Mark Singer's spiritually moving and thought-provoking poetry, accompanied by Leon Lombard's eloquent prose, illuminates the many hidden aspects of one's sojourn in life. Pegge Patten interprets each poem through her insightful graphics, and her visual feast reveals the spirit contained in the poetry and prose. This profound work helps me explore the meaning of life, love, relationships, fear, hope, and inner peace. This is one book that I will never store on my bookshelf. I keep it handy and reflect often on the wisdom shared by these three compassionate artists. It's a book I imagine you would treasure for many years, too.

Life's biggest joys and challenges leap from the pages of this soul-searching, extraordinary work. How do we deal with the passages of life? What do these passages really mean and how do the affect us? The calm thoughtfulness of Mark Singer's probing thoughts and Pegge Patten's fascinating graphics make this a volume we all need to read many, many times. I pick this book up several times each week and glance through it for badly needed inspiration. Thanks to the three authors for pouring their hearts, minds, and being into this soothing study of life.

SOUL IN MORTAL CHRYSALIS, a spiritual journey of the life cycle, seems in some ways like a unique prayer book as we explore inner thoughts about each step in life. Mark Singer's poems are given an artistic interpretation by Pegge Patton, who visually gives more meaning to the poetry. The insightful thoughts of Leon Lombard gives another dimension of depth to the ideas presented. The three together blend the aspects of spirituality in a whole new way for me.

I shall be re-reading this book many times. With each reading comes more understanding.

Collaborative written by Mark Nicholas and Jane Christine, Space Academy: Stargate Search is the second volume of the "Kirsten Chronicles" series. Cadet Kirsten and her feline-alien companion work to help a researcher unlock the mystery of stargates and how to create them; yet it may be that someone in the Academy wants their project to fail at any cost! An engaging and memorable science fiction saga, Space Academy: Stargate Search is especially recommended for teen and young adult science fiction fans!

Science fiction the way it's meant to be! This book is delightful for all ages. Believable characters and dialog. I hope volume 3 is "in the works." If you like Harry Potter, or Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys, you'll LOVE Kirsten and the Space Academy series. Don't miss this one!

How nice it was to finally find a sequel--in this instance volume 2--that is better than the original. Nicholas and Christine have done the unthinkable: surpassed the excellence and literary quality they exhibited in Space Acacemy: Volume 1 of the Kirsten Chronicles. Stargate Search's narrative wends through a myriad plot twists and locale changes that lead to a surprise ending sure to enthrall readers of all ages from six to one hundred and six. I hope volume 3 is soon to follow!

A very wise person once defined genius as being not what youknow as much as knowing where to look. Mr Aldrich and Mr. Davis have woven a tale that could have easily been a front page story in any major American newspaper. Or maybe it already has. The only too real setting of this novel is the strange world of politicians that have either lost it all or have gained so much that even the truth is a minor detail. Joseph P. DeVine is a former FBI agent working as a consultant investigating the strange death of a political information gatherer know as "Dr. Dirt". And on his tail, Anne Carlson, a reporter for the L.A. Times. Speak no Evil introduces the reader to a collection of ruined politicos, powerfull politically connected families, a former Soviet spetznaz turned assassin, Dmitri Popova. And a unhuggable slimeball named Lindstrom. From the Oval Office in the White House to the brothels in Surabaya, Indonesia, a string of shady land deals, pay-offs, corruption and a bastard child. This novel becomes a little too real at times. The story is loosely based on the experiences and knowledge gained by Mr, Aldrich from many years working for the F.B.I. And his assignement to protecting "the current residents" of the White House. An unnerving insight into what might be, what can be, and what is. Just a note...It might be best to think of "Cyclops" as just a monster in an old Sinbad movie, if you think it would help.

"Speak No Evil" is a behind-the-scenes look at the way vicious Washington games are played. After the macabre murder in the first chapter, "whodunnit" meets "whydunnit"--and all the players seem to be drawn (are they real?) from Washington figures on the current scene. It makes you wonder.

It's a compelling read for mystery fans, political junkies and anybody who enjoys a book that will keep you guessing. I loved it.

Davis and Adrich either concoct or expose for the public, a high-powered, high-tech political dirt digging operation. Their backgrounds suggest the latter. While 'Speak No Evil' is "fiction", the amount of facts and truths as they relate to the present-day political scene leave you wondering where fact ends and fiction takes over! Education or fantasy? This powerful murder-mystery, political thriller is alive and fast-paced from cover to cover.

This book is the best novel I have read in many years. Dr. Rosen has an unbelievable knack for combining the excitement of murder and lust with the thrills of emergency medicine. I highly recommend this extremely well written book for anyone who likes mysteries with a twist, medical thrillers that are very realistic and adventures. The author is obviously a physician who is gifted in writing as well as in the practice of medicine.I only wish authors in my country were as knowledgable and creative. Dr. Rosen's descriptions are comparable to those by Hemmingway. Long live America!

Spider Matrix is great fun! I highly recommend it. It's extremely well written and very exciting. I particularly got into some of the medical scenes that were so realistic. It's a must!

Spider Matrix is an excellent, rivoting mystery/novel that reveals the dangers of corporate America entering the arena of medicine. With a new discovery that can revolutionize medicine, greed alters the lives of all those involved.It is too exciting and clever to pass up. The text is easy to read, hard to put down and is filled with surprises. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys, mysteries, adventure, medicine (very interesting scenes since the author is a physician) or business.

I new the Coles from when I was a kid growing up in Stone Harbor.
We lived across the street. I miss it too! I was a tight nieghborhood back then. I stumbled across this book by accident and loved it Very well done.

A well written and well researched book! I love the pictures! The authors certainly have put a great deal of time into making their book a superb work of art!

This is one of the best books I've read on the subject. It proves to be well-researched and very well written. The pictures are outstanding and well done. It brought back fond memories of fun times with family and friends. I hope Mark follows up with another.

This was a great ending to a terrific series by Mark Berent. I found myself unable to put this book down. Wold Lochert, Court Bannister and Toby Parker were amazing characters and were so life like I was sad to see the series end. I definately recommend reading not only this book but this great series.

Following the exploits of Court Bannister, Wolf Lochert, Toby Parker and the gang showed me believable action; let me observe the transition of young hotshots into responsible adults through experiences with war and life; taught me history, the real thing I didn't get from the media in the 1960s; focused me on geography, with which I'm getting better. Not so very different from the young people I see at our USO where I volunteer each week. Most of all, it let me come to some resolution and peace in my own mind about VietNam. Those young men I knew in the 1960s who willingly went to serve were right in their intent, despite an Administration and press who failed to support them. Those who didn't come back did not die in vain, and are remembered fondly. My only regret is that it's the last of the series. I hope Mark Berent is not finished writing! More! More! Another series! Something!

Having finished the final volume in Mark Berent's exciting series of Viet Nam ficton based on fact books, I'm moved to write the following. Looking back on how politicians and peaceniks played into the hands of the communists, I think I know how America's fighting men felt when they where sent to a war by a country that didn't really want to win. Mark Berent gets you into the heads of his protaganists, and you're left shaking your head at the lies that were fed to us while our boys were fighting and dying. A great, exciting set of tales. My thanks to him for making me remember the sacrifice given by so many.

Me neither! The History of Christianity is essentially the history of Western Civilization; so if you don't remember who Atilla the Hun was, aren't sure what caused the Great Schism, or can't tell the difference between Martin Luther & Martin Luther King, Collins & Price will bring you up to speed.

This is a very readable book that takes a heckuva lot of information and presents it in an understandable format. I find myself actually wanting to pick it up and keep reading, which is a first for a non-fiction book and me!

If you're looking for an in-depth treatise on the Christian religion, I'm sure there are heavier tomes. But if you just want to feel like you can hold your own watching Jeopardy, this is the book for you!

This is an Excellent Contemporary Book of Christian History during and after JESUS CHRIST. It also highlights the various Christian events that took place that shaped the world and resulted in Christianity being the Predominant Faith in the World. The Book is concise and has vivid colour illustrations to show the various events. These qualities make the book unique.

Rarely has a book so vividly captured the history, the faith, pageantry and essence of the message and legacy of Christ as this publication. The two authors, one a young Catholic priest, have done a superb job in conveying the richness and the diversity of Christianity in all of its glory. Their emphasis on the importance of the historical facts had a special resonance for me, as only through the lessons of the past can we come to understand and respect each other's traditions.

This book is a testimony to state-of-the-art printing and lavish design and production. It was a joy to behold, and a treasure to keep in my library. I commend it to you without reservation.

Mark McNeilly takes the principles of Sun Tzu and lays them out in 6 easy to understand categories. These 6 principles are then described and examples of their use in modern warfare are given.

This book is invaluable to anyone studying strategy in any capacity. It plainly demonstrates the value of Sun Tzu's words and the peril one can face if they are ignored.

There is also a translation by Samual Griffith of the original "Art of War" by Sun Tzu. So in affect you are getting 2 books in one. You can't beat that.

On a more serious note this book is a wake up call to those of you who do not understand Eastern Philosophy and Warfare. With the emergence of China as an ever growing influence in the world, it would serve everyone well to understand their history, culture and principles. This book is invaluable in the capacity.

Those who have already read McNeilly's previous and brilliant book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Business, will welcome this study of modern warfare at a time when the term "war" seems to be undergoing constant re-definition. Events on and subsequent to September 11th have required all of us to view warfare from different perspectives. That process continues even as we await further developments. In this volume, McNeilly reminds us that there are certain fundamental principles of warfare which have remained valid throughout the centuries. Perhaps the first management consultant, Sun Tzu asserts in The Art of War that all battles are won or lost before they are fought. Moreover, he insists that it is better, far better to gain victory without having to engage in combat. Once combat is necessary, he suggests all manner of strategies and tactics by which to overcome an opponent. As you read this review, I suspect that certain warriors throughout the world (perhaps having never read nor heard of Sun Tzu) are utilizing many of these same strategies and tactics. Why? Because they are effective.

After a brief but highly informative Introduction ("The Relevance of Sun Tzu to Modern Warfare"), McNeilly examines the aforementioned "fundamental principles" within six chapters, citing numerous examples drawn from the history of modern warfare, and then provides his own "Conclusions" about "ancient principles for future battlefields." He includes in this volume the superb translation of The Art of War by Samuel B. Griffith. Here are the six chapter titles:

Win All Without Fighting [how to achieve the objective without destroying it]

Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness [strike only where the enemy is most vulnerable]

Deception and Foreknowledge [how to win the information war]

Speed and Preparation [moving swiftly to overcome resistance decisively]

Shaping the Enemy [selecting and preparing the battlefield to your advantage]

Character-based Leadership [leading by example]

Obviously, merely listing the chapter titles and suggesting the thrust of each cannot indicate the scope and depth of McNeilly's achievements in this book. But perhaps it would be helpful to share two brief excerpts from his Preface and then from the final chapter, Conclusions:

"My interest in writing this book stems from a deep interest in military history, my attraction to the ideas and concepts put forth by Sun Tzu, my experience as an infantry officer, and my time as a strategist for a major global corporation. These forces, plus the desire to ensure that students of strategy have greater exposure to and understanding of Sun Tzu's holistic strategic philosophy, compelled me to pen this work."

"Thus, two things are clear. First, neither strategic nor tactical excellence is sufficient by itself; the two must accompany one another for decisive victory. If a nation has the right strategy but executes it poorly, it will not be successful. Similarly, a nation that executes a poor strategy with excellence will also fail in war. To achieve victory a nation must have a creative, powerful strategy and carry it out with will and dispatch, and force."

The second quotation is also relevant to non-military organizations, especially multi-national corporations, which must also have both superior strategies and effective tactics to achieve their desired objectives. Leaders in these organizations who ignore Sun Tzu's principles do so at their peril. McNeilly concludes, "By using these principles wisely a leader can achieve the nation's [or the organization's] goals and ensure its continued survival and prosperity. There is no greater burden one can carry." The extent to which the modern leader discharges such responsibilities will be determined, in my opinion (and presumably McNeilly's), by the extent to which that leader understands and then applies, appropriately, the various principles which Sun Tzu formulated more than 2,500 years ago.

Most people who study military strategy rank Sun Tzu among the leading thinkers of all time. In this interesting book, Sun Tzu's ideas are usually compared to some of the grand strategic concepts of Clausewitz who influenced so many military thinkers in the 20th century, especially the Germans in World Wars I and II. Mr. McNeilly also effectively uses the differences between the Asian game of "Go" and Chess to examplify the different mindsets.

I highly recommend this book to all those who wish to better understand sound principles for defending a nation's freedom. As I read Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare, I couldn't avoid thinking that these same principles could be usefully applied to establishing policies for protecting nations from terrorism. In particular, Sun Tzu pointed out that 'to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill." "[T}o subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." For example, how could the community of nations jointly create and support a system that left international terrorists no place to hide, no way to get aid, and no recognition for their evil deeds?

In the last few decades, Sun Tzu has become better known as a source of inspiration for business strategists than for military ones. In fact, Mr. McNeilly wrote a superb book last year on just that subject, Sun Tzu and the Art of Business. While reading that book, I was very impressed with the modern military examples, and am glad to see even more such examples in Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare. An important reason for reshaping Sun Tzu has been that his ideas have to be simplified and reframed to apply to business, a major new arena for strategic thinking. Many military strategists, however, are reluctant to "mess" with an obvious classic. By leaving Sun Tzu in the original form for its military content, much of the power of the writing is lost to those who wish to think about government policies today for domestic, foreign, and military matters.

To me, Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare provides a valuable service by making this outstanding work easily accessible to both those with and without military experience who live now in North America or Europe. The book does this in three ways. First, it simplifies the overall message of Sun Tzu into six major principles. Second, the book uses many examples from 19th and 20th century North American and European battles, supplemented with occasional references to the ancient Greek campaigns in Asia, the Punic Wars, and the World War II, Korean, and Vietnamese warfare in the Pacific and Asia. The more recent war to oust Iran from Kuwait is also included as a counterpoint to many military errors in other campaigns. Third, the volume both quotes copiously from Sun Tzu and includes a complete copy of Samuel B. Griffith's translation of The Art of War. As someone without a military history background, I appreciated the simplified exhibits that showed the general flow of battle in many of the examples.

The six principles are also chapter titles:

(1) "Win All without Fighting: Achieving the Objective without Destroying It"

(2) "Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness"

(3) "Deception and Foreknowledge: Winning the Information War"

(4) "Speed and Preparation: Moving Swiftly to Overcome Resistance"

(5) "Shaping the Enemy: Preparing the Battlefield"

(6) "Character-Based Leadership: Leading by Example"

The final chapter applies these principles to possible future battlefields.

Whenever I read Sun Tzu, I come away more and more impressed by how important information advantages are. If you don't know much about the enemy, you will violate many of these principles. If the enemy knows very little about you, you will have an easier time following the principles as well. Clearly, an American weakness has been to under invest at times in creating overwhelming information and communication advantages. If we learn nothing else from our experiences, we should always be sure to increase our advantages whenever we are pulling back from being highly mobilized.

If all this sounds a little dry, it isn't. Mr. McNeilly has a fine, simple writing style that pulls you right along with the material. He not only uses lots of examples, he uses them well. My only quibble in this regard is that he seems a little shaky in his descriptions of the French wars after 1789. Because the French had killed their king, every nation with a king set out to conquer the French. Napoleon tends to get blamed 100% for this in the book. I'm not sure he could have obtained many allies among the crowned heads of Europe. The examples are chosen so that you get continuity of the same military leaders. You get lots about Robert E. Lee in both the Mexican campaign and in Northern Virginia, for example.

I hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I did, and that it will be popular among our leaders.

Exhaust reasonable, peaceful alternatives before waging war!

I studied under Mark DeKay, using the first edition of this book. The second edition adds all of Mark's lectures into what was already a great book, full of very helpful rules of thumb for orientation, materials, siting, and a lot of other design recommendations. A great book made even better the second time around!

A very comprehensive book which leaves you with shortness of breath after each page, covers very well all the aspects of the title and their interaction and effect on planning a building or project of any kind, and gives u alot of new ideas on how to find out the effects of sun,wind and light and from where will the effect be more and how to make advantage of each one of these elements. keeps you woundering whether what you have ever designed before was valid or not. rich in figures and examples, slightly difficult regarding the laguage. but it is worth every penney.

This book is very helpful in determining the siting of your building (or gardens)with respect to wind patterns, and sun patterns of your area. As a designer of both indoor and outdoor spaces I found it to be a practical resource for helping ensure the success of a design. When I want shade, I now know where shade will fall; when I want to fill a space with light, I now know where and when light will be there and can adjust my design accordingly. Great book! Would reccommend it to architects, landscape architects and anyone wanting to see how their designs integrate into the daily and seasonal climate, wind, and light patterns of their area. The Sun Peg Charts are especially helpful. Good starting and reference point for all designs. Definitely add this one to your library.

Being an Aussie and wanting to get out there amonst it all, this book says it all. Being one of five kids that all surf in different areas and using different modes of transport on the water this book has it all for all of us and this book is what they will all get for chrissy this year!!

This book is so rad. The pictures are awesome. It's just a great book

Good pictures, solid review of breaks. An excellent complement to the Surf Report.