This small book by Michel and Willard is one of the best and most accessible pieces of writing I have read about eating disorders. Without the hype and drama that the conditions usually inspire, the authors discuss calmly and thoughtfully the possible root causes of anorexia and bulimia as well as the route to recovery. There were several items in this book that I found useful - one was the comprehensive discussion of the ideal team approach to treating the disorders. The role of the dietitian is particularly interesting - I had never thought of the possibility that someone with an eating disorder would need a professional with that training not just for information about eating healthfully but to give the patient an outlet for his or her obsessive concerns about food, so that therapy could address other issues. Along those lines, Michel and Willard highlight the roles that other health professionals, such as dentists, can play in identifying and treating eating disorders. This is a must read for any health professional who might ever encounter someone with an eating disorder and not be sure of what to do. I also welcomed the discussion of the male patterns with respect to eating disorders - very often we categorize these as female problems and overlook the fact that boys and men can and do suffer from them, albeit in slightly different proportions and manners. I think this is also one of the few texts that discusses the role of the family without implicitly blaming family members for what has happened - and that is valuable to all concerned. All in all, a good read - quick and informative - and essential for anyone who has an eating disorder or knows someone who does.

If I had the choice, I'd be the one to retell their awful tale, those poor, neglected children. It's quite a shame, really, the horrors one goes through in these schools. If you've got a spare moment, please do yourself a grand favour and take a weekend with this book.

Superb. You feel surrounded by the weird landscapes, aborigines, and odd characters of the outback. Builds up suspense. BRAVO!

I stumbled across this book entirely by accident and found it to be a pleasant surprise. If you are interested in different architectural design methods or simply enjoy photography of buildings, this is worth a look.

William Penn turned his back on his rich family and became a Quaker at a time when the Society of Friends was being persecuted, if not prosecuted, by the Anglican Church. In this juvenile biography of Penn for the Colonial Leaders series Norma Jean Lutz focuses on Penn's role as a "Founder of Democracy" based upon the "Charter of Privileges" he created for the colony of Pennsylvania (named for his father, whose was owed a debt by the king of England which translated into the land grant). In fact, Lutz points out that for the 50th anniversary of Penn's Charter a bell was hung in the State House at Philadelphia which we now know as the Liberty Bell. Lutz spends as much time in this book covering the religious differences that led Penn to become involved in the Society of Friends as it does to the founding of the colony of Pennsylvania. This book is illustrated with historic paintings and engravings of Penn and the Quakers, as well as contemporary photographs of some of the places and sites important in his life. Other books in this series look at Lord Baltimore (who had a disputed land claim against Penn), Benjamin Franklin, Cotton Mather, and John Smith. These books provide nice introductions to the colonists and early politicians who help defined American life.

This book by Arthur Pirkle should be in the collection of any true Winchester collector. It offers detailed information on all the parts of the 1886 and 1892 Winchester rifles and carbines. Pirkle describes each part in detail. The information in this book could be very helpful in determining the authenticity of any 1886 or 1892 Winchester. This book also has some production information and parts diagrams for both of these models. Unfortunately, there are few pictures of complete guns and there is little on the history of these guns. If you interested in collecting these models of Winchesters, or if you already do, then this book should prove invaluable to you. I would not advise this book to anyone not truly interested in collecting the 1886 or 1892 Winchesters.

Wings Above the Diamantina (1936) is one of several mysteries by Arthur Upfield set in the Australian outback, and featuring the detective Napoleon Bonaparte, who is part Aborigine and who retains and uses his bush lore to good advantage. Many readers who are only slightly familiar with Australia find the Upfield "Bony" novels fascinating in their vivid depiction of the bush, not only the appearence, but also the wildlife, weather, and how the natives and cattlemen alike survive. The mystery is to me of secondary importance, indeed I regret at times when it intrudes on the accounts of bush places and people. This particular novel, set in the early 1930s, will interest some readers with its description of social life on a cattle station, from the wealthy daughter of the owner who, though very intelligent, wears a dress hat and white gloves while visiting a cattle drive, to the bushmen who work on the station, all with sympathetic and accurate understanding. This is not serious anthropology of course (thank heavens), it is escape fiction, but all the same the reader feels that something about distant people and places is learned, and very enjoyably too. The writing is not of the high literary class (thank heavens again), but is very satisfactory. One is not apt to forget the description of the rare red sand cloud, for example, nor trying to cross the Diamantina, a river usually lacking even a particle water, when it floods to over 5 miles wide. If you like wild places this will interest you. I think Upfield's characters and settings beat Agatha Christie's any time. Four stars as a mystery, 3 as "literature," 5 for showing the bush in the 1930s. Who would work when they could go on walkabout?

With the tongues of men and angels: A study of channeling. By Arthur Hastings. Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1991. ISBN 0-03-047164-8.

When he proclaimed, "the medium is the message," it's doubtful that Marshall McLuhan had ever heard of channeling. His rule nevertheless applies. When television channels channel channelers channeling, you may have noticed, it's not the channelled communication itself they capitalize. Who can recall a television show highlighting the implications of the channeled message? Instead the focus is on whether it's really a spirit speaking, part of the channeler's subconscious personality, or maybe just a hoax. The medium's still the message.

When Jon Klimo published in 1987 his book, Channeling: Investigations on receiving information from paranormal sources, it too focused not on the message but on the medium. The history, the methods and the theories of channeling were its subject. Channeled material itself was given only a single chapter. When introducing that book, Charles Tart wrote that the question, "Who am I?" is one of the most important we can ask and that some of the most significant answers come from channelled communications. Yet Klimo's book didn't quite reflect that significance.

Edgar Cayce emphasized the comparative study of channeled guidance. Until now, however, there's been no book that satisfies that order. Arthur Hastings's study of channeling, however, is a sumptuous feast. Besides containing the required chapters on the history and parapsychology of channeling, it devotes the majority of its pages examining the contents of significant works of channeled material.

The author is Dean of the Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Menlo Park, California. His academic background is in communications and he views channeling as a form of communication. He defines it as follows:

"Channeling refers to a process in which a person transmits information or artistic expression that he or she receives mentally or physically and which appears to come from a personality source outside the conscious mind. The message is directed toward an audience and is purposeful."

What is the purpose of channeling? Hastings proposes that civilization has received much of value from channeling. He gives us a guided historical tour of the channeled material that has significantly contributed to the spiritual traditions of the world. Perhaps the earliest source of channeled materials are the Vedas, the oldest scriptures in Hinduism. More recently, Mormonism owes its inception to channeling. Hastings devotes separate chapters to metaphysical systems such as Alice Bailey and Theosophy, Jane Roberts and the Seth material, and Helen Schucman and A Course in Miracles.

Never before had I read accounts of these systems of thought by someone not writing from within that system. Until reading his book I had never encountered any criticisms, for example, of A Course in Miracles. Hastings presents several in an otherwise sympathetic treatment. I found particularly interesting the criticism that the Course seems to ignore the body, that it is strictly a "cognitive" spirituality.

Throughout he also draws some interesting parallels between these systems of thought, world religions and mythologies. He clearly shows that the sources of channeling, as extra-terrestrial as they sometimes claim to be, are quite in keeping with the collective unconscious of humanity.

It is clear that Hastings sought readings from many contemporary channelers in preparing this book. His informal observations give the book a personable grounding. He can be down to earth without being frustratingly earthbound. He can enjoy having his head in the clouds, but can tell the difference between a nitrous oxide stupor and a whiff of heaven. One of the definite values of this book is the author's presence.

What about the presence of spirits? Hastings concurs in the conclusion reached by parapsychologists almost one hundred years ago: channeling is not a good courtroom to decide upon the existence of disembodied spirits. Edgar Cayce indicated, for example, that one can't discriminate between telepathic contact with the continuing effects of a person's existence and the continuing activity of that person's spirit. If not spirits, then who's there? Hastings concludes that the entities who speak are transpersonal factors within the human mind, personifications of higher intelligence.

I found myself dissatisfied. At the outset Hastings restricts his study to channeling where a separate being is active. He specifically excludes exalted states of inspired awareness (what Klimo called "open channeling"). Yet he has but few words on why channeling so often takes the form of messages from a separate being.

In this regard, Edgar Cayce's channeling career presents an interesting enigma: He consistently advised us to turn to the highest within ourselves. He himself turned down the opportunity to channel an outside entity. Yet when describing in a public lecture what happened to him during his psychic trance state, he said he went to a hall of records where an "old man" handed him a book of information for the person requesting the reading. Who was this old man? Cayce's higher self?

I can accept that the higher self is but a personification. But I wonder why even Cayce manifests the personification process. Perhaps the answer relates to why God created souls. In Cayce's myth of creation it was for th

Frankland did a cursory job in his biography of Arthur. His exploits in Egypt under General Garnet Wolsey were not as in depth as I would have liked, but did a good job in his relationship with Queen Victoria. Arthur lived through some of the most turbulent times in Britain and Frankland did an admirable job in bringing those events with the aspect of Arthur in them. If someone is an Anglophile or even more so a fan of royalty or Queen victoria then they will enjoy Frankland's biography