Twenty years ago the corporation was about command and control, clear lines of reporting and firmly defined functions. All the elements were discrete. Nonetheless it was a "complicated" affair. Authors Michael Lissack and Johan Roos contrast that relatively simple state with the contemporary world where companies are faced with endless multifaceted relationships, strategic alliances, cross functional initiatives and customer networks. These interrelationships and interdependencies mean that the new business landscape is not merely complicated, it is "complex", an intricate interweaving of people, organisations, systems and technologies. This complexity needs a new paradigm to understand and deal with it. And that tool, as the title implies, is "a new commons sense". "The old common sense was an understanding of cause and effect in the complicated world of discrete events. The next common sense is a description of cause and effect in a world of interweavings," they write.

This book aims to provide middle and senior mangers with a tool with which to cut through the Gordian knot of modern business complexity. And in theory at least Lissack and Roos succeed. Coherence, they say, is the key. They describe it as a "unified perspective" or the glue that holds the company together. The authors offer a five-point plan for achieving coherence and list 10 simple principles for management interested in applying the new common sense. And they are indeed very common sensical. The first is "Use simple guiding principles", another "Tell stories", a third "Send out scouting parties".

Lissack is an expert in complexity management who teaches business ethics at the Amsterdam School of Management while Roos is Professor of Strategy and General Management at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. They are a pair of very heavy hitters indeed and this well-written and carefully constructed book reflects their depth of knowledge and intellectual rigour. It's a challenging and rewarding read for any one seriously interested in dealing effectively in a rapidly changing world.

"The old common sense was about dealing with the discrete elements of a 'complicated' world. The next common sense is about mastering the 'complex' swirl of events and situations around us through coherence. The old world was a complicated agglomeration of many discrete items. The new world is a complex one of interdependencies and interrelationships...Our purpose in writing this book is to help you to be like Alexander the Great. When confronted with the legendary knot of tangle rope tied by King Gordius, Alexander knew what to do. Faced with the traditional challenge, he accepted without hesitation: the complexity of the knot did not phase him. He drew his sword and cut the Gordian knot with a single, dramatic stroke, thereby ensuring that he would rule all of Asia. Many before Alexander had tried and failed, thinking that the knot was complicated and needed to be untied. Only Alexander saw that a simple action would move through the complexity to a higher plane. Untying your own Gordian knots requires nothing more than common sense - the next common sense...In this book we present 10 scenic vistas on the corporate landscape. All have elements that derive from complexity science but, more importantly, all relate to management. From each vista, you the reader are encouraged to extract simple guiding principles that make sense to you. Creating your own coherent point of view will be the takeaway from reading this book. We hope you enjoy the view!" (pp.1-16).

In this context, throuhout the book Michael Lissack and Johan Roos discuss these 10 scenic vistas as follows:

1- Use simple guiding principles. They write, "where the old common sense was about dealing with local situations and trying to 'sort things out,' the next common sense is about adopting a global viewpoint, allowing interactions to happen, which in turn will drive coherent actions", and list traditional six bad rules that lead to failure:

(1). Treat business as if it were a war fought on a battlefield.

(2). View the corporation as a machine.

(3). Practice management as control.

(4). Treat your employee as children.

(5). To motivate, use fear.

(6). Remember, change is nothing but pain.(more detailed discussion see Chapter 2).

2- Respect mental models, yours and others'. They write, "the next common sense is about creating an organizational context for coherent actions. To create such a context yuo must help the necessary others, i.e. everyone you interact with, in the process of finding meaning and of creating a coherent point of view. Another label for this process is making sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 3).

3- Use landscape metaphors to describe both the environment and processes taking place within it. They write, "landscape images align with today's world - just look at the ascendancy of the landscape motif in numerous book titles, articles, conferences, and media events. Landscapes are part of the next common sense because they provide context we all can relate to. They work much more easily than jargon, and are better descriptors than the game and race metaphors of the old common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 4).

4- Combine and recombine and avoid trying to impress yourself or others with holism. They write, "the beauty of pieces, of building blocks, is that they can be combined and recombined to create new things, new ideas, and new ways of relating and interacting. In a world where wholes are not simply the sum of their parts, it is critical to train ourselves to think about deconstructing and recombining. The philosophers may call this postmodernism-we call it the next common sense" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 5).

5- Recognize your multiple roles, don't hide from them. They write, "we question whether it was ever common sense to insist that the company always comes first, but clearly that has been a norm in big corporations for years. In the next common sense it is critical to allow people to be themselves. Only by acknowledging the many sides of each person can a company hope to obtain maximum benefits from that person over the long run. Most firms recognize this for their CEO - it is time they reconized it for the troops in the trenches" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 6).

6- Create canyons, not canals. They write, "canyons are not about the command-and-control culture of the old common sense - they are about the guiding values of the next common sense. Canyons are an analogy for the guiding viewpoints that managers of interactions need to be effective. Canals are the comparable analogy for the manager of entities who issued commands in an effort to manage outcomes" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 7).

7- Tell stories to allow others the benefit of shared experiences. They write, "stories are about context. The old common sense may have encouraged the use of bullets as a means of avoiding context. The next common sense is about telling stories that are open enough to allow listeners to draw relevant conclusions and authentic enough to convey their context in metaphors" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 8).

8- Send out scouting parties to probe the environment. They write, "the old common sense, which may have justified a closed mind, not-invented-here syndrome, just just does not work in a world of interactions. The next common sense asks what we can learn from the environment. Preparation is the key to attaining advantage" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 9).

9- Post and attend to road signs. They write, "using the next common sense is a matter of recognizing individual contributions and allowing others to leverage them, while combating the tendency of individuals to stake out territory and post 'no trespassing' signs. In a world of interactions, knowledge of opportunities is key to realizing them, and awareness of fences is an awareness of opportunities missed" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 10).

10- Fuel coherence with aligned words. They write, "it was never true that words had only one meaning, but many managers operating from the old common sense sure acted as if they did - the boss's meaning. Reflection on the next common sense reveals an essential truth: the words we use can help to enact the context for our actions. Words that are aligned with values and purpose can assist intended acts; words that are not aligned can act instead to obstruct. Word choice matters" (more detailed discussion see Chapter 11).

On the other hand, Chapter 12 is about creating coherence.As they write, "Chapters 2-11 have given you building blocks for both making sense of things and developing a coherent point of view. Now these building blocks need to be used to construct an action plan. This chapter is about using what you have learned. Five steps are key to realizing the next common sense in any organization".And they describe these steps as follows:

(1). Identify yourself and your goals.

(2). Use the right language.

(3). Create the right context.

(4). Turn people loose and then get out of the way.

(5). Use communication that works.

As argued by them, these five steps are not guarantee of success, but a tool for attaining the skill of a master.

Strongly recommended.

Because of my deep personal interest in using visual thinking tools for opportunity discovery and strategic exploration, I find this book very useful and practical. I particularly like the authors' use of powerful visual metaphors to understand & to master the complexity all around us, and to chart out new strategic directions, whether in business or in life. If you are planning what you want to do with the rest of your life in our constantly changing & uncertain world - or planning the next strategic moves for your company- read this book and use the ideas. The authors' website is also worth exploring.

For readers unfamiliar with the growing Peace Studies Movement this book will provide lucid, challenging and inspiring information for understanding contemporary world conditions. The dialogue format is excellent for both general and academic reader and it contains none of the alienating, arrogant and removed discourse of academe. For the intelligent reader who is interested in the relationship between spiritual health of communities and how the world arrived at the condition it is in today, this is an excellent starting point that will leave you wanting more from both authors.

Two leading figures in international peace studies explore the applications of Buddhism in nonviolent solutions to various forms of conflict. Well presented. Highly recommended for Buddhists as well as students of peace studies. Admirers of Professor Galtung will be delighted.

In this book, "Choose Peace: A Dialogue Between Johan Galtung and Daisaku Ikeda," world-renowned professor of peace studies at the University of Hawaii and founder of the International Peace Research Institute, Dr. Johan Galtung, and Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhist scholar and current president of Soka Gakkai International, the world's largest Buddhist organization, explore the interface between Buddhist philosophy and nonviolent solutions to war and political conflict.

The two scholars share various painful memories of growing up during World War II. Mr. Ikeda suffered illness as well as the loss of his dear older brother who died in combat, adding to the anguish his family sufferred. In Dr. Galtung's case, during the Nazi occupation of his homeland, Norway, Dr. Galtung's father was imprisoned in a concentration camp in retaliation for his resistance activities.

Their shared quest inspires concrete proposals that are directly relevant to conflict resoulution today, including such hot topics as the death penalty, nationalism and regional unification, religious fundamentalism, the proliferation of nuclear arms, and the role of the United Nations in peacekeeping around the world.

"Choose Peace" is presented as a dialogue between these two scholars, and identifies the various sources of violence and unrest, while demonstrating the role of Buddhist philosophy in formulating solutions that will lead to lasting peace.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I provides an excellent overview of location sensitive technologies and services. I particularly liked Chapter 10 ("Pulling it all together"), which provides practical advice on how to build new applications. The chapter on privacy was also extremely useful. I highly recommend this book.

This is the first book I have found that ties together positioning, geocoding, and the user interface. The author has done a tremendous job of being comprehensive, covering everything I could think about. The field varies from the arcane to the mundane, and there are a lot of threads to be tied together - and he manages to do so very well. He does say it is not a programmers cookbook, and I did not expect one. But he has done a guidebook to an industry that seems very fragmented - with this book, you get a good grip about what is fragmented and what is already standardized. The author really penetrates deep into the concepts, drilling down into position-service APIs, geocoding languages, and privacy aspects. Sometimes, he even manages to make the stuff funny, and it is readable all the time. There are a lot of tricky things here, and as a developer, you had better have a clue about which traps there are to avoid. So far, cost seems to be the biggest problem for deployment - GPS is too [costly], mobile phone networks do not offer this as a service (which they could, and this is very well covered in the book).
It is a five-star in my view.

This guy really took on a big area - and you get the impression it is still very much an area being worked on. There seems to be a lot of hot air and very proprietary solutions in the field, but not in the book. He concentrates on standards, since he like me realizes that the proprietary standards will not go anywhere. None of them can become big enough.

He talks about positioning systems, APIs, how to add geocodes using the Geographic Markup Language - really useful. The only things I missed were some more examples from real services. But he does say that since many use text messages phones, and almost all interfaces are proprietary, it is hard to talk about without being extremely specific. There could be more about how to use GPS on PDAs, though, but I guess there are not actually that many services out there.

The book really digs down into the subject (there is even a chapter on privacy), and I found it extremely useful. Lots of stuff there I did not know before. There could be more software on the CD, although there are pointers to lots of it. So I got it anyway. Good buy.

so hilarious, so poignant, so daring, and so dense - teeming with life - the characters speaking their characterization - and such beautiful characters - and so wacko

Many find Ibsen difficult to understand. I certainly did. However, by reading The Wild Duck, I was introduced to an entire new world of symbolism and creative writing. Like the master he was, Ibsen paints a portrait of a family, representing all of us, living on a lie. Cruelty in our midst, innocent victimes and pragmatists losing to the vindictive, it's all there. The touches of comedy and tragedy just increase the impression that it does concern us, that really, he's looked into our lives and seen our lies, although hopefully in a less extreme version. And don't we all know a Hedvig, a Gina, a Hjalmar and a Gregers? Maybe there's something of the all in all of us... The book sucks you in, creeps under your skin and stays there, along with the horror, the anger and the sympathy you feel while reading. In my opinion, one of the best examples of Ibsen's less romantic period of writing.

Ibsen's philosophical "message" in this play disturbs me. I don't think I agree with Dr. Relling that each of us needs his own brand of self-deception to cope with life. Certainly Hialmar Ekdal is content enough, and hilariously funny as an lazy fool who thinks he's a creative genius in photograhy, a breadwinner to his wife and daughter, and a martyr to his father's scandalous past. Alas, his friend Gregers Werl points the way to the truth, that Hialmar is deceived about everything in his life. It would all be comical but for the fact that Hialmar's daugher Hedvig, who is probably not his daugther at all, shoots herself as proof of her love for Hialmar. So, Ibsen seems to say, here the truth has cost a young girl's life, an unbearable tragedy but for the fact that she was going blind. Well, no doubt there is cost in knowing the truth about oneself and about others, no doubt there are things we prefer not to know, and no doubt there are people like Hialmar who are impervious to truth. But there are also people like Hialmar's wife Gina, and Dr. Relling himself, who know the truth and who hold up nobly and well. For at least these, I think Ibsen should recommend truth in large doses, and perhaps he does.

Gallant combines experience, statistics, and photography to complete a book that gives a wealth of information on the three breeds of Schnauzers. Anyone who wants to truly know about the Schnauzer SHOULD read this book.

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in Schnauzers. Mr. Gallant has been a breeder for over 25 years in the Netherlands and currently in South Africa. Excellent information regarding temperament, grooming, training and pedigrees. The section on the Giant Schnauzer is comprehensive and accurate. I recommend this book to all who purchase a Schnauzer.

This is the first book about schnauzers that I've ever read that combines European and American schnauzers in one book. There are lots of pictures of both US champions and European champions. Mr. Gallant also writes very well about temperment. I really recommend this book to every one who considers getting a schnauzer.

I found this text to be an overall excellent compilation of many different adaptive techniques. If you are looking for a text to contain proofs versus 'justifications', then this book isn't for you (steps are skipped to emphasize the result). However, if you implement the algorithms, you will get the results as stated. The book states up front that it is limited to SISO. However, in the references at the end of a chapter, you will find MIMO references (IEEE pubs, etc). I've enjoyed the book, and I'm keeping it.

This book is easy to understand compared to other adaptive control texts. The examples are interwoven with the text. The theoretical complexity of adaptive control is contained in a few chapters and can be visited after some experience with the practical aspects have been obtained.

A professor of mine told me that AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE is not a very good play, so I read it myself to find out...and I disagree with my professor! I think AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE is a powerful play on the timeless theme of the individual's relation to society. The "mob scene" in Act IV is a particularly intense piece of dramatic writing that reminded me of the "trial scenes" in such later, American plays as THE CRUCIBLE and INHERIT THE WIND. Several years ago I saw an outstanding local production of THE CRUCIBLE; I would love to see AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE onstage as well.
THE WILD DUCK, however, is my favorite play by Ibsen; I definitely agree with those critics who say that it is his masterpiece. I have read it three or four times, and each time I am amazed at Ibsen's skill. The play is a painful, poignant exploration of lost innocence, embodied in the character of Hedvig, a young girl on the verge of womanhood. If I could see only one Ibsen play onstage, it would be this one. In fact, I'd love to direct it myself someday!

While Ibsen's other two plays in this volume are great, neither can come close to the genius of, An Enemy of the People. Dr. Stockmann's battle for truth against the self-interested masses is perhaps the most agonizingly wonderful exploration into truth and individuality. Ibsen is a master.

James McFarlane's and Jens Arup's translations of Ibsen have long been classics and are arguably the best. Although they were published in England almost forty years ago, they still sound remarkably fresh and will be in print for many years to come.

In "A Doll's House" (1879), Ibsen casts us into the world of Nora Helmer, a young Norwegian housewife and Nordic Madame Bovary. Highlighting the restricted position of women in male-dominated society, the play sparked such an uproar in Scandinavia when it appeared that "many a social invitation during that winter bore the words: 'You are requested not to mention Ibsen's Doll's House!'" In fact, Hedwig Niemann-Raabe, the actress who was to play Nora on tour in Germany, was so appalled at the ending of this play -- at this female "monster" -- that she demanded Ibsen write an alternative one in German, which he did (a "barbaric outrage", in his words). McFarlane has appended this German-language ending (and a translation in English).

Based on the theme, "The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children," "Ghosts" (1881) is one of Ibsen's most riveting plays. Like "A Doll's House", it, too, was denounced on its début ("crapulous stuff", "an open drain", one London reviewer called it -- certainly a Victorian exaggeration). As in most of his plays, Ibsen probes the hypocrisies of patriarchal society, which he deems to be rotten at its core, and stultifying provincial life ("Doesn't the sun ever shine here?"). Typically, he also casts women in a favorable light.

"A Doll's House" and "Ghosts" established Ibsen's reputation as one of the finest playwrights in Europe, but his next two plays -- "Hedda Gabler" (1890) and "The Master Builder" (1892) -- gave him undisputed international fame. As McFarlane points out, the 1890s "were the years when the publication of a new Ibsen play sent profound cultural reverberations throughout Europe and the world." "Hedda Gabler" marks Ibsen's shift away from highly controversial dramas primarily concerned with social and sexual injustice to "domestic" plays that addressed the struggle of individuals to control each other, people who "want to control the world, but cannot control [themselves]." "Hedda Gabler" is a thoroughly electrifying drama about a married woman's devouring sense of decay and confinement. "The Master Builder", which Ibsen coupled with "Hedda Gabler", is his riveting look into sexual potency and the domination of youth by age.

These plays are not as dark and dirty as they might seem. Whatever reviewers may have said about them when they came out and whatever gloomy stuff psychiatrists have written about them since, if you're at all familiar with prime-time television, they won't offend you -- in fact, you probably wont even lift an eyebrow. Still, I found myself glued to them for hours and I've read them before. Find a copy for your shelf!

Actually, I've only read two of these plays before but I did
want to list the names of the four included in this volume:

A Doll's House;
Ghosts;
Hedda Gabler;
The Master Builder.

Masterful social drama (to sound like a back-of-the-book blurb).
Seriously though, Ibsen's plays are wonderful.

Richly eclectic, Macrohistory and Macrohistorians is an indispensable addition to the historical, sociological, peace and futures literature. It invites dialogue on our ways of knowing about social change, historical dynamics and violent and non-violent futures. Drawing on the writings of macro or big-picture histories, it offers fascinating insights about various civilizational traditions and theorizing about social change processes. It highlights the limitations of Western-centric claims to correctly know the patterns of history whilst raising the challenge of moving beyond hard deterministic thinking.

Macrohistory is the study of history itself. While the historian tries to understand events and processes in a chronological order, the macrohistorian stands back and tries to find a pattern in the histories of civilizations. Macrohistory is not a summary of histories; nor is it a vast collection of detailed histories of countries, periods or civilizations. It is an abstraction from such histories. Its focus is on the way civilizational units behave over time. As such, it is a challenging, deeply philosophical and, of course, theory-ridden enterprise. Indeed, for those with a bias for empirical evidence, many of the abstract laws or patterns detected by macrohistorians would not be valid because they refer to the future which, they would reason, need not be conditioned in ways the macrohistorian predicts. And yet, despite these limitations, some of the world's most original minds have turned to macrohistorical theorising. Johan Galtung and Sohail Inayatullah, both well known scholars in many fields, have now brought together twenty important macrohistorians in this book. The selected macrohistorians are as follows: Ssu-Ma Ch'ien (145-190? B.C) Augustine (354-430); Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406); Giambattista Vico (1668-1744); Adam Smith (1723-1790); Hegel (1770-1831); Auguste Comte (1798-1857); Karl Marx (1818-1883); Spencer (1820-1903); Pareto (1848-1923); Weber (1864-1920); Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925); Spengler (1880-1936); Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955); Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968); Toynbee (1889-1975); Gramsci (1891-1937); P. Rainjan Sarkar (1921-1990) Riane Eisler (b.1931) and James Lovelock. `It is not possible even to give a brief summary of the major theories of these macrohistorians in this review. The book, however, has a section on each comprising a brief biographical account followed by the major theories. The editors' real interest is in the relevance of these theories to the human condition; to the future of human beings. Thus, chapters 3 to 6, half of the book, is about comparison of the grand theories of the macrohistorians and trying to find out what insights they offer in the human condition. The most fascinating aspect of these grand theories is that they offer a pattern of movement through time which, in spatial terms, takes different forms: of a straight line (linear); curves (cyclical); semi-circle (arc) and steps (ascent or progress) etc. For instance, Ssu-Ma Ch'ien, the Chinese thinker, taught that historical change is a cyclical succession of eras in an order of growth and decay. The decay is a consequence of loss of virtue (which we would probably translate as legitimacy). Ibn Khaldun, the philosopher of Tunis, also presents a cyclical theory but one in which asabiya - togetherness, in-group feeling, solidarity, ethnicity - plays a great role. A primitive group, like a Bedouin group, has asabiya and conquers decadent urban groups with less asabiya. Khaldun has contemporary relevance because ethnicity is one of the most important concerns nowadays. Another imporant concern is modernity. At the centre of the notion of modernity is the idea of progress. Hegel, Marx, Comte, Spencer, Weber and Toynbee have all presented theories which contributed to the world view which we associate with modernity. Hegel's idea of the spirit working out 'through a dialectic resolution of theses and antitheses' is central to Marx's view of this process resulting in the establishment of communism. Comte's three stages of history leading to positive knowledge and Spencer's general law of evolution have all contributed to the idea that progress is the destiny of mankind. And, since all these theories were created in Europe, the unexpressed assumption among Western people was that it was their destiny. Spengler was the only major thinker to suggest that each culture has a life cycle and that Western civilization will not progress or dominate forever. While on the subject of cultures it is useful to read Sorokin's typology of cultures. He mentions thirteen types of cultural mentalities of which the Ideational and Sensate are the most important. Western culture, then, is sensate. Weber explains why it may be so. His concept of the rationalisation of world views and social relations leading to disenchantment, explains modernity and its profit-and-loss utilitarianism better than most other theories. Toynbee added to this the idea that elites exploit their own working classes, the working classes of the periphery and nature. This, then, explains the tension at the centre of modernity - it is not sustainable. From this we can go on to our own theories about how elites can create policies which can enable them to sustain their lifestyles longer. In a sense, post-modernists contribute to this ongoing intellectual process. There are, of course, outright rejections of capitalism - to which the thinking of Adam Smith is relevant - of which Sarkar, Raine Eisler and Lovelock are exponents. Sarkar, an Indian philosopher, tells us that historical movement takes place through struggle with the environment, ideas and the attraction of the Great. These struggles take the form of varna, or socio-psychological stages of history. Eisler, a feminist, includes women in her understanding of history. Moreover, she emphasizes the emergence of partnership rather than domination in human relations. Lovelock tells us that the earth, Gaia, is a living ecosystem which tries to accommodate changes so as to enable life to go on. But whether this can go on at unprecedented levels and degrees of change is questionable. The focus of the book is not only the history of ideas but comparison of ideas. Another focus, this time utilitarian rather than purely intellectual, is that of the future. The authors are cautious about speculating on the future. However, their last words can be taken as useful advice:

And yet there is something absolute about trying to remove unnecessary suffering (negative peace), to enhance well-being (positive peace and development) and to make peace and development sustainable. More than the positive advice from macrohistorians, their warnings of what can go wrong should be taken seriously (p.244).

Sohail Inayatullah and Johan Galtung have done us a great service that they have produced a book which summarizes knowledge of some of the most important ideas of the world's greatest thinkers in one volume. If the book is ignored it will be unfortunate for us.

Macrohistory and Macrohistorians is a rich exploration of patterns in history through the works of twenty macrohistorians from a variety of cultures and eras. The book is particularly valuable for the way it synthesizes the contributions of each and includes interpretative chapters that explore their significance. This is a coherent and rare guide to big picture thinking and hence essential groundwork to underpin the long view ahead. A magnificent achievement

Johann Paulik looks young, boyish, and innocent. If you've seen him in film, you know he's young and boyish. These beautiful photographs capture his zest and playfulness and the twinkle in his eyes in erotic, natural, nude poses, some with fellow Bon Ami actors. There are only good angles for this young man, and these pictures show all of him in all of them!

This book excels itself, both as an excellent example of photographs of an extremely sexy model and also as an example of the quality of these Editon Euros imprints.

I imagine that most guys will have seen Johan at some time, principally in the Bel Ami videos which are themselves outstanding. Most of the images are of Johan, although there are some of him with other Bel Ami boys. How they find these beauties is a mystery. As always, Johan just exudes "sex" from every page. He and the others seem to truly enjoy their modelling and that sense is captured in every photograph.

I would draw your attention to Howard Roffman's book of photos entitled "Johan", which let us glimpse this 'wunderkind' some years later in his life, and you can see his body becoming slightly more rounded and adult - much more sexy in my view.

There is almost a "Hamilton-esque" style to many of these pictures - not in the poses, but in the feel, the lighting etc. They could almost be 'misty'.

Despite the colour (I prefer B&W) this book makes a welcome entry onto my bookshelves.

It's really difficult to NOT like this book! Johan Paulik serves up some lovely images of himself, and then signs the last page "Love, Johan." One of the many things I like about Bel Ami is the huge amount of affection these guys show for one another, something which can be totally absent from American gay material ("not butch enough").

Enjoy!