The lodging reviews look like they are taken right out of the lodge's promotional material, and the section on Best Places to Stay is entirely misleading (It recommends Maruba as the best spot - meanwhile Maruba's water is undrinkable, the shower's smell like low tide, and a 24 hour a day disco beat is played over the sound-system), often missing the best places like Francis Ford Coppola's Jungle resort.

The description of towns and places to see fail to account for any changes in the area an miss the newer places to visit, stay and eat (In Placentia there is an amazing French restaurant called Le Petit Maison which has been there for four years but is never mentioned in this book).

Anderson presents an interesting study of Southern mentalities, ideals of chivalry and honor (with a fascinating aside on horses), and how Turner Ashby, as both chivalric and violent, provided his supporters with a vital image with which to construct their wartime behavior.

Occasionally Anderson's prose is not as lucid as it might be, and he doesn't distinguish Ashby's supporters demographically as clearly as I wish he had. Coming from the Shenandoah Valley area as they did, one imagines that some of his followers were really from the mountains: did they share images of chivalry? In addition, I'd have liked to see more quotes from the irregular cavalrymen who presumably made up most of the supporters Anderson is studying.

Overall, I found this to be an interesting, if not flawless, study of mentalities, and a unique addition to Civil War scholarship. Anderson's descriptions of Ashby's personal experiences are especially vivid.

This is a book you don't want to miss.
It keeps you interested throughout the entire
book. I just kept trying to guess who was involved
with the murders but it was to tricky. So many things
were going on you didn't want to put the book
down. I would really like to see this book put
on the big screen or even a T.V. movie. If you like
thrillers don't miss this one.

I have many problems with this book

1. the book is on glossy paper making it dificult to read under some lighting conditions, and some of the pages have text over a background color making the problem worse.

2. Page 24 has an illustration of the meridians, but this diagram is less than useless. Not only are the meridians wrong, but he added a thyroid meridian. There are 12 primary meridians, and they are linked with various organs with the exception of the Triple Heater meridian. The thyroid is not an organ, it is a gland in the endocrine system.

3. Mr Wildish misnames the Conception Qi vessel that runs down the center of the chest as the directing Qi vessel.

4. Mr. Wildish states that Jing (one if the three treasures Jing, Ch'i, and Shen) is stored in the genitals. My Qigong instructor taught me that Jing was stored in the kidneys. I have seen other books by people I respect verify what Tsang taught me.

5. On page 35, Mr. Wildish states that all of the accupuncture points occur on the meridians. This is not so. The Hegu point does not occur on any meridian (one single exception defeats the universality of his statement).

6. On pages 36-38 Mr. Wildish shows people standing in the first five Zhan Zhaung poses, but provides virtualy no instruction to go with them. You are on your own baby.

7. On page 39; Mr. Wildish states there are 365 accupuncture points on the body. There are 705 accupuncture points.

8. On page 54; Mr. Wildish states that accupuncture is painless while inserting the needles. Some of the accupuncture points can be very painful while inserting the needles. After the needle has entered the point and the ch'i flow has been altered, it is painless.

9. Page 92 Mr. Wildish implies that Sensei Mikao Usui (the founder of Reiki) was a "christian". There is not one scintila of evidence that Sense Usui was a "christian", or that he ever traveled to the United States, or that he ever attended a Christian University in Chicago. I am a Reiki master, and have searched for information about Sensei Usui for years.

10. Why is does a book titled "The Book Of Ch'i" go into fields as diversed as Chi Kung (Qigong), Zhan Zhaung, Accupuncture, Shiatsu, Do-In, Reiki, Tai Chi Ch'uan, Pa Kua, Hsing I Ch'uan, Budo, Aikido, Iaido, Feng Shui, Meditation, Therapeutic Touch, and Reflexology. This book is ONLY 242 pages in length, and does not cover any of them in enough depth to really assist you.

I would recommend yjay you leave this book on the shelf.

If you want to begin energy work look for another volume, or E-Mail me for recommendations. Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)

The moral of the story is never to pick a book with a boring cover. This very very very boring book had even a worse cover. Who would want to pick a book whose cover has a boy with such an empty expression on his face. The blurb was negative and upsetting. The first chapter was about a girl that did not know what to do with her self. The last chapter is about a person getting a job in such an unexciting place. What I learned from the book (the moral) is that I must avoid at all costs such an unpromising book like "Boss of the Pool" by Robin Klein.