There have been several attempts to tell the story of Synanon, the drug-abuse program that underwent a metamorphosis and became a closed society/cult. Some books totally trash Synanon, such as "The Light on Synanon," by the folks who won a Pulitzer for their small-town newspaper's coverage of Synanon. Yes, Synanon did disintegrate in its final years, but few writers have honestly talked about it objectively. Despite its title, and the use of the verb "escape," Bill Olin does a very good job of talking about day-to-day life for a "lifestyler" (non-addict) inside Synanon as it went from rehab to "kooky cult" (as Time magazine called it). A more recent book tried to cover Synanon, but its author just didn't seem to "get it" and though the facts were there, the nuances and understanding of what life in a TC was like were missing. (Trust me, I've spent 6-plus years of my life in such an environment...) Olin, while ultimately critical of Synanon, also gives it its due, which gives credibility to his book. As many of us in the substance abuse treatment field know, Synanon may have spun out of control, but the people it helped "clean up" have gone on to have a tremendous impact in creating other, more stable therapeutic communities (Daytop, Phoenix House, Amity, etc.) that continue to salvage lives that many thought were unsalvageable. A good book, a good read, and intelligent and insightful.

Mention Synanon today and most people will give you a totally blank stare, even those in the drug rehab movement. This is unfortunate. Olin's book "Escape from Utopia" is the best I have read on the subject. Olin was a participant in the Synanon Game and moved in to become a lifestyler. Utilizing the brutal honesty he learned playing "The Game" to its utmost, he writes this labor of love with as much clarity as he can bring to what seemed to be the promise of Utopia that burned and crashed in such a painfully devastating way. The book is even better when read from the perspective of so many years later, when the influence of Synanon can be seen in the drug rehabilitation movement even today without anyone even being aware of it. It raises lots of questions for someone like me.

This book is out of print, but if you can find it, it is a very important book.

This reprint of "The 1930 Olmsted-Bartholemew Plan for the Los Angeles Region" is more exactly a low-quality copy. The maps are so dark they are very difficult to read, and the way they are bound into the book, much of the details are lost into the seams. The original maps were color, so any references to colors in the legends are lost, and the gray scales blended together make the maps even less articulate. It's important that a document such as this is reprinted for all to see, but it seems as if this volume has missed an opportunity of becoming a library keepsake.

It's true that the maps are often too small and would be better in color, as the originals are. However, the reprints are far from illegible, and the text of the Olmsted-Bartholomew proposal is captivating in and of itself.

I was fascinated to read the astute predictions of these men of vision, and their thoughtful proposals for increasing the quality of life for Angelenos. I remarked at the urgency of their recommendations; they seem to genuinely fear the social consequences of allowing a city to grow with inadequate space reserved for recreation and natural beauty.

If only we could know what L.A. would have been if the plan had been adopted!

This is the worst java book I've ever read. The book is unorganized and the content is not suitable for the beginner at all.

The companion CD-ROM is useless.

If the authors would like to publish the new version for JDK 1.2, there will be a lot of works they need to get accomplished.

Simple words from me.... Don't buy this book.

Covers alot of fancy staff but has a great lack of contents. It seems like the author has rushed through the book just to fill it out with the Java 1.1 features and forgot to describe the import basics behind the language. There's now way you're gonna be a Java guru by reading this book!

It is very thorough. Almost everything important about java is in there including JDBC, JNI, Java Beans, Servlets, security management, even the specification of the virtual machine and most is explained well understandble. It is the best java book I ever saw!