Drugs Books

What fun this book is! Too bad all history books are not so entertaining and informative. We might all benefit from understanding the history of the economics and culture that underpin drug trafficking in the 21st century. If history and economics were always written in such an engaging way, nobody would ever flunk out of History 101 or find it boring.

I'm an obscure history buff and when I saw this one it piqued my interest. This is part history, part science and part sociology and the author makes this a more interesting subject than I thought it could be. He starts off with what he calls the Big Three: Alcohol, Tobacco and Caffiene. From there he breaks it further down citing the most popular and not so popular illegal drugs. Mentioning natural stimulants that are unfamiliar to most, such as Qat, Kava and Betel and the very descriptive reasons on why they did not take to popular consumption.

Courtwright also doesn't fail to mention that, even though with best intentions, scientists around the 1800's and the turn of the century were also responsible for some of the most addictive substances. Your jaw will drop when you read who devolped heroin and what is was originally used for.

Fun, informative, and mind blowing reading.

Few commodities can lay claim to such a broad of sub-categories and have had such an impact on the world, as we know it, than drugs (Courtwright 2). Few other commodities have escaped Courtwright's "Drug" definition, which is arguably one of his weaknesses, such as sugar which really need special attention (Courtwright 3, 27-30, and 166). The commodification of al the items Courtwright identifies rival maybe only petroleum in terms of their power vis-à-vis world commerce (Courtwright 42). Courtwright identifies alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco, as the "big 3" while, in contrast, he identifies opium, cannabis, and coca as the "little 3." I argue they are big and little because they have been accepted, but vilified, into mainstream consumption. Good marketing has turned these wants into needs, but that begs deeper analysis. There is a strong "kitsch" [1] element that seems to have missed the radar, and on an anecdotal none of the big 3 has missed on this. There are several good and balancing arguments for legalizing the "little 3." Legalizing the drugs is proof that the vilification of drugs works much like a language (in a Saussure "signifier" sort of way). "Drugs" as a signifier is floating; it is contingent on place and time. Drugs are seen time "bad" and in other times even seen as "good" and its very definition and even epistemological grounding changes. We can go back and forth on this with contentions on both sides, no matter what this short 500 year history of the introduction to, analysis of, and deconstruction of, drugs and its role in world development is a significant introduction.

According to Courtwright, 3 "Drugs" have made the leap into mainstream use and have the rare distinction of being labeled the "big 3" (Courtwright 7-30). Once these "drugs" caught and eventually captured the European imagination - not in any spectacular way really - but in a quotidian sort of way, the rest was left to socio-historical forces. What the last statement speaks to is coupled with day to day use and entangled with the ocean crossing commerce, these drugs became so common use that mercantilists immediately caught on to the financial possibilities. Maybe the early mercantilists were or were not aware of the habit forming aspects of the use of these psychoactive drugs. No matter what the combination of use, availability, and habit forced discourse into making these three drugs legal, then illegal, and then legal again. No such luck would befall the "little 3" (Courtwright 31-52)

The ease of access to alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco would never be equaled by opium, cannabis, and coca Courtwright argues (Courtwright 42). However, the widespread use of opium in China, I would argue speaks to the contrary. Forced into China to pay for, ironically, the more lucrative teas, opium will see widespread use (despite its outright illegality) in China and beyond (Courtwright 135-136). The history of Asian America is littered with vilification of the Chinese as hedonistic and self destructive opium users. The popular literature is littered with images of sneaky Chinese in opium dens trying to trick white women into its use (Lui 19, 29, 78, 79, and 181). The historical irony is that opium made the English one of the greatest, if not the greatest "pushers" by any definition possible (Courtwright 31-36). Robbing from Peter to pay Paul, this circularity is actually more widespread then we imagine. Courtwright argues that the "little 3" either missed the historical opportunity or incurred to many social costs that made access to and distribution of these 3 elements less lucrative hence impractical.

According to Courtwright, alcohol is the most fascinating of the three (Courtwright 9-14). I argue conversely that caffeine is arguably the most interesting for what I see as its "kitsch" factor and class dynamic. When travelling in China, I was witness to one of the more interesting modes of westernization - consumerism. Consumerism, by that I mean the way Chinese see "Western" to be. In the US, McDonalds and Starbucks are pedestrian, on many levels, but Starbucks is distinct from McDonalds in that it provides access to a particular class. Walking around with a Starbucks cup in your hands gives one access to all the "sophistication" that coffee and in particular Starbucks coffee provides. In China, even if they have to pay US prices for these consumer items it seems like it is worth the price of admission. Arguably, in India, Starbucks knockoffs are taking over this lucrative business taking over from Masala chai the same way that coffee is taking over from Oolong or Jasmine tea in China. Caffeine, I argue will outlast alcohol because it is not perceived to not have the same social stigma and societal costs imbedded in its consumption.

The consumption of tobacco is now coming under severe attack with criticism being leveled against the tobacco manufacturers vis-à-vis cigarette's addictive nature and accompanying pulmonary complications as well as work stoppage statistics (Courtwright 59, 64, 72, 125-129, 132, 168, 180, 189-190, 195, 199, and 203-206). Moreover, alcohol also is coming under fire; arguably it has been for a long time, for its attack on the liver and other social effects (Courtwright 95, 100, 180-181). Little, if anything is said about caffeine's dehydrating effect and long term dependency. Moreover, even less is said about the lengths people will go through to get coffee. Moreover, caffeine is neither seen as dangerous to the user and his/her surrounding but consumed in responsible quantities actually makes one more alert and less prone to suicide, "Caffeine, to extend the metaphor, keeps the police away. Its antidepressant properties have prevented suicides; its awakening effects have prevented nighttime driving accidents" (Courtwright 189).

Caffeine is the real "trap baited with pleasure." Being without caffeine, as is the resulting effect of its addiction, a sense of unease that people swear can only be remedied by having their first cup. Coffee/caffeine addiction is really less about seeking pleasure but more about mitigating pain (Courtwright 97-100). In this sense, I argue that caffeine is the more insidious and fascinating drug. Legalized and controlled, it is actually even encouraged and consumed in copious amounts.

Since there is no law in the books that is called "DUIC" or driving under the influence of caffeine - strong arguments are made to legalize drugs that are seen, today, to be illegal. While alcohol, more than caffeine or tobacco has already been legalized and controlled, much of the revenue that funnels into government in taxes can and is channeled to it ameliorate the societal costs (Courtwright 64, 170, 176). Tobacco companies are now being sued to fix the problems as well as provide a palliative care for cancer carrying ex and current smokers.
A serious deterrent to the legalizing of the little 3 - opium, cannabis, and coca - is that they are immediately dangerous to the user and those around them. Driving and operating machinery at work under the influence of any of these three "drugs" is immediate and deadly. However, contrary argument can be made that if these drugs were indeed legalized, such incidents would be less commonplace and its societal effects can be ameliorated by the revenues generated through regulation. The challenge remains in terms of how this will be facilitated. As stated by Courtwright, the challenge will be to find that sense of balance (Courtwright 188-190, 199-207).

The malleability of the definition and use of these drugs from illegal, to lucrative, to regulated gives credence to the notion that these definitions work like a language. Depending on the time and place the criminality of these substances is either existent or not, its use medicinal or recreational, they are abused and used in controlled situations, but never, is the use of these substances - the little 3 more specifically, can be described as static. I argue that there is room for consideration to de-criminalize these drugs and to further regulate those that are already "out there." True enough, for one who loves the smell and taste of the bitter substance called coffee my self regulation is limited to the elasticity of demand and the ebb and flow of Starbucks prices and their less than kitschy substitutes. What this proves is that this issue is complex and with so much invested in the commerce and politics of these products we will not be able to free ourselves of them without incurring considerable cost.

Miguel Llora

Endnote

[1] Kitsch - All images of smiling workers, young children in grassy fields, the contented elderly, all the sentimental propaganda, Capitalist or Communist, which takes a sentimental view of human possibility, is the raw material for kitsch. Kitsch is romanticism, hypocrisy and the avoidance of the unpleasant truth of our existence. Artists are the enemy of kitsch because they poke and expose it for what it is - illusion (Kundera 19).

Works Cited

De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Trans. R. Harris. Peru: Open Court Publishing Company, 1986.

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. New York: HarperPerennial Publishers, 1991.

Lui, Mary Ting Yi. The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New York City. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

"Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World" by David T. Courtwright (Harvard University Press, 277 pp, $24.95) is a vivid account of the global spread of psychoactive drugs over the last 500 years. The University of North Florida historian defines drugs broadly enough to include not just the usual suspects like heroin and marijuana, but also generally legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.

Courtwright's witty writing should appeal to those with a taste for black humor. The author possesses a seemingly infinite supply of vivid examples about the impact of drugs on humanity, and even upon the animal kingdom. Lions, he notes, "have learned to prey upon drunks staggering home at night from East African roadside bars."

"Forces of Habit" can help modern white-collar workers banned from smoking indoors reflect on the ferocious anti-smoking campaigns that earlier tobacco addicts endured. While American smokers are forced to risk pneumonia each winter while they puff away in the freezing doorways of office buildings, "Russian smokers suffered beatings and exile; snuff takers had their noses torn off. Chinese smokers had their heads impaled on pikes. Turkish smokers under the reign of Ahmed I endured pipe stems thrust through their noses."

Ironies abound in "Forces of Habit." Alcoholics Anonymous' co-founders, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, "both smoked heavily and died of cigarette-related illnesses." (Today, AA chapters searching for meeting places are bedeviled by the new prohibitions on indoor smoking. Reformed alcoholics often want to smoke to relieve the tension of staying on the wagon.)

But Courtwright has serious ambitions as well.

"This book," he writes, "grew out of a broader curiosity about psychoactive commerce, a ubiquitous -- and, I now believe, defining -- feature of the modern world."

This leads Courtwright to rewrite much of human history from a, well, drugocentric viewpoint. "The domestication of fire," he informs us, "made widespread drug use possible in the first place." A few eons later, "The Apollo 11 astronauts," he notes, "were drinking coffee three hours after landing on the moon."

"Forces of Habit" is thus in the grand tradition of the Monomaniacal School of History. It stands comparison to such valuable works as William McNeill's "Plagues and Peoples" and Daniel Yergin's "The Prize," which explained the history of the world in terms of germs and oil, respectively.

Courtwright's vast goals are assisted by his defining "psychoactive drug" expansively enough to include coffee and chocolate. He even tentatively discusses sugar. I'm not sure why he didn't ultimately accept sugar as "psychoactive." Those of us with little kids have certainly seen sugar's impact on brain chemistry.

One problem with his semi-sprawling approach to defining "psychoactive drugs" is that it's not clear where to draw the line. If I drink a glass of warm milk to help me fall asleep, does that make milk psychoactive? Or would it be "psychodeactive?"

When going on a family outing, I always insist that we bring along some high-calorie, high-fat foods like cheese sticks. Few things end screaming tantrums faster than cheese. And it helps mellow out my kids, too. So, is cheese a psychoactive drug, just like crack and crank?

What about sunshine? The vitamin D it produces seldom fails to cheer me up.

Is a tan also a drug?

Evidently, Courtwright defines a drug as a chemical that wasn't around for most of human evolution. He takes a Darwinian perspective on the desire for drugs.

"Humans evolved in itinerant band societies. Life in the sedentary peasant societies that succeeded them was less varied, fulfilling, egalitarian and healthful. Taking drugs to get through the daily grind (or to treat the intestinal and parasitic diseases attendant to settled life) is peculiar to civilization. ... Such practices are further clues, if any are needed, that our social circumstances are out of sync with our evolved natures."

Drugs apparently produce artificially the pleasurable brain chemistry reactions that evolution devised to reward our distant caveman ancestors for engaging in hunting and other behaviors essential to survival. Perhaps this explains the terrible alcoholism problems currently suffered by the indigenous tribes -- such as American Indians, Eskimos and Australian aborigines -- who have only recently given up the primordial hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Of course, New World Indians had their own native drugs to share with Columbus. According to Courtwright's bottomless bag of memorable quotes, the fanatically anti-smoking and anti-drinking Adolf Hitler called tobacco, "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man, vengeance for having been given hard liquor." (Perhaps, though, Hitler showed that power is the most dangerous drug of all.)

Courtwright dislikes drugs, but what he really hates is capitalism. "The peculiar, vomitorious genius of modern capitalism," he expounds, "is its ability to betray our senses with one class of products or services and then sell us another to cope with the damage so that we can go back to consuming more of what caused the problem in the first place."

Rich merchants and Western European governments generally encouraged drug commerce well into the 19th century. The relatively recent growth of temperance movements and at least partially effective government controls on drugs, Courtwright asserts, were a response to the industrial revolution changing what capitalists required from workers. Before industrialization, landlords could keep fieldworkers in debt-slavery by getting them addicted to expensive alcohol or opium. Drunken factory workers, though, would break expensive machinery.

"The growing cost of the abuse of manufactured drugs turned out to be a fundamental contradiction of capitalism," claims Courtwright. On the other hand, one could also argue that the historically high level of sobriety reigning in today's hyper-capitalistic information economy -- where caffeine is the only acceptable drug -- demonstrates that free markets can encourage self-control.

Many economists, most notably Milton Friedman, have suggested legalizing all drugs. They point out that the outlawing of drugs generates crime, just as Prohibition did.

The historian Courtwright, however, believes these economists are living in a theoretical dreamland. The "dangers of exposing people to psychoactive substances for which, it is increasingly clear, they lack evolutionary preparation" means that the "answer, whatever it may be, is not a return to a minimally regulated drug market."

I fear this is true, but I would have liked to have seen Courtwright grapple more directly with the libertarian economists' arguments. Historians love facts, but distrust logic, while economists don't like to mess up their beautiful theories with too much reality. Perhaps someday, a thinker equally at home with both the history and theory of drugs will resolve this crucial quandary. Until then, "Forces of Habit" makes a fine introduction.

This book is great fun, not least because of the author's extraordinary skill in the efficient delivery of interesting facts. The opening chapters, which detail the origins of the world's major drugs, are among the most informative I've read.

The second half of the book, while still engrossing, is a less comprehensive historic analysis of drug use and prohibition. Courtwright concentrates on economics at the expense of culture, emphasizing production and commerce rather than demand and moral opposition. Given the enormous social influences in the modern world, such as the American cultural war against 60's drug use and the pervasive use of alcohol and tobacco as social tools, the emphasis on money and power over cultural forces in the past strikes me as an incomplete analysis. It leads the author to unconvincingly argue that American prohibition and its repeal were primarily the results of economic interests (a "contradiction of capitalism"). Oddly, the same events in the Soviet Union are attributed to "popular resistance", without any comparative discussion of the two nations. Finally, the value of pleasure and the concept of individual rights are generally neglected.

In the end, my main problem with is that Courtwright doesn't give culture the excellent and amusing treatment he gives commerce. I can think of worse things to say about a book.

This book bares a woman's soul as she struggles with seemingly irrecoverable addictions and unimaginable psychological devastation. Yet she courageously recovers and gives readers HOPE that no pit is so deep nor compulsion so strong that an effective recovery program cannot overcome.

Anita's book should be read by all who have experienced - or know someone who has experienced - the desperation of addiction, insecurity, and deep emotional trauma. Her story provides a reference for all who seek to help themselves or others put their stories in context and feel life is worth living!

Don Arthur, M.D.

This gripping ,intimate story covers a beautiful womans saga from a suburban middle class upbringing to pot smoking, alcohol- use then abuse. Her journey in and out of education, bars, sex, drugs and rock and roll....After years of stupid, self destroying behavior...She finds a 12 Step Program,learns to live a complete life then Graduates at the Top of her class from 2 of the Nations finest Universities and emerges as one of Washington DC's most respected,dedicated and devoted Counslers/Psyco Analysts. Her story is riviting and an inspiration.

Anyone interested in public policy regarding addiction should read this book. We live in an age where addiction to food, alcohol, drugs, sugar, or whatever seems to be overpowering all the genius of our modern scientific society. The mystery of why we have not been able to make significant advances in treating addiction is the question of the 21st century. Dr. Anita Gadhia-Smith's excellent book, "From Addiction to Recovery", is a wonderful read. Dr Gadhia-Smith describes her own life in great detail. She was a woman with everything, and yet she felt into severely addictive behavior. Her struggle about her road to recovery is something everyone should read. Many young people may realize that if such a fine person such as Dr. Gadhia-Smith could fall to addiction and yet recover, they should conclude that they are also children of God and that they too can recover.

- Larry Pressler

This is a remarkable story of courage and perseverance, but most of all hope. And one of the most important "take aways" is that recovering from addiction is more than not just using - it is about allowing changes in attitudes, beliefs and actions to permeate the rest of your life. Dr. Smith does a wonderful job in allowing this part of the story to unfold, as she takes us through her journey through a "new life."

I've read it 3x since purchasing it about a month ago. And I never fail to find something worthwhile even when picking it up to peruse a few pages. Lots of lessons here!!

I very recently read this book and would recommend it to anyone who is in recovery and looking for answers on how to get better emotionally and spiritually after addiction. While many books have accounts of the active addiction, this book is more about understanding the underlying causes and the way out to spritual growth. The author's deep understanding of the addictions that have affected many in our society, gives hope to the newly recovered alcoholic and drug addict looking for a reason to continue in their search for sobriety and meaning in their lives.

First advice--don't try this (or any other type of diet therapy) without consulting the correct professionals--in this case, a neurologist and a registered dietitian. Having said that, my daughter began having severe seizures just before her third birthday. Medications helped marginally. We then started her on the Modified Atkins Diet, a spin-off of the Ketogenic Diet pioneered at Johns Hopkins by the authors of this book. This updated edition contains info about the Modified Atkins Diet. Long story short, my daughter has been seizure free for nearly a year and a half and we are weaning her off her medicine. THIS HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING--for someone with epilepsy, this book is of critical importance as a serious alternative to anti-convulsive medications.

This book contains up to date information in relation to the ketogenic diet and other seizure control options that is also easy to read and understand by non professional people.

I'm interested in unusual therapies, and know someone who has a child with multiple disabilities including a seizure disorder. I found a videotape about this diet at a rummage sale a few years ago, and while it makes the diet sound relatively simple, this book says otherwise and goes into detail about people who are good candidates for the diet and those who are not. Many testimonials and case studies are presented as well.

The woman I know was given this option and said, "We don't want to starve our child." After reading this book, I can see where she was coming from. The restricted calories don't concern me as much as the fluid restriction, which could potentially be very dangerous and the book addresses this problem as well.

For the proper person, this diet could potentially be a lifesaver and it's worth trying if all factors are appropriate.

I bought this book for my daughter who has a child with epilepsy. It was very imformative and helpful. Reading the case histories and the mistakes that were inadvertently made, diet-wise, helped us lookout for the same pitfalls. I would highly recommend this book.

If you have or know a child with epilepsy, THE KETOGENIC DIET: A TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN AND OTHERS WITH EPILEPSY is a 'must' for your consideration: it offers a solution beyond medication which provides a doctor-supervised diet high in fat and low in carbs and proteins, which limits calories - and is proven to control seizures. There've been many advances in the field, so this updated 4th edition is essential even for library holdings with prior editions. Besides the latest research, this book includes a new section on the Atkins diet and other alternative nutritional therapies. Very highly recommended as a top alternative to medication for kids with epilepsy.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I read this book new and several times since. I've given away a few copies which is why I'm here on Amazon again. I hope they don't run out.
I WROTE CONSUMERS REPORT a while back about publishing an updated edition. They didn't respond.

As the other reviewers say, this book is hands down, the best book on drug history available. Unlike other books about the history of drugs and drug policy (i.e., Musto), this book is not dry. It covers most drugs, including licit drugs (which is very important), and this man has great insight. This is the right way to write about drug policy. I have no idea why this book was never reprinted; it is truly the best drug book that exists.

I read this book in the early '80s. I say that it helped me survive my period of drug experimentation. Now as a father I don't endorse the use of drugs but I do recommend this book so that the reader could make an informed choice.

Even though this book is nearly 30 years old, everything it says about the drug problem is still relevant today.

This publication outlined a clear-cut set of recommendations that if adhered to, today's drug problems would have become a long forgotten memory.

This book is a must for the collection.

I went through alot of 'Drug Education'. I thought I knew something. I didn't. I learned more in one night from this book than I did in 18 years of being a youth in the Drug War. Read this cover to cover and now try to get everyone I know to read it.

The complete story of a legend: Canned Heat. When you read this book, you are with the band year after year. Great itme for anyboby like the music.

I thought this book was really well written and all the stories told throughout were very interesting. Love Canned Heat and it is kind of sad in a way, but it's good to know what happened. Fito rocks!

Being a serious blues player and fan I've never been partial to Canned Heat's music though I'm pretty familiar with it. I did buy the LP Hooker and Heat, which I like. Alan Wilson was a fine harp player for sure and John Lee Hooker was in good form. I'm not going to run out to buy any Canned Heat CDs now, but after having read this book I'm sorry that I never heard Canned Heat live. I once read a comment about Son House to the effect that he doesn't play the blues, he IS the blues. Canned Heat, more than any act in history, based on Fito's account, lived the blues. These poor devils went through a seemingly never ending litany of tragedy, death, injustice and suffering in their incredibly long existence (which continues to this day) and yet they survived. That, after all, is what the blues is all about. Surviving tragedy with strength, humor, love, and often drugs and/or alcohol IS the blues. Few blues performers (and no bands) have paid the dues that Canned Heat has paid. This makes Canned Heat pretty special in my opinion.
Fito's account of the band's journey through the ups and downs of life and show biz is heartfelt, wise, funny and very well written. The book is the best rock biography I've read in a long time, maybe ever. I found myself really caring about the members of the band including the many who only briefly joined and left. The accounts of self-destructive core members Bob Hite, Alan Wilson and Henry Vestine are tragic and inspiring at the same time. Fito doesn't pull any punches when discussing any aspect of the band, it's members or the many managers, wives, girlfriends, bar owners and fans that the band came in contact with. He's a wise soul who understands human nature very well and it comes out in every page of this informative and entertaining book.

I usually don't like biographies too much, but with Fito De La Para, it's different! It's about one third biography, and two thirds the saga of Canned Heat and it's members, and their ill fates. It tells about the life and death of Alan Willson, one THE greatest harmonica players of his time, and fleshes him out in a way that just listening to the old albums can't do. The same thing happens with "the Bear," Bob Hite, and Harvey Mandel, and each of the later members that replace them. Many, Many great pictures! It's drugs and chicks and death, just like the title says, but Fito retains hope throughout, and is a bouyant narator who takes you on his personal ride from illegal alien to superstar to heir to the "World's Premeir Boogie Band!" I read it all, then handed it off to my Dad, with my brother waiting in the wings to grab it next! Get it while you can!

Written by Canned Heat drummer Fito De La Parra, this book is a tell-all tale of rock and roll excess. Only a Latino could pour his heart out the way Fito does here. His love of the blues, love of his fellow band members, his anguish at the deaths of Hite, Wilson and Vestine are expressed here vividly and emotionally. Of particular interest are some great stories about their most loyal fans; bikers, as well as the usual alcohol abuse, over-the-top drug use, and dalliances with females, some of them groupies, including the Plastercasters, The Butter Queen and sweet, sweet Connie. A must-read for all fans of rock and roll, blues and " the road ".

It WAS Real. The things you experienced with your alcoholic mother WERE real.

Other people have been through the same horror, guilt, and despair. I found this book very comforting.

I really enjoyed hearing other stories of daughters of alcoholic mothers. It aided in my therapy because it helped me remember events that I was having a hard time remembering. I found that my situation was much like others. Therefore, I didn't feel so alone. I highly recommend this book.

As an adult daughter of an alcoholic mother, I have read several ACoA books but never really found anything that spoke to me like My Mama's Waltz did. I was amazed at how many issues stem from growing up with an alcoholic mother. It was so comforting to read others' experiences and know that I'm not crazy and other women are going thru the same things. This book is a gem and I have recommended it to my three sisters and a girlfriend. So far, everyone has loved it as much as I did. If you are an adult daughter of an alcoholic mother you have to read this book!!!

I have not even finished this book yet, but already I feel like I'm healing. My mother was an alcoholic (now dry), her mother was an alcoholic, and I used to drink heavily myself. It's shedding light on some of my tendencies (trying to bend over backwards to please everyone, feeling abandoned by my mom at times, and so on). It also explains to me some of her behaviors and why she has anger lingering in her life and how it affects her still. Very insightful.

My mother was not an alcoholic, but her mother was. I helped me to understand my mother so much better and how being raised by an alcoholic effected her life. As a person in recovery 7 yrs and now a mom, this book solidified my sobriety to see what a burden an alcoholic mother can be to a child. Thank You.

This thriller is sort of like a cross between the movie "under seige" and an enviromental disaster movie.

It has excellent characters and the action never stops. I think the cover of this book does it a dis-service, in that it looks like one of those WW2 naval novels or a techno-thriller, when really this book is neither of those. Instead it relies on well drawn characters (who are not invincible) who use their intelligence and common sense to get out of a tight situation.

An above average thriller, even for those who aren't ship buffs. (I'm not and it held my interest)

This is a book that all should read who loves adventure, much action and an awful lot of suspence. Even the most avid reader will not be able to anticipate what's comming next. This is a well written book, story line and character relationship. This book has more than the average number of characters, sub plots and sub-sub plots. This is a book that should be read more than once. Move over Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy your replacement is in the building!!! If you have a reader on your Christmas list this is the gift to get them.

Maurice Medland's first book, and what a first book. A sea story with lots of twists. South American drug lords, a silent killer loose on a wounded ship sailing into a cyclone, intrigue, romance, and some extraordinary seamanship. A book that is hard to put down until the last page has been read.

Once I started reading Point of Honor, I couldn't put it down. It's a thriller that has everything: adventure, intrigue, romance, and a very tight story line that keeps you guessing until the end. I can't wait for Medland's next book!

A good, fun read. Scary parts, tense parts. Characters about as well drawn as could be expected in work of this genre. Author seems to know what he's talking about with naval and air equipment, but I don't even consider this a "techno-thriller" of the Clancy/James H. Cobb variety. Concept of the El Callado character was nicely chilling. Great storm-at-sea sequence.

Secret Keeping by John Howard Prin
Do you have a secret? Of course you do we all do.

Do you have something you do that is not producing the results in your life you want it to?
Do you have something in your life that is holding you back from accomplishing what you want?
Wasting time? Cleaning up messes? Dominating your waking hours with worry and concern? Waking you up in the middle of the night forcing you to pace?

Are you living with some one like this?

This is a great book for you.
Mr. Prin with his willingness to share his own personal journey has added much, to help those who struggle.
We all have secrets with many life issues that are difficult to face and even more difficult to share.

It is and excellent book with many clear helpful suggestions. Suggestions a secret keeper can use to, help you face your own secrets--you know the ones, the ones that drag you down and pull you back.
I read this book as a secret keeper and a counselor and it was valuable, I would not hesitate to use it as a reading for clients.

Bob Melson, Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor.

Secret Keeping is a fascinating book, not only for those who may be allowing secrets to govern their lives but for those of us whose lives have been impacted by secret keepers. Think you don't know anyone who fits the profile? I encourage you to read this book and you may find you have a new understanding of the behavior of a loved one. We would all like to believe this kind of thing only affects other people, but do yourself a favor and read this book, then decide.

I have wirked with people in recovery from chemical addictions for over 20 years. During treatment they get sober and usually start to deal with their demons that got them their in the first place. but most of the people have a very hard time comming clean, i.e. telling their secrets. John's book goes right to the heart of the matter. He tells us what secrets do to us, how to deal with them and heal them. FREE AT LAST! It's helped me be more open and honest and I will use it in my school. thanks alot John!!

Among many books dealing with addictions, "Secret Keeing" is a notch above. It provides concerte and practical advice in a very straight-forward manner. It is compassionate and yet not bashful all about confronting these all-too-common human prediciments. The messages are helpful and realistic. As a graduate school professor, I have read and written many self-help books. This one stands out in a field of its own.

I am not a secret keeper but I know people who are or have been. I found this to be such an informative book to learn where this behavior comes from and what it can lead to.

The stories of "real secret keepers" were fascinating and also sad and also encouraging!

What a great tool for someone who is a secret keeper. To read about others who have triumphed and to be given concrete instructions on what they can do to help themselves must be invaluable.

This would be a good book for a book club to discuss.

Everybody's got a million things to do and a big stack of books, but this one grabs you right away with a fantastic opening scene, and doesn't let down the rest of the ride. There are vivid portrayals of Latin America's best and worst, and the best and worst in the Americans who travel there. Great scenes in a quick read.

Ultimate Excursions is the ultimate Boomer adventure: a novel about an internal journey toward redemption, set against a gorgous but ravaged backdrop that the narrator's self-absorption doesn't allow him to see or truly be in.

Gottlieb knows the terrain, both interior and exterior. He apparently also knows hallucinogens, weed and scotch. The result is a tortured but still somehow fast-paced gallop toward a reckoning both dark and redemptive.

This book is not for the faint of heart. You can't really envision a womens' book group in Westchester County digging the cock-fighting scenes or the other violence that, while never gratuitous, also isn't delivered lightly.

Even though the narrator's haughty self-absorption wears on you after awhile, you can see that narrator is disgusted with it himself, and that it's the shell he's built over his life to protect himself from an awful truth. Gottlieb is very adept at both dwelling in and commenting upon the flawed and wounded character who narrates Ultimate Excursions.

The book has an unexpected but not implausible ending. It concludes a fine look at late-Boomer disillusion with selfless service, self-indulgence and selfish ambition.

And, yeah, the author is my brother. Believe me, I wanted to be spiteful and petty in this review, but damn it, the book wouldn't let me.

This is a hell of a story that I could not put down: gripping and appalling, cosmically funny and deeply painful. Gottlieb's sharp-edged observation and brilliant writing unleash a roller-coaster ride of the soul starting at the bottom in darkest night, rocketing through twists and turns, ups and downs, tropical sun, grimy alleys. It's disorienting, disturbing and spiked with unexpected laugh-aloud humor. Gottlieb is a an acute observer of human frailty and vanity. Protagonist Tim Lake, no hero, is initially a pathetic and shame-filled loser who claws his way back to survival, growth, and even nobility. A must-read!

Timothy Lake is talented and flawed, charming and self-destructive. One event in his life set the stage for his dramatic undoing, a years-long odyssey of loneliness and despair that takes him across two continents in search of reconciliation with his fears and his dark, haunting nightmares. Once you start this book, you can't put it down.

Alan Gottlieb's debut provocative and intense novel, Ultimate Excursions examines the anguish and guilt of Tim Lake, a Peace Corps volunteer following the [...].

After completing college, Tim joined the Peace Corps and he was assigned to the agricultural extension program in Ecuador, which was preceded by a three- month training period in Costa Rica. It was during these training sessions that Tim befriended Mark Miles and immediately became attracted to him. It was also during these sessions that Tim became part of a six- member group that formed a nucleus around which the rest of the volunteers bonded.

Tim describes Mark as a runaway train due to his frequent erratic behavior; nonetheless, it didn't take a great deal of convincing for Tim to follow Mark around no matter what would be the repercussions. During one of their jaunts the couple decided to take off to Machu Picchu, Peru for a few days where as Mark assures Tim, "it is going to be awesome and a month of wine, women, song and who knows what else." Little did Tim know that it certainly would be awesome but not in any way he could imagine.

One evening Mark and Tim are having a grand time boozing and inhaling cocaine when they heard a loud rap on the door of their "buck-a-night room." Knowing full well what the ramifications would be if they were found in possession of narcotics, Tim hurriedly throws some of the cocaine in the toilet. However, Mark decides to gulp down his portion along with some alcohol. The combination proves to be lethal and as he tries to vomit, he gags and nothing comes up. In his psychotic exploding and panic, Mark begs for Tim's assistance, however, Tim seems to be paralysed as he watches Mark's arms "flailing around, like they were spiking a series of volleyballs."

As Tim recounts: "finally I was moving. I flung myself on top of Mark, but it was like jumping on a bucking bronco...Mark had stopped moving. His face was purple and his tongue was hanging out. Only the white of his eyes showed, and there was foam all around his mouth."
Running out of the room and to a nearby restaurant, Tim seeks help shouting that his friend has killed himself and that they are Peace Corps volunteers.

After being questioned by the local law authorities, who believe that there may have been some foul play including trafficking in narcotics, Miguel Hernandez, director of the Peace Corps agricultural programs in Ecuador, comes to Tim's rescue. However, there is a price to be paid as Miguel orders Tim never to tell anyone the truth as to what exactly happened to Mark. If asked, Tim must state, as he initially informed Miguel, that Mark had been ill and this led to his death. Tim becomes quite upset as to what he has been ordered to do and his immediate response is: "Miguel, are you asking me to cover your ass with a lie?"

Nonetheless, Tim consents to go along with the lie and cover up not fully realizing that his cowardice, inaction and collusion will haunt him for the next ten years that will affect him with profound personality and psychological implications.

What makes this novel vital and alive is that Gottlieb is very passionately involved and engaged in human suffering as he depicts his protagonist working through his shocking anguish and pain. Moreover, he doesn't omit the circumstances of everyday life, vividly crafting them without concealing their reality. On another level, Gottlieb shows compassion, as readers are exposed to the just and unjust, reminding us that we should not to be too hasty in passing judgement for we never know how any of us would have reacted if placed in the same situation as Tim.

Gottlieb's haunting debut novel is an excellent beginning and inarguably thought-provoking and I do hope to read more from this very promising author.

Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures

The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingAs a positive psychologist I am always looking for ways and methods to help mothers and fathers understand their kids and vica versa.

Understanding is the first step toward better relationships and a greater capacity to accept differences among loved ones. From a parent's point of view it is hard to have this lovable child that is so precious suddenly become a monster. From the teen's perspective it is impossible to understand how someone who is trying to ruin my life can really love me or care. So what is to be done? Vanessa, actually still a teen herself when she wrote this book, seems to know much of what needs to happen.

For one thing, we need to understand each other's thinking and feeling capacities. Without that knowledge we expect the impossible. Parents need to know that kids think differently from us, and with less logical functioning. Kids need to know that they may not be interpreting accurately the facial expressions and remarks of their parents. And so Vanessa sets out to help both generations. She has provided great research on cognitive development. She also has provided tons of data on what kids really think. And she has given both generations ways of finding solutions around so many of the growing up issues that seem to send sparks flying in the household.

I think this is the best book I have seen for parents, teachers and teens. Everyone can read and benefit from the material and the suggestions. I can only imagine what Vanessa Van Petten will offer society over the next 50 years. People talk about concert virtuoso's who are 16, 18 or 24. Well, Vanessa is a social psychologist of the finest caliber whether she has the advanced degree yet or not. At 22 she is someone to admire, listen to and make sure to stay posted about. Can't wait for the next book.

At first, I was really skeptical about this. My mother made me read it and I felt for a bit that it was a punishment. After I got into it though I was very pleasantly surprised.

I thought it provided a lot of good insight, and I'm definitely glad my parents read it too, because now I think they understand where I'm coming from a lot better and we can work through our issues and get what we both want out of things.

Coming from a teenager that doesn't really like reading and was particularly reluctant about approaching this topic, I thought this book was a great, easy, entertaining, and yes, very helpful, read. I highly recommend it.

Jonathan

This book was a fantastic eye-opening experience into the lives of teenagers from the perspective of a teenager. Ms. Van Patten really is able to show us how the world has changed for our youth today and how we better can understand what they are facing. I enjoyed the book tremendously and have been able to employ some of the ideas to strenghten the mother/daughter relationship with my daughter. I have bought copies of the books for many of my mom friends as I know they too will get a lot out this book. Thank you!

Catherine Nofri, Los Angeles, CA

Family members are facing some distinct but not uncommon challenges with their teenage kids. I am gifting this book to them, in hopes that some resolution is on the horizon, due to Van Petten's practical approach and accessible "teen speak."

A Wiseman
Santa Fe NM

I bought this book for myself, but plan to give it to my daughter who is growing up too quickly. This book is great because it tells the story from both sides of the coin, in a way that can be easily understood by all parties involved.