... from Gotanda's earlier, better known pieces -- forget linear narrative of any kind, this is a halucinatory dream gone trippy. Saw this in NYC years ago at Manhattan Theater Club and was mighty impressed with Gotanda's use of language, the way he plays with phrases, the way he learns to work within and outside of the language box. It's entertaining, it's thought-provoking. By curtain's fall, you have to ask if you yourself are not standing on your head, trying to somehow make sense of an upside world.

DAY STANDING ON ITS HEAD is a wild ride into the psyche of a 40-something professor asking the age-old question, IS THAT ALL THERE IS? The play is highly theatrical, and, as we staged it at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre & Asian American Theatre Company, full of quirks and surprises, including a few wacky song numbers and a whirlwind of activity. The story is both poignant and pertinent, centering on the universal quest for meaning in this transient existence. I recommend it highly to anyone looking for an engaging, truly theatrical work to direct, to perform in, or to peruse with pleasure.

This book has changed my ministry. I have been a pastor for 20 years with a degree in social work and lots of graduate credits in pastoral care and counseling, and did not expect this book to impact me so much. Stone makes a solid case for a framework for pastoral counseling that is of necessity short-term and forward looking. Then he puts ministry to those who are depressed, the "common cold of mental health," into that context. The result is outstanding. It is a foundational work for my own book with Augsburg Fortress that will be out in 2002, titled "When You Are Depressed." This review is unsolicited and heartfelt. +

Introduction: A View of Depression (Depression on the Rise, The Depressed as Church Members) PART ONE: ASSESSMENT Chap 1: Characteristics of Depression (Causes of Depression, Major Depression, Grief, Alcohol). Chap 2: Melancholy and Spiritual Desolation (Dark Night of the Soul, Accidie, Desolations, Anfechtungen, Discernment). Chap 3: Suicide and Depression (Assessing Suicide Risk, The Minister's Response to Suicide). Chap 4: Family Life of the Depressed (Impact of Depression on Interpersonal Relations, Marriage and Depression, Gender Differences, Children and Adolescents). Chap 5: Framing Hope (Reframing, Establishing Future Goals, Hope-Oriented Conversation, Strengths). PART TWO: ACTION Chap 6: Brief Pastoral Counseling of Depression: A Fourfold Approach (Assessment of Depression, How Clergy Think about Depression, The First Session, Counseling Methods). Chap 7: Interpersonal Interventions: Strengthening Intimate Relationships (Relationships of the Depressed, Life with a Depressed Person; Individual, Couple and Family Counseling, Communication, Problem Solving and Change). Chap 8: Physiological Interventions: Prozac and Beyond (Physiological Vulnerability, Body Image, Hormones, Types of Antidepressant Medications, Sleep Disturbances, Exercise). Chap 9: Cognitive Interventions: Changing How People Think (Misinterpreting Experience, Information-Processing Errors, Changing How the Depressed Think, Countering Rumination). Chap 10: Behavioral Interventions: Shifting from Passive to Active Mode (Getting Active, Homework Tasks, Control, Obstacles to Getting Active, Helpful Activities for the Depressed, Counseling Methods to Change Behavior, Prescribing Depression).

First there was a magazine article about Derek Jarmen's garden in Dungeness, UK published while he was alive. I wasn't aware of who he was except that I'd seen one beautiful music video directed by him in the film "ARIA".

Later someone told me of Derek Jarmen's emergence in the punk scene of 1970's London with his film "JUBILEE". And how at the time Derek lived in a big brick warehouse in the then abandoned (now gentrified) Southbank of the City near Tower Bridge, with a Victorian glass greenhouse for a bedroom set in the middle of the large loft space.

I remembered the article and wanted to see his garden. I remembered that soon after Derek Jarmen discovered he had HIV he bought the small cottage which is the subject of this book.

Seeing the garden was very revealing of Derek's mindset. To pronounce the name Dungeness correctly you must say the word "dungeon-ess". The few cottages there were built especially for those who were brought to this desolate area to work at the Dungeness Nuclear Power Plant. The Plant dominates the view because of the comparative height and size, and is obviously the most important "plant" in the garden. When you visit Derek's garden you will also be struck by how loud the humm of the nuclear plant is even though it is set a mile or so away, and the humm is constant -- it does not stop. The ground is covered with big 1- 2" diameter peebles. Nothing soft, nothing comfortable and with that constant humming that never stops.

The cottage itsself is a simple wooden structure that is stained black with windows painted a bright "Caution" yellow. Most buildings in Britain are made of brick or stone because of all the rain; wooden houses are extrememly rare and stand out as seeming impermanent and impractical because they do so easily mildew in that wet seaside climate.

This is a wonderful book about gardening and beauty, about set design and sculpture, and about the cyle of life.

Beautiful photography and memorable prose (from Derek Jarman) make this far more than a coffee table book. The garden itself is superb. Having visited the garden in Dungeness I can confirm that it is as splendid as the book suggests. I understand that Derek wanted to be buried in a glass-topped coffin in the garden. I can understand his attachment.

I am a third year medical student. This handbook takes a very broad and complicated disease, and makes it manageable to the diabetic patient. I have seen many diabetics take better control of their disease using the easy to use charts and information. This handbook proves that diabetes need not be intimidating to those who are diagnosed with it. The handbook makes it very easy to follow the care that is being given, as well as the care that should be given.

Finally, someone has written a self-help book for diabetics. The Diabetic Patient's Handbook allows each doctor and patient to know where and what should be done to benefit the patient. Knowledge is power. The handbook allows each individual to return to the doctors office with information to provide a more complete method of treatment and health care.

The book is the right size to carry in your shirt pocket or purse. It could also be taken to other Physcians and reviewed as an overall plan of treatment.

I Strongly recommend this book! It has the potential to help you save your own life and will provide you with the knowledge necessary to discuss your methods of treatment for your own well being.

This book was a real treat going through. Loaded with photographs, it tells the story as a script, shows the design of the characters, and then shows the special effects, sets, and other cool stuff. It's a great soveneir of the musical, and if you haven't it's a great book to read to experience the musical if you can't experience it on Broadway

This book is excellent. It is filled with gorgeous pictures from the Broadway musical. It also contains the complete lyrics and a story line of how the actual musical was produced. This is a definite for any musical theatre fan!

This book was the first to teach me to associate colors with words. It is so wonderful, I buy it for each of my friends' children when they turn 2.

To my surprise this book has been my sons favorite since he was 10 months old! The illustrations are quite appealing. Although he does not understand the concept mixing colors, this book has helped him learn colors and he will identify concepts in the real world that he learns from the book. Pretty good for a one year old. This book is a big hit.

Earlier this week our family suffered the loss of another beloved dog. After the initial shock lessened I remembered
what I call "The Grady Book". Up to attic I went and dug it out so that I could share it with my 7yr. old twin granddaughters. I knew Mr. Bronson during the time he was writing this book, my daughter Robin was his childrens' Nanny. I remember how concerned and caring he was regarding his girls feelings about Gradys death.
I felt that the book was just what my family needed this week, and as expected, it helped us all. We will all miss the big black Lab that has a part of the family for so long, but we will also remember the good times and smile.

I had recently lost my 12 yr. old Old English Sheepdog. He meant a great deal to me. In an attempt to cope with my feelings of loss, I found this book and ordered it. Little did I know the author would be writing about the loss of his OES, Grady. The author explains what it was like for him to lose Grady in a way that will touch your own feelings of loss. You will smile, remember little things, and shed some tears along the way. The book is a quick read, and is very easy for the average person to understand. The book has helped me to understand that I am not the only person to struggle with the loss of their companion. I highly recommend it for any dog lover, but especially OES lovers.

You can see by the pictures and words these men and women are not the same people they were many years ago when they were first put in prison. The pictures of each person put a face to the name and made them human.

Long term life sentences is why our prisons are so full today and more have to be built. We will have the "nursing home" prisons where these inmates will have to spend the last days of their life as more and more inmates receive life sentences and grow old in prisons. There is no good purpose for this.

I wish this book was required reading for every lawyer and judge. I wish the public would all read it also. Ann

I bought this book several years ago and have since given it as a gift and used it in teaching opportunities. I have watched as people thumb through it and write down the ISPN # so that they can find/purchase it. It's has to be one of the best books around to make real the personalities of some of those who society has discarded through the process of incarceration. This book is not about criminal justice theory. It's about global humanity. It's TERRIFIC!

I highly recommend this book. Not only did I feel I was being personally introduced to Howard P. Lovecraft while reading it, I felt Joshi personally knew him. Of course he didn't, but after reading virtually everything in print (including manuscript archives by and about him), Joshi knew more about Lovecraft than most people know about their closest friends. I have never seen letters so well deployed to assemble the day to day, month to month activities and intellectual concerns of a historical figure. (Lovecraft wrote letters by the tons, and many were saved.) There is some discussion of the "weird fiction" Lovecraft wrote, with sometimes negative evaluations of its quality, but the key work gets enthusiastic and insightful brief evaluation, with further context based on the articles in the specialized journals that keep Lovecraft's critical reputation alive. Lovecraft is an acquired taste, but those of us who have acquired it owe Joshi a debt of gratitude. I never knew of Lovecraft's involvement with the amateur press organizations, or of his peripatetic travels across the east coast and parts of Canada he could easily get to. I think Joshi quite rightly attributes Lovecraft's premature death (at age 37) to a lifetime of poor nutrition, much of which was caused by near-poverty -- he never had a professional position, and lived hand to mouth on editing and rewriting of others' work, as well as meager pay for some publications (many of which weren't issued till after his death). His racism is discussed as a personal failing that doesn't undercut the author's other achievements. If that doesn't wash with you, I don't recommend the book. Otherwise, this is the go-to biography of one of the most unusual authors America has ever produced. My one quibble is that no pictures are provided, but they are available elsewhere.

"A Dreamer and A Visionary: H.P. Lovecraft in His Time" is one of the latest offerings from top Lovecraft scholar, S.T. Joshi. This is not an entirely new book, but a heavily edited and condensed version of his monumental 1996 biography "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life" published by Necronomicon Press.

For those persons who a) are new to Lovecraft and want to know more or b) are unable to obtain a copy of the sadly out of print
"H.P. Lovecraft: A Life", "A Dreamer and A Visionary" is well worth the price. Even those who own "H.P. Lovecraft: A Life" will
find this to be a nice companion volume.

Unlike many previous Lovecraft biographies, Joshi's works present a fair look at Lovecraft, warts and all, neither judging or lionizing him. "A Dreamer and A Visionary", like "Lord of A Visible World" and the annotated editions, is a most welcome addition to any Lovecraft library.

it was a good on the edge of your seat mystery but it also gave you just the right amount of romance tied in with it to make it enjoyable i highly recommend this book to anyone

The latest Sharyn Howard mystery by the writing team of Joyce and Jim Lavene, Dreams Don't Last is a suspenseful political saga of unsolved murders, election fever, and hidden family secrets in Sharyn Howard's personal and public life. Sharyn is running against ex-sheriff Roy Tarnower, and the race promises to be anything but painless. Dreams Don't Last is tautly written novel of cover-ups and shady motives, with an exciting twist as election day draws near. ...