This is an excellent review book. Overall, it can help you find areas that you may need to review. There are also good explanations of the answers along with page numbers for the Brady's Emergency Care, versions 7&8. I recommend this book for anyone preparing for the EMT-Basic exam.

This is an excellent review to help you realize where you stand in regards to the NREMT. (And how much you need to cram)

I bought a few EMT reviews and this by far was my favorite. I highly recommend it.

This book is an excellent review guide for the EMT-Basic. Mr. Cherry explains each and every question, and explains rationale. I recommend this book to any EMT taking the course or preparing for a state exam.

In the realm of science fiction, there are two issues that seperate epic novels from detail-driven technical series dime novels: The accurate and researched use of science and the mastery of fiction-as-a-vehicle.
It's not as easy as it sounds.
Author Paul Hughes has succesfully created both a solid novella and injected something new into a genre seemingly without boundaries.
What if God was on equal footing with the devil? What if the battle of ultimate creator vs. ultimate destroyer was one of complete attrition and victory for either side was a plauisble scenario.
Hughes has pushed the boundaries of fiction with An End and forces the reader to deal with a multitude of questions regarding that conflict.
A cast of characters drawn from smaller, less divine influences combine with a writing catalyst best described as a mix of Hemingway simplicty and Harold Robbins paragraph breaks to absorb the reader into a tumultuous story of the ultimate end.
Being experimental as a writer is as bold a venture as trying to re-invent Catholicism but Hughes is not afraid to take risks with flashbacks, wrap-arounds and even a littany of recollection and foresight that encompasses an entire chapter in a liquid sphere of circular thought patterns. Many writers of the genre rely on flashbacks as a fallback position to solid stream-of-conciousness skill and writing logistically well prepared plot lines. Hughes uses flashback and reversals like a Samurai wields a katana. There is mastery there and not something learned in a college writing seminar. Hughes rips through the novel and creates a picture solid and clean and even sterile in it's presentation but the reader will discover quickly that the initial interpretation has yet to feel the blade that comes with the later chapters. At the end of An End, the reader will discover that Hughes has let the sword fly and with skill and master of the edge, he has sliced and disassembled the intial picture and it all falls into a pile revealing a core of silver confusion and the inevitable resolution of that conflict.

An End - Review

Some say that I good book will change the way a person looks on life. A book is somewhat of a companion. It follows the reader around, enjoys a day in the park being read, gets beat around in an old backpack, and it could be quietly absorbed in that coffee shop down the street. Books present the reader with the ultimate entertainment, imagination.

This book lit a spark that fueled the fires of imagination somewhere inside of me. If there was ever a book that you just couldn't put down, it is An End. It made me want to be the one called Whistler. I wanted to be there, to save the world, and it also made me empathetic towards the characters if something went awry. Sometimes authors focus too much on detail and the book becomes drab and boring. Paul Hughes found a way to catch my attention and keep it throughout the piece.

What really intrigued me about the style of this book is the order. The story goes from future, to present, to past, and back again. It will astound any reader to see how it works out. Only a genius mind could write a book that way and make it work. Paul has done just that.

I wouldn't offer this book to someone that doesn't want an intellectual experience, however. If you are looking for a challenging book that will make you think I suggest An End. This piece of writing will grab you, tease you, and at times confuse you on a journey to An End.

-Scott Winchell [winch]

"An End" redefines the rules of science fiction. The story takes a quicksilver approach to plot twists, giving the reader little time to speculate. Hughes creates a world that is sterile, uncompromising and bleak, but then offers respite in the form of emotionally restrained scenes. As the story builds, Hughes begins to focus more on the sensory aspects of the characters and less on the technology. In the final part of the book, intellect yields to pure emotion. The climactic ending creates a vortex which pulls the reader into the world of all-night reading and fast page-turning.

Beginnings. Forevers. And what is in Between. Hughes has masterfully woven a tapestry for those who watch the stars and for those who gaze at them beside a lover.

Many newer guides have been published about birds of this region, but this book still deserves its place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in birds of South-east Asia. Illustrations are good, and descriptions are detailed and mostly accurate. A bit bulky to carry in the field, but not a problem if you bring it in a backpack. The situation with forest fires in South-east Asia (especially Indonesia) is growing worse each year, so get out there and see some of these extraordinary birds while you still can!

Any serious birder to the listed regions of this book would buy this book.

It is the best guide of the region so far with excellent plates and useful details. What I find especially useful, particularly for the raptors, is that they show illustrations of the birds in flight.

The drawings appear consistent and the bird's information at the back of the book is easy to access.

The birds are categorised according to their family which definately makes for faster checks and identification, which I find important when in the field.

The spine of the book though is a little week and you might want to have it rebound before it falls apart - especially with all the browsing that is to be.

This was the book that everyone who seemed to be serious used in Borneo, but if you are going to be out in the bush for more than a few days and make frequent use of field guides, consider having it re-bound before you leave -- many people I passed along the way were finding that the plate pages were starting to fall out.

I have to disagree with the previous reviewer about the debunking of Heyerdahl being "excessive". The debunking is limited to only one or two chapters. For readers like me who have read Heyerdahl, this debunking was important because of the attractive neatness of Heyerdahl's theories as he had presented them.

The book is very well organized, with a good selection of photographs and diagrams.

The book's title and the previous review may give the impression that the book is primarily about environmental lessons we can learn from what happened to Easter Island, but in fact it is the best introduction to Easter Island studies that I have seen.

Only the final chapter is about lessons for humanity. The authors' arguments here are diminished by their citing of the well-known Club of Rome study on the Limits to Growth. None of its predictions for the 1990s came true, and this should have been clear by 1992, the year of this book's publication. The authors make no mention of that inconvenient fact.

The author's basic theme, Easter Island as an example of where the entire world may be going, is somewhat diminished by his excessive debunking of Thor Heyerdahl. The story, ending with the vision of the last tree on the island being cut to the ground for little purpose, is a message we must understand. The country that saves its forest, survives.

You would think from the title that this book is actually a flaming, guilt-ridden treatise on environmentism. But such is not the case. It is in reality a well balanced handling of all aspects of Easter Island. Yes, Thor Heyerdahl and his theories are covered but so is going on vacation there and where to stay. If there is something you would like to know about from Easter Island, this book probably covers it in a most readable fashion.

Mr. Samuelson is most undeniably a great economist, and a great liberal, but from the distant past. As a textbook writer I find him very poor; even irrelevant. He has a way of presenting the subject in a technical/mathmatical way that leaves the reader no better off at all at understanding and discussing the basic economic issues of the day. Besides that he was a remarkably biased teacher/textbook writer. He will perhaps go down in history as the man who said that Russia was a great example of how well a planned economy can perform (even though it really just impoverished its citizens) and that Milton Freidman's work was mistaken (even though it finally became intellectually dominant and was used by the Fed to create the current economic miracle). If you had a choice to spend two semesters plowing through Samuelson or a weekend reading "Capitalism and Freedom" or "Understanding The Difference Between Democrats and Republicans" you'd be wise to pick the later. You'd learn 10 times as much in a fraction the time.

Absolutely easy to read and understand! I never thought I could actually "enjoy" reading about the subject before I came across this book.

I was amazed to discover how good the original edition of Samuelson's classic economics text is. Virtually everything in it is just as relevant today as it was in 1948. Of special interest to me was chapter 10, Personal Finance and Social Security, for the light it sheds on the current debate about retirement income security. I think Samuelson ECONOMICS 1 ed. would be my textbook of choice for a course in introductory economics.

End of Dreams is a novel that deals with the love life of Cameron Dickerson. He is a man that is re-entering the singles scene after a recent divorce. Through a series of flashbacks, we see how Cameron met, fell in love with, and eventually fell out of love with his ex-wife, Mara, while we simultaneously see how he is coping with being single and dating again.

The book is very descriptive, almost to a fault, but gives the reader a real sense of who Cameron is and what his motivations are. D.C. Douglass does a wonderful job of taking the reader through the journey of a relationship gone wrong: the meeting and courtship, marriage, and ultimately the divorce. He also shows that there is indeed life after a divorce or break-up. I recommend this novel to anyone who has ever been unlucky in love as well as anyone who is looking for a realistic view of relationships. I look forward to future works from this author.

Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy

Normally I avoid this genre like the plague because I often find the stories to be predicable and they tend to placate towards women. See E Jerome Dickey & Michael Baisden(sighing) as reference. However this was definitely written from a male's standpoint and call me bias but I found it entertaining.

While there were instances where I thought the main character was a bit too corny (writing cute little anecdotes on the back of his business cards when he met his prospect, my god how "cheesy") there were also instances where if you read between the lines one could definitely learn something. Particularly when he & Mara were arguing about money issues while they were married. The moral, they were in such a rush to be married whether that was LOVE or to alleviate the stress and financial hardship of a wedding. They never communicated much about their different financial perspectives which I believe was one of the underlying causes starting the downward spiral of their relationship.

At times I appreciated the author's detail because I reside in the city where the setting takes place and can relate to EVERY venue, restaurant, street, etc he mentions. However there were instances where the detail was a bit much. (see his description of the various complexions of the characters). But my disagreements overall are minute in the grand scheme of things.

Camron was FAR from a "playa"(I'm referencing the first review) and if the definition of a "playa" is someone who dates while he's single, then maybe all single men that date should get a "playa's membership" card. Overall "End of Dreams" is the story of a male who falls in love and outta love and has to start over again. Sometimes the most entertaining things have the most simple premises..

I met the author at a First Friday earlier this month, liked the book cover, decided to buy it, and I gotta tell ya ... this boy is bad. He laid it down from front to back. I'm not a big reader, mainly because I don't find many books that keep me interested, but this one had me turning the pages until there were none left to turn.

The story revolved around the main character, Camron. It starts out where he and his ex-wife have divorced and he's back out there doing the damn thang ... you know, gettin' his swerve on. Then from there Douglass takes the reader back through the marriage while at the same time showing how the main character's life in the present time is progressing with a new female he starts getting involved with (I don't want to give too much away). It's very cool though the way the author transitions from the past to the present to the past and so on.

Was Camron a player? At times yes, at times no ... it kinda depended on his situation at the time. I mean the story is real and has a lot of layers to it, so you can't simply say he was this type of person or that type of person.

I gotta say too I was really feeling a lot of the scenes because, living here in the Twin Cities, I recognized a lot of the locations - the clubs and restaurants.

Anyway, like I said, I don't read a lot of books, but I have read a few of the other male authors out there ... Eric Jerome Dickey, E. Lynn Harris, and a couple of others who's names I can't recall right now. But I gotta tell ya, none of 'em ain't got nothing on D.C. Douglass. Remember that name because I predict in another year or two this brother will have blown up.

I hesitated buying this because I'm skeptical of "end time" books. Boy am I glad I changed my mind. Kelly describes a series of dreams he had and gives an interpretation. Timely yet timeless. I read it in a day yet will be thinking about it for the rest of my life. I hope more people read this and that God ignites more people to think with a generational perspective.

Heat after heat, the enemy is looking out for a crack on the wall. But what emerges will be the finest texture in the House of the Lord call warriors. This is a book of hope !

"End time warrior" presents to readers like a revelation kiosk, highlighting common objectives, direction, integrity and perseverance which the church must seriously take heed. Overall, the message contains gripping revelation with exclamation truth.

Living in a time of distress where the shadow of great uncertainty is casting on planet earth, there must arise an answer powerful enough to bring hope and life. The apostolic army, John Kelly saw in his vision, is unquestionably the visible topsoil prepared to fit that dire need. Coming to the fore shall be these people with flaming answers. Where they are placed, light will abound and darkness will diminishes into a blip.

From the account of Kelly's vision, there will come some of the most engaging periods the church would need to go through. The church has don some many titles in the past. Each title leaves a trail of revelation of the Lord. We have the Body, House of the Lord, Bride, and now Warrior.

After reading this book, some of us will probably be musing over the portal of opportunities awaiting for us. In his book, the author beckons us to prepare for encouraging results. Great harvest will unfold before our eyes. Resources will be returning. New grounds will be won. Old grounds will be claimed. What is even more glaring will be the fact that the prophesied church will be at the height of her maturity and beauty. Yes! It will take maturity to wrestle against the unseen forces. Anything less or compromising will cause us to fall under the duplicity of today's increasing false signs and wonders.

It will take unity to change today's spiritual climate. The greatest unity will spin out from the spread of diversity. Denominations lines are thinning, as the Spirit is drawing all of us for a common purpose. Even the very marginal differences among us will be offset by the love of the Spirit upon all of us.

This book also emphasizes the importance of spiritual fathers. Every warrior sent into the spiritual battlefield has a signature of his spiritual father on his heart. The quality of a warrior is formed on the anvils of a fatherhood ministry. In tandem with this emphases, the author also promotes the power of mentoring. Substantial quality in a spiritual life is developed out from a mentoring relationship, which should be today's primary focus in any ministry.

I believe Kelly's ministry is a personal offering to see the growth of God's Church. God has set him apart to be a pacesetter. In his anointing, he knows the speed of the Spirit and determines to train others to catch up. Read this book, it unfurls the motive of his heart.

End Time Warriors is a clear trumpet call to the contemporary church. Using prophetic imagery, biblical insight and many real life examples, Kelly & Costa pull the blinders off of the modern masquerade of ministry. They propose that much anointing is currently wasted and point us to some hopeful solutions. Although the message is essentially hard hitting there is also a refreshing sense of hope that shines through. Like a cool drink of water, this book is just the medicine that Dr. Jesus ordered.

I'm not too crazy about this inaugural edition of the Essential Works of M. Foucault series in English. For one, the three volumes are to be collected from the French 'Dits et Ecrits' series; that is to say, the English translations will be a selection from the complete French. It blows my mind why they didn't just translate the entire French series.

This volume is divided into two sections: the first is the complete collection of Foucault's resumes from the courses he conducted at the College de France; and the second part consists of numerous interviews and essays that have been gathered around the theme of ethics. The resumes are the official submissions by Foucault to the College, meaning that they weren't meant for publication but rather for administrative reasons. As summaries of a year's worth of teachings, covering 1970 to 1984, they only provide crude chunks of what may have proceeded in these courses and public lectures. Thus, they are rather innocuous, and useless for most scholars. The second part is equally erratic as the theme of ethics just doesn't hold up: for example, what does the piece "The Masked Philosopher" have to do with Foucault's study of Greek and Christian ethics?

The 2nd volume of this series, on aesthetics, methhod and epistemology, is a far superior collection of Foucault goodies.

The best selections from this volume is a good summary of Foucault's last two projects: on Greek and Roman sexual practices. Even the introduction by Paul Rabinow is a minor disappointment.

And I gotta say this: the cover layout is atrocious. And why couldn't they just find another photo of Foucault for the back cover, instead of merely reversing the image? Which makes me wonder: which is the original?

The First of three volumes (the second and third are also available on Amazon.com) that will introduce selected translations from the original four French volumes. This first volume has 11 course summaries that M. Foucault submitted to the College de France from 1970 to 1982. Moreover, Rabinow has skillfully included several key essays and interviews from M. Foucault's last years, when his work turned exclusively toward issues of ethics and the "care of the self." The outlines often explore subjectivity, but M. Foucault's thought turned more moral and political, zeroing in on technology and the social institutions. The selection starts with the difference M. Foucault made between the "will to knowledge" (a passion for authoritative organization) and the "will to truth" (concern for the integrity of subjective expression).

In exposing to us how these systems of knowledge are shaped by political structures of power (which in turn serve to justify themselves), M. Foucault provided dazzling critiques of some of our most highly regarded institutions in the areas of health, justice, government and education. This is really the first concrete anthology of M. Foucault's ethics of the care of the self and sexuality that really joins everything to his critical analysis of power/knowledge. In this volume, M. Foucault describes how philosophers, from antiquity to modernity, developed the practice of self-care through various literary modes: keeping journals of useful thoughts and quotations, exchanging correspondence of self-disclosure and advice between friends, writing texts of self-examination and confession (as if to imply that this was the forerunner of the modern day "examination of conscience"), drafting meditative and exploratory essay. Moreover, M. Foucault insists that "a pleasure must be something incredibly intense" or it is "nothing": "the real pleasure would be deep, so intense, so overwhelming that I couldn't survive it, I would die." Leaving no doubt why he is linked with such notables as Bataille, de Sade and Nietzsche. One of the more disturbing problematics that M. Foucault brings up in an interview is his thought points of resistance to power:

Q. It would seem that there is something of a deficiency in your problematic, namely, in the notion of resistance against power. Which presupposes a very active subject, very concerned with the care of itself and of others and, therefore, competent politically and philosophically.
M.F. This brings us back to the problem of what I mean by power. I scarcely use the word power, and if I use it on occasion it is simply as shorthand for the expression I generally use: relations of power. But there are ready-made models: when one speaks of power, people immediately think of a political structure, a government, a dominant social class, the master and the slave, and so on. I am not thinking of this at all when I speak of relations of power. I mean that in human relationships, whether they involve verbal communication such as we are engaged in at this moment, or amorous, institutional, or economic relationships, power is always present: I mean a relationship in which one person tries to control the conduct of the other. So I am speaking of relations that exist at different levels, in different forms; these power relations are mobile, they can be modified, they are not fixed once and for all.... These power relations are thus mobile, reversible, and unstable. It should also be noted that power relations are possible only insofar as the subjects are free. If one of them were completely at the other's disposal and became his thing, there wouldn't be any relations of power. Thus, in order for power relations to come into play, there must be at least a certain degree of freedom on both sides. Even when the power relation is completely out of balance, when it can truly be claimed that one side has "total power" over the other, a power can be exercised over the other only insofar as the other still has the option of killing himself, of leaping out the window, or of killing the other person.... Of course, states of domination do indeed exist. In a great many cases, power relations are fixed in such a way that they are perpetually asymmetrical and allow an extremely limited margin of freedom.... But the claim that "you see power everywhere, thus there is no freedom" seems to me absolutely inadequate. The idea that power is a system of domination that controls everything and leaves no room for freedom cannot be attributed to me. (291-293)
(quote abridged)

For M. Foucault, ethical self-care is formed by the system of knowledge and the power relations (as outlined above) in which the self is situated. The really expansive genealogical studies of M. Foucault's earlier books deal with how science related to disease, madness and criminality and how institutional powers sought to govern populations. Despite the almost about-face that M. Foucault makes, this book is helpful in making the change clear and how it fits within his oeuvre. M. Foucault's alternatives usefully problematize them; and problematization rather than conceited solutions is the hallmark of M. Foucault's philosophy. Rabinow's selection is a helpful one and no respectable M. Foucault selection should be without it, Volume 2 - Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology, and Volume 3 - Power (all available on Amazon.com)

Miguel Llora

The acute awareness of the world and the role of the thinker in the world Foucault displays in this collection, especially in this volume, has inspired me. I see this collection as the personal side of Foucault, where the histories/archaeologies are of a slightly more academic tone. Berkeley's Rabinow, one of the leading MC scholars around, provides some great commentary and insight in his introduction.

Face to face with the Bomb is a slightly misleading title. A coffee - table treatment of the subject of nuclear weapons, this 121 page book represents the culmination of a many-year journey of the author, Paul Shambroom as he visually recorded his observances of the cult of the nuclear weapon system.

Mr. Shambroom, through his writing in the oversized tome, is apparently anti - nuclear weapons. But, through his encounters with the various military complexes ( the Department of Energy steadfastly refused his repeated requests to visit), he appears to have learned the truth; that the people that protect the United States from aggression aren't evil, that the shiniest sword in our scabbard, the nuclear weapon, isn't inherently evil, and that the price of freedom is a costly one.

Unfortunately, the title is a bit misleading. From the cover photo, and the title, I was hoping for a book of bomb photos. In the post 9-11 world, such imagery is fast disappearing. While there are a few photographs of actual nuclear weapontry, the majority of the book is filled with the supporting cast and crew; pictures of submarines, of aircraft, of command and control centers.

All of the photography is compelling. Unfortunately, it is shot through the eye of the unknowing. In several frames, through innocence or intent, things that I would liked to have seen, because they've never been publicly exhibited, trail off of the edge of the photo. His attention to detail and composition is excellent, but I would've preferred that his interest focus on the end item, the bomb, and not on the delivery systems.

In sum, if you are looking for weapons photos, I recommend the purchase of a used copy of this book. If you are curious about a basic slice of the secret life of nuclear weapons, go get a copy of this now. For the hard - core nukeheads, I vote we find the author, and see if he will exhibit the remainder of the negatives!

Paul Shambroom has significantly fleshed out the visual catalogue of what, as American taxpayers, we can claim rights to as part of our national assets. Like it or not, we've got a lot of dollars tied up in the material world pictured in the ten-plus years recorded in this book. Through assiduous research, a clear-eyed view of the elements constituting nuclear culture, and a wry and occasionally awe-struck eye, Shambroom offers us a remarkable, demystifying chronicle of the growth and evolution of what now forms the foundation of our homeland's security. The images are full of humanity, too, from the personnel tenderly handling this high tech, inconceivably destructive weaponry, to the off-screen, distant launch decision makers and the similarly distant targets. For the sake of ourselves and our progeny, perhaps triangulation of the human components can help us realize the futility of ever putting these systems into play. These pictures, which certainly could not be made under current restrictions, are a kind of collective American self-portrait, the not-often-seen face of our foreign policy toward the rest of the world that would side against us.

This is a thoroughly amazing book of photographs, made possible only because of the brief moments of comparative access atomic photographers (and yes, they have a guild) had between the end of the cold war and 9/11. I've also labored in this vineyard; no one surpasses Shambroom. The book illustrates the Robert Jay Lifton remark he cites at its conclusion: "We must look into the abyss to see beyond it." That pisgah view is what Paul Shambroom gives us. Although he says he intended to neither "criticize" nor "glorify" the weapons, his book does both and neither. Many of the images of our Triadic nuclear forces (and Command and Control structures) horrify with their surreal details; but his fine art photography also beguiles us with some true glimpses of the nuclear sublime. (Plate 35's North Dakota missile silo has the same elegance as a Hudson River School landscape, for example.)
This coffee table volume from hell gets under your skin; these images have entered my dreams.... Even if you aren't interested in this subject, this book is worth a look -- and an excellent introduction to the secret world our tax dollars fund. (Every American should be issued a copy at birth.) This is what lies under the rock of the national security state. We pay for it; thanks to Paul Shambroom, you can see what you're buying into.
Many of the images will surprise you with their power. I won't give any of this away; check this one out for yourself. You won't be sorry you did.

I originally bought this book because it was published about five years after Apartheid's official demise and promised to be about "the New South Africa." There aren't many stories that come out of that country these days and it is difficult finding real information about the transition to full democracy. Regretfully, this book adds little to the quest for answers about South Africa's future.

The author does a good job of interviewing various segments of South African society, but nearly 75% of the book focuses on Apartheid, which has been effectively dead since 1990. This book has the same feel as the many dozens of others that were written prior to Mandela's election. Technically the author is conducting the interviews post-Apartheid, but the reliance is on the old ghosts of the past to excuse tacit failure.

Perhaps most frustrating are the slight clues dropped along the way that hint at corruption and crime, two areas most indicative of national direction (especially in Africa), although the author never indulges us with detail. This is unfortunate because a lot of effort was spent to put together a book that gives precious little insight into whether South Africa will wind up as another Zimbabwe, or if the continent's last great hope will manage to retain its economy and pull up its neighbors as many of us were so hopeful of in 1990.

I first heard about this book on a radio talk show and immediately ordered it through Amazon.com. Listening to the author talk about his views on South Africa was quite interesting because he loves the country and its people and is cautiously enthusiastic about its future, but reading his book reveals that the vast problems South Africa faces are incredibly complex and that it may well take several generations to create an egalitarian society. One really wonders if South Africa will stand the test of time and not become another Rwanda or Yugoslavia.

The author intelligently divided the book into four parts: an introduction in which he talks about his early trips in South Africa under apartheid and the current social situation of the country, four portrait sections in which he includes a pair of interviews with people on opposite sides of the current post-apartheid experience, and a sensible personal conclusion. The reader should expect moving as well as harrowing personal accounts of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Many things throughout the book will bring hope to the reader; however, that hope will be checked by Goodman's well-informed statistics on criminality and unemployment in present-day South Africa. The book definitively deserves a wide readership.

Having visited South Africa in October, 1998, and seen the extensive squatters areas described by the author, I do not believe that readers of his book can adequately understand the extreme poverty he describes. It has to be seen and experienced to be appreciated. Mr. Goodman's portraits of the eight people in his book gives flesh and humanity to the otherwise dehumanizing nature of apartheid. I think his work is best appreciated if you have seen South Africa for yourself. For your readers who have not been to South Africa, they owe it to themselves to see it. I believe you can not remain unmoved by what you see and one must come away from that experience a better person.