In "The Emptiness of Emptiness", the deceptively simple philosophy of Buddhism is disected and discussed with the care and rigor that we expect from good academic writing. Without diminishing the importance of either tradition C.W. Huntington Jr. offers insight into the giants of the Buddhist tradition by pointing out points of intersection between them and western philosophers with whom we might be more familiar. A challenging and fascinating read!

This is an excellent read.
It's also a tough one. The author uses deep academic language -especially at the beginning- but it is really worth learning the terms used. Huntingdon's attempt to strip most current academic ideas about Madhyamaka into dust is pretty fun to read, and edifying for the practitioner. The book has some great one-liners, even if it is a bit rich on quotes from modern philosophy.
If you think that Buddhist Philosophy is similar to Kant or Platonic ideas, read this. If you think that you are a capable academic in the field of Philology, Philosophy, Historiography, or Buddhism, read this!
Actually.. Unless long words are wasted on you, read this!

Garfield writes beautifully about one of the most intimate and challenging Buddhist teachings: emptiness. I felt invited to explore the limits of categorical thinking and move to a more inclusive consciousness. The author also provides an overview of the paramitas, the practice of perfection, which is a vital support for deepening a practice-realization of the dynamic potentiality of emptiness of inherent self-existence.

This book popped up in my recommendations and curious I placed it on my wish list and received it as a gift. How thankful I am that I got it. The protagonist, Devon March is a 14 yr old "average" kid with a few minor exceptions, primarily being the monsters and bogeyman we all fear in our closet and under the bed are real for Devon and have plagued him all his life. To his astonishment he finds his fathers words "you are stronger than all of them" to be true and can banish the demons back to where they came from. Unfortunately for Devon his life takes a seriously unexpected twist. His father passes away leaving him to wrestle with the fact that he wasn't his true father and leaves guardianship of him to a mysterious woman living in Misery Point, Rhode Island at Ravenscliff Manor. There he attempts to uncover the past to not only find out who he is, who his parents are, but what inevitably is his future. We encounter some wonderfully written characters that are not dumbed down for children's sake, nor are the adults completely incompetent. Devon, and his gang of misfits which include Cecily, his guardian's daughter; DJ, the older kid with a car; Ana the cheerleader; and Marcus the recently outed gay student, try to fight the plague of demons that befall them with some assistance by Rolfe, an entrepreneur with a shady past.
The only reason I gave this book 4 stars is due to the ending. What starts out as an incredibly climatic scene facing off Devon with the "Madman" is diffused very easily leaving me wanting more. Despite that I have the 2nd book on order here at Amazon.com and look forward to more.

Here's a fourteen-year-old boy suddenly orphaned, beset by demons in the night and sent to live with strangers in a creaky old mansion on the New England coast. Devon March only knows loneliness and is saddled with mysterious powers he knows little about.

Ravenscliff mansion, the center of gossip about supernatural happenings and Devon's new home, is set on a lofty headland on the New England coast near the town of Misery Point.

There is magic about this book as the author, Geoffrey Huntington, weaves a tale of gothic suspense and mystery that hooks and holds the reader for an all too short 278 pages. This is the beginning of a series of books concerning the youthful protagonist as he searches for his identity and source of his eerie and sporadic powers.

Written with an ear to youthful expression and social mores, it reads true to modern expression. Yet it captures the essence of classic gothic tales.

This is a wonderful book of magic, sorcery and mystery. A start to a series that promises to be as engaging as the Harry Potter books.

A young boy with a mysterious past and strange powers, with a plucky sidekick and evil forces that want him dead. Harry Potter? Nope, it's the teenage hero of the new dark fantasy "Ravenscliff Series." Geoffrey Huntington weaves together gothic elements with an intriguingly murky plot about evil ghosts, disguised demons, and a budding sorcerer that teens will love.

Devon March is not like other boys: He hears voices, can move and affect things with his mind, and the things that go bump in his closet are for real. Ever since he was little, he has been pursued by demons which his father always assured him he was stronger than them. But when his father dies, revealing that Devon is adopted, he is sent to live with the weird Muir family in their rambling seaside mansion of Ravenscliff. There is the cold Mrs. Crandall, her energetic daughter Cecily, and mischievous nephew Alexander, not to mention the creepy caretaker Simon and charming, secretive competitor Rolfe Montaigne (great name!).

And Devon's problems only get worse. Demons begin to up their attacks on him and those around him, and he starts to suspect that the precocious Alexander may not be merely mischievous, or even destructive -- he may be the conduit for a vengeful presence seeking to release demons from the Hellhole. To battle the evil forces in his new home, Devon will learn his true nature as a sorcerer, and may find the keys to his past.

Really good dark fantasy (or fantastic horror, or whatever) is a very rare thing because the authors usually just throw one shock after another at the readers. Huntington, on the other hand, utilizes gothic cliches (the sinister mansion with a tragic past, abandoned towers with lights, the weird caretaker) with the excellent idea of the Sorcerers of the Nightwing. Despite using a combination of stuff that could have been stupid if handled badly (demons in the closet, evil clown-face), and stuff that has been done many times before (gothic cliches), nothing Huntington does seems stale or affected. If anything, the gothic atmosphere is better because Huntington takes the old cliches and remakes them, rather than shying away from them.

He also handles Devon March very well; almost all of the book is seen through Devon's eyes, and so we have a good idea of his fears and thoughts. If readers want someone deeper than Harry Potter, then Devon may be the right hero. Cecily seems like a less chattery Lloyd Alexander heroine, while Alexander reeks with innocent-faced creepiness. Readers may especially like Rolfe; at first it seems hard to tell what side he's on, but he's intriguing right from the start.

His writing style is fairly descriptive, mainly when it needs to be (no intricate descriptions of pizza parlors). But when describing the grotesque and the weird, such as a maimed ghost, he doesn't try to shock us. He also has a good sense of how to build up tension and suspense with little hints of the horrific, rather than flying blood and body bits; the plot twists and past events are well-drawn and evocative. The dialogue is also very good, especially anything uttered by the villain ("Can you spell it, boys and girls? W-R-O-N-G!").

Teenagers and adults will definitely enjoy the opener of this series, especially those with a love of ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy-beasties, and sorcerers who make books fly through the air. Can't wait for the second "Ravenscliff" book.

Carmen Leal has done what few could accomplish. She combines humor, compassion, and love with an insider's view of lives affected by Huntington's Disease. This is the place to go (along with her other book, "Faces of Huntington's") for factual, helpful information in an easy-to-read story format on the devastating genetic illness, Huntington's Disease.
Carmen is an inspiration! She offers light in a dim world, hope where there is despair, and love where none can be returned in kind.
"Portraits of Huntington's" and "Faces of Huntington's" are must-reads for anyone facing the challenges of life with this disease.
...

Carmen has touched my heart with her stories of hope in a hopeless situation. She has written straight from the heart an awesome book in a down-to-earth style that anyone would enjoy.

I know Huntington's is a devastating disease that destroys the person suffering with it and also complete families. But I also know so many people who have come through the experience as better people and that's what this book is about. We are all terminal from the moment we are born yet the author has done a magnificant job of helping the reader understand that joy is a choice.

This book is the perfect companion to Faces of Huntington's since that book features such hard stories about suicide, abuse, family dynamics from hell, and so much more. This book looks at another side of Huntington's. Both books are filled with heros. I love the author's writing style and I was sad when it was over. I know I'll read this book over many times in my life.

Everything is bad news if it comes with a deadline that isn't met. This book, THE SOLDIER AND THE STATE: THE THEORY AND POLITICS OF CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS by Samuel P. Huntington, a young Harvard professor in 1957, when the book first appeared, attempted to establish assumptions that would allow respectable consideration of policies that, in our world, might be used to define who we have become. My differences with this book might be ascribed to a theological framework in which this book is seen as having assumed the existence of hell on earth as the situation which people who voiced political aspirations that did not coincide with the prevailing superpower mentality would have to put up with. The famous Winston Churchill once said something about assumptions up with which he would not put, and the success of this book might be measured by how its views are assumed to be the American views in those parts of the world where America as a superpower is most unpopular.

This review is being written in a short window of time in which the rulers of Saudi Arabia, whose success, so far, has been contingent on the opposite of liberal policies (they previously granted religious authorities who were considered the most conservative element within Arabian society a veto power over anything the government might do) are hoping that an American victory in Iraq might allow all American troops to be removed from Saudi Arabia, so that democracy might be granted to the people of Saudi Arabia (at a time when the average age is 15 years old) without fear that the anti-American views of Arabian young people will be the dominating political force determining the shape of the parties who will soon be able to demand more control than their government has ever been able to apply to society. As the situation in Venezuela at the moment illustrates, fights over how much oil is being pumped, and who ought to benefit from the economic miracle that oil provides, can do strange things in a nation with a democracy that attempts to let a majority of the people rule.

Huntington considers America an exception to such class considerations. Though not specifically concerned with the role of Blacks in American society, he assumes that their politics has been entirely liberal in nature. "No nascent group ever developed a radical ideology challenging the established order: it was always too quickly assimilated into that order. . . . Radicalism and conservatism were equally superfluous. Incipient and established groups both adhered to liberalism." (p. 145). The few attempts to establish conservative values in American history were mainly ignored by a society that was exuberantly growing in spite of any ideology which might attempt to exercise some form of control. The early part of the twentieth century had produced few instances in which policy had needed an exit strategy, and any attempt to find one in the index of THE SOLDIER AND THE STATE leads to the following entries:

Expertise, a characteristic of a profession, 8-9; of officership, 11-14

Extirpation, U.S. policy of, 155-156

Even page 154 has a bit on professionalism. As Woodrow Wilson said during World War I, "America has always boasted that she could find men to do anything. She is the prize amateur nation in the world. Germany is the prize professional nation in the world. Now, when it comes to doing new things and doing them well, I will back the amateur against the professional every time." The lure of popularity in a liberal society can easily produce this result. "In domestic politics each liberal group tends to identify the military with its own particular enemies. Without any recognized function in a liberal society and standing outside the ideological consensus, the military have been a universal target group." (p. 154). Extirpation is the name given to such a policy in this book. "Liberalism's injunction to the military has in effect been: conform or die. On the one hand, American liberalism has supported the virtual elimination of all institutions of violence and thus has attempted to do away with the problem of civil-military relations entirely. This is a policy of extirpation. On the other hand, when it has been necessary to maintain armed force, American liberalism has insisted upon a rigorous subjective civilian control, the refashioning of the military institutions along liberal lines so that they lose their peculiarly military characteristics. This is a policy of transmutation." (p. 155). There are no entries in the index for hyperbolic topics like sex, soldiers, or swearing, so there is little opportunity in this book for the ideas which strike me most, considering the unique psychic characteristics of the transmutation of the typical swinging Richard into a short-term ...assassin at Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993, or less notoriously, of any Naval doctor who kept a copy of the Kennedy autopsy photographs at Bethesda Naval Hospital in the ten years after this book first appeared, but I'm convinced that such ideas are within the realm of what is considered conservative in this book. Some people are sick of this kind of thing, and keep projecting its insanity on me, of all people, who tries to keep tying everything to the new direction of American society. I wonder if this makes us the entertainment capital of the world, or what?

At the time of its original publication in 1957, Samuel Huntington's The Soldier and the State reflected a new age in American history--the Cold War era. Huntington, a young Harvard professor of government, focused on policy problems concerning civilian direction of the military under the terms of the Cold War. Basically, he contended that traditional American liberalism was outdated and in fact had begun to pose a national security danger. Until this era, the absence of an overt military threat to American security allowed for a policy of civilian control of the military compatible with liberal democratic values. Traditionally, liberal solutions to domestic problems had likewise been applied to military problems, frequently resulting in failure.

Huntington offered a theoretical framework for modern civil-military relations. He insisted that liberalism was fundamentally opposed to the proper military ethic; the application of subjective civilian control over the military actually aimed at weakening military professionalism, which was viewed as a threat to democracy, liberalism, and American values. The Cold War, though, required America to keep a large national army during peace time; the army could not return to its traditionally subordinate role. There was perpetual tension between the demands of national security and the values of American liberalism: either American security must be compromised or the influence of liberalism weakened. Only a conservative environment allowed for equilibrium between political influence and the military professionalism that ensured national security. This balance could only be achieved, Huntington argued, by objective civilian control of the military. By maintaining independent spheres of power, with no fusion of civil and military control, national security goals could be maximized with a minimum sacrifice of social values. Objective civilian control allowed for the proper growth of military professionalism while keeping the military a subordinate tool of state policy. The fulcrum of civil-military relations was the relation of the officer corps to the state.

Huntington was successful in presenting the military as inherently conservative and unwarlike. The military prepared for war but never sought such engagement. Huntington encapsulated the premise of the military mindset as conservative realism. This mindset "holds that war is the instrument of politics, that the military are the servants of the statesman, and that civilian control is essential to military professionalism." This military ethic contrasted with the stereotype of the military as dangerously warlike. A weakness of the book is Huntington's description of military trends between the Civil War and the Great War. Huntington argued that the officer corps remained isolated during this period, allowing it to develop a professionalism free of civilian interference. This isolation theory has been largely disproved by pointing to the military's involvement in putting down labor strikes, relations between officers and the business community, etc. This defect should not detract from the importance of this book as a virgin exploration into a comprehensive history of the American military tradition. With its conservative thesis, it remains in my mind the seminal work on civil-military relations.

Incisive and remarkably relevant. Huntington delves into the role of the military in shaping and protecting a society. A MUST read for anyone who is in, or deals with the military.

I visited the Huntington Museum in Pasadena last July not expecting all that much but was most impressed. I particularly enjoyed the scope and variety of their botanical gardens and so bought this book to remind myself of what I'd seen and also to learn more about the background of the gardens and how they came to be.

I was disappointed in no respect. The book provides historical photographs as well as an account of how Henry Huntington both earned his wealth and used it to establish this marvelous place. It goes on to provide sumptuous photographs of all parts of the gardens, covering both what's there and how they were established. Detail on the desert section and the Japanese section (my two favorites) were particularly appreciated. My only quibble is that a chapter on the notable trees is saved for the end, rather than covering the trees along with the location they belong to. This seems rather odd but is a minor note.

All in all, this book is a splendid souvenir and resource for the gardens of Huntington.

As author you have listed the photographer instead of the writer. The author should be Walter Houk, as you will discover on the title page.

I'm purchasing my second copy of Caring for Your Collections. I am the curator of a house museum with a very diverse collection and I have found this to be a handy reference guide with easy to follow instructions for dealing with a wide variety of materials.

This book was assigned reading in the Museum Studies program I completed several years ago. I found it to be very readable and useful. It is geared to the person who is serious about preserving the treasures he or she has collected or inherited. Among its lessons is the fact that virtually everything we do to maintain our everyday household objects is not appropriate for objects that we would like to see survive for the long term. This book provides valuable guidance on what can be done to preserve the objects we value most. Today, I am a curator of a diverse museum collection, and still find this book helpful and a good refresher.

There are lots of good pictures and some general advice for low allergy gardening but if you are only going to get one book it would have to be the Ogren book. The garden designs and plants covered here aren't going to be suitable at all for Southern California gardeners. Most of the plants recomended are high water use and/or cool climate plants. Not much thought is given to low maintenance gardens. The options listed for large trees are minimal. The very best trees, which are female varieties of separatly sexed trees, aren't mentioned at all. Common names of plants are rarely given. While there are many good pictures you have to read carefully to find out whether the pictured plant is recomended or not recomended. Overall I found this book not to be as usefull as it could have been.

Lots of very good and very useful information. I was looking for something more detailed for people who have
Chemical Sensitivities" that are bothered by the "Chemical emissions" of plants and not the pollen. This book doesn't go into that. But it is a very nice book with very pretty colored pictures that discusses how plants pollinate, when and what precautions you can take to plan a yard or garden as "Allergy Free" as possible. Including plant choices, placements, etc. It does cover MOLDS and spores which is very useful to a person with "Chemical Sensitivities"

"Be Well"

Instead of just listing "bad" plants, the author lists not only WHY a plant may cause an allergic or poisonous reaction, but also suggests alternate, safer plants with similar qualities! Rather than being written dryly by a doctor, the author is instead an award-winning British landscape designer who really did her research. The reader feels that finally there is hope for the allergy-sufferer who wants a garden that is both safe and lush rather than sterile and bland. Cheers!

Although Alderson presents her story in a light and entertaining fashion, she doesn't gloss over the hardships and tragedies that accompany a homesteader in the late 19th century.

This book traces a short period in the life of a woman who came to Montana from a fairly well-to-do life in Virginia. She was young and probably not prepared for what she encountered. But it is amazing how well she did in the middle of nowhere. I was impressed with her open mindedness and interest in all things. I thought it was very well written. It leaves a lasting impression.

This book was an amazing true account of life in Montana when it was still being settled. The author(s) paint a vivid picture of the "new" West at the time and how men and women lived. I was surprised to learn that it was not all hardship and toil, to the contrary, there was much fun and merriment had. There's an amazing cast of colorful characters that Nannie met as a new young bride on a ranch. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves American history, the Old West, or authobiographies.

This book provides an insider's account of the exciting scientific effort that resulted in isolation of the Huntington's Disease Gene. It is both exhilerating and sorrowful - encompassing the emotional experience of a family member watching the unfolding of a story with significant personal implications.

Mapping Fate is a compelling memoir that successfully addresses the anguish, guilt, denial and mystery associated with terminal illness in a family, and the various ways that family members deal with it. Huntington's Disease is the subject of the book, but I think that people who have experienced devastating mental and physical illnesses in their own families will find many familiar and elegantly described emotions.

I found the personal reflections and the story about the effect of this illness on the family most gripping. The search for the gene and ultimately a treatment is covered as well, and is very interesting but a bit more detached.

Wexler has done an admirable job balancing introspective memoir writing with reporting on advances in scientific research.

A must read for anyone interested in Huntington's disease. This book tells about how HD affects families and tells about how the gene was found after a ten year search. Courage and perserverance -that's the Wexler family-they give courage to so many others who are also on the same difficult journey with HD.

This series by Kate Huntington is wonderful! This book is the third in the series and brings us up to date on Vanessa & Alexander and Lydia & Edward. It also brings to life the romance of Madelyn & Robert. What a great story...their two years of heartbreak is finally brought to a beautiful and happy ending. You will find it hard to put this one down until you reach the final page.

This book shows how time to let the characters mature a little improves them and their outlook on life. A country squire and a spoiled and pampered heiress meet again after two years to find their love has not died. But will their love for each other result in happiness for all? Robert Langtry has learned to love and to deal with his four young wards. Lady Madelyn learns that there is more to her than a shallow and wealthy beauty. Whether or not they will find happiness together depends a great deal on what more they learn about themselves one Christmas.

This is one scrumptious early Christmas present cleverly disguised as a book. Even the most determined Scrooge could not fail to be cheered by reading it, as it is absolutely a 'feel-good' book. In other words, once you've read it, you'll feel much better than you did when you started it. During the reading period, I daresay you'll often catch yourself with a wide smile on your face, or even enjoying an out-loud giggle.

Kate Huntington has the knack for creating extended families, awash with children and pets, and other engaging, and some not-so engaging, characters. What more natural pairing then, for a Christmas romp, than the bachelor country squire, Robert Langtry, who has inherited his brother's four orphaned children, and the Lady Madelyn Rathbone, lovely, wealthy young aristocrat.

For you see, Madelyn and Robert have a history. They've proposed to each other numerous times, but for various reasons, no marriage between them ever occurred. Madelyn has never been around children at all, being an only child who was orphaned at a young age, and thereafter was always in the company of much older guardians. Oh, they had her best interests at heart, but hearts and best interests are not known to be chummy with each other. And, it is imperative--at least in the eyes of those guardians--that she marry as befits her wealth and her station in life. Non-wealthy country squires need not apply.

Robert, on the other hand, loves his wards, and is determined to lavish care on and for them, in an attempt to somehow make up for the loss of their parents. It would appear that his path will sharply diverge from that of Madelyn. Until, that is, a country house party at the home of Alexander and Vanessa Blakely. In spite of all efforts to the contrary by a wide assortment of house-guests, and with the aid of the four spirited children, Madelyn and Robert will find the way to make their paths converge, and lead to the altar. Finally. And now, Madame Author--for next year's gift to your readers, may we please have the story of Count Andreas Briccetti? Surely, such a charming gentleman cannot long stay a bachelor?