The book is very profound, informative and interesting. Probably the best book on insight meditation, clearly understandable and readable. The quality of the information in the book is excellent and the scope is wide, which makes you want to re-read the chapters again and again. Whether you are or are not a practitioner, or whether you want or do not want to become one, the book is very interesting from the viewpoint of psychology because it opens new realities and widens your mind.

If you have always imagined Buddhism as some mystified religion, or if you have only been educated psychology from the western viewpoint and have felt sometimes that "something is missing", try reading this book. Perhaps, you will be surprised at finding out what Buddhism actually is, and perhaps you will find in the book that "missing part".

"Our life has been spent in sleep and sleepwalking," Jack Kornfield writes in this guide to insight meditation; "meditation means waking up" (p. 52). Coauthors Kornfield and Goldstein are also the cofounders of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. This book is based on "talks given at several intensive meditation retreats" there, and focuses "on the deepening of the inner meditative process, the hindrances one encounters, skillful means of mastering them, and the understanding and wisdom that can arise while in meditative silence" (p. 215). "To understand ourselves and our life is the point of insight meditation: to understand and be free" (p. 7), Kornfield writes. Goldstein tells us that "we practice to open, to balance, and to explore" (p. 18).

Practicing insight meditation is about "clearing or emptying" the mind and heart so that we can listen in a deep and new way" (p. 57). This introductory guide not only contains valuable exercises, but also offers trusted advice about working through the "difficulties and hindrances" that may arise while practicing--desire, aversion, torpor, restlessness, and doubt. "Through practice," we're told, "it is possible to train the heart and mind, to make them concentrated, to make them steady and luminous and free" (p. 39).

The book concludes with a discussion of "the seven factors of enlightenment," mindfulness, effort and energy, investigation, rapture, concentration, tranquility, and equanimity, also offering advice for integrating meditation practice into "our everday lives" (p. 215) so that we may live "a mindful life in the world" (p. 228). Like a finger pointing at "a bright, round moon" from this "floating world" (pp. 129-30), this book is sure to become a trusted resource for anyone interested in living a deeper, more meaningful life through the practice of insight meditation. For those interested in venturing further down "the path of insight meditation," I also highly recommend Goldstein and Salzburg's 12-cassette INSIGHT MEDITATION course.

G. Merritt

I picked up the pocket version of this book one day and happened to open to the page which talks about the accumulation of material items and the transitory happiness it brings -- how once the novelty of the item has worn off we go about buying more things-- all in the hopes of stimulating that "happiness" response. Boy did that hit the nail on the head!! I had to get the full length version and it has been very enlightening. A definte must for anyone who is at a point in their life where they are questioning their purpose, their "path" and want to know what to do to effect change. I loved it!!!

Many beginners to magic (and others who should know better) are of the opinion that a magic effect has to be difficult in order to be worthwhile. While there are many killer effects that take months or years of practice, there are equally wonderful tricks that rely on psychology, subtlety, and/or advance preparation. The Self Working series of books are a treasure trove of great magic. This book is no exception. Many of the included tricks are used by successful professional magicians. Admittedly, these are best used in a program with other, more elaborate tricks, but for those moments in your act where you need a short, sweet effect, something in this book might just fill the bill. And as you get more proficient in magic you will find ways to further embellish these tricks and make them your own private miracles.

If you're reading this, you've probably already experienced the dreadful feeling of opening your new tricks' book... and discovering that the most stupid move requires years of training, expensive props and monk-like dedication.

Well... it appears that this book is in fact just the opposite. The tricks are very simple to perform (ok, you'll need some limited legerdemain nonetheless), require no props at all and, most of all, they aren't common or stupid at all.

The approach is very down-to-earth and sincere in pointing out the good and the bad parts of each trick, and this book alone will allow you to spice a dinner with dozens of nice magic tricks within a week's practice.

Be warned: this is NOT David Copperfield material. It's more "So, uncle Jim, can you do another magic?" type of stuff. But then again, you'll probably won't perform onstage as often as you'll be dining at a bored table. So...

If you see a book written by Karl Fulves on magic that has the words Self-Working in the title then buy it. There is a wealth of knowledge in each of these books. -Diamond Jim Tyler

This is a practical spiritual book no unlike 12 steps it works. I would also encourage people to read An Encounter With A Prophet for a powerful spiritual book that get's you closer to your higher power.

Bailey has presented easy to grasp ideas that really work for the person in recovery. I have used it on both a personal and professional level and would encourage others to do the same.

This book is excellent. You do not have to be recovering from anything for this book to have meaning. Read it several times.

A page-turning novel set in 1920's Scotland...Cronin's protagonist is a brilliant scientist content to save the world, but makes a discovery that cause his scientific ordeals to take a backseat: a forbidden love. Cronin really puts us there, Dr. Shannon (our protagonist) is hilarious in his observations of the idiots around him....All in all a great read, and impossible to put down for the last 20 chapters...You'll feel better for the read....

Shannon's Way is a book about Dr Robert Shannon who lives for his experiments and finds love that nearly tortures him as much as a failed experiment six months in the making. Great Book!

An extremley superior Mills and BOOM! All the necessary ingredients for kicking off your shoes on a wet Sunday afternoon. Love, reglion, a medic and a woman mad for it. The climax of the book is when our herione gets scarlet fever, but Dr. Shannon (probably with bronzed torso toboot!) saves the girl, saves the book, saves you finishing the entire bag of wine gums and any other excuse you need to waste your life.

Read it. Live it. SORT IT!

As an author of a book that uses a fishing metaphor to illustrate how relationships work, I was approached by someone about this book. So I bought it and must say that it truly gives the more serious angler a better understanding about what fly fishing for trout is all about. Having read about a dozen books on trout fishing (in doing the research for my fishing analogy), I think this one is one of the very best. The pictures are beautiful and something that every California trout fisherman should have in his personal library.

Cutter's Sierra Trout Guide is more than just a how to catch fish book. It is a lovingly illustrated and highly readable narrative about the Sierras, the varieties of trout found there, where trout feed, and on what and when, how to know what the trout are eating and what best imitates today's insect selection. Equally important, Cutter provides a compelling history of each strain of Sierra trout and how man has done his best --luckily so far unsuccessfully-- to ruin this splendid fishery. Read this book and you'll weep at what our forefathers did to the once abundant Lahontan Cutthroat. But you'll also see the Sierras and their wild trout populations with a whole new appreciation for their magnificence.

Ralph Cutter has done a superb job with his revised edition of "Sierra Trout Guide". The book was originally published in a much smaller format with only a fraction of the information contained in this edition. The ten years between editions was well worth the wait.

Ralph introduces you to the various species of trout and char that you will find in the Sierra, along with valuable information on their preferred habitat and environmental preferences. His chapter describing the fishery will help you understand why the Sierra Nevada enjoys such a wide mix of trout, and will give the history buff a load of trivia to share at the evening campfire or while moon-watching from a granite bluff.

Backpacking is a minimalist's sport and yet fly fishers have a reputation for carrying everything with them but the kitchen sink. The chapter "Into the Backcountry" gives great guidelines on what to take, what to leave, and what to expect to run into on a fly-fishing/backpacking trip. The chapter on "Trout Foods" includes information on all the major insects on the Sierra trout's menu and includes a hatch chart with some general recommendations to compensate for elevation differences. Ralph again takes the well seasoned backpacker's approach to his recommended fly assortment. You really can imitate most of the available insects in the Sierra with just a handful of flies.

The chapter "Locating Productive Waters" will enable you to make an educated guess about where to find trout by analyzing the features of the 7 1/2 minute maps of the areas you wish to explore.

As if that was not enough, the book includes distribution charts (listed by county) of all the rivers and lakes found in the Sierra that hold trout. These charts also tell you which USGS map they can be found on, the watershed they belong to, the elevation, and even the species of fish you can expect to find in the area you're considering. For example, if you want to fish lakes in the EL Dorado County area of the Sierra for Golden Trout, you can use these charts to plan your trip. My brother and I used this information to find a lake a few years ago that contained golden trout at 8100 feet of elevation and only a 6 mile hike in. The full moon illuminating the granite cliffs over the lake that night, and a sparkling jewel of a 14" golden trout the next day, quickly made me forget any soreness from the effort it took to get there.

The book is printed on top quality glossy paper and the pictures alone make the book worth buying. The 8½" x 11" pages are easy to read and handle, and the softcover allows you to easily slip it into your backpack. Don't go into the Sierra without it.

In this book, Cardinal Ratzinger has raised and answered some of the most essential issues any Catholic, or for that matter any Christian, can face. He treads where only a deep faith founded in clear understanding can lead him, and through him, us. The essential nature of this book is seen right from the beginning. On page 17 he introduces the critial necessity of worshiping God as God desires, not as man desires. It is why God led Israel through the desert, why He prescribed precisely how He was to be worshiped, and why this is true for us today. God has an absolute right to be worshiped as He chooses. Our response is to obey. This creates the relationship between man and God. When we decide to worship God as we want, when we make worship, we clutch empty space and create a self-affirmation, a form of entertainment instead of a faithful worship of God. How God demands we worship Him, and why, is the central thread of this book, and is a critical point for every Christian to understand. If we do otherwise, we unbalance our relationship with God by injecting too much self, putting entertainment and "feeling good" ahead of the will of God, and in doing so we create disorder in all else we do. Every Christian needs this book.

I am old enough to have witnessed what was called "Liturgical Renewal" post Vat II style as a non-liturgist amongst the many others in the pews. We scratched our heads and wondered at the nonchalance with which changes were instituted: "That's old hat and it has to go." Since that time, I was ordained a Deacon(1975), and somewhat to my own surprise, I was forced to truly become a student of Vat II because of the challenges with which I was continually being confronted.

What as an amateur I had always suspected, Cardinal Ratzinger in THE SPIRIT OF THE LITURGY has, as a professional, proven to me to be true. Full Liturgical renewal has yet to happen. And it cannot be so until all are aware of what it is that we are about when we celebrate the Liturgy.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LITURGY gives us(clergy and laity alike) the foundation and raison d'etre for our most solemn moment of prayer, the Eucharistic Sacrifice. He solidly and with obvious expertise grounds our appreciation for the Mass in Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Fathers of the Church. One example: The Eucharistic Celebration's close ties to the Jewish Synagogue Service helps tremendously to understand its division into Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist and at the same time explains the age old practice of priest and people facing in the same direction(ad orientem). One could walk through this little book citing example after example, page after page, of how ones appreciation of the Mass could not fail to be deepen with the turning of yet another page. It has hugely enhanced my own appreciation for the richness of the Liturgy.

It is a must read for all clergy; a sine qua non for Liturgists especially. At the same time, I cannot too highly recommend it to the Laity to help them understand that some of the silliness they see in the Liturgy is just that, silliness, and in some cases much worse. This book comes as a big dose of sanity and reasonableness.

The Spirit of the Liturgy is interestingly presented in a quite readable format. It is not a "Sunday afternoon" novel but for anyone with a modicum of ability and tenacity, it is very manageable.

Most of all, it is obviously written by a man of deep faith and a sense of piety; one for whom worshipping in spirit and truth is a reality. May it be so for me(and you) as well!

Inspired by Romano Guardini's classic of the same name, the importance of this book cannot be overstated -- not just because the author is one of the church's foremost theologians and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, but mainly because its rich content provides profound insight into the interplay between the transcendant and the immanent in the liturgy. This man's brilliant mind, his deep grasp of humanity, history and scripture, and his humility and respect for all sides in the liturgical reform movement shine through in John Saward's crisp translation from the German original. Divided into four parts (The Essence of the Liturgy, Time and Space in the Liturgy, Art and Liturgy, Liturgical Form), the cardinal's reflections will benefit liturgists and worshippers alike. This book should be read by every catholic adult, but especially by bishops, priests, and deacons (and those in formation). After 30 years of drift into banality, the church still awaits the implementation of Vatican II's vision of the liturgy. This book provides impetus in that direction.

An important reference guide for artists on the path to enlightenment and artistic achievement, this collection illustrates the transformation and maturation of style and content in one artist, beginning with drawings as a 7-year old Chewbacca lover. This piece began with gleaning from 100 pounds worth of sketchbooks, and has crystalized into a 400-plus page artistic manifesto influenced by Eastern philosophy, Star Wars, tattooing and graffiti and so much more. Simply put, a visual masterpiece.

This book is an excellent visual compilation of the artists work from his early days drawing Star Wars pictures, to his current work as a talented, enlightened tattooist.

This isn't a book to read of flip through - it is a book to explore and experience. I highly reccomend this book- it is a new journey each and every time I pick it up!

This beautiful book is a blast to read through. Tons of huge color plates filled with sex, art and rock and roll. As a huge fan of all of the source inspiration for Ari's drawings (KISS, Star Wars) this collection of drawings really hits home. A must have for those who appreciate the...uh...finer things in life. I give it 5 starts not because it is the best artbook I have ever seen, but because it is a ton of fun.

Honestly, I picked up Joseph O'Connor's 'Sweet Liberty' from Amazon because I wanted to see what kind of social commentary could possibly be written by someone with the dubious distinction of being Miss Sinead O'Connor's brother. I was ready for anything, but not the side-splitting, absolute laughter and insight with which this man looks at Irish history and the uniquely American version(s) of it. This book is better, in my opinion FAR better, than 'Angela's Ashes.' O'Connor writes with all the wit McCourt can summon and manages to be uplifting instead of depressing. I swear, there's a fabulous insight and a good laugh on every page. O'Connor writes with a style that combines intelligence and ease, as if you were having a nice long chat with your best friend and actually talking about something INTERESTING, for a change! I don't know where to begin in describing the book's best parts; there are so many of them. O'Connors recollections of his first childhood 'French Kiss' by a girl named Judy are hilarious. His stint in a Massachusetts hotel dining room next to a couple of arguing California lesbians had me nearly falling out of my chair. His journeys to the various 'Dublin' towns of the USA are each magical in their own way, and utterly bizarre. O'Connor introduces us to a number of VIPs from Irish/American history, too...and each account makes for riveting reading because O'Connor cloaks their various stories in his own lovably irreverent wit. That's the best part of this great, great read: O'Connor's commentary is laced with sharp humor but tempered with an undercurrent of genuine affection for humanity and the places he has visited. His writing is very moving at times, whether he's describing the madcap adventures when his father flies over to meet him in New York on the Concorde, or when he's recalling his two sisters and their constant car-sickness on childhood family vacations (Sinead...we never knew ye had such a weak tummy!). O'Connor sees America and does it all and laughs "with" us in the most engaging, irresistible way. You'll pee your pants. Buy this book and I guarantee you'll be up til' 2AM reading about this man's splendid adventures.

Joseph O'Connor is a gifted writer whose travelogue brought me to several bouts of uncontrollable laughter. The stories in this book contain a wonderful mix of dry wit and outrageous hyperbole, and O'Connor manages to weave in a bit of Irish-American history as well.

As it happens, laughing out loud _is_ the only exercise I get (aside from running late for work), so I'm glad I took Roddy Doyle's advice and read this book. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, too.

A clue to how Irish I am can be found in the fact that, sitting down to write this, I thought this book topical as St. Patrick's Day was "coming up". The Valentine's Day decorations aren't yet out of the stores, so that may seem a little extreme. The fact that I did not set foot in Ireland until I was 22 does not seem to have significantly weakened this attachment to the country. So I am just the sort of Irish-American yahoo that prompted Joseph O'Connor to write this hilariously scathing look at the American landscape. "Sweet Liberty: Travels in Irish America" is Joe O'Connor's opportunity to satisfy a life-long curiosity. Having seen American's cartoon-view of Ireland from St. Patrick's Day parades in Dublin, he took his cartoon-view of America (from westerns and visiting tourists) and decided to investigate it. Not surprisingly, what he found was even funnier than what he thought he would find.

"Sweet Liberty" follows O'Connor as he sets off to see the 9 towns named Dublin in the US, along with some classically American (and Irish-American) landmarks - New York, Graceland, the Grand Canyon and others. The Dublins tend to be non-extraordinary rural outposts with little or no knowledge of their own history. But O'Connor turns his encounters in these towns into rolicking tales - poking fun at himself, at those he meets, at the towns, his hotels, the roads, whatever. O'Connor is funny in a way stand-ups can't be, because his humor is not at all mean-spirited. Even while he is "slagging" someone or something, you can hear the affection for it underneath.

Roddy Doyle, author of "The Commitments" and "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" (and object of O'Connor's professional jealousy), said of O'Connor that he is the man to read, "if laughing out loud is the only exercise you get." I thought he was kidding. Or at least exaggerating. But halfway through the preface, my slides were splitting. By the end of the first chapter, I was doubled over in laughter. Joe O'Connor has a brilliant dry wit and mercilessly accurate descriptions of characters - of both people and places. Having lived in Boston, I was almost brought tears, I laughed so hard at his antics there.

Clearly the more familiar you are with any given area he is describing, the funnier "Sweet Liberty" may seem. But if you are inclined to a sense of humor about any of America's geographic icons, you will find this Irishman's perspective entertaining and engrossing. If you are rather more inclined to an academic look at Irish-America, you are better off with Thomas O'Connor's "The Boston Irish" or Noel Ignatiev's "How the Irish Became White". After all, some of the Dublins weren't even named for the town in Ireland.

It's got great tales, awsome art work, and sexy scenes. You can't get any better than this.

This is an amazing book for any horror/goth enthusiast. The art inside the book is disturbing and gorgeous. This is the most decadent book that I have ever picked up. I loved every page of it. If you love vampires, ghouls, and the supernatural--buy this book. It is one of a kind. A+

Tales from the Dark Tower by: Joseph Vargo (hardcover) With characters based on Vargos art work this montage of dark tales "13" in all by various authors is unlike any thing you could imagine. Classic Gothic work at its very best. Although I am not a huge fan of fiction I came across this book and it is set apart from the norm or anything else for that matter. Along comes all the gothic community has been waiting for. Something that defines the word Gothic. Reminiscent of the old black and whites that used to fill James O'Barrs work (creator of the crow) Joseph Vargos haunting Images from his artwork is what this book was based upon. Beautiful artwork, Dark stories, and characters that your own father wouldn't choose for a hero, but your not your father are you? Highly recommended for any one who roots for the moody,dark,vampiric hero. Enter the delicious world of Vargo.

I first started reading this book via a Jewish study class and I found it quite comprehensive, while not insulting one's intelligence. The practice exercises help quite a bit, and they draw upon previous lessons so as to bring together everything learned up to a certain point. Please keep in mind that this book does not teach you how to translate modern Hebrew. It is good if you want to begin learning Hebrew, but don't expect to be able to order a falafel on the streets of Haifa after finishing this book. Essentially, this book provides the base for the house, but you'll need further reading to build on that house in terms of modern language translation. That having been said, I still highly recommend that one has this book if you're either beginning the study of Hebrew or are reacquainting yourself with it.

I taught myself to read Hebrew in several weeks using this little book. The material is exceptionally well paced; each chapter introduces just the right amount of new material and reinforces previously learned letters. This is the best book I've found for adults who want to learn Hebrew.

You can either get this book by itself or with several cassette tapes. Someone loaned it to me to begin my Hebrew studies, and I have to have my own copy now. Small doses of the aleph bet, with special attention paid to look-alikes and sound-alikes.