I read this book over 25 yrs ago,living in a small northern Michigan town there were no "prepaired childbirth" classes This was the best information avaible! I had no pain and no fear It was truly a wonderful experience. Even my husband didn't think I was in labor because I didn't act like the women in the movies! My daughters will soon be needing this book and alas I lent my copy to someone and never got it back I hope they will reprint this book and make it avaible to all women so they too may have a wonderfull delivery without drugs!

I guess I am the second generation of mothers who have read this book. A friend gave me an old copy 5 years ago before the (natural) birth of my first child, and I read it again last year after the (natural) birth of my second child. It made childbirth a wonderful experience. Now I want to buy a copy of this short paperback that should cost about $10 for my expecting sister, and it's out of print and selling for up to $200?!!?? Publishers, obvously there is a market for this book. Please reprint it!

I read this book already believing that childbirth didn't necessarily have to be the horrible painful experience most people warn you about..and reading this book just confirmed all my beliefs. When I had my first child, my labor from beginning to end was only 3.5 hours, contractions, while powerful, DID NOT HURT, and I pushed only 4 times to give birth to my beautiful healthy daughter, all without medication of any kind. It was a great experience, and I firmly believe that much of the pain people feel is caused by their own fears and their reaction to that fear, ie, tensing up. I recommend this book to everyone I know who is having a baby!

Don't be fooled by the book's mainstream title. It is a scientific/anecdotal masterpiece on how to lose fat and maintain muscle, using low carb principals. The big diffence between this book and others is that if focus' on body composition. Maintaining muscle mass is the key to keeping the metabolism humming. In my opinion this is where all other diet books fail. In addition, Dr. Ellis does a superb job of addressing the weaknesses of several other popular diets, including Atkins.

For years I have been struggling to reduce my body fat and maintain muscle mass. Repeatadly, I have lost too much muscle mass using traditional diets. I can honestly say that this program is starting to show results. My body fat is dropping and my muscle mass is stable. This is like finding the fountain of youth for someone who is 48, struggling to keep all the muscle I can.

This book is a must read for anybody that is serious about realizing a long term solution to body weight control.

Don't let the lame title or egocentric, cocky style of this author fool you...because he has earned the right to be cocky because he's right! Confusion about how to lose weight is why people want something for nothing...eat whatever you want, no exercise, just pop this pill or eat this magical combination of foods and you'll loose weight.

But Dr. Ellis has enormous amounts of research proving that his "Energy Balance Equation" is the ultimate formula.. energy in (calories) versus energy out (exercise). That's all there is to it. I have been counting my calories and for a while now, and I never realized how much I actually ate in a day!

I'm glad that he offers this book as an ebook, so you can save some money on these large volumes. This could honestly be the final word on weight loss!

This book is the finest, most complete work on this subject I have ever seen. For the first time all the information you need to regulate bodyweight and handle the inevitable plateaus is given in one book. Dr. Ellis's book is based soley on research -- not opinion and myth. He clearly reviews all the information on diet, exercise, and bodyweight so that you can understand why people fail to lose weight and keep it off.

As a personal trainer and exercise physiologist I can honestly say that this is the ONE book you need to become an expert on weight loss. His comprehensive review of ongoing arguments concerning diet composition (ie The Zone, Atkins, Low-fat, Hi protein, etc) provides all the facts you need to understood this controversial issue.

I use this book with all my clients, and I can honestly say that every client who has followed the program has reached their goals and more importantly been able to maintain their weight loss over time.

Dr. Ellis is the only writer to ever explore the significance of metabolic adaptations, and how they cause failure in virtually every diet program available. Most importantly he provides the reader with all the tools they need to have control over this process.

Seventeen-year-old Melanie Jacobs is new to Clifton, Massachusetts, and looking for part-time summer work besides just baby-sitting. When she answers a newspaper ad to read to an invalid for an hour a day, Melanie expects the person to be an elderly person; instead, it's a young girl her age. Lisa Randolph was paralyzed in a fall shortly before Melanie arrived in town. It's a sad outcome for such a young, popular person, but Melanie soon learns there's more to it than just a tragic accident. While reading "Jane Eyre" to Lisa, Melanie notices Lisa motions with her hand at certain parts in the book. This, Melanie realizes, is Lisa's way of communicating with her without anyone else finding out. But what secret does Lisa want to tell Melanie and no else? And why has Melanie been threatened lately not to pursue the incident? What exactly happened to Lisa when she fell? Was it just an accident--or did Lisa find out too much herself?

"The Body" is another great teen suspense thriller by Carol Ellis. Fast-paced and easy to read, it'll definitely appeal to teens who enjoy Scholastic's Thriller books.

I am actually sixteen now, but I read this book when i was 13 or so. This is the best book i have ever read. i don't do much reading, because i don't really like to read. But this kind of book makes me want to read. it's not very scary at all, but it sure is interesting!

This was a great mystery book from Carol Ellis. I almost never read, and I couldn't put it down. I kept reading because I needed to know who did it!

We have been in need of a series like Continuum Contemporaries for a long time. Unlike the watered-down reader's guides produced by York Notes (and in the US 'Cliff's Notes') these little books tackle text's which have gained something of a cult status in the late twentieth century, and do so from a perspective which is at once approachable enough for the recreational reader, and rigorous enough for the advanced student. It is therefore fitting that a text so widely, and wildly, misunderstood as Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho'. should be included amongst the Continuum survey.

Julian Murphet is one of the foremost critics of Ellis's work, and what you get here are all the benefits of the breadth and depth of his knowledge, boiled down into a slim and precise volume. He provides us with a short biography of the author; an exploration of the narrative voice at work within the text; a discussion of the themes of alienation and reification and a survey of critical responses. He is, however, at his most engaging in his discussion of violence and politics, the real heart of the novel itself.

He tackles the central, consuming question of whether the protagonist Patrick Bateman ever actually commits the murders so graphically rendered in the text's pages, in a manner that is exploratory and revelatory without ever being proscriptive. Thus we see an argument develop from the tentative suggestion that 'everything could well be contained to the level of fantasy,' to the final assertion that the violence within 'American Psycho' is 'an act of language' and never really happens at all. He ties this argument in very neatly with an understanding of the text in its political context, seeing Bateman as a 'pin-up boy for the establishment Right' during the Reagan era, and reading the real 'murder' within the novel, not as that projected by Bateman, but rather as the 'murder of the real' the erasure of all social difference and threat - what he terms 'the gentrification of the city.'

Murphet rounds this off with a great critique of the film version of the novel, his genuine academic appreciation of cinema in general, making this more than just a fan's opinion.

No reader of 'American Psycho' will ever wholly agree with any one theory, and indeed it is the paradoxical beauty of the novel that is never really gives you a definitive answer either way. Murphet's argument is one reading, but it is a very convincing one, and this text is a must for anyone who remains challenged by, and curious about, this work.

Having read American Psycho several times since it's release, I'm surprised that it's taken somebody (anybody) this long to put together something (anything) that delves deeper into this book. This reader's guide is broken down into 5 sections (the novelist; the novel; the novel's reception; the novel's adaptation; and further reading and discussion questions) and is followed by brief notes and bibliography pages. Like Anthony Magistrale's The Shining Reader and David Sexton's The Strange World Of Thomas Harris, I can further explore my favorite books. A little extra credit for the fans and a little insight for those who are not.

Brett Easton Ellis shows a very dark character in the book American Psycho. The movie did not even begin to scratch the surface of Patrick Bateman's "odd" personality. After reading this book, the movie adaptation is unbelieveable. You understand the pain that Bateman is going through when asking for reservations. He is so deeply disturbed that he onoly lives for outward apperances. If you only read one book this summer, and you really want to be shocked, pick up American Psycho

Focus was primarily on Patsys career and secondary focus was on her life but only in terms of how it realated to her career. If you want to know in agonizing detail the steps her career followed , down to which recording she did on which day, this is a great book. If you want to get to know who Patsy was as a person this is probably not the right book. I found it to be a somewhat mechanical and sterile view of Patsy Cline the person. Not an adaquate treatment of her life with Charlie or her children.

From a Patsy Cline fan's point of biew, this book is THE BEST.  It  made me cry huge tears at all the sadness and tragedy in Patsy's life -- especially in how the ups and downs in her life, the auto crash and, finally, her  death are presented. When I wasn't crying, it made me roll with laughter, especially the stories of Patsy's sheer determination to make it big no matter what, no matter who; and the stories that Faron Young told out of school are, well, very naughty and bawdy, but funny as hell.

Ann Marie

The only thing that comes close to Patsy Cline's haunting singing voice is the enthralling story of her tumultuous, yet victorious life - as told by biographer Ellis Nassour.
In "Honky Tonk Angel, the Intimate Story of Patsy Cline," Nassour has brought Patsy to "life" again. His sensitive, yet honest, recounting of the legendary singer's struggle to become a "star" in the male-dominated country music field is filled with her family and friends' three-dimensional memories of Patsy, her toughness, her talent, her tenacity, her loyalty and compassion.
This is not a book for "Country-only" fans. Patsy's life story will encourage and comfort others who may be struggling through life toward success.
Nassour's writing could be compared to a literary hologram in his ability to present his subject through sight, sound and touch. I could veritably hear Patsy sing "Walkin' After Midnight," see her sassy walk and feel her tears as I read.

A.K.A. Reta Spears-Stewart, Literary Editor/Author of "Remembering the Ozark Jubilee, Starring Red Foley"
Springfield, Missouri

This is a really good book that simplified control system for the real world. Most text spend too much time on theory and analysis and end the discussion with a bunch of equations and graphs without explaining how to implement the design. This book covers both analog and digital control, and lets you download a software from the author's web site. This software, ModelQ, lets you play with various parameters so you can see how the system behaves when it is not optimized.

One drawback with the book is it only covers PID control and its variants, but doesn't cover state-space control. While state-space control may be considered "overkill" by many control engineers, state-space is used in industry. The decision to use state-space is often not in the hands of individual engineers, so it may not be an option to ignore state-space. It would be nice if Mr. Ellis could cover state-space in his next edition of the book.

This book is a great guide to problems and solutions for modern control systems. Many text will have page after page of formulas with little link to the real world of control system design. Mr. Ellis provides answers to the problems faced by todays engineers.

George Ellis does a great job of bridging the gap between academia and industy in Control System Design Guide 2nd Edition. This book gives the practicing engineer the information necessary to put into practice much of the theory that he/she learned in the university. The book primarily focuses on motion control and modeling of motion systems. If you are working on a control system and would like to make sure you get the performance you need, you should buy this book.

If you were given only one Goosebumps book to read, this should be it. It's about two kids who "haunt" their neighborhood, by howling behind bushes at neighbors and throwing rubber spiders in a boy's bedroom. But one night they decide to go a little further. There's a famous town attraction of a haunted house--it is haunted by the spirit of headless boy who got his head ripped off by a ghost! They've visited it a hundred times on tours. One night they decide to join the current tour group, and then wander off searching for the head of the headless boy. Do they find anything? Read this story and find out! This book is very exciting and adventurous--I recommend it to everyone!

This was the first Goosebumps book I read. It was so good. It was fun to read. I thought this book was very, very cool. I liked the ending because it was surprising. I thought the story was the best. Whenever I go to my school's library I will get Goosebumps. I am reading another one now! Keep up the good work, Mr.Stein. If you make another book I am sure it will be cool.

This is the best one! I reccomend this book to ANYONE. I have almost the whole series.I've had them for about 5 years and i'm just now starting to read them.I just got finished reading "The Beast From The East".Now i'm just starting on "Say Cheese And Die"."The Headless Ghost" is the BEST one!

This was really like a videocam on somebody's private life. Just that it gets turned on and off randomly. It makes sense, if you just keep in mind that this guy is never up to any good, whatever he's doing.

Someone had left this on the seat in the Red Line when we got stuck the better part of an hour on the bridge. There is a limit to how long you can sit and look at MIT so I began reading it.
It seemed to be a pretty quick book, the kind you would hide behind on the subway to avoid any kind of contact with the other passengers. But I ended up reading the whole thing, finishing late that night while my upstairs neighbor was dancing to a Bruce Springsteen CD.
I cannot describe the sense of grief I had after finishing this book. Taking Merlin Black's (i.e. Miles Davis) final affair as its starting point, the author picks up various points in the trumpeter's life, using psychological rather than plot connections to explain who this man really was. Talk about an anti-hero! And yet you accept Merlin's sleaziness as his natural condition, rather like dealing with a life-long disease. It becomes impossible to judge him.
I would highly recommend this book.

One thing I do, on the road, is track this man Miles. I have been everywhere, this man has been. Every nasty dive that's now a parking lot, every apt. bldg., if he was there, I've been there. And sometimes I stop in a library, NYPublic by Grand Central usually, and look up the newest book on Miles. Until this book, which is kind of rare, I never got further than twenty pages.
Now this book fit with the pattern that I can see, going the places he went, and thinking of his music, which I memorized, all of it. I've talked to some people who actually knew him, but not big light people, and the picture you get is like the one drawn by this man Walter Ellis. He wasn't a nice guy, but mad all the time and even kind of violent when he wasn't too messed up to kick. This is the real picture. And Ellis starts the story when Miles was flopped, a sorry rich man who hadn't played trumpet in five years. By flashbacking to all the separate times he got somewhere and then got down with the dogs again, he gets you into this man's mindset, which was failure and all kinds of ways to fail in dealing with failure. And when you understand that, you'll understand the music.

I find that this book has been very helpful in my running and triathlon training. The first few chapters are very good, replete with some basic theory about running and remaining injury free.
The second third of the book is very informative regarding injuries and their treatment.
The last part of the book has great stretching exercises, and good information about how to stay injury free.
My only criticism of the book is based on a comment that my physical therapist had. I've recently had big problems with sprained ankles in both feet and receive physical therapy from a PT specializing in runners. I discussed the book and the chapter on ankles with her and she mentioned that the chapter only describes the author's success and that for every successful treatment outcome, there are lots of not-so-total successes. It would be helpful to understand both.
But overall, a worthy book to buy and read and re-read as the need arises.

Not only did this book manage to supply the info I needed in enough detail to be meaningful, particularly with the case studies, it was actually an entertaining page-turner. The author had such a human voice and managed to entirely avoid the tone of smarmy condescension that seems to be rampant in books of this sort. I was particularly won over by his willingness to even poke fun at himself as a case study. I certainly came away with a new respect for the field of podiatry in sports medicine.

If you run fewer than 30 miles a week, have never uttered the words "my coach" or "my physiotherapist," have never won more than a goodie bag at a 10k... in short, if you are a committed, non-elite, non-professional runner, this book is a must.

This is not to say that professionals won't benefit - they will. But for those of us who don't receive regular training-level medical attention, the great value of this book lies in its ability to clearly distinguish nagging pains that you can often home-treat from those that - even from the first twinge - signal something more serious. Add it to your running library.

This is an important book, not because it "exposes" the "hypocracy of the left". Such right-wing polemics are common, and usually worthless. In fact, it is by no means anti-left.

Unlike right-wing polemicists, who lose no opportunity to show their disgust of ideas such as black liberations, women's rights, or seperation of church and state, Ellis supports these ideas. His point is not that the IDEAS are "bad"--but that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Ellis argues that it is precisely BECAUSE the nominal goal of many leftist movements is so appealing that such organizations, in practive, become, first, beurocratic and inefficient, and finally tyrannical and cultic. Utopianism leads to extremism: if your goal is "make money", it's unlikely that you will kill millions to achieve it--it's not worth the trouble. But if your goal is "world peace forever", you just might: after all, what are the lives of a few people compared to this magnificent goal?

An excellent example, given by Ellis, is Bellamy's "Looking Backwards"--a look back, from the year 2000, which lives in utopian socialism, at all the capitalistic injustices of 1900. The "tiny" problem is that, in order to achieve this utopia, most of Bellamy's adherents were quite willing to commit murder and arson in order to get rid of the "evil capitalists". The DID succeed in doing that in Russia--but, of course, Bellamy's utopia never materialized.

This book is important because of the asymmetry between right and left extremism. The difference is not that the left extremists are essentially worse than the right extremists (Ellis notes, rightly, that it is Utopianism that is the problem--whether a "left-wing" or "right-wing utopia doesn't matter); it is that people are already aware that nazism and fascism weren't such hot ideas, and not too many are aware that the soft-spoken "liberal" professor in your local college town is working along the same lines....

The one problem with this book is that it takes the left too seriously. Unlike Russia before the revolution, the left in the US is, essentially, confined to college campuses and a few "enclaves" such as Greenwich Village and Berkeley. The risk of "totaliatarian thought control" by extremist academics is a problem for the tiny minority working in the humanities; not nice, but not exactly the same as life under Stalin or Hitler. Everybody else--from academics in business or science to the "average Joe"--can free themselves from these supposedly "powerful" organizations by simply ignoring them (which, incidentally, they do.)

Ellis, who IS part of this minority, naturally sees the threat very seriously; but becoming hysterical about the "evils of the politically correct university" can lead to the same extreme actions--only from the right--against anybody suspected of being a "radical leftist"; the same kind of witch-hunt that Ellis, rightly, abhors whether it is from the right or the left.

Loved it. Cheers, thanks a lot!

The remarkable capacity of mankind to hear what he wants to hear while disregarding the rest is as evident in the close mindedness of the Left as it is in the religious zealotry of the Right. Ellis does a fine job of bringing this compartmentalized brain syndrome condition into focus as he covers all the bases while uncovering the corruption of the various Liberal bastions. We need more intellectually honest social critics like Ellis to call the hand of the Tom Hayden's of the world. Anything to increase the speed of the pendulum as it continues its swing back toward the political middle. It can't happen soon enough

An interesting book to read as a companion piece to Ellis' book is "Damned Lies and Statistics" by Joel Best. In it he discloses the methods that institutional elite's, who would have their way with you, manipulate statistics to their gain and to your loss. H.G Wells predicted that the ability to think statistically would become as important, to citizens of a democracy, as the ability to read and write. In this statement he was, and is, correct.