Science Books

A disorienting story, much too contrived. A patchwork of events taking place in both dimensions, space and time. Definitely confusing and surely inconsistent. Consequently, when the protagonists (and the author) are stuck in jeopardy somewhere or somewhen, something or someone appears out of the blue to get them (and him) out of their predicament. I must confess I didn't understand all of it... and I didn't seek to do it.

In my opinion one of the all time science fiction classics,along with Radix.You can skip the other two of the quadralogy.The story and the science are top notch.attanasio at the top of his game.I recommend this to all science fiction buffs and a great introduction to the work of Mr.Attanasio.

I love this book. I read it years ago and forgot the name of the book, the author and only now do I realize it was part of a series of books, and yet I have never forgotten the story. I think for me the most powerful part is how limited humans are relative to the Tryl (a species on Earth that evolves to an intelligence and grace greater than humans 1 billion years after we kill ourselves off) and yet we keep on, going on. Attanasio gives us the big and little of humanity sometimes within the same sentence. I read a lot of science fiction and generally the harder the better but Attanasio, like David Zindell's Neverness series, is an exception to the rule. There is enough "hard" science, like Gai's jumping up from basically the zero point dimension into a dimension much less dense and at much lower energy, to be fascinating in its own right. Another great book it reminds me of -- the Oddessy. The relationship between Gai and Ned O'Tennis (the fighter pilot) is very similar to that between Athena and Oddyseus. All in all, a great read.

The last legends of earth is a wonderfully fantastical story were the classical limitations of time and space are broken. Aliens of the future interact in a bid for god-like supremacy long after the civilizations of man have been lost in the dust. Humans become the fodder for spider-like beings and a battle for human freedom ensues. The worlds Attanasio describes are imaginative and timeless. This is a story is a classic Sci-fi adventure but also has retains a sense of humanity, love and the human spirit. This is one of my favorite books by the author; I also recommend his Arthurian series.

In my opinion, this is (along with the first book in the Tetralogy, Radix) one of the finest sci-fi/fantasy novels written in the past 30 years. It's a rollicking good time, with good vs evil, heroes and villains, interesting scientific concepts, a romance that even manly men could appreciate, and a tempo that speeds up and slows down at just the right times.

Heavily influenced by Lovecraft, Attanasio writes stuff that is not intended to be the joy of English majors or grammar prudes but is deeply fascinating and tells great, highly imaginative stories. This book is no exception. If character is the end-all and be-all of literature to you (ugh!) and story and plot are less interesting to you, then you may not find most of Attanasio's work to your tastes, although his characters are certainly believable. Certainly in LLoE there are some highly interesting characters to add to a mind blowing story that spans billions of years.

After having read the original book in the tetralogy, Radix, when it came out so many years ago, and being so impressed by it, I was disappointed by the next two books in the series. They were interesting but lacked stories that sucked you in. Not so with LLoE, which is a page turner of the highest order. I don't think you'd have to be a sci-fi fantasy buff to appreciate it, but if you are it's one of the best. It certainly has one of the most evil races of monsters in ALL of literature, the zotl. If you can read about them and not get the creeps, you should probably be in an institution somewhere.

In fact, if all you read of the tetralogy were Radix and LLoE, you would be well served, but you might want to read the others for the sake of completeness.

I was so glad to find this book again as I had read it to my sons when they were in grade school. This is a very fun book for children big and small! This was our very first Daniel Pinkwater novel and was the biginning of our lifelong love of his writings. Read this to your children - give it to them to read. ONE disclaimer - if they are already immersed in fantasy then they will have little appreciation of how subtly Pinkwater takes you from known to the absurd to the almost believeable.

Lizzard Music is the way I got my son Matt to read as a kid. He could read but wasn't at all interested in the boring books he got handed at school. It was like pulling teeth to get him to read. I gave him lizzard music and asked that he read for 1/2 an hour and that was the last I heard from him except for some laughing and every once in a while a "wow! mom this is great!". He didn't put the book down except to eat and sleep until he finished it and then made me go get more Pinkwater books. So basicly my son reads thanks to the humor of the genius that is Daniel Manus Pinkwater!!! Thanks Mr. Pinkwater from moms everywhere

A very appealing book, and a favorite from Pinkwater. Good for both boys and girls, especially those looking for something funny and original.

Manus Pinkwater is a pretty cool kinda guy. He has the unique feature of being as tall sitting as he is standing, and that makes me wonder if the convex dimensions of an author's backside are somehow related to the quantity of his imagination. You see, Manus writes far-out books. No, no, I mean...realllly far-out books. I think he passes the Twilight Zone somewhere in route to where he goes to pen his creative little novels. Lizard Music may take the cake among everything straaaaange he's written, however. This story puts your brain in a food processor and hits frappe. What's it about? Oh, you want to know that, don't you? Okay.

Lizard Music is about a ten-ish young man named Victor, who is left one summer in the early 1970's in the custody of his free-loving teenaged sister, Leslie, when their parents take a summer vacation. Not ten seconds after the parents exeunt stage left Leslie does the same thing, meeting up with some hippie buds and taking off in a van with the warning that Victor better NOT tell on her for this. Hey, Victor's more than happy to oblige. What ten-year-old wouldn't love being left alone with a full frige, a small stack of spending money, and no rules or supervision whatsoever? Victor has the time of his young life. He eats what he wants, he does what he wants, and he stays up as late as he wants watching previously forbidden monster movies. It's this last liberty, the late bedtime, that sends young Victor's life into some veddy odd places. One night, past midnight, Victor is up watching the TV station sign off after the late-late-late show has concluded and right in front of his drowsy eyes he sees the most peculiar program he's ever witnessed: a jazz group composed entirely of man-sized lizards performs a concert in the minutes before the station ceases its signal. That's not to say it's a cartoon or guys in costumes...these appear to be great big lizards playing jazz. The next morning Victor wonders if it was all a dream. (He had after all been hitting the candy and cola a little hard the last couple nights...) To get to the truth, Victor stays up another night to see if it happens again. It does...and something else does too. Let me just say Victor takes a trip that's even weirder than the one his sister is on with her fellow hippies. "LiKe FaaR OuT, dUdE!!!" Lizard Music is the sort of book no one but Pinkwater could have written, no one could possibly figure out before its conclusion, and that no one will quite know what to make of when they've finished reading its mind-altering text.

I remember the night that my grandmother gave me this book. My mom was in the hospital for what would have been her last round of chemo and I had been beaten up in school that day for tucking my pants into my argyle socks in a rather unsporting display involving football players, loose change, and vending machines. Pinkwater's book kept me sane through the sixth grade and then some. There are a whole bunch of physicists in my department who feel the same way. We are very much in debt to the Chickenman and some other friendly phantoms from Bughouse Square and Pinkwater's memory (real or not, we are smart enough as a collective to get back to them).

I love this series, this character, and had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately it left me a little disappointed.

This book spends a lot of time following Mark, Miless' clone, instead of Miles himself. This includes almost the entire third act of the book. Miles is what makes this series interesting, and Mark is a poor substitute. The underdog outsmarting his opponent and the charm with which Bujold writs the character is what makes this series shine. With that missing, this is closer to run of the mill sci-fi then great sci-fi.

The story itself is interesting, and there is enough mystery and intrigue to hold the readers attention. This book also has the best small unit action of the whole series. It is fast past, well executed, and has a true feel to it.

While this book has its problems, and is a bit of a let down as the series goes, it is still a quality read and worth picking up if you follow the series.

I write this review having read this sometime ago. The whole way the author treats this 'brother' issue in this and later books is simple superb.

Needless to say, the brother is the exact opposite of Miles in so many ways - and tantalizing similiar. The author develops this dichotomy very well and uses it to very entertaining effect during the reading.

Must read book. The only down note is that it seems the author has exhaused the Vorkosigan theme - all good things must come to an end sadly.

One deadsicle, one schizo.


Mark impersonates his brother to take the Free Mercs off on a liberation mission. A bit of an understatement to say this doesn't go well. The original version is killed and frozen, and Mark is tortured until his not so stable personality fragments into many.

The M & M show has to someone get out of this and wreak some havoc on bad Barons.

I came late to this series, and had serious doubts about all the awards its author has won after reading Shards of Honor. Luckily, I bought the 2-in-1 "Cordelia's Honor" and forged ahead anyway into Barrayar. Wow. Now that was worth the praise. Then I advanced to Warrior's Apprentice and was further amazed. Could the author continue to churn out action packed smartly written comedy slash adventure slash dramas? She can. She has. Sure there are dips. I found Cetaganda a bit lifeless. But the other books are predominantly very strong and impressive.

Mirror Dance is the culmination of all that came before. Seeing the Vorkosigan's from Mark's perspective is like meeting them all over again. Watching him become human in the face of his newfound family's integrity and acceptance is incredibly moving. I can't lavish enough praise on this series or this book.

Not without suprsie I read the previous reviews. Personally I did not like the last three novels : "Mirror Dance", "Brother in Arms" and "Borders of Infinity" as much as the novels in the "Young Miles" book. It seemed to me that inadvertently Bujold's interest to moral dillemmas started to influence too much of the story and characters. I remember how one of my school teachers was telling us how Pushkin ( the author of "Evgenii Onegin" ) was distraught that his characters could not fall in love. To me this is an example how author remains loyal to the world of characters he creates and follows the logic of his own creation.
It also feels sometimes that Bujold falls somewhat victim to romanticising the brutal, ruthless world of Nexus monopolies, intelligencies and political intrigues that she had created herself). For example , suddenly Barrayran Chief Security ( who is described as one of the most feared and paranoid persons in the "mean" society of Mile's home planet) suddenly becomes soft and sentimental and lets Mark just off the hook. It appears that Bujold feels too conflictual about hurting more an "innoncent prey" of sadisctic Kommaran revolutionary.
-But what about the security risk?
-Yeah, but Mile's mother would not want that to happen to the clone of her son ( I think Bujold identifies with the Countess). Of course you could argue both ways.
Again,I would give away my left hemisphere for the poetic beaty of Bujold's right but, but .... I hope to see more "war hawkish" elements in the future novels.

This book starts where Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism ends. Molly wants to hypnotize again so that she can feel the fusion feeling some more, but she can't break her promise to Rocky to only hypnotize people when truly necessary. So she hypnotizes a bush instead but the fusion feeling turns icy cold so she instantly stops.

Then she remembers about Lucy Logan and wishes she were there but Lucy has gone away for some strange reason. Molly then gets a letter from Lucy telling her to come over. When Molly gets there, Lucy tells her that an evil, rich hypnotist named Primo Cell is in L.A. hypnotizing stars to be in his ads and now he wants to be president. She tells Molly that she is the only one who can stop him.

Molly, her dog Petula, and her friends fly to L.A. where they learn that Primo isn't really a bad guy. They also find out what the icy cold feeling means and where Lucy was when she disappeared. Then Molly has to use hypnotism to save the world.


This book is really good. It is one of my favorite books I've ever read.

Molly Moon's Stops The World is a fabulous book for both children and young adults. I think that the characters in this book are unique, and right when you think you know the ending of the story, it turns again, making it more exciting, thrilling, and suspenseful! It makes you never stop reading! This book is simply fabulous! Children would describe Molly Moon as 'magical' and young adults would describe Molly Moon as 'mysterious'. The bad guys almost always aren't as bad as they seem to be. In this book, bad guys can turn good. It kept me very busy on a long trip.

As the title suggests, Molly Moon is hitting Hollywood in this book. But why is Molly heading to the USA after such a weird and hypnotic experience in the Big Apple? You will have to read the book to find out. Remember to read the first book to meet all the characters and work out what they are about!

This is a great book!! A great follow up to the first Molly Moon book. My boys and I take turns reading(ages 8 & 12) We can't put it down! I highly recommend it!

my grandma got the first three books for me as soon as the time travel (book 3) one was in the book store. then she sent them to me in a package. when i saw them, i was in the middle of reading a different book (narnia, i think..), so i put them in my shelf so i could finish "the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe." when i finally finished that by thanksgiving '06, i pulled out the molly moon books and read the first one, the second one, and the third one, straight through in that one day! it was so much fun when molly and rocky (in the second one) were in New York, livin' the sweet life. and i thought my heart was going to burst when (also in the second book) the magpie could have made them into human being salsa!!!

but i thought it was great when they were in Sinclair's car, watching ms. trinkleberry and nockman. (hahahahahaha!!!)


i love this book, and ive loved all the other ones, too!

I enjoyed this book because I am a cancer survivor. Mr. Jordan also
discussed and gave an inside look into political events that happened
events over 2 decades ago, which I found to be interesting.

I read this book years ago and never forgot this brave uplifting man as he fought his battle with cancer. I am greatly saddened to hear of his passing today. His words will live on for anyone facing life's greatest challenges.

Hamilton Jordan tells of his inspiring victory over the deadly disease that affects us all in one way or another - cancer. He also tells the intriguing and compelling history of his brief tenure in the White House under Jimmy Carter as well as the inspiring story of his uncle, who fought racism in rural Georgia ahead of his time.

But above all, this book provided me with a shot in the arm while I was in the hospital for over a month with pneumonia. Feeling somewhat down, this book really lifted my spirits.
Jordan proves that a positive outlook and one deeply rooted in prayer and faith in God immensely helps those in dire medical circumstances. I am a walking monument and a true believer of the power of prayer and faith in God.

I highly recommend this book to everyone - whether you're sick or not. It is ineffably a book that leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling after you put it down. A great gift to someone you love - including yourself.

I have several relatives with cancer,including my son who is a childhood leukemia surviver. I bought this book expecting to learn more about dealing with the diagnosis of the "Big C". I got that and much, much more.

This book is an inspiration for those touched by cancer, but also an inspiration to see how seemingly small decisions or details in life can a have huge impact. It also is an insider's view of what life in the Deep South was like in the mid-19th century.

Whether you read this book to better understand how to deal with cancer, how to face difficult circumstances in general, or how how a single person can make a huge difference in the lives of others, or just an interesting read you will not be disappointed.

Not many books kept me up past my bedtime but this ranks as one of them. Jordan is frank, lucid and at times funny but I would prefer if he elaborates on his tenure as chief of staff further. I'm sure the conversation he had with Carter in his old car campaining for this little known person then would interest a lot of people...well he left that part out.
This book is about hope and doing something about it.

In this book, Dr. Ross expands on her original concepts of the five stages of death and dying. In this book she speaks to the survivors, and offers five stages of loss as it relates to grief.

This is the book to buy for anyone you know who is experiencing grief and loss. Just give them the book - don't offer advice or highlight what you think are important paragraphs. Let the reader make her own decisions about what she finds meaningful in the book and you will probably be thanked greatly later on.

Book was in good condition! Arrived early. Would do business with this seller again.

I have lost three parents in the past year. My mother, father and stepfather and there is no better book that relates to what I have been feeling. I bought several other books on the topic and they don't even come close. There is a reason this is given 5 stars, it is because Kubler Ross knows her subject better than anyone. She invested so much time on the subject.

Buy it for yourself or friends who have lost someone.

This is a book that I would reccomend everyone read. It is a wonderful guide to the grieving process. It not only helps those going through the process realize what to expect and what is normal, but it also helps those surrounding this person understand better what they are going through. Loss is something we all encounter in our lives and this book helps in preparing us for those times. Also I would reccomend this book as a gift to a grieving person.

This book is an excellent source for the grieving. The material covers any type of loss. I have experienced the loss of my son to suicide and found it exceptional!

I sent it to my son when he was in Afghanistan. It's a classic story

This book is one of the best books about the fire service I have ever read. I hung onto each and every word. It was though I was there sometimes.

During the tumultuous period of the 60s when author Dennis Smith wrote Report From Engine Company 82, the book was a cry for help from exhausted, frustrated men. Men who cleaned up in the aftermath of other exhausted and frustrated inhabitants of a society stretched to the breaking point.

As I type this, a younger firefighter in a comfortable, air-conditioned fire station among a population that by-and-large respects my profession, it's easy to forget the sacrifice of our past brothers who unceasingly fought fires, city hall and the population they served, until they had forged the modern fire service.

It's an important book for new firefighters to learn how the iron men of old did the job. And for the general reader it's a testament to both a volatile period in our nation's history, and to the timeless strength and courage by which good men have always worked to keep back the chaos of barbarism and destruction.

I spent 10 years in the fire service in both engine and truck companys. While I have many memories and stories to tell, the author, Dennis Smith, sums up the life of a fire fighter in an urban environment about as well as can be possibly told. Trying to balance the unpleasantries and sadness against the satisfaction of saving a life or helping a family overcome one of life's most agonizing moments is very well portrayed in this book. This is what a fire fighter's life is about folks. There is no other book that I can remember that tells it any better than this. If you're thinking of a career in a big city fire department or for that matter, if you're even thinking of becoming a volunteer fire fighter this book is a must!

I first read this book 20+ years ago, when I was under 20 years of age myself but streetwise from being the "wheels" (with a driver's license and a car) for various escapades all over Chicago in my raucous, hard-partying and utterly politically incorrect youth. Many aspects of "Report From Engine Co. 82" stuck with me through the years, and I've re-read it several times. Now I'm 40 and an ER RN in a Chicago hospital where we see more than our share of the extraordinarily dysfunctional lives of the people who live in poverty in the neighborhoods that surround our hospital -- the type of job and environment Smith portrays so well in "Report From Engine Co. 82."

"Report From Engine Co. 82." tells truths about the nearly inescapable poverty and illiteracy of people scraping by in lives that are marginalized in every possible way because they don't -- can't -- really care for themselves appropriately because they don't even know how. Poverty isn't what it used to be -- but it's still as screwed up as it was in Smith's first book. Most of our ER visits aren't really emergencies, just as most of the calls Company 82 responded to weren't emergencies, either. Nowadays, people call 911; when "Report" was written, that 911 system didn't exist yet. But not much has changed since then, in terms of what the firefighters/paramedics respond to and bring to the ER.

Most of the "emergencies" he sees are not emergencies. The non-emergencies, combined with the real emergencies, portray the dangerous and unthinking way poor people live through a combination of lack of resources, lack of experience with the "straight" world, lack of common sense, and minute-by-minute survival thinking. Most of these emergencies and non-emergencies are easily prevented -- if people had common sense, proper parenting, and a normal instinct for self-preservation.

These qualities, however, are surprisingly hard to come by in poverty, and this is what Smith dramatizes. The heroin overdoses. The stupid kids doing stupid things because they are constantly left unattended and to their own devices. Kids who shoot themselves in the thigh or foot -- or worse -- "playing" with guns. Fires that kill children because space heaters provide the heat slumlords refuse to provide in their code-violating buildings. The incipient hatred and distrust poor minority neighborhoods have of the white emergency personnel and firefighters who respond to their calls. The huge cultural gaps that make true communication and understanding so difficult -- even when you're both the same race and both speaking English.

What Smith accurately portrays is the way poverty-stricken people "live in the now" -- people whose entire lives are spent with no real financial or material stability or security. These are people for whom the concept of saving money for the future is impossible, either as a concept or a reality. People for whom making an appointment days or weeks in the future, and actually remembering to get to the appointment, is nearly impossible. Their main mode of thought is: what do I need to do now, what do I want to do now, what do I need or want to do in the next five minutes. This inability to think about and plan for the future is endemic, as is the inability to prioritize that which really matters -- one suspects because most of these people realize on some level they have no future that truly matters to the rest of society, and they're incapable of living as the rest of the "straight" world lives because they never have, didn't grow up with it, and don't know the language of living that life, let alone the mindset.

These are the people and children who have no insurance, no health care, no glasses when their vision is bad, no braces or dental care when their teeth are bad; who never use birth control (to prevent pregnancy OR to prevent disease transmission). People who don't understand why it's inappropriate to come to the ER with an upper respiratory infection and get pissed off when they wait hours for care while higher priority, higher-acuity patients (in respiratory distress, cardiac arrest, heart attacks, asthma attacks, and overdose, etc.) are taken before they are.

Conversely, these are also the people who shun health care until they are so sick they can no longer avoid it, and discover they have cancer... Cancer that could have been prevented or at least treated, often saving their lives, had they ever had regular health care -- but who are now consigned to an inevitable death they will blame on the healthcare providers who couldn't save them because they were at a stage beyond saving or treating in any way other than palliative.

Smith's New York is NOT the New York of Sex And The City. This is the New York of the infants whose welfare mothers don't immunize them, but have the latest, most expensive coats and boots because conspicuous consumption is how they live: you show how much money you have by wearing all that your money has bought you (rather than doing the far less glamorous but sensible things more responsible people, whose children were WANTED rather than accidental, do). The New York of the kids having kids who have kids, all of whom have never known proper parenting, nutrition, or health care. The overdoses. The children who come in with accidental poisonings or burns from household chemicals because no one was watching them. The attempted suicides with anything and everything -- cold medicine, knives, guns, illegal drugs. The kids raised by siblings because the parent is completely incapable, if they're even around, with or without the additional problems of substance use/abuse, addiction, or domestic abuse. The families which are largely single-parent families -- and where the parental figure may be an elder sibling, aunt or cousin who cares more for the children than their biological parent(s) does or is capable of doing.

This is also the world of the terrified illegal immigrants who wait so long to call for help because they're afraid of INS (now ICE) and deportation; by the time they do, they're often too sick to save. The penniless old people whose pensions don't cover their living expenses and who don't call for help because they're terrified of being discharged from the hospital to a nursing home and losing what little autonomy and material security they have left. The fractured families (with utterly dysfunctional dynamics) who interfere with the paramedics' jobs -- as well as the tight-knit families who are rich only in love for one another. The people who refuse help they desperately need because they fear and distrust the paramedics and firemen trying to help them, and because their healthcare illiteracy is such that they have no idea what is necessary to save their lives, and so refuse or avoid medical treatment that could stop problems in stages when they're still treatable. The mothers who speak no English, who superstitiously fear that emergency treatment will kill their children, yet who are so desperate to save their babies, they don't know what else to do, because all home remedies have now failed. The endless numbers of people who let their prescriptions run out or try to save money by taking less than the prescribed doses and then have severe health problems that wouldn't happen if they bought and took their meds as prescribed -- but who, for multiple reasons, can't and/or don't. The people who beg not to be brought to the hospital because "people DIE in the hospital" -- people who don't understand that their neighbors and family members who died in the hospital, died because they waited far too long to call for help, and were therefore were beyond saving when they finally got to a hospital.

Anyone who works in public service as a fireman, cop, nurse, social worker, or psych intake worker in a big city -- and in poverty-stricken, crime- and drug-infested suburbs and rural communities -- can relate to Smith's book. For everyone who majored in something else, this book opens a door and exposes the lives of people you don't even know exist, people you don't acknowledge when you're forced to share a bus or train with them during rush hour (or who you intentionally avoid by driving in your own car, despite the expense of gas, insurance, and time spent on the commute): the people who don't work, or the people who work wage-slave jobs like janitor, maid, fast-food worker, security guard, who can barely pay their bills or care for their children with what little they make -- or who blow it all on liquor and/or drugs and/or gambling (or all three) to escape the miserable hopelessness of their lives. The kids who have the latest "stuff" -- whether it's the shiny ten speed bicycles Smith writes about, or today's video games and cell phone/mp3 player/cameras -- but whose parents can't or won't give them what they really need: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a stable environment from which to emerge every day to deal with the life-endangering risks of walking to and attending public schools that do little more than babysit and warehouse kids whose futures include teen pregnancy (and the late-term, life-threatening miscarriages that go with total lack of prenatal care, with or without drug use), repeated incarceration, and shorter-than-average lifespans due to the daily likelihood of violence in their communities and their lives.

Smith's portrayal of this kind of poverty is not pretty but it is not unsympathetic -- there are glimpses of beauty and hope, mostly in the young women and children who haven't yet been ruined by their surroundings. Smith tempers it all with a matter-of-fact acceptance that although it is his job to care for these people, he may never really understand them because he's now too removed from that life, and he takes on faith that they possess human qualities they often fail to demonstrate. But some do show their humanity, and those are the people he does it for.

Smith does an excellent job of portraying the paradox that the job of these firefighters and paramedics is to help and save these people, which by its nature includes finding them WORTH helping and saving, at the same time as they move and live as far away from these neighborhoods and the associated poverty, crime and drug problems as they possibly can. This is not merely a racial difference. There are plenty of black and Latino paramedics, cops, firefighters, nurses and doctors who straddle the gulf (some might say 'minefield') between their class and the class of the people they help, in circumstances that are at best trying and at worst nearly impossible to help them transcend for any sustained length of time.

Smith portrays the sympathetic detachment required to know that this is what you do, all day, every day you work, with only the hope that one or two out of ten people will actually genuinely and sincerely thank you for what you do or have done for them -- which is that elusive reward you get, one that can make it all seem worth it when it happens -- and to hope that when you show up and give this of yourself on every shift, there might be one kid or teen who sees what you're doing, who still has enough time ahead of them to see this glimpse into another world... A world it is just *barely* possible for them to enter given enough determination, education, mentoring and drive, and sadly also given enough instinct to discard much of what they learn in their families about how they THINK the world works, versus how the world REALLY works for the more educated and better-off people who run it.

The fact that Smith can show all this without denigrating an entire class of people -- does, in fact, portray them with humanity and the grace one occasionally sees in these circumstances -- is because he also recognizes that he is not that far removed from the kind of poverty he sees on the job (he grew up poor, too). He recognizes and accepts that he is that kid who admired firemen as a boy and saw a different world -- he is that kid who made the leap to the next class up, to the working class and blue collar as opposed to poverty-stricken. He understands the dysfunction -- the drinking, the drugs, the abuse -- that occurs in the neighborhoods Co. 82 responds to because it occurred in his neighborhood, his family, his poverty, while he was growing up.

This understanding that few "get out" -- and that he was one of the lucky few -- underscores with sympathy his otherwise stark portrayal of the job of a NYC fireman in the 70s when NYC was not a desirable place to live and people did their best to escape "the city" as soon as their financial circumstances permitted it.

The uncensored version of this book (which is the one I've read multiple times) also shows the bizarre split someone who works as a fireman/paramedic, nurse, or doctor must negotiate within themselves -- the intimate knowledge you have of the bodies of the people you must save, which is merely part of your job but which you can't really talk about to any family member or lover who isn't in one of these fields. I don't mean merely intimacy with people's genitals -- though there is that, such as the way the Smith describes heroin overdoses getting icebags put under their testicles (negative stimulus, designed to bring unresponsive, unconscious people back to responsiveness and consciousness). I mean the intimacy of seeing people stripped of their modesty and dignity, voluntarily (prostitutes) or involuntarily (the terribly sick), whose personal space and body integrity you must necessarily invade, often in less-than-respectful or diplomatic ways because there is no time for those niceties when someone is dying and you're trying to save them. People who don't work in these fields can never really understand how you can be unaffected by the nudity, exposure and/or intimate knowledge you have of these total strangers, and the disinterest or casual attitude with which you greet what would shock most everyone else.

And, of course, you're not unaffected by this knowledge. Sometimes you're disturbed, or someone or something sticks in your mind -- the things you've seen or had to do -- and is recalled in inappropriate moments with your loved ones. You're not unaffected, you're just emotionally calloused or you compartmentalize it, in order to repeatedly perpetrate and endure this violation of the boundaries between strangers and its inherent power imbalance: you, as the emergency personnel, never have to reveal any of these intimacies to your patients... but they must necessarily, willingly or not, reveal them to you. This includes the mentally ill and the hopelessly drug-addled or dopesick (or both, combined) -- sometimes the most disturbing intimacy of all: the insides of their heads and their distorted, sometimes frighteningly unhinged, perceptions of the world around them.

This book provides an easy to read introduction to sensory processing problems in children and how overwhelming these problems can be for the child and the adults in his life. Many terms that professionals use are are introduced and parents will be able to do further research after being exposed to the terms (examples being somatosensory/tactile systems, proprioception, postural gravitational insecurity, space visualization etc). As an Occuaptional Therapist, I found it helpful to compare the activities that I recommend in home programs with what the author recommends. The author provides many suggestions on how to structure the environment and play to help a child with sensory processing. The book does not include general developmental norms such as when the average child begins to dress himself, hop, ride a tricycle, etc. I think it would be helpful for parents to read about how developmental expectations are related to foundational sensory systems in early childhood.

Great book, very very good!!! You must have this one for your resource shelves. Therapists need the inventory for use in practice. What a great communication tool for parents, teachers and others to communicate with therapists. It helps parents to 'talk therapy talk,' just by filling in the inventory. The sensory secret checklist is great too. If you put this one on top of your list, you will recommend it too. Easy reading, with life changing information!!!

I found this to be a wonderful book for parents just entering the world of Sensory Integration Dysfunction. I explains so many of the terms and theories used by Occupational Therapists. However, this truly is an introduction, and not very helpful to anyone who has been working with an OT for any length of time.

This book is a great introduction to sensory integration and how our senses effect our learning. As A professional who works with individuals who have sensory difficulties, I feel that this book would be helpful for new teacher trainings, as an introduction to sensory integration, or as a guide to help individuals (such as parents) who do not work in an education or medically based industry that need to gain a better understanding of sensory integration. All teachers should use these basic techniques in their classrooms; for individuals who are interested in a deeper understanding of sensory integration dysfunction and other related difficulties, perhaps a book with a deeper explanation of the CNS and sensory systems would better suit their needs. Overall, it's a good quick read!

Of everything that I've read this is the best book. Its a fairly quick read. It's broken down into very specific catigories. It gives you warning signs. It tells you how to work on a problem with professionals. It shows you hundreds of ways to work on each specific sensory motor problem. It also helps you to evaluate your own child and explains how certain holes in the learning foundation could quickly lead to learning diviculties later on in life (early grade school). If you feel that there is a problem with your child and you can't put your finger on it - this is the book that will give you invaluable stepping stones.

These stories are about people that had a gun when they needed one. You don't hear about these in the paper. You only hear about the ones (Usually DEAD) that didn't have one. Good read!

"Thank God I Had a Gun" by Chris Bird

This is a book of stunning accounts wherein ordinary people protected themselves from assault, for the simple reason that they had a firearm on hand with which to defend themsevles.

Stories such as these, wherein ordinary people defend themselves against criminal violence do not receive much attention in the media. Their stories do not always appear in print or in news accounts. Nonetheless, many Americans do protect themselves and their loved ones on a regular basis. Ordinary people, in their homes and places of business, subjected to criminal attacks, do not always suffer injury and death, if they have the will to survive, and a firearm in their grasp. The unarmed however, are not so fortunate. They become statistics, and end up in the morgue or the hospital on many occasions.

The author is very experienced in the use of handguns and makes his living as a shooting instructor.

Most people, with no criminal background, can purchase a firearm for self defense. The background check takes between 20 minutes to 1 hour generally. After which time, you can leave the store with the means to protect yourself. That, and some affordable self-defense classes in firearms saftey and uses, can make the difference between living and dying, or going through life with nightmares for memories.

A very good and informative read for those who desire to educate themselves regarding the facts of firearms possession. Whether renter, housewife and mother, businessman, or just plain folks, this book is very useful.

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Of course you will not be able to put down the book because you are on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next in each story. Chris Bird doesn't just focus on the story itself like a cheap Hollywood film. Details of each victims personality, what led to the incident, how the police responded and the aftermath (how people who defend themselves feel afterward) gives you a lot of food for thought. There is probably someone who was involved in defending themselves that you can relate to. I bought this and the The Best Defense by Waters, read them in a few days each, and passed them among girlfriends. They make great conversation; we consider the possibility of an earthquake putting us in a situation like the Katrina chapter. Or what gun control means to an older woman who lives alone. Also, knowing what really happens when gunfire is exchanged, you will never look at an action adventure movie or police drama the same again!

I was very pleased that I learned so much from this book. I am an advocate of personal responsibility and self defense is a part of that. I try to think of ways to keep myself from ever having a confrontation and ways to remove myself from one if it were to happen. This book gives accurate descriptions of how people behaved in these times of stress, and while reading them I automatically inserted myself into the situation and noted how I "think" I would behaved differently were it me. At the conclusion of each story, I was able to compare what actually happened to what may have happened had it been me and I found some of my decisions to be in error. Hopefully I'll never have to be in one of those stories, but if I am, hopefully I'll be able to apply the knowledge gained from this book.

this book needs to be read by people that are not total anti-gun but think the police can "save" them. Learn that the gun is just a tool with a job to do,learn to use it like you would any other tool.

I have read many medical memoir books and this tops them all! I also recommend "Another Day in the Frontal Lobe" by Dr. Katrina Firlik.

This book is phenomenal. The author's recount of his neurosurgery training is both gripping and funny. Some of the patients he treated and what happened to them will be forever engraved in my mind. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. This is not a type of book I am used to reading but it is very well written. The subject is very intersting and Mr. Vertosick makes it very easy to understand for people like me, who does not know a lot about subject.

I highly recommend this book. I am an R.N. and my husband is an electrical engineer and neither of us could put the book down. I've read it twice already. It's very well-written and shows a side of surgeons you never see in the hospital.

Originally published in 1996, "When the Air Hits Your Brain," by Dr. Frank Vertosick, is a mesmerizing insider's look at "an arrogant occupation" whose practitioners operate on the spinal cord and the human brain ("a trillion nerve cells storing electrical patterns more numerous than the water molecules of the world's oceans"). A neurosurgeon must be supremely confident in his ability to get the job done; if he were to dwell on everything that could possibly go wrong during a procedure, he would be too terrified to operate. Because of the high potential for missteps, neurosurgical training is an arduous seven years of hell. Before he starts treating "brain cancers, spinal cord injuries, head trauma, [and] lethal hemorrhages," a trainee must endure a grueling regimen of study which includes repeated humiliation at the hands of verbally abusive mentors. This is not a profession for the faint-hearted, for when neurosurgery is unsuccessful, the results can be catastrophic. Even if the patient survives, his cognition, speech, movement, and vision may be forever compromised. In the words of Gary Stancik, a sardonic chief resident, the brain is like a '66 Cadillac: "It was built for performance, not for easy servicing."

Vertosick fell into neurosurgery by happenstance. He spent some time as a steelworker, majored in theoretical physics, and wound up choosing medicine by default. In the years to come, he would have to adjust to impossibly long hours, inadequate sleep, and hit-or-miss meals. He would become adept at performing quickly and efficiently under pressure. However, none of his earlier experiences would fully prepare him for the emotional roller-coaster that lay ahead. He was destined to endure a trial by fire when faced with such cases as a six-week old infant born with a malignant tumor, a twenty-two year old woman with devastating multiple injuries resulting from an auto accident, a Vietnam veteran with an intracranial aneurysm, and a twenty-eight year old pregnant woman with a lump of cancerous cells in her brain. Fortunately, Dr. Vertosick enjoyed some notable successes; he was instrumental in helping a number of gravely ill patients resume normal lives.

Although it is vital to care about and communicate with each patient, Vertosick argues that it is a mistake to become too personally invested in each outcome. Hardest of all, one must accept the unpleasant fact that even brain surgeons can commit colossal blunders. On one occasion, Vertosick sank into despair when one of his patients died because of what he perceived to be his incompetence. He could have given in to his torment and self-loathing and abandoned his career, but he ultimately decided to "stop moping over one postoperative death." In the words of the aforementioned Gary, "Yeah, it's a nightmare, but that's neurosurgery. Land of nightmares."

"When the Air Hits Your Brain" is impeccably and stylishly written, with fascinating asides about the complexities of medicine and the human body. Vertosick's wry and irreverent black humor serves as a welcome respite from the book's often grim subject matter. In his postscript, which was written in 2007, the author provides updates on the changes that have occurred in the last decade: by law, residents are not allowed to work more than eighty hours a week, aneurysms may now be treated without resorting to invasive surgery, and new technologies such as deep brain stimulation and "frameless stereotaxis (a kind of GPS system for navigating the brain)" are revolutionizing the field. This is an intelligent, moving, and enlightening book and one of the most powerful and intimate accounts that I have ever read on the making of a surgeon.