami's family has finally come back to their farm when she is old enough to play for Bear Creek Ridge where her mother was MVP of the 1930 team. Shazam, who plays for Barlow, is a great player, but she harbors deep feelings of hate for the Japanese because her father was killed at Pearl Harbor.

What happens the day of the game forces the players, their families, the coaches, and the whole town to face the issue of bigotry. A strong story convincingly told by the girls themselves from their differing viewpoints of the action.

This would be an excellent read aloud tool for the classroom since it has 21 parts representing the two teams. A natural fto foster discussion of multiculturalism, bigotry, and prejudice.

As an Easterner, I could not understand the impact of F. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" on economic development when I first read that book. Fortunately, "The Commanding Heights" provides me with the answer - Planned economy becomes the mainstream of Western societies after World War II and the system had brought these countries economic prosperity for several decades. There was a danger that the policy makers would think the system is a " cure-all" medicine. Free marketers such as Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman had to battle under that tough environment. Hayek's work however opens up the mind of Mrs. Thatcher and provides the foundation for the Renaissance of individualism.
"The Commanding Heights" is a book of economic history after World War II. The book covers the economic transformation of regions or countries such as U.S.A., Western Europe, Central Europe, Britain, China, India, Latin America and Southeast Asia. The background and achievement of key politicans and economists are also contained extensively. The messages of the books are clear - Free market economic system is better than planned economy and government's role should be shifted from market player to referee.
While I agree that the book is highly readable, some pieces are missing, still. Readers cannot find story of developed African countries such as South Africa and Egypt. If you want to know the economic history of the Middle East, you must be prepared to be disappointed. In addition, as the book is descriptive in nature, in-depth analysis on why centrally planning suddenly turns sour is lacking. These are my reasons that the book is rated as a four-star instead of five-star publication.
In all, the authors have done a tremendous job in the subject. This book should be short-listed as one of the textbooks for students studying economics or history.

The second half of the 20th century was marked by the ebb and flow of government influence over national and international economies. Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw characterize the balance between government and private marketplace clout as a battle for the commanding heights of the economy. They trace this fight back to the years after World War II, where they discover that capitalism had been widely discredited and governments were basking in the glow of wartime victory. With descriptions of the catalytic people and events that moved markets and policy, Yergin and Stanislaw have turned an essentially academic topic into a readable book, which is as much about economics as it is about history. As engaging as the stories are, don't assume you're in for a light read. Many business books today have plenty of sizzle, but not much steak. We at getAbstract recommend that you sink your teeth into this big, juicy T-bone of a book, a rare treat for intellectual readers searching for economic adventure and substantive history.

Daniel Yergin provides the reader extraordinary insight into contemporary globalization. In a masterful, sweeping work that encompasses economic and social history of the post-war era, Yergin (who won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Prize," his study of the oil industry) and his co-author Joseph Stanislaw help us understand how economies around the world, but especially in the third world, are abandoning the old faith in big government and are embracing the marketplace. But Yergin and Stanislaw also warn that the marketplace -- laissez-faire -- is fraught with perils for countries that don't have sound governance and indigenous institutions and entrepreneurs who are able to function responsibly in an increasingly interdependent world. I found the book's analysis particularly lucid; the chronology at the end, which details the evolution of economic theory as well as cites political trends, should be especially useful to students. This is a book I'd recommend highly for laymen and scholars alike.

Joseph Jaworski was a practicing litigator when he learned about the concept of the "servant leader." Inspired, he left his legal practice and created the American Leadership Forum (ALF), which trains corporate leaders in using the servant-leader model. Synchronicty, which recounts Jaworski's journey, aspires to novelistic drama, and in fact, Jaworski describes the tale in terms of the traditional literary hero's quest. While not exactly the labors of Hercules, anecdotes in which Jaworski talks his way out of a mugging and meets his wife by passing her in an airport are entertaining, but less informative than the author might hope. The book contains a lot of New-Age jargon and collective-consciousness sermonizing. Nevertheless, for managers who want to be something more - leaders - we [...] recommend Synchronicity not as a useful how-to, but rather as a business leader's inspirational biography.

Joseph Jaworski has written "the" book on leadership for the 1990's. Not unlike Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Jaworski's Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership serves up a tale of personal discovery of such magnitude as to speak to the very heart and soul of the reader. Drawing heavily from Robert Greenleaf's Servant Leadership, Jaworski describes in compelling form the essential character of leadership founded on servant as leader. Reading Jaworski is like reading a modern-day Paul: his message that we can control our future by allowing life to unfold through us -- not despite us -- is comforting in this era when we all seem to be cascading toward a destiny over which we have little or no control. Read this book. Accept its invitation to initiate your own journey of self-discovery and enlightenment.

Many books about leadership view the subject as being akin to mechanical engineering. How do you get all those people (like cogs in a machine) to act in just the ways you want them to? Mostly written by leaders to describe their own experiences or by writers to explain what leaders told them, these books are unsatisfying in the extreme. Take a look at Flawed Advice and the Management Trap by Chris Argyris to get a further perspective on this problem. This book is totally different, and quite appealing.

Jaworski (son of Leon Jaworski, the famous special prosecutor of the Watergate scandal) tells of his personal journey from being a successful corporate lawyer to becoming someone who works on making leadership better for all of us. Like most personal journeys, this one has low points (his wife falling in love with another man and telling Jaworski to move out that day, his father not telling him that he loved him, and the deaths of a child of each of his two sisters) and some high points (breakthrough meetings with great thinkers and stimulating helpful change). You could read the book for this, and you would have the rewards of a nicely done biography of someone who is working towards living an exemplary life.

But there is more. Jaworski has accumulated some important insights into leadership that are well worth knowing. He makes an appealing case for servant leadership (the leader looks out for the group, rather than his self-interest). He also tells a fascinating tale of running the scenario development work at Royal Dutch Shell for 4 years. From this, he develops what seemed to me to be a profound insight: Scenarios can be used both to prepare for the future by helping us think through it in advance, and to create the future. That last thought provided me with a nice epiphany. Although I was very familiar with the Shell planning technique from the business literature and from talking to Arie de Geus about it, this implication had never dawned on me. I deeply appreciate learning this.

Beyond that, the book is a living testament to the importance of finding your true self and listening to the wee small voice of intuition that can steer you in the right direction. Jaworski to his credit has been quite willing to do both, and it has made all the difference.

Many books on leadership talk about the role as a state of being. That usually leaves me confused. Jaworski makes the same point, but through his personal history I was able to understand what he meant.

At another level, I found the book to be quite astonishing because it paralleled my own personal journal. I started out as a lawyer, heeded my inner voice to become a management consultant, and then heeded my inner voice again to become an author to spread important ideas about how people can become more effective in working with one another. He was fascinated by how to use scenarios to help the political transition in South Africa. I founded a company in the early 80s to find ethical ways for companies to leave South Africa while strenthening the position of nonwhite employees. I have read the works of everyone Jaworski cites in the book. At first, this seemed like a big coincidence. Then I realized that Arie de Geus is someone we both know, and he probably suggested more then a few of the authors to both of us. In fact, Arie de Geus played a pivotal role in the development of our new book, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise. Six degrees of separation is occuring all over again!

If you read this book, and read the works of those who Jaworski cites, you will have given yourself a valuable trip towards becoming the kind of signficant leader you have the potential to be. With the help of you wee, small inner voice, this should be an irresitible call to action!

The Prodigal Spy begins well with the McCarthyesque trial of Walter Kotlar experienced through the eyes of his son, Nick. Nick's certainty in his father's innnocence he discovers his father has one shirt the size the star witness claims to have sold him and rushes to get rid of the "evidence." Thinking he has fixed the problem, he is devastated when Walter flees after the suicide (murder?) of the key witness against him to turn up much later as a defector in the Soviet Union. Nick may be a bit precocious, but his actions seem plausibly childlike and realistic in his naive belief that getting rid of the shirt got rid of the problem. There is tremendous emotional power in this section of the book and it draws the reader in with its promise.

Years pass and and the adult Nick is asked by his father to help him come home by finding the important, and still active spy, who orchestrated Walter's defection in order to protect himself from discovery. This sets up what should be a satisfying and intriguing mystery, except the clues are too obvious and Nick to obtuse to see them.

The older Nick isn't as clever as the young Nick or surely he would have solved the mystery of who was the important spy as soon as he discovered his father's lighter was found at the scene of the suicide - now surely a murder. His equally obtuse inability to understand the witness's letter and discover who was the prime mover in this family tragedy was just as frustrating to this reader who wanted to shake him and tell him to just stop and think for one minute.

Over all, this is a fine story. It's well-written. The dialogue is credible and it's emotionally satisfying. However, as a mystery it lacks subtlety.

I fell in love with Kanon's dialogue in Los Alamos but found myself ignoring the love story and wanting more mystery. The Prodigal Spy was much more to my liking in this respect. The dialogue is great, not cheesy and mundane like most books these days. The story between father and son is gripping. Normally I'm not interested in this type of story, family redemption and so on, but this book somehow made it not only work, but made it interesting. The cold war setting is well layed out, and his descriptions of Prague and its Big Brother way of life are eerily well written. It's this middle section of the book, when the protagonist visits his father in Prague and is accused of murder, when he must deal with lack of freedom in a communist state and find a way out of his mess, that really proves Kanon's ability to tell a great story. The ending seemed too quick paced, and sadly it was pretty easy to figure out who the killer was(the last five pages do contain a nice twist though). All in all I highly recomend this to anyone who likes a great history oriented story, and of course, a good old fashion spy yarn.

When I read Walter Kanon's first novel, "Los Alamos," I felt that we had a new thriller writer with real potential on our hands. That book didn't quite work, with the author spending too much time on atmosphere and the characters and not enough time on the plot. After all, in my book you read a thriller for the plot - if you want great characters and atmosphere, read Flaubert or Bellow. With "The Prodigal Spy," however, Mr. Kanon has definitely hit a home run. The characters are truly vivid, and the atmosphere of 1969 Prague is very well done indeed. But it is the plot that will stay in my mind, enthralling in its detail, complexity and surprises; all elements of the story are expertly balanced, making for a very enjoyable experience. This tale of a young man travelling behind the Iron Curtain to meet his long-lost defector father and then returning to the United States to uncover an even more important mole is worthy of comparison with le Carre, Greene and even Eric Ambler himself. I thought the denoument rather predictable, but that didn't spoil "a cracking good read." Bravo!

You pick up 10th Grade, and right away you are entertained. Right away, that is. I found myself completely enjoying the ungrammatical styles of Weisberg for the first two chapters, being enthralled by the author's ability to write like an actual sophomore. However, being an actual 10th grader myself, I considered the fact that I know how to use a comma and write without a run-on. For Weisberg to think that a 15 or 16 year old kid does not know hot to write a page without a punctuation error is a flat-out diss to all teachers across America. I guarantee there is not a single sophomore who writes as bad as Jeremiah Reskin. Weisberg completely exaggerates his writing style and fails to seem creative or at all inventive.
Though the writing in 10th Grade is straight-up horrendous, Weisberg is able to capture some of the thoughts of an average sophomore boy. Jeremiah has that one girl, Renee Shopmaker, who all high school boys have that they dream about having kids with in both the sexual and domestic manner. His daydreams are the funniest parts of the book, and though they are extremely strange, they simply make me laugh. What sophomore boy has not dreamed about saving his friends from being burned at the stake by a group of indigenous people? Or saved more friends from being killed by aliens from another galaxy? These dreams may sound odd, but I must say I have had some very weird imaginations myself. I mean, who hasn't?

Ever want to get into a high school boy's head, word for word, thought for thought? "10th Grade" by Joseph Weisberg tells a bright and startlingly true story about a 15 year-old boy who anyone who attended high school can relate to. The author captures the true essence of being a sophmore, not a freshman any more but still very naive in the adult world. Jeremy Reskin begins his sophmore year lonely and with the goal of getting a girlfriend, preferably Renee Shopmaker, the most popular girl who Jeremy claims is "different" than every other girl. Jeremy struggles to catch the eye of his dream girl and has some hilarious stuff happen to him on his long walk to acceptance and popularity in this unforgettable account of a normal teens life.

Jeremy writes everything that happens to him down, word for word, in what is more like one big run-on sentence with slang, dislexic grammar, and biting language, that a carefully crafted novel. He swears that his english teacher is crazy, but also the coolest teacher in the worl, because he lets them write about anything and doesn't care if it is written poorly. This book is memorable because anyone and everyone can grasp the reality of Jeremy's troubles and thoughts. This oh-so-true story touches your heart, from his attempts at popularity to his laugh-out-loud insecurities. If you like "Sloppy Firsts" by Megan McCafferty or "About a Boy" by Nick Hornby, you will love this book.

10th Grade is written so effectively that it is difficult to believe an adult, Joseph Weisberg, wrote it. As an actual sophomore in high school, I know that Jeremy Reskin truly portrays an average young teenager going through the hardships, relationships, and emotions that all teens can identify with. An adult reading this book will definitely find it hilarious and enjoyable to reminisce about the wild times they had in their high school years. A tenth grader reading this book will also find it amusing to read a passage and right away be able to say "Yeah, that's definitely how I think," or "I've done that before!" When Jeremy first meets a girls, he right away describes her breasts in great detail; As soon as he wrote about how big the girl's breasts were, I right away remembered that I do that all the time.
10th Grade provides a hilarious view into the life of a average teenager in high school and allow the reader to laugh and remember how much fun they had in 10th grade.

D. W. Buffa, The Defense (Henry Holt, 1997)

It's hard to figure out which side of me is going to win the battle over how to review this book. One side of me wants to harp on the slowest beginning in history. The other side of me wants to harp on the fact that once I got past those opening chapters, I ended up reading most of the rest of it in one long marathon.

After reading the first two interminable chapters of this novel, I was sure that I was going to hate it. I'd give it the fifty page test, toss it in the box of books headed for greener pastures than my ever-messy book room, and give it a two-sentence review along the lines of the infamous one People magazine did for Black Sabbath's Live Evil album. But then I got to page fifty, and kept going. And going, and going and going...

The narrator of the novel is Joseph Antonelli, a cocky defense lawyer who's unused to losing cases. An old friend, Judge Leopold Rifkin, asks him to take on what looks like an unwinnable case, a lowlife accused of molesting his stepdaughter. About the only person who really believes he didn't do it is the defendant's wife, and she's the essence of the unreliable witness. How to get out of this mess?

From there, the book goes in a number of interesting directions. Unlike most trial-type novels, The Defense doesn't stick with just this one trial, but goes on into the further ramifications of it, years down the road, keeping the main players entwined with the family. Buffa also thumbs his nose at the detective/trial genre in the most wonderful of ways (but I can't go into detail without revealing a major plot twist). Once you're out into uncharted territory, Buffa has you at his mercy. He messes with all the conventions of trial novels in the past thirty years, and he does it very well.

Would have gotten a higher rating without those painful first chapters, but it's still a fine read if you can get past them. ***

Full steam ahead is how I would characterize the beginning of this book. The characters were well thought out and presented to the reader. But and this is a big but... as the book goes on you get the sense that the author was just trying to hurry through the bits with which he had problems. He doesn't do a very good job of covering the elapsed time between events. He also throws in so much irrelevant nonsense you wonder if he didn't change his mind in mid sentence and decide to go on a different track. As far as the who done it aspect I was suspicious around half way through and definite at the three quarter mark. So much for the big finale. So while I had no trouble reading the book while riding the train to and from work I definitely would have put it down had I been able to read continuously for any period of time, it just wouldn't hold my interest. Now after having said that I did find that D. W. Buffa has a fairly crisp writing style which is easy on the mind.

This is the first book by D. W. Buffa, an Oregon defense attorney turned author. It reads so well for a first novel, that you just know that Buffa is going to be around for quite a while.

The best part of this book is the main character Joe Antonelli. Like Buffa, he's a defense attorney. One thing that separates him from most other defense attorneys, however, is the fact that he's never lost a case and he's proud of passing this information on to anyone interested. I usually find this lack of humility in characters to be less than endearing but, for some reason, I think it adds to Antonelli's overall makeup. As is usual with most legal thrillers, there are enough twists and turns to give you a stiff neck. Somehow though, Buffa keep you guessing.

This case involves a less than desirable subject matter as Joe defends Johnny Morel, who is accused of raping his 12 year old stepdaughter. He has agreed to represent Morel at the request of his mentor, Judge Leopold Rifkin. The events surrounding this case will cause disastrous ramifications years down the road for all involved. The saying "what goes around, comes around" is definitely evidenced in the end of the book. Unfortunately, some innocent people will be hurt, an attorney will be left disenchanted and the reader will anxiously await the return of Joe Antonelli in Buffa's sequel, The Prosecution.

I do recommend reading these books in order just to get a better idea of what really makes Antonelli tick -- a character greatly admired by this reader.

The most objective and informational book available to date on the topic of remote viewing, written by someone who was there from the beginning.

An open-minded and even-handed look at a controversial topic.

I agree with a previous reviewer in saying that this book is essential to anyone who is seriously interested in researching psychic ability on a scientific level. Other books by Mr. McMoneagle are also available and worth reading if you have interest in the history of remote viewing.

Well, unlike the first reviewer, I found the writing in this book to be refreshingly straightforward and good. I've done a lot of reading on the topic of remote viewing and have also seen some training material from other people in the field. McMoneagle's knowledge of the subject is unparalleled, and his ability to convey that knowledge is excellent. He's honest and emphatic about the need to treat this kind of endeavor realistically. He explains the importance of maintaining the integrity of the work by adhering to very strict protocols. He offers clear opinions on what works well and what doesn't-- so the book is useful to those whose ambition it is to develop this skill themselves. I've never met McMoneagle (unlike one reviewer-- he is not an old friend of mine) and I value his perspective on this subject since he is NOT out to offer an expensive training course and is clearly a good remote viewer. I'd recommend the book highly, and it's refreshing to find such a pragmatic source on the subject.

That one book would best be Remote Viewing Secrets. The one to pick up and keep, if you are looking for a handbook, a how to without any extra servings of politics, religion, or drama. The most experienced and respected of viewers quote this book. McMoneagle is considered by most in the RV community to be the most accurate viewer, and the most visable - the only one able to view live on camera with seemingly little regard for the public eye. This book gives his basic bottom lines on what's important to good remote viewing, the differences between methodology and protocol. Stay in protocol, and use your alottment of natural psi talent to practice, practice, practice.

Joseph Sobran has written an elegant and persuasive condensation of the case for Edward de Vere's authorship of the Shakespeare canon, updating the previous efforts of passionate and intelligent students of the Shakespeare question such as Charlton Ogburn Junior, Bernard M. Ward and John Thomas Looney.

The book deserve five stars for cogently and persuasively presenting a much-maligned theory which counts among its recent adherents such intellectual lights as Derek Jacoby, Michael York, John Gilgud, Mortimer Adler and Supreme Court Justices Blackmun, Powell and Stevens.

As other reviewers have noted, it does not matter so much whether Sobran's arguments are correct -- this reader finds many of them persuasive -- as that the subject itself warrants serious and sustained attention. At present champions of the orthodox Shakespeare retain their intellectual monopoly within higher education primarily by means of excluding non-specialists such as Sobran from the debate over the Shakespeare question and vociferously denying, against a host of contrary evidence, that the subject even exists.

On the contrary, anyone who cares for the future of literary studies should acquaint themselves with the arguments made in this book. Not all of them are, in my opinion, equally valid. But that is no cause to ignore or belittle Mr. Sobran for tackling an important question which (sorry) ain't going to disappear just because a few powerful Shakespeare industry insiders insist on feeling threatened by it rather than seeing it as one of the greatest boons which could befall a shrinking intellectual discipline.

"Shakespeare" has never been more interesting or more real than he is in this book.

For readers in search of a compact, intelligent, entertaining introduction to the authorship question -- a question which is only now, after many years of suppression and neglect, beginning to come into its prime as one of the great questions of our day -- this book is a great place to begin.

Roger Stritmatter

This is a fascinating book that makes an very solid case for Edward DeVere, Earl of Oxford, as the true author of Shakespeare's works. Sobran breaks down all the myth and reverential pseudo-biography that exists around Shakespeare into a list of known facts. There is a temptation to bill anyone who questions the authorship of the man from Stratford as a member of the lunatic fringe, however Sobran is a careful journalist. He uses documented evidence to build a case against the curiously personality-less figure of the historic William Shakespeare being the author of such works. He convinced me, on literary and sociological grounds, that it was far more likely that Oxford is the author of the works. Fascinating and easy to read.

"Alias Shakespeare" is one of those books that very subtly alters your perspective on history, literature, and how greatness can come from misinformation just as often as from fact. I held a relatively open mind about the Who Wrote Shakespeare discussion until I read this completely believable, unerringly well-presented and well-documented argument that Shakespeare, as we know him, is actually no one we know at all.

By the end of the book you truly won't know what to think-Mr. Sobran has taken a volatile, passionately contested topic and presented his ideas clearly, concisely and with sincere conviction. He uses very straightforward logic and circumstantial evidence to demonstrate the great number of similarities in the Earl of Oxford's life to the topics and themes of Shakespearean plays and poetry, and then goes on to examine how the circumstances of William Shakespeare's life argue against his authoring the plays. There's also a wonderful appendix featuring the Earl of Oxford's early poetry (he stopped publishing at his peak-which is curious) to help you 'get a feel' for his similarities to Shakespeare's published works. It's fascinating and great fun to delve so deeply into what is a great puzzle of style and authorship. What a great way to exicte a new reader about the plays!