Attractions Books

To begin with, there is a lot of trash out there posing as explanations of human evolution. Wolpoff and Caspari's book is NOT one of these. The authors take pains to explain what multiregional evolution is NOT, namely, the multiple origin of humanity. Like just about everyone else, they contend that humans originated in Africa. However, they build a persuasive case that (a) there is no such species as Homo erectus, and (b) that the earliest Homo sapiens left Africa some two million years ago. Whether or not one agrees with this scenario, it makes interesting and informative reading, and I believe is a must for anyone interested in the evolution of humanity, for it provides an alternative to the now-popular view that "modern" humans, whatever that may mean, originated late, in Africa and "replaced" everyone else.à

The debate between multiregional evolution vs. the replacement model continues unabated, and naturally, not without certain biases muddling the understanding of the interested lay-reader. Wolpoff and Caspari do an excellent job of presenting the historical foundations for the intellectual biases AND the over-simplified misunderstandings of multiregional evolution perpetuated by the popular media which are responsible for the ongoing confusion regarding this debate. Human evolution is NOT a simple matter easily reduced to one or two easy-to-manage ideas. The replacement model is well addressed in the text and is shown to be easier to comprehend than the multiregional model, which explains the media's favoratism for the former. The technical information provided favoring both views is carefully presented and explained, and the reader is left with the task of making up his/her own mind. An approach of which I approve. Balancing this text with those of Dr. C. Stringer and Prof. Rushton (another review on this site) is recommended for even treatment. Were I teaching a course in paleoanthroplogy, I would certainly make Wolpoff & Caspari's book required reading.

This book is a rehash of previous statements and out-dated concepts. As one reviewer has already noted, the molecular data and its interpretation (both mtDNA and RNA) makes this book redundant. Also the discussion of the fossil evidence fails to examine issues of function and developmental processes, which can have a significant impact on morphological form. As such, their implied 'evolutionary trends' within and between hominin groups are just as likley the result of convergence - anatomical analogies (i.e., homoplasies)

The dedication says it all:

"To Franz Weidenreich. He understood"

oh, to be a voice in the wilderness....

This book accurately portrays the skeletal evidence for human origins, in the context of the Multi-regional theory of human evolution. In this respect it's typical Wolpoff & his usual high standard of excellence, "nuff said. What REALLY needs commentary is the major misconception several reviewer have posted. DNA data has NOT "blown skeletal studies out of the water". We now know that mtDNA AND Y-chromosome lineages ARE HIGHLY subject to natural selection, which means that selective processes CAN (& WILL) cause "lineage replacement" in populations. The multi-regional theory REQUIRES geneflow between regional populations, and even miniscule levels of geneflow will introduce "new" lineages, that can replace the earlier lineages in that population. Selective advantages of as little as hundredths of a percent, and "once in a century" geneflow between adjacent populations, WILL result in total worldwide replacement of lineages within a 100,000-150,000 year period WITHOUT significantly affecting the rest of the genepool. So yes, lineage studies DO "show" that we all share common mtDNA & Y-chromosome ancestors within the last 50-250,000 years (depending on which mutation rate estimate is used), but this actually FITS the predictions of the multi-regional model (for that matter, some mutation rate estimates give calculations that ALLOW descent from regional Homo erectus populations). And.... autosomal DNA studies REVEAL ancient regional population structuring for most genes that goes back as much as a million years, but more recent structuring for other genes, which is ALSO exactly what you'd expect under multi-regionalism's "geneflow & spread of advantageous genes" expectation.... but NOT what would be expected of a human population that recently spread out of Africa. So look at ALL the data INCLUDING BOTH the skeletal (which this book is excellent on) AND the DNA side of things (sadly, I've seen no single comprehensive reference on this aspect) before making up your mind. I suggest you read this book AND search pubmed for scientific papers covering the full spectrum of DNA study interpretations.

The cover art intrigued me in a corner of the bookstore, and so began my trip into the world of the She Hulk. Back in the days of her creation, the She Hulk never had much credibility as a super heroine, being quite literally the Hulk's green female counterpart. I never thought she would last, but amazingly, some 20 years later, she's not only still around, but she's come into her own and kicking ass! Kudos to the team here for reinventing a derivative character and making a world that really stands out. It's almost as if no-one knew what to do with the She Hulk until recently.

This edition has the added chutzpah of having Starfox (what a name) aka Eros of Titan - another blast from the past that most readers will need to go back 20 years to appreciate. And Man Wolf! More importantly, while the writing and art is both fresh and tight, the writers don't take themselves TOO seriously - giving this the air of Will Eisner's Spirit in a way. Now to get the previous volumes!

she-hulk has been a favorite of mine since Byrne's Sensational She-Hulk. While this one is not as off the wall surrealistically funny as that series it is more realistically funny, if you can use that word about a comic book about a super strong green woman

She-Hulk is every quality comic tou've ever read tolled into one. BUY THIS BOOK!!
_ Broken Frontier

Compared to the other three volumes that proceeded it this work is a little lax. I do like the characterization of Starfox, and Thanos was also a welcome character. But the addition of the Star-God, and the appearance of the New Warriors were not as good.
This series started as a comedic action story, but now it is going down the road of a romantic comedy of errors. I'm not saying that can't work, but I do prefer to have more action and witty humor, rather than the drama of romantic conflict.
So really, still good, though not as good as the previous Volumes.

I think it's real sad now that they are coming out with books that is trying to change homosexuality into what is considered normal heteosexual sexual orientation which is more accepted in this society. I thought we were moving forward coming out of dark ages of bigotry and indifference to different sexual orientations.The gay and lesbian movement was to bring about changes to this and now were going backwards. What a tragedy!

Ms. Mack was truely inspired to write this book. Its gives hope to all those struggling with same sex attraction.

This is a really great book! I have looked for something this supportive for a long time!

Finally, a book written that gives hope for those dealing with same sex attraction. A book that lets us feel we are OK for being who we are and gives guidelines for dealing with it inside a religious setting. It doesn't insist that we all need to change in order to be acceptable to God and those around us.

I read this book thinking that I might gain a few ideas that might work. I later learned I totally underestimated its powers! Being a young person I don't have a lot of money, and the money I do have has to be stretched, and this book had excellent ideas on how to do just that. I went to Europe last summer for three months and only spent $3000 (including airfare). If you enjoy traveling and aren't afraid for a little adventure, you should definately look into this book, it's a traveler's greatest companion!

An honest book with good tips but then it is not doable for everybody. Who can travel as a courier with a family. It is a very good book if you are single with unlimited vacation!
we are going to try to stay with locals which is definitely more rewarding than staying in an isolated grand-chain-hotel!

Most of us like "freebies" especially when it comes to travel. However, how do you travel for free or for very little money?
Robert Wm Kirk's guidebook, You can Travel Free, is an extremely comprehensive and fact filled guidebook presenting useful strategies and methods that have been employed by those who roam far and frequently-without paying.

The book is divided into seventeen chapters featuring tips, ideas, reference sources, experiences, and guidance. Within these chapters we are introduced to such topics as free accommodations, free ship cruising, hosting group tours, free land transportation, airline freebies, volunteering, working vacations, sightseeing for free, and how to receive scholarships and grants to travel free.
Each chapter begins with a brief quotation that the author appropriately refers to as, "McCheap's" laws.

The author's first law of travel is "the less money you spend at any destination, the more enjoyable the experience." If you think about this rule for a moment you will probably immediately remember that your most enjoyable vacations were those you had incurred the least expense.
The second law introducing the "Free Accommodations" chapter states, "if you paid anything at all for your last vacation you may have paid too much."

Reading these rules, you pretty much get the idea of the book's major theme. A combination of ingenuity, information and the right strategy are all that is required to travel the globe without having to go into debt.
As a concrete example, in the chapter dealing with free accommodations we are informed as to how we can vacation without paying for the cost of a hotel or motel. Immediately the reader is hooked? Is there such a thing as a "free lunch" when it comes to accommodations?

We are not only informed of the possibility of house swapping that many of us are aware of, but we are also provided with a very extensive list of sources where we may be able to find individuals willing to swap their houses with us.
Did you know that there are empty farmhouses, fishermen's dwellings, and deserted boathouses available for public use in Norway? Are you aware of an organization named Seniors Abroad and by joining, travelers who are 50 and over can be guests of seniors in other countries? These are a tiny miniscule of the invaluable tips and secrets found throughout the book.

Apart from free or low cost accommodations, we are also informed of the many free or inexpensive attractions scattered throughout the world. Have you ever heard of free bikes? The author tells us that in Copenhagen bikes can be used without paying. One thousand "city bikes" are available.

Finally, an added feature is the last chapter entitled "A Wealth of Free Information" where we are presented with over twenty five pages of names, addresses, phone numbers, and web addresses of many organizations as well as publications that reinforce McCheap's seventeenth law of travel: "learning as much as you can about your destinations costs nothing, and can make your free travels a success." The book is well worth its money for anyone who is desirous of knowing how to travel on a very low budget. You Can Travel Free

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com

Almost 500 pages of mostly unconventional methods for securing free or nearly free travel. Topics include home exchange, house and boat sitting, tour hosting, auto driveaway, hitchhiking, bicycling, volunteering, working, scholarships and awards, travel careers, and much more. Excellent section on free travel resources. Air strategies are frequent flyer benefits, bumping, contests, and asking (and perhaps find a private pilot that will let you hitch). Highly recommended.

Reviewed October 2001 by Charles McCool on LowerAirfares.com

At 150 pages, this book is not very long, yet it provides the reader with awesome up to date tips on dressing for success. I'm a beauty consultant and work in a highly recognized health and beauty store. I'm a male and I deal with many women, men and teens. I am now recommending this great book to all my customers. The beauty tips are magnificent. The author, Joanna Nicholson does a great job in explaining how to coordinate your clothes with eye make-up, lipstick, hair styles, nail polish, even foundation. She is clearly a professional in this area and has written other great books for success. Alot of my women customers that have read this book, have nothing but great things to say about it. This book shows women how to dress sexy, yet look classy, professional and beautiful not trampy. The clothes, pants, skirts, jacket coordination are all right on. And she explains how to make yourself look slimer, taller and how to accent the beauty in a womens shape. I found this book to be worth reading and the price is low. I have to mention, I was surprised to see some of the low reviews this book got, all I can think is those readers didn't get past the table of contents.

I disagree with the other readers. I think this is a great informative book, that provides hundreds of useful fashion tips. How many times, haven't we seen someone dressed completely wrong for the occasion. I especially think it offers good advise for teens, who are always pushing their limits with what they wear. This book is well written, it provides easy instruction and can definately be used as a reminder of how we don't want to look in public.

i bought this book for my wife, but it seemed the main goal was to sell you products. there were little tid bits of information, nothing solid. mostly the point was beauty was in the eyes of the beholder. a quick read only.

This guide has ratings for the places you can visit, by age range. This is helpful so that you know it your family members will be interested in visiting there. They gave helpful hints for some of the locations. We found they underestimated the amount of time needed at some of the sites. The maps were very well laid out and showed how things were related to each other. They didn't give many parking locations, but often places to park were easy to find. Take plenty of money for parking (usually $18 and for all the toll roads). Some of the restaurants were much higher priced than listed in the book.

No discussion of pre-theater dining! When you are going to see Wicked at the Ford Theater, there is not much more you care about than where to eat first. In fact, the restaurant guide does not even mention half the restaurants that are listed online as "the" pre-theater dining places (none of which "grabbed" me online, so I was hoping this book would be more enlightening).

Also no full drawing of the various parts of the city. Small maps that show only two districts do not tell me where Bucktown is relative to The Loop. This is critical when all the hotels, restaurants, etc. are referred to by district.

Overall disappointing, because The Unofficial Guides tend to be better than other guides, and they tend to be better than this.

This guide offered everything I needed for my trip to Chicago. I found out where to shop, which beaches to go to, and all about the night life in the Windy City.

This book was an "accidental," but certainly worthwhile, addition to my library. I say "accidental" because I saw "9 types of lovers" and jumped to the incorrect conclusion that this was an enneagram book. Whereas this certainly IS a personality type book, it has nothing to do with the enneagram.

Daphne Rose Kingma is a practicing psychoanalyst and also a prolific writer who specializes in love and relationships. This book draws on her 25+ years of experience in counseling couples and individuals, during which time she has concluded that people tend to fit into nine basic "love types," each with their own characteristics and idiosyncracies.

The majority of the book is dedicated to Kingma's detailed descriptions of each of the nine types of lovers. Each chapter starts with a section on how to identify a type; then covers the various "attraction" and "detraction" characteristics of that type. Next, we're offered a fairly thorough psychological explanation for how a person's history makes them fit into their type, identifying the specific "emotional wound" that affects their behavior pattern. I found these to be the most insightful and poignant parts of the book, with some very "on the money" ideas. Finally, each chapter has a section directed to the person actually of that type, with suggestions on how to better understand and manage their relationships.

The book is fun and easy to read, and mostly works as a tool to identify and understand each of the nine types. It does outline some very basic truths about How We Are, and I agree with the previous reviewer that it would be a good resource for someone stuck in a pattern of choosing the same kind of (unsuccessful) relationship, over and over. On the downside, I feel that very little time is given to the more practical aspects of how each type interacts with other types, "good" vs. "bad" combinations, the realities of finding the right type for you, and so on. And although Kingma uses a fairly upbeat tone, I did come away with the feeling that the popular psycho-buzz phrase "everyone is damaged" must *really* be true-- at least based on this book.

Final thoughts: Recommended, although not brilliant (7.5 bookmarks out of a possible 10). Does a nice job of teaching us about the different types, but is a little thin on how to APPLY that knowledge. As with most books of this genre, I'll also add the usual caveat that we shouldn't put TOO much emphasis on trying to "shoehorn" ourselves into specific "type" descriptions-- we ARE, after all, individuals.

I don't normally like books like this because I don't believe that you can truly seperate people into categories. Only 9 types for all the plethora of diversity in the world? And yet, when I picked up this book I could put it down. The author has captured some basic truths about people in America, how we act and why. If you're the type of person that seems to attract the same kind of mate over and over, this book will probably attract your interest.

Each lover type has its own chapter with standardized sections, so that no matter what type of lover you have or want, you can find out the information you need. The author gives us tell-tale signs for each type and yet provides us pretty convincing ways in which each type is different than everyone else (in case you aren't sure). There is a section on why we are attracted to that type, and why they drive us crazy, what's really going on psychologically, with a special emotional wound identified for each person. What we can learn from each type and what they need to improve on in themselves. Basically, all the secret questions we've ever asked ourselves about past lovers and maybe even family and friends are answered here.

I do have a few complaints, though. The catch phrase on the back of the book, "How to find the perfect lover... and keep them!", isn't sufficiently addressed (after reading the book, you won't think there is a "perfect" type out there). Only a small chapter discusses how different types deal with each other, and we don't learn the specific mechanics of how people attract the same type over and over, or how to break that cycle. Also, the book doesn't discuss how people tend to flex between types, and often act as a certain type with friends and are a different type with a lover. Finally, even though the author tries to write this book from an asexual point of view, as a man I found it to be specifically written for women. Nothing wrong with that, except that it reduced the book's effectiveness for me.

From the moment I read the thoughts of the character Anne-Marie, I was stunned...and double checked the title page...did a man really write this? How does he know how women think when some of us can barely speak our own thoughts?

Impressive not only in its force of mystery and depth of passion, this book takes a very thoughful look at the human desire for love and listens in on the innermost thoughts of men and women alike.

I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable read and can't wait to see what Mr. Manlow writes next.

Love. Passion. Jealousy. Confusion. Doubt. Mystery. The novels opens with an air of loss and personal anguish, as Jack Prentis Stone relates, bit by bit, the story of his life since meeting his wife, Anne-Marie. A talented artist, Anne-Marie moved to England with her mother, who abruptly left a philandering husband in France. As a consequence of their sudden departure, Anne-Marie struggles through a tortured, unresolved relationship with her father.

From the start, there is an acute awareness of detail, short flashes of recognition, moments when early passion is cemented in the consciousness and attraction slides flawlessly into love. In the opening dialog, as Jack speaks of their early days of romantic bliss, there is an underlying element of confusion and a palpable sense of something gone terribly wrong.
The story lurches back and forth in time, in the same way that Jack's mind deals with an ominous escalation of events that have spun out of control. At the core is his love for Anne-Marie, but after three years of marriage, they have drifted apart, victim to an insidious decay that allows busy people to ignore the signs of trouble.

Because Jack is now in France, awaiting the arrival of an English inspector, we know that this marriage has suffered more than ordinary difficulties. Jack reveals his tangled memories in a mix of past and present, bright new love and the potent seed of jealousy that leads to tragedy. Perhaps it is the attraction of opposites, this marriage of Jack and Anne-Marie. As a student of science, Jack considers everything through a filter of scientific theory, the impermanence of matter in a constantly changing universe. Having difficulty separating reality from fantasy, he is beleaguered by time's imperfections, memory's own deception in service of self-protection.

While Jack's actions are logical, Anne-Marie is less predictable, her emotional tensions denied through the years of her marriage, but certainly affecting her behavior and choices. A gradual erosion of communication creates opportunity and each party is dangerously susceptible to serious mistakes, misinterpretations of each other's motives.

Jack orbits around his wife, the emotional center of the universe of a man raised by women, desperate to find his way back to their primary connection, recalling the simplicity and perfection of early love, their travels in the French countryside and joyful pairing as man and wife. At no time do we doubt the love of this couple, trusting Jack to come to the end of this psychological maze, driven deeper toward an awareness of what he holds most precious.

In this compelling tale, perched on the dangerous precipice of love gone terribly wrong, a few moments of bad judgment throw all into chaos. Tension drives the story as the characters are propelled to their inevitable conclusion. Passion. Love. Betrayal. Murder. Luan Gaines/2004.

My artificial intelligent computer ALREADY thinks it is, thanks to scanning this book for it's database. GREAT for input!

I'd have loved to give this a five star review, as many of the ideas are worthwhile and good. The main problem I had with this book is through each of the chapters, the author seems to be encouraging the reader to be something or someone she's not. To me (and from all the research I've done on the subject), what's most appealing, attractive and sexy is inner, authentic confidence. Something I've been working on. If I'm trying to dress or behave in ways that aren't true to who I really am as a woman--casual, natural, comfortable in my own skin with my own style, not prone to nail polish, pricey shoes or purses, expensive boutiques and/or salons, etc.--then the effect will be many things, but it won't be sexy.

I consider myself sensual, yet I'm not inclined to do all the "french woman" things suggested in the pages. Do women truly plan days ahead for an ancounter with a man? With a checklist? I'm referring to a tip to shave no more than two days before a date, but not on the day of the date. The day before the date slathering oneself with moisturizers and having a manicure/pedicure, etc. I don't drink hard liquor (wine's great, thank you), I don't see the neccesity in immersing myself in other cultures unless truly & honestly am interested in doing so, because if I'm doing it to impress a man, the unspoken truth is I'd feel a need to impress. How is that sexy?

Again, I've no intention of blasting the author here. I received the book as a gift from my wish list (thank you!), and found some of it very insightful and enlightening. My sincere wish, though, is an author somewhere would write a book about working with who you are and what you've got to make the most of your natural and innate assets. Nothing is sexier than feeling good about who you are as a woman, right?

I Love Robert Collier's books, but this one is a reap of Secrets of The ages. You get moree information from S.O.T.A.

Just want to share that I think everyone on the planet should read this book. It's one of those books that just answers all your questions about life. Simply amazing.