Scott Hunt has written a very moving and almost lyrical book in the way in which he blends some of the the worst horrors committed by humans against fellow beings with the compassion and kindliness of the peacemakers. It gives you a deep sense of hope and conviction that the spirit of humanity will tirumph eventually and inspires you to try hard as it may be to embrace the vices of those who still believe in commiting these violent acts.
Marvelouslly,it is also a political eye-opener into the true motivation of the actions taken in the name of peace by the political leaders...

This book is excellent in so many ways. Scott Hunt has given us an inspiring book. I learned so much in historical background and in the work of heroic people of our time.
I would urge anyone who wants an understanding of the problems in the world today to buy this book. Once you open it, you will be compelled to read it from cover to cover.
If you believe that the answer to all the issues of the world are simple, and that all the world except the US is bad, than I ask you to open your mind and take a look at the world described in these pages. If you believe that killing only creates more killing and there must be a better way, than allow these stories to provoke your mind.
The most compelling part of this book to me was the discussion of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. I ask you to please try and understand how it can be that such a monstrous people can be created, and how such horrible things can be done to human beings. This chapter will leave you wondering how you can ever again accept on the surface the "information" we are given. You will realize the consequences of violence. You will search your mind for answers that are not on the news.

This book is not perfect. I was left wondering more about the history of Costa Rica than I was given, for example. And there are times when Scott explains things more than I would like. I think he could leave his conclusions to the people he interviews. Others may find that that part of the book helps tie things together.
Still, overall the book was outstanding and deserves every bit of 5 stars.

The "Future of Peace" is perhaps the most compelling book I have ever read. I was very deeply moved by it. Scott A. Hunt is an outstanding writer and interviewer. He asks insightful questions of prominent peacemakers and receives soul searching, thought provoking answers, with overall themes of hope, forgiveness and perseverance. The interviews are more like informal discussions and I almost felt I was right there. He also gives excellent background information on the various areas of conflict where the peacemakers reside, with facts one doesn't learn in school or read/see often in mainstream news. I kept trying to put it down, so as to absorb each chapter, but had to continue to the end, almost nonstop. It is definately a book to read again and again. If all students, political leaders and citizens of the world read it and took the messages to heart, perhaps we could obtain a more peaceful world. In these troubled and treacherous times, Mr. Hunt and the peacemakers give a message that should be spread throughout the world, both heartbreaking and soul inspiring at the same time. If you are wondering whether to buy "The Future of Peace", just do it! You will be so glad you did!

in your brain when having a mental illness episode.

A must read!

God Head takes you INSIDE the mind of a mentally ill person, ie: the narrator of the story. This is the first book I have read to do this, and it makes for one crazy thrill ride. As you read from first person perspective you get to jump around with the craziness of the main character's head. Every loop and twist he takes you take, and every time he rambles insanely off track you follow.

Although it may sound strange, it isn't hard to get into at all. Honestly, I didn't put the book down from start to finish, it was excellent! It will have you totally absorbed and leave you with a refreshed and satisfied feeling of higher understanding.

If you haven't already added this book to your shopping cart... do so now!

I live in NYC and last week, because I didn't time my move from apartment to apartment well, I stayed at the Hostel on 103rd and CPwest. On saturday night, I was out with several travelers that I had met smoking on the front stoop. Now, as we stepped out of the building, there was a man sitting on the stoop with a wild, untamed look in his eyes...He also had neither his right arm or leg.

We began to speak....rather, He began to speak to us, and mentioned that he was a published writer. I thought "yeah, right...buddy" But, Sure enough. he told me the title of the book (God Head) and his name, and the next day, on my way to my girlfreinds house (whom I had told all about my encounter), I stopped by Barnes & Nobles and found the book. I sat and finished it up in about an hour....its a quick read. But, Its potent. It almost reminds me of the multi-personality book "When Rabbit Howls"....It is a frightning first hand account of the journey into delusion.

Its Fascinating.

Let's face it, if you've made it through the first two volumes, then, in the words of Van Morrison, it's too late to stop now. There will be those parts where you want to wring Marcel's neck (both the author's and the protagonist's), but then, you already know that. No one sees the way that Proust sees.

In this volume Proust's narrator at last penetrates to the salon of Mme de Guermantes, the apex of Parisian society. If you've read Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove, then you realize that this achievement is far more exciting than any summary can convey. Here Proust also develops the narrator's friendships with Saint-Loup and Albertine, presents us with one of the most beautifully written death scenes in Western literature, dissects the salon culture, and introduces an unforgettable ...mentor. This may sound irrelevant to life in the 2000s, but, as always, Proust's artistry captures the timeless human reality running through the daily details.

"In search of lost time" continues with Marcel's return to Paris after vacation in Balbec, to the new family house. The neighbor is the Duchess of Guermantes with whom Marcel falls in love in a platonic and purely imaginary way. He gets desperate to be admitted into the Duchess's social circle, and so he takes advantage of his new friednship with Saint-Loup, who belongs in that circle. Marcel goes to visit him at the town where he's in military service, and on his return, he is admitted to the salon of the Marquise de Villeparisis, a first step to his goal. What follows is a treatise, a bittersweet one, on the aristocratic world of Paris, in times of the scandal provoked by the Dreyfus Affair. Proust admirably portraits the hypocrisy, hollowness and cruelty of the aristocratic world, as well as the main character's affection for his grandmother, his friendship with Saint-Loup, the spiritual desolation of the age, and his disenchantment with aristocrats. So continues the greatest saga of memory and emotions, one of the best books ever written.

Barry Duncan and Scott Miller are with Marc Hubble directors of The Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change (...). These people play an important role in improving and renewing therapy. In this book, the authors explain how therapy has for too long been been neglecting, ignoring, and depersonalizing clients, by its over-emphasis on methods and techniques, by following the medical model, by its emphasis on pathology, by hegemony of biological approaches, and so on.

The authors first debunk the myths of:

1) PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS:
a) it lacks reliability,
b) it lacks validity,
c) it puts the blame on the client, and
d) it is often motivated by self-interest, fueled by greed, and blows with the winds of fashion,

2)DRUG TREATMENT OF MENTAL PROBLEMS:
a) they work no better than therapy in the short term
b) changes brought about by medication are less likely to persist over time
c) there often are severe adverse effects,
d) drug studies often look better than they are because they rate improvement by looking to clinicians' perceptions, not clients'
e) the relationship between drug companies and psychiatry is an unholy alliance, making most of the drug-effectiveness research very suspect

3) THE MAGIC APPROACH:
a) there is no special magic silver bullet approach which is much better than another approach
b) the role of the competence and experience of the therapist is rather unimportant

According to the authors, four decades of outcome research have shown that there are four main factors of change, being:

1. Client factors (percentage contribution to positive outcome: 40%).
2. Relationship factors (percentage contribution: 30%).
3. Hope and expectancy (percentage contribution: 15%).
4. Model and technique (percentage contribution: 15%).

Some conclusions:
1. Thoughts, ideas, actions, initiatives, traits of clients are the most important predictor of therapy success!
2. Next to what the client brings to therapy, the client's perception of the therapeutic relationship is responsible for most of the gains resulting from the therapy.
3. Models and techniques are much less important than generally thought.

The authors advocate a new and refreshing approach characterised by:
1) Client-directedness. Clients' beliefs, values, theories and goals are repected, close attention is being paid to clients' initiatives, interventions and perceptions. Much attention is given to establishing the quality of the relationship, and to monitoring the clients' perception of the quality of the relationship.
2) Outcome informedness. Progress is measured from session to session using paper and pencil questionnaires. By the way: the client's experience of meaningful change in the first few visits is emerging as one of the best predictors of eventual treatment outcome.

Two thoughts come up after having read this book. First, this book is refreshing indeed and a shock to the therapy system. Second, the ideas ventilated in this book might be relevant for work outside the therapy field as well. Consider for instance what management consultancy and managing coaching could learn from this......

In The Heroic Client, Barry Duncan and Scott Miller consider the whole field of "mental health," the roles of client and therapist, and the central question of what helps in therapy. They address mental health mythologies that affect the practice of therapy, including a pervasive reliance on medication, diagnosis, the medical model and priveleging the therapist's expertise. The book asks us to reflect on why we have lost confidence in the person-to-person collaboration of talk therapy, curious in light of the fact that research continues to show that talk therapy is more effective and enduring than medication for most of the problems people bring to therapy.

Duncan and Miller present an exciting, well-researched and thought-provoking argument for client-directed, outcome-informed therapy, which they call "co-therapy." Based on the research on what makes for success in therapy, Duncan and Miller propose we place greater reliance on the theories of change, experiences and strengths clients bring and less on our preferred causal theories and techniques.

This is a courageous and challenging book. Every mental health professional and consumer should read it. It can make a difference. Tobey Hiller MFT and Phillip Ziegler, MFT, co-authors of Recreating Partnership: A Solution-Oriented, Collaborative Approach to Couples Therapy (W.W. Norton, 2001)

This book is a must-read for all mental health professionals! Based on 40 years of outcome research regarding "what works in therapy," Barry Duncan and Scott Miller have articulated a way of being with clients that emphasizes collaboration, respect, and honors their theories of change. The authors challenge many of the dominant theoretical, political, and social discourses that have been privileged in society and unfortunately have informed psychotherapy practice in ways that tend to alienate and stigmatize clients and lead therapists astray. What they advocate for is therapy that is client-directed and outcome-informed, thereby honoring clients' voices and perspectives. This in and of itself has been a long time coming and is worth the price of admission. The Heroic Client is a thoroughly-researched book, and one that I have and will continue to recommend to my students and colleagues. It's a must for all mental health professionals!

If You Can't Get Off The Horse You'd Better Learn To Ride is a lively, informative self-help, self-improvement treatise that is humorous, insightful, practical, and a joy to read. Author Scott Weigle draws upon personal anecdotes to demonstrate his advice on enjoying life, family, America, change, adulthood, work, marriage, success, achieving goals, and faith. This compendium of "life lessons" is reader friendly and a much appreciated addition to personal self-help reading lists and community library self-improvement collections.

Scott Weigle's endearing blend of humor and insight into the human condition yields a compelling narrative. Anyone of us can read a chapter from Mr. Weigle's book, close our eyes and step back into a chapter of our own life: experiencing again our joy, chagrin, embarassment, sadness, or satisfaction of the moment. I recommend this book for young and old alike -- it has provided many a night of laughs and thoughtfulness as bedtime stories in our home. Excellent read-aloud book for homeschoolers looking for honest and humorous commentary on the shaping of a boy's character from a rural American beginning through adulthood.

The stories, personal experiences and relationships shared by the Scott Weigle brought back personal memories which played on the entire scale of my emotions. I laughed,cried and even blushed with embarrassment while reading this book. Most readers have life experiences similar to the situations, circumstances, and feelings illustrated via the author's unique anecdotal style. This ability to relate with the author was what I enjoyed most about the book, however it was definitely much more rewarding than simply reading a collection of humorous stories without a message. We can all learn something from the perspective with which Scott Weigle views his own life stories. His shared experiences become the vehicle through which his life's lessons can deliver a powerful message in an unthreatening way. No matter how you approach this book,it will be a good reading experience. You can choose to simply enjoy the stories, learn something about yourself and others from them... or both!

An outstanding, deeply moving book,The Mark of the Horse Lord is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It is the story of Phaedrus the Gladiator, who poses as Midir, Lord of the Dalriadain (a tribe of Northern Britain). Set during the Roman period, it describes the customs and beliefs of ancient civilizations clearly and believably. Its realistic inclusion of cruelty and death, however, makes it inappropriate for very young readers. I highly recommend it for ages 12 and up--it may be classified as a "children's book," but it far surpasses many adult books I have read. Its central theme--the true meaning of kingship--is powerfully and beautifully developed as Phaedrus gradually grows in love for and understanding of his adopted people. Phaedrus himself is a very real person, as are the others--Midir, the true king of the Dalriadain; Liadhan, the woman who blinded Midir in order to take his throne; Conory, Midir's closest friend, who alone recongnizes that Phadrus is an imposter; and Liadhan's daughter Murna, who Phaedrus loves. In the end, Phaedrus recognizes the deepest meaning of kingship, and becomes the Horse Lord in truth, and not just in seeming. And, as in all the best books, the reader is left with the feeling that it all really happened--just that way--and that nothing could have happened differently.

Who can weave a story of history, suspense, excitement, danger, heroisim, and drama with more skill than Sutcliff? I have read 9 of her books, but so far this surpasses them all! Former gladiator Phaedrus is made king of the Horse People, a northern British clan, impersonating Midir, the true Horse Lord whom the wicked queen Liadham blinded and so disabled him from coming to power. Phaedrus and his followers try ridding themselves of Liadham, but she escapes. Many battles against her follow. The Mark of the Horse Lord will draw you into the days of ancient Britain with the adventures of the new king. A superb piece of work, a must-read!

To me, this is the best of Rosemary Sutcliff's many fine books, and my personal favourite. I suppose I should find the basic premise that one man can successfully impersonate another from an entirely different culture with only a brief period of indoctrination, but somehow it hardly seems to matter! You see Phaedrus the gladiator growing into the kingship he has assumed, and finally dying for his people as he has lived for them over his scant year as ruler. As with all Rosemary Sutcliff's books, it works on one level as a really good adventure story, with all the fine detail of battles and riding and chariot driving, but it is far more than that, and every time I re-read it I see something new.

I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it as a good read. The book was more meaningful to me because the author and some of the people he wrote about in the book are known to me. I can verify that the accounts of which I am acquainted in the book are true.

I commend the author for spinning a great story from true-life events and also for writing something that everyone can read. I am so proud to know him and call him a friend!

Wonderful story based on true life events! It has it all! Adventure, history, and a great love story. I enjoyed it very much and didn't want to see it end. Would love to see a sequel! Great job, Jerry. I am also proud to call you my lifelong friend.

I recently read the novel "Glass Mountain" and was facinated with the police story in a way I have not experienced before. If cops really are as they have been depicted in the novel, then we are blessed to have men like this protecting us. With every page I experienced a new emotion and actually recognized people and places that really do exist. It became very personal. The Author did a terrific job in writing. His description of events was brilliant, and it made me feel like I was there. It held my interest so that I couldnt wait to read the next page. I bought five more books for my Son and Grandsons so they would know how a man experiences hardships, emotion, and real love for his friends, women and family.

My experience with this book shows Amazon's strength. Having read the other reviews, I purchased this book, and found that it more than fulfilled my expectations. It has a simple way of doing pseudo-hypertext with Word. It tells what works, what doesn't, and what work-arounds to use to get Word to work for you.

Without Amazon.com, I would never have found this excellent resource among the dozens of books on Word and WordBasic. Highly recommended.

This is the only book I've found that makes programming Word understandable. The biggest stumbling block to programming in Word is not knowing what the terms are. I was very frustrated (as a programmer for 20+years) because there was no place to find what the elements were in a consistent fashion. Woody's book solved this! Projects that would take days (head scratching to figure out how to find what I needed)are now done in minutes. Only one problem with the book: WE NEED A WORD 97 VERSION!!!

This is quite possibly the single most useful computer book I have ever bought. My company bought the original first edition after I read the rave reviews in Byte and PC-Week. I was not disappointed.

The book paid for itself within two days. I solved nagging problems which had plagued my users for months, if not years.

This book is both an astonishingly good reference book (look up a problem in the index, and you'll likely find it points you to a page with step-by-step instructions on how to fix your exact problem) and one of the most entertaining books I've ever read. On any subject.

Woody is hilarious and irreverent. He makes what could have been dreadfully dry material into a very informative, VERY entertaining read.

I loved this book so much, I personally bought the second edition when it became available and I have recommended it to everyone I know who needs to support Word for a living

I am a mid-career professional, returning to the virtual classroom after 20 years of absence. With a study in management and leadership, this book was highly recommended and I must say, it did not disappoint!.

Of the books in my book cases, this is one I will turn to again and again for insight and wisdom, guidance and increased understanding. Well written, well read and well worth the investment!

This is a useful textbook. It is easy to read, informative, and well organized.

Highly recommed this book. It's a good reference and very detail-oriented!!

The book was ok however, I wanted a book for older students. This is recommended for 6 th 8 year olds. The book is in an easy to read format and has breaks to complete exercises to practice what you learned.

Mr.Flansburg's methods of stressing basic math skills are new and important before algebra or higher math will make sense. His new web site thehumancalculator.com also offers more information about his goal to wipe out innumeracy. He taught me it's never to late to conquer math phobia and fulfill my career goals that never materialized because of math avoidance.

I homeschool my kids who like the ideas behind math but find drilling real agony!!! They are beginning to see the fun in it and don't mind repetition any more. Thanks and praise to Scott Flansberg!!!