Students of the Chicago School of Architecture owe a deep debt of gratitude to Donald Hoffmann for his pioneering work on John Wellborn Root who, along with Louis Sullivan, were the pioneers of late 19th century urban architecture in America. This is an important book for any architectural library.

Root's Ironic Legacy Hoffman makes a thorough case for John Wellborn Root's place as one of America's great architects. It is therefore a bitter irony that Root's less talented partner, Daniel Burnham, is cited in most modern encyclopedias as one of the founders of the Chicago School of Architecture, while Root---especially at the time of Hoffman's 1973 book---often is not. After all, it was Root's creative genius that propelled the firm of Burnham and Root into international focus at the moment of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Root's relative anonymity began with that exposition, for he had died two years earlier of pneumonia. He had been set to rise to certain international stardom as consulting architect for the exposition. He had planned to feature American forms, not European ones. He submitted the site plan and died unexpectedly the same month.

His site plan was mostly realized, but not so his thematic proposal, which was overwhelmed by Parisian Beaux Arts designs. This lost opportunity was also America's loss. Burnham was largely to blame: he was chief of construction, and he inexplicably countered Root's American theme. The resulting exposition design under Burnham's leadership merely repeated a previous European showcase.

Because of the European theme of the Chicago Exposition, the Chicago School was set back a decade. Even worse, architects all over America emulated the exposition. To this day, the American landscape suffers the influence of the Chicago Exposition. One is left to marvel at how different America would look today had Root lived even long enough to guide the exposition to American forms.

About 97% of Root's buildings were razed in the first sixty years of the Twentieth Century, primarily because the business district of Chicago can't grow outwards because of geography. Therefore, it must grow upwards, and that means taller buildings are forever replacing tall buildings, Root's included.

Root's legacy is indeed full of ironies.

Root's Roots Hoffman's important work on this book is singularly responsible for reviving Root's place in architectural history. In the quarter century that has passed since Hoffman's book was published, Root is now accepted by historians, though not the general public.

If there is a weakness in Hoffman's book, it is the spare attention given to Root's life outside Chicago. Here are three details which would have rounded out this otherwise splendid book:

(1) Root was born in my hometown of Lumpkin, Georgia in 1850. I remember the commanding wooden two-story home in which he was born. It was torn down about 1963. Adding to the Root irony, his birthplace today is occupied by a simple brick house. Most natives of his hometown know nothing more than the text of a historical marker about Root, which seems to point out this modern house.

(2) John Wellborn Root's father, Sidney, invented international business in Atlanta. Sidney engineered Atlanta's economic boom which began during the Civil War and has yet to stop.

(3) Root named his masterpiece, the Monadnock, to honor his father, whose family admired Daniel Webster. Webster lived near Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire.

Root's Future A recent weekend in Chicago took me to three of Root's remaining buildings. One of them, the Monadnock, bowled me over. It is hard to believe that it could have been built in the Nineteenth Century, for it seems fresh even today.

My visit also led me to Donald Hoffman's book, which has now inspired us locals to recognize John Wellborn Root's 150th birthday in January, 2000. Hoffman has thus dispersed one more of Root's ironies---Root's hometown will never forget him again.

John Wellborn Root's short life was elemental in the development of the early skyscraper. With his partner, Daniel Burnham, Root quickly climbed the social ladder in his adopted city of Chicago, receiving commissions to design South Side mansions for industrialists in the 1870s. The firm of Burnham & Root quickly rose to great acclaim designing commercial buildings such as the Grannis Block and the 10 story Montauk Block, credited as the first building ever referred to as a skyscraper. Root engineered several key technological improvements that made the tall building possible, including the use of a steel within a concrete foundation and was, along with contemporaries William LeBaron Jenney and Holabird & Roche, involved in the use of metal interior frame to support a large building's weight, rather than the historic use of masonry load-bearing walls. Root's Second Rand McNally Building was the world's first building to be supported only on a steel frame. The 22 story Masonic Temple was the world's tallest building when completed in 1892. Root's designs generally frankly expressed their structure in a Romaneque manner, being instrumental in the creation of the so-called "Chicago" or "commercial style". Yet his work was often beautiful, as seen in the Women's Temple, Rookery and Monadnock- the latter two critically-acclaimed structures still standing in Chicago.

Root was an accomplished orator and reader, and if he had not died in 1891 at age 41, he, rather than Louis Sullivan, may have become the spokesman of the Chicago style. The artuiculate Root wrote many articles in trade magazines and spoke at architectual forums, speaking of his architectual theories. Certainly Root was a witty, pleasant gentleman greatly admired by his peers.

Nevertheless, Hoffman's book is not uncritical; the book looks at the failures and the minor commisisons of churches, train stations, and the like. A complete history of Root's work is presented with special emphasis is placed on the most important works listed above. Hoffman's book is well footnoted and his conclusions are supported by the evidence. After the first chapter, Hoffman mostly eschews biography, focusing on Root's career.

The book is interesting and rich in details. Hoffman explores the dynamics of Burnham & Root's successful partnership whereby Root, the designer, handled the drawing, and Burnham, the planner, laid out interior floor plans and handled the "jaw work" in talking to clients.

The relationship with Burnham is interesting for it is Burnham who is best remembered today for his later work in the city planning movement. Although Root's buildings have mostly been demolished as their cities, Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco and others, have grown upward, several survive and this book keeps the memories of the others alive.

Overview

This book was the textbook used at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the graduate course in Bayesian Decision and Control I during the fall of 2001 and 2002. It strikes a good balance between theory and practical example, making it ideal for a first course in Bayesian theory at an intermediate-advanced graduate level. Its emphasis is on Bayesian modeling and to some degree computation.

Prerequisites

While no Bayesian theory is assumed, it is assumed that the reader has a background in mathematical statistics, probability and continuous multi-variate distributions at a beginning or intermediate graduate level. The mathematics used in the book is basic probability and statistics, elementary calculus and linear algebra.

Intended audience

This book is primarily for graduate students, statisticians and applied researchers who wish to learn Bayesian methods as opposed to the more classical frequentist methods.

Material covered

It covers the fundamentals starting from first principles, single-parameter models, multi-parameter models, large sample inference, hierarchical models, model checking and sensitivity analysis, study design, regression models, generalized linear models, mixture models and models for missing data. In addition it covers posterior simulation and integration using rejection sampling and importance sampling. There is one chapter on Markov chain simulation (MCMC) covering the generalized Metropolis algorithm and the Gibbs sampler.

Over 38 models are covered, 33 detailed examples from a wide range of fields (especially biostatistics). Each of the 18 chapter has a bibliographic note at the end. There are two appendixes: A) a very helpful list of standard probability distributions and B) outline of proofs of asymptotic theorems.

Sixteen of the 18 chapters end with a set of exercises that range from easy to quite difficult. Most of the students in my fall 2001 class used the statistical language R to do the exercises.

The book's emphasis is on applied Bayesian analysis. There are no heavy advanced proofs in the book. While the proofs of the basic algorithms are covered there are no algorithms written in pseudo code...Additional books of related interest

1) Statistical Decision Theory and Bayesian Analysis, James Berger, second edition. Emphasis on decision theory and more difficult to follow than Gelman's book. Covers empirical and hierarchical Bayes analysis. More philosophical challenging than Gelman's book.

2) Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, Robert and Casella. Very mathematically oriented book. Does a good job of covering MCMC.

3) Monte Carlo Methods in Bayesian Computation, Ming-Hui Chen, Qi-Man Shao, Joseph George Ibrahim. An enormous number of algorithms related to MCMC not covered elsewhere. If you need MCMC and need an algorithm to implement MCMC this is the book to read.

4) Monte Carlo Strategies in Scientific Computing, Jun S. Liu. Covers a wide range of scientific disciplines and how Monte Carlo methods can be used to solve real world problems. Includes hot topics such as bioinformatics. Very concise. Well written, but requires effort to understand as so many different topics are covered. This book is my most often borrowed book on Monte Carlo methods. Jun S. Liu is a big gun at Harvard.

5) Probabilistic Networks and Expert Systems. Cowell, Dawid, Lauritzen, Spiegelhalter. Covers the theory and methodology of building Bayesian networks (probabilistic networks).

This is a well written text that is fast becoming a classic reference. It contains a wealth of good applications. It is one of the new books that presents the growing use of Bayesian methods in practice since the advancement of Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach. It includes a whole chapter the Markov chain approach to computation. Other strengths of the book include the chapter on missing data and the chapter that provides expert advice.

Another text in the CRC series Markov Chain Monte Carlo in Practice by Gilks, Richardson and Spiegelhalter provides more detail on these methods along with many applications including some Bayesian ones.

First, I must admit a bias: I frequently work with one of the authors (Gelman), and I think highly of his work and statistical judgment.

This book's biggest strength is its introduction of most of the important ideas in Bayesian statistics through well-chosen examples. These are examples are not contrived: many of them came up in research by the authors over the past several years. Most examples follow a logical progression that was probably used in the original research: a simple model is fit to data; then areas of model mis-fit are sought, and a revised model is used to address them. This brings up another strength of the book: the discussion and treatment of measures of model fit (and sensitivity of inferences) is lucid and enlightening.

Some readers may wish the computational methods were spelled out more fully: this book will help you choose an appropriate statistical model, and the ways to look for serious violations of it, but it will take a bit of work to convert the ideas into computational algorithms. This is not to say that the computational methods aren't discussed, merely that many of the details are left to the reader. The reader expecting pseudo-code programs will be disappointed.

All in all, I recommend this book for anyone who applies statistical models to data, whether those models are Bayesian or not. I especially recommend it for researchers who are curious about Bayesian methods but do not see the point of them---Chapter 5, and particularly section 5.5 (an example chosen from educational testing), beautifully addresses this issue.

This beautiful little book contains just a few of Borges' best works from his 1944 work Ficciones (also widely available in the 1964 collection of English translations entitled Labyrinths).

It also includes important later works of Borges, Nightmares and Blindness (transcriptions of two lectures from 1977).

His own worst nightmare involves discovering the King of Norway, with his sword and his dog, sitting at the foot of Borges' bed. "Retold, my dream is nothing; dreamt, it was terrible." Such is the power of describing, of reading this father of modern literature.

In Blindness, he examines his own loss of sight in the context of examining poetry itself. In a story right out of, well, Borges, he discusses his appointment as Director of a library at the very time he has lost his reading sight. (Two other Directors are also blind.)

"No one should read self-pity or reproach
into this statement of the majesty
of God; who with such splendid irony
granted me books and blindness at one touch."

This lecture is a moving (and brief, just 15 pages) ode to poetry . If one wants ironic context, just consider that these lectures on Nightmares and Blindness were delivered in Buenos Aires at the height of the State of Siege of the Argentine Generals.

...

It seems alternately true and false that Jorge Luis Borges lives inside each of his writings in a completely symbiotic or photosynthetic way, feeding off his own product until the man and his work are indistinguishable; the man never seemed to be able to detach himself from his story and simply write, and yet at times his expected voicing disappears and one might believe another author has usurped Borges' pen to complete another metaphysic tale. Borges wore many masks, and that fact is acknowledged by the man himself here, in the tiny, fascinating "Borges and I," in which Stevenson is both invoked and mentioned, crafting a Jekyll-and-Hydean bit of self-awareness with the unmistakable tango twist of Borges' playful Argentinian idiom. Everything and Nothing is a sampler of Borges' finest work from his fiction and nonfiction batteries, which are almost indistinguishable. They overflow with Borges' fascination with logic, labyrinths, language, and the relation between the three (for a fine nonfiction work in this vein, read Poundstone's Labyrinth of Reason) and how they figure in philosophy and metaphysics. For a more whole view of Borges, try the new large collections of his work, but for a tiny glance at the genius of this literary superstar, Everything and Nothing is perfect.

The indefinability of the self and the multiplicity of personal identity are the main lines of thought connecting these 11 pieces of excellent literature, among the finest of Borges's. An author of short fiction stories, essayist and poet -though perhaps too much of a thinker for poetry-, Borges is, without hesitation, one of the greatest writers of all time. This careful, well-thought selection gives a brilliant account of one of Borges's conspicuous, recurrent themes: the difficulty of defining self-identity, since a man's distinctive features, whether mental, physical or even metaphysical, are not unique to him. As in some of the most noted masterpieces of literature, the philosophical substrate provides the background for fascinating and intriguing stories, frequently trespassing the fantastic or the bizarre. So, we witness the struggle of an early 20th Century French novelist to write The Quixote -not a contemporary version of Cervantes's renowned work, but the original -- and succeeding! We have the occasion to come to terms with the strange world of Tlön and its uncanny understanding of reality, as shown by its diverse, odd languages. The Lottery of Babylon gives every man the opportunity to become rich, powerful and exultant...or appallingly miserable and abject -by chance? The Garden of Forking Paths is a legacy of innumerable futures -which, however, does not include all of them. Death and the Compass displays the confrontation of a detective with his murderer, whom he is chasing, in a labyrinth of clues spread throughout space and time. The brief historical and literary essays concerning the elusive and somewhat contradictory character of the Emperor of China, builder of the Great Wall and destructor of books, and the precursors of Kafka, paving the way for something they ignore and being later re-created, explore the indefinability of man's essence, in much the same way as the previous fiction stories, since one never knows quite what are the limits between fiction and fact, both inside and out of Borges's work. Borges and I and Everything and Nothing -the latter is the original title by the author in English, though the work was written, as the rest of the compilation, in Spanish- express succinctly the core argument of the book, raising an uneasy metaphysical question: Whereas man may not know exactly who he is, does God know? Finally, two conferences given by Borges close the volume, turning to episodes from Borges's own life, in order to resume somehow the book's contents by invoking the fantastic worlds of dreams -rather, of nightmares- and of blindness, that suggest a vaster and more weird reality with perhaps blurrier limits than we can possibly understand. However, there is space for man if we are able to accept what we cannot understand, as a starting point for creating our own-made life.

This prayer book is the best all around prayer book for daily personal (or even family)use. The Scriptures are addressed back to God and arranged by category (with direction to add certain categories of requests inbetween the sections). This adds structure to ones prayer life and breaks the monotony of "grocery list" praying. This one is a little longer than, "Praying the Scriptures for Spiritual Growth" or the "Simple Prayers" books; in my own personal devotions, it takes me about 7 minutes per daily prayer segment.

Boa has written several prayer books, all great, all solid. This is my favorite to date.

Many times when we pray we don't know where to get started, what to do, many times we just want a deeper prayer life.

This book will scripturally guide you through praying...not only the scriptures, but will guide you in praying for your world around you. It begins with praise and worship of Almighty God, leads you in a confession of Who He is, then guides you through personal renewal, petitions, intercession, and then a prayer of thanksgiving.

One of the things I liked best about this book was that it started out with each section, declaring the Word of God, then it guides you (differently each day) to pray for your leaders one day, your family the next, that you will be a faithful steward of your time and money, for God's wisdom...the list goes on and on.

Both this book and "Praying the Scriptures for Spiritual Growth" are two of the best prayer/devotional books I have ever used. If I could only keep two, these would be the two I would keep. Not only are they easy to follow, they are taken directly from the Word of God.

Face to Face is a wonderful tool to help you pray. Boa has assembled scripture into eight sections for each day. You pray through scripture for Adoration, Confession, Renewal, Petition, Intercession, Affirmation, Thanksgiving and Closing. It helps you focus and it gives a marvelous sense of the completeness of God's word. I do not recommend very many books but this is one that I would recommend to anyone. I have already given away 20 copies.

Fascinating compilation by one of the 20th Century's most memorable poets (British Poet Laureate from 1930-67). Testifies to the rugged durability of his evocative poetic gift. Especially nice about this volume are the range and depth of Masefield's best poetry, which spurred me to begin re-reading him and other great poets of his day (Thomas Hardy, W.B.Yeats, Frost,Walter de la Mare, Edwin Arlington Robinson, etc.). Most of the best output is early in his career (Salt Water Ballads, Dauber, Lollingdon Downs,Everlasting Mercy), the poem Sea Fever being the most representative of his genius for making nature come alive in mind and spirit. To summarize Masefield's poetic legacy: 'He writes as freshly as possible bringing us back to a marvel of sustained versecraft, leaping gaps of time and tide, reminding us of the immediacy of nature, especially tales of the open sea with a vitality and purity of resonance still affecting audiences in the 21st Century. If you have a love of the Sea, this book and Masefield's poems will whisk you there for a journey. Bon Voyage!

One of Masefield's last poems (excerpt): Musicians, painters, poets of when/Who made the world more lovely then/The story-tellers beyond price,/Bringing the news from Paradise/Those from whose handiwork we see/Horizons in eternity.

Now that my roving days are over,/And all my frontiers stop at Dover/I think of what Life used to mean/When all these artists trod the scene/And Life was in myself with them/In Troy, in Greece, and Bethlehem.

Sea Fever by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the

lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer

her by;

And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and

the white sail's shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey

dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call

of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be

denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white

clouds flying,

and the flung spray and the blown spume, and the

sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the

vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way, where

the wind's like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing

fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the

long trick's over.

If that doesn't convince you, nothing will. Perhaps my favorite poem of all time. I truly must go down to the seas again myself. I was introduced to John Masefield's poetry in college speech class and memorized this poem to perfection at one point. It still tosses in my mind like a ship at sea. I can feel the wind in my hair when I read this poem. Can't you smell the salty air? If not then you have been away from the sea for far too long. Listen closely and you will hear the cry of a sea gull in the distance and perhaps the sound of sails in the wind. The imagery is vivid for me, it combines all my favorite sea memories into one poem. The only thing missing are your footprints on the beach. I know you will enjoy this book.

This is the perfect book for anyone interested in this poet's work. It has a variety of his nautical and arthurian poems. His poems about the sea and England are beautiful and full of rich textures. It is one of my personal favorites.

I doubt any future book will cover the subject of black cast movie posters as well as this one. As a designer interested in the look of popular culture I was surprised that there were so many posters for this niche market. Over two-hundred are shown in this very well designed book (thanks to Debbie Glasserman) they are all in color and each has a very detailed caption. I must say though that as designs they are all uniformly uninspiring (except for Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1927 and The Green Pastures, 1936) but what they lack in stylish graphics and type they make up for in an exuberance of color, flamboyant images plus huge angled titles and cast lists, all to put across what the movie was about and pull the customer into a downtown picture palace.

Donald Bogle writes a short essay on the history of black movies but strangely makes no comment about the posters or who produced them. John Kisch, who collects black cast movie posters suggests in his Author's Note that frequently the poster artwork was more interesting than the movie itself. Get this book if you are into the graphic history of American movies, it covers one small historical part and does it very well.

The images of Black in the history of American cinema is in constant need of exploration. Too often what we are presented with are images and visions created by movie moguls and mavens that bear little resemblence to the rich vitality of Black life and culture in America. Mammies. Coons, and Sambos are omnipresent in most studies, adding a buffoonish, yet toxically inaccurate picture whenever Blacks are portrayed. Fortunately, "A Separate Cinema" is a move in the right direction of presenting an alternative view. Complete with colorful and vivid posters and information, the reader is returned to a period where such early pivotal Black auteurs as Oscar Micheaux attempt to show Black images on screen through Black eyes. Paul Robeson is shown in all of his splendor. The sauve and handsome Ralph Cooper makes his appearance. Movies that are now in the dustbin of history returns to the viewer. As a teacher of U.S. history and African-American history, "A separate Cinema" never fails to enlighten and impress my students - both Black and White. This book is a must for those willing to move beyond the stereotypical version offered by traditional hollywood accounts. It not only offers a Separate Cinema, but a separately created vision of reality. I highly recommend this book for all progressive students of American film history.

A simple love of movie-posters has turned into a serious interest of African-American cinema. Something I never really knew about. This book showes the viewer a history in pictures about pictures mostly unseen in The Netherlands or anywhere outside the US. If you just like posters, it is unmissable. If you like film-poster history, it's unmissable. If you're interested in anything besides pure Hollywood-soaked books and paraphernalia, this book is simply a must-have. Fantastic!

This is a master piece as far as current radiology texts go. The beauty of the images and cases selected demonstrates much thought that has been put into this book and the result is a great reference and teaching guide aimed at residents, fellows and clinicians alike both in the medical and chiropractic professions. It is a wonderful fusion of fundamental concepts interspersed with some more complex challenging cases which use the relevant special imaging to demonstrate the full spectrum of modalities available nowadays.
The two authors have produced a great work which should be a very useful addition to many a library to be used both in everyday practice as well as a reference guide too.

This is the best text of skeletal imaging that you can buy. It is well organized, easy to use, full of excellent illustrations, and comprehensive. It is organized according to anatomic region making it easy to find what you are looking for without skipping all over the book. The first chapter consists of concise tables, which provide a complete overview of commonly encountered skeletal disorders. Throughout the rest of the book there are large clear illustrations of radiographs as well as correlating CT scans, MR images, and radionuclide studies. The descriptions of the disorders are right next to the illustrations giving a clear understanding of the findings. This atlas is an invaluable tool in interpretation of radiographs and diagnosis of disorders of the musculoskeletal system. It's my favorite reference book!

This is an outstanding referece book for imaging professionals in the academic and private sector who wish to maintain a comprehensive overview of all skeletal structures and the supporting musculature at hand. The imaging planes selected directly correlate with the needs of the imaging professional and having combined both the spine and extremities in a single volume is indeed the most efficient and comprehensive way to satisfy the needs of the busy professional.

The sections included of normal variants and potential pitfalls is also very important in distinguishing this reference text from others in the marketplace.

I would recommend this text for those particularly involved in the interpretation of both the spine and extremity examinations as these are often kept separate at many academic institutions.

Conrgatualtions to the authors for their work.

Although I am old enough to have been able to remember Don McNeill's Breakfast Club I have only heard of him, and wanted to learn more about this popular radio show. Author John Doolittle has done an excellent job in bringing out the personality of Don McNeill. Don was a devoted family man who, despite an extroverted personality when interviewing people, was more of an introvert away from the show. Don was devoted to the midwest and chose to keep his show in Chicago from various downtown locations. I would say the primary reason for the success of the show was his sincere interest in people in addition to his willingness to pay the price in preparation time. Those who filled in for him found out there is more involved than chatting with members of the studio audience. The silent prayer and the march around the breakfast table were interesting staples of this show that I wasn't aware of. Don McNeill was a sincere man both on the show and in his private life. The CD that came with the book I bought provides interesting snippets on some of his shows and was especially interesting to listen to after having read the book. Don McNeill was a giant of radio who had a lot to contribute to other people and did.

The "Breakfast Club" was a morning radio program staple in hundreds of thousands of homes across America beginning in 1933 until its final broadcast in December of 1968. Don McNeill hosted this program which was completely unscripted and involved a lot of studio audience participation. Now John Doolittle has memorialized that unique and beloved radio show host and his program in Don McNeill And His Breakfast Club. Here is the history of a man and a program that developed an enormous and loyal listenership in an era when broadcast radio was the major daily mass media for information and culture in the country. Doolittle's informative, enthusiastically recommended history is enriched with the inclusion of an accompanying CD with sample clips from the show to give the reader an authentic flavor of what the program was like and why it became (and stayed) one of the most popular components of morning radio.

The Don McNeill Breakfast Club was a comfort of home, a memory of cherished moments sitting by the radio with my family. When I heard that a book had been written about the program I had high expectations. I was more impressed than I could have imagined. Not only did I feel a stronger sense of who Don McNeill was, I also gained perspective on American History through radio, which was so perfectly encompassed in The Breakfast Club. For anyone who remembers the lazy mornings by the radio, or for anyone who is interested in American culture and history, this book is a must!

I asked how you spiritually go through a divorce and this book has helped me maintain the path I knew I wanted to follow. A wonderfull look at self and how to recognize and work through the divorce process. How to Identify personality traits, actions that we all do and have happen in relationships that cause difficulties. This book will help you see you and those traits that cause problems. Including real life stories and helpful exercises. This has helped me see a way to be divorced without guilt, or anger. I am a better person for this book and I thank Debbie for her insights! Divorce hurts, but see why and maybe the pain will be a little less.

If you are thinking about ending your marriage, seperated or already divorced, Debbie Ford shines a bright light on the path toward reclaiming your spirit. You can spend years in therapy or sit down and absorb the insights that Debbie offers as she shares candidly and with great passion, the journey to not only heal, but rediscover who you are and where you are headed.

In a quote from Proust Debbie captures how we must shift our vision when confronted with the pain, fear, anger and uncertainty that divorce bestows upon us - "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

Through Ford's new eyes and personal divorce experience, we learn from and make peace with what we are leaving behind and focus on what new vistas and opportunities are opening up for us. She offers 7 spiritual laws for healing and takes us through these stages with examples that we can all relate to. We begin with acceptance and move along through various stages, including forgiveness and accepting responsiblity. We transform this experience into a new future, filled with the power, energy and knowledge we have gathered from this life lesson.

Debbie guides us through this journey with support, warmth and enthusiasm and the reader is left with the vision of unlimited opportunities by seeing tomorrow through "new eyes". I have read many books on divorce, but none as powerful,hopeful and motivating as "Spiritual Divorce". Thank you Ms. Ford for lighting the way for me.

Once I picked this book up, I could not put it down. Every chapter led me to new levels of self acceptance, freedom, forgiveness and hope.

The book takes you on a journey through the seven laws for having a spiritual divorce -- acceptance, surrender, divine guidance, responsibility, choice, forgiveness and creation. Each step along the way to healing is punctuated with down-to-earth exercises, examples, and the author's own compelling story.

I was totally inspired by this book, and by Debbie Ford's work. I've already recommended it to several of my friends. This book will heal the hearts of everyone who reads it, and could ultimately transform the experience of divorce as we know it.

this book helped give me a whole new meaningful perspective on the kennedy assasination..it sifts through all the misinformation, and the same tired trashy expose type books on the kennedy presidency that don't give any meaningful information, i am much more interested in a president's policies economic and otherwise as opposed to his sex life...i highly reccommend that anyone interested in politics, economics, or the kennedy assasination read this book twice and very slowly. gibson lays everything out clearly in an easy to understand way, i highly reccomend this book.

This book is a great read. The subject matter is interesting and thought provoking. I had the privilage of having Prof. Gibson in class. His knowledge is vast and inspiring. His passion has motivated me not only in the college realm but in life itself.

"Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency" is great reading for people who want to move beyond books about the mechanics of the Kennedy assassination. The book helps explain why the "Eastern establishment" and a lot of other influential people, might want to get rid of President Kennedy. Another book, "History Will Not Absolve Us : Orwellian Control, Public Denial, & the Murder of President Kennedy" provides additional pieces of the puzzle by explaining how the American establishment, including leading establishment liberals like Noam Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn, have worked to sell the Warren Commision's 'lone gunman' cover-up. The amazing thing about the Kennedy assassination is that, despite a lot of nonsense coming from the mainstream media, the American people know it wasn't a lone gunman and the killers didn't do us a favor.