Despite the title, this isn't so very far along in the series and in fact features the introduction of the very politically correct "Ms. Liz Probert." The cases are the usual set, and Rumpole faces his usual trials and tribulations, most notably from a new member of chambers who wants to make everything much more efficient. The eponymous tale is one we've seen dramatized, where Rumpole has great success betting on a "four-horse accumulator," tells a judge exactly what he thinks of him, and is (of course) frustrated when his go-between leaves the country with his winnings.

Entertaining, as always.

Rumpole has an assortment of foes in this collection of 7 stories: Judge Bullingham, his Head of Chambers Sam Ballard, dishonest prosecution witnesses, police officers, prosecuting barristers, and even the barrister defending his client's co-defendant in a case of armed robbery where a bank guard was wounded. No wonder he thinks of winning a fortune betting on horse races and moving to Spain in the last story, "Rumpole's Last Case". You should enjoy reading this book to find out how many cases Rumpole wins and if he really retires.

Booth defines religious addiction and abuse then goes over a twelve step program of recovery. This book shines a light into the dark recesses of religious abuse. The person who is the most addicted and abusive may very well be the person who is admired by outsiders for their religious conviction. The children and spouses see a very different picture. I think this book would be helpful to someone who was willing to consider the possibility that they have a problem. I think it is more likely to be read by someone affected by another's addiction than by the addict herself. Booth says he has success in his practice of working with religious addicts so perhaps they can be helped. In my experience though it seems that the people who fit his description of a religious addict are the ones who would never consider that they may be wrong or that their religion is causing a problem. For these cases Booth presents ideas for staging an intervention when the addict/abuser will not admit to the problem. Good luck.

One problem I have with the book is his anti-atheist bias. He wants to bring the people to a better spirituality but considers atheism to be a negative outcome. He sees it as a backlash to abuse. He must be aware that people can arrive at atheism in many different ways. He seems pretty open minded otherwise. People who want a healthier relationship to their faith without giving it up should be comforted by the fact that he is in no way trying to talk them out of their faith. He is a man of the cloth himself.

I'd recommend this book for someone who thinks his or her religious involvement may be getting out of hand. For the abused children or spouse of an addict it's a start only. I'd like to see a lot more awareness that religion can be used in such a damaging way and this book is a step in that direction. Abused children are in the worst position since society doesn't really recognize this type of abuse and is not prepared to do anything about it. (I read the hardbound version.)

In this book, Fr. Leo outlines the problem of being addicted to religion. He outlines the steps one can go through as the addiction comes to dominate one's life, and outlines the steps necessary to break free from this addiction. Being a religious addict myself, I really enjoyed this book. He described my life to a 't' in this book, and it has helped me break the chains of religious addiction and has helped me attain a more healthy spirituality. If you even suspect you might have a problem with your religiousity, I highly recommend this book.

Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police is a compilation of 5 years of John Leo's US News & World Report columns.

While it would be fair to describe Mr. Leo as a curmudgeonly columnist it must be pointed out he is one with a sense of perspective almost as developed as his sense of humor. Basically conservative in outlook, he nonetheless is quite capable of skewering conservative viewpoints and policy right along with liberal viewpoints and policy. And so Mr. Leo can criticize the left's propensity to foster "the victimization of America" propensity while also criticize the rights propensity to want to censor everything under the sun.

While this is in a way a wide ranging collection in terms of presentation and writing style, it is fairly narrowly focus in terms of subject matter, allowing for a fairly thorough look at the topics at hand from a variety of aspects. This also gives the work more coherence and a better, more novelistic pacing than is usual for works of this sort.

I don't always agree with Leo, but he seldom fails to raise good, thoughtful points in his commentary and he never fails to entertain. Who says you can't have it all?

This book represents a really refreshing breath of very fresh air in a genre that seems to have devolved into a morass of invective, hostility and bile as substitutes for commentary and debate.

A great read!

John Leo is the best commentator on the culture wars and the best critic of political correctness, and I have read them all. I buy US News & World Report solely for his column. If you loath political correctness, like I do, you will love this book.

This was an x-mas present from a friend who is a bit to the right of center.

John Leo's great strength as a writer is that he knows how to quickly cut to the bone of an issue. Can't say I agree with 100% of his veiwpoints, but I like the way he writes. His ability to capture in a few words the thrust of his argument or obnservation makes for very powerful reading.

The parts that made me laugh out loud are any of his pieces describing campus politics. Although I certainly sympathize with certain minority groups on my campus, Leo does a nice job of explaining how campus liberals have become vapid shells clining onto some radical past.

A good book to spend the afternoon with.

The Cape Cod Years of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is an interesting narrative of the time President Kennedy spent on Cape Cod. Neither particularly critical nor laudatory, the book presents both an insight into life at the Kennedy compound and on the Cape in general. For a visitor to Cape Cod, this book presents a view into the life of the summer residents of the Cape during the twenties to the sixties. It also provides details of the life of John F. Kennedy and his father, Joseph, which may easily be overlooked by one who studies only the Presidential years. This book is to be recommended to anyone with an interest in the personal and political lives of Joseph and John Kennedy as well as to anyone with an interest in Cape Cod

The Cape Cod Years of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is an interesting narrative of the time President Kennedy spent on Cape Cod. Neither particularly critical nor laudatory, the book presents both an insight into life at the Kennedy compound and on the Cape in general. For a visitor to Cape Cod, this book presents a view into the life of the summer residents of the Cape during the twenties to the sixties. It also provides details of the life of John F. Kennedy and his father, Joseph, which may easily be overlooked by one who studies only the Presidential years. This book is to be recommended to anyone with an interest in the personal and political lives of Joseph and John Kennedy as well as to anyone with an interest in Cape Cod.

This is one of the best common-sense books available. No mumbo-jumbo, no mystical nonsense. Instead it offers sensible and practical basic bodybuilding exercises. From a purely bodybuilding perspective however, its easy to find fault, but considering that most martial artists are more concerned with catching flies between chopstix than benchpressing, the text is suitably pitched.

This is the best workout book I have ever read or used. Performing the exercises in this book brought me tremendous results in a very short time. The book outlines programs for the beginner and the pro. I highly recommend the use of this book for the serious body builder.

John Leo is best known these days for the column he writes in US News, wherein he has apparently made it his personal mission to fight the forces of political correctness. For that alone he deserves our attention and thanks. But I found this collection of some of his older stuff in a remainder bin, most of it culled from his years at TIME magazine, and it is not only quite good, it is a revelation. John Leo is truly funny. All this time I'd assumed he was just a bitter old crank (and I mean that in a good way), now it turns out that he's a talented satirist too. I don't know that I'd put him in the exalted ranks of PJ O'Rourke, Andrew Ferguson, and Christopher Buckley, but he certainly ranks just one rung below them.

In addition to several excellent pieces on language, most of the book consists of Leo's comic colloquies between Ralph and Wanda, a married couple he utilizes to play out the battle of the sexes. Though he initially made Wanda a mere foil for the loutish Ralph, he eventually let her more than hold her own in their arguments. The result is a set of very amusing social commentaries--which fairly well decimate some of the sillier and trendier ideas of the Left--presented in the form of dialogues. Some of the stuff is, of course, dated (the title essay for instance refers to a specious old claim made by the Soviet Union), but its almost all still fun, and well worth reading if you happen to find a copy.

GRADE : B

Rumpole of the Bailey, one of the best known and loved lawyers of British history does it again with this funny tale of daily life. Being forced into Retirement without knowing it, by his wife "She who must be obeyed" Hilda, and his son. It seems that everybody knows it but him!

Guthrie Featherstone, a red judge and former member of Rumpole's chambers, acquires a case of tennis elbow and visits a massage parlor for some deep rubbing therapy. Massages aren't the only thing sold at the parlor, but Featherstone is oblivious to the other goings on. He gets only a massage and then pays with a credit card.

When Rumpole undertakes to defend the owner of a chain of massage parlors/bawdy houses, he learns of Featherstone's visit. Featherstone learns the true nature of the place he visited, and Rumpole contrives to get Featherstone selected as the judge to hear the bawdy house case. Featherstone has visions of disgrace and divorce dancing in his head, and Rumpole does nothing to allay his fears. The denouement is quite entertaining.

Leo McKern does a rousing good job of reading the text of the short story.

John Mortimer wrote the Rumpole screenplays for Leo McKern, who portrays the portly barrister on the BBC TV series. On this audiotape, McKern reads two short stories from "Rumpole's Last Case." The chosen stories are "Rumpole and the Blind Tasting" and "Rumpole and the Old, Old Story."

In "Blind Tasting" Rumpole gets invited to an elegant blind tasting. As I understand it from the story, a blind tasting is a gathering at which a bunch of egotists gather to taste wine, guess what type the wine is, and otherwise attempt to impress each other with their erudition and sophistication. Being used to nothing better that Chateau Thames Embankment, Rumpole becomes an enthusiastic but unorthodox participant in the tasting. The tasting leads to a case, and the case leads Rumpole to uncover some lowbrow goings-on in the highbrow world of fine wines.

In "The Old, Old Story," Rumpole embarrasses She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. She harasses Rumpole, and Rumpole leaves home. While the course of love runs not so true at Casa Rumpole, Horace gets an out-of-town case defending the odd man out in a lover's triangle. Things are looking rather bleak for the client, and Rumpole is not encouraged when he enters court for the first day of the trial and finds She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed sitting on the bench as a guest of the presiding judge. With his wife's help, Rumpole finds his way through to a fabulous victory, and nobody lives happily ever after.

Leo McKern was born to play Rumpole on the stage, and he gives it his all as he reads the stories, but an audiotaped reading is not the best way to enjoy any form of literature. If it is impossible to read the stories or watch McKern on video, this tape will slake your thirst for Rumpole.

This old book attempts to describe basic quantum chemistry and walk one through a series of exercises using the Gaussian series of programs. Not really very useful.

As a graduate student studying quantum chemistry, I find this book useful as a reference. Much of the material is somewhat outdated, but still very applicable and useful for understanding the underlying theory. I would recommend this book for any chemist interested in understanding the theory of quantum chemical calculations or how to interpret the results of such calculations. I would consider it a must for students of quantum, theoretical, or computational chemistry who need to develop an understanding of theory.

I want of all pictures of orbital structure