I read this book because I have never read anything in this field. This book was published in the 1970s when conditions for elderly people were bad. High inflation was reducing the value of the nest eggs of many. Large lay-offs also meant that many older people could not depend on their children for financial support. As such, this book was important in that it addressed all issues, major and minor, that elderly people have to deal with in this country. These issues still exist, but I dare say the elderly population are the most privileged class in this country this decade. The last 3 years have seen reduced public funding for education, as taxes have been reduced, primarily on savings, sales of securities, and property. Programs to help the future (children) are being cut to fund tax cuts for the middle-aged and elderly portions of America.

Yes health costs are going up, but if one looks at medicine over the decade, one notices that most of the advances have been in treating adult and elderly diseases like Alzheimers, cancer, Parkinson's, and heart disease. Almost no advances are being made in treating diseases of young people. Most importantly, inflation over the last decade has been extremely low, which is great for people living on fixed incomes. This book is good reading, but the problems it highlights are ones that every individual has a lifetime to prepare for.

The book is somewhat dated, having been written in 1970, yet there is no denying that Willie Horton is a wonderful humanitarian. As someone who knows him today, I can say that the great things this book says about him in 1970 still apply today. He is an unpretentious, genuine man who would give his shirt off his back for someone in need. He also happened to be an amazing ball player! This book details the early years of his career and describes a man who never was caught up in his own press articles. A story about a poor kid made good in his own hometown.

I have located several misquotations and several mispellings of what little Greek she uses. Apart from it being gruesomely written, I suspect this woman does not know Antigone in Greek--she quotes widely from other sources but prefers to stay away from the original. I am tempted to at a later date say with Voltaire "I am sitting in the smallest room of the house. I have your book in front of me--soon it will be behind me"

Judging from the reader reviews on this website, Judith Butler has yet again succeeded in provoking the outrage of several diehard and blue-in-the-face classics scholars. Those classicists who feel outraged by her work might consider her illuliminating comments on Hölderlin's own translation of Antigone, translations that themselves were received as scandals in their time and that continue, like Antigone in Butler's view, to provoke critical thought. If you think Antigone belongs on the shelves of a dusty library, you might as well leave this book alone, since here she's haunting queer bars and dining at the most interesting and vital family meals imaginable, where queer sons and daughters struggle together with their just as queer parents to figure out how it is that we might say our word to a world that persists in ignoring what it is that we have to say.

Some of the previous reviewers' responses to this book might give an idea of what's so interesting and provocative about it, and about Butler's work overall. Even if you're not a classicist with too much time on your hands.

Maddox's focus is on the people that revolved around Yeats--his wife, lovers, relatives, and peers. She relays several intimate anecdotes concerning Yeats's troubled relationships with his parents, his obsessions with women like Maude Gonne and her daughter, Iseult, and his interaction with a long line of "mother figures" (most notably, Lady Gregory).

Reading this book gave me the impression that Yeats wrote not just because he was inspired by Ireland and metaphysical themes; but as a need to escape his stifling environment.

While providing many interesting details about Mrs. Yeats's "abilities" with automatic writing, Maddox goes far in portraying Georgie as more of a controlling wife than a powerful medium. This, along with Yeats's own "psychic experiences" may lead a skeptic to wonder just how sane the poet actually was.

The section dealing with his term as a Free State Senator was good, in terms of illustrating Yeats' ongoing battle against censorship and civic divorce (in contrast with his reported stances on fascism and eugenics). Readers can revel in how Yeats, while conservative in such things as parenting, thoroghly enjoyed playing the "dirty old man" in various media--print, theater, and radio. As far as a deeper insight into Yeats as mystical poet, though, the book's treatment of the man is sketchy at best.

Imagine a poet who is so absorbed in his interior life and imagination that his wife resorts to speaking with the dead and the spirit world--simply to keep the man interested. That's what Barbara Maddox insists in her wonderfully inclusive biography, "Yeats's Ghosts."

By nearly every assessment, W. B. Yeats stands as the greatest poet of the 20th Century. The ultimate symbolist, Yeats, however, remains an exceptionally difficult poet to fully appreciate--mainly because of the arcane and personal perspectives and references that litter nearly every one of his poems. Many readers, in fact, find it necessary to purchase a concordance of his work, and one publisher even offers a guide to the works of a poet who himself chose to speckle his books with countless footnotes and clarifications. Which, only naturally, are together a godsend.

"Yeats's Ghosts," a controversial biography by the award-winning Barbara Maddox, may help readers to understand the milleux in which Yeats wrote--the current events that engendered work after work, the personal friends to and about whom many were originally composed, and the continual wash of Celtic mythology--but what's especially entertaining about the book is its unique take on one of the most contentious issues regarding Yeats.

Yeats, after all, was a mystic--a mystic in the old Celtic Tradition--caught between scientific rationalism on the one hand and orthodox Christianity on the other. Like many Irishmen living on the cusp of the modern age, Yeats actively hoped for a renaissance of ancient Irish virtues--something along the lines of prewar Germany's obsession with getting rid of influences that had garbled and partially eradicated national and racial identities.

A member of the famous Order of the Golden Dawn (along with the maleviolent Aleister Crowley), Yeats, according to some, indulged in the occult; others find that probability suspect, citing that it is hard to believe that a poet of such gifts would be such a pushover for what most people consider "spurious information." Whatever the case, as Maddox quickly reveals, Yeats as a personality was definitely not of this age, an age that has yet to make a compromise with the imagination as a cultural and artistic force. In fact, without an understanding of the occult nuances hidden within his poems, most readers will find themselves frustrated with another collision with the inpenetrable words of a brilliant man and seminally Irish poet.

The book begins with Yeats's marriage on-the-rebound--at fifty-- to Georgie Hyde-Lee, an attractive bohemian he'd met through the Golden Dawn. But he's still obsessed with his almost mythical femme fatale, Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne--and infatuated with her daughter Iseult. Yeats was probably not as conducive to marriage as he wanted to be, and, according to Maddox, his new wife quickly sensed it. When she began a regimen of automatic writing to contact the spirit world, however, Yeats's interest rapidly rose, and over the course of their marriage, it may have been Georgie's flirtations with the occult that held the marriage together.

There are, of course, other "ghosts" in Maddox's life of Yeats, his relationship to an emotionally unavailable mother amongst them, but many of Maddox's assertions are too much of a flirtation with another relatively spurious paradigm, Freudianism. Some of her readings in the yellow light of psychoanalysis are really a reach--she's really digging, really really digging--and it's necessary to remember that Yeats's poetry is not defiant of definition but out of its realm completely. Not surprisingly, Maddox's drive to find a reasonable explanation for an inner life completely enthralled with the imaginary tends to limit what she is seeking to convey--a fully understandable vision of a poet who, for all practical purposes, spurned the idea of personality, at least in its more traditional manifestations. Consequently, Maddox's pictures seem more like snapshots that tend to trivialize a man who, more than likely, will never be fully understood. Often the object of Maddox's well-written tale comes off as a deluded old fool--although anyone who has read and wondered over the majesty of his poetic works can't help but wonder if there really wasn't something to the imaginary world in which he thrilled.

Look, Brenda Maddox is a journalist not a scholar. She has little to say about the poems and her sources are nothing new. But she writes a lively prose with a deft eye for the human angle in describing the parade of remarkable women who passed through Yeats's later life. I don't think she's out to replace the more detailed biographies other reviewers mention so much as add color and detail to the standard portrait of the 'smiling public man.'

The book's centerpiece is the early years of Yeats's marriage to his wife George, a cultivated woman twenty-seven years his junior who turned what looked to be a marriage of convenience into a source of great poetic inspiration. George began channeling spirits on their honeymoon which, over the next two years, revealed to Yeats an entire philosophy of history and the soul's fate after death while also dictating how an older, indifferent lover ought to treat a young new wife. Maddox leaves the question of the Script's authenticity open, pointing out on the one hand how well it suited George's purposes and on the other how sincerely she shared Yeats's occult beliefs. Halfway through the book though, after a short, out of place chapter on Yeats's mother, she leaves George behind to concentrate on the eccentricities of Yeats's later years. Yeats had a capacity for staying 'forever young' that led to some odd connections; he involved himself, especially after the Steinach operation, with a cast of dubious individuals who took him away from the unwanted responsibilities of home and family.

I don't think Maddox is trying to pull Yeats off a pedestal--she clearly believes the poems he wrote in these years are great. She's also fair-minded in dealing with Yeats's Fascist sympathies, his late passion for eugenics and the bad rap he's gotten from feminists. But showing how much care and indulgence his work required from others, especially the women he chose to attend to his needs, reminds you that greatness is often a collaborative effort. Giving credit where credit is due for Yeats's late achievement, especially in the case of his long-suffering wife George, takes nothing away from his achievement. Just the opposite; I admired the poetry all the more knowing the personal hopes and (sometimes) blindnesses it grew out of. A fun, instructive read.

I have given this book a terrible review because it is taking forever to receive it. I have only read chapters from a friends book so this is not a valid critique, just a complaint. I was told that it would be shipped in 7 days and now find out it will be September before it is actually shipped.

This is a wonderful "boy's life" version of the life and times of a Marine officer who was possibly the most outspoken soldier in US history.

Although basically a book for adolescents, it provides more insight into the character and personality of General Butler, than most academic studies of the man.

Told in the first person, this is a fun and informative look at not just a very great, and in this book, modest, war hero; but it also gives the reader insight into parts of our military history that are not always taught in school. Smedley Butler joined the Marines at 16 and was involved in the Spanish American War, the China Boxer Rebellion, early Honduran politics, the building of the Panama Canal and World War I, to name a few. It's a soldier's eye view of some of the great (and not so great) events in Marine military history, and introduces the reader to fascinating real-life characters. One of my all time favorites.

This is truely the worst adventure I have had the misfortune of playing! This adventure(the second module in "The Sword of the Dales" trilogy) is just terrible! The whole series is designed badly; there is just no substance to the adventure. As I said about the first adventure the premise is good just not developed.

The module details the players journey towards the ruins of an old mage tower that they are drawn to by dreams that a spirit trapped in the sword is creating. Sounds intriguing right? Sorry the tower consists of about three rooms that didn't bring out a sparkle in my players' eyes! The final encounter is setup horribly and it is the foundation of the entire book. My players laughed when I implied that they might want to touch skulls sitting on coffins. Exact words "What, do you think we're stupid."

The adventure did have one bright spot, a forest gnome village and an NPC called Madarn. The village was well designed except I somewhat doubt that a village of gnomes even forest gnomes would survive in Spiderhaunt Woods.

If you have decided to play this adventure then you should play the last one "The Return of Randal Morn" it is a little better.

The secret of Spiderhaunt is the second in the sword of the dales trilogy. Its a shame that it is out of print, because its pretty fun. If you can, try to get a hold of all three in this trilogy, because it is a good start to a Forgotten realms campaighn to new and old players alike

This excellent starting module (levels 1-4) for the Forgotten Realms is quite rare... 1995 was when TSR was at the height of its financial troubles, and the print run was shamefully small. When Randal Morn delved into the Tomb of Shraevyn, seeking the dreaded Sword of the Dales, everyone feared that he would become the invincible ruler of Daggerdale. But, since he never returned, and the tomb is rumored to be filled with treasures and dark intrigue, it's perfectly natural that the PCs would want to follow in his footsteps! What they'll find, though, will horrify them, and either make them stronger, or give them good reason to roll those attribute dice again... ;)

This book was a BIG disappointment. I was seduced by a TV show that featured the author demonstrating her technique, but when I got the book in hand, I realized it's all bark and no bite.

First of all, EVERY OTHER PAGE is an illustration. (Low-quality, I might add.) So, you aren't buying a book with a lot of information, because all that space is wasted on cartoons. Second, Ms. Butler doesn't bring anything new to the table. She reiterates the standard of dog training: be kind and consistent. I agree with that, but in order to work, the actual training CANNOT be done in one hour. (If you believe that, I have some diet pills that will help you lose about 50 pounds in one weekend.)

Maybe some people will find this book useful, but I don't think it covers anything thoroughly. There are a lot of other dog-training manuals out there that leave this title in the dust.

Being a dog-lover, I looked forward to a solid training program to bond with my pet. Although the book contains some good information, it could easily fit in a 1 page magazine article. Please save your money.

My wife has had an affection for animals her whole life. After we got married, I learned that we were going to have a permanent resident which required a tremendous amount of care and attention. This was not something that I had expected or ever dreamed of. This so called beautiful, one-of-a-kind Irish Setter named Casey was not what I had expected during my courtship. Casey always required attention. So much attention that whenever anyone came to visit, she would jump on them immediately when they walked in the door, try to sit on their lap and if that didn't work, constantly nuzzle our guest's hand or leg til she was petted (just to mention one irritation of many). We were forever pulling her away when company came and locking her up afraid that her enthusiasm would turn into a scratch or bite on some unsuspecting relative! I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't make my wife realize this was excessive and had to stop. She began to see the light soon after the dog ate up our expensive furniture throughout our new condominium. This book has made a significant difference in my life and probably saved my marriage. Not only does the dog no longer chew up our possesions, but her behavior is totally socially acceptable in all environments including with children and even with different types of animals. Oh yes, I've saved a fortune on shoes and socks too! I have never reviewed a book before but can endorse this book without reservation, Ms Butler should receive a commendation from our condiminium association for helping us to keep Casey from destroying our whole building! This book works!!

I belive that the author of this book is blaming society, especially Universities, a little too much. In the beginning when he makes this assertion that Universites are racist he basis it on the astute obervation that since there a few African Americans in the Universities that they are racist or something like that. Furthmore since the Military has more African Americans it is a better instiution. Here is a better explanation. Universities are a lot more selective and thus can choose from the entire population. The Army will take anyone it can get its hands on. I just did not like the Authors atitutde that the whole is racist. Furthermore he knows nothing about music. I love when he writes white soldiers are listening to more black music and he uses Heavy Metal and Rock n Roll, both white music! In fact Heavy Metal is white protest music against Black music! Do some research or think before writting a book.

Charles Moskos and John Butler have delievered in our hands an excellent propoganda treatsie telling us that integration has worked in the Army. It has worked without lowering standards and has provided an environment in which African-Americans can excel. Surely society and other institutions need to take a look at the Army and borrow some of its strategies to provide equal opportunity for African-Americans in the civilian sector.

If you have served in the Army for any length of time you would know that is is not "race" free. Institutional racism was not addressed in this text. Although you have African-Americans in leadership positions in the NCO Corps that changes when we go into the officer's Corps and when we look at positions that African-Americans hold in each branch. Not everything is equal.

The Army is portrayed as a good paternalistic organization which is able to take low performing Blacks and make them into good soldiers. Very little is mentioned at all that many Blacks who have joined the Army have come from stable homes, have a sense of purpose and are instilled with deep family values. These young men and women will be successful in any environment.

Of course there are certain things that outside organizations can learn from the Army and implement the changes in their structures. We must keep in mind that the Army has different control systems in place by virtue of its nature that can't be duplicated in the civilian world. In such a case the Army is able to be successful in integrating its force. The Army's purpose is to defend our country. It can't do it if there is racial strife in the organization. Racists behavior is not in its best interest for defence.

If you create an environment where there is a level playing field then everyone has the opportunity to excel. What the Army has done is not unique as Moskos implies. Civilian society can not be compared with the Army because of its unique mission. The Army doesn't change until society tells it to do so.

Mr. Moskos would have done a better job in presenting the Army as an alternative for African-Americans to explore as they embark on their way to viable careers for their lives. The Army is not racism free and better attention needs to be addressed to the institutional barriers. Purchase this book if you are highly optimistic or have your head buried in the sand regarding integration the Army way.

Perhaps confirming suspicions of most African-Americans, I can attest to the very real resentment that their presence in the ranks engenders. It is true that their representation in the NCO corps is quite heavy, but I have personally observed that the officer corps is equally topheavy with whites. Naturally the officer corps is better educated, if not always smarter. To the average white observer without the benefit of liberal indoctrination,it is quite obvious that the reason for this preponderance of Black NCO's is that the military lifestyle is often infinitely more palatable than the civilian cycle of poverty, drugs, and crime that surely await the average black who is either too witless, or too proud to take advantage of the many programs developed by Whitey to raise him above his circumstances. This is not to say that many African-Americans do not benefit in a true moral sense from the strict meritocracy envisioned and implemented by the military. Quite often they are superior soldiers and human beings when shown the truth and beauty of discipline and self-sacrifice. Unfortunately, there are many more who have never managed to embrace these equalizing truths, and have managed to cling to the ghetto mentality to the detriment of those they presume to command. For this reason you will see most whites leave service after the contracted number of years, and many blacks stay on to fill the NCO ranks.

Once again, someone is pointing the finger at alternative and natural medicine as ineffective at its best or fraudulent and "quackery" at its worst. I am interested in alternative medicine and wanted to know why certain alternative treatments are looked down upon by the medical community. This book is simply a finger-pointer with no content.

The authors often cite that the only people claiming that certain treatments or products work are those who stand to make money through distributing those same treatments or products. However, no one ever seems to point out that the medical and pharmaceutical industries stand to LOSE a lot of money if these alternative treatments and medicines are acknowledged to be valid forms of treatment.

Books like this only validate the idea that the medical community can't come up with solid evidence that these alternative medicines DON'T work. But the pharmaceutical companies can't patent natural products, so you do the math. I'll stick with my alternative treatments. At least you don't have to worry about them killing you if you misread the usage information on the label.

The author of this book clearly doesn't give a lick about the people he is "protecting". This book is the ramblings and reasearch of a man who is on a quest to find as many things wrong with this particular subject as he can find. His only goal is to paint the gloomiest possible picture, a very simplistic form of writing. Anybody can do this on any subject by being selective. One of the most unworthwhile books I have ever had the misfortune of buying (used thank goodness).

If you like diatribes, this book is for you and you will be suitably amused. Otherwise save your money and just use good common sense.

Don't eat fat, do eat fat, everything can be treated by acupuncture (thought the Chinese were never able to overcome serious disease with it and today are using western medicine) or everything can be treated with herbs, diagnosing everything by looking at the iris of your eye is "treating the whole person" - it doesn't take a genius to see that there is something seriously wrong with "alternative medicine." This book cuts through the miasma of hucksterism and gives very useful information on what it's all about. The "true believers" won't like it, of course, but that's understandable.

What a waste of time, A book about Barry Manilow, by somone that seems to dislike him, by her own addmission, third hand story's and step mother I believe Barry never even met.
I can't even go on about how bad this book really is, you would be better off reading the Enquierer or the Globe to get more accurate information on a Brilliant man such as Mr. Manilow
Please skip this one! and save your money, buy"Sweet life adventures on the way to paradise" and hear Barrys life story told by the man himself!
Ruby

After hearing about this book from friends and fellow Barry fans, and after witnessing her behavior toward those fans on the internet, I figured it wouldn't be worth it. After all, she even said on the usenet group that she was not a fan of Barry Manilow. Seeing that I wondered how can a someone who does not even like their subject possibly be objective? Then I decided to give it a chance and I read it when a friend let me borrow hers.

The book did not contain much new information. The author's research consisted of second and third-hand accounts of Barry's life and stops at about the same time Barry's own autobiography "Sweet Life" did. She did not speak to anyone involved with Barry now or even Barry himself. She interviewed Barry's step-mother and past co-workers and acquaintances who may or may not have an axe to grind.

The author also decided not to write about or expand upon things written in Barry's autobiography "Sweet Life" saying she did not think them important or relevant. She devotes space to Barry's alleged homosexuality but fails to say anything about Barry's love affair with Adrienne Anderson before she got married. Barry, himself, mentions it in "Sweet Life." To me, something like that would have been interesting to read.

The chapter devoted to the fans makes most fans out to be stalkers, mentally ill, and obsessed women. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I personally know many fans who lead perfectly normal lives. They work and have significant others, spouses & families. They are also there for each other in times of crisis, sometimes in person, but mostly on the BarryNet (BMIFC site). I have personally been on the receiving of such support in the form of lovely e-mails, cards, and even in-person from wonderful fans. These people are nothing like how they are portrayed by this author. While I am sure there are those who are obsessed, I am also sure they are in the minority.

The final chapter was very difficult to follow. The author skips around trying to tie up loose ends. If you want to see some new and different pictures, the book delivers there, but as for literary content, there is not much there that most fans don't already know (his true age being one) or have suspected. My recommendation, don't waste your money if you want to read it, borrow a copy from someone.

I read the reviews before I read the book, and expected to see the author trash Mr. Manilow. I found none of that. Unlike many of the fans who've reviewed this book, I found it to be fairly balanced. And unlike a lot of the other fans, my world does not come crashing down around me to find (as I suspected) that he is gay. It's comments like one of the previous reviewers, "I'm so disappointed," that has kept this man in the closet for 30 years, and that is just sad that he has to pretend to be something he's not just to keep his fan base of middle-class, middle-age, suburban housewives who seem to harbor the fantasy that Manilow is going to swoop down and rescue them from their boring, mini-van existence. (I've been to his concerts and judging from the first three rows, this is a fairly accurate portrayal). I read "Sweet Life," and it sounded a little too rosy to be believable. Most people's autobiographies reflect what they want you to know. This biography went over many things "Sweet Life" didn't cover. If you want to read a fairly balanced book about Barry Manilow, and don't mind having any delusions you may harbor shattered, I found this one to be excellent.