Cosmos Books

This book is a real treasure, filled with love, deceit, friendship and strength. The Greek-American sisters Nicole and Theodora, struggled with the family values they believed in and the real world they lived in. The beautifully interwoven Parsenis family, provided support and guidance for each other.

Theodora had to come to terms with an adulterous husband and her alcoholic Mother in law. While Nicole's character developed, she began to understand the difference between and infatuation and love. These sisters had such a wonderful caring relationship with each other. It was this family's love that guided the protagonists to grow and make wiser decisions. Family members can have a positive impact on each other's lives as did the Parsenis.

This is one of the best books I have read over the past year. The story is incredibly real. In this book the reader finds joy, sadness, tragedy, wisdom, and the ultimate resilience of the human soul. This book is a real tour de force.

This is a great read. It lets the reader get totally involved with this family and experience all of the love, tradition, culture, politics, heartbreak and faith that the family experiences through life. It also gives the reader a good understanding of the expectations of one another in an ethnic family.
The descriptions of the Greek island and the time spent with their grandparents brought tears to the eyes. This is a beautiful book, one you want to read more than once.

After having met the authors, Lynne and Valarie Constantine, in person at a "Latte and Literature" book-club meeting, I can see a little bit of both of the main characters, Greek-American sisters Nicole and Theodora, in them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading their book about the close-knit Parsenis family. The love and warmth that they felt for one another was quite obvious. Theodora had to come to terms with an adulterous husband, and Nicole was in a relationship where she was the other woman and wavering about what to do. They both had to deal with the death of a parent. The sisters were strong women who were always there for each other. Family was first and foremost for them. I was hooked after reading the prologue. I read it in two days; couldn't put it down. Circle Dance is a story to be enjoyed by all nationalities, no matter what your ethnic background. Looking forward to a prequel, sequel or maybe both. How about it, Lynne
and Valarie?

Gloria Lockwood Evans
Fairfield, CT

First-time authors Lynne and Valerie Constantine capture perfectly the heart-tugs that are so keen for two young women claiming their adulthood in a Greek American family that is steeped in the tradition and values of another culture. There is a lot of wisdom shared in these pages, as well as subtle humor and a surprising amount of drama. The two main characters are drawn with piercing yet compassionate insight as they come to understand and appreciate at a new level the value of family, integrity, and tradition. If you are from a close family (Greek or not), you will enjoy this book; it lovingly portrays the interplay between three generations and the way a rich Greek heritage permeates this spirited family. This was the kind of book that compelled me to keep the light on way past my bedtime. The two sisters are lively and real in their struggles with both internal and external demons. It was fascinating to watch the older sister, who despite her obvious perspicacity was led astray by her heart (even as she watched her sister's life almost derail because of her blind love for a man). The writing actually gets sharper as the plot unfolds. A thoroughly worthwhile read!

This book gives a detailed and comprehensive account of modern cosmology and the astronomical observations that provide its theoretical foundation. Many charts, diagrams, and photographs supplement the text. The book is logically organized and easy to follow for those already acquainted with this material. But a beginner, willing to put in some effort, will also find the material comprehensible, although some effort is required to master the basic concepts. All in all a good choice for anyone who wants to know more about the universe and its ultimate fate.

Ellen Jackson, author
THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE

The author does a most excellent job of describing a quest that absorbs astronomers today in words that the reader can undrstand. For me, he could have included a few formulas ...is "the inverse square law" really easier to understand than the appropriate formula?

This is a terrific astronomy/cosmology book with a focus on providing an overview and update on what is known and (& not known) about dark matter and dark energy. It's a beautiful, large format book that is well laid out and printed on high quality paper with lots of beautifully drawn, textbook quality figures (drawn by James Symonds), data, and pictures, all at a bargain price. The book is well organized and comprehensive, and Nicolson writes clearly and concisely for the literate general reader, often throwing in helpful analogies. I am an engineer and astronomically literate, and I learned a lot from this book.

Dark matter is invariably described as forming a 'halo' (ring) around a galaxy extending far beyond the visible stars. I knew from college physics that the motion of a particle inside a spherical shell of matter is completely unaffected by the gravity of the shell, because the gravitational pull from all the little pieces of mass in the shell cancel out everywhere inside. So prior to this book, I was always puzzled as to how a galactic dark matter 'halo', (supposedly) far outside the visible part of the galaxy, was able to flatten the rotation curve of visible stars in the galaxy?

Nicolson is not adverse to including a simple equation now and then, and he does this in his clear explanation of how dark matter speeds up star rotation speeds in the outer parts of a galaxy. The equation shows the average rotational speed of a star about the galaxy center depends on the ratio (mass 'inside orbit'/radius of orbit). Hence to flatten galaxy velocity rotation profiles, it is only necessary that mass inside star orbits increase linearly with radius. This requires nothing more (Nicolson explains) than dark matter density that falls off as (1/radius^2), because the volume of a sphere increases as (radius^3). In other words flat galaxy velocity curves are not caused by the 'outside' halo of dark matter, but by an increasing density of dark matter toward the center of the galaxy. It is the dark matter through which the stars are orbiting, that is 'inside' their orbits, that speeds up their rotation. Only after reading this book did I understand this.

There is the occasional lapse in the book, for example, the mass of a muon (page 59) is described as approximately 400 times that of an electron (it's closer to 200 times), and a surprising omission is that there is no figure showing measured galaxy velocity rotation curves, one of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting the existence of dark matter. But minor quibbles aside, this is an excellent book for those wanting to understand the latest research, data, and thinking in cosmology. Highly recommended.

Iain Nicolson has done a wonderful job of presenting many of the facts and hypotheses about cosmology to the layman (and to the interested high school student).

The book starts with some fundamentals of astronomy. We then proceed to a discussion of Big Bang cosmology. And we learn all about the Hubble expansion, as well as observed evolution of the visible universe, comparison of the time since the Big Bang to the lifetimes of the oldest stars. In addition, we're told about Big Bang nucleosynthesis (this is one topic I would have wanted to see discussed in more detail), and evidence of the Big Bang from the cosmic microwave background.

After this, we learn about the existence of dark matter in spiral galaxies and galaxy clusters. But what's the dark matter made of? One possibility is "MACHOs," (MAssive Compact Halo Objects). However, the author explains that MACHOs alone can not account for the dark matter in our own galaxy, much less for the dark matter elsewhere.

It turns out that we need to look for non-baryonic sources of dark matter. And that means "WIMPs," (Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles). It also means wondering about whether dark matter is all that cold.

Next, we look at an interesting hypothesis: maybe Newtonian gravitation breaks down at high accelerations! Most physicists think this idea is wrong, and so far (as this book shows), the evidence for it is not all that favorable.

That brings us back to looking for those WIMPs. And we see some of the ideas for detecting them including Super-Kamiokande (a water-based neutrino detector) and atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes.

Nicolson's next topic is the inflationary model of cosmic expansion. And there is a section on the growth of cosmic microwave background density fluctuations, including results from the BOOMERanG balloon experiments and the WMAP mission.

Now comes something relatively new and exciting. In the past ten years, we've seen that data from supernovae indicate that the expansion of our universe is accelerating. And that leads to a search for the driver of this expansion, which most folks call "dark energy." That in turn brings up questions about whether there needs to be a "multiverse" to explain what otherwise would be an unusual set of coincidences about the properties of our own visible universe. In addition, it means questions about the history of dark energy in our own universe. And there is a discussion of possible outcomes: eternal accelerating expansion (where gravity loses), a "Big Crunch," (where gravity wins) or a "Big Rip," (where the repulsive force destroys everything).

I highly recommend this book.

This book is a detailed overview of the contemporary ideas in cosmology, the meandering history of their conception and development, and the experimental observations supporting and sometimes contradicting them including the most contemporary experiments and collaborations up to 2006 and the future experiments planned. The emphasis is on concepts and how astronomical observations support or refute theories, formulas are used very rarely, the narrative is illustrated with numerous beautiful diagrams, photographs and pictures from state of the art telescopes. Theoretical highly speculative ideas in cosmology are also given some discussion. Big part of the book would be accessible to anyone that had a general physics course, but it contains a wealth of detailed information tailored to people that actually would want to work in the area like physics students specializing in cosmology and astronomy students and they will be able to pick up much more from that book than laymen. I've read the book in 3 days but most of the material wasn't new to me, a beginner reader would probably need 1-2 weeks. At the end, the reader will gain a very clear conceptual understanding of the main picture in contemporary cosmology and which observations agree/disagree with it. I HIGHLY recommend this book before or during any course in cosmology, dark matter or dark energy. If you want to be more informed than your adviser, read that book :)

Chapter 1 introduces the reader to general astronomy - types and lives of stars, galaxies, clusters - and a basic understanding of light spectrum and redshift necessary to understand astronomical observations.

Chapter 2 is an introduction to general cosmology: the expanding Universe, Hubble time, redshift, microwave background. The author gives a very clear account of observations that support the current Big Bang theory. A very understandable short story of the different stages in the cosmic evolution is given, including nucleosynthesis and recombination.

Chapter 3 discusses astronomical evidence from galaxies and clusters supporting the dark matter hypothesis. All main points are there from optical observations of Coma cluster in 1933, through the rotation curves of spiral galaxies obtained from radio emission of their neutral hydrogen clouds to the contemporary observations of X-ray emitting gas allowing to map the mass distribution in galaxy clusters and large eliptical galaxies and the most recent observations of weak gravitational lensing in clusters. Mentioned is the 'dark galaxy' of swirling hydrogen gas without stars in it which was observed in 2005. The author points out problems of the dark matter scenario - the observations of planetary nebulae in some eliptical galaxies in 2003 suggest they don't contain much dark matter, the inferred profiles of dark matter halos in many galaxies do not show the expected cusps at the center, and the observed number of small satelite galaxies in galaxies disagrees with the expectations based on dark matter simmulations of galaxy formation.

Chapter 4 is about a possible dark matter candidate - MAssive Compact Halo Objects (MACHO) - which gravitational microlensing observations suggest can't comprise more than 20% of the dark matter halo in our Galaxy and hence can't account for the total amount of dark matter.

Chapter 5 is about another dark matter candidate - the neutrinos. Discussed are the experiments confirming the neutrino oscillations which show neutrinos have small masses. Constraints from cosmological observations of the microwave background fluctuations and recent surveys on the large scale structure show that if neutrinos are indeed only 3 types, they don't have enough mass to explain the necessary amount of dark matter in the Universe. The reader is introduced to the ideas of hot and cold dark matter of which only the latter is shown to produce enough large scale structure compatible with observations. The chapter concludes with Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as viable candidates for dark matter and guesses of what these particles could be from highly speculative extensions of Standard model like Supersymmetry, Kaluza-Klein particles, axions and other blah blah blah ....

Chapter 6 is devoted to the MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) as an alternative to dark matter. The chapter starts with giving the complete list of observations that disagree with the cold dark matter simmulations. Then MOND is introduced, with its characteristic acceleration separating the Newtonian regime from the MOND regime. The successes of MOND are listed - the spectacular fit to rotation curves with only one fitting parameter, the Tully-Fisher relation - as well its discrepancy with the data from galaxy clusters and the recent observation of 'dark galaxy' in 2005.

Chapter 7 describes the numerous experimental collaborations searching for dark matter WIMPs through direct detection of nuclear recoils when a WIMP hits a nucleus or indirect gamma ray detection from WIMP annihilation. The expected crossections, types of detectors and experimental difficulties are listed. Mentioned is the controversial result of DAMA collaboration and some hints of WIMP annihilation, although inconclusive, from gamma ray observations across our Galaxy. The main proof of dark matter existence, its detection, has yet to come.

Chapter 8 is about the matter-energy content of the Universe, being constrained by the observational data from the cosmic microwave background(CMB). The idea of inflation was posed in the early 1980's to resolve the problem with the finely tunned matter density and the approximate isotropy of the microwave background. Inflation leads to flatness and to big part of the density in the Universe not in the form of baryons. These two stipulations were made before their experimental confirmation in 1990's when the COBE satelite measured the fluctuations in the microwave background. It turned out, the fluctuations in CMB are way too weak to lead to the currently observed large scale structure unless there is a big amount of dark matter uncoupled to baryons and photons. The latest data in CMB comes from the WMAP satelite launched in 2001. The first peak in CMB power spectrum constraints the spatial curvature of Universe which turns out to be flat. The heights and positions of the peaks in the power spectrum fix the ratio of baryonic to dark matter and the total amount of matter. The matter content from CMB is in agreement with the baryon density from the Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory.

Chapter 9 is about using type Ia supernovae to measure the expansion history of the Universe. The reader will learn about the different types of supernovae and why only type Ia can be used as a standard candle. Difficulties in calibrating the supernovae and making sure the supernova from the distant past have the same properties as the contemporary ones are emphasized. The supernova data shows the universe recently entered a period of accelerated expansion which seems to require a nonzero cosmological constant.

Chapter 10 discusses the historical evolution of our cosmological models and how the conflict with observational data, mainly the ages of stars, the large scale structure and the missing nearly 70% of the critical density, finally lead to the idea of including the dark energy in the equation. That term was corroborated later with the supernova results in 1998.

Chapter 11 mainly discusses the nature of the dark energy term and is highly speculative since we don't have a clue what it is and where it comes from. It could be vaccuum energy in the form of cosmological constant or time evolving dark energy in terms of quintessence and phantom fields. The coincidence 'problem', why is the dark energy density similar to the matter density at the current time, is pointed out. Possible crazy 'solutions' are the anthropic principle, multiverse, buble universes, oscillating universes blah blah blah ... The exact nature of the dark energy will determine the future fate of the Universe, be it Big Cool, Crunch, Bounce or Rip Off.

Chapter 12 describes the most contemporary experiments/collaborations and some future ones designed to further constraint the parameters in the standard cosmological model, LCDM. The latest detailed data from CMB contains some yet unexplained correlations in it which may be due to distortions in CMB when it passes through clusters on its way to us. Lyman alpha forest, baryon oscillations, weak gravitational lensing are just some of the few possible techniques mentioned to further constraint our understanding of Cosmos.

I originally became interested in reading this book after my friend's professor mentioned some pieces in it. So as soon as I thought about it again and had a little extra money I went ahead and ordered it, my first exposure to something more than an article of Nibley's.

I feel shallow for saying this, but my favorite aspect of this book was that it was simply fun to read. I'm sort of a geek in the way that I like learning, and this is it. Nibley writes simpler than I would expected and as many pieces in here seem to have been speeches, the style is very conversational and I would almost say rambling--which only makes me respect the man even more. There is just something nice about a scholar who likes to reveal information rather than making a stiff report.

The work is literally divided into two pieces: specifics of the temple concept, modern and ancient; and temple themes of the gospel. Some chapters are more random than others, but all are fascinating due to Nibley's thorought research and sharp mind.

Nibley is indeed a scholar, but that does not mean there isn't a healthy dose of faith in here--which probably makes this more applicable to the LDS folk. Rather than a dump of research, I would say this is more to the respect of educated observations.

All in all, a great, fascinating read.

I have loved this book for years. Hugh Nibley was not only a brilliant man, a great scholar, and a dedicated teacher; he also had the gift of being able to cut past all the endless intellectual distractions to focus on what is important. When I first read this book, frankly, I was blown away. There was so much richness about the temple that I did not know. However, more than all that are the essays and talks on what the implications of all this are for the way should live our life here with regard to what comes hereafter.

A temple is the House of the Lord and God uses it to teach, enrich, and endow the lives of his children. Brother Nibley is right that the temple is a scale model of the universe. It shows not only our place and purpose, but sets us on the correct path through teaching, covenants, and ordinances. Temples make eternity understandable and unite all ages of time in one eternal present with our Father. In this book we not only see what was restored with the Church through revelation, the author also shows us echoes (not sources) of the true teachings in ancient and pagan temples and ceremonies.

There are a wide range of essays on various aspects of the theme of the temple and the cosmos (the everything). In one of them, Brother Nibley even talks about science fiction and the gospel! It is full of interesting illustrations.

Hugh Nibley enriched my own appreciation of the temple through the essays and talks collected in this wonderful book. If you are interested in what he had to say on this important gospel topic, I recommend it to you. The author makes so many great points of so many details that are easy to miss that you will never be able to look at the temple the same way again. And opening your vision to seeing the world anew is what a great teacher does.

I'm no scholar, but I foind this book to be very readable and extremely stimulating. Nibley's thought is astounding. While a couple of his statements on science are now a tad dated, the thought itself is as sound as ever. The coverage of the essays in this volume is astounding--you name it. Nibley's thought is very helpful to all who wish to supplement faith with intellect

This book is amazing. Nibley's grasp of the subject matter is truly astounding. While it is true that Nibley is a mormon apologist, this work is not skewed like many of his other works. This is his best effort. Whether you are mormon or not this book brings up a lot of intersting similarities with almost every ancient religion and their temple type. Zoroastrian fire temples being the most notable exception. a pure joy to read.

Nibley does not go into depth concerning mormon temple ceremonies but many of the things he discuss will still be easily understood by the non-mormon reader. In addition, a large portion of the book is devoted to the actual structure of the temple as a microcosm of the universe. Also of note is his discusion of sacred vestments through the ages.

Often the scholarly become so involved in proving their thesis that they lose sight of where they are going. In other words they can't see the forest for the trees! Such is the case with Nibley's Temple and Cosmos. Although very informative and well documented, in his zeal to justify the existence of Mormon temples by showing many amazing similarities to temples and temple rituals of the past, he fails to notice that nearly all of his examples are from pagan cultures. Nibley proves well that the origin of Mormon temples is paganism. While the Mormon Church claims its origins stem from ancient Hebrew culture, any real evidence supporting such a claim is conspicuously absent from Nibley's book. ...Go figure!

I just had the great pleasure of reading "Sideman, Stories About the Band" by Dr. Paul Tanner.

The author, a trombonist who performed on all of the Glenn Miller civilian band recordings, captures the spirit of the Big Band Era from an insider's perspective. Starting with the first chapter, "The Magic of the Inimitable Miller Sound", the book unfolds through a series of stories and interviews with other musicians and the public. The book provides great insight into band life and how others were motivated by this great music.

The tremendous impact Glenn Miller's music had on the world is revealed in numerous accounts. My favorite story describes how a young boy in occupied Norway during World War II found joy listening to the music. It inspired him to immigrate to the United States and later start a cruise club featuring the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

The final chapter of the book, "What Actually Happened to Glenn Miller", describes the most plausible cause of the bandleader's disappearance. The book provides documents to substantiate this theory.

As an avid Glenn Miller fan, I highly recommend this as "must read" for all Glenn Miller fans and music enthusiasts.

I just had the great pleasure of reading "Sideman, Stories About the Band" by Dr. Paul Tanner.

The author, a trombonist who performed on all of the Glenn Miller civilian band recordings, captures the spirit of the Big Band Era from an insider's perspective. Starting with the first chapter, "The Magic of the Inimitable Miller Sound", the book unfolds through a series of stories and interviews with other musicians and the public. The book provides enormous insight into band life and how others were motivated by this great music.

The tremendous impact Glenn Miller's music had on the world is revealed in numerous accounts. My favorite story describes how a young boy in occupied Norway during World War II found joy listening to the music. It inspired him to immigrate to the United States and later start a cruise club featuring the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

The final chapter of the book, "What Actually Happened to Glenn Miller", describes the most plausible cause of the band leader's disappearance. The book provides documents to substantiate this theory.

As an avid Glenn Miller fan, I highly recommend this as "must read" for all Glenn Miller fans and music enthusiasts.

I just had the great pleasure of reading "Sideman, Stories About the Band" by Dr. Paul Tanner.

The author, a trombonist who performed on all of the Glenn Miller civilian band recordings, captures the spirit of the Big Band Era from an insider's perspective. Starting with the first chapter, "The Magic of the Inimitable Miller Sound", the book unfolds through a series of stories and interviews with other musicians and the public. The book provides great insight into band life and how others were motivated by this great music.

The tremendous impact Glenn Miller's music had on the world is revealed in numerous accounts. My favorite story describes how a young boy in occupied Norway during World War II found joy listening to the music. It inspired him to immigrate to the United States and later start a cruise club featuring the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

The final chapter of the book, "What Actually Happened to Glenn Miller", describes the most plausible cause of the band leader's disappearance. The book provides documents to substantiate this theory.

As an avid Glenn Miller fan, I highly recommend this book as "must read" for all Glenn Miller fans and music enthusiasts.

Dr. Paul Tanner, one of the few remaining sidemen of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, has written an entirely entertaining and insightful book on his recollections of the Glenn Miller Orchestra and other big bands such as the Tex Beneke Orchestra and its sidemen. His recall is sharp and personal. His anecdotes, interviews and stories make listening to the big band sounds we love so much more alive and exciting. The book's hundreds of photos are a goldmine of memories especially for those of us who have seen the bands perform at military bases and other venues. If you love the big band sound and want to relive a vital part of America's musical history, let Dr. Tanner, Trombonist extra ordinaire, take you back to those days and tell it like it was. Next time you listen to big band sound you can then focus on the inside stories from this great book.

A very entertaining book from one of the four sidemen with The Glenn Miller Band that played every engagement the civilian band had from mid 1938 through its break-up in the fall of 1942. Dr. Tanner tells what it was really like to have played in the most famous big band of that time. The section on what happened to Glenn Miller is very interesting and the many interviews with Dr. Tanner reveal some interesting facts. The book contains many great photographs that compliment the printed material. The size and format are just right and as a reader, I enjoyed it very much. In my opinion it is an excellent, entertaining book, don't miss it!

This novel is wonderful for teaching students to think about what could happen in a natural or man-made disaster. I think pairing this book with Alas, Babylon is a wonderful idea. I am also thinking of including in the unit Lord of the Flies. How do people handle natural disasters, man-made disasters, and war? Discussions will be great!

To start let me say that the author is one of my favorites and that is why I purchased this book. I am also a fan of this genre too. I found the book very entertaining and interesting. The thought of earthquakes so bad that the world reverts back to it infancy is terrifying and believable. In this case the people do horrible things to survive because they know no better way to survive in such a bleak world were there are no more supermarkets and drive thru windows. The only weak part, I thought, was the end. Christopher usually has some very good endings that make you really take a step back and look at yourself and the world a little differently. This ending was a little more "happy" but also abrupt and i felt i needed a little more explanation or closure. Something explain what eventually happens to the main character and his boy companion.

Overall it was a good read, but also check out the Sword of the Spirits Trilogy and the Tripods Trilogy by the same author. Very good books, geared for young readers, but good at any age. You'll be glad you did.

This is a page turner and a classic. Written in 1965 this book is timeless. Highly Recommend!

John Christopher writes exciting sci fi novels about catastrophic shifts in the world order. He has tackled everything from mass starvation (The Death Of Grass) to epic changes in the earth's weather (The Long Winter) to alien invasions(The Tripod trilogy) to giant earthquakes, which is the central catastrophe of this book.

After an enormous series of cataclysmic earthquakes wipes out modern civilization, a group of survivors struggle to stay alive in the ruins of the British Isles.
This is one of John Christophers most gripping adventure stories, filled with strange settings and memorable characters;
I especially liked the image of the oil tanker beached on the bottom of the now dry English Channel, its sole occupant slowly going mad.

John Christopher has written several novels of global catastrophe,of which this is certainly the best.
The basic premise is that of extreme earthquakes on a worldwide scale, which reduce towns and cities to piles of rubble and plunge the survivors straight back into the Stone Age. Much of western Europe is drastically uplifted, transforming the English Channel into a muddy desert overnight - whist elsewhere, lands are thrown down and drowned under inrushing seas.
The cataclysm and its aftermath are seen from the viewpoint of Matthew Cotter, a Gurnsey horticulturalist who finds himself one of a handful left alive on the former island. The future they face, attempting to begin life again with what they can scavenge amid the devastation, seems hard and uncertain enough.
Matthew then treks across the empty seabed to England, in the faint hope that his student daughter has also survived. He finds the situation far worse in a wider land, with many competing bands of scavengers. Pillage, rape and murder are now the norm as mankind revets to utter barbarism.
The actual scientific likelihood of such immense convulsions in the Earth is very doubtful, and the author's explanation - as a new mountain-building episode - is certainly nonsense, since such events take tens of millions of years. The sheer dramatic impact of a global earthquake, however, makes this book greatly entertaining for all but the most pedantic.
Its central emphasis is on the reactions of people, totally unprepared, who see their world turned (almost literally) upside down and everyone they knew destroyed. While some find natural strength and determination, even leadership, others respond with violence, with apathy and despair, or retreat into lunacy. John Christopher displays a subtle and far-ranging mastery of characterisation. He has created a stark and very believable vision of human struggles to survive in a world made suddenly strange, lawless, primitive and hostile.
It might have been even better to see Matthew Cotter and others ten or twenty years on, after the barbaric majority had mostly starved or slain each other and nature had begun to reclaim the shattered country. Would naval vessels have survived in mid-ocean and acted as nuclei for new communities? Or would the fallout from wrecked nuclear power stations have caused widespread cancers, sterility, mutations - and ultimately lethal new diseases, which would finish off the human race?
This is, surely, the essence of "thought-provoking" literature.
Regardless of unanswered questions, I would rate "A Wrinkle in the Skin" as being among the finest pieces of speculative fiction I have read.

While many are now breathing at least a small sigh of relief that the Iran war party has been put in a box by the recent release of the National Intelligence Estimate, Hannes Artens in his novel, The Writing on the Wall, suggests the opposite. A looming war with Iran might well be like the Doomsday Machine from the movie Dr. Strangelove--waiting to be triggered by an unexpected incident and unstoppable.

The novel begins on November 11, 2011 in the waning minutes of the life of the 44th President of the United States, Jim Whitman, a moderate Republican. He and his advisors sit in horror waiting for word of the results of the launching of five nuclear tipped missiles targeting Indian cities launched by radical jihadists who have overrun Pakistan. The strain of two years of a botched war with Iran, political and economic chaos at home, and a world beset with a worsening economic depression and a clash of civilizations world war proves to be too much for the failed president who succumbs to an apparent heart attack. So much for the Prologue.

Most of The Writing on the Wall takes place before 11/11/11 seeking answers to the question, How could a war weary country end up engaged in yet another war so destructive to its own interests led by a President who had vowed to never let such insanity happen on his watch? Artens weaves a suspenseful and complex web of connections, secrets, betrayals and acts of courage through the lens of the ambivalent three-way friendship between Seran, a Kurdish expatriate; Elia, a Greek diplomat radicalized by her discovery of what her father did for the CIA; and a Bryan, an American diplomat determined to right the wrongs of the previous presidency. At their reunion, they witness the terrorist bombing of the Super Bowl which takes their lives in different directions only to re-unite them at an international conference upon which rest the hopes of the hapless President Whitman. We see into the heart and soul of a President hounded by a 24/7 news machine crying for war. Artens takes us into the world of the Kurds still trying to carve out a nation for their people. Oil and natural gas and big oil corporations are lurking about trying to cut their best deal. The apocalyptic narratives--neocon, Christian, and Muslim--add the emotional catalysts that drive the doomed narrative forward.

Besides the intellectual strengths of this novel, Artens weaves an emotionally compelling story. One can only feel deep sadness for a doomed President ordering the same torture inflicted on him in a Vietnamese POW camp. Bryan takes a trip home to visit his parents only to find the world he left in tatters. His small town is preoccupied with physical survival. Economic growth has become an oxymoron. His father is a ruined man. In the meantime, a powerful Christian Senator plots with right wing Israelis to trigger a war that he thinks will test America. And the next breed of demagogues prepares the United States for its dark future.

The book is a gripping and heartfelt novel that forces the reader to face the dual realities that a war with Iran is very possible and might well be difficult if not impossible to avoid. It does not offer solutions. That is the reader's task.

Everett Anson Author of "Bullets for Ballots" Emidrapublishing.com

Hannes Artens does a masterful job of weaving a powerful story about Seran, an American educated Kurd, who dreams of carving an independent Kurdistan in what is now parts of Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. The tale is drawn against the very real picture of the Middle East turmoil today. It is a suspenseful story of diplomatic intrigue and betrayal.

Artens also draws a believable scenario of the terrible consequences to the United States if a weak president is pushed into war with Iran by powerful money interests or by extreme religious fanatics in this country . The book opens with the consequences of such a mistake being made and then continues with the story to show how it happens.

The debut novel of Austrian-born International Conflict Analysis expert Hannes Artens, The Writing on the Wall is a suspenseful novel set in the very near future. Maverick senator Jim Whitman wins the 2008 American presidential election by selling out to a bevy of reckless pandering interests, from televangelists yearning for Armageddon to big oil companies. The forces controlling his policies push him, and America, into war with Iran, with horrendous results - a military quagmire, economic depression, and the threat of nuclear war. Three people are propelled to negotiate the future of the Middle East: Seran, a Kurdish refugee raised in America, who has made a career in the oil business yet works for an independent Kurdish state; Elia, a diplomat whose personal demons drive her to a pathological obsession with severing her beloved Europe from the United States; and Bryn, a moderate Democrat who feels betrayed by the Bush Administration's exploitation of the September 11th attacks and vows not to let President Whitman do the same. The plot of The Writing on the Wall hinges upon political talks and alliances that seem to shift like the wind. Allies join forces and betray one another, and impending doom threatens the free world in this tautly narrated thriller.

This ain't your usual international/political thriller. There's no cookie-cutter, gun totin' hero who sniffs out and overcomes all the bad guys and their evil plots. The characters are real. You'd know them if you passed them on the street. And they all have the same fatal flaw that we have - they see the world through a fun house mirror of their own creation.
Despite the lack of guns, there's plenty of action and tension. All are ready to fight for their delusions and some are even willing to die for them. Plot counters plot and until almost the end, we're not always sure who is on which side.
While this is fiction and written a couple of years in the future, one can see the predicted events already happening. How much of this might become real may depend on the decision we make in the upcoming political races. Well researched and believeable.

"The Writing on the Wall" by political analyst Hannes Artens is exactly what political junkies and foreign policy aficionados have been waiting for. He proves that one doesn't need the name recognition of a Richard Clarke to write bloodcurdlingly realistic fiction. And unlike Clarke, Artens creates characters you feel for. In fact, the scene where the U.S. President, who was tortured for years as a POW in Vietnam and who, as a senator, sponsored major legislation to ban torture in Guantanamo, has to order suspects to be tortured to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil, is one of the most emotionally moving and intense sequences I've ever read in a political thriller.

This fictitious take on a showdown between the U.S. and Iran is loaded with allusions to real life politicians and events. Artens doesn't shy away from naming names; he seems to be deliberately out to provoke with his realism. Not only are the aerial strikes against Iran masterminded by the fictitious CEOs of ExxonMobil and Northrop Grumman at the Dallas Theological Seminary; his President, Jim Whitman, is a "maverick, straight talking" former senator and POW who pandered so excessively to evangelicals and special interests during his election campaign that he can't control them once he's won the White House. The author's legally necessary disclaimers won't wash: this is the American version of Robert Harris', "The Ghost", and President Whitman is a barely disguised John McCain. And yet, "The Writing on the Wall" is not a partisan vendetta; Jim Whitman is the tragic hero of the book who founders against powers he thought he could manipulate, but who actually have him tied up on puppet's strings.

Its realism is also the book's only drawback. This is not a fluffy read to be enjoyed by the pool while your toddler buries toys in the sandpile. It requires a bit of an effort to read, even more for the not so politically savvy. But for all those who spend hours blogging every night about America's self-created quagmire in Iraq, and who hang on the delegate count of this presidential campaign, it's a must read. Highly recommended.

You don't have to be Greek to appreciate Austin Lunch. My grandparents came to the U.S.from Germany in 1900 with their two little girls. My grandmother's sister had written to her from Chicago, "Valeska, you find money on the streets in America." My grandparents didn't find money on the streets, but with hard work their family ran a "Dry Goods" store on Chicago's near north side for many years. My mother, their youngest daughter, told me many stories of being immigrants in business in Chicago at the beginning of the century. What a wonderful surprise it was for me to read Austin Lunch and recognize and share the struggles of the Limberopulos family. It recalled my mother's stories of her family and their store in Chicago. The story of the United States is the story of a country of immigrants. As you read this book, the struggles of the Limberopulos family resonate with your deepest family ethos. What a wonderful literary journey and heart warming experience it is to read this book!

I loved this book. As a Greek American and native of Chicago, this was a treat to read. Also purchased it for my Aunt and two Uncles.

The debut book of Constance M. Constant, Austin Lunch: Greek-American Recollections is the heartfelt of growing up and adapting to the shock of immigration, the hardship of the Great Depression, and seeing the determination and drive of one's parents in action. The family's simple restaurant on Chicago's historic but problematic Near West Side, Austin Lunch tells of the mother's defiance of 1931 conventions to work in the restaurant, and the diverse assortment of inner city characters who dined there. Above all, Austin Lunch is a tribute to an industrious mother and father, and the strength of a close-knit family. An empathetic and involving true story of family values.

To learn about your past is a gift. And Connie Constant teaches us in an eminently enjoyable and engaging way in her new book, Austin Lunch. Set on the West Side of Chicago in the 1930s, the Austin Lunch chronicles the lives of an immigrant Greek family as they struggle to survive through the Great Depression.

Sprinkled throughout a fascinating narrative are important historical lessons about the Depression, immigration early in this century, the discrimination and trials Greeks faced and their ultimate victory of spirit and determination.

The main characters - Papa and indomitable Mama - are people who lead heroic lives in ordinary, humble surroundings. The observers are their children Helen and Nick and the story is told from their keen, innocent perspective. The family owns a restaurant, the Austin Lunch, and lives in a simple apartment on Madison Street, a sketchy area at the time. The Depression has left a painfully large number of Chicagoans - including many Greeks - unemployed and struggling for survival. Business is abysmally slow and to help reduce costs and keep the business afloat, Mama decides to defy tradition and work outside the home.

This courageous, determined woman with very limited education overlooks criticism from fellow Greeks and goes to work at the Austin Lunch. Her smarts, love and self-confidence, bolstered by strong faith and character, enable her and her husband to successfully navigate the assorted characters - from upright people to drunks and crooks - who frequented the Austin Lunch and Madison Street. She and her husband, Paul, treat each customer with dignity and fairness and earn the loyalty and friendship of countless individuals.

What captivated me about this book is that the characters are real and honest. As you turn the pages, you experience the family's struggles, joys and sorrows. The gripping stories and anecdotes tug at your heartstrings and may remind you of stories you have heard about your own family.

Readers who migrated from Greece to America and lived through the Great Depression will relate to this book. Those born later will learn from it. The reader feels as though he/she is living in the 1930s in Chicago, and seeing the world through the eyes of a child and the lens of an adult all at the same time.

Constant reminds us of the great stories and heroism in everyday life. In reading her work, one remembers the value of listening to the stories of our families, recognizing the adventures they encapsulate, and treasuring the lessons therein.

Austin Lunch is a delightful book about the Great Depression. It's strange to use delightful and Great Depression in the same sentence, yet Constance M. Constant integrates this family memoir of hardship, struggle, coping and hope with humor. Family stories and the weird experience of growing up in an old working class restaurant, that turns into a saloon after the repeal of Prohibition, are amusingly related from the perspective of the two inner-city kids who lived it.

As a forty year old, I had no idea of the multiple layers of misfortune that the Thirties "hard times" caused my grandparents, parents, and millions of other Americans. Constant's narrative with its fascinating details made me feel like I was THERE! Austin Lunch is a book for seniors who remember the Depression first hand and for the rest of us
who might even benefit from their experiences. Reading this wonderful memoir is a delightful way to find out about those "hard times" you hear about at family events from the "old guys" in your clan. I'm giving these books as gifts for Mother's Day and Father's Day.

I always return to this book to be inspired, amazed, and when I need to remind myself of my own humility, insignificance, and connection to the cosmos. Neil's poetic verse captures something substantial and solid. These waters are pristine, so drink deep. This wisdom may transport you somewhere else, it may transform the way you view the world. Klotz is one of the few men on the planet who I admire - not only for his creative insight - but for his far reaching authenticity. His words are visionary and meaningful interpretations of the Aramaic prayers of Jesus. You cannot go wrong with this book, my friends. It is a spiritual guide in times of darkness. Moreover, it awakens the imagination (a portal if you will) and throws you out of dogmatic sleep and binding chains into another place where surprise captures what is essentially human and unique in each of us.

I very much enjoyed this book. Language is a reflection of how a group of people think and interact and this book brings out additional nuances to Jesus' teachings that led me to a deeper understanding -- always a good thing, to my way of thinking! If you like digging deeper into the meaning of things, you'll like this book, too.

This book reads like poetry. The meaning behind the words that Jesus spoke and are quoted in the Bible come to life when you hear them from his native tongue. With wonderful textual notes so that you get the full meaning of each word, these verses come to life with a whole new meaning.

When I read this book I knew that this was the Jesus I knew in my heart. It just made so much more sense and touched my heart so deeply it was like the love song I have been waiting to hear.
This book is a must for anyone wishing to hear the Truth of what Jesus was saying to us.
An absolutely masterpiece!!

Reading this book, and working with it, is like breathing in deeply out in my garden at twilight, when the flowers and leaves and soil are giving off the perfume they've been growing all day in the sun. Breathing in peace, breathing out conflict, quandries, decisions, worries, burdens.

I first studied with Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz over a decade ago, and was astonished to find that there were actually other people besides me who worked deeply with the words we use so cavalierly most of the time. "Blessings of the Cosmos" follows in the tradition of "Prayers of the Cosmos" and "Desert Wisdom" (both also by Dr. Douglas-Klotz) in being a gentle, peaceful offering of the author's work with these words and phrases, which becomes soil in which my own spirituality may be planted, and grow, and flower. Neil Douglas-Klotz makes offerings, not fiats or pronouncements; he offers another way to look at words and phrases which, for many of us, have rather rigid interpretations that have been given to us, and repeated so often, that they are so familiar they might be the wall-paper in the hallway. As we read, and as we allow these offerings to wander around inside us, we may pick up the offering "as is" and use it, or we may find that this offering has stimulated the growth of something new, and completely personal to us, opening a door through which we may step into a more expansive relationship with all facets of the cosmos.

Consider this way of looking at Matthew 11:28 which, in the KJV reads, "Come unto me, ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.":

"Come to me,
all of you, all of yourselves,
in your frenzied weariness,
your movement without end,
your action without purpose,
not caring in your fatigue
whether you live or die.

"Come enmeshed by what you carry,
the cargo taken on by your soul,
the burdens you thought you desired,
which have constantly swollen
and are now exhausting you.

"Come like lovers to your first tryst.
I will give you peace and
renewal after constant stress:
Your pendulum can pause
between here and there,
between being and not-being."

Enriched by the discussion of the word-roots which follows, and the suggested meditations (available also on the included CD), this wording reaches me in places that I didn't know, or didn't remember, existed. It allows me to see things in my life, and labels for those things provided to me by other sources, in a different light, and leaves me openings to find new meanings that can feed my soul in this moment. And, I know from his previous books, that coming back to the work at another time will have the same result of yet more new openings available for the new moment.

As you may have guessed, I heartily recommend "Blessings of the Cosmos"! For that matter, I also heartily recommend Dr. Douglas-Klotz's other books as well. I look forward to "Blessings of the Cosmos" coming out in paperback, so it will fit in my suitcase better, but it will travel with me anyway, as does "Prayers of the Cosmos." Even in just the two read-throughs I have done since "Blessings of the Cosmos" arrived last week, I have found something new and valuable each time, and I know from my experience with his other books, that taking the time to work with the meditations will open yet other avenues of exploration. Dr. Douglas-Klotz's books, including "Blessings of the Cosmos," are on my "special shelf" and not out with the rest of my library, and I work with them as enrichers of wisdom/Sophia. I also give them as most welcome gifts (One recipient even reads & meditates with "Desert Wisdom" at dawn outside her home in the desert!), and am buying more copies of "Blessings of the Cosmos" for that very purpose.

May you also find blessings through "Blessings of the Cosmos"!

Outstanding scholarship packaged in a stimulating and readable format. The added body-prayer work is repeatedly useful.

Author Simon Mitton is himself an astrophysicist, educated at Oxford where Fred Hoyle worked for so many years. This gives him the ability to write about Fred Hoyle with a level of insight and scientific judgement that a lay author would not be able to bring. Mitton traces Hoyle's life in detail, which is what you would expect from any good biography. But here we also learn about not only the things that made Fred Hoyle famous, like the Steady State theory, his science fiction work such as "The Black Cloud," Julie Christie (!), but also his greatest contributions to physics--stellar processes and evolution--unknown to most people (certainly to me). Hoyle was virtually an idea machine, churning out an amazing number of ideas during his life--some of them decidedly crackpot, but many of them utterly brilliant. We're also treated to a detailed view of the Oxford bureaucracy, and how Fred brought it to at least some kind of truce--for a while. This is a remarkably detailed, fascinating view of an unique man, presenting Hoyle as whole person, brilliant yet flawed. Most of all, though, it is a compelling read. When I finished the book I was actually sad that the experience was over.

This is the best way to write about science! Although Simon Mitton is a distinguished astronomer, this is science written for anyone intelligent, regardless of background - those of us in the humanities as well as sciences can read this fascinating book with equal enjoyment.

Fred Hoyle was probably wrong on how the universe began, holding to steady state rather than the Big Bang, in which most scientists now believe. But his reasons were perfectly cogent, as Mitton points out. He was also the first true communicator of science to a wide audience, including his brilliant science fiction plays for children that I can still recall over 40 years later. If astronomy is now a cutting edge subject, with considerable lay interest (especially after Mitton and Hoyle's Cambridge colleague Stephe Hawking) it is all because Hoyle was there first.

In short, Mitton has written an outstanding book for all of us. I should also add that the mistakes pointed out in the Publisher's Weekly review have been corrected by the final version - they must have seen proof copies.

Buy this book! Science has become fun for all of us, and Hoyle's pioneering research and communication skills set that ball in motion. Simon Mitton is a worthy follower of his old master, and this book is proof of that.

Christopher Catherwood (author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ: Carroll and Graf, 2004)

this is an excellent book about a fascinating scientist, fred hoyle. it is well written and almost anyone with a smattering of knowledge of physics and astronomy can follow and learn from this biography. mitton lays out hoyle's ideas clearly and shows how they differ from other theories and how they advanced science.

also, unerlying it all is a theme that it is more than ok to think beyond the accepted knowledge, and that is how science develops. hoyle may have been wrong on some subjects but he also developed much of what is now basic astrophysics. while hoyle is often referred to as wrong about the big bang et al, time may well show that he was right after all. big bang leads down some dead ends, whereas recent discoveries and theories algin more with hoyle's steady state theory. newton and others thought so too.

a good read and a good buy.

dgs

Fred Hoyle is famously remembered for being wrong about the origin of he Universe. But one of the most intriguing things About Simon Mitton's book is the suggestion that he may not have been very wrong, since the math of his steady state theory matches the math of the now-fashionable inflation theory. Mitton is good at giving such unexpected insights, although he dwells a little too long on the politics of British science in the 1970s. His story of a man who went his own way through the scientific world would make a great basis for a documentary.

Reading through CONFLICT IN THE COSMOS, the biography of British astronomer Fred Hoyle, I enjoyed finding out things I never knew before, about science and about Hoyle's own fiction writing. Everyone with an interest in movies knows that the divine Julie Christie emerged during a period of UK filmmaking in the early 1960s that marked a revival of world interest in British cinema, playing very much the contemporary, disaffected "chick" of so-called swinging London. Her subsequent sppearance in Truffaut's FAHRENHEIT 451 was widely regarded as a mis-step, that science fiction wa snot her metier. But as Mitton shows, Christie made her first big breakthrough in a BBC version of Hoyle's "The Nature of the Universe." This series was re-titled A FOR ANDROMEDA, and Hoyle personally selected Julie Christie from a number of pretty girls he viewed at RADA. "That's her!" he exclaimed, and a star was born! So for Christie, FAHRENHEIT 45` was not such an anomaly after all. Mitton treats the matter of Hoyle's relations with film companies with the same cool accuracy with which he handles the more controversial aspects of Hoyle's life.

It was a wonderful life in which he sought to bring back international interest in and prestige for British astronomy after a sorry period in the immediate postwar era. CONFLICT IN THE COSMOS suffers from one fault, a nationalism which perhaps never even occurs to author Mitton, an underlying assumption that what's good for Britain is good for astrophysics and the two things to me don't seem that equivalent.

We see Hoyle as a man with irrational bursts of confidence and indeed over-confidence, with sort of a big mouth that got him into trouble now and again. Mitton carefully details the events of the scandal surrounding Hoyle's ill-timed remarks on the 1974 Nobel award for physics to Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish. When Hoyle publicly stated that "the girl" Jocelyn Bell had been cheated of a third share in the Prize, the fat was really in the fire and an enormous hoopla ignited. Hoyle himself might have lost his chance for a Nobel himself, and as Mitton hints he might very well have had a chance to win it in 1983, had not his intemperate remarks put his hopes in purdah.

And yet he had courage, vision, a brilliance of mind and perception that come along (in astronomy) once every thirty or forty years, and he was unafraid to put his ass on the line when it came to speaking up for causes he believed in. We won't see his like again, and the world is a sadder place since he folded up his telescope and disappeared into starlight.

Dewey's "How We Think" is the first book of his I have read. What a joy! I am in the "thick" of my doctoral dissertation, and am struggling to present and unfold my research work in a way that is clear to my audience (in this case, the members of my dissertation committee). Dewey's analysis of thought has helped me to consider important elements of thinking (and writing) such as: (1) the iterative "ebb and flow" between inductive and deductive thinking; (2) what is necessary to train my own mind to think "better"; etc.

Following my reading of "How We Think," I am now reading Dewey's "The Quest for Certainty" and "Knowing and the Known."

Reading "How We Think" is not difficult; however, it does require one to pay attention to what Dewey is saying to his reader audience. Now that I've read through it once, I will likely read through it again (fairly soon), as I work to tighten up my Ph.D. dissertation.

In conclusion, whether you are a student, teacher, or just plain interested in analyzing the world around you, then reading this book is very worthwhile.

As a professional educator, it's always great to review and reread works by the great theorists such as Dewey. Great information for business and educators alike!

It is very good to see this book appearing in new editions. This is a classic book about thinking. Dewey studies thought from the psychological and philosophical points of view and derives practical ideas for education.

Reading this book, I was surprised to see the applicability of its contents to my main activity field, which is business management. Today's main effort in business research is toward innovation and learning. Thus, thinking skill is probably the most important resource of any organization.

Dewey's view of thinking is surprisingly consistent and as fresh as any of the new management theories. Just to mention one aspect, he warns about the confusion of mental analysis (looking for the general aspects of an object) with physical analysis (dissection into parts), which leads to study living objects as if they were dead. This is the essence of systems thinking, which is so fashionable today!

The ideas Dewey presents about education are very useful for today's business environment. Business leaders, consultants and scholars should look carefully at his advices! His study of work and play is a great lesson of wisdom.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone seriosly aiming at world class business performance.

I had never heard of John Dewey until I took a philosophy class. When I first received the book, I read through it relatively fast. Much of the material went over my head. However, on the second reading it was as if the pages were illuminated. In this book, Mr. Dewey gives his opinion on how we humans learn. It takes every day simple actions, breakes them up into their smallest unit and discusses why we did it that way.

What have I gained from this book? Everytime I do something, I attempt to break it down into its simples being, and determining how this breakdown fosters greater intelligence within myself.

As a text book or a book one wants to learn something from, I give it five stars. For just general reading it will garner 1/2 of a star.