V Books

All I have to say is that this series is by far the best manga/graphic novel I've ever read... This is not the plotless violence that you see in many manga series', Eden's story line is one of the better plots that I've read in quite some time. This series is absolutely incredible and a 'must-read' for everyone who loves... well... anything.

Having read the first three volumes so far, I'm blown away. I haven't found a manga this engaging since Akira. At first glance, what appeared to be a typical "post-apocalytic" story is actually deeply fascinating on multiple levels, most especially characterization. The technological elements are as well done as anything by Shirow (Ghost in the Shell), perhaps even better, as they are more clearly explained and shown to be a logical extension of present-day technologies. The future the author has created here is totally coherent and convincing. Like the best sci-fi, you feel like you are simply glimpsing one aspect of an enormous world.

The visual storytelling is extremely well done. The battle scenes are clearly sequenced and paced in a way that is very cinematic. I found myself racing from panel to panel, my eyes frequently bugging out at dramatic and gory moments that are perfectly presented in service to the larger narrative and the emotional content.

The characters are quite convincing and engaging.

This is a fantastic piece of entertainment!

A worldwide plague has struck Earth, and there's no cure in sight. The disease is particularly nasty because your skin hardens into rock-like consistency and then your internal organs liquefy and drain out through your orifices! So you have all these statues of people laying around like so many victims of Medusa. A bio-dome named Eden is constructed under UN control to quarantine uninfected humans from the pandemic sweeping the world. Many years later, all that's left of the once hopeful experiment are two adolescents named Enoah and Hannah, who have genetic resistance, and their dying guardian Layne, who is rapidly succumbing to the sickness. The rest of this first volume fills you in on how Eden, which was once a bastion of Man's hopes, has now become an empty shell of its former self. We're also introduced to Cherubim, a military robot which Eden's now dead inhabitants blamed for their destruction. The second half of the book takes up a different thread, 20 years later as a young boy named Elijah, accompanied by Cherubim, fights to survive in the ruins of civilization.

This first volume of Eden had it all: Sci-fi, Violence, love, human fears, religious symbolism, and realism. The characters at times feel like mythological, if not Biblical, figures given human shape, but they retain our sympathies. They are protagonists trying to live in a world that has been destroyed by forces on a different level than themselves. As in all times of chaos, factions arise to take advantage of the situation and take control. It's difficult to see how these characters are going to fit into the scheme of things. The little violence in this book is graphic but necessary to tell the story. Death isn't pretty. The art in Eden is some of the best I've ever seen in a manga and is reminescent of a more refined Ghost in the Shell style-wise. Video Girl Ai is another series that is similar in art. This is a gripping and thought provoking first volume in what looks to be a great series.

Eden is simply an amazing graphic novel set in a world ravaged by a killer virus, that wipes out the majority of the population. We start with three survivors on an island. A dying man confined to a wheelchair and two children. From this simple begining we delve into complex subject matter. The concept of sin, sexual desire, explore the meaning of life, question the existence of god and man's role in the natural order. Heady stuff to say the least and then there are the mecha robots, cyborgs, mercenaries and global conspiracies. Breathtaking in it's scope and imagination, Hiroki Endo has created a tribute to the cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic survival genre.

Eden is an awesome manga. If any manga has achieved a literary state it has to be this one. For example, it doesn't exactly present characters the way other manga do, by showing what they look like, and having them act out in a way that would be characteristic. What Eden did in this volume was present the setting first, and have the characters interact with that setting. Being a post-apocalyptic tale, the setting is key, and having certain people react a certain way to the setting will reveal a lot about that character. Personally, I thought this was brilliantly done, and I felt that I knew Elijah, the main character, well enough to like him, even though he was only in three short chapters of this volume.

The story in Eden--in this volume at least--begins with two teenagers, Enoah and Hannah, as they care for their guardian Layne, who's dying of a disease that hardens the skin and turns the insides of a human to mush. While caring for Layne, these kids learn of their responsibility to human-kind, as well as the tragic past that aided in bringing about the apocalypse in which they are living in. Later, the story moves to young Elijah, a boy whose only companion is a robot named Cherubim, as he goes about the everyday job of survival, including scavenging and hunting, as well as dreaming of girls.

Though admittedly the story is slow, and very little is given away as to what direction Eden is heading in, I can't knock it for the simple brilliance in which it is unfolding. Hiroki Endo put an emphasis on presenting the stark setting and conditions of living in the volume, and also made it clear that it is an intelligent plot no matter how slow it is. The back cover states that Eden is "a brilliant love song to post-apocalyptic survival genre" and I would have to agree on that. Eden is a smart story rivaling even Akira, and one I highly recommend for fans of darker, smarter manga.

This is the first time I had a problem with Amazon shipment. I ordered the 1995 edition, but Amazon repeatedly (twice) shipped the 1966 edition. However, the customer service was excellent. I could ship back without charge and the amount was credited to my account. That is the reason I am giving 4 stars.

Peter Gay needs no introduction, but I still feel that this work needs to be lauded for what it manages to achieve: it provides an exhaustively detailed socio-cultural account of the enlightenment that is as enjoyable as it is informative. The main slant of this work, namely that the 18th century enlightenment was a reprisal/continuation/adoration of classical (hence Pagan) culture is coherent and functions as a solid structure to this work. Highly recommended.

A magnificent, thorough, and long book (419 pages), impeccably documented, the first volume of two. A "must read" for anyone interested in the Enlightenment. The "cheerleaders" of the Enlightenment, from all over Europe, called themselves the philosophes. For a preview, read the 25 page beginning, "Overture."

BOOK ONE: THE APPEAL TO ANTIQUITY

CHAPTER ONE: The Useful and Beloved Past

1. Hebrews and Hellenes: As the philosophes of the Enlightenment saw it, the world was divided into two irreconcilable patterns of life: superstition versus the affirmation of life; mythmakers versus realists; priests versus philosophers. The historical writings of the Enlightenment were all part of their comprehensive effort to secure rational control over the world and freedom from the pervasive domination of myth. The most glaring and notorious defect of the Enlightenment was its unsympathetic, often brutal, estimate of Christianity.

2. A Congenial Sense and Spirit: Rome belonged to every educated man Classic antiquity was inescapable, therefore, some of the philosophes' seemingly pagan ideas were simply the property of thinking men in their time. The philosophes identified with their favorite ancient philosophers, especially Cicero, who had contempt for the fear of death, contempt for superstition, and admiration for sturdy pagan self-reliance. Modern historians no longer think of Christianity as a complete swamp, but the reliance of the Enlightenment on ancient classicism has withstood two centuries of criticism.

3. The Search for Paganism: From Identification to Identity: The philosophes had been born into a Christian world. They knew their Bible, their catechism, their articles of faith, their apologetics, retained many of their Christian friends, and even had clergy in their families. Gibbons was not without anxiety when he wrote his notorious chapters on the origin of Christianity in "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." The German philosophes were reluctant to completely abandon the religion of the past. Diderot, the most ebullient of the French philosophes was driven and harassed by doubts. In a letter to his mistress, he cursed the atheism he accepted as true that "reduced their love to a blind encounter of atoms." Even David Hume, whose good cheer was celebrated, had to brood and struggle his way into paganism.

CHAPTER TWO: The First Enlightenment

1. Greece: From Myth to Reason: The philosophes' historical thought was closely tied and deeply, if unconsciously, indebted to the Renaissance. Pious historians during the Renaissance and in the 17th century aided secularization by refining techniques of research, throwing doubt on extravagant tales of Hebrew prophets or Christian saints. The Old Testament, which had served countless generations as authoritative was in decline. The philosophes used it as neither authoritative nor historical, but as an incriminating document. Petrarch removed the label "Dark Ages" from classical pre-Christian times and fastened it instead on the Christian era.

2. The Roman Enlightenment: The Greeks were the teachers of the Romans, but the Romans were the Greeks made plain. The philosophes' two most reliable sources of literature were the Romans Lucretius and Cicero. No propagandist ever conducted a battle of science against religion more exuberantly than Lucretius. Religion was just superstition maintained by terror. Science was reason, offering a complete and coherent account of the universe. Cicero gave them even more - a philosophy of the public servant was that of humanism. Not far behind was the historian Tacitus, who was Gibbon's source of much of what is in "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." These and other Roman Stoics and Epicurians gave the philosophes much fuel for their political and religious criticisms.

CHAPTER THREE: The Climate of Criticism

1. Criticism as Philosophy: Hume proclaimed philosophy the supreme, indeed, the only, cure for superstition. Diderot - The philosopher should not be the inventor of systems but the apostle of truth. Adam Smith - Cultivation of philosophy is "the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition." For the Enlightenment, the Age of Philosophy was also, and mainly, the Age of Criticism - they were synonyms - and there were plenty of liberal Christians ready to allow the new philosophy elbow room, provided it stopped barely short of the holiest of matters.

2. The Hospitable Pantheon: Each philosophe took what suited him from the Romans (or from anywhere) and added their characteristic touches, leading to eclecticism - the school that denied being a school. The eclectic "makes a philosophy for himself, individual and personal, one that is his own." The favorite theft of the philosophes was from the Stoicism of Cicero, but since they addressed their propaganda to a largely Christian audience, they also quoted the founders of Christianity, including Jesus. Such adroit posturing barely concealed the philosophes' convictions that Christianity was the worst of fanaticisms.

3. The Primacy of Moral Realism: The philosophes' practicalities were worldly, designed to translate into reality Bacon's and Descarte's grandiose vision of man controlling nature for his profit and desire. In a culture in which men believed in God and yearned for salvation, the study of His nature were matters of intense blessed concern - but during the Enlightenment, they seemed more like verbal games. Nor could the philosophes separate the study of nature from the study of morality. They were confident that the public needed to be educated and it was their calling to educate them.

4. Candide: The Epicurean as Stoic: Voltaire wrote a reality tale - a dialogue on behalf of Newton's empiricism in a world that had discarded myth; and one that caricaturized and satirized Leibniz. Candide is essentially a declaration of war on Christianity.

BOOK TWO: THE TENSION WITH CHRISTIANITY

CHAPTER FOUR: The Retreat From Reason: Educated Romans had at least made a serious attempt to construct a civilization based on reason, not myth. Then came Christianity, which claimed to bring light, hope, and truth - but its central myth was incredible, its dogma a mixture of older superstitions, and its sacred book an incoherent collection of primitive tales. Once the church had discarded its apocalyptic expectations, it settled down to the business of organizing a Christian community - eventually a rigid hierarchy.

1. The Adulteration of Antiquity: In the callous hands of Christians, Greek and Roman literature survived, but barely, and at great cost. The church fathers could not deal generously with secular literature - they were at war for a higher cause. However, there was a minority that maintained an interest - and Christian policy ran somewhere between these two extremes. The great compromise, in the fourth and fifth centuries, was to adapt from paganism whatever could be adapted to religious purposes and to throw the rest away. They invented pious meanings for secular passages, converting and allegorizing meanings - but at least it kept the classics from extinction, though at the price of covering them with pious legends. Cicero was persistently misread into the thirteenth century.

2. The Betrayal of Criticism: Medieval philosophers believed the advent of Jesus had subordinated the need for higher degrees of insight. Abelard devoted much of his ethical and theological speculation to the disappointing thought that his favorite pagan philosophers had been born too early for Christ, thus missing out on salvation. The philosophes saw this as despising and abusing the resources of the mind.

3. The Rehabilitation of Myth: In the Christian millennium, myth was preserved, transcended, and raised to a higher level. The philosophes liked to deride medieval categories as infantile or vicious, but the myths merely followed inevitably from the medieval mind bent on finding religious significance everywhere. Science was done, but like philosophy, it was guided by man's search for holiness and salvation. The enormous distance separating the philosophes from the medieval world view is proof that the Enlightenment was the terminal point of a long process of alienation that had begun centuries before, in the Renaissance.

CHAPTER FIVE: The Era of Pagan Christianity - For all their enormous but gradual contributions to secular thought, Europeans were still overwhelmingly religious - religious fervor attenuating slowly and uncertainly.

1. The Purification of the Sources: Humanists of the Renaissance began to correct the corrupt interpretations of the Greek and Roman philosophers. Many new manuscripts, stored in monastery libraries and guarded by monks, were uncovered, although covered with dust, torn, and mutilated. Unknown copies of Cicero, a single copy of Lucretius's "De Rerum Natura," a single copy of Catullus, and whatever we have of Tacitus were uncovered by persistent Humanist effort bordering at times on thievery. Gradually, classis after classic was reborn, and Humanist scholars purified them of the corrupt accretions of centuries. The veil of pious interpretation was pierced.

2. Ancients and Moderns - The Ancients: The protestant heresy persisted and thus stripped Christian Europe of one of its most tenacious myths, the myth of a Catholic commonwealth centered at Rome. Exploration discovered strange cultures which raised disturbing questions about the souls of heathens and the value of Christian civilization. The Copernican revolution in cosmology began to reverberate among educated men. The printing press and translations, the book trade, the growth of science, and the explosion of interest in accurate interpretations of ancient Greeks and Romans - all these things questioned the authority of the papacy. As Voltaire put it, "a corner of the veil was lifted. The nations, aroused, wanted to judge what they had worshipped."

3. Ancients and Moderns - The Moderns: By the force of its logic, science began to cut its ties with philosophy and to assume a posture at first equal, and then hostile, to theology - less by literary than by scientific means. Even so, the Church first took the findings of Gallileo, Boyle, and Newton as evidence of faith rather than as a threat. Locke called for liberation from the shackles of antique and medieval rules of thought and his impact was huge, the last in a long line of pagan Christians. The philosophes, arrogant as they were, still displayed great reverence for this Age of Genius.

CHAPTER SIX: In Dubious Battle

1. The Christian Component: Locke and his disciple, Toland, both wrote books in 1695 and 1696. Locke tried to prove that Christianity was acceptable to reasonable men; Toland, that what was mysterious and miraculous about Christianity must be discarded - and within those two years the essence of revealed, dogmatic religion evaporated. The philosophes took advantage, striving to maintain a separation between reason and religion while well-meaning Christians continued to try to unite them. This was the beginning of deism, which maintained a healthy respect for Jesus as a teacher, but held that his teachings were distinct from what resulted as the Christian religion.

2. The Treason of the Clerks: Clerical establishments didn't collapse, but every part of life became more secular - there was a subtle shift where religious institutions and religious explanations for events were slowly being displaced from the center of life to its periphery. The evidence for a growing critical rationalism among educated Christians is overwhelming, with a decline in religious fervor. They were thus open to the antireligious propaganda of the philosophes, as Sunday sermons simultaneously grew less severe and more accommodating to an easier life. As the Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists fought amongst themselves, the philosophes triumphed over them all.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Beyond the Holy Circle - the philosophes appropriated Christian labors for their own purposes.

1. The Abuse of Learning: This was a time of the beginnings of Biblical critical scholarship. Diderot, Voltaire, and Gibbon each took particular advantage of a different scholarly friend, and applied that scholarship where it could be devastating to Christianity. The philosophes were missionaries - for the sake of their calling they were ready to exploit the best their enemy had to offer, without mercy or gratitude.

2. The Mission of Lucretius: Lucretius was to Epicureus what the philosophes were to the Enlightenment - purveyors of savage, brutal, and relentless diatribes against superstition and religion. Religion retreated to the extent that philosophy and science advanced.

3. David Hume: The Complete Modern Pagan - Whatever misgivings the philosophes had about their passion, Hume had the least. He thought all houses of faith were houses of infection and that a rational man must escape, after exposing, the squabbles of theologians. His philosophy embodies the dialectic of the Enlightenment at its most ruthless. Without melodrama, Hume lived cheerfully and without complaining, with no supernatural justifications, demanding no complete explanations, no promise of permanent stability, with guides of merely probable validity. He was a cheerful Stoic.

Peter Gay is an important intellectual historian and in his lengthy work "The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism" he summarizes the ideas of the great philosophers and how they changed the world. This book is a work of great erudition, of synthesis and he begins with the relationship between the philosophers of the 18th century and those of the classical period. The philosophers of the Enlightenment, active in the late seventeenth through the middle of the eighteenth century, had an affection for the Greek and Roman era, but felt the recent discoveries in science, the search for empirical fact, had allowed their own era to supercede the work of the great classical philosophers.
While the classicists inspired the philosophers of the Enlightenment, theis new breed of thinkers were generally contemptuous of religion and they sought to confront, to challenge and to overturn the philosophical concepts of the Hebrew and Christian thinkers who they viewed as their rhetorical adversaries in the battle beaten reason and faith.
Gay is an engaging writer with a gift for synthesizing a raft of material. Here he neatly summarizes the philosophical historians work: "...the philosophes wrote history with rage and with partisanship, and their very passion allowed them to penetrate into regions hitherto inaccessible to historical explorers. Yet it also made them condescending and oddly parochial: their sense of the past merged all too readily with their sense of the present." Although the philosophes view of history was critical, pessimistic, they saw the world "divided between ascetic superstitious enemies of the flesh, and men who affirmed life, the body, knowledge, and generosity; between mythmakers and realists, priests and philosophers."
Gay's book neatly depicts an age, the conflicts between enlightenment thinkers and the past, their areas of agreement and disagreement and, their battles with the weakened Christianity of the day. He points out how te philosophers used the scholarship and erudition of the Catholic orders against them. "The Enlightenment" is not a history of philosophy, summarizing the work of each major philosopher, but a history of the way that the ideas and the debate developed in the period. In this volume, he writes of Voltaire, Hume, Smith, Bentham, Gibbon, Diderot, Montsequieu, Lessing, Locke, Holbach, Rousseau and finally, Jefferson and Franklin, intertwining them in a consistent narrative. He concludes the book with a helpful bibliographical essay which will help point those of us who want to do further reading in the right direction. Elegantly written, in clear, crisp prose, "The Enlightenment" is a detailed and nuanced account of the men and ideas that gave us the gift - and curse - of modernity.

The Enlightenment has met many critics nowadays, which even make people overlook the positive worth of the enlightenment to modren society. This great book can help readers make a comprehensive and positive view to the enlightenment. I recommend it !

Wow, book three again was a fantastic read. The books in the series so far have all been great.

So, what happens in this book? In the first story Ryo and Dee have to investigate separate from each other, one has to chase a psychopathic murderer and the other a human trafficking ring. But both cases have more connections than either of them would have believed.

The second story is a Christmas story, in which we find out more about Ryo's background. And there is a very sweet kissing scene. ;)

And at last there is another story with Bikky and Carol. Bikky finds a competitor in Lai, but both seem to be pretty equal in strength and skill. Maybe it makes more sense to combine their efforts?

This is one of the first mangas I ever read (I got it from my friend) and now I'm collecting the series myself because I couldn't get enough. The characters seem so real, and relationship fits together like puzzle pieces. If you are into yaoi, or even if you're not, this is an awesome book/series and I reccomend it to anyone who enjoys anime. The only thing I don't like about the books is that they needed to continue forever or at least until Dee proposed to Ryo and they got married and adopted a kid (which Ryo already has, practically). That is when I would agree that the series needed to come to a close.

---Kira

Book Description:

Roy and Dee's new boss Caleb Rose has an agenda of his own and separates our heroes to new teams. Dee is assigned to work with foxy Diana Spacey, an FBI agent in town working on chasing down a serial killer. Commissioner Caleb Rose assigns Ryo to work one on one with him literally while investigating a human trafficking ring.

Can Ryo slip the Commissioner's grasp with out loosing his job and why is Dee coming out of a hotel with Diane? Ah, the heat gets turned up with a little jealousy being introduced. Dee hates the new commissioner and doesn't mind acting like a 2 year about it around Ryo.

Ryo oddly finds himself attracted to Caleb and can not fathom what it is that intrigues him. Ryo must figure out a way to elude Caleb's clever traps to get him alone. Diane is attracted to Dee but can't understand how he can not see how hot she is when standing she is standing right in front of him. At the same time Dee reminds her of someone she knows and can't quite figure it out.

Our favorite boys have several kissing scenes in this edition but not many with each other which causes the emotions between the two to fly high and unknown revelations are blurted out in the heat of arguments. We also find out more about Ryo's background and introduction to his parent's death which was first mentioned in book 1. This books signals new growth in Ryo's and Dee's relationship with a very touching chapter set on Christmas eve.

Bikky, of course, is in the sidelines keep Dee from making any advances with Ryo and when Diane suddenly becomes the target for the serial killer Bikky is there to save the day. In the final chapter we have the addition of two new characters Lai and Lass. Lai and Bikky both hate each other at sight and start competing to prove which is better but soon find that they are pretty equal in strength and skill. And then a bag up cash falls at their feet...who is going to get it?

My Review of the Series:

This series is a must for yaoi lovers. What more can you ask for? 2 cops one with a heart of gold and the other with a heart of passion for his partner. The story line is full of plots each chapter ties in well with the next. As the pages turn, the storyline grows-a nice variety of supporting characters are added in the mix to spice things up. And a wonderful selection of antagonists and triangle love interests (new and old) pop up. All which cause the main boys woes and worries, misunderstanding abound which lead to those wonderful kissing scenes we all love. The art work is good and the imagery is detailed. Ryo's mixed personality of innocent vs. seriousness charms you right off and Dee's devilish side enthralls while the sideline commentary makes you giggle.

Other Great Series/Manga by Sanami Matoh
By the Sword
Tenryu: The Dragon Cycle
Until the Full Moon
RA-I
TRASH

For those who like this series I recommend checking out "Yellow" by Makoto Tateno

This is my all time favorite series - even though it's only Shonen Ai it is the greatest Manga Series out there. The art is great and the story is funny and sweet in a lot of places, especially when it reveals how much the two main characters care for one another. It focuses on Dee Laytner and his persistence to get into the pants of his new partner Ryo Maclean, your average uke not knowing what to make of Dee's advances and Dee isn't the only one after Ryo, their new boss Berkley Rose is and Dee has his own admirers including one hyperactive jealous JJ, who hates Ryo. This is a must have series for any Yaoi or Shonen Ai Fan!

I couldn't help but grin while reading this volume. The story just keeps getting better as the series progresses. If you liked volumes 1 and 2, then you'll love this one. There are few comedy manga titles out there, even less that are the same humor wave-length as me. This one is right on target. I plan to get the rest of the series. Great manga!

By the way, if you are uncomfortable with guy-guy love, this is not a title for you.

Fangs of Kaath is quite entertaining. I wasn't sure about reading the book. But a friend insisted. Im very glad he did. This books is very good. I think anyone who reads it will like it alot.

My Friend in Utah recomended this book to me. I was kind of skeptical at first but he assured me that it was great. After only the first couple chapters I was hooked. The first 3rd of the book alone make it worth reading. what great characters! A fantastic story in every aspect. I must find more of Paul Kids books. I recommend this book to everyone. If you read it, Im sure you will love it. Probably ment for people over the age of 14 or 15.

This is the second book of Paul Kidd's that I have read. The other being A Whisper Of Wings, and I have to say that he surpasses that work with this book. This book had me caring for the charaters in the first couple of pages, something other books fail to accomplish even at the end of the tale. The story is fantastic: weaving in magic, love, war, and political intrige seamlessly. This book takes you on quite an emotional ride, and is not for the feint of heart. I really cannot say enough for this title, or for the author. Don't miss out on this book, you will miss out on a treasure.

This is truly a fantastic work. The story of two people who truly love one-another. Living in a world that does not want them, all they want is eachother. Filled with Demons, treachorous warlords, mysterious cults, scheaming kings and family fueds, this story will never leave you wanting for more action, yet never does this action over power the great emotion of the whole ordeal. It has been years since I have fallen in love with fictional characters so completly. Such great discription and real emotion. Everything feels real as you are reading it. Sandhri and Raschid, might as well been real people for all the rich detail that is placed into their characters.
Aside from a slightly rushed epilogue, Fangs maintains a great pace that is easy to read and enjoy.
I have yet to have read other books by Paul Kidd but he can rest assured that I will now.

Paul Kidd has done himself PROUD with this work of his. The characters are believeable, and the entire world is one spun to where you can find yourself falling into easily, with an ending that will most likely suprise you. Paul Kidd I still rank with the likes of Jaques, Tolkein and Lackey. Even if you're not into the idea of 'furries', at least give this book a try, you won't be sorry.

This book was given to me as a birthday gift from my mother-in-law. I absolutely love this book. There are many beautiful photos. There are places and subjects that I never knew had so much beauty. Because I am already a huge fan of art and architecture, it was fun to learn about the many influences to Filipino style. I liked it so much that I had to buy a copy for my father (Born in Las Pinas - Metro Manila, Philippines)

This book is a great book for young Filipino Americans who need some inspiration. As a Filipino American growing up in USA, I never really felt any connection with the Philippines. I was brought up by knowing only the stereotypes that sometimes make a Filipino American want to shy with embarrassment. Stereotypes are everywhere within any culture. By reading this book and flipping through the pages, I saw that Philippines is a beautiful place. Everyone needs take a look at this book. It's a great eye opener for Filipino Americans who have problems accepting their own skin.

I'm an Architectural Designer that lives/works in Jamaica and Bermuda and I'm also a fan of modern/contemporary architecture. I own a number of books on the subject, but few tend to address basic climatic issues that we in the Tropics face (and rightly so, since they are about projects north of the tropics). I've just received the book from my freight forwarder and had a chance to browse thru it. It really looks interesting and certainly provides inspiration for projects that can be successfully executed in our hot, humid climate.
The inclusion of architectural drawings (Plans, Sections, Elevations) is also welcome - too many books on Architecture neglect this very important point. I think this may be the telling factor for deciding whether this is to be another one of my coffee-table books, or a serious informative reference for ideas and inspiration. For now, I'm leaning to the latter.

I bought this book for myself. It's a true treasure trove of visual treats. Have you wanted to know how the homes of the rich and/or famous in the Philippines look? The variety of materials available for buidling and furnishing homes in the Philippines is astounding--rich woods, a wide spectrum of fabric, ethnic carvings and woven work. Linger over the detailed photographs in this book! Now I know what to get for my sisters and in-laws for Christmas!

Finally, a book on Traditional and Contemporary Philippine Interior Design by a reputable author/photographer. It will give the reader a good sense of Native Interiors to Traditional influences of Spanish-Colonial Interior Design and Architecture. Very superb photographs. Beautiful renderrings in the Furniture Dictionary.

You can't judge a book by its cover or, in the case "Following the Wrong God Home", by the advertising blurb on the dust jacket. An acquaintance who works at a local bookstore fairly frothed at the mouth while singing the praises of this book, and she had only finished half of it (the first half). As her tastes agree with my own generally and as Mormon history happens to be my bag, I bought it and started to read.

After the first chapter, I put it down and scratched my head. Somehow the reading wasn't going as planned. I've read hundreds of volumes on as many aspects of Mormonism as I can think of, but something wasn't clicking with me. I didn't want to admit to my bookstore acquaintance that I didn't "get it". So in an act of preemptive bravado, I plunged back into its pages, determined not to be outunderstood by the bookstore lady. As chapters rolled by, I grew more accustomed to Scott Chisholm's meter. Although I'm sure his method may be shoehorned into "the seven holy principles of good prose" and thereby explained, this book does not have the feel of such an effort. Rather, the structure and tenor of the tale mirror the rhythms of the difficulty of those first Mormon pioneers. Instead of simply describing the experience, he paints it as a work or art. Like the Russian masters, the most poignant observations of life are made by those who have experienced the worst of it. Suffering has no value without the introspection that follows and Scott Chisholm guides us through that experience.

Spoiler: the Mormons do make it to Utah.

Clive Scott Chisholm recounts his walking retracement of the Morman trail across Nebraska and Wyoming to Brigham Young's"Zion",Utah.This book is about people,places,perceptions,and the nebulous envisagement of the American Dream.
To Chisholm,born into a Morman Family and faith,the walk it vividly personal.He weaves parenthetical"Acccording to Hoyle" chronicles of Morman history in each chapter.
The author crosses the bounds of genre with timely placed sidebars.He touches geography,natural history,hydraulics,soil management,native indian movements,railway and highway beginnings,politics and a host of others.
He describes eating,sleeping and entertainment establishments past and present;"watering-holes",museums and libraries with a generous portion of humor.There are no sacred cows,be it presidents or prophets.
This book just gets better as it goes.Clive Scott Chisholm doesn't disappoint his readers by slipping off the rails in the final chapter.He runs strong to the end.
The last entry adds a homey"Where are they now"(fifteen years later) about many of the people and personalities we meet in the book.
End

scott MacDonald wrote a book called "The Garden in the Machine" and this book reminds me of "Following the Wrong god home" because they both discuss the meaning of landscape. But if you read both books together you can see how Chisolm's book on the mormons is much more personal mostly because he actually is doing the traveling himself and having the experiences he is talking about. I think that a lot of people who don't know anything about Mormon history could love this book because he is using the mormon history as a way of writing about the western dream. The writing of this book is superb and it is one of those rare books that I never wanted to finish.

I was enthralled by Clive Scott Chisholm's brilliant meld of personal experience, social criticism, and history. On his 1100 mile trek from Omaha to Salt Lake City, he encounters a rich variety of experiences involving the weather,the landscape, historical markers, towns, and human personalities which he describes in vivid detail. Independence Rock in Wyoming, for instance, evokes a discussion of the natural forces which created it and its role as "a geological semaphore of good-bye" for travelers venturing into the unknown West.
Threaded through this account are Chisholm's thoughts about his life, his friends, western history, and particularly about "the American Dream" and the Mormons. He is often brutally frank in his judgments, especially of the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, for whom he can say nothing good. All-in-all, this is a brilliantly written, deeply personal account of one man's adventure in space and time.

Is the American Dream an empty hole(or whole)? Clive Chisholm takes a hard look at that in his trek across the American West, following the trail the Mormons blazed in 1847. Those Mormons were seeking their dream, their promised land. Chisholm, looking deeply at their experience through their journals, overlaps them with his modern day rediscovery of what is left of their trail. In the process, he digs deeply at the Mormon faith, at himself and at all of us, trying to find what gives us the courage and the passion to get up each morning and try it all again. The stories of the young brides who, far from home, died the horrible death of cholera, and his battles with dysentery and toothache; how they drug all their worldly belongings in handcarts, and he a dilapidated hand-golfcart, soon discarded in a highway culvert. Their is no shortage of dispair and heartache for either story, yet there is hope. Chisholm fills the pages with his gift of humor, and the quirky characters that he collects like mile markers on his road. He masterfully weaves both stories together. In the end, he questions what it all meant. Americans, he determines, believe everything works out simply because they are Americans. It's not the same experience for the rest of the world but we, as americans, are comprised of the peoples of all the world. We inherit a legacy of ancestral dreams. The dream is a lie, but it's the dreaming that counts. That's what fills our "common well of human hope." Buy it.

I ordered this book because it was required for a graduate class that I was taking, but I found it to be an excellent resource. The author provides numerous examples for how to apply the material, but also provides additional internet resources to access other information in the field of nonprofit management and fundraising.

I would definitely purchase additional resources from this author again.

I also use this book as a textbook in a fundraising class and the students consistently rank this as a great learning tool and resource that they will use in their careers. Excellent real-life examples and practical knowledge on every aspect of non-profit fund development.

Ciconte's book is insightful and thorough. This new edition is especially helpful, especially for the purposes of this reviewer, when it comes to Internet applications and computer programs. A well-written and fairly current fundraising resource guide.

Using this book as "the" textbook for a UCSD Extension class on Fundraising Introduction and Processes; The course is the first required course for a Certificate Program in Fundraising and this is the text book selected. Very in depth, overview of fundraising, annual giving campaigns, special fundraising events, planned giving, grant-writing etc. Covers it all in depth and simple to understand. Great book! Plus its way cheaper thru Amazon than in the UC bookstore ;-)

I liked this book a lot. It's a big book with 8.5xll inch pages with the small text formatted into two columns per page. It covers a broad spectrum of fundraising for nonprofit topics: annual giving programs, board development, sponsorships, special events, major gift solicitation, planned giving, and capital campaigns. I suspect this book will be of tremendous help to anyone trying to develop a successful fundraising program for their nonprofit. Also, the reader is informed that it has been used as a textbook in various classes on fundraising.

My favorite chapters were (1) philanthropy, (2) roles of players, (3) the development office, (8) prospect research, (14) capital campaigns, (15) planned giving, (17) fundraising consultants, and (18) career options. The chapters are purposefully short, but they provide wonderful introductory material on their topics. Bibliographic material is provided so the reader can easily locate material that covers these topics in more depth.

I thought Chapter 4 (technology) was weak. I got the impression from reading it that I was reading a term paper from a high school student. I didn't feel as thought the authors were writing from firsthand experiences. Why were calculators and adding machines added to the list? Anybody who uses MS Office or similar program would know to use a spreadsheet program to do what a calculator or adding machine would do. Bottom line: this chapter could have been greatly improved so a nonprofit can save major bucks. Also, workers today are expected to know how to use a PC and the software that runs on it. If they can't, then don't hire them. NEVER consider paying someone to train them how to use a PC!

I had problems with chapters 5, 6 and 7. I thought Chapter 5 should have been much more detailed as to what a fundraising plan includes and how to design one. This was not done. And I thought Chapter 5 also should have covered direct mail, telemarketing, and the importance of building relationships as elements of a good fundraising plan. Then chapters 6 and 7 could have picked up where Chapter 5 left off. As these chapters are currently written, there really is no connection between the three - and in my humble opinion I think there should be.

I would reorder chapters 8 and 9 so the material on prospect research is covered after the reader is introduced to major gift fundraising. It just seems more logical to me to do it that way.

Chapter 13 could be improved a bit. Nonprofits waste a considerable amount of money on having fancy brochures created. And the authors seem to condone this. Today so much money and volunteer time can be saved by posting online in the form of Web pages what used to be printed. In the old days for-profits used to create fancy brochures. Now they give the prospect a business card with a Web site address on it. The prospect goes online to examine the relevant Web pages. Nonprofits can do the same thing. Why weren't Web sites covered in Chapter 13 (publications)? You try creating the content for a Web site and you will learn real quickly that Web sites are electronic publications.

And then there is Chapter 16. I'm not sure why this one was included. Sounds like membership organizations (trade associations) do their fundraising in a very similar way to church fundraising. It doesn't take rocket science to line up the congregation and hose them down for gifts. The same holds true for trade associations. I think I would have left this one out.

Even though I am somewhat critical of this book, I admit that I am being picayune. I am just rambling the thoughts that flipped off the tip of my tongue. This book is big, heavy, and full of good content. Give it a read. It will probably help you immensely in putting together an annual giving program for your nonprofit. Always remember that successful fundraising begins and depends on a good Board. 5 stars!

From feigling (coward) to bravour (bravery): A German Tale, where a little girl's memories of flowers, balloons, milk and cookies, childhood adventures, long walks, family vacations, and kisses from a sweetheart take on different meanings. A German Tale, where snails, kitty cats, bunnies, and little bugs bring a feast of delight for the eye of the beholder. A German Tale, a story of truth - and the shame of a country. Life during war as told through the eyes of a little girl, Erika delivers to the world a healing book for the soul of anyone who reads it.

I have a large library of Holocaust testimonies and I thought that reading this account would be a good counterpoint for me. And I was not disappointed. Prof Karres' account is factual, straightforward and unsentimental and should be required historical reading. When she says: "I am the offspring of a killer nation." (p. 280) you can accept by this stage in the book that this is not an self-pitying utterance but rather a realistic fear for the future, a fear for all Germans of her generation. Yes, the burden is onerous, and Prof Karres is careful nowhere to shirk it or thrust it under a carpet of I-wasn't-responsible. She paints her guilt bravely and vividly and the reader is awed and sometimes shocked, yes, by the extreme postwar hardships experienced by the ever-expanding and starving family but most importantly s/he is informed. I recommend this book highly to all WW2/Holocaust readers.

First-hand accounts such as this book are really priceless in terms of understanding what really happenned in Germany during and after the War. Should be required reading in any history class.

Having served in the occupation forces in Germany at the end of WW2. it is only now, after having read "German Girl", that I realize how unaware I was of the true extent of the German peoples struggle to survive. German pride and discipline enabled the general population to mask the true picture of how difficult life really was for them. So, it is not surprising that while I lived amongst them, I never was fully aware of their plight. The author Erika Karres paints a very realistic picture of what life was like during the last phases of the war and on into the post war occupation period. She honestly and courageously bares her heart and soul, and in vivid detail describes what she saw and felt. I admired her strength of character, endurance and questioning nature as she faced the hopeless and devastated world in which she found herself. A good example of a German that didn't approve of the depravity and wickedness of the Nazi regime, and risked questioning and speaking out against it.
I highly recommend this exciting and well written book. It tends to remind one that there are decent human beings in this world, and their courage and endurance under seemingly impossible conditions is a source of strength and hope.
Harold Hendler

"All I have ever know is having to scrounge around for food. But that's not so bad if you have the one thing you deperately need." This is not some sentimental or romantic fairy tale. This is an eyes-wide-open look at what life was like for one little girl and her family trying to scrath out a life in Germany from her birth in 1939 through the 1950s. She struggles with her siblings (10 at one point) just to feed and cloth themselves. Her mother dies when she is just 6 years old from blood clots. Her step mother his on a continual slide towards total mental breakdown. Their house is occupied in turn by American and French forces. She eventually begins aromance with an American soldier who is there as part of the occupation force. Through it all she keeps asking what happened to the Jews? What happened to Germany? And she survives. With her mind and soul severely bruised, but intact.

If you want an easy read that won't challenge you, then move on. But, if you would prefer to take a dose of reality and read about a somebody who faced a world gone cruelly insane - and survived to tell us about it, then check out this book. Thank you, Erika, for sharing your story with us. I think we all have to find our own answer to the question you asked your father: "Is apolitical the same as amoral?"

Do all the gravitation books have inserts or only a select few? I have all the vol's 1-9 and only a few have them, some were used so they may have been pulled out, but if they weren't, does anyone know which of their books came with the inserts and which ones didnt?

If you can overlook the fact that this is a shonen-ai (boy love) series, then you will most undoubtly love this manga! I started reading about two months ago after I read about it in Anime Insider. After I bought the first one, I was hooked!! I bought up to number 6, and want number 7!! >_<

Trust me, the art is beautifully done, the plot is done oh-so-well too and it is just...wonderful!!!

(Lesse, I have ten bucks...and a one...I CAN BUY SEVEN!! ^_^_^)

A bit of a spoiler warning for this review. I absolutely loved this book if for nothing more than the priceless look on Tohma's face when K throws Shuichi on a TV show in place of Ryuichi. It's just hilarious to see Tohma lose his composure. I really love his charater. It's so unpredictable. Oh, right...this is a review. This book is really just for plot development. Bad Luck gets a new manager and a new keyboardist all in the same day! (Yea!) Karma finally catches up with Taki Aizawa. (double yea!) I really love Tohma. Just had to say that one more time. Read the book and you'll see why!

Hey, just wanted to tell you that Maki Murakami has her OWN doujinshi circle called "Crocodile" so when there are no more mangas of Gravitation to buy, scout online for Maki's official REMIX GRAVITATION doujinshis. There are over a dozen. They contain the kind of stuff her publishers would not have allowed her to publish in Gravitation. (Be X Boy would have though.) Basically, if you don't get Remix, you dont have the complete series. Note that because of the content, Remic Gravitation will never be translated into English & sold in stores, but if you're lucky there will be fan translations online.

Gravitation has greatly surprised me. It excels at several aspects. The character developement is some of the best I've seen. The translation/language is outstanding. The dialouge is fun, emotional, and excitingly bold. The art is outstanding as well, and it's neat to see how the character art evolves as the story progresses. The story works at a fast enough pace that it's very easy to become hooked. And this excitement stays consistent throughout the different volumes as well.
While it does deal with controversial themes, and is intensly mature at times- it isn't entertaining to just a niche audience. It covers a broad spectrum of themes- the relationship between Yuki and Shuichi isn't the only thing that will have you clinging to your seat (and it will!). The story of Shuichi's band "Bad Luck" will interest anyone who likes music, especially those that dig the Japanese visual kei bands.
The anime however, does not do it justice- and should under no circumstances be used to judge the manga. The anime is at best a treat for those that have already read the manga, and want to see it in moving color. Otherwise, it could not stand up on its on. It moves too quickly through it's narrow 13 episode limit.
I whole heartedly recommend this title. This easily ranks somewhere at the top of my list. I haven't been able to put it down.

this book better be good coach G cuz the main reason i bought it was cuz i dont have a ssr book and plus i want to get in your mind coach. haha just kidding. i dont know why im writing this but ill write another one after ive read it and im truely touched lol

see you in class
Lumby

This book is an awesome book! I could easily relate to Conner and his journey towards accepting God. The book is so well written that I could not put it down, I had to finish it. It is such an easy, yet enjoyable, book to read, I don't see how I could give it less than five stars. Gerasimou is a wonderful writer, and I hope to see him write many more books to come. BEST BOOK EVER by the COOLEST guy ever!

At times the flow of the book was a bit choppy but overall I enjoyed the story. I liked the fantastic aspects of the story, like the angels and the unexplainable misses and getaways but I could have done without the profanity. I know it was well intended but I was still a bit shocked. Overall I agreed with the author's views on Christianity and faith and I also enjoyed the character study on the main character. I would recommend this book to a struggling Christian or someone teetering with faith. Just be wary of the violence and profanity.

Dear Reader, I wrote this book to put to rest many of the demons that had plauged me throughout my life when it came to my faith in God. I just took events from my own life and the feelings that I was experiencing at those times and worked them into the story. This book is not sugar-coated. It is not edited for content. It is not intended for the faint of heart. It is based on my story, faults and all. I hope that if you choose to read it, you can take something positive away from it and maybe renew your faith in God, or if you dont have a faith, you can see how an imperfect, curseing, angry, selfish guy like me came to have some. I truely hope you enjoy my book.

V. Nicholas Gerasimou

Dear Reader, I wrote this book to put to rest many of the demons that had plauged me throughout my life when it came to my faith in God. I just took events from my own life and the feelings that I was experiencing at those times and worked them into the story. This book is not sugar-coated. It is not edited for content. It is not intended for the faint of heart. It is based on my story, faults and all. I hope that if you choose to read it, you can take something positive away from it and maybe renew your faith in God, or if you dont have a faith, you can see how an imperfect, curseing, angry, selfish guy like me came to have some. I truely hope you enjoy my book.

V. Nicholas Gerasimou