A splendid book -- practical, readable, helpful. It has done wonders for me in both life and work. Great for anybody who needs media skills or just some confidence in the fact that he or she is a star already.

"A Voice In The Wilderness", is a very insightful book that is written collectively by three seasoned ministers. The deal with three catagories of issues. The first being that of Cultural Wars. The second issue discussed is Internal Pressures, and the third is External Pressures. Steve Brown, Haddon Robinson, and William Willimon give great advice that is illustrated by personal experiences from their lives. It was a great book and a enjoyable read.

I have both Ann Marie's books and the new book by Chris Shaffer and while both have done a good job describing the trails to the falls Shaffer's book offers many more waterfalls and color photographs that all you to really see what the waterfall looks like. The photos in Brown's book are very poor and dont do the waterfalls justice. But, she did do a good job letting us know where waterfalls can be found.

This book has inspired me to get out there and explore my new home state! The author gives detailed descriptions of the waterfalls, directions to the waterfalls, and the best time to see them. There are all levels of difficulty when it comes to the trip to the falls, from driving to an overlook to backpacking for three days. There are also all levels of waterfalls from the small to the majestic. If you want to explore the beauty of California, start with the 250 waterfalls in this book. You won't be disappointed!

You can really tell that the author has personally visited every one of these 250 waterfalls. Her descriptions are incredibly accurate. Each fall has a photo, a trail map, and an interesting description of how to get there and what you'll see along the trail. Some falls can be reached by bike or car, also. If I had a whole year off, I'd take this book and try to go visit each and every waterfall! Author Ann Marie Brown must have a really great life.

This short, well-written book provides a compelling look at a series of events in 1962 that not only changed politics in the state of Georgia, but launched the man that would become our 39th president into a career in public service.

The book itself is facsinating, gentle, and approachable, much like Mr. Carter himself. He paints a colorful picture of a place and time in American and state politics that one would find hard to believe ever existed so out in the open, so legal and accepted.

If you're looking for gripping political drama or a dose of splashy, insider dirt, you won't find it here. What you will get from "Turning Point" is an understanding of how geniunely compassionate and well-intentioned a man Mr. Carter is, perhaps always better suited to do more good outside of the world of modern politics and the presidency.

President Carter has in this book painted an extremely clear portrait of the world of rural southern politics. A world that has changed some since the 1962 election he describes in this work, but not much. Just last year in my own House district the Republican primary candidate from the smaller of the two counties in the district won the election after no returns came in from his county until all the returns were in from the larger county. Officials in the smaller county then knew the margin they needed, and they delivered. The results weren't contested but a few years ago when the results of an election were contested it was found that many of the votes cast in this small county were cast by the dead. Just like in Quitman County.

Carter tells the story of his first run for public office in a very comfortable and easy to read style. Even though I knew the outcome I couldn't put the book down because I just had to know what happened next. From the time he starts his campaign one can sense history unfolding, not just as the election laws of Georgia change, but also as a naïve candidate slowly begins to learn the lessons that will eventually take him to the White House. Carter does miss one important point though that deserves some attention. The heavy weight given to rural votes in the south was not only an attempt to keep blacks out of politics but revealed the strong influence Thomas Jefferson still held on the south. Jefferson I think would have been very happy to see the votes of small farmer's carry more weight than the votes in urban areas. Add to that the strong influence of the Populists in the turn of the century south and the system in place in 1962 Georgia makes perfect sense. Basically, liberal thinkers had put in place the system the new liberals wanted to change.

Reading this book, along with some of the former President's other works have made me feel as if I have known the man for years. Honest, compassionate, sensitive, intelligent, and indeed somewhat bullheaded are all words that come to mind when trying to describe the man from Plains. If you don't get to know this great American it will be a loss to no one but you and to get to know him you need this book. It is a book you will enjoy.

Being a young boy, and native Georgia, during the Carter presidency, I didn't have an understanding as to who the man really was. I heard the stories about him being a peanut farmer from south Georgia and just couldn't imagine how he ended up in the white house. This book really doesn't explain that, but it does show how his early political life really shaped who he is. His struggles with the political "machine" during that time help to explain his involvement in foreign election monitoring. Other social commentary shows the compassionate man who really did want to help in his community.

President Carter is a terrific storyteller, and has some great stories to tell. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a fun, easy and political read, whether you're a Deomcrat or like me, a Republican.

...Delta Force (who plays a big role in the book) was not really used in an accurate way. For one thing they would not keep messing up their missions like they did in the book. I read a book by Eric Haney (that is very good) called Inside Delta Force. Eric Haney is a founding member of Delta Force, and after reading Haney's book I found it very hard to believe that Delta Force would behave the way they did out on the ice flow or when they targeted the ship (later on in the book). Dan Brown kind of makes them look a little stupid leaving his main characters a chance to escape in a James Bond type of way. I would also find it hard to believe that Delta Force would be used to target innocent people (I guess that could be another debate). I think that the book could have come off better if the bad guys were someone else other than Delta Force (maybe like some I.R.S. agents... just kidding)... Other times the characters would really be in trouble, and of course something really convenient would happen to give them a chance to escape, or they just acted in the nick of time.... In any event, the book does move fast, and it has some really interesting parts. I have read the Da Vinci Code which was just ok (some of the factual information in that book was really stretched, and in some cases not true at all), but I still plan to read all of his books. Even though I might have problems with his books here and there they seem to move fast and are good at holding the reader's attention.

"Deception Point" opens in Washington, DC, during a tight Presidential campaign. The incumbent, a man of strong principles, is a major NASA supporter. His opponent, who is basing his campaign on turning NASA into a private, non-governmental agency, thus saving the US taxpayer billions of dollars annually, is way up in the polls. He is also accepting enormous illegal campaign contributions from private aerospace companies who have billions to gain from the privatization of NASA. After many failures & much spending, NASA is badly in need of a success.

Then a NASA satellite detects a large, high-density rock buried 200 feet below the Milne Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island, high in the Arctic Circle. NASA scientists determine the rock to be a meteor containing fossils proving that life exists elsewhere in the universe.

To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House sends a team of independent experts to the NASA habisphere, built over the meteor in the Arctic Circle. One of these experts is the intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton, the daughter of Senator Sedgewick Sexton. Senator Sexton is the man running for election against the President of the United States. The plot thickens.

Rachel, while in the Arctic, uncovers what could be scientific trickery - an incredible deception that could cause political and scientific upheaval and cost the President his bid for re-election. When she & her colleagues attempt to investigate further, they are plunged into life threatening danger. To escape assassination they flee for their lives. Their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this extraordinary plot and expose the truth.

Dan Brown has proven to be one of the top writers in the suspense-thriller genre. The originality of his plots, his amazingly accurate research, and his ability to catch the reader's interest from the get-go and hold it until the last word in the last sentence of the last page, make him an exceptional author. Plus, after completing each of Dan Brown's books, the reader usually comes away from the experience having learned much more than a storyline. I loved "Deception Point" - couldn't put it down. I also highly recommend "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons."

Unbelievably good. Out-Crichtons Michael. Out-Clanceys Tom. What a brillliant mind. First Dan Brown builds a fantastic hypothesis and then slowly undoes it. This man should work for the CIA, he is such a brain! This is a terrific story about how NASA falls on its own sword. The characters are well drawn, the women especially. The inside workings of politics is a fun story. How can one writer know so much? One of the best thrillers I have read in several years. Every chapter is a cliff-hanger. When a NASA satellite in the Arctic discovers a meteorite buried deep in a glacier, the foundering Agency grabs the publicity to save it from being voted out of existence by dollar-hungry senators and representatives. The president is also in need of a something to boost his sagging polls. This looks like the life-saver, until it begins to look like a gigantic hoax. And on top of that, someone is willing to kill, and does murder several scientists, in orer to prevent exposure. You won't be able to put this down, once you start it. A high-concept novel, yet thoroughly believeable.

I thought this map was actually more informative than the "Streetwise" version. This also includes good information on the Hyde Park area, and has information on the subway and bus lines. A good general map of the city. It's not big, so you can throw it in your pocket.

This is a compact folding map of Venice, only 21 by 8 inches (470 x 210), amazingly clear and comprehensive. On plasticized card, it is nearly waterproof, shows almost every street,the main hotels, art museums and churches. Worth its weight in ducats!

This is based on my upcoming review in First Draft Magazine:

HAUNTED PLACES IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH by Alan Brown.
University Press of Mississippi Jackson. 2002. ISBN
1-57806-477-5.

This must have been one fun book to write, since it is based
wholly on things you can't prove and stories largely made up by
imaginative people. Kind of like a book on Flying Saucer
sightings: the stories may be true, but how is anybody ever going
to be able to prove it?

Reality aside, the reader can romp through the South,
reading tales of things that go scary in the night, safe in the
knowledge that it's only a book.

Alan Brown takes us from Carrollton, Alabama's famous Face
in the Pickens County Courthouse Window to Birmingham's Downtown
Library ghost.

Since just about everybody who is alert and bristling with
caffeine has seen things out of the corner of the eye, movements
in peripheral vision that can't be viewed head-on, this book can
compel and entertain. Since everybody's been frightened at one
time or another by a nightmare after a turbulent night trying to
digest a spicy taco dinner, everybody can identify with the
implications of these ghost stories. You just have to be in the
mood. If this is your Day of Pragmatism and Reality Check, you'll
be bored. If this is a dark and stormy night with the power out
and a candle illuminating an H.P. Lovecraft book, you just may
want to pull that copy of HAUNTED PLACES off the shelf and dive
in.

If you're going to scare yourself, why not learn a little
history at the same time?

--Jim Reed, author of DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS, HIDDEN COMFORTS, UNEXPECTED JOYS Learn more: jimreedbooks.com

Goncalves should roast for this embarrassment of a book. FW-1 is tough to learn and has many details to master; unfortunately this won't help you get there. As I read the book I kept thinking to myself, didn't I read this poorly worded passage already in the Checkpoint documentation? It seems as though much of this book was lifted from Checkpoint's sources, munged a little bit through a word processor and then printed out. The book is absolutely full of worthless sales pitches for various features of FW-1. Presumably if you are reading the book, you already have a copy of the software and don't need to read ad copy convincing you to buy it. What you need is a logically arranged and well written treatise on how to set up the software, deal with many of the common problems and pitfalls, and implement some of its many useful features. If you agree that is what you need, then hurry and get your copy of "Essential Check Point Firewall-1" by Welch-Abernathy; don't even consider wasting your money on this dog.

This is not one of the best books I've ever seen. In fact, it was one of the most unhelpful CheckPoint books I've seen. I would reccomend David Abernathy's Checkpoint Essentials (aka phoneboy). Save your money on this one.

If you want to complement your FireWall-1 documentation with some strategical scenarios, additional security information (encryption, NAT, etc.), this is a great book. The evaluation copy of FloodGate and the multimedia demo of FireWall-1 also comes handy for those evaluating the product as well as learning more about its features and capabilities. However, I don't think this book has the intention to replace the manuals and installation procedure that comes with the product, as on that end, Check Point did a great job!