If you're the type (like me) who can't deal with counting calories (consumed or burned), and just want someone to tell you "Eat this for breakfast, that for lunch, this for dinner, do these exercises 3 times a week. You're done." -- this is the book for you.

I've done the 32 day plan twice and have had great results both times. (Obviously the fact that I've done it more than once means I have not done well on the maintenance side of things, but that's a different issue).

My only complaint with this book is with the recipes (yes, it even includes ALL the recipes of what you're to eat), many of which include gloppy sauces made with corn starch (like the "Mandarin Chicken" -- yuck!). Generally, I would simply bake or grill the meat in those recipes, forget the sauce, and have a little extra fresh vegetable.

Be forewarned, though, that the "super-slow" exercises are HARD. But given that the workout only takes 20 to 30 minutes, and is only 3 times a week, most guys should be able to do this.

Good luck!

Dr. Darden provides a clear step by step process to lose weight slowly and steadly. This includes both meal plans and a brief intro to weight training. As a person who trains consistantly with weights I never concerned myself with the counting and monitoring of calories until I gained 35 pounds in 7 months. I tried Adkins, good, but strength decreases too much. Also tried extensive cardio, helps, but for me, calorie restriction was needed. Been on the 32 day diet for 26 days so far, reduced my weight from 221 to 207. Waist size from 40 to 36.5. Strength is down about 20%. However the hit you take in the ego from the loss in strength is made up in the feeling of "old" clothes fitting again. Two recomendations, if you intend to begin the diet take before photos, Darden says to do so, I didn't , wish I had. Second, Darden discourages using the diet with a spouse, I have and it has been very convenent. It's hard to eat clean while your spouse is eating pizza. Females if you use this plan you may want to reduce the recomended calories by about 15% since it is inteded for men. GOOD LUCK

Dr. Darden provides a clear, concise easy to follow methodology that works. I am only halfway done, and cut my body fat from 12% to 9% along with dropping 7 pounds while increasing my strength. Highly recommend this book for anyone serious about losing weight and body fat!

In all its complexity, this really is a simple book: it is simply an exuberant vision of India.

I wanted a book that would give me an English Colonialist view of India. It is a rather hard thing to find: few English Victorian writers of any consequence wrote about India. It wasn't until later, ie, Orwell and Forster, that it became a popular topic, and they wrote with a vastly different attitude. I just wanted to know what an Englishman thought of the "jewel in the English colonial crown".

What I found is exactly what I wanted: so exactly that it caught me off guard. Kipling offers no politics, neither "problems of England in India" or "The White Man's Burden". Kim is, quite simply, a vision of India. Exuberant, complex, vibrant, full of energy and life and change. This is Kipling's India. It is a beautiful, mysterious, dangerous, amazing place.

There is a hint of mass market fiction here -- the basic structure being a young boy, a prodigy, uniquely equipped to help the adults in important "adult" matters -- reminds me of Ender's Game or Dune (both books I loved, but not exactly "literature". But perhaps this isn't either. Such was the claim of critic after critic. But anyway.) Yet in reality it is only a device -- an excuse for Kipling to take his boy on adventures and to immerse us more fully in the pugnant waters of Indian culture -- or cultures.

As far as the English/Colonialism question goes, perhaps the real reason Kipling drew so much flak is because he deals his English critics the most cruel insult -- worse than calling them evil, or stupid, or wrong, he implies that they just don't matter that much. Kipling's India is a diverse place, with a plethora of people groups in it, divided by caste, religion, ethnicity, whatever. And the English, the "Sahibs"? Another people group. That's all. They don't dominate or corrupt or really change anything in any profound way; they just sort of become part of the broiling swirl of cultures and peoples that is India.
--
williekrischke@hotmail.com

To be honest, I disdained Kipling as a writer ever since turning away from the Jungle Book movie. When pressed to read his more representative novel "Kim", however, I was much more impressed. Kipling picks up on the bildungsroman theme in his book about a young white boy growing up in British India. True, the reader feels the heavy intrusion of Kipling in the narrative, such as the caricatured descriptions of ethnic peoples, but one also feels a genuine fondness for India, however patronizingly misplaced.

I thought some passages were quite remarkable for a writer at the height of the British Raj, such as the occasional sympathetic treatment of Indians and the allowance of deep relationships between the conquerors and the conquered (e.g., Kim and Mahbub Ali). The feeling of youth is well-given and Kipling succeeds at making the horror of imperialism both remote and romantic.

Rudyard Kiplings' "Kim" is so utterly enchanting it, in some ways, defies description. It is a tale of personal growth, filial love, and the joy of life set amidst the Indian sub-continent in the time of the British Raj. Kim O'Hara, an orphaned Sahib, cunning and street-wise, and of India in all but blood, embarks upon a journey with a Tibetan lama in search of spiritual cleansing. Kim matures under the lama's patient guidance and, in turn, gives his heart to his mentor. The two support each other unconditionally through the passages they both must make.

In time, Kim's parentage and talents are "discovered" by the British and he is drafted and trained to be a participant within the Great Game; a political battle between Russia and Britain for control of Central Asia. Lama and student seek their disparate goals together as they traverse the plains of India, hike Himalayan foothills, and discourse along the way.

I found myself completely rapt by the book and longing to return to it. The characters are splendidly wrought and the descriptions of India and its' people enthralling. Though previous reviews tell of difficult reading, I found it nothing of the sort. One must orient themselves to the vernacular employed, but this isn't in any way trying for those attuned to historical reading. Some previous knowledge of the Great Game and the British Raj would also be helpful. Be that as it may, with remarkable ease the reader is absorbed and transported by this tale to wander India, late 19th century, with Kim and his Tibetan holy man amidst the intrigue of colonial rivalry and the mysticism of Eastern belief. Rudyard Kiplings' "Kim" has rightfully earned a place among my favorite novels of all time. There is no higher praise by which I might recommend it.

Mr. Cohn presents a few good ideas about needed changes to the general aviation system, but I quickly tired of his exaggerations.

Cohn also seems to confuse some of the basics of flying (confusing a Horizontal Situation Indicator HSI with an Attitude Indicator AI). Also, he seems to forget that all pilots are required to know information in the Federal Aviation Regulations and the Airman's Information Manual. I find it hard to blame anyone but the pilot (myself included) when that pilot does not study the information given

I do agree, however, that some of the basic ideas presented in this book would help make General Aviation safer.

I loved this book to start with, especially getting a kick out of the way in which the NASA representative managed to find an excuse to blame everything on hypoxia. Some things worried me, though, like the already-mentioned error of calling the artificial horizon an HSI. Then, I found the line in the introduction about the book being a work of fiction, and I started to get worried that perhaps I'd been cheated all along, and that these accounts were in fact figments of the author's imagination. I almost feel like writing to him and asking him straight out how much he made up, especially since I've retold some of these stories to my flying buddies, and now feel like I've told them a bunch of bull! Oh, and on the subject of the author's flying experience, there is a Robert L Cohn listed in the FAA database with a commercial certificate with an instrument rating, but how could someone like that make that error re the HSI?

A great eye-opener to read that makes pilots pay attention. I strongly feel it ought to be read along with Eliminating Pilot Error (things we do that can affect performance having nothing to do with how we learned to control the airplane). All instructors need to advise their students what lifestyle and dietary considerations can affect their ability to fly safely.A video Human Factors & Pilot Error also tells us the same stuff and was filmed at a FAA safety seminar. If we don't make the same mistakes as are revealed in the book and take a hard look at our lifestyles and diet, maybe we won't have to have another book with more pilot error stories. Good job.