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This book kept me up for several nights straight. It is not a long book by any means and the average reader can go cover-to-cover in a few hours. However, one WILL find one or two things they missed upon every subsequent reading of the book.

This book is not written by a "Hard-Core" fisherman. Rather, it is the story of a "Hard-Core" fisherman. Mr. Cinquemani, a former NYC English teacher employs his grasp of the English language and writes in a way that is not only understandable, but entertaining to his readers. While the book is about fishing, it is not a "How-to" book and Mr. Cinquemani's choice to not focus on the technical aspect of fishing (i.e. equipment, knots, strategy), combined with his writing skills, does not leave one feeling empty upon the first completion of the book, or all subsequent completions for that matter.

Night Tides is about Billy "The Greek" Legakis, a legend in the striped bass fishing world. It is the story of this man's ongoing pursuit for the "Largest" striped bass. Stories of this man's introduction to this fish, his obsession with this fish, and his unparalleled pursuit of this fish grace the pages of this book. Several pictures are also included in the book, adding to the whole experience.

Having read the book several times, I am not only astonished by the sometimes unbelievable accomplishments of this particular fisherman, but grateful that the paths of these two gentlemen crossed when it did. While the stories of "The Greek" are truly amazing, without Mr. Cinquemani's abilities, these stories may very well have been untold. My utmost gratitude to Mr. Cinquemani and Mr. Legakis for choosing to share their stories with the rest of the world.

The book is a very easy read. BTG is a unique man with a true obsession with the straiped bass and the sea. A great book if you are not a fisherman and an even better one if you are. I let a buddy borrow it and he is not a fisherman. He is three quarters finished on the second day of his read. Go for it!

A quick read for anyone who enjoys catching a few "Strippahs" from their local haunts. Billy has certainly mastered the art of catching the big ones, but it also comes at a price - Fishing is 1st - everything else, I mean everything else comes after. Catching 2,500 fish with a rod during a slow season was mind boggling to me, I had to do the math twice and was sure there was an extra zero in the numbers, but low and behold this guy is a true master of the species.

It was an inspiration to read and even got me up in the middle of the nite to go for the cows under a full moon and a high tide - I got skunked and humbled.

A great gift with some terrific photos.

If you are a striped bass fisherman, this book will not let you down. I read it in 2 days. Eccentrics like Billy make life interesting. On a sad note, I can't imagine what it must have been like to fish back in the 60's and 70's before we wiped out the majority of these monster bass.

Michael Cinquemani's bio of striper fishing legend Billy "The Greek" Legakis is an engrossing story. Whether they are committed fisherman or not, readers are bound to recognize in BTG the rare combination of wits, will, and sheer tenacity that marks any person at the top of his or her field. Any die hard fishing fanatic will plow through Night Tides in a single sitting. Casual observers of the sport will love it too. Cinquemani's writing mixes humor and awe to create a realistic portrait of a unique character. The fishing community is lucky to have such a literate, and readable, storyteller!

Great book. I cannot emphasize enough how anyone interested in Zen practice should read this.

Amazon unfortunately not stopped stocking it. I'd recommend anyone interested to go to the publisher's web page and order it there for $13. Just do an internet search for "Wisdom Publication", once there search for the book it will pop right up.

gassho

New book, shipped in timely manner that was in the new catagory as advertized.

I found this to be a great guide and wish I had it early in my practice. A very simple to read - written with compassion. The author comes through in every word.

While living in Japan, I was truly fortunate to be able to sit Zazen at Antaiji and study with Uchiyama-roshi. He had a gift for explaining the practice of zazen, or seated meditation. He was able to completely demystify and explain in clear language how to sit and let go of thoughts. This book is an updated edition of Uchiyama-roshi's first book, Approach to Zen, and is really the only book you need to read about sitting zazen, the Buddha's practice.

Outstanding book. In reading books on Soto zen practice over the last 10 years, this the clearest, most straight forward and best book on zazen (seated zen buddhist meditation) from a highly respected master I've come across. If you only read 2 books on Zen, read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Suzuki and this one.

What a journey! A thrill ride to other worlds- your world? Our guide, Susan, fillets her true-self for all to feast as she allows us to experience her emotion, vulnerability, and STRENGTH. This book opened my mind, engaged my imagination, and gave me hope... What a gem!

This book is like a guide through one's own personal reality into the subconscious and beyond into hidden worlds, like dreams, and many other altered states. Fascinating concepts on time and no time, reincarnation, karma, life choices, and even death and spirits. This book is above and beyond because it frees one to open their minds to encompass the scope of life beyond what we understand without adhering to any particular belief system. It is kind of like the more you open, the richer your life becomes. The whole book gives you an 'ah hah!' kind of feeling, a sense of constantly being enlightened. A good book to read over and over.

I am reading this book for the third time. It is SO packed with incredible insights and usable thought processes I was folding most every page so I could go back for reference. It was very well received at our womens' health fair in clinic. Kalior is my new favorite author, I have read all 4 of her books. Some fantasy, all life enriching.

This book is a most soulfully interwoven journey the dives deeply into the adventure of self-exploration. It reflects all of life's internal issues on multiple levels and is cram packed with plenty of real substance. A very courageous book to steps out of the norm and yet is delivered in the most delightful way. It's brilliant!


This writer Susan truly has an amazing gift!

Linda Post

This is an extremely amazing book. It takes you on a very deep journey of love and life. Very inspirational. Susan did a wonderful job on this. Thank you.

I recently purchased this book for a new baby girl. Her parents are both in education. I picked the book because of its' reviews and because the babies' room is done in a rain forest theme. Mom has written me already and is delighted with the book and has been singing the rhymes to her daughter everyday.

My five year old son loved Over the Ocean in a Coral Reef so much we kept checking it out of the library. I finally purchased the book and also purchased Over in the Jungle. Both books are beautifully written but especially beautifully illustrated. I especially like the information in the back of the books about the animals depicted in the story. We have read the stories over and over none of us ever tire of reading them, nor looking at the beautiful illustrations.

Reviewed by Cayden (age 4) and Max (age 2) Aures and Mom for Reader Views (8/08)

"Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme" is part of the "A Simply Nature" series of books by Dawn Publications. In this one we explore different animals of the rainforest from marmosets, to poison dart frogs, to ocelots. Each page focuses on an animal and a number. In the back of the book there is a list of body movements to incorporate into the story as you are learning about the various animals.

Cayden: "This is a counting book too! Cool! We must have to only count the babies otherwise there would be two and not just one."

Cayden: "Look, the number is written in that leaf too!"

Max: "Blue butterfly!"

Cayden: "I have never heard of a leaf cutter ant before. I wonder if they cut the leaves with their mouths. They are real good at cutting though, look at that leaf!"

Max: "Snakes - ssssssssssss!!"
Cayden: "Those are boa snakes!"

Cayden: "Those monkeys look funny!!"

Cayden: "I liked this book! My favorite part was the game at the end with all of the animals and you have to try to find them. That part was real fun!"
Max: "Play monkey!"
Cayden: "I think Max's favorite part was when he got to act like a monkey!"

Parent's comments:

"Over in the Jungle" is an excellent book that taught my children a few new animals of the rainforest that they were not already familiar with. Cayden loves to count and counting was incorporated into each page which was definitely a hit with him. They both loved doing the different animal body motions that went along with the story. The "hide and seek" game at the end was a lot of fun for Cayden as he tried to find all 10 howler monkeys, all 9 sloths, etc. The illustrations in the book are very bright and eye-catching and are very useful in helping the children learn about the different animals. "Over the Jungle" by Marianne Berkes is a wonderful book that my children will want to read again and again!

The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This book has been honored by this distinguished award.

Having worked professionally with children for many years, I've been privy to countless children's books. For the youngest children, I find routinely that vibrancy of imagery coupled with simplicity of the educational message is the best received.

'Over in the Jungle' is the best of both worlds. Plus it introduces a topic that is and will have more traction for the next generations: world climate/environment.

I could see this becoming a regular staple in young children's reading collections.

Having read just about all of the Nero Wolfe series, I have to say, this one contains all of the elements that make Rex Stout's detective novels wildly entertaining, without most of the elements that make some of them maddening

In this mystery, the utterly unswashbuckling Wolfe is revealed, in his younger, svelter days, to have been quite a romantic. Not only did he fight on the anti-Imperial side in Montenegro during the Great War, but he adopted and may even have actually sired a young girl.

To his shock, this young Yugoslav maiden--whom he had lost track of--reappears in his life, up to her neck in a particularly messy, intricate affair that may or may not include missing diamonds, a dead body or two, international intrigue, and a bellboy's uniform. For all of the peeks into Wolfe's previously unsuspected soul, he remains as crumudgeonly and as immovable as ever. Archie Goodwin, of course, remains the wisecracking, milk-drinking sidekick, flirting with anything in a skirt and even giving a Nazi agent a black eye just for the fun of it.

The joy of these books is their marriage of the American gumshoe attitude and the British cozy focus on character. Where they generally fall short is their plotting. This entry in the series is, without a doubt, the most successfully rounded out of the lot. Stout manages to keep the mystery truly mysterious, and yet never manages to confuse the reader so thoroughly that s/he can't find the exit. The plot actually ends on the last page--many of the Nero Wolfe mysteries fizzle out, wrapping up a chapter or two before the end, leaving nothing but rumination and grumbling for the final pages. Others seem never quite to wrap up all the loose ends. Here, the conclusion is both inevitable and unexpected--utterly satisfying.

Over My Dead Body is the seventh in the Nero Wolfe series. A young lady claiming to be Wolfe's adopted daughter from Yugoslavia asks for his help with a charge of stealing diamonds but this quickly evolves into a situation where she is suspected of murder. The case frustrates Wolfe no end, it gets more complicated all the while, but of course he manages to uncover the solution by the end of the story.

This book is a prime example of a Nero Wolfe novel. Archie Goodwin is in top form as a wise cracking pain-in-the-neck. Inspector Cramer is present more than a lot of stories giving Goodwin plenty of opportunities for zingers besides the ones he routinely fires at Wolfe. Wolfe himself is definitely out of his comfort zone dealing with the situation of his adopted daughter and this also adds to the potential for laughs.

This is a very entertaining book and I would recommend it for readers unfamiliar with Nero Wolfe as a great place to start or for established fans.

In this Nero Wolfe mystery-one of the earlier episodes-we encounter Wolfe's adopted daughter, who is in a bit of a fix. Wolfe comes to the rescue and along the way, shares little glimpses into his past: his tumultuous youth in Europe; the origins of his suspicion of all women; how he came to adopt a child. In this book, probably more than any other in Rex Stout's series, do we see the effect that women-especially those from the former nation of Yugoslavia-have upon Wolfe's psyche. It's a good read-a good mystery with a great plot-like pretty much all of Stout's works.

This book hits on all cylinders. The plot is excellent, intricate but clear. The characters are well drawn. The atmosphere, New York on the eve of World War II, is almost palpable. The dialogue is perfect. I'm at a loss as to what else to say about the book except, "Read it."

A Britsh undercover agent is murdered at a Manhattan fencing school, skewered by an epee with a gizmo attached that turns it into a weapon sans blunt end. Yugoslav women who are instructors there are possible suspects, one of whom is Nero Wolfe's adopted daughter from his days as an ill advised Austrian agent in the Balkans, pre World War, before we started numbering them. This alone is a startling revelation about Wolfe. Wolfe slender? Youthful? Abroad, outside, involved with people? I was astonished.

As usual, the beer drinking, orchid collecting, erudite, corpulent food lover Nero Wolfe declines, under any circumstances, to leave his brownstone abode with a greenhouse rooftop for his rare flowers. Using Archie, his assistant, as legs, Wolfe solves the baffling case. I knew he would. He's solved all the other mysteries in the Nero Wolfe books I've read.

Mystery fans who have not read mysteries from the golden age (pre-1950) do not know what they are missing. There is no sex to lure the lascivious reader, very little violence, no profanity. What there is (and this book is an excellent example of the sub-genre) is intelligence.
That's a rare commodity in most modern mysteries.

This is, at once, one of the best books in the series and one which translated brilliantly to TV on the A&E series.

Rex Stout decides to deal us a little shock in this one: Nero Wolfe, woman-hater, has a daughter he's not seen since she was a baby. She comes from Yugoslavia to New York, unknown to her pops, and gets into a real tight spot involving murder by "coldymort."

When Archie learns this, he considers resigning on the basis of his boss's morals. You just have to read this one to find out.

Or, again, buy the A&E series - they did a great job here.

Among the lighter and more overlooked sorrows of living in a post-terroristic era of conflict is all of the fun that could once be had, but no more, like - arguably - everything that takes place in this engrossing and extremely, extremely funny book, but one in particular: cleaning out one's refrigerator by mailing everything rotten (there's a way to do this with no postage, though you'll have to read this book to find out, and if you were to try it now, you'd have 10 SWAT teams on your doorstep in 36 hours or less) to everyone who might have ever annoyed you in some way.

Sigh...

Read this book, and I promise you'll never forget it.

-David Alston

This is the ultimate prankster handbook, an inspirational guide to mischief and mayhem. It is one of those books you can read bit by bit as there is a lot of material to absorb (not that you couldn't read it all at once, but it's like a rich cheesecake, you will want to savour each bite instead of gorging). The interviews are of varied allurement, some yielding more elation than others, but then you can't please everyone all of the time. Some of the stories told seem almost too wild to be real, until you see the accompanying photographs or news clippings and realize that some people have far better stories to tell than you or I ever will. And they aren't kidding, either.
Definitely makes my top 5 must-have "non-fiction or reference" books.

I lost my first copy of this in Nags Head in 1993. That's OK, it should be shared with as many people as possible because the pages are filled with shocking, playful, silly pranks from a host of prank 'generes.' A guy blows himself up at a high school reunion, another paints american flags on snails and on and on and. The books seems to capture a pre-PC time also: the 1980s.

What fun! This book is packed with great interviews with people who like to make trouble. All are amusing and all are inspiring. My personal favorites are the Henry Rollins and the Earth First! interviews. The Rollins interview makes me laugh just thinking about it, and the Earth First! interview is exciting to read. It makes me itch to go out and prank away. An excellent and informative read.

I love this book. I thought I was the only weirdo out there, but this book inspires me to be weirder. Great interviews with Dead Kennedy singer Jello Biafra, Abbie Hoffman and Henry Rollins. One of the few books I pick up weekly, even though I've read it from cover to cover many times. Still cracks me up.

A great book for paper enthusiasists. No matter you're a novice or an expert, you'll find challenges in this wonderful book. Mr Montroll is really brilliant in this book, the illustration and step-by-step explaination is easy to follow and yet challenging. Take out a piece of square paper and begin folding to appreciate his creation. It's not simply origami, it's truly paper engineering.

This book contains some wonderful models. Being a dinosaur enthusiast (what kid isn't?) in my younger years, this book provided a great amount of fun and challenge.

My sole complaint with these models are their relatively dated perspective on dinosaurs. These greatly resemble older views of dinosaurs where sluggish lizards lumber through swamps and marshes with their tails dragging on the ground. Of course, this gave me ample opportunity to try diversifying my skills by "improving" the final result.

I would highly recommend this book to both beginner and advanced folders. While the models might not be as challenging as those produced by Lang and Brill, the final results are well worth it.

I had the honor of proof reading the diagrams in this book before it went to print. (I'm the second Mark in the dedication). John Montroll is a brilliant author. His style is amazing, achieving maximum model size from the paper. This is a great book for everyone who enjoys dinosaurs and origami.

When i saw a dinosaur origami book i didn't think twice before buying it! I was bored with simple books making kitties and ducks, but these designs are very ORIGINAL! They are tricky and i often get frustrated with the complicated folds, but when i get a folded dinosaur all of my own in the end, I am so happy!! (No, I'm not a child either i just love dinosaurs!) I own a few origami books and have found this one is a favorite pick, besides the dinosaurs, i just love complicated folds! If you love dinosdaurs, origami, and a stiff challenge this book is for YOU!

A book about dinosaurs folded from paper, a simple idea, really. But take a deeper look, and this is one of the most engaging origami books on the subject ever-for that matter, perhaps it is one of the best origami books ever. I know it is one of my top ten books. Enough praise, you want to know what's in it. Well, as Montroll usually does, the beginning models are so easy, I think you could fold them from sheet metal...an egg, mountain, and tree. Soon though, the dinosaurs begin, and slowly but surely the difficulty rises, until culminating with a Stegosaurus. Other dinosaurs include, T-rex, a bunch of gliding dinos, and others such as Dimetrodon and Spinosaurus. I would recommend this to any Dinosaur fan, and/or origami fan. However, a true beginner would find this book to be boring, because after the three 'sheet metal' models, the difficulty rises 2 or 3 fold. If you can make the first 4 or 5, you can probably learn to make them all. In short, a great buy!

"The President's Astrologer" is a perfect summer read, although I'd recommend it for any season. It has all the ingredients that make a book hard to put down: an exciting, suspensful plot, appealing characters who make you care about them, and easy to understand information about a fascinating subject, in this case, astrology. I was sorry when it ended. My hat is off to the author. Her command of dialogue constantly made me feel that this book would make an excellent film or mini series.

"The President's Astrologer" is a perfect summer read, although I'd recommend it for any season. It has all the ingredients that make a book hard to put down: an exciting, suspensful plot, appealing characters who make you care about them, and easy to understand information about a fascinating subject, in this case, astrology. I was sorry when it ended. My hat is off to the author. Her command of dialogue constantly made me feel that this book would make an excellent film or mini series.

This book is a blast. I truly enjoyed it from cover to cover. As an Astrologer living in Santa Fe, I really got a kick out of all the locations that were used here in the Southwest...And all the astrological jargon was fun for me too. I think she did a great job and here's hoping she will write another. Kudos to you, Barbara

It is amazing that this novel didn't get snapped up by a major publisher, but perhaps a film maker will be smart and option it. I haven't read something this fascinating and surprising in quite a while. It's a bit of "Air Force One" mixed with Ray Bradbury and a little new age awareness. Very enjoyable, and highly recommended.

This novel successfully crosses genres, and is filled with drama, mystery, romance & intrigue. The science fictional elements come into play only late in the story yet are integral in making all the various story lines come together. The use of astrology throughout the book is represented in terms and language that are completely accessible to the layman, yet are done with the thoroughness of one who is an expert in the field. The debate between science versus astrology is approached through the protagonist's personal relationship as well as her credibility to the public at large. And Barbara Shafferman is likely to expand a few minds along the way. This is a "must read" for all and is a fine first novel for the author. Highly Recommended.

I worked for Hughes during the time of the event described as his "kidnapping." At the time, the entire Staff on Romaine street was in a major uproar, ostensibly because of a "falling out" between Hughes and Noah Detrich. However, the behavior of some members of the staff subsequent to this event have convinced me that a great degree of truth is contained in Gemstone.

I just recieved this book some days ago and I just cannot put it down (well you know what I mean). It is VERY well constructed, and previous knowledge of the "Gemstone Files" and connected theories (I see them as truths) need not be a requirement for this reading. This is in NO way to undermind/understate this superb book. I have shown it to people who know little or nothing of the Onassis-Kennedy connection conspiracy, how even just reading the introduction sparked intrest in some of the most non-believers I know (or have talked to about these subjects). This is a true 5 star book... If any of the subject matter makes you wonder, question or as I said just spark some interest. Get this book! Other popular books on the Gemstone Files are also worthy reading... The full Gemstone Files will be released soon, and all the skeptics that still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone will be in for a BIG surprise. The Kennedys were right on, dismantle the CIA, crack down on mob activity (well infused within the CIA) and get the United States of America back on a rightous track. Something we are suffering from since the "cold-war" and the "arms-race"...to today with the Bush (let's kill more people and lie to the American public) USA I feel so ashamed to be a part of. But I am only a man, a civilian, who feels he deserves to know the truth like the rest of the America and the world should. I am not a patriot at all (at least not in the right-wing way), I do love the USA and our country. This is why these books that reveal how corrupt our government is, and globally connected to other countries for well, POWER SUPREME are SO important. The couragious people who revealed these hidden truths, are primarily dead and from "suspicious circumstances" are no conincidence... Read for yourself. Be Aware, beware and be a "true" American. Big Brother is upon us and growing day by day. Project Seek is a great starting point for those seeking to piece the "Global Puzzle" together...piece by piece it will come out.

Peace everyone and I wish it was as simple as that...

Gerald A. Carroll spent years researching the Gemstone File history, and produced the best volume of documentation and analysis yet available. Well written and great reading, reads like an excellent mystery story but it's all true.

Gerald Carroll did a marvelous job of seeking out the truth behind the "Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File." With several hundred pages from Bruce Porter Roberts' original Gemstone papers published in "The Gemstone File - A Memoir", "Project Seek" is still an excellent, well-written and well-researched supplement for people who want to understand more about what has happened to our world over the last 50 years.

This thick new volume on the famous Gemstone Files is complete with additional research and photos. An extremely valuable book that looks into the roles of Howard Hughes, (Aristotle) Onassis, World War II conspiracies and the Kennedy assassinations in the light of a mysterious document known as the "Gemstone File."

Imagine you have access to a collective. Imagine it is not hierarchical. Imagine your more persistent thoughts, while being illogical/irrational, are that link to the collective.

Somehow, suddenly, all the things in this life that are unbearable, the things you can't, will never, understand just make sense. Page after page, you re-discover who you are, why you can accept it, why it is just a matter of accepting that you don't understand but that, in the weirdest way, it makes sense. And that the power is not in controling knowledge but in knowing you don't know.

If you let go of judgement, just feel the words, then you are half-way there. Because these words just tell you to be yourself, at all levels. And if you don't trust them then this is part of your own path. Because this is a book for re-membering who you are, not for convincing you of being somebody else nor molding you.

Sometimes the day to day grind saps my energy making me a bit cynical and jaded about 'spiritual' matters. Reading spiritually oriented books always helps me maintain a more balanced perspective. For whatever reason, this book was just what the Dr. ordered for my latest bout with spiritual malaise. To be frank, I don't know what to think about 'channeling'. I believe Mr. Rother is sincere and presents a very positive and uplifting take on the current state of the world. He offers a refreshing perspective, and builds a strong case that in the midst of all the trouble and tragedy of modern times there is something of much greater significance going on. That all of humanity is playing it's role (quite admirably it seems) in bringing more light into the dense physical world.
We all like to think that our lives have some greater meaning and purpose and 'The Group' affirms that this is so. Through our lives, and on our planet, cosmic purposes are unfolding toward the dawning of a new day. It seems we are the cutting edge of evolution. As I neared the end of the book, I found myself feeling inspired, that life is indeed good, and worth all the trouble. It does no harm to believe that humanity's struggle toward greater understanding has repercussions far beyond what is apparent to us in our everyday lives. Is it true? I don't know. But I felt different having read it. I'm all for anything that brings a little more light into the world. Thanks Dan.

In our world we are traveling at the speed of light. If you ever had the yearning to just stop and go home, this book will show you the way.

This is the first book of Steve Rother and the Group that I have read. It is spectacular. I have found at the turn of every page life changing information and empowering tools to implement into ones life. I will be purchasing more books by Steve Rother in the very near future.

I just love this book. I re-read parts of it every time I need some spiritual nurturing. It is organized into 18 chapters on a miriad of topics, such as: tools for walking with spirit, synchronicity, the flow of universal energy, remembering the other side of the veil, and most memorably, the evolution of humanity. Each chapter is subdivided into topics as well, which makes it easy to read in short bursts if you are inclined.

The information is channelled through the author during some fairly prestigious speaking engagements, some in front of the United Nations. The amount of love pouring through from the beings that are being channelled (The Group) is enormous, and the sincerity is obvious. The information is very up-to-date and was mostly new to me, not simply re-hashing of other spiritual authors' works.

I can sincerely say that you will not be disappointed with this book, and I say this after reading 50+ spiritual books, including the classics as well as metaphysical and new age/new thought.