The only thing I wish is that there were more than 250 sites in this guidebook! It has helped me a lot and I'm using it at daycare where I work during our computer hour. I'd like to see more of this kind of stuff.

Believe it or not, there actually is good clean family fun out there on the Web. The Web is good for loads of family entertainment and this book helps find it and keeps you from wasting time trying to find the specific kinds of Family fun you looking for. For what you'd spend on two movie tickets for an hour or two max of entertainment, or you can get this book which will be good hours and hours and hours of solid family entertainment and information on the Web.

I bought this book because the authors list my daughters site.."Alli's Busy World" as one of the best childrens sites. I simply had to have a copy of a book that would list my toddlers fun site. The book turned out to be terrific for the whole family. Thank you!

Bernard of Hollywood Pin-Ups is a fun and fast way to get started recapturing the look and feel of the '40's and '50's styled Pin-Up Photography. Of course, this book's instruction applies to anytime, but the examples shown are all Classic Pin-up. Each page comes with a short summary of the thought behind each full page Black & White photo and a small diagram showing lighting and camera position. A bio of Bernard of Hollywood and the philosophy behind his photographs completes the book. It's straight forward and to the point, a worth while addition to a Pin-Up book collection, and a simple instructive guide for beginning photographers.

This is truly the ultimate pin-up book. I have seen some of these photos over the years and it's satisfying to put a name to them. But what's really surprising is the vast quantity of output this man had. He was certainly prolific and there's no question as to why he was sought after by the rich and glamorous. He was a genius. These are amazing pictures and portraits of some of the most stunning women on the planet from the 40's and 50's. We'll never know another era like that. Beautiful clothes, costumes and jewelry adorn these women from a time when glamour was GLAMOUR. From starlets to cheesecake models to showgirls to stars---they're all here and captured in all their splendor. Even the stunning 50's stripper Lili St.Cyr is here in rare and incredible photos. Thanks to Susan Bernard (from "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!") her fathers' work is receiving another round of applause and admiration. This book is embedded with legend. A MUST for auteurs of glamour photography and a MUST for nostalgia lovers. Recommended HIGHLY.

The photographs of Bruno Bernard are historic treasures documenting a period of Americana when purity and innocence masked the prurient. As teenagers when my friends and I joined the military after Pearl Harbor, we considered ourselves to be tough men; our images of naughtiness were induced by the pin-up.

The Ultimate Pin-Up is a coffee table collection of beautiful photographs--the colors are brilliant, the hair styles and clothing which drape the subjects who found their way to Hollywood or Las Vegas in the forties and fifties are significant representations of the American spirit post WWII; this being an era of US military might and rapid technological changes. Decades ago I felt these photographs were of loose women yet as I peruse the book I am amused by the sweetness and demurenss of the models and their poses.

The book is printed with high quality paper, the collection is heavy so it needs to rest on a table. It is fun to peruse; each page delights and tickles my memories of the days before the younger generation elected JFK to the White House.

This book makes me happy. Bernard of Hollywood will be remembered for his documenting history. Although the book is filed with the topic "Sex" I feel it should be referenced as "History". The images are certainly "Art". Smithsonian.

New Jersey Bureau of Parole's "Jump Squad" assigns Loretta Kovass and Frank Marvelli to go to Seattle in order to bring back Sammy Teitlebaum, a parole violator. Sammy has been hired to kill mob informer Gus Risposi, who is supposedly hidden by the Witness Protection Program.

The FBI wants the hit to go down so they refuse to help the easterners. Instead, it is up to Loretta, even as she quits consuming caffeine and Frank to stop Sammy before he gets himself so tangled with the mob, the FBI, and the hit that he will not see daylight for quite a long time.

DOUBLE ESPRESSO is a humorous tale that will please of Kovass-Marvelli (see DEVIL'S FOOD). The story line is crisp and interesting though the caffeine withdrawal pains will pain many a reader. Anthony Bruno allows the reader to see more into the weird but intriguing lead protagonists, thereby adding a personal element to the novel. This is a fun series that is forging its own place in the legal pro! cedural sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

Tony Bruno's latest is simply an exciting and funny read to experience! His characters are satisfyingly real and funny. His descriptive metaphors are almost as bodacious as Joe R. Lansdale's, they are that funny.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, even if I did borrow it from the library. I'm going to read all the rest of his stuff, as much as I can get my hands on. A warm, humane author with genuinely likeable characters. His descriptions of coffee in this book were so alluring and vivid, that I almost was tempted to try a cup (I do not like the taste of coffee at all, makes me instantly nauseous). Now that's powerful writing!

New Jersey Bureau of Parole's "Jump Squad" assigns Loretta Kovass and Frank Marvelli to go to Seattle in order to bring back Sammy Teitlebaum, a parole violator. Sammy has been hired to kill mob informer Gus Risposi, who is supposedly hidden by the Witness Protection Program.

The FBI wants the hit to go down so they refuse to help the easterners. Instead, it is up to Loretta, even as she quits consuming caffeine and Frank to stop Sammy before he gets himself so tangled with the mob, the FBI, and the hit that he will not see daylight for quite a long time.

DOUBLE ESPRESSO is a humorous tale that will please of Kovass-Marvelli (see DEVIL'S FOOD). The story line is crisp and interesting though the caffeine withdrawal pains will pain many a reader. Anthony Bruno allows the reader to see more into the weird but intriguing lead protagonists, thereby adding a personal element to the novel. This is a fun series that is forging its own place in the legal pro! cedural sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

... An absolutely WONDERFUL book. The images not only come out of the page and materialise, but you can smell the smells, taste the tastes, feel the heat of the sun on your skin, as you vividly dream together with the author. No movie, no visual depiction has quite the comparable ability to make you feel like you have been allowed for a moment to step into it's world of imagination anchored here in a small 1930's town in eastern Poland. It contains the light and wonder but also the darkness and pain of living. The line between the two is never clear, the perception of the world constantly slipping into the surreal.
... with this book as part of the curriculum, I can only regret that this author is so little known outside his country, as it would seem natural for him to be recognised as part of the world literary heritage.
...

(Please note that Drochobycz was at the time in Poland, not Ukraine as some mention, and Bruno Schultz was a Polish Jew writing in Polish.)

An absolutely WONDERFUL book. The images not only come out of the page and materialise, but you can smell the smells, taste the tastes, feel the heat of the sun on your skin, as you vividly dream together with the author. No movie, no visual depiction has quite the comparable ability to make you feel like you have been allowed for a moment to step into it's world of imagination anchored here in a small 1930's town in eastern Poland. It contains the light and wonder but also the darkness and pain of living. The line between the two is never clear, the perception of the world constantly slipping into the surreal.
Having been fortunate to grow up with this book as part of the curriculum, I can only regret that this author is so little known outside his country, as it would seem natural for him to be recognised as part of the world literary heritage.
But by the same token - my immesurable gratitude to Simon McBurney whose ability to recognise genius and his inspired interpretation with Theatre de Complicite brought this writing out to many people.

(Particularly commenting upon *Street of Crocodiles*): Bruno Schultz invites us into a fluid, dreamlike (and sometimes nightmare-like) world wherein street-urchins are given deity status, a retarded girl is a fertility goddess, and seamstresses' dolls are given unholy partial life. This is also (to lay on a concrete interpretation) a story about growing up with a mentally-ill father and sexually abusive uncle. In his dreamy, surrealistic style, Schultz is like acid without the flashbacks :).

On a more serious note, I think Schultz reflects well a particularly Eastern European identity crisis--the town of his upbringing is a place where the names of the streets change according to who is politically popular at the time; the streets in his town are as malleable as sand--each wave creates its own patterns. A truly engaging and enlightening reading.

Actually, this book can not be evaluated at once. Rather, you should concede four stars to the greater part of the book and not any star to the rest. For this is widely an excellent book. Yates does not only prove that Bruno is not the pioneer of modern science he is often stated to be, but convincingly exposes the background against which his works have to be understood. To that purpose, she shows the impact of the Hermetic writings, an ancient source written in the second and third centuries A.D., but by some Christian Renaissance writers such as Ficino or Pico della Mirandola held to be of an authority greater and older than even Moses, on Renaissance thought. Thus it is demonstrated in chronological order how the corpus Hermeticum was received by Renaissance writers, focussing on magic that was derived from some passages of the corpus Hermeticum. Bruno is placed within this tradition. Congeniously, Yates acknowledges the significance of Casaubon's exact dating of what had been held a prophecy of Christianism for more than two centuries and discusses the following dispute which finally made the type of the Renaissance magus disappear, although this tradition of thinking never completely vanished. So this is, without any doubt, the fundamental book about Giordano Bruno and the impact of Hermetism on Renaissance thought. It provides information clear and dear also on magic in general and thus illuminates even some passages of Shakespeare and (unconsciously) Goethe's Faust.Thus the book inspires to study Renaissance authors such as Pico or Ficino or more literature on Renaissance Thought ( I recommend the overwhelming collection „Renaissance Thought and the Arts" by Paul Oskar Kristeller).
All the more it is a pity that Yates, writing with transigating passion, is lead astray to some statements about science and antique thought in general that cannot be left uncommented upon. Ancient philosophy in the time when the corpus Hermeticum was written did NOT necessarily, not even realy, stagnate (p.4, p. 449). On the contrary, Plotinus, writing about 250 A.D., renewed philosophical thought in a way that he is now often considered to be one of the greatest metaphysicians that ever lived. Furthermore, the reason for this presumed stagnation is, according to Yates, that the ancient philosophers did not know the principle of experimentation. But this principle is completely alien to philosophy, be it ancient or modern (this is quite evident, but if someone still doubts, he should read e.g. Wenisch's „Die Philosophie und ihre Methode"). The exhausting prize of modern science at the end of the book (p. 447-55) is not to the point and ignores that ancient thought must not be treated as a failing attempt at Galileo's achievements (as the German scholar Jörg Kube emphasized). Her sideswipe against Descartes (p. 454-55), finally, seems to me completely out of place. So I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the truth about Giordano Bruno and the essence of magic, but you should not believe what is said about ancient philosophy and philosophy in general.

Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in 1700 because he believed in the authenticity of the Hermetic Traditon that purported to be of ancient Egyptian origin. It proved to be a fraud more correctly dated during the first century AD adding significance to the symbolism of the Gospels written about the same time, probably in the following order: Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. The Hermetic Tradtion compliments the expanding elaborations of the Gospels when read in this order. Indeed, the Gospels can hardly be comprehended without the benefit of this work that spells out how gods are created, first in stone, then by extrapolation, converted to a spiritual power. Giordano Bruno is the vehicle by which the author makes her point because of his misguided belief. The work is an eye-opener to the serious student of the Christian religion who ought also to read Iasiah for a more rounded interpretation of the symbolism of the Bible. The book is intended for the serious student, but is essential to all who want better to understand the value of the myth and its symbolic relationship to the creation of the Christian religion. Fascinating reading for anyone who has met the prerequisites, including having read Plato's REPUBLIC and will fit into his positive philosophy.

Interesting how a modest historian should happen to write a book of such critical interest to students and practicioners of the western esoteric traditions. Sheds enourmously penetrating light, especially in the first part of the book, into the people and historical events that shaped the powerful undergound traditions of independent spiritual philosophy-- what we now know as Magick or Magic, both high and low, alchemy, illuminisms of various sorts, and the whole spectrum of western metaphysics.

The number of writers included in this book is 43 and the number of articles even more than that. Many of these writers have not written about Gurdjieff elsewhere.

The best in this book is that it presents many views of the people who had worked with Gurdjieff himself or those who were around him and carried his work on. Many of the articles are based on direct experience of the Work and only a few are speculative and theoretical. The tone of the book is positive; if you are looking for a critical approach to Gurdjieff and his ideas you will have to look elsewhere.

People are different and so are their reflections. Some of the articles are brilliantly written both in content and expression; some are badly translated from French, vague and with very little content.

About 70% of the book is on the Gurdjieff psychology and philosophy, 15% on the Movements and the music and 15% on cosmology.

This fat collection of essays comes at Gurdjieff from seemingly every angle but one--criticism. While Gurdjieff was indeed a serious, sometimes brilliant observer of many facets of human experience in his day, his best insights are hardly unique, and even those have mostly been surpassed in the half-century since his death. The real flaw in this book, however, is that no one here seems to mind that a very large part of Gurdjieff's life was spent conforming perfectly to the same old sad pattern of a "guru" working a typical religious con, exploiting a gang of pitiful, starry-eyed cult members who believed, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that he could do no wrong. In an age that has seen the ravages of Bhagwhan Rajneesh, Free John, David Koresh and thier like, many of whom almost seem to have deliberately lifted from Gurdjieff's huge grab-bag of techniques for taking advantage of the gullible, it would perhaps be constructive to have included an essay on the dangers of blind faith to these manipulative "masters", no matter how brilliant they might seem on the surface.

For Gurdjieff followers, both school and independent; this work verifies much of Gurdjieff's cosmology and psychology. The different contributors offer a sifting ground to seperate the fine from the coarse. The "factionalization" of the Gurdjieff movement cannot deter this infusion of new/old knowledge. Its 'Alice's' restaurant.

An interesting analysis of the organization of the Templars (based on the Rule of the Templars) and how it relates to modern corporate organizations. Unfortunately the illustrations of the book leave a lot to be desired. Some of the bar charts are simply illegible.

An interesting analysis of the organization of the Templars (based on the Rule of the Templars) and how it relates to modern corporate organizations. Unfortunately the illustrations of the book leave a lot to be desired. Some of the charts and maps are simply illegible.

This is a "coporate executive meets crusader knight" look at how this amazing organization was put together and operated.

This is my most favorite among Bel Ami's books. His models are very pleasing to see- no rippling muscles, no obviously animated poses. The boys' movements as captured in stills seem flow like a river; their facial expressions natural and innocent.

Excellent photographies, but why didn't the editors add some info about all the models ?

Bel Ami's new collection of photos of Eastern European men is another in a series of his wonderful books, showcasing the most beautiful nude your men on this planet. There are several new models as well as many of his most famous ones here for a repeat performance. The color, lighting and clarity of these photos of his are breathtaking. A truly creative photographer. This is a must for anyone who is a collector of Bel Ami's fine photography books. Stunning!

This book is basically the second tier of Bel Ami guys, posed in more wooden poses, and so I would not recommend it over the best books in the series. (Tastes differ, of course, so your mileage will vary! :-) )

I want to be clear about one thing. The guys in this book are all drop-dead gorgeous, very sexy & attractive. The only point I am making is that this collection doesn't quite match the standard of Bel Ami's best, which is almost unearthly in its beauty.

Just LOOK at the cover photograph!! I defy you not wish you could just crawl into the photograph and unfold Johan's arms and legs.

This book is a brilliant collection of postcards, neatly bound into a cover, so that you can collect or send. Your friends will love the cards, even if they have to collect them from the postman's hands!

Good Bel Ami models, sexy, unobtainable(?), and made to lust after.

This is another great postcard book, No.#21 in the series. It showcases the best images from the hardcover book "Summertime." These postcards feature photographer "Bel Ami's" young, handsome European male nude models. All of the models have breathtaking bodies. A great collector's item to add to your collection if you have been collecting the previous 20 postcard books, or great to just have available to send as postcards or notecards to your friends who will surely appreciate them.

Christianity in Power refreshingly presents the Word of Faith controversy from another viewpoint. If one is going to read "Christianity in Crisis" or "A Different Gospel" they would do well to also purchase this book as well as "E.W. Kenyon: The True Story" for a fair analysis of Word of Faith. You can then listen to both sides of the issue.

So far many of the people who praise the works by Mr. Hanegraaf and Mr. McConnell have only had their exposure of this movement by reading those books and have judged the Word of Faith by them. They have never bothered to see the other side. Many others are colored by prejudice and bias and will never see the other side of this issue no matter how well it is presented.

Finally, some have been hurt by "extremists" in the Word of Faith and many of these have never studied the Bible for themselves. As soon as something does not work out for them they go on the attack. Mr. Hanegraaf and Mr. McConnell books provide them with ammunition for those attacks. However, if you truly want to "judge with righteous judgement" (John 7:24) then please examine ALL material related to this matter. This book is a good start.

I have challenged book stores who carry Mr. Hannegraaf's "Christianity in (sic) Crisis" to carry this book as well. Mr. Bruno writes with candor, humility, and compassion. His comments on the Book of Job are especially insightful. In an age in which the Biblical message of faith has been grossly maligned and misrepresented, this book is a real breath of fresh air. Highly recomended!

I spoke with the author personally several years ago by phone about his book and the attacks on the faith message (as it is called). With honest, insightful tact, Mike Bruno sets the record straight and shows how Hanegraaff and others have distorted and twisted the messages of the faith teachers and have made them say things that don't even resemble the truth. The saddest thing that these critics do is to attack the men and their integrity instead of sticking with the issues of theology. This book keeps the debate limited to the issues and shows line by line what scripture actually teaches and what the faith teachers actually teach NOT what Hanegraaff and others have said they teach.

To echo another reviewer, do yourself a favor and get this book and the book E.W. Kenyon and His message of Faith: The True Story. Only after reading these two books will you have all of the facts in order to make a true analysis. If your mind is made up and you are a critic of the faith message then for God's sake DO NOT BUY THESE BOOKS as they will be very damaging to the party line!