Sam Choy's book is one of my favorite cookbooks. The recipes are so simple and always have great results.

This is not a diet book, but it is great for the evenings you have company over and want to WOW them with a minimal amount of work. The Crab and Shrimp Stuffed Mushrooms with Mango Bearnaise Sauce is worth the price of the book. A close second is the Ahi Salad with Creamy Peanut Dressing (translation: seared ahi on a salad of radishes, cabbage, sprouts, and green onions tossed with a spicy peanut, cilantro dressing - it's killer). The Macadamia Crusted Mahimahi with Coconut Cream Spinach Sauce is so easy and will really impress the in-laws.

Other dishes regularly made at our house include: Seared Albacore Tuna with Coconut Ginger Sauce, Roasted Chicken with Macadamia Nut Stuffing, both of his recipes for BBQ pork ribs, and Sesame Ginger Snap Peas.

I really can't say enough about what a great and easy cookbook this is. Every recipe I have tried from it is a "make againer". The next recipe I have flagged to try is something he calls My Kids' Favorite Seafood Lasagne. It has scallops, shrimp, mahimahi, and salmon smothered with great sounding white sauce and lots of cheese and pasta - is your mouth watering yet?

Sam Choy's Island Flavors is a wonderful book for people who enjoy the unique taste of food in Hawaii but aren't lucky enough to live in Hawaii and enjoy it every day! Sam Choy's recipes are simple and easy to make. They don't require you to be a master chef to try out the recipes. This cookbook includes recipes for all types of foodlovers (vegetarians, chicken-lovers, seafood lovers and meat-lovers) and takes you from appetizers all the way down to recipes for tropical drinks. Some of Sam Choy's recipes also include substitutions since a lot of us aren't lucky to be living in Hawaii and have some ingredients so readily available to us. My favorite recipes include: Crab and Shrimp Stuffed Shiitake Mushrooms, Quick and Easy Shoyu Chicken, Local Boy Beef Stew, and my very favorite Macadmia Nut Pie! This is a wonderful cookbook. Made me very homesick for my old hometown of Waipahu, Hawaii!

All of Sam Choy's books are good, but this one has a special place in my kitchen, because it covers the gamut of dishes. Unlike his seafood and Poke books, Sam provides some of the finest "home cooking" recipes of the islands.

Well done!

Read Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Each time I do, I realize how truly unique it is. A wonderfully composed sonnet about number theory, um, I mean about genetic engineering, no, wait, it's about philosophy. Dear me, I'm confused; I think it's about artificial intelligence. This book weaves together number theory, musical theory, and art in a whirlwind of self-reference. Hofstadter's main theme is whether artificial intelligence is a possibility or not. I'ts most fascinating element is that, while reading this book, one never quite knows if the book is serious or lighthearted, persuasive or informative. Some say that the most enjoyable part of this book comes after each chapter, when the reader is shown the misadventures of Achilles and the Tortoise, creatures who debate the topics of the following chapterin a roundabout way. Books like this contain so many levels of meaning. One true mark of a classic book is that the reader learns something new each time she reads it. Only one book deserves a ten, so a rating of nine is my highest. Kindly enjoy this book, but before you do, I have one last comment; see if you can find the hidden meaning in this review, because it is representative of the hidden meaning in this book.

Hofstadter has done a superb job of presenting an intriguing melange of disciplines that are seemingly unrelated. The author manages to quickly show that Godel's theorems, Escher's art, and Bach's music have much more in common than most would think. In a lengthy but VERY worthwhile read, he manages to get the reader to analyze many of the assumptions commonly held about the nature of thought and why it is so devilishly difficult to formalize the thought process with rigid rules, among other topics.

That he manages to entertain as well (he writes with a wry sense of humor on what are typically handled as rather dry subjects) and manages to reach the layman is what sets this volume apart as the masterpiece that it is. Although it is accessable to the layman, the book does become progressively more challenging and I strongly recommend completing his suggested exercises before moving on, otherwise you will likely find yourself unable to grasp the point he's trying to make several pages later.

As pure Art, as magnificent intelligence incarnated as absolute beauty, this is the greatest book ever written by human hands. It is a terrible thing to contemplate that 150,000 people die every day without having read this book. Don't let it happen to you.

This book dramatically illustrates two things: First, that truly fascinating subjects and truly beautiful works of art require fundamental concepts from cognitive science and an implicit understanding of the Universe. Second, that no matter how deep a scientific idea is, it can still be explained to any intelligent reader, without using obscuring clouds of mumbo-jumbo.

Artificial Intelligence, mathematics, cognitive science, computer programming; art, music, language; it doesn't matter whether you know them, or you want to know them, or you just want an unlimited amount of amazing fun - read this book. I could spend the rest of my life reading this book and I would still be noticing wonderful new gems.

this book should be your marketing and PR bible! There are 678 pages in this book and every one is packed full of invaluable information. If you're looking for a book on attracting clients to your small or home-based business, this is the ONLY one to buy!

I read this book cover to cover in about three days. I have used the knowledge I've gained to grow my own business. I also share the information with my accounting and consulting clients to help them grow their businesses. The book is very readable and the methods are definitely "real world". One of the many useful topics is finding a marketing strategy that works for you. Many people find cold calling an excruciating way to get new business. This book provides a wide range of marketing activities that are much less painful and more effective. If you want to grow your business, this book is a great investment. For me, it more than paid for itself within a week.

I not only purchased this book for myself, but a copy for my business partner; mine was too furry with Post-Its, notes, and dog ears to let it out of my sight! I have lived with this book close at hand for the last month, and feel it has brought tremendous focus to my business development activity. It is very readable, well organized, and packed with specific tasks to speed you on your way to success. Unlike marketing and business books that are long on theory, but fall short of actions and tasks, I translated this book, chapter by chapter into a project plan to carry my company, Big Head Interactive, through the first year. A Must Have, with spare copies for gift giving!

A great book. A nice crisp and fast read that will have you turning the pages in anticipation of what comes next. Detective Rick Cowan infiltrated the New York garbage mafia as a problem fixer for an independent garbage hauler. Five years later his investigation resulted in indictments across the board, which have put an end to mafia involvement in the New York garbage industry and has saved New York customers and businesses millions upon millions of dollars.

The book is more than an entertaining read. It provides you a real life glimpse into how the mafia infiltrates and consolidates and industry. Cowan and Century provide background history in the novel that tell the origins of the garbage empire. I don't know of any other book that gives you such a detailed nuts and bolts picture of day to day mob operations - mafia bosses meeting on a daily bases and hatching out deals and shakedowns over Italian pasteries. It is all done by word of mouth and handshakes. As they give orders to their brutal underlings they literally get fat off of the hog.

I doubt that this is the "Fall of the Last Mafia" empire as the book cover says. I'd like to know what other businesses the mafia have "owned" in New York and how they have adjusted to Cowan's Takedown.

After finishing the book I wondered if it was worth it to Detective Cowan - spending five years of his life immersed in an undercover operation that risked his life and disrupted his family life. I think he hints at an answer with his discussion with his father at the end of the book, but there is still some ambiguity. Like a lot of things in life there is probably no yes or no answer.

Buy this book and read it. Like another reviewer said it gives a much better picture of how the mafia operates than the "exposes" written by Mafia goons and second to third generation accounts that pack the "true crime" sections of the book stores.

An interesting, suspensful and funny book about how one NY detective, almost unwittingly, found him self the central figure in bringing down the "garbage cartel" in New York. Having been a business owner in Manhattan, who had to pay the unbelievable fees to carters, I hughly recommend this book to anyone looking to get insight into how the "Mob" infiltrated both big and small business.
Kudos to Cowan and Sal Benedetto for following through to the end. Let's hope the politicans have as much back bone as Cowan and Benedetto in insuring that their work was not in vain. A great read. Hope they don't screw up the movie.

He went by alias of Danny Bridges.

He was just on Connie Chung / CNN speaking about his new book Takedown. "Danny" was instrumental in 'taking down' the last mafia empire...that of garbage collection rings that charged extremely high rates and forced Mom and Pop businesses to use their services. Watch out! If any other garbage collection tried to get the business they were 'made a deal' they 'couldn't refuse' (if you know what I mean...).

This book is full of great detail of the inner workings and is very suspenseful!

Rick Cowan alone worked his way into the mob to 'get the goods' (evidence) on the inner workings of the Mafia. He risks his life and the life's of his family and their families. He found collusion that resulted in the imprisonment of high level "Don's". The Mafia made billions through use of their 'leverage'.

I highly recommend this book and hope that one day Rick will not end up in a garbage dump like Jimmy Hoffa. Buy this book today and read it! I couldn't put it down. Great book, great read. Will win the book Academy Awards in December.

Soon after moving to the Northwest I read The Lusty Life of Loon Lake Lloyd. The stories are rich and provided great insight into the culture and history of Oregon and the region. I knew many ole' timers just like 'Lloyd' back in Colorado. Individualistic, hard-nosed and harder working, honest (perhaps too honest), self-reliant; sage men, full of the kind of wisdom that you can't get necessarily from a book. The art renderings and the stories are authentic, unique, and well worth the read.
Michael Thessen
Eugene, Oregon

I'm sure you get many letters and compliments on your book, but my husband has never commented on a book as much as he has after reading yours. He thoroughly enjoyed the copy loaned to him by his cousin, and I thought a copy of his own would be a nice Christmas present! I'm so glad that you wrote this book about your very interesting and adventurous life. So many stories are forgotten or lost to us, your book helps to preserve these tales for future generations to enjoy.

A MUST read for everyone. Anyone that would like to see what life was like for the people who built this country will enjoy this book. It does not matter which side of the fence you are on you will enjoy it and if you are like alot of people today and don't do much but sit on the fence you will enjoy it too. A book about people this country should be taking better care of now ie better healthcare and prescription drugs for our older Americans

If you read Dragonlance, you are probally familar with the House Elves, but you may have only heard about the Kagonesi tribe once or twice in another story about humans or House Elves. This book explains the grand history of the Kagonesti and three of there most honorable leaders. It tells of the time when Kagonos first met the Silver Dragon to start the great legacy of the Rams Horn used by all of the tribes leaders since. This book also looks at the grim prejudgice that almost all other races put on the wild elves, and how near the Cataclysm, he human and house elves almost destroyed the Kagonesti. If you like elves than this book is not to be missed.

Being a big fan of Elves myself, I never really knew much about the Kagonesti. This book descended upon me in the summer and I could not put it down. Quite possibly the best history I have read. It spans well over three generations, shows everything about the relationship with the Silver Dragons. The only thing that I can find to complain about it is the fact that it spent a bit too much time on battles with other cultures, instead of describing the society itself, which does seem a little one-sided.

along with DL's CHRONICLES this ranks among the best DL books i've read. with lots of action, magic and even drama, this book's collection of stories about the wild elves always holds your attention and you never get to skip pages out of boredom. an essential DL book. trust me i have about 30 of them.

Harding wants to convince us, literally, that we do not have a head. It sounds preposterous but he is rather insistent and, incredibly, it starts to dawn on us that somehow he has a point. The phrase "I have no head" says something new not about the word "head" but about the word "I". Actually what Harding should have written is that "I am not a head": our experience of the world is something much more basic and elemental, and only later do we learn about our head. This becomes clearer when one finds that Harding also claims that we don't have a body. In fact, even after reading the book I shall continue to talk about my head as something I have - it sounds more natural.

I think that Harding is talking about one of the most intriguing philosophical problems of today, which is consciousness. He wants us to become aware of our awareness, and to show how this experience fundamentally changes the way we see everything else.

To my mind, his connection to Zen Buddhism is strenuous. He mentions many passages from Zen Buddhism (and also from some Christian mystics) to make his point. Zen Buddhism is about rational thought being an obstruction of truth, but thinking about awareness is a very rational enterprise. I am not convinced that when the Zen masters talked about the disappearance of the self they meant the same as headlessness. Anyway the connection with Zen adds little to the main idea of the book, which I think can very well stand on its own.

All in all, I think this book touches on something that is really very important, even fundamental. My only criticism is that the book contains much that I thought peripheral and even unnecessarily opaque.

Is the world you experience "inside" your mind or "outside" it?

Puzzle over that little question while you read this underground spiritual classic. Douglas Harding is dead serious (though far from solemn): he wants to show you that you have no head.

You see, he noticed one day while wandering in the Himalayas -- where this sort of thing is apt to happen -- that _he_ didn't have a head. And, in reflecting on the experience afterwards, he worked out a way to bring other people to the same awareness with no need for either abstruse scholarly appartus or esoteric meditation techniques.

All you have to do is turn around the arrow of attention, and try to look back to see who -- or Who -- is looking _out_ from wherever it is you're looking out from. Go ahead. Try it right now.

See?

Well, if you did, you don't technically need the book any more. But Harding is still a lot of fun to read: he has a light touch, a subtle sense of humor, and the ability to compress the keenest of insights into the simplest of prose, so you'll enjoy him even if you've already gotten his point.

And if you _haven't_ gotten it yet, he'll help you to do so. It's really the same point Alan Watts wanted to put across in _The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are_ (which, for my money, is his best work on the subject). Watts wants you to see that the world is your body; Harding wants you to see that the world is your mind; and they're both right.

This is just a charming book all around, and it will grow on you over the years without ever getting old. Buy a copy and keep it; when it wears out, buy another. Pass it out to your friends. Force it on your enemies (and thereby turn them into your friends). I've gone through at least a couple copies of it myself.

Of course, if you're one of those people who thinks spirituality isn't _supposed_ to be fun, and that anything this simple is somehow unworthy of God, you should probably stay away from it for a while. Read Raymond Smullyan's _The Tao Is Silent_ first and (chuckle) lighten up.

Is the world you experience "inside" your mind or "outside" it? Read Harding, and then _you_ tell _me_.

Douglas Harding's On Having No Head: Zen And The Rediscovery Of The Obvious is a philosophical look at "headlessness", or the psychological state of "no-self" of mysticism that opens one's mind and senses to the workings of internal and external nature. Harding places "the headless way" within a Zen context, as well as comparing it to other spiritual traditions in this insightful and thought-provoking treatise. On Having No Head is a highly recommended contribution to Buddhist and Eastern Philosophy supplemental reading lists.

In 'Selling From The Heart' Steven Lloyd has created an inspirational, fresh and yet practical approach to selling. These techniques really work, not only in business but in day to day life situations too!

It is so refreshing to read a work from an author that is successful at what he does and has the writing and communication skills and abilities to teach others how to do it too! Steven Lloyd and his remarkable book will take you from theory to practical, from observation to action! This book needs to be required reading for every serious student of sales, marketing, management, and life!

It obvious that "Selling From The Heart," springs from Steven Lloyd's skill, intellect and love for selling. Steven presents profound sales wisdom in a practical, "How To" format that is easy and fun to read. The lessons he will teach you in this book can be used the same day the book is read! This book contains great exercises and examples that will lead you step by step above and beyond selling success. Steven's ideas and techniques are tried, tested and proven systems that will improve your life and career for years to come! Steven Lloyd is a true star that has a wonderful ability to put himself into the mind of his reader and lead you into experiencing what he practices. This is a great book!

Have you ever wondered why you return time and time again to certain web sites yet there are others you wish not to return again?

One of the measurements of site success is customer retention. In order to retain your customers, you must know and understand them. Not all web sites have the same customer requirements but they do share some of the same principles. Van Duyne, Landay, and Hong provide the guidance to explain the differentiation of site categories, what they have in common and what customers expect out of them. They reveal how the top benchmark sites are developed from the customer viewpoint. They explain how a customer should know where they are on a site and to navigate, even if they enter the site 5 layers down.

The authors define eleven site genres and then discuss the various patterns that best fit specific type of site or general to multiple types of sites. There have been many books written on web usability and design ... but this book provides the reading experience that can be applied to any site.

Have you ever wondered why you return time and time again to certain books yet there are others you wish not to return again? This book is a "Pager Returner."

This book is highly recommended.

Unlike many books on usability or on web or interactive design, "The Design of Sites" covers both aspects in equal depth. It is well research, with hundreds of examples, and it is written in concise language with oodles of cross-references to other sections. The book is very attractively designed, and works well from start to finish or with random soundings. Above all, it is comprehensive in addressing all design problems, yet brief and to the point on the many "patterns" (which could just as well be called "topics") it covers.

Perhaps not the first book a new web designer should read, but a good candidate for the second one -- it is certainly of great interest to anyone who has begun to grapple with the many design challenges of web development.

Highly recommended.

This is the first computer related book that I have bought and thought - "Perfect, just what I needed." What I like most about this book is that it spends so little time explaining why building user centered web sites is a good idea, and tells you exactly what techniques are used to create them. You can open the book up to almost any page, read a paragraph and get something out of it. It is clear that the authors spend alot of time laying out the book to make information retrieval easy.

Dont let "look inside" pictures that amazon has posted fool you - they are probably the only boring sections of the book. In part 2 (about page 100), the book gets really really good. For the next 500 pages they cover almost every area of of web design imaginable and present the areas in a problem - solution format. Many books dont offer concrete techniques, just tell you - "design for the user", "users hate poorly designed pages" etc etc. Each problem/solution is about 2 pages long, and they are web techniques that can be applied to almost every web site. They literally say to solve X problem do Y solution. Very specific, very useful.

The book also is good from cover to cover. I have found that alot of books are good for the first chapter and then loose quality. They present each "nugget of information" with the perfect amount of description - enough to explain why its useful, but not too much to drag on.

They also use these hand drawn pictures that I liked to show how a generic web page would function, instead of only pictures of pre-existing web pages ( which they also have ample examples) So you can actually apply it to your project instead of saying, I understand why hotmail looks the way it does. I would recommend this book to anyone, hands down.

The autobiography of Kirk Douglas should be required reading for all American high school students. He proves that you can overcome any obstacle in America, no matter what circumstances you were born into, if you are willing to work hard, stay focused, and never stop following your dream. He overcame abject poverty, flagrant anti-Semitism, family dysfunction, and a society that all but guaranteed that he would never amount to anything. He was blessed with a passionate zest for living and learning, a voracious curiosity, and a fearlessness that allowed him to take risks that lead to great achievements in his life. He truly is bigger than life. He tells his story with brutal honesty. He has a great personal integrity that shines through the entire book. He is, like all the rest of us, imperfect. But he had the tenacity to tell his story, imperfections and all. He has worked hard for everything he has. He was NOT an overnight success. He is highly educated, and is a veteran of the U.S.Navy. And he remains his own man. His life is a great example of the kind of people who made this country the power that it is today.

This is the most interesting autobiography I have ever read. In addition to being a great actor, Kirk Douglas is also a terrific writer. The book is written in a crisp, lively pace with plenty of fascinating stories. Mr. Douglas discusses the good things he did during his life, and the not-so-good. He's definitely had a full life.

I read "Ragman" many years ago and still find it to be one of the most entertaining star autobio's that I have ever read. Douglas is very straightforward in his retelling of his humble beginnings, his personal triumphs and tragedies, as well as his long and distinguished career. I recently found his follow-up "Climbing the Mountain." If it is half the book the former is, my financial investment on both would be worth it.