Drugs Books

Black Sheep is a desperately needed wake up call for the lost generation of Black youths in today's society and the professionals who are trying to save them. In addition to offering insight and intellectual nourishment, Black Sheep also gives us hope.
Achebe Toldson invites the reader into a world filled with social stigmas, systemic challenges and ill fates and fortunes that are the familiar stumbling blocks for African American youth. A haunting suspense novel, Black Sheep is told through the eyes of Duce, a prominent graduate student who has become obsessed with his thesis. In the mist of his self absorption Duce loses sight of reality and begins to live through his fears and nightmares. He soon discovers that his greatest challenge will not come in the form of a research paper, but in learning how to fight the demons of his past and confronting his present fears.
Toldson does a remarkable job of challenging the reader's current perspective on life as we know it by offering hard core comparisons that help us to understand the present state of our inner city youths. The human mind is tantalized with psychological proses, biblical quotes and sometimes just the plain truth as he pushes us to the brink of reality. A modern day Harlem Renaissance writer, Toldsons' impressive style will surely leave a mark in the literary world.

With realistic, believable dialogue and powerfully drawn characters, BLACK SHEEP is a stirring account of one man's struggle to find his life's purpose. Emotionally evocative, this is a truly captivating read with much food for thought. The reader cannot help but empathize with Duce as he forges ahead on his life changing journey, all the while hoping that for Duce, this journey will end up being one of self-realization and not one of self-destruction. (RAWSISTAZ Rating: 4.5)

Reviewed by Autumn
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

I finished reading your book last night and I must admit it is one of the most powerful depictions about the African American males I have ever read. You are on your way to becoming one of the best authors of our time. Your book is like an abstract of my own life. I wonder if you took some of this story from my life, because I can relate to every thing Duce went through, from love, to school, to the streets and the woes of a white society. I have walked through all these aspects of life. Thanks for inspiring me though your words. You said this book was fiction but to me these characters are so real because I have walked in their shoes and their struggle is so real. I have walked with duce, Jason, the Professors, Dana, havanna, and all my people fortunate to be labeled ghetto. and yes I have escaped the deadly touch of Lucifer. and yet held on to my beliefs. Thank you so much for caring so much to write a blueprint of guidance and perseverance, I hope your words become universal like the sun and timeless like the pages of the bible. keep writing brutha because you are the prophet of the lost tribe, lead us to a better tomorrow's wrote these lines for you.
I stood among the killas and I wasn't moved,
I danced with the devil, yet I kept my groove.
Mentally I got abused but I never was bruised,
Aristotle would be confused if he wore my shoes,
I drank from muddy waters yet I quenched my thirst,
I found the tree of knowledge and uprooted its curse,
like a Moore I brought knowledge to my enemies' door,
I gave my education but he wanted more,
My decent is what they feared because the time is near,
Great armies we can build if we enter their ears.
Thanks for the jewels. (numbers,3:24)

Where do I start? I can't tell you enough how much your book has affected me. My uncle gave me the book saying it was the best he had ever read. Books are our common ground, but I admit I was a little doubtful about the "deepness" of the book. The first page proved me wrong. The characters you developed touched a part of me that I had forgotten about. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Even though I am female, I saw parts of me in Duece that made me dig deep into myself. I think we are all haunted by a Lucifer in every aspects of our lives, many of us are not as fortunate as Duece to find and fight those demons. It is very hard for our people to seperate "pipe dreams" from reality sometimes, we tend to live in an ignorant state of mind, never coming to realization. Havanna also touched my spirit, she was a sista that I admired. Her character reminded me of that forbidden fruit that you know you shouldn't taste, but the alluring aspects of its beauty can't keep you from it. Also, at first I thought of Lucifer as a character, an actual FBI informant, but after I talked to Lael, he opened me up to something I had missed. Lucifer was a state of mind, that voice in everyone's head that you know you shouldn't listen to, your demons. He knows all your secrets and manipulates you while setting you up. It's like you took me back to the beginning. You made me remember the struggle that still goes on today. Your work has caused me to examine myself and the world around me. The wordplay challenged me mentally as well as opening me up to a new aspect of psychology and philosophy. Being a business major, I had never heard of the "I-thou" or "esoteric", these words caused me to look deeper into psychology. It's almost like a college student gets so caught up in his/her category of study, that they miss the rest of the world, and other means of knowledge. I work at a non-profit organization and see alot of at-risk youth, but I'm there for the business experience, not realizing the real reason, the youth. I almost felt ashame that I was blindly striving for success without looking around me, I felt almost like Dr. Cox in your book. These are just a few revelations your book opened me up to. This book deserves national attention and should be distributed in every ghetto, substance abuse clinic, prison, and juvenlile center where blacks struggle to find a reality. Thank you for writing such a deep and dedicated piece of work that did not doubt the intelligence of your readers or the forget the struggle that we all still face today.

Dr. Toldson's book will provide the reader with an exceptional experience that touches on many topics relevant to people from all cultures and backgrounds. The book provides a gripping account of the life of Duce, a young African-American male who struggles with his identity as a student, friend, spiritual being, and minority. Avid readers who love reading stories with underlying themes related to psychology, sociology, and existential issues will not be able to put this book down. I was engaged from the first page of the book until the last page. The book had me reflecting on my own life and the lives of many of my friends. I look forward to Dr. Toldson's next book...

I read this book a while back. I was looking for another book by the same author and I noticed that Blood Father only had 4 reviews. You've got to be kidding! This was a great book! It was very different from what I usually read, but so well done that I want to read another one by the same author. Something different. Something good. Go for it!

John Link is an ex Hells Angel, his mission in life is to find his runaway daughter and reconnect, keep his life simple and stay clean. One phone call from that runaway daughter, Lydia, and his life is changed forever. Go on the run with Lydia and Link as Link accomplishes what must be done to keep Lydia alive while she is being chased and hunted by a drug cartels thugs. Throughout this wild drama Lydia is finding out for herself just what kind of mess she has gotten herself into and the realization that Link has always wanted to be there for her and how far he is willing to forsake himself. This book was awesome and in some ways hit close to home to the point it was scary. I look forward to going back in time with Craig's previous titles and to whatever he has planned next.

Set on the streets of LA among the violent gangs who mete out their own unforgiving brand of vengeance, this is a story of survival, regret, fear and hatred. Blood Father plunges fully into the twisted psyche of a twisted part of today's society, visiting with the seemingly hopeless plight of the drug addicted kids caught up in the LA street gangs. Peter Craig has given us an absorbing story featuring an estranged father / daughter relationship that has been brought back together in a grim fight for survival.

I found Blood Father to be a particularly moving story that is a modern day tragedy about a former Hell's Angel who is just putting his life back together after a long stretch in prison and his daughter, a wild child rebel whose addiction to drugs and danger have thrown her into trouble way above her head.

This character-based story is dominated by Link and Lydia Jane, the father and daughter who have to learn and accept each other as they also try to evade an array of pursuers.

Link was a member of the Hell's Angels, a biker who lived life on the absolute edge, often through a haze of drugs and alcohol. There can be no doubt, he was a loser on a one way ride to self-destruction and his imprisonment for manslaughter was not only inevitable but also partly his salvation. The other part came before he went to jail when his girlfriend gave birth to a baby girl. She was born very premature and it seemed unlikely that she would survive her first week. She did and Link named her Lydia Jane. Although Link loved her, he and her mother moved apart and he fell into trouble and a long prison stretch.

Through a series of marriages, Lydia's mother turned herself into a high society woman, part of the rich set leaving her days as a biker's woman well and truly behind her. Lydia however was a rebellious girl who was occasionally abused by her stepfathers and she turned to drugs at a young age. Gradually, she moved in with a smooth talking dealer, unaware just how dangerous he was until she made one mistake too many and had to run.

When Lydia joins Link they head for open country with the initial fear that the police were after them and then later, the cold realisation hits that someone with a grudge against Lydia was also on their trail. But this seems so much more than a simple grudge, her pursuers leaving behind a frightening trail of devastation leading Link to wonder what she had left behind her and how he was going to protect her.

Blood Father is a grim story oozing with hopelessness with both father and daughter in desperate need of support with one either picking up the pieces of his life and the other strung out on drugs. They are a couple who are simultaneously fighting their own demons, learning to love and respect each other while distracted by the terrible danger that seems to be a mere step behind them.

Although the second half of the book steams ahead with the frantic thrill of the chase, the pace is a lot more leisurely at the start with a great deal of groundwork put in place regarding the character backgrounds. I appreciated the background detail finding it gave a greater feeling of depth and understanding for Link and Lydia, not to mention stark insight into the type of people who would be coming after them later.

Peter Craig has done an outstanding job of creating an extreme situation with a strong leaning towards tremendous violence and has made it seem entirely plausible. He has written a powerful story, filled it with flawed heroes and then has made us care about them. It gets into the dirty cracks of society prising out the greedy, the needy and the vicious who thrive on the blooming drug culture. The focus for us is whether two people will be able to escape from that life unscathed.

Well-written and provocative, this is an excellent modern noir thriller with relevant themes that are portrayed all too realistically. Because happy endings are never assured in real life, nothing can be taken for granted her either other than the certainty that this book will move you.

Peter Craig's Blood Father follows on the heels of his hugely entertaining literary crime thriller Hot Plastic. And while his prior work drifted closer to Thompson's noir territory, this book finds him in an Ellroy sort of mood, reveling in the criminal underground seething through the streets of LA and the baked nowhere deserts of Nevada. You can check out the plot synopsis above, so I won't recap it here, but it is a fairly traditional setup. The difference in Blood Father is the way Craig carefully crafts each character so that they transcend their thriller archetypes and become living, breathing people whose interactions drive the plot as much as the fast-paced machinations of the setup. And Craig's research into the dynamics of prison life, early Hell's Angels crank-trade, and the workings of the AFO and Mexican Mafia are all fascinating.

The elements for a classic thriller are here. Fully realized characters (including intensely brutal bad guys)- Check. Unexpected twists which redefine your perception of the depth of the story- Check. Awesome insights into prison life and aspects of the criminal underground- Check. Hard-boiled dialogue- Check. Gonzo pace, rich setting, and a hugely satisfying resolution- Three more checks.

There are moments in the book where it feels like it was being written for eventual film adaptation (i.e. cutesy quips during intense action scenes, or action scenes that occasionally defy physics for the sake of "something really cool happening"), but the pace of the book and the overall quality of the writing make these elements negligible. I can only hope that the eventual film of Blood Father will convey the richness of the prose and the wonderful relationship between Lydia and Link.

I'm not alone in hoping that Craig will soon craft a crime novel of epic proportions. He's clearly proven his ability with character-based road thrillers (and, really, the intense drama of familial relationships). Now I'm looking forward to an American Tabloid or Traffic-type sprawl. If any new crime author is up to it, it's Craig. Meanwhile, Blood Father comes very highly recommended.

Lydia Carson, on the run from her boyfriend Jonas' gang, calls her long estranged father for help. Her dad, Link, is an ex-con and ex-Hell's Angel. Lydia doesn't know it, but Link has been trying to find her for years, ever since he went to prison and she disappeared with her mother. Link jumps at the chance to help Lydia, and thus begins a wild adventure across the southern California desert. Link must use all of his wits to keep himself and his daughter alive.

Peter Craig's third novel builds on the themes he explored in the previous two--particularly, the adult child's relationship with the father. Although his work is primarily character-driven he has achieved a new level of storytelling with Blood Father. His navigation through back story is particularly skillful, he has the knack of writing flashbacks which do not distract and give emotional depth to the characters. The language in this novel is beautiful, and bestows a quality of grace to these characters who the reader comes to care about deeply.

If you ever wanted to slash your high triglycerides without high-priced prescription medications, or harmful drugs riddled with side effects, then this will most definitely be the book you must read.

Why is that?

You will get the information on lowering your high triglycerides in an all-natural way. Using the triglyceride-reduction protocol, you can slash your high triglycerides -- and do it naturally.


Josh Paretzky, RHN
Canada

This book has saved my life! My triglycerides were at 601 and my cholesterol was at 229.

I am a 5'4" 50 year old woman and was weighing 194 lbs. at that time. My doctor immediately prescribed Lopid. I was very upset after reading on the internet the effects of these drugs.

I immediately took action. I followed all recommendations and I never cheated for 6 weeks.

I lowered my triglycerides to a normal 149 and my cholesterol to a normal 192. At that point I was weighing 170 lbs.

My doctor couldn't believe that I did this without the Lopid. Even she asked me what diet I followed!

I am now weighing 155 lbs and have dropped from a size 18 to a size 10. I will recheck my lipids again.

I am so happy and I look 10 years younger!

One day my doctor called me with the results of a routine blood test. "You are a walking time bomb," he said. "I am calling in a prescription for Crestor. Go get it and take one right now."

I did what he said, but I have never been one to take prescription drugs, especially those with side effects. I took only ten pills.

I was so happy to find "Bring Your Triglycerides Down Naturally."

I read the book. I began walking (fast) 60 min. every day. I changed my diet completely. I used this book as a guideline to form my new eating habits and meal plans, and change my nutritional supplements.

My routine lab results were:

Triglycerides: 558
Cholesterol: 257
HDL: unable to measure
LDL: unable to measure
Weight: 153

Three months later:

Triglycerides: 88
Cholesterol: 143
HDL: 63
LDL: 67
Weight: 137

When I started reading the book I was a bit skeptical. Now, I will follow this program for the rest of my life. I'm surprised to say that...

There are only a few, literally, books on blood triglycerides for both the lay persons and health practitioners. This one, Canadian, definitely, is the most comprehensive and up-to-date.

First of all, it is the work of someone who speaks from experience. Therefore, all of the information is very practical and easy to understand and remember.

When you read that "high triglycerides are bad for you," the author does not stop there. He does his best to let you know what can be done about it. Or more precisely, what YOU can do about it.

Indeed, this book clears lots of existing confusion on triglycerides (and the other blood fats) by telling you things your doctor is not going even mention to you.

Of course, you may find some of the more demanding dietary recommendations in this book uncomfortable, but you know that they have been made keeping your health and well-being in mind. And that counts.

It is a highly recommended reading.

Alice M.
New York, NY

I was so happy to be able to find this book (second, revised and expanded edition!!!). My God, I think I will go to my Doctor and ask him why he didn't explain to me why I have high triglycerides.

I was wrong thinking it is too much of fat food only. Now, I'm reading this book and learning so much and, finally, know more why my cholesterol is 270 and triglycerides are 575.

I'm so blessed to read this book and learn more about.

God bless!

Zofia M.

As I first began to read this book, I wasn't sure I'd be able to stomach it, but Edward Humes has written a superb book on Adolfo Constanzo and his "cult".

Constanzo, a Cuban-American born in a family where their religion routinely sacrificed animals, was raised to believe he had special powers. In the 1980s, Constanzo moved to Mexico, and read fortunes and performed "cleansings" which involved animal sacrifices to help his clients achieve fame, wealth and protection. Constanzo had some people believing in his magic so strongly that they actually thought they'd be invisible to police and impervious to bullets.

As successful as he was, Constanzo wanted more power and money, and turned his energies to drug smuggling. Constanzo became more sadistic and delusional, and justified human sacrifice in order to provide shelter from harm (as well as remove competition), but it didn't stop at murder - he wanted to torture, rape and dismember in the name of his religion. Sadly, 15 victims were found buried near the shed where the rituals occurred, one of whom was American student Mark Kilroy.

There's a lot of background on each of his followers, the culture and people of Matamoras, and the Santeria and Palo Mayombe religions. There's also interesting information on Mexican law enforcement and corruption, and the distrust between their agencies and US agencies.

I would highly recommend this book.

Nice book, once you read you don't want to stop, but it needs more description of how the people die, and to enjoy or not enjoy , those descriptions.

I am from the area where this happened, and i remember seeing this on tv, when they unearthed all the bodies in the Ranch of Santa Elena. To this day, i dont think i've seen a scarier true story of mass murder than this. when i read this book, it literally blew my mind!! i am not easily scared, and this book is scarier than any movie out there. the book covers the early life and up bringing of the cult leader and how he rose to power using magic, and eventually capturing the young blonde spring breaker who was partying in mexico, tortured and killed him along with many many others. i believe it was over 40 bodies that were found, well, peices of them. you really need to read this. it will get you hooked!!

This is a surperb book, I've read it twice and found it so good I went back for thirds! This book covers this religious sacrifices and durg deals made by the charismatic cult leader Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a Miami-born ex-altar boy who's love for power and money cause him to form his cult. The religion in which they practice is Santeria, which includes animal sacrifces and in the end, human sacrifices. I highly recomend this book :)

This book literally scared me!! I am an avid reader of horror, sci fi and true crime, but this one was the wildest tale I'd ever encountered. Adolpho deJesus Constanzo, a Cuban American, takes up residence in Mexico and acquires a cult. The religion he practices is a mix of Santeria and Payo Mayombe, an ancient African religion which steals souls through murder and acquires power through blood rites. He tortures and kills his victims in horrendous fashion and "steals their souls" as they scream to their death. Some of the murder scenes were so graphic I could barely read them. The cult is a bunch of drug runners (shoes drop all over the place in this one!) who beleive they are invisible and invincible through the powers of their Priest. The Priest is also bisexual, acquiring female Preistesses and male devotees alike. Most of his early victims are rival drug dealers. They run into trouble when Constanzo insists on a blonde American victim and they steal a college kid who is out partying across the border. Buried Secrets is an understatement when you realize how many bodies are finally unearthed on discovery. In the end, the Preist has his followers kill him on the promise that he can easily return. Hair raising, on a par with the Exorcist for those of us with Christian backgrounds. This man was so evil I nearly beleived he could come back!! Read this at your own risk. Not for the squeamish. Although, I must admit I read it several times and I recommend it highly for anyone who is an avid reader of true crime or books about the occult.

This book is beautifully written and the story is powerfully, artfully told. Alex Prud'homme's eye for telling details and anecdotes brings to life all of the egos, greed, outsized appetites, and fat wallets that intersected in Sam Waksal and Martha Stewart's world. I couldn't put it down.

This fascinating story has appeared just as the Martha Stewart trial is getting underway. The book is crammed full of details not only concerning the principal characters, but also cancer treatments and the burgeoning world of biotechnology. Sam Waksal comes across as a mercurial salesman with no true sense of right or wrong, a classic striver seeking recognition and aspiring to great wealth, but also dissing the hopes of many with cancer. It's a good read -- fast-paced, up-to-date and accurate. If you really want to know why Waksal is in jail for seven years and how Martha Stewart became involved with his world, read this amazing and well-researched tale.

This is about the Cancer Game, which might be seen as a part of the Cancer Industry, a kind of bizarre and ghoulish phenomenon of modern times that exists precisely because there is no cure for cancer. Indeed, Alex Prud'homme, who is a gifted researcher and prose stylist, whose work has appeared in such prestigious journals as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, etc., might very well have called his book "The Cancer Game." I wonder why he didn't. Would such a title have offended those who play the game?

It is specifically about the rise and fall of one Sam Waksal, oldest son of Jewish emigrants and Holocaust survivors, a man of irresistible charm, fabulous energy, and great intelligence, a man driven to success and the high life, a man who had bounced around academia without much success until in the 1980s he saw an opportunity to become a player in the cancer game, and, along with his younger brother Harlan, founded ImClone Systems, Inc.

It is also about an anticancer drug called Erbitux, originally known as C225 because it was the 225th drug tested by its discoverers, John Mendelsohn and Gordon Sato in 1980. It showed promise because in tests it stopped the growth of tumors in mice.

And finally it is a story about how drugs get discovered, how they are developed, and especially how they get approved (or not) by the Food and Drug Administration. And of course it is about the Byzantine and incestuous relationship that exists between that August government agency and the massive pharmaceutical industry.

The curious thing about all this is that Imclone never turned a profit, Erbitux never came to market, and most of the people associated with Waksal and ImClone either made out like bandits or got stuck holding the bag. The drug itself, which works against cancer tumors, particularly colon cancer, by cutting off the blood supply to the tumors (an "antiangiogenesis" drug), was touted as a miracle that would save the lives of innumerable patients and make possibly billions of dollars for ImClone.

At least this was the hype delivered by Sam Waksal, and bought hook, line and sinker by pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, and by desperate cancer patients as well as salivating Wall Street investors who jumped on the bandwagon as ImClone's stock rocketed skyward. Because of the promise of the drug, Waksal himself was able to live his dream life as a New York socialite, throwing lavish parties for celebs (including Martha Stewart while he dated her daughter), collecting fine art, popping open $600 bottles of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild while secretly selling stock on the side, sending the proceeds overseas, buying expensive apartments and houses for himself, etc., etc.

But the cold hard facts of Erbitux, like those of almost any cancer drug one can name, are very far from the hype. As Prud'homme notes on pages 332-333, "these agents...[Erbitux and others like Avastin and Iressa] are remarkable scientific advances, [but] they still only benefit some 10 to 20 percent of patients, and they only extend patients' lives by a matter of months."

That's it. That's the bottom line. And yet these drugs are so valuable that the companies that end up selling them can make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars.

Waksal apparently came to this understanding sometime during the early eighties. He realized first the simple fact that the way the cancer industry works is doctors have to prescribe something rather than nothing. Then he realized that living a few months longer can mean a lot to people. Therefore any FDA-approved cancer drug will automatically fill a need. What this means is that the PROMISE of a cancer drug, if cleverly promoted, will spark a rally in the shares of the company that owns the patent. If, like Sam Waksal, you own millions of those shares, you can get rich on mere promise alone.

Furthermore, should the drug have any real value at all, and be approved (or even look like it's going to be approved) by the FDA, you might be able to get some pharmaceutical giant like Bristol-Myers Squibb to front a whole lot of money on that promise since they are desperate to find a cancer drug to replace those that have gone generic.

This works because even drugs with very limited effectiveness are better than no drug at all. This is true for many patients, for many doctors, and is especially true for the big pharmaceutical companies.

Note that these drugs are valuable because the people who need them are typically people of relative means who can afford to pay large sums of money for them, either through their HMOs, their government, or their own funds. In contrast a drug that would prolong the life of poor people in third world countries would be of only marginal value to the big pharmaceutical companies.

I should also mention that Prud'homme spends some serious ink in this book on Waksal's long-time friend Martha Stewart and her troubles. Her personality, her empire, and the way she handles herself are vividly detailed. In fact, some readers might find her story the most interesting part of the book.

This book is a fine character study of an amazingly talented man whose endless need to gratify his own appetites and emotional needs led him to careless and even cruel behavior. There is no denying the great talent of Sam Waksal, but to this day he doesn't seem to understand that his talent and accomplishments do not provide a license to indulge himself at other's expense.

It is amazingly sad that all of this misery was so pointless because Erbitux has at last been approved. It almost certainly could have been approved earlier if the talented team at ImClone would have had a culture of discipline and getting things done and documented in ways that everyone knew the FDA required. If they had, all this pain and loss would never have occurred and Dr. Waksal would be a real hero instead of the one he only pretended to be.

Mr. Prud'homme writes with style and vitality. The book moves along well and has a great feel for keeping the story personal and emotionally accessible for the reader. We don't get overwhelmed with the scientific side of things, although it is always interesting to read about this emerging science and the wizards who are making it happen.

I could hardly put this book down. Never mind the Martha Stewart trial, this is where the excitement and drama in the ImClone story lies.

Sam Waksal, a scientist and business developer with a checkered past, lives a celebrity lifestyle, hanging out with the rich and famous, owning several fancy houses, driving fast cars, and heading a firm that is working on a cancer drug so promising that people with no other hope of treatment are flinging themselves at ImClone, begging for a merciful dose of "Erbitux."

The drug apparently does reverse inoperable tumors in a few test patients who had no other hope of living. Now the race is on to fast-track the drug through the FDA approval process based on the glowing clinical trials. But the FDA reviewer is unaccountably unencouraging when meeting with one of ImClone's top scientists. What is wrong? Is Erbitux, instead of being approved , instead going have its application refused? Why! And what will this mean for the high-flying ImClone stock?

The book reads like the best thriller, and author Alex Prud'homme is adept at making you feel like the proverbial fly-on-the-wall during the action. If you are at all interested in what happened behind the Martha Stewart debacle, you must read this. It's fantastic.

This is the story of Dr. John C. Lilly's move from dolphin research to "inner space" research. We read of the strange places we can go to in our head.

The first third of the book concentrates on Lilly's experiments with LSD. The relatively detailed first hand accounts of what a hallucinogenic trip can be like makes fascinating reading for those of us who have never experienced such a brain state. These chapters definitely made the book truly memorable for me and are written in a very engaging style that reveals Lilly's own enthusiasm for the material.

In the mid section Lilly describes his experiences at the Esalen Institute both as a participant and lecturer. This includes sessions with the Gestalt Therapist Fritz Perl and the psycho-masseuse Ida Rolfing. These were truly 'happening' experiences in the sixties, but may be more familiar to twenty first century readers.

The final third of the book covers Lilly's experiences with mystical, physical exercises in an esoteric "school" in Chile. Much time is devoted to describing different psychological "states" classified according to Gurdjeiff's system. I found this section of the book a chore to read, but the events and information were obviously very important to Lilly.

To dolphins everywhere, this book also has the sensory deprivation tank, like in the William Hurt movie,Altered States. The movie was actually based on the book. Even with the Hallucinagenics, the tank brings out severe hallucinations, into other worlds and it really tempts people to try a Dep. tank! Makes us realize that Dolphins are smarter than humans because of their brain size. See's the brain as a personally programable bio'computer, where you become, what you put into yourselves. I first was turned on to this book in 1982, and it really opened my consciousness. Recomend for anyone that wants a good laugh, or should I say an intelligent laugh, on the introspective methods of the working dolphin and human brain-Bravo John Lilly-May your work continue and the Dolphins be as free as a human-Marilyn(Garry)

An autobiography of Inner Space is indeed what is happening here. Dolphin researcher turned consciousness explorer reaches heights that Timothy Leary so much admired about him. The book journeys from his youth to his research days at the dolphin labs and his scientific and personal discoveries and relays them to the reader in such humbleness that one cant help but to empathize and rejoice in his discoveries. Once his dolphin research was abolished, he took it upon himself to turn to neurology and neurological drugs, i.e. LSD-25, or as they called it "Pure Sandoz." It is here where his naieve approach to drugs really comes out in his writing, as he was not afraid of them, but also had never tried them (LSD in particular). Lilly read everrything he could on LSD before trying it (study before trial, similar to magic and all forms of initiation. Today with psychedelic drugs illegalized almost everywhere in the world (a conspiracy if you ask me), Lilly never condones this method (drugs) to attain self knowledge. Lilly in his deep moments of self reflection and depression understood that it could be achieved through other means without drugs. From here, is where he finalizes his journey. A marvelous book, unfortunately now its out of print, however, if you should find a copy, it would be worth your while to pick it up. I am also assuming you are somewhat familiar with John Lilly, either through Professor Leary or Robert Anton Wilson, in which it will not be a waste of a purchase.

Through the course of this book, Dr. Lilly describes and explains his experiences, with and without drugs, which led to the formulation of the statement which is it's core: "In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true within limits to be found experimentally and experientially. These beliefs are limits to be transcended." One creates one's own truth and may or may not subject it to tests which may or may not confirm it, so that even one's objectivity is subjective. Awareness of this constant state of things allows one to observe one's own behavior, as well as that of others, with greater empathy and understanding of the process by which one chooses to believe

Good Lord, its like I was just punched in the brain with a pair of iron knuckles. If only I had been aware of this book when I was wandering with Alice I may have had a little bit of direction or forsight. I may have been able to avoid a few meanderings in the depths of hell myself, and I may have saved a few years of cleanup time spent working that stuff out of my head. Anyway I must say that this book is full of possablities, great ideas which could easily (well not so easily, but productively) expand the mind into a new realm of though.

Thailand is a country with many faces and Moore is an artist who paints fascinating portraits. Though I am generally not a fan of deceive stories I am hooked on Moore's Calvino series. Moore has very intriguing way of commenting on life through his characters. Cold Hit is definitely one of Moore's finer works.

Like a great vintage wine Moore just gets better and better.His latest in the Calvino series is a great place to begin your probable addiction to his books.I can only warn you that after reading a few of Moores books you may find yourself on a plane to Bangkok and i guarentee you will be forwarned and better prepared for your adventure than from reading any guide book.

Vincent Calvino is classic noir detective . . . idealistic, tough, incorruptible, unstoppable and realistic. What makes this tale intriguing is its setting, among the "for hire" ladies in Bangkok and those who feed on them. In a nod to the noir tradition of Sam Spade, this novel bridges the Pacific between Los Angeles and Bangkok in an effective way.

Sexual tourists are flocking to Bangkok and some of them are ending up in a coffin. Calvino wants to know what's going on while everyone else ignores these deaths.

Calvino knows that if something sounds too good to be true . . . it surely is . . . but he keeps getting sucker punched in the process because he's on his uppers and needs the cash.

First he's hired to deliver a birthday card for $150. Then he's asked to be a body guard for a thousand dollars a day. Who wouldn't be tempted? Caveat detective!

The story has many twists and turns that are nicely tied together before the book ends. There's no lack of action.

The book positively swims in paid-for sex for exploitive men. I doubt if many women will find this book to be appealing.

The best part of the book comes in its development of Thai psychology. The subtlety and realism of the views are interesting to contemplate.

The story's main weakness is its slow development in the last 100 pages or so. This material was pretty predictable and could have been edited down to good effect.

This book will be most appealing to those who always wanted to take a vacation in a house of ill repute.

Awesome! Christopher Moore has done it again. If you haven't heard of this author, that's because he lives and work in Thailand. This is one of many novels from the Calvino series. I've read his previous Calvino novel Comfort Zone but I enjoyed this one even more. This is a must read book for any one who plan to take a trip to Thailand especially if your visit is not just business but also for pleasure. Christopher Moore seems to have a grasp the understanding of not just the Thai culture but also the Thai psyche. Example of this in the book is the Thai nightlife of the bars and the Ying(s) the book realistically portrayed the sights and sounds and the lights of Bangkok's nightlife in Soi Sukhumvit district. Also,it realistically relates to the sign of time when more and more people are exploring their sexual pleasures through the Internet. It was from this idea that the book start out with the new and innovative way in the technology of the net, which lured the foreign tourists to their deaths. The book takes you from that point on a roller coaster ride adventure through the eyes of an American Private Eyes Calvino. In this book, Calvino and his new found partner LAPD officer Jessada. Officer Jesseda who is Thai but grew up in L.A. joined the finest Police Department in the world... The LAPD. The two characters, through their fate and destiny, became partners working together to solve the mysteries in to the deaths of dth efive tourists and the over lined truth in the evilness of human greed & the profit of ever ending battle in law enforcement...Narcotics.

The author (although living in Thailand) did his research in writing this book by coming to Los Angeles and interviewed various crime fighting cops of the LAPD. You will find this book very enjoyable and hard to put down, not only in the excitment and actions of the story but the fascinating world of the two cultures(East VS West)I.E. The perspective of the Thais point of view as it is compared to the American Sexual psyche.

"Cold Hit" is one of the best books in the Vincent Calvino series and I guarentee that when you pick it up, it definately WON'T be easy to put down!
Vinnie is his usual lovable, cynical-but-caring PI struggling to make a living in Bangkok and live in that unique world where Thai and farang meet. The painful events he has happen to him in the first chapter when he's merely off to deliver a birthday card to a bargirl are the best introduction to both the story and Calvino himself. As expected, the other characters, some based on real expats in Bangkok, are just as believable and just as easy to love or loathe or sometimes do both at the same time; this is indeed a brilliant writing characteristic of Christopher G. Moore. If this book proceeds for you the way it did for me, you'll wipe it out within a day or two but if you're anywhere in Thailand when you do, you might be in a bar, sipping a beer or some Mekhong and feel as though you've transported yourself into the heart of Moore's writing and that Vinnie will be joining you soon for a whiskey himself. If you want fun, fantastic literary work and the most enjoyable means to learn about Thailand, get this book lao-lao. You'll love it!

I had read this book by borrowing it initially from the public library and was so impressed with it, I went onto Amazon to purchase a copy. For anyone struggling with sobriety or with a family member, friend, etc. struggling with sobriety, I think this is an awesome book.

I have had this book for awhile having read it once and then put it on the shelf. I picked it up today and reread almost half of it when I had planned to do something else.As a sucker for anything that clearly tells the tale of our human nature- the stories here do just that. Garnered from the sober author's radio call in show, (he's sort of the sober dear Abby) the problem drinkers or persons who are not sure if what they are wrestling with is an alcoholic situation get straight answers.The authors experience was extreme- and he is an advocate for rehab and then a 12 step program. However, the stories and information here are useful to any tangental situation - they cut right to the chase. Another thing that is super refreshing is that the author really loves and embraces his sobriety and is "cool, hip and sober" For all those pub crawlers who have given up on their creativity and their dreams , it is nice to hear someone affirm that sober life is technicolor and the alternative dreary black and white. I love any text that tells the truth and this book is just filled with "stories".

I found this well-written book easy to read and to understand. The straight-to-the-point real-life examples seem to answer my questions completely.

The narative flows along smoothly while making the points. If a person didn't get it the first time, the subsequent narrative of other people's situations and outcomes gives them another chance to do so.

I know a few people who will benefit from reading this book and will be thanful to Mr. Manville for writing it.

My family has a long history of addiction and I've been exposed to a lifetime of books, programs, literature and advice on the topic.

Cool, Hip and Sober is the ONLY "Self-Help" book I have ever read,(on any topic) that I didn't have to make myself read.

Before any form of knowledge or experience can be helpful, it must be transmitted. Bill Manville's, Cool, Hip and Sober flows into the reader's conscious without resistence and therein lies the beauty of this book.

You will want to read this book!

As an addiction counselor, I've read many self-help books about addiction. Cool, hip & sober is my favorite so far because of the question and answer format, the down to earth approach of the author and the believable, heart felt stories and examples of the pain and suffering of the addict and everyone around them, as well as the tough, but doable triumphs of recovery.

This book is an expose' into the Nugan Hand international bank and it's connections to the CIA.
Jonathan Kwitny is a top-notch investigative journalist and he doesn't disappoint with "The Crimes of Patriots".

Among the topics in the book:
The origin of the "French Connection".

Fraudulent enterprises such as Ocean Shores.

The CIA's involvement in the overthrow of Australian Prime Minister Whitlam.

A shared office building and secretary used by both Nugan Hand and the D.E.A.

The work C.I.A. agents did for Muammar Qaddafi.

Mr. Kwitny cites the work of Alfred McCoy on the "the Golden Triangle" and international heroin trade.
He also covers money laundering operations, particularly for drug traffickers. Nugan Hand had to ba a C.I.A. asset!
The author has frequent footnotes documenting the sources for specific information.

The cast of characters includes some famous intelligence operatives, high ranking military officers, con artists, Air America pilots, and just about any other type of people you would expect in a best seller spy novel. But "The Crimes of Patriots" is nonfiction and very well done at that!

This book ties in nicely with Bo Gritz,
Stan Montieth, Rodney Stich, Fletch
Prouty and Tom Valentine works on the
same type subject matter. Also check
out Terry Redd's Compromised which
gores both Clinton and the Bush, the
Presidencila Elder. Highly recommended.

As an Australian I was both surprised and gratified that an American journalist should want to trace the extraordinary history of the Nugan Hand Bank's Australian operations. This great document decribes the most cut-throat, heroin dealing, crime syndicate ever to have sullied our shores, and all under the covert auspices of the C.I.A. Kwitny's research is exhaustive and his even handed way of presenting his findings is exemplary of fine journalism. The implications hatched in this veritable can of worms will have net-sleuths busy for years tracing the myriad references to the numerous associates of Nugan Hand who vanished into the night only to surface again in the Irangate scandal. Essential reading for anyone trying to come to terms with the scourge of heroin, the world arms trade and those members of the U.S.'s covert agencies that spread misery in their own and other countries...Read it if you dare!

If the press was doing ots jobs, then Ronald Reagan would not have been able to appear in public during his Iran-Contra period without also being bombarded with cries of "What about Nugan Hand!"
The Nugan Hand scandal appears to be the biggest, dirtiest scandal to reach the upper levels of American government since Watergate. The suicide of Nugan and the flight of Hand occurred in Australia, but the scandal had all-American origins. If Australian authorities and reporter Jonathan Kwitny are right, then the coverup, which continues, involves at least the Defense and State departments, the CIA, the FBI, the Commerce Department and the National Security Council.
Such a coverup must reach at least into the president's Cabinet.
First a word about Kwitny, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. No investigative reporter in America is more highly regarded by other reporters, dating back to his exposes of the corrupt Teamsters Union Central States pension fund in the early '70s.
Frank Nugan was an Australian shyster. Mike Hand is an American, an ex-Green Beret decorated for heroism in Vietnam, later a CIA spook. Starting in 1973, the men set up a bank and a number of other financial companies, eventually opening offices around the world, though East Asia was their happy hunting ground.
Nugan Hand Bank may have been set up to launder and over up CIA money transfers; the Caribbean banks that performed that service folded about the time Nugan Hand Bank was set up.
It is not proper to be too definite about Nugan Hand. Because of incompetence by Australian investigators, many of its records were spirited away after Frank Nugan's death in 1980. (Kwitny says, "For an American, used to FBI efficiency, it is hard to imagine cops so spineless that they let criminal suspects carry evidence away right under their noses, while waiting for permission to examine it." That was written before Oliver North's testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal. Americans would have less trouble imagining such a thing now. 2007 update: This review was published in 1988. Kwitny's naivety seems quaint in the 21st century.)
"This isn't a book for people who must have their mysteries solved," Kwitny warns. No, it is only a book for those who need to have their eyes opened.
It is possible to say definitely that Nugan Hand laundered money and moved cash between countries where it is illegal to export cash. Many of their clients were trying to hide money from tax collectors -- for Australians, Nugan Hand usually charged 22 percent for this service.
Nugan Hand also was definitely, though ineffectually, trying to work illegal arms deals, and it probably was involved in a large-scale opium/heroin scheme in Burma.
Certainly, most of its prominent employees were con men, brothel keepers, dope and money smugglers, disbarred lawyers and other sleazy types. Its other top employees and consultants were retired generals of the U.S. Army and admirals of the U.S. Navy and former officials of the CIA, including former director William Colby. What, Kwitny asks, were men like that doing in association with the most notorious whoremasters and heroin pushers in Sydney, Australia?
For one thing, they were encouraging Americans who had served under them in the armed forces to place all their cash with Nugan Hand. Some of these men worked in places like Saudi Arabia, where there are no banks.
The generals and admirals later claimed that they, too, were victims of Nugan and Hand, but documents prove that these high officers were still taking in cash after Nugan Hand was in bankruptcy. Where the cash went is a mystery. The depositors didn't get it back.
Working with fragmentary records, receivers guessed that Nugan Hand owed more than $50 million when it crashed in 1980. It was probably much more -- many of the people who placed their money with Nugan and Hand were in no position to make claims against the estate in bankruptcy.
Nugan and Hand and their employees lived high, but they couldn't have spent $50 million on themselves in four years (though they started in 1973, the cash didn't start to flow in torrents until 1977.) the receivers found assets of only about $2 million.
Someone looted Nugan Hand after Nugan's death. Who?
There is a Hawaii connection to all this. There was a Nugan Hand Hawaii Inc. At the very least, Nugan Hand illegally engaged in banking in the USA without being regulated as a bank. When pushed by Kwitny, various agents of the American government have said that Nugan Hand's crimes, if any, occurred on foreign soil. But this explanation will not explain why Nugan Hand has escaped inquiry for its banking irregularities here.
It gets worse, right up to cold-blooded murder.
But the greatest value of "The Crimes of Patriots" is not just its partial exposure of a nest of very nasty crooks. Kwitny links it to a continuing pattern of lawlessness in the name of American national security that centers in the CIA -- and taints Congress and the highest levels of the executive branch. "As the theory of perpetual covert action is exercised, our national security is perpetually in the hands of criminals," he writes.
This is not news to anyone who has studied the activities of America's spymasters. But that is a tiny fraction of the voters. (See also my review of George Crile's "Charlie Wilson's War.") The torpor of most citizens in the face of repeated revelations suggests that they think that eggs have to be broken to make a spy's omelets. It is the virtue of "The Crimes of Patriots" to demonstrate that this is not so. Others have said as much, but seldom has the message come from anyone with credentials as respectable as Kwitny's.

On the advice of a friend who knows one of the "Cast Of Characters" (a "Yank In The Bank"), I ordered a used copy of this long out of print book. What an eye opener. It's amazing what a group of "former" senior military officers and spooks can get up to when allowed to run amok overseas. You name it and they got away with it. Even though some of the principals are dead, nobody has been held accountable for the myriad of crimes that have occurred abroad. With the lack of support rendered by the U.S. government (especially the F.B.I.), it makes one wonder how "former" some of these players really were. It's also amazing how many of these same people reared their ugly heads years later during "Iran-Contra". Read the book and then decide for yourself.

"Speed" is this writer's best book in my opinion. But anything from Burroughs Jr. is worth waiting for.

As his contemporary, I never met Billy, but now I feel as I have. I grew up in the same circles and understand the difficulty of being surrounded by famous writers. He tells what it was like growing up beat. All beat aficiandos need to read this. Put it in the highschool library. I wish I had published it.

"Cursed from birth" is incredibly sad and brilliantly written.
David Ohle did a great job editing and compiling Billy's letters and manuscript pages into a coherent narrative that deals with the second half of Burroughs Jr's tragically short life (marriage, constant travel, alcoholism, transplant surgery)
The events described by Billy are often supplimented by testimonials from Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs Sr. that sometimes provide a contrast to Billy's take but always enhance perspective for the reader.
The final third of the book describes Billy's liver failure and subsequent transplant and agonizing attempt at recovery in Denver. This section is brutal and draining to read but fascinating in its glimpse into the mind of a broken, nearly abandoned man
Included in this section is a devastating, put-down letter adressed to his father but apparently never sent even though WSB comments on it in the text.
Also, of particular interest is Billy's medical profile which details the mental side effects of transplant surgery.
All in all a very well done book that should be read by any serious Beat scholar

Billy was a friend of mine.I knew him at Green Valley School in Orange City, Fla. in 1972 and afterwards until his death in 1981. I think this book tells his story the way he would like. Literary Outlaw is the other good bio of Bill Burroughs, Sr. in which Billy's life is well told. Read both of these books and you will know the Burroughs. The old man was a genius and a great writer but a lousy father. The son was cursed from birth(that title is something Billy wrote himself and signed a letter with to his father).
I tried to tell Billy to change his name in 1972. I thought that would be his only chance of surviving the Burroughs name. But of course his course was set. He was and would always be a Burroughs. To have your father kill your mother when you are 4 and then to be sent to grow up with your grandparents(abandoned by your father)and then to learn in your teens that your father is the notorious junkie homosexual genius author of NAKED LUNCH well how would you handle that? So self destruction was Billy's fate. This is an excellent book and anyone who is interested in either father or the son should enjoy and learn from it. One thing though. Billy enjoyed his life VERY MUCH until he got sick. So his life was not that short and was certainly not all unhappy. Just the last 10 years of it.

After what seemed to be an amazingly long wait, Cursed From Birth, the sort of biography, sort of last lost novel of William Burroughs Jr has finally been published by those saviours at Soft Skull. And...it was well worth the wait. I am 3/4 way through and the book does not disappoint. Billy's story was alway one of tragedy, self-loathing, self-pity and probably inherited addictive behaviours. However, his writing, when he was relatively sobre, is always witty, concise and truthful, more so than his fathers. It is a sad testament to a great biography of a dead person that you want the ending to be anything but their demise. And this book is no different. Highly recommend for all lovers of beat literature.