Classifying this book is hard. It could be a journal, a homeschooling guide, a history lesson, or even a travel guide. Picking up the book is easy. Just start at any chapter. Photos are plentiful and are peppered generously throughout her book.

Marlene gets an "A+" for organization. If you have this book in your lap (or even your easy chair!), you'll quickly find what you are looking for.

It is a book that gives the A-O.K. to America from a family who insisted on "taking its pulse."

We were very fortunate to get to spend some time recently with the Graham's as they traveled through West Virginia. They are just as terrific and special as you can imagine. I would recommend this book to everyone wishing to travel or for pure reading enjoyment. A real treat!

There's a message in these beautiful photos and essays. We must preserve natural balance. As Linda Benedict-Jones says in the Introduction: "...One of the specific wishes of Blacklock... is that the remaining undeveloped lake shoreline be kept for open access. When he silently glides for months on end around the periphery of the lake, he does it with the hope that his pictures will convince others to appreciate the lake as he does. Lake Superior is simply too profound as a spiritual resource to be guarded by a privileged few. Should these last open stretches be developed, they will forever be out of reach by the general public. We have learned precious little from the examples set for us by the Navajo (Dineh), the Dakota and the Anishinabe. We all know that Native Americans lived in harmony with the earth and believed that land could be neither bought nor sold since it belonged to all. Perhaps it is not too late to apply their wisdom to relatively small, yet hugely important, areas of land bordering the Great Lakes. Perhaps these Blacklock photographs will help preserve public access to Lake Superior's shores, as certain photographic efforts of his 19th Century predecessors helped to convince (the U.S.) Congress to establish national parklands of the Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and others." Pass it on!

In a roughly 8 year period, the author made several kayak trips along various parts of the Superior shoreline, hauling photographic equipment along and immersing himself in those wild, unspoiled scenes so spectacularly portrayed in the 154 plates that appear in this book. The results are well worth every penny of the 40-odd bucks this book costs, and then some. As a fellow photographer of nature, I can attest to the way one can use ground glass and film to convey his deep appreciation -- yes, even a spiritual bond -- with the outdoors as God made it. Blacklock's collection of 4x5 format images (with one 35 mm slide thrown in) of the Big Lake is not only visually vivid, but spiritually moving in a way few other published photo collections can perform.

Nowhere have I seen water, rock, ice, forest, fog and sun so splendidly blended and starkly contrasted at the same time, across an entire plate set. [Plate 33 is the most stunning portrayal of ice and sky together which I have ever seen -- National Geographic's Arctic photos included -- and easily in my top 5 favorite photographs of all time.] Most admirably, nowhere in any of the photos appears a man-made object that I could see. The author takes his efforts a step further by fully revealing his techniques -- right down to the camera, film and tripod brands, and his CMYK post-processing in Photoshop (not to alter, but instead to clean up, the imagery).

Having been all around Lake Superior, its rugged vastness revealed to my eyes but only feebly captured on film by comparison, I am in awe of the job Blacklock has done. The sky, rocks and waves there have such a rich story to tell; and this book masterfully allows that story to begin. It makes me determined to return someday, camera again in hand and Blacklock's methods in mind, to get far removed from the tracks of people, and to experience Superior at its raw, unrestrained best.

Basically, the concept of "no-self" states that no one has an absolute or fixed "self" because the five aggregates that collectively make up an individual is ever changing i.e. a person changes from moment to moment and is never the same "self" yesterday, today or tomorrow. Since the "self" is an illusion, the clinging of the "self" to pleasant things (belongings, fame, pleasure, etc.) can be ended. Likewise, the tendency of the "self" to avoid unpleasant things (criticism, pain, discomfort, etc.) can also be ended. Complete equanimity can be achieved, leading to the cessation of desire and to the achievement of Nirvana (release from existence i.e. Samsara, the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth).

The Perfection of Wisdom texts go further and propose that all of existence is itself empty i.e. everything we experience here in this world, in this universe, is nothing but an illusion - everything is essentially void. Since existence is itself void, Nirvana is therefore no different from Samsara. As the Heart Sutra explains, "There is no suffering, origin, cessation or path; no exalted wisdom, no attainment and also no non-attainment. Therefore, because there is no attainment, all bodhisattvas rely on and abide in the perfection of wisdom; their minds have no obstructions and no fear." The obsession with attaining Nirvana can itself obstruct our view of the truth that Nirvana is here with us because such obsession is itself a form of clinging. Thus, only those who can see the true nature of all existence can be free from fear.

Richly illustrated with pictures of the historical Buddha as well as various Bodhisattvas from ancient texts, this book is a worthy addition to any library.

Craig Jamieson's new volume is not a complete English translation of 'The Perfection of Wisdom' (that has already been done by other hands), but an attempt to bring this remarkable material to a wider audience through a judicious selection of text - newly translated - and pictures. As such, it succeeds admirably.

The volume begins with a foreword by no less an authority than H.H. the Dalai Lama, who tells us that 'in ancient India and later in Tibet, it was considered an act of virtue to honour the practice of "The Perfection of Wisdom" by creating or sponsoring the creation of elaborate and illustrated editions'. Craig Jamieson contributes a brief but informative introduction; the illustrations are explained in detail at the end, and a glossary and bibliography are provided. All the necessary apparatus is there for the reader to approach the tenets of Buddhism through the vehicle of the mind; meantime, the body of the book sets brief text extracts against full-colour pictures in such a way that those who choose may simply feel their way towards enlightenment instead.

It would be presumptuous for the non-initiate to attempt a commentary on the ideas, intuitions and paradoxes that leap to the eyes from the perusal of these pages. I shall therefore let a few of those thoughts speak for themselves:

'The perfection of wisdom is neither form nor other than form.'

'Where there is no consciousness, no names, no words, no designations, that is called the perfection of wisdom.'

'A mass of words, a mass of sentences, a mass of syllables, Ananda, that is bound by a limit, but this perfection of wisdom is bound by no limit.'

The illustrations are all taken from the two manuscripts; indeed, in the case of the older manuscript every illustration is reproduced. The technical quality of the reproductions is excellent. Red and gold tints gleam richly in the artists' hieratic visions of Bodhisattvas and Taras (male and female characters seeking enlightenment), lions, elephants or lotuses. Text and illustrations complement each other admirably.

The millennium-old Buddhist world of these manuscripts might seem alien or impenetrable to many English-speaking readers today; the days of instant enlightenment for Westerners, of what the writer Gita Mehta calls 'karma cola', have receded into the past. However, anyone with a serious interest in understanding the philosophies of the Indian subcontinent, whether on the path to enlightenment or for purposes of mere knowledge, should derive pleasure and profit from owning this beautifully-produced and eminently readable volume.

Christopher Rollason, M.A., Ph.D.

"Introduction by His Holiness the Dalai Lama" and "Printed in China."

Yep. *That* China.

I don't know how long this edition of the book will be in print, but it's definitely unique.

Having bought the book I would agree that of all the Mahayana texts I've read, this is quite accessible, with beautiful illustrations, and should be read by anyone who wants to seriously study Buddhism. Of course, the tale told is mythical/metaphorical, but the logic and wisdom is profound.

One minor quibble: I'd have appreciated a bit more of a scholarly preface and historical background.

Reverend MacCameron is the defendant in a defamation case, having published an article attacking a recent archaelogical discovery that, if true, would render Christianity a sham. It is Will's job to not only save his client's reputation, but also to defend the truth of Christ's rising from the dead. Since Will is an agnostic, this will be a challenge. Will finds that he is facing the powers of darkness, and that those forces are reaching out to destroy him as well as his clients. At the same time, the world itself teeters on extinction as terrorists mobilize weapons of mass destruction.

*... In a novel that reaches out to fans of Grisham, the LEFT BEHIND series, and Indianna Jones, Mr. Parshall begins what looks to be a groundbreaking and promising series. Will is a hero that will be easily sympathized with by the legions of less than perfect readers who might be tired of "perfect" heroes and heroines. The action is absorbing, whether legal or historical, and the reader will come away with renewed faith and also with a greater knowledge than he or she had before the book. *...

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore.

Find it, buy it, read it.

It's a delight to read and his insights are often brilliant. Trouble is, Hulet makes clear what he is against, but it is hard to get a handle on what he is for. Does he have a positive alternative viewpoint to propose or does he just enjoy attacking all points of the political spectrum? Reading this you get a good idea of what is wrong with the world, but no clue how to go about fixing it. As best as I can tell, Hulet is a Nihilist (making the Nietzsche reference in the title appropriate), but Nihilism is an ideology that lends itself to being ripped to shreds even more easily than any of the other ideologies mentioned.

Hulet does excel at skewering several American sacred cows, such as the 1991 Gulf War, and the "watchdog" movement that claims to be anti-fascist but engages in some of the worst neo-McCarthyite smear tactics and innuendo imaginable, and for that I will always have admiration for the man.

But, with hardly anything positive to say about what to do about the mess, you will have to look elsewhere for that.

Reflections on war, religion, love, and mankind, for instance, convey the introspective discipline of Montaigne. Observations on American-led political institutions and culture evoke the perspicacious effort of Tocqueville. But, as the title suggests, the book's honest, autobiographical style may compare best with that of Nietzsche. Indeed, this deeply personal work exemplifies artistic expression perhaps attainable only by rigorous practice of those principles taught and practiced by the German philosopher.

Readers of this book ought to be thankful that Mr. Hulet bothered not only to write it, but to make it available. The work is a coup de maitre.

This book is about code - about %90 of the pages have source. Perhaps the first book I ever seen that has compilable, working code. Also, I think the examples and interfaces in this book are much better than the Core book.

In short, if you have the core patterns book and are stuck, this indeed could be exactly what you need. I would say you could skip that book and start with this one.

I've read a lot of patterns books. Most didn't really help. Some got me to the point of asking new questions. This book, and "design patterns explained", are in my view indispensable classics. They left me with a clear understanding of what I was trying to learn.

One negative point: I read the comparison between "service to worker" and "dispatcher view" several times and I still don't get what they are trying to say. This is one of the few places in the book where there is no code, and it probably could have helped me here. To be fair, it does have some nice sequence diagrams but its seems lacking compared to the rest of the book.

This book starts where "Core J2EE Patterns" ends. Instead of being one more book on patterns catalog and snippet code, it plucks related patterns and weaves them into a framework. This framework-oriented approach starts with the simple but pertinent observation that standard J2EE patterns like Service-to-Worker and Dispatcher View can be reinterpreted as micro-frameworks and continues throughout the rest of the book. For example, chapter 3 combines 3 patterns( DAO, VO, Service Locater)together to lay the foundation of a persistence framework.

Another positive aspect of this book is that it devotes complete chapters to security and integration patterns.Of late, integration patterns have become important enough to merit a web site of their own ( integrationpatterns.com ) and it is quite hard to find other good references on security patterns.

Thus this book has a lot of new things and perspectives to offer and deserves more attention than it seems to be getting.

Finally a criticism : This book mentions other books by name and ISBN numbers without mentioning the author(s) of the books. This is the first time in my life I have seen such a practice. This is definitely a bad practice and an antipattern and a cruelty to poor authors who deserve to be mentioned by name.

There is a great awareness of new developments in the area of organization theory. The new developments such as team-based management models are integrated into the conventional wisdom wonderfully in the book. We are living in a world in which globalization and stiff competition dominates. We name this age as Information Age and corporations need new mentality and practices to adapt to challenging conditions this era brings about. This book presents some new approaches in global competition perspective to readers.

A Look Inside, Bookmark, In Practice, The New Paradigm and Case for Analysis are excellent peculiarities of the book.

Diagrams and other visual characterizations involved in the book give readers a big opportunity to digest topics recounted. Since this book is a detailed investigation of organization theory, you may miss some parts and feel confused. I can recommend another book, that is, Designing Organizations (Robey, D. and Sales, Carol A.), which is a summarized organization theory book with excellent cases.

If you want to understand organization theory with its basic foundations and details, this book is a must. You must exploit the rich knowledge of Professor Daft.

Strongly recommended.