Even though I was born and raised in Detroit, I found this book to be very enlightening. The trials and tribulations of Grayson Starks and his friend, Paul Proudberry, on the streets of Detroit were very real and true. Many Black people lived and still live in this manner.

When the author described the characters' experiences in the inner city, their exposure to the political system (both good and bad) and the riots in 1967, I relived every moment. Never have I read a book that has kept me so riveted.

I found this novel to be an intriguing and extraordinary engrossing read with a compelling powerful story, not only of Black and White relationships, but of other ethnic groups' dynamics in the United States. It keeps the reader looking forward to the next page, hoping it will not be the last. It is a page turner. The author is truly on his way. I can't wait for his next book. In the mean time, I will reread this one.

This author knows what he is writing about and he does it with an engaging and graphic style.

The book is about two young Blacks who migrate to Detroit Michigan from the South of the 1920's. Combatting racism from every side, each one takes a different style in dealing with their environment. The authors tracks the lives of the two different men and their families in such fashion as to reveal in colorful detail the intricacies and difficulties involved in life for Black Americans through the 1920's and into the 1980's. One son and grandson become Mayors of Detroit. The other's son, Paul, in a strange twist, becomes a mayoral assistant, setting off a remarkable turn of events.

The author, having observed and written about Black and White relationships then proceeds to introduce other ethnic groups into the plot and shows how each, while facing fomidable obstacles, either beats them down, or is beaten down. An unusually heart breaking part of the triology is the description of the incarceration of the Japanese-American during World War II, and the impact of their internment, specifically on two Nises (Japanese-American born) children.

Through out the trilogy, the reader will think that the author can do nothing more to shock or panic the reader --- then enter the characters of - Judge Hammond, C-square, Lemon, J.J. and Mr. Well-Hung. In my mind, these are five of the best characterizations to be read in American literature todate. The interaction of these five characters makes me feel that the author OWES the readers a sequel -- so as not to leave us hanging! This is a task he should find fairly simple, after having written such an extra-ordinary book!

Oh my God. Where is Oprah? Tell her that this is the novel that will raise the bar in American Literature for the next Millennium.

The author has written a first-rate book that provokes as well as educates the reader. It is written simply, and you know the author made it up, but you also know it to be real.

I grew-up in a small New England town, that had more chickens than people. It wasn't until I attended college, that I had real contact with minorities. In short, I was unaware of racial injustices and prejudices, such as the Starks family endured while living in the poor, black ghetto of Detroit, Michigan.

'A Peek Through The Curtain: A trilogy', provides an educational adventure, no, an odyssey for those less, or not at all, acquainted with the sub-culture in America, I mean Black-America, whose citizens have suffered under the terrible yoke of discrimination, in a land of great beauty but with even greater prejudices.

This novel is unlike any I've ever read. The author takes the reader step by step, year by year from the 1920's to the 1980's, tracing two Blacks, Grayson Starks and Paul Proudberry who start out poor as dirt and dumber than dumb, and emerge, years later, rich and powerful. One corrupted by the system, the other unsullied. Sounds familiar? Well, that's just the beginning. Not content with depicting the hopes and fears of one generation, he builds on that to show us the complexities confronting the next two generations, all the time redirecting our focus on the plight of the Japanese-Amrican and Cuban-American and weaves them into a nightmare of a plot.

An excellent book for all to read.

I am a Junior/Senior in Chemical Engineering, and I can't say enough about this set I recently purchased. My husband is a Graduate student in Chemical Engineering and he told me to hold off, that he never used his copy (1991 version), and never needed it in college. I use the electronic book all the time on my laptop. It's a great resource, and so EASY to use. I even caught my husband using my Perry's on more than one occasion, and he finally admitted my version was much better and easier to use than his! He went out and bought his OWN copy! I pretty much only use the electronic book, but it's nice to know if my laptop crashed, I have a hardcopy to go to. With the active 8, you can get the variables from a z-Compressibility Chart without having to take out the magnifying lens and ruler. Just slide your mouse and a red bordered legend tells you the Tr Pr and z simultaneously until you reach your desired measurements. Printing is a cinch, and it looks like the hardcopy except on 1 page! As I said, I use this book about every day, and I am sure this is what I'll bring to the office when I'm done with school. This would have been sweet during my Material/Energy Balance class as a sophomore, too. If you're a student you already spend $500+ on textbooks a term anyway, you might as well buy a book that has the information of every book you will buy in college in one resource for a little extra money, I put my name on it. You won't regret it if you're serious about your major.

I am a chemical engineering student at Kansas University, where Don Green teaches. I just hope that when I take my econ. class from him next semester, that his class is as easy as this book is easy to use.....a must for students, not only professionals

I used the early editions of Perry before, but this 7th edition is the most comprehensive one ever. All you need from steam tables to equations & formulae are all included in the CD ROM. I recommend it to every professional engineer in power plant and/or process industries. It's a must-have reference.

Hadi Kazwini Plant Performance Engineer ALSTOM POWER LTD Australia

Robert Geis' work has brought me much peace in that the author in this very persuasive work has argued and debated on the same grounds as his contemporary scientists and physicians. There is not one appeal at all to religion in this entire work, and that makes Geis' arguments even far more complelling. Geis then operates from the neurological paradigms of consciousness and shows that our chaotic, disagregated, completely haphazard electrochemical events in the brain (cortex, the spine-- wherever one wishes to argue the point) cannot provide the continuity, unity, and coherence of all our percepts. And there is no constant electrical or neuroelectrical capacity in the brain, or the human body, that provides for the seamless experience each percept is. For example, we experience a table as one and whole and a unity. But the events in our brain, receiving the sensory data from the eyes and the hands, are simply random, brutally chaotic, and without any predictability of occurrence. This is true for whatever sense experience you take. Geis' suggestion: if there is no electrical, no material function, that provides for our perceptions as the uniform, whole, and entire events in consciousness that all of our percepts are, then perhaps there is a function in each of us that is not material, that is immaterial. And if immaterial, then immortal (read the argument on how immateriality is indestructibility).

Geis argues on 5 different fronts in this fine book, and one is the NDE. He does a magnificent job in unpacking this phenomenon as a possible evidentiary setting for the claim "I am personally immortal".

The article this month (August 2003) in the Readers Digest (where I have posted a summary on this book tonight) follows closely some of Geis' reasoning.

I think his book can flesh out for readers interested in this all important question about eternal existence as a person. I have never had an NDE or an OBE. I am a very practical and skeptical man. But Geis was even more so, (no dreamy eyed visionary is he, but a cold eyed realist) and his work has brought to me a calm that offers me hope that maybe, just maybe, death is not annihilation, is not my total reduction to nothingness, but just maybe it is a transformation to a new existence wherein I maintain my personal identity as I was here on earth. The only difference now, in the transformed existence that death wrought, is that in death I "am in another morn' than ours". But I am still "I". I do not perish.

I hope this helps others here who read my comments.

Thank you.

For those interested in a step by step and seriously thought out argument on immortality, this book has the right balance. The author has done a very masterful job of making it much easier to understand how arguments against immortality have little proof value, while the argument for immortality has concrete data one can examine: long-term memory seems to be non-localizable, hence giving man a possible non-spatial dimension. Consciousness requires a unifying principle to hold together simultaneously all the billions of data bits entering awareness. No bodily electrical or neurological component seems to make that possible-- so man has another non-material element to him. The Out of Body experience, which Geis handles very slowly and with good caution and skepticism makes the reader think if there might not be a third argument for immortality.

I recommend the book, given its directness of style, clearness of expression, tightness of reasoning, and fairness to the opposition-- to those who deny immortality, but seem unable to really show why immortality is not an actual dimension of human existence after all.

The writer has addressed a subject that almost all avoid, and has done so with clarity, forcefulness, openness, and objectivity. Avoiding labels and employing the most impartial of approaches, the writer has done a remarkable job of bringing understanding and persuasion to the reader of his main point. That is, that no argument against immortality has any force, since, as the writer shows, the arguments commit fallacies of thought, improper evidence claims, or violate simple common sense. Dr. Geis' presentation of how knowledge and certainty occur is invaluable in his exposition.

What happens when I die? The thought should scare the daylights out of every living human. I do not know what will happen to me when I die-- but Dr. Geis has certainly provided me with a way to look at the subject and perhaps conclude that I am, in fact, immortal after all.

For that alone, for showing that it is not unreasonable at all for me to think I may in fact have endless life, the writer of this work deserves high praise and long thanks. He has opened my eyes.

Sometimes indeed you are glad that you read a book.

David M. Brawner
Arizona

As a CPA and candidate for controller of Montgomery County, PA, it is refreshing to see the long-term planning, comparison, functional issue review, and the "watchdog" functions of a controller so well laid out. Montgomery County will be well served to use this planning approach.

Please tell me it's not this easy to run a city. If all the Giulianis, Rendells, and Daleys of the world would just implement this new direction for urban america, our cities would not be afflicted with the ills they currently suffer. Every big city resident should demand that local government run as recommended in this book. Students, policy professionals, elected officials, and urbanites everywhere should make this book a part of their libraries.

I am a passionate city fan and wish every mayor in the country would read this book and implement the policies the authors advocate. There are no quick fixes to the problems shared by large American cities (crime, poverty, decay). As successful cities prove over and over, local government must concentrate on the basics -- improving schools, reducing crime, lowering taxes -- to make the city a place where people want to be instead of a place people want to avoid. If Philadelphia would adopt the recommendations of this book, the city would truly be a great one.

This book is a scientific explanation of how nature works. It is not a book about how to write poetry, but how to explain and explore the world in which we live. The material is presented so that even the abstract poet can understand the concrete universe.

What can be said more, other than 'simply the best'?

I believe that this book is an excellent introduction to the history of physics: From Aristotle to Schrodinger, most important advancements, revolutions, scientists and theories are discussed, followed by exercises to be solved with simple mathematics for you to be able to understand clearly. I've been deeply affected by March's account of science. If they've made you hate physics in high school, read this book and you'll understand how utterly fascinating it really is.

Just reading the pierogi dough & stuffing recipes sent me right back to Babcha's kitchen! Now I remember her secrets & will always have them at hand. This is the "bible" for all Polish kitchens & those who appreciate Polish food. I bought my mother a wonderful Polish cook book many years ago, but waite 'til she sees this one!

This is the bible on good Polish home cooking.

You'll find at least one recipe for most dishes you can think of. They are clear, easy to follow, and the results taste just like my grandmother's cooking (she wonders how I do it without asking her for help).

There is an excellent section on ingredients and good directions for things like making your own bialy ser/twarog so that you can produce good Polish cooking regardless of how well or poorly stocked your local delicatessen is.

I occassionally feel that Pan Strybel is a little bossy, but the results justify it - my chicken soup has never been better.

Younger cooks may choose to ignore some of the garnishing suggestions as they are somewhat dated.

The index is really good, making it easy to find what you're looking for (in Polish or in English).

And when you're feeling a little tired and missing Poland, just curl up and read.

This book is excellent and highly recommended. A very comprehensive collection of Polish recipes.

This book is about as good as it gets. It covers all the bases an investigator should know about sexual assualt and gives you insite into the criminal mind. I also recommened the Crime Classification Manuel by Douglas, burgess, etc and Criminal Profiling 2nd edt. by Brent Turvey.

As a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, I found this book to be filled with vital information. This book was required reading for a forensic's class, it was anything but.. I highly recommend this book to professionals in this field, but also anyone who is interested in true crime and studying behaviors.

Written by some of the leading professionals in the field, this book serves as an excellent resource book for any profesional working in the field of sexual assault investigations. It covers victimology, interview, crime scene considerations, SANE/SART programs and protocols. Criminal Investigative Analysis, Indirect Personality Assessment. Includes exhaustive references. This is the first book to buy to start your own referrence library. A must for the novice and experienced professional alike.

This is probably the most uplifting, spiritual book written by one of the world's greatest inspirational speakers and ministers, I have ever read before. It contains an autobiography, however, also contains the seven levels of prayer. It is an autobiography/inspirational book, and I recommend it to anyone of any age, and really of any religion.

This was the first book I read by Robert H. Schuller, I truely enjoyed it. It was very inspirational. You learned the tough times that Mr. Schuller went through and how his faith in God helped him through many obstacles and how it can do the same for you. You learn how he created the Hour of Power television series and the different levels of pray. I would highly recommend this book to read.

This was my very first book that I read of Dr.Schullers, and it remains my favorite. It is full of inspiring stories and shares some insight to the life of Dr.Schuller and it greatly helped me in my own prayer life. God Loves Dr.Schuller and So Do I!

What can a picture tell you about a person? The answer is quite a bit as you view these penetrating portraits of southern writers. A writer's tools are words to convey a story. Photographer Curt Richter uses his tools of lighting, mood, camera and the subjects themselves to reveal a visual story whose impact goes far beyond words.

Over a seven year period, Curt scoured the country taking pictures of those writers associated with the south. His labor was not in vain for he blessed us with outstanding visual views of these writers not seen before. These are not a compilation of formal studio portraits nor are they casual snapshots. You are given a series of sepia toned pictures whose faces, postures, hues and eyes that reveal something more about the subject that meets the eye.

Ralph Ellison looks like an elder statesman as he peers into the lens. Larry King appears to have a haunting quality as his off focus face gives us a smile. Eugene Walter looks like a supplicant in prayer or is he just fooling us? Let your mind and imagination decide as you see this wonderful display of southern authors. For those of you who are collectors of some of their works, you will be delighted with their pictures.

Robert Coles has written a foreward to the book introducing us into the world of southern writers and the culture of the south. Ann Beattie provides us with her observations regarding this collection through her afterword. Now relax, open this book and reflect upon these gifted writers of prose and poetry who have shared their wares with the world.

I have never been so captivated by photographs that truly depict their subjects. I have seen other works by Curt Richter and he truly is the finest portrait photographer of our time. Congratulations on a sensational effort. It came at the right time of year because I am giving this book to all of my friends and family.

It's so wonderful to see a group of photographic portraits that dispense with the current trend of the snapshot and at the same time have the courage not to follow a formula. The photographer is obviously aware of the history of portraiture occuring even before the advent of photography. As they say in "Fiddler on the Roof" -- "tradition." Thank God for some tradition. It seems so avant-garde. I throughly enjoyed the book.

Private Detective Art Hardin is hired to help in a domestic violence case--a police officer isn't taking his divorce calmly and Hardin has a reputation for not taking the police terribly seriously. He soon learns that the case is a lot more complicated than domestic violence...

Author Robert Bailey delivers an action-packed thriller. Hardin is a fine wise-cracking hero, ready to take on the police or anyone else for his client and his pride...

PRIVATE HEAT was occasionally too complicated, with too many corrupt officials and too many tough-guy acts on the part of Hardin, but only occasionally. For the most part, this was a fine and exciting novel. A real page turner and hard to put down.

It's tough to find a contemporary first book by an author--and a mystery, at that--as compelling and entertaining as PRIVATE HEAT by Robert Bailey. What a pleasant surprise. A gut-wrencher one moment, the reader laughs out loud the next. On top of it all, Bailey's experience as a private investigator lends the book a believability that pulls the reader right into the action.

The plot moves along quickly, as Bailey masterfully builds his characters. The reader cannot help but identify with the not-quite-smug protagonist, Art Hardin, and his sidekick, as well as the entire Hardin family--especially his wife, Wendy. Throw in his dead partner's widow, who holds the business pursestrings, and a few cops who don't take to a PI who continually gets ahead of them , and Bailey has woven a great setting for a dynamite murder case.

PRIVATE HEAT is loaded with the irony that underscores real life. In one scene, Hardin's wonderful "rotor"-tailed dog careens across a vehicle's hood to catch a frisbee while the cops, called to check out a shooting at Hardin's house, cheer him on.

Bailey's polished, well-turned phrases give the book impact. It's a damned good read, and the last page is the best. But don't cheat. You'll miss out on a great ride if you do.

Note: I hear the next book in the series, DYING EMBERS, is due out any time now.

Authenticity is hard to come by in the world of fiction, but this first novel offers plenty.

The back of the dust jacket says the author is a military veteran as well an experienced private investigator. I have no doubt of this, for as I read 'Private Heat', it was obvious to me that Mr. Bailey has personally experienced the events which enabled him to craft and plot this excellent story.

His first hand experience not only allows him to accurately portray the technical details of a detective story, but, he is also able to strike the elusive and delicate balance between fiction and reality.

IE, "Private Heat" is not a 'true crime' novel, but it's entertaining and REAL at the same time.

"Private Heat" offers excellent dialogue and a well crafted plot. Highly recommended. Collectors should grab their own first printing of Mr. Baileys first novel while they still can. I'm looking forward to the next installment.