This book focuses briefly on subjects of great importance to all life on earth, mainly ours. It begins with reports of the world's harvest (grain,etc.) and ends with human life expectancy. Some of the information was a little difficult for me to believe, but as I read on I realized that the people who helped put all the facts together are concerned not only for our future, but that of Earth. There are no doubt publications containing greater detail regarding the topics discussed (rapid deforestation, pollution of waterways, unsustainable fish catches and the problems facing our farmers). This book and those of the series seems to be a starting point for us to investigate what's important to each of us. (There are 22 pages of reference notes). Many people put a lot of work into this on a continual basis. This book is good for pointing out how the future looks in 1994. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

I would recommend this book to anyone but especially to women. The story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is about a public figure who is very different from the private person. It tells the inside story of her life. There are many things she was holding from the public. Her life behind the camera as the wife of the president is particularly interesting. This book reveals many secrets about the life of Jackie and her family. There are also many good lessons to be learned. I think that this book is well written and holds you attention. Morgan Bush

I really enjoyed this book. It was very refreshing. There are so many books out there on the Kennedy's that are there just to sling mud, portraying rumors and myths as facts. It was nice to read a book about Jackie, the person. It's an uplifting book about a remarkable woman.

I kind of trashed Meltzer's "Reading Jazz," so let me make it up here with a big thumbs up for a really fun collection. The poems in No Eyes are accessible and lyrical with a great feel for the music--they spread down the page like tasty sax tootles in a classic Young solo. I especially like how Meltzer balances the beauty of Lester's playing against the tragedy of his life. Snippets of song lyrics, conversation and Young's private slang weave through the poems to give a clever snapshot of the man behind the sax. And Meltzer's love for the music is clear from the downbeat. Big eyes for this one.

David Meltzer's long meditative poem on jazz giant Lester "Prez" Young is a moving (both swinging and poignant) tribute to this unique tenor sax stylist. Based on the last year of Young's life, which he spent mostly in a hotel room in New York City, and on a photograph of the great jazzman printed in the New York Times that shows him sitting on his bed cradling his horn, Meltzer's poem reproduces Prez's jivy speech patterns and diction as a way of exploring the jazz master's music, his attitudes toward his audience, his imitators, his detractors, and his experience with racism in the military that has been blamed for his near mental breakdown and his increasingly reclusive nature. Meltzer also incorporates popular song titles and phrases into his poetic lines in order to delve into the jazzman's psyche, utilizing especially the song "All of Me" as a way of suggesting, for example, that when the police found his lifeless body in his hotel room they confiscated his few possessions but did not take "all" of him because his music lives on. Beautifully designed and printed, with photos of Young and musical motifs at the beginning of Meltzer's beat, bop-like meditations, this is a striking edition and the long poem is fully worthy of Black Sparrow's fine production. Meltzer's poem is one of the most convincing literary treatments of jazz ever conceived and created.

As I embarked on writng my own True Crime book, I ended up asking more questions than my book was going to answer. I turned to David's book for help.

Q&A had actually answered questions I didn't even know I wanted to know! I was especially pleased to see that my own country was low on the list of nations whose people murder infants.

David draws parts of his book on statistics, which is dry, but very interesting. I am not sure how he could have done better than he has. He is thorough in his answers, however, and that is what someone researching needs. We don't want anecdotes or other storie and examples; we want facts.

If you are studying law, criminal anything, police, crime writing (fiction especially!) or anything else related to murder and answers about it, this is the book you need to read.

The result of a world-wide study, this practical reference answers questions about how, why and in what circumstances one person takes the life of another. Dr. David Lester, world-renowned authority on murder, answers the questions most often asked of him about murder and murderers. Together, his answers provide a broad overview of what is currently known about this ubiquitous crime and those who commit it. Includes more than 100 questions with detailed answers and references. This book will be of interest to a wide readership: students of law and professionals in law enforcement, psychology and criminal justice as well as those just interested and curious about murder.

New Traditions In Terror is a new and ambitious horror fiction anthology. Why ambitious? Because the whole of the book is comprised of stories dealing with subject matter already much overdone: we're talking vampires, werewolves, vengeful spirits, ghouls, demons, and evil people here. A risky proposition indeed, as nowadays I dread reading vampire or werewolf stories for knowing that while the characters may change, the basic storyline is one that I've read hundreds of times before. That in itself would be acceptable, if not compounded by the fact that I usually also will have gotten absolutely nothing out of the story by its conclusion: no emotion, no involvement with any of the characters, not even the consolation of knowing that while nothing new may have been brought to the table, at least I'd had the pleasure of reading a gripping, page-turning story.

And so, New Traditions In Terror delivers sixteen stories and one poem, by authors the readers of Horror-Wood may not be familiar with. Seventeen fresh voices accepting the daunting challenge of writing tales containing characters that are increasingly looked down upon in the field as being passé.

For the most part, the authors vindicate themselves extremely well. While admittedly, few stories really do break any new ground (a story concerning a cyber werewolf is a notable exception), as a whole the stories are well-written, and do manage to sweep the reader up and carry them along for a short, but enjoyable ride. Many evoke a well-defined and appropriate atmosphere, almost tangible, as well as creating developed characters that I came to care about, hoping they would come to a good - or deceivingly bad - end. On at least one occasion I compared a story (favorably) to some classics I fondly remember from my decades of reading.

A few stories in this collection deserve mention. "Afraid Of The Water", by Robynn Clairday, does such a good job of evoking concrete images in her tale, that it brought back some very unpleasant memories of my own fear of water as a young child. "Monster", by Peter N. Dudar, is a great example of a tale that can build suspense and keep a reader on edge through merely hinting at the horror, rather than through any blatant or graphic depiction of it. A wonderful example of "less is more." The ending has a wonderful, Lovecraftian/Cthulhu feel to it. Lastly, there is "Kiowa Wells", by R. A. Cox. The highlight of the book, Cox's tale takes an old idea (vengeful Indian spirit), and weaves it into an enthralling classic. Heavily atmospheric, well-developed and written, perfect pacing, ever-increasing chills. I predict a deserved, enduring popularity for this one.

The only aspect of the book that I feel doesn't work is one story, only because it reads more like a "The Shadow"-type detective tale, with a monster casually thrown in at the end because one was needed, than as a horror story. It's a good tale, mind you, but definitely feels out of place with respect to the rest of the collection.

That said, New Traditions In Terror is a fine read, and a welcome addition to a horror fiction library. A collection of well-crafted and entertaining tales, from 17 talented writers from whom I hope we'll be fortunate enough to hear from again. It's encouraging to know that the future of horror fiction is in such capable hands.

Bill Purcell has collected many satisfying stories (about creatures thought to be passe or no longer frightening) in this book. Vampires, werewolves and ghosts are nothing new. But the stories in NTIT are not your granddad's WEIRD TALES stories. The authors of these stories get inside the monster and look out at the world. They do mre than go boo. Why do vampires drink blood? Would a werewolf even want to stop killing people?

Personal favorites: "Cargo" by Sean Logan, "Kiowa Wells" by R. A. Cox, "The Last Wolf" by Lester Thees and "Dogs" by Michael Beai.

If you are a fan of the old monsters, buy this book. If you are a fan of current horror, buy this book. If you are a fan of both, I envy you. (Oh, and buy this book.)

Usually when I pick up a themed anthology, I'm disappointed that all the stories seem the same. This book contains a good variety, loosly based around the theme of "traditional" monsters. The differant stories, and the unique writing styles, kept me entertained throughout the book. As I said above, some of the stories scared me, some just grossed me out, but all in all, I thought this was a great collection. My hat's off to the people who put this one together.

I have always been a fan of the intellectual debates in the New York Review of Books letters to the editor pages. This book consists of two articles by Crews and the subsequent debates surrounding them. I would have liked to see better defenses of Freud, but none of the eminent defenders of psychoanalysis is able to mount a serious challenge to Crews's devastating attacks.

This devastating book has two parts: (1) The Unknown Freud, where the reader gets a picture of Freud as a dictator, a megalomaniac and egotripper. A pope who alone knew the truth and who founded a secret commission to protect his 'church' against the heathen. He was a bad psychoanalyst (e.g. the Wolf Man case) and a venal man (e.g. the catastrophic Horace Fink case, where he tried to get his own hands on some money of the heiress).
I agree with the author that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience - statements cannot be tested and the research results cannot be verified uniformly. Although it is not totally without meaning (Karl Popper), it is not a science.
(2) the revenge of the repressed
A frontal attack on the caste of the psychoanalysts, depicted as 'religious zealots, self-help evangelists, sociopolitical ideologues, and outright charlatans who trade in the ever seductive currency of guilt and blame, while keeping the doctor's fees mounting.'
The author is particularly severe with their latest 'school' : the 'recovered memory movement', based on the rape of children by their parents (really!). This lead to false accusations and condemnations of innocent people. No wonder the author predicts an accelerating collapse of psychoanalysis as a respected institution.
A much needed and courageous book to halt a profession riding at full speed on a misty highway. And a much needed angle on Freud as a person, written in a style to slaughter the not so innocent father of psychoanalysis.
After reading this book, I agree with Peter Madawar, who called doctrinaire psychoanalytic theory "the most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century".

Frederick Crews really knows how to tap that deep reservoir of hostility found in modern Freudian psychoanalysts. In 1993 and 1994 FC wrote two essays in the New York Review of Books debunking Freud in the first, and tearing to shreds the recovered memory movement in the second.

These two essays and the letters in response to them have been put into the book The Memory Wars. As someone trained in experimental psychology you can guess my own personal bias in this matter. Crews discusses Freud's botched cases; his frequent vacillation in theory formation; some of his sillier theories; and his serious interjection of personal bias into the formation of his beliefs. The main problem with the whole Freudian system is the total lack of scientific evidence supporting it. Freudian psychoanalysis is founded on anecdote and supported by anecdotes. To be fair, much current non-Freudian therapy is also based on anecdote. Indignant Freud followers write back, and their letters are indeed interesting (and often pompous).

The second half of the book takes on the recovered memory movement. It would be great to poke fun at this movement if it weren't for the fact that it has caused so much damage to all parties involved. Symptoms checklists are published with the statement if you suffer from these symptoms you may be a victim of sexual abuse. Read the list and you will find that the majority of Americans will find that they have been abused. It's all a patient seduction game with the intent to make big money. Hospitals have even set up units to treat such patients (Having worked in the psychiatric hospital industry I am well aware of the "product lines" that such facilities set up in order to fill beds). Crews does an excellent job of dissecting the memory movement, and once again we get to read the indignant responses.

Those who believe that psychological therapy should be based on sound scientific evidence will love this book. Those who have accepted Freudianism with a religious like faith will, of course, hate it. To me this whole subject is analogous to the evolution vs. creationist debate. It's science versus pseudoscience.

This is not a slight on Mr Grau who I believe was only the translator of this Soviet era text; however, do not expect to learn much from this book.

The translation is excellent, this book reads as if it was written in English. Unfortunately this is the only good thing I can say about this work.

The idea that the original collection of these vignettes was done at the Frunze academy, the equivalent of one of the US Military's war colleges, goes far in helping to explain the pathetic performance of the Soviet military in Afganistan, Chechnya, and their other post WWII encounters. The vignettes are poorly written, only include one point of view, and lack almost every aspect of detail that would normally be required in this sort of work. Yet, based on a vague outline consisting of at most 150 words that describe a three day offensive action the original authors at the Frunze academy would make sweeping "lessons learned" comments on the importance of intelligence, or the coorindation of fire and maneuver. Of course, beyond making these couple of statements, nothing of practical value in the area of tactics, techniques or procedures are provided to the reader.

The quality of these after action reviews are poor and they offer very little to learn from. For a comparison I would urge any reader to contact the US Army's Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth. The history department at the CGSC has produced numerous texts of the same type, but the quality is incomparably better.

...

I believe this book originally started off as a Military paper, which got published and sold. Mr. Grau has done a 3 part series on the Afghan-Soviet war. This is part 1 in the series.

Like the other comments, very easy to read, and to the point. Goes over specific battles, what happened, and how it all broke down. The conclusions and commentary at the end of each battle are excellent. This book works great with the others in the series, esspecially "The Other side of the Mountain: Mujahidden Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War" - which does the same thing, but talks about the battles from a Mujahideen standpoint. The second book is almost impossible to find...... doesn't carry it. Lastly, there's a third book coming out called "Russian General Staff: The Soviet-Afghan War" which looks at the war from the general level - I guess overall strategy.

Overall, excellent book on tactics. And easy enough to read that you don't need to be an officer in the military to understand.

The Soviets experienced in Afghanistan the slow death of a thousand cuts. In his book, "The Bear Went Over the Mountain", Lester Grau carefully examines some of those small cuts. The book consists of a number of short vignettes written principally by Soviet Platoon and Company Leaders. In these short narratives, these leaders describe their combat experiences in such realms as ambush, convoy escort and urban fighting. At the end of the story, there is the Frunze Military Academy analysis of the narrative in which the strengths and weaknesses of the action are analyized. The vignettes end with Lt. Col. Grau's analysis of the action.

This book is not for someone looking for a general military history of the Soviet experience in Afghanistan. It is a book about small unit tactics and about what works and what fails. I only hope that this valuable book and his other book, "The Other Side of the Mountain" is being ready by young American Platoon and Company leaders currently fighting in Afghanistan.

I obtained both books through Amazon.com UK.

It`s a pleasure know more about Dr. Taylor. and his new work. In his book. "Telecommunications Demand", Dr. Taylor show in a very interesting way the link between theory and practice in applied econometrics and the demand theory.

This new book "the Future of the Telecommunications Industry..." contains a great contribution to the scientific progress about Demand Theory in Telecommmunications,I Think was developed for researchers, students and managers that have a medium knowledge about the telecom market. Whatever the skill of the book isn`t to hard, specially to the practice.

It is, of course, Jackie who has the most bios written of the Kennedy women. But in the midst of her dignity and class and Ethel's forthright personality, there is Joan, now ex-wife of Sen. Ted. This 1970's-era bio is certainly aptly titled: this unKennedy-esque wife was, during most of her marriage, in the background, tormented in silence by her own insecurity and her husband's philandering and its most publicized tragedy in 1969. "Joan, the Reluctant Kennedy" delves more into that part of the woman who never quite felt a part of the clan, but does something of a disservice by glossing over the years-long battle with alcoholism, her slips and relapses and the lessons she might provide that might spare other sufferers her elongated torment. Stunningly beautiful, certainly, but Joan Kennedy was and remains a person of substance, in many respects emotionally fragile but, despite that, a fighter who broke from her general anonymity as another Kennedy wife and established her own identity in music and poetry. While this book doesn't cover the last 30 years of Mrs. Kennedy's life, it does take us up to her son's cancer surgery and her turmoils before. This bio is an admirable effort, and it's somewhat disappointing that other biographers apparently haven't deemed this lady interesting enough for an updated portrait. But this is a worthy start.

This book was extremely helpful in my research on serial murder. It is a good, concise, rendition of research, theories, and paradigms of multiple homicide. I recommend this book to anyone writing a research paper or who wants a synopsis of major research conducted on the topic of serial murder.

This book was such an enormous help to me while I gathered information for a study I am doing on serial killers. The way it is organized and divided into different types of killers was very useful and helped me get a good handle on what types of people commit serial crimes and their personal characteristics. Also helpful is the info on different theories people have had on serial murderers. I also liked that it was to the point and without a lot of unnecessary information. Well written, easy to read (and quick to read!) and full of very useful information, this book is not a sensationalist look at this subculture but a well-researched, well-balanced review of serial killers written by a psychologist with many many books to his name. Extremely helpful and very interesting indeed.

It has been said that this book has no new information to offer the reader. Personally I find such remarks to be self serving and inconsistent. I believe this book stands out due to the presentation of the content. David Lester does and excellent job assembling the facts and putting them together in an easy to read format. I recommend this book to all individuals interested in learning more about the complex mind of the Serial Killer....