This novel begins with a moving prologue in which Ian describes the death of his lover, Trevor, Ian's life partner who has died of AIDS. The devastating impact of Trevor's death leaves middle-aged Ian empty, no longer willing to love another, and totally devoted to his career as a repertory actor. Will he ever be able to love again? Well, several years pass, and Ian finds himself drawn to a beautiful young actor from Texas, named Jimmy, who's playing Ariel in the company's production of "The Tempest". Jimmy falls for Ian as well, and slowly works his way inside the walls of Ian's heart. But on a visit home to Texas, tragedy strikes, as Jimmy is the victim of a hate crime. Ian once again finds himself the survivor after Jimmy's death. Will he be able to rebuild his life again? Or will this be too much for him to overcome? Ian flies to Texas for the funeral and the second part of the novel begins revolving around the trial of Jimmy's killers. Will justice be served? And will Ian be able to show forgiveness?

I think the strength of the novel is placed on the second part of the book. The relationship Ian develops with Jimmy's grandmother is beautifully told, and the strength, love and friendship they discover in each other is truly heartwarming. Taylor's taken on two hot topics of the last twenty years in gay politics, AIDS and hate crimes, and has done a remarkable job with them. Yes, it's a take on the Matthew Shepard story, and no one is denying that, and this story could never compare to the tragedy of Matthew's death. However, the more these tragic hate crime stories are told, in whatever form, credit should be given to whoever gets the message across of how wrong and hateful these senseless attacks are. This is a well-written story about love, loss, and the desire of the human spirit to survive.

Joe Hanssen

All We Have Is Now is Robert Taylor's latest novel about a lonely actor who finds love for the second time in his life but loses his lover after he is brutally murdered in a hate crime.
... 
The murder sets off a complicated tapestry of events in the small Texas town where Jimmy grew up. A media circus trial ensues, discrimination and gay bias unravels, and Jimmy's parents finally come to terms with their son's homosexuality with the help of Jimmy's grandmother, Livie and Ian.
 
The book has a reflective feel to the Matthew Sheppard case and even mentions it during the trial but I don't think Taylor was trying to motivate his readers in that direction. Taylor brings many different messages to the table with his book. He explores the relationship between a younger gay man and an older gay man, he works a psychological profile on how to deal with a lover's death from AIDS and a hate crime, and he tries to deal with the emotions of a lover's parents whom are not acceptable to the gay lifestyle.
 
Taylor succeeds in making this novel a tearjerker. There is a lot of sadness through out and you can get into each one of the characters streams of consciousness but I think Taylor sensationalized Jimmy's murder too much and gave it an overblown look....

a wonderful story. Mr. Taylor writes with care. I think it is both a gay novel and a novel that shows taylor's ability to show complexity with easy.enjoyed the court room the best.

I am a bit new to the Civil War history ranks, but I have read several books over the last few years. I just completed Grant's memoirs, and decided I needed more information about Lee, hence this book. I could not rate it higher, due to the apparent inaccuracies (too many to detail, primarily with regard to numbers in the ranks and casualties), and the racist attitude that prevails. Taylor was clearly a loyal soldier, and true to his cause, but his mis-guided attack on General Longstreet became tiresome.

Walter Taylor offers a great perspective into the charater of General Lee, the ability of his subordinates, and the fighting courage of the army itself. Taylor's book should be read by any Civil War buff since Taylor was actually there as Lee's adjutant general. While those critical of Lee may find Taylor to be too defensive and loyal to Lee, one can only continue to admire the Greatest General of the Civil War. I like to take in both sides of the issue concerning Lee, but I have found that Lee was an able, moral, and intelligent leader with weaknesses like every human. The only reason I didn't give this book a five is because of Taylor's subtle criticism of General Longstreet, while he does give him deserved credit.

Since Exalted was released, I have been a huge fan of the setting and system and hence, purchasing each supplement as it comes out. However, this is the one supplement that I wish that I hadn't wasted my money on.

This book is nothing more than a breakdown of ship design and ship terminology. Save your money, this book is fairly worthless for a campaign.

I thought the book was pretty decent. It has stats for ships and their weapons, rules for ship to ship combat and even mass combat rules for crew vs crew fighting which could be used for other arenas of combat.
I liked the sections about life at sea and how ships are run. It also talks about the details of navigation in a world which actually is flat and where the pole used for navigation is in the center.
Savage Seas also has some new charms, mainly geared towards use at sea, some new spells, terrestrial and celestial, and a few minor artifacts.
What it didn't have were things like whole chapters about individual pirate groups, or various navies. Those things were pretty much summarized between 2 chapters. Alot of that stuff was covered in other books, or left for storytellers to customize.
All in all, if you run a sea-based series then this book will be a good resource. If you're landlocked, then you might not want to buy it.

This book has two goals:
1) give storytellers an overview of "realistic" ancient seafaring life/culture/technology; and,
2) give storytellers fantasy specifics about how 1) works in world of Exalted.
I believe it strongly succeeds on both accounts. The material is not a campaign or module per se. What it does is provide an immense amount of cool, detailed material storytellers can work into games of their own design. So if you want something to "plug and play" with minimal effort than this isn't for you. If you're looking for "thinking fuel" and inspiration ... you won't be disappointed. My favorite parts were the one's that provided glimpses of First Age ships. Loved it!!!

Venkatesh is pushing the thesis that the lives of the residents in the 'projects' have been too pessimistically portrayed by other authorities, and that for long periods of time they in fact managed to get along pretty well, through various informal and often criminal survival mechanisms they developed.

That is, as I say, his thesis. I am reminded of a story of a man who fell out the 40th story window of an office building. Mid way down, with his eyes firmly closed, he imagined himself flying.

"So far, so good," he said.

This author records comparable delusions, and the state of free-fall that of necessity must end. He thinks he is recording something better than that.

"American Project" started out with the best of intentions, but along the way ,the author became a little repetitive. He should've explored the lives of the tenants a bit more. I think that would've made their situation a bit more understandable for the unaware. But, I give the author credit for trying to explain the lives,situations and forces, which keep the people disconnected from the rest of Chicago.

Venkatesh has done a superb job of describing the interrelationships between tenants, and the relationship between tenants and management, as well as chronicalling the changes in these relationships since Robert Taylor was constructed in the early 60's. Anyone who wants to move beyond the headlines, and find out more about the strengths and weaknesses of life in a public housing development should read this book.

That said, the author's background and training as a sociologist comes through loud and clear, and ultimately limits his book. While Venkatesh does a good job of detailing the social relationships among the players, he virtually ignores the larger political issues. Why was management so inept as to be virtually non-existent? Why did the drug/crime culture take hold, and how did the gangs transfor themselves into multi-state corporate enterprises? Most importantly, given that CHA is now in the process of demolishing virtually everyone of the buildings which form Robert taylor Homes, how do we avoid creating the same problems in the next generation of public housing.

Excellent bibliography, by the way. A very good place to dig for resources for anyone wanting to study the history of the Chicago Housing Authority since 1960.

We recently traveled through Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia and found this guidebook practically useless and certainly frustrating--definitely not worth its weight. We have used other LPs in the past and found them to be at least adequate but this one doesn't even rate that well. It lacked many important details--such as the time/distances between many points, availability of various transportation options and routes, decent maps--the list goes on and on. Even though prices change often and currencies fluctuate, even a vague idea of prices (is it $10 or $100??) would have been quite useful to help us plan better. Although we ran into many people all 'armed' with the LP, they all had the same complaints.

This book is an adequate guide but it needs improvement in several areas. I used this book during Janurary and February of 2000 when I traveled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. Last year I used the Lonley Planet-India and found it was much better than Southeast Asia. Here are the weaknesses. 1. The numbers of the locations on the maps should be used in the text describing the location. This would grealy improve you ability to plan your day or route. 2. Maps should be improved. I would be willing to spend a few dollars more for better maps. 3. Hotel, restaurant, etc. names are not printed in bold type. This makes it more difficult to use. 4. It would be very helpful to grade the sites with a priority to reduce the time one spends reading fine print and get on with seeing the country. When I return to this part of the world next winter I will try to find additional books to correct these weaknesses.

I travelled through Thailand, Philippines and Hong Kong using this book. I initially bought this book with weight in mind. I did not want to carry three more LPs along with the other country books (LP Taiwan, Japan). Although much of the information needed to survive was written in the book, it certainly did lack the detailed maps and background information needed to have a care-free journey. SOmetime it certainly was a struggle , especially in Thailand. The Thailand Section prices were extremely outdated. Even in the height on the "asian economic flu", I had to triple the prices listed. The Hong Kong section was adequate, but HK is an efficient and easily travelled city. Of the three, I found the Philippine section the best, but some of the hotel quality ratings are out dated. Please do not stay at the Hotel Mercedes in Cebu!

I like to review more math pages on the Bathe book very little math shown. I want to see the level of math before I buy it.Gives me an idea about the quality of the book.

It's a good book. Explains FEA like FEA has to be explained. If you want to study hard, this book is for you. May be exercises are missing.

This book is based on the author's research, and he includes a bibliography at the back of the book. What we have here is a novel that borders on being non-fiction, because it adheres pretty closely to the archival record Mr. Taylor examined. He read through many, many journals kept by soldiers, officers, and others, about their experiences in this Mexican War. What Taylor comes up with is a somewhat entertaining "introduction" to the Mexican War. It's an introduction for those who know little about the Mexican War, like myself. I learned a lot from this book, and I re-learned that sometimes it's easier to swallow your history with a human story than straight from the history book. BUT...as noted elsewhere on this website, the book does have a tendency to get dull. Maybe Taylor tried too hard to make it authentic by mimicking the journal-keepers of those days. Also, he spends a lot of time describing the flora, fauna, and architecture, and for spoiled readers of the present day, that may be a little too much work. We need more short dialogue and less hard-core narrative, today. So, this book, published in 1964, offers palatable history, but not much emotion or excitement, and very little sex, though there are women in this war, some dressed as men, and this, too, is based on journalistic evidence uncovered by Mr. Taylor, who I doubt still lives, though I don't know for sure. Diximus.

With The Travels of Jamie McPheeters easily in my top three books of all time, I started searching for more books by Robert Lewis Taylor. Maybe because I had to compare this to his incredible work with McPheeters, but Guadulupe was a disappointment. It's a story surrounding a journey to, well, Guadulupe, but with none of the wonderfully eccentric and interesting characters that made McPheeters so enjoyable. The pace was a bit slow and I found myself forcing myself to get through sections of the book. There are still some good laughs and Taylor has a distinctive style that I enjoy reading, but those looking for something as great as McPheeters, you will most likely be disappointed.

A real strength of this book is its broad scope; both in range of species, and in wide range geographically. Within a few pages there will pictures of the vulturine guinea fowl, the white-breasted nuthatch, and a red-throated diver (loon). The pictures are spectacular, whether it is wandering albatross courtship, an upside-down emperor bird-of-paradise, or a common bee-eater offering his mate a dragonfly. A minor annoyance is that the location of the species pictured is not usually listed. The text covers a wide range of species, and focuses on describing the behavior, but not allot of deeper evolutionary discussion. Some researcher names are mentioned, but there are no citations or sources for further reading. I think the book might be considered an informative, coffee-table book.

The book is great at explaining many of the technical aspects and history of subliminal communication, both audible and visual. I bought this book after listening to many hours of Dr. Taylor's subliminal tapes. Now that I've learned of the hidden affirmations he uses in all of his programs I have decided to keep the book for my reference, but toss out his tapes.

Until O'Reilly comes out with a UniCenter book, this is sadly all you will be able to buy. Typical Que coverage of a topic; lighthearted, outdated, whimsicle, and very worthless. I have reviewed many Que 'Pulp-Computer' publications and this one is on par with what they have produced in the past. UniCenter is a complex topic and this book completely misses the boat. If you are studying for a UniCenter designation or are implimenting UniCenter at your site, you will surely fail to find any meaningful answers in this worthless waste of trees. I have both implimented CA UniCenter and have taken the certification exams and can tell you that you will find no help in this book.

This book is fine for explaining Unicenter to a Manager/Directory and for getting an overview, but is USELESS in trying to gain deeper understanding of the product from a systems engineering point of view. The number of good quality screen shots is a nice touch, although the material is hopelessly outdated.

There don't appear to be many titles available on Unicenter, which is unfortunate because it is an extremely powerful and scalable enterprise management tool. Still, I would only recommend this book for managers and directors, not for systems engineers.

This is a VERY generic beginning manual for Unicenter. If you are looking for explanations of how to do something, this is not the book for you. This book for the most part tells what the application can do but does not give any examples of how to do it.