I read this book many years ago, and I absolutely loved it! I would like to have another copy of it again, and will try to get it through amazon.com! It is the kind of book that you will refer to for the rest of your life, "the glass pig theory", for instance! It is a one of a kind classic, and one that I "highly" recommend for one and all!

I read this book when I was a wide-eyed teenager in L.A. in the 60's and re-read it a while ago. While my politics have changed, it is still a very funny book. Jack Margolis, at the time of writing had a comedy show on TV in LA with Bob Arbogast (the Arbogast and Margolis Show), and Richard Clorfene was then a very successful advertising guy. I don't know what Jack is doing now, but Richard (Chaim) Clorfene is producing educational videos and writing books and is still a very funny, and all round good and creative guy. Other works by Chaim, "The Path of the Righteous Gentile", "Confessions of a Cult Buster" (co-written, with Shea Hecht), and "Awake the Dawn", a beautiful video about the Jewish Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Yosef

I read this book when i was 14 or 15 yrs old. Maybe not the best idea for a young person in todays world. I found it in my big sisters room one day and just could not put it down. I am now 26 years old, and i still think of that book all the time. No i don't smoke and i don't grow, i have in the past but that book was just so funny and down to earth. The authors really make you feel like a friend. I recommend this book to any one who just wants a good read.

I received an autographed copy of Mary's World for Christmas 2000. This book is an astonishing selection of actual writings from Mary Pringle, a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother in the 1800's. The writer has captured the aura of pre and post Civil War-Charleston, SC. These writings have some spectacular historical significance as some of the homes and plantations discussed can still be seen today. I found the medical practices of this period of time most interesting as I am a nurse. This collection of writings is priceless and I have rarely, if ever, enjoyed a book more. I am an avid reader and love books about the Civil War. This book has shown how the one member of this family, Mary, kept her faith in God and in humanity through times of trial, tragedy, death, war, childbirth, and yes, happiness. This book is a MUST for anyone with the slightest inkling of historic South Carolina.

Angela Yon

Mary's world draws from personal letters of the Pringle family of Charleston to illustrate the life of an elite family before, during and after the Civil War. The book is immensely interesting for the social history/women's history buff, as it details the life of a wealthy planter's wife and her day to day activities in one of the most important Southern cities of the Civil War. The story is complimented by many period photographs and drawings. Sure to please.

Apart from the reading plaesure "Mary's World" provides, I immensly enjoyed this book for the following reasons: foreign history, in this case the American Civil War history, can be daunting for outsiders. Mary's World eases the foreigner not only into the life of the Pringle family but also into history of southern plantation life years prior to the war. This circumstance greatly facilitates the amateur's understanding of the time leading up to the war and the war itself. What I particularly appreciated was the southern view of that history. Even in Switzerland we are familiar with the northern issues of industrialism vs. agriculture (prominent geographically in Europe at that time also), the slavery issue etc. Rarely do we hear about the life and thoughts of Southerners other than the great military men. The history of Mary Pringle written by Richard Cote transports you into a Charleston household in two seconds flat. It is all so lively and easy to imagine that it is hard to put down the book. I felt I knew Mary Pringle and her children! And I felt I had never learned more about the South.

THERE ARE VERY FEW BOOKS WRITTEN WITH STYLE AND HUMOR THAT DISCUSS SURVIVING PRISON. BEHIND BARS IS A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR PERSONS CAUGHT UP IN THE "INCACERATION MACHINE." THIS IS THE BOOK EVERY CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER SHOULD GIVE THEIR CLIENTS. IT WILL HELP EASE THE PAIN AND REMIND THE VICTIMS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM THAT, DESPITE THE WORSE THAT CAN HAPPEN, THEY WILL SURVIVE PRISON. I FOUND THE BOOK TO BE A FAST READ THAT PROVIDES ESSENTIAL INFORMATION KNOWN ONLY BY THOSE THAT HAVE SERVED PRISON TIME. I WILL BUY EXTRA COPIES FOR MY LUNATIC FRINGE FRIENDS.

Behind the Bars is a criminal justice survival manual for the innocently naïve and felonious savvy alike. As Ross and Richards point out, it is just as easy for law-abiding John/Jane Q. average citizen to unwittingly be ensnared in the complex system of criminal justice, as practicing felons. Behind the Bars contains practical advice on how to survive the legal and correctional system. This book is a quick read that will have you running the gambit of emotions from lighthearted humor, to incredulous disbelief, to horrific shock. Above all, the book serves to remind us how vulnerable we are to systematic governmental victimization.

Behind the Bars begins by instructing the criminal justice system novice on the difference between constitutional rights in theory and constitutional rights in practice; the difference between misdemeanors and felonies; and breaks-down, for easy consumption, a convoluted system of incarceration (jails, state prison systems, and federal prison system).

Ross and Richards then take a realistic and humanistic approach to providing the "low down and dirty" on the prison experience. Most media sources, when discussing the prison experience, provide an austere or sensationalistic approach to explaining the prison experience, by regurgitating information provided by administrative resources and scholarly work based on distal information. Such resources may lead (and have led) the public in general, and criminal justice students in particular, to wrongly believe that prisons offer a wide array of personal amenities medical/vocational/educational services, and recreational facilities, making it appear that convicted felons are being treated to a taxpayer funded vacation in a modified version of a health spa. Ross and Richards provide the naked truth on the reality of the prison experience, and discuss in detail the difficulties of prison life for both prisoners and guards.

Based on personal experiences, Ross and Richards provide practical first-hand guidance that just might prevent the reader from being caught off-guard by the criminal justice system. As a criminologist and a participant in a prison ministry program, I found Behind the Bars to be insightful and disturbingly realistic, and would be a perfect ancillary text for academic courses on Corrections, Criminology and Introduction to the Criminal Justice System. Thanks to Ross and Richards we now know the rest of the story!

Behind bars is a quick, easy, useful, and enjoyable read. Though this book is being used as a college text book, don't let that drive you away. This book is useful to everyone, not just criminology students. Richards and Ross give you the truth about our prison system, this book is written from their experiences dealing with the system. No one plans on going to prison, but you never know, it's better to be prepared than to get ...(pardon the pun). Read the book, trust me, you won't be able to put it down.

Most references to World War Two in the Pacific cite the decisive American victory at the Battle of Midway as the turning point in that conflict - the high tide of Japanese aggression. This book carefully refutes that position. The Japanese were still on the offensive after Midway (in part because the Japanese Navy neglected to inform the Japanese Army of the loss of four front line fleet carriers in that battle). The Japanese were still fully capable of seizing and severing American lines of communication with Australia - depriving the U.S. of a required base for future offensive operations. The dual campaigns in New Guinea and Guadalcanal from August 1942 to January 1943 (both resulting in successful Allied counter-offensives) represented the critical shift from the strategic defensive to the offensive for the Allies for the balance of the war. As Frank so ably demonstrates, there was nothing inevitable about the six-month struggle in the southern Solomons that started when the First Marine Division went ashore August 7, 1942. Both sides suffered significant setbacks and suffered from leadership lapses at critical junctures. In the end, it was the U.S. superiority in high command decisions and material that seemed to tilt the balance. The Japanese were surprised and very slow to believe that the U.S. was committing itself to an offensive campaign so early in the war. An objective analysis reveals that the Japanese had every reason to be surprised and U.S. leaders had every reason to be pessimistic as to the final outcome, especially after the early disaster at the Battle of Savo Island revealed relative U.S. weakness in surface ship actions. Guadalcanal came to be known as Starvation Island for the Japanese and the U.S. also came to recognize the conflict as a battle for logistics supremacy - which equated to air and sea supremacy, while soldiers and marines suffered tropical deprivations and hard fighting against a fanatical foe on the ground. Frank's work attempts to tell the complete story - air, sea and land - and he is successful. No mean feat. His research casts new light on an aging but important subject. As the World War Two generation fades into the past, it is all the more important to to reassess the history and importance of these events. Guadalcanal the history by Frank is a landmark study on perhaps the critical campaign of the entire cataclysm that was the War in the Pacific.

The book is the definitive source on the Guadalcanal campaign. It covers all three aspects (air, land, sea) of the 6 month campaign in detail. It is obvious the Mr. Frank has done his homework and it was very refershing to see that Japanese sources were also used extensively. This is something that is sorely lacking in other books that discuss campaigns in the Pacific.

He provides interesting breakdown tables of casualties after each major battle. I especially liked the way the author analyzes mistakes that were made by both sides. His critiques of Adms. Ghormley and Fletcher was especially interesting. The final concluding chapter was als very excellent as it gives a good tactical and strategic summary of the whole campaign.

The only minor quibble I had was with the comparatively short (comapred to the land and sea) coverage on the air aspects. More personal details on the airmen who particpated would be better since the author himself stated that control of Henderson Field was instrumental to the Japanese inability to resupply their land forces, and the eventual win. The daily listing of air casualties over-claimed/suffered by both sides gets a bit numbing after a while.

Thoroughly researched, and utilizing both American and Japanese field reports, Frank has written the definitive account of America's first offensive struggle of WW II. The seven naval engagements are given the same detail attention as are the multiple land clashes. Most vivid among the latter were the days and nights along Edson's ridge and the Battle for Henderson's Field. Of particular interest were the accounts of the taking of Gavutu, Tanambogo and Tulagi, adjacent islands that several works overlook altogether. This invasion should never have succeeded; we lacked both air and naval superiority, two prerequisites for any amphibious assault. In those first few months, when the enemy could have swatted us like an annoying bug, he hesitated and committed resources piecemeal, a mistake the Japanese would make over and over. The monumental strategic importance of the Solomons seems to gradually dawn on each side as the campaign progressed. Unusual for a book of such detail, from the Tenaru to Edson's Ridge to the final escape of the decimated remnants of the Japanese defenders sixth months later, the action never slows. A liberal sprinkling of front line troops' reflections would have made this a truly remarkable read. Admittedly, I've been spoiled by Ambrose.

One River was one of the best books I have read in quite some time. As a Ph.D student in Botany, I was inspired by the accounts of Shultes, Plowman and Davis' journeys to the Amazon seeking tropical plants and learning from the people who have been using them for generations.. Davis has a rare ability to mix technical science writing with a deep knowledge of history, culture, and politics and make it flow into a coherent narrative. Any student of ecology, evolution, (especially of plants) will love this book as will people with an interest in the cultures and history of the Amazon basin.

This book is a beyond-detail-rich look at the enterprise of ethnobotany in an extraordinary region of threatened biological wealth, through a biography of one of the field's greatest figures. It is a planet of a book, a book to get lost in like the rainforest itself; I read it in deeper and deeper skims to take it in. I felt like Davis was giving me, not some facts about the Amazon, but a transferred chunk of the reality of the place itself.

Curiously, I was advised that this would not be a good book to recommend to a family member who is very interested in biology and in indigenous cultures - because of all the objectionable hallucinogens in the book, which are typical of the region. (Once all the remnants of the peoples discussed have been converted to alcoholism, doubtless it will become permissible to know about them...) That would be one reason to support this book: it is a window out of our preconceptions, or at least out of the the ones that are uninformed or that don't know they need to *be* informed. This book is worth sitting down with, and worth passing on.

"One River" will take you on a journey that you will never forget. It will introduce you to one of the twentieth century's most remarkable men--Richard Evans Schultes, as well as one of the world's most fascinating places--the Amazon.

The book is the story of the work of Schultes and two of his students, including the author Wade Davis. It will take you as close as you can ever be to lost cultures and lost ecosystems along with cultures and ecosystems that are very much endangered. Wade Davis is a champion of both human and ecological diversity. "One River" is probably the most eloquent testament to ethnic and biological diversity I've ever read.

As the modern world encroaches on every last nook and cranny of this beautiful earth, "One River" serves as a primer about what once was and about the price we pay as we lose one more species, or one more human culture forever.

This book is an adventure story. It is a story of incredible academic accomplishment. The term academic, with its connotations of being hopelessly removed from the real world does not apply here. Schultes and his students could not be more connected to the real world.

"One River" is the story of man and nature and how the two interact, each forever changing the other. Read this book and then tell your friends about it. While it is hard to make such a claim (there are so many good books), I'd have to say this is my favorite book.

Any animator looking for a book to help them improve their craft knows that most books on animation usually fall short in so many ways, it's easy to think it's impossible to write a comprehensive and accurate book on the subject (don't even get me started about the abysmal state of computer character animation books). Williams is the penultimate animator's animator and he tells it like it is. Williams systematically demystifies virtually every aspect of animation from simple walk cycles, to breaking joints to dialogue and acting. Along the way, he corrects or eliminates information that is inaccurate or practices that distract (lose the headphones and the rad tunes when you work and watch your quality and quantity improve). Williams also is a great storyteller and writer. His accounts with Milt Kahl, Art Babbit and Ken Harris are gems, giving real insight into the personalities of these ingenious men. Since so much of the book is gleaned from his tutaluge under the now-gone "greats" of animation, any price for this tome is a steal. His gift to the world is this book.

If you want learn to REALLY animate characters with life and believability, get this book.

I'm a graduate of a one year animation certificate program in classical animation. In many ways, this book covers a lot of the ground of Preson Blair's classic bible "Cartoon Animation", as well as Tony White's excellent "Animator's Handbook". However, it also deals with practical examples to extend the lessons from these initial books. The whole section on 'walks' has lessons on acting, character and animation that deal with all areas of acting in animation, not simply walk cycles.

It's also more practical than the Illusion of Life, in that it has a logical progression of lessons and enough custom illustrations to more precicely demonstrate these points. In many ways, It's the intermediate book between the intellectual aspects of the Illusion of Life, and the basic principals of Cartoon Animation.

For me, this was like a second year of school: I had learned all the concepts and basic principals I needed in that first year of school using Tony White and Preson Blair. Richard William's book expanded on those concepts, and has already started to improve my work in the first two months of receiving it. I highly recommend this book to any animation students out there, as well as graduates looking to increase their skills.

Richard Williams is a man who is largely responsible for the revival of the art of animation in the early 1970s. Williams had Disney animator Art Babbitt and Warner great Ken Harris working in his studio in London and training a new generation of animators in the techniques of good character animation, which was not taught at the time in any school or considered an art form.

Williams' long awaited book on animation technique is the logical successor to Preston Blair's CARTOON ANIMATION and it successfully updates some of the weaknesses of that book, particularly in handling dialogue animation. He covers a lot of the same ground that Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston did in their now out-of-print THE ILLUSION OF LIFE.

There is some history, but that's available in other books. What is unique about this book is that Williams writes how surprised he, an Academy Award winning animator with a successful professional studio, was to learn that he needed to learn just about everything over again from Harris and Babbitt. Fortunately for us he is now sharing these priceless lessons with the public.

The most important thing that an aspiring animator will get from this book is: that animation IS an art form, and good animation has nothing to do with whether it is done on computer or on paper. Williams exhorts his readers to 'draw whenever possible' and even though there is a computer modelled figure on the cover of the book, there is not a single piece of computer generated imagery in it. The book is about the bare bones, about creating life in art. Animation is the twentieth century's contribution to world art and deserves to be taken very seriously.

Buy this book.

Richard Reeves has crafted an exceedingly insightful, well-written, you-are-there look at the Presidency of John F. Kennedy. As someone born the year Kennedy was assasinated, and having been inculcated over the years with the Kennedy Myth, Reeves took me almost day-by-day, minute-by-minute through the events starting from Kennedy's election through the day 33 years ago when he was killed in Dallas.
Reeves' looks at the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crises take advantage of recent disclosures from US, Soviet and other sources to show how close we came to World War III in both of those situations.
The book's description of the start of the US commitment in Vietnam under JFK allowed me to gain a better understanding of how Kennedy's prior failure to stand up to the Soviet Union and Krushchev in Laos and Cuba "forced" JFK to stand firmly behind the unsupportable South Vietnamese government.
Other topics addressed by the book include JFK's tepid support of civil rights and his rampant promiscuity.
I had to rate this book a 9 (I've yet to read a 10), but this book has to be one of the best out of the almost unlimited supply of JFK biographies

I've read a ton of biographies but this would definitely make it into my top 5. It's a real goldmine of information for those who want an objective look at Kennedy's presidency without too much muckraking. What I liked most about this book is that because it is a day by day presentation of Kennedy's 1000 days, it gives you a terrific view of what it is like to be President. Reeves' presentation of the Bay of Pigs disaster is particularly interesting, as is Reeves' revelation that it was often Robert Kennedy who was the hatchet man for Kennedy. This is particularly important when RFK tries to pass the buck for to the cabinet for floundering in the Bay of Pigs. To be honest, I am not sure I like JFK as much as I used to (Kennedy's handling of the steel companies was a disgrace), but he did handle the Cuban Missile Crisis with aplomb (although in the book Dean Acheson attributes his success in Cuba to "pure dumb luck"). In any event, this book was terrific.

Richard Reeves has produced a remarkable tour de force in this extensive day by day chronicle of the Kennedy administration. Somehow, through a combination of archival work and interviewing of key surviving players, Reeves has managed to completely capture Kennedy the president from his inauspicious beginning to the day of his tragic death. What a pleasure to read a book about JFK that is not focused on his sordid personal life or is not a revisionist effort to malign him. Indeed, the subtitle of this book really describes it because the story of the Kennedy presidency is the story of how an ambitious, bright and fundamentally serious playboy learns to wield presidential power. Of course the most remarkable part of the book is the Cuban Missle Crisis and here we see, from an unbiased historian, not the President's brother (RFK) or house historian (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.) just how Kennedy's essential caution and coolness may have saved the world from disaster. This book effectively refutes the current revisionist spin that Kennedy was an essentially frivilous and corrupt person. To the contrary, the Kennedy of Reeve's book comes across as serious, thoughtful and comfortable with the reigns of power. It leads one to wonder what a second term would have been like. Most important though, this book brings Kennedy to life and this is no small talent for a biographer, especially one focused primarily on Kennedy's life as president and not his personal life. This is not "Life Goes To Camelot" and it is a pleasure!

Harlan Ellison is arguably one of, if not THE, best science fiction/fantasy authors in the world.
Even his detractors must agree that he is brilliant at story construction, and his characterization is beautiful; in short, he's damn good at what he does.
This book is only a small (yes, small--probably the only case in which 1,000 pages could be called that) example of his work, but it does an excellent job of showing that brilliance.
Tracing Ellison's developement from his earliest attempts at writing (age 15) to his latest and most powerfull works, including several articles and essays by the author, The Essential Ellison is an excellent guide to a stellar career.

It also has some nice stories in it. :)

How else can i say it? READ THIS BOOK!
Buy it, check it out, borrow it but READ it.
Thank you

... than you simply do not posses the ability to be moved. Harlan Ellison has written over 1700 stories encompassing over 60 books. His best stories and essays open you up to the man's heart. He is brutally honest and always has an opinion. It's hard to put his writing under science fiction because although he has written many SF stories; he has also written horror, dark fantasy, "mainstream" fiction and of course, non-fiction. In the end, these classifications are just to place the book somewhere to make the bookseller's life a bit easier. This is the book to get if you are new (what took you so damn long?) to Ellison. It will introduce to some of his best stories and burning critical essays. He is without a doubt one of the best living short story writers we have. Get it and prove me wrong! -E.L.

The Los AngelesTimes labeled him "the 20th Century Lewis Carroll." The Washington Post considers him "one of the greatest living American short story writers." He's written over 40 books and in excess of 1100 short stories, essays, reviews, articles and newspaper columns. He's received more awards for imaginative literature than any other living author. He is Harlan Ellison, and he is one of a kind.

This massive (over 1000 pages) retrospective brings you the best of Harlan Ellison, encompassing fiction, essays, reviews and more. Providing the reader with "a portrait of one artist as sublime Rebel" (from the introduction), The Essential Ellison is a work of pure genius which will remain a cherished part of your collection for years to come.

There are a myriad of books on the subject of prayer. Many are guides to prayer, also called "how-to" books on prayer. Others are compilations of prayers in scripture (such as the prayers of Jesus or the prayers of David). Many Christian readers may have one or more of these on their bookshelves. However, when one reads PRAYER: FINDING THE HEART'S TRUE HOME, there is an immediately discernable difference present within it's pages. As you move through the book you can sense a depth of wisdom and intimacy with God present in author's life. The book is so profound that is is difficult to read more a few pages in one sitting. This isn't to say that all of the concepts taught within are difficult, although a few are. Rather, it is that the depth and meaningfulness of the pages are so intense that it takes the thoughful reader much time to digest, wrestle with, and assimilate the beautiful wisdom within them.

A highly recommended and deeply challenging help and inspiration.

This book presents prayer as a multifaceted jewel that is a wonder to behold no matter how you hold it up to the light. Foster examines and describes very simply every aspect of prayer imaginable. This is absolutely THE BEST book I have ever read on the subject. It is a wonderful read. A book to be read, re-read and re-re-read until it becomes part of the fabric of your life.

"But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray." (Luke 5:16)

This life is an adventure. There is no higher calling within this adventure than following in the footsteps of the master--Jesus the Christ.

Prayer is one of the main paths that Jesus traveled during his first stay here on earth...Richard Foster's masterpiece "Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home" is like a grizzled old tour guide to help lead us in the life of prayer.

Foster devotes each chapter to a different kind of prayer...examining each one like the facets of a precious jewel. Foster's advice is both insightful and solid. This book is to prayer what Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" was to the spiritual disciplines. Both are masterpieces.

I give "Prayer" my highest recommendation.

A friend recommended Metabolize.It seemed so logical that we all are different and have different nutritional needs.I tried the diet and look and feel wonderful.Its easy to follow,lots of tasty menus and food choices.The unexpected bonus is the 7 no sweat energy movements my back feels great my energy is high and my motivation has never been higher.Metabolize has changed my life!

My husband had a special surprise for our 15th anniversary, a trip to the Bahamas! I was excited and nervous. Excited because it was my dream vacation, nervous because I was so fat. I started looking at bathing suits and just wanted to cry! Nothing looked good on me, NOTHING! First for Women magazine had an article about a new book that came out in Jan. of this year called METABOLIZE. I bought it out of desperation having tried everything else. The information is so good and easy to read. The diet is not a diet at all but a unique way of sensible eating for your body. I have lost 58lbs since Jan and the sexy bathing suits that made me cry now make me smile... because they fit! Our vacation turned out great and I didn't put the weight back on after we got home. Meatbolize is a wonderful book. Thank you for helping my dream vacation be all I ever hoped it could be.

I took one look at this book and bought it immediately. The idea that one person's metabolism is probably different than another person's makes a lot of sense to me. And why do all these fad diets assume that they work for every type of person on the planet?

First you take a self-test in this book to determine your type. Then you can figure out a diet based on relative amounts of certain nutrients you need. Apparently, certain nutrients have exact opposite effect in some people--a high protein, low carb diet may be absolutely WRONG for you. I sure would like to know that BEFORE I decide on a diet plan.

I also like the fact this book includes exercises, breathing exercises and recommendations for supplements and vitamins. The calorie levels are also set so you can pick one that suits your size and sex (not everyone should eat an extremely low calorie diet.) Of course the book also has sample menus, which are always helpful. Finally, the paperback edition is a reasonable size to fit in a purse or in a briefcase, meaning it can go with you anywhere.

I wasn't sure if I was Atkins, Pritikin or NO KIN to any of these (turns out I am mixed, so that is why I had trouble) This book is really excellent and I can recommend it to anyone who wants to lose weight and eat right.