Cutting Edge investigates the differences/relationships between avant-garde cinema and exploitation (what she terms as 'paracinema') - how viewers of both types tend to divorce themselves from mainstream cinema. The difference between the two types of cinema is that though both tend to use shocking material to explore certain themes whilst attempting to jolt the viewer out of complacency, 'paracinema' maintains a more ironical distance. The films used to illustrate this hypothesis are interesting choices. George Franju's LES YEUX SANS VISAGE/ EYES WITHOUT A FACE is used in a lengthy chapter as an example of a horror film that has transcended its origins to become a respected art house film. An equal amount of space is given to Jess Franco's GRITOS EN LA NOCHE and FACELESS, both as examples of the how Franco approaches the material in a different way. Other examples explored in depth are ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN, an exploitation film whose genesis was in the avant-garde scene, and Tod Browning's FREAKS, a horror which has once again been appropriated by the avant-garde. But most fascinating for me however was a detailed description of Yoko Ono's RAPE. It was meant to be an allegory of the media's "rape" of Lennon, McCartney and the rest of the Beatles and their wives/families, though it raises some interesting points about the nature of spectator/victim in the role of cinema, a la PEEPING TOM. Is this "art" or "exploitation". Undeniably it's the latter, BUT the film was never released commerically into cinemas, just a few specialist screenings for an "art" market. The author contrasts this film with SNUFF, a fake film which masquerades itself as reality.

Well worth a read, this book. Very thought-provoking stuff indeed.

Another thriller in the Gil Beech series. Hawkins has done it again, weaving a great mystery through proven prose. Better than the muppet book, Barry is the best.

Eight centuries ago, give or take a decade or two as post catastrophic historical time is not precise, pandemic devastation occurred when the magnetic poles shifted. Most people drowned on continents flooded by the oceans; others died not long afterward. Over the next eight hundred years, the few survivors live a sparse nomadic lifestyle with tribes constantly vying with others as available sustenance is slight.

The Usenn know life is a bitch and then you die, but a local calamity strikes the tribe when invading strangers abduct a Doctor-Woman while she gathered herbs. The leaders assign their greatest warrior Odd to rescue the Doctor-Woman , but they have taken her to the forbidden eerie Darkrange, the last place even a great warrior like himself would not want to enter. However, Odd enters the uncanny realm not just out of honor and duty, but also because he loves the Doctor-Woman, though no one knows his deepest secret feelings.

The DARKRANGE is an exciting post apocalyptic tale that takes the audience on a powerful journey because this future earth seems like a genuine depiction of an orb impacted by a change in global polarization (as has happened in the eons of the planet). Odd is a great lead character whose physical prowess and consequently confidence in his abilities are legendary amidst his people, but now knows fear as he enters a real to be avoided, but his biggest apprehension is for the woman he loves. S. Roy L. Hawkins blends action-packed science fiction, a mystery of past present and future, and a touch of romance into a fabulous futuristic phenom that needs time for its one sitting read.

Harriet Klausner

A thoroughly engaging collection of spice recipes, health aids and beauty treatments! Of particular Note: The section on vegetables,drinks(How about a glass of chili vodka!?!) and chutneys, pickles and sauces. Also useful is the chapter on buying, storing and using spices (check out the Indian spices and recipes, they are really good). This well illustrated book is great fun!

This book is so great! I was in Desert Storm and it had such great details that made me want to cry. Remembering the oil burns and the tanks was so greatly described in this book. It also tells you about how the attack began and ended, the weapons used in the battle, and the battle plans we used to win. Anyone who likes to read up on war history or was in Desert Storm should get this book.

This book has truly vastly surpassed my expectations. It has several indexes- one comprehensive index, one for drugs, one for nutrients and the drugs that affect them, monographs on all the nutrients, and then the piece de resistance, the abstracts of the medical literature to back it all up.

Written by a team of pharmacists, it is very even handed and lists the negative literature as well as the positive. Thus one can ascertain which nutrients are affected by which drugs, and vice versa and quickly review some of the medical literature to make up one's own mind. I've found it helpful.

Some good examples are that omeprazole reduces B12 absorption around 70%, that simvastatin reduces Q10 production significantly, HRT reduces B vitamins, anticonvulsants reduce vit D folate and calcium.

Unfortunately it doesn't deal with anesthetic gases- N2O depletes B12 and halothane causes oxidative stress on the liver.

I still have more to learn about this book, but it is one of my best purchases.

So many drugs, so few resources to find out why they cause side effects, until now. You can look up a drug and find the primary nutrients it depletes, or look up nutrients and link them with drugs you take. Also provides selected abstracts from medical journals to read for yourself. Charts at the back of the book are invaluable, like drug/food interactions, and others. A must for any professional health library. --- Bill Sardi, health journalist

From ecotourism theory to practice and from ideals to reality, this volume, written by the leaders in the field, has it all. I am looking forward to volume 3 !

For those interested in a deft, thorough, dispassionate, and readibly cogent presentation of theism, and a well-honed critique of anti-theistic nostrums, this work is a must.

First, this is a technical, academic book, targeting linguists, psychologists, cognitive scientists. Not introductory.

Having said that, I enjoyed the book tremendously. My background is in linguistics and computational linguistics. The various authors consider a) the ways in which language is a complex adaptive system (and what it means to be complex and adaptive) and b) the evidence we have about how language evolved, from various perspectives. For example, how human language differs from, but is related to, abilities and attributes of higher primates, and how the two might have been bridged. Evidence is drawn from medicine/brain science, as well as physical artifacts studied by archeologists. Other papers look at linguistic data from the perspective of various theoretical orientations, including the typological perspective, considering the types of variation that is and is NOT found in human language and what that may suggests about the language faculty. Language development stages in children, and the amazing area of creoles, in which children construct a complete language from fragmentary pieces are also of interest.

Anyone who has a good technical background in linguistics will find it accessible, and it is an engaging way to broaden your thinking about language and linguistic analysis.