I was expecting an intelligent, informed checklist with pertinent information about the region's reptile fauna. Instead it reads more like a children's book. Grainy outdated pics and a measly one or two lines of description about each animal. There are many more books on this subject that are more informed and thorough in their approach. Just my opinion though.

An especially useful guide for those who spend a lot of time in the outdoors and are located in the Southwestern USA. The book has color pictures, which makes it easier to identify the animals that are encountered. Also included are prevention tips when dealing with certain animals, and also some emergency methods for the possibily of a snake bite. Overall this is a very good book for identfying snakes, lizards and turtles of the southwest.

I was at first excited to read this book for an objective, comprehensive overview to understanding how some shamanic practices might relate to our modern Western culture. And, at first, Noel seems to deliver, reviewing briefly the writings of first Eliade, and later, Castanada, observing the phenomenon of the latter's widespread influence and the fervor generated by his accounts of mystical encounters. (In fact, Noel's account mentions numerous writings by various authors on soulful topics, and for these references his book is rather valuable.) But by the time I reached the middle of the book, I was already feeling disgruntled by how many pages were devoted to circlularly discussing "fictive power." My disgruntlement turned to suspicion as I entered the second half of the book (which introduces the reader to various post-Jungian philosophers), for here I was, reading a glowing account of Thomas Moore, the same individual whose critical acclaim of the book is printed on the book jacket("Before reading anything else . . . read this book")! Talk about Circular! In fact, all three personal reviews included on the book jacket were written by individuals whose teachings are positively reviewed by Noel in the book itself. So, rather than opening doors to new understanding and broader possibilities, I feel as though the book has tried to lead me into someone else's camp or cloister, one that seems very concerned with self-protection. Is it really from such a position that we should be exploring soulfulness and spirituality?!

The book is a serious attempt to strengthen the connection between imaginal psychology and shamanism. But if we wish to strengthen the practice of what Noel calls an "authentic western shamanism," he leads us in exactly the opposite direction from which we should go. It is presumptuous of Noel to suggest that Merlin should be some kind of spiritual figure for us. He has missed the whole point of universal, organic shamanism. He claims to teach it. More likely he teaches about it. The best point in the book is Noel's thought that we must stop fantasizing about native shamans.

It was sooo Long and boring, and for the first 10-20 pages you had not a clue what was happening.

Hyde wasn't so bad. I thought the story could have been more of a story and less of a correspondence. It could have had more adventures of Hyde and less letters.

Once Isaac Asimov said; "Gentle Reader, give me the chance to pick and choose among the findings of science, accepting this and rejecting that according to my lordly whim, and I will undertake to prove anything you wish proven." (The Stars in their Courses)

By this book, the author did it!

It's full of wrong quotations!!
Please try check out them.
For example, let's compare this book's account about Mr. Maurice Chatelain and his own in his "Our Ancestors Came from Outer Space."

Don't be put off by the rather crude cover and the long title. This book was like an archaeological dig into our past and current ventures of space exploration. We seem to spend a lot of time just accepting what people tell us about our space program and not using our own intellect to question the silliness of the results. But, we have problems because our scientific knowledge is rather limited and controlled. No longer. This book pieces together the puzzle of the UFO dilemna and, most revealingly, the "results" of our explorations. It just so happens that the "results" are opposed to real scientific analysis or even simple common sense. The NASA (also known as "Never A Straight Answer," from the book) directive is revealed as the obfuscation of the real discoveries. If nothing else, it is a slap to the side of the head to wake up and continue to investigate what has really been discovered throughout our solar system. For those who question, this book will be cherished.

Ted Sennett did it in the 1970s and now it is Daniel Bubbeo's turn. For the record, the movie company in question was always known as Warner Bros. not "Brothers." It is a little bit disconcerting when published authors know so little about their choice of material.

The book is well-written and well-researched. It presents entertaining chapters on 15 leading WB actresses from the 30s and 40s. I learned about stars I was previously not familiar with like Nancy Coleman. The book presents interesting information not previously published about many of these stars. I would have liked to see the chapters on each actress be somewhat longer. Some of the more interesting aspects of the actresses' lives could have been more fully developed, especially their private lives as opposed to their film careers. Instead, "snippets" are presented in some cases. I would have liked to see more about the lives of the stars in their later years. However, I understand that the publisher limited the length of the book.

Since reading my first Cornwell book "Postmortem",I have been a Kay Scarpetta fan - reading every book as soon as it comes out. I knew Hornet's Nest was not a Scarpetta novel, but I thought some new characters might not be bad. I liked West and Hammer and was amused with cutie boy Andy. The plot did seem wander a bit.( Now I'm not really sure what the plot was.) I did like the idea of some humor thrown in though and I am sure Cornwell is going to pursue these characters in Southern Cross which I just purchased. You know, I have a feeling PC is trying to let Kay get over the death of her lover, Benton, and also letting their fans get over it too with the introduction of these new characters. So I'll keep reading all of PC's books and hope for a frantic page turner next time. By the way, THE BODY FARM was my favorite.

I don't understand what the problem is with this book. Everyone hates it, for some strange reason. This is a wonderful book. It doesn't have the grainy details of the so-so Kay Scarpetta novels. It is light, and very enjoyable. You don't have to squint in intense concentration as Cornwell describes every little detail of every single thing that her heroine Kay Scarpetta does. You enjoy learning about a bright young "kid" that is a volunter cop and a reporter for the Charlotte Observer. You like hearing about Virginia West, a deputy chief of investiagtions for the police dept. Andy Brazil, the "kid", and West don't exactly hit it off when West is assigned to take Brazil around one night to respond to calls. Brazil screws up big time, popping the trunk while groping for the siren switch. He makes mistakes, and West's readily apparent bitchiness does nothing to help. You despise West for the way she treats Brazil in the beginning, but she grows on you. ! This is a superb novel, Cornwell does a great job with Andy Brazil and Virginia West. The way they slowly begin to have a friendship, and the slowly growing heat between them is well done. I think Cornwell should continue with Brazil and West, the ending sort of left you hanging; the possibility of a sequel readily apparent. So far, that has not happened. Maybe it will, maybe not. Regardless, this is a book to enjoy, and is a very light read compared to her other books. A nice break from the normal, Patricia Cornwell! Good job! Tyler Robbins, 14, from Tacoma, Washington

Cornwell has shown the rest of the vanguard of women mystery writers the way with this one. The parodic gender reversals alone bring stunning clarity to sex-typing in genre fiction, including her own Kay Scarpetta mysteries. Look at young Andy Brazil. He could be any ingenue in a Hollywood film, a mystery, or romance novel, except that he's male. Chief Hammer and Deputy Chief West, names wonderfully parodic (not satiric--read Linda Hutcheon), have the kind of personal magnetism and powerful leverage of the best males in the field, including the new breed represented on TV in NYPD Blue, for example, and in the classics of police procedurals. Cornwell brilliantly teases us with our own trite and formulaic expectations and breaks us free of them while still giving us enough of the familiar field to enjoy the read. The stale device of the single overwhelming crime is undercut by the NYPD Blueish and very realistic episodic, coincidental, and sometimes just plain hilarious events in life, including criminal life. The virtually accidental solving of the main crime shows the texture of a realism that may not sit well with those expecting only escapism in their fiction. Even closure is not easily allowed us here with another crime revealed within the other. This is truly a watershed work for which Cornwell cannot be commended enough. It is always difficult to both find and reach the next step in literary endeavour, perhaps in genre fiction most of all. In a world not ready for "sh'ims", indeed needing to go beyond this love/hate compromise, the relations between gender and power must search for contexts that break down stereotyping and the hates built on this defensive process. I look forward to the next installment in this series, which I trust will continue to challenge these, but also continue to unpack ageism and the turf wars among truth tellers such as mayors, Police Chiefs, and newspaper publishers. No one's truth in this text is safe. The scene in the diner regarding the banana will rapidly become a classic, especially for anyone interested in semiotics, a masterfully twisted microcosm of John Fowles' daring experiment in The Collector. As for the cat, as an owner of 4 mixed breed cats I found Niles very cat-like indeed and not the least out of character

Dr. Laura has nothing educational, wise, funny, original or beautiful to say to children. This book, with its tantrum-throwing, greedy child, its preachy, obviously wealthy mom, and its awful artwork is a waste of paper, shelf space and kids' time. It's quite depressing to walk into a bookstore and see "books" such as these crowding out beautiful new or classic picture books. Unfortunately, it's the kids who really suffer when offerings such as this "book" are what's available to them. Isn't Dr. Laura rich enough already, without trying to cash in on the kids' book world?

I bought this book when my children were younger hoping they would learn that having fits do not work. Instead the child in this book has a fit and is rewarded when his mom gives in and buys ALL the stuffed animals he wants. The message about giving to those less fortunate is totally overshadowed by the fact the mom bought hundreds of dollars worth of stuffed animals to begin with! Is this a reality for any of us???

I think that a lot of people are missing the point of this story. The POINT is that yes he does throw a fit and get all the stuffed animals. HOWEVER he finds that they don't make him as happy as the cat that he has and that MANY THINGS DO NOT BRING HAPPINESS! Sammy (the son) should have listened to mom in the beginning and not thrown a fit. In the end throwing the fit and getting what he wanted (or what he thought he wanted), just made him more miserable.

...P>I don't have a Ph.D. from Harvard either, but I should be getting one next year.

I have had to teach an introductory calculus course at Harvard that follows the "Harvard Calculus" treatment that originated with this book (though the course did not use this book). It was awful. It is no easier to teach this course than it is to learn from it. Students need to learn calculus first *before* applying it to the various fields they will study.

My College Calculus professor uses this book as a suppliment to provide examples for the class use. Everyone hates the problems as they are vague and lack any explanation on how to solve the problem or even where to begin. It appears to me that someone wrote a book simply to create problems that cannot be solved by the book's explanations. Calculus requires a working understanding of the ideas and concepts of the base math before an sort of obscure application should be used. I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless they already have a good understanding of calculus and wish to delve further into the application of the math to the real world. In that case, buy the book. For the other 95% that are just wanting to learn calculus; go buy a different book that teaches you something first.

In my experience with this text, students either love it or hate it. They hate it because it does not offer a brief overview of the topics, like many more popular calculus text books. Instead "Calculus: Single Variable" requires that a student throughly read many examples as it explains rules and laws along the way. Those who love the text do so because the examples offer a firmer understanding of the concepts at hand, instead of just covering enough material to answer the questions at the end of each section. Although this is a very good text book, it definitely requires patience on behalf of the reader, and may not be the book for students who just want to slide by.

This book is terrible, awful, and immoral and if you love Danielle Steel books (don't bother to read this one). My fiancee and I love to read to each other and I got angry/mad after reading this book. I just don't believe that marriage is based on cheating. I think Danielle Steel may have had one to many drinks while writing this book.

This was my second Danielle Steel book after 'Secrets'. Why oh why, does Steel keep repeating herself throughout the book? If I was told Steve and 'Merrie' were happily in love with eachother once, I was told a thousand times. You got your point across Ms. Steel, or did you? See, I found nothing romantic in this tale of adultery. In fact it made me sick when that worm 'Cal' started to make a move on Meredith. While poor Steve was saving lives. The story seemed to centre on Meredith and Cal, and their sorrid, sleezy passion for eachother. As a result I hated the two main characters, and as a result disliked the story as a whole. We never got a chance to know Steve yet I felt more for him that the other two. The book appeared to be redeming itself toward the end when Cal and Merrie split following Steve's last ditch effort to save his marriage. And even better was when Steve has enough and leaves Merridith. Good on ya! But low and behold, Cal worms his way back to Merridith and what happens to our reluctant hero? He get's shot in a Robbery! Have you no heart Ms. Steel? Of course it does not end there, and we're left with the hope that Steve's new work colleague and soul mate 'Anna' can make a go of it, but we can only hope on that part. While we're painfully made aware that the deceitful Merridith will change a lifelong decision and will have kids with Cad. I'm sorry, I meant Cal! I'm sorry I just cannot enjoy a book where I have such a deep dislike for protagonists.

if your an Danielle Steele fan this is right up there with all the other styleized reads. Mostly you can take any story. line and change names, and local, and you have the story.I will give it this much, the story was somewhat different but lets get real, can they all be that dumb??? I do give her E for effort.

I wish some of the readers who are ready to crucify Patricia Cornwell for writing this book would take the time to read over their own reviews. How dare they criticize her writing skills when they can't seem to master the concepts of sentence structure or the use of capitalization and punctuation for a two-sentence review?

I'll admit that I was a little put off by the book at first. The Scarpetta series has gotten rather dreary and boring as of late, so I found myself pleasantly surprised when I realized that the absurd, overdrawn characters and situations were actually her attempt at satire.

I've been surprised at the number of readers who have read the novel and concluded that Cornwell was slamming southerners, the tobacco industry, etc. I felt that she was merely using certain issues to show how political correctness has actually created more problems than it has solved, while more serious issues, such as crime, have gotten out of control.

Also, for the readers who attacked the novel for the atrocious grammar used by Lelia Ehrhart on pages 50-51, try rereading the first sentence on page 50.

In the first diversion which Patricia Cornwell took from my favorite Kay Scarpetta, I was too angry that Cornwell was changing characters that I couldn't be fair about the new characters of Hammer, West and Brazil.

Ultimately, in reflecting for some time on the change, it occurs to me that it's not fair to expect a writer to remain creative if locked into one particular character. I was asking the writer in Patrica Cornwell to lock herself into Scarpetta and get them out to me as fast as I could read them. I realize this is an truly unfair expectation.

Having sorted through this I approached Southern Cross with a very different attitude. This time I was open to the change.

I think the book is a truly excellent one. Unlike the standard formula for a typical suspence/mystery novel, Cornwell has three very strong characters, yet because of the town of Charlotte's closemindedness about "outsiders coming in to run their police department," they are really placed in a no-win situation. Withoout Cornwell pulling some spectacular changes in Charlotte's police force, the story and the characters of Hammer, West and Brazil prove themselves to be highly professional but none is an absolute heroine or hero.

This story is really about crime, people's closeminded attitude toward change and outsiders and most importantly -- it is a brilliant story which captures the the plight of marginalized youth in our society.

We all need to belong! Abraham Maslow places it on his order of needs toward self actualization just above the very basic of the basics -- essentially right after the need to eat and have our other physical needs met. In adolescence, particurly those who fall outside the standard "groups" of acceptable groups, those less popular kids will go to great lengths to belong to something/anything. As a result, they are extremely vulnerable to "outlaw" groups. In Southern Cross, a vulnerable artistic and intelligent kid isn't particularly attractive or a part of a group. He is preyed upon by a small group of lowlifes who consider themselves a gang. They offer him membership -- belongiing. Yet, their intention is one which is not to increase their enrollmeht but to use him in their schemes, thieving and eventually turning to killing. The young man while desperately wanting belong is intelligent enough to realize that belonging comes at too high a price. It costs him his ability to express himself artistically, to attend school where art classes are extremely important to him and where participation in the matching band is a true souce of self esteem for him.

While he goes along for a while, Andy Brazil catches wise to his possible membership in the gang.

In addition to his gang membership, artistic and musical avenues are important to self esteem. He is also a hidden computer wizard who manages to break into the police web site and lock up the data base all over the world. His only intention was to give local police some help in locating where there is gang trouble.

The boy eventually is able to choose the avenues he believes are in his best interest -- his art and music. He comes to understand the fact that belonging's not worth the loss of what is far more productive. If there is a main protagonist, it is this young man -- not Hammer, West and Brazil which would a traditional route (and a safe route for another writer to take so to write on the "safe side".)

Cornwell's storytelling abilites are masterful. The reader experiences highly successful police leaders from Richmond become frustrated and humbled by the "no outsiders wanted" passive aggressive behavior they experience in Carlotte. Yet they keep at it, humbly but notq defeated. The grand change them envisioned is completely unrealitc.

Having worked with hard core delinquent adolescents for five years, I know that not enough is written about why adolescents become involved in "belonging through crimal avenues." As we see crime rates, particularly among kids rise throughout the ountry and conservative policies and financial restraints moving away from "treatment" toward "punishment,"this story is particularly timely. In Cornwell's story, there are many issues to consider. Ultimately, I believe the unexpected progtagonist makes the righ choices and he comes away as a more confident, highly moral young man.

Cornwell has taken a challenging topic with deep social im excellent yet different than usual and tried and true suspense mystery.Yet despite deep thought, social justice iessues, a sensitivity is apparent and a jam-packed social policy issues jammped through the story. Get job Patricia! Keep Hammer, West and Brazil coming. Just don't forget about Kay. She has lots to do yet too!

Unlike many other readers I LOVED this book.

What confuses me is why so many people couldn't figure out this book was meant to be funny. For the love of God, she writes about what a dog is thinking in this book. I don't understand why so many people thought this novel was meant to be read in the same tone of her Scarpetta novels. I did not buy this book expecting to read a Kay Scarpetta type novel . If Ms. Cornwell wanted to write a Scarpetta novel that is what she would have done. She would not have created a new set of characters.

Further, I find it necessary to state the somehow forgotten fact that Ms. Cornwell is a writer of stories. Just because she has created one character that so many people love does not mean she is doomed to spend the rest of her life writing about that one character, or even typecast to only be able to write serial killer driven novels. I was pleasantly surprised that she had this novel (and the series) in her. Not many writers can flawlessly write books that make you want to sleep with your night light on then turn and write a book that makes you laugh out loud.

I apologize if I seem to be bashing previous reviewers because I am not. I'm simply wearied by all of the current Cornwell bashing. It somehow seems to have become the vogue thing to insult Ms. Cornwell and everything she does. I, however, remain a fan of hers and plan to continue buying her books.