The ideal audience for this book really has a large range; it is ideal for anyone wanting to experience a "trip" from a hallucinogenic drug without the actual drug. High Priest is an excellent piece of art, it is an encyclopedia of Leary's 16 most life changing "trips" when under various forms of hallucinogens. It is filled with strong imagery to support Leary's want to tell the world about the wonderful hallucinogenic "trip". His style is very unique in that especially in a series of short stories, he can in essence connect them, just as he does in his life with situations. He uses a very intense tone, and style becomes rapid as he submerges into a hallucinogenic state, almost as if you where there with him. Then as he's coming out of it his style loosens and becomes slower, and drowsy. Its almost as if there were two extremes one is cold and gray, and the other is vibrant and full of life. This book will definitely stir your interest about psychedelic drugs and the life behind it. Leary's intense flavor and swirling style can sometimes almost be frightening especially when he discusses his inner emotions about death, and his chilling way of expressing his views on the "life changing trips". I think this book is very educational depending on your view of education, and can teach people, things about other cultures that may not be their own, a counterculture if you will. I recommend High Priest to anyone with a thirst for knowledge and an open mind.

essential reading for the humanist, the individualist, the psychedelicist and the lover of freedom.

Tim Leary reminds us what it means to be American.

A simultaneous explanation of why, and why not. The depiction of an appealing experience that within itself shows glimpses of why it may be best left wonderment.
You can get so trapped in the micro while reading this book that it's easy to forget that these thought processes helped shape this country, and etched themselves in time to never be forgotten.
Basically Dr Leary takes us through several "trips" in different settings, and with different participants and hallucinogens. If you're waivering on whether or not this book is for you, I would say the entertainment value alone is worth it. If the subjectmatter is of some interest to you, you'll love it.

I already play very well, and bought this for someone else, but I was amazed at how easily this book builds up thru the steps. I wish this book was available when I was learning!!!!!

One of the best guitar tuition books Ive come across. Simple and effective text with some wonderful and interesting music pieces - simply wonderful - and it looks good too.

the best tuition manual for electric guitar i have seen in age

in this thoughtful work, the author (the former dean of the graduate faculty of the new school for social research & a political philosophy professor) examines the work of each of these seemingly unconnected men and their attempts to understand and present the human condition. this work transcends specialization and is an important piece in the study of the moderns break with the ancients. dr. white was the first ph.d.student of leo strauss in the usa. he is, as well, indebted to the thoughts of kurt riezler, with whom he also studied.

Jockey Kelly Hughes and trainer Dexter Cranfield have their licenses suspended by the Oxford stewards for supposedly throwing a race. Hughes believes that they were framed and he sets out to clear their names and get the licenses restored. Who would want to ruin their careers? As the truth is revealed we hear a story of sexual deviation, blackmail, fixed evidence and attempted murder.

"Yesterday I lost my licence."

That's how the book begins ... and indeed Kelly Hughes, a leading jump jockey , has been indefinitely suspended from racing after being found guilty of deliberately losing a race.

He knows that someone has rigged evidence against him, and rather than sit back and wait for the ban to be lifted , he sets out to find his secret enemy.

Hughes isn't a detective, and just as he doesn't really know how to carry out an investigation, the reader can't guess at how the plot will develop. My favourite highlight is when Hughes is driving home after a dance. At first it seems to be just a 'filler' scene, but it turns into something more dramatic - and the writing here is particularly well-crafted.

The two main characters are Hughes himself , a widower, and Roberta, the snooty daughter of his employer. Near the start of the book Roberta asks him:

" "That picture .. that's your wife isn't it?"
I nodded.
"I remember her". She said. "She was always so sweet to me. She seemed to know what I was feeling. I was really awfully sorry when she was killed"
I looked at her in surprise. The people Rosalind had been sweetest to had invariably been unhappy. She had had a knack of sensing it, and giving succour without being asked. "

Unfortunately Roberta has been brought up by her father to regard jockeys as an inferior social class, and it takes a long time for the two of them to kindle any real friendship, let alone romance.

Francis is particularly good in this book with the minor characters - such as the aristocratic Bobbie, who clearly is very fond of Roberta but can't help hinting that Hughes is a better match for her, or Derek the diffident mechanic who kept most of his brains in his fingertips.

The plot doesn't flag, the tale builds to a satisfactory climax and I only wish Hughes had appeared in another of Francis' books.

The primary reason I continue to seek out and read Dick Francis is that he continually creates heroes that are efficacious and rational. He avoids the common pitfalls of most modern writers, and instead invents characters who pass the ultimate test: "Would I like to meet and know this person?" If you can answer "yes" to that question then there is great potential for enjoyment in the fiction centered around that character. If you answer "no" to that question, why even bother reading further?

Dick Francis' characters almost always recieve an unreserved "YES!" Read "Enquiry," it's not the best from Francis but it's still furlongs beyond the rest.

Francis' third book, written back in the mid-Sixties, though still a great read (curious reference to The Beatles is the only jarring reminder of its time), and a wonderful example of how quickly Francis picked up his new craft. If he was as fluent, smooth, and skillful jockey as he is writer he must, indeed, have been great. This book first introduces Sid Halley, one of Francis' two recurring heroes, the jockey-turned-detective with a damaged left hand. Halley has been drifting through life since his career-ending injury; a further injury (caused by a bullet) and the not so subtle intervention of his father-in-law bring a change to his attitude, a radically different outlook, and a desire to work effectively and properly at his new job. He is badly frightened, and physically damaged ~ two things Francis excells at writing, his fear, especially, is thoroughly convincing ~ but succeeds in both defeating the baddies and renewing his life.

I give ***** to the verson read by Ian McShane (avoid the other readers). I enjoyed McShane's read voice. Some actor/readers, try to act took much when they read - I mean males doing higher voices for females are such a pain. McShane give the right tone, a narrator and is it an enjoyed voice that carries you vividly into the world of ex-jockey Sid Halley. Injured in a riding accident, he now is a Enquiry agent/security expert that is looking into the strange accidents happening and Seabury Race Course.

Dick Francis' writing, quite naturally, is excellent, though it is McShane excellent narration that has me listening to this tape again and again. I have given it several times and gifts and recommended it to friends. All have thanked me for the enjoy listen.

What are your odds not to read the book Odds Against? And what are your odds to stop reading the thrilling pages when you are half way of the book? Finally, what are your odds to finish to book without putting it down? The answer is obvious, none. From a jockey to a private detective along with twisting events with twisting ending, there is no way of telling what will happen next. For those fans that enjoy mystery books, this is one of the books that you can't pass on. In this book, you will find how clever that Sid Halley (a former jockey champion) to end Kraye's (a businessman) plan of taking over Seabury Racecourse. Just make sure that you tell me one thing: What are the odds of Halley spoiling the plot of Kraye and his henchamen?

I highly recommend this tool. Less weighty than many similar texts, Learn Songwriting takes you over the basics, and shows you how to proof your music before you take it to the market. A must for the novice songwriter, and anyone who is looking to branch out into a new field of creative writing. Also recommend Sheila Davis' series.

this is an excellent book - one of the best I have come across. I have usually found songwriting books dense and unreadable - but this explains the process clearly with good references and clear explanations. A must for any budding songwriters out there.

Francis offers his usual fare: The same protagonist with a new name; a plot of investigation, discovery, physical pain and mental exercises; a supporting cast of believable characters who act in supportable, self-interested, and logical ways. All of which is not to say anything bad; i love to read Francis, and do so when looking for a vicarious thrill and a light read. The protagonist in this one is Edward "Link" Lincoln, an action picture actor ~ the sort who might star in movies made of Francis' books ~ who goes to South Africa for a little off-set investigation. At least, he thinks that's why he's gone there; he's actually gone to be killed. In a post-Apartheid world the picture of South Africa is rather sweet; i would guess Francis had some coöperation from the government in return for his portrayal of the country.

This is one of my favorite all time Dick Francis novels. Link is a character you'll love and you'll loves to plot twists as fiction can become reality.

Uneventful fluff about british horse racing. No mystery, no murder, a good way to kill time as well as brain cells.

High Stakes was an excellent novel. I chose to read it because it focuses on horses and because I have read other books by this author. This novel was a page-turner because there were several twists in the plot. It was easy to relate to the main character and feel what he was feeling, as if his life was yours. The book had certain sections that the reader really had to think about, because the plot was complicated at times. Also, the author has a way of not describing something until the last possible moment. For example, the characters discussed a critically important plan, and the reader themselves did not know what it was until the plan was executed. At times this made the novel some-what confusing, but did not result in the book being misunderstood. In the future I would read another book by this author.

High Stakes marks the beginning of Dick Francis' (or Mrs. Dick Francis, depending upon who actually writes his books) writing for the American market. Tho' not the bone-cruncher the earlier books were, his toy maker is one of the more likable protagonists and the beginning zings!

Dick Francis writes with authority, but his plot tended to drag at times. Twists near the end were very good. Francis is a masterful manager of plot, although how exciting can a main character who is an accountant be? Worth reading but ultimately forgettable

In many ways this is a quintessential Francis novel, with a fairly normal, likeable hero put into a situation where he is subjected to physical and mental challenges. The plot here is pretty good, although somewhat far fetched. However, this novel varies from the typical successful Francis formuala by having a sexual interlude between the hero and a female supporting character quite early on in the story. This is unusual, since Francis' characters are typcially fairly chaste, but this has the addes uniqueness of having the supporting female character be an older woman who wants to experience sex and chooses the hero, barely recovered from a dangerous brush with criminal types, as her man. This is diverting mostly because it seems to me that it is so different from the norm! I was quite taken aback by this!

Dick Francis has a winning formula: he writes books about a young man of around 30, in a career most people might think is boring, but which turns out to be exciting. His hero is usually taken for granted and under-appreciated by his family, and under-employed, but in the course of the book proves he is far smarter, cleverer, and more observant than anyone supposed. Usually, there's a highly intelligent middle-aged career woman who recognizes his worth and helps him along. It's a formula, but the details that Francis provides makes it work every time.

In this case, our hero is an accountant, an auditor. Many people would start to snore at the thought that auditing could be an exciting job; as a former auditor myself, who has since traded it in for the relative calm of a desk job, I was pleased to see him show how varied and interesting the job can be. Auditors have to know a great deal about a variety of industries, do a lot of travelling, and have highly analytical minds used to investigating small details and discrepancies that most people would not notice. (There might be a bit of bias on my part, of course.) All this means that an auditor winds up making a good investigator of mysteries, as well.

Along with the details of Roland's regular job, and the details of horse-racing that are in every book, we also happen to find out a great deal about yacht-building. Such details are all through Francis's books; he seems to know about every possible job, and must collect details as much as most people collect lint. I always enjoy learning these details!

In this particular book, we have some ambiguous people who turn out not to be bad guys, the person captaining the yacht that Roland first is stored on when kidnapped. Then, the bad guy turns out to be a total surprise, someone we don't suspect at all till the end is revealed. Nonetheless, once the details are pointed out, one goes "Of course!"

Gene Hawkins has a longstanding desire for committing suicide. That is very unlikely for a Dick Francis hero. Indeed, Hawkins is a typical Francis hero; a man of a strong will, an indomitable spirit and a detached mind, yet he bears a wish for killing himself. That's too odd. The story is not bad as a mystery, but I can't tolerate such inconsistency in the hero's character.

Considering it is a 1967 publication, Blood Sport portrays a man who suffers from depression and from a person (me)who also has and does can say the portrayal is very realistic. I'm amazed Francis could write like this in the mid-60's and wonder a bit now if Dick didn't go through some bouts of depression because you almost have to to portray it correctly. A worthwhile read for more than one reason. Aches, cold feet, full of malaise, life seeming worthless and confusing...Francis knew what he was talking about.

Dick Francis has earned a well deserved reputation as one of the best suspense writers around--based more on his writing skills and character development that any real talent for suspense. This is because virtually all his books, regardless of character and milieu, follow a well developed formula. By the third or forth Francis book one has a pretty good feel for how things will proceed. His average books are well enough crafted to keep your attention, his better books--such as Banker, Reflex and Proof--grab you by the throat and won't let go till you are done.

Blood Sport is a significant departure for Francis. The formula is gone, the action aspects of his work take back seat to a much more cerebral style and the main character is far from the iconoclastic, self reliant individualist we normally expect from Francis.

Gene Hawkins is a "screener" for the British Government-essentially a "mole" hunter. He is also suicidal-his previous relationship has shattered and left the man a psychological mess. He has sublimated his troubles into his work-until now. Faced with a mandatory three week leave his boss, fearful for his employee's life-sets him onto the trail of the thieves of one of his pals thoroughbred race horses in America.

What follows is one of the more bizarre, compelling chase stories I have ever read. It is also the most unusual novel Francis has written to date.

Not all Francis fans will like this book-as the previous reviews will attest. However, I found the story very compelling and felt more of a real connection to the characters than is the norm with a Francis novel. I also found it to be more of a true suspense novel than is usually the case with Francis.

I urge Francis fans to give it a try.