I don't lend this book, because I don't want to take a chance on losing it.

In all his writings, Frank Herbert had a way of getting to the core of ideas of the spirit. In "Soul Catcher" he managed to convey the meaning underlying the actions of Charles Hobuhet in such a way that I was able to set aside my cultural preconceptions. Even though I wanted Hobuhet to free the captured boy, I began to accept where his spirit world was leading him. I've read very few authors who could accomplish what Herbert did in this small novel.

A mark of a good book is when it haunts you for years with flashes of memory. This one does.

AWSOME BOOK READ IT YOU WILL FIND OUT WHY!!

SOUL CATCHER IS THE BEST BOOK IV"E EVER READ,IF YOU READ IT YOU WILL AGREE.THEY NEED TO BRING THIS BOOK BACK INTO CIRCURLATION,PLEASE DO!

Space: 1889 was a really cool game back in the late 80s. At first, I was delighted to see it back in print. Now that I have a copy, I'm not so sure.

See, the original was a sewn-bound hardbound work with glossy full-colour pages interspersed throughout. Very nicely done. Some of the art was lacking, but that was GDW in the 80s. It was still put together wonderfully.

This version, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Almost twice the original price of that beautiful book they put out, this is simply a collection of xeroxes of the original book with Heliograph's logo stuck in it im places over where it used to say GDW. Further, the cover is a pseudo-laminated colour laser print of the original work's cover.

All this low, low quality for the price of a brand new D&D book or other top-shelf work (I don't like new D&D, but the books are put together beautifully).

It's a good thing Frank Chadwisk isn't dead -- if he were, he'd be rolling in his grave over this shoddy production of a great game.

Go buy a used copy of the original.

This is a fairly easy roleplaying game to learn with an interesting premise. Unfortunately, the adventures written for the game are horrible! Plan to devise your own. Conklin's atlas of the worlds in an invaluable resource for this game, giving you much greater detail on Mercury, Venus & Mars. Too bad they thought Victiorian Earth was "boring" to give it much detail.

I was lucky enough to find a copy of the original rulebook at a convention several years ago and have managed to aquire almost all the supplements and books that were issued. I think the game world is very creative, interesting, and adds new dimentions to the swashbuckling type RPGs, which are becoming more and more rare as D20 infects the gaming industry.

Rants aside, I found the game system in this book to be rather weak when compared to other systems. That's certinally not a problem, there's more then enough source material in this book and the others to keep a group entertained for years. Personally, I very easily adapted this world to GURPS and had a great time GMing a campaign on Mars.

Please don't think I'm making a negative review, I'm not. I love having this book. It's a very creative world and lends itself to many fun campaigns, but experienced role-players should be aware that the author concentrated more on background then on game mechanics. It's a great setting, lots to explore, just do it with a different gaming system then the one printed in the book.

This is definitely a book for first time tech manager. I was hoping to get a lot more techniques to become a successful tech leader instead of just a manager.

There are two potential audiences for this book - those who have scars earned from projects and jobs and will get the message the author is conveying and those who are looking for easy answers and just won't get it.

For the first group this book will reinforce past experiences because the author distills all of what's best in the way of practices into a slim, well written book. What's nice is the wisdom is tied to life cycle stages so you can relate the team building practices to past experiences at a particular point in a project or the functional area in which you participated.

The second group won't get it because they are the people who are destined to remain second tier professionals. You can spot them because they are always looking for a silver bullet or waiting for someone to tell them what to do next. This book will go over their heads because the answers that the author provides requires reasoning and thought.

If you're in the first group you'll find this book to be a wonderful read and an inspiring text that will motivate you to continually improve. You're either a leader of have definite leadership material. If you are the type who expects a book to spell it out for you, stick with coding, doing moves/adds/changes or whatever it is you do and buy "101" and "For Dummies" books. This one will go right over your head.

This is the second book I've read (and reviewed) by Mr. Ginac. He is a master at packing a maximum amount of information and wisdom into books with minimal page counts. This requires real talent on the author's part and I, for one, appreciate it when I can improve my professional knowledge with a book that can be read in one sitting.

This book is about project management, development processes and leadership, all of which are interwoven into seven succinct chapters. The parts of this book that I especially liked are: (1) The sensible and business-oriented approach to requirements in Chapter 1. This is a recipe for success and encapsulates some of the best practices I've come across in a single short chapter. (2) The focus on team building and leadership that is given in Chapters 2 through 4 and 6. I've endured poor leadership and have had the pleasure of working for some of the best in my 25 years of experience, so I have a good feel for what works and what doesn't. These three chapters capture all of the good examples that have taken me a quarter of a century to discover, and provides some of the best advice and guidance you'll find in any book. (4) The chapter on planning, like the others, distills into a few short pages some of the best advice a project manager or team leader should carefully heed. Like the body of the book, the appendix is rich with information that is crammed into a short page count.

I'm obviously a fan of Mr. Ginac, due in no small part to this book. If you read this one and want more I highly recommend that you read Customer Oriented Software Quality Assurance, which is also short, informative and well written. 5 stars for this one!

The author writes from personal experience and from her religious ethnocentric fundamental Christian viewpoint. She has appeared on the 700 Club, so if you identify with and watch that you will find this book very inspiring.

However, Christians who are not part of the mainstream will find her assumptions and explanations about Jesus, God, and certain scriptures irritating, annoying, and just plain wrong. I speak as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I did not think the author was homophobic.

If you can ignore her religious assumptions you will find her book a positive experience. Forgiveness is possible even for child molestors. After all, if Jehovah God can forgive wicked King Manassah for his sins, which included the sacrifice of his children, a child molestor can be forgiven for the harm done to a victim.

This is by and far the best book I've seen on dealing with sexual abuse as well as other traumatic hurts in life. Through this, Jan was honest about her own healing process and was willing to make herself vulnerable in sharing. I'm so grateful for a resource written so openly from someone who's been there. I've read others that are informative but this contains an honesty and openness and is personal in a way that the others are not. This book has truly changed my life and continues to help me in the process of healing! Thanks Jan!!

As the husband of an incest survivor, a Christian, and a board member of a widely known non-profit organizations for survivors, I think I'm a pretty good judge of books on recovery. I've been reading about incest recovery for 25 years, but Door of Hope taught me new things. It combines sound biblical principles with sound counseling advice. The steps to recovery are 1)Face problem, 2)Recount incident, 3)Experience feelings, 4)Establish responsibility, 5)Trace problems/symptoms, 6)Observe and learn, 7)Confront abuser (She acknowledges this is not always advisable), 8)Acknowledge forgiveness, 9)Rebuild self-image & relationships, 10)Concern for others. Yes, she favors a Christian approach. Don't most writers have a bias toward an approach to healing they have found effective? No need for a warning on the cover--if Christianity offends you and you buy the book without glancing inside, just return the book for a refund. I saw nothing in this book that sounded intolerant of non-Christians or homosexuals. Naturally, the author affirms the biblical view that God intends sexual relations to be within marriage. But in case you don't agree with this position, she doesn't run it into the ground--her book is about how the unconditional love of God can heal one's hurts. Sorry about the sermon--I just don't think a certain other reviewer's comments were fair.

I used this text (and workbook) in massage school last year. While the text has its strengths and weaknesses, too often, key concepts were not explained clearly or in enough detail. In studying for the massage exam (NCTMB), I found it essential to use other books (e.g., an anatomy and physiology text) in order to have an understanding of some fundamental concepts that were either skipped or superficially discussed in the text. My expectation was that this book would be a good reference for using in my massage practice. Based upon my experience so far, it would need more details in many key areas in order for me to use it this way. Since school, I have rarely referred to it, and used it only occasionally in studying for the exam.

The books strengths are primarily in the extent of the material that it covers. I have not found any other single book that covers such a broad scope of information. And some of the information covered, I have not yet found anywhere else.

This book has a few weaknesses that if addressed, could make this THE text for massage. First, there tends to be a general lack of clarity in presentation; issues are often talked about rather than clearly stating what something is and how it fits in with the larger picture. I often had to reread sections several times (very frustrating) in order to understand what point the author was trying to convey. I noticed when reading a separate anatomy and physiology text (I bought one while I was in school), that concepts were explained in more detail, and one or two readings were sufficient. In this text, anatomy and physiology facts were often stated one after another and made into a paragraph, which made understanding difficult.

Second, there tended to be a lack of detail on key concepts. This was frustrating and motivated me to look for other sources that would give more detail. Surprisingly, this was even true in the area which describes the massage strokes and their usage. As a result, I recently purchased Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage (so far, looks good, but too early to tell yet).

I used this book to help me prepare for the NCETMB. It was especially helpful for draping techniques, massage techniques and massage theory. It has some anatomy and physiology information for the boards but it wasn't enough. I also used the following which is also available on amazon:
The Ultimate Study Guide for the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork: Key Review Questions and Answers
(Vol 1) ISBN: 0971999643
(Vol 2) ISBN: 0971999651
(Vol 3) ISBN: 097199966X
The last three study guides are just great for the type of questions to prepare for on the national certification examination for therapeutic massage and bodywork. These study guides were very complete for all the topics being tested on the NCETMB.

This is not a "specialization" book. But it does give a good, comprehensive overview. If you're in a massage school, or you're one of those people who gives really good back rubs, then this book should make it to your "short list"

It goes over various parts of the body, methodologies and techniques, and problem areas. It has quizes at the end of each chapter. I found the areas on draping and assisting the client very useful.

It does NOT go into too much detail on hand techniques. But, let's face facts here, that's what the labs/practical part of massage school is for. You can only learn so much about massage by reading. If you haven't noticed, massage is a very "hands-on" job. :-) It DOES goes over the basic strokes/methods, but leaves the details to whatever class you're in.

If you're short on funds, and need to stretch your dollar, this is the book to get. I use it as a supplimental reference all the time.

The fame of Herbert's Dune series has sadly obscured some of his other science fiction - Santaroga is a prime example. A valley town in California appears to be not just different from the rest of the world around it, but practically on a different planet. It's residents have no interest in the external world or the products it offers - almost an autarky. Driven by a corporate marketing assignment combined with the lure of an old (but strongly flickering) flame, Gilbert Dasein visits the town and finds a bizarre degree of contentment and unity. On the face of it, it is the mysterious Jaspers (akin to the mélange of Dune) that is responsible but Herbert is driving at a larger picture here. Santaroga is almost a collective mind, or a community with a group consciousness. One that thrives in its little pond and fears the vast ocean outside which it strives to hold at arm's length - the barrier of the title. A fascinating read.

It's important to note that this re-issued Herbet novel was first published in 1968, and new readers can be forgiven if after the set up of the story presented in its opening pages, they find themselves asking: "Haven't I read/seen/heard all this before"? The answer would be yes, we've been here before. A small, isolated community, strange happenings, odd deaths, and a big secret (JASPERS) which may or may not destroy the hero/world. Nothing new here, and surprisingly, not that gripping either. Herbet spends much of this story trying to build a mystery, but neither the town, its people or our hero, really hold much water. The text is often stiff, the dialouge daytime soap opera quality (at best) and it isn't until the last third of the book that we finally get down the root of the mystery, only to find that Herbert has nothing up his sleeve (there is no shocking TWILIGHT ZONE twist her, nor even a thoughtful OUTER LIMITS musing, the book simply coasts to a idle and then a stop... almost as if it was meant to be part of a large work, which this book was part one in). All THE SANTAROGA BARRIER seems to offer is a extended study into another book, published in 1965, DUNE. The relationship between Jaspers and the spice Melange is direct, their effect, the same, and Herbert tries to tie this into college counter-culture, LSD experiments and some tossed off and dated (even for 1968) ideas about the US government and the corporate world. Not the best from Herbert here, but behind it all there is a gem of an idea that just before the book ends almost gets going and is worth pondering. For fans of Herbert, these re-issued books are a must for the library, as for the casual reader, there is some reward for those who stick it out.

I loved "Dune" of course, but Herbert's other novels are often less know, but really are interesting, too. In particular, I admire "The Santaroga Barrier" because it is set, not in the future, but in a town that could be anywhere today.

"The Santaroga Barrier" is set in a valley town in California. It looks completely normal--life is typically small-town, with small businesses and farms run by the locals. But for some reason, big merchandisers outside the valley cannot sell there. In an age where marketing demographics can tell precisely what brand of car, cigarette, cola or watch you are likely to buy by where you live and your age cohort, this is astounding.

What's also astounding is how Herbert forsees the age of online data-gathering (think, cookies on your browser) and huge mega-merchandisers like W*-mart who control huge blocks of buying power and who drain small towns of dollars that used to circulate and support local businesses.

But that's not the only threatening situation in Santaroga. What is with the "Jaspers" Cheese Co-op (is it a cult?) and why did the previous marketing investigators sent by big business meet with unfortunate accidents? The story that unfolds is fascinating--are the Santarogans just minding their own business, or are they evil in some way, and whose side will you end up on at the end of the book? I really recommend this novel even if you don't like science fiction. It's one of my favorites.

...it's nothing what the editorial review would like you to think. I've read many of Frank's articles on Washington Post's Cameraworks and like many of his articles on there, this book is much ado about nothing. You're better off spending that money on a subscription to a photography magazine.

Quite an interesting account of his encounters and experiences with the different facets of a professional photographer. If you have a problem or a scenario as a photographer, it's probably in there.
The book is NOT a how-to book so finding things may be difficult if you are already uptight and furious about a problem which you're having. It's more of a book for you to read it now and possibly return to refer to it when you need to.

To produce a quarter to half page article each week on a topic such as photography, intended to appeal to a large and varied audience, requires a pretty good understanding of the medium as well as an understanding of the audience. After nearly ten years of writing for the Washington Post, that's over five hundred articles, on everything from photography etiquette to the latest and greatest in film and equipment, including all the techniques and sundries in between, Frank Van Riper has won the following of nearly every amateur and professional photographer in the Washington, DC area and now with Camera Works online, his articles are available anywhere there is a computer. Talking Photography, Viewpoints on the Art, Craft and Business, is a selection of Frank's best articles, one hundred in all. Suffice to say, there's something for everyone in Talking Photography.

Frank and Cook's book, The Winner Take All Society, forces us to reconsider our position on the inherent good of the free market in light of newly emerging forms of destructive, albeit free, competition and growing income inequality. Written in the vein of a thinly veiled rebuke of the moral and social decline of the American economy and society, the book appears to focus too much on specific individuals, and merely states a few implications for society as a whole. In my mind, what the authors posit as the verities for individuals and corporations under a winner take all banner just as readily applies to the nation and ultimately, the world. Taking their arguments one step further, advances in high technology, such as the internet and telecommunications, have increased productivity, transformed labor markets all over the world, and created uniform standards for goods and services that can now be consumed anywhere in the world. In effect, technology has made the world a similar, smaller place. Thus, what is true economically in America now is most likely true elsewhere, though cultural differences still remain.

While winner take all markets can, with the aid of technology, make the goods and services of the few available to everyone in the world, they also have many negative consequences. Winner take all markets magnify the consequences of first mover advantages, making it difficult, if not impossible, for those late to the competition, be they corporations or countries, to establish themselves. Winner take all markets continue to increase the disparity between wealthy, industrialized countries of the North and the impoverished, besieged economies of the South. Winner take all markets continuously lure our most talented individuals into socially unproductive and often individually and socially destructive tasks. Many of the world's economies already invest too little for the future, be they nations struggling to develop (such as those on the African continent), or fully industrialized nations (such as the United States), and the growth of winner take all markets has encouraged wasteful patterns of investment and consumption. Finally, winner take all markets have the proven ability to undermine what is in the best interests of our culture and society, and given the terrifying ability of winner-take-all markets to rigidly engender and enforce conformity, standardization, and one-upmanship, this growing phenomenon can only be counter-productive and disruptive to the efforts of indigenous peoples to maintain and preserve their fragile and threatened cultures.

Quite literally, in winner-take-all competitions, the rules really are there are no rules. As such, these competitions lead people to do very crazy things. When large payoffs are at stake and there is a very real certainty of the loser(s) getting absolutely nothing for their effort, contestants have powerful incentives to spend money to enhance their chances of winning, and have little or no moral compunction to exercise restraint and sensibility in their behavior. This is especially the case where unfettered, free competition is the rule and covenants and/or regulations to ensure orderly, equitable markets are not the norm.

Thus, there seems to be an inverse, negative relationship between investment in these all or nothing competitions and their (social) value to the larger group. As the pace of investment, size of the investment and the risk associated with the investment in the winner take all competition increases, the social and economic value of the competition steadily decreases. While these investments look justifiable from the individual's or nation's standpoint, especially if there is a considerable chance that the individual stands to win, and win big, the concomitant dueling that these investments fuel almost always appears excessive from the standpoint of the society. As such, these all-or nothing competitions have led to a plethora of economic versions of military arms races between individuals, corporations and nations.

Although one could surmise much of the content from experience and simple common sense, I generally found the book to be a straightforward and thought-provoking read. Yet, many of the examples demonstrating the extent to which such competitions have infiltrated all aspects of our economic life, as well as the often ridiculous, comical and increasingly desperate attempts by individuals to thrive in these all-or-nothing environments, profoundly scared and disturbed me. The authors could have done away with the last chapter, a rehashing of the same old remedies to the problem, and written a much better ending which could have summarized the main points of the book and discussed their implications, going forward, for all participants in the new global economy.

In conclusion, these all-or-nothing competitions have steadily become 'the only game in town'. Yet, I seriously doubt that these dangerous economic games are really worth playing.

This book would make a fantastic 30 page essay. It covers very important ideas and backs them up with analysis and examples. But then it starts to repeat itself, and bring out too many examples without new ideas.

The basic premise of this book is that the U.S. has too many markets where the "star" or top performer gets a large percentage of the proceeds. Examples are the sports market, the movie star market and the publishing market; The reasons given are;

-Technology. National distribution channels such as network television make it easier for an individual to penetrate the market. For example, at one time villages and towns had their own musicians. Now a singer can make a CD and sell it nationally.

-Falling transportation and tariff costs. Goods have gotten lighter. It is easier to send computer discs all over the world than books. CD's are lighter than phonograph records

-- Mental shelf space constraints. We have a limit to the number of items we can keep in our head..."the amount of information we can actually use is thus a declining fraction of the total information available."

-Weakening of regulations and civil society. At one time, informal and formal rules limited the winner take all markets. Now, like free agents in baseball, the top performers have the leverage to demand high prices.

-Self-reinforcing processes. This is another way of saying "success begets success." For example, a sales person does well and gets bigger customers. A person does well and the word of mouth referral causes them to saturate the market. This virtuous cycle increases the income and power of top performers.

The author argues that winner take all markets are not good for society. People are unrealistically optimistic about their own chances of winning "a prize." Thus they are siphoned off from other productive endeavors.

This book was helpful to me in understanding today's economy and job market. If anything, the winners are doing better than ever today, long after the book was published. Just take a look at the latest article on CEO salaries.

I really enjoyed FALLINGWATER: A FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT COUNTRY HOUSE. These are stunning photographs of a stunning masterpiece of a house. It's such a tranquil and organic work of architecture.

I am not an architect. Therefore, I didn't pay much attention to the text, but focused on photographs. I especially enjoyed the aerial shots of Fallingwater because it gives some perspective of how isolated this treasure is.

Fallingwater, in and of itself, is a name that commands awe and respect. This book epitomizes that notion.

Simply, this is it. This is the be all, end all of texts on this masterpiece by the late F.L.W.

I have been an admirer of F.L.W. since I was in the fifth grade, and had to do a report on earthquakes and buildings. Living in S.F., I guess this was a hot topic. But, in a showing (foreshadowing?) of extremely good taste---if I do say so myself, I chose F.L.W. and the TransAmerica building. For those of you out of the loop, that's the "pyramid" building you see when looking at (virtually every) snapshot(s) of the S.F. skyline. I hadn't yet discovered Fallingwater, but I would eventually be shown the way...

This is such an incredibly beautiful house. Honestly, I could not imagine the blessing of owning that house and living there. This text, however, sets it all out.

EXCELLENT photos, both inside and out....in different seasons as well.

VERY GOOD text and dialogue. Provides a great understanding of the dream, planning, undertaking, and completion of this masterpiece.

This is an incredibly text. I cannot urge you enough to purchase this one. In short, your collection is not complete without it.

Open this book, and dream....

What first draws one to this book is the wonderful new photographs presented. This is also what I keep going back to see after reading the text. The perspective of many of the downstream shots is not exaggerated as are the older black and white ones taken in the 1930's although when I visited the house I was unable to get the same view or position. They must have been taken with a special camera. I appreciate the helicopter photos as it really shows the site, a deep ravine. The house always seemed to be up on a promontory but is set deep into the forest. The lighting on the interior is a little misleading when the shadows and light direction are altered. These photos overall are the most naturalistic that I have seen and to see all the seasons represented makes me want to goback for the others. It looks as if the insect screens were removed for most of the photos which gave the house a cleaner, more modern appearance than in person. I only wish the breaker pages, the ones with the large green background, were larger although I believe I have seen the winter view on a recent calendar by the same photographer, Heinz, great work on his part. I always wish there were more books like this on great American buildings, especially on the photogenic ones by Wright.

"Between the Acts" was the last novel Virginia Woolf wrote, and it appropriately feels like a swansong; a sorrowful farewell to a country on the eve of a war that very well might have spelled its devastation. While it uses the modernist experimentation that characterized "To the Lighthouse," it is very easy to follow, but still invites several rereadings to explore its depths more fully.

The novel takes place on a single day in June of 1939 at an English country manor called Pointz Hall, owned by the Olivers, a family with such sentimental ties to its ancestry that a watch that stopped a bullet on an ancient battlefield is deemed worthy of preservation and exhibition. Every year about this time, the Olivers allow their gardens to be used by the local villagers to put on a pageant for raising money for the church. This year, the pageant is supposed to be a series of tableaux celebrating England's history from Chaucerian times up to the present.

The Olivers themselves are tableaux of sorts, each a silent representation of some emotion separated from the others by a wall of miscommunication. Old Bartholomew Oliver and his sister, Lucy Swithin, both widowed, are now living together again with much the same hesitant relationship they had as children. Oliver's son Giles is a stockbroker who commutes to London and considers the pageant a nuisance he has no choice but to suffer. Isa, his discontented wife, feels she has to hide her poetry from him and contemplates an extramarital affair with a village farmer.

Attending the pageant is a garrulous woman named Mrs. Manresa, who is either having or pursuing an affair with Giles. She has brought with her a companion named William Dodge, whose effeminate sexual ambiguity is noticed with reprehension by Giles and with curiosity by Isa. The somewhat romantic interest Isa shows in Dodge implies that she knows Giles would be annoyed less by her infidelity than by his being cuckolded for a fop like Dodge.

The other principal character is not an Oliver at all, and this is Miss La Trobe, the harried writer and director of the pageant. At first, she appears to serve the mere purpose of comic diversion, as she frustrates herself over details that nobody in the audience notices anyway; however, when the pageant is over, a new aspect of her character is revealed, one that has made her an outcast among the village women. Nevertheless, she graciously accepts the role of a struggling, misunderstood woman artist, and in this sense, she echoes the character of Lily Briscoe in "To the Lighthouse," as does Isa with her repressed poetry.

At the end of the pageant, to celebrate the "present," Miss La Trobe has planned something special and startling: She has the players flash mirrors onto the audience as if to say, "Look what England has become. Shameful, isn't it?" Likewise, with this novel Woolf holds up a mirror to humanity, reflecting our unhappiness in her characters. It's not a cheerful notion, but it's a fitting one to sum up the career of a writer like Woolf, one of our greatest chroniclers of sadness.

I just finished the most amazing book I've read this year (After Sputnik Sweetheart though) and its called "Between The Acts" by Virginia Woolf. This was the last work of a gifted genius and the first that I read of this author. Amazing! Simply Superlative to the core!

The story goes like this:

Written in 1939 - the year Woolf Died..."Between the Acts" is a masterpiece in its own genre. Lyrical and highly poetic, this is one of its own.

The story goes like this:

On a single day of June, 1939--with the war imminent but virtually unperceived--the action takes place at Pointz Hill, an English country house. It revolves about a pageant played upon the lawns by the local villagers. Despite her necessity, the solitary, thick-legged, masculine Miss La Trobe,who knew how "vanity made all human beings malleable," is not one of the principal characters. The chief actors are the members of the Oliver household. The head of the house is old Bartholomew Oliver, who like so many retired English soldiers has only his India to cling to. He marvels at his widowed sister's orthodoxy. ("Deity," as he supposed, "was more of a force or a radiance, controlling the thrush and the worm, the tulip and the hound;
and himself too, an old man with swollen veins.") This aging sister, Mrs.Swithin, who would have become a clever woman is she could ever have fixed her gaze, is the most sympathetic figure in the book. Living with the older Olivers are Isa, the poetry-quoting daughter-in-law, temporarily attracted to a gentleman farmer, and Giles, the stock broker son, handsome, hirsute,
virile and surly.

To this special group are added buoyant, big-hearted Mrs. Manresa, "a wild child of nature" for all that her hands are bespattered with emeralds and rubies, dug up by her thin husband himself in his ragamuffin days in Africa. Uninvited she drops in at luncheon, bringing along with the picnic champagne a maladjusted, putty-colored young man named William Dodge, whom Giles contemptuously sizes up as "a toady, a lickspittle, not a downright plain man of his senses, but a teaser and a twitcher, a fingerer of sensations;picking and choosing; dillying and dallying; not a man to have a straightforward love for a woman."

William tries dallying with Isa, and Giles, partly to annoy his wife, pays court to the full-blown charms of sparkling Mrs. Manresa, who confesses she loves to take off her stays and roll in the grass.

the cream of "Between the Acts" lies between the lines--in the haunting overtones. And the best of the show--the part one
really cares about--happens between the acts and immediately before the pageant begins and just after it is over. So the play is not really the thing at all. It is merely the focal point, the hub of the wheel, the peg on which to hang the bright ribbons and dark cords of the author's supersensitive perceptions and illuminated knowledge. It is in her imagery,
in her "powers of absorption and distillation" that her special genius lies. She culls exotic flowers in the half-light of her private mysticism along with common earthgrown varieties and distills them into new essences. Her most interesting characters move in an ambiente of intuition. With half a glance they regard their fellow-mortals and know their hidden failures. They care less for the tangible, the wrought stone, than for fleeting thought or quick desire.

"Between the Acts" has no more ending, no more conclusion than English history. The pageant is played out, the guests depart, night falls.

The physical embodiment of Virginia Woolf is no more, but her inimitable voice remains to speak to generations yet unborn. The first line of her last book begins, "It was a Summer's night and they were talking"--The last paragraph ends: "Then the curtain rose. They spoke."

A Must Read for Everyone!!

This under-appreciated work is slowly gaining the recognition it deserves from Woolf critics... but I would say that, since I wrote my dissertation on it! Woolf's fiction is never light reading, but Woolf lovers will here find a masterful synthesis of descriptive power, her exhaustive knowledge of English history and literature, her feminism, her passionate hatred of war and her conviction that only aesthetic experience can enable humanity to question the status quo and *perhaps* create a better world... interested readers might consider reading it alongside The Years, Three Guineas, Moments of Being, the last volumes of the diary, or such Woolf essays as "Thoughts on Peace During an Air Raid," as well as Shakespeare's Tempest. This slim novel speaks volumes; it is a work of mature genius by one of the 20th century's greatest writers.