A key tenet of Dr Kristal's book is that no specific diet is right for everybody and that one's optimal diet can be determined by metabolic typing. His book builds upon information slowly developed over more than 40 years by a variety of practitioners. Another key tenet is that a healthy body has an ideal blood pH of 7.46, varying only within a narrow range. One of Dr Kristal's personal contributions is the development of simple and inexpensive quantitative procedures to determine a person's blood pH and metabolic type. They avoid the previous invasive taking of large venous blood samples over 14 hours by standard phlebotomy techniques. Instead he takes 4 drop-size blood samples from the finger over about 2 hours during a modified fasting glucose challenge test. He also tests samples of urine and saliva, measures blood pressure and pulse, both standing and lying down, respiration rate, time of holding one's breath, body fat, and weight. He also records self-reported observations at specific times during the glucose challenge, and takes a short personal history. The book explains how this information is used.

While the reason is currently unknown, each individual has a dominant mechanism controlling their metabolism. The two most fundamantal control mechanisms that regulate blood pH are the rate of oxidation and the actions of the autonomic nervous system. Each of these two metabolic types has two sub-types: fast or slow oxidative-dominant, and sympathetic or parasympathetic autonomic-dominant. From the test information, one's dominant metabolic sub-type can be determined, which then determines the optimum diet.

A major discovery is that most food items will have opposite effects on the blood pH of the major metabolic types, oxidative and autonomic. A food or drink that acidifies the blood of one type will alkalize the blood of the other. This is also true for many vitamin and mineral supplements. This knowledge, which has been verified by tests and clinical results, runs counter to both orthodox and alternative medical beliefs.

Fast oxidizers and parasympathetic autonomics have blood that is too acid; slow oxidizers and parasympathetic autonomics have blood that is too alkaline. Because of the opposite effects mentioned above, nutrients are catagorized as Group I for slow oxidizers and sympathetics and Group II for fast oxidizers and parasympathetics. To greatly oversimplify (read the book for details), Group I people should have a diet dominated by complex carbohydrates and Group II should have a diet dominated by protein and fat. Each type emphasizes specific vegetables, fruits, and proteins. Thus no popular weight-loss diet can work for everybody, but by chance may work for some.

Using vitamin C as an example, ascorbic acid will acidfy oxidative metabolic types and alkalize autonomic types, while calcium ascorbate does the opposite. Group I requires the ascorbic acid form because it acidfies the slow oxidizer, but alkalizes the sympathetic. Group II requires the calcium ascorbate form because it alkalizes the fast oxidizer and acidifies the parasympathetic. Among foods, brocolli is a Group I food and cauliflower is a Group II food. Again, see the book for details.

The first three chapters of the book cover the theory and practice of metabolic typing. The next four cover weight control and other health issues; cancer (Dr Kristal recently discovered that nearly 80% of his clients presenting with cancer were Group I, and nearly 80% presenting with diabetes were Group II); general nutritional information; and dental toxicity (his training was as a dentist). The book includes an appendix explaining the details of metabolic typing, and another in which an MD examines cancer and metabolic typing.

The book discusses literature published in 2002. The authors acknowledge when they don't know the answer to some issue, and they discuss rate of success. When I was typed, Dr Kristal discovered that I was insulin resistant and on the verge of being diabetic. My HMO had not found this. His book is much like him: unpretentious, caring, very knowledgeable, and not driven by a need for fame or money. He is 77 years old, still works 5 days a week, and gives seminars on the weekends. He plays tennis an hour a day and works out in the gym another hour. Using his own recommendations that he gives to his clients, he put his own injury-induced liposarcoma into remission 4 years ago. He practices "Physician, heal thyself!"

Griest has done a great service in compiling case studies for his readers. He has successfully shown that OCD cannot be "limited" to a certain set of manifestations in every patient but is a biological disorder that can affect each person differently. Having lived with OCD and the medicines that control it since I was very young, I found this book hard to put down! Knowing what OCD is-is one thing; however, being able to experience it through the variety of patients in this book was not only a revelation but a journey into my own sickness. I rated it a nine because the only thing that could have made this book a 10--was information on a permanent cure.

This is a delightful book to read ! I found many answers to puzzling questions, and really there were many more riddles than I had previously thought of.

The book is far more than informative. It made me think deeper on how life on earth is organized.

I always wondered if animal shapes where subject to any pattern. Did evolution follow any rules or was it a haphazard process ? Was there any relationship between size and velocity ? Could an organism grow to any size ? Giants can be expected to appear, can I believe unbelievable tales ?

Well, maybe the answer to all above questions is not in the book's scope, but it helps a lot. Actually, I found that top of the scale animals routinely departed from the rule set for the rest of their group. They had simply overrun possible competitors.

Reading it is a pleasure. Even though you'll find some math's in it, this is not a technical book. I wasn't disappointed. It stands as a reference book in my library.

Despite, or perhaps because, the illustrations are somewhat stylised, but beautifully set with foliage and flowers, this book is a classic coffee table book (if the table has strong legs!). It will be purely by accident if it helps you identify birds you see (and will take up your whole knapsack if you took it into the field!) but it is a joy to turn through, sensuously, in front of a log fire, remebering those very days in the field and remembering how long birds have been on earth and how long we have watched them.

And, sacreligious as it may seem, at USD30, buy two and take one apart to frame and line the walls of your study.

A classic in every sense of the word!

What a pleasure to read this book. I am currently covering the pre Civil War period (Industrial Revolution) with one class and Colonial Times with another. I found myself reading excerpts from this book to both classes even before I finished it. My kids are usually slower than the regular education kids but not when it came to the discussion part. I was truly amazed at how well it clicked. Some of their comments were amazing. We found ourselves discussing morality, the soul and a myriad of similar topics. I gave a copy to the social studies department head and she was just as taken as I was. Rest assured I will be pulling this book out in my own classes for years to come. Bravo!

This two volume text is an essential reference and mandatory reading for any Neurology resident or Staff Physician. I had the opportunity to train under the instruction of many of the contributors to this text. I found it to be rich in detail and clinical expertise. I refer to it often in my practice. It is concise and easily understood.

The Great War found the United States unprepared, as is our custom. Excluding the Spanish American War debacle, we had never really fought overseas, and there was no one in the American military in 1917with any experience in the command or management of large formations. Fortunately there was John J. Pershing, who not only had the organizational skills but the political strength to build and hold together the new armies. Pershing's Herculean tasks of finding new leadership and eliminating deadwood, training the troops (and their leaders!), tapping civilian talent for special skills, organizing new staff functions and assimilating new technologies, so reminiscent of World War II, are well described here in Cooke's usual clear and workmanlike narrative; in a work essential for the World War I bookshelf and of interest to the general reader as well.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

This version of John Bunyan's original makes for a light, yet poignant read. It provides an insight to Bunyan's own Christian journey and allows the reader to liken his/her own spiritual walk with that of this 17th century author.

Sir James Clark Ross went from end of the world to the other in a little wooden ship (or so it seems to me, comparing the expedition craft of the early nineteenth century with the supertankers and aircraft carriers of today).

His uncle, Captain John Ross, managed some of the most successful Arctic winterings-over of his time, as well as suffering some of the most appalling privations. (Captain John Ross' operant procedure for the prevention of scurvy deserves respect and praise.) At the same time neither of these gents was perfect in every respect, and Captain John Ross' career may be said never to have recovered from a premature decision he made to abandon a search for the Northwest Passage based on a disputed sighting of a mountain chain (later found to be non-existant) that would have made northerly progress impossible.

This book presents the accomplishments, and errors, of uncle and nephew in full recognition of their human failings and failures of judgment; but appropriately credits them for their accomplishments -- which are unexpectedly significant when seen as a whole.

It also traces the history of the animosity that existed between Captain John Ross and Secretary of the Admiralty John Barrow -- a relationship characterized by sometimes truly puzzling venom. It seems pretty funny now to read about the violence and vitriol with which the two of them spoke of each other in print, and there is probably something to be said about the cultural environment then versus now; but the conflict was very real, and had very real -- sometimes tragic -- repercussions.

This book may be very profitably read either by itself -- for the entertainment and interest it provides -- or in conjunction with Fergus Fleming's "Barrow's Boys," which also provides a window on the tension between Barrow and Captain John Ross (one is tempted to say, sometimes between Captain John Ross and the world).

It is a biography that covers a remarkable span of Polar exploration during the glory years of Royal Navy expeditions. A readable and intriguing study of the careers of two of the English-speaking world's more influential Polar explorers!

This is an excellent book for pastors! It is co-written by a father and son -- father James R. Carroll is a retired Presbyterian minister, and son John T. Carroll is a professor of New Testament at a Presbyterian seminary. They have teamed up to tackle some of the hardest sayings of Jesus.

For each passage, professor John gives a 3- or 4-page exegesis (under the heading "An Interpretation"), and then pastor James spends 3-4 pages helping us move from the desk to the pulpit (under the heading "Text to Sermon"). They have divided the book up as follows:

Chapter 1 -- The Scandel of Grace (Luke 10:30-35 The "Good Samaritan": Reimaging an Enemy; Luke 18:10-14a The Pharisee and the Tax Collector at Prayer: The Scandel of Grace for Sinners; Matt 20:1-15 All in a Day's (Or an Hour's?) Work: When Grace is Not Fair; Luke 15:11-32 On Being a Prodigal Father) **

Chapter 2 -- The Cost of Grace: Demands of Discipleship (Luke 14:26/Matt 10:37 For the Love of Family; Luke 16:18/Mark 10:11-12/Matt 5:31-32,19:9 On Divorce, Remarriage, and Adultery; Mark 9:42-48 Self-Abuse for the Sake of the Kingdom) **

Chapter 3 -- The Offense of Judgment (Mark 3:28-29 The Sin Not Forgiven; Matt 22:1-14/Luke 14:16-24 On Being Left Out at the Final Banquet; Matt 18:23-35 When Mercy Fails: The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant; Luke 16:19-31 Wealth: Barrier to Bliss? The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus) **

Chapter 4 -- A Jesus Hard to Understand: Two Elusive Parables (Luke 16:1-8a Honestly Now! In Praise of a Dishonest Manager?; Luke 11:5-8 Help at Midnight) **

Chapter 5 -- The Offense of Jesus' Humanity (Mark 9:1, 13:30 Jesus and the End of Time: Was He Mistaken?; Mark 14:36/Matt 26:39,42/Luke 22:42 Was Jesus Afraid to Die?; Mark 15:34 Were You There (God) When They Crudified My Lord?) **

I have used this book for the basis of my preaching several times, and the congregation has loved it. This book has given me a lot to think about -- it truly deals with the hardest sayings of Jesus, well-researched and well-written by this pastor-father and scholar-son.