I read Salvation for Sale while trying to understand why in the world a missionary with whom I was working had such a low opinion of Pat Robertson. Her husband had been murdered in the Children's Home her husband founded and she alleged three of Pat Robertson's Middle Television employees were responsible for instigating her husband's murder. I thought pain was clouding her perception of Pat Robertson, of whom she was highly critical but I had never researched his work, ministry etc. until compelled to do so. That led me to write Call to Courage! a book about my own conclusions. My perceptions are different than Gerald Straub's as mine are Biblical evaluations but they are no less critical. I sympatized with Gerald Straub's struggles to make sense out of his experience. Few things in life are more unsettling than a major spiritual upheavel.

I can add very little to the long review below, and the shorter all-caps review had a good point in that the more moderate and decent religions don't seem to attract many converts.

The main part of the book is the author's attempt to come to grips with his own experience and conversions. However, the paperback edition was released with an update in which the author refuses to mince words about Pat Robertson. The author discovered a recording of Pat Robertson declaiming with relish over the holocaust to come in 1982. The author was outraged not only at Robertson for the speech, but also at himself for having listened to the speech years earlier without noticing anything wrong.

Now, it would be wonderful if more people who listen to talk about apocolypse and mass slaughter with joyous rapture and thrills would suddenly wake up and wonder with horror what they were thinking. Also, note that Robertson is a False Prophet.

I couldn't help but to be moved when I read this book. I was once a conservative Christian, and I cringe when I remember how I once defended people like Robertson. Fortunately, this period of my life was confined to my early teens, and by nineteen I had abandoned my belief in Christianity. I suppose that I now have a "won't get fooled again" attitude towards religion in general and Christianity in particular.

But, as this book shows, it can happen to anyone. The author was once caught in the fundamentalist quagmire. His formerly agnostic wife is apparently still a Robertson employee. Even Bob Dylan became a pulpit-basher for a while. It can truly happen to anyone.

Salvation For Sale allows us to see the inside of Robertson's fundamentalist multimedia empire. As would be expected, Robertson rules his fiefdom with an iron hand and twitching paranoia. Any setback is attributed to the Devil and his satanic henchmen (i.e. liberals). The Bible is the literal word of God and must be obeyed to the letter; unless, of course, you're speaking of those parts about turning the other cheek. Like nearly all of his tele-evangalist contemporaries, Robertson is a militant who sees Satanic conspiracy in everything. And, unlike his religion's namesake, Robertson seems to feel no moral conflict as the financial elite (to which he belongs) hoard the wealth and the poor scrape by. After all, social programs create a dependent society and are the work of the Devil.

Salvation For Sale doesn't dwell entirely on Robertson, however. A good part of the book deals with Straub's own questions and conflicting emotions with his faith and beliefs. He no longer adheres to literal interpretations of the Bible, and he apparently no longer believes in Hell or divine retribution. Like most of us, he accepts that life doesn't consist of black-and-white certainty. It's incredibly confusing and more rewarding if you accept it as such.

Although not in the class of Jane Austen, the earlier writings of Fanny Burney contributed a great deal to the evolution of the novel. No mere romance, Fanny Burney's Evelina gives us a surprisingly modern heroine--modern both in her proto-feminist awareness of the world and in her "mixed" character. Evelina is not a paragon, and Burney's writings are neither mere pleasant fantasies of romance, nor cumbersome stories of impossible virtue. Like Richardson, Fanny Burnery was creating something very new in the 18th century: a psychological novel. Unlike Richardson (whose best-loved novel, Clarissa, has been described--by fans of his, mind you!--as "That long, still book.") Fanny Burney's books withstand the time travel down to our day. Evelina is--thus far, at least!--my favorite of her books.

As part of a group read, I picked up a week late"Evelina" from my local library. I wasn't quite sure whatto expect - certainly this would be no Tom Jones, but it wouldn't be Austen either - however what I found was a pleasant epistolary jaunt through a young girl's first season out. A jaunt, which, although begun a week late was quickly finished two weeks early! Customary to 18th century novels, Evelina's history is somewhat romantic, both her guardian and the hero impossibly good (a refreshing novelty, if a little sappy in places. They were apparently active members in the Mutual Admiration Society), and the secondary characters ridiculously vulgar. As Burney's first novel, the work shows some awkwardness in construction, but is otherwise excellent. Readers of modern romances may find the heros a bit formal, and fans of Jane Austen may find the epistlotary form unbelievable, but both they and lovers of historical fiction would do well to invest in this book, which provides an excellent glance into the end of an era, and one charming heroine's attempt to muddle through it. END

Anyone who loves Jane Austen (and don't we all?) will certainly enjoy Fanny Burney's Evelina. Burney is really a precursor of Austen, but has unfortunately been completely overshadowed by the later novelist. In its time (1778) Evelina was a tremendous hit and shy Fanny Burney a celebrated author overnight. She was invited into the literary circle of Samuel Johnson, became a reluctant lady-in-waiting to Queen Charlotte because of her celebrity and at age 41 married a refugee from the French Revolution, thus becoming Madame D'Arblay (check out her interesting diaries). The subtitle of Evelina (The History of A Young Lady's Entrance into the World) says it all: Evelina is an innocent and naive young girl, who suddenly finds herself in unfamiliar London society, surrounded by suitable and not so suitable suitors and a host of other characters. Lots of misunderstandings and perilous situations block Evelina's road, but don't be surprised to find humour and suspense as well, for the continuing question is of course whether Evelina will survive Society unscathed. Even though the pace of a novel more than 2 centuries old may be a bit slow for some, this is something you get used to soon enough: the novel contains far too much life, fun and social commentary too be dull.

i read several of poppy's books before this, and i enjoyed _drawing blood_ very much. this book, however, is awful. the writing is often very immature and the cover art is so poor that it is laughable. don't waste money buying a book that isn't worth the paper upon which it was printed.

I bought this because I'd read Drawing Blood, Lost Souls, Exquisite Corpse and Wormwood and I loved all of them. I like this one, too, although not as much as the others. Among my favorite stories in this book are Monday's Special and America. The way she always strays back to her previous characters (like in America) at least every once in a while appeals to me. After reading some of the other reviews, I have just one question to ask. Why is the cover of the book so important to everyone? It's the COVER...

Are You Loathsome Tonight is another verdant collection of raw and oozing tales with the ever present scent of eroticism. For this collection we get a greater variety of tales from Brite's mind. I especially liked the introductions to each tale which gives better insight into Brite's writing career. Great characterization, well written plots - a good companion to Wormwood.

This is one of Straub's better works. Instead of horror he focuses on the workings of a family and the relationships of one man. It really made me stop and think about what's important in my life.

Back in his Midwest hometown, Elliot Denmark, a brilliant composer and expatriate, finds himself caught up between the urgent claims of the past and the conflicting, confusingly uncertain demands of art, morality, family, and his own divided emotions. A political issues divides the town; a haunting old love reasserts itself; old and new enemies assail Elliot everywhere he turns; and along with the rest of the country, Elliot must make choices that will define the remainder of his life. Under Venus is a sophisticated, masterfully crafted, and at times unsettling novel that is as original as it is entertaining.

This is one of Straub's better works. It's not horror but it does touch on the emotional horror of relationships and families. It's really well done, one of those plots that makes you stop and think. What's really important in your life?

If you like the author's other books you'll like this one.

These two novels by Steven King (one under his Richard Bachman psuedonym) are based on an interesting idea. Take the same set of characters, and put them into two completely different and totally unrelated stories. Not only are the human characters the same, the evil being they must fight, Tak, is the same in both stories, and both stories involve the town of Desperation, Nevada and the suburb of Wentworth, Ohio to a greater or lesser degree. By unrelated here, I mean one story is not the continuation of the other, it's as if they happen in parallel universes.

In Desperation, the humans are trapped in a small western mining town in Nevada where Tak has taken over and killed off most of the town's residents. Tak has apparently selected a random group of humans to keep alive to be used for it's own purposes, but it is unaware of the fact that one of these humans, a young boy, has a connection to a higher power than itself (i.e. God) which is intent on thwarting it's plans. In the story, King attempts to wrestle with serious theological questions, particularly with the problem of evil and suffering. While not overly profound, the book does have some moral and spiritual depth to it and is surprisingly Christian friendly.

In the Regulators, the creature Tak takes over the mind of a young autistic boy, and then uses images in his mind, gleaned from old western movies and Saturday morning cartoons to terrorize and demolish a suburban Ohio neighborhood. While The Regulators could be seen as a commentary on the effects of popular media and television, there really isn't the same kind of pointed moral and spiritual questioning that is found in Desperation. It's just an entertaining story.

Though I think Desperation is the better of the two books, I enjoyed them both, and found them both to be gripping reads. King really is a good story teller with some interesting ideas, and is also good at creating a sense of place and mood. He is also good at creating interesting, realistic, sympathetic characters. Both stories are pretty violent, especially The Regulators, and some readers may be put off by a fair amount of bad, sometimes sacreligious language and crude subject matter. The stories are still interesting and enjoyable though, and Desperation especially carries a sense of moral weightiness that, for me, helps to define good writing. If you read one and enjoy it, you'll probably want to read the other one as well to see how the different characters fair in both stories.

After reading some of the reviews listed on Amazon I couldn't believe anyone who enjoys Stephen King did not enjoy The Regulators and Desperation. Someone wrote that he showed no imagination by using the same names. It simply showed the genius of his writing. One book was written under Bachmann, the other written by King. Two books written like parallel worlds, mirror images of each other. I couldn't put either one down.

Desperation was the first Stephen King book i read, a few years ago, and since then I've gone on to read `Salems Lot, The Stand, Bag of Bones, and, of course, The Regulators. Although i can't say, like someone already rated, that the plot jumped around so much that you couldn't follow. Desperation was my first King book and i found it very enthraling, and The Regulators simply added to it all! Yes, he uses the same characters and a few more, but there's a different setting, a new "host" for Tak, and an entirely new form of writing involved. If you have not read either of these books, i suggest to start with Desperation, and if you are a fan of King's older works, i am almost certain you won't be disappointed.

This book seems to have too many references & tips that were applicable in Win 98 but are not applicable in Win ME. This results in the problem that you can't tell which of the tips in the book are valid. The book makes numerous references to using TweakUI to enhance some parts of your system, yet TweakUI does not seem to be a part of Win ME as it was with Win 98. TweakUI does not appear in the pre-loaded software on a new PC, nor is it on the backup CD. The book offers many other tips that probably were applicable to Win 98 but do not work in Win ME (or require going thru different screens to get to the correct result). Methinks this book was a quickly modified version of the Win 98 book that was rushed into print to take advantage of a new audience.

Brian Livingston's book was one of about 10 Windows ME books I browsed through recently during a bookstore visit. Although I know my way about Windows (and Linux if you must know the truth), I was discovering a lot of situations with Win ME where I needed more detailed information. I didn't necessarily want one of those tomes with lots of information; I really wanted a more detailed overview of how behavior in Windows ME differs from previous versions of Windows OS. I also wanted to extend ME into a home networking environment.

One problem with many of the Windows ME books is that they are cluttered with legacy information about ISA cards, making cosmetic changes to the desktop, Outlook Express, and net meeting (none of which interests me). What I wanted to know was about USB ports and hardware detection, managing multiple users, setting up a home network, multiple profiles and dual booting with Linux, the ins and outs of system restore, power management troubleshooting, stuff about partitioning and ME boot disks, basic troubleshooting for Direct X games, new hardware support and switches for custom installing ME.

Another problem with many Windows books is that they are stuffed with screenshots and little explanation. Often the bigger books mainly consist of screenshots and a description of the steps, rather than explaining why.

Anyway, the book I ended up buying was Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (with CD-ROM) by Ed Bott. It was rather large and full of a good bit of extraneous parts, but this book covered all these advanced topics relatively well. Also, each chapter ends with excellent blue troubleshooting pages. The documentation and layout is easy to read and logical and full of "information chunks." It's clear that the author is not simply recycling information from his Win 95 or 98 book.

The next book I almost bought was the extremely readable The Unauthorized Guide to Windows Millennium by Paul McFedries. It was a smaller book than the Special Edition book and extremely readable. They covered many interesting topics about how to extend ME, while not dwelling on technicalities unlikely to interest the current batch of users. I liked the networking section, but was surprised that the book talked mainly about power management as it relates to notebooks and not about desktops.

Another very excellent (and big) book was Microsoft Windows Me Millennium Edition Secrets by Brian Livingston and Davis Straub. I think Livingston writes a weekly column on Windows tips, and I found a lot of useful information and tips in this book. The only problem was some of the material seemed dated and from a previous book. And there was an awful lot about Outlook Express, Net Meeting and Internet Explorer, as well as configuring the desktop. The book also contained good information about networking, but I found that the Que Special Edition mentioned above contained less irrelevant material, less screenshots but more useful information. If you want a reference (i.e. a big book), this wouldn't be a bad choice at all. I didn't find the writing for my topics of interest to be particularly helpful or full of depth. Still, a great book.

I also considered Alan Simpson's humongous Microsoft Windows Me Bible, which also wasn't a bad book. Still, I thought there was a lot of filler here. I would have preferred that the author remove chapters on less crucial features that relate more to 98 than to ME. Also, I didn't find it that readable.

Other books I considered were Windows Millennium: The Missing Manual (published by Oreilley). Of course Oreilley books are tops, but this book didn't seem especially noteworthy, and this book went to the other extreme by including very few screenshots. This book is a smaller book and didn't contain enough topics to help me out.

I checked out some more beginner books, including Dan Gookin Teaches Windows Me (The Author Teaches Series)and Mastering Windows Me by Robert Cowart. Not bad, basically a good book for screenshots, but nothing remarkable.

So that's what I gathered in an hour of browsing through ME books. None of these books are bad, and most are quite good, and lord only knows if my opinions would have changed had I read more chapters. But I should say that I have kept the Special Edition book at my side and referred to it quite often and been pleased to find almost everything I was looking for and more. The only lament is that it's more of a reference and less of a "start-to-finish" book, but the binding of this big book is pretty strong, so you may get around to bringing it to the beach some day. Some day.

First, I want to cut the authors some slack. The book arrived at my office only a week after the official release date of Windows ME -- so clearly it had to be produced before the final version of ME was. That it covers ME as well as it does, given the timeframe, is pretty remarkable.

The authors advise readers to use the book as a reference, not to read it from cover to cover like "War and Peace". I hadn't read a Windows book since Win 3.1, so I ignored their advice and read the whole thing, all 1493 pages. It helps me write a better (I hope) review of it, but it also helped in another important way (see below).

The book is, the authors acknowledge, simply the latest iteration of their Windows xx Secrets series. As such, it is much more about Windows than it is about Windows ME -- but remember, of course, that Windows ME is really just an evolutionary release, so it's not like the quantum leap between Win 3.0 and 3.1 or Win 3.1 and Win 95. So it's okay that there is not a whole lot of new stuff about Win ME. The history and the evolution of Windows is there, and that is of considerable value itself, especially if, as I do, you work with Win releases all the way from Win 3.1 to Win ME. A good thing: I caught only three instances in the book where they failed to update from the Win 98 version (you can tell when they start talking about Win 98 as the subject instead of Win ME). That's not easy, and they did it well.

My issues with the book: (1) Microsoft is being funny about Personal Web Server. The book acts like it's present in Win ME. It isn't. There are kludgy ways around this if you need PWS, but they aren't in the book. (2) The index is weak. Realizing that I would need the index in the future, I started adding my own index entries when I was about 40% through the book. I pencilled in 136 additional index entries I thought I might need sometime. (3) There's nothing about the movie editor that I could find -- in fact the multimedia section is very light. (4) Nits: There's a missing URL on page 1193. While they talk about the Euro on page 644, the Euro symbol is called "the international generic currency symbol" on page 1272. The discussion of the Registry assumes more knowledge of .ini files and of config.sys and Msdos.sys than I think most people have today.

Especially in view of the thinness of Microsoft's documentation of Win ME, if you're installing it, you need a book like this one. I expect the book will be improved -- the authors mention the ability to download updates to the CD-ROM e-book that comes with it (I just happen to like paper books).

Very close to five stars, all in all!

I bought this book specifically to read the D. Gabaldon chapter, but found that I enjoyed the entire book. The chapter Diana Gabaldon wrote with her son was a very enjoyable short story. I would recommend this book as a light read - especially for women with sons.

I bought the book specifically to read the Diana Gabaldon chapter, but have found that I have enjoyed the entire book. I would recommend it for light reading, especially to women with sons.

Every once in a while you read a book that absolutly floors you. Mystery, the second book in Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy, does just that. It starts out with an excellent opening, a near death experience to the book's main charechter Tom Passomre, and takes off. Tom comes out of this experience with a strange fascination for death and murder and is confronted by an old man named Lamont who shares his obsession. Together they begin to investigat two murders, one past and one present. What follows is an excellent tale of suspense, deceit, and of course murder.

What makes this novel work so well is how intimatlly Straub understands his charechters. He's not satisfied to leave this excellent story with card board cut out charechters. Instead he breathes life into it and before long they are no longer just people on a page. Instead they are old friends who you come to know very intimatley. For me the main thing that makes charechters work in a novel is dialougue and Straub has no problem with this. He makes every word and emotion believable. He engulfs you into these people's lives and you genuinlly care about everything that happens to them.

I don't dare to give away the end but let me say it will certainly come as a shock to even the most experienced readers of mystery novels. With this book Straub has catapulted himself to the top of my list of favorite author. Here's hoping for many more years of excellent writing just like this from one of today's best but least known authors.

The "hook" with Peter Straub's novel was that a popular horror author has written a book titled "mystery". Had the author changed genres? This was what I wondered in High School when I first picked up the book. I had read Ghost Story (excellent) by Mr. Straub and was intrigued that he would write a book titled "mystery" with no apparent supernatural creatrues or doings found in the pages. But what authors like Peter Straub remind us of is that horror and fear and dread are all psychological in essence and that you can be scared and affected by a book that has no ghosts or no monsters. "Mystery" stands as a perfect novel in my eyes. While Ghost Story may be Straub's best "horror" novel, and one of the best ever I might add, this novel achieves greatness amongst ANY class of fiction. The characters are wonderful. Straub not only makes you love them, namely Tom Pasmore the antagonist and his mentor Lamont Von Heilitz, but he makes you be there WITH them. You long to learn the mysteries of the past. You long to learn the ways of a sleuth. I was right alongside Tom Pasmore in this story. I felt for him, I grieved with him, and I detected with him. Simple as that. The plot sounds simple but is so much more complex. Tom Pasmore, a young boy who is nearly killed in the beginning of the novel, takes up the art of mystery solving. He is fueled by a wonderful, reclusive neighbor who was once a "detective" himself. Tom then applies his knowledge to try and find a killer in the present and ultimately in the past. Mystery is about a young man's journey into adulthood and the hard truths about life. It is about realizing that secrets and untold truths swirl around us every day and that sometimes finding them out can be satisfying and other times dreadful. I left this story with a sadness in my heart. I simply didn;t want to leave the story. Mystery has suspense. Mystery has heartache. Mystery has, of course, a mystery. But what Mystery has most of is heart. It is simply one of the richest and most haunting stories you will ever read. One final note in case you didn't know. Mystery is the middle book of a trilogy that beings with Koko and ends with The Throat. You don't have to read Koko to read Mystery, and vice versa. But you DO have to read them both before reading The Throat. One more thing... The Throat is almost as good as Mystery. Almost.

Let me prefrace this by saying this happens to be my favorite book of all time. That having been said; Peter Staub, like Stephen King, is no Dickens here people. I will not try to compare him to Dickens. What Straubs writes are great characters and even better plot twist. "Mystery," his best work, is about Tom Pasmore a boy who view of the world is changed forever by a near death experience. With a new respect for his life and a fascination with death, Tom Pasmore begins a journey into his small town's past (as well as his own), to solve two murders; one commited in the present and one commited 3 decades ago. It is an amzing story of a boy growing up, finding himself. This is a taught thrilling adventure that I am SURE will become one of your favorite novels.

It's fast fun read that you will not regret.

I am a student and am not impressed with this book at all. It is poorly written and completely unorganized. It is written like a family memoir. I don't think much time was put into the revisions, either. APA writing style guidelines are not followed. I would reccomend that professors not use this book.

I used this text for my Human Development CLEP and I passed it with flying colors. I would recommend it for CLEP review. It does have its faults though, not enough diversity and lacks a variety of actual tests/studies in the field - which showed me a weak spot in my CLEP review.

I had to read this book for Life Span development at the graduate level. Considering this is a topic that I find dry and borring, this book was excellent and I enjoyed reading it.
It covers Biosocial,Cognitive and Psychosocial development for all stages of life leading up to death with lots of charts, discriptions, and a side bar of definition terminology.

Miles Teagarden, the narrator and focal character, in Straub's early "If You Could See Me Now" is one mixed up guy. At times, you have to wonder if he's got all his cookies; but in some ways, that's what makes this book an eerie, if not classic, thriller. Straub is a wonderful writer, and even though at times, he gets too wordy, he sets a very suspenseful mood, and keeps an impending sense of doom permeating the novel.
When Miles returns to the scene of a horrifying "accident" after twenty years, we wonder when and if his beloved Allison will keep the vow she made those many years ago. If you've read a lot of this type of book, you pretty much know what the big revelation will be halfway through the book. Once you find that out, the story loses a little of its punch and the rest of the time, Miles is involved in finding out whodunit, although it's pretty obvious who did! At any rate, the novel moves along rather nicely, but the ending seems somewhat rushed, and the murderer's identity is something that is obscure and not fully fleshed out. Overall, though, if you are a Straub fan, this book fits nicely in your library, although "Ghost Story" and "Floating Dragon" are his best works.
RECOMMENDED.

This is a great story that Straub tells very well and in a rare book, does not "over-write" or become overly wordy, the only fault I can find with Straub's writing.

Straub is a master craftsman and a very good storyteller, but like I said his books sometimes get "wordy". However, here he has not encountered that and writes a great "short novel" about going home and dredging up the past.

This is an easy read and flows smoothly, however Miles is just clueless. He gets in all types of trouble and seems to have no common sense at all. He is not one of Straub's more memorable characters.

Still, two thumbs way way up!!!

The best thing about "If You Could See Me Now" is the eerie, dream-like atmosphere that Straub builds from the very beginning. It contains so many weird, quirky goings-on before any "supernatural" elements are introduced, I kept thinking to myself as I was reading, "No way that just happened!"

The plot surprises are effective, too. Straub baits you along for practically half the book before revealing even ONE of the surprise mysteries. The ending is a good twist, too.

I liked Ghost Story, but this book made me a bona fide Peter Straub fan.