We've all heard about the great economic miracle of the past twenty years. What we haven't heard, though, is that the rate of growth has significantly slowed from pre-1973 levels. This book explains why, and shows that we may be able to achieve high growth rates again. The authors criticize the "Wall Street Model" of growth, which stresses low inflation and enhanced savings. This model, they say, leads to increased inequality and slower growth. The authors present an alternative "Main Street Model" which instead stresses technological innovation as the main driver of growth. The keys to increasing technological innovation are public investments in R&D and infrastructure, as well as increasing demand through higher minimum wages and a stronger role for unions. This book coherently presents this new model of growth and explains why the Wall Street model is flawed. This book has an unashamedly left-wing bias and some people may be put off by the more opinionated parts of this book. I found myself wishing the authors would stick to facts instead of shoving ideas in your face that can't be backed up. In one part of the book the authors discuss the "neoclassical growth syllogism" and try to show how flawed it is. To do this, they examine each premise of the syllogism and assign a seemingly arbitrary percentage describing how true the premise is. You just can't do that. If you give me a number, you better be able to support it with facts or else you're wasting my time. These authors are probably well educated and they should know better than to whimsically pull numbers out of their [fundaments.]

Using historical data on the rate of increase of productivity, these authors build a convincing case that the United States is near the beginning of an economic boom based on information technlogy. They go well beyond most economists in explaining the nature of economic long waves (also called Kondratieff waves). They then explain in depth how current government economic policies are misdirected in terms of maximizing this pattern of economic growth.

This book has two sides:

on one side it is a touching and impressive story of the writer's difficult life (from child abuse to AIDS) and the way meditation helps him.

On the other side it is a meditation/Buddhism guide, starting brilliantly - comparing the Buddha's life story to every person's personal struggle for liberation but then gets repetitive/boring to the point where i simply couldn't read any longer.

Had the writer focused more on his personal struggle this could have been an excellent book as there are many gems hidden in it's pages, too bad they are too far scattered.

Mr. Harrison, a South African gay man with AIDS, has written a book that is a primer for Insight Meditation. Although the theme of the book is how to live with pain and suffering (whether medical or mental or social), anyone with an interest in the teaching of the Buddha and instructions on meditation would find this helpful. At the end of thr book the author goes through the "precepts" of Buddhism, such as non-harming, no stealing, no intoxicants. He lists them and then uses stories to show how they work in the everyday world. Mr Harrison's greatest gift in this book, I feel, is that he shows how those who are in the midst of suffering can turn their attention from themselves to others and open their heart to a compassion that may have otherwise gone undiscovered. He deals with the fear of death and anger as well, giving meditational insgights into each problem. I gave the book 4 stars only because the writing can be a bit plodding and feels sort of dull after a bit.

I read this book under the title of "Plague from Space", published by Orbit Books in 1991. The book was first published in 1966, and it shows. Harrison spins an interesting tale of a plague that arrives in a manned ship that returned from a first descent into Jupiter, and how us humans handle it. The suspense is there, but unfortunately, I kept losing my suspension of disbelief because the future described in the book feels "too old". In particular, medicine and medical research, which are so important in this book, seem a little backward (even though some of the devices used are indeed forward looking).

This is not a bad read, but anyone who wants a good Harrison book to start with would do better to pick up a copy of Death World.

Having read only the Steel Rat series, I couldn't have guessed that Mr. Harrison is more than just a great parody writer. "Plague from Space" (he's got an annoying habit of publishing his books under different titles - I wonder if he thinks it's funny) is a serious, exciting, touching, realistic science fiction thriller. Though not the world's greatest book, it's definitely worth reading. - Olavi Jagg

Harry, how could you! After creating the inimitable Stainless Steel Rat, you put in in a STUPID non-existent storyline! You send Slippery Jim back and forth in time aimlessly, the archvillain is titled "HE" (was that name the best you could do?), and then the end is not the least satisfactory. Harry, the absurd point of the story was to make sure the Stainless Steel Rat could not be around to be a father to his twins. What a disappointment when the best part of the story is the brief repartee between Slippery Jim and his boss, Inskipp. I know you can do better, Harry, because you have in your other books. Readers, if you like the Rat, skip this one.

Man, Harry Harrison's good at this stuff. This is one of my favorite Rat books. It's got a good storyline and a good (bad?) enemy, which every book needs in my humble opinion.

Does little or nothing on its supposed thesis of showing the development of the hersir from the free farmer-warrior. Too much space wasted on showing a system of catagorizing swords which then is never used to show anything. One of the worst things I've ever seen from Osprey, though still an okay book. You are better off getting the Elite series #3 on Vikings.

The hersirs were apparently the Viking commanders, but this book is about the Vikings whether they were commanders or not.

As in the other Osprey books, a prime reason for getting the book is the illustrations. If you want to know what the Viking might have looked like who killed the English king's reeve Beathuheard with an axe to the head in the late 8th centuries, check out these drawings.

The Vikings were scary dudes.

I was under the mistaken impression that this book would contain sign language interpretation of songs for church. It contains mostly refrains and while that's okay, I really would have preferred being able to choose what I might want to sign out of the whole song rather than being given a small part of the song to sign.

As a Sunday School Superintendent, I'm always looking for something new and different for my kids to sing. The songbook, "With Heart and Hands and Voices" does offer 22 bible songs suitable for children, but the majority are already familiar standards. Also, a lot of the songs offer the refrain only and you are left wanting more. The great thing about this book is the sign language. Kids LOVE to learn sign language. I think they get a kick out of doing something mom and dad may not know how to do. The illustrations are done very well and are easy to follow and teach. The book includes very helpful tips on how to enhance the performances of each song, and information about the songs author. I am pleased with the book if only to teach my kids the sign language that goes along with songs they already know. Overall, a good investment for any Sunday School.

Fritz Tullis is a belligerent pot smoking lothario now pushing forty who somehow evolved out of a smart athletic golden boy with a Ph.d. from Yale. He is, or was before he was fired, a well-liked college professor who presumably has book smarts but as much common sense as Ollie the lost whooping crane, which has more depth as a character than Fritz. Freedman goes on to make his villain an evil arms dealer in diplomat's clothing and names him Roach. Is he playing with his readers, or does he think these people seem real.

Fritz's amateurish investigation of the murder he saw takes him into pitfall after pitfall, almost like the old Saturday serials where the audience wants to scream, "no, don't go there." Take the visit to his college buddy Buster who's now a big time Washington lawyer. "Can I trust Buster?" Come on!

In the end Freedman needs to use a bad guy with a gun standing over Fritz and his babe to explain how everything ties together. It wouldn't flow from the story any other way, and Fritz certainly wasn't going to figure it out. Like its leading man, this story is all promise and zero substance.

Friedman has a unique ability to entangle his readers in his protagonist's perspective as well as bring his scenes to life. In "Bird's-Eye View" he ensnares you in the life of Fritz Tullis, an up and coming history professor whose life is in disarray.

This disillusioned, even shattered, young man (maybe I identify as a former assistant history professor) buries himself in the Maryland swamps around his family home and between booze, marijuana and taking pictures of birds attempts to get his life back together.

Fritz discovers a whooping crane, the most famous endangered species in the United States, has shown up in his swamp among sandhill cranes and he comes back again and again to take pictures of this extraordinary bird.

While photographing the cranes he sees a mysterious airplane land on a private field across the waterway and on an impulse starts taking pictures. He ends up photographing a murder. Soon we learn that the airstrip is owned by an assistant secretary of state and the victim is an important foreign dignitary.

This is a well written, suspenseful and very human interest focused book that captures both the Chesapeake Bay area as well as the complex struggle 21st century men and women face trying to find companionship and continuity.

Suspenseful till the end, "Bird's-Eye View" is both a good read and thought provoking.

Thirty-four years old Fritz Tulley is a tenured professor at a prestigious Texas university. The teachers and students at the college consider the daredevil a bit of a golden boy not just because of his youthful academia success, but because he is a maverick risk taker. His future is rosy until he meets and falls in love with Marnie, whose husband uses his clout with the university to get Fritz fired.

Fritz returns home to his family's isolated Maryland estate, but resides in a ramshackle cottage doing [...]himself into oblivion. His one passion is bird watching in the swamp adjacent to his shack. He's busy taking pictures of the birds when he sees a plane land nearby with three men exiting before one is shot. He later finds out the victim is a Russian stationed in Washington DC and the corner of the land where he was shot belongs to James Roach, an Undersecretary of State with a very shady reputation. Although Fritz does not report the shootings to the police he has done some investigating on his own, which places him and those he cares about in danger.

Even though BIRDS EYE VIEW is a very serious thriller, J.F. Friedman has a breezy light-hearted style of writing. Thus, when something actual happens to one of the characters, the audience feels shock and disorientation. Although Fritz is no saint he is a decent person caught between a rock and a hard place. Even so, he is trying to do the right thing by bringing a criminal to justice. He is the kind of character that readers want in a series.

Harriet Klausner

This book is definitely a well structured technology book. It provides a detailed analysis of all the aspect of Commerce Server, but if you are not too familiar with some of the aspects you might end up buying other WROX books. For instance the business analysis part is missing some critical pieces and the explanation of how to create custom reports is too brief. In my opinion Commerce Server 2000 is a product meant for tailoring and plumbing; this book deals mostly with the plumbing. So, programmers will like it, business analysts might be shopping for something else. Looking at the variety in quality and inconsistency of the examples you notice that they have worked on the book with several authors. This book could have done a much better job if the reader were walked through the actual building of a solution site. The Business-to-Business is too brief for the far reaching potential of the Commerce Server 2000 product.

Hello all,

Here is my two cents.

I purchased this book because I have always valued Wrox books. They publish pretty decent books, except Commerce Server 2000. I found inconsistency all over the book and most of the code that that the author tried to explain were in poor quality and did not work (even the download code). I made the code work only by looking deep into the Online Help files.

This book has all the signs that it was rushed out the door the author lightly touches the different parts of Commerce Server 2000. Even if you are an advanced programmer you will find this book hard to follow and will find your self looking more into the Online Help files rather than the this book.

After waiting 6 months for a decent book on Commerce Server 2000, I finally got it! This book does a great job giving an overall view of the product before diving into the nitty gritty information. Unlike any other book currently on the market, this one gives a great architectural layout of each part of CS2K (user profiling, campaigning, catalogs, etc...) and then gives code examples. Great job WROX!

Sian Richards has just published her third book of poetry, an ad for which appears in the newspaper. When Charles Callahan happens upon the ad, and sees Sian's picture, he realizes that she is the girl he fell in love with at summer camp, when they were both 14, some 30-odd years ago. Overwhelmed with memory and emotion, he decides to write her a letter and thus begins a correspondence which leads the two of them, very quickly, into each other's arms. Trapped in unhappy marriages, together they find release from their individual realities and obsessively romanticize their relationship. Of course, guilt and complications ensue. And then, abruptly, the novel ends.

There is now no reason for any of you to read this book. The extent of its depth is encapsulated above. In fairness, it is a moving, quiet novel, at times both sad and beautiful in its language and emotion, but ultimately one which leaves you unsatisfied; it is so lean, both in length and development, that the reader is never afforded the opportunity to fully involve himself in its world. Everything about the story and its characters sits on the surface of the page, as if the writer is keenly afraid of exploring the deeper issues at hand.

With "Weight of Water" a few years later, Shreve proved that she is a very capable talent who can write above the sort of superficial emotion she concerns herself with here. Skip "Where or When," but don't skip Shreve altogether.

I read this book quickly, so possibly I missed some of the logic that would lead two married 46 year olds to abandon evryone significant in their lives to be together. Their relationship didn't make sense to me - surely we all have a special girl- or boyfriend from our teen years. I simply cannot see myself overcome with lust in a public place upon first sighting of someone I thought I loved 31 years ago. I'd like to think we both required a longer period of reconnection. Also, how did both parties have so much unfettered time? Did Charles' financial worries disappear when he bought champagne, gifts, meals and a hotel room for them? Didn't his wife's reaction seem a bit odd? Mmmm. I think I am a consummate romantic, but I just can't buy it.

There are an infinite number of love stories and almost all of them tell the same tale. Certain stories are so compelling that they must be told. Anita Shreve tells a tale of such hopelessness that I, an intense guy who has missed disaster by a hair's breadth more than once, felt sheer relief that something this intense has never played out in my life (yet, ah!).

Charles met Sian when they were 14 years old at a Catholic summer camp in Pennsylvania. They developed a special relationship beyond a teenager's obsession, an attraction so profound as to have its own momentum, spinning out of the orbit of mere definition. They separate and 31 years later Charles rediscovers Sian through a book jacket photo. Despite the responsibilites of a wife and three loveable children, Charles must contact Sian who is also married and raising a daughter. They exchange letters and, in Pennsylvania where the camp has been converted into a hotel and restaurant, they meet four times during deep winter. Both lovers are deeply conscious that their behavior is irresponsible and hurtful. In fact, their story is unrelentingly hopeless. Inevitably, intense mishaps occur which complete the frisson of doom lurking in every page.

Although it is beautifully written, reading this is a melancholy experience at best and at times is discomfiting, like watching a disaster waiting to happen. I was fascinated by the flashbacks to summer and the camp. As teenagers, Charles and Sian are deeply moving. The final sentence is deft, deflecting all this pain into something simple and timeless.

Not The best George Harrison book out there. Very tough read due to a lot of meaningless detail.

All i can say is that this author is some bitter hack, who tries to reduce George Harrison to the level of mediocrity. Very boring with no real insight or focus. Also it just left me with a bad taste in my mouth, brain, & heart.

I'm surprised at the negativity and hatred this book spawns. ... I enjoyed this book. So much of Beatles literature is paved with the same regurgitated facts. This book in no way adds a tremendous amount of knowledge, but at least it paints a fairly unique portrait of George, unlike the Guiliano book. The book is often cumbersome in its Britishness, but I appreciate the author's take on a guy who might as well be St. George ... This book isn't the bible, but a perspective.