I was intensely interested in Feng Shui and I wanted to know all about it. As a newbie, I didn't know what to look for so I just searched on "Feng Shui" and found this book, _The Feng Shui Handbook_. I also ordered another book by Simon Brown, "Practical Feng Shui", which also has its faults, but not as many as the _Feng Shui Handbook_. In this book there are too many general things mentioned, which don't tell you anything about the unfortunate placements of bathrooms and so forth, or directions at all. The only thing I got out of this book was the story of the turtle, the dragon, the bird Phoenix, the tiger and the snake in the middle, so if you are willing to pay money for just that, then go ahead and buy it. But i think it is just another newbie...Feng Shui wanna-be to gain money off you.

This is just a wonderful intro to Chinese science and philosophy. You see the glory of the Northern Lights or watch a passing thunderstorm and intuitively understand the give-and-take of energy.

Lam Kam Chuen really strives to place Chinese science in the mainstream of Western Einsteinian physics. He isn't concerned with adjusting your dresser to cure corns. He may have an opinion on that, as might Einstein, but if that is what you're seeking, you should read Dr. Scholl's.

This book is effective because of the brushed demonstrations of energy flows in the latter half of the book. You are free to accept or reject this approach, but I believe it is an effective approach to this cross-cultural experience.

This book is really good for anyone who just wants the basics. It also has plenty of illustrations to help train the reader's eyes. Master Lam Kam Chuen does an excellent job explaining energy flow, location of doors, furniture placement, etc. and how it affects us. But this book is not just about houses. He also gives advice for the office, as well as how to break up space if you have a one-room dwelling.

I knew absolutely nothing about Feng Shui before I bought this book, which I admit I bought for the colorwheel. I changed my bedroom around based on the master's advice, and now I sleep like a baby! I'm glad I bought this book BEFORE I redecorated. It really saved me from making some expensive bad choices.

This book is easy to carry around if you are shopping for a new apartment or house. A handbook for sure.

Philip Roth's THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL is a big, bulbous, brocaded, bullshooting joke whether viewed from the box seats behind home plate or way in the back row of the right field bleachers-but let me not get pulled into the alliterative traps in which Roth indulges himself by way of his narrator, one Word Smith. Through the pen of the almost ninety-year-old "Smitty," we read the sad and disturbing tale of how the Ruppert Mundys of the mythical and defunct Patriot League were forced to spend all of 1943 playing away games after their owners sold their home stadium to the War Department as an embarkation point for our brave soldiers. Is Smitty as insane as many others obviously find him? Did the Mundys really have a one-legged catcher, a one-armed center fielder, a 14-year-old second baseman and a dwarf as a relief pitcher? Just who really is the Babylonian former ace pitcher Gil Gamesh? Was there really a Communist plot to destroy America by first destroying baseball?

It is curiosity and determination to finish this too-long-by-a-third book that may keep you reading through to the end, I'm afraid I had to force myself through it. We certainly aren't supposed to like any of the characters, so that means the story better hold us. And while it's a great story with a good number of laughs, there are too many long-winded passages that just aren't as funny once you get the rhythm down-the satire is dulled by them, in fact. I submit that Roth knew this and simply didn't care: by 1973 when this book was published he had been a bestseller for over twenty years. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he had a Dickensian paid-by-the-word contract for this book. Additionally, there are the letters to Smitty in the Epilogue from publishers rejecting his manuscript of the Patriot League story, one of which says, "by and large the book seemed . . . to strain for its effects and to simplify for the sake of facile satiric comment the complex realities of American political and cultural life." Now while the complex realities of American political and cultural life can never be underestimated, Roth clearly knew the monster he created. And what fun for him to slap the Great American Novel title on it all!

I really enjoyed the first couple of hundred pages of this book, and I recommend it to those who are also students of baseball history (Roth weaves many real names and situations and speeches of old into his text) and aficionados of Roth. This is only my third Roth book, his earlier works PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT is one of my favorites of all time and GOODBYE, COLUMBUS is an entertaining first novel. I'm sorry I couldn't stay as excited about this one as it lumbered on, even if that was the point. Terrific concept, though.

Whatever else this novel is, it IS NOT the "Great American Novel". Such a thing, of course, will never exist except in the minds of those who are completely ignorant of writing. What the novel purports to be is a novel about the "Great American Novel", written by one Word Smith (or Smitty). Smitty sets out to tell the tale of the forgotten Patriot League, and the final inglorious season of the Ruppert Mundys. As the other reviewers have noted, this is high farce - sometimes too broad, sometimes too cruel, but often hilarious. I can't quite recommend this as highly as some of the others (for the record, I am not a baseball fan and I think it definitely would be funnier if I were). However, there is enough talented wordplay for me to give this four stars. Not Roth's best, but far from his worst.

This novel fizzles out by the end, but before that comes some of the most hilarious and entertaining writing you can possibly read. In fact, it amazing. My friends and I have regaled each other with incidents and characters from "The Great American Novel." Maybe it really is the great American novel. Nickname Demur will never die.

This was the first book by Ms. Holt I've read, I will try others because I did enjoy her style, and, this one left me torn. I found the inital attraction between Maggie and Adam to be sweet, the way Ms. Holt described their first meeting was compelling. He wanted to protect her, she was drawn to him, wanting him to smile. You felt the pull between them, very believable. Then real life intrudes and the staid Marquess rears his ugly head, and keeps on rearing it. By the middle of the story, all I wanted was to see Adam get what was coming to him, a swift kick in the rear, to be exact. Maggie was and good heroine, kind and caring, realistic about her life as an illegitimate daughter of a courtesan and in her dealings with an absentee father who never wanted to claimed her. Never really pining for what couldn't be, just living her life with what she has, right now. Much better and stronger than a heroine, who always feels regret about something she couldn't change anyway. Adam on the other hand, was not a good hero, he never made me want him to succeed or provail, at least past the first chapter. He was constantly demeaning Maggie, with words and actions, consistantly refusing to accept her as she was, always regretting what was obvious to everyone else. Love doesn't care who you are, where you're from or where you'll be going tomorrow, it just is. If he had come to that conclusion earlier in the story he may have been easier to like, as it was I was rooting for Charlie. James and Anne were wonderful secondary characters and that they found happiness was very satisfying, even the absentee father was more likable than the hero. I can't say this was the worst book I've ever read, not even close, in fact, it was well written with good character development, with a true sense of what it might have been like to be a woman in a time when women were secondary citizens with no means of living beyond what men provided. Scary time to be female. I'll try another of Ms. Holt's stories, I always give an author a second chance.

I have never come across another author like Cheryl Holt! Her characters are real people with real emotions. Adam and Maggie meet by chance on a beach, both trying to escape their desolute lives. Is it fate? Adam and Maggie soon find out that their is more to fate when reality plays a very important part. I liked the way Maggie spoke her mind, was kind and considerate to others and had a grip on reality. So sick of authors not letting the heroes and heroines feel passion, desire and love. They want to make a game out of it until your throwing the book down with disgust because the obvious would be so much nicer to read. Adam makes many mistakes because of his upbringing causing true heartache to many. Cheryl Holt writes this in a way that helps you to understand what makes him make the choices he does. I was never left with wondering how these characters felt, very well written. This book is one of my very favorite books. I laughed, I cried, and I didn't want it to end....Great love story. I will be reading all of her books.

This book was selected by Romantic Times Magazine as a "Best Book" of 2000. It was nominated for the magazine's prestigious Reviewers' Choice Award, in the "Best British Setting" category.

Other nominees in the category are Meg Cabot, Christina Dodd, Connie Mason, and Bertrice Small. Winner will be announced at the Romantic Times convention in Orlando, Florida, in November, 2001.

AS A DUDE FROM THE BRONX WHO IS A TRUE -BLUE NEW YORKER I FIND THIS TO BE AN INTERESTING BOOK. I LIKE THE MANY ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS THAT SHOW HOW PLACES I AM FAMILIAR WITH LOOKED WAY BACK IN THE DAY. IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE THIS HUGE CITY STARTING OUT AS A LITTLE VILLAGE IN LOWER MANHATTAN BUT THIS BOOK GIVES YOU SOME IDEA OF WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE THEN AND HOW THE CITY GREW TO BE WHAT IT IS TODAY. A GOOD BASIC HISTORY OF N.Y.C. FOR KIDS AND ADULTS. A MUST HAVE FOR NATIVES OF "NEW YAWK" AND ANYONE ELSE INTERESTED IN THIS GREAT CITY. P.S. DON'T FORGET THE WTC !!

This is a good book for a quick overview of NYC history, but it skimps a bit on some detail. The collection of maps and illustrations help bring the history to life.

It would be impossible to do justice to the history of New York City in a couple of hundred pages, so approaching this book with realistic expectations is important. With that in mind, this book is a wonderful overview of a fascinating metropolis, beginning with the formation of the land mass and continuing through its inhabitance by the Manahatta, the Dutch, the Brits and the Americans. Key historical eras are covered including the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and many areas of interest are addressed such as immigration, politics, sports, the arts and architecture.

There are many photographs, drawings, charts and maps, and I appreciated that the scales were similar so that a reader can compare various maps easily.

Articles are well-written and graphics are clean and well-designed. I would call this more an historical almanac of NYC, but whatever you call it, it is a fun and interesting read.

I have always been a fan of the intellectual debates in the New York Review of Books letters to the editor pages. This book consists of two articles by Crews and the subsequent debates surrounding them. I would have liked to see better defenses of Freud, but none of the eminent defenders of psychoanalysis is able to mount a serious challenge to Crews's devastating attacks.

This devastating book has two parts: (1) The Unknown Freud, where the reader gets a picture of Freud as a dictator, a megalomaniac and egotripper. A pope who alone knew the truth and who founded a secret commission to protect his 'church' against the heathen. He was a bad psychoanalyst (e.g. the Wolf Man case) and a venal man (e.g. the catastrophic Horace Fink case, where he tried to get his own hands on some money of the heiress).
I agree with the author that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience - statements cannot be tested and the research results cannot be verified uniformly. Although it is not totally without meaning (Karl Popper), it is not a science.
(2) the revenge of the repressed
A frontal attack on the caste of the psychoanalysts, depicted as 'religious zealots, self-help evangelists, sociopolitical ideologues, and outright charlatans who trade in the ever seductive currency of guilt and blame, while keeping the doctor's fees mounting.'
The author is particularly severe with their latest 'school' : the 'recovered memory movement', based on the rape of children by their parents (really!). This lead to false accusations and condemnations of innocent people. No wonder the author predicts an accelerating collapse of psychoanalysis as a respected institution.
A much needed and courageous book to halt a profession riding at full speed on a misty highway. And a much needed angle on Freud as a person, written in a style to slaughter the not so innocent father of psychoanalysis.
After reading this book, I agree with Peter Madawar, who called doctrinaire psychoanalytic theory "the most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century".

Frederick Crews really knows how to tap that deep reservoir of hostility found in modern Freudian psychoanalysts. In 1993 and 1994 FC wrote two essays in the New York Review of Books debunking Freud in the first, and tearing to shreds the recovered memory movement in the second.

These two essays and the letters in response to them have been put into the book The Memory Wars. As someone trained in experimental psychology you can guess my own personal bias in this matter. Crews discusses Freud's botched cases; his frequent vacillation in theory formation; some of his sillier theories; and his serious interjection of personal bias into the formation of his beliefs. The main problem with the whole Freudian system is the total lack of scientific evidence supporting it. Freudian psychoanalysis is founded on anecdote and supported by anecdotes. To be fair, much current non-Freudian therapy is also based on anecdote. Indignant Freud followers write back, and their letters are indeed interesting (and often pompous).

The second half of the book takes on the recovered memory movement. It would be great to poke fun at this movement if it weren't for the fact that it has caused so much damage to all parties involved. Symptoms checklists are published with the statement if you suffer from these symptoms you may be a victim of sexual abuse. Read the list and you will find that the majority of Americans will find that they have been abused. It's all a patient seduction game with the intent to make big money. Hospitals have even set up units to treat such patients (Having worked in the psychiatric hospital industry I am well aware of the "product lines" that such facilities set up in order to fill beds). Crews does an excellent job of dissecting the memory movement, and once again we get to read the indignant responses.

Those who believe that psychological therapy should be based on sound scientific evidence will love this book. Those who have accepted Freudianism with a religious like faith will, of course, hate it. To me this whole subject is analogous to the evolution vs. creationist debate. It's science versus pseudoscience.

Much of Roth's later obsession with the boundaries between fiction and fact are evident in this book. FIrst we read two short stories--one funny, one more bitter, but both dark. Then we learn the two short stories are those of a struggling author who has fallen into the depths of depression after a difficult relationship. OF course the narrator pulls no punches--he is a hater of women, though I'm not sure that we are meant to take his view of the world as a given. Clearly he is messed up--even his psychologist thinks so, though the books also bashes the idea that a psychoanalyst is an impartial judge. This is fascinating, at times disturbing stuff, but well worth it. And I still love my wife.

Philip Roth's sixth novel, "My Life as a Man," first appeared in 1974, after the author spent several years trying to use the material of his first marriage (to one Margaret Martinson) in a fictionalized setting. Readers of Roth's autobiography, "The Facts" (1988), know that his brief cohabitation and extensive legal battles with Martinson were harrowing enough to leave psychological wounds the author continued to lick for decades following her death in a car accident. "My Life as a Man," according to "The Facts," was a book that took an enormous toll, both artistic and emotional, on the author. But it's a good thing he was able to write it, because what we have is a tremendously gripping, chilling, bitter and often hilarious look at the dark side of "romantic" relationships.

The first section of the book, entitled "Useful Fictions," includes two stories "by Tarnopol" documenting his carefree childhood and eventual entanglement with the psychopathic "Lydia." Then the novel itself starts, under the title "My True Story." What follows is enough to make anyone feel fortunate for a) being single or b) having a stable relationship. Martinson, who was "Lydia" in the first section, is here renamed "Maureen," and is one of the most unforgettable women in American literature. Self-loathing, neurotic, violent, manic-depressive, grasping, hateful and literally insane, her relentless attempts to control and keep "Tarnopol" (Roth) are what gives these pages such intensity. Her hatred for Tarnopol and his hatred for her make this book unputdownable. Reading "The Facts," one learns that much, if not most, of what occurs here actually took place in real life. No wonder Roth has "women issues" (or so the critics always say).

This remains one of Roth's most intelligent, finely crafted books. His use of dialogue is virtually unparalleled in modern fiction, and his sentences are as chiselled and graceful as one would expect of an artist of his caliber. In short, "My Life as a Man," though not the most uplifting book of our time, is an extraordinary (and extraordinarily bleak) accomplishment.

I promise to keep this review short because I know there is nothing more unpleasant than a long review...did he like, or not like the book?....Yes, this book is a masterpiece: this is early-middle Roth when he is just starting to discover himself as a man and a writer...A must read for anyone thinking about becoming a writer.

I have been a fan of Victoria Holt on and off for years, starting when I was about 13 and continuing to this day (I am 25). They are very easy reading, so if you are expecting Faulkner, you might want to look elsewhere. But if you are in the mood for a good suspenseful book with romantic tendencies, Victora Holt is the perfect author.

Bride of Pendorric is a great example of Holt's work. A young, orphaned heroine marries into a family with a mysterious past, and she soon comes to believe that someone is trying to get rid of her. The similarities to "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier are very striking, right down to Mrs. Danvers at the window convincing the heroine to jump vs. Nurse Grey at the window convincing Favel that she is about to be pushed. (I should note that I am not sure which novel came first). However, the eventual explanation is great, and a real shocker, even if you think you know who did it!

If you are in the mood for a great gothic novel, then "Bride of Pendorric" is a good place to start.

"Bride of Pendorric" definately has similarities to DuMaurier's "Rebecca," but it has elements all its own. I enjoyed the twisting plot and the book's FABULOUS climax...you'll never guess it! It is truly reminisent of the gothic novel. The characters are actually quite complex in this story, something that I don't often see in romance novels. If you liked DuMaurier's "Rebecca" or any other Victoria Holt novel, there is a good chance that you will like this book. I couldn't put it down once I began to read it. It is definately worth a few hours of your time.

her hole life she lives on a island one day a strange hansome man apers and marries her and takes her bake to his castle after she meets her grandfather she only ferse 2 things who is trying to hill her and did her husband marrie her for the money or for love?

Discovering Fossil Fishes written by John G. Maisey is a book covering fish fossilization through out history. Spanning more the one-half billion years fishes are older than dinosaurs and have links to the tetrapods on land.

This book is highly illustrated with art work one nearly half of the pages with the dialog on the other half of the book. Fishes have a unique evolutionary history that stretches back in time, they are incredibly ancient and include the ancestors of all the limbed vertebrates living on the land.

I found the book to be highly readable and easy to follow as this book could be read and understood by those twelve years old or older. There are color illustrations along with fossilized pictures comparing both. This gives the reader a good approximation as to what the fossil would look like in life.

From their ancient ancestors, the craniates, fishes evolved not once, in a single lineage, but multiple times, filling countless biological niches. Given their long evolutionary history, itis not surprising that so many species of fishes exist today; one new fish species evolving every 18,000 years, or about 55.5 species evolving per one million years. The sum total of fishy diversity through time is far greater than now, and the evolutionary history of fishes is a vast and comples subject.

But, the author wrote this book with the layreader in mind and the prose are simple but very effective. as more fossil fishes are uncovered we will know better what the ancient world looked like and come to discover more of our own ancestors.

Maisey is a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. With this work he has brought the evolution of the fishes to the popular science reader. My only major complaint about this book is in format. I would like to have seen it arranged by geological period as apposed to taxonomic group. I also think that a more visual group of cladograms arranging all the fishes would have been in order. Many cladograms are included but they only show small snippets of the relationships between fishes and you have to piece a larger picture together throughout the book. The illustrations are excellent and you will have a hard time finding so many images of fossil fish, if you are just interested in seeing images of fossils then this will be great for you. I also liked how he discussed the development of major morphological features. While a person of specialized interest might be aware of these, having them all in one place is convenient.

If you have a developing interest in fishes or in vertebrate paleontology than this book would be good to have. It would also be a nice compliment to any library including material on natural history.

I came across this book while finishing my MSc at Guelph. The book soon made its rounds among all the ichthyology students and faculty. It is well written, lavishly illustrated and nicely designed. Seeing this volume going for so cheap surprises me. I paid 5 times more for mine. Any student involved with fish taxonomy, evolution and general biology MUST get this book. I found the lateral views a bit goofy but the paintings of creatures in motion in their habitat are superb. People who are interested in early life on our planet should also consider having a look at this one. BRAVO Dr. Maisey!

My wife and I came to this book for advice on our first pregnancy and had to work hard to get to the useful stuff.

Let's start with the chapter on "Nutrition During the First Trimester" (which is where we were when we bought the book). There's a section called "Optimal Weight Gain" where the author talks a lot about gaining too much weight and not gaining enough, but little on what is just right. There's plenty of Cosmo-esque "advice" ("You are eating for two, but that second person is a baby not a linebacker", "If you want that prepregnancy little black dress to fit after pregnancy...") before you get to anything useful ("Aim for a 25 to 35 pound gain, but don't worry if you're short or over this mark as long as you are monitored by a physician.").

The author advises pregnant women to not obsess over their weight. This advice would have been helpful for the author, who open each pregnancy chapter with a long section on weight gain. These sections contain a lot of harping on "don't gain too much!" and "don't gain too little!" without the corresponding "just right" information.

Ironically, the author clucks her tongue at pre-liberation women who would obsess about gaining too much weight. I wonder if the author realizes how much she perpetuates such obsessions with her "little black dress" references. As you read the book, you get the impression that she's a little obsessed herself and you find yourself wanting to comfort the author that you fully understand the perils of too-much-or-not-enough weight gain, and could we please change the subject?

Also annoying is Somer's tendancy to talk down to her readers. Lots of advice is doled out with a "Do this" or "Don't do that" attitude, sometimes falling annoyingly short on the reasons why.

That's not to say the book isn't useful. Once you get beyond the unnecessarily stylized content, you'll get a good education on supplements, what foods to avoid, and foods that are especially helpful during pregnancy (or "SUPER FOODS!!!").

But the overall tone of the book is more fashion magazine than professional (especially compared to the far superior "What to Expect When Expecting" books). It is pretty telling that the "about the author" credits list "The Today Show", "Good Morning America" and "Shape" magazine first. It reads like something stylistically packaged that occasionally contains useful information.

Elizabeth Somer's Pregnancy Nutrition Book is a breath of common sense that is much needed. Most nutritionists spend all their time trying to persuade everyone that all that is needed in pregnancy is the proverbial good balanced diet. Most nutritionists badmouth supplements for fear that people will just swallow pills and eat junk. As a reaction to the overuse of supplements most academics decry all supplements. (The official RDA of folate was lowered from 0.4 mg in 1970 to 0.2 mg in 1980 just because it is difficult to get more than 0.2 mg in the diet, so they lowered it so not to have to admit the need for supplements, even though the early reports from England about neural tube defect sparing were already published.) Somers never fell for that nonsense and has always encouraged sensible supplements in addition to a "good" diet. She always recognized the need for folate and iron supplements and was the first nutritionist to recognize the need for fluoride supplements in pregnancy. She anticipated, by four years, the present recommendation (Aug,'97 prelim; March'99 final) of the Food and Nutrition Board that pregnant women get 3 mg of fluoride a day. As the average diet in the US contains 0.5-2.5 mg, supplementation is necessary to meet this new Dietary Reference for Adequate Intake. Elizabeth Somer deserves great credit for her foresight and for the best pregnancy nutrition book on the market.

After reading a few "high level" books on nutrition and pregnancy, I was SO excited to pick up "Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy." (Although I am not pregnant, we are trying to concieve our first child.)

Not only was the text **easy** to read and understand, the author didn't just say "get more iron in your diet" or "eat more whole grain foods" (like other books I've read)- the author actually provided list after list of what (realistic) foods one could add to their diet to get the vitamins and minerals. This was great for a "nutrition newbie" like me!

I have always thought that pregnancy was a time for a woman to eat as much ice cream, candy, pickles, etc. or WHATever she was craving. However, this book was a wake-up call: Nutrition is essential for the baby's health.

I enjoyed learning about what nutrients were essential - and WHEN they are essential - from conception all the way past birth. I also enjoyed learning WHY all these minerals and vitamins were needed for each stage of the baby's development.

Women, if you are even THINKING about trying to concieve a baby, get this book! If you're already pregnant, it's not too late to read up and change your habits for the sake of your health - and your baby's health!

I bought this version of the popular fairy tale as a gift for my niece. After I received it, I was horrified to read in detail about how the huntsman cut open the wolf's stomach to look for the grandmother. It then goes on to read, ". . . after a few more slashes a little girl jumped out.." This was not at all what I had envisioned as a gift for a young girl. I wish I had been warned to buy the story from a different author.

As a teacher, I would not recommend reading this version of Little Red Riding Hood to younger children because I don't think it's suitable for a preschooler, kindergarten, or for a first grader to be listening to the ending: The hunter "raised his gun to shoot but then wondered... so he took out his knife and quickly killed the wolf while he lay sleeping. Then he carefully cut open the wolf's stomach. At the first cut, he saw the red velvet cloak, and after a few more slashes a little girl jumped out."
Also the way this author mentions the deaths: "He ran straight to the bed, and without even saying a good-morning, he ate up the poor old grandmother in one gulp.

"As the wolf said this, he sprang out of bed and ate up poor Little Red Riding Hood!"
I believe the book may be a little more suitable for older kids and it has excellent illustrations. I do recommend reading "Little Red Riding Hood" by Della Rowland. This book has two tales in one. The second tale is called "The Wolf's Tale", where the wolf tells his version of how Little Red Riding Hood actually occured. Della makes the story humorous and also allows you to give children a different perspective of the wolf being a much nicer and funnier character.

The illustrations in this book are very similar to those of Jan Brett but darker tones used. There is always something hidden w/in the pictures for children to look for and the illustrations help enhance the tale.

I also recommend Lon Po Po.