Perhaps it was the translation (poor quality) or the author's lack of writing and story-telling skills, but her account of what must have been a harrowing experience was not involving because the author's "voice" was totally devoid of emotions and visual descriptions. Her account read as if HAL (from 2001:A Space Odessey) had written it. Or, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein: "There's no THERE there." I gave my copy to my local library.

It is a year since I read this book and it sticks in the mind. In the original French it is gripping and all the stronger for not being written in purple prose - the writer saves her emotion for the the concluding chapters where she realises the extent of the cruelty of the Khmers Rouges and of the deceptions played on her. (She loses her child to malaria - a disease the KR claimed was all but eradicated.) The gradual loss of her illusions is perhaps the real subject of the book. Given that it is the only account we are likely to have from a Westerner of life at the heart of the KR apparat we are as well served as we could hope to be.

I note that the only other person who seems to have read this book describes the writer as a "bourgeois Marxist". I am not sure if this is either accurate or fair: If I recall correctly Ms Picq came from a blue collar background; and any connexion between the KR and the 19th century thinker called Marx is pretty tenuous.

A French citizen marries a Khmer Rouge cadre in France, then follows him through China back to Cambodia after Pol Pot came to power. The only story like this to have yet been told, the author provides insight into the daily routine of fear and insecurity within the world of the Khmer Rouge. One scene describes Ieng Sary giving a speech during which he waved his copies of the "confessions" forced from the regime's "internal enemies" at an interrogation center later known to the world as S-21. Readers who want to know more about S-21 from the perspective one of the few surviving prisoners should read Vann Nath's "Cambodian Prison Portrait". David Chandler's "Voices from S-21" is the definitive work on S-21, the site where thousands of Khmer Rouge cadre were toruted and killed. "Beyond the Horizon" has been published in French, Khmer, and English, and thereby also serves as a great language learning tool for students of things Cambodian. Laurence Picq is indeed fortunate to have escaped both S-21 and the grasp of her twisted and paranoid husband, who also survives. An upcoming book by Richard Linnett, "The Eagle Mutiny", will tell the story of two Americans who died in their bizarre efforts to be accepted as members of the Cambodian revolution. "Beyond the Horizon" is simply remarkable, truth far stranger than any fiction.

The plot line of the story is that the ancient Goblon Pearls are stolen at the parade and it is up to Lily to find out who stole them. I personally thought this book was too short and didn't be very descriptive.

The Case of the Goblin Pearls by Laurence Yep is an exiting, well-written, fast-paced book that draws the reader into an intricate plot. Lily, a 12-year-old Chinese American girl, is drawn into a mystery when her great aunt, a famous old movie star, comes to plan a float in the New Years parade. The Goblin Pearls, famous for their size, are stolen during the New Years parade and it is up to Lily and her great aunt to solve the mystery. Meanwhile, Lily discovers what life can be like for a poor family from China who desperately need money while she makes a new, unexpected friend. I would recommend this book because it is exiting and teaches you about Chinese immigrants. This book gets really exiting when Lily finds one of the pearls that came off the chain. She is in a restaurant and she wanders to the ladies room down a dark hall. No one knows she is there. She has just entered the stall when the lights go out. In the following scene, a mysterious person tries to kidnap her and get back the pearl. In the less fictional aspect, Lily makes friends with an immigrant girl from China. She lives with her mother and siblings. They are very poor and the mother has not been paid for three months. Altogether, this book rounds up excitement, mystery and truth in one. This is why I recommend it. Some people might not agree that the book is very informative about Chinese-American culture. They might think this because the book is mostly a mystery. I still believe though that the book tells a lot about what life is like for poor Chinese immigrants. It also tells about some rich Chinese in America. Not only does the reader learn about Chinese Americans and China Town, but they also learn about different of Chinese that is spoken. So if you enjoy a mystery while learning, this is a great book for you.

While this book is far from being one of Yep's best works, it is a very important book and not a bad read at all. While focusing on the mystery at hand, Yep includes many details and authentic attributes of Chinese American culture. With so few books of varying genre available by minority authors, this is a great one to read.

This is your typical Falcon book. It does give you a good overview of many popular (and a few obscure) hikes in the state -but with info and maps that sometimes are lacking. And of course, the size of NM and its numerous wilderness oppurtunities makes this or any hiking book attempting to cover the whole state rather ambitious. This is a general guide by neccessity.

If you know what area of NM you would like to concentrate your exploring in, I would recommend one of the area specific Falcon guides (Gila, Carlsbad, Aldo Leopold, etc) or a book by a different publisher instead of this overview. These other books offer a lot more detail and don't have to skip popular and obvious localized hikes for a lack of space.

I consider myself adept at reading maps and directions (what guy doesn't think that?) but I found some of the directions and maps in the book to be overly simplified or outdated. (As compared to "100 Hikes in New Mexico" - which is a better generalized guide). I particularly ran into this with the trails described in the White Mt. Wilderness. This also re-taught me that no guide book is no substitute for a good trail map if an extended backpacking trip is planned.

After these critiques of the book, I do have to say it is a strong general guide in many ways that will give you a decent overview of NM hiking oppurtunities. The author's descriptions of trail difficulties are accurate and reasonable and the elevation charts in Falcon guides are very helpful. Aside from the instance mentioned above - the general descriptions of the hikes and the directions to the trailheads tend to be accurate.

This publication was my first purchase on the subject. Laurence Parent gives you a good detailed trail description. The maps though are poor. A problem with most Falcon Guides. For the casual day hiker this book will do, for the explorer, I would look for another book.

I found this book to be very useful.

I particularly liked the start of each hike information- This helps me to decide in a quick second whether I want to read the rest of the information and consider this hike or not. The information includes the level of difficulty, location, attractions, maps to get, and other important information. The maps were very useful in determining starting points and ending points for planning purposes.

I found that the level of difficulty was accurate. This is very important to me because I'm a non hiker to very easy type of hiker.

My only comment would be that many of the pictures didn't add to the text and could have been left out.

Philip K. Dick was a brilliant man who, like many brilliant men, has been posthumously mishandled by editors, biographers, etc. In Pursuit of Valis, I believe, is a further example of this. The editor's introduction is poorly written and riddled with assumptions and errors. The material in the book is choppy and poorly edited. Phil Dick never intended this material to be sold, he never will see any profits on the sale of this book, so who profits from its sale? The editor? His estate? His fans? I don't know. I am sure Sutin is getting his cut. Some of us wish that he would leave Phil Dick alone. But, that aside, if you are going to publish works not written for public consumption, at least do it properly. Surely, the volume could have been edited so as to make the material easier to comprehend? And what of the sloppy printing? Fans of PKD will buy this and enjoy it as they should, because at least we get a glimpse of the man. But at what cost?

Ignore the unfair, flippant comments... Not only is the editor's introduction well-written, but, more importantly, this selection of Dick's Exegesis is absolutely VITAL for anyone who wants a more thorough understanding of his imagination and metaphysical musings. It is not that the book is poorly edited. It is simply that this was never intended for publication. That does not mean that Sutin and the others are a bunch of avaricious oppurtunists... They are not interested in "getting their cut"; they simply want the speculations of an important twentieth-century philosopher to be made available to the reading public. Find some way to get this book...

From the author responsible for "Bladerunner" and "Total Recall" comes this very personal record of schizophrenia, conspiracy and hallucinatory mysticism. The bulk of "Valis" deals with Dick's attempts to understand the teachings of the ancient gnostic Christians - a quest which took on new urgency as Dick came to believe that the Roman Empire was using technology supplied by evil aliens to keep time frozen at 70 A.D. Unforgettable, albeit confusing in parts.

This book is so confusing, everyone in class think it's stupid. Bottom line: He attemps to classify tales when it is an impossible task to do, and criticizes others for trying to do what he can't even do himself.

This is the first work to systematically characterize and describe a corpus of folktales. It includes a list of possible plot twists, in their correct chronological order for any story, and numerous examples from actual Russian fairy tales. This translation in particular reads well and makes a point of not departing from the text's literal meaning in any significant way. I would highly recommend this work for anyone interested in folktales or oral literature in general.

This seminal work is essential for an understanding of structuralist theory and the theory of folklore. It differs from the psychological view of the folktale in its descriptive ability. This theory is based on objective description and sytagmatic conjunction and complementation. Because of that, it is more applicable and flexible than any psychological dissection. Also, two people will reach roughly the same conclusions with this method- something impossible with a psychological approach. This is excellent for anyone interested in attacking the down and dirty working parts of a narrative.

Although this book attempts to set itself in the same colorful "wacky Florida crime" world of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen, it falls totally flat. The idea is kind of nice, a beloved Key West painter goes missing in a storm and is presumed dead. His agent holds a memorial show of his work in an attempt to drive up the price of the posthumous painters work., this results in a canonizing review by a super-influential critic. A little later a Sotheby's auction is arranged and his friends, agent, and others all try and cash in on the painter's new cachet. Meanwhile, he comes back from the dead, throwing a spanner in everyone's plans! So, someone tries to kill him to maintain the value of the art. It's a neat idea, but not particularly well executed. Airplane reading at best.

With Scavenger Reef, Laurence Shames leaves his entertaining crowd of displaced mafia thugs and paints a stunning portrait of a creative life in a real-world (if Kew-West-surreal) context. As a growing fan of the Florida mysteries by Leonard, Hiaasen, Hall, Shames, and others I like to identify what I consider the Key Book by each author, the one you most eagerly recommend. With Leonard it's La Brava. Tourist Season is the Key Book from Carl Hiaasen as is Under Cover of Daylight for James W. Hall. For Laurence Shames I definitely recommend Scavenger Reef. The usual literary portrayal of artists is as hacks, or as painters of alegorical canvases that serve the needs of the novel but which never sound like a painting you'd want to look at. The qualities of Augie Silver's canvases are abstract and radiant, they inform the descriptions of every setting in the book. Within this well-told story of friends and enemies is a startling sense of light and space.

I stumbled upon this author after exhausting myself on James W. Hall and Carl Hiassen. It was arguably the best mystery book I've ever read in which no murder is ever committed! (Don't worry, I didn't give anything away.) Shames' lead character, Augie, is a refreshing change from the genre's typical hard-boiled, prone-to-violence protagonist. And Reuben, the gay servant, is a true hero. A pleasure to read! I'll be looking into more Shames titles.

Someone used the word snippet to describe what is included in this production; it is a good term. So, snippet it is; but what has been included gives no introduction, no explanation, no explication, no nothing. The tape is of different bits of Shakespeare's plays which run rapidly into each other. To get any fair use out of this work the listener needs to sit with a printed copy of the complete works sitting on his or her lap otherwise the whole exercise is meaningless. Shakespeare requires understanding what is being said in context. This tape would be better served if it included a brief introduction regarding which play the snippet came from and how the dialog ties in with the action. Without this information only those who have read all the plays will not be lost. There are not many who can claim that background. So, as a stand-alone audio, for most of us, this tape is a sad waste.

I want buy this produce and i curiositied how it?

I own this on cassette, and hope that it will soon be released on CD.

I play it almost every 3 months or so especially as I search for new audition monologues.
It is a great way to hear various interpretations of speeches, snippets from some of the more less performed plays (Henry VIII and Coriolanus are two examples), and some of the theater's best actors in their finest roles.

Highly recommend

I was pleasantly surprised to see a Teach Yourself Tagalog book was finally offered to the public. Upon opening the book, however, it was clear that the book would not do its job. The authors, for one thing, neglected to write stress marking on the Tagalog words so whoever uses this book and tries to pronounce will end up sounding like a blundering idiot. They had a lot of Tagalog literature at their disposal to help them with their explanations that it appears they didn't use. Whoever buys this book will have to ask a native to write the stress marking on each word so they can really learn to speak the Tagalog language. What a shame they published it in its current state!

This book has a story which starts from their arrival at the airport. You will see dialogs of conversation. I am a local who is very familiar with Tagalog. I bought this for my European wife who wishes to learn. One thing we found is that the translations is around 98% correct. But the format is enough for one to learn the language. The approach is practical. We don't have the accompanying tape and I didn't know it had one as an option. So I would do the talking for my wife to get the proper pronunciation. I don't know how foreigners would read this book but I assume they are likely to get the wrong pronunciation without help. The phrases have no indication how you would pronouce them but I think it might be a distraction.

I found that the best way for a foreigner to learn is to be exposed to it by speaking it and being spoken to in Tagalog, or listening to an actual conversation. If this isn't available to you, then this book is close enough. I assume the tape would be a bonus if you can get it.

You can also join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tagalog-e/ Here you can learn with others how to speak it or write it.

At last! A Tagalog course I can use! And tapes to go with it!

The Tagalog language has been long-neglected by publishers of language materials. This fine course helps make up for the deficiency. The lessons are very well-designed, the explanations of a grammar very different from our own are not difficult to follow, and there is a lot of interesting material about Filipino culture. Also, the tape I purchased with the book is excellent and an invaluable help in picking up the pronunciation.

Much has been made of the lack of accent marking in the text. I for one don't see why accents are not marked in the vocabulary lists for each lesson- that is the usual practice in texts on other languages with unpredictable accentuation- Russian, for instance- so that if the reader forgets the stress in the main body of the text, she can always refer back to the vocabulary. The book does have all entries in the back marked with accents, however it is a nuisance to have to consult the glossary to learn the stress of each new word, if you don't have the tape right at hand. That's a minor fault, however.

And I'm so happy to have a usable Tagalog course at last that I don't even mind.

Having devoured numerous books on mountaineering and exploring, and having found many to be inspiring as well as informative, I began this volume with a similar anticipation. Very quickly, I found myself disappointed, even angry.

The author presents an obsequious paean to a mountain climber - Willi Unsoeld - certainly one of the best (as witnessed by his first ascent - with Tom Hornbein - of the West Ridge of Mt. Everest) in which he fails to critically examine what seem inexplicable lapses of judgment, which ultimately cost the lives of Unsoeld, and others.

Leamer presents Unsoeld as a philosopher, one who uses his beliefs to justify risk-taking, yet the author does not (or cannot) explicate those beliefs in a way that either illuminates or justifies Unsoeld's actions.

The story of his daughter, Nanda Devi, and her death on the mountain after which she was named is poignant but again the author offers only platitudes to explain the incredible obsession of her father for her to reach the summit. Perhaps her death was unavoidable (so few details of her illness are given that we are left to wonder) but absent is a father's (and expedition leader's) concern for her well-being. Equally disturbing - and not addressed by the author - was the endless romanticizing of her death in countless lectures by Unsoeld.

A similar blind acceptance of the "guru" in Unsoeld taking precedence over the responsibilities of the "guide" is evident in the telling of his last climb, a winter ascent of Mt. Ranier with a group of college students who were largely novice climbers. Having climbed Mt. Ranier myself, I fully appreciate the objective dangers (severe weather, avalanches, crevasses) they encountered. What I cannot understand - and which the author makes little effort to explore - is the disregard that Unsoeld appeared to have for those dangers. A philosophy of accepting personal risk to achieve a higher (literally and figuratively) goal seems to have blinded him (and the author) to the utter selfishness of risking the lives of others in pursuit of his egocentric image.

A (relatively) minor criticism: the photographs are of terrible quality and sometimes mis-captioned (e.g. The "Wind River" is actually the Snake River) in Ansel Adam's famous photograph of the Tetons).

This overly fawning biography left a bitter taste: there was much that the author could - and should - have explored in order to truly understand Unsoeld. Leamer's objectivity was left by the wayside, just a few steps up a trail the difficulty of which demanded a far tougher analysis than what we find in this volume.

Legendary mountaineer, Willi Unsoeld, led an extraordinary life. A self styled guru of mountaineering, he was selfish, egotistical, and narcissistic. He was a modern day Peter Pan who just never grew up, with tragic consequences for some who crossed his path.

The author is a devoted admirer of Willi Unsoeld and does not question some of those moments in Willi's life which should be questioned or reflected upon. This is the one criticism of what is otherwise a very interesting, compelling book about a flawed individual who made mountaineering history. His amazing ascent of the West Ridge of Everest to the summit and his subsequent traverse and descent on the South face will live on forever in the annals of mountaineering lore.

Willi Unsoeld was a passionate man for whom mountaineering was life itself. He was positively joyous when atop his beloved mountains. It is something which is to be admired. Yet, Willi had a darker side, as well. It is this apparent dichotomy in Willi's life which makes the book such an interesting read. One of the most tragic episodes in Willi's life involved his beautiful daughter, Nanda Devi, named after the mountain of the same name. She was taken by her father on an ill-fated expedition to that same mountain. It was there that she tragically died and was consigned to the mountain. The cause of her death is not made clear by the book, but what is clear to any discerning reader is that Willi bore some responsibility. He acted as no father would nor as any responsible expedition leader would have under the circumstances.

What made Nanda Devi's death more appalling is that Willi would later romanticize her death in innumerable lectures, exploiting what should have remained private. How he could bring himself to do this is beyond belief. It is no wonder that his wife blamed him for their daughter's death and that this tragedy caused a rift in their marriage.

This self-styled guru needed the constant worship of acolytes in order to thrive. As he aged, he sought the adoration of college students, spouting his parboiled life philosphy on the subject of risk taking. It was this self styled, sophomoric philosophy that drove him to take a group of students up Mount Ranier in the dead of winter, when other, more level heads, argued against it. Would that he had listened. He and the student who died in an avalanche with him might today be alive. Alas, it was not to be.

Peter Pan finally went to Never-Never Land.

I read this book several years ago in hardback, which I loaned to someone who never returned it. When I saw it in a bookstore in paperback, I just had to buy and read it again. Ascent is better than Into Thin Air. It's a fabulous story--not only an adventure classic but a philosophical manifesto, dealing with the whole idea of placing one's life at risk while striving to reach a particular goal. This is one you have to read!

Of the two dozen or so books about trading and technical analysis I have purchased over the last 15 years this book offers by far the least bang for the buck. This book is brief and does not offer anything particularly impressive. In fact, most of the material in it is readily available elsewhere. It is 42 pages and approximately half of those are charts. The charts are not very useful. This book is definitely not worth $1 per page. You will be very disappointed if you purchase this book expecting anything of substance.

I have followed Larry Connors, Linda Raschke, and Jeff Cooper, and now Kevin Haggerty for a couple of years and consider the sum total of their experiences to be invaluable. Connors' give a mere glimpse of his day trading mastery in this book with a few simple strategies. I own this book and use one of the strategies (Torpedoes, actually from Jeff Cooper) from it regularly to scalp a point or two. Their columns on TradingMarkets.com are helpful also. It's like I am working right out of their trading room.

I just received my copy and think the book is great! Connors shares his trade secrets that have made him successful in trading.

His style is simple and easy to apply to your daytrading, but what's even more important is that the systems are profitable.