See book description above.

I was not at all disappointed with this somewhat dark comedy, which one author described as having "real machine gun narrative". As mentioned by other reviewers, Smith is comparable to Hiaasen (but not quite at his level) and also, I think, Fitzhugh. For a first novel, Smith has written one heck of an entertaining story with an assortment of unusual characters.

Recommended.

When I began reading Moist, I flipped to the back of the book, and in all capital letters
it read: WHY YOU WILL LOVE MOIST... and now that I have I must agree with those who read & commented before me. I am the kind of reader who doesn't get trapped by trying to figure out where the writer is taking me, ie Agatha Christie--- I don't care to figure out who killed Colonel Mustard in the library with a machete and twelve people must provide an alibi and if I am smart enough to figure out which one is lying. What I care about is the journey the writer takes me on. I like to get lost in what I am reading, to just kick back, so to speak, and just enjoy the ride. And Moist is one hell of a damn good ride.

Bob, our hero, who works at United Pathology Labs is kidnapped by the Mexican Mafia
in the form of crazy Esteban and his colorful band of merry men gringo advisor Martin, Norberto and Amado. There is Maura the masturbation therapist, Bob's soon to be ex-girlfriend, Don the detective, and a severed arm with explicit sensual acts of sex tattooed all over it. To say anymore would give away too much

It is definitely a dark gritty sexy outrageously hilarious story and Mark Haskell Smith is a wonderfully talented storyteller keeping the pace breakneck! I put this book in the "page turner" category. His characters came to life jumping off the page making me laugh, smile, even feel sad and most importantly propelling me to keep turning the page. I was not surprised in the least bit when I had heard Smith was a screenwriter nor that DreamWorks owned this piece of entertainment, because that is exactly what Smith does, he entertains you non-stop. Sit back and enjoy!

An original and deftly written novel by Mark Haskell Smith, Moist is an outrageously sexual, shocking, and sometimes ludicrous adventure in which minimum-wage mortuary worker named Bob is in search of true love only to find a most unusual severed arm, and become entangled with a one-armed murderer obsessed with Mexican soap opera, a band of mobsters who share certain character traits with LAPD's finest, and other messed-up, drugged-out, or terminally oversexed individuals. Moist is lively and recommended reading as a sure-to-please, zesty satire with a flair for skirting the raw edge of life and love.

Ignore the CD - if you want it you can buy it anywhere (e.g. REI), or buy proper paper maps!

However the rides are described really well - the profile matches the simple route maps really well and demonstrates just how many NW rides are HILLY.

The step descriptions on the routes are good, and the distances accurate (so far!).

Things to watch out for: 1) Tiger is the closest ride to Seattle in the book, a couple of more 'after workers' would be good. 2) The directions to some of the rides are not too good, although this is mostly due to lack of road numbering etc in Forestry and out of the way areas.

This book is loaded with GPS topo maps, meticulously made maps of each trail, trail profiles, great descriptions, detailed directions, and great graphics. Not to mention all the other information it's packed with, such as other stuff to do in the area where each ride is located. If you can only buy one guide, I think this one is perfect. The CD at the back is an added bonus, which adds no cost to the book, but it's maps aren't necessary b/c there's so many high quality maps packed into the pages of the book.

The Washington edition of the Mountain Bike America series provides valuable technical information within an entertaining writing style. After reading this guidebook, one wants to head out and experience the beauty and challenging terrain of Washington State.

While this book is not on my required reading list on my web site, it is still a very handy reference guide to have on hand. This is not a book that I sat down and read all the way through, and I doubt that many other people would also. It is a HUGE book! This is a good book to have on hand when you need to look up something specific about the music business, and is much easier to read and use than "This Business Of Music". I still highly recommend the Donald Passman book as the first book that anyone looking for success in the music business should read, because it is a book that you can sit down and read (although it's also probably too big to read in one sitting).

-- Stephen Sherrard, owner of Music-TECH Productions...

But is didn't have enough information on the business aspect. It doesnt thourogly explain each aspect it covers but still a great investment for anyone entering the music business

Imagine taking a hike through a forest sans compass or trail map. One could be lost for days on end, wandering aimlessly, without any sense of direction. Unfortunately, for most musicians and aspiring industry professionals alike, that's exactly the way their career is spent. Lost in the dense woodland of the forest, unable to see the trees for what they are. If knowledge is the key to success in any career than the Musician's Guide provides the direction for understanding the complexities of the entertainment industry. Devoid of excessive legalese and business jargon, while delving deeply into the everyday issues musicians and music business-people face, Musician's Guide is a savior for everyone on any level of entertainment industry. Presented by a panel of legal and business experts and the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Musician's Guide effectively confronts a variety of legal and business issues in a clear and concise way while not skimming over any of the detail necessary to garner a strong grasp of the concepts. While not necessarily a replacement for a strong business manager or accomplished layer, it makes the time spent with both more effective and allows musicians at any level the comfort of knowing they are not being taken by the evil's common in the industry. By the same token, for anyone aspiring for a business or legal career in the industry the Musician's Guide provides a superb textbook explanation of the aspects of both, in an environment allowing for a strong understanding of the details, not just basic concepts commonly faced in the industry. On the cutting edge of current issues including sampling, new media and the Internet, copyright ownership and usage, international music issues as well as changes in the basic contractual structure and the more traditional concepts dealt with in many texts on entertainment business and law, the Musician's Guide provides more than just the basic ideals, it rips at the meat of these with a saw tooth. The depth and breath of the explanation is easily the biggest benefit of owning the book. Musician's Guide provides the opportunity for success on all levels with real world examples paired with examples of contracts and letters commonly used in the industry translated into plain and simple English without forgetting that wording is everything when working in a pure business or legal environment. Promoting the idea that understand the complexities of the music industry is important fin the success of everyone, the Musician's Guide provides a step-by-step manual of sorts, fully caring out it's own namesake in a stellar fashion.

America's post-Civil War years brought a renewed interest in the European scene. Journeys
known as Grand Tours led tourists to take ship to the Continent. They fanned out across the
landscape with the intent to "know Europe." Their return home resulted in a flurry of
published accounts. Twain satirizes both the tourists and their writings with delicious
wit. Ever a man to play with words, his "tramp" refers to both himself and the walking tour
of Europe he purports to have made. By the time you've reached the end of the account of the
"walking tour" incorporating trains, carriages and barges, you realize that the longest "walk"
Twain took occurred in dark hotel room while trying to find his bed. He claims to have
covered 47 miles wandering around the room.

Twain was interested in everything, probing into both well-known and obscure topics. His
judgments are vividly conveyed in this book, standing in marked contrast to his more
reserved approach in Innocents Abroad. A delightful overview of mid-19th Century Europe,
Tramp is also interlaced with entertaining asides. Twain was deeply interested in people, and
various "types" are drawn from his piercing gaze, rendered with acerbic wit. Some of these
are contemporary, while others are dredged from his memories of the California mines and
other journeys. He also relished Nature's marvels, recounting his observations. A favourite
essay is "What Stumped the Blue-jays." A nearly universal bird in North America, Twain's
description of the jay's curiosity and expressive ability stands unmatched. He observes such
humble creatures as ants, Alpine chamois, and the American tourist. Few escape his
perception or his scathing wit. This book remains valuable for its timeless rendering of
characters and the universality of its view. It can be read repeatedly for education or
entertainment.

All these volumes are self-recommending except, perhaps, to those poor, misguided people who continue to pigeon-hole one of the world's great writers. Yes, Twain was a humorist who virtually invented modern American English as a literary language. But the sheer range of his achievement is staggering. And the best way to experience it is altogether. And the best "altogether" is this magnificent 29 volume set from Oxford. Other people can speak with more authority about Twain the author. I want to speak a little about how delicious it is to encounter him in these books. They are reproductions of the original American editions and the facsimiles are beautifully rendered. But this isn't important in itself; we're not about to spend [...] for a little bit of nostalgia. Rather, just open any one of these 29 volumes and see what a difference its admittedly antique printing style makes. White spacing between the printed lines is generous to an unbelievable degree, as are the page margins. Your eyes don't tire. You can savour each page at whatever pace you want to set for yourself. Worlds open and invite. This is how people read books a hundred years ago. This is the way to read books!

I have not read Twain since High School twenty five plus years ago but a friend on a newspapers book forums got me to read him again and A Tramp Abroad is the first book I picked. For the current generation this book may drag but for those of us who grew up reading books instead of playing computer games this is Twain at his best. One has to actually read into his writing to appreciate a lot of the irony but when this book is really on like the mountain climbing near the Matterhorn ,Twain makes Seinfeld seem like he's talking about something. A brilliant travel essay and by the way the Penguin Classics edition of this book in paperback is 411 pages long, not 670 pages .

The pictures and overall quality of the book are excellent. If you used to own one and are tempted to surprise your loved-ones with a nostalgic impulse buy - this book will put you over the edge! Laurence Merideth is unparalled in approach to writing and knowledge regarding VW's. You will not be disappointed!

Being a vw bus person--especially 1967 and older--i would recommend this book to anyone--several of my VW Bus friends are in this book!! hopefully someday i will have a VW Bus of my own in a VW book. Vintage VW??--Drive-um!!

Its the quality of the photography that makes this book stand out. Rowan Isaac is famous for his outstanding photographs of cars. Look out for his other Bayview Books on Jaguar XK 120/140/150 and the Porsche 356. He has also done Landrovers!

While there are some good insights into human nature and life in this book, it is such a distraction when an author litters their ideas with leftist dogma. If you are going to refer to economic phenomena, you should understand what you are writing.

Overall, I think this is a great book about organization building. It mainly talks about how you can change an organization. You need to face the challenge of "shared vision", "corporate culture", and "goverance". As a change agent, you need to improve your personal leadership/personal mastery, relationship and dialogue with others.

The reason I only give it 4-star is because I can't find a strong link between all these great lessons and Chaos/Complexity/Quantum. I think all these lessons exist everywhere in all great organization building book.

Net, I recommend this book to anyone who are interested in organization building, but not about Chaos/complexity theory, etc.

Kay Gilley, keynote speaker, executive development consultant, and author of Leading from the Heart and The Alchemy of Fear:

This isn't a good book: it is a GREAT book. And, it is a must-read for anyone doing business on the bridge into the 21st Century.

Mark Youngblood has done a masterful job of simply and succinctly helping us understand the promise of ever-present, fast-paced, and dynamic change in our businesses. Encouraging us to transcend the limitations of Newtonian organizations, he brings tangible application to what it means to lead and work in a quantum one. He offers the promise that when we learn to embrace with the fluidity of chaos that we will be both more effective and enjoy our lives and work more. His examples are simple and direct and bring crystal clarity to the concepts he presents.

My personal copy is always near at hand, well-marked with dog-eared pages, sticky notes, and a long list of page reference notations in the back. When readers show up at my book signing with books that look like this, I know they have been well used...and my copy Life at the Edge of Chaos has indeed been well used. I can't recommend this book too highly.

When I saw the page I recognized the cover of the book, but I could not believe what people were actually writing about it.

First I want to say that I am an undergraduate biotechnology student. I have a very strong background in biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, tissue culture techniques, and immunology; but I have not had any classes dealing with anatomy or physiology since Bio 101 way back when. I have read and am quite comfortable with Alberts Molecular Biology of the Cell and Stryers Biochemistry, and even a handful of primary journal articles, so I do know how to read a textbook.

Now with that out of the way, let me say that this book is completely incomprehensible. It is so full of anatomy and Latin derived words (which it does a poor job at explaining BTW) that I can only assume that it was meant for medical students, and to have physiology an a prerequisite for it, but it doesn't even have an introduction describing the recommended background or whom it is supposed to be for. In fact, most of the book is devoted to the physiology of sensation and movement, not neurobiology. Now if you have the background for it and thats what you are looking for then it is a very thorough text that goes into a lot of depth.

If you are looking to understand the biochemistry or molecular aspects of neurobiology, find another book!

As an undergraduate Psychobiology student, this text served me well in my Neuroscience course. In all honesty I never went. I just read this book. I got excellent marks in the class. As a serious slacker and bibliophile, I recommend this textbook for any like-minded student.

As an undergraduate Neuroscience major I found this textbook to be highly informative and well-written. It was used to a Freshman-level course, and was easy to understand, yet thorough and interesting. The graphics are well done, and the format is better than most textbooks I'm used to. Anyone, even with minimal science experience could dive right in and learn a great deal. It may not be advanced enough, however, for grad or medical students. As a reference it does okay, but there are more-advanced texts which would probably do better. All-in-all it is an excellent book. In-fact, I liked it so much that I didn't sell it back at the end of the semester and keep it on my bookshelf for future reference (and future classes!)

Recently, I came across an old, sorely beaten paperback copy of William Peter Blatty's THE NINTH CONFIGURATION that I read as a young man and, liking it so much, passed around for all my friends to enjoy. Wondering if the story and the writing would hold up after all this time, I made a grab for my reading glasses and shoved off. Yes, the prose is dated somewhat and certainly overwrought, and again we find ourselves burdened with another shellshocked, soul-shredded Vietnam warrior-hero type. Yes, the antiquated reasoning behind Blatty's metaphysics seems nearly as laughable now as any of the outrageous dialogue, and the Hollywood ending is just too cute. Yet, none of this spells death sentence here. This is a small book with a big heart, and, in the end, this story works because it is funny. Blatty has us laughing out loud in the face of stark madness and tragedy by page two and never lets up. NINTH CONFIGURATION is fun and interesting and for me that's enough.

This is a well written and tightly crafted novel. The dialogue, while often full of angst, is witty and clever. The premise of the book is certainly unusual. A secret facility houses militairy officers, all brave men, who have, for reasons unknown, become mentally disturbed. Housed without hope, a militairy psychiatrist enters their lives in a most unexpected way. Yet, it appears that he has his own issues with which to contend. Issues that lie at the heart of his seeming understanding of their problems. Things are not always what they seem. Be prepare for a shocking surprise. This book is definitely a thriller in every sense of the word.

A team of misfits from military are collected for a special
project, study of what drove them into insanity. This story is
terrific look at human pysche, belief system, and will. This
is also the novel from which the movie with Stacey Keech, arrived. EXCELLENT action, plot, characters. Thought-provoking
and maybe even life-changing.

A good effort, and most of it is interesting and entertaining. His description of the mood and conditions are quite accurate and illuminating.

Which is the rub - his bias gives the book a feel of one written at the height of the Reagan era, and not by a typical American travelling Russia in the 90s. An 'Information Officer' in the U.S. embassy, son of a spook... 'nuff ced. His description of Russian trains clearly show he's NEVER ridden on Amtrak, and his condemnation of 'soulless monumental Stalinist architecture' makes me wonder WHERE in Washington D.C. he was living.

The main annoyance with the book is his constant references to some mysterious pre-revolutionary golden age in Russia. Basically, he seems to feel that everything SINCE the Revolution was bad, and everything BEFORE automatically good (perhaps coming up with spin for the State Dept. has made it easy for him to ignore the pre-revolutionary 90% illiteracy, NO health care, serfdom, etc. - he doesn't seem to recall that the schoolkids he talks to wouldn't have BEEN schoolkids under old Nicky II).

As I said, a good read, but it has a definite Reagan-era feel to it. A good companion to Jeffrey Tayler's OUTSTANDING 'Siberian Dawn', or Colin Thubron's "Lost Heart of Asia', and 'In Siberia'.

A keen reader of travelogues, I borrowed a copy of Taplin's book some years ago from the library and after reading it, I JUST HAD TO GET MY OWN!! I am often wary when picking up books written by Westerners on a country which is their traditional "nemesis", but Taplin does a great job in describing his journey through lesser-known parts of Russia. His writing is sensitive, but not over-sentimental. In addition to the many memorable people he meets on his journey, his book is filled with lovely black & white pictures at the beginning of each chapter, which allows us a tiny view into the areas he is describing before we finally get a chance to go there (can hardly wait!). A book about the new Russia, the hopes and strengths of her resilient people, "Open Lands" is engaging, moving and unforgettable. See you in Vladivostok!

(*Still am surprised Singapore came up twice in the book!)

Mark Taplin is or at least was a U.S. Information Agency official stationed in the Soviet Union during the 1980s and later in non-Communist Russia during the 1990s. During his later tour of duty he visited several parts of Russia that had been previously off-limits to foreigners. In some cases the reasons for the prior exclusion are obvious from his telling-near sensitive military sites or gulags-but mostly they are not. The book's title comes from the "Open Lands" agreement signed by the United States and Russia in the early 1990s, which Taplin describes as allowing the citizens of either country to travel wherever they want in the other country.

With the exceptions of Vladivostok and Arkhangelsk (Archangel), the locations Taplin chooses to visit and describe are not places familiar to many non-Russians. Yet each of the eight adventures has a unique and interesting story. Velikiy Ustyug highlights the suppression of religion during the Soviet era, and the loss of expertise in a specialized silver making craft. Vorkuta describes the remnants of gulag community that furnished the labor for a Siberian coal mining operation. Kabardino-Balkaria and Tuva cover ethnic clashes of non-Russian, non-Orthodox populations within the remaining Russian Federation.

In addition to describing unusual places and populations, Taplin includes portraits of some very interesting people he met along the way, some of them shady, some of them defeated by life under the Soviet dictatorship, some of them outrageously exuberant and in tune with their changing surroundings.

The book is well-written. I submit two thought-filled examples:

"So it turned out that the noble primitivism we had imagined still flourished in the far reaches of the steppe was more our Rousseauist fantasy than Tuva's hinterland reality. Our hosts did not sit down around a campfire to offer up throat songs to the heavens, nor to wonder awestruck at the glow of the night sky, which in Tuva harbors more stars at midnight than many city dwellers see in a lifetime. No, a black and white television set was plugged into the car's cigarette lighter, and the natives gathered under the yurt's canvas to marvel at the world beyond the mountains. It twinkled with a peculiarly absorbing ingenuity, filling the screen with fin-de-siecle portent and pathos." (pp. 214-15).

"There are many Russian proverbs, and this is another: 'Truth does not burn in fire, nor drown in water.' In every place I visited in Russia, memory had not given way to amnesia; rather, bald-faced lies had ceded their authority to a sometimes sad and somber reality. Falsehoods had proved no match, in the end, for the mighty labors of an architect in the tundra; an ethnographer in the Caucasus; a shaman in middle Asia; a tipsy museum guide in the taiga-and hundreds of thousands of unordinary people like them. The dislocations of Lenin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Pol Pot's Kampuchea are far from gone, but the miraculous truth about truth can give us hope, can spare us from despair. From the Nizhny embankment, that much is clear." (p. 341).

There is a slight ideological edge to Mark Taplin's storytelling, similar to that of Robert Kaplan though not as pronounced. Overall, the story is beautifully written and very nicely done.

I was disappointed with this book. Shelley Fisher Fishkin seemed enter with a bias against Hannibal and everything traditional. After reading the book, I traveled to Hannibal and visited with people there about it. They were less than enthusiastic about it and one man claimed the bull whip incident was "completely made up". There are mistakes as well. Fishkin claims that Joe Douglass's name on his grave is misspelled. For example, she says that on his wife's gravestone the name is spelled differently. The stones are next to each other and they are spelled the same. If your goal is to blast small town America then this book is for you, but if you are looking for the whole story, read Twain's autobiography.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin clearly loves her work. She loves Mark Twain and she loves being able to write about him and teach about him. This book, written in an invitingly direct and personal style free of jargon, is best read as a voyage into the life and thought of a fine and creative scholar fully engaged with her chosen subject.

The book is arranged into three chapters. The first, "The Matter of Hannibal," ably juxtaposes Fishkin's experience of a visit to Hannibal, MO, and her reflections on that visit with her investigation of the role of Hannibal, MO, and Twain's youthful experiences on his classic novels THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. The second, EXCAVATIONS, is a quasi-autobiographical account of her research and writing of her most famous book (WAS HUCK BLACK? MARK TWAIN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOICES), blended with her reflections on the controversy surrounding HUCKLEBERRY FINN as an allegedly racist book. The last chapter, RIPPLES AND REVERBERATIONS, is a blend of historical literary criticism and meditations on the uses to which Americans and others have put Mark Twain the writer, "Mark Twain" the self-created character, and Mark Twain the human being.

LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY is a lovely book; it's a dream to read, and it's thought-provoking in the best sense. It's a model of how literary critics should write both for one another and for a wider audience, and it's an eye-opening examination of one of the greatest writers this country -- or the human race -- ever produced.

-- R.B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School

Bear with me for a moment: Sometime around 7th grade, a teacher had my class keep scrapbooks with modern representations of Greek mythology. How quickly the books filled up with examples ranging from cartoons to place names, museum exhibits, sports writing and more! After cataloguing, we were asked, why do the myths live on? Lighting Out For the Territory reminds me of that exercise. It traces how America and Twain reached the point of the conception of Huckleberry Finn and asks how we have since lived with or, in some cases, without its lessons. What have we saved from Twain and his ideas, what have we lost of him and why? Was/is Twain and his work racist? Good questions, explored in the context of the scholar's personal adventures. Our author may not be able to do lunch in Hannibal, MO again soon, but she's welcome at my house any time.