K Books

Reviewed by Tabytha Joy (age 15) for Reader Views (12/07)

"High Spirits" is about two young girls who end up getting themselves into a rapping business. It all started when Lizzie went to stay with her two young aunts, Maggie and Kate, along with their mum and dad. Neither Maggie nor Kate liked Lizzie. But still, they had no choice but to share their bed with her. One night, Kate and Maggie decided to play a prank on Lizzie in hopes that she would return home. So, one of the girls started making rapping noises which really scared Lizzie enough to wake the adults up. The mum decided to try to talk to whatever was causing these noises. She was getting responses from what she thought were spirits. This caused the whole family to leave their house, except for the father as he did not believe.

After a while, people start believing that their loved ones are communicating with them through Kate and Maggie. At the beginning, the girls were doing it as fun. That was until their sister Leah figured out that it was Kate and Maggie making the noises. So, Leah convinces her mum to split the girls up for a while. Kate was to return with Lizzie and Leah. Well, Leah decides to make a fortune out of the rapping. She started holding rapping sessions and charging one dollar per person to sit through it. This goes on for some time.

When Maggie grows older, she meets the man of her dreams, Elisha Kent Kane. Elisha told Maggie that in order for him to marry her, she had to give up the rapping business and go to school to become someone of a higher level. Will Maggie turn her back on her family's income? Or will she turn away from the man she had always hoped for?

In my opinion, I think "High Spirits" was a well-written book. The flow was good in it. The details were good as well. I liked how the author explained how the girls were making objects move from one spot to another. There were also a few things the author failed to mention. At the end of the book, the author did not tell what happened to Lizzie or the people that Kate and Maggie so dearly loved and looked up to. This book would be best for readers who are twelve-years of age and older.

This debut historical fiction novel has been my surprise favorite work of fiction of 2007. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about this book at first, based on the tagline "A Tale of Ghostly Rapping and Romance," since romantic novels aren't my thing. I'm glad I didn't let it stop me!

Salerni's fictionalized tale of the Fox sisters is a fun, well-paced, and thoroughly entertaining read that really hooks the reader into joining the sisters' wild ride through the tangled web created by their youthfully innocent deceptions.

Highly recommended!

Some movies bring tears to my eyes; books seldom do.

High Spirits starts with the haunting of Hydesville in 1848. It follows the real life adventures of two sisters, Maggie and Kate Fox. Maggie starts the story by telling us that she began the `deception' when she was too young to know right from wrong. Kate, the younger of the two, regrets her sister's use of that word. To Kate, the dead are real, and the spirits talk to her.

I have well over a hundred books sitting on bookshelves in my study. Some of them I've already started. Since I lost interest in most of them, the bookmarks are still waiting between early pages for me to return. Many of the books I buy end up neglected orphans in need of foster parents.

Books on the best seller lists seldom satisfy me, because they are shallow or seem like a story I've already read. It's almost as if most of them were chosen by those politically correct people we know are out there monitoring what we say and think and learn--people very much like a `few' of the characters in High Spirits.

However, when I find a novel worth reading, it's like walking into an undiscovered country. High Spirits was one of those.

High Spirits is about the lives of the Fox family and two sisters that are devoted to each other. Kate and Maggie are credited with starting the spiritualist movement as a prank. When I first picked up High Spirits, I thought I was going to be reading about ghosts and romance.

To my surprise and satisfaction, I soon discovered that High Spirits offers much more. High Spirits turned out to be a story told on many levels. At times I found myself chuckling. At other times I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat wondering if one of the characters I liked was about to suffer a horrible fate.

High Spirits is also about a dysfunctional but loving and loyal family surviving in a cruel world. On a more personal note, they are like us. It is easy to identify with them. When danger looms from skeptics that threaten Maggie's life, her older sister Leah Fox rescues her in a daring and risky escape that leaves Maggie in heart-pounding terror. Just thinking about myself in the same situation under the same circumstances had me breaking out in a cold sweat, and I'm a combat veteran that served in Vietnam. Maggie was a young girl.

The romance in High Spirits arrives later in the story. Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the most widely celebrated American adventurer of the day, eventually walks on stage and fall "madly" in love with Maggie. What turns out to be a complex relationship stands equal to Romeo and Juliet; Tristan & Isolde, and Tony and Maria of West Side Story. That's as far as I'll go. My lips are now zipped shut. Hollywood, pay attention. Stories like this are rare, and Maggie and Elisha were real people.

In High Spirits, the harsh lines that separate the privileged and powerful from the working class show that dysfunctional people come from all levels of society. However, those at the top have the power to do more damage. What they are capable of doing to hurt others is more like a tidal wave washing over distant shores and leaving nothing but destruction and misery in its wake. When Elisha's mother interferes with his love for Maggie, horrible consequences are set in motion.

Although High Spirits reveals that most of us are human at heart, a few inhuman monsters populate our world and wreck havoc wherever they can for selfish, egotistical reasons.

If you are looking for adventure, romance, heartbreak, a bit of history, and a story that will touch you, I recommend this novel. Reading High Spirits will be a journey of discovery that might squeeze out a tear or two like it did for me.

There is little I can say about Dianne Salerni's High Spirits that has not already been adequately stated by other reviewers on this page. Although this is Ms. Salerni's first novel, this is not her first book. She has previously published three short teaching manuals of an academic nature, and her experience as a schoolteacher and writer shines from the text of High Spirits. As the well-known curmudgeon of the iUniverse, I can unabashedly say that POD books would not suffer a bad reputation if they all read as fluidly and seamlessly as does High Spirits. The typos are few and the editing is tight. You will feel as if you know The Fox Sisters personally as you turn the final page.

Americans love the paranormal- can't get enough of it. When we read that Nancy Reagan regularly consulted a psychic, we chuckled and turned to read our horoscopes. There are still thousands of people who believe that Elvis has not left the building, and grocery store check-out stands still carry Jeane Dixon's and Nostrodamus' annual predictions, although being dead, they both must now seek a medium to deliver the message.

A medium like the Fox sisters, perhaps. As incredible as it is to believe, these two young up-state New York sisters started the whole spiritualism movement in the gullible era of mid-nineteenth century America, first as a prank and then quickly as a national phenomenon that swept them up in a flood of believers and skeptics alike.

The story of Maggie and Kate Fox has been told before, but in 'High Spirits', author Dianne K. Salerni gives voice to the sisters themselves, masterfully unspooling a story that begins in innocence and ends in tragedy. Salerni shows us fourteen-year-old Maggie, playful and flirtatious, whose primary concern in the beginning is not getting caught, and her younger sister Kate, the delicate, high-strung and willful ringleader. Each chapter is written by one of the sisters, usually Maggie, with occassional razor-like observations from Kate.

This is Maggie's book, but the initial insights come from Kate. Kate has no illusions about her fraud, but believes the comfort it gives others raises it to the level of a calling.This deception eventually burns a hole in her soul, which she tries to heal with alcohol.

Maggie on the other hand is a naive pleaser who delights in the spotlight and convinces herself that she is helping the family when her world-weary older sister starts charging money for the ghost-rapping sessions. Salerni clearly has a soft spot for the innocent and not-too-bright Maggie, continually balancing her between redemption and dispair, love and abandonment. Perhaps it is only natural, as well as historically factual, that Maggie's true love should turn out to be as innocently destructive as she is, and as doomed.

Salerni's command of language is first-rate and her curiosity uncovers not only every moving-table, joint-popping, candle-snuffing trick in the paranormal trade, but sets us off on enough side adventures to fill six more books. She puts us in a perilous escape on a buckboard used by the underground railroad, in a poison-vapered caldera of a volcano in the jungle, and sinking with a sled dog in Artic waters. She also has a keen ear for the words and phrases of the time. Did you know that the folks who live in igloos were referred to in mid-nineteenth century America by their French appelation 'esquimoux'? We've all used the word 'makeshift', but how many of us are as brave as Salerni to used it in the past tense?

My only complaint is with the sudden, and nasty, spin into darkness the book takes at the end. I'm sure it is historically correct, but it felt gratuitous. Perhaps a more perceptive reader would have seen the Afterward coming; I didn't.

"High Spirits' is a great read that had me turning pages long after I should have gone to bed. I can hardly wait for Salerni's next book. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go consult my ouija board.

Jack Shakely
Chairman
Center for Philanthropy and Public Policy
University of Southern California

As a homeschool parent and teacher this book has been a wonderful resource. My nine year old son, Jack, and I love using it. I tell all my homeschooling friends about it as well as friends whose children struggle with math in school. When I asked Jack about a review, he said, "You must tell everyone that I love this hands on approach!" I also tutor a young lady who admitted that she hated math, but I convinced her to have a go by using Math in Motion and she now loves to fold, feels she can can attempt a math problem without falling apart and is open to a hands on approach to learning about place value,which we have just started. Thank you, Ms Pearl

The content of this book was rich with so many ideas.
It can be used as a springbooard for numerous
hands-on activities--great for kids of all ages, full of
practical and fun concrete methods to demonstrate
abstract concepts especially for specail education
students. The multicultural expericence integrates
a variety of prosocial behaviors that supports
how other cultures contribute to our society.

I purchased Math in Motion for my first semester of student teaching. One of the students in the Learning Support Class has Asperger's Syndrome. He was especially agitated and noncooperative and the only thing he responded to was when I started to do origmai. He was fascinated with the Jumping Frog and the movements and the patterns. Now I use it as a reward. It helps him to calm down and focus on the activities. I let him choose something else from the book and next we are going to fold the Whale. It has become the highlight of our day!

Although I am neither a teacher nor a grade schooler, I found exceeding pleasure, while reading "Math in Motion," in brushing up on aspects of math that I had long ago forgotten. But beyond the math, I thoroughly enjoyed making the origamis depicted in the book. While using this book to create each of the origamis, I found the instructions easy to both read and follow. (Of course, the spiral binding is yet another much-appreciated feature.) I had never been successful in Japanese paper folding before in my 60+ years, even though I had attempted it several times, and so it was exciting for me to complete my very first origami!
Written primarily as a teacher's guide, I still highly recommend "Math in Motion" for anyone between the ages of 5 and 105! If you are looking for a way to spend a marvelous afternoon at home, I suggest purchasing, reading, and using "Math in Motion." The author, Barbara Pearl, is a jewel! Thank you, Barbara, for this wonderful gift - a book to treasure, to use, and to share with friends and family alike.

Several years ago I never would have bought a book or attended a workshop like Math in Motion because I did not think it was relevant. But from the moment we started, Ms. Pearl made us all feel so comfortable-an ideal environment for learning, especially a subject like mathematics, which may be stressful. I wanted to create the same atmosphere and remove the fear element from learning mathematics. The workshop experience made us feel like we were a team. I felt like I could do anything. And it gave me the motivation to try more. Ms. Pearl's book outlines lesson plans that support NCTM Standards and has teaching scripts and tips for developing a warm and inviting hands-on learning environment that is educational and fun. The multidisciplinary approach connects math to other subjects including reading, science, and social studies. The step-by-step directions are clear and easy to follow. Multicultural activities teach an appreciation of other cultures from exploring tangrams to writing Haiku. The three most exciting words from my students were, "I did it!" I think this is also great for building kids' self-esteem. The book encourages you to have students write down on their paper manipulatives math vocabulary that helps them to remember it--younger kids can trace the place with their fingers as they say it. Now, I know that math is not BAD. When adults feel good about what they are teaching, children will feel better too. I know this book will help you create a room where children (and adults too) will love to come to learn and grow.

I love this whole series of books. As an individual who has always been interested in the anthropological and archeological study of the Native American people, I find the whole series of books to be well written with just enough historical evidence to form characters and be intriguing and interesting but without being so crammed full of information the story is lost. Another job well done.

I have read all of the current books in this series and by far this ranks as my all time favorite. There are also follow-ups that accompany this book, the Anasazi Mystery Series that greater explains in detail about events that actually led up to this book. If I could go back, I would have read those in succession first and then this book. All in all, this book has all of the great elements that I love to read about in a book. It has romance, betrayal, mystery, and complexities that are much like the human experience that occur sometimes in life. It is about the intense love shared by two people and what they sacrificed to finally be together. The consequences for their actions greatly influenced their entire community.

Engaging novel set among the Anasazi of the 1200's. Probably as close to an actual living breathing recreation of that culture as anyone will ever write. These authors do not begin with a modern Christian perspective and proceed from there, they take the good and bad, humorous and shocking of a past nation and tell it like it was, "warts and all.'

at first it was hard for me to get in this story but after a 4th to half of the book it got better and I could not put it down. this book goes good with the new book MOON and the Anazazi triogy books.

I really enjoy this series in my oppion it is best to read the series starting with Book 1 so that you know what is being talked about. If you are a Indian or love to read about Indians and their history then this is a Great Series of Books to read. It gives great in sight to the beliefs of the Indian Nations and their ways of life.

It's sad that this awesome trilogy must come to an end, but I'm happy to say that I enjoyed every minute of it, from the moment those boys and that girl met up with each other and a horrible secret to the end of this installment when Never Land finally becomes familiar.

This story completes the bunch when Peter and the crew are kidnapped to a horrible kingdom where kids are slaved and the darkness of the universe has a horrible plan for the earth.

This is just as exciting as the previous two books, though I think the fantasy went a little annoyingly Star Trek at a point. Still, it was fun and witty and answered a lot of questions. Finally.

great story it is the continuing story of Peter and his friends against the evil shadows snatchers

This outstanding novel is both thrilling and humorous. The ever so sly Peter gets caught by his two enimies...hook and ombra. They've plotted to get rid of Peter and the rest of the star catchers for good, and they're determined to suceed. By the time you've finished the third and last book of the "Peter and the Starcatchers" series, the characters are real to you, alive, and it will be hard to say good bye. As the previous books of the series were, this story is equally amazing. Every chapter gives you a glimps of the other characters whereabouts, keeping you on your toes for the whole fantastic journey. Barry and Pearson end their series perfectly, but you don't want it to end. I had tears in my eyes reading the last page. This book is not a story that you will ever forget. I strongly feel that Peter and the Secerets of Rundoon should be read by every child 10-14 whom enjoys fantasy, adventure, and a little bit of romance. I hope that you'll enjoy this book as much as I did!

The first two in the series were entertaining reads--well-crafted and funny. Highly recommended for all ages! Wish I could read the third, though. But now that I have a Kindle, I guess I'll have to wait until it's available in that format. :(

By:Angie Murdock
Peter and The Secret of Rundoon
by:Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Peter and The Secret of Rundoon was so awesome, I loved it! Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry have created a new world of Peter Pan. They have twisted the whole story to an amazing adventure in never land. They have recreated Peter Pan, Captain Hook and the Lost Boys. They have written three action-packed books about Peter's adventures with "starstuff",the magical fallen stars that have given him his ability to fly and in effect made him immortal and a boy never to grow up.
If you haven't read the first two books in the trilogy I suggest you go and get them before you read this. When I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. It gave me an amazing movie in my head, and it is very well written. Peter and The Secret of Rundoon was a great read. It ended the best trilogy I have ever read. I would suggest this book to people who are looking for a bit of a challenge and a great adventure, it is a fantasy book. It is for readers in 2nd grade and up.

Stephen Kuusisto, the author of the memor "Planet of the Blind," is a poet. You can hear it in every word he writes.

His moving memoir focuses on being legally blind and on the challenges he faced every single day trying to pretend he was a normal, "seeing" person. Along the way, you watch him grow up from an isolated, awkward child to a sensitive and extremely determined individual, one who lived in constant fear of being labled not normal, yet whose refusal to get help made everyday living a challenge to his own survival. At the end, he finally gains independence and normalcy in the form of a guide dog. It is a moment that brought me to tears.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this well-written and inspiring memoir, which does read like a poem. It took me just a few hours to read finish it, it was so engrossing. It also opened my eyes to the world of the blind, a world I had never really considered before.

Thank you, Mr. Kuusisto, for sharing your story.

When I picked up this book, I was expecting an autobiography, a memoir of a blind person. I've always wondered how a blind person "sees" the world, so I was curious to read the book. What I got was something much more than a non-fictional account. The prose is absolutely striking, poetic, full of rich vivid metaphors. It inspired tears, and laughter, and rage, and awe in me at different points in the book.

This book is more than a non-fictional autobiography. It's a work of high literature. You will be enriched after having read it.

I was reccommended to read Planet of The Blind due to my interest in writing stories about people who had disabilities and about by own disablility for I'm visually impaired myself and I have an interest in writing. So I read Steven Kuusisto's book Planet of the Blind and found it very facinating and inspiring! I highly reccomend it! I'd love to know what is he doing now and is he still writing and speaking of the book?

I read Stephen's book late into the night and then got up and read more in the morning. The book not only brought me new understanding of the world of blindness, it spoke intimately of the journey of self-acceptance. Stephen's story is threaded through with grace, and his language is musical. A deeply spiritual memoir; you will finish it changed.

As a legally blind person, who had totally blind parents, this vividly written book went a long way in helping me come to terms with my own situation. Like Stephen, for years I was in denial about my own limited vision and tried, successfully for a time, to "pass" as fully sighted. This is no longer possible and I have to face my own limitations head on, as Stephen finally does.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like to understand what living on the "Planet of the Blind" is really like, and for anyone who enjoys beautiful writing.

Midshipman Alan Lewrie continues to reveal his inherent talents as a fighting officer in the British navy. Ashore with his beloved artillery at the Battle of Yorktown, he meets the Chiswick family of American Loyalists, forming relationships that will develop throughout the series.

The 2002 McBooks Press version (paperbook) that I bought at Borders has pages 145 through 192 printed twice, and then pages 198 to 241 are missing altogether! I can't imagine how such a mistake could get by. One minute they are setting up in the trenches, the next they are sailing wearily out of the the bay. So...I have no idea what happened and I'm taking it back tomorrow for a refund.

So check it out before you buy it.

Otherwise, great book.

As a strong fan of Dewey Lamdins' books, I've now read them all, The French Admiral was the best. I felt a much greater sense of history and a deeper understanding of the conflict as it impacted the lives of Loyalists, Revolutionaries, and their families. The bloody fighting seemed more in context than the conflicts described in the other books of this series.

I recommend this book very highly.

This is the second installment in what is developing into quite an enjoyable naval series. In _The King's_ Coat, Alan Lewrie, an illegitimate sixteen-year-old London rakehell, was essentially forced into going to sea in 1779 as a midshipman after being framed by his moneygrubbing father and his two half-siblings. He had a very rocky start in his new career but was beginning to learn his trade and had made a few friends, as well as more than a few enemies. He had also managed to come to the notice of at least two men of note, and well-placed interest was always paramount in advancing one's naval future. And there was the gorgeous young Lucy Beauman in Antiqua to whom he began paying court. Now it's two years since he left England and the rebellion in America is drawing to a close, buoyed by incompetence on the part of the British army and navy. And in the process, Alan finds himself trapped like a rat with Cornwallis at Yorktown. He escapes the disaster, partly through chance, partly through the aid of some Loyalist militia, and partly through his own intelligence and unexpected competence. By the end of the book, his future has improved in several important ways, both professionally and personally, and he has become a harder sort of person than he was at the beginning. And there's a new love interest, whether he wants to think so or not. Lambdin offers a welcome antidote to the rather proper style of Hornblower and even Audrey -- his sailors swear fulsomely, his protagonists can be just as narrowminded as anyone else in their society -- but he certainly knows his naval lore. And just when you're settling in to an adventurous episode, something horrible happens to remind you of just how bloody a true civil war the glorious American Revolution really was.

The French Admiral in paper has been awaited by Alan Lewrie fans since 1990. It is the crucial #2 "missing link" from early in the series of Alan's swashbuckling adventures in the age of fighting sail. Although we know the general events of this long-missing novel about the Royal Navy from references in succeeding books, it comes as a throwback to the exciting rakehell that Lewrie was early in his career. The alleged orphan [] of a scheming English knight, Lewrie has a most modest opinion of himself, although he comes of age as a mariner in the course of this pivotal novel. American readers will be most interested that this novel takes place on the Eastern Seaboard, especially during the crucial siege of Cornwallis' troops at York Town. (From the detailed sailing descriptions in the Chesapeake Bay it's a good bet that Lambdin sails there often.) This story offers a chance for an extended look, from the British point of view, at the vicious enmities and fighting that characterized the American Revolution in the genteel South. It does not, however, offer the least personal glimpse of the French Admiral. That august and triumphant sailor, the shipbound Admiral de Grasse, is instrumental in the series of British blunders and defeats that lose the rebel American colonies to England.

The language is a bit rougher than is the salty talk customary in sea stories by genuine British authors. I wonder if Lambdin chose "Lewrie" as his hero's name because it resembles lurid and lewd, which Alan is, although he's not a scoundrel as well. This is a physically bigger book than the other Lambdin pb's I've read, thanks to the customarily expansive McBooks Press edition (i.e., larger type and better paper than the stubby Fawcett Crest/Ballantine editions).

My son thinks he is the boy in this book. This might be in part because I like to insert his name in the title and question that is asked in the book: How do I love you ______? I like to end with I love you ____. We own the board book version and it is a bedtime favorite. Our family discovered P.K. Hallinan (who does his own illustrations) when we purchased a copy of A Rainbow of Friends. Hallinan has written and illustrated several children's books; another of his books, similar to How Do I Love You? (though not quite as good) is ABC I Love You - this book has a brother and sister in it, so I can read it to my son and daughter together, and they can both be in the story. :-)

Reinforces the unconditional love between a parent and a child in a cute little rhyme. There have been times when my own kids have gone through one of the same things this kiddo goes through, and I quote part of the poem to them---for example "I love the way you act so brave when you fall and hurt your knee" or "and even though it may not show, i love you when you're bad." My kids love it, and I mean every word when I read it to them.

This book is so sweet. It makes me stop and appreciate all the little things about our boys that can drive us crazy.
"Even when you lose your shoes, I love you just the same," she says, and the picture shows a little boy in his church clothes with his pants rolled up like he played in the creek. I love cuddling with my little boys and loving on them while we read it.

Our 4 kids absolutely love this book, so do I! :)- This is a frequent request! What a cozy book!

We got this book as a gift and now I am buying it for anyone that has a child. It is so sweet. The first time I read it...I cried! It just sums up how a parent feels about their child. My only recomendation is to get the toddler book. This book is huge and has ripable pages. The toddler is smaller and is cardboard pages.

I had been attracted to the pali canon for some time, but where do you start? This book will give you a very good impression of what 'the word of the buddha' is. It contains translations of a broad selection of the original texts, while the introduction and commentary are truly helpful for putting it all in perspective. For me, this anthology proved to be the entrance gate to a wealth of texts that I would probably not have started to read without this wonderful book.

Buddhism encourages seekers to validate the path towards the cessation of all sorrows and lamentations by their own experience. Reading the translations of the surviving Buddhist texts is helpful in understanding the "messages" for our own selves.

According to one survey, it was said that America produces many
millionaires each year.

Supposing that you are one of the lucky one, you earn the wealth righteously and you are also a Buddhist. What is the right view that you should hold in dealing with the wealth acquired?

This is the million dollars question and of course many enthusiastic people would shower you lots of unsolicited advice.

Beware! Beware!

Their intentions are good but the advices may not necessarily correct and accurate if you examine them closely.

So, what did the Buddha say about the million dollars question?

It is fortunate that now we can refer to the wonderful book entitled "In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Cannon", compiled by highly respected America born Bhikkhu Bodhi. This book collects many important teachings by the Buddha. In essence, this book is for anyone who wishes to gain benefits by practicing Dhamma that leads to happy present life, happy future life and the ultimate good.

From time to time, the past and living masters always caution the believers not to get trapped in the big palace of Buddhist suttas or sutras in Sanskrit. This book provides an invaluable map to those who wish to find the way out in this majestic palace. Whatever level of spiritual goal you have in mind, you can rely on this map to reach your destination.

Surprisingly, many other advices of similar nature can be found. For example, how to be united in future lives for husband and wife who are deeply in love, how to repay one's parent etc. In my opinion, this book has convincingly dispelled the common wrongly held belief that Buddha only teaches the Dhamma for the people who renounce. As shown in this book, many of Buddha's teachings are for those who still stuck in the routine of worldly life!

For those who do not have to worry about the million dollars question and wonder why this book is special, perhaps you can listen to what H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has said in the forward:

"What I find especially encouraging about this book is that it shows so clearly how much fundamentally all schools of Buddhism have in common. I congratulate Bikkhu Bodhi for the careful work of compilation and translation"

What about the answer to the million dollars question mentioned earlier?

The answer can be found in Pg 126-127 under the heading "The Proper use of Wealth". Let's preview the details of the first out of the four sound advices given:

"With the wealth thus gained he makes himself happy and pleased and properly maintains himself in happiness; he makes his parents happy and pleased and properly maintains them in happiness; he makes his wife and children, his slaves, workers and servants happy and pleased and properly maintains them in happiness; he makes friends and colleagues happy and pleased and properly maintains them in happiness. This is the first case of wealth gone to good use, fruitfully applied and used for a worthy cause"

How amazing! Not only the servants, even the slaves are supposed to be included for sharing. Remember, these words were spoken twenty five hundreds years ago.

Of course, after earning a million, you might want more. The answer can be found in the fourth advice.

I strongly encourage you to find out straight from the mouth of the Buddha!


About the reviewer:

Benjamin F C TENG PhD, was born in Singapore. Currently, he is working as associate professor in engineering in a university at San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA. He is a sangha member of two Tibetan Buddhist centers (Email: tengfc@yahoo.com).

This anthology of teachings from the Pali Canon of the buddhist scriptures orders the selections in a manner that helps the reader to be come orientated to how different Suttas from the entire Canon can be related overall to the Buddha's Dhamma from a Theravada Buddhist perspective. The Pali Canon is the Canon of Theravada buddhism, and most or all of the Suttas can also be found in among many other scriptures in the Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhist Canons.

If you're looking for a translation of the Canons this is an excellent source. It has a tendency to be repetitive which is addressed by the author. It is said to be the actual words taught by Siddhartha and transcribed by the monks.

Hi:
This book is a very helpful guide for someone trying to start and understand a complex language such as Java. This book introduces us little by little to the confusing web of Java structures, procedures, objects, instances, classes...
Besides, it explains how to use some data structures and arrays, sometimes with very complex but understandable excercises that makes the reader produce a clear mind for Java's complex procedures.
The bad part is that is does not dig into Java graphical interface. Being this a very complex part of Java itself, the book does not tell us how to make panels, menus and many other features that are needed for simple graphical programs. Although it explains something about graphical structures, the explanations are not very good and sometimes you will have to look for another source to understand how it works.

I am not a programmer nor do I wish to become one. My interest in computers is driven by what they can and cannot do. My interest in Java springs from the many books based on Java that teach interesting things such as artificial intellenge, problem solving etc. So my view is based on what I learned how to do, not on if this is the best book for a coder.

Perhaps it would be best to state what this book is not first. It is not a complete guide to Java. There are many topics this book does not address at all such as swing. The Dietel book is denser and has many more details than does this one and might be more appropriate for a pure coder.

This is a book for beginners to Java. It does a great job of giving one a feeling for the language without bogging one's mind in all the gory details. It also did a good job of capturing my imagination as how to use the language to model things I am interested in. For me, this is superior to the Dietel book.

Another point worth mentioning is the speed this book can be read. I had no problem working through 1 to 2 chapters each evening. This ease of reading is do to three factors; good organization, good writing ability, and the focus on the main themes of the language.

Someone looking for a solid overview of Java would do well to buy this book. A hard core coder that is beginning with Java could use this book as a quick suppliment to the more detailed manual they are using.

As a knowledge of C would also be useful to me, I plan to purchase the author's book on that subject as well.

Let me start of by saying, if you want to learn Java to add it to your resume, do not use this book. This book is very very weak on Java graphics programming, which you will need to know. I would suggest a book that would help you pass the Sun programmer, or developer test. This book is intended as a textbook for an intorductory college class in computer science.

This book is great for learning Java as a college, or high-school student. I am using this book for AP Computer science. This book covers all of the topics, except for recursion. The author starts out with talking about what most people need to know about computers. He gets into programming by chapter two, and classes by chapter three. He explains classes very well, but you might need some help. Classes are much more well explained than in Java 2 for Dummies.

All in all this book is very good, even though I couln't get to know that much about GUI, or graphics programming. If you want to know about applets(this book focuses on applications) just read Appendix A. If you want a good approach to Java, than buy this book.

I've read this book cover to cover, and I think it is an excellent way to start programming in java. I think it is a wonderful introduction, my only gripes are that the new GUI interface, Swing, is not covered, only the older AWT. Also, this book is very weak on graphics programming, he never even explains how to incorperate java graphics into programs! He basically writes it off by saying its too complicated.

I came to this book with almost no programming experience but good analytical abilities. I wanted to learn the equivalent of what is covered by a CS1 course, and this book fit my needs exactly. This book is an interesting read, clearly introduces topics, and avoids unnecessary wordiness. The exercises and programming projects are thorough. There are always one or two more lengthy projects included in each chapter for those who want the challenge. I used this book to learn Java on my own, and I found myself eager to open it each day. I agree that there is no coverage of Swing, but there are other books devoted to that topic which one could move on to. I highly recommend this for those who are new to object-oriented programming and want their first taste of what this field is about.

This book seems to cover many great hiking areas in Sedona. It is quite explicit re: directions and information about the hiking trails. Great book for a person new to the area or even people who have been around awhile. Very informative!

I used this book for planning a 2 day visit to Sedona. I was extremely happy with the format. It has 2 pages per hike, with a high quality photo of what to expect for views, driving/hiking distance/time, as well as selections of their favorites. We didn't visit long enough to do a lot of the hikes, but we truly felt that we were able to select 3 hikes that were perfectly suited to our tastes and with nice variety. Overall, I don't think you could go wrong in Sedona, but I felt like this guide was well worth the price and only wish I could find similar guides for other locations. The Magnum's have done a great job, deserving of 5 stars.

The only shortcoming you may find is that their maps are very general and mostly help you find the trailhead (which was flawless). But, I prefer to have a quality map as well and I purchased the Emmitt Barks Cartography - Sedona Trails Map (not sure if it was on Amazon), and was very happy with it. Personally, I don't think you can create a detailed map inside the book for each hike, so I don't consider this a flaw to the book - just a bit of advice if you are planning a trip.

This book was very helpful in deciding which hikes to do. We were not dissappointed by any of the hikes. It was good that we knew about the pink jeaps ahead of time.

I have read five books about the Sedona hikes, all written approximately across the same time period, and this is why Iknow what I am talking about.I have also been to Sedona twice and know about it in a general sence. Short and sweet...this is the best all around Sedona hiking book filled with lots of bits about popular and unheard of hikes. This book is good because it is created by a Husband and Wife writer and photographer team who have lived in the area for years. The book includes maps of how to get to the trail heads and where the trails go from there. Also, descriptions of weather related to time of year and level of exertion required to do the hikes. The hikes that include VORTEXES are clearly marked. The photography is great. The five other books are best described by one or several of the following phrases: sickening and homespun; the writer as spiritual guru who is grandiose; might as well not bother; information repeated elsewhere ad nauseum. GET THIS BOOK

This book is good you want to look up a specific trail by name. I am more interested in researching trails in a specific area and found the layout of this book VERY frustrating. This book NEEDS a trail map overview where one can see where a specific trail is in relationship to the other trails. If you purchase this book make sure to purchase a Sedona Trail Map as well.