If you're looking for straight answers and in depth discussion about lupus, look elsewhere.

While this book has all sorts of information for people NEW to lupus, it is totally useless for anyone living with lupus, or looking for straight answers about lupus.

I got as much information from the Web as I got from this book.

This book should be given to friends and families of those that live with lupus, not to the patients themselves. There is no in depth conversation on lab tests. Nothing in the book talks about what to expect from your doctor, what normal and abnormal test results are and what they mean. There is no discussion on when a patient should, or should not press for a better answer or for more testing.

"Lupus Q & A, a Primer" is good information for the uninvolved an uninitiated. As a source of information for a patient, it is totally useless.

As a newly diagnosed SLE patient, this book answered so many questions I had plus some I hadn't even thought of yet. It is an excellent source of information. It was also helpful for family members to read and aid in their understanding of my dieseae.

This volume has been repeatedly recommended by doctors who speak to our lupus organization. We try to keep copies on hand for our members at all times, and recommend it to those who call the Lupus Hotline.

This text provides a quick, concise review of the pimary topics covered on emergency medicine exams. I found it to be a good way to prepare for inservice exams and the written boards.

This is a good collection of essays on Missions from a variety of perspectives. It's a great overview and introduction on what is going on in terms of missions work in the mid- to late- 1990s. It's not all theoretical (as there is some practical stuff), but gives a lot of history and context, as well as a variety of places for missions, and some missiological issues. It is written from a varied Christian background.

The book is divided into 4 sections, and every essay is approximately 10-15 pages:

Section 1: Christian Families in mission. Four essays are presented, from Evangelical Missions, Conciliar Missions (i.e., the Ecumenical movement within Protestantism, usually associated with liberal Protestantism, and the World Council of Churches), Roman Catholic Missions, and Pentecostal&Charismatic Missions. Each of these essays gives some background of history, assumptions, theology and missiological background (e.g., for the Roman Catholics, Vatican II plays a very strong influence, and is discussed).

Section 2: Christian Mission by Region. This is a very practical section, discussing missions in various parts of the world. The areas covered are Southern Asia, the former USSR (i.e., the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)), Africa, North America, Oceania, Latin America, Northeast Asia, Europe, and Middle East.

Section 3: Foundational Disciplines of Mission. This chapter is on more of the theory and theology behind missions, and how to interact with other cultures (and their religions). Essays in this section include one by Bosch on "Reflections on Biblical Models of Mission," and others on Mission Theology, Spiritual Formation for Mission (written by Catholics, so they emphasize dialogue, mentoring, developmental psychology understanding of peoples, and understanding culture, religion, tradition, rather than the Protestant approach of in spiritual formation of piety, conviction based upon Scripture, and then Contextualization through Incarnation), Mission Strategies (mostly an essay about applying strategies), Contextualization in Mission, (towards) Forming Indigenous Theologies, and Popular Religions.

The final section, section 4 presents special challenges in mission: The teaching of missions, women in mission, mission and the Problem of Affluence, Mission and Social Justice: An American Dilemma, Urban Mission, Christian Dialogues with Other Faiths, Christian-Muslim Relations, Church-State Relationship and Mission, and then some stuff about Gerald H. Anderson.

I think, if one was looking for a book to be introduced to what's going on in missions and some different views on this topic, this would be a good book. It doesn't strike me as the type that has a timeless classic feel to it (unlike Bosch's book, Transforming Mission) or Stott's book, Christian Mission.

Nonetheless, it's good supplement to hearing first-hand stories on missions.

I read this book because a friend of mine with low self-esteem mentioned it. I look out for my friends, so I wanted to see what he was feeding his mind. I e-mailed him immediately to tell him to stop reading it.

To give credit where it's due, the Part 1 of this book is OK--but not great. If nothing else, it might give the shy guy a little confidence boost, and a few grooming tips. Granted, that's what a lot of folks are looking for, but there are certain to be better sources than this one. Part 2 is a long, silly list. It's a list of places to meet people and one-liners that no one looking for a relationship should seriously consider using. It's also a waste of time to read, and paper to print it on. You'd get better advice from the Roxbury guys from Saturday Night Live.

The authors of this book (it is readable--again, credit is due) attest that the techniques work. Honestly, though, I don't think I'd want to date anyone that they worked on. Maybe I had too much confidence to begin with when I read this book. Maybe I just don't want my friend laughed at or look upon with derision as the sleazy lounge lizard. Let this one stay on the shelf.

If you are lonely and want to meet someone special you have to read this book immediately. It worked for me like magic.

My problem with this stuff is not that its manipulative (I mean, if you succeed by meeting someone's needs, however calculating, what's wrong with that).

The problem is the notion that this stuff works. Its sure-fire, everytime. There are some good observations and lots of positive thinking but men, and especially women, are too complex to fall for this stuff everytime.

So if they said "Try this; it sometimes works and you have little to loose by trying" I'd say amen. But if you believe the reviews that say "I read this book and now the men/women are falling all over me" this is nonsense.

Both Love Tactics and the sequel More Love Tactics are excellent books in helping you to realize the potential and acheive success in love. This new book is indeed a collection of the two and it says so on the front cover. If you don't have the others get this one.

If you have an open mind, this book will be the best investment on the subject you can make. We are not born with an understanding how to be effective in love, so fortunately McKnight and Phillips have compiled that information for us. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in sorting out this love thing, and have lent this book to two of my friends. Hoping to start a relationship? Or handle it effectively during the early stages? This book is great!

Even when two writers write well, collaboration is an itchy thing. Unless the pair is deliberately writing two different voices, they must carefully mesh their styles and dialog into a seamless narrative designed to maintain the illusion that the book you are holding is a cohesive and unified whole. When done well, it can be a beautiful thing; two voices telling the same tale, adding idea to idea and raising the entire project to a sublime place.

If the writers are unqualified hacks, however, the mess resembles the result of a Creative Writing 101 final after the TA trips while carrying the manuscripts.

Can you guess into which category "Shadows Bend" falls?

Unqualified ha...I mean, writers David Barbour and Richard Raleigh have imagined a world in which two famous pulp writers meet in order to drop a coin into the jukebox from Hell in order to prevent the end of the world as we know it. "Oh," you think. "It's going to be that kind of novel."

Though HP Lovecraft and "Conan" creator Robert E. Howard never met, Barbour and Raleigh ask us to imagine that they did. Also, that Cthulhu and the rest of the Old Ones are real and trying to rend the fabric of time and space in order to occupy our universe. Also, that any godlike being would think our universe was worth occupying, but that's another matter completely.

It's an interesting premise, interesting enough to get me to plunk down my money and take my chance. But the result is something less than promised.

Lovecraft and Howard set off on a nostalgia tour down Route 66 in order to destroy "the artifact" that would allow the Old Ones into our parking space. Along the way they meet Glory, a college-educated former prostitute who has read the works of Lovecraft and Howard, as well as that of Clarke Ashton, who makes a brief appearance later, who joins them in their travels. Terrible things happen. They save the universe. Blah blah blah.

My quibbles with this novel are large, broad ones. Well, I have small, subtle ones, but I won't bore you with them unless you write and ask for them. First, it appears that Raleigh and Barbour did not even read one another's work as they wrote. In some chapters Robert Howard, a Texan, is portrayed as a fellow with a decent command of English. In others, he nearly eats the scenery by aw-shucksin' his way through his dialog like a cartoon cowboy. Second, do I really need to point out how damned unlikely it is that a woman in the late thirties would be educated in medieval literature, read pulp fiction and work as a prostitute? Third, Lovecraft is written as though he were Oscar Wilde or Quentin Crisp. Fourth, why didn't someone tell Barbour and Raleigh that Southwestern Indians aren't the cool mystical minority they once were? Fifth, well, the ending is so lame you won't believe it. I would assume that the reason a writer would want to include historical characters in a modern novel is because he has something to say about that person, or that person is just the right character on which to hang the plot. In this novel, Barbour and Raleigh might just as well have written about *me*. *I* can slip a coin into a slot, too. And I bet I would have picked the right one the first time out.

If you're a Lovecraft or Howard fan, you might want to read this, but my guess is that it would be just too painful to see these two men massacred in print like this. If you read only one book using Lovecraft and Howard as characters this year, um, on second thought, read something else.

This book was a severe disappointment. The writers have no grasp of characterization: HPL is portrayed as a mincing wimp, REH as a thuggish nitwitted goon. The dialogue is excruciatingly bad throughout. The plot (what there is of it) is ludicrous, especially since it contradicts itself. Basically, Our Heroes team up with the Happy Hooker to thwart some shoggoths (currently masquerading as a dust-free black sedan) to stop some extradimensional invaders who can't make up their mind whether they want a heavy, carcinogenic, chameleon-like McGuffin put into a cave or not. REH's father is portrayed as a cross between Hannibal Lector and Herbert West, and he's left to perform the ULTIMATE primal scene (as Freud called it) in Bobby's dreams, while the authors put an unpleasantly sexist slant on HPL's well-known dislike of fish. Add a truly imbecilic scene in which HPL and REH exchange potty jokes and you've got the whole picture. This was so out of character that I wanted to throw the stupid book out of the window.

I'm an old fan of pulp fiction, and the works of Lovecraft, Howard, Smith, et al. I found out about this book through an excellent review in Realms of Fantasy mag. by Gahan Wilson. Now, Wilson is no slouch, so when he likes a book, I know it's worth reading. Once again, he led me straight to a great read. The readers below seemed to have read a different book than me, or Mr. Wilson. It's a terrific, literate, haunting read, and does fascinating things with the main characters. I'll read this one again, and recommend it to friends. Bravo to the authors.

Since Phillips is a practicing psychologist, this book reflects his background by concentrating on the emotional aspects of living with an ostomy - specifically issues of fear, depression, anger, etc. Phillips does acknowledge that these are issues more likely to be experienced by individuals who have suddenly underwent surgery due to a diagnosis of cancer or a sudden complication of IBD like toxic megacolon. Individuals with IBD consciously choosing the surgery often have a more positive attitude and suffer fewer emotional downswings because of the overall improvement in their post-surgery life. Phillips includes the usual chapters related to family members and their coping issues, which is very helpful, but the overall lack of first person accounts, and the slightly outdated information make The Ostomy Book the preferred book on this topic. Still, this volume would be useful if the new ostomate or a family member is having difficulty adjusting.

This book gives good and beneficial psychological advice. But, the medical information of this book is somewhat out-of-dated. So, if you want recent medical information about whole of kidney failure, please check the other books. Because nephrology develope so fast, year of the publication is important for your choice the books for kidney failure.

I have found this book to be a helpful well rounded guide to Lupus. From the symptoms before diagnosis to after diagnosis, and how to deal with every day challenges and side effects of the disease and treatments. I beleive it is a great jumping off point for the newly diagnosed. It dispells myths, and give a newly diagnosed patient comfort at a time that they may be feeling overwhelmed and desperate by the diagnosis of Lupus. It is a very easy read, as the doctor speaks in layman language rather than complicating things with lot's of medical termonolgy and anatomy terms. For a person who is looking for beginning over view of the disease it is very helpful. But, if you are looking for more datailed information on specific tests, treatments, or the physiology of the disease one would need to look further.

some of the stories here are not in any way connected to Lovecraft. Wolfe's story here is interesting, but doesn't really get to be horrible. a story about out-of-the-body experiences is pretty good, but something seems amiss in the ending. a story about a stuffed animal amused me. also included are some mediocre stories, and also some really dull stories. the collection is perhaps not the worst in history, but you can easily do better.

Lovecraft "tribute" volumes appear to be developing into a sub-genre all of their own and this book is...definitely one of them. I leave it to the English major to define the difference between pastiche and plagiarism, to distinguish between stories influenced by, written in homage to, or containing ideas directly stolen from Lovecraft. All these are represented in this volume, as well as a couple of tales that seem to have no connection to Lovecraft's work at all.

Of the thirteen stories collected within, four or five are memorable. Three of the stories--arguably the three best--Gene Wolfe's genuinely chilling "Lord of the Land", Gahan Wilson's whimsical fantasy "H.P.L.", and F. Paul Wilson's "The Barrens"--have also more recently appeared in the Arkham House collection "Cthulu 2000." Also worthy of mention is Brian McNaughton's darkly humorous "Meryphillia", possibly more reminiscent of Clarke Ashton Smith's oeuvre than of Lovecraft's, and Mort Castle's Poe-esque "A Secret of the Heart."

There is a touchingly affectionate introduction by Robert Bloch and a short afterword by each author, sharing a little of what Lovecraft meant to him (unsurprisingly, all the authors are "hims").

If you have already read the three volumes of Lovecraft's work in print, the collection of his revisions "The Horror In The Museum And Other Tales," the two Arkham House tribute volumes "Tales Of The Cthulu Mythos" and "Cthulu 2000," and you still want more, perhaps this book will fit the bill.

Like all short story collections, this one has varying levels of quality. The average is so high, however, that it's well worth picking up if you're a fan of horror, mystical SF, or especially a Lovecraft fan. The stories show the influence of the Great Old Ones in Elizabethan England, the space program, the pine barrens of New Jersey and astral space in dreams. And, in the standout story of the book (H.P.L. by Gahan Wilson), Lovecraft appears as a character, as do Clark Ashton Smith and many, many, many bad things from his works. Of special interest to fans of Edgar Allan Poe is the first story in the collection, which ties the cosmology of Poe's stories together with Lovecraft's, repaying the obvious debt to Poe all writers of the macabre incurred since the 1800s. Buy this book.