I remember reading the book "Gehenna" in the eighth grade. Lord knows that I was over 10 years ago now. Myself and a friend decided to start exchanging our books. My imagination was engulfed with the different levels of hell. Even after only having the book long enough to read it once, I still have images etched into my mind. I rarely give such high reviews to books, but after reading this one and still remembering it, I must say that it touched my life in some way. I would encourage anyone who has a fascination for Dantes "Divine Comedy" with a modern twist to pick up a copy of Gehenna and read it. I promise that you will forever be changed by its words.

Great book. A modern day version of Dante's Inferno. Immediately catches your attention. Attacks modern day issues and presents logical arguments from both sides - world view and Christian view.

You will quickly find yourself in the pages and you can't help but wonder if you'd pass every level of hell yourself.

I've read this book three times and each time I pick up more insight into human nature and justification.

You'll think about this book often.

Great book. A modeern day version of Dante's Inferno. Immediately catches your attention. Attacks modern day issues and presents logical arguments from both sides (world view and Christian view).

You will quickly find yourself in the pages and you can't help but wonder if you'd pass every level of hell yourself.

I've read this book three times and each time I pick up more insight into human nature and justification.

You'll think about this book often.

I found this to be an excellent book about the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bosnia-Hercegovina. It gave me a concise history and a good summary of the messages given to the children. I also enjoyed the wonderful pictures and the useful bibliography. I recommend it to anyone devoted to Mary and interested in Marian apparitions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. John Paul Noel has written an inspiring and uplifting account of his pilgrimages to Medjugorje.He puts across in an unpretentious fashion a very readable reporting of the struggles, the hardships and the eventual joy of his and his family's travels to Medjugorje. There is a very definite sense of spiritual growth.

A worthwhile book for those interested in Marian spirituality, would-be pilgrims, and those who just want to know more about the miraculous events in Medjugorje. Great gift for friends and family. Wonderful photographs. I enjoyed reading the book and highly recommend it.

Mary Beth Pringle does an good job at capturing the style and format behind John Grisham's fiction. However, her feminist training and backgroud tend to impact her objectivity. Although she attempts to give an "alternative critical perspective" on each of his novels, she seems to give her analysis, from a feminist perspective, throughout the book. Her feminist views take away from the overall quality of her work. Otherwise, it is a fair analysis of Grisham.

Dr. Pringle is an interesting and informative author. Whenever I read Grisham, I have a copy of her book right next to me. If you like Grisham, Pringle's view on his books is second to none. Get this book!

Now I know why literary criticism is important. Pringle's book taught me lots about Grisham's works and the legal thriller genre.

"Timepiece" is the second book after "The Christmas Box". In this story you get to know MaryAnne a little more and learn how little Andrea died.

i thought it was a moving story and I have grown to love MaryAnne's character. I look forward to reading "The Locket" witch is the final book in this series.

I have become a fan of Mr. Evans writing, and look forward to reading more by him.

"Timepiece", is easily one of the best books I have ever read. It opens your heart and makes itself at home there, and continues to live there long after you have finished reading it. I will admit "Timepeice", made me cry, but it also made me think and take the time to be thankful for the gifts I have been blest with. Richard Paul Evans has given us characters we really care about and come to love. If you love a romantic, sweet love story you will love this book.

Timepiece begins the love story of David and Maryanne Parkin. The scene starts in 1908, when Maryanne and David meet. They get married and have a daughter, Andrea. This story is so well written and the character's seem so alive. It will capture your breath and your heart. Start with The Christmas Box and then Timepiece and finish with The Letter. It's hard for me to say good-bye to David and Maryanne. I feel like I was actually in the story with them. I could feel all the emotion in each chapter. Richard Paul Evans out did himself on this series. Get your box of tissues ready and take a ride with the Parkin's, you will not regret it. Your spirit will be lifted and you will think about this story long after your done reading the series. Additional characters, Catherine and Lawrence really make a difference as well. Such devoted friends to David and Maryanne. There is a mystery about Lawrence and one as well about their daughter Andrea. I can't reveal. You must read. Very, very, touching story. Enjoy!!

i think the problem with *most* of these reviews is that the reviewers are bullheaded or egotistical. this isn't a novel, it's a screenplay/script, as the title reads. in fact: it's one of the best screenplays I'VE ever read and i've read thousands (literally). the story is well developed, as are the characters, and the dialogue is hilarious. recommended for paul anderson fans or boogie nights fans. not for book readers, necessarily. my only regret is that the deleted scenes that are available on both dvd versions weren't included, because they helped showcase the cast's amazing talent for improvisation, and allowed the characters to expand even further.

I knew even before I saw the movie that I would love it. And I was right. It is one of my favorites. Paul Thomas Anderson is at his best--he is one of the most promising directors of the next century. This movie is important because he doesn't show the case for or the case against this family of pornographers and drug users--he shows them as people, and lets us make our own opinions about them.

Paul Thomas Anderson's "BOOGIE NIGHTS" is a sprawling masterpiece concerning many things. The subjects range from the 70s porn industry, to the journey from late teens to early manhood, from drugs to celebrity, from family to friendship. It's about lost souls in search of solace and young disenfranchized in search of a home. Mark Wahlberg (yes, Markey Mark) stars as Eddie Adams, the Torrance youth with a 13-inch...TALENT...who runs from his mother's house and into the arms of Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds in his Oscar-nominated--and robbed--performance), the finest director in the porn industry in 1977 California. What Eddie finds at Jack's fine home in the San Fernando Valley is an oasis on the outskirts of the real world, a wonderland of new experiences and hope-filled dreams, where celebrity is literally around the corner. He also finds a surrogate family of new friends: there's Buck (Don Cheadle) and Becky Barnett (Nicole Ari Parker), the resident black couple, and Buck's destined wife Jessie St. Vincent (Melora Walters of "HARD EIGHT" and "MAGNOLIA"). There's Scotty J (Philip Seymour Hoffman, fresh off Anderson's debut feature, "HARD EIGHT", later in both "MAGNOLIA" and as the villain in Anderson's 4th feature "PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE"), the enthralled young guy who "helps on some of the films" and Kurt Longjohn (Ricky Jay), the cameraman who "wants to give each picture its own look". There's Rollergirl (Heather Graham), who "never takes her skates off...NEVER". There's Little Bill (William H. Macy), the depressed AD whose wife (real porn star Nina Hartley) abuses him in public, and has sex with everyone around. There's The Colonel (the late Robert Ridgely; he had a bit part in "HARD EIGHT") who finances the films. There's Floyd Gondolli (Philip Baker Hall, from Anderson's "HARD EIGHT), who watches everything from behind the scenes and seems to pull the strings for everyone. There's Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly, also from "HARD EIGHT") who becomes Eddie's best friend as he makes the transition from Eddie Adams to new hot porn star DIRK DIGGLER). There's Amber Waves (Julianne Moore, who would become, along with many of these actors, part of the cast of Anderson's follow-up "MAGNOLIA"), the mother figure to Dirk. We even meet Maurice t.t. Rodriguez (Luis Guzman, of "MAGNOLIA" and "PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE"), the Puerto Rican club owner who hangs out with the cast and crew. And finally Jack, of course. This ensemble cast of "NASHVILLE" size and ability is a remarkable group that works together like they've known each other all their lives -- many have. Anderson is a writer-director to watch, as he takes a pocket full of style and an unusual script structure and lays out a sprawling epic of unimaginable ambition and limitless talent. It's quite a masterwork. The screenplay to "BOOGIE NIGHTS", though it contains much camera description and is more technical than the average "screenplay" (a script tells a story of a movie, like a novel does), is one not to miss. Anderson's scripts for "HARD EIGHT" and "MAGNOLIA" are just the same...I'm sure the soon to be released "PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE" will carry on the tradition. This is great.

We use this as the main text in my US History AP course. It's a good, fairly comprehensive, yet easy to read text.

I used this textbook as a junior in high school and recently purchased a later edition. Although the wonderful charts plotting the states and electoral numbers of the Presidential elections are long gone it is still a great reference book on our nations history.

My students really enjoyed this textbook because it was so inclusive of all American heritages. It is up-to-date with current trends in American history and has a little bit of everything your students might be interested in.

On sunny afternoon towards the end of June 96 I met a famous Austrian-American psychoanalyst in a bookstore near St Stephan's Dome in Vieanna. I am almost a fan of this analyst/author,after introducing myself (a psychiatrist attending an international conference where he was lecturing),he asked me what I was reading from Austrian authors and I mentioned the only name I knew -Arthur Schnitzler, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. He said it was OK but had I heard about Thomas Bernhard ? That was the beginning of my relationship with T.B.. The only English title from T.B.'s works was "On the Mountain"; I bought a copy and as soon as I started reading I was in touch with a conglomerate of emotions- anger,"boredom", pain, sorrow, "emptiness" and a very skillfull reflection of probing the realm of self and others in terms of various levels of self representations. As for W.'s Nephew, I should admit it is rather an easy reading title amongst T.B.'s works. Here we have the extremes; body and psyche, mental "disorder" vs medical disease, living upto all or none... W.'s Nephew tries to undo wrongs by helping paupers to the extent of becoming peniless himself (which leads to another episode of "institutionalization" with his relatives' more than willing consent) or is able to mark an opera work with his applause (or silence) as fabulous (or kill it) at the end of a premier. While W.'s Nephew might be perceived as pure emotionality the protagonist represents the "rational mind". Their relationship is based on a very true friendship and conveyed on a stage of Vieennese cafes (Sacher, Havelka..), suburbs and hospitals. I recommenf this book for those who are interested in reading about human relations in a cotext of self and others during post modernity.

Upon doing some background research on William Gaddis, while reading his Recognitions, I came across a number of sources describing Willy's appreciation for the work of Thomas Bernhard. Thus I decided to reacquaint myself with this Austrian writer after more than a decade.

Just like Borges and Natsume, Thomas Bernhard was a taste that I acquired due to Glenn Gould mania. Still in Holland Cornelis Hofman, then head of the Glenn Gould Society, offered Bernhard's Untergeher, the Loser, to the fans of the "oracle of Toronto". Hooked on Bernhard from page one, I next read alte Meister and Holzfallen, old masters and woodcutters, resp.

Thomas Bernhard was a person who often came close to the level of misanthropy. Yet, this writer followed in a line of the likes of Shopenhauer, Strindberg and Celine, who led the readers into the darkest recesses of the tunnel never to forget the pay off by the light at their metaphorical ends. Bernhard will always be defined for me by one short moment in a rare television interview. Bored by the interviewer he walked over to his record player and started a recording of Bach's 2nd Brandenburg Concerto. After the music had played for a while he asked his interviewing victim "Do you know what is happening here?" The victim remained mute, invoking a look from Bernhard that was a mixture of disbelief and disgust to the nth degree. After some more music, while shaking his head answered himself with "everything".

Wittgenstein's Nephew is an archetypical Bernhard novella, both in content and style. The book contains a detailed analysis of the relationship between the writer and his best (and only true friend) Paul Wittgenstein, nephew of the famed philosopher. The first part of the book focuses on Paul and the friendship, while Bernhard uses these ingredients in the final part of the book as a "mirror" for self reflection/analysis. The book begins when both Bernhard and Paul are treated, for cancer and depression resp., at separate but close institutions. At the climax of this part, the writer who was so much looking forward to meeting Paul, finally meets what is left of his friend, and is devastated. Next, Bernhard looks back at the history of their friendship and pays special attention to the support Paul gave him on the occasion of receiving two literary prices and the premiere of one of his plays. In the end, Thomas, gives a brutally honest description of him avoiding Paul around the end of the latter's life and not attending the funeral of the very person who was so important for Bernhard to overcome a longtime suicidal depression. In the act, Bernhard leaves a wide array of casualties: the charlatans of the medical profession, the Austrian press/government/writers/actors and last but not least himself.

The prose is of the vintage Bernhard style that is easily identifiable after the very first sentence. Especially at the start, there is the favorite technique of providing a statement that is cut to the "philosophical bone" to later become the vehicle of a spiral thought of "evolution". Later on the style becomes more linear, without losing any of its poignancy.
While I read the original version, get it at the German Amazon site, I did compare it with this translated version. I would give the translator a 7 on a scale of 10. David McLintock has chosen textual accuracy over a translation that puts more emphasis on delivering the same type of "punch" as the original. You could say he prefers the letter to the spirit of the law. While the resulting translation is precise and careful, it is definitely "Bernhard Lite". Thinking in musical terms, you get Weber instead of the original Wagner.

As a novice to Bernhard reading this review, you may wonder whether the late Thomas would really be your cup of tea. All his anger, gloom, doom and hatred. Yet, Bernhard's dark vitriolic virtuosity gives the short intermittent moments of happiness a striking serene beauty, not unlike like the little flower in Picasso's Guernica.

It has been said that Gaddis' Recognitions is a more mature version of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Extending this metaphor, this as many of Bernhard's books represents a version of Holden, who while severely doubting the sense of the act, still hasn't given up on catching all together.

I am once again reading _Wittgenstein's Nephew,_ after having read it ten or so years ago. Now, years later, this slim book offers an even richer experience. I started it tonight and regret that I didn't begin it earlier in the day. It's short enough to be read in a rainy afternoon, yet its brevity belies writing that is simply astounding and straightforward in its honesty and beauty. (By "honesty," I don't mean the cesspool of lurid detail that many of today's writers wallow in and which I find totally repugnant. Bernhard had too much class for that.)

Truth be told, the reader has to like Bernhard's style to get far with him. Bernhard's rephrasing of mundane thoughts and incidents may seem tedious at first to the uninitiated, but he turns the same phrases over and over as if assessing their content and structure. Is it better to write the thought *this* way? That way? Both? Neither? All? How many writers do *that*!?

Bernhard had a genuine love of words (which I share), phrases, sentences and the way they all form an imposing BLOCK that fills the pages (no paragraph breaks). It doesn't seem to matter much that his topics are mundane: I sense he knew that, despite the adventures most of us have, a large part of life is spent alone with our thoughts. Who was it that said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Bernhard expands upon this bleak thought and comes up with art of very high order, indeed.

I have read all of Bernhard's work that has been translated into English, and I can recommend them all with 5 stars. I think this book (or perhaps _Concrete_) is the best starting point for those unfamiliar with this author. I especially love this book because the topic - friendship - is so touching and sensitively handled. Not a word seems wasted.

I'm working on a web services project using Java and purchased this book. There wasn't any coverage on web services. I supplimented this title with Java, The Complete Reference that covers web servers. Otherwise, this book is OK

The book is written with a good outline on each subject, however, it does not follow-up the same for each subject. For example, the section on JavaMail is good with multiple examples (except for a serious error in one of those examples). While they somewhat duplicate the examples in that chapter with a few variations, another chapter in the book will have much less supporting information. What I would criticize most about this book is the level of information written on each subject differs between chapters and within chapters. There is no real consistency of detail or emphasis. I also would expect a revision in the near future because of a few errors in the book (mostly typos). In defense of the book, I must say that about 75% of all programming books seem to do the same thing... that is being inconsistent with their level of information.

"J2EE Unleashed" covers the major aspects of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition. The three main pieces (servlets, JSPs, and EJBs) are each well covered with good examples. JNDI, JDBC, JavaMail and JMS are each given a chapter and XML is also covered. The strength of the book, though, is its coverage of designing J2EE architectures. For example, servlets are explained but then the authors go beyond the explanation to show how servlets fit into an overall J2EE architecture. Model 2 controller architecture is covered and Apache Struts is discussed as an example of using servlets as controllers. According to the publisher, "The goal of this book is not to teach the J2EE specification but to illustrate the best practices for developing J2EE applications." In fact, it does both. The example application which is used throughout the book is well designed to cover all the pieces of J2EE. I do have two complaints about the book. First, it concentrates too much on the SilverStream Application Server getting down to the level of showing screen shots of deployment wizards. Second, the book could have used some editing to give it a better flow. J2EE architecture is explained before any of the pieces that make up the architecture are discussed. EJB session beans are used to demonstrate how to use JDBC before EJBs are covered. Overall, however, the book is well done and can stand up against any of the books covering this complex topic.

if you want info about super psychics and not just I have heard info, then this book is for you.

it will change your view on what is real and what is not.

I recommend this book a lot.
If you only would buy one book about psychics then this should be the book.

sincerely,
Ole Olsen

This book is very unique. The author is brilliant. And the book unveils what has been known for eons of time - but now science confirms ---The cosmic substance exists and it can be cultivated. No question about it. Buy the book and you'll grow in consciousness. A real eye opener.

I first learned of this book at Ingo Swann's web site, where an excellent review will be found. Swann, who is a noted authority on PSI-Power, points out that because of the simplistic and reductionist mind-set of Official Western Science, the true significance of PSI-Power has never really been fully appreciated in the West. There has also been a powerful reluctance to accept that PSI-Power exists in ALL human beings and not in just a few gifted or peculiar individuals. It is an unrecognized property of the human species, and may be thought of as the higher power of the mind.

In contrast to the West, the Eastern understanding of mind and its powers has always been vastly more sophisticated. Largely because of the influence of Buddhist thought, the nature of mind has been a central subject of investigation by some of the keenest intellects in Asia for over two millennia. These investigations, it should be noted, have been pursued in a thoroughly scientific manner by, as it were, using the human bio-organism itself as a laboratory.

According to Ingo Swann, Soviet research into PSI-Power began in the early 1920's. By the 1960's possibly as many as fourteen major scientific institutes were involved which together had an annual budget of over $500,000,000. Following the collapse of the USSR in 1989, complete copies of the Soviet research archives were sold by the cash-strapped Russians to both Japan and China. Today over one hundred of China's major universities and scientific institutes are actively researching PSI-Power. This should tell us something.

What it tells me is that the Official Science of the West, despite its pretensions, is a reactionary type of science which effectively serves to block progress in many areas, particularly in those which would advance human development by helping to form healthier, less neurotic, more intelligent and more spiritual human beings; by helping us, in short, to enter into our total inheritance as humans.

PSI-Power is not, as some seem to think, about tricks. It's about turning oneself into an extremely powerful person. PSI-Power is an opening of oneself to the larger reality, and it is claimed by the author of 'China's Super Psychics' that China today probably holds more PSI-adepts than the rest of the world put together. Perhaps it's time we rejected our outmoded mind-set and began trying to catch up.

The book if 400 pages long, partly because it takes 20 or so pages to describe what normally takes one page to describe. It is a waste of space. It could have gotten much more deep into trigonometry in the same number of pages that it used. It goes over the obvious a lot, and doesn't go over the more advanced things.

At first I tried the Trig The Easy Way book, but the magical story method of teaching was rather annoying. I'm an adult, teaching myself math and phsyics.Because of the previous review, I bought this book, and it is simply wonderful. There are eight chapters, and I've only started the third, but all the trepidation I had about being able to understand trig is gone. The author really takes his time, using clear examples and much repetition, in a way that shows he understands you are starting from scratch, but does so without talking down to you. There is room on each page in the right hand column to work in, and the answers are on the same page (thank goodness!) but just below eye view. Every three or four subchapters has a short test, and then a longer test at the end of the chapter. He also provides real-life applied problems, to make the reason you use trig come alive. What a super, super teacher! I highly recommend this book, for anyone wanting to learn trigonometry!

I, like many people I suspect, did not find math particularly fun to learn when I was in school. As time went on my jobs and my hobbies required me to learn Geometry and Trigonometry. When I discovered this book I figured that this was just another book that was going to do a so-so job of instructing the reader in how to do trig. Was I wrong!!! This book is written for the person who wants to learn trig but doesn't like it when the author talks (or writes) as if you already knew the subject. This book takes you step by step through trig from the basic triangle all the way up through sine wave functions. The writing of this book is easy to understand and there are hundreds (if not thousands) of sample problems to work. When you finish a chapter in this book, you really feel like you understand the material. THIS BOOK SHOULD BE USED IN EVERY SCHOOL IN THE COUNTRY AS A TEXT BOOK FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN TRIGONOMETRY!!!