O Books

Shadow Fields is a wonderful book which captures you the minute you open and start reading the first page. I found that I could not put it down. D. F. Whipple's main character, Jack Maguire, comes alive immediately. You are sure you know him or someone like him and so you keep on reading because you really want to know what will happen.

When you read this book you will feel the impact of the story because it hits home for many of us who are control people or who know control-type people--this is such a story where Jack Maguire who has money, power and all that goes with it. His journey of how he handles the gamut of life, death and all the ramifications that come with his decisions will keep you riveted. Like many, we can relate to Jack's successes, failures and finally the impact his lifestyle had on himself, his family and friends.

I most highly recommend this wonderful book--you will love it. I know we will be hearing more from this new, exciting writer--D. F. Whipple. Remember this name.

As a minor, upon reading the synopsis of the book, I believed the subject matter would prove to be too far removed to be of any interest to me. But - as I found myself increasingly engrossed in Jack's marital and familial trails - I realized just how universal Whipple's message resonates.

The style is uniquely his own; fresh, inviting, and ideal for Whipple's forays into matters of philosophy just as much as it is for his quick, dry, descriptions of the world in which he explores. Also of note is the feeling one gets upon reading his work; one is left with a need to contribute a voice to the issues he raises and pick up the pen themselves. Personally, the inspiration derived from his own ambition contributed greatly to my overall enjoyment of Shadow Fields.

Nor is his diction daunting or off-putting. Indeed, most passages from the book read at a fast clip. I point this out not as a flaw, but as a compliment - no unnecessary words are used nor does, at any part, the story slow to "pad out" the read. I believe Whipple has found a way, through combination of word and wit, to marriage Aristotelian philosophy with the best of modern writing.

Wall Street would appear to be a complex issue to introduce to unfamiliar readers but this is handled expertly within the text. In fact, all technical issues seem expertly handled under Whipple's guidance; an astounding feat most especially for a first time novelist.

My only gripe would not be the way in which Shadow Fields was explored, but in the way it wasn't; I felt that Whipple, himself, was on the cusp of some greater illumination that glimmered repeatedly throughout his writing but was left absent from the greater body of work. (Although I would like to point out that all conclusions Shadow Fields draws upon the morale of the human condition do not fall to stale, idle, abstractions. All insights are fresh without a feeling of disconnect from the reader) This arises, perhaps, from the many threads woven at Jack's childhood gone unacknowledged by the close of the book.

However, I did find the conclusion a satisfying end. (I'll attempt not to give too much away.) Not all ends were wrapped up but this did not lead to a cheapened feeling. In fact, one feels that Jack continues to exist in pursuance of the Great American Dream.

I highly recommend this book to all who are interested and to those looking for a fresh, inviting take on an issue grown long stale in the literary world. I have already picked up Snooker Glen, his second delve into the literary world, and look forward to seeing what new devices Whipple has forged.

From the moment I opened this book, I knew I would want to know everything there is to know about Jack's life. I felt every pain and victory with him. The writing is truly glorious. Thank you D.F. Whipple!
Stephanie D.

Who can recall that vivid, altering moment when the confluence of events converge to define one's life course? The trajectory is announced, crystallized...defined. When is that second when the whispered voice of encouragement and self affirmation adjusts to an audible volume, undismissable with its intent? It morphs into a propellant for self confidence...self belief...an embracing escort to the next test. It becomes the impenetrable fiber woven for the vicissitudes of life...not dismissable! D.F. Whipple conducts those pivotal Doylestown scenes with a musical mastery...balancing the "turn of the phrase" with the staccato of anticipation and a sensitive , controlled tempo, until the accelerando vibrates towards its ultimate , exuberant release. I felt present for Jack Macguire's defining moment on those Doylestown Shadow Fields, realizing at once the transforming message of self insight and self affirmation. An invaluable read for life students, who approach the raised bar...no matter what the goal....n'importe! A Shadow Field is there for us all.

If you have ever heard someone describe seeing Springsteen at the Stone Pony *before* Greetings from Asbury Park, or saw LeBron play basketball in high school, you can get a sense for how I feel having read D.F. Whipple's Shadow Fields. The book is beautifully written, not just engaging but engrossing. That it comes without the hype of a major publishing house makes it even more delicious.

Shadow Fields tells the story of Jack Maguire, a man on the fast track who gets to the top and wonders what he has sacrificed and whether he should change course. But this is a fresh take on this not uncommon story.

I'm no literary critic, so I can't delve too deeply here, but the highlights of the book for me were the characters and their conversations, which are vivid and oh-so-real; the examination of the marriage, which will have anyone in a relationship doing some soul-searching; and the fact that I did not want to put this book down.

The book also passes my other tests: I will give it to friends confidently; and I will read it again myself to delve deeper into some of the important themes.

Look--I'm rooting for Whipple, in part because he is not backed (yet) by the big publishers. I just ordered Snooker Glen, his second novel, although I wonder if an author who scores big with his first novel can possibly nail the second as well.

And I recommend this book highly. You will enjoy reading it, and it will get you thinking. And someday, we'll all boast about how early we were aboard Whipple's career.

Excerpt from Fortune Article: How to build a great team by Jerry Useem, FORTUNE, June 1, 2006: 3:31 PM EDT

........ The fact is, most of what you've read about teamwork is bunk. So here's a place to start: Tear down those treacly motivational posters of rowers rowing and pipers piping. Gather every recorded instance of John Madden calling someone a "team player." Cram it all into a dumpster and light the thing on fire. Then settle in to really think about what it means to be a team.

We're certainly not against the concept of teamwork. But that's the point: All the happy-sounding twaddle obscures the actual practice of it. And teamwork is a practice. Great teamwork is an outcome; you can only create the conditions for it to flourish. Like getting rich or falling in love, you cannot simply will it to happen.

We will go further and say: Teamwork is an individual skill. That happens to be the title of a book. Christopher Avery writes, "Becoming skilled at doing more with others may be the single most important thing you can do" to increase your value - regardless of your level of authority.

As work is increasingly broken down into team-sized increments, Avery's argument goes, blaming a "bad team" for one's difficulties is, by definition, a personal failure, since the very notion of teamwork implies a shared responsibility. You can't control other people's behavior, but you can control your own. Which means that there is an "I" in team after all. (Especially in France, where they spell it Equipe.)

This book is a must for anyone who is managing an office. if your office is full of egotistical employees or employees who are not term players, this book will help you to help employess get on the right track.

Many of us charged with leading teams are expected to take the role of 'scapegoat' for team performance. While most of us agree that the team leader does contribute (critically) to the team's success, each individual member can and does impact the team's performance. This book provides a validation that individuals impact teams and goes further to explain that every team member has an obligation to provide for the success of the team. This book helps empower those that want to make a difference in their teams.

For years, I have resisted the popular notion of "there is no `I' in "teamwork" because teams are a collection of individuals working toward a common goal. Each of us brings our own values and skill sets to the table. It is our choice to work together (or not) as a team.
Christopher M. Avery has captured this idea and more in his latest book, Teamwork is an Individual Skill: Getting Work Done When Sharing Responsibility. Chris suggests that individuals take responsibility for team success versus blame others He challenges the reader to be proactive and work through team issues rather than avoid or accommodate others.
This is a perfect book for team members who have been on teams before. It will validate good team behaviors and point out areas to upgrade...in a gentle and non-threatening way. The book is easy to read with lots of stories and examples to highlight the key points.

The book entitled "Teamwork is an Individual Skill" is quite interesting. I work at a large semi-conductor manufacturer as a non-exempt fab technician on a self managed team on night shift.

I am the most experienced and capable person on my team, yet with all of my background I have come to realize how relatively little influence I often have on team performance, and on my ability to push the team in the direction I think it should go. The very first sentence in your book on page 1, "Do you share responsibility with others to get work done but don't have authority over them (and they don't have authority over you)?" absolutely floored me, 'cause that is me to the tee.

I had only gotten to page 8 of your book when I was thoroughly blown away by the directness with which the differences between flat and hierarchical structures were addressed. At my company there is no mention of this approach; even once when I mentioned the term "semi-autonomous team" to the most qualified tech (who happened to be on day shift--arguably a more hierarchical environment due to the presence of many exempt employees) he did not know what the term meant. The company has this structure in place almost as an unwritten agenda.

Your comment on page 5, "Many individuals--especially smart, high achievers--can experience great angst if asked to serve in teams." is in retrospect a great source of comfort to help me understand my angst during my three years with this company. In all of the areas I have worked in during that time I am sure that I had (at least on paper) more qualifications than any one other person (B.S. deg, two A.A.S. degs, 12+ prior years of technical experience, and a whole host of other skills that my teammates do not exhibit.) Plus add to that, that my experience has almost exclusively come from a strongly tilted hierarchical background in retrospect is why I struggled with teams, as you describe them.

Every page of your book is quite thought-provoking, causing me to pause and reflect on how your observations compare to my situation.

The author and illustrator know lots about the backcountry and provide tons of useful information on winter skiing. Even if you've spent much time yourself skiing in the backcountry, you'll find tips here that will make you wonder why you hadn't been doing things that way all along.

This book combines some great humor and excellent line drawings with some great wilderness and backcountry wisdom. All the tips and tricks one picks up over the years are in this book and it is highly recommended reading for newcomers and those already involved.

There are two types of winter campers: those who have this book and those who need it. Perhaps if you are very very experienced you don't need it but otherwise, get it! Allen wrote a short, but information full book, that is easy and fun to read quickly and jamn packed with a mix of basic functional knowledge, extra tidbits that are good to know, and all kinds of little tricks he has discovered over the years.

it is awesome! these guys are nols instructors. one guy provides the incredibly helpful commentary while the other guy provides the humorous illustrations. you will be howling with laughter as you read this great book. my bet is that humor/laughter aids the memorization process. that is key in this case because there are some truly essential tips in this book! not to be without! can't wait to wintercamp this year. they also have a telemark tips book which is very good too...

Well, I just panned a different book and said don't waste your money so now its time to even the score.

This book is great fun. I have lots of winter camping books and do a fair amount of winter camping. Other books may have more information, but none covers all of the basics with as much humor as this one. I do alpine skiing and snowshoeing so the coverage of tele skiing wasn't of particular interest...but I still really enjoyed reading those sections, too.

It is hard to describe the authors' irreverent approach while dealing with serious (life and death) topics, but they somehow pull it off. This is really a great book to engage someone who isn't already a hard-core winter camper...so if you are, buy it for your significant other (assuming you haven't been able to get them enthused about spending a winter weekend outdoors.) If they don't enjoy this book, you may officially give up on them.

This book is a true tell all book. Written by the head of MI-8 (the US Army signals intelligence agency in WWI) and later the Black Chamber from 1918-1929, this book gives a glimpse of what goes on behind the scene and shapes the actions and re-actions of governments that don't make it to the newspaper headlines. A must read.

Aside from the subject of codes and ciphers, which this book does very well, The American Black Chamber also discusses how U.S. codebreaking affected the post-WWI naval disarmament conference which led to the famous 5-5-3 ratio of heavy warships amongst the British, American and Japanese navies. American negotiators knew in advance what the Japanese and British were willing to settle for and managed to get the best deal possible for the U.S.

Very much an eye-opener.

Yardley could sight-read the encrypted messages of the time. This and "Education of a Poker Player" are informative and entertaining.

I read this book some 50 years ago, having borrowed it from a friend.
Since then I have looking for this book.
When I found it on Amazon, I immediately bought it.

required reading as background history of intelligence to understand the future we need to understand the past to the best of our abilities

This book has helped me to clarify the bumps I have hit with the neo-Advaita/modern approach. It is insightful to see "I do nothing" and yet, there ARE practices that are helpful if one really wants the truth in an uncompromising and undiluted way. I feel refreshed, educated, and empowered, after years of reading "neo-Advaita" teachers who are wonderful, yes, but who don't give the practical tools that us seekers really, truly are seeking. (We can rephrase this all we want and still we want the truth.) This book has helped me to stop denying the fact that I am earnest enough to be willing to do what needs to be done for the awareness of truth to undo the obstructing tendencies, rather than to just see these obstacles as 'what is' and 'do nothing' (without looking deeper into what this actually means.) Thank you, Dennis.

I will also add that it is a wonderful book even for people who are curious to learn about the philosophy of Advaita in a comprehensive way, but who might not be 'seekers'. I would recommend this book to my friends who might be turned off by the books that leave out certain steps of logic. The spiritual and the skeptical can both find help here.

A profoundly astute and masterful guide to the field of Self-discovery. An authoritative scholar, Dennis writes with supreme clarity as he skillfully expounds, logically analyzes and insightfully integrates the wisdom of classical and contemporary teachers with the principles of Advaita.
- Katie Davis, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment

What can I possibly say, that hasn't already been said, and said with better style, by all the wonderful reviews of this Landmark book?
It's an incredible, awe inspiring work. Dennis Waite is truly a gift to the World. His web-site, Advaita.org.uk, has been my lifeline since I discovered it.
It is an bottomless source of Wisdom, knowledge and resources, and a truly enormous amount of work goes into maintaining it--to do this, write books, especially a Masterwork like "Back To the Truth", while still responding to emails with hapless questions from, I'm sure, many `miserable seekers' like myself, in his quiet, totally accessible way, in incomprehensible to me.

The style of Back To The Truth--his ability to draw from so many varied sources, from the most traditional of ancient Vedic Scriptures, to the most current (so called) `neo' Advaitin writings, What a skill! Then factor in his knowledge of Sanskrit.
The appendixes are nearly overwhelming--offering more resources and reviews, plus a glossary of Sanskrit terms. OK. I'm done; this review could go on and on...but I must end it.
I have to say this, however, before I do. To me, it is not the many quotes, and words of wisdom, past and current, that make this book so powerful, but Dennis's own words...his writing has a simplicity and clarity that is deceptive; like the gentle surface of a lake, there is great depth there.
Don't be put off by the size or the scholarship of this book. The best thing about Dennis, his web-site, and his writing, is his generosity and his Integrity. It shines through everything he touches.

This book, while almost encyclopedic in its coverage, is still very readable, especially for the person who has at least some background in non-dual thought. As I read it, I bit off a good chunk at a sitting and found I could chew it for a long time.

I especially appreciated the author's fair approach to the various ways of understanding Advaita, which like so many other spiritual viewpoints is like the proverbial blind men trying to describe an elephant by touching it's various body parts.

There are many references in the comprehensive appendices that are truly useful for the person who wants to do more study.

At first I was a bit turned off by the author's use of the Sanskrit transliteration method known as ITRANS, designed to help properly pronounce Sanskrit words, which usually come into play whenever the historical aspects of non-dualism are discussed. However, he includes a helpful explanation of how to use this technique in an appendix, if you're interested.

Most of the historical references are from Indian sources with very little acknowledgment of the Chinese (Ch'an) and Japanese (Zen) contributions to non-dual expressions. However, if these had been included it would have required multiple volumes.

This is the best and most readable book I've seen covering the full range of thought on this topic from many different perspectives, filled with quotations from a wide variety of writers, both ancient and contemporary.

Being a student of Advaita (non-duality) Vedante (the culmination of The Vedas),can be a daunting task for the western student. There are a myriad of resources, many in apparent contradiction to each other: traditional Indian texts, promoted by many different splinters of religious thought within and without the Hindu community, a highly self published group of western contemporary teachers espousing hybrid interpretations of "The Direct Path" as well as interdisciplinary sects laying claim to teachings which result in "enlightenment".
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Additionally,traditional Advaita teachings are encumbered with prolific use of Hindu and Sankrit terms which make the task of comprehending them even more daunting.

Emerging from this choatic assemblage of information comes Dennis Waite, a highly educated and prolific author, who has spent a career inventorying and attempting to survey the entire arena. "Back to The Truth" is a continuation of the effort he began with the publication of "The Book of One", considered by many to be an essential reading on Advaita.

The effort required to traverse Waite's new book is well worth the effort. In addition to explaining the many paths available to the student, Waite has painstakingly referenced hundreds of resources available for further study. The book assembles an abundance of quotes of both contemporary teachers and the original texts, complete with appendices which detail how to locate the source material. Waite has compiled website links, bibliographies,a glossary of common Sanskrit terms, even teaching lineages to assist in the readers search.

The great irony is that Waite offers this road map to enlightenment while repeatedly noting the obvious:"enlightenment" can not be achieved by the conceptual mind. As Jim Swartz [...] so aptly put it: "In spiritual circles it has become an article of faith that a the quest for spiritual knowledge is an 'intellectual' and therefore misguided pursuit."

Thus, as some neo-advaitins love to point out, some may decide that the effort of study is unnecessary.

Ultimately, this conclusion is a fallacy. More by Swartz: "...it should be noted that anyone seeking enlightenment through the 'heart' or other paths would necessarily be motivated by the intellectual belief that he or she was limited, inadequate and incomplete i.e. unelightened. To pursue experience is natural but to pursue it at the expense of understanding is foolish because it is only misunderstandings about our true nature that make us think we are unenlightened in the first place. The Self realized beings who went before left a vast body of information to help us purge erroneous concepts that stand in the way of appreciating who we really are."

Dennis Waite has provided the penultimate resource to assist readers in this pursuit. It is first and foremost a service to humanity. If you have a serious interest in discovering your true self and uncovering the nature of reality, this is as close to an road map and instruction guide to the apparently confusing world of Advaita as you will find. I strongly recommend it.

A beautifully written and edited book that is a must have for the avid gardener. Possibly the 'Bible' of California native plants. I keep it close by for reference or when heading out to do my buying.

I bought this book several weeks ago and am very happy with it! Lots of helpful and useful information...and great photos too. This book is definitely a great resource if you are interested in landscaping with California native plants.

As I've finally come to terms with the fact that an English garden just won't flourish in Los Angeles, this book has replaced my sadness with optimism. I don't know a lot about plants, and I've found this book an invaluable resource as I set about my plans to completely revamp my garden.

Native California plants have their own way of showing natutual beauty. This book catches the spirit of these plants. Would like to see more closeup pictures so that I can learn to identify them.

This is one of two must have books if you are interested in gardening with native California plants. This book is definitely the 'guidebook' half of that collection (the other being Designing California Native Gardens). It does an excellent job of getting you acquainted with all the different plants you may be wanting to bring into your garden, and in giving you actual photographs of the plants! One giant peeve of mine in gardening books and guidebooks is the use of hand done illustrations- in other contexts they are charming but you really can't get a feel for a plant unless you are looking at its' actual picture. It just gives you a much better feeling for the plant- the texture of it's leaves, the weediness of its' growth habit, that kind of thing. This is a book you will find yourself using as a reference again and again. Five stars are given enthusiastically.

This book covers more than just your digital privacy. It sweeps on a wide variety of privacy topics. I find that a good thing since it's comprehensive. In reality your digital identity is interspersed with your physical identity and both a very important.

This is the most accessible of the privacy books I've read. The advice is presented in bite sized bits that are easy to understand and implement. It gives both background and practical advice. Both of which are necessary to understand the problem and the solutions.

This book is an eye-opener on privacy invasion, and how it can harm you in countless ways. It is a comprehensive study of the many forms privacy invasion can take, especially as practiced on the Internet, and what you can do to protect yourself. Author Dan Tynan has studied these offensive practices for years, and gives us the benefit of his research and findings. Find out what is going on, and what you can do protect yourself, not only on the internet, but in other aspects of your life as well.

Much as we don't want to, privacy is something we all need to think about and protect these days, unless we want to give up our computers and other gadgets and go back to stone tablets. Now we have an easy, funny, understandable guide to protecting ourselves in the online age, and we'd be foolish (and just asking for trouble) to ignore it. Dan Tynan has done all the hard work for us; now we just need to make sure that everyone we know reads this book!

Computer Privacy Annoyances
O'Reilly
By Dan Tynan
ISBN 0596007752

As someone who gets asked questions about Internet use and safety all the time, a book I had been itching to read was "Computer Privacy Annoyances", by Dan Tynan. According to the cover, the book covers "How to avoid the most annoying invasions of your personal and online privacy."

The quick and dirty? The book gives very practical, real-world examples of how your data can be used, yet the author manages to avoid sounding like a doomsayer... even some of the more scary scenarios don't come off sounding like sensationalism, just honest (and sometimes even apologetic) examples of what could very realistically happen. (I thank you, Mr. Tynan.)

I'll take bets on anyone that doesn't learn at least ten new things they didn't know about their privacy rights. Mr. Tynan has taken the proverbial "They" and reduced it to the very organizations that "they" really are. Did you know you can request a copy of your FBI files? Do you know who has the power view it? Do you know who is collecting data on you at this very moment and what they are doing with it?

The book's format allows for a surprisingly fast read. Well organized sections such as privacy at home, on the Internet, in public, at work, and even on a federal level allow for quick chapter absorption. In each chapter, the author states the annoyance, and then the fix. This allows for quick skipping over an 'annoyance' that might not annoy you that much.

I did notice that the author made no mention of the everyday information users give out about themselves without even realizing it, such as usernames that contain birthdates and such. But the Internet privacy chapter is only a small portion of the topics covered in this book. In fact, if I had to find one fault with this book, however, I'd say they lost a much larger audience that could have easily benefited from the book by calling it *Computer* Privacy Annoyances.

As a tech professional, if I could get all my clients, users, friends, family and complete strangers to read this book, I strongly believe identify theft could become a thing of the past. And it might even reduce global blood pressure, too. Bonus!

Privacy? Good luck! Even the slightest misstep on line (or anywhere else, for that matter) can open you up to privacy intrusions that you may not know about. Dan Tynan does a really good job in outlining these areas in Computer Privacy Annoyances. This is pretty much required reading for living in our heavily computerized society.

Contents: Privacy At Risk; Privacy At Home; Privacy On The Net; Privacy At Work; Privacy In Public; Privacy And Uncle Sam; Privacy In The Future; Index

In this Annoyances title, Tynan looks at a wide range of activities and situations that involve a potential unwanted loss of privacy. Using a question and answer format, he effectively shows how seemingly innocent activities (like booking a hotel room or ordering a kosher meal on a flight) can be logged and combined to build a profile of your activities that may not present a very flattering picture of who you are and what you do (and with whom). While there's the obligatory chapters on spam, online registration sites, and the like, there are also excellent chapters that cover privacy at work (what your employers can and can not do) as well as health record concerns. Things may not be as secure and private as you think they are...

Realistically, there's already more information out there to be gleaned than you'd probably expect and be comfortable with. But by reading and digesting the contents of this book, you can start to reduce your exposure going forward. Even just the awareness of privacy concerns will start to cause you to question *why* a merchant might want certain information. They may *want* your zip code or phone number, but that doesn't mean you *have* to give it to them. Even if this book keeps you from making just one mistake that would lead to identity theft, then it's more than paid for itself. A recommended read...

I have many excellent cookbooks, and yet when I want to make a new dish and there's no room for a disappointment, this is the one I always pull down. I've made many of the dishes in the book and each one has always been flavorful, broadened my palate and yet never been too difficult or complex for me to master.

As others have said, the wit and stories behind the recipes makes me read through it even when I'm not looking to cook. It also inspired me to start my own cooking club with a groupd of my friends. We've had some wonderful times together, though I must admit, out own cooking prowess has never reached the heights of these ladies. Very highly recommended!

I don't have a cooking club and I've never made all of the recipes in a chapter for a dinner party, but I've picked-and-chosen recipes and haven't come up with a bad dish yet. Their mac & cheese is the one I return to again and again. The recipes are easy to follow, off the beaten path, and sooo yummy.

As an amateur chef with roots in the midwest, I've long relied on little more than good ol' salt and pepper when it comes time to cook for the crew (except for a shake of Italian seasoning on spaghetti night!). But this fantastic book turned me on to a virtual phantasmagoria of new culinary delights! Even my husband, who usually balks at long john silver, is a fan of the italian fish in crazy water. One added bonus for us gals: we get to see what kind of footwear these sophisticated manhattanites are trotting around in these days. Ouch! I think I'll keep my Stride Rites! But I'm a sucker for the Cellophane Noodle Salad.

Witty, charming, well designed, user friendly, and most of all- the recipes are wonderful!

As a seasoned NYC home chef, the hardest thing to do is to come up with a recipe that involves little space, little equipment and little time. These six girls not only engage you with their wonderfully witty writing, but have simplified the difficult task of apartment-sized cooking so that anyone can do it and have excellent results.

Plus the wonderful photos of the food and of the girls cooking, shopping and dining really does make you feel invited. And the graphic design gets great marks for being as chic as they are!

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of little cooking clubs don't start up because of it! [Word has it that they might be doing another book? Cross your fingers on that bit of gossip!]

PS: this would make a great housewarming or hostess gift!

The idea of a cooking club with a group of friends is terrific. Too many times we grow apart from those close to us as marriage, kids, and careers occur. I first saw this book about six months ago. I have a collection of cookbooks but am particular of what I add to it. Before I bought it for myself, I decided to give it as a gift. One of my closest friends from high school recently became a stay at home mom. She was trying to broaden her culinary skills in the kitchen and she doesn't consider herself much of a cook. She loves the cookbook and can't thank me enough. I went out and purchased it so we could share the club even though the miles separate us.

The layout of the book starts with a recap of how the club came into existence. The troubles they face living in NY, tiny kitchens and lugging groceries, was interesting to someone like myself who never is without her car. I particularly enjoyed the emails between the women showing how they came up with the monthly theme. It really shows the personalities of the members. The pictures show off the food deliciously.

We can only hope that they will continue to include the rest of us in their club! I highly recommend you try to gather a group of 6-8 and try this yourself. My favorite recipe is the bread salad. I get lots of compliments every time I make it.

Very interesting book.
I had a hard time laying the book down.
Everyone should take a look at this.

If you really want to understand how the body works and is being influenced by our environment you must read this book. What an eye-opener. The author is someone thinking ahead of his time and much of what he predicted has come true.

A great job by Dr. Becker. Electromagnetism affects all lifeforms on earth. The effect it has on our health is dramatic and cannot continue to be ignored by mainstream medicine. Becker is a true pioneer.

The one criticism that I have with this book is that Becker failed to mention the excellent research done by Albert Roy Davis and Walter Rawls.
Davis was the first scientist in the world to discover that magnetism consists of two separate energies with different effects, it's not a singular form of energy with a singular effect, as is still widely believed today. The North and South poles have opposite effects.

Davis found that South pole magnetism is harmful to our health and will cause bacteria, germs, and even cancer to grow and spread at an accelerated rate in the body, while North pole magnetism will quickly stop the growth and assist the body to overcome disease. Just as Becker has said, Davis and Rawls found that many devices used in hospitals actually compound the problem. Radiation, for example, emits positive and negative electromagnetic energies. The positive energies can actually stimulate the growth of the cancer cells, similar to the way positive (South) magnetic energies do.

The first book by Davis and Rawls, "Magnetism and Its Effects on the Living System", goes into detail about how magnetism affects the physical and mental development of animals, the growth of plants, and among other topics, a detailed account of the effects both negative and positive magnetic energies have on cancer. "The Magnetic Blueprint of Life", the last of their books, expresses the relationship of air ions to health, how magnetism can be utilized in energy production, and it has in-depth information on how these positive electromagnetic energies, which are all around us, endanger us to a greater degree each and every day. We are being lied to about the safety of many electrical products on the market today, cell phones included.

If you have the books by Robert Becker and Davis and Rawls you'll be way ahead of the rest of the population in your knowledge of electromagnetism and its effects on all living beings.

1. "Most technological cures for cancer, for example, were found to be carcinogenic themselves"
2. From the beginning, life has been dependent on Earth's natural electromagnetic environment. Today this natural environment is submerged beneath a torrent of electromagnetic fields that have never before been present...In Cross Currents I will show how both the human body electric and the Earth's body electric have been damaged by this alteration; I will then explain what steps we must take to prevent the disaster that is fast approaching.
3. Hospitals were becoming dangerous places to enter; patients sometimes entered with minor illnesses and left with permanent disabilities resulting from complication after another. Some patients discovered the various disciplines of energy medicine, which appeared to have three outstanding things to offer. First, they would do no harm; second, they often seemed to do some good; and third, they were much less expensive than orthodox medicine.
4. The physicist, biologist, and physicians were absolutely certain that life forces simply did not exist, and that all living things were simply chemical machines. They knew that the living organism was simply a collection of structures, which work chemically and were integrated by means of central nervous system, with no involvement of electricity or magnetism.
5. Nature must have a mechanism of self-repair; otherwise, life would not have succeeded. Self-repair requires a closed-loop control system-that is, one in which a certain signal indicates injury and causes another signal to effect repair. As the repair proceeds, the injury signal diminishes, and when the repair is complete the signal stops.
6. Salamander limbs regenerate at the Neuroepidermal junction and negative electric current signals primitive cells in the blastema to redifferentiate and growth back the limb. As the blastema grows, the salamander current becomes highly negative and slowly returns to its original baseline.
7. In a number of experiments, I was able to show that the DC electric currents I was measuring from a variety of tissues, including nerve fibers, were actual semiconducting. As a result of interest stirred up by these experiments, many people began to make electrical measurements of other growth processes. All rapid growing tissues were found to be negative in polarity. Interestingly, cancers in animals or humans always showed the highest negativity.
8. The frog's red cells could be dedifferentiated by electricity, but only with vanishing small amounts (measured in the billionths of amperes). Electricity was clearly a stimulus to regeneration. Instructions to regenerate were retained by mammals. Therefore, the growth control system required for regeneration was present. For electricity to turn on the control system for regeneration the right amount of electricity and right polarity was required.
9. I proposed that the acupuncture pointes were just such booster amplifiers, spaced along the course of the meridian transmission lines. Metallic acupuncture needles inserted in or near such a point would produce sufficient electrical disturbance that the amplifier could not operate, and the pain would be blocked.
Input DC electrical signals carried the information that injury had occurred along the acupuncture medians to the brain, where parts of this group of signals reached consciousness and was perceived as pain. Output DC signals caused the cells and chemical mechanisms at the site of injury to produce repair.
11. In the 1880s, Dr Allison Apostoli treated cancers of the cervix and uterus with DC electricity by inserting a positive electrode into the tumor and passing between 100 to 250 milliamperes of current through the tumor to a large negative electrode on the abdomen producing electrolysis within the tumor. He reported prompt relief of pain and bleeding, and shrinkage of the tumors, but he reported no long-term results.
12. All rapidly growing tissues were found to be negative in polarity compared with the rest of the body. The highest negativity was found in malignant tumors. In 1977, Doctors Muriel Schaubel and Mutaz Habel used stainless steel needles inserted directly into the tumors. Doctors Schaubel and Habel used three leves of current: 3 milliamperes, ½ milliampre, and 960 millimicroamperes. With the 3 Ma current there was significant destruction of the tumor, with about twice as much at the positive as the negative location. At the ½ MA there was destruction of the tumor at the positive electrode. At the lowest level of current there was a reduction in the weight of the tumors with both the positive and negative electrodes. The conclusion was the tumor destruction was the result of local electrolysis at the needle electrode.
13. The local toxicity of electricity kills cancer cells, but the real hazard is stimulating other cancer growth with the use of electricity.
14. Dr Kenneth McLean claimed that rats inoculated with cancer survived if they were treated with extremely high strength DC magnetic fields.
15. Pulsed magnetic field treatment for bone nonunions also has been reported to slow the growth of animal tumors. Pulsed magnetic fields have a major effect on the stress-response system. Exposure of the whole animal for a short time causes a rapid stress response, with a marked increase in the activity of the immune system. For a time, the immune system has the upper hand and defeats an increased growth of the cancer. However, continuing the exposure beyond the short term results in a decline of the stress response and the immune system falls to below normal levels. Tumor-cell growth is then enhanced by both the drop in immune-system efficiency and the direction of the pulsed magnetic field on the cancer cells themselves.
16. Dr Becker discovered that some human cancer cells in a culture appeared to dedifferentiate when exposed to electrically generated silver ions. An electrical-charge transfer sends a signal to the nucleus of the cancer cell that activates the primitive type genes, and the cell dedifferentiates.

Dr. Becker is a brilliant medical researcher who has devoted his life to the study of something most doctors barely understand that it exists: the body's electrical system.

Among many other topics, Dr. Becker describes
- the body's inbuilt electrical systems,
- how he was able to use electrical current to get bones that would otherwise not have grown together to do so,
- how he offered to create a means of inducing anesthesia with electrical currents, but was politely turned down by lesser doctors,
- how one can measure electrical currents flowing at acupuncture points (in other words, why there must be something to acupuncture),
- why he thinks there may be something to homeopathy,
- to what extent electrical systems play a role in the salamander's ability to regenerate tissue,
- the harm that (everyday) electromagnetic fields can cause.

The tragedy of Dr. Becker is that he is so far ahead of his time that he is largely overlooked. All the same he sometimes paints with a little too broad a brush. All the same, I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the life sciences.

This is a very easy book to read. A personal account of the author's father and lessons he taught in his lifetime. I particularly enjoyed the quote at each chapter head - providing poignant direction.

The book is extremely well written with a clear heart, positive tone, and outlook on events that contribute to the author. Interpreting life events in this way can do nothing but add to one's life. Perhaps that is the greatest message of all here.

Slip behind the walls of a sons' reflection to reconcile the heart felt dissonance he feels between himself and his deceased father. A journey so well crafted that it is impossable to put down until his final words finish in a resolution of peace and love. Kenny Kemp leads us across the monumetal gulf that separates every child from his parental counter part and illuminates each step with insight and understanding. Can we know who our parents really are? Can we understand the world they passed through. Perhaps it's impossible. But Kemp gives us hope that just maybe we have a chance to get out of our own skin for a moment and look back to find that so much of what we must discover in ourselves is really uncovered in someone who came before us. If you have a sence for songs of the heart...then this is a journey worth taking.

Kenny Kemp and I have been friends since we were 13 years old. I read Dad Was a Carpenter just after it's first printing in 1999 and I was touched, but not surprised, by Kenny's ability to grab hold of my heart with his words. Dad Was a Carpenter is the most wonderful little story you'll ever read.

DAD WAS A CARPENTER is a small, quiet treasure. It's a true story written from a adult son's perspective as he looks back upon his father's life while raising a large family. We are privy to remembrances of a humble man who lived a modest, holy life without fanfare. If you really want to feel what a life lived by authentic faith and true moral belief is all about, take this in hand and read each chapter slowly, then stop and listen. The book's wisdom will reveal itself to you. If you don't find yourself sobbing in utter humility from the lessons of quiet love, patience and goodness learned, I will be very surprised. "Be a carpenter. Build something worthwhile. Start with yourself."

I have tears running down my face after reading the end, but this book also made me laugh. I'll be ordering an extra copy for my son-in-law as he and my daughter await the birth of their first child. This moving story would make a perfect Christmas or Father's Day gift.