This is an important and interesting topic and it was good to write such a study. Unfortunately, it was very frustrating as there are so many irritating errors. When one sees a small error, you wonder if there are large errors as well. Why the publisher did not utilize a good editorial staff is beyond me. Some quotes do not have citations; the author apparently doesn't know the difference between "to" and "too" or that when one goes to LA from Oakland, he/she is going "down" not "up." Despite these complaints--which occur throughout the book---it is an interesting topic and good for discussion. The book assumes that one knows a lot about the Communist Party movement in the US. If one doen't know much of this history (e.g., McCarthy era, etc.), it will be difficult to understand what he wrote as he doesn't explain a lot of the background or put it into the context of the times. Despite all this, I learned a lot and thank the author for taking on this important subject.

Never in my life have I anticipated the delivery of a book to my home. I was eager to dive into a good book about my new Grey. When my wife finally showed me my new book at first I was a little surprised on how small and unimpressive it was. When you call it the "Complete guide" and charge over 20 bucks I generally expect a large book with a bunch of Pictures and diagrams. Then I opened it and began reading, Its packed full of interesting tidbits and good information. I even started to read some of it to my new Grey. I am very happy with the information, however I would have liked it in a bigger format with more Pictures...

In "Village and Plantation Life in Northeastern Brazil" Harry W. Hutchinson presents a compilation of data assembled in 1950-1951 and 1955-1956 on the history and social patterns of the town of Vila Recôncavo and sugar plantations and sugar processing factories within the same county.

Discussion of the nature and societal role of plantation owning families is instructive but the comparison of the class structure of the rural sugar plantation versus the social/economic classes of Vila Recôncavo is confusing. The reader wonders why Hutchinson chose to make the rural/urban comparison at all since in 1951-52 contact between the rural plantation(s) and Vila Recôncavo was, per Hutchinson's own observations, tangential at best.

Hutchinson also brings an unfortunate bias to this ethnography. Former slave holding plantation owners, as well as those he interviewed in the early '50's, are excused by virtue of their 'humane paternalism'. Plantation field hands - the darkest, poorest, most illiterate, hardest working and belonging to the most populous class - received the least amount of copy.

Despite the author's bias, this ethnography is an important historical document which cannot be dismissed.

Covers many aspects of menopause including sexuality, cancers, hysterectomy; summary information followed by re-presentation in Q&A format makes information easier to follow. Not heavily biased for or against ERT/HRT. Presents more than one treatment avenue, behavioral response. I've read several menopause books but this one gave me the information I wanted in a way that I could take to my doctor for more discussion. I would recommend this book to anyone: men, women, health professionals, young, old. It's filled with information, not all of which I have easily found elsewhere.

It seems lately that it's almost become a fad to write a new Crowley bio. Some have been good, others not. This one is not. The only good thing about this book is the fascinating dustjacket photo (the only photo of the whole book, by the way). What Mr. Hutchinson has done (seemingly for the sole purpose of cashing in on Crowley's recent popularity) is to read a couple of the previously existing bios and blend that with his own misunderstanding and negative attitudes towards his subject and have it printed up in an attractive hardcover (or now trade paperback) form. We receive absolutely NO new information, anecdotes or even rare rumors. The only thing which we receive from this book not necessarily found in others is the author's sarcastic contempt for Mr. Aleister Crowley and his achievements. No photos (at all), no newly researched information, not even a new angle on old info. Just contempt (which Mr. John Symonds has already given in abundance, though he at least had access to a great deal of interesting "inside" information which is all that makes his books readable). Mr. Hutchinson put forth zero effort on the book and, therefore, those of us who purchased it received zero value for our buck. If you want to read a much less biased, much more interesting book (still not terribly good at giving it's sources, oh well) with new bits of info and lore, purchase the recent work by a Mr. Sutin, he's no Crowleyite but neither does he disregard Crowley's amazing life and accomplishments (and Sutin seems to have done a fair amount of new research as well). For what it's worth, my own favorite bio on AC is "The Magical World of Aleister Crowley" by King, though it's unfortunately out of print. And, if you can managed to ignore the sarcasm, personal opinions and negativity in any books by Symonds (no mean feat in itself) then there is to be found therein a great deal of information unavailable elsewhere.

"The Beast Demystified"? This is of course a play on words; the author seeks to explain (demystify) Crowley by taking the mysticism out(demystify)of his biography. This is rather like writing a biography of Einstein without fooling with any of that hard physics stuff that nobody understands anyway, or doing a book on Beethoven without mentioning any of that old silly longhair music he liked. Hutchinson is maybe a half-notch above your typical hack, but this was probably written to fill a percieved market niche and make a few bucks. Go read the five-star standard biography instead, which is certainly Do What Thou Wilt.

Considering the impact he had on last century's culture and religion, and the continuing influence he has today, there aren't all that many biographies published on «the wickedest man in the world». And most that were have been out of print for years.

Hutchinson's book is not a complete character assassination, but I get the feeling that it's written with the aim to pull Crowley down quite a few notches. His magick is not discussed at any great length, as the author clearly think it's all mumbo-jumbo. Crowley's personal life did contain quite a few episodes that paints the picture of a self-obsessed, egotistical maniac. But doesn't one have to be to accomplish anything?

The worst thing he ever did, in my opinion, was to fail to help his fellow climbers on a groundbreaking 1905 expedition to Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas. They had been taken by an avalanche and were probably dead anyway, but by just ignoring the whole incident Crowley ended his climbing career, nearly conquering the third highest peak in the world. This accomplishment is not listed in any official climbing history books.

Crowley believed in total legalization of all drugs, and thought that anyone that allowed themselves to be addicted were people no one needed anyway. He still died with a hopeless heroin addiction, but at the age of 72 one must say he stuck it out for quite a while, and crammed more intense experience into his life than most of us could, even if we lived ten times over.

As described by Hutchinson, the rest of Crowley's life was filled with travelling, drinking, doing all kinds of drugs, tantric sex, rituals, and leading various half-secret societies that, along with Crowley, often got scandalized in the british tabloids of the time. A fair amount of in-fighting in «The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn» is also covered. His actions during the two world wars are discussed, concluding that he probably worked for British Intelligence.

«The Beast Demystified» is worthwhile as far as biographical detail goes, and sheds light on some events that were more muddy in earlier books, but it's not the defintive Crowley biography - that has yet to be written. Also, to put out non-fiction books without a bibliography and a good index is a worse sin than most of the ones Crowley committed.

Those more interested in Crowley's work than his nasty personality should read his disciple Israel Regardie's «interpretaion» «The Eye in the Triangle» (1970). A book similar to Hutchinson's, but more sketchy, is Colin Wilson's «The Nature of the Beast» (1987). Wilson keeps the door open for some of the magick, and thinks Crowley was a great essayist. A friend of Crowley, C.R. Cammell, wrote a biography called (among other titles) «The Black Magician» (1951) , which is well worth reading for a different perspective. The most well known and widely read Crowley biography is probably the very detailed, but somewhat unsympathetic «The Great Beast» (1951) by John Symonds.

A self-proclaimed son of Crowley, «Amado», has written three books that reads as - and must be viewed as - pure fiction until he comes forward with a real name, and proof of being a relative.

Also, there's Crowley's own «autohagiography» (a God's autobiography) «Confessions» (1969), by most considered an unreadable, overlong mess. The book was edited by Kenneth Grant and Crowley's first biographer John Symonds. Grant believed in Crowley's Law of Thelema, Symonds did not. Grant, who claims to be World Head of the O.T.O., also thinks that Crowley's «Book of the Law» was dictated to him by aliens from the planet Sirius. The nearly 1000 page «Confessions» is the only one of Crowley's writings that doesn't get trashed by Hutchinson, probably because it was a good source. All of Crowley's poetry and fiction gets mercilessly butchered, contrary to Crowley's own claim of being England's greatest poet.

There's no photos in any of the books mentioned above, so all eager Crowley bio readers are advised to get Sandy Robertson's «Aleister Crowley Scrapbook» as a visual side-dish.

After "..Demystified" came out, much thicker bios by L. Sutin and G. Suster have been published, making this book largely redundant.

Writing about a subject you know nothing about gets you into trouble. It is highly unethical for a medical professional to date a patient, no matter how many gifts he sends her way. Nuff said.

The promise of an explosive sexual attraction keeps Dr. Portia Bailey trying to maintain her distance from race car driver Nelson Gregory. Despite her aloofness, Nelson pursues her with a passion, indulging her in the most extravagant and unusual gifts she's ever received. Nevertheless, she's not particularly interested in a relationship with a man who indulges in extreme sports, living life in the moment without regard for safety. Portia assumes he's around for the thrills, and when the new wears off, the playboy will off to new fascinations.

When Nelson found out that he had a strong chance of inheriting the devastating neurological disease that destroyed his father's life, he made a number of changes in his life. He divorced the woman he loved and distanced himself from his mother rather than allow them to suffer while watching the disease progress. He began pursuing dangerous sports in an effort to live in the moment and ignore the possibilities of the future. But when he learns of Portia's special gift, and the renewed possibilities of the future, Nelson finds himself radically reevaluating his life once again.

Author Bobby Hutchinson maintains a light, lively tone in the face of devastating illness and its consequences in INTENSIVE CARING. Striking the perfect balance of irreverence and seriousness, she explores the devastating effects of tragic illness, turning tragedy into a triumph of the human spirit. Secondary character Juliet, who is mentally challenged, also lends wonderful humor and complexity to this marvelous novel. Additionally, Portia's psychic ability to read auras lends a touch of a new age spirit that is both welcome and different from the standard fair of genre romance. Highly recommended.

This book is down right awful. The drawings in it could have been done by a 5 year old, and from what little I forced myself to read I've determined that the writing is somewhere around the 10'th grade level.. What is really bad about this book, is that after laying out a disclaimer that the author and publisher aren't responsible for your injury, you are told about a dozen different ways to very likely kill yourself. I am not kidding. The techniques in this book are extremely dangerous, and the pictures are misleading.

Please do not buy this book. You will learn nothing you can't glean from watching a highlander movie or even 1 episode of the series. Literally. A total waste of money, and I am ashamed to have bought this utter garbage.

Everything in this book is so basic, I might have gleaned useful information from it back in third grade. You could learn more from watching "The Highlander", or an Errol Flynn movie.

This is a great book on training techniques, not only for the sword, but as well ( with a little bit of adaptation ) for the knife, stick, or any weapon user.

Here are my thoughts on this book.

Pros: 1. Very reasonably priced as a comprehensive review book and supposedly a money back guarantee.
2. It is current and up to date (as of the April 2003 exam)
3. It has a pretty good variety and quantity of examples and practice problems.

Cons: 1. There are a large number of errors in the example and practice problems. I found at least 50 errors in using this book as a review guide and it is difficult, especially on some of the example problems where I would wonder for half an hour where I went wrong. Some of the errors are obvious, others are difficult or near impossible to spot if you are trying to relearn this material and remember very little. I am sure there are significantly more errors since my review did not cover the book comprehensively and I'm sure I missed a lot as well.
2. The text is not very well written. Some sections go into too much detail while others simply scratch the surface. There were times when I learned more from reading the EIT handbook than from this review book.
3. Lastly, I was a little disappointed when I went to take the practice exam and I found several identical questions to the practice problems provided in the different chapters. The least they could have done was make sure not to reuse questions so that when we'd like to take the practice exam we haven't just seen the questions from review sections.

I bet Hutchison hates the IRS as much as anyone, though for different reasons: published in 1996, this book is already quite out of date in terms of both specific and general IRA strategies (other than the basic idea that you should start one if you can). The book also doesn't give much in the way of real investment strategies. Indeed, I learned more from IRS publications and non-IRA-related publications regarding tax questions and investing strategy, respectively. And I still don't know about how capital gains tax is calculated for short-term buying and selling in an IRA account....It's not in this book. The book is not written with flair (she refers to her style as "no-nonsense"), so it's a bit of a yawner. And perhaps most importantly for many readers, this book was last published the year BEFORE the Roth IRA was created. The book doesn't even mention it, needless to say. If you want to know whether to convert to or start with a Roth, you'll need to look elsewhere (Tobias' "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" covers the basics in this regard).

Published in 1936, the style of this book will seem seriously dated to most contemporary readers, but there is useful content for historians and writers here. Basically, this is the saga of the Severin family as August, 1914 approaches. Set in the fictional town of Baulon, the author's intent is to depict contemporary French society through the machinations of Colonel (Eugene) Severin, his son Pierre and the latter's wife, Renee. The plot follows Pierre's desertion of the colonial French army to save Renee and the kids (but mostly Renee) from his despotic, vitriolic father...only to be caught up in the onset of the First World War. There is a large cast of complementary characters who help flesh out "the whole system of life in France before the war", as the book jacket says.

Hutchinson can write, and he does a WHOLE LOT of that in this roughtly 500 page novel. A few sections of the book are masterful, but he often lapses into purple prose and melodrama in order to make "grande" points about human nature etc... Another problem is that his characters are not an especially engaging lot for todays's readers. Moreover, the book drags due to too much expostion and dialog. Still, there are some zippy descriptions and historians or other novelists can mine this book for lots of period detail.

Also by R.C. Hutchinson: The Answering Glory, The Unforgotten Prisoner and One Light Burning. I know nothing of them.