I had the good fortune to review this for _Library Journal_ and was dismayed to learn of the author's untimely death before I could send a letter of compliments. He tells us how the less scientific "soul" concept got transformed by scientific interests. But he goes by way of Mary Shelly's _Frankenstein_ (1815), which bootlegged a radical psychology that could not have been taught or allowed in church at the time. Frankenstein's creature was dispatched into a hostile world, abused, etc. and paid "humanity" back with monstrous acts. Mary S. was a teenager when she wrote it, and most popular retellings obscure the point that Reed brings forward.
Readers who like this may also want to read Otto Rank's _Psychology and the Soul_ (1930/1998).

This book is written as an essay, with no footnotes. A bibliographical essay in the appendix serves for documentation. The style is extremely lucid, in spite of the complexity of the intellectual history recounted here. Immensely instructive, original in the connections established and information unearthed, entertaining, marvellous. Can be read as a handbook or as a consecutive narrative (that will hold your attention)

At the dawning of the enlightenment, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin, stands as a voice of reason. England is beset with rumor of the supernatural--vampires, werewolves, and demons. Darwin approaches everything with an open-minded skepticism. Together with his treasure-anxious sidekick, Colonel Jacob Pole, Darwin delves deep into the mysteries that confront 18th century England finding, among other things, the Loch Ness Monster, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and a forgotten race of humans.

Author Charles Sheffield has created a charming set of stories of a past not too different from our own. Darwin contains the best of Sherlock Holmes as well as the gluttony of Nero Wolfe. I suspect that Sheffield meant his novel to be a reminder to us, in the 21st Century, to always remember to look to rational and scientific causes before we ascribe whatever we see to the supernatural or unexplainable. It is easy to see why Sheffield, a scientist, would choose Erasmus Darwin as his hero.

THE AMAZING DR. DARWIN is both powerful and amusing. Darwin is fallible enough to be sympathetic, and Pole is sympathetic without being completely brainless.

Charles Darwin was an indifferent divinity student when he was upbraided by Dr. Robert Grant for overlooking his family's tradition of evolutionary thought, presumably Charles had bespoke himself of some Genesis convention. Erasmus Darwin was one of the great English intellectuals of the past 1,000 years, far surpassing the achievements of his grandson. His ideas were surpressed during the paranoid period of the Napoleon Wars. King-Hele's book takes some of the myth out of Darwinism finding that the modern convention is actually closer to Erasmus's theory than Charles's theory. Charles wrote a biography of Erasmus giving him his due but this was edited by Charles's daughter Henrietta. A very interesting tale about a seminal issue in modern science. This book is the cornerstone for reaching an understanding that Darwinism is a social movement not an intellectual movement, and is not about to be overthrown by historical facts. This book will not likely do well in the market since the educated public loves the old stories and trash science like the Selfish Gene. It is also interesting to note that Freudism, equally out of date, is also impossible to eradicate, even though it is under general attack. Strange business this.

I finished Feeling Sorry for Celia over the weekend, and I must say what a wonderfully unique book this is! Jaclyn Moriarty has done an excellent job with this one, and I will most definitely be on the lookout for her second book.

Told entirely in letters, memos, postcards and faxes, Feeling Sorry for Celia tells the story of teenager Elizabeth Clarry. Elizabeth deals with the typical teen problems, but the main one is her best friend, Celia, who can't seem to stay home for more than a week before running away to far away places. The novel begins with Celia's disappearance once again, and Elizabeth is at a loss who to talk to. So when one of her teachers begins a pen-pal project with another school, Elizabeth finds a new friendship and confidante in Christina. Aside from dealing with friend problems, Elizabeth also finds that her absentee father has caused a little havoc himself. This novel takes readers on a journey through Elizabeth's life that is both funny and heartwarming. But there is a serious side to the story as well...read on to find out....

Interspersed between the real conversations amongst Elizabeth, her friends, mother and father, are letters from fake organizations like The Association of Teenagers, who accuse Elizabeth of not being a real teenager, or The Cold Hard Truth Association, who remind Elizabeth that she is not pretty enough for the boy of her dreams. This is the part that makes this novel unique -- I believe these fake letters reveal a part of Elizabeth's self-consciousness and make this story truly believeable and a joy to read. A quick weekend book, and one adults will love, too.

15yr old Elizabeth Clarry leads an eventful life. She lives with her busy mother, who leaves her notes for her on the fridge with helpful tips on how to cook their dinner, asks for her ideas regarding marketing items at the advertising agency for which she works. Her father has just announced that he will be spending a year in Australia, so that means being bounced to and fro between her parents. Her best friend, Celia has just run away (again!) to join the circus. So when her private school decides to link ties with the local public school through pen pals, Elizabeth finds herself telling her new pen pal, Christina everything that is going on in her life. Through correspondence these two get to know an awful lot about each other and forge strong ties. The book is told entirely in note and letter format, with Elizabeth receiving letters from various organisations, such as Teenage Romance, Amateur Detectives, Cold Hard Truth, People who are going to fail high school, Best Friends Club, etc, who endlessly point out her inadequacies and shortfalls. This is a cleverly funny and well written book, one that was enormous fun reading. I look forward to more books from Jaclyn Moriarty.

'Feeling Sorry for Celia' is now one of my favorite books. It's about a girl, Elizabeth Clarry, who lives in Australia with her mother (her father left when Elizabeth was a baby). Elizabeth is best friends with Celia Buckley, but Celia always runs away from home. Usually, Celia comes back after about a week or so, but this time, she has been gone longer than usual.

Elizabeth's communication with her mother is only notes that are left on the refrigerator for each other. Meanwhile, at school, Elizabeth's teacher, Mr. Botherit, assigns 'pen pals' to each person. Elizabeth writes to Christina Kratovac, and soon they develop a friendship through letters.

Elizabeth deals with all of these things in her life- her hobby of running and participating in marathons, a best friend who has run away from home, a pen pal with other problems, communicating through notes with her mother, and going out to awkward dinners with her father. Her father also has a family that lives in Canada that Elizabeth has never met, and her father doesn't seem too anxious for her to meet them.

I would definitely recommend this book to any teenage girl, I'm sure it won't disappoint you!

I am only about 150 pages into this book, most of it so far has been a review of SQL Server basics that most people who have used SQL Server will be familiar with.

One bad thing that I have noticed so far are that many of the diagrams are incorrect, tables and columns misnamed etc. Also some of the information in the begining was a little to much on the sales side, the discussion of what SQL Server is for example: "The SQL Server 2000 relational database engine is a modern, highly scalable engine for storing data." pg. 11

I will post more once I have read more.