Ms. Morgan does a great job of weaving a story. The layers and charachters take you in from the start. Sometimes you have to know where you have been in order to know where you are going. The past meets the present, and suddenly you believe in gaurdian angels, as the women in this book battle hate and prejudice idividually and together. All of this in addition to a very well put together plot.

Valley of Echoes was even better then the first book Mother Mountain by Sabra Morgan. She has you commited to the story line right off the bat. You are carefully lead through this tale of adventure with family ties and twists to carry you on to the next scene. Yes, it does give you the feeling that you are watching a great mystery adventure movie. I have know dought that these stories that Sabra Morgan writes could evolve into some movies if the right person where to take the time to read them. I truly look forward to reading her next book.

As an avid reader, I find this book more of a resource than a "sit and read". Each chapter (and hence topic) provides a list of books that delve more deeply into the area presented. The Christian foundation for this book is evident throughout. It works well with its companion "What Every Mom Needs".

This book helped me through alot with my daughter. I've learned to understand and appreciate her more. Recommended!

This "Who is Who in Computer Industry" is a perfect coffee-table book for computer enthusiasts: large format, lavishly illustrated and right on the topic. Almost 200 people are presented, each with a full-page colour photograph and some 100-words abstract.

The wizards are divided into five categories: the Forerunners, the Inventors, the Enterpreneurs, the Communicators and the Venture Capitalists. As Dan Bricklin (featured on page 56 in the book) already observed, its wide scope is the strength of this book. Myself, however, I would gladly sacrifice the latter three categories - and perhaps also the first, since there seems to be no shortage of literature on the beginnings of computing - for a decent article on each of the inventors. Something along similar lines was attempted by Shasha and Lazere, but I am not entirely satisfied with their work either.

A plus side of the book is its list of sources on the presented personae, many of them from the World Wide Web. And, surprisingly, many of them still working...

Having one photographer take all of the pictures with the subjects free to pose any way they wanted, wearing whatever they wanted, lets this book bring you some of the personality behind the people: Gordon Bell (DEC) in a cowboy hat, Scott Cook (Intuit) in a button-down shirt and swimsuit, Alan Kay (Xerox PARC) in front of the pipe organ in his home, Thomas Kurtz (Basic) standing in front of a painting of himself and John Kemeny (co-creator of Basic), me in flannel shirt and jeans, etc.

This is a must for every computer history library since you'll find nothing like it that covers such a wide cross section of the history of computing in such a human way.

If you have never attended or planned a family reunion, this book is for you. If you have planned a reunion before it is slightly helpful and can give you some extra pointers.

I've been organizing reunions for our family for 7 years and have read all the books on reunions. This one is the best. It was well organized and contains lots of great tips. It's also the only one I've seen that has links to Web sites, and every one I looked at had good content. I used the book as our guide to organizing our reunion this September for about 75 people, and it made it lots easier. Great forms, good advice and excellent reading. This one is the best!

Only handful of times have I read a book that has made a profound difference in my life--Let's Roll by Lisa Beamer is one of those books. I started it at 10:30 in the evening and didn't put it down until 3 a.m.! Usually I'm out cold after two pages!

In the pages of the book, Lisa shares her faith and life so intimately and fully that you can't help but identify with her and her family and what they've endured. It's a remarkable testimonial of a real and practical faith in the strength, power, comfort, and ultimately the salvation of Jesus Christ! I think if you're a non-believer this book may make you one, and if you are a believer it can strength your faith immensely.

Lisa and those involved in publishing the book have taken a situation so horribly evil and bereft of God and used it as a way to honor Him and display His grace! That's a miracle! I felt personally honored that Lisa and her family would shared their tragedy, their faith, and their example with the rest of us!

To stay I strongly recommend this book would be an understatement. Please borrow or buy a copy and read it--even if you think you just don't have the time! It's a quick read, and it will change you!!!

Let's Roll is an incredible story about Lisa Beamer and her family. Before writing my review, I read over some others. Not only was I horrified that people could write such things about a woman with three kids in need, but I was almost brought to tears thinking that people could only write those things because they were offended by Lisa Beamer's immense amount of faith in the onr true and living God! Even if she did write the book to get money, can you blame her? She is now a single mother who is needing to support three children. If it was money she was going for...why would she add such passionate input about her faith in the Lord? All she wanted was for people to know about a true hero, for people to be able to more information on a very important event in our country, and for people to know that you can keep faith and hope in a time of need. Lisa Beamer was an inspiration to me and many others that I have shared the book with. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read such horrible things about this heroic story! Look again people! Pull your heads out of your butts and realize that there is more to life than bringing the people down that have miraculously found a reason to live another day after their tragedy. I think I've said all that needs to be said...

If anyone needs to read an example of the difference which being a Christian makes in this world, this book is it. Lisa Beamer writes about the childhoods and upbringing of herself and her husband Todd, and how their faith in God influenced every decision they made. She describes their meeting, courtship, marriage, and parenthood and shows her husband to be a strong Christian. His biggest weakness seemed to be a tendency to work too hard and spend too little time with his family, but the Beamers worked out this problem with the help of Todd's Christian friends, who kept him accountable for a more balanced lifestyle. Lisa describes how she first learned of the terrible tragedy which claimed her husband's life, and how she survived the difficult days after September 11. She shows how Christian friends stepped in to help her, as a grateful nation showered her with notes, prayers, and gifts for her unborn baby. She tells about her meetings with President Bush and famous members of the media, such as Larry King. She also tells the intensely personal moments of having to go through family holidays and the birth of her daughter without her husband at her side. Lisa's faith was tested and strengthened by events over which she had no control, because ultimately she knew WHO was in control. This is a wonderful and inspiring book.

It was a real informative book and all. The only problem I have with it, was the author never interviewed Dave himself. It's filled with facts about the band and a lot of information. I would reccommend it to someone who doesn't know the band too well. But to huge DMB fans, it may be a it repetitive. If they had interviewed the band, I would have given this book two thumbs up, but it lacks the personal approach to the band. I could go to many places and find facts about DMB. I gave it 4 stars because Dave Matthews Band are great and they are one of the best bands I know of. Oh, and because Dave is extremely gorgeous too! Thanks for listening.

First off, I am a HUGE DMB fan so I may have a biased view, but I thought this book was fantastic. If you are a true Dave fan then you will love this book. It has tons of little things about the band that I never knew and was fascinated by. Little experiences and the truth behind the struggles to become a successful band in America, starting from scratch in Charlottesville, gaining a strong fan base and becoming a popular band throughout the country. Morgan Delancey made it sound like she had lived with the band through all this. I especially liked the way she told about all of the band members pasts leading up to the formation of DMB...and how DMB became the phenominal band that they are today! Overall I thought it was a GREAT book.

I picked up this book hoping to learn a little about the DMB, but having little faith in what I assumed would be a quickie "rock biography." I was amazed and delighted to find that Morgan Delancey (obviously a huge DMB fan) is a wonderful writer who clearly takes great pride in her exhaustive research...when was the last time you saw a 10-page bibliography at the end of a rock bio?! This book makes a serious attempt to analyze the roots and origins of DMB's music; I found out so much new info about Dave and everyone else, and I didn't feel like I needed a shower afterwards (as I have after reading some of those tabloid-like bios out there about other artists). I've read it twice. And I know I'll read it again over the next few weeks, months and years.

Reading People of the Lie is worth your time. First of all, it's not going to take a whole lot of your time--it's pretty quick reading. Second (and more importantly), the case studies and real-life examples contained in this book can be really helpful to getting you more attuned to narcissism and scapegoating characteristics in yourself and others. I did not agree with Dr. Peck that we need to call just this one specific type of character flaw "evil." He does not include much of a defense for saying why we need to name a characteristic as "evil," other than that in naming we gain some power over it; and this reason doesn't hold up. Dr. Peck is writing from a self-proclaimed Christian worldview, and in his worldview Jesus refers to everyone as evil ("If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children..." Matt. 7:11, Luke 11:13), and it doesn't make sense that he is choosing to define evil so specifically as to exclude what is normally thought of as evil in addition to that which Jesus referred to. Certainly Peck's given definition of evil falls under the heading of evil, but in this book he offers very little reasoning for why this specific and narrow definition should be sufficient to cover all real "evil." Many of his points are not made well, and his main goal to set a psychology of evil still is vastly incomplete (which he admits). However, this book is still well worth reading if only to become more aware of these types of evils in yourself and in the people around you so as to combat them with love, as he advises.

"Evil is the exercise of power, the imposing of one's will upon others by overt or covert coercion". "The core of evil is ego-centricity, whereby others are sacrificed rather than the ego of the individual." These words and the following analysis that Scott Peck gives us into the world of evil are sorely needed now in America. At the heart of our political and moral meltdown is the force of evil. According to Dr. Peck (psychology) ego-centric persons are utterly dedicated to preserving their self-serving image. They cultivate an image of being a good, right, God-fearing citizens. They specialize in self-deceit and thus are People of the Lie.

Scott Peck is best known for his famed book The Road Less Traveled where Peck argues that there is a link between personal growth, spirituality, and basic mental health. In People of the Lie Scott, Peck see evil as the antithesis to the very goodness and life that normal, healthy people seek. He writes this book to raise the awareness that evil exists as an entity and force in the world and calls his readers to take evil far more seriously.

This is a controversial book and, though I don't agree with all that Scott Peck says, it's certainly worth reading. This book framed evil in such a way that made it easily recognizable (confusion, grandiosity, etc.). I do question Peck's judgment of some as "evil." Labeling people as such excludes them from the rest of humanity -- it's a form of scapegoating which, ironically, is one of the very features of evil, as defined by Peck! It would seem that, when fighting evil, you run the risk of becoming "evil" yourself. This is what makes this book so thought-provoking.

It's ironic that this book is written by a therapist. I myself never encountered "evil" until I saw a therapist some years ago for a brief period of time. The therapist routinely lied, had girlfriends and family members in his group therapy, scapegoated emotionally dependent group therapy clients when they challenged him on ethical violations which caused injury to the very people he was supposed to protect, etc. I experienced profound confusion and repulsion with this man. Now, years later, Peck's book has helped me understand why .... I wish someone would write a book on "evil" people who use the healing and spiritual professions as a means of controlling others. It's a very real problem.

I've read this book twice now and keep thinking, "what a great idea, too bad the med guy didn't farm the idea out to someone who could write!" But he thought he did; wish he'd sent it to me. Ignoring all the trivial errors (misspellings of diseases, "North Ridge earthquake," calling the valley fever org. "cocci" when that term refers to all cocci forms of bacteria, "congenital arthritic hip" of Drew (think they meant congenital dysplasia causing the arthritis, not too many babies born with arthritis!), the faults in writing are amazing: rotten character development (for ex. Byrne is described in such detail at first encounter w/his pony tail, and when he has to cut it off, but do we ever hear about his pony tail again? So much for his Samson anguish), bringing up interesting points only to drop them (Kameron's taping of Byrne's comments at Mia's lecture, mention about doctoring them -- never shows up again), and leaden writing style.

Guess there's going to be another book soon, maybe the Fifth Horseman? Hope these two get a better editor.

Epidemiologists study diseases and their causes and origins, and take the lead in disease investigations. Dr. Marr has a wealth of experience in this area, and he has used much of it to provide a backdrop for this novel. As a result, the science here is reliable, and this alone is refreshing in a work of fiction (compare for example with the movie "Outbreak"). The Eleventh Plague would provide a worthy basis for a popular movie, and as a novel it moves along at a reasonably good pace from one scene to the next. Don't look for Frederick Forsythe; the style is relatively shallow, and the characters are poorly developed, but it's a good commuter pocketbook, with just enough intrigue to get you to re-open it each day on the subway!

If you can avoid all the techno-[material] and long histories of some of the characters, you're in for a frightening look at how easy bioterrorism is. THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE revolves around a madman's plot to mirror the ten plagues of Moses and kill off vast amounts of people all in the name of God. Character-wise, there's no one here we haven't met before, and even the villain is rehashed from Dr. Phibes through Hannibal Lechter. However, the book has some terrifying scenes and some surprises, too. It's a little long in the tooth and is nowhere as realistically frightening as THE HOT ZONE, but it's still a scary read.
RECOMMENDED.

Forster writes about the ruling British and their tentative relationship with India in the early part of the 20th Century. While Kipling wrote of an India of intrigue and adventure, Forster's India is one of mistrust and racism between the British and the natives.

The main charcter is a Moslem Indian, Dr. Aziz,who is abused by his British superior and learns to mistrust all British. Aziz meets Mrs. Moore , a new arrival, by chance at a mosque. After first ridiculing her, Aziz develops a deep respect for Mrs. Moore who he believes possesses more Oriental qualities than European qualities. Through Mrs. Moore, Aziz develops a frienship with Fielding, an educator, very interested in discovering what India is all about.

Mrs. Moore's is accompanied to India by her future daughter-in-law, Adela Quested. Although extremely naive, Adela has the same inquisitiveness as does Fielding. Aziz desperately wants to impress his new British friends and he invites Adela, Mrs. Moore, and Fielding to be his guest as he shows them the Marbar caves, a local landmark.

On the fateful day all parties realize that the tour is not a good idea but each is reluctant to cancel the event. The mystery of what occurred within the caves and the aftermath is the crux of the story.

The incident at the cave does irrevocable harm to each of the main characters but particularly Mrs. Moore whose spirit totally disintegrates and Adeala who is rediculed and villified by the British.

Finally at the end, Aziz and Fielding repair their friendship as best they can, each realizing that Indians and Brits will enjoy a suspicious friendship at best.

What makes A Passage to India so different from other Orientalist works (and Orientalist it is) is that Forster, being a homosexual, understood the oppression that the colonized Indians had to live with. This understanding permeates throughout the book. From his piercing insights into the nature of Anglo-Indian women (why were they more racist? They were threatened to be replaced by Indian men in the minds of the colonizers). The relationship between Fielding and Aziz is startlingly sharp; people from the time must have been delusional not to see the homoerotic message that Forster was trying to portray. It's such a shame that the politics of the book (which Forster really wanted to downplay -- notice that neither Aziz nor Fielding care about them) so often overshadow the message of male-male relationships that Forster cared so much about. It's sad though that he still fell into the trap of thinking that no Englishman or woman could completely remove themselves from the racism that dominated the culture. What does he do the one's who try? Adela has an nervous breakdown, Mrs. Moore dies after realizes the futlity of love, and Fielding is not only a repressed homosexual, and therefore a social outcast, but sacrifices his ideals in the end to marry an English country woman. The ending perfectly sums up how Forster himself must have felt -- remember that when you want to cry at the unfairness of it all.

I don't think it's really necessary for me to comment on the brilliance of the prose, or the entertaining primary narrative since I'm sure that's been done to the upteenth time. However, the book holds so much that I couldn't not share some of my thoughts. Please read A Passage to India as soon as you can.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading A Passage to India. Forster, in my mind, seemed to suggest implausible romance, pretty scenery, and Helena Bonham Carter, and I'd never actually bothered to read one of his books.
Now I can hardly wait to read another. I absolutely loved this book, without quite knowing why it was so magical. I do know that I found the first chapter absolutely perfect, as it allows the reader to go into a "descriptive section" daze, and then jerks are attention suddenly back to the Marabar caves. And with the exception of one or two patches that dragged a little but were soon over, I found the rest of the book equally magnetic.
I enjoyed Fortster's deftness in portraying all the characters, not so much as individuals, but in terms of how they felt about each other. In particular I loved the relationship between Fielding and Aziz, while understanding completely the dislike each had for aspects of the others character.
The ending is marvelous. So often books that hold your interest like this just peter out, but it's refreshing to find an author like Forster who understands that what makes for an ideal conclusion is to give the readers a taste of what they want, and then hold back the last little bit.

The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, published by The Berkley Publishing Group (1954) is an action filled book about some schoolboys' struggle for survival after their plane went down on a deserted island.
After the boys are stranded on the island it becomes evident that surviving will be like no other task they have ever undertaken. They learn to fend for themselves by trapping and killing animals, building shelters with branches and by learning how to use their surroundings in the quest for survival. From the very beginning there is tension over who is the leader. It comes down to which candidate has more appealing priorities, playing and hunting all-day or trying to get rescued by keeping a fire alive. While in the hunt for food the boys become total savages, to the extent where they even wage war against each other.
In my eyes the message is that there is a savage in all of us and it comes out the minute we are faced with extreme hardships. The author does not only use the actions of the boys to show the changes that have occurred, but he also uses visual imagery to show their physical changes. For example, in the beginning of the book the boys are well-dressed clean-cut shorthaired boys; however, by the end of the book they are dirty, longhaired animals. Also, to add to their already dirty look, the boys paint their faces to camouflage themselves when they go hunting. The way the boys changed in appearance reflects how they're losing their civilized upbringing.
In my opinion the novel Lord of the Flies was a great book especially for children around my age because it is easy for us to identify with what the kids in the book are going through. Even though I found this novel very exciting and engaging, I would never hope to be put in such a position as the boys in the story were.

Can we really "trace the defect of society back to the defect of human nature"? This book was written in an attempt to find out. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows us, naked and exposed, at once innocent and corrupt, noble and cruel, and all to human. He uses symbols, theories, and ideas to help illustrate his point. For example, the female sow, represents the mother of the boys - the killing of the sow symbolizes the killing of the mother. The roles of the three main characters are different; Ralph being the ego (self knowledge), Piggy being the superego (conflict between thoughts) and Jack being the id (want). Lord of the Flies uses symbolism so well, that it is understandable, interesting to read, and catching. The writing in this book is structured so well. I was able to understand what he wrote, and I was hooked. What I liked best about this book was the clarity of it, the style of his writng and the plot of the story. His writing is also very specific. I was able to put pictures in my mind about what was being said - {Over the Island the build up of clouds continued. A steady current of heated air rose all day from the mountain and was thrust to ten thousand feet; revolving masses of gas piled up the static until the air was ready to explode}-this is an excerpt from chapter nine. It is obvious that his style of writing is excellent and should be highly acknowledged. It deserves a 5 star rating. Lord of the Flies is a wonderful, symbolic, adventure into ritual, primitivness, death, guilt, innocence, betrayal, and war. Only then, will you find the answer to the question, "can we trace the defect of society back to the defect of human nature"?

Although it is a social commentary, similar to "Heart of Darkness," containing a pessimisstic view of human nature, "Lord of the Flies" is also an adventure novel. A scatter of British schoolboys are stranded on an island paradise, and they form a little ordered assembly, which, according to the rules of Murphy's Law, goes to pi. It is a stark, beautiful book, which near perfect writing. What do I mean by this? It's not just well-written, but it is perfectly focused, perfectly edited. Think of the Western "High Noon." Every line of dialogue was key in revealing the plot. There was no one standing around and just explaining things, like in "The Great Gatsby." Things are expounded through actions, through thought, so that every word has meaning, and every meaning, entertainment value. I'm surprised at those who found it boring. I can't offer any persuasion -- you have to be willing to read it, and it won't appeal to everyone. But the reason this book is so terribly disturbing is that it is so >realistic<. Not to give away any major plot happenings, but recent (within the last year or so) news events only make some of the more grisly things in the book seem closer to home, and therefore more unsettling, which is maybe why a lot of readers found it too shocking to appreciate. Just try not to think about the symbols when you first read it, and think of it as an adventure book. It can be enjoyed either way.