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Confronting the Cow offers hope, understanding and consolation to caregivers, cancer sufferers and their survivors. This is a very nicely produced book and a great tribute to Lisa. DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com
His warm, personable, and at times humorous accounts of life's daily experiences allow the reader to step inside his very existence in a virtual sense.
Donner shares his thoughts, fears, and techniques for supporting his wife, and their four children, who were all less than six years old, at the time the illness presented itself. In his book, Donner works through all of the human emotions and challeges that breast cancer provokes.
He provides just enough technical information to educate the reader on the disease's symptoms and treatment while providing insight into the medical profession's response to the disease.
While the book is powerfully emotional and moving, it leaves the reader with a sense of optimism and well-being.
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The introduction provides a rather good analysis of Schmitz's characters, plots, and style, but doesn't much address his environments, probably due to length considerations. A more extensive analysis of these environments is provided by Eric Flint in the Baen editions of Schmitz's SF works.
"Grandpa" is a story of a Colonial team that found a surprise in the ecology of an unexplored planet. "Lion Loose" is a Quillan tale wherein he gains an unusual ally. "Just Curious" is about a unique mental ability and the reaction of a man who has been subjected to it. "The Second Night of Summer" tells what Grimp and Grandma did during summer vacation. "Novice" is another summer vacation story, in which Telzey drives her Aunt Halet to hysterics. "Balanced Ecology" is the story of an environent that adopts a human family. "The Custodians" is a tale of a hijacking and a man's conscience. "Sour Note On Palayata" is a Psychological Service story about consciousness and wisdom. "Goblin Night" is a yarn about Telzey, Chomir and a spook.
This collection is a fairly balanced selection of the author's short works, ranging from the quite familiar to the fairly obscure. Although not necessarily the "best" of his short stories, all are interesting and enjoyable and have that characteristic sense of wonder. While this is a good starting point for readers who have never before encountered this author, serious fans will also want to buy the Baen publications, which contain so much more.
Highly recommended to Schmitz fans and anyone who enjoys interstellar adventure with a sense of wonder.
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The new title is nothing short of gripping from page one. Scribe Mark Millar has done amazing things with the retelling, taking risky liberties that pay off. His X-Team initially starts off with Marvel Girl(who sports a punk rocker's hairdo) and Cyclops(Every bit the same boyscout in the Claremont run) who recruit Beast, Storm, and Colossus. Their first mission is to retrieve Bobby Drake, who's being hunted down by Sentinals, but Magneto has his own agendas as well.
The differences from the original are mostly good. The characters are far from being as lighthearted as their normal universe counterparts. Beast's mother refuses to speak with him. Colossus was a Russian arm's dealer and Storm, a small-time carjacker and pickpocket. Magneto is every bit as charismatic and frightening as he well should be. And Wolverine ... well, let's just say he's working freelance.
Millar's dialouge is always very strong and well thought out. Through the first storyarc, he'll do thinks that will make you balk and then appreciate the originality of it all. The Kubert brothers' art works perfectly, always detailed and well paced.
Now, what's bad? Very little. With such a large cast of mutants, many fan-favorites don't make appearances until much later on, if at all. Mystique was a full fledged member of the team in Millar's rough drafts, but not at all present in the final work. Nightcrawler, a personal favorite, appears in the second storyarc collected here, and plays a significant role, but is absent from the later issues. But one should read this for the story, not the charcters. In addition, the second story doesn't seem to really go anywhere. It's good, not as good as the first, but it seems there was more that could've, or should've been done with the plot.
All-in-all, this collection isn't a must-have, but a good read and worth owning if you're a fan of the X-Men. It may not be perfect, but it comes darn close.
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Brian Michael Bendis flawlessly introduces two major villains from Spiderman's rogue gallery, Doc Octopus and Kraven the Hunter. There is such a quality to this work, such an attention to detail. Bendis is really building this series from the ground up, really breathing new life and fleshing out Peter Parker. And while Bendis respects the history of Spiderman, he by no means is hampered by it, and has no problem discarding details that make no sense.
Mark Bagley is definitely improving as this series progresses. I have been really quite impressed, it seems his storytelling is improving, and the action is very easy to follow. To me, Bagley has become a part of the book, an integral part of the experience.
This is a very intelligent Spider-title, and it only stands that it will get better and better, as has been the case so far.
At this point in the comic book the stage is merely being set for the impending love triangle, but I have to tell you that what is happening here is clearly a take off on "Dawson's Creek." Seriously. Peter is Dawson, Mary Jane is Joey, and Gwen is Jen (No, Flash is not Pacey; Kong is closer to being Pacey than Flash, but Peter Parker does not have a friend, which means Harry is not Pacey either). This should prove to be interesting, especially given that Mary Jane already know's Peter's big secret. But at this point the main problem is that Aunt May has an over inflated opinion about her nephew's love life. Yes, things might actually be worse for our hero this time around.
The title of "Double Trouble" has to do with the fact that in this collection of "Ultimate Spider-Man" #14-21, Spider-Man has not one but two villains after him (I was going to say two super villains, but that would not be the case). The new and improved bad guys this time around are Doctor Octopus, who has come out of his coma to discover his tentacles are fused to his skin, and Kraven the Hunter, who is now a reality television star from Down Under. Clearly, the more you know about the original Spider-Man comics and his various foes the more you will enjoy Bendis's refinements and provocative changes. At the end of this collection Spider-Man enjoys his biggest moment in the sun since the spider bit him, which quickly follows with a particularly low moment for Peter. Even when we think we know the rules of the game, Bendis continues to surprise us.
"Double Trouble" is the third trade paperback collection of "Ultimate Spider-Man" comics, which re-imagines the webhead as a younger Peter Parker trying to learn the ropes of being a superhero. But for those who read the first couple hundred issues of the original "Amazing Spider-Man" this is a hyper retelling of the tale. Forget all the ... superheroes Spidey had to fight with; this time around the focus is on the best and the baddest. The biggest difference between these first 21 issues of "Ultimate Spider-Man" and the original comic is that a single issue is no longer a complete story; it takes eight issues for the conflict between Spidey and Doc Ock to develop and be resolved. Consequently, we have the rather paradoxical fact that things are happening much faster for Spider-Man in this retelling of the tale while taking longer to develop. I continue to be impressed by this brilliant "re-imagining," which is drawn by Mark Bagley with inks by Art Thibert and Erik Benson.
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WOMEN AND PAIN: WHY IT HURTS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO is both amazing and helpful. The authors discuss traditional methods of pain relief and control as well as alternative methods. The explanations of both vitamin and herbal aids for pain relief and the many other methods are elegantly expressed in plain, simple language that can be understood by anyone.
WOMEN AND PAIN: WHY IT HURTS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO is a masterful work about pain relief for women for this new millennium.