No matter how many times you have answered this question, in your life, to focus upon this question, is to love yourself.

And don't worry about the answers that come to mind. Whatever answers you arrive at, really represent part of your one life principle, which is what you filter all of your decisions through.

Mine is "Serene Samurai," or, "Creative Self-Expression."

Both terms come down to unconditional love.

And both come down to John Powell's message, "True self-esteem and a true sense of identity can be found only in the reflected appraisal of those whom we have loved."

I especially enjoy reading these 2 messages, in "Unconditional Love:

"There may be days when disagreements and disturbing emotions may come between us. There may be times when psychological or physical miles may lie between us. But I have given you the word of my commitment. I have set my life on a course. I will not go back on my word to you. So feel free to be yourself, to tell me of your negative and positive reactions, of your warm and cold feelings. I cannot always predict my reactions or guarantee my strength, but one thing I do know and I do want you to know: I will not reject you! I am committed to your growth and happiness. I will always love you."

"To choose to love as a life principle means that my basic mind-set or question must be: What is the loving thing to be, to do, to say?"

This wonderful book is a continuation of the ideas in "Why am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am;" also by John Powell, S.J.

I picked this book up on what I figured was a fluke. I was at a used book store and the title seemed exactly what I was looking for. I had no idea how true that was! I definitely believe that this was God's plan, and boy am I glad I listened! :)

This book has completely changed my life, and I am thrilled to recommend it to everyone I know! Just ask my friends... LOL I had no idea what I was getting myself into! I have always had a close relationship with my Father in Heaven, but have struggled with self-esteem my whole life because of abuse issues as a child.

This book is SUCH an incredible view into the souls of those who have suffered any kind of abuse -- or for any reason have low self-worth. I could not put it down, and learned SO much about myself!

Thank you SO much for writing such a wonderful book! My life will never be the same again... isn't it great! :)

JL

Many years ago, my father read this book, and viewed it as the most important book he ever read in his life. I, however, did not listen to him. I was a young scientist who knew all too well the pain caused by organized religion, and I wanted no part of anything even remotely related to the catholic church, much less something written by a priest. I didn't even believe in God for many years. After going through a particularily difficult time and growing up a bit, I agreed to read this book, but mostly as a favor to my father. I thought it would help strengthen our relationship. I never anticipated it would help me build my own relationship with God. I never anticipated it would give me a whole new way of thinking. This book speaks to the heart. I guess Father knows best.

Having read a number of books about Multiple Sclerosis, I was very impressed with this one. Not only does it destroy some of the frightening myths surrounding the illness, it provides practical ways of coping with some of the problems it brings. All of this is done with humour, and illustrated with fun cartoons of Claude, 'the dog with MS'! Fun aside however, the author, John Mythen, is not afraid to discuss some of the more sensitive aspects of dealing with MS, such as urinary and sexual problems, which he gives full and frank coverage. If you have been diagnosed with MS, or have had indications that you soon may be, then I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is well-written, informative, straightforward,...and fun to read, and you can't say that about many books dealing with Multiple Sclerosis!

I have enjoyed John's cartoons and terrific attitude for months now, since first meeting him via the World Wide Web. I have ordered enough of his books now to give them to many of my friends and family members who have experienced the many sides of multiple sclerosis first hand with me. Yes, my hat is off to John!

I have bought 2 copies (one for a friend too). It is an excellent book. And the cartoons are great. I have commended it to my MS branch to buy a copy for loan and informed other branch members through the newsletter with this line:

BOOK : CLAUDE MSing AROUND - John Mythen ISBN 0-9694457-0-9

The author, a British-born Canadian, has MS and is a cartoonist. The book is a great read and ideal for those newly-diagnosed or volunteers wanting to know something about MS. It combines a good summary of essential information combined with humorous cartoons to give you a lift. Definitely should be in our branch bookshop available for loan with our other books and videos.

Three decades have passed since Claude McCutcheon and Jesse Hamilton served together in Nam. Though they were best friends while serving in the jungle, it has been almost that long since they last talked. That is why San Francisco Bay resident Claude is stunned to hear a small child crying in his living room. Jesse has disappeared, leaving his son with Claude to protect him.

Soon the security chief of Sentinel Microsystems, Barton Jones, arrives, demanding Claude reveal Jesse's whereabouts. The FBI, making the same demand follows Barton's aggressive visit. When danger hits home, Claude begins to search for his missing friend. Claude learns that Jesse went underground because he uncovered the dark secrets of what his Silicon Valley company was really doing and has a disk to prove it.

CAUSES OF ACTION is an action-packed thriller that highlights the ambience and excitement of the Bay area. Claude is an interesting character and the support cast, especially the San Franciscans, add warmth and depth to a well-designed tale. The story line occasionally slows down, but John A. Miller continues to provide insight into the various mindsets of Viet Nam Veterans as he successfully did with CUTDOWN. An engrossing novel that will bring accolades to the author.

Harriet Klausner

I got my hands on an Advance Readers Copy of this book-which I understand will be available in December. Protagonist Claude McCutcheon is a very modern and yet traditional hard-boiled hero. A practicing lawyer and Vietnam veteran with deep shadows in his past that make the fast-moving action parts of the book highly believable. The action scenes read like verbal lightning. There is also a sense of ideas played out in real life, choices made and prices paid that is genuine in a way not every mystery novel attains. Speaking as a cat lover, I also have to say that in CAUSES OF ACTION, as in CUTDOWN (the first Claude McCutcheon), there is a very fully-realized cat, who plays an important role in the story. CUTDOWN introduced McCutcheon, his law practice in Albany, California, his network of friends in low places-some of them old Army buddies. Like Marlowe with his chess and Travis McGee with his crusades, Claude McCutcheon is true to a code older than Gunsmoke.

CAUSES OF ACTION begins when Claude awakes in the pre-dawn hours to find a 4 year old child in his bedroom with a note pinned to his jacket. The little boy, Earl, is the son of Jesse Hamilton from Claude's old platoon. Although Claude has not seen him since the day 30 years earlier that Jesse was wounded on a battlefield in Vietnam, he feels an obligation to take care of the boy for a few days. Clearly Jesse is in trouble and Claude cannot help attempting to dig him out. This tortuous journey then takes Claude into the minefields of the Silicon Valley business wars, close encounters with a beautiful FBI agent who may or may not be an ally, and a confrontation with old enemies and deep-rooted corruption that threatens his carefully balanced existence and his very life. Miller's first book sparked some controversy among a few people I know who disagreed with the hero's less than politically correct ideas. Having known a few Vietnam veterans, I found McCutcheon's views to be an accurate portrayal of the opinions of many from that particular "lost generation." I personally found both CUTDOWN and CAUSES OF ACTION well worth reading for the story and reading again for the writing.

Another great biography from John Soister. Mr. Soister wrote the definitive book on Universal horror films from the 1930's a year ago, now he publishes the definitive biography of one of filmdon's acting giants, Claude Rains. A book on this wonderful actor was way overdue. Soister proves it was well worth the wait! Each of Rains' films is recounted in detail, with Soister's well informed opinion on each film, and Mr. Rains' performance. If you are a fan of Claude Rains, or Hollywood's Golden Era, THIS is a must book for you! He may have been short in physical stature, but Claude Rains was a towering giant when it came to talent, style, and film presence. You won't be disappointed in buying this great work!

Claude Rains, A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference is the book Claude Rains fans have been waiting for for years. It starts off with a wonderful mini bio from his daughter, Jessica. Especially nice, is a charming story about them going to see 'The Invisible Man' together. The reader gets a sense of Claude Rains, the man as well as Claude Rains, the actor. Both are well worth reading about. There is a detailed synopsis for each movie with lots of little backround tidbits and loads of great photos. Also discussed, in less detail, is his stage, tv and radio career. The author says that the book is a 'labor of love' and it shows. If your a Claude Rains fan, and who isn't,buy the book... you'll love every minute of it.

My four yr. old was entranced by this book. It's very different from the books we usually read. It didn't have the bright colors that most young kid's books usually have, yet, he was attracted to the disctinct art work.
This book spotlights the triumph of faith, the faith that two of the characters in the story maintain, to finally reach the stars. Great Book!

This book is entrancing! The illustrations are gorgoeus. A gentle blend of fantasy and reality. Anyone's imagination is sure to be captured- young or old! We will be using it for a children's book club discussion of the month.

I just bought this book as a gift for one of my teachers. It is an excellant book. It has great pictures and backgrounds on all of Monet's work. Makes a terrific gift for art lovers.

This is the 2nd edition of Moynier's and Fiddler's High Sierra "best of" guide. John Moynier and Claude Fiddler are very experienced Sierra climbers/guides with hundreds of routes and dozens of firsts to their respective credits. The authors have painstakenly selected over 100 outstanding routes ranging from moderate class 3 peak bagging exercises to Grade V walls and Grade VI linkup routes. The represented climbs are among the most popular and most sought after climbs in the range. Climbers of all skills and goals will benefit from this guide. They provide topos, verbal approach, climbing and descent descriptions and a rich historical perspective on climbing in the Range of Light.

Improvements in this guide include more detailed topos, a larger selection of alternate routes, more historical anecdotes, and a refined selection of climbs.

While this book is an excellent stand alone guide, many climbers would benefit from RJ Secor's Peaks, Passes and Trails as a companion guide.

I rate this book 5 of 5. Most climbing guidebooks are dry material... just the facts Ma'am. But this one colors all of the technical data with stories of old heros and epic struggles. Buy it so these guys will be tempted to write more!

I would like to purchase the book but first I want to see how it is done. Is there any copy of the cover and the first 2-3 pages. Actually, I am looking for a BIOGRAPHY of Claude Debussy !!! do you have any in stock?? Please send E-mail

Deutsche Sprache und Landeskunde is a well-developed text for a first-year German course. In the preface, the authors specifically state that the book was designed after extensive research to avoid the shortcomings of other texts; in particular, they highlight features such as simple grammar explanations, thematically-controlled vocabulary introduction, balanced skill development, cultural relevance in readings and dialogues, and ample activities and "engaging exercises." The book consistently lives up to those promises. Although the book was clearly written for the undergraduate level, it might also be appropriate for mature or advanced high-school level students.

One of the first features of the book that appears particularly attractive is its well-planned layout. Each chapter is organized around a theme, and the themes are ordered in a natural sequence, presenting the experiences of an American exchange student in Germany (Rick) and a German exchange student in America (Renate). For example, the first chapter, Gruß und Abschied, presents greetings and introductory phrases; following chapters include Ankunft in Europa, Erste Eindrücke von Deutschland, and Eine Reise durch Deutschland. These are followed by chapters about national customs, shopping, home life, free-time activities and sport, University studies, and so on. The themes seem quite natural, not artificial, and they would likely be appealing to many students, who would naturally consider learning a language as a means to using it in the land(s) where it is spoken.

Each chapter is divided into six units, each of which has a consistent style across the book: 1) Vorschau ("Preview") - a "cognitive overview" of the chapter's theme and core vocabulary. Most have drawings with vocabulary labeled, or occasionally photographs. These are followed by exercises to practice the vocabulary: fill-in-the-blank, word matching, sentence creation, free-style question answering.

2) Phonologie ("Phonology") - a short one or two page unit on a particular sound in German. (The book itself is prefaced by a two-page introduction to the letters and sounds of the language). While this section is an obvious attempt to make sure that phonological topics are spread throughout the text and not just lumped (and overlooked) at the start, the effect is that material that would be useful near the start of the course - the critical German ch sounds [ç] and [X], for example, - are found nearly at the end of the book. This is definitely material beginners would need early-on.

3) Sequenzen ("Sequences") - These form the heart of each chapter, presenting concise grammatical lessons in well-organized units. Each starts with a short dialog that demonstrates the structure or concept for that particular sequence. The dialogues are quite natural - they follow the 'theme' of the chapter, usually having to do with one of the two exchange students - and they employ short but meaningful sentences that students could quite easily learn and also put to use. They are followed by content-based questions in German, both objective and subjective, designed to check students' understanding of the passage and to provide practice in using its forms. An English translation of the dialog, using every-day colloquial forms, appears at the bottom of the page. Next come the grammatical units - first, a brief description, never more than a few paragraphs, followed by a series of examples, often in table format and almost always using real German sentences. Here, the book lives up to its promise of making grammatical explanations simple - even topics late in the text are never given the appearance of being ponderous. Exceptions or finer points are often noted at the bottom of the page. A generous number of exercises in German follow each grammatical topic, enough to provide even those students feeling challenged by the material with plenty of practice. The exercises usually start with pattern-practice drills, followed by simple substitution and transformation drills, then sentence completion drills and open-ended exercises for freer student expression.

Taken together, this combination of an inductive introduction to material, followed by a deductive explanation with examples in natural, useable German, capped with a variety of exercises, provides an excellent and highly useable coverage of the grammar of the language.

4) Sammeltext ("Collected Text") - Following the grammar units is a one- or two-page text in German designed to review and reinforce the grammar structures and the vocabulary encountered in the chapter. Designed as reading practice, they usually take the form of a letter, dialogue, or short monologue. Incidental vocabulary is glossed in the side margins of the page. No exercises follow.

5) Kulturecke ("Culture Corner") - Next in each chapter is a short cultural unit related to the current topic: forms for writing letters, the media, public transport, the Kaffee und Kuche tradition (German "tea time"), the school and university systems, etc. This cultural information is the gem of the book -- avoiding glib stereotypes, it introduces students to the commonalities and differences between American and German life. (Unfortunately, the inclusion of Switzerland and Austria as the final two chapters makes them seem almost like an afterthought).

6) Wortschatz ("Vocabulary") - At the end of each chapter, new vocabulary is summarized by part of speech, with lists in German and English side-by-side.

Every chapter also starts with a page describing the language and cultural objectives for the unit, along with a brief outline of material. The objectives are well written - not only describing what will be discussed, but also why a student might use such material in real-world situations.

Following each chapter is a mini-unit on blue pages called a Zwischenspiel ("in-between game") presenting excellent additional material for communication practice - oral situations and dialogues to be acted out, short readings, and writing exercises. An Endspiel unit at the end of the book presents a brief excerpt from the Dürrenmatt play, "Das Unternehmen der Wega." Unlike the exercises within the chapters, which stay quite close to the ongoing themes of the two exchange students, these exercises are based around situations in average German life, and provide excellent material to create opportunities for individual and group student practice in using all four language skills from the start.

The book includes an Appendix that summarizes the key information about German verbs - both regular and irregular ("weak" and "strong") verbs - in a tabular format in under eight pages. This can serve as a handy reference for students and as a learning aid for those whose learning style makes them inclined to prefer a more structured, rather than descriptive, approach. The addition of tables summarizing pronoun cases and adjective declensions would have been useful.

One criticism with the layout of the text is that, in trying to present such a wealth of material for a year's course in German language and culture in 600 pages, the text itself appears simply too dense. The book could benefit from more white space, and perhaps differing type styles to differentiate types of material - explanations, exercises, dialogues. It could be daunting for some students to approach, and certainly could not be covered in its entirety by any typical class.

This is one of the funniest books ever written by french intellectuals. The only field work ever done by the founder of structuralist anthropology, who preferred to work from his Paris armchair, its centerpiece is an account of how Claude loses touch with the rest of the company and in the process of trying to find them by firing his revolver, also scares his pack-mule away and thereafter discovers the dangers of writing.

It comes as no surprise to students of L-S to find that the elegiac quality to his science (recherche des temps perdu, indeed!) starts in his formative years in the Amazon jungle. There L-S search for Comte's structure finds the romance of the human mystery, and it sings...a song that would continue through his complex studies of myths...the Immortal has a soul and that soul is the human condition, individual and ineffable; this book is a coda to the nostalgia of Rousseau's savage in Provident nature.

The traditional definition of anthropology is the study of man. And the activity immediately associated therewith are the field notes taken on the spot which the anthropologist then transcribes so the immediacy of his findings is preserved.

Then there is Claude Levi-Strauss, often called the 'armchair anthropologist.' This literate personage journeyed through central Brazil in the 30s, only to record his findings some 20 later in his book Tristes Tropiques, an untranslated title because no equivalent can be found in English.

Reminiscent of his forebear, Marcel Proust, Levi-Strauss presents us with memories distilled through time from which a structure emerges. Let me make clear that Tristes Tropiques is not a chronological account of Levi-Strauss' travels through South America.

Recollections, filtered in Tristes Tropiques, are further distilled in subsequent works and become systems or units which can be analyzed structurally, resulting in the fundamental concept of structuralism, that of universal analogies whose 'differences resemble each other.' One social organization, one myth is without value. Compared to a multitude, they acquire meaning.

Proust's universe is that of his personal recollections, whereas Levi-Strauss extends his own and from there goes on to establish cross-cultural analogies. But both are a product of the French intellectual tradition. The supremacy of the mind goes back to Rene Descartes, the 17th century French philosopher who said: "Je pense, donc je suis." "I think, therefore I am."