J Books

Ted Lea, author of "When I Grow Up I'm Going to be a Millionaire (A Children's Guide to Mutual Funds)". I read this over the holiday season and found it to be a wonderful story with a great message on money for children. The story is great, and the messages on money are right on target. Enjoy it.

I spent several months researching programs and books that explain wealth building. I was looking specifically for something I could use to teach children the fundamentals of building wealth when I came across this book using an Amazon search. I took a flyer and ordered it, and then read it through. I was pleased to find that the book takes the reader through a series of adventures that both boys and girls can relate to while imparting to readers the basic fundamentals of building wealth.

One of the best lessons comes as the children (who are searching for the pillars of wealth) are looking for the second pillar. Like our present society, the characters from the book who seem to have every extravagance actually live beyond their means and have borrowed themselves into near ruin. The man of wealth, an unlikely fellow living a quiet, reserved life, who through discipline has managed to hang on to his earnings- has actually accumulated wealth. What better a lesson to teach a child, before they get into a race with their peers for "stuff", than to illustrate that it's not always the fellow with the Rolex and BMW who has true wealth. Often it's the guy with the truck in the driveway that says "Hank's Plumbing", or the person in the jeans and sweatshirt shopping in Walmart.
If you're looking for tools to help you instill values in your children this is a great tool. When young people get to that phase where what you say is discounted because you're Mom or Dad, remember the power of having a book like this. The author can instill the lessons you want them to absorb even thought it doesn't come directly from you.

My two children loved this book! I bought it so they could learn how to better handle their allowances, but they really got into the story and said they couldn't put it down. The lessons about finances seemed to sink in also. My 12-year old has started saving more and spending less. "Quest" is an undicovered gem!

I really like what J. J. Pritchard has done. First, he has simplified what it takes for good personal finances (a good work ethic, thrift - delaying gratification today for tomorrow, and investing - particularly compounding.) That alone is valuable. But he has built wonderful stories around them. They're exciting and interesting.

The children in all my classes learn quicker when they enjoy the subject matter and this book does that. It's a very refreshing approach. DOn't be put off by the subtitle "A Children's Guide to Growing Rich." It presents a balanced approach and touches on the value of sharing once someone has attained wealth. A very good read!!

I received a copy of this book as a promotion and, being interested in investing and active in educating kids about the stock market, I read through it in one night. I have to say, Mr. Pritchard has an excellent way of putting good money sense into the minds of kids. I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book for yourself or your kids...30 years from now they'll be thanking you when they pay for your retirement!

This book highlights the technicalities of racing sportscars at the highest level. Whilst the book focuses on the development of the various cars the author worked with (GT40/Mirage/Porsche 917), it also touches on the various drivers employed by his teams during his career (Rodriguez, Vern Shupan, Derek Bell).

This book provides some fascinating insights into the author's perspective of the Porsche 917 era, particulalry in regards to the rivalry between the Gulf team and Porsche Salzburg/Martini.

A great read, particularly if read in conjunction with Vic Elford's book, which details the Porsche Salzburg side of things.

Highly recommended for those who enjoyed the epic sportscar era.

This is a great book for anyone who grew up on the movie Le Mans (still the best racing movie ever made) and dreamed of racing at night down the Mulsanne straight! The author not only was a part of history, but is a surprisingly engaging writer as well.

I have been following automobile racing since 1961 and followed sports car and formula 1 closely in the 60's and 70's with great interest. This is the finest book on sports car racing I have ever read. It's both filled with incredible data as well as anecdotes. If you have any interested in racing buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

This is truly an excellent book. I have an extensive collection of books devoted to motor racing (300+) and I would easily rank this in the top 10. I couldn't put it down. John Horsman was lucky enough to be intimately involved in the development and racing of the two most significant endurance race cars of the 60s and 70s: the Ford GT40 and the Porsche 917. He obviously kept copious and detailed notes during that period and he makes excellent use of them in writing this book. The story is packed with hundreds of tiny details and anecdotes that only a person who was there and lived it can provide. He creates an atmosphere where you feel you are actually there, looking over his shoulder and watching all that is going on. This is exactly what I'm looking for in each racing book I buy; unlike the majority of them, this one actually delivers.
There is another plus associated with this book: it almost free of any errors. It clearly had both an editor and a proof-reader. So many other recent books about motorsports appear to have had neither, and thus end up laced with errors: factual, grammar and typos. This book is refreshingly free of them.
If you only buy one motor racing book this year, this should be the one.

Far too many "Three Star" or "Four Star" books are given a "Five Star" rating, but John Horsman's, Racing in the Rain, truly deserves five stars because it is one of less than a handful of automotive racing books that is absolutely first class in informing the reader, and doing it elegantly, of both how and why some racing cars win and others just compete. I put it along side Laurence Pomeroy's, The Grand Prix Car, and Karl Ludvigson's, Mercedes-Benz Racing Cars, as the best of the genre.
Horsman has the direct personal experience and engineering expertise to know and understand what went on in the sportscar racing world from the late 1950s through the early 1980s, a period that coincides with the golden age of prototype sportscar racing. In this era, Aston-Martin, Ford, Porsche, and Mirage battled with Ferrari, Matra, Alfa Romeo, Renault-Alpine, and other marques in endurance competitions that tested designers, teams, drivers and cars. Rule fixing or "performance balancing" was not part of the racing scene then: it was a tough, honest, win-or-lose world, and John Horsman had an insider's view of it all, and, happily for us, provides a clear, well-written, and, most importantly, an informative account of what went on and why.
One learns, for example, exactly how much bhp and at what rpm a Ford engine produced and what its design weaknesses were and what measures were taken to turn an essentially production-car engine into a race-winning proposition, or what the drag and frontal areas of Mirage racing cars were and, thus, what speeds down the Mulsanne straight might expected, etc., and consequently why some cars won, others came close, or still others failed entirely. In particular, he writes with an unusually clear-sighted eye when discussing Porsche, recognizing the firm's real engineering and production strengths, but not in an awe-struck way (as so many do) for he is able to see how, occasionally, blindness and arrogance on the part of Porsche people led to potential victories slipping away. I also appreciated the hard information Horsman provides on myth-shrouded or obscure topics such as the reason why the Weslake-Ford V-12 failed to be used in Mirage cars.
From an engineer, like Horsman, one expects accurate and detailed information on the cars he worked on or of those against which he competed, but he is also good in capturing the essence of the personalities he encountered during a quarter century's involvement in racing at the highest level. Compassion and feeling are shown where deserved, good drivers are respected and the risks that all assumed are not overlooked, while the occasional fools and knaves of the racing car world are given what they deserve.
If you have even the slightest interest in sportscar racing, you should get this book immediately, but even if your motoring interests lie outside this area of the automotive performance world, you will still enjoy reading it -though be warned, it will make other car books seem thin, pale and dull.

Browsing is a journey through life, times, places, cultures. Looking up often offers surprises. This book is a kick.

murdered by the media

These words are no longer in use, as we no longer converse truly and freely as a nation of English and slang speakers

This volume is little more than a nostaligic curio, like Dr. Johnson's dictionary, or the great Ambrose Bierce's better.

The only English slang currently in use is that receptive vocabulary emitted by our media, and not expressive nor creative as our one way media permits no conversation. We are made to listen, to hear, to receive, only. The internet alone allows literacy, and look at the level of written speech there. Yet even there the formerly great oral tongue is lost.

The most vibrant languages heard throbbing through our land are now those not dictated by our anglo media. There alone does the uniquely human aural ability live and breathe. And thus this massive dictionary properly fades away unfinished.

In any case, what anglo librarian would permit its presence in a library?

Intriguing for historical reasons alone. Not useful for comprehending the language one actually hears around oneself, as no living and present language is heard. Just dust off your old Lord Buckley collection instead, or the Mercury recording How To Speak Hip. Not even riding the city bus helps anymore.

Forty years ago our Amrican language was still richer, more diverse, more playful, more subtle. Now we have only whitely phosphorized talking heads bleating how we must speak and thus how we must think, and by limiting our vacabulary limiting our capacity for free thought. Our only hope is a healthy jolt of James Joyce and the trembling Twain.

Oxford University press is currently undertaking the massive editorial work required to finish this ground-breaking four-volume set that was started more than 25 years ago. The third volume, covering the alphabetic range of P through Sk, is due to appear in March 2007. Volume IV, covering Sk through Z and including a bibliography of tens of thousands of items, is planned for two years later.(...)

I must agree with settimio biondi from Italy. Having purchased the first two volumes, we've been waiting for 7 years for P~Z. This is an excellent, comprehensive work. Hopefully, Oxford...or someone with a sense of responsibility...will finish the final volume.

We have been waiting for this dictionary for a long time. Specifically, since 1975 when Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner issued their second supplemented edition of the "Dictionary of American Slang."
Editor J.E. Lighter, a researcher at the University of Tennessee, is somewhat disparaging of Wentworth and Flexner, the only previous lexicographers to take a healthy swing at American slang. (I don't count H.L. Mencken, who compiled many lists, but not in a format that a working writer can use.)
Lighter faults their "looseness of definition, unpredictable allocation of citations and a certain historical naivete." Maybe, but their book had, and still has, the most important merit a dictionary can have -- it is useful.
Also, theirs goes through Z, which is more than Lighter can say in 2006, 12 years after his Vol. 1 came out and many more years than that since he began.
Also, Wentworth and Flexner's volume is wieldy. Lighter's dictionary has many excellencies, but handiness is not one of them.
Wentworth and Flexner covered the whole of American English in a small volume of two pounds, six ounces. Lighter covers one-third the ground in a massive folio of six pounds, one ounce.
Lighter is often, but not always, more comprehensive. Take bum.
W&F give this useful word 26 definitions in a page. Lighter gives 29 in three pages, but three of his usages have earliest dates since W&F's last effort. It looks like a draw, but it's not, quite.
W&F give a nice little essay on the finer gradations of meaning of bum (in its sense of vagabond); Lighter is less preachy on usage, letting the extensive quotations do that work for him. This is the approved method for serious work, but although Lighter's citations often seem repetitive, their length does not always ensure completeness, as we shall see.
W&F derive bum from the German bummler, idler, but Lighter appears to think this an example of historical naivete, finding bum sprung full-blown in 1864, without any certain antecedents. (In its sense of fundament, it goes back in English to at least 1387.)
Turn now to cracker. Lighter gives it nearly half a page, in the sense of "a backwoods Southern white person regarded as ignorant, brutal, loutish, bigoted etc.," tracing it to 1766. W&F does not have it at all.
Lighter is clearly ahead here, but there are problems with this definition.
First, it is politically correct but lexically incorrect. A cracker is not a white person but a white man. Like its synonyms redneck and woolhatter, it is never used of a woman.
Second, not one of the 31 citations even hints at a usage that would explain how the Atlanta professional baseball team in the old Sally League (slang for South Atlantic League; I will be interested to see if this makes it into Lighter's Vol. 3, if I live long enough to see it) came to be called the Crackers. Or how Georgians' and north Floridians' own nickname for themselves came to be crackers, the way people from Indiana call themselves Hoosiers.
Lighter does also give five other definitions of cracker: beans, a remarkable individual, dollar, a poor skier who often loses control and a light-skinned Negro.
Taken in all, Lighter has lifted the compilation of American salng to a new, much higher level -- except for Hawaiian American slang.
Except for go for broke, which is listed as "apparently originally Nisei or Hawaiian English," I cannot find any slang words from the Hawaiian dialect of Standard American -- even though some words in Standard Hawaiian have migrated into Slang English, like kahuna.
There are many definitions in Lighter of grind, for example, but none for the ways we in Hawaii use it as noun and verb (for eating). Chance um is missing, too, and give um and blahlah.
The absence of Hawaiian American Slang (Alaskan, too) is a serious fault, but on the whole the book is a corker ("a person or thing of extraordinary size, effectiveness, quality etc.," originally English slang traced to 1882 but brought into American by Mark Twain in 1889).

Redemption Road is a beautifully written novel. The colorful cast of characters are real and funny and charmed with flaws. I was hooked by the first paragraph. As the paragraphs turned into pages, I loved the delightful anecdotes and morsels of truth sprinkled throughout the story-line. It has been awhile since I have read a book that has inspired me to litter it with highlighted passages to re-visit time after time.

Michael Griffin shows his gift for tapping into our sentimental spots. And--there's much wisdom here . . . Redemption Road delivers a reminder of the intrinsic value of human life and how it is never too late. I truly enjoyed this book. It has to be one of the best books I have read in a while. I hope to read more of your books. Keep up the great writing!!

If only I could use words in this review the way that Michael J. Griffin does throughout this entire book. Every word, sentence, and chapter are sewn together so beautifully to bring each reader into the story as if he were there himself. I went on vacation with my husband and could not put the book down!! (My husband, by the way, was not too thrilled about that!) Because I cannot give a review even worth the review this book deserves, I just beg to you to please read it and you will also understand where I come from! I haven't read a book like this in years. Reading is like exercising to me: Once I get started, it has to REALLY feel good to keep me going. Trust me, this is one of those books. You won't be able to stop. Thank you, Michael J. Griffin. And I want to know, when is your next novel due? I will be one of the first to buy it!

This is the best book I've read in quite some time. It is a wonderful book. It exceeded my expectations and expounded to a great ending.

This book was so descriptive, you feel like you are right there. Redemption Road reveals a part of American history that we try and block out, which is wrong. Griffin has us face this controversial time in history and focuses our attention on learning from it. It is a fantastic piece of writing.

I have been teaching several classes of Reiki each year for the past 10 years.
When I took Reiki my teacher told us after Reiki I we should read this book before Reiki II. None of us did.
After Reiki II, he said we should read this book before Reiki Master.
None of us did. (This was all pre-Amazon.com days when it was almost impossible to find unusual books.)
Finally, I got this book and read it. Oh, My Gosh!
I don't recommend it to my Reiki I students - it is part of their cost of the class! They read it between Day 1 and Day 2 so that they have a really solid understanding of Reiki immediately.
I have probably ordered close to 200 of these books and will continue to use them in my classes indefinitely!
Connie Wehmeyer,
Subtle Energies Holistic Health Center
Chester, NY
www.subtleenergieshealth.com

I cannot put the book down. It's a very inspirational journal of Hawayo Takata's life.

Takata's little blue book as we (Reiki Channels) called it has been around for some fifteen years and is a little gem. I've had a few copies and lent them out, but people don't want to part with it. You'll read about Takatas story with Reiki, a beautiful simple way of hands on healing. Her story is very inspiring and I pick this book up when I need to be inspired. Enjoy!

I read this book while I was trying to recover from a serious
back condition. I was given a grim prognosis from my doctors and decided to pursue this last ditch effort to get
well. My soon-to-be teacher gave me this book to read in contemplation of my first degree, and I devoured it ! The personal accounts by our Reiki heroine Hawayo Takata were SO wonderfully touching, it's
as if the stories themselves were emitting healing energy !
There are so many Reiki books out there, but this one is the jewel of Reiki, because it brings forth the genuine flavor of the Orient in a personal and inspiring fashion ! I have been a practicing Reiki teacher for 11 years, and this book still has my heart !
Buy this jewel !
"Reiki Sue" Deutschlander

This compact book imparts the spirit of Reiki. A great book to give as a gift to introduce a friend to Reiki.

This book is by far my favorite book on Reiki. It is written clearly without pretense. I always recommend it to my Reiki students.

Reiki is a hands on spiritual healing method developed by Mikao Usui over one hundred years ago in Japan. Anyone can learn Reiki, no prior spiritual healing experience required.

Hawayo Takata practiced Reiki in Hawaii for over forty years. This book contains detailed case histories in addition to her biography.

The author, a respected Reiki Master, was a personal friend of Takata and pledged to write her biography. Her personal connection to Takata adds a depth and dimension not found in many of the other books on Reiki.

Carmen Leone works magic in Rose Street. He captures the specifics of his Italian-American family's experience in Youngstown, Ohio with remarkable clarity while simultaneously tapping into themes which remain universal to the family dynamic: responsibility, authority, self-sacrifice, love. The story of his immigrant mother's daily struggles and triumphs offers us insight into the core of our humanness. Originally written as a gift for Leone's own family, Rose Street inspires us to treat ours with a little more tenderness.

A friend from Youngstown, my home town, loaned me this book and I was eager to read it and hear of the 'old town'. What I found was far more than a nostalgia trip; it is a strong testament to the great spirit of the people who settled this country and to the sanctity of life itself and the bonding strength of family ties. Its impact was strong and the reader doesn't have to be from East Youngstown (or Campbell)... or be Catholic ...to feel its power. Reading it filled me with new appreciation for my 'humble', but blessed, beginnings.

This book was so inspiring to me. I learned about it from my teacher last year who was the authors daughter. This book reminded me what it was like being italian. Some of the little things reminded me of my own italian family. This book is for anyone of any nationality. One of the best books I have ever read.

A wonderful heartfelt account of family, heritage and tradition. Also one of the finest tributes to Youngstown - the then thriving city, we too are proud to have once called our home. Relax in your home, read, close your eyes, and remember.....

Carmen Leone examined a topic close to his heart, and storytelling gifts made it a story that is now close to mine.

My own grandparents came to Ohio around 1900. "Rose Street" brought to narrative life all the stories my father, uncles and aunts have told me over the years.

I wonder if Carmen Leone realized that by telling his story, he was telling mine, too, as well as the stories of countless others. They might Italian, but they don't have to be. In fact, the soundtrack that came to my head while reading "RoseStreet" was the song "Tradition," from "Fiddler On The Roof." How can the story of an Italian immigrant couple and their American-born children have anything to do with Jewish shtetl life?

Read the book.

Ever look in the mirror and just examine your own eyes. Ever see the faces of your relatives in your own?

"Rose Street" is, too, such a mirror.

I really enjoyed this essay. I have always been interested in the freedom of the will problem and I thought that this essay provided a good description of the problem and some very interesting discussion. Schopenhauer writes very clearly and in a manner that kept me interested throughout the hundred pages of the essay. Schopenhauer starts out with a consideration of what is meant by "freedom of the will." He considers the statement that "I can do what I will" to be irrelevant to the question of freedom of the will since he says that "...the will is already presupposed...for it assumes that the will has already been decided." He goes on to say, "The assertion does not at all speak about the dependence or independence of the occurrence of the act of volition itself."

The real question that Schopenhauer seems to be interested in is whether an individual can will what he or she wills; he does not think that this is the case. Schopenhauer arrives at the opinion that "...man's will is his authentic self, the true core of his being...he himself is as he wills and wills as he is" such that, "You can do what you will, but in any given moment of your life you can will only one definite thing and absolutely nothing other than that one thing." He then goes on to talk about causality and what compels the will to act in one way or another (i.e., motives) always coming back to what he sees as a confusion when people use the fact that they can do what they will as an argument for free will. Schopenhauer argues that an individual's statement of "...`I can do this' is in reality a hypothetical and carries with it the additional clause, `if I did not prefer the other.' But this addition annuls the ability to will." Schopenhauer considers the notion of an uncaused cause to be unintelligible and at variance with observation. "If freedom of the will were presupposed, every human action would be an inexplicable miracle--an effect without a cause...here we are supposed to think something which determines without being determined, which depends on nothing, but on which the other depends."

One question that often comes up when talking about the absence of freedom of will is "What then happens to individual responsibility?" Schopenhauer answers this by saying that people are responsible for their own characters and that others judge individuals based on the outward signs (actions) that belie their inward character. "So the responsibility of which he is conscious falls upon the act only provisionally and ostensibly, but basically it falls upon his character--for this he feels responsible. And it is for his character that the others also make him responsible." So then Schopenhauer seems to be saying that people are judged based on their actions and underlying motives since these together show evidence of their true nature.

On a somewhat unrelated note, Schopenhauer's relationship with Hegel seems less than cordial as evidenced by his discussing Hegel's philosophical ponderings as "the emptiest word rubbish and silliest gallimathias [the word means nonsense or gibberish] that have ever been heard outside the insane asylum." For some reason, this passage made me laugh such that I wanted to include it in this review. It makes me thankful that my professional relationships have not yet reached such a level of colorful language. At any rate, I enjoyed this essay very much and would recommend it to others who are interested in a freedom of the will discussion.

For those who are convinced that determinism has been refuted (ie. Popper, Sartre, Kierkegarrd) it is quite obvious that they haven't read this essay because if they had they might put their own presuppositions about the validity of free will into question.
Schopenhauer does a fantastic job at dissecting the concept of the 'freedom of the will' by first showing that it cannot be proven from self-consciounsess. He follows this by meticulously distinguishing between the changes that occur in inorganic objects (cause), plants (stimulus), and animals(intuitive and particularly for humans, abstract motives). He points out that in regards to the automatic organic function of animals bodies, changes occur in the form of a "stimulus" but in willed action motivation is the cause (but not in the mechanical sense that the narrow definition of casaulity implies). Schopenhauer writes, in regards to motivation, "causality that passes through cognition... enters in the gradual scale of natural beings at that point where a being which is more complex, and thus has more manifold needs, was no longer able to satisfy them merely on the occasion of a stimulus that must be awaited, but had to be in a position to choose, seize, and even seek out the means of satisfaction."

Schopenhauer thinks that humans have "relative freedom" but that relative freedom is to act in accordance with the motives that are necessitated by the Will-- which in turn is the determining factor of human behavior. In humans the linkage of cause and effect is of a far greater distance than that of intuitive animals-- causing us to mistakingly exclude our behavior from the law of casaulity-- but in the end 'the Will' still determines actions by what he calls "sufficient necessitiy".

"For he (human beings) allows the motives repeatedly to try their strength on his will, one against the other. His will is thus put in the same position as that of a body that is acted on by different forces in opposite directions - until at last the decidedly strongest motive drives the others from the field and determines the will. This outcome is called decision and, as a result of the struggle, appears with complete necessity."

Unlike Sartre's treatise on freedom, which ultimately collapsed into obscurity and contradiction, Scophenhauer's rightly contends that a fixed essence is inborn (what we would today call DNA). In other words, it contradicts Sartre's saying that "existence precedes essence." For Schopenhauer, neither precedes the other. The two are inseparable. The expression of the essence can change through experience within the environment but the fundamental aspects of it remain instrinsic to the organism (Genes/Biology). Schopenhauer responds to the proponents of absolute free will, who haven't carefully analyzed what it means for the 'will' to be free, by writing: "Closely considered, the freedom of the will means an existentia without essentia; this is equivalent to saying that something is and yet at the same time is nothing, which again means that it is not and thus is a contradiction." So my guess is that if Sartre had happened to stumble upon this particular essay he might have realized that it was he who was in "bad faith" about man being condemned to be free.

It should also be noted that if Schopenhauer is wrong about mans intrinsic nature then all of the social sciences are a fraud and particularly psychology is wrong when it takes genes, biology, and the environment into consideration when interpreting and analyzing human behavior.

The reason people object to philosophical determinism is that it makes morality and personal responsibility a precarious thing. One valuable thing we can adopt from Sartre's ideas is that it is imperative that we take responsibility for our choices. But being that pragmatism is the philosophy of the U.S. and not existentalism, it is more than likely the masses will always assume that Free Will exists because the stability of civil society depends on it. In light of all of this it should be mentioned that Schopenhauer does not think that people can't be morally reformed. In other words he thinks that the expression of behavior can be cultivated. Many people credit Nietzsche for coming up with the idea of sublimation that would later be used by Freud, but it was actually Schopenhauer who was the first speak of the idea.

"Cultivation of reason by cognitions and insights of every kind is morally important, because it opens the way to motives which would be closed off to the human being without it."

Schopenhauer also condemns a moral system that tries to root out the defects of a person's character rather than utilizing sublimation.

For those who consider this type of philosophy immoral because it seems to exclude the possibility of moral responsibility we should remember that in Christianity there is the concept of predesination, and in Islam there is a religious fatalism. On top of that fact, many of the church fathers (Augustine and Luther) didn't accept the notion of free will either.

I highly recommend this book!

Almost everyone agrees that - here, Schopenhauer made a convincing case for denying free-will. Nevertheless, I would argue that if we look back to the influence Kant's work exerted on Schopenhauer, and review Schopenhauer's own remarks about the validity of empirical knowledge, it must surely be that Schopenhauer landed himself in difficulties. On his own reading of Kant's philosophy, and those parts of it which he incorporated into his own work, the 'willing' subject, sensu strictu, cannot be said to exist in space and time, but only to be working through those categories in the understanding.

If time and space are transcendentally ideal - as Schopenhauer asserted, following Kant, he ought to have known better than to locate the 'will' in time and space, when according to his own reckoning, 'time and space are in us.'

Kant distinguished here, between 'will' and 'willkuhr' - that is, the practical difference between the will grounded in the noumenon, and the will seen in its phenomenal or empirical
employment. Insofar as Schopenhauer adopted Kant's distinction between appearance and reality, viz. the ideality of time and space, it surely follows that by denying free-will, Schopenhauer was denying a key element in his own philosophy. In short, his argument against 'free-will' amounts to a simplistic observation - namely, 'your willing takes place in the empirical world. The empirical world is conditioned. Ergo, your willing is conditioned' - as if he had suddenly forgotten everything else said in his philosophy, about the ideality of time and space.

By arguing that 'free will' - in the empirical manifold, is simply comparative or relative - viz., when confronted with choices - Schopenhauer was stating the obvious. In this respect, Schopenhauer's position was not unlike that of certain early Buddhists, who almost made Buddhism into a form of determinism. To do that, they had to advocate a kind of empirical realism, while denying any reality to the 'pudgala.' But in actual fact, Schopenhauer's position vis-a-vis the ideality of the phenomenal world, more nearly resembled the Vijnanavada/Yocacara. What mattered to Kant (and what surely matters to anyone else, defending the case for free-will), is that considered as noumenon (i.e. our unconditioned nature), that which can initiate a new chain of events - in the phenomenal world, is not - in itself, phenomenal.

We are free when we are able do what we want, that is, when we are not somehow impeded from doing what we will to do. But we decide what to do as a matter of causal necessity; otherwise, our actions would be random and senseless. The notion that we have the power to originate the causal chain by an act of will makes no sense; as Schopenhauer says, causation is not like a cab that you can start and stop wherever it helps your argument. As he notes, that point also defeats cosmological arguments about "prime movers" and "first causes." This is a great read, a chance to experience a first-class mind grappling with a difficult and interesting problem. Schopenhauer generally even avoids his usual bitter broadsides and against Schelling and Hegel and the sort of philosophizing they represent, although those are fun to read and generally on target. (He lost another, later prize because his essay in that case, although the only candidate for the prize, was so full of personal invective that the judges refused to make the award.)

Another reviewer correctly notes that Schopenhauer undermines his own argument at the last minute, or tries to, in a strange concluding chapter. There he argues that our feelings of personal responsibility for our actions points to freedom of some kind, a species of argument that he had earlier dismantled. Anyway, this freedom would have to exist beyond the empirical level, as his arguments have decisively eliminated any possibility of freedom there. The position Schopenhauer presents in that chapter involves the idea that we, somehow, choose our own characters at some mysterious point of emergence from the Kantian noumena. No commentator I have read has been able to make sense of it. In any case, it's completely skippable, a brief, tacked-on chapter that makes no difference for the rest of the book, which is very well worth reading.

The title of my review is a little misleading, so I'll be quick to explain. In fact, Schopenhauer does make a good case for determinim in his essay. However, there is something noteworthy I haven't seen in any of the reviews so far: At the end of the well-crafted essay, Schopenhauer -- well -- spoils it all. Having established the truth of determinism, he suddenly tries to justify free will. Yes, that's true. He appeals to a Kantian style idealism to try and convince the reader that we are ultimately morally responsible. He asserts that we have metaphysical free will because we FEEL our responsibility. His proclamation that this free will that we are supposed to have is a mystery is strikingly reminiscient of theistic statements like "God works in mysterious ways". This is just an example to illustrate the failure of Schopenhauer's case for free will. In order to defend his free will, "real free will", Schopenhauer is forced to resort to mere assertions. He can't explain why we have this free will or how it works, hence he calls it a mystery. If you are a determinist it may well be that you will feel a little betrayed or even outright disappointed after finishing the book. I give the book 4 stars nonetheless, because for the most part it IS a skillfully written defense of determinism. Schopenhauer should have laid aside his pen a couple of pages earlier than he did, that's all.

What would a world be like if Ants were the evolved creatures?
What would their cultures be like? What would their values be? How could they interact with Humans? You will never look at a trail of Ants the same way again! What would happen if Humans could live for hundreds of years, how wealthy and powerful could they become?
These are the introductery concepts of this amazing story that explores betrayal, revenge, isolation in a new and fascinating way. This short book is plenty to work over for anyone. I just wish that Ms. Cherryh could manage to come back to this story some time and explore more of this fascinating tale.

Serpent's Reach (1980) is an SF novel in the Alliance-Union Universe. In 2223, the interstellar probe Celia discovered the majat, a sapient alien species, on Alpha Hydri III -- Cerdin -- in the Serpent's Reach. The majat body structure and organization was much like social insects such as ants. At the time of discovery, there were four different hives, each ruled by a collective intelligence with memories spanning millions of years.

There were no survivors from the Celia, but the hives did decide that each human was an individual intelligence. In 2229, the crew of the Delia probe was kept alive and, in 2235, under terms of the Hydri Treaty, one shipload of colonists was allowed to settle on the planet. These became the Kontrin Company. The colonists, however, brought a shipload of embryos, from which were grown the Betas. These Betas, in turn, grew clones of themselves, the azi, with biological timers that limited lifespan to forty years.

In this novel, Raen a Sul hant Meth-maren is Kontrin. She is the direct lineal descendent of The Meth-maren, destined to lead the family some day. For the past fifteen years, she has been learning the things that she should know to govern. Since all Kontrin have been made potentially immortal by the majat, she has many years of learning before she is old enough to have fun.

One day, the family estate at Kethiuy is visited by the Houses of Thon and Yalt, but these welcome guests bring others from the House of Hald and, worse yet, members of the Ruil-sept of the Meth-marens. Neither Hald or Ruil would have dared to set foot on the estate without Thon and Yalt. The Ruil cadet-sept has come to suggest a change in the relationships with the majat, but the talks are only a cover for an attack on the Sul-sept.

Only Raen survived the vicious attack by the Ruil-sept, Red and Gold majats and majat-azi. She manages to escape to the nearby Hive of the Blue majats and to convince the Hive Mother to help her wrest Kethiuy from the Ruil-sept and others who have assisted in the attack. She succeeds in destroying the Ruil-sept, but the Blue Hive is also destroyed and she is captured.

She is brought before the Council and Eron Thel, the head of the conspiracy, is almost allowed to relinquish Raen to her enemies. Yet Moth, second oldest of all Kontrin, protests that there has been no vote and Lian, the Eldest, agrees with Moth. Lian makes a speech, at the conclusion of which Moth kills all the known conspirators. Raen is banished from Cerdin.

She chooses to go to Meron. The following year, Pol and Morn Hald appear and confront her. She sends Morn away, but Pol stays for dinner. They meet occasionally at social events and smile at each other, but they never meet in private.

Raen lives through a few assignation attempts, but never gives the Council any reason to curb her freedoms. When Lian is assassinated, she continues her usual social activities. She moves on to Andra and then Kalind. But then she leaves Kalind on the Andra's Jewel. Every Kontrin seems to know that she is in transit but none knows where she is going.

During the voyage, Raen challenges an azi to a Sej match, to continue until the ship reaches her destination. Jim, the azi, agrees and they play ten games a night until the ship reaches Istra, the contact point with the Outsiders. Jim gains a lead until the final day and only loses the match in the last game. Jim now belongs to Raen, so she buys him a full set of luxury clothes and accessories and installs him within her quarters.

A Blue majat is also on the Andra's Jewel. On the last day of the voyage, he awakes and Raen calms him down. He is a messenger from the Kalind Blue Mother to the Istran Blue Hive. Raen suspects that he is the only Blue messenger to reach Istra since the destruction of the Cerdin hive.

In this story, Raen discerns a plot on Istra that didn't die with Eron Thel. She sets out to correct the problem, making contacts with Beta companies and the Blue Hive. She burdens Jim with more responsibility and he expands his programming.

This story is typical of the author, with one human becoming the main contact with an alien species. However, there are secondary plots, including the results of providing humans with potential immortality. Jim also undergoes a significant metamorphosis by immersing himself in Raen's deepstudy tapes.

Highly recommended for Cherryh fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures and human adaptations.

-Arthur W. Jordin

There are many reasons I love Serpent's Reach. 1) It is the first book by C.J. Cherryh that I bought (as I was judging it by the cover). 2. The Majat are a insect-like alien race and I like both insects and alien races, so for me it is a real treat. 3. C.J. Cherryh's might SEEM to start out slow, but she is really creating a setting and a foundation for a perfect story.

If you liked this book, I would suggest C.J. Cherryh's 'Pride of Chanur' which is a stand alone book that is followed by FOUR other books (A three book series and another stand alone). Alien cats, but not just your run-of-the-mill alien cats.

Some of her works go slow for me, but I was completely enthralled by this story. Her characterizations are vivid and realistic. I've read it several times now!

Remote contact with Alliance. Dates mentioned do not fit with dates given in other Union-Alliance stories.

The worlds of Serpent's Reach are colonized by Union, but have only contact to Union and Alliance at a single station. They are ruled by immortal families, while the populace consists of azi and mortal "beta" humans. The immortals or "Kontrins" are the link to the four hives of indigenous giants ants.

The female protagonist is the only survivor of her family murdered by rival humans, then of all the ruling families, when humans perish as the hives make war on each other and are united in a single hive, which apparently is part of the natural life cycle of the hive, which spans several hundred years.

The book is so revealing. "Shooter" opens the door to a subject we have been discussing from behind many, many doors, both socially and institutionally. The author, Dr. Woodhouse, obviously possesses the very rare ability to feel, understand, and to explain the complex emotional and mental make up of her fellow human beings. I have seen her do it in person, as a presenter. Now, I have experienced her curious acumen in her writing. I bought HARD LESSONS for my family to increase the chances of staying in touch with our children - my nephews and nieces included. I bought SHOOTER IN THE SKY to take us all a step further toward sensing and feeling their pain before they become either a potential victim or just another kid in serious pain and isolation. Thank you again, Dr. Lauren.

Again, we have been hit. All of us. Another school, this time San Diego. And another boy who was mocked and abused and taunted until he even told people what he was going to do. All the tenets we need to have to understand the inner world of THIS boy are in Shooter. The book is a handbook on a sad and lonely psyche in a boy unafraid of finally lashing out. If school boards won't get this in the schools for discussion, let the parents chip in and get it in in truck loads! I wonder where the author is tonight - and if she wishes we would listen? Bless the children as we sit idly by when there is this first, pioneering, and excellent book on WHY!

I'm a kid, but I'm 17 and I know exactly what Harold felt. Most of my friends either still feel or have felt the same way. How come Dr. Woodhouse knew this? The book made me cry so I won't put my name here but my counsellor said that was good and wants to read Shooter in The Skie with me, in parts. But I want to save it because there are certain pages I have saved so that I can read them when I feel alone. I thought I was crazy. I think a lot of kids do. I wish we had this book as an assignment in, may be, grade 9 and we could write our answers. I gace it to my sister and my mom read it. I just wonder if the writer, who seems really smart and honest, had to make an okay ending or parents and teachers would freak! I think Harold would have gone, but gone peacefully. Maybe not. Thanks for giving this to me, Mrs. Woodhouse. I wish I could talk to you. R.T. (student)

I am close to retiring as a scondary school principal and I was as impressed when I read this fine book the second time as I was the first time through. As a once English teacher, I presume to say that this author is an important writer, and an invaluable social critic as well. The detail she provided of this boy's psyche are invaluable to us and, when we think about it, we should have inferred some aspects of "his" psychological pain from various behaviors. But the author has handed us the boy's pain and his wishes on a silver platter. The questions she has included are perfectly pertinent and, I might add indicative of her thoughtfulness. The questions have been clearly thought out so as to be useful, not inciting.

I will be recommending that this book become part of a social studies curriculum. However, were I younger, and my career in mid gear, I would insist on it. What is the saying? "God, save the children"? This exzcellent book could help us to save at least a few. Mrs. H. Mason

As a criminal lawyer I was intrigued to read Shooter on a cross-country flight. As the author would know, most of these kids are first-time offenders, going straight to murder. Dr. Woodhouse captures the torment and confusion that set in when they realise what they have done. Most of them have never seen the inside of a police station, let alone a prison, let alone a maximum security prison. Among the other extremely important issues that this book deals with in such a fine, readable story, is the mess we have made of dealing with our youthful offenders. The boy in this book is not unusual. He should not have been where he was, but this is what we are doing with 13 to 15 year olds who snap. I wish everyone involved with family court, youth offenders, and the related legislation and sentencing would read this pioneering book. The author is a hard-nosed criminologist taking us through this story and process with the artistry and care of a poet. Congratulations to the author, but also to the publisher for being smart, brave and sufficiently prescient to publish this fundamentally informative book. WE NEED MORE OF THE SAME!!

This had an exceedingly unexpected emotional wallop for me. I casually picked up the original softcover comics expecting a relatively pedestrian tale, but was amazed to find at the conclusion of the fourth and final chapter that my tear ducts had suddenly and without proper authorization, opened and gushed.

Some authors can write tomes of verse, and not evoke half the feeling that the creators of this masterpiece have achieved in roughly 80 or so pages of graphic novel perfection. Such incredible metaphors, and imagery. I'm just completely astonished.

Gooseflesh, some call it goosebumps, what have you. This will give them to you, and then some. Even as type this review, my mind replays the story I begin to well up with feeling. I think the biggest compliment that I can pay this extraordinary work of art is that I so want to share the emotions it evokes with someone else, that I'm buying it for an old buddy of mine.

As a gift.

One of the best Silver Surfer sagas I have read to date. The catch 22 is that this a story so well written and illustrated, that it makes you wish it was never written. It makes you wish you did not have to say goodbye to the Silver Surfer. Nevertheless, if he had to go, this is a brilliant goodbye for a sad and noble hero. If you are a fan of the Silver Surfer, there is no other way to put it, you must read this.

If you had a short time to live what would you do? This book has Silver Surfer answering this question in an introspective yet melancholy story. Taking place on Earth, crossing the universe and ending back in his home planet, this book raises questions about mortality, responsibility, and facing ones' limitations.
Too many times people say comics are for kids and there is no substance in the medium; but with this book not only are the nay-sayers proven wrong but it can sometimes show that comics can surpass visuals shown in movie and emotions expressed in books.

This is a piece of Literature that breaks down all assumptions of what a "super-hero" is. I am not at all ashamed to say that I cried a little at the end of this book. It is an amazingly powerful story told in amazingly vivid and arresting artwork. When I was a child, i loved the "idea" of Silver Surfer, but now that I am older and can presumably deal with more a more mature telling of a story, I have a newfound admiration for what Stan Lee started with Norrin Radd, and what is continued here in "Requiem." Surfer comics continue to be some of the bravest and most moving pieces of art in main stream comics.

The Silver Surfer was one of Marvel's most under-used cosmic superdudes... He was also one of the most difficult to frame dramatically, and had a history of disappointing storylines, which may help to explain the motivation behind this Death-Of-The-Silver-Surfer mini-series.

Part of it may have been that he had a bit of a "Superman problem," since he was so super-ultra powerful compared to the rest of the characters in the Marvel universe -- indestructible, able to alter reality, faster and mightier than nearly any foe he could encounter. Initially, writers dealt with this by focusing on the soap opera-tinged alien-in-exile theme (after Galactus banished him from space and forced him to stay on the planet Earth) and later, when his banishment was broken, by sending him out into the stars where he could encounter all kinds of trippy, cosmic stuff. In between, there was his run as a more or less conventional super-hero in "The Defenders," and many random cameos in various space sagas. But for whatever reason, the Surfer never really clicked and the folks at Marvel decided to have him go out with a big bang in the four-part series, "Requiem."

Although I've considered myself a Silver Surfer fan, I have to admit I wasn't really wowed by this book. It felt rushed and there was just too much crammed into its pages, too many plot-points and too many marks to hit. (Perhaps a fifth issue would have helped?) Also, the tone was too melodramatic and too monochromatic -- reverence and awe for the Surfer; maudlin sorrow at his inevitable demise.

What was missing, more than anything else, was a sense of the cosmic majesty that the Surfer could experience. We are given this sense of wonder by proxy, when the Surfer zaps Spider-Man's wife and gives her cosmic consciousness and lets her trip out on the universe for a while, but the Surfer himself never basks in the beauty of the stars, which is something I imagine he might do, were he flying off to his own death. When he returns to his home planet to die, he simply goes from Point A to Point B (with a detour to end a pointless space war on the way). Personally, I would have enjoyed an entire issue just devoted to having him cruise through the cosmos, glorying in and saying goodbye to the unimaginable beauty that only he had the opportunity (and soulfulness) to appreciate. It would have been a nice artistic note to strike, but, alas, the moment has passed. As it was, this series felt functional, but little more, not unlike the late-1960s stories in his own short-lived series. And, I suppose, that is as fitting a tribute to this character as any. This book is worth checking out, but I wish it could have been more. (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)