I liked his commentary and explanations of the important stories from the bible.

He applies it to Business.

It's an honest good clean book of strategies that will help you with your faith, family and friends.

I'm a fan after reading his Wall Street Money

Machine book. Can't wait to hit a seminar

in the near future.

One may imagine learning even more about

the life of wealth, riches and promises.

Politicians should read this book!

Before buying Business By The Bible, I found myself out of balance, too focused on material possessions, a "me first" type of person. Having bought WALL STREET MONEY MACHINE, STOCK MARKET MIRACLES & BEAR MARKET BALONEY, I was well acquanted with Mr Cook and had tremendous success with his stock market strategies. Business By The Bible got me to actually start reading the bible again and more importantly, apply what I read. I found that my relationships with people dramatically improved and I now have a new outlook on life. Even stock market investing improved for me! This is undoubtably the best and by far the most important book Wade Cook has ever written.

One of the things that impressed me about Wade from the getgo, is his costant references to the Bible and his philosophy is based on scriptures.This book shows you how to use Gods principles in your business and investing life as well as your personal life.Notice that Wades usually ever present detractors are absent here. Perhaps that is because they don't live by Gods principles?I'll leave with this biblical quote:"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."-Isaiah 55:8-9

This is a fine biography of a fascinating man. And, judging from a search of Amazon.com, there don't appear to be too many biographies about James Cook in print. Mr. Hough's book is much easier to read than Beaglehole's; and it is a good introduction to start with before tackling Cook's Journals.

One thing that caught my attention was how radically different Captain Cook behaved on his third and final voyage. On the earlier voyages, he acted much more decisively, and showed remarkable concern for his men. They in turn developed great affection and respect for their leader.

On that last fateful voyage, Cook acted very much out of character. He was short-tempered, even cruel. He made hasty or stupid decisions and took foolish risks. At more than one point the crew was close to mutiny.

Hough explains that perhaps Cook was suffering from a parasitic infection or other physical and mental afflictions. This might explain his unusual behavior. It also occured to me that perhaps the good captain was simply "burned out" (to use a modern phrase). After having completed two round-the-world trips of 2-plus years each, the last thing this man needed was another long voyage. Even his superiors in the Admiralty knew he needed and deserved a rest. Cook himself must have known that too. Yet, his sense of duty impelled him to volunteer for one more mission. The Admirals should never have permitted it. Certainly not so soon after Cook's return from Voyage Two.

This is a good book. I have long admired James Cook; now after reading Hough's work, I list the captain among my heroes.

One final note: another reviewer asks why Cook was "always returning to Tahiti." Perhaps I missed something, but I only counted three visits by Cook to that island. Once to observe an astronomical event (the official reason for his First Voyage); later (on his Second Voyage) because his ship was in need of repairs and supplies; and then on the Third Voyage to return a Tahitian they had taken to England on the previous trip --- and this was the official reason for the Third Voyage.

On second thought, could anyone fault Cook for frequenting the beautiful Polynesian islands? Perhaps a few months on the beach --- but away from his work! --- would have saved the man's life!

This well researched tale of exploration and discovery is one of the best biographies I've ever read. The achievements of Captain Cook and his crewmen are incredible. In the age of "survivor" TV this story resonates with true courage and ingenuity. The range of Cook's travels from the South Pacific to the coast of Alaska and the varying conditions that were encountered make for an emjoyable read. Highest recommendation. A book to be read and reread.

I had the great pleasure of recording this entertaining book for the American Foundation for the Blind's Talking Books program. Rather than summarize its contents, well done in other reviews on this site, I will simply say that I found it extremely easy to record because it is written in such flowing, evocative prose. In fact, it reads very much like a fascinating adventure novel, and Robert Louis Stevenson could almost have written it. The travels of Captain Cook are superbly recounted, and make engrossing, absorbing reading.

In the first few pages of First Truth the fiery heroine, Alissa, is forcefully sent on a quest by her mother to find her long lost father's book and the Hold, the mysterious place rumored to be a training ground for wizard-like people. Along the way she meets Strell, a funny musician, and a mind invading, well meaning disembodied voice called Useless. Of course when she reaches the Hold all is not as it should be.
Alissa is your typical huge temper that gets you into trouble heroine and Strell is just the kind of guy that provokes that temper. The author somewhat clumsily throws them together. In fact, the whole beginning of the book is awkward, but once Ms Cook gets past the preliminaries, First Truth is a good light read. It's a nice break between the gargantuan and serious fantasy books.

Before Alissa's father disappeared he would tell her stories about a legendary fortress called the Hold. It was a type of university where human Keepers learned magic from the Masters. They were just stories before bed. She never believed any of it was real.

When her mother realized that Alissa had inherited her father's magical abilities, she sent Alissa away from their farm to search for the Hold and begin her training. Her small bird, Talon, went with her. On the way, they met a wandering musician from the plains named Strell. Even though the farmers and the plainsmen did not get along well, they traveled together hoping to locate the Hold before the snows began.

Bailic was the only Keeper left in the Hold. The power hungry man had sent all the Masters, except one, away on a wild goose chase and then killed the other Keepers. The only Master left was trapped in a hidden dungeon. Bailic searched for a book filled with spells and power called First Truth. When two travelers appeared at the gate, he could sense that one was a latent Keeper, but could not tell which. Regardless, he would use them. Once no longer needed, they would die!

***** Here is an AWESOME new author and I expect her to become very well known fast! Dawn Cook has created a magical world with amazing characters.

I quickly found myself engrossed in the the story line and was irritated every time I had to stop reading. I wanted nothing more than to dive back into this book filled with magic, dragons, and danger. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I loved this book! The magic was pretty original and the characters are well-developed. I loved Alissa and Strell and the truth about Useless suprised me. This book is really fun to read, not overly descriptive but with just the right amount of details. I love the relationship between strell and alissa and can't wait to read more in Hidden truth

This is another winner by Willoughby and Schlesinger and in some cases I think it is their best yet. The recipes are clear, easy to follow and well written. Unlike many other cookbooks, nearly all the recipes are designed for the home chef -- not many fancy ingredients or complicated directions. The organization of the book is excellent as well. Meat is back and this book will help you enjoy it even more!

This is the only meat cookery book you'll ever need. You can clear out all those other cookbooks and leave the shelves for aesthetic objects. In truth, I've never had one of the authors' recipes fail. How do they do it? You'll never regret purchasing this book, and not so incidentally, recipes for fabulous, easy side-dishes are offered as well.

This is truly a magnificent compendium on meat: from beef to pork to lamb and veal.

They do a thorough job of explaining where the cuts come from and the proper cooking techniques to use on each individual cut. On top of this, there is just an outstanding section on how to communicate with one's butcher, be it from a supermarket or specialty butcher store. Also, pictures on given on each cut so that one can know what you're looking for when shopping.

The recipe sections are by cut, and they are plentiful and very creative. I would not describe the majority as requiring the "too hard to find ingredients or techniques that are difficult." These are unique, solid recipes, such as the ones tried so far: a Basil-Crusted Meat Loaf with Brandy, Walnuts and Spicy Wine Tomato Sauce (this is superb, and makes heavenly sandwiches);Lazy Sunday Pot Roast with Caraway and Green Apples; Fennel-Crusted Flank Steak with Orange=Black Olive Relish and Spicy Mint Honey;Grill-Roasted Bone-In Leg of Lamb with Grilled Peaches and Red Onion-Cilantro Salsa;Hoisin-Glazed Grilled Pork Blade Chopes with Spicy Korean Vegetables.

What is unique also is that with each recipe there is included: "Other Names," "Other Cuts You Can Use," "ButcherSpeak" and my favorite: "Cook Once,Eat Twice" which provides advice on the delicious leftovers.

This is so well thought out, researched and presented. On top of all this, the recipes are so creative and excellent and turn out as listed. Not every recipe has a color photo, although there is a sufficient number of color shots in the middle insert.

Just the best resource on these meats I have found. All chefs really into it will enjoy using this reference.

My favorite thing about this book are the stories. As you read about the author's life in the Chateau you really get the feeling that you're there with her. The recipes are lovely, but I find that because she did most of her cooking for large groups of people, and because she had all day to cook, most of the recipies are not very useful for someone who, like me, comes home after a day of work with 30 minutes to an hour to put dinner together. Regardless, the book is very inspirational. I love the emphasis on seasonal produce, and, as I wrote earlier, the stories are great.

Reading this book, I gather that Ms. Hesser is an impressive cook. A little affected at times, but obviously highly skilled. In addition to great stories (although I got a little tired of the repetitive descriptions of the crochety old man after a while) the book is organized by month, so if you're wondering what to have for dinner, just look in the appropriate month and she'll have the seasonal ingredients right there, so you know what to go shopping for, even if you don't decide to use the recipes. I have mainly used the book for this purpose. The recipes seem typical but don't take my word for it. I bet they're wonderful. Also, she gives lots of useful info on culinary history, ingredients and old-time recipes that are woven into the stories so they're easier to remember. Definitely keeping this one.

I can't remember a work like this that I have thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. As a gardener first and a cook of the treasures my labors produce - this book is truly a prize. I guard my garden secrets as msr. milbert and love the seasonally directed recipes produced by ms. hesser. Her sidebars for selection, cleaning and preparation are to the point. Each recipe reflects the ease of fresh ingredient preparation producing the excellence of simplicity in Nature. This is a book that I recommend and give as gifts.

The Cookcamp is a book for enjoyment reading. The book describes a boy's life as a five year old. He goes to live with his grandmother because of WWII. It is a book that creates an unexplainable image. This is a sad book, but you are unable to put it down as with many other Gary Paulsen books. I would recommend this book to my friends who like Gary Paulsen and to people who read to enjoy,not just because they have to.

The Cookcamp is a wonderful book. The author of this book is Gary Paulsen. I think he is a fantastic writer. I usually don’t read much but his books are great. The Cookcamp is a short but a great book.
The Cookcamp was a very interesting story it kept my attention throughout the whole book. The boy in the book was always being mischievous. He always wanted to be with the guys. I really thought this was good. It was not hard to understand, and easy to read. If you are ever searching for a book to get some quick points off of read The Cookcamp.

The Cookcamp by Gary Paulsen is a wonderful book I think everyone should read.The Cookcamp is about a boy who goes to stay whith his grandmother during the war.The actual reason the boy went to stay with his grandmother is because after his father went to war,the boy saw his mother and his uncle Casey[Casey isn't really his uncle.]making out on the couch.After he saw them his mother sent him away.At the cookcamp the boy's grandmother cooks for al of these men who are building a road.While at the cookcap,the boy helps the men.He sits in their laps,and once they teach him how to drive,he steers the vechicles for them.The boy is having fun,but then he starts to miss his mother.Will the boy stay with his grandmother,or go back to his mother?The Cookcamp by Gary Paulsen is a wonderful novel I think everyone should read.

It is a rare and special book that inspires the reader to respect it, not as an object of art but as a life story of someone we can only know through writing. The truth is, "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break" is much more about the physical, tangible reality of M the Minotaur's experience than it is about the conceptual fact of his existence. A lesser book would incite a flurry of cannibalistic nit-picking; Sherrill's first provokes thought, and perhaps admiration. To dissemble it would be to diminish its accomplishment, and to ruin the experience of reading along with that.

Thus, given half a chance, I could go on and on about the branching, tangential nature of the narrative, the stream-of-consciousness writing style, the deft interweaving of near-metaphors (like the irritated scarline that divides the Minotaur's body into black and white halves). But I won't. To do so would be to miss the point. Passages like

"The Minotaur watches the crow pull the tissues out of the box until there are no more. Then the bird flies away."

do not feel like artificial devices that the author forcibly introduced into the narrative to feign perspicacity. To misquote artist Paul Klee, Sherrill does not render visible; he renders the vsible. His viewpoint character has no great insights to share. M's vision is all the more piercing precisely because it is unclouded by preconceptions. He is much too human and fallible to achieve any great wisdom, but a lifespan that measures in millennia has eroded what vices and grandeur he once may have possessed.

So, how does one address this novel in its integral, atomic entirety? It is a story of several days' events in the Minotaur's lonely, turbulent life. It is a story about cars, and cooking, and dysfunctional families, and abuse, and concealed emotions. It is melancholy, and weary, and real. It is carried by the quality and strength of its imagery (Sherrill's background as a poet is evident in every scent and sound of the Grub's Rib restaurant).

A touching, delicate, challenging novel. Highly recommended.

I'm currently on page 298 of THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK, and I'm depressed. I don't want this book to end! Steve Sherrill creates a more vivid, engaging, and human character than many books I've read whose main characters are, theoretically, 100% human. Sherrill's prose is poetry, yet he never sacrifices story for pure language (though, I imagine if he did, it, too, would be masterful). While the story is humorous, it never sacrifices insight and substance just for a laugh. Mythology weaves throughout this tale as unassumptuously, poignantly, powerfully, and--oddly--as "unnoticed" as it moves through our daily lives. I've read so many highly touted books this year and have been disappointed by them. I read _The Minotaur_ after reading and feeling let down by _Life of Pi_. Sherrill's book gives me new hope for the contemporary novel. I've heard from a reliable source that Mr. Sherrill has two books forthcoming from Random House. I'm already in line, waiting to make my purchase. I really love THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK.

If you read any synopsis of this book, you'd probably think, "Wow, how odd." Well, you'd be correct. However, putting the book down and not reading it because of that would be a grave mistake.

As debut novels go, this is certainly one of the better. It is not large, perhaps 350 pages, has a focused scope, great characters, and great writing.

Steven Sherrill's poetry background is evident in the book, but you certainly don't have to be a poetry lover (I'm not) to enjoy it. His writing is gorgeous, interspacing long lyrical lines with brief five word sentences. His descriptive talents are amazing. As one who worked in a restaurant in high school, I can say that the sights, sounds, and events that take place at the Minotaur's work are exactly correct.

Sherrill uses humor and humanity to great effect and by the first few pages of the novel, I did not find it strange at all that a creature with the head of a bull and body of a man was coexisting with humans in the modern South. I found myself identifing with some of what the Minotaur goes through, and found myself rooting for him.

If you've ever thought about taking a chance on a new author, this book is an excellent choice. It will make you smile and at the same time make you wonder about what it is to be fully human.

This book has a wonderful diversity of recipes, all fairly easy to prepare with ingredients that are easy to get. It's certainly attractive enough for a coffee table book, and the pictures are enough to get anyone's appetite going. Because of the recipes, though, it lives in my kitchen, and more than one page has got stains on it from use. I recommend the macaroni and cheese!

This cookbook is made special by the use of wonderful pictures and interesting stories that accompany the recipes. My grandmother's recipe for chicken pie has been included and I can tell you it is fabulous. Aline showed me how to make the pies in my Grandmother's kitchen. Likewise, the other recipes give the reader a wonderful feeling for the diversity of favorite foods across America. This is truly a beautiful and interesting cookbook.

Rich in pictures and in facts, "Saveur Cooks..." is a wealth of information on American cooking. Over 150 detailed recipes ranging from salads and soups to desserts and cocktails draw out a culinary map from sea to shining sea. It's lush pictures throughout the book make the cookbook worth browsing through over and over again.

The pictures are drool-inducing and inspire you to become more interested in the recipes. Recipe instructions are simple and easy to follow along with and the little tidbits of information scattered throughout the book are really interesting and lend a readable tone to the book.

Make sure you try the recipe for Bierocks. It's excellent!

The best parts of the book are the semi-autobiographical elements which are probably lifted from the author's career as a chef. The convuluted plot includes dealings with the mafia, and ends pretty unsatisfactorily.

Where the author excels is entertaining the reader with tales about the sex, drugs, and criminal behavior, and he's only talking about the restaurant staff. He let's us in on the secrets behind how food is delivered to your table at dinner time.

For a better look behind the restaurant business, I recommend reading his non-fiction works Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour.

We learn what a mise-en-place is and get a graphic description of cleaning a squid. As a matter of fact, we learn a lot about the restaurant business from purchasing to personnel to controlling cost. The author is a certified expert at this and the next time you go to a restaurant you probably look at it with different eyes (and leave a better tip).

But this book is supposed to be a mystery, and so it is - in a way. It is an absolutely hilarious sendup of small-time and small-brained mafia gangsters. From Sally the Wig to Charley Wagons to Skinny they act like the book tells them to: Got to follow the rules! No wonder it gets them into trouble. Only their methods of maiming and killing seems to be innovative.

This is a satire you don't want to miss.

Anthony Bourdain has struck gold with his venture into fiction writing. Bone in the Throat is a wonderfully delightful romp through the world of mobsters and food service, which Bourdain has done a masterful job of intertwining. Not being personally inclined to read much fiction, I read this based on the quality of Bourdain's non-fiction works, and was very pleased. I'm looking forward to reading his other fiction work, Gone Bamboo, and am anxiously hoping that he writes some more, be it fiction or non-fiction. This guy has got real talent!

This was the first book of Ms. Krentz that I read, and that was all it took; she had me hooked! Even after 10 years and hundreds of books, I remember the plot with great detail. Gifts of Gold, and its sequel, Gifts of Fire make a great read for those who like contemporary AND historical fiction. There is a dash of the paranormal, which Ms. Krentz later expands in her 'flower' books (Orchid, Zinnia), but which she wrote about WAY before it was vogue to do so. I just love the way she took our hero and heroine and combined their special 'gifts'. With a quick wit, a great sense of humor, a villanous 'bad guy', and some great sensual scenes, this book is not to be missed!!!

Gift of Gold blends your independent female heroine and tough male hero with a dash of the supernatural in the form of hero Jonas Quarrel's trips into a type of time tunnel. He has the ability to actually experience the history of objects of violence, but can then become overcome by the emotions connected to them. Verity Ames becomes his perfect match, able to control the powers in the psychic time tunnel and match Jonas passionately on the physical plane. The perfect matchup on more than one level makes their romance a binding one that is able to overcome outside threats. This novel should be read in conjunction with its sequel, Gift of Fire. Fans of Krentz will note that her later books, such as Deep Waters and Absolutely, Positively have strayed away from the psychic format of the two Gift novels and Midnight Jewels and into the realm of the business world. If they miss that added twist, take a look at her new series under the name Jayne Castle -- Amaryllis and Zinnia. Jayne has taken the concept started in the Gift novels of a woman being the controlling force for a man's psychic power making her the perfect mate into a new realm. She moved them to another planet where psychic ability is the norm and runs from there. If you liked Gift of Gold/Fire, take a looke at the new novels written as Jayne Castle

I have read almost every JAK book that she has written. I can say that I have enjoyed every contemporary romance she has written (I'm not too into the otherworld, futuristic ones). Her heroes are always believable but heroic. Her heroines are down-to-earth women. And of all the books I've read, this one is my absolute favorite. Those professional advertising reviews always state "you won't be able to put it down", but in this case, its true! I totally fell in love with Jonas and could easily imagine myself as Verity (I have red hair too!). And by the way... Make sure you read Gift of Fire after this one; it takes you through Verity and Jonas' next phase of their romance and keeps you "begging for more".