...

There are three types of mystery novels. The best of them grab you by the throat and pull you along. You give up eating and sleeping to get through them in one sitting. The worst of them can be encapsulized in a page and a half, you've figured out who the killer is in three sentences, and you can safely consign them to the fire without enduring the rest of the writing therein. The third type sits between the two. It's well-written enough, and fine while you're reading it, but you don't feel that compulsion to continue when something else beckons; you don't resent the phone ringing when you hear it. These are the good mysteries (as opposed to the great ones). Robert Goddard writes good mysteries. This is his eighth, the story of how a man on a hike's chance encounter with a beautiful woman gets him (and some members of his family) tangled up in her family's odd twists and turns. It's well plotted, moves along at a steady if not brisk pace, and there are enough satisfying twists and turns to keep the reader occupied. But it doesn't beg to be picked up every time it's put down. Perhaps the problem lies in Goddard's writing style, which is a bit on the thick side; perhaps it's just his characters, who always seem to be teetering on the brink of two-dimensionality without ever actually getting there (that, of course, is a charge that can be laid against many mysteries, including some of the best; Spillane's female characters, e.g., had all the depth of a lasagna noodle). Or perhaps, Borrowed Time just doesn't read as fast as some of its contemporaries. It's certainly not a bad novel, and mystery fans who have grown tired of reading the same authors over and over again might do well to refresh themselves with a dip in Goddard's pool. Just don't be expecting another Lehane, Parker, or Highsmith. ** 1/2

I thought this was a very cleverly crafted mystery, a bit slow at first but all of the detail ultimately important to the plot. I live only a mile from where the initial fictional crime occurred, and the author has got the local detail just right. It was good for two long plane flights!

This was my first Robert Goddard book. Without doubt, it is the best. I highly recommend it to lovers of suspense and mystery. 10 out of 10, Mr Goddard!!! (PS. Past Caring is also an excellent read, if you survive the politics!)

With Darwin's publication of the Origin of the Species in 1859, two thousand years of church doctrine--that God created the species on earth in divine acts of separate creation and that Genesis is a literal description of this creation--came into direct conflict with scientific research. Darwin, himself a theologian, was reluctant to reveal his acceptance of evolution, saying that "denial of a literal interpretation of the biblical account of creation felt like 'confessing a murder.'"

This erudite and literate novel purports to be a found manuscript from an unknown author writing in 1883 from an island in the Java Sea. Telling of "Bobby" Darwin's early life and background, the speaker reveals his love for Bobby, his fascination with Bobby's explorations on the Beagle, and his influence on Bobby to accept the Theory of Evolution. The speaker, who "cannot remember ever having a God," also claims to have been the source of Alfred Russel Wallace's knowledge of The Theory. His depiction of Wallace as a self-promoting and arrogant trader of beetles and butterflies provides a bit of humor and suggests a rationale for Wallace's rush to promote his view of evolution simultaneously with that of Darwin.

Alternating fast-paced personal narrative and characterization with vibrant descriptions of fascinating, largely imaginary flora and fauna on the Java Sea island (now vanished after a volcanic eruption), the speaker focuses on the interdependence of plant and animal species on each other. The gentle gadzocks eat the salty sargassum weed, misseltow feeds on the blood of noddy chicks, crabs fell trees in order to get to coconuts, and the mystical golden scarab depends on the guano of bats. These descriptions of dependence give a thought-provoking slant to the treatment of evolution, provide numerous parallels with the human relationships in the story, and stimulate the reader's imagination about possible vanished species and the need for conservation. This is a novel of huge reach, with a full-circle, religiously suggestive conclusion. Some sections are a bit pedantic, and not all readers will enjoy the alternating focus of intimate personal revelations and descriptions of nature, but the book provides much food for thought, and, perhaps, a new view of Darwin and his achievements.

I just finished reading Nicholas Drayson's debut novel, 'Confessing a Murder.' The title comes from Charles Darwin's remark that the, to him, heretical religious implications of his Theory made him feel a little like he was 'confessing a murder.'

The premise of the book is that it purports to be the newly discovered journal of a (fictional) early Victorian gentleman, intimately associated with Darwin's family, who is exiled to the South Pacific, and after making a fortune in trade in Australia, ultimately finds himself on an island, also fictional, near Java, where he makes discoveries that suggest what later becomes Darwin's Theory of Evolution, much of which he communicates to Darwin by letter. The journal is addressed of 'Bobby', as he has called Darwin since childhood. He is obsessed by beetles and makes observations that are fascinating in their peculiarities--he reports closely observed behavior and characteristics of beetles that bespeak Drayson's familiarity with entomology. Drayson is a former curator of the National Museum in Australia and his invented details of the peculiarities of the flora and fauna of his island, while bizarre, have their own logic and are thus pretty convincing. It's 'Origin of Species' imaginatively admixed with 'Robinson Crusoe'. There's even a murder and plenty of Darwin family intrigue.

For anyone not familiar with the inner working of the Theory, there is a good deal of painless and quite clear explanation of the main points of the Theory.

This novel is a delightful piece of revisionist history concerning the formultion of the Theory of Natural Selection. The narrator, an old man marooned on an island in the Java sea when we meet him, claims to have given the main ideas that became the basis of Darwin's famous theory to both Darwin as a young man and, at least indirectly, to Wallace who came to the same idea about the same time. The title is a quote from Darwin who said that expounding the theory of evolution was like "confessing a murder" - a phrase that comes to have multiple meanings.

The narrator is an avid naturalist and comes to be obsessed with finding a golden beetle which takes him on the quest that ends on the island. The island is populated with remarkable plants and animals. They have evolved to have traits that are realistic but just a little "over the top". There is, for example, a mistletoe that is parasitic not on trees but on nestlings that happen to be nearby. The mistletoe saps their blood but far from been detrimental to the birds, the mistletoe confirs increased immunity and parasitized birds survive and grow better than their unparasitized nestmates. This book is filled with examples that will delight anyone who has studied a little animal behavior. Drayson, who was a curator at a Natural History museum in Australia, uses his knowledge artfully and imaginatively. His imaginary species support the hypotheses of behavioral ecology and their physiology are almost - but not quite - realistic.

This book is part diary, part commentary on the author's spiritual journey. The conditions of the Turkish prison forced him to come to terms with himself, his beliefs, his fellow human beings. He saw terrible things and endured some terrible situations, but he got through it all with his humanity and spirit intact, one might even say improved.

For those who like to have a story behind their spirituality, you will not be disappointed. The author details what was happening around him at each stage of his spiritual awakening. He doesn't hold anything back, you get a very intimate look at his life.

I recommend this book to anyone who's looking to make peace with their shadow self, or who thinks their life is too awful to go on. The author's journey can give you inspiration and hope.

If you experience odd things when you meditate, or meet beings that are totally out of this world, this book is for you. It explains alot and makes you feel that you are not alone in your journey through the underworld.

Words are completely inadequate to describe the horror of the experience described by Mr Mann in this book. That human beings are capable of such cruel acts of senseless violence, that we have not yet evolved past such futile, disempowered expressions of rage and envy numbs the mind. What is truly extraordinary is that rather than be crushed by the calamities which befall him, Mr Mann emerges spiritually transformed and able to embrace the world as a radiant, whole being. Having been honored to work with him briefly, I can attest to the truth of this astonishing triumph. Where most of us might be filled with hate and bitterness, Mr Mann remains generous and deeply engaged in the welfare of the world around him. His story is miraculous, but the true wonder is that as we read, we come to know this potential within ourselves. A harrowing, inspiring and deeply moving book.

I have mixed feeling for the book. It cannot be denied that the author did a lot of homework. There is much historical research which alone is worth the price of the book. Plus his proofs of the Messiahship of Yeshua are very well formatted for easy reference. Here are my criticisms of the book. The author quotes Hal Lindsey way too much. I got the impression at times that Lindsey wrote the book and Moore simply moved his lips. Just cut out the Lindsey quotes and send them Lindsey's books instead. Secondly, the Messiahship of Yeshua does not depend on the timing of the Rapture, which the author spends a great deal hammering at. Moore holds to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, which in my opinion is completely unbiblical. (I hold to the Pre-Wrath posistion.) Moore undermines his credibility on biblical positions if he holds on to unbiblical ones. This volume is worth having as a starting point and a reference guide, but not for developing one's systematic theology for escatology.

I was overwhelmed by the incredible research and documentation in the book. "Messiah Conspiracy" will be studied and quoted from for years to come. Excellent work!

In light of the recent World Trade Center bombing, this book is especially valuable. On page 813, it referred to the 1993 failed bombing and predicted the Arabs would succeed in the 21st century. Written in 1996 (the 20th century) just five years later on September 11, 2001 (a day we will never forget!), Arab Moslem terrorists, indeed, did succeed. The author illustrates, in the opening pages of chapter 20, that the Koran (the Muslim equivalent of the Christian's Bible), advocates terror and the killing of Jews/Christians should they refuse to convert to Islam. Actual passages from the Koran are quoted. It would appear to avert future Islamic terror that the Koran is in need of being edited.

Pages 824-828 unbelievably establish a biblically based explanation of the age-old conflict between Arabs and Jews from chapters found in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. However, this is the Bible believed in by Jews and Christians. According to Genesis, as author Philip Moore quotes, the scripture's promose the fat of the land, i.e., oil to the Arabs and the land of Canaan, i.e., Israel to the Jews both of whom are involved in a 4000-year long conflict which begins with Isaac and Ishmael and extends down to the modern Jews and Arabs of this present year, and on into the 2030's. (The biblical word for fat and oil are from the same Hebrew root and refers to material that produces energy and is combustible through burning. The semetic term, shumon, is also indicative of the production of great wealth.) The author quotes a June 9, 1967 Time Magazine article on page 800-801, which amazingly mentions the conflict using those two biblical names.

In chapters 2-4 and 18, he states Jesus and Moses predicted Israel, i.e., Jews would be expelled from their land in the first century (as he quotes several Bible verses from Deuteronomy and Luke, both Testaments to prove this), and that Ezekial, another Prophet in the Bible, writing 600 BC, predicted their return. Amazingly, the Jews returned to resettle their land in 1948, as he claims is a fulfillment of Chapters 36 and 37 of Ezekial's prediction found in the Jews' Old Testament. Beginning in this era, even though the Arabs own huge amounts of oil wealth, more material wealth than the Jews would ever possess, they insisted on persecution of the Jews, and those who would support them, in their claim of living on this land and giving the world the Bible; this is why the Jews are called the "chosen people." Isaac (the Jew), Ishmael's half-brother (the Arab) was called the "son of promise" in Genesis. The promise was a spiritual one that involves the coming of the Messiah (estensively documented in author's chapters 1, 3 and 5) to lead the earth's people away from paganism and back to the worship of God in a peaceful, yet to be realized earthly kingdom (chapters 29-30). The Arabs harboring jealousy over the Jews ownership of the land of Israel (as foretold by Isaac Newton, see author's chapter 11) are biblically predicted to precipitate world conflict through terrorism, which may be emulated by Russia (chapter 19) and China (chapter 21), which will establish Europe as the major power in world affairs (see chapters 22 and 23). Once the United States is substantially weakened, the new European/New Roman leader, the antichrist, will come to power to persecute millions before the second coming of Christ to crush evil and inaugurate world peace sometime in the 2020's-30's. If all of this is true, we have much to go through before we can rest.

In an appendix, "Apes Fakes and Mistakes" the author absolutely destroys any possibility of the premise of evolution having any truth or fact in its short history until now. The work is truly a book that proves the Bible while accepting the rationale of true science, even using science, along with prophecy to validate the authenticity of the genuineness of the Bible, laid out in true fact.

In Today's Librarian magazine which reviewed this book in September 1999, on page 44, stated this work was the most scholarly and detailed ever written on the subject. The book is over 1200 pages. This book is truly well worth reading, fully illustrated, with over 300 scholars quoted, composed and written in a language understandable to the layman.

For the price, this somewhat dated book, is good for someone looking to understand the symptom oriented, medical model of psychopathology. However, if you are willing to pay a little more, the two volume "Psychiatry" is much better. If you are looking for a complete understanding of the treatment of psychopathology, this book is probably not for you. It provides limited coverage of psychological, social, and client centered variables. The above mentioned "Psychiatry" is again a better bet, as is "The Oxford Textbook of Psychopathology."

Essential Psychopathology is a no-nonsense, DSM IV based loook at psychopathology and treatment that is an excellent resource for the beginning counseling student who needs a cogent look at psychopathology. This book describes the genetics, epidemiology, and psychopharmacology of mental disorders and offers guidelines for treatment.

It is slightly dated due to the fact that the DSM IV-TR has come out, but there is not any appreciable differences in how each pathology is presented.

This book is excellant for anyone working or interested in the mental health field. The authors put the DSM-IV materials into practical workings for psychotherapy and case management. They explain the importance of differential diagnosis as they review the various diagnostic criteria. While it could be used as a reference book, I found it most helpful when I read the chapters in sequence. It is a must have!

This grammar, written by a team of excellent experts in Catalan linguistics, is useful to both (foreign) learners of the language and scholars of Romance or General Linguistics. The content is well structured and accessible to the non-expert, but without being superficial as happens with many learner's grammars. Being written in English and published by a reknown publisher, it reaches a large readership, which it deserves. The book also successfully tries to be complete on the level of linguistic variation, with different dialectal areas (Catalonian as well as Valencian and Balearic Catalan) and social strata being considered. There are other useful sources for either the learner of the language or the linguist, written in Catalan, Spanish, or even English (e.g. José I. Hualde's 1992 grammar published by the same publisher), but for the time being, I would recommand the Wheeler et al. book as the best choice for the learner and the second best choice for the linguist (the best linguistic choice being the "Gramàtica del català contemporani" reference grammar published in 2002 but difficult to get hold of outside Spain).

If you are searching for a the most complete, extensive book on learning Catalan, then you search has ended. "Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar" by authors Max. W. Wheeler, Alan Yates, and Nicolau Dols is the best book on the market in learning this widely spoken Romance language.

Published by the magnificent British publishing giant, Routledge Press, this book will give you the lowdown on everything you need to read, write, and understand Catalan. Grammar, structure, verb conjugations are all covered here. Mr. Yates, who in my opinion is one of the best Catalan linguists in the world, previously wrote the excellent "Teach Yourself Catalan" book, which was the first book that allow me to comprehend Catalan in little time.

Both Wheeler and Yates, who are professors at two universities in Great Britain, along with Dols, who teaches at a university in Spain, have done an excellent job in capturing the essence and importance of this language.

While Catalan is primarily spoken only in four countries (Spain, France, Andorra, and Italy), it is a language that should be studied by those interested in Catalan studies. Travelers and businessmen to Catalonia and the Balearic Islands will find this book helpful in learning this language, that although it is the seventh most spoken in the European Union, it is not officially recognized by that organization.

If you want to learn Catalan, I suggest the following books.

(1) "Teach Yourself Catalan" by Alan Yates

(2) "Catalan Sin Enfuerzo" by the Assimil staff (for Spanish speakers wanting to learn Catalan)

(3) "Catalan-English Dictionary" by the Routledge Press staff (It is about $30)

(4) "Cambridge Word Selector: English-Catalan" by the Cambridge University Press staff.

With these books, you'll be mastering this once-forbidden language in no time. No trip to Barcelona, Catalonia, or the Balearic Islands can be fully enjoyed without learning the native language of the region's inhabitants.

Routledge's and Blackwell's "Comprehensive Grammars" are perhaps the most complete linguistic surveys made today. Whether you're travelling to Catalonia, wish to read Catalan poetry, or are just linguistically interested in Catalan, this book can help you get an orderly and thorough understanding of the language, regardless of your initial level.

While Catalan has undergone serious standardization programs in recent years, it still has wide regional variation, and this book addresses it fairly good. Besides, the book is very detailed (like all the books in the series I mentioned above), so you may wish to skip some parts of it if you use it just for reference.

I can't believe a student considered this a book for the "feeble-minded". While the introduction quickly covers the basic technologies driving media today, the flowcharting principles and media management guidelines are top notch. This book provides an excellent foundation for getting your multimedia team of designers, programmers and producers off on the right foot. I made it required reading for the members of my staff, and I recommend it to all of my students.

Luppa has been working with Disney,Hewlett Packard and Apple computers and he is currently vice-president of Paramount Digital Entertainment. His book is one of the best publications in this field. He gives examples on interactive teching methods and evaluation criteria, implementation issues etc. (Multimedia workflow models,designing documents,interactive entertainment). A must for techer's and lecturer's, goes beyond the counting of pixels of a desktop-icon. I am lecturer for Interactive Media Design at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore.

I found the book to be a clear and simple explanation of the design principles needed to create excellent web sites and CD-ROMs. It was also an exceptional review of instructioanl design strategies for use with interacive video and the internet.

The author ought to stick to romance novels.

OK, so you've figured out how to drive the software and you've learnt the basic operations. Now, what does it all mean? This book is a great attempt to answer that question.
Nick Chrisman has drawn on his wealth of GIS experience to go beyond the basics. Don't expect to learn them here, you'll have to do that elsewhere. But when it gets down to just what it means, this is the place to be.
If you want GIS to work in a decision-making environment (which is 100% of its real applications, after all), learn from this book. We have used it as the second GIS text at The Ohio State University's Geodetic Science graduate program, and the students have appreciated its approach and content.
BTW, get the second edition (2002), noted here as 'Wie Exploring GIS' for some reason.

I am an experienced GIS professional and this book is one of my favorites in my library. It is the best single source for understanding the scientific and technological context of GIS. This book has changed the way I think about GIS.

The comment from the reader from Hong Kong is completely off-target. Did this person really read this book?

I liked this book very much for the mere fact that Mann does not put on airs in this book, but is instead looking at modern ailments within the masculine psyche from a perennial earth-centered perspective. Unlike DRUID MAGIC, which I feel is partially a valiant attempt to explore Druidism but also one that has some glaring inaccurate representations, I thought HIS STORY was just the kind of writing we need to see getting turned out in the modern milieu--namely, the kind of writing that truly addresses the imbalances, wounds, habitual patterns, and fallacies of paradigms that have taken root in our contemporary society as a result of leaving an earth-centered spiritual cosmology behind. Mann approaches a number of positive male archetypes, as well as ways of revisioning a modern masculinity that is rooted in gentleness, strength, a sense of honoring the feminine within and without, and an overall spirit of alignment of the male soul with the soul of earth. I applaud this investigation, its general thesis, and its conclusions. Where Pagan, neo-Pagan, Druid, and neo-Druid writings interface with a deep-seated look at the psychology that shapes our world we have potential tools for addressing authentic change and this is one book that aspires to this.

This book puts into words what many men have felt for many years: Just about everything that men use to judge their worth is based on an artificial, unnatural ideal that puts one gender, one class, one society, one religion as the supreme power and all others are inferior or dangerous. It also helps answer the question, "Just how can a man BE a man in a world that is increasingly hostile towards masculinity?" Nicholas R. Mann exposes how men have, for millennia, been forced to believe that the only way men can BE men is to dominate others. He further shows how hierarchical structures, in religion, in politics, in business, and even in families, were designed to keep men believing they had to be in control in order to be favored by the ultimate authority, The Deity. The concept that few must have power over many is the root of the problem modern men face. This book provides new criteria that feel satisfying and natural.

Anyone that reads His Story that has even a surface knowledge of anthro will connect with what mann is trying to convey. All of his references from other sources are verifiable and scholarly. Mann points out in his book that some of the restless felt by the white North American male is due to a scense of rootlessness with no conection to a deep past,ancient tradition,or native culture he can call his own. He also goes on to point out that the Patriarcle system that has been in place for thousands of years, made explicit in and sanctified by it's religions, forms the basis for the domination over everything of "lesser worth" (ie. native Americans, the environment,Women,) giving license to the frame of mind that the scarcest of something is the most valuble or powerful. And that things that are more "abundant" are of lesser worth. If you are not pro-equality between the sexes, the races, or religions of the world, this book is not for you.

The monadology on the whole needs no introduction, but this book brings lucidity to some of the more peripheral problems facing Leibniz esp. the relativistic theory of space and time. Ensure you have read elementary logic in the form of Guttenplan or Hodges.

Leibniz' "Monadology" offers a deeply thought out alternative to the physicalist world view implicit in Galileo and the mechanistic side of Descartes. Leibniz outlines a fascinating and distinct view of the relationship of mind and body, the nature of organisms, and the nature of the universe. Rescher's edition is nothing short of spectacular, offering elaboration of each proposition in the "Monadology" with extensive quotes from Leibniz' other works, as well as his own commentary. This edition is one of the best available ways of becoming acquainted with Leibniz' thought and with the substantive issues involved. Readers who find this book interesting might also enjoy reading Heidegger's commentaries on Leibniz in his book "The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic." Here Heidegger is at his best, offering detailed textual exegesis and a sincere attempt to find the inner logic of Leibiz' thought.

Leibniz was a master of logical thinking and metaphysics. Leibniz envisioned the "Monadology" as a precise argument and elucidation of his metaphysical system. It is almost universally agreed upon that he is among the top theistic philosophers to ever live. Intelligent people should be able to see this, iff they are not blinded by dogma und superstition. I myself believe in no God of the kind Leibniz describes, however he, with Rescher's help, brings me to question this belief more than any other writer I have read. Rescher does a very comprehensive job supplamenting "The Monadology" and his comments should be of help for students and philosophers alike.