Mr. Norsic's book once started, is difficult to put down. I found myself eagerly anticipating what further revelations awaited me as I turned each page. It is rare to find an authentic, believable reincarnation book and I am grateful to Mr. Norsic for having written "To Save Russia, The Reincarnation of Nicholas II" for the undeniable proof within its pages that Mr. Norsic is the reincarnation of Nicholas II.

I applaud Mr. Norsic's courage in the telling of his past life experience as he has helped to further enlighten and educate us all about reincarnation in an interesting and compelling way.

I recently had the pleasure of reading this wonderful book and I found it to be one of the most exciting books I have ever read. The author deftly describes the events leading up to his discovery of a previous life. From the opening line, "They've come to KILL me!", Mr. Norsic takes you on his very personal journey of self-awareness -- I couldn't put it down -- a thrilling read! I highly recommend it to everyone!

I recently read this very interesting book by Donald Norsic.The book was so well written I could not stop reading it. My eyes were glued to every printed word! The book so impressed me that I read it twice. I wanted to ensure that I missed nothing important and that I understood it correctly as written. No book in recent memory has made such an impression on me. I am currently reading it for the third time! I believe "namedejour" from Texas is being extremely critical. Mr. Norsic writes extremely well and his experence is worth the read!

This reader was frankly a bit disappointed by "Balboa Films." Yes, all the infomation is there but is is a tough task to separate the actual history of the little company from the hyperbole. The authors have for some reason bought into the era's flowery press agentry and their Balboa Amusement Producing Company is on several pages compared to the later M-G-M in importance. Still and all, any book on the early film industry -- especially local film-making away from Hollywood -- is greatly appreciated. Despite its flaws, "Balboa Films" is recommended reading.

This book delves into the little-known history of the Balboa Film studio in Long Beach California. The Balboa studio gave Hollywood, California a run for its money in the 'teens. Hundreds of short dramas, westerns, serials, and features were shot there. Unfortunately, the studio was still expanding when a movie industry slowdown hit in 1918 due to World War I and the influenza epidemic. It was soon out of business, and was torn down in the mid-1920s when the oil business took over Long Beach.

This book is very well researched, and it has a very detailed filmography of the studio at the end. Several of the major stars of the era are profiled.

The book does have a couple of flaws though. Sometimes the authors reprint press agent puffery that makes the studio and the stars seem more important than they really were. Also, the authors relied on the book THE DEED OF DEATH for information on director William Desmond Taylor's murder. Subsequent research has revealed that DEED OF DEATH has several important facts about Taylor and the murder wrong.

Still, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in silent film history or Long Beach, California history.

I have read "Reel 4" twice, and I read it again last night. I must say that I am filled with awe at the amount of work you have put into your research.

One of the things that I found most interesting was the background of the stars at Balboa. Being such a small child I really did not know them. Now, after all these years, I feel I do, to a certain extent. You are gifted writers with a wonderful style of writing, so easy and natural--you make your readers "real page turners, eager to know what is coming next."

I enjoyed very much the sections on Baby Marie; you were so indulgent with me.

If you are, like me, an "amateur" when it comes to the study of the mind, you have probably sought to balance your reading of philosophers like Dennett with something more solid from the science of mind. "Enchanted Looms" is a fine place to do that.

This is not a book to sweep through in a few days. You will want to pause and digest. Although Cotterill is clearly aiming at an educated layperson as a reader, he bows, stylistically, to an academic audience. This interfered with my reading of the book. Dozens of times per chapter, he cites sources parenthetically or within the text. Too many sentences begin in the form "The work of _x_ and _y_ has shown..." For the longest time I kept thinking that noting and remembering those names would help me in following a line of argument. This was rarely the case. But then, at times, a backward reference to "_x_" would stump me. Once I learned to glide over these I found it much easier to read the book.

The tie-in with "neural networks" was an interesting process since I had little sense of their importance in cognitive science. Cotterill does a nice job, initially, of showing how such structures might work in both the abstract and at the level of neural anatomy. But, interestingly, he moves on to make a convincing case that such structures cannot adequately model all the functionality of the human brain. I came away from this book with the sense that neural nets are the "Ptolemaic epicycles" of brain science - a paradigm that with growing complexity and constant tweaking can just barely model what we know about a physical phenomenon, but which are not up to the ultimate task.

Cotterill does a nice job of making the macro-anatomy of the brain a part of a meaningful whole. Too many neuro-anatomy-focused books seem to just carve out the various regions and leave a sense of oddly unconnected "vision centers" and "speech centers." "Enchanted Looms" presents much more of the sense of the interconnectedness of those zones that we have chosen to isolate as anatomical pieces. He goes into some depth about how these connections might themselves function as a layer in the processing that we call thinking or sensation, ... or consciousness.

Which brings me, in the end, to the grail in my own "brain-book" search - "consciousness." Sure its fascinating to realize how interesting the study of, for instance, vision, might be, but its that "me" in there, in HERE, that wants some explaining. Although this is not the focus of Cotterill's book, he does propose a very different model for consciousness from any that I have seen - seemingly centered around neuro-motor systems; an odd twist on the notion of a "muscle-head" ! I say "seemingly" because it was really only upon reading this concluding section of the book that I realized I might not have understood enough of the prior 500 pages. Cotterill's argument for this unusual underpinning of consciousness seemed somewhat unconvincing, to me, only to the degree that it built upon elements of his model for brain that I had only partially grasped.

So I will reread this book... a very unusual thing for me, for this topic. It bespeaks the power of the ideas it presents that I know "Enchanted Looms" will be worth that second effort.

This is an extremely comprehensive book. It covers many aspects of neuroscience and neural networks. Among a lot of information, there is his theory of consciousness. He bases his view of the mind as action centered, and this is to my mind, a good move. It is no surprising that his model includes sensimotor areas. He also includes the prefrontal, premotor, and the thalamus intralaminar nuclei, forming a loop, in his theory of consciousness. He supports it quite well, and it gives rise to predictions that can be experimentaly tested. The data considered is overwhelming, so even if the consciousness theory end up not being totally right, the book as a whole is still a very important piece of literature in the neurosciences. Qualia as essentialy the effects of muscle-spindles in the loop at first seems confusing, if not implausible, but maybe deserves further consideration. Not a lot of neural network talk, but enough to complement nicely.

Rodney, neuroscience explorer, returns from a trek into the unknown chart area, "terra incognita". Consciousness and mind hide there and now this book yields up their secrets and treasures. Well illustrated, apt quotations, written with beautiful expression and constantly rigorous in thought and argument. Science writing now days divides into the noisy and the hidden gems. The first is smart agents, pushy PR and personalities that constantly self promotion but write work that never lives up to its flash and advertising. Would that Pinker was as good as the ads tell us he is. In the second group are those that never get into the stream of success because they are too good natured for the game. But they write the science that is worth reading. Professor Cotterill - at least after reading this book -- is at the top of that group. Having read Pinker's Blank Slate, I wished I had read this first - better is a personal judgment but this is. Not a book for indenting from the library but buying for a holiday and pleasure.

Lou Cannon has put together an account of the culture and climate within the city of Los Angeles preceding the Rodney King incident and the ensuing riots that really hits the mark. As a person who was directly involved in law enforcemnt during the period the book focuses on, I thought I had the entire King incident and riots figured out. on the contrary, I was completely blindsided by the information in this book. Cannon has done his homework and has put together a shocking and revealing account of the King incident, trial and years leading up to it. I would strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in the history of L.A., it's police department and political climate. It should be required reading for all Police recruits, lawyers, politicians and managers.

Echoing sentiments expressed by other reviewers, I wholly concur after reading "Official Negligence" that negligent, inflammatory US media reporting, abetted by the jump-to-conclusion negligence of the Los Angeles Police Department, significantly and overwhelmingly warped public perception of the Rodney King affair and propagated the worst riots in recent history.

Taken in the context of the entire story, as reported in "Official Negligence," the police officers were racially railroaded and politically double-jeopardized by a media/legal system that -- once it had seen the film excerpt -- truly never wanted to make any further effort to learn the facts of the case.

This is an important book to read, if for no other reason than to keep you alert from now forward when watching television news. They're going to show you what SELLS, and not necessarily what TELLS.

This is the most engrossing book that I have read in a while.. It is gripping and unbiased. Lou Cannon states the history behind the Los Angeles Police Department, with straight forward, objective proof. Cannon describes the transformation from the beginnings of the LAPD and how it was molded into the elite law enforcement agency in the world. It then goes into great deal behind the whole Rodney King incident and the riots, giving indepth thought to what happened and why. An unbelievable book!!!

I first saw this book on a friend's coffee table. Once I'd looked it over, I knew I had to have a copy of my own. I am amazed at how many Japanese toys are included. I used to watch some of the Japanese shows when I was a kid (such as Ultraman - and yes he's included in the book), but I am awed on just how much I've missed. This book has peeked my curiosity to see more. What I find fasinating is the key in the back of the book which includes not only who currently owns each of the splendid toys displayed in the book, but also what year they came out. Some of these toys are older than I am! So Crazy Japanese Toys does a fantastic job of displaying each toy in full page pictures. Too bad there's not a chapter depicting hero vs. villian picturing the two characters duelling. Is there a sequel in the works?

[You] can't hide the author's vast knowledge of this fascinating subject. I found it alternatly charming and illuminating. The author ("Jimbo", obviously not his real name), most likely some kind of bike riding hero in strange suit himself, has managed to capture the flavor and oddity of the strange and wonderful world the japanese have created. The beautiful photography is a catalog of the bizarre no culture miner should be without. This book should serve as a "must-have" resource for students of Japan, Kaiju, Anime, Toys, and anyone who can't resist the lure of brightly colored vinyl.

I must admit that I am no expert in the japanese toy field, but I LOVED this book as though I have know these toys for years! I came across it in a bookstore while I was looking for a gift to give to a friend that actually knows about this stuff. I had no idea there was such a comprehensive and specific book out there, I figured some book about rock and roll was what I would find, BUT NO! I found the PERFECT thing! SO CRAZY! I thought at first the layout of just pictures was a little odd, but the friend I gave it to said that is the old school way they put these things together. He absolutely loves it! (so do i, i got one for me too...)

THANK YOU MISTER MATISON FOR GIVING US SOMETHING TO GIVE TO OTHERS THAT IS SO FUN, SO COOL, SO CRAZY AND SO GOOD!!!!

I bought the book, and interesting as it is, I'm just not sure what it's worth to me as a lover of literature and as a writer. I like seeing some of the original manuscripts, the various pictures, and such, but that really didn't enlighten me to anything. Yes, there is a small biographical introduction to each writer, but it's so short as to be almost pointless. This is the kind of book you check out of the library, not buy. I don't want anyone to think it's not a good collection. It is. But I can't in any good faith recommend someone spending this much money on something that really doesn't bring to light anything new or special about any one of these writers. It's just...well, it's just neat. If you want something special, then look elsewhere. If you just like spending money on neat books, then maybe this is for you.

This is a beautifully designed book that will satisfy every single literary peeping tom. Those voyeur pleasure spots will be rubbed just the right way with each intriguing entry. The book is a collection of pictures, short biographies and handwritten notes from a wonderful list of 100 writers. The doodles, the scribbled draft poems or the penciled revisions in the margins next to a picture of the poet allow the reader to experience a rare intimacy with the poet and his art. My favorite picture in the book is of Randall Jarrell holding his beloved "Kitten" in front of a mirror. Jarrell's eyes are looking with joy on the reflection of his cat and "Kitten's" eyes are glaring from the mirror directly at the reader. If you love literature and are intrigued with the creative process, you will love this book.

There is something magical about seeing well known and loved poems in the poet's own hand... this book provides an interesting insight into the works of a good number of well-known poets. A must-have for those who read poetry with more than just a passing interest, this book is also a good starting point for biographical information. Nice photographs, and, when necessary, captions transcribing the poets' sometimes illegible handwriting make this book a gem. Perfect for browsing.

Finally, a book that ties together the emotional and symbolic causes of illness in a meaningful manner. Dr. Pop pulls together the correlation between symptoms and illness with lifestyle choices. Irrational thoughts and feelings, denial, and depression contribute to the day to day decisions that translate into illness. Recognition that we are the creators of our own life, and that our health is the direct outcome of choices we have unconsciously made, give sus the key to recovery. By deliberately studying our symptoms and their emotional origin, we can begin the healing process and use the knowledge to create meaningful physical and emotional health.

In this book, Dr. Pop achieves a creative synthesis of ancient and modern approaches and attitudes toward health and disease, based on Chinese Medical Philosophy & Modern Western Medicine.

Let Dr. Pop enlighten you on how to open your eyes to the full spectrum of the language of symbols and healing.

Dr. Calin Pop developed a new way to help his patients speed their recovery by showing them how to interpret the symbolic message of their illness which he now shares with the general public. Readers who enjoy dream interpretation and those with an abiding interest in alternative medicine will appreciate Dr. Pop's coverage of the meanings of more than 2,000 medical conditions and causes within a mind/body context for human health and well-being. Offering a holistic approach, The Symbolic Message Of Illness will assist the reader to accelerate the healing process for illness or injury and to generally improve the overall quality of their life. Highly recommended for students of holistic, alternative medicine, mind/body spirituality, and the metaphysical ramifications of sickness, injury and human health.

Overal I think that the Torah is simply overated. The Bible and Koran have much more to offer, and expand on he stories much more. But hey- if you really want a Torah I guess this is a fine version.

The translator of this version of "The Torah" deserve commendation for a job well-done. Its accuracy is consistent with the original Jewish scripts, from which it emanated. Also, the translator did his best in sticking to contemporary English: thus, making it easy for readers to understand.
I would readily recommend this version to any English speaker who has interest in the book. Both Jews and non-Jews who know one or two things about The Bible (i.e.: the Old Testament), and/or The Koran, would not read long before inferring that the spiritual accounts narrated in these holy books have got more similarities than differences.

Well facts are hard to argu...
Torah and Judaism laid the ground for both Christianity and islam..

Torah is the book that changed the world..

Torah is the most read book in the history of mankind..

This series of revelations of official criminality is the most important American book ever written. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about our nation. By presenting abundant supporting evidence the author clarifies what is otherwise a murk of national rumors and scandals. His writing is so coherent as to almost render his evidence superfluous. Ultimately, this book raises the question: Can America save itself? Considering that this book provides detailed self-incriminations by many key gov't officials - especially in the Dept. of Justice and many of its branches; the IRS and essentially the entire Congress - our chances of avoiding national destruction seem remote. If America is to survive; it must begin by reading this book.

To America's Pantheon of Deathless Heroes: Nathan Hale, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Sgt. York, Audie Murphy, those named on the Viet Nam Memorial, Ex-FBI Agent Fredric Whitehurst; now must be added the name of Author Rodney Stich. His name is in our hearts now. If and when American is restored to justice his likeness and courageous deeds will become main components of our nation's lore.

Stich has done an excellent job at steering clear of wild conspiracy theories and sticking to the facts. This is a devastating account of government malfeasance at emanating from the highest levels of the Government; Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. This book is not for the faint hearted. Anyone who reads this will quickly find his blood boiling and ask the obvious question, where is the media in all this? A MUST read.

This book should be required reading for all citizens of the earth. If I had the money, (and people still read books) I would put a copy of this book in every highschool library. There is enough evidence in this book to put 50 years worth of "elected" leaders, judges, etc. in jail or in the ground. The crimes are hard to digest at times because of the extent of which most Americans swallow the big lie hook line and sinker. The most painful read is the "october Surprise" scandal and how Bush caused the hostage situation to prolong. George Bush. To the gallows with him and the rest of the lot.

This is not a good book for those without any woodworking experience. There is too much jargon that is unexplained, and no real starting projects. I'm certain that there is excellent info for beginners who are looking to expand their knowledge and skills, but for people with no background who are looking for the most basic advice, I would look elsewhere.

As a beginning woodworker, I can't recommend this book enough. It covers just about everything to get you going - laying out a shop, table saws, hand tools, ideal tools to own, dovetail joints, finishes, the list goes on and on. I'm constantly referring back to it as questions pop up.

My desire to get back into woodworking after many, many years has led me to purchase about a dozen different books on setting up shop, buying tools, woodworking techniques, etc. Now I wish I had found this book much sooner.

The book itself is a collection of articles from "Fine Woodworking" magazine. For the most part, the editor's choice of articles is excellent. For example, the Setting Up Shop section has three articles: 1)outfitting a shop, 2) buying used hand tools, and 3)converting your garage into a workshop. Although I found little of interest in the 2nd article, I learned as much from the other two has entire books on the subject. I especially liked the fact that the article on outfitting a shop had the pull-no-punches opinions of 3 different woodworkers. This lets the reader see that no two experts agree on the subject, but there is enough agreement that it should help a beginner make wiser choices.

The 4 articles on buying wood, sheet goods, glue, and sandpaper were all full of practical information normally lacking in other books.

The Tools and Techniques sections have 13 well-chosen articles, although the collection is far from being a comprehensive survey of the subject. The only power tools covered in any depth are the table saw and router. You may want to supplement your education with other books on these topics.

I found the sections on "First Projects" and "Finishes" to be a little weaker than the other parts. These articles suffer from the fact that this type of book no flow of logic from one chapter to the next. The chapters on finishing suffer from considerable overlap and some conflicting information. Still, I found the individual articles interesting.

In summary, I think this book is an excellent place to start if you are new to woodworking. After buying this very inexpensive book, you can go straight to more definitive books on only the topics you have real interest in. From what I have seen, you can safely skip the other introductory books.