I have used the many thought provoking ideas that really made an impression on me ever since I read a friends copy of this exciting book. I desparately want a copy for myself, but as it is now out of print, this is not possible. Can someone help. vleech@hot.co.za

The Strategy of the Dolphin has been an incredibly influential book in my career. Concepts like "do what you fear" and "talk about HOW you're talking about it" are part of my everyday thought. The metaphor of the dolphin works very well: an animal that can outsmart a shark! When something isn't working a Dolphin does something different! That's a great lesson for life.

I read this book when it first was published because I was in an executive position with a not for profit organization. Throughout the years I have referred to it and each time it has revealed another secret in my life style. I loaned it to a friend and never got it back, so am now buying my second copy. Truly a keeper whether it is used for business or success in your personal endeavors.

taxi driver by martin scorsese is a true masterpiece of american cinema.the screenplay written by paul schrader,is one of the best screenplays ever written.the story is about a new york city cabbie who gets tired of seeing all the criminals and scum that the city has to offer.he's a loner who is just trying to make friends and help people out.as a result of all the madness he sees on the sreets,he grows violent and courageous.recommended.

O.K. we all love the film. Martin Scorcese's portrait of a loner slowly slipping into his own obsession with the horrors of inner-city life is seminal, and is still great viewing. De Niro's performance is brilliant as are his supporting actors. However...it is not until one reads the screenplay by Paul Schrader that the film comes to life. It is written almost like a novel, with directions that give the reader new insight and appreciation into the workings of the film and Travis' state of mind. Not only is it a great compliment to the film, it is actually better than the film. When I first saw 'Taxi Driver' I was blown away (along with all those pimps and drug dealers at the end), when I read the screenplay a new appreciation of the art of screenwriting was revealed to me. If you ever want to give someone who is interesting in writing films a present, give them this. Give them the film too. Make them watch the film, then make them read the screenplay, then watch them weep.

This positively has to be one of the best written screenplays of all cinematic history. In this text lies a story of desperation, loneliness, and insanity. Paul Schrader has not only captured the mentaility of a sociopath, but the emotions and profound thoughts of a man, driven to insanity by not being able to understand a world unlike his own. If you love well written screenplays, Taxi Driver is a must have!

The book is lovely and contains ideas and recipes for sharing a tea party with your special little girl...even a darling miniature tea set is included!

A marvelous thank you to Susan Wheeler and Mr. Kortepeter for their beautiful work in creating this book. Wonderful artwork with that adorable Victorian setting, delightful recipes for teatime and useful tips for tea parties. Highly reccommendable for all tea lovers.

Like most people, I was drawn to this book because of the artwork. And while the drawings are first-rate throughout, it was the writing that really got me hooked. From the seasonal stories to the recipes to the Holly Pond Hill Gazette entries, this book is a delightful potpourri of words. My hat's off to Paul Kortepeter for his inventiveness and to Susan Wheeler for her vision. I can't wait for the next book! Ciao.

This is the amazing story of Susie and Paul Luchsinger. I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially those who have endured abuse.
They tell their story, holding nothing back, about what went on, and then how the Lord helped save their marriage.
A MUST READ! Also check out her official site....

I think Susie and Paul did a fabulous job writing their life story in this book. They were both very honest and straight forward. You gain a lot of insight from this book and from their experiences as well as learn more about them and what makes them who they are. This book makes you laugh, cry, think, etc , etc. You experience many emotions while reading it. This book also helps you to look at your own life. It lets those that have had similar situations know that they are not alone. I think it is a must read book and I highly recommend it to everyone. I personally have read the book more than once and I get something new out of it every time I read it.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the relatonships that were shared in the book.Paul and Susie worked through some difficult times and came through with flying colors.

I struggled for quite some time trying to find a Southern cookbook that wasn't, you know, full of frou-frou recipes that no one in their right mind would actually use. This is it. This has that recipe for jalapeno cornbread you've been looking for. Jambalaya dressing, Jezebel sauce, praline pie and enough different chilis to start your own cook-off.

Stories and techniques accompany most recipes; shoot, I love just sitting and reading it. I may as well throw my Joy of Cooking away -- I'm never gonna touch it again.

Shortly after moving to Michigan from my home state of Texas I found Texas Home Cooking. I was doubtful that it would bring back the tastes of home I was craving. It has proven to be the only cookbook I pull out when seeking out a dish to wow my new family and friends. It truly is a reflection of Texas cooking from the Tex-Mex section (salsas, enchiladas, tamales and more) to the classic American home cooked favorites (B-B-Q, steaks, chicken fried steak, sweet potatoes) that are famous in the south. I use it for reference to recreate that dish I had and on a night when I want to try something new.

THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST COOKBOOK I HAVE EVER BOUGHT OR RECEIVED AS A GIFT. WONDERFUL VARIETY AND VERY TEX-MEX AUTHENTICITY.

The first volume of Souls Grown Deep is an essential book for any American folk art collector. Many of the great African American folk artists of the 20th century are covered and all have a short write up and some pictures. The only problem is that some artists get short change with a one paragraph write up (really short) and 2 or 3 small images on a single page. Clementine Hunter for example, gets this treatment. And Mose Tolliver gets much more space than Bill Traylor, possibly because most of the artwork shown is from the author's own folk art collection, but apparently the author doesn't have many Bill Traylor artworks compared to Mose T's. But it's such a large book that it will still be required for any folk art library. Beware, the second volume is just as big but seems like an entire book of filler. There are some interesting artists presented, but overall the quality isn't as high as the first volume. Perhaps because the artists in the 1st volume are already "established"' it's easier to see their place in folk art history whereas the artists in volume 2 are still relatively new. Both books have high production values in paper and binding. My recommendation is definitely buy volume 1, but be careful of volume 2.

This book is a marvel in both production quality and content. If ever a set of books deserved the "tome" designation, this set wins big. They opened my eyes to a world I hoped existed but feared did not. I have long appreciated and understood the contributions of African Americans in the arts, but often wondered why the visual arts traditions hadn't reached the heights that the music (blues, jazz, gospel, hip hop, R&B, Rock n' Roll), literary, athletic, fashion, theater, etc.. reached? I have also always been dismayed that many of the great African Americans have had to leave the south, and often this country, to receive recognition at all. It is an old story that is far to common. These books tell a different story. The art work is of the highest caliber, and often created with the humblest of materials?found wood, roots, house paint, discarded materials?yet the artists find ways to make the most glorious objects. It was certainly a revelation to see work that would rival what I see in the many museums in town, made by men and women who don't seem to have any regard, or perhaps knowledge, of these institutions. Work made for themselves, their families, or their communities enjoyment and education. The true meaning of art. It would be impossible for me to say which book I prefer. Both were so eye opening. Now that I have both, I can't imagine not having either. I hope that these volumes will find their way into the libraries and schools across America, for they tell a story that has long been unkown, which is unfortunate. Or, I fear, ignored, which is tragic. Kudos to both, and I hope that there will be a Volume 3. I must add that if you are interested in the "real" American story, history, art (of any kind), then these books are a must read (and look). And as a lover and collector of Twentieth Century art, I realize I have not been, up until now, told the WHOLE truth.

Gorgeous photos and very high quality printing and paper. The artwork is very interesting and continues to offer surprises further and further into the book. I enjoyed the stories and recollections of the artists which added a personal and human side to the visual splendor. The editors' own energy and passion for the subject matter shines through. This is a rare gift I will go back to time and time again.

This Christian fantasy fiction series is a great read for school age kids. The series shows some of the hard truths of being a Christian, and the ups and downs of the Christian life. In general, the characters do not develop throughout the series in a satisfying way (though some do) and each book wraps up a little too neatly for the real life Bibee is trying to portray. There always is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of the book, a classic use of suspense to keep a reader going through the series. Overall, I recommend the series, especially to those with reluctant readers!

These books are great. They are fanciful, and yet teach lessons of faith. The characters are allowed to see into a deeper world, to see the spiritual battles that are going on around them. These books would be great for a child who would like to read the Harry Potter books, but whos parents are concerned about letting them. They are not only harmless fantasy, but they also teach good morals and important truths about the christan faith.

Super book for boys or girls, ages 9 and up. Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Fun Reading. Good lessons. Highly Recommended. Great motivation for reluctant readers.

Once you enter the smoky world of Bowles' winding alleys and doublespeaking faux guides, you won't remember how to get back to where you were before. Was is this turn? Behind that door?

A wind blows through Bowles stories. It is dark and harsh and speaks of all the buried things in the world. Populated by broken expats, syphillitics, kif heads, castraters, wanderers, the evil, the misguided, and the foolhardy, his stories are gorgeously dark fables with truly stunning morals. The screw will turn and turn and turn and it is only a matter of time before something bleeds.

After reading Paul Bowles "The Sheltering Sky" twice, I could not consume enough of his writing. He was to me, a writer's writer. He has a way of pulling you into his adventures without overloading you with minute useless details. His writing just flows from sentence to sentence while the reader is swept away effortlessly along whatever path he is taking. Obviously I am a big fan and having this huge collection of short stories was something I had to have for my Paul Bowles collection. Also check out "My Sister's Hand In Mine" a collection of short stories written by Paul Bowles wife, Jane Bowles, it's equally intriguing. What a fasinating life they must have had!

There is no doubt about this great written book. The reason I only gave this book 4 starts is that I bought the book of "MPLS : Technology and Applications " from the same authors before this one. The coverage and contents between those two books are quite the same - Douh !. My suggestion is that just buy the "MPLS" one if you do not care about CSR and ARIS stuffs too much.

It is one of those few books that explains the concepts of label switching in a lucid style without confounding the readers. A must read.

This book was the first in series on the MPLS topic by Yakov and Davie, the two leading experts in the subject area. At the time this book was published, people didn't even know the term MPLS as opposed to now when it has become a latest acronym to be exploited by marketing parasites.

This book gives an excellent description of different label switching techniques implemented by different vendors at the time, such as IBM, Toshiba, Ipsilon and cisco. This breaks down the chapters on vendor by vendor basis, explains their implementation and then at the end compares all the different approaches.

Even though Yakov and Davie are both from cisco, you can't tell it from reading the book because they have presented the implementations in total impartiality and fairness and only judging the implementations on its technical merits.

After reading the book, you'd understand fundamentals like FEC, label stack encoding, LDP and various techniques/signaling to carry label switching information.

If you want to buy a book om MPLS today, you should go for the latest edition of this book, titled, 'MPLS technology and applications'.

The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.

Book 3 is the shortest of the four volumes, and may almost be termed a "chamber novel," focusing as it does on the peripheral character of Barbie Batchelor, a retired missionary and lodger at the Laytons' ancestral home. Barbie is an instantly recognizable character: The kind of person who always lurks about the edges of society, awkward, embarrassing, barely tolerated by her peers. Book 3 covers much of the same time period as Book 2, this time from Barbie's point of view and also from that of Teddie Bingham, Susan Layton's husband. Teddie meets Ronald Merrick while on duty and more of Merrick's character and history is filled in. Book 3 then moves beyond the point at which Book 2 ended and continues Barbie's story, her eventual ouster from the Layton's home and slow descent into illness and madness.

"The Towers of Silence" is the third volume in Paul Scott's "Raj Quartet". Scott does little in this novel to develop the plot of the first two volumes: the rape in the Bibighar Gardens still looms ominously in the background, but is not the central issue here - rather, Scott uses this novel to refocus on events and characters who have already appeared, and to introduce some new characters. Still, Scott's intricate examination of the last days of the British Raj is as acute and convincing as it was in those earlier volumes.

The central character in "The Towers of Silence" is Barbara Batchelor, a spinster and retired superintendent of a Protestant mission school. Scott relates with great care the vicious social snobbery of the British in India, both among themselves and against the Indians. The divisions within the British in India are accentuated by the tensions caused by social change in Britain itself - the imminence of a Labour government and the questioning of automatic social superiority based upon birth and "going to the right school".

Because the British isolate themselves from the Indians, living in small cantonments, it's almost a pressure-cooker situation, small differences and social mores taking on a great importance. Could Scott have been saying that Empire accentuated these trends or highlighted them, or was he saying that given such changes, imperialism seemed all the more absurd - a society so deeply at odds with itself, so unsure of its way forward could hardly continue to claim a right to rule over another society?

It seemed to me that Barbara Batchelor was symbolic of the obsolescence of British imperial ideals, both directly and indirectly. Dirctly, because she represented an anachronistic Christian missionary type of imperialism that (as far as my reading tells me) had been waning badly since the Mutiny of 1857. But also indirectly, because she irritates the British imperialists of the 1940s - her very presence and manners highlight their own lack of an imperial raison d'être.

Of the other characters, Teddie Bingham reappears from "The Day of the Scorpion" and his (often comic) courtship of Susan Layton is retold, but in far more detail. Ronald Merrick also reappears, and through him Scott exposes the deep insecurity and bafflement caused in the Army by the discovery that Indian prisoners of war were fighting alongside the Japanese in the "Indian National Army".

A suberb addition to an excellent series of novels.

G Rodgers

This is by far the best and most important book in Scott's Raj Quartet (though you need to have read the first two to appreciate it). The character of Barbie Batchelor makes this the masterpiece that it is. Scott's ability to create a sweeping historical, political, and philosophical panorama through the mind of such a seemingly marginal figure -- a retired missionary teacher of no great brilliance, who may be slowly losing her mind -- is a real achievement.