This author may be new but he's great. The visual description are incredible and the story intreaguing. Despite some editing problems I found the book to be a wonderful read. Once I started I couldn't put it down. I finished it in less then 9 hours!!! I can't wait for John to come out with another.

I'm not usually a fan of the horror/suspense genre (i.e. Stephen King, Clive Barker), but I found this book to be an enjoyable read. While some of the descriptions were quite graphic, there is a large audience for that sort of thing, and the author's depiction of his characters' emotional turmoil was realistic and believable. This book is a para-psychological thriller, and presents a theme of barriers, both social and spiritual, that the characters are unable to break down, struggle as they might.

If you enjoy novels that explore the possibilities of the after-life, and don't mind a little gore, then I recommend this book.

The story is great and I could not put the book down. Other than a few editing errors I recommend this to everyone. I hope the movie comes out soon.

If you've read one John O'Hara short story, you've read them all. All characters are obsessed with their status in life, and if a man and a woman are alone together, you just have to wait until one will try to get the other in the sack. If you had a 95 year old grandmother in a scene with an 18 year old male high school student, you could almost expect that one would make a pass at the other. THE DOCTOR'S SON is the best O'Hara short story I've read. It is excellent. Read that one, enjoy it. But you need read no more, since everything in that story is in every other O'Hara story.

If John O'Hara isn't one of our greatest American writers, who is? O'Hara, along with writers like John Cheever and Irwin Shaw, chronicle the American suburban experience during the middle part of the twentieth century and we should not miss out on their observations. But what do you see when you go to Barnes & Noble or Borders? Racks and racks of ridiculous drivel hoisted on us by greedy publishers and other fast-buck artists. Mindless entertainment rules while O'Hara, Cheever, Shaw and their like are pushed off the book shelves and out of circulation. The tone and empathy of these Masters will forever provide an insight into our American experience that you won't get from the trash that we now seem to be preoccupied with. OK, OK, OK. I read some of this current trash, too, but I haven't forgotten the great American Triumvirate.... O'Hara, Cheever and Shaw!

I have always liked this author; I can always count on him for a good story. I was a little disappointed in this effort. Maybe it is because of the high hopes I had after reading some of his other works, but this book just did not hold my attention. He did a good job with an interesting story, one that I think he had to work more on due to it getting away from his standard fair. The characters drive this book and are done well. I guess I was not looking for a sea story and that is what this book is.

As a fan of naval adventure fiction, I usually follow the Forester, Obrian, Kent novels of nautical derring-do in the Age of Sail. Thus the jacket blurb on this Higgins book attracted me. I was not disappointed. Briefly, the book involves the fates of passengers and crew of a 19th century three-masted barkentine as it tries to return German nationals from Brazil to the homeland as Germany faces certain defeat. It's a five-thousand mile journey to round the Shetlands to enter the Skageraak and head for home. The Atlantic is controlled by the British and American fleets. This danger, however, is not the main enemy, which is the sea and the weather. The amazing seamanship exercised just to hold the creaking 60-year old vessel together in the teeth of terrible storms may stretch credulity; however the nautical exploits are convincingly described and it's obvious that Higgins knows his naval details down to the way in which sails had to be reefed, masts lashed, hulls braced, etc. The passengers include an admirable collection of nuns who must abandon the order in Brazil due to the fact that Brazil has just become a formal ally of the United Nations effort to defeat the Nazi regime. The stifled romance between a wavering novitiate nun and a strongly etched member of the ship's crew is well drawn, not too maudlin and deftly handled. So too are the British and American characters on a remote island in the Hebrides, who are to become entangled in the fate of the imperiled _Deutschland_. Even the captured U-Boat commander Gericke avoids the usual black and white "German = Nazi" stereotyping.

I would have liked to see the subsequent fate of the surviving main characters brought to light. Any screenplay based on this novel (which is a natural for the cinema) should try to tie up these loose ends.

Highly recommended.

This is a reprint of a novel originally published in 1976. The story is set in August-September 1944. A group of German naval officers and seamen, stranded in Brazil, steal the aged 3-masted barkentine "Deutschland" and, using false Swedish papers, set out on a voyage from Belem, Brazil, in an attempt to reach Germany. They have unexpected passengers - a group of five German nuns from a nursing order attempting to return home. Their biggest danger is the weather as storms batter the sailing vessel (they neglected the fact that September is the peak season for Atlantic hurricanes). The voyage becomes an epic battle against the elements, and leads to heroism, sacrifice, tragedy, and unexpected compassion. I personally believe that this is one of Higgin's best novels, if not the best. There are some intertwined plots as events come together to reach a final climax to the story.

This is a classic book describing a simple method for achieving outstanding results in the stock market by investing in a selection of five stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial average. There is one little problem. The method hasn't worked very well recently. Taking some data from the table on page 204 of the O'higgins book we see the % gain or loss of the selected five stocks compared with the Dow Jones Industrial Average: (Year, Five stocks, Dow Jones Average);(1994 8.6 4.9),(1995 30.5 36.4), (1996 27.9 28.9), (1997 20.5 24.9), (1998 12.3 17.9). The method has faied to Beat the DOW every year since 1994. My own calculations shows that this under performance continues into 2001. The Motley Fool Group has done extensive research on this method and after their initial enthusiam they have recently terminated their recommendation. Serious students of the market should buy this book. Further study of this approach may lead to new methods for "Beating the Dow".

Michael O'Higgin's investing classic holds up as well in the New Millenium as it did when it first hit book stands 10 years ago.

He maintains that it is still possible to beat the DOW by buying the 10 highest yielding stocks and tweaking your holdings each year, with correspondingly greater rates of return with a two- or five-stock selection from the group. O'Higgin's admits in the new eidtion that the strategy has been muddied by a drop in the relative importance of dividends as a part of total yield of the DOW. Dividends and payouts have lost lost out to stock buybacks, in part because dividends are taxed at a higher rate than long-term capital gains from stock sales. Changes in the DOW have also reduced the overall dividend payout. Of the most recent additions, Microsoft pays no dividend and Intel and Home Depot have nominal payouts. O'Higgin's strategy may also be less effective because it's simplicity and past returns attracted the attention of Wall Street money managers and of many, many individual investors. There is at least one web site devoted to the Dogs of the Dow and a number of similar investment strategies were profiled for several years on the Motley Fool website.

Nor is the most valuable part of O'Higgin's book his thumbnail sketches of other value strategies for beating the market with a basket of DOW stocks. Several seem downright ridiculous. I remain skeptical that investing based on presidential election cycles or end-of-year asset sales by fund managers can yield meaningful, long-term results for individual investors.

The value of this book is O'Higgin's championing of value investing in general and his highlighting of the resilience of the DOW stocks in markets bull and bear. Most people aren't professional investors and lack the time and resources to profit from a strategy of active trading. If the efficient markets guys are right, then buying all 30 DOW stocks and holding on long-term will beat returns of most professionally baskets of stocks, with less risk and less payouts for taxes and trading costs to boot. Or maybe buying the highest yielders in any given year and holding. Anyway, you get the picture.

Regardless of whether you think the high-yield 10 is still capable of outgaining the overall DOW, O'Higgin's book is, to me, as valuable in 2001 as it was when I first read it in 1993.

Some people might laugh at this book specially the brokers who make living by sucking the commision out of an average investor. What had happened in the NASDAQ in 1999 before the correction was absolutely mind blowing and this book might have looked like a bad joke i.e. advocating to invest in companies like International Paper! but now that the dotcoms are down the drain, the valuations are somewhat back on earth, the margin-debt bitten people are done crying, maybe it is time that us i.e. average investors read this book.

This book as the name says is all about investing in Dow companies, the giants of the US and global economy. The companies which I truly believe that world could come to an end but GE would still be there. The book covers all the Dow components individually along with their historical financial performance, weaknesses, strenghts and their power to stay in business by being profitable over years and years. There are many different 'low risk' investment strategies covered in this book such as 'High Yielding 5'. These are the 5 Dow stock that you pick annually based on the criteria described, HOLD it for 1 year, redo the math (barely any)and pick your 5 stocks again. You also sell some at this point that didn;t meet your criteria and pick the new ones to fill their spot.

Sounds simple, yes! and that's the way it should be. Not only you can ride out the swings of the stock market in this way but also save a ton on commisions, taxes and most importantly be less stressed.

If you read the Motley Fool, you'll notice some of their strategies are derived from O'Higgin's methods.

A must read for all investors, specially younger people like myself who want to start building the nest yesterday!

(I am reposting this review, because the email address was wrong and it did not show up on my review page.)

The puritan physician John Locke (1632-1704) is one of the greatest philosophers, and certainly the one who was the most influential on the American civilization. Locke's life and the context in which he wrote this book are presented in Ewing's introduction, however without serious philosophical considerations. Ewing still mentions Locke's willingness to defend Christianity against the intellectual attacks lead by the deists, and how much opposition Locke's The Reasonableness of Christianity received, in particular from the revivalist clergyman Jonathan Edwards, who accused him of atheism. Since Locke's book did not have any divisions nor chapters, Ewing has numbered the paragraphes and compiled an outline.

Locke first deals with the need for salvation and the content of the gospel preached by the apostles and Jesus. He then proceeds to a very lengthy analysis of the gospels (as someone said: "Locke has no mercy on the patience of his readers.") Locke defends the Christian truth with the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus, His indirect declarations of Messiahship and His fulfilment of the messianic prophecies. I was surprised to learn much from Locke's sharp analysis of the gospels, for example why Jesus did not reveal His identity directly during most of His ministry. Locke then answers some general objections (about the salvation of the unevangelized, etc.) In the last part of the book Locke points at some insufficiencies in the general divine revelation in nature (although Locke believed in the truth of such a revelation) and argues for the necessity of special revelation.

Locke's arguments may have been convincing in his time. But Locke wrote before the attacks of Hume against miracles or before the attacks of the liberal theologians based on the historical-critical method. Locke's argumentation would be incomplete for modern readers. These would be more helped by modern apologetics books. However, those interested in an analysis of Jesus' ministry may benefit from Locke's book, provided they are motivated enough to endure his lengthy style. Those interested in Locke's philosophy may benefit more from the edition by I. T. Ramsey (John Locke. The Reasonableness of Christianity. With a Discourse on Miracles and Part of A Third Letter Concerning Toleration. Introduced and edited by I. T. Ramsey. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958.) Ramsey has brilliantly introduced and outlined the book, has abridged the text, and also introduced and edited some of Locke's arguments about miracles.

The puritan physician John Locke (1632-1704) is one of the greatest philosophers, and certainly the one who was the most influential on the American civilization. Locke's life and the context in which he wrote this book are presented in Ewing's introduction, however without serious philosophical considerations. Ewing still mentions Locke's willingness to defend Christianity against the intellectual attacks lead by the deists, and how much opposition Locke's The Reasonableness of Christianity received, in particular from the revivalist clergyman Jonathan Edwards, who accused him of atheism. Since Locke's book did not have any divisions nor chapters, Ewing has numbered the paragraphes and compiled an outline.

Locke first deals with the need for salvation and the content of the gospel preached by the apostles and Jesus. He then proceeds to a very lengthy analysis of the gospels (as someone said: "Locke has no mercy on the patience of his readers.") Locke defends the Christian truth with the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus, His indirect declarations of Messiahship and His fulfilment of the messianic prophecies. I was surprised to learn much from Locke's sharp analysis of the gospels, for example why Jesus did not reveal His identity directly during most of His ministry. Locke then answers some general objections (about the salvation of the unevangelized, etc.) In the last part of the book Locke points at some insufficiencies in the general divine revelation in nature (although Locke believed in the truth of such a revelation) and argues for the necessity of special revelation.

Locke's arguments may have been convincing in his time. But Locke wrote before the attacks of Hume against miracles or before the attacks of the liberal theologians based on the historical-critical method. Locke's argumentation would be incomplete for modern readers. These would be more helped by modern apologetics books. However, those interested in an analysis of Jesus' ministry may benefit from Locke's book, provided they are motivated enough to endure his lengthy style. Those interested in Locke's philosophy may benefit more from the edition by I. T. Ramsey (John Locke. The Reasonableness of Christianity. With a Discourse on Miracles and Part of A Third Letter Concerning Toleration. Introduced and edited by I. T. Ramsey. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958.) Ramsey has brilliantly introduced and outlined the book, has abridged the text, and also introduced and edited some of Locke's arguments about miracles.

After presenting "Origin of Marvel Comics" and "Son of Origin of Marvel Comics," Stan Lee decided to forgo "The Return of the Son of Origin of Marvel Comics" and go instead with "Bring on the Bad Guys: Origins of the Marvel Comics Villains." This is actually something of a problematic effort because where as you can simply go to issue #1 of "The Fantastic Four" for the origin of the Fantastic Four, or "Amazing Fantasy" #15 for the story of how Spider-Man came to be, the origin of a super villain is usually tossed off in a couple of flashback panels. That means the results are going to be a bit uneven in this collection.

The goal was to try and focus on the key super villain for each Marvel superhero, which means Doctor Doom for the Fantastic Four, the Green Goblin for Spider-Man, the Red Skull for Captain America, and so on and so forth. For those who want to know specifically what Marvel comics are reprinted in "Bring on the Bad Guys" here is the list of what you will find inside: (1) "Prisoners of Doctor Doom" from issue #5 of "The Fantastic Four" and "Origin of Doctor Doom" from the 1964 FF Annual, both by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; (2) the first fateful meeting of Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, and the Dread Dormammu from issues #126 and #127 of "Strange Tales" by Lee and artist Steve Ditko; (3) three installments of the "Tales of Asgard" from issues #112, #113 and #115 of "Journey into Mystery" telling the story of how Loki became the bad boy of Norse mythology and a full fledged fight between him and the Mighty Thor from #115, all from Lee and Kirby; (4) the Captain America halves of three issues of "Tales to Astonish" by Lee and Kirby telling the origin of the Red Skull; (5) issue #40 of "The Amazing Spider-Man" with the famous confrontation between the unmasked Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, courtesy of Lee and John Romita (Sr.); (6) two Hulk stories from "Tales of Suspense" featuring ol' Greenskin against the Abomination from Lee and Gil Kane; and (7) a confrontation between the Silver Surfer and Mephisto, with artwork by John Buscema (you have figured out by now that Stan Lee wrote all of the stories contained within this book).

As you would imagine the Doctor Doom stories and pretty good, the Spider-Man tale is a classic, and the rest are a matter of choice. The Red Skull trilogy would be my personal choice as the best of the rest. As much as my appreciation for the way Ditko drew Spider-Man has grown over the years I have just never really liked his work on Dr. Strange. In the end, it is Jack Kirby's artwork that dominates the book more than anything else and the thing that stops this from being a truly great collection of Marvel reprints is the fact that the focus on origins effectively prevents Lee from providing some of the greatest stories facing these seminal villains.

Some people here have called the artwork in this book clunky & not very good when compared to the Artwork in Comics today. These people don't know what they are talking about. How do I come to that conclusion? Because I once said the same thing to the owner of a comic book store. Not just any comic book store, but one which dealt specificaly with buying and selling vintage comic books. I remember saying that the Steve Ditko artwork on the first 38 Original Spiderman issues was terrible. I'll never forget..the owner had this incredulous look on his face, and told me that this was "Comic book Art" and not "Let's draw something as realisticaly as possible Art!" With that in mind, I went home and looked at the Steve Ditko Spiderman issues again and came to slowly realize......"I must have been crazy!....He's absolutely right!" For myself, this is part of the genious of "Bring on the Bad Guys!". And this is especaily true of my personal favorites in this book.....the origins of Doctor Doom, Loki, and of course.....Thee Red Skull! What fun they must have had in creating these classics!

I'd argue, "sure." Here in Bring BACK the Bad Guys we witness the origins/first appearances of famous baddies Galactus, The Mandarin, Kingpin, Kang/Rama Tut and others. We are treated to a reprinting of GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #2, which alone may be worth this book's price since it is virtually impossible to find anywhere. The other reprints are enjoyable (except for Fin Fang Foom's -- what the heck is HE doing in here?), especially a Professor X-Magneto flashback tale.

everyone knows there is no greater feeling than to relive thewaste from your body by going to the potty and pooping. This book haseverything you need to know to get those heavy lunky diapers off andon to the potty. The trophy is my very first trophy at the age of 54, and I'm very proud to have it. I say this book is worth it just for the "Potty champion" trophy included with this book. This book is one of the better one's I have read, however, it does not teach kids how to make proper bowel movements, which every experienced parent knows is a nightmare. I still cannot find a book to teach meto make bowel movements..I am sad.

This book is helpful for my children because it lets them know that it may take time to learn how to use the potty but that they should continue their efforts. It's message that just trying makes you a champion is a very positive one. My boys love to claim that they are a champ and run around the house with their trophy. It makes the whole experience a lot more fun for them.

This book has been great for my son! He gets very excited when he gets the Potty Trophie, and we use the trophie to lure him into the bathroom. He knows he only gets the trophie when he actually goes potty, so he makes an effort every time.

The book was not very well written, and why he felt the need to devote 70 pages describing in copious detail all 30 of the Dow stocks is beyond me. However, his 30 year zero-coupon analysis does have something going for it, and the inflation rate is a good predictor for a change in asset allocation.

I think the ideas in this book are absolutely crucial to investors, but I'm dissappointed by its inconsistencies & omissions. There is no concrete demonstration of how O'Higgins arrived at such spectacular returns, for example, in a particular year, by investing in zero-coupon bonds. 24% annual return is awesome, but it would be nice to see an example of how this would happen in a particular year, some hard data for the novice investor to see (not just total annual returns, year by year). Especially someone (like me) who knows virtually nothing about bonds are finds it hard to beleive that this "safe" investment could provide an 80% return in _one year_. He does not go through even one example to illustrate the process of allocation of his portfolio, so there are some details that I have not figured out after several readings. He also suggests in his section about stocks that he will later explain how to invest in small-caps, since they outperform blue-chips over time, but he never does, at least not in _this_ book! (Maybe this book was pieced together from sections of his old book, Beating the Dow?) I am deeply suspicious that no one edited this book as a whole work, that it was a cut-and-paste job with some new chapters on bonds.

Some information he provides like pieces of a puzzle and later uses, expecting the reader to put the pieces together. An example is the use of the change in the price of gold as an indicator of inflation, about which one of the earlier reviews complained.

Rather than taking on faith many of his derivations, I think I'm going to have to do some more research before I follow this strategy. That's my main gripe -- there is still work for me to do after reading this book, to confirm the annual percentages and cumulative returns that he claims. I am, however, convinced by this book of the value of bonds in an investment portfolio, and of the importance of contrarianism when it comes to investing.

This is one of the few stock market books from the 1990s that will be read and appreciated many years from now. While silly stuff like "Dow 36,000" & Harry Dent quickly withers away, O'Higgins advice gains credibility every day in this apparently multi-year bear market. Several web sites (beartopia dot com & others) mention this book. Perhaps the book's title should have substituted "zero coupon bonds" for the word "bonds." Do look up the authors corrected list of investment steps here at Amazon, however, do not let the slightly sloppy editing deter you from learning this powerful investment advice. The more knowledgable one is of the market, the more one appreciates O'Higgins and his two works. This book's advice works in bull and bear markets.

This cliff notes is very disappointing. To much analysis and not enough straight fact from starters. Also, as I perused it in 10th grade for my final exams, I wondered if Cliff and I had read the same book. The book is short..you're better off reading the book. At best, use it as a companion to the book.

I needed cliff notes for my report, but all they do is help...

I recall choosing this book to write a book review on when I was a young teenager. I found it to be heavy-going. On nearly every level it failed to keep my interest. I don't remember the plot that well, except for the first few pages, which I read over and over trying to get a grip on the style (so to speak) but I do remember it seemed to jump around a lot, and not in a *good* way. I didn't "connect" with the characters at all, and thus I didn't care how the plot eventuated.

I have read MCHiggins the Great so many times my copy is falling apart. I've read a lot of Newbery books too, and this is one of the best. In some ways it is the best. Each time I read it, I see more. First the scene is one that will stay with you long after you close the book--the hills of Eastern Kentucky that MC walks, his house, his mountain, the pole he sits on, looking out over all these hills. Then the people are unforgettable. MC's best friend, Ben, has the most unique family you will ever meet in fiction, very strange but very loving with magical connections to nature. They are vegetarians, who live on an Appalachian family commune. The mother is a healer. MC's own family includes a mother who could be a famous folksinger if she wanted to leave home, a father who is tied to the hills because his own mother, a ghostly presence in the book, owned the mountain where they lived. She was an ex-slave, and her courage has seeped into MC. He must save his f! amily from a heap of soil that is threatening to bury his home and family, because of stripmining interests in the area, and he does at last find the way to do this. But not before he has a lot of fun chasing a girl who isn't going to be caught, hunting rabbits, swimming, listening to a city "dude" who wants to make his mother a star and imagining what this would be like, visiting his best friend's family, taking care of his spunky and sassy little sister, and sitting on his pole watching the world and trying to find his place in it. This book was written 25 years ago, but it is timeless. It's about teen feelings and finding your identity. It's about father and son conflicts and teen romance. It's about nature and the environment. Most of all, it's about family heritage, and taking a stand for what you believe in. Newbery books are for everyone--people of all ages, colors, regions, genders, cultures. And this is a classic Newbery --it's a rainbow of ideas an! d experiences, with a pot of gold waiting on the last page.

I like the book M.C. Higgins the Great, because it was kind of interesting.I say it's interesting, because of M.C.being scared of the spoil heap and you know you be wanting to know whats going to happend next.Also what interest me was when M.C. and the girl were like wrestling in the woods.I liked the story a whole lot, because it was different and full of guessing what's going to happened next.