My daughter,(a registered nurse), gave me a copy of 'Surreal Eternity'. (Incidentally, I am the mother of seven; grandmother of fourteen; and during the window of opportunity between childbirth and grandchildren, I received my bachelors degree in Social Work).
I suggest all my family members read this book. The smooth, articulate way in which Dr. Branfman manages to provide wisdom while covering many pertinent, controversial, and current topics in his short novel is fascinating. Although it is labeled as,'fiction', many situations, places, and anecdotes appear to have historical significance. The smooth transitions from past to present, and from The West Bank to New York are cinema-like. The underlying theme of Surreal Eternity is: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". We can all benefit from hearing this over and over.
My only criticism of Surreal Eternity is that it could have been longer. I look foreword to the movie!

A friend of mine said, 'Read this', and gave me a copy of Surreal Eternity during a recent airline flight. I expected 'just another romance novel'. Surreal Eternity is not that at all. Good thing it was a long enough flight to complete this 200 page novel (I flew to Venice). The 'Golden Rule' of 'Do unto others', was taken to new heights (get it?). The author uses the love between a Jewish woman and a Muslim man as his means to provide us with examples, provide lessons, and cause us to view life through wide-open eyes. Love, hatred, sex, disaster, and predudice are delved into and explored in an interesting and easy-to-read fasion.

I expected Surreal Eternity to be just another love story. Boy, was I mistaking...It was so much more.
I am a Licenced Professional Counselor with a degree in psychology and a Master's degree. My grandfather was Jewish; My grandmother: Catholic.
I found myself totally engulfed in this fine work. Often times, mesmorized by Dr. Branfman's sensitivity. It felt like I was captivated within a movie theatre wathching a docudrama for days.
Dr. Branfman's deep insight into the characters psyches was impressive. His ability to paint an unbiased picture of mankind's extremes in all religious groups, and our potential for both good an evil provides us with lessons to learn and to live by. This book is a 'must read' for all students (and we are all students)particularly those interested in the dynamics of interfaith relationships. In a mere 200 pages, Surreal Eternity manages to cover love, hatred, bigotry, and open-mindedness in an eloquent manner. It has arrived at a time when our world needs and deserves more sensitivity and understanding. If this was his first novel, I can hardly wait for his next. Read it!

This book is one of the core 3 books of the second edition AD&D, and as such it is required material for any dungeon master and very useful reading for beginning players. In the reviews below you can read about several good and bad things with this book, and they are summarized below:

a) content - the book contains the necessary basics for any game - orcs, goblins and the like. It also contains several offbeat monsters ( lammasu, giff) you could spinkle on top of your campaign if you like the sort of thing, and, finally, it contains a few useless super-powerful monsters that are there simply for the "wow factor" , such as the Tarrasque, tanar'ri, and other exotica. Of course by the time you can use those monstrosities you'll own many more volumes detailing the creatures of the multiverse. In any case, once you are past being interested in simple everyday kobolds, you should buy a different version of the manual or some of the annual compendiums.

b) format - I personally have nothing against book format. It's easier to use, it is more permanent in nature, and is much sturdier than the 3-ring binder pages, which were last released a long time ago and will never probably find their way into the mainstream again in the future.

c) usability - as far as I am concerned, the book is usable by the most of us. It could be better, but it is fine as it is, and the information is as expansive as could be published in the book's pages. Language is not too esoteric and the book by itself is fine reading.

Buy it as it is required. Move on later when you want more.

This product is a game necessity for a Dungeon Master(DM) of the Advanced Dundeons & Dragons (AD&D) Role-playing game. I would not recommend it for players whom never DM, it's not necessary, and it provides information players shouldn't have. For DMs the content of the book is excellent. More monsters and creatures than you'll ever need. Each beast is well discribed regarding appearance, habitat, life style, motivations, and several additional facts. I can not recomend this book enough. Anyone who is a DM or intends to be a DM, needs to have this book.

The only draw back of this book is the artwork. Most of it is quite good full color art, but I was hoping for excellence. The artwork isn't bad, but it does not live up to the excellence in the written context. That is the only reason this book receives a 4 star rating instead of a 5.

In summary, if you're a DM, get this book! If you just want read about weird and amazing ceatures, you'll enjoy this book. If you're an AD&D player who is looking to figure out how to beat the creature in your DM's latest adventure, stop trying to cheat.

Have fun and enjoy all the chaos AD&D has to offer. This book helps you do that!

This book is one of the three books that are essential to running a game of AD&D2e(Players' Handbook, Monstrous Manual). It concisely describes all the elements involved in running a fun, exciting campaign for everyone involved. It is also commendable in that it tells you often that the rules outlined are merely guidelines- nay, suggestions, and it encourages you to make your own rules.
One thing I would have liked would be some more actual examples of gameplay, as this would help new DMs to get the feel of the game quickly. But these can be found elsewhere to those who care to look.
Overall, a very useful book. An indispensible resource to any DM.

The recipes are time intensive and many are tasteless. Health food does not deservice the bad rap.

At the recommendation of my grandmother, I purchased this book for help in preparing recipes prepared with soy. I was diagnosed with many allergies and I can no longer eat dairy products, corn, mushrooms, etc. (that's only the beginning, the list goes on!). I knew about tofu but I didn't know what to do with it. Using this book as a guide, I prepared a spinach lasagne following the ingredience for spinach ravoli (pg. 35). It was delicious, if I don't say so myself! I would definitely recommend this cookbook. I like using it as a guide to help with new ideas in food preparation. Bona Petite!

I loved this book. I've been a vegetarian for years, and have had to live with the scorn of my food-snob friends, many of whom wouldn't come to my house for dinner parties. So I cooked a feast of Ginsberg's recipes and impressed them all-finally. The Chinese food is especially tasty, although the biscotti was terrific. I brought it to work and everyone ate it up.

Ever since the early 1960s, when I had a Ghanaian roommate and attended some enormous Nigerian student parties in which the old wooden buildings fairly shook to the beat of highlife records, I have loved African pop music. Whether West African highlife, the Congolese music later known as soukous, Nigerian juju music with "King" Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey, the township jive and mbaqanga of South Africa, or the exciting rhythms and griot style singing of Senegal and Mali, I've been listening all these years. Listening. Not reading. Come to think of it, I really did not know much about the people who made all this music. I picked up BREAKOUT as an antidote to my lack of knowledge, hoping to learn more about the whole African music scene as well.

Gary Stewart obviously likes African pop music and has a wide familiarity with all the records, tapes, and styles that exist, at least in his chosen areas----Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, and Tanzania. His 1992 book is a collection of 14 sketches of individual musicians, compiled by interview or general media sources. Some interviews, for example, those with Olatunji and Fela, are far more interesting and colorful than others which remain very bland and general. Several patterns emerge--the difficulty of getting started in countries where average income is low and instruments are expensive; the difficulty of breaking into the Euro-American markets and music scene. The author's own comments on African pop music or the musicians are missing, as is an organized, overall picture of pop music in West and Central Africa. (The above-mentioned trials and tribulations of being a pop musician in Africa do emerge from the text, albeit in haphazard fashion.) I suppose we must wait for Stewart's second book or turn somewhere else. BREAKOUT remains impenetrable for the average reader who does not already know quite a bit about African music. Stewart snows you under with a huge deluge of names---bands, musicians, studio owners, impresarios, etc.-as well as song and album titles, so much so that at times, the book resembles a catalogue. I discovered that I had a treasure here---when I go shopping for African CDs or tapes, I can use BREAKOUT as a guide. In this way, I would say the book is extremely useful, but to sit down and read from cover to cover, well, maybe 3 stars are enough.

In my opinion James Stewart is one of the greatest actors of his era. I love to watch all of his films, Westerns, Family films, Mystery, etc. I read Fishgalls book with great anticipation for I wanted to know all there is to know about James Stewart. After finishing the book I disappointed my expectations were not met. The first part of the book "Part One: Jim" is my favorite section. Fishgall goes into detail about James family live. The book has a family tree dating back to 1742. However the family tree ends with James. I would have been nice for it to include his wife and children. I did enjoy reading about his parents and his life in Indiana Pa. As I read more of the book I realize the book was more of a filmography that it is a personal biography. The Author goes into painful detail about each movie Jim was in, explaining who wrote it, directed it, produced it, stared or costarred in it and what the critics said of the movie. The book was sparse on it treatment of James personal life. What he did when he was not in a movie. His friends, and family. His joys and pains his reactions to the death of his friend Henry Fonda, his wife and his son. In the last chapter "It's Over" it is very apparent that the author did not know what to write about when Jim was not in a move. He reduced over a decade of Jim's life into six pages. There was nothing about his funeral, who attended, where it was held or where he and his wife were buried. I think Stewart sums up the book himself when he said "I'm not a journalist and I don't like the idea of hiring a 'ghost' or having a live story written by someone other than the person who lived it." I wish James Stewart had written that book.

The Zarahemla Vision is a murder mystery novel that pokes fun of mormons along the way. An unlikely plot of evil businessmen replacing the mormon prophet with a puppet president so they can bulldoze southern Utah. The private detective who keeps busy in a place like Utah where people take their adultery serious, solves the mystery because his duty to his lover, his long lost aunt, and his disbelief in mormonism. As a mormon, I appreciated the nuances and not so subtle digs at our beliefs where non mormons will probably not get it. A quick read that will not shake your testimony.

I did the practice tests for IIS4.0 and there were almost the same as in the Exam Cram. The tests also did not prepare you to take the actual Microsoft exam. I would not recomend buying this book, if the other practice tests are anything like IIS. I returned my copy, so I will not be finding out.

I have been traveling around the world for a while and this is the worst guide book I have ever used. The maps are inadequate. The information is far from complete. The descriptions seem to be more political propaganda than a picture of Central America. This book tells you what to think instead of letting you know what to expect. It took the joy out of traveling and it's lack of information put my safety at risk.

The authors of this book take paragraphs upon paragraphs to say what could be said in a couple of simple sentences.