This glossy, colorful book collects Ron English's great works and accomplishments, spanning his 20 years of using and twisting pop art to subvert itself, popular culture, and commercialistic overkill. Although a painter, street artist, and musician, English is best known for his hilarious - and sometimes dangerous - billboard work, whereby he would covertly paint over hundreds of billboards to convey an ironic, social point, sometimes done so well that the original doesn't appear altered. One of his thoughtful pranks was to paint a close-up of Charles Manson in the style of Mac's "Think Different" ads, to point out Mac's tasteless use of geniuses and great humanitarians to sell their products. Big Tobacco is another common victim of English's talent and wit, and his Joe Camel spoofs are more effective and affective than any government-funded anti-tobacco advertisement.

Ron English's work successfully addresses the Disneyification of America, the blatant commercialism of pop art, the uncontested corporate (and irresponsible) intrusion into people's lives, and the nonstop barrage of advertising that forces itself upon us everywhere we turn. His works throw a stick into the cogs, jamming popular culture for just a moment, so that for the split second you take in his work, you can actually "think different."

A VISUAL EXTRAVAGANZA.I COULDN'T BELEIVE HOW MANY WAYS RON ENGLISH CAN SCREW WITH YOUR HEAD. A GREAT BOOK

Ron English is masterfully twisted. I own four original pieces of his work which are the gems of my art collection. His work reminds me of Salvadore Dali's work with more raw talent added. You will enjoy this book.

I read Puddnhead Wilson in an English Class in college. It was the first book that I had the chance to read by Mark Twain and thought the characters in the story as humorous. I would highly recommend to anyone who hasn't had the chance to read this book to give it a try and enjoy reading about the lives of Twain's characters.

Puddnhead Wilson is a very short book that can bear repeated reading. Not because it is a great literary work (it is) or because it is so important (which it is), but because in it Mark Twain exposes himself -- his nostalgia, his bitterness, his resignation, and his hope for his own life and for post-Civil War America with brutal frankness, and yet humorous approachability.

The novel may be called "Puddnhead Wilson" but the most memorable character is a highly intelligent slave woman named Roxana. Through Roxana and the rest of the townspeople living in a pre-Civil War Missouri, we find some of Mark Twain's most oft-quoted statements among biting characterizations of the American mentality.

I cannot recommend this little book enough. It has its weaknesses (so many critical essays have been written about them that it's unnecessary to discuss them here) but they are really minor and certainly do not detract from the sheer enjoyment and contemplation that it gives the reader. Not to mention that the apologetic forwards to both Puddnhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins are brilliant short letters from Twain on writing.

I cannot speak about Those Extraordinary Twins because I've never been able to get into it, or read past the first chapter. It's extremely odd, being about a circus freak -- siamese twins joined at the hip -- with each side having the complete opposite philosophy and constitution than the other. That is, one side drinks alcohol and doesn't feel affected while the other side gets drunk; each side has different taste in clothing; etc.

It seems like hardly anybody reads Mark Twain anymore, which is a shame, because he has so much to say about American society and human nature. "Pudd'nhead Wilson" is unquestionably one of his greatest books, maybe even his best. It's at least the equal of "Huckleberry Finn," which I had the good fortune to read with a superb high school English teacher in 1975, a year before her department banned it from the school's curriculum because of its supposedly racist portrayal of Jim.

"Pudd'nhead Wilson" manages to be a social satire, a murder mystery, a compelling commentary on race and racism, a brief against slavery, a courtroom drama, and a lifelike portrait of a particular time and place in American history, all packed into a short novel of some 170 pages. The story moves along quickly, hilarious in places and appalling in others. It's hard to understand why this easy-to-follow, entertaining and instructive novel isn't more widely read and appreciated, especially given the importance of race as a topic for thought, discussion and historical inquiry in the United States.

"Pudd'nhead Wilson" is set in a small Mississippi River town in the slave state of Missouri in 1830-1853. The critical event of the story occurs early on, when Roxy, a slave woman caring for two infant boys of exactly the same age, one her son and the other the son of one of the leading citizens of the town, secretly switches their identities. This deception is possible because her son is only 1/32 African-American and appears white (his father is in fact another leading citizen), yet by custom if not by law, the boy is a slave. The deception results in Roxy's son growing up in privileged circumstances, treating blacks with contempt, having the other boy as his personal slave, and attending Yale; yet the son, despite having all the advantages, develops no moral grounding whatsoever, and spends much of his adult life stealing, drinking and gambling. At one point, aware of his true identity but desperately needing money, he sells his own mother "down the river," into a more southerly cotton-growing region where the overseers are said to be especially cruel.

Twain gives us fewer details about the fate of the boy who in reality is all white, but we are made to understand that the boy's upbringing is typical of male slaves: he grows up with violence and degradation, illiterate, and with few skills either for making a living or existing in white society. This proves to be a cruel fate when the deception is exposed. Though he eventually comes into a substantial inheritance, he is never comfortable with or accepted by the town's respectable citizens, yet the prevailing racial code prohibits him from associating too closely with the blacks with whom he grew up.

Pudd'nhead Wilson, a lawyer, exposes the deception during a murder trial. Wilson, the town oddball, is an amateur fingerprinter, and it turns out that he kept the fingerprints he took of the boys before their switch, and is able to prove both their true identities and the identity of the killer. Wilson is the only halfway honorable character in the book; most of the rest, black and white, are exposed as dishonest, selfish and corrupt.

Mark Twain published "Pudd'nhead Wilson" in 1894, but its meaning still resonates today. A book that says so much about the ironies of appearance vs. reality, about the injustices of a rigid racial classification system, about the importance of values and upbringing rather than skin color in the formation of character, and about the realities of American slavery, deserves a more important place in our national literature.

In RAISING THE DEAD, Ron Rash not only raises the bar for himself but also for anyone else that chooses to write Appalachain-based verse. As in AMONG THE BELIEVERS, this poet demonstrates an uncanny ability to create rhythmic short lines (seven syllables).

Rash closes a poem as well as anyone writing today. As a result, the ghosts in these poems, of the Jocassee Valley and its aqua-burial and of the revisited ancestors and historical figures will haunt the reader beyond the pages of the book.

Finally, what sets Rash apart from many of his contemporaries is his ability to recognize and to develop valid poetic topics. There is nothing superficial, superfluous, or forced in the pages of this volume. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Raising the Dead, Ron Rash

This book, both inside and out, is a work of art, equal to and even surpassing the others Iris has done. I opened it as soon as it arrived, knowing Ron Rash and Iris and knowing that this would be a once-in-a lifetime experience, and it was--and is.
To begin with, the book is physically beautiful, the cover design an invitation, even an enticement into the poems themselves. After reading the poems, one is drawn back to the cover, realizing the profound implications of the photo. Even the colors chosen complement the content of the book.
Ron's poems are so provocative and so keenly crafted that one reading is never enough. The images are so strong that they take the reader by the throat and heart right through the experience and emotion of the poem, and then the image echoes like a song repeating and repeating itself both awake and in dreams. I will never get over "Under Jocassee" and "Whippoorwill" and "Speckled Trout" and "Brightleaf" and "At Reid Hartley's Junkyard" and ....
Ron's poems are so moving that one can read only one or two poems at a time. Almost every piece is so rich with implication and surprise that it's like reading a powerful short story, like having lightning strike right in your own backyard.
I will be using many of the poems in Raising the Dead not only in poetry workshops as examples of the BEST in contemporary poetry but also in my bereavement counseling and medical ethics group sessions.
Wow! What a treasure!
In short, this book not only enriches but deeply affects--changes--the reader's life. What more could a poet or a publisher or a reader desire?

Raising the Dead is a book I could not put down. During my second reading I began a list of favorite poems. However, I soon abandoned the idea because the list took on the appearance of the table of contents.
The underlying theme of the work is loss. Overlaid on that theme Ron Rash has wrapped astounding imagery in Appalachian family stories and folk tales to create a masterful protest of the Jocassee Reservoir.
Book arrangement is superb. Poems provide a series of knockout punches with very little breathing room between them.
Despite his daily academic environment, Rash has avoided the temptation to bury his stories and images in literary language. His ability to produce profound poetry in everyday words is reminiscent of Billy Collins.
This outstanding book must be included in the library of any poet or lover of poetry.

Dr. Taffel and Melinda Blau offer realistic scenarios and situations today's teens are encountering. Counselors, parents, educators, and any others associating with youth will be enlightened (and perhaps concerned) by what the authors so candidly offer. It can be a tough world for our young people -- here are some ideas as to how to reach your teen and perhaps make a start at understanding their world. This book is a must-read for people who work with pre-teens and adolescents.

Before reviewing this book, you should know that it includes extremely foul language, very explicit descriptions of sex acts, and other material that exceed what you would find in an R rated movie. Dr. Taffel acknowledges this, but feels like it is important to conveying his message. I agree.

Many aspects of this book could be describing when I was a teenager back in the 1960s. Dr. Taffel has a good ear for understanding how teens interact with one another.

Part of the growing up process is to begin to identify more with your friends than with your family, particularly if you are having a lot of conflict with your family. Along with the friends comes the popular teen culture of what is cool. Although the specifics of "cool" will constantly change, it is a way to feel like you fit in. That point connects to Dr. Taffel's more profound point. Teenagers are looking for comfort. This is both physical and emotional comfort.

Many parents fear the teen culture, assuming that behind each pierced body part can be found the core of a drug dealer, a temper, and miscreant. In fact, your teen's friends are probably a lot like your teen in attitude and focus. They may dress and act differently, but they have enough common ground to be comfortable with each other. More importantly, teens place a high reliance on being there for each other, being trustworthy, and keeping their word. In the family, a sense of being wronged can get in the way of behaving in that manner.

The problem today is that busy parents and teens spend little time talking about their reactions to what's happening to and around them. On the other hand, teens talk about it endlessly. The teen influence is going to win, unless the parents recast their attention and focus.

The best part of the book can be found in a series of practical suggestions for helping your teen earn your trust, how to work with your spouse and the school to support your teen, and how to be an effective part of your teen's life by showing genuine interest in your teen and her or his activities and concerns.

My main complaint about the book is that the title is very misleading. Most people will think the book is about step families. The subtitle is also misleading. It suggests that teens are directly concerned with challenging their families. Actually, the families, teens, and school can all work together in very harmonious ways. They often do, even when not coordinating with one another. Two good related books that will help you understand this one are Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! and The Truth Will Set You Free.

After you finish this book, try to remember how your parents misunderstood the influence that your friends had on you. Where might you be making the same mistake now?

Encourage others to learn from experience, without taking on more risk than they can handle!

Taffel seems to have put much of what I have been feeling intuitively about our current culture and our kids into words...and I am truly grateful. This book, along with Daniel Goleman's book on Social Emotional Intelligence and Jane Healy's books, Endangered Minds and Failure to Connect, makes our jobs as parents and teachers in a technological world a bit clearer.

The Second Family gave me "spine" as a parent and has opened avenues for working with schools and other parents to offset so much of what is troubling about some of the "second families" our kids are curious about or are already involved in.

Great stuff, pretty spell-binding. I normally am reading 3 or 4 books a tone time, but have not been able to put this one down. One "contact" after another keeps the history of the Scouts and the Rhodesian war moving on the edge of your thinking. This is about first-class innovation in warfare on shoe-string budget up against a classic military N.I.H. bureaucracy. Written by the creator of the SElous Scouts, Lt Colonel Ron Daly continually pings the story back and forth between his thinking and the thinking behind his thinking as he is pitted agains the Rhodesian military and then pongs back to action-packed vignettes of the Scouts in contact. A book that belongs on every soldier's bookshelf.

To be so daring, so bold. To do what no would expect and to succeed at it. Having grown up in that part of the earth during the Chimurenga War, this book brought back a lot of memories, not all good. But among them was the feeling of awe that surrounded the Selous Scouts. Different, effecient, successful. This book is a must read for not only those interested in the Rhodesian bush war, but students of strategy, students of tactics and military might, students of history, students of management & students of psychology. This book confirms what a lot of us know, but when faced with it wilt. To be commited and prepared is only a small part of success, the rest is to be daring. For me, it was a journey back to a football field a long time ago under a blue african sky with little boys, being as little boys are, playing "war". And everyone wanted to be the Selous Scout.

The Selous Scouts were a Rhodesian counter-insurgency regiment commanded by Lt. Col. Ron Reid-Daly. Their greatest specialty was in the area of pseudo-operations; disguising themselves as terrorists in order to infiltrate and actually live amongst the terrorists, sometimes for periods of several weeks. As part of their pseudo-operations, the Selous Scouts would regularly conceal themselves as member of both the major terrorist armies - ZANLA and ZIRPA - and also as soldiers of Rhodesia's neighbors - FRELIMO, the Zambian Army and the Botswana Defense Force.

The dangers of such operations are obvious. ZANLA and ZIRPA would not hesitate to instantly execute anyone that they suspected to be a Selous Scout. However, even more hair raising was the Selous Scout policy of "encouraging" recently captured terrorists ("tame" terrorists) to work for the Selous Scouts and betray their former comrades - somtimes within hours of their capture!

The methods of the Selous Scouts entailed enormous risks for the Selous Scouts operators but they also reaped enormous benefits. During the 7 years of their existence, the Selous Scouts exterminated several thousands of terrorists while losing only about 40 Selous Scouts killed in action. Intelligence gained by the Selous Scouts was also used by other units of the Rhodesian security forces, such as the Rhodesian Light Infantry, to locate and kill several thousand more terrorists.

The book is written in a humorous, lucid and almost chatty style, which contrasts sharply to most memoirs written by military men.

This is a fantastic book, and is surely a must-have for any shark enthusiasts, beginnners and experts alike. The bright graphics illuminate the book from cover to cover, with some awesome pictures of sharks from around the world. The comprehensive species index at the back not only helps the reader find their way around any technical jargon, but serves as a wonderful reference point. This book is packed full of detailed biological information, as well as fascinating stories to enthrall and amuse, contributed to by some of the World's leading shark experts.

This book is filled with beautiful UW-photography, thrilling encounters with the marine life, colorfully authored by Valerie Taylor. It also gives people that are afraid of sharks, a different perspective! I've had this book in my possession since -89, and I read it as often as I can!

I think that Valerie is a great wrighter and i would realy like to speak whit her in person. The pictures are wonderful. A great book.

This book tells you what comes natural and why it does. It is all the way mass movements and dynamics of skiing. Advanced or real expert can like way it looks skiing.

This book goes to the basics of the skiing. It helps you understand what comes natural in skiing and why. Not for the beginners thow.

Le Master successfully dissects skiing technique better than any predecessor--using simple written analogies and liberal use of sequential "time-lapse" pictures. This book is worth its weight in gold--especially for the serious skier!

In "Rough Medicine," Joan Druett continues the excellence of such previous works as "Hen Frigates" and "She Captains" in bringing to her audience everday life upon the sea when ships under sail roamed the oceans. Where these other books focus on women who found themselves on long voyages, usually with their husbands who captained the ships, this new volume of easy to read history looks at life on the whaling ships of the early 1800s. These ships left port in search of whales and did not return until the holds were full of their valuable oil. If the captain and crew were lucky, it only took a year or two. To be gone four years or even five was not out of the question. Ms. Druett tells this story through the surviving diaries and journals of surgeons who accompanied the crews on these long and hazardous voyages. Along with extraordinary eye-witness accounts of whaling methods, the reader is shown that to be put under the knife in those days of rough medical techniques was scarcely less dangerous than battling whales in tiny boats. A main requirement to be a surgeon, it seems, was to be strong enough to hold down the unwilling patient. Reading "Rough Medicine" will leave you thankful to be living in our modern age, while at the same time make you wonder how archaic our methods of medicince will seem a hundred years from now. In the meantime, sit back with this good read of a life at sea, as so many of us have often wished to experience. And be glad you have all your arms and legs, and that no well-intentioned sea surgeon has hacked them off. -Doug Kelley

A thoroughly engaging presentation of nautical history on the lives and times of the early ship's surgeons on British and American naval and whaling vessels. The drawings of the early surgeon's tools, the descriptions of the surgical procedures and the stories of illness and injury makes one wonder why did anyone sign on as a ship's surgeon? Very informative and highly recommended.

My angle on this book is from an avid adventure & exploration reader's perspective. I enjoy reading the exploits of Franklin, Shackleton, Cooke, and such sea borne explorers.

One of the constants of all of the fantastic voyages of exploration is the inclusion of a physician / scientist. Almost in cliche style these doctors play a major role in the direction and guidance of the expedition. (If you will pardon the comparison, most ships doctors seem just like Bones on Star Trek.)

This book gathers together the biographies, anecdotes and histories of many of these physicians into a conherent historical theme.

Great book!! (Very readable and accessible.)

What I like best about the book is the way in which it traces the historical development of calligraphy. The author's Japan bias matches my own (I got into calligraphy in Japan) and so I didn't particularly mind the heavy Japan slant. What I found frustrating was the lack of a pronunciation guide, especially for the Sanskrit. Given the diacritics in use, I would have liked to have known how to pronounce the dotted consonants, etc. It would be nice to learn more about Khmer and Thai calligraphy also, but I turn to other books...

Sacred Calligraphy of the East takes you through the scripts used in the sacred writings of religions and nations of East Asia. If the book would have just been a wide collection of calligraphic examples, this would have been a good enough reason to get the book. But the book is more than this: It actually teaches you to draw these characters. It's a wonderful book.

Two years ago, at a Zen retreat, I needed something to relax my mind. The priest who headed the retreat had, at his house, an assortment of books from which to choose. I didn't want something cerebral. I fingered his library and came upon John Steven's "Sacred Calligraphy of the East." It was perfect! It offered pictures from which I was able to relax and study the historical progress of Eastern calligraphic forms. Since then, I have bought the book for myself and I continually refer to it when in need. That may seem rather odd: I don't really know why the book relaxes me and gives me solice, but I am quite grateful to John Stevens for his contribution to the art and to my life.

The author provides travel into Indian and Eastern philosophy while dancing with her dragons and the addictions attempting to claim her soul. She finds her way through the labyrinth by exorcising her mothers spirit through the Kundalini serpent power and frees herself from the confusing limitations of the Ultimate Dream. There is a struggle for intimacy (sexual fulfillment and ginseng tea) and nakedness in the garden of the soul. It is all respectively wrapped up in a surround of the mysticism of Shakti explored through the Tantric Art of concious living In Search of Soul. Emphasis on Alternative Medicine, Music, Holistic Health, Yoga and Meditation for the emotional healing of Aids, Sexual Abuse, Divorce, Codependency and the elimination of societal guilt. Roger Freeman

This book is amazing! One can open it up to any page and find practical snippets of wisdom to live by, or read it from the beginning and follow the story. An incredible journey through a woman's heart, mind, and soul. Should be on the New York Times Bestseller List!

A fascinating adventure of a woman's journey In Search of Soul and her INNER LOVER. Enjoyable reading! Dr.Gerald Jampolsky, author.