Andrey Platonov was right in the middle of revolution. He was one of those who made it happen. And he wrote about what he knew and what he saw. He did not make it big but he was very good.

Words fail me in praising this. Simply put, it is one of the most over-looked, classic texts of the 20th C. Platonov writes in a style that combines a dreamy, surreal sensibility of the world with a hard, trenchant, unflinching look at the characters who inhabit it. My copy of this is dog-eared, full of notes and underlines- aspiring writers take note- Platonov is a writer who is to be studied, as much for his subtlety and lyrical elegance as his tough-skinned presentation of ruined lives; people trying to craft some order and peace from a world, and largely doomed to fail.

I'm being a bit too romantic, too hyperbolic. I probably shouldn't have attempted this. But I want to put my two cents in as concerns this work, because I love it. It is a marvelous book.

This is one of those novels you will return to, repeatedly, like a cure. I can't think of any other work that so profoundly illuminates man's alienation- from self, from others, from nature, from meaning. Every thinking, waking person should own this.

This book is a wonderful text for understanding the development and use of the human voice. While the text is titled Choral Pedagogy, the text can also be useful for Speech Pathologists, Voice Actors or anyone who deals with the voice professionally for a living. The sections by Dr. Smith are clear and concise and she communicates her information to reader with ease. Translating her material to practical application is easy and highly beneficial within a short time Dr. Sataloff's contributions are mainly in the area of the physical construction of the human voice and it is helpful if you already have some background in anatomy to understand his chapters, but anyone with a college level science background should understand it. The illustrations of the human pharynx and the photographs could have been a little clearer, but some of that could have been a result of the publisher's choice to print the book in a smaller than average text size. Overall an excellent text, and one that I hope would become a standard for this area.

This book does not teach you how to conduct a four-pattern or sequence your rehearsal; it does tell you about vocal anatomy, vocal health and pedagogy for the choir director who is a pianist or instrumentalist. The book is also useful for voice teachers and singers. The book contains excellent information on anatomy and physiology of the voice; medical care of disorders; arts medicine and risks (such as the risk of deafness in the left ear of a violinist); voice building; diction; and rehearsal techniques. The book's diagrams and photographs are extremely helpful, and its information is clear, straight-forward, and thorough, yet concise. This book is an extremely useful tool and ought to be on the shelf of every choral teacher.

This is not a book that teaches you how to conduct a four-pattern or sequence your rehearsal; it does teach vocal anatomy, vocal health, and pedagogy, and is especially good for the choral director who is a pianist or instrumentalist. It can also be useful for voice teachers and singers. The book contains information on anatomy and physilogy of the voice; medical care of voice disorders; frequently asked questions about vocal health; different kinds of art medicine and risks (such as the risk of deafness in the left ear of a violinist); voice building; choral diction; and rehearsal techniques. This is an excellent book! Its diagrams and photographs are extremely helpful, and its information is clear, straight-forward, and thorough, yet concise (only 160 pages). This book is an extremely useful tool and ought to be on the shelf of every choral teacher.

The book is written without any speculation. It just tells you "how to do" even for what regarding the deep internal feeling during the tai chi practice. Much more great are the flow charts of the several tai chi skills development. (first that , then that, then that......) .In the initial chapters it looks like a great "Tai Chi Classic" written in modern (and concise) language.
No one word more, no one word less.
The sequence, very well illustrated in the book (with photos, foot diagrams, applications), is Chen's own stile. The footwork shows a Bagua Chuan influence that makes much more interesting and exciting to study the form. In addition there are clear and deep explanations of the applications (movement by movement during all the form description) and the self feeling on executing each posture.
This is really an excellent book. Even though I can not say it is a book for beginners It contains alone almost everything you need to practice and further study Tai Chi Chuan.
I teach Tai Chi and I own a huge amount of Tai Chi books, anyway, if it could happen I got lost in a faraway desert island, that's the Tai Chi book I'd like to have with me.

...Chen Pan-ling was a practical martial artist who had a background in not only Tai Chi (Yang & Wu), but also Hsing Yi and Bagua. The book not only includes clear photos (clearer than in my original Chinese version of this book) and precise descriptions of the proper movements and applications, but also descriptions of how you should feel. This is Tai Chi at it's most practical, not a new-agey easy to learn sequence.

Chen was a pioneer in that he did away with a lot of the superstition and ritual associated with martial arts teachers at the time. His attempt at educated scientific study of this martial art is a welcome addition to the mibrary of the scholarly martial artist.

This book is for those who have heard of, studied, or otherwise know of Chen Pan-Ling. He was mentioned in Robert W. Smith's excellent book, "Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods" as being one of the best Taiji masters of the 20th century. Highly recommended!

This is a book on religious feminism (actual phrase from book). If you are interested in feminism with relation to spirituality, this book is for you. If you are interested in books on the Goddess with regard to mythology, this book is not for you.

This was the book that provided me the first step *out* of Wicca.

This may be a feminist book, but it provides some much-needed empathetic ritual structures for the neo-pagan community. Rite of passage and the eight-holiday wheel are covered - all in a sensual (as a literal raw term) manner. My favorite is the Beltane ritual, in which the participating men and women/wimmin/wombyn treat the phallic maypole and the vaginal earth-hole with respect (read: as if these were their own).

Again, strongly recommended - especially for the neo-pagan community.

With soulful depth of experience, stunning clarity, and well rounded understanding, Ms. Roberts hone ritual to the fine art that our post-modern age requires. For thealogical understanding, ritual inspiration, or feminist critique, this book is useful to novices and advanced practitioners alike. A rich and significant contribution to ritual design, pertinent to any faith.

- Andoea Judith, Ph. D., Priestess and author of "Eastern Body, Western Mind"; "Wheels of Life"; and co-author of "The Sevenfold Journey"

I read this book with my 13 year old daughter. Out loud. She did all the female parts. I did all the male parts. She'd already read most of Max Shulman's books. Sure this one was a little adult. But I'm sure I was more embarrassed than she was!

Then we watched the movie. It's kind of strange watching a movie for the first time when you already know every line before the actors say them!

Anyway, I wouldn't rate this as Shulman's or Smith's best work. I've been told that they didn't get along that well. But it's still worth reading.

Sexist or not, period piece or not, "Tender Trap" is still a lot of fun to read. Max Shulman's work was always about the battle between the sexes, and as that battlefield changed, some of his stuff, inevitably, got left behind enemy lines (That metaphor doesn't actually work, but you know what I mean). Robert Smith also wrote one of my favorite childhood books, "Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing." And I think he and his wife did "The Great Big Messy Book," which was an absolute delight. Hey, Smith Junior-- drop me a note at bigeye@drexel.edu to tell me if I'm right about that.

It's wonderful to see the work of my father, Robert Paul Smith, still in print, and apparently still well-liked.

Obviously, I'm not going to give it less than five stars, but, personally, I see "The Tender Trap" as a kind of period piece, which in 1999 seems as embarrassingly sexist as a Rock Hudson/Doris Day movie. And although it is a well-constructed play, I am surprised that others see it as having more substance than, say, a really first-rate television sitcom...

The movie version is available in video cassette, and, to the best of my recollection (hey, I was eight years old at the time) reasonably faithful to the stage version. With, of course, the addition of the wonderful Sammy Cahn title song, which has probably done as much as anything to keep the play's memory alive.

I would be interested in having the previous reviewer contact me. (I have to wonder whether it's one of Max Shulman's kids...)

Gene Smith's Lee And Grant was a well-written documentation of the lives of these Civil War generals. The way the book was set up kept it interesting and almost fun to read. The format was such that consecutive chapters paralleled each man's life. For instance the first chapter pertained to Lee's father and his childhood while the second chapter was about Grant's Father and childhood. One warning I have to potential readers: this is a great book for those interested in the Civil War and these two men. If one doesn't have any interest in the topic, then this book is not for them. There aren't and underlying driving plots or surprises that make the book suspenseful. This is a historical piece highlighting two great men in our country's history. It's a great book for those who want to read specifically about these two men, not for a reader just looking for a book to read.

I enjoyed this book very much. The contrast between Grant (who led a hard scrabble life, even resorting to selling firewood by the side of the road to make a living) and Lee (perhaps the greatest man of the South) and Grant's triumph was a great story. You get a great introduction to the Civil War, even though there is a focus on the Virginia campaign because this is a biography of these two men, not an overall history of the Civil War. Highly recommended.

I was enthralled by the unique view that this book afforded. I have read many histories of the Civil War from many perspectives. This is the first time that I was introduced to these two pivotal historical figures from the human side. The juxtaposition of each of them to the other was very helpful to put the time and sequences of the war into perspective and give true scale to all that happened.

Self-help is big business. According to Gerald Rosen (1993) as many as 2000 self-help books are published each year. However, only a very few have been evaluated empirically. This sad state of affairs is a poor response to the appeal made by Rosen (1987) that self-help books should first be evaluated empirically before being sold to the general public. Additionally, the little research that has been done on do-it-yourself treatment books sometimes demonstrates major limitations in their usefulness. Yet psychologists continue to develop and market new programs with increasingly exaggerated claims. This is potentially a problem. Especially as psychologists often use self-help books as adjuncts to their clinical practice (Starker, 1988). The good news from research (e.g. Gould & Clum, 1993) is that certain self-help programs can be quite effective. Fairburn’s Binge Eating Disorder treatment (Carter & Fairburn, 1998) and the Albany protocol for Panic Disorder (Barlow & Craske, 1994) are two good examples. In Gould and Clum’s (1993) meta-analysis, fears, depression, headaches, and sleep disturbances were especially amenable to self-help approaches. Sometimes with effect sizes as large as for therapist assisted treatments.

How can busy clinicians keep up with the flood of new self-help books, and know which to recommend? Guilford Press offers a solution. In an attempt to help the clinicians a guide to self-help resources in mental health has been published. It includes ratings and reviews of more than 600 self-help books, autobiographies and popular films. It also includes hundreds of Internet sites, and listings of online support groups. The book addresses 28 prevalent clinical disorders and life challenges – from Schizophrenia, Anxiety and Mood Disorders to Career Development, Stress Management and Relaxation.

To determine the usefulness of the self-help resources a series of national studies have been conducted over the past 7 years. The methodology consisted of a lengthy survey mailed to clinical and counselling psychologists residing throughout the USA. A total of 2,500 psychologists contributed with their expertise and judgement in evaluating the books, movies, and Internet sites. The self-help resources were rated on a 5-point scale (-2 to +2). These data were converted into a one to five star rating (negative ratings were given a dagger). On this basis, 19% of the self-help books were rated as “very helpful” and fortunately only 1% as “very harmful” [e.g. the assertiveness training book Winning Through Intimidation by Ringer (1973) and the weight management book the Beverly Hills Diet by Mazel (1981). Interestingly, many of the books by Scientologist guru L Ron Hubbard are categorized as extremely bad].

When looking more closely at a specific disorder, let us say for example panic disorder, there are some good books that I feel are missing. This is probably because of the rating criteria. In order for a book to be included in this self-help guide the psychologists used as referees had to know about the book beforehand. It was their rating of previously read books that mattered. Hence, if there were good books out there that had not been read by many referees [like the Australian panic disorder workbook by Franklin (1996)], they would automatically receive a lower rating. Thus, a low rating does not necessarily mean that a book is less helpful than a higher rated book – only that it has not reached a wide audience. For example, an excellent book, An End to Panic (Zuercher-White, 1998), previously recommended in a review article (Carlbring, Westling, & Andersson, 2000) was described as “highly regarded by the psychologists in our national studies but not well known, leading to a 3-star rating.” (p. 79). Another thing that disturbed me was that this particular author’s name was misspelled. Instead of Zuercher the surname appeared as Luerchen. No wonder the book was “not well known”! One wonders how many other errors this survey included.

In a perfect world all self-help books would be scrutinized in the same manner as other treatments. However, as a majority of the published books still have not been evaluated, this new guide to self-help is a step in the right direction. Despite questionable inclusion criteria and a few errors I thoroughly recommend this excellent guide to self-help

From books and movies to the Internet, Authoritative Guide to Self-Help Resources in Mental Health provides a strong survey of self-help resources in mental health which reveals the good ones, bad ones, and how general consumers can tell the difference. Five national studies involving over 2,500 mental health professionals lends to a rating of over six hundred titles and films, along with Internet sites evaluated by a clinical psychologist.

This book contains reviews / lists of the best (and worst) of self-help books / movies and internet resources. It has been compiled using surveys of 1000's of mental health professionals and gives essential guidance on which resources are helpful, and which are best left alone.

The book is clearly-written and well laid out - each chapter relates to a specific problem area eg mood disorders, men's issues, abuse, anxiety etc.

I found the recommendations on books particularly helpful - one can immediately determine which are the best books to read on their own specific problem. Clearly, the input of mental health professionals gives a "scientific" basis on recommendations which in turn leads to a systematic process of choosing which resources should be given credence.

Essential reading if you want to build up a collection of serious (i.e. most useful) self-help resources.

I found this book to be a bit of a disappointment. I suppose if you want an over-view of scientific thought on the brain, then this might be interesting. The Dalai Lama mostly asked questions and the scientists spoke about science. Only once did a scientist ask the Dalai Lama a point about Buddhism, and then it was only to set him up to be debunked. The scientists just can't accept any view point that is not materialist. They don't even understand other viewpoints except as superstition. So there is no real dialogue.

Actually, I didn't really expect a dialogue when I bought this. I was hoping for some clarity and insight into Buddhist thoughts on consciousness, using Western terminology. No such luck.

Gave it a few stars because everyone was intelligent and articulate.

This book explains in a very clear and accesible way what are the differents viewpoints between Neuroscience and the Bhuddist religion. It discusses how the mind is conformed, how it learns, and the way it reorganizes itself.

This book is a very important door for the future of the humanity.

Ok, If just half the clubs in this town were to read this book, they would probably stay in business longer than a year. This book is very well thought out and covers alot of little gotcha's in designing a night club. Gotcha's that in my experience most club owners ignore or don't know about, and then wonder why nobody comes to their clubs.
My only critism is that the author could have explained things further if the book had more pages. He summarizes a ton of infomation well to fit in the books alotted length but really on the business side of things, I suspect he could have filled another book altogether.

This book covered much of the same info as in other start-up books for bars/clubs, but definately points you in the right direction for things to think about and consider in owning or starting a nightclub. Aside from the numerous grammatical errors I am pleased with the book. This book should have been proofed better before publishing, I found an error about ever 10 pages (along with some strange wording). I would like to see a bit more on financial price breakdowns and models along with more info on contacts and ways to go about getting the tools/contacts you need. All-in-all this was good brain food for thought.

Excellent book for anybody who hopes to someday open and run their own nightclub or bar. This book talks about what it takes to open a club and run one. Being a bar owner is not as easy as it seems and this one tells you what you need to know. The appendix, with many drink recipes at the end of the book was also very helpful and educational about mixing drinks. This is definitately a must read for anyone in the bar business or hoping to get into it.

i liked chees before this book. Now i just loves the stuff. thanks adam and rob.

I read this book expecting it to be a normal childrens book, short and sweet. I opened the cover and proceeded to read about the types of boys in the world, and although I am of the female gender, this applied to me as well, as I am one that KNOWS there are monsters. At that precise moment, I knew this would be a fabulous book. And it was. I could not put it down. The imagination of Mr Kent is quite vivid and intriguing and reminded me of my own monsters that I battled as a young girl. And although my children are grown I am passing this book along to them to read, for I know that they know about monsters as well!! Bravo to Mr Kent and Mr Smith. I was very pleased and surprised.

My kids and I absolutely love this book!! They haven't been this excited about a book we've read together since Harry Potter. Wonderful story, wonderful characters, wonderful book. I've been looking for other books by Robert Kent and Adam Smith, but so far I haven't found any. My kids and I read part of a book together every night at bed time and usually it takes us several nights to complete a chapter book like this one, but we read "Jim's Monster" straight through in a single night. Every time I'd start to put this book down and tell the kids it was time to go to sleep, my son, Devin, and my daughter, Dana, would lean forward in their beds and beg me not to stop. Usually I tell them no when it gets to be later, but this time I didn't want to stop either, so we kept on reading and we're going to read it again a few nights from now. The pictures are absolutely fantastic, like something Disney might do, and the writing is on par with Stephen King, only for kids. I was somewhat reminded of Roald Dahl, another of my kid's favorite authors. I simply cannot recomend this book enough. However, my other son, Donald, is only five, and I think the book may have been a little too scary for him. He sat near his brother and sister as we read, but I think he may have been too young yet for this story. But Devin is 7 and Dana is 9 and they both loved it. I'm 34 and I loved this book! Do yourself and your kids a favor and order this book right away. And, Mr. Kent, Mr Smith, if perchance you're reading this, you have four new fans here. We can't wait for your next book!!