Bean Books

This book is somewhere between the slave training guides by "Miss Abernathy" and the idealized multitude of "first-person" stories you can find anywhere. This is not a how-to manual. This is instead a look at relationships and how they might actually work or not work using one man's life as the basis. He covers about every topic I can think of that a gay master-slave couple might encounter but there are no how-to details here as he states in his introduction. Frankly given the personal nature of the book I wish the stories could have continued, often we just see snippets that left me wanting to know more especially on the slave side of the relationship. If you are looking for someone to give you the "one true path/method" look elsewhere. Looking to think more and be reassured that yes, love can equal ownership; this is a good book to start with.

There should be more, much much more, material about the sublime nuances of the Master and slave dynamic than what there is presented in this work. Instead the author provides the audience with material that can be easily found at any community mental health organization that sponsors courses on intimate relationships. Instead of reading about these issues it would be time better served to attend community mental health establishments to get the hands on assistance about intimate relationships -- at least there would be one on one help with the issues this author writes about. There is little to no real application much needed for the subtleties of the Master and slave dynamic. Nice try but no cigar. This author doesn't seem to be getting it and to use an old English term to suggest that Compleat is suggestive of possessing awesome insight into this topic is quite misleading to the literary public -- nothing more than a lackluster etymological word-play game. Disappointing is the best term that I can manage to evoke to describe this work but then again what could anyone expect from the author of The Master's Manual (should be entitled A Master's Manual).

This jack rinella character not only seems to have limited experience in BDSM, but his writing style and ability is not above fifth-grade level. His paragraphs are one long, "Lost in his own self-importance" sentence. He seems to have no idea how to use punctuation and worse, he has misspelled words throughout his self-aggrandizing, shallow, uninformative, lackluster, run on, two-sentence chapters.

He seems to see himself as some sort of pimp daddy. He might be in his little mind, but he is not someone that should be taken seriously as an author let alone a dominant. Stay clear of his tripe.

From the back cover of the book: "Whether you are a novice D/s player or an experienced Master or slave, this insightful and forthright volume will prove to be a great read and a valuable reference guide." NOT.

This was a disappointing read, given that it purports to be about creating and living an erotic dominant/submissive lifestyle. It is certainly about how Rinella does/did it, but as he points out again and again throughout the book, all relationships are different, as are the people in them. Anyone who's already started down the path to making their own D/s relationship work won't find much of use here, unless they happen to be very Rinella-like in their views and preferences. We learn an awful lot about Rinella and what he likes, and almost nothing is mentioned about the slave and how he handles being a slave, overcomes challenges, finds satisfaction in his choices, etc. Shouldn't a book called "The Compleat Slave" be about *slaves*?

As a guide for newbies to coming out into the leather scene, it's probably pretty good, but that's not what the book is supposed to be about, according to the title and jacket blurb.

There is no soul to this writing; if you're actually interested in living the slave lifestyle, you won't find much of use here. Rinella does say that to be a good slave you must be obedient and worshipful, but then gets bogged down in details of how to use personal ads and leather bars to find a partner, how to negotiate scenes, how to [satisfy], etc. All good information for some people, but not what I was expecting when I bought the book...

The subtitle says it all: "Creating and Living an Erotic Dominant/submissive Lifestyle" The book takes the reader through practical steps and gives experience-based examples. Chapter 10, "How to Give Oral-Genital Pleasure" by itself is worth the cost of the whole book! It describes in the best detail I've ever come across how a person can give oral-genital pleasure. It was really wonderfully sensuous to read. Woof.

The FBI needs the help of Sarah Lovett's most popular Forensic Psychologist, Dr. Sylvia Strange, in this latest psychological mystery. There has been a slew of unsolved deaths, all of which have been researchers in different labs all over the world.

The FBI suspects Dr. Christine Palmer and there is a lot of evidence. But nothing concrete.

The FBI seeks out the help of Dr. Strange and her expertise. Sylvia has enough on her mind with trying to plan her wedding and mend a few bumps in the relationship between her and her fiancé. But she also takes on this case to figure out how this beautiful, confident, world-renowned toxicologist is using neurotoxins to kill off others and how she has gotten away with it - until now.

Sylvia is on a mission to crack this case, get the evidence needed and get back to her wedding plans when another death occurs. She joins forces with counter-terrorism expert Edmond Sweetheart and they begin to link evidence together. But is Edmond on her side or is he withholding the evidence that could crack this case wide open for them?

Lovett uses a lot of forensic and scientific lingo heavily throughout the book. But the action page after page will still hold the readers attention till the very end with it's various plot twists.

This tale of the crazy serial poisoner, with a strong, heroic Dr. Strange hot on her tail, is a nail-biting page turner.

I loved her first Dr. Strange books but have been disappointed in the last two. I thought the storyline was unrealistic and confusing. The end felt forced and and tied up to easily.
Sylvia's relationship issues were just brushed away. I felt this wasn't much of a mystery nor did it have any psychological insight or suspense.

This author seems to be on a downward trend. I have read all the books in this series. The first ones were enjoyable. The last one before this was disappointing. This is a dud. The story does not hang together. The plot is inadequate, parts of it are far fetched, and the ending does not work. She neglects the personal relationships which were interesting in the earlier books.

Dr. Sylvia Strange is about to marry the love of her life, Matt England, and she should be in a state of prenuptial bliss. Instead, Sylvia is goaded into taking one last case before her wedding. "Dark Alchemy" is the story of a serial killer who uses sophisticated neurotoxins to murder fellow scientists. The FBI suspects Dr. Christine Palmer, the world's foremost expert on these deadly poisons. Since all the evidence against Dr. Palmer is circumstantial, the authorities need more information to move the investigation forward.

Counterterrorism expert Edmond Sweetheart has been asked by the FBI to step in, and he in turn recruits Dr. Strange to help him construct a psychological profile of the killer. Sylvia would prefer to immerse herself in her wedding plans, but the case interests her and she decides to lend her expertise to the investigation.

The book starts out promisingly. Lovett piques the reader's interest with her arcane information on neurotoxins and their deadly effects. Dr. Palmer is an intriguing character. She is beautiful, brilliant and egotistical, but is she also a killer? To make matters more complicated, Sylvia's personal problems keep distracting her. Although she and Matt truly love one another, they still have some unresolved issues that may disrupt their wedding plans.

Unfortunately, after a strong opening, "Dark Alchemy" unravels in the second half of the book. Various suspects are dangled before the reader, and the plot becomes more and more illogical as the book progresses. The ending is rushed and the conclusion is unsatisfying. Had Lovett taken the time to develop her plot with more care, "Dark Alchemy" would have been a much better novel.

Her scientific peers consider Dr. Christine Palmer the world's foremost expert on neurotoxins. She knows how to make them and how to make antidotes for them. However, law enforcement officials believe that the beautiful, brilliant scientist is also a sociopath serial poisoner though no clear evidence proves the contention. Still Christine remains the prime suspect in the murders of her father, her fiancé and some of her co-workers.

Counterterrorist expert Edmond Sweetheart asks forensic psychologist Dr. Sylvia Strange to work up a profile of Dr. Christine Palmer so when the authorities bring her in for questioning, they will know how to interrogate this one-of-a kind woman. Sylvia agrees to a meeting with Dr. Palmer knowing she is being used as bait and walks away from the encounter a very sick person. Ironically, the only person who can help her is Dr. Palmer if she obtains what she wants from Sylvia.

There is much more to DARK ALCHEMY than a serial poisoner novel. The heroine's partner has his own agenda and is willing to sacrifice anyone including her to make sure a spy/mole doesn't get away with espionage. Sarah Lovett writes an exhilarating, enthralling crime thriller that will keep readers turning the pages until the end because it is not until the climax that the audience finds out whether Dr. Palmer is a sinister villain or a brilliant victim.

Harriet Klausner

I think this book is great, as usual with Raisin in the Sun. I have a daughter, but think this may be better for boys. (She's at that stage). I really find it quite interesting the amount of negative feedback because of a word here or there. This is part of reality, and with the amount of violence children are being exposed to (inside and outside the home), I do not think one should trash or criticize a book because they (as a parent) rather not explain how life is not roses all of the time to their child. This is the only company I know of which puts fairy tales in an African viewpoint, and I think that is wonderful. I will not nitpick over minor things just to give negative feedback. Nothing's perfect.

The school boards are allowing books to be read in school in regards to same-sex marriages and couples, and YOUR concern is of one word/sentence in this children's book?

I purchased this book for my 3 year old niece. As I read the story, I came across a sentence that gives a reason for the inability of the giant to catch Jack. Get this... it was because the giant was drunk. Yes... they used the word drunk. I was horrified. What kind of thing is that to read to a small child? I know in today's world children will hear about (or maybe even see) someone being intoxicated. Perhaps this was in the original story of Jack and the Beanstalk; I can't say. But I will say that I omitted reading that sentence to my niece, removed the book from her things and put the book in the garbage.

It is quite a challenge to adapt a classic European tale for a cast of characters of African descent, and make the story relevant and even "believable" for some of our children who are living in hard-knock communities and environments. The author and illustrator of this "Jack & the Beanstalk" seem to accomplish this task by acknowledging some of the unfortunate realities that many of our kids face regularly, such as drunkenness. Designated readers of young children who deal with such issues should find this adaptation of "Jack..." to be a welcome addition to their libraries. By the way, the artwork is terrific! The variety of images of the African-descent characters are worth the purchase.

The JATS fairy tales are great. Be aware that they do use the word, "die" as a threat from the villians. This particular book describes Jack's mother as a "widow," a concept I have not discussed with my kids. I just skipped over that word, but a page or two later, the mother says that she is glad that foolish Jack's father is not there to see how silly he is. I accidentally read this before I knew what it was saying. I just let my kids think that Jack's dad was at work...this is what they assumed.

I didn't like that you had the giant getting drunk. This should not have been in your picture book. Subliminal messages (negative) about Afro-Americans. Thanks!

I am not sure this person was educated on how to write--numerous errors and mistakes. The content is slim at best, for the price of the book, it is a waste of time. I would either buy it used for a dollar, or find a new reference.
Don't waste your time with this one.

I'd have to agree with Jason Voegele bellow- I was pleasantly surprised that this book was quite readable and contained a good bit of useful information. It is also fairly up-to-date. Definitely one of the better JavaBeans books available.

A valuable resource for any Beans developer. An easy read with real world examples.

Don't flush your money down the toilet by buying this book as I did. This book has a lot of unnecessary informations that isn't even relavant to the title of the book. There should be some standards as to how to write a book. The sole purpose of writing this book is rip off people without even giving them their money worth. This book has a lot of grammatical errors and very boring to read. It seems more like a collection of topics of other programming books. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY AND BUY SOMETHING ELSE

This book manages to provide a practical guide to intermediate to advanced JavaBean development while still offering an in-depth discussion of JavaBean topics, especially the new Glasgow specification. This would be your best choice if you'd not only like to know how to develop JavaBeans components, but also the issues that effect their role in component software development. Neophytes might better be served by a more introductory offer, as this book assumes good knowledge of Java.

Really disappointed. The story was not great and definitely not appropriate for my four year old who is just learning that he is a vegetarian and what that means. My problems - the story started out really abruptly with kids making fun of Benji, there was mild violence (something like the bullies pushed Benji up against the wall) and it had an unrealistic ending where the bullies wanted to come over for dinner and be Benji's friend. I returned this book today.

I don't know what I was expecting... but this wasn't it. I wish it was more... I don't know... had more omf or just expressed the goodness of being a vegetarian more.
Disappointing.

Heather mama of 5

I love this book. My son loves the story line. It is so helpful to kids who feel different from their friends because they don't eat burgers and fries. It helps them feel normal.

This thorough, scholarly study balances broad concepts with specific details of the history of finance from the 15th through 20th centuries. Though authors Jonathan Barron Baskin and Paul J. Miranti Jr. assume that the reader has some knowledge of finance and relevant terms, they avoid mathematical models and jargon in favor of plain language. Their book is accessible and valuable to lay readers as well as trained economists, historians, students of finance and anyone coping with an emerging market. The issues they examine remain surprisingly relevant, because - as they soon make clear - the problems that historical markets once confronted are the same issues of risk and information that markets face today, particularly emerging markets. As a historical study, this book presents no particular prescriptions for success or future action. However, we at getAbstract.com recommend its explanation of why some structures succeeded and others failed, because those forces have clear implications today.

The history of corporate finance is a fascinating subject, overflowing with interesting people and dramatic events that affect not only finance but the man on the street.

Unfortunately the authors of this book have no interest in breathing life into the story of capitalism. Instead what a reader will get is a dry list of facts. The regulated company evolved into the joint stock company for the following reasons. The East India Company developed the following innovations. Its example paved the way for the next step, and so on. The book has all the feeling of a dull term paper written by a college student who simply summarized the obvious secondary sources. Each step seems to lead naturally, ploddingly to the next, in a march that seems both uninteresting and inevitable.

While the authors have done an impressive job of bringing many important facts over a broad context together in one volume, that's all they've done. And I detected a subtle smugness, like that of a Monday morning quarterback, as the authors pointed out flaws in earlier structures. To me they seemed unaware that the flaws in today's systems will look as obvious to future scholars as those of the past seem now to us.

I also encountered what I considered to be lapses in scholarship (or insight) brought about by the "Ivory Tower" phenomenon of having only a an academic understanding of processes undertaken by others. The coverage of LBOs is an example. It's easy in hindsight to go on about the excesses of leveraged buyout era of the 1980s. Baskin and Miranti cover this fully, detailing many of the problems that arose. But was there any rationale for the LBOs in the first place, or were they simply the instruments of greedy financial conmen?

On p291 the authors begin one paragraph with the following: "One important method applied by LBO organizers to achieve superior performance was to change ownership structures." Having lived through that era, I'm aware of how misleading that statement can be. At the time there were a number of public companies that weren't well managed and had languishing stock prices that not only didn't reflect the firms' potential, but didn't even reflect the value of their current operations. Traditionally this obvious problem (the stock's trading at $35 and it's worth $60) had no easy solution. Until LBOs came along (both friendly and unfriendly), there was little that could be done.

LBO firms were able to convince investors that a company was undervalued, provide a method for quickly realizing this value, and prove that it could be done. Many decry the fact that jobs were sometimes lost in the process; a point worth considering. But this doesn't take away from the fact everyone who owns stocks today has a portfolio that's more fairly and appropriately valued because of the rationalizing force introduced by leveraged buyouts. Valuing these companies wasn't the innovation, any grad student could have done that. It was coming up with a way to prove that these valuations mattered, and that management would be held accountable for them, that was the innovation.

Now when incompetent management is forced out as a result of an LBO, is that a "change in ownership structure?" I guess so. But for me the phrase fails to capture the essence of what is taking place. Is quickly realizing the value in a company whose stock is trading too cheaply "achieving superior performance?" I wouldn't call it that, but I suppose an academic might. The point here is that an intelligent laymen looking to expand his or her knowledge and become interested in a fascinating topic will be poorly served by this type of phraseology.

Not recommended.

This jargon-laden and lifeless book, filled with undefined terms from business law and corporate finance, covers a vast historical landscape, from the Medicis to LBOs (there's even an appendix on finance in the classical world). Unfortunately, Baskin doesn't manage this huge volume of material by picking out key events and themes. Instead, he repeatedly compresses complex institutional and financial developments into a few paragraphs of leaden prose, squeezing in as much material as possible. Time and again I found myself reading and rereading a paragraph and wondering what it meant. Corporate finance students might have better luck than I did, but I doubt that even they would enjoy the book. In fairness to Baskin, the book is refreshingly skeptical about academic finance theories, and it does draw together material otherwise hidden in technical books and journals -- but those aren't good reasons for laymen read it. They would get more out of better-written books by Charles Kindleberger or John Kenneth Galbraith.

In this novel, Mr. Bean has provided the reader with a "serial killer" set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin not long after the real serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Also surprisingly relavant to the times are the indications of child abuse by church officials.

It is evident that Mr. Bean did, at one point live in Milwaukee as his descriptions of neighborhoods, etc. are quite true-to-life. It is also evident that not all of his research was quite as good as it could be. While towns, neighborhoods, and landmarks were quickly recognizable, his understanding of the hierarchy of the Church in Milwaukee was quite lacking.

I found the book itself to be dark and disturbing, albeit with believable secondary character development and a sympathetic main character. I found the revelation of the actual murderer to be a bit unbelievable.

Four stars for a reasonable mystery; minus one for using children as victims. Don't we have enough of that in "real life"?

I was really disappointed in this book. The blurb on the front cover said 'murder and gripping psychological suspense in the chilling tradition of Patricia Cornwell'. I personally love Cornwell's books and thought this was an awful comparision. The story line was really thin, you couldn't follow the plot, and the person doing the killing was almost never mentioned in the book, so how are you supposed to figure it out? I thought it would be interesting to read about something locally (Milwaukee is only about an hour away) but this book was a total letdown. I hope the author gets better.

you never knew what was going to happen. you were always suspecting someone of the ings. than whan you find out you are like i can't believe it was him. you need to read this book. i would like to see more from C.N.BEAN. he is a great writer.

For one of the first times, I am forced to absolutely agree with the review atop this one. Although this book could have been an excellent engrossing story, the author, Boston Globe reporter Eileen McNamara tries too hard to make it into a scholarly book and a cautionary tale- and does not truly make either characters come alive, or the reader understand the true nature of the relationship between Paul Lozando and his psychiatrist. The first chapters are almost exclusively based on excerpts from the court documents- and are quite boring. She doesn't know which is the relevant information to include and which could be left out- and the book is not even that long. So in other words, she does not get to the heart of the matter quick enough before the reader loses interest- I have read hundreds of true crime books- and for the first time, I lost interest enough to skim over boring section discussing the psychiatric profession at large. I did not want detailed descriptions of the medical board and its procedure- only the basic information so that I Could understand what was happening- and the truth was, that (maybe out of boredom) I couldn't figure it all out, because all of the information on the aftermath of the tragedy, in other words, everything that happened after Paul's death, is condensed into the last chapters. In short, not a particularly fulfilling read. I wonder if "Obsession", the other book on this case is better.

Alarming story of how a noted psychiatrist (who was obviously very sick herself, read the notes she kept on the case) was able to turn her own demons lose on an already disturbed patient. The psychiatrist was obviously baby obsessed and serverly neurotic after nine miscarriages in four years. Her treatment of the patient reads like something from the journal of a madwoman, in my opinion. the only complaint i have (i took this book out of the library) is the pacing is way too slow, the author painstakingly goes over the patients childhood and his sister's conversations etc etc, and the final outcome is only dealt with in the last few chapters or so. i think the writer could have written a much more engrossing story if she had paced it better and gotten to the heart of the matter quicker, after all the doctors' notes are the basis of the treatment. anyway i think the story itself worked well, and i enjoyed reading it.

This is the funniest book ever written. And I should know, I wrote half of it.

I don't understand why two individuals who tell us, not in so many words, that they are the messiahs of the written page can't get up the nerve to write their own narratives and at least give an honest effort. No, instead these two hide behind what they want the reader to believe is post-modern writing in hopes that the chaos which they can't control will confuse the reader enough into believing that since his or she doesn't get it, it's over the reader's head and thus, they must be missing something (when, in truth, there's nothing there). Green Bean Press needs to reevaluate, or perhaps edit, their writers before putting more of this (non)quality writing out to take up more the public's time.

Concerning this book about "Miwok" Tales. This quote below was taken from Handbook of the Yokut Indians by Frank Latta concerning the "Miwok" tales:

"One very definte evidence that the Yokuts occupied the entire Delta Area is the series of folklore stores recorded by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, published in book form in 1910 and titled "THE DAWN OF THE WORLD". A number of these stories were obtained from self-styled Mewalk informants. But, with the exception of Mewalk names for the mythological characters, the accounts ARE AS IDENTICAL with the Yokuts accounts as variant Yokuts statements are among themselves. I recorded an identical myth (see Dawn of the World, page 45) from George Rivercomb, half blooded Chuckhansi Yokuts, who credited it to Chowchilla Yokuts of the Lower Chowchilla and Fresno Rivers.

In the 1930s, when I interviewed Dr. Merriam at his summer home near Lagunitas, this state, we discussed this at length. He had studied the area more and had CHANGED HIS OPINION AS TO THE RANGE OF THE YOKUTS and was more of the opinion of Drs. A. L. Kroeber and J. P. Harrington, who attributed THE ENTIRE Delta area to the Yokuts.

Also, Merriam, 1910, 67 in his "BIRTH OF WEK-WEK AND THE CREATION OF MAN", gives more definate evidence. This last was credited to a "Hool-poom-ne Mewuk" tribe. DEFINITELY, THIS WAS A YOKUTS TRIBE.

Merriam placed the creation center of the Hool-poom-ne (Hulpumne) and the home of the Creator, Mol-luk (Condor), ON MOUNT DIABLO (Oo-yum Be-le). Exept for the fact that Merriam's "MEWUK" informants used Mewalk names for the principal characters, THIS IS A STOCK YOKUTS STORY.

Other Merriam accounts of folklore along the Sierra foothills WERE INVOLVED IN THE SAME TRIBAL MIXUP...."


This was page on 89 and 90 of Mr. Latta's book, which means that "Miwok" stories and myths are really Yokut stories and NOT Miwok.

It seems that C. Hart Merriam who wrote those "Miwok" tales conceded to Frank Latta that he had been mistaken and that the "Miwok" he wrote about were really Yokut tales.

Merriam is the same guy who wrote the Miwok place names of Yosemite. It seems he was getting the wrong information and conceded this to Frank Latta the author of the Handbook of the Yokuts.

These Yokut tales actually came from over 200 miles aways from western San Joaquin Valley when Yokuts were rounded up and forced to the eastern foothills.

So interestingly the "Miwok" Legends are NOT Miwok, but they are really YOKUT TALES.

Presented within a collection of stories given by American Indians all throughout California detailing the time of the First People (half human/animal gods) when the world was dark and cold, or after the time of a great flood to when the First People created People and reverted to animal form.

There are many common themes in most of the world's mythology and you'll find them here as well: a Great Flood, Giants who ate people (like the Nephilim of the Bible [Genesis 6]), the theft of fire (like a certain Greek myth...), and various accounts of the creation of humanity.

A very simple book, a simple collection, but very effective story telling, Dawn of the World is good for those wanting to look at what our ancestors knew about the world.