This is one of three titles I've purchased on the subject. The others are Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer and A Primer on Prostate Cancer: An Empowered Patient's Guide by Stephen B. Strum and Donna Pogliano. Of the three this is the most "user friendly", particularly for those without any experience with medical matters. It is straightforward, practical and gives a good overview of the problem and treatment options. Undoubtedly worth the time and money if you are just starting to get an understanding.

I would also highly recommend both of the other books above if you are dealing with more advanced cancer and/or want a more thorough and medically oriented book on the subject.

This book is comprehensive and answers as many questions as someone could have. It has been updated (2003) and the information reflects all current studies (from what I can tell).

The information is presented in a very clear, easy to read way, which is very helpful if you are reading this book while under the stress of dealing with a relative or friend who has this disease.

Psychiatric Survivor: From Misdiagnosed Mental Patient to Hospital Director (Rainbow's End Company, 1999) is the autobiography of A. Mark Bedillion. Mark led a very reckless life that hurt many people. Mark was a womanizer, a drug fiend, and a lawbreaker. His life got so out of control that his family decided to lock him up in a mental institution.

The many addictions Mark had were finally overcome when he turned his life around in drug and alcohol rehabilitation. The author found the 12-step approach, with Jesus as his higher power, to be an effective way to overcome the addictions and problems of his life.

After freeing himself of his addictions, he went on to become a therapist, then hospital director. Furthermore, he also became a radio talk show host that spread the message of the 12-step approach. The end of the book is quite good because he shares his insights on mental health and clearly demonstrates that he has learned from his mistakes.

Although the title of the book is Psychiatric Survivor, this is slightly misleading. Only after years of reckless living as a drug fiend and womanizer, that was becoming violent, did his parents decide to institutionalize him. The portion of the book discussing mental hospitals is relatively small, although he does share his critique of them.

Psychiatric Survivor will change your life and your thinking. You won't be able to put it down! Mark's life story will give you courage to take steps in a new direction. It will certainly give you hope for your future.

Excellent, excellent book for anyone who is interested in Quenn Elizabeth I or the Elizabethan era. Interesting little tidbits of knowledge about court life, politics and Elizabeth's private life. The pictures are absolutely beautiful and go along so well with the the written text. Definate A+!

The Public and Private Worlds of Elizabeth I is a nicely written look into her personal and private life. It is very informational; from the workings of Elizabethan politics to the fashion of the time. It is informative with out getting overly academic. It is great for anyone wishing to research and/or recreate aspects of that time period. I encourage anyone who is intererested in Elizabeth I to purchase this book. One of the greatest features of this book is the full color pictures. Definitely a must have!!! A wonderful coffee table book too.

This must be one of Mark Twain's least appreciated novels; admittedly the title leads readers to suspect a lightweight youthful protagonist, so I confess to being pleasantly surprised--once I waded through the pompously prolonged Forward of the Harcourt edition. The book reads well, quickly capturing and maintaining my interest. There is real literary meat to be found in this novel, which was published in 1894, after A CONNEDCTICUT YANKEE. Besides the soap-opera scenario, it offers serious

commentary about Social institutions--in tongue-in-cheek style. Many typical Twain elements are present for his readers to enjoy: twins, switched identity, humorous jibes at the foibles of mankind, his predilection for the name Tom, and his abundant use of the Negro dialect.

Exploiting the literary device of melodrama, Twain treats us to a series of dramatic events and counterplots, foiled schemes and dashed hopes in his tale of interracial intrigue and the inevitable irony of the machinations of mankind. He even concludes with a gripping courtroom sensation. (Remember when Injun Joe hurled himself out the window in order to escape his sentence in TOM SAWYER?) Perry Mason would be proud of lawyer Wilson. Here the author revives memories of his boyhood along the Missisippi River, revealing the chilling significance of the commnplace phrase, "being sold down the river."

The fictional town of Dawson's Landing nearly drowns in shocking and scandalous revelations, as these hicks discover hidden crimes which have been festering for 20 years. Twain pits European aristocracy against the folksy, American frontier. Small town mentality, unreasonable prejudice and political manipulation receive the honor of his satirical spotlight. Still there remains a serious substrata: the need for social reform and attitude-adjustment. Twain pleads subtly for emotional and intellectual growth on the part of all Americans since the abolition of slavery. Clearly set during the shameful, pre Civil War bigotry, PUDDIN'HEAD WILSON uses the term, "nigger" abundantly but casually. Should the book be banned on that account? This is an excellent novel--both as literature and as 19th century social commentary--with a ripping good plot--for readers aged 16 and older.

Twain was interested in twins and the problem of identity. His pen name "Twain" is an archaic word meaning two. In this enertaining novel he starts out to write about siamese twins who are opposites in taste and temperment, a humorous farce. As he gets on with the story other themes and characters develop and he decides to pull the twins apart, making them ordinary twins, and develop the story into a comedic tragedy. Twain leaves, for whatever reason, plenty of evidence in the story that the twins were siamese. The twins speak of themselves as an only child, are always together even in bed, and are exhibited in Europe for two years when they were children. One twin when explaining why he risked himself to save his brother from murder says "If I had let the man kill him, wouldn't he have killed me, too?. I saved my own life you see." The larger part of the story fixes on Puddnhead Wilson, a local unemployed lawyer, and focuses on the pattern of a folktale of switched infants: the slave child becoming master and the master's child a slave. Roxy, an almost pure white slave, switches her baby for her masters baby so that her boy will escape slavery. Early in the story Tom Driscoll learns that he is really Valet de Chambers a slave and not the son of the leading citizen York Driscoll. Twain uses this novel to slam the stupidity and evil of slavery as well as throw some light and mockery on other foolery of society. Wilson sorts things out due to his passion for finger printing over the years. Sayings from Puddnhead Wilson's calender preface every chapter and are highly enertaining. At the conclusion of this superb novel Puddnhead Wilson comes out on top, but he is about the only one. Possibly Twain's most honest book, a masterpiece!

It seems unnecessary to point out that this book is only for the true political junkie, since it's unlikely that anyone else would pick up a 700-page book with Clinton, Bush, and Perot on the cover in the first place. But for diehard politicos like myself, this book is a terrific account of the '92 campaign. The lengthy passages on political strategy may be trying for some, but the behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the three major campaigns (not to mention those of Jerry Brown, Pat Buchannan, et al) are fantastic.

I found this book to be extremely interesting and full of insight about the candidates and their campaigns. It also effectively represents the overall mood of the campaign and the issues facing the US at the time. Fascinating for anyone who is interested in presidential elections, and politics generally.

Tom Sawyer is the story of a 12-year old boy living up to the exception of being a kid. It is a book that is great for all ages, including adults. No matter what kind of personality you have you will enjoy it.
The story is about Tom's adventures and his trickery that gets him into trouble, and out of it. Weather he's painting fences or using his imagination he always seems to have fun. Along the way he teams up with Huck Finn, the rambunctious town outcast. They are always planning new schemes, such as curing warts with dead cats or running away and becoming pirates, yet know of their adventures are as big as their mishaps with Inguin Joe, the town criminal. Tom is also always getting into trouble at school, weather he is really to blame or not. Somehow Tom always gets out of doing non-enjoyable things, like when is supposed to take painkiller but instead feeds it to the cat. All this while searching for hidden treasure.
This book taught me how to be a kid, which is now more than ever. Also, Tom sawyer taught me what it was like to be a kid with out the pressures of being a kid in this day and age. A time when it wasn't excepted of you to be well mannered, responsible, or an intelligent young adult. Tom sawyer is a delightful read for all ages.

The classic story of Tom Swayer and his best-friend, Huckleberry Finn and their adventures. From seeing a murder to finding a cave to pretending to be dead, they have tons of adventures. This is a not to be missed novel. One of my favorites since the first time I read it in elementary school, after I saw a play of it I just had to read it and I'm glad I did.

Wonderful kids' book, especially as an introduction to works of art

This book was one of the first times I was exposed to Red Groom's work. As a child I felt there was something special about this book and kept it in the living room with my parent's coffeetable books. Now I'm in my thrid year of art school and have a new appreciation of Red Groom's clever illustrations.

This review compares the Rough Guides Portugal (9th ed.) with Lonely Planet Portugal (2nd ed.).

We just returned from 2.5 weeks in Portugal. This was our first trip to Portugal and we took and used extensively the Portugal books from Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. We didn't visit the Algarve or Alentejo, concentrating on Lisbon and north.

Both books were good, but overall we preferred the Rough Guide book. It was better organized and more up to date. It's writing was more incisive, lively, and witty.

Here are some details as I saw them:

LP maps often covered a wider area and had more detail than the RG maps, but they were in smaller type and often difficult to read. On more than one occassion a cab driver pulled out his spectacles to read the LP map.

Rough Guide had more up to date phone numbers. LP did not have the up to date area codes (the leading 0 has been changed to a 2). In addition, for many properties in the north they had a 5 digit phone number, when now they are all six. More disturbingly, they have no update on their website for either the corrected area code or phone numbers. In fact, there was no Portugal update to the guide at all. (I'm not talking of the 'unverified travelers' reports.)

LP provided more detailed information about the nitty-gritty details of traveling, e.g., money, trains, internet access, etc.

RG presented the towns around Aveiro better. It was through it that we learned of Sao Jacinto, Torreira, and so on. These were not indexed in LP. We didn't discover that LP had some information on them until much later because it was more hidden in the Aveiro section. Since we had already decided to not stay in Aveiro we didn't think to look there. Although they were also in the Aveiro section of RG, they had their own headings and were also indexed.

Similarly, RG highlighted Belmonte in the mountains. This town was interesting in itself and also in that it now holds one of Portugal's largest remaining Jewish communities and its new synogogue. Jews had previously worshipped secretly in a town house until 1974, now replaced by the new building. (I'm writing this using a mouse pad I purchased at the Belmonte castle for $1.50 with images of columns from the Mosteiro da Batalha!)

I also preferred RG's treatment of Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela and of Parque Natural de Montesinho.

We used several recommendations for restaurants and accommodations from the books. Their batting averages were about the same: good but not great. One African dance club listed in both books was now a female stip place, as my wife discovered when seeing if the cab had taken us to the right address. (I was waiting in the cab.) I felt they were generally too generous in their evaluation of hotels and restaurants.

Both books had several failings common to them and to other guide books that we've used.

Nearly all the accommodations and restaurants are in tourist areas. We were fortunate to stay in Lisbon in a residential district. It was comforting to leave in the morning and not be surrounded by hordes of fellow tourists. Similarly, we were the only obvious tourists in the local restaurants, some of which were excellent. Nor were we out in the sticks where a car was required. We were right off the #28 tram line, recommended as the best tram to ride simply for riding it in both books.

Several other times during the trip we stayed and ate outside the centro area. In some cases a car would have been needed, but we were only several km out of center. In any case, I think both books should offer more 'out of centro' possibilities, especially when transportation is available.

LP is out front in saying that its reviewers do not stay at all the hotels or eat at all the restaurants they list. I would like it if the reviews would be initialized with the reviewers initials for the ones that they personally tried. This would also allow us to see and evaluate each reviewer's tastes and standards as our trip progressed, not to mention to see which places they really tried. One LP writer (not an author of this book) in discussing restaurants wrote: "As one of those LP writers I can tell you that it is not physically possible to eat even a 'little bit of a meal' in each of those restaurants :-) What we all tend to do is eat at a broad cross-section within the norms of natural eating times and visit the other restaurants and talk to the owner or even the diners if it can be done discretely. In the same vein we don't sleep at every hotel!"

Talk to the owners! Now there's something for an unbiased, disinterested evaluation!

Both books are oriented to train travelers, but they should have some more info on driving too, which is not expensive. For example, neither had a mileage chart between major cities and, more importantly, neither had a chart of expected driving times. Using the 'N' roads which look like major highways can take quite a bit of time because they are mostly two lane roads, often twisty and hilly, and can have a lot of SLOW truck traffic. You'd probably be better off driving on the back roads, both for time and scenery, and for that small village, local feel. But you'd never know it from these books. This complaint isn't restricted to just LP and RG, of course.

In addition, both books were quite short on history, culture and demographics. How religious are the Portuguese? (We were asked on several occassions whether we were 'religioso'.) What is the median and mean income of each of the areas (even of Portugal as a whole) and how does this compare to the rest of western Europe. What are contemporary middle-class Portuguese characteristics?

It wouldn't have taken more than an additional 10 or 15 pages for such information, and it would have made our trip more meaningful.

In sum, again, both guides were good with room for improvement, with our preferring the Rough Guide overall.

I have been to Portugal countless times and just like the country itself, the Rough Guide to Portugal never ceases to amaze me. This book is the perfect guide - light enough to carry around in a purse and yet absolutely comprehensive. All regions of Portugal are covered, even small villages are described if they have something of interest. And the way places are described is what makes this book so good - the writing is so witty, so apt, that I find myself rereading sections just for the chuckle. The guide includes tons of maps, precise directions, prices for museums, transportation, hotels, restaurants. The directions are oriented towards non drivers - that is, if you are relying on public transportation or your own two feet to get you around Portugal, then this book is excellent. The recommendations are always right on target and I have always found the information to be accurate. There are no color photographs in my edition which doesn't detract at all from the book. However, the new edition does have some nice pictures.

So, my advice to you dear reader is: Visit Portugal - and take your Rough Guide with you!

Uses maps and illustrations to show how the South developed into its own, distinctive cultural region. Contains plenty of interesting anecdotes and historical tales -- and it is great to look at....

I loved the book! In a concise and engaging format, the author has shown how geography and history have shaped the South. The illustrations and maps are beautiful and it is gracefully written. A must for any American history or Civil War buff.

This is a great reference book for serious horticulturalists. I have yet to run into a term I cannot find described well in this book. The drawings in the appendix are excellent as well.

Two criticisms:

1. print it on a lighter weight paper; there's no reason to choose such a heavy stock that adds to the shipping costs upon purchase and the chiropractic costs when you have to haul this around as I do to and from class each day.

2. Think of your US audience and include non-metric measurements. Less math on the fly is more!

The "al" means "Like" - this lazy language is just about as sad as when people drop the "h" pronunciation in herbal ... does this mean that it would be correct to say that there are "eeerbacious" plants!