Socrates' Way is the best book on self-development I have read since Michael Gelb's How to Think Like Leonardo. Gross shows how to apply the famous Socratic Method to such practical issues as how to choose your friends, how to get new ideas to improve your life, and how to find the time to nurture your emotional life. I especially enjoyed the chapter on "Socrates' Way for Women," which showed why the unique psychological strengths which many women have, equip us so well to succeed in the 21st century.

Socrates' Way: Seven: Master Keys To Using Your Mind To The Utmost by Ronald Gross is a marvelous and unique "self-help" book that draws on the wisdom of the philosophical genius Socrates himself. Centering on seven great precepts espoused by this wise man, ranging from "Know Thyself"; to "Speak the Truth"; and "Strengthen Your Soul," Socrates' Way is an inspirational, involving, rewarding reading and a superbly presented reading for anyone seeking personal or professional self-improvement.

Never mind the "how to" and "dummies" books; this is the ultimate life and how to understand it book. With Ron Gross as Socrates incarnate we are privleged to experience wisdom of the ages brought relevant to the present times. A must for any thinking individual.

This book is a great way for anyone to polish their math / verbal skills for the SAT. The lax mood of the book makes the SAT seem less formidable, and maybe even "enjoyable"(yea right). Of course, everyone feels more comfortable knowing that the authors of the book scored higher than a 1500, which is pretty good. This book doesn't waste time providing futile practice tests which fail to simulate the actual SAT. Instead, they encourage you to buy 10 Real SATs, which is really the best way to help you improve. The book contains useful tricks and even some shortcuts. The only way this book could have possible been better is by having a section which accentuated on math shortcuts, but nothing is perfect. When the new SAT comes out in 2005, alot of people are going to wish that this book is still out there for the new one. Overall, great prep book, and there's no harm in buying it -- it's cheap and useful.

Save yourself $ and buy this book instead of taking an SAT course. I read it about 5 months before I took the SAT and it still helped me tremendously. It's actually exciting to read, all my friends borrowed it! I got a 1380 first try, a score most of my friends didn't beat despite spending over $1,000 on a Princeton Review course. I plan to reread it before I take the SAT again in April and I'm confident I'll break the 1400 mark! Even if you think you're prepared for the SAT, this is a great resource if only for the fact that it makes studying for the SAT fun. GET THIS BOOK!

This book is awesome due to the fact that it is written by six top notch students with a sense of humor. The half of the puns and jokes are actually funny and will, just like everyone here said, keep you motivated (as far as you can go with a test prep book). 3 of the writters have scored 1600s and they know the ways to help you get a good score too, such as skills of concentration, preparation, food smuggling and cheating. This book is a definite recommend for anyone serious with the SATs.
Get this book and a book with a lot of practice questions and you are set.

I have to add my five stars for THE SOULD OF THE NIGHT. As a scientist, reader and Christian, I found this book absorbing. Raymo has a marvelous way with words and an interesting viewpoint on the sciences.

As an avid astronomer, I am always seeking ways to put the fantastic things I see into words, to make the infinite understandable. Chet Raymo does that in this book, in language for more poetic than scientific. I would highly recommend to anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered... What is our place in the cosmos?

Allow me to start with a personal anecdote. At age 44, I still remember vividly taking a sort of "preference" test in junior high school ... you probably know the sort, a series of questions with two answers to choose from ... stuff like: Would you rather kick an annoying poodle or eat an Italian dinner? I scored so low on the on the questions skewed to "science" that there wasn't even a place for me on the graph!

About seven years ago, I picked up an earlier edition of "Soul Of The Night" in a used bookstore on a friend's recommendation. Finally, a couple years ago, I got around to reading it. Inside I found descriptions, ways of seeing that I could have never managed on my own.

Although it's not a religious book, I (as a Christian) found myself inspired and challenged and not a little awestruck by Raymo's writing. If you are not so inclined, don't let my mention of this dissuade you ... I would not wish to do a disservice to Raymo or the book in that way.

Pleasures abound here and for a decidely non-science/astronomy reader, I was ushered through a door I never thought I'd find. Raymo's style is so friendly that I can also apply to him what I have used to describe Jimmy Webb's amazing book on songwriting ("Tunesmith") ... the only thing that's missing from the book is the author's physical presence and the beer!

'Reason for the Hope Within' showcases contemporary papers in the philosophy of religion and philosophical theology by a clutch of up-and-coming Christian philosophers. The book's aim, in which it generally succeeds, is to introduce non-philosophers to the latest developments in Christian philosophy.
The authors attended a conference to road-test their material in apologetics workshops for Christian leaders and laity. The care taken to make their collected material accessible means that this volume would make an ideal 'reader' for the intelligent non-specialist, or for philosophy undergraduates. The general tone of the papers might be described as the philosophical equivalent of 'smart-casual', and one or two of the authors try just a little too hard to 'let their hair down'. This is not to accuse these papers of flippancy or a failure to treat their subjects with due seriousness when they are being serious.
This is a well produced book, edited with an introduction and a couple of papers by Professor Michael J. Murray, who co-edited 'Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions'. It also comes with a foreword by Alvin Plantinga.
The range of subjects covered in sixteen chapters is admirable: pro and anti- theistic arguments, the relationship between faith and reason, religious pluralism, providence, religion and science, the incarnation and the trinity, resurrection, heaven and hell, miracles, ethics and the authority of scripture. I would highlight the scrupulous but nevertheless refreshing contributions from Robin Collins (on 'The Fine Tuning Design Argument' and 'Eastern Religions') for particular praise. The papers on 'Religion and Science' (W. Christopher Stewart) and 'The Authority of Scripture' (Douglas Blount on a topic infrequently covered in similar books) are also particularly edifying.
My main criticism for this compendium is that it has a distinct lack of suggested further reading, an oversight that will leave more advanced readers straining at the leash for greater detail and less advanced readers with no-where to advance towards. However, this is a fine body of accessible work that deserves attention from believers and non-believers alike.

This book should be required reading for every thinking Christian. The articles are very engaging and informative. Each contributor deals with a certain philosophical and/or theological issue from the problem of evil to divine action and human freedom. It is a compilation of some of the choice young Christian philosophers and apologists currently writing and researching. This title is a fresh assessment of some fairly thorny issues that have been discussed for centuries. Michael J. Murray (co-editor with Eleonore Stump for the book titled "Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions) is the editor, while great thinkers such as Alvin Plantinga (who wrote the forward), J.P. Moreland ("Scaling the Secular City"), William J. Wainwright (editor of "Faith and Philosophy"), and Kelly James Clark ("Return to Reason") endorse the book. While the book anticipates that the reader already has a background knowledge in the areas covered, nonetheless, each article is so well articulated that the reader will either gain a better understanding or be able to develop a data base to launch them into further investigation. Thus, this work is a must for anyone interested in the areas of Philosophy of Religion and Christian Apologetics.

This book is tremendous!! As I read this book, it amazed me how each article had such new insights into the defense of the faith. You just can't buy this material anywhere else. This book is for the able reader(or someone who is relatively familiar with Evangelical Apologetics)who wants to know what Christian Scholars are thinking these days.

If you want to read a book htat will really help you to relate to your teens this is the one. I am the co-author of the Chicken Soup for Teens series and author of TEEN LOVE and I know teens very well. This is the first time I have read a book for parents that has advice that will actually work..it will do more. It will make the relationship a good one. This is a must buy.

For parents of teens who are struggling with this new aspect of life and who have forgotten their own "teen years", please do yourself a favor and read this book. A very insightful look at what teens face in the realm of high school and in their social lives. My daughter, age 15, read parts of this book as well, and thought the author was very accurate in his depiction of what goes on in a teen's life. It's definitely made a change in the way I respond to my teenager. Dr. Riera...I hope another book is on the way! Thank you! Laurie Eads, FL

I have purchased and read many of the books out there on raising teenagers. Many of them promise a lot, but deliver very little, so I buy another and another. This book covers it all. The author knows what parents want, but also gets inside the heads of our teenagers and explains what they want, and more importantly, how they perceive our rules, desires, and opinions of them. It took away some of the fear I had about going through this phase of life as a parent. It allowed me to more clearly understand exactly what my son was trying to say, even when he didn't use the exact words I would have expected. Consequently, our discussions have been much more fruitful. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

A very good read. Michael Caine had a surprisingly interesting early life, and it is the first half of the book which is the coolest. Unfortunately after he becomes a star, the autobiography loses its objectivity and he just becomes another Hooray Henry. It really is a shame that he couldn't keep up the wit that propelled me thru the first few hundred pages. Another annoying element is that everyone in the book is his "friend." By the end, the guy has about 5000 friends. He must spend a fortune on Christmas cards. Still, very recommended!

Michael Caine, one of film's most durable actors, tells his story through 1992 in the autobiography WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

How many film performers have done as much as well as Michael Caine? For more than forty years, the actor has delivered shining performances in dramas, thrillers and comedies. He's carried flicks as a leading man, shared the spotlight as a costar, contributed to emsemble casts and has even take small roles.

In WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT, Michael Caine vows this book is the only autobiography he will write. I hope he changes his mind. I am sure Mr. Caine had to leave a lot of good stories out of his first volume. And since its '92 publication, he has been knighted and won another Oscar. Why not another book?

The most noteworthy aspect of WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT is that Michael Caine, despite having done almost everything you could want to do, has had the same personal and professional ups and downs as you and me. He tells stories we've all been through, such as being nervous about meeting women and his strained relationships with friends. (Of course, you and I would not be pals with actor Terence Stamp.)

This Michael Caine fan wants more movie-making anecdotes. If Mr. Caine does publish a second autobiographical volume, I request a synopsis of the making of each of his ninety-something films. He barely mentions two of my favorites: WATER and especially the obscure comic gem WITHOUT A CLUE.

Bravo to Michael Caine for not kissing and telling. He alludes to the bedroom activity that made the 1960s what it was for the rich and famous but does not name names.

The night Michael Caine won the Best Supporting Actor for CIDER HOUSE RULES, ceremony host Billy Crystal had been making fun of Caine's role in a JAWS film. Yet Mr. Caine did not return the dig during his acceptance speech, despite notorious Crystal bombs such as MR. SATURDAY NIGHT, FORGET PARIS, and FATHER'S DAY.

Unless, of course, Michael Caine's saving those remarks for his next autobiography!

For now, read WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT.

This book is inspiring. Michael Caine knew at a very young age that he wanted to act, and through perseverance, he has become highly successful and one of the most respected actors of our time, with two Academy Awards to his credit. This should serve to encourage those with dreams but who tell themselves "I'll never make it."

This is the real thing. Caine starts at the beginning and tells it all without indiscreet name dropping. He mentions that he does not plan to write another autobiography and so does not want to leave anything out. That makes for a really great read.

But what's really special about this autobiography is how approachable Caine seems to be. He comes across as just a regular guy whom you could approach on the street and say hi. Considering that most of the other autobiographies I've read, however great they may be, still seem like stories told by a celebrity who has deigned to share his/her life story, that in itself is an amazing accomplishment.

I was a Forward Air Controller in Vietnam. When I was transferred to Thailand I was advised to destroy my maps for secutity reasons. I did and also destroyed my mission cards which coverd each air strike I controlled. After all I had my diary. Now over thirty years later as I try to write my diary in a useable form I find the notes I wrote inadequate. My memory of events doesn't match that of some of my friends. I have a large scale map but it doesn't have the firebases plotted and doesn't show the terrain as I remember it. I needed the 1:50,000 scale we used to support the ground troops. I have been looking for a set for several years but it seems all my friends destroyed theirs too. I was trying to find out how to order a set or even if they were available and had no luck until Michael Kelley's book came out. If you need a map of Vietnam for whatever reason this is the one where you can find it! Thank you M60 for your massive work. Everybody who wants to know about the Vietnam War needs this book and the maps that can be ordered from it with the coordinates to make Vietnam look like it did during the war from whatever perspective you saw it.

Vietnam had no fronts, but it sure had perimeters. Everywhere. Those perimeters defined a whole generation of soldiers. I thought most of that was lost forever. I was wrong.

If you served in Vietnam, chances are that the places where you hung your web-gear on a hook are described in Mike Kelley's amazing work. Some of what he lists includes coordinates of places that were just mud berms, sandbags and fighting positions.

It is obvious that Mike Kelley did more than years of detailed document research. He met hundreds of vets over the years, and enlisted their personal knowledge. The final product is a treasure of information. I can't imagine a Vietnam veteran not wanting a copy. This kind of reference material will be pulled off my personal library shelf every time the subject of Vietnam gets serious. No future article that references Vietnam will be written without a reality check through these pages. The glossary of "minutia" alone is worth the price.

Bill Hunt

Vietnam
1972

As one of the webmasters of the Vietnam Veteran's Home Page... I get a lot of questions about names of places, place locations and relationships, map coordinates and other details that a researcher needs or a memory has forgotten. Mike Kelley's book is a godsend for finding and verifying most all of those details. It will undoubtedly take its place in history as the definitive guide to where US and allied troops really were and when they were there. Bonus features like the extensive glossary, maps, name lists, and copious references make this book indispensable.

This is a tight and powerful novel. It is more or less unique in Russian literature in that it is the story of a "typical" (i.e. non-socialist) family affected by the Revolution and Civil War. Bulgakov grew up in Kiev and his love for the city comes through very strongly. When I read this book I knew very little about the historical events it describes but this didn't prove much of a problem in the long run.

While we are, as Americans, familiar with the story of the Stalinist purges and know something of post-Revolutionary Russian history, the Russian Civil War between the White and the Red is not as well-known.

But this is the crux of the struggle that subsequently determined Russian history. Many authors tried to give a view of that turbulent period; Pasternak in "Doctor Zhivago", Solzhenitzen marginally in "Ivan Denisovitch" (Denisovitch was in a gulag because he was a returnee from the German front and thus viewed as a political traitor) and Ayn Rand "We the Living." Bulgakov's novel is one of the richest, most touching and well-written I have read on this historical time.

He takes the story from the personal standpoint of a single family affected by the German betrayal of Russia to the incomprehensible brutality of the Civil War. The use of "white" and "red" as symbols in describing everyday objects and landscape is novelistic, the action is pure stage drama as you'd find in a play or film.

This is a far better novel than "Doctor Zhivago", which dealt with essentially the same subject (families torn apart by the Civil War and their way of life forever altered.) If you are at all interested in Russian history, I can't recommend "The White Guard" enough to you. I just loved it.

I am also astounded that only three people reviewed this book. The novel centers on the Turbin family living in Kiev, Ukraine during the Civil War (1918 - 1921) that followed World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the Russian empire fell apart in 1917, the Ukraine declared an independent state in early 1918 led by a parliamentary leader called a Hetman. The Hetman Skoropadsky in The White Guard is the second such leader. Skoropadsky assumed power with German support and intervention. Having just lost World War I and being not all that interested in the Ukraine anyway, the Germans could not support Skoropadsky enough to quell the inevitable power struggle. In the Ukraine, there arose armies of Tsarists (led by Deniken, mentioned briefly in the book), Bolsheviks (who, of course, ultimately win but are not major players in the book), and Socialist nationalists led by Simon Petlyura. The Turbins enlist in a local guard unit supporting the Hetman against Petlyura's much larger army. It soon becomes clear that their loyalty to the Hetman is misplaced, but the Turbins' loyalty to each other, their city, their friends and neighbors, and their commanding officers is heart-warming. Besides "heart-warming" there are also running gun battles, sabre decapitations, machine gun ambushes, and enough action to please all but the most hard core testosterone addicts. Petlyura is regarded by many Ukrainians as a great general (no opinion from me), but many readers will enjoy despising Petlyura for the pogroms he instituted that killed 100,000 Ukrainian Jews. Petlyura is called a "dirty Yid" at a point in the book that might give insight into Bulgakov's view on these pogroms. This book is both a taut thriller and a beautiful story of loyalty and love. Brian says "Check it out" (Sorry, Joe Bob).

One of the best yearbooks I've ever read. Every major event from 2002 was covered. Even behind the scenes coverage at WWE. I look forward to next year's edition. The match pictures and Trish pictures were great.

I don't usually read a lot of wrestling books, but this one has it all: it's funny, inisghtful (the writer really knows his stuff), packed with excellent photos, and lots more. This puts the lie to the rumors that WWE has "jumped the shark" -- there's still plenty of life in the most popular form of sports entertainment in the world.

THIS BOOK IS ONE OF THE BEST WRESTLING BOOKS I'VE EVER READ. IT HAS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WWE AND MORE!!! THE WRITING IS BRILLIANT THE PHOTOS ARE GREAT AND ALL THE INFORMATION ON EACH WRESTLER IS THERE

THIS IS A DEFINITE BUY FOR ANYONE WHO CALLS THEMSELVES A WRESTLING FAN.

Most ski writers are middle-aged-plus travel hacks more interested in the hotel than the hill. Not Finkel. Almost uniquely among widely-published ski journalists, he's more interested in descents than dinner, and it's fun to travel vicariously through his work.

Alpine Circus is essentially a compendium of columns originally published in SKIING magazine. All are interesting. Most are funny. One -- the piece on Sarajevo -- is intensely moving.

Four stars out of five. While very enjoyable, the book doesn't fully display Finkel's remarkable talent as a writer. Hopefully, future collections will. You'll see a lot more of his work... he's still a mere sprat.

If you have a passion for skiing and traveling, this is the book for you! It's an easy read - several short stories about the author's ski adventures in the U.S. and abroad. A very enjoyable book that's hard to put down...you just want to keep reading on to his next adventure.

A great collection of unforgettable skiing stories that takes you around the globe to some of the most remote areas of the world. After reading every authors stop, you feel as if you've been there also. Easy to read, funny, and worth reading again and again...