In One Foot in the Grave, Mark Simmons introduced us to his half-vampire character, Chris Csejthe. In Dead on My Feet, Simmons shows us the transformation of Mr. Everyday into an Alpha Vampire who still isn't all vampire.
It's in the blood, so to speak. Csejthe has been infected with one of the two viruses which convert a human into a vampire, and he is caught in the middle - a man adrift between two worlds who is hanging on to his humanity for dear life!
In Dead on My Feet, Simmons brings a whole new cast on stage as he's moved his main character from a little town in Southeastern Kansas to bayou country - Monroe, LA. In that sleepy town we find a sho'nuf fortuneteller, a rogue vampire out for a little fun with Chris, a beautiful damsel in distress, a secretary that's the dream of anyone who ever needed to hire one, a vampire who fought in the Civil War, and a plethora of other fascinating characters.
The villains are equally interesting and a couple of them remind Chris of his all-but-forgotten past in some very unpleasant ways. The arch villain is a real blast from the past, an ancestor - maybe - who has come to Louisiana to do enormous evil, and only Chris can stop her. How he manages to survive any number of attempts on his life, and still defeat the utter personification of evil makes for a very strange and entertaining tale.
With Dead on My Feet, Simmons has flexed his story-telling muscle and moved to the head of the class. This tale is wonderfully entertaining, while at the same time, disqueting and edgy. Highly recommended.

I've been waiting a long time for this book to come out, as I very much enjoyed its predecessor "one foot in the grave". Chris Cséjthe the almost-vampire is back. Now living in Monroe he's working as a part time private investigator and university lecturer, and life is pretty good for him with the exception that his werewolf lover, Lupé, has left him because she couldn't stand the competition from his late wife's ghost taking up Chris's attention.

Things unexpectedly start to unravel for Chris when he takes a case to investigate if a local psychic is the real thing. It turns out she is and she has some dire warnings for him. Then another vampire turns up in town and tries to kill him and the local corpses start turning up on his doorstep asking him to dispense justice for them because he stands between life and the undead - and the local police are NOT impressed.

This is a wise-cracking, literary and fast moving novel. Chris reads like an old friend. Once you start this book you'll want to see how it ends as Chris is pushed to his limits and finds out more about himself and his new powers than he ever guessed.

I'm already looking forward to the next book in this series, and hoping its as much fun as the first two books. If you like your vampire/supernatural novels with a twist that doesn't rely on sex and excessive blood then these books are worth reading, but start with the first book to get the most out of this one. Though I do hope the next book will tie up some threads left dangling at the end of this one. (eg what happened to his secretary and her sick nephew etc)

A year ago, Chris Csejthe (pronounced "Chay-tay") was completely human - then a blood transfusion from the Lord of the Undead changed everything. Now he is a hunted man, sought by human and vampire alike for the secrets he knows and the powers that his mutated blood may bestow. So far he's dodged undead assassins, werewolves, a 6,000-year-old Egyptian necromancer, and Vlad Dracula himself. But now he's really got problems.

The dead are turning up on his doorstep after dark to ask for justice and the police want to know where all those corpses are coming from. Undead terrorists are testing a doomsday virus on his new hometown and he's caught in the crossfire between a white supremacist militia and the resurrected Civil War dead. His werewolf lover, jealous of his dead wife's ghost, has left him. And the centuries-old and still very beautiful (and very deadly) Countess Bathory is determined to have his uniquely transformed blood for her own dark purposes.

Now, more than ever, life sucks!

I had great hopes for this book. After I glanced at it, I purchased it immediately. It certainly does reorient you to the distinctions between goals, objectives and diagnoses, but after using it for a while, it just wasn't sufficient for those more complicated kids. I'll keep referring to it, not so much for information but to place me back on course when I'm stuck and blocked- (happens more than I'd like, when the stress gets to me,) yet I still would suggest, for more seasoned professionals, a higher level of diagnostic and prescriptive content.
If you are one of those good therapists who flounder when it comes to documentation; I'd say, "Go for it." But, if you're looking for a book to help with establishing a quality diagnosis and treatment plan for those true stumpers- sorry, this isn't the book.

If you work with adolescent this is a great aid to writing treatment plans for a beginner or a skilled clinician. It makes following this state regulations a lot easier. I would definitely recommend this book to all my colleagues. This book has helped me write treatment plans quicker and easier then I ever thought possible. I love this series of books.

I work in a mental health agency as an intake clinician, interviewing families and children and writing assessments to be used for case disposition and treatment planning. I see 4-6 families weekly and my work load has been eased enormously with this addition to my library. It sits right next to my DSM-IV and I use it daily. The language for long term goals and therapeutic interventions are clinically sound and there are a number of options in each to tailor for specific cases.

This isn't a criticism of the book, but pay attention that it's from 2001 and covers Flash 5, NOT the latest Flash MX and its available Flash Remoting technology which offers far easier server-side integration.

Still, the info in the book still has value today to those who have not yet bought Flash MX. Indeed, even if you have Flash Mx, if your server is Perl, PHP, CF5, etc, then the approaches here will work since the new Flash Remoting only works on CFMX, ASP.NET, and select J2EE platforms.

Then again, MX users who do get the book should check out the newer LoadVars object as an alternative to the older but still supported LoadVariables. The approach to processing XML is also vastly improved in MX.

Of course, the book can't be faulted for having come out prior to MX. It's just that since the title doesn't say Flash 5, if you buy the book thinking it's about the latest and greatest ways of doing Flash/server integration, you'd likely be disappointed. Just offering this as a caution.

I don't think there's anyone out there who will read this book and not come away having learned SOMETHING they didn't know about integrating Flash with the server scripting languages, and doing all the things you hear that you can do with Flash but no one ever tells you specifically how. There's plenty of reusable code for setting cookies and sending emails and storing Flash data in a database for creating dynamic Flash movies. This book definitely isn't meant to teach Actionscript or Flash basics, which is good since it seems there's about 1,000 of those books that came out this year. At least here there's an opportunity here to learn something NEW and unique about pushing the limits of what is possible with Flash, with serious working examples.

Since the book does a good job of replacing about 5 other books you might need to buy, it's not a 'page-turner' where you can jump right in at any point. The information is dense but clearly presented so I had to make an effort to read and try all the examples and not just skim pages like in other books where there's way too many pictures and not enough solid information. Definitely not the case here. I found a lot of tips and tricks throughout as well about Flash and troubleshooting issues that are clearly the product of real world experience on the part of the authors.

I'd rate it a "must-have" for any serious Flash developer's library, especially if you do work for a variety of clients that seem to all be running different hosting setups or have a preference for different languages ala PHP/ASP/Perl, and need to use Flash for more than just animation.

Most books have very little about using the backend with Flash, but this book brings it all home. I've read several other books on Flash, and while some have some material on using Flash with servers and server side elements, none of them go into the depth and breadth as this one. First, it gives client-side users an excellent introduction to the server side, and it does so in a clear and practical manner. Second, it provides good introductions to several different server-side languages (CGI/Perl, PHP and ASP) and how they work with Flash. It is clearly an introduction to server-side languages and does a good job doing that with lots of examples that work.

I suppose you could go buy a half dozen other books on server-side languages and a book on ActionScript, but I don't see the point. The book is not an introduction to ActionScript and Flash. It simply shows how to use Flash and ActionScript to set up and use server-side languages, and as far as I'm concerned it does a better job than those books written by committees or re-writes of the Macromedia AcitonScript manual. So, if you want to get a great introduction to and experience using Flash with backends, this book is the place to start. It also has the best explanation of how to use XML with Flash I've seen along with in-depth discussions of other little-known facets of Flash. It also comes with free hosting service for learning this stuff.

This book has hundreds of color profiles (and some top views) of warplanes from WWI to 1980. There's a brief introduction about the history of markings, but after that the text is limited to a brief introduction about each plane type and descriptions of markings. In addition to the full color profile views are some close-ups of unit markings and badges of individual planes. More than 100 planes are included, many on double-page spreads.

However, planes that are NOT SHOWN but should have been include: postwar Navy fighters (none are included, except a single side view of a "Jolly Rogers" Navy Phantom), the USAAF P-51D (although one is shown on the cover, none appear inside), the B-29, F-14, F-15, F/A-18, F-86, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-105, F-106, F-117, modern MiGs and Sukhois (last included are MiG-23 and Su-7), Harriers (again, on the cover but not inside), Skyraiders, Typhoons, Tempests, Vampires, Jaguars, Catalinas, Aircobras, A-4, A-10, pre-WWII bombers, postwar bombers (no B-1B, B-2, B-47, B-52, B-58, Vulcans, Victors, Blinders, Bears) C-46, C-47, C-5, C-97 C-124, C-135, and C-130. Also, no helicopters are included.

So, a pretty good overview at a great price, but many important types are missing.

Hi,
I repaint a lot of planes for Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator series as a hobby and have found this book an excellent source of reference for specific colours of planes and their squadrons in relation to a specific time period. Though the time period ends over 20 years ago, and some plates are dedicated to planes of lesser known manufactures, and a lot of the color plates can be found in comparible books by David Mondey, overall, it is good value.

This large book is packed with colorful drawings of aircraft from WW2 to 1981. The book features 113 aircraft presented in a variety of color schemes, usually in profile but occationally from the overhead perspective. As a modeler I use this book when painting miniature aircraft. The book is 207 pages long. There is minimal text. The text includes a brief introduction, then continues by briefly explaining each of the illustrations.

In my opinion, Junk isn't as good as other books. It is a book, written for young people and about the life of young people. But you always know, what will happen next. We read this book in school, and it was very interesting, but the suspense is only in the first ten chapters. If you have nothing to do, you can read it, but there are more better books to read.

Jan-Oliver Ohloff

I can't say enough about this book. The book is suprisingly easy to read, and uncovers insights from some of the most prominent names in HY research. A must for HY analysts, MBAs, and CFOs.

I have had the privilege of reading the galley proofs of this book and find it to be THE definitive word on High Yield Investing. This book develops the blueprint for how to navigate, understand, and analyze High Yield Bonds. A must for MBA students, a requirement for anyone in the field already, and a vital tool for investors.

The book's three authors (The George Washington University Business School, Georgetown Business School, and 20+ years High Yield Experience) have used their knowledge and connections to get the best information available

In book are manny colour pictures but low qwality information. I don't recomend to bay this book.

"American Cabinetmakers" catalogues marked American furniture from 1640-1940 and is an unparalleled reference book for antique collectors and dealers. The information is organized alphabetically for easy reference. Each cabinetmaker's entry contains information about his furniture markings. The marks take many forms from a name or initials scratched into wood, a hand-stamped brand in pencil, ink, paint, or chalk to elaborate labels made of paper and metal. Additional information about his life and work is often provided and there are numerous black and white photographs of furniture and cabinetmaker marks. There are over 1,600 artisans included in the book and photographs of 400 marked pieces. It's a treasure!

I stumbled across this novel in the library and picked it up merely because I am an Endo fan. I experienced the book on two levels. On one, the novel relates the trauma of unreturned love. Most people can relate to that theme, and it tended to draw me through the story. The parallel with Jesus' life is not meant to be exact. Mitsu represents the suffering of humanity, as she suffers in her one way. Every episode of Mitsu's life is tragic. For some people, the tragedy might be oevrdone, but I was left sleepless by it. I would recommend The Girl I Left Behind to anyone who enjoys Shusaku Endo's novels.

My continued fondness of Endo's writing has brought me to this book. It is a wonderful example of Endo's early writing, set in Japan with well developed characters and interesting plot. This is particularly true when compared to his more recent book, Deep River, which was disappointing, badly researched and an unsuccessful move away from his best genre - Japan. Set in post-war Japan, the story is about the interwoven lives of Yoshioka and Mitsu. As a university student, Yoshioka deflowers Mitsu and then shuns her, only to have Mitsu crop up repeatedly in his life. She is a country girl unable to get over her fondness for Yoshioka, tainting the rest of her life. However, she never looses her tragic flaw of over-caring towards other people. Endo, a Christian, tries to interweave the fate of Jesus with that of Mitsu. Possibly his way of telling the Christian story in a Japanese setting. Although I'm not sure how many readers would actually draw this parallel, it is an interesting theme in this book and recurring theme he uses in his other books as well. In the afterword, Endo explains how some western women may misunderstand the submissiveness of the female characters in his book, I find that statement superfluous and somehow trying to be politically correct in an afterthought. For me it is rather more interesting to think of what Yoshioka felt and what his actions may have been after having learned of Mitsu's fate. Is Endo trying to send a message to Japanese men? Or Japanese salarymen in particular? I, in particular, enjoyed Endo's modern description of the life of a salaryman. Yoshioka comments during his wedding: "Our entire lives as salarymen are conducted like episodes on a conveyor belt...companies these days don't recognize the differences between individuals" (p.178). Taking into consideration that this book was written some thirty years ago, it is amazing to think how little Japanese society has changed to date. Endo also criticizes his writing technique in his afterword and I have to add that the comedy-like tone at the beginning of the book is inappropriate and immature, when contrasted to the story and the tone of the remainder of the book. I would like to end by quoting a remark that Yoshioka makes at the end of the book: "If Mitsu has taught me anything at all, it was that every single person with whom we cross paths during our journey through life leaves an indelible mark on us." (p.192).

144 pages of pleasing and interesting pictures of bikes and people. Pictures include custom painted bikes, pictures of the backs of people showing their messages of allegiances. Bikes loaded for trips including scenes from Daytona and Sturgis. Includes pictures of pristine shiny bikes and bikes that are serving their owners through time (Rat bikes). There is also a section of tatoos. Finally, Harley racing. Most women are on the back of bikes, but there are about 4 pictures of women holding the throttle. My favorite pictures include two men enjoying a heart-throb road in the mountains, bikes hung from a tree, a group riding past Mount Rushmore and a couple Rat bikes with interesting "decorations."

This book was really really borring

Bartram's "Travels" is an odd, idiosyncratic, and highly original book. There is really nothing else like it in all of English or American literature. Certainly there are scads of chatty travel narratives by later explorers who wrote of more exotic regions and more dangerous adventures, but there are none I can think of that rise to the level of Bartram's. Its rich and colorful images, the poetic quality of its language (in places), the strange juxtapositions of prosaic discussions of the habits of certain animals or features of certain plants with profound analogies between the physical world and the spiritual realm, and the narrator's frequent speculations on the meaning of human existence and humanity's relationship to nature and the creator mark it as distinct a contribution to American letters as Melville's "Moby Dick."

The world Bartram writes of is late 18th-century (just after the American Revolution) Southeastern America: mostly East Georgia and East Florida. Some of the places he visits, if you are a Floridian or a Georgian, you will recognize: Augusta, Savanna, the St. John's River, the area around Gainesville, Archer, and Micanopy; the Suwannee River and its tributary springs (specifically Manatee Springs). Below Savanna, it is a sparsely populated wilderness inhabited by various Indian tribes (such as the Seminoles and Muscogulges) and where whitetail deer, racoons, black bears, rattlesnakes, alligators, turtles, and various species of bird and fish grace the fields, woods, lakes, rivers and streams.

If you love good descriptive writing infused with a passionate appreciation for natural beauty, you will be moved by Bartram's descriptions of Florida, which comes off in the book, quite convincingly, as a sort of prelapsarian paradise. Bartram entering Florida is like Adam going back to the garden of Eden before the fall (I am admittedly a little biased, being a native Floridian): he sees seemingly endless vistas of sawgrass and sabal palms under amethyst skies, crystal-clear springs of the purest water bubbling up out of the forest floors, emerald hammocks of palmetto, sweetgum and cypress; groves of massive liveoaks and wild orange trees. All of this is taken in and recorded in an attitude of childlike wonder, and a deep awe and respect for the mysterious but benevolent power that fashioned all of it. Bartram is a scientist (botanist), able to engage (sometimes, to the detriment of the book) in detailed discussions of biology, so his effusions about the majesty of the deity seem all the more genuine and sincere.

Lastly, what endears the book to many of its readers, I suspect, is the personality of the author. The "William Bartram" of the book is a kind, gentle, reverent, simple, generous, tolerant, and quiet person. The great thing is, he doesn't really tell us about himself--we get an idea of what he is like mainly from his observations on the people and things he encounters. His Quaker faith in the wisdom and omniscience of God undergirds all of his observations and speculations.

Regarding the book's place in literary or intellectual history, it stands at one of the turning points when one episteme is giving way to another. In the "Travels" we can see the influences of the Enlightenment: an emphasis on empirical observation and data-gathering, and the emphasis on the role of reason in securing man's betterment--but at the same time we can see the influences of the then-ascendant Romantic worldview: a belief in the "noble savage," that all people are basically good but corrupted by institutions, and a pantheistic sense (looking forward to Wordsworth) of God as immanent in nature.

Belongs on the shelf with Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia," Thoreau's "Walden" and "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers", the "Journals" of Lewis and Clark, and Melville's "Typee."

This Dover edition is the best buy out there. It has an attractive cover (some unknown artist's rendition of a Florida hammock) and has all the illustrations included, plus Mark Van Doren's short but helpful introduction. It's also a very durable volume--you can keep it in your rucksack to pull out and gloss over choice passages as you hike the wilderness trails of Florida.

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the nature, landscapes, Indians, and early settlements of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee around the year 1775. I haven't read this book in about 10 years, but I do remember checking it out of the library about 3 times, and I'm going to buy it for my birthday. The landscapes the Bartram describes will by and large never be seen again. Bartram described seeing a 45 square mile forest made up of nothing but magnolia, and dogwood trees. He saw forests that were covered by grapevines for miles. The trees were sometimes 20 feet thick, and the grapevines were so old that the vines were more than a foot thick. He saw canebrakes that covered miles, and some of the bamboo cane was 40 feet high. Canebrakes are practically extinct as an environment. He saw virgin forsts, abandoned Indian fields, overgrown Indian villages, open pine savannah forests, and uninhabited swamps. He saw wildlife which today would be scare, or extinct. He reported seeing a bobcat stalk a turkey. He pleaded with a market hunter not to kill a mother bear, and lamented the reaction of the bear cub to it's mother being killed. Bartram also reported seeing wolves, and bison skulls from recently killed buffulo. Bison were just rendered extinct in eastern Georgia at that time. Bartram took literary licence with some events. He exaggerated his encounters with alligators in Florida. After enjoying a meal of fish, rice, and oranges from the Spanish missionary orchards, he battled "fire breathing dragons." Bartram had many encounters with the Creeks, and Cherokees, and most were friendly. He feasted with Indian cattle raisers. Bartram also gives a good account of early settlements. If you decide to get this book, also get a copy of a tree guide with the scientific names, because Bartram tells exactly what kind of trees he came across in each forest. What I wouldn't give to see what Bartram saw?

Cleopatra may be a somewhat ambiguous female character, but I totally loved her, and Bill's portrayal of her. I don't know if he expected the reader to judge her, but I suspect not. The harshest criticism of her comes from Octavius Caesar, who himself doesn't do a single noble thing throughout the whole play. She is fully aware of the fact that she is a sensual, passionate woman- which has no negative effect on her ability to rule Egypt. Her biggest faults are her violent temper (which I suspect is just part of her passionate nature) and her tendency to lie when it suits her (either for sport or for serious politics). Antony (I feel) is actually kind of a loser compared to her. His insincerity runs deep- he marries Caesar's sister in a political move, although he had repeatedly pledged his undying love for Cleopatra. She forgives him, because she truly loves him, even though he doesn't do anything to deserve forgiveness. Antony never fully allows himself to love Cleopatra. He constantly is overreacting to the slightest indication that she might be betraying him or whatever. It is one of these overreactions (combined with an ill-timed lie on Cleo's part) that ends up destroying them both. Even in the end, Cleopatra's death is more dignified and better conceived than Antony's messy and fumbling suicide.

Shakespeare in this play shows how love is not human but surrealistic. Love does not answer reasonable questions. It is a fundamentally unreasonable attitude that brings the lovers to absurd behaviours negating all logical, political and historical values. Love has no limits even if history will prove stronger and the lovers will be destroyed. Shakespeare beefs up this theme with a language that is so rich that we are fascinated by the words, the symbols, the symbolic value of words and acts. He is particularly rich in his style that is entirely, words, poetry, actions, and even feelings, organized following some simple symbols, particularly numerical symbols. In this play Cleopatra appears as being the core of the symbolism and she carries with her the number eleven that comes from the old English runes with the meaning of fate, of fatal defeat, of a flaw that cannot be corrected or escaped. It is her destiny to bring Antony to his defeat and death, just as it is Antony's fate to be governed by this woman and led to his own destruction because of his love for her. It also shows how the Emperor is able to use this fatal situation in order to capture all powers and to impose his absolute will on the Roman Empire. He seems to be the one who plays not well but with all the assets of the game up his sleeves, and he takes them out one at a time when the situation is ripe for these assts to become the key to is ascension to absolute power by defeating those who may oppose him.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Anthony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare's difficult plays, and so I suspect the ratings on the play are low because it's a more mature play than Romeo and Juliet. Here we have two middle age lovers who part of the time are foolish with lust/love and the rest of the time are tough minded heads of state. The "tragedy" is that they can't be both and survive. This is not a play for the young folks, I'm afraid. But if you want some heavy drama where the characters are spared nothing and given no slack, read Anthony and Cleopatra (hint: Cleopatra's suicide is more political statement than a crazy wish to die with Antony). Better yet see it performed by some real actors some time.