I say that because, well, I just can't think of a word to describe how I feel about this book. This book was written in 1949, but John Myers Myers writes SO WELL that you'd think it was written in the present-day if you didn't know any better. I constantly found myself devouring it in 100 page gulps. Unlike nearly all other fantasy novels that are serious, this fantasy novel is intentionally humourous. The main character, Silverlock, finds himself stranded on a strange continent called The Commonwealth. As he journeys with his friend Golias, he meets up with MANY familiar literary characters. The literary characters and references are scattered through the book, but John Myers Myers doesn't stick with any of them very long. That way they don't go stale or get too much attention. There are TONS of humorous situations and poems in this book that will make you perk right up. Tolkien may have been a good poet, but JMM was just as good and sometimes far better. After reading a flood of formula-fantasy, this book is very fresh and rewarding. It downright shocks me that so few people have commented on this book. Please, do yourself a favor and buy this book IMMEDIATELY.

Read Silverlock while in High School and all your college Literature classes will be infinitely better! You can play spot-the-cross-reference as you follow Shandon on his exuberant journey, but the most fun is just sitting back and enjoying the ride. This book is about the journey of one man's soul from narrow unconsciousness to zest and life, and it does the same for the reader. You'll immediately want to go out and find an adventure!

I got my copy years ago and after having read it dozens of times it is badly worn. I found this site in my search for a new copy. This is simply the best work of fiction ever produced. Myers creates an entire world to challenge and capture the imagination, populated with both well known and obscure characters from all throughout literature. They are wonderful to recognize in this new context, and there is not a dull moment to be found in these adventures. This book will make you feel truly alive, and see the world around you with new awe and appreciation. Nothing compares to Silverlock. I urge you to demand as loud as possible that a new reprint is made- the world needs Silverlock!

This book is about 3 people, Score, Helaine and Pixel. They have exiting adventures and it feels like the characters are real! I think everyone should get to read this fantastic book. I read about 50 pages and then got so interested in the book I read the whole book. This is the best book I've ever read,and the most exiting adventure story I ever read! I can't wait for the other book!

Usually I hate fantastic fiction, but this book, (and the other in the series), totally changed my view.It's very cool, especially the part where they made friends with goblins and fought the wyrm.This book,unlike the first one shows you don't have to fight everything to win. I warmly recommend it for monster-magic lovers especially.Good book.

I read books 1-4 of DIADEM.I will buy 5 and 6. You should keep on writing. Think of making this book a television series, computer software(Windows 95), and a movie. You should make a book that they have to face an evil version of themselves. And Shanara has enough power to help them and give them each a unicorn horn and a familiar(bird,mammal,reptile). And each gets a griomore or book of spells. Helaine has Eremin's, Score has Traxis's, and Pixel has Nantor's.

From the first paragraph the reader is held tight to the words here, with feelings created by Michael Vines as he weaves the story of Sarah, Joshua and her life. We feel the purity of deep innocent love in a world of impure morals, and he shows us the depths of evil as forces turn against her because of her beliefs. Michael has created a work of great beauty, deep emotion, and thoroughly impacting on a readers' senses. I would gladly recommend this book to most knowing that it will live long in their hearts. This book while adult in it's maturity makes you feel uplifted, and redeemed in the belief in good vs. evil. I would keep it with me for the "dark" days in my life as I would need his message most at those times. This is a heart melter!

I read too much. I sleep poorly so I read, and I read so much I often feel I have read it all. I abandon most books long before I am finished because my attention has wandered elsewhere. When I do bother to finish a book, I seldom remember it. But I do remember Theophany, and Theophany still bothers ME! You don't forgot Theophany.

I literally read Theophany in one (very, very long) sitting because I just couldn't nail it. It was extremely interesting but it kept me totally off balance through the the entire experience. It is a rollercoaster ride of emotions toward the characters, from a fascinated adoration of Sarah, the heroine (an awkward, inadequate term here) and her family, to an intense hatred of the villain, whom I will let you meet for yourself. Michael Vines, the author, ignores the usual limits by allowing things to happen to his characters that just aren't allowed to happen elsewhere. The plot never goes where expected and the ending is not what you allow yourself to anticipate. One thing you cannot do while reading this book is relax. Or forget it after. I will be rereading it some day so I am keeping my copy. I strongly recommend it, but you will have to buy your own.

Theophany is a charming and touching novel, with a lovable main character that we quickly grow to care about a great deal. The story is so engrossing, that its not especially apparent that you are being challenged to think. Its message of spirituality, love and sacrifice, seem very apt in the manic, sometimes rather cold seeming world we live in. As Sarah makes her journey, we journey with her and see the light in humanity that Michael Vines obviously does. Its universality and hope will appeal to anyone of faith, or indeed to anyone who has faith in the human heart. I recommend Theophany highly

I disagree with the 5-star consensus of the previous reviewers - Kerouac's writing is not 'faultless prose', as he characterizes it himself in this novel. But 'Desolation Angels' is another fascinating glimpse into the heart of this daring and nomadic - literally and spiritually - author. One star gets shaved from my review for the unfocused, enigmatic opening section of the book, 'Desolation in Solitude'. A rethinking of 'Alone on a Mountaintop' from 'Lonesome Traveler', this section only thickens the fog in both the reader and in the author, it seems. It's not that it rambles - all Kerouac's writing does, and to point it out as a flaw is like insisting that Bob Dylan's voice sucks. Of course it does, that's the point. But Kerouac characterized the Desolation Peak experience before and did it better in 'Lonesome Traveler'.

However, once Kerouac makes his descent and rejoins the world in the second half of Book One and through all of Book Two, the way that his mountaintop experience informs his perspective in places like New York, Mexico, and Europe is engrossing and surpisingly intelligent. Drawing from a wide variety of influences from St. Paul to Buddha to Hemingway, Kerouac revisits familiar places and people with a broadened and more cynical point of view. Desolation Angels is more candid, forthright, even explicit, than its predecessors about drug use and sex. But it also reveals a more exhaustive spiritual hunger in Kerouac, and leads the reader to conclude that the author, in his quest to meet God, realized he had indeed found Him.

By turns a thoughtful, pensive, funny and risk-taking novel, Desolation Angels is canonical Kerouac.

There are usually two types of Kerouac readers. There are the "On the Roaders", as I call them. The ones that enjoy his style, his way of placing his friend's lives into the context of their own troubles, their loneliness their love-- all the while with a literary pace likened to a old pickup speeding across the straightaways of the vacant Montana backroads. And then there are the others, who like the former, enjoy the style-- but they also look for the sadness in Kerouac's writing. His ability to deconstruct people with one look (in Des. Angels he watches a waitress in a bar and tells her entire life story in snapshot events that underlie the sad look in her eyes), to find the hidden sentiments in people's actions- whether he's right or wrong we really don't care.

Desolation Angels is the book for the second group of people. It is tortuous at times- like his solitude atop the mountain staring Hozomeen in the face every morning which reveals Kerouac's own struggle to deal with himself and his past. But I believe among all of his novels it is the most rewarding. The book takes us to all of his major haunts- London, New York, San Fran, Paris, the Mediterranean- with many of his closest friends - Neal, Allen, Williams S. Burroughs, Joyce. There's even a small part where Kerouac is face to face with Salvidore Dali.

If you are looking for Kerouac-the-humanist at his best- this is the novel for you. Where the novel lacks in adventure (On the Road) and joyous affirmation (dharma bums) it makes up in sheer descriptive character study and sad observation, of a man trying to grapple with what he sees as the emptiness of all things, and the sad reality of his own personal struggles with live, love, and death.

Desolation Angels was the second Kerouac book I purchased, and it became my favorite book. In the first half of the book, the "Desolation" chapters explain Jack's feelings and mind more than in any other book and during an important period of his life. Some people say the book is schitzophrenic, having been started in Mexico City in 1956 and completed around 1962. However, I believe the result is not two books but half of the book being thoughts and feelings and the other half being a thoughtful man reflecting. In any case, the book is wonderful, and reading the entire novel does take some work but well worth the effort!

This is the greatest book anyone an possibly buy on hitting. It is written by one of the top 3 hitters in baseball history, Ted Williams, and he definitely knows what he's talking about. Take it from me, I know. Im a 15 year old baseball player, whenever I get into a slump I can read this book and it will automatically get me out of it. If you read this at the beggining of a season it's possible your batting average could at least increase by .200, depending on how good you are. He explains the importance of having a good swing, stride, and everything essential to being a good hitter. This is a must have for every little leaguer.

In the past 2 years I have read EVERYTHING there is to read on the subject of hitting preperatory to teaching my gifted 8 year old son and while I tell you that in virtually each and every book there exists some gem that you can apply to help increase chances of success THIS BOOK is the definative work on hitting.

What amazes me the most is that Williams, only a HS graduate, but yet possessing of an incredibly gifted intellect, as is exhibited by his becoming a fighter pilot etc, taught himself through trial, error and DETAILED analysis what the incredibly complex physics of the swing are. Recently, with the publication of Rob't K Adair's THE PHYSICS OF THE SWING we have the definitive confirmation of what Williams came to understand himself but now from a scientific and scholarly source. Williams doesn't articulate it in his book but he employed a law of physics called The Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum. Simply stated as it applies here it means that when you hold the arms close to the body and start the swing with your hips rather than your arms you will generate greater bat speed. Williams stated this simply in his book when he talks about starting the swing with the hips and holding the hands back as long as you can.... the farther the hands get away from the body the slower the bat speed. It's a law of physics that simply cannot be overcome. The hands, wrists and arms add nothing to the speed of the bat. They are mere conduits through which the power which is generated by the legs and the torso are transferred to the bat. Williams was intelligent enough to figure this one out on his own. Well, as he stated in his book, Rogers Hornsby's immortal words: "great hitters are not born, they are CREATED by study, hard work and fault correction" probably provided him with the spark he needed.

He was an amazing man who had problems with his pears when he played as super intelligent people often do. Fortunately now he is getting his just due and respect.

Thank you and rest in peace Teddy Ballgame!

This book is great for anyone who wants to learn the intricacies of hitting a baseball well, and also learning which balls to hit. Ted Williams probably knows more about hitting than any man alive, and the only subject he says he enjoys talking about as much as hitting is fishing. If you read this book you will quickly realize he is telling the truth; his enthusiasm jumps out at you from the pages.

Too many times we have heard the stories of impossible jobs done by incredible men. John Carl Roat's "Class-29" is not the newest story or version of such. Roat's book is the unabashed and almost unbelieveably unbiased truth about the creation of a U.S. Navy SEAL. Roat's ability to write honesty and forthrightly about himself and those members of Class-29, keeps you on the edge of incrediblity as to just how much stamina and drive one can find to keep themselves going.

Most know and understand a Navy SEAL is, at minimum, most celebrated for his ability to face any and all odds and serious adversity and still successfuly complete a nasty, impossible assignment; survive, and be immediately prepared to begin and complete yet another dirty outrageous assignment.

We have all heard and read of the many stories of SEAL valor, courage and various abilities under fire and against any and all odds. But, until now, we did not have the opportunity to understand just how one becomes eligible to be a SEAL, or what testing is necessary to assure a SEAL candidate will be able to give all, take the unpredictable and indeterminate punishment, and still complete almost any and all assignments.

John Carl's book clearly demonstrates basic truth a SEAL must face to become fortunate enough to earn the right to wear the "Trident."

Roat writes in a passioned and understanding way, remarkably remembering clearly, despite his tender age during that time, the obstacles and comraderie experienced by himself and his Class 29 mates. He is able to make the training, testing and truth finding experience come alive, facilitating the reader's ability to understand how a mere man can become a U.S. Navy SEAL and the most highly trained and dangerous warrior in the arsenal of any armed force.

Roat lets the reader see that the SEAL starts with an individual's basic interior framework, and continues to test his strength with the harsh truths from which the SEAL is trained.

John Carl Roat writes from the heart and in truth. I personally vouch for his characterizations of himself and his teammates as although I did not have the honor to serve with John, I had the opportunity and honor to serve with other members of Class-29. I was fortunate and lucky enough to become a member and graduate of Class 40, and serve with Underwater Demolition Team 21.

SEALS are still created from TRUTH.

John is an excellent story teller and his description of the pain and cold of UDT Training leaves little to the imagination. His colorful explanations of some of the evolutions of training are blended with personal anecdotes from other trainees. This book is an excellent read. If your interests lie in the history of Naval Special Warfare, The Making of U.S. Navy SEALs should be part of your library.

The author's retelling of what he and his fellow teammates wentthrough during U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team training is anexcellent account of determination and teamwork. This book is not a typical special warfare, shoot-em-up, Rambo-type story. It's just the real deal, no BS description of what it takes, and what kind of person has what it takes, to make it through the world's hardest training program. Alot of what John Roat describes about what he and his fellow teammates had to do, has parallels with many other aspects of everyday life; not just military training. Having the motivation, ingenuity, and just plain guts to tough it out when the going seems impossible, and you could just as easily quit. A great read!

Plato, Complete Works is a must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in philosophy. Cooper's and Hutchinson's edition contains all Plato's known works and even some that might not be his, but are associated with him in some way. The translations are generally well-written and their style more up-to-date and readable than some older translations. As reviewers said before, this book is necessary if you want to understand philosophy and its history.

Except for some of the shorter works, (Euthyphro, Apology, Symposium), Plato's works are not easy to read. Some works are so dense and difficult that you can't see the point of his argument (e.g., Parmenides). If you need some help interpreting Plato, a good introduction to his work is G.M. Grube's Plato's Thought. It provides clear exposition on a number of subjects, including the theory of ideas, the nature of the soul, education, and statecraft.

One needs to decide whether Plato's thought is vital today or just historically important. Those who treat Plato as important today fall into one of two groups. There are those who think he is the source of that evil called Western Civilization. Post-modernists see modern philosophy as a series of rhetorical tropes started by Plato. They hold him responsible for the metaphysical nonsense espoused in philosophy today about reality, objectivity, and knowledge. If you think Plato is total nonsense and think his characters Protagoras (man is the measure of things) and Thrasymachus (might makes right) are largely correct, you might want to compare his work to Derrida or Nietzsche.

Then there are the Hellenists. They think that Plato said it all and nothing (or not much) more needs to be said. You usually get Alfred North Whitehead's quote here about philosophy being a series of footnotes to Plato. If you are so enthralled, you might want to try Allen Bloom, Stanley Rosen, or Leo Strauss.

Personally, I think both readings are wrongheaded for the same reason. In the 19th and 20th centuries especially, philosophy has made conceptual advances on Plato. Frege's logic, Kuhn's history of science, Peirce's communitarian pragmatism, and Wittgenstein's later language theory step beyond Plato.

If Plato is important today, it is for what he started, not what he says. He began the philosophical fields that are still popular areas today, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics. And he invented the character of Socrates, through which he developed the notions of dialectic and definition. For these reasons alone, Plato's works should be read carefully and often. The fact that you get all of them here in one relatively inexpensive book (at least in terms of price per work) should be incentive enough to buy it.

In ancient times, Plato was regarded as one who writes most beautifully, and even in translation his mastery comes forward.

Reading this book, you are at the beginning of philosophy. There are beautiful dialogs concerning the most profound questions anyone can ask.

An advantage of this particular book is that for a reasonable price you can own Plato's complete works in modern scholarly translations. The volume is skillfully edited and there are handy notes.

Plato is one of the few philosophers who can be read for pleasure. His influence on Western thought is immense. As Whitehead says, subsequent Western philosophy is just footnotes to Plato.

Here are some of the works collected in this volume -

Apology - Socrates defense of his life

Phaedo - a defense of the immortality of the soul

Euthyrpo - a criticism of the Divine Command theory of ethics

Republic - the ideal commonwealth, what is justice, theory of ideas

Meno - the recollection theory of knowledge

Timaeus - Plato's story of the creation of the universe, his cosmology

I have not read every narration and account in this huge book yet but so far I am extremely happy with it. First, Plato's works are wonderful and somehow maintain a freshness even after reading through several in a row. The threads of logic woven through these works are a delight and I have found myself laughing aloud occasionally at the near sarcasm I feel I'm reading - Socrates often comes across as a quick-tongued smart-A**.

The translation is free-flowing and up-to-date. If you can read English, buy this book. If not, learn to and then buy this or have someone read it to you. It is that good and that important.

As a huge sports fan, I couldn't wait to read this book and get an inside look into a college basketball season with Bob Knight and his Indiana Hoosiers. John Feinstein pulled off a minor miracle by convincing Knight to allow him to follow the whole team, players and coaches alike with his notepad and tape recorder throughout the 1985-86 season.

What you'll see is an inside look at the trials and tribulations of a big-time college basketball team and the sometime circus atmosphere created by their tempermental coach. The book starts off with a quick recap of the 1984-85 season which included the now famous chair throwing incident. Then you are lead through the offseason, training camp and regular season of 1985-86. Feinstein does a good job of keeping up the pace despite giving detailed recaps of every season's game. He ends the book with a brief summary of the national championship season of 1986-87.

There's no doubt who the center point of the whole book is: That of course is Bob Knight. I'm not an Indiana hoosier fan but I certainly was well aware of all the incidents Knight's been involved in over the years including the chair throwing, head butting, and choking. I can't say that my opinion of him changed at all after reading this book. The best word I can use to describe him is: complex.

In this book, you'll read how he verbally abuses players, especially Daryl Thomas. He'll play mind games like he did with Steve Alford, the team captain and best player. He'll be upbeat about the performance of the team one minute, and then the next he'll say how the team is horrible and will never win with these players. Warning: there is some profanity, but the f-words are "blanked" out.

But at the same time, this coach is extremely loyal to his players after they graduate. He'll do favors such as help get them jobs, etc. One of the most touching moments in the book is when he meets a family where the father and son are deaf-mute. Is his good side good enough to put up with his other nonsense? You be the judge!

Supposedly, BK was NOT very happy with the book. I don't know what he expected, but Feinstein clearly didn't take sides or had some kind of adgenda to [thrash] Knight. This is must read for all sports fans, Indiana Hoosiers or not.

I read this book more than 10 years ago and it sticks with me even today. This is a masterpiece that shows the mind, ethics, mania, honor, despite, loathesomeness, and honesty of Bob Knight. The same man who screamed at his kids until his face matched his ubiquitous red sweater is the same man who paid for Stew Robinson's final tuition credits (after the scholarship ran out) from his own pocket. The same coach who is mournful or enraged or both after a loss was preternaturally calm after his '86-87 team won the NCAA title stressing how great it was for the kids.

The dichotomies of Knight are fascinating, and occasionally frightening. I was a Knight-hater before I read the book. I don't hate him, nor would I pretend to understand him. His self-view is highly nuanced and the depiction Feinstein gives reflects the complexities and contradictions of Knight, his program and the pressures of college basketball.

This book is outstanding because of how much Feinstein reveals, perceives and transmits to the reader.

This is a fascinating look into the genius and the madness that is Bob Knight. Feinstein details what its like to play for the demanding hall of fame coach. He takes you behind the scenes and into the locker room. Once I started, I could not put this book down. This book is a must for any basketball fan

For a book to be even considered to a classic; then it, i.e., the book has to stand the test of time (and by so been read, pondered on and enjoy by several generations). The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio, et al is one of these few books, e.g., The Odyssey, Thus Spoke Zarathustra et al. The story follows a plethora of storytellers whom all have gone to the countryside to escape the plague. The stories are filled with bravura, vigor, fortitude, a bit of sex and many other subjects (that are all written with an uncanny ability). If one considered oneself to be a scholar or a learned man then this book, i.e., The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics) by Giovanni Boccaccio, et al, is a must have; since not owning or having read it, then one as a person/scholar/learnedman must be considered less then civilized.

Any book defined as a true classic is likely to be thought of as stultifying and incomprehensible...at best. Yet, there are dozens and dozens of books that are true classics and still manage to speak to today's modern audience. Boccaccio's Decameron is one such book.

The Decameron was written around 1350 during an outbreak of plague in Florence. It is the fictional account of ten young people who flee the city to a country manor house and, in an effort to keep themselves occupied and diverted, begin telling stories.

Ten days pass in the pages of the Decameron (hence its name), and each person tells one story per day, making a total of one hundred stories. These are stories that explore a surprisingly wide range of moral, social and political issues whose wit and candor will probably surprise most modern readers. The topics explored include: problems of corruption in high political office, sexual jealousy and the class differences between the rich and the poor.

The titles themselves are both imaginative and fun. One story is titled, "Masetto da Lamporecchio Pretends to be Deaf and Dumb in Order to Become a Gardener to a Convent of Nuns, Where All the Women Eagerly Lie With Him." And, although the title, itself, is a pretty good summary of the story, even a title such as this cannot adequately convey Boccaccio's humor and wit.

Another story that seems surprisingly modern is, "Two Men are Close Friends, and One Lies With the Other's Wife. The Husband Finds it Out and Makes the Wife Shut Her Lover in a Chest, and While He is Inside, the Husband Lies With the Lover's Own Wife on the Chest." A bit long for today's modern world, perhaps, where popular books are dominated by titles such as John Grisham's The Firm, but the outcome of this story is as socially-relevant today as anything that happened in fourteenth-century Florence.

The Decameron, however, goes far beyond plain, bawdy fun and takes a close look at a society that is unraveling due to the devastating effects of the plague. The people in Boccaccio's time suffered terribly and the book's opening pages show this. The clergy was, at best, inept and, more often than not, corrupt. Those who had the misfortune to fall ill (and this includes just about everyone) were summarily abandoned by both their friends and family.

Those looking for something representative of the social ills of Boccaccio's day will find more than enough interesting tidbits and asides in these stories. Serious students of literature will find the ancestors of several great works of fiction in these pages and readers in general cannot fail to be entertained by the one hundred stories spun by these ten refugees on their ten lonely nights.

Giovanni Boccaccio THE DECAMERON. Second Edition. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by G. H. McWilliam. cli + 909 pages. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-044629-X (Pbk).

Second-hand opinions can do a lot of harm. Most of us have been given the impression that The Decameron is a lightweight collection of bawdy tales which, though it may appeal to the salacious, sober readers would do well to avoid. The more literate will probably be aware that the book is made up of one hundred stories told on ten consecutive days in 1348 by ten charming young Florentines who have fled to an amply stocked country villa to take refuge from the plague which is ravaging Florence.

Idle tales of love and adventure, then, told merely to pass the time by a group of pampered aristocrats, and written by an author who was quite without the technical equipment of a modern story-teller such as Flannery O'Connor. But how, one wonders, could it have survived for over six hundred years if that's all there were to it? And why has it so often been censored? Why have there always been those who don't want us to read it?

A puritan has been described as someone who has an awful feeling that somebody somewhere may be enjoying themselves, and since The Decameron offers the reader many pleasures it becomes automatically suspect to such minds. In the first place it is a comic masterpiece, a collection of entertaining tales many of which are as genuinely funny as Chaucer's, and it offers us the pleasure of savoring the witty, ironic, and highly refined sensibility of a writer who was also a bit of a rogue. It also provides us with an engaging portrait of the Middle Ages, and one in which we are pleasantly surprised to find that the people of those days were every bit as human as we are, and in some ways considerably more delicate.

We are also given an ongoing hilarious and devastating portrayal of the corruption and hypocrisy of the medieval Church. Another target of Boccaccio's satire is human gullibility in matters religious, since, then as now, most folks could be trusted to believe whatever they were told by authority figures. And for those who have always found Dante to be a crushing bore, the sheer good fun of The Decameron, as Human Comedy, becomes, by implication (since Boccaccio was a personal friend of Dante), a powerful and compassionate counterblast to the solemn and cruel anti-life nonsense of The Divine Comedy.

There is a pagan exuberance to Boccaccio, a frank and wholesome celebration of the flesh; in contrast to medieval Christianity's loathing of woman we find in him what David Denby beautifully describes as "a tribute to the deep-down lovableness of women" (Denby, p.249). And today, when so many women are being taught by anti-sex radical feminists to deny their own bodies and feelings, Boccaccio's celebration of the sexual avidity of the natural woman should come as a very welcome antidote. For Denby, who has written a superb essay on The Decameron that can be strongly recommended, Boccaccio's is a scandalous book, a book that liberates, a book that returns us to "the paradise from which, long ago, we had been expelled" (Denby, p.248).

The present Penguin Classics edition, besides containing Boccaccio's complete text, also includes a 122-page Introduction, a Select Bibliography, 67 pages of Notes, four excellent Maps and two Indexes. McWilliam, who is a Boccaccio scholar, writes in a supple, refined, elegant and truly impressive English which successfully captures the highly sophisticated sensibility of Boccaccio himself. His translation reads not so much as a translation as an original work, though his Introduction (which seems to cover everything except what is most important) should definitely be supplemented by Denby's wonderfully insightful and stimulating essay, details of which follow:

Chapter 17 - 'Boccaccio,' in 'GREAT BOOKS - My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World'
by David Denby. pp.241-249. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83533-9 (Pbk).

Be A Global Force of One is a book of inspiration that will impel its readers to participate in the projects of hope that they read about. It gives concrete examples of how people across the country are changing their communities and lives for the better. Thank you Mr. Boal for writing a book about the good that people can acheive.

John Boal's Be a Global Force of One! provides practical info on how we can volunteer both as groups and individuals. And volunteering doesn't just help the recipients, as a growing body of research and clinical observations is proving. By volunteering--and maintaining the crucial link to others--readers may improve their health and even longevity. This theory is presented in Dean Ornish's new book, Love and Survival. Boal's book takes up where Ornish's leaves off, telling readers who want to maintain that crucial human connection how to get started.

As many who work with communities know, very often the most important resource for citizens seeking to improve their neighborhoods is not money, time or even people--it is information. Information is a foundation on which to build something and Be A Global Force of One gives community groups this vital foundation. We at KaBOOM! are thrilled that our work to build safe and accessible playgrounds across the country has been documented in Be A Global Force of One,and that many more fun, accessible, and safe playgrounds will be built because of the learning this book is sure to inspire.