This book has two sides:

on one side it is a touching and impressive story of the writer's difficult life (from child abuse to AIDS) and the way meditation helps him.

On the other side it is a meditation/Buddhism guide, starting brilliantly - comparing the Buddha's life story to every person's personal struggle for liberation but then gets repetitive/boring to the point where i simply couldn't read any longer.

Had the writer focused more on his personal struggle this could have been an excellent book as there are many gems hidden in it's pages, too bad they are too far scattered.

Mr. Harrison, a South African gay man with AIDS, has written a book that is a primer for Insight Meditation. Although the theme of the book is how to live with pain and suffering (whether medical or mental or social), anyone with an interest in the teaching of the Buddha and instructions on meditation would find this helpful. At the end of thr book the author goes through the "precepts" of Buddhism, such as non-harming, no stealing, no intoxicants. He lists them and then uses stories to show how they work in the everyday world. Mr Harrison's greatest gift in this book, I feel, is that he shows how those who are in the midst of suffering can turn their attention from themselves to others and open their heart to a compassion that may have otherwise gone undiscovered. He deals with the fear of death and anger as well, giving meditational insgights into each problem. I gave the book 4 stars only because the writing can be a bit plodding and feels sort of dull after a bit.

This is an average, not too exceptional book with a lot of leitmotifs and common themes. It's not a bad resource to use while writing a paper, but you won't find any revolutionary ideas here. I found reading it to be a dreary bore and frustrated by what seemed like a forced effort to name the Muslim Brotherhood as the vanguard of civil society in Egypt. Being that civil society is a popular catch word in Middle East Studies these days, it is only natural that scholars come along and try to equate civil society with the non-violent Islamist violence. The problem is that the Brotherhood has never been a paragon of tolerance, democracy and pluralism--just look at how the organization is run. Moreover, I found it shocking that the work failed to discuss the Center Party despite the amount of time discussing the Muslim Brotherhood.

Islam in Contemporary Egypt looks at how civil society has been, contrary to popular belief, flourishing in the land known to the West as both a center of tourism and terrorism. The book dispels the common myth that Egypt and the Muslim societies at large do not possess the essential tradition of private voluntarism needed to establish a civil society.

The authors main footing is based on their keen observation of the countless number of civic associations and private organizations that collectively maintain Egypt as one of the most dynamic societies in the Middle East today. It is an important work because it precisely represents the inherent nature of Islam's calling toward civil democratic values. Understandably, such a work is not easy to find here in the other side of the world.

This scholarly effort is crucial as it provides a balanced perspective on how Egyptian Muslims have been striving to overcome government intervention, cooption and repression. It is especially interesting what Sullivan and Abed-Kotob had to say about the societal role played by Ikhwanul Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood) and how the organization responds to oscillating political dynamics. The notion of "Islam is the solution" employed by many Muslim organizations is also critically analyzed by the authors giving fair and neutral observation without taking it at face value. A particularly strong point of the book, which is often overlooked by other authors in the field, is its elaboration of the Islamic face of Egypt's feminist movement spearheaded by prominent and respectable Muslim Women.

Overall, it is an excellent introductory book for newcomers to the field of Egyptian politics or for anyone who has interest in learning more about Muslim social, cultural and political activism.

In reading this book, I was moved to wonder if it was 2002 or 1965. While not a bad story, the author gets so many details wrong that he must have used "Hang 'em High" as his only source.

Not a bad book, but totally fiction, pure and simple..

I can't remember when I've enjoyed a Western more than this second book from Joseph West. It's not just the skill he shows in weaving together history and fiction. It's how well he uses Sam'l, a scrawny redheaded and slightly self-deceived cowboy, to tell the adventures and mishaps of him and Johnny Blue. This time it's 1888 and continues from the first one (Me and Johnny Blue). The fixes Sam'l gets them into come fast and furious, each with outrageous humor and pathos. Historical characters include Buffalo Bill, painter Charles Russell, Judge Isaac Parker, lawmen Heck Thomas and Chris Madsen, evil Frank Canton. The way he deals with these historical figures shows them in a less than complimentary light. This to me makes it even more believable. The fictional characters come to life like few others I've read: gunfighter Shade Hannah, wolfer Jebadiah Anthony, Indian Red Horse, Johnny Blue's girlfriend Lo May, a couple of clergymen, and flim-flam man Doc Fortune (who appeared in the first book). With this said, don't get the wrong idea about this book. It's not "historical fiction" in the sense of trying to recount historical events fictionally. The author is simply telling a story with historical figures realistically running through it. It's a rare treat for any who like a good story in a Western setting. The worst thing about it, I don't know how anyone, including West, can keep up with this high standard of writing. But I sure hope he can.

This book is not unimportant, especially to those in the Reorganized / Restorationist LDS [Mormon tradition] cultures centered primarily in Independence, MO who cling to the notion that the founder of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints was never personally a revealer, teacher or practitioner of Polygamy. Rather, that he was a 'victim' of a conspiracy within the Mormon church in IL to introduce it. This despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, documented in scholarly works during the past decade alone... The book is nicely bound and printed. Would that it's content were as praiseworthy and historically accurate. Any serious student of LDS [Mormon] History will immediately recognize that to accept the authors interpretive theories requires tremendous leaps in logic with regard to their inferential conclusions about evidence at best circumstantial and at worst completely out of context.

Was Joseph Smith polygamous? Richard and Pamela Price, despite the insistence of most "scholars" that say he was a polygamist, makes a compelling case for Joseph Smith NOT being a polygamist. They mention Joseph's repeated statements, verbal and written, against polygamy, his excommunication of persons who believed in, advocated, and/or practiced polygamy, as well as taking people to court for polygamy or for saying he was a polygamist. Personally, I find this compelling. However, in the final analysis, the reader will have to get the book, read it, and decide the issue for themselves.

I would not say this book is terrible-there is alot of good stuff in the last few chapters to educate all-I was just a little disappointed in what seemed to me the long drawn out story of Ms. Ross. I applaud her for her courage to reach out to those in need and share her experiences but, I think less of her story would have gotten the point across.Maybe someone who is in a situation similar to hers would find some comfort here.There is alot of information in the later chapters for therapists who are unfamiliar with suicide grief to benefit from and would greatly help those in need with such.

"Life After Suicide: A Ray of Hope for Those Left Behind" is a bright beacon on a dark subject. The colorful cover caught my attention--yellows and pinks and an inspiring sunrise. So it is with the contents of Ms. Ross's personal account of her husband's death. Her writing is clear as *white glass* in helping those of us struggling to move on after losing a loved one this way.

It is close to the anniversary of my mother's death. Yes, she comitted suicide--alcohol and pill overdose. Do you know how hard that is to type? Or say out loud? The guilt, the grief, sets in and replays throughout the years as relentlessly as crashing tides washing debris upon a desolate beach. Debris that must be delt with. Either tossed and forgotten or picked up and treasured. As quoted in "Tuesdays With Morrie"--death ends a life, not a relationship.

This is a blessing of a book. Collective stories of others, careful research into the subject, ethical debates over the stigmatism of suicide, and even the dealings with the coroner and police--makes this a complete suicide survival guide. I would think this could be used by anyone dealing with this issue; nurses, funeral homes, hospices.

"Ray of Hope" is a cosmic path towards healing.

Thanks for your interest & comments--CDS

There's a lot of cheap and distorted information in this book (probably edited by the clumsy U.S. Navy), but there's no doubt that Mad Admiral King never understood what a submarine was or that German submariners ran up and down our East Coast at will attacking our harbors and sinking our ships. He thought they were spontaneous combustion, of some sort, and made an effort to load ships differently and thus prevent these "untoward events."

Now all this time'early 40's'the Brits had been warning KING about the present position and anticipated arrival of every German submarine sent across the Atlantic to attack our Eastern ports, but the number one SOB on our side (and an American) refused to ever listen to the Brits due to a pathological craziness that negatively focused on the Brits. Instead he did the opposite. The ports were left unguarded. The German wolf packs roamed just a few miles off our Eastern seashore at will and thousands of men died needlessly! Why this one salient point wasn't a large focal point of this book is beyond me.

As bald as King's purposeful negligence seems today I must admit that everyone wants to read about a leader who is also a buffoon. Madness and stupidity offer great areas of comedic relief even in pointless deadly battles. A glimpse at some of the most fatal but stupid and uninspired Anglo-Saxon battle plans'"over the top boys!"'of the 2nd World War will convence anyone of this! That's why this book isn't selling but would be selling 2000 copies a month right now had the authors and the U.S. Navy relentlessly searched for the truth and then after finding it wrote is all down exactly as it happened. But the U.S. Navy was then a boatload of WASPS in search of a great U.S. Naval leader and Mad Admiral King looked just like a leader with his clean face and pretty white hair. In their egoistic ways and means, the writers tried to place King anywhere but where he belongs: in a yellow submarine. Instead, King's long and costly road to victory was too grevious for everyone in the end and so no foolish writer wanted to spend time researching him when his record spoke for itself.

Mad Admiral King's true plan for the Pacific war was to island-hop for another three years, to have the war end in 1948. His dwarf like mind conceived the worst and possibly malignant war plans when he purposefully ordered Iwo Jima to be invaded. This latter plan of death and dying caused even the most cynical American Admiral-to-be to suggest that island hoping was a bad idea. Bypass the remaining islands and bomb Japan back into the stone age with incendiaries. The deaths of the truly great fighting men at Iwo Jima were placed there by King and ordered to take the island at allcosts. This is not insightfully addressed in the book on King because it's just more proof of King's pathological arrogance and conceit.

Ernie J. King was one of the least known and yet most important figures of American 20th century military history. While others, such as Nimitz and Halsey, gained laurels in the press, King actually defined the strategy, determined who would lead American naval forces across the Pacific, and single-handedly ran the Navy Department throughout the war. Yet he remains almost unknown to modern generations [during a recent visit to the US Naval Academy, an official tour guide -- a retired Naval officer -- told me that King was buried in Arlington cemetery, when in fact he is buried at the Academy]. Mr. Buell addresses this gap with this extraordinary book. Buell tries -- by all available means -- to get at who the man was, what he was like, and what he did -- no easy task considering that King distrusted the press for much of the war, and was almost universally regarded as an SOB within the Navy Department. Yet reading this book, I came to understand why it took an SOB to accomplish the defeat of Japan simultaneously with that of Germany -- something that Admiral King seems to have understood as well. I felt that at the end of this book, I understood who King was, what motivated him, and what he was like. The reproduction of King's 2-page memorandum to FDR about Pacific war strategy is an extraordinary document and a classic example of good business writing. It is unfortunate that Buell's biography of Raymond Spruance does not manage to capture equally the character of Spruance -- admittedly an enigma. Buell's bibliography is a marvel of critical assessement of sources -- he uses the same style with his Spruance biography and new Civil War history. For someone interested in sources and original material, Buell's syntheses are unparalleled. My only question is: when will Buell take up the story of another fascinating military figure such as Pershing, Arleigh Burke, or McNair? Barry Miller Bethesda, Maryland

This book has a unique and interesting premise--a look into the daily lives of 15th century English men and women through their letters. However, the book is too fact-filled about very ordinary people and you may end up finding yourself skipping to the end.

While the book boasts a large cast of interesting characters, the Paston family really comes alive through the Gies' judicious use of the family's own words...three generations of Paston and Paston associates' letters.

It is non-fiction, but through the letters and the context provided by the Gies' extensive research, the book reads like a non-fiction novel. I especially enjoyed Margaret Paston and the wry humor she managed to express in her letters as she played an important part in both family battles and the land battles that were common in her time.

I was also impressed with the small world that medieval England must have been. Chaucer's relatives, a few English kings, Queen Margaret, and Sir John Fastolf (the basis for Shakespeare's Falstaf) all came and went in various roles of importance in the lives of an otherwise everyday middle class family.

More and more titles, promise and give less content wise. This book is no depature from that tradition. It is filled with short sighted claims and unbelievably ostentatious arguments bound by lotfy sentences. If a book were to be written by or about nomads, it would not be this.

I happened to stumble upon this beautiful, fascinating read and was amazed by its rich exploration of how we construct our identities in the new politics of globalization, migrancy, postcolonialism and postmodernism. The author shows a deep understanding of the personal effects of nationalism and internationalism, and the nuances of urban survival at a time when the meaning of the terms 'global' and 'local' have become shifting and unsteady. A must read for anyone working on postcolonial studies, or anyone who wants to think more deeply about how migration will evolve in the 21st century.

I bought the Sybex Performance Tuning book. A colleague of mine bought the Oracle Press book. I read both and passed the OCP exam with plenty to spare. While the Sybex book is good, the Oracle Press book is better.

My purpose was to pass the exam and I have done it using this book but also the Osborne book by Ch. Pack.
Both of them are very good books and are complementary.

Pros:
-A lot of examples: extracts from statspack reports, screenshots of Oracle Enterprise Manager tools. It's very interesting to understand but it's no use for the exam.
-The exam-based questions are challenging.
-Nearly all you need to know can be found in this book

Cons:
-This book doesn't follow Oracle test content checklist. It's all mixed up but there is a good plan table.
-Some chapter are too much detailed, too many parameters for Oracle utilities (eg TKPROF). It's sometime difficult to see what's important to know for the exam. I only had basic questions about those tools nothing about all the options described in the book.
-They are small mistakes: CREATE_STORED_OUTLINES, USE_PRIVATE_OUTLINES and USE_PRIVATE_OUTLINES are stated as initialization parameters but it's not the case (check otn.oracle.com).

My advice:
-have a good understanding of Oracle views. I had between 10 and 15 questions relating to views.
-use both books to be well prepared. This exam is quite difficult.

The back cover of this book states, "A Complete training guide to restoring vacuum-tube and transistor radios." And an excerpt of the description notes, "In addition to covering the vacuum tube circuits of radios made before 1950, author Joseph J. Carr gives you transistor theory and practice..." Unfortunately, not a single mention is made of transistors or transistor theory in the book. Other than that omission, the book is a good guide to the theory of tube radio circuits and contains some chapters on tube circuit troubleshooting, safety, and test equipment. Some electronic knowledge is helpful in understanding this fairly concise book.

I always enjoy technical books written by Joe Carr - he takes a subject that could otherwise be dry and boring, and turns it into something that is very understandable, and sometimes funny! This book progresses from the requisite origins of radio, into vacuum tube theory, through receiver basics, and dives into step-by-step guides to fixing an ailing radio. It is not a guide to the value or history of any particular brand or model of radio (it actually features very few photographs) but it *is* rich with schematics, diagrams, and guides to parts and equipment you will use when repairing antique radios. A great addition to your library!