This book is great! It is the first book I've read by Piers Anthony, and I plan to read many more. The first book,"Centure Aisle", introduces you to Dor the "young" magician, Smash the young Ogre, Princess Irene, who can grow plants imedietly on her command, Grundy the golem, he can talk to anything living. Their adventures take them all over Xanth and beyond. I was so into this book that I could not put it down for weekend,I have a tendency to read slow. Thanks to this book I look forward to reading instead of dreading it. The Charcters are colorful and well portrayed, I've recomended it to many and they love it and are hurrying to the book store to get more of the Xanth novels. Enjoy reading this as it will take you far into the reaches of Xanth and you will not want to come back to the real world.

Someone once told me that you can't READ fantasy, because it is a "visual" thing. Well... Piers Anthony has opened up the movie theater in my mind with the Xanth Series. If you love fantasy (and puns), I HIGHLY recommend getting lost in the beautiful, funny, and exciting world of Xanth. PS... it's much better if you start from the beginning, so if you're going to read them, get "Spell for Chameleon" first.

Xanth is a magical world of fun and puns. It is a parallel world to Earth/ Mundania. Everything that happens has some double meaning, so always be on the lookout for words like "paradox" and "pair of docks." Everything living in Xanth is magical and everyone has a seperate talent. I began reading the Xanth series last summer, almost a year ago, and I've read about thirty since then. I recently read the first novel, so don't worry about reading the series in order, they all have there own storyline and you can catch on fairly quickly. hope that you enjoy the series as much as I have.

My favorite book as a child. My father read it to my brother and then to me, in chapters much like Michael's father tells him the story, until we were old enough to read it to him. It's so much a fairy tale but, at the same time, Michael's father loving him so much he creates this wonderful story off the top of his head combined with the father's slight impatience or perhaps the father and son's different priorities make it believable. The under-his-breath sarcasm/innuendo in the father's voice adds a little reality check for parents reading the book to their children. I am constantly on the look-out for this book so I can share it with my grandchildren (since I won't let go of my only copy) and my friends' children. I thought it was out of print and can't believe my good fortune in finding not only a printed copy, but an audiobook as well. I think this is the first thing in my childhood that really showed it was okay to think "outside the box". I could probably stand to re-read it more often to remind me of that early lesson and it's a good lesson for kids, too.

This is a nearly perfect read-out-loud book. I have shared this book several times with my daughters (now 10 and 12). I am looking forward to the time when I can begin to read it aloud to my three year old son. The story within the story (the struggle between the Wolf, Rainbow and the heroic farmer boy Jimmy) effortlessly keeps the children involved. The external story (the father and son inventing the animal adventure tale over several days) makes me laugh out loud with its sly humor and insight; the boy's missing shoe gets me every time. It's great to see that a reprint edition is available again.

Wolf Story was one of the first read-aloud chapter books that really hooked my five year old son in to listening. William McCleery wrote this short tale with keen insight into the mind of young boys and what excites them. The story is funny, interesting, and ends much too quickly. Children are able to recognize themselves in the typical parent/child exchanges. The book also serves to preserve an innocence and purity in the imagination and experience of childhood. My son Gabriel and I urge you to read Wolf Story together with your children as soon as possible. You won't be sorry!

Anthony Calfo's "Book of Coral Propagation" was a pleasant read. It is a nearly all text book, but the author's easy-going, sometimes eccentric, writing style makes even difficult topics simple to understand. It is focused on the profitable, commercial propagation of coral, but there is a healthy amount of information for the casual owner of a coral reef display tank. The book covers topics on captive reef care from planning, equipment, and hardware to water quality issues, supplements, and feeding to shipping methods and recieving protocols to propagation techniques. But, the most important part of the book is the coral family overviews. The author covers the proper care of all of the coral species seen for sale in the trade. There are many other books that do the same thing, but where this book is different is in the discussions about profitability of species. This is the first book that I have read that discusses expected growth rates and ease of propagation. This is invaluable information for anyone serious about coral propagation. If you want to grow and propagate corals for display and trade with fellow aquarists, or to sell on a small-scale to local retail stores, orto make the jump to full-time, for-profit coral gardening, you must have this book.

The "Book of Coral Propagation" is now my favorite book in my 40-some reef/marine aquarium book collection. If you are looking for a first-rate book on coral propagation and husbandry that is in-depth, up-to-date, and full of ground-breaking information, then look no further. Don't assume this book is just about propagation for the commercial sector or hardcore reef aquarists. It provides a holistic view on the husbandry of corals too, that even beginners can appreciate. In order to propagate corals, you need to understand how they thrive and grow, and this book will be your ultimate guide. So even if you don't plan on propagating corals, this book will still provide more information on husbandry than any other book out there. The coral family overviews themselves are worth buying this book. This book is thick, and it's not full of filler. Unlike most books in the hobby (and industry for that matter), this book actually contains valuable knowledge - and lots of it - derived from years of bona fide research, practice, and experience! There are many coral books out in the marketplace, and a few coral husbandry books, but all fall short of providing practical and useful information that aquarists can really use. Most of these so called coral books are reiterations of biology books or make good coffee table books (pretty pictures). This book is radically different! It is so refreshing to read a book that is actually useful. Looking at a picture book full of pretty corals is not going to help you grow and care for corals in your aquarium. Not only is this book useful, it is very easy to read. It's amazing how a book with so much knowledge and detail can be so painless to read and comprehensive at the same time. I would highly recommend all reef aquarists add this book to their current book collection. No matter how many books you have, you will find this book most useful and full of innovativation, insight, and revolutionary knowledge based on real-life experiences of the author. And if you don't have any coral books yet, then look no further, save your money, and buy this book first!

By far, the most informative book I've read in the aquarium hobby. Many books promise and fall short of expectations, but this one goes above and beyond. The author lays it all out on the line from initial setup all the way through. This comes as the only 5 star review I have ever given, anywhere. Highest recommendation I can give, to this point anyway. Looking forward to Volume 2!

I just finished with this new CCNA 640-607 study guide and feel like it is best exam prep book available for the CCNA exam. It is concise, gets right to the point in terms of objectives needed to master and is managable.

It is clearly a great value and is worth more than they are charging for it. The entire book is useful and you can tell that the author is a great teacher.

I recommend this book if you are serious about passing the new CCNA exam!

Not much else to add to the previous reviews. If you study for the CCNA certification, this guide would probably be all you need to pass the test. I would also get the Lammle's book as well to cover any blank spots... If you are ready to take it beyond the CCNA level, I would also look into getting the following books:

1. "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton. A lot of information on IP routing protocols (EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, etc.).
2. "Routing TCP/IP, volume I" by Jeff Doyle. Covers just as much as the Colton's book.
3. "Interconnections: Routers, Bridges..." by Radia Perlman. Good academic info on routing and bridging. Overkill for the CCNA to CCNP level though.

This is easily the best self-study technical book I've read in a long while. Chiarella explains CCNA topics in a way that makes you think he's personally talking to YOU. Although it is not an all inclusive "newbie" book, it's not supposed to be. If you already have a basic foundation in networking topics and technologies, this book can take you the extra step to fully understanding CCNA requirements. I found the subnet explanations to be especially impressive. While understanding subnets is not the most difficult thing, Chiarella makes it second nature. If you feel you're ready for the CCNA, I would definitely give this book a read. Oh, and the price is an outstanding bargain, while not a bookend like most of the texts out there today, this book is invaluable and has earned a permanent spot on my bookshelf.

Larkin hits home again and again in these pages. His best poems combine an emotional conveyance as clear as water with an effortless and unobtrusive perfection of form. Some of them read like direct conversation. He could be witty or morbid, or both at once. Above all his gift was for memorableness, something that can only be accomplished by striking deep and hard.

The arrangement of the volume is right: we are first presented with the poems, starting in 1946, that (in Mr. Thwait's judgement) begin to showcase Larkin's unique voice. A small set of earlier poems is at the back, mostly of historical value (though a few are gems).

If you like poetry for its capacity to move you, absorb this volume.

Philip Larkin's weltschmertz and English dreariness were too much for most Brits to swallow, so it's understandable that his modest literary fame never extended outside of the UK. The poems here are arranged in chronological order, which allow the reader to see when the solitary Hull librarian began to make a linguistic departure in his poems.

Critics and casual readers alike have often remarked at Larkin's blatant use of obscenities, particularly in 'This Be the Verse', which begins 'They f#@k you up, your mum and dad, they don't mean to, but they do'. Larkin viewed his use of vulgarity as tying in with the language of the time, to the talk and behaviour that were especially rapid, exciting and unavoidable during the counter-culture zeitgeist of the late '60's and early '70's. The sudden 'f@#k' and 'crap' with which Larkin begins some poems from this epoch often contrast with the elevated diction and stately rhythms of the poems' final stanzas. For example, 'This Be the Verse' ends with 'Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf, get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself'. This gap in diction between the beginning and the end of 'This Be the Verse', as well as most of the poems on 'High Windows' is a generation gap. Larkin was a man who felt estranged when he saw two sixteen-year-olds necking in public, and one of the ways he reacts in that poem is to move into, and then out from under, their language.

Larkin does this again in the poem, and my personal favourite, 'High Windows', which begins 'When I see a couple of kids, and guess he's f@#king her and she's wearing a diaphragm, I know this is paradise'. The word 'f@#cking' in 'High Windows' sounds aggressive, like a smear on the girl and perhaps also on the boy in the poem. But this pejorative effect is reversed when, further into the poem, the word gets reclassified as high praise :'I know this is paradise'. What sounds early on like simple resentment or jealousy modulates into jealous admiration. And, like 'This Be the Verse', the poem's denouement is a complete deviation in diction from the opening stanza's 'Rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, and beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless'. Just like 'This Be the Verse', its ending is more traditionally 'poetic'. The subcultural indicators, then, can only be part of the force.

Also recommended is Andrew Motion's biography of the petulant poet.

An 'elderly reclusive bachelor', a friend of mine who fancies himself a Larkin clone, introduced me to this wonderous book and to the life of this most interesting poet. I am deeply grateful to both my friend and to his hero. "This Be the Verse" is Larkin's most famous poem if only for the directness of its language and the economy of its expression. The poem begins: "They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to , but they do. " Upon reading this opening my adult daughters cheered wildly - someone had finally understood their plight. As they fancy children I encouraged reading to the closing couplet: "Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself." This stunned them, as it had me in my turn. Imagine the creative despair of Larkin's: "Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf." Ain't it the truth!A second favourite of mine, "If, My Darling" invites the reader to 'jump' inside the poet's head to view the psychic interior of one who sees "the past is past and the future neuter". Take the trip inside Larkin's poetr - short incursions are all I can handle, three poems at a time with ample time to reflect and to recover before entering this volume for the next disquieting. No poet has reached me like Larkin. He knows the grief at the center of the soul and coveys it with grace and with compassion for us all.

How many times has each of us passed a homeless person and said, "I want to do something about him...her...this situation"? Anthony, who had moved to New York City for a year in order to let her son attend a performing arts school, found her own place in the city when she met J.C., a man who panhandled at a corner near Carnegie Hall. Anthony ultimately made such a palpable difference in J.C.'s life that he was recently reunited with the family he had long ago abandoned. Anthony's book is a testament to her own patience, perseverence, and compassion; J.C. comes off as a human character, as complicated and unreliable as any of us. How Anthony works through J.C.'s layers of distrust and paranoia to find something she can tease out and convince him to plant in "reality" makes for fascinating reading.

Many people have come in contact with homeless people, however Laurie Anthony has yeilded to her moral convictions to reach out to J.C.Simmons, a homeless person in New York.

Ten thousand tongues could not have captured the whys, wheres, and whatfors of a homeless person as Laurie has done in this book.

Tragidy has become common place. Too many people can say that they have encountered homeless people on the streets.

Laurie Anthony however, has captured a story of a homeless man in New York and has been so convicted inside to follow her heart. She fervantly pursued the background of J.C.Simmons, the homeless man in New York, and made an effort to do the right thing.

The story she tells of how J.C. became homeless, and of his unusual background dispells a lot of typical stereotypes of the homeless. She has given us a great story, and I'm just waiting for the sequel.

I picked up this book after reading the USA Today review, which was essentially an unconditional rave. I decided to give it a try, but figured I'd probably be disappointed, as few books live up to the praise heaped on them. But GABRIEL'S STORY was a pleasant surprise. It begins with vivid homesteading scenes - all the toil and the poverty of it. Makes me glad I wasn't a homesteader, and it made it reasonable that Gabriel would want to run away from it. The journey that he sets off on is truly engrossing, well-plotted, with beautiful language and great descriptions of the Western landscape.

It looks like the novel is being compared to Cormac McCarthy's work. There are some similarities, but GABRIEL'S STORY is a bit more hopeful than McCarthy's work. The world is still harsh and dangerous, but Durham seems to have more faith in humanity, in family and friends. Also, I thought it was interesting that the reviewer in USA Today said that he was a city-dwelling white guy that still got into this book about a black boy in another century out on the plains. I felt the same way. Yes, the main characters are black, but their racial identity is only part of the whole world of the story. They're black like James Joyce's characters are Irish or Faulkner's are Southern - it matters, but it doesn't change the fact that anybody can connect with them. Altogether a really good novel.

The prodigal son always comes home. Iin life, in parable and in literature.

And he has returned once more in "Gabriel's Story," a haunting debut by David Anthony Durham. In this incarnation, the wayward youth is a 15-year-old African-American boy in the empty middle of a continent, caught between youth and manhood, naiveté and wisdom, family and flight.

Fleeing racism in Reconstruction-era Baltimore, Gabriel Lynch travels with his mother and younger brother to his stepfather's hard-scrabble homestead in 1870s Kansas. As with the Biblical story of the prodigal son, Gabriel finds the "outside" world less exciting and more threatening than he dreamed. He returns to Kansas wiser and chastened, prepared to take his place behind the plow and, more importantly, at the family hearth. "Gabriel's Story" is a classical bildungsroman -- a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character -- told in masterful prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy.

His is not just a startlingly poetic African-American voice (Durham is the son of Trinidadian immigrants), but a welcome new voice in the rich spectrum of American letters, where authors should -- and must -- be judged in different shades of black and white: The color of words on a page.

Page-turner, can't put it down, tour de force, and all those other cliches apply to Gabriel's Story. Actually, I could put it down, but only because I had to. Couldn't wait to pick it up again.

Gabriel's Story is an amazing adventure -- perfectly plausible -- of a teen aged African American in the 1870's who leaves his family's Kansas farm unannounced. He and a friend join a crew of cowboys headed for Texas....

How to tell more of the book without giving away bits and pieces of the story that is best discovered by the reader? Can't be done.

Suffice it to say that Gabriel sees and experiences more than he could ever had imaganed. He is handicapped by racism, his youth and inexperience, but boasts the distinct advantages of intelligence and a good heart.

If you're overly sensitive to violence, beware; but it all rings true to the times and is never gratuitous.

Now stop reading reviews of the book and buy it, you'll be glad you did.

This is not a book for a novice. Mr. Louis has a niche for writing technical jargon in a non-complex manner, but without having the basics down, the reader will most likely feel like a fish out of water. Horary astrology is much more complex and I feel forced to argue the title of "plain and simple" as I did not find anything simple at all about horary astrology. I must admit though, that Mr. Louis made it seem less like a whole new learning practise and more like the extension of astrology that it should be.

Anthony Louis makes the obscure world of horary astrology clear and easy to understand. This is a truly scholarly work by a master teacher. No astrologer can afford to be without it.

Dear Mr. Louis: I bought your book Horary Astrology: Plain and Simple via Amazon.com two monthes ago. Well, it's very, very good. A special, complete and clear book. I've already finished my first reading and now I'm studying and reading it again and again with gratitude and happiness. It will help me a lot in my Astrology work. If a person really enjoys Astrology, she would have this book as a precious gift.

Author Anthony J. Alessandra identifies the four basic business personalities: Directors, Socializers, Relaters and Thinkers. As you come to appreciate the strengths of each of these styles, you also learn to put them to use. You will read about the drawbacks of each style and you will see how you can help people overcome them. The book is generally for managers who want to get more out of their employees. The authors include a section on how to apply The Platinum Rule to selling, which makes the book quite useful for anyone in a sales position. We [...] recommend this book to sales or personnel managers, and to other executives who want to understand and motivate people.

Over the years there have been many books written to explore human personality, some by academics and some by laymen. This work stands out among them as a superior learning tool written by two academically trained experts who are also actual practitioners of their messages. It is solid material and a downright good read. Dr.s Tony Alessandra and Michael O¹Connor are the leading authorities alive today on the subject of Behavioral Styles. Alessandra is a professional speaker and trainer who has specialized in the application of behavioral science in the business world. As a former college professor he taught sales and marketing for several years. As an individual he has practiced what he preached. Alessandra spent several successful years in sales and sales management positions and now counts among his closest acquaintances the top thought leaders in the worldwide business community. His experience as a professional speaker to over two thousand audiences shows up in the book, it is very entertaining and motivational.Dr. O¹Connor is the brains behind many works on behavioral style, most notably the Performax materials published by Carlson Learning. His scientific mind and technical training make this a well structured and highly accessible work.The book offers readers immediate insight into their own relationships and their personal behavior patterns. Real world examples are peppered throughout and do a great job of keeping the reader engaged. Examples are well balanced among various life situations and industries. Business people will especially enjoy the practical and entertaining nature of the book.The Platinum Rule addresses a basic human truth: the fact that we are all alike in many ways and we are all different in other ways. If we will take the brief time necessary to notice our differences then we will instantly see how to better connect with each other. The book shows how to easily observe the four most common ³styles² of behavior. It goes on to show you exactly how to deal with each style. Readers will instantly know from their own experiences that the suggestions will work. Once you have read this book, solutions become obvious and tension between people disappears. This is one of the most practical and enjoyable books ever written on this topic.Respectfully submitted by:Jim Cathcart, author of The Acorn Principle, Know Yourself-Grow Yourself, and Relationship Selling. President of the Cathcart Institute, La Jolla, CA. Past president of the National Speakers Association.

The Platinum rule presents an easy to learn and apply system of personality typing based on an individual's social style and interpersonal interaction. This differs from many other systems of personality typing in that it is based primarily on a person's observable behavior and style, rather than on their deeper inner motivations, functions, attitudes, etc. It's a great tool to use in any relationship, business or personal. I use it often and train my staff in the system. It really works and is extremely effective!

Tony Alessandra's work is a more updated, refined, expanded and user friendly version of the work on social styles by David Merrill. A good companion book with more analytical and theoretical information on this work (for all you Thinker types) is Merrill and Reid's "Personal Styles and Effective Performance".

I received the cassette version of this program as a gift, and I really believe it is the best gift I have ever received. I am currently listening to the program for the fourth time, and each time I get something new out of it. The positive changes in my life since starting the program are remarkable. The very minimum you will get out of this program is the right frame of mind for starting each day--which alone is worth more than the price. But if you really get into the program and use even a tenth of what you learn, you can achieve fantastic success in your life. I couldn't be happier with this program, I'm a big believer in it and I highly recommend it.

I love this program. I'm on it for the second time around and it's even more powerful than the first. I'm a person sometimes difficult to motivate - but Tony does it, no matter what the critics may say. He doesn't have a PhD, but this stuff is so much more coherent and worthwile - not to mention energetic - than most with PhDs (including myself) can ever hope to produce. How does he do it - I don't know. What matters is, that it works. The program really represents a big help, support, a coach, if you will, in day-to-day life. It works on so many levels. Even if you're just interested in human psychology, you will get lots from listening to these tapes. Afraid of flying? Thinking that your diet won't work because it did not work so many times in the past? Thinking that you're hopeless in some respect and that you're "just not the material" to achieve something you're after? Feeling that there are too many obstacles and foes around you hindering your every action? Wanting something, but being unsure what it is exactly? Seek no more. Get these tapes/CDs and give it a sincere effort. There is no way that you can fail (as Tony will teach you).

Tony Robbins is the best software upgrade on the planet for the mental hardware we call the human mind.

Since using his tapes I'm the same person I was before, only now I enjoy healthy things rather than unhealthy, I enjoy taking positive action instead of negative (goodbye road rage and panic attacks!) and I am no longer so selfish.... in fact, now my life is dedicated to contributing to others through the net.

Tony has a great eye for what actually works and the fact that he found things that work and put them together so beautifully has dramatically changed my life for the better.

If you buy the tapes and don't listen too them - you're wasting your money. If you listen to them you'll get your money's worth. If you practice them as you go along..... you could pay ten times the price and as God is my witness, you'd still be getting a GREAT deal.