Alternative Books

I have been practicing Ashtanga yoga for over 10 years and have many
different books about yoga, ayurveda, and tantra. This one in
particular is special, because of the way Carlisi honestly reveals
himself to the reader and weaves his personal experience throughout.
I was surprised to discover a lot of information about these
practices that no one else talks about. He makes his message known
clearly that ashtanga yoga, ayurveda, and tantra are available for
anyone and everyone, at any age and any point in their life. I
couldn't put it down and would recommend it to yogis and non-yogi's
alike.

As a beginner to yoga, a friend suggested this book to me. I was reluctant to read it at first, but once I started, I couldn't put it down! Since then, it has turned me on to a lot of new ideas and I am excited to learn more about all three topics.

The Only Way Out Is In, is a refreshing new look at yoga, ayurveda and tantra. It is not a typical dull yoga book. The author shares his own personal insights into the practice and keeps it available for anybody to read and understand. It is an easy read, yet has alot of depth. His life story is also very revealing and intriguing, he's not afraid to share with his readers the challenges he has encountered on and off the mat.

This book was just the push I needed to take charge of my health. Now I'm feeling healthier than I have in over 20 years. Thanks guys!

Optimal Wellness takes the knowledge of 5 great doctors and mixes it up in to 1 easy to follow book. It has helped me refine my diet and correct my posture!

This book is full of so many ideas for feeling more energy. I really needed the boast and got it from just a couple of their ideas. I like these guys!

"Out of the Twilight" is a thoughtful study of the feelings of fathers when their sons reveal they are gay. The fathers in the sample were from different racial, ethnic, educational, and financial backgrounds.This gave a varied view. I was impressed by the author'sability to describe the feelings of each father objectively. The reader begins to understand how these parents deal with their feelings and accept the reality of a gay son. This book gave me insight into how one copes with life and events beyond ones control and somehow survives and goes forward.

Having now had the benefit of reading your new book, I can fully appreciate the significance of your interview with me. Any father -- be their son gay or not -- can derive deep and meaningful father/son insight from its' content. It is excellent. Thank you for your efforts and congratulations on a superb piece of work.

This exceptional book should be read by therapists and researchers, who would find it useful for clinically oriented purposes. Although a study, it reads like a novel. This author's passion for the subject matter is obvious. The vignettes are truly touching, capturing something quite unique about each father. A rare find.

This is an excellent work which covers both conventional
and alternative medicinal protocols. The author describes
the various massage methodologies which involve the
artful manipulation of soft tissue to achieve healing.
The craniosacral rhythmic therapies are described as part of
a spinal realignment regimen. In 1997, the author describes
how the National Institutes of Health released findings of
a "Consensus Panel reflecting the opinions of many experts on
acupuncture for pain. The panel found 'clear and promising
evidence' that acupuncture helps to relieve low back pain."
The book describes how Boswelia relieves chronic colitis.
In addition, the atherosclerosis protocol shows how the
condition may be prevented with a low fat diet, increased
intake of fruits and vegetables and various bridge techniques
of both conventional and alternative medicinal protocols
utilized in unison.

As a fellow medical writer, I'm very impressed with the information presented in this book, and with its easy-to-follow format. Besides telling the stories of various individuals who have found relief for their conditions with combinations of allopathic and complementary medicine, Weisman and Berman give readers detailed backgrounds of treatments/techniques such as meditation, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine in sections called "A Closer Look." "What's the Evidence?" sections concisely summarize the published research on various treatment modalities. The "Take Action" sections offer practical advice for patients coping with pain, aging, cancer, menopause and childhood illnesses. Weisman's candor about her own recovery, as well as about her son's challenges facing a chronic illness, engages and empowers readers in a way that most self-help medical books cannot and do not. Whether you are a patient yourself, or are simply reading this to become better informed, you will surely own your health by the end of the book. Bravo to both Weisman and Berman.

Own Your Health: Choosing The Best From Alternative & Conventional Medicine is a solidly written, nicely organized, and truly "reader friendly" guide to understanding and making choices among alternative and conventional medical treatments. Anecdotes, judgmental weighing of facts and statistics, pros and cons, and so much more fill the pages of this compendium of information. Own Your Health is a quite excellent and very highly recommended resource -- especially for those wrestling with chronic ills with symptoms that resist standard medical treatments.

If you have ever been in a crisis as a teen and have felt rejected, unworthy and lost, this book is for you! Kimberly Freel writes with a sincere insight and dedication to her characters. This novel understands today's situations in the "real world" and provides a story of hope and love after many realistic struggles. What I found interesting were the stories within the story that portrayed heart wrentching situations and diverse characters. I felt like this novel covered much ground and offered help and suggestions while captivating it's readers with a great story line. I hope Kimberly Freel continues to write!

I have read more books than I can recall in my life, but "Painted Rocks" was the first book I have read that I did not put down once I began reading it. It is an inspirational story about a young girl's struggle to find not only herself, but her place in this world. The novel is wonderfully written and it keeps the reader intrigued about what will happen next to little Sunny Moss. There is never a dull moment and it keeps you on your toes. This is an eloquent and exciting novel that anyone would love. I can't wait to read it again, and I can't wait for Kimberly Freel's next novel. Buy the book, you won't put it down!

Being an avid reader, I can safely say that this was one of those books that I just couldn't put down. I actually stayed up past midnight on a Sunday evening when I had to get up at 6:00 a.m. the next day. Not quite being done by the time I went to bed, I actually got up and finished it before getting ready for work! This is a story of a young teen who just always seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time - and the consequences of the poor decisions she makes. Living in the same area, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about places that are familiar to me. Throughout the good and bad that happened in her life, I love the way it all ties together eventually, but that's all I better say. Anyway, it's a winner as far as I'm concerned!!

Wow. I was really impressed by this book! The illustrations were as much, if not more important to me then the story. Several of the drawings caught my attention. They really appeared so well thought out, so very artistic. I was refreshed and truly entertained by this great little masterwork. Thanks Ben.

Paper Theater is not a comic. It is a novel written in the guise of the comics genre. From its heavy poundage paper, to its complex social themes and subtexts this is definitely a work of literature.
Comprised of a septet of graphically authored narratives, this dense highly symbolic tome lacks an apparent hirsute lucidity. The art styles range from the artistically functional to the Byzantine. The Goreyesque "Bathysphere 12" reads more like illustrated plates whereas others like "The Taxidermist" come from the great tradition of silent comics.
The only readily apparent commonality is the theme of reanimation, from the attempt to create living creatures from dead ones in "Emily" to the literal revivification of the dead by the zombification process. The title itself harkens the contrast between the permanence of print and ethereal nature of performance. It is the distinction between life and death itself. Authors such as Shelly and Borges certainly played a huge influence on Catmull, bordering on plagiarism at times.
According to sources on the web, Catmull was raised Mormon in Utah. Undoubtedly, the highly religious atmosphere in which he grew up still haunts him to this day. Resurrection is after all the pivotal event in the life of Jesus.
Even the decision to print this book in black and white sustains this theme. By imbuing the characters with a pallid moribund complexion, the reader is meant to ponder the nature of what distinguishes the living from the dead. It is a technique as rococo as Joseph Smith's golden plates.
"Paper Theater" presents a historical reworking of the future. Or is it a futurist reworking of the past? I believe professor John Lewis Gaddis said it best in his book The Landscape of History, "I can't help wondering whether the insistence on distinguishing independent from dependant variables has not become, within certain of the social sciences, a prescientific test of identity rather than a coherent method of inquiry."
By turns tragic and mytho-poetic Paper Theater emerges as one of the best contemporary graphic novels of the year.

Paper Theatr is the besyt comic sinse "Pokemon: Team Rocket Blast Off". Its about aliens and deadd animakls and gosts. I found this booik in my brothers booklshelf. I thoghtt is wass a coloring book and he beat me up whjen jhe found out I colored the guy green. nexty time i will coulor him [__] brown. Ha hahaha.

In language as compelling as the importance of the topic, Dr. J. reveals well-guarded secrets about coronary disease, its usual treatment and important options such as ECP. Unless "Passing on Bypass" becomes required reading for all cardiology fellows and practitioners, it may represent the best "second opinion" anyone (faced with angina or a failed treadmill test) can obtain. Courageously written, this book could easily save thousands from making an unnecessary journey to cardiac surgery. After reading this book, the intelligent layperson will generally understand the various options somewhat better than the average cardiologist in practice...so beware.

Dr. George Juetersonke has been my doctor for the last 10 years. His new book "Passing On Bypass" is an excellent example of how his mind works toward helping his patients. This book will give you plenty of information to make an educated decision about whether to have surgery or not. I personally would have the External Counter Pulsation. You lie comfortably on a table and the machine does all the work for you. This is a great breakthrough for heart patients!

This book should be in every cardiologist's office. I'll go even further, it should be required reading before visiting a cardiologist's office. It provides information that is well written and easily understood, quoting "medical studies" that would otherwise remain unavailable and unknown to the average patient. I think everyone, as I was, will be amazed at the results of these "studies". While it doesn't discard bypass surgery, it certainly will open your eyes as to the dark side of this over-performed procedure. I really think that this book will result in saving a lot of people's lives and I know it will help preserve a quality of life that could otherwise be lost. I have bought every book that I can find that has as it's subject matter, Bypass Surgery. This one, by far, is the best and most understandable, while providing more information to equip you in making this most important decision as to the type of treatment you may desire for yourself or a loved one.

It is known fact that the best way to deepen ones understanding of Chinese medicine is by reviewing case studies. As a beginner practitioner, who has finished schooled more than a year and a half, this book was just what I was looking for.
What I like about the book is that is follows you through from the patient's presentation, to the underlying theory of the case, emphasizing the pathogeneses rather than just the pattern diagnosis which is what I find in most other TCM books. This I believe gives a practitioner a better understanding of the pathology as a dynamic process rather that a fixed imbalance.
Another refreshing aspect is that the treatments presented in most cases are combination of acupuncture with herbal formula. The authors explain why they chose each point and sometimes how the points were needled in order to maximize the therapeutic effect. When a herbal formula are used, the authors usually present the basic underlying formula and then explains how it was modified to tailor it to the patients needs.
Another nice feature is that the book introduces advanced concepts which do not appear in basic TCM books. For example it presents a complicated case in which a patient was to weak for herbal tonification, and it explains how to deal with such a case. Another chapter deals with "Constraint Disorders" which most TCM books do not address, but I think are quite common in a Western clinic.
I can go on and on praising the book, but I will just summarize that if you wish to hone you diagnosis and treatment skills, you will not be disappointed.

It is a great book, contains dozens of case staudies related to the different organs.
Each CS has comprehensive explanation, also general explanation of the organ related.
It seems like a very good book for whom that wants to etends his/her knowledge in 'Chinese Pathology' more than the classic course - 'Syndromes'.

The most comprehensive TCM book for any level. Concise and clear explanations with understandable flow charts. You really understand why and how the protocol was created. A book anyone can read and learn from.

The entire "American Family Portrait Series" is wonderful! This pasrticular one read the quickest. It's packed with adventure and excitement, this is a great Christian read, I highly recommend it.

The adventure and emotion of this novel (and all of them in the series) made for a great story! It is very entertaining and interesting, as well as providing good Christian morals. I recommend the whole series!

I enjoyed every step on Jesse Morgan's adventure. There were surprises all along the way. Each time I read it, it keeps getting better. I wish there were more books in this series because I have read each one many times. (Maybe Mr. Cavanaugh could start with Amos Morgan and work backward.) I love the way he develops the characters and the plot. Keep it up, Mr. Cavanaugh!

A wonderfully written book, explores herbal healing well beyond the modern paradigm of plant chemistry and herbal analogues of pharmaceuticals. The spirits of the plants as healers and teachers through the ages is brought to life here by a talented writer who obviously walks the walk while talking the talk. Thank you Ms. Montgomery for this gem

This accessible yet comprehensive book is a tremendous gift of both wisdom and practical application on how the universe actually works and how to tap in and play a part yourself. Plant Spirit Healing is about the difference between knowing about a plant (available through book learning and use) and experiencing its spirit - where you merge with it, communicate through an exchange of insights, and achieve a full and lasting relationship. This book benefits from Pam Montgomery having taught and honed this material many times. If you cannot take Montgomery's apprenticeship program and experience her own ebullient spirit, this book is the next best thing.

Emphasizing that each person's knowing and experience of different plants may be different in what is really a Both/And, rather than an Either/Or, universe, Montgomery guides you to find your own plant spirit guides appropriate for this time in your life journey. Chances are who they are will surprise you.

This remarkable book takes the reader on a journey from (possibly) skeptical interest in plant spirits, to plausible, to possible, to practical. At no point does the journey include religious overtones or spacey far-out suggestions.

Montgomery builds a foundation based on physical and energetic qualities of both people and plants. Each new parcel of knowledge is presented in a flowing sequence based upon previously explained information. The trip is full of "of course" moments where you recognize that you already knew what she is presenting, but perhaps did not know where to place it in your established body of knowledge. As much as anything this book greatly expands and updates your established body of knowledge.

Fine-tuning gathered from years of teaching workshops and apprentice programs has honed Montgomery's understanding of the pace and paths by which people can not only learn, but can experience and assimilate deeper knowledge. Her expertise allows her to lead the reader through these layers of knowing in the transparent, uncluttered, way that characterizes the best of guides.

The Theme is Relationships.
Despite years of loving plants, I would not have thought that there were so many ways to understand plants, or so many tools for deepening my relationships with them. Indeed, relationship is what this book is all about, including establishing, fostering, and nurturing actual relationships with plants. This includes being open, observant, respectful, and enjoying. It involves appreciating plants and learning from them and moving those relationships on to partnerships. This carries on the theme of Montgomery's previous book, Partner Earth (1997) in which she encourages humans to take responsibility and action to be co-creators and partners with Earth, rather than passive children of Mother Earth.

At one point in Plant Spirit Healing Pam likens establishing a new relationship with a plant to a relationship with a potential lover. Just think about that. It includes breath exchange, attention, respect. One is open, observant, eager to learn all one can about this person who suddenly seems to glow with light. One is gentle and respectful and wants to spend every available moment with the new love, gently growing knowledge and love and a shared history, exploring all facets and aspects of the beloved.

Organization and arrangement
The book's organization is clear and accessible. Different learning modes are accommodated as each chapter presents the material in three modes. Chapters begin with a journal entry from Montgomery's daily interactions with nature and how it feeds her developing wisdom. We catch a glimpse of her slipping into communication with plants and the landscape. Next, the bulk of the chapter is a descriptive exposition of the topic. This is followed by examples which illustrate the ideas and techniques just presented with experiences Montgomery has had with her clients, or that her students have experienced.

The book is divided into three parts, The Theoretical Basis for Plant Spirit Healing, The Practical Application of Plant Spirit Healing and Plant Allies, a section on specific plants. Christian Hummel recently wrote "We are living in a time when ancient principles that have been espoused for ages from Vedic texts to Native American philosophies are being validated by science - a meeting point between science and spirituality where these principles are being tested and proven to be true." [July 2007 Wisdom magazine p. 28 "Accessing the Creative Matrix: The Secret to Healing the Earth" ] Montgomery presents much of this material in Part One by distilling and presenting the essence of a large and varied body of new scientific information in an accessible format that relates to plant spirit and communication. She has gleaned knowledge from others - both ancient traditions and recent science - and incorporates it straightforwardly for easy absorption without being academic. Part Two is a practical journey where actually meeting and getting to know plants is facilitated with a range of different techniques. Part Three introduces the plants as their fully embodied selves giving a sense of the expansive beings they are.

Plant Spirit Healing teaches about how sprit moves in the world, thus bringing spirit into reality, instead of keeping it in the abstract realm of religion. We are given a handbook to understand the wonder of plants, and a guidebook of practical techniques and exercises to form personal, intimate, real relationships with plant beings whose importance, variety, beauty, gifts and outright wisdom are usually ignored. The result reminds me of my joy at the animal tracks revealed by the first snowfall in what has been a gray and lonely November landscape. The joyful feeling of not being alone. The deep knowledge that I share this landscape with other beings who are aware of themselves, who live full and interesting lives, and who are open to knowing me and interacting with me.

Plants have been calling to many of us for the past several decades. Chances are they are somehow calling you as well. This is a guidebook to answer that call, probably in a deeper way than you ever imagined. By the time you have read it you will have established relationships with plant beings, taken a deep journey and found missing parts of yourself.

Beautiful, hopeful, how to in a world filled with strife. Pam reminds us all to take the time to walk among the creatures who are there in our backyards. We don't have to travel far, but instead realize that each plant on our earth has purpose. When we befriend them, opening our spirit to encompass their's a new strength is formed. Thank-you Pam for this powerful reminder.....Dona