I like Stephen Spender. That is, of course, I like his poetry that I've read as well as his introduction to my favorite novel:Malcolm Lowry's Under The Volcano. I like this book too. But, first of all, there's altogether too much name-dropping, which becomes rather tedious at times. Some of the anecdotes are quite rum, like the ones involving Lady Ottoline Morrel. But all this Bloomsbury-Virginia Woolf business gets on one's nerves (well, mine anyway) after a while. I don't think Spender's homosexual relationship is the most important thing in the book; though it was doubtless courageous of Spender to include it as well as indispensable to getting this book back in print! The most important thing in the book is the difference in the pre- versus post- Spanish Civil War mindset among sensitive, well-bred intelllectuals among whom Spender was a figure. Before the war, Spender says, it seemed that individuals (particularly idealists) could make a difference. After the war, all that had not been killed fighting Franco (and there were many) were disillusioned and glum, especially Spender. Finally, this book has a sad tone that runs from Spender's school days to his middle age. He was a cultured, gifted writer who had not, by his middle ages, produced a "great work." And, despite the Queen's Gold Medal and Knighthood in later years, his melancholy grew worse. He speaks of himself at the end of the book as "rotted by a modicum of success" and admits that "My mistake was to think that my own nature would make everything easy."-The strange thing is that he didn't shake this attitude off. He was only halfway through his life. I was going to make put forth some hypotheses as to why, but, really, it's anybody's guess. Isn't it?

Memoirs have become ubiquitous recently, a favored literary form. World Within World is one of the best. Stephen Spender, one of England's leading twentieth century poets and literary figures wrote this book less than half way into his long life, covering his youth and early middle age through World War Two. While this book became notorious a few years back as the source of a lawsuit for plagiarism brought by Spender against David Leavitt over his book While England Sleeps, the book has merit far beyond the controversy. The incident which forms the basis of the dispute, Spender's rescue efforts on behalf of a former lover during the Spanish Civil War, is merely one of the interesting and illuminating episodes and set pieces of this book. Spender, growing up in the wake of World War One, in a well-connected family, encountered some of the leading literary figures of the Twentieth Century. He was a contemporary and friend of W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and Cyril Connolly, whom he incisively sketches and analyzes, both in terms of personality and work. He was taken under the wings of such giants as Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot, who form the basis of two fascinating portraits. Most memorable perhaps is his description of a meeting with William Butler Yeats at Lady Ottoline Morrill's salon that started out quite disastrously but was rescued by Lady Ottoline's desperate telephone call to Woolf. Not only does he describe the literary scene in England, but also the atmosphere of Weimar Germany, Civil War Republican Spain and World War Two England. Indeed we get a glimpse of the Berlin boarding house immortalized by Isherwood and later in Cabaret. As memorable as he is in describing others, Spender is balanced, acute and unsparing in his self-analysis. Aware of the characteristics of his work that distinguishes it from that of others, he gives insight into his creative methods and process, rescuing poetry from misty philosophizing and dogmatic pronouncements. There is little self-aggrandizement or puffery and very little malice if any in this book. Its style is clear and its content admirable. It is well worth reading.

Just to brief you I have been teaching field for quite a number of years and also have been in ASP programming for sometime. I love to read books. I had picked 2 of the previous books on classic ASP by the Stephen. Both books have been a great help for me in development. So I blindly picked up this book and didn't bother to pick up any other book. A few months later just to upgrade myself I restarted on this book. Well I covered almost the whole book chapter by chapter. And by the end of the book I was confident to set up a site. I made extensive use of the book. I could use most of the advanced techniques of ADO.net, form authentication and also set up two XML webservice. It has been a great resource and a companion in my devoplment environment.
Is it a book for beginner or professional?? Well the author has not left a stone unturned to give a feel and exposure to almost all aspects of ASP.net. He really lays a through foundation from where a developer can leap ahead. So if you are a beginner or intermediate programmer I recommend this book. But beaware you will also have to take a reference book for Visual basic .net or you will find yourself wondering in few situations. Infact to throuoghly implement the ASP.net technology I recommend that you also get hands on Vb.net language.(I am not talking of window forms).
ASP.net is so vast that a thousand pages can just give you a feel and a knowledge of the varous technologies. And that is wht the author has done. I believe that was his motive. Also he didn't spare an opportunity to give a glimpse of the heights one can reach through ASP.net. Hence if you are looking into advanced programming books get one for that particular topic. ie.. for ADO.net get an advanced ADO.net book and XML webservice get advanced webservice book. Please do not try to get all of the ASP.net technology in one book. If any book author promises that check the size of the book. It has to be more than 2000 pages.
One more thing this book does not cover is development using visual studio. Most of the examples are not done in code behind approach. So a developer using only visual studio may find this approach a bit confusing. Hence a beginner trying to develop pages in Visual Studio should give a second thought.

I read the 21 days book and then data driven web applications book before I read this book.

This book is by far the best book I have read on asp.net. It covers many more things (and in a lot more depth) than the other books I read on asp.net. I develop in C# and all of the examples are in VB which kind of [stunk] but It didn't worry me too much because I have experience with VB anway and was able to read VB and write C#.

I can't think of anything that Stephen doesn't cover in this book. I found that the examples he uses are well thought out and useful, he doesn't just use the same examples every time.

When he covers a subject he covers it very extensively which also makes this book a great reference as well as learning material. I read the 1400 pages from start to finish and feel that I know something about everything in asp.net.

He along the way the author presents some good techniques for coding like using data caching. When he makes a statement he backs it up by explaining why which I think is important.

If you're ready to get going with ASP.Net, this is the book
you want to buy! Face it, there's a ton of information to
get up to speed on and yet you can't spend every hour of
every day reading .Net books (or can you?). You have to
choose and hopefully choose effectively. I was in the middle
of a couple of other ASP.Net books but once I started
reading this one, those books just didn't seem to have the
same attraction. It reads like a Grisham novel for .Net
mavens, you can't put it down!

What I really like about it is that it gets down to the
minutest details that many other books just skip right over.
ASP.Net is a radical overhaul of the platform and there are
just so many details to know. This book points them out with
clear, simple and understandable examples; yet you don't
feel like your time is being wasted. That's often been my
frustration with many books. Out of the blue I'll read
things in the code that's there's been no explanation for;

sometimes key facts aren't even given an explanation. I'm
unsure why this happens; perhaps the authors are limited to
a certain number of pages or perhaps they're just not paying
attention. This does not happen in "Unleashed." You're
carefully brought along, detail by detail. Each example
stands on it's own, addresses one particular point.

Seemingly minor yet important facts like "One significant
limitation of ASP.Net pages is that they can contain only
one

tag" are mentioned. The author
doesn't assume you don't care about these simple details.
This book is chock full of such particulars. On the other
hand, the book spends chapters exploring such advanced
topics as GDI+ and web services.

This book is well worth spending your time and money for.
And, for all my friends reading this: No, you can't borrow
it, get your own!

This is only the second book I've read by Stephen Hunter, after _Point of Impact_, but it was another winner. The book mixes real history and characters with fictional characters to great effect, something along the lines of what Max Allan Collins does in his Nate Heller mysteries. Set in the post-WWII years in the corrupt town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, Hunter succeeds in creating a real page-turner, as we follow the adventures of Earl Swagger, a depressed war hero with something of a death wish, as he puts together a group of young lawmen to weed out the corruption.

The group is something like the Untouchables--young, single men gathered from police forces around the country so that they will not be compromised by local connections. The scenes of the group's training are among the best in the book, along with the action sequences wherein they bring down a number of casinos.

This isn't a perfect book by any means: Hunter really strains sometimes to tell his story and there are a lot of very awkward sentence constructions. He isn't entirely successful in bringing the historical characters--Bugsy Siegel, Virginia Hill, etc.--to real, believable life. And, as in the Bob Lee Swagger books, there's a bit too much attention to the guns and the gunplay for any but the firearms-obsessed, which Hunter appears to be.

Still, this was a very fast-moving and enjoyable book and I'd recommend it.

I almost wish "Hot Springs" was my first Stephen Hunter novel. On its own, it's a solid, hard-boiled tale. It's also a prequel to almost all of his other novels, giving Hunter the perfect opportunity to show off his skill at foreshadowing and drawing connections between apparently unrelated stories, which is considerable. "Hot Springs" would make a great introduction to Hunter's work.

Unfortunately, as the latest installment, it's somewhat lacking. While it does have plenty of new revelations and background information for those readers already familiar with Stephen Hunter's characters, it doesn't have much else, and what's there feels a bit recycled. The plot is fairly straight-forward, lacking the dramatic cross-cutting of "Time to Hunt" and "Black Light", the twistedness of "Point of Impact", or the sheer intensity of "Dirty White Boys". Anyone who's read Hunter before knows exactly how it will end, and may even recognize the setting of the inevitable final showdown.

Still, it's good to see old friends like Earl Swagger and Sam Vincent again, as well as real-life historical characters like Bugs Siegel, Virginia Hill, and colorful FBI agent and trick shooter D.A. "Jelly" Bryce. (In a major role and only thinly disguised under the name "Parker".)There are also tantalizing hints that we may soon hear much more of Frenchy Short, whose character promises to be quite a departure for Hunter.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the three "Bob the Nailer" offerings from Hunter, I looked forward to this novel whose central character is Earl Swagger -- WWII veteran, medal of honor winner, tortured soul, and father to Bob the Nailer. Although not as good as Point of Impact (which was an impressive page turner), Hot Springs did not disappoint. Early morning workouts on the stepper or exercise bike were not seen as drudgery but rather as an opportunity to pound out more pages of Hot Springs. Throughout the book, one comes to know and further appreciate the intricacies, both positive and negative, of being a Swagger. Action sequences and character development are interwoven and provide a complementary blend throughout the book. This novel is able to stand on its own as an action/thriller, but for those who have already completed the "Bob the Nailer" books, it also offers a good early glimpse at characters from previous novels and ties together events that are littered throughout those efforts. Certainly, this will not be the last novel from Hunter based on the Swagger clan.

I found myself, overall, agreeing with one of the reviewers when he stated specifically that "Walden" is not a book to be read purely for enjoyment, it is not a thrilling read or even a very deep one in general but then one must remember in which time we live and the style used by Thoreau is one of the mid 19th Century which was prone to the type of writing he uses. Anyone who has read other novels of the time or rather written in that period will find similar styles eg James Fenimoore Cooper, Charles Dickens etc. In addition this is not a novel but rather a retelling of experiences of one man in his own adventure as he would put it.

That is not to say that Thoreau does not illuminate or at times give remarkable insights especially when it came to some of the people he met who had fascinating ways of life eg the woodcutter. The book varies from downright mundane and tedious to being very insightful and beautiful. Its amazing how someone can do this as he writes, verging from one extreme to the other. But then it was written from journal notes as he lived his life in the woods over two years experience and during that time a person changes as he adapts to his new way of life. At first its very exciting and new, any new experience is always full of a kind of life shock whether it be painful or joyful, the thinking mind, the mind absorbed in everyday "safe" tasks which define the "normal" life are absent in this new environment which requires new creative energies to survive, after a while this way of life becomes the accepted one and starts to be drained of the vitality it possessed at the beginning as one is fully acclimatised to it and it becomes the norm, after this stage comes the usual safety associated with the walls created to keep life ordinary rather than really being alive. This is hard to do when living in the woods by yourself where you need constant awareness to survive unless its a little too close to civilisation which provides the safety net which Thoreau always had available to him. But still during the period where he was very much alive and aware, life is lived without need for too much unnecessary thought, and this is the place from where insights and great creativity burst forth.

If one wants to know what it is like to be really truly alive in the moment and you are afraid to try it yourself and would rather read about it then try the books "Abstract Wild" by Jack Turner or "Grizzly Years" by Peacock. Am I wrong to criticise Thoreau so much ? Yes and no, eg Yes:see the comments by John Ralston Saul on exactly this aspect of Thoreau's writing, No: look at your own life or mine for example, in each case we do not escape this ordinary life we ourselves create. For the purely lived life expressed in poetry look at the poems by Basho, no clearer or more beautiful expression of life has yet been written. I say written not lived, lived can't be written down in full only a brief glimpse or shadow of it is possible even with Basho.

As regards what is said it often betrays Thoreau's astonishingly well read mind, quotes from the Baghvad Gita or other Hindu texts surprise because in Throeau's day very few people would ever have bothered to read the Indian works, the average American thought his own life and European works to be far superior. Thoreau often quotes Latin, often without reference, and the notes at the end of the book are very helpful. Thoreau's experience becomes the one Americans want to live at least without being in too much danger as he would have been in the true wild still available at that time in the lives of say the trappers or mountain men of the Rockies or any native American. As such it is an in between way of living wild.

So Thoreau's work is definitely worth reading even for only the historical value or the literature it represents. It stands by itself.

If anyone can describe what life is really about it is Thoreau. Even in the 1830's he gave relevant advice that can tie into everything in today's world. Every sitting a new and exciting idea to ponder over. Thoreau reminds us all of the confusing yet wonderful world we live in. Most of all Thoreau in Walden makes a tribute to the indivdual and tells us to follow our dreams, because they are just that ours. The best book I've read by far!

I took only one book (Walden) recently when I packed light for a trip 240 miles down the Haul Road along the Trans Alaska Pipeline to the farthest north truck stop at Coldfoot. We live in Barrow, Alaska and wanted to get away to a simpler life for a bit.
The tundra colors were spectacular and when we finally got to trees they were all gold and red. And there were caribou, dall sheep and musk ox.
Our room at Coldfoot was very basic --two small beds, a chair and small closet ---that was it. No data ports, no TV, radio or phone.
So we read a lot and I felt fortunate to have Thoreau with us.
Even when it rained heavily and we had to shorten our daily hike, Walden Pond was there to recharge me, hopefully help me get out from under in this heavily consumer society.
I love this man's insights, and am sorry he died at the early age of 45. This book is so current today. Please read it and share the ideas.
Oops, now I am communicating about "Walden" over the Internet on a fairly new computer. Well, maybe will have to read the book again. Enjoy friends!!
Earl

Ambrose has spent so much of his career tied up in the history of Eisenhower that it really colors his other work. The post-WWII autobiographies really did paper over the deep divisions between the Americans and Britsh on fighting style. The Brits favored concentrated, methodical attack while the Yanks wanted speed, exploitation and movement. Fifty years later this tension is still evident and comes through in Ambrose's writing. The fact that he does not include the Brits in this tale is no problem, keeping focus just upon that action at Omaha keeps the book tight. However, the little snipes at the British do tend to stand out and detract from the book.

Overall, I thought he did well to illuminate how American training and decentralization of command did much to win the day at Omaha (that and air power which kept enemy reinforcements and even top Nazi generals away from the battlefield).

The book's title is not misleading. Despite what some others say, D-Day, along with Stalingrad and the Battle of Britian, were probably THE key engagements in the European Theater. So Ambrose's book title, while still a bit hyperbolitic, is pretty accurate.

Stephen E. Ambrose has done extensive research, including many hundreds of interviews with D Day veterans; American, Canadian, British and German. This exciting narrative makes extensive use of these oral histories. This book comprehensively covers both the planning and execution of the enormous effort to establish a beach head and begin the invasion to end the war in Europe.

The planning took two years. Everything had to be considered such as the tides, where German defenses were located, where there could be some element of surprise, how to train allied troops for every possible contingency, how to unload heavy equipment, how to provide artillary, air and naval coverage of the landing etc. It was a huge undertaking and a firm date could not be established until weather conditions were certain. Thus, June 5th 1944 was postponed to June 6th due to poor weather. Further postponements would have led to a much longer postponement until favorable tide conditions once again prevailed. The coordination involved was mindboggling but, it was carried out.

The invasion was preceded by the landing of airborne troops by both parachute and glider. The invasion took place on five beaches in Normandy. Three were Brtish and Canadian landing sites and two (Utah Beach and Omaha Beach) were American sites. The most intense fighting was at Omaha Beach which was guarded by cliffs from which the Germans could fire down. Indeed, for a couple of hours it appeared that the landing might be a failure. However, although most D Day goals were not reached as to troop placements, the most important task of establishing beach heads was accomplished.

I notice that some earlier reviewers take exception with Ambrose for stating that German troops were inferior. He did not say that!! What Ambrose says is that the Germans had too much land to defend so they were spread too thin. Additionally, Ambrose points out that many of the troops were Polish and French conscripts who did not really want to be fighting; not Germans. Since they were spread out so thin, it was necessary to rely on many German troops who were either very young or quite old. Also, not knowing where the landing would take place, many German troops were defending Calais or even the coastal areas of Belgium and much further north into Norway. So, Ambrose does say the German troops defending Normandy were not of the same quality of the Allied troops but for the reason just set forth, not because they were inferior. German troops were further hampered by the fact that Hitler insisted on the minutest control of events and he was sleeping until noon on the day of the invasion. Panzer divisions could not be properly deployed because only Hitler, not the field marshalls, had the authority to deploy them. Therefore, with all of these factors considered, the Allied effort was indeed the superior one.

This is a fascinating history and it gives a great appreciation of the painstaking planning, coordination and execution of this important and highly intense event. I highly recommend it.

This is a gripping account of the D-Day landings from the first glider drop of the British Airborne Division at 0016 hours to the sad reflections of Eisenhower standing on Omaha Beach twenty years later. Ambrose strikes a fine balance between technical information and the personal recollections of the ordinary soldiers who came through the ordeal. For this reason, the book is very readable despite its length. The description of the Omaha Beach landings creates a real impact. Like many others, I'm sure, I was inspired to read this book after seeing Saving Private Ryan but if anything this creates an even more vivid image than the film. Of the many anecdotes, perhaps the most memorable describes a momentary ceasefire during the battle for a coastal village while an old woman wandered down the street quite oblivious to the chaos around her. No sooner had she departed than the violence erupted again. Astonishing.

For the younger reader exploring Charles Dickens, this abridged version will not be intimidating. It'll help open the door to classic literature, and challenging ideas.

"Oliver Twist" is a complex story about the English welfare system for orphans, overlayed by a story of love, family, and the pursuit of each.

What is missing from this version is Dickens' long descriptions and thorough presentations of a situation. What makes Dickens great, in part, is his multi-woven characters, filled with color and excitement. Some of that is lost here.

That said, this is an excellent choice for an older child having trouble reading, or the younger, aggressive reader. The story about Oliver Twist is strong enough to endure an adaptation, but, later on, it is a thrill to read the original version.

I fully recommend "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens.

Anthony Trendl

This book surprised me, not by the quality of its writing, which one can expect from Charles Dickens, but by the violent, lusty primal quality of the story. This is no dry musty tome, but a vital novel that arouses both passion and intellect. A literal page turner, I found myself having more than one sleepless night when I just couldn't put it down.

Inside are some of the major characters in the realm of fiction; Fagin and his gang of child thieves, including the Artful Dodger. Nancy, the proverbial hooker with a heart of gold. Master Charles Bates (was this a pun even then?) Bad Bill Sikes, who shows the darker edge to all of this dangerous fun, and the innocent, pure Oliver Twist, who is the very definition of nature over nurture.

A great book, and one that I am glad to have finally read.

Like so many of Dickens' novels, Oliver Twist is a fantastically crafted and engrossing novel. Dickens follows the life of a young orphan boy, Oliver, who grows up amidst desperate poverty in London in the early 19th Century. Dickens leads the reader on a delightful and engaging romp, as Oliver escapes his orphanage, gets mixed up in the wrong crowd, and ultimately comes out on top.

The story within Oliver Twist is very engrossing, replete with many twists, turns and surprises that are occasionally tragic but more often witty or flat out hilarious. The characters are all superbly developed, and the multiple story lines are intricately and cleverly woven together. Oliver Twist is an excellent introduction to Dickens, and patient readers will find this novel accessible. The intricate plotline does require some concentration, while some readers may be annoyed by Dickens' notoriously lengthy sentences.

This is an important book to read for it is heavily engrained in Anglo-American culture and most first-time readers will recognize many of the names (Fagin, Artful Dodger) and scenes from previous cultural references. While clearly enjoyable at the superficial level, the novel also makes a powerful statement about poverty and the power of the human spirit in the face of depravity.

I enjoyed this book very much. There is a lot of good stuff written about Buddhism for westerners these days, and there is a lot of tripe too. The latter is often characterized by romantic and flowery misrepresentations of "enlightenment" as a state of bliss and profound cosmic consciousness. The authors of these books pay lip service to the central Buddhist idea of no-self, but in the end the idea is to build up a new and improved ego. Batchelor's book is characteristic of a more hard-headed and "take your medicine and deal with it" sort of Buddhism, not unlike that of Charlotte Beck. I particularly like the way he attacked the misuse of the concept of karma - i.e., as just another religious "behave yourself and you'll get a nice cookie when you die" salve for the ego. Most Buddhist writers dance around the topic of emptiness - Batchelor really gets into it and builds a useful approach to life around it. Recommended!

In this wonderful, concise introduction, Batchelor has captured the essence of the Buddha's teachings . By going directly to the source and peeling away the accumulated dogma of various traditions, he makes Buddhism relevant for our time. He shows how, despite the Buddha's wishes, over time Buddhism became a religion and an institution unto itself. Of course, rigid doctrinaire thinkers like Bob Thurman will see red when they read Batchelor's simple wisdom, which eliminates the need for hocus-pocus and a priestly class. Batchelor even questions the need for belief in karma and reincarnation, long accepted as essential Buddhist beliefs.

Batchelor presents his ideas in simple, but not simplistic, prose, with easy-to-grasp examples. His credentials as a Buddhist and a scholar are beyond reproach, and while others may disagree, no one can question his seriousness and authority. Unlike self-styled gurus and flim-flam artists like "Lama Surya Das" (Jeffrey Miller), Batchelor is not interested in self-aggrandizement; merely in conveying his ideas.

He succeeds admirably in this book.

Highly recommended.

Mr. Batchelor's dual background - first as a Tibetan monk and translator then later as a Korean Zen monk - gives him two eyes to see Buddhism with. It gives him cross-cultural depth perception that allows him to see the essense of awakening separate from the cultures that encrust it. Perhaps that helps him write such a succinct, clear, and radiant book.

It's odd that Batchelor is an unwitting lightning-rod for the Buddhist religious right. (Bet you didn't think that was even POSSIBLE, did you?! Surprise! Sadly, Buddhism isn't all that different from any other religion.) He doesn't attack their beliefs. He stays in the vast middle and says that he honestly doesn't know.

When I saw him lecture, I saw a student of Thinley Norbu's stand up and beg him to believe in rebirth! It was like watching a fundamentalist Christian begging someone to accept Jesus as his personal savior, as though Buddhism was about embracing the right conceptual beliefs. It was the oddest and saddest thing! Why bother becoming a Buddhist if you're going to behave like that?

He handled it with great patience and compassion, I thought. I asked him about it afterwards and apparently it happens to him all the time!

Wonderful book.

The authors are very capable men. The book is at least an attempt to objectivly explain one's own religon without attacking another's religion. I've found that often Christians think that the only way to share their own religion is to attack others. For Mormons it is a good course in understanding other christians. For evangelicals it is a good way for them to learn that Christ intended his Gospel to be shared with love, not by tearing others down, but building them up. However Ultimatley this book is only these two men's opinon. Robinson can in no way speak for 10 million Mormons living today, not to mention the millions that have lived since 1830. As A Mormon I sometimes found Robinson more interested in trying to ignore real differences in the religions. There are differences between Mormons and evangelicals, otherwise God would not have saw fit to inspire Joseph Smith to restore the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm sure Blomberg doesn't speak for the who know's how many Evangelical Christians, or Christians in general there are. Overall its a good book, it probably glosses over differences in order to make the thesis of the book fit, but an intelligent reader can easily see where they are straining to find common ground where there is probably none.

Great book to see the views of LDS and Evangelicals contrasted and compared. Neither pulls punches and this has been endorsed by both Evangelicals and Mormons. In a sea of anti-LDS books which have misrepresented LDS beliefs (see previous review), this book rises above it all and allows the Evangelical and Mormon to defend their own positions and clear up these problems using reasoning and scriptures. This book does not call these two groups to agree on everything, only to get a better picture of what they actually believe without having the other put words in their mouths (see previous review). I dont think the previous reviewer even read the book by his/her comments. A must read for a scholarly view of these two groups beliefs

This book is the first of its kind in the field of Mormon studies: an honest effort by a Mormon scholar and a theologian of another religious tradition to understand each other's views. While most comparative studies of Mormonism with other religions and churches tend to emphasize the distinctive and divergent points, this studies maintains a perspective and balance that acknowledges the similarities as well as the differences. It also does a great service in identifying many points which appear divergent but which in fact have great similarity, a fact that is hidden by divergent terminology about the same concepts. Most important, it lets members of each religion explain the beliefs of his own church or tradition, rather than insisting that believers in the other church believe things which most individual members in fact do not believe. This book sets a new standard for honest and informative scholarship on the Mormons and helps place that church in the context of the American Christian tradition. It should be the first in a series that compares Mormonism with Catholic, Orthodox, and non-Evangelical Christian beliefs. One suspects that a great deal of work and time went into this study by both authors--which is probably why most books examining Mormonism are so poor in comparison, because their authors are not willing to do the heavy lifting.

For anyone who likes history, this book is an uneven, but overall excellent and very enjoyable, series of exercises in "counterfactual" history. Not the silly, frivolous, or nonsensical kind, where Robert E. Lee all of a sudden is given a nuclear bomb, but instead serious, meaty (even highly PROBABLE) ones, like what would have happened if there hadn't been a mysterious plague outside the walls of Jerusalem, or if there had been a Persian victory at Salamis, or if Genghis Khan's drunken third son (Ogadai)had not died just as his hordes were poised to conquer (and probably annhilate) Europe, or if Cortes had been killed or been captured Tenochtitlan, etc.

The major flaw with this book is that the essays are of somewhat uneven interest level, style, and quality. Personally, for instance, I found the essay on the Mongols to be fascinating, sending chills down my spine! "D Day Fails" by Stephen Ambrose, on the other hand, didn't do much for me at all, nor did "Funeral in Berlin." In general, I would say that the essays covering earlier periods in human history tend to be better than ones covering more recent history. Possibly this is in part because the later periods have been covered to death. I mean, how many "counterfactuals" on the US Civil War can there be before we get sick of them? But a well-written, tightly-reasoned counterfactual which, based on events hundreds or even thousands of years ago, quite plausibly leads to a result where there is no Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, or Western culture at all, is absolutely fascinating in my opinion. If nothing else, books like "What If?" show how important CHANCE is in human history, as well as the importance of the INDIVIDUAL, as opposed to some Hegelian/Marxist-Leninist historical "inevitability." The bottom line is that it is rare that anything is truly "inevitable", and the aptly titled "What If?" gives us some excellent case studies.

Who hasn't wondered about a decision not taken or the string of uninterrupted causation that is required for any single person to exist? Think about your own life: the chain of events which resulted in your parents meeting; how you ended up in your current job; the college you attended; you never attended college; or how you met your current significant other. We are all shaped by historical choices, both ones made by ourselves, and those made on a scale that can alter history.

"What If?" gathers some of the world's foremost military historians to offer hypothetical counterfactuals, including: What If Alexander the Great had died in battle at the age of 21, before he had built an empire? What if the American Revolution had resulted in disaster? What if certain key battles in the American Civil War had changed? This is fun reading as it is always interesting to consider alternative paths not taken or paths unavailable by happenstance.

This book contains a number of excellent examples of counterfactual speculation, with only a few medicore essays. The authors examine how individual actions can have an impact as can the whims of weather.

This is an enjoyable book and, because of the broad area of military history, invites the potential for sequels. For example: One counterfactual I've always wondered about occurred in December of 1814 here in my home town of New Orleans. A prosperous son of Creole planters was awakened by the sound of British troops landing at the back of his plantation. Young Mr. Villere jumped out the window and headed for New Orleans, dodging a shot from a British sentry. Villere arrived in New Orleans and spread the alarm. Gen. Andrew Jackson gathered his forces and launched a surprise attack on the British. The British, unsure of the forces facing them, slowed their advance to give time to consolidate their forces. This gave Jackson time to throw up some defenses on the plains of Chalmette. Within 2 weeks the British had been defeated after suffering enourmous casualties attempting to storm Jackson's fortifications.

But what if the British sentry had not missed young Mr. Villere? Had the British continued their advance it is conceivable that these veterans of the Peninsular campaign could have won the Battle of New Orleans. Today people only remember that the Battle of New Orleans was fought after a peace treaty had been signed. But the treaty had not yet been ratified. Further, in the treaty the British recognized the status of borders prior to the war. But Britain had never recognized the Louisiana purchase, as the Spainish had violated a treaty with Britain when Spain secretly sold Louisiana to France. Britain could have attempted to keep New Orleans. This would have meant a widening of the war. It also begs the following question: Would there have been sufficient British troops to win at Waterloo?

As you can see counterfactual speculation leads to a never ending string of alternative possibilities. But it is enjoyble to speculate, as is "What If?"

Heard the taped version of WHAT IF?: THE WORLD'S FOREMOST
MILITARY HISTORIANS IMAGINE WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN, edited
by Robert Cowley . . . I often speculate about lots of things, and so do the contributors to this book--including Stephen E. Ambrose, John Keegan, David McCollough, and James M. McPherson (to name just a few).

For example, what if:
George Washington had never made his miraculous escape
from the British on Long Island in the early dawn of August 29, 1776?

a Confederate aide hadn't accidentally lost General Robert E. Lee's plans for invading the North?

the Allied invasion on D Day had failed?

These and a whole host of other questions are considered . . . the resultant answers are often fun, but at the same time, sometimes frightening . . . as in, Hitler's case . . . had he not attacked Russia when he did, he might have moved into the Middle East and secured the oil supplies the Third Reich so badly needed, thus helping it retain its power in Europe . . . can you just imagine the present-day implications for that scenario?

If you're a history buff, this is a MUST read . . . but methinks
that others will enjoy it and become much more interested
in the subject as a result . . . I know that I'm now looking
forward to Coweley's follow-up effort, WHAT IF? 2.

Stephen Harrison's book is not so much a translation of Lao-tzu's TAO TE CHING, as a poetic rendering of the Chinese original. Because he does not know Chinese, Harrison acknowledges in the book's Foreward that, in addition to working from dozens of literal translations of Lao-tzu's "Book of the Way," he completed "a fourteen-year-long course in Zen training," which brought him "face to face with Lao-tzu" (p. x). Despite the fact that Harrison has taken great liberties in paraphrasing, expanding, interpreting and reworking the text of Lao-tzu's original, he has nevertheless created a Tao-inspired poem that stands on its own when read as such. "If I haven't always translated Lao-tzu's words," Harrison explains, "my intention has always been to translate his mind" (p. x).

Lao-tzu's words speak to those searching for a meaningful way of life in a society where values are degraded by ecomonomic, military, and modern interests. In its emphasis of mastering oneself, Harrison has done a good job in capturing the Tao essence of Lao-tzu's book. "Knowing others is intelligence," we're told; "knowing yourself is true wisdom" (Chapeter 33). Harrison follows the classic 81-verse format of Lao-tzu's original, which teaches simplicity, patience, and compassion. For those readers new to the TAO TE CHING, just as "the journey of a thousand miles starts beneath your feet" (Chapter 64), Harrison's rendering should be considered only the first step toward the Tao. It has been said that understanding the TAO TE CHING is the journey of a lifetime. For those interested in taking another step, I recommend the more literal and more challenging translations of the TAO TE CHING by Red Pine, Robert Henricks and Moss Roberts.

G. Merritt

Next to the Bible, the most translated book in the world is the Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese Book of the Way. It lays the philosophical foundations for one of the world's great wisdom traditions, Taoism. Written approximately 2,500 years ago by the legendary sage Lao Tzu, this classic continues to inspire readers today. To translate a work that has been translated so many times before--and so well--may seem almost an act of hubris. But as the English language continues to evolve, it is the duty of the translator to attempt to restate a classic for his or her generation, in a language that they can best understand. Stephen Mitchell, in Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, has done that for our generation. And to him we owe a debt of gratitude. Huston Smith has called this translation "definitive," and he has spoken well. At first, a traditionalist may be startled by, for instance, Mitchell's referring to the master as alternately "he" and "she;" whereas, the original refers to the master as masculine, only, thereby reflecting the truth of things in sixth century B.C. China. But when one remembers that the translator is duty-bound to bring the ideas of the text to his or her contemporaries in a way that will have most meaning for them, then one can see the wisdom of taking such a liberty. And, after all, it is in the spirit of Taoism to adapt to the circumstance. As water sometimes comes to earth in the form of rain, sometimes snow, and sometimes sleet, but always in accord with the season, so this classic comes to us now in a form that is right for our own day. Thus, once again, this time with the help of Stephen Mitchell, the Tao Te Ching speaks to humanity, pointing the way.

If you choose only one Tao te Ching translation... this shouldn't be it.

BUT.... if you choose 2 or 3, this should definantly be among them :)
It is also the best for introducing a Westerner not familiar with Taoist thought to Taoism.

There have been complaints by many Taoists about this translation, and I understand their complaints, BUT some people are not interested in Taoism as a Dogma or "religion" or a history lesson.... but in the *WISDOM* of the Tao, which is what this book conveys perfectly.
Though it is not literal I do not find it to be in any way inconsistant with the spirit or wisdom of Lao Tzu's teaching.

The language, poetry, and insight in this book as well as the utter simplicity make it a WONDERFUL read... and the "liberties" help make Taoism more accessable to those not accustomed to interpreting the meaning of the literal translation and giving it modern application.
This is one of 2 Tao Te Ching translations I know by heart, I highly recomend it.