I thought it was humorous as I read this book to my wife during our 3,000-mile trip. Here we were, two fairly driven people, reading a book aloud and trying to get through all of it before we got home--is that driven or what? And then, we wondered, what about the authors? Were they also not driven people? I thought that perhaps they also had some of the "compulsive behaviors America applauds," such as workaholism and perfectionism, just to write this book and have a successful nationwide counseling practice.

The authors put together chapters that deal with America's common compulsions--the isms. How do you break an addiction cycle? In part 2 of the book they list 9 points and show how each stage of the addiction cycle works. There were some good things said in these chapters along with exercises to see if you needed help in these areas (i.e. shame, low self-esteem, guilt, etc.). We did have a chance to talk about some things as we read the book, but usually it was off-topic. However, it was good that the book introduced the topic so we could communicate our feelings about personal issues that we deal with. And in several areas, the authors had good advice. It just seemed like most of the advice was to join a support group such as Al-Anon or (Blank) Anonymous, and we just have a hard time with the 12-step programs that they were being glorified in this book. Besides, none of these groups seemed to fit our needs very well. On several occasions we were very uncomfortable when the authors talked about the infamous "higher power," and while we have no problems with support groups in general, we believe that they should be centered on the true Higher Power, God Almighty, rather than some nameless and anonymous source of power. Perhaps our churches should better emphasize groups like this from a biblical perspective.

"We are Driven" could be a valuable resource for many people. If you are someone who is driven, we recommend that you read this with your special someone as it will certainly lead you to talk about some very important issues that affect your lives. These compulsive behaviors always affect other people, so why not deal with it with the most important person you know?

this was the first weather almanac i bought since 1978. while the stats are indeed current (up to year 1999) the historical data for most U.S. cities is not reflective of the past, and seems to only track data recorded with a station's new weather equipment, circa 1990s... also, the book itself is largely copied grids from earlier versions of the almanac, difficult to read in some cases. wind data in most cities is not reflected in historical trends.
USA today puts out a graphically pleasing almanac, but the data in their book too is not of super value to the true climatologist. with the vast number of reporting data available today, i would expect a book such as this to include many more cities, and address microclimates. the web itself offers better statistical data than this book; although keeping track of that data ourselves can be cumbersome.

Have not actually read the book or ever seen such.

amazon.com needs to more prolific with its printed description of the WILDFLOWER book by F Venning and M Saito. Such as illustrations per page, quality of illustration, any geographical zone in North America not covered, flower type breakdown style such as species, genus, family, etc or is that random. Generally the discription in the web site does not tell much of a story. More please. Tell me about that.

This is the 2nd edition, released in 1983, of Frank Schoonmaker's original classic from 1956. Schoonmaker's familiarity with the subject matter goes all the way back to the 1930s, although Peter Sichel has now issued a newer edition. Needless to say there have been many changes in the German wine scene over the last 17 years or so - not the least of which is the emergence of Weingut Robert Weil in Kiedrich as the unofficial King of the Rheingau - but it still offers a thorough and scholarly assessment of the time. I absolutely concur with the author's assertion that the top vintages in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, then and now, can produce wines, from the best vinyards, that stand comparison with anything the rest of the world has to offer. He places Egon Muller's holdings in the Scharzhofberg vinyard in Wiltingen right at the top, which might have been true in 1971, but today Fritz Haag's wines from the Juffer-Sonnenuhr vinyard in Brauneburg are worthy to rank alongside him in that position.

The book does an excellent job of explaining the fundamentals of the German wine law and labeling system, which can be off-putting to the novice. It covers all the major and minor wine regions of what was West Germany at the time, and all the varietals. Then as now, Riesling is still the grape of choice. The vintage chart goes back from 1982 into the 1970s, which could come in handy.

This is recommended as a supplementary reference source, but the newer 3rd edition should be sought out first.

This book is 100 years old, but as Angela Lansbury (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, MURDER SHE WROTE, BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, THE WIZARD OF OZ: 50 YEARS OF MAGIC, etc) once said "you can hear the story and a million times isn't enough." This timeless tale is one you will enjoy indefinatly! This one has NEW illustrations which are not as good as John R. Neil's or Charles Santore's but are better than most. I recommend this book and I think you will enjoy it immensely!

This is a collection of eight short stories originally published from 1961 to 1967, so essentially pre-Dune. By today's standards these stories are rather slow and convoluted, but not bad, with some rather alien aliens. The story on women in military uniform actually looks rather modern (instead of forty years old: some things never go out of date!).

This book will probably be liked by those who liked "Whipping star". Better than "The Godmakers".

I have opted to use this book in a course on newswriting for various distribution channels but I am not as pleased with it as I anticipated. One of the first disappointments is that the accompanying classroom material promoted in the text is simply not available, and the publisher is not willing to say if it ever will be. The material included a video of some of the footage discussed in the text, and a promised web site, which was to keep current examples of good and bad writing available, with other goodies hinted at. Both promised to be great classroom tools to enhance understanding, but now I find myself having to try to explain why referenced examples in the text do not exist. The book, however, does a very solid job of providing an overview of several valuable concepts - most notably the idea that good writing is still at the core of communications, with delivery systems helping aim at specific audiences with specific interests and needs. The emphasis on content and accuracy, regardless of delivery, is strong throughout the book. The authors use two major news stories as illustrations across the chapters, which is nice to follow, but also a little confusing, since we don't have the video clips to support the discussions. The material is not damaged, though, and the principles are still communicated. It's not very detailed and I would like to have seen more specific advice given involving the distinctions between the writing styles themselves. The material is touched on, but not heavily addressed. That, however, would have lengthened the 225-page book and made it more intimitating that it needs to be. Perhaps in this era of exploring this issue of writing across the media, this brevity is the right approach. I know I'll have more success getting students to make it through this book than I do requiring them to wade through some other heftier texts I've tried. In all, it's a great first step. Now it's time for more detail and analysis. Who's game?

Closer to a novelette than a novel, this story is about encounter of rich decadent heir who fortunes run dry with a centuries old benign (though ruthless) vampire who poses as an occultist. It is psychologically interesting, developing the various characters fairly well and a climax with anunexpected ending which along with the subtext of the story makes its own message. I found the storyline pretty well written and made me wish to read more of his fiction. I would definitely recommend to readers of supernatural fiction.

Maybe I've just gotten too used to John Grisham's style - typically he gives you a heart-of-gold (if slightly flawed) hero to root for, and an ending with at least a bit of a twist to it. But "The Brethren" has neither, and I think it's my least favorite of all the books Grisham has written.

Our "heroes" in "The Brethren" are supposed to be the three judges in federal prison who fill their time running a complicated mail scam on unsuspecting gay men. But I hope you'll pardon me if I find it hard to root for three guys who threaten to "out" their victims to the world unless they come up with some cash - they qualify as villains in my book. I guess they're the heroes here because they come off better than the scheming CIA director or the weak-minded, Dan-Quayle-ish puppet of a presidential candidate he's picked out, but the fact is, there's really nobody to root for in this book.

And there's no surprise in the end, either. I can't really go too far into it without spoiling the ending, but the fact is, there's really not that much to spoil! The "deal" that's been struck goes down pretty much exactly the way the reader figures it would, and anyone who's expecting some sort of hook at the end to shake things up ends up sorely disappointed... Yes, I guess it's true that this book is a departure for Grisham, and it does add a bit of variety to his resume...but call me boring, I'll take the melodrama of a book like "A Time to Kill" or "Runaway Jury" over "The Brethren" any day.

The book is well written., looks like two story lines that are tied together extremely well. The two premises are very interesting. Three imprisoned judges pulling off for them what appears to be a safe blackmail scheme. And the CIA buying the Next predident of The USA. A book with no romance in it, and thank God. For this book is funny and easy to read. But it; you will not be sorry. Much better than his last couple.

Overall i thought this was a very entertaining book. Grisham's writing isn't going to win any awards, but, the plot was interesting & kept me reading, which is why i read his books. I read the last 300 pages in 1 1/2 days. Only negative was that the ending seemed like it came together way too fast & easy- Almost like it was an afterthought. I liked the 2 plot lines intertwining. There was really no obvious good guy that had to come out on top, so the outcome was not a sure thing. Also, the CIA & The Brethren's games w/each other were great improvements over his recent good guy plays puppetmaster type stuff in recent books.

Overall i'd rate this book about 4th or 5th on his list. Below his earlier works like The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief, & maybe The Rainmaker (Another book ruined by a bad end),but, above his more recent, you-could-see-the-end-coming-a-mile-away-books like The Partner(also totally implausible..even for Grisham),The Runaway Jury, The Street Lawyer, The Testament (I'd put this 6th), & the way too long & boring The Chamber..Never read The Client

After about 600 pages, I realized that I was not having any fun reading the book, but I was too far along to quit. Clancy's best novels (Red Storm Rising and Clear and Present Danger to name two) were filled with action and suspense, not chapter long diatribes about such issues as abortion, population control and domestic politics. I see that Clancy is trying to move in a different direction with his writing, but it just comes of as contrived and preachy. A Marine buddy of mine has a saying which fits Clancy's writing very nicely, "you are a one trick pony, do the trick!" Until he returns to his former style, I will be passing on all his future books.

As an avid Clancy fan, who's read all of his books and owns most of them in hard cover, I found this book to be a bit of a dissapointment that doesn't even approach Clancy's normal high standards. Its a definite "must read" for Clancy fans, but for everyone else I'd highly recommend skipping this one at least until reading most of Clancy's other books.

The plot of the book, as the title implies, focuses on Russia and China, but mostly the latter. In a nutshell, a diplomatic incident plus some trade negotiations with the U.S. gone badly awry lead China to seek to take advantage of some new found economic luck by their neighbors to the north. There are a lot of parallels between US / Japanese relations leading up to WW2. along the way, there are assasination attempts and spycraft, but at a high level that sums up Clancy's latest effort.

First, the book's bad points:

1. Obviously Clancy now considers himself above editors - cause its obvious this book was not edited at all. There are at least 7 or 8 occasions where characters thoughts are repeated, verbatim, 2 or 3 times over the course of the book (for example, Ryan's belief that 'Daughters are god's punishment to fathers for being men' ... Ryan 'thinks' this about 4 different times during the book) and there are a fair amount of spelling/typo type errors that detract from the enjoyment of the book.

2. The structure of this novel simply isn't as good as Clancy's best efforts - the plot is very straightforward and not at all unpredictable - but more importantly it really is not very intricate - One of Clancy's fortes is to start with seemingly disparate story lines and seemlessly relate them together in the scope of the larger story (the Sum of All Fears is an excellent example of this)- in this novel, however, none of that occurs - the reader can pretty much see, immediately, the signifigance of just about everything that occurs. In the end, Clancy spends (depending on your point of view) 600 to 800 pages of this 1000 page book building toward the climax - which leaves the climax too short and the buildup is just not executed in Clancy's usually superb fashion.

3. The book almost seems unfinished - there are a lot of plot points that are left dangling when it really seemed like Clancy had intended to finish them.

4. Clancy has been developing a penchant recently for repeating the same ideas conveyed in his previous novels. In Rainbow Six, he basically repeated the whole bio-warfare aspect of Executive Orders. In the Bear and the Dragon, at the end of the book he pretty much repeats what was a very large aspect of Debt of Honor.

On the plus side, this is Clancy after all, and it is still a good read. The novel's premise is a good one, and in that sense its a good follow on to some of the plot threads Clancy started four books ago in Debt of Honor.

It's impossible to read all 700+ customer reviews, but I see the point of many of the folks slamming Clancy over this one. My take on this book, is that it is highly entertaining, how Clancy has continued the saga of Jack Ryan & Company through his series of books. There are numerous references to previous Clancy books that are substantial enough to create a parallel Clancyian universe. President Ryan speaks of the Fair Trade Act as history, and it takes some sorting out to remember, "no that's just previous fiction." Ryan semi-mutates into President Bush, with references to the previous corrupt president (Clinton?). Clancy's world is populated by military and ex-military types, so the insensitive acpects of their world-view that was not appreciated by other reviewers comes from that culture (Joe Ch--k, the swearing, the smoking) When facing enemy fire on the battlefield, one certainly does not care about the ill effects of second-hand smoke, or any other issue not related to immediate survival on the field of fire.

It's important to realize that Clancy is fashioning his own version of Planet Earth, which definitely departs from the reality we know. Unlike this book, the Chinese in real life recently demonstrated restraint in the Hunan reconaissance plance incident (as did President Bush). It certainly does not seem today, that the Chinese are headed toward a military confrontation with us or the Russians.

I think the real way to appreciate Clancy is to recognize that his world is a fiction, and then enjoy the ride. The details of the Siberian War, and of the air war, especially relating to the Dark Star technology, were breathtaking. This book accelerates as you read it, from a stroll in Dzherzhinskii Square to the 14,000 fps speed of the ICBM at the book's climax. The war turns what was a page-turner, into a page-riper... Once I got to the war at page 870, I had to continue nonstop until the end (1000+ pages). The book was breath-taking, and way too large-scale for a 2 hour movie to do it justice. Clancy in Bear & Dragon underscores why there is no substitute for reading a great book.