Barry Books

The book reads well and is highly informative. The author demonstrates a wealth of knowledge on elicitation and detection of deception. The book is clearly written for anyone interested in developing skills in collecting relevant information, irrespective of your work environment (government or private industry). It serves to help readers identify and analyze behavioral clues from a multi-cultural optic. It left this reader wanting more information from the author in all chapters, particularly chapter nine: "The Impact of Cultural Considerations." Bottom-line, I look forward to reading the author's next book.

When you see how methodical Barry's approach is, you understand instantly how he can assure increased understanding and better results. Barry is a very brilliant man in his discipline. He's great at interviewing, but his even stronger suit is figuring out the beliefs, attitudes, and the mindsets that drive people to talk and reveal the information that is needed. This is what I think is missing in most law enforcement officers.

After reading Liar you get the distinct feeling that Mr. McManus knows what he is talking about. After doing some research on him and finding out that he is one of the top persons in his field (interrogation, polygraphy, deception detection etc..) and in finding out that he was also the top interragator at the CIA, I thought that his book would give some unique insight into the whole issue of how to tell when someone is lying to you and how to get them to tell you the truth. The book is well written, informative and very interesting because of the topics covered. There is even a section on cultural considerations, which helps you to understand that the unique differences amongst various ethnic groups and how to "read" them properly.

At only 130 pages or so, you can get through it in a day. I found the book engaging enough that i finished it while on a long flight from LA to Washington. One additional point about the book is that the information about detecting a liar and getting them to tell you the truth is not only applicable to the obvious groups such as law enforcement, but seems to be useful in any situation where you need to determine if someone is telling the truth, especially during business Mergers and Acquisitions and other critical business affairs.

I have found nearly every book in the "Little Colonel" series, some being first editions. I prefer the older editions, despite the numerous "racial slurs," because they are the product that the author intended to present. I have heard from various sources that the later editions have been revised, removing the colloquiallisms and unifying Lloyd's speech patterns and mannerisms with those of the other characters. I call this a shame. Obviously, no harm was meant by the author when she portrayed the African-American servants as she did, and reading Lloyd say, "...honah," rather than "honor" paints a lot more colorful picture of her character. In rating this series, I must declare it a "must read" for both boys and girls. The morals and lessons are invaluable, and would be a refreshing balm for the wounds today's youth are suffering from, even at the youngest age. I do believe if I had read the tale of "The Three Weavers," as told in "The Little Colonel At Boarding School," MY life would have been touched, sparing me much grief in later years. So, parents, grandparents, caring adults, find these literary jewels and READ them with a child. Their lives and yours will be the richer for it.

My mother was born in 1896, She read all the Little Colonel books and read them to me. I read them to my children and grandchildren and now have a greatgranddaughter who will get my old old and dearly loved copies.These books teach a love of classics as well as good moral values, plus,providing interesting stories.

I have a complete set of the Little Colonel books that my mother accumulated for me over a period of years in the 1940's, when they were already long out of print. A classic Shirley Temple movie of the late 1930's (I think) was based on the first book, but I enjoyed the later ones even more. I am delighted to see them reissued after all these years. Lloyd Sherman and the other characters introduced in the later books (The Little Colonel's House Party and succeeding titles) were almost as real to me, when I was 8 to 12 years old, as my own friends. My favorite character was not Lloyd herself, who seemed overprivileged and a little too perfect, but Elizabeth Lloyd Lewis (Betty), the daughter of one of Lloyd's mother's girlhood friends. The stories also provide fascinating insights into post-Civil War Southern society.

Seven short masterworks grace this slender volume of psychological thrillers, each of which delve into the darkest reaches of the human mind. You'll encounter a kidnapping victim who forms a bizarre relationship with her captor, and find tales set in bleak cityscapes of brutal streets that test humanity's instincts toward kindness. You'll also find a truly spine-rattling tale of combat soldiers who do not die, but are repaired and sent to battle again and again, and more. These stories embrace the terrifying realities of the human condition and, written in Hoffman's lean prose style, the scares come fast and hard. And here's a real treat--included with this collection is a story titled "King of the Hill", which is a Shanicha Wilkins (the infamous BORN BAD character) prequel that proves that Shanicha was, indeed, born very, very bad. She's a malicious five-year-old who will eventually become a cold-blooded serial killer. Here is another fine collection from an author who consistently delivers the heartpounding thrills readers have come to associate with his name.

Hoffman shines in this nifty collection, featuring seven stories (including one that features Shanicha, the conscience-less villain from Barry's great novel BORN BAD). The ending of the opening story ("Love Hurts")will give you the chills, and several of the tales feature important social commentary. Highly recommended.

Barry Hoffman's "Love Hurts" is a collection of short stories that truly tears at your conscious. This isn't about supernatural horror (although a couple of stories have supernatural elements) or deranged killers, but rather I call it socially aware horror, taken from the pages of everyday life and thereby making all the more potent and thought-provoking.

"Second Chance" is based on a true story...actually several I think...about a pregnant teenage who gives birth to her baby during the prom, dumps it in the trash, and then returns to the dance with hardly a second thought. What is more horrific than this obvious contempt for life? In Hoffman's story, a judge dishes out a deliciously ruthless sentence on the teen and we could only wish that this could be done in real life.

"None of my Concern" is another tale based on all too real events. A young woman named Tyra is brutally assaulted by a gang of thugs while friends and other passersby turn their heads away, refusing to get involved. It's not their concern, you see, and isn't this a horrible indictment of the human condition?

"Spare Parts" focuses on the on-going war in Iraq in a blend of Frankenstein science and horror when technology discovers a way to literally piece soldiers back together, even returning them from the dead, so they can go back out and fight. Hoffman skewers the media with a shotgun blast right to the head in this story.

The title story, "Love Hurts" puts the spoiled rotten, Paris Hilton/OC type snobs of the world in the spotlight. A mysterious man who knows her type only to well, kidnaps rich brat Brianna. He breaks down Brianna's defenses in a masterful psychological game, stripping her both literally and figuratively, right down to her soul, and forcing her to admit just what she's become. Masterfully written.

There are seven stories in all in this short, 84 page collection and they all prove that Hoffman is at the top of his game.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

I laughed and cried over Love's Last Madness. I have long admired the poems of Darshan Singh even though only a limited number had been translated into English. Now, the Lerner and Bedi translation brings 86 of his wonderful ghazals to us in English for the first time. As in the poetry of Hafiz and Rumi, image after startling image evokes the moods and struggles of a serious mystic traveler.

While reading, I sharply felt Darshan's sense of urgency as he struggles into awakening consciousness. He says:

"If only I'd awaken, I'd perceive what this life means;
My existence now, an obsessive confusion of dreams." (4:4)

I sighed with him as he sees the world falling short of expectation. Darshan's perceptive criticisms do not spare the social institutions, both religious and philosophical, from which he turns his face. For example:

"I, too, walked the path explored by the rationalists:
The wayfarers were half asleep, their guides wandering lost." (8:3)

I shared his empathy with despairing humanity, entangled in delusion:

"Every hour is grief, each breath a sigh for the times -
Am I really living or paying for some crime?" (21:1)

I thrilled with him as he glimpses the faces of those who may guide him into reality:

"They were clothed in poverty, as humble as the dust,
But waiting at their door I saw the sovereigns of the age." (7:1)

I agonized with him as he suffers the transforming blows and testing of his guides. For this subject Darshan often uses imagery of worldly love:

"How unexpected is your visit - and to ask of my condition!
What new ingenious torture prompts you, my dear?" (83:4)

I took heart as Darshan hints at the great turning points of the mystic's immense journey. One such landmark is the transcendence of mind:

"Every mote I saw scintillating with your beauty
In a world where intellect stands bewildered." (18:4)

Another landmark is the transcendence of selfhood or ego. I could share his apprehension at the prospect of loss of self, and I vicariously exulted with him in his freedom from it:

"Of self I lost awareness, so life's secret was revealed,
A boon of my oblivion, not the fruit of my wits." (60:7)

Through Darshan's poetry I saw through an intimate window into the mind and heart of a man of our own time who deeply immersed himself in the spiritual quest. This is the record of "the anguished vigil of a love gone wild...." (22:5)

I have had the exceptional good fortune of knowing the poet, Darshan Singh. He was the most extraordinary man I ever met. His poetry sings from the heart the sweetest, saddest songs of yearning, love, and restless separation. And yet, perhaps because he has been down a path that we all, sooner or later, seem destined to travel, his verse is consoling. I for one find great comfort in his restless cadences, his literary companionship. He once remarked that poetry is the music of the soul, and so his seems to be. No matter the conventions, his verse comes from some other place, beyond human time, in the world of mysticism. The often-elaborate metaphors he introduces pull us into ourselves. Yet, throughout, the language is simple, the verse accessible. His point of view is centered and profound. He writes from revelation.

Darshan Singh often said don't write unless you have something new to say, or a new way of saying it. Here he has met his own challenge. This poetry brings something new to western culture. Through the efforts of translators Lerner and Bedi, we have in verse dramatizations of the archetype of separation and reunion: the love of God for all creation, the grief of God at our spearation from that love, and the reciprocating desire of each awakening soul to find its way back home to the Creator. In these verses, the archetype plays out in relationships of lovers and beloved. the central conceit is that the love of God, divinity itself, grace, in its essence, is transmitted from beloved to lover through the eyes, and is given, in accordance with the will of the beloved, when and if the beloved sees fit, and at the beloved's own initiative. The poor lover sues and waits, and suffers, but never complains. Such is the lover's plight. And at the end, after many promises, and much playing and teasing, at the end, it is by grace that the lover has caught the zeal of the beloved and is transformed, miracle of miracles, into the beloved. The soul is not separate from God, the verse seems to say. But the soul fired with love is the luckiest creature alive. That soul wins the prize.

Truly, this book is a wonder, a gift from a far-distant shore.

Having great respect for the works of the renowned mystic Urdu poet Darshan Singh, this newly translated collection was purchased with anticipation. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. The book is high quality, with artistic formatting. And the verses of Darshan Singh? Goodness--such beauty! They move me to tears on each re-reading. It is said that translation from Urdu to English is fraught with problems and a true rendering basically impossible. Even with that as an accepted fact, any lover of mystic poetry will be enthralled by this collection.

If you know who Lynda Barry is, you don't need to read this review. You either own a copy of this cd, or want one badly.

Lynda Barry's WONDERFUL collection of stories, songs, and DROP-DEAD-FUNNY answering machine messages, is easily one of my most treasured recordings. I've owned my copy for years and still play it regularly on my iPod.

Lynda is better known for her books, plays, and syndicated comic strip, Ernie Pook's Comeek. Like her other work, the stories here are filled with a rare authenticity and humanity. She can make you laugh and then suddenly tear up as you recognise something from your own childhood, long forgotten.

I sincerely consider her one of the most important American artists of my generation. I attended her first book signing back in 1981 and have remained one of her many loyal fans. I would also encourage anyone to check out her books "Cruddy" and "The Good Times Are Killing Me". The collections of her comic strip are a joy too.

If you like This American Life, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, or just excellent story telling, you will be so glad to own this cd.

Lynda Barry is the absolute Queen of the entire Universe and everything surrounding it. Her stories captivate like the juciest of gossip, and conjure goosebumps at just the right times. She doesn't mind hittin' hard, but picks ya back up, dusts you off, and even makes you cry from laughin' before she strikes again with the suddenness of an ice cold shower. Shivers, pure shivers are her main form of communication. She totally rocks the entire universe from top to bottom with the sweet soul sounds of the seventies.

Lynda Barry is one of the great storytellers of our time. Her cartoon anthologies are not to be missed. This cassette contains about 12 true ("except the ones that are big, honking lies") stories of her life, mostly her youth. Each one contains Barry's characteristic combination of pathos and belly-laughs. I think I've listened to this cassette about 20 times, and it never fails to entertain me. Buy it, buy it, buy it!

Barry Dordick has wonderful poems! I actually feel very fortunate that I got my copy signed by the one and only Barry Dordick. My favorite poems are WE JUMPED ON THE BED and SIR LANCELOT. I liked WE JUMPED ON THE BED because they wound up flying from the bed to a foreign country. I liked SIR LANCELOT because everytime Sir Lancelot plays he rippsmhis pants. It really make me say RIDICULOUS. THE CAT FROM PISCATAWAY was a real big tuffer.
The thing that is really funny is that Barry Dordick was an alumnus student from my school. He was in the class of 1969 I think. He called my teacher and asked if he can read some poems from his new book MACORONI ON THE MOON. ...
You have to go to your nearest bookstore and buy Macoroni on the Moon. The poem it self is really good. The funny part is the last two lines of the poem it self. Please, pick this book up now! ...

Funny funny book of poems and the illustrations are very sweet.
Your kids and grand-kids will want to read these poems every chance they get. If you love dogs, make sure you read to them "What happens to poodles?" and "Dad and Violetta." And if you love cats don't miss "Alicia the Cat from Piscataway" and "Hank the Hollywood Cat." These poems are very witty, creative, and vibrant with lots of delightful word-play and fabulous rhythms...it's pure music!! And with poems like "Rita the Flamingo" and "The Mean Brothers Butz"...how can you lose.
This book is a pure delight! Make sure you read it!

If they can write well for peers, poets have a stronger chance of writing good verse for children . In his lively and imaginative debut collection for kids, Macaroni on the Moon, supplemented by Defne Amado's effective line drawings, Barry Dordick capitalizes on his years as a poet in the line of early Wallace Stevens and e.e. cummings to deliver splendid and kooky rhymes, offbeat premises, zesty twist endings, and well-crafted images.
Thematically, Dordick's poems feature excellent variety and verve. There are trenchant portraits of children's desires ("For My Birthday"), clever humanizing of animals ("What Happens to Poodles?"), parodies of foolish thinking ("My Bicycle") and pretension ("McDermott, McDougall, McAdoo"), and trenchant analyses of aggression ("The Mean Brothers Butz"), immaturity ("Don't Step on My Lemon!), and absentmindedness ("My Slippers"). Both children and adults should be able to appreciate Dordick's comic touch and the reach of his imagination.
Consistently, Dordick's rhymes outdistance those of other versifiers for children. The exuberant stationary travel poem, "We jumped on the Bed," exemplifies his rhyming at its rollicking best: "We jumped on the bed/ With a couple of geese./ Our heads hit the ceiling/ And we landed in Greece.// We jumped on the bed/ With Jersey Joe and Gina./ Our heads banged together/ And we landed in Argentina" (7). And how many poets would daringly fly us from domestic "doorway" to "Norway"? Ogden Nash's sprezzatura is evident, too, in the linking of "Piscataway," "Saturday," "hat away," and "that-a-way" ("Alicia the Cat from Piscataway" 15) and in the "daft" "craft" of "Giraffe on a Raft": "Giraffe on a raft/ I just have to laugh, . . .// Well, it's not Mr. Lincoln/ And it's not Mr. Taft, . . . . // "I've built myself a raft,/ A most practical craft/ To take me far/ Very far out to sea" (80). Dordick is also a master of sassy assonance and alliteration, as in the sizzling couplets of "Celebrity Hour": "Gossiping Gus is a galloping goose/ Who's galloped from far away.// He's brought Errol the hen and Julie the loon/ And a ferret named Bridget Fay.// There's Skip the chinchilla,/ Millie the mink and Mugsy the Maryland bat,// Dottie the dachshund and Dibble the toad/ And Hank the Hollywood cat" (66).
In Macaroni on the Moon, Dordick swears by Stevens' dictum, "The gaiety of language is our seigneur." All who read this gleeful book are the beneficiaries.

Overall this is an excellent book just like the first one on Pike by the author. Both books cover some of the same material (e.g. where fish go during the different seasons), but they do not completely overlap. This book spends more time covering how to catch pike when they are being difficult. If you have the time, read both books. If you can catch pike on the fly during good days but have trouble during bad days, this book will give you new things to try.

This is such an awesome book for ANY pike angler. The first few chapters explain locations and seasonal movements of pike, and the science behind the pike's environment including feeding habits, spawning, different lake types, etc. The "Presentations for Pike on the Fly" chapter is really where the fly-fishing aspect takes over (Ch 5). Many new recipies for pike flies, over 20 in total. The great thing about this book is that Barry explains how he uses each type of fly and when to use specific types of flies. If you haven't read his first book, "Pike on the Fly," read that one first and then get this book. "Mastering Pike on the Fly" is a 10-year refinement of the tactics explained in "Pike on the Fly." Barry Reynolds knows his stuff well!!

As an oudoor writer myself and the host of both radio and television shows I am always looking for material to recomend.
This book not only covers fly-fishing for pike, but gets to the core of pike behavior. Barry does an excellent job of explaining what pike are doing when and why. He covers water temperture, seasonal movement, the influence of structure, cover, baitfish and other predators. I truly believe this book will make you a better all around angler.
Terry Wickstrom, Host "Mountain States Fishing" television

This book is easy to read. It has up to date information, has good graphics and I strongly recommend it to medical students and health professionals who want to update their grasp of pathological mechanisms of infectious diseases.

I teach microbiology to nursing students, so I only use this book as a reference. It's a wonderful book; I take it to bed with me and don't fall asleep (really). The information is comprehensive without being unnecesarily difficult, and the organization and presentation are so intuitive, it seems to answer your next question before you even formulate it. My only gripe is WHERE IS THE NEW EDITION??? Even though this book is old, 1998, it's still worth the money, but it doesn't have the new emergent diseases like TSE and SARS.

Excellent presentation of material relevant to all aspects of microbiology mechanisms within the medical industry. Core book! A must have!

I watch Mister Rogers' Neighborhood just about every day with my daughter and have come to respect Mr. Rogers. I borrowed this book from the library to see what he could teach me about children. I found this book to be full of wisdom he gained from his dedication to children. He loved what he did and you can tell that kept him always learning. The insights in this book are incredible. The book also contains sheet music of many of his songs in the back.

Mr. Rogers' brilliant insights are so easily taken for granted, that most of us Americans don't even think twice about him. His influence is so ubiquitous that it's very easy to overlook the alternative -- the very likely possibility that we could have no models like him. His body of work is a lovely lesson in parenting, and this book is a helpful guide for new parents. After all, his example is precisely the sort of stability and consistency, patience and deep understanding, competence and reliability, which are so greatly needed in parents. Every parent wants to be effective -- Mr. Rogers shows how.

As a Clinical Psychologist working with children and families, I can give this book my heartfelt recommendation. Rarely are such complex and difficult questions answered so well without using jargon and confusing language. I frequently recommend this book to families, particularly to young parents.

Images of faith and holiness are not hard to come buy, but to find historical collections of them is rather rare. Zimbardo does a masterful job in presenting the subject with as little interruption between the viewer and the subject as possible, capturing the spirit of the monks beautifully. In so doing, he transports us to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain of Eastern Orthodoxy where there exists a world of faith, sacrifice, and holiness that few of us will ever encounter in a personal way. Well worth viewing!

There is a similar collection of photos of Romanian monks under the title "Eikon" that is in print, but very difficult to find.

Besides acting as a unique and unparalleled historical document of people and a time gone by--one that has never before been seen--this book is filled with some of the most extraordinary photography I have ever seen. It's quite rare to see such a combination of history and art.

The story behind these photos makes them all the more awe-inspiring, but their beauty stands alone. Superb photography and design, unique and amazing subject. If you're looking for something new from a photography book, this is it.