There's some Augie March here, a bit of Pnin, maybe some Bech, and one is always waiting for the author to fall in love with a cow a la Ike Snopes, but the analog which kept returning to me is The Sot-Weed Factor. You have to love these features: the author laments that women can't stop falling in love with him (and, incidentally, giving him money); he is bewildered as to what other people do when they don't have any money (hint: like those 130,000 VN refugees, maybe get a job, Frank?) He is offended by an opposing lawyer who 'hid out' in law school during the VN era (uh, Frank, you hid out in grad school yourself.) Over and over, he is betrayed by friends and lovers; hilariously, he seems to be the only one not to see why nobody likes him. Try this: he even reports suffering flashbacks of VC in the treeline! (Earth to Frank: try to remember, you never actually spent a night on the ground . . .) Despite his pretense of self-investigation, this fellow is markedly less introspective than Rabbit Angstrom himself. Conclusion: were it fiction, this would be a work of genius; as autobiography, it ranks with Zsa Zsa and her ilk.

One of the aspects of organizational whistle-blowing that makes it such a hazardous choice for the individual wanting to tell the explosive truth he has to share with us is the fact that too often he or she must pay a terrible personal price for the singular act of selflessness the whistleblowing represents. So here in the case of former CIA analyst Frank Snepp, who used his considerable writing skills to such advantage in the best-selling book "Decent Interval", which details the manifest ways in which the American government deliberately misled, betrayed, and deceived the government and people of South Vietnam by deciding to withdraw all American forces and then allow the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) to execute what would almost certainly be a fatal sweep southward to envelop and overwhelm the Army of the Republic Of Vietnam (ARVN).

In the present book Snepp describes the ways in which his former employers, the Central Intelligence Agency, used its considerable influence, powers, and resources to derail his effort to publish the book, and upon the failure of that effort ("Decent Interval" was published in 1977), to then punitively pursue confiscation of all of the monies earned by Snepp in association with the book's overwhelming sales success in order to punish Snepp for his trangression of the rules forbidding publication of any materials by former employees without express permission by the CIA. The law suit subsequently filed by the CIA went through all of the appropriate venues, finally landing in the Supreme Court and, according to Snepp, an audience that was quite sympathetic to the Agency's argument. Thus, although he was defended well by a then little-known Harvard lawyer by the name of Alan Dershowitz, Snepp lost the case to the CIA.

Of course, given his personal involvement and the loss of a substantial sum of money as a result, one suspects Snepp is less than objective in his analysis of the case. He admits as much by way of an extended critique of himself and his own actions, which he readily admits may have had the inadvertent and ironic effect of increasing the degree of governmental restrictions on information, acting to further bias the government's restrictions on free speech, open government, and secrecy itself. This is a very interesting read, although it hardly for the faint of heart. I recommend it for anyone interested in the ways in which the bureaucracy works and operates. Enjoy!

This ex-CIA agent provides the most detailed account to date of the operations of the CIA inside South Vietnam. Giving a first hand account of high-level disagreements. Replete with important disclosures.

I found the book to be extremely hard to get through, wordy and boring. The entire book focuses on direct quotations from all of Shakespeare's works with little focus as to why the quotations were included in the text. The book gives the reader little of his personal life, personality, or political views, but focuses only on hundreds of people that he knew and met throughout the years giving detailed explanations of names, and their backgrounds. I found the book to be very boring, with little content on Shakespeare as a person; the book featured only comments on his hundreds of works. If you are EXTREMELY well versed with Shakespeare's works, this is a good pick for you. If you have some to little knowledge, pick something else. For the student who needs interesting information on him as a person, choose another book. I found it to be dry, repetative and only in depth on quotations from thousands of plays.

Somewhat to my surprise, this is a first-rate popular biography of a genius about whom we know practically nothing. Not that this has stopped any number of amateur sleuths from the Baconians to Eric Sams from trying to find clues in the poems and plays. Holden's is by far the liveliest and most readable. He doesn't make the mistake Anthony Burgess did of spraying his own personality over Shakespeare in the usual tom-cat fashion; nor is he bonkers, excessively academic or portentous. If you want to discover as much as can be known or surmised about the Bard, especially the early years, then Holden's book is fascinating. His thesis that the SHakespeares all closet Catholics, and that the young WS was sent as a teenager to recusant Lancashire to teach at Sir Thomas Hesketh's house as good an explanation as any of how the "rude groom" acquired polish and knowledge of how aristocratic families lived. His gloss on his marriage, the untimely death of his son Hamnett and his growing interest in his daughters all substantiated by apt quotations.

A wonderful piece of detective-work. Alongside Joanthan Bates's The Genius of Shakespeare it's a great new addition to the modern enthusiast's library.

Some of the other reviews incite me to add yet a few more words. Holden does NOT blur fact and fiction. He consistently lables speculation and inference, identifies sources, outlines opposing views, gives reasons for his choices, and qualifies his conclusions. His reading of the plays, while brief, reaches deeply into the heart of Shakespeare's works. This is a responsible and valuable book.

Giddens' text provides excellent tools with which to analyze many other books. While I adamantly reject his definition of modernity as ethnocentric and marginally racist, his theories have some merit when removed from his Euro-centric perspective.
"'Modernity' refers to modes of social life or organization which emerged in Europe from about the seventeenth century onward and which subsequently became more or less worldwide in their influence." No, modernity is often used in academia to mean simple the current era or whatever era the author happens to be living in. It need not mean a particular social mode of life. Moreover, what occurred in Europe and in the United States from about the seventeenth century onward was nothing more than the immoral, unscrupulous use of firearms to ensure people throughout the world agree with unfair trade agreements forced on them, political and bureaucratic structures which were likewise reinforced by weapons. The current era is another issue altogether.
That said, some of the concepts that Giddens presents have value. Face work, expert systems, and the scope and pace of change do make the current era remarkably different from previous centuries. Time-space distanciation and compression, the disembedding and re-embedding of social systems and cultural paradigms, the transmission of symbolic tokens and their disconnection from their original culturally embedded values provide not only a framework, but also provide an excellent vocabulary with which to examine the modern era. These descriptions are particularly applicable to electronic media - where the pace of change in technology has been exponentially accelerated. Time and space take on new meanings in cyberspace or when watching the nightly news with images of Afghanistan refugees coming into living rooms throughout the Americans and Asia. These aspects of Giddens' work make it worthwhile despite its obvious faults.

In dealing the "consequences of modernity" (especially the sombre side, the dangers and risks), I am sure Giddens himself belongs to the "radical engagement" kind he describes. Not only trying to have some impact through his analysis of the situation to date, but practically participate in the "power arena" -as we know he is an important "mastermind" for the British ruling Labor Party. Thus his argument about getting into power to "make thing done" has its trail. And I can't agree more on this standpoint. However, I think he could have paid more attention to the uneven relationship between Western and Non-Western countries within modernity or globalization.

Modernity is a western project in terms of the ways of life fostered by the transformative agencies of nation-state and capitalism, according to Giddens. This is "because of the power they(the West) have generated"(p174). On the other hand, modernity is NOT particularly Western from the standpoint of its globalising tendencies because "there are no others"(p175). Hence, it seems clear that the Non-Western world can only "accept" what introduced to them by a "powerful brother". The helplessness is just identical to the situation of lay population facing the expert systems-but only the latter is detailed analyzed in this book.

Furthermore, I don't really understand why Giddens makes such an effort to discuss the unique of "trust" in modern era. I mean of course we have to "trust" the abstract systems. But it is the "abstract systems" not "trust" that results our difference from the pre-modern world. A per-modern person had to trust the rules of the society and something he didn't know as well (there were doctors and fortunetellers)!

The persuasive framework to grasp modernity

This is the most popular title among Giddens¡¯s books. There are several reasons for the attractiveness.
1.It was the lecture held in Stanford. So the writing style is easy enough to grip the whole line. It¡¯s hard to say his earlier theoretical books like ¡®Central Problems of Social Theory¡¯, ¡®The Constitution of Society¡¯ are easy to read through, though it¡¯s the nature of theoretical works of sociology, unfortunately.
2.Timing: This book was published in 1990 when the chats of postmodernism or postmodernity waned for its unproductivity, while the discussion of globalization was about to wax. Giddens¡¯s countering of postmodernity and theoretical founding of globalization is so persuasive. The framing of modernity in terms of ¡®time-space distanciation which surfaced first in this book, still dominates the talk of globalization.
3.He founded the seemingly macro-matter of globalization on the micro-level with the concept of trust. A set of ancillary concepts are accompanied to support this foundation like ontological security, risk, reflexivity, and abstract system. His linking between micro- and macro-level seems so convincing.
The overall outline of his framework in this book based on the concept of trust. Trust came from Erickson. So it has the psychological connotation. It¡¯s not hard to capture the gist. But I prefer more friendly version to social sciences. Let¡¯s consider it with the concept of ¡®expectation¡¯. We impose some expectation on every object we encounter; mother, friend, colleague, mug, pen, computer. We expect what my friend would talk or behave before his action or what this mug would like before buying it. What we expect for something is called the expectation. In other word, we assign the identity to those object. Object is everything we can allot name. My self-identity is no exception. Myself is also object which should have some expectation. Everything including myself on the time-space has identity. Trust is the name given to this process. Let¡¯s suppose the nature of time-space changed (time-space distanciation). Then our trust should change accordingly. This is the nub of Giddens¡¯s micro-foundation of modernity in this book.

What is amazing and absolutely horrifying is that people will read this mish-mash of heavily editorialized semi-factual news reports and believe them to be true! The innuendo throughout is disgusting. In some of the accounts, the only accurate information is the person's name and that they died. Anybody could to a little on-line research and find a wealth of contradictory facts. If you're one who believes everything in the National Enquirer is true, then you'll probably fall for this one too.

the authors of this book appear to villify the police for every one of these killings when anyone with a half a brain knows that the vast, vast majority of those killed were violent thugs entirely responsible for theyre own deaths.

This book is an important resource that documents the rampant police brutality that exists in the United States. It's full of hard data and personal stories that you can't get anywhere else. It brings me to tears and gives me strenth to fight injustice everytime I read it.

Okay, time to give this book a review people can use. First, if you have not read at least the 4th and 5th books of this series, read them first. If you do not, this book is extremely confusing and hard to follow. It refers to several things that happen in the first five books, and they are integrel to the story. Also, I do not agree with the ending, it is confusing and hard to believe. Otherwise, it is an average and well-written book. A somewhat dissappointing conclusion to a series that should have ended after three books.

A good book in a good series

Thank you so much Piers Anthony for this wonderful addition to my favorite series you have written so far in my oppinion. You added so much to the characters and made me fall in love with the protagonists all over again.

All I can say is, when you enter an area and the book tells you to go left, when infact you should be going to the right.. that is a problem. This book is a waste of money.. get the Dimension Publishing Wild Arms guide... it's much nicer, completely detailed (maps too ;) and more worth your money.

This book was excellent with the monster and spell guide but it got you stuck in a few places. Still, with the help of this book I got ALL the secrets, beat the ENTIRE game, and as such I recommend this book to ANYONE who likes Wild Arms.

IT helps out with everything but some of the minor information is WRONG. It will get you through the game. No pictures (disapointment).

As someone who is about to graduate to be a Massage Therapist, I find the techniques in this book to be good, and the massage sequences outlined in the Sweedish Massage quite similar to the sequences I learned in school. The pictures and diagrams are thorough, and the instruction on Shiatsu is good as well.

From a professional perspective, I had some problems with this book though. One big probelm is the book discounts knowledge of anatomy as unnessicary for massage, and I strongly disagree with that. Massage is applied anatomy, and the study of anatomy is essential for anyone who wishes to be a massage therapist, or even a good ameture. Without understanding what it is you are pressing, kneading, rubbing, and tapping you're not going to be able to be very theraputic.

I was dissapointed that the book hardly touched on contraindications(cautions, conditions in which massage can be harmfull) such as cancer, diabeties, AIDS, alcohol consumption and others. Where it does mention contraindications, it's more of a short sidenote than anything.

The book has full nudity in most of the books pictures. While this isn't a bad thing nessicarily, I didn't see any information about draping procedures and protecting client modesty. Also, most of the massage is done on the floor, rather than a massage table and there was little discussion of body mechanics of the therapist. I get the feeling the book was actually meant for 'sensual' couples massage, rather than a guide for someone who is out to become a good massage therapist. In that light, it is a decent book for couples sensual massage.

This was the only general massage book I've found that included everything I wanted to know. There were a great many techniques and useful supplementary information. The only way in which it is lacking is that it is too dense. The techniques, though useful, are so closely packed that it's really difficult to extract a good routine. It can be done, surely, but it will take a little patience.

The Book of Massage is clearly and attractively illustrated, with numerous photographs. (Sensitive readers should be aware that there is mild nudity in the book.) The instructions are well-written, easy-to-understand, and presented in a friendly manner.

Each of the three main sections of the book -- traditional massage, acupressure, and reflexology -- demonstrate the same richness and clarity of instruction.

I'm personally more inclined towards traditional massage rather than the Eastern/holistic techniques. But to my surprise, I found the chapters on reflexology and acupressure to be full of useful information, and I have incorporated several of these routines into my massages.

Regardless of which school of massage therapy you favor, you'll find the techniques presented in the book to be a valuable addition to your repertoire.

This is a superior book on massage, and I regularly recommend it to friends. Give it a try!

Normally I have always like his work, but this is the exception. I was intrigued by his discussion of time travel and the perils inherent in it. However, the story fell flat. Nothing is worse than a good short story idea that is forced into a paperback. I almost put it down but continued on in hope that the ending would at least tie it all together and make it a worthwhile read, but alas, it was not to be. I finished it while on the beach and almost threw it into the ocean I was so disapointed.

between history and scifi. It taught me a lot about the time period, and had an intruiging plot. Confusing ending. Overall, it's hard to classify this book exactly.

This book is not for the average reader. It's geared more towards the reader that grasp the concept of time travel. Also the respect of a man's devotion to his life's love. I also recommend that you listen to Living Colour's "Time's up!" as you read, it complemments the story.

Reviewer: A reader from Northampton, MA USA
I've read & relished Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential & A Cook's Tour. No, I did not expect the same from this, as it's obviously a hardboiled fiction. And no, I didn't expect or want some kind of sequel to his nonfiction books, to get that out of the way.
I am also a fan of hardboiled crime fiction, of which James Ellroy is obviously the undisputed magus of our times. Frankly, I think it's shameful that Bourdain's editor didn't have the fortitude to send this thing back to him for more fleshing out. But that would take some serious attitude when Kitchen Confidential sold like a billion copies. It's a shame that the editor shirked his responsibilities on this one. Because what little there is of this book is good, inventive & compelling, in an elemental, hardboiled, Chandler or Jim Thompson way. Which is high praise. But this book reads more like the skeleton of a novel, a plot outline, a barebones treatment, even within the basic standards of this genre. You have to almost suspect it originated as a screenplay treatment. The hero, Bobby Gold, is a complete cipher, Ok, we get it, he's the strong silent type, but the character development is so threadbare that his only distinguishing characteristic is that he wears black all the time. The shards of something quite good are there, if you want to look. Maybe the Bobby Gold character can be built into a heavy dude with some backstory. There is one sinister establishing scene on Bobby Gold in here, but it's not nearly enough to flesh the thing out. A completely forced & arbitrary denoument only puts the skeletal remains of this novel in starker relief.

After devouring the much-heralded "Kitchen Confidential" and "Bone in the Throat" as well as the underrated "Gone Bamboo," Tony Bourdain quickly became my favorite author. Tony's style is so readable, his fiction's underworld heroes strangely loveable, and plotlines so addictive. I freaked out with excitement when I saw that Tony had written a new piece of fiction. While the same underlying infectious style is there, "The Bobby Gold Stories" is (refreshingly) written differently from "Bone" and "Bamboo," with a terse subtlety that I think is mistaken as simplicity by some other reviewers. It is true that the ending is oddly abrupt and leaves you wishing for more. Still, this reaction is probably rooted in the reality of being a Tony Bourdain fiction addict; and while this dose is not as potent as those past, it's still a great fix.

There's something about the Mafia and food, a not altogether strange connection between wiseguys and restaurants. Where would the Godfather saga be without the scene in which Michael takes care of that family problem by serving up a hot lead aperitif in an otherwise quiet little neighborhood eatery? Or consider that if Tony Soprano isn't standing in front of the refrigerator stuffing his face, he's meeting his cronies at some restaurant. Who knew that whacking people could make a guy so hungry?

So, at least in the fictional world, food and restaurants play an important role in organized crime. THE BOBBY GOLD STORIES, the latest excursion into fiction by bestselling author and noted food celebrity Anthony Bourdain, capitalizes on that connection by offering up a concoction that mixes Bourdain's insights into restaurant culture, his keen ear for street-seasoned dialogue, and his ability to draw characters as colorful and pungent as a bowl of ripe chilies.

Weighing in at under two hundred pages, THE BOBBY GOLD STORIES is surprisingly rich. As the story opens, Bobby Gold, college boy gone bad, is being arrested on a Florida highway for having a load of South American marching powder in the trunk of his car. Bobby then finds himself enrolled in the penitentiary, where he eventually majors in the Darwinian art of beating the hell out of people before they beat the hell out of him. After several years in prison, Bobby is back out on the street --- older, wiser, and considerably larger and more dangerous than when he went in.

Bobby reluctantly puts his hard-earned skills to work for his boss, Eddie, a reasonably well-connected lower-echelon mob wannabe. In his official capacity, Bobby is head of security for NiteKlub, Eddie's Manhattan restaurant. Off the books, Bobby draws on his pre-med knowledge of human anatomy while smacking around people who have in some way inconvenienced the lugubrious Eddie.

But Bobby isn't as cold-blooded as you might think, and he's frustrated by the unpleasant way he earns a living. He's not happy. But just when the clouds are beginning to darken, he meets Nikki. She's sexy, smart, as streetwise as Eddie, and a chef at NiteKlub. But that kind of package doesn't come without strings.

THE BOBBY GOLD STORIES is the third work of fiction for Anthony Bourdain, who has also written two works of nonfiction, including the bestselling KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. Bourdain is very much at home writing crime fiction. His sharp eye and sharper wit provide the necessary mix of mirth and menace that mark the best of the genre. If you're hungry for good crime fiction, spend an afternoon with Bobby Gold. He'll show you a wild time.

--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart

This is a book that is very informative and interesting. I am not sure however, that interest could be sustained without prior knowledge of Hadrian's life. The author is so consumed by getting the facts in accurate historical sequence that he neglects the narrative. There are long passages where the reader is bombarded with Roman names and titles of Hadrian's contemporaries to such a degree that it is impossible to comprehend on a first reading, never mind absorb. None of these titles are explained either: the reader is suppossed to know for example the difference between a pro-consul and a consul, a questor and a preator, etc; all of which may be clear to the specialist, but not so to the general reader, even if they had a general backgroung on Roman history and culture. It is still commendable as a well researched biography. One is also grateful for the explicit treatment of Hadrian's private life,which had either eluded or terrified the puritanical and parsimonius early biographers. With such a fascinating life one can not help to wonder why it has been so long (sixty years!!) that no new biographies had appeared. After all, some chapters of Hadrian's life are better tahn fiction. The emphasis on Britain is both unnecessary and

This history is written using only the best source material and is an attempt to portray the events and actions of Hadrian's life with only limited attempts to analyze the thoughts that led to his actions. Mr. Birley does a very good job of presenting the information as such, but if you are hoping to be told the greater meaning or deeper consequences of Hadrian's actions, then this is not the book that you are looking for. In no way shape or form does the author attempt to take a 'big picture' look at Hadrian.

That being said, the author does a fantastic job of writing about Hadrian's life. By merely portraying the actions of this, Rome's "Wandering Emperor" we get a glimpse of a somewhat tragic historical figure and the actions of his rule. It is very intriguing, and there are many odd parallels to his rule and that of recent political figures.

This is a good book, despite the fact that it is at times laborious to get through. Hadrian is clearly depicted and the reader is left to formulate their own opinions - a refreshing change from many of the currently available histories.

This is the best biography written about Hadrian in English. Mr. Birley does an excellent job tracing Hadrian as he visited the empire and also provides a fascinating look at the Flavians, the dynasty of Hadrian's youth. There is a lot of detail, particularly when Mr. Birely deals with Hadrian's travels that seems to have provoked comments that his book is dry. One can find this daunting, however, such details are necessary to fully explain what Hadrian was doing, what was happening and with whom he was interacting.

Mr. Birley has stuck to relating Hadrian's life and does not explore his buildings, the Pantheon, Temple of Venus and Roma and his Villa at Tibur in any detail. Such considerations are best left to other books. Mr. Birley uses his sources (Historia Augusta etc) very well and explains their departures and omissions to what we know from archaeology. In the end, Hadrian remains an enigmatic personality but we have a far better understanding of him in his desire to Hellenize the empire and seeing himself as a second Augustus. His reign marks a turning point in the expansionist attitude of the Romans; Hadrian withdrew from the new province of Arabia (created by Trajan) and sought to fix the boundries of the empire. This was a view not shared by his immediate successors but came to be a necessity as time passed. Mr. Birley covers these critical ideas thoroughly and provides insight into a an interesting personality.