William Lee Rand opens the way to exploring an exceptional world where balance and wellness unfold and we undertake the mission of healing our hearts and spirits. Rand shares a unique view of Reiki in this context and offers food for thought along the way.

Mr. Rand's book is an excellent coverage of Reiki, both for beginners and those with Reiki experience. It is very clearly written and gives one a new perspective on healing energies. Highly recommended.

A great book about how Reiki can be used to help heal the planet. William is a very perceptive author and the informaition in this book would be helpful to all Reiki people. It is clear that he truly loves Reiki and has expressed his best ideas and Reiki techniques in this book. I loved every chapter. I highly recommend it to everyone.

...And I'm not kidding.

The Saga of the Jomsvikings is just about the best of the sagas (with the exception of, perhaps, the Laxdale Saga). The action is almost non-stop (once you get through the ponderous, but still interesting, introduction) and gives you a good idea about what the 12th-14th century poets/historians thought 9th-10th century exploits.

The most compelling chapter is chapter 23 where, as stated in the introduction, the author shows us the face of "...Men who know how to die." There is no hyperbole in this statement, and has, I'm sure, been the impetus for more than one writer/screenwriter (insert sly sidewise look toward Michael Crighton here).

This was the first of the Viking sagas I read and I almost didn't make it to the saga part of the book. The introduction reads as a very scholarly, ponderous doctoral thesis (which I think it was). Not knowing what to expect from a Viking saga, wading through this over-written deconstruction was not a promising start. I had visions of the saga itself being much the same--a chore to read rather than a pleasure.

Fortunately I skipped ahead to the actual saga. The translation was bright and crisp, very well done, very readable. The story was excellent. This turned out to be a splendid Viking story that led me into all the others (the Paulson and Magnussen translations are equally good). The Saga of the Jomsvikings was exciting as an adventure story and fascinating as a look at the culture and thought processes of these people at this time (the beheading scene is particularly noteworthy).

A good study in how historical fact becomes transmuted into legend. The scene in which the Jomsvikings face death unflinchingly makes for powerful reading.

This is a book about the passion of a man fishing and protecting the atlantic salmon. The atlantic salmon is the summum in fishing experience for any anglers. The book is full of stories and tips dating back some 60 years of Lee Wulff life and its worth every minute of reading, he is a great story teller. A great buy for any nature lovers, and specialy fly fishing enthousiasm.

This book was recommended by a friend. It is about the passion of a man fishing and protecting the atlantic salmon. The atlantic salmon is the summum in fishing experience for any anglers. A moment of truth, meeting nature. The book is full of stories and tips dating back some 60 years of Lee Wulff life and its worth every minute of reading, he is a great story teller. A great buy for any nature lovers, and specialy fly fishing enthousiasm.

This book is about the passion of a man fishing and protecting the atlantic salmon. The atlantic salmon is the summum in fishing experience for any anglers. The book is full of stories and tips dating back some 60 years of Lee Wulff life and its worth every minute of reading, he is a great story teller. A great buy for any nature lovers, and specialy fly fishing enthousiast.

Both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the books with the above title are wonderful additions to the many children books that I have read to my children and my grandchildren. The stories will stimulate the minds of youngsters to think creatively and to learn the challenge of solving problems.

Great reading! Readers learn tradition and history while hearing very intriguing stories which make children (and adults) think. Wonderful way to instill values in children. We need more books like this. Reflecting on what you do and the consequences (positive and negative) are very important to know as you grow up. Looking forward to more stories!

100 Best Children's Stories from China ia perfect book for classroom use. I have found it an excellent resource for my student storytellers. The background information on the stories gives authenticity to the cultural content. When my students need to learn a story for performance, I encourage them to pick short stories with dialogue and interesting characters. This book is well written with intriguing characters,simple language which is easy enough for a young reader to enjoy, and enough plot detail to engage an adult reader. For parents and educators the book provides great read aloud content. Traditional values and cultural wisdom are embedded in the content. The thinking questions can provide a starting place for moral and character education discussions. I am awaiting 100 more stories from the authors.

I am an out lesbian who's been involved with queer politics and HIV issues for 15 years, but I just recently got around to reading Dr. Cammermeyer's book. Even after all my years of being "out," I found her story and life so far to be fascinating and inspiring. It's wonderful to have another role model for my own life! I encourage anyone interested in finding out how women can change society and military policy to read this book. It's also a good read for the role of women in the Vietnam war and in the National Guard. Dr. Cammermeyer is truly a "great American," as the military admitted while in the same breath sanctioning her discharge. Her story is all about one person having the integrity and strength to stand up for what she believes to be right, using the legal system to out-maneuver the military, and continuing to be a passionate and out-spoken supporter of banishing ALL types of discrimination. But her book is also an amazing window into the life experiences that fully shaped her to be the person who she is today. Daughter, mother, soldier, nurse, life partner, healer, activist: Dr. Cammermeyer is a hero on so many levels, and you'll have the chance to learn about all of it in her book. (The made-for-TV movie starring Glenn Close as Dr. Cammermeyer and Judy Davis as Diane, her life partner, is also fabulous!)

In 1996 I was fired from a government law enforcement position due to my orientation. I hit bottom, emotionally and financially. This book helped me see we have to fight discrimination, that I can survive this ordeal and come out a better person. It is a story of courage from a real hero, and I reccomend it no matter what your orientation, military status, or personal beliefs.

Clearly reveals the absurd and cruel policy of the military concerning lesbians and gays. How disgusting that an institution of the U.S. government shows such bigotry, ignorance, and distain for a group of people, not to mention an individual who served her country with dedication and distinction. How disgusting the bigotry continues in the military and throughout our government.

In Seventh Day Adventism in Crisis, Laura Vance has produced a monograph that will surely be of interest to scholars who study religion, gender, and social change. Consistent with much current gender scholarship on the emergence of theologically conservative religions, Vance's study reveals how differently history reads when gender becomes a central analytical category for examining religious transformation. This volume aims to address several interrelated questions, including: How did a religious movement in which women initially wielded visionary leadership eventually come to deny women access to many of its most powerful institutional positions? How have large-scale social changes influenced current debates about "women's place" within contemporary Adventism? In fixing her attention on such issues, Vance produces a book that is not simply a historiographical account of shifting gender relations with Adventism - though a focus on that topic alone would have been quite an accomplishment. Rather, recognizing that the best historical research informs contemporary predicaments, Vance combines a backward-glancing eye attuned to Adventism's past with an insightful investigation of present-day gender relations within this religious denomination.

Seventh-Day Adventism in Crisis begins by recounting the historical origins of Adventism, a sectarian religion that emerged during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. Special attention is paid to the apparently prophetic visions and writings of Ellen White, an early Adventist thought to have received direct revelation from God, detailing the divine mission of this nascent religious movement. Much of the first half of the book then proceeds to analyze the distinctive - and often paradoxical - facets of Adventist doctrine and practice. For example, Adventists are generally committed to the infallibility of the Bible; yet, at the same time, members of this religious group conceive of divine revelation as progressively unfolding into "present truth." Moreover, Adventism has long decried the excesses of "the world" (e.g., gambling, movie going, and various dietary indulgences) even as it has implored its adherents to affiliate with unbelievers for the purpose of evangelism. The Adventist challenge of finding one's place "in but not of the world" is very similar to that faced by other theologically conservative religions. Yet, perhaps the greatest Adventist contradiction entails the eventual erosion of women's leadership authority within a religious denomination whose core doctrine was initially defined - or, better, divined --- by a female prophet. In rendering her portrait of Adventism, past and present, Vance avoids homogenizing this diverse and changing religious tradition. Her careful analytical approach reveals how internal cleavages among Adventists themselves emerged historically and continue to surface in light of this religion's conceptualization of an evolving "present truth." Consequently, the first half of Vance's book evenhandedly combines rich idiographic accounts of particular events in Adventist history (e.g., chaps. 1 and 4) with broader analyses of this religion's theological presuppositions and political organization (e.g., chaps. 2 and 3).

Part 2 of this volume focuses on Adventist responses to a series of recent social changes - shifting definitions of gender and sexuality, the recent rise of women's labor force participation, and controversies over women's ordination to the ministry in many Protestant churches. Because Vance has detailed the particularities of this religious subculture so well in the book's first section, she moves deftly through Adventist responses to these various issues - aided, where appropriate, by back references to section one. For example, Vance examines contemporary Adventist support for gender equity in the workplace with an eye on the post-1870 writings by Ellen White, who defended the payment of equitable wages to female employees and became a champion of women's public-sphere participation in Social Gospel movements. Moreover, current Adventist controversies over women's ordination are understood in light of the rich cultural tradition of Adventism. This multilayered tradition contains strands of early Adventist egalitarianism interwoven with more recent accommodations to secularized visions of gender difference. This reading of structural change and ideological diversity within Adventism effectively challenges those who would equate religious conviction - and especially theological conservatism - with an unreflective preservation of the status quo.

Vance has collected and mined a vast array of data to conduct this study. She draws from archival sources, secondary historical treatments, and Adventist pastoral texts. She has also gathered primary data using participant-observation, in-depth interview, and survey techniques. Given the conceptual breadth and methodological triangulation evidenced in this volume, some readers might charge that Vance simply attempts to cover too much ground in one monograph. I do not share that criticism. Although it is easy to envision other works--for example, a more ethnographically focused monograph-that could effectively build on the material in the present volume, this book draws together coherent and compelling narratives from these various data sources. As a result, Seventh-Day Adventism in Crisis provides a holistic analysis of a religious tradition that has undergone great change since its emergence and continues to redefine itself as we enter the next millennium.

This fine piece of scholarship presents a systematic application of sociological models to a movement whose heart and soul is sectarian. In examining Seventh-day Adventism's history and development from its inception as a postmillennialist movement in the 1800s to its current status as a faith tradition with a distinctive identity, Vance (psychology/sociology, Georgia Southwestern State University) has crafted a remarkably readable book of religio-sociological research. Vance argues that Adventism's move from sectarianism to institutionalization has succeeded through the creation of physical structures which reinforce its unique identity while meeting temporal needs that allow for a more accommodating response to the world. This thesis is borne out by Vance's examination of family structure, theology, and the development of the movement. One area of unique identification for Adventists is that of gender roles, and it is here, she finds, that Adventism has the greatest opportunity to alter the boundaries of church hierarchy not only for itself but for the Christian community as a whole. Highly recommended.

Social science Professor Laura Vance tells the amazing story how Seventh-day Adventism, which was founded by Ellen Harmon White, the most prolific woman writer and preacher of the nineteenth-century, moved in 100 years from an egalitarian social ethic to the almost total exclusion of women from its administration. Since White's death, Adventism has moved toward the mainstream of American religion, adopting the social conservatism as well as the theological positions of evangelicalism, and systematically excluding women from leadership positions. In contrast to the early Adventist pioneers, who favored various reform movements such as anti-slavery and women's health issues, American church bureaucrats have narrowed their social gaze and moved to the right in their implicit political stance. This trend, which actively favored public evangelism over social reform and suppressed women's participation in leadership, has since the late 1970's been challenged by new voices calling for the ordination of women to the gospel ministry and other leadership positions in the SDA church. In addition, the international growth of the membership of the SDA church, adding millions of members in countries where patriarchialism and traditional power structures favor men has helped keep women out of power. The answer, says Vance, is not for Adventist leaders to imagine they are fighting a battle against feminism or liberalism but to embrace once again the diversity and openness of its early history, an Edenic time when women and men sang and preached side-by-side, when the male leaders were not afraid of the visionary power of women but practiced a co-operative type of gender equality.

Vance's book comes as the fourth in a series of comprehensive non-denominational interpretations of Adventism which began in the 1980's with Ron Numbers and Jonathan Butler, "The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth-Century" (Indiana University Press, 1989, Malcom Bull and Keith Lockhart's "Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream" (Harper and Row, 1989) and Michael Pearson, Millenial Dreams and Moral Dilemmas: Seventh-day Adventists and Contemporary Ethics" (Cambridge Unversity Press, 1990). Vance's book, written largely from the perspective of gender issues, gathers from a hundred years of the "Adventist Review" and from more recent publications such as "Spectrum".

The style of Professor Vance's book, written after extensive field research in actual Adventist congregations and at Walla Walla College, will appeal to both social scientists studying the religious phenomenon of Adventism, and to SDA members, clergy and teachers who wish to view themselves in the words of an intelligent and sympathetic outsider. Teachers of American religious movements will find this book the best general introduction to Adventism for students who are also interested in women's issues, social science theory and religion. Highly recommended.

Necro Publishing does it again by teaming up 2 old Lee novellas, "Header" and "The Pig", while adding a new one, "The Horn-Cranker", in for good measure. Edward Lee goes 3 for 3 with this collection. For hardcore horror fans only. You've been warned.

Sex, Drugs & Power Tools is a collection of three lurid, hardcore, sex and violence turbocharged horror novellas by Edward Lee in the tradition of the most infamous pulp fiction. The novellas include: Header; The Pig; and The Horn-Cranker. Not for the faint of heart, these sensationally written, mesmerically compelling, extensively vicious thrill rides of the mind fully and completely capture the reader's total attention with hideous intensity. Highly recommended -- but not for the squeamish.

It's a shame the world is full of too many prudes who can't appreciate a good story involving sex, drugs, and power tools, because Ed Lee is in top form here. This book combines two of Lee's better known novellas from years gone by with a brand new story to make one of the newest additions to my top five favorite of all time list.

First is "Header". I'd heard for years about this Lee story called "Header" and always wondered, "What's a header." I can see now why this story's gained so much recognition. Ed Lee does what not a lot of writers of this type of horror can do--he makes you forget what initially got you into the story--the header--and soon you're involved in the story under that one--the REAL story. Header is a story of desperation and revenge. You come in meeting Travis Tuckton, learning about headers, and soon you realize, Hey that's not even what this story is about. Travis isn't the main character. Who's this cop, Cummings? He's the one to focus on. Header is nothing more than a cop story, turned up to eleven.

Then "The Pig". My only complaint about "The Pig" is the last 15 pages or so. And that's Ed's fault because he did such a great job building everything up, my expectations were high. All Leonard wants is to make his low budget movie and win the Sundance Film Festival, and he knows he can win because his movie, based on his own college-written short story, "The Confessor" is great. So, where does a guy fresh out of prison and with no prospects go to get funding for a movie? Thank God for Rocco who loans him the cash. Well, thank God until Rocco comes back a few days later looking for his money back. To pay the debt, Leonard is put to work, and this is where the story kicks into gear. I read this story in just a couple of days, grabbing whatever free time I could find to get through another couple pages, feeling sorry for poor Leonard and knowing I would never want his job. Remember the movie "8mm"? Same subject matter, but "The Pig" doesn't have Nicolas Cage moping around the screen and boring anyone.

And again, my only complaint here is that, with the kind of buildup Lee gives us here, I was expecting some big action-packed climax, a showdown between Leonard and Rocco (and Knuckles), but Lee chose the "let's give them something they weren't expecting" route and surprised me.

Last is "The Horn-Cranker", a story that should be winning some kind of award for Lee sometime. Dean Lohan, South Dakota Horn-Cranking champion and basic redneck, lives in Seattle now with his "loving" wife. But when his father goes into a coma, Dean has to go back home, where he finds something has been killing children by the dozens. This was my favorite story and a first-class job by Ed Lee. My wife and I were talking about this story last night, trying to decide who would make good cast members for "Horn-Cranker" the movie (I'm sticking by my vote for Bruce Campbell, but then I think he should be in everything), because it seems such a perfect choice for one of those independent horror movies that is able to go beyond what Hollywood will do . This is a story that could take Ed Lee to new heights in his career--well it seems from what I've read that his novel "City Infernal" might just do that, but this story could, too. I hate to use a King comparison when reviewing another horror writer, but this time I have to. because reading "The Horn-Cranker" it was like Lee has taken the best elements of a Stephen King novella, the stuff that makes King's novellas the great things they can be, and given them new strength, new life, and new intensity, to make the perfect combination of horror and humor in a long time.

There's a different level of energy to these stories that I don't often see in horror anymore. Some of today's horror seems more interested in style over substance, while some horror seems more concerned with what's going to gross out the reader. But Ed Lee's on a different plain from the rest of us and there's nobody else who does what he does quite like him. He's quickly proving, with each new book I read from him, that he's just a step or two above what the rest of us are doing these days.

Provocative, stimulating, and creative. Captures all the senses lifting the intellegence of an individual to the next level. Definitely an original work that deserves attention. Tired of the mainstream? Then get this book. You will not be disappointed.

I think that many well-known authors have never written as beautifully as Jackson does in 'Shedding Layers of Ocean.' This title is an extremely well-written and thoughtful work.

Although I am new to this author, I think I will follow his work more closely in the future.

Well done, Jackson!

Rob Jackson is a major writer of his generation. His work bursts with inventiveness, and this collection exudes of genuine inspiration that is intensely realized. This is an epic of paranoid obsession that swirls the reader headlong to deposit him on a black mudbank of horror.

To Rob Jackson, all I have to say is "Cheers, keep the words flowing!"

I am a brazilian architect, working now in a thesis research about movie theaters located in my city, Porto Alegre, in the south of Brazil. I found this book in B&N store, in New York. It's a great book! GOOD for my work in research end for teaching architecture design (at an architecture school)about movie theaters. (sorry for my poor english...)

Having worked and managed movie theatres from the 40s thru early 70s, and now considered a "dinosaur" of that age, was completely captivated by the coverage accomplished by Ms.Valentine, especially on the accomplishments of architect Lee.She captured the "flavor" and context of that wonderful era,never to be again. And surprise of surprises,I actually managed or knew intimately of some of the theatres Mr.Lee designed or worked on! I have nearly all the books published on movie theatres,et al,but have to admit this particular tome really grabbed me emotionally with text and photos so for the while it took me to read this book(hard to put down)I re-lived that era in a way I never thought possible. (The Arden in Lynwood, Tower in L.A., the old Alhambra in Alhambra, are only a few I "set foot in again"!)..if I could give it more than 5 stars I would! A tip of my hat to Ms.Valentine, to Mr.Lee, and the great bunch of people I worked with, and for, oh, so many, many years ago

My sister has written a very intelligent and well thought out book. She deserves to be rich and famous.

As a licensed esthetician, I find this book my best resource. It covers most of the questions I have had as a skin care professional and many of my client's questions as well. I consider this book essential to anyone in my profession. It is readable and understandable for anyone, those in the business or those just wanting to understand their skin and what products can help them.

Up to date information on the latest in anti-aging treatments, microdermabrassion, skin peels and exfoliators, explanation of product ingredients, and much more. As an experienced skin care specialist this book is a must for your reference library.

Lee's book is a must for all estheticians (skin care specialists) and medical personnel looking for a simple-to-understand text directed to teach and provide review about basic skin chemistry, ingredient chemistry, skin disorders, their causes, challenges, and how to treat. His chapters on "The Immune System" and "Essential Knowledge of Chemistry," give a a great dialoque on understanding our immune system and basic chemistry. Mr. Lee is a great teacher. He puts difficult theories into "people language." Skin care correction for highly damaged skin is very well explained. Having been in professional skin care for 17 years, I find this book a marvelous reference. Its provides some of the latest findings and theories for accurate analysis. For the lay person,new student,or beauty editor, it offers great insight into the complexity of our skin, the body's largest organ, and how it plays a vital role to protect us. It also explains about skin diseases and how they are recognized and treated. The best thing is that this is an accurate book based on science and written by a well qualified and experienced person. After all, skin care is a science and plays a large role in preventative health care.