It has been some time since anyone is concerned about the birth order characteristics of a child. I revisited this book to find it still applies to everyday life. The book is a good reminder of fact that many believed to be a fad in the trendy psychology trade.

This book is great for beginners who want to learn about investing. It teaches practical things rather than some theory about something the average persons doesn't understand. The best part of this book is the Stock-Trak.....it's very fun lets you play the stock market with funny money.

I find this volume much less required than Vol. I. It's good stuff for a GM to have around ("The PCs have really done it this time. Let's see how long it takes them to freeze to death...Oh, here's a rule for that!), but really, really not important for players. There's a list of poisons and what they do in game terms, which might be handy, but it's largely ways for GMs to tweak their roleplaying environment toward greater/lesser realism, make up random societies (that's a table I hope to never use.)

It's still worth its 4 stars, but only as a GM. There are no ads, disads, or skills, nor are there background systems or anything else like that. It's all about environment hacking via rules.

Title says it all. With this book, an axe, and a Swede saw, I built my own home in the northern woods (Yukon). Angier's enthusiasm, and can-do attitude overcomes the obstacles and leads you to an unforgetable experience. Lots of fun

The Kalahari desert area is a rather large region mostly encompassed by the modern nation of Botswana, in southern Africa. There exist a number of tribal constituencies, collectively referred to simply as Bushmen, which there maintain a rather precarious existence, sometimes by means that to us would probably seem magical.

This monograph is aimed at the growing population of people in the United States (and around the world) who avail themselves to (and some who practice) forms of healing which stem from indigenous cultures around the globe. I am surmising that it is because of this narrow focus that there is no introduction to apprise the reader of the very fertile range of mythologies, which are part of Bushman lore. (Nor is any other sort of cultural context attempted!) Instead, the text plunges directly into a series of inspiring, spiritually significant monologues, which have been directly transcribed from what the healers have spoken. There are features of this 'outback phenomenology' which are common to many of those who are speaking. But we also hear of individual characteristics, as well as different levels of attainment amongst the various healing practitioners. For the most part, their manners of speaking are cogent, honest, and delightfully graphic, coming straight from the heart.

Healing in all shapes and manners always, for these groups of people, occurs within the context of specific dance forms (along with their accompanying music). There is (so common in numerous other cultures in sub-Saharan Africa) that severe shaking which overtakes the healer/dancer, subsequent to which he/she gets in contact with his/her ancestors. These entities from beyond the grave enter into close quarters with the 'afflicted' healer, explaining how to doctor the given patient, as well as helping to locate who within the crowd needs healing.

Often the best healers experience a great light as if from within; some may see themselves out of their body, or up above it - as if witnessing the scene from another dimension [though the normal world would generally still be seen from/through it]. When the healer takes the pain of the patient, it can hurt a lot, but afterwards the healer feel much better, and elevated. There are many variations on these basic experiences. One of the most profound is that a healer may initiate someone else by transferring the power/knowledge/energy (which he/she holds) to the initiate (and without losing power in the process). The healer him/herself would usually have been initiated this way, or by one of the ancestral spirits from beyond the grave.

All in all, this is a beautifully packaged fount of knowledge. Though the hardbound text is only 5/8 of an inch thick or so in its slipcase, it is profusely endowed with numerous, beautifully tinted colored photographs of varying sizes. The CD accompanying the text is glorious. There are healing songs recorded on site, as well as a number of spoken blessings. Bushmen dialects include several different oral 'clicking' sounds as part of their alphabet, so that even their speech is like a subtle music, which most of us have not heretofore had a chance to hear/experience.

Very interesting! This book contains alot of specific information of how to stay alive in the woods for lengthy periods of time. A must have for all survival junkies.

As an alpaca breeder for seven years, I still use this book as a reference guide and highly recommend it to folks who might be interested in breeding alpacas. It covers a wide range of topics with great illustrations and facts, from what signs of labor to look for to how to care for the newborn cria and don't forget the dam, after she delivers. Know that everything listed and described might not happen, but is a nice presentation and helpful resource to have besides your vet. If your vet is new to camelids, its a great reference source for them as well.

Since Kingsley Amis was one of the most interesting and amusing 20th century English novelists, any book that closely examines his complete work is bound to be welcome. As well as the sheer gut-busting humour and insight of his first and best known novel, Lucky Jim, Amis was an excellent story-teller capable of serious reflection about the human condition. He just didn't believe in being pompous and self-important about it. Some of his books - The Anti-Death League, for instance, or The Green Man - serve up a fascinating blend of dry humour, drama, characterisation, philosophy and even gut-wrenching suspense.

Obviously the man who wrote these books - not forgetting poetry, critical essays and biographies - was himself quite complex. The life and soul of any party, though many were hurt by his scathing wit, Amis was scared of the dark and even being alone, and was apparently prone to sudden attacks of pure existential fear. The tendency to identify him with Lucky Jim, his first and most famous anti-hero, was strengthened by the gradually spreading awareness of the chronic womanising which broke up both his marriages. Yet it seems that Amis much regretted these domestic disasters, conceivably having failed to understand that marriage offers real, though easily overlooked, benefits to husbands as well as wives.

Bradford's thesis is simply that, denials to the contrary notwithstanding, all of Amis' fiction is drawn directly from his own life experience. All he manages to demonstrate, however, is the meaninglessness of this position. Of course every author draws on experience for material - otherwise all fiction would be fantasy. When Bradford is reduced to arguing that "Simona... has characteristics so completely different from Jane's as to virtually announce themselves as covering devices", the poverty of his basic idea is clearly revealed. If a character resembles anyone Amis ever met, he must have copied that character from real life. But if the character is completely different, the same inference is drawn.

Otherwise, the book is well written and evidently based on research as thorough as Amis' own (for a surprising rigour was one of his best qualities). This impression is hardly spoiled by occasional infelicities and repetitions - and at least when Bradford revisits the same text twice, he tells the same story each time. Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it will surely encourage any reader to get hold of Amis' novels and read them (or re-read them, as the case may be).

Is it evil to smile at the thought of how Amis would have fumed if he could have read the manuscript himself? Not really - it is the sort of joke he himself would have appreciated, and perhaps accompanied by his famous "crazy peasant" face.

i cant believe i am the first - were i not i may not have bothered - but this is arguably a great book so i must, and am told, regarded as a classic my yachties in the med

this man is scorned by historians (does dorky things like quote encyclopaedias?) & his style can be amateurish, but hey - rarely dull

great choice of subject - a/ the med is the hub of most history & b/ the bridge between east & west so he can wander off in either direction - whatever is interesting - his passion tho is naval technology - which is fine as it was the determiner of power.

so - read all about it - the suez canal of 500bc, the phoenicians rounding the cape of good hope in 500bc, the greatest scammer of all time - the doge of venice at 80 (he went along) conned the crusaders into sacking a fellow christian city - the greatest prize ever - constantinople - for a few crumbs - and got a nice bribe from the mayor of alexandria as well for diverting them from this original target

Bradford approaches the subject of Constitutional interpretation from a perspective that differs from conventional wisdom. James Madison said the constitution should be interpreted in light of the spirit and intent of the state ratifying conventions, and it is in this vein that Bradford offers his analysis. By focusing on the debates in the various states, he shows that today's courts are virtually ignoring the original intentions of the founders, as well as the intent of the authors of the "Reconstruction" amendments. This book is not thick, but it is heavy. Not easy reading, but well worth the effort - keep notes!