As a professional I recommend this book to all of the Asperger Parents I work with. Jeffry Cohen brilliantly shares his insights, his humor and his life as an Asperger Parent. Too often I have seen the family support system stretched to it's limits and then past. Jeffrey Cohen reminds the reader how important it is to have a support system, how important it is to tend to the other relationships our lives (spouses!)and how important it is to maintain you sense of humor. I found this book very hard to put down. Every parent with a child with AS should read wonderful book.

Jeffrey Cohen has captured the fears, frustrations, triumphs and hopes of Asperger parents beautifully. Easy to read, humorous and reassuring, this book is a great addition to the must-read list for parents of children challenged with Asperger Syndrome and related developmental disorders.
Somewhat repetitious, but we're used to that!

Jeff Cohen's book is FABULOUS! As a parent of a child with Asperger's Syndrome, it was so easy to relate to everything he wrote about. I found out that I'm not the only parent who says and does the things that I do. He kept me laughing from the first page to the last. I couldn't put it down! This is definitely NOT just another "this is my story" book on AS. You won't be disappointed.

This is an enjoyable and interesting ethnographic study of a small Mexican village. The author sheds light on the power structure of the village...the impact of the global economy on their weaving industry...and the important role that temporary migration of the men to the U.S., in order to send back cash, plays in village life. All this in easy-to-follow prose with neat examples. The pictures are great too!

This is a nicely written ethnography that should find a useful place in anthropology classes

I heard the British broadcaster Michael Freedland describe this as "a God-send as I sit through the otherwise unintelligible and protracted High Holyday services." How right he is! It brought all the prayers to life: their theology, meaning and purpose, literary and poetic structure, origin, allusions, history, biography of authors, etc. It also taught me the reason for all the things we do at this High Holyday period, the origin and development of the festival, home customs (it made everything so easy and enriched our home celebrations) and festival traditions around the world.

I wish this book had been around as I was growing up. It would have converted my reluctant visits to synagogue at this period into a fascinating and enriching experience, and would have deepened my attachment to Judaism.

Still, it's not too late. Order the book, quick!

Certainly the fullest account in print of every aspect of this major festival: its history, theology, philosophy, folklore, rituals, etc. We celebrated the festival this year in a way we had never previously enjoyed - solely as a result of the insights provided by this book. The full and fascinating commentary on the Passover Haggadah made our "Seder" inspirational, and the section for the children was a God-send. It is a must for every Jewish home - and for any gentile interested to understand what Jews are up to at the Passover season, and the background of the Christian festival of Easter.

I loved it. Very well written with accurate documentatio

This book explains the Yamim Noraim, the High Holy Days of the Jewish calendar, and the Machzor, the special siddur used at this time of year. This book is especially important to have, as people often find that the Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kipur prayers and observances are not as meaningful as they would like. Once read, this books will change your way of viewing the High Holy Days, and will make the services both meaningful and spiritual. This book describes on every prayer in each prayer service including Shacharit (morning), Musaf (additional service), Minchah (afternoon), Maariv (evening), Tashlikh (ceremony of casting away sins), Selichot (penitential prayers), Yizkor (the Memorial of the Departed), and Neilah ("the closing of the gates"). For each prayer, it explains their historical and spiritual meaning within the context of the High Holy Days. The result is a popular companion to the High Holy Day prayer book, that can be enjoyed by people from Orthodox, Reform or Conservative backgrounds.

The author needs to learn to resist making every "cute" and "smartass" comment that comes to mind. I think the "wit" comes off as too studied. I can forgive it in the title, but not in every paragraph.

More annoying, the protagonist's character is marred by snideness. Now, you can say that an author may surely write a character with flaws deliberately, which is of course true, but IN GENERAL I think we are supposed to like this guy Aaron, and indeed, sometimes we do. But then when he acts like a total head, I for one find it very jarring. Just one example -- he meets a guy who is an English professor, and is trying to interview him. The interviewee is in the middle of gardening. Aaron (to the reader) makes snide comments about the fact that the guy is wearing gardening gloves (as though only a sissy would wear gardening gloves) and the fact that the guy is careful in digging a proper sized hole for the plant. HUH? Aaron has contempt for plants? for gardening? for men who garden? what's the story here? Does he hate everyone? This bugged me a lot.

In fact, it seemed to me that Aaron was contemptuous of every character in the book except his wife, his kids, and his two existing buddies. If this is who the author WANTED Aaron to be, I don't much like him and don't want to know him through more books. On the other hand, this attitude may be an unconscious product of overly cutesy writing.

Every child with a disability should have a father like Aaron. Not only is this book a clever mystery story, but it's a sensitive and informative portrait of a loving family dealing with the ups and downs of raising children, including a child with Aspberger's syndrome. As the wise-cracking Aaron pursues the mystery in this book with persistence and the support of his intelligent and logical wife, he is always there for his children. He rises to the challenge of being a stay-at-home dad with good humor and genuine affection for his precocious daughter and his demanding son. Aaron may be an amateur detective, but he's a great father. In a world of dysfunctional families, divorce, and neglected children, Aaron Tucker and his wonderful family are a breath of fresh air.

Jeff Cohen's first book in the Aaron Tucker series is funny, poignant and suspenseful -- sometimes all at once. Anyone familiar with the Central New Jersey setting will enjoy the local references, both veiled and outright. It's a rare accomplishment for a mystery author to propel a story with laugh-out-loud humor the way Jeff does. I'm already looking forward to the next installment, 'A Farewell to Legs.'

I am an Instructor of Esthetics, and I have also had the privilege of working withJeffrey Bruce during the 1980's.
While the book's photos and colors may be a bit dated, the information and how-to's in this book are timeless.
Perfect for the woman who needs easy to understand instructions, step by step guidance, all with a delightfully
devilish sense of humour.
Well worth the read.

"Monster Theory" is a collection of essays which provide useful ideas and concepts if you are interested in making sense of this time of monsters we live in.

Of course, monsters have been with us for some time, and the book contains essays dealing with vampires, Frankenstein's monster and Beowulf. There is also an essay on Jurassic Park and the fascination of dinosaurs. For me, the most useful text by far was the one by editor Jeffery Jerome Cohen, in which he described seven theses on the role of monsters in culture.

I found the concepts in this book useful when writing papers about such diverse topics as children's literature (monsters and the monstrous in children's lit) and popular culture (the role of the vampire).

Monsters embody borderline concepts, things we worry about. Monsters are the things that trouble us at night. Whenever society is insecure and needs to find a new balance, monsters stalk the perimeter of the fence we have put up around "normality" and challenge us to alter the demarcations.

I feel that anyone interested in monsters and their role in culture would profit from reading this book - and not just the student or scholar of popular culture.

This exceptional experience of a person with MS and the problems of living with a well spouse are documented thoroughly here. I wouldn't say this is an optimal guide for the newly diagnosed, but it is an honest account of much of what a well spouse goes through in coping with a chronically ill spouse.

This book is difficult to read, but difficult to put down as well. The unimaginably difficult life of a person with severe MS is virtually ignored by his spouse as she describes her daily routine of caring for her husband. This bothered me at first, but there are other books about those who live with MS -- this book is about how this disease cripples the life of a spouse who is in perfect health. My husband has MS and I have to say, this book scared me to death. Yet it was a comfort to know there are others who understand the frustrations, guilt, and anger a well spouse experiences.

This book is painful to read and even more painful to live. That is why it proved to be necessary medicine for this well spouse. A testament to the fact that I am not alone, I am not crazy, and there is "life after innocence." I will cling to that as I trudge this path of "chronic bereavement." For a Well Spouse, this read is a must for surviving the isolation and endless hard work imposed upon unwitting victims of devastating, chronic illness.

Thank you Marion D. Cohen, God bless you for your brutal honesty.