I liked the fact that there is not happily ever after, that the characters must fight to produce their own future. But, it is good to know that along their journey, they met many who would help them.

Primo Levi is a wonderful writer. He stays true to character, winds the subplots into the main plot without jerky interruptions and allows the characters to be real, not stereotypes.

This book will make you feel like you walked with Joan, knew her, loved her - READ THIS BOOK. Truly one of the greatest reads of my life! A Book that really changed my perspective on a lot of things.

The way proposed to get out of debt or at least so you stop living off credit cards is good and sound, built up through a week-by-week program. However, some of the activities I don't believe will benefit all people who pick up and read the book. If you're way in over your head, getting calls from collections and STILL debting, definitely check this one out, but if you're like me and are not yet at that point, just read the first half to get into the psychology of your spending behaviour.

My only caution is to take the review written by Mr. Steele with a grain of salt. Mr. Steele is the CEO of Open Source Solutions, the same company that Lowenthal is the COO for. Can you say conflict of interest?

Don't buy this if you dont have to.

Mark Lowenthal, who today is the Associate Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production (ADCI/A&P), was briefly (for a year) the President of OSS USA (I created OSS Inc., the global version). So much for disclosure and "conflicts of interest". The previous review, after a year of being irritatingly present, needs to be corrected. Dr. Lowenthal was for many years the Senior Executive Service reviewer of intelligence affairs for the Congressional Research Service, then he went on to be Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence & Research (Analysis), and then he became the Staff Director for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he supervised one of the two really serious really excellent studies on all that is wrong with intelligence and what needs to be fixed. OSS was lucky to have him contribute to its development for a year before he moved on to another corporation and then to the #5 position in the US Intelligence Community. He needs no help from me in either articulating his ideas or doing good work.

What the previous reviewer fails to understand is that Dr. Lowenthal's book represents the *only* available "primer" on intelligence that can be understood by Presidents, Congressmen, the media, and the public. While my own book (The New Craft of Intelligence) strives to discuss the over-all threats around the world in terms meaningful to the local neighborhoods of America, Dr. Lowenthal's book focuses on the U.S. Intelligence Community itself--the good, the bad, and the ugly. He is strongest on analysis and the politics of intelligence, somewhat weaker on collection and counterintelligence covert action. There is no other book that meets the need for this particular primer, and so I recommend it with enthusiasm. It is on the OSS.NET list of the top 15 books on intelligence reform every written.

"The Long Road" easily skirts both of these pitfalls. Instead, the Hero is quite human, and has to struggle to earn the life-lessons of the book. And each Mythic Figure is unique, and fascinating in turn. The book never drags, never bogs down in its own metaphors, never thinks too highly of itself, and only rarely preaches. The surrealism of the landscape is a bit jarring at first, but you'll soon find yourself fully sucked into this realm of the fantastic. My hat is off to Mark, for succeeding so well with such a difficult literary form.

Plattner's style creates a highly-readable book. The writing style represents a cross between Roald Dahl and Jack Kerouac. Characterization is a strong point as is dialogue. The careful reader will smirk on a number of occasions at Plattner's clever insertion of pop-culture references in his characters' dialogue.

The reader who takes The Long Road for a spin over a weekend may look at the following Monday morning with an entirely new perspective on life.

For this same reason, the book contains comparatively little detail on its subject. Rather, it presents a commonsense argument for the validity of the approach, building the case in small increments few could deny and providing multiple instances to support each incremental argument. This approach works well for individuals with little knowledge of the Bible or with a bias against the traditional form of interpretation.

In short, Shea does an excellent job of reaching a very specific audience. If you fall within that audience, I recommend the book. If you do not, there are more informative texts available.

Accordingly, a good account of early church fathers is given in the book. Upon reading this book, the reader will have a good understanding of how the Church reads scripture; that scripture can have a literal, moral, allegorical or anagogical sense.

Mr. Shea does not necessarily give us something new. The methodologies he uses, as he has stated, have been used by the Church for centuries. What he does provide, is a simplified analysis of scripture reading. This work is written for the layman, but clergy would benefit from it as well.

The author's wit makes the book a fun read. This is one of those books that you will want to pass on to your friends. How can we love Christ if we don't understand who He is, what He has done for us, and what it means to us? By understanding scripture, you will begin to gain answers to these questions.

Mr. Shea simply makes that job a bit easier. This book is heartily recommended to all who want to grow in their understanding of scripture.

Sorry to say, the book contains a series of minor irritations that distract the reader, mainly footnotes to explain French or Latin words or phrases in the text. One senses these were added for the benefit of the American reader, who Urban (or his editor) assumes does not know the meaning of hauteur or en clair or divide et impera or primus inter pares. HarperCollins might be interested to know that this reader found the footnotes irritating, to the extent that halfway through I began to skim the text. A reader is not attracted by a writer who tries to wear a cloak of superiority--especially when the writer is himself guilty of misspellings of foreign words. For example, the word for city in Spanish is "ciudad", but is misspelled on the map on page 2. As we say in Colorado, verbum sapientibus satis est.

Armies win or lose, and empires are lost and won with intelligence operations. George Scovell, the man referred to in the title of the book, never really received his just due for the great work he did, especially from his commander. Nevertheless, Scovell served loyally and ably, and did more than his assigned duty. He was probably indispensable to Wellington, and only now, with the publication of this book, are we, the students of the period, learning of this officer and his true worth because of the interest and diligence of the author.

The book is about intelligence operations, which the author is a virtuoso in explaining in detail. However, the book is more than that. It is also the story of the man, Scovell, what he tried and wanted to do, and what he accomplished. A self-made man, he really was never in Wellington's inner circle, and I tend to doubt that Wellington really understood Scovell's value.

The author is at his best weaving his tale of hard work, heartbreak, and ultimate triumph. The book is a page-turner and is very well-written, not always the hallmark of the good historian. We should all look forward to his next effort with great anticipation.

When I first saw the flyer for the book I was very happy as one of my favorite paintings, Moore's rearguard during the Corunna campaign, was on the cover. When I received my copy, I was greatly disappointed, as it only was a part of the cover, the rest being covered by writing of some sort. On closer inspection, however, the 'scribbling' was the code, being worked on by Scovell to break it. The cover describes the book perfectly-there is fighting and the personal side of combat during the Napoleonic era, as well as the intellectual side of warfare. It is a thinking man's game. Simply ingenious.

Highly recommended for anyone and everyone interested in the period. If you don't read this book, you are missing a real treat. It has an honored place on my bookshelf.

Worse, this story is told first person by a bullying, unlikeable character mouthing noir cliches, like she stepped out of a 1940s movie. And she's ALWAYS talking about her tangled hair and "too-tight" clothes. Okay, so maybe the author is trying to "build empathy" with his female readers -- but he's made his point. No need to keep telling us the character "feels fat" and has "tangled hair." I wanted to shave her head already.

The story ranges from dull to moments of okay. As can be expected, this gal reporter hates working for a tabloid, wants a Pulitzer, hopes this story will be her big break out of "tabloid hell," lies to her fat Italian editor (shades of Kolchak's Tony Vinchenzo?), yada yada, chiche, chiche.

There's also the usual politically correct stuff. ... redneck sheriffs, ... chemical plant, good environmental conscious Native Americans. If you're hip to PC cliches, you've guess the villain, and his supporters, as they show up. No surprises in this paint by number non-mystery.