D Books

I PURCHASED MY BOOK 3 1/2 YEARS AGO THE WEEK AFTER MY HUSBAND OF 34 YRS DIED FROM ALCOHOLISM WITHOUT KNOWING THIS WAS TO BE MY MOST INSPIRATIONAL BOOK. I HAVE BEEN IN RECOVERY ABOUT 4 YRS NOW AND I HAVE GIVEN AWAY 10
OR 12 BOOKS. I ALWAYS KEEP AN EXTRA ONE BECAUSE I KNOW I WILL MEET UP WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN USE IT.

I picked up this little gem of a book and cant put it down. I refer to it again and again because it has so much insight on all kinds of issues people may have..it really speaks to you and I found it so comforting during difficult times. I will treasure it for a long time!

I love this book of daily reflections. It is very thought provoking and the quotes are memorable.

I love this book and read it daily. It is so ironic when you are going through something and you open the book right to an affirmation that pertains to that very situation. I bought several copies of Daily Affirmation for Forgiving and Moving On and give it out as gifts to friends that I know will benefit from it.

I own this & have gone through it. I liked it so much I picked up a copy for a friend's daughter who has just lost a significant other. Comprising of 366 pages & designed to be read one page each day. The book is an excellent tool for a healthy direction for one's getting back on track. Gentle affirmations reveal true sources in one's feelings. The book does go a long way in dealing with the loss of a relationship

One family's fight to reform the medical system is documented in this excellent, but gut-wrenching book. The author, Dorothy Cancilla, a bright and feisty woman, who learned the hard way how callous and incompetent some medical providers can be. Death by HMO documents her daughter Jennifer's eight years of painful illness that eventually led to a premature and avoidable death. Jennifer died four days before her 30th birthday.

I'm amazed at how much information and detail is compiled into this 132-page book. The reader gets an education on the human body, and the tragic errors made by doctors at every turn become very clear.

Jennifer's problems began with frequent abdominal pain and vomiting. While doctors debated about the cause of her suffering, she trusted her doctor who literally butchered her by removing her pancreas, instead of her gallbladder. Jennifer, who was somebody's mother, wife, daughter and sister, tried to live a normal life around many hospital stays and surgeries. Cancilla portrays her youngest daughter as heroic. Anyone reading this book will fall in love with Jennifer, but what pulls at my heart is Cancilla's loss--a mother's loss--that never goes away. She honors her daughter and family by writing this book.

People need to know what can happen to any of us once we put ourselves in someone else's hands. We must advocate for ourselves and our loved ones. We cannot assume that the doctor is always right. We have to keep in mind that the only body we have has to last us a lifetime. We are the ones who are affected by wrong decisions. Ultimately we must consider the medical professionals as part of our team. They are expert consultants and sometimes gifted surgeons. But even the most dedicated doctors are imperfect, not God-like. Even decent medical people may be cajoled into betraying their patients by the HMO who pays their salary.

Death by HMO will surprise and dismay you. But you will be inspired by the courage of Dorothy Cancilla and her family. This story has all the elements for a great movie.

> This is a very well written and documented story of a family trying to get professional medical care for their daughter (Jenny) at Kaiser Hospital...

> Jenny's family took it for granted that all Hospitals were "100% Dedicated at Maintaining a Very High Standard and keeping all of their patients in Excellent Health"...

> Without going into detail their daughter who was in her early 20's had a medical condition that seemed to be getting worse...

> This family was in for a Rude Awakening when they took Jenny to Kaiser Hospital to be diagnosed and treated...

> What they found out is that Kaiser Hospital did not want acknowledge or admit anything was wrong with "Jenny" and Refused to provide the Correct Diagnostic Tests that "would or would not" verify that she had medical condition that needed treated ASAP...

> Jenny's family spent the next "8" years trying to have their daughter Correctly Diagnosed and Treated at Kaiser Hospital with the end result being that the only thing "this hospital" had to offer them were Lies, Deception and Denial by repeatedly telling them that their daughter "did not" have any medical problems at all...

> What was found out later in Court by Professional Medical Experts and Doctors was that Jenny was provided with "100% Extreme Sub-Standard Medical Care" at "this HMO" starting with her very first visit...

> To put it simply: This young lady could have been Diagnosed - Treated and Cured by the Lowest 10% of the Graduates fresh out of Medical School because as it turned out Jenny had an Elementary Medical Condition that could have been Easily Diagnosed and Cured with Proper Professional Treatment...

> After Eight Years of "Extreme Sub-Standard Medical Care" at Kaiser Hospital and combined with Six Un-Needed Operations: Jenny Died a Horrible Death at the young age of "29 Years Old"...

***** THE FOLLOWING IS WHAT "YOU WILL LEARN FROM THIS EXCELLENT BOOK":

#1 The Red Flags that will tell You to change Doctors or Staff and get an Outside Second Opinion...

#2 To be able to Locate the "Many Great Doctors" that are available at Kaiser Hospital...

#3 To Understand the Fact that you have Zero-Support from some HMO's...

#4 I know that it is a "Known Fact" that there are some "Doctors and Staff" at "This Hospital" who Do Not care at all if you Die or Severely Damaged by their Major or Minor Medical Malpractice Mistakes and they will do nothing at all to save you - Rather than admit they made a Serious
Mistake and Save You - They will keep this a Complete Secret...

#5 Also Keep in Mind that there are "Many Great Doctors and Staff" at Kaiser who have Perfomed Miracles and saved patients who had almost no chance at all of Surviving and / or perfomed Incredibly Complicated Operations or Treatments with Fantastic Results...

#6 It is a "Known Fact" that some very "Unqualified Doctors or Staff" at Kaiser who will: Lie, Destroy and / or Lose Critical Medical Records, XRAYS, Radiology Reports, Dr's & Nurse's Notes, and any Info. that would Show or Prove they Commited a Major or Minor Malpractice Mistake that Killed or Severely Injured You...

#7 You may think so but you WILL NOT get any Support from "Some" Outside Medical "Watchdog" groups that you are told watches out for Sub-Standard Medical Care - This gives some people a Job to get Paid to Do Nothing and they are paid by you the tax-payer...

#8 The Exception to #7 is MEDICARE - "They do an EXCEPTIONAL JOB" at making sure you are OK... >>> BUT YOU HAVE TO LOOK OUT FOR THE RED FLAGS
YOURSELF BEFORE IT IS TO LATE...

#9 Before it is to late this HMO will have to Re-Evaluate their Game-Plan and put their Members & Patients in Priority Position #1... Income and Profits should be Priority Position #2... And #3 Should be to Weed-Out Any and All Unqualified Employees and Staff and hire Only Qualified and Professional Employee's who Desire to be the "Best of th Best" in the Kaiser Hospital System...

#10 If I had to make an Evaluation of the Kaiser Hospital HMO at this time after reading this excellent book and also being a past member of this this HMO - The Words that Clearly come to Mind Are:
***** THIS HAS TO BE THE MEDICAL SCAM of the CENTURY *****...

If Denzel Washington Touched Your Heart in The New Movie "John Q" Than read.....Jennifer's Story...DEATH BY HMO...A Real Life Tragedy.

This book is much much more than one which relays the horrible medical treatment that Jennifer received "While In The Hands of Kaiser" which resulted in her death.

This book is also about an organization that is more concerned about profit and image than the lives of any of it's patients. They will lie, they will trick, they will deny care in any manner possible until it is too late to save the patient if a patient is no longer profitable to them in the long run.

President Nixon when he was considering allowing the creation of the HMO Act was advised by Mr. John D. Ehrlichman who had received information on how Kaiser is run from the then CEO of Kaiser - Edgar Kaiser. Mr. Erlichman stated "...the less care they give them, the more money they make" and that just about sums up everything about this company.

Jennifer was tortured and abused by this corporation and like countless others she and her family found the inconceivable taking place right before their eyes. Medical personnel were not performing their prescribed duties in a professional nor competent manner. The medical staff with their conduct appeared to be a bunch of bumbling fools.

The Kaiser system is intentionally set up so that the patient and their family will choose to believe that a series of errors or incomptent events is taking place. These are really premeditated actions by a corporation that has put in place a system intentionlly fraught with systemic problems to delay treatment until the patient goes away one way or another.

For anyone that would question that statement how else can you explain how a doctor that goes to school for a decade to learn to be a physician and then passes a test to get a license could be so clueless over and over again.

It simply costs Kaiser less to settle an arbitration than it would to provide proper medical care in the long run.

Jennifer's family should be praised. They had the courage, the fortitude and the belief in themselves to put aside their pain and to focus their thoughts so that the public would have the opportunity to learn and avoid the never ending nightmare that they were all forced to endure by Kaiser and the for profit Permanente Medical Group.

This book is must reading for all people. If you must do business with Kaiser then at least be aware of what their business practices are so you can avoid the eternal suffering that Jennifers family must go through.

Jennifer's death was not in vain. She has lived on in this book to tell the story of what happened and to light the way for those that will listen.

This is a very disturbing indictment of modern health care. Dorothy Cancilla exhibits an extraordinary amount of restraint in recalling the preventable death of her daughter at the hands of inept doctors and an unforgiving system.

It's ironic that a organization whose charter is to maintain people's health can actually compromise their lives when the bottom line might be in jeopardy.

Kudos to Mrs. Cancilla for having the courage to face her demons by sharing them with others.

Part mystery and part life in an upscale college town in the southern California desert. More about relationships amongst the various inhabitants; not a lot of detecting. Fourth in an enjoyable series.

Hello, Hollywood, somebody film this excellent book. Everything is here for a great film.

There is only one word to describe this series - EXCELLENT!! Plot twists abound and when you think you have it solved you are right back to the beginning. I sure hope this series will continue. I'll be the 1st in line here at Amazon to buy it.

Claire Gray, who used to direct on Broadway now heads up the theater department of the Desert Arts College in Palm Springs, California. One night she is invited to the house of Glenn Yates, the college president along with the head of costuming, Kiki Jasper-Plunkett, to help diffuse an argument he is about to have with his ex-wife Felicia over a home in Santa Barbara that she received in the divorce settlement. Felicia can live in the home, but she can't sell it and she's not happy with this arrangement.

The argument doesn't go too badly, but the next day Felicia is found dead in her motel. Someone, it seems, helped her to a dose of poison and not surprisingly Yeats is the prime suspect. However, the list of people who didn't like or would benefit from Felicia's demise isn't a short one and because Yeats knows about Claire's ability in the crime solving department, he asks her to help him.

This is an excellent mystery with a brilliant supporting cast and lots of suspects. I like the amateur sleuth type of mysteries from Miss Marpole to Jessica Fletcher and I believe those two women have a worthy competitor in Claire Gray. Also I like the kind of mystery that winds up with all of the suspects in a room together, as this one does. And I particularly like it when I guessed wrong, but I like when I guessed right too. Either way, I believe you'll like DESERT SUMMER.

Those who are fans of Michael Craft's novels (and those who will make this their first read) will not be disappointed in this Claire Gray installment! As is his custom, the author makes us feel at home with familiar venues and characters. Who cannot admire Claire's keen sleuthful instincts? Who cannot cease to be entertained by the outrageous Kiki? Who cannot cheer the relationship between Grant and Kane?

Ah, but this is a mystery novel, after all! The list of potential who-done-it suspects is populated with typical Craft skill. My guess changed at least twice until the totally disarming surprise ending!

A most enjoyable and easy read! I look forward to Michael's next!

This book is very intelligently written and organized. The definitions are skillfully worded to be precise, succinct and immediately comprehensible. It's actually a joy to meander through the book following the cross references to build up an expanding view of a topic. (Note: I'm fairly new to accounting). Very highly recommended, especially for the price.

I needed something at work to look up certain words as I come across them. of course this book was perfect. I enjoy having it by my side, just to make sure I know what I'm dealing with and have an understanding of what I am doing. I def. recommend for all you accountants/auditors out there.

This book arrived in perfect condition and within a few days. I am very pleased with my purchase.

This dictionary has it all + simplified examples. Bottom line, if you think it you'll find it.

This little book puts almost everything at your fingertips: formulas, examples, abbreviations, acronyms, not just definitions. A must have for any accountant or anyone studying the subject. I showed this to my old accounting professor and he wished this was his.

I have read this book several times and it is the only book on this subject that you will need. I have read the others but this book has EVERYTHING you will need to know INCLUDING how to select a surgeon, and even how to get approval for your surgery. A MUST HAVE ITEM IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING WLS.

If you are considering WLS and need to compare operations and get a basic overview, then this is the book for you. It covers pre-surgery questions as well as post-op concerns. I would recommend giving this book to your surgeon or primary care physician to inform them of the surgery. I work as a library assistant and recommend this book to my patrons. It has been the only book I have found that gives good basic coverage of the subject.

I depended on Dr. Flancbaum before and after my weight loss surgery in the same way that I depended upon Dr. Spock when my children were small. His book became a dog earred companion on my nightstand--well read and well loved. I would recommend it to anyone considering this surgery!

If you're looking for an authoritative review of weight loss surgery, including how it could actually save your life, this is the book for you.

Morbid obesity is usually diagnosed when someone is 100 pounds overweight or 150% of one's ideal body weight. Dr. Flancbaum refers to this condition throughout the book as a chronic disease and offers a range of surgical solutions, along with the risks and possible complications. For anyone contemplating this route to losing weight, realize that the book leans toward the more invasive Roux-en-y (RNY) gastric bypass surgery. In my opinion, it reflects the 2003 copyright date as well as the experience base of most surgeons, who tend to favor what they know best.

However, RNY surgery is documented as more effective, usually resulting in more weight loss than the less invasive gastric banding (GB) surgery. This is due primarily to the dumping syndrome that causes patients to vomit high fat or sugary foods and the malabsorptive nature of the RNY procedure, which reroutes the small intestine to the new stomach pouch and prevents the normal absorption of nutrients. The book terms this surgery as "more radical," since it involves opening the body cavity and re-plumbing the patient's innards.

Compare this to GB surgery, which is generally performed laproscopically with thin instruments and a tiny tv camera to guide the surgeon through four or five small incisions in the abdomen. The plastic band is inserted around the upper part of the stomach, forming a small pouch that helps the patient feel full on much less food. The band permits a trickle of food through the small opening, which is adjustable to expand or contract for more or less food to pass through according to the patient's weight-loss progress. The book cites some negative issues that occurred early on with this procedure, and tends to write it off. But since the book's publication, GB surgery is gaining popularity primarily because it is adjustable, is reversible (rarely done), is far less invasive, does not cause the dumping syndrome, does not affect the absorption of nutrients and has many other advantages.

Regarding food choices and diet recommendations -- Dr. A. Hawasli, one of the most experienced laproscopic GB surgeons in the U.S. -- makes one diet book a mandatory requirement for his patients. Written by registered dietitian Theresa Malysz, The Duct Tape Diet includes a comprehensive listing of 6200 foods from the USDA database of branded items along with their content of saturated fat, protein, carbohydrates and calories. The book also contains a simple, easy to understand regimen for GB patients to follow so their food selections don't interfere with the intent of the surgery. The title originates from her husband's use of duct tape to wrap up those "diet villains" that often cause people to fall off the wagon -- an amusing technique from a book that employs humor to help those afflicted with curse of dangerous excess weight.

Current estimates of 10 million morbidly obese adults in the U.S. (BMI of 40 or more) constitute about 5% of the population and could reach as high as 23 million if the BMI range extends to 35 or more. Although other books on the subject reflect a lower estimate, the problem is all too common for any western society. The Doctor's Guide to Weight Loss Surgery is one of the best guides to help you make this decision, which is not a magic solution to the problem, but is effective for anyone who can't do it any other way.

I am the father of a highly overweight adolescent girl, whose furure may include weight loss surgery (WLS). This book explained the many issues involved not only about the surgery itself, but, importantly, about many basic concepts about obesity (including very useful definitions and formulas about what constitutes obesity). The book also clearly discussed the critically important subject of the co-morbid conditions (diabetes II, high blood pressure, e.g.)that can be caused by obesity. The danger of obesity, as mainifested by the presence of these co-morbid conditions, was dramatically described. These issues, as well as the more technical description of the various types of WLS surgeries, was set forth in a manner that was easily understood by this lay person. I felt as if I was involved with a personal consultation with the physician/author, where the surgery was described, and the potential risks and side effects, and benefits, were being explained to me in a very understandable way. The book also contains an ending chapter of Frequently Asked Questions which provided an excellent review of the entire book's contents, and could serve as a condensed version of the book should a reader just wish to address a certain issue, and have the answers presented quickly and directly. The book greatly advanced my understanding of the meaning and problems of obesity, and placed me (and ultimately my daughter)in a substantially more enlightened and informed position to make a potential decision about whether or not my daughter should undergo this surgery.

Rather small and outdated for the price. The majority of the information in the book is nothing that you wouldn't find yourself just by searching on the Internet- for free. Sort of a disappointment really. I was so looking forward to receiving this book and then changing our dogs' diets but the diet plan in here is extremely vague. Look elsewhere for info if your dog has Cushings or SARDS.

I bought the book for my dad whose favorite dog was recently diagnosed with diabetes. It didn't sound like his Vet had given him much information beyond the most basic information (give the dog a shot at this time every day). My dad says the book answers many of his questions and provides him with the information he needs to understand the condition and properly care for his dog.

I purchased this book because my dog was diagnosed with Cushings Disease. It had some helpful information on the disease. I found some really good information on diet even if your dog is healthy. Diet really does make a huge difference even in healthy dogs. Since following some of the suggestions both of my dogs seem much healthier and shedding has decreased tremendously.

This is the 2nd copy of this book I've purchased. I can't keep it in my library because it is always out on loan to someone. It provides such good information to help people understand these diseases and how to handle them. This copy is going in our "Rescue" library so that it is available to anyone who adopts from us. (Westie Rescue) A must for any dog owner.

This book has helped me a great deal with the diagnosis of my canine. I would suggest it to anyone facing these diseases.

If you enjoy seeing humor in the seriousness of faith, Virelle Kidder will become a welcomed new friend. But don't let the light touch of Donkeys Still Talk fool you, Kidder's humor is the vehicle for real depth and truth. Such depth can only be delivered by someone who has lived through the trials of life and has found the secret to lasting joy. I'm recommending Donkey's Still Talk to those attending my Direction: Discernment for the Decisions of Your Life retreats and day seminars as we learn how to hear from God in the midst of the noise and clamor of life lived in the trenches.

This was a terrific book. It helped me to look at the difficult situations (anything I didn't want) as a time of learning. Virelle suggests focusing on what really matters (Godly perspective) versus what I want (me, me, me).

She uses her own circumstances and experiences, some were very trying, to see what the Lord has in store for her and each of us. I found this at the public library at a time when I really needed a change in my attitude and perspective.
I highly recommend this book, especially if you are at place where you feel stuck.
--M. Law

Because God is so personal, he speaks to us through objects we understand. Who can't relate to a wild headstrong donkey? Virelle uses the donkey, a necessity for survival in Bible times, as a symbol for the challenges and irritations braying at our door. She teaches us how to identify our beasts of burden and how to tame them by "letting God handle the herd."

Filled with scriptural illustrations and warm personal stories, Virelle Kidder's book is a must have for your bookshelf. Read it once, but you'll keep coming back over again for encouragement and insight.

A "donkey" can be a difficult person or an unforeseen situation that comes into our lives, often without warning. Who among us hasn't had to deal with one or two of those? We may not always appreciate these distracting and unwelcomed intrusions, but according to author Virelle Kidder, we can learn from them. In fact, sometimes the very reason these "donkeys" are in our lives might be to teach us something. Virelle Kidder is a wonderful writer, and her newest book DONKEYS STILL TALK is both enjoyable and uplifting. I would recommend it to anyone dealing with a difficult situation in his or her life.

I loved Virelle Kidder's soft, friendly manner of writing to encourage me to change how I view the tough interruptions of my life. I was particularly helped with her chapter about unburdening the beast--which helped me realistically view how I tend to blame others, hold onto bitterness, take myself too seriously and lean toward other unattractive characteristics such as anger and complaint. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

I curiously picked it up in the library last night and finished in a few hours. It is really well researched and smoothly written. I really enjoyed all the quotes it is filled with and the pictures are well chosen.

Marjorie Spiegel has captured the essence of violence - domination and control. She presents an accurate portrayal and case that violence towards non-human animals holds the key and ultimate solution to the creation of a violencefree society. Her ideas and images run deep and should be required reading in our schools and homes. This brief, but to the point manuscript speaks volumes to the pain and suffering we have created as a result of so called human progress.

This book compares human and animal slavery in a way you can never ever forget. The words and pictures are unforgettable. You will feel the feelings of those humans and those animals who are used (and being used now) as slaves.

Read this book, and change your life! (it really helps) Many thanks to Amazon.com for recommending this book to me...

This is an unforgettable and powerful book, by an author who has captured the essence of violence; and shows how violence towards non-human animals holds the key and ultimate solution to the creation of a violence-free society. Alice Walker, who writes the Foreward says that once this book is read, it will take a lifetime to forget. Others say it should be required reading in our schools and homes. It provocatively reveals the similarities between the violence humans have wrought against other humans, and our treament of non-human animals. It is brief (128 pages) but is a chilling testament, well illustrated with photos and sketches, and altough a small book it speaks volumes to the pain and suffering we have created as a result of so-called human progress.
Majorie Spiegal is a documentary photographer and author of several books. Her fields of study include biology, philosophy, environmental studies, history, nutrition and medicine. In 1989, she founded IDEA (Institute for Development of Earth Awareness), a non-profit educational organisation whose mission synthesizes three areas of concern: environmental, human and animal issues.
In this startling book, Spiegal gives a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves, and points out the 'dreaded comparison' between the pain felt by abused human beings and the pain felt by abused non-human beings, recognising it as the same pain. Why is it unacceptable to treat humans 'like animals', but it is considered a proper manner in which to treat non-human animals? For some, this book my be too challenging to their most closly-held beliefs, but it is truly a consciousness-raising exercise. Most people would say they are against slavery, yet animal slavery is alive and well even in the most 'civilized' society. The author draws parallels, and the illustrations stunnily juxtapose those of captured black slaves and those of captured non-human animals, sometimes wearing the same sort of restraining equipment. There are illustrations of branding to calves and of slaves, the muzzling of dogs and of slaves, the auctioning of slaves and of non-human animals, and many other examples. Families were torn apart, just as calves are ripped from their mothers without even the chance of a lick. There is undisputed evidence of non-human animals sufering the intolerable pain of mourning. In today's factory farmong, chicks never see a hen, cows and sows are kept in stalls, with their young taken from them almost immediately after birth.
The author covers many related subjects, including the language of oppression, transportation, experimentation, food production, hunting, profits and power. A term like 'breaking a horse'- which really does man breaking the spirit of the horse, to tame just as 'uppity' slaves were tamed. Photos of sheep and cattle being transported, are shown with sketches of slave ships; 15 million slaves survived some thirty or forty million transported to the West, and there is a ghastly mortality rate today for cattle and sheep transported from Australia to the East. Hunting continues around the world, with th UK House of Lords in March this year voting to continue hunting with hounds. In the US the object of desire for many hunters is to get a buck's head complete with antlers, stuffed and hung over the fireplace. Many travellers today search for items such as a gorilla's hand for a paper-weight, exotic skins and other tropies, and so many other creatures including whales being hunted. As segregation of blacks was a means for committee to conceal a disturbing reality from the wider society, so today's secrecy protects a profitable but disgusting cruelty to non-human beings. What goes on in laboratories, in abbatoirs, in factory farm? Nowadays in place of cows, sheep, pigs and chickens living peaceably on farms, we see long sheds. Those in power used to say that if slavery were ended, the economics of society would collapse, but it didn't. Today's society that relies very heavily on the exploitation of animals, says the same sort of thing. But the author doesn't give up hope; she urges on her readers to the realization that the non-human we enslave and treat as things, are alive, and hopes that this realization will change our actions. This book is one that you will keep referring to, and it does have a comphrehensive index. Jeffrey Masson, author of When Elephants Weep, said The Dreaded Comparison is a wonderful book, and he urged everyone to read it. So do I.

People long for a more in-depth study on this subject...unfortunately, unless you write it yourself...it's not getting published. The animal rights movement is severely fractioned (non-white and white, feminist and non-feminist, old school (the Singer generation and new school), and the former followers of PeTA dogma. Per every ZOGBY survey, the majority of Vegans are of African origin. This book GIVES the facts...use your brain and come to your own conclusions.

I think this book is terrific, however, I have ME AND Fibromyalgia. (chronic fatigue with chronic pain everywhere). Does anyone know of a great book on this subject?

Thank you, Cyn

I suffer from CFS and I find this book has helped me quite a lot. It's clearly and well written, gatherig all the main facts about this complex illness.

I was diagnosed with post-viral CFS in 1988. This book is an excellent description of living with CFS except for one thing: 3/4 of marriages affected by chronic illness break up, which means that most of us don't have the live-in support system she had.

Some disbelieving doctors like to attribute CFS to "secondary gain" or enablers who allow the patient to "enjoy the sick role". Unfortunately, for many CFS patients, there's no enabler and the only thing you gain is the stress of trying to make ends meet with no income.

Wall tells of having someone run her bath, gently wash her, dress her, and help her back to bed. That's a luxury most of us don't enjoy. If I'm not well enough to cook, I don't get dinner; if I cannot safely get in and out of the tub by myself, I don't bathe (on a cold winter day when I needed a bath to warm up, I got stuck in the tub for over an hour because I lacked the strength to boost myself up and out, and there was no one to call for help).

Wall's live-in support structure allowed her to do what those of us who live alone can't: use all her energy to write a book to explain to the rest of the world what it's like to be trapped in a body and brain that don't function.

I recommend this not only to patients, but to their friends and family as one of the best patient-written books I've read.

I found this to be an excellent book on CFIDS. I too suffer from it and feel sometimes I am the only one in my corner of the world that has it. It is helpful to read about someone else who has the same symptoms so I realize I am not " losing it" and it is real. The author also provides comphrensive data relating to medical, historical, and social aspects of this troubling illness. I would highly suggest this to people who have CFIDS and those who want to learn more about it. It is a a very readable book that is packed with information and is not boring or dry.

I have suffered from CFS since the late 70's although I was able to "push" through the majority of those years. I am now back in an accute phase and found Dorothy Wall's book fascinating , beautifully written and helpful. It helped make my illness real for me since I have never "looked" ill and have learned to doubt that what I have is real. I found it a story of the truth, which was most refreshing and inspiring.

When it comes to slander Austria almost to the point of ridiculousness, Thomas Bernhard has no peer. In this book he gives vent to his well-known hatred for the country through the character of Franz-Josef Murau, a middle-aged Austrian writer self-exiled in Rome who bears resemblance to many Bernhard's characters and ultimately to the author himself. By means of Bernhard's visceral, vertiginous prose, with touches of off-color humor and ironic resignation, Murau ruthlessly inquires into his own soul as he tries to unravel his painfully disenchanted past and come to terms with his dreary origins. A good novel by an interesting writer.

This was his latest novel to appear in English. It is masterfully constructed,elegantly disturbing and satisfyingly challenging.

Extinction is undoubtly one of the most powerfull litrature creation in the last 20 years. Bernhard takes his readers to a journy in his main charcter's (we don't know his name) obssesive mind or better say a journy in our own mind. Bernhard forces us to think, to contemplate our life and values, and the sharp mirror that he puts infront of us makes it a very hard task to do. This precious creation has a relevant political insight. When you see the current political scene in Bernhard's homeland, Austria, you can just admire his brave look on his country's malaises a country which refuses to stand and face it's Nazi past. Jurg Heider success in the last National election colors Bernhard work in a very realistic color.

There is great joy to be had from this wonderful book. Its first joy is its prose - sparkling in its clarity, musical, effortless - which carries one along on a journey through the thoughts and feelings of Viennese 48 year old Franz-Joseph Murau. Intellectual resident of Rome, alienated by choice from his Austrian family, friend to Archbishop Spadolini(who is also his mother's lover!), he receives a telegram that his father, mother and brother have died in a car accident making him at one stroke inheritor of the family's wealthy estate. He is now MASTER OF WOLFSEGG. The first half of the novel THE TELEGRAM concerns his recollections of childhood and relationships and events that shaped his life. Example: " At first we always tell ourselves that our parents naturally love us, but suddenly we realise that, equally naturally, they hate us for some reason - that is to say, we appear to them as I appeared to mine, as a child that didn't conform with their notion of what a child should be, a child that had gone wrong. They had not reckoned with my eyes which probably saw everything I was not meant to see when I opened them. First, I looked in DISBELIEF, as they say, when I stared at them, and finally, one day I SAW THROUGH THEM, and they never forgave me, could NOT forgive me.(p 76)" The second half of the novel THE WILL concerns his attendance at the estate where he oversees the funeral and greets and reflects upon the range of visitors paying their respects.

Example: "In ROME I often lay on my bed, unable to stop thinking of how our nation was guilty of thousands, tens of thousands, of such heinous crimes, yet remained silent about them. The fact that it keeps quiet about these thousands and tens of thousands of crimes is the greatest crime of all, I told my sisters. It's this silence that's so sinister, I said. It's that nation's silence that's so terrible, even more terrible than the crimes themselves.(p 231)" This bare outline of the two parts cannot prepare you, dear reader, for the experiences of this novel. It is as if one becomes privy as another Viennese Mr Freud did, to the real secrets of the heart of an individual, an individual nevertheless, shaped by the world in which he was born but determined to realise some truths about that world. WE are privy then to the feelings, equivocations, doubts, fears, guilt and searching. It is a revalatory experience, scaldingly honest, which provides one man's analysis of 20th Century Austrian culture, including National Socialism, the class system, religion, architecture, cuisine et al. Sometimes mocking, sometimes self excoriating, sometimes savagely funny, we travel with Mr Murau through his thoughts and feelings at this turning point in his history. In the end, Mr Murau makes a stunning act of redemption which concludes his statement and rounds off this wonderful work of literature on a joyous note. Please accompany, or perhaps follow,this novel with a large dose of HAYDN. Most modern novels pale into the ordinary compared to this work.

"Extinction" is the story of Franz-Josef Murau, a wealthy Austrian gentleman living in Rome as a private tutor in German literature. His tastes run to the esoteric and philosophical, and his relationship with his student, Gambetti, is intellectually mutual. He has just returned to Rome from the wedding of his younger sister, Caecilia, to an "obese wine cork manufacturer," held at the family estate in Austria, called Wolfsegg. At the wedding were his parents, older brother Johannes, and his other younger sister, Amelia.

He receives a telegram in Rome: "Parents and Johannes killed in accident." For the first half of this 320-page book (each half being one unbroken paragraph!), he describes his life, and his narration becomes a deep reflection on his childhood and life to date. He delivers a marvelous psychological portrait of himself, as well as the family members who have just died, and his long-dead Uncle Georg, whom he remembers with great fondness. He hates his family deeply, and the feeling is mutual. He is a philosopher, they are down to earth. He is an aesthete, but they are simple folks. He is a scholar, but they are hunters and farmers, despite their fantastic wealth and their prosperous family estate. Only Uncle George understood him, artistic, free-spirited, and educated. Franz-Josef reflects passionately on his current situation, and tells us many stories of himself and his family.

For the second half of the book, he describes the funeral at Wolfsegg. Lacking parents and older siblings, he is now the master of the estate. His sisters look to him for leadership. He must now decide what to do with the estate. Will he move back to Wolfsegg in Austria, a land he loves, but an estate he hates? Will he pass it to his sisters and remain in Rome, a city he cherishes more than any other? Bernhard will stun the reader with the beauty of the resolution, but will do it in his own literary fashion.

During the story, we learn Franz-Josef disdains Catholicism and National Socialism (i.e., Nazism) in equal parts. His mother had been having an affair with a Catholic Archbishop in Rome, a relationship which was supposedly secret, but which all her children seem to know of. The Archbishop is a close family friend, and will certainly visit the estate for the funeral. His father had many Nazi friends, unbelievably still openly Nazi all these years after the war. He tells us of the fun times he enjoyed playing at his estate's Children's Villa, and how disappointed he was when it was shuttered. He vows to open and restore it when he is master. He tells us of the five libraries---five!---scattered about the estate, similarly shuttered up, collecting dust despite a half-dozen generations' worth of valuable books stored within. He tells us childhood stories of his parents, his brother, and his sister, all disdainful, and heaps contempt upon his brother-in-law, whose name he cannot even bring himself to utter, in generous proportions. At one point, he bathes in his father's bath, and wears some of his clothes. Is this a metaphor for his feelings? We learn that he blames his father only for being such a simple man, but hates his mother passionately, for dragging his father into the mud.

We struggle with the idea that this is an unreliable narrator, and we are only hearing one side of a two-sided story, but unlike Italo Svevo's masterpiece, "Confessions of Zeno", it is clear that despite this narrator's one-sided story, there is no reason to disbelieve him. He is as critical of himself as of others, and he demonstrates the pettiness and crudeness of his family in many different ways. We trust him, not only because he is self-critical, but because despite his self-confidence, he is not a fool. We also learn some untoward truths about his family, and a few hidden secrets, which cannot be dismissed, even from the most unreliable narrator. His angst comes from a simple sentiment, expressed early on: "I can't abolish my family just because I want to." He struggles to resolve the question of extinction: Must he extinguish himself to satisfy his family? Must his family be extinguished to satisfy himself?

Finally, after a rollicking narration of heartfelt emotions and deeply-help philosophies, Bernhard's narrator demonstrates how he chooses to reconcile his thoughts and feelings, his inheritance and his sisters, his legacy and his future, and all the elements demonstrated through the length of the novel braid together like a jewel. Bernhard's prose is difficult for those unfamiliar with experimental or cutting-edge literature, but actually not very difficult once one tries. Curious readers will greatly enjoy engaging their mind with this book. If they wish to sample a smaller work before digging into this one, Bernhard's "Yes" is another masterpiece of style and depth. Both are rewarding, brilliant works from a literary master.