Alternative Books

I have given a copy to all my kids, and now am giving them as wedding presents adding a heating pad and ice bag. Something everyone can use and they probably won't get dupicates. They may forget who gave them two pricy glasses to their set, but they won't forget who gave them the Medical Advisor.
Paula

This book is an excellent reference and extremely useful family resource. I use it frequently, with great results and great confidence! It contains just about anything you need to research. This book has helped me in "self-diagnosis" several times and in ruling out possible self diagnoses many other times! I've found it useful for women, men, and children. I highly recommend The Medical Advisor for your family's home library.

I love this book and use it all the time. It is a
quick reference for any medical condition and is
written in layman terms so it is very user friendly.
I recommend this book for anyone. A must for every
home.

I first came across this book from a friend. I thought it will be a good reference book, and that's what it actually is. It gives you a general idea of certain aches and pains that you encounter in your day to day life. This books helps you to take some initial remedial measures before wasting your time at the Doctors. I say this because some of the illness can be overcome without pumping a lot of pills into your system. This book is good to understand your body, its illness and take care of it.

This book has consistently provided me with great information...an excellent starting point before contacting your doctor or for an illness you just want tot understand better. There are some common drugs that I couldn't find, but usually could cross reference them to find some mention in the book, if not in the drug info section. It seems to be stronger in the alternative medicine category than the prescriptions, but overall info on general illnesses and symptoms is incredibly comprehensive. This is the one book that should be on every family's shelf.

This book has provided much more insight into drug side effects and interactions (especially drug interactions with herbal remedies) than my doctor, my pharmacist or even the internet has provided. And its great when you need an answer quick, like when you are panicking over an injury or symptom at 3 in the morning! I am eagerly awaiting the 3rd edition.

Written by a psychiatrist who cares deeply for her clients, this book explores ways in which understanding the meanings that guide our lives can help us to sort out various disorders that cause physical and emotional problems.

I agree with the observation about this book by C. Everett Koop, former US Surgeon General, in the foreword: "It is written by a physician who loves her patients and has come to see that life depends not on the hand you are dealt, but on how you choose to live it." (p. 4)

Many books offer a spectrum of cases, briefly described. Wood chooses to focus much of her sharings about how she works through a detailed description of the treatment of a severely disturbed woman who was suicidal. This woman had such low self-esteem that she would repeatedly cut herself when she was upset. It took many years of therapy to help her accept herself and settle into much more self-accepting and satisfying ways of being and relating in a world that she had earlier found hostile and unaccepting.

Many books offer the views and understandings of the author as the primary window into appreciating the author's approaches. Wood chooses to give many pages to the words of her clients, who report how they felt and what it was like to have Wood help them through their difficulties.

Ever since I had the first of my two psychotic episodes I have been floundering in psychotherapy or in the beginning when that was not the "norm" (just meds)I have felt at a loss. I found Dr. Wood's book and am extremely pleased that a new avenue or "path" I think she might appropriately call it is presented to me. I gave my psychiatrist, psychologist/minister, and physician a copy of this book and mine I plan to keep and read and reread over and over again. I especially liked the references to a spiritual aspect of therapy and how it definitely relates to ones' healing self. I feel like I now have "hope" of success at arriving at a goal for myself and if I try hard enough with my therapists I might indeed find the "feeling" words I am in need of to succeed at life. Thank you, Dr. Wood for the "gift of this book!" God bless you! Maybe a miracle can happen in my life as in those other patients in your book whom you describe so well. (Or those with whom you asked them to write themselves their own story to put into your book! YES! Why don't people ask patients and the mentally ill OUR OWN STORIES!!!)

This is one of the most inspiring books for self-empowered healing from mental illness I have read. In her childhood, Dr. Eve Wood learned that, "If a person saves one life, it is as if he has saved the entire world." By this criterion, Dr. Wood is saving the galaxy.

The central theme in her patients' recoveries seems to be Dr. Wood's ability to help them create a safe container of self-acceptance without judgment and her considerable genius in inspiring hope. But she doesn't stop with just the storytelling. This is an interactive book in which she challenges the reader to explore how the patient's story might be relevant to "you," the reader. Concluding each section are "lessons," "take home points," and questions that help the reader to assess her own imbalances.

Throughout Medicine, Mind and Meaning, Dr. Wood offers exercises to help the reader fully integrate the "lessons" of the stories she tells. This book is, in itself, a prescription for self-healing.

"Medicine, Mind, and Meaning," a new book by noted psychiatrist, professor and speaker, Dr. Eve A. Wood, is a step-by-step guide that combines traditional psychiatric approaches and spiritual principles. For Wood, former faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and presently Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine, development of one's spirituality is a necessary component in healing. Accordingly, the book provides resources and exercises for the use of belief to further the healing process. Among these resources are numerous appendices that engage common psychiatric illnesses, detailing their cause, evaluation, and treatment. These appendices can also be found online at www.MedicineMindandMeaning.com.

C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D., former U.S. Surgeon General and McInerny Professor of Surgery, Dartmouth Medical School, writes the foreward to "Medicine, Mind, and Meaning." Not typically given to publicly endorsing work that is not his own, Dr. Koop's exception in this case marks the importance and urgency he attaches to this text. Writes Koop, "I have seldom been so moved by a book. This is the only healing model that makes sense."

This is an excellent text, one that bridges the large divides between psychiatric medicine, talk therapies, and spiritual traditions of healing. By bringing all these separate but equally important truths under one roof, Wood presents a model that comprehensively addresses the complexity of human illness and treatment. Rich in information and passionate in character, "Medicine, Mind, and Meaning" is an important answer to Koop's question in the Foreward: "If we are each body, mind, and spirit, how can we be healed if we don't treat all three together?"

Medicine, Mind And Meaning: A Psychiatrist's Guide To Treating The Body, Mind, And Spirit by medical and mental health expert Dr. Eve Wood compares human well-being to a three-legged stool, which rests upon the pillars of body, mind, and spirit. A step-by-step guide showing the reader how to involve body (genetics, inborn characteristics and vulnerabilities), mind (backgrounds, beliefs, behaviors) and spirit (faith and the search for higher meaning) in a healing journey toward total wellness, Medicine, Mind And Meaning is a testimony of inspiration, blessing, and the profound healing power of positive will. A forward by C. Everett Koop, M.D., SCD rounds out this transformative work of insight grounded in years of practical and medical experience.

I am always hesitant to buy an adoption-related book without being able to read the whole thing through ahead of time, because I sometimes would rather use different words or sentiments to present things to our son (adopted from Russia at age 15 mos). This just arrived & I'm sooo pleased with it!!!! It made me cry! There's nothing that I consider "questionable" at all!!! It's a beautiful story!!! :) And it addresses the issue of having to make 2 trips to bring your child home. I especially appreciate the part of the story where the bear was happy to be in the orphanage (although that word isn't even used) rather than on the store shelf -- thus not portraying the orphanage as an awful place. But at the same time, he longs to go home with the Mommy and Daddy who are coming back for them.

I'm an adoptive mom of children from a former Soviet republic, a school librarian, and a pretty tough critic. I'm very pleased with Mishka: An Adoption Tale; I'd rate it as one of the top two or three picture books available that illustrate the international adoption experience from a child's point of view, and the only one specific to Russian/EE adoption. I especially like how the author uses the Mo the teddy bear's confusion and longing to mirror how young Yuri is probably feeling, but can't express in words. The language is simple, the story flows with no missteps. The illustrations are quietly charming.

I only have a couple of nit-picky issue with the story -- first I wish the Russian words hadn't all been hyphenated, since they're spoken by a native Russian speaker (Yuri). It makes them awkward, in my opinion, and don't accurately represent the Russian pronunciations anyway. Better to italicize the foreign words and have a glossary page at the end. The other, equally nit-picky thing is that in my experience, potential adoptive parents would not wait 'til the airport to buy a stuffed animal for their new child! But it works in the context of the story.

This is a wonderful addition to adoption literature, and to children's picture books in general.

I was particularly overjoyed to discover this delightful addition to what I feel is a scant lot of children's books about adoption.

The author is a media specialist and adoptive mother, something we both have in common, but I know nothing about Russian adoptions. I've not internationally adopted since 1987 and I prefer the Third World yet I was immediately drawn into this tale that supersedes its specific locale.

Played out through the eyes of a teddy bear without over dramatizing the obvious connections between this bear and the young child being adopted, the book never insulted the readers with obvious superficialitie, instead it coaxed one along through its pages.

My kids really enjoyed reading this. The story rings true - I brought a bear to my older son when I adopted him, and he still keeps it on his bed. My younger son remembers the days between the time he met me and the time he came home, and says that the description of that time is very accurate. The pictures are lovely - especially St. Basel's! - and I really do like this book. Very well done (again!).

A sweet and moving adoption tale written through the eyes of a child's bear. Really great story, beautiful artwork. I gave this to my sister who adopted a child from Russia and she and her son loved it. She actually cried when she read it and said that she was looking for a book for her son that represented their story. Really great book!

The subtitle of The Mozart Forgeries is A Caper Novel for the Serious Mozart Aficionado, and that is an accurate description, though the book is a good deal more than that. For instance while I consider myself a music aficionado, I am not a fan of Mozart, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of this book. I am also interested in books and paper and how they are made, and I am an amateur calligrapher--all have relevance to The Mozart Forgeries. But what matters most is that I also love a good read, and this book measures up on all counts.

There are two main characters, never named (I will come back to that ): Librarian and Forger. Friends since childhood, they grow up with, or acquire, a variety of special skills and abilities: a photographic memory for texts, the ability to play piano, a career dealing with rare manuscripts, and not least among others, a willingness to break laws in order to make money. Both are exceedingly cunning, and Librarian, the leader, in particular has enough caution and planning skills to make a top-drawer secret agent. In a nutshell, the basic premise is this: several popular works of Mozart (known to anyone who loves classical music, even me), are known to exist only from copies of missing originals. Librarian and Forger decide to forge them and to auction them off for millions of dollars. The novel is a detailed account of how they do this, and I do mean detailed--the process takes up the majority of the pages. The plot twists and suspense come towards the end, but they do come. The story is meticulously plot-driven rather than character driven: the reader will learn an astonishing amount about music, how paper and ink are made, the process of music composition, and most informative to me, the business of forgery. If the skills involved were not so specialized, the text could almost be used as a how-to guide for enriching oneself with a quill pen.

The volume is handsome and the story is splendidly written. You will not find a more cleanly edited book anywhere. For my money, though, the style was a tad cool. For example, I see no reason why the two protagonists couldn't have been called Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones. In an aside early on the author explains that since the characters desire anonymity he will call them only Forger and Librarian. Whatever that added to the flavor of the story created awkwardness through the first two thirds of the book, for me at least. (I finally did get used to it.) Furthermore, though the two men do have vestigial personalities, they tend to speak as if they are university lecturers, in polished, complex sentences. Ultimately, however, their personalities are not the point. The caper is the story. In a way, it's the opposite of all those "Oceans" movies, where the caper was almost irrelevant and the characters and their interactions and in-jokes were what mattered. This is a decidedly scholarly caper story.

If you are the type of reader who enjoys florid, breathless, gauzily plotted crisis-a-minute action stories like The Da Vinci Code, The Mozart Forgeries is not for you. If you enjoy a tightly plotted, rigorously detailed, and even informative, caper story, I don't know how you could do better.

I bought this book because I am a clarinetist and lover of good fiction. This book had everything I wanted.

There are amazing details about Mozart and how he wrote and physically notated his music. The book has a fun plot with entertaining characters and enough plot twists to keep you reading. Sometimes the writing seemed a little stilted to me, but that didn't make me rate this at less than 5 stars.

I think the subtitle (A Caper Novel for the Serious Mozart Aficionado) is a bit misleading, since anyone who likes mystery and/or music would get enjoyment from Mr. Leeson's book. I guess Dan Leeson is the serious aficionado, and the rest of us just enjoy the fruits of his labor.

John Gibson, JB Linear Music, author of "Advanced Intonation Technique for Clarinets" and "Advanced Clarinet Technique"

This is a remarkable story of the creation of two Mozart masterpiece clarinet manuscripts that had been missing for more than two centuries. The perpetrators of this hoax were an extraordinary forger and an expert in 18th century manuscripts. The plot, which is spelled out in spectacular detail, includes the use of manuscript paper made to look two centuries old, "Mozart" penmanship, appropriate choice of ink, quills, watermarks and many other subtle features including a credible story of how the manuscripts were discovered. The goal of all this activity was to obtain authentication from Mozart specialists which would then permit a $20,000,000 or more sale at auction. The story is rich in details of the history of music, which are truly educational in breadth, and the world of music manuscripts sales.

This was a very readable book which was hard to put down. I highly recommend it for classical music fans and anyone who enjoys a crime novel with abundant suspense and surprises.

My husband recommended this book to me. He is a clarinetist and obviously enjoyed the subject matter. I am a violinist and am very familiar with both the Clarinet Concerto and the Quintet. Clarinetists are notorious for their attention to detail. My husband was very complimentary of the research and attention to detail that the author exhibited. I, in addition to admiring the aforementioned, enjoyed it for its fast pace and imaginative plot. I enjoyed this book so much that I sent a copy to my father who restores artwork for a living. He also enjoys copying famous works of art. I enclosed a card that read, don't get any bright ideas, when I sent him the book. Overall a very enjoyable read, highly recommended.

The question to be answered in any review is whether a person should plunk down their hard earned money for a book. In the case of Dan Leeson's Mozart Forgeries the answer is a resounding yes!

Leeson's story revolves around two characters a master forger and a rare music librarian. The two team up to pull off the crime of their careers. The payoff...$20 million plus! How? By forging two missing Mozart autographs (the original handwritten music). The obstacles to the scheme are monumental since a great deal of Mozart's work survives. There are numerous Mozart document experts in the world who in a moment could spot the smallest flaw in the paper, ink or writing style of Mozart. There are also the music experts who might challenge the forgeries based on the musical content. Then there are issues such as how the documents were found and where.

The delight in reading Leeson's book is that he has his characters take us one by one over these obstacles with no serious leaps of faith that leave a reader disappointed. A reader might easily surmise that Leeson has a vast amount of knowledge when it comes to rare music autographs as well as Mozart and they would be correct.

If you love a good crime novel that offers plenty of twists and no lapses of believability, then the Mozart Forgeries are for you.

I have various problems: a bad upper back, minor arthritis in the knee. Years ago, I started "freezing up" from muscle tension and the inactivity that came from being immobile. I discovered this book and have been applying it to myself ever since. I haven't had any contact with her organization lately, but back then, they sold a curved piece of metal with rubber tips on each end called a "shepherds crook." I have been using it on my own back ever since. The technique combines pressing on points of the various muscles for 5 seconds or so, along with stretching exercise. It works.

I had intense headaches for years. My MD gave me pain killers. Chiropractors gave me temporary relief -- I'd have to return every two weeks or so. But using the methods in this book resulted in my not having headaches, now, at all! Also I once had a pinched nerve in my neck. A specialist gave me therapy and a traction unit as he said it would return from time to time. I used the traction unit many times. However, one day I was in such pain from the headache caused by the pinched nerve that I had used the traction unit three times before lunch but with one treatment it was gone and I have not had a recurrance.I am a firm believer in its usefulness! Bonnie Prudden"s other book "Bonnie Prudden's Guide to Pain Free Living" is also excellent.

I had intense headaches for years. My MD gave me pain killers. Chiropractors gave me temporary relief -- I'd have to return every two weeks or so. But using the methods in this book resulted in my not having headaches, now, at all! Also I once had a pinched nerve in my neck. A specialist gave me therapy and a traction unit as he said it would return from time to time. I used the traction unit many times. However, one day I was in such pain from the headache caused by the pinched nerve that I had used the traction unit three times before lunch but with one treatment it was gone and I have not had a recurrance.I am a firm believer in its usefulness! Bonnie Prudden"s other book "Pain Erasure" is excellent. We found it first and it was the one we used with such success. We have both, now.

Bonnie Prudden was a person light years ahead of her time.What she had to say about fitness and injuries is still applicable today. Her techniques to reduce pain have helped me to get rid of my chronic back pain. This book is a must for reference and techniques that really work.

I am very impressed with this book and have been recommending it to all my friends. Although the techniques described will not be learned in an instant, or on the first read, it should not be too hard for most people to figure them out from the detailed, thoughtful explanations in this book. Recently, I read a couple of books in the same vein that got me interested in the idea that chronic pain is largely created by muscle tension, so I was open to hearing her experiences ... and the conclusions she has come up with make a lot of sense. I especially found the corrective exercises to be *excellent*. I wish, though, that the exercises were presented together in one section .. it's a little hard to jump from page 20 to page 43 to page 67. However, this way of presenting it forces you to read the in-between text, which has much valuable information. I can't say much about the efficacy yet because I have only begun to apply it, but I expect it to be very helpful for my chronic "computer-neck" problems. Check it out!

I am afraid that I have been dilatory in reading and reviewing this book. At the time of the offer, I appreciated the chance to read the text. It sounded like something that I would like and I always enjoy discovering a new author. Unfortunately, I went through a bad place where I started to hate all business books. I had the feeling that everything I read was more or less the same. I also started to feel as though most business books begin with a single good idea. Sometimes the exploration of that idea is worth an entire book. Mostly, however, I had the feeling that I was reading a puffed-up magazine article.

I was very pleasantly surprised by Dr. Herman's book. I found it smart (maybe because I intuitively agreed with many of his ideas) and quite readable. There is a nice assortment of exercises, ideas and examples that flow together well. I found it useful to gain insight into the success of my own company's brand.

Best of all, I found that it earned its 253 pages. There was very little puffery, if any.

I would recommend it to others who are looking to build or develop their business. Well done. The best business book that I have read in a while.

Masters degrees in Business Administration (MBA) are not only being taught in elite schools, but in nearly every university, college, and diploma mill that can find some way to get accreditation. Most of the programs teach their students similar concepts in the core subjects of Financial and Management Accounting, Finance, Economics, Statistics, Operations, Organizational Behavior, Information Systems, Marketing and Corporate Strategy. If everyone has the same tools and book of tactics, including how to differentiate your company and create a competitive advantage, how can you actually compete and win in the real world? Worse, these kinds of programs train these managers to work, think, and fit in to the large companies that hire MBAs by the campusfull. That is why this book refers to MBA Clones and provides an approach that takes a different tack than standard MBA thinking would see.

It isn't that what you learn as an MBA isn't valuable, it's that learning the core of a business program provides you with only a basic toolset. You still need to learn to apply them. However, if you apply them like everyone else (the problem with `best practices') you aren't creating a compelling advantage. The best business folks are artists and use their toolsets in powerfully creative ways to win in the marketplace.

Dan Herman is a Ph.D. and CEO (and co-owner) of Competitive Advantages Ltd. Through which he and his team serve companies all around the world. Their goal is to help their clients identify growth opportunities and creating `unfair' competitive advantages. Along with this Advantagizing they help create powerful and compelling brands and profitable business models.

In part 1 of this book provides a look at what Herman's views on some common myths of Competitive Advantage (that you have to be better than your competitors, that you have to endear yourself to as many customers as possible, and that your competitive edge is to be found on a parameter that is important in your business category. He then provides a secret to Differentiation and uses examples from Virgin, Google, Starbucks and others to show you what he is after.

Part 2 explains their O-Scan (opportunity scan) method. It is about identifying insights about customers and what they are GOING to want (rather than what they are demanding today). You also learn to use a customers 15 stage consumption process to find points of pain and opportunity, to provide more consumer benefits, and seeing the hidden rules your competitors are using to win.

Part 3 is provides Herman's views of Branding. First you have to understand the consumer's mind. I found this discussion of how the consumer experiences things, what they are trying to do, and how they for their beliefs to be quite interesting. Herman also rejects the idea that Branding creates brands. He says that it is the real success factors that you have identified previously that will provide substance and power to your brand. He provides the ABCDE of Brand Success: Attribution of benefit, Believability, Craving, Differentiation, and Ease of acting upon their desire.

For Herman, brands are more about expectations, anticipations, and dreams that take them out of their hum-drum reality. It is about adventure, temptations, testing limits, nostalgia, and much more. The goal is to make your marketing electrifying to your customers. He also provides interesting chapters on developing marketing hits and how you can drive your consumers crazy about your brand.

Is all this absolutely original and unique? Look, I have an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School and what he says here is consistent with what I learned there. The expectation I had upon graduation was to use what I learned creatively. What Herman does is help those interested in turning the toolkit you were given into a weapons system. And I think that is very worthwhile.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

"Outsmart the MBA Clones" by Dan Herman should definitely be considered as a textbook for business programs. This book uses real-life recent examples of companies, products, and services we know, explains how their creative innovations worked, and how some were imitated. Many companies and their products provide examples throughout this book. Starbucks, Google, Tower Records, Virgin, RIM's BlackBerry, etc. The days of Marlboro Man ads that go on year after year without adapting, are over.

Most businesses are more similar than different. I'll go as far to say, they're basically the same.

Not to be negative towards MBA programs, but many programs produce sheep. They are educational *institutions.* Mills. Fair enough. The knowledge and skills attained in these programs are needed and these courses often focus on graduates entering positions in established companies. Outsmart the Clones can enable you to be more innovative, adaptable, and think outside of the box. It's about tomorrow, not just today.

Successful concepts and products can often, but not always, be mimicked. Today, there are often multiple brands competing for consumers in the same market niche. Herman notes the "Commoditization of Brands," where products are so similar consumers have trouble telling them apart. Obviously, once an idea or item that's copyable is produced, many others will duplicate and follow.

There are sixteen chapters and three parts in Clones: 1) The debunking of Competitive Advantage. Today the focus should be on *Renewable* Competitive Advantage 2) O-scan, which focus on what customer will consume in the future 3) Branding.

The benefit of this book is that you don't have to be in marketing, advertising, or management to benefit from it. There are also good quality illustrations, throughout.

One concept noted by Herman is about the consumer (us humans), stated on page 243: "consumers live their lives, and in the frame of everything they do and go through they are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to improve their existence. They search for solution to their problems, ways to prevent unwanted situations and experiences, opportunities to develop, improve, and advance themselves and their circumstances, and chances to have fun and enjoy live with their loved ones."

Great point. And, a great book.

Long-term strategies have been replaced by ones that adapt and change as opportunities are identified.

"Launch and forget" brands today, such as Marboro, are rare. They have been replaced by visual identities and advertising styles that change rapidly. To succeed over the long-term managements must succeed in the short-term time after time.

Dan Herman, citing observations from Copernicus Marketing Consulting, argues brands are becoming like commodities. Consumers can no longer differentiate them from sugar, corn or cement. They are created by marketers who employ the same data, the same focus groups and data analysis. The marketers have become indistinguishable.

In this new environment, Herman observes:

1. Porter, Kotler, Aaker and Ries and their rules are obsolete.
2. Marketers need to understand nature's rules. They need to be able to devise alternatives paths to the same goals.
3. Theoretical concepts are tools for thinking about reality. They are not reality itself.

If you are a seasoned marketer, this book is different from another you have read. Herman's fresh thinking about competitive advantage, marketing, customer segmentation, differentiation and branding will challenge your thinking. It is worth every penny of its cover price.

This book, which I was privileged to read as a review copy of the publisher, contains a totally new approach to marketing, one that is not taught in business schools, one that is geared to today's changed consumer environment. For example, to read the author's description of the Joe Boxer phenomenon is for old fogies like me to have a lightbulb on the culture suddenly turn on.

The book is full of extraordinary insights. A true page-turner, I highly recommend it.

I loved this book it puts a different view on things. It has an easy read feeling to it. I enjoyed it very much

Great book and an inspiring insight into the life and research of a zoologist... even for a non-biologist. You don't have to be a biologist, a zoologist, or even a scientist to enjoy this book. Passive fear gives insight into a common reaction of a diverse group of animals to fear, a somewhat unexpected reaction. But, the book is much more than a book about animal reaction to fear, the book gives the reader fascinating insight into the life of a science researcher and the paths research takes one along the way. I highly recommend the book.

For many not grounded in science, the process of scientific discovery is difficult to comprehend and somewhat mystical. Many books describing science are dry and sprinkled with incomprehensible words. "Passive Fear: Alternative to Fight or Flight" is completely different.

Dr. Norbert Smith has condensed and clarified some of the methods by which scientific discoveries are made in this exciting, autobiographical book. He has a gift of drawing the reader into his quest so that we begin to ask the same questions he was compelled to answer. Along the way, he chronicles the story of his boyhood interest in animals and the wonders of nature.

Readers will begin to understand the differences between research conducted in the laboratory, with artificially bred animals, as opposed to Dr. Smith's field research using animals born and raised in the wild. Readers will enjoy Dr. Smith's discussion of the problems in using those artificially bred lab animals to understand what really goes on in the world.

Dr. Smith clearly and succinctly describes the thrust of his research. He wished to understand a response many animals have when confronted with a fear-inducing situation. He observed a slowing of heart rate, as opposed to popular wisdom stating that heart rate should increase. He details his groundbreaking work in fitting devices to animals to gently measure their heart rate and body temperature. He worked with such unlikely research animals as alligators, woodchucks, swamp rabbits, gray squirrels, and box turtles.

Readers will agonize with Dr. Smith as he describes the difficulties in procuring funding for his novel research. They will also rejoice as Dr. Smith's research findings turn traditional science on its head, but gradually come to be accepted. A bibliography lists 17 of his publications which have appeared in prestigious journals such as The Journal of Applied Physiology.

In summary, this book opens readers to the joy of science. Young readers contemplating a career in science will better understand the exciting road ahead of them. Seasoned scientists and researchers such as myself will benefit from reading the trials and travails of a fellow scientist. However, above all, any reader wishing to gain an expanded view of science would do well to pay close attention to Dr. Smith's book.

Finally! A science book that I can easily read and understand. Dr. Smith captures the reader's attention with humor, mixed in with science. What a great combination. I don't think I learned as much in my college biology class as I did reading this book -and I sure laughed & enjoyed myself a lot more. I highly recommend this book to everyone - it's easy, light reading and you'll learn something in the process. Keep the books coming Dr. Smith! I can't wait to read the next one.

Wayne Frair

For Amazon

This interest-holding scientific autobiography commences with an exciting biology fieldtrip. Author Smith, then a new graduate student, saw the eyes of an alligator. He called to it, and this 6' wild male swam across the pond to his feet. He captured it for brief study and release.

This account introduces a main theme of the book--study organisms in their natural environments. Smith designed new radio telemetry systems, and these were employed mainly in field studies of reptiles and some mammals.

The 15 short chapters are sequential and bursting with the author's enthusiasm. The book is a good read and easily completed at one sitting--also a nice gift for your biologist relative or friend.

Peace, Love and Healing: Bodymind Communication & the Path to Self-Healing: An Exploration was a book for myself when I was battling Lymphoma. It was a great deal of help and support for me. Since then I have given it to others diagnosed with cancer.

This is a great book for anybody but especially for cancer patients like myself. The book was very inspirational and uplifting. I highly recommend this book.

I just love Bernie Siegal, and admire his openness and willingness to speak out and risk the ridicule of the traditional medical community. It seems his ideas really are important in healing!

Bernie Siegel writes in a very conversational-easy-to-read style in a book packed with information, facts, and understanding which is helpful for everyone regarding the connection between mind-body healing. Bernie Siegel helps us to take responsibility for our own health and to work as a team member with medical professionals in a co-operative style of relating.
Having fairly recently been diagnosed with an advanced cancer this book helped me to see cancer in a new light.
Everyone would bemnefit from reading this book for their health in general.

I've submitted essentially the same review for Love, Medicine and Miracles as for Peace, Love and Healing. I read Love, Medicine and Miracles first and then Peace, Love and Healing and also recommend that others read them in that sequence: Peace, Love, and Healing is very much a continuation of the earlier book. Having said that, the most important thing is for anyone facing a health crisis to read them both. The sequence in which they're read is less important than that they be read--and absorbed.

I was introduced to these books shortly after having been diagnosed with cancer by another person who was (and still is, unfortunately) dealing with some major health issues. Although I've read tons of stuff relating to cancer and, especially, treatments of various types and stripes, I can't think of anything that provided greater value and (even) guidance to me during those challenging days, mainly because getting the "head" right is half the battle--and the half of the battle that far too many completely neglect. One of the things that Bernie makes imminently clear to the reader is that he/she, the reader, has a great deal of influence over the course of his/her illness. That's an important message to someone feeling powerless. Plenty of powerful examples, thought exercises, etc. The messages are uplifting, hopeful, life-affirming, empowering, and above all, realistic.

Although I was vaguely aware of the mind-body connection before reading these books, I now understand that psychoneuroimmunology (if that is an unfamiliar term, you will become familiar with it by the time you've read Peace, Love and Healing) is real and can potentially be harnessed to the patient's great benefit: change the mind, change the body.

Naturally, I can't do justice to these books with a few short sentences here. But here's the bottom line: these books should be read by anyone facing a health crisis who sincerely wants to get well. But they should also be read by anyone who has a friend or loved one facing a health crisis. Read them yourself before you send them on to the friend/loved one. You'll find them valuable both for yourself and also for helping your friend/loved one deal with it. The books should be read by anyone facing a life-threatening illness, but their value transcends cancer (or other serious illness) self-help by a long shot, valuable as that is. Even if your present health seems to be good, you should still read these books. They will help you live more effectively even if you never get sick. And they will surely equip you to deal with a major illness if you ever have to face one.

A warning first, about this otherwise exciting and well-done novel. It is graphic, violent, and contains a lot of foul language. Frankly, I almost stopped reading the book, because at times the language becomes almost septic. I'm glad I did finish it, however, because it is well-written and thought-provoking.

Ben Benson is an ineffectual nebbish who just wants to be a writer. The Perfect Revolution is actually his journal, and because this novel is written in journal form it has an immediacy that a straight third party story would not have. It is also painful, rough, and violent as Ben makes his journey from a grunt on the ground in Iraq (in 2013!) to the streets of damaged USA.

Who are these "Perfect Soldiers"? Yes, they are conscienceless robotic killers under the control of one man, General Prescott of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but are they more? And why is this revolution allowed to happen in the "land of the free and the home of the brave"?

As we watch Benson's combined moral descent along with professional ascent, we might wonder what we would do given the evironment and choices given to Benson. The story at times is visceral and gut-wrenching, but we also wonder what kind of a "gutless wonder" IS Sergeant, then Lieutenant, then Captain, then Major Benson? And what kind of depressing dispirited place is the United States?

Oscar Deadwood is one day going to be a very good author, and this is a very well done first novel. This story could NOT be published in Bewildering Stories, and frankly, it took some work to find a publishable excerpt (coming later), and even the one we have is very dark and violent.

Unlike the other reviewers on Amazon, I couldn't give this novel 5 stars, but 4? Yes, certainly.

Benjamin Benson is a sergeant in the US Army of 2013. He is stationed on the border between US controlled Iraq and a still belligerent Iran. He's a grunt, sad sack, an everyman. And "The Perfect Revolution" is his memoir.

Deadwood's first novel is told in a tightly focused voice. Not only do we learn everything through the eyes of Benson, we learn it in journal entry chunks. Our narrator is only a handful of hours ahead of the reader at any point in the narrative. This gives the reader a sense of blindness, of not knowing what lies around every turn, which just makes the whole thing more disorienting.

I've never been in the military, and know precious little about life as a soldier. I like the fact that Deadwood writes from a viewpoint where many of the conventions and much of the jargon of military life are simply taken for granted. He makes no grand attempt to educate the reader about minutia. Much like any diarist, Benson tells us what happens and how he feels about it.

Into this seemingly standard tale of war come the Perfect Soldiers. As described by Deadwood (through Benson) these robotic additions to the Army are part Terminator, part mafia enforcer, and all menace. They are the unaccountable Black Ops troops that we all know the Army has. But by endowing them with extraordinary - and often very creepy - technological abilities, their accompanying sense of danger is multiplied several fold.

Soon enough, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs - General Prescott - brings all his troops, including his Perfect Soldiers, back home and uses them to effect a coup. Benson is dragged into the mechanics of this Perfect Revolution, forced at each turn to commit ever greater atrocities. What's fascinating about this book is how Deadwood shows a person who has a conscience do unconscionable things. We watch the turmoil within Benson and we hope for his redemption; we hope at least that he will seek redemption. Deadwood dares us to hate his "hero", but it's hard to do. I found myself rooting for this tool of destruction, which is an unsettling feeling.

I wish Deadwood had given us more secondary characters for Benson to play off of. He gives us such a vivid look into the internal nature of expanding evil. I would have liked to have seen the external effects more clearly. On the other hand, since this future United States devolves so quickly into an Orwellian nightmare, maybe we learn all we need to know about Benson from his thoughts. His impact on the outside world is little more than the tally of those he has exterminated.

I'll just say one more thing, about the pacing. That sense of driving at night, with no headlights, on a curving road carries through, from the first chapter to the last. I certainly didn't enjoy the scenery; who could? But I enjoyed the journey.

I must preface my review by stating that I'm not usually a fiction fan but " the Perfect Revolution" is an interesting title and the recommendation of a close friend caused me to read this ,Oscar Deadwood, book.
This is not a warm and fuzzy feel good story. It is an apocalyptic and frightening story of life as we have known it ending. Oscar Deadwood , is able to make it real and believable with his use of very real geopolitical , economic , social ,and psychological realities that we all can recognize.
The technologies , Deadwood , uses are for the most part all available in one form or another right now. Example , implanted micro chip are being used on hospital patients and livestock today.
In conclusion I found "the Perfect Revolution" well written and compelling. I plan to recommend this and other , Oscar Deadwood , books to my friends and family.

This is a book that will be very hard to put down. I just dont have the time to critique the book to the N'th degree, but I feel that if you are a reader of speculative fiction you will find a unique experience here not dependant on your personal politics. It is an "end times" sort of work, but don't expect the usual trimmings around that sort of fiction. Oscar manages to carve a path all his own here.

Oscar Deadood's "The Perfect Revolution" brings us to the not so distant future, and the battlefronted borders of wartorn Iraq-Iran. I don't want to spoil the stellar plot and storyline, but by my interpretation, the book reads very much in the heart of 80s SF we've come to know and enjoy, ones which have become timeless classics. In this case, my interpretation based the book solely on Military SF and Technothriller. The prose and narrative was refreshing to say the least. If you've ever read a Deadwood short story, you'd know what I mean. But the dark SF he is most often known for is put aside here with some realism: realism in the case of a collapsing economy and having to drop out of college, realism concerning the war in the Middle East, realism concerning the sociological---very little but done nicely---elements, realism with politics in this future/political change, which is the foreword for this story's coup d'etat. These are all real social changes which are happening now or, you better hold on, not too far down the road in real life. Come, let's be honest. In the Bush Administration, these particular times we live in and all, how long until we are in Iran? And with the United States investing billions and billions of dollars into their defense systems and military, are cyborgs for soldiers or robotlike marines not a possible future? Let's take a look at how our economy is now; it is on the verge of collapsing, as was the case with Russia in 1989, and we may have to fill our "own" status quo with super soldiers.

When I read this book I quickly thought of authors such as Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, only better. Oscar Deadwood makes it happen in the case of his protagonist, Benson, who happens to be a writer. And he throws in the militant adjunction through speculative fiction which makes this novel shine. Another interesting element is that Oscar Deadwood breathes life into his Benson character and the overall storyline by using entries from a journal (sort of like a day in the life of a writer-turned-soldier without choice) and the perfect soldiers. With everything that's going on in the Middle East, and how this war and insurgency we're in now (ala Vietnam the sequel), I think it's safe to say that we can all envision this. He uses a character from Michigan, someone who whether military or blue-collar can associate with (Sergeant Benson) on a human level. As Benson is there, and transformed throughout the course of the novel, so are we. We are moved by a 220 page novel that is not only a semi-portent, but quite possibly our future if we're not careful. Highly recommended.

This is one of those books, that having read it once you can't forget it and it changes the way you see the world. Naessens life and theories are fascinating. Having read "World Without Cancer" I was not surprised by his being punished for curing cancer rather than getting a hero's welcome. It makes you wonder just how many cures are out there, being suppressed because it contradicts the powerful people's views of what can and cannot exist or how things work.

Just for the curious, there is a microscope out there now, the Ergonom 400 that comes close to what Naessen's did and will show the somatids that he saw.

The fact that that this is not available in print says a lot. It is extremely enlightening regarding the intellectual ignorance of our medical profession. The concept of increasing the ability of the immune system to heal the body should be number one on every medical checklist for every patient. Jason Winter's herbal tea contains numerous blood purifiers that purport to work toward the same end; blood purification to increase the ability of the immune system to heal the bodily malfunction. This is a total change in disease paradigm which could possibly put a lot of our medical profession on welfare, in addition to saving individuals from the cut, burn and poison paradigm.

Of all the important investigation that Christopher Bird performed during his career, The Life and Trials of Gaston Naessens is probably his most important work. I first became aware of Bird's book in 1990, and I have bought numerous copies over the years to give them to cancer and AIDS patients. His book is not a monumental piece of scholarship, but it tells one more story about what happens to medical pioneers. I have taken Bird's work much further, and I write at length about Naessens and the professional lineage that he is a marvelous part of. The story of Naessens work is probably the most important one in medicine today.

I have read "The Cancer Cure That Worked" by Barry Lymes which is the story of Dr. Royal R. Rife's work. Barry was assisted by Dr. Rife's partner, John Crane of San Diego. I spent a couple of afternoons with Mr. Crane in 1990, before he pased away. Because Mr. Crane was acting as a co-author the book is very accurate as to the actual truth and history of the events. Dr. Rife did have a technology that worked and was verified by the Medical Staff at University of Southern California, L.A. Dr. Milburn Johnson, the then Chief of the USC Medical Staff and President of the Los Angeles Medical Association rented the Scripps Ranch at La Jolla, California, where they were successful in curing, within 70 days, 18 terminally ill cancer patients - 100% cure rate! All with no side effects! They were then able to build approximately 20 "Rife Ray Beam" machines and Drs. were using them very succesfully, in fact, too successfully, until the persecution of Rife and his associates quashed the project and technology for a while. THIS BOOK IS ONE EVERY HUMAN ON THE PLANET SHOULD READ BECAUSE THE TECNOLOGY CURED NOT ONLY THE CANCER BUT OTHER PROBLEMS THE PATIENTS HAD. ANOTHER BOOK THAT IS A MUST is "The Secret of Life" by Georges Lakovsky, who used the same technology, but a different design of a machine he called "The Multiwave Oscillator" He also experienced very simalar successes as Dr. Rife. Mr. Lakovsky's book contains "before" and "after" photos. He was from Russia and did his work in France. Mr. Lakovsky was merely murdered, when he came to New York, to squash his technology. However, both technologies are available via the underground and I have personally used Rife's and witnessed it to cure cancer, epstien barr, clogging of the heart arteries, to correct eyesight,toothache and other ailments. A similar technology is explained in Hulda Clark's book "Curing All Diseases" I'm sure Mr. Bird's Book about Mr. Naessens should also be on the "must" list. ALL OF THESE BOOKS ARE A MUST FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT CURING SO CALLED "TERMINAL DISEASES."

I bought this book years ago when it was published in Canada under the title of THE GALILEO OF THE MICROSCOPE. I have met the late Chris Bird several times. This recreation of the trial of Gaston Naessens for Murder One is absolutely fascinating and a great read. I have a video of what Naessens sees in the live blood under his darkfield microscope. I have lent it a number of times to people with terminal illness who eventually contacted Naessens and now are completely healthy. This is a very important book about a living legend.---Phil Ratte' 61 going on 36