E Books

I teach at the local art league. I reference this book to all my students and recommend that they buy it. There isn't a better book on the market today. Pen and ink goes back a long way in history and the older techniques still hold true for those individuals wanting to learn to draw in pen and ink today. I highly recommend the book.

Scott L. Hendrie
scottlhendrie.com

Ink and pen was pretty much perfected around the turn of the century and the benefit of that expertise is captured quite well in this book. You still get the best and most expressive lines from a steel pen. This seems like a perfect book for a beginner or an experienced artist interested in all the nuances of the pen.
My only real issue with the book is it seems to be focused heavily on architectural themes and technical issues and less on art. So I give it 4 stars.

This is the Bible.
That's the long and short of it. To my knowledge, there is no other tutorial that is as complete and exhaustive as this 60 year old text on the then prominent art of pen and ink drawing. Arthur Guptill begins with a detailed exploration of the nature of pen and ink rendering as well as its limitations. Pen and ink is never intended to create photographic representations of the subject and so any comparison between the photograph and the ink rendering is fallacious. He then goes on to explain how the results of pen and ink are achieved. Some of the material will be superfluous to the artist who uses the Rapidograph pen because it illustrates the different techniques that are specific to the various flexibilities of the dip-pen nibs and how varying the pressure can produce different line effects. These techniques are the reasons I prefer the flex-tip nibs over the modern technical pen. (Or it could be that I'm just and old fashioned cuss.) Guptill stresses the importance of practicing pen-strokes much as a pianist must practice scales. Neither the instruments nor the lack of skill in the basic techniques should stand in the way of the artist in the midst of creating the picture. Practicing strokes is the surest way to freedom of expression when it counts most.
Many methods of producing grey scale with the pen and one value of black ink are also presented exhaustively. When this book was written, newspapers relied less on photographs and more on the pen primarily because printing techniques had not been developed that could inexpensively reproduce on newsprint the subtle shading of a photograph. Only the most important stories warranted a print photo. Artists had to rely on pen techniques to suggest them. That, more than any other thing, makes this text invaluable, for even though we have mastered the art of photographic printing, yet there is a charm to the pen and ink rendering that will never be replaced. It is good to have a ready reference to how these effects are achieved.
Also valuable are the principles of composition, light, shade and texture that are common to most art texts, but here these are presented with the specific ways they are achieved in monochrome ink and various pens. And, there are ample illustrations of works by the greatest illustrators of the time, showing how each one achieved results. Copying these artists is probably the most valuable experience an artists can get from a book.
Much of the work, in fact, the majority, is in the area of architectural rendering, and it seems that architects may be the ones who will get the most use of this textbook, but illustrators are well represented too, and the techniques are the same for both.
I have found this book essential in my own illustration work and recommend it highly to anyone in the graphic arts.

I bought this book to learn pen drawings but as this tome was written several years ago, it talks about a different set of instruments, principally a quill/or quill type pen. The uniqueness of this pen is that the width of the line varies with the pressure you put. These pens are now available only in specialty art stores. If you are planning to use the technical pen (available in a number of gages) a better and more apt alternative is The Technical Pen.

This book however, still rates 3 stars from me because of the depth of material. Some of the illustrations are very, well illustrative :) and the overall coverage of material is comprehensive.

This book is essential. I am a pro illustrator and I still find myself cracking it open. Through out your career in art you will have a hand full of books that amaze you and keep teaching you. This is it.

TJ Walkup

The Susan Polk has garnered a lot more attention simply because the defendant and convicted murderer, Susan Polk, is quite a complicated human being. She is definitely troubled and her relationship with a man who was first a father figure and later her lover turned husband and father of their three sons would be his victim. He was as obsessed and in love with Susan first as a patient and later as a wife. This book really explores their complicated relationship under the circumstances. Until now, I never thought much about the Polk case and as to why it got so much interest. Unfortunately, the great Dr. Felix Polk and his relationship with young Susan was doomed from the start. It was destined for failure. It was not that easy to end the relationship. Clearly, Susan is delusional and suffers from mental illness. Her behavior was never properly treated and she believed that everybody especially Felix was against her. What was the driving point might have been that Felix was supposedly taking over the dominant parental role in the family and pushing Susan aside. Of course, that was never the case but in Susan's delusional and obviously sick mind, she believed that Felix was setting the world against her especially by reaching to their sons. Unfortunately, the family has suffered a tragedy and this book is excellent in explaining in details about the case. While Carol Pogash is not a well-known true crime writer, she has done far more than the other author that I read about this case.

Every so often in the true crime genre author and subject come together in an almost fated way to produce a book that illuminates not only the crime but the times that produced it. McGinniss's Blind Faith, Stumbo's Until the Twelfth of Never, Alexander's Very Much a Lady and Rule's The Stranger Beside Me are among the select few and now they are joined by Carol Pogash's Seduced by Madness. This is a fine, almost ridiculously readable book by any standard.

The Polk murder case was true crime fodder even before the lead defense attorney's wife was murdered just before trial. Susan Polk was accused of murdering her husband, Felix, during a drawn out divorce and custody battle. Susan claimed she killed him in self-defense and revealed that Felix had been her therapist from the time she was 16. With those ingredients it's no wonder that everyone from Court TV to People were hot on this case. Then add the fact that Susan Polk clearly attended the Betty Broderick School of Tell Your Side of the Story to Any Journalist Who Will Listen. Susan is a stranger to both modesty and discretion - she's also undeniably brilliant and, sadly, delusional.

And there lies the brilliance of Pogash's book: instead of simply recording the salacious details (and there are plenty), she digs deeper, delving into the many fads and nuances of therapy-happy California in the 1970s and 1980s. From Est to the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria and everything else along the way, the Polks seem to have been part of it all. Certainly Felix Polk's sense of therapeutic boundaries were a little lax, marriage to one former patient, long-term friendships with current patients. All this would be merely odd (and almost a parody of what an East Coaster thinks goes on in California) except for the fact that Susan Polk needed psychiatric help. Maybe Felix saw himself living out Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night with him heroically saving his Nicole (Susan) by marrying her. Maybe Felix didn't realize how ill Susan really was. More often than not Felix either humored or fed Susan's minor delusions until the day Susan, inevitably, turned on him. Pogash does a fine job of showing the reader Susan Polk's charisma, we get glimpses that help us understand her incredible influence over her husband and children.

The trial coverage here is nothing short of spectacular. These are the looniest court proceedings since a Florida serial killer sang to his journalist groupie girlfriend on the stand. That was 5 minutes, this went on for weeks. Expert witnesses who appear guiltier than the defendant, a defendant more concerned with being "right" than being found not guilty and the unbearable tragedy of a mother cross-examining her son who is testifying against her all add up to trial you'll never forget.

This is a fantastic book. For the True Crime genre fan, this is pure ambrosia. For general readers this is an absorbing read. For all, this is a book that will deepen your understanding of the way we live now.

Author Carol Pogash does something miraculous: she reinvents the true crime genre to such a degree that other authors will find it difficult to match her! From the first page to the last, you're riveted to this real life drama of a psychotic and dangerous woman--Susan Polk--who butchered her husband--and then tried to blame it on that favorite alibi of many female killers: the battered wife syndrome. We first find Susan Polk puttering around her kitchen while the body of her psychologist husband rests in a river of blood in the nearby pool house where she forced him to live. She waits for one of her sons, Gabe, to find the corpse and then shows no emotion when her son tells her the news. With this introduction, you're led through their lives in fascinating detail--from Susan's mentally disturbed childhood up to the reasons she finally decided to murder her husband. Pogash creates each of the leading characters in colorful detail--and you're taken through the various psychological fads--such as the satanic child abuse craze of the 70s and then through the repressed memory cycle. Susan threw herself into each of these crazes--first, convinced that somehow that one of her sons was abused in satanic rituals. Then she was convinced through repressed memory that her husband, Felix, had hynoptized her and used drugs to seduce her as a teenager aganst her will. She became convinced he was a Mossad agent of death and that he knew 9/11 was going to happen. Yet, she's shown as being aggressively involved in the seduction of Felix. Pogash then goes into an even more fascinating part of this saga by covering the murder trial of Susan Polk. You're introduced to the attorneys, the witnesses and the courtroom junkies. Susan ends up representing herself and her madness is now seen by the public and jurors. Her bizarre courtroom antics--laughing, crying and shrieking at the prosecutor and judge--turned her case into a circus sideshow. While she claims to have been severely abused as a wife, you realize that her poor husband was forced to live in the pool house and was terrified of this woman. Yet, until the end, Felix told people how much he still loved her-even after she warned him that she was returning from a vacation in Montana with a shotgun and that she was going to kill him. This is what is so mystifying about this man. Even after continual threats against his life by his wife, he refused to move out and proclaimed his great love for this woman who now hated him. During the trial, one son, Eli, never wavered in defending his killer Mother. Two other sons depicted her as evil, psychotic and a relentless trouble-maker both in their home and to the neighbors and school staffs. I dreaded coming to the end of this book because it was so brilliantly written. Bravo to the author for breathing new life into the true crime genre which, unfortuntately, consists of too many books that are badly written and consist of nothing more than a cut-and-paste job by hack writers.

This story illustrates the old axiom that truth is stranger than fiction. The fascinating tale has so many bizarre twists and turns that one cannot help but be transfixed. Susan Polk begins seeing her therapist at age 15, marries the much older man a few years later, and a quarter of a century later stabs him 27 times, leaving him in a pool of blood in the pool house of the family's luxurious estate.

In between these bookends, journalist Carol Pogash tells the story of Susan Polk's deepening personal madness embedded in the cultural madness of the psychotherapy world of the 1960s and 1970s in Berkeley, where therapist-patient sex was tolerated, psychodrama and EST were treatments du jour, and cocaine use was rampant. The Polks even crusaded against mythical Satanic ritual abusers, claiming that their eldest son Adam had been kidnapped, raped, and made into a multiple personality. And if all that isn't enough, we've got exorcisms, psychics, and repressed memory claims.

Pogash's rendition of the four-month trial is a riveting page-turner. Susan Polk fired attorney after attorney and ended up representing herself. On center stage, the intelligent but delusional defendant demonstrated a stunning ability to "take any set of facts and mold a story where she was both victim and hero." It is painful to read about her brutal cross-examination of two of her three sons. Pogash chronicles the Freudian slips that give glimpses into her pathology, as she called her dead husband her father and her favored middle son her husband.

I am intrigued to ponder how Ms. Polk's trial outcome might have been different if it came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of June 19, 2008, in Illinois v. Edwards. Now, a mentally ill defendant may be barred from representing herself if she is delusional to the point that she is unable to effectively represent her best interests. (For my report on the Edwards case, type shurl.org/insane into your browser's address bar.) Perhaps that will be grounds for appeal of her second-degree murder conviction?

From the point of view of a forensic psychologist, I especially appreciated the depictions of the expert testimony. We had the cagey forensic pathologist who disappeared in the middle of the trial when the judge insisted he produce his files, and the seasoned psychologist who testified for the defense, based mainly on what Ms. Polk had told her and without benefit of any formal psychological testing, that the defendant was a battered woman who suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

I thought Pogash remained remarkably balanced and fair in her reporting, especially as compared to many pundits who flock to the true-crime genre. Being personally acquainted with upwards of a dozen of the participants whom she included in her account, I can say that by and large she portrayed them accurately and fairly.

Seduced by Madness is a riveting page-turner, a fascinating history, and a balanced portrayal of a high-profile trial that shined a spotlight on one family's dark pathos. I recommend it.

Carol Pogash's SEDUCED BY MADNESS chronicles the relatively well known case of the murder of psychologist Felix Polk by his wife Susan. Pogash's book begins with the childhoods of Felix and Susan, the twisted beginning of their relationship, the births of their three sons, and the dysfunctional life of the family up to and including Felix's murder.
The family breadwinner was an emotionally flawed Felix, who, while he appears to have been a good and loving father and husband, fatally poisoned the marriage, which took place when Susan was around 20 and Felix around 45, by initiating a sexual relationship with Susan when she was a teenager and his patient.
Their three sons were the victims of an upbringing which consisted of basically Susan, who - for example - encouraged her children not to attend school as, in her own mind, no one was really competent to care for or teach her children except herself.
And then there was Susan. Susan is shown to be a cultured, literate, and extremely intelligent woman who was also manipulative, vindictive, socially strange, in many ways unpleasant, and increasingly paranoid and delusional. If Felix provided the financial support - Susan never worked -Susan was, in an interesting role reversal, the family's psychological leader - the one who set the tone of the family's life - while Felix pretty much went along with whatever her agenda was at any given time and while the boys, whom Susan totally loved, were raised in an environment which was, like Susan, askew like a mildly distorting fun house mirror.

The last half of the book recounts the most bizarre trial you will ever read about, pitting DA Paul Sequeira against Susan Polk who was not a lawyer but chose, since she was convinced no one was smarter than she was, to defend herself. I generally feel that, with occasional exceptions, trial segments of true crime books are among the most boring. However the trial is one of the major components in the Susan Polk saga. Many of the true crime writing mediocrity, the rush to printers, would write this section by, for all intents and purposes, copying the trial transcript. I am happy to report that Pogash does not do this. It is in this case mandatory to provide the reader with a detailed account of the trial while being a writer rather than a copier, and Pogash handles it beautifully.

Carol Pogash clearly set out to write an outstanding book, and she has succeeded. The research is exhaustive and impeccable, the writing is crisp and intelligent, and the tone and feel of the book are adult and literate. There are no false steps, no insertion of the author's asides and comments (an increasingly unfortunate occurence among the hacks who litter the true crime landscape) and no filler.

You won't find true crime better than SEDUCED BY MADNESS. I recommend it unreservedly.

I first fell in love with Henry Panky on his web site. I would have willingly had his baby had it not been for the onset of menopause, the fact I was already married, lived 2000 miles away and hate inconvenience. I was aware of his sick obsession with Meg Ryan and even Renee Zellwegger, but it didn't stop my heart from beating wildly. Brilliant comedic writers have always been my weakness. When the book came out, I devoured it like a dingo at a turkey farm. Stay away from me Henry, this is too big for the both of us!! I'll always have your book to keep me warm and giggly.

Moments of pure brilliance shine through the deluge of self-important information, conspiracy, smut, self-help, sales, scams and spam that is the neon strip of the world wide web where I first encountered Henry Panky. If you don't recognise yourself in this portrait you're delusional! The mercilessly self-depricating, perpetually puffed up, deflated, flatulent, moaning, crowing character that is Henry Panky crossed over the hazy line to where he began building his own magnificent legend. It is a delight to share his excruciating pain. Dear sir: thank you for your wonderfull, ridiculous comedy. I laughed til I cried. It is a deranged world we live in and these 173 pages of lunacy helped me face tomorrow laughing. This is one #$@!!! funny book!

Henry E. Panky, Associate of Arts (candidate) is the insane alter ego of author Patrick Carlisle, though several disclaimers try to convince readers otherwise. Why use your alter ego to write a book of assorted rants? If you published an essay titled "The Crisis in Pubic Hair" would you want your name attached to it?

Unfair & Unbalanced lives up to its title, though it is more unbalanced (in a mental sense) than unfair. Panky does everything from proclaiming a sick love for Meg Ryan to trying his hand at mystery writing, and all of it is hilarious. Some of it even makes sense, and that is worrisome.

Carlisle, as Panky, knows how to make people laugh. Whether he's fumbling a review for an old movie he saw years ago (but just got around to writing about), or trying to explain his mandago bag , he is tuned into the world's humor ley lines. Not everyone will appreciate his efforts or even get it, but who cares?. He's doing this for the sinners, intellectuals, welfare cheats and politicians of the world, and they're the ones who most need to read this work of brilliance. -- Doug Brunell for the FEARLESS REVIEWS

Henry isn't sure why at age 15 he bought the John Denver album. He continues, "Let's chalk it up to raging pubescent hormones, psychotropic drugs at too early an age, too many Herman Hesse books, a compromised decision making capacity, and a general absence of free will."

Well, I don't know why I think it's so funny when he makes fun of John Denver, especially since I've always liked his music, but it is funny. Pubescent hormones? Yes, neurobiology tells us they'll make us crazy...psychotropic drugs at an age perhaps earlier than 15?...whew...too many Herman Hesse books? Well, I read them all in my mid-twenties, and several of Louis Lamour's, but the Hesse entry does work nicely. The last one - general absence of free will - blew me away! - one side of an ever current philosophical enigmatic question thrown in following a bunch of unrelated one-liners which strangely enough make a coherent and hilarious sentence.

To a conservative political pundit, Panky says, "Darling Ann, my winsome hyena, how I yearn to slip the tough leather straps over your slavering muzzle and ride you like a gaucho through the befouled and slippery charnel house of your political desires." Wow! This sentence paints quite a picture for a guy like me who doesn't really understand poetry. Continuing..."Your saccharine sophistries reek (italics) of an utterly Faustian and silver-tongued sodomy of the human spirit." I don't think he likes her.

Tongue in cheek he deprecates himself: "Even utter strangers naturally sense my Ivy League roots. Those lustrous days spent upon the mountain peak of academe, bathed in the brilliant light of reason, breathing in the high, Rocky mountain spring water of purest intellect, have imbued a certain effulgent je ne sais quoi (italics) deep into my very marrow. It's who I am. You might as well try to hide the Koih-noor diamond under a cheap thrift store merkin."

Well, okay, I have to keep the English and French dictionaries handy, and several trivia books. When I understand most of the servings, I feel proud. By the way, these examples from the book weren't exactly cherry-picked. When I came across the "free will" comment, I decided I had to write a review. The other 2 selections were just short enough, had not been mentioned in other reviews, and were found in the next 7 pages.

This book is an introduction to a new way of perceiving our world, the Hank E. Panky way. If you are tired of the same old mundane books...if you have memorized the self-help book by your commode...Try a little Hank E. Panky, and I predict a satisfied customer. I can't wait to get my hands on his next book.

Unfair & Unbalanced: The Lunatic Magniloquence of Henry E. Panky by Patrick M. Carlisle is a wry and captivatingly hysterical look at the baffling contradictions of modern life. Holding no hypocricy sacred, chapters such as "O' Foreskin, Where Art Thou?" and "The Crisis in Pubic Hair" do not hestiate to push the envelope on human sexuality, while "Letter to Dave Barry", "The Insatiable Meat Cleaver of Bette Davis", and "Letter to Ann Coulter" challenge other public figures in an eye-popping manner. Unfair & Unbalanced spares no effort to be hysterically funny, perhaps at the price of good taste but what is that, really? No fewer than four separate disclaimers lead into the hilarity, and the whetted observations within require it, for they are at least four times as cutting-edge as the leading "fair and balanced" commentary.

What's important about work? What's important about life? What would you tell your kids if you wrote them a letter about what's important, what work and life mean to you?

Bill Jensen is a self-described simpleton dedicated to fighting corporate stupidity. Living a simple life in this complicated world is challenge enough, but this brave soul has committed to an even deeper mission. Cutting through the stupidity, bureaucracy, and politics, you'll discover that corporations are comprised of people. People. Ordinary, heart's-in-the-right-place people. These people have feelings, experiences, perspectives, and stories to tell. They have vital messages to pass on to others.

Jensen has collected those messages. Thousands of them, in the form of letters. Written documentaries from the depths of consciousness of the writers. Some are short, some long. Some deep and profound, others relatively shallow. Each has a message. This book is a collection of samples of the letters Jensen has collected. They are assembled on these pages, not to be read necessarily from cover to cover, but to be selected and absorbed at will. Picking and choosing letters, as the author suggests, is not easy-you'll probably read most of them anyway.

The letters are organized into chapters representing what Jensen calls his Five Discoveries: Finding Yourself, Finding the Lessons to be Learned and the Questions to be Asked, Finding the Choices that Really Matter, Finding the Courage to Choose, and Finding Joy, Serenity, and Fulfillment.

The book concludes with a valuable chapter on getting started with your own understandings and choices. This publication is a learning, a sharing, an inspiration to look more carefully at your own life to see what really matters. Curl up with this book next week-end.

What Is Your Life's Work? by Bill Jensen is more than just advice: it gathers life stories and case histories of those who succeeded in identifying what really matters, using the letters and work diaries of others to mirror reader struggles. While the overall message lies in identifying life purpose, all the advice in What Is Your Life's Work can be directed to business solutions and issues as well as more general life concerns over risk, worth, and achievement. An excellent, cathartic inspiration for change.

How often do we define ourselves by our work? How often do we equate who we are in life with our job title: assistant director, associate vice deputy, CEO, chairman, stay-at-home mom, etc.? So many people focus so tightly upon their job description as their identity that they ultimately lose sight of their true self.

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK examines what truly matters from a distinctly human perspective. It does so not by dry, formal statements of principles (e.g., the 7-steps, the 10-tenets, the 9-objectives, the 431 value-added theorems . . . you get the picture). Rather, the author offers the wisdom of numerous individuals, precious metals refined in the furnace of everyday existence. The letters and journal entries, selected by Bill Jensen from countless thousands, answer the questions of what really matters in life and how one awakens (or reawakens) the passion in one's soul. The lessons are personal, poignant, and powerful; they are also as unique as are the individual personalities.

In lives of depth and meaning, certain themes emerge: self-respect, integrity, balance, the importance of family, faith, passion, selflessness, and compassion (to name just a few). Mr. Jensen's selections, for the most part, emphasize the transcendence of the individual toward a greater purpose than the accumulation of possessions, or the aggregate of mere activities and accomplishments.

There are two individuals, whose legacies to their children are sadly that of egotistical arrogance and strident selfishness. The reader will quickly recognize these shallow individuals - their stories too are most valuable.

Although a scant 200+ pages, WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK packs a tremendous wallop, a wonderful wake-up call to those who have languished in a low-level comfort zone, or to those who aspire to a higher place. It is a wonderful series of discoveries to those seeking a life of fulfillment and meaning in those areas that truly matter.

This is not one of those how to feel better about one's self or situation. Nor its instructions on to be better in life. The subject matter is like a brilliant snap shot of all sorts of people from various backgrounds and professions and levels of society. They share some of the most amazing fears, tears, and most of all lesson learned within their experience. there is no good and bad...its just a collection of REAL stories written by real people like u and me!!

get this for sure if u want to feel collected and want to reconcile yourself. I know i pick this up every time i feel lost and hopeless; it doesn't care if u made it or not as far as material is concerned. I had recommended this book to 3 people whom are very well off and yet they too have felt lost in their "supposedly" full lives. I gave this as a gift to another who just started their first job out of college. ItS fantastic stories that move u :)

If you've ever wished you had a parent or mentor who would have shared with you what it is that matters most in life, because you've noticed that people who get such mentoring seem to have some kind of natural edge in the world... you're in luck. Bill Jensen's book WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK contains some of the most powerfully moving written exchanges between people that you are likely ever to find, and these gems of real life stories will set you on fire with their honesty and love. Every counselor, life coach, parent and child can benefit from reading WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S WORK, as some of the most important life lessons are touched upon in deeply personal ways.

In an age when it's been said that the art of letter writing is dead, this book dares to raise the subject of we can best find a balance between work and the rest of our life. The intense passion conveyed in most of the letters helps bring this subject to life in a way that is sure to help anyone rekindle their own inner fire, and regain a sense of what it is we're all working for that really matters.

I loved Mr. Ayala's book. This book tells of real life situations, as many people experience this lifestyle everyday. He teached us that no matter what the situation is, faith in the Lord will bring you through. I have had the pleasure of reading Mr. Ayala's novel Alabaster Box as well and loved it! If you love Will You Be Made Whole you will enjoy Alabaster Box just the same. Please keep writing Mr. Ayala!

When Keith Coleman got on the Greyhound bus headed to Chicago he knew his life would never be the same. At the ripe age of 13, he fled his home in Atlanta after he defended his mother against his stepfather. Fearing the loss of his freedom, he thought he could go to Chicago and stay with his mother's sister. However, staying with his aunt was not an option with the authorities looking for him. Unfortunately for Keith, he was beaten unconscious soon after he arrived in Chicago and it was Drake Sommersbee who helped to change the course of his life. With Drake's help, Keith became KC and into his life came a succession of characters all seeking solace and help but not knowing where to garner it.

Katy meets KC while at a club, which begins their friendship. She is from a wealthy family in Ohio and finds Northwestern University has more to offer than just an education. However, she finds herself in a situation, that can only be categorized as purgatory. She goes from being a young woman with goals to a prostitute who can't get away from the man she thought loved her, but was really just her pimp.

There are several other characters in this story whose lives are intertwined as they live sinful lives and hope for a better life. One constant person in the characters' lives is a homeless man known as Old Ben who seems to know everything about each person and tries to guide them to salvation. He seems to be in the story to help them all learn to accept Christ and know they are loved.

WILL YOU BE MADE WHOLE has an inspiring message of accepting God's love and faith without being overly preachy. The characters all have lived sinful lives whether it was drugs, alcohol, sex, homosexuality, murder or more illicit transgressions, yet they are all deserving of being saved if they are willing to ask forgiveness for their sins and accept Christ into their lives. Readers will be drawn to several of the characters because it was easy to understand their pain and because they will probably recognize some of the characters from people in their own lives. The pacing was okay, and there were only a few editorial issues. Unfortunately, the story was too predictable; you knew what was going to happen before it happened, leaving no element of surprise. Although written in a simple manner, it guarantees the readers will receive the inspired message.

Reviewed by Cashana Seals
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

From the beginning to end to book of work keep you wondering what's going to happen next. Once you pick this book up you will not want to put it down. The author really gives life to all the character's in this book. My favorite character in this novel is Big Ben the homeless man. He's like the conscience or guardian angel througout the story. If you're expecting a E.L Lynn Harris or a ZANE like experience you will be disappointed. Ayala will take you mind to a different level. He brings a strong and powerful Christian standpoints but he don't turn you off with it. Ayala isn't someone to sleep on. Check this book on all of his other literary works.

Often in life we face a moment time that will alter our lives forever. This was the quandry Keith Patrick Coleman found himself in as the sand from the hour glass slid away. From page one you'll find yourself enthralled following Keith's every move as he leaves Atlanta for the mean streets of the windy city. What do you do when you can't stay home, and you have no place to go? Will you be made whole has all the angst and passion of Shakespere's Hamlet in a modern day setting. Get ready for the ride of your life!

E.L. Ayala is a very powerful writer. With a background in playwriting and stage productions he has honed a sense of drama that serves him very well indeed as a new novelist. Ayala joins the ranks of the fine cadre of African American writers today with his first novel WILL YOU BE MADE WHOLE, and with the surety of voice he has developed, we can expect further equally fine books from this artist.

Ayala has chosen Chicago as his stage for this story of multiple lives that interweave in a journey through drug abuse, prostitution, sex rings that involve both boys and girls as sex workers, violence, parental abuse, AIDS, the homeless street people, and ultimately for the power of friendship and love and as well sculpted a use of introducing ethics and religion as any writer writing today. He paints wholly three-dimensional characters, allowing their own character development in the course of the story to physically and emotionally describe their physical personas. The leading character is KC, a young thirteen-year-old running away from Georgia after being involved in murdering his abusive stepfather and while on the bus to Chicago he encounters a dear lady who shares with him a tattered book 'When God Doesn't Make Sense', a book she eventually leaves with him and which sets the tone for the long epic ahead. Once in Chicago KC is taken in by a kind black man (Drake) who treats him well, cares for him, and eventually becomes KC's lover as well. Drake is involved in a male prostitution ring and KC successfully develops into a handsome hunk who is one of Drake's prime hustlers.

Parallel to his gradually developing story of one lad's rise and fall is a second story of a young girl Katy who arrives in Chicago from Youngstown, Ohio to attend Northwestern University. What begins as a mild shy girl develops into the character who likewise falls into the prostitution line due to the influence of the handsome but evil Sugar Man. This slow but inevitable descent into low life is populated with a number of friends for Katy and one of those friends is KC. From the time of their meeting the story pummels into the fast track of bad choices, violence, drugs, bondage to pimps, yet in this story there also appears Old Ben, a homeless street person 'angel' who seems to rise up out of a sense of strange timing to offer consoling words from the Bible, messages about God's love and restorative powers for the downtrodden.

To tell more would be to deprive the reader of just how facile E.L. Ayala is in bringing the reader face to face with the seamiest side of life, creating a glowing tapestry with threads of fear, of need, of illness, of desperation, of shared love, of disappointment...of restoration. Ayala is in control of the story at every turn and never lingers too long to let the numbing persistence of a world gone wrong become maudlin. The narrative is crisp, the events propel naturally, and the use of the introduction of spiritual healing is never intrusive, only needed!

Stories of crime in the smarmy side of big cities are many, but few have been told with the finesse and page-turning style Ayala manages. This is a fine book, worthy of serious attention among readers, and a first novel that bears witness to a fine new talent. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 06

It was almost as lovely as the first one that was given to my children when they were very small....a gift from their great-aunt who was a Catholic nun with a degree in Library Science...I tried to locate one exactly like the original which was received in about 1964. It was about half the size, hard cover with the most beautiful artwork and my 5 children loved it. Somehow it was lost in one of our moves, but I bought this one for my oldest daughter (now 51) who always wanted a copy..She loved reading it to her younger siblings. She loved it and so did I, so we consider it a wonderful little book.

The familiar poem from childhood paired with beautiful illustrations makes the perfect bedtime read to share with your grandchildren.

Captain Kangaroo sang this song on his show many years ago. I was fortunate to have
the leather bound edition of children's poems by Eugene Field that included this poem.

I sang "Wynken, Blynken & Nod" to all our children and all the children I have loved. The original
is a bit different and has more lyrics but the feel is the same. The color pictures
are beautiful. The song is a wonderful bedtime routine and the imagery is lovely. Also,
it is appropriate for either a boy or girl. This book makes a wonderful addition to any children's library.


We will be gifting and singing this poem to the children of the many children we
love.

Eugene Field spins a marvelous bed time yarn with Wynken, Blynken, & Nod. Wonderfull Illustrations by Johana Westerman enhance this century old tale. It was my favorite bedtime story as a child, no violence, no villians, no nightmares. A fantasy delight that will send all young children off to dreamland with vivid and happy thoughts. Highly reccommended to parents and teachers, or anyone who cares for a child.

I was thrilled when I discovered Wynken, Blynken & Nod was still being printed. I believe of the two books I have saved from my childhood (I'll be 65 next week), this was one of them.

I treasured this book. It's a classic.

Today I found it has arrived. I am so sure that my grandchildren, 4 and 2 will love it as much as I did, that I bought it for them.

I am into this book halfway as a part of my personal training program having completed a couple of other books first. This book seems to give the whole package. I consider it superior to a Wrox book I have, but I wish it split apart the coding more like a Wrox book. Lot's of typing! Anyway, this book's a keeper!

Great book. Taking me through all the ins and outs of E-Commerce. It's not perfect with some documented errata on the website. But more than adequate for any coder with a pulse.

Dos ultimos livros que tenho comprado, assim como os da serie Head First da O'Really este livro superou muito as minhas espectativas.

Como um livro de tutorial foi maravilhoso e me trouxe muito conteudo !!!

Realmente vale a pena !!!

It's an excellent book, the book teaches you how to develop a site in three layers (presentation, business and data) in my ishe goal of this book.

'Beginning ASP .NET 2.0 E-Commerce in C# 2005: From Novice to Professional' by Cristian Darie and Karli Watson is one of the most unique and important books out there for anyone that is developing an E-Commerce site with ASP.NET 2.0. Starting from scratch, the authors step by step show you how to get a site running and WORKING well and efficient. Packed with 650+ pages of material, the authors break the steps down in logical parts, show how they go about the work to be done, and then provide the code which does the dirty work. Not only is it helpful, but it's a joy to follow the steps as so much of the curtain is pulled away to show the developer how to get the job done. This is easily one of my favorite Apress books that I have seen. One of the nicest things about the Apress line of books is the fact that they write and publish books that no one else seems to and this is a perfect example of this. I'll close with a chapter overview for your inspection:

01. Starting off
02. Laying Out the Foundation
03. Creating the Product Catalog: Part I
04. Creating the Product Catalog: Part II
05. Searching the Catalog
06. Improving Performance
07. Receiving Payments Using PayPal
08. Catalog Administration
09. Creating a Custom Shopping Cart
10. Custom Orders
11. Making Product Recommendations
12. Adding Customer Accounts
13. Advanced Customer Orders
14. Order Pipeline
15. Implementing the Pipeline
16. Credit Card Transactions
17. Integrating with Amazon

Tack on 2 appendixes to the end and you have a MUST-HAVE book for anyone that is looking to achieve the same goals that this books does!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Blood of Angels is one of the best suspense novels I have read in quite some time. Set in Nashville it features Thomas Dennehy, a lead prosecutor who is known for his closing arguments and who has sent more than one criminal to death row. His new case, for which he plans to go for the maximum penalty, is against Moses Bol, a Sudanese immigrant accused of raping and murdering a white woman in a gritty part of town. As the case is contemplated a bombshell drops. An anti-death penalty professor claims he has incontrovertible proof that an executed convict that Dennehy put on death row, Wilson Owens, was innocent of the crime for which he was put to death. This throws the prosecutor's office into disarray, as well as the case against Bol, as an activist preacher claims Bol is innocent. In the meantime Dennehy thinks he's being stalked by someone, and acts directed at him get increasingly more frightening. He is soon visited, yet again, by his past, in a harrowing sequence of events.

This novel is definitely an intricate, well thought out work of suspense. The characters in this novel are very well drawn and Dennehy's relationship and interaction with them gives the novel a very personal touch.

Two thumbs up for this one.

The start was a bit misleading ( I thought I'd stumbled upon an anti-death penalty rant disguised as a novel ), but was pleasantly surprised to find myself in the middle of a fantastic thriller.

I recommend readers go through the bargain hardcover book section of their local bookstores and experiment with new authors on the cheap. That's how I found Reed Arvin and now I plan on reading all of his books.

Thomas Dennehy, Assistant District Attorney of Davidson County Tennessee, has his hands full in Blood of Angels.

The case of one Wilson Owens has come back to haunt the DA's office as new evidence has come to light that the State of Tennessee may have executed the wrong man two years ago.

Dennehy was the prosecutor in the case known at the Sunshine Grocery murders and has the singular notoriety of having convicted two men in separate trials and of separate crimes of killing the same woman. This in itself puts a tornadic twist into this book that would make it a brilliant story, but Arvin goes one-step further by hurling the racially charged murder of a local white-trash girl by a Sudanese immigrant into the mix.

Kwame Jamal Hale has come forward and delivered what may prove to be very damning evidence that he, not Owens, was the murderer at the Sunshine Grocery. His claim? He knows where the heretofore-undiscovered murder weapon can be found. Dennehy, his boss David Rayburn and soon-to-be retired fellow prosecutor Carl Becker, can only wait and watch as the circus rolls into downtown Nashville and the DA's office prepares to tender their resignations en toto, if it is proved that Wilson Owens was innocent and unlawfully executed.

Meanwhile the bond hearing of the suspected Sudanese murderer Moses Bol comes to court. The DA is dealt another blow when bail is set at $1.5 million and is paid by one Fiona Towns, a Presbyterian preacher of a dying central Nashville church that has less the dozen members.

These two stories together are not enough for Arvin. He tosses in the failing personal life of Dennehy, a cast of characters that make every page a thrill to turn and just enough action for you to gnaw your fingernails down to the cuticles. Dennehy has a wit and dark sense of humor that would be depressing if it were not written so well. Add his ex-wife, her wealthy doctor second husband, and a daughter that truly loves her daddy, and you have the full package in a legal thriller that you will be proud to recommend to every fellow fiction reader you know.

Armchair Interviews says: If you love legal thrillers, check this one out!

I loved "The Will" by Arvin and grabbed "Blood of Angels" as soon as it was released in hardcover. It is a book to own and I will read again one day. Great suspense, character developement and plot. This book has it all. It's one of those you can't put down once you start it.

As a former resident of Nashville and currently living in the city of Frankling (the hero's city) I was expecting to be somewhat familiar with the sites and locations. What I was not expecting was the absolutely riveting story - a police procedural of the first degree. I now know how residents of New York, DC, LA & Chicago feel when they read stories that take place in their city. The areas described are well-known and provide a reference point for the story.

This is the New South. Absent are evangelicals, the dominant Democrat party, close-knit generational families and a whites only landscape. Instead, Thomas Dehenny, the district attorney, is a driven, dedicated hard-drinking, divorced father who never attends church. One detects that the author (through Thomas) decries those who devote their lives to defending murderers and rapists. He asks, What about the victims? Who speaks for them?

In this case, there is a strong possiblity that the wrong man was executed. The crime involved two defendents - the shooter & the medic who actually killed the woman through negligance (he was on meth). At the same time, the city is rocked by the brutal murder of a Nationite woman by an African refugee. The struggle between low-class whites (The Nation) & the growing numbers of refugees and immigrants is real & depicted with accuracy. Into the fray steps Fiona Tonws, local Presbyterian minister/activist. Despite their positions, a romance breaks out between the two. The real villian is revealed midway through the book & he is as horrible and clever as they come. The ending was sheer perfection as was the entire story. I cannot say enough about this book! Buy it.

I read this book in order to prepare myself to transcribe for Mrs. Miller's upcoming novel, and I found it to be a lovely true story that encompasses World War II, but more so, the forever changed lives of those who lived it. Easy to read and easier to connect with, this story brings to us not only the war but our vital human connection with those around us and around the world, the importance of peace and understanding, and a lesson on the fallible nature of stereotyping our "enemies". I look forward to Mrs. Marako Miller's coming novel, which I expect to be even better.

Ever since my June 12, 1999, comments on "Bridge To The Sun, I've received many personal e-mails requesting a copy of my movie video. Please do not ask me to violate copyright laws. Do as I did...keep checking your local cable listings or inquire of the classic movie channels when "Bridge To The Sun" will air again, and then set your VCRs accordingly.

I attended Mariko Miller's lectures about her family and just had to have the book. For those who want to know major events since, Mr. Terasaki was the liaison after WWII between Emperor Hirohito and MacArthur. He was "writing" a book during this period, but when Mariko got it translated from the court Japanese to the more common dialect, it proved to be much more valuable. Publicly Emperor Hirohito said very little about WWII. He dictated his thoughts on it to Terasaki instead. Terasaki's book proved to be an invaluable historical document. Mariko lives in Wyoming and is writing her own book. She mentioned in her lectures how easy it was to figure out where her parents were on a given day and time in the days leading up to WWII. She just requested their FBI files and it was all there. Keep an eye out for Mariko Miller's book. It should be even better than BRIDGE TO THE SUN.

Having lived in the modern Japan for 10+ years, I was impressed by how beautifully Mrs. Terasaki captured the spirit of Japan, and somewhat jealous that she experienced things (I don't mean the war, mind you) difficult to find today. This is a great book, and my only complaint is that she didn't write more.

Incidentally, I actually found out about this book from a Japanese mini-series that was re-broadcast recently called "Mariko". It had a few more details not found in the book, such as the fact that Mr. Terasaki used phrases regarding Mariko (esp. "Mariko is not well today") as a code with his brother and others in Tokyo to relay how discussions were progressing during the tense time right before the Pearl Harbor attack. Also, I found out that Mariko is alive and well and living in the US.

As literature, this book is not the best. However, as a historical first-hand document that recounts a personal, interesting, and very unique story, this is superb. This book may not read easily for some since the writing style can be a little scattered. This characteristic, though, reveals a rawness in the writing. Terasaki is genuine, and she opens a window to many intriguing subjects. These subjects include: foreign policy between Japan and America surrounding World War II, cultural contrasts between the two countries, perspectives on love, the life of ambassadors in the WWII era, Japanese perspectives on Americans in that era (and vice-versa), the treatment of the different classes of people in Japan, separation of civilians and government, Japanese WWII propaganda strategies, Japanese military actions in China before the US entered the war, Japanese perspectives on the American occupation after the surrender, and so much more. This text contains plenty of substance, even if not in a most polished form. I would recommend borrowing a copy through your local library rather than paying $$ for it.

This is a history of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army, formed on 19 September 1944. They saw action in Italy in the spring of 1945 but did not have the opportunity to enter Germany until after the war was over, possibly because of the reaction some of them have to a group of German POWs - they attacked the POWs and the Jewish officers had to stand between the Jewish soldiers and the POWs. After the surrender of Germany, Sergeant Israel Carmi and Captain Johanan Peltz visit the survivors at Mauthausen and return to camp with revenge on their minds. Carmi requests a transfer to military intelligence and begins gathering information on the commanders of the SS - and forms an execution squad made of Jewish soldiers. Throughout the summer of 1945, they execute by their estimate 300 Gestapo. Then in July 1945, Peltz and Carmi go into Poland to execute a Gestapo agent hiding as a Catholic priest. As they enter the church, they discover the priest is conducting a class of teenage girls. One of the girls makes her way to them, sees the Star of David on the shoulder patch of their uniforms, and declares her wish to return to her own people - her parents had hidden her in a Catholic orphanage. They forget their original mission and take the girl back to a Displaced Person camp near their camp. This launches the Jewish Brigade Group into a new mission - rescuing Displaced Persons and smuggling them into Palestine. I recommend this book on how history can be changed by a small decision.

It is excellently written. A true story. You do not want to let go.

How this book went under the radar is beyond me! Steven Spielberg should make a movie out of this, and it could be better than "Saving Private Ryan"! This is a true story, of the first official Jewish military fighting unit. It was formed, when the British government, agreed to send 5,000 Jewish volunteers to fight in Europe, during World War II. Let your heart, mind and soul, be put in the place of a Jewish soldier: Millions of Jews being exterminated in the concentration camps, and you aren't allowed to fight back, as a recognized official unit or brigade. Now your chance comes! This book, first delves into the different types of men in this group. The feeling of helplessness, even after being approved and organized, because they're kept away from the main fighting. I was deeply impacted, as I was told, that no one, had ever worn the Star Of David, on a military uniform before. What a wonderful contrast, to the Star Of David being put on all the Holocaust victims sleeves, as a means of humiliation. When the war ends, this Jewish Brigade, decides not to stop! They continue to go after Nazi officers in hiding, and people who stole Jewish citizen's artwork and valuables. Two individual scenes, brought pride to my chest, and tears to my eyes. One was when, two of the Brigade, finally tracked down one of the Germans, who had performed various atrocities against the Jews, and one member of the Brigade, said to the war criminal: "In the name of the Jewish people, I sentence you to death!" The other scene, was when members of the Brigade, came to the gates of a concentration camp, and the skeletal survivor's in pajamas, stood looking at them, and did not speak. One soldier said, "Don't be afraid" in Yiddish. "The survivors still did not speak" "The soldier felt guilty-of his health, his strength, his good fortune, to have been spared." "He tried again, "We're Jews," he said. "Confused, a man pointed to the Star Of David on the soldier's sleeve, and asked hesitantly, "You're Jewish angels?" I could not put this book down, and have tried to think of a million different reasons, why no one has made this into a movie. I bought the book for my son, who, with starting a new family, and a new job, doesn't have time to read. But after starting this book, he read it every morning before work, and at lunch, and finished it in a week. I bought a copy and sent it to my brother, who is the busiest guy I know. He never has time to read. He read it in a week, and then passed it on to an older gentleman where he works. I sent a copy to one of my best friends; he finished it in a week. We all still discuss, and quote this book today, and I read it over three years ago!

I met Howard Blum at a book signing at the JCC in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He was there for his book "The Eve of Destruction". He is an amazing story teller and has a powerful story to tell. This story is told thru the eye's of three men and a woman, Israel Carmi, Johanan Peltz, and Arie Pinchuk, Leah Pinchuk. The British in almost a regretfully way allow a Jewish Brigade to be raised from voluteer's from Palestine. A brigade of 5000 troops who fought the Nazi's in the Italian campaign. These brave men then take on another mission. Their most important mission in their lifes, rescueing Jewish orphan children. These troops stationed in Europe after the conflict were privately hunting down war crinimal's when almost by accident they rescued a ophan Jewish girl. Darkness had almost consumed these men in the never ending spiral of death when God stepped in and handed them the orphan girl.
"The more he killed in cold blood, the more he ensured that the horror the Nazis had let loose would continue to triumph. His only hope was to make a movement away from this ruinous faith. And now he knew what he had to do. For the first time he started to envision the beginnings of a plan, an active strategy, that brought with it the possibility of a world beyond all the evil."
Now you would think this would not be such a difficult problem, however the British were determined not to allow any more Jewish refugee's into Palestine!
A thrilling true story that will keep you in suspense till then end! This was a little known unit that contributed so much to humanity.

Howard Blum has written a compelling true narrative of a small group of Jewish soldiers who fought the Nazis along side the British Army in WWII. This little known slice of history is conveyed persuasively in The Brigade.

Blum discovered this small piece of history by accident when visiting the US Holocaust Museum. After he pulled together scores of interviews, he chose to tell the story through the eyes of three soldiers and one survivor, the sister of one of the soldiers. This telling is what gives this book its potency.

The strength of The Brigade is that it reads as a novel, and the reader cannot turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens next. Blum's accurate portrayal and attention to details is what keeps us focused on the reality of this amazing story of courage and perserverance. He reminds us through his excellent storytelling that this did happen.

The book is not another war novel that expounds on the accounts of military victories. It shows the sacrifices and the souls of these men who risked their lives to save their people. It reveals their struggles and their doubts as well as their triumphant spirits.

The Brigade is a must read. It is uplifting and demonstrates the human spirit at its best.