California Books

My Mother passed away and we thought all the paperwork was in order and it was not. I got this book from Amazon and it has outlined every detail and possible stituation. I went and got all the forms and and in the middle of probate right now. Very, very well written for a simple probate case and non complicated estates.
If there are people who will contest the will or complicated properties, business deals; most likely, you will need a lawyer and probating yourself will not work. But if it is very clear and simple, you can probabe yourself. Great book, worh every penny spent on it.

This book really helped my wife go through the probate process for her mother's estate. Highly recommended book!

This is a great book for going through the probate process. It takes
you through the entire process and explains all the jargon. The only
problem I had with it is that if your probate includes anything which
is a little out-of-the-ordinary, e.g., heirs/beneficiaries who may contest the will, it does not help. However, one book cannot cover 100% of
the possible cases. This book probably covers 95% of the probate cases
and is helpful even if you are one of the "odd-cases" and you are not familiar with the probate process.

If you can only purchase one book on probate in California, this book should be your first stop. I am in the process of probating my mother's estate and I will save at least $20,000 by using this book. There a dozens of forms, tips and tons of information on the subject. If you are motivated and organzed, this is the guide to help you avoid the high cost of attorneys in probate. I cannot urge you STRONGLY enough to use this book as your guide to probate in California.

After my mother passed away and I was named executor, I discovered something: California's probate system is a massive, elaborate joke designed to make lawyers rich. It's incomprehensible how convoluted the process is, and how absolutely ZERO help is available. (The court clerks I turned to answered every question with this: "I can't tell you! I'm not a judge!" And, of course, it's not like you can contact a judge.) Imagine trying to file the tax returns for Microsoft without any training or instructions: that's just a hint of what you're in for here.

Armed with this book, though, I got through the process. And -- against all odds, and despite the ridiculous restrictions and obfuscations this laughable legal system imposes on people WHOSE PARENTS JUST DIED -- I got all the way through probate, saving something like $10,000 in legal fees.

So, if your estate doesn't have much money -- or the legal system just bugs the heck out of you, and you refuse to fling hard-earned money at those charlatans -- get this book and thank your lucky stars it exists.

Another delightful outing with vineyard manager Nikki Sands. Nikki has her hands full juggling two dashing suitors, but when a big-time chef is shot at the winery and spa, she takes on a new challenge: find the killer before she becomes the next victim. Lovable characters, steady pacing, and secretive suspects will keep you guessing until the end.

I absolutely adore this series, but this is my favorite of the three. Once again Ms. Scott blends up a delicious concoction of mystery, romance and culinary delights. There are two big questions in this who dunnit. Who dunnit and who will Nikki pick to be her man.

The chef of the new restaurant on the vineyard, Georges Debussey meets his demise while bathing at the new Malveaux spa. Instead of r&r, he winds up DEAD with a bullet to the head. Nikki Sands once again goes to work solving the crime. She's also got her plate full when it comes to the men in her life. Nikki has some love life decisions to make with two eligible bachelors. Filled with good looking men, plenty of murderous mystery and one charming heroine made a night out of it for me. A little Syrah and Ms. Scott's third installent and I was completely content.

I loved this book and I love the series. But this was the best book so far. I did not want to put it down. I did not want it to end. The author had me from beginning to end. I am not a wine drinker but I think I might pour myself a glass of wine and put my feet up and read the next one that comes out. I hope the next one comes out soon, for I am dying to see if Nikki ends up with Derek or Andres. My vote is for Derek. Nikki will never be happy with anyone until she gets her feet wet with Derek first!

Sensual bath treatments, facials, massages . . . mouth-watering Italian food. The atmosphere is fabulous. The book takes place in California grape-growing country, with a winery, an elegant hotel, an Italian restaurant, and a spa. The book also has recipes for that wonderful Italian food.

Nikki finds a body and she is determined to find out who the killer is. The adventures she goes on in order to solve the mystery are fun and interesting, but also tense and edgy. Once she starts going on these adventures, the book was hard to put down.

Nikki is the main character, and I love her. I also love the character of Alyssa, even though she is not a main character. I think she adds a lot to the book.

The solving of the mystery was clever. It had a nice twist.

I can't wait to make the Margherita Pizza. It sounds like the most scrumptous thing ever.

The new restaurant, Georges on the Vineyard, is about to open in the new boutique hotel and spa at Malveaux Estates. It features star chef Georges Debussey. He is well-known for his cuisine as well as his lack of couth.

Georges goes for a Syrah bath splash at the spa to relax before the restaurant grand opening. When he doesn't return, Simon and Marco get Nikki to find out what's wrong. She finds him dead from a gunshot.

Detective Robinson rubs Nikki the wrong way when he tells her to not play Nancy Drew. She sets out to investigate on the sly.

During all this, Andres asks her to go to Spain with him. Nikki is upset most with the way he asks. And she isn't sure what she should do. And then there's Derek.

Nikki finds herself in danger along the way. Can she figure out who the killer is before someone else dies?

I really like this series. Nikki is such a fun character. The sexual tension created between Nikki, Andres, and Derek really adds to the storyline, but I do hope she makes a decision soon. When I first met Simon and Marco, I found them to be obnoxious, but now I really enjoy them. They add to the story and help Nikki along the way.

The Napa Valley setting really adds to the story as well. It seems so serene in the midst of the murder investigation. I would love to spend a week at the new hotel at Malveaux Estates.

Whether you like wine or not, give this series a try. I recommend reading them in order, but you don't have to. I highly recommend this book and the complete series.

Maya Angelou's poetry is so phenomenal. And the power of her voice reading her own words, is really moving.

Maya Angelou's reading of poetry is moving to the point ot tears and laughter. I highly recommend it.

This audiobook arrived in about a week and was in the condition advertised. Overall, I was satisfied with the transaction and would purchase from this seller again.

...Invictus is by William E. Henley......I do not like much poetry.....but 'Still I Rise', is one of the most moving and powerful pieces of literature of our day. You can feel the rumblings of motivation rising within you as you read it---it summons the power of our ancestors as you read it... YOU FEEL this poem with all your heart--or I fear you have no heart and you remember that feeling for years after you have read it!
It is a magnificent poem that the author not only wrote, but earned through her own life.
This book would make excellent Christmas gifts of inspiration.

This book is filled with wonderful, powerful poetry that really awakened me to the troubles of African Americans in that time of history. Diego Rivera's paintings in the book are staggering and breathtaking. This is a must-see for any ameteur or lover of poetry.

I collect cookbooks. I like this book because the recipes are original and the ingredients aren't too esoteric. I don't like the coffee table size, it's too hard to browse through. I recommend if you are an experienced cook and always searching for new, interesting recipes.

As an individual who is dedicated to eating local, healthy, and tasty food, Michael Chiarello once again creates supreme recipes with delicious flavor and divides the cookbook by season. Each of the recipes has a bit of flare and contain simple and fresh ingredients that should be easily found in any local grocery store, farmers market, or organic store such as Whole Foods, Wild Oats, or Fresh Market. My cooking style is still developing, but all of these recipes are always winners even for the novice cook. The recipes are easy to make and always satisfy. This is a definite recommend for anyone looking for tasty, seasonal cooking.

I have had this book for over a year and have tried several of his recipes which all comes out great. It is one of the few cookboos that I have which I use often. The recipes are easy to follow, simple, and most important of all, delicious. I espcially like the stuffed pepper recipe. It is also a book one can sit down to read for leisure. Plus there are lots of tips, not just recipes.

I've had the Tra Vigne Cookbook for a few years now, and I use it regularly. It's an attractive book, with beautiful photos and intriguing introductions to the recipes. It's hard to stop browsing once you open the book, and an inspiration to actually do some cooking. The dishes are great. The Chicken with Roasted Lemon and Rosemary Sauce is a favorite, as is the Fusilli Michelangelo. My niece from Thailand, for whom I made this dish several years ago, still remembers and asks for it. (Read the intro to either of these dishes and you're likely to cook them.)

The book is arranged seasonally, with chapters on essential ingredients for each season. Spring ingredients include asparagus, garlic, peas, and potatoes. Summer ingredients include corn, tomatoes, and bell peppers. And so on. I shop at a grocery store, not a farmers market, and I've had a less-than-happy relationship with vegetables since infancy, so I was skeptical of the whole seasonal-cooking thing at first. But I enjoy browsing through the new season's recipes as the year changes, and I've tried dishes and ingredients that are not usually a part of my diet. It's hard to object to broccoli when it's served in a creamy Very Green Soup sprinkled with crunchy gremolata.

It would have been nice in book a subtitled "Seasons in the California Wine Country" to have more information about wine. Few recipes actually use wine and there is no advice on what wines to pair with the food.

Despite the elegant presentations shown in the photos, none of the recipes are too difficult to try. They're just challenging enough for the amateur cook who likes to do a little more than the usual home cooking. The Tra Vigne Cookbook is a lot of fun, and the food is delicious.

This is a wonderful culinary book. It's more than a cookbook, as it focuses on various vegetables, etc. of the season, then uses those featured ingredients in several great recipes. If you've ever eaten at Tra Vigne in the Napa Valley town of St. Helena, you can even picture in your mind Michael in the kitchen, and almost taste the restaurant's just-pressed olive oil. If you know anyone who likes to read culinary books (like my mom, who literally reads cookbooks cover to cover, then goes back to earmark certain recipes), you should give them this book for the holidays. It is a beautiful, coffee table-quality, glossy work.

I have been involed in criminal justice practice and education for several years. This book is one of the BEST first hand accounts of prison life I have ever read. A plus was that I got to meet the author on Alacatraz during a visit in 1996. We spoke at some length and he signed a copy of the book for me. I was sorry to hear when I went back a few years later for a return visit to the "Rock" that he had died. This book is a keeper for your library!

While Alcatraz is the centerpoint of the book, the overall story is about a young man's life and how it changes--how it is forcibly changed, rather, through a prison system that had reached its limit with him. Though he describes other prisons (including San Quinten), it is Alcatraz that breaks him of his youthful attitudes of rebellion and crime. And that's how Alcatraz was to him and others--not a place of rehabilitation nor even pennance, but a place meant to break them and make them harmless, or kill them. The awful sense of frustration and desperation that must accompany prison life comes through vividly in his narrative.

The story is told with honesty. I felt I had a sense of him as a young man, and later as an older one facing the real, adult world for the first time. Stories of Alcatraz itself, and its escapes, are well-told from an insider's view, with only hints of residual anger.

I bought the book in 1997 on my first visit to the Rock. I loved it and when I returned to Alcatraz a few months later, I was able to meet Jim Quillen and have my picture taken with him. I felt like I knew him because of the book. It was a neat experience.

I got this book in San Fransisco and from then on I was hooked!If I could recommend any book to anyone it would be this one. I couldn't put it down. I won't let anyone borrow it because I don't want it to get ruined. Please if you are looking into getting a book on Alcatraz for yourself or anyone else, get this one! You won't regret it!! I know I didn't!!

Great book! It was very powerful

This book is very important to read: mostly because so few people know about the bushmeat trade in Africa and its impact on the great apes. The book goes into why apes are worth saving, the contribution of logging to crisis, how the crisis is kept hidden, and suggestions on how to alleviate the problem. You will be very surprised to learn the lengths, difficulties, and dangers the contributors of the book go through simply to bring this issue into the spotlight. I also found it very shameful how the crisis has been ignored and exacerbated by the media and the conservation groups.


Honestly though, I felt the book was a little long. It's not actually a long book, but its longer than it needs to be. It seemed to get a little repetitive as the author kept hammering the same points over again. Also, though the author does include an aside on vegetarianism and its merits (while discouraging veganism), he is not a vegetarian himself. While this is, of course, not the subject of the book I feel that if he is going to argue to protect the great apes on the grounds of their sentience, than it is wrong to overlook the sentience of cows, chickens, and especially pigs (who have the same mental capacity as a dog). This is just a minor criticism, but it did bother me a little throughout the book.

So yes, you should read this book. Its very thorough, detailed, complete, and compelling. You will learn a lot and, if the authors have succeeded (and I think they have), you will be sufficiently outraged and willing to contribute to the cause.

Sometime far in our past, humans took up rocks and sticks to hunt food instead of scavenging from other predators. With our meat available today in shrink-wrapped containers it's easy to lose sight of that long-standing tradition. Others in the world still obtain meat in the traditional environment. The difference is that instead of spears, the weapons are high-powered shotguns. Instead of skulking through the forest seeking prey, hunters are now given rides by timber carriers using deep-penetrating access roads. In this book, Dale Peterson reveals the transformations forest hunting has undergone in West African nations. It's not a
pleasing picture, but it's valid and it's important. And it must change.

The bushmeat trade has many implications, but Peterson has chosen three significant ones. One, of course, is that by killing chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas for food, we're consuming our nearest relations. The primate line divided only 12 million years ago, with the descendants of one line becoming today's mountain gorillas. The other line led to chimpanzees and bonobos with a spur turning off about 7 million years ago leading to you and me. The proximity of chimpanzee and human DNA patterns is no longer news, but the reminder needs to be flashed occasionally.

Another implication is health. With so much attention given to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, it's worth reflecting on its origins. More importantly, as Peterson reminds us, is to consider how it works. HIV/AIDS appears to be a recent evolutionary virus quirk. It adapts and evolves with amazing speed. The roots of it remain in the African forest and a new strain can emerge at any time. The best means of transmission from ape or monkey to human is through blood - that stuff the hunter is soaked in as he butchers his forest kill.

The third theme is the question of human relations with the rest of our environment. Human population growth is presented in a novel framework. How many humans come into existence every day is contrasted with the great ape population. Peterson calculates that the entire gorilla population is equalled by new humans every twelve hours. Population pressures in the "developed" world lead to demands for African timber products. In turn, the timber firms are cutting great swaths of forest using displaced populations for labour. To feed these workers, hunters are hired or loggers hunt and apes, due to their availability and size, become a major food source. In a feedback cycle of habitat reduction and hunting, the apes are simply being exterminated. Recovery would require sharply reduced logging. Peterson notes that trees are being taken that began growth in Michaelangelo's time, but their replacements will be cut in only forty years.

Peterson is effusive in his description of the significant role played by Swiss photographer Karl Ammann. Ammann's chance encounter with a logging truck driver revealed the role international logging firms play in the ape slaughter and the extended bushmeat trade. The logging firms, particularly CIB, contend they are providing "employment for locals, health services, food and education". Peterson explains the falsity of this contention, with "health services limited to a nurse and schools and teachers paid for by the workers' families.

Peterson argues that the long-established bushmeat tradition is already lost, displaced by commercial logging practices and new, mass hunting methods using guns, sometimes lent by government officials. If we can change a culture, such as was done with slavery, hunting traditions no longer tenable can be modified, as well. He cites the willingness of Americans to spend minimal annual funds to protect wolves, bears and other fauna. Why not establish a fund for ape protection. He calculates that US$1 billion per year could be raised with an individual contribution of but US$50. Not an enormous sum, given that other donations and military expenditures far exceed it. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

What animals we eat are selected by what culture we grow up in. Distant societies think nothing of eating dogs. Some closer ones think eating horse is completely acceptable. Then there are frogs, snakes, and insect larvae. It is all a matter of getting enough protein. One man's protein is another man's atrocity. Americans are used to eating meat they find in Styrofoam trays wrapped in plastic, but the indigenous peoples of central Africa have always eaten the animals living around them: elephants, antelopes, porcupines, rodents, and so on. They don't mind a stew of gorilla or a chimp's sirloin, and what of it? It's the way they have always done things. Tribal languages, in fact, often use the same word for wild animal as they do for meat. The world, however, is not the way it always was, and a shocking book, _Eating Apes_ (University of California Press) by Dale Peterson, shows that apes on the menu is not something the world ought to continue to accept.

We ourselves are members of the tribe of great apes; chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans are on the branch with us. But if African tribes don't share our scientific view or our squeamishness, traditional hunters, in predation balance over the centuries, surely are not going to do lasting harm. Traditional hunting, however, is no longer traditional. There has been an invasion from outside the continent by logging companies, making huge profits from our demand for hardwoods. The companies have lots of workers, many of them from the region, and all the workers have to be fed. Hunters, many of whom are also from the region, are hired to bring in the protein. Bows, arrows, and nets have given way to the far more efficient and deadly wire snares and automatic rifles and shotguns. Perhaps if greater firepower were the only threat to our primate cousins, they could still make it. But we are destroying their habitat (again, mostly by logging), and primates will suffer before other species because of their slow rate of reproduction. There are plenty of species headed toward extinction, but few because we are eating them, and none so close to us evolutionarily. In addition, butchering the apes may be the way humans got HIV and Ebola viruses. It may well be that you haven't heard of the problem of eating apes into extinction because the conservation organizations are keeping quiet about such a downer of a message, and because they are, believe it or not, in partnership with the loggers.

What will be needed is the courage to challenge cultural convictions. It is possible for the West to value (or at least claim to value) sensitivity to other cultures, but in the case of eating apes, it will have to impose scientific knowledge of close kinship, risk of disease, and impending loss of primates to get the native cultures to change. It may even be possible within the corporate culture, which mines habitats to get at profits, to insist not just on sustainable development (a nebulous idea the logging companies pay lip service to) but to take on a wider view of environmental improvement. You can figure up the odds of occurrence of these cultural changes, and especially if you look at our past record, you will not be optimistic. Peterson includes an appendix of what you, and what conservation organizations, can do; he obviously is not giving up hope. Perhaps it is a sign of hope that his reasonable and dispassionate account of this disaster will start many people thinking about the previously covert problem of the loss of the apes. Nevertheless, this is a profoundly disturbing and sad book, and will not be forgotten by those who can get through it.

American and international conservation organizations may be doing little more than feel-good guilt assuaging with many of their slick magazine glossy photos, while ignoring a huge elephant right in front of the world's faces and refusing to show readers the problem.

So says Peterson in the challenging and disturbing book Eating Apes.

Peterson writes about the hunting for bushmeat in Central Africa, specifically hunting great apes - gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. He accuses the Wildlife Conservation Society of doing little more than giving PR flak to a German logging concern in the Congo, CIB, a decade ago, just at the time public pressure was starting to ratchet up on the issue, in large part due to photographer Karl Ammann.

He also accuses Wildlife Conservation, the magazine of WCS, along with National Geographic and other such magazines and other media for generally downplaying or even spiking the issue. Ammann, as interviewed in the book, is even blunter, noting how several wildlife conservation magazines said they didn't want his pictures specifically because they were too controversial and, in not so many words, too guilt-provoking while showing that the modern western-nation wildlife preservation industry wasn't wearing any clothes on this issue.

Read Eating Apes. Then rethink your donations to wildlife groups, at least without some strong letters to the editor.

With its appealing cover-picture of two baby chimps and its appalling title, "Eating Apes" is a must read for everybody interested in conservation in general and the survival of the great apes in particular. Although I've been already aware of the bushmeat crisis through voluntary work at a zoo, this book hit me hard. The scope of denial by many - individuals and conservation groups alike - paired with risky relationships between NGOs and logging companies is driving our closest living relatives - the great apes - to extinction. Dale Peterson's book encompasses every aspect of this difficult and very complex issue and Karl Ammann's pictures and comments provide further evidence of what really is happening. Everbody who makes or is going to make decisions regarding the bushmeat trade, logging, development and conservation in central Africa has to read this book before making those important and far-reaching decisions. My next task will be to check with the various conservation groups I support, to find out what they are planning to do about this subject. Depending on their answers, I may well choose to cancel some memberships. Something I haven't actually thought about before reading this book - so I hope that many others will follow suit and choose action over complacency!

wonderful. when you read this work you can actually feel the soil, smell the grass, and taste the fruit. a greeat read

I feel a connection with David Masumoto. Not that I've met him or anything - in fact, there's a good chance I never will (although I keep hoping that one summer day I can make it over to his farm to pick peaches). No, this feeling is based on an impression that we have both fought the same fight over different things, for the same reasons. It is also because he writes so poignantly about a landscape I grew up in. Mr. Masumoto is an organic farmer in the valley of California, and his story is becoming more and more familiar to me as I see this way of life disappearing across the country.

A third generation Japanese American peach and grape farmer, David Masumoto inherited the family orchard from his father. He also had the heritage of his childhood memories of how that particular peach variety, Sun Crest, tasted and ran with juice unlike the pretty red baseballs that have passed for today's supermarket peach varieties. Mr. M wanted to show the world how delightful an old-fashioned peach could be.

When he took over his father's farm, he resolved to not only continue growing his Sun Crests, but to do it organically. This would prove challenging in our day and age of cheap, quick fixes; moreover, it would test his strongly felt ideals. The land needed to heal and replenish itself after years of chemical fertilizers and toxic pest control methods. Masumoto had to take his example from research on other organic farming practices, planting wildflowers to encourage beneficial insect life and sowing "green manure" crops to act as natural mulch and compost. All this took time, patience, and faith that his hard work would eventually pay off.

Epitaph for a Peach is rich in sensory descriptions, philosophy, and nostalgic flashbacks. It is a picture of the way a farmer's life is connected to the seasons, capricious weather patterns, and changing market conditions. Not incidentally, Masumoto also teaches about the obscure history of Japanese farmers in the Valley - something that even I, native to Fresno, had little idea of. Reading this book was a slow, thoughtful experience much in the same manner that one slows down to savor a rich fruit. Recommended to anybody interested in history, growing food, or the vanishing California landscape.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

Author David Masumoto has written an excellent vignette into the year in a life of a small-scale, family farmer. His passion for his life's work, his connection to the land, and his strong family values are so clearly evident in his writing. I think a lot of readers will be envious of the life he describes. I share many of his views on the value of small family farms and the need to focus on how food should taste. Masumoto's book will reonsate deeply with those of us who know what it means to be curious about how something grows, who look forward to the first ripe peach or melon of the year, who prefer to make things from scratch and sit down with all our kids at dinner.

It is rare to read a book where the author works miracles with his hands and his words. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys non-fiction but finds it dry, without humanity. David Mas Masumoto is anything but dry. His land may be at times, but his poetic prose is anything but. His relationship with his family, his family's farm and nature is a rare combination. I highly recommend this read.

I live somewhat north of the area Mr. Masumoto writes about - where the San Francisco Bay Area Suburbs collide with the San Joaquin Farmlands. The Peach and Cherry Orchards and the Sweet Corn, Tomatoes and Strawberries are currently holding their own - but like Mr. Masumoto's Peaches and Grapes, only tenuously, and with great courage. If you would like to understand not only how these people live, but who and why they are, you should read this book. It is both beautifully written and thought provoking.

We just discovered this great hiking book. Our weekend trips have been put on hold and we're finding some pretty places along the Marin coastline to explore. Doubles as a tourist guide for our out-of-town friends. They look at the pictures and tell us where they want to go.

There's alot of advice and information in here and it's nicely arranged for reference. Chunky and spunky, good to go!

For us, this guide is our number one source for dayhiking around here. We bought it after seeing it on the shelves of our Marin REI. It's a total package with it's photos, bulging content and honest appraisals of ALL our trails. Most of our terrain is on the rolling gentle side and the mountain trails are well marked once you get on them. We have two dogs and their "Doggie Trails" section has been well used. It's nice to know where the pups are welcome and can run free.

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

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.

Our carcamping trip to the West Coast last month was a big success. Our first stop in the San Francisco Bay Area was Muir Woods where the Trailblazer untangled the trail system for us. Our Marin campsite was a perfect staging area for our daily outings.

This book is fully illustrated with photos and locater maps and they've even included a little California history to spice it up. Clean graphics, well organized. You can dip in and out of the pages and get clued in on the fly. The route from Fisherman's Wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge by bike provided beautiful views of the bay. For us an excellent way to see the area on a limited budget.

Hooked is a facinating story of five peoples lives and should be read for this alone. The author does a great job of telling their stories. Painlessly wrapped inside these stories is a Masters Degree on the drug treatment system.

Hooked will give you an insight into drug treatment systems without the bias of the creators. Hooked will give you years of development history and terminology.

Finally, if your state or county is going to start or start-over a drug treatment program Hooked will tell you the best approach. The approach selected has results that clearly make it the plan of choice. (Read the book for the answer.)

I work in the drug-use prevention field. I purchased this book for my own education. I became emotionally involved in the lives of the drug addicts featured in the book. It was beneficial to learn about their backgrounds and to see their daily lives in detail. I learned a great deal and am even more passionate about my work now!

drug rehab right between the eyes that pulls no pun ches and shows us where we need to go next

This book is amazing. I rarely give books 5 stars, but this one is exceptional - fair, honest, compassionate without being treacly, thorough, thoughtful, well-written. Shavelson does a remarkable job profiling his subjects, the reasons for their drug use and how it turned into abuse, and the challenges they face just finding treatment (not to mention completing it). He describes each program fully and carefully before evaluating them, so that the reader can understand the basis for his criticisms and form her own opinion. Despite the sad outcomes of some subjects, Shavelson offers the reader a glimmer of hope by showing us what is likely to work, why addicts are worth saving, and why numerous "second chances" at treatment are necessary and eventually pay off. Read this book!

Hooked is a very good book. It starts of as one of those investigative journalist things with a description of real drug addicts. Often books of this type look at these people as if they were the inmates of a zoo, but rather than doing that the book uses their problems to illustrate the difficulties which plague organisations which provide assistance to drug addicts.

One woman suffers from a combination of mental illness and drug abuse. Her attempts to find help are continually frustrated by the fact that when she applies for assistance from mental health professionals she is told that she has a drug problem and she is referred onwards. When she speaks to drug agencies she is told that she has a mental health problem and told to see a psychologist. In the last chapter of the book she is able to find an agency which will help her, but this occurs only after the intervention of one of the doctors. The intake staff is concerned about accepting her as they prefer people who have fewer problems and who are easy to deal with.

A lot of the book is focused on one person Mike who attends a live in facility for close to a year. His story illustrates how current rehabilitation facilities fail to have access to services such as detoxification and also use ritual humiliation as a means of controlling the inmates. Mike breaks a rule by developing a relationship with another inmate. He has to sit in a chair for three days and to go through a re-education session similar to those that featured in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The author makes the point that the people running the program are generally untrained and not able to work out when such treatment is appropriate or whether those who might be put through it could suffer from major mental illnesses. Those people who suffer from substance abuse problems generally will have a background of some difficulty. In this case Mike was a person who was raped repeatedly as a child. There was however no psychological treatment available in the program. More important however is the inability of the program to deal with relapse. Drug addiction is a problem that is often defined by the tendency to relapse. However the response of Mikes program was to kick him out. That is despite the fact that if allowed back into the program his prognosis would have been good.

The author is an admirer of the Drug Court system. The reason for his admiration is that the Drug Court is better able to make the diverse and not well functioning elements of the treatment system accountable. Thus they use relapses to build the drug addicts skills in dealing with their addiction so that they are more likely to stay clean. They can also ensure that rehab placements accept people, provide them with appropriate care and they can also direct addicts to detoxification.

The book is not only an interesting discussion of the issues the author is able to interest the reader in the story of the addicts he studies. One can see them as humans and follow their struggle to get on top of their problems and to live lives as valuable citizens. A book which should be a must read for anyone with an interest in the area.

I loved this book. I stumbled onto Ted Dekker a few months ago, and when I heard that Ted Dekker is working with Robert Liparulo, I had to read it.
And what a great story. A lot of suspense, and I couldn't put the book down.

Definitely a Recommend for every body to read.

Liparulo established himself as a major presence in the thriller market with "Comes a Horseman," followed by two other fine-tuned suspense novels. I had no doubt he could create the same chills for a younger audience, particularly since he draws from his own experience as a father.

I was not disappointed. "House of Dark Shadows" reads like a mix between a very tame Stephen King and a very mature Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book (you have to be much older than 16 to remember those!). When the King family--no relation to Stephen--relocates to a creepy old house in the woods, they have no idea what they are in for. Xander and Dave, the two brothers, take center stage as they stumble upon secrets and mysterious doorways in their new home. From unexplained footprints, to gladiators, to the jungle, Liparulo takes us along on a fast-paced adventure. He leaves us hanging, anxious for the next book, "Watcher in the Woods," and certain that there are plenty more escapades and dangers for the entire family to maneuver.

I haven't yet read a Liparulo book I didn't enjoy. He always gives a good story, memorable characters, and secrets lurking in every corner.

Oh, and "Gatekeepers" is book three? More good books to read!

Buy this book!

If you are a thriller reader, and are at all hesitant to pick up Bob's latest because it's in a young adult category, then trust me, it delivers for us adults! This review won't tell you about the story, all the other reviews do that. I want to focus on how the book reads.

I read almost every thriller writer in the genre, and Bob offers a unique world where violence, horror, suspense, mystery, and action are reduced to the most basic elements, then spun into a believable world - and all that without the industry's typical gratuitous languange, sex or overly descriptive violence. I would have my children read any of his books, but this series I'm holding on to for my nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. In House of Dark Shadows, Bob has delivered true supsense that caused me to read it in one afternoon (during the US Open no less). The opening scene will tell you this is no ordinary haunted house. While utilizing some familiar suspense tones (secret rooms, noises in the night, appearance of unknown forces), he does a great job blending them into a fast paced story that feels like it will come to conclusion. Then, it twists! That's primarily why I'll read the next book, but more importantly, I've become attached to this family, and want to know where they go next, and what historical setting they might experience.

As a reader, I've been allowed in this book to glimpse the family relationship and each of their unique personalities while at the same time using my own imagination to paint a picture of their history, and current importance to their world.

I hope this book sees the publishing success it deserves. By the way, It's design shows well on the bookshelf too. I look forward to the series continuing.

I didn't read this personally, but my 16 year old son read them in record time! The first book makes you want to read the second one immediately! The main drawback to this is the third book won't be out until January 2009. My son said he wants to read the third book when it comes out, but he will still continue to live without reading it immediately :) He really enjoyed both books and he doesn't think they're too scary, but when I read them, I may disagree!

I emailed Robert Liparulo and he responded to me personally. He seems like a very nice person and according to my son, an excellent author. I'm looking forward to reading his books!

I haven't seen the Young Adult years in...years, but I can tell you that this series is SCARY even for adults. I finished House of Dark Shadows a little while ago and can testify that it's freakier than Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews and just about as scary as The Amityville Horror. Did I mention this book was scary, LOL? But I finished it. I just didn't read it at night. Seriously. And I'm thankful that my house has neither an attic or a basement or I wouldn't be able to sleep! I know it's just fiction, but while I was reading the story I was in it, so it seemed real to me. Too real.

So far I haven't found a spiritual element (like they didn't even pray when scared) but it's still an incredibly entertaining tale of horror. I dare say it ranks right up there with any number of scary secular novels. There is even some blood in the book. Did I mention it was scary? Bottom line...this is top notch fiction but it is tolerable even for big honking chickens like me. In fact, I want to read the next book right away...but it's dark outside, so that'll have to wait until tomorrow!