If you have easy access to squab, pheasant, loin of rabbit, quail, buffalo, antelope, Mexican oregano, blackberries, poblano chiles, gualjillo chiles, serrano chiles, chile molido, chile carib, chipotles in adobo sauce, Apaloosa beans, calypso beans, Steuben yellow beans, fresh hoja santa leaf, dry aged goat cheese, smoked gouda, chanterelles, Silver Queen corn, fresh marjoarm, fresh epazota, pumpkin seeds, cumin seeds, dried blueberries, huckleberries, etc., then you might find the recipes in "Red Sage: Contempoary American Cuisine" the kind that will give a fresh and creative twist to your culinary endeavors. Otherwise, you are likely find very little in this book that you can put to use in your kitchen.

that guy who wrote the derogatory one must live in a closet.

Not only have I read the book, which is well written and quite insightful, but I have had the priviledge to create many of the dishes presented. The techniques are fairly simple for a seasoned chef, and the only trick is finding the ingredients if you live in a smaller town. One item I have discovered cannot be substituted is the can of chipoltes in adobo sauce. If you find them, buy many cans, as you will be using them often! The beauty of this book is the diversity of dishes featured. Vegetarians can find many recipes to entertain, and the poultry, game, and beef dishes are quite intriguing. This cookbook is fabulous, and I consider the recipes to be invaluable. A must for any cook!

A religious reporter is dispatched to Brazil to determine the legitimacy of a self-proclaimed Christ, a black women from the ghetto who has the masses hanging on her every word of 'peace and love.' The so-called messiah also conducts spontaneous healings, which surprises even the skeptical newsman, Michael Mason, himself a former priest who has seen his share of religious phonies.

But all is not what it seems. There are secret ties to the Vatican; handlers with multiple agendas; fallen priests and Bishops; and even a couple of mysterious blue corpses. Sometimes it hard to 'believe' that this is the second Coming, and at other times it hard not to believe that she is the One. The author, Mark Mustian, does a great job keeping us wondering where the truth lies in his tightly woven novel.

This is a superb first book for Mr. Mustian. Maybe a little slow at the beginning, but the second half of the novel makes up for it with its suspense and grand finale. All of the best selling authors today started with first novels, and Mr. Mustian has done a great job with his, THE RETURN.

I highly recommend this for anyone who loves the twists and turns of a classic Ludlum spy story or the escalating pace of a Clancy techno-thriller. Some story plots thin out and tire as the pace quickens to the ending, but not this one. Here, the plot seems to defy the laws of physics by moving faster as it thickens. Before you know it you are racing to keep up, and if you're like me you'll find yourself consuming this story in great gulps rather than small sips. And yet I was pleasantly surprised by the subtlety with which Mustian addresses the myriad archetypes and stereotypes one might expect from a novel with such a robust religious theme. If you're one of those people who likes to try to outguess the author and enjoys being surprised when you're wrong, this is the book for you.

A man compelled to investigate religious accounts of Jesus' return meets his match in the form of an elderly Brazilian woman who claims to be Jesus. Will the Second Coming be born out of a third-world ghetto and a band of survivors? The plot and characterization are indeed powerful as journalist Mike Mason's pursuit of the truth lands him in political and personal danger in a rapidly changing world.

In the graphic novel, RUSE: ENTER THE DETECTIVE, Simon Archard is the world's most brilliant detective. The world of Arcadia, that is. The World's Greatest Detective, as he as known by, lives in Partington, one of the largest and most successful cities on the planet. Archard is an inventor, a trained thinker; his detective work is a passion, possibly the only one he has ever developed, according to Emma Bishop, his aide and chief confidant. In ENTER THE DETECTIVE, Archard is asked to investigate the murder of a blind and near-deaf ex-ship's captain down in the city's docktown area. In no time at all, Archard and the beautiful Emma are off in hot pursuit. The twisting and treacherous trail leads the investigators to their near-deaths in a burning ship filled with rats, to the murder of a good friend and trusted ally, and the exhumation of that friend's body later. In the meantime, Archard himself suddenly becomes an enemy of the Partington Police Force after he is framed for murder. The fifth chapter in the graphic novel deals with Emma's search for a serial killer of young prostitutes while Archard remains conspicuously absent. In chapter six, Archard and Emma confront Lightbourne, the detective's last partner before Emma's arrival. The murder of a man while in a trick Harry Houdini made famous is the bait that draws Archard into the trap set by his archrival.

Mark Waid has written hundreds of comics for DC and for Marvel, and he's been nominated for several awards. Several Eisners were nominated for his work on the on-going monthly series, RUSE, from which this graphic novel was taken. He had a long run on DC's Flash comics series, creating several concepts and character takes that the series still uses, and created IMPULSE, a very successful book while Waid brought his trademark humor and sense of adventure to. With Ron Garney, he re-created the Captain America franchise for Marvel Comics for a while. And he wrote JUSTICE LEAGUE YEAR ONE, a fan favorite, and several issues of the JLA monthly series before signing exclusively with CrossGen Comics. Butch Guice got his start doing pages for Marvel Comics' IRON MAN, but quickly moved on to fan favorite of the 1980s, MICRONAUTS. He worked on THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN, but really hit his stride with BIRDS OF PREY, which has since gone on to become a TV series.

RUSE: ENTER THE DETECTIVE is a slam-bang ride for Sherlock Holmes fans, Victorian England period lovers, and many mystery buffs. Waid always succeeds in creating original yet familiar characters, then imbuing them with real personalities, and the problems and successes that stem from those personalities all on their own or when combined with others. Waid's dialogue, simply one of the best of his many talents, fires on all cylinders, pushing the plot along, establishing character and history panel after panel. The action is quick and dynamic, the plotting deft and razor-sharp. He has paired his hero and heroine well, giving them both strengths and weaknesses and secrets that readers will eagerly await to see in action. Butch Guice's pencils are absolutely jaw-dropping beautiful. The research he's done on the time period shows, and the RUSE issues could actually be used for reference material for anyone. The work he does on the streets and docks of Partington are breathtaking. His panel breakdowns for the action that Waid calls out in the script are filled with blistering action, and the reader can feel the wind in his or her face. The colorist and inker, Laura DePuy and Mike Perkins, excel at their crafts and make Guice look like a natural wonder.

Fans of Johnny Depp's FROM HELL movie or Alan Moore's graphic novel of the same name will enjoy RUSE: ENTER THE DETECTIVE. Waid and Guice fans will definitely want to pick up this graphic novel for their collections as well because the book showcases some of their best work.

One of the wonderful things about the CrossGen line is that there really are books for fans of any genre -- "Negation" for hard sci-fi fans, "Sojourn" for the Tolkienites, "Route 666" for horror buffs, "Way of the Rat" for Kung-Fu lovers... "Ruse" is the book for fans of a good old-fashion Sherlock Holmes-style mystery... but with some big twists. Holmes and Watson were never the mysteries themselves, after all.

Our heroes are Simon Archard, the brilliant detective of the city of Partington, and his assistant (or partner, depending on whom you ask), the beautiful Emma Bishop. This initial case introduces our heroes, Archard's cadre of "agents" he employs from time to time and also is a very good murder mystery.

But our heroes are mysteries themselves, ones without easy answers. Emma has strange powers that she hides from Simon, and while this book does not appear to feature a "sigil-bearer" (the superpowered protagonists of many CrossGen titles), Simon himself discretely wears the sigil on his clothing. Why?

The whole CrossGen universe is a mystery. "Ruse" gives it a detective. The best question left is, will the audience solve the puzzle before Simon and Emma?

Simon Archard is a master detective living in the city of Partington. The bane of the underworld, and the exasperation of his partner Emma Bishop, his razor-sharp mind collects information, allowing him to make lightning-fast deductions. This graphic novel covers two Archard adventures, and the start of a third. In the first adventure, the mysterious Miranda Cross comes to Partington, and immediately Archard finds himself faced with strange crimes on one hand and the strange hostility of the city elite on the other. In the second adventure, Emma Bishop, holding the fort for the missing Archard, must track down a murderer (there's more than one mystery here). The third adventure pits Emma and Archard against a bold murderer, who is also a master of disguise with a surprising background.

I picked up this book on a whim, and must admit that I was rather dubious at first. I though, "Here we go again with another Sherlock Holmes rip-off." Well, such is not the case. In the fictional city of Partington, with its flying gargoyles, and strange happenings, Simon Archard is something of a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger (another A.C. Doyle hero). The adventures are quite gripping, as Archard maneuvers himself through the fantastic, his keen mind taking everything in.

The illustrations in this book are surprisingly excellent, and quite pleasant to look at. So, let me just say that I liked the characters, the story, and the illustrations. In other words, I loved this book!

Sengoku is an excellent book, providing a wealth of information for anyone wishing to play in a japanese setting. It also utilizes the Fuzion system, which is, in my opinion, among the best out there. Even if you don't play with the Fuzion system, the book is well worth the cost just as a sourcebook. Keeping all this in mind, Sengoku also has its problems. First, for a game that includes Aesthetics as an Attribute, it's darn ugly. That is, it's poorly laid out and the line art seems to lose alot of depth in simple black. (Try grey scale, people) Also, its rules for "Master" and "Legendary" Items (the equivalent of Magic items in other settings) are overly simple and somewhat lacking in a structured format or in adequate examples. Master level items all tend to be the same, except for their requisite background (a nice touch, i must add) material. Finally, It is laced with several ambiguous and sometimes contradictory rules and charts. Luckily, however, the folks at GRG were nice enough to put out a FAQ on their web page that addresses these minor problems. Again, all things considered, these are only minor problems. SENGOKU is a wonderful game, with a rich and detailed historical setting couched in a system that is far superior to most of the alternatives out there. If you want to come as close as you can to authenticity (Sengoku comes closer than any other RPG out there) and a genuine historical feel to your gaming experience, then buy this game. Do it. Right now...

The writers who worked on this game are experts in the field of Japanology. I don't play role playing games these days (the last time was in college over a decade ago) however I own a copy because the reference material included is astounding. Now if this isn't a recomendation I don't know what is! I can't comment on the game because I have not played it. From what I can tell it seems to be very indepth and immersive. Buy this book if you want a decent reference to all things fudal Japan or if you are looking for a game based on fudal Japan that covers the historical as well as the fantastic.

I've played the old Bushido RPG, used the AD&D Oriental Adventuressupplement, and have much of the L5R source materials (about $300worth). By far, Sengoku has been my best purchase. The only other of my recent buys that could possibly compare in value is GURPS: Japan, and that only touches on what Sengoku covers in detail. The quality of the work is simply amazing.

I of course have beefs, mainly about the lack of economic information in regards the specifics of rice crop yields, or dealing with a somewhat over-complex and unbalanced game system (one can actually start the game with a Shogun character - the rules cover this). Whatever complaints I have about the game are negated, however, by the great gaming materials offered for free from the designers. There's even the first six chapters of the book wandering around the web... somewhere...

Altogether, I'm very impressed. END

First of all, I have to say that this book provides you with a lot of details about serial communications. It even provides you with a complete library so that you can write the serial communication programming in half an hour.

The bad part is that I found later that Microsoft had included a MSComm control with VB and VC and it makes the library provided by this book useless. I used the library to write my project and it worked. Then I tried MSComm control and found that MSComm control was better than the library provided by this book. MSComm class gives you more control and it's much easier to use. eg: you don't have to worry about the multithreading because MSComm control has done that for you.

So, IMHO, if you are a VC or VB programer and you only want to write some simple Win32 serial port program, you'd better use MSComm control instead of turning to this book.

I bought this book to learn how to program Win32 serial communications. It's obvious that the author knows his stuff. Chapters 3 thru 9 apply to MS-DOS and are not really relevant anymore. Otherwsie the source code is a excellent study in how to write a class library in C++ in addition to multithreading which, by themselves, make the book worth the price.

I used the libraries to write an ActiveX control that has an interface that only a FoxPro programmer would love. My money was well spent.

Although the book requires a lot of reading, it describes the use of the CD's source code in great detail. Included source code is for both DOS applications, DOS programs running as "Terminal" applications under Windows as well as for Windows applications.

Microsoft's MSComm Active X is ok where dialog based Windows applications are desired. But in a Windows 98 application that rapidly sends, receives and checks incoming data without user input, this software is an absolute MUST to have.

If I could have given this 4 1/2 stars, I would have. Sister Aimee : The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson is an incredibly entertaining book about an amazing woman. Epstein beautifully describes Aimee and her early "tent revivals." Sometimes when reading it was almost as if I was actually in the tent, caught up in the sermon and everything going on.

One of the best things about this book is the way that the author handles the healings that Aimee performed. Many writers would view these with a skeptic eye but Epstein does not. While he does sometimes offer a psychological explanation for certain healings, he never comes out and says that the healings had nothing to do with God and that Aimee was a fraud. He also makes a very valid point, one that many have overlooked: It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use actors and fakes to organize healing ceremonies the size of the ones that Aimee McPherson held.

My only complaint about this book is that near the end, the writing just seems to slow down. It's almost as if Epstein put all this passion into the first part, and started to lose it as the book drew to a close. But that really does not take too much away from it all (as I said before, if I could have given it 4 1/2 stars, I would have). This is a wonderful book.

I read this book perhaps five or more years ago, and it remains one of the top two books that I have ever read, besides the Bible. As I passed it in the library, I deliberately avoided it, yet felt compelled to go back and check it out. I couldn't
put it down! I had stereotyped Aimee McPherson as simply a long-ago female evangelist, but Daniel Epstein compelled me to follow him as he
brought her out of the shadows of the past and into the light, as though she lived now. Her story became so compelling to me that by the time the book was finished, I felt that her story stayed with me for weeks and weeks. I even wondered what her point of view would have been as I encountered various things in life. I literally could not read another book for months, and I have never had that reaction to a book. I simply had no desire for another book. All I can compare it to would be akin to the aftermath of an excellent steak dinner!

For those who are quick to dismiss Aimee Semple Mcpherson as the prototypical religious huckster this book will give you much pause to think. Although Epstein doesn't attempt to minimize her mortal weaknesses and often a naivete which frequently had her at odds with the more worldly he also shows the tirelessly devoted humanitarian who pushed herself to the point of breakdown. The book helps one to appreciate the multifacted, sometimes subtle and sometimes dominating personality she possessed, a woman who can command admiration for her spiritual gifts despite the feet of clay.

As a graphic designer, I found this book to be a great idea, very well designed, easy to follow, very well organized, visually attractive and very fun. I'm sure the kids will love this book. As a grown-up kid, I did.

I am an educator and a parent of two. I fell in love with this book the moment I opened it. Not only is it a fun book with great, easy recipes, but it is developmentally appropriate. The recipes give the children a sense of pride and success and is a great self-esteem booster. The meals and snacks are nutritious and gives me a night off from cooking once in awhile. This book is a treasure.

I'm a 4th grade teacher and bought this book for my classlibrary. Boys as well as girls fight over who gets to take ithome... only Harry Potter got that much attention before. Now they'rebuying their own copies. The children know the book is written for them -- it's clear and funny and thinks like a kid. The recipes are easy to make and actually have nutritional value. I like that it encourages children to be safe and clean up when they're done. This is a smart, fun, well thought-out cookbook. Good work!

This is NOT a book for beginners; if you're new to Microsoft Excel, avoid this book! Even though the back of the book says it's a reference for beginning to advanced users, this book will confuse you if you're a beginner. It's a book for people who already have some knowledge about Excel; I'm in the intermediate to advanced user category, and even I get confused by some of the explanations provided in the book.

The book has lots of text, but it needs more examples and more pictures; I can't really grasp a particular subject on Excel, if there's no picture to show what it's supposed to look like on screen. Some of the subjects aren't explained fully; these areas need more explanations, examples and pictures.

The book gets four stars, because I did learn some things I've never learned before; also, the book's layout is excellent.

Like the one of the reviewers below, I suggest you get the "Microsoft Excel 2000 Learning Kit". The kit contains the "Running Microsoft Excel 2000" book, as well as a "Microsoft Excel 2000 Step by Step Interactive" software. The software in the kit is excellent!

Running Excel 2000 provides a very complete look at using Excel in most day to day situations. The general usage information is well structured and each topic is covered in detail.

For me the real value in this book comes from the section on analyzing data. The author discusses the worksheet functions but then delves into common analysis situations. Their coverage of financial analysis discusses all of the different financial functions and how to use each of them. The statistical analysis section talks about each of the different distributions supported and when each should be used. Finally they present a what-if analysis section that shows how to use Excel's solver and scenario manager.

The book even touches on Visual Basic, but only enough to get your feet wet with Excel's macros.

All in all a very good book.. much more than I was expecting from a general "how to use Excel" book.

I would recommend buying the package (step-by-step interactive cd + this book = $30 cost)

Okay, I'm biased. I've known Ari for years, as both a teacher and a friend. But when I got my hands on the book it blew me away. Nothing I knew of the man who turned me on to Irving Stettner prepared me for the pages in my hand. A can't-miss enjoyment.

A beautifully written fable, full of wit and wisdom and delectably edgy humor. I read it at one sitting. I only wish there was more.

What a yummy little book this is; a tale bursting with humor, magic and truth. Seldom have I found a book so easy to read and so hard to put down. It is one to be shared with old friends, and through which to make new ones. This reader eagerly awaits any future tales Mark Ari has to share. As Timothy Leary said: "you don't have to be Jewish to love Mark Ari"

I bought this book hoping that the writer had provided solid, unique advice for saving money and finding your way out of debt. Unfortunately, the book didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. (Don't use credit cards, pay in cash, etc.) I think that anyone with common sense would be able to think of the tips that the book details. By the time the book arrived, I had already made efforts to do the things that the author suggest without reading any book or researching other sources. Although it is easy to read, the simplicity isn't worth the effort of buying the book and reading it cover to cover. My best advice is that anyone who has questions about debt sit down an try to think logically about what they can do about their situation before consulting the book.

I bought this book and showed it to a friend who is in a credit crunch. He looked at me and said; "This is just plain common sense." I agreed and said, "Then how come you are not doing better financially?"Common sense is not necessarily common knowledge and unfortunately is usually not common practice.-To know and not to do is the same as not knowing.I highly recommend this book.

Common sense should tell you this stuff but not everyone is dollar wise. In my search for a good book on how to payoff credit card debt quickly, I found most books were for people who have already ruined their credit. We needed a book for someone with good credit, that just wants to payoff their bills. This book concentrates on paying off debt and saving as much as possible in interest. It points out how just a little extra can make a huge difference in the long run. They have several great ideas for reducing your debt and many great examples. The book is very easy to read and comprehend. Great for anyone, regardless of your credit rating!