I'm single, but I am interested in finance. I'm also trying to decide if the grass is greener as a married female rather than as an unattached 30-something. Money is at the root of many marital problems.

I found this book to be very informative - for singles and couples. This is not a "relationship" book. It is not touchy feely. It's not a book that talks about the "holiness" of marriage. It's not a how-to-get-rich-quickly book nor a book for the rich. It's just a well written, easy-to-read book about budgeting (including for taxes) and working with a partner to make good financial planning. I've made copies of a couple of the charts and lists in this book because they're very useful for filling in.

Sections I liked in this book were: 1) creating a realistic budget, particularly the chart and how it accounts for two incomes, two sets of expenses and taxes, etc., 2) working out how many accounts (chequing, savings, etc.) a couple may need, who will pay the bills, and from what account the money will come from, 3) getting tax slips and insurance papers in order, 4) maximizing health benefits when both partners work, and 5) financial do's and don'ts concerning cohabitation.

I have decided to make this book the present I will give to couples for weddings and engagement parties. It might even save some couples from major relationship problems later on.

I know reading my copy will make me approach any marriage proposal with more realistic expectations about compatibility.

Collaboratively written by certified financial planner Carrie Coghill Martin (President, D.B. Root & Company) and Evan M. Pattak (writer, publicist, television personality, and Editor of "Executive Report"), The Newlyweds' Guide To Investing & Personal Finance is a solid, practical, dependable, "user friendly" primer for new couples looking to wisely apply and invest their money for the future. From joint checking accounts to daily budgeting, insurance, tax returns, and preparing one's will, The Newlyweds' Guide To Investing & Personal Finance covers the whole gamut of financial responsibilities a couple faces together. Newlyweds of all financial experience levels will find this an enlightening and money-saving read.

This book was informative for me in that it brought a much deeper insight and understanding of the country and its people. This little island was so ravaged by France, England and America that it is no wonder that even today it remains one of the poorest, most disadvantaged countries in the world. There is evidence of remarkable research and documentation. The characters are well developed in personalities, beliefs and motives. The most outstanding character in the book is Toussaint Loverture, the slave who rose up with intelligence, courage and military expertise to inspire the fight for freedom from slavery. The dynamics between him and other military leaders represent fascinating reading. The switching of sides for personal gain was complex and the unbelieveable treachery against Loverture was devastating. Yet, in the face of overwhelming opposition he remained strong in persevering freedom for his people until the very end. He died a noble death and his principles should live on in the hearts of not only Haitians, but all the racially disadvantaged people in the world. An excellent historical novel!

This book,originally wrtitten in Dutch,is an exciting history of the only modern slave revolution. It is not a polemic for or against the Haitian people and makes no apologies for the atrocities committed by the French, Haitians, English and others who participated in the revolution. Rather is explains the motivations and thinking that led to the horrible bloodshed that is associated with the revolution.

The book conveys the politics and values of the time in a way that makes it fasinating reading, without making Toussaint or Dessaline cult heroes, or the French devils. It does, however, succeed in bringing the main characters to life, which adds greatly to the enjoyment of the book.

Yeah, some of the movies in the series were REALLY bad and made Freddy look like a psycho Bugs Bunny. This book brings you really spooky stories where Freddy Kruger shows everyone how bad he really is! Well written by various writers and fun, fun, fun!

Dark, evil, and lovely. Freddy is at his best in these stories, even if 2 or 3 of them don't follow the continuity.

In the late 1970s PBS presented a hilarious trilogy of plays called "The Norman Conquests." I've been trying ever since to find them again. And here they are! This volume contains the scripts for all three of these amazing plays. Their premise: Norman is a real charmer who seduces (not necessarily sexually) everybody he meets. Each of the three plays takes place on a different stage. It's the same story and the same six characters, but seen from what happens only in each room in each play. It's an amazing accomplishment for a writer. This book carries an introduction by Ayckbourn that explains how he did it. And he says the plays are meant to be seen in any order. But I prefer the order given here: "Table Manners" (in the dining room), "Living Together" (the sitting room) and "Round and Round the Garden." If you haven't experienced it, the videos are available now (finally!), as well. The production (the same I saw on PBS) stars Tom Conti as an unforgettable Norman.

Terrific work (again!) from this major British playwright showing a disasterous family weekend where a would be Casanova sets his sights on his sister in law and the whole family ultimately become involved. Although written and set in the mid 1970s it remains just as funny (if not more so) now. All of the characters are classics and there are a feast of one liners. It really needs a stage production to be done justice though.

My 7 year old niece Kristen and I both adore this book. Easily read (and re-read!!) by child and auntie alike, Patty Jane's conversation about her plan to dig her "Tunnel to Freedom" with her "pointy dress shoes" is hysterical, and the illustrations are equally perfect ("yukky foods: aspic with things in it") We both want MORE!!!

The humor in this delightful, colorful book will please parents as much as children.... Martin and Marx capture the tone of the child in all of us who plots sweet revenge against a sibling. A fun book to read aloud.... I laughed out loud, and so did my four-year old companion.

la vida vista desde las tinieblas de una mente retorcida, de una casa en decadencia, de una muerte que se retrasa y no llega y que es liberacion de podredumbre de la carne. el autor se enfrenta con la decadencia frente a frente y nos da este cuadro de horror. y esa trama tan bien hecha, esos planes de nuestro querido narrador humberto penaloza, alias el mudito, que nos lleva por la novela por caminos que no sabemos cuando terminan sus suenos y cuando empieza su realidad. el plan de la educacion de boy, su aljamiento del mundo, fantasia, realidad? la vejes, vista como decadencia y como fuerza a la vez, fuerza por las cosas que se saben al traves de los anos, las verguenzas que se tapan, los secretos que se esconden, fuerza para ser el patron de tus patrones, para manipularlos con tu humildad.... y ese nino que va a nacer, debe de ser nuestro, estar al servicio de la decadencia, ser nuestro imbunche, depender de nosotros, estar cosido,no caminar ni hablar, que todo dependa de nosotras, las viejas y ahora que soy una de ellas, ya deje de ser luis mendez el que escribe para ser una de ellas de las viejas que comparten el secreto de la iris mateluna, de la guagua milagrosa que va a nacer y de la que yo tambien sere parte y cuidadora porque quiero ir al cielo cuando se vaya y que me lleve con el y me saque de este martirio de tener que observar a jeronimo y ser su lacayo, estar a su servicio. dejare de ser una presencia sobre la que los ojos resbalan para ser una vieja. bueno al menos se que sere alguien y no como mi padre un ser simple admirando la belleza desde lejos, yo estare del otro lado de las cosas bellas, pero no en la mediocridad de sus ojos melancolicos que me miran y miran las vitrinas de lo que no puede comprar y de lo que jamas podra ser.... humberto penaloza.

LUIS MENDEZ luismendez@codetel.net.do

This book is a true masterpiece into hallucinatory writing. Donoso captures the essence of classical latin american magical realism while flickering between narratives and schizophrenia. A truely touching novel, full of life, imagery, love and disgust. A masterpiece.

rather than the usual study of twisted eroticism and revenge, this story is amazingly calm, gentle but still wonderfully crafted. the emotions of muted longing and subtle sadness match perfectly with the descriptions of kyoto. well worth a read for kawabata fans.

For years I'd been anxiously awaiting another Kawabata novel to appear in translation. When I finally got a copy of "The Old Capital" I was initially disappointed because Seidenstecker wasn't the translator, but, if anything, I like Holman's style of translation better. Cheiko, the novel's twenty-year-old heroine, embodies Kawabata's ideals of deep sensitivity, beauty, modesty, and virginal purity. She works in her parents' wholesale silk goods store, which is failing like so many traditional Kyoto shops because the Japanese are falling under the spell of Western cultural values. This is especially significant because Kyoto is the cultural center of Japan--the most ancient and traditional of her cities. The successful stores now carry Sony radios and other nontraditional items to satisfy new Western tastes. "Anything for a buck," quips the successful store owner's son. A foundling raised by loving middle-class parents, Cheiko might seem to be on a kind of spiritual quest to find her lost background--rather, the book itself is on a quest to help her find her origins, for she unconsciously unravels the mystery without really trying. Of all Kawabata's novels, this one most resembles "The Sound of the Mountain" in its exquisite evocation of beauty, sensitivity, and the invasion of Western values--but without the heartbreak attached. It's one of the few Kawabata novels that doesn't end in some tragedy or disappointment. Kawabata suffuses the story in a gentle patina of longing. His subtle humor softens any edges, as in the parents' comic insistence that they stole her as a baby when, in reality, she had been left in front of her father's shop. Cheiko doesn't know what to make of this, but she accepts it because she knows her parents love her. According to the introduction, more translations of Kawabata novels are in the works. We can only be grateful. In the meantime, if you've read all his novels and stories in translation, you can either reread your favorites or learn Japanese!

If you are a runner (especially a marathoner) you have to get this book. It goes through every marathon in Olympic history, giving each race history, events, course, statistics, etc. It is very thorough, while pacing itself to get in all the Olympic marathons into a single volume. And, it was written in an interesting and readable manner.

The competition and sport of the races themselves give a great basis for an exciting read.

If you are doing a research project (like I was) this was the only book I would recommend - or, at least the first book. I could not find a book anywhere that showed the 1960 Rome Olympic course. Martin and Gynn had it. In fact, their race course map was better than the map a friend obtained for me from the Italian Olympic Library (Federazione Italiana Di Ateletica Leggera).

The authors, Martin and Gynn, have put together an unbelieveably detailed review of every Olympic Marathon in the modern era. The detail provided brings the excitement of each successive Marathon alive. The Olympic Marathon is, perhaps, the most grueling Olympic event, and the comprehensive coverage of each race makes the reader feel as if it's taking place before their very eyes. Read this book and you'll get a sense of the drama of the event, the personal history of the runners, and the historical setting of each race. The authors have even reconstructed old Olympic documents to trace the paths each Olympic Marathon took. The information in this book is truly encyclopedic, and the authors have given us with a wonderful sense of what this race is about. This book is a gem.

In this vintage collection of essays and reviews Gardner goes after pseudoscience and seeks to enlighten us about various delusions and mistaken ideas in science. As usual the old guy displays a most engaging and exciting style while countenancing no fuzzy thinking and especially no BS. He begins with parapsychologist Joseph Rhine of Duke University, who, half a century ago, tried to establish extrasensory perception. One recalls that Rhine used cards with five different symbols that one person would concentrate on while another at a distance would attempt to guess. Dr. Rhine used a statistical analysis of hits and misses to demonstrate that extrasensory perception had taken place. Last I heard, some decades ago, Rhine's methods and stats were considered highly suspect, and he and his work have gradually faded into oblivion. Now Martin Gardner adds a further criticism: Rhine failed to expose cheating in experiments that he knew about. Rhine thought that no good purpose would be served by exposing the maleficence and those practicing it. Gardner argues in this essay, "The Obligation to Disclose Fraud" that the contrary is a better rule, if for no other reason than not to disclose fraud is to mislead later researchers.

The second essay, "Occam's Razor and the Nutshell Earth," deals with the strange, but apparently non-refutable idea that the earth is hollow and we live on the inside. It seems that it is mathematically possible to describe such a universe. Gardner asks on page 19, "Why then does science reject it?" The answer lies in Occam's Razor, one of the truly beautiful ideas in science, which states that given alternative explanations of phenomena, we must choose the one that is simplest. In this regard I must mention again my (fanciful!) idea that it is not space-time that is expanding, but matter that is contracting. I wonder if it is possible to chose which is really correct, or if such a choice has any meaning--or if, as Gardner's text might suggest, Occam's Razor might be applied.

Other essays deal with such delectable subjects as President Reagan and First Lady Nancy's reliance on astrologers for the timing of certain presidential events; the scientific basis of homeopathy, or actually, the lack thereof; geneticist (and author of the much anthologized essay, "On Being the Right Size") J. B. S. Haldane's embarrassing support of Stalin and the crackpot genetics of Lysenko; some stuff on Linus Pauling and the very weird Wilhelm Reich, etc. My favorite essays were on Frank Tipler's fantastic Omega Point "theology," which doesn't sit well with Gardner, and the essay "Relativism in Science" (Chapter 10), remarkable for the fairness that Gardner extends by reproducing astronomer Bruce Gregory's very effective rebuttal to Gardner's criticism of his book, Inventing Reality: Physics as a Language (1989).

But where I find myself in rare disagreement with Gardner is in his treatment of James E. Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis in the chapter entitled, "Gaiaism." His technical objection is stated on page 48, namely that Lovelock broadens the meaning of "alive" to the point where it is "what philosophers like to call a category mistake"; however Gardner's tone suggests that what really bothers him is the use of the Gaia hypothesis to further New Age pseudoscience, a concern I can certainly identify with. However, I think that Lovelock's hypothesis raises an interesting point that might be examined more closely, namely that our definition of life is needlessly restrictive. We humans, who exist at a certain narrow span and level of awareness have definitions of what is alive and what isn't that are heavily dependent upon our limited experience. Of course we have nothing else to go on, but a little imagination might suggest that life could take some very diverse forms. The stars, for example, might be "alive" in ways that we cannot appreciate. After all, they are born, grow, evolve, and die. And their life span dwarfs ours. They even reproduce themselves in the spewing of their elements into space (or in their nurturing of us!). To me it makes as much sense, maybe more, to say that the stars are "alive" than to say that viruses are alive. And there might even be something "beyond" being "alive," something marvelous that happens to matter and energy that we cannot yet imagine. Furthermore, our definitions of life, e.g., something that has a metabolism, that grows and reproduces, or, a more modern definition, "something that undergoes Darwinian evolution," break down at the extremes, and we can easily imagine entities outside our definitions that we may want to say are alive. Lovelock chose to include the entire earth within the definition of being alive. I don't think it's so far fetched.

This superior collection of essays reveals Gardner's extraordinary breath of learning and the lively frolic of his very fine intelligence.

Martin Gardner takes the skeptical view on several subjects in this book. He critizes many in the paranormal and Christian fundamentist movements. Basically, he treats them almost as symoptioms that are caused by the larger problem of people looking for answers without knowing what the heck the question is. So, they grab onto irrational beliefs in paranormal or religious faith. You challange both the believers in the paranormal or those with fundamentist religious belief systems and you get pretty much the same standard response. Things like "you can't disprove this" or "and how would you know?" stuff that is more or less, lacking in real intellicual thought or commentary.

Gardner exposes them for what they are: frightened little people who don't want to think for themselves.

Simply loved One Bubble Off ... great for the beach; light reading and a great plot. Shows how older people really are no different after all, and have just as much fun (more?) than the younger crew!

Whether you're 90 or 20, you'll love ONE BUBBLE OFF ... I know I did. It takes a look at retirement that is funny and still realistic -- a print version of the "Golden Girls" but better because it's closer to how it really is. Witty, charming and impossible to put down; read it if you're young at heart, just young, or simply want a great book to curl up with. Bravo Ms. Martin!