California Books

This is an excellent book covering almost every aspect of not just chanting but understanding what all those lines, dots and wiggles surrounding the text in the chumash mean. There is a complete rundown of every te'am and how it fits into the context of the verses, and there is an example in a later section on how each te'am is chanted, basically in the Ashkenazi tradition. There is also a lot of interesting history of the development of the Torah scrolls and history on Torah and Tanakh traditions and also a section on pronunciation.

One word of warning. In order to understand the significance of the te'amim in the context of the verses, you need to have a fairly good knowledge of biblical Hebrew, both vocabulary and grammar. The context of the words in a verse determines which te'amim is assigned to their accents. This is, of course, separate from the te'amim that are assigned to indicate the vowels and pronunciation.

If you want to know absolutely everything about chanting Torah, Haftarah, or one of the Megillot, this book is for you. Every special circumstance is discussed, every rule of reading is discussed and the history and evolution of how and why we chant the way we do today is discussed. It is a wonderful resource for those who teach trope.

This book is a must for anyone seriously studying the nuances of cantillation. This large tome includes chapters on grammar, punctuation, and epistemology. I recently heard a lecture on the meaning of the trope (musical notation)in relation to the meaning of the Hebrew words; amazingly, they informed each other. Such information fills these pages. My son, who studies old manuscripts elaborating some of these topics, was thrilled to receive this book as a birthday gift. The author, Joshua Jacobson, is also the director of a chorale, specializing in Jewish music and his CDs are well worth the price. He's a master in many areas of music and I was fortunate to attend a conference recently where he was the keynote speaker. He's an outstanding scholar and a mensch.

I know of no book that can even compare to the scope and depth of this one, therefore I cannot give it anything but 5 stars. It is a thorough reference of the history and melodies of the cantillation, including a CD and musical notation of all cantillations used for public reading. It is appropriate for all levels of knowledge--from a beginner to an experienced reader.
The grammar he presents is not quite up-to-date and there are minor problems with the phonetic notation he gives certain letters and vowels. However, all in all it is quite excellent.

It is a great book that finally shows that the cantilation is not arbitrary, how it contributes to the sense of the text, how
it works with grammar. Instead of teaching the Taamim as
a dogma, it actually shows how one can understand a text and
put the Taamim himself. It also reveals the grammar of the texts.
I bought four more for my friends.

Kees is a brilliant modernist poet, who describes the world he sees in dark and apocalyptic tones, filled with biting satirical wit. He poems read like photographic images of the dark reality in which he lives. His style is inventive and original. The world around him is hollow and meaningless, as seen through the eyes of bathers, lovers, scholars, soldiers, politicians, businessmen, actors, and Robinson -- the caricature of the average man of the cold-war era. His vision is the opposite Whitman with a vision that's closer to Kafka and Samuel Beckett, expressing the pointlessness of war and mechanistic civilization. As he writes: "If this room is our world, then let / This world be damned. Open this roof / For one last monstrous flood / To sweep away this floor, these chairs, / This bed that takes me to no sleep. / Under the black sky of our circumstance, / Mumbling of wet barometers, I stare / At citied dust that soils the glass / While thunder perishes. The heroes perish / Miles from here. Their blood runs heavy in the grass, / Sweet, restless, clotted, sickening, / Runs to the rivers and the seas, the seas / That are the source of that devouring flood / That I await, that I must perish by." Kees is one of the best American poets and deserves a wider audience.

--Alexander Shaumyan, poet, author of "Spirit of Rebellion"

If the passive despair of Prufrock (or should we say Eliot in a Prufrock mood) could be entwined with the searing wit and rage of S. Plath, the result might resemble Weldon Kees' unforgettable best poems -- twenty of them perhaps, all included in this book. And the comparison with Plath is fair I think, not because both lives ended in suicide but because both were spectacularly inventive imagists and masters of the craft whose poems peer into the abyss. Although this collection contains some of the most harrowing English language poems of our times -- the final poem in the "Robinson" series, certainly -- flashes of black comedy ensure that this book is as pleasing as it is troubling. I for one, find the following lines from "The Crime Club" devilishly pleasing: "Consider the clues: the potato masher in a vase,/The torn photograph of a Wesleyan basketball team,/...The unsent fan letter to Shirley Temple,/The Hoover button on the lapel of the deceased,/The note, 'To be killed this way is quite all right with me.'"

Kees is a master of image, and has a profound sense of time and place--his language has the direct and unselfconscious quality of a newspaper headline, and his meters are natural and terse. There is a lumious, jarring quality to his work that makes you feel like you'd found something important that's been lost for a long time. You have. This is the first collection of his work that has ever been generally available.

It would have been sad indeed if the work of Weldon Kees had disappeared into obscurity, as it was dangerously close to doing. Nothing escapes this poets' dark, razor edge sensibility;
the whole thing reads as a kind of pessimistic culture shock. Taking his cues from Joyce and Eliot's "Waste Land", he is pitiless in his assessment of the human condition and civilization.

He is not, however, tiringly depressing like Philip Larkin. He has a voice all his own and it is compelling and vivid. It is pretty obvious that his "Robinson" poems are autobiographical, at least in terms of Robinson's perceptions of the world around him. "For My Daughter" is a poem you will not soon forget.

For my part, I do not believe Weldon Kees is still alive. After reading and re-reading this collection I can't help but see that as wishful thinking. You can't fake this kind of sincerity. I would liken him to Leopardi, Beckett, and other masters of poetic darkness, but he has a voice so individual that he needs no predecessors. An absolute must read.

Weldon Kees has been recommended to me by more than one person. And the reason is that he is a very dark poet, and a very interesting one at that. Kees is slightly outside of academia, though his reputation is getting bigger. I found his earlier work to be better than his later work, that's not to say that there isn't good stuff in his later work, just that I preferred his early work. I'd also recommend you did up a good biography of Kees, since he also has an interesting life.

I am starting my second year of formal Latin study this fall, and with the Latin textbooks I use, the vocabulary words basically make up the dictionary section in the back of the books. I came across this "dictionary" in a Barnes and Noble, a knew from skimming through this among many others that this is the ONE! As I review my notes from my first year's study over the summer, this book also has grammar references, such as verb tenses and moods, dipthongs and pronuncition of vowels and consonants, popular and lesser known Latin sayings. The book also covers woer order, adjectives, and adverbs. Oh my, the dictionary even has a Roman history timeline, a perfect refernce as a Latin major to reference and review what I learned in Roman Civilization last spring. It has a great, broad selection of words from Latin to English and then a section translating from English to Latin. This book is livin' proof that Latin is not a dead language; to me it is alive and one hella beautiful language and helps me understand my native English, and helps me with Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, languages I have some knowledge in. This dictionary also has Latin names for places formerly part of the Roman Empire, a reference for Latin Writers, and a family tree covering from trivatus, trivatia (great great great great grandfather and mother respectively); all the way to pronepos, preoneptis (great grandson, great granddaughter). Not only can you look up words you don't know, you can review grammar, history and much, much more!!! This one is a certified keeper. Librem carpe statim antequam deficiat! Get this book immediately before it runs out! Gosh, I love this language, and this reference guide.

I found the Collins Latin Dictionary in my local bookstore featuring both Latin to English and English to Latin. The dictionary is a medium sized book that is easy to handle--which is to say, for a dictionary, it is relatively small. The dictionary is a good value for the price. Given its scope and relatively small size, the only caveat is that it lacks references to some specialized theological terms. Overall I'd buy this dictionary again.

Great book if you want to impress people with one liners that can be thrown in here and there.
Great for notice board grafitti on an intellectual level .
They say "chicks dig the car" well they also dig the langauage.

The book is well set out and examples and explanations clear and plentiful. A useful reference for any library.

This is a very good product for Latin Class at school. It helps to translate words. It is very useful when having to write a story totally in Latin for the words not used very often. Very worthwhile purchase.

is in the eating; that of a dictionary in its use. Since my copy of this one arrived only about a week ago, I haven't yet had time to put it fully to the test, but so far...very good. The full declension and conjugation tables and explanations at the end (not to mention the "Quick Reference Grammar" at the beginning) are precisely why I chose this dictionary over the alternatives.

My only complaints, and minor ones at that, are the cover color (what were they thinking?) and the print direction of the grammar section at the end (across the page lengthwise, making it a little difficult to use).


January 20, 2008 addendum:

Nearly a month of usage has only confirmed the rightness of my choice. If you're looking for a good, compact Latin-English/English-Latin dictionary with full grammar tables and other supplementary sections, LOOK NO FURTHER!

Based on official guidelines from the Surgeon General and CDC, Combat Fat! by fitness, diet, and exercise authority Andrew Flach is a solidly written, "user friendly" guide to healthy eating, proper exercise, and a medically sound weight loss plan to improve personal overall fitness and health. Body-mindful recipes, stretches, workouts, and more fill the pages of this handy and very highly recommended informational resource.

This is an awesome program. I have been confused by the complexity of other programs. I read the entire book in one day and found the advice straightforward and easy to implement in my everyday life. I am losing weight and getting fitter than I have been in years.

For the most part, I am enjoying this book. The diet is based on the food pyramid, and the exercise program has do-able daily choices. My only complaints are the following: First, the page quality is very poor. I felt like I had to be really careful turning the pages or they would tear. Second, some of the exercise photos show very poor form, like knees extending past ankles is lunges. All in all, it's a good book.

If you want a no nonsense fitness plan to follow then this book is for you! This book contains a large menu section that covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. I really liked the fact that it listed the recipes for many of the meals. There are three levels of exercise plans including stretches. Absolutely everything is spelled out for you, there is no guesswork. You can say goodbye to calorie counting, pre-packaged meals and supplements. The bottom line is: This book works.

An excellent book! I found this to be the most comprehensive, informative and easy to understand health-related book I've ever read. It refocuses the long-time emphasis away from weight control and calorie counting to the real health problem facing millions of Americans: Fat. It clearly defines the problem and the best way to tackle it. Not only does it include lots of exercises designed to fight fat, it also devotes many pages to nutrition, diet, menus and the psychology of improving over-all health by reducing the percentage of fat in ones body. It's the kind of book you can continually refer to. It's already helped me look and feel better. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to avoid fad diets and deceptive weight-loss schemes.

I work in the media and one of my associates delivered this title on my desk. I ended up reading the entire book when I took lunch. The grammatical errors blend well with the overall emotions within. It brought many great memories of days gone by for me. For anyone who is a fan of the National Lampoon movies or the tv show Jackass will find the pranks done on the teachers and general public to be in line with major shows. Even the turmoils of growing up is very well written from a different approach mind you however that is what makes this author new and fresh.

The Grammatical Errors intentionally left in place to contradict the basis of the book is amazing and fits quite well! All of us at one point or another have garnered support from friends for various reasons. Another great factor is that it is all South Florida locations! Through the harshly honest Aradox, we as a reader are given the choice to continue judging things from only a single perspective. The pranks and stories of brotherhood featured are enough to make someone laugh till the tears shed and then grab your phone and call all of your old friends. I suggest ANYONE in the Education Profession to buy this and read it through, you're never too old to learn new things!

A charming collection of jokes, gags, and personal reflection, P. Aradox's story strikes a place in everyone's heart. We all know that growing up can be tough, but the young group of friends in this book show us that we can find humor in almost any situation. The adventures of the Crazy Clan members keeps the laughs coming, but is well balanced by the trials of growing up.
Pick up the book and spend some time with some exciting and interesting firends.

The story of young friends that grow up and face the fact of adulthood is great. Action packed with satire and wit, this tale will leave you laughing in your seat. It's about time that a sincere voice has come to address the trials of teen angst.

The image on the cover sums the attitude of the book in whole. Perhaps the one thing I found interesting was that all of the material was left unedited! I notifed the publisher simply due to the roughness of the grammar and typographical errors. They explained that the author requested the book to remain as is. It wasn't until I read the last page and realized what the intent was and by gosh Aradox is a genius! The subtle contradiction he displayed with the writing says it all! The pranks and stories of friendship can be reviewed upon various levels and if you enjoy comedy, this has an ample amount of laughs. As a whole this book is bound be a sleeper hit of this year.

I was privileged to serve with Bill Meara in Special Forces in Central America. His book is dead on it's mark. Bill's frustrations with the military are shared by many. It seems that our government doesn't learn from history. Conventional commanders continue to lead unconventional wars with no comprehension of the difference between the two. Language capability continues to be a key factor in the success. The book is short and well written. A book for all to enjoy and learn.

"In 1949, Alexander Foote wrote a small book, "A Handbook for Spies" which contains all one needs to know to conduct espionage. Now comes another small volume, "Contra Cross", by William Meara which contains much of what one needs to understand to counter or for that matter support an insurgency. Based on his experience in El Salvador and with the Contras in Honduras/Nicaragua during the 1980's, Meara provides a crisp, thoughtful exposition of the problems and requirements for the winning of such conflicts. Meara's thoughts and experiences are well worth pondering as our nation takes on its current adversaries."

Duane Clarridge - Thirty-three year veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, Chief of CIA Latin American Division 1981-84, conceiver and chief of CIA Counterterrorism Center 1986-88, author of " The Spy for All Seasons."

The ongoing Coalition conflicts against insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated just how difficult a challenge conventional expeditionary forces face in adapting to asymmetric threats. Nowhere is this difficulty of adaptation greater than within the US Armed Forces, currently the most powerful and technologically-advanced military in the world.

What is significant is that failure to adapt at a theater, or even tactical, level engenders dysfunction at a strategic level, and creates deeply-paralyzing or divisive morale problems which eventually pervade the political structures of democratic societies. Indeed, the damage to (or impact on) the society is often evident even before the damage caused by the failure to adapt to asymmetric warfare shows up in the overall capabilities of the military forces itself. The result can often be a "hollow force": a monolithic defense structure, incapable of acting against the adversaries who besiege it daily, and yet waiting, becoming more bureaucratic by the day, for a "worthy [symmetric] adversary" who may come but once in a lifetime, if at all.

It is the persistent failure of much of the US conventional military leadership as well as the US political leadership to understand how to successfully prosecute warfare against a fluid, informal adversarial structure, operating within a broader psychopolitical environment, in Iraq (and Afghanistan) which is the Achilles Heel of the US as a strategic power into the 21st Century.

These are lessons which should have been learned after the Vietnam War ended in the 1970s. After all, the Vietnamese, the Soviets, and the leadership of the People's Republic of China (PRC) all emphasized that they had defeated the US in the media, and by sowing disenchantment (and narcotics) within US and Western society; in other words, by irregular, contextual, and psychopolitical stratagems. But peace after the Vietnam War -- as with the peace which followed World War I and World War II -- merely allowed the rump of the conventional US forces to re-assert the formal, highly-bureaucratized doctrine and methodologies which suit a rigidly hierarchical command and control system. Today's "Net-Centric Warfare", for example, is designed to use modern technologies, such as computerization and communications, imagery, and the like, to give true battlefield advantage to the field commanders, down to platoon level. Instead, it has been used repeatedly to afford centralized, remote micro-management of conflict, denying fluidity and cultural insinuation in the conflict zone by the forces there, where field officers should be able to exercise the command mandates of their commissions.

Significantly, many of the failures attributed to outgoing US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were caused by his determination to bring change and greater flexibility to the US defense structures. He may have had other failings, but his attempt to force change on the services is what created many of his enemies within the uniformed leadership, those who are reluctant to change, and to learn the lessons of history.

What better time, then, for a book about an aspect of the "lost history" of the Cold War to emerge, giving profound lessons from the battle front on the business of asymmetric warfare.

William R. Meara's new book, Contra Cross: Insurgency and Tyranny in Central America, 1979-1989, is a profound contribution to thinking about strategic doctrine, as the US -- and all major industrial powers -- face a watershed of introspection following the US electorate's decision to essentially retire from the global battlefield. Meara's great contribution is the fact that his book recounts the impact of doctrine and the strategic environment on the battlefield of that "small" war against the Nicaraguan Sandinista leadership which projected one of the last aspects of the Soviet grand strategy against the West before the end of the Cold War.

The book is also timely in that it reminds a new generation of strategic thinkers of the real origins of the Sandinista Government which has now returned to Nicaragua, following the re- election of former Sandinista Pres. Daniel Ortega -- now 60 years old -- with the November 5, 2006, Nicaraguan Presidential election. But more than that, Meara's book, told from the perspective of a "boots on the ground" true Cold Warrior, has the true grit of realism. It is not a book of theory, but a book which shows how theory translates on the ground in an asymmetric conflict.

William Meara was a US Army Special Forces officer who trained as a Foreign Area Officer (FAO), and then specialized in, and relished, psychological operations. His field of expertise was Central America. His book cover, and the name of his book, reflect the "Contra Cross", the Contra crucifix memento made from a neutralized M-16 5.56mm ammunition by wounded Contra veterans in the hospitals which housed them after their personal war was over. Meara carried with him the memento, and the draft of his book, for a couple of decades before deciding to finally publish his writings.

The US Armed Forces and Government -- operating mostly from Honduras, supporting the Nicaraguan Contras against the Sandinistas -- were at this time still nursing their wounds after Vietnam. Many of the US military policies being pursued in Central America were based on either lessons learned from Vietnam and other Cold War theaters, or on a stubborn persistence in the view that a monolithic military machine -- the Green Machine of the Army, as Meara reminds us -- could roll over any adversary with "superior firepower" and technology. Clearly, the mainstream US Army had little time for psychological warriors or for grubby little wars. But there were those who understood this kind of warfare, such as the "crusty old SF (Special Forces) team sergeant" who embraced what he called "Low Intensity, High Per Diem War".

Meara, who left the US Army for the US Foreign Service (he remains a US diplomat) where he essentially continued his liaison and support work with the Contras of the ERN (Army of the Nicaraguan Resistance) until the end, highlights the profound importance of understanding the language and culture of the environment in which any war is being conducted. He knew that he had made the breakthrough when, as he put it, he was able to "swear like a Contra", and be able to converse at a truly meaningful level with the forces and cultures in which he had to operate. His time in Nicaragua, before he became part of the US-supported war supporting the Contras, gave him a good understanding of the Sandinistas, who took their name from the 1920s nationalist Nicaraguan fighter, Augusto César Sandino.

But before he was engaged in supporting the Contras, Meara was also engaged in US Army support operations in El Salvador where he also learned not only how Latin American armed forces shaped their priorities and doctrine, but also how guerilla forces, such as the Faribundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), functioned. He also faced the more enduring adversary: US Army "milicrats".

Apart from the profound timeliness of the book, as Sandinista Daniel Ortega returns to power in Nicaragua -- this time ostensibly within the framework of an ongoing process of democratic elections (we have yet to see whether he abides by the process, or whether he continues to think of "one-man, one-vote, once" as the process of re-entrenching pseudo-marxist-leninist governance) -- Contra Cross has real lessons for war- fighters and planners considering Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, or Sudan.

William Meara also highlights the distinctions which often exist between the actual combatants in the guerilla wars and their political leaders, citing the case of the Contras, whose political leadership was based in Miami, Florida, where sophistry and political expediency prevailed to the detriment of the forces in the field. Meara highlights the disservice done to the Nicaraguan rebellion by the Contra political leadership in Miami, which was the principal interface with the US political system.

Meara's final chapter, Contrarian Conclusions, outlines some of his maxims for conducting irregular or asymmetric warfare, and particularly the aspect of this which is conducted by great powers at arm's length: surrogate warfare. But before that, Meara had to defend, even resurrect, the image of the Contras, noting: "My positive sentiments about the Nicaraguan resistance put me clearly in contrarian territory. It would be hard to exaggerate the extent to which the contras were vilified in the United States."

He added: "But I think the world should be proud of the contras. The young peasants of Nicaragua refused to be enslaved by communism. They waged a courageous struggle against great odds. They persevered when the situation looked very bleak. They sacrificed for the good of their people and the future of their country. They were noble and honorable freedom fighters. The mucos refused to be like Longfellow's `dumb, driven cattle'. They were heroes in the strife. ... I give the contras most of the credit for the elections held in Nicaragua in February 1990."

Equally, in saying that he felt that "Americans should be proud of what the Reagan Administration did and tried to do in Central America", he added: "But I don't think that everyone has the right to feel good about their actions during the Central American conflict. I think those Americans who gave aid and comfort to the Sandinistas and the Salvadoran communists should feel guilty. They were on the wrong side in the Cold War." These were, he said, what Lenin called "useful idiots".

In his "lessons learned" in that concluding chapter, Meara notes: "Cultural factors really are the equivalent of a terrain feature that cannot be ignored [in surrogate wars]."

And: "Fluency in foreign languages is the indispensable key to understanding." "Regional expertise and experience are crucial. People working on insurgencies shouldn't be doing so on their first trip to the region."

He went on: "Americans need to be aware of the institutional biases and shortcomings which make it difficult for us to deal with foreign insurgencies. We need to realize that our big, high-tech military machine -- our big catapult -- might not be much use against an insurgency built around people like Miguel Castellanos [real name Napoleón Romero García, an El Salvadoran FMLN guerilla who later defected to the Government]. I saw many signs of our weakness in this area: the tank traps we were building in the `Choluteca gap' [in Honduras, to face literally a non-existent cross-border threat from Sandinista tanks]; our big bucks, high-tech approach to support for the Salvadoran armed forces; our army's conviction that `any good officer' can work on insurgency. I came to the conclusion that our powerful military is a blunt instrument. It is very capable of performing its primary mission (destroying enemy military forces), but is poorly-suited for cross-cultural battles for foreign hearts and minds."

"Finally, when we get involved in foreign insurgencies," Meara says, "we should always strive to conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with our national values ... we should remember our history. We should remember that we were helped by foreigners when we were fighting for our independence. We should remember that we too were once embattled farmers. ... we should not think of these people [the surrogate fighters] as dis- posable pawns."

Contra Cross is full of personal insights and anecdotes "from the field", and is an inspiring and timely read. It is, in fact, essential reading, not just for those psyops and special forces practitioners who already embrace asymmetric warfare, but for the policymakers and those who have found their careers in the bureaucracy of military leadership. That is where the lessons need to be learned.

We all should thank William Meara for carrying this document with him over the decades, and giving it to us at this particular time.

[Reviewed by Gregory R. Copley, Editor, Defense & Foreign Affairs Publications, at the International Strategic Studies Association, Washington, DC area.]

Contra Cross is unique among personal memoirs of former soldiers, government officials, diplomats, and intelligence officers. The author is humble. He had a front row seat at the numerous Central American proxy wars the United States engaged in during the 1980s. Despite this experience, the author never believed he was as important as the events around him, a trait that so many memoirs lack. He was a Cold War grunt and he knew it.

The numerous insurgencies and counter-insurgencies fought in Central America are slowly being forgotten. Located between the large and divisive Vietnam War and the even larger Global War on Terror, the proxy wars in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador are now seen as the last gaps of the Cold War. Despite this hindsight, during the 1980s it was where the action was.

Since the author was involved at the ground level, he is able to give the people of the area a real human feel, which is lost in the Cold War rhetoric of policy makers from Washington.

The author makes several outstanding points about the need for cultural and language skills when dealing with local conflicts. While our current conflict is called the Global War on Terror it is the really combination of thousands of local conflicts tied together. Having the deep local cultural knowledge is the real key to winning our current war. While the book is far from being the seminal book on U.S. involvement in Central America, it never tries or claims to be. Its true strength is how it depicts dedicated Americans, whether military or Department of State, attempt to implement strategic policy made thousands of miles away in Washington into actual action on the ground amongst real people.

It is often quipped that the mark of a brilliant man is that he agrees with what you believe; I read Bill Meara's book Contra Cross yesterday and I would use the words brilliant and brilliantly delivered to describe it.

Let me back up in time a bit. In 1988 just back from UN duty in Lebanon and Egypt I sat down in my 15-man section at CGSC and we did the "where I have been and what I have been doing" confessional. My section leader looked at me and quipped, "you have not been in the Army." I simply asked him and the larger group, "Have any of you been shot at lately?" No one answered. Later the same guy in discussing low intensity conflict remarked, "I cannot see anyway the US Army will ever get involved in a counter-insurgency again after what happend in Vietnam." I asked him what exactly he thought was going on in Central America at the very moment. He suggested that what was happening was not really the US Army. Six years later I greeted that same individual as he arrived in Goma with a water truck task force. He had a stunned look on his face. I said, "Welcome to my world."

Contra Cross is about Bill Meara's world, one like and at once unlike my own. The book is from the foot soldier's perspective and it offers unique insights on the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Bill was a Special Forces officer trained in psychological operations and as a regional specialist. He served in uniform with the Military Advisory Group in El Salvador and later as a Foreign Service Officer as liaison to the Contras from Honduras. Like any good read, Bill's book offers key themes and messages, weaving them through the pages, repeatedly exposing the reader to them in the hopes they will imprint. I will list some here:

Culture and Cultural Understanding is Critical

Language is Fundamental

COIN and Guerrilla Warfare Target the Minds of the Population, Not the Enemy

The Greatest Cultural Gap is Between DC and the Field

The Unconventional Warrior is Indeed From Venus and the Conventional Warrior Refuses to Visit From Mars


I tell every Soldier that I coach, teach, and mentor that I have two fundamental rules for cross cultural understanding:

They do not think like you do

They have an agenda in every interaction with you

Bill's narrative hammers home the first point and his story reinforces the second. His self-reflection on his role as an US government representative while serving as liaison to the Contras is one of the book's greatest strengths.

I would recommend this book to all from Strategic Corporal to the White House. I only wish that it had come out earlier.

Great job, Bill!

Sincerely,

Tom Odom
Author Journey Into Darkeness: Genocide in Rwanda

Any book on any subject is necessarily a finite work; you can only cover so much in a given volume, and you've got typically between 150 and 300 pages to make your point and to cover the material you promised in your outline (whether that outline appears in the book as the foreword, introduction, entire first chapter or merely the table of contents). That said, when a book actually DOES this...adequately covers its stated objective without wandering off topic too much...it is a great book, and probably more rare than it should be. This is one such great rare book.

Barry Cleveland gives us an overview that is as comprehensive as possible of exactly what the subtitle of the book states: Joe Meek's Bold Techniques. As a recording engineer, I'm primarily interested in knowing how he ran a session in the studio, how he handled (mishandled, in some cases?) equipment for a desired result, what equipment he chose, how he might have achieved a certain sound, and such related questions. It is widely written that Joe Meek was eccentric, opinionated and stubborn, parts of his personality that probably would have been present even had he not been mentally ill. He was homosexual in London in an era where this could get you not only persecuted, but prosecuted in the legal sense, and this gave him another strata of anxiety on top of his depression and schizophrenic paranoia. Some of these problems led to financial difficulties, which in turn brought yet another layer of stress. All these things are known and well documented in other places, and Cleveland mercifully spares us most of those details in his book, leaving the bulk of his space for actual recording tools and procedures, just as he promises.

Obviously, who Meek was in toto as a person did have an effect on how he approached his work (this is true of all of us), but the temptation could have been to bog down in those aspects because of their tabloid nature...Joe Meek didn't live a quiet, boring, peaceable life like some of us. But this is a biography of Joe Meek's work, and Cleveland strikes the right balance, talking about Meek's more outrageous personal nuances enough that we get a sense of the man so we can understand where he was coming from as he did his work, then talking about the work itself, which is why we chose this volume and not a biography on Joe Meek's life.

Were Meek's production techniques bold? For their time, certainly. I believe that some ideas are just a product of their time--for example, others were working on the telephone at the same time as Bell; on the phonograph at the same time as Edison. Those men got the credit because they got to the patent office first, perhaps, but it was just the right time in history for those inventions to be realized. Joe Meek's techniques are not unheard of today, but they were bold for their time because he came upon the ideas early...in the decade before the rest of the recording community caught up. In my early career (mid-1980's) I used some of the exact same equipment Meek did, according to the descriptions in this book, and I have to say it is somewhat astonishing he got the results he did with the technology of 50 years ago--so primitive by today's standards. It makes me wonder what he'd be doing now with our computer-based digital editing tools had he lived to see them.

I knew very little about Joe Meek in any sense before picking up this book; mainly I wanted to know who was behind his namesake line of Joemeek processing equipment that is so widely available today. This was exactly the book I needed, it told me exactly what I wanted to know, and was a very satisfying read. I finished it with all my questions answered (all my reasonable questions; there were some things no author could answer, there isn't the raw data, but I didn't leave the book frustrated, wondering "why didn't the author discuss this?"). If you want to know about Joe Meek the man, this may not be enough for you. If you want to know about Joe Meek the record producer, this is definitely your book too. (By the way, the included discography is quite comprehensive as well.)

This book shares some of the tricks and techniques of this legendary producer and shows how all pop recording and record production since has been influenced by them. The included recording and notes are especially helpful.

To anyone who is old enough to remember hearing the original 'Telstar' on the radio, this is a wonderfully researched bio on the life and work of a vastly underappreciated godfather of audio engineering. Also being a huge Deep Purple fan, I was surprised to learn that the great Ritchie Blackmore, was a first call session player for Joe (as a member of the Outlaws) and that there are some enticing recordings he made that I now have to spend the rest of my life searching for!

Great stuff. The equipment & discography are very well researched, in addition to the personal stuff. And you just can't beat the included disc of studio experiments, on the bizarre factor.

Extremely interesting book about Joe Meek, the innovative English recording engineer and producer who made hit records in his flat. Has lots of detail and pictures of Joe's recording gear and recording techniques. Discusses how Joe Meek pushed the recording gear to it's limits while creating new sounds. Highly recommended.

I am very impressed by Barry Cleveland's book. He provides a great deal of specific information about Joe Meek's recording techniques and equipment. However, be not afraid, this is not done in a pedantic technical manner; it's very readable for the non-technical.

Being well familiar with most of Meek's recorded output, I especially enjoyed Cleveland's detailed commentaries on certain of Meek's recordings. For my taste, Cleveland could have gone on for many more pages on the same subject with different tracks.

I perceive Cleveland to be outside of the intense (mostly English) Meek cult which brings some fresh perspective on his work.

What more can I say? This was a good read that I raced through and will no doubt revisit frequently. The CD of "I Hear a New World" is a great bonus. It's surprisingly different from the RPM release. It makes me appreciate the work Roger Dopson and his associates did to bring out the RPM version.

Wow - I had to have this book. They are right, he explains everything wrong with Oracle and all about vulnerabilities and exploits.

So, there I was. I was about to buy a new book and I really had to think hard about what to buy - after reading The Shellcoders Handbook, I was really interested in grabbing a copy of this book, in the end, that's exactly what I did.

I am happy with my decision to the fullest extent. Not only was it a great brother to The Shellcoders Handbook, but it was also just good reading in general. It covers seven of the most popular databases around, and each section of the book goes over it's history, it's flaws, how to propogate after a successful exploit, and finally how to lock down your database. You'd be suprised at how easily and how asinine some of the flaws found in database servers are - it's almost laughable, some of the flaws that many servers have been prone to are ridiculous.

The book, like it's brother, covers information that is somewhat dependent on context, but the general concepts you will see and learn are going to remain relevent to all types of research related to the topic at hand for a long time to come.

If you own the Shellcoders Handbook -- or even if you don't --, you should not at all miss on this, The Database Hacker's Handbook: Defending Database Servers is something security enthusiasts everywhere should have on their shelfs.

My review relates only to the Oracle chapters.

This is the first book to actually expose real Oracle hacks. Most security books are just glorified papers on Oracle security, written by people in grey suits with image consultants.

The real fun of this book is in the "Attacking Oracle" chapter. These guys gave the phrase "thinking outside of the box" real meaning. They look for a feature or bug open to the security attack, then they shake it until it breaks. You will see exploits of AUTHID, PL/SQL injections, app. server, dbms_sql.parse bug,... most of them relevant to 9i and 10g versions.

The hacks are mainly in the sections called "Real-World Examples". Most of the exploits are already patched by Oracle and they are also available on hacking forums, but there were some new ones that were quite a revelation.

The security recommendations in the "Securing Oracle" chapter were too general, you can probably find Internet white papers on hardening Oracle that give more details. But, this book is not really about hardening Oracle, even if it says "Defending Database Servers" with small, blue letters on the front cover. This book is about attacking database servers.

I have seen David Litchfield's previous work and I am sure he knows (and has tried) more than what is written here. Can we expect to see that in "The Hacker's Handbook" part II?

The Database Hacker's Handbook (TDHH) is unique for two reasons. First, it is written by experts who spend their lives breaking database systems. Their depth of knowledge is unparalleled. Second, TDHH addresses security for Oracle, IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Sybase ASE, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. No other database security book discusses as many products. For this reason, TDHH merits four stars. If a second edition of the book addresses some of my later suggestions, five stars should be easy to achieve.

The first issue I would like to see addressed in a second edition of TDHH is the removal of the 60 pages of C code scattered throughout the book. The code is already provided on the publisher's Web site, and its appearance in a 500 page book adds little. The three pages of characters (that's the best way to describe it) on pages 313-315 in Ch 19 are really beyond what any person should be expected to type.

The second issue involves general presentation. Many chapters end abruptly with no conclusion or summary. Several times I thought "Is that it?" Chapters 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18, 21 and 22 all end suddenly. The editor should have told the authors to end those chapters with summaries, as appear in other chapters. On a related note, some of the "chapters" are exceptionally short; Ch 9 and 12 are each 3 pages, for example. Chapters that short are an indication the book is not organized well.

The final issue involves discussion of various databases. I preferred the "Hacking Exposed" style of the 2003 book SQL Server Security, which included Dave Litchfield and Bill Grindlay as co-authors. That book spent more time introducing the fundamentals of database functions before explaining how to break them. For example, more background on PL/SQL would be helpful. With 60 pages of code removed, that leaves plenty of room for such discussion in the second edition.

On the positive side, I thought TDHH started strong with Ch 1. The Oracle security advice was very strong. I thought the time delay tactic for extracting bit-by-bit information from the database was also exceptionally clever.

Although I have not read it, I believe Implementing Database Security and Auditing by Ron Ben Natan might be a good complement to TDHH. Natan's book appears to take a functional approach, whereas TDHH takes a product-specific approach. The drawback of the product-centric approach is repetition of general security advice, such as enabling encryption, disabling default accounts, etc.

At the end of the day TDHH is still a revealing and powerful book. Anyone responsible for database security should refer to the sections of the book covering their database. I also recommend keeping an eye on the Next Generation Security Software Web site for the latest on database security issues. You should also see the authors speak at security conferences whenever possible.

David Litchfield is arguably the foremost expert and evangelist when it comes to database security. He, and his team of compatriots from Next Generation Security Software, have written a book that any database or security administrator should be familiar with.

Even if some of the attacks or exploits described in the book were previously obscure or unknown, the fact that they have been outlined in this book means that administrators need to know about them and defend against them before the "bad guys" read this book and take advantage of them.

One of the best aspects of this book is the way it is organized. Splitting the book into sections devoted to specific database systems makes it exceptionally simple and convenient to use. If you only use MySQL, you can skip all of the information regarding Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server, and just focus on the section of the book that applies to you.

Within each section, the authors provide a tremendous wealth of knowledge. Aside from describing weaknesses, potential exploits and protective measures to defend against them, they also look at the general architecture and the methods of authentication used by the database.

Any database admin should have a copy of this on their desk.

T. F. Sisters has turned out a top-notch first effort of mystery and betrayal. The story's plot twists were unexpected, and kept me on the edge of my seat.

It is just mindblowing that four real-life sisters worked together to create such a seamless work of wonder. You gotta read this book!!!

I just reviewed this book for one of my publishers and have nominated it for the Marley Award. What a read! Order a copy right now. You will not be disappointed. Even if you know how it ends, you will still be riveted in place until you have completed reading it. It is an OUTSTANDING book! (Yes. I did yell for emphasis.)

Just when I thought I knew how it would end, the author threw me a curve ball. Even after the second read, I saw no warning signs pointing to the ending. This is a delightful read, quick and easy, yet it demands your complete attention. I can't wait for the next book.

I couldn't read this book fast enough! It kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. Great read!!!

This book was great. I've been dying to get it and I finally did, read it in a day. If you are looking for a page turner this would be the book to buy! I hope they make a movie!! The amount of suspense leads you down the beaten path while the book turns the other way. This book was exactly what I was looking to read.
A must have for any reader!

Ms. Jackson has provided an informative resource for women and their families who need to learn more about breast cancer, detection, treatment and psyche. But more importantly, this book provides an accurate depiction, although little understood truth, that our health care system has been taken over by lawyers and their political allies, who threaten to eliminate the technological tools and the health care professionals and facilities we take for granted, with their win at all cost assault on the medical profession. Read this book, and then send a copy to your U.S. Senator.

Upon completion of this book, I immediately ordered a copy to send to my daughter. The book is so well written and organized that I found whenever I had a question, all I had to do was read further into the chapter and it would be answered. I found the explanations completely accessible yet not condescending. The prose is understated and so compelling. It is significant that the authors combined trying personal experience with important clinical information and turned it into something that can benefit so many people. After reading this book, I am convinced that we are in danger of destroying the best option we have for early detection of breast cancer. If we are not all aware of the problem and working actively for a solution, then we are doomed to passively stand by and watch the death of this important diagnostic tool.

Co-authored by Rene Jackson (Special Procedures Nurse in Medical Imaging at Charlotte Regional Medical Center, Punta Gorda, Florida) and Alberto Righi (Medical Director of a radiology group in Florida), The Death Of Mammography: How Our Best Defence Against Breast Cancer Is Being Driven To Extinction is an in-depth and thought-provoking study of the beneficial diagnostic tool of mammography and the legal and economic challenges this procedure is encountering. Comprehensively analyzing the positive use of the use of the mammogram, The Death Of Mammography provides readers with a clear description of breast cancer and treatment options, explains mammography technology, reveals how legislative and legal issues are restricting breast-cancer screening, and realistic solutions and reforms. The Death Of Mammography is very strongly recommended for non-specialist general readers and health activists involved with the issue of breast cancer and mammography.

The Death of Mammography is a book that every health care professional needs to read. The authors introduce each chapter with a case study that continues throughout the entire book. The information in each chapter is priceless and includes information on the history of breast cancer and mammography; the progression of the disease; diagnostic procedures; prevention and treatment; education of radiologists and technologists; litigation and tort reforms; and a few additional topics. The book is an eye-opener into both the medical and legal sides of breast cancer, and serves as a first-rate reference manual.

Jackson and Righi have struck a fine balance between social history, clinical information, and legal issues. There's a minimal amount of legalese and doctor-speak (and whatever techinical terms are used are clearly explained). A particular favorite of mine was the chapter on the history of breast cancer -- I had no idea about St. Agatha! All in all, a good read on a confusing (and potentially frightening) topic.