Conferences Books

I only read a few chapters, on "one man one vote" decisions, and skimmed a few others, so this is not a full-scale review. Despite the editor's ingenuous but severe left-wing slant, both in his selections and in his comments, this is still a valuable book. It reveals in a way that no other work could, what really went on behind many of the key Supreme Court decisions that re-shaped American politics, government, and life. If you believe that personalities don't influence history, or that the Court is above politics, this book might correct your misapprehensions.

This is the best book I have read. It is the Ball Four of the Supreme Court. It is a must for anyone going into law or who cares about how our country works. It is scary yet comforting to read what really goes on in The Supreme Court.

We have used this book many times and have given copies to lots of our friends. If you are interested in thru-hiking the AT, this is the first book you should buy.

This book is the bible for AT thru-hikers, and a fun read to boot. It's packed full of facts about the trail, the shelters, and the places along the way. Plus, lots of quotes and tips from previous hikers

Bailey has written an excellent book. It demonstrates the reasons why Wilson's attempt to create a lasting peace failed, and then the author gives quality support that not only supports his view, but knocks down opposition to his standpoint. He also includes political cartoons from newpapers that allow you to see public opinion and they support his own opinion. I enjoyed the book for these reasons and because the way it was written helped me to remember what I had read. I would especially recomend this book to any student studying American History. Bailey's writing is clear and concise and will be an eye opener.

Bailey explicitly states in his bibliographic essay that he has created a work of synthesis rather than a work of original research. This synthesis, however, is a wonderful work of history. Bailey excellently covers the movements of the post-World War I peace effort without spending too much time going back and forth between the armistice and the war or pre-war days. As such, this book reads very easily because the flow is very simple.

Bailey's writing style also makes undertaking a daunting task relatively facile. Bailey's topic may be relative to World War I but it is not a military history but rather, more along the lines of a political or even social history. He includes details about diplomatic efforts undertaken at the end of World War I and also covers issues relative to propagating the armistice in the United States. At the very least, the cartoons stand as period pieces that speak volumes about the life and culture of early twentieth century.

Those of you who have read Bailey's work before know that he writes in an intelligent and sophisticated manner but one need not be a college level wordsmith to fully comprehend or follow his work. Because this is a synthesis, this may not be a comprehensive study of everything that happened between 1911 and 1920. However, this is a great place to start. Think of this as a building block on which you might build an understanding of the world at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Ian Rankin's THE NAMING OF THE DEAD receives James Gale's award-winning voice and theatre training as it tells of Inspector Rebus, who begins work on a simple suicide case during a pre-conference dinner at Edinburgh Castle and finds his probe leads to some dangerous and unexpected venues of higher power and murder. Politics and drama come to life in this audio drama, a recommended pick for any collection strong in audio murder thrillers.

The beauty of a series such as the Inspector Rebus series is that you are growing along with the character, you see Inspector Rebus change, or not change as the case may be as the times and the world around him evolves. This particular installment of the story is more melancholy than any of the others in the series. Rankin has grown masterfully in the way he writes atmospherically about Edinburgh and its surroundings. His descriptions of the slums, the police stations, Rebus' flat, Cafferty's mansion are very conise but also very precise. He also imbued Rebus with a cynicism and weariness which goes along with his noirish descriptions. The introduction of Siobhan Clark was a welcome breath of fresh air a few books ago. In this book however, you can palpably feel Rebus descending deeper into his despiration about his future on the force and the growing cynicism that is enveloping Siobhan.

As the previous reviewer had stated, this installment takes place at the G8 summit in Gleneagle in Scotland in 2005. Rankin weaves a tidy and unexpected plot, as usual. he is masterful in pulling the reader into the details of the police procedure as well as into the people in the story.

The juxtoposition of real life events and the familiar characters in this novel however makes the story all the more urgent and it made me more uneasy than usual. which is the point of the novel. I sensed a denouement coming for Rebus, he is mere single digit years away from retirement, all that he had: his wife and daughter are gone now, and he is tired of tilting at windmills but can't get himself to stop. I hope that Rankin isn't playing with his reader's emotions, because that would be a truly devastating blow to my reading habit if rebus were to disappear completely from my life. Yet I think that refocusing on Siobhan isn't such a bad turn of events, if handled by Mr. Rankin.

This is an engrossing book for the Rebus fans, because it is familiar and adventurous at the same time. I would recommend it highly for all mystery fans, although i would say that knowing the history of all the characters would be essential to your enjoyment.

How you rate this Inspector Rebus story may depend to some extent on what you think of the solution to the mystery, which is obviously something a reviewer ought not to give away. On the other hand it will take you nearly 500 very enjoyable pages before you get there. So far as this reader is concerned, there is nothing much wrong with the solution. I can't persuade myself that it is the job of a detective story to turn out like a factual police investigation in real life, and although the outcome should not be preposterous it ought to be imaginative, and it is imaginative here.

I have no idea whether Ian Rankin belongs to the Agatha Christie school of whodunit plotting, or to the Raymond Chandler school. We know from Chandler himself that he wrote most of his Marlowe tales without knowing who the murderer was: Mrs Christie was not so forthcoming so far as I am aware, but surely she must have had the final denouements in mind from the outset and structured the rest of it round them so that we can be as amazed as the respectful and silent gatherings who listen to Poirot or Miss Marple explaining all over ten or a dozen pages. Where Rankin seems to me to side with Chandler is in making the rest of the story and the characterisation more significant in their own right than they are in the solution-focused Christie style, and I find that to my own liking. In fact this is the first Rebus story I have ever read, but it will not be the last. The glum, dogged and cantankerous old corner-cutter is getting on in years, now within a year of compulsory retirement and obviously facing a bleak outlook when that comes, as there is nothing much in his life except the job. His portrayal is sympathetic and quite convincing if not exactly delineated in as much depth as Hamlet, so is that of his oppo Siobhan Clarke, and convincing also, if less sympathetic, is that of the other main players. The storyline is absolutely excellent in my own opinion, and it held my interest completely through what is quite a long book. Rankin has true storytelling technique, the result of experience as well as of talent. Links between episodes are very artfully done and if one's attention wanders at all it is liable to mean rereading a couple of paragraphs. The background in July 2005 - the Gleneagles summit of the G8, the British Olympics bid for 2012 and the 7/7 bombings in London - is inspired, and the scene-setting in the author's native Edinburgh is as authentic as we would expect. The writing is of high quality, but in case anyone was wondering, a `rammy' is a fight and `Shug' is `Hugh'.

One detail in particular has not worked out in quite the way Rankin obviously expected, and Mr Blair's brainwave of obtaining `loans' rather than donations to the Labour party (the idea being to avoid declaration) blew back in his face in spectacular fashion. This very excusable misprognostication does affect the credibility of one aspect of the final outcome, I suppose, but at the end of the day this is fiction, and the historical backdrop is very convincing by and large. I don't believe I would have wanted the story to resemble the miserable real-life murder investigations that I have become all too familiar with. There is an appropriate standard for different kinds of things, or `Est modus in rebus' as they say in the Classics, and that suits me very well provided the narrator is good enough at his job. I was sorry to come to the end of this book. Dear old Rebus may be bowing out, but I have all his previous adventures to get to know, and I am looking forward to it.

The latest installment in a long-running series featuring the alcoholic policeman and outsider John Rebus. This is another variation of the classic Raymond Chandler device of an alienated hero who is an obsessive seeker of the truth. In this case, set in the mildly exotic locale of Edinburgh. This book is as much about Rebus' partner, Siobhan Clarke, as Rebus himself, and deals with issues of revenge and temptation. Rebus' long time gangster nemesis makes an appearance. The quality of writing is above average. The plot, however, is excessively complex with a somewhat strained ending.

"The Naming of The Dead," by Ian Rankin, current, highly-successful dean of Scottish mystery writers, is 18th in his "tartan noir" Detective Inspector John Rebus series, and is set in and around the beautiful-to-the-tourist, but not necessarily to the locals, east coast Scots city of Edinburgh. It takes place in July, 2005; Rebus's younger brother Michael, of whom we occasionally heard, has just died at 54, victim, Rebus proposes, of "Scotland's mortality rate that of a Third World nation. Lifestyle, diet, genes - plenty of theories."

The Group of Eight (G8) summit, of political and economic leaders of the most industrialized eight countries, is set to open in the famous golfing resort of Gleneagles, near Edinburgh. Leaders as diverse and famous as American President George Bush, British Prime minister Tony Blair, and Russian premier Putin are about to converge here, and all the British intelligence services, particularly Edinburgh's, and its police brass, are determined to keep a lid on things. They've warned off trouble-making Rebus, and buried him as far from the action as they can. But crowds of protesters, led by Sir Bob Geldorf, record industry figure/philanthropist; Bono, lead singer of the Irish band U2, and Bianca Jagger are coming too. The last thing they want to do is keep the lid on.

Then Ben Webster, British cabinet undersecretary, dies in a mysterious fall from his hotel room. It could be murder, and it could be suicide, and, suddenly, Rebus and his protégé, DI Siobhan Clarke, are on the scene, too, much to the horror of the mighty. Furthermore, there's soon another, apparently interconnected, serial murder case: someone's killing off really unpleasant sex offenders. Rebus and Clarke are on the case, no two ways about it; the brass is really unhappy.

This book is, unfortunately, complex and confusing. Rankin's reportage on the G8 summit is accurate and vivid: furthermore, we get the -imagined-- pleasure of watching a hung-over Rebus knock President Bush off his bike. Then, towards the end, Rebus veers off into the horrific London underground bombings that also happened that July, killing more than 50 people. I consider myself an intelligent reader, but I've no idea why he felt it necessary to do that. Any serious author wants to extend his skills; but the Politics and Current Affairs books are on whole different shelves, aren't they? The music books too, come to that. And when reviewers talk about a mystery transcending its genre, I worry.

However, the mystery as such is quite passable; the characterizations of the major characters, Rebus, Clarke, and Morris Gerald (Big Jer) Cafferty, Edinburgh's crime czar, continue to be enriched. The author can still deliver that city in lively, accurate detail. At one point, he discusses an Edinburgh neighborhood, "Once an area of breweries and factories, where Sean Connery had spent his early years, Fountainbridge was changing. The old industries had all but vanished. The city's financial district was encroaching. Style bars were opening. One of Rebus's favourite old watering-holes had already been demolished, and he reckoned the bingo hall next door - the Palais de Danse as was -- would soon follow. The canal, not much more than an open sewer at one time, had been cleaned up. Families would go there for bike rides, or to feed the swans."

Or: "The City Chambers had been built on top of a plague street called Mary King's Close. Years back, Rebus had investigated a murder in the dank underground labyrinth - Cafferty's own son the victim. The place had been tidied up and now was a tourist haunt in the summer." Guilty as charged; tourist, me. I do love Rankin's work, and a few years ago, did make a pilgrimage to Edinburgh, where I found the relevant tour, right under the City Hall.

Ray Kroc's autobiography provides an interesting glimpse of the McDonald's system and it's development. The book is well written and interesting to read. Despite this, I do not recommend the book. It offers no wisdom or lessons learned to take away from the book besides Kroc's greatness. (Kroc never suffered from an excess of humility.) In addition, I found it difficult to like Kroc. He rarely found fault with himself and blamed others for his and his businesses problems. Particularly galling to me was when Kroc had the opportunity to invest in McDonalds and another earlier business opportunity, his wife of 30 years was unconvinced of the plans wisdom. Rather than spend the time to bring her aboard, he tossed her aside continued with his business plans.

There's a lot to say about McDonald's, or about any business. But this isn't a book about McDonald's, it's about the life of the man behind it. It's a quaint book. It doesn't tell you about the pathos of the man's life; he mentions his daughter I believe just once throughout the whole book. Instead, we're given a nostalgic rosey-colored view of what got this man up in the morning, the ideas that chewed at his mind, and his drive to achieve them.

Ray Kroc didn't even become interested in McDonalds until he was in his 50's. In fact, the autobiography is most interesting when discussing the series of events leading up to his making the acquaintance of the McDonald brothers, who had a small family-owned venue which was able to pop out hamburgers for a nickel a piece. Before this time, Kroc worked various odd jobs around the city, during prohibition he even played piano at an illeagal salon. He eventually settled in as a sales-rep, eagerly hopping from one product to another, from one costumer to the next. It might not be the ideal life, but Kroc's enthusiasm sure makes it seem that way. At one point he was truly excited about marketing some type of outdoor fold-in chair that his friend had made - he was positive that it was going to take the world by storm. And later he gets into marketing a product called a multi-mixer, which can make six milk shakes at once! This, he thought, will really bring in the dough.

In the meantime, he hauled from one business to another, trying out various ideas. Some days he would hardly sleep - in one passage in the book, he talks about his tricks for getting to sleep as quickly as possible after his head hit the mat. That way he wouldn't lose valuable time trying to fall asleep.

There are a lot of fun anecdotes in the first third of the book. But what brings the book to the next level is the description of how he stumbled upon the McDonald's brothers, and made their business (unfortunately, without them) one of the most successful businesses of the century. Kroc applies the same raw enthusiasm and smarts, but the scale of his business keeps exponentially increasing. In this section, the nature of the anecdotes changes - they're more like what you would expect, with meeting so-and-so who now has millions of dollars, and striking a deal with so-and-so who is now stinking rich. And then there are still the more humbling stories, which match up with the folding-chair experience above - like the creation of the HulaBurger, a fried pinapple with cheese and fixins in a bun. Kroc thought it was the best thing he had ever tasted, how could it ever fail?

McDonald's didn't change Ray Kroc, it's clear that the business came straight out of a person who knew what people wanted. Throughout the book, Kroc is solving problems, working his hardest, observing human nature. The ideals you see in a young piano-playing or door-peddling Ray are the same ideals that created the double arches. By connecting all of these dots, this autobiography depicts a very inspiring man, albeit from rose-tinted lenses, along with the values of remaining honest, genuine, and business-like.

This is a great book for all entrepreneurs who are starting out and a good reminder for established ones. The title fits the book very well since it does show that Ray did make a lot of gambles to make it all work out and he started out an average middle income citizen like everybody else. Lessons like:
- Sweating it out
- Constantly trying new things
- Learning from mistakes

Very good lessons in business and life.

Although the first few chapters on his biography do not have much to do about business.

It is not often you unearth a business biography that starts your stomach rumbling with hunger while maintaining your attention. No matter what your perception of the fast food hamburger industry, Grinding it Out provides a pleasant look into the origin of franchising and fast food. One will also find some gratification discovering the extent to which Ray Kroc put quality and integrity on an equal basis with profit; something possibly unexpected to those with prior negative perceptions of the mogul due to his abundant wealth.

Anderson provides a wealth of detail outlining the business dealings behind the growth of the McDonalds franchise. This book will be of interest to those with a curiosity towards the making of an industry. I recommend reading this book but suggest doing so with a full stomach.

A very good book, a definite read for anyone looking to learn more about start up business or true entrepreneurship.

Although, I think it's very important to look at the fact that things are much different now of days then when Ray Kroc started up Mcdonalds. It is very inspiring though to find out how old he was when he started this business. Though, it's nice to read of all these young kids starting up business, it's also nice to read about a man in his 50's finally doing a start up that he'd dream t of.

I have to have this book!It has so much support and advice.It also has information on different state laws on homeschooling.

This is a good resource book. As far as helping you individually in your homeschooling it's not a good book. But telling you were to go for help it is great.

I rely on the reviews of others when I buy books. After reading one review listed here, I was concerned that the information would not be reliable. However, upon reviewing the NEW edition, I discovered that the authors have not only updated the legal and support sections, but have updated resource info and even the discount coupons included in the book. As an old-time homeschooler, I can say that this stuff changes in the homeschooling world almost daily, and the authors deserve credit for staying abreast of the latest legal news as well as the constantly changing homeschool support group information. A big round of applause is deserved for keeping the resources up-to-date too -- which also changes with the wind. My favorite parts of the book are the "typcial day" and "curriculum" sections. Everyone who has homeschooled for any length of time knows there is no such thing as a typical day or a typical curriculum. We also know everyone assumes that there is. The Lepperts have provided a glimpse into what a typical day and a typical curriculum might be like. They are careful to let the reader know that one-size-does-not-fit-all. That's exactly what makes homeschooling such a wonderful choice for so many square pegs who don't fit the round holes of traditional schooling. This is a MUST READ for anyone considering homeschooling -- and the coupons are a nice plus as the discounts they offer really do help pay for the cost of the book!

I was completely disappointed when I purchased this book. Most of the information in it is out dated. The contact information for the homeschooling services was inaccurate. I wasted a lot of time looking up the correct phone numbers and web addresses for many of the companies listed. I think the authors should update their information or people are going to start thinking that they're just out to make a quick buck.

While this book does have some helpful resources it's summations of the laws and support groups is out of date and incomplete. So let the buyer beware regarding those two issues. Benefit from the information in the rest of this book but most certainly do not rely on it to be an authority of homeschooling laws and support in the state in which you live. Do exactly as the authors indicate--check with local homeschoolers before you begin. You'll be better off finding those laws and groups via the internet than relying on this book.

Hopefully the authors will make corrections in subsequent issues as they have been encouraged to do.

I am still a bit not sure (out of shock) at how the world was shaped back in 1919 by novices and youngsters who were given a free reign to decide and chart what the world was to look like. This work sounds fictional, perhaps because I could not believe the going ons as detailed in the book. From the first chapters to the end, this is an amazing journey through the anals of history and some of the ridiculous plans and actions taken by the fathers of the mordern world as shaped out in Paris in 1919.

This is a well-written, well-researched book, with good insight and valuable information. However, where it fails utterly is in basic logic. While the best and most comprehensive European treaty up to that point, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, is blamed throughout for all the world's problems, he fails to show how the Treaty was responsible.

In the vast majority of cases, the Treaty had nothing to do with the later problems of history. Indeed, many of the problems he blames on the Treaty were the product, not of the Treaty, but rather of the failure to enforce the Treaty. That, and not the Treaty, was what lead to World War II, the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe, and the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The failure in logical thinking here is quite disturbing.

One of the best cases to be made as to the merits of the Treaty is the fact that the map of Europe today and the peaceful organization of Europe via common council, both stem from this Treaty and its objectives. The prevailing national boundaries of today are based on common language, the creation of nations large enough to prevail, access to the sea, and traditional historical boundaries -- exactly the formula used in 1919. The one place in Europe where the Treaty's approach to nationhood has been discarded -- Yugoslavia -- is, in fact, the place that has experienced the greatest problems. The European Union, NATO, and European Parliament of today are the extensions of the League of Nations devised in 1919. The Europe of today is very much the fulfillment of Woodrow Wilson's vision of 1919.

David Andelman has written a very compelling historical account that vividly illustrates the eternal principle that those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Individuals & nations can only overlook it at their own peril, as his book so powerfully illustrates.
I sometimes coach executives on how to become global managers. It often needs to start with an undistorted understanding of history. Reading The World Is Flat is not enough. David's book is a must read to gain perspective necessary to think global, even though we need to act local.

I would not be surprised if David's book forms the basis of a movie.

Deepak / Dick Sethi
CEO Organic Leadership

A must-read for internationalists and anyone interested in the going global, including today's students and new professionals entering the new world marketplace.

"A Shattered Peace" will take you on an important journey through history, beginning at the decision-making center of Paris, post WWI, which is filled with political intrigue, high-minded Western idealism, and lack of cultural awareness (sometimes cultural superiority). With 20/20 hindsight you follow in the footsteps of various diplomats and revolutionaries around the world as their hopes are dashed and the playing field is set for the coming century. It is compact, yet gives a full taste of "what could have been", encouraging me to read further about the players and their roles back at the critical moment in history. It's also stimulated quite a few conversations with friends and colleagues around the table.

The sad and perhaps most alarming point of the book is past and present lack of cultural awareness and sensitivity. As an author of a book focusing on the critical importance working globally, today's leaders haven't seemed to learn much. If they won't, the American people must and vote accordingly. [...]

As a resident of the Muddle East, as a citizen of the world with an assumed historical outlook, I see in Edelman's work a successful attempt at pin-pointing the responsibility that lies with the Peace makers of 1919, for most of the woes we suffer today in the Indian sub-continent, in the European Balkans and especially in the Middle East. The book takes what was probably the most momentous event of the 20th Century, and succeeds at drawing conclusions that superfitiality, ignorance, lack of interest and mediocrity, mixed with ravenous self interests, turned a would-be mega event loaded with impact, to one that brought about the vast majority of the misery that befell the entire world for the following 100 years at least. In as far as my immediate neighborhood, Versailles is the one event that can be most held responsible for the unsolveable mess we have in Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, Turkey, West Africa and finally but not least, the Israeli-Arab conflict that will afflict us forever.
Michael Vromen
Tel Aviv, Israel

I am nearing the end of this book and have found it incredibly interesting and just as frightening!

I was skeptical about the reports of alien abductions until I started reading this. Now it takes me a while to pluck up the courage to turn off the lights when I stop reading each night!

A definite must-read for all you skeptics!

This book added to my suspician of a government cover up, opened the pandoras box to Alien abduction, government cover-up, military technology, Similarities between everyone abductee. Theories on all of this and more kept me reading this book cover to cover. Skeptics that want to remain skeptical should not read this book. If you have a closed mind but dont want it to be pried open do not read this book. However anyone else should definitely pick up a copy. Every question I had became answered and questions I never asked were asked and answered. It blows your mind at what could be and what is going on out there. With the help of this book I have come to believe that the government is hostile toward whatever it is that IS out there. We had no part in deciding their welcome, who knows what is to come.

If this book is fiction, it stands up all the way. If not its a bonus, but a pretty scary one if we`re under that much control. What do I think? I underwent a total paradigm shift every time I opened the book so perhaps the question is unfair.

C.D.B. Bryan's journalistic report of his attendance at a huge UFO & alien abduction conference in the early 1990's held at M.I.T. is a clearly written and fair minded look at a complicated and often controversial subject.

Despite the fact that most recent polls indicate that the majority of Americans & indeed the world believe "we're not alone", there are many who refuse to accept or are fearful of discussing the alien abduction phenomenon. Similarly, even when UFO enthusiasts come to agreement about various elements within their own community, there are breaks in the ranks in terms of everything from the effective use of hypnotic regression to the incredibly disturbing notion of alien/human hybrids being harvested.

It can all be dizzyingly confusing and even discouraging for the newly interested and so Bryan's book remains one of the more well organized and objective treatments on the subject. The author never tries to sway the reader in any direction. He stays steadfast to his job of reporting what he saw and trying to make some sense of it without being judgmental or partial to a particular mindset.

In-depth, informative, solidly entertaining and yes at times even patently unbelievable, but it's never boring nor a waste of your time. This would be a great starting point for the novice researcher and a great reference book for the seasoned UFO devotee. I subtracted one star for lack of photos, since a few photos of conference participants would have been a welcome addition and personal touch to this otherwise excellent book.

The books starts out well. The author is attending a conference at MIT about abductions by flying saucers. He's skeptical but respectful. He introduces you to the experts, the scholars, and the abductees. So far, so good.

But in the second half, he gives you LENGTHY descriptions of hypnosis sessions with a pair of abductees --- two women whose stories start off where you'd expect and then get crazier as they progress.

Actually, "crazy" is the wrong word. "Implausible" or "transparent" would be better. The two women need to add a little extra juice to their stories to keep your attention, so they add more alien beings, more strange events, and new places to explore.

This book would be a useful addition to the dozen-or-so books on UFO adbuctions if the second half was dropped. As I read it, my mind changed from skeptical and entertained (why DO so many people say they were abducted by flying saucers?) to cringing with embarassment (the Nordic E.T. in the giant cowboy hat was too much).

This book is a real eye-opener, and delves into practical matters regarding how to "reason." It leaves out, technicalities and reduces the ideas to the level an everyday person can comprehend.
(Nwankama Nwankama, Intelligence Analyst)

Giving this book one star is, I admit, a little unfair since I have not read it, but one thing must be kept in mind. What does one base one's critical thinking upon? One must have an anchor or base in order to think critically. Part, no I will say much, of what is wrong with our society today is the fact that no one seems to accept that there is absolute truth. This is what we should strive for when we think, when we discuss, when we argue and we do any activity that involves thinking. One doesn't simply think critically. I do not know if the author mentions this or not, so you can read me the riot act if he does, for I am admittedly ignorant. What I am saying, though, is that we must approach any activity with an eye to finding the truth. Without it, we are lost.

Raise your intelligence with this book; the first few chapters will enable the reader to approach information absorbtion likely in a way they perhaps never considered. For others it will confirm their approach to open and thoughtful listening, and go forward with the assurance that they were doing things right. The book is an easy and engaging read, and, my hunch is that it is a classic in this area.

To be more magnetic, engaging and introspective, requires an inquisitive mind. Alec Fisher's, Critical Thinking, teaches you how to think about thinking. It's not a passive exercise and neither is the read. Fisher actually takes you through exercises within the book to get you accustomed to thinking better. A must read for anyone interested in out-thinking competitors, fine tuning your thoughts or merely learning how to become more persuasive in your presentations.

Edward Brown
Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute

The author takes the reader -- very methodically -- through all the problems and trip-ups of thinking which cause ordinarily smart people to come to pretty stupid conclusions. He also provides "Thinking Maps" so that, once aware of how we can go afoul, we can choose to think in a more disciplined and scientific way. For these reasons, every person, starting at an early age, should have this decidedly academic book as part of their curriculum. In that setting, the exercises to spot sloppy thinking and instead use critical thinking would be wonderful. As an adult, however, reading this book on a treadmill, all the exercises interwoven through the text, slowed me down. It is for this reason that I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars.

If you like Hallmark prose and "poetry," if you're still stuck in a 1970's Weltanschauung, if you enjoy distorted translations, if you like having others decide which parts of the traditional liturgy you will even see, you will love this siddur (prayerbook.) As for me, I have suffered with it for the past 20 years as a member of a Reform congregation in Maryland.

Can you imagine... whole sections of some prayers, such as the Shema, are left out. I suspect much of this was for ideological reasons dictated by the elite of the Reform Movement. For example, the entire section in the Shema about Tzizit is missing, because, hey, who needs to be reminded about Mitzvot, after all?

Often, a section of the liturgy is "freely translated" but "maintains the spirit of the original," according to the editors. The problem is, the "spirit" is often quite a bit stretched and distorted by the time the editors have gotten through with it. And these distortions are *in place* of an accurate translation, not as an alternate reading. Another serious problem I have seen is that Hebrew school students (and sometimes adult Hebrew beginners) often believe the "translation" on the left side represents the Hebrew on the facing page.

Some years ago, I saw a prototype of a new Reform prayerbook. I thought it was quite well done, and although there were some nits to pick, a *much* better work than Gates of Prayer.

In general, I'd recommend congregations look into the new prayerbook available from Union of Reform Judaism or even develop their own prayerbooks (not all that hard to do with Heberw/English word processing software readily available at reasonable cost.)

As for Grates of Prayer, I'd recommend that we round up all the existing copies and donate them to various Lutheran congregations - that's how far this book is from Jewish tradition.

No wait, I wouldn't want to inflict this book on those nice Lutherans!

Some of the sayings and meditations are great however, the prayers themselves are more designed for congregational use. Me living in Texas and not having a Synagogue nearby, this is bad for me; it may be good for others however.

The words, ancient and yet new, lift my spirit beyond its usual bounds while binding it to other like spirits going back at least 5,000 years. I rejoice in seeing and feeling the Presence through the words of other seekers and am grateful for their trust, their seeking, their perseverance. In the task of building upon the trust of those before me, this book has raised my jumping-off point.

This prayer book is good, but you should be aware that the Reform Movement has replaced it by publishing Mishkan T'Filah, which is a written in a more contemparary light.

This is THE book of Reform Judaism's liturgy. It is Universally known and used. Rating this book is actually nonsense. . .it just is. It's a worship guide and as such has a potpouri of thoughts (some very old, some new) to help congregations have meaningful worship services.