why we do what we do, why we feel the way we feel are the topics of many good books today but this excellent book takes the questions at hand and approaches them from a unique perspective. Edmund Morris, a zoologist, uses his years of study with animals in an unnatural environment, the zoo and compares their actions to those of their ancestors, humans who are living in an unnatural environment as well. This book is extremely relative to the times, and gives wonderful insights as to why we live in a world with escalating tensions among countries, races etc.. If the reader allows her/his mind to be as creative as the author who wrote this book the possibilities to make improvements in ones life and in the world at large are endless. (The author sites Jane jacobs and her excellent work The death and life of Great American Cities which I would also highly recommend)

Like Desmond Morris's _The Naked Ape_, this book is an old friend of mine. The second volume in his well-known trilogy (the third is _Intimate Behavior_), this one makes a compelling case that modern cities are less like "jungles" and more like zoos.

Other animals, Morris says, don't behave in the wild the way humans do in cities. But the sort of erratic violence and heightened self-stimulation in which we find modern humans engaging _does_ have a counterpart in the rest of the animal world: animals do act that way . . . in zoos.

Essentially, Morris's claim is that many millions of years of evolution have equipped us for life in small communities in which everybody knows everybody else and there's enough room for us to move around without klonking into each other all the time. We are not, in short, adapted to the modern metropolis, and that's why "city folk" are so danged weird. And our misattribution of our maladaptive behavior actually gives the jungle an undeserved bad name.

So what's a naked ape to do? I don't know that the intervening years since this book was first published have generated a whole lot of solutions. I guess that's, um, life in the big city.

But as with so many problems, just being aware of the problem is at least half the solution. As with Morris's other books (especially _The Naked Ape_), it's profoundly helpful to step back and see ourselves as one biological species among others (whether or not that's _all_ we are).

Okay, maybe that's not all we are; maybe the fact that we _can_ thus step back from ourselves is the single most important fact about our species. If so, that makes this book more valuable, not less.

So think of this book (and Morris's others) as a way to give your "I" a little distance on your "me," if you know what I mean. And yes, that does mean that I'm recommending a couple of books on evolutionary anthropology as helpful to your spirituality.

Beautifully written...an elegant work about relationship between nature and human kind. Strongly recommended...

Whenever I encounter TV news after having read this book, the mechanics and biases behind it appear so obvious.

By exposing the guts of a news machine, and insightfully comparing different coverage of the same event, Me and Ted gives you a level of news literacy that lets you appreciate it more. This level of detail -- clearly coming from someone obsessed with his creation -- is amazing and rarely tedious. Combine it with Randall Rothenberg's advertising expose "Where the Suckers Moon", for a good start at understanding post-70s America.

The one drawback ... But once you get used to filtering it out, Me and Ted becomes a wonderful book.

Schonfeld's unauthorized history of CNN is a no-holds-barred tell-all about the early days. His recounting of Ted's leadership and quirks makes for enjoyable reading.

And he has the courage to expose the roles of CNN execs in the Tailwind cave-in. (alluded to but not well covered in Neil Hickey's CJR review).

It is a must read for anyone in broadcast journalism.

Me and Ted Against the World should be required reading, not just for journalism students and those interested in news and public affairs, it should be on the must-read list for everyone who loves a good tale, well written. It tells two distinct stories: one, how the good guys won; and two, how the not-so-good guys screwed up. The teller of the tales is the world's foremost guerilla journalist, Reese Schonfeld. His background, he had bumped heads with the network news establishment at United Press Movietone News and as founder of the Independent Television News Association, made him the only person on the planet with the capability of implementing the then revolutionary idea of an around the clock television news channel. What he needed was a conspirator, another revolutionary who could come up with the money and sell the concept. Enter Ted Turner. They joined forces and together they changed the world; not just the television world, the entire world. Diplomacy, warfare, commerce and culture are all vastly different entities as a result of CNN and others like it which have come along since. The story of how they succeeded, Turner as Mr. Outside, the deal maker promoter and salesman, and Schonfeld as Mr. Inside, the architect, builder and keeper of the gate, is terrific. After the revolution was won, the two revolutionaries had no more wars to win. Except against each other. That war was one-sided. One guy, Turner, owned all the weapons. The other, Schonfeld, was a great general who had troops but no supplies. Turner called Schonfeld into his office one day and in the same breath declared war and declared himself the victor. Schonfeld was fired. The empire had been built, so the guy who constructed it was no longer needed, or so Turner thought. What he failed to factor in was that Schonfeld was also the chief maintenance man. Without him, even though the money has rolled in, the empire has become tattered and gray. CNN did change the world, but now it has trouble keeping up with the very changes it put into play. Is Schonfeld's version of events entirely objective? No. He has a journalist's insistence on facts, but it's impossible to be entirely objective about something you love - especially when you have loved and lost. Does he use his forum to hand out a few receipts for sins of the past? You bet he does. Is Me and Ted Against the World one helluva book? You bet it is.

The "Adept" series by Kurtz and Harris combines all the worst features of formula romance novels, Extruded Fantasy Product, and pseudohistorical conspiracy theories. The prose is tepid, the dialogue stilted, and the characters one-dimensional (at best). Plot complications are carefully piled up, only to be resolved miraculously at the last moment by a wave of the hand.

So why do I keep reading them, and checking to see if a new one is out? The same reason I eat Twinkies, I suppose -- they may be content-free fluff, but they're *definitive* content-free fluff. Sometimes it's fun to turn the brain off.

If you like romance novels, ritual magic, secret societies, and the city of Edinburgh, you might very well enjoy these books a lot. If you require plot, characterization, command of the language, or important themes from your reading, don't bother.

In every one of Ms. Kurtz's "Adept" books, there comes a moment of such overwhelming mythic beauty that I get watery-eyed, or cry. "The Death of An Adept" is no exception, and for me, it is when the young psychic artist Peregrine finally gains his wings as a magical adept in his own right. Every book in this series is a fine successor to the occult fiction of Dion Fortune, combining hermetic principles effectively with skillful and dramatic storytelling and a high moral sense. Here, as previously, we see that evil is its own punishment, and that a good heart, and one annealed by self-discipline and fine training, can overcome many (supernatural) obstacles.

I started reading the Adept because K. Kurtz wrote it and I liked her Deryni series. I had no idea how good it was. Since that first book, I have continued to read and be impressed. Death of an Adept keeps the standard of the Adept series has high as ever. It is a fitting end to the series of events that started in book 1. I loved it. I usually get bored with book series after awhile, but The Adept is proving to be the exception. I can't wait for the next book. Here's hoping that The Adept series continues to hit new heights.

This book is ok for a few things, but for girls 11+ it just wasn't telling us anything we didn't already know! It delt with cooking the basic things, making money the basic way, and games to play. This book didn't explain much, but if you are a girl 7-10, it would be really great.

This book is pretty good, it tells you how to make some money, fix things, make food, and deal with life in general. But if you're over the age of 12, I wouldn't recommend it. Otherwise, it's very enjoyable and clever!

"A Girl's Guide to Life" is a great book for ages 9-13. It covers topics such as making gifts, fun games to play, snacks and cooking, basic social skills, art projects and crafts, and much more. The topics are all divided into chapters, including money, hygeine and grooming, safety, fixing and making things, things to do inside and outside, and more. I wouldn't recommend this book to girls older than 13 because they would probably know most of the things in here, but even they can learn something in it. The book is also a great boredom buster for hot summer days, or rainy days when there's nothing to do. Overall, this is an excellent book.

The book was a compelling read for chapter to chapter, but at the end you feel cheated. While it makes an interesting Fiction, it did not have the makings of a good Mystery. The solution was rushed in the last two chapters of the book.

Nowhere were clues during the read that could lead even a careful, experienced Mystery reader to try and even speculate on who did it. For me, half the fun is trying to deduce the murderer(s) before the author reveals it.

There are clues dropped as to why it happened, but you'll just flat be told who it is at the end. You just sort of plod along, hoping to find something to bite on and BAM the author spills his guts in the last chapters. The author did a great job running a second plot along; although it suffered the same clueless, fast wrap up.

The characters that did do it were really underdeveloped. If they were better developed, and some clues dropped along the way, this would be an amazing Mystery book.

It is, however, a damn good book for specifically [weak] content. A good book, not a good Mystery.

Great Mystery....Mark Zubro has done it again! Paul Ben his 2 children Mrs. Talucci even his partner all came to life again in another ongoing Turner mystery...thank-you Mr. Zubro for continuing this series

This was an very well written mystery novel! I fully enjoyed the suspense that was driven into this book. Being in the technology industry myself the references to computers and technology was great! It fully added to the suspense!

The gist of the book is Chicago homicide detectives Paul Turner (who is gay) and Buck Fenwick (who is straight), in their investigation into murder of Internet tycoon Craig Lenzati, stabbed over hundreds of times in his security-laden apartment. When Lenzati's partner Brooks Werberg is killed and parts of his place smashed into smithereens, the pressure is put on from the Mayor's office.

But these dot-com boys' nack for putting aggressive little startup companies into trouble, and possibly even bankruptcy by stealing their ideas had won them a great deal of enemies.

What could possibly make this story even better? How about a secret storehouse of theirs filled with names, addresses, and tapes of the boys' sexual misconduct? In fact as it turns out, Lenzati and Werberg had enjoyed an ongoing sexual-conquest game, their preferred prey heterosexual couples, including a pair who'd been suing them and another pair who'd been working for them. A freelance "cracker" (a computer whiz who breaks into and paralyzes systems) employed by the boys will die, and Paul will receive boxes of chocolates and scary e-mail from a serial killer targeting police detectives all along Interstate 90.

Before Chicago finally settles down and Paul can reassure his son Brian of his safety and fall into the arms of his lover Ben. Brittle but funny dialogue between Paul and Buck; tender moments between Paul and Brian; sentimental relationship shows between Paul and Ben.

I personally would have liked a bit more drama at the point of the different confessions, but it did not distract from this book in any way.

You need to read this book... !!!

The Blithedale Romance is a somewhat dark, depressing tale of idealism gone awry and of friendship and love torn asunder by private ambitions. The romance of these pages is not what many modern readers may expect to find here; there is no penultimate consummation of love among these characters, nor is there much happiness indeed to be discerned from the complexity of their relations one with another. Much has been made of Hawthorne's own temporary residence at the utopian-minded Brook Farm a decade previous to the publication of this work; it is true that some of the experiences derive from his own memories, but Hawthorne went to great pains to make clear that this is a romance first and foremost and bears no direct relation to the experiences of his own life. Those who would read this novel in an attempt to get at Hawthorne's true feelings about the utopian socialism he flirted with and watched from afar during his pivotal creative years may well miss out on the thought-provoking treatment of such wonderfully literary, fascinating characters as Hollingsworth the idealistic philanthropist, Zenobia the modern feminist reformer with a fatal flaw inimical to her self-realization, and the sweet and frail Priscilla.

The first-person narrator of this story is Miles Coverdale, a man difficult to come to terms with. He joins with the pioneers behind the utopian farming community of Blithedale and truly takes heart in the possibility of this new kind of communitarian life offering mankind a chance to live lives of purpose and fulfillment, yet at times he steps outside of events and seems to view the whole experience as a study in human character and a learning experience to which his heart-strings are only loosely bound. The drama that unfolds is told in his perspective only, and one can never know how much he failed to discern or the degree to which his own conjectures are correct. His eventual castigation of Hollingsworth cannot be doubted, however. This rather unfeeling man joins the community on the hidden pretext of acquiring the means for fulfilling his overriding utopian dream of creating an edifice for the reformation of criminals. This dream takes over his life, Coverdale observes, and his once-noble philanthropic passion morphs him into an overzealous, unfeeling man who brings ruin upon those who were once his friends. It is really Zenobia, though, upon which the novel feeds. She is a fascinating woman of means who makes the Blithedale dream a reality, a bold reformer seeking a new equality for women in the world who ultimately, at Hawthorne's bidding, suffers the ignominious fate of the fragile spirit she seemed to have overcome.

This is not a novel that will immediately enthrall you in its clutches. The first half of the novel is sometimes rather slow going, but I would urge you not to cast this book aside carelessly. The final chapters sparkle with drama and human passion, and you find yourself suddenly immersed in this strange community of tragic friends-turned-foes. You care deeply what happens to such once-noble spirits, and while you may not find joy in the tragic conclusion of the ill-fated social experiment of Blithedale, you will certainly find your soul stirred by the tragedy of unfolding events.

vintage is always a pleasure, presuming of course that we're talking about the real thing. there's a regal pace about hawthorne's prose that is undeniably hawthorne and no one else. there's that rigid, regimental quality uniquely hawthornian, a sense of iron discipline, utterly lacking in modern american prose. if vintage is what you seek, check out the blithedale romance: it'll set you straight.

This is not only a book with which any Hawthorne fan should be familiar, it is a necessity to anyone who is studying the Romantic Tradition. This text is an elegant commentary on the ideals that the Romantics held dear, such as the authenticity of a life close to the earth, the superiority of existence outside of common society rather than within it, and our innate ability, with enough well-directed effort, to transcend our own humanity. Like a breath of fresh air after Wordsworth, Thoreau, Keats, and both Shelleys, Hawthorne's cynicism and pessimism on these topics shine clearly through this work. Though admittedly he has failed in his announced effort to make the text cheerful and lighthearted, this is not such a complete failure as one may initially suppose, when this novel is contrasted with his others. Much of the humor that is in the book is centered around the narrator, Coverdale, whose nature forces him to fit in with his surroundings in a way which is a bit askew, precipitating enjoyable scenes which the reader can appreciate, if he or she has refrained from judging this main character. The treasure in this book, however, is not mainly in its humor, but rather (for me at least - each person presumably takes from it something different) in the elegance with which so many universal truths are exposed (often only partially, so that the reader can feel a sense of triumph when they wholly uncover them) to our conscious awareness. As you have no doubt already surmised, I highly recommend this novel.

Some kid in my history class read "Man Corn" and now I think he wants to eat me. What should I do?

This brain is tender, juicy, and full of all the neurotransmitters a young, growing, bloodthirsty zombie needs. The Frontal and Occipital lobes are particularly tender, making for an excellent roast, or diced for a quick snack. The cortical mantle is highly convoluted; the crest of a single convolution is known as a gyrus, while the fissure between two gyri is known as a sulcus. And you know how good that sulcus can be... Isn't your mouth watering already? The frontal lobe, largest of all the lobes of the brain (and great for when you have guests over for dinner), lies rostral to the central sulcus (that is, toward the nose from the sulcus). The precentral gyrus, located rostral to the central sulcus, constitutes the primary motor region of the brain, which, as we all know, makes for a great party dip when blended with a superior parietal lobule.

Some of the recipes may be helpful in my attempts to cook a fellow student in my history class. Thank you Man Corn!

The worst thing about this book is the plot; the second is the lack of character development; and the last worst thing is the purple and predictable prose: "Hunger and the need for sleep dogged Cpl. Benaly;" "My yearning for escape had begun before we came here." Dead mean "stretch out like paving stones," etc.
The plot is so disjointed (not that the changing point of view is difficult to follow) that some ground is covered over and over and other episodes comes without warning. Where does the baby come from before Deely has a baby? The parents have just lived in a boxcar, and suddenly the mother is attending committee meetings of the church social organization. This is an awful book, but I blame it on the editor, or lack of one.

Once you get past the mixed POV (the main character's story is told in the first person, and other characters are brought in by the omnipotent point of view), this book is a very enjoyable read.

The story is of Philadelphia (Frosty) Summers, going from childhood to young adulthood during the time of World War II. She struggles to break from her family's stronghold and the ties that bind her to Sabine, Texas, her small, prejudice-laden hometown. Through her experiences, she learns independence and compassion - something she can only do by cutting the apron strings that bind her to Sabine.

This is a much different story than my all-time favorite "These Is My Words" but only slightly less compelling. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. I have become a huge fan of Nancy E. Turner and can't wait to read whatever she comes up with next!

When I learned that Nancy E. Turner had a new book coming out, I was hoping for a sequel to the wonderful THESE IS MY WORDS. THE WATER AND THE BLOOD was an unexpected, and deeply rewarding surprise.

Ms. Turner is a remarkable writer. She has the knack of taking ordinary people and every day lives, no matter what the time period, and turning them into unforgetable characters and profound reading experiences.

This book is often painful to read, but impossible to put down. Ms. Turner takes us to a time and place that we sometimes don't want to visit. But every word she writes is true and strong.

Frosty's experiences with her family, neighbors, and school mates, are not at all out of place in a small Texas town in the forties. Still her relationship with a family who will never understand her,and the reaction of those around her,is sometimes painful to read. "Dysfunctional family" is a contemporary term, but unfortunately has been accurate for many previous generations.

The Navajo code talker, Gordon, who helps Frosty to change from adolescent to adult, is as realistic and sensitive a hero as one could ask for. Their love story is handled with such care, it was like reading about real people. For me, the true test of exceptional writing.

So, this is not the book I was expecting. I am still hopeful that Ms. Turner will gift us with a sequel to WORDS. But in the meantime, she has given us another extraordinary novel. Written with grace and passion, and that unique gift of writing about people whom we all might have known.

A profoundly moving amd powerful book about coming of age, doing the "right" thing, and that love and respect often come at an enormous price, THE WATER AND THE BLOOD is not to be missed.

I only hope that Nancy E. Turner receives the respect and accolades she so richly deserves. I am grateful she shares a truly special gift with all of us who love to read.

I was encouraged when I first started reading this book, but soon I grew disappointed. The book is peppered with useful tips here and there, but in general it's too linear, as an earlier review mentioned. The book is more of a recipe for a web app than a general guide, and it wastes too much space on design process. But worse than that, it is fraught with errors, as if edited by someone who didn't understand the material. Letters have been dropped from words, referenced figures don't show what the referencing text says, there are errors in XML examples. A funny example is on the "In This Chapter" sidebar on the opening page of Chapter 2 where one of the bullet items is "Bean Resistence". More power to the beans! He meant "Bean Persistence", but hey, if you're going to get it wrong, at least spell it right. :)

I picked up this book as a reference for integrating our PHP and MySQL designs with JSP pages. However the author sticks to a single fundamental method of JSP development for MySQL which is using Apache's Jakarta Turbine classes. No information is given as to the other mechanisms available to utilize MySQL with Java such as MySQL Connector/J or Resin JDBC. I believe this book is a very shortsighted approach to the many tools available in the Java and JSP world. I think the Turbine approach is fine, but should maybe have been a later chapter not most of the book. We developed our entire web site without the use of Turbine.

Some discussion is given to strategies with JNDI and LDAP, as well as EJB. There is also a healthy discussion of XML which I believe would be better suited for an XML book, but serves as nothing more than filler here, which could have been used to expand upon the other methods of JDBC.

I would have given this book three stars, but several errors in the code examples always bring down quality by at least one star. I expect a book written by a developer for the purpose of instruction to be error free in all code examples.

All in all the book appears to be a step by step tutorial to building a program according to the developer's linear scheme, rather than a comprehensive discussion of all the options available to a JSP/Servlet developer integrating with MySQL. Sadly this really is the only book available on the subject at this time.

I have read this book from cover to cover and used many of the examples in some of my development. There are errors in the editing to be sure. For the most part most are minor e.g. links that end with .htm instead of .html will not work or if you create the database in mySQL, in my case on a Linux platform there are errors you will run into. These errors are limited to making sure you observe the case of the letters in creating and quering your database. This book is not for the beginner. It teaches a systematic approach to building an ecommerce web site using jsp's and mysql. The reason for the 5 star rating is this book makes you go out of the box to learn ant, turbine and other opensource packages to build a working e-commmerce web site. Personally I do not like to put java code int an html page = jsp's ... but this book offers sound eamples and good advice. One of the better practical but certainly not perfect books I've bought.

There is an old syllogism of organizations. 1. We must do something. 2. This is something. 3. We must do this.

Many a budding institutional innovator, frustrated by the hidebound habits of her colleagues, has nonetheless stifled her creativity for fear of losing influence, job, or respect. Then there are those like Chris Turner, who resolutely turn their horse's head and take the road less traveled. In Turner's case, that means donning the proud mantle of change agent, leading corporate learning programs at Xerox Business Services. Since leaving XBS, Turner has turned consultant and speaker, using her irreverence, Texan argot, and impatience with untested convention to inspire revolution.

Turner wants change, and she wants it now. She wants to replace institutional fear with "love-based systems." She believes in "disturbing the system," doing something - anything - differently to provoke a reaction. Most of all she castigates "all hat and no cattle," a Lone Star State expression for all style and no substance. Pay for performance, obsessions with measurement, corporate welfare, bad PowerPoint slides: "all hat and no cattle," declares Turner, and she delights in taking the high and mighty down a notch or three.

Irreverence can be entertaining, even when it fulminates on a soapbox. But like another successful Texan who partied throughout college, Turner tends to assume that the people in charge are self-interested, greedy mediocrities who can't be trusted. Appealing though they may be, generalizations cut both ways: we mustn't assume that all managers are automatically right, but nor should we assume that they're automatically wrong. Turner is mad as hell and not going to take it any more: fair enough, but by condemning any activity that perpetuates the status quo, she often veers from passion to petulance. It's imprudent for a sans-culotte to show frustration at not being queen.

If you're a stymied OD professional, you may be inflamed by this call for revolution. You'll certainly welcome Chapter 6, in which Turner offers specific, detailed suggestions for revamping organizational meetings. And you can always add to your storehouse of quotations, as Turner strews aphorisms across her pages with Barlettian generosity - Emerson, Wilde, Einstein, Didley, all are grist to her mill. But in the end All Hat and No Cattle suffers from the same syndrome it so gleefully diagnoses: too much prate, not enough practice. Change agent, heal thyself.

After reading this book, I recommended it to several friends, who in turn told several friends, and so on. This is a powerful and insightful glimpse by a trained observer, into organizational dynamics. I've used Turner's stories and exercises, always with profound results. Her focus on the human aspect of the organization is critical for those wishing to bring change to the vapid, smokey halls of corporate America. "When the student is ready, the Master will come". Turner is Masterful.

A powerful critique of contemporary business culture. Exposing corporate hypocrisy for what it is, Turner makes a convincing case for mindful organizations that foster participation, enrich learning, and understand themselves as living systems in need of disturbance rather than as machines in need of oiling. This irreverent, thoughtful, and engrossing book is a must-read for business people and for anyone concerned with generating institutional change. All Hat & No Cattle suggests actions that each of us can take to create the world we want.