Edward Bear writes a compassionate and thought provoking tale of one man's journey as he accompanies others on their final journey. The characters are as varied as any group of people, but similiar in their need to make peace with this life before they move on to their next destination.

It is a story that resonates with remembrances of people who have passed and reminders of the power of kindness. It is a great read.

What a delight. I laughed, I cried and didn't want it to end. If you enjoyed "Tuesdays With Morrey", you'll love this too. A great read and would make a good gift, especially for those who take life to seriously.

I found this book to be thought provoking and inspirational. The spiritual thread of the book was woven through an interesting story. I recommend it to those looking for something special and different.

A comprehensive outline of the major 10 decision traps from decision psychology aspects.

I benefit a lot from the book's reminder on those "traps" which I have also committed some.

A good value book.

This book is excellent for anyone who is required to make strategic decisions. It will give you a clear framework for stepping back and making sure that you understand the problem that you are trying to solve and that you are considering all appropriate solutions to the problem.

I am so happy because I can tell you my idea about this book. This book is very useful when I must make decision. I will never forget the trap,then I think I will be able to make better decision.

Keogh keeps an excellent balance between material for "complete idiots" and material for engineers. He uses simple metaphors (lots of highway traffic comparisons) to explain the "why" and "how" of networks, and anticipates reader's questions fairly well. The book is up to date, and covers just about any subject you need to be familiar with if you want to talk to engineers using their vernacular. The industry overview, covering major players, was particularly useful. There is one flaw, whose importance depends on your own reading habits: the writing style is atrocious, and it looks as if the book never went through an editor at Prentice Hall. While the conversational style makes the material easier to absorb, there is a good number of spots that would be marked in red all over if this was an English 101 paper. Still worth it, though.

I'm a big fan of the Dummies series and never thought I'd find anything to compete with it except for the Idiot's Guides. I was wrong. I found this book covers the topic much better than the Dummies and Idiot's guides. The author writes in my kind of language - plain and simple so the average guy can understand. And the indepth coverage of the industry is a bonus. I really like the author's down to earth style of writing. This is a buy.

I always found computer networking mystifying in the way it can transport my words around the world in a fraction of a second. I've read a lot of books on the subject, but this is the only one I found that clearly explains this process. The book is full of networking jargon, but that shouldn't scare you because each is explained in a way anyone can understand. He uses the highway metaphor, so if you understand how cars travel the highway then you'll easily relate to how words and pictures travel on a network. I recommend this book hands down.

If you are a ref...this book teaches you how to really BE one and be a PART of the game..not the obstruction to it. YOU NEED this book it is the best referee book ever written.

As a Grade 7 referee upgrading to a Grade 6 - State Referee I have read everything I can about Soccer Refereeing. I wish I would have found this book first instead of last. The authors bring wonderful insight to the "sport" of Soccer Refereeing. They have given me so many new and wonderful ideas that I can't wait to try them this season.

Whether you are a new referee or an experienced referee I would highly suggest this book. It covers topics that were never ever discussed in my training sessions. So much so that I actually have a new outlook on how I referee this wonderful game of soccer.

The other books are good and are worth your time but read this book first, then go to the others.

Michael Metz - USSF Grade 7 Referee - AYSO Area Referee

This book is the best book I have read so far about being a referee. This is not a book to read if you are trying to learn the rules of soccer themselves. This book is full of techniques and practical advice for use in actually officiating a soccer match. This is my first year as a referee, after several years as a coach of youth teams and playing in adult leagues. This book was of enormous help to me and made my "rookie" year so much easier. I concure with the other reviewers. Many of them, from the titles they list on the reviews, are experienced referees. Their coments about this book influenced me to get the book and I am very glad I did. If you are looking to be a better soccer referee, this is a must read.

"Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," Hebrews 12:1. For years this race has teased me. My feet have pounded the road with this cheering challenge dancing around in my head. The problem is that this challenge was almost crowded out by all the theories floating around with it. No matter how badly I wanted to win I couldn't ever seem to come up with a clear plan, just a resolve to try harder, run faster, be better. But none of these were means to the end I was seeking. They were only goals themselves.

Then I found the book Go the Distance. Though I was immediately drawn to the theme, I felt skeptical that a book could redirect my path when few others had. I was wrong.

As I sampled the first pages of the book, I was practicing my usual disciplined, "give it a chance mode." I expected to have to dig into the plot of this new book a bit before I gained the desire to finish it. I was so surprised to feel my pulse quicken and my eyes mist over when I was only finishing the dedication. Rowell proved two important points to me while his page numbers were still Roman. He had something to say to one of those deep fears and mysteries in my heart: "How can I be really successful?" Not, "How can I be more productive, efficient, wealthy, intelligent, muscular?" (I've already read all those.) How can I find the purpose for which I was created and live in it? More importantly, Rowell's style proved that he knew how to tell me.

Rowell chose to dedicate a book about success to two of his former teachers. "I would tell Mom over the phone," he writes, "Be sure and tell Mr. Trotter about me." How many times have I wanted the real winners in my life to be proud of me? And I as I go further down the road, how I long to know that I will be the kind of cheerleaders that these men were! Because Rowell could show how these two men made him believe that he had worth, I knew that he was speaking to the kind of success I sought. And, I was hungry for more.

After hooking me, Go the Distance changed my own race strategy dramatically. It offered the experience of many who have run much further than I've gone. This author spares me a published personal agenda. He offers instead a compilation of many interviews with winners and what they can share about their own successes. Having already practiced many of their strategies along the way, Rowell is able to weave these together with his own insights into a game plan that reads like a great story.

Perhaps the most powerful personal application I found in Go the Distance was in the time management arena. When I read about Ken Hatch in chapter one, I winced painfully and felt the need to look over my shoulder to see if someone was watching. For years I've resolved again and again to simplify and not live in such a hurried frenzy. Reading Go the Distance provoked me to stop asking, "How can I fit more in?" "What would make me more productive?" and to ask instead, "Why do I feel such a need to produce?" "How can I stay focused on my purpose?"

Making these kinds of changes in the questions I ask myself has been the catalyst to finally getting me on the right path towards finding my own purpose. I am so hopeful after reading Go the Distance that I will finish well. Finally in all the books I've read, I have one that has helped me focus on the finish line rather than chase my own tail.

So often in the world of self-help this and self-help that, major points get lost in the writer going on and on about how HE or SHE overcame negative circumstances and eventually found happiness, rather than on practical steps that can be implemented in the life of the reader. While Ed Rowell does draw upon his own life and the lives of his family and friends to make his points, he does so only to illustrate how YOU can benefit from the very practical, very thoughtful principles contained within the pages of Go The Distance. For me, I realized that life is more about my relationship with God than it is my relationship to failure and adversity. Ed Rowell points out that our response to life is more important than what life throws at us - which sometimes can be a substantial mess of stuff.

In the end, it's not about where you start, it's where you finish. Sound advise from a sound writer who has a lot to say. Listening will help you win the race and enjoy the journey.

How many books on success and leadership have you read where the author borrows from so many other sources that it's tough to tell what's new and different about the book? Well, you'll have no such quibbles with Ed Rowell's Go the Distance. Ed looks unflinchingly at aspects of life that can easily bring us to our knees. He's so honest about life struggles, in fact, that you'll be weeping before you finish reading. But he doesn't leave us there. He takes the next, rare step of actually supplying us with helpful direction. He doesn't promise that success comes quickly or easily, or that success will always be what you expect. But you know that he's in there slugging away, just like you are. And after you've read his book, maybe you'll be able to avoid a few of life's bigger blows because you're equipped with Ed's wise and practical advice.

This is my first introduction to Greene & Greene's work. If you have never seen it before, think of Frank Lloyd Wright's work, except everything is allot more rounded, and comfortable looking, except for the exteriors. I would say though that Frank Lloyd Wright was a better architect, but he could have gotten Greene & Greene to make his homes interiors allot more homey looking, and less dated. If your a fan of Wright's or the Art's & Crafts movement buy the book.

The Greene brothers were architects who designed in the Arts and Crafts style. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, their style was so distinctive that they are not considered as examples of a type, but as architects whose style stands by itself. Unlike Frank Lloyd Wright, the Greene brothers' practice was almost completely limited to personal residences. This has probably limited the reach of their reputation. Outside of the Gamble house, which has been made into a museum, the work of the Greene brothers is generally not accessible to the public. All but one of their houses was in California, most of them in Pasadena. One wonders how well known Wright would be had he never designed the Guggenheim, or the Marin County Civic Center, or if he had never ventured outside of Chicago.

This book addresses the problem by taking us inside twenty-five examples of Greene and Greene's work. The text is accompanied by the breathtaking photography of Alexander Vertikoff. I own a large collection of books on the architecture of this period, and those illustrated by Vertikoff stand in a class by themselves. His photos are magnificent, doing justice to the material he portrays. I doubt if there is a finer photographer working in this field today.

With photos like these, it would have been easy to turn this volume into nothing more than a glorious picture book. Instead, Bruce Smith provides an engaging story of the careers of the two architects. The best writing is found in an extensive introduction, where the author discusses the Greene and Greene style in general terms. One can see at a glance how the style starts with Arts and Crafts. Indeed, there is a wealth of Stickley furniture in many of the houses. It is equally obvious how the two went beyond the plain craftsman designs so common further east. The Japanese influence was much stronger here, and the craftsmanship in the wood joinery was much more refined. There is more woodworking than carpentry here. The woods included Burmese teak, Honduras mahogany, Port Orford cedar, oak, maple and redwood. In some cases, the brothers were able to design furniture, landscaping and gardens to go with the architecture.

For the remainder of the book, we get a tour through twenty-five houses designed by Greene and Greene. Each house is presented in the order of its design and construction, with a history of the entire house to the present day. In some cases, this includes restoration after some abuse. Some of these houses were created on a budget; others were done with no apparent limits on the imagination of the architects. All are works of art, created as a labor of love by all concerned. For anyone unfamiliar with the work of Greene and Greene, this is an excellent introduction. For those who are already captivated, this book is a must, if only for those magnificent pictures.

As an aspiring woodworker with apparently very little natural talent, I can only view Greene & Greene's work with a mixture of awe and jealousy. While I find much of what Wright has done to be at times inaccessible and dated (primarily because so many others have attempted to copy or incorporate his style into theirs - and failed miserably by the way), the Greene's work is absolutely gorgeous, and would fit in with many current styles.....But then again you all know that. The question is why buy this particular book?

If you are looking for wonderful, full-page color photographs this is it. The first 50 pages are devoted to the G&G style; there is a page or two devoted to Materials, Joinery, Lighting etc. Descriptions are quite brief, and include a couple of pics.

The next 170 pages are devoted to 25 different houses with narration about the original design process, the ensuing history, and the current state. Again tons of color pics, and lots of shots of the furniture they designed to go with the particular house.

If you are looking for an in-depth discussion, check out Randall Makinson's "Architecture as a Fine Art/Furniture and Related Designs. These two books (now available in one edition) cover the G&G history in detail, but have less photos (many in black and white). They do have many front on center views of the furniture (as well as early drawings) so if you are interested in building their furniture, these books make a suitable companion to the one being reviewed.

Great books have a ring of truth to them. As you read, you can feel the truth resonating in your soul. Neale does a superb job of letting Spirit flow thru him into our hearts and minds. If you haven't read any of the CWG books, I recommend that you give them a chance. As to which, I have trouble distinguishing. It's like asking me which was my favorite time connecting with someone I love.

I have been on several journies in my lifetime, most of them have been bitter experiences. I have been asking questions about my existence and reasons for being in this universe. I have questioned the authority of the church and christianity in my life and the lives of others.

I am an African, and I have witnessed different spiritual powers and and different ways of worshipping and interacting with God. I have spoken with the dead aand it is for real!

Finally, I was in a bookstore in Holland ono faithful afternoon,very depressed and asking God why I have to go through so much hardship in my life, when I accidentally stumbled onto this great book. It has really changed my life. I believe that something propelled me towards this book. I believe that God has finally aanswered my call. I also believe that I deserve to have this great revealation because I have chosen to know the truth. However, I have finally realised that religion is jusst a vehicle used by people to gratify there selfish needs. I have since been living in peace.

This book will keep gravitating to those who are ready for it and no church nor authority in this universe can stop the intensity the message is radiating all over the world.

I choose to wish the messages in these books for my fellow travelers and may your lights continue to shine O Illuminatis!

in reading the first book of conversations with God it brought the realization to my inner self that we do have freedom of choice and why would God interfere with that choice. The book was so simple in the writings and yet right to the point. It reveals all the questions that people do have. It opens up our thoughts to realize that other persons experiences are given to us and if we do not do it their way than we are wrong. The book was right when it said that there is no right and there is no wrong who are we to judge others. Very good conversation, the truth is the truth and I am looking forward to reading the other books that have come out. Someone gave me this book as a gift to me and what a gift it has been.

Edward F. Murphy, Dak To: America's Sky Soldiers in South Vietnam's Central Highlands (1993, New York: Pocket Books edn., 1995)

The appearance of this marvelous little book is deceptive. Its pocket-book format might suggest a brief regimental history or narrow personal account, but author Edward Murphy's text is, in fact, a captivating and relatively sophisticated narrative of the 173d Airborne Brigade's five-month campaign in 1967 in the dense jungle of South Vietnam's Central Highlands. The fighting around a small hamlet called Dak To proved to be especially hard for two reasons: the first concerned the physical conditions and the second was in the nature of the enemy. Daytime temperatures were in the upper 90s, with humidity in excess of 90 percent, and the moisture brought out mosquitoes and leeches. At times, it rained hard practically every day. According to Murphy, "frequently [the American paratroopers'] clothes rotted in the damp jungle," so, about once a month, fresh fatigues were delivered by supply helicopter to the field. The jungle was so thick that visibility often was limited to a few meters, and nearly every foot of ground was covered by vegetation. Sometimes the paratroopers had to carry chain saws to cut through the jungle and to make landing zones for their supply helicopters. (It could take two hours of hard work to hack a landing zone out of the jungle.) Enlisted men carried their weapons, ammunition, and personal gear on their backs in rucksacks which weighed from 75 to 90 pounds. During the rainy season, marching 1,000 meters through the jungle in a day was considered "good progress."

The physical conditions often negated the United States' vast superiority in weapons technology. For instance, according to Murphy: "Artillery [could] be ineffective in the jungle...[because] shells [had] the tendency to burst in the tops of tall trees, scattering shrapnel harmlessly about." "Too often, airstrikes and gunships could not effectively penetrate the thick jungle canopy." Furthermore, according to Murphy: "To prevent U.S. air strikes and artillery from decimating its ranks, the [North Vietnamese and Viet Cong] 'hugged' the Sky Soldiers, closing to within ten to twenty meters of their perimeter." In addition to the difficult conditions, and in contrast to the combat farther south, which was mostly against Viet Cong irregulars, the paratroopers, many of whom were still teenagers, battled elements of the North Vietnamese Army, "professionals who [knew] how to fight." The fighting often was brutal. One of the favored weapons of the North Vietnamese was the RPG, a Soviet-manufactured antitank rocket used as an antipersonnel weapon against American infantry. Furthermore, there was nothing chivalrous about the war at Dak To. After one fierce firefight, Murphy reports, a medical specialist "could hear the wounded screaming for mercy as the NVA walked among them, executing those paratroopers still alive." On another occasion, when the paratroopers returned to the site of one battle to recover their dead, they found that "corpses had been mutilated, their features destroyed, ring fingers cut off, and ears removed." Early in the book, Murphy writes that the "173d possessed great morale. All its men were volunteers for airborne training and most had volunteered for South Vietnam." During the Dak To campaign, however, the paratroopers' frustrations mounted. At one moment, when a "friendly" artillery round landed too close for comfort to an American captain, he grabbed his company's radio handset and screamed: "Send another round this way and I'll kill the son of a bitch who fires it." One of Murphy's clearest themes is the gradual erosion of the paratroopers' confidence in their superior officers. According to the author, the generals' "grand plans meant little to the average Sky Soldier. All he knew was that he was out in the boonies, humping day after day in the monotonous mountains and valleys of the Central Highlands." Furthermore, Murphy writes that when Gen. William Westmoreland, the American commander in Vietnam, flew to Dak To on June 23, 1967 to talk with the survivors of one fierce battle, "You took on a tough NVA unit and whipped their asses," a sergeant whispered to a buddy, "Wonder what he's been smoking?" Murphy offers many glimpses of the cruel ironies and inequities of war. In one instance, after a Marine jet dropped a 500-lb. bomb directly on an aid station for wounded American paratrooper, an American officer on the ground pleaded into a radio: "No more f------ planes. Please no more planes. You're killing us up here. Stop it." The bomb wounded over 80 men badly enough to be brought to the aid station, but nearly all the medics were dead. Meanwhile, the pilot returned "to his base at Da Nang with its air-conditioned officers' club, ice-cold beers, hot showers, and clean sheets," The ongoing controversy about the accuracy of "body counts" is on display here. At one point during the Dak To campaign, when North Vietnamese dead were reported as 1,644, Gen. Westmoreland stated in a press conference: "I think [the battle was] the beginning of a great defeat for the enemy." According to Murphy, however, "these figures are suspect,"and the actual number probably was closer to 1,000. (After one battle, the 173d's after-action report stated that 513 NVA had been killed even though the best estimate of men engaged in the battle was that the number of enemy of killed in action actually was 50 to 75.)

One veteran master sergeant, who fought in three wars, told the Murphy that, in 25 years as a paratrooper, he had never seen anything approaching the death and destruction at Dak To. The author leaves no doubt about the paratroopers' bravery or the 173d Airborne Brigade richly-deserved reputation as one of the elite units of the United States' armed forces. But the answer to the larger question - What were American fighting men doing in the jungles of Vietnam in the first place? - remains unanswered.

This book was fabulous, my brother was the FNG written about. It was the first I ever knew about his experiences in Vietnam and I knew he was wonderful, but I never imagined the experience he and the other soldiers had. For whatever reason, he never discussed his tour with us and after reading this book I know why. It is just so much to bear for so many, so young. They really were heroes. A must read for anyone interested in the Vietnam war.

This is one of the best volumes about a desperate, bloody battle during the Vietnam War. Fought between the veteran paratroopers of the 173d Airborne Brigade and North Vietnamese Regulars in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in late 1967, the author demonstrates through graphic prose and primary evidence just how savage and vicious the fighting in Vietnam was. This legendary fight took place almost immediately before the TET offensive of January 1968 and ruined some of the NVA units that were to take part in that offensive and helped ruin the chances for the Comminists to gain victory. Victory in this fight came at a heavy cost, and this book chronicles just how savage and desperate, and how heart-breaking the American losses were.

For me personally, this book means much, as my brother was a company commander in the 2d Battalion of the 503d infantry, one of the four infantry battalions of the 173d Airborne Brigade, and he was killed in action leading his company on Hill 875.

This book is as good as We Were Soldiers Once And Young, and it is one of the best books I have read on the war in Vietnam. It shows the courage and skill of outnumbered Americans who fought, died, and never quit-something that never really came out of the general media coverage of that unpopular war.

This volume is highly recommended and the author is to be congratulated for he has told a story of high valor and much suffering, and of the ongoing skill of the American soldier doing his duty, appreciated or not, in foreign lands fighting and defeating a skilled and determined enemy.

Virtute et Valore

This delightful rhyming story takes the reader on the adventure of Edward the Emu, who decides being an Emu is boring, and travels around the zoo, trying to be other animals, only to discover that perhaps being an Emu is the best thing there is. With its fantastic illustrations, and rollicking rhymes, this would make a great bedtime story (and it isn't too long for parents who start dropping off to sleep when pressed into reading for ages each night).

"Edward the Emu" is one of the funniest books I have ever read! I use it in storytime with three year olds and I laugh as much as they do! Edward is silly but determined to be a different animal but at the end decides he likes being himself. What a wonderful way to show kids that everyone is unique and special in their own way!

I am a school teacher and over the years I have read this book to hundreds of children of primary age. They have all loved it. The story line is amusing and the illustrations are fantastic. It is good to use with younger children and get them to predict what the next part of the story is going to be. I was very pleased to see that this book is still in print as I have had over 10 years of fun out of it already.