The fact that I know there are 28 volumes in the Lone Wolf & Cub epic certainly enters into how I read the stories collected in Volume 25, "Perhaps in Death." If I was reading Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's epic manga as a regular comic book then the way the final confrontation between Ogami Itto and Retsudo Yagyu is being drawn out may very well have driven me crazy. But given the perspective of the long view there can be a greater appreciation for how these final impediments only add to the grandeur of the conflict. Although poisoning the blades of the two samurai failed to kill either one of the foes, Abe-No-Kaii has revealed the Yagyu letter to the Shogun and Retsudo is now under house arrest:

(122) "Perhaps in Death" focuses on Okan as she obeys Retsudo Yagyu's orders and uses the Wolf Fire to call forth the grass to Edo to aid their master. Meanwhile, Abe-No-Kaii watches over Retsudo while trying to come up with a new poison plot and Ogami Itto learns that his foe may be delayed in returning to the place where their two swords are standing in the ground.

(123) "Tales of the Grass: Oyamada Shume" is the first of a trilogy of stories on how the grass, members of the Yagyu clan hidding in secret by living as ordinary folk throughout Japan, respond to the call, of the Wolf Fire. Not only must they pass along the signal, they are also required to fake their deaths.

(124) "Tales of the Grass: Nakodera Busho" finds the call of the Wolf Fire coming next to a priest while ringing his temple bell.

(125) "Tales of the Grass: A Day Like Any Other" is the final story of this trio about the grass being called to Edo, and one of the most upsetting tales in the Lone Wolf & Cub saga. I have been reading one episode an evening before going to sleep, and it was difficult to sleep after this one.

(126) "Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, and Brunch" finds Abe-No-Kaii deciding to use Retsudo Yagyu's pride against him since the old man refuses to eat or drink anything set before him by the servants of the master poisoner. But Kaii's spies also report that Retsudo is just sitting there, not even lying down to sleep. The story continues the developing effort to make Retsudo a nobler figure, both in contrast to Kaii and even in comparison to Ogami Itto.

(127) "By His Own Hand" finally returns us to Ogami Itto and Daigoro, who are being watched by the Shogun's bugyo. In a shack by the shore the young boy practices repeatedly with a long stick, suddenly rushing at his father and whacking him. Those watching have figured out the meaning of the two swords stuck in the ground and the hundred mounds each covered with a stone, but they cannot understand the lesson that is being taught by father to son.

I sure hope the final volume of Lone Wolf & Cub is published soon (it has already been delayed almost a month) so that I do not have a gap in my reading experience, but certainly I could appreciate the lesson if that turns out to be the case. I have not bothered to find out the original schedule these comics were published, but assuming a montly schedule this volume would mark ten years worth of stories and I would be hard pressed to name another comic book that maintained this high of a standard for so long a period of time. When you step back and look at the epic in its totality you can appreciate the way Koike and Kojima are putting the pieces into place, slowly but surely.

Yagyu Retsudo, the mortal enemy of Lone Wolf and Cub is finally brought up on charges of treason against the Shogun for the infamous Yagyu letters. Awaiting trial under the care of the poisoner Abe who plots to kill him still, Retsudo summons the 'Grass' in a final attempt to change his fate - ninja infiltrators hidden for generations among the Samurai families all over Japan. Duty, the main tenet of Bushido is evident in the way the ninja obediently destroy all traces of their former lives (and in some cases, their offspring as well) as farmers, soldiers, and priests, to answer Retsudo's call to arms. Elsewhere, Ogami Itto patiently awaits his promised duel with Retsudo while teaching son Diagoro what it means to wield the sword of the Samurai.

Having followed the saga of Ogami Itto and his son Diagoro since book #1, I must say the stories keep getting better and better. While there is less of the violent physical encounters that characterized Itto's earlier adventures, the tales depicted in the book are no less gripping. I particularly liked the focus on the other major character of the series, Itto's nemesis Yagyu Retsudo. One could almost admire the man for his tenacity, honour, and Bushido spirit, despite his ruthlessness.

As a newcomer to the works of C. S. Lewis, I'm thrilled with "The Magic Never Ends". Recently, I've read "A Grief Observed", "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", and
"The Screwtape Letters", three very diverse examples of Lewis's ability to offer spiritual magic to all age groups. John R. Duncan said it best in his introduction: "The greatness of C. S. Lewis's writing comes from his ability to simplify an intellectual or philosophical concept and to assist readers on a spiritual journey of their own." With input from other Lewis scholars, Douglas Gresham, Walter Hooper, Dr. Dabney Hart, Dr. Lyle Dorsett, Dr. Christopher W. Mitchell, and Colin Manlove,"The Magic Never Ends" provides a "rainbow overview" of one of the 20th Century's most influential writers, C. S. Lewis.

This book is magical. I have been reading C.S. Lewis for quite a few years now. The authors have captured something of why Lewis' books have never gone out of print. The chapter title "The True Myth" alone is more than worth the price of the book.

This book is an excellent resource for those researching descents from one of the Magna Carta Barons or those named in the preamble as advisors to King John. Each line is accompanied by a list of sources for the descent from one of the Barons to an American Colonist.

While there are numerous reference works relating the descendancy of the Magna Charta Barons, this one is concise, documented and continues across the Atlantic to the early Colonists of North America. Being unencumbered with commentaries on historical events, this book reveals lineage after lineage after lineage providing the researcher with an invaluable tool to document centuries of family history.

This is one of the few books, along with Careless Technology, Silent Spring, The Limits to Growth and others that really clarified the approach of humankind to nature. It is not a critique of modern technology or society, but an early and valuable presentation of the ecological consequences of human activities throughout history. I thoroughly recommend this book to any students of environmental studies or development issues.

This is an excellent, thoroughly readable collection of scientific studies concerning the role of prehistoric humans in changing the ecosystems they inhabited. The studies range from the extensive farming terraces of China over 5,000 years, to the possible creation of the Great Plains grass ecosystem through Amerindian burning for hunting purposes. Although somewhat dated, this book provides a scope of research that will not be found anywhere else. I read this book thirty years ago during my Anthropology graduate studies at UC Berkeley, and have never forgotten it. I am very happy to see it in print again.

An excellent text for Med/Surg nursing course. One you will want to keep for future reference. Indispensible!

This book I've subtitled "holding the bag" -- it is basically a text book for nurses, telling them how to deal with the patient after the doctor has left the room. It includes how to live with a diagnosis, a disease, and deal with the side-effects of a cure. It not only provides precise medical information, but includes psychological and 'daily-life' information as well. As it is designed for nurses, the vocabulary is technical, and the illustrations are graphic; if you really want to understand what the doctors just told you, this is the place to go.

LTC L.H. "Bucky" Burruss is the real thing. He's one of the original members of what's known as Delta Force and even received praise from the British SAS.

Bucky lead a Special Force "Mike Force" in Vietnam. These were quick-reaction forces composed of Montagnard tribesmen led by American or Australian Special Forces advisors. The Mike Forces were probably the least known of all of the SF activities in Vietnam, but they saw plenty of action. Bucky was in the thick of the fight with guys like Mike Donahue, Larry Dring, "Blue Max" Pfeistenhammer and Clyde Sincere. The book is well worth the read if you want to learn about some of America's "Silent Professionals."

Don't be fooled by the trashy men's magazine cover on this book. It is one of the best accounts of the Vietnam War from a soldier's perspective that I've read. Those looking for a chest-thumping narrative will be surprised to discover a writer of surprising range, subtlety and honesty, a soldier who never paints himself as a hero, and emerges as more of one because of it. We will never fully understand the Vietnam experience in this country until we embrace the memories of those who served, who risked their lives and saw some of the best in their generation killed. When the best accounts of that episode are compiled, "Mike Force" will be among them.

David Lewis-Williams has developed a unique insight into the early modern humans that painted the caves of Europe. He reasons that being modern anatomically, the function of their minds that were dependent on brain anatomy must also have been comparable to ours. He makes an excellent case that what we call "altered states of consciousness" were used by ancient shamans to access the spirit world and to interpret it to others in their culture. It is not the real world that is illustrated on the cave walls, but visions and halucinations obtained in various levels of trance. All members of the community could relate to those visions because of common experiences like dreams. For the shamans, this was a source of personal and political power and signaled a stratification of society. The author's ideas are communicated persuasively and interestingly. He makes us think without ever becoming ponderous.

The author posits a fascinating explanation for the origin of art and the creation of images by early mankind: the evolution of the human mind. He theorizes that the people of the Upper Paleolithic harnessed altered states of consciousness to fashion their society and used imagery as a means of establishing and defining social relationships. Cro-Magnon man had a more advanced neurological system and order of consciousness than the Neanderthals, and experienced shamanic trances and vivid mental imagery. It was important for them to paint these images on cave walls that served as a membrane between the everyday world and the realm of the spirit. Hallucinations were instrumental in personal advancement and the development of society. He refers to the pioneering psychologist William James who already in 1902 pointed out the different states of consciousness and to Colin Martindale who identified the following different states: Waking, realistic fantasy, autistic fantasy, reverie, hypnagogic and dreaming. The sense of absolute unitary being (transcendence/ecstasy ) is generated by a spillover between neural circuits in the brain caused by factors like meditation, rhythmic stimulus, fasting etc. The essential elements of the religious experience are thus wired into the brain. Two case studies are used in support of this theory: South African San rock art and North American rock art. Chapter 8 is especially fascinating since it offers possible solutions to certain puzzles of cave art, like the mixture of representational and geometric imagery. The author believes that the trail of images from the cave entrance to the dark, almost inaccessible recesses represents a connecting link beween the two elements of an "above/below" binary opposition. Physical entry into the caves reflected the entry into the mental vortex that leads to the hallucinations of the deep trance state. In other words, the trail from the conscious mind to the deep recesses of the subconscious. This book provides much food for thought about our earliest ancestors and about the evolution of consciousness. I would like to recommend William James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience," R M Bucke's "Cosmic Consciousness" and Rupert Sheldrake's "Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness" as companion reading to Lewis-Williams' fascinating text. The book includes many figures and 97 illustrations of which 27 are in colour.

Lewis' story touches you at your very core. He has a wonderful spirit and is a great gift to the human race.

Larry Lewis takes us on a spiritual journey, a journey that began in his youth soon after the death of his grandfather and again to China, where he taught English to students at the university immediately before -- and during -- the uprising at Tiananmen. Lewis is adept at weaving his own life stories of "misfitness" and a wide array of literature into a fabric that portrays the absolute beauty of all things human. The book's peaks and valleys represent the ebb and flow of the human spirit, a rhythm of life recognition beyond any I have come across before. Reading this book, I have learned to appreciate my own human frailities and rejoyce in my "misfitness."

Dr. Held has done a fantastic job distilling pattern formation processes to a collection of model classes. The bibliography alone is priceless - an superb piece of scholarship. Thank you, Dr. Held.

I used this book, authored by my professor, while taking developmental biology in my final semester of a Cell & Molecular Biology degree plan. The book reflects my professor's very interesting approach to learning development: skeptical examination (in the iconoclastic tradition) of the principles underlying various models, which is more important than traditional undergraduate memorization of -say -mammalian embryonic fate maps (bo-ring!). His work is the first to hold developmental mechanisms up to the light together for a discriminating view. Don't forget your mental climbing boots when you read this- there's not an ounce of fluff.