This is the most vague and indirect book you will ever read. What in the world is this man saying? So what if map is not the territory? Here's you chance to get lost! Absolute garbage!

Why does happiness in our relationships so often elude us? We all want to love and be loved and yet, how many people do you know who have a relationship you'd want to be in? If you want to understand better why this is, Being One can help you. The author explains very clearly how we project our hopes and needs onto our beloved and why that projection kills love. What is usually portrayed as love in our society is actually fear. This very beautiful book describes what it takes for human beings to be fully in a relationship of love. If you let it, this book can change your life.

This is one of those books that lays out some hard truths about relationships and offers absolutely no guaranteed steps or tactics to make them work. It is also not limited to romantic relationships, although that is one of the areas of focus. I hope that I don't mangle the author's message, but basically the author states that most relationships are based in a need that we think another person can fill for us, but that ultimately they cannot. Whether parent to child, lover to lover, or neighbor to neighbor we are addicted to the idea that we are separate and distinct, yet incomplete and that we can become more whole through being loved, needed by another. The need is what gets in the way, though. As we try to push, pull and make others do what we want we have forgotten that we are already complete -- true relation occurs without judgement, without projection and without need. A fascinating read, even though some of the messages are hard to hear because they don't fit in with our pre-conceived notions of love, psyche, etc.

Michael Harrison does a fantastic job of capturing the reader's attention through a series of dramatic events in It's My Life. The book shows the typical situation of how divorce can affect family. The two main characters, Martin and Hannah, are brought together by greed and an evil attempt made by each of their parents to kidnap Martin for ransom. Carol, Martin's mother has discovered that his father Robert has won the lottery. She and her secret lover, John have cleverly plotted to kidnap Martin to get the money. After a series of horrifying events, Martin and Hannah (John's daughter), manage to escape from the nightmare caused by their parent's deceitful plans. Though the two young teenagers are very frightened they know they must stick together in order to escape from the evil plot and regain control of their lives. In the end, both of them are faced with the biggest decision of their lives, choosing between family members.

Michael Harrison does a phenomenal job with this book. Harrison portrays what it is like to be kidnapped. Martin (the main character) has been kidnapped and the kidnapper seems to believe Martins father has won the lottery. The kidnapper tells Martin everything will be okay if he does everything he is told to do. Martin must deal with several facts throughout the story. He first has to deal with being kidnapped, then he is faced with his father winning the lottery and not telling him, he then is faced with dealing with the fact that the kidnapper has some relation to his own mother. Martin remains frightened throughout the entire book. With the help of Hannah, Martin will be okay. Hannah and Martin work together as a team to escape from the kidnapper. This is truly a remarkable book. The author does a marvelous job portraying Martins fears, but also illustrating how Martin overcame his fear. We suggest this book to everyone. It is appropriate for ages 9 and up to read. It is not a hard read and one can learn so much from this book. We gave this book four stars!!!

A seemingly normal day in the life of Martin was suddenly turned into anything but normal. Every day Martin had a list of chores and a schedule that he was to go by in order to please his mother. However, on one particular day his chores were left unfinished. After Martin was kidnapped and taken to a houseboat, the circumstances around his kidnapping began to unfold. Martin's parents are divorced and he lives with his mother. His father was thought to have recently won the lottery and his mother is just simply a working mother. While being held on the houseboat, Martin figures out that his kidnapper is indeed his mother's boyfriend. The reasons behind his kidnapping are nothing more than greed and jealousy. After his daring escape, Martin runs into his kidnapper's daughter, Hannah. Through a long chain of events, they together discover who is lying and who is telling the truth. Finding his father and thus finding the truth is the pivotal point in the book. What seemed to be a kidnapping with hopes of a ransom, turned into just simply a kidnapping. This story is an adventurous roller coaster through the lives of Martin and Hannah. Through this story, the reader can escape into the mysterious and thrill seeking life of many Americans. It is a book of reality and insight into a child's life that is torn between both parents. This book would be suitable for students fifth grade and above. A teacher could use this book to show the diversity in American families and to bring comfort to those students caught in the middle.

The thesis of this book is that the economic disparities between the US, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Haiti result from the superiority of WASP culture. The study of the relationship between culture and progress has a long history dating back to Max Weber. This book offers nothing new except a harsher edge that gives it a stench of white-supremacy. Harrison is clearly aware of the potential for charges of racism. He makes extensive use of quotes from blacks and Hispanics to make points that would be offensive coming from a white person. This is reminiscent of the 2000 reform party's black vice presidential candidate whose job it is to state that Pat Buchanan is not a racist, not an anti-Semite, and not a homophobe. Harrison's book purports to be a book on development, rather than a justification for the disparities of wealth between the first and third worlds. Indeed, there are reasonable policy proposals in this book, as well as a decent refutation of dependency theory. However, there is nothing really new here. Economists almost universally rejected dependency theory long before "Underdevelopment is a State of Mind" was first published. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the development literature will come away with nothing more than the simplistic argument that poor people deserve to be poor because of their inferior culture. The book gives no hint as to the fundamental causes of cultural differences. Clearly culture affects economic progress. However, it is equally clear that economics affects culture. The U.S. has a culture conducive to capitalist growth in no small part because it is a wealthy capitalist nation. Any writer sincerely concerned with improving the welfare of poor people should look favorable upon immigration and cultural exchanges. With the fed raising interest rates to choke off US growth and prevent labor shortages, the U.S. can absorb vastly increased levels of immigration. The success of immigrants from very poor countries makes it clear that it is the institutional and cultural restrictions of poor countries that make them poor. They do not bring their supposed "cultural inferiority" with them. The fact that Harrison's book contains diatribes against immigration shows that his concern is with relieving his own guilt about living better than 90% of humanity rather than improving the lives of the bottom 90%.

Unlike one of the reviewers of this book which declared this book to reek of white supremacy stench, a portrayal which couldn't be further from the truth, I found this book to be very insightful and very well reasoned. I read this book as a recommendation from Thomas Sowell (a noted black economist and author of a trilogy on cultures - and one of my favorite authors and economists) and I found that he was right on the money with his recommendation. There is no reason in the world that any population, with or without natural resources, can't progress and become developed in a generation or -at most - two (as long as they have guarantee of liberty including the iron clad right to own property without danger of seizure from the government). The author reveals very well the stumbling blocks that prevent some countries from developing regardless of the billions given in foreign aid. Culture does play a part in this and in some cases - a major part. As an example, how do two countries of a comparable economic situation (Hong Kong - no natural resources - and Mexico - with considerable reserves of oil - in the early 50s) become so diverse in their development in a scant 50 years? Culture and economic liberty are an obvious answer. Do yourself a favor and read a copy of this book. It'll open your eyes utilizing clear and basic economics as to one of the root causes to third world poverty.

If you are one of those people who disingenously think that all cultures are the same and that cultural attitudes do not impinge on economical issues, move on and keep on reading the same type of pseudo-scholarship that created and sustains all those described in two other works the reader should take into account: "El Manual del perfecto idiota latinoamericano" (The Manual of the Perfect Latin American Idiot")and "Fabricantes de miseria" (Makers of Misery). Otherwise, buy books like this and one day you might learn the truth.

While few would deny that culture matters, Harrison would like you to believe that it is all that matters. The book does not present any data to back his twisted arguments apart from self serving anecdotes on every conference he attended and every conversation with minor celebrities. Once you get past the name dropping, however, you find a racist isolationist arguing against NAFTA (he believes that the stereotype that "Mexican are corrupt, have no social consciousness and completely disregard human rights" "is "largely accurate" -pg. 215) and against immigration ( "large numbers of unskilled, uneducated immigrants...confound the high priority objective of steadily increasing high incomes for Americans" ..."our policy must be responsive to the needs of our society, not the failures of other societies" pg. 251). Harrison gets in real conceptual trouble when he repeatedly criticizes economists that emphasize "market signals" to create prosperity. To explain the progress in Chile he has to do a backflip ( the elite there is from Basque descent, he argues). You are left to wonder how he explains the sharply different progress of the same culture in Taiwan and Continental China, in the former East or West Germany , in North and South Korea or in Cuba and Miami, to mention just a few cases. His main argument is that if you are Catholic and brown, you better change your religion, your values and if possible, the color of your skin - but don't ever dare to live in the United States and challenge his culture! Don't waste your time with his book.

A really first-rate book that states the obvious--which, in these PC days we're not supposed to say--and states it lucidly.

Harrison has written one of the most important and provocative books on U.S.-Latin American relations published in the last quarter century. Along with his earlier work, "Underdevelopment is a State of Mind: The Latin American Case", it is required reading for those who wish to understand why more than 50 years of international aid to the region has failed to produce sustainable economic progress, social justice and stable democracies.

Harrison has shifted the focus of Latin America's development crisis to cultural deficiencies and family values. His books are reminiscent of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's analyses of the crisis of the black family, Francis Fukuyama's "Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity", and John McWhorten's recent book, "Losing the Race". Much like Senator Moynihan's writings were dismissed as "racist", time has proven him correct. Harrison's courageous leadership in identifying similar cultural and value weaknesses in Latin American societies has generated the same unproductive name calling from leftists whose prescriptions have repeatedly failed to achieve sustainable development in Latin America. International aid agencies and universities do a real disservice to millions of Latin Americans mired in misery by ignoring Harrison's critical point about the cultural roots of their persistent poverty.

Since so many books on Latin America are poorly written and present distorted views of the region, "The Pan American Dream" is a pleasure to read that makes it ideal for introductory courses and study groups. Chapter Four on the destructive role of American intellectuals and the positive contributions of the United Fruit Company is guaranteed to stimulate intense discussion and debate. Given the rigid leftist orthodoxy that dominates so much teaching about Latin America, Harrison's arguments are a breath of fresh air and reflect a historic paradigm shift in analyzing U.S.-Latin American relations.

It should be noted that a growing number of leading Latin American and U.S. writers agree with Harrison's conclusions. Indeed, Harrison draws extensively on the Venezuelan Carlos Rangel and his 1976 book, "The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States". Those who charge Harrison with "racism" should see similar analyses by Mario Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America's most prominent writers and the book "Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot" that has been a regional best-seller since its publication in 1996. These and other writers, such as the Argentine Mariano Grandona, and those other academics who contributed to Harrison's most recent book "CULTURE MATTERS: How Values Shape Human Progress" clearly represent a dramatic paradigm shift in thinking about the root causes of underdevelopment. Harrison should be congratulated for his intellectual courage. He merits far greater attention by those concerned with helping the Latin American poor and creating a more positive and constructive Western Hemisphere community of nations.

The crime scenerios are very creative in this book. Character development is sacrificed somewhat by the breivity of the story. It is a very quick read and is pretty action packed and humourous. Enjoy!

Normally I am not a fan of sci-fi. Most of the sci-fi I have read takes itself wayyy too seriously and requires readers to be absolutely fascinated with technology, technology, technology. For those of us, however, who are more interested in people, personalities and motivations, and who appreciate a snappy, clever writing style, The Stainless Steel Rat makes a surprisingly good read. The main character, Slippery Jim DiGriz, is one of those "likeable bandit"-type characters whom you want to root for even though they are technically breaking the law. I am thinking of, for example, Butch Cassidy (played on screen by Paul Newman in 1972), "The Grey Fox" (played by Richard Farnsworth around 1982), and the George Clooney character in the 1998 movie "Out of Sight." These characters, like Slippery Jim, are daring, sassy and iconoclastic in their lawbreaking careers, and all of them revel in a justifiably high opinion of their own professional competence at what they do. Yet they also have a lot of warmth and personal charm and happen to place a high value on human life. They are thieves, not murderers. I really like that. What makes the Stainless Steel rat book particularly entertaining, for me, is Harrison's witty, lively writing style (although he does have a habit of misusing commas--this is why I give the book 4 stars instead of 5), and most of all, the philosophical questions that are (inadvertantly?) posed now and then by the story. For example: Jim changes his identity several times by altering his physical appearance and making up a new bogus personality and personal history to go along with it. Yet his inner self remains the same at all times, which we (the readers) know because he shares his true inner thoughts with us. (As a narrator, Jim is 100% reliable--he levels with us always, even when he is lying to others.) So his identity-changes beg the question--what makes up a person's "true" identity, anyway? If we are not our names, jobs, values, personalities, and personal histories, then what makes us "ourselves"? It is fascinating to me that he maintains such a clear sense, for himself, of who he really is underneath all the changes. In short: I love The Stainless Steel Rat for its innovative main character, its psychological insight, its lively writing, and the intellectual substance I find in the story--even though it is sci-fi, which I don't usually like.

Rather like the old 'Batman' television series, veteran sci-fi writer Harrison's 'Stainless Steel Rat' books work as both entertaining pulpy adventure stories, and tongue-in-cheek parodies of themselves. Featuring a hero who is more resourceful than McGuyver, the books spanned the 60's and 70's before being revived quite recently with 'The Stainless Steel Rat goes to Hell'. 'For President' and 'Saves the World' were the high spots - the series eventually met with dimishing returns, and started to repeat itself. The original 'Stainless Steel Rat' was a short story - after repeating it in mildly-edited form as a 'prologue', the book follows our hero (James Bolivar DiGriz, aka Slippery Jim, aka the Stainless Steel Rat) through a short adventure through space in pursuit of a stolen battleship. With the first part of the book given over to an introduction of the main character, it seems more rushed than the later books (many of which are, annoyingly, out-of-print). It's less obviously comedic, too, and the vision of the future is sketched with enough vagueness that it hasn't dated too badly, either.

I was intriqued by the reviews and the gist of the message. However, this book, like other books by Harrison, is sheer agony to read. He's a tedious and clumsy writer very taken with his own imagined cleverness. There are other books of the neo-advaita strain that are infinitely better ... Tony Parsons's AS IT IS, for example.

The first half of this book is a rather sarcastic, put-down-ish, trying-to-be-funny critique of the established paths to enlightenment. I assume the author has given these methods a try, and none of them met his needs or expectations. Apparently, he has found something, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what it was. Perhaps it's impossible to put into words, this truth Mr. Harrison has found. Perhaps I'm not capable of understanding what he's saying. Maybe I'll read it another day, and the light will go on.

But I question his sarcastic attitude. I suspect the author is embittered at his failures, and is working very hard to convince himself and others that he has succeeded. The teachings of the Buddha have helped countless souls over the last two thousand years. Mr. Harrison says this isn't so. The emperor has no clothes, he says, but everyone's afraid to stand up and say "Hey! This meditation stuff doesn't work!" What is he proposing in its place, though? "Actuality". Huh? I don't get it. I may get it some other day, but for now, my opinion is, this man is not helping anyone.

One final note: the historical Buddha was a prince, a man who was brought up in very privileged circumstances. Mr. Harrison is an Ivy League graduate. The Buddha decided that all the prior teachings were wrong, and he set out to find out the truth for himself. Mr. Harrison has done something similar. Perhaps he has found the truth, perhaps not. Perhaps he needs to try sitting under his personal bodhi tree just a bit longer, before dismissing Buddhism altogether.

The word "scathing" has been used to describe Harrison's writing, and in this book he mercilessly skewers the pretensions of the "spiritual person". I couldn't stop laughing as I read his commentary on "the knowing look of the senior meditation student" (anyone who's spent any time in a spiritual group knows the type), the human condition ("born naked, cold, and hungry--then it gets worse"), and "awareness, that annoying time between naps." But don't be fooled by the humor. What the author has to say about spiritual practice and the human proclivity to complicate the essence of simplicity is far-reaching and profound. There are no sacred cows here. Be ready to examine and discard your fondest notions of what a spiritual life may be.

i dont no why i bothered reading a book where courtney loves father gets to diss her(when really he hardly nos her).( he wasnt allowed custordy of courtney when his wife used the fact that he gave courtney LSD's at age 4 in a court of law) (want proof?search courtney love on the internet and go to the site saying'dedicated to protected courtney against rumours'), he never even meet kurt or frances..mr harrison doesnt give courtney lee-way such as she soothed kurt through herion withdraws while she was having his baby. just thinking about this annoys me.it disturds me that mr h. wants to paints a clear picture;that his daughter is evil .read it if u want it might be true but mr harrison has tried to make money of peolpe he doesnt really no before -the grateful dead-he wrote a book about them after being their manager for one month or something-then he was fired.

Kurt was beautiful. He was probably one of the most gifted men to come into this world, and he had to leave when he had just arrived. It is hard to find beauty now, and when you finally stumble upon it and then lose it, it is hard. I won't let Kurt go without a fight. If you think Kurt killed himself, read this book. It disects the situation as close to perfectly as I can imagine. It will turn a follower into you. Courtney had it taken away from us, the same way she took Kurt, but I can get you the book if you want it. E-mail me. googoogrl60k@hotmail.com

This book was so painstakingly written and researched that it's a shame that ms Love has had it repressed. She will get her dues paid if enough people read this informative book.

Even if you hated Nirvana, you will find that Kurt Cobain didn't kill himself as the media would like you to continue believing.

Courtney is a very shrewd and manipulative woman, and it's unfortunate that she crossed paths with the man that had much more to offer. While Courney has contributed nothing to the world. Unless riding the coatails of the gifted is an accomplishment. The tale of Kurt and Courney is very reminiscent of Ayn Rands' Fountainhead.

A fine book for Intranet development - a seriously flawed effort for Internet work. All material is covered using VB script, which is utterly worthless if your trying to develop a site that works with both Navigator and MSIE. Though you can complete every task discussed in this book with either VB or JavaScript, the authors summarily dismiss JavaScript. Don't purchase this book if you plan to develop sites that work across the browser divide!

The reader from Raleigh, NC obviously didn't read the title of the book before purchasing. This is an "IE4" book, not a Netscape, or any other third-rate browser book. If you want cross-browser support, than DON'T buy a book that is named "IE4 Programming".

I though that this book gave decent coverage and was worth the $.

I appreciate the authors' simple style--direct-to-the-point in simple English (unlike the abstract prose used by experienced programmers who lack the gift of of sharing information in simple terms). The book has lots of examples and screen shots, and with generous lists of properties, methods and events. The indices at the back of the book serves as a reference when done with the entire book. This book is a must in every Web programmer's library.

This was my first bite into the words of Harrison, and I quickly bought three more of his afterwards. Wolf is not so much about Harrison's hero searching for the beast, but of him searching to find himself in the reality he has thrown himself into over the years. Drying himself off of bourbon and physical and mental loves over the years, while reminiscing over his well travelled youth. With humor and words that are true to the way we speak and think. Sometimes he'll ramble in newfound dreams while walking alone through the woods, where it's hard to follow, but its interesting to see inside his mind during these times. We truly follow his train of thought, which is important in understanding and relating to the man. Harrison's world lives in all of us...

Under The Volcano in the deep and dark Michigan woods...Great writing from a great, underappreciated writer. Harrison knows how to hunt with the best of the hairy chesters, but he also knows how to cook. He knows how to tell the plain truth and wax rhapsodic about the stalking the lonesome.

This book may be hard to appreciate at first, but I've lost count of the number of times I have read it. It is a powerful book, and the quality of the fictional dream-- my primary measure of excellence in literature-- is bewitching, and, in my estimation, difficult to surpass. F*#k, my best advice is to order it immediately. It is my sincere belief that there is at least a 95% probability that you will agree with me after reading it. Like the crass commercial says: "JUST DO IT!"

Though the book is hopelessly outdated and the author clearly does not write for people outside of academic and sociological circles, Pepper does come up with some unique insights about street performers and improptu theater. I definitely saw Washington Square Park differently after reading this.

My name is Peter Shub. I appear throughout the book beginning already on page 1. Was a long time ago that I was a street performer. Was wonderful training and preperation for what followed as a theatre career. Now I am in Germany and hope that Sally finds me again. Could lead to another book...a comicbook.

The very idea of this book fascinated me: analyzing street performers to gain insight into the nature of human performance in other venues. I'd long revered the work of street performers - watching the likes of Butterfly Man in San Francisco, for example - as they engaged their audiences in ways seldom seen on the indoor platform stage. But it took Harrison-Pepper's tome to help me understand intellectually what I had admired viscerally. Her analysis of the street performers in New York's Washington Square Park, conducted over a stretch of four years, captured my imagination and elevated my own sense of what it takes to truly make performances connect. I loved her portrayals of Mitchell Cohen, Charlie Barnett, Chang, the Millses, and the venerable Tony Vera. There is much to be learned from their performances about acting spontaneously and creating sociable environments (from "found space"). Many people would find their jobs enriched if they were to view their work as street theatre; many designers - from web site developers and trade show exhibitors to mall developers and retail store managers - would benefit from understanding Harrison-Pepper's analysis of Star, Funnel, Spiral, and Ring design elements. If you want to be a better performer, you'd do well to read this book.