The author has a knowledgable grasp of baseball history and the feats of today's players in context with that history. Jump in, find something interesting, keep flipping through. A nugget of info on every page.

"True Stars" is like no other baseball book I've ever read. He combines the statistal elements of Total Baseball with great stories from each year beginning with baseball's first All-Star game. The author does a nice job of tieing statistical charts with his stories and his examination of every current and future Hall of Famer is awesome. This book is a heck of alot of fun! You can spend 5 minutes or 5 hours with it, but you keep coming back for more. Its a must for baseball historians!

This slim novel begins with a scrawny young girl sleeping in a dung heap. The heroine, who is nameless as well as homeless, uses the dung for heat, a decision that Jane Sharp, the town's midwife, recognizes as a clever one. Jane hires the girl and names her Beetle, for dung beetle.

Beetle is a smart, compassionate girl, but a timid one, too. She allows Jane Sharp to boss her around and the local boys to tease her mercilessly.

Karen Cushman chose the England of the Middle Ages as a setting for the book, and has researched the subject exhaustively. We learn about village life, medicine, feudal structure, and the place of women in that society. Most enjoyable to follow is Beetle's progress from a scared, meek little girl to a self-assured young woman who has chosen her own name: Alyce.

While not romanticizing Alyce's situation, Cushman makes it clear how much more is available to her than to upper class women of her time. At the end of the book, Alyce chooses her own future from several options. She selects the life that will allow her the most independence. With a name and a career of her own choosing, Alyce has come far indeed from the dung heap.

I really liked the way this book portrayed the period that it was written in. From the filthy surroundings to the bad health care to the extreme superstition, not a detail was missed. This book also shows that with a small chance and a lot of courage, you can make anything out of yourself. Here's how the plot went:

Beetle was living on the street the night she decided to use the dung heap for a bed. The heap provided warmth, and, in the morning, a day's work and some food from the local midwife, Jane Sharp. Soon, that one day turns into months, as Beetle becomes the midwife's apprentice. Eventually, she gets a new name, Alys, and a new status. But all is not well, for failure comes knocking at Alys's door, and instead of facing it, she decides to run away. She goes to an inn, and here, with the help of her cat and a scribe, she learns that she is smart, she is pretty, and that maybe failure her failure wasn't so bad after all.

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman is a splendid book that will transport you to the 14th century medieval England. Her vivid details and rich language will virtually place you right into the story. Through the eyes of Alyce you are taken on an amazing journey of self identity. Alyce, the main character starts off her journey nameless, and moves from being called Brat, to Beetle, to her most valued name Alyce. The beginning of the story portrays Alyce as a homeless, nameless, frail girl, searching for a full belly, a content heart, and a warm place to sleep. She wanders from village to village finding scraps of food and warmth inside dung heaps being teased and taunted. One day to her surprise she is found by Jane a midwife. This is where her true journey begins. Through the tough, stern, and greedy midwife, Alyce learns important midwifery skills, courage, and discovers her place in this world. Karen Cushman succeeds in creating a character who is coming of age that young people can relate to today. Although Alyce comes from a different era and time as young people today, Karen does a fabulous job of displaying the same difficulties and experiences that contemporary readers today are facing. Alyce is a heorine that you will fall in love with. Through her hardships and her courage, Alyce establishes a sense of identity. I would recommend this book for ages 12 and up. This age group can relate to the struggles of Alyce, as well as enjoy her qualities. The language and content is something I feel that 12 year olds can understand and have the appropriate background experiences to truly engage with Alyce. I loved the book and would recommend it to my 7th grade students as well as others.

That's two and a half stars. Maybe I'm just jaded from reading too many open-mouthed catalogs of strange facts over too many years. Coleman is one of today's most popular practitioners of the genre, and he certainly is better than the average. His attitude is more like Charles Fort's than like Erik von Daniken's. You may disagree with his conclusions, or find his recital of testimonies credulous, but you feel he is being straight with you, and that he is aware of the value of sometimes just letting mystery be. If you own a bunch of books of this kind, and are hungry for more, you should bump the rating up another star.

I found myself suspecting this particular volume was slapped together under this title to generate extra sales in the wake of the Mothman movie. The Mothman himself takes up less than a third of the book. No significant info is added to what John Keel wrote in his 1975 book (and a good deal of that left out, as not relevant to Coleman's real theme.) We do get some neat new Keel quotes and anecdotes that spotlight his startling personality. And that's fun, but the same personality was fully on display in Keel's book, too.

So if it's not "about" Mothman, what is it about? It is a brief Fortean treatise on cryptozoology - the study of animals, especially large animals, unknown to science. It touches on well known stars like Sasquatch and Nessie, but concentrates on flaps in which cryptozoology bumps up against "high weirdness," and seems to call for investigations as much by unnatural historians as by natural ones. Thunderbirds, Cupachabras, giant black dogs with fiery eyes, and lizard men predominate.

There are no footnotes, but there's a good bibliography. There's also an odd 18-page index of "places of high strangeness" in the U.S. and Canada. It's odd in that it's just a list of names, by state and province, with no indication of what's weird about any one of them. There are bound to be several within driving distance of your home... I guess you just drive there, stake your tent, and try to be ready for anything.

This is a great book, because it brings Fortean themes and general spooky fireside tales together with serious investigations and cryptozoology. Indeed, Coleman has given us a peek at what can happen when cryptozoology gets stranger than usual. He first provides a good introduction to Mothman, the red-eyed flying entity reportedly seen in rural America and now the subject of a major motion picture. Coleman also pays fiting tribute to infamous Mothman investigator John Keel and his explainations for unexpalined phenomena. Finally, Coleman takes time to offer some of his own ideas and the ideas of his fellow researches. He neatly ties up loose ends by offer the reader folk tales and myths relating to many of the creatures documented in the book's pages.

Besides Mothman, Coleman yields an impressive amount of information concerning Thunderbirds and other winged creatures that people claim to encounter in the modern world. And if that wasn't enough for you hard-core monster buff: Coleman also discusses various other alleged unknowns. These inlcude sightings of reptoids, goat suckers, black dogs, the Flatwoods Monster, and even a three-toed beast lurking in New Orleans.

Coleman's cryptozoological hypothesis about what may be behind some creature sightings are most interesting. If you liked Coleman's, Mysterious America, you will love this book.

The Fortean world is a difficult one. A Fortean knows that the most unusual elements can somehow be connected in surprising ways. It is difficult to take things in isolation - and Loren Coleman, as a good Fortean, knows this. And so his latest book on Mothman covers so much more than the Mothman sightings we all know and love from Point Pleasant. A particular favourite of Coleman's is the name game and along with cryptozoology it's well represented in this latest book. Many other cryptozoological entities are covered in this tome - owlman, lizardmen etc. In one sense it's a book that looks at the poor relatives of cryptozoology - hundreds of books on Bigfoot but information on these - just as fascinating - creatures is harder to come by.
Excellent appendices give subsequent researchers a chance to follow in the footsteps - a list of Mothman sightings, a list of sites of American high wierdness and a comprehensive bibliography. If there's one thing missing it's pictures - but that said what could be shown in a work of this nature? There are no pictures of these entities and I don't want to look at endless pictures of bridges and towns, so that's not a complaint merely a comment - mind it does have a seriously cool cover.
Apparently there were some typos that crept into the first edition but these have all been corrected in subsequent print runs.
All told this is an excellent book which I can wholeheartedly recommend to the Forteans, cryptozoologists and lovers of the weird out there.
If only the movie had been this good...

Decades ago, Bernard Heuvelmans, armed only with eyewitness accounts, boldly postulated a taxonomy of sea serpents. Coleman mimics this approach here but works with a flimsier data set and weaker credentials and thereby achieves rather limited success. I enjoyed Coleman's book as an anecdotal, even tongue-in-cheek, history of mystery primates. Yet, the value of his novel classification system was mitigated by the fact that the book plainly mixes sane reporting with absolute poppycock in very uneven fashion. One cannot ignore reams of forensic evidence of sasquatch, but I draw the line at 13-foot cannibals wielding clubs at Australian gulches and at isolated, third-hand reports of lanky gray 20-footers stalking the Scottish highlands--especially when the pictures look like something taken directly from a lesser Ray Harryhausen spectacle, e.g., "Equinox" or "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger." On a final disappointing note, although the book is presented under the guise of scholarship, it clearly does not match the level of analysis characteristic of, say, Krantz or Shackley that one would expect from an author who declares in his own hand (thank you very much) that he is a "professor at two New England colleges."

Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe have in the course of 207 pages laid a basis for a reclassification system to the myriad of mystery primates from around the worldwide. Borrowing from the works of Mark Hall and Ivan Sanderson (to name a few) the proposed classification system encompasses nine (9) varieties of these cryptic creatures.

Coupled with the classifications, are 50 case studies each accompanied by an line illustration by Harry Trumbore. These case studies are short recounting of famous and not so famous, incidents and anecdotal information about each of these cases. The cases themselves are subgroup in a worldwide geographical breakdown, thus allowing a reader to view only the particular world area if they choose. Although some may question the inclusion of chupacabras or Steller's sea monkey (or ape) in the classification system, they do add some spice to the reading and perhaps offer a few un-thought of ideas.

The heart of the book though is not the case studies, rather the rationale for a reclassification to avoid the common term of "Bigfoot" around the world, as these mystery primates have been being reported long before the usage of the word "Bigfoot" in the mid-part of this century. The first portion of the book breaks down the various groups that make up the classification, these being: Neo-Giant, True Giant, Marked Hominid, Neandertaloid, Erectus Hominid, Proto-Pygmy, Unknown Pongid, Giant Monkey, and Merbeings. By far the last class, Merbeings, is the most controversial.

Additionally the latter part of the book deals with best bets as to which of these mystery creatures may be discovered first. It must also be said that some of the inclusions are historical and that the creatures described may no longer exist. The extensive bibliography, source pages and other resource and additional follows-up sections at the rear of the book, make it easier for a researcher to dig further for themselves.

The book does not answer everything, and there are some gray areas. But, as a medium to create debate and rethinking of ideas the book succeeds. As a book in a series of other Field Guides this one had to follow a certain pattern. More emphasis is needed on breaking down the exact anatomical variations between the classes and a more thorough emphasis on cases that make up those classes. But for limited space and a stricter pattern, the book does offer a reader the basics to start their own research and evaluation. Perhaps even offer the authors themselves a reclassification of their classifications.

A great field guide which encompasses centuries old mystery primates, to the authors' conclusions as to which unknown hairy homonoids are most likely to be discovered in the next century.

This book ia a "must read" for anyone interested in this subject as it contains maps, footprint comparisons and descriptions combined with wonderful illustrations of over 50 of these creatures from all over the world. There is also a new classification system which helps sort through this myriad list of creatures.

It is certainly well worth the small cost -- a reference, once read, you will want to keep at your fingertips in the future.

Depression affects fifty percent of the population. Every other one of us will suffer from some form of depression at some time. It can wreck relationships, take away your joy, and can be a terrible way to suffer in silence.

Depression in fact stems from a combination of chemical imbalances and environmental factors. SAM-e is a safe, over-the-counter, natural supplement that promises to help you beat depression quickly, easily, and safely.

SAM-e is not a drug, herb or a vitamin. It is a substance already present in our bodies. By restoring this substance to an optimal level, you can see dramatic improvements in your mood.

Modern prescription antidepressants are harsh drugs, which can have intolerable side effects. The author shows how clinical trials have shown SAM-e to have fewer side effects than a placebo (sugar pill). The positive results will also only take a few days to appear.

If you want to try a program to get out of the depression cycle, you can try a number of things. These ideas are a combination of what I have learned and are also the basic ideas sprinkled throughout this book.

1. Make a commitment to being happy. 2. Take the bad feelings and tell yourself you don't want to feel this way. 3. Replace the negative thoughts about the past with happy ones about the future. (Hope) 4. Exercise and take your vitamins. 5. Find an activity that makes you feel good and keeps your mind busy. 6. Give something back to your community. Volunteer, help a child learn to read or cook a meal for a friend. 7. Be in control! Decide what you are going to do about a problem instead of complaining about it. 8. Focus on the good in your life instead of depressing issues and negative thoughts. 9. Eat the right foods! Cooking can be very therapeutic. 10. Get a pet! How can you be sad with a puppy or kitten bounding about the house! 11. Join a group, church or club. Get involved with positive, happy people. Avoid negative, depressing people who do not support you emotionally. Soon those people will learn to be more positive if they want a piece of your time. 12. Take 200 - 400mg SAM-e a day. (GNC brand it the best and you can take up to 800mg if needed) 13. Practice relaxation techniques such as Yoga. 14. Go for a massage. 15. Try light therapy if you have SAD. 16. Nurture your Spirit, that is how you will find true Joy.

It is a very good idea to read this entire book. About ten percent of depressed individuals should not treat themselves and should be under a doctor's supervision. There does however seem to be help for postpartum and postmenopausal depression as well.

If you are taking St. John's wort, you may want to switch over to SAM-e. St. John wort causes photosensitivity and therefore has a side effect.

If you feel any of the following symptoms, this book may hold the secret to a cure:

1. Feeling empty. 2. Feeling sad. 3. Negative thoughts about the past, present and future. 4. Feeling tense and nervous. 5. Loss of interest in life. 6. Feeling guilty or worthless. 7. Difficulty concentrating. 8. Sleep problems. 9. Change in appetite or lack of hunger. 10. Feeling sluggish. 11. Suicidal thoughts - seek professional help immediately!

This book is filled with information on a variety of antidepressants and the reasons why they may be harmful. In my opinion, why take something with side effects, when you can take something which is natural and is already something your body uses on a daily basis. I say, take this along with your daily vitamins, it could change your whole outlook on life. It is an expensive supplement, but you happiness is priceless. Please do consult your doctor before going on this program, especially if you have other health concerns.

An effort made for the happiness of others lifts us above ourselves. --Lydia M. Child

One cannot get through life without pain....What we can do is choose how to use the pain life presents us. --Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.

I'm an American psychiatrist and psychotherapist working in London. Having heard Dr. Brown talk about SAMe at a lecture to psychiatrists, I ordered Stop Depression Now when it came out, and read it. The authors' view that SAMe is an effective antidepressant without significant toxicity impressed me as having a scientific basis. I recommended to two patients of mine that they try it. One, who was not clinically depressed, but was feeling unfulfilled at work and was having trouble sleeping, took 200 milligrams twice a day. She noted that within a few days she felt happier, had more energy, and fell asleep more easily. The second patient had had the insidious onset a few years earlier of intermittent feelings of pins and needles in his hands and feet. These had been growing more evident, especially in his feet. I suggested that he take a cocktail that this book recommends: SAMe 400 milligrams a day, Vitamin B12 one milligram a day, and folic acid 800 micrograms a day. Over the past few weeks the feelings in his extremities have disappeared. He, too, has said he feels more energy and feels happier. Neither patient has experienced any side effects. I am favorably impressed by these two anecdotes. I hope some of my colleagues will investigate the merits of SAMe, Vitamin B12, folic acid, and the diet that the book recommends, and report their findings.

Morton Schatzman, MD

This book outlines the benefits of SAM-e for those with symptoms of depression and arthritus. In both areas the success of SAM-e treatment can be attested. SAM-e has overcome my 94 year old mother's latent depression. In two months she has changed from a case of classic old age depression to a woman who is full of energy and positive in her outlook. A 94 year old who lives independantly.

I read the book at my mother's insistance and found the comments about arthritis right on the mark. Dr. Brown's suggestion that SAM-e would mitigate my symptoms has worked.

In both areas, depression and arthritus, Dr. Brown's writtings have resulted in positive results that can be attested to first hand. It is must reading for anyone with one or both of these afflictions.

Read this book and you will never look at anything the same as before! You will be suspicious of every agency you have done regular business with! You will not trust what you hear on the evening news ever again! It will cause you to seriously look at what you are supporting with your tax dollars! Because if you do pay income tax, social security tax, realestate tax, etc., you are helping to destroy the United States and the World! We must wake up and start diseminating this information to as many as will listen, before we all wake up one day to a true nightmare that will make the Mid-Ages look like a veritable amusement-park ride!

p.s.: that reviewer from Geneva, Switzerland is just seeking attention, don't listen to his babble!

Coleman has written a scary book on world conspiracy. He claims to be an intellegence agent who has gone public with what he knows. The book is scarier than fiction. It's hard to believe that what he writes is made up, since it agrees with the facts so well. He writes that a secret group,the committe of 300, controls virtually all of industry, science, and entertainment. They keep certain scientific discoveries secret, to keep people dependent on them. They also have disinformation publishers and agents who misinform the public on what is really going on. I was very skeptical when I picked up the book. But it presents a convincing case for a conspiracy. After reading it, I am not so sure there isn't a conspiracy. Well worth the time it takes to read it.

After reading this book, I will never again look at the world and it's history in the same way. The British Monarchy is the worst scourge this planet has ever known. They and their committee should be dealt with in the same manner as they have purportedly been dealing with us.

I first heard the author on NPR and was able to get the audio version of her book. I have listened to it many times and have shared it with many of my friends. I particularly enjoy hearing the generational stories that Ms. Coleman tells so well. It is great insight into another culture that is different, yet so much the same.

As a librarian, I come across, almost daily, many exceptional literary works of art. This one is currently at the top of my list. Any book that takes you through a wide range of emotions should be read by all. As a black woman having spent some time with relatives down south, I could relate big time with Ms. Johnson-Coleman's stories about her family. Somehow, we must be related because she described my relatives to a tee. I laughed out loud at some things because I lived almost the exact same moments myself. I also cried when I read the story about the "colored" fountain. That was probably the most powerful story for me in the entire book. I must admit that having grown up in the Midwest, I didn't have much exposure to my southern roots. With the author's "Afterthoughts" section, I now understand a lot about why things are the way they are. For that, I thank her. One thing we must never forget is that these "ordinary" people made extraordinary sacrifices and endured unimaginable indignities so that I, and those of my generation, could live a better life. We must continue to learn from them and thank them for their efforts. Most of all, we must not ever take for granted the good fortune that was obtained through the blood, sweat, and tears of those who came before us. I will pass this book on to all, no matter what race they are, who are willing to learn about where I come from.

I'm just loving this book. I bought it because I liked the artist, Johnathan Greene, that designed the book cover. What a wonderful surprise. The story telling is so discriptive that I wish I were in that little town and knew the people in the stories.

This play can be read as anti-semitic. In fact, it's pretty hard to defend it from such charges. Shylock is a pretty rotten character and the fact that he is jewish is difficult to overlook (particularly since the other characters mention it on pretty much EVERY page). However, I think it is important to mention that the "heroes" of this play do not necessarily have to be interpreted as heroes. They are by no means perfect and there are many subtle (and some not-so-subtle) instances within the text in which their biases against ANYONE unlike them is illustrated. If one reads the play this way, then Shylock becomes more of a tragic figure rather than an absolutely heartless villain. I don't know. My feelings about this are mixed. There are a few funny parts of this play and the language is, as always, beautiful. The theme of putting a price on human beings is one which has been explored numerous times since. Overall, it is enjoyable, but perhaps not so much so as some of the other comedies. Do not read this play without having read a few others by Shakespeare first. It is an excellent play, but not his best and not his most enjoyable either.

After reading most of the other reviews here, I am fully aware that most of the reviewers didn't read carefully enough (or watch carefully enough if they saw the play.) Now, I'm not saying its not open for different interpretations, but there is one thing I would really like to get straight.

I read MoV for a Bar Mitzvah project on Anti-Semitism. Naturally, my sympathies went to Shylock. However, even if i were Christian, i still would've favored Shylock. What many people believe is that Shylock is a cold hearted ruthless person and only wanted to get back at Antonio because Antonio was a Christian.

Not true. Shylock specifically says something along the lines off, "Why should I lend money to you? You spit on me, and call me a Jewish dog!" I'm not saying that Shylock was a good guy, but I am saying that he is not the villain.

In fact, the "Merchant of Venice," in this story is actually Shylock, not Antonio, contrary to popular belief. My thoughts on the story was that Shylock requested a pound of Antonio's flesh because he did not trust Antonio. Who would trust someone that spat on him? The fact is, Antonio doesn't pay him back in the end.

Now, there's always something else we have to put into consideration. Would the judge had given the "spill one ounce of Christian blood" verdict at the end if Shylock were not a Jew?

This is the mark of a great play. A play that really gets you thinking. But I encourage you, I beg of you, that when you read it or see it, please do not hold Shylock up to being a cold hearted villain. Hold Antonio up to that image. (joking, of course, Antonio's not a bad guy, he's just not a good guy.)

This is a wonderful play - and unless you have seen it or read it you don't know it at all. That's because everything the popular culture tells us about this play is false (for example; how many of you think this play is about a merchant named Shylock? ;-)

The Merchant of Venice is a lively and happy morality tale. Good triumphs over bad - charity over greed - love over hate.
There is fine comedy. Portia is one of Shakespeare's greatest women (and he ennobled women more than any playwright in history). There are moments of empathy and pain with all the major characters. There is great humanity and earthiness in this play. These things are what elevate Shakespeare over any other playwright in English history.

Plays should be seen - not read. I recommend you see this play (if you can find a theater with the courage and skill to do it). But if it is not playing in your area this season - buy the book and read it.

I have known Oz for about three years. I started as his patient and am now his friend. He helped me regain my health from a chronic illness. His book is an excellent summary of his practices. You can learn a lot from it - regardless of your age or body type. It is an easy read and his programs are relatively easy to follow. Of course, like any other diet or lifestyle plan, you need some discipline. However, Oz offers an excellent way of life, which is what such a program should be.

THIS BOOK EDUCATED ME ENORMOUSLY ABOUT HOW TO EAT. IT EXPLAINED TO ME ABOUT HOW THE FOODS I WAS EATING WERE CONTRIBUTING TO MY MOOD SWINGS, MY PROBLEMS WITH MY CRAVINGS AND MY WEIGHT. I LOST 18 POUNDS SINCE I BEGAN THE BALANCE PROGRAM LAST YEAR AND HAVE CONTINUED TO MAINTAIN MY WEIGHT. I'M EXTREMELY HAPPY I READ THIS BOOK.

After trying many other popular diet books on the market (low carb, low sugar, etc.), and being unable to find livable success with any of them, I found this book. After taking the quiz and beginning to eat the way Oz suggests for my metabolic type, I have been consistently losing body fat, maintaining my muscle mass, and have loads of energy! The quiz is easy and his list of foods are also easy to learn and apply, after a short period of time you know them by heart (until then, put up a copy on your fridge!). This diet is very easy to cook for and live with, (no chef needed at all!) and as a busy soccer, baseball, basketball, 40 something mom who drives across town to take kids to school and athletic events, I have little time for plans that are not easy. I have my whole family on this plan, and we are not all the same metabolic type! It is not hard! Anyone can do this. In my particular case, I have diagnosed low thyroid, and weight has always been a problem for me, so finding a plan that works for me has been a blessing!

DON'T MISS THIS GREAT BOOK! Oz is well researched, and knowledgable about nutrition and health! He certainly has my respect and many thanks!