Rachel is hired as a counselor at Camp Silverlake for the upcoming session. All counselors must meet up a week before for orientation. Things get off to a great start at first, until strange things start happening. One day, Rachel is assigned the job of the upkeep on the lobby/lodge bulletin board for the upcoming campers. She decides to put up pictures of the past years at the camp. Afterwards, everyone becomes very quiet and irritated with her for no apparent reason. She soon finds out why....Seven years earlier, a camper died of an accident, and Rachel accidentally put his picture up right in the center of the board. Aside from that, unfortunate mishaps occur, such as a snake in someone's bed, etc. Even scarier, it happened to the person who has a phobia of snakes! Similar events occur, according to peoples' phobias and fears, and Rachel begins to wonder if she could also be in danger!

I thought that "Camp Fear" was a great book. Suspense, drama, and humor are all evenly woven throughout the storyline to create a scary, yet practical book. The storyline, however, was a bit too predictable and the ending wasn't satisfying. I still think it deserves four stars for the suspense and author.

Be sure to check out my other reviews of the following recommended books:

a.) "The Stepdaughter" by Carol Ellis
b.) "Someone at the Door" by Richie Tankersley Cusick
c.) "Vampire" by Richie Tankersley Cusick
d.) "April Fools" by Richie Tankersley Cusick
e.) "The Train" by Diane Hoh
f.) "Slay Bells" by Jo Gibson
g.) "My Bloody Valentine" by Jo Gibson
h.) "Homecoming Queen" by John Hall
i.) "The Invitation" by Diane Hoh
j.) All books by Joan Lowery Nixon
k.) All R. L. Stine young-adult thrillers

I thought the book was good. This is the 1st book I read by Carol Ellis, but not the last. For the person who wrote on April 29, 2000. If u look on the side of the book, it will say THRILLER. Not YA horror, YA THRILLER!

I would rate this book a 6, but 5 is as high as it will let me go.

Years ago, my teacher read it to me as a read aloud. It was the first time I'd ever heard of it, but since then I've read it many times myself.

(I guess not all junior-high students have teachers that still read aloud! I must have just got lucky :)

Anyway, it was the best book I've ever read! Since it was SOOOO great, I decided to buy it and still treasure it today.

It is a book you will never forget and are sure to enjoy.

It is wonderfully written. You would never suspect the person doing all the awful things!! Just when u think you've got it figured out, it throws u 4 a loop. I kept changing my mind about "Who did it". It was great. It's is very mysterious and exciting.

You can't put the book down, it is so wonderful!

EVERY student in our whole class liked the book !!!!(Hint, Hint)

U will like it, too. Go buy it today & read it. It will soon be one of your favorites, too !!!

"Change is what we wanted, right? It's what you told me you wanted," Jenny Sparks says, "it's what I signed up for."

"No," Henry Bendix answers, "I want change, yes. On my terms."

The first half of this StormWatch collection (#48-50 of vol. 1) is the conclusion of Warren Ellis' 14-issue run on the superhero series. All the loose plot points from the previous two collections (Force of Nature and Lightning Strikes) draw to a close here, as we learn what Henry Bendix's intentions have been all along.

Warren Ellis' favorite movie is Citizen Kane (his affinity for journalism shows through in his science-fiction satire Transmetropolitan), and here he takes Charles Foster Kane's tragic flaw and applies it to the commander of StormWatch, the UN's superhuman crisis intervention team. Kane wanted love on his own terms, Bendix wants order on his own terms. Their arrogant and sprawling desire for these intangibles bring their incredible authorities and powers crashing down upon them.

As the book begins, Jenny Sparks, leader of StormWatch Black barely survives an assassination attempt, and apparently, Bendix couldn't care less. He's more concerned with a superhuman from the 40's named "The High", who is gathering a force of superhumans from around the world to make a sudden and startling shift in society, using their power and science and magic to cure all of mankind's ills, with no strings attached. Bendix doesn't trust them, of course, for reasons he won't share with StormWatch. But the silent, mysterious assassin Rose Tattoo knows all about The High and his allies, and she's eager to help Bendix stop them.

'Change or Die' is a story of benevolence and selflessness being crushed by selfishness. The High is the classical idea of a superhero. His naivete and idealism still live inside the bitter, cynical shell of Jenny Sparks and so she is affected deeply by his tragic ending. Call it 'Watchmen for the 90's, by way of Citizen Kane'.

The second half of the story, "Strange Weather" (issues #1-3 & preview of vol. 2), has the surviving members of StormWatch, now under the leadership of Weatherman Jackson King, tracking down a rogue government agency using superhuman enhancements for wargames in America's heartland. There's more of the political flavor that made parts of StormWatch vol. 1 so unique among the superhero dreck clogging the graphic novel shelves at book stores. There's also lots of great characterization here, and dialogue that makes superheroes a bit more believable. When the officers of SW get together and sit in a bar, they talk about sex. Imagine that.

The art is this volume is phenomenal stuff, Raney does great, high-energy layout and action scenes on "Change or Die". His work does seem to slip a little bit from the previous collection --- it's not as crisp, and the faces lose some detail --- but it's still miles above the unreadable stuff that occupied the pages of StormWatch before he and Ellis took over. Oscar Jimenez handles most of the art on "Strange Weather", and it's truly wonderful. Jimenez and Ellis didn't hit it off working on the book, and he is replaced by Bryan Hitch as of the next collection (A Finer World), but Oscar does do some great work on this book --- his facial expressions and body language are dead on, and he communicates humour excellently in these pages. Judging by his work on The Flash and StormWatch, I'd have to say that Jimenez would be much better suited to a social-fiction or humour title rather than an action-based superhero comic. Still, it's exquisite work and great to read.

The major problem? It's a REALLY uncomfortable and sudden shift from the tragic, emotional ending of "Change or Die" into the less-serious, action-based story "Strange Weather". It's clear that StormWatch vol. 1 was meant to be read in one sitting: the first two collections and this first half of this one should have been one book. It would've heightened the reading experience for both halves of THIS one.

Minor quibbles aside, StormWatch: Change or Die shows you why Warren Ellis is one of the only superhero comic writers of the last decade worth your time. Check it out.

While I agree that these heros are very interesting (and I enjoyed the books quite a bit), I believe there is room for both the inspirational heros (superman...flash...etc.) and the darker ones portrayed by other authors. It seemed in the 80s that there was only room for the dark, anti-heros, but today we have found room and reason for both.

Also, while many of the characters in these collections are dark, grim, and quite possibly insane on some level, others are just as inspirational as the heros of old.

just my two cents.

In StormWatch: Change Or Die, the third collection of Warren Ellis work on StormWatch, bad things happen. Worse than even Jenny Sparks has seen before.

If you were thinking Henry Bendix (Chief Officer or "Weatherman" for the organization) was a little too tightly wound before now, you ain't seen nothing yet. The member nations of the U.N. were already worried about him, but now the team members are as well. He's sent them to stop a renegade super-powered group that's threatening to...make the world a better place.

I can't really tell you more about it than that without giving away the biggest thrills in the storyline. But I can say that this collection delivers on everything Ellis has been building up to as he's been systematically tearing down everything that this series used to symbolize. Meaningfully, he finally shifts over to multi-issue stories, leaving the book's traditional single-issue adventure format in his dust. And the art finally measures up to the demands of the writing for what turns out to be Tom Raney's swan song on the series.

It's a different world from here on out...

...and rather misleading - the large quantity of addresses the author claims is due to the fact that a large number of people are "lumped" under a common address - for instance, all Olympic athletes, past and present, are given a generic address of the U.S. Olympic Committee, all members of congress are listed together, all members of a sports team are listed with one address, etc. Much of this "information" can be found for free on the Internet.

The book is also poorly organized when compared to others on the market - a straight alphabetical approach would be easier to use. I returned this one day after I bought it - I've found the books by Mark Allen Baker to be better.

Everyday when I come home from work, I feel a bit let down with my personal performance. It's a good thing Lee Ellis had the time, money, and energy to prepare this book...it's like it is geared just toward me. There's no way around the fact that I am dissatisfied with my dead-end job in a Baku fishmarket, but I can find an escape by writing to various celebrities and getting their autographs. After all, whatever they write on a used napkin is more valuable than my life--they are idolized in America and around the world, and with good reason. Possessing a piece of them is like possessing eternal happiness. They have succeeded where others have not, and our blind grovelling to them is well-deserved. When I got an autographed picture of that guy who plays Kenny Bania on SEINFELD, my life was complete. He has succeeded in life, and so has Lee Ellis. May it be Allah's will that Lee Ellis someday be considered among great writers like George F. Will, John Steinbeck, and of course Chaucer. He is truly a great man who has helped me feel like a success, and he can help you, too. Order the book--your first step toward happiness and fulfillment.

I don't know about you, but I buy a book like "The Celebrity Address Directory" to save time and money. Sure, I could go on the Internet and find some of the addresses in this book but would it be worth it? I would spend many hours plus contend with the aggravation and frustration of the crashing of my computer and not being sure if I got a current address. That's why I say let the author do all the research. I sit back and let him put up with long hours and compiling the names and addresses. I can't go wrong buying this book. If I get a return to sender, I just notify the publisher and they research the address for me. They will even research a name that's not in the book.

I have poked through endless shelves of gardening books, seeking the one, complete gardening book that I could use as a reference for everything! I was looking for one that would tell not only how to plant and grow things, but also how to harvest and prepare the products. How should you cut your asparagus so as not to damage the crowns? How do you dry your herbs? This was one of the few gardening books that addressed this aspect.

This was not its only outstanding characteristic. Not only does this book address the vegetable garden, it also tackles anything the home gardener is likely to face. Houseplants, trees and shrubs, ornamental plants as well as productive plants. It covers general topics, such as crop rotation, in addition to specific plants. And it is all arranged alphabetically, and nicely cross-indexed, so that you can nearly always find what you need.

The first and second time I bought this book, it was as a gift. I finally had to get it for myself as well. It is the best I have found so far.

"The organization of this book reflects the way you garden," says this encyclopedia's introduction, under the sub-heading "How to Use This Book". "We've grouped information into useful, complete entries that will provide all you need to know about a particular topic, rather than spreading out facts in thousands of short entries." A simple statement, it is not fully appreciated until you go searching for something in this book and find what you're looking for in a matter of seconds. Since topics are arranged alphabetically, if you can spell it, you can find it. Want to know how and when (among other things) to plant your corn? You'll find it between Coreopsis and Cornus. Need help with organic pest management? Look for it after Organic Matter.

The editors feel that 26 of the entries form the core of this extensive resource and can be divided into four categories: Gardening Technique, Organic Garden Management, Food Crops and Ornamental Plants. For a beginner such as myself, I found these fundamentals extremely helpful in outlining the basics of gardening. I was easily able to apply the knowledge gained in these fundamentals to particular entries, such as roses or radishes.

Sidebars offered with many of the entries spark ideas that the average gardener may not already be taking advantage of. For example, when I was reading the Bean topic, I found an interesting inset on growing fresh sprouts right in your kitchen. And under Herbs are several helpful side entries including herbs commonly used as home health remedies.

Illustrated for clarity in all the right places, this book is sure to become one of my favorite year-round reference guides.

It is indeed the indispensable resource for every gardener! I've had mine for a couple of years now and I'm constantly referencing it for organic and gardening information. Rodale is one of the best publishers on gardening and I always look for books printed by them first. It has diagrams on how to make a compost bin and thourghly explains how to build, maintain, and the process of compost making. It is a terrific cross-reference guide to every gardener for botoical names and common names of trees, plants, shrubs, fruits, and vegetables. I highly recommend this book to all beginning and expert gardeners.

Warren Ellis (who writes comics such as Planetary and Transmetropolitan) is an intelligent and witty man. This collection of his "Come In Alone" web-columns enlighten and entertain, giving prolific and sometimes acidic insight into the comic book industry and pop culture in general. If you love science fiction, comics, politics, and wild discourses on the cultures and society which we live in... then check this book out. How one man can write so many funny and intelligent essays in one book is both frightening and inspiring. Warren Ellis is a writer who GET'S IT. So do yourself a favor and get this book.

COME IN ALONE is an amazing collection of essays by Ellis on the state of the comics industry today. Focusing largely on the work-for-hire vs. creator owned work conundrum that haunts the medium, it is a flat out, no holes barred look at what should have been, what has been, and what can be done. It is humorous, enlightening and at times stark raving mad. But it is Ellis. Give him your credit card numbers now.

Warren Ellis teams up with publisher/writer/all-around nice guy Larry Young to bind his Come In Alone columns and infect the world of books forever. It's thoughtful articles with personal insights into the comics medium, as well as some script samples, economic analysis and Instructions to make you a better person.

All that and a pretty cover by Brian Wood. It's cheap, too.

You need this.

If you are fascinated by Machiavelli and his writings, then this is a must for your bookshelf. If you are looking for a book on the art of war during the Renaissance, then keep looking. In this book, Machiavelli presents his ideal plan for how a city-state should organize its military and fight its wars. He draws almost all of his organizational and war conduct ideas from Flavius Vegetius Renatus' De Res Militarii. He also spends a great deal of effort smearing the practice of hiring mercenary captains (most of which is bad history on his part, so read Michael Mallett on the subject). This book falls short in its discussion of war, but still has many insights into the mind and politics of Machiavelli.

This is the third Machiavelli book that any student of politics MUST read. While The Prince tells a ruler how he should govern and The Discourses explains why unjust and ineffective leaders should be... disposed of, The Art of War gives reasons for the third and ultimate check on political power. Recording a conversation between his friends (with obvious artistic license taken), Machiavelli writes this to support his newly-drafted militia ordinance, requiring all able-bodied men in Florence to arm themselves and be prepared to go to war whenever their country's interests are threatened. He bases this principle on the Swiss model (which is still in place today!) as well as those of Rome and Sparta. The message to his Prince and countrymen is simple: that republics last longer when their citizens are armed and dangerous, and that they are more secure if a prince can call upon a vast army at a moment's notice-- and be able to disband it as soon as the war is over.

As to the actual principles of warfare he provides, they are, naturally, antiquated, and probably weren't very effective since Florence's greatest military achievement seems to have been the conquest of Pisa. The message he sets out to provide, however, is the building of a more secure state by promoting the profession of arms, which he proves has worked every time it has been tried.

Macchiavelli is in his brilliant & compelling best in this admirably written book on military matters & affairs.In a no-nonsense,direct,military approach he narrates his martial dictums from a conversational setting,highlighting on all aspects of warfare:tactics,strategy,proper rulership & the convincingly argued relation between politics & war.The author of The Prince is in complete command in this indispensable book for military enthusiasts & students alike.The great man instructs & informs much clearly & more comprehensively than a lot of the supposed reputable military historians glutted in the market.

When I read the original Dune series I was really too young to fully appreciate the breadth of the work, and also to young to really recognize its failings. Several years later I read Doon and was left in tears of mirth through many passages. Weiner's coverage of Herbert's scenes and premises is quite remarkable. His twisting of names (Padded Bra Emperor, Mauve bib, Getty Premium, and, my favorite: Spilgard) is inspired. I love the idea of replacing the exotic "spice" of the original with simple beer. It has been a number of years since I read the parody, but I still remember it with fondness and I am looking for a used copy.

I read Dune many years ago, and it stuck in my mind as one of the more original works of SF ever. For that reason, all the jokes in Doon were very funny. Each chapter starts with a journal entry or quote from a book, and those are for the most part extremely funny. The style of Herbert's writing that conveys deeper meaning in the smallest detail is aped here to great effect. When "Paul" survives the test of pain, his mother comes in and thinks, "He lives! My son lives! So does the Reverend Mother! And so do I! We all live!"

I found this funnier than Bored of the Rings, but I do recommend both of them for some great parody.

I'd read the original "Dune", along with most of the sequels, back in college. By the time I got to about the 4th or 5th book, the ponderous mysticism and self absorbed seriousness were starting to get really annoying. This stuff just begged to be satirized, and "Doon" was the perfect antidode! The funny names, the substitute of beer and frat party imagery for the original "spice" were spot on and absolutely hilarious! Best of all was the dramatic fight scene in which Mauve Bib (aka "Assol") defeats his foe in a duel of ever nastier put downs. Like "Bored of the Rings", this is a first rate send up of a Sci-Fi/fantasy classic, and should offend only those who take the original WAY too seriously!

The Oakland Statement teases the potential reader with a fascinating and current political plot topic, but utterly fails to deliver with content.

Insipid character development, seemingly non-existent editing (or even basic copy editing) and inane dialogue combine to make the book unreadable. Authors Ellis and Frederick present their tale, set between 2000 and 2006, with condescending piety and child-like simplicity. The story bumbles through the telling of a fictional "leaderless movement" to effect revolutionary constitutional change in the United States without overthrowing the power structure. Autonomous domestic terrorist cells form at the directive of the Americans for Revolutionary Democracy to attack power infrastructure to bolster a published demand for constitutional conventions to be called to affect two amendments to the US Constitution. The first is wealth distribution via employee stock ownership schemes, and the second pertains to election reform.

Published prior to September 11th, The Oakland Statement presents ideas that are powerful and germane to ongoing events in the world. However, Ellis and Frederick do not even attempt so much as a plot twist in the book. The story begins flat-with an average citizen's reaction to the emergence of the movement presented in

Ellis and Frederick present a host of characters, both actual players on the political scene and purely fictional. Unfortunately, all of them seem to be from the "weed" smoking, socialist, anti-establishment arch-liberal perspective. This is the case in fictionalized characters in the book, from Lani Guinier to Al Gore, as well as the invented ones. Everyone agrees and is presented as mutually intuitive all the time, making the already straight forward, no-surprises rendition of the story even more mundane.

All of the characters in the book share unlikely, "gimme a break" dialogue. This is most evident with the fictionalized players, most notably conversations between Pat Buchannan and Jesse Jackson that make the reader cringe with disbelief. Disgustingly little research is evident in the development and presentation of the myriad people introduced. It appears that the authors mirrored everyone in the book after one person and just gave them different names and cursory, uninspired profiles.

Furthermore, the book is entirely under edited and unbalanced. The authors run on for pages after points are established without adding anything pertinent to the plot. Information that is clearly stated once is oft repeated in what can only be an editorial oversight. There are paragraph breaks in mid-sentence, as well as other glaring gaffs in the book, such as potato spelled "potatoe." Punctuation is frequently misused also, in a seeming blatant affront to Strunk & White.

The Oakland Statement is an excellent example of extremely poor writing. Period. It offers predictability, unconvincing dialogue and uncreative presentation as opposed to the "action-packed American political adventure novel" promised on the back cover. One can't skim through the pages quickly enough to inevitably reach the ending that is embarrassingly evident by the second page.
*****

oh yes..the oakland statement is a great political adventure novel....does the good old u.s.a. need fixed?....you bet!.....can it be fixed?...of course!...and who can do it?...you!...and the guy next door....really....pick up the oakland statement, and see how...............you won't put it down until the country is transformed into the greatest place on earth....once again.

As a professor of history at a small liberal arts college I read many different texts and novels in the genre of politics. This book not only offers an innovative philosophy of restructuring our political system but does so with a wonderfully creative and exciting storytelling that reminds one of Grisham, Chrighton or Elmore Leonard. The book is well paced with complex characters bringing a real life to both the action and the espoused political philosophy. As I stated, the pacing of this book is just right-slowly but surely the book escalates right along pace with things getting more and more tense until the climactic ending. This is definitely, as they say in the book reviews, a page turner. I really enjoyed the knowledge of politics displayed by the author. I will absolutely look up the author to see if he has written other works as I completely enjoyed this book and it's fluid writing style.

Ellis' critic asserts to his own arguments, but overall is highly misleading. At a first glance, it shows that not matters how hard he tried to put his prejudices aside on analysing his opponent's system of beliefs he succeed in filtering them with his own bias and frameworks. On a deeper level, he honestly, tries to go about it as if he were dismantling the contradictions of his opponents in their own terms. Regrettably, it can never be in their terms for the simple fact that John M. Ellis doesn't agree with those terms.
However, John M. Ellis achieved the illusion of disarming his opponents in their own terms almost to perfection. Disappointedly, though understandably he only managed to believe in his opponents' terms provisionally. His way about those terms is executed by making them contradict his own mind frame, which he insists, are those of common sense and of a proper rational thinking as if he, in fact, were using them without contradicting himself.

John M. Ellis writes in his book and I am quoting page 95:

Imagine a conference on cancer research at which the general sense is that recent research is going nowhere. A deconstructionist rises to tell the conference that it must look at hitherto marginalized, thus neglected, ideas. A researcher, intrigued by the possibility of a new idea, asks what specific suggestion or suggestions the deconstructionist has in mind. But the deconstructionist replies only that the field must question its concept of what is central to cancer research. Evidently, replies the researcher, but just what aspect of the current consensus on centrality is the problem, and which of the thousands of currently neglected chemical possibilities is the one that the deconstructionist is recommending? If now the deconstructionist replies that is recommending a general strategy, not a concrete proposal, the audience will conclude, correctly, that he has nothing to say after all. For what he has just said is rather like saying, "Have a good idea." That is not even a strategy for finding new ideas, much less a new idea in itself.

To reply to John M. Ellis I use his own lines in this way:

Imagine a conference on deconstruction research at which the general sense is that recent research on the subject is going nowhere. John M. Ellis rises to tell the conference that it must look at neglected ideas by the deconstructionists. A researcher intrigued by the possibility of a new idea asks what specific suggestion or suggestions John M. Ellis has in mind. But John M. Ellis replies only that the field must question its concept of what is central to deconstruction. Evidently, replies the researcher, but just what aspect of the current consensus on deconstruction is the problem and which of the thousands of currently neglected deconstructional possibilities is the one that John M. Ellis is recommending? If now John M. Ellis replies that he is recommending a general strategy, like considering deconstruction a dismissible crackpot, the deconstructional audience will conclude, correctly, that John M. Ellis has nothing to say after all. For what he has just said is rather like saying. "Have a good idea." That is not even a strategy for finding new ideas, much less a new idea in itself.

Other examples like this can be found throughout Ellis' book. No matter how hard he tries to be in a dialogue with his assumed opponents he fails at each time either by misleading them or by falling trapped of the same contradictions he places on them.
John M. Ellis keeps on insisting on the fact that deconstructionists have nothing new to offer. He however, fails to understand that from a philosophical viewpoint deconstruction has never been worried about creating anything new, but recreating old general question that come back to us with new lights. To reduce Derrida's heritage to the socio-political situation in France is interesting but not enough to understand Derrida's ideas. Ellis' dismissal of certain philosophical tradition is also understandable considering his own stands. However, to considered deconstruction as unsound is part of his own strategy of opposition that has nothing to do with deconstruction soundness and it is just another proof of his inability to step out of his own credo.
Even when John M. Ellis sounds Wittgenstein-like, he never managed to grasp the fact that deconstructionists might sound illogical not only because they seem to contradict in themselves, but because their assertions belong to organized sequences of signs outside their fallibility. Unfortunately, John M. Ellis sees the deconstructionists' infallibility as their own failure to admit contradicting themselves. But it is the fight to be fallibly accepted against our seemingly infallibility, what Ellis' logic has a hard time to digest.
To summarize, the new ideas that John M. Ellis demands so much from deconstructionists are nowhere to be found in his book. I wouldn't doubt that John M. Ellis tried to be seen as a new, original interesting proponent against deconstruction, but his own arsenal of tools betrayed his enterprise.

Back in the 1970's and the 1980's the early writings of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida exerted considerable influence on literary studies at some of America's better universities. Professor John M. Ellis does not think this was a good thing and, in this little book, he tells us why.

Almost everything of interest in this text is contained in the lengthy chapter entitled "Deconstruction and the Nature of Language". It's here that Ellis states and defends three theses:
1) Derrida's claims that "there is no linguistic sign before writing" and "the concept of writing exceeds and comprehends that of language" are pretty much untenable no matter how charitably they are construed; 2) the speech/writing opposition deconstruction makes so much of has nothing to do with the main thrust of Derrida's thought, which is his advocacy of an anti-essentialist view of language (which is tenable, but neither original nor radical); 3) Derrida's description of language as "a system of signifiers" and his claim that "signifieds" can be in the position of "signifiers" betrays either a gross misunderstanding of Ferdinand de Saussure's theory of linguistics or a willful, and unsubstantiated, mutation of the same.

In his remaining 100 pages Professor Ellis abandons close reading and careful discussion of Derrida's texts in favor of a more general examination of the rhetorical strategies often employed in deconstructionist literary criticism as practiced by Derrida's disciples (for example, Ellis shows that a sexy categorical slogan such as "all interpretation is misinterpretation" is either obviously false or, at best, trivially true). While interesting, a little bit of this goes a long way--I found myself skimming the last couple of chapters.

...

I am not a specilaist ion the field and I purchased this book to undertand deconstruction and its problems better. I was not disappointed in Ellis' exposure of the fallacies of deconstruction; however, I think he focused excessively on Derrida, while there are others such as Lacan, kristeva to mention a few that also deserve some 'attention'. I found the chapter on Language to be the clearest and most useful; however, I stress that I'm not a specialist and admit that reading this volume was somewhat difficult due to its emphsasis on logical reasoning and arguments. Nonetheless, I do think that its criticisms of deconstruction - and especially its misguided applications in the US - were very clear and convincing. Indeed, I find that Ellis' is strongest when he describes the intellectual climate out of which deconstruction was born, that is the stale monolithic character of french literary criticism of the 50's and the nned to supplant it with radical aideas that ultimately turn out to be just as stale. My only criticism is the the writing style that may put off the non-specialist. accordingly for thsoe like me I recommend the beautifully written The Reckless Mind by Lilla, which also exposes the fallcies of Derrida and other deconstructionists.

Dr. Albert Ellis is a recognized expert in the field of rational emotive behavior therapy, which concentrates of changing behavior by replacing irrational beliefs with rational ones. A psychologist with a clinical practice, Dr. Ellis has written sixty-five books and published numerous articles on human behavior. How To Make Yourself Happy and Remarkably Less Disturbable, his newest book, offers readers practical guidance for achieving happy and satisfying lives.
Dr. Ellis is convinced that people have the ability to change their lives through the choices they make. He says you can "learn to change your thoughts, feelings, and actions and thereby reduce your emotional distress."
All of us have goals. Often someone or something keeps us from achieving those goals. Some people then have "negative feelings like sadness, disappointment, regret, and frustration," that can stimulate them to find ways of overcoming whatever is keeping them from their goals. Others have unreasonable feelings that result in emotions that produce self-defeating behaviors like depression, panic, or self-hatred. Ellis teaches readers how to recognize those unreasonable feelings and convert them to healthy emotions.
The basis of his process involves determining what beliefs you have that trigger your emotional responses. Irrational beliefs include "I-can't-stand-itis," absolutes like must and should, awfulizing, and worthlessness. You then dispute those beliefs with questions like: Is my belief logical? What evidence supports it? Is it really this bad or awful? Disputing irrational beliefs opens the way to replace them with more rational beliefs, like "I don't like this, but I can stand it." Rational beliefs allow you to handle adversities with less distress.
Ellis includes case histories of people who have overcome severe unhappiness with his techniques.
Readers wishing to ease their emotional distress will find How To Make Yourself Happy a useful resource.

At first I didn't know what to think of this book. Ellis, an internationally renowned psychologist and founder of the Albert Ellis Institute for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, writes like a psychologist--a little too deep for the layperson. He also uses initials in his writing. Whenever you read "REBT," you are to remember it stands for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. "IB" stands for (Irrational Beliefs), "USA" (unconditional self-acceptance), and "UAO" Unconditional Acceptance of Others. I found it distracting to be reading a chapter and having to go back and find for which "IB," REBT," "UAO," and all the other initials stood. About haf-way through the book, things fell into place, made sense and became interesting. I started to understand what Ellis was saying, and the book became helpful and informative. His theory is, we are the captain of our ships--our minds. No matter what storms we must weather, we have what it takes to overcome these disturbances and continue our journey with smooth sailing, under our own power. On page 49 Ellis says, ". . .you have little control over many unfortunate Activating Events or Adversities (A's) that plague you, but you largely can control your Beliefs (B's) about these Adversities." He continues, "You can control and exhange your own disturbance-creating demands!" This is the heart of his therapy. Ellis relates patient's stories, how they were treated and how the overcame their problems. When reading these anecdotes, it gives the reader a feeling of, I'm not alone with my problems and they can be overcome. This is always helpful. Included in the book is an REBT Self-Help Form. This is a worksheet that allows us to put our problems on paper, examine them, research them, put them under a microscope and find an answer to them. Although a little intimidating at first, this book really does offer helpful suggestions if you are willing to stick with it and do some work. On the back cover of his book Ellis is described as controversial, charismatic and innovative. The answers to life's problems aren't easy and having someone shake us up a little just might be the push we need to get ourselves going in the right direction.

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I have ruthlessly criticized Albert Ellis in other reviews and I apologize. I now have many of his books and tapes. This book really stands out and will show you new "flavors" of how to make yourself less miserable. And Thank God, in this book, Ellis is taking the whip in his hand and stating PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. This book is simply a Godsend. I have already benefitted from it greatly. Ellis pounds home the fact that humans can be happy. They have a choice. I am now dropping "wanting the approval of others". So the anxiety pitches down. This is becoming more and more ingrained in my brain. In this book, Ellis has come up with a beautiful new acronym. USA. Unconditional Self Acceptance. I can now relax. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. I didn't practice hard before so I blasted Ellis. But this book is a Godsend for anybody who has problems with depression or anxiety. Yes, you can make yourself happy. Thank you, Dr. Ellis.