California Books

Unlike other outdoor recreation guides for this area that solely write about one type of activity, this one is different, it offers three. Personally I like to mix biking and hiking up so it really suits my style and delivers all the information I could ever want.

Marin County and San Francisco have to be the most beautiful of all the places to get outside around here. I use this book as a trail finder mostly for dayhikes and coastal rides. It's unfussy and since the authors are natives and know the terrain so well, list plenty of places that are not on the postcards. The writing style is fresh and humor is interjected here in unsuspecting places. It's a unbelievable value for residents.

Last June I became aware of this guide. I hadn't realized that some of the best hiking in the world is in my own backyard....Marin County and San Francisco.

The Golden Gate Trailblazer opens the doors to every trail in the area and even includes bike routes. On Friday evenings my husband and I read over the hikes we want to take on the weekend. So many are shorties and are wonderful outings for our 5 and 7 year olds. There's a trail map for the Golden Gate Park as well as the San Francisco downtown and the design is very reader friendly. For anyone just visiting it makes for an ideal itinerary planner.

If you like getting outdoors for a walk or hike in San Fran or Marin and want to get advice from two Bay Area natives, get this guide. I recommend it for its thoroughness and presentation. For people like me who have just moved here, it's worth every penny.

The authors style puts adventurers at ease as they dissect the complex world of city streets and highways that lead to the trailheads. There's no trolling through pages of dense text. It's all broken up with pictures and maps and cleanly numbered trail lists and descriptions. It's by far the best I've come across for this area.

A great resource and really user friendly. We loved the whole feel and layout. We parked the car in one spot and spent one entire day walking and hopping the cable cars. All the action is grouped so our time was well spent and car expenses kept to a minimum. Strongly recommended for a city fix.

I would say it's one of the most helpful travel books I've ever bought. The detailed descriptions for family walks around San Francisco and through the Marin woods were especially good. It's organized. The writing style is colorful, direct, and amusing. Buy this book and you might want to buy a restaurant guide to to along with it. Going to California is now going to be a yearly ritual.Zagat 2008 San Francisco Restaurants

This is A great ethics book, not just for scientologist but for everyone. It explains justice and ethics and why they are different. It also talks about "SP" or suppresive persons, and how they are detrimental to someones sanity and ambitions.

But what I Found most helpful, were the conditions. LRH explains that at any time someone who is out-ethics (doing unethical things) is in A certain condition, and they can redeem themselves from these conditions, and get ethics back in, by following a certain formula for each condition.

This book clarifies the difference between morals and ethics -- what we do because we think doing them makes us "good" and those things we do because they lead to a better existence for ourselves and our fellows.

We don't live in a vacuum, despite what the materialists might think. This book is how to live well ourselves - without hurting those around us.

This is a revolutionary approach to the subject. I wish more business leaders would become familiar with these concepts! It would make a better world for all...

This book has been a useful tool for me in my business. It shows how to track statistics, and how to evaluate those statistics.

Once the statistics have been examined, then specific tools are given to increase them over time.

My business has increased by 8 times since implementing these tools! I am no longer in a mystery about how to increase business, when to promote, when to cut back... the formulas given are clear, and easy to implement, AND THEY WORK!

I am a VERY satisfied customer!

L Ron Hubbard is possibly the most controversial man of the 21st century.
I read this book while researching into supernatual phenonema like near-death-experiences, psychics, out of body experiences, as Hubbard made several claims in this area.
While the book doesn't talk about that, or Scientology techniques, it is an interesting read. You won't find philosophical arguments here - the emphasis is on workability. Hubbard's philosophy (which is a version of utilitarianism based on survival) is intuitively a better ethical philopsophy than anything I studied at Oxford.
I also gained an understanding of why Scientology charges money for its services, and found Hubbard's arguments about why people attack Scientology interesting (though I'm not in a position to judge them).
The book is also a good management book - on par at least with the One Minute Manager.
Hubbard was an intelligent and interesting character. If he was a charlatan then was certainly a complete genius who continues to deceive today.
On the other hand his principles seem sound and aimed at improving the human condition.

I Have read through this book countless times and have found it to be an essential tool for living in this society. The book is absolutely invaluble, and anyone who thinks otherwise is not nuts, they simply haven't looked at the bigger picture. Most people that slam Scientology aren't wrong from thier point of view, but they fail to look at everything there is to look at, which consequently makes them look rather silly and disappoints me in that our society commonly slams what they do not understand. Stop fearing Scientology, it will not bite you !! It may even help you, you decide...

For a native San Franciscian, this was a thrilling read. I was shocked on what I learned and it is interesting to see how things change. Strongly recommended.

Some very interesting tidbits here, but as a San Francisco resident I kept asking "what's there now?" It would have been great to include more (brief) history on what happened to the properties after these places were no more, or at least the addresses of the buildings that are there now. Some of this info is there, but it's hit or miss. Also, poor editing is a distraction throughout.

I've got an obsession (of sorts) with obscure San Francisco lore...all the different incarnations of the Cliff House, the rise of "hoodlum" culture in the 1800s, the ups and downs of the Barbary Coast, you name it. That said, "San Francisco's Lost Landmarks" is loaded with stories I've never heard before (waterslides in the Upper Haight? Who'd have thought!), mostly related in a prim, rosy-tinted manner by Mr. Smith. The chapter on the 1939 World's Fair, for instance, is mostly a list of who, what and where with no attempt to convey the excitement and novelty of the event. There's plenty here for any student of SF history to enjoy, but it lacks the seductive you-are-there storytelling of a Herbert Asbury or Luc Sante.

I am a fan of the 1960's coffee table, giant picture book histories of urban America distroyed. Lost New York, Lost Chicago, Lost Boston, and the now hard-to find pre hurricane Katrina, Lost New Orleans had a part in urban historic preservation awareness. Lost San Francisco never existed. And that's too bad. James Smith's book, Lost San Francisco Landmarks is a fine, well written work of local history. It explains San Francisco better than anything I've read. The why of Treasure Island, the tolleration of "civic sexuality" and the over use of quake prone land-fill engineering all get aired. It's A great read. RW Los Angeles.

So many books appear yearly on San Francisco that it's easy to miss one - and San Francisco's Lost Landmarks is not one to miss; it holds riches like few others. Where competitors offer listings of dates and facts, San Francisco's Lost Landmarks uses vintage pictures to blend with history to tell of lost pieces of the past. From the Tivoli Opera House and Gardens to Ralston's failed Grand Hotel, San Francisco's Lost Landmarks is history at its best.

This is a great book!!! I encourage all adults who want to be more informed about the health care industry to read it. You will be able to make better decisions about your own treatment. A great challenge to the conventional wisdom about routine testing.

This is a great little book. In a little over 200 pages Welch reviews the science and data about cancer screening and concludes that it is not worth doing it. Cancer after cancer (prostate, skin, breast...) he shows that screening has very little benefit if at all in terms of life expectancy (I recently saw a scientific article defending mammography on the basis that it added 3 days of life to women having one regularly...) .
The main justification for cancer screening is the belief that a cancer caught early is not lethal. The problem is that a lethal cancer is in general not caught early. A lethal cancer is usually very aggressive and by screening time it has already spread (unless as Welch points out you are willing to be screened every other day...).
What screening is very good at is catch cancers (and Welch explains that the definition of cancer is not clear cut) that are growing slowly if at all and will probably never kill you... Have you noticed the epidemic of breast cancers or is it just me?
The only thing missing from the book is the broader implication of generalizing cancer screening. By devoting so much money to an irrational health policy the general population is deprived of many services that could really impact its health and improve the sorry health statistics of the United States.

This book is truly an eye opener. Millions of people are being screened for cancer every year, but is it really necessary? Is it really making a difference? Are people harmed by these tests in anyway?

Dr. Welch explains brilliantly, in my opinion, what these cancer screenings really mean. He argues that we are taking healthy symptom-free individuals and looking for cancer.

What most people do not know and I did not before reading his book is that:

1-There is no evidence that these screenings have actually saved lives. In fact despite increased detection of early stages of prostate cancer and breast cancer, the death rate for prostate cancer has stayed the same and the rate of late stage breast cancer has increased over a 25 year period.

2-Autopsies of people who have NOT died from cancer have shown cancer in the lungs, thyroid, kidney, etc. This means millions of people are living with cancer and die of other causes and not even know they had cancer.

3-If the screening finds cancer, it does not necessarily mean that it is the type that will grow rapidly.
a-It could regress on its own as our immune system eliminated abnormal cells, including cancers regularly.
b-It may stay the same for many years and never cause a problem
c-It may grow so slowly that cause no health problems and the person dies of something else before it does

4-Studies conducted by John Hopkins, Harvard, and others have shown that different pathologist give different diagnosis for the same tissues. They may look at the same tissue and some think it is cancer while others think it is not. Especially when it comes to the a few abnormal tissues found from screening a healthy individual.

5-Also between screenings it is possible to develop a fast growing cancer. So how often do we need to do mammograms and colonoscopies?

6-The statistics, such as the five year survival rate, are not always reliable and maybe calculated in a misleading manner.

So you have a mammogram, PSA test, colonoscopy, fecal occult test, etc done. This is what may happen:

1-You end up with a false positive, depending on the test, 10 percent false positive is the average.
2-You get the cancer scare unnecessarily.
3-This can begin a cycle of retesting, biopsies and other tests. Some can be very unpleasant and have side effects.
4-If they find an abnormal tissue, what does it mean it mean? May the pathologist made a mistake; maybe it has been there for many years; maybe it is a slow growing one; maybe it will go away on its own; maybe it is a fast growing one! Of course, your doctor can't take a chance with your health, and also does not want to get sued for malpractice, so most likely she recommends the most safest (which could be the most aggressive) course of action!

Here you were living a relatively healthy symptom-free life and now you are told you need surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy.

BUT once you or I know about they have found cancer, it is hard to know what to do, not to speak of the emotional toll. That's why Dr. Welch believes sometimes it is better not to know. However, as Dr. Welch cautions: If you have any unusual symptoms and your doctor recommends screening for cancer, make sure you are screened.

After reading the book I decided I do not need any screening. As long as I am symptom free and healthy, why put myself through tests that may or may not extend or save my life. I think as long as we don't do anything to harm our immune system, such as smoking, and do the things that enhance the immune system, such as exercise, there is no need to become a patient.

We all need to make the decision for cancer screening based on our priorities, family history of cancer, and other factors. Perhaps a good course of action is to read the book and consult your doctor for best options.

Thank you Dr.Welch for an excellent expose: Well researched and well written.

Before reading this book, it had never occured to me that there were pros and cons re cancer testing. Welch has excellent credentials.He is on the staff of Dartmouth Medical College and writes articles for JAMA. In this book (which was also favorably reviewed in JAMA) Welch succinctly explains the perils of cancer testing in asymptomatic patients. He provides ample numerical data to support his contentions.The book is short and interesting and easy to read.

If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. This is possibly the most valuable book you will ever read regarding your health. Dr. Welch has impeccable bona fides, and his arguments are well-reasoned and well documented. He is a wonderful writer who makes sense of complicated, nuanced statistical analysis for the rest of us.

Of particular importance to this 53 year old woman is his detailed analysis of mammography and breast cancer. He completely debunks the hysterical coercion of women to have this test, and points out why declining to have one is a completely reasonable decision. This is of particular importance now in light of Elizabeth Edwards doing public penance for "letting down" the country and her family by skipping a mammogram! Elizabeth, honey, read this book! It is doubtful that mammography would have made any difference in your outcome.

Welch's dicsussion of DCIS, which is probably the most horribly overtreated fake "disease" in the history of modern medicine should be required reading for every woman over the age of 20.
Just buy it - I plan to give a copy to every person I love. It's that good.

I am obsessed with reading about Alcatraz - I picked up the book by Whitey Thompson somewhere - a garage sale or thrift store - for a .25 and I have been hooked ever since. This one is great. I am reading the sequel to this book right now (by the same author) about the trial. Hope it is just as good. There is also a book written by a guard ("screw") that I will be reading next.

Visited The Rock this July, bought this book at the bookstore, This book was a great book made me feel like i was actully there. The auther Tells a great story. Suggest to everyone

This book was a terriffic read, concise and very well written. I was waiting for my plane in the O'Hare airport and had bought it for my dad in San Fransisco. I was 9 years old at the time and I read the whole book on the way home. I could not put it down. The bond that the author creates with the reader is magical. You find yourself in the cell where the hostages were kept. You hear yourself screaming at others to find the key. How the plan could break down at the last was incredible. If you enjoy history, then this book is for you. If you cannot see the historical importance and literary genius in this piece, then maybe you should blow your mind on cable television.

Ernie Lageson, is the son of one of the prison guards injured in the failed escape attempt about which this book is written. There are many versions of stories told about Alcatraz the details of which vary by accounting. Being a stickler for correct facts I appreciate the attention to accurate detail paid by the author when writing this book. He not only tells the story with precise accuracy he does so as a skilled story teller weaving a web and drawing you in. If you only read one book about this particular uprising, make sure you chose this one. You won't find an accounting more thoroughly researched nor more intelligently written.

Author Ernest Lageson provides us with an account of the 1946 attempted breakout at Alcatraz prison during which time his father was a guard at the institution. He provides the reader with the details of a well-planned attempt by inmates to vacate "The Rock". The best laid plans go sour for the strangest reasons, and this plan went awry because a guard decided to keep a key to the recreation yard in his pocket because he was to reuse it shortly instead of returning it where it belonged. The inmates were unable to locate the key and their plot was foiled. The author provides us with details of the personalities of the inmates involved and their frustration when things began to go wrong. Author Lageson was a schoolboy at the time, and he expresses his agony in not knowing whether his father was alive or not. Conflict between Warden James Johnston and his associate, Edward Miller, in resolving the takeover is gone into detail with Warden Johnston appearing as confused as to what to do to rescue the guards in the cell block and quash the uprising. According to the author, Johnston had his facts wrong, also, when providing details to the press. Having just visited Alcatraz last week I wanted to read this book and was able to visualize the inside of the prison. I found this book very interesting to read. I can't imagine a reviewer who found it to be boring. I would highly recommend the book to you.

Through his discerning eyes Roger's penetrating photographs reveal the richness of nature along the Carmel, Big Sur and Monterey Coasts and opens our eyes to our own backyards. A photographer who shows the soul of rocks, trees, leaves, caves, ocean, sand and sky. Bill's words call the soul of the world, drawing us into a fullness of life's emotions, triggering our own losses and hope and wonder...then reminds us of the gift of each moment through sound, sight and feelings. A poet with the courage to bare his soul and in so doing awakens our. These photographs and poetry bring the universe to our doorsteps. A treasure book.

Recently, I was given a copy of this book as a gift, and was immediately struck by the beauty and thoughtful compositions of both the images and the poetry.

The photographs are of the California coast, but they are certainly not the typical "postcard" shots. In black and white, and rich in tonality, these are complicated images, some of whose beausty strikes you immediately, and some of whose beauty sneaks up on you. Seemingly simple scenes resonate with hidden complexity brought to light by the masterful eye of the photographer. Like zen style ink paintings, many of the images and poems are deceptively simple at first glance, but gain depth and meaning with careful appreciation. Honest and thoughtful, almost meditative, as the title suggests, this book works on a level that is fundamental. Highly recommended...

Moor's Photographs are fresh and modern. I highly enjoyed it and recomend it to everyone.

Art should provoke response, should inspire action in kind. This book delivers a moving example of just that: photographer inspiring poet, poet guiding the artist's eye. Moore's captivating images are, on one level, a beautiful rendering of Monterey's allure. But like Sechrest, I see something else, something profoundly emotional, which Moore achieves straightforwardly, without artifice or manipulation. Be sure to share this book with your most insightful friends and enjoy their responses.

TIP: as the book's designer, I happen to know Moore will be publishing another remarkable book of southern Russian images in the near feature. Keep a lookout - Moore is definitely on a roll.

Moore's photographs of Carmel, the Texas Panhandle, New York and all of his photography is breathtaking. These images come in to your mind, your heart and you can feel as one with them. Perhaps places you have never been and yet feel as if you have due to Moore's balance of nature's beauty and his extreme talent.

DENNIS R. JENKINS &TONY R. LANDIS are THE best AERO/SPACE historians.I have other titles by them.

Please provide list of ALL titles by them.

THANX VLC

Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony Landis write wonderful books about amazing machines.. (Check out America's super bomber XB-70)

Their style of writing is pure technical eloquence. They can take a complex subject and make it compelling reading whilst not dumbing it down or glossing over it.

The story evolves at a terrific pace and is neatly framed in the events and context of the era they occurred in.

The quality of the images matches the quality of the text. This is a book you will come back to year after year!

This book is an exceptional addition to anyones library on aviation. If you are a X-15 freak, it is an absolute must to have.

This research work was obviously a labor of love and reverence for the authors. They gave credit where it is due, from the pilot astronauts, research scientists, program managers, air force personnel, senior engineers, technicians, and even a handful of glad-handing politicians.
For the first time, the reader wil learn details of the B-52 mothership personnel.

The photo-documentation is vast; I find it hard to believe that a companion volume ("Scrapbook") was needed for photos and illustrations beyond Hypersonic!'s coverage.

For modelers, the AFFTC blueprint on page 179 is definitive data on the X-15 fuselage. Info in the text will enable accurate reproduction of wing and tailplane structures.

Hypersonic! will remain the standard reference volume on the X-15 for decades to come.

Not to take from old Chuck's efforts, but I've always thought the X-15 was the more interesting program. It's amazing the level of accomplishments they made, yet the X-15 is far from being as well known to the public as some other programs in aviation. If you like the X-15, this is definitely the book. It's not the kind of book you just fly through and look at the photos, then throw on a shelf... It is definitely worth your while to take the time and really read through the details of how the aircraft worked, what the Pilots went through, and how the milestones were achieved technically. The flight log in the back is amazing in it's detail, evening listing the chase aircraft and chase Pilots involved in each mission. I purchased it along with the X-15 Scrapbook, and they work well together.

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This book is not for the casual reader. But this annotated edition makes it all worthwhile. You'll get genuine, comprehensible guidance. If you must read "Ulysses," this edition might be most helpful.

This book was a shock to me. It's not just a book of annotations, it's also a history of Ireland, literature, language, and nearly everything else Joyce decided to allude to in his masterpiece. I never would have guessed that just reading the annotations (without the source text) would make good reading, but that is certainly the case here. You do not by any means need this book to enjoy Ulysses, but it does give remarkable insight into the mind behind it

Gifford's book offers fascinating glosses and contextual annotations for Ulysses, but was not quite what I was looking for to help me with my first attempt at the book. The annotations are mostly disjoint explanations of specific allusions and references.

There are other guides to Ulysses that are better suited for the novice Joyce reader, helping the reader to keep track of the plot, the progress of the Odyssey and Hamlet corelations and explaining the shifts in style through the book. This kind of hand-holding may be unnecessary for more sophisticated readers, but for my first read, it was essential!

Just a heads up that this is NOT an annotated edition of Ulysses (as I mistakenly thought in purchasing)(duh). It is 600-some pages of notes only and does not include the text of the novel.

When I first tucked James Joyce's ULYSSES under my arm, Don Gifford's ULYSSES ANNOTATED was tucked under the other. (My biceps became very well developed because of this.) It took me an entire summer to read the books side by side but how worthwhile it was. Gifford's essential line by line, almost word by word, guidance made ULYSSES less overwhelming than if I had tried to tackle it alone. Once I got through ULYSSES the second time (the following spring) I was able to go to the more overarching analyses of Joyce's masterpiece. Stuart Gilbert's ULYSSES and Richard Ellmann's ULYSSES ON THE LIFFEY were particularly helpful.

I've re-read this book several times because the first time wasn't enough; Mark Arax's ability to weave the details of his exhaustive research throughout this personal story provides fresh insight into society's sanctioned racism, a not-so-bygone era of California's heartland and every fatherless young man's struggle to find his identity. The characters and history are brought to life with such rich and poignant storytelling skill you won't be able to put it down, whether you're reading it for the first time or know how it ends.

This is a wonderful book about the Armenian community in Fresno, a search by an adult newspaperman into the circumstances of his father's unsolved murder, and policital corruption in the 70's. Mark Arax also co-authored a biography of a politically powerful large scale cotton farmer named Boswell located near Hanford, where I grew up. Highly recommended.
BerkeleyBob

I'm originally from Fresno, California and at the time of this murder, my grandfather, Ted C. Wills Sr., was Mayor of the city. When I picked up this book, I didn't know what to expect. What I found was validation.

For years I struggled with the bits and pieces of recollection I had regarding this period of my youth. Arax's book not only validated my experiences, what I had witnessed, but connected many of the dots regarding other incidences related to my past. The cover ups, illegal activity and silent handshakes were a part of my youth and Arax described this perfectly.

The author's well placed words painted one vivid picture after another about a mystery which is reality based. At the end of the book, the pictures come together as one complete "town" portrait. In doing this, he brilliantly exposed the "dark side" of not only my history, but of a town bent on keeping up appearances, at all costs. Secrets were taken out of the closet and placed squarely on to the laps of the public at large. "If we do not expose our secrets, we are bound to repeat them."

I strongly suggest this book to anyone interested in seeing how organized crime on a local level works. Along with this, I hope that readers will appreciate how the author was able to weave powerful Armenian history with not only his own family of origin, but with the political and criminal drama of a small town.

Mark Arax has written a superb novel chronicling his zealous search for the
identity of the men who gunned down his father in his own bar in Fresno
back in 1972 when Mark was 15. The gripping story takes us from Fresno to LA
to NY to Mexico and Anatolia, the Ottoman empire, 1915, San Francisco, and
back to Fresno to circle around the little city of corruption and crime,
related to the pernicious drug trade. Armenia, a nation of people erased
from its ancestral homeland, submitted to genocide by the Turks
and dispersed in this American century, to America which promised freedom
and opportunity, delivered new strife, leading to new crises.

This epic saga tells of three generations of Arax family members overcoming
impossible odds to finally make a decent home for themselves in Fresno only
to have it shattered by a cold blooded murder on a Sunday evening in a
shady bar just before Mark's dad was to have made a public announcement,
naming names, letting the public know what went on in city hall and at
police headquarters. He was executed Mafia style with a son left in its
wake holding on to a bag of questions and a burning desire to get some
answers.

And yet, this state is endemic to the Armenian existence in its diaspora.
The resonances between Mark Arax's saga and that of every post-genocide
Armenian are loud and clear. Why were over a million of their forefathers
so brutally and systematically slaughtered like cattle at the turn of this
century? Why was the life of every Armenian in the Ottoman empire so cheap
and worthless? What had Armenians done to deserve the racist wrath of
Turks, Kurds and other nomadic bands of brigands in the Anatolian plains,
the ancestral homeland of all Armenians? Why do Turks today not admit what
is so plainly true? Why the denial and historical revisionism? How are
dignity and justice to be restored when nations place economic or strategic
considerations before the demands of historical truths? How can
democracies and free nations join in the Turkish lie that nothing happened
in 1915, it was just war, things like that happen all the time, let bygones
be bygones...?

Mark Arax would not stop asking his haunting questions either. His father
was murdered. The police never even tried to solve the case. Mark would
do his damnedest to get to the bottom of it himself, and he would do it at
any cost. Mark Arax was rewarded for his quixotic aspirations by much more
than he could have imagined. While the minutest details of his father's
murder are still unresolved, what Mark discovered was more precious and
more lasting than the particulars of a case of a Fresno drug mob and city
hall -- about to be exposed -- hit. Mark Arax found the true identity of
his people, the Armenians in the Californian diaspora, and their struggle
to preserve their traditions and rich heritage. Through all this, Mark
fathered himself to become a gifted professional journalist, a responsible
father and husband and a conscientious citizen. The long and persistent
journey that he took makes for a great read. The story is compelling and
gripping, yet it is filled with true human drama spanning three
generations. His is not a murder mystery with bought off politicians all
the way to Sacramento, with its rich source of drugs supplied from Mexico.
No, that is only part of the story. His is not the chronicling of how the
Hell's Angels distributed marijuana to all points north and south in the
60s and 70s, with the marijuana being air-dropped into the vineyards of
Fresno. No, that is only part of the story. His is not the story of a
"crazy" grandfather who was a businessman who held fond attachment to
communist ideology, who had big dreams and bombastic demeanor and yet
failed as many times as not in all his business ventures. His uncles,
great uncles and his own struggle with American or Armenian identity all
mix in to produce a unique story of love and redemption. A boy who has to
be the rudder in a cracked up society, a disintegrating yet ever expanding
town and a broken home. What Mark Arax achieves with his own life is a
courageous feat. To defeat the forces of decadence that took his father
away by rejecting that underworld and that easy life. To enter the ranks
of the successful the hard way, by dedication, talent, sweat and toil.

Ironically, Mark might very well have ended up a two bit hood himself and a
cheap hustler hanging around his dad's bar or the golf club, dealing,
racketeering and begging for trouble. Instead, his father's loss jolted
him into a state of permanent revulsion at that seedy world he was just
beginning to get comfortable in at the age of 15. By correctly identifying
it as the prime seducer who claimed his father, Mark avoided that scene and
kept it away from his family. Instead, by finding his deepest roots he has
been able to set some of his own. Let us hope that his tree flourishes
under that hot central California sun and that his children know their dad
for the American hero on the pages of "In My Father's Name," that he surely
is. Read for yourself and see!

When I first started this book, I was amazed at the description that Arax gives of Fresno. Being a life-long resident of Fresno, I can imagine everything he describes. Then I read about the corruption that I'd heard about all my life, and see the proof of it all. I was shocked beyond belief.

Then I read about these supposedly upstanding citizens that I've heard about all my life (who has community centers and arena's named after them here in Fresno) and I feel like a veil has been pulled from my eyes.

Mark Arax tells a story of life in a lot of small, and large, cities. The one part of the story I wish would have been included (but it is safer for him NOT to include, being that he is still a resident of Fresno) is not only the corruption of the past, but the corruption of the present as well. He describes how the city of Fresno was built upon corruption, ran in corruption for many years, and hinted to the present day corruption, but had to stop. Hopefully he will write another book about Fresno, and reveal something to everyone.

If you like to read, and you like to be trapped by a book, then I suggest you purchase this book.

I can feel the warmth of that rising sun everytime I look at the scene on this cover [we use it as our screensaver]. I'm sure I've been to this place. Just as this cover scene will rekindle memories for Baja travelers, this story is so vivid you may later try to recall if these were people you've actually met,places you've been yourself, and maybe even that chubasco you went through back in 19[??]!

On a whim I suggested this book to my reading group--as I would be hosting the meeting to discuss it and wanted an excuse to serve salsa and chips. It was a delight to read.

Have heard great reviews and can't wait to get it. The 24 hour shipping is now at 144 hours and counting. Not very happy with my first attempt to order from Amazon.com

I came upon this book by accident and have recommended it highly. It has all the flavor of John Steinbeck, a powerful set of characters and a fine story line with humor and pathos. I hope Mr. Kira writes some more fiction for us to appreciate.

I loved, I laughed, I cried! This book truly captures the magic of the baja, and the special people who call it home or a home away from. I highly recommend it to anyone in love with this special "last best place".