Learning how to take your own blood pressure at home has important information. Moreover, the advice in this book to lose weight and reduce sodium in your diet is good. However, lowering sodium without replacing it with potassium, i.e. increasing the ratio of potassium to sodium in the diet, is often futile. People whose diet has a ratio of potassium to sodium over 4 (preferably over 10) almost never get hypertension. By contrast, the average American white has a dietary ratio of 0.6 and the average American black has a dietary ratio of only 0.38.
Unfortunately, the medical profession just can't bring itself to accept that this is the main answer to the plague of hypertension; and of course, the drug companies don't encourage that either.

The idea that psychological stress causes high blood pressure simply doesn't hold up. Provided the dietary ratio of potassium to sodium is above 4, populations with severe stress do not get high blood pressure.

Blacks should consider these simple facts; in rural Africa, blacks almost never get high blood pressure! The part of the world with the LOWEST incidence of both high blood pressure and strokes is West Africa!!! Although this is never mentioned (3 computer searches could not find a reference)in the medical literature, it IS well documented in the anthropology literature. Moreover, I have letters from three medical missionaries telling me their three clinics in Africa did not see a single case of high blood pressure during the last century.

What blacks, and all people, need to learn is how to live WITHOUT high blood pressure. High Blood Pressure is PREVENTABLE and (the medical profession doesn't agree with this) CURABLE since the cause IS known. You can find this information in both my book (The High Blood Pressure Solution) and in Dr. Julian Whitaker's book (Reversing Hypertension).

High Blood Pressure (HBP) is an informative guide to living with
hypertension, the silent killer among African-Americans.
The guide is written in layman's terms and informs the reader of all
aspects of detection, treatment and management. The book allows the
reader an opportunity to learn how to take their own blood pressure
and how to purchase the equipment to monitor one's pressure at home.
HBP clearly outlines the complications from having uncontrolled blood
pressure. It concludes with sections on healthy eating and diet
modifications, stress management and the importance of having a
spiritual foundation in dealing with high blood pressure.

Reed and Hudson have written an easy to read book on a condition that
is treatable. It empowers the reader to become an active part of
their health plan. After reading this book, I made the necessary
calls to have my blood pressure checked.

Reviewed by Robilyn
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

High Blood Pressure: The Black Man and Woman's Guide to Living with Hypertension is a lifesaving guide written by medical professionals James W. Reed (Professor of Medicine and Associate Chair of Medicine for Research, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia) and Hilton M. Hudson (Vice Chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Rockford Health Systems, Rockford, Illinois) especially for the non-specialist general reader. Addressing the problems of high blood pressure among black men and women specifically, High Blood Pressure explains in straightforward, direct, easy-to-understand terms, the causes, complications, and treatments for this widespread health problem. Emphasizing healthy eating and a fitness-conscious lifestyle, as well as stress relief especially for black men and women, High Blood Pressure contains worthy advice applicable for people of all races and is a highly recommended informational resource for all health-conscious readers, but especially those at risk for high blood pressure.

This is an especially instructive book as we head into another major election. Reed Karaim, who has done his time as a journalist on the presidential campaign trail, takes a step back from the action here and offers a literate, important novel that is far greater than the sum of the daily, discordant parts that go into a campaign. This is the world of sound bites, wire dispatches, canned stump speeches and cynical journalists, elevated to the emotional and intellectual level of Greek tragedy. Cliff O'Connell, the reporter-narrator, pursues a potentially career making story, but one that could destroy a worthy candidate and a worthy man. It's a fascinating exploration of ambition, truth, and ethics in the maelstrom, but the real appeal is in Karaim's deft prose. When the idiocies of the daily campaign and its coverage start to get you down, pick up this volume to remember why the process is a noble one, after all.

By the bottom of the first page, I was clearly on for the ride of "If Men Were Angels." I believe Karaim has achieved something truly important: a near-thriller, highly plausible, which makes us readers question our own ethical hierarchies. I also admire this writer's capacity for both indelible images and that "sense of a room" which I recognized repeatedly but could not have put into words myself.

Did George W. Bush do cocaine? Whether you care or not, a presidential campaign once again is becoming a frenzy of speculation and possible scandal over something that may have happened decades earlier in a candidate's personal life. Decisions are made about how much to tell, how much to reveal, how much to hold back. By the candidates, by the reporters who cover them. Their lives can be changed by what they choose, and the nation's life can be affected as well. Want to know what it feels like inside? Read Reed Karaim's book. A compelling and often suspenseful tale, it takes you inside a fictional campaign to watch how these characters of politics and the press dance with one another and around one another and how their histories and values guide their decisions about truth and deceit. One revelation of my own: I am a friend of Karaim's. I am also a political writer, and I know a terrific book when I see one.

Maybe I am a little sceptic, maybe I missed the point of this book but it left me asking more questions than discovering answers. I don't doubt that James had an horrific childhood and I don't doubt that he discovered the Lord.....but can it really all be this simple!! At his very lowest James was picked up in a car by Scott and his wife, who saw it as their mission in life to drive around all day looking for lost souls to save. This was the lowest point in James's life and he was told to accept the Lord and his whole life would change....and it did. From here on anything James wanted he just had to pray, and it happpened. A young man was dying of aids in Kenya, James prayed for him, and he began to get better. James wished to buy a property for his church back home in the USA he submitted an offer of $47000 on a property valued at $700,000+,but before submitting the offer he prayed and would you believe it his offer was accepted. I so much wanted to find something in this book, maybe if I could speak to James I would discover the Lord's magic, but like all sceptic's I have unanswered questions, ok one small boy was cured of aids but what about all the rest in the world? What about all the day to day suffering all around the world? Can it really all be this simple and all be answered and solved in a positive way by saying I believe? I am from Northern Ireland and found the last chapter in this book of particular interest, James makes mention to Clarence and Ruth Coulter in a little town called Tandragee....well it so happens that Clarence is my cousin and a truly great and wonderful Christian he is too. As I said earlier this book left so many unanswered questions in my mind, the only way I could hope to answer them is by meeting James or having a likewise Christian send me an email. I may be a little sceptical but I am open to hope and persuasion.

This book tells the story of James Reed who was raised on the banks of the Arkansas river in west Tulsa, Oklahoma. Involved in crime at an early age, he was imprisoned for car-theft and armed robbery, and was shooting dope at the age of fourteen. As he grew older, he became a well know figure in the gangland underworld, Tulsa Police Department, and in all the prisons in the state of Oklahoma. He tried everything in his search for happiness. Then, at the age of thirty-seven, God intervened in his life and saved him.

This story goes from childhood crime to living through the hard times of Uganda, Africa to involvement with the paramilitaries of Northern Ireland. This story never boggs down and was the most inspirational biography that I have read in recent times.

Although this book contributes little or no previously-unknown information regarding the westward journey and arduous winter in the mountains endured by the members of the Donner Party, it does present the facts in a straightforward and easily-read manner and provides a basic chronology of events. Young readers with a desire to learn about one of American history's most incredible stories of courage and strength will find this a quick read--and, hopefully, will be encouraged to read more about the Donner Party and American historical events. The language found in the source documents, regrettably, has been edited severely--to the point of grammatical accuracy! (I enjoy seeing for myself the horrendous spelling and grammatical mistakes which lend an air of authenticity to many of the other studies of the Donner Party.) The reader should understand that James Reed is shown in a more favorable light than he is in many other Donner books, no doubt, due to the fact that his daughter was the author. Several interesting photographs and illustrations are included, which enhance the appeal of the book. I would certainly recommend "Across the Plains..." to middle school students. I hope it would motivate them to pursue the topic further; the story of the Donner Party is one of the most fascinating in our country's history.

History students are urged to seek primary sources to discover the excitement of digging for clues to the past. Editor Karen Zeinert's skillful weaving together of the journals and letters of members of the Donner party tells their chilling story from their festive departure from Illinois in April, 1846 through the decisions that led to their tragic 6 month winter in the Sierra Nevadas. Students reading to discover if the tales of cannibalism are true will be equally fascinated by descriptions of a buffal

I borrowed this book from the library first. After reading through it , I have decided to purchase it for my father. This book offers some great hints. I like it. I really like how it specifically addresses issues that are of concern to African-American men and their families. It offers suggestions to change your diet and nutrition info. I would like to see some more medical information, but that's just me. For the average person that wants some beginning ideas on how to avoid and treat health problems that plague the Black Community, this book is it.

THE BLACK MAN'S GUIDE TO GOOD HEALTH offers knowledge for good health and a longer life span for African American men. This book is for you, if you love life and have dreams and know that you'll need to keep your good health in order to fulfill them. With the insights that this book provides it is possible to learn how to keep your health, even to live longer. A MUST READ for all African-American men and those who love them!

This is not a bad introductory documentation book, but quite skimpy in the amount of information and examples it contains.
Not sure it is worth buying at that price. I bought it after reading the previous reviews - I think they overrated it!

After reading my colleague's comments I rushed out and purchased this book. I, too, am trained and certified in Information Mapping© and was impressed at how closely the approach in this book is aligned to that method. However, what I like most is the fact that this book can be used as guidance for a wider scope than just documenting software architectures because it shows how to organize your documentation requirements, develop clear documentation and manage the entire process from start to finish.

I also like the clearly articulated and illustrated advice about how to augment text with graphics, and how to select the views and associated graphics to document requirements, specifications and the finished architecture. An example of how this book goes beyond documenting just architectures is a project in which I was engaged two years ago. One of the major deliverables was a set of operations guides. While this is related to architecture with respect to how its used after it's in production, there were no books that fully described how to go about it in a coherent way. Using the advice and techniques in this book I could have greatly improved upon what I did produce. While I cannot change the past, you can be sure that I'll use this book to its fullest the next time I need to write ops guides, especially when it comes to showing component and connector views, and elements and relations.

If you do technical writing either professionally or as a part of your job get this book and keep it nearby. If you read and use the material you're ability to communicate will surely improve, and you'll be able to tailor your documentation to each segment of your audience (business and technical), as well as to clearly communicate information. You'll also learn much about managing the documentation process itself.

Since reading a fascinating document titled "CMU/SEI-2001-TN-010 - Documenting Software Architectures: Organization of Documentation Package" a year ago and discovering that the approximately 20-page document was the basis for a book I have patiently waited, and am delighted with how the book turned out.

First, this book stands out as one of the clearest descriptions of how to not only document architectures, but how to manage the documentation project. Second, this is not a dogmatic prescription for how to document, but instead gives a set of techniques and views that can be used singularly or in combination to produce documentation that meets the needs of all technical and business stakeholders.

When I read the brief predecessor to this book I liked the way different view types and styles were introduced, but was left to my own imagination and creativity to employ them based on scant descriptions. This book rectifies those gaps by providing comprehensive guidance on how to create each view type and when it's most appropriate for inclusion into the documentation project. I was also intrigued by the earlier document because it discussed 'information chunking', which is the basis for a technique in which I'm trained and certified called Information Mapping©. The book expands on the earlier work, and it turns out that the material is not only consistent with Information Mapping© at a high level, but also shares many core principles. To me this is another plus because it will introduce readers who have not benefited from formal Information Mapping© training to powerful and effective document design and development techniques.

Another strong point about this book is the attention paid to managing the documentation process - it's one thing to write clear documentation and quite another to manage a process where many writers contribute to the documentation. I also liked the illustration examples, which epitomize how to effectively portray technical detail, and the discussion of other methods of documenting architecture.

In my opinion this book should become the standard for developing and managing documentation. It belongs on the desk of every technical writer and on the bookshelf of every architect and designer. I waited a year for this book and it was well worth the wait.

The late Bruce Chatwin is regarded as a travel writer, a correct but limited view of his work. This is probably his best book and is only nomimally a travel book. The Songlines describes Chatwin's efforts to understand the central feature of Aboriginal life is Australia. It combines conventional travel narrative with Chatwin's reflections on wandering, nomadism, human nature, and a selection of relevant conversations and paragraphs gleaned from years of reading and traveling. The Songlines examines the clash between hunter-gatherers and industrial civilization, the possible evolution of humans as natural wanderers, and implicitly, the roots of Chatwin's own wanderlust. Chatwin does not announce his ideas but shows them in a series of subtle vignettes; apt quotations, revealing episodes in his travels, thumbnail sketches of conceptions of human evolution. Some of his ideas seem prescient, his suggestion that gathering roots and tubers may have been more important to human evolution than hunting is now being pursued vigorously by anthropologists. Other ideas, such as the crucial role of climate change in Africa at key points of human evolution were popular ideas some years ago and are now controversial. In any case, this is an original, stimulating, and very well written book.

Bruce Chatwin, a self-identified western "nomad", spends some time in Australia, learning about the Aboriginal "songlines." Chatwin is in the personal process of proving his life's thesis which is something along the lines of "Man was meant to be nomadic", or "it is biologically necessary for man to move". As part of the process, he spends some real time in the outback, travelling with the most bizarre humans to places in the Aboriginal land and the Aboriginal mind. The stories are dramatic, funny, and sometimes heartwrenching since they often run across the many reasons that a once beautiful and fascinating culture has become the alcoholic and violent bane of their neighbors' existences. As he relates what he is learning about how these people pass along their lives, their histories, and their environment in the geographically and historically accurate songs, we are shown a world of much greater self-awareness than most westerners can comprehend. The last third of the book is a collection of research and materials Chatwin collected in support of this thesis. Some of this information is a powerful incentive for mankind to get on the move and recognize that our history and our biology suggest this is the only way to live.

Ordinarily, I say it is difficult to single out one book as significantly above others when I've read a steady stream of good ones, but THE SONGLINES belongs in a rarefied class. It has immediately moved into the pantheon of my all time favorites.

THE SONGLINES is a trip to central Australia, to Aboriginal country. In the 1980s, Chatwin found it to be a hardscrabble territory under an unforgiving sun, where the remote, sparse population mostly gets along in corrugated metal shelters. The sociological, political and economic condition of the Aborigines compares to that of the American Indian. Most of the white European locals don't quite seem to know how or why they have been plunked down in this weird, other planet. Hooking up with a savvier group of anthropologists and social workers, Chatwin looks for the songlines of an Aboriginal mythology, sacred paths spun out across the inscrutable terrain, each marked by a song that carries identity and connection to the prime movers at the beginning of time.

Along the way, Chatwin includes portraits of the people he meets, historical notes and readings of anthropology, evolutionary theory, and philosophy. In this far away land, he finds the stimulus that helps him organize a lifetime of readings and memories that come together in a meditation on the human need to travel and to make and share meaning. Looking at the contemporary scene and people, he can see back to the very emergence of humans.

Chatwin casts a spell you do not want to be broken. I suggest that if you do not know much about him, resist that strong impulse to start reading biographical notes and commentary on the book until after you have finished the book. None of what's out there will deny you its excellence; it just might poke a confusing hole in the reality it has created. The book is an exhilaratingly profound experience in the accessible guise of a pleasant, insightful travelogue. Ask why its author considered it fiction after you've read it.

I have read Felson's, Requisites, and Reed and I believe Reed to be the best of the bunch. It approaches chest interpretation in a systematic way and provides good differnetials with sound, yet short explainations. I recommend it in your library.

A very nice systematic approach to chest radiology with good lists of differential diagnosis for many radiographic patterns. Also has some decent questions at the beginning of each chapter. However, the quality of the pictures could definitly be improved as some are very low resolution and make it difficult to find the disease process they are discussing. Should be used as an supplement to another chest radiology book.

As a radiologist,I've rarely seen books that make the understanding of complicated points easier. This is an excellent text for the beginners in chest radiology to get a sense of approach to the problems. Although the classifications such as "Diffuse Coalescent" or "Multifocal Ill Defined Densities" may have low applicability in clinical practice, I still think that there seems no other way to approach to the enigma. One more problem is the difficulty to collect the knowledge about a spesific disease entity from different chapters as the book is based on differential diagnosis. Anyway, the book is worth memorising so there seems to be no problem. Thanks to Dr. Reed and to people who make our paths clean...

Audio Systems Technology Level 1 provides a basic platform for understanding the installation process of audio systems. While the information is well written and easy to understand, as a person with real world knowledge of audio systems, I was expecting more technical information. So if you are a Sound Engineer or DJ with road experience, you might want to start at Level 2. If you are a raw recruit in the audio world, this is a great book. The format is excellent, with quiz questions at the end of each chapter, a chapter on first aid and safety, and information about where to take tests to become a certified Audio Systems Installer. I know I will be purchasing level two and level three.

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Wind in the Wheat" (Arvin's first novel) and I really like legal novels -- two of my favorite authors are John Grisham and William Bernhardt. So this combination seemed like a sure bet for "The Will". And I was not disappointed. The characters are real and fleshed out, especially the main protagonist, Henry Matthews. The plot had some nice twists and some good mysteries that unfolded over the course of the book (beyond the main mystery that it is built around).

One word of caution: This would be a fairly coarse book at times to some folks -- language alone would merit it a PG-13 were it a movie, and there is a half-page (unnecessary, in my opinion) sex scene as well. If neither of those bug you, have at it.

Henry Matthews--ambitious up-and-comer at a large, prestigious Chicago law firm--receives an unexpected call from his hometown of Council Grove, Kansas. The richest man in town, Tyler Crandall, has died, and Henry must go home and execute his will. The Crandalls pretty much own Council Grove, and all assume that the estate will pass to Roger, Tyler's son, and things will continue on as they always have. But to everyone's shock and surprise, Tyler Crandall leaves everything to the Birdman, a crazy, delusional homeless man who has lived in the town park for the last twenty-five years. Now, as the will is contested by the Crandall family, Henry is determined to find out what the connection is between Tyler and the Birdman and why he left him his fortune. And, as he digs into the past, Henry begins to uncover long-hidden secrets and truths that will change this small community forever. Reed Arvin has written a terrific mystery/legal thriller that will put you on the edge of your seat and keep you turning pages to the very end. This novel has it all: a suspenseful, compelling storyline, great characters with strong voices, riveting scenes, a climax that will knock your socks off, and a very satisfying ending. Mr Arvin's writing is true to life, crisp and spare, with a real ear for dialogue. So turn off the phone and lock the door, "The Will" is a winner and a book you will have to read in one sitting.

Henry Matthews--ambitious up-and-comer at a large, prestigious Chicago law firm--receives an unexpected call from his hometown of Council Grove, Kansas. The richest man in town, Tyler Crandall, has died, and Henry must go home and execute his will. The Crandalls pretty much own Council Grove, and all assume that the estate will pass to Roger, Tyler's son, and things will continue on as they always have. But to everyone's shock and surprise, Tyler Crandall leaves everything to the Birdman, a crazy, delusional homeless man who has lived in the town park for the last twenty-five years. Now, as the will is contested by the Crandall family, Henry is determined to find out what the connection is between Tyler and the Birdman and why he left him his fortune. And, as he digs into the past, Henry begins to uncover long-hidden secrets and truths that will change this small community forever. Reed Arvin has written a terrific mystery/legal thriller that will put you on the edge of your seat and keep you turning pages to the very end. This novel has it all: a suspenseful, compelling storyline, great characters with strong voices, riveting scenes, a climax that will knock your socks off, and a very satisfying ending. Mr Arvin's writing is true to life, crisp and spare, with a real ear for dialogue. So turn off the phone and lock the door, "The Will" is a winner and a book you will have to read in one sitting.