The story of Bizot's internment in the camp, and his conversation's with Douch, are incredibly vivid and take one as far as it probably possible to go into the mind of a committed revolutionary, to try to understand how it's possible for a man who is by no means sadistic or insane to commit acts of torture and genocide.

The other reviews are right: this is not the book to read if one wants an overview of the Khmer Rouge years - other than a timeline and some assorted details, you don't get much - but it is valuable for shedding a great deal of light on the ideological foundations of the revolutionaries and the ensuing massacres. I'm not sure why some people seem to praise Le Carre's introduction independent of the book: unless he has some other motive, it seems strange that a man would have the intelligence to write a good introduction but lack the acuity to actually know what a good book is.

Le Carre mentions Bizot remoteness in real life, and this distancing really extended to the memoir as well - although the book is filled with a great deal of conviction and sadness, I always got the feeling that the author was holding his cards close to his chest. His then-wife keeps getting mentioned sporadically, but despite his repeated desire to see her again, we never get to know her or understand her importance to his life: the same for his daughter Helene. We find out more about random holdouts in the embassy than we do about them, which is strange for two people who are supposedly such a huge part of his life. You never really feel like the writer is telling you everything.

The second part of the book is still well-written, but something of a mess. Lacking the twin poles of the narrator and Douch, his captor in the camp, which anchor the first part of the memoir, the book starts getting spread too thin. Hundreds of characters seem to emerge and disappear - too many horrific events take place for any of them to have the necessary impact, which is of course part of the impossibility of doing justice to any mass tragedy.

The author, Francois Bizot, was a rare Khmer-speaking non-Cambodian (he's French) who survived the bloodiest years of oppression in that country. His melancholy, measured style of writing makes it easier to believe the fact that he stayed on in Cambodia of his own free choice when the blood-letting began. His refusal to abandon the autonomy of the ability to think for himself forms the spine of his tale. Heroism is balanced with fear; understanding balances anger; the senselessness of tragedy gains a measure of the majestic when rendered by Bizot.
A very worthwhile read from an insider's perspective.

In the final chapter of "The Gate" Francois Bizot writes, "There are experiences that make us reappraise everything." In large part this book is an accounting of those experiences of the nightmare which was Cambodia in the 1970's. It has taken 30 years for Bizot to get this personal narrative out to the reading public and it stands as a significant contribution in the literature.

Julia Cameron has bitten off a lot in her first novel. It is very much a first try--most notably where she trusts neither herself nor her readers enough and over-indulges didactic explanation, particularly in regard to Jung's concept of the shadow. Had she trusted herself enough to demonstrate it through her character's understanding or us to know about it already there would have been fewer slow-down patches. Her earnestness regarding her subject matter--the reality of horrific child abuse and the fortunate resiliency of the human person (at least some of the time)--kept me at some distance--AND I basically couldn't put the book down, with the result that I'm still in my nightgown as I prepare to get ready for bed.

Quite an interesting read, with much to recommend it. I will definitely read her next novel.

This is the first book that has kept me up all night in ten years... first, because I couldn't stop reading it, and later, because it gave me nightmares. The Dark Room is fabulous... it reminded a non-reader why reading is so fun and I'm eagerly awaiting more novels from Julia. Maybe you recognize Julia Cameron as the author of The Artist's Way... The Dark Room, a different genre, is another inspired work of art from an incredibly diverse and multitalented artist. For everyone who loved The Artist's Way, go and see what Julia is making now!!! Her example as a daring and prolific artist is as inspiring as her books are. For all of the crime novel fans in the world, read it, it's intelligent, scary, suspenseful and riveting. I loved it, go get it!

OK, I warily approached reading The Dark Room when I got it for Christmas. It was a big, crime story that was well, dark. I trudged through the first chapter...then I COULD NOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN. It is riveting, with no slow spots. I can't remember the last time I read a book that I could not wait to get home to, that I would sneak to read on my lunch hour, that woke me up an hour before work, summoning me to read. Hell, even Morning Pages couldn't do that! I want to send this book to everyone who wants to rediscover the thrill of reading fiction again. I sure did. READ THIS BOOK!

Porcella and Burn's book is really the only book about climbing California 14'ers. It's a great starting point for climbing in the state with extensive historical sections and nearly every available route up each of the 14'ers in the state. In other words, it will get you pointed in the right direction and to the trailhead to do the climb.

Unfortunately, the book is sorely lacking in route description details. The authors say to use both the pictures and descriptions of the routes to make your way up the mountain, but there are cases of descriptions without pictures. The book is most dangerous for beginning to intermediate climbers for its lack of approximate times to each location degree of difficulty, and lack of attention to detail on the "lesser" routes.

Take Mt. Tyndall's Northwest Ridge. It takes a strong hiker about 8 hours just to reach the base. The description describes the route as "easy" and up a twisting rocky trail. In fact, the trail doesn't exist and most of the climb up this ridge requires negotiating large, unstable boulders. The authors do admit the summit ridge is exposed, but do not mention there are some class 3 moves at this point. Without approximate times to the summit there is no way of knowing how long or how difficult the climb is. Furthermore, there is only a description of the climb and not a clear picture of the route. I actually told friends that climbing Mt. Illimani (6400 meters), which required some technical ice climbing, and 4 days of climbing was easier than climbing Mt. Tyndall (approximately 18 hours).

Lack of details are also evident in their poor description of the West Face route of Mt. Williamson. There is no mention of good spots to camp after reaching Shepherds pass. Williamson bowl requires fairly strenuous hiking since it is largely boulder field between several moraines. Porcella and co., describe crossing this as "entering the Williamson bowl from the north," which, judging from the topo quad and this description, makes it sound like an easy walk. The description fails to describe the route correctly, with the description sounding like you continue up the mountain when the picture shows a turn to the south. Finally the authors chose to take a picture of the climb from an angle that most climbers would not see from the southern approach.

Porcella and Burn's rating system often seems haphazard. One climb on Mt. Shasta was rated as Class 3-4, but I found this climb to be far easier than the Class 2 climbing on Mt. Tyndall.

There is a lot to cover here, but the easier routes certainly could use more description and approximate times. Yes mountaineering is dangerous, difficult, and strenuous, but lack of detail is not an excuse for the "c'est la vie" attitude Porcella and Burns use for their descriptions. In fact more description would help climbers be more prepared for the routes they choose.

Steve Porcella and Cameron Burns spent at least two summers collecting information from historical figures while putting up new
routes to all fifteen of the >14K foot peaks in California. This book is chockfull of history gathered directly from some of the early
climbers of these Sierra peaks. Many of the approaches to these peaks are arrived at by hiking (which is half the fun when in the
Sierras). As both authors are world class climbers and besides supplying detailed maps and routes traced onto photos of the peaks,
they have included many B&W photos of such points of interest as approach scenery, actual routes, historical contributors, as well
as many photos of themselves climbing the routes. Thoroughly enjoyable, this book is as interesting for the armchair climber as
for individuals wishing to expand their climbing horizons by exploring these magnificent mountains in California.

Porcella and Burns do an amazing job on describing CA Fourteeners. I don't think I've ever seen a climbing guide of this caliber within the last 10 years. Very insightful historical information and great descriptions. A Must-Buy!

I was going to trash this book, but really, if everyone wrote the same way what would be the point? I truly hated this book..well Phoenix. It started off well, but she was written as an idiot in a totally implausible setting. Since I am moving I am gladly giving the book away so it may find a home with someone who may enjoy it.

Sheer Pleasures is vintage Stella Cameron - good writing, lots of action, hideously evil villains, and a hunk of a hero handsome enough to make any good woman do bad things. What Sheer Pleasures doesn't have is a lot of romance, and hard-core romance fans will be disappointed. Action fans will be delighted, however, since Sheer Pleasures is chock full of good guys, bad guys, mystery, mayhem and murder. There's even a car chase. In truth, Sheer Pleasures is really more of a mystery/action novel, with a romance thrown in almost as an afterthought.

The heroine is Wilhelmina Phoenix, a down-on-her-luck lawyer searching for a long-lost friend. Phoenix, as she calls herself, is not having a good life. She loses her job a defense attorney when she rats on her own client - a child molester.

As a heroine, Phoenix has many good points. She's brave, she's tough, she's loyal and she's compassionate. Unfortunately, Phoenix does a lot idiotic things in this book. At one point, when several attempts have been made on her life and people are getting killed all around her, she makes what can only be described as truly stupid decisions. "Come on Phoenix, use a little common sense, please."

Anyway, in her quest to find her friend April, Phoenix ends up in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, at the mysterious club where her friend was last employed. Forget golf and tennis, 'cause this ain't your ordinary country club by any stretch of the imagination. This place discreetly caters to the more perverse interests and tastes of its wealthy clientele, who can take their pick of whatever sexual act or illegal narcotic they care to imbibe. The club counts movie stars, politicians and other public figures among its clientele.

It is at the club she meets one of its owners, Roman Wilde, former Navy Seal and all-around gorgeous hunk. Unbeknownst to Phoenix, he's on the same mission she is -- except that he knows April is dead. He has his own very personal reasons for wanting to find the killer. And once Phoenix and Roman realize that they're working toward the same goal of finding the murderer, sex, romance and love follow. The sex scenes are steamy, although I had a hard time believing that 30-year old Phoenix was still a virgin, for goodness sakes. Somehow this woman managed to go all the way through college and law school without ever going past first base? Give us a break. Virginity in romance novels is highly overrated.

At its best, this book is exciting, suspenseful and full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing. There are holes in the plot and they can be distracting, if you let them. The journey gets bumpy in parts, but ultimately Sheer Pleasures gets you where you want to go and gives you a few good thrills along the way.

This was my first Stella Cameron and I really enjoyed it. As romantic suspense novels go, this is right up there with All the King's Men by Linda Howard and Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown. I loved the eccentricities of the characters in the town of Past Peak and I thought the storyline of Roman and Phoenix trying to get to the bottom of April Clark's disappearance was excellent. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading it!! At times I thought Roman was a little overdone in the sappy department but I just skimmed over the parts that were too cheesy. :) I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a fast-paced, racy romance novel with a twist of suspense. I can't wait to read Nasty Ferrito's story!

I've had "The Basque Kitchen" in my small kitchen for a few weeks now. While it (book) fits perfectly, the recipes and ingredients have become second nature to me and my family. I've had a chance to attempt a few meals and all have turned out excellent. I actually thought of never retuning to Fringale or Pastis, but my kitchen cannot compare to the service and ambience. And my wife would be a little upset not being able to taste her favorite Basque wine from Irouleguy. Having been in the Basque area a year ago, I found myself salivating over the beautiful pictures and well written stories. They have brought back the incredible memories of my trip. I just had to pull out my photo album from my trip. Pictures of Biarritz, Bayonne, St. Jean de Luz as well as the smell of the wonderfully fresh fish markets and coastal fishing villages have me calling for a return trip. Although I might skip the painful running with the bulls in Pamplona. Ouch! Enough said, I feel the book, stories, recipes, photos are excellent. A non-cooking friend of mine has been enthralled with the stories in the book and is looking forward to a trip to Pastis and Fringale. 5 STARS

Nestled between the two cusine powerhouses of France and Spain, the Basque are influenced by these two, yet retain and developed a food tangent of their own.

Here, Chef Hirigoynen shares his passion for this region and its food. He takes liberties at times to add his own touches, which he has been serving up in his restaurants in San Francisco.

He provides a complete two page listing of sources for the hard-to-find ingredients as well as a listing of restaurants, etc. if one tours the Pyrnees region.

I've tried with delight the Sea Bream with Garlic Vinaigrette "A La Concha", Lamb Stew with Mixed Nut Pesto, and Quince and Goat Cheese Layer Cake with Candied Pine Nuts.

I took the book to France with me. It enriched my enjoyment of "Veal Stew With Peppers" in Espelette, and the mayor of that town (and owner of the restaurant where we dined) was pleased (and proud) to see that I had his friend's book. If you buy cookbooks to explore (and not just to cook) you may like this. Its a great gift for anyone who is headed to the Basque country.

I've tried to used this to look stuff up while learning Emacs, and it is not useful to me. I have two main objections: 1. It is not organized in a way that makes it easy to look things up. There have been times when I knew the information was in the book (since I had seen it before), but had to just flip through every page to actually find it. 2. It's very incomplete. I cannot find a command in this book that takes me to a given line in a file. I suspect the book fails because he tries to cover everything. I do not expect a pocket reference to cover some nonstandard HTML mode, or how to use Emacs as my mail reader. I want a reference on how to use it to edit text and code. I probably won't open this book again; I'll just bookmark the online manual.

Yes, emacs is the most powerful editor and this book is only a little pocket reference! The book is unnecessary after 2 days (if you did not know emacs before). It is good only for a short introduction in the commands of emacs. After two days you must buy Learning Gnu Emacs, which is really a book to learn emacs!

Do not expect to much from a litte reference!

Virgilio Krumbacher

This is not a book to teach you how to use Emacs as some other reviewers think. This book is a reference and a reference only. It gives you a listing of common emacs commands. If you won't be going into the nitty gritty details of Emacs, use this. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and get Learning Emacs. This books is good at accomplishing its purpose...a secondary reference for Learning Emacs.

In 1824, Princess Desiree of Mont Nuages returns to London after six months at home nursing a heartache. She loves artist Adam Chillworth, the hermit residing in the attic of 7 Mayfair Square over the objection of the resident ghost. Desiree knows Adam loves her too, but he is too honorable to court her because she believes that he feels he is beneath her social level. Desiree has returned to force her beloved to accept that they belong together forever.

Adam knows nothing can get worse than seeing Desiree as he struggles not to kiss her but he soon learns the rudiments of Murphy's Law when his estranged family come to see him. While trying to establish a relationship with his sibling and ignore his parents, he soon has bigger concerns when someone abducts Desiree with the attacker warning her to stay way from Adam.

The fifth Mayfair Regency romance will provide plenty of enjoyment to series fans on two levels: the love story between two repeat characters and the frustrations of Sir Spivey the ghost. Though the story line starts slow in terms of action, the audience sees deep inside the souls of the lead couple as Adam tries to elude the messages that his heart pumps to his head. The suspense surfaces in the latter half of the plot, but once the action begins it does not stop until Stella Cameron closes the door to another delightful return to 7 Mayfair Square.

Harriet Klausner

In About Adam, Stella Cameron invites us to 1820's London for another visit to Mayfair Square. The late Sir Septimus Spivey is kind enough to bring both returning and new visitors up to date on the current inhabitants and former residents of #7.

Although she is only 20, Princess Desiree has been in love with Adam Chillworth for years. While Adam has similar feelings for Desiree, he has dismissed hers as the crush of a young girl. After all, not only is he several years her senior, they are also so far apart in social status that the chasm my be impossible to cross. Princess Desiree's brother, Jean-Marc, Count Etranger, plans to make a match for her that will be advantageous for the family. Although Adam is a successful painter, he is not at all what Jean-Marc has in mind for his sister. But Desiree knows her own mind and heart. She loves Adam, and she plans to get him. With the help of Spivey (the resident ghost with an agenda of his own) and a host of matchmaking friends, it should be no trouble at all. Unfortunately, someone doesn't want Adam and Princess Desiree together, and may stop at nothing to keep them apart. Desiree and Adam must band together to overcome danger.

Stella combines suspense, humor and emotion with a wonderful plot and characters. You won't want to leave #7 Mayfair Square!

About Adam is a wonderful story. When I started reading it, I kept saying to myself, poor, poor Adam. Adam Chillworth is a painter, a deep, brooding man who is in love with a woman that he can never have. Princess Desiree is a young woman who can never have the man she loves so very much. No worries, though. Just as there are forces trying to drive them apart, there are forces pushing them together. Adam is an honorable man, one who thinks to protect Desiree, if if from himself, as he feels he is not good enough for her. This is a story of drama, passion and intrigue, done in such a manner to keep the pages turning very quickly. Let's not forget about the humor! About Adam is the next in the Mayfair Square series. I'd say pick them all up, as you will not regret it. Robin Taylor

When I purchased this book, I was already familiar with the basics of multithreading and synchronization. My hope was a complete, authoritative manual to help me better develop technique and methodology. In the end I was satisfied that I had learned quite a bit from the authors, but this book is hardly a good value.

First of all, a reader with an extremely rudimentary understanding of multi-tasking will find nothing but review in the first five chapters (out of twelve) of the book. To be fair, the authors state in the preface: "If the reader is familiar with the fundamental C++ class types and the basic operation system concepts needed to understand threads, then the reader can skip Chapter 1 through 4." This is a bit of an understatement, in my opinion. If a reader understands at a basic level what a thread is and how it differs from a process, he or she will find nothing but (tedious) review in the first five chapters. Don't be fooled by the table of contents; any aparently interesting topics in the first five chapters will be covered in such shallow, abstract detail that you will probably get nothing from them. Additionally if you have done any experimentation with threads and understand basically what a mutex/semaphore/event/critical section is you can probably skip chapter six as well.

For me things did not really get interesting or informative until chapter seven at the earliest, maybe even chapter eight. From there on out I would consider the book to be pretty good. Some of it was a little out of place for a book on multithreading. For instance there is a long-winded CSci 101 explanation of what an interface class is at the beginning of chapter seven, which struck me as odd since this is well-covered territory in any OOP C++ book, and familiarity with C++ and OOP in general is a stated pre-condition for reading this book. As for the allegedly poor grammar, I can't honestly say mine is any better so I found it all strangely comforting.

In conclusion, much of this book will be review to the average reader. This fact combined with the high price tag does not make this book a good value. It is nice to have on the shelf because it is pretty comprehensive in content, but keep in mind that much of that content is so fundamentally basic to multithreading that you will find it in many of the more thorough general programming books. If you are looking for money well spent, this probably shouldn't be your choice.

This is the ultimate book for any experienced C++ programmer who is new to the field of multi-threaded application development. If you are the kind of guy who learns by writing or reading lines of code then this book is not for you but if you want a solid foundation to build future multi threaded applications then look no further. The authors take you through all the concepts and the philosophies behind robust multi-threaded application development. I wish the authors had not included any APIs from any specific platforms. The building blocks and the techniques are all that are needed and you get them in abundance in this book. That would have reduced the price of the book. All the same money well spent.

If you're doing Posix threads in OO and in C++, this book covers the intermediate concepts and builds to more advanced issues. Well thought out. Well designed. If you're doing (or going to do) a distributed, multiThreaded applications, you will thank God every day that you found this book before you started. Unless, of course, you wrote another book on Posix threads. I didn't so I did. :)

The first question that begs to be asked, is why was this movie made? Abres Les Ojos -Open Your Eyes, is a clever, intelligent film that is a good companion film to various virtual reality & dream oriented films. This is a pale, commercial remake of the film.

Tom Cruise plays cocky, self assured men in action films best. He has a decent physical presence that works well in comedies & action films. He was decent in Jerry Maguire & Eyes Wide Shut. Perhaps he was attracted to the film because it is supposed to be a psychological thriller & has a similiar title to Eyes Wide Shut. However, it doesn't work here. The character is supposed to be a shallow, confused young man who is still trying to find his identity. He has all the superficial success, but feels empty & incomplete. He ends up being a tormented Goethe/Dostevsky type character, but Cruise does not know how to play this type of character. This is a film about shaping your dreams, about discovering your identity & really living your life. But this version does not acheive that.

The actors play the story too light heardedly and are not complex
and multi-dimensional. Crowe's decisions to alter some of the details of the plot don't make sense. He attempts to make the female characters more sympathetic & less manipulative & the main character less violent. Usually I applaud a feminist version, but it doesn't work this time. The original version is much darker.

If you don't like reading subtitles, you can get the dubbed version of Abres les Ojos. I also highly recommend The Lathe of Heaven, Brazil, Existanz, Dark City & City of Lost Children.
The Lathe of Heaven is much more subtle, but acting is far superior & that was a made-for-TV film.

As an film director/producer, I love this film. However, to truly feel it's soul you must see Alejandro Amenabar's piece, Abre los ojos. I call it a "piece", because I feel that it's a work of art in it's own right. Now, if you view the two films and come away uneffected then never watch another film, stick to movies, i.e. Spiderman, Home Alone, etc...
Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, and Cameron Diaz give performances that gel wonderfully and make this a must see.

This film will challenge you, you must be prepared to think and feel, and believe me you will.

Live the Dream

Combined with the film, Cameron Crowe--adaptation or not--has created a work of brilliance in this screenplay. For those of you who loved the movie I would highly reccomend the screenplay as well for some cut dialogue, additional scenes, and a slightly different ending. In addition, reading the screenplay has further deepened my appreciation for the great acting performances in this movie.

I wasn't going to write a review until I read the reader from Chicago's review. Give me a break! You obviously were looking for a book in the non-fiction section and accidentally bought this one. Read it for what it is: fiction. I enjoyed the book immensely as I did Sheer Pleasures where Nasty was first introduced. I am also hoping that Ms. Cameron is considering writing a story with Fabiola and a strong male character like Roman and Nasty. As for Polly being naive, I believe she was acting the way she did because she put her feelings for others ahead of herself. I loved the off-beat characters, and I picked up the instant attraction between Polly and Nasty. Dynamite! I have read this book about 10 times and plan on reading it again and again. Keep up the good work, Ms. Cameron!

I love Guilty Pleasures. I have read this before of course, but needed to replace my well read copy with another one.
Polly Crow is being stalked and she is afraid for not only for her life, but the lives of her family as well. The last thing she wants is to get involved with anyone. That doesn't stop her from being attracted to former Navy SEAL Nasty Ferrito.

Nasty Ferrito never expected to fall for anyone, let alone famous children television host Polly Crow. He wants to
protect her and her son Bobby, but she is just as determined
to not let someone else become involved in her problems.

How can you not like these characters? The hero/heroine are favorites of mine and nobody writes as vile villains as Stella does. They are mean and gross, and you can't wait for them to
get what is coming to them.

I know you will love this book as much as I do. I totally recommend GUILTY PLEASURES.

Give me a break. Was "A reader from New Jersey" helpful in her review? NO. Yes, reader from New Jersey, it's very possible you shouldn't be writing a review if you haven't finished reading the book.

This was the first book I read by Stella. I loved it. The characters were believable, the plot moved along just fine, and the suspense/mystery kept me on the edge of my seat.

Polly (the heroine) was a character I could relate to. She isn't wishy-washy, and she certainly isn't stupid. She has a life she has to protect, and as a mother, she will do anything to protect that life.

Nasty is a well-rounded hero. He's not overly brutish, and he's passionate. He has what we would call *feelings.* I wasn't aware it's an unwritten law that if a hero has feelings, he's considered soft and mushy. I suppose it depends on one's own perspective, but I wouldn't want to read a novel where the hero has so many hard angles to his personality, I wouldn't be able to get close to him and (gasp!) relate to him.

Stella's writing is always fresh. She has a wonderful way of using description to its fullest. One of my favorite scenes in the book is at the beginning when Polly is standing at the marina docks, the wind whipping her skirt around. It was such a well-written image, that every time I visit the marina by my home, it comes to mind. Not many writers can do that.

There's no depth to Polly and Nasty's love? Gee, I seemed to have no problem understanding what was going on between them. There was tension in the story - they didn't love each other on "first sight." Where would the conflict between them be? Really, is it so unbelievable for the hero to fall in love with the heroine at the beginning, but have to work through the problems that come with a new relationship? The last time I looked, that seemed to be pretty much the norm.

One last thing: it amazes me how people can write reviews for books they haven't read. It's truly a waste of time.