Creators Books

It's amazing how this guy can rave on and on for hours without actually saying anything. Here's a scientist that never seems to have heard of the scientific method. Very disappointing! The non-sequiturs and leaps of logic are astounding.

I liked this book. Fred Alan Wolf is a exuberant speaker. I wish i would have had him as a teacher.

While Dr. Wolf has written some compelling books, this work is complete nonsense. If you are looking for anything interesting about quantum physics, do not look here. If you are looking for stream-of-consciousness nonsense psycho-babble about the "real you" then this is for you. Doesn't appear that he actually prepared anything for this recording; he just blathers on and on without any coherence. Complete nonsense and a waste of time and money. Deserves zero stars but I am forced to give one star as the minimum allowed here.

I really enjoyed listening to Dr. Quantum discuss his ideas about soul, heaven and hell, how we create our reality, and what Quantum Physics has to do with it all. I discovered Dr. Quantum from the wonderful "What the Bleep Do We Know?" movie, and ever since then I have become interested in what he has to say (as well as what the other people in the movie have to say). I find him easy to understand and actually quite entertaining. I found myself laughing out loud at times. He really kept my attention throughout the entire presentation. In fact, I have listened to this audio book about 3 times now (I've only had it about a week), and I am taking notes! I am also researching some of the people and experiments that he mentions (i.e.: Benjamin Libet and his work on neural adequacy). I am considering purchasing his other audio presentation: A User's Guide to Your Universe.
I had no prior knowledge of Quantum Physics until I watched the "What the Bleep" movie, so all this stuff is new to me. I am glad that I started my study of the mystery with Dr. Quantum as a guide.

I listen each day. I am enjoying listening and learning more about the world and myself.

Perhaps with time Ehlers writing improved but I found most of this book to be unclear - except the parts at the end about how to use the MESA cycles for trading. He has one idea, a ELI (Ehlers Leading Indicator), that sounds intriguing but darned if I can figure out how to calculate it based on his passing description of it. When he tries to explain phasors by "think of an engine" example, he only made me more confused. I really want to understand the mathematical ideas presented herein so I'll keep at it but I'm hoping I'll find a cycle writer with a style I can decipher better. Haven't read his later stuff yet though. Maybe he got alot more clear.

The broad trading public has been slow to recognize John Ehlers work to apply cycles methodologies (from the sciences) to trading markets .... which is good for those of use who have discovered Ehlers' work with MESA (Maximum Entropy Spectral Analysis).

The first edition of this book is still the clearest and most concise discussion of applying cycles theory to markets I've ever read. This new edition retains all of the content of the first edition, but updates it with a lot of new and additional information from Ehlers' recent research into cycles and his development of trading indicators and tools.

Many are familiar with the J.M. Hurst classic: "The Profit Magic of Stock Transaction Timing". Ehlers goes far beyond Hurst's pioneering work. Ehlers is an original thinker, applying new techniques and research using MESA to the market. Hurst was using a multi-million dollar mainframe in the 60's .... all of us have 10,000X more computer power sitting on our desktops than Hurst had .... Ehlers techniques can help the serious trader and investor turn all that "horsepower" loose on the market today, making it accessible to even us small traders.

Hurst was also constrained to using Fourier Analysis for cycles detection .... Ehlers' MESA overcomes the need of Fourier for long data spans to compute cyclic content.

If you're serious about the markets, this book needs to be part of your library .... along with Ehlers other book: "Rocket Science For Traders"

This book is just plain horrible. I am a trader and a cyclical investor. I am also an engineer with Engineering Mechanics background, and very familiar with the complex math explained by Ehlers. But let me tell you, for people without any background in math this book is an absolute waste of time.

The most important thing that Ehlers should have focused, he simply forgot or ignored. The book fails to show real life examples with buy-sell signals using the indicator. It goes on and on along the theoretical lines of cycle analysis and it stays at that throughout the book.

It would have been much more entertaining to explain the indicator and show real life examples. But from my experience as a researcher and writer of research articles, people from this field tend to embelish and emphasize the theoretical size while completely ignoring the pure and simple aspects.

A simple cycle analysis done with moving average detrending as explained by Pring is much easier. Also, a simple look at the charts and the drawing of a simple cycle lines is all that it takes to show you the turning points.

I was a disciple of John Ehlers' in the early 1990s when I bought
the MESA3 and Epoch analysis programs (both for DOS) and my trading abilities improved greatly. I use those two programs to this day with superlative results.

I cannot give a similarly positive review to his newer software offerings as I have not examined them personally and information provided to be by users who have indicated that their results were less than satisfactory.

Ehlers' books are, in a large sense, amplifications of the instruction manuals of these progams and set forth the basis on which to study trading according to his ideas and theories.

This book is an excellent read for both the casual and professional trader regardless of whether or not one actually uses his software. Ehlers is highly intelligent, extremely experienced, and the practical application of his theories is adequately explained herein.

This work ranks as yet another significant contribution to the arena of securities trading by the author.

Professor John W. Kercheval, III
Georgetown
Washington, DC

Bill Wilson was never friends or at home with any organized religion. He was a devout Spiritualist up until his end days. This is well documented. The 12 Steps were said to be written by automatic writing and scribed by spirit. This book is for those bible thumping wanna make Bill W. into what he was not - a Jesus loving Christian. Though he danced with a few zealots and Catholicism, in the end he returned to Spiritualism and there he stayed.

One of the most intimidating hurdles for a Christian to overcome in A.A. is the repeated, uninformed, incomplete presentation of Bill as some kind of atheist or agnostic who finally turned to a "higher power" that could be the A.A. Group. I am not one who studies Bill Wilson's later years after A.A. was founded, nor who relishes accounts of his shortcomings in marriage, LSD, spiritualism, and all the rest. For me the important question is this: Did the Creator really have a role in early A.A.? And over the years I have been reading Dick B.'s books and research results, I have become enlightened and warmed in my heart about how important the Creator and His son Jesus Christ were in early AAs. Though most don't know much about Dr. Bob, they seem to have the impression that he believed in God, was a Christian, studied the Bible, and strongly relied on prayer. That describes him properly. But the only way to find out the truth about Bill Wilson is not to look at his shortcomings, but to look at his early years and his growing conviction that the Great Physician, Jesus Christ had cured him of his alcohol problems. Probably not one in five hundred of today's A.A. people, or others, has any idea that Bill: (a) Learned of his grandfather Willie's conversion to Christ and was cured of alcoholism. (b) Grandfather Fayette Griffith urged Bill to read the Bible, enrolled him in Sunday school at the church next door, attended church with Bill. (c)That Bill himself studied the Bible, went to revivals and temperance meetings. (d) That Bill's grandparents on both sides were much involved in the little East Congregational Church between their houses. (e) That Bill's parents lived in a parsonage for a time, that they sang Christian songs together, that they talked of Grandpa Willie's conversion and cure quite often. (f) That Bill went on to Burr & Burton Academy in Vermont, attended daily chapel, and became president of the YMCA there. (g) That years later, Ebby Thacher related to Bill Ebby's own conversion to Christ at Calvary Rescue Mission. (h) That Bill went to the Mission, knelt at the altar, and handed his life over to Christ--as Lois herself phrased it. (h) That Dr. Silkworth had previously told Bill at Towns Hospital that the Great Physician (Jesus Christ) could cure him. (i) That Bill finally decided after his altar conversion to call on the Great Physician for help. (j) That Bill did call on the Great Physician and had his "hot flash" conversion experience--described in much the same language that his grandfather Willie had described his own mountain top convesion and cure. (k) That Bill wrote that he had been born again. (l) That Bill confirmed for himself the validity of conversion cures by studying the William James book the day of Bill's own conversion experience. (m) That Dr. Silkworth had confirmed to Bill that Bill had had a genuine conversion experience. (n) That Bill then went about trying to convert drunks--with no success. (o) That Bill's message was The Lord has cured me of this terrible disease (See Big Book, p. 191). (p) That Bill and Bob began leading people to Christ right after A.A. began? Does all this surprise you as much as it has me? Well, it's factual. Dick's new book relates it and documents it. And it's a testimony to an accurate story of Bill's convictions as he went to Akron, Ohio, and founded A.A. with Dr. Bob in the summer of 1935. What a great book. What a great history. What a great testimony. And what a great piece of research and writing for those who want to know the facts. Go for it.

Through the years that I have been reading Dick B.'s A.A. history books, I have come to know the Akron pioneer founding crowd as friends and inspirations. I've also seen the importance that the Bible played in the whole A.A. picture--particularly the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13. I was able to see the teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker and the life-changing program of the Oxford Group as the major sources for Bill Wilson's Big Book and Twelve Step language despite the Oxford Group disclaimers by so many AAs. But having gotten acquainted with the Akron Christians and the New York Christian clergy who played such a heavy role in A.A., I felt I knew the beliefs of Dr. Bob, his wife Anne, Henrietta Seiberling, T. Henry and Clarace Williams, Sam Shoemaker, Frank Buchman, Carl Jung, and William James. But I saw a whirlpool of confusion about what Bill Wilson really believed. Was he a Christian? Did he ever look at a Bible before he came to Akron? Did he embrace the things that Rev.Sam Shoemaker taught him? Did he even believe in God or in the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the way to a relationship with God?
If you read most historians and biographies, you'd be apt to chime in with the idea that Bill was an atheist or an agnostic or "spiritual but not religious" or wedded to some wierd "higher power" that came from the New Thought Movement. And evidently historian Dick B. had waited even longer than I did for an in depth look at the facts. Because the facts have been ignored or distorted. This new title--The Conversion of Bill W.--is a gem among gems. It leaves no stone unturned in the quest for Bill's real background and beliefs. It leaves the reader astonished at the news that Bill's grandfather Willie had a conversion much like that of Bill's in Towns Hospital, except that it happened years earlier and spelled salvation and freedom from drink for Willie. The door is opened to the little village of East Dorset, Vermont--to the founding membership in its East Congregational Church by the Wilsons and the sustaining membersip by Wilson's grandfather Fayette Griffith and Bill's mother. Was there Bible study? Yes. Was there church attendance? Yes. Did Bill attend Sunday school there? Yes. Did Bill himself study the Bible? Yes. Did Bill ever attend temperance and revival meetings such as those grandpa Willie had frequented? Yes. Did Bill then attend daily chapel at Burr and Burton Seminary in his years there? Yes. Were his first girl friend and later his wife the daughters of ministers? Yes. Did Bill have at least FIVE of what he called spiritual experiences in his life? Yes. Did Dr. William Silkworth tell Bill that he could be healed by Jesus Christ? Yes. Did Ebby Thacher tell Bill that he had been healed at the altar of Sam Shoemaker's Rescue Mission? Yes. Did Bill then go to the Mission and make a decision for Christ there? Yes. Did Bill soon proclaim that he had been born again? Yes. Did Bill call on the Great Physician for help at Towns Hospital? Yes. Did Bill state that after his hot flash experience there he never again doubted the existence of God? Yes. Did Bill's wife Lois and his doctor Silkworth conclude with Bill that he had been converted and had a conversion experience? Yes. And yet all these points involve the Bill Wilson whose beliefs and actions were unknown for years and which occurred before A.A. was a twinkle in Bill's eye. I like the thorough work in this book. I like the fact that it will shake many people into doing their own research and fact-finding instead of repeating undocumented statements about what A.A.'s founders were, what they believed, and what the early program was really like. This new biography is a treat you will enjoy.

Eastman and Missler set out to proove God, and as much as atheists' haven't been able to disprove it, they don't manage to prove it either.
What they do is actually introduce Science to a subject that doesn't require it or make its case more plausible, they manage to create more atheistic questions than theistic answers.

Christianity is to Islam and Judaism, as is Science to Theology: they don't mix. This book manages to give more ammunition to the scientific community to ridicule theistic followers, where as it set out to do the opposite.

This genre of book commits theism to a struggle of survival by pitting it head on with the scientific community. What ever happened to faith?

The first half of the book will blind you with some scientific background to convince you they are people of science, which they very much appear to be. The whole argument seams revolve around "if this clever man of science believes in God, there muct be a God" which greatly weakens the book from the outset. There seams to be a condemnation of the learnings of science throughout these chapters with regard to not getting 'it' right first time. For instance when a member of the scientific community is presented with new information that contradicts initial beliefs, this is used in some way as the proof of God. I can only imagine that the authors think science is a form of faith? the wrong one?

The second half is based on the bible itself, and it doesn't get much better. With lots of subjective comments of the meaning of the bible relating to actual scienticic grounding, sadly without the objective proof that the book professes to contain.
Their Knowledge appears to be good on the subject, but their use of unconvincing, opionated and circumstantial linking falls short and should be plain to spot by all but the most blinkered.

A couple of time in the book the autors get overcome by Bigotry and tread very close to religous intollerance of non-Christian religions.
P102 'No other "holy book" on planet earth authenticates its messages in these ways. By doing this the Bible authenticates that is the very word of God'

The reader may at some point immagine that any true scientific evidence would have the belief in God spreading to other parts of the non-Christian world and being adopted by the bulk of the scientific community.
Futhermore imagine that if they were born in the Middle East they would also be lead to believe their book is the only one true book with connections to scientific proof.

'The Creator Beyond Time & Space' is not very well written, inplausible, and ultimatly laughable.

Dr. Mark Eastman takes some pretty complicated subjects relating to biology, geology, chemistry and physics and examines them in light of what Biblical scripture reveals. Surprisingly, there are no "contradictions" or "errors". The Bible holds it on with even the most recent scientific finds. A very easy read even though it covers technical subject matter.

For those who are searching, searching for the scientific facts about the reality of the universe we live in this is the book. It takes a wide gamut of current scientific knowlege and presents it in a well written, very readable presentation. Those looking for political correctness, dogma and falsely taught theories are not likely to find what they want here.

Really, this is barely a service to African American women who fell through the cracks. Please!

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN--cradle of civilization-- BOW when you enter her circle. O mightly spirit, direct her path and bless her every footstep for the world is beholding to her. The lesser informed among us would have you believe differently, but, research would prove my characterization of the Black Woman.

The 150 great women mentioned in this book did not include your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, etc, but it could have if you are of African American decent. Please know that this author could only write about a limited number of women who have left an indilible impact on society. In 1619, only the" biggest and baddest" Africans survived the death-trap journies across the Atlantic Ocean in those filthy slave ships. They arrived here with their African names--no wonder some of the women were identified as unknown by name because their slavers had't forced them to adopt another European name by that time. The slavers surly were not going to call them by their rich African names. Those barbaric slavers were skilled in dismanteling one another as they only knew barbaric behavior. Culture existed only in Africa in 1619 and not in Europe or Asia- -which is the homeland of the slavers.

Bolden has done an outstanding job with this book and, if you are smart, you will surly put this book on your "must read" list.

It was a joy and pleasure to read about some of the women of a bygone era that I already knew about or learned about for the first time.

I don't like this one because it gets a few things wrong, or so my sister Monica claims, she plays the game all the time and for her birthday I got her the Septerra Core book and she was complaining because she said it didn't tell her what she wanted to know.and because of that, I give it 2 out of 5 stars...

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[...] Heather B. Armstrong picks the best of parenting bloggers and has them write about Fatherhood. But surprisingly, the chapters do not read like blog posts but really a collection of stories. One of these is classic tale of Star Wars obssession, but the story by Matthew Baldwin that likens pregnancy to The Return of the King was an absolute classic. And there are some others that hit the mark. This is definitely one to take a look at the next time you are browsing.

It wasn't a fast read. It was a slow and dangerous read, a dark and twisty and sentimental read. A collection of stories invoking all sorts of fathers, goofy fathers, angry fathers, fathers suffering from dementia and conservatism, fathers as overwhelmed as mothers, fathers preparing to divorce mothers, fathers reliving their Star Wars infatuations with their sons. Earnest fathers. Scared fathers. Loving fathers. Human fathers. The collection reminds me of the Deadwood bar in Iowa City, a land of dark booths, horrible coffee and upside-down Christmas trees. Thick and smoke-filled and shot through with cool. The people who were comfortable there will like this book. I loved the Deadwood.

Fans of dooce.com and similar blogs will probably find this collection of essays on fatherhood entertaining. Some of the stories are better than others as with most compilations. The writing is similar to what you would find on a well-written blog - often witty, but not always well-written.

Some of the essays are excellent, some mediocre at best. Better editing would have been a bonus.

This is a compilation of stories written by people chosen not for their stellar writing, but because they are personal friends with the editor. The stories, consequently, range from wonderful to dreadful. Overall, the selection was quite uneven.

I love Stargate and have the DVD series up to season 8. This book doesn't really get moving until 1/2 -- 3/4 of the way through. I had to fight my way through each chapter. I kept wondering' ok where are the main characters?
It took awhile for them to be introduced. When the offworld excitement started your are reading so fast that the book is over because there wasn't that much.

Book #3 is The First Amendment. Official blurb: "From the very
beginning, the success of the Stargate project has demanded absolute secrecy. But it won't be secret for long.... A hotshot reporter has been brought into the most restricted area of the StarGate base. He's witnessed the Stargate in action, and wants answers. But he'll get more than a headline when Col. Jack O'Neill and his team decide to show him exactly how dangerous the universe can be...."

I did like the first half. The author had obviously done some research; the first chapter of the book is from Hammond's POV has he goes through his morning routine, and I found it mildly interesting. There's also - as the title suggests - a political element that felt like it could have been inspired by 'Secrets'. However, there seemed to be an overabundance of original characters -- too much of them and not enough of SG-1 in a book that's only 198 pages. And - and I'm not exactly sure how else to describe this - it didn't FEEL like Stargate.
There just wasn't that sense of familiarity. The resolution was cliched. And there was also the seemingly inevitable mistakes with Sam's rank This one wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.

The characters are and their personalities are captured good, but the story isnt the best. The Author Ashley McConnell does better in the Pilot story and the second book:The Price to Pay. The story isnt as much of a stargate story as the other few of her books, the whole big moths and the triangular head robots was kinda rediculous. I expected better imagination and better story and character line because the first 2 books were better, So i give this one a 3.

Ashley McConnell's Stargate SG-1: The First Amendment is a great book! It is about a reporter by the name of Frank Kinsey, who gets smuggled into the secret base of SG-C (Stargate Command) and has seen the Stargate, a dimensional transporter that uses wormholes, in action. Now he wants more answers about the secrecy surrounding the Stargate program and to get to the bottom of the truth by using the First Amendment of the Constitution. But instead of just getting information from SG-C (Stargate Command) about the Stargate program, he got more than what he bargained for. General George Hammond, the commander of SG-C and Colonel Jack O'Neill, a highly decorated and respected SG team leader, decide to take Kinsey on a real mission to show him what the Stargate program is all about and how dangerous the universe can be!

The beginning of this book starts out kind of slow in my opinion because they mainly talked about everyone's jobs at SG-C, but it quickly changes as you read on with lots of action throughout the book. I was used to this pattern because the same thing happens on the T.V show which I watch often. I think the middle of the book is my least favorite part because they use crude language and mainly dealt with preparations for the mission and it did not have much action. The end of the book is my favorite because it is where all the action is, like when the team fights giant moths and tubenecks (a praying mantis type of creature). The action was very intense, it kept me on the edge of my seat and I would not put the book down.

The book is also humorous because O'Neill is always making jokes. It is also a bit confusing sometimes like when someone named Major Dave Morley was telling a story about when his team was attacked and did not mentioned any details about the event. I've read two of Ashley McConnell's books, both of them are based on the same characters and T.V. series Stargate SG-1and I've enjoyed both of them tremendously. I think Ashley McConnell did a very good job on this book (The First Amendment). I recommend this book to everyone because it has a good story, it is funny, it has intense action, and it has a final conclusion without a "to be continued" at the end. If you are looking for a book with some humor, intense action and a good story line, then this book is for you!

By: Christopher Chou
5th grade - Pocopson Elementary

I find Ms. McConnell's Stargate SG-1 novels to be decent, at best. Her charactisations are incredibly weak. Little things like almost always referring to Daniel as "Jackson" really got to me. Who the heck calls him just Jackson on the show?

The Price You Pay was pretty interesting, but The First Amendment downright stunk. This novel really does have the feel of a poorly constructed fanfic. McConnell shamelessly admits in her intro that the character Cassidy is based on someone she knows in real life. Presumeably, so is his counterpart, Pace. That deal would have been forgiveable, if she hadn't devoted so much of the book to these essentially unnecessary side characters - not to mention the fact that she put more effort into developing those individuals. Not like we even care about these two. Any of y'all pick up this book to read about military folk who wonder what goes on beneath the surface of Cheyenne Mountain? Any of y'all eagerly awaiting the spin-off series 'The Adventures of Pace and Cassidy'?

Even worse is the Mary Sue element of this book, i.e. the inclusion of Randolph and Rusalka. Talk about unnecessary characters! What exactly was the point of including random workers of the SGC, who share recipes and child care advice? Oh please! Hearing those two babble on and on with water cooler talk about SG-1 absolutely grated on the nerves. We're used to strong female characters like Sam and Janet, and the author throws in gender stereotypical swill. Really, the only thing those two ever talked about was cooking, kids, and cute guys. Why exactly were these characters written into the story when they had absolutely nothing to do with the plot? Ms. McConnell admitted to writing her "Tuckerized" former co-worker Cassidy. Who is willing to bet one of these women is based on the author and another is a friend? Or perhaps both are her.

The lead-up isn't interesting. The plot is weak and predictable. Of course, Kinsey's son isn't going to end up exposing the Stargate to the public. Of course, after he's seen the Stargate, he's going to go through and see something that makes him decide it's better that the public remain in the dark. And, of course, Kinsey's son was also depicted with more depth than SG-1.

I would say this is the weakest of her four books, by far. But then again, while some of her books have better plots, characterisation is weak in all of them. I am left to wonder why Roc didn't just decide to go with a more knowledgeable author, somebody who actually seems interested in getting a feel for each member of SG-1.

Fine reading;the best biographical work on Picasso. Fair review of his multi-facetted life and personality. A portrait written with great psychological depth, flair, knowledge of the arts and fascinating insights and comments from those who knew him.
Ariana Stassinopoulos' balanced story of both his weaknesses and strengths is a ''must read''.

"Picasso" by Arianna Huffington is a very thorough book that can probably be skipped, except possibly by those with an intense interest in Picasso's personal life. For the rest of us it is sufficient to know that Picasso had no friends or family, just groupies (many of whom were family) throughout his life, and, to a person, he treated them despicably. For example, he usually had several women at a time who each worshiped him. He would play them off against each other, often openly and in public, seemingly in an attempt to provoke jealous rage, murder, depression, or suicide (he succeeded grandly at all except for murder, but his best friend took care of that one for him). He found ways to treat the male groupies with equal misery. But, soap operas should last thirty minutes at most. This book goes relentlessly on and on for 500 pages determined to prove that Picasso did not take one decent breath in his whole entire long life.At a certain point the reader begins to wonder that "thou dost protest too much." So then how did he come to be hailed as the genius of the 20th Century; as the man who showed us what our world really was or at least what it really looked like? The answer to this question is somewhat complex. The easiest part of it is that he was like a human camera. He could paint exactly what he saw as if he were a camera, and, he could paint any impression of what he saw, better than any human being alive. He was half way home on that talent alone, meaningless though it may have been. After all, if you can throw a ball better than anyone you are halfway home too. But Picasso's subject was, seemingly, important; one that intellectuals were interested in. Hence if he could capture their imaginations and somehow add their imprimatur to his painting talent the world would be at his feet, where he always felt it belonged.
Picasso hung out in Paris with many of the world's leading intellectuals. He even wrote a play called "Desire Caught By the Tail" directed by Albert Camus in which Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir acted. The play was about 10 pages long and nothing more than a series of bizarre scenes similar to what might have appeared in his painting. When Picasso commented about literature he said "it seems many writers want to be painters" apparently not knowing that the descriptions of visual objects in literature are often mere back drops for the infinitely larger conceptual themes with which language artists deal. He really didn't seem to understand that there was more in the world than pictures. His friend Sartre, a legitimate genius, set the record straight about the essential triviality of pictures in "What is Literature" when he said, "even when Picasso attempted to approach the real world with "Guernica" does anyone think he changed even a single mind with that painting"? And this was before the visual world was forever trivialized by, affordable travel, cameras, video cameras, TV, and film. We don't need a great painter anymore to create "The Last Supper" and by his choices tell us about the true nature of Jesus.
It did turn out though that the tyrannical and confused little painter did have something in common with the leading existentialist avant guard intellectuals of his day, namely, they all wanted us to see the world differently. The intellectuals because the world of physics had correctly foreshadowed today's confused world of string theory and because philosophy had foreshadowed the concomitant shift from the certain, well defined world of God to the confused existential world of man. Picasso too wanted us to see the world differently not because he was a physicist or philosopher but because 1) he was so hopelessly neurotic that he did see the world differently as any sick person does and 2) he realized he had to paint differently to develop a reputation as a different and great painter. The intellectuals were happy to use Picasso because his technically ingenious but neurotically confusing paintings did help loosen our grip on old realities. Picasso in turn was happy to use their imprimatur of change to normalize his neurosis and to falsely give philosophical meaning to his immense skill at meaningless painting. That he encouraged us toward misogyny and/or other of his gruel narcissistic indulgences did not matter; it was change, and that was what the intellectuals wanted most. The public really had no idea what was going on as Picasso's legend grew and grew to newer and newer heights of irrationality. Today, Picasso's reputation seems mostly in the hands of art owners, museums, and curators all of whom profit in Picasso's on going and growing legend. This summer's hugely successful Picasso/Matisse exhibit at MOMA , for example, drew 100s of thousands of adoring fans. Curators raved at the point, counter point genius of the two artists; everyone made money, had fun, and wished they too could free their troubled souls and enlighten the world by creating great art, but not a word was ever said about the emperor having no clothes.
Norman Mailer, who was taken seriously as the greatest living writer and thinker, is a great fan of Picasso and has written adoringly and extensively about him; so perhaps his view is worth comparing to Huffington's? He and Picasso had things in common: both were diminutive technical genius who gained public adoration and hugely deformed egos at a very early age. Mailer stabbed one of his early wives and clearly behaved a lot like Picasso, and perhaps for many of the same reasons, although he matured as he aged whereas Picasso did not. His portrait of Picasso as a young man tends to be purely forgiving. The idea that internal struggle, suffering, depression, angst, turmoil, and general soap opera leads to great, honest, revolutionary art apparently still lives in Mailer's soul. After all, what can an artist create if not the manifestation of tremendous inner turmoil and growth?
Mailer forgives Picasso for everything because it was all to produce "great art." Sadly, the idea that the traditional, formulaic, hypocritical, country club Republican mentality would be replaced by the existential soap opera playing out in the communist souls of Picasso, Mailer, and French intellectuals seems more a joke today than anything else. So in the end, Huffington is quite right about Picasso, although she doesn't address the meaning of Picasso's art at all, except in so far as she ruthlessly cuts his foundation away.

this book is totally Anti-Picasso, she hardly touches his Art her only concern is ripping him apart.

The " modernism " Picasso launched was basically the conception of the artist's oeuvre as a diary, albeit he probably, along with most qf the art establishment, would be outraged by this point of view. That was his most significant first; his development of form, merely a bi - product of his auto - biographical method. This book enables us to see clearly the connection between the man and the works, instead of the usual european way of clouding the timid author's confusion about a complex artist with politically correct aestheticism. Whether Picasso's works are all, they're hyped up to be, when considered as individual paintings, is for the individual to decide; this book is about the man Picasso, his life, and as such most refreshing.

I've read quite a bit on Picasso and I was quite aware of his abuses to his lovers and his friends. I also like Arianna Huffington. However, this book quickly degrades in what seems like a personal statement or act of retribution against Picasso. While the writing regarding his major works and career highlights is understated with light cast only on the negative aspects of each, his transgressions and shortcomings in both art and his social life are focused on far too much. The result is an unbalanced book that seems wholly predjudiced. One gets the overall feeling that Arianna was one of Picasso's spurned or mistreated lovers and is out for revenge. I prefer more evenly written objective material on historical characters rather then the polarized point of view offerred here. Overall, I would suggest something by John Richardson who I feel is better informed (via his personal relationship with Picasso) and able to cast objective light on one of mankind's great artists and characters.

good book on Superheros coming together to battle evil&Bring Unity.this Book is about Good versus Evil. it's a Good Book.

I was enormously chary when sitting down to read Alexander B. Edwards's self published novel "Creator: A Superhero Epic." Why? I generally distrust products based on comic book characters or comic book motifs. I also tend to smirk at stories supposedly based on role-playing games. Don't get me wrong; I've seen plenty of films and read several books similar to this one that did an excellent job of bringing superheroes and the like to life. Heck, when I was twelve and thirteen I collected comic books and played games like Dungeons and Dragons. And I liked doing so then. I even kept all of my comic books from two decades ago, safely packing them away in plastic and boxes for the day when I can sell them for thousands of dollars (yeah, right). But I agreed to read "Creator," and planned on doing so with an open mind. For all I knew before I started the book, Edwards's story could attain such heights of wondrousness that a major publisher would pick up an option to publish his novel. And since the author claims this book is the first in a planned set of stories, a series of movies based on the stories may well be playing at the Cineplex in four or five years. It saddens me to say that this is unlikely to happen.

"Creator," set in an alternate world, tells the story of an earth divided between normal humans and mutants. Most mutants, all of whom possess various amazing powers, must keep a low profile since the rest of the world views them with suspicion or outright hostility. The only acceptable mutants are the ones who form superhero organizations in order to battle crime. These groups work closely with the government, primarily an intelligence apparatus known as the Special Investigation Agency (SIA), to save the world whenever necessary. You've got groups like the Energy, Light, and Fire based out of New York, but "Creator" focuses in on the formation of a new group called Eternal Champions. It all starts with a few scenes set in outer space, where the queen of an alien race nearly perishes after a diplomatic mission turns disastrous. The principals involved, including a few mutants from our world, decide they must travel to earth to seek out a vessel in which they can transfer the monarch's spirit. Flash forward to, well, earth. It is here we meet a chap named Richard Octavian, a seemingly harmless doctoral candidate at a university who is in reality a powerful mutant. It turns out that Octavian is actually ninety-two years old, but he appears as a young man because he can change his shape at will.

An assassination attempt on Octavian reveals the presence of yet another mutant in hiding on campus, one Larcis G. Draven. This guy convinces Richard to form a superhero organization--along with another mutant who just happens to be mute--after the attack, not an easy thing to accomplish considering Octavian's reticence to have anything to do with government service again. You see, he worked as an operative in Vietnam and came away from the experience horribly scarred. But Larcis is insistent, so the two quickly secure government funding for their project and soon engage in their first mission. The SIA wants the Eternal Champions to fly into San Francisco in order to rescue a downed aircraft of important dignitaries. It isn't the San Francisco we know and love, however, but rather a huge penal complex ruled by a powerful mutant named Sargon. In go the Eternal Champions, a huge battle ensues, and when the group returns they have two female mutant inmates in tow. Since these two women helped thwart the dastardly Sargon's nefarious plans, a presidential pardon allows them to join the Eternal Champions as full-fledged members. Another mission soon looms on the horizon when the aforementioned aliens arrive on earth.

"Creator" sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Well, it's not for several reasons. First, the book reads like a combination of "The X-men" and "Escape From New York," which it probably is since the author says he came up with the idea in the early 1980s, a time when this comic book and film arrived on the scene. Second, the editing is horrible. Typographical errors practically drip off every page, and while I can always muster sympathy for someone caught with a few typos in their writing, "Creator" contains far too many to ignore. These errors seriously hamper the flow of the novel. Third, and closely related to my second complaint, is the number of continuity errors in the story. For instance, the book at one point claims that Octavian attended a class, but later we discover that school hasn't even started yet. Fourth, the dialogue between characters is so leaden that it will set your teeth on edge. At first, I sort of looked past this problem because writing dialogue is not an easy thing to do. I know I would have to practice long and hard to learn how to do it. But after awhile, I simply couldn't ignore the problem any longer. Exchanges resemble something an adolescent would put to paper in a creative writing class.

I'm not dumping on the book out of spite. I do think that the author could, with a lot of work, greatly improve the technical aspects in his second book. Proofreading is an absolute necessity for removing typos and continuity errors, and the dialogue might improve if the author reads it aloud to see if it flows naturally. One thing the author did do well was balancing numerous plot threads. I see no reason why subsequent installments in this story arc could not improve with significant effort. As it stands, "Creator" earns two stars.

I would describe Alexander B. Edwards' Creator: A Superhero Epic as a graphic novel without the graphics. Like his superhero characters, the author assumes an alias to protect his secret identity as a counterintelligence officer in the military, and his background in intelligence, counterespionage, and the like serves him well in the construction of a story featuring a myriad of military operations. Borne out of the milieu of superhero comics and role-playing superhero games, Creator ebbs and flows with a rhythm all its own. Transitions are sometimes abrupt, character development is somewhat limited, and events occasionally seem to pass by just a little too quickly. At the same time, though, the novel offers plenty of exciting, suspenseful moments in the form of fast-paced action scenes.

The action in Creator centers around Richard Octavian, a far from typical college student; in actuality, he is a 92-year-old mutant who became disillusioned by the nature of his assignments in the Vietnam Conflict. Basically immortal, he has the power to shape-shift and thus appear as a perfectly normal college kid. Of course, his unique qualities come to the fore when unknown assassins shoot him in the chest at point blank range. In his reaction to the surprising attempt on his life, Richard meets up with two other on-campus mutants, and the three new friends band together to form a new mutant superhero group. Other mutant superheroes exist, but the Special Investigations Agency (SIA) is more than happy to support an additional group in the fight against evil, particularly evil wrought by dishonorable mutants. Richard assumes the identity of Creator, while his two new partners become Mindseye and Night. About the time their top-secret, super-nifty, well-camouflaged headquarters is built, the Eternal Champions are called into action. A ship carrying a number of important persons, including two prominent South Americans, has crash-landed inside Complex San Francisco, a lawless penal colony dominated by a power-hungry mutant named Sargon. In this universe, a unified South America dominates the world militarily, scientifically, and technologically - if their agents are not rescued quickly, America may well be looking at a war it cannot win.

The story begins to come into its own during the daring rescue mission, but there are even more important missions and problems in the future. An alien spaceship has secretly come to Earth as part of a plan to save the galaxy (which naturally involves taking over the earth as the first step), and one of the new superhero mutant girlfriends is the key to the alien strategy. The work of the Eternal Champions, it would seem, is never done.

The writing is somewhat unpolished at times; characters have a tendency, for example, to sometimes explain acronyms or concepts parenthetically to one another - granted, this is information the reader needs to know, but at the same time it is information the characters would not need to explain to one another. I also had a hard time getting to know the characters, which in turn led me to question some of their actions - particularly in the field of interpersonal relations. Perhaps I asked too much of the story, though, as its roots in role-playing superhero games tend to shape it in terms of episodic, action-packed events following closely upon the heels of one another.

The impetus of this story goes back many years, evolving out of the childhood dreams and role-play gaming experience of the author, and this helps to explain the sudden transitions from one scene to another. There is a related issue of certain characters and themes falling by the wayside as the novel progresses. While this is problematic of the novel taken as an entity unto itself, an explanation can seemingly be found in the fact that this is the first in a series of eight novels revolving around the work of Earth's newest superhero organization. I imagine that future books in the series will flesh out these characters to a greater degree and answer some of my questions about the background and "big picture" elements of the story so far. In the meantime, the mission-based chapters of Creator certainly do provide ample fuel for the novel's adventuresome engine, making this an enjoyable, fast-paced read, and it will be interesting to see where the author takes his superhero epic in future installments of the series.

CREATOR: A SUPERHERO EPIC is that kind of book that has an audience, obviously, because without an audience for the over the top science fiction whopper tales, where would the endless stream of movies such as 'Matrix', 'Spiderman I, II', 'Catwoman', to name but a very few find the people to fill the seats of the theaters?

Perhaps this is 'escapist literature'. One would hope not. Why would we need to distort reality to such a degree as creating good guys versus mutants when tales based on life-sized people can create that same effect with elegant language, poetry, altered perception of known places - all the tools that good writing offers the reader as a path away from reality beyond the covers of the book.

So, I am not a sci-fi fan and only read this book as an obligation to explore the works of young writers active today. Sadly CREATOR depends on word warps, DNA distortions, fanciful names for characters and places and pedestrian dialogue to propel this engine. Yes, the forces of good and evil are in play as they always are in these forays, but the overall story is so hampered with the style (or lack of) of writing that finishing the book is more an act of obligation than a source of pleasure. Someone has to say these things...We are informed that the author Jaime Mera is a Military Intelligence Officer stationed in Korea who has assumed the pen name of Alexander B. Edwards and that this is the first book in a series of eight! One hopes after this start that the remainder of the series tightens up a bit on writing technique and stance as worthy literature. Grady Harp, March 05