This book is based almost entirely on accumulating second hand rumors and speculation from other sources and amassing them into what loosely constitutes 'A Book.' The author's only original section comes when he details coming face to face with Mark Wahlberg at a gym. Does he bother to speak to Mark? No? Why? Because the author is spineless. This book is spineless. Definitely bottom of the pile as far as unauthorized biographies go. A disappointment.

I have only seen girls buy this book, but i, a straight man, bought it to see how he started his carrer and what his biggest influences in his life were. This books shares everything with the reader. No secrets were hidden. I love this book and would recomend it to anyone who is curious about Mark or wants to follow his shoes and try to make it as a respecable actor.

I totally love this book. He is honestly the hottest man to ever grace this earth. Any girl who likes guys will fall in love with this book.

If you want to learn a very basic "method" for creating a likeness (say for the purposes of primary school teachers), this may be the book for you. If you have artistic aspirations, however, I cannot recommend it. Much better are Herold Speed's "The practice and science of drawing" and Anthony Ryder's "The complete guide to figure drawing". You can't go wrong with either (or both) of these.

When I think of a beginner to intermediate "traditional" how-to-draw book this is exactly the kind of book I think of. It is not a "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" type of book. So if you are someone who hasn't picked up a pencil to sketch seriously since you were 12 I recommend getting Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book *AND* Mona Brooke's EXCELLENT (5 stars IMHO) "Drawing for Older Children and Teens:A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too". I recommend those two books even to advanced artists - especially the Mona Brookes book which I think is rather under-appreciated and unknown compared to the Betty Edwards book.

When you have finished the two books I listed above get this book . It will help you on toward the next stage of your drawing and sketching. It's divided into two main sections with several chapters in each. The first section has chapters covering composition, drawing materials, perspective and shadows, the geometry of things and drawing techniques for pen and pencil. I really liked the chapters on composition and perspective and shadows as they seemed to go into a bit more detail than most "beginning" traditional drawing books give. The composition chapter explains the golden section, triangle-based composition, s-curves, balance and eye movement. The perspective chapter explains 1 and 2 point perspective and drawing circles in perspective. There is a section that tells how to use a grid to enlarge a small photo or sketch to a much larger one and how to make the calculations so your final drawing will account for matting and framing dimensions. There's even a neat section showing how to create and fold your own gift notecards.

The second Part gets into actual drawing exercises involving landscapes, architecture, birds and other animals, flowers, faces and clothing. In fact, it's packed with these demonstrations/assignments. For the novice the author provides a gridded outline pattern of the finished art. This is to be used as a guide for enlarging or reducing the subject onto your own paper. With each project the author gives step-by-step instructions of each technique used, what, when and where. You may choose drawing and shading techniques that look exactly like the finished project the author shows. Or, an option which I think is just as fun and valuable, you may choose other techniques he's demonstrated to draw that project and create a different result from the finished picture in the book. In fact, you could draw the exact same project over several times using the gridded outline he provides and re-do it in each one of the techniques he's shown.

I also noticed the author lists on his Suggested Reading page John Rushkin's Elements of Drawing (and Elements of Perspective) and Henry Rankin Poore's Composition in Art. I happen to own both and highly recommend them (both 5 stars in my opinion).

For me, it's the second half of the book that really makes it a gem among traditional how-to-draw books. Some of the artwork shown is more "sketchy" and some more finished. But the author has provided plenty of advice and helpful aids for novice to intermediate artists to create successful drawings and have fun while creating them. And that's the best reason of all to draw. Because it's just plain fun!

This book explains how to draw. After you read "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and understand that anyone who can sign their name can learn to draw, this book will help you learn. After good instruction, you are given practical exercises.
Only critcism: figure drawing is mentioned in the beginning but there are no such exercises in the second half of the book.

Frank Joseph's book is a fascinating well researched 'take' on Edgar Cayce's vision of Atlantis and Lemuria but it is also a personal and therefore ideosyncratic one.l have read a smattering of books about Edgar Cayce, though far from all there is dealing with him. l've seen him mentioned in many other books and articles.My particular obscession is Atlantis, mainly from the Platonic perspective, yet Lemuria and ancient cycles of catastrophe are all interelated to the subject.ln my research l've read several of Mr. Joseph's books and articles as well as the magazine he edits [ANCIENT AMERICAN]. So l'm familiar with both the author and his subject and Atlantis in general.From his past work l know that Joseph respects Cayces vision and personal integrity and that he is sympathetic to subjects of a mystical nature.But he is not a devotee of psychics and occultists where Atlantis is concerned, squarely choosing archaeology and geology over 'NEW AGE' mysticism. This approach may well not be acceptible to those already committed to Cayce because Joseph's chronology and scale differ markedly from those of the 'sleeping prophet'.Whereas Cayce put the final destruction of Atlantis slightly but indefinitely after 10,000 B.C., similar to Plato, Joseph sets it ca. 1200 B.C., 8800 years later.While Joseph sees the origins of Atlantis between 5000 and 3000 B.C. [ the Neolithc] Cayce places it beyond 50,000 years ago, maybe as long as 10,500,000 years ago! Cayce's vision involves the descent of spirit into matter, an 'event' largely beyond the methodology of science to prove or disprove.And yet if Atlantis existed it aught to be susceptible to physical investigation by geology,archaeology and other disciplines.Joseph believes it is. But the results of that quest do not often mesh with what Cayce said about the lost civilizations, as Joseph reads the evidence. This is bound to enfuriate those who take Cayce literaly.Right or wrong many of the late psychic's supporters treat his words like biblical creationists do with a face value interpretatation of the Bible.Science can be drawn on for support but only when it is in agreement or can be made to sound like it.Admittedly the subject of Atlantis is so taboo amongst conventional scholars that no historical interpretation of the story Plato told is acceptible Joseph's included. For them it is pure allegory.'Cayceites' would like to overturn much of orthodox science in favor of his worldview, at least a few being actively anti-intellectual.Thankfully, Cayce himself, while believing what he said never asked for this 'cultish' attitude. Niether have his direct eirs. They seem to have honestly tried to interpret and verify what he said without demanding a single 'party line'. Understandably they prefer to see him vindicated by science but have never pretended that this has been achieved or may ever be, entirely. l presume that it was with this open attitude that the A.R.E. commissioned Mr. Joseph to write this book as he has made no secret of his theories. They must've realized many of his ideas clashed with those of Cayces' vision of the lost continents yet were sympathetic to the latter.No conventional Academic or 'science journalist' would've touched the subject.They might have been intrigued by Josephs 20 years of research on the subject, often including on site investigations [ at Bimini for example].Perhaps they hoped for a fresh angle rather than a slavish paen to Cayces' infalliblity.What do l think myself? After 33 years of research into Atlantis l believe it existed and l agree with the author that it met it's final end 3200-3100 years ago. l'm less sure of where that last bastion of Atlantean civilization was.l also think, however, that one or more presently unknown acmes of civilization existed before the ' dawn of history', 5000-6000 years ago.Yet how old they ultimately were l've still to decide. As the Caribbean is one strong candidate for the location of such a 'culture-x' maybe Cayce was in part right, though l don't see it as Plato's Atlantis any more than Joseph seems to.I admit my own bias agaisnst accepting everything Cayce said literally. Some evidence appears to support him yet much does not.Far too many blindly believe because the Akashic records reported by Cayce 'could not be wrong'.But any close look at psychic depictions of Atlantis reveals as many devergences as agreements. Allegorical interpretations are only marginally less varied and historcal ones that eschew occult methods may be worse. But they have one great advantage. they admit to being theories, subject to change as new evidence becomes available. They do not claim to be the equivalent of divine revelation. Most psychic sources do. As noted before Cayce himself made no claims to be infallible. So why do so many of his followers ? lf you are interested in Cayce or lost continents but not already committed in your oppinions, buy this book. Those already cmplete beleivers in Cayces' vision doubtless will not appreciate what the author tried to accomplish unless they can agree to dissagree.Even for them it may be worthwhile to give Joseph a fair hearing before deciding for or against his ideas.

I feel this is a great book, especially for followers of Edgar Cayce. I don't understand why some other reviewers said that this book somehow corrects what Edgar Cayce said. To me it is in complete agreement with what Cayce said, even to the point of devoting an entire chapter to people who were identified in the Cayce readings as having lived in Atlantis. They had names like 'Aa-rr-ll-uu' and 'Sululon'.

Scientific evidence does not exist to prove things like the Atlanteans' crystal technology, their ability to travel through time and space, etc.. Since the author is a researcher he doesn't claim that scientific evidence exists where none does exist. But I don't see where he tries to disprove these fantastic but possibly true theories either.

This book discusses the Atlantis that Plato spoke of but by then Atlantis was much like the other races that existed around 1200 BC. This was a much different Atlantis than the one Cayce spoke of with its crystal technology, death rays, genetically engineered 'things', etc.. The islands of Atlantis sank over a period of thousands of years, not all at once if I understand the legends correctly.

I believe that proof of Atlantean technology does exist. It's been sitting on the Giza plateau for thousands of years. It's called 'the great pyramid'. In his book The Giza Power Plant Christopher Dunn proves that the great pyramid was a form of nuclear reactor. Dunn's book proves that the great pyramid was built by people who had god like powers and knowledge of time and space. It was Edgar Cayce in another incarnation as the high priest Ra Ta who built the great pyramid. The sacred geometry for building the great pyramid was given to Ra Ta by another god like being named Horus.

This idea is consistent with 'Edgar Cayce's Atlantis And Lemuria'. This book indicates that these god like beings from Atlantis and Lemuria became the mythical gods of later races such as the Incas and Myans. Those later races talk of 'gods' who came from the sea and taught them about new technologies, astronomy, etc.. Eventually most of this knowledge was lost as these civilizations de-volved to the point of like the Incas began the practice of human sacrifice.

There's a big part of the Atlantis story that's still enshrouded in mystery. All we have is a few statements from Cayce's psychic readings and a few archeological sites under water. You get glimpses of these mysterious topics when in the Cayce readings it refers to things like 'visitations of those from the outer spheres'. This would seem to imply that Atlantis was being visited by beings from other planets, other dimensions, etc..

This book offers a comparison between what happened to Atlantis and our modern world. Atlantis was destroyed by the greed of individuals. For them this was catastrophic because their greed could be transformed into energy by the terrible crystals.

The final paragraph of this book is:

"Everyone senses a crossroads just ahead. When we reach it, which example will we follow - Lemuria or Atlantis."

I would answer with a quote from a book called 'UFO Contact From Planet Iarga' which was supposedly communicated to someone by people from another planet called Iarga. The Iargans stated:

"The human race lives for the present since it really has no future."

The Iargans may mean that our human race doesn't have a long term future. Even if we last for another thousand years that's a relatively short time in relation to the universe.

I think most people would agree that many industries have a relatively short term view of using the earth's resources. Maybe somehow everyone knows that what the Iargans said is true.

The Iargans also said that sometimes when people see flying saucers those are our ancestors from Atlantis travelling through time to see us.

Although Joseph's book is unique and controversial, it offers the most persuasive, up-to-date evidence for the former existence of both sunken civilizations. In so doing, he helps to verify Edgar Cayce's vision of these two lost cultures, while showing that the "Sleeping Prophet", for all his exceptional psychic gifts, was a mortal human being prone to error like the rest of us.
Joseph convincingly demonstrates that Cayce's perceptions of Atlantis and Lemuria were filled with abundant, credible images, although chronolgically inaccurate. They were like lucid dreams, in which the visual elements are clear, but the dreamer's sense of time is confused. None of this detracts in the least from Cayce's "life-readings". On the contrary, Joseph supplies abundant, newly discovered evidence confirming their astounding accuracy in almost everything, save a realistic time-scale. Joseph's book is the only one I've read that describes in detail the Lemurian-like ruins found underwater near Japan, including their photographs. His discussions of crystal-use in Atlantis and the Crystal Skull as an Atlantean artifact are the most thorough I've encountered.
As he points out, modern research shows that a continent did not sink below the Atlantic Ocean 12,000 years ago, as the old theorists insisted. That conclusion has been thoroughly out-dated and debunked by contemporary science. But a large ISLAND did indeed exist were Plato and Cayce said it did until the Bronze Age was brought to an abrupt end by a worldwide cataclysm. It is in that time-period, Joseph writes, that we must seek for Atlantis and Lemuria. The former civilization was characterized unmistakeably by Plato as a Bronze Age culture, dating back 3,200 years ago. Atlantis has thus been established in a proper and far more credidible historical context. Otherwise, to conceive of Atlantis as an Ice Age civilization is ludicrous.
Readers preferring to cling to obsolete notions of the past should not read Joseph's book. But anyone interested in learning the truth about Atlantis and Lemuria, and the stunning discoveries presently being made to establish their former existence, will find his presentation particularly exciting and revealing.

I suppose if you are extremely interested in monarch butterflies you will find this book fascinating. I must admit I read only 100 pages. I enjoyed the beginning, when Halpern traveled to Mexico, but after page 100 the book was too academic, filled with the points of view of various monarch afficionados. Pretty dull stuff. I didn't think the writing was all that great, either. I suppose it was an academic success, but it didn't draw me in to the adventure.

Two hundred pages on a single insect might strike some readers as overkill, but the monarch butterfly deserves every one. As fall temperatures drop, monarch butterflies throughout the Eastern US and Canada migrate south of the Rio Grande. No one knows how they make this journey of several thousand miles (memory cannot guide them, since three or four butterfly generations pass in a year). No one even knew where they spent the winter until the 1970s, when researchers discovered that millions of migrating monarchs collect regularly in a few small patches of forest in the remote Neovolcanic mountains of Mexico, where they cover every visible surface and fill the air with the sound of their wings. This phenomenon has fascinated laymen as well as scientists. Halpern (Migrations to Solitude, not reviewed) was captivated after visiting a butterfly reserve during a Mexican vacation, and she manages to convey her enthusiasm to the reader. Rather than research the subject herself, she finds the experts and lets them tell the story. She drives a battered pickup to remote mountains (with a grizzled field biologist who has spent his life studying the monarch), visits universities where precise chemical analyses are teasing out the insect's secrets, and reports on the work of the amateurs (an often eccentric but dedicated group who are making important contributions-they have, for example, tagged tens of thousands of butterflies, many later recovered far across the continent). Inevitably, the author writes about the future (almost always a depressing subject when wildlife is involved) and points out that the monarch is not endangered, even if logging operations are steadily reducing its wintering habitat in Mexico. An appealing account. Author tour

Halpern has the precision of a scientist, the grace of a poet, and the passion of someone truly informed and alarmed by humanity's headlong tilt against the beauty and variety of our natural world. Never shying away from the complexities of her subject--scientists and nature-lovers from a rich and profligate country demanding preservation sacrifices from the peasants of a poor one--she writes a seamless, and ultimately very moving, tale of wonder.

This book would appeal to people of Italian descent, police officers, and students and professors of urban politics. Rizzo had a unique life and Paolantonio does his best to bring it to life in this book. Rizzo's life could have been made into a movie. This book could have easily been 900 pages, Paolantonia does it in about 430, but misses many events in his life, and has to leave some stories out. Overall a great book, with good pictures.

Sal Paolantonio, who used to cover politics for the Philadelphia Inquirer (and who now is a football commentator for ESPN), takes a concise yet comprehensive look at the political life of Frank Rizzo, perhaps the most colorful mayor in Philadelphia history and the archetype of the old-school, white-ethnic political leader who faced a rapidly changing urban America in the 1960s and 70s.

Even if you are not familiar with Philadelphia politics, Paolantonio does a wonderful job to paint the political picture of the day and examines the "hows" of Rizzo's mayorality and the "whys."

This book was one of the most enjoyable political biographies I've read. Pick it up, and you won't put it down until you're done reading it.

I am a voracious reader of biographies, and I can say without hesitation that this is one of the best I've ever read. Sal captures the charisma of a compelling, John Wayne figure. Sal's study is fair-minded, balanced and complete. But what makes this book so fascinating is that it reads like a great novel -- engrossing from first page to last. You really care about Frank Rizzo, despite his shortcomings. There may be no better portrait of big-city politics than this terrific book.

I wanted to like this book; I really did. I wanted a book full of doctors' stories that showed human concern for patients. To my dismay, I found that very few of the stories are like that. It seemed that most of the stories were just Dr. Boehm's tales about his own family, growing up with his father, raising his kids, etc. Very few of the stories are actually about his PATIENTS. That's why I really found it tiring to read after a while. It was not at all what I wanted.

The author obviously cares about his patients; and there are some interesting and important points raised: e.g. that there is medical evidence that bereavement can in itself sometimes be fatal. There are also some very crucial, salutary and courageous points made about certain controversial issues. But for my taste the book overall contains too little about patients or medicine and too much vaguely 'inspirational' writing.

Dr. Boehm's essays are not just about the doctor-patient relationship. They are much richer than that.

As a leading specialist in high-risk pregnancies, Dr. Boehm obviously shares life-and-death experiences with patients every day. Many of his essays address human relationships in the medical context. While the other essays present valuable insights on life in general, they too are connected with Dr. Boehm's medical background. These additional insights, and Dr. Boehm's interest in expressing them, are clearly driven by the emotional intensity of his medical practice. His constant encounters with mortality and the life crises of his patients and their families have inspired him as a heartfelt proponent of full, happy and healthy living. He carries this message with plainspoken eloquence.

There can be nothing truly "new" in this or any other "perspective" book, because the messages are timeless. But we never tire of well-crafted reminders, and this is one.

My wife and I both enjoyed the book. The essays are only a few pages long each, so this is the perfect book to keep around the house in those places where you periodically have a few minutes of quiet reflection. Each essay will leave you thinking.

This author of this book is twice guilty. First he is guilty of the all too common academic act of reducing a fascinating subject to a dry and lifeless pseudo-rigorous study. Second he, while attempting impartiality, refuses to opine on what the reader really wants to know.

The characters involved, the location (a combination bar/whorehouse), the actual fight and the defense all could make for some seriously juicy reading. Richard Holmes has succeeded in completely boring the event down. Also he is too timid to really let us know what he thinks of Savage's parentage or Savages culpability in the murder. I suppose he is just trying to present the facts and let the reader draw his or her own conclusion. Holmes: these guys have been dead for centuries. You can go out on a limb and hazard some hard guesses!

The only thing this book really succeeds in doing is whetting my appetite for a good book on the subject.

I'm writing these words under the assumption that anyone who has found himself looking at this review knows a pretty good bit about Samuel Johnson, English Literature in general and at least a little about Mr. Savage (if only from his rather appropriate surname.) It's interesting how literary fads come and go; how a prominent poet or author of one era would find himself outcast in another, and, vice-versa; how an unknown of one era would find himself the talk of the town in another....Imagine Jack Kerouac in the days of Matthew Arnold! But I digress. I think I am one of the few people (the only person that I know of, in fact, Mr. Holmes included) who regards Mr. Savage as a great poet, greater than almost any writing during his lifetime: Thomas Grey and Cowper might be exceptions. He is an early, nearly forgotten path-setting pilgrim in the Romantic tradition, the Visionary Company (a phrase coined by Yeats and picked up as a title for his groundbreaking critical study of the Romantics by Harold Bloom). He is a Shelley, a Rimbaud, a Hart Crane before his time. Dr. Johnson is an anonymous, erudite scholar before his time. There just happened to be no satisfactory English dictionary before he came along, so he became famous for writing the (endearingly quirky) first of its kind. And there you have it. This book is to be commended for revealing what we know of Johnson before he became the old curmudgeon we love to ridicule. Like we all were at one time (Well, the better lot of us anyway.): Johnson was impressionable, naive and idealistic when he met the older Savage, and Savage was almost undoubtedly the subject Johnson had in mind when he penned "Slow rises worth, by Poverty oppressed." in The Vanity of Human Wishes. As Holmes makes clear, Johnson idolized Savage for some time, and with good reason. Savage was what we would call "the real thing," even though the book makes clear that he was a notorious liar, particularly about his birth. What I mean is that he was truly a man possessed by his poetic daemon. As Johnson himself put it, "...what was Nature in Savage would in another be Affectation." Besides Johnson's biography, The Wanderer (subtitled "A Vision") is Savage's (just) claim to fame. This review is no place to give the poem its full treatment. But a few lines Holmes quotes from Canto V will suffice to make my point:"Fishers, who yonder Brink by Torches gain,/ With teethful Tridents strike the scaly Train./ Like Snakes in Eagles claws, in vain they strive,/ When heav'd aloft, and quiv'ring yet-alive." As Holmes astutely points out, "There are moments when Savage's whole universe seems to be convulsed in pain like this, as if agony were the condition or proof of existence, 'quiv'ring yet alive.'...Mother Nature seems to be persecuting an orphaned Earth. This is the central vision of The Wanderer." You have to remember that this was the age in which Pope's pompous and didactic Essay on Man was the norm to gain a full appreciation of how original (and therefore unacceptable) such poetry was at the time. Compare this to Shelley's fragment on the moon (metaphor for himself of course): "Art thou pale from weariness, of climbing Heaven and gazing on Earth, wandering compaionless?" or Rimbaud's Le Bateau Ivre and his comment that "Everything is spiritual. Those things that are called material are merely what is evil in the spiritual realm." Or Hart Crane's "Bequeathe us to no Earthly shore until is answered in the vortex of our grave the seal's wild spendrift gaze toward Paradise." These are the words of the lost and dispossessed, those whose visions of other worlds cause them to despair of this one. But, let's not get too gloomy. The book is a rollicking good read for all that, and even readers not too keen on Savage will find it a page turner....Thank you Mr. Holmes for resurrecting a forgotten genius.

Richard Savage's sole claim to fame is that Johnson wrote a book about him. At the time it was written, however, Johnson wasn't very well known himself and was only marginally more respectable than Savage. Holmes does an excellent job of describing their relationship and showing us how Johnson lived before he bacame a tory sage. He provides an excellent counterweight to Boswell, who tended to play down Johnson's awkwardness and barely concealed rage. At the same time, Holmes never forgets that Johnson was a great writer and man.

I don't know if Miller intended this as a story in which Elektra would actually be revived--if he did, he mucked with Marvel continuity way too much to make it work.

For me, the book gets 3 stars because of Miller's excellent draftsmanship and storytelling, and Varley's dynamic colors. Miller's work didn't look this good again until 300 was released.

But the story is just not there, for me. Miller indulges himself in a personal exploration of isolation and despair with Matt Murdock (Daredevil) spending an enormous amount of time watching and waiting for an outside force (Elektra) to show up and make him whole again.

Now while I've always liked Murdock's particular flavor of angst--more than anyone in the Marvel Universe, the blind guy in the too-loud world should be entitled to brood--he just comes off as thoroughly helpless in this story. Maybe that's what Miller wanted, that sort of flailing desperation, but it didn't play for me. I've read the story a number of times, hoping to "get it," but it always comes up short for me.

04/22/02 - I just reread this yesterday, and my opinion is unchanged. The last 20+ seem to lose track of what the first 40+ pages are about. The action is striking, but only the most obvious of story's questions are answered. Ths story yearns to be substantial but ends up superficial, and some of us prefer SOLID chocolate bunnies at Easter.

This one's good for Miller completists, but if you want a really ripping Frank Miller Elektra story, I recommend Elektra: Assassin, his brilliant, funny collaboration with Bill Sienkiewicz.

Frank Miller, often considered one of the great modern comic storytellers, is best known for his Batman epic "The Dark Knight Returns" However, Miller returns to his roots by doing some work on Elektra and Daredevil, where he first got started in the comic industry.
Everyone knows that Elektra is dead. She was murdered by the deadly Bullseye, impaled upon her own sai (You can see the awesome battle in Miller's 'Daredevil Visionaries: Volume 2'). When Matt Murdock, Elektra's college boyfriend and the blind superhero known as Daredevil, begins to have eerie dreams of her rising from her grave, he becomes unnerved. Is Elektra back? And why? He discovers that one of his old enemies may be revived, deadlier than ever...
I enjoyed this book mostly because it was written out of the comics continuity, so you don't have to get bogged down in the chronology to understand it. The story is told from Matt Murdock/Daredevil's point of view, which is good to see, because I don't remember many of Miller's older Daredevil works being told from this perspective. This book only gets 4 stars because I was hoping for a lot more (The book is oversized and is just 75 pages long). It seems as though Miller could have written a lot more, but chose instead to make this book more 'choppy' for a more psychological effect. It didn't really work too well.
In summation, 'Elektra Lives Again' is a good book, and Frank Miller is still one of the best in the industry, but it isn't as good as his early run on Daredevil. The art is impressive and the plot interesting, but Miller fails to capitalize on what could have been an immaculate triumph of a story. Instead, he leaves many blank spots and tries to let you fill in the rest. If you're a big Daredevil or Elektra fan, you'll want to read this, but be forewarned - you may be let down.

Elektra Lives Again

The story of Daredevil and Elektra is literally a stand-out Romeo and Juliet of the comic world. Frank Miller created the perfect fallen hero in Elektra, shaped her psychological complex to suit her name and tied her to Daredevil aka blind lawyer Matt Murdock, the epitome of the blind lover and moral code. There is now a current monthly comic book for Elektra, the point of her death muddied by Marvel's desire to capitalize and it falls flat.
One cannot remix Bach.

The Elektra back story is simple:

Part One: Elektra became a ninja assassin for the evil Hand after the death of her father. She betrayed the Hand after learning their skills/secrets then going solo. The Hand came after her and eventually the assassin Bullseye fatally wounded her and she died in Daredevil's arms.

Part Two: The Hand decided to resurrect Elektra and make her an undead slave/assassin. Daredevil interceded and through sheer force of will, purged her soul of the evil spell right before she came back to life. However she disappeared right after her heard a single heartbeat. He was left with the doubt of whether or not she lived.

Part Three: Elektra joins with a rogue gov't agent in Elektra Assassin to stop essentially a demon/anti-Christ from becoming the President of the USA. In print, she succeeded, some argue that in reality we need her even more than fantasy allows.

Elektra Lives Again.
The Hand---persistent to a fault are at the resurrection game again. Anyone. An assassin Kirigi, Bullseye, Elektra---the Hand have this fanatical need to have a Prime A Leader Assassin. Low self esteem in ninja cult, I suppose. This time they want to first kill Bullseye (who is in prison for killing scads of folk---he's kind of like Hannibal Lecter with the ability to turn anything into a weapon-anything, we're talking orange seeds here and use him to kill. To ... Elektra, ... Matt, ... anyone. Elektra alive and avoiding the love of her life Matt Murdock is hot on the Hand's trail to stop all of this madness.
Matt begins having psychic dreams about Elektra and what her soul is going through because of the link resurrecting her has created between them.
What makes this interesting is that though Matt uses his fighting skills, his heightened senses and amazing acrobatics, he never dons the Daredevil costume. That's the first mark of this work being superb.
The second mark is the silence of Elektra and her ability to move through the real world as a shadow, a dead woman, a ninja, a ruthless assassin committed to doing what's right no matter the fall-out.

Frank Miller's point in all of this carnage and Elektra dying one more time is that this is their destiny. Elektra must deal with these dark assassins and have Matt as a tugboat of light to keep her near the line of goodness. When Matt cradles Elektra, killed by a dead Bullseye he finally can accept her death---the fact that she's dressed all in white as a nun is wonderful imagery.

The art of Lynn Varney is tired. I mean that as a compliment. Everyone looks haggard, worn out, tired. And that's how they should look. These people are something slightly different from the normal superheroes/villains in the sense that it's all personal with them and they willingly ... and will die (sometimes several times) for the Good Fight. The battles are intensely personal and gory, violent to the degree of shocking but that's what a real fight should look like. And when you get right down to it, these are some mentally unbalanced folk. Even Matt. And they should be. That's what I mean by personal, this comes as close as possible to almost reality. Of all the superhero films out there, this should be made into a film. Not necessarily a trilogy but maybe one or two that really convey the horror and pity and sadness of this whole beautiful, bloody, twisted tale.

Five Stars.

In this book, Dr. Putnam shared his knowledge about people with what was then called multiple personality disorder. He had many years of experience in observing patients and had learned to understand their behavior. For people with dissociation who do not understand why they act as they do, this book is a valuable resource.

Unfortunately, Dr. Putnam's vision of therapy involved a lot of drama and such techniques as sodium amytal interviews, which are rarely if ever used anymore. In dealing with child abuse survivors, there is already the potential for drama due to the difficulty in handling trauma that many people experience. I think it's unfortunate that this treatment method added to that by advocating fairly aggressive memory recovery techniques.

This book is a very useful source for understanding dissociative disorders, but I am glad that the vision of therapy has changed since its publication.

This book helped us to understand ourselves better. We read this book in search of things that we could relate to that might be similar to our own experiences. It speaks of signs and characteristics that multiples display that we found very much the same as our own life. Really helped in our acceptance of the diagnosis.

This is a wonderfully written book on MPD. I consider Dr. Putnam and Dr. Ross to be wonderful resources for information (although I do have a bit of disagreement with Dr. Ross on his views about memories).

Dr. Putnam provides a thorough and in-depth journey into the therapy and recovering process of someone with MPD (or DID). Whether you're a doctor, a friend or family member of a multiple, someone recently diagnosed or a seasoned veteran, I think you will find many useful things within this book.

I read this book in college and it inspired me to try and see every major league ballpark during my lifetime. I am very excited to have bought it from Amazon and added it to my library. The rating system will appeal to both the diehard and casual baseball fan. I especially like his ranking of the concessions and highlighting any unique or local foods that are served. Although this book is out of print and somewhat outdated as new parks start to replace the classics, it is still a good addition to any baseball fan's collection.
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I first read this book when it orginally came out. As a baseball fan It was awesome. Bob Wood lived every true baseball fans dream to see them all. I felt like I was riding along with Bob through out the whole book and his adventures.

I read this book in the late 80's and have re read it. It is the ultimate baseball fans road trip. I could just imagine myself riding along with Bob as went to see them all.