Daniel Harris is a clear thinker, a hilarious raconteur, a Ph. D. dropout (and therefore consigned to "the Gulag of the intelligentsia"), a gay man in his forties, a cultural critic, a student of sex and semiotics, literature and media and all things pop. He's his own best source of jokes and - in his latest effort - a thoroughly engaging and an intensely thoughtful autobiographer. The title, the subtitle, the flyleaf and the introduction ("Beginning") posture a disdain for the craft of memoir. Don't you believe it. Harris is great at the art of remembering, of retelling rivetingly well, and - best of all - of making some sense of his life up 'til now. His story as he tells it is by turns sad and serious, wonderfully sensitive, harsh (toward himself) in places and sweetly sympathetic in others. It's also hilarious. It's likely that you'll laugh uncontrollably in places. I tried to read this while eating and nearly choked on my food.

In a dozen intensely personal and readable chapters - among them "Writing," "Dressing," "Laughing," "Speaking and Listening," "Cleaning and Decorating," "Lying," "Reading," and others on sex and sexual preferences and practices, Harris generously hosts a tour - of his past, his present, and himself. He doesn't stint on self-criticism, either. In fact, he pathologizes his often quite harmless behaviors sometimes. Does he not know that hardly any men throw out old T-shirts? He has not talked to wives, for he seems to think there's something abnormal about his masculine habit of saving his worn-out clothes, calling it "my irrational tendency to hoard superannuated garments." You will laugh.

Harris grew up in "a liberal, middle class family," his father an accomplished Jewish academic and then a psychotherapist and his mother " a disaffected Southern Baptist, a country girl." He's appalled at some of his family tree - specifically, the Southern Baptist branch that lynched a black man. When he told his dad he was gay, his father thought it might be curable, and offered his son a home version of electro convulsive therapy. Harris smartly refused.

Sometimes it seems that he is his own worst enemy - but he's also his own best friend. He loves to shop, he can't afford expensive stuff, and his reportage is hilarious. He wants to be alone (needs to - in order to read and to write), and also longs for contact and communion. Life can be hard, and he tells you why. His lifelong best friend, a man named Philip, was killed tragically in Lebanon. He is "obsessed with straight men," and envies what he imagines is their easier lives, free of the fetishes and compulsions that Harris assumes are the ken of gay men. He loves conversation, and he's doubtless very good at it - but it distresses and disappoints him, because it is so inferior to his written words. But talk he must, and he deconstructs his conversational style ("I pour on the plain American accent so unconvincingly that at times my voice cracks like a prepubescent boy's, the mellifluousness of the elegant gay man giving way to the abrupt, hard-boiled delivery of a character out of a Raymond Chandler novel.") - along with dozens of other parts of his life. He writes about sex and his own proclivities, and traverses the complicated terrain of his own desires in intensely personal ways.

These are great autobiographical essays that are history, confession, and successful self-examination. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Harris is a brave and trusting man. In this self-deprecatingly titled book he's trusted his readers with his life. It's an act of faith, and of love. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This is a must for anybody who is interested in this subject. It is a brilliant insight into the life of the commandos of the boer war. Its humerous, candid and always honest and unbiased. It is the best boer war book I have read. Absolutely superb

Daniel Schacter, the expert on memory and the brain and professor at Harvard University, has once again delivered a fascinating volume on the important subject of memory, the brain and belief.

The book is divided into three parts, illustrating its interdisciplinary approach. Part I: Cognitive, Neurological and Pathological Perspectives. Part II: Conscious and Nonconscious Aspects of Memory and Belief: From Social Judgments to Brain Mechanisms. Part II: Memory and Belief in Autobiographical Recall and Autobiography.

The last is of particular interest to the non-scientist interested in ideas of 'self' and the construction of autobiography. The articles in part III include: 'Constructing and Appraising Past Selves' (by Michael Ross and Anne Wilson), 'Memory and Belief in Development' (by Katherine Nelson), 'Autobiography, Identity and the Fictions of Memory' (by Paul John Eakin), and 'Autobiography as Moral Battleground' (by Sissela Bok). There is a conclusion written by Antonio Damasio.

The issue of memory, false memory, autobiography and the self are critical for subjects such as anthropology, sociology, philosophy, history and theology, yet too often thses subjects in the social sciences and humanities completely ignore the findings and theories of science. Here, they are brought together in a format eminently readable to the non-specialist. As this process continues, led by innovative minds such as Schacter, there will no longer be any excuse for scholars to shame themselves in their ignorance.

This is a great collection of practice questions to help you prepare for Parts 1, 2, & 3 of NBEO. Covers all areas including public health & clinicolegal. Human biology section is somewhat easier than the board questions, and the optics section is pretty tough (but therefore pretty similar to the board questions!!). I found this book invaluable, as it is the only one of its kind out there. It provided a way for me to test myself after studying a section. Gets you psyched for the big test!

John of Salisbury (c.1120-1180) was from Wiltshire in deep Wessex, England. He studied under Abelard and was a friend of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. After getting on the wrong side of the Monarchy in England, for which his employer Thomas A Becket was murdered, he became bishop of Chartres the most beautiful cathedral in the world (even now). The Metalogicon describes the whys and wherefores of medieval logic. It makes a boring subject interesting and attractive. It's tone is light, balanced and sensible in an area of thought which is seldom ever that. It is the best introduction to the subject of medieval logic, better than modern attempts at the same thing, which notoriously suffer from being too clever with respect to the past. You don't have to read from beginning to end, you can dip in to the bits that address your questions. See pp.82-4 on the role and status of logic with respect to thinking in general. The authority is rare and still surpasses modern statements on the subject. Check out pp.166-7 on authoritative texts and the relation of past thought to present. No-one has said it better. Check out pp.111-13 on being too clever - still true you academics! His warning to teachers, pp.117-18. His accounts of Aristotle's Categories and Topics, and his introductions Porpyry and Boethius are superlative. An absolute must for anyone teaching or learning about Medieval thought.

An excellent early learning book written in Spanish and English...along with wonderful Disney graphics of your favorite characters, teach your child about different emotions, as they learn basic Spanish/English.

This is the book that everyone who has studied Microbial Physiology and Metabolism, has been waiting for. The book has all the metabolic pathways diagrammed, even the weird ones that are unique to bacteria. There is no other book that has all the pathways diagrammed. The others books available, only give a commentary on the biochemical processes.

This is the finest BizTalk admin's guide that I've seen yet! It's clear, concise, and gets right to the point. It has a great index, nicely laid-out table of contents, and the authors did a great job demonstrating how to start from scratch and build a scalable BizTalk Server messaging bus environment.

Presumming you know something about SQL and NT. This book combined, with MSSQL's ease of use, provides a powerfull combination of escorting someone with limited Data Base Administration knowledge to a running and functioning data base. Each knowledge step from installation to using the installed PUBS data base is described in precise detail. The authors right on. "Bon voyage" By contrast, Oracle Unleashed, from the same publisher is the antithesis of Microsoft SQL Server Unleashed.

Mile Markers: Thirty-One Stops On Your Inner Journey by the Irish priest Daniel J. O'Leary offers the reader thirty-one deftly presented Christian self-help meditations, each specifically designed and intended to bring the reader into a closer union with God and thereby achieve spiritual happiness. Thoughtfully written, offering deep insight into God's love and the wonder of creation, Mile Markers is a spiritually reverent, emotionally touching, highly recommended read -- whether one chooses to browse one meditation a day for a month or peruse them all of them at once.